Naruto Hatake

The Hunt Is On

Hinata sighed as she was sitting in the back yard of her home her pet rabbit was on her lap as she pet its white fur. It had been over a week since Naruto and his team left and she was starting to miss him. She knew he would be back but she was so used to seeing him around the village. It got like this every time either of them had a mission. She was also wondering what Naruto would learn by the time he got back, he said he was also going to train some more with Jiraiya of all people. Although it took her a moment to figure it out, she wished he wouldn't call a legendary ninja 'Ero-sennin', it was very disrespectful.

But not only Naruto, but all of Team 7 would gain some kind of training. They were all going to get stronger and what was she doing, sitting around with her pet. It wasn't like she didn't want to train, Kurenai was out on a mission, Shino was doing some special breeding for some new bugs. Kiba was training with Akamaru.

She was thinking on how to get stronger as well, since she didn't want to fall behind and also because she wanted to be able to stand with Naruto. She wanted to become someone he could be proud of to be with. Yes, she knew that he always said kind things to her but she always had confidence problems as far back as she could remember. There was just so much expected of her as the possible next head of the clan, even when she was in the academy she had to study Hyuga clan laws, fighting style, proper manners and so on.

That training month with Sakura had been great because she felt that both of them had gotten stronger. She had gotten a lot closer to Sakura in that month she found that Sakura herself felt like she was weakest member of Team 7. Hinata could relate to that, Kiba and Shino seemed to be so strong to her. Now that Sakura was off training with one of the legendary Sannin, there was no telling how much stronger she was going to get.

'So what am I doing just sitting around then?' she asked herself. She needed to become stronger not only because she didn't want to be left behind but lately she had been thinking. She was to be the net head of her clan and she wanted to make her father proud. She had missed out on the chunin exams this year but there was another in six months, she wanted to be ready for that. She wanted to become someone better, working with Kurenai, Anko and Sakura for that month made her think of what she would do with her life.

Kurenai was closer to her than any other female adult, sometimes Kurenai reminded Hinata of her own mother. She was surprised by that thought, she missed her mother but it had been so long ago that she couldn't remember as much about her as she used to. It was a scary thought for her but maybe that was why she was so close to her team's sensei.

Anko and Sakura had shown Hinata that you were what you made of yourself.

Hinata dropped her rabbit onto the grass and watched him hop around eating some of the grass. She was surprised by how smart the animal was obviously it had some training as it knew to come back to her room and would actually go into the small open cage where he slept. She didn't have to worry about him and the entire clan by this point had seen her enough times with the rabbit to know it was hers.

"Ah I figured you might be here," a familiar voice said from behind startling her.

She turned to face her older cousin walking up from behind.

"You should be more aware of your surroundings," Neji told her as he tried to chide her as best as someone from the branch family could to the main house. "You are a ninja after all now."

"Ah your right, sorry, I was just lost in thought," She sighed knowing that she should be more aware but she felt safe here, this was her home. Then again, she still remembered that night she had been kidnapped, was that the reason he told her to be more aware? It was true that security had changed since that night but no security was perfect.