Naruto scowled when it became obvious that his bun haired friend did not believe him. A few seconds later though it was replaced by a smile before the blond surprised Tenten and engulfed her in a hug.
Said girl blushed a bright red as she felt steam pour from her ears, and she might have actually pulled a Hinata and fainted had she not heard Naruto speak, "Thank you."
The words were soft, heartfelt and somehow gave Tenten a warm feeling that spread from the heart to the rest to her body, "Your welcome." She returned his embrace, deciding that for the moment, she would just enjoy the feeling.
The following weeks were filled with C-rank missions and training for Naruto. Most of his missions were fairly easy. He would usually lead a squad of Genin, often one of the squads from his graduating academy outside of the village on simple missions. These would normally consist of things like border patrols, escort missions, guard missions, reconnaissance and the very rare bandit hunting. He did go on a few B ranks where he would tackle more bandits and even missing ninja with a group of Chunin and Jonin on occasion, but they were rare.
His training was progressing as it usually did. Naruto had begun diversifying his training even more, not with his Kage Bunshins but with himself. After his morning routine Naruto would usually spend time either sparring with Anko, Team ten or the other rookie teams, which had been dubbed the Konoha nine, having been called that due to the fact that they were all Rookie Genin who had made it passed the second stage of the Chunin Exams despite being in their first six months of active duty.
In fact that was one of the things he was doing right now.
"Gatsuuga!"
Naruto dodged the living drills that Kiba and his dog Akamaru had become as they both barreled towards him. He made sure that neither one of them stayed from his sight to long as he analyzed the dog-nin and his canines moves, trying to discover any weakness he could exploit.
Over on the sidelines were Kurenai, Hinata and Shino, all of whom were watching the battle.
"Naruto is pretty fast," Kurenai commented as she watched the spar. "Very fast actually, I think he has gotten faster since the Chunin Exams."
Shino gave an almost imperceptible nod, "It is obvious that he is going easy on Kiba-san. You can tell by the way he is prepared to leap out of the way long before Kiba-san or Akamaru can hit him."
"N-Naruto-kun has gotten r-really strong hasn't he?" Hinata said, never taking her eyes off the fight. "O-out of all the genin w-who participated in the Chunin exams N-Naruto-kun was the only o-one to get promoted," The other two said nothing but gave a silent agreement.
Back with the battle Naruto had finished analyzing the jutsu Kiba and his dog used. It was a taijutsu move much like the ones Lee and Gai had. Only this one relied on rotating one's body and using the claws that were a genetic trait of the Inuzuka clans Kekkei Genkai to become a drill and tear the flesh off of opponents. While powerful if the jutsu hit, it had a lot of weaknesses. One being that it only moved in a straight line, meaning unless you had something to bounce off of, you could only really use it once. Another was that it was slow to gather the necessary amount of rotation to generate enough power to become a drill. And the last, was the weak spot right in the very center of the drill when it came at you.
It was this weakness Naruto exploited. Waiting until the two came at him from opposite sides in the hopes of catching him off guard, Naruto crouched down and when Kiba and Akamaru were practically on top of him lashed out. He jumped into the air, spinning his body in a corkscrew, and sent a foot towards Kiba and a fist towards Akamaru. The foot smashed right into Kiba's head, stopping his forward momentum and using the generated kinetic force to launch him backwards. Akamaru had the same effect, but being much smaller it was not as pronounced.
"Ouch! What the hell! How come I can't hit you!" Kiba growled as he rubbed his head.
Naruto looked at him for a second before shrugging, "Your jutsu depends on several conditions to be met before it becomes ideal for use. The first is you have to be faster than your opponent. The second is you have to catch your opponent in a position where he can't use the weak spot I just hit."
"And the third?" Kurenai interrupted with her own question as she and the other two Genin came on the field.
"There is no third; so long as those two conditions are met the jutsu should work just fine."
Kiba glared at the blond a bit before sighing, "Since when did you get so smart?"
Naruto gave Kiba a grin, "I've always been smart, everyone else was just too stupid to notice."
'Lies.'
'Aww, c'mon Kyuu-chan! Do you have to ruin it for me?'
Kyuubi's laughter passed through his mind, 'Yes.'
'Spoilsport.'
Naruto shut off his mental conversation and grinned at the members of team eight, "So who wants to spar next? Or perhaps all three of you should give it a go!"
Naruto grinned as he walked off the training field an hour later, leaving three unconscious Genin and an exasperated Kurenai behind. As he made his way into Konoha proper he never noticed a small figure following him.
Hyuuga Hanabi watched as the blond who had defeated Neji and nearly won the entire Chunin Exam walked down the street. Much like her sister had before her, the young white-eyed girl had taken to following the whiskered blond around, studying him the way one would study a science experiment.
She continued to follow the blond as he passed around a corner, only to stop when Naruto seemingly disappeared.
"Is there a reason you're stalking me?"
"Kya!" Hanabi let out an undignified shriek as she spun around and saw Naruto standing behind her with an amused expression. The young Hyuuga did her best to gain her lost dignity as she glared at the blond, though that only served to increase said blonds amusement.
"You know if you're going to stalk someone you should do it properly," Naruto tilted his head to the side as he gave the girl a smirk. "I knew you were following me the moment I left the training field." When the girl continued her glare Naruto sighed, "Look, are you gonna stare at me all day or are you gonna tell me why you were stalking me?"
Hanabi flushed but was determined not to let the obnoxious blond get to her, at least not anymore then he already had. "I was not stalking you as you so succinctly put it," she claimed with a huff.
"Oh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, "So what would you call trying to tail someone without letting them know you following them?"
Hanabi blushed again but it soon turned into a scowl as she glared at him. "You defeated Neji-nee-san," she said, completely ignoring his question.
Naruto blinked as she stared at the girl curiously, "You're related to Neji? Well, of course you are with those eyes. So, how are you related to him?"
Hanabi's right eyebrow twitched, "Obviously, I'm his cousin."
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