Author's Note: I don't own Naruto. Technically I don't own my own imaginary character either.

Chapter III

Falcon's New Apprentice

Falcon had just been cleared and walked towards his new lodging when he was called back into the Hokage's office. He stood there with Naruto. His helmet still covering his face. "Ah Falcon, may I introduce you to Hiashi Hyūga?" Falcon nodded his head as a form of greeting. "I have a request for you, you take my eldest daughter and train her, she will never live up to the Hyūga standards in her current state." Falcon looked at the Hyūga clan head. "What do you want me to train her in?" "Whatever you put that Uzumaki through." Naruto and Falcon both thought the same thing. 'Great, the poor girl would be dead within a week.' Falcon guessed he didn't have much of a choice in the matter so he nodded his head. "I'll train her." Hinata blushed a little because of Naruto being in the room with her.

Hiashi nodded and turned his head to face the young girl on Team 8. "Hinata, you're expected to not fail him. You're a Hyūga first and last. Don't disappoint me." With that he walked out of the office. "Ma'am I'll request I train her away from the village for four months. I'll take Naruto along to help in her training." Tsunade nodded, "very well, you seem to know what you're doing." Falcon turned to his new pupil. "Ok maggot, grab whatever gear you need and meet us by the gate in thirty minutes."

Hinata didn't like being called a maggot, but she had no choice. She hurried out of the Hokage's office and grabbed what she needed. She was at the gates just two seconds after the time she was supposed to be there. "Pathetic! Drop down and give me forty push-ups!" Hinata did as she was told. While she was doing that Falcon went through her pack to see what she packed. He found some clothes for training, some hygiene supplies, a few kunai, a sleeping bag, some pots and pans, and a tent. He removed the pots, pans, and tent from her supplies and had Naruto store them away in one of his sealing scrolls. When Hinata was finished she was red in the face from exhaustion. Falcon walked over and stood in front of her. "Looks like you had some pots, pans, and a tent. I removed those from your pack, you won't need them. Not now anyways."

Hinata was about to ask why before Naruto whispered something to her. "Don't ask him why on something like that, it makes him think you're being rebellious and it will make him make you do more push-ups." Hinata blushed and nodded. One thing was clear, this was going to be insane. "Alright you filth, grab your bag we're moving out!" Hinata did as she was told and followed Naruto and Falcon into the forest. She didn't know what to expect from them, but one thing was certain. This was not going to be pleasant.

They walked in the forest for about an hour before they came to a clearing. "Alright maggot, I want you to spar with me, I need to see where you're at in terms of combat." "H-hai." Naruto grabbed her pack and moved away from the shit that was about to take place. Hinata got into one of the Hyūga stances and activated her Byakugan. Falcon didn't change how he stood. He watched and waited.

Hinata charged first, aiming at getting the upper hand on her new master. To her surprise, she found herself easily caught and thrown to the ground in a roll. "Pathetic, you need to try harder than that if you're fighting me." Hinata felt her heart break a little. Falcon already had a low opinion of her. She charged again, this time aiming at striking his chakra network. Only Falcon didn't have a chakra network. This surprised her and Falcon took advantage of this. He swiped her off of her feet and kicked dirt into her eyes to make them hurt. She was left screaming and teary eyed from the dirt in her eyes. Falcon stopped and looked down. "That'll be it for today. It's clear that you're going to need a lot of work to get you to any level of fighting. Get up maggot and go wash your eyes out." Hinata tried and Naruto led her to a small river.

After she washed her eyes out and they no longer hurt, she turned her face to the ground. "Hey what's wrong?" Naruto looked at her with concern in his eyes. "S-Sensei already has a low opinion of me. I can't please anyone." Her eyes filled with small tears from her emotions being out of line. "Hinata, Falcon doesn't have a poor opinion on you, you'll see that what he was saying and acting to you is not to put you down. I learned that the hard way." Naruto got up and helped back to the clearing where Falcon stood. "You're going to need to get some things out of your head if you're going to be of any value." Falcon said as he studied the Hyūga. "Naruto, have her run ten miles in a loop. Meet me back here, I have a meeting to take care of. Also, don't use your chakra to enhance your speed, you need to build your endurance first." Naruto waved for Hinata to follow him and they took off running through the forest.

Back at the clearing, Falcon removed his helmet, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. In a moment a creature, humanoid with wings appeared before him. "Don't be afraid" the being said. "Micheal, how many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?" Falcon said as he opened his eyes to see the archangel. "You know full well that I have to do that to normal humans." Micheal said as he rolled his eyes. "I may have been normal once, but that was before. What does he have for me to do?" Micheal sighed. "The Lord has ordered me to tell you that the time for battle is near. They will be coming after you." Falcon nodded as he looked down, deep in thought.

Micheal noticed this behavior. "You seem concerned." Micheal said as he studied the man. "I have a student under my wing and I don't know how I am going to get her to become better. She's capable of becoming strong, but her mentality is holding her back." Micheal smirked, "just like someone I know who had self doubt." "I didn't have it that bad!" "Right you had it worse. Look do what you do, you will find a way to make her better." Micheal said as he left.

Falcon stood there eyes closed and thought over his dilemma. He soon placed his helmet on his head as his two pupils came running back to him. Both Naruto and Hinata hit the ground breathing hard. "So y'all showed up? Naruto that was a good thirty seconds late. Gimme a good ninety pushups!" Naruto did as he was told. "The other maggot needs to come with me." Falcon ordered as he walked away from Naruto. Hinata stood up as Naruto continued to do his pushups.

"Ok kid, from what I can see, you have potential. But the problem is you're lack of confidence in yourself. That's why you couldn't fight for too long against me." "But you kicked dirt into my eyes, made me run and, and-" "People fight dirty all the time. What you need to do is ignore the pain. Let me guess, you're father isn't the best at motivating you or has a poor opinion of you." Hinata's eyes widened. "H-How did you know?" "Naruto told me about you. He said that he was going to change your clan's views on things. That's all I know." Falcon said. Though he hid the fact that he knew that Naruto was secretly in love with her. Falcon had often seen him blushing in his sleep and guessed it was her. Plus he couldn't help but notice Naruto had this unnatural look in his eyes when he spoke of Hinata. This made Falcon assume Naruto loved her.

Hinata walked beside her new mentor as he continued to walk forwards. He soon stopped in a place that seemed to have been used as a campsite a few years ago, the real sign that it was a campsite was the small ring of stones. "Hinata, grab the other maggot and your gear. I want you both here in a few minutes."

Hinata ran back to where Naruto was just as he finished his last push-up. Naruto suddenly collapsed as he felt his arms give out from exhaustion. Hinata was instantly by his side and helping him up. She finally managed to tell Naruto that he wanted them where he was with their gear. Naruto nodded and grabbed everything, including Hinata, and Naruto took off running at top speeds.

When they reached the area. Falcon stood there, only he was dressed causally, he wore simple blue jeans with a white t-shirt and black jacket. The hood on the jacket hid his face and he also had his back turned to the two. Naruto looked around and instantly realized where they were. "Falcon this is where you joined us isn't it?" "Correct, this is the place." Falcon said as he turned to face his pupils. Hinata was surprised to see her new teacher's face. His brown eyes were cold and battle hardened. His mouth never seemed to smile. It was like his past was marked with war. His face seemed to match her own father's face in terms of looks of disappointment. It caused her to flinch involuntarily at the thought. Hinata noticed he didn't look at anyone but rather turned his eyes down as if remembering something.

"Naruto, Hinata, this will not be easy coming up. But you need to go through these trials for you both to grow. Set up camp here you two, I have some business to take care of." Falcon said as he grabbed a pair of pins. They had a unique design on them each. After attaching them to use jacket, Falcon walked out of sight.

Naruto and Hinata finished camp when something came in sight across a field. The pure evilness of the thing was reaching them. It wasn't an evil chakra. It was just evil. But the problem was it was limping towards them as if it was trying to get them. Suddenly a figure made of light that looked roughly like Falcon with his armor on, charged it and finished it off. White light exploded all around where the evilness and the figure were. Then it all disappeared. Nothing was left of the evilness or the figure. Hinata stared wide eyed at Naruto. "W-what was that?" Naruto had never seen it before either. "I, I don't know. Maybe Falcon will give us a answer when he gets back."

It was evening when Falcon came back. He looked exhausted but he was alright. "I see that there's some supper?" Naruto grinned. "Come on Falcon you have to try this! Hinata makes great food!" Hinata blushed at Naruto's exclamation. Falcon caught this and couldn't help but smirk. His assumption was proven to be true. He had seen Hinata's blush whenever he and Naruto rescued her team from the Oto nins. He knew they both shared the same bonds deep down.

Falcon grabbed a small bowl that was offered to him. He also took the spoon offered and helped himself to a small amount of soup. He took a spoonful of the hot liquid. Naruto looked shocked since this was the first time he had seen Falcon eat anything in all the years that he had known him. "YOU FINALLY DECIDE TO EAT SOMETHING!?!?" Hinata looked at Naruto confused as his shocked expression took over his face.

Falcon jumped at the loud noise and almost spilled the broth all over him. "Why does that matter if I eat or not?" "YOU NEVER EAT OR DRINK ANYTHING!!! ALL THIS TIME I HAVE KNOWN YOU, I HAVE NEVER SEEN YOU EAT ANYTHING!" Falcon shrugged. "This soup is good." Hinata smiled a little. "Th-thank you." 'I got it!' Falcon thought to himself. 'I finally got something to help her boost her confidence!'

"Naruto, Hinata, I want y'all to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long trip north." Naruto instantly flinched at the mention of north. North of where they were. Was the small coastal village where Jiraiya and Pain met their demise. "Can we go south or west?" He asked. "No we have to go north. I have something important to do north of here." Falcon said as he picked up his armor and weapons.

In a flash, Falcon was in his armor. "But north of here is-" "I know Naruto, that's why we are traveling there." Naruto shook with emotion. "But-" "No buts, there's a valuable lesson there that you must learn if you want to grow in your skills. The same for Hinata too." "What can possibly be there for us to learn?" Falcon looked down for a second before back up. "I can't say at this time. I just need you to trust me." Naruto didn't like this one but. For Hinata it was one thing, 'what is there for me to learn?'

Hinata realized that she didn't have a sleeping bag and her tent was confiscated. That meant she needed to find some place to sleep. Well Falcon didn't look like he was going to sleep anytime soon, but Naruto was already asleep in his bag.

Hinata thought about it for a second before she crawled into the bag with Naruto. Falcon leaned against a tree and studied his students. Behind his visor, Falcon smirked. 'Maybe Micheal was right. I did have it worse. Well no that doesn't make sense cause I had her and my sister and my best friend when everyone else was taken. One day I'll understand' he thought to himself as he watched Hinata put her face right next to Naruto's and snuggle up close.

'Definitely going to be something I can pick on Naruto and Hinata with tomorrow.' Falcon thought slyly. Then he sensed something coming. 'Here we go again.' Falcon thought as he turned and charged at the demon coming their way.