Confidence Acquired

Author’s notes: Well let’s see if I can get this Fic good and done eh? I also suck at Japanese name formalities. I have no beta either so what you get is my writing and Words grammar. I’m going to try to post something up once a week eh? or at least warn ya oh delays.

DISCLAIMER: Naruto (characters and concepts) is/are property of thier creator. Kishimoto.
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It begins…

“Come and get me if you want it so badly!” Came a startlingly loud voice over the crash and bang of chaos. Her body was a dark silhouette against the raging fire storm, the delicate form tensely took a battle stance that shivered with a shot of pain but her head was held confidently and high. Locks of dark hair fluttered in the heated stirring of wind. Her eyes like a shot of purity in a darkened hell stared defiantly at her opponent…..
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“Naruto-baka!” a hard thump followed the scolding feminine voice. “Stay awake or I’ll knock you out!” Ok that didn’t make sense even to Naruto‘s illogical mind, but it had the blond shinobi up and out of dozing state in a fraction of a second. Sakura’s piercing green gaze receded to a look of mild frustration. “Honestly Naruto what were you thinking staying out till kami knows when no doubt causing trouble when you knew we had an early mission!”

Naruto rubbed the throbbing welt on his head, and he snickered nervously “Sakura-chan!! Ero-Sennin …” He was abruptly cut off by another burst of ear splitting berating.

“Don’t you dare say he had something important to do. We ALL know he’s a pervert whose mission is to record as many hentai fantasies as he can before some kunichi someday castrates him or at the very least removes those peeping eyes of his!”

“Yo!” Came a familiar voice. Bad timing Kakashi, bad timing.

“And you! Icha Icha this, Icha Icha that… “There was a dangerous little twitch to the kunichi’s eye as Kakashi pulled out said Icha Icha book. “Ka…KA…SHIIII!” For some odd reason the temperature in a 100 meter radius increased…by a lot .

Naruto took a step back tripping backwards with a loud thump. Dark expressionless eyes peered over him. “Dobe, Klutz” The slightest smirk crept across Sasuke’s lips.

“Sasuke!” Naruto growled, quickly getting up and staring his rival squarely in the eyes. “You did that on purpose!”

“You tripped all by yourself dobe, don’t blame me” Sasuke kept cool and calm watching with amusement as the kyuubi container‘s self control quickly vanished.

Naruto clenched his fist his arm tightening and straining for control. A small cold and quiet chuckle was all it took. Naruto extended his arm towards Sasuke’s face meeting flesh but not quite.

Kakashi’s eye stared boredly into agitated blue eyes. He let go of Naruto’s fist “If you didn’t get much sleep you should save your energy” was all he said and walked off an orange book capturing his attention once again.

Naruto grumbled something under his breath sending a pissed glare towards an openly grinning Sasuke. His attention quickly shifted to Sakura as she unfurled a scroll and laid in over a flat stump.

Sasuke stepped forward to glance over the parchment, and Kakashi placed away his favoured reading material. Naruto examined the map, closely watching Sakura trace a finger along a wide river bed.

Her voice was calm but serious as she spoke. “Ok. So here’s the mission Tsunade gave us. We’re to examine Konoha’s distant primary defences along the river bed. It’s not all that hard really but it’ll take us most the morning to get there. The defence may need routine maintenance, such as new tags, seals and perhaps new camoflagueing. Most of the stuff is buried deep in the earth”

“But if their buried how do we know they work Sakura-chan?”

Sakura sighed “Naruto I was just getting to that. Tsunade taught me the special jutsu for revealing the defence”

“She did! That’s awesome Sakura! This will be easy!”

“Dobe, let her speak”


“This as an 'A' class mission. Under no circumstances can any outsiders enter the perimeter; if they do they are to be captured…or destroyed especially if there’s any thought that they might have seen me use the jutsu. It the jutsu falls into the wrong hands then the primary defence could be broken. I think even you should be able to comprehend what effect that could have on Konoha Naruto”

Naruto gulped nodding his head and then looking determinedly at the map again, it was a lot of area to cover with only four shinobi. His eyes focused on lightly made red dots placed strategically around the area. Sakura noticed and smiled “those dots are you Naruto”

“Me huh…but Sakura I can’t be everywhere at once…” His mind clicked and a gear started turning “unless I use my shadow clones!”

Sakura nodded “Your clones will have wide area surveillance while Sasuke, Kakashi and real you keep ready to strike. Hinata will go around with me and we’ll both use chakra to fix what we need to…”

“Hinata???!! But she’s not here!”

“Um…N-Naruto-kun” came a very quiet voice from behind Naruto. Sasuke faintly insulted the surprised shinobi “dobe she’s been here since before you”

“Haha…ha…..ha? See…I knew that ahahahahahaaa….”

“Baka” Sakura muttered.

Kakashi sighed the blond was hopeless. “Continue” He told Sakura.

“Right! The Jutsu will leave me pretty drained and most of what I have left will go to re-burying the lines so it’ll mostly be up to you Hinata to do repairs to the chakra cords since you’re the most precise with chakra after me. Since I‘ll no doubt be near exhausted after and Hinata will probably be close too we‘ll both need to rest the night. We‘ll be staying at this village” She pointed to a small town very far from the defence site.

Hinata nodded over the years she had gained more confidence in her skills but still there were times…Her pale eyes quickly glanced towards the whiskered shinobi. A blush seeped into her cheeks; sometimes she still wished she could be a little more like the bold Kyuubi container.

Naruto quirked a brow “but Sakura why wouldn’t we just come back to Konoha? “

Hinata’s voice broke the silence. It was barely audible “b-because the mission has two parts”

Sasuke even quirked a brow at this information. “Two parts? “

Sakura nodded “for the first part I am team leader, since we’re in the area we were assigned another mission with the initial. Hinata’s team leader for that mission and we all have to do our best because it’s her final test.” Sakura smiled.

Naruto tilted his head to the side “test?”

Kakashi spoke this time before Sakura’s fist could give the boy another (well deserved) welt. “Her Jounin test, if this mission goes well she’ll be fully recognized as a Jounin.”

Naruto’s mind clicked. He cheered throwing his arms around the small woman next to him “hear that Hinata your gonna be a Jounin like me!”

Hinata bowed her head hiding the blush that was heating her whole face “N-Naruto-kun…” She was building up her courage any moment now she’d get out a full sentence in front of him any moment she’d show how much more confidence she had in herself…any moment.

He smiled as he released his embrace. “That’s if her mission is successful dobe” Sasuke spoke ducking Naruto’s fist easily enough.

“Hinata will! She’s a great Ninja …a bit weird but still cool!”

Weird? Had Naruto just called her weird?…but even more so had he just called her great…and even cool? “Naruto-kun?…” she whispered beneath her breathe

“Huh? Hinata did you say something?” Naruto cupped his ear.

Hinata smiled timidly “T-thank you Naruto-kun” and she disappeared into the forest along with Kakashi and Sakura.

Naruto stood there confused it was Sasuke that shattered the foggy recesses of Naruto’s mind.

“Dobe, you don’t even know what she’s thanking you for”

“Of course I do bastard!”

“She’s thanking you for having confidence in her” with that Sasuke followed his receding team mates.

Naruto stood for a second then smiled following after.

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A/N It's a bit of a short introductory paragraph but it introduces the story right ? It's not so terrible eh?