Chapter 04: Training with Hinata

My Life As Naruto Uzumaki - Harem Version

Chapter 04: Training with Hinata

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[Third Person POV]

After waking up the next day, Naruto stretched and did his usual warm-up and workout routine, before heading over to Ichiraku's for some celebratory morning ramen. Today was his seventh birthday, meaning that our young hero would finally enter the academy this coming spring.

He rushed to Ichiraku's and told Ayame and Teuchi all about his newly acquired ability to use chakra and how cool he thought it was to have learned the technique without teachers. Ayame, the happy big sister that she was, showed her joy for Naruto's accomplishment by smothering him with hugs and kisses. Teuchi, though less physical in his celebration, was equally thrilled that the smart young boy they loved and cared for had begun his path as a shinobi. He made Naruto his special celebratory ramen and gave him a few bowls on the house. 

Naruto insisted on paying for each, but Teuchi wanted Naruto to have as much ramen as he could to celebrate the occasion and didn't want to leave the kid without any money for necessities. Ayame just put the money back in Naruto's Gama-chan after he took it out to pay.

Naruto tried to insist but Ayame put her foot down and he pouted, saying that he didn't want to be a freeloader. The father-daughter duo smiled at him and let him pay for a few of the bowls.

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Naruto would continue to train his body with simple exercises and meditate to help train his mind on focus. He continued to play the guitar and flute that his other big sister had given him in his spare time and started getting into carpentry as a separate hobby from pottery. He liked using his hands to be creative.

Naruto would come to understand more and more about himself, eventually coming to adopt personality traits from his much older self. That said, they were additions to his current personality, not overhauls of who he'd grown to be in this life.

He saw that while his stats didn't increase from training, he could more easily take advantage of them the more he trained. Making him realize that while the numbers represented how much strength he had, they did not represent how effective his use of that strength was. He wanted to find out how he increased his stats but wasn't in a hurry just yet. He'd likely find out while at the academy.

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The day he enrolled at the academy was the day Naruto saved Hinata from the three bullies he remembered would be picking on her because of her eyes. He remembered liking the character in his past life, but not why. 

He fought the three kids back, giving them major bumps and bruises, then tossing them into the snow. He wanted to be the type of fighter who had style, so he tried his best to look cool doing it.

He walked over to the sobbing Hinata and helped her up, before reintroducing himself, "Hi, Hinata... I don't know if you remember me, I'm Naruto." 

The shy girl nodded, "I-*sniff*-I remember... you helped me when..."

Naruto saw her get sad again and tried to comfort her, he knew how to get comforted, not how to comfort others. A trait he shared in both lives, it seemed.

"Uh, wait, please don't cry, uh... I... I just came here to help, ya'know? I couldn't just ignore them treating you like that. You're really pretty!", Naruto blurted out at the end, his cheeks flaring.

"Y... You mean it...?", Hinata was hoping he was being truthful.

The young Naruto nodded his head, still embarrassed about shouting it out. He started patting her down to clean her up of the snow and used his scarf to wipe her dried tears.

Naruto then asked, "Why did you just let them treat you like that? You um... you're super pretty, ya'know?"

She blushed, embarrassed at being told she was pretty so often by a boy, and responded, "I... I don't like conflict..."

"... So your answer is to just be a doormat?", Naruto asked, genuinely confused.

She looked at her feet and nodded slightly. Naruto had to hold the urge to sigh. He did so anyway, "Hinata, that's only going to make things worse for you. You don't have to fight them, but you can at least stand up for yourself."

Naruto tried cheering her up but saw he didn't get anywhere, "If anybody says that you're weird it's because they're jealous of how cute you are!" Naruto declared, his shame long forgotten. Hinata giggled a little at his exuberance.

"Believe in yourself, Hinata, and you can be sure that others will do too... and if you can't believe in yourself yet... then I'll believe in you", Naruto declared with a big smile, hoping she would try her best to believe in herself in the future.

Hinata was surprised that this boy she'd only met once before was being so kind and caring toward her. She didn't know what to do or think, so she settled on nodding. 

Her shy nodding broke his tiny heart and he hugged her tightly, rubbing her back gently to try and comfort her like Ayame and Kitty Cat used to do, "You don't have to change overnight, Hinata. Just a little every day will do just fine."

Hinata nodded, relieved that she didn't have to change right this second, she didn't know if she could.

"Let's be friends... Hina-chan...", Naruto said trying to be friendly but felt his face flare up again. 

Hinata grew a little red herself but appreciated what Naruto was trying to do for her.

"I'm sure you'll become strong someday, no matter what anybody else says", Naruto finished, hoping to have made Hinata's day a little better at least. 

She nodded with a soft smile, a bit misty-eyed, "O-okay... Naruto... kun..." Hinata felt her cheeks flare up and did her finger-poking thing, nodding a second time. She promised herself to do her best to not let him down, he was telling her he would be there for her, so she would be there for him.

Naruto smiled at the shy girl once more and left, feeling that if her caretakers saw him with her, they might undo whatever progress he made with Hinata's self-esteem or self-image.

He thought about what he'd told her and realized that he was likely not the best at giving pep talks; sighing in dismay he walked back to his house to get everything ready for his first day.

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Aside from the first day of class being much less interesting than Naruto had envisioned, his days at the academy were about as fun as he would have expected. 

He paid close attention to historical subjects, always wanting to know more about the world around him and fill in the gaps in what little he remembered from his previous life. This started a rivalry with Sakura, the self-proclaimed smartest girl in class. The both of them often competed on who could get the highest scores in academic subjects or who knew the most facts about any topic in class, something that allowed Sakura to come out of her shell earlier and less violently than she originally would have.

Naruto also didn't ask her on dates or do pranks as often as he would've either, so his reputation in class was generally favorable.

One thing Naruto quickly realized when sparring began, however, was that he had to do his best to not fight like he was trying to kill his opponents, his first few spars had a few of the students traumatized from the experience. He figured that even in this new life his previous fighting instincts remained. He was glad to have all of that previous experience ingrained but wondered why it only surfaced in the moment. 

Chakra control was also a relatively sore subject for him, having the most problems with the leaf-sticking exercise out of everyone in class, along with finding the Clone Jutsu near impossible to perform. But he knew that getting frustrated wouldn't help him and took his time, often asking Hinata to look at his chakra when attempting the technique to guide him toward the proper amount of chakra to use. This was something that made Hinata's self-esteem increase significantly, seeing how her unique abilities could help her best friend.

Iruka also took the time to share tips and mentor Naruto because he was always the type to ask questions and participate in class with an enthusiasm he wished his other students would have. He eventually grew to love Naruto as a brother and often went to Ichiraku's with the energetic boy. Using this time to help Naruto work through his chakra control difficulties.

Naruto, the lovesick puppy that he was, kept up his friendship with Hinata and got closer to her, nudging her subtly(not) to get over her aversion to conflict and sparring. He was her staunch defender whenever people would try to give her a hard time, and he would always tell her how much he believed in her. How much he liked her personality and how pretty she was, often pointing out that her eyes were the prettiest in the class.

This got the attention of Ino Yamanaka, who got into a rivalry with Hinata over who had the prettier eyes, helping the shy girl come out of her shell faster. Ino had begun to stray from her fascination with Sasuke because of how much nicer and approachable Naruto was. Eventually, deciding that she would be Naruto's fangirl/follower instead, later becoming close friends with him and Hinata.

She became a sort of cheerleader for her friends whenever they would spar during class, and often helped Naruto convince Hinata to spar with him outside of class. Hinata helped Ino with her taijutsu, as did Naruto with the physical training aspects of the academy curriculum. It was a relationship that all three benefitted from in some way, and they were much closer than other kids their age would normally be.

Hinata would eventually get over her initial apprehension and began beating Naruto left and right during spars. Naruto had a hard time getting any hits in and defending against the more flexible, nimble, precision fighter Hinata was trained to be, and they eventually started sparring without holding back any punches.

He learned to counter the Gentle Fist and promised Hinata that he would never teach anyone how; letting it slip that he liked her too much to betray her like that in a moment of heightened emotion. The two were inseparable after, something Ino would try her best to get for herself, eventually succeeding and creating a much stronger bond with her two friends.

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It was sometime after the Uchiha clan had been destroyed that an 8-year-old Sasuke openly challenged Naruto to a real spar, no holds barred. The two had been rivals of a sort ever since beginning the academy, but Sasuke had always favored spending time with his brother after class than making friends at school. But now that his brother had betrayed him, his clan, and the village Sasuke needed someone to take his brother's place. But instead of being someone to spend time with, it was someone to push him, further and further toward obtaining the power he needed for retribution.

Naruto accepted his challenge and asked Iruka to officiate it. Iruka was a little hesitant, knowing what Sasuke's goals were regarding the spar, but he trusted his little brother to be able to put up a good fight. Iruka had never seen Naruto sparring with Hinata after class, so he was unaware of the boy's true prowess.

After getting into the sparring circle, Naruto gave Hinata his best grin and a thumbs-up, before giving Ino the same. He knew they were happy because Hinata blushed with a bright smile, and Ino's pitch increased when she cheered. Naruto felt butterflies in his stomach at the two girls' reactions and looked forward, ready for the fight of his life.

Sasuke's eyes looked intense, a desire for power, and something more, something Naruto couldn't decipher. Naruto knew why Sasuke felt this way, he knew the pain and struggle he must be going through. He wanted to help him, he'd been trying to. But it was proving difficult to establish any connection with Sasuke that didn't require fists. He would resort to bribery if all else failed. Sasuke liked tomatoes, so maybe that was the key.

He looked at his HUD to verify his current condition and looked at Sasuke's info presented on the top of his head.

[*Player* | Lv5 - DS: 4000/ CP: 5500/ STR: 40/ AGI: 35/ VIT: 50/ INT: 25/ SNC: 20]

[*Sasuke Uchiha* | Lv5 - DS: 1200/ CP: 2200]