NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: Trust
It has been 2 weeks since the twins met Hinata and so far, things were going pretty well. Hinata was rather surprised when the twins dropped their transformations and revealed that they are the rumored "Demon Twins", but considering how much Yuna has helped Hinata, Hinata discarded that rumor as nonsense instantly.
Yuna also started to modify the Gentle Fist. She pretty much discarded everything about it, except for the ability to eject chakra out of one's tenketsu. The Hyuga clan had a huge advantage in learning this and discarding it would have been just plain stupid. Yuna quickly developed a new combat style for Hinata. The slow and chakra-filled palm strikes were replaced with quick finger blows. She could no longer heavily damage organs with one hit, but instead went for cumulative damage. Since finger blows couldn't go against fist or palm strikes, Hinata would instead focus on dodging and, if that fails, blocking strikes with chakra ejected out of her tenketsu at the corresponding place to redirect the strikes.
After seeing what Yuna had thought up, Hinata said that there actually is a Hyuga clan technique called Hakke Shou Kaiten that involves ejecting chakra out of every tenketsu and spinning around to block attacks. Yuna however, just told Hinata that she shouldn't bother herself with techniques that force her to stand still. Yuna also had to hold in her laughter a little bit at that kind of technique. Yuna thought that Hinata probably misunderstood someone talking about it. If the enemy is just standing still on the spot and spinning around, couldn't you just wait until he stops spinning and punch him in the face?
The trio was currently standing on a nearby training ground and was preparing to have a sparring match. Yuna against Hinata and Naruto. Well, it wasn't much of a match considering how much experience Yuna has in combat compared to her sparring partners, but she was still rather proud of the two people lying on the ground in front of her while trying to catch their breath.
Hinata was improving very quickly with her new combat style. She already got the movements down to an adequate level. Her biggest problem is ejecting chakra out of her tenketsu at the right time, which Yuna is solving by having Hinata practice her chakra control with Yuna's water bowl method.
Naruto on the other hand doesn't have a fixed combat style. Yuna realized rather early, that it just doesn't work for him. Instead of using one, he heavily relies on his sharp instincts and intuition, making him incredibly unpredictable during combat.
Yuna's combat style is naturally entirely different. Strictly speaking, she doesn't have a fixed combat style either. If she were to fight seriously, every one of her moves would be calculated and executed just like she wants them to be executed. If she were to go all out with that, all of her movements would look like they were done by a machine. Absolute precision and not a single muscle movement wasted. That, however, was a state of mind Yuna doesn't enjoy at all. She wants to enjoy the fight. She wants to feel the thrill of battle. She wants to feel her fist smash into her opponents' fists, no matter how often her brain tells her to just dodge and counter the attacks. That is why she usually acts similar to Naruto during fights. She just turns her mind off and enjoys herself.
Despite losing in a two-on-one match, both Naruto and Hinata weren't unhappy at all. Despite having difficulty breathing, they both had smiles on their faces. They felt how they were getting stronger. Every time they fought Yuna, their bodies moved a little better and they could keep up with Yuna a little longer. The most satisfied one was, without a doubt, Hinata. This is exactly what she has yearned for. She is still training hard, no doubt about it, but now she was actually getting results out of it. At this point, she had pretty much already forgotten how to use the Gentle Fist. She never noticed, how uncomfortable it felt to use it until she used something that actually suited her. As for the fact that Yuna easily defeated them, they just shrugged it off as "Well, it's Yuna/nee-san after all, so it's normal".
"Good job, you two are getting stronger by the day. Hinata, you have gotten used to the combat style I made for you rather well. Naruto, your movements are getting smoother and smoother. You are clearly getting better at predicting your enemies' next move and acting accordingly. Keep up the training and you two will surely become a powerful shinobi in the future."
"Yes, nee-san!" Said an excited Naruto.
"I'll become much stronger!" Said an unusually confident Hinata.
"Now it is time to ask the most important question. I hope the two of you are ready?"
Naruto and Hinata both got confused at that.
'The most important question?' What is nee-san/Yuna talking about.'
Despite not knowing what exactly was going on, both of them had a serious face while listening to Yuna's next words.
'If nee-san/Yuna thinks it is important, it must naturally be very important.'
"Hinata, are you willing to keep practicing my combat style, or do you want to back to the Gentle Fist?"
Hearing Yuna's "most important question", Hinata almost choked on her own spit. Go back to the Gentle Style? What a joke, of course, she wouldn't. She was just about to answer when she saw Yuna's teasing smile. Hinata immediately understood what was going on.
'No way. Did Yuna realize that I was doubting whether she could create something better than the Gentle Fist two weeks ago? D-did she also know that I thought wasting two weeks of training wouldn't be that bad in exchange for getting a new friend and that I wanted to just swap back to the Gentle Style without a moment of doubt? W-w-won't she hate me for this, after all, I…*FLICK*.
Silence covered the whole training ground as Hinata was attempting to suppress the pain in her forehead and to comprehend the situation.
"Isn't your trust in us too low?". Hinata naturally still remembered these words. Now she finally realized what these simple words truly meant. There is no need to have any doubt between the three of them. Although she didn't understand why, the twins are scorned by the whole village, while she is scorned by her own clan and even got kicked out of it. Even if they can trust no one, they should at least unconditionally trust in each other as fellow outcasts. Hinata just now realized how unique their situation truly is.
'Despite the seemingly bad situation Naruto is in, he is never sad. He is always upbeat and cheerful. As long as Yuna stays by his side, he doesn't care even if the world is against him, which currently is more or less the case since everyone in the village hates him.
I myself was scorned for my weakness, got branded with a slave seal, and even got kicked out of my clan, yet here I am enjoying myself getting stronger while spending time with people that care about me and trust me.
Then, of course, there is Yuna. She is, without a doubt, the person holding everything together. Calm and collected at some times, yet brazen at others. She's always doing what should be considered impossible. Yuna helped me get out of my shell and considering Naruto's unbendable trust in Yuna, she had probably done something similar for Naruto as well. Right, trust. That has always been the answer. As long as I trust these two, they will return that trust.'
Hinata immediately straighten her back and looked Yuna in the eyes.
"Sorry about doubting you, I want to keep learning your combat style. Please help me get even stronger from now on."
Yet another silence descended on the training field. Hinata and Yuna were simply keeping eye contact, something that would probably have been impossible for Hinata do to 2 weeks ago. And then, the silence was broken by laughter. Wild unrestrained laughter.
"HAHAHA, no need to get so serious Hinata, I will naturally keep teaching you."
Hinata was naturally taken aback by Yuna's casual and unbothered answer.
'Did I interpret too much into it? Was she just asking that question to make fun of how easy it was for me to adapt to another fighting style?'
What Hinata didn't notice, was the glimmer of acknowledgment in Yuna's eyes. Hinata was the first human in this world, that figured out a piece of the puzzle that is Yuna. Trust will always be repaid with trust. That was how she was. Yuna has been betrayed multiple times by people she trusted, yet she has never let go of this principle. Others may betray her, but she will always trust those she deemed trustworthy unconditionally. Over her very long life, she has developed a keen sense of whether she could trust a person or not.
Kurama was the first being she started trusting in this world. He wore his emotions on his sleeve and hated nothing more than breaking someone's trust.
The next one was her little brother, Naruto. At first, Yuna thought he was this innocent and pure simply because he has yet to understand that there were bad things in the world as well, but even after being scorned by the whole village, he had no change in his personality at all.
And now, Hinata appeared. She was simply too young to have experienced the things Kurama had experienced and couldn't be compared to him. Neither does she have the unwavering innocence that Naruto has. Instead of that, she has an unwavering will to be acknowledged by those around her. Hinata already considers Yuna and Naruto as someone close to her. She will not even consider betraying that trust. She understands just how much the twins have helped her and will, under no circumstances, even consider doing something detrimental to them.
While these three people were improving their bonds, 2 ANBU's were running around Konoha while cursing again and again at a certain trio, that somehow managed to slip away from their watch with seemingly no hardships at all. They could somehow explain away how Yuna manages to give them the slip, but now she even managed to take an additional two people with her and slip away just as casually. Both of the ANBU's swore, that they would request the Hokage to put different people on watch duty from now on. They couldn't take this anymore.