Chapter 6: A Fox and his Vixen
The next day at the academy, Hinata made it a point to sit with Naruto. She held his hand during the lectures, occasionally resting her head on his shoulder, though a few of those times it was because she had fainted. She was determined to get over that problem. Naruto certainly wasn't complaining about the attention. It was nice to have a girl who was fawning over him instead of Sasuke.
When Hinata gave him a lunch, it was too much for one of the chunin instructors. He marched over, grabbed the lunch, and flung it across the room where it hit the wall and fell, spilling its contents on the floor. "What do you think you're doing making lunch for this demon child?"
Hinata grabbed onto Naruto's arm, trembling. Naruto, seeing her fear, made a hand sign and released the chakra in his weights. "Apologize to Hinata," Naruto ordered, glaring at the man.
"Why should I? Anyone who would be nice to something like you is no more than trash."
For the first time in his life, Naruto felt truly angry. Fear and sorrow were regular feelings for him, but he had never been angry at the villagers. He had just wanted them to accept him. Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm himself. It didn't work. "You can insult me. You can attack me. You can be a total fucking bastard to me in whatever way you want, but you will leave Hinata alone." When he opened his eyes, they had turned blood red with slit pupils. He glared at the chunin, releasing killing intent like that which hadn't been felt in over a decade. He wrapped his arms around Hinata protectively, secretly crossing his fingers and forming a shadow clone behind the teacher.
"I don't know how you corrupted her, demon, but you will both die today!" He drew a kunai from his weapons pouch and launched himself at the two students.
"You first," Naruto said impassively. His clone attacked the man from behind, punching him in the back of the head. The chunin instructor flew past Naruto and Hinata and through the wall behind them. The clone leapt through the hole that was created and dragged the unconscious chunin away.
"It's over now, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, but Hinata just snuggled into him more. "Do you want to go home?" he asked. She nodded. He made another clone to pick up his lunch, then carried Hinata back towards the Hyuuga compound. She suddenly seemed amazingly light and delicate to him.
Half of the way back, the clone caught up to him and dispelled. Naruto sat against a convenient tree and ate with Hinata sitting on his lap.
"Y-Y-Y-You sh-sh-sh-shouldn't e-e-eat tha-tha-tha-that, it's be-be-been o-on the f-floor!" Hinata squeaked.
"I don't care. You made it for me, so I am going to eat it. Even with the dirt, it is still the best tasting lunch I've had outside of Ichiraku's Ramen."
Hinata smiled at the compliment, and held even tighter to him.
In a flash of light, Naruto's father appeared. "Are you two alright?"
"Yeah, I released my weights first so he didn't even touch me," Naruto said.
"We need to get Hinata home before Hiashi finds out what happened. He'll be worried if he can't find her," Minato said.
"Yeah, we were already going. How did you know so fast?" Naruto asked.
"Rather than working on your seals, your clone jumped out of the window, swearing vengeance on your instructor."
"He deserves whatever he gets for trying to hurt Hinata," Naruto said, his eyes flashed red for a moment which did not go unnoticed by his father.
"Naruto, what did you just do?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"Your eyes changed color. They became red for a second."
"But, my eyes are blue!" Naruto said.
"Naruto I want you to imagine someone trying to hurt Hinata again, like they used to hurt you." The response was almost immediate, Naruto's eyes turned red again. "Now, keep thinking about them hurting her and focus some chakra into your eyes." Minato instructed, wondering if emotions other than rage could be used to transform Naruto's eyes. A mixture of blue and red chakra coalesced on Naruto's eyes and the pupils became slit and as he added more chakra, the sclera turned black and the irises further transformed to a glowing gold. "Yokogan..." Minato murmured, he had been up close and personal with similar eyes once before. "Do things look any different?" Minato asked.
Hinata looked up and into his eyes, watching what was transpiring, her curiosity overwhelming her fear induced trembling.
"You and Hinata are glowing red, and so are the bugs, and that rabbit," Naruto pointed, but Minato couldn't see anything.
"Byakugan!" Hinata activated her own doujutsu. "I can barely see it, but there are trees in the way."
"There are three baby rabbits a few feet below it." Naruto continued.
"Look at me, Naruto, and focus on the glow. What does it look like?"
"It's flashing, now, now, now, now, now..." Naruto said, "But some parts aren't flashing." Naruto proceeded to point to every guaranteed kill point on Minato's body.
Minato stood up straight and maced back and forth for a moment. "Interesting."
"Those spots are leaving a trail of glow when you move."
"This is interesting. It could be very useful."
"And Hinata has glowing spots that you don't."
"R-really? Where?" Hinata asked.
"Well, there's one here..." Naruto felt a strange urge, and instead of pointing to the spot on her neck, he bent his head and ran his tongue over the glow. Hinata gave a low moan, then fainted. "What happened?" Naruto asked.
"Well, for one, if you want to live, I recommend not telling Hiashi about the extra spots until after you are married." Minato wiped a small trickle of blood from his nose. "And, we will have to find out if they only show up for Hinata or whether all girls have the extra spots. I think we are going to also have to have Hinata help with your training. If your learn how to make juuken-style attacks, with your yokogan, a single punch from you would be deadly with or without any strength behind it."
"Well, we don't have time for more experiments," Minato said, "We have to get to the Hyuuga compound."
-Return of the Hummingbird-
When the three arrived at the Hyuuga compound, Hiashi was already there and the man almost fainted himself when he saw Naruto carrying Hinata. It wasn't the fact that he was carrying her, it was the gold and black eyes, the elongated fangs and the pointed claws. Those features, combined with his usual smile came together to create a truly frightening visage, especially for someone who had seen the fox attack.
"ANBU, three o'clock!" Naruto turned and pointed with a laugh. A man in a bull mask appeared from behind a tree and teleported away with a shunshin, not looking happy about having his camouflage skills defeated by a mere academy student.
What really irked Hiashi is that he had been standing there for five minutes and not noticed the ANBU himself. He glanced at the gate guards and they looked as surprised as he was, though being of the Hyuuga clan, only another Hyuuga could tell the subtle difference in their expressions.
"What happened?" Hiashi asked.
"He tried to attack Hinata, so I kicked his ass and now I have a doujutsu."
Hiashi sighed. The explanation gave him the basic story, but none of the relevant facts that he needed to act. Well, the doujutsu part was interesting, but it could wait. "Who tried to attack my daughter?"
"One of the instructors. He was in charge of us during lunch and got all mad when Hinata gave me the lunch she made. He yelled at us, and I told him to leave Hinata alone, but he just got angrier and puled out a kunai. I summoned a clone behind him and smacked him through the wall."
"And, where is he now?" Hiashi asked.
Naruto thought for a moment. "I don't know. My clone dragged him off, but he should be gone by now."
Upon hearing this, Minato chopped Naruto on the back of the neck, knocking him unconscious, catching the children in his arms. "If the clone was still out there, that should dispel it."
"Was that really necessary?" Hiashi asked.
"When thinking about what the man tried to do to Hinata, Naruto got angry and began releasing red chakra. If he used that chakra to make a clone..."
"You don't think..." Even Hiashi's usually stoic features flashed panic at the thought of a Kyuubi clone on the loose. "We should get them inside and lie them down," Hiashi said with forced calm, "Hopefully the memories of the clone will have returned."
"In the mean time, I was wondering if the Hyuuga had anything like the juuken but focused on destroying organs and muscles instead of attacking chakra points."
"Yes, but it takes a lot more chakra, or a lot more control, to be as effective as a juuken strike. We developed it in case there was ever a member from the main house who never developed the byakugan and yet still wanted to be a ninja. Thankfully, the byakugan is a dominant trait so such a thing has yet to occur."
"Naruto's doujutsu allows him to see and track the vital points, even through solid objects or at distances that exceed the range of Hinata's byakugan."
"I see. But, these are Hyuuga clan jutsu. I can not just give away clan jutsu," Hiashi said, "Even to my future son in law."
"Then a trade. You teach the kaiten and and other advanced juuken only to the main branch. I was known for two of my personal techniques, one of which would fit well with the Hyuuga style."
"The brutal fist juukouken for the rasengan. There are certain heavy armor techniques that render the juuken less effective, and a technique like the rasengan would be perfect for penetrating such defenses," Hiashi admitted, hating the fact that the juuken still had weaknesses that could be improved upon despite the clan dogma.
"And, don't forget about when people expel chakra as you are sealing the tenketsu," Minato said, pointing out one of the other big weaknesses of the juuken. If the person could match or exceed the amount of chakra the Hyuuga was injecting into the chakra coil, the juuken strike would be negated.
-Return of the Hummingbird-
"I can't believe you mastered the rasengan in an hour. It took Jiraiya three months to get it down, and Kakashi still has trouble with it," Minato grumbled childishly.
"This technique is almost entirely chakra control. As you said before, it is well matched with the abilities of a Hyuuga," Hiashi responded smugly.
"Hey! I can see with my eyes closed!" Naruto suddenly interrupted, standing up from the chair in which he had been placed. He saw Hinata a few feet away and ran towards her, only to trip over a low table. He grabbed his shin, cursing in pain, "Ow! Damn it, what was that?"
"Try opening your eyes," Minato suggested, smirking with amusement at Naruto's antics.
Naruto did as he was told and found that he was on the porch next to the training grounds. "Why couldn't I see the table?" He asked.
"What else do you see other than people?" Minato asked.
"Well, I can see the ground out in the sun, but it is kind of fuzzy. There are piped running along here inside the wall," Naruto pointed out, "There is a candle lit in the room on the other side of this wall."
"Can you see anything in that building?" Hiashi pointed to a small building on the other side of the courtyard.
"No, it's like it doesn't even exist. What's in there?" Naruto asked.
"Cold storage," Hiashi replied, "You can see heat."
"In that case, we need to test how well his vision works against fire jutsu. They could impair his vision. But, more importantly, Naruto, do you remember anything from the clone that dragged off the teacher?"
"Yeah, my first punch paralyzed him, I think his neck broke when I punched his head, or he broke through the wall. I dragged him into the woods behind the academy, and then... my memories are kind of fuzzy, like I can only see pieces." Naruto shuddered as he thought about what he remembered. "He was all beat up, then he had cuts all over his body and was crying, then pieces of his body were missing, then his head was hanging from a tree and I didn't know where I was..." Naruto shivered.
"Naruto, did you feel a different chakra when you got angry?" Minato asked.
"Yeah," Naruto realized, "It felt all red and burning."
"Do not make clones with that chakra. It can be dangerous if you do not control it," Minato said seriously, "Do you understand?"
"I killed him..." Naruto suddenly realized.
"First kill," Hiashi muttered. Minato nodded.
"It's okay, Naruto," Minato said, gathering Naruto into a tight embrace, "You were protecting Hinata. Killing someone to protect someone you love from harm is not necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't all your fault either. You didn't know about the red chakra. It will be okay."
"Hiashi-sama!" One of the Hyuuga guards came rushing over, "Mikoto Uchiha and her son are here. Her shoes are covered in blood."
"Bring her to me, but take her shoes and have them cleaned."
A few minutes later, a woman with black hair and eyes and a face bloodless from fear stumbled into their presence carrying Sasuke Uchiha. "Please give us sanctuary. Itachi, he's killing everyone, the whole clan. The civilians, the women, the children..." The woman trembled, holding back sobs. "He was so fast. If Sasuke has not come home early, I would never have noticed and..."
"I need to go tell Sarutobi," Minato said, "Take care of the children." Minato disappeared in a flash of light.
Hiashi began shouting orders to the Hyuugas and things went so fast that Naruto did not know what was happening. He was rushed up to Hinata's room by a branch clan member, then a genjutsu put him to sleep.