Hinata Interlude

Chapter 30: Hinata Interlude

If one were to ask Hinata Hyuuga what she felt like the turning point of her life would be, she would have a very quick answer; the day Yuriko Uchiha saved her from her kidnappers.

Ever since that day, her life had been turned onto its head with Yuriko being insistent that she became friends with her wards, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, and really, she couldn't complain about that, as she was pretty certain Yuriko knew about her crush on Naruto, what with how often the Clan head pushed the two of them into situations together.

Still, the young Hyuuga Heiress couldn't find it in herself to complain about that, considering it allowed her to get closer with her crush, plus the amount of training that Yuriko had given her had heaped confidence upon her.

After all, one didn't tell Yuriko that they 'couldn't' do something unless they had a really good reason for it. So, when Yuriko told her to put in her best effort, she did, and with each success she had, her confidence grew, and as her confidence grew, she had more successes, creating a cycle of growth for the young woman.

So, it was quite understandable that when she won her bout in the prelims that she was excited for the upcoming final exam.

Right up until the Hokage dropped the surprising news, there was going to be a second prelim round to reduce the numbers further, until only ten of them remained, and unfortunately, it didn't look like luck smiled down upon her, as her name immediately came up.

Pitting her against Gaara.

After seeing what he had done (and almost done) to her cousin Neji's teammate, she had no hesitation against immediately conceding the match. Confident in her skills she may have been, but Hinata knew when she was outmatched and Gaara was beyond her ability to defeat without both ambushing and killing him. Even then, the Hyuga Heiress was not confident that she would succeed in dealing a blow to him before being trapped by his sand.

Even her father wasn't disappointed with her choice in conceding the match; rather, he had quietly praised her for her sound judgement in assessing a foe. One requirement of a chunin was to be able to properly assess a situation and judge its viability, after all. While the first round had been of the trust between teammates as well as information gathering, and the second a trial of their practical teamwork, ninja skills and their ability not to mess with mission-specific items, the matchups in the Third Round Preliminaries were a subtle test of the genins' ability to measure up their opponent and deliberate the likelihood of victory over defeat.

Apparently, Hokage-sama had made note of her decision and she was almost guaranteed to be promoted in the next chunin exam if she did as well as she had in this one! Yuriko-sama...no, -san, dammit, had agreed with him as well.

But, she wasn't going to let her disappointment in her recent failure to keep her down, especially since Naruto-kun kept pushing her forward with his encouragement, and he had even roped her into helping with his training, considering his first opponent was her cousin. But he wasn't asking for what skills he had, or what jutsu he used, he merely wanted more experience with fighting a Hyuuga.

There was also something the two of them figured out rather quickly; Naruto was able to reopen his tenketsu by channelling a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra through his coils.

Although the Bijuu was apparently annoyed with being used in such a way, Naruto was able to work out some kind of agreement with the Kyuubi to get its help for the Chunin exams, something about beating Sasuke into the dirt.

Hinata personally found it amazing he was able to convince the cankerous Bijuu to actually do something, considering that everything she heard from Naruto was how stingy the Kyuubi was with its chakra.

All of which, led to today, the final day of the chunin exams. And it certainly felt like it, the air will charged with an unfamiliar energy to the young Hyuuga, with her noticing her father and several other shinobi sitting nearby looking rather tense as the looked down at the arena below the seating where the chunin hopefuls were gathering.

Before them, standing tall and proud was Yuriko, a woman than many kunoichi admired and strove to be like, Hinata included. She was scanning the crowd, judging the number of people before turning her attention to the Kage box where the Hokage sat with the Kazekage.

Hinata could see the Uchiha nod to some unseen signal sent to her before turning back to the crowd.

Then she spoke.

For Hinata, she had long since understood a natural law about Yuriko Uchiha from growing up with her around near constantly. When she spoke, you listened, and now, it felt like reality itself understood that lesson as the crowd grew almost eerily silent.

"Congratulations to you ten," she announced in an even tone as she addressed the assembled genin before her. "With the aid of your teammates you have made it past the first two trials, and now you must prove your ability as an individual before all who have gathered here today."

Most of the genin shifted nervously as they looked around at the crowd that now had their full attention on them. Hinata's heart sped up as she saw Naruto-kun smirking confidently as usual though. It was something that never failed to make her admire him; he never let anything get him down for long, not even this kind of situation.

"However, this is not just a test of your poweress in combat," Yuriko continued. "This is also a test of your ability to adapt, the opponent you may think you are facing may change, you will not get a chance to recover as much stamina as you would like, making you have to fight tactically to ensure that you have enough strength for the following fights."

Her eyes swept over the genin with a hard look. "I hope the ten of you truly do understand this," she commented dryly. "Now then, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuuga, remain, the rest of you go up to the competitors box, we shall begin shortly."

Hinata swallowed as she saw Naruto exchange brief words with his teammates before turning to face Neji who was getting himself focused for the fight.

It was time to see, just how much Naruto's training paid off.

END INTERLUDE

CHARACTER STATS

Name: Sarutobi Hiruzen

Level: 95

Age: 69

Primary Title: Sandaime Hokage

Secondary Title: Third God of Shinobi

STATS

HP - 15,625

CP - 139,650 (50,000 available)

STR - 125

INT - 350

DEX - 175

VIT - 125

WIS - 399

LUK - 100

Perks

[Frailty of Age] - Not many shinobi live to old age for a reason; as your body gets older, it will physically grow weaker with each passing year. STR Stat will dwindle with each year you gain and your Chakra reserves will be reduced.

[Wisdom of Experience] - Your age has given you experience that few can match, and with that experience comes wisdom and intelligence, leaving those as the only thing you can rely on as your body begins to fail. Your INT and WIS Stats increases are doubled.

[Aura of Absolute Command] - Your status of being a God of Shinobi gives weight to your words, when allies are fighting nearby they are inspired by your presence. When enemies fight nearby, they will be frightened by your presence.

Name: Jiraiya

Level: 93

Age: 51

Title: Legendary Sannin

Secondary Title: Toad Sage

STATS

HP - 55,750

CP - 36,400

STR - 223

INT - 182

DEX - 130

VIT - 250

WIS - 200

LUK - 87

Perks

[Toad Summoner] - Access to Sage Mode technique and offshorts, can summon toads to aid you

[Super Pervert] - You are the gold standard to perverts everywhere, they bow to your name and worship your books.

[Spymaster] - Hands down, considered to be one of the greatest spymasters in the shinobi world, simply because, no one believes that you really are the Spymaster of Konoha

Name: Roshi

Level: 85

Age: 32

Title: Jinchuriki of the Yonbi (+2 VIT per Level, +400% CP)

Secondary Title: -

STATS

HP - 32,340

CP - 61,992

STR - 147

INT - 126

DEX - 197

VIT - 220

WIS - 123

LUK - 52

Perks

[Jinchuriki] - You had the misfortune of having a Chakra beast sealed within you from a young age, while you may be hated and feared by some, this does not come without some benefits. +200% CP Regeneration, Regenerate 10 HP per second while channelling your Bijuu's Chakra. Chakra cloak techniques available

[Boiling Earth] - You can melt the very earth and create volcanoes, should you so desire, let's hope you don't! Access to Lava Release Techniques.

[Sage Training] - Through some means you have been trained in the use of Nature Chakra and are able to bring the might of Nature forth in your own body. Access to Sage Techniques

Name: Han

Level: 83

Age: 37

Title: Jinchuriki of the Gobi (+2 Vit per Level, +500% CP)

Secondary Title: -

STATS

HP - 42,364

CP - 119,680

STR - 178

INT - 136

DEX - 150

VIT - 238

WIS - 176

LUK - 67

Perks

[Jinchuriki] - You had the misfortune of having a Chakra beast sealed within you from a young age, while you may be hated and feared by some, this does not come without some benefits. +200 CP Regeneration, Regenerate 10 HP per second while channelling your Bijuu's Chakra. Chakra cloak techniques available

[Steam Explosion] - You can cover your enemies in steam and boil them alive, really, if you think about it that is just plain scary. Access to Steam Release.

[Taijutsu Expert] - You devoted yourself to hitting this as hard as you can, and now you break bones as easily as you would break boards. +50% Damage with Taijutsu techniques.