Self-Improvement

[Hinata Hyuuga]

Breathing heavily, Hinata fell onto the ground as she looked up at her handiwork. She had spent the last several hours training, working hard to perfect her chakra control and strength. Being recently assigned to a team under Kurenai with Kiba and Shino as her teammates, Hinata had wanted to work hard to make sure she wouldn’t become a burden. That’s why right now her hands were red and sore, with possibly a splinter or two lodged in them as well. She didn’t feel any, so hopefully that wasn’t the case.

And what did she get in return for all that work? Hinata frowned as she saw that she had barely made a dent into the thickness of the wood. It wasn’t too big of a surprise; Gentle Fist style was not big on external damage. Still, it was rather disheartening to see that the bark was still intact, if damaged. There was some slight burning on it as well; a sign of her chakra at work. However, it was all over the place, showing her chakra control hadn’t improved that much. It had been, overall, a complete and utter waste of time on her part.

She wanted to get up, to try again, but right now she was too tired for that. When she tried to stand up, she simply fell down again. It was probably for the best; anymore work and her hands would probably start to bleed. Besides, her breathing was too heavy right now from the work. Her strikes would simply fail to be accurate, and it would be hard to focus chakra. While hard work was important, Hinata knew it wasn’t smart to over exert yourself to the point of complete and utter exhaustion. That only made recovery harder and longer. Right now she needed to rest.

First, however, she had to deal with the heat. All that exercise left her burning up, though she was hesitant to take off her jacket. The only time she didn’t wear it was at home or alone, the only places she felt safe. Looking around the area, however, Hinata didn’t sense that anyone was around. She’d have used Byakugan, but she was too tired for that, and didn’t have enough chakra anyway. Hesitantly she took it off, leaving her in her suit.

It actually did feel better. No longer confined by it, she could actually start to cool off. At times it felt like she was in a sauna in that thing. Scooting closer to the tree she had been striking, Hinata positioned herself so her back was up against it. Relaxing herself a bit, Hinata got comfortable as she tried to rest up. Her lunch was just a foot away or so, so she leaned over to grab it. Oddly enough though, she didn’t feel that hungry, so she didn’t open it right away. Instead, Hinata decided to use it as a sort of a pillow as she brought her knees closer to her and propped her head on it. With nothing else to do, she simply stared out into the woods, wondering if she would ever get stronger.

[uzumakinaruto]

Naruto sauntered on out of his apartment, pulling his keys out from his pocket. It was about mid-day, and not surprisingly, Naruto had slept in. It wasn't like there was anyone to give him a bed time, so why bother going to bed early? Smiling, the blonde boy hummed to himself as he turned the lock on his door. Pocketing the keys, he turned around and took a nice, long breath. He was in a pretty good mood today, and figured he might as well do something useful with it. Training, maybe? Naruto's hand patted the pouch that hung on his waist to make sure there were still weapons in there. He'd need to be training more and more now that he was an actual ninja.

After rather quickly deciding which training field to use, Naruto stepped on the rail that prevented most people from falling down onto the streets below. Naruto's apartment was on the top floor, after all. He took a second to adjust his headband and then leaped, welcoming the nice breeze against his face. He hopped from rooftop to rooftop, letting his eyes wander on the streets below. A couple people were getting lunch, but most were just lounging about. Admittedly, it was pretty hot today and a lot of people either didn't feel like doing anything or were staying inside. Sometimes Naruto didn't understand why some people chose not to be a ninja. Naruto couldn't picture himself performing a day-to-day job, and couldn't imagine how boring it would be. Looking away, Naruto figured it wasn't really any of his business what other people did, as long as nothing bad came out of it.

During his journey towards the training field, Naruto had crossed over the Ichiraku Ramen shop. Instinctively, he stopped and approached the bar. He had a light breakfast, or lunch rather, already but he could always go for a bowl of ramen. When he peeked in, however, he found that every single stool was occupied. Jeez. Naruto looked over at Old Man Teuchi and found him busy at work preparing the noodles. He couldn't see Ayame, but there was no doubt she was working hard too. Sighing, Naruto slipped out before he was noticed by anyone. "I'll just come back later." Naruto told himself as he scratched his head. Maybe after training or something.

With that decided, Naruto was off again. The training field wasn't too far off from there, so it didn't take him long to reach it. He took his time walking in, pulling out his kunai and inspecting their durability. Naruto never really bothered to go out and buy weapons, so his kunai were scarred, but not cracked or broken. In other words, they were okay to use. Naruto began humming to himself as he entered the clearing. Back out in the open, he was reminded of the heat. He wasn't bothered by it that much, but he'd rather have it be cooler especially on a day he was training. Come to think of it, what was he gonna do for training. Twirling a kunai in his finger, he figured he may as well do some target practice or something, since he already had his weapons out. He still wasn't too great at it, but he felt he was getting better. Compared to when he was in the academy, anyway.

Looking up, Naruto realized there was someone up against a tree. Aw man, someone's already here. If they had been in the middle of training, Naruto probably would've left them alone and found somewhere else to train. But it looked to him that whoever it was had decided to rest, so it seemed okay. Wondering who it could be, Naruto put a hand up to his forehead to shield his blue eyes, and squinted at the person. He also leaned forward slightly, as if that would improve his view. Dark hair, pale... Didn't ring a bell. Before Naruto gave up, though, he spotted a discarded jacket next to the person. It seemed familiar, and it took him just a moment to remember its owner. Oh, it's Hinata? He thought, returning his gaze back to her. To be completely honest, he didn't recognize her without the jacket on. It was kind of a shock to him, actually. He thought she always wore that thing because she was overweight or something, but that definitely was not the case. She looked fine, in Naruto's point of view. So why did she wear a jacket all the time?

"Hey, Hinata!" Naruto greeted her when he was close enough to be able to talk to her. He rose his free hand up in greeting and flashed his usual smile. "I didn't recognize you without your jacket." He admitted, with a bit of a laugh. He then motioned with his hand over to her discarded jacket. "I don't get why you wear it all the time though. You have a nice body and everything." Now, Naruto didn't view Hinata as a romantic interest, and therefore never stopped to consider the fact that he had given her the impression that he was checking her out. But Naruto was thick-headed and lacked a filter, so basically he just let words fly out of his mouth.

[Hinata Hyuuga]

A rest had just been what she needed. At first her body was aching, but being able to lie down and everything gave her time to relax and soothe her aching muscles. They were starting feel much better, and the nauseous feeling that was preventing her from eating earlier was starting to go away. In fact, it was starting to be replaced by a feeling of hunger. Looking up at the sky, Hinata took a guess to say it was probably a little bit before noon or so. After all that exercise she could use a small bite to eat. Then it would be right back to work, and she could finish up the rest later.

Opening the little box, Hinata surveyed what she had to eat. There was some rice of course, a few egg rolls, and a little red-bean-soup as a treat. She had been tempted to not bother with it since spoiling herself like that during training wasn’t the best thing to do, but she compromised by giving herself only a small bit. Overall, not a very big lunch, but she didn’t feel like she needed it anyway. Breaking a pair of chopsticks, she decided to start on the egg rolls first, munching away quietly.

As she ate, however, Hinata thought she heard somebody coming. This was a training field after all, so it shouldn’t have been too surprising that was happening. Hopefully they were just making their way through, or spotted her and realized it was being used. She was still curled up, so she wasn’t too scared of how she looked. And her jacket was right within reach, so if needed she could grab it. Right now, however, she was hiding behind the tree, hoping her small size compared to it would hide her from view. Eventually the sounds stop, so she assumed they had left.

Just as she was about to bite into her egg roll, however, she heard the one voice that she wanted to her and yet didn’t want to, not now anyway; Naruto-kun’s. Hinata froze as Naruto spoke with a smile and a wave. She just looked at him, not really sure what to do. All she could think of was how she always loved how he always had a smile on a face, and that right now it was looking at her.

”H-hi there Narut-kun…” she nervously responded with a small wave of her own. After that, however, her hand found itself glued to her lips as she nervously anticipated Naruto’s next move.

That move was telling her that he didn’t recognize her without her jacket. No surprise; he never really looked at her anyway, so of course his only view of her was her with the jacket. It was then she remembered that it was still on the ground, not on her. There was no point getting it now; he’d already seen her without it. A small tint of red began to rise around her cheeks as she started to blush in embarrassment. This was a bit too much to handle, but she wanted to stay strong. There was nothing wrong at all about it; she was still fully dressed and all that…and why was her thought jumping straight to all that anyway?

Naruto, however, soon signed the death warrant on Hinata’s consciousness by complimenting her body. Her heart started beating faster, the red blush getting much more noticeable, and her entire view was starting to get wobbly. It soon proved too much for her to handle, and while she was rather glad about the comment (who wouldn’t like their crush complimenting their looks?), it was simply too much for her. Just before she blacked out, however, Hinata did try and say one thing.

”Th-thank you Naruto-kun…”

However, it was so quiet and weakly said that Naruto probably didn’t hear it at all. Besides, he was probably going to be more concerned about Hinata slumping unconscious right in front of her.

[uzumakinaruto]

Naruto knew how quiet Hinata could be, since she'd been his classmate at all. That's why he was glad that she reciprocated his greeting, even giving a small wave of her own. And heck, she was audible to boot. He'd never really been too friendly with her, she always seemed kinda weird to him. Whenever he looked at her, she wouldn't look him in the eyes and her face turned a dangerous shade of red. Naruto didn't quite have an explanation for this, so just blamed the redness on illness or something. So... wait. Every time she looked at him, she got red. Did that mean that she got sick just by looking at him? Nah, that couldn't be right. While Hinata was weird, she wasn't a bad, or mean, person. Maybe it was just some condition or something.

That was when Naruto's nose picked up on a quite pleasing smell. Food. He didn't have to look far to find it, since it was sitting right there on Hinata's lap. Admittedly, it looked good but it was far too small to be a bento. It seemed to Naruto that it was more of a snack, but what did he know? He kept hearing about Sakura and Ino dieting to look good, so maybe Hinata was doing that too. Did all girls diet? Naruto decided to go right ahead and ask her, but he didn't get a chance to. He froze somewhat when he realized Hinata didn't look quite right. He heard her mumble something, and then, well, lights out. Naruto stood there for a moment or two, shocked. Did she really just pass out?

"Oi, Hinata." He said uncertainly. Being neglected for a response, Naruto approached her sort of cautiously. He repeated his previous statement as he set her lunch or whatever down and shook her shoulders. Jeez, she really is small Naruto realized. He angled himself and lifted up her head and found that indeed, her eyes were closed and she was unconscious. A sudden surge of panic washed through Naruto. What happened!? Was she sick, did she need medical attention!? He stood up holding his head in disbelief, his expression of panic more than obvious. What if something really was wrong, and he was the only one that could help her!? After all, there was no one else here, right? Naruto did a check of the surrounding area and discovered that they were indeed alone.

"Wait a second..." Naruto mumbled, now staring incredulously at his unconscious friend. It was hot out, right? So maybe she was dehydrated... "Gah! I need water!" Naruto shouted this, as if someone was going to be right at his side with water. Now realizing what he had to do, Naruto spun around and ran full speed in the direction of the nearest stream. Unfortunately, he totally forgot about Hinata's jacket laying there on the ground. So, he tripped over it. His foot and swung backwards and he didn't even have a chance to react before he found himself face-first with the ground. "Itai..." He grumbled, his eyes instinctively watering a bit. He swore he could already feel the bruise forming on his nose. But he had to hurry, so instead of laying there in pain, Naruto got right back up and zoomed away. He had second thoughts of leaving Hinata by herself there at first, but he didn't really have a choice.

Luckily, he had to run through part of town to get to the stream, and he was able to get some kind of bottle from a random merchant guy on the side of the rude. Well, actually he kind of took it. But the guy wasn't looking, so it wasn't exactly stealing... right? Nevertheless, Naruto found it didn't take long at all to get to the stream. When he got there, all he did was a single scoop of water before darting off back towards the training field. While he headed back towards Hinata, whom still seemed unconscious, Naruto was aware of avoiding her jacket. He took the time to glare at it though, while he made his way over.

He knelt down in front of her and suddenly was unsure of what to do. Make her drink it? But what if she choked? Yeah, choking would definitely make it better. Naruto shook off his sarcastic thoughts and once again looked left and right, as if there was going to be somebody there to tell him exactly what to do. "Ano... ano..." Naruto nervously sat there awkwardly, before deciding to put the bottle full of cold water against her forehead. He had to hold up her head with his other hand and realized that she was pretty warm. Was she training? Naruto's eyes scanned the scarred tree Hinata was sitting against, and then looked down at her hands. Was she punching the tree or something? For some reason, Naruto couldn't picture that at all. For now, all he could do was hope she'd come to. Where'd I put my weapons? He suddenly wondered, and turned around to find that he had dropped them in his panic. Well, at least they were still there.

[Hinata Hyuuga]

As Hinata just sat there slumping, her mind was busy processing her thoughts and emotions. She really wasn’t sure how she should respond to Naruto’s compliment. Never before had she ever considered herself good looking; that always seemed to be what Ino and Sakura were worried about. Instead, she was focused on improving herself in other ways. Instead of worrying about her looks, she wanted to increase her strength, her courage; she was trying to be like Naruto. Her jacket served as a quick, easy way to get dressed and as a bit of a psychological crutch by offering protection against the outside world.

Yet that was not what she was concerned about right now. Naruto had seen her outside of her jacket, and apparently liked what he had seen. While she didn’t care about her looks that much, it was nice to hear such a comment coming from him like that. It was a great morale booster for her. After this, it wouldn’t be too surprising if she started to care a little bit more about her looks. Then again, it was a superficial thing; she wanted Naruto to recognize her for her, not her looks. No, if she was to get Naruto, it was going to be because she became stronger and more worthy of it. Besides, she wasn’t that great looking, was it? He might have just been acting nice.

As her mind dealt with the troubled emotions, her body began to calm down. Now that she was out, her heart rate began to return to normal. Her blush started to fade, and her body temperature began to return to normal. Eventually her mind moved from subconscious thought to conscious thought. She still wasn’t fully awake though. Right now she was half-out still, and only had the slightest clue what was going on around her. Looking up for a second she saw Naruto running towards her, stopping for a second to glare at her jacket. Her mind was too groggy to process that, and her eyes were barely able to keep open.

When they opened again, Naruto was in front of her holding a water bottle. Had he ran all the way to the village to get a water bottle for her? She went back down for a moment, but when she felt something cold against her forehead, her mind snapped back to reality. A cold shock was the perfect thing to get her awake, and so she slowly opened her eyes…to see Naruto in front of her. Her eyes opened wide in surprise and fear, but the water bottle prevented her temperature from going up. Besides, after that last comment of his Hinata felt like she could survive anything else he could do to her.

”N-n-Naruto?” she asked, wanting to get his attention. He was busy looking at something else, and her eyes followed towards what he was looking at. There were weapons scattered on the ground; they looked old and worn out. Since she didn’t bring any, they must have been Naruto’s. Did he want to train? Of course he did; Naruto was always training, wanting to be stronger so he could become Hokage.

He probably wanted to use this field, and so she was going to have to leave. Right now all she could do was be a burden for him. She had already made him run all the way to the village and back for water. If she fainted again, he’d get all worried again and work hard to help her. There was no way she was going to burden Naruto like that again.

”I-if you want me to I’ll leave. I-I don’t want to be a bother…” she responded. Ironically, she sounded more confident when she was putting herself down than when she was trying to cheer herself up.

[uzumakinaruto]

Naruto hardly realized that his attention had been on his weapons for more than a moment before Hinata's voice redirected his attention. "Oh, you're awake!" He exclaimed happily as he removed the water bottle from her head. He put it down on the ground, next to her lunch but didn't move from his position. "Hey, are you okay?" To be completely honest, Naruto had never really witnessed anyone faint before, hence his overreaction. For all he knew, Hinata was dying. But even with that, Naruto was a bit shocked himself that he'd been so worried. Then again, if it had happened to anyone else, he'd probably have reacted the same way.

Realizing the strain on his own legs from squatting in front of her, Naruto rocked himself back and sat down in front of Hinata. Well, she didn't seem red anymore at least. That was a plus, right? Hinata had then proceeded to telling him she felt like a bother, and Naruto initially gave her a strange look. Does she feel bad because I went and got the water for her? If that really was how she felt, then Naruto didn't really know what to say. He's surrounded himself with Sakura a lot, and associated many of her traits as general 'girl' behavior. Therefore, he didn't think Hinata would feel bad like that. A sort of awkward silence passed before Naruto responded.

"Nah, you were here first." He told her childishly. "Besides, you're not bothering me. You would've done the same for me, right?" He felt a bit strange asking her this, since he didn't consider them to be close or anything like that. But they'd been in the same class, and Naruto found it hard to respond negatively to her. He didn't know why, but maybe it was just because she was weird. Or... different, at least.

Naruto looked back up at the tree, tilting his head to make it obvious. Changing the subject, he decided to proceed with asking her what he wanted to earlier. "Were you training?" Upon looking at the wood closer, Naruto realized that it was burnt and frayed, but not punctured in any way. He wanted to know, but didn't want to come off as too nosy. Redirecting his gaze back to Hinata, he wondered if he'd be able to train with her. Though she did seem worn out, and the fact that she had fainted didn't help the matter. Naruto rubbed his nose in thought, only to be reminded of his injury. "Ow.." He flinched, angrily staring at his nose and consequently going cross-eyed.

Naruto flashed another smile before getting up to retrieve his weapons. He didn't want to completely ignore Hinata, so once he'd gathered them all up he turned back to her. "Can you watch me? I wanna know if I'm doing it right."

[Hinata Hyuuga]

Well, at least she had gotten Naruto’s attention. Admittedly she would rather have had it because she was getting stronger, not through this sign of her own weakness. She blushed a little at it, but it wasn’t that much. One thing she couldn’t do, however, was keep eye contact with Naruto. Instead, she looked down at her hands, and started playing with her fingers. It was a habit of hers that she did whenever she was nervous. And right now, she had really good reason to be nervous.

”Y-yes Naruto-kun, I’m fine. I, uhm,” she needed to think of an excuse quick,”I think I might have just overworked myself. All I need is some rest.”

That would be a good excuse, and help her save some face. She didn’t like lying to Naruto, but what was she supposed to say? That she fainted because she was too embarrassed by his comment about her body? Yeah, that wouldn’t have gone over too well. Her fingers were going at it, and she was not keeping any eye contact with him at any point. She really hoped he didn’t notice her blushing.

Eventually she did make eye contact with Naruto when he started talking again. There was a bit of a look of surprise in her face when he said she wasn’t a bother, and that he though she’d do the same for him. Hinata didn’t know why it was surprising though; Naruto, even if he was a bit obnoxious at times, was a truly nice person at heart. And of course, if Naruto was injured, she’d rescue him. In fact, it was something that she was kind of wish would happen. No, not that she wished harm on him, but the chance to save Naruto was something she kind of wanted. It would be a good way to show Naruto how much she actually cared for him.

”O-of course I would have Naruto-kun.” she replied, nervously cause she wasn’t that used to having him this close to her,”I don’t think I could deal with loosing you,” she mumbled without thinking. Once she realized it, however, she nervously hoped he didn’t hear it and just thought she was being weird. Wow, she wanted Naruto think she was weird; surprising, wasn’t it?

Naruto started looking at something, so Hinata took the chance to break eye contact and stop looking at him. If she had kept it up, well, she’d be on the way to fainting again. He was looking at her tree, and for a moment thought he’d make fun at her because of it. Not that she expected such a thing from Naruto, but she had gotten used to being criticized for her training so she sort of expected. Instead, all he did was ask about it.

”Y-yes, I was. I started this morning…” she said.

Naruto rubbed his nose, letting out an ow. Hinata’s eyes headed right towards the spot, and she finally noticed that Naruto had a bruise on a nose. How did that happen?

”Are you okay Naruto? Did you get injured helping me?”

Not surprisingly, he laughed it off and went right to work. She watched as he went to pick up his weapons. Seeing as she was still on the ground, Hinata stood up and headed over to grab her jacket. In a show of amazing speed and flexibility, by the time Naruto had turned around to talk to her again, she had it back on and zipped. He wanted her to watch him train. And she had no problem with that at all really.

”I’d be glad to help Naruto-kun.” she responded with a slight tone of joy in it, blushing a little as she did so. Hopefully she could be of some help to him.

[uzumakinaruto]

"Eh?" After being somewhat relieved to find that Hinata agreed she would do the same for him, she had continued to mumble something inaudible. He knew he should have been used to this by now, since Hinata was that quiet, but it still bothered him a bit. If she had something to say, she could say it. Naruto didn't understand her at all, hence why he had labeled her as 'strange'. "Hinata, you should speak up a little." He told her bluntly. It might have come out a bit rude, but the underlying message was that he wanted to hear what she had to say. Reminding himself of her small frame, which was still visible without her evil jacket, he wondered if she was just as fragile on the inside.

He looked at the tree once more as Hinata told him she had been training since the preceding morning. He couldn't really tell, but considering the fact at how worn-out she was, plus the scarred tree gave Naruto the impression that she had been out here a long time. He never really paid much attention to her during school, but now that he thought about it, he figured she might be about average though maybe not quite. Putting those two ideas together, Naruto was at a standstill. Why was she working so hard? "You've really been out here awhile, huh Hinata?" He gave her a reassuring smile, as if he was telling her that he approved of training for that long. Hinata was so shy and nice, that sometimes it seemed like the whole ninja thing didn't fit her at all. I guess you could say that seeing her train like this might have changed Naruto's perspective of her.

Looking back down at her hands, the same, daunting question returned to him. What had she been doing? The only logical explanation he could think of was her punching the tree, but Hinata didn't seem like the kind of girl to have anger issues like that... or did she? Naruto sweat-dropped at this thought, but moved on with his mini-analysis. What about the burns, though? Naruto's head began to hurt with all this thinking, and he decided to just go right ahead and ask her. "What were you training anyways? It looks like you were punching the tree." He scratched his head, a gesture to confirm he was completely clueless as to how her hands and become so worn. They looked kinda red, too.

Before Naruto could doing anything else, Hinata's concerned voice brought him back. "Um, well, what happened was..." Now it was Naruto's turn to be embarrassed and avoid eye-contact. Tripping over a jacket and bruising your face wasn't exactly something to be proud of, so he was a bit hesitant to admit it. Though, he had a feeling Hinata wouldn't make fun of him or anything like that, so he just went ahead and told her. "I kinda... tripped over your jacket and fell on my face." He nervously scratched his face and laughed uneasily, hoping she would take it as something humorous. But, her concerned voice from earlier reminded him that she probably thought it was her fault, so he was quick to disprove that. "But it was my fault!" He exclaimed. "I didn't look where I was going..." He hoped he didn't ruin it or anything like that; it was Hinata's jacket that she wore all the time, so it probably held some importance to her.

Naruto poked his finger through the hole that came off the handle of the kunai and began spinning it around. He felt some absent-mindedness creeping up, but realizing that Hinata had stood up reminded him of something. "Hey, you just said you had to rest, right?" He said, approaching her. "Besides, you should probably finish your lunch." He smiled at her, then something else popped into his head. "Oh, your hands." Without thinking of the possible consequences this could have on Hinata, he took her wrist and held up her hand in between them. "Are you okay? Do you need bandages?"

[Hinata Hyuuga]

”Huh?” Hinata responded with slight fear.

Naruto-kun had heard her speak! Well, at least he hear her mumbled, which was enough to get his attention. Hinata’s eyes shot back and forth as she tried to think of an excuse to say something. Obviously she couldn’t tell him the truth. Well, she could, but no matter what his response was, she’d end up on the ground out like a light again.

”I, um…it’s nothing to worry about Naruto. Just mumbling about myself…” she responded, trying to get Naruto to forget. She tried to put a smile on her face, but it looked a little off as she nervously waited for him to say something else and move on. There was even a few drops of sweat forming on her head as she waited.

Eventually he turned his attention back to training, and Hinata relaxed a little bit. She looked up at him as he gave her a smile of reassurance. She was glad to have gotten Naruto’s approval of her time spent training. Then she looked back down at her fingers, a slight blush forming. She didn’t feel like fainting though; she was just happy that Naruto was recognizing her hard work. Considering that her father and Neji didn’t do so, it was good to actually have someone recognize it. Naruto probably knew that feeling better than anyone. While she didn’t know why, nobody ever treated Naruto with respect, always treating him badly or just outright ignoring him. The only people who didn’t were Iruka-sensei and herself. And, well, how could she have been mean to someone who was just like her?

”Y-yes, I have been out for awhile now. I just started taking a break.”

When her eyes finally made contact with Naruto’s face again, he was already off on another tangent. He was investigating the tree she had been training on. Was there something wrong with it? Or was he just no used to seeing the effects of Gentle Fist style. Actually, that might have been the reason. Neji was in the class before them so he probably never saw him do anything, and Naruto didn’t really know she existed till today. There was no way that he would have known about the Gentle Fist like that…though if her memory served it was mentioned in class once. Naruto probably didn’t hear it; his attention span wasn’t the greatest after all.

”Yes, I was hitting the tree and releasing chakra with each strike. It’s part of the Hyuuga clan’s Gentle Fist style of taijutsu.” she replied, sounding rather informational than nervous, probably because she didn’t have to talk about herself, but the Hyuuga in general.

Naruto seemed rather hesitant to talk about his nose. Hinata tilted her head, confused. She wasn’t used to dealing with people who were nervous; she was always the nervous one. The role reversal was kind of funny really. Of course, it also made her nervous because it meant maybe something bad might have happened when Naruto was gone. Once he mentioned that he had tripped on her jacket, however, she let out a sigh of relief. He even had the kindness to tell her it wasn’t her fault. She was just relieved, however, that he hadn’t gotten into a fight or anything like that.
”That’s all right Naruto. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” she responded, going right back to playing with her fingers and blushing again.

Once Naruto was off and getting his weapons, Hinata was back up and in her jacket. Yes, it felt rather hot in it, and she was tempted to take it off again. At the same time, however, she wasn’t too sure if she wanted to have it off with Naruto around. Her mind drifted back to his earlier comment, and how she responded. If she took her jacket off, she’d feel rather self conscious about it. Then again, she obviously didn’t want to overheat for real. Compromising, she unzipped her jacket; giving her some ventilation while allowing her to keep her jacket on.

Naruto approached her, asking her to head back and finish up her lunch. Admittedly, she had lost her appetite after her fainting spell so she probably wasn’t going to finish it anyway. Still, she didn’t want to worry Naruto, so she probably should eat up anyway.

”I guess you’re right, Naruto-kun.” she responded as she walked over towards her lunch. Before she could get it though, Naruto was grabbing her wrists and started looking at her hands. She let out a small gasp, blushing the entire time. Physical contact was not the sort of thing she was expecting. Before she could say anything, however, Naruto was asking about her hands and if she needed bandages.

”No, no, I’m fine Naruto-kun. Don’t worry about me.” she responded, trying to wriggle her hand free of his before she fainted again.

[konohamaru]

hope you don't mind Konohamaru butting in

[/blockquote]

He had ran through the streets of Konoha til he came to the Training Grounds, he had jumped from bush to bush in hopes of concealing himself well enough. No, they'd never find him, he was the great Konohamaru, destined to become the next Hokage!

After stopping behind a bush, Konohamaru had seen and overheard as much as he could from the two talking. He had to bite his bottom lip to contain the laughter that was bursting to be let free. She actually fainted. Oh, Konohamaru enjoyed this. He turned his head to look over his shoulder, Ebisu was nowhere in sight. Of course he had gotten into trouble - it was his middle name. And now, he had Ebisu and his little dorky squad after him. He turned to look back at Naruto and Hinata, he wanted more... he'd have to be professional though.

Nodding, Konohamaru ran to a tree, however his scarf disagreed with the idea of running and he slipped up on it, falling flat on his face, blatantly obvious to the two a short distance away from him. Konohamaru began to whistle before rubbing his head and getting up to his knees, flashing a rather large smile at Naruto. "Naruto's got a girlfriend!" He cackled, and jumped up to his feet. "Why didn't you tell us you were dating?!" He teased and swung his scarf out of his feets way, making his way over.

"Naruto's got a girlfriend..." He chanted this multiple times, it didn't get old for him. He took a look over Hinata, and noticed her hands. "Are you okay? You look like your gonna topple over again" He began walking around them, like a hawk ready to strike it's prey. "It's alright, when I become the next Hokage, we won't have to do these tests, we can all become Genin straight away!" He flashed another smile and walked to a log, where he leaned against it.

"Oh! I'm Konohamaru!" He added, not thinking at all, why hadn't he introduced himself earlier? Of course he knew Naruto, he was known all over Konohagakure, but the girl - he hadn't seen her as much as he'd seen the spikey haired boy. "So Naruto, what's her name? When's the wedding? Am I invited?"

[uzumakinaruto]

Naruto squinted at Hinata, a bit confused. Why would you mumble to yourself? Then, he shrugged. It wasn't really a big deal he supposed. "Whatever you say, Hinata." She seemed a bit nervous about it, and if he had payed more attention then he probably would've gotten a bit suspicious. Or, maybe he just wasn't used to being around quiet people. He was practically the exact opposite himself, so it was more difficult for him to understand. Then again, it didn't really understand anything all that well, so he didn't bother trying, really. He just kind of went with it, and that's what he decided to do with this situation.

Naruto wanted to apologize to Hinata when he realized she was taking a break, before he came along and interrupted that. He felt a little guilty, getting her all worked up and having her pass out when she was obviously exhausted. But if he did apologize, it would just be an echo of Hinata's previous 'I'm being a bother' statement, so he just decided to keep his mouth shut for once. The last thing Naruto wanted to be was a hypocrite.

As Hinata explained her training method, Naruto blankly stared at her. She sounded so... informative? It wasn't that he thought she was stupid or anything, he was just surprised that she said that without stuttering or changing the volume of her voice. Not really, anyway. Plus, she sort of sounded like a textbook when she said it like that. For a moment, Hinata's speech reminded him vaguely of Sakura, but he quickly shook off the comparison. Hinata was definitely not like Sakura. His pink-haired crush was brutally honest, had one hell of a temper, and didn't take shit from anyone, especially him. Nothing against Hinata, but he just couldn't see her displaying any of those traits.

Hinata's explanation seemed like it could a lot more complicated, and he was worried she would continue. So, he jumped in and said, "that sounds cool!" When really he had no idea how it would work. Naruto then seemed to debate with himself for a moment. It was probably obvious to her that he didn't understand, and he didn't want her to feel offended so he felt that he needed to add in, "you should show me some time." It would be better if she showed him now, since he doubted he'd get to see her again for awhile, but that was too much to ask.

He was relieved to find out that Hinata did not in fact laugh about his screw-up. He was actually glad that she seemed more concerned than critical. Jeez, that's a change. Naruto thought sourly. He wasn't quite sure how to respond to her, well, kindness, so he just smiled at her. He wasn't really used to this, especially from a girl.

Just as he had asked about her hands and she had responded, Naruto heard a familiar, whiney voice chanting over and over again. At first, he was annoyed. Why did Konohamaru have to show up? Then, when Naruto realized what he'd been chanting, his face undeniably got redder and he turned to glare at the squirt. "Shut the hell up, Konohamaru! Hinata's not my girlfriend." He really hoped Konohamaru wasn't embarrassing Hinata too bad, he didn't want her to get stressed out again and pass out. Naruto wanted to go on over and give him a good punch in the head, just like he did when he'd first met him. But as he began to pull towards him, he was reminded that his hand was curled around Hinata's wrist. She was trying to wiggle out of his grip, and it dawned on Naruto that from someone like Konohamaru's perspective, it probably looked like they were holding hands. On top of that, Hinata seemed uncomfortable. "Gah! I'm sorry!" He sort of gave her back her hand and blushed more, then directed his attention back to the 'Honored Grandson'.

"I already told you, I'm gonna be Hokage!" Naruto had to give the kid credit for determination and all that, but it got a bit annoying. "If I did have a wedding, I wouldn't invite you." Naruto crossed his arms, and Konohamaru's comment about the upcoming test threatened to distract Naruto, but he refused to go on and worry about that now.

I neglected my homework used all of first period to write this xD Oh, and no time for spell check so don't mind me..

[Hinata Hyuuga]

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief as Naruto decided to leave it be. Whenever he wasn’t training, Naruto could be rather laid back. It was in her favor this time it seemed. For a moment she was afraid he might have pushed her on the issue. If that had occurred, well, she would have probably had to make up some excuse to make a run for it. There was no way she could have told him what she had really said after all. So she was safe for now.

There was a small moment of silence after she mentioned she had taken a break. Hinata had no clue what was running through Naruto’s mind at that point. So when she got the chance to explain her training, she had been quick to jump on it. After it was done, however, Naruto answered rather quickly, saying that it ‘sounds cool.’ He then went silent again, leaving Hinata confused as to what to do about it. Was he confused about something she had said or something? She had tried to simplify it as much as she possibly could. Then again, Naruto hadn’t been that great of a student, and the few times she had seen him pull off a jutsu while her Byakugan was active, she had noticed Naruto wasn’t good at chakra control. Maybe the whole concept was just rather new to him? Of course he was quick to ask her to show it to him some time.

”I-I wouldn’t mind showing it to you in a little bit. I-if you don’t mind that is,” she quickly responded, surprising herself at taking the initiative so quickly. She just hoped that she didn’t sound so desperate in her voice. Sometimes when she got worked up she forgot how to control the tone of her voice.

More awkward silence arose after she told Naruto she wanted to make sure that he was okay. Before there was much time to mull over the thought, however, another person arrived on the scene. Hinata had no clue who this young boy was, but that didn’t keep her from expressing some concern when he landed fat on his face. As he got up, she had to say something to him.

”Are you all right?”

He was apparently okay though as he flashed a smile to Naruto. Did the two of them know each other from somewhere? Then again, Naruto did seem to know a lot of people. The thought of the boy’s identity, however, was completely erased from Hinata’s mind as the boy started to tease and chant about Naruto having a ‘girlfriend.’

If Naruto though his face looked red, he wasn’t bothering to look over at Hinata’s face. Then again, he probably couldn’t see it if he had tried. Hinata’s face was redder than a tomato, but she was keeping it away from Naruto’s site. Right now she couldn’t even look at him without the fear of fainting again. It was just the thought that the two of them were being mistaken as girlfriend and boyfriend was just so…she didn’t know how to describe it really. It wasn’t a bad thing of course; she liked Naruto after all. The thing was, she just didn’t think she had to guts to even attempt to ask Naruto out. And now here was somebody teasing Naruto about it. Admittedly she hoped the teasing would implant the idea in Naruto’s head that they could be boyfriend and girlfriend, but that hope was dashed with Naruto’s response.

Hinata didn’t say anything in response though. She was a little heartbroken that Naruto was so quick to anger at the thought, giving it such a beat down. Obviously it was to be expected; they weren’t dating after all. Still, it stung a little, and it was a bit disappointing. In order to minimize any fallout however, it would probably be a good idea for her to say something. Her face was still rather red when she turned back to face this Konohamaru.

”N-Narut-kun and I aren’t dating. We-we’re just friends.” she replied nervously and as quick as she could, hoping to hide the slight tint of disappointment in it.

It was around that time Naruto finally remembered that Hinata was still in his grasps, and he finally let go with an apology. Quickly, Hinata hid the hand in her pocket, still slightly embarrassed that Naruto was holding it. The purpose, of course, was to investigate her raw, sore hands, not anything romantic. But with this teasing, Naruto might have thought it looked romantic. It was too bad her face was still a deep shade of red; she would have been blushing more right now.

The rest of the conversation turned into introductions, and something about Hokages. Hinata’s mind was kind of frazzled at the moment so she wasn’t sure. Something about a wedding? Probably related to the teasing. By the time Naruto was done refuting Konohamaru, Hinata’s mind was finally on the introduction part.

”M-my names Hinata Hyuuga by the way. I-I guess you’re a friend of Naruto-kuns?”

[uzumakinaruto]

Naruto was glad that Hinata had offered to show him her Gentle Fist Style or whatever it was called. He really had no clue she pushed herself this much, and to be honest he applauded it. That's why he didn't voice any repetitive concerns about her condition. If she wanted to do it and knew that she could, then Naruto wouldn't stop her. Instead of demanding rest from her, Naruto encouraged her decision with an enthusiastic response. "Really!? Of course I don't mind!" He laughed a bit before adding, "Oh, and have you seen my new jutsu? It's awesome!" Ever since Naruto learned that the Kage Bunshin no jutsu was a jounin-level technique, he'd had the urge to brag to someone about it, besides Iruka of course.

But with Konohamaru's arrival, their plans seemed to be put off for a bit. By the time Hinata had responded to all of Konohamaru's annoying inquiries, Naruto had found that his defensiveness was retreating and he was becoming calmer... somewhat. Why would that squirt say those things? Well, then again, Konohamaru had not been informed of Naruto's infatuation with Sakura and therefore got the wrong idea about himself and Hinata. That, plus the position he'd found the two in. Just recollecting this gave Naruto the urge to blush again just after he had diminished it. If Konohamaru had walked in earlier in his encounter with Hinata, would he still have thought the same thing? Obviously, Hinata was uncomfortable about all of this, and he wanted to know if he had caused any of that discomfort. He didn't recall anything, except... "Ah! Hinata! The comment I made about your body... I, um... didn't mean it... No wait! I did, but you know, not like that. Not that I don't think you're, um..." Naruto gave up and felt both embarrassed and defeated. He put both hands to his face as if he was hiding behind them, and decided to take this out on poor little unsuspecting Konohamaru. So, he continued with his rant. He purposely turned his back to Hinata so he wouldn't see her reaction to his recent screw up with his speech. If she had been uncomfortable with him holding her hand or whatever, she must have felt really awkward when he commented on her body. Great, Hinata thinks I'm some kinda perv and she's creeped out.

As Naruto verbally attacked Konohamaru, the two soon got in an argument, completely neglecting Hinata's inquiry. Naruto kept trying to get Konohamaru to go away, but the little guy wouldn't let up on the whole marriage thing. To be honest, it was starting to tick Naruto off. But thankfully, Konohamaru got frustrated before Naruto did and stalked off. As he did so, Naruto heard him muttering about how Naruto wanted some alone time with his 'girlfriend'. Headache... Naruto thought as he held his head, bearing an annoyed expression. His blue eyes were squinted at Konohamaru's exit point, as if to make sure he wasn't coming back.

Then, a rare but light breeze brushed passed. It somehow seemed to cool Naruto down a bit and he turned back to Hinata. He took a breath. "Sorry if I made you feel weird or anything... It's all Konohamaru's fault!" Naruto apology had begun with a soft, sincere voice. One that was nearly alien to him. That's why he had veered off of that and decided to blame Konohamaru, something that would fit his character more. Naruto was never really one for apologizing.

"Uh..." Naruto didn't want it to become one of those awkward moments, so he decided to jump into what they were going to do. "How 'bout I show you my jutsu first?" He smiled at her, already locking his fingers into the seal for the Kage Bunshin. He didn't necessarily wait for her answer, since for some reason he was confident that she would agree. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A large cloud of smoke poofed into existence, and with it came about a dozen other Naruto's. Each of them flashed his trademark grin and said in unison, "Pretty cool, huh?"

[Hinata Hyuuga]

OOC: Konohamaru, if you happen to post after this, I gave Naruto permission to say you left. We had to get on with the thread after all.

Hinata was glad to hear that Naruto didn’t show any negativity towards her showing him the Gentle Fist style. In fact, he was rather enthusiastic about it; then again, he was enthusiastic about everything. In response, he wanted to show her a new jutsu of his. Hinata wondered what it was that he learned? Well, still, a new jutsu so quickly after leaving the Academy, that was impressive.

”No, I haven’t seen it, but I’d love to see it.” she replied with a small smile.

It was then that the whole mess with Konohamaru began. Hinata said her piece about it and then became quiet. Naruto seemed to be just as embarrassed as her about it, and she spotted only the slightest hint of a blush on his face. It was actually a relief to see that she wasn’t the only one feeling kind of awkward about it. Of course, Naruto didn’t seem to be as tuned in to the situation as Hinata, as he jumped to the conclusion that it was his comment about her body that had made her uncomfortable. His speech was reminiscent of her own thought patterns, and seeing him stuck in a similar situation as hers really helped to relieve her stress some. At least she wasn’t alone in all of this, though being reminded of the comment caused her to blush some. Just as Naruto looked away, so did she. Of course, she buried her face in messing with her fingers instead of just hiding it period.

”D-don’t worry about it Naruto. I-it’s my fault for taking the wrong conclusion.”

Naruto seemed rather upset about it, so she wanted to help him calm down by taking the blame on herself. Besides, it was a true statement; she had taken the slightly more perverted meaning of it. Why else would she have fainted like that if she didn’t? Of course, Naruto thought it was due to exercising too much, but Hinata knew the truth. Sadly, things had gotten so awkward between them she just wanted to press on.

As Naruto ran off to deal with Konohamaru, Hinata was kind of left alone. Well, at least she was out of the spotlight now. This gave her the time she needed to calm down, and by the time that Naruto came back, her face was back to normal. Konohamaru was gone, so he must have given up and ran off. Since he didn’t seem to be coming back, the two of them were safe for now. Naruto blamed it on Konohamaru, and while she thought it a little unfair to blame it all on the kid (he didn’t know the situation after all), she just decided to agree with Naruto.

”I-it’s okay Naruto. He was just messing around. I-I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm in it.” she replied, just pressing her fingers together as she finished calming down.

Naruto switched the topic over to his jutsu again. Before she even got the chance to respond, Naruto was off and at it. After a cloud of smoke, Hinata found himself being surround by about a dozen Naruto’s or so. Clones? The basic Bunshin was taught at the Academy. Still, that “Kage” at the start of the jutsu had to mean something. Wanting to see exactly what was going on, Hinata closer her eyes for a moment. Making a handsign, she activated her Byakagun. Looking back up, she got a better look at the clones; all of them had a chakra network. These weren’t just illusions; they were full-fledged, solid clones. That was a very high ranking technique though; she was impressed Naruto could pull it off so easily.

”That’s impressive Naruto, especially right out of the Academy. You must have worked rather hard to learn it.” she replied as she deactivated her Byakugan. Now she felt a little inadequate; all she had been doing was practicing her basic Gentle Fist style; she hadn’t learned any new techniques at all.

[uzumakinaruto]

The more Naruto talked to Hinata, the more he realized how different she was from everyone else he was used to being around. They were acquaintances, though Naruto felt like that could be changing soon, and yet she was kind to him. Usually people that didn't know him that well would judge him by his childish personality and the fact that he was the container for the Kyuubi. Even people that knew him a bit better, like Sakura or Sasuke weren't particularly nice to him. He wouldn't consider them mean or anything, okay, maybe Sasuke was mean, but they weren't exactly benevolent either. It kind of felt nice to talk to someone that for the most part, you knew wouldn't put you down or anything like that. He found that he was relaxed around Hinata, and could tell he was beginning to trust her already. Hinata wouldn't put him down or anything, unlike his team...

Though, ironically, Hinata put herself down in expense of neglecting to do so to others. It honestly did bother Naruto a bit, and he wanted to protest despite the fact that it was sort of her fault for taking it that way... Maybe once he got to know her more, he'd be able to change that. He just felt it wasn't fair for her to put herself down and do the opposite for other people.

"He's always messing around." Naruto groaned, his memory reversing back to when he had first met Konohamaru. The fact that he had fell on his face was hilarious, but Naruto had been too dumbfounded and annoyed to bother laughing at his screw-up. Besides, if he did that, wouldn't he be considered somewhat of a hypocrite? Besides that, Naruto was glad that it seemed Hinata was calming down a bit. He'd suppressed his blush completely just a few moments ago, and was starting to feel calmer himself. He then proceeded to responding to Hinata's comment.

"Yeah it is, isn't it? It's a long story, but... Whoa!" Naruto's expression had gone from sheepish as he began to explain to shocked as he looked upon Hinata. Her eyes... they were different. Naruto began to get excited, wondering if Hinata had some super-cool techniques because her eyes were different. Naruto vaguely remembered something in class about Kekkei something of another, and how if you had that you had special jutsu. Now, Naruto couldn't wait for her to show him her jutsu and couldn't help but approach her. The real him did, the other clones just stood in their places, looking shocked as well. He tried remember back to their academy days when he might have seen this before. He felt like there was a time, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

"Your veins... they're standing out!" Both the blonde boy's face and voice was in awe, as he took a closer look. Naruto's curiosity forced him to put a hand on her face and feel the raised area around her eyes. From what he noticed so far, touching Hinata made her feel uncomfortable, but he couldn't help it. He'd never seen anything like this before, and he was a kid so he had to explore it. "Hey guys- this is pretty cool! You gotta check this out!" Naruto had been referring to his clones that stood just a couple steps behind. Immediately, they mobilized shouting things like "I wanna see, I wanna see!" Naruto turned his head and saw them pushing each other as they clamored on over. Naruto sweat-dropped, and had been distracted with some less than tasteful thoughts towards his clones when he realized the danger. His clones were so eager to get to Hinata that they hadn't been paying attention at just how fast they were moving.

"Hey! Stop!" Naruto commanded, but it was too late. After a couple 'Oofs' and 'Ughs', everyone had toppled over each other in one big mess. It was only after Naruto complained about falling and dispersed his clones that he realized he'd landed atop Hinata. His heart fell immediately, and he went into a slur of apologies. "Oh my god, Hinata I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I just wanted to look..." The face he wore looked truly apologetic. Then, "Did you hit your head?" He had no idea if she did or not, that was just the first thing that popped into his head.

Naruto remained in the position he had fallen in until a thought crossed his mind. Hinata smells good... Kinda like lavender or something, but I'm not sure... He then realized how close he was to her, and once again flushed. Jeez, I don't remember the last time I blushed this much. Instead of pushing himself off, though, Naruto continued his inspection of Hinata's eyes. "How do you do that, anyway? With your eyes." He knew he should probably get off, but how often would he find himself in this position? Though, if Hinata really did feel uncomfortable, he would get off. But to be honest, he was pretty comfortable. Not that he'd admit that aloud of course, he didn't know how Hinata would react to that.