Preliminaries: Part V

I recognized the angry redhead right away— Love Boy. He was disrupting String Bean Lee. You see, ever since I was detained in the hospital while Naruto and Sasuke were discharged, I had to keep myself somewhat entertained. Lee and I became somewhat compatible during this hard time for both of us—when he couldn't train and I couldn't eat what I wanted to.

"Die!" Love Boy muttered under his breath as he controlled some sand to attack Lee. Again, you see, Lee informed me all about the matches up until his own tragedy.

As swift as lighting, I teleported the handicapped ninja away from harm. Love Boy didn't seem to happy about that. I turned to him, hatred in my eyes.

"What you did is too cruel," I said, standing confidently between predator and prey.

"None of your business," the Sand ninja huffed, as he struggled to keep cool. That kid definitely had anger-management issues while growing up.

"It's my fucking business."

Love Boy threw a sand hand at me, but I activated by famous and overused Ice dome. The sand made contact, but couldn't penetrate through.

[Overdone, but works every time.]

Grinning my cheeky grin, I leaned back and crossed my arms in triumph as Gaara (Lee reminded me of his name) repeatedly beat my dome.

[Damn. I'm getting influenced too much by Uchiha and his bastardly actions.]

"I think that's enough youthful energy coming from you!" a voice bellowed before revealing the arrival of Senior String Bean.

"Guy Sensei!" Lee burned with youth.

"Lee!"

"Guy Sensei!"

It actually made me glad to see the fire in String Bean's eyes again. It was dimming the longer he stayed in confinement.

But I wasn't happy for too long. Team Guy's burning passion was much too passionate for me—and Gaara who left after witnessing the legendary teacher-disciple Embrace of Youth. That, I do not blame him for. I wanted to leave to, but was held back by the older version of Lee.

"To thank you Haku Yuki, I will train you!"

"I'm really fine…I was just passing by…" I said, attempting to scoot away.

"Haku-San. You should not deny yourself from the call of youth!" Lee announced, with a bit more energy. "When I recover, I promise I will join you in a battle of taijutsu!"

Seeing his enthusiasm, I couldn't crush Lee's dream. After all, I did fancy in taijutsu myself.

So I stupidly agreed, not knowing how much I would regret it later nor how much my body would hate me forever.

After training with the Mighty Guy, I stumbled upon a petite Hyūga on the training grounds. From what Lee told me, she lost pretty bad. But seeing that she was cute, I went to talk with her. But lost interest after it became openly obvious that she was obsessed with Orange. That irked me to some extent for some strange reason. Maybe because Naruto was my teammate, my concern, none of hers.

But since she praised me for my skills, I couldn't help but show her a little something more. I ended up staying, practicing with her. She wasn't too bad. I probably wouldn't mind finding a wife like her. But if I do marry a Hyūga, she is banned from using Byakugan around me or we'll have to divorce.

Her teacher, Kurenai dropped by as well to check up on her recovering beloved disciple. Seeing and wrongly assuming that I was helping her dear student, she bestowed upon me a few lessons and tips on genjutsu manipulation. I gratefully absorbed the information.

After the red-eyed beauty (whom I would trade Silver anytime to be my sensei) left, I played with Hinata a little more and actually did assist in honing her precision and speed. She's not bad so I let her become my part-time student in exchange for homemade lunches (the one she shared with me—though creepy as fuck with Naruto's face on each and every one of the rice balls—was delicious).

Anyways, I rewarded her hard work by making it snow—yes, I had so much chakra pent up from my stay in the hospital that it didn't matter if I wasted some for something stupid like impressing a girl that is totally in love with my teammate.

When she smiled, I was slightly content. I never made a girl smile before. It was a nice feeling.

"Haku-kun…um…um…" Petite fumbled with her fingers.

"Goddamn it. Just say it!" I ordered.

"…Thank you!" Petite bowed to me. It was also the first time anyone bowed like this to me.

I put one hand on her shoulder. "Hinata-chan, from now on, when you're around me, be bold. Just goddamn say anything on your mind. Say whatever is bothering you, who you hate, who you like, just fucking say it." I looked her straight into her normal eyes (thank heavens). "If you do, Naruto will like you more," I assured her.

Hinata immediately went red. "Really?" she asked sheepishly.

"Yes. He likes me and I fucking say what I like whenever wherever." I nodded with confidence.

"I will …um…fucking try!"