Naruto Uzumaki was walking through the woods, on a mission for head light fluid for the car. He was very proud of his mission, it was meant that his house mates were finally taking him seriously. Not like the time they sent him out for elbow grease.

Although he was happy to do this mission for his roommates, he grumbled that he was the only one who had to go. It was a little too early for Naruto, he was tired and hungry because Chouji, the only guy in the house who could cook something other then toast, was still asleep. It was little wonder that he barely noticed a small cloth covered boulder that hadn't been there yesterday on the side of the road.

Naruto heard a sound from behind him. He froze and started reaching towards his kunai pouch before he spun around, looking for the source of the noise. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw the new boulder shudder slightly, before making a mewling sound. Cautiously Naruto moved toward the boulder and poked it, only to find that the boulder was actually a girl with black hair.

Naruto brought his face closer to hers, then jerked back when she whimpered loudly. The girl was caked in mud, or at least it looked like mud, the smell emanating from the brown substance smelled rancid. He reached out cautiously, trying to find a clear spot on her body to lay his hand to shake her. He couldn't find one, so he just braved the "mud."

The girl groaned and tried to move away, but she didn't really wake up.

"Hey, girly," he shouted while shaking her, "This is not the place to fall asleep. You could get hurt." Again the girl tried to move away, but didn't try to wake up. Their combined movements caused her hair to shift aside and show a rather large goose egg on the side she had been laying on.

Naruto decided that he should take the girl to home with him. Someone there would know what to do. Carefully he sat her up, and positioned her so that he could easily lift her onto his back. The girl was limp, so it took a little longer then Naruto was used to, but he still managed it.

The walk home went by quickly. The adrenaline rush he was getting helped move him along the road fast. His senses were on overdrive in an effort to reach home safely with the injured girl in tact.

Naruto kicked open the front door when he arrived home. No one looked up from what they were doing. There were four men sitting in various positions around the room.

"Hey Dopey," a brown haired boy with red triangles tattooed to his face greeted from his spot in front of the television. "Did you get that headlight fluid we asked for?" The sound of barely suppressed laughter echoed throughout the room.

"OH!" Dopey, a.k.a. Naruto, shouted, "I totally forgot!"

This brought everyone's head up. Naruto did not forget his mission, he might get side tracked sometimes, but he never came home without completing it.

"What's that you brought?" a chubby guy with sandy blond hair asked as he rounded a corner. "Is it food?"

"You could eat her," a boy with short black hair in a tight belly shirt smiled from his spot on the sofa, "But the current rating for this story wouldn't cover that."

A yawn erupted from the spot next to him. A guy with his dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail sat up groggily, "Hey Naruto, why are you carrying a girl?" he asked.

"I found her and I think she's hurt," Naruto answered, gently setting the girl on the closest clear surface available. It happened to be the end of kitchen table. Her knees dangled over the edge of the table, her head resting inches away from their breakfast plates. Everyone but the pony tailed boy gathered around to look at the girl.

The brown haired boy with the red triangles sneezed violently. "She reeks," he exclaimed, covering his nose with his hand.

"We should get her cleaned up. Then we will have a better idea of what injuries she might have," the black haired boy suggested innocently. "Dickless, go get the bathroom ready." This last comment was directed at Naruto.

"We will let her keep her dignity," a deep voice ordered. A boy with curly brown hair and sunglasses turned to Naruto, "Naruto, fetch some warm water and a clean wash cloth."

Although Naruto was tempted to ignore Shino's orders in favor of Sai's, he knew better then to cross the quiet one. "Sure thing Shino," he smiled, attempting to lighten Shino's mood a little.

"What's the matter Bashful?" Sai asked with a fake smile, "Afraid of a naked girl?"

Shino's only reply was to push his sunglasses further up his face. Sai continued smiling at the silent boy. Neither one was going to back down. Naruto returned with a bowl and the cloth. He handed both to Shino, who handed them to Chouji.

"Why do you want me to do it?" Chouji demanded.

"You are the least threatening one here, besides Shikamaru," the pony tailed boy yawned in protest of such slander. "That means you're the doc. Until further notice."

"Plus," Shikamaru called over from the couch, "I'm way over here and she's over there. Too much work."

"You're a class act Sleepy," Chouji responded dryly and he wet the wash cloth and wiped at the girl's cheek. She murmured something unintelligible and swatted feebly at the cloth.

"You just gotta wake up if you want it to go away," Sai taunted happily. The girl's eyes moved behind their lids, as though responding to his words. As Chouji continued his ministrations, the girl began to protest more. By the time Chouji had reached to clean of the skin on her arm, she was completely awake and struggling with a purpose.

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It was the sensation of something warm and moist running over her skin that had woken her up. It felt so nice that she had wanted to stay asleep, but the hardness of the surface underneath her nagged at her until she opened her eyes. Hinata stared up at five male faces, none of which she recognized. She was sore, lying on her back, and surrounded by those she assumed to be the enemy.

Hinata had two options at this point as far as she could tell. Either she faint or she scream. It never occurred to her to struggle, because as a princess, she had never really been in this situation before. Although the oblivion that fainting would supply was very tempting, Hinata decided that screaming would be the best option. So she did.

As the five gentlemen jumped back, Hinata tried to sit up. It was slow going due to all her aches and pains. By the time she was sitting all the way up, there was an angry looking man, with black hair and red eyes with three commas on in them.

"Who the hell do you think you are screaming like that?" he demanded.

Hinata was quite taken aback by this. No one had ever spoken to her in such a tone. It scared her, so she flinched away from the boy a small whimper escaping from her mouth.

"Sasuke-teme, back off, you're scaring her," a hand on the shoulder pulled the angry boy out off Hinata's face, only to be replaced by a blond boy with blue eyes and lines on his cheeks, like whiskers. He grinned hugely at her, "Don't mind him, he's always a little grumpy this early in the morning. I'm Naruto by the way. Who are you?"

"H-hinata," she answered softly, trying to smile for the boy who was so friendly.

Naruto was pushed out of the way by another boy with black hair. He was smiling, but there was something off about his smile. "You are cute. Please allow me to give you a nickname."

This boy was pushed out of the way by two figures, one with red triangles on his face, the other with most of his face covered by sunglasses and his coat. "Don't mind him," the one with the red triangles said, "He's an idiot. I'm Kiba and the quiet guy is Shino." Shino nodded at her from next to Kiba.

They were shoved out of the way and the boy they shoved took their place again, "Don't listen to them. Dog-licker and Bug-sucker are just jealous. I'm Sai by the way. I think I'll call you…"

What ever he was going to way was cut off a chubby guy holding a washcloth. "Sorry about the wakeup," he said, offering her the cloth. "We were just trying to clean you up a little to see how badly you were injured."

"Hey Fat ass! I was talking!" Sai yelled at the boy. The room went quiet and everyone froze. Hinata blinked at the sudden stillness. As if her blinking triggered something, the other four boys dove for cover. Hinata sat on the table completely confused when she felt hands grab her arms and pull her to the other side of the table.

A boy with a dark brown ponytail was crouched next to her. "Sorry about that," he muttered not looking at her, but peeking over the table. "Sai said that taboo word. Whenever Chouji hears it he gets really angry."

"Oh, you mean f…?" Hinata started before her mouth was covered by him.

"Yes. Now don't say it. It's taboo." He released her mouth once he was sure she understood the rule.

There was a large crash from the other side of the table. Followed by shouting that Hinata couldn't make out and more bangs. Eventually there was silence. Hinata joined the pony tailed boy in peaking over the edge of the table. Chouji was standing over the prone figure of Sai. Each was covered with bruises and panting heavily.

"Don't call me that," Chouji spat out, still panting heavily. As if these words signified that the storm had passed, everyone came out of their hiding places.

"How stupid can you get?" the angry boy from earlier asked the prone figure of Sai. Sai didn't respond. All the guys suddenly turned their attention to her, causing Hinata to re-think her earlier options of fainting or screaming.

The attention became to much as the guys surrounded her and started asking her questions. At first she tried to answer them, but there were just so many. Out of self preservation Hinata fainted.

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"That bitch," Temari growled as she stalked about her room. Gaara watched her with his eyes. "Who does she think she is accusing us of any wrongdoings involving the princess?"

Gaara silently agreed with his sister, but he wasn't going to say anything until she calmed down. At this stage in her tantrum she would just bite his head off and cause an international incident. Things were bad enough as they were.

"Who's to say the little snot didn't run away? I'd want to get as far away from the bitch as possible if she were my step mother..." Gaara tuned out his sister's ranting at this point. It was the third time since the end of the meeting with the queen that she had made such a statement.

The meeting had started out well enough, no talk of marriage yet, but it still might have come up. Then the guard who had taken Hinata off the palace grounds came into the room and whispered into the queens ear. Once he left Tayuya gave them a speculative look. Gaara definitely had a bad feeling about the look she was giving them.

"I've just gotten word that the Princess Hinata has gone missing and she was last seen with you," she declared, pointing at Gaara.

"Hinata is missing?" Gaara asked quietly.

"So you admit it?" Tayuya demanded.

"I admit that I met with Hinata today, but she had a previous engagement and left to meet with a guard at the back gate of the wall," Gaara explained.

"Can anyone else collaborate that story?"

"The guard," Gaara stated blandly. Tayuya snorted as though she didn't believe him.

"I'm afraid we will have to postpone further negotiations until this is settled," she said instead. "Feel free to remain in the castle until that time."

Gaara was brought back to the present by the silence. It seemed that while he was remembering the happenings of the meeting, Temari had calmed down.

"I will start my investigation as soon as possible," Gaara stated, "The sooner we find Hinata the sooner we can leave." What Gaara didn't tell his sister was that he was worried about the quiet girl for reasons other then the continuation of negotiations.