It was nearly the day of the final exams the day they would all be ninja and the kids were kind of excited over it all. But there was one person that was actually worrying and that was Naruto of all people, he and his friends had been training all this time to make sure they all passed as they were in a special training spot in the woods that Naruto had found a few years ago. There was a cabin where they could keep supplies and plenty of space to train. But Naruto however was having a large amount of difficulty with the one jutsu that would make him pass the test.
He had his physical skills down now and it took over a week for him to get the henge just right but now he was having a lot of trouble with making clones. Whenever he tried it they came out sickly and just lay there on the ground looking like death. He tried and tried and yet he couldn't get it to work right. He was currently in the area with his friends and once again was trying to make a clone. There was the puff of smoke and he looked to his right hoping that this time he got it, but it was just another failed clone there.
"Damn it why the hell can't I get this!?" Naruto shouted out in frustration.
"Naruto what the hell is wrong with you?" Ino asked hands on her hips, she had changed her style over the years. Her hair was longer now into a ponytail and wore purple. "Are you just messing around or what?"
"I'm not Ino it's hard!"
"I did it after two days so why can't you do it?" Ino asked getting irritated with her friend. "How can you be so good in so many things and yet suck so much at other things?"
"I don't know if I did I would figure out a way around it already," Naruto sighed and slumped his shoulder feeling a little depressed.
"I'm still surprised you can still try and make clones I'd be too tired to stand with how long you've been at it," Ino sighed as she sat down on the ground.
Shikamaru who was as usual on the ground turned his head to face Naruto as something clicked in his head. In all the time that he had known Naruto he seemed to have nearly unlimited energy and he was wondering is his chakra mirrored that. "Naruto how much chakra as you using?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head thinking about it, "I don't know I just use whatever I can."
"Naruto," chided Sakura at him, "You have to use a set amount for clones didn't you pay attention to that in class?"
Sakura had also grown over the years, she chided Naruto at times and she kept him in line. The young crush she had on the boy was still there but she wasn't sure if she liked Naruto as a friend or more these days. It didn't help matters that Naruto seemed to have taken up a slightly perverted side that annoyed her to no end. Her hair was still short, she had thought of making it long like Ino since she heard Sasuke liked long haired girls but she had asked him if she looked better with long hair, he only grunted and walked off.
Naruto had commented that she looked cute with short hair so she went with Naruto since he was honest about these things. Okay so he could be really sweat when he wasn't being an idiot or perverted. Sometimes she wondered why the top two boys in the class had to be so difficult, Sasuke was handsome and intelligent, strong and cool. But he was so cold to everyone and you couldn't get close to him. Naruto was the opposite of that, he radiated warmth and made you smile. Too bad he sometimes was too hyper, his pranks were childish (even though she did find a few of them very funny) and the aforementioned moments of being an idiot and perverted.
It was like Naruto was the sun and Sasuke was the moon and sometimes she felt that both were just unattainable.
'Why can't both boys be more like the other?' She thought to herself.
'Yeah that would be great if they were one boy! They would be totally hot!' Inner Sakura agreed.
Sakura mentally sighed and wondered if this inner persona was the result of some childhood trauma making her have a partial case of multiple personality syndrome.
"Hey Hinata why don't you see how much chakra he's using with your eyes?" Sakura asked the shy girl as the idea hit her, "I mean maybe you can tell how much he's using and he can use that as a way to help him judge how much he's using."
"That's actually a good idea," Shikamaru said sitting up slightly, "With a baseline Naruto might finally be able to tell how much chakra he's using for once."
"Cool! Come on Hinata let's see if you can help me out!" Naruto said smiling at the young girl, if only he knew what his smiled even behind the mask did to her. She gulped feeling a little bit of pressure, she really wanted to help Naruto after all she owed him so much and she wanted him to see her as maybe more as a friend.
Over the years her affection for Naruto had grown over time, he had been there through her long hard period after her mother's death spending a lot of time with her and helping her out. Sometimes he would even hug her when she was feeling low, although that caused her to blush very much and nearly pass out from all the happy feelings that made. He also helped her with Hanabi too, although Hanabi was five years her junior she was very strong for her age, and Hinata was a bit envious that she was that strong.
Her father had hardened a bit over the years, he never really smiled anymore but with her uncle around he wasn't as bad as he might have been. She had been afraid that her mother's death would have hit him so hard that he would have never recovered and in a way he never had, it was like most of the light in his life was gone and she felt sad for her father. He never showed it but she knew that he was hurting every day that she was gone.
She faced Naruto and made a hand seal and activated her eyes, she saw the world in black and white like a photonegative and for the people she could see their chakra network, the blue lines that ran over their bodies. She watched as Naruto gathered up his chakra and she saw it was too much.
"W-wait Naruto-kun that's too much." She told him and he stopped.
"Huh? That's too much?" He asked her confused and she nodded her head. He sighed and tried it again, but again she told him he was using too much. This went on for five more times before Ino was getting very frustrated with this whole affair.
"Damn it just use as little chakra as you can!" Ino yelled out losing her patience.
"That is the least amount that I can use Ino! What do you think I've been trying?" He yelled back at her.
"Hinata how much was that?" Sakura asked the young girl wondering just how much chakra Naruto had.
Hinata began playing with her finger tips looking down, "About t-t-twice what Ino uses normally."
Ino's eye brows shot up from that as did Shino and Shikamaru's. "He's using twice as much as me normally!? How the hell can he use that much and that's the small amount? Okay sure I don't have the most amount but I still got an average amount and you're telling us that he's using double?"
Hinata nodded her head.
Shikamaru sighed, "Man what a drag no wonder you can't get this Naruto. Until you learn how to limit the amount you use I doubt that you'll ever get the chance to actually use it properly. You need a low amount to make a clone that's one of the reasons they teach us this move. But if you use too much it won't work so that means..."
"Yeah it means what?" Naruto asked him.
"You're screwed," and with that he laid back onto the ground.
Naruto looked at his friend and heard Kiba snicker at the comment, he shot Kiba a glare before glaring at the lazy boy. "That's it? I'm screwed that's all you can say?"
"Well what do you want? I can't make it so you can use less chakra and I don't know how you can do it without a lot of practice and training." He responded.
"But the test is at the end of the week, that's only four days I'll never get it down by four days." Given how long it took him to learn how to tree climb learning a whole new way of controlling his chakra in the given amount of time was nearly impossible. He was really worried that because of this he wouldn't be able to graduate with the others and he really wanted to become a ninja along with all his friends.
Hinata saw the worry in him and wished that she had could have done more to help him, she was wondering what she could do to help him and then an idea entered her mind. They weren't that experienced but there were others that were and perhaps that Naruto's father would have some ideas.
"N-N-Naruto-kun, what about your father, w-w-would he have any ideas on how to do this?" She asked him.
Naruto looked shocked but it was just that he felt stupid with not asking his dad sooner. He beamed at her and quickly jumped over to her and gave her a huge hug. "Hinata-chan you're the best!"
He didn't hear the soft 'eep' sound that she made when he grabbed her or how she was blushing bright red, she felt light headed with him hugging her like this and it felt nice as well. She could feel his warm body pressed up against hers and the warmth of the emotions even, it felt so good and she wished she could move her arms to hug him back.
A part of her mind wanted to hug him back so much, and much more as well. She had dreams like this, first the hugging would come and then he would look into her eyes with those bright blue and wonderful eyes of his. He would tell her how beautiful and strong she was and that he loved her. She could tell him that she loved him too and he would gently pull down his mask and she would see that cute face with the whisker marks on it again.
He would smile that smile of his that melted her heart and made her legs shake, and their lips would gently touch.
But as soon as it happened it was gone, the hug ended and so did her little day dream with it and Naruto was running off to see his father. Hinata however was swaying back and forth feeling all warm from his embrace and a smile was on her face, from the hug and from her own thoughts she had just had.
"N-N-Naruto-kun..." She said softly before he fainted and landed onto the soft grass. Kiba and Shino went to her quickly as did Choji as they made sure that she was okay.
Ino sighed and shook her head, "Boy that girl has it bad for him. Should we tell him that his best friend as a huge crush on him because I honestly don't know when he'll figure it out."
"It's too troublesome," Shikamaru sighed thinking on just what it would take to get Hinata to admit to her own feelings let along to Naruto gave him a headache just thinking about it.
Everyone knew about Hinata's crush on Naruto with the exception of the blonde, as they helped her up Sakura had a worried look on her face. She did like Naruto but she didn't want to hurt Hinata given that she was a close friend. She had nearly lost her friendship with Ino over Sasuke but thanks to Naruto smoothing things out between them they were still friends. She still wore the red ribbon Ino had given her years ago and yes they both chased after Sasuke from time to time but Sakura's attention was split so it wasn't with her whole heart that she went after Sasuke and Ino guessed that meant less competition for the dark boy's affections.
Not that Ino or any other girl seemed to get any, Naruto made a joke about him being gay and both Ino and Sakura had hit him for it, plus the other girls of the Uchiha fan club gave him death glares for even suggesting that the boy they all crushed on was gay and they had no chance whatsoever with him.
At any rate until her mind/heart was made up she had no idea which boy to go after but she wouldn't lose a friendship over it. She watched as Choji and Shino trying to wake the young girl up and if she chose to go after Naruto she would give the young girl a fight but she would be fair about it. She would give the other girl a chance to at least admit her feelings to the boy and see where it went. After all maybe Naruto would only like Hinata as a friend?
'But what if he likes us only as a friend?'Inner Sakura said with a hint of worry. Sakura bit her lip but decided she could live with that, after all there was still Sasuke after all.
It took some times but they managed to get Hinata to wake up and she felt embarrassed over what had happened to her. She really wished she could stop doing that but it was just so hard for her
Hinata walked home by herself feeling slightly embarrassed that she had fainted like that in front of everyone but it was just whenever Naruto was that close when he did things like that it always made her hart pound so loud she could hear it and feel it, she just totally lost it and she wished she could just gather the strength to tell him how she felt and to be able to not faint. She sighed, out of all of her friends she felt that she hadn't changed much. Although she had taken an interests in medicine shortly after her mother's death but mainly just medical herbs and such things like that, she didn't want to become a medical nin.
But a good idea on healing salves, potions and antidotes had become a new hobby for her, Sakura and Ino helped her with an herb garden on the Hyuga compound that she maintained to help her with that, even Naruto helped out from time to time much to her joy. She walked into her room taking off her jacket that she had been wearing for a few years now. What no one knew was just how well developed the girl had become over the years but she was too shy to show it hence why she always ware large clothing, well that and she felt it was just very comfortable as well.
She heard someone walk up to her door and looked to see her younger sister Hanabi, she looked very much like their mother hand although she could see a bit of their father in her. She looked like she had just finished a training routine. Hanabi was always training very hard, she knew it was in part from their father trying to ensure his daughters were strong in life, but also she suspected it was because Hanabi didn't want to be put into the Branch family like their uncle had been.
There might have been some animosity in them but there wasn't, they weren't as close as she would have liked as Hanabi acted a lot like their father so she reserved herself a lot of the time.
"Hello Nee-Chan."
"Hello Hanabi-chan how was practice with Uncle?"
"He was helping me with forms today, it was hard but he says that I've been improving a lot lately," Hanabi then noticed some dirk on Hinata's jacket and she tiled her head a bit, "were you training as well sister?"
Hinata looked confused and then Hanabi pointed out the dirk and she grew bright red seeing the dirt there from when she had fallen onto the ground. "Uh, I w-w-was with my friends and I s-s-sort of fell..."
Hanabi knew what that meant having seen it happen before, "You really should tell Naruto-nisan how you feel."
Hanabi had known Naruto all her life and even though she had never seen what was behind that mask he was always there for her big sister and her. She could remember Naruto and Hinata looking after her and even training with her. He was also one of the few people that could make her laugh or smile with his antics. He was always there and over the years she thought of him as the big brother she didn't have. It was also painfully obvious that her older sister had feelings for him and she secretly wished that they would get together.
Although she didn't like boys, Naruto was another story. He was good to her family and her sister obviously looked up to him and was totally smitten by him. Plus if Hinata and Naruto got married then he really would be her older brother even if her brother in law.
Hinata looked down as she did that thing with her fingers again, "I...I want to tell him...b-b-but what if he doesn't feel the same? I know he kind of likes S-S-Sakura and he's got all those other girls after him and they're stronger and prettier than I am."
Hanabi hated it when her sister got like this it honestly just pissed her off, "Where is your Hyuga pride sister? You are a Hyuga of the Main family and the heiress of our clan, you are above those others girls and you should show it. If you want Naruto-nisan then take him as yours as if it were your right. If he doesn't feel the same then he's an idiot for turning down a Hyuga since we don't give our hearts to those outside the clan freely."
Hinata felt a bit ashamed and not for the first time she wished that Hanabi was the heiress and not her, Hanabi even though younger was more confident and stronger and would make for an excellent leader. But she couldn't even get the courage to tell the boy she had liked for years that she liked him and wanted more than just friendship. Not for the first time she wished she was stronger and that she wished her mother was still alive to go to and get advice from. She couldn't go to her father or uncle because it would be awkward for both parties.
I, I just wish I knew I had a chance...I don't want to lose him," Hinata said in a low and soft voice.
Hanabi heard it anyway and sighed, "If you don't do something you'll lose him anyway."
-Hatake Home-
Kakashi was sitting at home reading one of his novels again, he loved the books. Yes they did have some dirty adult content but that was besides the point, well okay it was also a big selling point as well since he had learned some very interesting techniques from the book. Hard to believe that the writer of these books was the sensei to his sensei, but then again he remembered a few times when Minato tried to act a bit perverted around his then girlfriend (and later future wife). The poor blonde man never knew what hit him sometimes.
He sighed remembering them and he hoped that he was doing well by Naruto, he wanted to protect Naruto more than anything and not just because it was out of duty and loyalty for the man that had been like a second father to him. He honestly did love Naruto like a son, it was strange but Naruto helped him to ease away the loneliness of his life had become. With his two best friends and teammates killed, his father dead, and then his teacher his life had been so empty.
He book down his book remembering his birthdays, how the Hokage sometimes liked to have Naruto in his office to babysit while he had been on a mission. Naruto said he liked it because he could learn how to become a Hokage himself one day. He remembered the first time he met Hinata and he could see the bond that had formed over the years with those two. But Naruto had lots of friends now and an extended family as well.
He had to admit things were never dull in his life, although he did like the quiet moments such as now.
A sudden banging sound of the front door was heard all over the home and Naruto's loud voice calling out to him. Kakashi sighed knowing that the only quiet he would get when Naruto was at school. He casually walked to find his son running through the house looking for him.
"Dad! I need you help with something important!"
"What is it son?" Kakashi asked him.
"I can't do a clone because I can't use as little chakra as the other kids but I need to make a clone or else I won't graduate and I want to pass with all my friends, can't you teach me something that will help me pass? Come on there's got to be some trick you can help me use less chakra or something? How about some type of restraining chakra thing, or maybe some kind of jutsu that can get me around it!"
Kakashi blinked wondering how he could have said all that in a rush in just one lung full of air, he shook his head and started to think about it. He knew this issue would come up, Naruto's chakra control was bad at the best of times but he had gain more control now after years of practice. But he still had trouble with the simpler stuff because of the limited amount of chakra you needed to put into it.
Basically it was like trying to force a ton of water through a small pipe. Kakashi knew that the test was coming up and he didn't want to see Naruto fail. But in order to get his chakra control that good would take a lot longer than he needed to train Naruto for this. If only there was a way around doing a simple clone then...an idea hit him.
"Naruto you said that it's a clone test right?" Kakashi asked him and the blonde nodded his head quickly looking up expectedly, "any type of clone at all?"
Naruto thought about that one, "All Iruka-sensei said was the tests would be physical skills outside, then a written one, a henge and finally a clone but he didn't say what kind. Hey are there different kinds of clones?"
Kakashi nodded his head, "Yes there are and I could teach you one but you have to understand Naruto this clone isn't the typical one. It can be dangerous and no one your age should even attempt it, but with your high concentration of chakra you might just be able to pull this off."
Kakashi wasn't kidding about this being dangerous but desperate times called for desperate measures. He had been hoping that Naruto would have gotten enough control to do a simple clone but it looked like he might have to teach him this one. He could use another type of clone than the one he had in mind but in all honestly he felt that Naruto could learn it, besides there was a bit of his pride telling him how great it would be for his son to learn such a high level jutsu in such a short time.
"It's going to be a lot of hard work Naruto and if you can't handle it I'll call it off understood?" He said in all seriousness.
Naruto looked up at him not backing down from his challenge, "I can do it dad, I don't care what it takes I will pass and be a ninja and I'll make you proud of me."
'I already am proud of you Naruto,' Kakashi thought to himself with a smile. "Alright then let's get you started on training for the new clone technique, this Naruto is called the shadow clone justu."
Next up chapter 19: The Final Test