Thank you so much if you took the time to read chapter 1 and were still interested enough to read chapter 2. That's always exciting!
Again, I would like to mention that this story will include multiple ships (mostly NaruHina and NaruSaku). I will be respectful to both ships. If you happen to hate either one, this probably isn't the story for you. And I won't take offense to you not reading it.
Thank you!
"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" A leaf shinobi bellowed out to the civilians as they scrambled through the streets to get to safety. "TO THE HOKAGE MOUNTAIN!"
Konohagakure, as a whole, had learned long ago that the world had villains in it capable of terrible powers and awesome destruction. Knowing this truth, they had perfected their defences. Shinobi lined the streets and directed people to the right path. The elders and children were all accompanied and helped along in the organized chaos. Anbu forces took to the perimeter to protect from attacks from any other direction. And a few watched the skies for an aerial attack. The well-oiled machine that was Konohagakure was at work.
On this night, it seemed to be an isolated incident. Naruto, his wife, Sakura, and few others of the Konoha 11 were first at the scene. They were quickly joined by their juniors and a couple of the brave trainees.
"Hinata." Naruto said. Without needing his prompting, Hinata already had her byakugan activated and was searching through the smoke and dust for any signs of chakra.
"It's like a spiderweb! There are Strings of chakra everywhere!" She explained as her eyes searched the surrounding area.
"Boobytraps then. Someone must have set one off. Do you see a source?" Sakura added.
"There is a focal point but it doesn't make any sense. It's just a box, a tiny box in the middle of the web." Hinata tried to explain.
"I've got this." Came Temari's voice from behind them. From a small scroll at her hip she summoned her giant fan. With a single swipe she banished the debri in the air. Left behind was rubble of the great wall that encircled the village and some building fragments caught in the explosion. Those standing in the trees and on the tops of buildings were poised in a ready stance for any surprise attack.
"Careful everyone." Naruto said as they jumped down from the rooftops towards the mess.
"I'll check for any injured persons." Sakura said and jumped towards the damaged buildings. She disappeared into the rubble.
"And I'll scope the forest for any traces of an intruder." Kiba called from a couple rooftops away. The older shinobi there called out the tasks that they would help with while the younger ones waited for orders from their team leaders. Naruto and Hinata made their way towards the box.
"Be careful." Naruto cautioned as his wife led them through the strings of chakra. Hinata stepped lightly through the foliage and chakra strands until she came to the source. In her vision it pulsed with chakra as though it were a beating heart. Naruto watched his wife and the tree line for any intruders.
"What is it?" Hinata said as she reached out a hand towards it.
"Don't touch it!" Shouted a mysterious feminine voice. Out of the shadows lept a slim figure with a cloak flapping behind them in the wind. She twisted in the air and pulled out a kunai. With precision, the figure threw the kunai into the top of the glowing box. It hissed and thick blue smoke poured from the wound. Naruto quickly grabbed his wife around her middle and sailed into the air just out of reach of the swirling blue cloud. The couple landed softly on one of the undamaged tree branches.
"Poison?"
"I'm not sure." Hinata answered.
"Do you see that girl?" Naruto said, his eyes glued to the smoke.
"Yes, she's there, but... it's like she's fighting, but there is no one else there!" As if to bring truth to Hinata's words the mysterious kunoichi jumped into the air, clear of the smoke. In her hand she clutched a kunai. She held it before her as though she were pressing it against some invisible force. A clang of metal on metal pierced the air and sparks littered the space before her as she fought against a seemingly non-existent foe. With a blow that went unseen the young woman crashed into the trunk of a tree. She moved her head in time before some force made an indentation where her face use to be. She rolled across the ground and jumped up onto her feet, blade held before her in a defencive stance. With no warning another clash of metal rang out and the girl was running.
Naruto searched the air but could not see her attacker. He could see nothing and it was obvious the girl needed help. "What do we do?" He yelled out to the ninja.
"The strings!" She yelled as she pushed off another trunk of a tree and sailed through the air. "You have to cut them!" She threw three kunai with explosive tags in her wake. One hit the unseen target and exploded. "Don't touch them!" The girl huffed as she dropped down from a branch onto the ground. She ran with a balled up fist towards the enemy that only she could see. "And don't use chakra." Her fist slammed into the ground and it splintered beneath her fist. The attack seemed to do nothing though as something caught the girl by her chin and sent her sailing through the air.
"I'll do it Naruto." Hinata said and cut the closest string to her. She jumped from glowing string to string slicing as she went.
The girl in the middle looked like a ragdoll being tossed from side to side. Before she could collide with a boulder Naruto caught her. She looked up at him with blue eyes, one already swelling with a nasty shade of purple. "To your left!" She yelled out in warning. Naruto swung around and let the back of his first collide with whatever was there. He felt a crunch under his first but before he could reach out and grab the assailant they had disappeared from him again.
"Last one!" Hinata called.
"Break the box!" the girl cradled in Naruto's arms cried. With a single leap Naruto closed the distance and crushed the box with the swirling power of his signature rasengan.
The girl, battered and beat up, looked down at the now plain smashed wooden box and then around the battlefield.
With relief she said, "It's gone."
"It? What is it?" Naruto asked turning the exhausted girl so she could look at him. Despite her lumps and bruises forming he could see that she was a pretty girl that looked to be around his own children's age.
"I don't know everything. I'm too tired. I'll tell you about it later… dad." And with her final words the girl drifted into a deep sleep. Naruto shook his head, not sure that he had heard right. Dad? The girl must have injured herself more than he thought.
He heard a soft thump on the ground as the former Hyuga joined him. "Did she say anything? Is she alright?" His wife's words brought him out of his confusion.
"Oh, no, nothing that made sense. But I should take her to Sakura to make sure she's okay."
"Yes, you're right."
"Stay here, help Shikamaru get anything he needs. He starts working on this immediately."
"I'll get everything started." Hinata said and turned towards the crime scene.
Naruto looked at the body collapsed in his arms. Cradling her carefully so she wouldn't jostle too much on the journey he leaped into the air. It didn't take long to find Sakura, Naruto could hear her barking orders to her medical nin from a mile away.
"Get an IV to bed four. I have a broken arm on bed nine. Midori, you have stitches on 16! Go! And we'll need more clean water, so get moving!" Sakura commanded. Still, after all these years, Naruto was impressed by his best friend's ability to perform when it came to savings lives. The scar on his ribcage itched at the thought of it.
"Sakura." Naruto called.
"Give me a minut-" Sakura was about to finish when she turned and saw the battered girl in his arms. "Put her here." She motioned to an open cot. "What happened?" she asked as she checked the girls pulse and looked into the unswollen eye's pupil.
"Not sure." Naruto didn't miss the glare that Sakura shot at him but continued anyway. "She was fighting nothing. There was no one there but she was being tossed around like garbage. I made contact, once, but they vanished."
"A cloaking jutsu?" Sakura guessed as she scanned the girl's body for the most severe wounds.
"I thought so. But even Hinata couldn't see the person. No chakra." Naruto explained lamely.
"That doesn't make sense." She pressed her hands against the kunoichi's mid-section and sent healing waves into her bleeding organs. "Some trick we don't know yet huh? Well, it's been a dull couple of years."
"Peace boring you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto teased.
Sakura looked around her makeshift medical station, "Guess not. I could always do without this."
"Mom!" Both former Team 7 members looked over to see Sarada and Bolt arrive at the scene.
"Sarada, her shoulder, the tendon is ripped." It was all Sakura needed to tell her daughter for Sarada to join in the healing process.
"Who is she?" Sarada asked looking down at the unknown kunoichi.
"The enemy?" Bolt asked looking to his father for the answer.
"Not sure." Naruto didn't miss the glare his son shot him either. Maybe Bolt had learned more than chakra control from Sakura. "She didn't say much before she fainted." Naruto continued ignoring his son. "I'll have Ino talk to her once she is awake."
"Ino will like that. She hasn't been able to use her interrogation skills in a while." Sarada said.
"Aunt Ino." Sakura corrected.
"Do I really have to call her that even when she's not around?" Sarada whined annoyed.
Sakura just shrugged. "You tell me what happens if she finds out."
"Ugh, overbearing pig of an aunt!"
Naruto just laughed at the mother-daughter antics. "I'll leave this girl in your care then, Sakura-chan. Please, contact Ino and I as soon as she wakes."
"Yes boss." Sakura said smiling.
While the Uchiha women focused on their healing, Naruto motioned for Bolt to follow him. As the two walked away Naruto said, "Let's go see what Shikamaru figured out."
"There's not a trace left in the box, Shikamaru-kun. No Chakra at all." Hinata said while closely observing the box her husband destroyed.
"Thanks, Hinata." Shikamaru said already lost in thought.
"Shikamaru." Naruto called as he and his son arrived.
"Hokage." Shikamaru answered simply.
"Figured it out yet?" Naruto asked as he stood at his wife's side.
"I have a theory. I'll need to speak with Sakura about it." He said and lit a cigarette.
"Can I have one?" Bolt asked looking at the white stick hanging from his mentor's lip.
"No." Both his parents answered for Shikamaru.
Shikamaru ignored the troublesome antics of the teen and continued on topic. "I'm thinking this has might be related to Sakura's Hundred Seal or something similar to Sasori's chakra heart, the way the chakra was stored. I'll make some headway once she answers some of my questions."
"She's pretty busy at the moment. They are more injured than we thought." Naruto explained.
Hinata interjected, "I'll go see if I can help Sakura then." And she jumped away and into the night.
"Is this serious, Shika?" Naruto asked crossing his arms.
Shikamaru took another long drag on his tobacco stick. "I can't say. From what I got from Hinata, you guys were told not to touch it while it was infused with chakra. I don't know what kind of threat it is if I don't know what would have happened if you did. I'll have to talk to the mystery woman too."
"I'll already have it set up for Ino to meet her as soon as she wakes up."
"Good, I'll brief Ino on what information I need." Shikamaru announced and put his hands in his pockets. "See you around kid." Shikamaru said to Bolt before leaving the scene as well.
Naruto watched as each of the evidence pieces were picked up and carefully bagged to be taken to the interrogation and evidence headquarters.
"Dad, you're gonna let me go too, right?" Bolt asked. He wanted so much to be included in his father's work. He wanted to see how the Hokage office ran and how dangerous situations were dealt with.
Naruto looked down at his son. This would be a great opportunity for the young Hokage hopeful. But something was still scraping at the back of his skull.
Dad.
Naruto wanted to clear up that misunderstanding first before he introduced his sensitive son to the situation. Something was causing unease to stir in his gut.
"We'll see." was all Naruto could say.
Bolt kicked a rock and it skittered away from him. His father's 'we'll see' was as good as a 'no'. Well, there were other ways to get information.
"Let's get everyone in the hospital" Sakura instructed.
The village had been cleared of any enemies. The perimeter was being watched and patrolled. Trackers had been sent into the surrounding forest and the villagers had been sent home. One by one the injured had been carried by Sai's ink beasts to the hospital.
"Mom."
"What is it Sarada? Did she wake up?" Sakura asked making her way to her daughter.
"No, but look ma." Sarada said and motioned to the slumbering girl. Now that they were indoors and the white light of the overhead light fixtures illuminated the girl that had been hidden in shadows all night they could finally see her clearly. Her black leggings were ripped or torn at the knees. She wore a fitted mint green top that hugged her figure. The dark gray cloak still pinned to her shoulders was in tatters. But none of that stood out like the long strands of light pink hair flowing from her scalp down to her waist.
"Just like yours." Sarada said almost touching it and then thinking better of it.
"Yeah, you don't see too many people with pink hair, huh?"
"I wonder who she is…"
"Me too, dear, me too."
Thank you! Thank you for reading! I'm so excited to slowly introduce some new characters. And as truths unfold see how the canon people react! Yay!
I'd really love some reviews. Especially since this is my first fanfic. Tee hee!