ABCD- Scene change

ABCD-Flashback/Dream Start/End

ABCD- Bijuu/Inner-self talking

ABCD-Dream/Flashback body- Thoughts

Chapter 3- Investigations and Confessions

(A.N.-I can't really think of OC names very well, so I'll just use names from other series, since these ones won't be here for more than a few chapters, at the most.)

When Hinata and Sakura finally made it to the village, they found Naruto standing on the road with two older men. One older man, maybe in his fifties, was about a head shorter than Naruto, and what hair he had left on his head, as well as his mustache, was grey. He was wearing a white lab coat that seemed rather old and worn. The other man seemed considerably younger, maybe late twenties, with black hair. He was wearing a dark blue hakama and gi, with a sword at his side. Both of them had serious looks on their faces, which was at stark contrast with Naruto's grin.

"About time you got here, I thought I'd have to come get you two," Naruto said, noticing the strange looks one the girls faces he stepped closer to them, "is everything alright?"

"Y-yes Naruto-kun, we're fine," Hinata said, trying not to stutter.

Naruto shrugged, "Okay," he turned to the men, " These are the other members of my team," he said, trying to sound official, he motioned to Hinata, "this is Hinata Hyuga, our tracker, and this," he motioned to Sakura, "is Sakura Haruno, our medic."

The younger of the men spoke first, "My name is Jin Takeda," he said with a bow, "and I am the head of the village guard, and this is Sōken Ishida, the head of the local hospital, we are here at the behest of our village head to assist you in your investigation however we can."

Sakura stepped forward, "I would like to examine the victims' bodies, if I may," she turned to her teammates, "I think the two of you should check out some of the crime scenes, and see if you can find anything, then we can meet at the lodgings to discuss what we might find, and what we know."

"Very well then, youngsters," Sōken said, "I'm sure Jin can show Uzumaki-san and Hyuga-san to the places where the bodies were found, so if you will follow me, Haruno-san, I will show you to the morgue." He began to walk away, and Sakura followed.

"Then if you would follow me, Uzumaki-san, Hyuga-san," Jin said as he turned down a separate street, "There have been three crime scenes, I shall show you to the most recent site, and then we shall work our way to the oldest."

The leaf shinobi followed him down the street for a while until they reached an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the town, it seemed old, with lots of cracked or broken windows, and a large amount of graffiti on it.

Jin stopped at a door covered in tape, which had a guard posted by it. After unlocking the door, he turned to the Naruto and Hinata, "I shall wait here for you."

Naruto and Hinata entered the building, and where greeted with the smell of blood and decomposition, it hit them so hard, Naruto almost lost his lunch, and Hinata almost passed out. After taking a minute to get used to the stench, or at least as much as they could, they started their search. As they searched they took note of everything they could, along the walls where a number of symbols and things in a language they couldn't recognize, but it all seemed to be written in dried blood. They checked every nook and cranny, with the help of Hinata's Byakugan, they searched for about an hour, before they finally found a small, crumpled piece of paper, on it was a simple circumscribed triangle.

"D-do you think it means anything, N-N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata said, handing the scrap to Naruto.

The blonde looked it over for a minute, a serious look on his face, "I don't know, Hinata, but I get the feeling I've seen this symbol somewhere before, I just can't place it. I don't see anything like it on the walls, so it could be nothing, just some product label from when this place was a warehouse, but we should probably bring it with us, just in case." He looked her in the eye and smiled, "Nice job, Hinata, you did great. Now let's finish up, I want to get out of this place, it reeks of death."

Hinata just nodded, also wanting to get out of the foul smell.

The two of them searched the other two sites, but the symbol they found was in none of the other buildings. Once they finished, they decided to head to their hotel.

Hospital Morgue

As her teammates where performing their search, Sakura followed Sōken through the hospital halls and down a flight of stairs, "I should let you know, Haruno-san, that many of the bodies have been released for burial, but I can give you the autopsy reports on them."

"Ano, Ishida-san, but isn't it normal to hold the bodies until the culprit is apprehended?"

"Yes, but, simply put, there have been too many for the morgue to hold, and most of the bodies that were released were children. Unfortunately, though, there is no shortage of corpses for your examination, if you will follow me." Sōken lead Sakura to a refrigerated drawer and opened it, revealing a the body of a young woman, whose body was covered in wounds, "This is one of the bodies from the first group, she was a nurse in this very hospital, and a very kind young woman," he turned to Sakura, "I hope you won't mind if I leave you to your examination, it brings pain to this old man's heart to see someone who was so full of promise cut down before their time."

"I understand, Ishida-san."

"Thank you, Haruno-san. If you need me, I shall be in my Office across the hall; I will prepare the autopsy reports for you." He said, turning to leave.

Sakura went to work, but it was difficult, even though she was a kunoichi herself, she wasn't used to this kind of seemingly mindless gore, but she managed to keep her stomach settled. She examined several bodies until she came to a drawer in the corner of the room.

Sōken was in his office, making sure he had all the reports prepared, when he heard a scream, and rushed to the other room, and found Sakura on the floor with a look of horror on her face, in the slab in front of her was another body, "Are you alright Haruno-san?" She looked at him and climbed to her feet.

In front of her was the body of a young man about her age, with blonde hair, and several lacerations up and down his body, along with one extremely large gash on his abdomen, the moment she had removed the cover, it was as if her worst nightmare had come true. However, now that she looked at him again, his face had no real resemblance to her favorite blonde. She shook her head a bit to shake off the thoughts before facing the doctor, "Yes, Ishida-san, I just… slipped when I pulled out the slab," she said, thinking up the best excuse she could, "I think it's about time for me to go meet up with my teammates and discuss our findings," she pushed the slab back in and closed the door, "could I please have the reports?"

"Of course, Haruno-san," although not completely convinced with her excuse, he could understand how this kind of thing could get to someone, especially one so young. It always surprised him when he saw such young shinobi, not even adults.

Once she collected the folders, she set out for the hotel they would be staying at, but as she walked, she kept seeing Naruto laying on that slab in her mind's eye, Damn, now I know I won't get much sleep tonight.

The hotel

The trio met in outside of their hotel, and went to the suite that had been provided for them. The room was much nicer than what they were used to, it was like a rather nice apartment. It had two bedrooms attached to a living room/kitchen with a nice sized couch. The three of them sat around the table to discuss their findings.

Sakura spoke first, opening a sizeable folder, "So, let's begin with what we already know…"

"Sakura-chan, can we eat first, I'm starving."

"No Naruto, I don't think that's a good idea, so let's just start, and tell me if there's anything you need explained, okay. Now according to the information gathered by the locals, the victims all usually went missing about a week before their times of death. They were of varying ages and professions, and few had any relation. According to the autopsies, as well as my own examinations, the victims received various severe, but non-lethal injuries that were in varying stages of healing, meaning they were caused pare-mortem," she saw Naruto start to open his mouth, but raised her hand to silence him, "it means they were injured and tortured for a long time before death; broken bones, burns, cuts. One person had third degree burns and broken limbs that were inflicted days before his heart was cut out of his chest, and from the clotting around that wound, it was drawn out over almost an hour, and preformed with a very jagged weapon. What were you two able to find out?"

Naruto now had a very serious look, "The areas where the bodies were found didn't seem to have anything in common. They had a bunch of strange things written on the walls, things we couldn't understand…and it was written in blood. These guys didn't seem to leave anything behind, but Hinata managed to find this," he took out the paper they found, "it might be nothing, some old company logo maybe, but I know I've seen that symbol before somewhere."

"Do y-you know w-w-what it is, S-Sakura?"

"I don't know, it does seem vaguely familiar, but I don't know what it is." She thought for a minute, "It is late, but in the morning I can send it to the village via messenger hawk, and we should get a reply in a few hours. Is there anything else?"

"G-gomen, we couldn't f-find anything else." Hinata looked down.

"Hey, Hinata, it's alright, we did our best, and we'll still catch these bastards." Naruto said, giving her a grin.

"Naruto's right, Hinata, this might be nothing, but it could also be important to the investigation. I think we should eat and got to bed, and continue this in the morning."

After some quick room service (Naruto had the ramen, of course) the girls headed to the bedrooms, and Naruto got stuck sleeping on the couch. With the problems of the mission, and the fact that this was possibly one of the most uncomfortable couches there was, but Naruto couldn't sleep, so he did what he had been doing the past few months whenever he was bored. He closed his eyes and focused for a second.

Hey Fox!

Flashback, a few months earlier

It was shortly after the failed first mission with Sai and Yamamoto, Naruto was laying in his apartment, trying to get to sleep, when he finally managed to drift off, he was shocked by a cold, wet feeling on his feet. Naruto really didn't want to open his eyes because either he would see that he wet the bed, which didn't seem likely, or he would see a long, sewer like tunnel. Naruto finally opened his eyes.

"Damn, I almost wish I had wet the bed," he grumbled as he made his way to the one who was no doubt waiting for him. He finally came to the large room that contained the reason, for most of his troubles.

"What is it you want now, gaki? Just because you can't sleep, doesn't mean you can keep me awake like this." The great beast growled at him, staring at him with one large, half open eye.

"What are you talking about, fox, didn't you bring me here?"

"It's your mind, gaki, I thought you came here yourself, or are you too dimwitted to realize that?

"I just wanted to get to sleep, not look at your ugly mug. How do I get out of here?"

"Once again, it's your mind, idiot, try wandering around a bit, just stop bothering me. And the fox lowered its head.

"Fine, jeez," Naruto started towards the hallway, but stopped short, "hey fox."

"What?"

"I wanted to know, the other day, when Sasuke was in here, what did you mean he would regret killing me?"

The fox sighed and opened an eye, "What do you mean?"

"You said 'Don't kill Naruto, you'll end up regretting it', what did you mean?"

The demon sighed again, "If you really must know," it turned its head away from its jailer, "I meant he would have felt bad about it later, and if he didn't, I might've made him feel bad about, in a more painful way."

"Well, well, if I didn't know better, I would think the great Kyuubi no Kitsune was getting soft." Naruto taunted with a grin.

"Don't push it, kit, you've just grown on me, kind of like a bad fungus."

"So now you're comparing me to athlete's foot, nice," Naruto thought for a moment, "wait, what did you just call me?"

"I said kit, kit."

"Okay, but what is a 'kit', some fox insult?"

"No, baka-kit, a kit is a fox cub."

Naruto grinned again, "So what, are you thinking of me as your son, TOU-SAN?"

"If you were my cub, you would have been eaten shortly after birth. It simply means I respect you a little more, that, in my eyes, you've moved up from a puny, weak, stupid human, to a weak, stupid cub."

"Well, it's a start, and if I can get some respect from a gigantic demon fox, it shouldn't be too hard to get some from the village!"

"Don't get too full of yourself, kit, don't think this means I don't want to tear my way out of here, I just might be a little …reluctant, that's all, and perhaps I might be convinced to help you, sometimes."The fox closed its eye again and lay back down.

"Cool," he started towards the door again, but stopped short again, "hey fox, one last thing."

"AUGH, what now!?"

Naruto turned his head towards his prisoner, he had a grin, his real grin, on his face, "Good night, aniki…" and he left the room.

It grumbled a bit, but a small grin cracked on the edges of the great beasts' mouth, "Good Night, kit."

Back to the Present

"Hey, Fox! ANIKI!!"

"What is it, kit, I was almost out."

"This shouldn't be long, I just had a few quick questions…"

The fox chuckled in his head, "Well you see kit, when a fox and his mate love each other very much, and they're in season, they…"

"Aniki, this is serious, it's about the mission," Naruto focused and brought images of the crime scenes to mind, "Do these symbols remind you of anything?"

The fox was quiet for a moment, "They do seem familiar, I may have seen them some time a century or two ago, but I can't really say where, but I think you should be careful, even if they aren't ninja, these people could be dangerous."

"Hehe, is aniki worrying about his little kit?"

"I just don't want you to die and drag me to hell with you," the fox growled, "and I don't want your little vixens to die, either, or your tears would probably flood this damned cage, and drowning in tears wouldn't really be a suitable death for me."

Naruto, who had spoken with the fox a bit over the past few months and could usually understand his form of speech, was a bit surprised, "What the heck do you mean 'My Little Vixens'?"

"You know what I mean, and I must say, kit, I approve of your choice in mates. That pale eyed girl would bear strong cubs, and would definitely be a good mother, even Pinky, even though she was always a bitch before, would be suitable mate."

Naruto blushed at this, "Ero-aniki, Sakura-chan still loves Sasuke-teme, if I ever tried asking her on a date, she'd probably pound me into the ground."

"And the pale eyed one?"

Naruto sighed, "Hinata's the freaking heiress to the biggest clan in the village, no matter how nice she is, she wouldn't want some no name orphan like me when she could get some rich, good-looking boyfriend."

"N-N-Naruto-kun, are y-you a-awake?"

Naruto sat up to see Hinata standing just outside her door, wearing an elegant looking, lavender nightgown that stopped just above her knees.

"Speak of the devil, and here she is, now make a move kit."

As she walked to the couch, Hinata thought she heard her beloved mutter something that sounded like…ero-aniki? She shook her head, 'I have to tell him NOW, before I lose my nerve."

"Is something wrong, Hinata?"

The Hyuga sat on the couch and locked eyes with her love, 'Those deep, blue lovely…NO HINATA, FOCUS!'"N-Naruto-kun I n-need to talk with you about something very important."

"What is it, Hinata?"

"A-ano…I… I mean…I lo…I just…just," Hinata, starting to lose her nerve, did the first thing that came to mind.

She grabbed him by the neck.

She pulled him close.

And she kissed him, deeply, and passionately.

Naruto just sat there as the pale eyed pressed her lips against his. Even after she released him from the lip-lock, he just sat there, wide eyed and surprised, but it didn't stop her, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him close before whispering in his ear, "Naruto-kun, I love you."

"What!?"

She sat in his lap, looking into his eyes, her face reddening, "I l-love you, Naruto-kun, w-with all my heart and s-soul, I h-have for as long as I've known y-you."

Naruto just stared for a moment, "But why? You're like a princess or something; you're strong, nice and smart. You could probably have any guy you want, why a nobody like me?"

Even though she was almost ready to pass out, Hinata was on a roll and couldn't stop herself, she'd even lost her stutter, "NO, you're not a nobody, you're kind and strong too, and you're handsome. You never give up on those you love, and would die to protect them, and you would never want to burden them, even if it meant you had to go through hell yourself, you're the noblest man I've ever known!" Naruto was now blushing more than Hinata was, but she kept going, "Naruto, I've seen the ways people looked at you your whole life, you were mistreated your whole life for no reason, but you kept going, you worked your hardest to gain their acceptance, their respect. You never lost your determination, and you have this power, you change the people around you. You changed me, encouraged me to fight, to better myself. You changed Neji-nii-san, and through him, you caused a changed in my father, which could change my entire family. You make things better and brighter just by being there, and I love that about you. I love everything about you."

Naruto just sat there for a moment, with a blank look on his face, but he finally spoke, "don't say that, Hinata, there are things you don't know about me, things that will make you hate me for." He could hear a weak, almost apologetic growl in the back of his head.

"Naruto-kun, nothing, NOTHING could ever make me hate you, someone could tell me you we're the lord of hell himself, and I wouldn't care. I love you."

Naruto was scared at how close she had actually gotten, "Hinata," she looked and saw tears in his eyes, "If I do tell you, you can't tell anyone, it is an S-class secret back home, and the only one of our group who knows it besides me is Sakura," Hinata nodded, a little peeved that Sakura knew something about him that she didn't, "okay, but once I start, just let me finish, then, when…if you hate me, just please don't let it affect the mission. It started on the day I was born, the day the Kyuubi attacked, you were told that Yondaime killed it, but that was a lie, it was too powerful to kill, too strong. He could only seal it away, inside a newborn whose cord had just been cut," he could see a confused look in her eyes, "a baby boy, with blonde hair, and blue eyes." Naruto closed his eyes, expecting her to run to her room, screaming, and lock the door. But he wasn't prepared for what she did do.

Hinata wrapped her arms around him and shoved her face in his chest, and started to cry. "N-N-Naruto-kun, I'm so so-sorry, I h-had no idea," she sobbed into him, "the looks, the insults, I thought, I mean…"

Naruto just wrapped his arms around her head and waited for her cries to stop, whispering, "Shh…it's okay, Hinata."

Hinata's crying eventually died down, "That's what I mean, N-Naruto-kun, you just l-laid yourself out there, a-and you are w-w-worrying about me," she moved to kiss him again, but she was stopped part-way.

"Wait, Hinata, this is starting to become a lot to process," Hinata started to tear up again, "not to say I don't like you, Hinata-chan," now she blushed and smiled at the addition of the suffix, "it's just, I've never had anyone say anything like that to me, especially such a pretty girl, I just don't know what to do now. I'm sorry."

Hinata shook her head, "It's o-okay, Naruto-kun, I understand, I just f-felt if I didn't tell you s-soon, my h-heart might explode, or I m-might l-l-lose y-you to someone else."

Naruto chuckled sadly, "I don't think you have to worry about that, I don't think there's any other girl who'd have me…"

"You're wrong, N-Naruto-kun, I know f-for a f-fact that that there a-are other girls who have b-been… admiring you. Even hokage-sama saw it happening, a-and she told m-me that s-someone might g-get to you first, a-and I d-don't think I could have handled that."

"It's alright, Hinata-chan, how about we talk about this once the mission is over, we talk about this," he looked away, scratching his face, "maybe over some ramen, or something else if you want."

Hinata smiled wider than she ever had before, "H-hai, I would love to, Naruto-kun. Now I th-think I should return to bed, we will be busy tomorrow." She went to her door and turned to Naruto, "S-s-sweet dreams, Naruto-kun."

"Good night, Hinata-chan." She left the room and closed the door behind her.

"Man, I must have been really stupid to have missed that she liked me."

"No argument here, baka-kit, but now that you have a vixen, maybe soon you'll have kits of your own." The fox added with a chuckle.

"WHAT!? NO WAY, I'M TOO YOUNG TO HAVE 'KITS' ANIKI!!"

"Calm down, kit, I'm just playing with you. She's still a bit too young to safely bare offspring anyway, I think."

"Well, it's not like I have to worry about that yet, anyway, I mean," Naruto's thoughts were interrupted a groan.

"Please…don't."

"That's coming from Sakura-chan's room," Naruto jumped up and bolted to her room, but when he got in, it was just Sakura, lightly thrashing in her bed.

"Please…don't die."

"She must be having a really bad dream," he rushed to her side and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently, "Sakura-chan, wake up, Sakura-chan."

Sakura's eyes shot open, after she took a few seconds, she settled on the young man holding her shoulder, she started to cry, and grabbed in a bone-crunching hug, "NARUTO-KUN!" she sobbed out.

Although he was caught a little off guard by the -kun, he tried to comfort his friend, "It's okay, Sakura-chan, it was just a bad dream."

"No, Naruto-kun, it was horrible. I thought this nightmare was gone, but today, after that body…" she broke down crying again.

"Sakura-chan, please calm down, what happened?"

Sakura took a few deep breaths, but didn't release her hold on the blonde, "I've had this… nightmare in the past, and earlier, one of the bodies I examined, really reminded me of the dream, I guess it was just really got me tonight."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She finally looked up from his chest and locked eyes with him for a few moments, "You need to talk with him about this, now Shānnarō!"

"Okay, Naruto-kun," she pulled him to sitting position and laid her head in his lap, and started to tell him of her nightmare, and she kept crying the whole time.

About half way through, he started to think, "This dream, she was probably crying for Sasuke, something probably happens to him."

"I waited for you two at the gate, but when you came back," her sobs increased again, "it was horrible,"

Naruto looked downtrodden, "did I…did I kill him?"

He was in no way prepared for what she said next, "No, Sasuke was fine, just unconscious, but you," her tears flowed like rivers, "you were burned, you were beaten, and you had this big hole in your gut from the chidori, but you still carried him back for ME." She wrapped her arms around his waist and pushed her face into his stomach, "You were lying there, dying, because of ME, because of my selfishness. I tried to get help, but no one seemed to listen, they were more worried about helping, HIM," there was an unreal amount of venom in the way she spoke about her former crush, "and I, I tried to carry you to the hospital, but I never seem to get closer, and then you," she let out a loud sob, "you tell me you want me to be happy and, and you just die, there in my arms, I try and try to save you, but it doesn't help."

Unsure of what to do, and very surprised by the cause of his friends tears, he just stroked the girls pink hair, "It's alright, Sakura-chan, it was just a dream, I'm still here."

Sakura's tears started to slow as she sat up and looked into her teammates eyes, and held his face in her hands, "Naruto," and she lightly kissed him on his forehead, "I'm sorry, Hinata, I can't hold back anymore," she looked back into his eyes, "I have something to tell you, and I want you to just let me finish before you say anything, okay," Naruto just nodded, and she looked out the window as she continued, "This, dream I had, it wasn't the first, I had other dreams after you left, first, I denied it, but each dream seemed to tell me the same thing, and I didn't want to listen to them, but I eventually couldn't deny it any longer, a single fact burned in my soul," she turned to the blonde, grabbing his hand and holding it in her own, "I love you, Naruto Uzumaki, more than I ever loved Sasuke, I would chose you over him in a heartbeat, even if it meant I had to kill him myself. If I had to, I would die for you."

Naruto just looked at her, stunned, for a few minutes, "Naruto-kun, are you alright? Hello, Earth to Naruto."

Naruto shook his head for a moment, and closed his eyes, "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, I just wasn't ever prepared for any girl to say anything like that to me," he swallowed nervously, "and now it's happened twice in one night."

Sakura's heart fell, "So you've already talked to Hinata?"

"A little before I came in here, she told me she loved me, that she's loved me for a long time, I even told her about the furball, and she still felt for me."

"I see, that's great," she flashed him a sad smile, "She has cared about you for a long time, even back when I was such a bitch, you deserve her."

Naruto flashed Sakura a serious look, "Sakura-chan, first of all, I NEVER want to hear you say that again, you weren't a bitch, you were just… misguided." He turned towards the window, and looked at the moon, "I think I should tell you what I told Hinata when she told me how she felt, I need some time to think about this, especially now. I don't know how to handle something like this, I never had parents to tell me how to handle a date, and I'd sooner die than take Ero-sennins advice on it. On one hand I have you, a girl who has been important to me for a long time, and on the other I have Hinata, a girl who, it seems, loves me no matter what, even enough to put up with my stupidity when I didn't notice what everyone else seem to know. Both of you are strong kunoichi, both of you are kind and beautiful, and both of you should be out of my league."

Sakura, who by now was a bright red, giggled, "Naruto-kun, I think you are underestimating yourself, any girl would be lucky to have you, and any girl who thinks otherwise is an idiot. But, I do understand that you need some time, we can probably talk about this when we get back to the village, I'll even treat you to some ramen at Ichiraku's, Hinata too, then maybe we can work this out." Sakura crawled back under her covers, "You should get back to the couch and get some sleep."

Naruto made his way to the door, "Are you gonna be okay, Sakura-chan?"

"Yeah I think I'll be fine, now that I have that off my chest, sweet dreams, Naruto-kun."

Naruto closed the door and laid back on the couch, starting to drift off, he thought, "What, no smart-ass comments, aniki?"

"Just sleep, kit, I'm getting a bad feeling that something is going to happen," and the last thing Naruto heard before sleep claimed him was, "And we both know you have to protect your new mates."

A.N. DAMN this one was long, but I'm not too happy with the beginning, please give me your thoughts on this.