Recap / Naru-Hina Chronicles Volume 2

Chapters: 9-16

It is over a year later and life has continued in Konoha. Naruto and Hinata, and Sasuke and Sakura, both continue their dating lives, though not without some interpersonal tension. Likewise, Kiba has begun dating Mina Mikon, a chunin medic ninja who was introduced in the previous arc and had saved Akamaru's live at risk to her own with her medic skills. We are also introduced to Yori, an obnoxious Konoha jonin with an agenda of his own who apparently dated Tenten for some time a couple years past. He clashes with Neji who is now dating Tenten himself.

Hinata noticed Naruto becoming more and more preoccupied, with increasing long silences. The mental stress of containing Rokuro along with the Nine Tails has caused his mind to begin breaking down. Hinata talks to Sakura about it, but while she does so, Rokuro manages to escape from the prison in Naruto's mindscape and takes over his body. He takes Naruto's body to Hotaru, who is now dating Iruka and has a 4-month-old girl. He grabs the girl and is about to kill her with a kunai when he is stopped with a genjutsu by Sasuke. He enters Naruto's mindscape using his Sharingan and finds it almost completely destroyed. He battles Rokuro from within the mindscape to free Naruto and succeeds, but Rokuro flees, now existing completely as a kind of chakra spirit, as he takes over a random villager in Konoha's outskirts. Naruto's mind is shattered and he is on the verge of death, but with supreme effort and help from the Kyuubi, he manages to rebuild his mindscape and survives.

Soon after, Tsunade announces her intentions to host an impromptu Chunin Exam with the support of other Kages and feudal lords. Only a handful of entrants from each village arrive, far from the grandiose events seen in the canon series. Naruto and Sasuke, who for various reasons have not technically been advanced from genin, are given the chance to participate.

The main trial is for all participants to search Konoha's forest for a series of items. There are only a certain number of these items, and without possession, they cannot advance, so the number of entrants to the next round is limited. Naruto and Sasuke both find items, along with a handful of others and advance to the next round, with dedicated guards and blockers for each entrant to prevent them from 'infiltrating' the village.

Yori is seen in the company of Lord Mori, a higher-up Konoha official, who sends him off to train and coordinate a group of mercenaries outside the village. Mori is invited by Tsunade to watch the finals of the Exams, but he declines. Curious...

Naruto and Sasuke make it past the second stage and make their way to the stadium where the finals, a series of one-on-one matches will be held. Sasuke makes it on time, but Naruto finds a dying Konoha ninja outside the stadium who warns him that intruders are trying to sneak a bomb into the stadium basement. He goes to investigate. He finds a pair of saboteurs and one of the other chunin candidates planting a bomb and attacks. The candidate, Echo, one of Lord Mori's personal ninja, drives him out into the stadium with a spirit sword. The other chunin candidates gathered in the stadium attack Echo and eventually overcome him when Naruto uses the bomb in the open area to trigger an explosion that causes little damage to the stadium and crowds but destroy all of Echo's spirit swords and he is taken prisoner.

Because of their swift action and teamwork in the face of sudden and unexpected circumstances, Tsunade skips the remaining fights and awards all of the candidates, including Naruto, the rank of chunin. In the prison, Yori breaks in to Echo's holding area, at first appearing to try to free him, but then killing him in his cell on Lord Mori's orders to cut out a loose end of Mori's plot. He then does the same to the other bombers involved.

After being confronted by her father, who is concerned that dating Naruto is detrimental to the Hyuga clan image, Hinata takes the step of defying him and moving in with Naruto permanently. He decides to move out of his apartment and into a house big enough to support them both. And as Mina and Sakura are treating injuries resulting from the bomb explosion, Mina experiences tremors and troubling symptoms. Tsunade and Sakura examine her and find that she is infected with trace amounts of bomb residue that would have had to have been introduced long before the explosion, and she is suspected of somehow being involved in the plot. Mina realizes that it must have been when Yori molested her on the rooftops in the early part of the Exam earlier, but before she can say so, she collapses, unable to breathe due to the compound now affecting her lungs. She is placed on life support.

Lord Mori and Yori confer. They realize that attention is on Mina due to the evidence but if she recovers, she could spill the beans on her suspicions and point the finger right at them. Lord Mori orders Yori to kill Mina, but he is reluctant until a mysterious girl in a wheelchair comes forward and guilts him into help, claiming to be Yori's sister and owing her continued care and health to Lord Mori. With that added incentive, Yori departs. He infiltrates the hospital and injects a concentrated dose of the bomb residue into Mina, but Kiba, coming to visit, discovers him in the act. He intervenes, but not before Yori delivers the residue into her and escapes. Yori flees the village; caught red-handed, he is now a true rogue ninja.

With Mina only having days to live at best and having no other leads, Tsunade sends Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to the Nation of Steel to investigate the source of the bomb residue and to find a means to counteract it.

Tropes:

• The Big Damn Kiss: Naruto and Hinata have one when the former is finally able to say "I love you" to the latter after an entire year of dating her, with his girlfriend having Tears of Joy over hearing him say those words.
• Bridal Carry: Hinata faints after imagining herself as Naruto's wife following a comment from Tenten. When she wakes up, she finds herself being carried by Naruto in his arms while Tenten is carrying their shopping bags. Hinata tells Naruto he doesn't have to carry her, but he says it's OK given that he enjoys holding her.
• Corner of Woe:
  • Both Naruto and Sasuke do it when Tsunade reminds them that they're both still Genin (Naruto overslept and missed them, and Sasuke was on probation and wasn't allowed to take them at all).
  • Naruto does this again after Ichiro found an item that Naruto needed for the Chunin Exams while in the Forest of Death.
• Curse Cut Short: While Sasuke is fighting Rokuro inside of Naruto's mind, we get this exchange:
  Sasuke: What the...?! Are you saying you could have left Naruto's body at any point? Why you son of a...
  Rokuro: Of course I could have.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Shizune needs to find someone who can be a messenger in charge of running important messages between Konoha and Suna, or else she'll have to do that job herself. She asks Naruto if he's willing to do that, but he declines, much to her disappointment. Naruto then wishes he knew someone who wanted to go to Suna alone, only to immediately realize that Shikamaru might be that person. The latter accepts the job, as it will allow him to spend more time with Temari, although Naruto never even thought about that and only assumed Shikamaru would accept it just because he doesn't mind being by himself and the job requires little work.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: While discussing with Naruto about a job, Shikamaru notices that his friend is holding a bag:
  Shikamaru: Hey, Naruto. What's in the bag?
  Naruto: Huh?! Oh this?! It's a present for Hinata's bir... OH CRAP! I'M SUPPOSED TO MEET HER!
• Forceful Kiss: In his first appearance, Yori forcefully kisses Tenten, much to the latter's displeasure.
• Giant Medical Syringe: In Chapter 9, Naruto tells a story to Hinata about how he was afraid of a needle that was as long as his arm during a medical exam.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Yori sees two girls arguing and thinks they're talking about doing some girl-on-girl action, which he finds to be really hot, and he even hopes to have a threesome with them. In reality, the two girls were Naruto and Sasuke after using the Sexy Jutsu to become girls and infiltrate the village during the Chunin Exam, and their argument was about Sasuke really not liking the idea of someone seeing him like that.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: In the Forest of Death, Ichiro tells Takara that he wants them to be more than just friends. Observing them, Naruto decides to leave them alone and go find an item he needs in order to succeed at the Chunin Exams.
• Love Bubbles: The inked version of page 169 uses the flower variant in the panel where Naruto finally says "I love you" to Hinata.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: Naruto visits Shikamaru who is shirtless and notices Temari's giant fan in the room. Naruto questions this and after a few seconds, Shikamaru states "Well... Erm... Y'know what, it's too much of a bother to come up with a plausible excuse. So... Just go away!"
• Official Kiss:
  • After Neji defends Tenten from her abusive ex-boyfriend Yori, the Hyuga compliments her on her face while touching it with his hand, only to remove his hand when he feels he's being inappropriate with her. Blushing and smiling at Neji, Tenten tells him he can be as inappropriate with her as he wants and she kisses him to silence any protest from him. Subsequent chapters indicate that they've been dating since that kiss.
  • Ichiro and Takara have one during the Chunin Exams. She goes on a rant about how stupid he was when dealing with some villain earlier on, resulting in Ichiro getting injured. However, he decides to pull Takara closer to him and to kiss her, making her more joyful than angry in the process.
• Oh, Crap!: Sasuke has this reaction when Sakura gets mad after seeing him use the Sexy Jutsu while fighting Lee during the Chunin Exam.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Sasuke wonders what else Sakura could be planning for their first anniversary of dating, only to quickly realize before Naruto does that it might be sex, leading to the following conversation:
  Sasuke: [shocked while having a minor nosebleed] Wait. You don't think she...?
  Naruto: It's probably gonna be what Hinata did for me on our anniversary date.
  Sasuke: Wait you and Hinata?! I didn't know you two..? Well... How was it? Was it... good?
  Naruto: Great! But then Hinata's had a lot of practice. She gives treats like that all the time!
  Sasuke: [even more shocked] SHE WHAT?! HOW LONG HAVE YOU TWO...
  Naruto: [drooling while having stars in his eyes] I can still taste those Hinata-shaped cookies.
  Sasuke: WAIT?! COOKIES?!
  Naruto: Yeah. Cookies. Hinata made us cookies. I had ones shaped like her, and she had ones shaped like me. What were you talking about?
• Overly Long Hug: After Naruto almost dies and wakes up at the hospital in Chapter 10, Hinata immediately hugs him in relief. However, she keeps hugging him even while Tsunade is berating Naruto for not telling anyone about what almost killed him:
  Tsunade: ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME, NARUTO?
  Naruto: Errr... Hinata!
  Hinata: [with a big smile on her face] I'll never let my Naruto go!
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: After Rokuro manages to take control of Naruto's body, Sasuke uses his Sharingan to confront Rokuro inside of Naruto's mind:
  Rokuro: His mind crumbling all around us. He may have only minutes to live.
  Sasuke: Minutes?! That's plenty of time to kick your ass.
• Rescue Romance: Tenten falls in love with Neji after he defends her from her abusive ex-boyfriend Yori.
• Security Cling: Konohamaru and Hanabi hug each other when they're scared by Hinata's Clingy Jealous Girl behavior during the Chunin Exam (which was caused by seeing Naruto lying on top of a girl named Hanajima when he tackled her to the ground to avoid an attack from some villain).
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Naruto goes to Shikamaru's place to give him back his wallet, only to notice Temari's fan next to the couch. Shikamaru tries to make Naruto go away, but Temari appears, wearing Shikamaru's shirt, and convinces him to tell Naruto that they're dating.
• Shout-Out: During the Chunin Exam, Sakura sees Sasuke using the Sexy Jutsu to quickly end his fight against Lee and she does an angry rant over it, only for Sasuke to kiss her in the hopes that it will shut her up. mattwilson83 stated that this was inspired by "Jaws Wired Shut", an episode of The Simpsons. Said episode features a scene where Homer decides to hug an upset Lisa, hoping it will "cork her cry hole."
• "Shut Up" Kiss:
  • In Chapter 9, Neji comments that Tenten has a pretty face and touches her cheek, only to feel like he's being inappropriate towards her. Tenten tells him that he can be as inappropriate as he wants with her and she prevents him from protesting further by kissing him.
  • Sasuke uses the Sexy Jutsu in order to quickly end his fight against Lee during the Chunin Exam. However, Sakura sees this and does an angry rant over it. Sasuke then decides to kiss her, hoping it will shut her up. It works.
• Speak in Unison: When Tsunade announces the start of the Chunin Exam's final phase, she also states that the 6th finalist (Naruto in this case) has been disqualified due to not arriving at the stadium on time, causing Sasuke and Tanaka to say "What!? Naruto's been disqualified?!" in shock at the same time.
• Tears of Joy:
  • Hinata does this after Naruto finally tells her that he loves her (which took him over an entire year of dating her to do so).
  • Hinata does this again after Naruto almost died (due to Rokuro being inside his head for over a year) and woke up at the hospital.
• Their First Time: Naruto and Hinata have sex for the first time after the former took over a year of dating to finally tell the latter that he loves her.
• Time Skip: Chapter 9 takes place one year after Chapter 8 and is appropriately titled "One Year Later...".
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: After Naruto and Sasuke turn into girls in order to infiltrate the village during the Chunin Exam, Yori sees them, mistakes them for actual girls, and tries to seduce them. After Sasuke hurts him with a Chidori and he and Naruto turn back to their normal appearances, Yori realizes his mistake and isn't happy about it.
• Wingding Eyes: Naruto has star-shaped eyes while drooling and thinking about the Hinata-shaped cookies that his girlfriend made for him in Chapter 9.
• Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: In Chapter 15, Naruto is awakened at 3 a.m. by someone knocking at his door. While yawning and making his way to the door, he warns whoever is knocking to prepare to have their ass kicked. However, he is shocked to see Hinata in tears and carrying a backpack, asking if she can come in. He agrees without asking any question. It's only when Neji shows up the next day that Hinata explains to Naruto that she had an argument with her father when he forced her to break up with the Uzumaki, resulting in her leaving the Hyuga Clan compound and going to her boyfriend's apartment.

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