Chapter 9

The Hyuga elder stood gasping for breath, he always considered himself in great shape, keeping himself from getting soft he trained not as much as in his youth but enough to keep the edge on. But staring down his failure of a granddaughter who looked like she wasn't even winded urked him like nothing. "Y-You…failure…like…your…mother," the man scowled.

Hinata's eyes narrowed slightly, "she had compassion and love for everyone both main and branch."

"She…was…weak…she always…has…been…if…your," the elder took a deep breath to steady his speech, "if your father had chosen the woman I set him up with then you and your sister would never come into being, I would have a strong and ruthless grandson right now to train and succeed him. But no I get you and Hanabi both spitting images of that timid waste of time Hitomi."

Hinata sighed almost sadly looking at the man; there was no love or even acknowledgement in his eyes, just scorn, hatred. This caused her to wonder, was he involved in mother's death somehow. Both births had been remarkably difficult and doubled as the pregnancy's went on, to the point that when Hanabi came her mother had no strength in her body and her heart gave out, only subtle well placed Juuken strikes could mimic flailing health and no one outside of Tsunade herself could have seen the signs. "Y-You murdered her," the saiyan Hyuga growled. "You used Juuken to strike at vital points that weakened her health gradually." She watched her grandfather sneer before glancing at Naruto who gave her a subtle nod. Her rage built up, while she had suspected this to small degree she would have never imagine her father's sperm donor to hate her mother so much that he would kill her. "HOW DARE YOU!" Bringing both her arms across her chest with both her index finger and middle fingers extended. "You are within range of my field of fire; I'm going to end you."

"Your pathetic Juuken strikes will do nothing," the old man snorted but secretly he was worried because the stance she was in wasn't even remotely like the 8-Trigrams 64 Palms Jutsu. His worry increased when he saw both of Hinata's fingers began to spark then a bright yellowish-purple glow appear.

"Oh this isn't the Eight Trigrams jutsu your familiar with, this is something I invented with Piccolo-sensei, I combined his strongest Ki attack with my own version of the Eight Trigrams jutsu, one that mother had been working on before her death at apparently your hands so it's only fitting I use it on YOU!" she did a pirouette bringing her hands away from her body, "Eighty Trigrams: Special Beam Gatling Cannon!" before the elder could react Hinata started using a strange corkscrew style beam of energy that first lanced through his upper arm destroying muscle, bone, and tissue. The elder could only register the outrageous amounts of pain as his world spiraled into a vortex of blood and gore as the energy beams tore through his entire body in rapid fashion. When Hinata was done the biggest piece of him was his head which promptly collapse to the ground and rolled until it stopped in front of the other elders. She ended her pirouette and dropped her hands eyes closed with her body shaking. A few seconds later she felt two warm arms wrap around her from behind and another from the front. One behind she knew by his smell, the other judging by the height was her little sister. Taking a few deep breaths, opening her eyes glaring at the other elders. "I will not put myself or my little sister into conflict with the Branch family nor will I turn a blind eye to the main branch's practices of subjugating the branch family as such I ask the Uzumaki clan to remove the Bird Cage Seal immediately."

"What of Kumo surely you don't want our clanmates used as breeding stock?" the eldest woman asked.

"After how the main family treated the branch family and if Kumo was willing to give them respect and acknowledgement then yes, Kumo would be a much more beneficial arrangement then what they have now, you old hag!" Hinata scowled. Everyone branch members included jumped at Hinata's mode of speech, this was not the same Hinata the Hyuga clan had come to know. One she was speaking with no stutter, two she was forceful and determined, yet many of the branch members still saw the kind hearted girl that adored them as she grew. "This family has been separate for far too long and I will not stand for it a second longer."

Not a single sound was heard until a series of slow claps was heard prompting everyone to turn to see Hiashi clapping with pride in his eyes. "I am proud my daughter, to see you finally live up to your mother's legacy brings great joy to my heart," he paused walking up to her, Hanabi, and Naruto pride practically swelling in his chest. Look at our daughter Hitomi, I finally see your confidence and gentleness in her. I feared it would take so much more and a great deal more hardship before she became the beautiful flower that I see before me. Whoever this Piccolo is I must thank him for bringing out my daughter's potential.

"T-Tousan?" Hinata looked at her father questionably.

Hiashi held up a hand turning to address his youngest, "Hanabi, this is what your mother was like after Kushina fixed her confidence issues, she was warm and kind but was not afraid to speak her mind and lay down the law," he turned to the elders glaring at them. "If I find out that any of you had plotted with my father to kill Hitomi you will be joining him in death."

The elder's all nodded as Hiashi smiled faintly at his eldest daughter, "I can see you doing well in the future Hinata-chan, I am sorry for treating you harshly as I have in the past. I wanted you to gain confidence and instead I pushed you further into your shell, it took a complete stranger to break you out of that shell."

Hinata smiled faintly she was finally being acknowledge by her father and it felt both wonderful and a bit bittersweet. "It wasn't just you, Kurenai-sensei coddled me, Piccolo-sensei not only helped me with my training he also helped me realize I would not get anywhere sitting back waiting to be seen. I will no longer sit on the sidelines, I will stand side by side with my intended and my sister-wife to usher in changes."

Hiashi nods smiling, "I look forward to seeing more in the future."

"I-I also would like permission to begin living with Naruto-kun," Hinata said softly. "I want to solidify my place at his right side, while Sakura takes her place on his left. After the Chunin exams, we planned to form a new team."

Hiashi nodded, "If that is your wish then by all means, judging by Naruto's own actions during this conflict he supports any decision we make," he gets a nod from the whisker marked Saiyan. "It is good to see you again Minato, but where is Kushina?"

Minato blushed and sighed, "Kushina and Mikoto are currently dead to the world I believe the term is. Last night both were highly energetic."

"Translation, dad got laid six ways from Sunday, my godmother and my mother are sleeping blissfully happy," Naruto smiled slyly.

The blonde hokage sighed heavily glancing at his son, "I wasn't going to use those terms, son."

"Meh, semantics," Naruto replied as Hiashi cleared his throat trying hard not to blush at his longtime friends expense. "Oh what about Neji, and the pole up his ass. You want me to pull it out and beat him with it?"

Hiashi thought about it, "Not the term I would use, but if you can humble him a bit I would be most grateful. His fixation on fate needs to be removed before it gets him killed."

"Oh, I can do that alright one order of humble pie coming up," Naruto stated gently running his hand down Hinata's back who was fidgeting with each stroke. He smirked noting she was glancing out the corner of her eyes and they promised him a long night of passion.

XXX A day before the Finals...

Trunks sighed heavily wandering through the Hidden Leaf, both he and Goten had been 'encouraged' to explore the Elemental Nations. Encouraged my ass, dad practically tossed in this world and said, "Go find a mate worthy of you, gaki!" Trunks sighed again at first he was going to refuse until he thought about it, every girl he's been with lasted maybe a week or less something about their attitude, personality, or lack of fire turned him off. He finally broke down and asked his father what was wrong and the reply came back, "You are looking for someone who's strong, it doesn't have to be physical strength either, your mother lacks physical strength at present but she makes it up in two areas, she has a powerful mind and an iron will." So here was the demi-Saiyan wandering the Hidden Leaf looking for someone to spark interest.

Needless to say he found plenty of women in the village that did just that, most of the Kunoichi's were strong sand fierce, however most were ten to twenty years older than himself, while not a bad thing in retrospective it wasn't good either. Their were only three girls around his age that he met to date, Hinata, Sakura, and Ino, of the three only Ino was single and she reminded him way to much of Krillin's first girlfriend Maron. Needy, physically obssessed with herself, a gossip, and bossy, none sparked much interest and was way too high maintenence. As he wandered his super sensative nose picked up the distinct smell, of metal, charcoal, borax, and tempering oil. Scanning the building's he found a blacksmith shop to his right. "Higarashi Ninja Steele," Trunks perked up glancing over his right shoulder at his sword. "Well I do need a new whet stone for my sword, and maybe I can order a back up."

Walking into the building he saw rows a Shinobi gear, shirts, pants, cloth for the headbands, mesh shirts, armor weaved shirts. Then their was rows of boxes with Shuriken, kunai, blank storage scrolls, in the back behind the counter were the bigger weapons, swords, pole arms, Kodachi, sais, Nunchuckus. Letting out a low whistle, "Now this is something."

"See something you like?" came a chipper feminine voice to Trunks's left, he turned and came face to face with a girl whose hair was done in buns, wearing a chinese style pink no-sleeve shirt, black pants. She wore a Shinobi headband and a pleasant smile, she also looked to be aroundTrunks age.

"See a lot of things I like," Trunks chuckled. "Got an awesome shop here, Trunks Briefs."

"Tenten Higarashi, my family owns the place," Tenten chirped. "Your new here aren't you."

Nodding, "Yeah my dad practically toss me and my best friend at his dad and said go explore this new world. Goten took it to heart and flew off, myself I stayed around."

"That's pretty awesome," the weapon mistress stated, "your from that group Naruto knows right?"

"Yep," Trunks stated. "Not against that are you, heard a lot of people bad mouthing Naruto just walking down the street."

"Absolutely not I was one of the only kids in the orphanage that looked after Naruto, well before I got adopted anyway," Tenten said with a pained smile. "I'm glad his parents are alive and he's making some new friends."

"Cool," both drifted off into awkward silence before Trunks smacked his head, "Sorry, um, can I get a whet stone and maybe look at some of your sword patterns."

Tenten giggled walking behind the counter and pulling out a selection of whet stones and large booklet. "Can I have a look at your sword, it'll help determine the whet stone."

Trunks unsheathed his sword and casually flipped the sword into the air catching it blade first handing it to her. She looked at it with a great deal of reverence. "This is a good quality sword where did you get it?"

Trunks smiled sadly, "A friend."

The weapon mistress nodded inspecting it holding it up checking the edge, "A grade six whet stone, anything more and it'll warp the edge." She moved all but one of the stone back under the counter. "that'll be 350 ryo," Trunk handed her the money. How Trunks got the cash was from his mother, she handed him gold she exchanged from the bank from the family account, which once he and Goten arrived in the Elemental Nations they went to the local bank in the Hidden Leaf and had the gold turned into Ryo, then split it down the middle for travel, food, and leisure expenses. "Why look for another sword this one is an excellent piece?"

"That's the reason, I like a new sword made mostly so I can put this up and not use it, give it a nice place of rememberance for my friend," the demi-saiyan explained.

Tenten eyes widen for a second at the realization and blushed a bit, "Never thought about that, well if you pick out a pattern you like my dad should be home tomorrow and we can get started the day after the finals."

Trunks smiled and nodded looking down at the booklet opening it, as he looked the two got into a long conversation involving their adventures, Tenten's missions with her eccentric sensei, her equally eccentric teammate, and her rather broody other teammate. "Emo's," Trunks snorted causing Tenten to giggle. "My dad was like that before he met my mom, still is from time to time."

"Who do you think will win the tournament tomorrow," the weapon mistress asked.

"Don't think I know Naruto will win," Trunks smirked.

"How do you know that, granted he beat Kiba like he was nothing in the prelims but he graduated last of his class," Tenten stated.

"Never ever underestimate someone, just because they ain't the brightest tool in the shed. My godfather grew up virtually by himself in a house in the middle of nowhere, his understanding of the outside in general was so bad he couldn't tell the difference between girls and boys for nearly ten years. It took him meeting my mom and his wife to break him of that," the demi-saiyan paused. "Sorry just my godfather is easily the strongest guy in our universe, and Naruto reminds me a lot of him."

The girl nodded smiles, "that's not what I mean but I'm glad someone is sticking up for him."

Trunks blushed scratching the back of his head, "Yeah sorry, anyway Naruto got training from my dad, my godfather, and his parents during the month, and let me tell you, I can see why his parents were the strongest ninja in this village at one time."

"Really how did they squeeze in so much training?" Tenten asked.

Trunks thought about it, "well if you promise not say anything and maybe if you let me take you out to dinner tonight I might spill the beans on how he got so much training in, and to sweeten the deal I'll throw in extra for that new sword," pointing at a picture in the booklet.

Blushing slightly at being asked out, "Um," she paused looking at the time and froze, they had been talking for almost five hours. Looking stunned, she never had held a conversation with anyone customer or not anything longer enough to get orders from her sensei, take an order from a customer, or talk to her foster parents. Glancing at the demi-saiyan she found him to nice, cute, appreciated weaponry, and above all didn't talk down to her like most boys she talk to, only Lee had ever treated her like an equal. "Sure, maybe I can weasel some sword techinques out of you to," she smirks.

Trunks laughed, "I'm up for any training you can think of."

Author's Note: Well here's the conclusion of that fight and spark the romance between Trunks and Tenten, next chapter Goten and Fu as well as the start of the Finals. My profile has a rather unique Challenge anyone interested have fun especially if your a Destiny fan.