Chapter 6: Isn't Asuma the Greatest?
"What are you working on, Hinata?" Kurenai asked as she sat down next to her student, Hinata.
"N-Nothing!" Hinata replied, while crumbling the paper she had been writing on and pushing it into her weapon pouch located on her thigh. Kurenai merely smiled.
"Was it a love letter?" She asked.
"W-What? Of course not sensei…" Hinata said as she looked down at the ground, shoulder slouched, dejectedly. "It's not a love letter…" Hinata repeated, as withdrew the crumbled paper from her weapon pouch. She opened it and placed it on one of her thigh as she tried to straighten it. "It's a clan thing…" Hinata explained as she handed it to Kurenai.
Kurenai's eyes widen upon reading the content of the page. Her crimson eyes shifted towards Hinata, while looking at the girl sympathetically.
"Hinata, I'll always be proud of you regardless of what path you choose in life." Kurenai said. "But I have to admit I will be very amazed if you accomplish your dream to abolish the division and unite your clan. You're only twelve years old, but I think you're on the right path since you're beginning to construct an opening argument such as this." Kurenai said as she glanced back down to the content written on the paper.
"Y-You're not just saying that, sensei?" Hinata asked, her orbs filled with hope.
"Hey! Have a little trust in me okay? I'm also an idealist." Kurenai explained with a smile while handing back the paper to Hinata. The young genin gave a small smile.
"Thank you for believing in me, sensei."
Shino, Kiba and Akamaru finally arrived to the training grounds by then. The two male genin exchanged side glance with one another, feeling as though they had just missed something important.
"Kiba, I want you and Akamaru to team up against Hinata. While I work individually with Shino." Kurenai said while standing up from the bench.
"Alright sensei." Shino replied.
"We're not gonna go easy on you just because you're our teammate, Hinata." Kiba said, his voice laced with confidence.
"T-Thank you Kiba." Hinata walked to the center of the training ground as she tied her mid-length hair with a hair tie. She adjusted her fishnet arm sleeve and pushed her left foot and left arm forward, shifting into the Hyuga fighting stance. Kiba also moved to the center of the training field.
"Thank you? I don't think you should be thankful Hinata. Last night I finally got down one of my family's technique. Maybe you should ask me to take it easy on you-"
"Kiba!" Kurenai cut through, clearly frustrated. "Stop talking and start fighting!"
"Yes sensei." Kiba growled out, clearly unhappy that his self-buff of moral was interrupted. It was just part of who he was. Kiba needed to say something awesome and threatening before a fight. But Kurenai sensei just doesn't get it.
"K-Kiba…?" Hinata asked. She hadn't moved yet since she had been waiting for Kiba to take his fighting stance. Instead, he crouched down to the ground, while both hands stretched in front of him. He looked like he was trying to be a spider. No, not a spider, but a beast.
"Four Legs Technique!" Kiba chanted. Hinata watched in awe as his body got cloaked in blue chakra. Kiba's nails grew in size, and took the appearance of claws. His teeth also grew in size, as his wild brown eyes changed.
"A-Amazing!" She said, feeling half excited and half scared. Her heart rate increased, and adrenaline rushed through her very being. Hinata had yet to learn any of her clan's secret techniques, so she was beginning to doubt herself at this point. But thoughts of doubt were forced out of her head once Kiba had closed the distanced. His fist stop inches away from her face. But he never connected the hit. The amount of force he had used had created a breeze which made Hinata's bangs move wildly as she stared at his blue chakra laced fist. "W-What…? Why?! K-Kiba why didn't you hit me?!"
"Because you can't fight me the way I am just yet. And it just wouldn't be fair for you." He explained. "I was just showing off the new technique I learned." The technique he learned allowed his speed, reflexes and instinct to increase.
Hinata closed her fist on her side as she began to visibly shake, not due to anger, but frustration at her inability to keep up with her teammate.
"I don't care…" She said. "Let's do this again."
"Oi, you sure Hinata? I might hurt you." Kiba said.
Kurenai signaled a time out with her spar with Shino so she could supervise the spar and intervene in case is too dangerous for Hinata. Shino followed Kurenai to the bench area and they eagerly awaited for the spar to start.
After Kiba moved back to the place where he had started, he faced Hinata, with his heart filled with concern because he might really hurt his teammate. But who was he to decide what she can or can't handle? They've been on the team together for only two weeks after all.
"Go!" Hinata said, commencing the battle.
Kiba's flight brought him close, yet again, to Hinata. But this time his fist connected to a substitution. That second of confusion is all it took for Hinata to sneak behind him. But that was a mistake on her part, because he had sniffed her out. He caught her fist with one hand and struck her stomach with his free hand, sending her tumbling. She groaned incoherently but was up right away. Kiba didn't give her time to fall back to her practiced stance as he dashed towards her. But luckily she was able to leap to the side, while evading his elbow which he had meant to connect to her stomach.
His movements were smothering; never giving her the chance to fight back.
Forgetting about Akamaru, Hinata stumbled over its body, something Akamaru had done on purpose to aid his partner in battle. The girl fell on the ground and evaded punch. She rolled away and was up on her feet in time to block his kick with both her hands, which had been aimed at her face.
"Kurenai sensei, why aren't you stopping the fight?" Shino asked.
"Believe it or not, Kiba is actually going easy on her." Kurenai said as she chuckled. "That kid is sure full of contradictions."
"I don't understand why you say it like it's good thing, sensei." Shino said.
"Kiba going easy on her may be a bad thing. But at the same time, it's shows that he's beginning to care for his teammate." Kurenai explained.
"Aa." Shino replied.
They both turned back to the fight in front of them, in time to see Kiba end the fight with a kick which landed on Hinata's back. The Byakugan had deactivated on its own due to the shock of pain Hinata felt.
"Shit!" Kiba said as he ran towards her. It wasn't the power behind the kick that had hurt her, it was the tree she had collided with that had done most of the damage. "Hinata, I'm so sorry!" Kiba said as he knelt beside her. "Here, you can punch me on my face if you want." He said as he tilted his head, giving her access to one side of his face.
Hinata sat up slowly, with a bruised smile on her face.
"Kiba…what are you saying?" She said as she lifted her hand to his face. Instead of punching him, she pinched him. "Y-You were going easy on me. I wanna be so angry at you. But thank you for that."
By then, Kurenai, Akamaru and Shino were also there by her side.
"Give me room boys, I'm going to heal her wounds a bit to the best of my abilities." Kurenai said as the two male genin, plus Akamaru, backed away from the two female. "You did great Hinata. Don't let this defeat discourage you." She said as she moved behind Hinata and placed her glowing green healing hands on her back.
"Thank you sensei." As Hinata stood, she yelled in pain and fell back down.
"Hinata what's wrong?" Kurenai asked.
"I don't know...I think I sprained my ankle." She explained. Hinata activated the Byakugan as if to confirm her theory. "Y-Yeah, I sprained my ankle. But the damage doesn't look that bad. It just feels bad."
Kiba couldn't shake off the guilt of hurting his teammate. So he turned his back towards Hinata and crouched down.
"Jump on Hinata, I'll carry you!" Kiba said.
"But Kiba...I'm really heavy." Hinata explained.
Team 8 didn't realize team 10 had just finished training near by, and were now approaching the area because Asuma wanted to see a certain woman.
"Hi-na-ta!" Ino's singsong voice cut through, and Hinata immediately froze. Team 10 was approaching. "What'cha doing on the ground?" Ino asked after team 8 and team 10 genins exchanged greetings.
"I sprained my ankle...and Kurenai-sensei can't heal this sort of injury." Hinata's words had actually been a jab at Kurenai's pride. But the shy girl didn't realize this. Asuma looked at his girlfriend, in a sympathetic way. There had been a time where Asuma sprained an ankle and Kurenai wasn't able to heal it.
"That sucks." Chouji commented. "Are you going to the hospital? Maybe Asuma-sensei can carry you. He's super strong, so even if you're heavy, that's fine."
"Eh?!" Hinata said. Her hands went up to her face, as she started to blush. Ino thought Hinata's reaction was because she was embarrassed about possibly being called fat. Thus, Ino ended up elbowing Chouji on the side and calling him an idiot.
Asuma ignored the young ones and walked forward and knelt in front of Hinata.
"Where does it hurt?" He asked. Hinata just loved his raspy, sexy voice. She bit her lips, while shutting out her inner fan girl beckoning her to just faint in his arms.
'Asuma-sensei, it hurts everywhere!' She almost wanted to say.
"U-Um, here." Hinata said, as she tried to move her injured ankle. His large hands were lightly pressed against the area which required healing.
"Okay, this is gonna hurt a bit." Asuma's hand glowed green, as he healed away her sprained ankle. "I had a few sprains over the years, so I was forced to learn self healing technique. Those are much more difficult, by the way, than healing another person." He explained, unnecessary. But the point of him talking was really to distract the young genin from her pain. And it seemed to be working because she was looking at him like he was the best Shinobi in the world. Aw, kids these days were so easily impressed. It was adorable.
Shikamaru watched the scene silently, with his hands tucked inside his pockets. He sported an annoyed look on his face. He felt disgusted and at the same time, disappointment that Hinata had descended from an outlier as she fell within the standard deviation. She was just like all the other girls now, hopelessly lost.
"Isn't Asuma-sensei the greatest?" Ino asked Kiba, as they were both watching Asuma heal Hinata.
"I'm sure Kurenai-sensei can learn more advanced healing technique if she wanted." Kiba said.
"Guys, this isn't a competition." Chouji said.
Kurenai laughed while she listened to the young genins bantering about mundane things. She then focused on the man that had stolen her heart. Watching him heal Hinata just made her think of how great of a father he could one day become. Her heart fluttered at this thought.
"Can you stand now?" Asuma asked Hinata, while backing away and taking his spot next to Kurenai. The young genin stood up slowly, while looking at the spot where Asuma's hand had just been.
"It's like it never happened." Hinata mumbled, half confused and amazed at the power of chakra healing. "T-Thank you very much Asuma-sensei." Hinata said as she bowed.
Kurenai and Asuma exchanged knowing looks. It felt so great to be alive, and be able to teach kids that looked up to them as though they were some sort of hero.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru just rolled his eyes. Truthfully, he just wanted to go already. But the reason he was still there because Asuma promised to take team 10 out to a BBQ restaurant.