Towering above the vegetation, the horizon appeared further away than it usually did. Gazing across the vast expanse of land, it was truly a sight to behold, though it was of no importance. Trees crumbled at his every step, mountains were level from a mere flicker of the tail, the feeling of power was undeniable. At his feet, several people uselessly tried to stop him. Their determination of their struggles was almost palpable in the night air. It was of no matter, they would not be able to halt him. Purpose? He had no purpose. All he wanted to do was cause suffering to whatever he could. Below him, he continued his destruction, little by little he would kill the puny creatures, and then he would…

“STOP IT!” Naruto yelled out as he bolted upright. Sweat was beading around his forehead and his neck as his shallow breathing slowly deepened. After calming down, somewhat, he glanced around himself, making sure of his location – it was definitely his room, and he was on the ground. His dirty clothes were in the same spot as he had left them the night before, and his equipment was still strewn every which way. “Phew,” breathing a sigh of relief, “It was just a nightmare.”

“Not quite,” replied the demon.

“What do you mean not quite? And don’t you ever get some mental shut-eye, or something,” he added.

“Demons do not require sleep,” the beast scoffed proudly, “But what you experienced in your sleep was no dream - it was one of my previous memories.”

“Wow…cool.”

“Idiot…do you even know what this means?”

“It means you’re merging with me even more. I’m no baka, Jiraiya-sama already explained how the seal worked.”

“Hrmph, I guess that means I will not have to teach you as many things, since they will be part of your memories.”

  Naruto could feel a slight twinge in his chest after the demon’s last statement. On one hand, he knew that in the end the Nine-tails would completely merge with him, thus destroying it. On the other hand, he would sorely miss the presence in the back of his mind. Nobody had ever understood him so completely; losing the demon would be like losing a piece of himself.

“Now’s not the time to sit there idly, you still need to warm up.”

“Hai, sensei. Thirty laps right?”  Without even waiting for confirmation, the he jumped up from the floor, hurriedly slipped on his traditional orange jumpsuit, and raced out the door all pumped for his daily morning routine. After nearly a month of such work-outs, his body was rock hard and his endurance second to no genin. Along with his increased stamina, his chakra control skyrocketed now that his body could handle the massive his massive amounts.

After his work-out, Naruto realized he was late for his team’s usual meeting. It was a debate between being late and clean, or being late and dirty. “Oh well, they’ll just have to deal with it,” he decided, choosing the latter.

Walking along, hands in his pockets, he did not even realize he had hardly sweat. Of course, more pressing matters kept him preoccupied. It was not the first time he had experienced dreams from the memories of the Kyubi, he realized that. However, this was the first time it was so vivid. Everything had seemed so real: the ground under his feet, the blood in the air, the wind – he could still clearly remember it. Right now, though, he was at the meeting place, but Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re late you know,” Sasuke stated in guise of greeting.

“Oh…hehehe,” came the nervous response, “I was just out for a little run.”

“You call thirty times around the village little?”

Ignoring Sakura’s gasp, Naruto covered up his surprise with a grin. How did he know about his exercises? “That bastard Kiba must have spread the word.” Mentally groaning at the prospects of what might entail, he started to understand how Shikamaru felt.

Fortunately for him, Kakashi chose that exact moment to make his entrance. Instead of the usual puff of smoke, he was casually strolling while reading his usual book. “Ah, good morning everyone,” he greeted them, “Somebody stopped me on my way here with some good news.”

“Oh what is it?” Naruto asked excitedly, “Are we being assigned an A-rank super high class mission!?”

“Not quite,” said the jounin chuckling at his student’s enthusiasm, “But, the chuunin selection exam is in a month.”

“Has it already been five months?” Sakura asked incredulously.

“Just about. Anyway, it’s a slow day, and there aren’t any available missions, so you guys take it easy, or something.”

As their sensei walked off, an uncomfortable silence fell upon the group. After a few moments of discomfort, finally Naruto spoke up: “So…you guys wanna do something?”

“Sasuke-kun…” started Sakura in a sing-song voice, “Do you want to…”

“No,” interrupted the black-haired Uchiha, “I have other things to do.”

Disappointment slowly crept into the kunoichi’s face as she watched her crush walk off. But disappointment changed into mischief as she turned and faced Naruto. In her sweetest voice she said, “Naruto, how about you and me do something?”

“Che?” he uttered in surprise. Sakura was asking him to do something? That was definitely a first. “But whatever it is, I’m not interested. I’ve given up on you long ago., but you were too blind to even realize that. Whatever, I’m out of here.” Turning his back to his teammate, he calmly walked off without bothering to catch Sakura’s blank expression.

“That was better handled than the other female,” rumbled the demon, “Although you still require practice.”

“Will you shut up about Hinata,” he replied slightly irked, “It’s not as if she likes me.” All that answered him was a mental chuckle. At times like this, the demon could be quite odd, a personality trait he must have developed from himself, which in itself was not a comforting thought.

Trudging along his favorite forest path, Naruto felt particularly lazy since it was not often that there were no D-rank missions available. The Nine-tails inside of him had yet to come out of its own world. It was just like his academy days, when he had nobody to talk to. He had always enjoyed exploring around the outdoors when he was not pulling pranks. Not surprising since he was so full of energy. Now was different though; instead of chasing after squirrels and lifting up rocks, he was taking his time and enjoying the scenery – something he had never quite done before. Stopping by a tree, he stooped down and smelled a flower growing near the roots. The peacefulness of being alone was something he did not even know he missed. Standing up, he sighed and his fists started to clench as unbidden memories of his past rose up to taunt him some more. Images of people with cold stares flashed before his eyes, pauses in conversation as he passed by, pointing and murmuring, it was all a part of his childhood. Thoughts about his dead parents drove him overboard and he rammed his fist into the tree, creating a deep dent in the trunk.

Whenever he was sad, the only remedy was to work himself out. Without a second thought, Naruto drove his left hand into the trunk and pulled himself up from the handhold he created. Little by little, he worked his way up the tree in this manner. Tree climbing was second nature to him since his time in the Forest of Death. Soon, he was standing on the tallest branch. So, he jumped to the next tree, and jumped again, letting his instincts guide him as he purposely exhausted himself. He did not need to do this sort of thing since he was assigned to his team, but even his friends were not able to make him forget his past.

Leaping from tree to tree, he only held a vague sense of where he was. Despite his carelessness, his senses were still constantly alert. Stopping himself on a particularly thick branch, Naruto almost lost his slipping as he realized there was somebody in the vicinity. Was somebody following him? Could it be a missing-nin? It was not that long ago that Itachi and Kisame showed up in the village. Clasping his hands together, he concentrated on the location. He could sense the presence a few hundred feet from him to the north. Fortunately, the presence did not seem as strong as him. It held a certain familiarity to it, like a lingering scent that he could barely recognize. “Could it be…?” he wondered to himself. There was only one way of verifying.

For good measure, he wrapped himself in an inconspicuous genjutsu he developed while trying to hide from Konohamaru. As stealthily as it was possible for him, he made his way north. A few more jumps and he came upon a small clearing. He remembered where he was now, it was not too far off from the place he became a genin.

Down in the clearing, he could see somebody hunched over themselves with their back against a tree. “Hinata…what’s she doing here?” Naruto was partially thankful at the fact that the demon was inactive, for the time being. He did not feel like enduring more enigmatic statements from the fox.

From his angle, he could not distinguish her facial expression, but the way she was hunched over herself spoke for itself. He had no idea why she would be in such a mood since she appeared to be doing well the day before. There was only one way for him to approach this situation, and that’s the path he chose.

“Oy! Hinata-chan!” he yelled out enthusiastically, and then jumped down right in front of a very surprised Hinata, “Whatcha doing out here?”

“Naruto-kun!” she gasped. The suddenness of the greeting was enough to startle anyone. “Um, nothing I guess,” she replied avoiding his gaze.

“Nothing? That doesn’t sound too exciting,” he said stretching himself out.

“Yea,” was the barely audible reply.

Sensing the sadness in her voice, Naruto squatted down so he was eye level with her. “Hinata, what’s wrong? This isn’t like you to be all depressed.”

The whole situation seemed to be straight out of a dream. The one person she was most interested in was genuinely concerned about her. Even so, she was not sure whether or not to confide in him. Would she look like a fool if she did? “I…” she started, but she could not continue. Those deep blue eyes of his seemed endless. Again, she averted her eyes.

“Come on,” he said gently, “Just let it out, its alright.”

“I…” she started again, “I wish I was stronger!” There, she said it. He was going to laugh at her now, she was sure of it!

“Is that it?” he asked slightly surprised. After a light chuckle he continued, “Hinata…you’re already strong,” he said with a smile. Before she could say anything in response, he sat down next to her and explained himself. “After your fight with Neji, I swore that I would defeat him no matter what. I was almost unable to keep that promise, but as I was doubled over in pain, I remembered how you stood back up no matter what.” Pausing again, he stared out into space, faintly smiling at the memory. “You probably don’t realize it, but in my eyes you’re a strong person.”

A faint flicker of a smile played over Hinata’s lips after Naruto finished talking, but it soon disappeared. “Even so, my father still considers me a weakling.” A single tear streaked across her left cheek. “I can’t even see the tenketsu,” she murmured sadly.

“Tenketsu…” Naruto mumbled to himself, rolling the word on his tongue. Where had he heard that before? He remembered Kakashi explaining about them at the preliminaries, but before that…there was something else. An image of an old man wearing ceremonial robes flashed in his mind. Before the old man stood another man with one of his arms bare. Realizing what it was, Naruto leapt to his feet in excitement. “Hey Hinata,” he said in a rushed voice, “Gimme your arm.” Without even waiting for her consent he grabbed her wrist and folded the sleeve back.

“Naruto-kun,” she started to protest, but he was deep in concentration and did not notice. She did not want to pull her hand back and be rude, so she watched and tried to figure out what he was doing.

Slowly, Naruto traced a finger up her fore-arm and stopped midway. As if unsatisfied, he repeated himself, but on a different side. Hinata could feel a faint pressure as he flowed a little chakra from his fingertips, as if probing for something. “Ouch!” she thought to herself as Naruto simultaneously pressed to spots on her arm.

“There!” he announced proudly, “See where my two fingers are?”

“Yea…” she was not sure where this was going.

“Take a look at those spots with your Byakugan,”

After a few hand seals, she examined her arm, but try as she would she did not see anything different, which she told him.

“Look at the Inner Coils,” he urged, “Don’t you see something?”

She could definitely see the chakra conduit with no problem, but there was nothing out of the ordinary, except for a slight discoloration… “You enlarged one of my tenketsu,” she exclaimed.

“Yup,” Naruto replied grinning, “I figured, if I showed you, you’d know what to look for.”

Bringing up her other arm into view, she examined it like she did her other arm. She could barely make it out, but sure enough she could see the discolorations in her Inner Coils system.

“That discoloration’s where the meets the skin,” he filled in like he was reading her mind.

“This is amazing,” she murmured as she looked over her whole body. Here and there she pressed the spots trying enlarge them. After her own self, she turned towards Naruto to see if she could find them on him, but she saw him deep in thought. “What’s wrong Naruto-kun,” she asked in a concerned tone, “Did I say something wrong?” The last thing she wanted to do was offend him, especially after what he did for her.

“You know,” he said looking intently at her face, “You look better when you smile. You should smile more often,” he added with a giant grin.

Blood involuntarily rushed to her face as she blushed a furious crimson. He’d never complimented her like that, she had no idea what to say. Before she could even think of something, though, he continued talking.

“Anyway, I really need to get going, I’ll see ya around sometime.” Turning around, he flashed her another grin over his shoulder, jumped into a tree and he was gone.

Slightly stunned at the suddenness of the departure, Hinata rested her back against the tree thinking that maybe this day was not so bad after all.

Author’s Notes: Wow, writing this sort of thing was harder than I first thought.