NaruHina Story: Chapter 8

Naruto didn't need to turn around to recognize the voice. He heard a thump behind him and knew it was her landing behind him. "I could ask you the same thing."

"The sand and leaf are trading medicinal herb knowledge. This is my first major mission since I've been training under Tsunade. I came here to see a fight. Not watch you get your ass kicked by the Kazekage!"

Gaara interrupted them before Naruto could reply. "You will see a fight. But Naruto, the crowd is getting impatient. We should start soon." He turned back to Sakura standing there. "you would do well to get out of the arena, Naruto has some very, how to put it, explosive techniques." He finished quickly, dismissing Sakura with a wave of his hand. She turned and jumped back into the crowd.

Naruto and Gaara stared each other down. Neither wanting to make the first move, but both getting impatient. Finally Naruto nodded to show he was ready. And Gaara struck first.

Sand immediately shot at Naruto, remembering what happened to sand when mixed with heat he decided to disable Gaara's weapon of mass destruction right then and there and end the match quickly. He shot some lightning out of his hands directly at the sand but he missed. Shit! I forgot it's not just a projectile, he controls it the whole time! He managed to jump out of the way of the sand in time to avoid being hit though.

"Naruto, I know you can do better than that." Came the taunt he had been waiting for.

He decided to take off his weights. First came the ones off of his wrists. He threw them to the side and they slammed into the ground in a giant cloud of smoke. The whole crowd gasped as the ground shook from the impact. Heh, if they think that was a lot of weight, wait till they see this. He pulled the weights off his legs and threw them to the same spot and heard someone yell "Earthquake!" in the distance. He saw Gaara's eyes go wide.

Gaara, seeing the weights, was immediately reminded of his fight with Lee in the chuunin exams. The weights had made him fast enough to make it through his sand barrier. But he had only been wearing leg weights. Naruto had been wearing wrist weights as well. He remembered Naruto using his Kensengan and keeping up with him while holding Hinata all day, but he had been wearing his weights then. What would happen if he were to suddenly turn on his Kensengan now? He didn't want to think about it. Instead, he decided to keep Naruto too busy to think. But Naruto's specialty was thinking on his feet.

Naruto suddenly felt really light. He charged at Gaara moving faster than he had been expecting. And tripped over a rock he hadn't seen in time. The whole crowd groaned. And Gaara sighed. "Naruto, what is the point of being fast if you can't control your speed?"

Naruto stood up and glared at him. "This is my first time ever taking my weights off since Kakashi came to visit back in that place." He said remembering that most people didn't know about the Neutral country.



Gaara nodded, understanding. Naruto would get used to his speed very quickly. Then it would be interesting.

Naruto sprang again, this time being able to duck and dodge everything Gaara threw at him and all the time moving in closer to try to land a hit on Gaara. He was just about to turn to move away when all of a sudden he heard Naruto yell "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" and there was a cloud of smoke and a clone appeared. The clone ran towards Gaara who simply tapped it to make it freeze, but instead of disappearing into a cloud of smoke, it started to drip. Shit! He plans on making the sand wet to keep me from using it! Gaara quickly pulled all dry sand away from the clone as it collapsed into a splash.

Then Naruto remember his lightning clone, it had lightning coursing throughout it. Wouldn't that be the best way to take out Gaara's sand? He decided to try it. But he would need a distraction.

He immediately threw down a smoke bomb and made a lightning clone in the smoke, so nobody could see the bolt of lightning slowly transform. The clone slowly walked towards Gaara. Gaara though, hated clones and decided to destroy it immediately. He tapped it again, but instead of the clone disappearing, his sand turned to glass.

Shit! Shit shit shit! What the hell did he do?

Naruto just sat back and laughed. This would be interesting. The lightning clone slowly advanced towards Gaara, turning every sand attack into glass without even doing anything. Gaara had to think quick, he would run out of sand at this rate, and the clone was barely doing anything. He would have to attack the real Naruto and end this. He shot a sand bullet at the real Naruto but his bullet just turned into glass.

Another clone? He attacked both Naruto's relentlessly but all his sand turned to glass. Something's wrong. Contact shouldn't be turning my sand into glass, only heat can do that!

The whole arena was covered with broken glass from Naruto's clones, while the real Naruto had instead transformed into a kunai inside of his clones pouch because he knew Gaara would sense it if he became a sand pebble.

Gaara was frantic to get rid of these clones, he was no taijutsu user, but he should still be able to land a hit on one of these clones. He charged the first clone and when he realized it wasn't even trying to dodge his attack he realized something must be up. So he jumped back again. No, wait, all clone disappear if you hit them hard enough so just punch it really hard. He charged at the clone and slammed his fist into its face expecting it to disappear into a cloud of smoke. Instead he found himself flying backwards and slamming into the arena wall.

Not good, he was being beaten too easily. He needed to find the real Naruto and attack him soon or he wouldn't last much longer against these things that made his sand seem lame. He had the most strategic weapon of all, and it was useless against these things.



Then he saw his escape. He realized the whole arena floor was covered in glass shards. He used his sand to pick up a couple shards and threw them at the clones who then disappeared into clouds of smoke leaving a kunai knife on the ground. There was another cloud of smoke and Naruto was standing there with his arms crossed across his chest.

He decided since lightening wouldn't work he had to use speed. He sprang at Gaara who tried to use sand to stop him but Naruto just easily avoided his sand and slammed his fist into Gaara's face.

Gaara went flying backwards into the arena wall for the second time. Sakura gasped. How had Naruto gotten so fast? He had simply run through the sand to punch Gaara. There was no illusion, no ninjutsu, just plain speed behind the attack.

Naruto stood back as Gaara scrambled to his feet and started going all out with his little sand bullets. Naruto quickly turned on his Kensengan and moved. He saw the bullets moving towards him. Using their momentum they gained while traveling towards him, he started spinning in a circle and grabbing the bullets and sending them flying back at Gaara who just sent them flying back towards Naruto again. It was never ending, the super speed tornado in the middle of the arena suddenly stopped when Gaara stopped sending bullets his way.

Gaara surrounded Naruto with a dome of little sand bullets. This was his chance. He could get Gaara now if he moved fast enough. He waited. Then he saw Gaara make the signs. And he moved. He created a layer of lightning around his entire body. The bullets started coming in only to hit the chakra and turn to glass and fall. As they fell, Naruto scooped them up and hurled them at Gaara who couldn't redirect the fire so he had to dodge and use his sand to escape the incoming storm of glass bullets. The whole crowd gasped at Naruto's speed in sending all the glass bullets flying back at Gaara who was having trouble staying out of the way. He was leaning toward one side since he had just dodged what he thought was the last of the bullets. But one more came flying at him. Because of his momentum though, he couldn't change his direction, he put up a wall of sand to catch it, but there was something wrong, it never hit his sand wall. He regained his balance and lowered the wall just a bit so he could look over it. The sight surprised him. There was a Naruto clone standing there holding the glass.

"I wasn't sure you would have been able to stop this one, but I didn't want to take any chances." He said grinning.

Gaara went even paler than he had been before. If it was possible. Naruto was actually stating that he had won this match. He couldn't believe it. In a way he had, but he hated being beaten in front of his village. It was humiliating. And it wasn't going to happen. "It's not over yet Naruto." He said grimly and launched another attack. The clone disappeared into a cloud of smoke as the sand snaked its way towards Naruto who still had his Kensengan on. He easily avoided the sand and ran at Gaara. Gaara was ready this time though, he put up a complete shield around himself and used his third eye technique to watch Naruto outside to see what he was up to.

Shit! His sand shield had been turned into glass in an instant. He heard the crowd gasp. Then a cracking sound. He turned around to see naruto come flying through the glass to slam his fist into Gaara's 

stomach and send him up into the air. Gaara usually was only in the air on a sand cloud. But he didn't have any sand up here at the moment so he was helpless as Naruto Jumped up and started slamming Gaara every which way, not seriously injuring him. But enough to get the message across that the match was now over.

They landed and Gaara stood up and addressed the crowd. "I hope you all are satisfied with this fight. I wish to see the council in the meeting room now." He turned back to Naruto, "well fought. You may go sit with your friend now."

Naruto ran over and grabbed his weights and strapped them on again, and started to run out of the arena towards the hospital when that voice called him. He didn't stop though, he had to go see Hinata.

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Sakura didn't understand it, she wanted to congratulate him on his victory, but he had taken off. She was sure he had heard her, but he had only paused, as if to make a decision on what was more important. Obviously, wherever he was going, it was more important than her. She decided to get back to her research in the hospital.

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Naruto turned on his Kensengan as he raced for the hospital. He didn't want to waste any time getting there, and had found it without much trouble. He ran inside to the front desk and said "I need the room number for Hyuuga Hinata."

The receptionist just looked at him confused. Then he realized he must be talking super speed because his Kensengan was still turned on. He turned it off and said again "I need the room number for Hyuuga Hinata."

The receptionist nodded and started looking through files, "208" she replied and pointed him down the right hall.

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Sakura ran back to the hospital to get back to work. She wanted to finish it and go to bed early tonight. But when she got there she saw a puzzled receptionist sitting behind the desk.

"Is something wrong Naramie?" she asked.

"Yeah, some blonde loudmouth just came in here talking super speed. I couldn't even understand him. Then his eyes changed color and he started talking slower."

"What did he want?" Sakura was now confused, why would Naruto be running to a hospital. Had Gaara actually injured him in the fight? "He wasn't hurt was he?"

"No he just wanted a room number for someone."



Now Sakura was really confused. "What was the room number you gave him?"

"208" the receptionist replied and went back to writing out appointments for the medics there.

Sakura walked down the hall and found room 208, when she looked inside her breath caught in her throat. Yes Naruto was in there, but he was leaning over someone. A girl from the look of her, though she couldn't clearly see their face. She watched as Naruto unexpectedly leaned down and kissed her forehead. So she is the reason Naruto suddenly ran off after the match. He had simply fought to win his acceptance and then rushed back to this girl. But who was she?

Naruto looked up as the door opened and Sakura walked in. He saw her gasp in surprise. "Yes its Hinata. Didn't expect to see us for at least another two years huh?"

She couldn't think of anything to say. Naruto didn't even hint at liking her anymore. Instead, his gaze never left Hinata. "Naruto, I, uhhh, I came to see if you needed any medical attention after the fight."

Naruto turned around to her and grinned. "He didn't even touch me. So I'm fine."

"Naruto, I know the weights helped, but they shouldn't be affecting your talking speed. The person at the front desk said you rushed in talking hyper speed."

Naruto reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah well, I forgot to turn it off."

Sakura looked confused. "Turn what off?" she asked suspiciously. Naruto wouldn't cheat in a fight. Would he?

"My Kensengan. I used it to run here as fast as possible but forgot to turn it off when I asked for her room." He said, nodding at Hinata.

Sakura stood there thinking. Kensengan, Kensengan, where have I heard that before. Then it hit her. The fourth Hokage. "Naruto, quit joking around, how did you really move so fast?"

He knew she wouldn't believe him. He walked over to her and made her look at his eyes, then he slowly turned his Kensengan on and she saw his eyes switch color to green with the white lines. Her eyes widened. Naruto turned it off and went back to sit by Hinata.

Sakura decided not to press anymore and left the room. She decided to go find Naruto a room to sleep in for later.

But as soon as she had left, Naruto had found himself exhausted. And he had just lined all the chairs in the room up right next to Hinata's bed, and fell asleep there, holding her hand.

Sakura came back to tell Naruto she had a room reserved for him if he got tired, but when she walked into the room, she saw him passed out on a row of chairs, holding onto Hinata's hand. She decided to leave, but not before snapping a picture to embarrass the hell out of them both later on. She looked at the clock. Damn, already six-thirty, and I still have a lot left to do on that project. She decided to get to work for at least a couple more hours before she finally got tired and went to sleep around ten.



Hinata stayed passed out for a week, Naruto never leaving his makeshift bed which was right alongside hers. She had an IV pumping fluids into her to keep her from overly starving or dehydrating.

Naruto knew exactly what was happening and told the medics she didn't need the IV. The demon inside supplies the body with enough to survive. Hinata was probably just talking to her demon right now which is why she was passed out. But the medics didn't believe him and gave her an IV anyway. Sakura had stopped in at least once a day to check on him and Hinata. Naruto sat by her bed all day just like any other day, before falling asleep on his row of chairs.

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Hinata woke up and looked around. Her demon had told her everything that had happened, but only up to the point of the cat going back inside of her and giving her back control of her own body. She looked around the room she was in and looked at her bed. I'm in a hospital. She looked down to see Naruto sleeping beside her bed on a row of chairs. She saw the IV and was immediately hungry. She didn't feel like she could walk just yet. So she reached over and nudged Naruto who instantly jumped up with a kunai in his hand, startling her.

"Hinata-chan! Your finally awake huh?" he said, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

"Naruto-kun….."

He was instantly kneeling by her bed. "Something wrong? You need something?"

Hinata nodded. "I'm hungry." Was all she said and Naruto shot away. He didn't even let me specify what I wanted. He will probably come back with ramen knowing him. But she wouldn't mind ramen that much actually, it did sound kind of good at the time.

After just a few seconds Naruto came flying back into the room with a tray of food. "Sorry Hinata-chan, this hospital has specified meals throughout the day, so I was only able to grab you a dinner tray for right now." He handed her the tray and sat back down to give her some time to eat. When she finished eating what she could, she set the tray aside and looked at him. "Naruto-kun, did you stay by my bed this whole time? Where are we? And how did we get here? How long was I out?"

Naruto decided to start at the beginning. "Ne Hinata-chan, your cat took over your body about a week ago. And I left the fox take over my body to convince the cat to go back inside. When it ended we were both unconscious but I woke up almost immediately since it had happened to me before. But it was your first time so you were out for a whole week. I carried you here to the sand village. Gaara made me drop you off here at the hospital and go have a talk with him, which resulted in me having to fight him in a friendly arena match to win our acceptance here. Then I came back here and stayed by your side since then. Oh, and Sakura-chan has been stopping in to check on you a lot." He added quickly.

Hinata groaned inwardly. Sakura is here? Now Naruto is going to forget all about me and start chasing after her again.



Naruto saw the look of disappointment on Hinata's face when he mentioned Sakura. "Don't worry, she can never replace you. I need my kitty." He said with a laugh. It made Hinata blush, but she felt good at the same time. At least now she knew she wouldn't have to worry about Sakura. Who chose just then to walk through the door.

"Good to see you awake Hinata." Sakura said as she looked down at the tray of half eaten food. "Naruto, how many times have I told you, at least take the trays outside when you're done eating."

Naruto looked at Hinata. "Are you done eating?" she nodded and handed the tray to him. He walked by Sakura who was stunned. Naruto had even gone to get her a food tray when she woke up? He really did like her then. Once he left the room she walked over to Hinata and handed her the picture she had snapped on the first time Naruto had been into the room. Hinata looked at it and blushed.

"Naruto didn't know I was outside the door when I snapped that. I just thought you would want it. After all, you were unconscious all the times he kissed you here, willing you to wake back up." She unhooked the IV from Hinata saying she wouldn't need it anymore now that she was up and had a full time caretaker. Naruto had just walked in after she said that and Sakura had pointed at him. "see?"

Naruto just looked utterly confused, Hinata blushed, and Sakura walked out laughing and rolling the IV stand along the hallway.

Naruto saw her holding something and went over to sit by her. She turned it so he could see it and his face instantly grew red. Hinata told him not to worry and they both settled down for some sleep for the rest of the night.

Though Naruto and Hinata didn't realize it, Sakura was leaving the next day to go back to leaf.

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Sakura woke up the next morning to pack up and get ready to leave for the leaf village. She decided she would be better off just leaving without Naruto trying to get in her way. But there was one stop she had to make first. The library. Soon as she had her bag packed she left for the library. Since she had been there for a couple months she knew her way around quite well. She walked in and asked the librarian if she could watch a tape of the fight between Naruto and Gaara. The librarian nodded and left to go find it. It only took a few seconds for her to come walking back with the tape which she put in for Sakura to watch.

She was amazed throughout the whole thing. Naruto moved so fast in the end that she had to ask the librarian to slow it down so she could see what was actually happening. Her mouth dropped wide open when she saw what he was really doing. Once the video was over she went back to the front desk to talk to the librarian.

"Is there any way I can get some sort of copy of that tape?"



The librarian eyed her suspiciously, "Why would you want one a copy of it?"

Sakura already had her answer ready though, "I'm about to go back to the leaf village. My mission time is up, see, im here on a mission to trade medicinal plants with the sand. My sensei is also the Hokage of my village, and Naruto is a friend of mine. So I want a copy to take back to the Hokage."

The librarian nodded, "Very well, but you must wait a few minutes. It takes great concentration to copy such a fast video."

Sakura nodded but before the librarian could turn to go she had one more thing to ask. "One more thing, see, in the leaf village, we don't have techniques to slow down or speed up tapes, any way you could teach the slow motion thing to me?"

"My slow motion technique requires great chakra control." The librarian answered simply.

"Why do you think I'm a med nin instead of a combat nin?" Sakura shot back.

The librarian simply nodded and showed her the signs and gave her the next fastest tape to practice with while she went to go copy the fight scene. After only a few minutes Sakura had it mastered. She could slow it down so much that the bullets transformation into glass could even be seen.

She thanked the librarian and left for the leaf village.

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