CHAPTER EIGHT:


"HIDE THE PRINCESS"


Unlike any other day—today, a loom of shadows sunned across the very clouds above Konohagakure. It felt like the village herself was silenced into fear. It was as if the world was waiting for some great tragedy and it was preparing it's land for the following mourning.


Hyuuga Hinata trailed along her courtyard, deep in rumination, and childishly—unconsciously—counting the stars above. She weaved stories in her head. She imagined happiness could exist in the end.

Naruto was omnipresent in her thoughts.

She wished for a liberated life—or at least a better one—spent with the man she loved: Uzumaki Naruto.

An uneasy feeling settled itself within the pit of her stomach. And to add to her superstition, the byakugan only provided further unease in its all seeing nature.

She often felt like she could see the future. She wondered if that could even be possible. Perhaps the Hyuuga were actual predictors—psychics so to speak. Just a bunch of hustling fortune-tellers.

She hoped the feeling would disappear, and soon. It was keeping her from her beautiful daydreams.

"It is not wise to remain so awake…"

A voice startled her. She leapt around, searching for its origins.

"Who's there?!"

"I can steal your dreams, and I can feed you nightmares…"

Red clouds fluttered before her eyes mesmerizingly. She felt entranced. She didn't recognize the men standing before her. They held steel pipes, jagged and sharp at the ends, in their grips. She was scared. Her brain thought at a million miles per second.

These men are dangerous. These men are outsiders. She saw the slashes upon their headbands. They are missing-nin.

She needed to warn the Hokage. She needed to warn the villagers. She had to protect her village! I have to protect, Naruto!

They're here for Naruto. She didn't know how she knew, she just did. It was an odd feeling, and she certainly acknowledged that fact. It was like she could see the group of men, clothed in red clouds, and Naruto, standing opposite each other—like she remembered seeing them in her dreams.

She hoped she wasn't seeing the future.

She looked into the eyes of the one that appeared to be the group's leader. His eyes were purple. She felt spirals carve into her soul. Her fear amplified a thousand times stronger. She shivered audibly. Sweat trickled down her spine.

"I won't let you near Naruto!" She yelled defiantly. How brave. How foolish.

"We're not here for Naruto. We are here for you." The man uttered something unintelligible. Hinata felt the pull of gravity. She flew into his grasp. He nailed her hands together. She screamed in pain. The man said, "Naruto will come of his own."

No! That can't be? Why her? And why would Naruto come to save her? She hoped he would be her saviour but she knew the difference between Fantasy and Reality.

Who would love a freak like me?


Tsunade, Sakura, Shizune, and Jiraiya dashed out the doorway, faster than lightning.

Naruto stared at Izumo for a few seconds. Izumo stared back at him. Naruto grabbed him by the collar and they both jumped out through the window, tearing through the glass. It sounded like a diamond shattering.

Naruto landed swiftly upon a building-top. He had Izumo on his back. Naruto blitzed across the rooftops, a few steps behind his teammates. He interrogated Izumo as he played catch-up.

"What did you mean?" he asked.

Izumo asked, "What are you talking about," in between coughs and hiccups as they jittered and jumped building-to-building.

Naruto wasn't in a joking mood anymore. He was serious. "Hide the Princess. What does that mean?"

Izumo coughed some blood and said, "They're here for her."

"Stop playing games, Izumo-san. The only princess I know of in Konoha is Tsuna—"

"No—no. There is another… You must hide her—they want her…Hinata-sama."

Naruto did a double-take as he came to the shocking realization of truth: Hinata's a princess?

"Why Hinata?"

Izumo rasped out Byakugan before passing out on Naruto's shoulders. Naruto halted his procession and found a safe spot to rest Izumo—namely, the cot upon the rooftop above the Nara household. He rung the balcony bell and leapt off towards the place he sensed his teammates presence.

Shikamaru Nara would open his balcony door and find an injured Izumo unconscious on his favourite place to watch the clouds. Naruto was sure that would be enough to urge the lazy-ass to investigate.

Naruto thought about Hinata: the shy, timid, always-stuttering, always-pink-at-the-cheeks, and the ever-innocent girl. He wondered how she'd grown in the time he was gone. He smiled at the thought of her though he didn't notice—and he attributed the butterflies to the rooftop-jumping.

He felt his teammates gathering together. Where were they—there!

The Hyuuga Clan Compound. Shit, it really was about Hinata.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura all stood outside the gates to the compound. Naruto landed swiftly in front of them. None were startled. They'd sensed him coming a mile away. They are all in battle-mode.

Nobody said anything, they all seemed to stare at the gates, they were broken and mangled, as if some unearthly force had crushed them with it's bare hands (if such a force could have hands). They approached the gates. A barrier pulsed brokenly. It was supposed to guard from intruders. A failed bet.

Naruto tapped the barrier and it dissipated, mist-like. They all entered the compound. They split: Tsunade and Shizune and Sakura; Jiraiya and Naruto. Then Naruto and Jiraiya split. They made a few hand seals and disappeared.


Naruto peeked around the corner of a wall. Nothing. He ducked under an overpass and hopped atop a rooftop. He peered broad and narrow. He saw nothing, and he was most definitely sighted. The place was a goddamn ghost town. Naruto wondered, What the hell happened?


Jiraiya blitzed each room with swiftness and purpose. He found a main hall overlain with bodies and bodies of seemingly unconscious clansmen. He approached them invisibly—within the limits of his jutsu—and felt for a pulse. A beat. A few more. They were alive. And judging by their heart rates, simply asleep. Somebody put them asleep, Jiraiya surmised. He searched his surroundings for a sign or a hint that might indicate brute force, some sort of fallout, anything that might reveal an intrusion…Nothing! Fuck!

He knew it was bad. The Hyuuga were the strongest shinobi in the village. With that in mind, it was an impossibility that a single person could have managed such a dangerous feat.

Remember, Jiraiya, the Uchiha boy did it. He knocked that thought from his mind. Itachi was an exception. An anomaly. Anomalies don't exist in bulk; though when they appear, the outcome sure is a lump-sum.

Jiraiya exited the room. He headed towards Naruto's presence. They needed to rendezvous. Whoever was here had already gotten what they came for: Hinata.


Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura scanned through the dark alleys and sharply, sun-lit streets and found nothing but dustballs cinematically floating away and sometimes comically smashing into each other.

Tsunade was the first to understand that whatever was supposed to happen here had already happened and they were late to the dinner table. They'd missed it all. She felt rut at herself. Hokage, my ass. She was brutal on herself.

Shizune must've heard the woman cussing herself out mentally. She was by her master's side and comforting the enraged Slug Princess.

Sakura ignored the two and split. She searched for Naruto's presence—found it! She leapt off in his direction.

She reached him soon after. Naruto stood in what appeared to be a ritual room. There were more bodies stacked pile-high. Jiraiya stood beside him. She hadn't sensed Jiraiya. The man truly was a master and not just a pervert. It didn't comfort any part of her, knowing this. Adrenaline was coursing through her in anticipation of what might occur.

Naruto said nothing when Jiraiya and Sakura arrived by his side. Silence was their silent comrade in this whole operation.

Jiraiya was the one who disregarded that caveat. "It's a ghost town. Whoever was here got what they wanted. Notice anyone missing?"

Naruto said, "Hinata."

Sakura nodded her head in agreement.

Jiraiya hmm'd and the three headed back to rendezvous with Tsunade and Shizune.

They located the pair in a room inside of one of the compound houses. It was a bedroom. It was Hinata's bedroom.

Sakura was by her master's side. Jiraiya waited by the doorway. Naruto stood dead centre and took in the atmosphere of the room. He felt Hinata's presence where he stood. It was sweet and comforting. It was affectionate. It was pure.

Naruto noticed what everybody else had. Jiraiya waited for him to spell it out like he always did.

There. Painted on the walls, in what looked like blood:

UZUMAKI NARUTO THE PRINCESS IS IN THE AKATSUKI'S POSSESSION

IF YOU WANT HER BACK SHE WILL BE WAITING TO DIE

500 METRES SOUTH OF KONOHA

COME ALONE

SAVE THE PRINCESS

IF YOU CAN

Everyone fell silent.

Their only thoughts were, If we weren't able to hide the princess, we'll damn-sure save her!


CHAPTER END.