Note: Sorry for the wait! This was a hard last chapter to write (fear not, I have sequels planned for later). Had to do a lot of "research" (ahem, um, re-watching Naruto episodes). I hope you all enjoy it! Credit to the creators of Naruto again, and THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR READING!
Japanese Terms: ai (love) nanika (what is it?) mutsukashii (difficult) Yattaa! (All right! Yes! Hooray!) Otousan (father) kawaii (cute, darling, charming) daijobu (it's all right) demo (but) ganbatte (go for it! Keep at it!) hai (yes, affirmative) baka (idiot) Honto(truly) koishii (beloved, dear) Yoshi (all right) oniisan (brother) mou ikkai (one more time) sugoi (amazing, great) Itaii (ouch!) Demo (but) Ahou (idiot)
Awakenings 10
Ai…ka?
Kyubi pondered yet another foreign concept.
"Nanika, Kyubi-chan?"
There was a pause.
I AM NOT A PUPPY!
Naruto chuckled.
Kyubi snorted in distaste.
"You want to know what love is?"
Yes.
Kyubi's response was both indignant and dripping with irritation.
"Ah, mutsukashii ne…I'm really not sure."
Naruto knocked his right fist lightly against his head as if that would put his thoughts in better order.
"I guess it's a feeling, feeling that a person is really wonderful and you want to always be around that person and take care her and make her dreams come true. It's like a promise to be with someone and take care of them because you think they're great, because you love them. But it's more than that…I don't know."
There was another silence while Kyubi pondered over these words.
You're confusing me, Kyubi accused.
"Hey, it's not like I got it all figured out yet. You asked and I'm just telling you what I think."
Well, think harder.
"Che. You think harder, lazy bum."
A deep growl came from behind the sealed, rusted gates.
"Oh, don't give me that, you know you're being lazy about it. You can't always expect others to give you the answers to things."
Kyubi snorted again in irritation and turned his back to the young boy standing in the water outside his prison.
"Again."
Naruto, Hinata, and Hanabi stood absolutely still, each of the three students surrounded by a circle of 10 thick, wooden poles. For a moment it was silent, then the sound of wood being cut filled the air.
Hiashi walked around, inspecting each of the wooden poles. On the sides of each of the poles facing away from the two sisters were two marks in the wood. For Naruto, however, only the poles within his range of sight had been cut. The five behind him remained unscathed.
"Good. Hinata, Hanabi, continue on your own."
Hiashi went up to Naruto and motioned to him to crouch down on the ground with him.
"I'm sure you know that the byakuugan ability would have given you a distinct advantage in this technique," he began. Naruto gave him a serious nod.
"The purpose of this exercise is to expand the range of your attack. You've mastered the ability to change the direction of one chakra knife by hitting it with another. It may seem like you have a harder task than the other two, trying to hit targets you can not see, but in essence you have all ready mastered that. The backs of the poles within your range of vision show evidence of that. You can not see the backs of those poles, yet you are able to infer their location and accurately strike them. You must extend that same principle to the targets behind you. You cannot see them, so you must infer their position and aim accordingly."
He picked up a twig from the ground and began to draw in the soil. During this time, the sound of cutting wood was steady from Hinata and Hanabi's direction.
"This is you and this is the circle of poles around you. In this situation, the targets are symmetrically positioned. Use the location of the poles you can see to infer the location of the poles you can't see."
He drew the flight paths of the first and second set of chakra knives. The finished drawing looked rather like a fancy, polygonal shuriken.
"Now, try it again," Hiashi said as he stood up and walked outside the perimeter of the targets.
Naruto focused, pausing for a moment longer than usual as he visualized the shuriken shape in his mind, and then executed the technique.
"Excellent. Come see for yourself."
Naruto turned around and ran to the poles behind him. He saw the marks on the backs of the poles, a little crooked, but there nonetheless.
"Yattaa!" Naruto jumped and punched his fist up into the sky in celebration.
The sound of cloth threads being cut apart was faint, but all four of them heard it. Hiashi raised his right arm, examining the large ash-gray sleeve that normally hung elegantly off of his arm but at the present moment was hanging awkwardly with a large opening cut into it.
"Go…gomenasai, Otousan!" Hinata's high pitched, frightened squeal came from her cringing figure as she looked out from behind one of the training poles at her father.
"Abunai," Hiashi breathed.
"Hinata! Concentrate!"
"H…hai!" she squealed again and skittered back to her place.
Hinata gave Naruto an embarrassed smile, and he felt the urge to give her a comforting hug. He gave her the thumbs up, nice-guy-pose.
"Ganbatte Hinata!"
She smiled appreciatively.
"Hai!"
After another hour of refining their aim, Hiashi said,
"That will do for today. Tomorrow morning there will be no lesson. Hanabi, Naruto, you're dismissed."
Naruto walked down the path through the rock garden, looked up the hill next to the training grounds and waved to a figure standing at the top. Hyuuga Ryozo reluctantly waved back, not used to showing such friendliness. Naruto walked through the gate to the garden next to the dining room with Hanabi under the high noon sun. Their practices had been going longer than before, and Hiashi had been keeping Hinata an hour or so longer for some private training. A knowing smile crept across Naruto's face. The scheduled rematch with Neji was coming up at the end of the week, and Hiashi was personally trying to improve Hinata's chances.
The garden was full of people. The ground was covered with newly lain fertilizer and workers were busily planting new plants. Naruto gave the workers an embarrassed wave and smile. They smiled back politely. I hope they don't know that this was my fault. He turned to look at the other side of the garden and realized that the head gardener, a grouchy looking old man, was glaring at him. Naruto shrunk a bit.
The rain poured down in unending streams pounding on the homes of Konoha. Naruto and Hinata were walking hand in hand down a corridor that lead into the fighting grounds of the stadium that was often used for Chuunin exam exhibitions. As they were about emerge onto the battle arena, Hinata jumped behind Naruto and peaked over his right shoulder. They stood just within the shadows of the corridor which afforded them a bit of privacy.
"Why are there so many people here?" her voice came out nervously high pitched. She grabbed onto the orange and black fabric that covered the back of his shoulder with both hands and hid the bottom half of her face, only her pale eyes peaked out, wide and full of apprehension. Naruto turned around to face her, and as he did, she shifted her grip on his jacket to the front, burying her face into his chest in the process. Naruto looked down at the silky, ink-blue hair nestled into his chest, the small hands that had attached themselves to his jacket, and felt the pressure of her face against him…Kawaii…he thought adoringly. He wrapped his arms around her.
"Daijobu, Hinata, I'm sure they're all just excited to see you and Neji fight. You're going to do great! I should know, I've been training with you all this time and you've been improving so much in everything!" he said reassuringly.
"Demo, Tsunade-sama said she was only going to let in Konoha ninjas that were interested in watching," came her muffled reply.
She buried her face further into his chest while gripping his jacket even tighter. After all the months of training with him, being around him, talking to him, she had become more and more comfortable around him and now he was a source of not only comfort but security and warmth as well.
"I guess a lot of Konoha ninjas can't wait to see you show off your skills!" Naruto laughed as he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her away so that he could look into her face. Her lips were tight with worry and her eyes showed a mix of apprehension and determination. He kissed her on the forehead, then pinched both of her cheeks and pulled. Her face was gently pulled horizontally, causing her mouth to open and stretch a bit. He gave her a toothy smile.
"Ganbatte Hinata-chan!"
"Hai," she replied with a distorted face.
"I'll be upstairs in the balcony watching you!"
With that he ran up the stairs to her right. Hinata closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, her eyes opened and she clenched her fists and began walking forward into the pouring rain. Protected by a large awning, the audience was dry and shielded from the storm. She looked up and saw her family sitting at the front row right at the top of the steep wall that rose sharply from the ground she stood on. She scanned the rest of the crowd high above her. Pretty much any ninja that was not on duty or away on a mission was there to watch the match. She felt very much like a fish in a fishbowl with everyone staring in at her. She tried to keep her breathing steady. Then she noticed Neji walking out from the corridor opening opposite of the one she had emerged from with a severe look on his face.
"GAN-BAT-TE! HI-NA-TA! GAN-BAT-TE! HI-NA-TA!"
Even through the steady pounding of the rain, Naruto's chant came through loud and clear ringing through the stadium and shattering the formal ambiance of the place. Up on the balcony above the corridor the two of them had walked down, where challengers usually waited their turn, Naruto was chanting with a large red fan in each hand striking poses with each syllable that came out of his mouth, jumping up and down while waving the fans much like a monkey behind bars at a zoo taunting onlookers.
Up in the stands, along with everyone else in the crowd, Ino stared at the spectacle that was Naruto.
"Bakka," she said loudly.
"Honto," Sakura replied, but she smiled. That's our Naruto.
Startled by the ruckus, Hinata turned around red-faced and looked up the steep wall behind her at her chimp-like koishii. Involuntarily she laughed and waved up at him with a bright smile on her face wiping away the worry that had strained her features a moment before. She turned back around to face her opponent.
Yoshi. It's now or never.
She walked forward toward Neji, her eyes full of determination.
Up on the balcony, Naruto yelled "GANBATTE HINATA!" one more time, put his red fans away, put both his hands on the railing in front of him, and leaned forward in anticipation of the fight. He smiled.
"Neji oniisan," Hinata acknowledged, her voice soft but firm.
"Hinata-san."
Neji observed her face. At their last encounter, she had come towards him full of trepidation, eyes looking this way and that, mind wandering back to painful memories, fear apparent on her countenance. This time she stood and faced him, eyes looking directly into his. He could tell she was trying to keep her breathing even and her gaze stable. She was nervous but determined.
Hagane Kotetsu jumped down from the stands and stood between them as the referee for the match. He held his hands up in the air and a hush fell over the audience. Only the steady sound of the rain pounding the battle grounds could be heard.
"The rules for this special challenge will be the same as the chuunin exams. The match will go on until one of you dies or gives up. If I determine that there is a clear winner, I may stop the match. Fighters to the center."
Hagane raised his right hand up in the air, then let it drop.
"Begin."
The two Hyuuga descendants took a step back with their right legs, their left legs positioned out in front of them pointing their feet towards each other. Their right hands were held palms facing down next to their right hips, fingers together and thumbs tucked in. Their left hands were held up in front of them with their palms facing each other also with fingers together and thumbs tucked in. They were in the ready position for Juuken, the Hyuuga Style Taijutsu that attacks an opponent's Inner Coils System of chakra flow. The veins and nerves around their eyes bulged as their byakuugan hyper-activated.
The match began.
Hinata moved first, flinging an attack at Neji's core chakra flow. Neji's outstretched hand swung inwards towards his body as he swiped the attack out of the way. Hinata's other hand came in for another attack, only to be pushed off its mark by another flick of Neji's hand which flew in to strike her right after the block. Hinata bent backwards, barely avoiding the blow. This continued on for a bit, the crowd watching on as the rain sprayed out from the space where the two exchanged their attacks.
She's faster.
Neji began to shift his attacks and they came from odd angles now. Hinata moved to match. Then he saw it, an opening in her pattern of movements. He went for it, slipping his hand through her arms, chakra extending from chakra holes in his fingers like surgical needles, and hit his mark. His eyes grew wide when he felt his chakra deflected. The opening he saw in her movements closed as she adjusted. His eyes betrayed his puzzlement. He was sure his strike had made its mark, just like when he had fought her in the chuunin preliminary tournament. He had seen a chakra flow concentrate in the area he attacked. He decided to test his theory.
He saw another opening and struck. Again he made his mark. Again, his chakra was deflected. He jumped back, pulling away from the close combat. He smiled, impressed, but un-phased.
"So, I see you've learned how to use your chakra to block juuken attacks," he said with a wry smile.
"I suppose I should get a little more serious this time."
He sunk into a deep stance, his left foot towards her, his right foot behind, and his left hand down by his ankle, fingers all pointing straight down at his left foot. His right hand was pointing up into the sky behind him. He closed his eyes.
With he byakuugan, he watched as Hinata took the same pose.
We'll see if you've finally mastered this move.
Hinata's poor juuken abilities were no secret among Konoha ninjas, poor compared to Neji that is. He was the prodigy after all.
"Juuken hou, hake rokujuu yonshou! (Divination Field 64 strikes!)"
As Neji called out his move, overlapping his deep, firm voice was Hinata's soft, determined voice.
"Juuken hou, hake rokujuu yonshou! (Divination Field 64 strikes!)"
Up in the stands, Hiashi held his breath.
"Hakken nishou! (Divine two strikes!)"
Their two voices harmonized and following was the perfect dance of their strikes against each other.
"Four strikes! Eight strikes! Sixteen strikes! Thirty-two strikes!"
They were like two preying mantis, their arms angular while their hands moved in flowing paths, their fingers like bullets flying through the air. Strike after strike, Hinata matched Neji, deflecting and canceling his attacks.
"Sixty-four strikes!"
The last series of strikes flew between them, steady and pounding like the rain splattering around them, its pouring pathway to the ground disturbed by their vicious actions.
Hinata's cry of pain echoed through the arena. Naruto gasped and his hands turned red from gripping tightly around the railing as he watched Hinata's body fly backwards and hit the ground with a splash of mud and water. Her hands reached in and pressed against her stomach and her body curled up in a fetal position in response to the pain.
The gasps in the audience were audible.
"Hinata, you've disappointed me," Neji said in a tone of superiority.
From within the curled up, muddied and wet form on the ground came a blue glow. Tsunade smiled.
Hinata was up on her knees, mouth open and gasping for air.
I see, so she's healed the damage I did to her chakra coils…well, not completely healed.
Neji watched as Hinata's face still winced from the pain. She stood up on her feet, her left hand hanging down by her knee and her right hand holding her stomach. Her clothes were stained from the mud and water, but her eyes still wore a crystal clear look of determination.
"Mou…" she gasped painfully, slowly evening out her breathing, "mou ikkai."
"YOSHI HINATA! GANBATTE!" Naruto screamed from above.
"Suit yourself," Neji said, not an ounce of compassion in his voice, "You know very well I will not go easy on you."
"Daijobu, this is my way of the ninja," Hinata said and smiled despite the pain, repeating the words she had held to in their previous fight.
Neji smiled knowingly and sunk into another deep stance, but this time instead of positioning his left hand by his ankle, he placed it stretching out towards the ground in front of him. His back hand was still pointing up to the sky, but had swung over farther behind him. His waist was twisting clockwise, and he seemed positioned like a windmill about to throw up a storm.
To his surprise, Hinata also sunk into the same stance.
I see she's learned more than I had anticipated.
He had no worries, though. She couldn't keep up with the 64 strike Divination field. There was no reason why she would be able to keep up this.
"Hakke hyaku nijuu hachi shou! (Divine 128 strikes!)"
Hinata's voice again flowed in harmony with his.
"Hakke hyaku nijuu hachi shou! (Divine 128 strikes!)"
Their movements were twice the speed of the previous flow. Their deadly dance blurring like the wings of a humming bird, the rainwater spraying out in every direction from their space of attack and block exchanges. Some jaws dropped in awe in the audience.
Suddenly Hinata did something no one expected. The flow of her strikes suddenly shifted and she was flying over Neji in an arc-like pathway, spinning like a spiraling arrow as she flew through the air. Her right hand was down by her body, blocking some of Neji's attacks which had shifted and followed her as she launched up into the air. Her left hand, though was reaching out as if trying to touch something that was flying through the air in front of her along the same path she was going.
In the next moment, Hinata hit the ground, shoulder first, rolled expertly over the ground and ended up kneeling with on knee down. Her hands were clutched around her torso in pain, and she coughed and gasped for air in pain. Her one hand wasn't enough to block all of Neji's attacks and many of them hand landed and did considerable damage to her Inner Coil System. Her hands glowed with a blue flame again as she used her chakra to guide as much of her own chakra flow back to normality as possible. This was difficult considering she was attempting to heal the damage with a damaged system. Nonetheless, it was stabilizing her chakra flow.
The two Hyuugas stood with their backs facing each other with Neji standing and Hinata on one knee.
"Match over. Tie."
The referee Hagane raised both of his hands up in the air.
"What did he say? Did he say it was a tie?'
"A tie? How?"
The crowd was in an uproar.
"Look!" Ino yelled as she pointed at Neji's back.
Slowly the cloth on his back on a spot right between his shoulder blades slipped apart revealing that it had been cut. Slowly, a stain of dark red started to spread around on the tan fabric around the cut.
"YATTAA!" Naruto screamed as he came flying down from his balcony perch. He ran through rain towards Hinata and bear hugged her, picking her clear off the ground.
"That was AWESOME Hinata! Sugoi!" he yelled as he hugged her and jumped and swung.
"Itaii!" Hinata gasped in pain. Naruto quickly released her and lowered her gently to the ground.
"Gomen! Demo, it was just too AWESOME!" He gave her a toothy smile.
"Apparently, Naruo seems to know what happened. Someone fill me in because I still don't know what happened," Ino said to Sakura with a look of puzzlement and annoyance across her face.
"So des ne," Kakashi sensei closed his one visible eye knowingly, his sharingan eye hidden behind his forehead protector that was tied slanted across his head, "Hinata has apparently learned some sort of distance chakra attack. She must have slipped it in while Neji was busy attacking her. Also, it looks like she went for a weak spot of some sort."
"Ehhhh," Sakura and Ino looked at each other wide eyed with curiosity.
"So," Kakashi sensei put his right hand out, "I guess it's time for you two to pay up."
Behind him Kurenai, Hinata's sensei, and Guy Sensei, Neji's sensei, each pulled out a wad of money and put it into Kakashi's hands with annoyed expressions.
Kakashi didn't let it end there.
"I know you each bet on your own students to win, maybe sentimentally or maybe out of pig-headedness, but part of a ninja's skill is to be able to gage the skills of other ninjas regardless of personal biases," Kakashi lectured with one finger in the air.
"Ahou," Guy and Kurenai said in unison as the landed their fists simultaneously on Kakashi's head.
Hiashi sat with a faint smile on his face, his two hands clenched in fists in his lap. His mind wandered back nostalgically to the days when he and his twin brother, Neji's father, used to challenge and battle each other. It was good to see their children follow in their footsteps.
Down in the battle rink, Hinata and Neji looked at each other.
"You didn't need to hold back," Neji said.
"Neither did you," Hinata replied.
They smiled.
"RAMEN CELEBRATION!" Naruto yelled.
Note: That marks the end of this fan fic! I hope it was a last chapter worth the wait. Inspired by everyone's feedback, I plan to write a part 2 and part 3 coming up later. Just a warning, I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to write them, but please stay posted! Will Naruto's will win against Kyubi's? How will Naruto bring back Sasuke? Will being an important person in Naruto's life bring Hinata under peril? What will it be like when Naruto and Hinata are all grown up? Will their relationship last? Stay tuned :D