Chapter 116: Confrontation - 2
"Naruto-kun, why was it that people always treated you badly when you were younger?" Hinata asked, feeling as if they no longer had taboo subjects.
The blonde boy's face darkened, "I don't like talking about that."
Upset by his defensiveness, she mentally berated herself for asking him. Who would want to talk about something like that? Even if she was curious and he was her friend, it certainly wasn't any of her business.
Naruto turned away from Hinata, taking a few moments to think the situation over, 'If I do tell her, she'll hate me for sure…and I don't want that! I like that Hinata-chan likes me! I want her to!' He scowled inwardly, 'But she'll never like the real me…the me that keeps that goddamn Fox locked up all the time!'
"I'm s-sorry, Naruto-kun, if I upset you…" Hinata apologized, even with his back turned to her, "Gama-sennin only said that things were very d-difficult for you when you were born….that you carry a burden."
Naruto's eyes widened momentarily and he faced her, "Is that all he said?"
Hinata nodded, not wanting him to be angry.
He frowned to himself, "I just can't explain it now, Hinata-chan."
Hinata decided that since he was so uneasy it would be best to change the subject, "Maybe now we could investigate the Kaiten…if you'd like?"
Naruto jumped at her suggestion, "Oh right! You still have to show me how it works!"
She was relieved some of his spirit had returned and she proceeded to explain the fundamentals of the technique, wondering if perhaps this wasn't a very good idea.
"You can try first if-"
"Alright!" Naruto hopped to his feet, ready to get going. In his opinion, they had burned enough of the morning light with chatting, though they did have some pretty interesting conversations.
Hinata stood up as well, brushing her pants off, "The first step is to learn how to push an equal amount of chakra through all of your tenketsu. It may take a long while."
"No sweat! Er…" Naruto frowned, "I don't really know where my chakra points are."
"I know." She muttered softly, "Byakugan!"
Hinata looked him over with super-charged eyes, scanning for tenketsu dotting his chakra circulatory system. All the while he felt his face heating up, 'Wait a minute...she can see through walls and trees and clothes...then she can see-!' Naruto shook his head frantically, puzzling her, 'Heh heh! Yeah right! Hinata-chan isn't like Ero-sensei!'
At least, he was fairly sure she wasn't.
She approached him, wearing a clinical look, "I'll mark them for you w-with some of my own chakra." She began poking his arms with practiced fingers, leaving the spots tingly and bruised, "It may feel a little funny, but they'll be open a bit w-wider so you can sense them more easily."
Naruto frowned in concentration, doing his best to feel out the pinhead-sized dots she was mapping out. To his surprise, he found he was quite aware of them; he had just never really paid attention to them.
"Yeah…I can feel them," He raised his eyebrows at her, "I didn't know there were so many though! They're all over the place!"
Hinata nodded, "There are quite a few. 361, I think."
"Holy shit that's a lot…" Naruto mumbled, "And you can see all of them?"
"Most of them," She corrected, "Skilled ninja in my clan can see all of them at once, and close specific ones to manipulate an opponent's chakra."
"Like Neji?"
"I don't know if he's that skilled," Hinata said quietly, "It takes time before the Byakugan b-becomes that powerful…"
"So how am I supposed to send chakra out of all my tenketsu at the same time then?" Naruto was flummoxed. None of this had seemed so hard earlier.
"I think you should send a small amount of chakra through your system s-so you can locate them. You'll feel a prickling sensation when you're aware of all of them." Hinata then added, "Though even I have trouble doing this…"
Naruto hushed himself, focusing. His flow started from the stomach region and moved outward, certainly he could tell where his chakra began, but he was unsure of where it was supposed to end.
He was tense and rigid, trying to feel them out, but only sensed a few at a time. The blonde boy couldn't determine whether he had skipped over some or if he was just misguided in his senses.
Time dragged by and Hinata had settled in the grass again, watching Naruto's facial expression shift between near success and frustration. A few of her relatives passed by curiously, wondering what exactly she was doing watching the strange boy meditating.
His cerulean eyes opened briefly and he said nothing. He closed them a moment later, getting back to business. Hinata watched as the boy's face became gradually calmer. Naruto had stopped trying to determine whether his senses were real and began to trust his instincts.
"I think I have it." Naruto spoke up, his eyes still shut, "It's like a light went on or something."
"That may be it." She smiled at his progress.
Hinata assumed that Naruto would need quite a while to sense chakra points, but she concluded that she hadn't been giving him enough credit. His mentor was one of the Legendary Three who he had known since he had been a child. On top of it, his teammates shared with him their remarkable talents and abilities, so she admonished herself for believing that he would be worse off than her.
It was the other way around.
'What would my father say if I told him that Naruto-kun would make a much better Hyuga than I?' Hinata pondered, 'It's as if I'm lacking something that I'll simply never gain.'
"What do ya think Hinata-chan?" Naruto's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Did I get it?"
"I think you did." She answered, partially distracted, "There aren't m-many people outside of the Hyuga Clan who are very aware of their chakra network."
"I'm not surprised to hear that, it's tough!" He folded his arms behind his head, grinning, "So what's next?"
"You've sensed your tenketsu, so…you'll have to force a great amount of chakra through all of them at once, which should throw your body into a spin to create a barrier." Hinata droned the information from pure memory, "Theoretically, I mean! I've only seen my father use it. I was never able to learn it myself."
He noted the embarrassment on her face while he created two shadow clones, "Hinata-chan, don't take this the wrong way, but your dad is asking too much of you if you ask me…"
"W-What?" Hinata felt a mixture of insult and agreement at his words.
His kage bunshin scowled at him and he threw his hands up defensively, "What I mean is, he wants you to be just like him and do everything his way! But you're two different people, you know? It can't work that way. Besides, why won't he just let you make your own style?"
"Because my own way is not the proper way," She repeated mechanically, "Really Naruto-kun, you shouldn't say such things."
"Tch! Yeah, well…it was just a thought." The blonde boy turned to his shadow clones, getting ready to try the next phase for himself.
Hinata wanted more than anything to agree with him. She owed very little to her father as it was, but it was a reflex to defend his honor when it was expressed to her, even at the cost of her own dignity.
Why not just scrap everything her father was trying to ingrain in her head and start fresh? The worst that could happen would be Neji taking her place…and she had a suspicion that was about to happen anyway, so it was a moot point.
A sudden burst of chakra was her reality check yet again when Naruto and his clones were tossed back by the unstable power being disproportionately sent through their respective tenketsu.
"Naruto-kun! Maybe a little less chakra?" Hinata squeaked. He had landed in a patch of hyacinth nearly the full way across the clearing.
"Yeah, sorry!" Naruto stood, brushing his knees off, "That was a bit scary…fwoosh! Ha ha! Bet that's happened to Neji a few times, huh?"
"Maybe…" She couldn't fight a small grin that came over her lips.
It was a disaster for the next half hour. Naruto, for all of his chakra control and use of powerful jutsu, constantly, without fail, had the rotation backfire on him time and time again.
It was exhausting for the Hyuga heiress to just watch him, hurtling about all over the garden as his shadow clones were smashed to smithereens. Naruto had come nowhere close to getting it right, but she admitted it was no train-wreck. He was doing surprisingly well for someone unfamiliar with the technique. There was only one thing bothering her…
'He's been using so much chakra!' She was frightened at how he could keep going long after she would've needed a break, 'If he doesn't stop soon he'll hurt himself…but it's strange…he isn't tired at all.'
"Wah!" Naruto was in the habit of landing on his feet for the past five minutes, "Whew…ergh…dizzy…" He took a moment to gather his bearings, "That wasn't as bad as the time I landed on my head."
'I'm never gonna be able to pull apart Neji's strategy like this.' Naruto thought to himself, his head still spinning, 'I'll give him props though…this shit is hard!'
Hinata again decided to briefly view him with the Byakugan, still seeing a steady flow of chakra that he had since he had begun. It wasn't the first time she had seen his overwhelming supply and she was curious about it.
After the better part of an hour, one last painful jolt stopped Naruto, and he fell to the ground onto his backside, "Nyah! We should try this another time maybe. I have way too many bruises right now."
The blonde boy had to admit, if Neji could perform such a technique on a whim, he certainly had something going for him. That kind of talent was raw, something Naruto knew he'd have to work for like crazy to even get close to.
He looked up to where Hinata stood near a butterfly bush. Her pale eyes were glowing. For a moment he raised his eyebrows at her, aware that she was deep in thought. Naruto wiped the sweat from his eyes, hoping she was all right.
"Your chakra is unique," She pointed out quietly, and his eyes snapped up, "I've never seen anything quite like it, Naruto-kun…"
There was a very long silence and he stared at her, wondering if she had the faintest inkling of what she was addressing.
Naruto admitted it wasn't wise to push his limits in front of anyone outside of his team. He intended to keep Hinata in the dark about what was really the cause of his tremendous chakra capacity.
'She'd hate me if she knew...' He assumed, his opinion was the same as it was before: it wasn't worth her finding out. Naruto was beginning to find her Kekkei Genkai just as intrusive and problematic as much as it was helpful.
"Yeah, I'm…special like that." Naruto waved the topic off with a half-hearted voice.
She smiled and his chest clenched painfully. That smile was causing him a lot of grief right now.
If he did share his secret with her it would be safe; he knew she would never tell another living soul. The issue would be her horrified reaction and the vanishing of the smile he was becoming as dependent on as drawing a breath.
If he lost that he'd be nothing short of dead, where neither Gaara nor Haku would be able to resuscitate him.
Naruto stood up and asked about lunch and her first suggestion was stopping by Ichiraku Ramen. Things felt almost normal after that.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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