Chapter 2: Shadow

The night of the incident Sonic was asleep in his makeshift bed while Hinata lay in hers wide awake; absorbing all the information she'd been told. She was still grasping the fact that she had drawn on the power of this, Chaos Emerald and used it. Hinata looked to the nightstand next to her bed where the cyan colored emerald rested. She couldn't believe that something so beautiful could be so powerful. Feeling restless Hinata rose from bed and went to the kitchen.

Hinata was just finishing her glass of milk and gram crackers she'd gotten out for a midnight snack, still taking in all of what happened that night. Memories ran through her head of the past few hours and she started shaking at the very thought of it. Finally feeling drowsy she put her cup in the sink and started back to her room. On her way through one hall she heard whispers around a corner.

"Hey, did you hear what happened to Lord Hiashi and Lady Hanabi?"

"No I just got back from a mission, what happened?"

Hinata froze at the topic and listened further.

"Something completely decimated the Clan Dojo and Lord Hiashi and Lady Hanabi were badly injured." One Hyuuga said.

"What? How did it happen?" The other said.

"No one knows! All anyone knows is there was a red flash, a small quake and that it took a lot of power to pull it off."

"Wow."

"Yeah. There's a rumor going around that maybe the Demon Bra…"

"Shhhh! We're not supposed to talk about it remember? It's forbidden!"

"Relax, no one's up at this time of night."

"We are!"

"That proves nothing. The point is, is that he might've done it! He did beat Neji after all!"

"That was Neji; this is the head of the Hyuuga Clan we're talking about!"

"Even so, how would that annoying brat get in anyhow? The guards would see something!"

"He was able too steal the First's Scroll of Sealing once! Who says he couldn't do it here?"

"I guess that's possible… but I still don't believe the brat could pull it off, he wears orange for God's sake! Someone would've seen something!"

Hinata froze when she heard one of them mention "orange." And there was only one person she could think of that would fit that.

"Naruto…"

Hinata couldn't listen to anymore of it and ran to bed, scared and confused. When she was back in bed thoughts were running through her head a mile a minute, 'Why would they call Naruto a Demon? He stole the First's scroll? Why would they think Naruto did it?' More thoughts similar plagued her mind as she slowly fell asleep.

She woke up and sat up in bed rubbing her eyes. Her mind was still in turmoil from what she had heard last night. She couldn't get them out of her head and she wanted answers. The only problem was Hinata didn't know how to find them. She got out of bed finally and went out to the balcony to think. From there she could she numerous clan members going through what remains of the dojo. Just looking at it brought back the incident of last night into her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and shivered at the memory and was about to look away when she saw something that made her panic. Among the Hyuuga investigating the site was, Shino and Kiba.

At the site

Down at the destruction site Shino and Kiba were investigating with the Hyuuga clan members there. This wasn't intended to happen; they were just coming by to pick up Hinata for today's missions but when they saw what had happened they offered to help. Of course the Hyuuga accepted. The Inuzuka Clan had hounds that were famous for picking up the faintest traces of scent and tracing it back to its owner. The Aburame Clan were very intelligent and adept at deducing what had happened at the site of a battle and their Kikai bugs can pick up traces of chakra and determine how the chakra was molded, therefore the Jutsu used, if any.

At the moment, both were having a hard time finding out anything of what had happened there aside from what a couple nearby witnesses saw. Right now Shino had called all his bugs back and was conversing with them in a way no ninja outside the Aburame Clan knows how.

"Hmm, I see. You're sure about this? Thank you my friends." Shino said to his bugs and they all flew into his jacket where they would rest under his skin till they were called upon again. Shino sighed and took a moment to look around the ruined dojo. The news he had received from his insects was disturbing. They could not determine the jutsu used to cause this, or find chakra traces, but that was not what was troubling him. True the Kikai bugs had not found chakra but rather something else. From what he could tell, what had caused this was not done by chakra, but a strange and incredibly powerful energy that was shaking the insects to the core, to the point where they would've disobeyed him and returned.

"Shino!" From the other side of the wreckage his teammate, Kiba and his white canine companion, Akamaru were trying to find any scent traces. "Did you find anything?" Kiba asked.

He nodded. "Yes I did, but it's very… disturbing." He said while walking.

"What do ya mean?" Kiba asked cocking an eyebrow.

"It wasn't a jutsu that did this. In fact there was no chakra at all but, something else…" Shino answered trailing off stopping in the middle of the courtyard.

"Well, what is it?" He asked pushing it.

"A strange energy was disturbing my insects. Based on their reactions they were about to retreat and disobey me." Shino explained.

"Wow, what was it?" He asked.

"I don't know. We should report this to the Hokage." Shino suggested.

"Alright you go do that and I'll get Hinata. Kurenai-Sensei is still waiting for us for missions." Kiba said. Shino nodded seeing the logic of the suggestion and he left for the Hokage's office and Kiba went to look for Hinata in the mansion.

Back...

She had heard everything Shino and Kiba discussed and started panicking. She knew that on the way Kiba would press her about what happened to the dojo and she didn't want to talk about it. Thinking on her feet, she grabbed the still sleeping Sonic and the emerald and hid in the bathroom. It wasn't the best hiding spot true but it was the best she could think of.

"Hinata?" She heard Kiba call. She ducked into a towel closet and closed the door.

Outside Kiba couldn't find her anywhere and it was harder without Akamaru. The Hyuuga's didn't want a dog soiling the fine silk and plants so they wouldn't let him in. He was about to give up when he noticed the bathroom door was shut. Thinking she might be in there he lightly knocked.

"Hinata you in there?" There was no answer. Thinking it was safe he cracked the door a little and looked inside. "Guess she's not here. Maybe she went out early."

In the closet Hinata heard Kiba's footsteps recede down the hall breathed a sigh of relief. Believing he wasn't coming back she stepped out of the closet. Hinata looked around her room with her Byakugan just to make sure and finally sat back on her bed.

"cnp brphh!"

Hinata snapped up and quickly looked around for the source of the noise.

"Hmmaphaaa!" She looked down and saw she had her hand clamped tightly over Sonic's mouth. She quickly released him and he fell on the floor gasping for air.

"S-sorry about t-that." She apologized.

"What was that about?" He asked just a little irritated.

"K-Kiba and S-Shino were ch-checking the dojo r-r-ruins and w-when Kiba c-came up to g-get me for t-t-today's missions. I-I was afraid h-he'd ask me a-bout it." She stuttered out.

Sonic sighed a little. "You know you have to tell them sometime, right?" he said.

Hinata just nodded. "Y-yes b-but I-I'm afraid of w-what they'll t-think o-of m-me. I d-don't even k-know h-h-how I d-d-did th-that. Maybe w-we should j-j-just get r-rid of i-it." She suggested.

"No! That's an incredibly powerful jewel and can cause a lot of trouble in the wrong hands." He said.

"T-then could I j-just leave i-it here?' She asked.

"No it could be found by someone. Maybe you should take it with you."

"Wh-what? I-I-I-I can't! I could l-lose control like l-last time! I-I don't want that to h-happen a-a-a-again!" She panicked.

"I know but I can't hold onto it I lack pockets! You have to hold onto it and make sure it stays safe." He said.

"B-but I co-could still l-lose c-c-control!" She cried.

Sonic just sat down and closed his eyes, thinking hard about what to do. He sat there for several minutes before he finally looked back at her, smiling and said, "Well then you need to practice."

She looked back at him puzzled and repeated, "Practice?"

"With the Chaos Emerald. You need to practice controlling it so this doesn't happen again and I'm gonna help you!" He said with enthusiasm. "C'mon let's go-ahh!" Sonic felt pain shoot through his legs and had to sit back down to make it stop.

"D-Don't push y-yourself, you still n-need to h-heal." She checked his wounds again and changed the bandages to make sure his wounds would still heal.

"I still need to help you practice. I've used the Chaos Emeralds before and there's no telling what could happen." He reasoned.

"Um… well, I have one i-idea…" Hinata somewhat mumbled.

One idea later…

"I regret this soooo much!" Moaned Sonic.

"I-it's the only way t-to get you t-to the grounds without anyone n-noticing." She whispered to him.

"But in a backpack? This is just ridiculous!"

The idea Hinata had earlier was to put Sonic in her backpack and carry him all the way to the training grounds. He'd been willing to try it at first but now he was seriously regretting it. The ride was bumpy, stuffy and overall uncomfortable.

"Shh! People are looking!" Said Hinata noticing that people were beginning to stare. After she mentioned that Sonic went quiet knowing that a blue talking hedgehog would cause panic. She hurried along at a faster pace to avoid the stares of the people and could hear Sonic grunt 'Ow, ow, ow!' as he bounced in the pack, irritating his leg.

Thirty minutes later they arrived at the training grounds and Hinata was able to let Sonic out of the pack. He tumbled out of there panting heavily. She let him catch some air for a minute before asking, "Um we should s-start practicing n-now shouldn't w-we?"

"Yeah I guess we should." He said. They both just stood there for a bit, Hinata waiting for instruction on what to do and Sonic staring into space. "….I have no idea what to do." He said a little sheepishly. Sweat drop.

"Um I'll j-just try, s-something." She said. She took out the Chaos Emerald and stared at it for a bit.

"Be careful, that's a very powerful emerald." Sonic warned. She nodded and closed her eyes trying to feel the power from before. Several minutes went by with nothing happening.

'I don't understand.' She thought. 'Why can't I feel the power again? I know it's there I can see it.'

When she couldn't initially feel the power again she started looking at it through her Byakugan to see if she could see the source and flow of it. She could see the source in the emerald but it was… dim for a lack of a better word. The puzzling part was that there was no flow from it through her arm or anywhere for that matter. Yesterday there was an almost immediate flow through her, now there was none. Deactivating her Byakugan she sat down against a tree to think for a bit.

'I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Why can't I feel the emeralds power flowing through me like before? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I used up most of the power last night. No no, Sonic said he'd used the emeralds lots of times so they must make their own power somehow. But how do I use it? Maybe its better if I can't then I can avoid a repeat of last night. But I still have to take it with me and I might accidentally use it again. Oh, why couldn't this be like, using, chakra… wait.' She suddenly had a thought and took out the emerald again and looked at it with her Byakugan again. 'Maybe… if I try drawing its power like chakra it could…' She began to test her idea and almost immediately she saw and felt the power flowing through her body. She watched the energy flow through her body; it was filling every chakra point in her system. It felt amazing the energy was practically glowing…wait. She deactivated her Byakugan and saw that she was glowing. More specific she had a red aura around her. Sonic stared at her amazed at what he was seeing. He'd never seen the Chaos Emerald's power used that way before, in fact he'd never seen the emeralds used by a human before.

Hinata tested out the power that was flowing through her. She could see clear across the village with her Byakugan as well as see the chakra points in Sonic with stunning clarity. It also augmented her movements; her Gentle Fist Strikes were much more effective, she could move much faster than normal and she had a mean right hook too.

After experimenting a little more she decided to try and repeat what she did last night. She really didn't want to and it shook her to the core just thinking about it, but she knew it was necessary to prevent it from happening again. She tried to draw more energy from the Chaos Emerald but she wasn't getting much out of it. She tried to draw more out of it but it still wasn't giving up much. She stopped trying to draw more and her red aura faded as she sat down against the tree again.

"Something wrong?" Sonic asked.

"I'm trying to draw more power from the Chaos Emerald but I'm not getting any." She said without stuttering. "What am I doing wrong?"

Sonic sat there and thought for a moment about what she said about last night. "How did you feel when you used it last night?" He asked.

"Huh?" She said puzzled.

"The Chaos Emerald's turn thought's into power, what were you feeling last night?" He explained.

"Um I felt scared and fearful…" She said.

"Not strong enough, anything else?"

"Um after a while I felt, frustrated and… angry." She said catching on. "You mean t-that…?"

Sonic just nodded and said, "Probably."

"Oh my… then w-whenever I g-get… that will h-happen?" She said stuttering again.

"I guess." He said. "You'd better keep practicing."

"R-right." She said and continued practicing.

Elsewhere…

In another training ground, much farther from where Hinata and Sonic are, her team was gathering for their usual meeting.

I wonder what's taking Kurenai-sensei so long." Kiba wondered. "She isn't usually late." Shino nodded but aside that just stood there silently. Then Kurenai appeared in front of them finally.

"Sorry I'm late. The Hokage was holding a meeting with all the Jounin." She explained then noticed there was someone missing. "Where's Hinata?"

"She wasn't at the Compound when we went to pick her up but what was it about?" Kiba asked.

"That's not for me to tell Kiba." She said.

"It was about the incident at the Hyuuga Main Household wasn't it" Shino surprised everyone with that statement but Kurenai was even more surprised because he was right.

"How do you know about that?" She inquired.

"We were investigating the site of it," He said. "I discovered something interesting and… disturbing." He said growing slightly quiet at the end.

"What did you find?" Kurenai asked very intrigued.

"Whatever happened there was not done by chakra. Rather it was a power that, according to my insects, was not something seen in this world before. It was soaked with an unimaginable amount of hatred and rage. The only equivilant I can think of would be half the power of the Kyuubi, but it did not come from it." Shino said in a dark tone that sent shivers down everyone's spine.

"Anything else?" She asked after regaining her composure.

"…No, nothing else."

"Well because of this, all missions are suspended for an indefinite amount of time until we are sure there isn't a saboteur within the village. Dismissed." She said and all of them went their separate ways, Shino more slowly than the others.

There was one thing that Shino had withheld from her because he wasn't sure if it was relevant or not. And that was that he found a trace of chakra there…. Hinata's chakra. Shino decided to ponder this later and went in his own direction to scout for new insect specimens for the reminder of the day.

Back…

Hinata had made little progress in replicating the blast from the night before. She'd tried making herself angry in many ways but it barely increased the emerald's power. It just seemed she couldn't do it again. Right now she was till trying to, not willing to give up until she knew how to do it and could prevent or control it.

'Come on please work this time.' She thought and envisioned what happened the night before. She saw the emerald briefly get brighter but it faded as quickly as it came. At that point she just gave up and sat on the forest floor. "I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I've tried everything I can think of to get mad. Why won't it work?" She asked more to herself.

"It's because you're too kind." Someone in shadows said. They whipped around in the direction of the voice and a hedgehog with black fur, white chest fur, red oddly made shoes, crimson streaks on top of his own drooping spikes, gold rings around his wrists and ankles and a serious face stepped from the shadows.

"Shadow!" Sonic exclaimed recognizing him.

"You know him?" She asked still wary of the hedgehog.

"Yes, we've… crossed paths." Shadow said.

"What did you mean by 'you're too kind'?" Sonic asked.

"It means that she's too nice. If she wants to attempt the Chaos Blast you have to get angry." Shadow said walking closer to her.

"B-but, I've tried to! Nothing's worked." She said.

"That's because you don't want to do it. You do want to but your subconscious knows you don't so you won't get angry." Shadow explained.

"Then… how do I?" She asked.

Shadow walked closer to her and just stared at her for several minutes making her feel uncomfortable until he finally spoke up. "…You're weak."

Hinata was taken back by the comment but he continued. "You're a weak pathetic excuse of a human. How you ever became one of these famed shinobi is beyond me." She started backing away. "You shouldn't even be a ninja, you can barely fight, and you are too kind to take a life and even worse, you always rely on your teammates for help in your battles." Shadow started

"No, no I don't!" She said trying to defend herself.

"Shadow, stop it! This isn't-" Shadow started.

"Stay out of it Sonic! It's what needs to be done if this weakling wants to succeed at anything!" He said turning on her again. Hinata took more steps back but Shadow just advanced. "You don't deserve to be a ninja if you can't stand up to a hedgehog."

"Stop it!" She yelled.

"Perhaps your father was right; you are weaker than your sister. The only thing you've really succeeded in was putting them in a coma!" He yelled the last word.

That snapped something in her. "Stop, I didn't do it on purpose!" Then…. she did it. After those words she performed a Chaos Blast that decimated the entire clearing shocking Shadow and Sonic. Hinata looked around at what she did.

"D-did I do that?" She asked nervously.

Shadow nodded and said, "That is only a miniscule fraction of the Chaos Emerald's power, what you did last night was three times the power you used here. If you are serious about controlling a Chaos Emerald, I advise you to control yourself first." Shadow said.

"H-how do I d-do that?" Hinata asked.

"Do it again until you can recognize what it is that triggers it and block it." The black hedgehog said. "Do it again."

Much later in the day…

Hinata fell back on the ground panting hard. She'd been repeating the Chaos Blast over and over again until she could do it at will, and then tried to suppress an involuntary one. So far there wasn't much progress in that area.

Sonic sat against one of the nearby trees that wasn't destroyed and Shadow standing next to him.

"Can I… take a… b-break now?" She asked out of breath.

Shadow shook his head. "No, you need more practice of you're going to master using a Chaos Emerald." He said sternly.

"Shadow, give Hinata a break!" Sonic said.

Shadow sighed. "Sonic, she needs to-"

"Shhh!" Hinata cut him off. "Listen." The clearing fell quiet. Both hedgehogs were listening for whatever Hinata heard. They soon began to make out the faint sound of voices.

"…think it's… …-u sure? ...Yeah! ...-on Akamaru!" Hinata's eyes widened when she heard a bark. It was definitely Shino and Kiba. And they were getting closer! Acting quickly, she grabbed both hedgehogs and dove into the thickest bush she could see.

Just minutes later, Shino, Kiba and Akamaru emerged in the clearing, both of them stopped when they saw the crater.

"Whoa! What the heck happened here?" Kiba exclaimed.

Shino bent down to examine the crater. "It looks as if something impacted the ground but closer it appears to be a centered detonation." Shino released some insects to investigate further.

Kiba scratched his head in confusion. "You lost me at impacted." He said.

Shino inwardly sighed. "It looks like something crashed here but it's also like an explosion." He simplified. Kiba Oh'd in understanding.

"What could do that?" Kiba asked.

"I'm not sure." Shino said. His bugs returned to his sleeves and Shino's eyebrows went up from the info.

"What?" Kiba asked seeing the look.

"Whatever did this used the same kind if energy I found at the Hyuuga Dojo." Shino said.

"So the same dude that wrecked the dojo could be here?" Kiba said looking around wildly.

Shino nodded. "It is possible."

In the brush meanwhile, Hinata was hiding from her friends and teammates for fear that they would question her about both the Dojo and the clearing.

Both hedgehogs squirmed in her grasp and tried to speak but she had her hands clamped over their mouths to prevent that. Sonic was remaining still while Shadow was more impatient and was trying to squirm out of her grasp.

"Please stop moving!" She whispered.

Shadow removed her hand from his mouth enough to speak a little. "Get your hands off of me!" He said.

Shino and Kiba both looked in the direction of their hiding spot. Hinata instantly froze and clamped her hand back over Shadow's mouth. Several tense minutes passed with neither party moving an inch. Hinata's heart was pounding wildly in her chest as the seconds went by. Finally, she ran. Kiba and Shino took off after her but Hinata had a huge lead already.

They raced after her, not knowing it was Hinata. Shino sent bugs after her to subdue her. Hinata's eyes widened seeing the bugs and panicked. She tried to loose them by weaving through trees but to no avail. Hinata was frantically trying to think of how to loose them when she remembered the emerald.

Drawing on its power again, the red aura reappeared as well as the speed, allowing her to outrun them and the bugs easily.

Shino and Kiba stopped and Shino recalled his insects.

"What was that?" Kiba asked.

"Whoever it was possesses incredible speed." Shino said.

"What now?" Kiba asked.

"The perpetrator is likely long gone now. The most we can do is report this to Lady Tsunade and keep our own watch." Shino said.

Kiba didn't like it but had to agree with Shino. So he reluctantly followed Shino back to the village.

In another training ground much closer to the village, Hinata stood panting still holding both hedgehogs. Shadow squirmed free from her grasp and stood glaring at her. "What was that about?"

"I-I'm sorry. I thought t-that they'd ask me a-about the Dojo a-and the clearing." She said.

"What's so bad about that?" Shadow said irritated.

"Shadow," Sonic started. "She didn't want to talk about it just yet. Lay off her man."

"If she wants to amount to anything, she needs to face her fears!" Shadow snapped.

The two rivals continued the back and forth bickering for just south of an hour before Hinata put herself between the two and forced them to stop and have lunch. They begrudgingly agreed and sat down to have the bento boxes Hinata had packed. Since there was only two Hinata and Sonic, after some pestering, they both gave some of theirs to Shadow.

Leaf Village Hospital, 3rd Floor ICU

Hinata took a deep breath to steady herself, her entire rational side screaming at her to back away and run fast but she knew she had to do it. All through lunch she had debated within herself on whether or not she should go and visit her Father and Sister in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. She had almost chickened out when Shadow had surprised her by saying she should. Hinata questioned him how he knew and Shadow revealed that he had witnessed the whole match the night before.

Regardless he pressed her to go see them and soon she had caved and agreed. Now she was standing in front of the door to their room, a pair of Branch Guards on either side for protection against assassins, ready to enter. She nodded to the guards who nodded in response, giving a silent ok to enter and a vote of confidence behind it. She dry swallowed and turned the knob.

Me: I am back baby!

Shadow: About time.

Me: Shut it or I make you a girl.

Shadow:…