Hello everyone.

I found this old story again recently and reread it and decided it was terribly written. So, in my boredom I rewrote it to be better paced, close up plot holes and basically write the story with ahead knowledge of how it was going to end.

Returning readers, I hope this recaptures your love of the old story. New readers, ... don't read the old story, unless you really want to.

This story takes place just after Sasuke flees, and is firmly set in headcanon territory.

Chapter 1: White Water

It was a simple mission. Not dangerous or risky. All it needed was three high-level genin, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba, to handle an easy job of escorting a small travelling circus from town to town through Fire and River countries to the borders of Suna where a sand team would take over. They had stopped at a small town for a few days for the circus to ply its trade with the locals.

Tonight was the last night in the last town and if they set out early the next morning they would reach the borders by the following night. Hinata and Kiba sat on a fence, each with a bag of roasted nuts to eat, and watched Naruto attempting to juggle. He was failing miserably, much to the amusement of the juggler who'd been trying to teach him. Kiba stretched and slid off the fence to his feet. His dog, Akamaru, got up from his spot next to the fence and trotted after his master.

"We should start patrolling, the crowds have started to show up." Kiba said to Hinata, then he raised his voice, "Oi Numbskull!" he called playfully. The blond looked over to the pair, dropping a few of the clubs.

"We're going on patrol, you should too, keep your eyes open!"

Naruto gave a mocking salute with a juggling pin before handing them back to the juggler. He knew when it was time to be serious. Most of the time.

Hinata chuckled at the blonde's antics then followed after Kiba. There wasn't much security wise they had to worry about, normal bandits were not really a problem this close to towns of this size where the lord's guards kept the peace. They were just normal guards though, not shinobi.

For tonight at least, Hinata and Kiba were on the lookout for another type of crook, Frauds. The group they had been hired to escort was a core group of performers and a few carnival games. Others joined up along with them as they travelled and if some of them were swindlers it ruined the reputation of the circus so if was left up to the genin to catch them in the act and expel them from the group and in some cases get the town guard to arrest them. Worse still was the pickpockets that tended to appear when large groups of people got together and are distracted by amusements.

"Alright, I'm going to check around the souvenir stalls with Akamaru." Kiba said pointing over his shoulder to a number of brightly coloured stalls. Hinata nodded as he walked away.

"I'll check around the games then." She replied quietly to herself.

Kiba and Akamaru already disappeared into the crowd. Hinata turned on her heel and started down the street lined with game stalls. Music was everywhere, masked and costumed dancers bounded around with amazing feats of acrobatics. The crowds clapped and cheered and tossed coins into tin bowls. Hinata was scanning the crowd when one of the dancers caught her eye. His costume was not as colourful as the others and his mask and cloak seemed too small for him. His dancing was not in time with the other dancers or the music. He leapt about near the front of the crowd, every time he landed he squatted like a frog and bounded up again. Hinata watched him closely, after a twirling jump he landed and squatted again, then rolled away through a gap in the crowd. The tin bowl was gone.

The thief ducked into a darkened alley between two houses. He threw off the mask and costume he'd pilfered from one of the dancers tents. Sometimes it was too easy. He grinned to himself and tipped the large pile of coins into a leather purse.

"If you return that and apologise, I won't turn you into the guard" he froze and turned to the quiet voice. A little girl stood in the alley entrance way back into the crowded street. He scowled at her.

"Beat it brat!" he snapped and turned to walk out the other side of the alley. He felt a tug on his sleeve.

"I said beat it!" He spun around and drew a knife from his belt, intending to scare the girl away. The girl was closer than he thought, startled his knife flashed out instinctively. The girl flicked up her own odd-shaped knife and deflected his strike, she tightened her grip on his wrist. The thief squinted at the knife in the dim lighting, it was a kunai, but why would a child have a combat knife? He looked down and noticed the village plate tied around her neck. He'd just picked a fight with a shinobi.

"Shi…" He dropped his blade and tried to run, but the strong grip on his wrist pulled him back and he was winded with a knee to the gut. He fell to the ground wheezing and coughing.

"al..alright!" he coughed, "I'll return it and apologise!"

"It's too late for that." The girl sighed and bound his wrists behind his back. She picked up the tin bowl, the pieces of costume and lastly plucked the leather purse from his belt. She poked him in the back with the kunai and he started walking back towards the crowds.

By now the dancers had noticed their money bowl was gone and had started an uproar, two harassed looking guards were trying to get information from the crowd with little success. Before things got out of hand Hinata appeared with the thief and the stolen items. She returned the items to the dancers and gave the thief over to the guards.

"He's been causing trouble about this town for ages now, with this going on," the guard nodded his head towards the circus crowd "the vermin are bound to come out."

"Aye, there's one in every town" agreed one of the dancers, "and we usually get the blame, thanks, kid" He opened the purse, picked out a few coins and pressed them into Hinata's hand. Before she could protest he gave her a wink and a smile before donning his mask again and shouting to the musicians to start up another song.

"I'm kinda glad you guys are here, between the three of you and the guards we've managed to catch four pickpockets, six snatch-and-runners, and one armed mugger. Anyway, I'll let you get back to it." He cuffed the thief on the head to get him walking and they disappeared into the crowd. It wasn't often the town guards welcomed shinobi intervention, most of the time they resented it. Hinata continued her walk down the street. Nothing else really caught her eye until she came to the end of the game stalls. One of the last stalls was run by a man who had joined up with the circus only a week ago.

"Knock over the bottles, earn a small prize!" he bellowed out invitingly to a young couple passing his stall.

He didn't really speak to anyone in the camp while they travelled didn't want to help anyone set up their stalls and refused anyone's help setting up his own.

"Or gamble your small prize for a chance to win BIG!" he picked up one of his prizes to tempt the pair, the boyfriend smirked and stepped forward.

Naruto hadn't liked the look of him since the first night but kept his opinions to just the genin.

"We have a winner! Choose your prize" the man at the booth pointed out a row of small cheap knick knacks to the couple in front of his booth.

"Or.. perhaps the lady would like something a little nicer?" he crooned and pointed upwards to where a number of large stuffed toys and pricey looking jewelry hung above the cheaper prizes. The woman nudged her boyfriend and pointed out a rather nice silver necklace. He smirked and nodded, eager to impress he picked up the bean bags and threw. He missed at first, got the top two on the second throw but could not manage to knock over the bottom three on the last throw.

"Aww, too bad. Care for another go?"

"No one has won the large prizes" Hinata jumped and let out a squeak. Naruto had appeared at her shoulder without her noticing. She blushed at her reaction and avoided Naruto's eye.

"It seems easy to get the little prizes but not a single person who's gambled has won again. He's rigged it somehow but I can't see how he does it." Naruto scowled as another man tried his luck at the booth.

"Are you sure?" Hinata asked. The man managed to knock the bottles down with two of the three bean bags.

"Positive, watch" they turned to watch the man throw again but he changed his mind and choose a small toy and moved on.

"Rats!" Naruto muttered. He crossed his arms is a huff and watched the stall waiting for another customer. Hinata prodded her fingertips together, she opened her mouth to talk a few times but the sound refused to leave her mouth. Naruto didn't notice. She mentally scolded herself and gathered her courage.

"Why don't you give it a try" Hinata suggested. Naruto looked at her confused.

"Why would I do that? I know I'll lose." Hinata blushed and fixed her gaze on where her fingers came together.

"With your kunai training you could get to the second stage easily, then I can watch with my Byakugan and see what he does." She added after some hesitation.

Naruto looked confused for a second then it clicked.

"Oh! Great idea Hinata!" he beamed and clapped her on the shoulder. Her blush deepened but Naruto didn't see, he was already striding towards the stall. She took a deep breath to calm down then hurried to catch up.

"Let me have a go." Naruto handed over the money and picked up the bean bags.

"Miss it first, don't let him think you're so good that you can't lose…" Hinata whispered to him. The man had travelled with them so he knew they were trained shinobi. Naruto missed wildly with the first throw.

"Drat!" he said loudly. The second throw grazed the top bottles and they fell, but only just. Hinata wondered if he actually meant to do that. The last bean bag toppled the bottom three bottles.

"We have a winner! Choose your prize or.."

"I'll go for a big prize" Naruto interrupted him and handed over the money for a second go. The man smirked.

"Something nice for the lady friend, alrighty then" as he turned to set the bottles back up again Hinata stepped back out of the pool of light in front of the stall activated her byakugan unseen. Each of the bottom three bottles was set into a shallow groove to mark their place, it wasn't deep enough to prevent the bottle from falling though. That was caused by the length of fishing gut hidden in the grove. There were three, one for each bottle and they led down to pedals hidden at the man's feet. Naruto threw his first bean bag and the stall man pressed down on all three pedals. The fishing gut tightened and the bottles only wobbled. Naruto threw again, this time, the man only held one of the pedals and Naruto managed to knock down the other two. Naruto reared back his arm for a third throw,

"You were right, he is cheating. There's a cord holding that last bottle." Hinata said in her usual quiet voice, low enough to be lost in the music to anyone but him. Naruto scowled, he knew it. He threw the last bean bag and it bounced off the last bottle. It didn't even shudder.

"Too bad Kiddo! Wanna try again?" Naruto shook his head and turned to stomp off. "Not even for the girlfriend?" he called with a motion towards Hinata. Her heart caught in her throat and she hurried to catch up on the blond.

"What now?" she asked as she drew level.

"I suppose we'll have to tell the boss he has a cheater in his midst." Naruto scratched at his chin with a single finger.

It didn't take long for the circus leader to storm over to the crooked stall. Nicknamed Big Bear by the circus the leader was a mountain of a man, there was no doubt he could handle the skinny fraud all by himself, but Hinata and Naruto followed for the entertainment value.

Big Bear jumped into the stall and tore the counter top off its holdings, revealing the fishing gut and the pedals. Bear's bellows about shaming the circus with shady games could be heard through most of the carnival. Declaring his stall, prizes and nightly take forfeit Bear threw the fraud into the street where a guard was waiting patiently to pick him up.

It didn't take long for the people who'd been cheated came back to demand their money back or one of the prizes, the fraud was forced to stand and apologise to each and give them what they wanted, a prize or their money, before being taken away by the guards.

Naruto couldn't help but grin as the fraud was hauled off, and Hinata allowed herself a small smile.

The circus wrapped up later that night with no further incidents, bar a pickpocket who got a nasty bite from Akamaru, and the travellers began to pack up.

The three shinobi were back sitting on the fence watching the activity. The circus had a distinct order to packing up and they didn't want to get in the way.

Kiba nibbled on a honey-dipped banana treat and looked up at the darkened sky.

"It's been so hot these past few days, I'll be glad to start heading back to Konoha." He muttered and pulled on his collar, despite it being late at night it was still rather warm, Akamaru lay panting on the ground and yipped in agreement.

"It's all this warm air getting blown in from the desert." Hinata said softly. Almost on cue a slow deep rumble of thunder rolled across the sky.

"Ah great" Naruto muttered as a few giant dollops of rain started to fall around them. "Let's get inside." They slid off the fence and started to walk towards the inn.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I got this from that fraud's stall earlier on, you want it Hinata? It's too small for me." He tossed something at her. Caught off guard Hinata almost dropped the item, juggling it between her hands before finally grasping hold of it.

It was a small bracelet, three thin strips of leather woven together around a jade charm etched with the word 'Fire'. She tried to say thank you but between her blush for almost dropping the bracelet and the fact that Naruto had given it to her she could only let out a little croak. Kiba rolled his eyes at her reaction, Naruto was waiting for a reply but all three were distracted as the few droplets suddenly turned into a torrential downpour. They sprinted for the inn and dived indoors out of the deluge.

All four of them were soaking by the time they got inside, Hinata's coat was heavy with water, she took it off and hung it over her arm. the boys did the same, at least their coats keep them mostly dry. That was until Akamaru decided to shake off in the hall.

"Akamaru!" Kiba scolded but Akamaru barked mischievously at the wet teens.

Later that night Hinata lay in her bedroll in a small room of the inn she shared with a few of the women from the circus, Kiba, Naruto and the puppy were in the room next door with the men. She examined the bracelet and smiled to herself. It had been a gift from Naruto.

She tied it onto her wrist, it was rather small she had to pull it tightly to get a good enough knot for it to stay on. Regardless, she liked it. The room lit up with a flash and almost instantly a loud boom of thunder resonated in the clouds. Hinata shuddered, she didn't really like thunderstorms, not afraid of them, just disliked. The storm was right overhead and the sound of the rain was deafening. She rolled over and pulled the blankets up to her chin, another boom of thunder sounded overhead as she tried to get some sleep.

The rain had stopped by the next morning, heavy clouds still drifted overhead threatening another downpour. The boys were talking to Big Bear when Hinata joined them outside the inn. They had been deciding whether to move on or wait another day. A vote among the travellers resulted in them moving on. Most things had been packed up last night before the rain started, all that was needed was for the carts to be loaded and animals harnessed.

"We still might make it to the border before nightfall" Kiba commented after they left the town far behind.

Akamaru bounded ahead jumping into puddles. The road was muddy from the heavy rain the night before and with the horses, oxen and carts plodding on churned it up making the road difficult to pass for the wagons in the rear, leading to more than one incident of a cart getting stuck and needing a hard shove. Hinata was walking near the front of the convoy, she paused to glance back down the line while they waited for another cart to get pulled from the mud. Kiba and Akamaru were halfway down the line and Naruto was bringing up the rear. That way they could respond quickly to any threats.

Hinata prodded her foot at one of many small streamlets that were running out of the woods, across the road and into the river on their left. Riverside road was one of two main roads that could be taken towards Suna through River Country, the other led right through the forest and would require half a day's backtrack to get to that road from the town they were in so they choose this one. Thick forest on the right and a river on the left.

The normally calm river had been swollen by the torrential rains from the night before, white water frothed as the torrent of water broke over submerged rocks. Branches and other debris crashed its way down the river, sometimes splintering on impact. The water had risen far up the bank and was wearing pieces of the road away so they walked close to the thick undergrowth at the edge of the forest.

Naruto was helping to push the cart, Kiba watched trying not to grin at the muck and filth getting kicked up onto the blonde by the horses while Hinata watched the road ahead. Akamaru perked up his ears, staring into the trees, he growled. Kiba, Naruto, and Hinata dropped what they were doing and turned their attention to the trees.

"See anything?" Kiba called, Hinata checked the woods with her Byakugan

"Bandits, a lot of them" she called back. The three of them dropped their packs and placed themselves between the nervous caravan and the woods. A few of the travellers pulled their own weapons, just in case. The bandits didn't take too long to attack after it became obvious that their targets knew they were there. Their first attacks were put down hard by Kiba and Naruto further down the line and Hinata worked on deflecting crossbow bolts near the front. With the rear cart stuck, if the bandits stopped the forward wagon they could trap all the others, even if the travellers fled, they would have their stuff.

"They got shinobi!" one of the bandits shouted.

"Plan B then!" another responded. Some of the bandits broke off the direct attack and tried to flank the caravan to grab hostages. There were a lot of bandits. Kiba and Akamaru pulled out their Twin Fang, the puppy assuming the form of his master to fight and Naruto conjured up a few shadow clones. Hinata had no means of creating duplicates quickly or effectively she only had her speed.

Despite their efforts, some bandits managed to get behind them. One of them grabbed the young son of a performer out from his hiding spot under a cart dragging him away. Hinata knocked out the bandit she was currently fighting and jumped over the cart, attacking from above with Jurirukan.

She sent the kidnapper reeling, he stumbled on the edge of the path and fell into the fast-flowing water with a shout. Hinata grabbed the boy before he fell in as well. She tried to pull him back from the edge but his feet had sunk into the deep mud, as had her own. Another bandit charged in and swung at her with a chipped sword. The boy clung to her arm in fear. With only one hand to defend herself, she only just managed to deflect the blow. With her feet sunk into the mud and the weight of the stuck boy, she was dangerously off balance. The bandit swung again with an overhead swing. Hinata caught the strike on her kunai, the bandit laughed and pressed down with his blade. Hinata felt the path beneath her start to give way with his added weight.

"Hinata!" Naruto bounded up the path kicked the bandit hard on the side. He overbalanced, Hinata shrugged his blade away and he fell past her. As he fell he grabbed a fist full of Hinata's jacket pulling her back with him. Hinata hoisted the boy out of the mud and threw him to Naruto. The blonde caught the boy and reached for Hinata but their wet hands couldn't find a grip. Her hand slipped through his and she plunged into the freezing water.

Hinata felt the water pull on her from several directions at once, all she could see was white froth and river bed flying past her view. The bandit's grip failed as her jacket tore. Something hard struck her painfully on the side, shouting out only served to fill her mouth with water. She struggled to the surface to gasp for much-needed air, she was travelling rapidly down the river. She collided a submerged rock, the impact sent her reeling under water again and she struck her head on the rocky river bed. Lights danced in her vision. She fought her way to the surface once again gasping for air.

A large moss covered boulder jutted out from the rapids ahead. Trying to concentrate she focused some chakra into her hands, unable to avoid it she slammed into the large rock, but managed to get a grip on the mossy sides with her chakra charged hands. The force of the torrent forced her against her bolder, trying to pull her loose.

"Hinata!" she barely heard the shout over the roar of the river. Naruto and Kiba were shouting for her at the side of the river. She tried to pull herself higher up the rock to get her head fully above water but she didn't dare remove her hand in case the current pulled her off. The cold water was beginning to numb her arms and legs. Her head felt light and it getting harder to focus her chakra. A concussion, she realised. She glanced at the boys on the river bank, 'please hurry'.

The boys had finished off the bandits then ran down the bank of the raging river, a few of the travellers followed with a long rope.

"There she is! In the middle!" Naruto spotted her clinging to the rock.

"How can we get out there? You can't chakra walk on white water, there's no surface tension to push against." Kiba let out a frustrated grunt as he scanned the river. There were no footholds to jump onto from here.

"Oi Kiba" the dog-nin turned at the call. Naruto shoved a rope into his hand then barrelled past and dived into the water.

"OI! Are you crazy!" Kiba quickly gripped the rope as it pulled tight, the other end was tied around Naruto's waist. The roped prevented Naruto from getting washed further downstream as he passed from rock to rock trying to get to the centre.

The fight through the water was exhausting but he managed to get a relatively secure handhold on a rock next to Hinata, There was a gash above her eye and she was bleeding. He reached out for her, unable to shout due to the water rushing into his mouth when he opened it. Hinata reached out as well and caught his hand giving him a relieved smile. Something loud thundered over the noise of the rushing water. They looked upstream in time to see a large log crashing its way downstream. Naruto tried to pull Hinata across to him but he wasn't quick enough. The log struck a rock and bounced out of the water and crashed down onto their arms. Naruto was pulled off his perch, his arm was pinned against the mossy boulder. He felt it snap. He cried out but gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on Hinata as they were swept down the river.

Hinata's grip on his wrist disappeared. Naruto was suddenly jerked to a stop by the rope around his waist. The tug loosened his grip on Hinata's arm and she started slipping. Naruto managed to get his fingers under something and held tightly. Through the froth he caught a glimpse of her, Hinata's eyes were closed, her body limp. He felt himself being pulled back against the current. His arm burned in protest, he tried to turn himself to grab her with his other arm, but the water rushing past him made it impossible. They were almost back to the bank. Something snapped. At first, Naruto thought his arm had broken in another place but soon realised Hinata's weight was gone. Kiba pulled Naruto out of the river, the blond wheezed and coughed up gouts of water from his lungs.

"Naruto?" he looked up at Kiba and shook his head grimly. Kiba let out an angry shout and kicked a nearby tree. Naruto nursed his broken arm, his hand was gripping so tightly he'd drawn his own blood. Opening his hand, he saw the broken leather of the bracelet he'd given her the night before.

Night was falling, the woman looked up at the darkening sky and sighed, the heavy clouds threatened another storm. She would have to stop soon. She came upon a roadhouse, a one-room shack on the side of the road, providing shelter for travellers. Here would be a good a place as any to stop. Leaving her bags inside she took her kettle from the pack and headed to the river behind the shack. The water level had dropped and the current subsided to a slow flow from earlier in the day.

"One more day" she sighed and crouched to fill the pot with water. Something caught her eye on the draining floodplain. A man? Leaving her pot on the river side she climbed down the muddy bank to the body. The man was face down in the mud, clearly dead, he bore tattoos of a bandit clan. His body was battered and broken from rolling down the river. The woman crouched down and partially rolled the dead man over.

"Bit off more than you could chew eh?" she asked the corpse. She stood to leave but heard something from a little further on, laboured breathing.

'Another bandit' the woman thought and turned to leave. She was halfway up the embankment when she heard the coughing. Sighing she turned and headed back down into the mud flat to find the source of the coughing. She didn't have to go far and saw that a girl was trying to crawl out of the mud.

"You alright?" the woman called, the girl was startled and pulled out a kunai. One of her arms was at an awkward angle, broken most likely, blood trickled from her hairline and nose. Her good hand fumbled the knife and it fell into the mud. The girl sank to her knees trying to reach into her torn equipment pouch for another. Her unfocused eyes slid closed and she slumped into the mud. The woman stepped closer, the girl had a forehead protector around her neck marking her as a Konoha shinobi, a genin by the looks of her. The woman pieced together what had probably happened and scooped the girl carefully from the mud. She would need some help.

The circus set up camp where they had been attacked. Naruto stayed with them due to Kiba's insistence, he would just get in the way with his broken arm. Kiba and Akamaru ran along the river bank looking for any sign of Hinata. They had run for miles and found nothing. Kiba rubbed his eyes furiously.

"No, no time for that Akamaru." the dog whined. "We still might find her" blinking rapidly to clear his vision they continued on.

"There!" Kiba saw something in the river. The water had slowed enough to allow chakra running on the surface. Running across the water he found a tree branch lodged in between some rocks. Tangled in its branches was the bandit that had pulled Hinata in.

He had been impaled by a thicker bough of the branch and pinned under water. Kiba cursed loudly. This river cut right the way through Fire Country, there was no telling where Hinata could have washed up. The dark thought crept into his mind again. Night had fallen fully when Kiba started slowly back to the camp, he needed time to let his tears dry.

They would have to finish their mission first. Then he would suggest to Naruto that they travel back along the river as far as they could before heading east back to the village.

The got the circus to the border before midmorning the next day. Big Bear wished them luck along with the other travellers before they headed off along with their new escort of Suna shinobi. The boys and dog took off running along the river. Hinata might be injured somewhere downstream, they'd find her and take her home. They slowed their pace to a trot when they reached the dead bandit and scanned the shore. They travelled along the river back into Fire country and continued for a long distance. They even followed the river far past the Village of Konoha. Finding nothing but some tattered remains of Hinata's coat on some sharp rocks.

After that, any hope they had faded and they stopped the search and started backtracking over land toward the Village Hidden in the Leaves. They delivered the grim news to Tsunade the Fifth Hokage.

"You're sure?"

"We searched for her but this is all we found" Kiba responded, showing the tattered coat, his voice broke. Naruto stood next to him, his arm in a sling. He was staring intently at the floor and clutched his working fist. Tsunade let out a long sigh and buried her face in her hands. It was a few moments before she spoke again.

"Go to the hospital and get your wounds seen too. I'll inform her father…" Tsunade rubbed her forehead, she hated this part of the job. The two boys headed out of the room, leaving Hinata's pack and tattered coat behind in the Hokage's office.

Tsunade fetched the genin register and flicked it open. It grieved her deeply whenever a shinobi was lost, but the pain always seems that little bit sharper when a genin was killed. With a resigned sigh, the Hokage removed Hyuga Hinata's page from the register.

Hiashi took the news of his daughter's death well. As in he showed no grief at all. If anything he seemed a little disgusted that she was killed so easily. He didn't even bother to take her things from the Kage's office. The Hyuga's wore black armbands for a few days to mark the death of the heir but nothing else seemed to change. The only thing that seemed to change was the knot of guilt that had taken up residence in Naruto's heart.

Hinata's head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, so slow and fuzzy. She opened her eyes to a darkened room. A fire burned low in a fire pit casting a faint light, she could not lift her head. She saw someone sitting against the wall opposite her.

"Na…ruto?" she mumbled, the figure stirred and turned to her, it wasn't Naruto. The stranger said something she couldn't understand and leant toward her, but Hinata closed her eyes again and slipped back into unconsciousness.

End of chapter 1

Thanks for reading.

I'd love to hear your feedback on this. I intend to update on a weekly basis.