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Chapter 2.10 [20]

Hinata stared at the building across from her, looking down at the street below every so often. The air was cold and her hoodie wasn't enough to keep her skin from prickling at the wind's touch. She was crouched before the rooftop ledge, peering over it at the apartment complex across the empty street. A slow yawn tore her mouth open and she blinked away tears to clear her vision, resuming her watch.

"You said he leaves his place every morning to train?"

"Yeah. Naruto usually goes out to do his own training after breakfast." Choji sat cross-legged with his back against the ledge. "I reckon he's going to come out any minute now."

This was the furthest either of them had gone to find Naruto but unless he wanted to be found, it was impossible to find him. Hinata didn't understand why he was avoiding them. With Shikamaru, he most likely felt they were avoiding him in favour of Naruto, which was why he avoided them, but Naruto didn't have any reason to be upset with them, did he? What had they done to him?

Choji once wondered if he'd decided to stop being friends with them. At the time, Hinata didn't believe it. She was sure he was taking some time off to clear his mind but a little over a week since and he'd made no effort to contact either Choji or her. She knew the two of them hadn't hung out as much as they used to—but there was a reason for that.

The older Hinata became, the more the clan and her father expected of her. She'd grown more skilled over the last few years, which meant her father and the elders were beginning to spend more time preparing her for her destiny as the eventual Hyuuga clan head. Her training wasn't just shinobi-focused. There were so many responsibilities she had to the people of the clan that Hinata had to be aware of at all times.

But she couldn't complain, or express dissatisfaction, because it was unbecoming of her—both as a lady and as the clan's heir. If the choice were down to her, Hinata would spend every day with her friends, but the choice was not hers to make. The sole purpose of her existence was for the sake of the clan. As her father said: clan first, village second. To her shame, Naruto got… lost, somewhere within the sea of duties and lessons.

"There he is," said Choji.

Hinata blinked and her eyes latched onto Naruto's long, blond hair vanishing around the corner of the apartment's central staircase. Choji scrambled into a crouch, half-hiding behind the ledge. They waited in nervous silence as he exited onto the street and turned into the nearest alleyway to the apartment building.

"Hinata!"

Choji reacted first, vaulting off the roof and falling onto another about a storey below them. Hinata followed suit, using the ledge as leverage to jump further across the street and grabbing onto a lamppost to pull herself up. By the time they'd crossed the street and had taken to the rooftops, they could already see Naruto ducking under washing lines and bouncing from building to building, his hair swaying behind him.

"Where is he going?" Choji asked, forced to raise his voice if he wanted to be heard over the wind ripping through them.

Hinata sprung across a gap and continued sprinting. "I don't know, but he seems excited."

Despite the distance between them, Hinata could see him quite clearly. The Byakugan came with passive benefits that meant her vision was far better than normal even when she wasn't using it. Of course, anyone who learned to manipulate chakra could enhance their senses, but those with dojutsu were special in the sense that their baseline was already much higher than average. So when Hinata saw him make an abrupt drop, she immediately stopped Choji from going any further.

"Do you think he saw us?" he asked.

Hinata frowned. "Unless he's got eyes in the back of his head? I don't believe so, no. Give me a moment." She took hold of her focus and her vision cleared. "Nothing about his body language suggests it. I think… I think it's just him being paranoid."

"Of what, being followed?" Choji took a moment to snort at the irony. "No reason to try and avoid that, right?"

"...I suppose it's more than just paranoia," she acknowledged with a small smile.

They gave it a moment, trailing at a slower pace than before. Naruto's sprint through the village's back alleys ended close to the busy high streets and he surged across the rooftops once more. The two of them continued to stay close and eventually touched down at a public park on the western side of the village.

Since there were no buildings to hide behind, and the path Naruto was taking was wide and open, the two of them had to give him time to create enough distance between them. Once she felt he was a decent distance away, Hinata emerged from behind the cover of a tree and waited for Choji to join her. He was slightly lanky and his usually brown hair was a few shades darker.

She looked him up and down before humming appraisingly. He'd managed to get rid of the clan markings on his cheeks as well. "A little taller than normal. How long can you keep it active?"

"Long enough. It's not like we'll have to hold the transformations all day." He nodded at her. "And you?"

"I haven't changed much." Hinata tied her long—and now brown—hair into a ponytail.

"Your eyes?"

"That, and my hair. Those are my only standout features. Now I look like any other Leaf Village girl."

Choji frowned. "Don't put yourself down like that. People are more than just their features."

"...That's not what I meant." Hinata smiled. "But thank you, Choji."

He nodded firmly and they set off, forced to run for a little while to catch up to Naruto. With Hinata's Byakugan, they found him easily. At the end of the paved path, he took a left into the brush and they followed him to the river, hiding until he'd crossed it and vanished into the thicket before following.

"What was the point in our disguises?" Choji asked. "There's no one around."

Hinata didn't respond for a moment and walked up a tree to perch on one of its long branches; Naruto was moving faster than ever before. "In case we get caught, I don't want Naruto to know it's us. It might push him away."

"But it's not like we're letting him catch us in the first place. These transformations are just a waste of chakra."

"We'll stop using them when he stops moving," said Hinata. "Then we'll corner him and try and figure out why he's been avoiding us all week."

"But wouldn't that also push him away? Not that I don't want to ask Naruto a few questions of my own, but using disguises to just talk to him might send the wrong message."

"I'm not sure what the right message is at this point. He's the one who decided not to contact us."

Choji hummed noncommittally.

Naruto stopped at a clearing a little bit ahead of where they were. It was surrounded by trees on all sides and the grass was overgrown. "Stop," she hissed. "There's someone else with Naruto and he's got a lot of chakra."

"Do you recognise them?"

Hinata took a closer look. "He looks familiar, but I don't remember where I know him from."

"Describe him."

"Tall, black hair, standard chunin gear, a beard, tanned skin." She waited a moment. "And he's… smoking."

"There's hundreds of shinobi who fit that description."

"Not many with jonin-level chakra reserves."

Choji almost fell off the branch. "How does Naruto know a jonin?"

"I'm not sure." Hinata frowned. "I don't like it. Naruto doesn't have any parents or family, so there's no one stopping the jonin from taking advantage of him."

"Can you get us closer? I can't see anything and I doubt you can lip-read. Oh, also cut the disguises. I don't know if he's a sensor, but jonin are scary. We don't want to use chakra around him."

"Right. There's a cluster of trees back there we can hide behind; come on."

Given that there was a jonin present, the two of them had to carefully circle back to reach their hiding spot, all without alerting him. It was a slow and painful process where any noise sent a spike through Hinata's heart. The rustle of leaves had never sounded so scary to her before. Still, they reached the spot and allowed themselves a moment to relax. Unfortunately, because of how long it took for them to get there, they arrived when Naruto and the jonin were in mid-conversation.

"...today's not going to be fun," said the jonin. He had his back towards them, but because he was so tall, he was blocking Naruto from view. "It's going to be pretty painful so don't be afraid of telling me if it becomes too much."

"I can do it. No, I have to. There's no half-assing this, Asuma."

Hinata was surprised at the steel in his voice. The last time she heard it was when she first spoke to him and he gave her a much-needed piece of advice.

She liked to think that their friend group had been good for Naruto. When he first joined the Academy, he was cold and closed off. He never spoke to anyone and responded to the animosity from the teachers with equal fervour. When it came to the rest of them, all they got was indifference. The idea that Naruto could become like that again wasn't something she liked.

"Asuma?" Choji gasped. "I know him! He's the son of Lord Third and the Sarutobi head's little brother."

"Wait…" Recognition bloomed in her mind and Hinata widened her eyes. "I remember him. We saw him at the play." She looked back at Asuma Sarutobi, jonin of the Leaf and son of the Hokage. "What could he want with Naruto?"

"I don't know, Hinata," said Choji, sounding a great deal less concerned than before. "But by the looks of it, he's probably training Naruto. It's fine. My clan's got a really good relationship with the Sarutobi. This is going to be great for him, I promise."

Would it? Hinata doubted that Asuma Sarutobi was plotting something nefarious, but Naruto was the sort to get carried away. She knew because she used to spend almost all her time around him. Naruto and her would often spend entire days training, talking about training, or analysing their performance during training. Not that she thought it was a bad thing to do, but for Naruto, it was all he did.

More and more she started to think that training served as his break from the mundane world, rather than the mundane world acting as a break from his training.

"...Choji?"

"What is it?"

"I don't think he's avoiding us."

"What do you mean?" He frowned. "We haven't seen him for a week and he hasn't tried to contact us. What else could he be doing?"

Hinata clutched her chin. "Think about it. Remember during the summer break when Naruto completely forgot about us for a little bit because of his training?"

"...Yeah?"

"What if this is another one of those times? Maybe his fight with Shikamaru was too uncomfortable for him to confront so he threw himself into training and just… forgot about it all. Forgot about Shikamaru, forgot about me, and forgot about you."

"I think…" Choji trailed off, looking around at the forest, and then at Asuma's back. "I think that it doesn't change a thing."

"Why?"

There was real anger in his voice now. "No matter which one it is, he's still a bad friend. Whether he really did forget about us or is avoiding us on purpose, it doesn't change anything I intend on doing."

"And what do you intend on doing?" Hinata asked.

"I'm going to find Naruto and tell him—"

"Again!"

They flinched and looked into the clearing. Naruto and Asuma Sarutobi stood further ahead in front of the stump of a tree. It was about as tall as Asuma and its other half lay horizontally on the ground to the right of them. Naruto stood at the ready, his fists wrapped in layers of… she took a closer look and realised it was linen—and that he was beginning to sport bruises on his knuckles.

Naruto slammed his fist into the stump without hesitation. He didn't make a sound but Hinata saw the way his eyebrows twitched when he inhaled sharply through his nose.

"Again!"

He hit the stump even harder with almost perfect technique, leveraging more of his weight into the blow.

"Again!"

Hinata gritted her teeth. The sight reminded her too much of her taijutsu lessons with her father. Palm techniques were the Hyuuga's main weapon, which required their hands to become weapons sharper and more lethal than any blade. Conditioning was also something they did daily at the Academy where they went through the forms of the Leaf's basic taijutsu style on training logs.

However, Naruto was taking it too far—way too far.

"Again!"

He slammed his fist into the log, and when he pulled it back, bloody dots had begun to seep through the ivory fabric. Naruto didn't stop. At Asuma's calls, he slammed his fist into the log over and over again. Choji looked squeamish as the exercise went on, and even Hinata found herself frowning.

"Enhanced!"

Hinata wondered what the change in command meant. Naruto closed his eyes and took a breath. The wind picked up, drawing a soft breeze across the clearing. He snapped his eyes open and punched, driving his weight forward. The stump cracked and groaned, giving way to Naruto's fist burying itself halfway into the stump.

"What the hell?" Choji whispered. "Hinata, what's he doing? He hasn't used chakra like that before."

"Maybe he's applying chakra repulsion differently?" she mused, activating her Byakugan.

Asuma Sarutobi circled the stump and stood in front of Naruto. "Harder. The goal of today is to see how far you can push it while keeping control of your chakra."

"And if we get a dislocation like last time?" Naruto asked dryly.

Hinata frowned and mouthed, "Dislocation?"

"You won't," said the jonin. "You know what you're doing now. When I say crank it up, I don't want you to stupidly pump chakra through your body. Carefully guide it and let it explode out of the necessary tenketsu only at the last moment."

Naruto nodded and raised his fists. Hinata watched the flow of swirling chakra move from his gut up his chest and down his shoulder. At the same time, he went through the motions of a punch, guiding it down his arm.

She peered closer, almost leaning forward in anticipation. When he threw the punch, the gathered chakra exploded out of his fist, both empowering the actual blow and acting as an attack on its own. Now that she was looking at it, the punch itself wasn't enhanced, as Asuma Sarutobi said, but a setup for a delayed chakra attack.

Choji blinked owlishly at the rough, fist-sized hole carved into the top of the stump. "Can you explain that, please?"

Hinata raised an eyebrow. "I could, but it's pretty self-explanatory."

"Super strength?"

"...Basically," she said.

He leaned back onto his palms and chuckled. "Damn."

Hinata was inclined to agree. She wasn't confident enough in her chakra control to pull off an enhancement of that kind of magnitude, but she was sure she'd be able to do it one day. The Gentle Fist did the same thing, just with less chakra, and aimed at disabling tenketsu instead of pulverising the target. Watching Naruto destroy chunks of the thick trunk with every punch was so mesmerising that it almost made her forget that he was destroying his hands.

He pulled his arm back, clenched his jaw, and threw his entire body forward. His fist collided with the deep indent he'd pummelled into the bark, and it exploded in a burst of woodchips and dust. Naruto stood still, the blood leaking through the linen wraps and dripping onto the floor.

"...Alright, that's enough," said Asuma.

Naruto sounded breathless and there was a hysterical lilt to his voice. "How did I do? I think I did alright. It wasn't as strong as I imagined, but that's fine. I have a lot of chakra and can probably make it stronger." He tightened the wraps, completely oblivious to his mangled and bloody fists. "What are we doing next?"

He lightly thumped the top of Naruto's head. "Next, you're going to get your hands looked at by a medic."

"What? I don't need a medic. I'll be great after a good night's sleep." Naruto tightened the bandages around his hands. "Dunno why, but my body heals quickly. I'm not stupid, Asuma; I know my limits. I haven't broken anything and hit them just hard enough to condition my knuckles."

Hinata didn't believe him, so she took a look at his knuckles for herself. They were bruised and bloody, but not broken. It should've been relieving, but Naruto being completely aware of what he was doing to himself scared her even more than the alternative.

"If you didn't, I would've stopped you, but I needed to make sure you weren't overextending yourself," said Asuma. "Now, get out of here. We'll be sparring next week, so make sure you rest. No training at all today, and make sure you don't go overboard afterwards. Keep it light."

Naruto gave a lazy two-fingered salute and vanished into the canopy. Choji released a sigh and stared at Hinata. "I take it back. This is not going to be great for him, not with the way he is now. He doesn't know when to stop." He got up and climbed onto a branch. "Come on, let's go and catch up to him."

Hinata nodded numbly, scanning the forest. She found him hopping between branches, swinging from tree to tree as if his hands weren't injured. He didn't seem to be in pain, nor did he express any discomfort to Asuma. Naruto wasn't like this before. Sure, he was obsessed with training, but he was the first person to make sure she took proper breaks, stayed hydrated, and watched out for injuries.

What had made him so reckless?

"How about you two come and talk to me instead of running around in circles? You're friends with Naruto, right?"

Choji looked down at her with wide eyes. She stood petrified for a few moments, looking at the silent question in his eyes. Running wasn't even an option; he would catch up to them in an instant. But if they stayed, who knew when they'd find Naruto again?

"What's it going to be, kids?"

Hinata looked up at Choji. "Let's talk to him."

"What about Naruto?" asked Choji, looking ready to leap into the forest. "This is our chance."

"Would he even listen to us? Do you know how many times we've brought up his training habits to him before?" She shook her head. "He apologises, but he never really changes. Asuma Sarutobi is his teacher. Maybe it's sad, but I think that Naruto is more likely to listen to him than he is us."

Choji searched her face. "So, what are you saying?"

"I think we should tell his teacher everything we're worried about and have him bring Naruto to us. We shouldn't have to chase him around just to have a conversation, Choji."

"...I know," he replied, landing beside her. "Alright. We'll talk with him."

Hinata nudged his shoulder. "You'll have to talk to him first, you know."

"What, why?"

"Because you're the one who said your clan has a good relationship with the Sarutobi."

"Yeah, the clan, my father, not me," said Choji. "I don't know the guy!"

"Well, you're at a better starting point than me." She nudged him forward. "Go." He looked back and glared at her. Hinata held his gaze until he sighed in defeat. "Thank you, Choji."

He threw his hands up behind him as they emerged from the thicket. Asuma stood head-on, his arms folded, and carefully assessed them as they got closer to him.

"Um… hello, sir?" Choji stumbled over his words and took a moment to gather himself. "I'm Choji Akimichi and my friend is Hinata Hyuuga."

"I think I can tell," said Asuma, smiling. "You've got the markings and she has the Byakugan. I'd like to know why you guys are stalking my student. He can be a bit of a stick in the mud, but I don't think he's the type to be an asshole, is he?"

"No, nothing like that, sir—"

"Drop the "sir", kid. Just Asuma is fine. I was never one for formalities."

"—Asuma, then. We're Naruto's friends."

He raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Friends that… stalk each other?"

"When said friend avoids us when something goes wrong, yes." Hinata stepped forward and accepted the burden of Asuma's curiosity. "He had a big fight with another friend of ours about a week ago. Since then, he's vanished. He hasn't been in school all week, but because he's at the top of the class, none of the teachers are complaining all that much—but we know he's not okay."

"At first, we thought it was because he was embarrassed and was taking time off to gather his thoughts," said Choji. "The friend he fought with was the same, but he was at least willing to be around us at school."

"And now?" asked Asuma. "Why do you think he's avoiding you?"

"We think he's avoiding us because he's forgotten about us," said Hinata. "Naruto was always the kind of person to get carried away and lose track of things. He takes training to a completely different level—he's obsessed with it."

"Last summer," Choji interjected, talking faster and faster. "He took a week off from his morning runs with me to apparently work on his chakra control. He never asked how I felt about it, and sure he apologised, but something similar happened not even a month later."

The jonin was openly frowning, and Hinata could see the displeasure on his face.

"But that doesn't mean he's a bad friend. The fight with our other friend happened because Naruto gave him genuine advice but because he was too immature to take it and grow, he lashed out at Naruto, who did the same." Hinata ignored Choji's glaring—Shikamaru was wrong to slap Naruto's help away. "Naruto just… loses track of his priorities sometimes."

Even without Choji's pointed staring, she knew how flimsy the argument sounded, but Naruto wasn't a bad person. Hinata knew that. He helped her when no one else would, and it seemed that now, she had her chance to do the same.

"Don't excuse it." To her surprise, it wasn't Choji who said those words, but Asuma. Something that looked awfully similar to regret flashed across his face for just a moment. "He put training over you."

"Exactly," said Choji, nodding firmly. "That doesn't mean we don't want to be friends with him, though. He's still one of my best friends—just not a very good one at the moment."

"Yeah," said Hinata.

Asuma folded his arms. The clearing was quiet for a few moments. Choji and Hinata squirmed nervously under his gaze, forced to remain still until he gave his verdict.

"Okay, thanks for bringing this to me. I understand that he can take training too far, and I knew something had happened with a friend of his because he complained about a Nara when I first met him. I'm guessing that's the mutual friend?"

They both nodded.

"I'll make sure he stops avoiding you. There's no excuse for it, especially since it seems like all you two want to do is help him. Whether he's avoiding you on purpose or by accident doesn't matter. He's still in the wrong at the end of the day."

She made sure to look away from Choji's triumphant brown eyes.

"What are your names again?" asked Asuma.

Hinata gave him a shallow bow. "I'm Hinata Hyuuga. It's a pleasure to meet you, Jonin Sarutobi."

"...I've changed my mind. Naruto might be a stick in the mud but you? You're an entire tree." Asuma chuckled and Choji joined him. "You're an Akimichi, but I want to know which one."

"I'm Choji."

"Alright then. Thanks for bringing this to me, Hinata, Choji. I'll make sure that Naruto knows exactly how you two feel." He frowned for a moment before his easygoing smile returned. "And I'll be giving him a piece of my mind too."

She wondered whether they'd got Naruto into trouble with his teacher but quickly shook the thought free. It wasn't her fault that he decided to go dark on them, and she didn't intend on running into his jonin teacher.

As far as she was concerned, it was Naruto's fault.

"Do you think it'll work?" asked Choji on the way back to the village.

Hinata hummed. "I don't know. None of our talks with Naruto have worked."

"...True."

"But," She smiled, "I think that this has the highest chance of working. It's a jonin, after all."

Choji laughed. "Also true."

She hoped it would work. Hinata enjoyed Naruto's friendship, she valued his company, and Choji most likely thought the same. That said, continuing a friendship with someone who obviously didn't value them was a foolish thing to do.

And if there was something Hinata Hyuuga was not, it was a fool.