Alright, here we have the beginning to a nice NarutoxHinata story this is part one of chapter one and, truthfully, I have no idea how long this is going to be. I have much planned before I get to the climax of the story.
Warning: There will be blood and plenty of it. As well as presentation of masochistic tendencies and thoughts of suicide. And there will be suggestions of sex if not presentations of such.
It should be obvious by the fact that this story is on that I do not own Naruto or any character created by Masashi Kishimoto. Only this story and the original characters (few in number hopefully) are mine.
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Naruto stood in the fiery ruins of Konoha. Familiar shops and buildings were in varying states of destruction, the rubble being eaten away by the flames that burned strongly all around. All around him lay the bodies of the villagers and shinobi. The Konoha Dozen lay closest to him out of all of the bodies though he could spot the remains of some of his precious people amongst them. Kakashi, Iruka, Tsunade, Jiraiya; every name was a knell of pain to the young shinobi and he felt despair catch hold of him with its icy claws.
He studied the faces of the Konoha Dozen and his pain continued to mount as though he should die right then and there; their faces were caricatures of agony. What was going on? Who or what had done this? He looked from one lost friend to the next silently mouthing their names hoping against hope that what he saw wasn't real that they would all wake up as though they were pulling a prank on him. His teammates Sakura and Sasuke were nearby their faces close together, but they only showed agony, no peace would find them in the next life. At his feet lay Hinata, a huge gash across her chest opening her organs to the air. The strength in Naruto's legs fled him and he crumbled to his knees and took hold of Hinata, crushing her to him, trying to deny what he saw.
His eyes were closed tightly, trying to stop the tears that flowed despite his efforts. It was all gone, all that he strove to protect all that he loved had been torn from him and he was left to wallow in his misery. He suddenly heard a deep rumbling laughter and looked up to see a Kyuubi about the size of Akamaru sitting in the street amongst the bodies of the villagers. It laughed at its pitiful container, an evil smile upon its face as it enjoyed tormenting him.
The Kyuubi was free? How? "Why am I still alive?" He asked the fox demon. The demon's twisted smile grew, "Because I wanted you to feel the worst agony possible. I wanted to show you how wonderful death can be. I wanted to make sure you knew that you were completely alone in this world before you as a human died, and became a demon like me"
Naruto looked down to Hinata again, but instead of the hands he was expected to be using to hold her, he saw furred hands with wicked looking claws that were dripping with blood; blood that he instinctively knew was Hinata's. Unable to cope with the realization, Naruto let out a scream of deepest torment and sorrow, and all faded to black.
Naruto hit the snooze on his alarm clock and grumbled to himself, seeing the time, 5:00am. He reflexively grabbed his stomach; he had not gotten enough sleep and he knew why, it was the nightmares he had nearly every night. Feeling the sharp, fiery pain he had come to associate with waking in the past couple of months, he concentrated on suppressing an all too familiar chakra, as he threw off the covers and got out of bed. Heading to the bathroom he relieved himself and washed his hands before brushing his teeth. Then, turning on his shower faucet he dipped his head beneath the stream to get rid of his bed hair, though there really was no point to the act. The cold water invigorated him, and he was wide awake by the time he had dried off with a towel. He returned to his bedroom and put his under armor on over his undershirt and boxers, then dressed in his recognizable orange and black and placed his forehead protector in its customary spot.
Going into the kitchen he got some water boiling and added it to a cup of instant ramen, which he then consumed with gusto on one of his couches. Finishing that with a satisfied sigh, he sat there, empty cup in hand and stared at the ceiling not wanting this day of all days to begin. October 10th, his birthday, and yet he was far from happy. It was not that he wasn't going to celebrate it with anyone, quite the contrary he was having all his friends over this evening for a party. It was what this day marked, what would happen before midnight, that caused him so much grief.
With a soft grunt, he stood up and went to put the ramen cup in the trash, then looked around his apartment. It was clean, due to the efforts of himself and Hinata the day before, in preparation for the coming celebration though one could say that it was spotless as he didn't let trash or dirty clothes pile up like he used to. All they had done was dust make sure all the dishes were clean as well as the counter tops in the kitchen as well as the bathroom. There were two comfortable couches flanking a coffee table along with several other chairs so that all his friends could sit down, as his apartment was apparently 'the' place to hang in Konoha, at least as far as the Dozen were concerned. They would often come over after reporting to the Hokage after a mission, and kick back and relax.
He had often wondered why they did not go home first instead of helping themselves to the food in his fridge. He didn't mind all that much since being with his friends was always a welcome thing. He had had to put a little sign on his door that read 'in' and 'out', so that they would not have to bother knocking and waiting for a reply. They would all be here tonight; he had told Tsunade about his party plans and had made sure that none would be sent off on missions. It was very important for them to be there this night.
Walking to the door he put his hand on the knob and paused, considering what he was about to do. He hung his head and wondered if he was in his right mind, then laughed bitterly at himself. Having hallucinations from lack of sleep had nearly gotten some of his friends hurt. Would that not indicate being out of one's mind? He frowned at the floor. He was doing this to protect his friends; that was most important to him. Lifting his head he put on a determined face, knowing that what he intended to do was best for all, and stepped outside closing the door behind him. 'So it begins'
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Sasuke arrived at training area three and found Naruto already there seated atop one of the three logs stuck in the ground and watching the rising sun. "Happy birthday, Naruto. I see you are here earlier than me for a change," Sasuke said as he approached his friend. "Still having a rough time sleeping?" Naruto stood up and jumped down from his log, a slight frown on his face. "Nah, just excited about today," He said grasping Sasuke's forearm in greeting, which Sasuke returned with a small frown of his own. "You sure don't look it." Sasuke said as he moved off to stretch before their training. "Well let's just say that I was too excited about today." Naruto said, grinning to cover up his slip, as he too stretched to warm up.
Sasuke looked away. 'Liar. Something has been bothering you for months now, but you won't talk to anyone about it.' Finishing his warm ups he stood and waited for Naruto to finish, which he did shortly and stood and turned towards Sasuke with a small grin on his face in anticipation of their bout. Sasuke grinned too; this was what he looked forward to everyday, a chance to fight against what was reputably, the strongest jounin alive. Naruto had taken some lessons from Lee and used weights on his body constantly in order to be always working out. Thus, he had increased his speed to unimaginable levels. He had heard whispers from the villagers along the lines of 'the Yellow Flash', but he thought that was just because his speed was comparable. Though others could see it, he just didn't see how he looked at all like the Fourth, maybe it was the hair.
Through constant training he had also achieved chakra control comparable to that of a Medic Nin and had expanded his repertoire of jutsu. He learned fire based jutsus from Sasuke after the dissolution of Akatsuki which happened to include the death of all its members. Asking Kakashi for some help in the way of more jutsus he added water and earth based jutsus for practical reasons. It would be good to have some way to counter element based ninjutsu. He had also perfected his Futon Rasenshuriken to the point where he could throw the attack at his target, therefore bypassing the dangerous side effects. Using that on a friend would just be foolish though, even if he missed it still caused a lot of damage to the immediate area, so it was never used during these training bouts.
Taking a leaf from Temari's book he now carried a small folding metal fan, it could be used in hand to hand combat and often was with its sharpened outer edge. Since it was made from chakra metal he could also use it to send invisible blades of wind based chakra out to slice his opponents to ribbons. It was an unconventional weapon for a man, but Naruto was anything but conventional; seeming innocuous enough, he would catch his opponents off guard by switching from hand-to-hand to ninjutsu in the blink of an eye and they often didn't have time to react before being cut down. This method was particularly devastating when used in combination with Kage Bunshin, as the attacks would surround the target leaving no room for escape, and the enemy would literally fall to pieces.
Since he had no aptitude for genjutsu, he had been concentrating on taijutsu by spending a lot of time training with Lee; and ninjutsu which, he either learned from Kakashi or the library. While he could detect and dispel genjutsu, performing it just did not interest him so he pretty much ignored it.
Standing about twenty feet from each other they shook out the last kinks from the night and smiled at each other, watching and waiting for the other's move. A few moments passed without incident but suddenly the two ninja disappeared. Running east they flew through the tree tops in a race with no clear finish line now only a few feet from each other dodging branches and newly awoken birds alike. Unexpectedly Sasuke struck out at Naruto with his Kusanagi, which was subsequently blocked by the sudden appearance of a kunai in Naruto's hand. Sasuke began to channel lightning chakra through the blade, but Naruto broke contact to prevent himself from falling prey to one of Sasuke's favorite tricks, which would make his muscles seize up from the electric current.
Still running they came upon a clearing with a stream running through the middle and Naruto jumped out towards the stream while Sasuke jumped high into the sky and began making seals, finally ending by spraying several fireballs all around Naruto in an attempt to get him to go to a planned spot. Naruto went precisely where Sasuke had wanted him as he dodged the flaming missiles, and found himself confronted by the Grand Fireball Technique, which Sasuke had released immediately after finishing his last jutsu. Naruto smiled as he stopped in front of the stream and began quickly forming seals to a ninjutsu of his own. Finishing he brought water from the stream behind him to perform Suiton Water Encampment Wall, which created a wall of water all around him. 'Thanks Kakashi.' He thought as the attack dissipated on the barrier of water.
Letting the water fall to the ground he felt a presence behind him and immediately ducked under a roundhouse kick from Sasuke, which had been aimed at his head. He swung his left foot behind him to catch the one leg Sasuke still had on the ground, but his friend sprang away in a back flip across the surface of the stream before he could connect. Using the time while Sasuke was distracted by his flips, he created a few shadow clones which he transformed into shuriken and, together with a few real ones, he threw them at Sasuke as he came to rest thirty feet away. Sasuke saw the attack coming and brought his Kusanagi to bear and deflected all the missiles which went up in small arcs all around him. Prepared to go on the offensive again he heard several popping sounds and found himself surrounded by clones who attempted to strike at him with kunai.
Sasuke had a difficult time putting up a defense against the four clones, which seemed to work in perfect harmony, but he eventually caught one in the chest with his blade and then the others followed as the odds evened. Sasuke found that he was alone in the clearing and he looked all around with his sharingan and listened for the presence of his opponent. Naruto was nowhere to be found though, and he wondered if he was having a prank pulled on him by his friend, who might now be heading back to the village for an after training meal. Suddenly there was a crumbling at his feet and a hand grabbed his ankle and proceeded to pull him into the ground. 'Not again!' Sasuke thought as the earth seemed to swallow him up. Soon Sasuke was only a head above the ground as Naruto crouched in front of him and flicked him in the nose and put up the "V" for victory sign in his face with a huge grin on his whiskered face.
"That was fun." Naruto said his usual smiling self. He could forget about his problems in the excitement of training and it was always fun to pit his wits against a worthy foe. Sasuke turned his head away in a huff and said, "I let you win, it's your birthday after all." Naruto cocked an eyebrow at his buried friend and smiled mischievously, "Sure you did." Sasuke snorted, "If I had used my sharingan to its full potential I would have won, but I don't want to kill you." Then the young men heard a familiar feminine voice call out their names and they turned to its source.
"Sasuke, Naruto! There you are. I hope you two haven't injured each other again. I'm getting rather tired of patching you two back together," Sakura said as she ran up to them, pink hair bouncing from the motion. "Hey Sakura-chan, we were just finishing and the only thing damaged is someone's pride." Naruto said as he pulled Sasuke from his earthen imprisonment. Sasuke dusted his clothes off and turned to Sakura. "What brings you out here?" He asked the kunoichi. "I was making sure that you didn't hurt each other and end up spending Naruto's birthday in the hospital, not after all the planning you put into it," She said looking pointedly at Naruto, "Why is it you've put so much effort into this? It's only your nineteenth birthday; it's not like you can drink yet, you still have one more year to go." (1)
Naruto scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But I finally managed to get everyone to come to the party at once and that is important to me." Sakura eyes softened in understanding, and then she started as she remembered something. She walked up to a surprised Naruto and gave him a hug. "Happy Birthday, Naruto!" Sasuke's eye twitched as Naruto hugged her back and Naruto noticed. Sticking his tongue out at his friend, he grinned like a very pleased fox, but it was just an act to get under Sasuke's skin; his crush on Sakura had long since passed.
Suddenly Sasuke smirked, "I don't think Hinata would appreciate you hanging all over another girl, Naruto." Naruto literally hopped back from a startled Sakura, but then furrowed his brows as he thought about the situation. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Sakura is a friend, and Hinata's not the jealous type." Sakura rolled her eyes at the two men. "Seriously Sasuke, Naruto's loyalty is second only to Akamaru's, you being here is evidence of that"
Naruto then turned and looked at Sasuke and spread his arms out to the side. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the blond and asked. "What do you want?" Naruto stuck out his lower lip. "What, no birthday hug for me Sasuke teme?" Sasuke had a vein throbbing in his forehead. "Not on your life, dobe." Naruto laughed raucously and Sakura, having watched the incident, decided to intervene. "Alright, enough of your foolishness, Naruto," She then smiled warmly at them. "Well, you appear to be done with your daily torture session. Let's head back into town, I'm sure you have some things you need to get done before the party"
"Not really, I mean I have until seven tonight, and it's only just now seven in the morning." Naruto said as they started to walk back to Konoha, Sasuke and Sakura to either side. Sakura looked at him while they continued to walk. "You're not going to wait till the last minute like always are you?" She asked, annoyed. "Of course not. It's just that there isn't much I have to do. I'm not going to decorate, and all I have to do is go to the market to get the snacks so it's not like I couldn't be ready in thirty minutes. I've been planning this for months and the CD I mixed is already in the stereo." (2) He replied to deflect her accusation. "Yeah, but you'll wait till the last minute to go get the snacks, won't you?" Sasuke said keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.
Naruto feigned injury. "Your doubt wounds me, Sasuke. How can you say that about your best friend?" Sasuke snorted derisively, "Because, I know you, dobe." Naruto grinned at his best friend. "I suppose you have a point." Naruto then threw his right arm around the Uchiha's neck and whispered conspiratorially to him. "You need to ask Sakura out." "What?" Sasuke hissed back. "Whether you can tell or not, she still likes you, and if you get jealous if I hug her, how would you feel if some other guy did?" Naruto replied. "You're giving me dating advice?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "The guy who didn't know Hinata had liked him ever since our days at the academy until a year ago"
"Hey at least I've had a girlfriend." Naruto shot back, that silenced Sasuke. "Listen, just because she doesn't hang all over you like she used to, doesn't mean that she no longer likes you, it means she has matured. Don't let the opportunity pass you by, teme." Naruto then released his friend from the hold, since he noticed Sakura was eyeing them suspiciously. Then he looked to his watch. "Oh would you look at the time? I need to get going, I have some errands to run." Naruto started to jog ahead of his friends. "You're actually going to go do your errands? Now?" Sakura called after him. "YUP!" He called back. "Sasuke, remember what I told you." He then disappeared from sight as he kicked it into high gear.
Sakura turned to Sasuke with a suspicious glance. "What was it he told you?" Sasuke, kept his cool and mentally cursed Naruto. "I'll tell you later. How about we go get some breakfast?" He suggested, deciding that, even if Naruto was a fool, he was right. Sakura was surprised at the invitation, Sasuke still generally kept to himself. Sakura agreed and the pair continued to walk at a calmer pace towards Konoha and a breakfast date.
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Naruto laughed silently as he came into the village, enjoying the thought of what his little stunt would do to Sasuke. 'He'd better listen to me for a change or he'll miss his chance.' Naruto thought as his laughter subsided. The regular villagers of Konoha were finally waking up and going about their usual business, the ninjas generally were up at or before the crack of dawn, most took the time to get some training or paper work done. Kids played in the streets, but as he passed most of them stopped and stared at Naruto almost as if in awe of him, and their parents smiled at him or waved. Naruto enjoyed the fact that he was finally acknowledged by the village, but the look of awe in some of those kids' faces made him uncomfortable. He didn't want to be worshiped for Pete's sake, he kind of just felt like playing it cool. Or rather he didn't cry out for attention any longer, because he didn't need to, he just tried to keep a cool head over it, to not let it inflate his ego. He smiled inwardly; Hinata had much to do with that, she would praise him, but also remind him of his faults. She loved him, all of him, from his positive traits to his bad ones, and it was her acceptance of all he was, that made him love her.
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A year ago, to the day, before a training session that he and Hinata were having together at her request she had told him she liked him. He was surprised that she did, but leapt for joy mentally, because he had been developing feelings for her. They had spent a lot of time together on missions and Naruto found that he liked her company so he went out of his way to spend a good amount of time hanging out or training together.
Through this interaction he caught on to the many good traits Hinata displayed like kindness, and politeness, and determination, which he found out later, was due to his influence. He had also come to appreciate her quiet beauty, the way her smile lit up a room, the way her sable hair fell down over delicate shoulders, and the way her soft pale skin felt whenever he got the chance to hold her hand. Not to mention she had curves in all the right places. He had scolded himself for thinking that at the time, but then decided the blame lay at Jiraiya's feet, not his own.
He had been ruminating on the subject for some time, and Hinata's expectant face slowly fell, as he didn't respond immediately. Tears began forming in her eyes and she closed them in an attempt to force them back. Naruto had noticed her agitation and finally said that he liked her too. She opened her eyes in shock as though she didn't believe what she was hearing, so he decided to prove it by hugging her. What happened next didn't really surprise him; she fainted, out like a light, and he had to hold her to him to prevent her from ending up on the ground. Holding her close he didn't know what to do so he just sort of dragged/carried her over to the trunk of the elm they were under and he leaned up against it letting her head rest on his chest. He just laid there watching her peaceful face for a few minutes before he fell asleep himself.
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Naruto stepped out of memory lane as soon as he passed the academy and had to remind himself that he had much to do before the end of the day, and couldn't waste time daydreaming. He went inside the academy to look for Iruka, he had stopped using the sensei bit after he became a jounin, but he still looked on the older man like a father and used the sensei honorific mentally. Naruto poked his head into an office to find Iruka going over a stack of test papers. "Good morning, Iruka." Iruka sighed. 'What ever happened to sensei?' "Good morning, Naruto." "Aw, there's no need to be like that, I just came by to tell you that you're treating me to Ichiraku ramen at lunch." Iruka leaned back into his chair and rolled his eyes, "I suppose that it's my birthday present to you?" Naruto smiled, "Yup"
"How come I'm not invited to the party?" Iruka asked. "Well it would be a little weird to have adult supervision at our ages. Seriously," Naruto replied truthfully. "So it would seem." Iruka stated feeling older by the second. "Well, I'll see you at noon. Don't be late. Oh, and Hinata will probably be with us." Naruto said as he went through the door. "Oh, so the rumors are true?" Iruka called at his retreating back. Naruto suddenly appeared in front of Iruka as though teleporting there. "What rumors"
"Oh, nothing," Iruka said noting the apprehension in his former student's face, "Just that you and Hinata have been going out for what, a year now?" "That's right, pretty easy to remember because she told me she liked me on my eighteenth birthday. But how do you know?" Naruto asked a slight edge to his voice. "Naruto, this is a ninja village, unless it is kekkei genkai or class S level secrets, it's going to get out." Iruka reasoned. Naruto's face fell, "If that's true, how come I'm not dead yet?" Iruka looked at the blond. "You mean: how come Hiashi hasn't killed you yet?" Naruto nodded meekly. "He probably has come to accept your strength and devotion like the rest of the village"
"I'm not worried about his approval regarding my strength, but more along the lines of my breaking tradition and not asking him if I could first." Naruto whispered as though afraid the Hyuuga clan leader would pounce on him then and there. "Well considering that he broke tradition and began teaching Neji, maybe he doesn't see it as such a bad thing." Iruka said patting Naruto on the shoulder. "You think?" The blond shinobi asked. "It is quite possible." Naruto stood up and assumed a pensive pose. 'Well, even if he didn't approve it's not like it would matter. Not after tonight'
"Why the frown, Naruto," Iruka asked. Brought back to reality, Naruto painted a smile on his face. "Just thinking about the possibilities," He lied through his teeth. "I'll see you at noon then. I have other stuff I need to take care of before this evening." Without another word, Naruto disappeared through the door. Iruka watched as the door slowly closed itself and sighed, there was still a mountain of test papers to go through before noon. Leaning forward in his chair he began the arduous task of grading them all before the appointed time.
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As always reviews are appreciated. Flames are for fools to play with, and as such will be ignored completely. I may have to make the rating M for later chapters. But who knows.
