Chakra control was never going to be my strong suit.

I knew this going in, and I would continue to remember it moving forward. After a certain point, there’s such a thing as having too much chakra. Now, was I upset at having to do ten times the work of everyone my age for a fraction of the progress? Maybe a little, but the distant thought of being to spam jutsu was too exciting not to be worth it.

I was still pretty pissed off at how much trouble it was, though. The Academy’s basic chakra control exercises just weren’t cutting it. Believe me, I gave them more than the benefit of the doubt. But the gains from being able to stick leaves onto various parts of my body just wasn’t worth the ridiculous amount of time spent doing so on my end.

Hence my current venture.

With a little under a month until my first graduation exam, I had to pull out all the stops to pass the chakra-related side of it. See, the win condition was to concurrently stick a leaf to my forehead as well as one on each palm and let’s just say that right now, things weren’t exactly looking good.

That aside, discovering my chakra reserves had to be the single most intoxicating experience in my life. Better than anything I’d ever experienced before. I mean, I knew I would probably have a lot of chakra, but it was almost ridiculous for me to have the reserves of a fully grown male at the age of eight.

Which unfortunately meant that for me to pass all the end-of-year exams, I’d have to go beyond the basic chakra control exercises the Academy had started us off on.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

Gingerly, I lifted my foot off the ground and planted it on the base of the tree trunk. Some of the bark was already cracked from previous attempts, despite my trying to minimise the chakra output.

Sending chakra to the soles of my feet was sort of hit or miss as far as my control over it went. The problem wasn’t sending it there, it was making sure I sent just enough to stick. Too much – which was really easy to do – and I’d go flying but too little would mean I wouldn’t stick at all.

No running starts either. That made it all the easier to use too much chakra. Trust me, I’d tried.

Hinata cleared her throat. “Okay, Naruto. I’m ready.”

I took the first step, focusing solely on directing chakra to the bottom of my left foot. Then I took another step. Ignoring the pull of gravity, I seemed to remain mostly stable – I was shaking a little bit but it wasn’t anything alarming.

“How’s my chakra looking?” I asked her without looking back.

I had to keep my focus otherwise I would either fly or fall.

“It’s alright. Not what I’d describe as steady, but it doesn’t look like you’ll throw yourself off.” She hummed. “Maybe try a little more?”

I did, even if I felt like my already hair-trigger control of my chakra was beginning to slip.

No flying yet, though.

Another step and the apprehension in my chest loosened. The bark crackled under the weight of my foot but I wasn’t sure if that was because it was already weakened or because I was using too much chakra.

I stopped, but Hinata didn’t bring it up so I continued. About halfway up the tree, I began to relax. My stiffened muscles eased on the clenching. I wasn’t immediately messing up so I could afford to find out what made this work.

Maintaining a firm grasp over the chakra, I drew my focus inwards.

Getting my feet to stick to the bark was like using a broken faucet. If I turned it even an inch too far, the water – or my chakra, rather – would surge out (which wouldn't be a problem but bear in mind the feet aren't the best for fine chakra control). What I needed to find was that sweet spot. Not too much or little but just right. My hope was I’d be able to train my chakra control adequately enough that I wouldn’t have to worry about it for a while.

Not because finding myself inferior to a bunch of preteens stung.

“I think I’m starting to get it – hey, Hinata?”

I twisted my neck back. The sleeves of her white and purple hoodie were rolled up and her left hand hovered in front of her face, drawing attention to the veins bulging against the sides of her silvery-grey eyes.

“N-Naruto, I think you should stop using so much—!”

I had an inkling as to what she was saying when the bark under my foot let out a sharp snap. Cutting off the chakra flow to my feet wasn’t even enough to save me. A small explosion sent me hurtling backwards and I barely made out the worry on Hinata’s face among the rest of the world rushing past.

Thankfully, it wasn’t as violent as the first few times I’d tried this last week.

I leaned my neck forward to right myself just as I touched down. The soles of my shoes ground against the earth. I stopped sliding and tipped over to my back. Not the best landing nor the most stellar technique to minimise damage, but I hadn’t sprained anything – or worse – broken a limb.

Everything else I could live with.

“A-Are you… okay?”

“I mean, my shins are pretty raw and I’d rather that not happen, but if it wasn’t for you, I would’ve been worse off.”

“Oh.” She smiled a little. “That’s good, then. That's… uh, g-great. H-Hey, umm, do you want to….”

Hinata’s voice trailed and she stopped making eye contact. I sighed. For all the strides in confidence she had made, there was this odd hero worship directed towards me that often left her like.. well, this when asking for something.

That said, I was infinitely grateful that it was hero worship and not a crush. The former, I could deal with. The latter would make our already strange friendship very, very awkward. Plus, if she did develop a crush on me, I would have been worried given the fact that it would have been because I crushed her already pitiful self-esteem.

Hiding my wince, I rose and brushed the grass and dead twigs off my clothes. That nightmare threw the entire day off kilter. I still felt bad about how I snapped at her, even now.

“I think I’ll call it quits for today,” Which really meant I’d take a break to do it later, “so we can get to sparring. If you’re up for it, that is?”

The grin she sent my away almost forced me to consider rescinding the offer. Ever since her shift in mindset that day, Hinata’s taijutsu prowess had spiked. Or rather, her newfound confidence allowed her to take full advantage of the skills she already had.

It wasn’t an instant thing. Her even asking to train with me took an entire month but almost half a year later, she was fighting Sasuke competitively . Her fighting style was much more aggressive now, which made her an even harder problem to deal with than Sasuke, in my opinion.

Sasuke’s style was laid back and relied on fast, precise counters and deducing patterns. I could get by through out-thinking him or simply not giving him time to think. Hinata’s style, on the other hand, was built for close-quarter combat. She would trap punches, smother kicks, and overwhelm me by not letting me do much of anything.

But I was all the better for sparring with her. She might not have been using all of her clan’s techniques, but there were things I was learning from fighting her that let me refine my own style – like the trapping, for one.

We moved to an open clearing in one of the village’s many public parks and I drew a decently sized circle around us using a stick. “Academy rules: submission, KO, or ring-out.”

I took a ready stance a moment after Hinata. We didn’t need a countdown. The two of us formed the seal of confrontation and met in the middle of the ring. I was on the defensive from the get-go; she forced me to block a flurry of palm strikes while I struggled to find my footing.

I backed away, throwing out a jab to earn some space, and to my credit, it worked. I barely grazed her forehead but succeeded in stopping her advance for a moment. I danced on the balls of my feet, shifting my weight from left to right before exploding into a driving knee with the weight of my entire body behind it.

Hinata blocked with a wince and I followed up with an elbow to the temple. She buckled forward, head over chest and, seeing an opportunity to end the fight, I wrapped an arm around the nape of her neck to choke her into unconsciousness. She thrashed in my grip, chin digging painfully into my forearm. After an eternity of struggle, she threw her weight to the side and pulled her head out from between my arms.

We broke apart, huffing but still on our toes. Gulping down one last bit of air, I clenched my jaw and blitzed in, layering heavy body blows and the occasional knee between lightning-fast jabs. Hinata’s eyes darted about like balls in a pinball machine, following each of my hits as they came, she countered with immediate precision – and without her Byakugan activated. I took several palm strikes to my stomach – and at the rate this was going, I’d end up taking a deep breath and lose the fight.

My tongue was as dry as sandpaper and my throat wasn’t much better. Ahead of me, Hinata’s shoulders barely rose and fell. Her pale, heart-shaped face glistened with sweat and was flushed an energetic shade of red.

With the momentary pause over, the fight reset and we met in the middle.

She offered an open palm facing skyward, left leg placed in front of right. Her right hand crossed over the left side of her chest and the other hovered out in front of her. Bracing my feet, I mirrored her stance and placed the back of my wrist against the inner part of hers.

She pushed and so did I, neither of us giving any ground to the other. I leaned into her using my wrist and stumbled when the rock-steady opposition from Hinata faltered for just an instant. She flourished her wrist, placing mine firmly in the grip of her hand and yanking it down. Cold air whistled in my left ear. I ducked towards her and slipped past the blow, though not before the edge of Hinata’s palm glanced my face.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Two more strikes followed. I ducked again and blocked, careful not to get my feet tangled as we danced around the ring. It was a careful game of cat and mouse on the boundary of the circle drawn around us. Sometimes, I was the mouse with my foot on the line and other times, it would be Hinata. We exchanged so many blows that I could feel the bruises beginning to form, each a negligible weight slowing my punches and kicks, but together, they were beginning to take their toll.

Lungs burning for air, I stepped in. She struck out with a front kick I snaked around, lashing her lead thigh with a calf kick when it touched down. Despite the limp to her step, she charged and released a storm of punches at my midsection. I shoved her away.

If I had done this earlier, she probably would have countered and knocked me out, but we were in too deep to be capable of anything besides the very basics. Again, the fight paused. This time, our breaths were audible. Endlessly deep and frequent, as if not even all the air in the world would be enough for our lungs.

Fighting Hinata was a crash course in Wing Chun all over again. It refined my cobbled-together style and ironed it out a tad – not just with her, but with everyone I sparred. Fighting Choji and Kiba, I learnt the value of my sheer physicality. Fighting Sasuke and Shikamaru – when he could be bothered – kept my mind sharp, a pretty hard thing to do when I was around children all day.

The sources of inspiration from my jack-of-all-trades taijutsu style came from fading memories and experiences etched into another body. Now, I was pulling bits and pieces from everyone I fought with a style worth observing to create my own. It wouldn’t be complete for a while – not until I had it pass through the critical hands of whoever would be my jonin sensei, but it was certainly starting to take off.

Taking a spar with the Hyuuga heiress to a standstill was enough evidence of that.

“How… how about we bring this to an end, yeah?” I huffed.

Hinata smiled a little and nodded.

Mustering up one final surge of energy, we charged forwards, matching punch for punch and kick for kick. I let her set the pace of the final exchange, focusing on keeping myself compact and avoiding her blisteringly fast strikes. Even now, when we were beaten black and blue, her form was still textbook.

The wind swirled in my ears, the sound dizzying me as I ducked, pivoted, and trailed out of range. I ignored the sting of my dry throat as I swallowed, focusing on the thrum of my racing heart. There had to be a pattern within her overwhelming offence, some kind of tell to her moves now that we were running on fumes.

I smothered my frustration when I couldn’t find one. Hinata had probably been sparring with her cousin under the watchful eye of her father by now. There was no way Hiashi Hyuuga would allow that kind of flaw in his daughter’s taijutsu – not with how prideful he was.

No, I was only wasting what little energy I had left like this and had basically handed Hinata all the momentum.

I stamped down and slapped away a lead palm strike, eyes flickering between her poised back hand and her front leg. Which would she choose? A kick or a punch? The distance between us was wide enough that she’d be able to pull off either. I met her eyes and committed to a course of action. If I was wrong, I would lose, and that would be that.

Hinata shuffled back, chambering her lead leg to snap at me on the way in. I was going too fast to come out completely unscathed so I weaved to the right, tensing my stomach. Her foot slammed into the left side of my body – heel digging painfully into my ribs.

But that was it. Too tired and too slow to load up anything particularly damaging, she was nowhere near as fresh as she was at the start.

Using my momentum from the attempt to dodge, I spun around and slammed my elbow into her. The world jolted; my head felt like deadweight as I landed the blow, stumbling off to the side. I regained my footing and shook off the sense of vertigo, expecting Hinata to rush at me at any moment.

She lay sprawled on the ground, halfway between sitting and lying.

“What’s wrong?”

She gasped for air. “I-I win!”

I blinked and looked down at my left foot rooted to the ground halfway outside the ring.

“Now that’s some bullshit,” I muttered under my breath and walked over to her, holding out my hand. “Since we said Academy rules, congrats. You beat me fair and square, Hinata.”

She shot me a million-watt smile and completed the seal of reconciliation. I sat beside her, silent while I waited for the throbbing to die down. I couldn’t quite tell how beat up we were yet, but we had gone pretty hard at it. The bruises in a few hours would give us a more definitive answer, though. It wouldn’t be a good answer, but an answer nonetheless.

The faster the bruises formed, the longer they’d take to heal. Well, at least the ointment Hinata usually brought with her would help with that.

We sat in the field and dissected the fight while it was still fresh in our heads. It was clear to both of us that I tended to fight passively when things got tough. Not that it was a negative thing per se, but I was too content with letting my opponent move me around. Hinata delivered this information with a small smile on her face that, on any other person, would have infuriated me.

“Right, your turn,” I said. “You did pretty damn good today. By your fighting style, I’m guessing you want to become a close-range taijutsu fighter right?”

She nodded.

“Initially, anyway. Father suggested it. I can always learn more things in the future so long as my foundation is good.”

“Solid advice. Pace-wise, you dictated most of the fight, but you don’t tend to think ahead.”

“How so?”

“As shinobi, thinking one step ahead is standard. We’ve got to not only think about what our opponent will do but how they’ll react to our counters and then act accordingly.” Hinata peered at me with intrigue and I continued, “You know the elbow I hit you with at the end? It’s because I guessed what you were gonna do first. But I could only guess that because I’ve grown used to how you fight.”

“So…?” Hinata cocked her head, the beginning of a thought gleaming in her eyes. “You could guess what I do because I’m too obvious? Should I keep some skills hidden to give me the advantage?”

“I wouldn’t say you're obvious in general, because you’re not. I’ve just fought you too many times so you’re obvious to me.”

“Naruto, do you have skills that you keep hidden?”

I smiled. On the one hand, some would argue that I did. My knowledge of Hinata’s taijutsu style didn’t come from my knowledge of the Gentle Fist, but that of Wing Chun. In the same way, the majority of my taijutsu style had a basis in otherworldly martial arts.

Skills whose origin I kept hidden, so to speak.

“You could say so,” I said.

She bowed her head in acceptance. Upon completing our morning training session, we applied her strange-smelling ointment to our aching limbs and returned to the village in search of food.

In other words: ramen.

Unlike canon Naruto, I didn’t eat the stuff too often. Once every week was usually enough for me, but I felt like breaking the rule today. Taking Hinata through the back of the shop, I dropped off my stuff. We ate a quick lunch and left. Today was my day off, and since it was the height of rush hour, Teuchi and Ayame were too busy to stop by.

Microwaved or otherwise, the food was still good.

As usual, I walked Hinata to her clan compound, stopping at the base of the footpath leading to the front gates. The two usual guards fixed me with their usual stares – though they never used their Byakugan on me, so props to them.

The veins around those eyes did unsettle me.

“Hinata,” I called after her. She stopped turning around. “Are you coming to hang out with Shikamaru and Choji later?”

“U-Umm…” Her eyes darted between me and the guards. “I don’t know… my father… I-I might be busy, Naruto. Sorry…”

I sighed, a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated the value of hard work, but apart from her training sessions with me and the school day at the Academy, Hinata didn’t have much of a social life.

And if there was one thing she needed, it was to get out and talk to more people.

“Do you think he’ll let you leave if you finish your work fast?”

“Maybe.” A measure of hope pooled in her eyes. “Okay. I won’t make any promises, but I’ll do my best to meet you guys near the Great Tree at…”

“Five.”

“Five, then.” She cast her gaze down. “But in case I can’t… tell Shikamaru and Choji I’m sorry, okay?”

“Hey,” I lightly shoved her shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. If you make it, you make it and if you don’t, you don’t. We’ll see you on Monday anyway.”

Hinata nodded, a little less upset than before. I waved her off until she disappeared behind the giant black gates, leaving me alone on the footpath.

One of the guards shouted from the top of the path.

“Get lost, kid! Just ‘cause you’re friends with the young lady, doesn’t mean we’ll let you loiter!”

Well, not completely alone.

I turned around and yelled at the top of my lungs, “Up yours, bastards!”

Before they could chase me off their property, I clambered onto a nearby wall and took off running, streaking across the rooftops and market stalls with my laughter still on the wind.

An hour later, I was on the other side of the village, waiting to see if she would be able to make it.

The market stalls ringed around the base of the Great Tree were lit up with various lanterns. A stream of people flowed in or out through the single, wide path leading away from the tree. Shikamaru, Choji, and I sat on one of four benches parked at its base, legs dangling over the ground.

“Man…” Shikamaru yawned again. “Why are we here again?”

I didn’t respond and continued staring out at the path for Hinata. Choji crunched on a handful of chips, making a frustrated noise at the back of his throat. We had been waiting out here for nearly twenty minutes now; even I was starting to get bored of it.

“I don’t think Hinata will be coming so can we go?”

Choji looked a little guilty, but if he disagreed, he didn’t say anything.

I hummed. “...We’ll wait for a few more minutes. After that, we can go.”

Shikamaru leaned back and closed his eyes. The minutes stretched on, and my hopes of Hinata appearing began to thin. I sighed and got up. She usually didn’t manage to come to our little gatherings, but today’s one was special.

It was probably going to be the last one before our final exams for the year but time was up.

“Where are we going, Naruto?”

Choji tossed his empty bag into a nearby bin and caught up with us.

“I dunno. It’s not like we do anything but wander around anyway.”

He nodded in acceptance and the three of us set off on the footpath that funelled out to the rest of the village. We stopped at the familiar cry, turning to see Hinata – decked out in her usual white and light purple hoodie and jogging bottoms – sprinting up the path.

“Wait!”

I broke out into a grin.

“Nice that you could make it.”

She smiled.

“Half an hour late, mind you,” Shikamaru interjected with his voice as bland and usual.

“Shikamaru!” Choji tugged at his sleeve.

He didn’t break eye contact with her, his blaming gaze firmly locked on Hinata.

She frowned for a moment before sighing, “I-I know and I’m sorry. Father really wouldn’t let me go.”

“What changed his mind?”

“I convinced him that the four of us are going to do some last-minute revision for the exams.”

Choji’s face twitched. “Are we?”

“Goddamn it,” Shikamaru groaned, face in hand.

I laughed at the both of them.

“Well, chances are, we’ll probably have to do it now. Sorry you two, but Hinata’s dad’s the type to have people follow her around. You don’t want her to get into trouble do you?”

Hinata looked crestfallen and fiddled with the sleeves of her hoodie instead of looking at us. Choji gave me a slow but firm nod. We turned to Shikamaru, intense but silently pleading.

“Alright, fine,” he said. “But don’t expect me to actually do any work.”

“Typical,” I said. “But fine.”

“Honestly, Shikamaru. I don’t like work either, but at least I try to do it.”

They quickly began arguing and continued down the footpath. I caught something about minimum effort for maximum results before they moved out of earshot.

“Let’s get going, Hinata.”

She blinked at me, nodding slowly. We walked a few paces behind them so we wouldn’t get roped into their argument, but close enough that we could hear it all.

“Naruto, you know we don’t have to revise, right? We can do something more fun. Me forcing you to because of something I said wouldn’t be fair…”

I kept walking with a smile.

“If my father brings it up, I’ll take the punishment. I did lie to him.”

Ahead of us, Shikamaru threw up his hands in annoyance.

“Naruto.”

I turned.

“It’s fine. We’re your friends, after all. Or rather, I am, but Shikamaru and Choji will come around. If you can’t rely on me to get you out of a tough spot, then who can you rely on?”

“...Thank you.” She bowed her head to hide her smile.

“Not so sure about Shikamaru, though.”

The boy in question turned around.

“What was that?”

Hinata looked at each other and shared a silent laugh.

“Nothing.” “Nothing.”