While being berated by that father for failing to be impressive, she had been swept out of the normal situation by Naruto for a moonlit forest rendevous.
She had observed, she had watched. Her faith in Naruto had, as far as she had been concerned, rewarded. Naruto had just beaten one of their teachers up when that teacher had been in the process of betraying the village and trying to kill one of the other teachers.
She'd never liked Mizuki. Not just for being too snarky. She'd seen him, even when he thought no one was looking. His body language gave the lie away to those who knew how to read it.
Tears were running down Naruto's face as he turned towards Iruka. "What? What is in me?"
Hinata found herself there without knowing how or when she'd moved. She hesitated for just a moment, then took Naruto's hands. Willing without words that she could tell him that it didn't matter, that he was Naruto, that she loved him.
Naruto's head lifted, he stared into her startled face for a moment, and then he simply gathered her close in a hug.
Iruka's jaw hung open.
"Well, well," said Hiashi, mostly amused. "So that's how it is."
The Third Hokage glanced to the side and spotted a black cat. Wearing a little beret and striped shirt and smoking a cigar as he leaned against a tree.
"Ah, l'amour," said the cat. "Young love. It is so... young."
"Believe it or not," said the Third Hokage, "I was young once myself."
"I might have been once myself," said the cat, "except it was so long ago I don't remember it."
"They say the memory is the first thing to go," noted the Hokage, wondering who had summoned a cat. Not that a cat was an inappropriate summons for a ninja.
"I thought it was innocence myself," said the cat, fading away until only the beret was left. Then that vanished with a Pop sound.
The Hokage smiled. "Not much innocence to be had in a ninja village."
Then he spotted the way young Hinata was beginning to cling back to Naruto, and allowed that perhaps there was a little bit of that to be found after all. If one knew where to look.
"Naruto hit Mizuki with nine hundred and ninety nine Shadow Clones using the S-Level Kage Bunshin technique," said the retainer. "He then used a Fire-based technique that he called 'Burn Knuckle' to impart extra energy to his attacks. Each clone, on average, hit Mizuki twice."
"Any records of this 'Burn Knuckle' technique on record?" asked Hiashi Hyuga, walking in his immaculate garden.
"No sir, it appears to be an original knockoff of a general utility technique," said the retainer. "Asuma Sarutobi uses it with his trench knives to charge them with wind chakra."
"Hmm," hmmmed the leader of the Hyuga clan. "So Naruto isn't even a gennin yet, but can access Fire and Wind chakra techniques. Very promising. Where is Naruto now?"
"Naruto and your daughter are together with Iruka and the Hokage as they go over the events of this evening," said the retainer.
"Someone should keep an eye on them, without being an obvious chaperone," said Hiashi. "Who do we have available for such a task?"
Hinata stood there, one hand pinching Naruto's jacket, and was so quiet and solemn it would be easy to overlook her.
Her Inner Hinata, on the other hand, was singing her little heart out and doing a dance number that Fred Astaire would have likely applauded.
She had just gone from being a quiet little outcast/failure to take part in an operation to foil a plot to destroy the village and steal a scroll of forbidden techniques. A successful operation. That Naruto had hugged her, allowed her to hug him back, and had cried on her shoulder - showing a surprising amount of trust in her.
The Inner Hinata raised a fist heavenwards and yelled triumphantly.
"Ok, now, my turn," Naruto was saying. "What exactly is in me? The Ninetailed Demon Fox?"
"No," said the Hokage.
"What?!" asked Iruka. "But I thought..."
"Something came down from the heavens and crushed the Ninetails in one attack," said the Hokage. "Rather than have it turn its attention to the village - that was sealed inside the child that would become you, Naruto."
"Why me?" asked Naruto.
"You were his son, and it was necessary," said the Hokage. "Much more than that I can't say due to promises made to that individual."
"So what is it, if it ain't the demon fox?" asked Naruto.
"A bird of flame, that's all we know for sure," said the Hokage. "Part of its essence and it's power remains within you."
"Flame?" asked Naruto, looking at his hand.
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(Posted Thu, 21 May 2009 18:34)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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