Chapter 6: Escape


Naruto awoke to find himself laying on a rather cold and hard surface. The sun wasn't yet fully in the sky from what he could tell, meaning not much time had passed since his daring and near suicidal dive off of the Hokage. There were walls leading up to the sky from his perspective from his back, but only two close together walls. He was in an alley.

In less then a second since waking up, Naruto realized all this.

That, and the fact that he was now being addressed.

"Naruto! Are you ok?" A desperate whisper came from his left, so he spun his head. There was the girl that was partially responsible for making him lose his quarry.

Then again, I would have never found that bastard if I hadn't joined her. Something tells me we'll be meeting again.

Naruto sat up and shook his head. It felt like he had just been given a pint of that 'special cider' again. Damn those farmers and their 'special cider'. He remembered that day. And the morning after.

Just not the actually drinking it part.

"I'm fine, Hinata." Naruto noticed something when he looked closer at the girl. Her expression showed fear, worry, and sadness. Probably because she blamed herself for falling off the Hokage. But there was an underlying emotion he hadn't seen from her recently. Anger.

Naruto shrugged it off, she would tell him if it was important.

"How long was I out?"

"Almost an hour. You almost died from the chakra exhaustion... you should have died..."

"You make it sound like you want me to die."

"No!" Hinata's quick and adamant reply made him slightly regret his small joke. "It's just that… all those clones. The control needed. I haven't seen anyone with the chakra you have, Naruto."

"Me neither, but I think my chakra is the least of our worries." Naruto grabbed Hinata and pulled her and himself behind a near by trash receptacle just in time to miss a large contingent of soldiers run past.

"They've been like that since you passed out."

"And they'll stay like that till they catch us. So that mean's we're leaving this nation."

"What? Where will we go?"

"I thought you were the one with the plan, boss." Naruto gave her a smirk, just to let her know he was joking, but more to let her know that he was fine from the fall. In all actuality he felt like he had been run over a few more times by that Saber Dragon. Then revived. Then run over a few more times.

Yeah, it wasn't good.

Hinata managed a fake smile in return, she knew as well as he did that everything was not exactly 'ok'.

"The Land of Lightning."

"Lightning? There? But… ok, fine. You're the boss."

"What? You don't think we should?"

"I just have… issues with a few of the natives."

"Am I going to have to sneak you in?"

"Only if we go in via the palace, but that is an entirely different story. If we are going to Lightning, we need to go now. I don't know when the ferry is going to leave, but I would rather get there and find a place to hide before…"

He stopped talking as another group marched past.

"…before we get caught and have to fight our way out."

Hinata nodded before activating the Byakugan. Naruto watched the veins around her eyes expand and her eyes go from a pretty pearl color to more of an angry shade of paleness. Naruto almost shivered, but his back hurt too much to do so.

"There are a few more of the squads of troops around here. I did move you from where we fell at least a hundred meters."

"That was very smart."

"Thank you. Then I hid you on a roof nearby and went back to the place we stayed and grabbed all our stuff. The fox followed me."

At mention of the creature, it seemed to pop out from behind Hinata and give a small yip. The little thing just wouldn't stay away.

"That… was also ok."

"Glad you approve. But more importantly, we have an opening right now. Follow me."

For once, Naruto was very glad to be following someone else. Normally he would be in the lead every moment of a mission. Now, though, it was very nice to have a capable person to follow. Especially one that can see through walls and sense chakra.

But he was confused as well. Hinata was obviously angry about something. She was being terse with him, and since he had met her he hadn't seen her so much as slightly peeved.

Why? Was it something he did?

Naruto followed her through the streets. Everyone was indoors, which probably meant a city alarm had gone off while he had been unconscious. The only ones in the street were soldiers, and Hinata did a good job of avoiding them. They eventually reached the docks of the city, the section of the city where the land ceased and the open air waited. It seemed like the soldiers were expecting them, because a rather large group was stationed at the entrance to the docks, which was a massive gate in the large fence separating them from the city. Beyond them, though, they could see that the actual docks were still busy. Apparently not even a city wide emergency could stop the importing and exporting of the docks.

From their hiding spot on a nearby roof they could see that there were only a few cargo ships at port and one passenger ship. The word 'ship' is used loosely because, unlike the metal monstrosities of the Fire Nation, most countries used the living creatures as ways to sail the open air. They were called Windhorses, and true to their name these creatures resembled massive horses with no legs. Their legs were replaced by fin like appendages, and their bodies were filled with gas lighter than air. The massive creatures came in all shapes and sizes. Legend says they originated from the creatures of the long lost bodies of water of the earth, and that the Kami had allowed them life in the ocean of the sky. Either way, they were domestic now, bred and raised to carry cargo and people between the lands. The metal ships of the Fire Nation were created as cheap copies of these creatures. While they were not nearly as controllable as a Windhorse, they were much stronger and able to be loaded up with many more weapons. It was a matter of priority.

Naruto was eying the cargo ships, but he stopped as soon as he saw that both were from the Fire Nation. Luckily, though, Hinata pointed out that the passenger ship was preparing to disembark as they watched and it was heading for their destination.

The Land of Lightning.

"How do we get in, Naruto?"

"I can't pull the disguise trick, this time. They will be watching for it. There is an open space between the docks and any place we might jump from, so we would be sure to be seen."

"I could distract them…"

"No, you can't."

Hinata looked a little put off by his apparent lack of faith.

"Why, exactly, can I not?"

"Because you, Hinata, are the most important of the two of us. I am some nameless merc, and you have some sort of goal to save the world. I do believe you now, did I tell you that?"

"You said something like that right before you passed out."

"Yeah, well, I do. So if anyone is going to be a distraction, it is going to be me."

"When."

"You'll know when to go. Go a few houses further from the gate, and I'll get them distracted enough so they won't notice you hop off. Buy two tickets…"

Just then Naruto heard some commotion from the gate. They both spun to see something neither of them expected.

The little red fox that had just been next to both of them was running around the guards, through their legs, on their backs, and hopping on their heads.

And every last one of them was trying to catch it. Naruto was not about to let this opportunity pass.

"Go!"

He grabbed Hinata's hand and jumped, pulling Hinata with him. She would have been able to get through the fence easily with her skills, but this way would leave no trace. He leapt across the gap between the building and the fence before touching down on the fence and hopping down behind a cargo container.

"That fox…"

"Sometimes I wonder if it's smarter then I take it for."

Naruto and Hinata crept around the massive crate to see that the fox was still running around, too slippery to be caught. But almost as soon as he saw this the little fox paused and sniffed the air, stopping just soon enough to miss a diving guard which landed in front of him, and then charged over his back and into the docks towards the cargo ship.

"Alright, let's go."


Hinata sighed in relief. After the daring entrance into the docks they had almost been caught again by a wandering guard assigned to the cargo. She had just barely managed to knock him out before he had called out. Otherwise, they had made it to the passenger ship and purchased boarding passes without any trouble. They now were watching the Land of Water grow smaller in the distance from the deck of the ship.

"Was that a sigh?"

Hinata sighed again. There, right there, was her trouble.

"If you keep doing that I heard you'll turn into a grumpy old person."

He meant it as a joke. How can he be joking around like that? After he almost killed himself. After he almost killed me. Naruto had a lot of explaining to do if she was going to forgive him for that.

"Alright, now what's wrong?"

"Who was that man?"

Naruto went silent. She knew he knew exactly what she was talking about. The man from the office. This… Orochimaru. Naruto had nearly killed himself and her trying to get this man. Who was he?

"What man?"

"You know exactly who I'm talking about."

Silence again. The clouds around them flowed past beautifully. The sun caused many to light up like massive bright lanterns. But Hinata was more interested in the man next to her and why he would do something so stupid as to blow a mission like that.

"His name is Orochimaru."

"I gathered that." Hinata almost flinched at her own bitterness. Naruto did flinch.

"He used to belong to me village, but… but when the new Fire Lord came into power he went from being the head of our special forces to being the head of his special forces."

"Was he always that…"

"Creepy? Yes. The man wasn't allowed to stay in the village for longer then it took him to report because at one time, or so I was told, he did experiments on humans. It didn't matter, though. Our village had almost no weaknesses, but he knew them. It was Orochimaru that led the assault on my city. It was him that killed the old man. It was him that killed everyone I ever knew…"

Hinata could see Naruto's hands gripping the railing. He was squeezing so hard the wood was starting to splinter. She placed a hand on his shoulder and he immediately relaxed. She had to smile a little at that. She was sort of… happy that she had that effect on him.

"I understand now. Naruto… I'm sorry for your village, but you do realize that when you went crazy and chased after that man it nearly got both of us killed. And even though it didn't, they know who we are and that we have the pendant. They know what we look like and what some of our abilities are. We could have gotten out of their without being seen, but because we didn't it is going to be a whole lot harder for us to do what we need to do."

Naruto was staring at his hands, his face had gone pale.

Shit! She's right! I… I could have just ruined everything. I wasn't thinking! Even if I had gotten Orochimaru it wouldn't have meant anything if I had lost Hinata…

Wait…

That didn't come out right. If this had been a mission for Konoha, I would be punished with endless D-ranked missions for failing it so blatantly. She's absolutely right! I nearly killed her.

"Hinata… I…"

"I know. I also know that if I was in your place, I probably would have done the same. I forgive you."

They both just stared at the slowly diminishing land mass. Nothing more needed to be said. He was sorry, she forgave him. And… for some reason… Naruto felt a little different. He felt like… like the hard shell he had been building up since that day long ago when everything he ever loved had been destroyed had begun to crack.

And it wasn't really a bad feeling.

Especially when it was this woman that was doing the cracking.

Somewhere in his mind a voice shouted to stop it, to go back to the emotionless hunter he had once been. If he kept his hate inside he would surely have the power to defeat Orochimaru. But a voice he hadn't heard in ages seemed to be overpowering it with a calmer voice.

The voice reminded him, strangely, of Hinata.

"Naruto, how long will it take to get to the Land of Lightning?"

"At least a day and a half. I would expect us to reach the town of fishermen at dusk tomorrow."

Naruto glanced over at Hinata for a split second. The anger that had been in her face a minute ago was gone, replaced with serenity. Naruto almost started to stare, but turned away. It only then came to him that when they had first met he hadn't been able to read her emotions at all.

He smiled.

It seemed this relationship was mutually beneficial.

They stayed like that in silence, watching the Land of Water vanish into the distant clouds.


Life on the ship that was built on the creature's back was not rich and decadent, but very simple and small. Only a few other people had been able to get on the boat after going through, from the complaints that were going around, very strict security. A small family with a young boy was going to visit relatives, an elderly couple were returning home, and a few others rode the Windhorse to the Land of Lightning. Naruto and Hinata spent most of the time out on the viewing area, mainly because the cold weather and occasional cloud kept the others inside. They didn't want any questions being asked. Time went slowly and peacefully.

They only had to go inside once for the midday meal, where Hinata made friends with the small five year old boy that was traveling with his parents to visit his grandparents.

They sat and chatted while the parents talked with the other passengers. Naruto noticed, happily, that they turned every once and a while to smile at Hinata and their child. They must have felt he was in good hands.

"Nata, what you gonna do in Lightnin'?" The child had a small lisp that made her name almost impossible for him to say, so Hinata just shortened it.

"Well, me and Naruto are going to sight-see."

"Naruto?" The boy looked over at Naruto, who was listening intently to every conversation in the room. Naruto didn't notice the boy as he ran up to him. He only stopped his staring into space when the boy pulled on his leg.

"Hello?"

"You take good care of Nata! She's nice."

Naruto looked over to a blushing Hinata, and gave a small smirk.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of 'Nata'."

Hinata's blush worsened, but the child seemed placated. He nodded seriously before skipping back to his place and once again chatting with Hinata about coloring, hide-and-go-seek, and the other important aspects of his life.

It was this conversation that caused Naruto to do something he had never done before.


The sun was beginning to set when he found himself and Hinata once again alone. The little boy had gone off to play with the red fox leaving Naruto and Hinata alone again. Naruto was enjoying the view of the clouds beginning to turn red and gold in the setting sun. It contrasted to the depths of the sky.

It was then that Naruto decided to look down. Below, in the fading light, he could just barely make out a sickly colored cloud. It was purple, similar to a poison cloud he had seen medical ninja produce. He knew what it was, everyone knew.

The toxic clouds.

The toxic clouds covered the 'bottom' of the sky. No living thing had ever passed through those clouds and lived to tell the tale. They coated the bottom of the known sky as far as one could ever fly. Only at one point did they converge into a massive storm that, amazingly, marked the middle of the five lands of the sky. No one thought it was coincidence, but as of yet no one had come up with a logical reason short of 'It is the Kami's will'. Naruto knew what his village believed. They believed that the legendary earth, now covered in a poison mist, was below. It was there, they believed, that the Kyuubi and the Man would fight for eternity, the Kyuubi producing poison to keep others from helping.

Naruto wasn't sure about that. After all, it was just a man.

Naruto turned as he heard what sounded like a short cry followed by a scream. The fox was running towards him, without the boy.

Without the boy…

"Someone, help! My son!"

"Hinata…"

"Naruto! That boy is hanging off the back of the ship!" He knew she had her Byakugan active. Instantly he was running towards the back of the ship with all his speed. It only took a moment, but he was already too late. Naruto pushed through the people standing a the rail and leaned over the side just in time to see the child's hands slip off the rope he had been holding on to and begin falling.

Now, Naruto had a few choices. He could do what any normal person would do. Stay put and cry later. Or he could do what a stupid person would do, which is jump after him and die.

Or…

Naruto stuck his hands into his pockets, instantly coming out with ten wires. He gave his hands a twist as he threw them, causing all ten wires to wrap together as they went around a sturdy looking metal pole near him. The claws went around a few times before sinking in with a clang. Hopefully it wouldn't cut the pole in half with all ten wires together.

Then Naruto jumped.

He had a little more then two hundred meters to catch the kid before he ran out of wire. A surprising amount, but a ninja prepared for all situations, even jumping from a height of two hundred meters.

He nose dived, all the time wondering how the hell he was being forced to do this twice in one day, chasing the child that was flailing around and screaming. At least he was flat against the wind, reducing his speed. Naruto dove as fast as he could. But he could see already that he was going to come up short.

Naruto took all the wire in his other hand and reached with the other, not caring that when he ran out of wire it might rip his shoulder off. He only thought one thing as the boy came closer and closer.

I must save him!

His single mindedness wasn't going to help, he felt the wire running short in he hidden spools under his clothes that he wore on his upper arms. The wire got thicker as it came down to let him know he was running low. Naruto could almost reach out and grab the kid.

Then a third body came flying even faster past him.

The glowing wings of lilac pumped the woman past him and he saw her spin in mid air before grabbing the child with one hand and throwing her other hand to catch Naruto's. Naruto grabbed it and instantly started channeling chakra into both of his hands to both slow his decent and make sure he couldn't let go of Hinata.

One of the last things he saw before he felt searing pain in his shoulder was the wind swept tears in the eyes of Hinata Hyuga, and the smile of thanks on her face.

Then his world exploded in pain.

He felt his right arm get pulled up, nearly causing him to lose his grip on Hinata, and his left arm was pulled out of its socket with a pop. Then, before a split second could pass, the arm holding Hinata and the child also popped out of its socket.

He was now suspending in mid air by the spools on his arms and the chakra in his hands. He no longer could grip either strong enough to hold him up.

He was momentarily blinded by the pain of it.

After a few seconds of just being suspended in agonizing pain he managed to hear the voice of an angel talking to him.

"Naruto! Naruto, are you ok?"

It was Hinata. The child was crying, but no longer screaming, and was wrapped around her body like it was the only lifeline he had to life.

It was.

Naruto just grunted in reply. He wasn't sure his voice would even work with his pain. He saw that Hinata was still flapping her wings, easing the weight on his useless arms. He wasn't even sure how he was able to still be using the chakra he was. Only a half day ago he had been passed out from chakra exhaustion, and he wasn't all-powerful.

His eyes drifted to the hand holding the wire.

Then his eyes went wide.

The chakra around his hand wasn't the usual blue.

It was an angry red.

He glanced down at his other hand it was still blue. Hinata wouldn't be able to see his upper hand.

What the hell…

Suddenly Naruto was hit in the head by a rope ladder.

"Damn it!"

Naruto cringed as the pain grew worse for a moment before it eased off. Hinata had grabbed onto the ladder and was climbing as fast as she could. The wind was making the rope ladder very difficult to climb, but Naruto watched as she used her wings to make it much easier.

But it didn't matter to him. He didn't have a jealous bone in his body… that wasn't broken from how he felt.

Naruto just held on like that, staring at the ladder next to him and the hand that was slowly being encased in blue chakra instead of red. He figured it was because he was no longer using his other hand to hold Hinata and now he had a little chakra at his disposal. He wasn't really worried about falling, after all, the spools that held the wire were theoretically good up to a couple hundred tons. He was more worried about the pain in his arm if he let go and just let the wires support him.

He saw the ladder swing a little and he knew that someone was coming down to get him, probably Hinata. He let his chakra drop as the lilac wings came into view, worried about the red that was slowly seeping into his blue as he felt himself run out of chakra.

"Naruto…" Her face was right next to him. It was worried. He didn't see why, he felt fine. Well, fine for having two shoulders out of joint and at least a torn muscle or two. Even a ninja couldn't physically survive everything.

She carefully grabbed him around the stomach with one arm. He could see the beads of sweat glistening on her face. Keeping her wings up and using chakra to help lift him were taking their toll on her.

She didn't speak as she carefully went up the ladder. The wire wrapped itself around the spools as he went up, locking as it went. The accent took almost ten minutes, mainly because Hinata was getting tired and Naruto was slightly heavier than a five year old. They had almost reached the top, he could see the ship, when he heard cheering.

"They aren't…"

"Relax, you deserve it."

Naruto gasped in pain as he was pulled over the side of the ship by the other passengers. Hinata tumbled over right next to him and they both decided that that was a perfectly fine place to stop moving. Naruto passed out from the pain of being dragged the last few feet by his arms and Hinata passed out from chakra exhaustion. The people had no choice but to celebrate without them.


She was fading in and out of consciousness. There were voices, of course. There always had to be voices. If she wasn't born and bred to be a dignified lady of the Hyuga she would have considered grumbling and covering her head with her pillow.

A very nice and soft pillow.

She didn't feel like she could move her arms anyway. In her near conscious state she began to remember exactly why.

Screams.

Naruto diving off the ship.

Me diving off the ship.

Catching the child.

Climbing that two hundred meter ladder twice…

Hinata's eyes began to open, but she closed them immediately. There was too much light, even though she could tell she was now inside. Chakra exhaustion was nothing to sneer at. Anyone capable of actually using their chakra knew about the dangers of chakra exhaustion. Many people had lost their lives to it or to doing something under its effects.

And she was very much nearly dead of it. She had been pressed this far only once before, when she had been forced by her family to do so, so she knew what it felt like to be so close to death.

At least the pillow is soft.

Hinata managed a tired smile without opening her eyes. It was a very soft bed and pillow. She was very glad of that. Chakra exhaustion caused the slightest discomfort to turn into a major pain, but this bed…

She took a deep inhale.

Smells nice, too.

Thinking being the only action that didn't bring discomfort, her thoughts turned to what had happened.

I never thought Naruto would have ever done that. He nearly killed himself, even closer then I did. I saw… no… I heard his shoulders pop out of their sockets. And his face when I came back down… those scars on his face had grown a little. His eyes… they looked different. I couldn't tell because I was so tired myself, but…

The pupils looked different… more… animalistic.

But that doesn't matter. It was probably just my imagination. I'll wake up and he'll be fine. His arms are probably healed already. And he'll probably be all business again, just like in the sewer.

Naruto!

Hinata sat up too quickly and immediately felt the effects. She almost passed out before she fell back to the bed. Her head was swimming, and the excited voices around her didn't help. One higher pitched one, though, pierced through her foggy mind.

"Nata! You're awake!"

Hinata peeked open one eye to see the boy she and Naruto had saved next to the bed. At least he was ok.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Where's Naruto? Is he ok?" The boy giggled a little before pointing at something directly behind her.

"You sleeping on him, Nata!"

"I'm…"

Hinata's other eye went wide and she saw that her rather comfortable pillow was clothed in a black shirt and she had her arm around the waist of a blonde haired man. If she had had the energy to move, she would have. But, as it was, she could only blush. The adults also in the room seemed to laugh at this, and Hinata wouldn't have been surprised if they had done it on purpose. They had given the impression of… lovers. Going off alone outside. Going out of the way to avoid others. And the way they had been trading glances at the dinner.

Hinata blushed thinking of all of the misconceptions they could have gotten.

As it was, though, she didn't have the energy to move her head off of his chest, and the hand of his that was around her own waist just stayed right where it was.

She didn't have the will to move it.

He was, after all, a very nice pillow.