Chapter 4 – Rivalries.

Naruto was thrilled!

It was the first time that he actually is going to enter in a fight with someone else.

The guys who bothered Hinata didn't count, as they didn't really put up with a fight, it was more like scaring the shit out of them so much that they were unable to fight back. His caretakers didn't count either because the blond was never able to convince any of them to actually teach him any moves. The Academy Taijutsu was the first martial art that he has ever learned up until now and he couldn't wait to see the results!

And maybe if Naruto wasn't so confident in himself, maybe, just maybe, he would have noticed that one day of training probably isn't enough to beat someone who came from a clan with their own taijutsu style drilled into their bodies.

The white-haired teacher approached them when it was their turn in the circle. "Okay, little guys, remember. Taijutsu only, Ninjutsu or Genjutsu are strickly forbidden. You have 3 minutes to beat each other. At my mark you go."

He elevated his hand.

Naruto looked the boy put his dog to the side.

Kiba then looked at the blond with a predatory grim.

The fox-like boy replied with one of his own.

"Hajime!" Mizuki cut the air with hand.

They immediatly jumped at each other. And almost immediately Kiba dodged a punch and then punched Naruto so hard in the face that he went flying out of the ring.

…

…

…

"Well, that was easy." the teacher said.

"GODDAMMIT, DOGHEAD! YOU BROKE MY NOSE!"

"Winner is Kiba!" Mizuki announced while holding the hand of the victor to the air, the boy with tribal markings felt proud of himself. The teacher turned to Naruto, who was trying to contain the fountain of blood that his face had transformed into. "Can someone take Naruto to the infirmary?"

A trembling shy hand went up.

"Did you already have your spar, Hinata?"

"No, sensei."

"Are you sure that you want to do this, then? Some other student could do this."

"I-I'm sure about it, sensei."

"Okay, then, but try to come back as soon as you can." As the girl helped the Uzumaki get up and then go together to the infirmary, he then turned to the rest of the class. "Whoever had Hinata as an opponent, please, pick someone who already fought."

A pink haired girl turned to a blond one with a ponytail.

"Prepared to get your face smudged with dirty, Pig?"

The blond snorted.

"Puh-lease, only because I already did my first fight doesn't means that you'll defeat me, Forehead. I'm just that tougher than you!"

They soon started to punch each other even before their sensei said they could start their fight.

"Why did you waste my time?"

The question confused both Naruto and Hinata. The Academy Nurse sighed.

"Look, the Diagnose Jutsu shows that your nose isn't broken, whatever made it bleed is already gone. The air must be dry or something, that probably left the blood vessels inside your nose sensible and that's why it bled when you got punched." She picked some tissues and offered to the boy. "Here, clean up and go back to class."

"Well… I guess that's ok then. Thank you." He bowed and then turned to his companion. "Let's go back, Hinata-chan!"

The girl simply nodded and led him through the corridors for a while. He cleaned up the bloody mess on the way as quietly as one blowing blood out of their nose could.

She decided to break the silence soon. "Uhm, N-Naruto-kun… D-did you heal your nose? I didn't see you do that techinique that Med Nins do..."

"Nah, I think it's a thing that my body does when I'm hurt." She waited for him to elaborate and the boy decided to indulge her. "It happened before, once I accidentally put a kunai through my cheek, it hurt a lot!" He put a hand on his left cheek and made an expression of pain. "But then I was good again just an hour later! Gramps says it's because I'm an Uzumaki."

'So, it is a bloodline limit' thought the girl. 'And a pretty convenient one'.

"S-so… Your clan… a-are they all able to cure the-themselves l-like you?"

She waited for his response, but once again he made that thoughtful expression he did when they were playing on the swing. The same expression that had elements of something that she couldn't quite determine what they were. But he didn't take as long to respond.

"Well, I dunno. For all I know, I'm the last Uzumaki."

He only noticed that she stopped on her tracks after a few steps.

"Uhm, Hinata-chan?"

She walked towards him, with a sad expression, and then hugged him tightly. He was surprised, but Naruto didn't take long to reciprocate.

"I-I-I-I'm s-sorry for your l-loss, you m-must miss them s-so much..."

Naruto snorted. "Don't worry about me, Hinata-chan. I'm ok." She looked at him as if she wasn't buying that. "Believe it! It's hard to miss someone that you never met, imagine an entire family, haha!"

Hinata was new to analyzing the blond's expressions, but she liked to think that she had seen so many of his smiles today that she could tell that this one lacked any shine from the other ones he usually sent to her.

Seeing her worried expression, Naruto decided to change the subject and cheer her up at the same time. "Hey, let me show you something cool!"

He then made a hand sign and transformed into a very small rabbit, the only indication that it was her blond friend being the foxy-like expression and some tuffs of orange on the ends of his ears. Hinata, momentarily forgetting about the composure of a Hyuuga, squealed at the sight of such cute small critter and start to stroke his ears.

She just loved rabbits!

When they finally returned, the class was already in the middle of the second round of fights. When Naruto and Hinata got close the other kids, the blond turned to the guy munching chips nervously and elbowed him softly on the arm.

"Hey, did Dog-Boy fight again? I hope that he got his nose broken too, that had hurt like being hit by a brick."

"Ah, yes, he did. He fought Uchiha over there and lost almost as quickly as you, though no broken nose." Naruto hmph'd in dissatisfaction. The other boy looked over him and said "By the way, the nurse must have done one hell of a good job, your nose looks perfect."

"haha, yes, she is pretty good isn't she?"

"Not good enough so you can leave without even some sort of bandage up your nose or something." Said a boy with a sleepy expression besides snacking-boy. "I bet that whatever you did, must be troublesome."

Naruto could only laugh nervously in response.

Sigh. "Name's Shikamaru and this guy here is Chouji." He said pointing to the overweight boy.

"I'm Naruto! And this is…"

"I know who Hinata is, she is from a famous clan, like Sasuke Uchiha." He pointed to the black haired boy just a few people over. "Hinata Hyuuga, good grades and good taijutsu, but isn't very good at socializing with others." He looked to the blond boy with orange leaves on his hair. "Well, up until now, I guess."

Hinata got red as a tomato and got only redder when Naruto gave her a one-armed hug.

"Yeah! Hinata-chan is great! She is helping me to get around the academy!"

"Hey, Naruto!"

They looked to see Iruka-sensei waving at them. "Now that you're back, you can have another fight if you're up to it!"

"Oh, boy, do I!?" the foxy-boy jumped from his spot and came to the ring.

"Full of energy, isn't he?" asked Shikamaru to the girl with white-eyes, who only gave a nod in response. A soft smile appeared on her face as she looked the boy excitedly jump on the same place waiting for his opponent. The lazy boy sighed. "Troublesome."

After picking up another random number from the box, it has revealed that his opponent would be the Uchiha boy.

"Okay, can both fighters come closer to the center of the ring?" the boys both got closer to Iruka-sensei. "Good, now we will start when I give the signal."

Iruka put his hand in the air.

Naruto gave a shining smile to the other boy.

Sasuke only gave a serious look of superiority in return.

No way he would lose to the guy who lost to Kiba of all people here.

Then Iruka cut the air.

"Hajime!"

Sasuke just waited for Naruto to advance and then punched his face.

Only that this time the blond-with-leaves managed to dodge, but Sasuke completed the motion and decided to spin kick him square on the his sides. Naruto gasps, but immediately grabs the other boy's leg to prevent him from moving. The Uchiha tries to make him let go, but the foxy-boy was stronger than he looked. The black-haired boy got creeped out when he said:

"Wow, smooth skin! Do you use a cream or something? Because this feel nice!" the blond said while slightly brushing his fingers on his leg. Sasuke immediately decided that it was better to take a fall if it meant kicking the other guy on the face.

Both of them fall on the ground after the kick with Sasuke's one free leg on the side of that head full of leaves, but only the black haired boy gets up. Naruto was KO'd instantly.

"Well, that was easy." If a bit creepy, the Uchiha mentally added.

The teacher put his hand on the air, causing very excited cheers from the Uchiha Fanclub. "Sasuke is the winner of the round!" Iruka then looked to Naruto. "I'll take Naruto to the sides while Mizuki oversees the next match, ok?"

He grabbed the boy by the shoulders and was glad when the Hyuuga girl decided to grab his legs to facilitate the transport. They gently dropped Naruto under a tree, but Hinata stayed with him instead of returning to the others.

Looking at this, Iruka sighed. "Hinata, you can't ignore the rest of the class, you haven't fought anyone yet."

"B-but s-s-someone needs to keep an e-eye on Naruto-kun…"

"Well, I can't disagree with that, but he may be down for the rest of the class and you can't-"

"DAMMIT, AGAIN!?"

They were startled by the sudden outburst of the blond-with-leaves, who massaged the side of his temples that got kicked. "I swear that kick felt like an iron bar!"

"Well, looks like you're fine, then." Iruka-sensei turned to the girl. "Now, I believe you have a fight waiting for you." Hinata looked to sides nervously. "Come one, Hinata! You need to fight at least once, ok?"

Hinata still looked nervous, but felt a hand grab her shoulder.

"C'mon, Hinata-chan! I want to see you fighting! You must be better than me, right?" Naruto gave her a shining smile, full of confidence in the girl. She couldn't say 'no' to something like that.

"Ok, Iruka-sensei, I'll fight on-once."

Iruka smiled and accompanied both students to the rest of the class. When the current fight ended, he announced.

"Ok, now it's Hinata's turn! Can Sakura come around?" The pink haired girl stepped into the ring, she sported a few scraps from her other two fights, but seemed otherwise fine. "Good, now come closer to the center of circle so we can start."

They get in front of each other, Iruka puts his hand in the air.

Sakura smiles confidently.

Hinata seems to get smaller and smaller under the other girl's gaze.

"Hajime!"

Hinata immediately starts to dodge every attack from Sakura, not really sure if she even wants to fight. That is until she remembered about the boy smiling confidently to her, watching from the crowd.

She immediately turns the tides and attacks the pink haired girl with her clan's Taijutsu, without using chakra-enhanced strikes. Sakura has a hard time blocking the other girl and ends up launched out of the ring with a palm strike.

"OOMPH!" she gets up from the floor and starts to massage her stomach. "A bit violent today, aren't we!?"

"S-sorry, I just d-didn't wa-want to lose in fr-fr-front of…" Hinata immediately shut up when she noticed what she was saying. She wouldn't give material for her words to be misinterpreted by her new friend or anyone else.

Sadly, Sakura misinterpreted it anyway.

"WAIT, IS SHE SHOWING OFF TO SASUKE!?" the pink haired girl internal voice shouted. "SHANNARO! I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN, SHE IS LIKE A PRINCESS! I WOULDN'T HAVE ANY CHANCE IF SHE ENTERED THE COMPETITION!"

Externally, Sakura only gave her best impression of a gentle smile to the other girl, who noticed that something was wrong right away. "Well, I guess that can't be helped! Next time I'll put up a better fight!"

She then turned and prayed to all gods she had knowledge of that Sasuke didn't get impressed with the performance of the Hyuuga girl.

Which was a waste of time, the Uchiha boy simply didn't care anyway.

Naruto's third fight ended up not happening because his next opponent was Shikamaru, who forfeited the fight out of laziness. That really annoyed the fox-boy.

"Wha- that's not fair! Everybody else is too tired to fight now!" he grumbled and grumbled until the class was dismissed.

As the students went out of the Academy to wait for their parents, the blond-with-leaves went to the swing as he waited for one of his caretakers to pick him up to go back to his secret room on the Hokage Tower. The Hokage himself had explained to him that he wouldn't be able to do that himself because the boy's classes finished while the Old Man's working hours would still be going on for a while.

As he propelled himself to get momentum, wondering who would pick him this time, Hinata approached the boy.

"Na-Naruto-kun, please, take this." She offered a bento box covered with lavender wrapping with a pattern of rabbits. "It's my lunch th-that I forgot, b-but I didn't want it to go to wa-waste, so I'm g-g-giving it to you as a th-thanks."

He stops to swing himself and takes the box with a smile. "Thanks, Hinata-chan! Let me eat this now so you can take it home!" but she put her hand over his to stop him from opening it at that moment.

"W-wait, you don't need to do that, just bring it tomorrow a-a-a-a-a-and…" she was having a hard time to say what she was going to say.

"And? What's it, Hinata-chan? Say it loud!" And there's the push she needed.

"Andwecanshareyourlunchagaintomorrow!" she said that so fast that Naruto almost didn't get it.

"OH! That's actually a pretty good idea, Hinata-chan!" He then put the bento box inside his own backpack. "I promise that I'll clean it properly!"

Hinata nodded with shy happiness.

Author's Footnotes:

What, you expected Naruto to win?

How many of you even actually expected that Naruto would actually win this thing just because I gave him a new power?

This isn't a overpowered Naruto story, my friends!

I'm a fan of underpowered characters fighting to reach the top, shounen jump is all about hardwork (and friendship, but that's not part of the point I'm making) and that's how I'll roll. Just because my Naruto isn't even human, does not automatically translate to him being powerul, he still sucks at most ninja things here, but that's more because of inexperience and actually being bad at some subjects rather than the tired old fanfiction cliché of his education being purposeully sabotaged by the teachers.

Also, I wanted to plant the seeds of what is going to be Naruto's fighting style in the future: Annoying the fuck out of his enemies until they drop the ball.

...

Besides, I'm not sure how can I write an exciting fight with words, I usually do that through drawings and writen descriptions of fighting usually bores me.

OH, and fun note: The little anecdote of Naruto putting a kunai through his cheek is actually based on something that actually happened to me when I was a child and a rusty nail went through my left cheek in a very bloody hilarious accident. Gladly, that happened when I was a wee-baby Moa, so I don't even actually remember it.

But my mom does and her description of the event is pretty terrifying.