The first thing Naruto realized when he opened his eyes, was that he was in pain, lots of pain. His muscles ached bitterly and his head felt like it could explode at any minute. The morning sun did nothing to help the pain and he cursed light and all things that create it under his breath. Worst part is he had trouble remembering why he would be in such a condition in the first place.
The second thing Naruto realized was that he wasn't alone. Despite the blatant protests of his aching muscles and head Naruto jumped up to a taijutsu stance, ignoring his head as it did that exploding thing that it promised earlier. In passing, he also noticed that he was in an unfamiliar wooded area with a stream lightly churning in the background.
Naruto in no way released from his stance when he noticed the foreign presence was his old classmate, Hinata Hyuuga, carrying a large amount of dried twigs and medium sized branches. The young Hyuuga girl immediately dropped her burden and looked down, fidgeting nervously with her fingers, tapping her index fingers together.
"N-Naruto-kun, you're awake." Hinata said, apparently wanting to make conversation, but uncertain what to say.
"Where am I? What's going on?" Naruto growled, not wanting a fight but not wanting to show it, completely oblivious to the fact the Hyuuga had taken no kind of ready position.
Naruto was surprised to see that Hinata was completely taken aback by the question, staring up at him in surprise, and continued her finger twiddling nervously like she may have done something wrong.
"I-I um, we're, w-well I don't know." Hinata admitted blushing.
"T-That is, I don't know where we are." She added quickly. "But I, um, carried you, away from Konoha. B-but just because you said you needed help, a-and you l-looked hurt and I thought you wanted to l-leave and…" Hinata stopped talking when she noticed Naruto had plopped down on the grass with his head in his hands, sobbing silently and shaking.
"I remember." Naruto said through gasps of breath. "I remember everything, I couldn't stop it, I, it's all my fault." Naruto spoke without lifting his head from his hands, and not bothering to mask the tears in his voice.
Naruto lifted his head to scream, screaming at nothing, just screaming. Screaming out of anger, out of depression and disbelief. The previous night replayed painfully in his head over and over. All he could do was scream until his voice was hoarse and his throat hurt, and then keep screaming. Naruto didn't notice that his screaming was causing his head a dangerous amount of pain; or rather he did, but didn't care enough to stop it. Narutos consciousness noted the pain with a detached sense of unimportance and continued as if his own pain didn't affect him in the least. When his vision started getting darker, he continued screaming. Only his loss of consciousness could stop his screaming, as his body lay motionless on the forest floor.
Hinata watched Narutos outburst with trembling hands. She was worried that Naruto was so upset, and hated herself for not being able to comfort him, but more than that she was worried about what could have caused such an outburst in the lighthearted boy. She had seen villagers scorn Naruto for seemingly no reason, but he just laughed it off. She had never seen him make any kind of outburst like that, not even when she was watching him when he thought he was training alone. She had seen him endure so much, something must have happened last night when she took him from Konoha to break his spirit. The thought frightened her. Hinata wanted nothing more than to lay with Naruto-kun and comfort him, but she couldn't. But the least she could do was find something to cook for when he woke up.
The Sandaime looked Mizuke in the eye with distaste as the interrogation proceeded silently. The traitor of Konoha did not have much time left, the medic nins had arrived just in time to repair the tissue in Mizuki's neck, but the wound was unique. No matter what they did they couldn't stop the bleeding entirely, but it had slowed considerably, and the interrogators assured the Hokage that they had enough time to find the facts of what happened in the night while they threw him into a neck-high full body interrogation machine, which allowed them to literally explore the inner workings of the mind. There were currently four interrogator shinobi circled around Mizuke, all of them with their hands trained on his head, eyes closed and focusing intently.
The lead interrogator for this particular interrogation, Inoichi Yamanaka, removed his hand from Mizuki's forehead and looked up at the Hokage, moments later the other interrogators followed suit.
"I've seen what happened." Inoichi stated, not a moment too soon, as Mizuki's head sagged and eyes dimmed to a lifeless hue. Sarutobi looked towards the traitor and noticed this, drawing a long puff from his wooden pipe. When Inoichi began talking he returned his attention to him.
"It's just as you thought."
Naruto was walking through the woods aimlessly, he didn't feel sad or angry, he was just walking through the forest, feeling nothing. He remembered the Hyuga was back at camp, but he felt like this was important, he didn't have a direction or destination, but this felt important. He wandered silently until he heard a pair of footsteps behind him, when he heard them he casually turned, not taking a ready stance, not worried he'd be attacked, but feeling safe. What he saw shattered his aloof air like it never existed.
"Hey Naruto." Iruka said with his hand behind his head and a big smile wrinkling the scar on his face.
"Do you want to get some ramen?"
Narutos eyes opened suddenly. The vision that once showed him his friend and mentor now showed him the underside of a forest of treetops in the late afternoon. He blinked, and felt tears stream down the side of his face. It was a dream; of course it was a dream. He saw him die; he saw his lifeless eyes staring at him, boring into his soul. The familiarity of the tears streaming down his face almost made him laugh out loud, this was his life, maybe this was all it would ever be. Maybe what he needed was revenge. Maybe if he couldn't be noticed by being Hokage, maybe he could make Konoha notice him with destruction, vengeance.
"Maybe that's all they'll ever notice. They sure noticed me; they acknowledge me still as a prisoner in a child."
There was the snarling voice again. Naruto dismissed the voice and summed his dark thoughts up as idle conjecture. It wasn't in him to kill anybody.
"You killed Mizuki didn't you?"
Hmph, I guess I did, Naruto thought bitterly.
"N-Naruto-kun." Naruto looked up as a shy and slightly withdrawn voice addressed him as if it took no small part of effort to address him. He had almost forgotten about Hinata Hyuga, the heiress to the prestigious Hyuga clan. Why was she here? She said she carried him away, but why would she leave Konoha to help him? He noticed when he looked up at her that her cheeks turned a deep rosy color and her mouth opened to talk, but her rosy shade just deepened and she just bowed her head down shyly and extended her arm towards him, holding some kind of meat that seamed to have been roasted over a spicket. Naruto sat up and grabbed the stick she held outstretched towards him, after which she immediately plopped down on a log and buried her face in her jacket, nervously twisting her fingers together in knots. Still suspicious, Naruto looked over the meat for any signs of tampering quickly while Hinata had her head buried in her jacket, so he wouldn't offend her. When he bit down, he found that the meat was juicy and savory, obviously spiced with wild herbs that may be growing in the area.
"This is delicious Hinata, arigato!" Naruto looked up at her and smiled the broadest smile he could muster in thanks, but when Hinata looked up she didn't seem to even see the smile past the tears still staining his cheeks. She looked at him with sad eyes and murmured a quite arigato in thanks. Naruto knew she had seen through his smile; sad, angry, and upset he couldn't even put on a decent facade he looked to the earth between his legs before turning his gaze to Hinata.
"Why are you here? I know you said you wanted to help but why are you really here?" There was no anger, or emotion in his voice whatsoever, but he could not mask the suspicion. He had never known Hinata to be anything but loyal to Konohagakure and he couldn't believe she would risk becoming a missing nin for a demon-boy. Nonetheless, he was finding it hard to see through here emotions, the shock and hurt he saw on her face looked very real, but his face remained impassive.
"N-Naruto-kun, I-I was j-j-just trying t-to help I s-s-swear!" Any other time he may have found her nervous stammering cute, but he couldn't believe her. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, the only thing that could explain why she would help him, and not kill him. Visibly relaxing, Naruto replaced his suspicious accusing appraisal on Hinata to a look of sad comprehension.
"You don't know what I am, do you Hinata?" Naruto asked quietly, suddenly dropping his head, unable to even look at a decent, caring person after learning what he was.
"G-gomen, Naruto-kun, what do you mean?" Hinata shifted nervously, feeling foolish after she realized she had dropped everything for someone she barely knew.
"Go home, Hinata." Naruto said sadly, looking up long enough to see the Hyuga's eyes distort in confusion and disappointment.
"Tell them I captured you, dragged you away. Tell them anything they need to hear they'll believe you, and I don't mind. My fate was sealed the day I was born." Naruto said the last sentence dejectedly, and laid his back down on the ground.
"Naruto-kun" Hinata stated firmly. Naruto noticed with mild surprise that her stutter was gone, as was her uncertain manner.
"I do not plan to leave you here alone, and I certainly don't plan to lie to get you in more trouble." Hinata stated resolutely. Naruto stood up slowly, noticing she had already gotten up and stood closer to him than she had before. He looked her in the eye, and knew she was not going to back down without seeing for herself. He felt the kyuubi inside him stirring with excitement.
"I'll show you then." Hinata looked at him confused, but still resolute. Naruto had no doubt in his mind when he showed her the monster he is she would run away and not look back.
He felt the stinging dark chakra start to circulate in his veins releasing from the seal, slowly at first, then steadily more quickly. Naruto gritted his teeth as he felt the sting of the chakra exiting his skin, taking the form of a fox with a single red tail. His vision got clear, though tinged with a light red haze, and all of his senses skyrocketed. He could smell the earthy smell of the forest and the musty smell of the nearby animals; he could taste the smoky remnants of the fires ash floating in the air, but though he knew it was windy, he could feel nothing, the red chakra wrapping him like the thickest armor.
Hinata looked at him in obvious surprise, but when her surprise faded, she looked perfectly calm. She regarded him seriously, looking him up and down until her eyes rested on his red, slitted eyes, and to Narutos infinite surprise, she smiled.
"I'm still not leaving, Naruto-kun." Still able to hold back her stutter, her voice was almost teasing. Now Naruto could let his anger show, he looked at her through narrow, incredulous eyes and screamed.
"What are you talking about you're not leaving? Look at me, I'm a monster!" Despite his angry admission, tears were gathering quickly at the corners of his eyes and sliding their way down his cheeks.
"You shouldn't be smiling you should be scared! Don't you know a monster when you see one?" Naruto was screaming as loud as he could now, eyes closed and tears flowing freely. He was caught completely off guard when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, pinning his arms to his sides and pulling a soft body into his. The red chakra slowly dissipated and Naruto looked down to see Hinata's hair, flowing around her shoulders and down to mid-back, her face pressed tightly into his chest.
"I like to think I'd know a monster if I saw one..." She looked up at him, blushing deeply with tears welling in the corner of her eyes.
"But I don't see any here." She finished, smiling up at him. Looking down at her, Naruto was still taken aback, but after a moment, he freed his arms from hers and wrapped them around her shoulders, crying gently into her hair.
The interrogation had taken longer than the Sandaime Hokage had expected, and he found himself frustrated at the amount of effort it was taking him to find a search party to look for the blonde haired teen to bring him back. It seemed most shinobi weren't willing to look for the jinchuuriki and busied themselves with something else to excuse themselves from the voluntary search party. Sarutobi was considering putting in a mission request with himself as the client when Hiashi Hyuga burst in rudely through the door looking livid. Two chuunin guards were at his heels, failing in their attempt to maintain the Hokage's standards for meeting and privacy. Sarutobi waved the guards away, interested to see what had the Hyuga clan head so livid.
"Have you sent my daughter on any missions, or otherwise allowed her to leave Konoha for any reason?" Sarutobi snapped without bothering with the formal greetings, acting way beyond what was typically acceptable.
"No, she has yet to even be assigned a team." Sarutobi replied, "But Hiashi you need to address me with..." before the sentence was even complete the Hyuga had stormed out purposefully.
"Proper respect." Sarutobi finished futilely with a frown.
After they had broken apart, to Hinata's grudging dismay, Naruto explained to Hinata what Mizuke had told him. It felt good to talk about what happened not so long ago, and Hinata was a good listener. For whatever reason Naruto felt like she genuinely cared for him, when he told her Mizuki put him up to stealing a scroll she frowned angrily, when he told her Mizuki attacked him and told her what he said Hinata's delicate fists began to shake with her anger, but when he told her how Iruka showed up she visibly calmed, and looked happy their sensei had helped. When it came time for Naruto to tell her about Iruka's death he hesitated.
"N-Naruto, what happened, h-he was reaching t-to help you, did he take Mizuki back to the Hokage?" She asked, worry in her eyes. She knew that could not have happened, that wouldn't explain the exhausted state she found Naruto in.
"No Hinata, Iruka-sensei, he was trusting and, well, he never thought an old friend would turn on him like he did." Naruto started, looking at the ground fidgeting, but when he looked up, he found it hard to continue. Hinata was already crying in her sleeve, she already knew what Naruto was going to say, but Naruto knew he had to say it.
"Mizuke killed Iruka. When I saw Iruka die I lost control of myself, I turned into the mon, er, thing I showed you, and I k-k-killed him." Naruto had never stuttered in his life, but it took all of his effort to get the last word out. Hinata was sobbing hard into her jacket now, Naruto wanted to comfort her, but he was why she was crying. If Iruka hadn't been trying to help him he'd be alive, he didn't deserve to comfort her, and though he was sure she hated him right now he looked back to the ground, and continued his story.
"When I noticed there were no witnesses to what Mizuki did, I knew no one would ever believe the demon-boy, everyone would be happy to have an excuse to be rid of me. So I picked up the scroll, and ran. I know I shouldn't have stolen the scroll anyway, but if I'm going to survive I need whatever help I can get." Naruto looked at the scroll guiltily, but when he thought about the way the town had treated him his guilty look contorted to anger. Good riddance, I don't need that town, Naruto thought angrily, and though he would deny it, a little sadly too.
When Naruto looked up, Hinata had scooted near him, and was looking at him with tears in her eyes, whatever bitterness Naruto was feeling melted away as he looked at her. Though he knew he couldn't deserve it, Naruto wrapped his arms around her in a hug, and to his surprise she hugged him back fiercely. Naruto yawned, and Hinata mimicked the motion, Naruto was tired, they both were, but neither were ready to let go just yet.
Hiashi Hyuga stormed around the Hyuga compound, Byakugan active, searching in every direction for any sign of his daughter, his disappointment. He stormed back into his own manor and stopped when he saw Neji in the hallway approaching him.
"Well?" Hiashi Hyuga demanded.
"I haven't seen her Hiashi-sama" Neji replied "But have you so quickly dismissed the fact that she may be training? She is very aware of her weakness, maybe she has finally decided to do something about it." Neji stated.
Hiashi visibly calmed but the anger did not fade from his face. "She has been gone all day." Hiashi narrowed his eyes ay Neji. Neji shrugged, a full day of training was obviously normal to him. After thinking about it, Hiashi resume his reserved countenance he used as a mask.
"If she is not back by morning, prepare yourself to be placed on a search party." Hiashi stated. Neji simply nodded.
When Hinata woke, she immediately noticed that when they both fell asleep, they hadn't yet been ready to stop hugging. They slept facing each other, her arm draped around his side and his bicep resting comfortably on her neck, his elbow bent his forearm behind her head, with his hand in her hair, and he was smiling. She squealed quietly and quickly jumped up and away, turning away from him to hide her beet-red blush with her hands fiddling nervously with her hair. Luckily Naruto just groaned and frowned, turning around and curling into himself to fall back asleep. When she turned back to look at him, she was still blushing furiously, twiddling her fingers together so quickly her fingers seemed to tie themselves in knots into each other. She smiled as she thought of the way he felt against her, and her blush deepened even further. Though she was happy she got to fall asleep like that, she also berated herself for jumping away from him. Would it be so bad if he found out how she felt about him? Couldn't she have just stayed there a little longer, and maybe pretended like she was sleeping?
Hinata shook herself out of her thoughts when she realized it was morning. It was early, very early and it was still dark. Hinata knew they were pushing their luck remaining here, though she had run far from Konoha they were sure to send a search team eventually. Hinata reached down to shake Naruto awake, but before she could reach him she heard him talking in his sleep.
"Sakura-chaaaan" Naruto mumbled lazily, shifting slightly and replacing his smile. Hinata straightened out and found her face red with anger, instead of gently shaking him awake she gave him a 'light' kick in the stomach. Naruto woke up, and when Hinata realized what she had done she began apologizing profusely, and told him she 'accidently' walked into him. Naruto didn't seem bothered though and gave her a big smile, before looking around and realizing how early it was.
"We better get going, Naruto told her, still smiling." Hinata looked at him, confused as to why he wasn't more worried.
"H-hai N-Naruto-kun. B-but why aren't y-you mad, I-I would u-understand if you w-were." Hinata stuttered, no longer able to control her habit of stuttering around him. Her confusion only deepened when his grin widened and it looked like he had to suppress, a giggle?
"Gomen Hinata, but I was only playing when I said Sakura..." Hinata couldn't have been more confused, and she noticed it was Narutos turn to blush.
"And I woke up before you." Naruto smiled, holding the back of his head with both hands and blushing lightly.
Hinata stared at him, wide-eyed and mouth agape, and feigned playful annoyance, but when she turned around to make sure the fire had completely died down, she was smiling brightly.