Ritoru Taikoku

New Friends

When she woke up again, Raku slid out of the bed and silently got ready for the day. She wandered into Neji's kitchen and made breakfast, setting it out on the table when it was done. At least once a day she cooked with Kakashi, it usually resulted in a flour fight or something that made a mess but it was fun.

When Neji awoke alone, he used his byakugon to see through the walls to search or Raku, he saw her in the kitchen and relaxed. He stretched and put on some loose pants over his boxers before going into the kitchen.

Raku smiled and opened her arms, wiggling her fingers to say "Ta da!"

Neji smiled, amused at how happy she was. "Thank you." He gave her a one armed hug and sat down.

xxX

"I have to go report to the Hokage soon so my cousin will train you today."

Raku stopped walking, tugging on Neji's sleeve. "It's alright, she won't hurt you. In fact she's...not much of a fighter. She'd be happy to help you any way she can though."

At the word 'she' Raku nodded and kept walking. When they made it to their training spot, a boy with blonde hair and what looked like whiskers on his face was sitting up in a tree with a girl with long blue-black hair and the same pale eyes Neji had.

"Oh there they are!" the boy kissed the girls cheek and hopped down. She blushed and followed his lead.

Raku hid behind Neji as the approached. "I gotta say, I never thought you'd be the nurturing type Neji," the blonde boy scratched the back of his neck.

Neji glared. "I don't owe you an explanation."

"Fine. I didn't want one anyway." The blonde pouted and turned his head.

The girl with white eyes knelt a bit to be Raku's height and put her hands on her knees. "You must be Raku." She gave a smile and she nodded. "I'm Hinata, Neji's cousin. This is my boyfriend Naruto." She blushed at 'boyfriend.'

Raku peeked around Neji to look at the couple. Hinata was beautiful! A gentle face, mysterious eyes, kind voice and shiny soft looking hair.

"...I like you." She said to Hinata who smiled. "I like you too!"

"I need to go now. I'll be back in three hours." Neji, ignoring Naruto's snicker, kissed Raku's head to reassure her and took off.

"So what's the deal? Is Neji your boyfriend or something?" Naruto asked, nose in the air.

Raku blushed and opened her mouth to say no when Hinata butted in. "Naruto we talked about this! Mind your business! Go sit in the tree and sulk until we're done." She stomped her foot and pointed to the tree they were in earlier.

"Yeah, whatever." He turned and went to the tree.

"As I'm sure Neji told you, I'm not much of a fighter so...for the most part I'm going to teach you how to build up chakra into different parts of your body."

Raku nodded.

Hinata showed her the basic hand seals and the names of each on. "When you move the chakra, it will feel warm." Hinata made a hand seal and moved the chakra to her hands that began to glow blue.

Raku copied her and nothing happened.

"Chakra comes from your stomach. It uses your physical energy and your mental and spiritual energy. The power of the mind and body mix in your stomach then are filtered through the hand seal..." Hinata gestured a swirling motion on her stomach then made a hand sign. "The hand seal tells the chakra what to do, or how to take form."