Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Guardian of the Sun

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Chapter Four

"So...you said there were missing-nin with the bandits?" Naruto inquired as it neared mid-afternoon, having let Benihime cry as much as she wanted earlier. Now, he was searching for any kind of clues that could lead him in the right direction as to where the bandits had gone. Scattered throughout the area were about a dozen of his Shadow Clones doing the same thing, but he kept Benihime with him so that he could talk to her more.

"Yeah. There were...only two in the attack, I think." She answered while crouching down and sifting through the ashes of burned down home. It was the lone hitai-ate in her clan, one worn only by the clan head; it was a piece of dark red metal that covered the forehead with two dark red oni-style horns on it and a set of four stylized fangs carved into the middle of it, two pointing down and two pointing up like the canine fangs of a snarling predatory animal. It should have had a strip of black cloth attached to it, but considering the fires the bandits had set to almost all of the buildings in the village, she wasn't surprised that the cloth was burned to ash and there were some scorch marks on the metal. She bit down on her bottom lip, choking down a sob that wanted to escape her; it had been her father's. Now, it was her's...

"Any idea where they were from?" Naruto inquired before glancing over at her and noticing the fresh tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Walking over to her and crouching down beside her, Naruto put a hand on her shoulder. "...Are you going to be okay, Benihime?"

"Huh?! Y-Yeah!" She responded while looking away stubbornly, hastily drying her eyes to keep him from seeing her cry. Taking a deep breath to calm back down, Benihime stuffed the hitai-ate plate into the equipment pouch behind her left hip and stood up, stepping 'out' of the burnt down home for a breath of fresh air with Naruto following her out. "I...I didn't get a good look at them. My father told me to stay out of the fight and hide. I didn't leave the clan's scroll vault until the next morning..."

"...Again, I'm sorry for bringing up any bad memories." Naruto apologized. "Do you happen to know which direction they went when they left or where they came from when they attacked?"

"Um...I...I think they came from the North-East." She answered hesitantly after a few seconds of hard thought. Pulling out his map, Naruto examined the topographical details in the direction Benihime had said.

"Hm...That'd put them pretty close to the Rice Country border..." He mumbled quietly to himself while tapping the map since there was a valley that cut through Forest Country in the direction of Rice Country with only a couple spots that let someone cross it without worrying about the sheer hundred foot cliffs on either side of it. Just North of the valley, however, was mostly heavily wooded foot hills all the way to Forest Country's Eastern shores. He'll send out a few Shadow Clones to scout ahead later on so they don't end up going the wrong direction and wasting energy if and when they go to track the bandits down. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he put his map away, Naruto noticed the sadness was showing more clearly in her eyes again; he needed to keep her talking. "If you don't mind me asking, what did your clan specialize in?"

"Oh, um...Tracking and beast taming, mostly." Benihime responded numbly, still having trouble thinking clearly, but it was understandable due to what she had gone through recently. Hearing the second part, Naruto gave her a look of surprised confusion, so she decided to elaborate, grateful for the distraction. "Using certain clan techniques, we could cast special genjutsu on animals that let us control them to a certain degree. After the genjutsu wears off, however, they revert back to their base nature as if nothing had changed. Some of my clan's Beast Masters didn't even have to use the genjutsu techniques and often had a constant animal companion...I was training to become one of them when we were attacked."

"And you say your clan specialized in tracking?" Naruto inquired, getting a nod from the red head. "How good of a tracker are you?"

"About average, personally, but some of our clan's ninja could smell and hear just about everything around them as far as a mile away in any direction." She answered while they started heading back to the center of the village. She then fussed with the scarf around her neck for a moment. "That's why my face is covered with my scarf right now. The smell of the burnt wood and ash and...blood...It's too strong for me, being this close to everything."

"Hm. Sounds kind of like the Inuzuka clan back in Konoha." Naruto noted idly. Having heard of their cousin-clan, Benihime nodded. That's when she thought of something Naruto had said earlier, back when they first 'met'.

"You...said you're an Uzumaki, right?" Benihime asked, getting a look of confusion from the cloaked and hooded blonde before he nodded. She almost smiled. "My clan is...was descended from the Uzumaki and Inuzuka clans, dating back during the Warring Clans era a few decades before the Hidden Villages were founded..."

"R-Really?!" Naruto exclaimed, suddenly quite excited. Benihime couldn't resist giving him a strange look, having not expected him to get so...cheerful. "I can't believe it! I...I thought I was the last Uzumaki! Well...I technically still am, but still..."

"Have you...been to Uzushio yet?" Benihime asked cautiously, instantly regretting her question when Naruto's joy turned to sadness of his own, shaking his head negatively. "Whenever anyone in my clan finished their ninja training, they'd make a pilgrimage to Whirlpool Country to pay our respects to them. I made the trip last year...Maybe...Maybe I could take you there some day..."

"I'd like that very much..." He responded quietly with a small, but warm eye smile of gratitude. A thought occured to him, making him pause for a moment. "Were you able to save or recover any of your clan's scrolls? History, jutsu scrolls, anything?"

"Actually, they weren't even touched during the attack." Benihime answered, confusing Naruto a little bit again and making him tilt his head slightly. She pointed down at the ground. "We keep them safe underground in a special vault. That's actually what I had come to take care of when I saw you this morning."

"Well, I've got some spare storage scrolls if you need any." Naruto offered while taking out one such scroll to show her.

"Thanks. I wasn't really looking forward to carrying them all on my own." Benihime responded, giving him a small eye smile of her own. After leading him back towards the middle of the village, Benihime went to one of the larger buildings, despite being nothing more than a platform of blackened wood and ash. A couple minutes of searching around and she found the hidden hatch embedded in the floor, prying it open with some difficulty. "Come on, it's down here."

"Wow...The place looks like it was never touched." Naruto commented idly while following Benihime down the admittedly steep staircase, the hall being a bit narrow. Thankfully, it had handrails mounted to the walls to keep from falling. "And it's really, really dark down here..."

"This place is protected by seals we learned from the Uzumaki clan to keep our scrolls safe." Benihime responded, pausing for a moment to glance back at Naruto, her slit pupils having dilated to compensate for the darkness. "And we don't keep any lighting down here except for the main chamber to keep any unwanted visitors from finding our scrolls so easily. Akajuu have natural night vision...Speaking of which, do you need any help finding your way?"

"Actually, no. I can see just fine." Naruto answered honestly, pointing to his own eyes. "I've got pretty good night vision myself thanks to...certain circumstances."

"...You mean the Kyuubi, right?" Benihime asked casually as she started walking again, the question nearly making Naruto trip in his shock; she didn't so much as glance back at him. "You smell kind of like a fox and only Uzumaki have been known to contain the Kyuubi properly. Plus, Konoha was attacked by the Kyuubi about sixteen years ago, so I just...kind of put two and two together. I'm sorry if I crossed a line or something..."

"N-No, it's alright..." Naruto stammered a bit sheepishly, also feeling a bit nervous about the subject. "It's just that I had a bit of a bad childhood back in Konoha because of it. I left on a training trip with my godfather at ten and spent the last six years traveling. The past month or so has actually been kind of nice since I haven't been harassed or anything because of my status as a jinchuuriki...Then again, no one recognizes me anymore, but it's just a matter of time before people start figuring it out..."

"I...I'm sorry to hear that." Benihime apologized as they reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into a rather large, but lightless semi-circular room with five doors on the curved wall ahead of them. Benihime moved towards the second door on the left end, Naruto following close behind her. "I've only heard stories of how jinchuuriki are treated. I can only imagine how bad it must have been..."

"Eh, it wasn't all bad. The Sandaime Hokage's always looked out for my well being since I was a little kid." Naruto answered with a shrug. "He's been something akin to a grandfather to me ever since then. Especially since I'm an orphan."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" Benihime tried apologizing yet again while turning to face Naruto, only to have an armored finger pressed to her lips through her scarf to shut her up. She then blushed under her scarf when she saw him give her a sincere eye smile.

"You apologize too much, you know that?" He teased slightly, oblivious to the Akajuu kunoichi's burning hot cheeks as he retracted his hand and kept walking a bit. Fussing with her scarf a little bit, Benihime didn't understand why she was starting to feel nervous and self-conscious about herself the longer she was around the rather handsome blue eyed shinobi. Granted, she hadn't seen what the rest of him looked like because of his poncho, but he had been kind enough to simply hold her and let her cry for what felt like hours earlier and he seemed really understanding of her feelings and what she was going through. "So, is this it?"

"Huh, what?" She blurted out, snapped out of her thoughts about the caring blonde with her. Naruto, ever oblivious to the kunoichi's rapidly growing crush on him, gestured to the large pair of double doors set at the end of the hallway. Forcing herself to calm down, Benihime caught up to him and started explaining, but her cheeks stayed a little rosy. "O-Oh, yes. It's the last defence we have against intruders; a blood seal keeps the doors locked and other seals make them incredibly durable. If anyone somehow manages to force them open, special seals inside the room cast a really strong genjutsu that incapacitates anyone that tries to enter the room."

"Cool...I haven't had the chance to learn how to make genjutsu seals yet." Naruto commented while stepping closer to the doors, his well-trained eyes picking out the camouflaged seal runes, even in the pitch black darkness, while Benihime bit her thumb with her fang-like canines and smeared a bit of her blood on the seal set over the crease between the two stone doors. After applying her chakra to it, the blood seal suddenly glowed red for a few seconds before fading away. A second later, the stone doors started to open at a painfully slow rate, grinding against the stone floor and ceiling of the doorway as they did. Beyond them, torches instantly flared to life along the walls, illuminating the large room.

Naruto's eyes instantly went wide; from how Benihime made it sound, he was thinking there was only a few dozen scrolls. Nooo, there was close to several hundred scrolls of all sizes neatly organized on large shelf-like scroll racks and bookcases set up all throughout the Akajuu clan's secret library.

"Holy shit..." He breathed out, slowly and cautiously stepping into the room with Benihime quietly giggling at his reaction from behind him. He then turned to face her, pointing back towards the scrolls in the room. "This is all of it...Right?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun. That's all of them." Benihime laughed out before suddenly blushing more heatedly, realizing she had accidentally added '-kun' to his name. Thankfully, Naruto didn't seem to notice it as he wandered into the Akajuu clan library, already pulling out a couple storage scrolls. Using only a half-seal with his left hand, Naruto summoned up a pair of Kage Bunshin, passing a storage scroll to either one. Sighing quietly in relief since he apparently didn't catch what she said, she followed the blonde into the room.

"Alright. You take that section and you take that one over there. Try to keep everything organized." Naruto instructed his clones while taking out a storage scroll himself and kneeling down in front of another section of scroll racks. Unfurling the scroll he had, Naruto put his hands on the seal running throughout it and channeled a small amount of chakra into it. A moment later, a cloud of smoke erupted from it before revealing a stack of a dozen unused storage scrolls, surprising Benihime a little bit. Picking up a couple of them, he held them out to her. "You know how to seal things away in scrolls, right?"

"Yeah." She answered while taking the offered scrolls and heading to another section of the library. While Naruto and his clones got to work, Benihime snuck another glance at the blonde and smiled. Maybe there was still hope...

xXx

"S-Shit!" Naruto stammered out in surprise as he tripped on the last step as they left the library, partly blinded by the incredible glare of the late-afternoon sun, his hood not really helping as much as he hoped. Giggling behind him as the blonde hit the ground, Benihime let her amusement distract her before tripping over the same step as Naruto, her laughing stopping instantly while her eyes went wide.

"AH!" She cried out as she fell forward just as Naruto rolled onto his back and started to sit up. Their eyes met for a split second before impact, their foreheads colliding and knocking Naruto flat on his back while Benihime, after falling completely, curled up a little on top of the blonde with a soft whimper of pain, holding her hurting head in her hands. "I-Itai..."

"Oooww..." Naruto groaned quietly from his spot, still blinking the stars out of his vision before squeezing his eyes shut, his head throbbing from a mild headache. It didn't help that his eyes hadn't fully adjusted to the light, prompting him to pull his hood down over his face completely to block out the sun. Blushing beneath his mask a little bit, Naruto was cursing his clumsiness again; why was it always him that had the bad luck with things? Then there was the hysterical laughter echoing in his head, making him grit his teeth slightly. "SHUT UP, KITSUNE-TEME!"

"Oh, that was too good!" Kyuubi laughed out, sounding like it was having a some trouble breathing. "Do...Do that again!"

'Asshole fox...' Naruto mentally grumbled to himself as he cut the mental link and started sitting up again, still holding his head in pain. Beside him, Benihime was already sitting up beside him with her legs tucked under her, rubbing her forehead tenderly with her head bowed down slightly so that her bangs hid her eyes. "...You alright?"

"Y-Yeah...S-Sorry..." Benihime stuttered out quietly, feeling really embarrassed by how awkward and graceless she was sometimes. It was just her luck that she'd get smacked upside her head by Karma while laughing at someone else's clumsiness...

"Stop apologizing..." Naruto muttered while pushing himself up to his feet, dusting off some of the ash as he did. When he tapped Benihime's shoulder, she jumped slightly and looked up at him in surprise before noting his outstretched hand. Blushing a little more under her scarf, she grabbed it with her own and let him help her stand back up. Looking back down at his poncho, Naruto sighed heavily upon seeing the grey-white stains from the ash that covered the floor. "Damn it...I can't go on a single mission without ruining this thing in some way, can I?"

"I'm sor-" Benihime cut herself short when Naruto glanced up at her with a cocked eye brow. Blushing heavily beneath her scarf, she was really confused as to why she was acting like she was. Normally, she would barely ever apologize to someone, even if she knew she was in the wrong, and was the exact polar opposite of shy...so why was she now? Without even realizing it, Benihime bowed her head slighty, muttering a single word under her breath that made Naruto sigh again. "Sorry..."

"It's starting to get late. Do you have a camp set up nearby?" Naruto noted and then asked while glancing up at the sky, only to look back to Benihime.

"Y-Yeah, sort of..." She mumbled out. "It's near the river about a kilometer to the West of us."

"Alright. Lead the way, Benihime." Naruto remarked while holding an arm out towards the West, eye smiling at her. He never noticed how she blushed shyly under her scarf before doing as he said, walking in the direction of the camp she had set up away from her clan's destroyed village...

xXx

As midnight neared, Naruto stayed where he was next to the small camp fire. He had set up his tent for Benihime to sleep in since she didn't have any sort of shelter to protect her from the weather and such, the river being close by. Glancing over at the small woodland camouflaged tent, he smiled sadly beneath his mask. On the way to her camp site, he had seen the remains of a large funeral pyre, having obviously burned the bodies of her clansmen recently to keep their secrets from being discovered by anyone as well as to give them a proper send-off. Thinking of the tragedy she had been forced to experience, Naruto's resolve steeled, having made his decision earlier. He was actually just a Kage Bunshin tasked with keeping an eye on the girl, five others hidden amongst the trees around them, while the original was already tracking down the bandits.

'Don't worry, Benihime.' The clone thought to itself while adding another small log to the fire, the flickering flames reflected in his hardened sapphire irises. 'I won't let anyone hurt you again...'

Miles away, Naruto, the real one, came to a stop near the edge of the bandits' camp, crouching on top of a branch while staring down into the small ravine they had taken refuge in. He could tell that they had lost more than half their numbers when they attacked the Akajuu clan, many of the unused tents having been dismantled and set aside. Forming a half-seal with his right hand, Naruto summoned a dozen Kage Bunshin with his plan in mind, all of them leaping from their spots in the trees and rushing the camp, his clones spreading out to take up their positions along the ravine's cliff-like ridge that encircled the camp. Just as he reached the camp, his clones flashed through a couple handseals before slamming their hands against the ground.

"Doton: Doryuu Heki!" All of his clones called out simultaneously, alerting the bandits to his presence as a towering wall of earth sudden rose up and completely enclosed the bandit camp, the clones dispelling as they used up all of the chakra they had been given. Naruto's eyes were narrowed dangerously once more, his eyes as cold as chips of ice. Bandits came clammering out of their tents, their shoddy armor and weapons clattering noisily as their eyes went straight to the fifty foot tall earth wall surrounding them on all sides.

"What the hell?! What's going on?!" One of the bandits cried amongst their startled murmuring and chattering. Fingers slowly curling into tight fists, Naruto gnashed his teeth, his eyes bleeding into crimson as Kyuubi let its chakra leak into Naruto's system as per the blonde's unspoken request.

"Over here, dumb fucks..." Naruto growled quietly from his spot, still standing at the base of the lone slope that led into the ravine. Despite keeping his voice low, everyone heard it and immediately faced the poncho-wearing blonde. Some of them laughed, thinking he would be an easy kill, obviously forgetting about the wall's sudden appearance. Many of the veteran bandits, however, got nervous. They knew of the things ninja could do, the earth wall being one of them. "The Akajuu clan sends their regards..."

"Wha-" One of the bandits tried saying, only for Naruto to throw a handful of kunai at them with a sweep of his right hand, each aimed for an instant-kill spot. Immediately, half a dozen bandits dropped to the ground, dead. Before the remaining eighty or so could fully react, Naruto ripped his poncho off and grabbed one of the scrolls at his hips, swiftly unfurling it and pressing his free hand to the center of the seal inside of it. In a puff of smoke, a seemingly mishapen piece of golden metal appeared in his hand before the blonde slapped it against his upper back behind his shoulders, the plate mounting itself to his back with his chakra while the scroll snapped shut in his other hand, holstering it once again. Clapping his hands together in front of his chest in the form of a Tiger seal with his extended fingers pointing out towards the bandits, Naruto activated the seals imbedded in the piece of armor.

"Taoreta Roku Busoushin no Chikara..." Naruto stated coldly and apathetically before four more arms of golden metal sprouted from the back of his shoulders with two left-handed arms behind his left shoulder and two right-handed arms behind his right shoulder. The top pair of arms had formed another Tiger seal pointing upwards just above his head while the bottom pair formed another Tiger seal, this one pointing downwards, just in front of his unarmored stomach. Many of the bandits started getting spooked, but they had nowhere to go. Like trapped rats, they commited an act of pure fear-fueled desperation as they charged him, the six armed blonde's hands already flashing through three different sets of seals, stating the name of two techniques as he finished their seals. "Katon: Dai Endan. Fuuton: Reppushou."

The bandits howled in terror and agony as the flames erupted from the hole in the front of Naruto's mask, the hurricane-force winds unleashed by the palm thrusts of his middle set of hands further enhancing the flames' heat and intensity, spreading to cover the entire group in seconds, burning them all to ash almost instantly. Cutting off the Dai Endan as the winds died down, Naruto kept his bottom set of hands in the downward Tiger seal they had started in, holding off on his 'finisher' as he waited for the smoke to clear out. Something was bugging him, though; where were the missing-nin that Benihime said had been with the bandits?

"Oh, my...He must really mean business, eh?" A mocking voice remarked from beyond the smoke as it started to thin. Staring at him from across the scorched battlefield was a six foot tall man wearing almost all black; black pants, black long-sleeve top, black cloth face mask, dark grey hunter-nin style mask, black gloves, dark grey Konoha-style flak vest with a black hood attached to the collar that was tossed over his head. Loosely tied around his neck was his scarred Konoha hitai-ate. Gripped in his hands were a pair of ninjato-like swords with curved blades and curved black handles. Beside the man was a woman wearing a black skin-tight full-body suit with dark red clawed bracers just like Benihime's on her arms, a set of dark red body armor set over her torso, dark red greaves strapped to her shins and the top of her feet, black closed-toe kunoichi sandals on her feet, and a black hunter-nin style mask over her face with the dark red Akajuu eye markings decorating the eye slits. Her hair color was similar to Benihime's, being dark crimson with black highlights and tips, but it was kept in a high pony-tail and only reached to the middle of her back. The man noted how Naruto's scarlet eyes narrowed furiously, the blonde recognizing the woman to be an Akajuu; a traitor to her own clan. "I think he's mad..."

"No..." Naruto hissed while his third pair of hands slipped from their upside-down Tiger seal to his 'praying' seal before separating, the wind around him kicking up into a surging vortex for a few seconds before condensing and splitting into six small 'lines', his armored hands grabbing a hold of all six wind swords; it was a more destructive variation of Kaze no Yaiba he called Roku Hakai Tekina Kaze. "I'm down right pissed..."

"Oh?" The man remarked, tilting his head curiously while Naruto raised all six wind swords above his head, only to swing them down and unleash six destructive currents of shredding wind straight for them. Both rogues instantly split up, heading in different directions. The masked man instantly recognized his folly the moment they were moving, his eyes watching as Naruto's body split into two identical beings via Kage Bunshin, either one still weilding all six wind swords. 'Shit!'

Channeling chakra into his swords, the rogue man barely blocked the six armed blonde's first slash, a whirlwind of invisible razor blades whipping about him and leaving shallow cuts all over his body. From there, it became an intense speed-battle for the man, moving as fast as he could to block the wind swords, gritting his teeth as he ignored the pain of the cuts littering his body, fresh ones appearing every time he blocked one of the golden ninja's blades. Across the way, the Akajuu woman wasn't faring much better. She had blocked one of Naruto's wind swords and learned, just as her partner did, that it came with a price. Bloody cuts and scratches were everywhere on her body, the outer claw on her left bracer having been lost during the initial clash due to insufficient chakra being channeled into them to defend against Naruto's cutting Wind chakra.

"You betrayed your own people..." Naruto, the real one, growled as they locked blades again, this time with all six of his crossed over each other while the woman blocked with her claws crossed. She remained standing for only a second before the pressure doubled, dropping her to one knee as Naruto poured chakra into his arms to amplify his strength even more. "Your only reward is death..."

"Che...Sh-Shit..." The woman grunted out through gnashed teeth, her arms shaking with the strain of holding back her opponent's wind swords. It was suddenly lessened by a considerable amount when Naruto retracted two of the swords, only to swing them in an upward arc. Her eyes went wide beneath her mask as her remaining five claws were sheared from her bracers, twin parallel razor thin gashes running up her torso from her hips to her shoulders. Already falling backwards from the guard breaker, the Akajuu woman could only watch as Naruto swung all six of his wind swords back down in what felt like slow motion to her. When they drew close enough for her to feel the many conflicting wind currents from all six blades, she closed her eyes and let it happen...

In an explosion of wind, the woman's body was shredded by the infinite number of unseen blades until there was nothing left of her. Managing a lucky blow, the man dispelled the clone he had been faced with by cutting off one of its hands, thankful that it wasn't actually made of metal like the original. Despite the shallow victory, he could only stare in shock at the thick cloud of dust that shrouded the blonde Konoha shinobi and his partner, who had come to him and his bandits seeking to destroy her own clan in order to gain access to the Akajuu's most dangerous of techniques.

"Stupid woman..." He hissed under his breath before turning and running for the earth walls, having lost one of his swords during the sword battle with the Shadow Clone while the other was now useless due to the cracks in the blade. Using chakra to scale the verticle surface, it didn't take him long to get close to the top, but that was when he felt a hand grab the back of his head before the momentum behind it drove him face-first into the wall itself. Mask smashed against the packed soil and rock before being left to fall to the ground, the man stared up at the six armed golden demon that stared back down at him with its terrifying blood red eyes...and then it moved, running down the wall and heading straight for him to continue its assault. Brown eyes going wide, the man could do nothing as one of the hands grabbed his ankle, the demon kicking off from the wall while twisting his body, only to sling him into the ground seconds away from landing and leave him lying in a shallow crater from the sheer power of the throw. "Guah!"

"You're not going anywhere, trash!" Naruto snarled before landing on the man's chest with a brutal double kick, ignoring the blood the man coughed up during mid-impact as ribs cracked and broke under the force. Kicking off and flipping in mid air, Naruto's six hands formed three different handseals while he took a deep breath, only to pull his hands apart and exhale, unleashing another Katon: Dai Endan. The man was unable to move, let alone attempt to dodge. Thus, he was burned to death, unable to even scream in pain. Landing on his feet a little bit away from the flaming corpse, Naruto took a few deep breaths, feeling Kyuubi's chakra receed back into the seal. Dropping to his knees as his four extra arms disappeared back into the plate mounted to his back, Naruto gasped for breath, suddenly far more exhausted than he had expected. "That took a lot more out of me than I expected...I shouldn't have used so many ninjutsu techniques..."

Taking the plate off of his back and storing it back in its proper scroll, Naruto slipped the scroll back in its proper holster before getting back up and forming one last handseal. Giving off a pulse of chakra, the earth walls he had erected in the beginning began to crumble and fall apart. Stumbling slightly as he started walking back in the direction of Benihime's camp, picking up and putting his poncho back on as he did, Naruto decided it would be best if she didn't know an Akajuu had betrayed her clan. Reaching into one of his equipment pouches, Naruto pulled out a protein bar before starting to snack on it as he walked, trying to restore some of his lost chakra as he headed back to Benihime's camp site. It wasn't long before he suddenly winced, one of his clones with the sole surviving Akajuu having been...'killed' by the enraged red head when she found out he wasn't actually there...

"Here's to hoping she calms down before I get there..." Naruto mumbled to himself a little nervously; his clone had learned what it felt like to get stabbed in the face by Benihime's claws...

xXx

Still wearing his hooded poncho, Naruto sighed quietly as they drew closer to Konoha, going by the road this time, Benihime walking ahead of him on the path. She hadn't said anything to him since giving him a very thorough tongue lashing earlier that morning when he got back to camp...and it was starting to bother him now that it was getting close to late afternoon. Sure, he'd gotten the silent treatement a few times before in the past, but that was back when he and Karasu were kids. At least she would still glare at him or punch him for no real reason. Thinking of the Uchiha, he figured it might do him some good to pay her a visit instead of just breaking into her apartment all the time to make sure she eats right without burning her apartment down. He then had a slight feeling of dread crawl up his spine as he thought about that. 'She's probably set up traps just to get back at me for disappearing on her without saying anything again...'

"...I said I was sorry..." Naruto mumbled, talking to Benihime. She didn't react or even acknowledge the fact she heard him...and he was getting tired of it. Heaving a loud sigh of exasperation, Naruto walked a little faster to catch up to her before poking her in the side. Hard.

"OW! What the hell, Naruto?!" Benihime snapped at him, glaring at him while holding her tender side; he got her right in one of her floating ribs. He simply gave her a flat look that told her he wasn't amused with her childish punishment for him.

"...I needed to make sure you weren't a deaf zombie..." He mumbled back before continuing on his way, getting a look from Benihime as if he just grew a second head. Once she couldn't see, he was smirking mischievously beneath his mask, knowing it would have gotten a reaction out of her. The Akajuu might be a stubborn girl, but she was nowhere near the level of him or Karasu; they would get their point across no matter what. A moment later, however... "Itai!"

"Jackass!" Benihime snarled at him while marching past the now-limping blonde, having kicked him in the back of his leg. Eye brow twitching, Naruto knew they were either going to end up brawling before too long or he was going to get her to start talking to him again like she was yesterday.

"I get rid of her family's killers and this is how she treats me...Just great..." Naruto muttered to himself under his breath, rubbing the back of his thigh in an effort to get rid of the pain in it, but Benihime, true to her clan's senses, heard him. She spun around to face him, jabbing a finger into his chest.

"No, this is how I treat people that think they have to do everything for me!" Benihime growled while making Naruto take a couple steps back from her poking him. When she finished, however, she decided to throw in a little extra by stomping on his toes. On the other leg.

"Ow! God damn it!" Naruto hissed, both legs hurting now. "Stop hurting me!"

"You started it!" She shot back, glaring at him defiantly. It only made Naruto grind his teeth behind his mask.

"Bullshit! You wouldn't talk to me and I was getting sick and tired of being ignored!" Naruto argued back. Pouting childishly and stubbornly, Benihime crossed her arms under her chest and glared off to the side, her cheeks burning hot under her scarf.

"You should have at least told me where you were going..." She muttered irritably. Caught off guard by her suddenly getting quieter instead of louder, Naruto let his anger deflate somewhat and sighed heavily.

"And risk you following and possibly getting hurt in the process?" Naruto countered, shaking his head slightly. "There's a reason why I'm by myself, Benihime. I'm simply too destructive to fight effectively with team mates or partners or whatever..."

"...I'm still mad at you." She muttered quietly before taking a step closer and leaning against him, her arms still crossed over her chest stubbornly. Smiling slightly under his mask, Naruto pat the top of her head slightly before crouching down and hooking his arm behind her knees, catching her off guard as he lifted her up and sat her down on his shoulder. Blushing up a storm, Benihime looked like she was on the verge of a heart attack as she held onto him as tight as she could from her position. "N-Naruto! Put me down right now!"

"...Down?" He questioned with false innocence and Benihime instantly regretted it when Naruto tipped forward, making her fall forward off of his shoulder while he grabbed her by the ankle and hung her upside-down. She, predicatably, screamed as she fell forward, the blonde holding her out at arm's length to keep her from hitting him or anything. He then gave her a flat look, one eye brow cocked. "You going to start being nice again?"

"Y-Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes! Just put me back on my feet!" Benihime cried almost instantly, the blonde doing as she wished and stood her back up on her two feet. The moment he let go of her, she whipped around and looked about ready to beat the living hell out of him, but...she suddenly stopped and leaned against him again, burying her face against his poncho-covered chest as she held onto him, shivering slightly. For a moment, he was confused, but then he realized that she was actually a little scared. "Don't do that..."

"I won't..." He mumbled quietly while gently hugging her for a moment. As they started walking again, Naruto glanced over at her. "Sorry for scaring you like that..."

"..." She stayed silent, rubbing her arm nervously while avoiding eye contact. The rest of their walk was spent in a relatively semi-comfortable silence...

xXx

"Ah...I'm sorry to hear about your family and village, Benihime-san." Hiruzen responded after recieving a summarized verbal report of the mission from Naruto, the red haired Akajuu standing beside him. "So, I take it that since you came to Konoha with Naruto, here, that you'll be joining us?"

"Hai..." Benihime answered curtly and quietly, her emotions running a little rampant again after recounting the events of her clan's demise.

"I'm sure you'll be needing lodgings..." The Sandaime trailed off as he started shuffling through some of his papers, having seen a temporary residency form somewhere amongst the chaos that littered his desk.

"Actually, she can stay with me if she wants." Naruto spoke up, surprising the room's other two occupants, the Akajuu beside him blushing slightly at the offer. "I have plenty of room at my place and...it'd give me a reason to go home every night."

"Only because you don't know how to relax once in a while." Hiruzen commented knowingly, giving the blonde a look that made Naruto eye smile sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Glancing between them, Benihime was completely confused and the Sandaime decided to explain. "Ever since he became a Tokubetsu Genin, Naruto rarely ever goes home. More often than not, we've caught him passed out in the records department while working on his paperwork or he trains himself into the ground until he passes out in the middle of a training field..."

"Wait, hold up!" Benihime called out before turning on Naruto, pointing a finger in his face with the blonde leaning back slightly and eyeying the finger warily. "You're just a genin?!"

"Uh...Tokubetsu Genin...There's a difference..." Naruto mumbled in a small voice, his correction doing nothing to alleviate Benihime's apparent disbelief. Hiruzen sighed and palmed his face, wishing he hadn't taken the last of his aspirin that morning. He had a feeling he would need it very soon now that he had to deal with two teenagers currently bickering in his office...

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Doton: Doryuu Heki- Earth Release: Earth Style Wall

Taoreta Roku Busoushin no Chikara- Power of a Fallen Six Armed God

Katon: Dai Endan- Fire Release: Great Fireball

Fuuton: Reppushou- Wind Release: Gale Wind Palm

Kaze no Yaiba- Sword of Wind

Roku Hakai Tekina Kaze- Six Destructive Winds