Naruto: Blood of the Kitsune

By: Takenouchi Ryu

Author's Notes/Disclaimer: First of all I don't own Naruto:( Now then, a few notes. All of the techniques that I happen to make up myself will have English names, while all Naruto techniques that I can find will have the Japanese equivalent. Basically, if I don't know how to say it in Japanese, I'll use English instead. This is my first Naruto fan fic of any sort, so please be gentle. This story takes place at the start of the two and a half year training trip Naruto takes with Jiraiya and proceeds from there. Listed below will are a few guides to help you better understand my fic.

Normal type/dialogue

Thoughts

Kyuubi Speech

Kyuubi Thoughts

What follows is a short list of the Japanese terms I know and am familiar with; they will be used in the fic periodically. If someone is fluent in Japanese and sees and error, please point it out to me so that I can correct it.

Aishiteru: I love you a la Japanese!

Baka: Idiot

-kun: Honorific for a friend who is male or a younger boy.

-chan: Honorific for a friend who is female or a younger girl; the only time I know this is used for a boy is when used by his girlfriend.

-san: Honorific for those who are older, smarter, or "better" in any way; very formal.

-sensei: Honorific for your teacher.

-sama: I'm actually not 100 sure about this one, but from context I've seen, this appears to be an honorific for someone older than you that is more friendly than formal.

-baachan: I actually have no idea what this one means, all I know is that Naruto seems to love using this when referring to Tsunade!

-teme: This is Naruto's personal nickname for Sasuke, and it means bastard! (All you Sasuke lovers out there can go blow yourselves!)

-niisan: If I remember correctly, this is an honorific for someone who you basically consider to be a big brother so-to-speak.

Chapter 1

Tsunade looked over the paperwork she had been handed by Jiraiya carefully before glancing up at the other sannin. "You actually think that bringing along this Hyuuga girl will help Naruto?"

"Yes I do, Tsunade. From all appearances, this Hinata has quite the crush on Naruto. That ought to make things interesting enough. I also think that they will work well together given the proper training. All that needs to be done is get Hinata over her shyness. Since she is a Hyuuga, she will excel in helping Naruto improve his overall taijutsu abilities. Besides, it'll be fun!" Jiraiya finished his speech with his eyes showing that he was thinking very perverted thoughts at the moment.

Tsunade managed to keep a hold of her temper and merely shook her head and sighed. Hyuuga Hiashi was not going to be pleased to hear that his oldest daughter was being sent on a training mission; especially after he found out who would be accompanying her. The Godaime sighed in frustration before waving the perverted hermit away, "Fine, have it your way, Jiraiya. Just don't come back crying to me when this little scheme of yours blows up in your face."

"It won't Tsunade, just you wait and see." Jiraiya replied as he turned around and walked out of the Hokage's office. There was much work to be done before he and his two new students were scheduled to leave. Tsunade grabbed the nearest bottle of sake and downed it in one gulp; this was going to be a very bad week.

"Can you please tell me why Hinata is coming with us again, Ero-sennin?"

"For the last time Naruto, I have my own reasons!" Jiraiya yelled at his student.

The toad hermit sighed in frustration at his student. Naruto had no idea how difficult it had been to pull this off. Hiashi had been extremely close to openly rebelling against Tsunade when he learned that his daughter was going to be training with the "Kyuubi brat." The puffed up fool had even tried to challenge Jiraiya for the release of Hinata from this assignment, with disastrous results. Who knew that a fifty something year old man could still move so fast?

Naruto paced about while waiting for the Hyuugas' heir apparent to arrive. In another thirty minutes Hinata could be seen running up to them with a backpack stuffed to the gills. "I….I'm sorry!" Hinata gasped while trying to catch her breath, "I h…had a bit of trou…trouble getting out of th...the house."

"That's OK Hinata-chan." Jiraiya stated, "I expected as much when your father came to me with his…..'concerns'."

Hinata blushed profusely at the mention of how badly her father had taken the news. She almost fainted when she noticed Naruto looking at her quizzically. The fact that Hyuuga Hiashi was one of his biggest opponents in Konoha had not yet drilled its way through Naruto's incredibly thick skull. After a few more minutes everyone was ready to leave and the trio took off through Konoha's main gate, keeping a roughly eastern direction.

For the most part the day went by uneventfully. The only real distraction was Naruto's incessant pleas that Jiraiya teach him a new Jutsu. The forest of Fire country slowly gave way to rolling plains as the group traveled ever further from their home. By about midday Naruto had finally shut up, effectively leaving everyone to their own thoughts. Jiraiya spent the rest of the afternoon planning ways to train the two genin while Hinata thought about Naruto the entire time. Naruto, meanwhile, was busy trying to figure out what new Jutsus he would learn.

Jiraiya had them stop to make camp for the night early in the evening. He sent Naruto out to collect fire wood and set a few traps around their perimeter so that he could question Hinata about a few interesting tid bits of information he had managed to get out of Hiashi. "Hinata-chan, how long have you known about Naruto?"

"W…what do you me..mean, Jiraiya-sensei?"

"You know full well what I mean. Your father told me just yesterday how he had broken Sandaime's law."

"Oh! He t…told me w…when I was s..st…still very lit..little."

"And yet you do not treat the boy with any animosity at all. In fact, you practically worship Naruto, don't you?"

Hinata gasped and actually did faint when Jiraiya implied his knowledge of her feelings towards the blonde ninja. Luckily Jiraiya had brought along some smelling salts and was able to wake Hinata back up with enough time left to continue his interrogation.

"Hinata-chan, I've been told that during the Chuunin exams you seemed to have a new found sense of self-esteem and confidence, yet now you act exactly as you did before the exams. Why is that? Surely you know that you must stop being so insecure if you want to succeed as a kunoichi and be able to keep up with Naruto."

"Ye..yes, Jiraiya-sensei."

"And the first thing you need to do in order to achieve that goal is to stop with the constant stuttering. Its driving me fucking nuts!"

Hinata could only nod at her teacher and listen politely as he explained a great many things to her. One: she needed to stop stuttering and have some confidence in herself. Two: Hinata's family style of taijutsu was unique, and she was actually very skilled in it. Three: How could she ever hope to win Naruto if she did not improve her self? That last statement drove the point home that Jiraiya was trying to make. Hinata promised to work her hardest at becoming more confident and to try to stop stuttering whenever she spoke.

By that time Naruto returned with an armload of firewood and the report that he had supposedly set enough traps to stop an army. Jiraiya seriously doubted that Naruto had set even five decent traps, let alone enough to actually be useful. To the hermit it seemed that as much as Hinata stuttered and acted like a fool around Naruto, Naruto felt the need to brag around the Hyuuga girl. Jiraiya filed that information away to mull over when he had more time.

The three shinobi enjoyed a small meal before retiring for the night. Jiraiya told Naruto and Hinata that he would take the first watch, followed by Hinata, and lastly Naruto. After carefully putting the fire out, Hinata and Naruto got into their sleeping bags and quickly drifted off to sleep. Jiraiya was left with only his thoughts for company.

Naruto is starting to develop a much better control over his chakra, but he still needs to work on strengthening his mind. That boy's foolishness is going to get him self, or worse yet, someone else seriously hurt one of these days. Hinata has a sharp mind in spite of her low self-esteem, she just needs to stop being so damned shy! If my plan works out, then I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone.

The night soon gave way to dawn and Naruto dutifully woke Jiraiya and Hinata up. The Sannin told his students to get a fire going as well as some breakfast while he went to relieve himself. The pervert then disappeared, leaving Naruto and Hinata alone.

"I don't really know how to cook anything besides ramen, so I'll start the fire."

"O….Ok." Hinata stammered while poking her index fingers together.

What is it with Hinata-chan and her constant stuttering? Naruto thought as he easily and quickly got a fire going. She really needs to learn to believe in herself. I wonder what's keeping Ero-sennin? I hope he doesn't fall for one of my traps.

Just then a loud explosion was heard from the nearby grove of trees that Naruto had used to gather firewood the previous night. The two genin dashed over to where the sound had come from and found Jiraiya in a crater with his hair singed and holes burned into a large portion of his clothes.

"NARUTO!" Jiraiya screamed as he finally got up. "What the Hell did you do last night? I sent you out to set a few traps and gather firewood; not try and kill me!"

"Geez! Ero-sennin, I did warn you that I had set a large number of traps. It's your fault if you didn't believe me." Naruto shot back.

The Sannin shook his head and sighed at the boy's antics. When Naruto was not bordering on genius, then he was bordering on completely retarded! The boy really needed to learn to have some balance in his life. Somehow Jiraiya just knew that this was going to be a very, very long two years.

After a short breakfast, the trio was off again. Though this time Jiraiya led them deep into the heart of a forest they came upon. From a glance one could tell that the forest had been around for a long time. It was deathly quiet save for the call of a lone bird every once in a while. Sunlight could be seen filtering through the canopy high above. Jiraiya led his two wards through the forest for what seemed like hours before stopping.

"Ah! Here we are!" Jiraiya proclaimed.

"Uh, where is here?" Naruto asked.

"This is where we are going to be spending our first month of actual training!" Jiraiya answered whilst beaming.

"Training? Here? What type of training could we possibly do here Ero-sennin?" Naruto grumbled.

"Oh, there is a lot that the forest has to teach us. You'll just have to wait and see. First things first, I want you to go gather some more firewood Naruto. And this time don't put any traps up, we won't need them!"

Naruto nodded his head and dashed off to look for more firewood. Jiraiya waited patiently for a few minutes before breathing a sigh of relief. Now he could finally do some more planning in peace and quiet. There were, however, a few things that had been gnawing at his mind throughout the day though that needed to be addressed first.

"Hinata-chan, you were awfully quiet today. Even more so than normal, why is that?"

"Well, Jiraiya-sensei, I was thinking about all the traps I noticed. Naruto seems to have a real knack for them."

"So I noticed, but since when did he become that smart?"

"Naruto's always been highly intelligent. He just doesn't like to let others on to that little fact."

"What makes you say that?"

"Simple, Naruto's greatest advantage is that everybody underestimates him. Naruto knows this and even goes so far as to cultivate it. I've…been watching Naruto-kun for a long time, and I know that he's actually more of a prodigy than even Sasuke-san was."

"Surely that's not all you have to say."

"No, there is more. Naruto also works very hard at staying unpredictable. He is so determined to rise above the label the village has given him that he purposefully works on techniques that others think are useless. Look at the Orioke No Jutsu (A/N: Sexy no Jutsu for those of you too lazy to look it up yourselves.): most people think that it is the work of a childish mind; however, anyone with half a brain would see the genius behind it. I know of no man that can withstand it, not even my father. Naruto has learned to use his enemies' weaknesses against them, and a man's greatest weakness is ultimately thinking with what's between his legs and not his head. Naruto will do whatever it takes to win."

"Yes, yes; you are right Hinata-chan. That is why I want you to work with Naruto on his taijutsu abilities."

"Work with Naruto? But the only ones I could even begin to teach would be my younger family members! Naruto doesn't have the Byakugan, how could he learn to fight like the Hyuuga?"

"Oh, I don't want you to teach him how to fight like you, I just want you to teach him better chakra control. The Hyuuga family style requires a great amount of such control does it not?"

"Well yes, but I still fail to see how I can help Naruto-kun, Jiraiya-sensei."

"If you can teach Naruto even the basics of using his chakra in conjunction with his strikes, that would be a great advantage in a fight. Naruto doesn't necessarily have to be able to see and target specific organs. His chakra level is so high that he doesn't need to. He just needs to be able to deal a large amount of damage in a short period of time."

"You're trying to turn Naruto into one of those shinobi that finish their fights quickly!"

"Yes I am. The quicker Naruto finishes a fight, the better off he'll be. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about Naruto that makes me uneasy, and its not the Kyuubi!"

"As you wish, Jiraiya-sensei. I will do my best to teach Naruto. Though I don't think he has the patience for it."

"Trust me, he will." Jiraiya said with an unsettling grin on his face.

Hinata nodded her head and began getting some things ready to cook supper for them when Naruto returned. A few minutes later the blonde ninja walked back into their camp with an armload of firewood. He quickly got a fire going and then sat down while Hinata cooked their dinner.

After eating Jiraiya outlined their training schedule for the next month, "You wanted to know why I chose this forest to start your training in. Here's the reason: it will help both of you develop better chakra control."

"How's that Jiraiya-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"Simple, you will do almost all of your training while walking on the trees. Not only will you have to keep the necessary chakra control to stay on the trees, you will also have to simultaneously use your chakra for your techniques."

"Slave driver!" Naruto muttered as Jiraiya finished speaking. The toad hermit chose to ignore the genin and continued.

"Starting in the morning Naruto, you and Hinata will train together. Hinata is going to instruct you in the basics of their family style. If you actually pay attention for once and work hard you will be able to damage an enemy's inner coils system and their bodies as well."

Naruto responded in the affirmative and Hinata nodded her head in silent agreement while blushing. Jiraiya continued telling his students his lesson plan while they cleaned up their dishes and made sure to bury their leftovers deep enough to keep away any scavengers that might be in the area. Naruto and Hinata learned that they would also be doing some wilderness survival training while in the forest as well as learning a few new jutsus when they had demonstrated enough skill with the ones they already knew. A few hours later the trio went to sleep in preparation of an early and hard day ahead of them.

Naruto lay awake for a few hours after the other two shinobi fell asleep. Hinata didn't stutter once today. That's actually pretty odd coming from her. I guess she's developing more confidence. Maybe I can learn how to force my chakra into an opponent's body like the Hyuugas. That would be a great trump card when we get back to Konoha. With all that chakra I can get from the Kyuubi, I'd be practically unstoppable! Next time Sasuke and I meet, I'll stomp his ass for what he did to Sakura-chan! I'll even be able to keep my promise! With that Naruto finally fell asleep.

The next morning Jiraiya woke Hinata and Naruto up at the crack of dawn and told Hinata that for the time being she was in charge of Naruto during his training. The Sannin then instructed her to take Naruto to a small glade about two miles to the north and begin his training. The two quickly ate a small breakfast and then proceeded to their designated training area.

"Wow! This is the perfect place to train Hinata-chan!"

"Yes, I agree, Naruto-kun. Jiraiya must have been here before."

"I guess so. So now what? How do I learn to fight like you?"

"First off I'll have to lecture you in the basics of the Hyuuga family style. Then we'll see about some hands on practice."

"A lecture! Do we have to?" Naruto whined.

"Yes, we do." Hinata replied in a stern voice, "You may be able to fool others with your stupidity act, but you can't fool me. We both know that the lecture will do you a world of good."

"And just how do you know that I'm supposed to be that smart?" Naruto retorted.

"Because, unlike a certain pink-haired girl who spends all her time pining over that traitor Sasuke, I've noticed a lot of things you try to keep hidden."

"Hey! Don't talk about Sakura-chan like that…..Wait a minute! What do you mean you've noticed things I try to keep hidden?"

"You've done a very good job of using our peers' stereotype to your advantage, but for someone as trained in studying others as I am you may as well be wearing a giant sign that says 'Hey, look at me! I'm actually a genius!' around your neck."

"You think I'm a genius?" Naruto asked astonished.

"Yes. Who else but a genius would use men's own weakness against them?"

"You mean you actually aren't offended by my Orioke no Jutsu?"

"No, its not that bad. To be honest, I find it pretty funny. Did you really make the Sandaime fall over and have a giant nosebleed?"

"Yeah, I did."

"I heard about it. I would've loved to have seen his face when you pulled that trick on him."

"Who knew my Ninja Harem would work so well?"

"You're also almost a master of the Kage no Bunshin."

"You think so?"

"Of course. The way you used it to beat Neji-niisan during the Chuunin exams was brilliant."

"Domo arigato gozaimasu." (A/N: That's the extremely formal form of "thank-you" in Japanese.) Naruto whispered, shocked that someone was actually acknowledging his skills for once. The only other people who had ever done that were Iruka-sensei and the Sandaime.

"Enough of that, lets get on with the lecture you're trying your best to get out of."

"Aw man!"

"Quiet! Now then, you know the basics of how my family's style works. What I'm going to teach you is the specifics of it. Basically, we force our chakra into our opponent's body at the exact moment of impact. If you can learn to do that, you'll be able to cause some very serious damage, Naruto-kun."

"So basically I'll just have to practice hitting stuff until I get the timing down right?"

"You'll also need extraordinary chakra control to pull it off. The amount of damage done is entirely dependent upon the amount of chakra you push in. If you only wanted to incapacitate your enemies, you would use very little chakra; while at the same time you could kill someone with one strike if you wanted to."

"Oh! So Neji-san was just toying with you during your match?"

"Yes. As much as he may have wanted to kill me, he couldn't bring him self to do it."

"That little curse seal on his forehead probably had a lot to do with it."

"You're right. My family has done many horrible things to keep our abilities exclusive to us. Most of our marriages are even arranged to "breed" stronger users of our Bloodline Limit."

"That sounds pretty harsh if you ask me."

"It is. I think that my family has become too arrogant. But enough of that, let's see you try forcing some chakra into that tree over there."

Naruto replied ok and then started striking the tree pointed out by Hinata. Try as he might Naruto could not seem to get the timing down right. After a few hours of the exercise, Hinata had him stop and rest for a while as they ate lunch. Afterwards the training began again. Naruto had as little luck after lunch as he had before and was about to give up when he got so angry that he caused the tree to explode when he struck it the last time.

"Wow, Naruto! That was a lot of chakra you just forced into that tree!"

"I didn't mean to. I was just so pissed that I couldn't do it right that I guess I overdid it."

"I see. I think we've just discovered something here. You learn new techniques quicker when you get mad at yourself. Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

"I guess so. So now what do I do Hinata-chan?"

"Now you do the same thing, only this time you're going to be kicking a tree instead of punching it."

"Kicking? Can't I practice some of my jutsus for a while?"

"No! You'll have time to practice your jutsus after I'm finished with you!"

"Fine. Fine."

Naruto repeated the exercise on a different tree, this time kicking it until his feet were sore. Naruto managed to get the timing right on his third try, but kept on practicing anyway. A few hours later Hinata told him to stop for the day.

"That's enough Naruto-kun. You did excellently today."

Naruto beamed and scratched the back of his head while thanking Hinata for the compliment. He then replied, "I'm beat! You were right about needing precise chakra control Hinata-chan."

"See, what did I tell you. I was observing you with my Byakugan and saw that you were using entirely too much chakra even when you didn't have good timing. How you manage to stay walking right now is a mystery to me."

"Oh, I have my ways." Naruto replied to Hinata's last statement cryptically.

The two genin finished walking in silence and made it back to camp by early evening. They found Jiraiya in the middle of cooking dinner and writing another of his perverted books at the same time. "Ah! Hinata-chan, how did Naruto-kun do today?"

"Naruto-kun did fine, Jiraiya-sensei. He just needed to practice his timing today. I think that tomorrow he'll be ready to try sparring while tree walking."

"Well now, since you mentioned it, you can do that too Hinata-chan."

"Ero-sennin, you're lazy!"

"No, I'm not lazy. I've spent all day preparing for your next lesson you two. In three days you two will spend a week here in this forest without my self or the majority of our gear. You will have to depend on each other and use the forest itself to survive. If I were you I'd start planning for that right away."

"What gear do we get to keep with us?" Hinata asked her teacher.

"Since the weather's nice, you'll get one sleeping bag. Both of you will keep your pouch of kunai. You will also have some flint to use to make a fire. Other than that you will get one roll of twine and a knife to use to skin and cut up anything you may catch to eat."

"That's all? Why so little, Ero-sennin?"

"That's actually being pretty generous Naruto. There will be times when you're separated from the rest of your team and will have even less to survive off of. This is just a little exercise to let you see what it is like. I'll still be close enough that if you absolutely need me I can reach you. Think of this as a giant camping trip!"

The two younger ninjas looked at their sensei sarcastically and then went to bed. The two genin woke shortly after sunrise to the smell of cooking food. Both looked up sleepily to see Jiraiya cooking breakfast. After all three had eaten Hinata and Naruto headed towards a small river that flowed through the forest.

Upon reaching it they carefully eyed their surroundings. "This ought to be a good place to train Hinata-chan."

"Yeah, that river will make our sparring more interesting. Today we won't be using any jutsus except for basic Kawarimi (a/n: I hope I spelled that word right.)."

"So more taijutsu training then?"

"Yes. Now prepare your self!" With that Hinata activated her Byakugan and rushed Naruto.

Naruto quickly sidestepped and countered with a roundhouse kick aimed for Hinata's head. The kunoichi in turn parried it and slammed her palm into Naruto's stomach. He gasped as the air was knocked out of him and barely had time to parry Hinata's next strike, aimed for his chest. Naruto dropped down and performed a basic foot sweep and then followed up with a kick to her back.

Hinata grunted as she felt Naruto force his chakra into her and rolled to the side when she fell down. She looked up to see Naruto coming down from above, his fist raised to strike. Unfortunately he hit nothing but a log as Hinata used Kawarimi to escape. Naruto quickly scanned his surroundings and found his partner on a tree a few feet away. He ran up the nearest tree and then disappeared from view.

"Shit! Where did he go?" Hinata asked herself as she turned around in a 360. The genin found him at the top of a tree right next to hers and ran up hers to reach him. Naruto, however, was prepared for this and started running down his tree to meet her. At the last moment Naruto leaped towards Hinata and landed a spinning kick to her face.

Hinata temporarily lost control and started to fall off her tree. She managed to regain her footing in time to parry another flurry of attacks from Naruto. The kunoichi soon found an opening and used her palm to strike his chest. Naruto merely grunted and attacked yet again.

The two genin spent the vast majority of their day sparring against one another. After the first time Naruto forced Hinata back onto the ground, they made a game out of it. For every time they got the other onto the ground they got a point. The shinobi with the most points won. Finally, at sundown, the pair limped back into camp.

"You two overdid it today."

"Well, we got in a lot of good training though, Ero-sennin."

"Be that as it may you two are obviously suffering from the beginning stages of chakra exhaustion. I want you two to take tomorrow off and just rest. You'll both need it for your survival exercise the day after tomorrow."

"As you wish Jiraiya-sensei."

Hinata and Naruto plopped down and greedily ate their dinner before falling asleep where they sat; the only thing keeping them in a sitting position being the fact that they were leaning against each other. Jiraiya placed a blanket over his students' bodies and then got into his own sleeping bag and went to sleep.

To Be Continued!

Author's Notes: Well there you have it, my first chapter! The next chapter will primarily focus on Naruto and Hinata's little "camp out" in the forest. I'd like to take this moment to thank my good friend Steve Morrison (AKA: "fat bastard", inside joke between us everybody.) for being my editor. Thanks for all your help! If you wish to comment me directly then just drop me a line at my email: See y'all next chapter!