J: …I'm so proud of myself! Comparing with my first chapter, I've increased quite a number of words. In short, I'm actually improving. Now if I could just apply this skill in my next exam…
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I wouldn't be here now would I?
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Naru winced as Tora the fire daimyo's cat (or the-demon-that-just-won't-die, as Naru dubbed), gave her a rather large scratch on her arm, causing it to bleed. "Gaara, you hold it, it's time to put your defense to good use," she complained. They had spend at least an hour to find the cat and were now tired and hungry. This was their 6th D-rank mission and they were pissed already.
Anko chuckled as Gaara had already raised a fraction of sand aiming to crush the demo- I mean Tora's heart. It seemed just like yesterday that it had been her instead, as a gennin, catching the cat.
Her sensei, Orochimaru, had calmly watched as she struggled to hold a firm grip of Tora. She quickly shook her head to erase the bad memories that had resurfaced, Orochimaru had betrayed her, and she will never forgive him. She shifted her attention to the cat. That cat just won't die and was probably older that her. She sighed in relief as Hinata arrived just in time to save the cat.
"Come on team, time to receive our pay," she told them. In truth, all of their D-rank missions were catching Tora the cat, which was one of the main reasons why Naru was pissed. She walked briskly towards the direction of the Hokage's office and barged in.
"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," she gritted her teeth in fury, "I demand a better mission or I'll tear your office down and put every Hyuuga's underwear on display in public," Out of the corner of her eye, Anko eyed Naru's scratch that was given by Tora; at least, what was left of it, it was now completely healed and the only thing that remained of it was a thin line.
Iruka stood up, "Naru, show some respect to the Hokage," before he could continue on his rant, Sarutobi faced him and shook his head. Whenever Naru threatens someone, she made sure she carried out said threat. The last time the Hyuuga's were victims on Naru's pranks, he found out that one of the council head wore heart shaped boxers.
The next day, a four feet tall paperwork were brought in and he nearly died of heat attack when his secretary told him that there were more on the way.
Netherless, he swore that he would try to avoid that experience as hard as he could.
"The most I can offer you is a joined up mission with team 7. Do you guys accept?" he asked, secretly hoping that they'd decline since they didn't really have a nice history with the last Uchiha. Naru nodded enthusiastically while Hinata and Gaara, well they too wanted to leave the village for a while. Suddenly, the door opened and team 7 walked in.
Yakushi Kabuto politely greeted them while Sasuke ignored them. Sakura was shooting death glares at Hinata and Naru. Kakashi raised his hand and said, "Yo," Naru greeted them back and turned expectantly to the Hokage to know more about the mission. "This is a C-rank mission. You are to escort the bridge builder, Tazuna to Wave,"
The door opened and Tazuna walked in. He was an old man and in his hand, he clutched sake. They could see that he was quite drunk. "These are the gennins that are guarding me, huh?" he eyed Hinata, "They're just brats. Furthermore, the blue haired girl looks too weak," immediately, said blue haired girl sent out a wave of killer intent glaring daggers at Tazuna.
Everybody froze at that unexpected impact. Naru narrowed her eyes while Gaara looked disapprovingly at Hinata. Hinata seemed to caught their eyes and she froze like a cat caught stealing a fish from the fridge, her eyes showed fright. She had revealed too much, and for that split moment, everything was silent. Surprisingly, the one to break the silence was Sasuke for he asked Kakashi, in a timid voice, where were they supposed to meet later on.
When Anko informed them that they would be meeting at the borders of Konoha two hours from now, Hinata was dragged by a rather pissed off Naru with an indifferent Gaara following behind. Once they were out of earshot, Naru immediately said, "What the hell were you thinking? You're suppose to be the shy, weak girl, why did you flash your killer intent at Tazuna,"
Hinata didn't like this. She didn't want Naru mad at her. She could feel tears streaming across her eyes. "I-I was angry," she admitted, "You know f-full well that we c-can easily beat a- a jonin without going all o-out. Furthermore, he w-was lying to u-us," she said, and she wiped her hands across her eyes.
Gaara looked at her sympathetically. "You do know that there will be punishments for this," he said. The fright in her looks crawled back but she nodded. "Then, take it out," he said. She choked back a cry and wrapped her hand around her neck, and sighed when she found what she was looking for. She took off a necklace that had the yin and yang symbol on it and passed it to Gaara.
Gaara bit his thumb and swiped a little blood on yang while Naru did the same for yin. They passed it back to Hinata and Naru set a sad look at Hinata. "Don't do it again," she said and hung the necklace on her neck. As soon as the necklace touched her, Hinata screamed. Naru resist the urge to take it off but knew that this punishment was needed. It was a rule.
Hinata choked back a cry, her whole body felt like they were on fire. She knew she had to endure this. It was a ritual to cleanse her sins. She had to at least stand for a day. She took a step forward and immediately, she felt like her legs were sliced off. Naru walked over, offering her a hand and she gladly accepted it while Gaara threw her hand around his neck.
Despite the pain, Hinata managed to give a weak smile as she let her friends drag her to their home.
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Flashback
A young Hinata gazed at the clear blue lake sadly. She felt left out since both her friends were jinchuuriki, so she couldn't understand their pain. It was like they had some kind of invisible bond that she couldn't break through. She stood up and started to practice, trying as hard as she could to keep the current situation off her mind.
After an hour, she could be seen panting heavily in the midst of the forest. Or rather, what was left of it. Out of nowhere, Itachi crept behind her and with a swift chop, he hit her a tenkutsu on her neck and she fell down, immobilized. Try hard as she might, she couldn't bring herself to stand up.
"You let your guard down," was all Itachi said, as if that explained everything. She looked at him warily, unaware of the tears that streaked across her sweaty yet beautiful face. She tried again, to stand up as she used to during her training sessions with Itachi and Naru but she still couldn't stand up.
"Why don't you try a different approach? Where's all your strength?" he asked. Hinata knew that what he said had a double meaning to it. Before she could ask him what he was talking about, he walked away calmly as if the 'conversation' never took place.
She closed her eyes, trying to figure out what did her sensei mean but she still didn't understand. So, an exhausted Hinata lied unmoving at that spot, thinking that she'll just wait for the effects of that hit to wear off. Suddenly, she heard a loud hiss. It was a snake, and judging by its skin color, it was deadly. Panicking, she struggled to free herself as the snake inched closer and closer.
She forced herself to calm down and gathered her chakra around her body, storing as much chakra she could in that limited time. She braced herself before the chakra impact came and revolved around her like a second skin. The force of the chakra caused the snake to hit a nearby tree (or what was left of it), and with a furious hiss, it backed away and left her alone.
Using the chakra, she forcefully reopened her tenkutsu and immediately felt free as a hit of wind came rushing open her. She walked slowly towards the nearby waterfall and without giving any thought of her clothes; she dived into the water to cool herself off. Her thoughts were currently confused and mixed up. What does Itachi-nii's advice have anything to do with her current situation?
She thought back of what happened just now and learned that if she were to put more thought into how to release herself, then the snake incident wouldn't happen.
'Try a different approach,' he had said, and she started to think from Naru and Gaara's point of view. She still didn't understand. Using her chakra, she started walking on the water, climbing the 8 feet tall waterfall.
When she reached the top, she released her chakra and almost instantly, the strong current carried her away. She did nothing to resist, she calmly let the water guide her. She felt herself swept to the bank of the river, her cheeks lying on the solid ground. She sat up slowly and turned to meet the gaze of her friends.
Naru was grinning while Gaara was looking disapprovingly at her like a protective brother as she was really wet. "Are you trying to get yourself sick?" he lectured. Naru gave Gaara an annoyed look and helped Hinata up. She took off her jacket and threw it around Hinata.
Hinata stare at them longingly before falling from chakra exhaustion, she needed some rest. Naru and Gaara traded knowing looks before carrying her back to camp.
Flashback End
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They were ready and were now waiting at the border of the Fire Country for their senseis. As if on cue, Mitarashi Anko and Hatake Kakashi appeared with a poof. Anko raised an eyebrow at Hinata, but if Hinata was in pain, she masked it well as she stared at the ground trying hard not to attract too much attention.
Naru flicked her head at Hinata's direction once in a while, concerned was obviously displayed at this as she rushed to Hinata's side just in time to catch her from falling. Gaara offered to his teacher to guard in front of Tazuna, but in reality, he wanted the position to be behind his friend whose face expression faltered once in a while.
If Kabuto, Sakura or Sasuke noticed this, they didn't say anything, instead chose to keep quiet. Except for the occasionally asked questions from Sakura to Tazuna, the group traveled in silence and tension seemed to be in the air.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi spied a puddle of water and almost immediately sensed the chuunin level chakra radiating from it. He looked up to catch Anko's eye and saw her nod in acknowledgement. Before they could prepare themselves, Gaara gave a casual flick of kunai towards the puddle and immediately, it turned blood red.
Kakashi eyed the red head warily, he knew that Gaara knew that the chuunin level ninjas were there, and he had been unhesitant in aiming to kill them. He turned to see Anko's reaction and she was quite pale. Obviously, she didn't know that her gennin could be this ruthless. "Why did you do that?" Kakashi asked, facing Gaara. Gaara feign ignorance and answered," What's the matter Kakashi-sensei? I was just playing with the kunais," his monotone expression helped his acting as everybody save Anko looked at Kakashi weirdly.
As they continued their journey, Kakashi wondered how much did Naru and Hinata changed as they were in the same team like Gaara and teammates were often influential. Naru walked up to Kakashi and tapped him on the shoulder lightly. He jumped a little as he didn't notice her. "Don't feel bad about Gaara, Kakashi-nii. He's testing you jonins capabilities. He's a nice person, really, now, you're supposed to worry about Tazuna. He's not telling the full truth about this mission," she said.
At that, he realized that he had miss out that specific detail about the true purpose of this mission. "Tazuna, please explain," he said. His team looked at him curiously while Gaara kept up his same uncaring expression and Hinata was trying hard to not look at him so he won't see the pain in her eyes.
Naru noticed the slight trembling Tazuna was showing as he said, "What do you mean?" Anko narrowed her eyes at this. She too could feel the fright radiating from the bridge builder.
"We took care of some chuunin level shinobi just now," Gaara snorted at that but Kakashi continued, "And they were obviously sent to get rid of you. So, please explain," he said. At this, Tazuna looked crestfallen.
Sighing, he explained that Gatou had been terrorizing Waves economy, causing many people to starve. He then explained that if he were to build a bridge, he could get in touch with other countries, and start trading food and other things, boosting up their economy. Gatou, of course, knows of this so he had sent out numerous shinobis to get rid of him.
Anko listened to the explanation closely, trying to detect if there was any lie imbedded into his words. She nodded when he told them the truth. "We will help you only if you promise to give us the original payment after Wave is back on its feet again," she said. Kakashi turned to look at the facial expression on the gennins face.
Sakura look a bit shaken but was willing to follow Sasuke to the end of the world as Sasuke looked eager to do the now A-ranked mission. Hinata still had her head down but he could see that she didn't mind. Naru grinned, she was just starting to enjoy the feeling to be back on the road again while Gaara…was Gaara. He showed neither pleasure nor displeasure at the decision.
"So it's settled. We'll continue this mission," Anko said. Tazuna thanked them before leading them to a boat to cross the ocean. When they saw the bridge Tazuna was building, Kakashi whistled, impressed. They all gave compliments to Tazuna while he boasted that he was the best bridge builder.
As they were nearing the borders of Wave, the mist became thicker. Hinata, sensing a disturbance around the nearby bushes, threw a kunai at it before walking over. She almost cried when she saw it was a bunny with white fur. Immediately, the jonins were alert and Anko, pulling Sasuke and Sakura down, screamed, "Duck,"
Naru, who was had a fast reaction, pulled Tazuna down. If they were 1 second too late, their head would have been detached from their bodies as a large sword came flying out of nowhere at their direction. Sakura shrieked at this. (pfft, some kind of kunoichi she turned out to be) A moment later, a man appeared, holding the hilt of the sword grinning bloodthirstily at the gennins direction.
Team 7 was shaking at the killing intent directing at them while Sabaku no Gaara was grinning a little. Naru groaned, of all people that they met up with, it had to be them. Hinata was still grimacing at the pain but the thought of Haku-chan here was comforting.
"Ah, I see that the Demon Brothers lost. Never mind, they were pathetic," said the voice. A man appeared from the mist. He was a good six to seven feet tall with no shirt on, but a pair of blue-white baggy pants with a Mist hita-ite tied around his forehead with a slash across it with the strap of his sword over his chest. He had no eyebrows whatsoever and bandages covered the lower half of his mouth and nose.
"Momichi Zabuza, A-rank missing nin, wanted for an assault against the Mizukage and also known as the Demon of the Mist," said Anko, gripping her kunai. She looked back at her gennin team, trying to tell them to run away., Zabuza followed her gaze at his jaw dropped in shock as he saw Hinata, or rather Hinata's necklace.
Zabuza immediately turned away from the gennins of team 12, his face pale as though he had seen a ghost. He made sure that Anko and Kakashi were not seeing before flashing a few hand seals at Hinata. To anybody, it seemed like nothing suspicious, but Hinata understood. I know who you really are, meet me tonight by the lakeside.
At that, he stared at Tazuna for a while before looking at Anko and Kakashi. "Haku, let's go," he said. He didn't care if what he just did destroyed his usual ruthless image that he built on himself, he had found what he was looking for and that was enough.
Haku, who had also saw the necklace, understood very well that it what he was doing was for the best. She gave a polite bow to the Konoha nins before turning to Zabuza, who was looking quite ashen. With a wave, Haku grabbed Zabuza's arm, before doing a hand seal. With a twirl of leaves, they were gone. (Note: Haku is a girl)
Kakashi immediately narrowed his eyes at Anko's gennin. Someone or something had made Zabuza decide not to cross with them. At least for now. The question was, what? What made Zabuza leave? Who was the most suspicious person in the team? He suspected it was Gaara. He had known Naru for quite a long time so it couldn't be her while Hinata is too shy for it. The only one left was Gaara who had mercilessly kill two chuunins. The person he suspected was obvious.
Tazuna cleverly dispersed the silence by suggesting them to come to his house to stay while they protected him. They walked once again in silence, the same question running across their minds. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi had inched away from team 12, leaving Kabuto to walk alongside with Hinata, much to the displeasure of Gaara, though he didn't show it.
As they approached closer to their destination, Anko broke the silence, "When are we arriving," she said impatiently.
Tazuna, fearing for his life (Anko didn't look exactly friendly), told her after a while, "We're here," and led them to a small cottage next to a forest. Naru nodded in appreciation while the rest was just happy that the horrible silence was over. The door opened and a kind looking woman stuck her head out.
"Father, you're back," she said, smiling. Sasuke felt a pang at that as the smile reminded him a lot of his mother. At that, he hated Itachi even more. Naru visibly saddened, the Uchiha massacre jolted into her mind. Hinata looked at her, concerned for her friend. Naru gave a smile but it didn't reach her eyes.
They were led in and asked to rest after having some tea in the living room, all the while listening to Tazuna recounting his stories on his journey from Konoha to Wave to his daughter, who was introduced as Tsunami. In the middle of the story, Naru's sharp eyes caught a boy who was peeking in. when he noticed her gaze on him, he quickly looked away.
"Anko-sensei, can we be excused?" asked Gaara. Anko nodded before informing Kakashi that she was going to sleep. At this, Tsunami jumped a little in embarrassment for not showing their rooms earlier. Naru nodded in appreciation as she was placed in a room with Gaara and Hinata.
Kakashi and Anko were placed in a same room. After hearing that, Kakashi paled considerably. Anko didn't exactly…liked roommates. Sasuke, Sakura and Kabuto were placed in a room beside team 12's room, much to the displeasure of Sasuke while Sakura just said. "I'm going to sleep with Sasuke-kun. Take that Ino-pig," and everybody shot pity looks at the Uchiha. Even Gaara.
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Hinata cried relieved tears as she was in Gaara's embrace. Naru had took off her necklace and was now purifying it with holy water that was sealed in a small scroll. Gaara was feeling awkward since he hadn't hugged anyone before so he was trying hard not to mess up.
As the necklace was pulled up, Hinata immediately felt the effect and she was sobbing tiredly, trying to hold her weight while Gaara had lent a shoulder for her, only to have Hinata wrap her small hands around him. He was getting used to the idea of hugging Hinata when Naru yanked him away to comfort Hinata, not wanting to be left out. Gaara fumbled for a soldier pill in his pouch and passed it to Hinata, which she took it graciously.
Together, they had their lunch in the clearing. Naru had promptly took out some ramen from a sealing scroll when Hinata confessed that they were hungry. They ate comfortably and would make small talks once in a while.
Finally, they were done, and started to shift their attention to what had happened earlier that day. Surprisingly, Gaara was the one who voiced his opinion first.
"He was looking at Hinata," said Gaara.
Naru nodded, a bit grim. "Why did he leave?"
Hinata, taking it as a cue for her to speak up, said, "He told me in our sign language to meet him by the lake side tonight," Gaara narrowed his eyes suspiciously while Naru seemed to be deep in thought.
"It could be a trap," mused Naru.
"We're strong enough to take them on," Gaara replied.
Hinata shot Gaara an annoyed look, "Don't overestimate yourself or you'll turn into someone like Sasuke,"
Suddenly, Gaara didn't feel so good. "Promise me something,"
Naru and Hinata replied simultaneously, "What?"
"Kill me if I start acting like the Uchiha," he said, and Naru and Hinata burst into a fit of giggles.
After taking a calm breath, Naru's face turned serious. "So, are we going to meet them tonight?" she asked.
Both of her friend nodded. "Then it is decided, we'll leave after dinner," she said.
Naru had her suspicions, but if they were wrong, that does that mean- wait, she shook her head. 'Now is not the time to think negative,' she told herself. She slipped her hand to her neck, seeking reassurance. Her heart clamed down a little as she fingered the yin yang necklace on her neck. They all had one.
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J: Cliffhanger! Now, I finally reached the 10th chapter. Time for the votes (I'm doing this after every 10th chapter to check if you guys want me to continue)…
Do you want me to discontinue the story?
Anyways, a slight hint, next chapter (if I'm still doing it) will be a little info on what's going on with Itachi. Please comment!
