And here is what everyone has been waiting
for. Hope it’s satisfactory.
“We leave in exactly one month and there are holes we need to fill before we go,” Sora said, scooping up another bite of chocolate chip pancakes.
“Holes?” Naruto asked with his mouth full.
“In your education,” Sora said mouth also full. “There are a few parts we simply haven’t gotten to yet that we should probably cover.”
“Like what?” Hinata asked.
“Like teaching you how to summon. It’s a handy still to have, but with all the work you’ve been doing on genjutsu, I just haven’t gotten around to it.”
“I’m going to learn how to summon?” Hinata asked. “Summon what?”
“Ah now you see herein lies the issue. You have a choice, whereas normally you would just summon what your line would. However, Yasu and I have rather confusing lineages anyway, so you can just choose without too much hassle.”
“But if you summon in lines, why didn’t Kakashi-sensei learn how to summon frogs?”
“Because deep down, your father knew that Kakashi-no-baka was an idiot and not to be trusted with such things.”
“So then what do I have to decide?”
“Well, if I teach you to summon, you’ll learn to summon the falcons. If Yasu teaches you, you’ll get to summon what she does.”
“Which is?”
Sora grinned. “Why don’t you tell them Yasu?”
Yasu glared at her. “I don’t know why you think this is so funny. Half the time they’re more useful then those damn birds, which are so stubborn you have to fight to get them to do anything.”
“True, but compared to yours...”
“What do you summon, Yasu?” Hinata asked.
Yasu sighed. “Squirrels.”
There was silence for a moment. Then Naruto burst out laughing.
“HA HA HA HA! You summon SQUIRRELS! HAHAHAHA. That’s the so stupid!
He stopped as he caught Yasu’s icy glare, which froze his blood in his veins. “Might I remind you that you summon frogs? That seems to me to be far less useful than a squirrel. Unless you use enough chakra to get one of the big ones, all they can do is hop. Squirrels happen to make excellent scouts.”
Sora chuckled. “True true, but I’ll stick with something with talons.”
“Even if you have to beg them to do anything?”
“I don’t have to beg. It just takes are certain amount of...finesse to deal with them. And that’s only for certain ones. Now, Hinata-chan, you just have to choose which one you want to summon.”
“Falcons or squirrels?” she asked.
Yasu nodded. “And believe me; you want to go for the squirrels. They’re very nice and helpful. Not like those argumentative creatures Sora has.”
“Helpful, is a relative term. Falcons are battle able where squirrels can’t to shit. Plus they carry messages.”
“Squirrels can carry messages too. Plus you never use the falcons in battle because you have to argue with them before they’ll do anything.”
Sora glanced at Hinata and realized the girl was torn. She decided to go in for the kill. “You know, Nanashi was the one who brought me into the falcon contract and taught me how to summon. It would be neat to see the falcons and the frogs fighting side by side together again.”
And that decided it. “I’m sorry Yasu, but I’m going to have to go with falcon.”
Yasu elbowed Sora in the ribs. “That was a low blow.”
“Whatever works. Come on, lets go get that
scroll.”
Hinata pricked her finger and then carefully wrote out her name in blood, before leaving her fingerprints at the bottom of the scroll.
“Good,” Sora said, rolling the giant thing up. “Now, all we need is to summon a falcon big enough to take this monstrosity back to the house. Seals are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram. Finally slam your hand down and presto, Kuchiyose no jutsu. Remember, unless you give them somewhere to perch they’re going to take right off.”
Hinata nodded and did as instructed.
What she got was something very small and very fluffy. The little bird looked at her and squawked.
Sora and Naruto were silent, trying to think of what in the world they could say.
“Don’t worry, Hina-chan, it took me a month to stop summoning tadpoles.”
“Yeah, Hinata, you just need to practice. You have more then enough-“She stopped as Hinata looked up, eyes shinning.
“Its so CUTE!” she breathed, before bending down to carefully scratch the chest feathers of the little bird, who closed his eyes in bliss. “Hellooo little guy. Aren’t you the cutest thing in the world!? Oh, I’m sorry,” she said as the falcon rose it’s beak in indignation. “You’re really very majestic. Would you like anything?”
The bird looked up at her and let out a squawk that sounded remotely like the word ‘meat.’
“Sure, sure. Let’s go into the house and see was Yasu has.”
And with that she very carefully picked the fledgling up and carried it into the house, crooning all the way. Naruto and Sora just stood there and watched stunned.
Naruto looked at Sora. “That was weird.”
“Yeah I know. Pampering a fledgling isn’t
exactly what I envisioned when I had her start summoning.” Sora
shrugged. “Well, she’s got a month to figure it out.”
But a month came and went and Hinata, though now a beloved favorite among the fledgling, was not able to summon a full grown falcon.
And then, all too soon, it was time for them to leave. Bags were packed, maps rolled up and they started to make the final arrangements to leave.
Hinata looked down at the calendar. Eighteen months: they were exactly halfway through the mission. Her life had been turned completely upside down in those months. She was still basically the same person, essentially the same girl who had lived her whole life within Leaf, sleeping every night in the same room, waking up and doing the same duties every morning before her day began.
Every day feeling the same insecurities.
She sighed and picked up a small photo album she had gotten for the trip. She couldn’t bring framed pictures, they would be too heavy, so instead she had bought this in the village and put in a few pictures she couldn’t live without. One of her and her mother serving tea when she was three, one of her and Hanabi on her tenth birthday, and one of her and her old gennin team. Time changed everything: her mother was dead, Hanabi would be the one turning ten now and her teammates were no longer hers.
She flipped to the newer pictures, ones that had been taken on the mission. The three of them sitting on the kitchen counter at midnight, Sora grabbing Naruto in a headlock and one very special one of her and Naruto all dressed up for New Years. She ran her fingers over their smiling faces. They were standing right next to each other and you would almost be able to believe that they were a couple.
But that was never to be. She had accepted that it was just a daydream and hopefully one that she would eventually grow out of. It probably didn’t matter how he felt about her anyway. While the freedom and peace she had found in this mission were wonderful, it didn’t change the fact that her father would probably try to arrange a strategic marriage for her once she returned. Naruto was right; she was going to have to fight them to accept that she and Naruto were partners. She was going to have to fight them on the use of the seal and her rights as heir. At this point, Naruto would be the only person she would ever fight to marry.
She was worried he knew that he had figured out that she loved him and it was making things awkward. All of a sudden a few months back he had started acting very strange around her. Their conversations had become more strained then they had been since the very beginning. She wanted to talk to him about it, but couldn’t bring herself to.
She sighed and closed the book, placing it into her pack. Looking in, she realized that she had accidentally grabbed both of the first aid kits, one of which was meant for Naruto’s pack.
We’ll she would have to get it to him then, wouldn’t she.
Grabbing the kit, she went to look for him.
Naruto sat on the floor of the loft, reading the book Nanashi had written. According to Sora, his parents’ ongoing arguments about how a country was properly run were a mainstay of their conversation. If that was a case, reading the book was almost like listening into one of their conversations.
Most of the text was, of course, written by his mother. There were long and passionate passages about the consequences of war on a fighter and his family and the use of trade as a method of strengthening ties between countries. His mother’s ideas were truly radical: she had advocated for ending the mandatory gennin level training everyone received in favor of an education that leaned more towards academics and the end of what she considered to be a war based society.
And then, written neatly in the margins were very short, but poignant remarks on why her theories were off. Almost always defending the position of Leaf, the remarks could only belong to his father.
Piecing this together with the photos and the stories, he could almost come up with a picture of what they must have been like. There was one picture of them sitting on a blue couch up at the house in the mountains. It was obviously taken by Sora as it was slightly crooked, but it somehow it made the picture cuter. His mother was sitting with her back against the armrest, legs stretched out along its length and into his father’s lap. She had the book Naruto was reading in her lap just in front of a very pregnant stomach. She was making some sort of large gesture, sending the sleeves of her kimono flying.
His father was calmly sitting with his wife’s legs in his lap, resting his head on his arm which was propped up on the back of the couch. He was smiling slightly, as if he was enjoying watching his wife rant and was simply going to wait until she got good and going before throwing a wench in her works. When he read the book her could almost hear them talking.
“Asking an entire village to train in the ninja arts is sending the wrong psychological message. It implies that there is no other was to resolve conflicts other than force and therefore the state of war within the village communities, both internally and inter-village, is an ever present state. Therefore, mandatory military training within the villages should be removed to favor a form of education or training that is more compatible with other potential fields of work.”
“However, ninja training unites the village, keeps us strong and makes every individual feel as if they have the power to control their own destiny. Plus, conflict is an ever present part of our lives. Remember, villages were carved out of war to give us some peace, but that doesn’t mean we can wish away the war.”
“What are you reading?”
Naruto was startled out of his daydream, as he looked up to find Hinata standing by the ladder. “It’s a book my mother wrote, or at least started to write. She didn’t get to finish it.”
She moved to sit on the floor across from him. “About politics?”
Naruto nodded. “She thought so much about how to make the villages work. She wanted people to stop being fighters all the time and start having other lives too. It’s strange though; I can tell where my father wrote in because he disagreed with her. At times I almost feel as though I can hear them in my head, debating back and forth.” He’d have to remember to show her the pictures sometimes; he had only brought a few with him, most of them were still up at the house.
She smiled and brought he knees up to her chest. “Did they debate a lot?”
“According to Nee-chan, they did it all the time. It was one of the things that bound them together.”
“Arguing bound them together?”
He shrugged. “I’ll have to ask Kakashi-sensei about it when we get back.”
A heavy silence weighed down on the room. “I wonder why he didn’t tell me,” Naruto whispered.
Hinata reached out and put her hand over his. “I’m sure he had a good reason. You’ll just have to wait until we get back to find out.” She smiled. “Onee-chan has certainly passed judgment though.”
Naruto managed a half smile. “I get the feeling that she never really liked ‘Kakashi-no-baka’ that much.”
“Really? I got the opposite impression.”
“What do you mean?”
Hinata giggled slightly. “I think she might have liked him a little too much.”
Naruto’s eyes went wide. “You mean she had a crush on him? No way!”
She leaned back and rested her head against the window frame. “Handsome thirteen year old preparing to test for ANBU membership, the only male even remotely her age that she gets to see on a regular basis, and the protégé of her teacher’s husband? It sounds like the perfect opportunity for crush.”
“Really?” Naruto asked incredulously. “THAT’S the perfect opportunity for a crush?”
“Well, it just seems like in those circumstances she might have been interested. She was ten after all.”
There was another long silence. Naruto felt a tightening within his chest.
“You haven’t seen a boy close to your age in months, other than me,” Naruto said.
Oh no, this was not the direction that she had expected or wanted the conversation to go. Hinata looked up at him, questioningly.
“I just wondered what the chances were that you would develop a crush on me.”
She swallowed hard and carefully worded her answer, trying hard to keep the emotion out of her voice. “Don’t worry, Naruto-kun. I won’t develop a crush on you just because we’re out here alone.” She had already had a crush on him back in the Leaf where there were dozens of other boys her age.
His heart fell. He should have known that she wasn’t going to like him back. He would never be able to get a break like that.
But then he started thinking about his parents and their debates. His heart lightened again. Maybe there was still a chance. Maybe he could convince her. He jumped to his feet and started to pace back and forth in front of her.
“Hina-chan, we’re going to do a lot of cool things, right?”
She watched him walk back and forth. “I’m not sure what you-”
“I mean we’re going to go back to Leaf and kick everyone’s ass, right? And we’ll make chuunin and then jounin. And then I’ll become Hokage and you’ll become the head of your clan, and we’ll change things. We’ll change the Hyuuga, and then we’ll change the village. We’ll make Leaf the best place in the whole world. Everyone will acknowledge us and the strength of the Leaf. It’ll be great, right?”
She smiled. His dream was starting to change slightly. No, change was the wrong word. Mature was better. “Hai, Naruto-kun.”
“And we’ll do it together right?”
Her smile widened. “Hai.”
He walked over to her and leaned down. “What if I told you that I had thought of a way to make it even cooler?”
“Even cooler?”
“Yeah, yeah! See, I was thinking about my parents and how they were going to do the same thing together. Well they weren’t planning on changing the Hyuuga specifically, but in general they were planning on doing things very similar to what we’re doing.”
Her heart clenched. “Your parents?”
“Yeah, yeah! And then I started thinking that you and I were a lot like my parents, at least in some way. Obviously there are some differences. But still, I was thinking about us and I was thinking about how cool you were and I started thinking that maybe, we should be even more like them.”
Her hands were clutched tightly in her lap. “Na...Naruto-kun, what are you saying?”
“Well, I was thinking that maybe you should be my girlfriend.”
“I should be your girlfriend?”
He held his hands out in front of him, worried that he had misspoken and said the wrong thing. “No, wait that’s not what I meant! I was wondering if... you would be my girlfriend....”
Her eyes were wide and her voice trembled. “You think we’re a lot like your parents and therefore you want to know if I’ll be your girlfriend?”
“Well, that... and.... I think I might be... in love with you.” He reached back to scratch the back of his head. “I probably should have started with that, shouldn’t I?”
She started crying. She couldn’t help herself, it was just too much. It was a daydream that she thought never would come true.
Naruto had started to panic. Oh gods, she was crying. “Hina-chan, don’t cry. I’m sorry I... I di...”
She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his middle and sending him back a pace. “Don’t be sorry. Please, don’t be sorry.”
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her more tightly to him. “Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m happy.”
He brightened. “Does that mean that you’re willing to try it? Being my girlfriend, I mean.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“So then, you think you might love me too?”
He could feel her shake her head against his chest. “I don’t think. I know I love you.”
“Ehhh? Really? Wait, have you thought about this before?”
She half laughed. “You could say that.” She pulled back to look at his face, and then reached up with one hand to cup it. “Naruto, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t.”
His eyes widened. “You mean, back in Leaf?”
She nodded.
“When no one would acknowledge me, you...” He let his voice trail off.
She nodded again. “It never occurred to me that my acknowledgement would mean anything to you.”
He crushed her to him again, pressing her face down into his shoulder, holding her tightly. His eyes started to water. “It means more from you than anyone else.”
She burst into fresh tears again, sobbing into his shirt. He turned his head to bury his face in her hair. This was it, this was right. The rain poured outside and tears were flowing inside, but he had never been so warm.
“Hina-chan?”
She hiccupped. “Hai?”
“I don’t want you to think that I’m a pervert or anything, but...would you hit me if I tried to kiss you?” he asked, rushing out the last part of the question.
Her heart stopped and she sucked in her breath. It wasn’t how she had imagined he would ask her but...she gave him a shaky smile and shook her head, cheeks bright red.
The realization suddenly struck Naruto that he had absolutely no idea how someone was actually supposed to kiss a girl. Oh, he had seen people in the village do it and heard some very strange rumors about using one’s tongue, but he had never actually had the process explained to him.
But he wasn’t about to back down now; he would just have to improvise.
Slowly, he bent his head, turning it to one side and placed his lips against hers.
They were very, very soft. There was no movement, except for the fact that that they were both shaking ever so slightly. They just stood there, eyes screwed tightly shut, feeling each others lips against theirs. It was amazingly simple, just to rest there, wrapped up in each other.
He pulled back, his lips tugging hers slightly as he left. Her eyes opened to look up at him. Her face was expressionless, almost stunned for a few seconds. Then a smile started to spread across her face and she giggled, turning her head to bury her face in his shoulder, cheeks red. He laughed softly too, moving one hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, trying to see her better. He nuzzled his nose into her cheek, coaxing her to turn her head. When she did, he pressed his lips to hers once again, this time daring to move his lips across hers. They stayed just like that, trying to get a feel for this new action, these new sensations.
Finally, they pulled back, her head returning to his shoulder. He placed his forehead against hers. “I love you, Hina-chan,” he whispered.
She blushed again, and smiled. “I love you
too, Naruto-kun.”
Sora and Yasu knew what just happened the instant they walked into the kitchen. Naruto and Hinata were both blushing and practically glowing: there could be absolutely no doubt as to what had been going on.
Sora smirked. “You two got together,” she said, and it was a statement.
Naruto swallowed. He hadn’t thought about how Sora was going to react to him and Hinata getting together. “Yeah, so?”
Sora grinned, but there was an edge to it. “Sit down,” she said, gesturing at the table across from her.
They both nervously moved to sit down across from her. Sora folded up the newspaper she was reading and set it down on the table. She cleared her throat.
“Ground rules for dating. Actually there aren’t that many of them. I expect you to be reasonably discrete and non-disgusting about it, but I trust that Hinata has good enough taste to keep a certain level of decorum. However, there is one issue I want to impress upon you.”
She leaned in over the table. “If either of you leave my custody as anything but virgins, Tsunade and Hiashi will hunt me down. And that would be a pain in the ass. Therefore, you will both leave my custody as virgins and by virgins I mean virgins by anyone’s descriptions. There will be no acts that are considered sex by some people and not by others. There will be nothing borderline, with the possibility of swinging either way. All underwear will stay on and in place at all times when you two are together, clear?”
Hinata had never been so red in her life. No one in her household had talked this...blatantly about such topics before. It had always been referred to as ‘keeping herself pure.’ She hadn’t even started thinking about doing anything like that with Naruto.
Naruto was on his feet yelling at Sora. “Wha...What do you think I am, some sort of pervert like Kakashi-sensei and Ero-sennin? I would never do anything like that to Hina-chan!”
Sora quirked an eyebrow. “You might find that your opinion on that changes as you get older. However, for now...” She squealed and jumped across the table to grab both of them around the neck and pulled them to her. “Finally! Man I was getting tired of waiting for you two to figure it out. You made it just in time to: I really didn’t want to be dealing with this on the road.” She jumped off the table and headed over to the fridge. “This calls for a celebration. We should make cake or something.”
“Oi, what to you mean you’ve been waiting?” Naruto asked.
Sora smirked at him. “Naruto you were the only person dense enough to not realize that she was interested. I realized it before we even got to the house.”
“You’ve known since before we got here?”
Sora shook her head. “Not this house, my house.”
“NANI? You mean that...” he looked at Hinata and then back at Sora. “You knew from day one.”
“Of course I have. And you have been painfully slow to realize it, let me tell you. You have got to be the densest boy in the world. Oo, chocolate!” Sora hauled out a box of cocoa powder from the cabinet. “Hey, Yasu do you have in chocolate chips? We could make a Death by Chocolate Cake.”
“Check in the next cabinet over. Naruto, how long ago did you figure out that you liked Hinata?”
Naruto sat miserably in the kitchen chair. He couldn’t believe them. “A few months ago.”
Yasu turned back to Sora. “HA! I told you so. And you doubted a married woman’s instincts.”
Sora rolled her eyes. “Hmph. Lucky guess.”
Sora hefted her sack onto her back, tightening the straps. “Well, we’re off.”
Miki pouted. “Don’t want you to go.”
Sora chuckled softly and bent to pick up the little girl. “Don’t be sad, Miki-chan. We’ll be back before you know it.”
“Weally?”
“Promise,” she said. “There is only so much of the west I can stand.”
“There is only so much of anything you can stand,” Yasu laughed, taking her daughter. She reached out to hug her old friend with her free arm. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
Naruto stood in front of Nori, Yasu and Miki, trying to figure out what to say. He had never had to thank anyone for so much before. Something in him knew that this was the end of something, although he couldn’t pin down exactly what it was. But something was telling him that once he left, things weren’t going to align themselves quite this was again.
“You guys kick ass.”
The pair laughed and Nori moved to hit him on the shoulder. “You’re not bad yourself.”
Yasu bent to kiss him on the cheek. “Remember you can come back anytime. People like us don’t use blood to define family.”
He blushed and rubbed his cheek, embarrassed. He’d gone so long without a family that he wasn’t quite sure how to act with one.
“Well, kids, there’s nothing for us to do here but stand around and get sadder. We might as well get going.” Sora turned and started walking down the path.
Slowly, Naruto and Hinata turned away from the house, waving a final goodbye to the family that stood at the base of the stairs. Forcing their feet forward, they started to walk away. It was strange how quickly a place felt like home; it was almost harder to leave the farm than it had been to leave Hidden Leaf.
About halfway through the fields, Hinata stopped and looked back. She had the same feeling as Naruto. Those things weren’t going to be the same again. But her feeling was colored with apprehension, as if something bad was going to happen if they left.
Doubts filled her head. Was this what they were waiting for? Were they just waiting for them to leave the shelter of their hidden life in order to swoop down and take Naruto? She bit her lower lip. Maybe this was a bad idea.
“Hina-chan?”
She turned to see Naruto standing a few yards behind her. He smiled and held out his hand. “Come on, Nee-chan’s getting ahead.”
She hesitated a second, then smiled and walked to slip her hand into his.
No matter what happened, they were going to
put up a fight.
Author’s Notes: And thus ends the second story arch. I hope that the confession scene lived up to everyone’s expectations; I was really nervous about writing it.
Coming up in the next arc, lots more action,
typical Naruto good heartedness and a whole lot of hair sticks.
This site is published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT
info@seltzerbooks.com
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