25 ch. 8 - attack of the clones pt.3

The morning of Sunday, Hinata woke up earlier than usual. The reason? She was going to follow Naruto, it was an easy task for her and she's certain that she'd be able to avoid his notice considering that she's been doing it for quite a while now.

She always wanted to approach him and talk to him but she lacked the courage to do so. She tried to talk to him once but all she ended up doing was embarrassing herself because the only thing that she managed to say was the 'he' part of 'hello' before passing out. She tried it a couple more times after that, but the results were the same as the first. So she decided to just watch him from afar until she could gain enough courage to be close to him.

One may ask why she was so obsessed with that specific boy. Well the answer was simple, she admires him, greatly. She admires the 'never giving up' attitude that he has, the way he always gets up even though he's constantly losing, the determined expression he has that tells that he's never going to give up until he did what he previously failed to do.

But that's not the only thing that's attracting her towards him. She still remembers that day he saved her from the bullies that attacked her because of their jealousy. He got beaten by them but he still managed to keep them from hurting her anymore.

She remembers it fully. It's as if the memory has engraved itself into her mind and is refusing to be forgotten. She didn't manage to thank him properly that day and she didn't meet him again until the start of the academy. But it seems that he has forgotten about her by then, at least that's what she thought.

That still didn't deter her from pursuing him though, if anything it fueled her desire to be noticed by him and befriend him even more.

*Shake* she shook her head, it was not time to reminisce. After having her breakfast, she quickly left the clan compounds and went on her way to where she knew Naruto would be, his house. She knows that Naruto always leaves his house around seven o'clock in the morning but she has no idea on where he's going as she didn't manage to observe him that much in the past few weeks, so she decided to come early so she would be able to follow him wherever he's going.

After walking for a few minutes, she reached her destination, Naruto's apartment building.

Naruto lives on the second floor in the second room. Quickly activating the Byakugan that she just recently awakened.

She saw Naruto sitting on his couch and he seemed to be reading something based on how his hands are positioned.

But she found something strange. If Naruto was in the living room sitting on his couch, then who was the one in the kitchen washing the dishes?!

They have the same chakra signature so she knows that they're both real, the question was. How are there two naruto?!

She shook her head vigorously and deactivated her Byakugan. She took a few breaths to calm herself down because she thought she was just nervous and the two Naruto were just her imagination.

Activating them again, she found that nothing has changed and there's still two Naruto in the apartment.

The Naruto in the kitchen washing the dishes finished what he was doing and walked towards the one that was reading, he spoke a few words to the Naruto that was reading, and it gave a two finger salute before vanishing.

She was so confused now, she thought the one that was reading was the real Naruto but apparently not as it vanished in an instant, leaving no trace of chakra in its previous place.

"He must be the real Naruto-Kun then." Hinata whispered.

She watched as Naruto prepared and cleaned his apartment. There's even a point where Naruto started to change his clothes. Hinata quickly deactivated her Byakugan, blushing profusely.

And then, after a few more minutes Naruto stepped out of his apartment, prepared to leave. " I'll go now!"

She moved out of her current hiding place behind the post, quickly and got away from Naruto's position. Far enough that he wouldn't see her even if he tried but also close enough for her to observe him with her Byakugan.

Naruto was wearing a gray long sleeve shirt with an orange spiral pattern on its shoulder and bright yellow shorts matching his hair color, on his neck was a blue scarf with white stripes running on its length. He was reading a book as he walked, not caring about his surroundings and just ignoring the glares the people sent him. She always wondered why the people hated him, even her caretakers seemed to talk rudely about him in the hyuuga compound. Hinata wonders if it's because of his penchant for pranking or something else that he did. It couldn't be because of his pranking because if it's about that, the people in her clan wouldn't hate him too since he never even actually bothered any of them. She pushed the topic on the back of her mind for now and just focused on Naruto.

She just noticed it now but his hair's a little bit longer than before. Maybe he decided to finally grow it instead of the short crop that he always wears. She imagined that it would look good on him.

She continued following him and they arrived at the market. Like usual, there were a lot of people in the market and it was packed. She still managed to keep her sights on Naruto though, despite the crowd.

She noticed the amount of glares and sneers the people sent Naruto increased even more. Some of them are even talking bad about him loud enough for him to hear.

" Did you see him? It's that monster again" one lady selling meat said to the other vendor on her left.

"Yes, I still don't know why the hokage lets that… thing, live." The other vendor said.

" That's what I thought too! And I heard from my son that he's slowly climbing the ranks in his class too. He said that the thing started defeating the clan heirs one by one."

"Just the thought of that thing gaining its powers back is sending shivers down my spine. He looks harmless now, but I know that THING is just hiding his true intentions because he's weakened. And let me tell you, the moment it gains its powers back it's gonna finish what it started."

Hinata's expression darkened as she sent a heated glare at the women's direction and she was about to shout at the ladies but she saw that Naruto just ignored all of them. The sneers, the verbal abuse, the glares that they deliberately send him. All of it. She knows he heard them too, she knows that he's aware of the glares but he just ignored all of them. It has no effect on him.

"I'm tired of ignoring that!.. that abomination's existence!"

A guy selling fruits seemed to snap at Naruto's presence and picked up a tangerine from his pile and threw it toward Naruto with full force.

Hinata's eyes widened and she was about to shout a warning at the seemingly unaware Naruto who just continued reading.

There was no need though as Naruto swiftly leaned his body to the left before catching the fruit effortlessly with his right hand without looking.

He turned around and sent a wide grin towards the guy who then started fuming.

"Nice try, thanks for the fruit though!" He gave the man a two finger mock salute with his hand that had the fruit, and continued walking.

There was something on his grin that made Hinata's heart flutter. The way he smiles even in the face of such negativity. It made her admire him even more.

She doesn't know how she would've responded if that was her in his position.

'naruto-kun'

She smiled and quickened her steps when she realized that Naruto had left her perception range.

…

After following Naruto for a few more minutes, they finally reached the place which seemed to be Naruto's destination. A training ground.

She watched Naruto enter the training ground and she followed, hiding in trees far away from Naruto's sight.

Naruto held his hand in a bizarre form that she didn't recognize.

" Kagebunshin no jutsu '' Naruto intoned and dozens of copies of himself appeared.

Hinata's mouth formed an O upon realizing the reason for the Naruto copy that she saw earlier.

' Shadow clone? Maybe we have them in our library. ' she thought, interested in the technique that Naruto used.

She continued watching him until it became noon. Until something interesting happened. His clones seem to rebel against him for a funny reason.

She's starting to get hungry at this point but she decided that she'd stay to see the result of Naruto's fight with his clones.

- end -

it's me navi. no fancy send off this time because I'm still pretty dizzy. we drank a lot and Ian is currently passed out on the table so he couldn't make an "outro" as he call it, this time.

Anyways, that's about it for this part. the discord link is below if you'd like to join in that empty, desolate wasteland I call a server. see you next time. ciao.

https://discord. com/invite/rAd8sWutAS