A Taste of Fate

Hinata sprinted to the gate. "S-sorry N-Naruto-kun I was held up at my house."

"Don't worry about it. But lets hurry, I want to get back to train as soon as possible," he said as he waved goodbye at Izumo who seemed half asleep.

"O-okay."

Before she knew it, Naruto had already bolted out into the forest. She soon followed trying to catch up. He was fast. She remembered on previous missions with Naruto that he would always move faster than the rest of the group which would cause the other teammates to grow frustrated. Now wasn't any different. She could see him moving further and further away. She wasn't as frustrated at him as she was with herself for not being able to keep up.

Naruto is going to think I'm weak if I don't pick up the pace and keep up with him, she worried. Although I do know I'm not as strong as he is. That's a given.

She was so concerned with not being able to keep up with Naruto that she didn't realize they weren't exactly heading in the right direction to where the ANBU were found dead.

"Naruto-kun!" she called out now realizing the problem, but he didn't hear her. He was too far. "Naruto-kun!" she tried again but with no avail.

"I must catch up and tell him," she said with growing concern.

How am I going to catch up? She thought as she began to remember Naruto's nindo. Don't give up! She smiled to herself. Give it all you got!

She focused all her energy and pushed herself harder off each branch. However she had to be careful not to slip off the branches that were wet from the rain. But with each branch she pushed herself off as hard as she could, and to her surprise, she seemed like she was gaining speed. Her only problem was the water droplets dripping from the trees were hitting her eyes, but she didn't let that stop her. After a minute or so she noticed that she was slowly catching up to him. Letting herself catch up a little more she yelled his name in hopes he would hear her, and sure enough he turned his head and came to a stop.

Hinata smiled inward and congratulated herself for her effort as she caught up to Naruto and came to a stop.

"Hinata is everything okay?"

She found it hard to look directly at Naruto, so she starred at the branch he was standing on instead and began her usual fidgeting of her index fingers. "Well um we w-are g-going the wrong w-way." She hated stuttering around him. "Our t-target is m-more t-t-to the east," she said now gazing toward him with a shy smile.

What is she embarrassed about? He thought as he watched her body language. "It can't be. I think we're going in the right direction."

"B-but Hokage-sama s-said the attack happened four K-kilometers to t-the east and we were h-heading more t-to the south."

Naruto shook his head. "But aren't we supposed to just look around the perimeter of the village?"

"W-well yes, b-but I think it would be smart to g-gather clues from around the sight of the attack. W-wouldn't you t-think?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "Well okay. If it will help us bring down the ones who killed the ANBU . . . then yeah." He swung his hand behind his head and produced his trademark grin. "I gotta hand it to you Hinata, you're pretty smart."

She smiled and a shade of pink became prominent across her face. Come on, make a move on him, anything, she thought and felt her heart speed up. She had an idea.

"Um I-I can lead if you want . . ." she paused, "that is, if you can keep up." She had a playful look in her eyes and she knew Naruto liked challenges.

He was surprised. "Huh? I can keep up and go faster than anyone."

Yes! I have his attention now. "What if I beat you?"

Naruto had a puzzled expression as he looked at her. I've never seen Hinata act like this, but this should be fun. "Like I'll loose to you."

Hinata took off in the direction to where the bodies were found and moved as fast as she could. She could feel her hair move in the wind as she hopped from branch to branch. There were still the droplets of water that would occasionally get into her eyes but she didn't let that bother her. She noticed the intermittent sunshine as clouds moved past the sun. When the sun did shine, the wet leave-less trees glistened in the light which caused Hinata to smile at its beauty. She didn't much care for the cloudy, rainy days of winter. She preferred the beautiful sunny days of spring and summer. There was so much more to do and to hope for during the long, warm days of summer.

"Don't let your guard down Hinata!" Naruto yelled as he zoomed past her.

She looked straight ahead and threw her thoughts aside. Oh no, I spent most of my concentration thinking and not enough on my speed, she thought, but determined not to be defeated that easily. If he was a real enemy, I would have been a goner. I can't allow myself to have any distractions.

She resumed her previous speed, but wasn't sure if it would be enough to catch up to the blonde shinobi who was now about ten meters ahead of her. He would glance back at her every so often and be surprised she wasn't falling further behind. He too was now giving full effort to stay ahead.

The Hyuga Heiress had a simple idea to distract Naruto. She screamed his name as loud as her soft voice would let her causing the blonde to shoot his glance back toward her. He lost enough speed in the process and watched as the dark haired Hyuga sped past him.

"Hey don't cheat like that!"

She giggled. "Don't let your guard down Naruto-kun."

"But I thought you were in trouble!" He grunted as she giggled some more. What's with her?

A few minutes pass by and the two shinobi were still moving at full speed with Naruto still lagging behind. The leader activated her Byakugan and scanned the area ahead of them. After a moment, she noticed some snapped trees and leftover kunai in the not so far distance.

"Naruto! I see the battle scene about a kilometer ahead. But we have to slightly go to the left," she yelled.

Naruto grunted to himself knowing that he was probably going to loose the race to the kunoichi.

The last leg of the race was victorious for Hinata and a disappointment for Naruto for he was only able to gain a little on Hinata. She deactivated her Byakugan as she came to a rest in the middle of the battle scene. Hinata noticed her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest from beating so fast. She wasn't used to moving so fast. Naruto came to a rest behind her, doubled over, and pouted like a child.

"You cheated Hinata."

"You let your . . . guard down . . . Naruto-kun," she was still catching her breath.

"Whaaat? I thought you were in trouble. I had to stop. What if you were being attacked?"

Hinata blushed. "You would have come to my rescue if I was under attack?"

Naruto gasped with a wide open mouth. "HUH? What kind of stupid question is that? I wouldn't let anyone hurt you. You're a special person to me."

Her face turned a crimson color. "I-I am? In w-what w-way?"

"Everyone in Konoha is special to me," he chuckled. "I'd protect anyone in our village at all costs." He looked around the battle scene. "Lets scout this area quickly so we can go back."

Hinata's heart sank but she agreed and began scouting the area. She collected kunai, torn pieces of clothing, and anything else that might make a useful clue. She had a somber expression and feeling of failure as she collected potential evidence and clues. Sakura-chan was right to a degree. She thought. He won't take hints or take anything as a hint of affection. I have to present my affection head on in order to make any progress. However the thought of rejection caused her heart an unbearable ache that she thought she would never get over. But doing nothing wouldn't generate any returned affections if he had any to give. It's now or never. I won't have any chances of alone time with him for a long time after this.

It still took Hinata about an hour before she had enough courage to begin her move. She took off her backpack and began removing the snacks from inside it.

"Are you hungry Naruto-kun? I brought some instant ramen."

He immediately stopped what he was doing and ran over to Hinata. "Oohhh I'm glad, because I forgot to bring food."

She opened his cup and poured hot water from a thermos and handed it to him along with a pair of chopsticks. He took it and began devouring it as she poured water into her own cup.

"Thanks Hinata, this hits the spot. What do you say we head back after we eat?"

"Um s-sure we can do that. I think we completed our mission."

He laughed. "Or lack there of. There wasn't any excitement."

A few seconds pass and a paper bomb attached to a kunai appeared in front of the two causing them to jump away as it exploded.

"You just had to say that Naruto-kun," she said as they both took out kunai and readied their battle stance. She activated her Byakugan and stood still. Naruto was looking around in all directions but couldn't spot anyone.

Hinata gasped and began to whisper. "Naruto! There's a masked figure behind me at 5 'o' clock about 150 meters away. Don't move for he is watching us."

Naruto didn't obey and turned to try to find their attacker but was only met with the glare of the sun.

"I told you not to look."

He grunted. "Your not the boss of me. Besides I can't see anything with the sun in the way."

Hinata thought for a moment. "Our attacker is using the glare of the sun to his advantage. However I can see him with my Byakugan. He is just standing there watching us. I can see a lot of chakra movement in his body, especially around his eyes. He must be using some sort of ocular jutsu."

Naruto froze. "No! It can't be!" he uttered in a loud whisper.

"Don't move Naruto-kun. He might be the one that killed the ANBU in this area, so therefore must be very powerful. We must try to find out what his ability's are before we get hasty and attack."

"I already know what his ability's are. Hinata, you need to get out of here."

She stood still. "No Naruto-kun, I'm not leaving you alone."

"Please Hinata! You need to leave, now!"

She turned around toward the sun. "He's coming!" she screamed.

Naruto turned around and saw their attacker speeding towards them. He produced 10 shadow-clones and and sent eight to attack this masked figure while the other two started rotating chakra into Naruto's hand to produce his signature jutsu. But just as he was about ready with his jutsu, his vision suddenly went dark. He then saw a massive column of smoke all around him with buildings burning. These weren't just any buildings, they were buildings of his village burning to the ground and he was paralyzed. He was powerless and couldn't move a muscle. How he had gotten back to his village was a mystery. What had happened to Hinata was his next thought and the thought of harm coming to her was unbearable. In fact the thought of such harm and destruction to his village was a pain he couldn't bear. The burning of buildings seemed to go on and on like some never-ending movie. How could everything burn for so long without stopping? But they did and he was paralyzed and powerless to do anything about it.

After what seemed like days, Naruto was back in the forest and saw Hinata touching his forehead until someone struck the back of her head causing her to drop next to his feet. He looked up and saw their attacker vanish into a dark spiral. Naruto tried to make sense of what happened, but instead collapsed next to Hinata.