Welcome back to another chapter everyone. If you like the story please leave a review( UNLESS YOU'RE THAT DAMNED GUEST THAT KEEPS INSULTING ME!) and enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 10: Favor, Revelations and Training
Making his way through the hospital, Naruto searched for his teammate's room. Hinata had been transported here along with her cousin Neji as soon as their match ended, followed soon after by the remaining Chunin hopefuls.
"Let's see, room 214. 214,214 ah here it is." Opening the door to Hinata's room he saw a man that looked like an older version of Neji standing over her unconscious form, he knew this man was the head of the Hyuuga Clan and Hinata's father.
"Good evening Hiashi-Sama." Naruto said with a rare bow of respect, the Hyuuga patron was the only other person besides Iruka-Sensei that could catch him after he pulled one of his pranks after all.
"Uzumaki-san," Hiashi greeted with a nod before narrowing his eyes, "You're not planning on causing trouble again I hope."
"N-No sir! I'm just here to see how Hinata-Chan is doing." Naruto sputtered, waving his hands infront of himself. Seeing Hiashi give his approval he made his way towards his teammates sides and took a seat.
"Uzumaki-san, I've been told you and my daughter are close. Is this true?" Hiashi asked as he made his way to a chair on the opposite side of Hinata's bed.
"Yes Hiashi-Sama. Hinata-Chan and I have grown much closer since we were placed in the same team compared to when we were in the academy." Naruto answered as he took Hinata's hand is his own.
"I see... If that's the case then I have a favor to ask you. Not as the Hyuuga clan head but as Hinata's father." Hiashi began and when he saw Naruto looking at him with curiosity he continued, " Since Hinata passed to the finals I, as Clan head, should have taken over her training until the finals start. The Clan elders however have forced Neji's training on me using the reason that Hinata is uncappable of using the Gentle Fist to it's fullest potential and I fear this will lead to her defeat. I am planning to train her when I can and leave her to train on her own when I'm training Neji, I want to ask of you however to be there for her and help her with her training whenever you can."
Taking in the information laid out before him, Naruto was about to agree when a thought came to him. "I'll will help her in any way I can Hiashi-Sama, but If I may ask two questions. When Hinata and Neji were fighting, it was obvious that Neji was fighting to kill. What happened between them? Hinata has always been quite and shy in the academy but she was kind, I can't imagine that she did something so bad that Neji would want to kill her."
Sighing, Hiashi began to recall the cause of the Hyuuga's grief. "About 6 years ago Kumogakure sent a representative to Konoha so we could sign a peace treaty and form an alliance between our villages. The peace treaty was a cover however for the Kumo Shinobi to carry out a mission from his village to abduct an unbranded child of the Hyuuga clan. Hinata, at the time, was the only unbranded child the we had. The night the alliance was formed the Kumo shinobi had somehow snuck into the the Clan estate and escaped with Hinata about 20 minutes later. When we found out it was almost too late. When I finally found Hinata and the Shinobi she was knocked unconscious and I went into a rage. By the end of the night Hinata was safe in her bed and her abductor's corps was beyond recognition."
"But why would Neji be so mad at Hinata after she was captured?" Naruto asked, not finding any reason in the Hyuuga prodigy's actions.
"Because when Kumo found out we had killed their Shinobi when he was sent to 'Form an Alliance' they demanded my head as compensation. The Hyuuga Elders however had other plans and ordered my identical twin brother, and Neji's father, to take my place for execution. Because of my actions Neji lost his father and I my brother, but for some reason he blames Hinata and the rest of the main branch." Hiashi finished as he looked at the contemplative blonde
"I see. So because he couldn't direct his anger at the clan head and subsequently be punished for insubordination, he decided to redirect it to any and all unbranded Hyuuga." Naruto deducted and sighed heavily. "I can see why he's mad, I can't even be mad at him. But I can't forgive him for what he did to Hina-Chan. I'll beat him in the preliminaries no matter what and if that doesn't knock him of his high horse I don't know what will. Oh and before I forget. The other question I wanted to ask is why the Elders believe Hinata to be unskilled enough for the Gentle Fist's fullest potential?"
Sighing deeply, Hiashi felt his shoulders slump "The Gentle Fist is a fighting style to the Hyuuga as it can only be used to it's fullest potential by a wielder of the Byakugan, it incorporates the natural chakra element of Earth for firm and leathal strikes to the opponent's chakra pathways to close or open them. But for some reason Hinata is unable to perform even the basic stances and katas of the style. And to add to that, Hinata's care for others have started to hinder her and others training as she refuses to harm her opponents in spars."
Taking a few minutes to digest Hiashi's words Naruto tried to come up with a solution until... "Hiashi-Sama, does the Gentle Fist style require the user to have the Earth element?" he asked.
"It isn't required but the attacks won't be as effective without it. Why?" Hiashi answered with narrowed eyed. Did this boy know something he didn't.
"I believe the answer to your problem then, is the fact that Hinata has both a Lightning and Water affinity. And if I remember correctly the Earth element is weak against the Lightning element, though that could probably be canceled out by Earth overpowering Water. Anyway, I think it would be better if Hinata creates a divergent style of the Gentle fist to fit with her affinity." He explained to the wide eyed Hyuuga.
"Thank you Uzumaki-san. This is twice now I'm in your debt. Now if you will excuse me I have some duties to attend to." Hiashi said as he stood up and left the room. He had a lot to think about
After a few minutes of watching over Hinata, Naruto heard the window to the hospital room open and looked over. Seeing a familiar white haired toad summoner, he stood up and greeted his temporary Sensei.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, kid. Come on we have to get to your training." Jiraiya said as he grabbed Naruto under his arm and jumped back out of the window onto a large yellow toads back.
"But I thought you were only going to teach me until the Chuunin exams started." Naruto said while the giant man placed him down and took a seat on the toad's head.
"I was but I still have some stuff I can teach." Jiraiya replied as he guided the toad to an unoccupied training ground.
"What about Kakashi-Sensei and the others?" Naruto asked.
"I already worked something out with Kakashi. And as for your teammates, Sasuke will be training with your Sensei for the month. And when that little girlfriend of yours gets out of the Hospital she'll switch between training with your Sensei and sparring with you, since Hiashi-kun so graciously asked you to." Jiraiya explained to a red faced Naruto.
"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND YOU DAMNED ERO-SENNIN!" Naruto yelled, "And did you just call Hiashi-Sama... kun?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, along with the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, I also trained two other students, the one being Hinata's father Hiashi Hyuuga and the other being Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke's father." Jiraiya explained to a wide eyed Naruto, "Speaking of the Fourth, I heard Kakashi gave you a scroll left to you by him. Have you opened it yet?" He asked and Naruto shook his head.
"Not yet, Kakashi-Sensei told me only to open it with either him you or the old man with me." Naruto replied.
"I see, well pull it out then so we can take a look. Oh and it might be locked with a blood seal so draw some blood like when you do for summoning and swipe it across the seal while channeling some chakra." The white haired man explained.
Following the orders, Naruto warped his arm into the nearest shadow before scrambling around for a minute and finally pulled out the scroll he was looking for. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood, he swiped it across the seal and unrolled it when he heard a soft pop to signify the seal breaking.
"What does it say?" Jiraiya asked as they arrived at an empty training ground.
"It's instructions for a Jutsu, and there's a seal beneath it." The boy explained while inspecting as much of the scroll and seal as he could. "It says the Jutsus' name is Rasengan, sounds cool." Naruto explained with stars in his eyes.
"The Rasengan, huh? That would explained why you're not allowed to open this scroll while me and Kakashi aren't around. This Jutsu was Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage's first original, known only by me and your Sensei. But it would seem that he now left it for you to learn, and finish, in his stead." Jiraiya explained to an awestruck Naruto.
"I promise on my name I will master this Jutsu and finish it where the Fourth Hokage could not!" Naruto exclaimed.
"That's the spirit! Now let's get started!" Jiraiya yelled with just as much vigor as the red-tip haired boy.
And so they started their month long training. Jiraiya had Naruto create 5 pairs of 20 Shadow Clones and gave each pair a different task to do along with a Shadow Clone of his own for each group. For the first pair he ordered them to find out as much uses of their bloodline as possible. The second group was ordered to start practicing the first step of the Rasengan by popping a bunch of water balloons provided by the Toad Sage. The Third group was to further increase their Chakra control. The Fourth group started their Chakra Element Control, and the Fifth group trained their summoning for better control.
While Naruto's clones were training at their own respective spots at the training ground, the original was busy with training with Jiraiya. Everyday was a different subject he trained in. On the first day Jiraiya had him do physical exercises with weights for three hours before the boy had to spaar either with one of the man's clones or the old Toad Fukasaku. The next day, Jiraiya had the boy practice his strategy by playing a few games of shogi, and the next day Jiraiya had the boy practice his calligraphy with a clone while the real Naruto reads up on seals from books he found in the seal on the scroll explaining the Rasengan. Jiraiya found it quite amusing to see that the books Naruto was using to learn Fuinjutsu were the notes and that Minato took when he first started the underestimated art.
About a week and a half after his training started Naruto ran into Kakashi while visiting Hinata and got an idea for what Jutsu he wanted to ask from the silver haired man. Kakashi, finding the reason his student gave for wanting to learn this Jutsu valid, copied the instructions down on a piece of paper and handed it to the boy before departing with Hinata, who was finally ready to start her training.
Two weeks after the start of his training, the training from Naruto's clones started to show progress. He was finally able to form a Rasengan, although it was unstable and often exploded. He could now summon the toad he wanted, though the boss toad, Gamabunta, and elder toad, Fukasaku, took quite the toll on his Chakra Reserves when he didn't use the Nine Tails help. He could finally spaar with Jiraiya for about 20 minutes while walking on water and could land a hit every now and then, even if the older man held back by a large amount. He finally completed the first step in his elemental manipulation and could split a leaf in half without a tear. With his Shadow bloodline training, which he officially named Void Release, he found he could channel it through chakra conducting metal when he showed Jiraiya his sword. He finally managed make a storage seal on his own, which could hold about 10 kg each, and when he played shogi against the man he won about 3 out of every 10 matches.
Sometime in the second week of training Hinata joined them which allowed Naruto to practice the Jutsu he requested from his Sensei and in turn Hinata could practice her Taijutsu and Byakugan against an enemy she couldn't see. This routine continued for the rest of the month, Hinata switching between training with Naruto and Jiraiya and training with Sasuke and Kakashi until finally it was the day before the finals.
"So do you think you're ready for the finals?"Jiraiya asked the two kids trying to land a hit on him, a grin on his face after the blond failed to land a punch on his side and stumbled into a tree.
"As ready as we could be, right Hina-Chan?" Naruto exclaimed as he turned to his dark blue haired teammate.
"Right!" Hinata exclaimed as she finally managed to land a hit on the Toad Sage's shoulder and closed a chakra point causing the man's arm to go limp, opening him up for more attacks.
"Well then I think that wraps up our training. You did well, both of you. I'm proud to admit that you both stand a very big chance of winning this thing. Now go home and get some rest, you'll need it for tomorrow." Jiraiya said as he ruffled the kids' hair. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
Watching as the man used the bodyflicker technique, Naruto and Hinata started to make their way to the Team 7 compound until the excitable blond's stomach rumbled and he dragged his blushing teammate to Ichiraku's Ramen.
'It's almost time. We're gonna win this thing.' Naruto thought as he looked over to Hinata eating her Noodles.
Well that's it for now I hope you enjoyed this Chapter. I apologize for not updating recently, life's been a bit weird lately. I don't know when I'll update next. I'm also planning on rewriting the first few chapters sometime, I really don't like how they turned out and also explaining a few thing's more so people don't get confused. I also finally gave Naruto's bloodline a name if you haven't noticed, Void Release. Anyway this is The_Dovabean signing off.