Chapter 6: Hinata's Dedication
As Hinata could not believe her ears, Sakura and Shikamaru wanted her to give up the search for Naruto.
"No I refuse to give up on Naruto! He's my friend and he could be in serious danger!" Hinata's tears began to run down her face.
"Hinata I'm not telling you to totally forget about Naruto but he may be dead isn't that what Iruka-sensei believes? I mean you said it yourself he said that Mizuki had killed Naruto?" Said Sakura with no emotion in her tone.
"No, I said probably could have. Naruto if one thing is a survivor and you want me to give up on him? "As she began to cry now.
"Listen Hinata I know you don't want to hear this but every time we think we have a lead it ends up being a dead end. I know that someone is deliberately erasing Naruto information but it could be the council doing Naruto a favor. Everyone in this village seems to have some dislike for Naruto for some unknown reason but maybe Mizuki did kill Naruto and they are keeping it buried to honor him. That's why Mizuki maybe serving a life sentence, for being a child murderer. Look at the villagers no one seems to care except for us. We have to start our Genin training now it will be difficult; things are just starting to get back to normal after nearly five months after Naruto disappeared. The Jounin are really going to work us after that delay, they say we may have to wait two and a half to three years to be considered Chunin because of that Naruto incident. All I'm saying is we will look for more evidence after we do our training, I'll even ask Choji to give us a hand." Shikamaru gave a smirk to say you can trust me.
"Yeah, I will have Ino to help also." Said Sakura as she hugged her friend.
As Hinata could see that she was out number about the situation, she decided that she would make time after her training to keep on searching for her friend.
At The Hokage Tower
"My retrieval team could not find Naruto Uzumaki, it's like he just vanished off the face of the planet. We first believe he was in the Sand village but we search there perfectly we even investigated the Kazekage to see if he had Naruto a prisoner. My suggestion is to forget about Naruto and focus on making the Genin stronger. Naruto is probably, no Naruto is dead and we should not waste not another minute searching for a lost cause. "Said the ANBU in the dog mask.
"Am I not the Hokage of this village? It is not your place to tell me to stop searching for Naruto. Your job is to find him at all cost. We have the scroll now we need him back, Naruto is important to this village and we will bring one of our own home!" The Third Hokage looked at his ANBU foot soldier with disgust on his answer to Naruto.
"Forgive me lord Hokage, I was out of line. Someone else is also looking for Naruto, Hinata Hyuuga, Sakura Haruno and Shikamaru Nara. I have been able to get rid of all evidence about Naruto and store it at the Hokage black ops vault but they are very thorough in their search. I was wondering if I should talk to their parents to make them stop looking." Said the ANBU ninja as he remained on one knee.
"No, I don't want them to give up hope they are searching for a friend and if this give them comfort knowing they are looking for Naruto who are we to take it away?" As the Third Hokage looked out the window smiling. He was glad to hear that someone cared and took the time to help look for Naruto.
As the ANBU walked out of the office he never saw the Third Hokage so mad before especially about it concerning Naruto Uzumaki.
"What's so special about this kid any ways? Hell most people in this village is ecstatic that the bastard is no longer around."
As he approached his squad they could tell things did not go well. As they leaned up against the wall they all waited for the bad news.
"We have to continue the search for the fox kid simple and plain. The Third Hokage wish for us to proceed and look for any leads concerning Naruto Uzumaki. "Said the ANBU in the wolf mask as he took a deep breath in.
"What leads? Two dead shinobi? One crazy ninja and a cripple who can't remember anything past yesterday? He asks for the impossible, the kid is dead simple and plain. There is no way he could survive this long by himself." Said the ANBU in hawk mask who felt like his comrades.
"Well we can start with Hyuuga girl; she seems to care for Naruto maybe he told her where he would go if he was going to leave the village? We probably can catch her after school to talk to her? "The female ANBU in the snake mask pointed to the academy where Hinata attended.
As Hinata was walking home all for ANBU ninjas surrounded her. The first thing Hinata thought was they are looking for Naruto and wanted her to stop interfering.
"Yes what do you want with me?" As she stammered at every word that came out of her mouth.
"Naruto Uzumaki if he was to leave the village do you know where he would go?" Said the female ANBU in the snake mask?
"Is Naruto still alive? "Hinata's heart began to race hoping that her prayers were answered?
"Answer the question!" said the other ANBU.
"He never said where he would go; this village is his home he would never leave it willingly. " Hinata began to get nervous again, was Naruto truly alive?
"Did Naruto ever talk to someone outside the village?"
"Enough of your questions, I want some of my questions answered right now!" Hinata couldn't believe it she actually raised her voice to get information about her friend. "Naruto is a survivor he would not roll over and die easy for no one, ask Mizuki he knows everything, in fact take me to see Mizuki I could get him to answer where Naruto is at." As she looked uncompromising into their masks.
The ANBU did not know what to do and they were completely out of ideas. But taking the heir of the Hyuuga clan to a prison is something they would never do. They knew that Hiashi Hyuuga would confront the Hokage. They all knew if Mizuki could resist the ANBU ways of not cooperating, what chance does a little girl have?
"I think we should take her, were running out of ideas and time. If Naruto is alive we cut our chances down dramatically of where to look. We all don't want to search for him the next twenty years do we?" Said the ANBU in the wolf mask.
As they told Hinata to follow them, all knew it would be serious consequences for their action but they had no more ideas to brainstorm on what to do.
As Hinata walked through the prison gate she was led to a room surrounded by four other ninjas and the ANBU that came with her. She could tell that they weren't taking any chances with her safety. As Mizuki was led in, she saw the guard whisper something to Mizuki and she wondered what it was.
"Well if isn't cute and cuddly Hinata Hyuuga what do I owe the honor for your visit?" Said Mizuki as he had a full of yourself attitude.
"Naruto Uzumaki." Was her only reply.
"You like that beast don't you? I see the way stared at him when you were in class at the Nine…"
"Watch your tongue Mizuki or you will really have it hard in here, so far you had it easy but I can send you to the murderers' part of the prison and tell them that you killed a child they would love to get their hands around your neck." Said the guard as he pressed his baton into Mizuki's chest.
"Fine Naruto, like I said he ran off, I don't know, I don't care and hope he dies of great pain for sticking me in this prison for the rest of my life!" Said Mizuki as he balled up his fist and looked at Hinata.
"Naruto didn't do this to you, you did it to yourself. Naruto did not have the skills to defeat someone like you, you're a Chunin and Naruto is still in the academy so don't expect me to believe he put you in here." As Hinata yelled more loudly than she thought possible.
"Naruto used the Shadow Clone Jutsu on me; he actually pulled it off to perfection. That bastard have a demon in him that can …" Mizuki received a back hand slap from the guard for trying to talk about the Kyuubi to Hinata.
"Liar, Naruto can't make any kind of clones properly that's why he failed at the academy!" Yelled Hinata at the top of her lungs.
"Took me by surprise as well, the kid had it in him the whole time he just needed the proper motivation to inspire him to become more fruitful with his jutsu. You can forget it Naruto isn't coming back and if he does he won't be the same as you remember him. Forget about Naruto and concentrate on better things in life than that bastard he isn't worth remembering." Mizuki hated Naruto and he hated that someone from a prestigious clan was concern about him.
"You're wrong I remember him, I can't sleep at night because I worry for him. I wonder if he's safe and warm and have enough food to eat. I wonder if he misses the village does he miss me. Every time I try to picture him, I start to remember how people in this village treated him and I get sad, sadder than I have ever been in my life. I just want him safe that's all; I want him back in the village where I can see him smile again." Hinata began to cry for Naruto's pain for the way he was treated.
The ANBU in the wolf mask felt empathy for Hinata, here he was not caring if Naruto is alive or not but he saw a young girl suffering from the heartache over losing Naruto. He decided right here and now that he would give it two hundred percent to bring Naruto back to the Konoha. It was the least he could do for making a young girl hurt so much inside.
As Mizuki looked at Hinata, he could not help but to look down in shame.
"Take me back to my cell now I have no more to say here." He stood up bound in chains waiting for them to open the door so he could return to his cell.
"Please give me any information, I'm begging you!" As Hinata stood up and was about to approach Mizuki when she was stopped by the ANBU.
Mizuki stopped in his tracks after hearing the young girl plea for help.
"If Naruto was going somewhere he would start by looking for Orochimaru, if he's still alive he would seek him out. I told him about Orochimaru how powerful he was and that he is the only one who the Leaf village can't stand against. Naruto wanted to leave the village and get strong I suspect that he wants to find Orochimaru to make his dream come true. As Mizuki started to head back to his cell, he couldn't figure out why he told Hinata of all people.
"What Orochimaru! Hurry we have to report this to the Hokage right away! Someone take Hinata home safely!" The ANBU jumped upon hearing that name mentioned by Mizuki.
"Who is Orochimaru? Why would Naruto seek him out for power? Why is everyone so terrified of that name?" Hinata could tell that all the adults knew who exactly who he was and were scared just by the name alone.
"Hinata you must not repeat what you heard here, you must keep this to yourself. Everyone in this room is sworn to secrecy, let's go now to the Hokage Towers" said the ANBU in the wolf mask as got his team together.
As they took Hinata back home they quickly ran to the Hokage to give a report of what was told to them. As the Hokage listened to their report with great alarm of the situation. He felt that if anyone who found about this information would spread it and cause anxiety among the villagers.
"Make sure that the guards keep quiet and move Mizuki to an isolated area and make sure he doesn't get any visitors until we can figure out these bizarre circumstances of event that's taking place." Said the Third Hokage as he lit his pipe and looked out his window.
"Yes lord Hokage." All the ANBU answered at the same time and departed.
"Naruto you are in great danger, whatever you do don't go looking for Orochimaru he is the vilest criminal the Leaf village ever produced. You have your own path to follow and it's not with him." As the Third Hokage put his head down in shame as he felt he let Naruto down.