Our Will of Fire – A NaruHina Fanfic – chapter 3 – Love?

Sakura raced through the village streets with all possible haste towards the entrance to town; she had a mission and she did not want to be late.   Especially this time.  This was another of her special missions, a mission with her friends as the objective.  I lost Sasuke, there’s no way I’m losing Naruto and Hinata too, not to Akatsuki, not to the Hyugaa.  The thoughts of her friends created a feeling in her that she was not familiar with.  She’d begun to feel it after she’d decided to help Naruto go after Sasuke; it was a sort of protectiveness, a protectiveness of her friends, family, her village.  I wonder if this is how Naruto feels all the time, he never even hesitates to throw himself in harms way to save his friends.

Memories from one of her past missions with Naruto came back to haunt her.
Flash Back

“Sakura watch out!” Naruto’s voice called to her, his eyes directed at her opponent. He came in fast, too fast she felt the killing intent in his attack ‘he’s going to kill me!  I can’t get away, not enough time’.  The thoughts had barely crossed her mind when the blade like hand came swinging down at abnormal speed.  She closed her eyes, she didn’t want to see it coming, didn’t want to accept that it was happening.  “Ugh~!” a grunt from in front of her caused her to open her eyes.  Slowly she realized whose voice had made the grunt, ‘Oh no please, don’t!’  What she’d feared had indeed come to pass.  

There standing in front of her, arms wide was Naruto…and the enemy’s blade stuck in his back.  “It’s a shame Naruto; you could have defeated me if you hadn’t wasted your chance at surprising me, instead choosing to save this girl.  Now you’ll both die.”  Sakura felt tears come to her eyes, Naruto was in trouble, a wound like that would be fatal if it wasn’t looked at... and it was all her fault.

“I’m so sorry Naruto, all I’ve been is a burden, you’ve had to save me every step of the way each time throwing yourself in danger to save me, and now –and now you might die because of me.”  She sobbed, it was all her fault, Sasuke, Naruto, everything.  

“Don’t think that way Sakura-chan” Naruto replied weakly.  “Your not a burden at all, if you weren’t around to cheer me on, I wouldn’t have made it this far.  A Hokage’s strength comes from the people who believe in him… you are my strength.”  His words were comforting but they weren’t going to heal that wound in his back she knew.

“Foolish Shinobi, your both going to die in any case so arguing over who’s to blame is meaningless.”  With those words the monstrosity of a man tore the blade from Naruto’s back causing blood to spurt, coating the near wall and covering the floor in a think crimson film.  “Hehe I-I will never g-give up”  Sakura watched in horror as her team-mate rose causing more of his blood to drench his shirt.  

“No Naruto! If you keep this up your going to die, that wound will kill you if you keep this up!”  But her words did little to deter her friend.  “And if I don’t keep going then we are both going to die, even if I die... at least you will survive... you will survive to get Sasuke back.” Tears began to stream down her face once again, ‘how can you be so selfless’ she wondered.

“Well Naruto it seems your intent on giving me trouble, so I’ll show you a jutsu from my old village, one from which you will never escape” suddenly their injured opponent rapidly began forming hand signs.  When he finished he posed his hands together in the form of a triangle.  “What are y~” suddenly Naruto found himself encased in what could only be described as a pyramid of chakra, it’s sides glowing in a range of fluorescent colors.  

Sakura decided she had to strike as the monster began pushing his fingers together causing the prism that encompassed Naruto to tighten to the point where she thought it was crushing his bones.  She struck with her Kunai not bothering to aim for anything vital, her focus had to be to save Naruto, she had to disrupt this guys jutsu.  ‘Where the hell is Jiraiya when you need him!?’ she wondered a sense of urgency taking hold.

Her kunai struck true but it clearly wasn’t enough to disrupt his jutsu, it stopped the pyramid from condensing but it did not disappear entirely like she’d expected.  “AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH” Naruto’s sudden scream drew her gaze and she found herself staring at a spectacular sight.  

There, in the center of the prism stood Naruto pressing outwards with all his might, the shear power she felt from within the chakra prison was incredible; his chakra seemed to burn as flames around him as he forced back the jutsu.  “W-what’s going on?  T-that shouldn’t be possible!  But as much as she didn’t understand it, it was happening, Naruto gave one final push and she turned away as the entire area was illuminated from a miniature sun.  A wave of force knocked her into the wall stealing her breath, leaving her gasping for air.  

She looked up coughing as she inhaled dust and dirt, where Naruto and the prison had been now stood a crater, and in the center stood an unscathed Naruto, somehow even the wound in his back had partially healed. “B-but how, now one can, no one has ever escaped from that jutsu, now one has enough chakra to even do so!”  

“Hehe… I told you didn’t I?  I will never give up, I will not let you hurt Sakura, and I WILL rescue Sasuke!”  At this moment the castle began to collapse, the explosion caused by Naruto’s escape had proved to be too much for the foundation of the structure to handle.  And as luck would have it, Jiraiya chose this moment to appear, ridding on the back of one of his giant frogs and they escaped to safety.  But Sakura would never forget that moment for as long as she lived, it had been the moment she’d decided that she would become stronger, to save her friends…just like Naruto.
                  End Flashback

“Hey Sakura you ready to go!?”  The sound of Tenten shouting her name was enough to draw her from her memories.  Tenten stood waiting with her pack ready, she glanced around to see if anyone else had arrived yet but it seemed that she and Tenten were the first to arrive.

“Tenten shouldn’t everyone else be here by now?  I mean according to my watch we would be leaving in only about ten minutes.”  She wondered why nobody but them two were there, after all she’d expected at least Neji to be there before anybody else.

Tenten laughed clearly amused at something that Sakura found escaped her.  “And what exactly do you find so funny hmm?” she asked feeling slightly annoyed, something was amiss but she couldn’t quite place it, and from the look on her friends face she definitely had.

“Well Sakura you know that time you set Lee’s watch ahead one hour so he’d miss an hour of training so you guys could see what he’d do when he found out…?”  Sakura couldn’t help but smirk, Lee hadn’t grown up much, after finding out what had happened he’d jumped down right one the spot, which happened to be Ichiraku’s and began doing push-ups, cursing himself for his lack of proper training and his weakness in his spirit of youth or some such thing.  

“Yeah of course I remember, how could I forget something so hilarious?!”  She began to giggle uncontrollably, she still remembered the look on Lee’s face when they’d told him, one would have though they’d butchered live kittens in front of him.

“You know he was emotionally distressed after that.”  Tenten replied haughtily, her over protectiveness of her boyfriend kicking in.  However, that look of disdain was quickly replaced with a gloating look.  “Well we kinda retaliated… we changed your time yesterday when we were at your place.  You’re an hour early.”

Sakura looked at her watch and then at her friend, priding them on a successful prank and becoming angered at herself for falling prey to it.  A pleasant but amusing thought however tore her anger away.  It seems that in Naruto’s absence we all had to take up pranking ourselves to try to fill in the gap he left.   “What’s with that look?  We thought you’d at least be angry?  

“After Naruto left we all kinda took up pranking, not having him around to do it was just so strange.”  She felt strange by how much she felt for the blond shinobi, it wasn’t that she ‘liked’ him liked him, it was just that he was precious to her.  

“I know what you mean Sakura believe me I do, we never realized how big a part of our lives he was until after he left, left and left us with a gaping whole to fill.  As strange as it is to say or even come to terms with Naruto is the pillar.”

“The pillar?” Sakura had a feeling she knew what Tenten was getting at.

“Yes the pillar, the heart of the leaf village.  He may be the most loyal, righteous shinobi we’ve ever met, but he was also the most annoying.  He managed to annoy everyone to some degree and yet… after he left I felt this emptiness.  Without him the whole village felt empty, just like when Sandaime died.  He doesn’t even try to do it and yet, I, you, everyone feels loyal to him… begins to believe in him.  As much as I never would have expected it, Naruto is the heart of the circle, without him… it’s just not the same.  He is the support of the village, he holds us all together.”

“It’s because he cares so much, from what I’ve learned of his past he was badly abused as a child, even now many of the villagers give him looks of cold hate, even my parents used to tell me to be careful around him until he saved my life at the chunin exams.  And yet despite all the looks, all the cold glares, all the hate, he continues on.  He puts everyone else before himself, risking his own life to save everyone, even those that hate him.  He’s never had an actual family, and yet the bonds he has with all of us, with the village, are stronger then any blood bond could ever be.”

“To him, we are all his family, his precious people, his precious place, and he will do everything in his power and more to protect the village.  The fellow countrymen of the leaf make up each part of his body, he believes in them and them in him.”  Neji’s unexpected appearance took both of the Kunoichi by surprise but not so much as his words.  

“I never understood Sandaime’s old speech until now.  ‘Where the leaves dance, the fire burns’ who knew it could mean so much…”  Sakura replied.

Lee appears in a poof of chakra to stand beside Tenten, “Has something occurred, from your lack of youthful spirit I would think someone had been lost in battle?”  

“It’s nothing Lee, we were just talking about Naruto…”

Lee’s usual strange demeanour shifted giving him a strange look; he looked at the ground eyes closed in thought a small grin on his face.  When he spoke it possessed none of its usual ‘Leeness’ but rather a wizened tone.  “Naruto…, Naruto our friend, Naruto our family, Naruto… the next Hokage.”

This blunt statement caused the eyes’ of all the surrounding shinobi to widen in shock, though it lasted only for a moment as they all looked to the ground and the safety to think it provided.  Lee’s frank comment held truth to it, no one else could possibly be the Hokage… it had to be him.

An awkward silence consumed the group of the four shinobi as they all relived memories and thought about the future, they were the next generation; they were the ones who would be given the task of protecting Konoha and its inhabitants.  

They were the ones to be entrusted with the will to protect, to die for the village, for their friends, to die for everything precious to them.  Sakura broke the silence with words that she never expected to hear from anyone let alone herself.

“Sandaime, Yondaime… they died for what was precious to them, they died knowing that Konoha would survive for they passed on the torch, they passed it down to the next generation, the will to protect no matter the cost… their will of fire.   Naruto is the torch carrier, to hand it down to the generation after us.



                                                      Dreamscape

“Wha? Where the hell am I?  Fox what’s going on, you said I was just going to sleep?”  Naruto’s question went unanswered as he took in his strange but familiar surroundings.  He stood in the courtyard of a large housing complex which he definitely would have described as more of a castle.  Something felt familiar about the place, and yet... for the life of him he couldn’t place it.  He rose to his feet and began to slowly explore the area, each passing second reminding him that he should recognize the place.  

He turned around a corner too caught up in his thoughts to notice the incoming house servant, he tried to dodge as the maid rounded the corner oblivious to his presence, and he was thoroughly surprised when he passed right through the figure.  “This is just like during those dreams… I can watch and yet nothing else.  No longer making an effort to be stealthy he explored the complex until he came to another large open area, however unlike the first, this one was decorated with numerous trimmed hedges and statues.  There in the center of the garden sat one person Naruto definitely recognized, one who caused the rest of the puzzle pieces to fall into place… Hiashi.

Naruto walked up to place his face directly in front of Hiashi’s hoping against hope that it would cause the man some slight discomfort.  To his dismay Hiashi continued as if nothing had changed, his perpetual frown causing Naruto to wonder if the muscles that allowed Hiashi to smile had died after years of neglect.

He continued trying to annoy a Hiashi that did not no he was there, placing his armpit mere centimetres from Hiashi’s nose, forcing himself to fart right when Hiashi would take a breathe, and numerous other derogatory actions.  However these were all interrupted when a slight scuffle broke out near one of the entrances, a small girl, no more then five years of age with indigo blue hair had knocked over a vase, and was struggling to get out of the way as half a dozen maids scrambled to step out of the way.  Despite her best efforts the young girl stumbled into one of the maids causing the two to fall to the ground hard though the younger girl clearly took most of the impact.  

“Stupid girl get out of the way before you break something else!” the maid screamed at the young girl causing her to cringe in fear, and tears begin to well up behind her eyelids.   Naruto watched, mesmerized as the blue haired girl turned to look at Hiashi, it was in that moment that Naruto recognized the girl… it was Hinata.  Apparently Naruto had not been the only one to suddenly realize the identity of the girl, as the maid realized what she’d said and who she’d been speaking to she took an involuntary step back, mumbling apologies, and to Naruto’s distress giving Hinata a cold scared look that he recognized all to well.

“Hinata get out of the way you damn nuisance, you’ve already caused your share of problems you clumsy fool now get out of the way and let the maids clean up the mess you made before you make it worse.”  Naruto’s eyes widened in shock at Hiashi’s harsh words, he glanced back at Hinata already knowing that the tears were falling.  Hiashi only seemed to become angrier when he heard Hinata sob as she made her way back to her room.  “Dammit, why are you so weak!?  Never show your tears, tears show your weakness to the world, I do not want others to think the rest of Hyugaa is as weak as you are.”  Hiashi was shouting by the end of his speech and Hinata ran to her room, crying hard from the harsh words.

Naruto was angry, very angry.  He’d suffered through his entire childhood, being kicked out of the orphanage and forced to live on the streets until the third had given him an apartment for his birthday.  He’d been abused and yelled at just like Hinata, blamed for everything bad that happened, even if the rain ruined crops… the demon fox was to blame.  If it wasn’t for Kyuubi Naruto knew that he probably would not have survived the abuse.  

Unable to control himself he sent a punch flying at Hiashi’s face throwing all his pent up rage into the blow, and of course he was disappointed when the blow passed right through the arrogant Hyugaa.  Knowing he couldn’t accomplish anything else other then maybe injure himself, he took off after the upset Hinata.  He caught up in a matter of seconds, his superior speed proving useful under the circumstances.

He tried to warp his arms around the small girl as she continued to her room keeping her gaze to the floor.  He was surprised and angered by the cold fearful gazes of the rest of the Hyugaa members; they looked at her like… “like she’s a monster…” he knew the feeling far better then most, at first he’d assumed that the only one who could possibly understand would be Garra, but now… it seemed that the girl he’d grown fond of had suffered much the same.

He sat by her side as she crawled into bed, not bothering to change, she simply crawled under the covers, trying desperately to escape, escape the cruel life ‘destiny’ as Neji would have it, had thrown her way.  He felt a protectiveness, a need to protect her from, Hiashi, the other family members, everyone.  And yet he could do nothing to help her as she gently cried herself to sleep.  “Oh Hinata if only I’d known… I at least would have comforted you.”

Naruto knew that once here, well when you were already asleep sleeping in a dream was pointless.  And so instead of sleeping he delved into his old memories, trying to no avail, to find this particular memory.  He went about this for an hour or two before coming to the conclusion that this was definitely not his memory, he’d expected as much from the start but that didn’t explain where this memory was coming from.

A slight rustle to the side had him on his feet in seconds, kunai drawn and leaking form his body, he’d protect Hinata even if it cost him his life.  Of course it wasn’t until after Instinct receded that he was reminded of the fact that he couldn’t do a damn thing to help her whether he wanted to or not.  Slowly and quietly another Shinobi entered through the window, Hinata was too deep in slumber to notice the silent shinobi, whom Naruto believed to be a jounin from the cloud village.

He watched helplessly as the man placed a seal on her neck so she wouldn’t wake, before he wrapt her up and ran, Naruto followed though he knew he could do nothing to stop the mans escape.  To his relief it did not take long before the jounin was intercepted by none other then Hiashi.  The man barely had time to move before he took a hit directly to his chakra pool; the blow contained enough chakra that the man died immediately.

As Naruto would have expected Hiashi immediately saw to his daughter, lifting her form the mans clutches, both he and Naruto were surprised to see that Hinata had fought off the seal by herself and was now staring blankly into space with a look of terror on her delicate features.  Further to Naruto’s chagrin, Hiashi did not even try to comfort the small girl, instead he lifted her shirt above her belly button and seemed to stare intently at her with his Byakugan.

Naruto suddenly found himself blind as the entire area was illuminated by a sudden flash of white and purple, which it seemed, emanated from of all things… Hinata.

“What on earth was that?” he wondered aloud.  Hiashi seemed very concerned, though not for his daughter, something else was going on.


Hinata watched terrified and angry as a boy she easily recognized was kicked hard from behind sending him sprawling face first into the snow.  Lights hung on that particular building along with all those surrounding it; lights covered every one of the buildings.  “Christmas…” she whispered.  However this was taken in all at a glance, so as she could better consider the event that was taking place in front of her.

There standing on the steps were Naruto’s attackers, two middle-aged women, each looking down at him with hate, anger and more then a little fear.  “You damnable demon, you killed my husband!” muttered the one on the right, the one who’d forcefully knocked Naruto out into the street.

“B-but I d-didn’t do a-anything” Naruto replied stuttering his words as he shivered.  He hugged himself trying to keep warm in the cold temperatures, as Hinata was sure it was well below zero degrees out.

The angry women’s retort was not long in coming, and hardly a few seconds had passed before she began yelling again.  “Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!  You killed him you demon bastard, you had no right to take him from me!”  She finished with tears in her eyes, but the small drops of water did nothing to take from the hateful glare she poured over the small boy.

Naruto looked like he was about to speak again when suddenly several drunks rounded the corner and began to yell, Naruto turned his head and his eyes widened in fear as he realized the identities of them men.  ‘Why is he scared?  Does he know those men?’ she wondered silently.

Before she could further analyze the situation Naruto turned and fled running barefoot through the snow, wearing close that were far too small for him.  Hinata looked in his direction wondering what could possibly cause him to do something like that in the current weather when her question was answered for her as several large chunks of ice flew by her several of them impacting against Naruto’s fleeing form.

She turned as the men threw the next volley trying to intercept the projectiles before they could bring harm to the small boy, but as she’d realized earlier, she might as well not existed for all the good it did, the projectiles passed right through her undeterred in their course.  

She watched helplessly as several of the thick chunks of ice glanced Naruto’s shoulders and back.  He was lucky that the men were drunk because even though their aim was off, they were hurling the projectiles with intent to kill, even the glancing blows nearly knocked Naruto off his feet.  She ran after the boy praying that none of the ice missiles would find its mark on her love.

After nearly fifteen minutes of non-stop running Naruto managed to lose his pursuers in the bushes near the playground.   Slowly he got up and made his way to the lone swing, hopping up into, he didn’t bother to swing, he just sat their his eyes full of sadness.  ‘Why is no one else around?’ she wondered, she hadn’t seen anyone excluding the drunks and the two women at the orphanage, everyone else seemed to be keeping to themselves, there weren’t even any other children at the playground.

“W-why does everybody h-hate me?” she barely caught the small whisper as she was concerned with his safety; he was shivering again, the effects of adrenaline having worn off.  She wanted him to go back to the orphanage, to go back inside into the warmth where he’d be safe from winter’s chill.  “W-what did I ever d-do wrong… why…why am I a monster…?”  The question cut Hinata deeply, even more so then did the tears that began to stream down his face, even more so then the hopelessness she saw in his eyes.  

During her childhood she’d often asked herself much the same question, her clan hated her for some reason she could not explain, her father seemed to wish she would simply disappear, it was hard to deal with even now, but back then it had been all she could do to stop herself from crying at night and believing she really was a monster.

Small sobs escaped the boy as he began to cry, “W-why?  W-why i-is it I-I h-had to r-receive a C-Christmas p-p-present l-like t-this…?  Hinata gasped despite herself, that was the reason none of the other kids or adults were around, they were all inside enjoying Christmas with their family.  Tears began to well up behind her eyes, it was Christmas, the time of sharing, a time of happy memories… and yet here was Naruto spending Christmas all alone out in freezing whether.

“But why would they do that to you, your just a kid, you don’t deserve this, nobody deserves this.” She whispered wishing for nothing more then the ability to comfort the small boy.

¬
“Sakura you said you met up with them around this area right?”  Tenten asked her team-mate as she, Sakura, Lee, and Neji traveled quickly through the forest in search of their two missing friends.

“Yeah it’s just up ahead though I can’t quite make it out through all this brush.” She replied speaking through the communicator attached to her ear.  They were moving quickly and so to compensate they would have to talk louder, however Tsunade had expressly forbade them from making contact with any of the Hyugaa squads sent out after Hinata and being louder meant a better chance at getting caught, this had been Neji’s suggestion for communication.

“From the looks of it the clearing you’re searching for is three hundred meters to in front of you bearing 48 degrees.”  Neji’s reply sounded in her ear leading her to the position, she hadn’t required the exact degrees to find the place but Neji could be proficient to the point of absurdity.

Within a few moments the group found themselves in the center of a small clearing, the slight indent of Naruto’s tracks all but washed away by the downpour.  “I’m surprised we can still see his tracks, Hinata’s have been entirely washed away.” Lee stated as he examined the small boot indentations.  

‘No that’s not it Lee” Sakura replied, “ Hinata’s tracks were never there in the first place, Naruto carried her the whole time, that is likely the only reason you can even make out the tracks at all, he was carrying far more wait then usual and so the indents are deeper.”  

“I see” replied Lee, though he had a slight smirk on his face, after all, everyone in their group knew of Hinata’s obvious affection for Naruto and they all knew that it was more then likely that Naruto was the only one still oblivious, they could only imagine all the things he might do to her without even realizing it during their time together.

“Let us get back on task and continue shall we?” Neji’s voice sounded annoyed and held with it a slight hint of anger which was not missed on Lee, or Tenten for that matter.

“Calm down Neji, they were just trying to figure out why Hinata’s tracks were not visible.” Sakura said trying to calm her friend, she knew how much this must have been bothering him, not only the kidnapping but the family matters regarding his cousin as well.

“I’m sorry” his soft reply so unlike him that even Sakura was startled by it, “It’s just that I’m really worried about her, she’s more like my sister then my cousin and if anything were to happen to her I~” he left it at that staring at the ground in thought, clearly things had not been going well for Hinata lately to cause Neji this much grief over them.

“Don’t worry Neji, Naruto’s with her, he’ll never let anyone harm her.”  Tenten said trying to cheer up her team-mate.  However to her surprise these words merely seemed to deepen the lines of worry on Neji’s brow.

“It’s not that I don’t trust Naruto” he said seeing their questioning looks, “he’s stronger then any of us, probably all of us together, it’s just that recently I’ve been hearing rumours of Akatsuki finally making their move.  I don’t know why but I’m sure you guys have all been told that the person they are after is Naruto.  As good as he is even he will have a hard time against even one of them, and if Hinata is caught up in the middle…”

“Then Hinata will try and protect Naruto and likely get herself killed or injured in the process.” Sakura finished for him.  He simply nodded his head, the look of anxiousness on his face intensifying.

“Well then we’ll simply have to let our spirit of youth burn brighter then ever and arrive before then so we can aid them against the malevolent Akatsuki!!” Lee’s loud and unexpected optimism broke the tension and the group began moving again following the tracks moving even faster then before in total silence.

However even after a good thirty minutes at their current speed the trail still showed no signs of slowing, not to mention that the trail became far harder to follow with Naruto’s trail leading them up cliff faces, it seemed Naruto had, had particular difficulty locating a shelter and the lack of organization or pattern in his indicated he’d been desperate.

“We must have taken a wrong turn and turned onto an old path or something, there’s no way it would have taken a half hour for Naruto to locate a shelter even in the rain.”  Tenten stated slightly annoyed that they seemed to be making no progress towards finding the two friends.

“No it’s not that, look at the length of the stride and the impact left by his feet in the dirt, he was running fast, extremely fast, form the looks of this he was moving as fast as you Lee, even with your bracers off you’d be hard pressed to catch him if he was moving this fast.” Neji stated simply.  Lee examined the evidence and found himself in complete agreement, Naruto had been moving incredibly quickly, and that was excluding the fact that he’d been carrying Hinata as well.


“Byakugan!” Neji muttered, the veins and blood vessels around his eyes enlarging so ass to carry the increased amount of chakra he was using.  He stared seemingly straight ahead for a few moments concentrating hard and using a large amount of chakra.  He was using his chakra to increase the range of his Byakugan, the increased visible distance was substantial and he soon located where the path seemed to lead into a cave.  However as he dropped his Byakugan he was quickly reminded of the price of doing such with his blood limit, to increase the range of the sense required an enormous amount of chakra and Neji felt the significant loss.  Even using it in only those few seconds he’d drained nearly half his maximum, it was not a technique he could use frequently.

“The path leads into a cave a fair distance from here, about three kilometres to the southwest.  It’s about twenty minutes from here at our current speed.”  Neji seemed happy despite being slightly exhausted that they had finally caught up with his cousin, he really was worried, Sakura thought.

The group departed completely unawares that standing back in the clearing; another group consisting of Hyugaa elite jounin was shadowing their trail.


The group of four shinobi stood at the cave entrance waiting for the ok from Neji, Naruto and Hinata had been alone together the night before and none of them wanted to walk in on them in case they were, as Sakura put it ‘relieving some stress’.

“We should just go in, that dobe would never do anything with Hinata without her permission and Hinata wouldn’t let him take her after their first ‘date’, not too mention she would have been all but knocked out form the sedative.”  Sakura finished looking over at Neji, but seeing his shocked expression she added one last comment, “I could be wrong.”

Sakura rushed in passing around the corner and found that although she hadn’t been wrong, she definitely hadn’t been right.  Their lying on ground asleep was Naruto, his head resting In Hinata’s lap, while Hinata had collapsed over top of him lying on his chest.  This was not particularly shocking as it was what couples did, however the fact that neither of them were wearing anything but their undergarments changed things.

That PERVERT!  He took her clothes off while she was sedated!  “BAKA!!!!!!!!” she yelled, rushing up and delivering a powerful smack to the side of Naruto’s head.  Hearing the sudden outburst Tenten and Lee followed, leaving Neji to stand alone outside, shock written clearly on his face.

“Oh wow!  Hinata definitely got lucky with Naruto didn’t she?” Tenten whispered mischievously to Sakura, and as much as she hated Sakura began to flush a deep red.  There was no denying it; Naruto definitely had a VERY attractive body, not to mention that with him only in his boxers she had a good view… of everything.  Before inner Sakura could begin to scream naughty things she suppressed it before it turned her face even redder.  

Then however something else hit her, neither Hinata nor Naruto had woken from her shout, Naruto hadn’t awoken even after she’d hit him.  “Why aren’t they waking up?” she asked aloud, from the worried expression on both Lee’s and Tenten’s faces, they were wondering the same thing.

The group spent the next few minutes trying to wake the couple, trying and not succeeding.  Neji had come inside at this point, and upon seeing Hinata clothed only in her bra and panties, immediately took up the duty of sentry outside the cave.  Apparently seeing his cousin in such light embarrassed him quite a bit, something Sakura marked down to tease him about some other time.

“Alright let’s at least move them apart, I mean I think they’ve been in that position long enough don’t you.  Lee you grab Naruto, while Tenten and I move Hinata.”  Tenten smirked at her again causing her to blush again.  She had sent Lee to Naruto deliberately, her hormones were raging and if she’d been the one to move him… she didn’t trust her body.  They dressed the two, and lay them down again, against the back wall before investigating the scene.        

“From the looks of this I would say that Naruto took her clothes off to prevent her form freezing, it got fairly cold last night and if they were both soaking then they would freeze to death overnight.  It makes sense that they shed the wet garments, especially in Hinata’s case if she was suffering from the soporific.”  Lee stated, Sakura was surprised again with how little of the ‘Gai’ nonsense talk he used in the sentence, he was getting better… if only a little.  And even those few improvements disappeared entirely in the presence of his sensei, who Sakura had deemed crazy after he’d run two thousand laps because he lost to Kakashi in rock-paper-scissors.

“Maybe Naruto’s not as perverted as I thought, but you understand my concern, after all he spent a whole two years with Jiraiya of all people.  That perverted sage nearly scarred me for life when I went on a mission with him… and that wasn’t even for an entire week.”

“We should make camp for the night, Tsunade-samma said we shouldn’t bring her back to the village until she directs us too, but even though we’ve found her we still have to be wary of Hyugaa patrols.”  Neji, logical as always was focused on the mission.  

The four sat around the small fire they’d started up in the cave, it was larger then the one Naruto had made but it was also smokeless, even if they didn’t have to worry about the smoke being seen at night, they didn’t want to all suffocate in the small cave.  

“I’m worried guys, neither of them has woken up despite our best efforts, and I’ve tested each a hundred times and I can only tell that they’re asleep, no poison, no nothing.”  Sakura’s voice sounded weary and worried.  Neither her nor Neji had slept the night before, each too worried about their friends and after the large amount of travelling they’d done she found that she was feeling quite tired, the fact that her friends seemed to still be in danger only weighed heavily upon her shoulders causing her dreariness to become tough to fight.

“Sakura you and Neji should get some sleep, both of didn’t get much sleep last night and your both looking tired, I know you don’t want to but we need you at your best if were going to have to fight off patrols of Hyugaa” Tenten said looking at her two fatigued team members.  Sakura merely nodded her head, feeling sleep overtake her even as she slipped into her sleeping bag, Neji following suit in his own.  


Sakura woke as someone shook her awake, the person was male, she could tell from his voice but she was still half asleep and her vision was so blurry she couldn’t make out the person’s appearance.   “Sakura get up… NOW!” combined with a powerful shake, Sakura found herself quite awake and facing a very worried and annoyed Neji.  

“What… what is it Neji?” she whispered with a yawn, as she tried to shake the last remnants of sleep away.

“One of the Hyugaa search parties tracked us here, we’re surrounded and considering they have the Byakugan I’m sure that at least one of them has spotted Naruto and Hinata inside the cave.”  His words seemed rushed and Sakura missed some of the words, but the gist of it definitely made it across.  

Immediately she entered battle mode; quickly donning her equipment and preparing for the upcoming fight while Neji moved to wake the others.  She surveyed the area looking for some sign of the enemy, but as she’d expected, she found none, they were dealing with hunter search teams meaning that it was likely that the majority of their opponents were jounin class.

After everyone prepared they formed a bit of a defensive perimeter around the entrance of the cave, there was no point trying to surprise them when they entered, the Byakugan made surprising a Hyugaa an incredibly difficult task.  Sakura turned to survey her fellow team-mates, each of them appearing ready to engage whatever came out at them.  She had to admit they had a balanced team, Neji was a close range expert who could hold his own easily enough in long range combat as well, Tenten was the long range combatant whose numerous flying blades would be useful should the enemy try to keep their distance, herself as a medic ninja could provide healing and her close range combat attacks were even more devastating then Neji’s should she hit with them, and last but not least was Lee, he was an all around fighter, his incredible speed and power made him the most rounded close combat fighter of the four, even if he couldn’t use ninjutsu or genjutsu, his taijutsu more then made up for it.  

However, she realized immediately that putting her guard down to analyze her team-mates had been a mistake as several shuriken spun from the darkness towards her.  Not completely unawares she quickly launched three of her own to intercept those thrown her way and sent another fourth kunai in the direction that attack had originated.  This initial attack sent Neji flying into motion, his Byakugan active he was easily able to locate the enemy and he charged into the brush to engage the enemy.  This worked to their advantage as Neji constantly called out the location of the enemy over the radios.  

The first few moments of the engagement favoured the enemy, even with Neji directing their attacks none of the long range attacks had connected and the hostiles were not closing the distance to fight, preferring to run from Neji and set traps in his way to slow him.  Things only got worse however when the enemy finally did engage.   Sakura barely had time to dodge, as the Hyugaa, dressed in anbu clothing excluding the mask, came bursting through the brush kunai leading.  Sakura flung herself out to the side and narrowly avoided being skewered by the attacker, to her dismay however the Hyugaa turned and flung the kunai at her which skimmed the side of her arm drawing blood.

“Damn” she muttered, she was hoping he’d hold onto the kunai, he was less dangerous that way, wounds like the one on her arm she could heal, but against his gentle fist style she was useless.  I’ve got to stay at mid range with this guy, otherwise he’ll close my chakra points and then I’m done for.

Thinking to surprise him she threw three kunai at him, though to her knowledge only one of them was actually on target, the other two simply impacted the tree behind him.  “Foolish girl did you really think any of those would cause a Hyugaa any trouble?” the man was smirking and Sakura quietly thanked the gods that the Hyugaa were so damn arrogant.  It was this arrogance that caused his downfall as she released the seals, the seals on the explosive notes she’d attacked to the two kunai.  The explosion split bark and wood sending high velocity splinters hurtling into the mans back, not to mention that the initial force itself sent him flying towards her… and her awaiting punch.  

She felt the impact run up her arm even with chakra as padding, the force of her blow shattered his spine causing his body to shiver before it was launched against the bits and pieces of the splintered tree to become impaled on a sharp uprooted branch.

“Hehe… seems like jounin aren’t all they’re cracked up to be” she whispered looking over the body of the ninja she’d killed, however suddenly the body disappeared to be replaced with a wooden stump.  SHIT! It was a Kawari!  She ducked instinctively as several kunai flew overhead where she’d been standing a moment before.  But despite avoiding the initial attack she now found herself unable to avoid the next as the man rapidly began forming seals.   “Suiton Suiryuudan no Jutsu!” she heard the man call and immediately tried to move from the vicinity as a large torrent of water rose from the nearby river taking on the form a dragon.   But despite how fast she moved it moved faster, she couldn’t hope to doge at this range.  Shit I can’t dodge!  What do I do?!  Focusing chakra into the soles of her feet she launched herself into the air just before the attack hit.  She was however, too slow.  The tail end of the jutsu caught her lower legs sending her flying to collide with a tree knocking the breath from her.

“Sakura!” she heard Neji’s voice to the side as her team-mates glanced over to see how she’d faired after the technique, but none of them could help her now she knew, each of them was having nearly as much trouble as she, in fact only Neji seemed to be able to hold his own.  “Well now foolish girl, we were ordered not to kill any of you if you were of the leaf village, however… you caused me some trouble and now…” she was scared of the sadistic look on his face and his creepy smile, “You die.”  She struggled to rise but she was still hardly able to even breath, however the man stopped in his advance as a something surrounded by lightening pierced his chest.

“Sorry I’m late Sakura, glad I got here in time to deal with this little runt.”  There standing before her, late as always, was her sensei Hatake Kakashi.  Haha!  Now those Hyugaa bastards are screwed.  Inner Sakura began to celebrate what she considered certain victory while the real her thanked Kakashi and leaned against the tree trying to regain her breath.  

After Kakashi joined the battle quickly turned in their favour, he had far more experience then anyone of them, not to mention that he knew every jutsu they could throw at him.  It didn’t take long before all the remaining Hyugaa were incapacitated, then bound and placed off to the side of the camp.

“Well that deals with them I suppose” stated Kakashi as he placed his mask back over his sharingan, however he spoke too soon.  Detecting the incoming presence Kakashi knocked everyone down as kunai flew overhead impacting against the cave wall.  “Shi~” his words were cut off as the five shinobi found themselves surrounded by more then a dozen Hyugaa, Sakura felt a kunai against her throat and another against her back, everyone else was in similar situation except for Kakashi, he had six men all to himself as they had clearly marked him as the most dangerous among them.

“Bind them and place them over by the camp, our orders were not to kill any of them if they were from the leaf village, remember our target for this mission is Hinata-samma, these ones are of no consequence.”  The leader spoke and immediately the rest of the team followed his orders, binding the five shinobi’s arms and legs.  To Sakura’s dismay they were using a special sealing strong, it prevented the flow of chakra anywhere in the vicinity of the touched body part, she wouldn’t have been able to escape using chakra even if she’d tried to.

Sakura was forced to sit idly by as they dragged Hinata and Naruto out of the cave, Hinata they took using a fair bit of care, after all she was royalty despite how badly her family treated her.  But Naruto… she wasn’t sure why but they guards went out of their way to treat him worse then everyone else even though he was asleep and didn’t even feel what was going on.  They couldn’t even know that Naruto was the one who’d broken into the compound so they weren’t doing it for that reason… for some reason they just seemed to hate him.

“Commander Shikaro, what about this one sir… it’s him… surly we can kill this one.  After all we’d simply be doing the village a favour.  What the hell is he talking about?  Sakura had heard conversations like this before about Naruto and she still didn’t know what they were talking about when they described him like that, all she knew was that whenever he heard the things, despite his smile… he seemed quite sad and depressed; something that she never saw in Naruto at almost any other time.

She watched horrified as the patrol men, for seemingly no reason simply began kicking Naruto in the side, they weren’t holding back either each hit causing Naruto’s breathing to shudder from the impact.  “Leave him be!” the captain shouted at his men, annoyed at their disobedience, “The Hokage is fond of this one and if you injure him badly or kill him… I will hand your names over to her so she can execute you herself.”  This sent a shiver through the men, despite their apparent hate of Naruto, not one of them dared tempt the anger of Tsunade, those who’d made that mistake in the past had regretted it, in either life or death, whichever state she saw fit to leave them in.

“We shall wait until morning to depart now that these ones have been dealt with we should encounter no resistance.  However you, the one in the pink hair I would like to speak with you.”  Sakura had no idea why the man wanted to speak with her but she didn’t really have a choice but to comply.  

“What do you want?” she asked her tone filled with annoyance, however unlike his subordinates this one was definitely more in control, he completely ignored her tone and merely began addressing her as if she had spoken to him politely.  

“Neither Hinata-samma nor your other companion, Naruto, have woken despite our best efforts, you are Tsunade’s apprentice and a medic-nin.  Do you have any idea as to why they will not awaken?”  Sakura looked at the ground in dismay, in truth she had no idea why they wouldn’t wake, if she did she would have done her best to wake both of them, Naruto and Hinata would likely have turned even a battle against so many in their favour.  

“Unfortunately no, I have no idea why they are asleep and I tried everything I could think of earlier and I couldn’t wake them, if it’s some illness or something, I’ve never seen it’s like before and Tsunade has no notes on it that I know of.”  The commander nodded his head before thanking her and turning around to leave before Sakura spoke up.

“I have a question I think you might no something about.”  The man turned the emotionless, expressionless face never changing in the slightest.  “Is the reason Hiashi wanted to put the curse mark on Hinata… have to do with why her clan fears and hates her?”  This caught the commander off guard and for a split second his calm façade was replaced with one of concern and worry before reverting back to it’s previous form.

“I don’t know how much you know about that but for your own sake I suggest you stay out of it, for even uttering that much I would normally be required to kill you, however unlike the higher ups I’m not a bloodthirsty fool ready to sacrifice the lives of everyone else for my own wishes, however do not speak of this again, especially near any of the other members, if you do I may be forced to take your life.”  From the cold look in his eyes, she didn’t doubt he would, the man had a sense of justice, but not so great as to deter him from completing his objectives.

Sakura was about to call out for some water, but was interrupted as a great crimson glow illuminated the camp; it was followed almost immediately by someone yelling in pain.   She recognized the voice as Naruto’s and she tried to squint through the light to see what was happening.  Clearly the Hyugaa hadn’t been the cause of it because they were all stepping back looks of surprise on their faces as well.   Slowly the crimson light receded until it merely formed a flame like mantel of chakra around Naruto.  It was then that Sakura could make him out and what she saw scared her more then the time she’d seen it at the ramen shop.  On his knees, grimacing in agony, was Naruto, his eyes were closed and it seemed as though he was still asleep, she watched horrified as his canines lengthened, his nails grew out and thickened becoming claws, his already thick whiskers lengthening, and finally his eyes opened scaring her more then the rest ever could; his usual bright blue clear eyes, were now a blood red with a slit-like pupil rather then the usual human one.

“Naruto…?” she whispered scared at what might happen next.  The air felt heavy with his chakra and she found it hard to breath with the tight binds around her stomach and chest, she’d felt this chakra only once before, and that was during their first A-rank mission when Naruto had fought Haku, a shinobi under Zabuza the demon of the mist.

Suddenly Naruto let out what could only be described as deep feral growl, the voice was too deep even for Naruto who’s voice had become quite husky since he left, no it was inhuman and the simply words seemed to scrape the air as the travelled to the ears of the surrounding shinobi.  The growl was followed by a sudden burst of red chakra, the flames of chakra surrounding Naruto intensified and suddenly a killing intent like none she’d ever felt flowed over her.  Her entire body was paralyzed and she fell to the ground as she felt her eyes begin to glaze over.  She fought to remain conscious using her knowledge of the human body to try to isolate her mind from the power outside.  She succeeded in remaining aware and conscious… but only barely as the intensity of the bloodlust grew.  W-what is this, even Orochimaru… his killing intent was nothing like this… I- I don’t u-understand.

She watched from tear-filled eyes as the other shinobi did not fare as well as she did, all the Hyugaa were now on their knees or had collapsed excluding the captain, many of them screaming and holding their head’s, however as the intensity increased further all the Hyugaa passed out, the only people now conscious were, herself, the Hyugaa captain, Neji, Lee, Tenten, and of course Kakashi.  Of them all Kakashi seemed the least affected, but she did see something else in his expression, a deep sadness or regret, he’d seen this before, he knew what it was she could tell.

“Foolish Hyugaa brat, you are quite good at resisting my power, your lucky I can only use so little of this or I would leave you broken like the rest of your team.”  The words grated through the air causing all in attendance but Kakashi to shudder, Sakura saw cold sweat begin to drench the captains clothing, it was clear he was trying to force his muscles to move, but just like the rest of them, he was powerless.

“I know quite well about the true reason you want purple eyes over their back, quite well indeed.  We both know who Hiashi really wants back, and let me reveal a little secret to you, me and her well… once upon a time we were close.  Do you still intend to try and take her from me?”  Sakura wasn’t sure how but even though a hint of mocking could be heard in the terrifying voice, it still sounded serious and threatening as well.  The captain merely shook his head, his voice no longer functioning.

“Good then I will send you back to Hiashi with a message…”  Before their eyes Naruto disappeared and appeared in front of the captain, the captain shuddered as Naruto placed one hand on his forehead.  W-what’s he going to do to him?  Sakura wondered, she was scared, whatever this was it wasn’t Naruto.

Suddenly the man doubled over in pain at Naruto’s feet, clutching his forehead as he screamed in pain.  “You got the message; I trust you will deliver it Hiashi for me.”  Before he man could respond Naruto gestured and the man disappeared in a poof of chakra.  The burning Naruto then went over and securely bound all of the Hyugaa guards using the same string they’d used on him.  He then approached Hinata which caused Sakura to worry even more.  “Naruto please don’t hurt her, I know that’s not you... please…” she whispered with tears in her eyes, she didn’t like seeing Naruto like this.

“You needn’t worry Sakura, you’re right this isn’t really Naruto, well not the him you know at least, however I will not harm any of you, especially the purple eyes here.”  Sakura watched as, true to his word, whoever this person was gently helped Hinata into a sleeping bag and propped her head up on a pillow, he was surprisingly gentle considering what she’d felt earlier.  He then approached the five of them.

He untied Kakashi first who merely nodded, it seemed that the two knew each other somehow, even if only barely.  Lee came next and he found himself at a loss for words at what was happening.  Tenten came next and Sakura watched as she shuddered at Naruto’s touch and looked away, she was quite surprised by the sad look she saw on Naruto’s face, it didn’t look the same as it usually would as his fangs, whiskers, and red eyes made it hard for him to look sad, but he did.  Next he came to Sakura; using nothing but a claw he easily cut the binds as if they were made of nothing substantial.  He then backed up and sat down before the fire facing them.

“I know that all of you fear me, except for maybe Kakashi over there as he’s likely already figured everything out.  I could tell you everything but that is something that Naruto MUST do himself, otherwise he’ll be afraid for the rest of his life.  I saved you all because you are his friends, the people he cares about, I ask only one thing in return.”  The group looked on wondering what price they would all have to pay for being rescued by Naruto, or whoever this thing was.

“Don’t… don’t think of him as a monster, I don’t think he’d be able to take it if you all looked at him like the rest of the village does.”  This surprised all of them, all of them except Kakashi who once again had a depressed look on his face as his one droopy eye stared blankly at the ground.  Before any of them could ask what he meant by that however, the flaming crimson chakra that surrounded Naruto faded, along with all the bestial changes he’d undergone earlier, once that was done his eyes closed and he passed out, reverting back to sleeping like Hinata was, with them unable to wake him up to ask him what had happened.

“Kakashi…” Sakura said when the five of them sat down to eat around the fire, “What or who exactly, was that?”  Kakashi simply stared at the ground in thought, he wasn’t supposed to tell them, but if he didn’t then Naruto would likely be the one to suffer for it.  “Kakashi I know you know what happened their, I could tell from your body language, form the look in your eye, you know.”

“Yes… yes I do know, first off let me say one thing, this was kept from you all to protect Naruto, so he would have a future.  Secondly, know that I’m not supposed to tell you this and that the only reason I’m going to is because I don’t want you guys to fear Naruto.  Thirdly I will tell you all this on one condition… you must not under any circumstances tell anyone else of your age group this, and you must not let Naruto know that you know, he must have the courage to tell you himself eventually, otherwise he will live in fear the rest of his life.”

Kakashi looked around the circle and saw them all with determined looks on their faces; they all wanted to know what was wrong with their friend.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard the famous story about Yondaime, how to save the village he sacrificed his own life to kill the legendary Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox, strongest of the nine Bijuu.  I’ll start off by saying this… it’s a lie.”  This caused the four younger shinobi to gasp as their eyes widened in shock, it was a tale they’d heard all they’re life, about the legendary forth Hokage, the one who had surpassed all the previous Hokages.

“B-But what do you mean Kakashi?  Are you saying that the fourth didn’t kill the Kyuubi?”  Neji asked worry sounding in his voice.’

“That’s correct Neji, the Kyuubi is not dead.” This brought another gasp out of the four and Kakashi wondered if this would be almost too much for them to handle.  “Even the fourth could not destroy the Kyuubi, it’s a being far to powerful to be destroyed by any means we humans possess, killing a Bijuu I nearly impossible and no one has ever managed it before, no… the fourth could not kill the Kyuubi. He had only one choice… he had to seal it away, somewhere from which it could never escape.

The four threw concerned glances at each other, they could guess what might be coming but they all hoped they were wrong.  “Yondaime sacrificed his own life to seal the Kyuubi inside a newborn whose chakra network was still developing, that boy… was Naruto.  The four looked shocked for a moment before as one they looked at the ground a sadness in their eyes, the reason all the adults hated him, the villagers abused him, it was all because of that.

“Yondaime had decreed that Naruto was to be treated like a hero, like the saviour of the village, but despite this the villagers had lost many to the demon fox, and so he was hated.  His childhood he was terribly abused, he was thrown out of the orphanage at the age of five and forced to fend for himself, he had no family and no friends as the adults kept their children away from him.  Your generation was never told to give him a chance, a chance to live a life free from hate, but even if your parents never told you… I’m sure that they all probably told you to stay away from Naruto when you were younger.”

They all nodded their heads, both girls in tears and Lee and Neji looking quite depressed, they’d never suspected that Naruto, the one who always brought them hope was the one who’d suffered so much.  “The reason Naruto was always such a nuisance in school was because he needed people to acknowledge that he was alive, even if the attention was bad.  The village wanted to forget him, and during his childhood he should have died, the only reason he didn’t was because of the Kyuubi.  That’s the reason Naruto has so much stamina, he can suffer wounds that would kill an ordinary human and keep fighting, the wounds he does receive heal usually within a couple of days regardless of how serious, and he might as well be immune to sickness and disease, these are the only things that allowed Naruto to even make it this far.”

“B-but w-why didn’t he e-ever tell us?” Sakura asked in between sobs.

“Because he was afraid, because he still is afraid, he fears that you guys will hate him just like the rest of the village.  He’s never had a family before, you guys are the closest thing he’s ever had to one, it wasn’t until he graduated from the academy that he even had any friends, he doesn’t want to lose you guys, that’s why he never told you.”

“But all this time… he always smiled, looked happy, tried to cheer everybody else up… was he actually happy all that time?”  Lee asked timidly.

Sakura found herself answering yet again, “N-no he wasn’t h-have you ever noticed how much h-he uses that stupid g-grin?”

“Ya like practically every time he smiles.” Lee replied.

Sakura was about to reply but Kakashi beat her to the punch, “Every time you see that grin, he’s faking it, and come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen him really…smile.  The grin is something he inherited from his father, but Naruto simply uses it as a mask.  The reason he tries his best to make sure you guys are all happy is because… he doesn’t want any of you to go through the same thing he went through, you’re his friends, his family, he wants you guys to be as happy as possible, and if that means he has to appear happier then everyone else to do it… well so be it.”

“Kakashi you sai