A/N: Hello everyone I'm Back hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that this new year would be a great one. On with the adventure. And like always, read, enjoy review.
Enter, Master Kyosh
It had been a month since Kakashi's confrontation with a certain blond ninja. Who would have thought that Naruto would have reacted like that?
|Flashback/
"And my father?"
The suspense was heavy, so heavy that even Akira forgot why she was previously angry and Hinata started bighting her fingernails.
"Your father was Namikaze Minato-sama but you all…" as he now addressed the curios onlookers in Hinata and Akira "…Know him as… Yondaime Hokage."
"Nani? M-my father was the fourth?"
This was a day that neither of the four would forget because as soon as Naruto heard of his parentage he passed out in a fashion not unlike Hinata. Kakashi's one visible eye curved upwards as he turned and said.
"He does that better then even you," getting a deep blush from Hinata for his words.
|Flashback End/
Kakashi had given the Hitai Ite to Iruka as Naruto had asked and given him the message. He had never once seen such pride and joy in Iruka's eyes toward anyone.
He had also told Tsunade of his encounter with Naruto and his group and was pleasantly surprised when Tsunade decided to keep it as an S-class secret not to be repeated to anyone else. She even made kotetsu swear an oath of silence on the topic. The only problem was what to do about Hinata's father. He had pressured her to send out hunter nins after his daughter after she had not come home in three days and no one had seen her, unfortunately, doing so would reveal the new s-rank secret.
Naruto and his group now find themselves in the middle of no where hopping from tree to tree, hoping to keep a lot of distance between them and the Hunter nins of Konoha. He looked like the very description of frustration. Why you may ask? The plan that Naruto had hatched was a plan to rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru by infiltrating the sound village itself and bringing him back. It was a good plan except for a few loose ends, such as, he didn't know where exactly Otogakure was. The only person with an idea was Akira who only knew that it was in rice field country but which part, even she didn't know.
It just so happened, Jiraiya was on a mission that crossed paths with Naruto's plans; he was gathering intel on the hidden sound village and its activities. Unfortunately Naruto's plan was a failure, leaving Hinata and Akira thinking themselves as failures even though Sasuke and Orochimaru was not their to begin with. The only positive outcome was that they had created an ally in the former glorious Fuuma Clan of Rice field Country by freeing them from Orochimaru's treacherous grasp but sadly, at the cost of three of their strongest members of the fuuma clan one of which, the elder brother of their new friend Fuuma Sasame. So, they now find themselves several miles from Rice field country fleeing from the hunter nins of Konoha. It was not that they were all being hunted, how could they, Akira had no business with the leaf village and Naruto is 'officially' dead, so why would the Hunter nins be after them? The truth of the matter was that they were not; they were after Hinata, the kidnapping attempt by Kumo and her behavior after Naruto's supposed death lead a lot of people to one of two decisions of what could have happened to her once it was discovered that she was missing for several days.
"N-naruto-kun, w-what do you think w-would happen to us if the hunter-nins c-catch up to us?"
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"W-when news of your death came, almost n-no one was remorseful only a few of the r-rookie nine and the Jounin sensei. I-if the Hunter nins discover you still a-alive they m-might try to kill you for r-real."
Just the thought of such a fate dropped her in a depressed state. Akira who was at their sides was in a puzzle, she had no idea what was so special about these Hunter-nins.
"Sorry bout butting in, but what's so special about these hunter nins, aren't they just Ninja?"
"Oh that's right you were never part of a Hidden village," Naruto realised before he explained, "They're ninja trained to hunt down and either kill and dispose or return missing nins to their village, or something like that, Kakashi-sensei explained it better."
"So why are they after us, we're not missing-" just then she caught a glance of Hinata barely able to hold back her tears, "oh, Hinata, I didn't mean anything-"
"S-sorry Akira-san, Naruto-kun, i-if it weren't for m-me you would'nt be in such a s-situation." She was no longer able to control her emotions, "M-maybe I should give m-my self up, maybe they would-"
But before she could get a chance Naruto stopped the entire group in the clearing they were currently in and stared at her in her pale lavender eyes with an expression that was not rage, but one that was filled with determination. He had seen how they had treated her because of him, how her life because of him looked so much like his younger life. Naruto would not allow this, especially with the knowledge of how she feels about him.
"Hinata," he said in a low tone, "I have seen how they treated you because of me and I have lost a lot of precious people but I now know the ones who are truly precious to me, who truly matters. You are one of those precious few and by my nindo I will get stronger and protect you and those precious to me with my life."
"Naruto kun says I'm truly precious to him."
"Thank you Naruto-kun" A meak smiled played itself across Hinata's delicate face.
"Yeah Naruto–kun, you're great," Akira was a hopeless romantic, with a Handkerchief in her hands sniffling and wiping ravines of tears from her eyes. Over the past week she had come to understand how much Hinata really thought of Naruto, not to mention she more or less interrogated her when they were alone on Hinata's true purpose for coming with them. Akira had come to think of Naruto as a little brother and the citizens of Konohagakure were not on her most trusted list.
"How foolish, noble, but foolish." An old man, who looked to be in his mid eighties, dressed in a dull grey cloak, telltale signs of mesh peaking out from underneath the sleeves and wrist guards similar to those of the toad sennin Jiraiya. From under the long sleeve of his robes where he clutched unto a staff that looked old and polished from use and stood on a pair of wooden Getas. His bald head shun in the light and his foot long beard was tied neatly with a string at the end and his long whiskers swayed gently in the breeze. In his eyes burned a power that none of the three children had ever seen before, a power not only gained by years of honing ones skill but by experience. They were looking into the eyes of a true shinobi and his lips separated to give them a toothy grin.
Hinata was the first to gauge a glimpse of how strong this man in front of them was
"He's definitely old but he walks far too easy for his apparent age and we didn't even sense him until he talked." were Hinata's thoughts.
"What the hell do you know old man?" Naruto was never one for respect, tact or manners, especially for someone that pried in his business, "and where the hell did you come out from?"
"That was some of the dumbest shit I've heard and you call yourselves ninja? heheheeee" The old man belt out a high pitched laugh as he walked towards the trio with an unnatural grace and swiftness "What kind of idiot protects his loved ones with his life?"
"You stupid old fart how dare you, if you weren't so old I'd rip you apart but as a shinobi it wouldn't be fare."
"Ano, Naruto-kun, I don't think you should be insulting this guy like that." Akira reasoned, in a whisper, keeping an eye on their uninvited guest, "There is something about him that makes me uneasy".
"I-i agree N-naruto-kun" Hinata said, just as silent, Byakugan now activated, "he is a n-ninja and his coils are… experienced, I've never seen anything like it, they're huge."
"Its okay you guys, look how old he is, he's ancient, and one punch and I could kill him." Not that he was arrogant, he just couldn't see how such a relic could be a threat, Ninja or not.
"That's some of the funniest words I've ever heard in decades, you three can't possibly be ninjas."
"What do you mean old man" Naruto was almost ready to lose it.
"Well, you're too loud, you have no discipline, you are not even aware of your surroundings and…you depend too much on the beast within you, the Hyuuga there can be summed up in one word, pathetic," Hinata head was immediately cast down, here was a man who they had only known for five minutes and seen her for what she was. Or was she misunderstanding.
"Father was right, I am weak, I'm only keeping Naruto-kun back."
But before she could continue with her self berating the old man continued.
"And the rather bright one their" raising a shaggy gray eye brow at Akira, "has no skill what so ever, honestly, I'm surprised you're not dead yet, with that beacon of a jumpsuit and her hair, you rival even the sun."
Naruto couldn't take it any more; his eyes that were once blue now blood red, with slits as pupils like a savage animal.
"I'm only going to give you one chance to apologize."
"Make me!" came the rather childish rebuttal from the ancient man standing their, as if he wasn't even concerned with or phased by the killing intent pouring of the loud ninja.
"You can insult me all you want but don't you dare hurt her."
Naruto took out four kunai and hurled it in the direction of the smiling old man and charged at him full pelt in the wake of the flying weapons. The old man's smile didn't wane; he simply caught the kunais out of the air with inhuman swiftness and returned them to the blond ninja catching his clothing at the shoulders and leg of his trousers with such force that his entire direction was reversed pinning him against the trunk of the tree on the other side of the clearing and so secure that he couldn't move.
"Amazing."
Both Akira and Hinata gasped in unison, not trusting their eyes at the unbelievable feet they had just witnessed. The old man, still in his original position, had just neutralized Naruto with nothing more than a simple movement of the arm or at least that was the assumption because they never actually saw him catch the kunais and throw them.
"Alright, I see you are serious, so now I'm going to give you a chance," The old man now staring at the immobile form of Naruto perched the staff precariously on a rock with a bell on either ends, "If you can touch this staff once in the next ten minutes I will whole heartedly apologize for my words, you two can help him if you want."
"What if we can't do it?" Akira asked.
"Hehehe, I kill the stupid blond loud mouth and then I'll apologize. What do you say blondie, you accept?"
"N-no Naruto-kun, its not worth it," Hinata was breaking under the pressure of this man as she shouted at the top of her lungs "d-don't worry about me, I don't want you t-to get hurt b-because of my w-weakness."
"Oh did I mention, that if he backs down…" now with sweat pouring off Akira's brow and fear implanted in her and Hinata's heart as he shifted his attention to the two prone girls, "I shall kill them both and make you watch since you were to weak to protect them."
His face was placid as he promised death to the genin and one partial civilian.
"So, what do you say..." he suddenly disappeared from the middle of the clearing to reappear next to Naruto still struggling to free himself from the imbedded kunais in the tree, "Oh mighty protector?"
No longer was the sound of his voice one of cheerfulness, warmth and joy but of cold hard ice.
"I will protect those precious to me with my life and I made a promise to Hinata," Naruto's voice roared as the kyuubi's chakra engulfed his form sprouting a tail made of red chakra giving him the strength to pull his pinned limbs of the tree and turning to stare into the dark-brown eyes of a warrior that had seen many bloody battles and countless fears of the old man, "and I never go against my word, for that is my nindo."
About five minutes away a team of four men in ANBU gear and masks were hot on the trail of the missing Hyuuga heiress. They stopped along the path they were currently traveling to inspect the trail they were currently following.
"Taicho," one of the men spoke calmly to his superior, "their trail is very fresh hear and getting warmer."
"Good," the captain replied in an anxious and somewhat relieved tone, "how long till we catch up to her?"
The captain had a good reason to get the girl back home as soon as possible, because he didn't know if even the Hokage could save him from Hiashi's wrath if this mission was failed. The strange thing what troubled the captain was his vague parameters; all he said was to bring her back alive, some how he pitied the girl.
"Five minutes, taicho," he said touching the ground, "But this is strange."
"What's strange?" the captain queried, he didn't need any complications.
"Their seems to be two other persons with her," he stated, inspecting the foot prints and broken twigs, "One male and one female, roughly about her size and stature."
"Ok, they're just kids," he said feeling his mission will be without delays or complications and with an authoritative command he continued, "Move out, lets wrap this one up."
But a feeling in his stomach kept telling him that this mission was about to get a lot more complicated than he had bargained for.
The old man stood there staring Naruto into his animal eyes, his back towards the balancing staff and temporarily paralyzed girls and as Naruto was about to charge he raised his palm halting the furious blonde.
"Let's make this a little interesting, shall we?" he said, as he reached into his cloak and removed a piece of cloth which he tied around his eyes, "Now you may begin."
"You'll be apologizing a lot sooner than you think old man," Naruto said in a far too loud voice, "you're underestimating me."
"For insignificant little whelps such as you all…" he paused for effect turning his head in the direct where he believed Hinata and Akira still were, "I don't need to make assumptions."
He formed the all too familiar seals and shouted out his technique.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu
"Impressive, he obviously knows how to perform the jutsu well," the all man thought to himself, "but I wonder if he could pull that much off with his own chakra and not the beast's, guess I'll find out later."
In the once sparse field nearly two hundred of Narutos clones erupted from the smoke. They dashed at the staff perched on the rod covering the distance in the blink of an eye but to their surprise the blindfolded old man appeared in front of them and mowing down the clones like Chouji at an all you can eat buffet. Front kick, reverse punch, knife hand chop, round house kick, spinning round house kick, back hand slap and all manner of taijutsu strikes rained upon the kyuubi empowered boy's clones for almost five minutes straight. Right after he dealt a rising knee to a clone dispelling it, he drove a palm strike into Naruto's gut so hard that it sent him flying towards the two girls. Hinata was still too shocked at the old man's display of power as he single handedly destroyed nearly one hundred of Naruto's clones and sent him flying with a simple palm strike. So she barely had time to move out of the way of Naruto's path if it wasn't for Akira pushing her out of the way.
In his rage he didn't see the girls as he flew past them and landed roughly on the ground and coming to a stop a couple seconds later. He stood up from the trench he had created staring heatedly at the still blind folded old man, standing as if he was on a Sunday stroll. It angered him, but more importantly, he was becoming fearful, not of the aging man's strength but because he was running out of time and the threat of losing the one person who loved him for so long - even when he was lonely – and the person he thought of as a big sister was becoming more and more eminent as the seconds ticked away. Little did he know, the kyuubi was feeding off of these emotions to further loosen the seal and slowly corrupt his mind.
They had traveled for the past five minutes in pursuit of the Huuga heiress and her accomplices but what they found had them all wondering of their sanity.
"Do you see it?" the dog masked man said, "because I think I am seeing things captain."
"As much as it upsets me to say it," the captain replied, "you're not, apparently the demon brat wasn't killed at the valley."
"What I want to know is, who is that other girl and the old geezer," said a woman wearing a bird mask.
"I don't care who the hell he is," spat the monkey mask wearing hunter nin, "but I want revenge on that demon for what he did to my brother."
As he drew his weapon and charged at the unsuspecting boy he felt a firm hand grab unto his shoulder, it was his captain.
"Hold on there for a minute," spoke the captain in an odd cheery tone, "the old man seems to be handling the brat with more than enough ease."
"So what?" barked monkey mask.
"In that state it is highly unlikely we could do him much harm so if we let the old man deal with him we can just take him out when he's tired take the brat's head, bring back the Hyuga and we'll be hero's without even braking a sweat."
"All due respect Taicho," monkey mask said, "what makes you so sure of your plan, the geezer looks pretty tough, he's even wearing a blind fold."
"We've got the element of surprise."
"Fine" huffed monkey mask, "Just as long as I get to cut of his head."
"What of the other female Taicho?" the female hunter nin asked.
"We bring her back to the village for questioning," responded the captain, "now get ready, it looks like its coming to a close."
His three subordinates immediately released a hushed chorus of 'hai' as they took up strategic positions around the clearing.
Naruto had formulated a plan with the two girls, he would distract the old man while they sneak around and grab the staff with Hinata backing up Akira incase the old man figured out the ploy. Unfortunately the old man saw through their plan and with a few swift movements that strangely resembled Jyuken. Hinata, who still had her Byakugan activated, couldn't help but gasp as she saw the man -who is obviously not a Hyuga- do something similar to her family's patented style of fighting, only his way was more flowing and fluid like a dance, beautiful and deadly at the same time, truly a gentle fist. She was so shocked that she was brought to reality when a resounding slap rung through the air. The aged man after paralyzing Naruto with his Jyuken imitation suddenly appeared in front of Akira as she was just in reach of the precariously perched staff and back handed her and sent her sprawling. Unfortunately for her she had no ninja training what so ever, so with that blow, it was pretty much the end of her as she was welcomed into unbiased unconsciousness.
"W-what did you do to Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered as the man slowly turned around to face her direction.
"Hmhmhm," the old man laughed, further unnerving the shy Hyuga girl, "he failed, so now it's up to you. There are still about forty five seconds remaining. You can still save your friends if you aren't weak, or do you want to watch her die."
He pointed to an unconscious Akira.
"Or maybe you want him to live the rest of his life with the loss of his last loved ones, a faith worse than death."
He was taunting her, but he wasn't taunting her into giving up, but to get her to fight with all of her heart; that was exactly what he got.
Hinata got into a Jyuken stance and stared squarely at the old man, she wasn't about to let her new friend die nor let the one she loved a life of heart ache and sorrow because she was too week to take a stand. This is the day that shy meek Hyuga Hinata changed as all her fears worries and doubts were cast aside. The day she found her strength.
"Thank you Naruto kun for believing in me even when I didn't believe in myself so today I shall be the one saving you."
"You will not hurt my friends, for I will stop you with everything I have. She said in such a tone that even Hiashi would have flinched.
"Then come, little girl, show me what you have."
With that, Hinata burst forward with as much speed as she could have mustered, readying the most powerful Jyuken strike she had ever performed. As she reared her hand back to deliver the killing blow to the heart of her opponent she smiled as she was getting ever closer and closer to the man as he hadn't moved. The old man, instead of moving, he simply grabbed the wrist and with a swift movement tossed her in the same direction in which she was headed.
Naruto, still trying to get free of his binding, heard every last one of the old man's taunt to the Hyuga heiress. Coupled with the fact that he was already in rage due to the old mans initial taunt and the fact that he might lose his friends, what the old man said to Hinata was like adding fuel to the fire, literally, because behind him another tail of chakra began its growth and upon becoming full, Naruto gained the power he needed to break free of what ever had his muscles locked and made a mad charge at the staff which was behind the old man. Since he was in a direct line with the old man and the staff on the rock, Naruto was not able to avoid the collision course he was on with Hinata, partly due to his break neck speed and partly due to his blind rage. She crashed directly into him with the sound of flesh and bone colliding into flesh and bone.
Hinata was immediately knocked unconscious with severe burns about her body where she had made contact with Naruto's body in the collision. Naruto could only stare as he got up and looked at her unmoving form.
"What happened?" Naruto spoke, "what have you done to her?"
When Hinata had collided with Naruto, the Jyuken strike which she had prepared for the old man slammed into Naruto, bringing him back from his near psychotic rage.
"Look closely," the old man said as he turned around pulling of the blind fold off his eyes, "those burns look like they were caused by an evil chakra, the chakra…which you were using."
His world was shattered, he wanted to protect her and in the end he had hurt her more than their enemy ever did but he was soon brought from his self berating by a chuckle.
"What's so funny old man?" Naruto snapped in his direction glaring daggers at him while he held Hinata in his arms.
"Oh nothing, it's just that your time is up."
Fear was written on Naruto's face, was he going to lose her now, no, he would fight to protect them but without the kyuubi, it did more harm than good. He would fight to the last breath but as he lay Hinata gently on the ground and he pulled out a kunai out of his pouch, the old man started smiling again.
"Whats so funny now," Naruto screamed, desperately trying not to lose his temper, "Even if I die here you will not harm either of my friends."
"Hmhmhm, lets say you do die protecting them from me," the old men said with a level stare, "who is going to protect them from the four waste of time ninjas taking up positions around this clearing for the last five minutes.
This caught Naruto completely by surprise.
"He's right, what should I do, I'm not strong enough to handle all this by myself, I might just have to…"
He was snapped out of his thought when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder, when he looked he saw that the old man was smiling, not like his previous maniacal smiles but one that said 'I'm proud of you'.
"Looks like you figured it out," Naruto only nodded "you pass."
Naruto was paralyzed, he had fought for the life of his two most precious people and it had not been enough; then to hear he had passed, not to mention the revelation of the hunter-nins lurking in the tree line. This was too much.
"Why?" he asked, feeling as helpless as a newborn dear, "why would you…"
But before he could finish, the sound of feet running through grass brought him back to full alertness as he prepared to face of the new threat. However, before he could do anything the old man stopped him.
"Let me handle this," he said as he stepped forward grabbing his staff from the rock allowing the bell to drop to the ground.
The old man stood in front of Naruto and his group as the four Konoha hunter-nins stopped.
"I see that you knew we were there this whole time," monkey mask snarled, "It's no matter, out of the way old ma before I kill you along with that demon brat."
"How far has the ninja fallen?" the old man said in a sage like tone with pity, "unfortunately I have taken an interest in these three so you would just have to fail your mission."
"That is quite unfortunate," the captain said drawing a sword from his back, "kill him and the demon and take the girl for questioning."
The four of them lunged at him.
Naruto just stood there in shock as this ancient looking man single handedly killed the four Hunter-nins in just a few moments with nothing more than his bear hands and a few shuriken. When the last hunter-nin hit the floor the old man turned to look at Naruto.
"Before, you said you want to get stronger so you can protect her, is that right?" the old man asked.
"Yes, more now than ever."
"M-me too," a very shook up Hinata said with as much surety as she had ever done, "p-please train us so we can become stronger."
"I would like to get strong as well," Akira who had woken up in time to see and hear enough to figure out the old man is not an enemy, "I do not want to be a burden and I don't need being protected."
To say that she was embarrassed with her one hit wonder performance would be an understatement.
The old man smiled his toothy smile as he watched the determination in there eyes, these children now knew what it was they had to do to truly protect their loved ones.
"Very well," he said, his smile slowly growing into something sinister, "but before I take any of you as my students there is one thing you must know and understand."
"What is that…sensei?" Akira asked.
"You may quit at any time you like," he stated getting questioning looks from the three youngsters, "but if you do you may never return and your training will never be complete. Understood?"
He was answered with a chorus of 'Hai' from al three children.
"Good, any questions, because from now on you will be punished for any foolish questions."
That last statement had them all wondering what they had got them selves into, then in a surprisingly polite manner Naruto asked the question that has been gnawing on their minds from the beginning.
"Who are you?"
He got into stance with his body at attention the staff held behind his back in his left hand and his right fist in front of his lips with the index and middle finger pointing upwards.
"I am Nin master Jinta Kyosh, last master and keeper of the ancient shinobi way. You, from now on, may refer to me as either Sensei or Master Kyosh."
A/N: Sorry guys, I know you would want to tear my head of for this kind of cliffy but hey, there is always good thing awaiting for us all. So till Saturday have a great week.
