Chapter 9

Author's report: I checked my poll and 55 of you guys are voting for the harem. Just thought I'd let you guys know, everyone who leaves in a review 'no harem' I say please don't do that, if you don't want a harem in the story vote 'no'. It's easier okay?

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The ninjas had finally assembled outside a steel gate connected to a very long steel-wire fence that wrapped for miles around a thick, dense-looking forest. There were several gates spread apart evenly from each other, awaiting the different ninja teams entry. Once Anko had explained the rules to the ninjas, Naruto couldn't help but make a comment.

"So all we have to do is get both the Heaven and Earth scrolls and kill anyone that get in our way?" He asked. "Sound easy enough."

He didn't flinch as a kunai grazed his cheek. Anko suddenly appeared behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso, her mouth right next to his ear.

"You think so?" She asked as she licked his cheek, fresh blood dancing on her tongue. "What if others think the same way?" she said as she let him go and handed him a stack of papers. "Why don't you be a good boy and pass out the release forms?"

As he did, Anko could feel a tingling all over her body. 'I held him and licked his blood.'

She kept her composure and went back to the gate as everyone eventually handed her their release forms.

"Alright, maggots! Into the Forest of Death!"

The teams grabbed their scrolls and dashed through their individual gates.

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Once Team Whirlpool had set up their traps, Naruto pulled the group in close to him.

"Okay, war council, right now." he said. The trio sat down in a circle and made their plan. "Hinata, I want you to take our scroll. Hagane and I will go to look for the other one we need."

She nodded to Naruto, but looked hesitant. "Are you sure, Naru-kun?"

"You can do this, Hina-chan. We both have faith in you." Naruto said as he kissed her cheek. "Besides, I saw the way the other ninjas were looking at you. They think you're the weakest of us. They won't expect you to have it, and even if they did, they'll be seriously underestimating you."

Hinata smiled he handed her their scroll. With that, the trio separated to preform their jobs.

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Hagane leaped from tree branch to tree branch, looking and listening for any other ninja teams.

He soon came across a trio of Rain ninjas and was about to go on the attack, when he paused to listen to them.

"I still think this is a bad idea." one of them said.

"What now?" the second ninja said.

"I mean... her." the first one said.

Hagane looked over and saw the kunoichi, who was lagging behind them.

Odd. It's almost like she's... afraid of them. Hagane thought as he dropped silently behind a large tree that was next to them.

"We should just kill her and be done with it." the first ninja said.

"That would put us a team member down! You know how bad that would be?" the second replied.

"Are you actually trying to win this contest? We have another job!"

"I'm really not interested in your opinion, Ko!" the second ninja said to the first. "The hokage says that she can be useful, then I say use her. When the time comes we slit her throat. But until then, you don't touch her."

Hagane looked back and noticed that the girl looked a little more scared than before.

Did she overhear them? He thought, then decided on a workable strategy.

He attacked them.

Transforming into solid steel he emerged from the tree and threw a heavy punch that sent the first ninja into another tree. The second ninja barely had time to turn his head to see a steel fist slam into his face. Hagane didn't stop as he laid into both of the Rain shinobis, pounding on them ferociously until they had died from having their flesh, bones and organs pounded into ground hamburger. The lone kunoichi fell to the ground, terrified of the solid steel figure that had just killed her teammates. Though a small part of her was upset that they were dead, her more immediate problem was their killer. Crying and terrified, she held up her arms to block the attack, when suddenly, her body turned into a golden Amazon.

Hagane stared in shock at the almost 7 foot tall figure dressed in a black and blue body suit.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"A-Aya Natsume." she replied.

"Don't worry I won't hurt you." He said.

"Y-you won't?"

"No. But they would have." he said. "You overheard them, right? What they were going to do to you later?"

"C-Cut my throat." she said.

Hagane looked at her as he turned back into his normal form. "Is this a bloodline? Were you born with this power?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

He held out his hand. "Come with me if you want to live. I knew that Rain was purging bloodline's. If you want, you can come with me. I can take you to New Whirlpool, where you'll be safe."

Aya agreed to go with him. He told her where to go and who to ask for. She handed him their scroll and took off.

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Naruto on the other hand wasn't so lucky. Currently he was firing on a Grass nin that was chasing him. He was already injured from the first attack, which told him this Grass nin was not normal.

"Really Naruto-kun, do you think those toys are going to stop me?" the Grass nin said.

Naruto was shocked. "Who the hell are you? How do you know my name?" He said.

He laughed. "My dear boy, who hasn't heard of the prodigy of New Whirlpool?" He said, "As to who I am..." he said as his body suddenly changed, losing the henge to reveal a slightly deformed, long-haired, pale-skinned, yellow-eyed, snake-like man. "I am Orochimaru, one of the Sannin."

"I've heard of you! The guy who betrayed Konoha!"

"That's right! Are you... shocked and filled with loathing towards me?"

Naruto looked at him like that was the dumbest question in the world.

"Hell no! After what this village did to me, why should I care if you betrayed them?" he said.

"Then you'll stop fighting me and join me in my little plan." Orochimaru said.

Naruto quickly raised his gun and fired, striking the snake man in the arm.

"Argh!"

"I may hate Konoha, but I don't see any reason to trust you one inch!"

"Impudent boy!" Orochimaru shouted as he attacked again only to have Naruto deck him with a chakra-enhanced fist.

Once the snake-man was down, Naruto ran back to where he promised to meet Hinata, unaware that the snake had been playing opossum.

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Meanwhile, Hagane and Hinata were fighting off Team 7 while Musaka was sipping his tea.

"I can't believe you betrayed Konoha like this!" Sakura snapped as she tried to kick at Hinata. "You even betrayed your clan!"

"I don't care about Konoha! I don't care about my clan! I care about Naruto-kun!" Hinata said as she easily blocked the kick with her hand.

Something's wrong! Inner Sakura screamed. Hinata's never been this strong... or fierce!

The statement was proven correct when Sakura threw another punch, only to have Hinata catch it and spun her around, wrapping her arm tightly around Sakura's neck, bringing the pink-haired girls ear next to the lavender-eyed girls mouth.

"Answer me one question, Hinata!" Sakura gasped.

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Why... do you love... the dobe?" she asked, struggling to breath.

"I do not have enough time to give you all my reasons. So I will simply say this: unlike your Sasuke, my Naruto is capable of returning love." She replied as she released Sakura, spun her around and threw a high roundhouse kick that tossed the pink-haired girl into a tree, knocking her cold.

Across the way, Hagane had already kicked Sasuke in the gut, face, legs, shoulder, and had him on the ground, pummeling his face as Naruto came running up to them.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted as Orochimaru exploded out of the trees.

"You are MINE BOY!" The snake-sannin cried as he charged Naruto, only to miss Hagane as he came in and knocked Orochimaru into the nearest tree.

"Should've known it was him." Hagane said. "Because that bastard Kabuto is here! Uncle Arashi was right about him being your lapdog! He probably even told you about Naruto's bloodline eye!"

"Of course he did my dear boy." he said as he broke free from Hagane's grip. "And It Must Be MINE!" he shouted as he lunged at Naruto.

Quick as lighting, Naruto transformed into steel, the snake-sannin's teeth nearly breaking on his skin. He slammed his hands into Naruto's body, but that had no effect on him, other than to break his hand and wrist.

"AH!" Orochimaru hissed in pain.

"Guess Kabuto didn't tell you about our steel bodies, did he?" Naruto said as Hagane hit Orochimaru with an uppercut that launched him into the trees.

As he flew through the air, Musaka quickly drew his sword and leapt into the air, cutting the snake man in half. He landed on his feet as the two parts of Orochimaru fell to the ground and started to evaporate.

"Damnation, he was a blood clone!" Musaka said as he sheathed his sword. He went over to the tree and retrieved his glass. "Come, we must be on our way."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Sasuke snapped as he wiped the blood from his mouth.

Musaka smacked him upside the head with his katana hilt, making him wince.

"You may stay if you want. I shall come back to pick up the pieces!" He said as he picked up Sakura as Sasuke looked at the three Whirlpool ninjas. Reluctantly he started to follow him.

"Musaka-san!" Hinata called.

The samurai stopped and turned towards her as Hinata tossed him the scroll they needed.

"We had an extra." she said as he caught the scroll effortlessly.

"You have my thanks Lady Hinata." he said with a small bow.

"As you have mine, Lord Musaka." she said with a returning bow.

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Hinata looked out of the large tree at the falling rain. Naruto and Hagane were asleep and she was on guard duty. She was cradling Naruto in her arms, just taking in his features. She smiled as she brushed her hand through his hair, a smile appearing on his face as she did that. Suddenly she noticed a trio of Sound ninjas appear through the parting haze. Her expression turned foul instantly as one of them launched a sound blast at her. Hinata dove forward, taking the blast in the back. However, the blast didn't affect her, which shocked the ninjas.

Hinata raised her head and turned back them, tears in her eyes. A sneer on her lips formed as she exploded from the tree, tackling the ninja and pounding his face with her hands. The other two ninjas just gasped in horror as the girls hands became stained with blood.

They didn't realize how this was possible. How had the mousy little Hyuga girl become such a fierce lioness? They only realized the obviousness of their situation when they saw her stand between them and her teammates. She was protecting someone precious to her. Namely, the blond boy she had been cradling tightly in her arms.

The lioness was protecting her mate!

Thinking to double-team her, they attacked as one from both sides. Hinata launched herself at the kunoichi and kicked her down as the other ninja lunged at a sleeping Hagane, only to have his head slammed into the tree by Hagane's fast rising fist.

"That'll teach you to disturb my sleep!" Hagane growled as he rose up, slamming the ninjas head into the tree trunk several times before tossing him out into the rain.

Hagane and Hinata stared at the female Sound Nin as she was backing up from them.

"What are you doing here?" Hinata asked.

"We-we were told to fight Naruto Namikaze." She said, "To kill him."

Hagane winced as he felt Hinata's battle aura flare up.

"Who told you to do that?" Hagane asked.

"The... snake... sannin." she said.

"You have just made the biggest mistake of your life!" Hinata growled, her bloody hands contracting into claws. "Don't you know that attacking my mate will get you killed?"

"I advise you to take your teammates and tell Orochimaru, that if he wants to start a war with New Whirlpool he's got one. Oto will be nothing but a smoking crater after we are done!" Hagane said.

The kunoichi nodded, grabbing her teammates and took off running for her life.

Just then Naruto woke up. "Hey! What's going on?" he asked.

"Everything's fine Naruto-kun." Hinata said to him with a smile.

Naruto was about to accept that, when he saw blood dripping from Hinata's hands.

"Hina-chan!" he shouted as he raced over to her and took his hands into his. "What happened?"

"Uh..." she started to say, trying to think up some kind of excuse, but failed on it due to his deep blue eyes staring at her.

"We were attacked, weren't we?" Naruto said, not asking.

"Yes." Hagane said. "Hinata woke up first and fought them. Their fight woke me up and, well..."

Naruto smiled as he threw his arms around Hinata.

"I'm so proud of you Hina-chan!" he shouted.

"Yo-you are?" she gasped as she felt his embrace tighten.

"Yes! You fought another group of ninjas on your own in order to protect us, how can I not be proud of you?!" he said as he kissed Hinata on the lips.

Hinata thanked Kushina's training that enabled her not to pass out as the boy she loved passionately displayed his affection.

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Once Hinata had washed off the blood in a nearby stream, the trio headed for the tower where they opened the scrolls, and Rimaru appeared.

"Well done, all of you!" he said to them. "I'm sure you have a lot to tell us, so lets go inside for a bit." he said as they walked in to relax.

To be continued

Author's Notes 2: Keep voting guys 2 to 3 more chapters and the polls close.