Hey, everypony. Sorry it took so long to come out (that's what she said XD). Anyways, I had an extreme case of writer's block, please forgive me. I hope you like the chapter and please R&R.

Chapter II: The Truth

Natsu walked the halls of the Hokage Tower. He was feeling a lot better, now that he was up and about, but he was curious to find out who caused him so much damage, how he lost his memory and have to be saved by such a fool. He sighed as he reached the exit. Shizune and Tonton were slowly coming in the same time and they both looked badly damaged. They were scratched up, and covered in dry blood. Shizune's clothes were tattered and torn. Shizune was weakly holding the injured pig in her hands. What happened to them? Natsu thought as he approached the injured woman and swine.

"What happened, Shizune-sama?" he asked.

"Oh- h-hey, Natsume," she whispered weakly. He could tell that even speaking was difficult for her, "some ninja from the fire village were causing trouble near the sound village and I was called to deal with them. Turns out they're even more powerful than expected. Heh heh..." she smiled weakly.

"Do you need help up the stairs?" he asked. Why am I asking this? I have better things to do...Natsu thought annoyed.

"I'll be fine, thank you. I can use up the remainder of my ninjutsu on reviving Tonton and myself." she weakly smiled and stumbled upstairs. Natsu looked at her worryingly. Shizune was never the one to run out of energy easily. The shinobi who had attacked her must have been really strong, he thought.

"If you say so," he nodded and went off. He still needed to find his friend Neji. He was eager to talk to him and ask him any questions on what happened before he ended up in the hospital.

Natsu decided to visit the Hyuga household. He saw Neji's cute cousin, Hinata, on the deck working on a new technique. She seemed very focused and strong, looking at her that way made it harder to believe she was so jumpy. The way her eyes were darker and the veins were bulging made her appear even more frightening.

"Hinata!" he called out, walking towards the female shinobi.

She stopped at a sudden halt. Hinata turned to look at Natsu as the spring cherry blossoms flew from the trees. Her long hair blew vigorously with the wind, he even felt his own bangs move out of his face and flow with the wind. Her eyes were back to the normal, grey shade and she changed into her cute self. "Hello, Natsume-kun. How are you today?" she asked quietly while smiling sweetly.

"I'm fine," Natsu nodded regarding her politeness. She was always to sweet and kind; he liked that about her, it didn't seem to piss him off as much as the nuisance did, "Is Neji home?"

"Um, actually he went with Tenten-chan, Lee-kun, and Gai-sensei to see what is going on with the ninja from the fire village," she responded, "I hope they are okay..." she looked worried.

Lee...Natsu thought, was he not just at the hospital? Speaking of which, those assholes from the fire village must be really strong...He nodded at the small ninja, "thank you for telling me. Uh, do you know where those assholes went?"

"I-I am not quite sure. I believe that they went south from here. I do hope they don't get too far away from the village. You got pretty beat up after you got involved with the ninja..." she responded.

There were those ninja again. He was getting closer and closer to the truth of what happened to him three weeks prior. The most he could remember was lying there on the cold ground, bleeding, as the bastard laughed and kicked his side. He was unsure of how he got there, or how the ninja managed to get him down. Just thinking about this made his almost healed injuries ache. Natsu decided that it would be the right time to get some answers from the small, timid, ninja.

"Hinata," he started, "do you by chance have any information to how the hell I ended up in that hospital three weeks ago?" there was a short pause. The wind blew again, as the leaves and hair blew past the ninja.

"Well," Hinata looked deep into thought. He assumed that there was some rumours going around and she was trying to depict the truth from the false. She started again, "Would you like to know the knowledge I am positive about, or what I've heard?"

"Well, I don't know, Hinata. The positive information seems so far-fetched that I don't think I could handle it," he said sarcastically. Natsu was not in the mood for any distractions. All he wanted was to know about what happened the past three weeks.

Hinata looked at him with a dumbfound expression.

He sighed, "Come on, Hinata! Sarcasm! I would like the information to be as true as possible."

"Oh, um well. From what I've been told, three weeks ago..."

Do you like that cliff-hanger? Sorry its short. I hope you enjoyed, anyways. ^_^