"Sure, Naruto-kun," stuttered Hinata, she was half relieved by this and half worried about it. On the one hand, she would have help to eliminate Kin, on the other she'd be left alone to fight Naruto.
Kin frowned at the obviously unfair situation. "This is some bullshit."
"Bad luck sure, but it could have easily gone the other way, two Oto shinobi versus one Konoha," replied Naruto. "It's just the luck of the draw. Don't worry though, we won't kill you . . . probably won't kill you . . . your death is unlikely but possible." Naruto loved his pranks as rarely as he pulled them these days and messing with an opponent's head could still be considered a prank, couldn't it?
"Hajime," said Hayate, jumping clear immediately, not wanting to get caught in any cross fire.
Naruto opened up with a barrage of mud balls shot rapidly at Kin, forcing her to retreat, only to be driven right to the Hyuuga.
Hinata had perfectly read Naruto's intention, moving immediately into position so that when Kin was driven to her it took five quick taps in rapid succession to take the girl out of the fight. "Ano, can we remove Kin-san?"
Hayate appeared next to the unconscious girl, picking her up and vanished again.
"Right then, let's have a good fight, Hinata."
"Hai," stuttered Hinata nervously. Her body automatically taking up the first stance of the Hyuuga Jyuuken.
Naruto spat a mud ball at her watching her easily dodge it without moving an inch. He fired off a few more trying to see how she'd react. She easily dodged two and deflected the rest with her open palm, suffering no damage at all. Still not moving or attacking him.
So he attacked again, firing off more mud balls at her, forcing her to move significantly more even if none of them hit. While she was busy dodging he formed a handful of clones to attack her at close range.
Hinata easily dodged or diverted the hail of mud ball shot at her. She was so focused she didn't see Naruto attacking her with taijutsu until he was almost on top of her. Her hand lashed out automatically, striking true to Naruto's chest only for him to burst into a cloud of smoke. She then saw there were more Naruto's attacking her, each of them with a physical presence and chakra system of their own.
Naruto watched as his clones and the mud balls he continued to fire at her were beginning to slowly overwhelm her. His first true hit came when one of the mud balls slammed into her shoulder, causing the young girl to spin around and lose balance for a moment. He didn't expect her to use the moment of the spin to kick out both her legs in a split kick instantly killing three of his clones and giving her space.
"You're pretty good, Hinata," complimented Naruto.
Hinata felt her cheeks heat from the compliment, even though she was breathing heavily and her shoulder was in a lot of pain, she'd never felt better in her life. "Thank you, Naruto-kun," she replied softly, stuttering as usual.
"But you're going to have to attack me if you want to even have a chance at winning. I can spam clones and mud balls all day long," Naruto warned, he wanted a good fight and if he could do something to help her 'Unconfident' status then he would.
Hinata nodded nervously, swallowing thickly. She knew what he said was true but she doubted she could do it.
"You can fight me, Hinata. Just think of it like a spar," offered Naruto. He knew it was a big risk to encourage the girl. It was probably stupid even to encourage the girl to fight him seriously but she was a friend and he liked helping his friends no matter what it might cost him.
Hinata took a few deep calming breaths then nodded. She threw a handful of shuriken at Naruto as a distraction, allowing her to get in closer.
Naruto grinned seeing her attack, it was easy to dodge the shuriken but it did end up with him in close to Hinata having to suddenly dodge a glowing blue hand. Thankfully he was able to substitute with one of his clones. It didn't fool her long as she was on him again.
Hinata was surprised that she was doing as well as she was, even if she hadn't hit him yet. Truthfully, she'd always been surprised by Naruto's perseverance but that perseverance never measured up against his talent or lack thereof. To find that Naruto's taijutsu skill had improved so drastically was shocking to her. He was easily coordinating his attack with clones and himself such that she was starting to confuse who was Naruto and who was a clone, all she could do was keep attacking and hope to get lucky.
On the other side of the fight, Naruto was starting to worry he'd made a mistake encouraging Hinata. Half of his time was spent replenishing the clones as Hinata rapidly destroyed them. He'd scored a few indirect hits but it was barely any damage. He had even tried creating some distance again but Hinata wasn't letting him.
Hinata could feel her energy running dry quickly, but that wasn't so much of a surprise against an opponent like Naruto who had so much energy that he never seemed to tire no matter what he was doing. She lunged forward to strike another clone, dispelling it easily but when she tried to push away from an incoming strike she felt the muscles in her leg protest, slowing her significantly. It was enough for the attack she was trying to dodge to strike true to her ribs.
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