Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Caught part one The Goddess ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

She could do this!

 

This was not something she had never pictured herself doing before. She figured she could just read books about her current predicament, but found that shopping for them, or wandering the library was even more embarrassing than what she was about to do. At least this way no one would find out. She could just imagine the people that just happened to walk by when she grabbed an erotic magazine or even one of the Icha Icha books Kakashi had been constantly seen with.

 

She remembered the words of her dear departed sister, who explained the importance of a woman educating herself in such a category. Knowing how the body worked and how to `work' it was a key in marriage and satisfying your husband. It wasn't unreasonable to think she needed to pick up a biology book, or even a `how it works' guidebook.

 

Taking a deep breath she stood from her bed and walked to the door. Opening it she started her short walk to the courtyard that had been used recently for the outdoor practice area. The night air soothed her heated skin as she slipped on her sandals, which she left at the base of the stares.

 

There, across the courtyard from her was the man she had been searching for.

 

Neji.

 

His traditional Kimono was off of his shoulders and dangling loosely at his waist. He was in a perfect gentle fist stance.

 

She studied him for a moment before making her way across the yard. She knew that he was an attractive man and that most girls would die at the sight of him, but not her. She understood that he was her cousin but marrying cousins was something that many people did not to long ago. Still she didn't find him even a hundredth as sexy as the loud blond plaguing her thoughts.

 

“Hinta?” he stood up straight and stared down at her in curiosity. “Its unbecoming of a woman of your status to be walking around at this time of night”

 

He was teasing her, she knew. “I have…something to ask you” Her face turned beat red.

 

“Whatever it is I will try to answer is as factually as possible” He waited.

 

She started to fidget. “Its…something personal…I wanted to know is you…ever have…you know” looking down at the ground she felt the embarrassment nearly take over.

 

Neji smirked. “Are you, Lady Hinata, asking me about sex?”

 

Her body started to shake.

 

Seeing her discomfort he decided to take pity on the girl. “No Hinata, I have never had sex”

 

Her face shot up. “You haven't?” And here she was so sure that he was experienced in some way.

 

“No, I have not, but there are books you can read that will help you on the matter if you are interested.”

 

“But then…I'd would…have to…”

 

He coughed, a blush forming on his face as he looked to the side. “I have a few you could…barrow…if you want”

 

Her mouth fell open. “You…why…” she couldn't get it out. Why the hell would be have those books?

 

He started to mumble some kind of curses before answering her. “Hiashi gave them to me. He said his father gave them to him and my father when they turned sixteen. Something about being well versed”

 

She just stared, fidgeting of course. What was she supposed to say to that?

 

Neji sighed. “Just forget about it. Do you want to barrow the books or not?”

 

Twisting her fingers together and twiddling them around she tried to respond but choked on the words again. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she tried to calm herself enough to talk. “Yes, please” It came out as a horse whisper.

 

He nodded. “Fine then. Give me a few moments to bathe and I will bring them to your room” He bowed slightly before making his way toward the bathhouse.

 

She, very clumsily, hurried back to her room, missing the laughing coming from the bathhouse.

 

%^&*()&^%^&*(*^%$^&*(

 

The next three nights were spent similar to the one before. Between shifts at the hospital and working on the upcoming Chuunin exams, Sakura and Shikamaru researched their theories. They tried to pry information in tactical way out of the elders and even took on a volunteer job to help clean the storage room for the Hokage; reading through the secret scrolls stored there.

 

They didn't find out anything important, except for Naruto being the son of the fourth. That was something new. They wondered if he knew. They'd have to ask him later.

 

#$%^&*()

 

Hinata, like the shamefully curious Hyuuga that she was, snuck to the stream every night to watch Naruto, who was working on forming some kind of practice Kata. During the day Kiba would question the loud blond about `the goddess', always when Hinata was around to hear it. Naruto, being the clever prankster that he is, managed to tell Kiba about his nights watching her and training himself without giving away any clue as to where this was all taking place. It was as if this was Naruto secret haven.

 

Hinata stood just out side of the clearing. The sun has set long ago, and the infamous blond will be showing soon to training. A blush formed on her cheeks.

 

Unzipping her jacket she let it drop to the ground. She hadn't training in awhile. Her body was begging for it. She could feel herself getting weaker while Naruto was getting stronger. Noticeable stronger.

 

She shuttered.

 

Her body turned red as she dropped the last bit of clothing to the forest floor.

 

She could feel his chakra; he was close.

 

Turning toward the steam she pushed off the ground, landing on top of the running water.

 

She heard a small gasp from the edge of the clearing. Naruto had arrived.

 

At first her body froze. He was there. She knew he was coming and she went out anyway. What was she thinking?

 

Taking a breath she calmed herself. It went surprisingly well considering her current situation. All the times she watched Naruto ran through her head. He did what he felt he needed to do to become stronger. To make everybody acknowledge his existence.

 

This was her time to shine. She needed to make everybody acknowledge her strength. She promised herself that she would never allow herself to be week again, especially in the presence of Naruto. He was the key to her strength.

 

She would not let him down. She refused to see any kind of shame or pitiful looks coming from him. She would become stronger and if he wanted to watch, that was fine by her, as long as he couldn't make out any details in her current state of dress.

 

Her body felt charged. Even more so than usual.

 

She began.

 

$%^&*()*&^%$^&*

 

She was there. He couldn't believe it!

 

It took everything he had to keep himself from leaping for joy.

 

He watched her. He watched her for what felt like hours. He tried to memorize her moves, hoping to try them later, but they were too fast to grasp the way in which they were executed. Her movements were flawless. Her flexibility was amazing. Her knowledge of charka and her ability to control was equally amazing. She must have trained harder than he did.

 

Leaping up into a high branch in the tree he had been standing under he sat and watched. It may have been farther away then his position of the ground, but from up there he could see everything.

 

He watched her work herself into exhaustion, but still she refused to give in. Soon her body began to sway, but she continued.

 

Fear swelled inside of him. She would faint. She could drown.

 

She pulled a few sharikens from god knows where and threw then at a nearby tree. Normally that would have gone well, but in this case it didn't. A fish chose that moment to jump upstream, catching her off guard. Two of the sharikens made it to two random trees while the third stuck on her finger, swung down and stuck in the side of her left leg.

 

He went to jump down to help her when a blur, that seemed to lack color, scooped her up and took off in a random direction.

 

Somebody else was there? Was she ok? Did she know him…her?

 

He would kill that bastard if he…she…did anything to her.

 

%^&*(*&^%^&*(^%

 

Once her eyes opened the pain became apparent. Grabbing for her leg she winced when her hand came into contact with bandages. It didn't take long for her memory to come back.

 

Her face burned red. Did she really stab herself with her own weapon?

 

Oh god!

 

Sitting up, wincing in pain, she looked around. She was somewhere in a forest naked and bandaged.

 

Who did this? Naruto? No he would never have left her side if that were the case, and he would have attempted to cover her up, with his own clothing is needed.

 

Looking down she studied the bandage. Her leg was cleaned and wrapped professionally. Naruto couldn't have done this.

 

She should have felt dirty. An unknown person could have done any number of unknown things to her, but she didn't. She felt safe. Nothing felt touched, just her leg.

 

A shiver ran through her body.

 

Now she felt disgusting.

 

She felt disgusted that she was ok with this.

 

Leaning over, she grabbed her clothes, noticing the small plastic bag that fell from the pile. Taking a hold of the bag she studied its contents. She gasped.

 

There were two green pills that she knew very well. They were extra strength painkillers that were made by Sakura. It was a special mixture that the Nara clan created over years of research. Whoever it was that bandaged her was from the village. She had only given them to friends or those that she met in the field that needed them.

 

It eased her a little more knowing that her savior was most likely somebody that she knew…

 

…but then why didn't they stay?

 

%^*(*&^%^&*(*&^

 

On week later…

 

“I can't believe this” Sakura groaned, leaning her head on Shikamaru's dinning room table.

 

Shikamaru was currently leaning back in a chair in the same dinning room table, rubbing his eyes. “Well, we know one thing for sure.” The genius stretched his arm before sitting up straight. “The elders are positive that village isn't Sasuke's target”

 

“And that he wouldn't allow anybody in the village to feel his vengeance” Sakura studied the notebook she had in front of her that held all her notes from the last week and a half of research.

 

“So, if they are certain of this, then they defiantly had something to do with the Uchiha clan” grabbing his pencil he started to slowly twirl it around his fingers. “It all seems so clear when you think about it”

 

Sakura nodded. “The elders had something to do with the annihilation of the Uchiha clan and now Sasuke is coming after them”

 

“And he wants everybody to be there when he kills them, which is why he warned you”

 

Sakura glanced at the genius. “Do you think he will expose them first?”

 

“Hard to say, but most likely” Tossing the pencil down he closed his notebook. In all honestly he didn't feel as if he needed one, his memory was amazing, but having their findings documented was a good idea.

 

“So, why Itachi” Sakura turned her questioning glare at the genius.

 

“He was the clans prodigy. The Uchiha are a very strong people, they would not be taken down easily. Only one of their own, or a Hyuuga wouldn't have the strength to do what he did.”

 

She scanned her notebook. “He killed his best friend to gain a strength.” Kakashi was most helpful when understanding the way the Uchiha used their blood limits.

 

“The strength to kill his clan.”

 

“But why” She already knew what he would say, just wanted to restate for clarity.

 

“To stop the clan from starting a war that would end hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives.”

 

“And why would they start this war?”

 

“Because they were treated with disrespect”

 

“Are you sure it was the elders?”

 

“Yes” Shikamaru stood from his seat and made his way toward the fridge.

 

Sakura's eyes fallowed him curiously. “What makes you so sure?”

 

The genius opened the fridge and glanced inside for some kind of cool beverage with caffeine, in hopes that it would help with his oncoming headache. He knew that water would normally be the best thing for it, but he had an abnormally amount of caffeine the day before and was almost sure that he had a caffeine hangover. “We studied the first and second Hokage's, not to mention Tsunade knew them personally. They valued the help from the Uchiha, besides their disrespectful behavior didn't reach its peak until the third was chosen and the elders used his to get their way in more ways that just this. We looked at the records. There was little to no activity from the elders until the second died. The third gave them too much power.” He decided on a soda. Grabbing the can he closed the refrigerator door.

 

Sakura shook her head. “How do you know this?”

 

He sighed. “I read”

 

She nodded. Of course it was something so simple. “Ok, so the elders did something that caused the Uchiha to plan an uprising, so they order Itachi to destroy the clan. Why not kill Sasuke?”

 

Shikamaru frowned. “I'm not so sure he wasn't supposed to die with his family. Don't you think its strange that even though they have information that could help Sasuke gain knowledge of his clans Jutsu's, not to mention there is Kakashi, and he was denied it all. No not denied; just not informed.”

 

“He was supposed to kill Sasuke? His little brother?” Sakura whispered, her eyes downcast. That was horrible.

 

“It seems that way, but its obvious he loved his brother and gave him hate in order make him strive to be stronger rather then wallow is self-pity.”

 

She looked up at his in shock then smiled sadly. “He put his little brother through pain to make him strong?”

 

The genius nodded. “I have no doubt that the elders would have attempted to take Sasuke's life later on if they had the chance, but Itachi was still out there and he wont live forever. Sasuke needed to become strong enough to take care of himself.”

 

“Then why would he want Sasuke to come after him and kill him? His plan kind of backfired.”

 

“No” Sadness showed in Shikamaru's eyes. This kind of thing got to him, though he wouldn't admit to it. He was a man not a mouse. “Who else would Itachi want to kill him for doing something so horrible, even if it was to protect thousands from two clan's stupidity.”

 

Sakura nodded. “Then when will Sasuke attack?”

 

He shook his head. “I don't know, but I imagine not for awhile. He needs more research on the village before he can infiltrate. We have changes drastically, not to mention we have a few new members with amazing abilities to prevent things such as that no one has ever seen before. He isn't stupid enough not to do his homework. I give him a year”

 

“ A year?!”

 

He took another larger drink. “I think he wants us to sweat it out for awhile as well. After all he can't let the village get away with not demanding justice for his clan without a little nervous sweating”

 

“Should we tell somebody?”

 

“No, there is no need for them to find out. Besides, let Sasuke have the honor of exposing the elders. When he attacks we could tell Tsunade. Maybe then she would help him bring justice legally, but if we tell her now, then she will act now. Sasuke will miss his chance”

 

“You want Sasuke to have his chance?”

 

“He'll just be even more troublesome if he doesn't get his way”

 

Sakura smiled. Shikamaru sympathized with Sasuke. He would never admit to it since he never really particularly cared for the Uchiha heir. The genius really has grown. “Do you want Sasuke to kill the elders?”

 

He closed his eyes before responding. “I want them to be punished for their crimes”