…Before immediately collapsing into a puff of smoke.

"Dammit!"

Whatever. He knows he can't do this technique. Hopefully it was at least good enough for Hinata to see what he's doing wrong?

That... was a lot of chakra. She usually only sees that much chakra when one of the Hyuuga elders prepares a major jutsu.

Why is he using so much? Does he not know how much he's using? Or how much the technique needs? Or is it a control issue?

She looks at his chakra system.

Okay she stands corrected on what counts as a lot of chakra now.

"W-was that... the smallest amount of chakra you can use for that technique? The clone is p-popping because it's overloaded with t-too much."

"Too… much?"

The concept of using too much chakra for a technique hasn't really occurred to him—it's not like they talked about it in class. He guesses that's as reasonable a reason as any for the technique to be failing?

"Huh. I guess I can try using less."

He focuses in on his breathing, calming himself before slowly forming a much smaller amount of trackra out into his technique, forming the hand-seals and focusing his will into…

…Yet another puff of smoke. Damn.

Hinata nods. "Th-that's a lot better! Still way too much, but I could tell you reduced it by a lot."

Okay, at least it's the same problem. He can just try harder.

Naruto tries the technique several more times, each time using less and less chakra until he's using what feels like the barest trickle, using all of his control to just push out the tiny amount, and…

…It works! A perfectly ordinary-looking illusory clone of him is standing next to him, looking equally amazed. If he flexes the chakra in it, he can make it move, having it scratch its head and look over at him.

"Wow! That actually…"

Aaand now he's crying.

"I…"

Wow, he's not… broken? He can use real jutsu? This is—he's so happy right now!

Naruto's crying oh no she made Naruto cry—

Wait those are happy tears.

Oh.

Um. 

Should she hug him?

Sable recognizes this.

{Happy relieved tears and also overwhelm. Blondie probably needs a hug.}

Well, if Hinata isn't going to.

She steps forward, pulling Naruto into her arms and gently squeezing him. This seems like it's a lot for him, and he deserves to cry into a nice hug about it.

Naruto isn't going to even think about the fact that it's Sakura hugging him right now—right now he's just going to enjoy the hug and sob into her arms for a minute.

That breaks through Hinata's hesitation. She steps forward and hugs him as well.

Naruto sobs even harder at that. He has friends who care about him, and they're helping him to be a better ninja! This is almost literally everything he's ever wanted.

"You d-did it, Naruto-sama. We kn-knew you could."

The hugging will continue until he extracts himself from it.

It takes him several minutes for him to stop crying, and several more to calm the rest of the way down and extract himself from the hug, but he does, eventually, do so.

"Thank you both—you all, so much," he says, squeezing them both before pulling away.

Sakura lets go as soon as Naruto does, smiling back at him. She's so glad this plan is already working out so well!

Hinata steps back as well, cheeks flushed but smiling slightly. "Of course."

Sakura nods alongside her friend's words. "You're so welcome! I just wish we'd found out sooner: we could have saved you so much time and hurt."

She sighs, then claps her hands abruptly.

"Alright! We should move on to some regular practice while it's still light out."

Sakura gestures to her friends, and begins warming up and stretching in preparation for some more sparring and drills.

The three genin-to-be spend the next while training, practicing everything from throwing drills to spars and jutsu.

Sable spends that time interestedly observing the motions and making mental notes about what it wants to talk about with the Sakuras tonight.