A/N: This was planned at around chapter 220 of the manga. Therefore the spoilers go up to there and hereby the inconsistencies.
Disclaimer: If I own Naruto, I wouldn't be sitting in my room writing up fanfics. So besides the original stuff, anything else belongs to Kishimoto Mashashi.
Prologue
It was only afternoon in the Hidden Village of the Leaf. The sun was beginning to set, its light painting the cloudless sky in shades of red.
Hyuuga Hinata was not enjoying the scene, though.
She rushed down the empty street, her young and fragile face twisted with effort as she forced herself to run, her body occasionally bumping into various villagers. She never stopped for an apology, never paused for breathe. Her lungs were starting to feel sore as they puffed for air to feed her tiring muscles, but she still pushed on. She stopped only once, her head turning around as her pale white eyes looked to navigate her way through the maze of buildings and streets. When the thirteen-year-old finally found her direction she paced off again.
Soon the white, familiar walls of the Leaf hospital appeared looming before her. Without missing a beat, Hinata rushed and pushed through the glass door and another various villagers, earning a couple of curses and glares, which Hinata cared little. Her mind was totally focused on her destination which, apparently, was the reception she was running towards. There, the thirteen-year-old asked for more directions, and then paced off again down the corridor towards the white door at the end. She pushed it open and stumbled inside.
The ward was small, but cozy. To the back of the room were two small beds, on which two figures were lying under a thin blanket. Between the beds there stood the tall, shapely figure of Tsunade. Her hand, glowing with chakra, was placed on a forehead. At the corner of the room there sat Shikamaru. His face and Chunnin vest were dirty with mud and leaves and his long hair was untied, left scattered around his head and neck.
Hinata looked around, her eyes darting in search for a certain blond-hair boy. The boy on the left, being treated, was obviously far too enormous to be him, while the left one had black hair. In her heart she felt sympathy for the two, but she could not help letting out a sigh of relief.
It was then the door was opened with such a sudden-ness that Hinata stepped back. A shinobi came rushing in, and Tsunade removed her hand as she finished her operation.
"Tsunade-sama," he bowed and reported. "We've recovered the body of Kiba." His face twisted in the way that showed the condition of the remains. "But still no trace of the last one."
Hinata almost stopped breathing.
Tsunade looked out of the window. "Continue your efforts. Naruto must be found."
"Hai!"
As soon as the shinobi disappeared, Hinata suddenly found it hard to breath. She clutched her chest, and her knees buckled. She did not notice that she was falling onto her knees, nor that Tsunade and Shikamaru came rushing towards her. All she knew was one thing in her mind.
"Naruto-kun…"
---
The light from Hinata's window poured out into the streets, exceptionally bright due to the darkness around. Her head rested upon her hands, her eyes staring at the dark outlines of the Konoha forest outside the walls of the village. It was long beyond her usual bedtime, but she did not care. Not that she would not be having any training the next day- in fact, she would have to be up by dawn- but she could not sleep. Her mind kept on wandering to one person who, even when she left the hospital at the evening, was still declared missing.
As her pale eyes stared at the black outlines of the forest, the image of Naruto kept on appearing inside her head. Her ears could still hear the loud encouragements of the ninja, given to her during her fight with her cousin Neji. She recalled the time during the first Chunnin exam when Naruto, sitting right next to her, rejected her offer to have a look at her test paper. Hinata could almost let out a smile at the image of Naruto folded his arms and pretended that he had guessed the true purpose of the first exam. Naruto-kun…
Oh, why did it have to be him? She asked herself as tears gathered in her eyes. Why did it always have to be the good guys… She blinked, trying to keep the moisture in, but like a dam breaking up only more flowed… More so, why did she have to be so… so SHY?? Hinata clutched her fists tightly. If only she had told him. If only she had shown how deep her feelings were for him, for Naruto. Now, she did not even know if she would ever have the chance. The only thing she could do was to put her head down and wept in the silence of the night.
Hinata buried her head inside her arms. She did not notice the small, green light that shone from the horizon...
---
The country of the Wind lived up to its name at night. The chilling winds blew across the faint shapes of the sandy dunes, occasionally swirling up mists of sharp, rocky powder. At night, the desert seemed to be trying to compensate the heat during the day with the cold. The land of the sand was just as unforgiving as it was in the day.
Yet alone amongst the waves and waves of the sandy sea was an oasis, where there was a small and insignificant hut, far beyond from when the closest civilization- the Hidden Village of the Sand- situated. Yet this was the home to one twelve-year-old girl, who managed to find a way to survive in the harshness of the desert.
That girl was kneeling beside a young boy of her age lying on a bed on the floor in a blanket. Her soft, fragile hand ran over the kanji for "love" on the forehead as she felt the high temperature the boy had. She stood up, turned around, and rushed to a bucket of water, her net blouse rustling against her long robes. She pulled out a wet towel and ran back to put it on the forehead, hoping that the cooling effect would help with his fever.
Even though she and all those with her name were banned from the Village of Sand, Kazeoni Kuri had heard legends of this boy, this monster known as Sabaku no Gaara- Gaara of the Desert. However, when she first met him a couple months ago she felt no fear: she could only feel pity and understanding. After all, he was not the first "monster" that the Sand created and then shunned. Kuri knew that all too well from the family history she learnt from her parents. Her ancestor had a demon sealed inside him, and for that he was banished from the Sand Village forever. Since the powers of the demon passed on from generation to generation, his descendents were banned from the village as well. Thus the family carried the name Kazeoni- Wind demon.
Wind demon… to Kuri it was both a family curse and a family blessing. Without the powers it gave her she would not have survived long in the desert alone after the deaths of her parents, who often said to her that she had the thickest blood of the Kazeoni, with the most power. Without it she would not have lived out in the open, not encounter Temari and her band when they were caught out in a sand storm…
A sudden thump made the girl jump. Kuri looked up, hoping to find the source of the noise. She relaxed a little when she realized that it was only her guests, sleeping soundly upstairs. Kuri had promised Temari and Kankuro, siblings to Gaara, that she would take care of their youngest brother for the night, just as she had done since they had arrived.
A sudden wind brought some chill into the room. Kuri looked around, and found that the window to the right somehow had been left open. She got to her feet and walked up to the large panel, her hands on the edges ready to close it.
It was then she saw it, the green light from afar.
Her large eyes widened, as if she could not possibly believe it. Kuri leaned out of the window, so as to see it better, just to make sure. There was no mistake. It was the green light from the far west.
Her red lips opened a little to let out a gasp, and quickly she shut the window and turned around, her mind in turmoil. From what she remembered of her parent's tales, Kuri knew what that green light meant.
Kuri shuddered at the thought. If she was right then it was doom for not just the Sand, but all of the villages as well…
---
Far beyond the western borders of the Wind country was a range of mountains, standing upright in an endless, rigged wall that stretched far into the horizons in the north and south. It was a desolate and dry place, much like the other parts of the desert.
However, in the lands nearing the mountains, the golden sand turned abruptly into grey ash, littered with white bones, as if the ground itself was rotten, tainted by whatever evil lay beyond those mountains. The ashes never moved, not even when the howling winds, more chilling than any other, unleashed their fury against them. Thick, dark clouds hung over in the sky, blocking the moon and any other sources of light which this land desperately needed. This was, rightly-named, Riku Nashi Akatsuki- Land without Dawn- by the unfortunate few that lived close by.
Amongst this wall of mountains there was a gap that would serve as a pass into the lands that the wall withheld, if not for the large tower that stood in the way, as if frowning upon on those who attempted to trespass into the forbidden lands it guarded. Its black, metallic gate stretched from cliff to cliff, decorated with long, pointed spikes that resembled teeth of a large, monstrous mouth. On the ground there piled while bones of animals and even people. Even in the darkness of the night, the twisted evil shape of the tower could still be seen looming high over the mountains. To the naked eye it seemed to be a source of darkness, its black walls much blacker and darker and any darkness of the night. It was a difficult task to look upon the tower itself, for the sight of it spelt bleakness and despair upon the hearts of the few that dared to come near it. Out of those brave ones only a fraction returned, bringing back stories of the horror they saw, leaving others to speculate what terrible fates those that went missing encountered.
Thus this was named by the locals as the Kyou no Tou, Tower of Doom.
It was in this night, however, that the tower began to stir from its slumber. A low, deep rumble echoed along with the winds from within the building as the ground began to shake. The rumble grew louder and louder, and then the tower began its activity: the very top of the tower opened up like a black hand reaching for the sky.
A sudden green lightning shot from the tower into the clouds with a loud boom, the static electricity flying in all directions. The sickly, diseased green of light unleashed its fury upon the lands of the living as some of its branches struck the ground, blackening the already black ashes and blasting away the bones. The ground shook, and the tower released its rage as a loud, heart-withering screech filled the foul air. Then the lightning vanished, and all became quiet, just as sudden as it all began. The tower, having finished its purpose, closed its top and returned to its former sleep.