Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Cliche Guide to a Classic Romance ❯ Saving The Girl Part 6 - Luck ( Chapter 18 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Takara made her way through the tunnel at a good set pace. She held her hands to her chest, her fingers wrapped around a small bag in a vice like grip. She hoped she could find her way back out before anyone found her.

She smiled to her self as she saw the path getting smaller. Soon she was forced to crawl on the ground and it wasn’t long before she was crawling on the ground holding back screams of fear as cave dwelling bugs crawled over her hands and coughing from breathing in small particles of dirt. No matter how many times she had escaped through these secret passages, her lungs would never get used to the dirt.

When the ground started leading her upwards she moved the bag to hold it between her teeth as she saw another boulder up ahead. She stood on her knees as much as she could, which wasn’t much since the tunnel was low to the ground. She ignored the rocks the pressed against her upper back as started to push on the boulder.

Maybe it was time to widen the tunnels a little. Or shrink down to the size of a four year old.

Which ever happened first.

The first thing that register in the young girls mind as she started pushing the overgrown rock aside was that it felt a lot lighter then it looked. The second thing that swam across her mind was that it seemed to be moving fast then she wanted it to. Confused, Takara paused and stopped all movement.

The rock didn’t.

The bag still clenched between her teeth , She narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she started trying to pull the rock back in place. She had gotten too far to be caught already. However, her will out matched her brawn, and she cursed her physical weakness as the stone moved in it original direction.

She shut her eyes tight and fell low to the floor covering her head with her arms. To the girl, who hadn’t even hit her tenth birthday, it seemed like a childish and very illogical thing to do. Like when a child hears a noise in there bedroom at night and hides under the covers believe the saying ‘what you can’t see can’t hurt you’. Takara, however knew better, but it didn’t stop her from closing her eyes and wishing it was true.

The rock finally stopped and there was a silence, she her something scrapping against the ground, she felt a warm gust of breath sweep over her and a more scrapping. There was a whimpering sound as something cold and wet started pushing on her arm.

Another wave of confusion made her crack her eyes open and slowly look up. Immediately she screamed dropping the bag and started backing up without a second thought. The dog mimicked the child’s act, his head tilted, curiously. The dog backed up even more when someone walked in front of the entrance and kneeled down to look inside.

Takara didn’t know what was scarier, the giant beast of a dog or a man peering inside, looking like a secret agent . Maybe it was the just long coat and dark glasses that gave him the look.
The man stayed quiet for a minute, just kneeling there. He didn’t even move an inch.

Takara tried to look threatening, but she doubted she looked to threatening to the older person. Not that she’d be able to tell since practically his whole face was covered. The man was still quiet. Whether he was making a decision or waiting for her to speak she didn’t know.

They had gotten into somewhat of a staring contest. Each waiting for the other to move. On the side Akamaru sat waiting for some kind of order.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Kiba was the first to witness the scene, so naturally he was the first to react. Without a second thought he tackled the woman head on, earning himself a knee in his stomach and a fist on the side of his face.

Sakura hadn’t had time to see what was going on, she was a few seconds late on her arrival, she took one look at the scene and decided to tend to Hinata. She ran over to the girl trying to exam her and keep her guard up at the same time incase the enemy decide to attack. The girls hands were bloody and raw, a couple layers of skin had been torn up. She also took a look at Hinata’s stab wounds, one in her shoulder, one on her leg and one on her chest. Sakura guessed by the location the woman had been aiming for Hinata’s heart. Even though she hadn’t hit it, It had only been a few centimeters off and it was still deep, so it was still a big concern. Another concern was the blood on Hinata’s head, it wasn’t a lot but the amount of it wasn’t an issue, just the fact that it was coming from her head. “Hinata’s is anything else bothering you?”


Hinata didn’t answer the other girl, she was too busy watching Kiba who was having a difficult time attacking the woman without his other half being there to support him. In the back of her mind she was curious were the his loyal companion was, but she was more focused on the woman, lashing out at the boy and flinging him into the surrounding obstacles. She winced when she felt Sakura grab her hands and began to heal them. She seen Kiba tackle the woman again they rolled on the ground swinging at each other trying to do as much damage possible.

The woman landed on top and went to strike again. Kiba grabbed her wrist and shoved her back, trying to keep her pinned down. It was al he could do, His attacks didn’t seem to bother her and she was so aggressive and quick that he couldn’t keep up with her. Maybe if Akamaru was here they could keep her pinned down. Another strike came at him hitting him in the nose. He jumped back a hand held against it, trying to stop the bleeding.

The pink haired girl wasn’t even half way done with Hinata’s hands when they pulled back. “Hinata I-”

“ . . . I’ll be fine, please help Kiba.”

Sakura looked back at Kiba who wasn’t doing so well on his own, she was hesitant about leaving Hinata by herself with her injuries, but Kiba was having a bit of trouble getting to the woman. She looked back at Hinata who was just looking at her pleadingly. Sakura knew she shouldn’t leave someone in Hinata’s state by themselves but she ended up nodding anyway. “Alright, but do not move.” She order strictly before getting up to go help Kiba.


She ran to the woman quickly dodging a punch, she noticed the woman’s hand had chakra around it. This had Sakura a little nervous but relieved. She was nervous about weather or not she’d be able to dodge every blow, but she was relieved that it didn’t measure up to her own power.

Stepping to the side she avoided another hit and responded with one of her own. She watched the woman clutch her stomach with one hand and flip onto the other and bring her foot down. Sakura backed up a few steps watching the woman’s foot crash into the ground forming a small but wide hole.

The woman didn’t even give a warning as she quickly pushed herself up so she was standing again and started attack rapidly. The older female managed to finally get a hit in, causing the younger girl to fall back. Even as Sakura hit the ground the woman didn’t let up. She started kicking her around, lifting the girl up by her hair only for her to send her back to the ground.

As the woman grabbed a hold of her hair again, Sakura grabbed the older females hands bringing them down as she rolled on to her back and kicked the woman over her. The woman let go of the girls hair so she could catch her self, but she never did hit the ground. Kiba had once again tackled the woman, but this time he didn’t stay around long enough for the woman to retaliate, he jumped back and landed by Sakura.

Kiba looked at Sakura, who was rubbing a spot on her head. “You okay?” He asked as he shifted his gaze to the woman who was slowly getting back up.

“Aside from the chunk of hair she ripped out, I’m fine.” She assured him as she stood up completely. “How about you.”

Kiba gave her a cocky grin. “Like I’d loose to this hag.”

The girl gave him a stern look. “Kiba don’t start acting tough. We’re not even in this woman’s league.”

“C’mon, she’s not that strong.”

“What? Have you already forgotten how she almost killed you within five minutes.” She shot at him, watching him look away at the painful blow to his pride.

However he wasn’t about to give up that easily. So what if this woman had out ranked him in almost every field, It was him and Sakura versus her. The woman couldn’t last that longer could she. . .Or maybe she was more powerful then she lead on.

If he laid out all the facts, With muscle, Kiba and Sakura combined definitely had her beat. Sakura had more brain, then himself, but the woman’s intelligence had yet to be calculated. Kiba was pretty quick and had great offensive abilities, Sakura was excellent with dodging, chakra control and had plenty of medical knowledge. Kiba’s attacks were limited because his partner wasn’t with him, and while his taijutsu was great, the woman’s flexibility and seemingly endless stamina gave her the advantage.

So, If he had limited attacks and his hand to hand wasn’t going to make contact half the time he was, as Sakura had said, not in this woman’s league. However Sakura’s ability to dodge and her skills as a medic could give them a slight advantage if the managed to get in some good counter attacks.

Then again, there was most likely more to this woman then they were currently thinking. If that were the case, they’d have to get that information. And there was only one way to do that.

So either way they had to fight.

Great.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Neji had the misfortune of running into Hiashi who was carrying a very unconscious Naruto, okay so maybe it was a good thing he ran into the man, but the thing that made this a misfortune was that he had the wonderful honor of carrying him for the older Hyuuga.

He knew the blonde was in pain, but carrying the boy was like carrying a baby. They squirmed and wriggle like they were trying to escape the arms but if you put them down they would cry. In this case there was only one difference, Naruto wouldn’t cry.

He could hear the boys teeth grinding together, and he could feel the quick episodes were the body tense and start to shiver. The blonde had his sympathy but, He’d much rather be carrying a bomb that was motion sensitive. Sure it was a little over the top, but Neji had to run with the constant fear of dropping the boy who kept moving unexpectedly.

He should have been looking for the scrolls. That was his original mission, the others were supposed to be focusing on finding their friends. Instead he got pulled into holding the boy, which the old man could have been doing. Maybe Neji was just growing to soft, He remember a time were he would have just ignored the blonde’s agony and his uncle’s words and continued his mission without a second thought.

But the blonde in his arms was proof enough that those day’s were long behind him, He could even consider this boy a friend, and with Hinata possibly, part of his family. Maybe that’s how he got pulled into this.

Family, Camaraderie, Love.

Thinking back on what his mind had just lead to, maybe all those years of being trained and mentored by Might Guy finally caused a small portion of himself to snap. . .

Still there was no way he was going to shout out about ’Burning youth’ or what ever his old sensei liked to yell his head off about. It always has been and always will be, undignified and just down right embarrassing.

Neji stopped, hearing something. A mumbled voice and shouting. It sounded like Shino.

Maybe a little bit of. . .investigating was in order.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Takara looked at the older man. He hadn’t moved for quite some time. He could have been one of Hinata’s friends but there was an equal chance he was from another group entirely. And she wasn’t talking unless she was dead certain about who he was.

She tapped her fingers on the dirt in thought. A normal habit of hers, but something seemed out of place this time. She looked down at her hand, confused. She slowed down the pace, taping one finger at a time, counting three seconds before putting the next finger down. She remembered having something when she was crawling around earlier. She was to panicked to remember what was missing.

She heard a noise coming from the man and jumped in fear. Quickly looking back at him, she watched him wave a bag in front of her.

It took a few seconds for her mind to register what he was holding. She lunged at him her fears forgotten. They resurfaced however when the man dropped the bag and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the tunnel.

“Let go, Let go!” She started yelling repeating it over and over, starting to kick him and using her other hand to try and pry his off. It wasn’t having any effect on the man, who just stood there as if he was bored.

Shino let the child wear herself out, taking note of how many times she kicked him and how many scratches he would have on his hand later. “What’s your name.”

The girl glared up at him, her hand paused from it’s clawing. “Mommy says I’m not allowed to talk to strangers.”

The comment seemed normal, coming from a small child not even ten years old. She looked believable enough, her eye’s showing fear that she covered with anger, her actions were like a frightened animal, ready to bolt in the opposite direction if he let go. So why wasn’t he believing her? More importantly, why was there a child in a place like this to begin with. “Name.” He demanded looking down at her.

“. . .Kayla”

“Your lying.” he called her lie without hesitation.

“I already told you I’m not giving you my name, now let go!” she yelled again kicking him again. “let go, let go, let go” The chant started up again, the kicking coming back with twice as much strength then before. Still the man was unaffected.

Shino watched the girl not amused at her stubbornness, he really didn’t have time for it.

“What’s going on? Are you bullying a child?”

The little girl stopped her kicking to look over at the new voice. Great now there were two interferences.

Shino looked over hearing Neji‘s voice, “. . . I found her crawling out of a tunnel carrying a bag. It‘s obvious she knows her way around, could be useful.” Shino explained to the other ninja pointing to the bag on the floor. Him, a bully? He was the one who was going to have bruises on his shins.

Neji sat Naruto down next to Akamaru who started sniffing at the blond, whimpering when the boy let out a pained noise. He walked over to the bag and picked it up, only giving a very small amount of attention to the girl who started struggling again.

“Don’t touch that, it’s not yours!”

The Hyuuga ignored her opening the bag and emptying it out into his other hand. He looked at it for a minute taking in the feel of the paper rolled into a cylinder and sealed with the Hyuuga symbol. “Where did you get this?” He asked, glaring at her.

The girl stepped back, looked off to the side and completely ignored him.

“I asked you a question!” he yelled at her, stepping up to her.

Takara backed up further behind Shino, who loosened his grip on her arm. “Don’t yell at me, jerk!”

Neji put the scroll back in the bag and put the bag in his pocket it was obvious he wasn’t getting any information out of the child. He knew a child like her couldn’t have stolen it, but the girl must have known who had the scroll first.

Takara hadn’t felt this frustrated since her mother left on her last mission . She was captured the was stolen. . .or maybe had been repossessed she wasn’t sure which, but mst importantly Hinata was still out there defenseless and probably worried about her. She was only supposed to be getting firewood. That meant Hinata was cold too. The season was starting to change and it was getting colder out. Depending on the time of day the girl could catch hypothermia. What could she do?

She could give them her name, ask for their’s and hope that their on the right side. The they could go save Hinata, return the scroll and everything could be fine again. Or she could ask for their name and hope that they not be on the wrong side give her the names she wants to hear, trick her and everything end in total chaos. Well her mother always said being a ninja was, ten percent instinct, ten percent skill, twenty percent will power luck and sixty percent luck. And if she was ever going to be a ninja now would be a good time to start testing that theory out.

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the man who had caught her first. “T-Takara”

Both of them looked at her, curios about her change of attitude. Nodding to each other they introduced themselves.

“. . .Shino Aburame” the man said hesitantly, cautiously, releasing his grip on the girl. “I apologize for frightening you.”

Neji just looked at the girl for a while before giving his name. “Neji Hyuuga.” he said quickly turning his back on her and heading back for Naruto.

Takara watched Neji, turn his back and felt the urge to throw something at him. He seemed to take pride in his hair, maybe a few wads of gum would reduce his high and mighty attitude.

And no she wasn’t feeling guilty about judging the man so harshly, or thinking about revenge.

“Are you going to tell us why you were down here?” Shino asked looking down at her.

“Why shou-. . .” She stopped herself. If she was trying to find out who they were and help them, it wouldn’t do any good to act so bratty. Sighing, she shook her head. “It’s a long story but. . .I came back here to get that scroll. . .for a friend. . .She helped me get out of here. “

Neji who now held Naruto looked back at the girl. Was the child talking about Hinata or another female. But why would Hinata tell a small child to risk her life? It didn’t sound like something Hinata would do. “Your friend told you to put yourself in danger. . “

“No!, I. . .we were hiding out in the caves and I told her I was going to go get some things to make a fire. . .she told me not to. But she was in such bad condition that. . .she should be recovering for a few days not a couple of hours. . .She was determined to get it back she said her family would be in danger if anyone figured it out.” Takara told them the short version of the story. That was all they needed to know, the little details weren’t important. “Could I please have it back I really need to help my friend. I- I haven’t begged since I was four, but I will if you promise to give me the scroll back.”

Neji, looked down at the girl, with an exhausted look. “How about you show us where Hinata is instead. “

“. . .”

The girl was really to suspicious of people for her age. She couldn’t have been no older then ten. “I’m Hinata’s cousin . . . and Shino is one member of the team she‘s on.”

“So you came looking for her? “

“No my mission was to recover what was stolen then if necessary help them.“ He explained as quickly as he could.

Takara gave him a sad, started to speak , but stopped. Neji raised an eyebrow, questioningly. She smiled and shook her head. “Never mind, it’s . . . not important. . . ” She said slowly, walking back to the rock to block off the small passage. “I don’t think you guys fitting in there, were going to have to take the older tunnels that lead above ground. . .is your dog afraid of loud noises?”

Shino gave a quick glance to Akamaru and back to the Takara. “No, why?”

Takara looked at the dog, disbelieving but she nodded anyway. “The path are dangerous, their unstable. We stopped using them a while ago because a few of them collapsed. Rocks fall from the ceiling often. You’re going to have to be very careful.”

“You’ve used them before haven’t you.” Neji asked looking down at the girl, watching her nod. “Can’t say I’m surprised.” this child was either constantly, desperately trying to find a way out, or she was completely reckless. Either way it was bad for the girl. Attempted escapes meant she was trying to run from something and, taking risk like walking in unpredictable tunnels meant high chances of an early death.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The woman was once again in the process of trying to kill Kiba. Kiba had been doing a good job fighting on the defense. But the woman managed to land a hit knocking the male a good distance away. The woman ran after him, she didn’t plan on him getting back up this time.


Sakura had just about enough of the woman’s jeering and ignoring her, she ran towards Kiba as well . The woman seemed to have taken on a thing for beating on Kiba, and only attacking Sakura when necessary. It was irritating.

Sakura jumped in front of Kiba and caught the woman fist in her hand. She quickly retaliated with her own punch, watching with a smirk as the woman flew back. Sakura could have sworn she just hit a new record in distance. That would teach the woman to ignore her.

She only made a small note of Kiba’s mumbling as he stood up.

“We need to find a quick way to take her down. I mean really quick.”

Shaking her head negatively she looked over at Hinata. “ I don’t think that’ll work, We’ve been fighting for a while now. With the both of us on her she should at least be having troubles keeping up with us. I’ve been landing punches that would shatter bones and I know your not holding back. Plus it’s obvious that Hinata’s fought with her.”

“What are you getting at, Haruno.”

“I think we might need to retreat.”

“What? I’m not backing down!” He yelled at her.

“This woman’s a little out of our rank, and every second that we waste fighting, is another second Hinata. . .Hinata’s lost a lot of blood and right now her open wound are extremely vulnerable to infection. We got to get her back home.” The pink haired girl yelled at him, reminding him of his injured friend.

Kiba looked over at Hinata, watching as the girl struggled to keep her eyes open. Suddenly he felt stuck, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want Hinata to get into anymore trouble but they couldn’t abandon this fight, the woman would just follow them. Maybe he could divert her attention. “Alright, then you get Hinata I’ll stay behind, If we both go she’ll just follow us and we can’t just let her follow us back to the village.”

“No. If you stay here by yourself your going to get killed. “

“Hey, I can take care of myself just fine.”

“Kiba this is not the time to feed your ego or try to look tough. “ she half scolded, half warned the other. “Not that it would work, I already seen your face get smashed into the ground.“ She added, reminding him of his earlier experience. “Besides are mission was to find the others. We’ve found Hinata and I’m sure The other have found Naruto and Hiashi by now. “

“She’s going to follow us, we can’t lead her back to the village. “

Kiba had a point Sakura knew that, but she couldn’t leave Kiba by himself and Hinata wasn’t in great condition. Sakura was great at healing but, Hinata was too worried about Kiba to let her do her job. “We don‘t have a choice, if we stay and fight her we‘re all going to get killed.”

“Fine distract her and I’ll grab Hinata”


Sakura didn’t need to be told twice, she attacked the woman without a second thought. The older female was infuriating, dodging, blocking and moving every which way. Was this how Gaara felt when he fought with Lee, dizzy frustrated? No, not even lee was this annoying.

Sakura blocked a kick and counter with punch. Her fist missed when the woman ducked and swept Sakura’s feet out from under her. Getting up quickly, Sakura had to dodge a series of blows, before she heard Kiba yell for her. She gathered up her chakra and aimed at the woman’s face. It made a direct hit, but felt a pain in her stomach and pressure on her rib cage. she watched the woman’s head twist almost completely around before the woman soared a good distance. She didn’t stick around to watch the woman land, Ignoring the pain she turned and started running.

“You nearly took her head off, How much energy did you use.” Kiba asked as he came up behind her. “And you could have gave me a heads up before you took off. ”

Sakura shook her head, “like I needed to, besides I want to get as much of a head start as I can, I don‘t think that attack did anything more then stun for a minute, which is more then I actually hoped for. . .” She admitted, looking over at Kiba then shifted her eye’s two Hinata who was on Kiba’s back resting her head on his shoulder. “Hinata how are you feeling?”

The girl didn’t even pick up her head but turned it to face The other. “I’-I’m not sure, the wounds were she stabbed me a-are hurting worse then normal. Like there burning. . .and I’m so tired. . .”

“Hinata you know you shouldn’t fall asleep.” she said her worried look turning into a stern one. Hinata looked at and nodded picking her head up . “Good, If you get any worse let me know.” Another nod, Sakura was satisfied. Working with her was easier then working with Naruto, who would have been stubborn and pigheaded the whole time. She once again returned her attention to Kiba. “let’s pick up the pace, I want to get her home before the sun goes down. “

“You know we’re going to get sent back out here right?” Kiba asked her as they started speeding up.

Sakura smirked and started struggling to keep up with Kiba‘s speed. “Yeah, but we would have came back whether she sent us or not”

“That’s true.”

Hinata looked back and forth between the two of them, smiling. She was still worried about Naruto But at least there were others worried about him two, others who were in a much better state to be looking for him. Although she wouldn’t be completely at ease until he was back home and safe.