Seconds felt like minutes, minutes like hours, hours like days, days like weeks. Everything he could feel gave him no further information about his predicament than the pain it caused. He wasn't even certain how long it had been since they had put him in this godforsaken box. For what felt like months they had tortured him while forcing him to stay awake and keeping him alive on liquefied soldier pills that were poured through a tube up his nose.
He wasn't conscious when they had brought him in, but after he regained consciousness for the first time he was able to see his very limited surroundings. He was in what appeared to be a vertical metal coffin, bound by the shoulders, waist and thighs to the back wall of the box so that he couldn't struggle. His elbows and knees were constantly being crushed in barbed vices so that even when they loosened them slightly to allow his regeneration to work, the barbs would rip and shred his muscle tissue while still binding him in place. A high voltage electrical current would emit at random intervals through his bindings between every six seconds and six minutes to ensure he never slept. The front of the coffin was less than four inches from his face and had a blisteringly bright light in front of his eyes. He also knew that there were small holes throughout the structure and that there was a speaker somewhere since sometimes he would be poked and prodded with hot pokers or electrodes while being asked questions he didn't even understand. And to top everything off, something in the construction of the box was sucking away his chakra so that it could never flare, as well he believed, his chakra was being used to power to box itself.
Since the moment he woke up that day, this box and the pain and suffering that it seemed to represent had been his life, he never doubted the choice he made, but the consequences were too severe. He shuddered to think what would have happened if any of the girls had been taken instead of himself, none of them would have made it this far and likely much worse would have happened. When they asked him questions he had answered as much as he could, but most of the things they kept asking him had nothing to do with him or his missions, When he couldn't answer their questions, they would post men to continuously alter the stress level on the vices.
He was losing it in his isolation, his blood shot eyes twitched back and forth, having completely lost any semblance of their previous self. All he could do to keep from snapping was rub his thumb over the ring on his left index finger. Why?! Why the hell... I just wanted to help them, I just wanted to protect them!
******************************************** 3 WEEKS EARLIER********************************************
"So Sakura-chan, all we gotta do is find those guys, beat them up and head back to Konoha right?" The blonde stated more than asked with a grin plastered on his face from ear to ear.
She sighed, rubbing her eyes in exasperation and taking the time to brush a lock of pink hair from her eyes before answering him for the seventh time,. "No Naruto, and you know that already. This is a direct request from the Kazekage to Konoha. Several extremist shinobi from the River country kidnapped two of the Sands best poison makers. We need to get them back as soon as possible but have to watch out since they'll probably have forced the two of them so supply them with some of the Sand's most potent poisons."
"It's okay, we have you after all." He said bluntly, earning him a blush and a smack behind the head from his lightly embarrassed teammate.
"I may be able to neutralize their poisons, but if you run ahead like you usually do, I might not be able to get to you in time. Now, I don't want to hear you complain anymore, let's just wait for the others to get here and then we'll start our preparations."
She watched as Naruto huffed and walked off near the entrance of the cave where the six of them would be making camp tonight. He'd changed a lot since Jiraya had been killed two years back, everyone had... and so had the world. With the death of more than half their members and the major damage done by Jiraya in his final battle, the Akatsuki's plans had been delayed several more years. Additionally, his battle sparked the beginning of the third great shinobi war and it was still going strong. Now they were on a mission in enemy territory, in order to kill missing nins from an allied country, and to top it all off two among them had blood limits making them even bigger targets.
She shook the morbid topic from her thoughts and looked up again to see him silhouetted by the dying rays of the early autumn sun, "Naruto, striking a pose in the sunset will not make them come any faster, that would only work with Lee-sans team."
Caught off guard by the sudden crack, he burst out laughing, "Yeah, I can so see both of them jumping out of the sunset screaming 'POWER OF YOUTH!!!!' with Neji and Ten Ten grumbling behind."
Catching herself up in the roll of the joke, they laughed and passed ideas back and forth until they came to the mental image of both Lee and Gai bursting out of the ocean wearing green tutus.
Enjoying the time in each others company, they talked about the upcoming Chuunin exams and whether there would be any promising Genins this year. Naruto had still not taken the exams a second time, but Tsunade had removed the restrictions for his missions so that he could freely be given any level or type. This was great for him since he had decided that he did not need to gain the levels normally, he would simply move from Genin to Hokage when the time was right. The subject danced around while they willed away the hours, they had plenty of time to kill since the others weren't supposed to arrive until near midnight.
At half past eleven Naruto perked up, interrupting the current topic of vegetables being inferior to ramen, "They're finally here, thank god I was getting tired of waiting."
Confused, Sakura looked to the complicated sequence of seals inscribed on the back of her glove, "What are you talking about, no one's set off any of my perimeter seals?"
Naruto just grinned, "Please, I can feel that bastard coming a mile away!"
No sooner had Naruto finished speaking, that a red eye became visible at the cave mouth, "Of course! Peasants can always feel the presence of a king approaching. Besides, anyone can smell you from TWO miles away" Sasuke's taunting voice was heard loud and clear.
"Ha, I guess they would, wouldn't they? That soap I picked up from Ino's shop has a really strong smell." Sasuke and Sakura just sighed, deciding it was the better part of valor to not bother explaining to him that he had just been insulted, that was tantamount to soaking yourself in deer's blood then running in circles around several starving lions.
"Anyway, the others will be here in a few minutes, they're just setting their own traps before coming in." Sasuke said in a bored tone before dropping his pack in a corner then sitting down in front of the two of them.
They'd all changed in the two years since Naruto returned, but when Sasuke crawled back through the gates just under a year ago, he returned a scarred man. Neither of them knew what had happened to Sasuke during that missing year, the only people who did were Tsunade and Sasuke himself. What they did know however was that he returned blind in his right eye and that he had to take more than a dozen pills every day to keep himself alive. Apparently three years of extensive experimentation and drug usage had done almost irreversible damage to his body.
Sasuke had grown tall and sleek, but Orochimaru's experiments had left him with a sickly pale skin that he covered from sight as much as possible. His solid black ninja suit came up to just under his chin showing only his face while the suits only change in color was the small Uchiha insignias on the back of each hand. His hair had grown long and unkempt such that it fell all around his head, tracing his shoulders and he wore his headband over his right eye to cover the murky white and useless organ. Kakashi frequently taunted him about stealing his style which was usually responded to with a quick strike to the solar plexus.
Sakura, now the shortest of the three, had begun to take after her master in more of her mannerisms. She had turned 18 three months prior and there was hardly a day gone by where she hadn`t had at least a cup or two of sake, she never really got drunk, she had just grown to like the taste. As for her outward appearance, she could be compared unto a china doll; Slim, beautiful, slightly longer than shoulder length hair, well kept and with a very lithe and lady-like appearance. However the boys knew that one wrong move and that china doll becomes Satan with super strength, thankfully over time they had learned what lines they could cross and what lines they couldn`t. Sakura still wore the same kind of fitted red work suit that she had through her training, though now she had it set with around a dozen hidden pockets where she could freely store necessary components for some of her treatments and more complex jutsu.
Naruto, now almost a head taller than Sakura but still a little shorter than Sasuke, had physically changed very little. Other than a slightly more muscular physique and a bit of growth, he was still the same Naruto with his spiky hair, blue eyes and whiskers. Unlike his appearance, his wardrobe had changed somewhat, after Jiraya died, Tsunade had found a small box of mementos and various other things that the old sage had set aside for Naruto in the event of his death. One of these such items was a full length western style black duster with his spiral insignia emblazoned on the back, apparently he had had it custom made for Naruto a short while before his death. The duster was lined with a mesh of some kind of flexible metal that they had yet to identify, but this didn`t matter to Naruto, he wore the jacket all the time as a memento of his master... and it didn't hurt that most thrown weapons bounced off of it.
"So who did granny decide would be our group's replacement? It's irritating since Shino would have been really useful for this mission." Naruto inquired with a distinct note of curiosity in his voice.
"Here's a hint, she really likes knives... really likes them.", Sasuke teased with a taunting grin.
"Wicked, I'm sure she'll be useful for the mission... I haven't seen Ten Ten in ages though, hasn't she been off on a mission for the last two months?"
"Four actually." Came Ten Ten's sing song voice from behind them, "I barely had time to shower and greet my parents before the Godaime showed up and shoved me off again." There was a hint of bitterness to her voice but her smile was still genuine.
"Ten Ten!" Naruto hoped up onto his feet and rushed over to her where she quickly found herself swept up into a rather bone-crushing hug. After an uncomfortable moment for her, but rather entertaining moment for the other two onlookers, she was dropped back onto her feet. It was only now that Naruto really managed to get a good look at her, she looked odd, but he couldn't put his finger on it was. He ran his mind through a mental checklist as he looked her up and down for a moment.
"Hmm, let's see," He thought to himself, "Her usual white robes are dark green, but that may be due to the mission being in the forest. She has enough weapons hidden on her to take down a small army, plus she has her summoning scroll. Her hair is still in the usual two..." His mind did a halt as he realized that she seemed to be missing the parts for her signature hairstyle. Her hair was now brought together into a single braid going down her back to the middle of her shoulder blades.
Sasuke was amused as he saw the look of realization slowly glaze over Naruto's face. In fact it was quite similar to the way Hinata's face had looked when she noticed the new hairdo for the first time, but at least she had the decency to close her mouth after the first few moments of gawking. Sakura looked back and forth between the three of them for a few seconds before the new change became apparent to her as well.
"Ten Ten! Your odango... has Neji seen..." Sakura was cut off as the tall brunet lunged over the gap between them, tackling her to the ground and cupping a hand over her mouth.
"Almost no one has seen my hair yet so don't worry about it." She said while keeping her hand firmly clasped over Sakura's mouth. "Come with me for a minute Sakura, we need to discuss a few things." She snapped a piercing glare onto the two boys watching the strange sequence of events, "You two, out, now. This is girl talk, now move!"
Her voice wasn't loud, but they understood the level of threat in her tone, so Naruto and Sasuke quickly stood up and vacated the cave. After having moved outside to relative safety, Sasuke casually asked to no one in particular, "Do you suppose that she's still trying to hide from us the fact that Neji and her are dating? Or is she just not wanting Hinata to find out?"
"Beats me, what do you think Hinata-chan?" Naruto turned to face the elegant black haired woman who was standing partially hidden behind a large willow tree. She let out a light squeaking sound when she realized that she had been noticed, and a crimson tint came to her face.
"N-N-Neji actually told m-me about their re-relationship last month. so I d-don't think there's anything t-to worry about. she just doesn't realize that w-we all know."
"... Hinata, you know you can come over here to talk to us right? You don't need to stay behind the tree. I'd just recommend not going into the cave for a few more minutes." Naruto held out an open hand towards the trembling Hyuga, a lopsided grin playing on his face. "I swear we don't bite much." He closed his eyes grinning like an idiot, meanwhile she turned several shades darker at his casual joke.
"Come on dumb ass." Sasuke smacked Naruto upside the head as he walked off into the forest to search for the last member of their team, an amused hint of a smile in the corner of his lips, "She's obviously petrified of going near you, look how red she is?"
"B-b-b-b, um, ano, e, ano, I, um, e to, d-d-d..." In her haste and embarrassment, she seemed unable to string two real words together, let alone any kind of rebuttal. Sasuke disappeared into the forest leaving the two of them alone causing her to turn the shade of a boiled lobster, shortly before her eyes rolled back into her head and fainted face first onto the semi rocky ground.
Naruto quickly ran over to Hinata's bright red but very still form and hoisted her up to see if she was okay. With a sigh, he was relieved to see that other than her being passed out, nothing really seemed to be wrong. He pulled her up off the ground and carried her over to the cave mouth where there was some thick moss that they could at least comfortably sit on. He thought for a moment about taking her inside, but he really didn't feel like running away from shuriken at the moment.
After lying her down on the moss and and taking a seat beside her, he checked her over to make sure she was unhurt, and thankfully other than a shallow cut on her cheek she seemed fine. He found it odd that whenever he looked at Hinata he always wondered how someone could look so much like a porcelain doll. Now that her skin tone had returned to normal, he could see her pale cream skin making her even paler half-open eyes seem very deep. Her long obsidian hair was splayed in a sunburst pattern around her head, what could he say, she looked really cute when she was asleep.
He leaned back against the rocked deciding to relax until either the rest of them showed up or until the sleeping Hyuga woke up, either way he figured he had a few minutes for a cat nap. As his eyes closed in the late night darkness and he began to relax, he started to hear a rustling coming from his left, damn he hated being wrong.
He cracked open his eye a fraction and saw Kiba, minus one Akamaru, walking around the other side of the cave. Naruto twitched his hand in a half wave, drawing Kiba's attention, "Yo dog boy."
'What'd you say you brat!" Kiba rushed at him tackling him from the side. It was intended as more of a playful tackle, but what he hadn't noticed was the unconscious Hinata lying down beside Naruto. What he wasn't expecting even more was when Naruto rolled with the blow, putting both his hands down behind the prone Hinata, and pivoting both himself and Kiba over and slamming back down on the ground, with the unfortunate dog boy on the bottom.
Naruto stood up from the winded Kiba with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, "Maybe next time puppy." He turned back towards where he had been sitting just in time to see one of his least favorite objects in the world, Sakura's fist... aimed at him... this was going to suck... WHAM!!!!
The impact was always jarring, if it weren't him, bones would snap, blood would fly, death would basically be inevitable. As it was he had a mouth full of dirt and rock and he had a fractured skull, he was only occasionally as glad as he was that the nine tails chakra would mend those wounds in a minute or two. Dragging himself to his feet he noticed a slight indentation in the rocks beneath him, apparently she had hit him down instead of away, no wonder his face hurt so much.
Sakura grabbed Naruto by the collar, lifting him off the ground, "What are you, stupid? We're in enemy territory and you go around yelling and screaming possibly giving away our position?!" His head really hurt at the moment so he was having trouble focusing, he did however notice that Kiba has taken the better part of valor and slipped off back into the forest, he could also see a slightly confused looking Ten Ten over Sakura's shoulder.
"Ugh! I'd say you know it wasn't my fault, but you never believe me anyways." Naruto raised his hands and lightly placed them on the back of Sakura's wrists, immediately her hands snapped open dropping him back to the ground. Dusting himself off, he put a hand to his forehead to check if the bleeding had stopped, "Come on Sakura, you know it's a bad idea to try and grapple me like that, besides, I was actually innocent this time." He winced pulling back his hand from his head, the bleeding had stopped but his head still hurt.
Sakura just grumbled in response while shaking her currently limp wrists in an attempt to regain feeling. Ten Ten however was completely confused, one moment Sakura is about to throttle Naruto, the next she's on the ground and can't close her fists. "What'd you do to her Naruto?" Her voice both angry and surprised.
"Ano" Everyone's eyes snapped to Hinata who had apparently woken up in the commotion and was sitting up against the rocks, "H-he used Shinkei Hari no Jutsu, it's something he w-was working on with Neji-san."
Naruto quirked a curious eyebrow, "Hey Hinata, how did you know what it was called? I asked Neji not to tell anyone about it."
On this response her face immediately flushed and she began to panic, stuttering even worse than before, "I, he, N-N-N-Neji s-s-said no-nothing! J-j-just the b-b-b, my eyes c-c-can s-see through w-w-walls." Embarrassment and panic were reaching their peak, she wasn't certain she was going to be able to stay conscious much longer.
In an instant he was in front of her, dozens of thoughts tore through her mind escalating the panic even more, "Oh god, is he angry? Does he hate me since I know? Is he about to use it on me?" In her panic she began to flail her arms in his direction turning her head away, she would have screamed too if her throat wasn't crushing itself in her embarrassment.
Two hands placed themselves firmly on either side of her head and slowly turned it back to face Naruto, however the thumbs from the hands were holding her eyes shut. Hinata's confusion began to take over her panic, then after her head was facing it's original direction, she felt something press up against her forehead. A calm soothing voice came, it was right in front of her no more than a few inches away, "Relax Hinata, I'm not angry at you, I was just confused as to how you knew about the jutsu."
Her face deepened it's flush at the recognition of how close he was, but she did at least calm down a bit, however she found it very odd that he was holding her eyes shut, "Ano, Naruto-kun?"
"I'm pretty certain that would be my name, yeah." Somehow, she could feel him grinning even though she couldn't see it.
"Um, why are you holding my eyes shut?" She unconsciously put her hands in her lap and began to tap her index fingers together in worry that she had once again done something wrong.
"Isn't it obvious Hinata?"
"Ano, no." She could hear Ten Ten and Sakura laugh at her response, not a vindictive laugh, just an amused one. In her anxiety she began tapping her finger tips together even faster.
"Well, any time I've ever been this close to you you've passed out, so I figured maybe if
you couldn't see me it wouldn't happen." He could suddenly feel the temperature of her face rising drastically but he prayed that she wouldn't pass out again. In hopes of keeping her conscious, he quickly jumped back to the previous topic, "So how did you know about the Shinkei Hari? I'm not angry so don't worry, I just wanted to know if you knew how it worked. Also, can I let go of you without you passing out or panicking again?" He felt her nod against him, he was glad, not that he minded being in close proximity to her, but it was a little hard to keep his cool when he had his forehead pressed against hers.
She felt the pressure be pulled from her forehead and the hands removed allowing her to open her eyes again. Naruto and Ten Ten were sitting down on the ground a few feet away, but apparently Sakura had gone back into the cave to tend to her wrists. She took a deep breath then started to explain how she found out about.
"I was going to the dojo on our grounds when I heard you sparring with Neji-san, I didn't want to interrupt the match so I stayed outside and watched using my byakugan. I heard the two of you discussing chakra spikes and agree to work on something the next day. Sorry Naruto-kun, my curiosity made me come back." She bowed her head so that her nose touched the ground, tears welled in the corners of her eyes.
"Come on Hinata, get up, I told you I'm not angry."
"N-n-no Naruto-kun, I watched your special training, I shouldn't have." Her voice was cracking as her panic began to rise again.
Naruto walked over so that his feet were right in front of her head on the ground, then crouched down and tapped the back of her head, "Didn't I just finish saying that I wasn't angry?" He paused a moment to see if there would be a reaction, when there wasn't, he continued, "I'll tell you what," His tone changed to one of obviously fake outrage, "I am so angry that I need to exact my revenge against you for finding out one of my secrets."
Unfortunately for her, Hinata didn't seem to notice the obvious sarcasm in his voice and began to shake lightly. She suddenly felt the pressure of his hand on the back of her head, the feeling of his probing and mussing through her hair caused fear she wasn't expecting. Suddenly there was a quick, sharp pain at the back of her head, then nothing.
"And now I have exacted my revenge for all wrong-doings." He announced, holding up a single long black hair. He grinned down at her heavily confused and tear streaked face as she looked up to him inquisitively. He took the hair and wrapped it around his left index finger until there was a thin black ring of hair around his finger. Then after tucking the stray end of the hair away, he answered her increasingly confused look, "So now that all costs have been paid in full, as long as I have this ring, you'll be forgiven for anything you do. Fair?" He questioned, bringing the same hand forward to cup the side as he used his other hand to wipe away her tears.
Ten Ten looked on at the adorable and highly amusing scene as all that Hinata could do was stare at him, she seemed completely frozen in time.
"Good." He stood completely and offered Hinata his hand.
She just stared blankly at the hand being offered her and the black ring around his index finger. She tried to compile her thoughts into something coherent, but everything just seemed to jumble together in a wave of happiness, he forgave her for her faults, he was keeping something of hers, then everything went black again.
Naruto just grumbled as Ten Ten stifled her laughter as much as possible, "Well at least she didn't fall while standing this time."
Together they moved her back to the moss so that they could wait for Kiba to get the nerve to come back, they weren't sure where Sasuke was, but it was likely that he had just been watching from somewhere else.
"So since she never really got to explain it, what is that Shinkei Hari thing?" Ten Ten inquired.
"Hahaha, yeah I guess she never did get to that part, well since you know and Neji will probably tell you eventually anyway," He casually looked the opposite direction as he was certain Ten Ten would blush from his statement. "Essentially it's like one of the Jyukken paralysis attacks."
"But that doesn't make any sense, how could you use it then?" She asked, obviously perplexed as to how someone without the Byakkugan could perform a Jyukken maneuver.
"I said it was like the Jyukken, not that it was the Jyukken. To put it to the simplest definition, I insert several chakra spikes into the desired location and detonate them. When they break they disrupt the nerve connections in the area causing a temporary paralysis and disables the limb it's used on." He grinned at his own ingenuity for having developed the technique.
Ten Ten on the other hand was completely confused, what happened to the block headed hyperactive ninja that they all knew could barely count to ten.
"If you're wondering why I know the more detailed descriptions of it, you can thank Neji for that. Honestly, I understood the feeling of what I was doing, but he's the one who explained it to me in the more appropriate terms."
"Okay, that makes a lot more sense." Her comment was met with a grand pout from her blonde associate.
Eventually Sasuke returned dragging Kiba in toe, they didn't say anything and simply walked into the cave so they could set up their things. A few minutes after later, Hinata woke up followed by an almost incomprehensible "I'msosorrybye!", as she jumped to her feet and ran into the cave.
"It's only a few hours until dawn, let's get in and start the planning meeting so we can get this done and go home." Naruto stood, stretching with a loud sequence of popping sounds, then walked into the cave closely followed by Ten Ten.
********************************************** THE NEXT DAY**********************************************
It was early afternoon, a light rain had been kind enough to cover the sound and scent of their approach. The final consensus for the attack was an all out assault while using a venom suppressant Sakura had developed that would reduce and delay the effects of any poisons they came in contact with. The drug wasn't perfect, and it only functioned for around an hour, but it would give Sakura plenty of time to tend to the injured after the battle without worrying about them dying during the fight.
They had found the hideout a few hours before using several dozen of Naruto's shadow clones running around Henged as squirrels and birds, since then the clones had been watching the patrols and taking a rough head count.
The place appeared to be an underground complex, so exact numbers were out of the question, but they had seen four different alternating three man patrols and half a dozen of what appeared to be maintenance workers, likely noncombatants.
Naruto had killed and replaced two of the patrols with shadow clones, leaving them a two minute window every fifteen minutes to get out once the mission was completed.
After passing their own fake patrol and quietly maneuvering around the base, all six stood ready near the large metal fire door leading down into the complex. Naruto held the door with his right hand, but stalled his allies a moment raising his left. "Remember, all of you are getting out of here alive or so help me god I'm going to drag your asses out kicking and screaming." There was a silent nod from the five of them, "Good!" As the door leading down silently slid open.
Shinkei Hari no Jutsu = Nerve Needles
Hey everyone, this is my first story so please review and tell me if I should improve on anything. I appreciate any perspective you may have so that I can make this a good story. I post this on some other sights, so don't worry if you see it there. I have several chapters already written and will try and upload all of them within a few days.
Thanks for reading