Going home from school was something unfamiliar to her, but she WAS able to fulfill her training in the tracking and hunting down of a target.
There!
"Huh?" asked the young boy practicing with kunai as abruptly a young girl stepped out from the path. "Did you want to use the targets? I got here first y'know."
"That's okay, Naruto-kun," said the young girl. "Let's practice together." Careful now. Slowly. Don't spook him.
"Huh?" asked Naruto, looking confused. Someone was actually talking TO him? Not shunning him? Knew who he was? "Ah, yeah, I guess so."
The girl turned such a bright smile at him that Naruto was even MORE confused and off balance.
"I see what you're doing wrong, can I show you a couple of tricks?" asked Hinata, feeling a sudden burst of shyness. Which was very surprising to her as she'd thought every bit of her innocence had been violated and drug out to be publicly tortured by now.
"I guess," said Naruto, who was wondering if this was a dream or something. Someone being nice to him was rare enough. "Do I know you?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," said the girl, bowing. "Where are my manners? We're classmates. My name is Hinata Hyuga. I've observed you for some time, and I would like to be your friend. Please be kind to me."
As the little girl was cute and polite and friendly, Naruto had absolutely no experience in dealing with such - much less defending against her. The dreaded Puppy Dog Eyes attack was extremely effective on him.
Hinata spent an hour throwing kunai at the targets with Naruto. When she left, she felt she'd accomplished several things. One, she had adapted to her smaller size again. Two, she'd corrected some problems with Naruto's stance and technique. Third, and most important she felt, was that Naruto had exclaimed that they should do this again sometime.
Mission successful, thought Hinata to herself. She'd allowed herself one hug when Naruto had managed to hit three bullseyes.
Now though, there was a tough one to do. She remembered pretty fierce training with her father mostly every night until she'd lost the heir position.
Hiashi Hyuga wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Was it the presence of Kou from the branch family? No, the young man had been present for another training session.
Because the Byakugan was entirely visual, the Hyuga clan had long placed emphasis on being able to get the most out of that sense. Lip reading, reading of body language, and other details - though not everyone was very skilled at such things.
Hinata's body language was not the same. There were a lot of little differences in how she took her stance.
"Begin," said Kou, though he was picking up on something different himself if one went by his tone.
Hinata began running forward, hands at the ready.
Hiashi began a legsweep, not seeing anything different yet.
Hinata obliged at that point, instead of leaping over the leg, she wrapped herself around it. One arm and both legs wrapped around the extended leg before the impact could throw her off, and then she brought the remaining arm up and began stabbing away at chakra points.
Hiashi pulled in the leg, preparing to hit Hinata's points, when she rolled off and jabbed out at his OTHER leg.
Then her world went dark.
Hiashi Hyuga sat behind a desk and considered something as one of his retainers entered the room. "And?"
"She'll recover, of course," said Kou as he settled into place before the desk. "That last kick when she was already unconscious was the one that did most of the damage. Her leg will take a few weeks to properly heal."
Hiashi inclined his head, acknowledging in an understated way that he'd gone a bit overboard. "Do we know what changed her this much?"
Kou hesitated. "She's been watching that Uzumaki boy for about a week."
Hiashi inclined his head again, indicating that he remembered hearing about it.
"She apparently," Kou hesitated, fearing that the clan head might take it out on Hinata further, "approached him today about kunai practice. She hugged him at one point."
"What?" Hiashi frowned. Hinata initiating physical contact? "You're sure it wasn't the other way around?"
"That was what struck the observer as well, for her to be THAT forward or enthusiastic," said Kou, "denotes a significant change."
"If associating with that boy causes her to take her training seriously, I may have to approve," said Hiashi. "Perhaps. We'll see."
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(Posted Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:58)
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