Chapter 20
"It has come to my attention that I've been lacking in training you." Kakashi said to his team, they were standing outside o Tazuna's house and in the woods that were next to his house
"Shouldn't you be resting sensei, with your injuries and all?" Sasuke asked, concerned for his sensei
"Hinata did something to help me heal faster so my injuries shouldn't be that much of a problem but back to what I was saying." Kakashi answered
"I'm going to teach you how to control your chakra for the jutsu's you use." Kakashi said
"But sensei, isn't it the point to just learn the jutsu?" Naruto asked
"For once, Naruto is right. We're already using chakra energy for our jutsu's." Sasuke agreed with him
"No, you barely scratched the surface of chakra. Even if you have a massive amount of chakra within you, it's useless if you don't know how to control it. You'll just waste chakra and then you won't have any left, you'll be at the mercy of you opponents." Kakashi said
"So how do we control our chakra so thay doesn't happen?" Naruto asked Kakashi
"We'll start with some simple chakra control exercises and perfect them."
"Which one do we start with first?" Naruto said with excitement in his voice
"We're going to... climb a tree." Kakashi answered
"With chakra... right?" Hinata asked nervously
"No completely without." Kakashi sassed. "Of course with chakra. I'll demonstrate."
Kakashi did a hand sign and focused his chakra to his feet before walking towards a tree. He put his foot on the trunk of the tree and walked up as if he was taking a stroll. Kakashi went further and walked on the underside of a branch.
"See? This is what proper chakra control can do." Kakashi walked back down the tree
Kakashi handed the trio a kunai each. "Use the kunai to mark your progress."
"I'm gonna get the farthest, believe it!" Naruto said
The tree stood side by side, then did the hand sign Kakashi did and then rushed towards their trees. Naruto got only a few steps up before his feet slid off of the tree and fell to the ground. Sasuke got higher than Naruto but his feet were blown off and a dent was made in the tree.
"This is harder than I thought..." Naruto mumbled
'I kinda expected this from Sasuke and Naruto, but where is Hinata?'
"Hey guys, up here!"
Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke looked up to see Hinata sitting on the highest branch on her tree with the biggest grin on her face.
"My clan specializes in chakra control and taijutsu, I could do this in my sleep!" Hinata said
"Well, it look like our Hyuga princess has the best chakra control." Kakashi said, which made Hinata rub the back of her neck and smiled bashfully
"Wow, that was amazing Hinata! You rule!" Naruto complimented her
"Impressive chakra control, I guess..." Sasuke complimented as well, turning his head to hide the pink in his cheeks
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It has been an hour since they started climbing trees and Naruto and Sasuke haven't made much progress. Naruto put too little chakra into his feet, while Sasuke did too much.
'This is going no where. They need something to motivated them.' Kakashi had an idea
"Hinata has had the best progress of all three of you. Someone said they wanted to become Hokage, right? Well it seems Hinata as the best chance at that." Kakashi said out loud
Hinata narrowed her eyes at Kakashi. 'Oh I see what you're doing here sensei. Smart.'
"That's right! And when I become Hokage, I shall make cinnamon rolls the official food of Konoha and declare the Hyuga Clan to be the best and most powerful clan in the world!" Hinata stood on her branch and put her hands on her hips, giving her a confident look
Both Naruto and Sasuke both looked at Hinata, noth had a new fire in their eyes to complete this training exercise.
'That should get them motivated. Good job Hinata.'
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Hinata walked down her tree for the umpteenth time, at first it was to perfect the exercise and but now she did it for fun and to see how high she could go.
Hinata looked and saw Naruto falling from his tree again. Looking at the kunai marks on the tree, he didn't make much progress.
"Hey Hinata, your good at this. How about some advice?" Naruto asked her
"Well, what do you need help with?"
"How do you make your feet stay on? My feet keep slipping off."
"Show me what your doing." Hinata asked, activating her Byakugan to see his chakra
Naruto pushed his chakra into his feet and started to climb the tree again, only for him to slip off again. Naruto got up from the ground and walked to Hinata to get her imput. "So what am I doing wrong?"
"It looks like your putting not enough chakra into your feet, it's making you slip." Hinata said
"Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?" Sasuke came up to them
"Sure, show me what your doing." Hinata ordered
Sasuke ran up his tree but only made it a few feet before he flew off.
"I see what your problems are.
Hinata turned to Naruto. "You're putting too little chakra."
Hinata then turned to Sasuke. " And you're adding too much chakra."
"So how do we fix this?" Naruto and Sasuke both asked Hinata
"Well... whats a good metaphor that you'll understand?" Hinata tried to think
"Oh I got it!" Hinata turned to Sasuke
"Sasuke, imagine the tree is an egg. You need to hold it firmly so you don't fall but not too tightly that you'll break the tree."
Hinata turned to Naruto. "Naruto, imagine putting ramen in the microwave. The ramen isn't hit with all the microwaves energy but it's hit evenly for a longer period of time."
With new understanding, the boys went back to training while Hinata watched them.
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Eventually Hinata was to protect Tazuna and the construction workers by Kakashi since she already mastered the tree walking exercise, leaving Naruto and Sasuke by themselves.
"So why are you here? Where's the blonde kid and the emo one?" Tazuna asked Hinata
"Naruto and Sasuke?"
"Yeah whatever, still doesn't explain why you're here."
"Their training, climbing tree's." Hinata answered
"Too tough for ya?"
"No, I already mastered the exercise and my sensei sent me here to protect you while Naruto amd Sasuke work at it." Hinata answered truthfully
"You're joking, right? I don't mean to be rude, it's just you don't expect scream ninja to me." Tazuna said
"I'm 100% serious. I was trained from an early age." Hinata said
"Whatever you say, let's just get some lunch."
Hinata walked with Tazuna and his friend to the store to pick up lunch and things for dinner. On the way there, Hinata saw a homeless looking man with a sign asking for food and a kid stealing food.
When they got into the store, Hinata looked at the almost bare shelves with hardly any food. A man behind her saw her bag and tried to lift it from her. Hinata felt the man trying to steal from her and quickly unleashed her 8 Triagrams: 64 Palms on him, he was knocked down in an instant.
"Let's get out of here before someone else tries to steal from us." Hinata said to a shocked Tazuna
"W-What was that you just did to the man?" 'She took him down in a mere second!'
"That was one of my clans technique's." Hinata answered
"Oh so your from a fancy ninja clan, is that why you're eyes look like that?" Tazuna asked, unknowingly striking a nerve
"Whats wrong with my eyes?" Hinata asked, giving Tazuna a glare
"N-Nothing!" 'Was bringing up her eyes a bad idea?'
Hinata eye's softened a bit. "It's my clans Kekkei Genkai, the Byakugan. It allows us to see 360° degrees, see through walls, see across great distances, amd see all the pressure points and tenketsu's in the human body." Hinata explained
"That sounds amazing." Tazuna said in awe
'It really isn't.' Flashbacks of being kidnapped and being bullied for her eyes came into her mind
They walked out of the store with what they needed, they walked down the street when Hinata felt a tug on her jacket. She looked down to see a small and clearly malnourished child who looks like they haven't taken a bath in a while.
"Do you have any food, please?" The child asked
Hinata felt her heart clenched, the child in front of her remained her of Hanabi. Hinata reached into her bag and handed the child one of her bento boxes.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The child thanked and ran off
Tazuna stood next to her. 'For a shinobi, she's rather empathetic. She has a big heart for someone her age.'
"It's been like this since Gato came here. Children have been suffering and the adults are too scared to stand up to him. But once the bridge is complete, it will restore hope in the city."
Hinata looked at the streets, at all the homeless people that were begging for help and food.
'Naruto, Sasuke, we have to help them.'