Naruto: Return From Darkness

"Kyuubi Speaking"

Thoughts

"Speaking"

/

Sailing over the line of buildings, Hiro landed and promptly put Sakura down.

She dusted herself off, returned her gaze to Hiro and said, " Uhh, yeah… Thanks I guess?"

Hiro shook his head and sighed audibly.

"Now tell me what happened to Sasuke." Hiro quickly returned to the subject at hand.

Sakura looked nervously at her feet and spoke quietly, " We were competing in the Forest of Death portion of the Chunin Exams, when we ran into some trouble." Sakura took a shaky breath before continuing, " We started with the Heaven scroll and got an Earth scroll early on from a group of Grass ninja. As we got closer to the tower, I felt an impeding sense of dread and Sasuke and Jin were arguing more and more."

Hiro stopped Sakura and let her catch her breath as they began walking down the street. As they reached a bench, they both sat down and Sakura began to continue, "Jin eventually became fed up and left to go to the tower on his own. Just the two of us kept continuing on our way, but Sasuke just stopped. I asked him what was wrong, and he grabbed me and threw me to another branch. I hit my head and was out cold. When I came to, I noticed why he threw me." Sakura's voice got shaky and she seemed to be holding in sobs, " Sasuke was battling… against th-this man that seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere! He had summoned a snake and you could tell that Sasuke was doing everything in his power to avoid getting hit. Eventually, Sasuke was caught by the man and he, bit Sasuke on his neck…" Sakura began crying, openly. Hiro went to put a hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it off and continued her story, " Sasuke was unconscious after he was bit, and the snake turned its attention to me. Thankfully Jin came out of nowhere and fought the snake off. The man had already disappeared and when I made my way up to the branch that Sasuke was lying on, Jin had already begun to prepare Sasuke for travel. We went farther into the forest until we were too tired to travel, so we decided to spend the night in a hollowed out tree. Jin volunteered to watch us the whole night. I agreed to his proposal because I was tired, but that's where it all went wrong."

Sakura choked up, but some how managed to continue the story. "I awoke to a commotion and when I sat up, I saw Jin fighting against three Sound ninja. I attempted to stand, but Sasuke put his hand on my shoulder and said, ' Let me handle this.' Before moving faster than I have ever seen from a Genin. As Jin was receiving a beating from the two mostly uninjured Sound ninja, as the other lay off to the side, unconscious. As if appearing out of thin air, Sasuke grabbed the nearest one and threw him like a rag doll, straight into the trunk of a particularly large tree. Sasuke smirked as the ninja fell to the ground." Then Sakura looked Hiro directly in the eyes as she said her next sentence, " He gave the evilest smile I have ever seen, and then he clenched his fist and gazed at it as though he were infected by the power it contained. And as this was happening these weird markings spread out from the spot where the man had bit him. Sasuke next course of action was to glare directly at the one remaining Sound ninja, the ninja locked eyes with Sasuke and the fear was evident on his face. He made a move to run, but Sasuke was much faster and grabbed both of his arms, pushed him down on his knees and then Sasuke put his foot on the Sound ninja's back. Sasuke smiled again as pulled his arms backwards and broke both of the ninja's arms. By this time I was already up on my feet and running towards Sasuke. The Sound ninja hit the ground when I got there and was rolling about in pain. I embraced Sasuke from behind and pleaded for him to stop. The markings began receding and when they had returned to the place where the man had bit Sasuke there was a strange seal, and Sasuke lost consciousness. Jin was frightened by Sasuke's heightened abilities, but shook it off and he carried Sasuke all the way to the tower, while I managed on my own. When we reached the tower, we were greeted by Iruka-sensei and he led us to a big room where all of the other Genin that had made it were standing. We lined up next to Hinata's cell, (Three man cell) with Jin in front, Sasuke in the middle and me in the back. I noticed that the markings were spreading slightly and I begged Sasuke to quit, and get he medical attention that he needed. But, he just turned around, looked me in the eyes and said, ' I've got a dream, and I won't let you get in the way of it.' Before turning around and resuming his poise. After that, we went up to the balcony and saw Kakashi-sensei before they started the match-ups for the preliminaries."

That was about when I came in and was looking for the Hokage… Hiro thought to himself, before returning his focus to Sakura.

Sakura continued, unfazed, " Sasuke was the first up in our cell and faced a strange ninja from the Leaf Village that could steal your chakra just by touching you. It seemed that Sasuke was totally unmatched, until the seal on his neck started spreading and he regained the evil power back. Then the tables were completely turned and Sasuke made quick work of his opponent. Kakashi saw the markings on Sasuke and was immediately worried. He asked me what had happened and I told him everything. As soon as Sasuke's match had ended, Kakashi took him away and I haven't the two since."

Looking up after finishing telling Hiro all that had happened. Sakura looked up at Hiro curiously, "What do you think happened, and where are they?" She asked, concerned.

Hiro took a minute to think before replying, "Kakashi definitely took Sasuke somewhere safe, so you have no need to worry about them." Hiro assured Sakura, "After Sasuke heals, and they will most likely leave for private training."

Sakura cut him off before he could continue, "But what about Jin! He's in the finals too!"

Hiro quickly calmed her down and said, "I'll handle it, where do you think I could find him?"

"He's probably out training and brooding over Sasuke getting injured." Sakura answered.

"Alright thanks, and have Sasuke come see me after the finals are over, there are some things I can help him with." Hiro said, before jumping away and leaving Sakura alone.

/

Hiro landed in the training fields to the sight of a boy beating on a tree trunk.

Hiro promptly walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

The boy turned around and threw a punch aimed for Hiro's head. Hiro easily dodged and took a step back.

"Your Jin right?" Hiro asked, looked at the slightly angry boy in front of him.

"Yeah, that's me, who're you?" Jin asked in return.

"My name's Hiro, I'm a friend and I heard that you needed some help for the Chunin Exams." Hiro answered.

"I don't need any help training, I'll do it myself." Jin said, turning his back to Hiro.

"Look, you're going to be facing some tough opponents and you're going to need all the help you can get. And I hate to say it but Kakashi has obviously chosen Sasuke over you " Hiro tried to convince Jin.

"Alright, but why do you want to help me?" Jin said, turning around and looking quizzically at Hiro.

"Everyone's going to be expecting the Uchiha to be putting up the best fight, let's show them that even if you don't have a famous name it doesn't mean you can't be a badass. Besides, I like an underdog story." Hiro said, gesturing for Jin to follow him.

Jin eagerly followed, right behind.

/

Reaching a small pond, Hiro stopped walking and turned around to face Jin.

"I heard from your teammates that you've already done the tree climbing chakra control exercise, so we're going to push on to the next level." Hiro said, walking towards the lake.

Reaching the water the bottoms of his feet began to glow blue and he began to walk across the waters surface.

"Woah!" Jin couldn't contain his amazement.

"It's harder than it looks, and there will be much cooler things to learn if you complete this." Hiro walked back to the shore and stood in front of Jin.

"It works similar to the tree climbing, you have to emit a steady stream of chakra from the bottom of your feet and use the repellent force to walk across the surface of the water." Hiro explained, "But this is harder, as you have to change the amount of chakra emitted constantly."

Jin nodded, and looked over at the lake eager to begin.

"You have to be careful not to overexert yourself, take as many breaks as you need and I will return in two days to check your progress." Hiro said, walking away.

Stopping for a moment, he turned his head to speak to Jin, "If you need some incentive to learn it quicker…" Hiro point his hand at a nearby tree. A spherical blast of wind shot out of his extended palm and made a clean hole through the middle of the trunk.

Jin's mouth was gaping wide open, and as soon as the demonstration was finished he turned his attention to the water walking.

Hiro chuckled to himself and leapt away.

/

Reaching his destination, Hiro landed in front of the hospital. Walking in through the double doors, he walked up to the counter and gazed at the receptionist, "Hello, could you tell me where Sasuke Uchiha's room is?" The young girl looked up and immediately started blushing.

"Upstairs, it's the third door on the left." She said.

Hiro thanked the girl and began walking up the stairs.

Reaching Sasuke's room, Hiro opened the door. Sasuke lay unconscious on a bed, and Kakashi was leaning on a wall reading a book.

"Kakashi I need to speak with you." Hiro said, closing the door behind him.

Kakashi looked up and followed Hiro out the door.

Exiting Sasuke's room, Kakashi met face to face with Hiro.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think we have met before, who're you?" Kakashi asked, looking Hiro over.

"I'm Hiro Tatsumi, I'm guarding the Raikage while he's here in Konoha and I've already met your students." Hiro explained before getting to the point, "I'm going to be handling Jin's training for the Chunin Exams."

Kakashi looked surprised and said, "Alright, I still needed to find someone to do that… so thanks."

"Alright, now that we got that cleared up, I'm going to go." Hiro began to walk away but stopped after a few steps, "Oh, and you should stop picking favorites between your students, your sensei would be ashamed of you."

Kakashi was speechless, but managed to say, "How did you…"

Hiro smirked and continued on his way.

/

All right guys, hope this week was worth the wait.

I think that the couple will be NaruIno.

So, please follow and review.