Naruto stare into the crackling fire as small glowing embers drifted into the air. His blonde hair illuminated by the fiery glow. His blue as seemed emotionless and full of torment. He poked the fire with a stick, adjusting the logs. He place the scroll of sealing next to him and sighed. He stared down the path he came from as his thoughts began to drift to what happened just the day before. His gaze went to a young girl with short black hair who lay sleeping next to the fire. Naruto closed his eyes and drew in another deep breath before letting out another sigh into the fire.

Flashback

"That fox is going to use that scroll for himself, to take revenge on the village, you saw that look didn't you? The was the look of a wild beast." Mizuki laughed as he pulled out a Kunai from his pouch. "But don't worry Iruka, I will have it all taken care of, besides, who's gonna miss the brat anyways?"

Naruto closed his eyes as realization hit him in the gut. It doesn't matter any more. His arms opened scrunched in a glare at his own two hands which were shaking, he curled them into tight fists until his nails dug into his own hands. That's why they hate me, I'm a demon. Naruto's heart pounded with decisions.

He got on his feet and ran. Mizuki's look turned towards him. "And so the hunt begins." Mizuki disappeared into the trees, and went chasing after the blonde

"Mizuki no!" Iruka cried, but it was too late. Iruka couldn't let Mizuki get to Naruto, he tried to get up again… but he didn't have any strength in him left and only managed to stumble forward before collapsing.

Naruto stopped running, his hands were shaking as he jumped tree to tree, branch to branch. "You can't run forever fox!" Mizuki shouted from behind and gradually gained on him. Fox, fox, fox. That's all he is, a demon, a monster that'll never be loved or cared for. If it is a demon Mizuki wants, then a demon he will get. Naruto jumped down from the trees, clenching his shaking fists. "So, you given up? I'm surprised to say the least, but it doesn't matter now. Soon the world will be rid of you." Mizuki grinned almost maniacally.

His taunts only made Naruto's rage grow, he formed a sign with his hands. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Upon saying those words, what was only one Naruto became several hundred. Mizuki froze in place as his grin quickly turned pale and fear stricken.

"B-but how!? H-how could you have mastered a jutsu so quickly!?" Mizuki turned to run only to face more Naruto's, he was completely surrounded with nowhere to run. Each clone pulled out a kunai and gripped it in their hand.

"Only one of us is going to die here," shouted the several hundred Naruto's. They rose their kunai and the last thing Mizuki saw was his vision obscured by the hundreds of them, The kunai were plunged into his flesh. He cried out in agony that could be heard throughout the whole forest. The clones then scattered, going in several directions rather than disappearing. This would buy him time as he looked upon the barely recognizable form of Mizuki's shredded body, he felt something inside him turn cold as he left to get away from this torment knowing there was no turning back.

Flashback end

Naruto was pulled back to the present by a soft voice. "N-naruto?" the young Hyuuga girl said his name with a stutter. Naruto had seen this girl around occasionally, but never actually became acquainted with her until now. The girl disliked seeing him like this, he held a pained expression on his face accompanied with empty eyes rather than the bright blue ones she was used to.

"Hmm?" was all Naruto bothered to reply with.

"I-is there something wrong?" There was a long silence between them.

"No, I was just thinking about something." He said and looked away,

"Oh." She whispered and looked down. The young girl fidgeted with bottom of her jacket nervously. She could hear it in Naruto's voice. Something was definitely wrong, she just couldn't find the courage to ask him what. "S-sorry for bothering you…" she pushed her hands against her legs. Not wanting to look into his eyes.

"You don't need to apologize Hinata." He told her. "You haven't done anything wrong." Hinata nodded and lowered her gaze, I wish he would talk to me. I wish he would try to help me understand what is wrong. Was what Hinata thought.

After Mizuki's death

Naruto ran, he ran as far as he could, his army of clones distracting his pursuers. It didn't take too long for him to reach the gates. However they were heavily guarded with several Jounin and even the Anbu were guarding the gate. Naruto stopped in his tracks, breathing heavily. He turned to the giant wall that separated the hidden leaf village from the outside world. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu." He was surrounded by several clones of himself who began stacking on top of each other with the real one on top. The tower wobbled around.

"Hurry up, I can't stand here much longer!." The bottom Naruto said and eventually dispelled in a poof of white smoke. "Okay, now!" The real one shouted, all of the Naruto's started to lean forward and jump off of each other, until the reached the wall, sending the real one flying over it. "I didn't quite this through." Naruto was now falling towards the ground on the other side of the wall. He crashed through the trees with several snaps of branches and rustles of leaves. Using up his chakra on making so many clones made him exhausted. He felt like his body had gone numb and ached until he lost consciousness.

"Lord hokage, there is no sign of Naruto Uzumaki anywhere in the village other than a few shadow clones," one of the Jounin reported. "We also found Mizuki dead as well as Iruka severely injured."

The Hokage's expression became grim. "Did Naruto do this?" He asked, fearing the worst.

"That's what we thought at first, but after Iruka had regained consciousness, he explained that Mizuki had tricked Naruto into stealing the scroll and planned on killing Naruto and escaping with the scroll himself. It seems that Naruto got the best of Mizuki in the end however."

Sarutobi let out a semi-relieved sigh, knowing that this wasn't Naruto doing this on his own intentionally. "I always had a feeling that there was something off about Mizuki, but I never expected this."

"Lord Hokage?"

"Spread the search, don't leave any stone unturned, bring Naruto Uzumaki back with the scroll of sealing, I want to Naruto to come back unharmed if possible." He ordered.

"Sir!" the ninja left quicker than one could blink.

The sun rose in the distance, there was no sign of the blonde boy anywhere. It was like he simply just vanished, the news spread quickly through the village the the blonde boy had disappeared, even a certain shy Hyuuga heiress heard the details of her favorite blonde disappearance.

She didn't want to believe it as she went to the ninja academy, today was the day they would be assigned to new teams. She expected the blond to make an appearance, but he didn't. She stared at the empty spot in the classroom. She folded her arms and slumped forward with her face hidden in her arms. Naruto… she thought of the always smiling blond haired boy she had come to secretly love and admire. She began to tear up. She closed her eyes and let them go down her cheeks.

This drew attention of her nearby classmates, that is until the teacher came in. However it was not Iruka, but someone else. "Iruka was injured yesterday so I'll be assigning you to your team's." The dark haired man announced. "Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi. You three will be a part of team 6."

"What!? Why am I on the team with the oversized muncher, and the laziest boy in the whole village?" Ino protested

"What drag." Was all that Shikamaru replied with.

"Munch munch munch" Choji kept eating chips.

"If it were up to me I would have you held back for you misbehavior!" The Jounin upfront scolded causing Ino to be quite. "Now, Sakura Hurano and Sasuke Uchia. You two will be on team 7, due to the numbers of you who passed, you will be down one member which means on any non D rank missions you will be required to have another squad accompany you."

Sakura Haruno practically squealed in excitement. Ino glared daggers at Sakura. "If you lay one finger on my Sasuke, billboard brow, I will pummel you to the ground!" Ino shouted. Sakura response was sticking her tongue out.

"Now then, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, and Kiba Inuzuka, you are on team 8." He looked at the group, half expecting for them to begin complaining. However he was given none. "Moving on, now your new Sensei's will come in after lunch, team 7, knowing your sensei he'll probably be late." 'As usual.' "Dismissed."

Kurenai was one of the first to arrive, taking along team 8 with her. She eyed the girl who seemed to have her thoughts elsewhere while the Inuzuka and the Aburame told about themselves. The Hyuuga remained silent her pale lavender eyes seemed to be focused the the gates going out of the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Hinata?" Kiba elbowed her gently to get her attention. She shook her head to shake off the thoughts clouding her mind.

"Huh?" She looked at a somewhat annoyed Kiba with a concerned Akamaru on his head.

"You alright?" He asked. Hinata looked at the ground and didn't respond. Kurenai also wondered what had this girl so depressed.

"Okay… tomorrow you will be given one last test to determine if you are worthy of becoming full fledged genin or not." She said. Kiba frowned and Shino's brow raised.

"Wait, I thought we were already genin, there's another test?" Kiba started, Kurenai responded with a simple nod.

"Yes, it will determine your skills. I want you to meet me and at the training grounds early morning. I want you to get some rest and be prepared. You are all dismissed." Kiba and Shino left, Hinata would soon go after… if Kurenai hadn't stopped her. "Hinata, I want you to stay for a moment."

Hinata turned to her sensei and nodded, "Yes Kurenai Sensei?"

"Just call me Kurenai for now, is there something on your mind?" She asked. This caused Hinata to fidget. "Don't worry, it will just be between you and me." She reassured. The Hyuuga continued to hesitate for a while longer.

"W-well, you see… you see I-I…" she pressed her fingers together as she always does. Kurenai sighed, losing hope that she'd ever actually get the girl to tell her anything.

I never thought I'd meet a timid Hyuuga. Kurenai thought and placed a hand on the stuttering girls shoulder. "I don't scare you do I?"

Hinata looked up in panic, like a child who had been caught in the cookie jar. "N-no Kurenai sensei. It's just that… someone in the ninja academy, s-someone I looked up to… they disappeared and I don't know what happened to him."

Kurenai pondered this for a moment. She couldn't be talking about him, could she? Naruto Uzumaki, the kid with the nine tails sealed inside of him. Shunned by everyone in the leaf village other than the Hokage. Kurenai patted Hinata on the head. "Care to tell me the name of this boy?"

"H-his name? W-well it's… his name is N-naruto."

So it is him… She went into deep thought. Hinata saw this and was tempted to slip pass, but she had a feeling that Kurenai knew.

"S-so is it true? He ran away?"

Kurenai snapped out of her thoughts. "Hmm? Well yes he did unfortunately." This caused Hinata to look at the floor, downcast. She must really care about him. She did say she looked up to him. It's strange that the heiress from such a proud clan would find something to admire from that boy. I have to give him some credit, getting a side from the Hyuuga's, or at least one of them. Kurenai thought, she didn't know much about the boy, she saw him once, fleeing from group of jounin. That kid had no real ninja talent at the time and he still managed to time and time again escape from some of the top class jounin. Kurenai shook her head. She looked down and Hinata and patted her shoulder. "After tomorrow, I'll see what I can do to get him back, only if you do your best and pass."

Hinata looked up at Kurenai as if she had just told her the best thing in the world. She nodded. "T-thank you Kurenai Sensei." She said.

"Go home and get some sleep, you'll have to work hard for this." Kurenai dismissed Hinata and watched her leave.