Hatake Naruto

55

Naruto groaned as he tried to put on his best clothing, he still felt a little tired from all the training he had today but he did promise Hinata that he would be there. He just wished he had more of a break, plus he hated the formal clothing. They looked a lot like Hyuga wear with some slight alterations of course, but still, he was never comfortable in them. The only reason he had these was because his dad felt that if he ever needed them, they would come in handy. He hated it when his dad was right about this kind of stuff. He also had to pull off his mask as he stuffed it inside of a pocket.

He felt naked without it but he felt that it wouldn't go over well. He decided to wear it to the Hyuga compound but pull it off when he got inside. Besides he used to run around without one there before, even if it was when he had been a little kid. He sighed as he got ready, this was for his girlfriend, at least that's what he kept telling himself. Besides, he shouldn't be too nervous.

His mind went back to the training, so far it hadn't been too bad although summoning was a lot harder than his dad made it look. He had spent the entire time trying to summon, at first he got nothing but legless tadpoles, then tadpoles with legs, the best he did was when he summoned a mall red toad called, Gamakichi. The guy was kind of a pain in the ass, but at least he was smarter than the only other toad he had managed to summon. Apparently the younger brother to Gamakichi, a yellow one named Gamatatsu. Now, Naruto knew that he wasn't what you called 'book smart' but even to him, he could tell that Gamatatsu, although much nicer than his brother, was a bit on the slow side.

Plus the two kept demanding snacks of all things.

He really wanted to call up one of those cool battle toads that Jiraiya could do. Those would be great in battle and would really help out when he fought that guy in the match. Well he still had twenty-nine days left to get to that point and he wasn't going to stop until he could get a huge toad.

Anyways he had better hurry or else he was going to be running late. He quickly made his way to the Hyuga compound, taking the shortcut of jumping over buildings but since the compound didn't have any high building anywhere near it, he had to walk the last leg. He kept his mask on when he got to the gate guards, he bet that if he showed up without they might not know who he was. They usually saw him with the mask anyway. They let him in easily enough as he was expected, and when he was in he was led to the main house. He pulled off his mask and placed it in a pocket, he really felt weird walking out in the open without it, even here.

It was Neji that met up with him, the older boy was in traditional Hyuga garb. It was the first time that he had seen Neji dressed up like this, he looked like any other Hyuga, even the headband was changed from his forehead protector to a silk band to cover the mark hidden under it. After years of knowing this clan, Naruto knew all about that seal that was placed on the Branch members. Personally he hated that thing and felt it was stupid. No other clan had that, or a cast system like they had. But it wasn't his place, at least yet. When he became Hokage he planned to try and change things.

"Hey Neji, how are things?" Naruto asked the other boy.

"Fine," Neji said simply as he led him on.

"So...how's Tenten?" Naruto asked wondering how the girl was. He caught Neji's head snap up slightly and was that a slight blush? Maybe something had happened between the two, he knew that there was something between the two members of Team Gai. Maybe he could squeeze a little information out of him during dinner. This might be fun after all.

"She's doing better; she'll be helping me train for the last exam." He told him.

Naruto whistled, "Man you're lucky. Spending all that time alone with a pretty girl, just the two of you. Kind of makes me wish that me and Hinata-chan were-"