Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Naruto or any characters in this story; it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.


Chapter 15


The sun was about to reach its highest point in the sky as team seven walked across Konoha's gates. The journey back home had been just how Kakashi liked it, quiet and with plenty of time to read his favorite literature. He wasn't even bothered by the few attempts Naruto had made to destroy his precious book. Even though the situation had initially seemed grim and extremely dangerous, Kakashi was happy with how everything had played out. He had noticed how Sakura and Naruto were now getting along better or at least weren't fighting and how he and the blonde seemed to be in a good spot at the moment. If not for the slight frown the blonde made as he entered Konoha, he would have guessed Naruto was happy to return. Being put through several life-or-death situations throughout the mission seemed to have done wonders for Team Seven, and Kakashi couldn't be any happier about it.

"Well, I'm off to Ichiraku's." Said the blonde as he prepared to head down towards his favorite restaurant and stuff his body with the delicious food.

"Not so fast, Naruto. You guys will come with me to give the mission report and-"

"Ugh, do we have to? Don't you usually do that by yourself?" Naruto complained. He was desperate to fill his stomach with succulent broth. The blonde couldn't remember when it was the last time he had eaten his favorite meal and was close to entering a ramen-deprived state.

"Yeah, Sensei, I was looking forward to getting to my home and getting some rest," Sakura said. Although she appreciated the hospitality Tsunami had given them, she still missed her bed and shower.

"Oh, I thought you guys would want to collect your payment for the mission..."

Naruto and Sakura froze at the mention of money. The blonde brought out his wallet from his pouch, and without opening it, he remembered that it would be empty since he had used all his money back in Nami no Kuni. He knew that Teuchi would let him eat for free, but he didn't want to take advantage of Teuchi since he planned to clear the store. While Naruto was remembering his small financial crisis, Sakura's mind was busy with other thoughts more common for girls her age. The green-eyed girl thought about all the possible clothes she could buy as she threw a not-so-subtle glance at Sasuke.

"But I guess I can receive it for you and give it to you guys later."

A linked thought went through Sakura's and Naruto's minds at the prospect of Kakashi receiving their money. They didn't know if Kakashi was bad with debts, but his chronic lateness certainly didn't inspire any kind of trust in Naruto and Sakura.

"No!" They both exclaimed at the same time.

"Let's go to the mission office!" Sakura said a little bit too quickly while the blonde had already started walking in that direction.

Kakashi just chuckled. 'Too easy.'


Kakashi opened the door of the mission's office and walked in while his three young Genin followed behind. Kakashi gave a respectful bow to his commander-in-chief that Sakura copied, but Naruto and Sasuke abstained.

"Team Seven reporting back from duty, Hokage-Sama." The copy ninja said as he took a step forward.

"Kakashi, you took longer than what was foreseen. Were there any complications with your mission?" Hiruzen asked.

"Well..." Kakashi said as he scratched the back of his head. "I think it's better if you read the mission report."

Kakashi's three Genin exchanged a curious glance between themselves. Their usually calm and collected Sensei seemed to be nervous.

Hiruzen seemed to analyze the Jonin in detail before nodding. Kakashi took out a scroll and walked towards the desk before depositing said scroll within arm's reach of the Hokage.

Hiruzen took the scroll and unrolled it as he began to read. "I see. So Tazuna lied about the mission." His eyes widened a fraction as he continued reading the report before looking back up towards Kakashi and staring him down for a couple of seconds. Kakashi visibly straightened his posture as the eyes of the old yet immensely powerful Hokage centered on him. He knew that he had taken a huge risk by allowing a team of rookies to continue with the mission, and well, he guessed it was time to face the music.

Hiruzen opted to not say anything yet and lowered his eyes back to read the report as his mouth transformed into a thin line. Eventually, Hiruzen enrolled back the scroll and spoke.

"I'm glad that you and your team were able to complete the mission and return safely despite the unforeseen complications. In light of those complications that went above and beyond of what they were supposed to, this mission will go down on your records as an A-rank mission, and each of you will be paid a total of 275,000 ryō. Although each of you seems to be well in health, I'll give you a pair of days to fully recuperate before you resume your duties." Hiruzen spoke before he grabbed his pipe and took a puff. "Now, Genin, collect your pay and be dismissed," Hiruzen spoke as he kept looking at Kakashi.

The fact that Hiruzen only said Genin didn't escape the attention of the three rookies.

A frowning Naruto stared at the Hokage with cold eyes. "Kakashi-Sensei did nothing wro-"

"Naruto, listen to Hokage-Sama. Collect your pay and leave." Kakashi cut off the blonde before he could finish. Although he appreciated that his blonde student wanted to defend him, he didn't need him to get in trouble.

Naruto didn't turn towards Kakashi but closed his mouth as he locked eyes with Hiruzen, who seemed to be studying him with a curious gaze. After a few seconds, the blonde broke the starring contest and mumbled something inaudible as he walked towards another desk where three envelopes were waiting with their pay.

The rookies collected their pay and exited the mission office. Once outside, instead of leaving for Ichiraku's, Naruto simply leaned against the wall as he looked towards the door.

"Weren't you going to eat Naruto?" Sakura asked, seeing that his blonde teammate wasn't going anywhere.

Naruto shrugged. "I'm going to wait for Kakashi-Sensei. I don't think he should get in trouble for letting us continue with the mission. It was the right thing to do, and we completed the mission."

Sakura just stared at the blonde as she thought about it. After a few seconds of thinking, without speaking, Sakura walked towards Naruto and stood next to his left as she also stared towards the door. Sasuke saw what both of them were doing and just let out a sigh and did the same thing.

'Well, it could have been worse.' Kakashi mentally concluded after giving the Hokage another bow and turning around towards the door. He had gotten off with a few reprimands and a fine that he agreed with. He knew he had broken the established protocol, and this was the lightest punishment he would get, considering how everything turned out.

The copy ninja opened the door and was surprised to find his three students were still there. "What are my three cute little genin doing still here?" he asked.

"We were waiting for you, Kakashi-Sensei," Sakura chirped.

"Aww, where my three cute little genin worried about me?" Kakashi asked, but no one responded outright.

Naruto shrugged. "I'm going to Ichiraku's now... do you guys want to come?"

xxx

Three days after team seven's shared meal, you could find them wrapping up a training session late in the day. It had been the typical training session which focused on sharpening their teamwork. Although Kakashi was happy with how they worked together in the last mission, he didn't want them to think they were perfect.

"Alright guys, we are done for the day, but before you go, I have some training for you guys to do in your free time," Kakashi said, and his three cute little Genin turned towards him.

"Sasuke, Sakura. You'll be training on a new chakra control exercise" He announced as he walked towards a stream of water that passed by the training ground. Kakashi entered and walked around the water source before he explained. "The concept is similar to the training you previously did but is more complicated. In the three-climbing exercise, you accumulate the necessary amount of chakra in one location and maintain that fixed amount. For this exercise, you must constantly change the amount of chakra you emit since water isn't as dense as a tree's bark. Give it a try." He said as he walked out of the water and went to stand where he previously was.

Sasuke and Sakura walked up to the water and looked skeptically before they closed their eyes and started to concentrate chakra on the tenketsu on their feet before they took a step into the water. Sakura stood shakily on the water as her legs buckled while Sasuke's feet sank straight through the water, and he submerged himself with a big splash.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted in surprise, and her concentration slipped, causing her to also fall into the water. The pair of Genin crawled out of the water, soaked from head to toe, just to see their blonde laughing in their direction.

"I forgot to mention, you may want to try this while wearing other clothes," Kakashi said with a signature eye-smile.

Sasuke glared at Kakashi while Sakura's eye twitched, and she screamed. "Why didn't you tell us that before?!"

"Well, I'll leave you to practice in your free time," Kakashi said, completely ignoring Sakura's question. The copy ninja turned towards Naruto, reached for his back pouch, and brought out two blank pieces of paper.

"What's that?" Naruto asked curiously.

"What I promised. We are going to see to which Nature transformation you have an affinity for." Kakashi said as he repeated his eye smile.

Naruto didn't know how they were supposed to do that with a paper, but seeing how Kakashi hadn't forgotten about his promise made a grin appear on his face. "So how are we going to do that?"

Kakashi responded by grabbing one of the papers with his left hand and holding it up in front of Naruto's face, channeling some chakra, and the piece of paper instantly wrinkled.

"This is a special type of paper that reacts easily to chakra. You will have to channel your chakra through the paper. If it wrinkles like mine, you would have an affinity for lighting. It will split in half if its wind, burn if its fire, soak if its water, and crumble if its earth." Kakashi explained before he handed Naruto the other piece of paper.

The blonde didn't know much about chakra natures, but raiton sounded cool as heck to him, and besides, that was Kakashi's chakra nature so all the better. Naruto grabbed the paper and looked at it briefly before closing his eyes and channeling his chakra through it.

Kakashi watched with slight curiosity as the blonde held the chakra paper in his hand. He wondered what affinity Naruto would have. He remembered that although Minato had a fire affinity, like many of Konoha's population, but he only used elemental jutsu sparingly, and he wasn't sure what affinity Kushina had. Kakashi kept his gaze on the paper and suddenly watched it split in half. 'So, wind. That's interesting...' Before he could continue his line of thought, he watched as each half of the paper slowly got soaked.

Naruto opened his eyes and stared at the now split-in-half and wet pieces of paper. He looked up to Kakashi with a question in his eyes.

"It means you have two affinities, wind and water," Kakashi explained before the blonde could ask the question. "It's quite rare, but it's been known to happen."

Naruto ignored the slight twinge of disappointment that he felt because he didn't have the same affinity as Kakashi and concentrated on the fact he had two affinities.

"Really? Oh man, I'm awesome!" Naruto cheered as he was filled with excitement. He had never seen any Fūton techniques, but the Suiton ones Kakashi used against Zabuza looked strong and pretty badass. "So what I'm going to learn that Suiton jutsu you used against Zabuza?! You know when you flooded everything around us!" Naruto said with excitement.

Kakashi deadpanned. "No. No, you won't for a long time. We will focus on your wind affinity first and then on your water affinity, and even then, jutsu like the ones I used against Zabuza depend on a lot from having water nearby."

"Why? What do you mean?" Naruto asked with disappointment.

Kakashi simply held up three fingers. "First, your wind affinity seems to be the strongest of the two. Second, suiton jutsu, unless you have mastered the element, requires you to have a water source nearby to perform them. Third, wind is good for close-quarters combat and medium-range combat. You are good at close range but lack anything that helps you attack from a distance. There are some techniques that will help you increase your strengths and cover your weaknesses."

Naruto thought about it for a second and found that everything made sense to him, so he decided to go with it. "So, what jutsu am I learning first?" Naruto asked, a little more poised.

Kakashi eye smiled again. "None."

"... Then what the hell am I learning?!"

"Before you learn any jutsu, you need to learn how to transform your chakra into wind chakra," Kakashi said and then pointed towards the paper Naruto still held in his palm. "Transforming your chakra into an element is not easy and takes practice. That paper may make it look easy, but I guarantee it isn't." Kakashi then brought out a leaf from his pocket and handed it to Naruto, who accepted it skeptically. "Put the leaf between your hands and try cutting through it. Once you can cut the leaf in one attempt, I'll show you a technique."

"You better get ready to show me that technique because I will get this in no time!"


"Stupid fucking leaf," Naruto muttered as he walked through the village's busy streets. Kakashi had just left to return to the mission's office and give the mission report. Sasuke and Sakura had gone their separate ways.

Three days passed, and Naruto felt his progress was plodding. He had managed to cut some leaves after several attempts, but cutting in one attempt seemed far away at the moment.

'Why is this shit so hard?! I had the shunshin down by now, but I can't get this done. Well, I guess that practicing against my clones did help, but I can't do the same thing for this... can I?' the blonde thought as his brows furrowed as he thought about the possibilities. 'I know I get back the memories and exhaustion from my clones, but can I actually learn to do stuff from them?'

It was a slim chance in Naruto's mind, but if he was right, things were about to get a whole lot easier. Naruto felt a rush of excitement fill his body at the theory that was brewing inside his mind. Without thinking about the direction, Naruto started sprinting like a madman.

It wasn't until Naruto was close to the place that he realized where he was going, the clearing. A soft smile made his way into his face as he breathed the pure air of the forest, and the memories of meeting his mother invaded his mind. He continued his path as the happy memories flooded his mind, and before he knew he heard the sound of water rippling. Naruto entered the clearing with a smile and took a deep breath, enjoying the peace the clearing gave him. He hadn't been here since leaving for Nami no Kuni, and now he was regretting it.

The blonde looked around the clearing, and his eyes landed on a small figure resting comfortably against a tree.

'Hinata! Man, it's really been a long time since I saw her.' Naruto thought as his smile widened and turned into a bright grin.

With a quiet step, Naruto approached the sleeping Hinata. He crouched down and stared at her peaceful face as she peacefully breathed in and out. It was clear by the dirt and grim that adorned her delicate features that she had been training no too long ago.

"Hinata." He called her name softly as she gently pushed her shoulder.

He saw her lips move, but no sound came out, so he tried again. "Hinata." He shook her a little stronger but still gentle enough.

"Naruto-kun." He heard her mumble as a smile spread on her face.

"Hi Hinata!" He greeted brightly.

"Huh?" Hinata said before she rubbed her drowsy lavender eyes and blinked several times as she focused her sight.

"Hey Hinata! How are you doing?" The blonde asked brightly.

Hinata recognized Naruto's voice for the first time, and her body stiffened. Her vision focused, and she could see her favorite blonde crouching next to her with that bright grin that would light up a room. Instantly, the drowsiness was gone from her body, and she stood up in a rush.

"H-hello N-Naruto-kun." She squeaked out nervously with a blush as she tried to straighten her bangs with her hands.

"Sorry to wake you up. I just came here and saw you there and wanted to say hi." He said a bit sheepishly.

"I-I don't mind Naruto-kun. How have you b-been?" Said Hinata while she cursed her stutter. It seemed the less she saw the blonde, the more nervous she got once he met him. Also, it might have helped that the blonde seemed to have grown a few centimeters since she last saw him.

"I've been great!" He said happily. "I just came back to the village from a mission a few days ago. It was tough. It was supposed to be a C-rank mission, but the client lied about only needing protection from bandits, and we actually had to fight some nukenins."

Hinata's eyes went wide with surprise. "You had to fight nukenins? Were you injured?" she asked, surprised and a little scared.

"Just a few scratches but nothing major." He replied before he remembered something. "I'm not supposed to talk about it too much since the mission ended up being an A-rank, but I know you can keep a secret." The blonde confessed as he scratched the back of his head before telling Hinata about everything about the mission.

"Kakashi-Sensei was awesome while fighting Zabuza! It was incredible -ttebayo! You should have seen how he took him down Zabuza." The blonde said excitedly after vividly describing the first fight with Zabuza.

After the initial horror had passed, Hinata couldn't help but giggle at how the blonde described everything.

"Huh? Did I say something funny?" Naruto asked, a little confused.

"It's j-just you s-seem to like your Sensei Naruto-kun. I was a little w-worried that you would have problems with him after how you reacted when you learned he was g-going to be your Sensei."

Naruto's smile slipped off as his features formed into a frown. "There are a few things that I don't like about him, but I got to admit he's pretty strong and kinda cool..." Naruto admitted but then turned to Hinata. "But don't tell him I said that."

Hinata smiled and nodded, and Naruto returned to retelling the events in Nami no Kuni. He only excluded the fact that he had confused Haku for a girl. Still, comically enough, he did mention that Sasuke had made that mistake. It took a while, but eventually, he managed to retell the most important parts of the mission.

After the blonde finished the story, she didn't know what to say other than that she was glad Naruto was okay. Compared to the mission Naruto had taken, everything she and her team had done seemed pretty lame. Thankfully, she didn't have to come up with anything as the blonde suddenly asked a question.

"Hinata, do you have a dream?"

The question caught her off guard for a moment. She did, in fact, have one, maybe a few ones, but there was one that she couldn't go a day without hoping she would achieve. She turned and locked eyes with Naruto's expecting bright blue eyes.

"I-I do." She confessed as she fidgeted with her jacket. She had never told anyone about this dream, not even Kurenai, whom she had become really close with. Hinata took a deep breath and hoped Naruto wouldn't laugh at her. "I want to unite my clan one day." She said in her most determined voice possible.

Naruto just looked at her with confusion written all over his face. "Unite your clan? Why would you need to do that? Isn't family supposed to be united?"

Hinata felt a little guilty talking about this with someone with no family, but if it bothered him, Naruto didn't show it. "My clan is separated into the main family and the branch family. It's not uncommon when it comes to clans, but the Hyūga clan is different" Hinata began as she looked towards the ground gloomily. "Many people have attempted to steal our eyes to understand and gain the power of the Byakugan for themselves. So, our clan came up with a solution. A seal that prevented our eyes from being stolen and that would seal the Byakugan the moment one of us died..."

That seemed to make sense to the blonde. It was a good measure to take, considering how people with Kekkei Genkai were targeted in the Shinobi world, but looking at Hinata's expression, he could see that there was a problem.

"At least that was its original purpose, but now the seal is used to repress and threaten the branch family since they are the only ones with the seal placed upon them. The seal is more akin to juinjutsu than regular fūinjutsu. The seal is connected to the brain's nerves and allows anyone who can activate it to destroy them. What was meant to protect our family is now used to enslave the branch family, and I just wish I could do something about it." Hinata said in a hopeful tone. "I want to find a way to remove the seal from my family members and create a seal that would protect our family without dividing us." Suddenly, Hinata's tone turned timid and withdrawn. "But I don't know if I can... the seal is only supposed to remove itself once the one who has it dies an-."

Before she could finish doubting herself, she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder and turned to meet a blonde with a smile on his face. "I think you can do it! You are as good as me at fūinjutsu, and I could help you come up with a seal when we learn enough. I promise." His voice was friendly, but Hinata could tell that Naruto wasn't joking or offering her comfort. The way he looked at her made her feel that no matter how hard it would be, she would achieve her dream.

Hinata smiled back at the blonde and nodded. "Thank you, Naruto-kun."

'Maybe I could show her the fūinjutsu scrolls from my clan.' Naruto thought as he locked eyes with Hinata's lavender-colored ones. Thinking about the scrolls and the art of sealing made him think he hadn't studied it so much recently. He had been so focused on cutting the leaf that he had used almost all of his free time in it. He also remembered why he was here.

"By the way! I wanted to try a new training method on something; I don't know if it will work, but if it does, it will be awesome! Wanna watch?" He asked excitedly.

Hinata nodded with a smile. "What are you training on?" she asked curiously.

"Nature transformation. It turns out I have a wind affinity, and Kakashi-Sensei has given me an exercise to learn to transform my chakra into wind chakra." Naruto answered brightly.

The surprise was evident in the girl's face. "That's really advanced, Naruto-kun. I think most people don't begin to train in that until they are chunin."

Naruto unconsciously puffed his chest out and grinned at her. "Well, you know me. I don't exactly do everything by the book. I'm having a little trouble with it, but it will be easy if what I have thought about works." Naruto said as Hinata paid attention.

Naruto made a hand sign and created ten shadow clones, who, after being called into existence, gave their creator and Hinata a salute. "Don't know if I told you this before, but when a kage bunshin disperses, I get back all its memories and exhaustion. While training in Nami no Kuni, I sparred with a clone almost every time, and looking back, it went really well. So, I've been thinking, what if getting the memories back from my clones speeds up my training."

Aside from what Naruto had told her, Hinata didn't know anything about the technique, but it seemed to make sense. "It sounds like a good idea."

Naruto smiled back at Hinata before ordering his clones to pick leaves from nearby trees. He explained to Hinata what he had to do with the leaves before he and his clones started performing the exercise. About fifteen minutes after beginning, the blonde felt enough time had passed, and it was time to prove his theory. The blonde closed his eyes and tried to ignore the painful headache he felt after dispersing his clones. He took a moment to breathe before grabbing a new leaf and trying again.

'Okay, let's see if this works. Here goes nothing.' He thought as he covered the unblemished leaf in between his hands. Meanwhile, Hinata watched in anticipation from a few meters away as Naruto prepared to test his theory.

Naruto concentrated on the leaf before letting his chakra explode from his hands. The blonde slowly uncovered his hands and found that the leaf was half cut; he had achieved much more progress. A victorious and huge grin started to form as he held the leaf up for Hinata to see.

"It worked! Oh man, this is awesome!" Naruto spoke with excitement as he started to celebrate his breakthrough.

Hinata watched Naruto with a proud smile as he celebrated his theory's success. "It was really s-smart of you to figure that out, Naruto-kun."

"Huh?" Naruto's head turned in Hinata's direction as his brain processed the word. The blonde's demeanor changed into a shyer version of himself. "Thank you, Hinata." He answered with a shy smile as he rubbed the back of his head. Although his grades improved a lot back in the academy, and he could come up with on-the-fly strategies, smart wasn't a word he heard when people described him.

Naruto shook off his shyness a few seconds later to focus back on what he had just discovered. "All right, I'm going to get done with this in one go!"

Hinata watched as Naruto did the necessary hand sign, and a massive cloud of smoke suddenly appeared to block her view of the blonde. After a few seconds, the cloud dispersed, and she saw how the clearing was now filled with numerous copies of her favorite person.

The herd of blondes then gathered leaves from nearby trees before multiple grunts of effort could be heard as the blondes tried to cut the leaf again.

After a while, Hinata simply sat back underneath the tree she had been resting on before Naruto awoken her as she watched the blondes with a smile. She didn't know why, but the scene of Naruto training and giving it his all brought a smile to her face and filled her with a desire to train again.

The original Naruto looked down at the cut leaf in his hand before his eyes shifted to the other multiple cut leaves at his feet. His eyes then scanned the rest of his clones, who were still trying to cut their leaf in one attempt and the multiple leaves that had been used in his training. It was a significant amount; the ground was covered with the used leaves.

'This is going to hurt so much.' Naruto thought before closing his eyes and finishing to cut the leaf. After cutting the leaf, the blonde let it drop to the ground before taking a deep breath and preparing for the painful migraine he was about to experience. With resignation, the blonde let out his breath and brought his hands together to disperse his clones.

Instantly, he felt a wave of memories painfully attack his mind. His vision blurred as the world around him came out of focus, and his legs buckled, and in the back of his mind, he registered Hinata calling out to him. He prepared to hit the hard ground as his eyes closed but was surprised when he felt himself landing against something soft and warm. Hinata had caught him before he hit the ground and now rested against her chest while she slowly sat down.

A Naruto that was barely gripping to his consciousness opened his eyes with difficulty and looked up on instinct as he tried to focus his vision. At first, he could only make out a dark blue and white shape, but as his vision focused, the shape formed into Hinata's face. She looked at him with a worried expression as her lips moved, but his ears didn't register any sound. The blonde wanted to move, but all the fatigue that was transferred back to him was making the task impossible, and he was stuck looking up towards Hinata.

'She looks cute like that.' He thought tiredly as he studied Hinata's soft features that had formed into a worried expression as her lips moved.

He rested comfortably on her arms for a moment before he felt his strength slowly coming back to him.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" Hinata asked worriedly and with a little bit of panic.

His brain finally registered what Hinata was saying and gave her a slight nod as they locked eyes. He sat up and immediately felt the warmness and comfort extinguish and was replaced with the exhaustion and pain of his head pounding.

"I'm fine." He said between gritted teeth as he separated himself from Hinata. He closed his eyes and brought his hands to his head as the pain filled his system. "It's just receiving all the memories, and exhaustion at once was a little too much." He explained and then opened his eyes to turn to Hinata. "Thanks for catching me, by the way." He managed to smile at her through the pain as he tried to stand up on his shaky legs.

Hinata didn't respond and instead kept looking at him with eyes full of worry.

"I swear I'm fine, Hinata," Naruto said as he tried to calm his breath and ignore his pain. In reality, Hinata had reasons to worry, but not that he would tell her. Naruto straightened himself and tried to walk straight towards a tree to grab a leaf and cut it. After getting the leaf, Naruto put it between his hands, closed his eyes, and did the process he felt he had done a thousand times. A ripping noise sounded, and Naruto opened his eyes and hands to see the leaf perfectly cut in half.

The blonde let out a satisfied sigh, scape his lips, and let his tired body drop against the tree trunk he had just picked the leaf from. "Finally!"

"You have to rest now, Naruto-kun." He heard Hinata's voice and looked up to meet the unflinching eyes of Hinata, who was walking towards him. Her tone was unlike what he had ever heard. It was gentle, but it didn't have any trace of shyness or insecurity, which surprised him. Naruto nodded dumbly and let his exhaustion take over as he felt his eyes grow heavy.

Hinata watched as Naruto's body relaxed and his breathing became more controlled. After a few seconds, she heard the blonde snoring. Hinata could only let out a giggle as she stared at the snoring blonde. After calming herself, Hinata started at the blonde with a determined face as thoughts ran through her mind.

'I promise I'll work as hard as you, Naruto-kun.'

With that mental promise, Hinata turned back and started training on her own as she let Naruto rest.

Naruto stretched his tired body as he awoke. He first noticed that the previous migraine was almost gone, but his exhaustion remained. It was weird; his muscles didn't ache, but he felt extremely drained of energy. The blonde sighed, opened his eyes, and saw Hinata as she trained her taijutsu over the small pond. He observed the characteristic graze with which Hinata moved. It was almost hypnotic to the blonde how, with each graceful strike, her short bangs would move in unison, and the water would ripple around her, yet it didn't touch her. Naruto didn't know how long he sat there observing Hinata train since he had lost track of the time while watching her.

Hinata thrust her palm forward and spun to deliver a backheel kick when she suddenly froze. For the last couple of minutes, she had felt someone was looking at her and couldn't shake off the feeling. She turned towards where Naruto had been resting and was surprised to see a very awake blonde looking back at her. His head was tilted slightly to the left, and his eyes had an undecipherable look in them as they locked eyes.

It took a couple of seconds for Naruto's tired brain to register that Hinata had stopped moving and was now looking back at him. There were a few seconds of absolute silence as they stared at each other. Hinata was caught off guard since she didn't expect Naruto to wake up so soon, and Naruto just didn't know what to say.

A few more seconds passed until some words came out of Naruto's mouth.

"Way to go, Hinata! You've gotten much faster since last I saw you!" He said as he stood up and walked towards her.

Hinata blinked a couple of times before her shyness took over, and she averted her eyes and stared down at the crystalline water below her feet.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

"Man! Seeing you train made me want to train again, but I'm done with the leaf, so I'm not sure what I can train on."

It didn't go unnoticed by Hinata how Naruto's words perfectly mirrored what she had been thinking not long ago. She could only smile, but an idea popped into her head as she kept her gaze on the water. 'I Hope Naruto-kun doesn't find this stupid.'

Naruto watched as Hinata kneeled down and put her hand through the water to grab something. "What are yo-" He saw Hinata bring her hand out of the water holding a small stone in her hand.

"Y-you could try to cut this stone like you did with the leaf." Hinata blurted out before she could doubt herself.

Hinata saw Naruto was studying the stone in her hand as he thought about it. The seconds dragged out, and Hinata started to regret suggesting the idea. 'That was so stupid! Why would I suggest that!'

"That's a good idea, Hinata! You are brilliant! Kakashi-Sensei says wind chakra is supposed to cut through almost anything once mastered!"

Naruto said, and immediately, Hinata's worry started to decrease.

The blonde brought a hand to his chin and furrowed his brow as he began to think. "It's going to be a lot harder than the leaf, though... I'll need to push as much chakra as I can to try cutting it." Naruto's facial features became determined as he thought about the challenge. "Well, at least it won't be as pathetic as trying to cut a leaf. Thanks, Hinata!" He said as he approached to grab the small rock from Hinata. The Hyūga girl couldn't help but blush when Naruto's soft hand touched hers to grab the small stone from her hand. Hinata watched Naruto put the rock in between his hands, and she couldn't help but wish that someday those very same hands would cover hers as they walked through the village after they came back from a date in he-

"Agh!" Naruto screamed as he tried to force chakra into the stone, and Hinata was brought out of her daydream.

Completely unaware that the girl next to him was daydreaming about him, Naruto opened his palm to examine the stone and deflated after only finding a small scratch that went across it. He stared at the stone with determination for a few more seconds before closing his hand to repeat the process. After a few attempts to force wind chakra through the stone, Naruto opened his palms to examine it again. He ignored the pain that seemed to be building up in his hands and looked at the stone and found that there wasn't any noticeable difference.

'I can already transform my chakra into wind well enough since I managed to cut the leaf. I just need to try to push as much chakra as I can.' Naruto thought as he ignored pain and exhaustion. 'Well, let's see how much I can speed up the process.' He thought as he developed a grin.

A second later, the small pond was overflowing with blondes who all picked a stone for themselves and started to push their chakra through the rock to cut it.

'I need more power to cut it.' the original Naruto thought as he gritted his teeth together and squished the rock with his hands, which increasingly hurt with each passing second. 'More power...' was his last thought before his sight of the clearing vanished.

Naruto blinked several times as his vision focused. He found himself looking down at a wet concrete floor. 'What the hell?' he thought in confusion as he lifted his soaking hand from the floor and looked at it. His hand felt heavy, and his whole body ached painfully as he breathed rapidly.

"Where am I?"

Instantly, he became aware of a chakra presence so corrosive that it made him feel like he would melt. He wasn't even trying to sense for anything. Yet, this chakra seemed to threaten to consume him just by its mere existence as it invaded his system. All the hairs in his body spiked as a chill ran through him, and the hand he was looking at began to shake uncontrollably. Before he could do anything, he heard a thundering growl that made the rest of his body start to tremble. Naruto looked up instinctually and found himself looking at large bars that seemed to cover an endless darkness. Naruto looked at the iron bars in confusion before his eyes zeroed in the middle of the cage and saw the kanji for seal written. His blue eyes went impossibly wide, and he caught a glimpse of an orange blur moving behind the bars. He shifted his eyes in reaction and saw a colossal claw emerging from the darkness. The natural reaction of moving seemed to avoid him as his tired body froze in place. He prepared to be speared by the gigantic claw, but just as before it reached his defenseless body, it stopped abruptly, and an ear-piercing clang echoed.

Naruto fell back on his ass, staring at the claw while panting violently. Whether it was from the exhaustion he felt or the panic, he didn't know. There was a moment of silence where all Naruto could hear was his ragged breath as his heart thumped wildly in his chest. The silence was broken when another resounding grow sounded, followed by a scorching breeze. Naruto looked up and saw a massive orange fox with nine tails moving dangerously and crimson-slitted eyes staring at him with deep hatred.

"K-Kyūbi." Naruto said out loud.

If possible, the Kyūbi eyes filled with even more hatred, and Naruto learned that the fox had a terrifying and sadistic grin as it bared his fangs at him.

"Such a pathetic bag of flesh... to think I, the most powerful of all Biju, would be imprisoned in such a miserable vessel." The fox spoke in a terrifying voice, and Naruto gulped at the fact that the legendary beast could talk.

"I wish to rip you apart limb by limb..." The Kyubi attempted to claw Naruto in half again but failed to reach him yet gain. "But this accursed seal prevents me from shredding you."

'Am I inside Tou-chan's seal?' Was the first coherent thought that crossed Naruto's mind as he stared at the malevolent creature. The thought of being inside the seal and Kyūbi's words that meant it couldn't harm him made Naruto relax slightly. His breathing became more controlled, and his body stopped shaking as he seemed to regain some of his nerve. He was about to ask what the fuck he was doing in here, but before he could, the Kyūbi laughed. It was such a macabre laugh that seemed to suck back all of Naruto's confidence.

"How gullible... To think you are safe in my presence only because I can't eviscerate you. I may not be able to kill you now, but I'm far from harmless even in my current jail. Especially after the sorry situation you so foolishly put yourself into." The fox said as he grinned at the blood with malice.

Naruto was a bit confused, but his confusion quickly became panic as he saw an orange substance that began creeping out of the cage. Naruto tried to move, but his body felt too heavy and tired to do so as the orange stuff got closer and closer.


Author's notes:

Hey guys I finally managed to squeak the time to update! I've been kind of busy and also I took a little time to think about where I want this story to go, so that's why I took so long. Anyway, I won't go a month without updating again so I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Please comment your thoughts on the chapter it always helps to think of ways to improve the fic. Thanks to everyone who has commented and reviewed the story so far, please keep them coming. See ya soon!