A/N: Soooo, I've been wanting to post this story for a long time and the first chapter will most likely definitely need some revision . -Cough cough-, but I felt that if I didn't post this story now I'd never do it. The second chapter will definitely be better -Thumps up-, however, grammar is not really my strong suit (actually, it's atrocious.) so please don't be too hard ^.^'''''
Anyway, don't own Naruto. I don't own nada Q.Q, just a simple girl writing simple stories.
Summary: Four years have passed since the last time anyone has seen Naruto and the small team he took out on a mission, the last place he was spotted has a large crater in the middle of the forest, with no other signs of a battle or struggle. While everyone has slowly started to move on with their lives without the loud blond one blue haired kunoichi can't move on and in the midst of her struggles a strange small fox appears.
Fox
Hinata carefully landed on a tree branch before jumping to the next one quickly. She glanced at the dark grey sky frowning up at it as she got the sense it was going to rain soon. She looked straight ahead and went up a speed level wanting to make it before the downpour hit. She glanced behind her at the small group of young ninja's following behind her and felt a little pang of guilt shoot through her heart at the lies she told them and the guards at the leaf village to allow them to leave.
'Stamina and endurance training.' She told them all. 'All the while having a taste of what life is like travelling long miles and sleeping outside when you're on long missions.' After the Fourth Shinobi World War nations were brought together in harmonious peace. There were hardly any reasons for ninjas other than just being cautious in case something stronger than Kaguya appeared, and after the disappearance of a certain blond villages everywhere weren't too comfortable living without ninjas. The only good thing is there was no reason to be wary amongst each other, the five great nations found peace with each other and felt the need to hold that peace for generations and generations to come.
Hinata stopped abruptly on a tree branch as she thought about how peaceful things have been since the Great Shinobi War ended and whenever she thought about the peace between nations she couldn't help but think about the person who helped every nation come together.
'Naruto.'
She thought sadly about the blond haired ninja. After the great war Naruto took a small band of ninjas to talk to a smaller secluded village whose always been disregarded even before the war. His goal was to bring together as many villages as he could together, and to leave no one behind. After his return from the small village, however, there was a white blinding light as the few witnesses say far and deep within the forest. When the few ninjas they could spear went to investigate the blinding light all they found was a 50 feet deep and wide crater and one leaf village headband found inside.
For a two and a half years, it seemed like everyone was searching for answers, not sleeping until the man who brought them all together was found. No matter how hard everyone tried they couldn't find any answers or clues and and than slowly people just started to move on with their lives. Unable to continuously spare the resources to continue what now call a futile search, when the constant exhaustion of resources and ninjas were beginning to wear the peace down. At the first sign of breaking all what people worked so hard to accomplish they decided to 'move on with their lives.' But what Hinata saw was giving up.
Hinata's sad thoughts turned to frustration at everyone's willingness to give up on someone who never gave up on any of them and her frustrations turned into anger as she thought about how many people were now trying to convince her to move on with her live as well. Even the thought of not finding an answer to Naruto's disappearance made her sick to her stomach, so she never gave up. Ritually coming to the last spot Naruto was spotted at least four times a week.
Few called it a small obsession and many worried for her, finding different ways of talking to her or trying to give her tiny distractions. The newest was giving her a new job into training close to graduating academy students. When she heard that her father personally went to the Hokage's office to assign her a job to get her mind off this insane dream, she was angry but could not deny the wishes of not only her father head of their clan, but also the Hokage. That wasn't the only reason she couldn't deny them however, they threatened to restrict her ability to leave the village and go check the crater if she didn't take new missions or training position, so in her opinion she had no choice.
"Hinata-sensei, w-w-why d-did you s-s-stop so suddenly." Orumi one of her students asked her out of breath. Causing another pang of guilt to shoot through Hinata's heart as she realized she was probably pushing them too hard. Hinata looked at her student she was a girl no older then twelve most likely. She had short light blond hair and dark green eyes, her skin was as pale as snow and she reminded Hinata of herself when she was younger. Even without being out of breath she was quite known for stuttering, and Hinata couldn't help by sympathize with her.
"No, reason." Hinata said in a low tone, looking in front of her to determine how far away they were from the crater. When she spotted a familiar tree that told her if she was on her own she probably could have sprinted there and beat it before the downpour, however, with students under her responsibility she knew she had to think of their well fair and thought of the closet village instead. The next student arrived not long after Orumi and crouched on the branch carefully, obviously trying to find his breath.
"Are we…" Haru gasped out trying to speak and breath in air at the same time, but failing miserably.
"There yet." Hinata's third and final student Sakumi finished for her comrade as she arrived on the lower branch. She stood up straight and had her arms crossed over her chest. She wasn't breathing as hard as the others, but her deep red cheeks and the sweat dripping from her forehead determined her status to Hinata.
"No, but we are going to set up camp here." Hinata said as she looked towards the ground. The other kids looked down at the ground and you could almost see relief in their eyes as they stared at it, they haven't touched the ground since they left the village hours ago. Hinata again couldn't help but feel yet another pang of guilt hit her heart as she realized how hard she's been pushing them without any breaks. Even though she would slow down her pace immensely she could tell it was still to much for them.
"Finally! I'm starving!" Haru shouted out in excitement and was the first to plunge down towards the ground. The rest of the students followed him, but Hinata stayed on the branch and looked up at the sky wondering if they could reach a nearby village to take shelter from the rain or set up their rainproof tents. When Hinata finally reached the ground she found Haru already rampaging through his backpack for food. Hinata gave a small smile, Haru sometimes reminded her of Kiba or sometimes Naruto when he would binge on ramen.
"Haru, think about things deeply before you go and do them." Sakumi sighed out shaking her head. Haru looked up at her an annoyed face already plastered on his face.
"What do you mean? I am thinking I'm starving so I'm going to solve that problem with food." Haru replied quickly narrowing his eyes at Sakumi. Hinata almost laughed at the familiar start of a bicker about to ensue.
"No, you idiot haven't you noticed the sky? Or better yet haven't you noticed Hinata-Sensei glancing up at it every now than." Sakumi replied as she began to narrow her eyes at Haru. Haru looked up at the sky trying to find something wrong with it when he let out a gasp.
"I didn't even notice it was gettin' darker." He answered still looking up at the sky earning another sigh from Sakumi.
"D-do you want u-us to set u-up camp? Hinata-sensei?" Orumi asked her shyly.
"There's a small village not too far from here. We could make a fast pace towards there and shield ourselves from the rain, but we've been going at a fast pace all day so we might as well just set up camp here and hope the rain isn't too bad." Hinata told him and glanced up at the sky. It was getting darker by the minute but Hinata's gut feeling told her if they pushed it they could make it to the village on time.
Haru stood up immediately and began re-packing his things back in his bag. "Well, let's go I don't want the reason you're not taking us to that village is because ya think we're too tired to go. I dunno about Sakumi but I can tell you I can run for hours!" He exclaimed and threw his backpack over his shoulder running in place ready to take off.
Sakumi rolled her eyes at him but nodded towards Hinata signaling she was up for some more traveling. When Hinata glanced at Orumi She shyly looked at the ground but looked up to give Hinata a smile.
"W-we've rest enough e-even if it was short. W-we can do this." Orumi replied. Hinata smiled proudly at her team and for a second she forgot about her selfish mission and thoughts about the past, even though youths weren't going through the same problem or had as many problems as her generation did, they still grew up like they did, unable to back down from a problem no matter how small or stupid it seemed. Hinata gave them all a nodded and started a fast pace to the village determined to get her team there before the downpour.
When they arrived at the village guards let them in quickly after asking some general mandatory questions. Soon after they stepped foot inside the village the rain hit and it hit hard, but luckily Orumi asked the directions to the nearest inn and they were able to make it before they got extremely soaking wet. When they arrived Hinata asked for a room, and again luckily there was one big room left. When they got up to their room Sakumi and Haru immediately started arguing over who gets the bigger bed with Orumi trying to end their bickering.
"Don't argue over who gets the bigger bed." Hinata started out as she laid her backpack on the floor.
"Two people will get to sleep on it, while one person can get the smaller bed and one more person gets the couch." Hinata finished as she looked around the room, by then Haru and Sakumi began arguing about who get to sleep on the smaller bed solo.
In the end Hinata and Orumi shared the bigger bed while Sakumi got the smaller bed and Haru got the couch. Orumi offered that Haru could take her spot in the bigger bed and she could take the spot on the couch, but Sakumi argued that Haru would act like a pervert and try to touch Hinata while they all slept. To which Orumi immediately blushed furiously at while Haru spent the whole night trying to convince Orumi he wasn't a pervert, which only gained him silence and Orumi's reddening face.
After everyone ate Hinata's three students quickly fell asleep due to exhaustion and Hinata spent a few hours awake staring up at the ceiling. When she glanced at the clock it was already 4am and last she could remember she hadn't had a decent sleep in a few days. Always having a recurring nightmare about hearing Naruto shout her name but unable to find him in a crowd of people who would only all disappear, while Naruto's calls would get weaker and weaker until she could no longer hear it. When she would run around hysterically in the dark she would only find a trail of blood which would then lead her to his familiar headband. Hinata would cry for what seemed like forever hugging his headband close to her chest and then she would wake up unable to control her sobbing until her younger sister would come in and sleep beside her not saying a word.
Once Hinata asked her younger sister why she never asked about her dreams or why she was crying, but she would only reply she her heard scream Naruto's name repeatedly from her room and didn't need to know what happened in the dream to tell it was hurtful or scary. She could tell by her screams and cries it wasn't a very happy dream. After that explanation Hinata and her just never talked about it and no one else in the house would ask her about it. Hinata could guess at least her father could hear her cries it was those days her father would be delicate and gentle towards her as if she were glass.
Hinata sat up slowly on her bed not wanting to fall asleep here and risk the chance of a nightmare with her students and strangers around. Instead she just opted to take a walk outside, Hinata slowly slipped out of the bed careful not to wake a sleeping Orumi and crept over Haru whose body was half on and half off the couch snoring loudly with his blanket tangled around his body. When Hinata got to the door she glanced back at the students under her care before slowly slipping out.
Even though the heavy rained stopped two hours ago there was still a bit of drizzle going outside and Hinata forgot not only her coat but her shoes as well. All she wore was an over-sized grey sweater and some loose blue jeans that stopped just before her knees. Once Hinata stepped outside she glanced around the village and remembered this was the last place Naruto was seen, and she couldn't prevent the sadness from bubbling up inside of that point Hinata didn't care the village was slightly far from the crater and she didn't care if she went out naked to get to it. Before she could think about anything she quickly leapt and in an extremely fast pace went off to her destination.
When Hinata finally saw the crater in sight her legs gave out in exhaustion and she could feel herself tumble to the ground. Luckily, she was able to roll forward tucking her legs in while her arms shot out slightly to cushion the fall. She was able to tumble far before she laid on her back and stared up at the dark blue sky. There was still some drizzle falling down on her face but she laid there gasping for air. Hinata reached in her jean pocket to pull out a familiar object when she lifted it and stretched it out in front of her she was staring at Naruto's old and tattered headband. She stared at it long and hard like she always did and was glad she was alone, she couldn't help the tears that streamed down her face.
Hinata turned to her side and curled up into a ball hugging his headband tightly to her chest. Whenever she came her alone she couldn't help but lay by the crater and cry. It seemed like all the feelings of what she first felt when she got the news of Naruto's disappearance washed over her and she couldn't help but let cries that would soon turn into sobs consume her.
Even when the drizzle seemed to get a bit stronger and turn into a still light but strong rain, she laid unmoving from her position and only hugged the headband closer for comfort. Hinata didn't know how long she'd been laying there but she knew she had to leave soon to be in bed before her team woke up. Judging by how hard and fast they fell asleep Hinata would guess it'd be awhile before they woke up, but she could never be too careful. After a bit more of sobbing which soon turned back into cries and then to just small hiccups. Hinata sat up on her knees and rubbed her eyes to forcefully to stop them from leaking. When tears finally stopped Hinata stood up on her weak legs and began her trip back to the village, but before she could take a second step she noticed a small red fox staring up at her.