As soon as Naruto dismissed them, Hisa went directly to the training ground. For a minute she had thought about joining Nawaki and Oki for ramen, but she dismissed that idea. She needed to spend as much time possible training. She only had a month to get strong enough. It was harder for her than it had been for her parents as, unlike them, she wouldn't know who she was fighting until the day. Her biggest worry was Naruko, Hisa was one of the few people who had seen what that girl could do. Naruko could kill you in ten different ways in five seconds. Hisa remembered the time she and her family had gone to Suna. Being closest to Naruko in age, they had been put 'playing' together. They had gone outside, and Hisa had been surprised to see the way everyone avoided them. Anytime someone walked past, they stared at the ground and didn't look up until they were far away.

This had confused Hisa. Back in Konoha, it was the opposite way for her. All the villagers stared at her and whispered to each other when she walked past. Why was it different for Naruko? She soon found out when a small toddler had come running along. He had tripped and fallen, and then he started crying. His mother had come running along, but as she picked him up, she had glanced fearfully at Naruko.

Naruko had just stared at the woman. Then she had held out her hand. The woman had slammed through the wall before Hisa had time to blink. Naruko had just continued to walk like nothing had happened.

"Why did you do that?" Hisa had asked.

"She looked at me funny." Naruko had stated calmly. "No one is allowed to look at me except for important people like you."

"Why not?" Hisa had asked, wondering why there was a law against looking at Naruko.

Naruko looked at her like she was stupid.

"Because if they look at me in a way I don't like, I'll kill them."

Hisa had avoided Naruko for the rest of the day. Two years later and the girl hadn't changed a bit. Hisa knew the Kazekage was having problems with Naruko; her father had often let it slip at the dinner table. Gaara was trying his best to control his daughter, but she was growing stronger and stronger, and it got harder and harder to stop her from getting her way. Hisa knew she would be one of the hardest opponents in the exam, simply because she had no problem with killing every single one of them.

This was why she spent the whole day practising her push and pull. By the end of the day, she could break five trees with one push, and three trees with her pull. It still wasn't close to what she wanted, but it was good enough for one day. Naruto had promised to help her tomorrow with her summoning jutsu. She wanted to have a lot of chakra left for that, so she called it a day.

As she walked back to her house, she found it harder for some reason to ignore to looks and the whispers. You would think that after three months, people would stop staring at her eyes. Apparently, not in Konoha. The civilians still stared at her as she walked by. Hisa even saw a few chunin whispering. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it all. She had gotten used to it long ago, but spending a few days in the minefield without feeling like everyone was looking at her had made her relax. Now, she felt all the pressure come back. She wanted to run back to the training field and continue practising. Instead, she jumped onto a rooftop and made her way home from there.

Dinner with her family was normal. Naruto talked about his arrangement with Gaara. The other Kage would be coming to the exam, but since the only genin competing were from Suna and Konoha, the Hokage and Kazekage would have 'seats of honour' as Naruto dubbed them. After a few more jokes, the conversation turned to more serious matters.

"Dad, Hizashi's competing in the exam. What should we do if we have to face him?" Obito asked.

Naruto sighed thoughtfully. He and Hinata looked at each other, having a private conversation with their eyes.

"I think you should tell him the truth." Naruto said at last. "I know that Tenten hasn't told him anything, but if he starts talking about… you know, just do what you think is right."

Obito nodded.

"What about Hisa?" he asked with a grin.

Naruto grinned back.

"Let's hope she doesn't have to face him. If she does, try and explain to her why humiliating him in the exam is not the right thing to do."

"I'm right here, you know." Hisa grumbled as the others burst into laughter.

Once they had finished their ramen (Naruto claimed that Hinata's home-cooked ramen was almost as good as Ichiraku's. For some reason, Hinata seemed to take that as a massive compliment. Hisa never understood her father's obsession with the ramen stand.) Hisa and Obito went to sleep. It had been a long day, and both of them were starting training tomorrow for the exams. Hinata and the other byakugan experts were going to train Obito. Sai was going to train Oki. Hisa wasn't sure about Nawaki but she guessed that Konahamaru would offer to train him. All of them were determined to become chunin.

!

The next morning, Naruto woke Hisa up (loudly) and they set off towards training ground three.

"So you said you've been having problems with your toads?" Naruto asked.

Hisa sighed.

"Yes. I can't summon a normal toad! I can summon scroll toads, gourd toads, even tracker toads! But I can't summon a normal fire/oil spitting toad!"

Naruto frowned.

"What's a tracker toad?"

Hisa rolled her eyes.

"Never mind that, how can I summon a normal toad?"

Naruto thought about it for a minute.

"Well… when I was training with Jiraiya all I could summon were tadpoles. He used an… unusual method to help me. It was crazy, but it worked."

"I want to try it." Hisa said confidently.

"Are you sure? It's very dangerous and it might not work."

"I'll try anything." she sighed "I'm desperate to summon a toad that would be useful in battle."

Naruto still looked worried, but he gave in.

"Come on, we need to go somewhere high, preferably with a cliff nearby."

Hisa gulped. This didn't sound good.

Twenty minutes later they were in the forest surrounding Konoha. It didn't look very high to Hisa, and she couldn't see a cliff anywhere.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Naruto ignored her. He was too busy pacing up and down. He looked like he was having serious doubts about his plan.

"Hisa, do you trust me?" he asked.

Hisa raised an eyebrow.

"Well… not really, no. I don't trust you when you cook, or when you do laundry or when it comes to remembering my birthday. But I do trust you with my life, as does everyone else in the village."

Naruto smiled.

"That's good enough for me."

He took a step forward.

"Remember, don't tell your mother anything about this. This stays between us."

Hisa nodded, although she was starting to get a little scared. Just what was he planning?

The next thing she knew, he had shoved her hard and she was crashing through the trees. The air was whipped out of her lungs as she flew through the branches. The trees flew by above her head, and she saw the sun flicker through them from time to time. She didn't know what he had done but that had been no ordinary push.

Suddenly, the branches stopped hitting her and she felt herself begin to fall. She relaxed, and waited to hit soft grass. Only, she didn't hit grass. She didn't hit anything.

She flipped around in the air and screamed. She was falling down a massive crevice, lined with rock spikes. There was no way she could grip the wall, and she couldn't see the bottom, which was not a good sign. She remembered that it was all part of the plan, so she quickly bit her thumb and yelled:

"Summoning Jutsu!"

There was a huge puff, far bigger than anything she had summoned before. Hisa crashed into something huge and wrinkly. She grinned in triumph. She had summoned Gamabunta! She sat up on what she presumed was the toad's back and looked around. She frowned. That was strange. Why was the toad brown? She thought Gamabunta was red? In fact, she'd never seen or heard of a brown toad, and why was this one so wrinkly?

"Fukasaku? Shima? Where did everyone go? I was just about to have my mid-morning snack! Say, where am I? Is this the bathroom?"

Hisa groaned. This toad was obviously missing a few marbles. It seemed to hear her groan, as it twisted its head to look at her.

"Why hello there, little girl! Are you Naruto? No wait, your Jiriaya aren't you? Oh wait, he died didn't he? Or was that Minato? So, are you?"

"Um…" Hisa didn't know how to answer. It was clear that this toad was very old, and also very senile. She was starting to get a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"My name's Hisa." she said. "I'm Naruto's daughter and I summoned you. Who are you?"

The toad frowned.

"That's a very good question Hina. Who am I? I'm not quite sure. Say, do you live here? It's not very comfy, but I'm afraid I'm stuck here. My legs aren't what they used to be. If you have any ink I could whip up a seal to get us out of here. That reminds me, what was your name again?"

"Hisa." she said, struggling to keep calm. "What's your name?"

"Name…name… I don't think I have one. I do remember my title though. I'm the Great Toad Sage! Wait, was it the Great Toad Sage or the Great Honourable Geezer? Ah, it was one of those."

Hisa swallowed nervously.

"You… wouldn't happen to be the toad that made that prophecy about Naruto and Jiriaya?"

"Naruto? Why yes I do remember seeing something about him. Or was it Nagato? He had eyes like yours, you know. They're very pretty eyes. You're Hida aren't you?"

"Hisa." Hisa whispered.

She was pretty sure she was going into shock. She had just summoned the Great Toad Sage! How was that even possible? She looked up towards the top of the crevice and saw Naruto standing there.

"Hisa? Are you down there? Please don't be dead! Oh Kami, I'm a terrible father! I killed my own daughter! Hinata's going to kill me! Then Sasuke will probably resurrect me just so he can kill me as well! And then Sai…"

"I'm alive!" she yelled up. "But I've got a problem."

"You're alive? Yes! I'm not a failure of a father! Oh wait, what's the problem?"

"I'm… sitting on the Great Toad Sage. You know, the one that made the prophecy about you being the saviour of this world."

"Oh," Naruto said. "That is a bit of a problem. Right, well I'll just summon Gamabunta and explain to him that his boss is stuck in the middle of a crevice. He'll understand, right?"

"Somehow, I don't think he will."

!

Naruto and Hinata were relaxing together. Hisa and Obito were in bed asleep and the two were catching up on their day.

"How did Obito's training go?" Naruto asked

Hinata smiled happily.

"He's doing great. He can do four rotations in a row and still have enough chakra left. I think he'll do fine in the exam. What about Hisa."

Naruto grimaced.

"She's not doing so well. We've agreed to find something else for her to learn. Toads aren't really her thing, she's a bit too dangerous."

"How so?" Hinata asked.

Naruto grinned.

"She summoned the Great Toad Sage to stop her from dying. I summoned Gamabunta and he was all flustered because the Geezer had just disappeared without a trace. Luckily we managed to rescue both of them without any injuries."

"Naruto?" Hinata asked in a deceivingly quiet voice. "Why did Hisa need to summon something to stop her from dying?"

"Eh…" he gulped when he saw his wife's glare. "I need to go to the little Hokage's room. Bye!"

He shot out the door faster than the Yellow Flash himself.