The feelings of the byakugan princess

"COME ON LITTLE ONES RUN. SHOW THE WORLD YOUR YOUTH!" shouted Gai loudly as he ran alongside the exhausted children who tried to keep up with him without success.

The only ones who seemed to be able to keep up with him well were Sasuke and Naruto who seemed to be in a personal competition to see who would win the race. Further back was Hinata admiring her "friend" as she tried to keep up with Gai's pace, but without much success.

As she watched Naruto she also looked around, she was not at the front, but she was not at the back of the pack either, in other words, her performance was average. Seeing that she felt disappointed with herself, despite having started her training three years ago she had never managed to be on par with Naruto and Sasuke in anything, no matter how hard she tried she had never been able to be even close to their level, both physically and in ninjutsu. She could only consider herself a little above average in those aspects, the only thing she could say she excelled at a little was Taijutsu, but she knew Naruto would excel in that aspect as well.

This wouldn't have been a problem a few months ago, since she didn't care much about excelling, but lately she has been feeling weird about Naruto, she couldn't stop thinking about him, she didn't know why but since then every time Naruto excelled in something she felt distressed. She felt like she wasn't worthy to be by his side.

Hinata shook her head and thought 'I can't stay behind. If not I wouldn't be able to be with Naruto. ..... EHh why am I thinking about that??' Hinata's face turned red as she realized her own thoughts.

PRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 

"Alright youngsters you can stop" Gai said loudly after blowing his whistle exactly like a PE teacher would.

"Now that you have warmed up we can start your Taijutsu training" Said Gai.

All the boys perked up at his words, only Choji and Shikamaru complained, Choji wanted to eat some snacks to replenish the energy he had used to run while Shikamaru just wanted to lounge around

"But before we teach you guys any moves we should do something about your less than youthful bodies" Gai said as he pulled out a storage scroll with the Uzumaki clan symbol discreetly drawn on one side.

Gai unrolled the scroll and made a hand seal to release the contents of the scroll. Suddenly all kinds of training equipment appeared on the floor, from leg weights, heavy vests, super heavy solid metal balls etc.

"Ok, each of you take a vest and line up to do the exercises" Gai said as he pointed to the vests on the ground.

The children groaned at Gai's order, they were excited to learn Taijutsu, but now they would have to do more exercises. The children walked over to the pile of vests and picked them up. The vests were black in color filled with spaces to place more weight, they also had a symbol resembling the Uzumaki clan on the chest area, indicating that they were made by the clan. When the children put on the vests they were adjusted to their sizes which surprised the children.

Gai seeing how surprised the children were smiled and said "These are the training vests created by the Uzumaki clan, they fit the wearer's body for the best execution of the training, they are also super strong and won't break no matter what you do. They were donated by the Hokage and the Uzumaki clan for this new era of the academy" Gai said as he also took a vest and put it on.

"Now line up and copy my moves" Gai said as he waited for the kids to do as he ordered."

"Okay, we are going to start with a squat, then a push-up and at the end we finish with a jump" Gai explained. Normally he wouldn't do a heavier workout even if they were small children, but Minato had warned him to take it a little easy on the kids since most of them hadn't even started training. To make sure Gai didn't overdo the training Minato had threatened to ban him from competing with Kakashi for a whole year which ensured that Gai would follow orders.

The children who were a bit uncomfortable with the weight of the vest perked up when they heard Kakashi's words, the training didn't seem to be difficult, but once they started it they realized their mistake the weight of the vest was heavier than they thought and doing a single push-up seemed to be an impossible mission for most of them. Only the clan children could perform the exercise without major problems, even Shikamaru did it with relative ease since his mother had forced him to train before.

Once everyone managed to do the exercise once Gai said "Now that you have learned the exercise we will repeat it twenty times. Come on youngsters!"

Gai's words discouraged the children who began to complain.

"But sensei, we won't be able to do this we are carrying too much weight on us" the children complained.

Gai suddenly stopped his training and looked at the children "Must I remind you which class you are in? To be in class A this is the minimum you have to do otherwise you will be sent to class B" Gai said in a rare moment of seriousness on his part. Gai valued effort above all things and seeing the children having the privilege he never had in his childhood upset him a little.

The children shuddered to hear that if they didn't make an effort they would be sent to class B, so they swallowed their complaints and began to perform the exercises.

Half an hour later the class had finally finished leaving the exhausted children lying on the floor panting.

Among them was Hinata also exhausted, next to her were Karin, Ino and Sakura also tired.

"Ufff, Gai sensei has overdone the training. If we keep going like this I'll start developing nasty muscles all over my body" complained Ino.

"Yes, but the good thing is that we won't get fat" Sakura said.

"Don't be complainers this training is nothing. My mom told me that Gai-sensei is known for his hellish training" Karin said while adjusting her glasses

Hinata on the other hand was looking at Naruto who didn't even look tired, Naruto was talking to Sasuke who didn't look tired either. Hinata felt even more pressured 'what if Naruto doesn't accept her for being too weak, what if I'm not good enough to be by his side' That was what the girl was thinking. Her feelings were chaotic, she didn't know why she was thinking that or why she was so worried about being better to be by Naruto's side. Until recently she didn't even care about training the only thing she cared about was not disappointing her parents who had placed their trust in her as the one who would free the clan from its shackles once and for all. But now she was obsessed with being able to keep up with Naruto, it confused her and she didn't know what to do.

"Hey Hinata, remember you have to come see aunt Kushina for your special training" Karin said as they were getting ready to go home.

Hinata who was lost in her thoughts was woken up by Karin's words "Aren't you coming today?" Hinata asked

Karin shook her head and said "No, I have to help my mom with something today."

Hinata nodded at Karin's words and prepared to go to Kushina's house. She would have liked to go with Naruto, but Naruto had already disappeared, he's probably training.

Hinata arrived at the Uzumaki compound and walked through the gates with confidence, something that would be fatal to anyone who didn't ask permission to enter as the compound was full of deadly traps that would kill any invader.

Hinata walked towards the main house to look for Kushina.

knock knock knock knock knock 

"I'M COMING" Kushina shouted.

Kushina opened the door and met the girl, her eyes sparkled at the sight of her future daughter-in-law "Oh, good afternoon Hinata-chan, come in"

"Good afternoon Kushina-sama" Said the little girl.

"What did I tell you Hinata-chan. You can call me aunt-kushina or if you want you can call me mother-in-law, I don't want you to use the 'sama' anymore" Kushina said

Hinata's cheeks reddened as she heard her say that she could call her mother-in-law, before she didn't know the meaning of that word, but now that her mother had started her education she found out the meaning of the word

"Hai, Kushina-obasan" Shyly replied the girl.

Kushina guided Hinata to one of the rooms in the house which she used to teach Naruto, Hinata, Karin and Honoka.

"How has your first day of academy been Hinata-chan" Kushina asked.

"Well, it's been pretty entertaining" Said Hinata who clearly wasn't very happy.

Kushina noticed Hinata's abnormal mood and said "What's wrong Hinata-chan? You seem a little depressed"

Hinata looked at her hesitantly, she didn't know if she should tell her what was going on with her and about her new feelings. Normally she would talk without thinking too much about it since her relationship with Kushina was very close and she trusted her. But she wasn't sure about these new feelings, she didn't know whether to tell her or not.

"Come on Hinata, you know you can trust me" Kushina said encouraging her to say what was distressing her.

Hinata sighed and said "Eto, I don't know how to say it, but I feel like I'm falling too far behind. Naruto and Sasuke are good at everything and I haven't been able to keep up with them" Hinata said. She had decided to tell her part of the problem, she couldn't tell her that she couldn't stop thinking about Naruto, could she?

Kushina was surprised to hear Hinata's words, as this was not her usual behavior. She knew that Hinata didn't like training and that she didn't want to be a Kunoichi because of her kind personality. So hearing that she was frustrated that she couldn't keep up with Naruto surprised her.

'Is this another consequence of changing the past? I hope it's for the good' Kushina thought.

"I see, so you're frustrated that you can't keep up with Naruto" Kushina said.

'Hai' Hinata said shyly. 'Though that's not the whole reason' thought the girl.

"So you don't feel good enough to be by his side" Kushina said.

"Hai... Huh? How do you know?" Hinata was surprised when she realized what Kushina had said.

"He he. do you think I wouldn't know what a girl in love feels? Even though I wasn't sure if this is the reason you just confirmed it to me" Kushina said with a smile leaving an embarrassed Hinata

"In love?" Hinata asked

"Yes, what you feel for Naruto is called love. That's why you can't stop thinking about him.

Although I already knew you had feelings for him I didn't think they would become so intense so fast. Something must have happened, tell me about it," Kushina said.

Hinata lowered her head in embarrassment as she began to explain to him what had happened.

'That's my Naruto. That's how it's done son, I taught you well' thought Kushina as Hinata told her what had happened.

"So Naruto has protected you from the bad kids and that's why you realized your feelings for him. That's beautiful Hinata-chan, but we need to step up your training, you can't just freeze because a bunch of brats look at you" Said Kushina

Hinata lowered her head again out of embarrassment, embarrassment because Kushina had discovered her feelings and embarrassment for freezing because of her shyness despite all the training she had done with Kushina which was mainly based on making her more confident and not freezing in situations like that. If Hinata is going to be the pillar of the Hyuga clan in the future she can't be so shy.

After saying those words Kushina started to think about everything that had happened. If Hinata is frustrated because she feels unworthy of being with Naruto, there was nothing she could do. No matter how much she trained she would never be able to compare to him. 'Unless...' Suddenly Kushina remembered something, something she had held back for a long time.

"Do you really want to be as strong as Naruto?" Kushina asked with an expression as she looked at the girl.

Hinata raised her head and said "Yes, I want to be able to protect him someday and not just be protected by him" Hinata said with determination in her eyes

Kushina seeing the girl's eyes nodded and said "Ok, but this might hurt a little bit"

Hinata's gaze didn't waver at the mention of pain, though she didn't know what Kushina was referring to

Kushina seeing that she was still firm in her decision looked down at her ring and rubbed it with her thumb. At that moment in her hand a scroll appeared.

"What is that aunt?" Hinata asked curious.

Kushina looked at her, smiled and said "This is something very precious Hinata, it's called a lineage purification seal. This is what will make you able to follow in Naruto's footsteps."

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