Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ People Lie ❯ Clients Lie: three ( Chapter 6 )

 

“Good morning, Kakashi-sensei,” Hinata said quietly as she emerged from the tent.

 

“Good morning, Hinata, Naruto,” he replied, not looking up from his book.

 

“Are you cooking?” Naruto asked, right behind Hinata.

 

“Sasuke started some rice.”

 

“Ah. Nice.” Naruto headed for the stream, Hinata beside him, and crouched by the bank, splashing water into his face. He spluttered for a moment, wiping his face with one hand, while the other casually dangled into the water.

 

Hinata scrubbed lightly at her hands in the clear stream, picking carefully at her fingernails. Anyone with good eyes might have seen how the water around her hands seemed to gel and thicken.

 

A bit of rotten leaf, floating on the water, swirled between their two hands, then stopped, as if it had ran aground.

 

Naruto ran his hand through his hair and shifted position, his other hand moving slightly in the water.

 

The leaf tugged his direction a fraction of an inch. Hinata smiled and nodded to an unseen question. And, as if its journey had never been interrupted, the bit of leaf resumed its trip.

 

Breakfast was quick and quiet. Sasuke made enough rice for everyone, serving himself and retreating as an announcement it was done. Hinata served Naruto and Kakashi before taking a bowl for herself. It was plain, but filling.

 

Kakashi waited until the gear had been packed before motioning to them and heading to the pool.

 

Naruto grinned.

 

Sasuke looked bored.

 

“Okay, I want this to be a casual spar,” Kakashi began lightly. “Don't kill each other. Don't wound each other. Stop when I tell you to stop. Remember that we're on a mission. Sasuke: no fire jutsu. Naruto: no kage bushin.”

 

Naruto carefully kept the disappointment from his face.

 

“No kunai, senbon, or shuriken,” Kakashi continued. “The purpose of this spar isn't so you can settle your issues, to impress me, or to woo Hinata,”

 

Hinata and, surprisingly, Sasuke blushed a little at those words. Naruto just looked startled.

 

“so whatever is running through your aggressive little minds, forget it. I want you to show me that you can fight on the water.” He smiled. “And, to make things more interesting, I think you'll do it blind.” He pulled out two black bandannas, already folded into strips.

 

Naruto opened his mouth, looked at Sasuke, then closed it with an audible snap.

 

They let Kakashi tie the bandannas over their eyes silently, then turned and walked to opposite sides of the pool, Sasuke gliding over the surface of the water, Naruto raising little splashes with each step.

 

Kakashi grinned in obvious delight at his students' antics.

 

“Sensei?” Hinata asked. He rarely seemed so… delighted, unless it was on the days he'd show up with a new book.

 

“Begin!” he said loudly, then crouched down beside Hinata.

 

Sasuke immediately started sliding across the water, smooth and silent, and Naruto froze in place.

 

After a moment, she copied her teacher. “Sensei?” she asked again.

 

He glanced at her, back to the boys, then back to her, and shrugged. “Okay, here's a lesson for you. Tell me what they're thinking, and how it relates to their personal styles. I'll make sure they can't hear us.” He began forming seals for a concealment jutsu.

 

She blinked. That was unexpected. But… okay. She activated her byakugan and peered at the other two. Her clan's bloodline gave her many of the same abilities to read and predict an opponent as the sharingan did, just not the ability to copy them.

 

After another moment, she began to narrate.

 

“Sasuke is skilled and confident. He immediately went on the hunt, trusting his ability to be silent as he waits for Naruto to make a mistake. He does not underestimate Naruto's abilities, and expects a many layered trap, so he doesn't stay in one place very long, but he expects to spot the first opening and use it.”

 

Kakashi nodded, watching as Sasuke silently zigzagged back and forth across the pool. “He also hopes to run into Naruto by chance, and rely on his superior taijutsu to win the battle. And Naruto?”

 

Hinata paused, looking at the blond. “He specializes in deception tactics, so he's very hard to read. He can… he believes he can beat Sasuke, but he mostly practices the most deadly techniques because he says it takes more skill to leave an enemy alive than to kill them, but the best way to live long enough to gain that skill is to leave a trail of harmless corpses. He made a lot of noise at first to conceal his real skill, knowing Sasuke expects that, and is now remaining still and perfectly silent to convince Sasuke that he's really skilled and not going to make a mistake.”

 

“Hmmmmm…” Kakashi said thoughtfully, watching Sasuke orbit silently and Naruto just… stand there. “That's not exactly it. It's true Sasuke is bold and confident, but Naruto isn't so much drawing him into a multilevel web of deception as he is simply being cautious.”

 

“Naruto is not afraid of Sasuke,” Hinata protested.

 

“Mmm, perhaps that is true, but his skill with misdirection is largely because he works to hide himself, keeping any potential enemy, or in this case, Sasuke, from getting something he can use against him.”

 

“Naruto is full of confidence,” Hinata again insisted.

 

“That's true,” Kakashi admitted, mollifying the increasingly distraught kunoichi. “He believes in his mind absolutely. However, he also knows that Sasuke is better at taijutsu than he is. So he forced Sasuke to move cautiously, buying him time to gather all the information available and think it through. When he moves it will doubtlessly be to implement some well reasoned plan.”

 

Sasuke had paused towards the edge of the pool, and crouched on the water, letting his hand fall silently through the water's surface as he rummaged around beneath his feet.

 

“A trap? Maybe… no. Ah. Pebbles,” she said as Sasuke's hand emerged from the water, his other hand poised to catch the drip of water.

 

Sasuke tossed six rocks in quick succession, making a series of splashes as if he'd suddenly darted forward, abandoning stealth for speed.

 

Naruto twitched, a kunai springing into his hand as he started to throw, then stopped himself and carefully slid the kunai back into his jacket sleeve.

 

“And the question is,” Kakashi said thoughtfully, “is did he really almost forget and try to kill Sasuke, or did he just want to make me think that?”

 

“Think, probably,” Hinata replied.

 

Kakashi looked at her.

 

She shrugged. “I guess.”

 

Sasuke threw several more rocks, this time hard and fast, in a closely spaced arc that covered the area where he'd made the splashes. They sailed across the water to hit the soft earth on the other side with tiny thumps.

 

Naruto chose that moment to start moving, stepping gingerly as he silently slid four feet to one side, coming within inches of the edge of the water.

 

Sasuke did likewise, once again crouching and rooting through the water for more rocks to throw.

 

Naruto, on the other hand, grabbed handfuls of dirt and started throwing them in the air as high as he could without making a telltale grunt of effort.

 

However, the swish of his arm gave him away, and suddenly Sasuke was springing forward, scattering rocks before him. Most hit the bank, but one bounced off Naruto's chest and hit the water with a plop.

 

Naruto dived to the left, channeling chakra as he hit the water with his shoulder, staying on the surface and rolling to his feet in an instant.

 

Loose dirt mixed with larger clumps rained down as Sasuke charged, throwing a series of quick silent punches at where he thought Naruto was.

 

He was quite close, Naruto having been unable to keep silent as he rolled, but Naruto had stepped forward to meet the onrush, and Sasuke attacked from the side, his blows coming inches from Naruto's back.

 

They both froze, listening to the pattern of splashes at the dirt hit water, none of it near them. But some of the sound was blocked by Sasuke, and Naruto suddenly spun, one leg coming up in a sweeping kick.

 

At such close range, however, Sasuke heard the small movements of the cloth and breath, and countered with his own kick.

 

Their legs met with a horrific crack, right across each shin.

 

Hinata winced at the impact.

 

A shiver ran up both boys' spine at the pain, and the legs were almost instantly retracted, chambering back with the foot near the hip as they assessed the damage.

 

Near identical snarls twisted their faces, and they simultaneously kicked again even harder. This time the crack of shin against shin was even louder, punctuated by grunts. They drew back and kicked again.

 

This time one leg was high and the other low, Sasuke kicking high, spinning with the miss, then leaping over Naruto's head and coming down with a double fisted blow aimed at the blond's head.

 

Naruto's leg was low, falling short of Sasuke's by less than an inch, and he quickly stuck that foot to the water with chakra and launched a cross scissor kick with his other, pushing himself forward with his right hand. Sasuke's attack ended nearly a foot over his head, but Naruto heard the splashes as he landed. He held himself still and silent.

 

Sasuke, wary since he'd missed, silently stepped to one side, his hand reaching out for contact. There was none.

 

The brief exchange had ended, and now, once again, neither knew where the other was.

 

Naruto slowly changed his position into a crouch, hands and feet on the water. Then he began to concentrate.

 

Sasuke walked silently back and forth, questing for his opponent, his steps getting faster and faster as he grew better at keeping silent.

 

Naruto lifted one hand from the water, but it brought a rough globe of water nearly the size of a human head with it, stuck to it with chakra. Using his other hand, he quickly pinched off a series of handfuls, then let them fall back to the surface.

 

Splash, splash, splash.

 

Sasuke turned to the sound, but did not immediately run to the attack, wary of a trap.

 

Splash, splash, splash.

 

Sasuke slipped closer, gliding across the water as if he was on skates, a tricky application of chakra.

 

Splash, splash, splash.

 

Splash.

 

Sasuke moved even more slowly, perfectly silently, never letting himself be off balance or unready.

 

Naruto crouched again, both hands in the water on opposite sides, his face stern with concentration. Then, slowly, he stood up. And the surface of the pool came with him.

 

It looked much like he was standing in the middle of a bed and had the blanket in each hand. As he stood, he pulled it up as two handfuls in a solid sheet. And like a sheet, pulling up in the middle drew back the edges, pulling everything closer to him as he did so. But water slid much more smoothly than a sheet, and Sasuke was unknowingly about two feet closer to Naruto than he thought.

 

“Saaaaassssuuukkeee…” Naruto cooed. “Surprise.”

 

Sasuke rose onto the balls of his feet and froze, his senses straining for some indication of the coming attack. How did Naruto know where he was?

 

And suddenly Naruto spun, pulling at the water with all his strength and all his chakra. A suiton master could have used a jutsu, but Naruto didn't know any water techniques, so all he could do was make it stick to him, and itself, and pull. It was heavy, but he was strong, and he pulled hard.

 

Like pulling a rug out from under someone, Sasuke suddenly found his footing unstable. He didn't curse in surprise, but he did stumble, making two small splashes as he did so, furiously channeling chakra as he tried to regain his balance.

 

Naruto had no such problem, and was in the air in an instant, dropping the water as he did so. The resulting splash was tremendous, and the wave of water upset Sasuke just one more fraction of a second. Long enough for Naruto's flying tackle to hit.

 

One arm was pinned to his body by Naruto's bear hug, and Naruto's legs wrapped around his waist at the same time, ankles locking behind his back. They toppled backwards to the water, both using chakra to stay on top.

 

“GOT!-CHA!” Naruto crowed in triumph despite the punch which thundered into his cheek as he did so. He threw his head back, taking another punch in the process, then slammed his protected forehead into Sasuke's face.

 

Sasuke punched him three more times as he pulled his head back, then he did it again. And again, despite more punches.

 

“YIELD! YIELD YOU BAST-OWW!” he yelled, then slammed his head into Sasuke's chin again, pressing his face to the dark haired boy's neck as he tried to finish his declaration. “You can't pry me loose and you can't stop me without killing me! And I can take more pain than you! Yield!”

 

Sasuke punched him again, this time in the ear, and spit blood in his hair.

 

“OWW! What is it with you people and my damned ear?!” He slammed his head into Sasuke's face again.

 

Kakashi chuckled at the sight of his two students beating each other bloody. “So much for subtle,” he noted wryly. “I don't think deception is Naruto's real fighting style. More like bloody minded hard headedness.”

 

Hinata didn't say anything, watching in consternation as Naruto, the smartest, most devious person she knew, abandoned all pretense of style and thought and proceeded to continue to slam his bleeding head into Sasuke.

 

Sasuke was getting more and more desperate. This wasn't fighting, this was two cats in a sack, sinking in a pond. Naruto's legs were making it harder and harder to gasp a breath, and he used his head like a club, heedless of the damage he was accruing himself. But he wasn't called a genius for nothing. So he took a deep breath, punched Naruto in the throat, making him gag, and changed the way he channeled chakra. They both sank slightly into the water, but then his flailing feet caught the shallow bottom and stuck as if it was a tree. Using the powerful muscles in his legs, he pulled himself, and Naruto, under.

 

The surface of the water continued to ripple with the struggle below. Kakashi watched it with interest as the seconds ticked by, becoming a minute, then two. Then three.

 

Then four.

 

“Ano, Sensei, shouldn't we…?” she asked hesitantly.

 

He shrugged. “They should be able to take ten to fifteen minutes under water without significant brain damage, easy. I'll pull them out in… mmm, call it another fifteen minutes.” He gave her a reassuring smile.

 

Another two minutes went by. The ripples were just as vigorous as before.

 

“Sensei…” she said worriedly.

 

“Another fifteen. Don't worry, they'll be fine.”

 

Naruto burst to the surface, gasping, his blindfold askew, but still blinded by water and blood.

 

Sasuke appeared on the water's surface behind him, still blindfolded, but in considerably better shape despite the cuts on his lips and chin. And he very deliberately waited a second, until Naruto had managed his clumsy climb back onto the water's surface, then kicked him very hard in the side.

 

Naruto rolled across the water with a grunt of pain, then rolled more as he dodged the heavy stamps of Sasuke's feet, thankful for his new advantage of being able to see, however blurry. He rolled to his feet...

 

And Sasuke made a certain movement with his left hand.

 

Naruto ducked right and under, and three strands of ninja wire looped over his head, missing instead of entangling him. He pulled his own out with twin sweeps of both his arms, catching Sasuke's legs, then twisting his hands just so, making the wire kink and bind itself behind him, effectively hobbling him.

 

But a sinuous whisper of wire against cloth alerted him to the return of Sasuke's coils of wire. There was very little time.

 

Sasuke ignored his trapped legs for a moment, his split lips twisting into a smile as his wire encircled Naruto, then frowning as, instead of hard resistance, there was a brief tug before only gentle friction. A large splash at almost the same moment told him the story.

 

He had pulled a kawarimi, swapping a chakra laden ball of water for himself. And since you had to be touching water to put chakra in it, that made him-

 

Naruto cursed silently to himself as Sasuke back flipped away from his rising uppercut. He pulled on his wire, but it was too late. Sasuke had already slipped the coils.

 

“Alright, Naruto,” Sasuke said calmly, controlling his breathing with some effort.

 

He held his tongue, silently beginning his stalk of the Uchiha. Vision was going to be a tremendous advantage, and it wasn't exactly cheating. Sasuke had pulled his blindfold off himself as he'd raked Naruto's eyes underwater. He had no one to blame but himself.

 

“I acknowledge you as the best of us three at leadership. If you have a suggestion, I will give it all due consideration,” Sasuke proclaimed.

 

“WHAT!? REA-“

 

 

o/~

 

 

Naruto's pack was unusually light for something supposedly well stocked with equipment for a mission, for all that it was as full as mine or Hinata's, but that just made him easier to carry. Hinata carried mine, an admittedly lighter burden than Naruto, but neither were exactly happy with our assignments.

 

`You knocked him out, you carry him,' Kakashi had said.

 

…Fine. So now his arms were loosely draped to either side of my neck, and I supported him on my back by holding his thighs. It should have been more humiliating, but I just got through kicking the shit out of him so it was okay.

 

So now, we ran quickly and smoothly along little traveled roads, having exited the forest about half an hour after we resumed our trip. Naruto had been out for nearly two hours, a fact I took some pride in. I had put quite a lot of strength into that axe kick to the back of his head. It had been a thing of beauty. Even Hinata had congratulated me on it, which was slightly odd.

 

He woke up, finally. He didn't move, didn't stiffen, didn't say anything, didn't change his breathing, or give any of the other telling signs of awareness. No, I knew he woke up when I caught a faint wave of killing intent, quickly clamped off.

 

Hmm, deliberate? Accidental, but noticed? Irrelevant. I had already decided to mess with him.

 

I kept carrying him. I bet he didn't expect that.

 

What would he do?

 

Move to choke me? Reach for a kunai? Ride all the way to Tomahigiro? Something freaky, designed to unnerve me? Heh.

 

If he moved to attack, I, naturally, had a little surprise for him. Wire, looped around his neck and down to my fingers. I could let go of his legs and pull on that wire in an instant, and he'd be forced to let go or be garroted, and at the speed I was running, he'd be falling to the ground as I ran ahead, plus I'd probably just hold on to the wire and pull him along by his neck, garroting him anyway, which I found a pleasing mental image.

 

If he didn't try to attack me, well, I'd just have to see what the path of most inscrutability would be.

 

Because I had Naruto's measure.

 

It's amazing what inspirations you can have in the early morning darkness, keeping watch.

 

So I just kept running.

 

After about five minutes, I felt him tense, and the killing intent was back.

 

My fingers tightened on the wire.

 

And then it choked off again. Naruto was pretty unhappy.

 

Heh, this was kind of fun. Completely unseemly, incredibly degrading, but fun, and oh so completely worth it.

 

Then I felt his weight shift, but not like he was moving. He just… changed shape. And suddenly, instead of a flat chest leaned against my back, there were two large, soft lumps being squished between us.

 

I'm ashamed to say it actually took me a moment to understand what he'd done. I'm even more ashamed to admit that I blushed.

 

…Seems like he took the freaky route.

 

But okay, I can deal. My blush faded. So Naruto has breasts. Big deal. Hinata has breasts, too. Perhaps infinitesimally smaller, but nicer because they're real.

 

Or something. Shit, I was blushing again. This is not helping.

 

I mentally shook myself, and Sensei slowed us down again to a walking pace to allow us to gain our breath. Feh, as if I needed a break. Hinata didn't look like she was having any trouble, and Naruto certainly didn't need a break, the lazy bastard.

 

This was about the point Hinata looked over and gasped.

 

“Naruto! You're… a girl.” She shook her head and changed her pace to come to my side. “Is your head alright?”

 

“Tee hee!” Naruto giggled. “Who's Naruto? I'm Naruko!” She giggled again, though not quite as annoyingly. “Who are you and where are we going?”

 

“Naruto, there is something wrong with you,” I noted quietly. Now was about the time I suppose I'm supposed to put him down and let Hinata tend to him, but I didn't do that.

 

Hinata giggled. “Sasuke, you know Naruto is just making a joke.”

 

“I stand behind my words.”

 

Long silence. I could actually hear Naruto pout.

 

“Well, if I'm so messed up, why are you still carrying me?” she said, and she sounded genuinely curious.

 

“You have nice tits,” I replied neutrally. Thought of that line right after Hinata gasped.

 

Sensei actually stumbled when I said that. Hinata froze and fell back out of sight, so I don't know what she did.

 

I walked on. I thought about shifting one hand and squeezing `her' ass, but I doubt Naruto's surprise would be worth having to cut off my own hand.

 

“…Duly noted, Sasuke,” Naruto said, with a note of something indefinable in her voice. Admiration? Respect?

 

Her hands snaked down my chest and traced my muscles as her breath suddenly grew loud in my ear, close enough to tickle the tiny hairs. “Thank you. A girl likes to know her assets are appreciated by the sexy man in the group.”

 

And she bit my ear!

 

I nearly dropped her, doubtlessly the idea, but I didn't, since I had a ready counter literally at my fingertips.

 

“gurk” was all she said.

 

She let go of my ear pretty quick after that, and I held the tension for another few moments before I let the wire loosen around her neck. Oddly, Naruto seemed to think the ride was over after that, and nearly fell on her cute little ass in her haste to get to her own feet and the wire from around her neck, leaking killing intent in little fits and starts the whole time.

 

Naruto dropped the jutsu and resumed his shape as a boy as he shucked the wire and threw it in tangles on the ground, his hands actually shaking as he did so. He gave me another look I couldn't hope to decipher and stomped off ahead of us.

 

Hinata looked at me, then Naruto, with fear, confusion, and hurt, clearly started to go after him, then just as visibly hesitated. She finally scurried after him with a final backwards glance at me that said she would be having words with me later.

 

Kakashi-sensei looked at me.

 

“Was it something I said?” I asked. Mentally, I ticked another check. Me two, Naruto zero.

 

Oh, yeah. I had Naruto's measure.

 

 

o/~

 

 

Hinata had to run hard to catch up with Naruto, who'd managed to disappear quickly after he'd gotten only a hundred yards in front of the rest of the group. Using her byakugan let her catch a glimpse as he fled into the woods, and she quickly followed. Still, it took several moments before she found him again.

 

Actually, there were two of him, and for one heart wrenching moment, she thought it was the real one that had one of Naruto's guardless wakizashis in his ear. Blood trickled down from where the razor sharp steel was being slowly pressed through the thin flesh and bone, and his eyes were screwed shut in pain and effort as he struggled to break the arm lock the other Naruto had him in.

 

But no, Naruto wouldn't do that. Hinata had perfect confidence in him.

 

Still, he was doing something she'd never have imagined.

 

Finally, the blade broke through the bone with a quick convulsive thrust, reaching deep enough to hit something lethal, and the clone disappeared with a poof.

 

The real Naruto flinched as if it had been him under the knife when it had suddenly gained those last inches. Absently he wiped the pristine blade on his pants leg and slid it into its sheath behind his back before collapsing onto the ground and hanging his head.

 

Slowly, Hinata drew forward and sat with her legs crossed to his side, close, but not touching.

 

He didn't look at her.

 

“A-ah…” she began hesitantly. “D-did you forget to make the s-shadow clone look like… him?”

 

“Hinata, you're stu-stu-stuttering again,” he snapped.

 

She recoiled as if slapped, pressing her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide with shock and hurt. It took her a moment to get to her feet, as she nearly lost her balance in her rush to rise, but there was barely time for Naruto to see the first few tears glimmering in her so-pale eyes before she leapt for the trees and was gone.

 

“SHIT!” he cried. “KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!” followed a split second later, and the new clone was still forming, not even able to raise its hands in self defense before Naruto's blade split its right eye on the journey to the brain, and for a second it lingered between forming and unforming, hate at it and hate at himself, chakra looping and twisting in upon itself.

 

Caught in the feedback loop, Naruto stiffened like he'd just cut a live wire.

 

Darkness claimed him.

 

 

o/~

 

 

I must confess, I sort of thought Kakashi-sensei was going to have something witty or insightful to say. Instead, he whipped out his book and proceeded to ignore the hell out of me.

 

Perhaps that's a lesson in and of itself. I should pick up some reading material next time.

 

A particularly loud brush of leaves against each other shook me out of my musings to see Hinata standing in the road, her face in her hands. She stood like that for a long moment before clearly sighing and dropping her hands, turning to walk our direction in the next breath.

 

I watched her with an expression of mild disinterest, though I was curious what she'd say.

 

“Naruto is close to a group of three small silverleaf trees seven hundred and thirty yards that direction,” she said as she drew even with Kakashi-sensei, pointing behind her as she walked. “He wants some time to himself.”

 

“How much time?” I asked, smirking just the tiniest bit. “We don't have all day.”

 

HO~LY shitIforgotshenoshe'snever-

 

I felt like I was moving through syrup. I blinked and then she was there, her hands striking for my chest. I twisted, bringing my arms up to sweep hers aside, but instead of the two fingered juken strike she grabbed my arm, her hands moving as fast as Sensei does sometimes when he wants to make a point. And then her shin connected across my lower stomach, her hands pulled, and the world did this funny spinning thing and I was on my back with Hinata kneeling on my chest with one hand on my throat and her finger pointed at my head for one heart stopping moment-

 

I saw death in that finger.

 

-and the finger curled as the hand made a fist which connected very quickly with my split lip, which had finally stopped bleeding about an hour ago. Then it hit my eye.

 

So I punched her. Nothing fancy, just a right cross to her jaw that snapped her head to the side and sent blood spraying. Pretty strong, that punch. Pretty satisfying.

 

It hurt a lot when she hit the nerve junction in my right shoulder and I couldn't use that arm anymore. Kakashi-sensei usually calls out `cripple' strikes when she makes them, and I continue the fight appropriately. The actual experience is a little different. Naruto is right. There really is no substitute for actually trying to kill each other.

 

Naturally, she hit me in the face again. So I punched her again, this time with my left, and this time I really gave it to her with a nice solid tap on her temple, right behind one of those wild, wide, incredibly crazed eyes of hers.

 

It should have knocked her out cold. Instead, she hit the nerve junction in my left shoulder. All in all, I could have planned this better.

 

And… she hit me again. Probably trained in this technique with Naruto. What the hell is it with Naruto and his stupid ass ideas on trading blows to the face? I could just see the two of them, wrestling with each other out at one of the training grounds, trading full force blows to the face. It'd be just like Naruto to think that up. And it'd be just like Hinata to go along with it.

 

Lacking any better option at the moment, I decided to point out the pointlessness of this exercise in futility to our jounin-sensei.

 

“Ah, not that t-ng-this isn't fun-grk, but shouldn't we nng be moving again?” I asked in what I hoped was a normal conversational voice, twisting my head to both avoid another blow and send a meaningful look his direction.

 

Kakashi looked up from his book and smiled, at least I think it was a smile, at me. “Nah, it's fine. I booked extra time for this sort of thing.”

 

“Proper mission planning is essential,” I agreed thickly as Hinata punched me in the mouth again.

 

Stars exploded behind my eyes. That one had had a touch of juken to it. Hinata grabbed my hair with her hand and shook my head lightly.

 

“Look at me,” three Hinata's hissed.

 

“You have my attention,” I admitted truthfully. All of them did.

 

“I don't know what you said or did to Naruto, but you need to listen to me.” She gave my head a little shake, which made my vision swim just that much more. “Never, ever, NEVER do it again.”

 

“Are you finished?” I asked.

 

She stopped, blinked, and frowned. “I-“

 

“Good.” I kicked upward with my right leg hard enough to throw her body upwards, though her hand was still locked into the fabric of my shirt at my throat so it wound up making her do a sort of hand stand on my neck. My left knee shot up faster than she was moving and slammed into her sternum, forcing all her breath out with a whuff and hastening her arc to land on her back. I kicked with my foot against the ground, spinning myself around while she curled around her stomach, writhing in pain, and dropped a heel right across the side of her head with, I admit, a certain amount of vindictiveness.

 

That time, she stopped moving.

 

I quickly flipped to my feet, my arms still flopping uselessly at my sides. I frowned at the unconscious kunoichi.

 

“And a little advice to you,” I replied. “Never, ever, NEVER try that again.”

 

Kakashi-sensei looked up from his book again. “It kind of loses its sting when they're unconscious, you know.”

 

I glared at him, and I could already feel my eye swelling shut.

 

“You gonna carry her now?” he asked.

 

My reply was simple and definite. “No.” Let Naruto do it, when he got back from his cry or his planning session or whatever the hell he was doing.

 

“Don't do it Hinata,” he warned.

 

What- Like a fool, I glanced at the ground first, where, of course, she was no longer laying. A blur appeared in the corner of my vision. Very, very slowly, I turned just enough to see that it was a hand, two fingers extended, pointing at my temple.

 

“Next time, I'm just going to kill you,” Hinata said quietly, the fire gone from her voice.

 

“There won't be a next time,” I warned.

 

Kakashi picked that moment to stand, closing his book as he did so. “Well then, so long as we all understand each other,” he said brightly.

 

 

o/~

 

 

The streets were clean, the buildings looked newly painted, and throngs of people bustled about, each one intent on his or her own little mission, but the buzz of polite, meaningless conversation filled the air.

 

The only strange thing about the city was that there was no sky.

 

Instead of white clouds and a yellow sun and pale blue sky, it was dark. But it wasn't like night, with a field of star splattered velvet. And it wasn't like a cloudy, pitch black moonless night, either. Instead, up just kind of kept going up… until up was indefinable and lost.

 

There was light, though. Plenty of light. The colors were cheery and bright, and the people had ready smiles on their faces when they saw each other. There weren't any dark alleys or shadowed expressions.

 

Oh, wait. There was one more strange thing about the city.

 

All of the people, from the stumbling, barely toddling along little girl, to the man selling figs and plums under an awning, to a curvaceous woman attracting lustful glances, to a teenage boy and a teenage girl holding hands… they all had his face.

 

Nah. Not all that strange. The lack of sky was what was really weird.

 

Naruto wandered aimlessly among the people, never being jostled or impeded despite the numbers, just another Naruto in the crowd, staring up at the strange, skyless... …up.

 

None of the rest of him looked up. It was like they couldn't see it. Admittedly, he couldn't see it either, so he finally gave up and started looking around him.

 

People.

 

So many people.

 

And every one of them had his face set incongruously on top of whatever body they had been graced with. They were all talking, nearly constantly; just a continuous flow of words that individually had meaning but when listened to sequentially failed to say anything at all.

 

It was comforting, really. He liked it here.

 

There was one place, though, that none of him went.

 

Almost against his will, he found himself going there.

 

The crowd just stopped, and he walked along a now deserted street, heading for the biggest building in the whole city. It was huge, like a warehouse the size of Konoha. It had a wall around it, and a rusty gate hanging slightly ajar.

 

He slipped inside the gate and immediately saw a door set into the side of the building. It was a normal sized door, but it seemed incredibly tiny against the immense vastness of the side of the building.

 

He opened it and stepped in.

 

The warehouse was empty. If it seemed huge from the outside, it was even bigger from the inside. The walls stretched away forever from him, and the far side was a hazy promise rather than something he could actually see. A row of colossal fans were set into the wall far off to his right, turning slowly, their blades chopping the fading orange light filtering in from the outside. But despite the appearance of being in a building, the ceiling was just like the sky outside.

 

It wasn't there.

 

Naruto wandered in, following no set path, though he didn't appear to get near any wall, even the one he'd come in from. Or, at least, the one he thought he'd come in from. He stared upwards the entire time, searching for some sign of rafters or roof or anything, but there was nothing but more gloom and nothingness.

 

“Why do you look up?”

 

Naruto whirled around, staring, looking for the source of the voice. It appeared to come from everywhere and nowhere, ageless and genderless at the same time.

 

“Why do you look up?” the voice repeated.

 

Again, Naruto couldn't find the source of the voice. Hesitantly, he opened his mouth and replied.

 

“Because there's nothing there?” he hazarded.

 

“Why don't you look around?”

 

“Because there's nothing there, either,” he replied.

 

“You see nothing and you want to look at nothing?” the voice asked, sounding incredulous, and slightly contemptuous.

 

Naruto felt stupid. “Look, what else is there?” he demanded.

 

“Try looking down.”

 

Blinking, Naruto did just that, and was startled to find himself on the edge of a hole in the ground, maybe ten feet across, with a sharp slope down along one edge, leading into the darkness. There was a fox sitting primly along one edge, tail curled around its hips. It had red fur and a pale chest, and couldn't have been more than a foot tall.

 

It looked at him. Its eyes were bright.

 

He stared at it.

 

“You?” he asked. “Were you the one talking?”

 

The fox didn't say anything. It just kept looking at him, following him as he walked around the rim of the hole to the slope.

 

He paused, looking at the fox.

 

“I uh, I guess I'm supposed to go down, huh?” he asked.

 

It just kept looking at him.

 

Naruto swallowed nervously, then went down.