Good day to you!
I'm back with another chapter. I haven't yet figured out a concrete upload schedule at the moment; I usually just write during my commute or when I have downtime at work, and I finish up or edit when I'm home for the weekend. Right now I'm looking to have at least one chapter a week, ideally two. But that can change depending on how busy (or free) my days get.
I'll talk more about my thought process for this chapter near the end, if any of you are interested.
When Jiraiya came to visit Naruto on this day, he found that the room was already occupied. The dark-haired little girl from the other day was there; she squeaked like a mouse when she saw him enter.
"O-oh, hello! I-I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"Don't worry about it," Jiraiya interrupted. She looked like a Hyuga; the pupilless, white eyes were a dead giveaway, though hers seemed to be tinted lavender. "Are you a friend of Naruto's?"
The girl nodded, shyly hiding into her tan, baggy coat. Now that he was really looking at her, they did seem to be about the same age.
"You went to school with him then?" Once again, he saw her nod. "I take it you're not the talkative sort." Jiraiya snorted at the girl's hasty apologies, quickly turning his attention to Naruto's cocoon. "I'm surprised you managed to get this close to him without any issues. Even the medics have reported it being a fight just to get near... The kid must really like you."
The girl's face lit up with a furious blush, and Jiraiya noted the barely suppressed quirk of her lips at his words. After a moment, she sighed, sadly. "I-I just really needed to see him -to know that he's okay."
"I hear that." Palming his face, he snatched a spare chair from the closet, taking a seat a few feet off from them. "I hear he's on a good track toward recovery… Oh- I'm Jiraiya. What's your name, kiddo?"
There was a pause, then "H-Hinata Hyu-Hyuga, sir. Yes, I uh- I went to school with Naruto-kun."
"Ah, yeah I think he mentioned you, a few times." Jiraiya had to suppress a snort. Yeah, more like a few dozen.
"R-really!?" Poor girl. She sounded way too excited. It took everything he had, not to tease her.
"Yeah. I trained him for a bit before his… Well, before this happened. He kept talking about you, said you got put in here by some Hyuga super genius; the one he's fighting in the exams, actually."
"Ah," Hinata frowned, nervously pushing her index fingers together. A tick, perhaps? "I-yes, I'm still in care after- well, uh… I needed surgery." Jiraiya locked onto the faraway look in her eyes She looked close to crying. "I'm sorry to have caused him any concern." The response was clearly rehearsed. Who had she practiced it for?
That wouldn't do.
"Don't bullshit with me, kid." As if to soothe the harshness of his words, Jiraiya planted a palm on the kid's head, ruffling her hair. She went stiff as a statue, so he swiftly aborted that strategy. "Don't apologize for something like that… Naruto wouldn't have talked my ear off about you if he didn't think you were worth talking about, and he wouldn't have worried if you weren't worth worrying about." After a moment, he added, "He also said you were 'strong as shit'."
Hinata gaped at the man. "O-oh n-n-no I'm really not I- well you see I'm just- I'm just."
"Enough of that." Jiraiya cut in, bluntly. "If he says you're strong as shit, then you're strong as shit. Just take the compliment, kid."
"...Y-yes. Thank you." Clearly she didn't seem to believe in herself very much, if the lingering doubt in her eyes was anything to go by. Still, Jiraiya didn't quite have the patience to battle back all of the girl's insecurities for her. Let Naruto fight that battle, once he was out of that damned cocoon.
"Tell me, how did you ever find out about his… internment?" Naruto's hospitalization was something of an open secret. After all, one couldn't exactly keep something like this quiet for long, but there was certainly no reason to give any potential enemies an opportunity to hurt the kid, as he was. Still, his team must have been informed, at the least. It was common courtesy. The Uchiha and their sensei were out of the village, so their absence could be forgiven, albeit reluctantly. The pinked-haired one though- well, he hadn't seen her. The fact that not one of them had shown…
Nevermind that. Jiraiya turned his attention back to Hinata, a question on his mind. "Actually, I'm surprised the guards even let you in." Friend or not, she wasn't his teammate. The ANBU had no obligation to grant the girl access.
"G-guards?" The girl went a bit pale. "I-um, I swear, I really didn't mean to-"
"Don't worry about it. If you didn't see them, then they very much let you pass." He supposed he wasn't exactly surprised, now that he'd gotten a chance to speak to her. The kid didn't seem to have a deceitful bone in her body... Unless this was all a ruse, in which case he supposed she was super duper deceitful. "Hey kid, what do you specialize in?"
The question clearly threw the kid off. "Um, pardon?"
"You're a genin right? What is your sensei teaching you?" Goodness, Jiraiya hated having to explain himself.
"Tr-tracking, I think?"
"You think?"
Buckling under his incredulous stare, Hinata bowed her head and swallowed. "T-t-tracking a-and capture, sir." Her voice was nearly a whimper...
Great, now he felt bad.
"Relax a bit -Hinata, was it?" At her nod, he huffed. "I'm not pissed at you. I'm just an asshole."
"O-oh?" Hinata blinked a few times, unable to find any words to respond with.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jiraiya huffed. Why was he having so much trouble talking to some kid? Time to switch gears, then. "Hey, you never answered my first question. Who told you Naruto was hospitalized?"
"Ah, well- I- sorry, you see…" Hinata paused, taking a breath. "No one told me. I just- I'd recognize Naruto-kun's chakra anywhere." As if prompted by her words, the veins surrounding her eyes began to lightly bulge, and Jiraiya knew she had activated her clan's ocular jutsu, the byakugan. "When I saw t-this," trailed off for a moment, pointing limply toward the cocoon. I-I knew it was him. But I- but something is wrong… His chakra is all different, sir."
"I've heard… The old man-the Hokage had a couple of your clanmates take a look at him a few days back; they said they didn't even recognize him."
"I-I wouldn't go that far." Hinata smiled, and the veins around her eyes receded. Rubbing them, she added, "He's become so bright, like a star… I can't look at him for too long anymore." The girl looked particularly disappointed by that, and Jiraiya couldn't help but laugh. "Sir?"
He deigned not to answer her question. Instead, Jiraiya simply gazed at Naruto and chuckled. "Like a star, huh?" How fitting.
Hinata blushed. "It's beautiful."
Clearly there was some history between these two. "You his girlfriend or something?" The elder had to choke back a laugh as his companion began to stutter, furiously. "Look I'm not trying to make things weird for you; the kid's important to me and I'm asking you an honest question." Jiraiya tried to inject some sternness into his tone, though he guessed that his grin must have kneecapped it. "You two seem pretty close, at least?"
Hinata paused, then. Her blush melted off her face, suddenly little more than a faint dusting on her cheeks. "We aren't, really." There was something truly sad in her eyes that made Jiraiya's heart ache. He knew that look very intimately; he had worn it many times in his life, after all.
"Ah shit. Did you two have a falling out or something?" She seemed like a good enough kid. She clearly cared a ton about his student. It really wasn't his business, but he couldn't help but give a damn.
"O-oh, no! It's just…" Hinata sighed, helplessly. "I'm honestly surprised that he was speaking about me at all… I-um, sometimes I wonder if he even knows that I exist."
Ah.
"Well it sounds to me like there has been a miscommunication between the two of you; the kid thinks the world of you. Now far be it from me to tell you how to handle your relationships." Jiraiya ignored her sudden blush. "But it sounds to me like you both care a whole lot more about each other than either of you know. I can tell you for certain that in the week or so that I had him, your name came up leaps and bounds over anyone else's." After a moment he added, "That includes his teammates, by the way."
Jiraiya ignored Hinata's expression -a clean splice of embarrassment and shock. Shifting his eyes past her, he opted to address them both, this time. "Take it from this old bastard with far too much experience on his hands, for better or for worse…" Thoughts of his old teammates, Tsunade and Orochimaru both, came forth. Whether your feelings are romantic or even just that of friends, don't spend your days wishing you'd told somebody how much they meant to you. You never know how long you'll have with them before they're gone."
The look in Hinata's eyes told him his words had reached her. "Yes, sir."
Kushina held Naruto's hair back as he once again heaved onto the floor. Nothing came out anymore, but really, "it's just the gentlemanly thing to do", she had told him.
Her son had been trying and failing to sync with Mito Uzumaki for days; the breaks he took were few and far between. Kushina was concerned for him, sure. The results, however, showed for themselves.
"You're up to eighteen seconds." Compared to the barely three seconds of his first attempt, there really was a world of difference.
Naruto groaned. "I'll try for twenty, next." Pulling himself to his feet, he wiped the blood from his nose and prepared for another attempt.
Frowning, Kushina tugged at his arm. "Moutziaaki(1)... I really think you should take a break, even if just for a few minutes, X'omaa."
Unacceptable. They didn't have the luxury of time. Not while Neji's face remained unpunched. "I'll try one more time." Naruto didn't wait for a response from his mother, instead taking the patiently waiting Mito's hand. His eyes began to glow, once-more mirroring her own amethyst ones as their resonance began.
Mito as a young adult was far faster than she had any right to be, and her natural flexibility made Naruto's bones creak, trying to mimic her movements. Still, he forced his discomfort into a far corner of his mind as he fell in sync, meticulously acting out his predecessor's past. Their bodies became one; their thoughts followed.
The duo was like lightning across the battlefield. Bodies dropped en masse as they wove across the ground level, incapacitating enemy ninja. Pausing for a moment, they glared at the thinning ranks of enemy ninja. The forehead protectors of the Hidden Cloud Village stared back, as one.
Their senses stretched across the surrounding area like an all-encompassing blanket, and Naruto knew before he even saw them that an attack was coming. As Mito's body moved in preparation, Naruto thanked his luck that they still seemed to be on the same page.
A hail of shuriken attacked them from all angles, but they had sensed it coming.
An evasive style, then. 'Dance of Water: Eel's path
Their body contorted as if they had no bones at all, mirroring this particular dance's namesake. They ducked under a pair of spinning blades, rolling twice and flipping over another. Tilting their head, they allowed another shuriken to whiz past them, then followed up by slinking around another trio. Then, Mito's hand whipped out, wreathed in a thin barrier of chakra; they deflected an incoming shuriken into the path of another, then slunk around thrice more in rapid succession to weave the last few. In an instant, they had effortlessly wove through the storm of steel without so much as a scratch.
Fully clearing the attack, they sensed the follow up in the form of a massive build up of chakra. It tasted like ozone, so Naruto heeded her lead and dropped low, memorizing the way Mito's body contorted against the ground and evaded the electric surge that whizzed over their head.
Mito's leg snapped out, collapsing the chest of a flanking enemy ninja. He crumpled onto his back, spasming. The other ninja halted their charge, instead making space.
'Above'. They palmed a dagger -a stiletto, good for stabbing-, then they planted a hand into the ground and vaulted upward, flipping to safety as a heavy foot slammed down where their head had been.
The pair brandished their blade before them as the shaggy-haired cloud ninja ripped his foot from the ground. He mirrored Mito's stance, a challenging sneer twisting on his lips as he crossed a heavy crescent blade in front of himself, one-handed.
'A duel, then. Fine by me.'
The opponents stared each other down for a half second, then a spark of tension erupted between them. 'He's going to rush'. Mito's memory couldn't hear him, but it was clear all the same that she had sensed it, too.
True enough, the enemy ninja ripped forward at incredible speeds, his body wreathed in electricity.
Mito huffed, pushing forward to meet his charge, dragging a flagging Naruto along for the ride.
'Match his advance!' 'Dance of Storms: Kraken Waltz'
Her knife-clad limb blurred into ten, and a dozen and a half clangs rang out as she used the tiny blade to parry every enemy stroke. Metals collided with one another in a deadly dervish, Mito stalwartly refusing to give any ground. Pushing forward, Mito tilted her body to the side, her spine bending her at a low angle to weave a diagonal slash. Tensing her body, she vaulted upwards and spun, her left leg taking a wide curve to collide with her opponent's face. Something gave, probably his left orbital, and Mito knew to press her advantage.
Kicking off, she landed at a shallow distance away, then twirled out of the way of an angry lunge, Mito kept to his left, where she suspected his sight to be impaired. Leaping over the wide-swing, she then slammed her foot into the man's elbow from behind and drove his heavy blade deep into the ground. Smartly, her opponent released the blade and attempted to backfist her as they descended. Wasting no time, she snagged the man's arm, wrapping her legs around it at the elbow and burying the blade into his bicep, severing the ligaments.
The cloud ninja cried out, then attempted to slam her into the ground with the last of his arm's strength. Suffusing her chakra throughout her body like a cushion, Mito easily absorbed the fall and rolled to the balls of her feet. She raised her chakra output threefold and split it. Her immaculate chakra control was put fully on display as she augmented her kick off while simultaneously bracing her legs. In an instant, she had taken off towards her foe, blurring into a speed far faster than he could react. Using his one good arm, he futilely tried to ward her off with a hastily procured kunai, but she read the movement and evaded by taking a short leap. Then Mito brutally slammed her palm into his shoulder. Something popped painfully in her foe's joint as she threw him off balance as she vaulted overhead. The cloud ninja dropped his kunai in favor of ripping his crescent blade from the ground. A sloppy, reverse-gripped swing tried to catch her and protect the ninja's back all at once. She leaned backwards, allowing him to barely miss.
His front was wide open.
Mito's blade flashed, and-
Mito tumbled to the ground, trembling and choking. Everything hurt, and she knew she was well past her limit.
"Naruto..."
'Ah.' He was disassociating again. Naruto fought down a spasm and tried to focus. Mito's instincts ripped through him like the blade of her knife, peeling away at his flesh and stabbing away at him in a place he couldn't protect. Mito-no, Naruto groaned. Her-his head was fuzzy, again. He needed to center himself.
"Deep breaths, son."
Yeah, he needed to take deep breaths and screw his head back on. That was all.
"How long was that?" At Kushina's silence, he gritted his teeth. "That bad, huh?"
"... Sixteen seconds."
"Fuck!" Naruto clutched at his hair, pulling frustratedly at his hair. A loose braid came undone, joining the multitude of stray strands in a pile of half-braided, half-spiky locks. "Don't say it," he hissed, sensing his mother was about to chide his choice of language.
"This is a lesson you were going to need to learn, sooner or later. You can't just brute force everything in your life with no consequences." Kushina knew he didn't want to hear it right then, but he needed to. "You need to learn when to dial it back a couple dozen notches, Naruto."
"Alright, alright. You were right." With a huff, Naruto threw himself down onto his back, staring into the endless expanse of white, above him. "I'll take some rest and get back to the grind, after. I just don't understand what the problem is!"
Were he and Granny Mito really that incompatible?
Sensing the direction of his thoughts, Kushina pinched his nose, making him scrunch it up in irritation. "You're going about this all wrong. You're assuming you're doing poorly or making bad progress... Naruto, you've straight up sextupled your progress, since we've started. Moreover, you're practically dead on your feet and you still managed so much better than your first attempt. We'll stop for a few moments so you can recover and then I guarantee you we'll see huge improvement."
"But I'm still disassociating! And the pain- it hurts so much; clearly I'm still doing something wrong!"
"You're dissociating because you're stretching well past your limit of what your mind can handle right now. You're experiencing aches for the same reason. "You're being overwhelmed by Auntie Mito's memories and chakra because you're overdoing it. The only way you're going to get better at resonance is to simply build your limit up so it's harder for you to hit it. You can't do that if you're constantly on the verge of giving yourself brain damage, ya doof! Now quit stressing yourself out when you're supposed to be resting. Come here and let me fix your hair; you look terrible."
"Yeah, fine." Rest really sounded nice, right about now. Naruto's eyes panned over to his mother, who had dropped down beside him, swiftly working away at his unkempt locks. "How did you learn to do it?"
Kushina suddenly went red in the face "Ah, well... Don't make fun of me. I'll cry." She huffed, seeing her son rolling her eyes at her. Kushina nonetheless took it as confirmation. "I met your father."
There was a moment's pause, then Naruto blanched. "How the hell-heck did that help?"
Side-eyeing him, Kushina clasped her hands behind her head. "Your limit builds up as you grow stronger." At his nod, she pointed to his chest. "Strength isn't just about how much chakra you have or how big your muscles are. Willpower, experience, and intellect are just as important when it comes to one's overall capacity for strength.
"Yeah, I get that." Naruto hummed. "It's like the scrolls from the second exam. The Earth is the body; you build it up through physical exercise. Heaven is the mind, which gets stronger through study and experience."
"Exactly! You're missing one, though. That, which lies between: the Spirit. Earth, Heaven, and Spirit are all factored in when it comes to how you maintain yourself during resonance. Right now, you're still recovering from your wounds out there, so your body isn't in the best shape. You're young, so experience and knowledge will come as you age and learn more. Learning from your ancestors will build up both. Thus, getting better at resonance will ironically help you get better at resonance, if that makes sense!" Kushina chuckled.
"And my spirit?" Naruto frowned; he knew where this was going.
"As for your spirit," Kushina trailed off for a moment, throwing a concerned side-eye her son's way. "You tell me. Do you feel particularly 'spirited', right about now?"
…
No, he really didn't. Getting to spend the time he had with his mother was a blessing, but it couldn't suddenly undo the years of pain; least of all when he knew she would have to go, eventually. The chakra she'd stolen from the Kyubi was a drop in the bucket for the overgrown rat. Still, he didn't think it'd give them a chance to steal some more. He sure as hell didn't expect it to give any, willingly. "So meeting dad helped your spirit, then?"
"In a way, yes. Even before we fell in love, I think he was the first friend I ever made after coming to Konoha... I-uh, I was very lonely."
"Yeah," Naruto groaned. "I hear that." Rolling his eyes, he added, "Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth going back out there. it's not like I've got anyone out there waiting for me, ya know?"
Kushina's response was immediate. "Not true." She rolled onto her side to look her son in the eyes. She'd prepared for this. "I've got on good authority that you've got a cheerleader of your own, over on the outside."
The scene began to change, depicting a hospital room, covered in chains.
Jiraiya-sama had left, nearly an hour ago. Hinata knew that she should follow suit; head back to her room to get her own rest. Her doctor would be irritated if she had to come find her, again. Hinata really didn't want to be berated by her father again for disappearing from her hospital bed.
She strongly suspected that his irritation with her had more to do with how she made him look, rather than any real concern. Still, she didn't want to invoke his ire, for the consequences were far from ideal.
But she couldn't... Not while Jiraiya-sama's words remained with her.
'Don't spend your days wishing you'd told somebody how much they meant to you...'
If Naruto's… teacher? If Jiraiya-sama was to be believed, then Naruto had talked about her plenty, to the man. He cared about her; she hadn't even known.
But she should have. Naruto was kind to her -well, he was kind to everyone. Oh, he could be crass, at times. Oh, and petty. Very petty. But never without cause. He'd always been so sweet to her. It was just one of many reasons that she- oh god, she couldn't even say it in her own head. It was one of the many reasons that she liked him! Goodness, she felt so pathetic.
And yet, Naruto liked her. Or at least, he cared enough to talk Jiraiya's ear off about her.
He cared enough to visit her while she was fighting for her life in the hospital, courtesy of Neji-nissan.
She had never known, but she should have; and that was what was bothering her.
Did Naruto-kun know that she cared about him too? Memories surfaced of a moment between them, one of the rare few that she had, she was realizing.
'"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata almost lost her nerve then and there as her orange-clad crush perked up and caught her eyes. Immediately, she averted hers, dropping them down to his jumpsuit. It was ruined, partly from his battles in the forest of death. A few scratches, courtesy of his fight with her teammate, stood out. A bit of skin peeked out from his ruined clothes, so Hinata once more averted her eyes, this time onto her fiddling hands. Her heart was racing!
Naruto tilted his head and squinted, a moment, before smiling. "Oh hey, Hinata! Sorry I had to smack Kiba around in front of the rest of your team. He-he, no hard feelings, right?"
Hinata knew he meant it. He was just honest, like that. "N-no. I-um, I-mean you two had a great fight. C-c-congratulations on your win." God, why was it so hard to just talk to people? Hinata hated hearing herself speak. She hated being unable to get a single sentence out without tripping over herself. She wished she had his confidence, to just say what she meant and damn the consequences.
Naruto looked shocked. "Oh, thanks! I didn't think you'd- well, I appreciate it!" His hand flew up to scratch the back of his head. He was nervous, all of a sudden... Why? "Tell Kiba I'm down for a rematch anytime! I'll kick his butt as many times as it takes to make him respect me!"
She knew he would. Naruto never backed down from a challenge. Even when he really, really should. "I-I wanted to give you this." Thrusting her hands forward, he offered him the jar of medicinal cream she'd kept enclosed between her hands. She knew it was good-she'd never dare to give somebody bad medicine! Still, a part of her worried that he'd refuse it, all the same.
She needn't have worried. "I-I-I..." Deep breaths, Hinata. "I made it, m-myself."
With a cheer, Naruto plucked the small jar from her palms, turning it over in his grip with wide eyes. "You made this? For me? Holy crap Hinata, you're so cool!"
Were it anyone else who had said that, even her own father -especially her own father, Hinata would've thought they were mocking her. But Naruto was different. He was so kind, and she knew again that he meant what he'd said.
Even still, she wanted to cry, because he hadn't understood. That jar contained all of her pent up feelings; all of the things she'd wanted to say to him, but never had the spine to just open her dumb mouth and say! And he hadn't heard a single word. Hinata wanted to say them herself; she wanted to, so badly! Instead, all that came out was, "I h-hope it helps." She trudged off with her heart in shambles because the boy she adored just didn't get how she felt.
…And whose fault was that, exactly?
Hinata wanted to bash her own head in. Here she was, feeling sorry for herself while Naruto was fighting for his life! She hadn't picked up on Naruto's own feelings either; she hadn't even thought that he knew her name! All this time, he'd considered her a good friend, while she'd been stuck just trying to get him to know she existed. How silly was it that she'd gone home crying like a baby over that? Why, even- because he hadn't swept her into his arms and kissed her in the middle of the arena? Why, when she didn't even have the guts to just spell it out for him?
Naruto-kun had nearly died before she ever got a chance to tell him how she felt…
Feelings were hard; they always found a way to kick her butt...
But Hinata was getting really tired of losing.
"N-Naruto-kun..."
Is that Hinata? Naruto frowned, pushing himself up to his knees and shuffling forward. "What's going on?"
"She came to visit you." Kushina smiled, plopping herself down beside her son. Stroking his hair, she pointed at the blue-haired girl. "As a matter of fact, she's been coming to visit you nearly every day since you showed up there."
"But why?" Her son's voice sounded so lost, broken, even. It made Kushina want to cry for her boy.
"Why do you think, X'omaa?" Naruto really didn't need her to spell it out for him. She wouldn't. He needed to say it, for himself.
"Naruto-kun, I-" Hinata paused, taking a deep breath. Then, steady as a rock, she said, "I'm sorry, I'm not good at speaking, or talking about my feelings. Just- I miss you. Please get better soon." After a moment, she added, "You're the strongest person I know, so I'm sure you'll come back. But a-also, you're special to me, truly. A-and you promised you'd beat Neji-niisan. You never go back on your word, right?"
She sighed, stepping forward and pressing a palm against the big cocoon that he knew housed his still-mending body. Naruto felt the warmth of her touch. "Come back stronger than ever, and-um, let's have ramen when you wake up. Please?"
Now thoroughly red in the face, Hinata whispered a meek "see you later", and departed in a hurry.
Kushina remained silent, allowing her son to process that moment.
"Hold on." Naruto swallowed, his eyes prickling with tears. Was he really about to cry? He felt so stupid. "Hinata thinks I'm special? But I mean- why?" Oh they'd had some nice talks, er-well he tended to do most of the talking, and she'd given him that cream that sealed Kiba's scratches right up! But he'd never imagined that she thought so highly of him. "She's been coming to see me every day, you said?"
With a huff, Kushina rested her chin atop his head. "Is it really so unthinkable that someone out there would find you worthy of their love? What about that sensei of yours?"
"Kakashi sucks."
"No, the other one."
"I hate Jiraiya."
"THE REALLY NICE ONE," Kushina exclaimed, lightly smacking her giggling son over the head.
"Oh, Iruka-sensei? Why didn't you just say so?" Ignoring his mother's glower, Naruto thought of the man. "He and I haven't really talked much since I graduated, ya know." A pang of guilt struck him. "Not like I've made much of an effort on my end, to be fair." Yeah, that was probably his bad.
With a huff, Kushina pushed forward. "Your teammates; any standouts, there?"
"Sakura-chan is..." Naruto trailed off, trying to find the words to describe his pink-haired teammate. Sakura was what? "Pretty." Hastened by Kushina's exasperated glare, he rushed to add, "She's also really um-well she's really strong-willed, I guess. She's super smart!"
"I notice you didn't say she was nice."
He frowned. "She can be, just not to me-okay, point taken. Sasuke's a jerk, but he had my back in wave, so I guess he's alright. I guess I'd like to be friends with him, if he'd stop calling me a dumbass all the time… Oh, I guess Konohamaru counts as a friend! I mean, I'm more of his rival than anything, but that counts, right?"
There was a long pause as Kushina waited for her son to continue. After a moment, she pushed again. "And Hinata?"
"Well Hinata's really shy, but she's also nice to everyone. She's probably just being polite!"
Kushina's hand brushed through his hair, the warmth of her touch easing him out of his stupor. "Well, what do you think of her, then?"
Naruto paused, for a moment, searching for the right words. "Well she's super nice; the nicest person I know, even nicer than Iruka-sensei! And-um, she's strong as shit!"
"Language."
"Sorry-uh, she totally held her own against Neji! There's no way I could've lasted even half as long. Heck, I think Sasuke would've gotten eaten alive if he'd been the one down there, instead."
With a laugh, Kushina prodded her son's cheeks. "Do you think she's pretty?"
Naruto blinked. "Absolutely. But you don't need me to tell you that." Naruto gestured toward the still image before them of the pale-eyed girl. Then, he narrowed his eyes, glaring suspiciously at his mother. "Why do you ask?"
"You certainly thought it was worth pointing out with this Sakura girl." There was a sudden seriousness in his mother's tone that caught Naruto off guard. "Why did you point it out for her, but not for Hinata?"
"I guess I just felt that the other stuff was more important to mention with Hinata." Naruto frowned. "Is that bad? I wasn't trying to be rude, ya know."
Kushina's lips brushed his cheek. "I think it's sweet. You know what else?" Feeling him nod beneath her chin, Kushina chuckled. "It sounds to me like you both think very highly of one another, X'omaa. Maybe you should go have that ramen with her, after all."
"W-well I mean- she was probably just being polite, is all. I wouldn't want to-"
"People don't visit somebody everyday in the hospital to be nice, son." Kushina interrupted. "They also don't make it a point to tell somebody that they're 'special' to them, if that isn't actually the case. Look, as a completely neutral observer with no skin in the game," Kushina amusedly ignored her son's incredulous glare. "-It sounds to me like you've got at least one friend out there that wants to see you recover. For all you know, you might have a couple more people in your corner if you'd just open your heart to them, a bit."
"The list isn't exactly long, ya know." Naruto sulked, at that. Still, Kushina could see the tiniest beginnings of a smile etching itself onto his lips.
"Well I'm no mathematician, X'omaa, but if my calculations are correct, then even one is more than nothing. That's all I had when I started making progress with my resonance."
"So I've got Hinata, Konohamaru, and Iruka-sensei, then… And the old man Hokage, maybe. Depends on if he's feeling charitable on any given day, I guess."
With a chuckle, Kushina exclaimed, "that sounds like a solid three and a half, to me! Well over triple what I had, and you're far more talented than my dumb-ass ever was!"
"Language!" Naruto's grin was all teeth.
"Oh hush, you! If you get to be a crude, mannerless deviant of a boy then it's only natural that your poor mother gets a break, from time to time."
They shared a laugh, before Kushina grew serious, once more. "Listen to me, my love. Emotions are the very source of a person's strength of spirit. Few clans embody this more than our own. Everything we do; all of the challenges we face, and the things that we create, are all inspired by what lies within our hearts. Rage, grief, determination -hell, even lust can all serve as sources for strength, if used wisely. However, there is one that stands above all else for us... When an Uzumaki is concerned, there is no source of strength stronger in this world than love." Kushina swaddled her son into a tight hug. "Romantic, platonic, maternal love. All of it; the stronger we love, the greater the depths of our potential. Open your heart to those you love, and punish those who would try to take it from you."
Naruto snorted, but she knew he was listening, intently. "With extreme prejudice?"
"ALL of the prejudice. We Uzumaki are at our strongest when fighting for something precious to us. When your heart is full of love, and that which is most precious to you is in your mind, you will be as powerful as you need to be."
"You sound just like someone I met a while back." Naruto's eyes grew distant. "His name was Haku, and he was one of the strongest people I've ever met."
"Then you understand, perfectly." Kushina pointed across from them, to a patiently waiting Mito, who was fading into sight. "I'm done with your hair. Break's over! Fill your thoughts with all of those amazing friends of yours and go show gran-gran how strong you can get."
Naruto hopped onto his feet, immediately. One of his eyes glowed a brilliant amethyst color. "Yeah, yeah. I've still got a promise to keep for Hinata." Gripping his grand-aunt's hand, he grinned. "Let's finish that fight aye, granny?"
This chapter was made difficult to write by a couple of things:
Firstly, while I have extensive notes on some things that I want to be central in this story, I am at least partly winging it because I'm god-awful at planning stuff out. What I know for certain is that we will be seeing Naruto's reawakening, soon.
Secondly, I want to experiment with writing dynamic fight scenes with very interesting interactions between characters and their fighting styles. This is something that I think Part 1 of Naruto did phenomenally and I'd love to put a special focus on that. As we get closer to the Chūnin exam tournament fights, you'll hopefully be pleased by what I come up with. Expect that to still be a few chapters off while I handle this 'new' Naruto.
Speaking of which: A major goal of mine is that I want Naruto as a character to feel a touch different, but ultimately recognizable. There's no point in having Naruto remain the protagonist if I'm changing him into someone else. To that end, expect me to heighten some elements of Naruto's character or subdue them a touch, when it makes sense. Ultimately though I'd feel like I was doing the character a disservice if I just turned him into some edgy OC. Expect many pranks and goober-like behavior. However, my goal is to temper that a bit with a clear intelligence and wisdom that his experience would have given him. PLEASE let me know if I succeed on that or if you feel like I'm diverging too hard from the OG. Reviews help a ton for getting your opinions across and helping me further inform my writing.
One last thing, then I'll let you all go: I've seen a handful of questions about the 'strange language' that Kushina has been speaking, every so often. Know that I have every intention of expanding on it; its origin, as well as its importance to this story and Naruto's relationship with his clan, will all be explained. I just don't want it to feel hamfisted or overly exposition-y. Please trust that I will get to it as it becomes natural to do so. I'm just trying to fully figure out a fully satisfying angle to take, with it.
If you're interested in seeing chapters continue coming out at a quick pace, then drop some reviews! Spread the story around to people you think would be interested, and leave a follow if you want to stay up-to-date in seeing how it progresses. Any amount of engagement does wonders; it gives me valuable information that I can use to improve with, and helps me reach a larger audience where I can hopefully get tons of valuable feedback. Let's shoot for 30 reviews; if we can hit that, I'll prioritize this story over some of my other projects.
Until next time, thanks for reading!
Moutziaaki: Nonsense; a expression of disbelief.
