A strange new life

3.2

“Will you be careful? Don’t let any boys talk you into anything strange. When in doubt, talk with your sensei.” Tsunami told me, for the nth time.

I rolled my eyes, wrote on my board. “Yes, Oka-san.” How do you translate sarcasm into written words? I think I did a good job.

“Will you come to visit?” Tsunami asked, eyes full of tears.

Where was this coming from? My interactions with her were always the quiet type. I helped her with house chores, helped her cook, even helped her repair and wash clothes, but we rarely talked. Was she seeing on me some sort of daughter or something? What a silly woman.

I hugged the silliest woman. Might have cried a bit. You can’t blame me, girls and emotions, you know how that is. There was some more hollering around. Something about being a hero or stuff. Naruto was a crying mess, Inari was a crying mess. Lots of town’s folk had come to see us off. Bridge got named after Naruto.

Fate reasserting itself.

We took it easy on the way back. Light training while on the road. Idyllic. Almost like the near death experience from the last days was just a dream. Or a nightmare. I brooded a fair bit on the way back. I should have prepared more, maybe changed things more. Felt strange just letting things go where they may. Even so, the days went by almost like we were on a tourist trip.

Naruto and Sasuke started to behave strange ever since the bridge battle. Whenever they crossed eyes, they would look away, annoyed. Was that teenager love finally? I hope not. They were annoying as they were, no need for love drama added.

We were back at Konoha. After reporting and explaining the situation, our C-rank mission had been reclassified as A-rank, but without A-rank pay, at least in ryo. If I understood the whole logic, was because we decided to continue with the mission even after it was clear it wasn’t a C-rank anymore. That was fine. We still got mission points credit, which was the important part for me.

We gathered to celebrate another completed mission. No one complained Naruto insisted we visit his favorite ramen store. The food there was tasty. What little team camaraderie we had build before the mission had vanished, Sasuke glared at me and Naruto, who glared back. I wanted to put an stop to that. We had a few days off to rest from the mission, I planned otherwise.

“We’re training, tomorrow at six, training ground three.” I showed them my board.

“W-what Hinata-chan?” Naruto whined. “Why so early?” Sasuke just scoffed. I looked at sensei, puppy-eyed him to help.

“You read her. Training tomorrow, six.” Kakashi-sensei agreed cheerfully. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t show up. The cool lazy ninja. But that settled it.

Naruto shambled into the training field with a big yawl. I had set a small breakfast spread for us. There was a bit of talking involved before we started. I don’t know when the Chunin exams would start, but I knew we were not ready for it yet, at least not like we were right now. I mean, it would probably be fine? But I didn’t want fine, I wanted to kick ass and take names, so to speak. For that, I needed my team on top shape.

Dummy Naruto hadn’t realized his shadow clones could be used for a lot more than just help in a fight. They were good for training, infiltration, recon and information gathering, and so much more. I would try to open his eyes to that. I even had prepared a surprise already.

Sasuke walked in a few minutes after Naruto. Still sullen.

Both boys were already used to my antics. They sat down, grabbed the food, poured tea.

“The battle of the bridge could have ended bad for us.” I started. Like I had guessed, Naruto was the first to complain.

“We won, Hinata-chan, we saved the town!”

I nodded, it was a fair assessment. “We did, but Haku was stronger than we thought, and if it wasn’t for whatever you did there at the end, you guys could have been killed.”

Naruto, closed up, sulked. I knew he didn’t want to talk about the nine tails. Sasuke scowled at the reminder. Was this the crux of their disagreement?

“I’ve been holding up on you guys, which is my fault. I’m strong, and I never let the team know it.”

“What, Hinata-chan?” Naruto asked. Sasuke, of course, just scoffed, the prick.

I looked at Sasuke. Time to rock his world? Kakashi already knew I knew the jutsu. I didn’t write anything. A dozen Clones-chan appeared around us. I hadn’t moved a single finger or created any seal. Naruto gaped, Sasuke just narrowed his eyes.

Clone-chans proceeded to do stuff. Had to prove it wasn’t just a bushin no jutsu, but a kage bushin no jutsu. Four of my clones zero’ed on Naruto, and started taking turns into pinching his cheeks. I wanted to face palm. Why clones, why? Another half dozen just sat down and pretended to be sullen Emosuke. Even the glare was the same. Two others decided this was too boring, and went to play tag.

I salvaged all that I could from my dignity. I wrote. “I’m good at jutsu, I just don’t know any jutsu.”

“How?” Sasuke asked, still eying my clones.

“Ow, ow, ow, stop, stop Hinata-chan.” Naruto protested, but looked a lot like those toddlers pretending they don’t want you to catch them. The tips of his ears were red. What a brat.

“I’ve been training my control since I was five.” I wrote to Sasuke. “There’s no trick, I just have years of training ahead of you.”

Naruto started giggling. Oh god, what now? But I didn’t let that distract me. I trusted myself.

“What else?” Sasuke asked, finally taking me serious.

I handed him my weight seals. He took them, looked at me for guidance.

“Place your arm on the ground, put one of the bracelets.” I instructed. Sasuke did that. Then I smiled while the sullen brat tried to take his arm off the ground. It was pretty funny.

“Since when?” The boy gasped.

I shrugged. “Seven?” I showed him my board, tilted my head. I didn’t really remembered when I started with that.

Clones-chan army decided they wanted to crowd pile Naruto. And given Naruto’s laugh, he didn’t mind it. I really wanted to know what my clones were thinking. I guess I would learn now. I unpopped all my clones. Had to face palm. Really, I just wanted to fan-girl in front of the story protagonists? And since the clones knew they didn’t need to deal with any of the fallout… Was fan-girl-sama a masochist or something?

“Why now?” Sasuke pressed.

I told him the truth. “I need training fighting without the seals, you guys need training fighting someone physically stronger and faster. We need to improve our teamwork.”

Naruto had approached, looking sad for some reason. I handed him a kunai. “What do you think of it?”

Naruto took the weapon, swished it up and down, threw it in the air, picked it up. “It’s a kunai?” He asked, confused.

I nodded. Kunai-clone-chan changed shape into myself again.

“What? How?” Naruto gaped again.

I really wanted to face-palm. Hadn’t he done that in the battle with Zabuza? I had to hear and ever exaggerated accounted of that battle for days. “Didn’t you do the same in the First battle with Zabuza?” I asked.

Naruto had the gall to look surprised, like he had forgotten it.

“Naruto-kun, can you create a clone?” I asked. The boy nodded, did so. “My own clone led Naruto clone away.” We watched the two clones walk away. Hinata-clone wrote something on the ground. Naruto squirmed, looked away, then started yelling. “No!”. Original Naruto looked at the scene with curiosity, Sasuke was still staring at us. Hinata-clone wrote something else, unpopped herself. Naruto clone did the same.

Original Naruto looked at me horrified, pointed at my face. Looked at Sasuke, looked away. “No!” He closed his mouth. His face was tomato red. He scowled.

“Did you understand now, Naruto? When your clone disappear, you learn the same things it did.” I showed him the board.

Naruto mouth, who he had opened, probably to deny again, closed with an audible click. Dummy hadn’t realized it.

That was enough for now. It was time to train, and train hard.

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