Part Six

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Something about her old sensei had made Naruto think that his hands would be lukewarm at best, but against her bare skin now they felt like they were hot enough to burn her. It could have been comforting if they were just resting against her, but the way he was moving them banished all thoughts of comfort from her mind. She gasped as her sensei's fingers passed over a particularly sensitive spot. His fingers were slowly and methodically moving up and down the expanse of her bare skin, managing to make her feel so much better than she would have thought he could.

It was surprising, finding out that he could make her feel so good like this, and she wasn't sure whether that was going to make him seem more or less creepy to be around while she was a woman. It helped explained why some of the women just kept coming back to him though, if he could manage to make them feel like this.

Some small part of her was very aware that they were technically in a public area, that at any moment someone else might come in to see her lying topless with her perverted old sensei stooped over her. If anyone did she knew she'd be embarrassed beyond belief, well and truly mortified, but she couldn't manage to make herself hold onto the worry. What he was doing to her felt too good.

She didn't mean to, but Naruto let out a drawn out groan. It was so hard to keep the sensations bottled up inside. Feeling embarrassed and imagining the way that the pervert was probably grinning at her after hearing that she grasped firmly at the fabric beneath her.

If she'd been a guy and had a girl he knew making those noises he'd have been embarrassed, but she knew exactly how much lecherous sensei would enjoy hearing it. He seemed to like doing this to her even more when she herself seemed to be liking it. Probably he just enjoyed the victory over her determination to take the entire act as just another training exercise. He kept telling her how much easier it would make infiltration missions as a woman if she could easily do this, but part of her was sure that he just liked trying to make a pretty girl gasp and moan.

"Naru-chan, what did I tell you about grabbing the towel?" her sensei asked, his words sounding more like a gentle reprimand than an actual question, "You are tensing up, and this isn't going to feel any good if you do that. It might even end up hurting you."

She released her hands from their clutch on the towel and did her best to relax again. Sensei was right in some ways, because being tense wouldn't help her at all, but neither did she really want to be relaxed. It was harder to control herself when she was too relaxed.

"Okay," Jiraiya said again, this time not talking directly to her but to her clones that were standing around her prostrate body, "Lets get started again. These muscles of the shoulder here can directly effect the movement of the neck..."

He started again, working the muscles around her shoulders, massaging slowly at fisrst to give her clones a chance to absorb the motions. It didn't matter that he was starting slowly, Naruto immediately lost the ability to focus on what he was actually saying. She supposed it didn't matter that much, because when she dismissed the watching clones then everything they'd learnt - the massage techniques, the knowledge of muscle groupings and the pressure points around them - would be instantly transferred to her anyway. Still, she'd feel less stupid about the whole exercise if the old mans touches didn't fell so damned good.

There was a pause in the action, and then the hands that were rubbing her were replaced with much more slender ones. It was the turn of one of her clones, now, and would continue to be until Jiraiya thought that she had got the movements down perfectly. The saddest part of it all was how much nicer the stupid old man could still make her feel. She supposed that meant that she would end up spending several more days doing this. It was more pleasurable than sparring she supposed, and it wasn't stopping still more of her clones from practicing jutsu.

Still, it was embarrassing, and unlike fighting it didn't make the day seem to pass any faster.

Jutsu, jutsu, jutsu, and constant sparring, that seemed to be pretty much all she did these days. She spent everyday learning things that would have salivate not that long ago, and thanks to her improved charka control she was managing to pick them up pretty fast. Jiraiya was teaching her, or at least was teaching her clones whose memories she got anyway, some of the coolest things she'd ever seen. She should have been glad for that, or glad from the break of it, or something. Instead, all she wanted was for nightfall to come so that she could see if Miyu and Haruka were at the baths, so that she could sit quietly with them.

She'd used to hate quiet times, and had avoided them like the plague, yet somehow they were now her favourite part of the day. Almost, at least. If she was truly honest with herself she had to admit that when at the end of each day Jiraiya put his hand on her head, tousled her hair and told her she'd done well were even nicer. It was nice to know that he was proud of how well she was doing, even if he was an immense pain in the arse, and a huge letch.

She didn't want to think about what Haruka was going to say when she tried to tell her that shed spent a large part of the afternoon being massaged by her sensei. Probably it would be something weird and confusing. In any case Naruto knew that Haruka would grin at her in that weird way and make suggestive sort of motions with her hands. Naruto was coming to think that Haruka's training must have been even weirder than the stuff that Jiraiya was making her do.

Still, whatever Haruka might say and no matter how weird it might be, it was still always great to catch up with them.

"Alright Naru-chan, we're done for today."

She waited for one of her clones to re-tie her bikini behind her back before rolling over and sitting up, letting her legs swing over the edge of the table. What idiot other than her perv of a teacher would think dragging a professional massage table out into the middle of the forest was a good idea?

"Hey, Ero-sensei," Naruto said noticing the position of the sun in the sky, "Why are we finishing so early?"

That question had the letch grinning at her.

"There's a festival on tonight. We'll be doing a bit of sight-seeing, and a bit more training too. You are going to need a new kimono."

He looked triumphant as he spoke, and Naruto wondered whether her heart was supposed to be soaring or plummeting, because currently it seemed to be trying to do both.

---

"Your recovery is still coming along very well Hinata," The doctor said, scribbling something down in her notes as she spoke, "If you are still eager to get out of the hospital then there should be no problem in releasing you later this afternoon. I'll warn you though, you are still going to have to take it very easy, and without the aid of medic-nin, your recovery may be a little slower, okay?"

Hinata mumbled her acceptance and watched gratefully as the doctor turned to leave.

She probably was being too impatient, she realised that. Nobody seemed to think that it was a good idea for her to release herself from the hospital yet, which only made her glad that they weren't aware of what else it was that she'd been doing in the last week. She was supposed to be taking it easy and just resting, but she didn't have the luxury of taking her recovery so casually.

With so many of the things in her life it all came back to Naruto-kun.

It had been just over a week now since the blonde had come to visit her, and since that time Hinata's thoughts had barely left him, or her, as she currently was. Hinata had been surprised at first to see Naruto walking around as an older looking girl, and then shocked and horrified when she had found out why he was a girl, and what else she was having to do to get training from her new sensei.

To go to such lengths, poor Naruto-kun...

Naruto-kun... Given the fact that Naruto was living as a girl right now, then perhaps Naruto-chan would be more appropriate. Just the thought of being bold enough to use chan in conjunction with Naruto's name was enough to make her blush, but it would be alright if he was still a girl at the time, and besides, if they really slept together...

That was what this was all about really. Somewhere amidst her shock and horror at the thought that Naruto-chan must be using sex to secure training with her new sensei, Hinata had found the courage to ask if Naruto would do the same sort of thing with her too, and amazingly enough, she had actually agreed to it.

It was a miracle that she had found the courage to ask, and a miracle that Naruto had accepted. With such good fortune favouring her she wasn't prepared to take any unnecessary risks. She had to get out of hospital and take Naruto up on the agreement before the unthinkable happened and Naruto changed her mind about it. She had to grab onto this wonderful and magical opportunity before it slipped completely away from her, because she doubted that she would ever find the courage to ask Naruto such a bold thing again.

That was why she had been ignoring the doctor's advice. That was why she had used her Byakugan ability to watch the way the medics formed their charka, and had been trying to emulate their work on her own damaged charka system. It was difficult work, and was quite dangerous, considering that the damage was to the very same system that she had to try and use to repair herself. The doctors had warned her that using her charka could cause very serious problems if she wasn't exceedingly careful, yet she had still somehow managed to make it work for her without causing too many problems, and now she might have the chance to grab hold of this opportunity before it slipped away forever.

Having become used to doing some healing on herself each day, Hinata was actually having to restrain herself from continuing today. Tonight, if what Natsume had reported to her was correct, she was going to need every bit of strength that she could muster.

As if summoned by Hinata's thoughts there was a quick rapping on the door to the room before Natsume pulled open the door and strode inside.

"I brought the tailor, Hinata-sama." Her voice was polite and respectful, but her stern expression conveyed well enough how strongly she disapproved of the tasks that Hinata had been making her perform on her behalf.

It was amazing that she'd ever managed to convince the older girl to go along with her directives in the first place, she would never have managed to convince Neji to do these things for her if he had still been the ninja assigned to look after her. Luckily in this case, no one seemed to think that Neji was an appropriate guardian for her after the things he had said to her during the preliminary matches of the chunin exams. Of course, they probably wouldn't have been any more happy with Natsume's actions. Spying on Naruto probably wasn't what they had in mind for the older ninja.

Even so, Natusme hadn't been willing to spend too much time away from Hinata, but that hadn't turned out to be too much of a problem anyway, because apparently Natsume had arrived that afternoon just in time to see Naruto redressing and sitting up from some strange-looking, raised bed thing, as her sensei stood close by talking to her about the evenings activities.

Whatever Naruto had been doing with the old man, apparently there had been some of her clones watching it going on. Hinata wondered if that meant that Naruto was a voyeur, or maybe worse yet, some strange sort of exhibitionist. That thought made it hard to breathe as an odd mixture of worry and excitement crowded in on her. Well, if she was very lucky, perhaps she could find out about Naruto's various kinks as early as tonight.

Tonight, according to Natsume's retelling of her surveillance, Naruto had been ordered by her sensei to attend the festival, and Hinata intended to be there to meet up with her.

That was why she needed the Tailor. When she just happened to bump into Naruto-chan she was going to make sure she was wearing a particularly exquisite Kimono.

"Hinata-sama," Natsume said, squaring off her shoulders, and Hinata knew what was coming next. She'd already heard this short spiel half a dozen times this morning, "I do not think that Hiashi-sama would approve of you going to the festival this evening, given the recent state of your health."

The stern look from the older woman was enough to make Hinata want to shrivel up, but she managed to remain more or less composed for the same reason that she had remained strong so far; Naruto-chan was going to be at that festival, and she had already agreed to sleep with her.

"Ano... I think... that I will go anyway... and if Father finds out then I will say it was my fault..."

Natsume frowned at the words, but there was a spark of respect behind the irritation too. Was this what was required to gain respect, to trample over the worries of others? The thought made her feel ill. Was this what her father had always wanted her to do; to cause annoyance and convenience to everyone around her, all in the name of getting respect and her own way? Only the thought of seeing Naruto tonight stopped her from crumbling at that thought and apologising. Even as it was she had to bite the inside of her mouth until Natsume had left her alone with the Tailor.

"So, young mistress," the white haired old tailor addressed her, "You are looking for a new and beautiful Kimono for the festival tonight, am I correct?"

She wasn't yet sure how to tell him what she wanted, so she ended up just nodding to the question.

The measuring came first of course. She always found this part of the fitting process overly invasive and uncomfortable. the process made her extremely glad that she'd thought to slip on her bra beneath the hospital gown earlier that morning, and wish that her tailor was a woman instead of some wrinkled old man. Still, he was supposed to be amongst the very best, so perhaps it would all be worth it. She really wanted to be able to stand out tonight.

"Now, in terms of styling," the Tailor continued, "Do you have any particular elements that you would like me to keep in mind for the finished kimono?"

Hinata shook her head.

"No, um not anything in particular, but... ano... I would like something to, um... show off my, um, body flatteringly." She could feel her cheeks heating with her words, wondered if they would make the much older man think any more poorly of her.

The Tailor smiled reassuringly at her and nodded as if he were in complete agreement.

"Of course my dear, you needn't have any worry. I've been at this trade my entire life. I know how to choose the shaping and styling that will compliment your figure best."

That hadn't been what Hinata had meant. That wasn't even close. She'd seen the way that Naruto had dressed when she had visited her, her clothes effortlessly showing vast expanses of her creamy skin in the most delightful way imaginable. Her neckline had plunged down very low, and when she had leant towards her Hinata had been able to see right down her cleavage, and had seen a lot of flesh, and more than a little of the other 'girl's' lacy bra. It had been one of the most wonderful things that Hinata had ever seen. She'd never really found another girl particularly attractive before, but then the breasts of Naruto's girl form were very pretty, and more importantly, they were very [iNaruto[/i.

Maybe Naruto thought that was how pretty girls dressed. Maybe he would want to see her cleavage. What if Naruto didn't find her interesting if she turned up modestly covering her chest? She couldn't afford to risk something like that happening, so had to make sure that the Tailor made her something that was not only pretty, but also sexy. Only... she didn't know if she could ask him. It had been hard enough to say it the first time, when he had been waiting on her answer, and she had been phrasing it relatively vaguely. How could she possibly say it now, in the middle of what he was saying? He didn't even seem to think that the sort of kimono she was thinking of was a possibility.

The Tailor continued on, uninterrupted.

"It will be ade of the finest siks of course, nothing less would do for a Hyuuga, I am sure. As for colours, well now... A lilac base of course, to match your eyes, and I think we will support that wish touches of pink, white and gold. I have a lilac fabric with pink and white sakura petals, I believe, and If i combine that with..."

Finally it was too much.

"Breasts!" Hinata managed to squeak out, far louder and far less articulately than she had originally intended.

"I beg pardon?" The tailor looked worse than shocked. At least the surprise kept him for seeming scandalised just yet.

"My... my breasts," Hinata managed, "I mean, ano..." but she couldn't quite manage to get any further than that.

Hinata couldn't help but notice that the Tailor was looking at them, now that she had drawn his attention to the subject not once but twice.

"For a girl your age they are more than generously proportioned, I am sure, but I fail to see what that has do to with our fitting." He didn't seem to be able to decide if he wanted to sound disapproving or excited.

"I mean, um... that I, ano... need..." Hinata stopped, closed her eyes and tool a deep breath. She could do this, for Naruto. What did it matte if the man was staring at her chest? Maybe by tonight Naruto would be too, so surely she could ignore it and just get this difficult sentence out of the way, "I.. I need it to show my breasts. Um... I mean, ano... cleavage. I need it to show some cleavage. Please."

The Tailor swallowed slowly.

"I have a reputation and a standard to maintain." he said, but his voice was lacking some of its earlier rigour.

"Ano, but... It's very important to me."

Relief washed through Hinata when she realised that the Tailor was slowly nodding his head again.

"Cleavage..." he muttered.

---

"Right!" Jiraiya barked out.

Naruto tried to redirect her hammer in mid-swing, to bring it down on one of the targets to the right of the board, but misjudged. Instead of hitting one of the green painted kappa models that were popping up and down out of the box she hit nothing more impressive than the surface of the box in which they hid.

She hadn't exactly been counting, but she rather suspected that this was her four thousand and eighty third miss. Behind her Jiraiya was making tsk-ing noises, sounding like he was starting to feel almost as frustrated as she herself was feeling.

At first Naruto had been excited when Jiraiya had said that they would be going to the festival. Obviously she'd been either entirely misguided or perhaps mad, because thus far the festival had largely been one source of frustration after another. Experiences that she'd had the delightful luck to experience so far had included a seemingly unending stream of young guys leering at her figure, which was barely concealed beneath Jiraiya's skimpy idea of a kimono, and a series of near-impossibly difficult twists upon the usual festival games. Maybe the letch was right, bmaybe this too was great training, but she'd come out to the festival expecting to have fun, not to struggle with yet more of his insane training plans.

"Yes you need to be focused," Jiraiya started, obviously not able to hold back from lecturing her any longer. He was using different words, but still saying the same thing he'd been telling her for the last hour and a half, "But you can't afford to focus too hard on any one part of your opponent. You need to see all their body at once. You need to see all the holes in their defence in case they close one of them as you begin to attack. You need to be able to watch every part of them as you attack so you can spot any warning signs that might alert you that you are being led into a trap, or that your opponents movements are a feint. You throw yourself too fully into your attacks, and must learn how to commit to the attack without losing sight of the whole of the battle."

She nodded, but it wasn't a nod of agreement, more a nod that meant 'get of my damn back, I'm trying.'

Be focused without focussing. It sounded great, but she still wasn't sure exactly how you were supposed to do it though.

"Now."

She chose her target in an instant and swung.

"Up!"

She tried to shift it, and the hammer met an empty hole.

Damn, damn, damn, damn. She was sure that that Kappa had been on its way up when she'd started swinging.

Jiraiya didn't say anything this time, and really he didnt have to. She already knew what she was doing wrong, she just wasnt sure yet how she was supposed to fix it. No doubt if she didn;t eventually get it then Jiraiya would find some way to make her life miserable for the failure. The old letch knew exactly what buttons to press, and he seemed more than happy enough to do so, as a strange form of punishment, or to keep her on her toes, or just becaise he felt like it.

Speaking of which...

A warm and intimate touch upon her hip, unexpected and barely muffled by the thin silks of her tight fitting kimono. Jiraiya had been keeping the leering yopung men away from her while she practiced, but just because he was protecting her from others didn't mean he wasn't going to take liberties.

She whirled on him rapidly, brandishing her hammer menacingly at him and watching in satisfaction as he gave out a squark of surprise and disapeared downwards in a flash of coloured clothes.

He...?

The sight before her wasn't at all what she'd expected.

"Hinata..?" Naruto wondered aloud. The other girl was on her rump now, looking eve more surprised than Naruto felt, and more than a little upset.

"Ano... Gomen... I... I didn't mean..."

"Nah..." Naruto interrupted, brushing the appoloigies away wih a wave of her hands. Shit. The last thing Hinata needed was this, ewspecially with how her cousin had treated her at the preliminaries, "I'm sorry. I thought you were the dumb old pervert. Sometimes he grabs my ass, and you know... stuff..."

Hinata's face immediately went bright red, although Naruto couldn't work out if it was because she was mad with the letch, or because she was worried that sort of thing could happen to her. With a girl like Hinata, probably the later...

"Don't worry about that," she hastened to reassure Hinata, "I'll pound him to the floor before I let him touch you..."

That only seemed to make her redder though.

"Ano... you get that... jealous?"

"What?" That didn't seem to make the slightest sense, but then that was girls all over. She reached down, offering the other girl a hand to help her up. "Anyway, I'm sorry for startling you. I dodn't mean ta startle you or anything. It's good ta see you byt he way. What are ya doing out of hospital?"

Really, it was good to see her; better than Naruto would have guessed. He'd known Hinata for years now, as a name and a quiet shape sometime lurking nearby, but not really as a person. When she'd stepped down to fight Neji during the end of the second part of the Chuunin exam he had recognised her as a classmate, but as little more than that. It was only when Neji's harsh treatment and harsher words had begun that he had truly started to notice her.

At first it seemed that she would just crumble into tiny little peices, but all it took was a few encouraging words from Naruto and she had rallied well enough to stand up to her ass of a cousin. She had rallied enough to stand there defiant while he rained more and more blows upon her until the judges had been to interveine to avoid her death. Naruto felt a little guilty about that really. Perhaps if she hadn'r encouraged the Hyuuga girl then she wouldn't have been anyway near so badly injured. She felt guilty about ever having put her in that situation, and yet somehow she felt a little proud of her for it too.

Either way she thought about it, she had to defend Hinata's honour by pounding that jerk. If her family could be so cruel to her, and if it took so little encouragement to re-energise her, then, well... Actually Naruto wasn't sure what that meant at all, but it worried her on a level she couldn't truly understand. Someone was was going to have to look out for the quiet girl and it might as well be her, because after all, that was Naruto's nindo.

Naruto tried to dislodge such heavy thoughts from her mind. Hinata was looking fantastic, and that was reason to be happy. She'd never thought the girl good improve so fast as this, and shewas glad she'd had to see how much the girl had improved.

There were other reasons to be happy about seeing Hinata too.

Naruto couldn't help but notice the other girl's kimono. The quality of the fabric and styling came as no surprise, and neither did the predominantly lilac colouring of the garment. These things were to be expected of a girl with Hinata's tastes, and with her prestigious family. What was surprising however, was the flashes of her bare calves and thighs that the Kimono kept offering, and the plunging neckline that offered a glimpse of more than a little cleavage. It was a sight that put an immediate smile on Naruto's face.

After all, she'd thought she'd be the only person dressed like that tonight.

If a girl like Hinata could dress like that too, then maybe it really was okay. Maybe stupid old Jiraiya hadn't just been being a perverted old letch again this time. Sure, not many people were dressed like this, but if it was okay for a shy girl like Hinata then that made her feel a whole lot better about it all.

"Anyway, I'm glad you are dressed like that Hinata."

Hinata nodded, and NAruto couldn't help but notice that the redness of her face was starting compete with some of the nearby red paper lanterns.

"Ano... I.. I um.. I thought maybe you and I could... together..."

Hinata had a pretty funny way of talking sometimes, and it took Naruto to transform the collection of words into a working sentance inside her own head.

"Oh? Oh! Yeah, sorry sure. Of course we can. I mean the old letch keeps goign on about how he doesn't like to take students, but I reckon we can convince him to let you train with us!"

"Oh." Her head drooped as she spoke, and Naruto found himself hastening to reassure her.

"Ahh, don't worry about it. I'll convince him and if even if I can't convince him to let all three of us do it together, then we could sneak off and justthe two of us could do it."

"Oh.. Naruto..."

Hinata's voice was stuttery and hesitant, but a huge smile was opening up on her face, so Naruto knew that she'd said the right thing. Hinata's cheeks were a healthy and happy vibrant pink too. Maybe too vibrant a colour actually. It spread to cover her entire face, and extended down her neck at at such a rapid rate that Naruto began to worry for the girl.

"Are you alright Hinata?"

She moistened her lips, opened her still smiling mouth and made a strange sort of gurgling noise.

"Hinata are you okay?" Naruto stepped forwards and laid the back of her hand against Hinata's forehead.

She was a bit warm, but not so much so that Naruto was worried about her having a fever. Far more worrying than her temperature, infact, was the loud thumping noise she made when she abruptly collapsed onto the floor.

Apparently Hinata still had a little bit of fainting left in her system.

---