Chapter 35

Short Story

Many Years Later.

A small boy looked up as his mother headed towards the door holding a package. "Momma, why do you always make extra chocolates on Maiden's day?"

She stopped and gave her son a quick kiss. "My little Kiba-kun, they're just for an old friend of mine."

The boy looked at her a bit suspiciously. "Aren't you supposed to buy them if they are just for a friend?"

Hinata laughed a bit uncomfortably. Her son was getting to that age when he noticed things that she would have preferred he not. "Well he's a very special and dear friend to momma." She gave him another quick kiss. "I'll be back soon."

XXXXXXXXXX

She knew there was no reason to feel guilty. It wasn't any sort of secret. Kiba knew, and he had never once told her to stop giving him chocolates. And in truth it was just as she'd told her son, she was just giving them to an old friend. There was nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

So why did she feel just a little guilty?

'The truth is I just can't let go,' she thought. 'Not completely, I guess even after all these years and everything that has happened to both of us some part of me still dreams about being with him.'

The Hokage mansion had its usual guard but she was passed through without a word. She was one of a small handful of people the Hokage trusted completely. Approaching the main doors she rang the door bell and tried to get her heartbeat under some sort of control.

The door opened. There standing in front of her was the smiling face of the Hokage's wife. Hinata could see the slight swell of her belly where she was carrying their second child.

"Hello Hinata-chan," Sakura greeted her warmly. "Naruto is inside meeting with Tsunade. Won't you come in?" Sakura knew of course, a woman could always tell. But she trusted her husband and Hinata to be honorable.

"Oh no, I have things to do." She shoved the small box of candy into Sakura's hands. "Please just give these to him and wish him a happy Maiden's day for me."

"Are you sure? He hasn't seen you in awhile and I'm sure..."

"I really can't!" Hinata turned and hurried away.

XXXXXXXXXX

She loved her family, she really did. Kiba was a good man who had loved her faithfully and always been good to her. She loved her two children more than life itself and couldn't imagine not being with them.

Yet deep inside her heart there was an ache that she knew would never go away. She still loved him. And she knew that he still loved her. But sadly, in the world of adults, that was not always enough. But at least she could keep the promise she had made to him so many years ago. For as long as she lived she would give him chocolates on Maidens day.

She wiped away a couple tears and picked up her pace. She needed to get back to her family.

XXXXXXXXXX

Main Story

Naruto and a number of clones were looking over the Hiraishin scroll as well as scrolls of the Substitution and Shun shin jutsus. The original had a triumphant smile. "I knew it!"

Hearing his loud shout Hinata came in from the kitchen where she was fixing them dinner. "Did you call me?"

Naruto looked up and eagerly waved her over. "Hinata-chan look at this!"

Curious she came over and knelt down beside him. She looked at the symbol he was pointing to. The symbol looked like a fishhook atop a flat line. "That's the symbol for, 'exchange' what about it?"

"Look at this one and this one!" He pointed to the same symbol on the other two, much smaller, scrolls. "See!"

"Uhm, Naruto, I just see the same symbol on all three scrolls." Hinata wondered if Naruto need to take a break from studying.

He smiled at her. "No they're not! They're almost the same. But look closely!" He held the shun shin scroll over a section of the Hiraishin so that the two symbols were right next to one another. "See the difference?"

"Uhm Naruto, the only difference is that the exchange symbol on the shunshin is followed by the symbol for air. While on the Hiraishin there's just a blank space. That's the whole reason why the Hiraishin is so difficult to master. It's an exchange jutsu that doesn't use anything for exchange."

"That's what I used to think too." Naruto said. "But then awhile ago I thought there was something different about this symbol. And I was right too!"

"You mean the empty space next to it?"

He shook his head. "No, look really close at the symbol on the Hiraishin."

She bent down to observe it carefully. "Naruto-kun, there's nothing different about it; it's just an exchange symbol."

"No it's not."

She smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Naruto-kun dinner will be ready soon. Why don't you let the clones keep working while you take a break?"

He shook his head. "Look carefully, right here at the very end of the line at the bottom of the symbol."

She again bent down to look carefully. Finally she saw what he was so excited about. "You mean that smudge?"

"It's not a smudge," he pointed to another one of the symbols. "This one has it, so does this one and this one. My clones have gone through the entire scroll and every last exchange symbol has it."

"Naruto," Hinata said patiently. "Maybe the Yondaime was just a little sloppy writing."

"I thought about that Hinata-chan, but look," he pointed to other symbols on the Hiraishin scroll. "All these other symbols have flat lines but none of them have that little mark at the end. If it were a mistake or bad penmanship, wouldn't we see it all over?"

Hinata again looked carefully. "You know Naruto-kun I think you may be right. I do only see the smudge mark on that one symbol." She looked over at him with mounting interest.

"It's not a smudge; it's a dot, or maybe a circle." He said excitedly.

"So what does it mean?"

His smile faltered a bit and he began to rub the back of his head. "Uh, I have no idea."

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One Hour Later

An annoyed Jiraiya looked down at his apprentice. "You had me rush over for this?! I was in the middle of vital research for my next best seller!"

Naruto snorted unimpressed. "In other words you were peeping at the girls in the bath house."

"Semantics," an irritated Jiraiya snorted. "The point is you called me away from that important task to look at a bunch of smudges."

"They're not smudges!" Naruto insisted. "They're dots or circles; they definitely have some sort of meaning!"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes.

"Jiraiya-sama," Hinata said. "Please listen to him, I was skeptical at first too, but there really does seem to be something to this."

Jiraiya sighed and shook his head. "Naruto, can't you see what's going on here? Six months have already passed. You only have two and a half years left to win your bet. You're starting to feel the pressure and so you're inventing hidden symbols to try and give yourself hope."

"I'm not inventing anything! The dots or circles really are there!"

"Fine," Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at Naruto. "Then what do they mean?"

Naruto looked a bit embarrassed. "I haven't figured that out yet."

"Well let me know when you do. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to my research." Jiraiya performed a quick shun shin and disappeared in a burst of wind and leaves.

Hinata sighed at all the leaves that were suddenly scattered across the living room floor. "I'll get the broom; honestly, he could have at least stepped outside first and not made such a mess."

Naruto reached down and picked up a single leaf. "Hey Hinata-chan, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it Naruto-kun?"

"Why does the replacement jutsu require a log or something similar while the shun shin uses air and something else like leaves or sand?"

"Well it's because both jutsus allow you to move so quickly by replacing yourself with something else. The more complicated and efficient the jutsu the less mass you need, though you still need the same amount of volume."

He looked at her completely and totally confused. "Huh?"

Smiling she put the broom down and went back into the kitchen. "Here I'll demonstrate what I mean." She came back out with two identical glasses, one empty and one filled with water. She set them down on a table. "Here, both these glasses are the exact same size and so contain the same volume. Volume is really just another way to say the amount of space a thing takes up. Now one glass is filled with water and one is filled with air. They both take up the exact same amount of space so they both have the exact same amount of volume. Does that make sense?"

He slowly nodded. He didn't like admitting when he didn't know something. But Iruka and Hinata both had a way of explaining things to him that didn't make him feel like he was a dummy. "Yeah, I guess. But that doesn't explain why one needs a log and one just needs air and a few leaves."

"Well that's because the substitution jutsu is considered one of the most basic, which is why it is usually one of the first taught to Genin. Whereas the shun shin is much more difficult and has a far longer range. The difference is in the difficulty of locking onto something to exchange. The greater the, 'mass' the easier it is to lock on to the object and exchange yourself with it. The glass with the water has the exact same volume as the one with the air, but there's more material in water than there is in air. The denser the material, the greater the mass, the easier it is to exchange."

"Well," Naruto said. "I never thought of it that way, but you're right. Doing the shun shin is a lot harder than doing the replacement. Why don't we just use logs with the shun shin too?"

"Because there's trade off." Hinata explained. "When you use something with greater mass it's much easier to lock on to and perform the exchange. But moving so much mass requires more chakra and it also limits how far the jutsu can be used."

"It does?" Naruto sounded surprised.

"You never noticed how much more chakra the substitution uses?"

He gave her an embarrassed grin. "Uh, not really, I have a lot of chakra. I have to use quite a bit to notice."

She had an amused look as she continued. "Anyway, the less mass that gets exchanged the further you can travel with less chakra. You also are able to travel faster. What really made the Hiraishin so effective was that it could be used to move hundreds of times almost instantaneously. That's because it didn't use anything to exchange with. That's why on the scroll there's a blank space next to the exchange symbol. Theoretically it should be impossible to teleport without something to take your place. But somehow the Yondaime found a way to do it, no one else has ever figured out how though."

Naruto thought about it. When it came to book smarts he was no match for others like Hinata or Sakura. But sometimes he seemed to make connections that left other, more intelligent people, dumbfounded. "What, what if that's not true?"

"What do you mean Naruto-kun?"

He knelt back down and looked at the symbol again. "What if there is an exchange being made? But he didn't want to put it down on the scroll to make it obvious. I mean this was considered the most powerful jutsu ever created in the village right? What if the Yondaime took a special precaution to hide what was used to make the Hiraishin work?"

Hinata thought about it and slowly nodded. "I think that might be possible Naruto-kun. I mean ninjas use codes and hidden messages all the time. It wouldn't be that strange if the Yondaime did something similar to protect the most powerful jutsu he'd ever created."

Naruto again looked excited. "This is definitely the key Hinata-chan! Once I figure out what the dot or circle means I'll definitely know how to work this jutsu!"

"That's wonderful Naruto-kun!"

His happiness was only momentary. "Uhm, though I still have no clue what it could stand for."

Hinata gave him a confident smile. "That's all right Naruto-kun, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Now help me sweep up the floor before we sit down to eat."

XXXXXXXXXX

Far away in a hidden base in Grass country Pein and Konan bowed as a figure with a black robe with red clouds and an orange mask entered.

"What are your orders Madara-sama?" Pein asked respectfully.

Unlike the Tobi persona he looked to put on in front of others Uchiha Madara was all business when dealing with them. "I have decided to carry out operation New Blood. Reports would seem to indicate the time is right."

Pein frowned slightly. "Doing this will certainly damage his loyalty to the organization. That could be very dangerous given his abilities and his knowledge."

"I agree," Madara said. "That is why he must never find out. This operation must not appear to have anything to do with Akatsuki. If the operation's cover is in danger of being compromised you must abort the mission is that clear? Worst case scenario we can try again later."

"I understand, you wish the two of us to handle this alone?"

"That's right, is there a problem?"

"No," Pein said firmly. "I assume I am free to use whatever amount of force proves necessary?"

"Of course," Madara confirmed. "The amount of collateral damage is irrelevant, so long as the mission objective is achieved and secrecy is maintained."

Pein nodded. "In that case I see no difficulty at all."