Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Winds Of Change ❯ Chapter Three: Uncle?! ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Three: Uncle!

 

            ;Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Masashi Kishimoto does. I just make them do naughty things.

 

 

Hikari got up early the next morning. She went about her morning routine as usual before heading out for the training grounds. She got there at quarter after seven. She didn't want to be late on her first day of training and piss off her new sensei. No one was there when she arrived so she set to work on another tree. She hadn't been able to sleep last night. Ever since yesterday when she saw Sasuke Uchiha, she had known that she had seen him somewhere before but she just couldn't place him. As she stood there attacking the three it suddenly cam to her. At the revelation she landed a bare handed punch and put her fist through the tree.

            ; "What the fuck is he doing here?" she wondered out loud.

 

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            ; Naruto was on his way to the training grounds for the day. He was interested to see how well Hikari could fight. She seemed like and okay girl, even if she didn't talk much. He figured it was because Konoha was still new to her and she just needed to get settled in a bit more. He wondered how late Kakashi-sensei would be today.

            ; 'Damn I should have warned Hikari about that yesterday. I hope she didn't show up too early,' Naruto thought to himself and took off at full speed.

            ; When Naruto got there at seven thirty Hikari was sitting on the tree she had just knocked down smoking a cigarette.

            ; "Good morning," Naruto said a little too cheerfully.

            ; "Hey," was her only reply.

            ; "I forgot to tell you yesterday, Kakashi-sensei is always late so we'll probably be waiting for a few hours for him to show up," Naruto explained. "We got use to it a long time ago. Now we just show up right on time."

            ; "Then why are you here early today?"

            ; "I figured you could use the company."

            ; Hikari really didn't want to spend half an hour alone with Naruto but maybe she could get him to tell her more about Sasuke.

            ; "So how long have you known Sasuke for?" Hikari asked.

            ; Naruto sighed before answering, "We've been on the same team since we were twelve, and before that we were in the same class at the ninja academy." 'Just great another member for the Sasuke Uchiha fan club.'

            ; "And have you always been on the same team?"

            ; "Well there were a few years where we were separated."

            ; "Why was that?"

            ; "If you're so interested in me maybe you should ask me yourself, instead of asking the dobe," Sasuke said coming up behind them.

            ; Naruto jumped and Hikari simply started at Sasuke.

            ; "Teme, don't sneak up on us like that," Naruto said angrily.

            ; Sasuke smirked at that and turned to Hikari, "How much training do you have?"

            ; "More than enough to kick your ass," she answered confidently.

            ; 'Maybe she not another fan,' Naruto thought to himself.

            ; "Well you certainly are sure of yourself."

            ; Naruto was getting a kick out of all of this. "Wow Sasuke looks like you have some more competition," Naruto laughed.

            ; "Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said excitedly as she entered the training grounds.

            ; Sasuke had to suppress a groan at the sound of Sakura's arrival and Naruto just rolled his eyes. Naruto had gotten over the crush he had on Sakura a few years ago.

            ; "Hello Hikari, I hope you didn't have to wait to long by yourself," Sakura said, she was standing as close as humanly possible to Sasuke without touching him.

            ; "No I didn't wait that long, Naruto showed up shortly after I did," she explained.

            ; "That's nice. So what do you think of Konoha so far?"

            ; "It's nice."

            ; "Yes at the moment it is very peaceful here. There isn't really much to do for entertainment though. We do have a few good stores though that the theatre has some good movies playing right now. It's not always this peaceful you," Sakura ranted.

            ; Hikari realized just then how long today was going to be. Sakura was even worse than Naruto. Most of what she had just said Hikari didn't even care about.

            ; "Hay after we're done training do you want to go shopping with me?" Sakura asked.

            ; "Thanks but I was planning on spending a quiet night relaxing. I haven't really had much time to do that yet. Sorry, maybe another time."

            ; "Yeah you can just give me a shout when you want to go out," Sakura said with a bright smile.

 

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            ; The research was going well. At the moment he was even ahead of schedule. The most surprising part was that he hadn't been caught in over a month. He tried not to think about it too much though he didn't want to curse his good fortune.

            ; It was probably about time for him to head home. He would come again tomorrow to continue.

 

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            ; A few hours found team seven and Hikari still waiting for their sensei to show up. Now while team seven was used to it by now, Hikari was beginning to become restless. At the moment Sasuke and Naruto were sparing with each other and Sakura was trying to get Hikari to have a proper conversation.

            ; Hikari was about to go insane. Every time she tried to make an effort she found herself bored. All Sakura could talk about was Sasuke and how great he was. It was giving her a headache.

            ; "Hey there kids, is everyone playing nicely?" Kakashi asked, marking his arrival.

            ; "What the hell took you so long?" Hikari demanded.

            ; "Well it appears some enemy ninjas used a powerful ninjutsu on my house so that when I awoke I thought it was still night so I went back to sleep," Kakashi explained.

            ; "And you didn't use your sharingan why?" Sasuke asked plainly.

            ; There was silence from Kakashi for a few moments after that comment. "Well, what do you say we get started? Since Naruto and Sasuke already fought we'll give them a breather. Sakura, Hikari lets see what you can do," Kakashi said and pulled out his book.

            ; "Shouldn't you be watching us then?" Hikari asked.

            ; "Don't worry I am," Kakashi said and settled in.

            ; Hikari sighed and got ready to fight. She got right into it. She started off by throwing a kunai in Sakura's direction. She wanted to get an idea of what Sakura's reflexes were like. Sakura countered by dodging and slamming her fists into the ground causing an earthquake.

            ; "Damn it, I can't believe Aunt Tsunade taught you that!" Hikari yelled as she jumped out of the way.

            ; The fight continued on like that for the next ten minutes. Long range attacks just weren't working against Sakura, and with all of the earthquakes Hikari was unable to get close enough for hand to hand combat. 'If only there was a way to distract her," Hikari though and then it hit her. She moved into position and threw two shuriken. They sailed past Sakura and towards Sasuke who wasn't paying attention.

            ; "Sasuke-kun, watch out!" Sakura yelled.

            ; That was the opening Hikari had been waiting for. She was in front of Sakura quickly and attacking her. Now that Hikari was in her element the fight was over in under a minute. In the end Sakura had he back against a tree and Hikari was hold a kunai at her throat.

            ; "Discipline," Hikari said, "You can't allow yourself to be distracted by your teammates, especially when they can take care of themselves."

            ; Sakura started at Hikari in shock. She was about to respond to that comment when Kakashi spoke.

            ; "Naruto are you ready now?" he asked.

            ; "Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed and jumped up roaring to go.

            ; "Hikari, do you want to catch your breath first?"

            ; "I'm fine, but I still can't believe your reading that," Hikari said in disgust, pointing at Icha Icha Paradise. "I swear that pervert's work follows me everywhere."

            ; "You're familiar with ero-senin's work?" Naruto asked in shock.

            ; "Sadly yes," Hikari answered, "Now let's go."

            ; "Don't get overconfident yet," Naruto said and came at her.

            ; Things weren't looking good for this fight. Naruto sure was a complete idiot, but this idiot could fight. Hikari wasn't doing too badly though because she was familiar with many of his moves. If she didn't do something soon she would lose this fight. However if there was one thing she had learnt it was that losing was not an option. She leapt up into a near by tree and disappeared out of Naruto's line of sight. Once there she created a substitution and sent it out. Naruto quickly went in for the attack. With a diversion created, Hikari jumped out and landed behind Naruto just as he finished off the decoy. After realizing he had been tricked he rounded on Hikari and preformed his shadow clone jutsu. Suddenly Hikari found herself surrounded by twelve Narutos and she didn't know which one was the real one. Naruto and all of his shadow clones dove at her at the same time. Suddenly, Hikari had an idea. Before they could attack her she reached into the bag on her back and pulled out her favorite weapon, a ball and chain with spikes. She spun it around in a circle above her head. It hit each Naruto in turn. After hitting four on the shadow clones the real Naruto was hit and he went flying. Hikari abandoned the other clones and rushed over to where Naruto lay. There she pinned him down by putting her foot down on his chest.

            ; "Found you," she said looking down at him. "I guess that means I win," after saying that she began to walk away.

            ; "Now wait a minute———," Naruto began.

            ; "No she's right. Now it's my turn," Sasuke said and got up.

            ; "No I think I've seen enough for today," Kakashi said as he halted Sasuke. "You can fight her tomorrow."

            ; "What do you mean you've seen enough?" Hikari yelled. "You've had your nose in that book this entire time. You haven't seen anything."

            ; "Don't question my actions Hikari," Kakashi stated, "I said I've seen enough so I've seen enough. We will pick up where we left off tomorrow. That's when Sasuke and Hikari will fight," Kakashi explained before leaving.

            ; Sasuke had begun to pack up his things when Sakura approached him.

            ; "Hey Sasuke-kun, would you like to walk home with me?" she practically begged.

            ; "No," Sasuke answered coldly and Sakura looked crestfallen. "We live in two different directions so there would be no point."

            ; "Oh yeah, I guess your right." Sakura said. She was mentally hitting herself for asking such a stupid question.

            ; Once Sasuke left Sakura followed shortly after, leaving only Naruto and Hikari.

            ; "You're pretty good you know," Naruto said to her.

            ; "You're not bad yourself," she replied.

            ; "I can't believe you beat Sakura so easily though, I mean she's never been the best ninja but she's really smart. Still you managed to trick her like it was nothing."

            ; "That was her own fault, all morning all she could talk about was Sasuke. It was quite annoying really. What is she, part of some sort of Sasuke fan club?"  Hikari asked.

            ; "Actually she is," Naruto laughed.

            ; Hikari had to laugh at that as well. "How many fans does this guy have?"

            ; "A fair amount, most of the girls out age are in it," Naruto explained.

            ; They finished packing up their weapons and walked towards the edge of the training grounds.

            ; "So where are you off to now?" Naruto asked.

            ; "Lunch at Ichiraku Ramen, you coming?" she asked. 'Maybe he's not so bad. At least he's not holding a grudge against me.'

            ; "Sure," Naruto said, "You know even though you're good, you still didn't beat me."

            ; "You know you're right, you probably would have beaten me."

            ; They reached their destination and placed their orders.

            ; "So that's a pretty nice weapon you have. Where'd you get it?" he asked.

            ; Hikari knew that he was referring to her ball and chain. "I got it as a gift from one of my Uncles," she told him.

            ; "Tsunade-baba has brothers?" Naruto asked incredulously.

            ; "Tsunade-baba?" Hikari laughed, "And she gets mad when I call her Aunt Tsunade. She says it makes her sound old. I wonder what she'd do to you if she heard you call her that."

            ; "Oh she knows she's heard me say it before. She hates it, even hit me for it a few times. So she really has brothers?"

            ; "No she doesn't have any brothers, they're more like surrogate Uncles to me," she explained.

            ; "I see, well I understand that completely," Naruto said and his mood almost seemed to darken slightly.

            ; "Naruto!" a voice yelled.

            ; Both Naruto and Hikari turned to see a young man wearing black pants, a light grey shirt, and a green vest. He was tall and fairly good looking with his hair tied in a high ponytail. He was walking over to them.

            ; "Hi Shikamaru, how are you?" Naruto asked brightly.

            ; "Not bad, look we're having a party tomorrow night, for Chouji's eighteenth birthday, are you going to be there?" Shikamaru asked.

            ; "Yeah sure, where is it?"

            ; "We're having the party at my house at around seven." It was then that he realized that Hikari was looking at him. "Who's this?" he asked Naruto.

            ; "This is Hikari, the Hokage's niece," Naruto explained.

            ; "It's nice to meet you, I'm Shikamaru Nara," he said, "You know, I stopped by to invite Kiba and he mentioned you."

            ; "Really?" Hikari asked surprised, "What did he say?"

            ; "Well he just mentioned that since you were stay with Hinata that she might not be able to come to the party," he explained. "Speaking of which I'm sure Chouji wouldn't mind if you came, if you want to come that is."

            ; Hikari glanced over at Naruto who gave her an encouraging nod. "Sure why not," Hikari said with a smile.

            ; "Great you can meet everyone then. Well," Shikamaru said turning towards Naruto, "I have to get going now, and I'm supposed to ask Sasuke to come. It's so troublesome it's not like he's going to come anyway."

            ; "Have fun with that Shikamaru," Naruto said and waved to him.

“How many people do you think will be there?” Hikari asked.

“Well since Sasuke won't come there will be twelve including the two of us,” Naruto answered.

`Well that's not too bad,' she thought to herself, `it's not too many people.'

“You might want to avoid Ino though,” Naruto suggested.

“Who's that and why should I avoid them?”

“Ino is friends and rival with Sakura. Basically they fight over Sasuke's affections.”

“Well Sasuke doesn't seem to be too interested in Sakura,” Hikari stated.

“Oh he's not interested in Ino either, actually Sasuke's not interested in anyone as far as I know.”

Hikari laughed, “Chasing the unattainable huh?”

“Yeah that's the case. Well I have to get going I'll see you tomorrow okay?”

“Yeah see you tomorrow,” Hikari said with a smile.

“Bye and remember don't show up early tomorrow.”

“Thanks I'll remember that, bye,” she waved and watched Naruto disappear from sight.

Hikari had really enjoyed the later part of the day so far. She couldn't remember that last time she had laughed so much. Once you got past his almost constant talking, Naruto was the kind of person that just made you want to smile when you were with them. Still Hikari was familiar with people like that. It usually meant that they had some sort of dark secret, and Hikari wanted to know what it was.

 

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Neji had just received the invitation. He hadn't really wanted to attend the party but now it looked like he didn't have a choice. Hinata had been invited as well so now his Uncle was making him go. It wasn't as if she needed the protection and Hinata had tried to tell her Father that. The man just wanted to make his life a living hell. It wasn't that he had anything against Chouji he just didn't feel like socializing.

Neji walked up to the main house, Hinata and Hikari wanted to go for a walk in the forest outside the village and he had to accompany them. He knocked and Hinata answered the door.

“Neji nii-san please come in, Hikari just went to grab her bag and then we can go,” Hinata explained, she had a back pack on.

Neji held out his hand as an offer to carry it. Hinata hesitated for a second before handing it over. Neji was shouldering the pack as Hikari came down the stairs.

They headed out and as soon as they were out of sight of the house Hinata turned to Neji.

“Neji nii-san I can take the bag now if you like,” Hinata offered shyly.

Neji looked at his cousin thoughtfully. “Hinata-sama you know I don't mind doing things for you as long as I'm not forced.”

“But Neji nii-san really it's okay, I'll carry it.”

“Don't worry about it,” Neji said offhandedly and continued walking.

“You guys are both going to that party tomorrow night right?” Hikari asked them.

“Yeah I heard your coming too right?” Hinata said.

“Yeah, that guy Shikamaru invited me when I was with Naruto.”

I'm jut surprised that he was actually going around and taking care of all the invites,” Neji said. `I might as well participate in a conversation with them or the day will prove to be very boring,' he thought to himself.

“What do you mean?” Hikari questioned.

“Shikamaru's the laziest ninja in Konoha. It's true that he's also a genius but he's still lazy,” Neji explained.

“He was also the first out of all of us to become Chuunin, even though he didn't even win his match. He forfeited it.,” Hinata added.

“Who else do you think with be there,” Hikari asked.

“Well of course Shino and Kiba will be there but you've already met them. Let's see who haven't you met yet?” Hinata thought out loud

“Well there's Asuma's team, “Neji answered.

“Well them that would be Ino and Chouji then.”

“Naruto already told me a little bit about Ino, but I don't know anything about Chouji other than it's his eighteenth birthday tomorrow.”

“Well Chouji is Shikamaru's best friend. He's also very kind to others. That why Shikamaru invited you, he knows Chouji won't mind,” Hinata explained. “You haven't met the rest of Neji nii-san's team either, Tenten and Lee.”

“What are they like,” she asked turning to Neji.

“Tenten's okay, she's the weapons specialist on our team.” Neji told her.

“That mean's you'll most likely get along with her,” Hinata joked.

“And what about Lee?”

“I'd rather not talk about him,” Neji simply stated.

“Aww come on Neji nii-san, tell Hikari about Lee,” Hinata said, “I'm sure she would love to meet him too.”

Neji hesitantly complied, “Fine,” he sighed. “Lee's one of a kind. He's madly in love with Sakura, but she doesn't return his affections. He's unable to use most chakra but is very talented with taijutsu, he's also very enthusiastic.”

“What does he look like,” Hikari wondered out loud. She actually saw Neji shudder at the thought.

“When you see him you'll know he's impossible to miss. He has a horrible bowl cut, fuzzy eyebrows, and wears a green unitard.”

After hearing that Hikari starting laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. After a minute or two she actually started hyperventilating from laughing so hard. This sent both Hinata and Neji into a panic.

“Should we give her mouth to mouth?” Hinata asked urgently.

“No you don't do that unless they stop breathing.”

“Then what do we do?”

“I don't know!” he yelled.

Now Hikari had had laughing fits like this before. She knew that she would be fine. The worst that could possibly happen was that she could pass out from laughing so hard. However Hinata and Neji weren't helping matters, seeing them panic like this was making her laugh even more. She collapsed to her knees because she could no longer stand up right.

“Maybe one of us should go get help,” Hinata suggested.

“Right, I'm faster, I'll go,” Neji offered.

Before he could take off Hikari reached out and grabbed onto his ankle. She shook her head no. Hinata dropped to her knees beside Hikari. She put her hands on Hikari's shoulders until she was able to recover a bit.

“I'm sorry,” she breathed. “I didn't mean to worry you guys, I always get like that when I laugh to hard,” she explained.

“Well come on let's get moving then,” Neji said brushing the incident off like it was nothing.

 

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After finishing lunch with Hikari, Naruto had gone home to put his stuff away and to take a shower. For some reason he couldn't understand it bugged him to know that Sasuke wasn't going to come to the party. That guy really needed to get out more. Naruto finally decided to pay Sasuke a visit. He left his apartment and began to make his way to Sasuke's place. `Even after all this time this place still gives me the creeps,' Naruto thought to himself.

He knocked on the door and when no answer came after thirty seconds he began to know continually. After knocking like that for two minutes Sasuke opened the door.

“What do you want dobe?” Sasuke asked sounding only mildly annoyed.

“Can I come in?” Naruto answered with his own question.

“Whatever,” he said and stepped aside. Sasuke led the way to the sitting room. He sat in a large black leather arm chair while Naruto chose to sit on the matching couch. “Now what is it you wanted?”

“Are you coming to Chouji's party?” he asked getting straight to the point.

“No, you should know that, why?”

“Well I think you should come. I mean it's the least you can do. He did put his life on the line for you that time.”

“I never asked him or anyone else to,” Sasuke remarked.

“Well I'm not leaving until you agree to come,” Naruto said stubbornly.

“I said I'm not going.”

“Come on please!” Naruto begged.

“No.”

“I'll drag you there kicking and screaming if I have to,” Naruto said.

“Now where have I heard that before?” Sasuke mocked.

“This time I won't back down, and I won't lose to you,” he stated.

Now Sasuke knew they were both stubborn but Naruto was more so. There was no way he was going get rid of Naruto. Naruto had grown a lot since they were younger, he was now over six feet and every muscular, while Sasuke was shorted and slimmer. Even if he did manage to throw him out Naruto would probably stake out his house.

Sasuke sighed, “Fine, I'll go.”

“What? Really, sweet, well I guess I'll leave then, see you tomorrow,” Naruto said and took off before Sasuke could say anything else.

Sasuke was actually almost happy that Naruto had stopped by. He didn't know what was wrong with him lately. He didn't even feel that upset about being force to go to Chouji's party.

Naruto was also feeling much better now with the knowledge that Sasuke was coming. He had nothing better to do right now so he decided to stop by and see is favorite teacher, Iruka-sensei.

 

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“Why don't we stop here?” Hikari suggested.

They had reached a small peaceful clearing right next to a small lake.

“It seems like a good place to stop and eat,” Hinata said. She took the bag back from Neji and opened it up. Inside there was a large blanket, three sandwiches, an apple pie, and three bottles of

Hinata spread the blanket on the ground, and everyone sat down to eat.

“So we had to walk all the way out here for a picnic?” Neji asked.

“No,” Hikari answered. “We'll probably go swimming too.”

“Exactly that lake is perfect to swim in,” Hinata said.

“Haven't you ever heard that swimming less than an hour after eating is a bad idea?” Neji asked.

“That's bullshit, I had a lake that was about five minutes away from my house, and I was there all the time,” Hikari explained.

“All it takes is one time,” he said.

“Come on what are the chances of all three of us getting cramps,” Hikari countered.

“I don't remember saying that I was going swimming,” he said.

“I didn't say you were either, but are you telling me that you're just going to sit and watch if one of us gets a cramp?”

“Well no, of course not.”

“Then we have nothing to worry about, do we,” Hikari said smugly.

Neji just turned his head away. He hated the fact that she was right.

“Neji nii-san how come you're not coming swimming with us?” Hinata asked timidly.

“Because I didn't know you planned on going swimming, if I knew then I would've brought my swimming trunks,” he answered.

“I'm sorry Neji nii-san, I told Father to tell you, but I guess he didn't.”

`What else is new?' he thought. “It's okay Hinata-sama it's not your fault.”

The rest of the meal spent talking about the party tomorrow night. At one point Hikari had asked if they thought someone would bring alcohol. Neji had told her that someone probably would but it wouldn't come out until after Lee left. When she asked why he had Hinata had told her about Lee's drunken fist, and they had a laugh over that. After they were done eating the girl's took Hikari's bag and went behind a group of tree to get changed.

“I'm going to get him in the lake,” Hikari stated.

“What are you going to do?” Hinata asked apprehensively.

“You'll see, just make sure your farther away from me than he is.”

“I don't like the sounds of this,” Hinata said.

“Oh don't worry about it. It'll be good for him he just needs to cut loose once in a while.”

Hinata came out holding he towel wearing a one piece lavender bathing suit. Hikari was right behind her carrying her bag with her towel wrapped around her torso. The first thing Neji noticed about her was the fact that she still had her wrist cuffs on. Hinata went right into the lake and waded out until she could no longer touch the bottom.

“Are you coming in Hikari?” Hinata called, “The water's great.”

“Be right there!” she called back. Hikari let loose her towel and allowed it to pool around her feet. She was wearing a simple two piece black bikini. She walked over to a tree that had branches that extended far out over the lake. She jumped up into the tree and made her way up. When she was about twenty feet up, there was one branch that went all the way out to the middle of the lake. She made her to the edge and swan dived off. Both Hinata and Neji held their breath. What Hikari was doing was dangerous. Her body sliced through the water and she didn't surface for another thirty seconds. When she did resurface she was on the other side of the lake. Hinata swam over to where Hikari was.

“You scared me,” she told her.

Hikari just smiled. “I told you when it comes to the water I'm practically a fish. Now stay here, I'm going to swim closer to him.”

Hinata was about to try and talk her out of it but she was already swimming away. Hikari swam out to a point in the lake where there was now way for her to touch the ground. She looked back at Hinata with a secret smile on her face, before it twisted into a grimace of pain and she went under.

Neji was watching the two of them from the bank when he was Hikari go under. She came up a few moments later flailing her arm only to go under once more. `Oh no she's drowning,' was Neji's only though as he stripped off his shirt and went into the lake. Neji quickly swam out to where she was and scooped her up into his arms before returning to where he could stand up. Hikari was clinging on to his neck and coughing up so much water that he eyes were watering.

Neji turned around to face Hinata who seemed to be frozen in place. “Hinata-sama!” he called. “You should get out of the water for now!”

Hinata began to move to comply with Neji's request, after that she couldn't tell if Hikari was faking it of not. Now was not the time to talk about it though. That would just cause him to get angry with them both. Hinata would ask her about it when they were alone.

Neji carried Hikari out of the lake and placed her down on the blanket, the then went to get her towel for her. Hinata came out of the water and got her own towel before sitting down next to Hikari.

“Are you okay?” Neji asked when he came back. “Yes, thank-you, you saved me.”

“I told you not to go in yet,” he pointed out.

Hikari dropped her eyes away from his gaze. “You were right, I'm sorry.”

“Forget about it just take it easy for awhile now.”

“Okay.”

“Well I guess we could sun tan for the rest of the hour, I'm not ready to go home yet,” Hinata said. “Neji nii-san why don't you join us this time, you're already wet.”

Neji looked like he was going to refuse for a moment, “Sure why not,” he said as an after thought.

Hinata smiled and both she and Hikari reclined on the blanket. They spent the next hour sun tanning in silence, Neji and Hikari both actually dozed off for awhile near the end. Hinata woke then both up once the hour was up.

“You guys ready?” she asked.

“Yeah let's go,” Hikari said enthusiastically.

Hikari and Hinata were the first ones in the water, Neji it seemed, would take a little more coaxing.

“What's taking you so long?” Hikari asked him. She turned around and took a good look at him. He was standing on the bank watching them again. His hair was not tied back at the moment so it had dried quickly, he still had his shirt off and Hikari noticed that he had a very nice chest. He wasn't scrawny but nicely toned with a washboard stomach. “I bet you just don't want that perfect hair of yours to get wet again,” she taunted.

“Are you challenging me?” she asked with a small smirk.

“Why yes I am. Do you accept?”

“Name you're terms.”

“No jutsus just raw strength.”

“It that all?” he asked.

“That's all.”

This time a more prominent smirk was on his face, “You're on,” he said and entered the lake making sure that his head stayed above water.

Hikari dove straight at him and he easily side stepped her. Next she went under water and tried to attack him from behind, again he avoided her. Hinata was watching all of this in amusement. Maybe Hikari was right and all Neji needed was to cut loose. He did seem to be having fun he was even on the verge of having a real smile on his face. She knew there was no way Hikari could win this alone. Even without using and jutsus Neji could still see all of her attacks. Hinata decided Hikari could use some help. The next time Hikari was in front of him Hinata moved in from behind. Neji turned to face her and that's when Hikari dove under water and took out his legs while Hinata tackled him from in front. All three of them went under and when they came back up they were all laughing.

“Looks like we win,” Hikari declared.

“That's not fair, you cheated, and you had help.”

“You never said I couldn't have help,” Hikari countered.

“Oh yeah, well, take this then,” Neji said and splashed her.

Hikari's jaw dropped in shock before she returned fire. The next thing that knew everyone was involved. They were splashing a dunking each other. Usually Hikari ended up being the one dunked but occasionally either she and Neji or she and Hinata would go for the other. In the end a good time was had by all. The fooled around until the sun began to set and the lake water started to cool off.

“We should get going now, at this rate it'll be dark way before we get home,” Neji said.

“Yeah let's get going,” Hikari said and walked towards their things. She and Hinata dried off and she tossed another towel from her bag to Neji.

Neji caught it in surprise, “I was going to use it on my hair, but you need it more than I do,” she explained.

“Umm, thank-you,” he said and toweled off.

 

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When they got back Hiashi Hyuuga was standing on the front steps wait for them. “What took you so long to return?” he asked.

“We got a little side tracked,” Hinata explained.

“Well its late, you girls should get to bed,” he said.

“Yes sir, good night,” Hikari said and she and Hinata headed inside.

They were going up the stairs when they heard the front door open and shut. The last think Hikari heard before shutting her door was Hiashi Hyuuga telling Neji that he wanted a word with him. As she was trying to fall asleep she thought about how cold his voice had sounded when he had addressed Neji and she was filled with a feeling of dread as she slipped into a fitful sleep.

 

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Neji had received a thorough tongue lashing after his Uncle has sent the girls up to bed. He had known it would happen of course. He had been expecting much worse, but he was grateful that the tongue lashing was all he had gotten. Yet it didn't bother him all that much. He had had fun today with Hikari and his cousin, really had fun, which was rare. Now he was even sort of looking forward to the party tomorrow night because Hikari would be there too. Her persistence reminded him of Naruto as did her confidence. However her silence reminded him of Sasuke.

He was almost sure she was hiding something about her past, even though they hadn't talked too much. That was another thing that reminded him of Sasuke. There was one big difference though, if his theory was correct. The difference was that while Sasuke closed himself off from others in order deal with is problems, Hikari was outgoing and down right friendly. Still that seemed to be an act too. When she laughed and when she smiled they rarely reached her eyes. When she had had that laughing fit today on the forest floor was the first time he had seen her eyes laughing as well. That had been his first clue that she had a secret. His second clue had been those wrist cuffs she wore. They cover a little over half of her lower arm, and she hadn't taken them off at all while they were swimming. Was she hiding something under them, and if she was, did he really want to know what it was? These thoughts plagued his already tried mind. He really had to get to sleep though, as punishment his Uncle was making him clean the entire main house every day for a week before he could do anything else.

He pushed those horrible thoughts to the back of his mind as he too drifted into an uneasy sleep.

 

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Hikari slept in late the next day, all of the swimming had tired her out. When she did wake up it was already eleven thirty. She wasn't too worried though since she now knew that Kakashi would be late. Still she hurried in her morning routine. When she got to the training grounds everyone else was already there.

“You're late,” Sasuke said coldly.

“It doesn't matter though, Kakashi isn't even here yet,” Hikari said, she wasn't intimidated by Sasuke at all.

“You should still be here on time though,” Sakura pointed out, taking Sasuke's side.

“Give her a break you guys, everyone had their off days,” Naruto said coming to her defense.

“Whatever,” was Sasuke only reply.

“So Sasuke-kun, are you going to Chouji's party tonight?” Sakura asked.

“I have nothing better to do,” he answered.

“Speaking of tonight, who's in charge of drinks tonight?” Naruto asked.

Sakura sighed, “Shino and Tenten have drink duty tonight,” she answered.

Naruto laughed at that and Sasuke only smirked.

“I guess that means it's your turn to get Lee out as quickly as possible tonight, right?” Naruto asked.

“Yes,” Sakura answered softly.

“I'm lost,” Hikari said confused.

“Let me explain then,” Naruto said. “Everyone that is eighteen and older splits up the duties. Right now at each party two are responsible for getting enough drinks for everyone while a third person is responsible for getting Lee out. After tonight though Chouji will join the team,” he explained.

“Well what about Neji, he's eighteen.”

“He doesn't have to bring drinks because he could never get away with it, the Hyuuga's all have eyes in the back of they're heads.”

“Right,” Hikari said in disbelief. “So this is all because of Lee's drunken fist?” she asked.

“How do you know about that?” Sakura asked.

“Hinata and Neji told me about it yesterday,” she said.

“Is everyone well rested?” Kakashi asked popping out of nowhere.

“Wow Kakashi-sensei, this must be a new record for you,” Naruto said. “You're less than half an hour late.”

“Funny,” Kakashi said blandly, “Well come on you two, I don't want to waste any time today.”

Hikari grabbed her bad and put it on as she and Sasuke too their positions, and the fight commenced.

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She was going to end this once and for all this time. She had had enough of this so called research. It was nothing more than spying on unsuspecting victims in her eyes. Tsunade was furious as she made her way towards the women's bath house. One of the villagers had seen Jiraiya down there just a little while ago and had come to inform her. Tsunade knew he would still be there.

Sure enough when she rounded the corner there was Jiraiya crouching in front of a peep hole. She walked over to him and abruptly seized him by the ear and hauled him off towards the Hokage tower, yelling at him the whole way.

 

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This was frustrating Sasuke was at a complete loss Hikari was anticipating all of his attacks. She hadn't even flinched when he began to use his sharingan. This fight was going nowhere, not only was she able to counter all of his attacks but thanks to the sharingan he was able to counter all of his attacks as well. `It's time to break out the big guns,' he thought as he got ready to perform the Chidori. Then the fight was interrupted in the form of Tsunade and Jiraiya.

Hikari heard them coming before she even saw them.

“You are never to go near there again, do you understand me!” Tsunade yelled.

“How else am I supposed to get me research done?”

Hikari stopped where she was and turned in their direction, “Hey Uncle Jiraiya, what did you do this time?” she yelled.

Naruto's jaw dropped after that statement, Kakashi's eyebrow raised in surprise, Sakura sweat dropped, and Sasuke had to struggle to keep his face blank.

“He was peeping in on the women in the bathhouse again,” Tsunade explained.

“Well, you should patch up the hole then,” Jiraiya countered.

“We do, you just keep making new ones!” she yelled. She still had now relinquished her hold on his ear. “I'm sorry Hikari but I really much deal with him right now. Why don't you drop by my office in about an hour? I should be done with him by then.”

“Okay bye Uncle Perv!” Hikari called and turned back to Kakashi and the others.

Naruto was the fist to recover his voice, “Uncle Jiraiya?”

“I told you I had a couple of surrogate Uncles.”

“Very well, I suppose we can call today's fight a draw,” Kakashi said. “Take tomorrow off somehow I think you'll all need it.”

“Sweet a holiday!” Naruto cheered.

Hikari smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm and they all headed home. Hikari desperately wanted a shower before going to see Aunt Tsunade and Uncle Jiraiya.

 

 

~AN- This chapter is a lot longer than the others because I got a little carried away, sorry. For Hikari's laughing fit I guess the best way to explain it would be she doesn't make a sound when she laughs it's more like a squeak when ever she inhales. It may sound hard to believe that I person could pass out just from laughing but believe me its possible, I should know because that's how I am. Next Chapter is called Don't Kiss and Tell, so the action will be starting. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW~