Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Twice Shy - Story Completion ❯ Unpredictability ( Chapter 8 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: eternalshiva 
Problems! And oh my Sasuke!
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.29.2009 | Updated On: 03.29.2009 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 489 | Status: Completed
Problems! And oh my Sasuke!
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.29.2009 | Updated On: 03.29.2009 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.6K | Visits: 489 | Status: Completed
Twice Shy – A continuation
By eternalshiva
DameWren has given permission to anyone that wants to continue her wonderful fic Two Halves which I intend to do. I greatly appreciate any feedback / comments.
AN – Will the Pein arc EVER END?! Every week it’s “THE BATTLE ENDS NEXT WEEK!” Kishi such a liar D:
Thank you Hinata’s Husband for the beta, I appreciate all the hard work you do and how you put up with my delays in lemons and my flirting with lime.
Disclaimer –
I do not make any monies off this fanfic. Naruto is copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. Sora, Yasu, Miki, Nori, Dango, Kaze Clan, Shivani are all copyright of DameWren.
Chapter 8
Unpredictability
Sasuke slowly opened his eyes and groaned quietly as he tried to sit up. His body felt like it had been through a meat grinder. He looked around without much success as it was too dark to make anything out. Rubbing his face in an attempt to clear the strange numbness, he blinked quickly to wet his oddly dried -out eyes.
‘Where am I?’
Last thing he remembered was the attack by rogue ninjas while on his way home to Konoha. The mission hadn’t been a failure but wasn’t a success either, there had been no sign of Akatsuki or his brother in the new hideout, just some idiots playing assassin. He had been initially annoyed at the dead -end result but the battle that ensued had been invigorating, even if he had taken a lot of damage. He shifted slightly, wincing at the sharp pains in his legs.
‘This bed is lumpy.’ He thought. ‘Wait... a bed?’ Alarmed, he tried activating his Sharigan but the strain was immense and he groaned loudly at the effort. He could hear muffled footsteps outside the room and tried to stand up.
When the door to his prison was flung open and two shapes rushed him, he discovered, painfully, that he was too injured to stand up quickly. His bandaged leg gave out with an audible snap. Two small but firm hands grabbed him as he fell, but before his fleeting consciousness left him in darkness yet again, he realized two things: someone was laughing, and the flash that blinded him would come back to haunt him. He was sure of it.
Yasu barely managed to grab on to Sasuke as he slumped over unconscious out of the bed. She was fuming at Sora who was doubled over laughing with her camera, taking another picture of what she seemed to think was a hilarious situation.
“Will you stop harassing the poor boy and help me reset that leg?” She glared at Sora who sheepishly grinned before nodding.
“Ok, ok. I couldn’t help myself. His expression was priceless. I’ve been waiting a week for that.” She argued playfully. Yasu rolled her eyes before laying down the injured ninja. The two women busied themselves with resetting the fractured bone and medicated the pain. Sora sat down at the end of the bed, her aid no longer needed, and glanced at the dark haired boy in thought. She winced in disgust as Yasu began to force-feed liquefied brown sludge down the boy’s throat.
“That shit’s so gross.” She complained for Sasuke. Yasu ignored her and cooed at the shinobi as though he was a child fussing.
“Why did you take him in?” Yasu asked, cleaning dribble that had managed to escape the limp mouth. Sora shrugged and looked away from the odd scene.
“He had a leaf headband.” She said, as though it was a well known fact. Yasu glanced over to the girl and hid a tiny smile. “Nevermind the fact that he’s about Naruto’s age, probably a friend of his.” she added quickly with disinterest. Yasu had to keep herself from shaking her head.
“He’d be mad as hell if I ignored a friend of his.” Sora looked away from the fascinating floor and moved to another point of great concern, the wall. “I only did this to avoid another one of his long drawn out speeches about how he lives to protect others and blah blah.” She waved away the rest of the memory with her hand, sounding a bit annoyed.
“Are you saying that to convince me or yourself?” Yasu asked tentatively, not quite cornering her friend with the question. Sora had grown soft since Naruto pushed his way into her life.
Sora snorted in disagreement. Yasu broke out in a full-fledged smile as the violet eyed girl got up and walked towards the door.
“At least I got the picture. Was it just me or did he have one Sharigan active? We must have scared the shit out of him.” Sora grinned when she heard Yasu laugh, she had successfully changed the topic or at least her friend wasn’t going to press the issue.
“Maybe.” Yasu spoke with a hint of humour. “We should probably let him know we are friends to the Leaf Village so he doesn’t try to kill us in our sleep.” The white haired warrior tucked him back into the blankets and looked up to her friend.
“Like that would be possible...” Sora snorted. Yasu raised a curious eyebrow when Sora perked up and a weird glint flashed in her eyes.
“I have an idea... He won’t miss the Konoha connection at all with this! Leave it all to me dear!” Yasu looked uncertain as she felt an aura of certain impending doom. She glanced quickly to the boy on the bed and suddenly felt very sorry for him.
* * *
Shizune made her way up to the Hokage’s office as she always did. Sakura would normally be trailing behind her but she had requested time off to stay in the hospital and keep herself busy with work. With the exams in town there was always someone with a broken something. The assistant could understand how the kunoichi wanted to stay away from the main office, she would be too troubled to concentrate on her duties with reports of Sasuke’s search coming in every few days. She pushed open the door to Tsunade’s disorderly office and stepped in to see the Hokage bent over one of the latest reports from the tracking team. Tsunade nodded in greeting, her eyes never lifting from the page.
Kakashi’s report was troubling to say the least. They had followed Sasuke’s blood trail into the mountains and it had vanished behind some barrier that confused those that tried to enter it. They had laid camp not too far from the last confirmed trail and were planning their next action.
‘What a mess...’ Tsunade didn’t know how to break the news to Sakura. Sasuke was now officially missing and could potentially be in a hostage situation. She glanced at Shizune who approached her none too soon with a small cup and gave her superior a small reassuring smile.
“Tsunade, no point dwelling on things you can’t do anything about; let’s look at other pressing matters.” The Hokage sighed and nodded again in agreement, pushing away the report she focused on the next piece of paper laid out by her assistant.
“The current teams...” She said as Tsunade brought the paper closer to her face. She bit the inside of her cheek out of habit as she contemplated the future changes.
“It shouldn’t be too hard to assign them.” Shizune claimed as she poured a cup of tea for the Hokage. Tonton oinked and grunted as he normally did when he wanted to be part of the conversation. Tsunade smiled and reached down to pet him before answering Shizune.
“You’d think, but with Naruto’s... chakra issue, I need to put him on a team that’s equipped to handle that or assign him to a Jounin that has the ability to control the situation.” She thought out loud. Out of the two options, only one really would work, she would have to search out her files and see who would be best suited and she may even have to resort to ANBU. If that was the case, she had to be weary and only choose one she knew for certain was not involved with ROOT.
Tsunade put down the papers and looked up to her window, noting that ugly fabric Sora had given her. Shizune had made curtains out of them and no matter how many times she took them down, they always came back up the next day.
“We have to wait until after the exams regardless. Their rank will determine the course of action.” Shizune nodded in agreement.
“Now, what else do you have lined up for me?” Tsunade dove head first into work and pushed aside the pressing unsolvable matters for today.
* * *
They hadn’t been able to meet in the afternoons to train and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Hinata bit her lip in disappointment as she woke to another morning on Naruto’s couch and he was nowhere to be seen.
‘I need to stop passing out as soon as I get here... He’s going to get the wrong impression.’ She thought as she got up from the couch and made her way to the kitchen. He had left her breakfast on the table like several mornings before and she felt a lump form in her throat as she picked up the note he left for her.
‘Good morning Hina-chan!
You seemed pretty tired out so I decided to let you sleep instead of waking you up for training yesterday, although I didn’t expect you to sleep the whole night through, I couldn’t even get you awake to come to bed. I really would like to know what it is you’re doing to tap you out like that! Seems pretty intense! I’ll be at training ground 47 today working with Lee. I hope I see you later (around oneish at the training grounds?), we really need to catch up on our forms, the third part of the exam is 5 days away! Beat Neji’s ass in training!
- Naruto’
She looked up from the note and sighed loudly as she leaned back into the chair. She crumpled the note in her hand and stared at it in thought before throwing it towards the garbage can. She frowned as it bounced off the edge and complained to herself about having to pick it up. She knew he wasn’t directly saying anything but she could clearly see he was a little dejected. She felt the strain of her muscles complain at the awkward movement while leaning over to grab the fruits laid out for her and contemplated the training to come.
* * *
“Naruto!” Lee shouted at him, annoyed. “You are sluggish and distracted.” Naruto grunted as Lee managed to hit him square in the stomach for the eighth time in the last 45 minutes. He was getting really tired of that.
“Let’s take a few.” The blond ninja muttered. He was out of breath and sweating. Lee was really putting him through the ringer. The other boy didn’t say anything but turned and walked away from Naruto, settling on sparring with one of the wood dummies. Naruto had to hold back a groan; he had managed to do the impossible with Lee without meaning to.
Intention training was very different with Lee than with Nori. Lee seemed to have a way of forcing Naruto to focus solely on the task at hand and work out any issues right away. It was pretty intense but Naruto enjoyed it. They both had a lot of energy and he was grateful that Lee could keep up He had to smarten up or his friend would continue to kick his ass without even trying. Feeling refreshed, he gathered his wits about him and prepared for the next bit of training.
“Ok. Let’s go over Absorption again.” He called out to Lee, who quickly returned to his side.
“Prepare yourself.” Lee stated as Naruto closed his eyes and pulled the chakra into a swirl in his body.
This principle was a bit hard to grasp for him, he had trouble controlling the small amount of chakra needed to cushion the blows and disperse the energy from the attacks. There was something very strange about himself he’d discovered over the years: he was very good at large pool chakra ninjutsu but he was downright terrible with the low cost ones. This principle needed very little chakra and he was terrible with it.
He let a small amount mould and form around him, like a shield and focused his thoughts into the intent. ‘Protection, absorption and distraction from Hinata.’ He nodded to Lee, indicating he was ready for the assault. A strange glint crossed Lee’s eyes before he unleashed what one would consider the principle of deluge.
Naruto concentrated on the feel of the chakra, picturing the blue glow in his mind and could feel it ripple against his skin with each blow from Lee. That was the hard part, keeping it together, preventing the ripples from distorting it and forcing it apart.
“Use the First Gate, Lee.” Naruto shouted as the speed of his friend increased. The ripples were ramming into each other, the effort to keep the chakra together was breaking him into a sweat. He felt the push of power against the makeshift chakra shield and tried to absorb the impact, the energy released. He felt it falter as Lee’s fists were hitting harder, more driven.
‘I should have never taught him the basics of power principles’ Naruto grunted in effort as the hits were starting to break through. His focus was faltering and the chakra was becoming unstable.
“You are losing it Naruto! Stop focusing on my punches and focus more keeping the net together!” Lee shouted at him, trying to veer his friend back into focus. It was too late. Naruto felt the chakra disperse and the punches knock the wind out of him. He fell back several feet after releasing his hold and heard Lee sigh.
Whether that was out of disappointment or frustration, Naruto couldn’t be certain but he could certainly relate. He wished Nori was still around, he’d be able to direct him a bit more, give him some kind of hint. This was infuriating.
“Ah! Hinata! What brings your glow of youth to these poor desolate training grounds?” Naruto sat up quickly hearing Lee mention the only thing that surpassed ramen. He grinned at the sight of Hinata approaching. She seemed different.
“Hello Lee.” Her musical voice echoed in the training ground. Lee was almost entranced with the heiress for a moment while she smiled at him but her eyes were looking over his shoulder focused on her boyfriend who was sitting there without a shirt. She could feel a blush coming on and tried to suppress it without much success.
“We were just about done Hinata! Let us go through one more principle before I take my leave for some much deserved diner!” Lee exclaimed, more quietly than his usual energetic speech.
Turning to Naruto he couldn’t help notice that his friend watched as Hinata sat down by the only tree in the area, Naruto suddenly felt a little nervous. He hadn’t really talked to her in a few days and this was the first time she was awake long enough to see the improvement of his form.
“Let’s show Hinata how you have perfected Overwhelming!” Lee exclaimed and Naruto nodded, eager to show her. “Prepare yourself!” Lee shouted and Naruto closed his eyes once more, pulling at the chakra, twisting it tightly in his gut. He let his muscles relax and opened his eyes, a hard and determined look focused on Lee.
‘This is new.’ Lee thought as he stared at the change in his friend. ‘Could it be because of Hinata’s presence?’ Lee decided he should take this a bit more seriously.
Naruto felt his chakra unwind and he moved without restraint, keeping his muscles relaxed and his eyes focused on the target at hand. He struck out at Lee with an unrelenting speed and continued to increase it to confuse his friend. Hinata had lost track of Naruto’s arms and legs as he pressed on, cornering his opponent. She could almost cut the air with the intention she felt in the air, he wanted to crush Lee with his will alone. She was swept away in the feeling.
Lee was keeping up no problem and was enjoying blocking every hit. This was invigorating and for the first time this morning, he felt that his friend had gotten past whatever was ailing him and taking the training seriously. Naruto on the other hand was feeling a little bit frustrated at his lack of ability to hit the Taijutsu master. If he couldn’t manage to overwhelm Lee, he couldn’t protect Hinata.
Lee’s eyes grew wide as he heard the distinct sound of metal hit the ground. Naruto had removed his arm weights and everything turned into a blur. Lee was now having trouble keeping up with the other shinobi. Naruto had managed to hit him twice, once above the knee that shot a sharp debilitating pain and another near his lower right lung. Had he hit harder, Lee was positive he would have heard the bone snap from the force. Naruto began to feel successful as he noticed his friend had lost focus. As per the intention, Lee was now worrying about protecting himself from the onslaught of attacks.
A hard crack echoed in the training yard and all movements stopped as quickly as they had begun. Naruto had nailed him, square in the face, deeply surprising the green clad ninja. Only Neji had ever managed to hit him like that and only because he was busy staring at Sakura at the time.
Naruto blinked in surprise. “Ah sorry Lee.” He said sheepishly. Mouth agape, Lee stared at Naruto in disbelief and suddenly exploded with renewed invigorated energy.
“Naruto! Do not worry about it! I will have to run 500 laps around Konoha for my lack of discipline!” and with that Lee bounced off towards the gates of the city. Naruto stared after his friend in confusion but it was soon forgotten as Hinata’s laugh suddenly filled his mind with her much missed presence.
* * *
Sasuke had decided that he would rather have been captured by Orochimaru than wake up in this nightmare. He wasn’t quite sure how to react to what he was exposed to after waking up only moments ago. He was flooded visually by frightening things: Narutos. Hundreds of copies made of what he could assume were photo paper.
They were everywhere in the room. He especially found the one above him on the ceiling disturbing. His friend was smiling down at him in that god awful orange jump suit he wore like a second skin three years ago with a victory sign, flashing some insane grin. He could almost hear him spewing out some speech about never giving up.
Sasuke turned his head towards the door and groaned, it was getting worst. ‘Is that pictures of Naruto and Hinata kissing all over the other wall?’ He looked away in disgust, that’s honestly the last thing he wanted to even be exposed too and it was forever burned into his retina.
‘What the f...’ a flash interrupted his thought.
“Ah, you finally decided to join us princess.” He heard a feminine voice mocking him from the door. He glared at her with as much killing intent as possible but she ignored him.
“I’ve dealt with worst. Naruto’s my pupil and my brother.” She spoke as she walked towards the boy. She saw a quick flash of surprise on his face.
“Naruto and Hinata stayed here for three years.” Explaining further. She pointed at the pictures on the wall in a silent explanation of proof before she sat down at the end of the bed and watched him carefully.
“Now now, don’t talk too fast! I can only answer one question at a time.” She spoke with a pleasant tone but Sasuke could almost hear the sarcasm behind each the words.
“Where am I?” he asked dryly. Sora sighed and took out her camera, her eyes focused intensely on some invisible point she found fascinating.
“You are in my home, on the mountains and weeks away from Konoha. This was to be a village but my master passed away before it could come to fruitation.” She answered almost bored. She had already gone through this with her brother, it wasn’t going to be any more fascinating the second time around.
Sasuke looked at her with suspicion and she rolled her eyes. “I can tell you’re the fun one at parties.” he glared at her again.
“How long have I been here?”
“Nearly two weeks, give or take. I haven’t warned Obaa-chan that you’re here. I didn’t know who you are. So tell me, mysterious stranger. Who are you and what relationship do you have with my brother?”
“If I tell you, can you send word to the Hokage immediately?” Sora gave him a curious look.
“I guess that’s only fair. What’s the urgency?”
“My girlfriend has control issues.” Sora laughed.
“And who would that be?”
“Sakura – she’s her apprentice in more ways than one.” He almost winced and Sora grinned.
“She’s a smashy-destroy type too eh?” Sasuke sighed and nodded. “Ok I’ll send word ....”
“Sasuke.”
“Ah, the mystery unravels. You and Sakura must be Naruto’s infamous Team 7 mates. Please give me the pleasure of learning that Kakashi’s somehow broken a leg or an arm. Would be better if he had to amputate one or the other.” She pouted her lips in thought, her eyes hopeful. Sasuke was now very confused.
“Uh, does this affect my getting out of here?”
“Maybe. Choose your words carefully.” She grinned slowly and an evil glint flashed quickly in her odd coloured eyes. Sasuke had a very bad feeling.
“Stop torturing him.” Yasu came in from behind Sora with Miki in tow. The little girl kept her eyes on Sasuke, her face carefully devoid of emotion.
“You’re no fun.” Sora pouted. She tried to snatch a piece of apple off the tray Yasu had brought in but she was stopped by her friend’s death stare.
“Ok ok jeez.”
“Eat up my dear boy, you've been eating liquid for a while now.” Yasu smiled down at the teenager.
“Sludge you mean.” Sora corrected her. Yasu continued to ignore her as she put down the tray. Sasuke eyed the food and then looked at the small child hiding next to her mother. She smiled shyly at Sasuke who couldn’t help but smile back, even if it was barely noticeable.
The three continued to chat as Sasuke rediscovered the use of his teeth. Sora shared a few anecdotes of Naruto’s stupidity and against his own sanity, was glad to hear about his friend. It wasn’t more than an hour before Sora stood up suddenly, on guard.
“They’re here again.” She looked at Yasu who sighed.
“Just go see who it is.” She answered her paranoid friend with an irritated look.
“Who’s are you speaking about?” Sasuke asked, suspicious.
“Three people keep prodding my shields around this place. One uses insect- chakra eaters and another pokes the shield with highly concentrated chakra in the hands. The third one, I’m not sure but they use an animal, a large one. It’s starting to irritate me.”
Sasuke blinked. “It’s probably my rescue party.” He said calmly. Sora gave him an odd look.
“How could they have possibly found this place. It’s specially designed to be hidden.” She thought out loud.
“Knowing Tsunade, she probably sent our best trackers and as lead, probably one of our best ninjas to defend them.”
“What kind of mission were you on exactly to be sought out like that?”
Sasuke shrugged. There were certain things he certainly wasn’t going to say to this strange woman. Noticing the wall that suddenly came up between them, Sora sighed.
“Can you at least give me an idea who it could be?” She gave him a long hard stare. He debated a few moments and decided that if Naruto trusts this woman, he could trust her with some information.
“Shino, Kiba, and Kakashi.” Yasu gasped and Sora narrowed her eyes in fury.
“That bastard.” She spat out before her eyes flashed a vibrant violet and disappeared. Sasuke had a terrible premonition he should never have mentioned his teacher. He suddenly realized that Yasu had gone chasing after Sora and left behind the small girl, who was staring at him.
“Are you going to eat that?” she pointed at the slice of apple on his plate. He raised an eyebrow in confusion as he shook his head. She happily trotted over to his bed and sat down with him, snatched up the piece of apple and popped it in her little mouth before settling her eyes on him.
“Auntie Sora showed me this picture of you.” She said happily. Sasuke gave her an odd look.
“A picture?”
Miki nodded as she swallowed the food in her mouth. “I didn’t know people could bend their legs that way, didn’t it hurt? And why did you have one red eye? That’s kind of creepy. Did you know that my mommy had to put new clothes on you? She said she'd never seen mud in "those" areas before, I'm not sure where she meant though. I have a dog named Dango. Auntie Sora likes to dye her hair lots of colours. I lived on a farm once but two bad men attacked us, uncle Naruto was super cool when... ”
Sasuke groaned and rubbed his face in frustration, successfully blocking out the annoying high pitched sounds of the child and wondered what was taking Kakashi so long to save him from this hell.
* * *
Naruto grinned at Hinata as her eyes fluttered open from a hungry kiss he had just given her. He hadn’t seen her counscious in a few days and was quite thrilled to have her by his side.
“Hi.” he said teasingly as she blushed, looking away shyly from his piercing blue eyes. He had managed to make her lose her voice even after the thousands of kisses he’d given her over the years, she was still a little bit flabbergasted at how he managed to turn her into mush the second he smiled at her and touched her lips.
“H-Hi.” she spoke barely above a whisper. He looked a little puzzled for a moment but his handsome grin blinded her. His blond hair shimmered in the bright light of the sun and she noticed how his body had gotten leaner. She blushed when she saw his grin widen a little more and a devious glint lingered in his eyes.
“You want to take a picture?” he asked, his voice held a slight hint of laughter as he teased her. She blushed, deeply.
“N-n-naruto!” She stuttered out, clearly embarrassed enough to be teetering on falling back into her old shy habits. He laughed loudly she noted that his voice seemed deeper than usual he pulled into a tight hug kissing her again, his lips coaxing her into a much more intimate one.
Why was she here again? Her brain was muddled and his scent of sweat and sun wasn’t helping her with memory. Naruto on the other hand was enjoying every minute of it, trying very hard to ignore the tell tale signs of her getting lost in his kissing. He broke it off slowly and grinned at her as she blinked in confusion. Why had he stopped?
“Training Hinata, I’m sure you came here so we could train.”
“At kissing?” she asked quietly. Naruto blinked, not expecting that answer to come out of his shy- natured girlfriend. She quickly glanced at him before she looked to the ground, her index fingers coming together like they used too in the old days when she spoke to him, her face had gone through ten shades of red and she found the dirt on the ground excessively fascinating.
Naruto let out a deep throaty laugh that startled her. “It wasn’t that funny.” She managed to get out but it was drowned out in the musical sound of his laughter.
“I didn’t expect that. Maybe I really am a bad influence on you.” He gave her another quick peck on the lips and sighed, complaining that he never got to kiss her as much as he used too at Sora’s. She ignored his whining and playfully pushed him away.
“You get to do lots of things you didn’t do before with me.” She gave him a meaningful look and smiled shyly. He grinned.
“True.” This time he blushed lightly and she held in a giggle. She walked to the other side of the field and took off her heavy sweater. The October air was cooler but with the training she would be sweating up a storm, she had her fishnet body suit under it and he could clearly see that her breasts were wrapped tightly against her, Naruto raised an eyebrow at her getup and she blushed.
“It’s easier for me to battle if I tie them down this way.” 'Did he look disappointed?' She sighed. Boys...
“Makes sense I guess but it seems kinda painful. Although I don’t have a pair of-“ he made a gesture in front of his own chest as he spoke. Hinata’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.
“Naruto! Will you stop and just focus on training instead of my... bandages.” She was blushing as she cut off the rest of that sentence. She knew where it was headed and he was laughing, again. She was getting annoyed with him by that point, even if she was flattered by the way he ogled her a little, she was here to prepare for the exam.
“Ok ok, let’s work through the advanced sets.” His face was serious but he still had an amused glint in his eyes. They began to spar and she noticed that his movements had changed. She frowned a little but ignored it, she increased her own speed thinking that maybe she was the cause.
Fifteen minutes into the sparring something seemed off between them, their movements weren’t fluid. Hands would strike hits when they weren’t supposed too, their feet didn’t seem to move out of the way fast enough and they would step or shuffle too late, missing vital and important moves.
Another ten minutes went by after several attempts by both of them to adjust to each other, they still couldn’t get the moves right. Naruto frowned thinking on when they first began to train with each other all those years ago. This seemed very similar. He was lost in thought thinking on the current problem when he moved into the second set of their movements but Hinata had been unprepared for the shift, still focused on trying to catch up to his pace. He felt his elbow hit something hard and Hinata made a strange yelp, jarring him out of his thoughts.
“Hinata!” he grabbed her as she fell down, he had struck her on the chin. Her teeth had clacked together hard and she had bitten her tongue, tasting the copper of blood flooding her mouth. This wasn’t good.
“Hinata! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention!” Naruto was almost in a panicked stated when she ungracefully spat out blood. She was hanging onto his arms while she gained her balance again.
“It’s ok.” She winced out, that was unexpected and she knew exactly what the problem was... what terrible timing.
“Naruto, I think we’re out of sync.” She looked up at him with a worried look and saw his expression turn quizzical.
“Out of sync...” he repeated. They hadn’t been training together lately but it wasn't like it was going to cause major problems! “How did we fall out of sync?” He heard her sigh.
“I’ve been training exclusively with Neji and you with Lee. We haven’t been training together at all for well over a week. We’ve fallen out of sync.” Naruto blinked at her, failing to understand.
“You’re used to Lee’s Taijutsu speed and I’ve gotten use to fighting Jyuuken with Neji. They’re entirely different and we’ve ignored our training too much. We’re out. Of. Sync.” She nearly spelled out the rest, slightly annoyed. This couldn’t have happened at a worst time. Her family’s judgement of their relationship was to be at the final exam!
“Damn...” Naruto whispered, his eyes closed in thought. “We’ll have to practice all of the sets then until we’re back in sync.” Hinata stared at him.
“No more training with Lee, no more with Neji. The exam is in two days Hinata and we need to be doing this Hinata.” He sounded worried. He didn’t even know about all the stuff that had happened between her and her father in the last week. She beratted herself. Partnership training was supposed to be secret free. Now was a good time as any to tell him.
“That’s... not the only thing we need to worry about.” She said softly, he narrowed his eyes.
“What happened?” he could read her like a book. Her index fingers had begun to twiddle together and she nervously swallowed. Her grabbed her two hands in his own gently and pulled up her chin with his other forcing her to look him in the eyes.
“What’s going on?” he spoke softly this time, trying to coax it out of her.
“W-w-well... my father knows we are dating.” She stuttered out. Naruto had to resist the urge to woot out loud knowing a giant hurdle had just been crossed.
“And?” he squeezed her hands urging her to continue. She took in a shaky breath and bit her lip, a nervous habit from which she'd never broken.
“H-h-he will only accept us after he sees o-o-our teamwork in the third exam.” She could feel her eyes dampening. Naruto blinked.
“Great. Just perfect.” He said out loud by mistake. He had the great ability to make things worst at delicate moments. Hinata looked at him, hurt showed in her eyes and Naruto mentally kicked himself.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Things always seem to be difficult for us.” He smiled reassuringly at her. She nodded lightly and bit her lip again, worrying.
“Well that just means we need to focus on nothing but us for the next 48 hours.” She looked at him, hope flickered in her eyes and he gave her his trademark grin like everything was under control.
“I have a plan. We can do this. We can do anything we put our minds to right?.”
“Hai!” she answered. He looked up a moment at the position of the sun, mentally counting the time they had left in the day and licked his lips.
“First we need soldier pills, food and probably some sleeping bags. Let's hit my apartment real fast and I’ll tell you what we need to do before the exam.” He grabbed her hand and they both quickly leaped away from training ground 47. Running across the roofs of Konoha, Hinata listened intently while Naruto divulged his plan, her eyes widen in disbelief.
* * *
Yasu tackled Sora at the door of the house.
“Stop! What are you going to do?” she yelled at her friend who was desperately struggling under her.
“Fuck! Get off me!” she roared. Yasu only tightened her grip and gave her an icy stare that made Sora pause for exactly 5 seconds then resumed her struggle.
“Calm down and LISTEN TO ME!.” She yelled again, Sora glared at her, eyes flashing violet momentarily. Yasu glared at her. “Don’t you even think about it, I’m going to beat your ass down if you even dare.” Ice laced every word and Sora went limp under her friend.
“Now tell me what is going on.” She whispered harshly.
“That bastard Kakashi, I’m going to kill him.” Sora said calmly. Yasu gave her a weird look.
“Who is Kakashi exactly?”
“Minato’s pupil and Naruto’s team leader. He was supposed to be Naruto’s guardian when Minato passed on but that bastard left him in the orphanage.” She spat out, angry. Yasu made an “o” with her mouth understanding the sudden burst of anger. She narrowed her eyes at Sora, a sign she had a plan. Sora gave her a curious look.
“How about you let me do the talking.”
“Why?” she roared in disbelief. “I want to fucking rip his arms out!” her logic was thrown to the wind. Yasu gave her a flat unconcerned stare.
“That’s why. I’ll go talk to them and you just make yourself scarce and I swear to god Sora, you even make a sound, you’ll meet the Ice Queen again.” Sora swallowed hard.
“You don’t scare me.” She mewled out, her voice betraying her. Yasu had let go of her and walked away, opening the front door. She spun around and glared at her.
“Try me. Just you DARE try me.”
Sora said nothing as her friend walked out the door. She hung her head in frustration and followed behind her.
* * *
Kiba smelled something female approaching them. He motioned to Kakashi to stand on alert and Shino almost seem to melt into the shadows.
“I sense no ill will coming from them.” He whispered to the sharigan user. He only received a bored expression.
“Halt!” Kakashi called out to the white haired woman. She had her hands raised up, showing she was not armed and she had no ill intent. She remained behind the strange shield, several feet away from the two shinobi.
“Where’s the third one? The one with the bugs” she asked her eyes weary. Kakashi raised his only visible brow in surprise and motioned to Shino to come out. The bug shinobi was clearly annoyed as he adjusted his glasses but only Kiba would recognize the small movement.
“Who are you?” Kakashi asked, his body was tense, still analyzing the woman.
“I am Yasu. I live here.” She spoke diplomatically. “Are you shinobi from the Leaf?”
“Yes. We’re looking for someone.” Kakashi answered sckeptically. Yasu nodded.
“Ok good, Sasuke thought it may be his searching party.” Kiba let out a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he was holding.
“You have him?” the boy asked her and she nodded.
“Yes, I am not an enemy of the Leaf, please be assured that he is safe and I will make sure that once he has fully recovered from the wounds he will be on his way back to Konoha.” She smiled trying to reassure the three men before her. She knew they wouldn’t accept her word as it stood so she gave them a picture Sora had taken that morning.
“Here, as proof that he’s indeed fine and not being held against his will.” She flicked the picture through the shield and Kakashi caught it with his hand, looking at the picture he had to muffle a laugh. He was relieved and appalled at the same time. Sasuke was being spoon fed by a small child and he looked miserable.
“What’s with this shield?” Kiba asked curiously, he poked at it again. Yasu gave him a calculated look before she answered him.
“It protects our village from sight and warns us if someone tries to get through... or pokes at it non-stop for three days.” She raised an eyebrow as Kiba sheepishly smiled and threw an arm behind his head in embarrassment. She was struck at how similar he was to Naruto.
“There is a second one with you, why won’t they show themselves?” Shino spoke so suddenly it startled her. She blinked as she realized that Sora had probably followed her. She was going to beat her ass.
“I wasn’t sure who you were. I’m not stupid enough to come alone.” she spoke softly, the clear murderous intent directed to the hidden stalker was not missed by the men. Kiba was nervous suddenly.
“How do we know for sure you are friend to the lLeaf?” Kiba asked suspiciously. He sensed no danger from her and from what he could smell, no lies.
“Trust me, Tsunade is an old acquaintance of our village. When my leader saw the Konoha headband she was more than willing to take the boy in and care for him to return an old favour. I will make sure that the boy is returned once he is healthy again.” Yasu turned on her feet and pulled a bag she had transformed, containing supplies for their trip back.
“I took the liberty of refreshing your supplies. I’m sorry but I cannot allow you to return with me to our village.” Kakashi nodded in understanding and grabbed the bundle from her. She bowed in respect and smiled to the three Shihnobi.
“Please give my regards to Tsunade and Naruto.” And with that she was gone. The two younger shinobi seemed confused at how she knew Naruto but Kakashi only stared at the empty spot where she vanished, he heard a shuffle not too far off so quiet that he was the only one to catch it. He saw a multicoloured head of hair leap away from their meeting point. His eye narrowed in understanding and he knew Sasuke was in good hands.
‘So this is where you have been hiding... Sora.’ He thought. He tuned in back at the squabbles behind him Kiba complained loudly at the lack of hospitality and Shino only pushed his glasses on his face, annoyed at something.
“Let’s move out.”
* * *
Sora watched them leave and her head was filled with confused thoughts. She hadn’t seen him in over 16 years and she still felt her heart squeeze in ache. Her girly admiration of him was still strong apparently and she hated every second of it. She had to wonder though why his face was covered up with that mask and why he wore his headband over his eye. Kakashi had always been mysterious.
She saw him look back in her direction and she thought they had crossed each other in a stare but he was too far to really see her. That’s when she realized that he had figured out who Sasuke was with. That man was too smart for his own good.
“You.” She heard Yasu spit out the venomous threat. She swallowed and bounced away.
‘Oh shit!’ she thought and ran for dear life to the safety of the hidden village.
* * *
Naruto stared at Hinata in surprise. They had promised each other to not hold back while they re-synced and he was almost shocked. She was using chakra moves he had never even imagined she would implement in the Shina-To-Be. Her lilac eyes almost glowed in the dusk.
“That one hurt” he said, wiping sweat off his brow and she smiled faintly.
“Liar. You’re used to much worse than that.” She did seem a little worried.
“True, but your new moves are crazy awesome. Is that what you and Neji have been working on?” He was really impressed. She nodded and punced towards him again, her hands moving swiftly and with deadly accuracy on his points. He could feel them shutting down and winced as he pushed them open again. He knocked her attacks away with his own improved skills, pushing intention slightly on her to throw her off. It was working.
She grunted as she tried to push away the intent. She was used to the feeling of his chakra pushing in his forms but this time it was so different. It was very focused and refined. He had grasped Intention finally with Lee’s help.
“I need to learn how to ignore your intent again.” she spoke as she managed to sneak in another Jyuuken hit, he had told her to use chakra in the hits to push them into resync’ing their formations. She hated the grunts he let out as he pushed the points open.
“My points are getting harder to open, I need to work on that some more” he smiled sheepishly, trying to reassure her. She could feel his intent to break through her defenses and she responded with a quick blinding spin as she pushed her chakra away from her body, expanding it, pushing against Naruto’s chakra. It knocked him square on his butt and he yelped in surprise, not expecting her to do that.
She stopped her sudden spin and stared at him in shock. He propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at her.
“I see Neji taught you that protection move.” Naruto laughed as she stuttered out an apology, mortified she had managed to knock him down like that.
“It’s fine Hinata! I’m not made out of sugar!” he got up and brushed the dust off his pants. “I wasn’t expecting that, is all.” She bowed in apology and he rolled his eyes.
“Stop that.” He pulled her into a fierce hug and kissed her lips. “You’re so awesome.” He smiled at her and she couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride in her accomplishment.
“I did it out of habit from my training with Neji.” She looked at him with worry but he grinned even deeper.
“Wow so you’re really learning a lot about your family’s fighting style.” He seemed genuinely interested and amazed. She nodded and a blush crept up on her cheeks against her will.
“You improved too Naruto, I’m having trouble getting past your intention projection and your taijutsu is so much faster than before. I fear I am falling a little behind in that aspect.” He snorted and waved her off.
“That’s crap. You’ll catch up just fine Hinata, you’re already improving your speed against me. You’re hitting me more often if you haven’t noticed.” She looked down, a little ashamed she had hit him so often and so harshly. He laughed at her reaction.
“Just think Hina-chan, it only took a week for us to grow and improve like this. We’re going to wipe the arena with those wannabes!”
She laughed as he shook a fist up in the air, challenging future unknowns as she tiptoed up to his lips and kissed his grin before she pushed him off playfully and returned to their training.
Naruto was a little stunned by her small kiss, she didn’t usually initiate the affection. Their sync was still a bit off but with this plan he thought they would be ready to go through the formations again tomorrow.
The plan was simple really. Spar each other with no restraints until they could read each other’s moves like before. Hinata had objected at first but this was the only way to learn each other’s bodies again. He watched as his girlfriend positioned herself in a mixed Jyuuken and Shina-To-Be battle form and he grinned. He dropped the weights in his arms and saw her head drop down a moment.
“Again Hinata, don’t hold back.”
The kunoichi burst towards him in a flurry of movements and Naruto was finally starting to follow the flow of her movements, adjusted to her newfound agility and her increased chakra attacks. He smiled as he could feel the sync returning. They could do this, they had to or everything they had built together was going to fall apart and he couldn’t allow that to happen.
* * *
RR Please! I read every single e-mail and review! They encourage me to write and better my writing.
By eternalshiva
DameWren has given permission to anyone that wants to continue her wonderful fic Two Halves which I intend to do. I greatly appreciate any feedback / comments.
AN – Will the Pein arc EVER END?! Every week it’s “THE BATTLE ENDS NEXT WEEK!” Kishi such a liar D:
Thank you Hinata’s Husband for the beta, I appreciate all the hard work you do and how you put up with my delays in lemons and my flirting with lime.
Disclaimer –
I do not make any monies off this fanfic. Naruto is copyright of Masashi Kishimoto. Sora, Yasu, Miki, Nori, Dango, Kaze Clan, Shivani are all copyright of DameWren.
Chapter 8
Unpredictability
Sasuke slowly opened his eyes and groaned quietly as he tried to sit up. His body felt like it had been through a meat grinder. He looked around without much success as it was too dark to make anything out. Rubbing his face in an attempt to clear the strange numbness, he blinked quickly to wet his oddly dried -out eyes.
‘Where am I?’
Last thing he remembered was the attack by rogue ninjas while on his way home to Konoha. The mission hadn’t been a failure but wasn’t a success either, there had been no sign of Akatsuki or his brother in the new hideout, just some idiots playing assassin. He had been initially annoyed at the dead -end result but the battle that ensued had been invigorating, even if he had taken a lot of damage. He shifted slightly, wincing at the sharp pains in his legs.
‘This bed is lumpy.’ He thought. ‘Wait... a bed?’ Alarmed, he tried activating his Sharigan but the strain was immense and he groaned loudly at the effort. He could hear muffled footsteps outside the room and tried to stand up.
When the door to his prison was flung open and two shapes rushed him, he discovered, painfully, that he was too injured to stand up quickly. His bandaged leg gave out with an audible snap. Two small but firm hands grabbed him as he fell, but before his fleeting consciousness left him in darkness yet again, he realized two things: someone was laughing, and the flash that blinded him would come back to haunt him. He was sure of it.
Yasu barely managed to grab on to Sasuke as he slumped over unconscious out of the bed. She was fuming at Sora who was doubled over laughing with her camera, taking another picture of what she seemed to think was a hilarious situation.
“Will you stop harassing the poor boy and help me reset that leg?” She glared at Sora who sheepishly grinned before nodding.
“Ok, ok. I couldn’t help myself. His expression was priceless. I’ve been waiting a week for that.” She argued playfully. Yasu rolled her eyes before laying down the injured ninja. The two women busied themselves with resetting the fractured bone and medicated the pain. Sora sat down at the end of the bed, her aid no longer needed, and glanced at the dark haired boy in thought. She winced in disgust as Yasu began to force-feed liquefied brown sludge down the boy’s throat.
“That shit’s so gross.” She complained for Sasuke. Yasu ignored her and cooed at the shinobi as though he was a child fussing.
“Why did you take him in?” Yasu asked, cleaning dribble that had managed to escape the limp mouth. Sora shrugged and looked away from the odd scene.
“He had a leaf headband.” She said, as though it was a well known fact. Yasu glanced over to the girl and hid a tiny smile. “Nevermind the fact that he’s about Naruto’s age, probably a friend of his.” she added quickly with disinterest. Yasu had to keep herself from shaking her head.
“He’d be mad as hell if I ignored a friend of his.” Sora looked away from the fascinating floor and moved to another point of great concern, the wall. “I only did this to avoid another one of his long drawn out speeches about how he lives to protect others and blah blah.” She waved away the rest of the memory with her hand, sounding a bit annoyed.
“Are you saying that to convince me or yourself?” Yasu asked tentatively, not quite cornering her friend with the question. Sora had grown soft since Naruto pushed his way into her life.
Sora snorted in disagreement. Yasu broke out in a full-fledged smile as the violet eyed girl got up and walked towards the door.
“At least I got the picture. Was it just me or did he have one Sharigan active? We must have scared the shit out of him.” Sora grinned when she heard Yasu laugh, she had successfully changed the topic or at least her friend wasn’t going to press the issue.
“Maybe.” Yasu spoke with a hint of humour. “We should probably let him know we are friends to the Leaf Village so he doesn’t try to kill us in our sleep.” The white haired warrior tucked him back into the blankets and looked up to her friend.
“Like that would be possible...” Sora snorted. Yasu raised a curious eyebrow when Sora perked up and a weird glint flashed in her eyes.
“I have an idea... He won’t miss the Konoha connection at all with this! Leave it all to me dear!” Yasu looked uncertain as she felt an aura of certain impending doom. She glanced quickly to the boy on the bed and suddenly felt very sorry for him.
* * *
Shizune made her way up to the Hokage’s office as she always did. Sakura would normally be trailing behind her but she had requested time off to stay in the hospital and keep herself busy with work. With the exams in town there was always someone with a broken something. The assistant could understand how the kunoichi wanted to stay away from the main office, she would be too troubled to concentrate on her duties with reports of Sasuke’s search coming in every few days. She pushed open the door to Tsunade’s disorderly office and stepped in to see the Hokage bent over one of the latest reports from the tracking team. Tsunade nodded in greeting, her eyes never lifting from the page.
Kakashi’s report was troubling to say the least. They had followed Sasuke’s blood trail into the mountains and it had vanished behind some barrier that confused those that tried to enter it. They had laid camp not too far from the last confirmed trail and were planning their next action.
‘What a mess...’ Tsunade didn’t know how to break the news to Sakura. Sasuke was now officially missing and could potentially be in a hostage situation. She glanced at Shizune who approached her none too soon with a small cup and gave her superior a small reassuring smile.
“Tsunade, no point dwelling on things you can’t do anything about; let’s look at other pressing matters.” The Hokage sighed and nodded again in agreement, pushing away the report she focused on the next piece of paper laid out by her assistant.
“The current teams...” She said as Tsunade brought the paper closer to her face. She bit the inside of her cheek out of habit as she contemplated the future changes.
“It shouldn’t be too hard to assign them.” Shizune claimed as she poured a cup of tea for the Hokage. Tonton oinked and grunted as he normally did when he wanted to be part of the conversation. Tsunade smiled and reached down to pet him before answering Shizune.
“You’d think, but with Naruto’s... chakra issue, I need to put him on a team that’s equipped to handle that or assign him to a Jounin that has the ability to control the situation.” She thought out loud. Out of the two options, only one really would work, she would have to search out her files and see who would be best suited and she may even have to resort to ANBU. If that was the case, she had to be weary and only choose one she knew for certain was not involved with ROOT.
Tsunade put down the papers and looked up to her window, noting that ugly fabric Sora had given her. Shizune had made curtains out of them and no matter how many times she took them down, they always came back up the next day.
“We have to wait until after the exams regardless. Their rank will determine the course of action.” Shizune nodded in agreement.
“Now, what else do you have lined up for me?” Tsunade dove head first into work and pushed aside the pressing unsolvable matters for today.
* * *
They hadn’t been able to meet in the afternoons to train and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Hinata bit her lip in disappointment as she woke to another morning on Naruto’s couch and he was nowhere to be seen.
‘I need to stop passing out as soon as I get here... He’s going to get the wrong impression.’ She thought as she got up from the couch and made her way to the kitchen. He had left her breakfast on the table like several mornings before and she felt a lump form in her throat as she picked up the note he left for her.
‘Good morning Hina-chan!
You seemed pretty tired out so I decided to let you sleep instead of waking you up for training yesterday, although I didn’t expect you to sleep the whole night through, I couldn’t even get you awake to come to bed. I really would like to know what it is you’re doing to tap you out like that! Seems pretty intense! I’ll be at training ground 47 today working with Lee. I hope I see you later (around oneish at the training grounds?), we really need to catch up on our forms, the third part of the exam is 5 days away! Beat Neji’s ass in training!
- Naruto’
She looked up from the note and sighed loudly as she leaned back into the chair. She crumpled the note in her hand and stared at it in thought before throwing it towards the garbage can. She frowned as it bounced off the edge and complained to herself about having to pick it up. She knew he wasn’t directly saying anything but she could clearly see he was a little dejected. She felt the strain of her muscles complain at the awkward movement while leaning over to grab the fruits laid out for her and contemplated the training to come.
* * *
“Naruto!” Lee shouted at him, annoyed. “You are sluggish and distracted.” Naruto grunted as Lee managed to hit him square in the stomach for the eighth time in the last 45 minutes. He was getting really tired of that.
“Let’s take a few.” The blond ninja muttered. He was out of breath and sweating. Lee was really putting him through the ringer. The other boy didn’t say anything but turned and walked away from Naruto, settling on sparring with one of the wood dummies. Naruto had to hold back a groan; he had managed to do the impossible with Lee without meaning to.
Intention training was very different with Lee than with Nori. Lee seemed to have a way of forcing Naruto to focus solely on the task at hand and work out any issues right away. It was pretty intense but Naruto enjoyed it. They both had a lot of energy and he was grateful that Lee could keep up He had to smarten up or his friend would continue to kick his ass without even trying. Feeling refreshed, he gathered his wits about him and prepared for the next bit of training.
“Ok. Let’s go over Absorption again.” He called out to Lee, who quickly returned to his side.
“Prepare yourself.” Lee stated as Naruto closed his eyes and pulled the chakra into a swirl in his body.
This principle was a bit hard to grasp for him, he had trouble controlling the small amount of chakra needed to cushion the blows and disperse the energy from the attacks. There was something very strange about himself he’d discovered over the years: he was very good at large pool chakra ninjutsu but he was downright terrible with the low cost ones. This principle needed very little chakra and he was terrible with it.
He let a small amount mould and form around him, like a shield and focused his thoughts into the intent. ‘Protection, absorption and distraction from Hinata.’ He nodded to Lee, indicating he was ready for the assault. A strange glint crossed Lee’s eyes before he unleashed what one would consider the principle of deluge.
Naruto concentrated on the feel of the chakra, picturing the blue glow in his mind and could feel it ripple against his skin with each blow from Lee. That was the hard part, keeping it together, preventing the ripples from distorting it and forcing it apart.
“Use the First Gate, Lee.” Naruto shouted as the speed of his friend increased. The ripples were ramming into each other, the effort to keep the chakra together was breaking him into a sweat. He felt the push of power against the makeshift chakra shield and tried to absorb the impact, the energy released. He felt it falter as Lee’s fists were hitting harder, more driven.
‘I should have never taught him the basics of power principles’ Naruto grunted in effort as the hits were starting to break through. His focus was faltering and the chakra was becoming unstable.
“You are losing it Naruto! Stop focusing on my punches and focus more keeping the net together!” Lee shouted at him, trying to veer his friend back into focus. It was too late. Naruto felt the chakra disperse and the punches knock the wind out of him. He fell back several feet after releasing his hold and heard Lee sigh.
Whether that was out of disappointment or frustration, Naruto couldn’t be certain but he could certainly relate. He wished Nori was still around, he’d be able to direct him a bit more, give him some kind of hint. This was infuriating.
“Ah! Hinata! What brings your glow of youth to these poor desolate training grounds?” Naruto sat up quickly hearing Lee mention the only thing that surpassed ramen. He grinned at the sight of Hinata approaching. She seemed different.
“Hello Lee.” Her musical voice echoed in the training ground. Lee was almost entranced with the heiress for a moment while she smiled at him but her eyes were looking over his shoulder focused on her boyfriend who was sitting there without a shirt. She could feel a blush coming on and tried to suppress it without much success.
“We were just about done Hinata! Let us go through one more principle before I take my leave for some much deserved diner!” Lee exclaimed, more quietly than his usual energetic speech.
Turning to Naruto he couldn’t help notice that his friend watched as Hinata sat down by the only tree in the area, Naruto suddenly felt a little nervous. He hadn’t really talked to her in a few days and this was the first time she was awake long enough to see the improvement of his form.
“Let’s show Hinata how you have perfected Overwhelming!” Lee exclaimed and Naruto nodded, eager to show her. “Prepare yourself!” Lee shouted and Naruto closed his eyes once more, pulling at the chakra, twisting it tightly in his gut. He let his muscles relax and opened his eyes, a hard and determined look focused on Lee.
‘This is new.’ Lee thought as he stared at the change in his friend. ‘Could it be because of Hinata’s presence?’ Lee decided he should take this a bit more seriously.
Naruto felt his chakra unwind and he moved without restraint, keeping his muscles relaxed and his eyes focused on the target at hand. He struck out at Lee with an unrelenting speed and continued to increase it to confuse his friend. Hinata had lost track of Naruto’s arms and legs as he pressed on, cornering his opponent. She could almost cut the air with the intention she felt in the air, he wanted to crush Lee with his will alone. She was swept away in the feeling.
Lee was keeping up no problem and was enjoying blocking every hit. This was invigorating and for the first time this morning, he felt that his friend had gotten past whatever was ailing him and taking the training seriously. Naruto on the other hand was feeling a little bit frustrated at his lack of ability to hit the Taijutsu master. If he couldn’t manage to overwhelm Lee, he couldn’t protect Hinata.
Lee’s eyes grew wide as he heard the distinct sound of metal hit the ground. Naruto had removed his arm weights and everything turned into a blur. Lee was now having trouble keeping up with the other shinobi. Naruto had managed to hit him twice, once above the knee that shot a sharp debilitating pain and another near his lower right lung. Had he hit harder, Lee was positive he would have heard the bone snap from the force. Naruto began to feel successful as he noticed his friend had lost focus. As per the intention, Lee was now worrying about protecting himself from the onslaught of attacks.
A hard crack echoed in the training yard and all movements stopped as quickly as they had begun. Naruto had nailed him, square in the face, deeply surprising the green clad ninja. Only Neji had ever managed to hit him like that and only because he was busy staring at Sakura at the time.
Naruto blinked in surprise. “Ah sorry Lee.” He said sheepishly. Mouth agape, Lee stared at Naruto in disbelief and suddenly exploded with renewed invigorated energy.
“Naruto! Do not worry about it! I will have to run 500 laps around Konoha for my lack of discipline!” and with that Lee bounced off towards the gates of the city. Naruto stared after his friend in confusion but it was soon forgotten as Hinata’s laugh suddenly filled his mind with her much missed presence.
* * *
Sasuke had decided that he would rather have been captured by Orochimaru than wake up in this nightmare. He wasn’t quite sure how to react to what he was exposed to after waking up only moments ago. He was flooded visually by frightening things: Narutos. Hundreds of copies made of what he could assume were photo paper.
They were everywhere in the room. He especially found the one above him on the ceiling disturbing. His friend was smiling down at him in that god awful orange jump suit he wore like a second skin three years ago with a victory sign, flashing some insane grin. He could almost hear him spewing out some speech about never giving up.
Sasuke turned his head towards the door and groaned, it was getting worst. ‘Is that pictures of Naruto and Hinata kissing all over the other wall?’ He looked away in disgust, that’s honestly the last thing he wanted to even be exposed too and it was forever burned into his retina.
‘What the f...’ a flash interrupted his thought.
“Ah, you finally decided to join us princess.” He heard a feminine voice mocking him from the door. He glared at her with as much killing intent as possible but she ignored him.
“I’ve dealt with worst. Naruto’s my pupil and my brother.” She spoke as she walked towards the boy. She saw a quick flash of surprise on his face.
“Naruto and Hinata stayed here for three years.” Explaining further. She pointed at the pictures on the wall in a silent explanation of proof before she sat down at the end of the bed and watched him carefully.
“Now now, don’t talk too fast! I can only answer one question at a time.” She spoke with a pleasant tone but Sasuke could almost hear the sarcasm behind each the words.
“Where am I?” he asked dryly. Sora sighed and took out her camera, her eyes focused intensely on some invisible point she found fascinating.
“You are in my home, on the mountains and weeks away from Konoha. This was to be a village but my master passed away before it could come to fruitation.” She answered almost bored. She had already gone through this with her brother, it wasn’t going to be any more fascinating the second time around.
Sasuke looked at her with suspicion and she rolled her eyes. “I can tell you’re the fun one at parties.” he glared at her again.
“How long have I been here?”
“Nearly two weeks, give or take. I haven’t warned Obaa-chan that you’re here. I didn’t know who you are. So tell me, mysterious stranger. Who are you and what relationship do you have with my brother?”
“If I tell you, can you send word to the Hokage immediately?” Sora gave him a curious look.
“I guess that’s only fair. What’s the urgency?”
“My girlfriend has control issues.” Sora laughed.
“And who would that be?”
“Sakura – she’s her apprentice in more ways than one.” He almost winced and Sora grinned.
“She’s a smashy-destroy type too eh?” Sasuke sighed and nodded. “Ok I’ll send word ....”
“Sasuke.”
“Ah, the mystery unravels. You and Sakura must be Naruto’s infamous Team 7 mates. Please give me the pleasure of learning that Kakashi’s somehow broken a leg or an arm. Would be better if he had to amputate one or the other.” She pouted her lips in thought, her eyes hopeful. Sasuke was now very confused.
“Uh, does this affect my getting out of here?”
“Maybe. Choose your words carefully.” She grinned slowly and an evil glint flashed quickly in her odd coloured eyes. Sasuke had a very bad feeling.
“Stop torturing him.” Yasu came in from behind Sora with Miki in tow. The little girl kept her eyes on Sasuke, her face carefully devoid of emotion.
“You’re no fun.” Sora pouted. She tried to snatch a piece of apple off the tray Yasu had brought in but she was stopped by her friend’s death stare.
“Ok ok jeez.”
“Eat up my dear boy, you've been eating liquid for a while now.” Yasu smiled down at the teenager.
“Sludge you mean.” Sora corrected her. Yasu continued to ignore her as she put down the tray. Sasuke eyed the food and then looked at the small child hiding next to her mother. She smiled shyly at Sasuke who couldn’t help but smile back, even if it was barely noticeable.
The three continued to chat as Sasuke rediscovered the use of his teeth. Sora shared a few anecdotes of Naruto’s stupidity and against his own sanity, was glad to hear about his friend. It wasn’t more than an hour before Sora stood up suddenly, on guard.
“They’re here again.” She looked at Yasu who sighed.
“Just go see who it is.” She answered her paranoid friend with an irritated look.
“Who’s are you speaking about?” Sasuke asked, suspicious.
“Three people keep prodding my shields around this place. One uses insect- chakra eaters and another pokes the shield with highly concentrated chakra in the hands. The third one, I’m not sure but they use an animal, a large one. It’s starting to irritate me.”
Sasuke blinked. “It’s probably my rescue party.” He said calmly. Sora gave him an odd look.
“How could they have possibly found this place. It’s specially designed to be hidden.” She thought out loud.
“Knowing Tsunade, she probably sent our best trackers and as lead, probably one of our best ninjas to defend them.”
“What kind of mission were you on exactly to be sought out like that?”
Sasuke shrugged. There were certain things he certainly wasn’t going to say to this strange woman. Noticing the wall that suddenly came up between them, Sora sighed.
“Can you at least give me an idea who it could be?” She gave him a long hard stare. He debated a few moments and decided that if Naruto trusts this woman, he could trust her with some information.
“Shino, Kiba, and Kakashi.” Yasu gasped and Sora narrowed her eyes in fury.
“That bastard.” She spat out before her eyes flashed a vibrant violet and disappeared. Sasuke had a terrible premonition he should never have mentioned his teacher. He suddenly realized that Yasu had gone chasing after Sora and left behind the small girl, who was staring at him.
“Are you going to eat that?” she pointed at the slice of apple on his plate. He raised an eyebrow in confusion as he shook his head. She happily trotted over to his bed and sat down with him, snatched up the piece of apple and popped it in her little mouth before settling her eyes on him.
“Auntie Sora showed me this picture of you.” She said happily. Sasuke gave her an odd look.
“A picture?”
Miki nodded as she swallowed the food in her mouth. “I didn’t know people could bend their legs that way, didn’t it hurt? And why did you have one red eye? That’s kind of creepy. Did you know that my mommy had to put new clothes on you? She said she'd never seen mud in "those" areas before, I'm not sure where she meant though. I have a dog named Dango. Auntie Sora likes to dye her hair lots of colours. I lived on a farm once but two bad men attacked us, uncle Naruto was super cool when... ”
Sasuke groaned and rubbed his face in frustration, successfully blocking out the annoying high pitched sounds of the child and wondered what was taking Kakashi so long to save him from this hell.
* * *
Naruto grinned at Hinata as her eyes fluttered open from a hungry kiss he had just given her. He hadn’t seen her counscious in a few days and was quite thrilled to have her by his side.
“Hi.” he said teasingly as she blushed, looking away shyly from his piercing blue eyes. He had managed to make her lose her voice even after the thousands of kisses he’d given her over the years, she was still a little bit flabbergasted at how he managed to turn her into mush the second he smiled at her and touched her lips.
“H-Hi.” she spoke barely above a whisper. He looked a little puzzled for a moment but his handsome grin blinded her. His blond hair shimmered in the bright light of the sun and she noticed how his body had gotten leaner. She blushed when she saw his grin widen a little more and a devious glint lingered in his eyes.
“You want to take a picture?” he asked, his voice held a slight hint of laughter as he teased her. She blushed, deeply.
“N-n-naruto!” She stuttered out, clearly embarrassed enough to be teetering on falling back into her old shy habits. He laughed loudly she noted that his voice seemed deeper than usual he pulled into a tight hug kissing her again, his lips coaxing her into a much more intimate one.
Why was she here again? Her brain was muddled and his scent of sweat and sun wasn’t helping her with memory. Naruto on the other hand was enjoying every minute of it, trying very hard to ignore the tell tale signs of her getting lost in his kissing. He broke it off slowly and grinned at her as she blinked in confusion. Why had he stopped?
“Training Hinata, I’m sure you came here so we could train.”
“At kissing?” she asked quietly. Naruto blinked, not expecting that answer to come out of his shy- natured girlfriend. She quickly glanced at him before she looked to the ground, her index fingers coming together like they used too in the old days when she spoke to him, her face had gone through ten shades of red and she found the dirt on the ground excessively fascinating.
Naruto let out a deep throaty laugh that startled her. “It wasn’t that funny.” She managed to get out but it was drowned out in the musical sound of his laughter.
“I didn’t expect that. Maybe I really am a bad influence on you.” He gave her another quick peck on the lips and sighed, complaining that he never got to kiss her as much as he used too at Sora’s. She ignored his whining and playfully pushed him away.
“You get to do lots of things you didn’t do before with me.” She gave him a meaningful look and smiled shyly. He grinned.
“True.” This time he blushed lightly and she held in a giggle. She walked to the other side of the field and took off her heavy sweater. The October air was cooler but with the training she would be sweating up a storm, she had her fishnet body suit under it and he could clearly see that her breasts were wrapped tightly against her, Naruto raised an eyebrow at her getup and she blushed.
“It’s easier for me to battle if I tie them down this way.” 'Did he look disappointed?' She sighed. Boys...
“Makes sense I guess but it seems kinda painful. Although I don’t have a pair of-“ he made a gesture in front of his own chest as he spoke. Hinata’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.
“Naruto! Will you stop and just focus on training instead of my... bandages.” She was blushing as she cut off the rest of that sentence. She knew where it was headed and he was laughing, again. She was getting annoyed with him by that point, even if she was flattered by the way he ogled her a little, she was here to prepare for the exam.
“Ok ok, let’s work through the advanced sets.” His face was serious but he still had an amused glint in his eyes. They began to spar and she noticed that his movements had changed. She frowned a little but ignored it, she increased her own speed thinking that maybe she was the cause.
Fifteen minutes into the sparring something seemed off between them, their movements weren’t fluid. Hands would strike hits when they weren’t supposed too, their feet didn’t seem to move out of the way fast enough and they would step or shuffle too late, missing vital and important moves.
Another ten minutes went by after several attempts by both of them to adjust to each other, they still couldn’t get the moves right. Naruto frowned thinking on when they first began to train with each other all those years ago. This seemed very similar. He was lost in thought thinking on the current problem when he moved into the second set of their movements but Hinata had been unprepared for the shift, still focused on trying to catch up to his pace. He felt his elbow hit something hard and Hinata made a strange yelp, jarring him out of his thoughts.
“Hinata!” he grabbed her as she fell down, he had struck her on the chin. Her teeth had clacked together hard and she had bitten her tongue, tasting the copper of blood flooding her mouth. This wasn’t good.
“Hinata! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention!” Naruto was almost in a panicked stated when she ungracefully spat out blood. She was hanging onto his arms while she gained her balance again.
“It’s ok.” She winced out, that was unexpected and she knew exactly what the problem was... what terrible timing.
“Naruto, I think we’re out of sync.” She looked up at him with a worried look and saw his expression turn quizzical.
“Out of sync...” he repeated. They hadn’t been training together lately but it wasn't like it was going to cause major problems! “How did we fall out of sync?” He heard her sigh.
“I’ve been training exclusively with Neji and you with Lee. We haven’t been training together at all for well over a week. We’ve fallen out of sync.” Naruto blinked at her, failing to understand.
“You’re used to Lee’s Taijutsu speed and I’ve gotten use to fighting Jyuuken with Neji. They’re entirely different and we’ve ignored our training too much. We’re out. Of. Sync.” She nearly spelled out the rest, slightly annoyed. This couldn’t have happened at a worst time. Her family’s judgement of their relationship was to be at the final exam!
“Damn...” Naruto whispered, his eyes closed in thought. “We’ll have to practice all of the sets then until we’re back in sync.” Hinata stared at him.
“No more training with Lee, no more with Neji. The exam is in two days Hinata and we need to be doing this Hinata.” He sounded worried. He didn’t even know about all the stuff that had happened between her and her father in the last week. She beratted herself. Partnership training was supposed to be secret free. Now was a good time as any to tell him.
“That’s... not the only thing we need to worry about.” She said softly, he narrowed his eyes.
“What happened?” he could read her like a book. Her index fingers had begun to twiddle together and she nervously swallowed. Her grabbed her two hands in his own gently and pulled up her chin with his other forcing her to look him in the eyes.
“What’s going on?” he spoke softly this time, trying to coax it out of her.
“W-w-well... my father knows we are dating.” She stuttered out. Naruto had to resist the urge to woot out loud knowing a giant hurdle had just been crossed.
“And?” he squeezed her hands urging her to continue. She took in a shaky breath and bit her lip, a nervous habit from which she'd never broken.
“H-h-he will only accept us after he sees o-o-our teamwork in the third exam.” She could feel her eyes dampening. Naruto blinked.
“Great. Just perfect.” He said out loud by mistake. He had the great ability to make things worst at delicate moments. Hinata looked at him, hurt showed in her eyes and Naruto mentally kicked himself.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Things always seem to be difficult for us.” He smiled reassuringly at her. She nodded lightly and bit her lip again, worrying.
“Well that just means we need to focus on nothing but us for the next 48 hours.” She looked at him, hope flickered in her eyes and he gave her his trademark grin like everything was under control.
“I have a plan. We can do this. We can do anything we put our minds to right?.”
“Hai!” she answered. He looked up a moment at the position of the sun, mentally counting the time they had left in the day and licked his lips.
“First we need soldier pills, food and probably some sleeping bags. Let's hit my apartment real fast and I’ll tell you what we need to do before the exam.” He grabbed her hand and they both quickly leaped away from training ground 47. Running across the roofs of Konoha, Hinata listened intently while Naruto divulged his plan, her eyes widen in disbelief.
* * *
Yasu tackled Sora at the door of the house.
“Stop! What are you going to do?” she yelled at her friend who was desperately struggling under her.
“Fuck! Get off me!” she roared. Yasu only tightened her grip and gave her an icy stare that made Sora pause for exactly 5 seconds then resumed her struggle.
“Calm down and LISTEN TO ME!.” She yelled again, Sora glared at her, eyes flashing violet momentarily. Yasu glared at her. “Don’t you even think about it, I’m going to beat your ass down if you even dare.” Ice laced every word and Sora went limp under her friend.
“Now tell me what is going on.” She whispered harshly.
“That bastard Kakashi, I’m going to kill him.” Sora said calmly. Yasu gave her a weird look.
“Who is Kakashi exactly?”
“Minato’s pupil and Naruto’s team leader. He was supposed to be Naruto’s guardian when Minato passed on but that bastard left him in the orphanage.” She spat out, angry. Yasu made an “o” with her mouth understanding the sudden burst of anger. She narrowed her eyes at Sora, a sign she had a plan. Sora gave her a curious look.
“How about you let me do the talking.”
“Why?” she roared in disbelief. “I want to fucking rip his arms out!” her logic was thrown to the wind. Yasu gave her a flat unconcerned stare.
“That’s why. I’ll go talk to them and you just make yourself scarce and I swear to god Sora, you even make a sound, you’ll meet the Ice Queen again.” Sora swallowed hard.
“You don’t scare me.” She mewled out, her voice betraying her. Yasu had let go of her and walked away, opening the front door. She spun around and glared at her.
“Try me. Just you DARE try me.”
Sora said nothing as her friend walked out the door. She hung her head in frustration and followed behind her.
* * *
Kiba smelled something female approaching them. He motioned to Kakashi to stand on alert and Shino almost seem to melt into the shadows.
“I sense no ill will coming from them.” He whispered to the sharigan user. He only received a bored expression.
“Halt!” Kakashi called out to the white haired woman. She had her hands raised up, showing she was not armed and she had no ill intent. She remained behind the strange shield, several feet away from the two shinobi.
“Where’s the third one? The one with the bugs” she asked her eyes weary. Kakashi raised his only visible brow in surprise and motioned to Shino to come out. The bug shinobi was clearly annoyed as he adjusted his glasses but only Kiba would recognize the small movement.
“Who are you?” Kakashi asked, his body was tense, still analyzing the woman.
“I am Yasu. I live here.” She spoke diplomatically. “Are you shinobi from the Leaf?”
“Yes. We’re looking for someone.” Kakashi answered sckeptically. Yasu nodded.
“Ok good, Sasuke thought it may be his searching party.” Kiba let out a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he was holding.
“You have him?” the boy asked her and she nodded.
“Yes, I am not an enemy of the Leaf, please be assured that he is safe and I will make sure that once he has fully recovered from the wounds he will be on his way back to Konoha.” She smiled trying to reassure the three men before her. She knew they wouldn’t accept her word as it stood so she gave them a picture Sora had taken that morning.
“Here, as proof that he’s indeed fine and not being held against his will.” She flicked the picture through the shield and Kakashi caught it with his hand, looking at the picture he had to muffle a laugh. He was relieved and appalled at the same time. Sasuke was being spoon fed by a small child and he looked miserable.
“What’s with this shield?” Kiba asked curiously, he poked at it again. Yasu gave him a calculated look before she answered him.
“It protects our village from sight and warns us if someone tries to get through... or pokes at it non-stop for three days.” She raised an eyebrow as Kiba sheepishly smiled and threw an arm behind his head in embarrassment. She was struck at how similar he was to Naruto.
“There is a second one with you, why won’t they show themselves?” Shino spoke so suddenly it startled her. She blinked as she realized that Sora had probably followed her. She was going to beat her ass.
“I wasn’t sure who you were. I’m not stupid enough to come alone.” she spoke softly, the clear murderous intent directed to the hidden stalker was not missed by the men. Kiba was nervous suddenly.
“How do we know for sure you are friend to the lLeaf?” Kiba asked suspiciously. He sensed no danger from her and from what he could smell, no lies.
“Trust me, Tsunade is an old acquaintance of our village. When my leader saw the Konoha headband she was more than willing to take the boy in and care for him to return an old favour. I will make sure that the boy is returned once he is healthy again.” Yasu turned on her feet and pulled a bag she had transformed, containing supplies for their trip back.
“I took the liberty of refreshing your supplies. I’m sorry but I cannot allow you to return with me to our village.” Kakashi nodded in understanding and grabbed the bundle from her. She bowed in respect and smiled to the three Shihnobi.
“Please give my regards to Tsunade and Naruto.” And with that she was gone. The two younger shinobi seemed confused at how she knew Naruto but Kakashi only stared at the empty spot where she vanished, he heard a shuffle not too far off so quiet that he was the only one to catch it. He saw a multicoloured head of hair leap away from their meeting point. His eye narrowed in understanding and he knew Sasuke was in good hands.
‘So this is where you have been hiding... Sora.’ He thought. He tuned in back at the squabbles behind him Kiba complained loudly at the lack of hospitality and Shino only pushed his glasses on his face, annoyed at something.
“Let’s move out.”
* * *
Sora watched them leave and her head was filled with confused thoughts. She hadn’t seen him in over 16 years and she still felt her heart squeeze in ache. Her girly admiration of him was still strong apparently and she hated every second of it. She had to wonder though why his face was covered up with that mask and why he wore his headband over his eye. Kakashi had always been mysterious.
She saw him look back in her direction and she thought they had crossed each other in a stare but he was too far to really see her. That’s when she realized that he had figured out who Sasuke was with. That man was too smart for his own good.
“You.” She heard Yasu spit out the venomous threat. She swallowed and bounced away.
‘Oh shit!’ she thought and ran for dear life to the safety of the hidden village.
* * *
Naruto stared at Hinata in surprise. They had promised each other to not hold back while they re-synced and he was almost shocked. She was using chakra moves he had never even imagined she would implement in the Shina-To-Be. Her lilac eyes almost glowed in the dusk.
“That one hurt” he said, wiping sweat off his brow and she smiled faintly.
“Liar. You’re used to much worse than that.” She did seem a little worried.
“True, but your new moves are crazy awesome. Is that what you and Neji have been working on?” He was really impressed. She nodded and punced towards him again, her hands moving swiftly and with deadly accuracy on his points. He could feel them shutting down and winced as he pushed them open again. He knocked her attacks away with his own improved skills, pushing intention slightly on her to throw her off. It was working.
She grunted as she tried to push away the intent. She was used to the feeling of his chakra pushing in his forms but this time it was so different. It was very focused and refined. He had grasped Intention finally with Lee’s help.
“I need to learn how to ignore your intent again.” she spoke as she managed to sneak in another Jyuuken hit, he had told her to use chakra in the hits to push them into resync’ing their formations. She hated the grunts he let out as he pushed the points open.
“My points are getting harder to open, I need to work on that some more” he smiled sheepishly, trying to reassure her. She could feel his intent to break through her defenses and she responded with a quick blinding spin as she pushed her chakra away from her body, expanding it, pushing against Naruto’s chakra. It knocked him square on his butt and he yelped in surprise, not expecting her to do that.
She stopped her sudden spin and stared at him in shock. He propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at her.
“I see Neji taught you that protection move.” Naruto laughed as she stuttered out an apology, mortified she had managed to knock him down like that.
“It’s fine Hinata! I’m not made out of sugar!” he got up and brushed the dust off his pants. “I wasn’t expecting that, is all.” She bowed in apology and he rolled his eyes.
“Stop that.” He pulled her into a fierce hug and kissed her lips. “You’re so awesome.” He smiled at her and she couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride in her accomplishment.
“I did it out of habit from my training with Neji.” She looked at him with worry but he grinned even deeper.
“Wow so you’re really learning a lot about your family’s fighting style.” He seemed genuinely interested and amazed. She nodded and a blush crept up on her cheeks against her will.
“You improved too Naruto, I’m having trouble getting past your intention projection and your taijutsu is so much faster than before. I fear I am falling a little behind in that aspect.” He snorted and waved her off.
“That’s crap. You’ll catch up just fine Hinata, you’re already improving your speed against me. You’re hitting me more often if you haven’t noticed.” She looked down, a little ashamed she had hit him so often and so harshly. He laughed at her reaction.
“Just think Hina-chan, it only took a week for us to grow and improve like this. We’re going to wipe the arena with those wannabes!”
She laughed as he shook a fist up in the air, challenging future unknowns as she tiptoed up to his lips and kissed his grin before she pushed him off playfully and returned to their training.
Naruto was a little stunned by her small kiss, she didn’t usually initiate the affection. Their sync was still a bit off but with this plan he thought they would be ready to go through the formations again tomorrow.
The plan was simple really. Spar each other with no restraints until they could read each other’s moves like before. Hinata had objected at first but this was the only way to learn each other’s bodies again. He watched as his girlfriend positioned herself in a mixed Jyuuken and Shina-To-Be battle form and he grinned. He dropped the weights in his arms and saw her head drop down a moment.
“Again Hinata, don’t hold back.”
The kunoichi burst towards him in a flurry of movements and Naruto was finally starting to follow the flow of her movements, adjusted to her newfound agility and her increased chakra attacks. He smiled as he could feel the sync returning. They could do this, they had to or everything they had built together was going to fall apart and he couldn’t allow that to happen.
* * *
RR Please! I read every single e-mail and review! They encourage me to write and better my writing.