Jesterman: Hi this is my first fanfic and I hope you (the people reading my fanfic) will enjoy reading this and please READ AND REVIEW it for me. Be aware that this is a Naru/Hina fanfic. I would like to take this time to inform everyone that I took some materials from two of my favorite fanfics to help me write this and were also some inspiration to this story. I would like to recommend these fanfics to all my readers.

Lacking Sight

Two Halves

I needed at least two more Kekkei Genkais for my story and I decided to take the idea from the creator of Two Halves about the lands west of the current Naruto series map and say that a large mountain ranged between both helped to limit contact between the "west" and the "east".

I would like to apologize in advance for the fact that my Japanese is not very good so most of the Jutsus will be written in English. I'll be using what mostly feel comfortable with.

The words and actions will be written in the following category:

Jutsus: Bold

Characters' Thoughts: 'Italics'

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and if I did I probably wouldn't be writing a fanfic here, when I could be making money writing this stuff for real.

Note to the Readers: The prologue takes place about two months before Naruto comes back from his 2½ years of training with Jiraiya. The 1st and maybe 2nd and 3rd chapters of the story takes place in the 2 weeks before Naruto's return with the rest taking place during and after.

Rated T for now.

The Path through Fire and Death

Prologue

Shinji Tsunagi was enjoying his first visit to Konoha and was very intrigued by the sights he saw. Of course Shinji always seemed to be in a good mood to the slight annoyance of most of the people around him and was intrigued by nearly everything he saw no matter how unimportant or insignificant on a daily basis. So the odds were that Konoha didn't really have much that would impress any normal person in his shoes. Most of Shinji's curiosity and anticipation came from the fact that he was finally seeing the place and getting the chance to meet the people that his friend Naruto Uzumaki had told him so much about. They had spent a little bit more than a year together and in that time Naruto had spoken a lot about the place he grew up in and the friends he had there. This, however, was not by far the real reason for Shinji coming here. Nonetheless, Shinji took his sweet time enjoying his first visit to Konoha.

His appearance and current outfit could be considered a little uncommon, but compared to many of the residents in Konoha it was nothing to take much notice of. He was about 17½ years old with cyan colored eyes and mildly long spiky brown hair with the hair on the back of his neck tied at the base leaving the rest to stick out. He had a well-toned body with lightly tanned skin, was about 5'9" tall and wore a black beaded necklace around his neck, along with two small silver ear rings on each ear both covered in small rune-like designs. He wore a plain unbuttoned white jacket with the sleeves stopping at the elbows. Underneath the jacket was a dark blue sleeveless shirt covered by a weighted black armor vest. Also, he carried two katanas. One was strapped to his back with the handle sticking out behind his right shoulder, and the other was being carried in his plain forest green backpack. He had black weighted padding covering most of his forearm with the fingerless metal backed gloves like your standard ninja. He wore long loose-fitting black pants with the bottoms tucked into some black leg weights, and he carried a belt containing several kunai and shuriken holsters. Finally, his last accessory included an odd pair of dark navy blue sandal-like boots.

While most of his attire went largely unnoticed, his weapons (and his naïve personality) gathered the attention of many in the village including the ninja on patrol.

Without the slightest indication of alarm, Shinji noticed that he had been spotted by some ninja and was currently being followed by two ninjas on the rooftops and one disguised as a common villager following him through the crowd.

Shinji, being Shinji, waved at the two on the roof and the one in the crowd causing the one on the ground to sweat drop and the female of the two on the roof to fall over.

With that done Shinji continued his walk with the three ninjas following him trying to keep a better distance.

Shinji continued with his site-seeing as though nothing had happened. That was until he spotted someone who matched the description of Kakashi Hatake.

Shinji, now excited to meet someone he had been told so much about, decided to go over and meet Kakashi.

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Kakashi was sitting down on a park bench enjoying his Icha Icha Paradise book in peace. That was until he was nearly startled by an unexpected visitor's arrival.

Kakashi remained calm and lowered his book. 'I didn't even notice this kid until he was within arms reach I better watch my guard with this one.' "Hello can I help you with something," asks Kakashi.

"Would your name, by chance be Kakashi Hatake?"

Looking him in the eye Kakashi responded, "I suppose so. Now than, who are you?"

"My name is Shinji Tsunagi. It's nice to finally meet you. I've been told so much about you."

"Who told you abou…?" It was than that Kakashi realized that his precious book was missing from his hand. When he turned to look at Shinji he noticed that Shinji was reading his book!

Kakashi quickly reached out to grab the book from Shinji's hand, but Shinji quickly moved his hand aside without taking his eyes off of the book. Kakashi tried a second time, same results, third time not much better, fourth time no luck.

To a passerby and the ninja that had followed Shinji this seemed quite comical (in fact the kunoichi among them couldn't help but chuckle), though the ninja were a little concerned that he appeared to have quicker reflexes than Kakashi.

As this continued, Kakashi began to notice that when he did come close to grabbing his book that it would, for a brief time, become transparent and somehow pass through his hand.

Deciding that this had gone on too long, Kakashi pulled the left part of his headband up to activate his trump card, his Sharingun eye. He than activated its hypnotic ability by causing the eye to literally spin and concentrated on hypnotizing his new foe.

Shinji watch Kakashi's Sharingun eye continued to spin. After a few seconds to Kakashi's surprise, Shinji looked him straight in both eyes and asked, "Wow, that's a nice trick, how do you get your eye to do that?"

Kakashi was stunned. 'I don't believe it! The Sharingun had no effect on him and he was looking straight at it!!!"

Before Kakashi could say anything Shinji decided that he should hurry if he wants to make it to the appointment he had today on time.

"Hmm, I guess Naruto was right about you, you are a little weird. Well I better get going. It was nice to finally meeting you."

After he got about two steps away he turned around and said something that shocked Kakashi even more than his Sharingun eye not working, "Oh, and by the way, I would be very careful about reading these books around Kira. You should know that she might get really mad and you would be in a lot of trouble."

With that said Shinji turned around and left a stunned and slightly horrified Kakashi sitting on a park bench.

Kakashi's only thoughts were 'Kirara…………?'

Kakashi had completely forgotten that Shinji still had his book.

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59 minutes later in the Hokage's office….

Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage and one of the three legendary Sannin was bored and irritated with the large stacks of paperwork that had to be reviewed and signed by her. She had already tried four times to sneak out, but Shizune caught her and managed to foil every one of her attempts. Tsunade sighed. Shizune had this place locked down tighter than any prison cell she had heard of. No one could get in or out without Shizune or someone she had watching noticing.

It was just then that Tsunade looked up from her desk and was shocked into falling out of her seat by a smiling face appearing in front of her.

"How the HELL did you get in here," shouts Tsunade as she was quickly getting up. She also noticed that this intruder was apparently armed.

The intruder responded, "I walked in here."

"YEA RIGHT, now tell me who are you!"

"My name is Shinji Tsunagi and I'm here for the appointment."

"What appointment!?"

"The one scheduled for today. Oh wait, I almost forgot to hand you this." He than tossed a scroll to her, which she promptly read.

Just then, Shizune along with several ANBU guards walked in wondering what all the shouting was about. They were immediately surprised to find that Tsunade was not alone and that this intruder was also armed. Once they saw this they immediately took up defensive positions around the room, ready to strike down the intruder at a moments notice.

Said intruder was taking in all of this with a curious expression and appeared to be oblivious to what was going on around him. After a quick visual inspection, one of the ANBU guards said, "this kid matches the descriptions of the one that managed to disappear from the patrol that was monitoring him about an hour ago." With this the mood around the room intensified.

"What are you doing here", Shizune asks the teenager.

Shinji looked around for a bit and than asks, "You mean me?"

"Yes."

"Sitting, why?"

"Don't play dumb with me I asked you a question now answer it!"

"I'm sorry, but I am not playing anything and I answered your question. Now if you will excuse me I am in a meeting right now and I was here first. So if you would just kindly step outside and wait your turn I am sure that someone will be able to help you later. Just be patient."

Before Shizune could respond to Shinji's odd statement Tsunade said, "It's okay Shizune, his name is Shinji Tsunagi and he was suppose to meet me, but that is not for another ten days."

"Sorry, I was a so excited about coming here that I decided to come a little earlier," said Shinji.

"Next time, just try to send word ahead of time okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now than, except for Shizune, I would like the rest of you to leave."

All the ANBU left the room. Shinji also got up to leave, but Tsunade asked, "what are you doing!?"

Shinji said, "Well, you said for everyone to lea…."

"Never mind just have a seat", Tsunade interrupted both her and Shizune sweat dropped.

Shinji picked up one of the chairs in front of her desk and started walking towards the window.

Tsunade asks, "Shinji, what are you doing?"

"Huh, well you said I could have one of your chairs."

Several more sweat drops appeared on the heads of both women.

Tsunade than said, "Shinji that is not what I meant."

Shinji looked puzzled for a second or two than a look of understanding came to his face.

"Oh, this is one of those "Figures of Speech" things that people use…. Are you sure I still can't have the chair?"

"JUST PUT THE CHAIR BACK AND SIT IN IT ALREADY!!"

"Fine just calm down alright. Sheesh, don't get mad at me if you can't make up your mind! I guess Jiraiya was right you really are very irritable."

The sweat drops on the back of Tsunade and Shizune's heads grew again along a small vein bulging on Tsunade's forehead. After awhile Shizune coughed and Tsunade took the queue to get back down to business.

"So you will be picking up three of this village's young ninjas with the most potential to be students under Kirara Songaara, AKA 'Kirara of the Lightning Wind' for the purpose of aiding the secret organization known as the 'Shadow Guard' for the basic purpose of saving the world."

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up."

'Though why they picked you for the recruitment and basic training I'll never know,' Tsunade told herself.

With a sigh Tsunade said, "Very well, I will help however I can and lucky for you I had already had arranged for an apartment for you. In fact, here are the keys to it and the address is on the key tag, but I'm afraid I don't have a list of candidates ready for you yet."

"That's fine I prefer to pick them out myself anyway, but thanks all the same."

"Let me guess Naruto Uzumaki has already been placed on that list?"

Tsunade and Shizune were surprised to see that Shinji's Expression had completely changed. The constantly cheerful and somewhat inattentive expression that had been on his face the whole time was now gone in the blink of an eye and replaced by a serious, calculating, and completely attentive look.

"As much as I would like that, my mission takes priority over any personal preference, but I will say that he is already a potential candidate."

Tsunade took a second to reorganize her thoughts. 'As I expected, he's not a complete fool, but the seriousness in his eyes, the LOOK in his eyes, was more then I expected. This kid has obviously had a hard life, maybe even as hard as Naruto's! Given what he is, I can't say I blame him!' Tsunade couldn't help, but feel sorry for the poor young man. She than looked him in the eyes and said, "very well, but if there is anything else that I can do to help you please ask."

"Actually, I do have a personal request I would like to ask you Tsunade!"

"What is it?"

"I would like the authority to promote any Genin that is chosen to a full Chunin."

Shizune spoke up at that, "Absolutely not, that kind of authority is reserved for the Chunin Exams except for field promotions note: I figured they probably have this, and only a Leaf Jonin can recommend such a thing and you still have to have the Hokage's permission! Kirara Songaara can do this, but she was recognized and given the title of an honorary Leaf Jonin you have not be given this and you can not be allowed to….!"

Shizune was stopped by Tsunade who lifted her hand up giving Shizune the signal to stop talking. She than looked back at Shinji while bring up her hands to intertwine her fingers and than rested her chin on them and than gave Shinji a serious and slightly amused look. An idea had just crept into her head and she was in the mood to try it.

"If you can accomplish this one task than I will grant you permission to promote any Genin you have chosen to Chunin."

"TSUNADE," exclaimed Shizune!

"Quiet," Tsunade told her.

"Very well what's the task," asks Shinji.

"Your task is to take Kakashi Hatake's "Icha Icha Paradise" book from him and than bring it here!"

Shizune began to relax a little. 'I guess it's safe after all nobody can manage to take one of those books away from Kakashi. Not even this kid should be able to pull this…' Shizune's thoughts were immediately interrupted when Shinji pulled out the very book they were talking about. Shizune stumbled and fell on her face. While Tsunade hands fell to her desk as her jaw practically fell through her desk and than through the floor. Tsunade was the first to recover.

"H-how d-did y-you g-get t-that?!"

"Easy," Shinji said. "I met him on the way here and took it from him while he wasn't looking."

This did little to help their astonishment.

"Well a deal's a deal, right 'Granny' Tsunade?"

Too stunned to hit him Tsunade could only say, "Y-Yes."

"Well, I better get going. Guess I'll see you later."

With that done, Shinji jumped towards the window, but instead of opening it he became transparent and actually passed through the window without any physical hindrance.

Unfortunately, this managed to increase the astonishment of both women who could only stare at the window that he had just passed through.

After several minutes Tsunade asks, "Shizune do you have any idea who or what Shinji is?"

"You said his name is Shinji Tsunagi and that he is a member of the organization called "Forsaken" which I have heard little about, but still that doesn't…."

Tsunade had signaled her to stop talking again and then handed her the file that Tsunade had kept in a hidden slot under her desk since the day it was given to her and she was told what to expect of him. Even now she had a hard time believing what it said about him. By all accounts, his ancestors should have been completely wiped out centuries ago but, still here he was sitting in front of her proven so many historians wrong. To think that one of THEM was still alive, it was hard to believe.

Shizune opened it and after reading she looked back to where Shinji had left. She than looked at Tsunade and said, "this is impossible, h-he c-can't be…there must be some mistake!"

Tsunade responded, "But he is. I know I found it difficult to believe, but he is."

It was apparently true somehow there was a survivor from the ancient and long lost 'Village Hidden in Death'.

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Later that day…

Hinata Hyuga was trying to enjoy the end of this nice sunny day, her mind wandering to thoughts about what a certain spiky haired blond ninja may be doing at this moment and if, just maybe, he was thinking about her.

This last train of thought caused Hinata to blush which only increased when one of her companion for today Rock Lee noticed this and asked her if she was feeling alright.

Her cousin Neji Hyuga had invited her to come to his training session with his old team. Neji had become a Jonin about three months ago and his two old teammates had both been Chunin for over a year now, Hinata herself became a Chunin during the previous Chunin Exam. Despite his usual complaints about his old squad mates (mostly Lee) it was obvious to Hinata that her cousin really cared about them and enjoyed spending time with them. Besides, after sparring a bit with them, it became obvious to Hinata that they could still fight well enough for her cousin to get a decent workout.

Neji ended up leaving, stating that he had to go on a mission early tomorrow morning and could not afford to wear himself out too much the day before his mission. Hinata had moved to follow, but Lee and Tenten told her that she could stay for a while longer if she wanted to.

Hinata, being the kind and polite person that she was, agreed to stay longer. This brought out an overexcited cheer from Lee and a smile from Tenten who whacked Lee over the head telling him to lower down on the loud cheering as it was startling poor Hinata, not to mention still embarrassing to his teammates after all these years.

When the time came for them to come home Lee and Tenten both offered to walk Hinata home saying that it was their pleasure and would give them (really just Tenten) a chance to see Neji again before he left. So with a nervous nod from Hinata, Tenten and Lee walked Hinata home.

As they were walking into town they stumbled across this strange young man they had never met before. He appeared to be talking to someone. However, neither Hinata, Tenten, nor Lee could see this person. They unconsciously slowed down upon seeing this, and as they got closer they began to hear what the strange young man was saying.

"….and I still can't understand why they were so shocked that I had already taken his book?!!" After apparently hearing his "unseen" and "unheard" companion response said, "I guess your right, I mean it did seem like a big deal to them. Though I still don't understand why! And yes I know those three over there," he point in the exact direction of the group, "are listening to us. What? Oh that's right, they can only hear me talking unless either you or me…." He then appeared to be getting yelled at seeing this Hinata activate her Byakugan to see if he was talking to someone who was actually hiding by us of a jutsu. What she saw shocked her speechless. "Okay, okay, I'll stop talking to you for now," said this stranger and with a slight sigh he approached Hinata, Tenten, and Lee both of who were asking her what was wrong.

As the stranger approached them he started introducing himself, "Hi I'm Shinji…," but was interrupted by Lee moving right in front of him telling him, "Take one more step and will suffer the consequences!"

Shinji gave him a blank look then began looking on the ground in front of him and asked Lee, "Why, was I about to step in something?"

Lee's response was, "Uuuhhh, no… I just meant you will have to fight me."

"Hhmm, why would I have to do that?"

"…Because, I'm warning you."

"Why?"

"Because I won't allow you to harm anyone here!"

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know exactly…," it was than that he heard some trying to tell him something and than Lee realized that that someone had been tugging on his belt trying to get his attention. He turned and looked to see Hinata who than said to him (for the third time), "Ii-t's o-kay Lee-san, I w-was just a l-little s-startled t-that's all." She was still getting over from the shock of just WHAT SHE SAW!

What she saw of his companion was what appeared to be an oddly shaped body of chakra. It was probably, the palest shade of blue she had ever seen, and even stranger was the fact that it was maintaining itself without any physical form whatsoever.

But, that did not shock her as much as the other sight that she was now seeing before her. What startled her the most was that this young man (Shinji she believed he called himself) had what appeared to be kind of grey colored chakra!!! Not to mention he had the weirdest chakra system she had ever seen. And upon closer inspection she unknowingly asked out loud, "I wonder how many chakra points it must take to make up his chakra system and to get that shade of color?"

Surprisingly Shinji answered her question, "70 to be precise." This stunned and baffled both Lee and Tenten for a moment. At the same time this also embarrassed Hinata extremely when see now realized that she had said this out loud. After awhile Tenten asks, "Hinata are you sure that is what you saw?" Before Hinata could respond she was interrupted by a loud, "Wow." Out of instinct, Tenten's arm was in the motion of hitting Lee on the head for saying such a stupid thing at his time. But, her hand stopped half way when she realized that it was this Shinji guy that had said that.

"So you're Hinata! I heard about you from Naruto," said Shinji.

Everyone looked at him with surprise. Except for Hinata, who heads was spinning a little from what Shinji had just said. 'Naruto-kun…?'

Tenten was the first to respond, "You know Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Of course, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shinji Tsunagi and I spent about a year with him and the "Pervy-Sage" Jiraiya who was supposed to be training him. During that time Naruto and I became great friends. We even think of each other as brothers. In fact, it was Naruto who suggested it!"

"H-how long ago was that," asked Hinata?

"Hhmm, about five months ago."

"Oooohhhhh, Naruto's strength must have increased tenfold during his training with the legendary Jiraiya," exclaimed and energetic Lee!

"Oh, I don't think it increased that much," Shinji told him. "And to tell you the truth I was the one who ended up training Naruto most of the time I was there." He then looked at everyone. "In that times I only managed to increase his normal skills three times, I brought his chakra to about 2 times what it was when I met him, his chakra control I only managed to improve 3 times, and his Taijutsu skills about nine times counted the weapons training." Author's Note: Shinji didn't think much of Naruto's normal skills the first time he met him. Though he did agree with Jiraiya that Naruto had very good instincts when it came to fighting and that he can be quick on his feet. Shinji is in fact referring to what Naruto is now capable of doing. Naruto however does not know how to properly apply these new skills yet and thus is unable to fully use them. So, Shinji is not referring to what Naruto is capable of on an average basis.

"Are you serious," asked Tenten after waiting a few seconds?

When Shinji answered her everyone around him now noted that even though his eyes held the same energy they had had when he first approached them there was now a look to them that suggested to these who looked that he was not kidding in the least, "No I'm not kidding." Author's note: This ability of Shinji's to express his thoughts so well by just looking at someone is mostly due to his special heritage and not some form of Genjutsu.

"You trained Naruto!!!!" Lee exclaimed. Lee than brought his fist in front of him and said, "I must challenge you to test my skills against yours!!!!"

"Tell you what Lee; I was asked to come here to train and select a group of young ninja, so why don't you three meet me at...," he looked around and spotted a small mountain with five heads carved on it (the Hokage Mountain), "on top of that mountain at about 10:00 AM tomorrow and then I can show you how good I am."

Lee thought for a moment and then said, "Okay, and if I can not make it I will make myself run 1000 laps around the village, and if I can not do that then I will make myself do 3000…," he was thankfully stop by a severe blow to the head courtesy of Tenten. Tenten then said to Shinji, "Sure we'll be there right Hinata?" Said girl blushed a little, but gave a shy nod. "Well now that that's done we should all be heading home right now. See you tomorrow Shinji!" The three then left to go home (with the unconscious Lee being dragged by Tenten).

After a few steps Hinata said something to Tenten who nodded and continued on the way to Lee's house to drop Lee's unconscious form off. Hinata approached Shinji and asked, "W-would you mind walking me home?" Shinji said, "No problem, Hinata I guess this would give me time to know you better instead of just relying on what Naruto has told me." Hinata blushed at this and asks, "N-naruto-kun talked a-about m-me?" Many different romantic thoughts and images tried began to form in her mind as a blush appeared on her face, but she quickly pushed those thoughts before they became too intense. Despite this was determined to find out more.

"So what does N-naruto-kun say about me?"

"Let me think, well he didn't tell me exactly how pretty you are though he did mention it."

Hinata became a little light headed at this with a tomato colored blush appearing across her face.

"He also said you were a kind and brave girl, he liked being around you…."

Flashback

"So Naruto, what is this Hinata girl like anyway?"

Naruto thought for a minute. Then said to Shinji, "Well she's kind, brave, and I like being around her. Also, I think she is pretty…" Shinji was unable to hear Naruto describe her cooking as the sound of several slaps was heard by the two. Naruto sighed as he spoke, "Sounds like the Pervy-Sage was caught again. What was I saying?" Shinji shrugged and looked over his shoulder, "I don't know, but maybe we should drag him back before he gets us kicked out of town again." Both boys shook their heads and sighed then went to the task of hiding the old pervert before he could cause anymore trouble.

End of Flashback

"Yea, he definitely said you were pretty and all that other stuff, but aside from all that he didn't say much else after that."

Shinji realized that Hinata was not walking next to him anymore and heard the sound of something hitting the ground behind him. As he looked back he noticed Hinata lying face up on the ground. "Huh? I guess was right. You do sleep in the oddest places!" Luckily for Shinji, who didn't know where Hinata lived, Tenten had come across them on her way back from dropping Lee of at his house. She saw Hinata as she fainted and walked over picked her up commenting to Shinji, "You two must have been talking about Naruto."

"Does she always do this," asks Shinji?

"Only when it concerns Naruto."

"Huh, I guess I might have help with that within the next couple of months."

"Why? What happens in a couple of months?"

"Oh, that's when Naruto should be back."

End of Prologue