Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters they belong to Masashi Kishimoto. (Ha suck on that lawyer)

Takumi, Junko, Takahiro, Ryuu and Ayano belong to me and are invented by me.

Chapter 9: The eye of the storm

Naruto was dazing off on a chair in the huge ballroom of the even more enormous mansion. He almost fell asleep when he heard Takumi sigh in frustration. "This is not working. How do you expect me to teach you the ceremonial dance of our country without your partner being here?" He glanced back at his watch again. He had done that more than 1000 times in the past half hour. "I'm sorry lady Hinata but I think we're going to have to wait until lord Takahiro arrives. Where is that boy with his mind lately?"

Hinata sat down on a chair next to the dazing Naruto. "I can't believe this. I have so much left to do with the upcoming wedding and on top of that the chef is sick so I need to find a new one before dinner. I can't be wasting any more time waiting." He crossed his arms and looked at his watch again while his foot tapped impatiently on the dance floor.

"Enough I have no time for this. This is ridiculous. I just needed Takahiro to be here to help me teach you. How can he forget such a simple thing? We'll just have to do it without him than. Come over here."

Hinata stood back up while Takumi looked at his watch again. "Damn that troublesome boy. Look at the time he made me waste. Naruto come over here!"

Naruto sat up startled at the sudden yelling. "What?"

"Naruto get over here! You're going to be Hinata's partner until Takahiro finally arrives."

Naruto scratched the back of his head embarrassed. "I'm not really much of a dancer."

"Well you're all we've got right now. The dance is quite simple for males. It's a tradition that the first dance of a wedding is this dance so we really can't have a wedding without it. It dates back all the way to the founding of the village. It's authentic and necessary for every wedding. Does Konoha have a dance like that?"

Hinata shook her head. "N-No, we don't. We do have a l-local dance but nothing especially f-for weddings."

"Naruto we don't have time for slacking get over here!"

Naruto stood up and did his best to look anywhere but at Hinata.

"So tell me how much dance experience do you have?"

"How does none sound?"

"Terrible now stand up straight!" Takumi pushed Naruto a bit closer and grabbed his right hand.

"Hold your right hand like this." He than grabbed Hinata's hand and placed it in his. "You lay your hand on his like this. Naruto place your left hand on her back. No higher right on her shoulder blade. Yeah that's good. Now Hinata you lay your arm on top of his and your hand on his shoulder."

Takumi took a step back. "Stand a bit closer." He frowned when they moved only a half inch closer to each other. He impatiently shoved Hinata against Naruto's chest. "Don't worry he won't bite."

Hinata's face was red and she suddenly found the floor very interesting. Naruto himself was also slightly pink and had some problems looking at her too but he couldn't deny that having her this close to him felt heavenly.

The music started and like Naruto expected he wasn't a good dancer. The beginning was awkward. He stumbled a lot and needed to constantly watch his feet. He accidently stepped on Hinata's toes a couple of times but she only smiled and accepted his apology. After a while to Naruto's surprise he began to catch on. In less than 3 hours he had the entire dance nailed. He led Hinata from one corner of the room to another and could even do all the twists and turns.

Now that Naruto could finally dance Takumi insisted that they looked each other in the eye while performing it like they were supposed to. This proved to be incredibly difficult. Not only was keeping eye contact hard because they both had a tendency to get a head like a tomato, even if they had eye contact they were so dazed that the steps were soon forgotten. It took another half hour to be able to dance and look at each other at the same time.

Naruto had struggled not only with the dancing or the young beauty pressed against him but also with the thought of what had happened yesterday. He had had a talk with Neji and was convinced it would be better for him and Hinata if he didn't act on his feelings. But when he met Takahiro that night his opinion had completely changed. He was going to stop the wedding no matter what. He wasn't sure on the how or when because he had never been good at planning and scheming but he knew he was going to stop it at all costs.

For now he tried to enjoy the moment. Her subtle and elegant movements. He could feel her warmth and her eyes on him and while that made him incredibly happy it also made him incredibly mad. It drove him mad knowing that her warmth, her eyes, her smile and the rest all belonged to someone else.

"N-Naruto-kun, is something w-wrong?" She whispered softly so Takumi couldn't hear.

He smiled down at her. "Everything is perfect. Don't worry Hinata."


'I can't sleep.' Naruto thought as he looked over to the clock on his nightstand. It was two in the morning. He sighed and looked back to the ceiling his hands resting under his head. 'I tried everything but I just can't fall asleep. I guess I have too many things on my mind. Maybe some fresh air will do me good.' He sat up and pulled on his clothes and shoe's. When he opened his bedroom door he noticed that the man who was supposed to guard Hinata at night was sleeping on his chair. Naruto couldn't blame him nothing had happened after they had arrived in Iwagakure and the constant guarding of Hinata was really unnecessary. There weren't a lot of people who would try to break in in the house of the Tsuchikage probably the best guarded building in the country. Still he nudged the man with his elbow and the man looked up at him groggily. "No sleeping on the job." Naruto whispered before heading outside.

It was warm outside with a soft, refreshing wind. He hadn't seen such a perfect summer night in a long time. He closed his eyes to enjoy it for a minute. He didn't know how long he had been sitting out there just thinking about what he was trying to do. Every thing he thought of ended with a fight between Iwagakure and Konoha but he knew that he wasn't going to give up until he had found a way.

After probably hours of thinking he glanced over at the mansion and noticed that there was still a light on in one of the rooms. 'I wonder why Hinata's still up.' Naruto wondered still gazing at the light coming out of the window. Suddenly there were flashes of blue and red light.

'What was that?'

'I don't know kit but I feel something is wrong.'

Naruto quickly ran back inside and almost flew through the disserted hallways. When he arrived at Hinata's room he noticed that the guard was lying dead on the floor. He didn't knock on the door but just kicked it open. "Hinata!"

Hinata was being held up straight by a man he had met before. There was another man in the room who looked skinny with white hair (It's not Kakashi) and who seemed to be preoccupied with some sort of seal or jutsu.

The man holding Hinata noticed Naruto's entre. "Shit! Yamato, didn't you put a silence seal on the room?!" He asked the white-haired man.

"I did! There's no way he could've heard us!"

The man looked back at Naruto. "So Naruto we meet again. Only this time your lady friend isn't in danger."

Naruto suddenly remembered where he had seen that man before. Weeks ago on his way to Iwagakure they had a run in with this man. He had tried to kill Hinata before.

"What do you mean with that Daichi?"

"Last time I was ordered to kill or abduct her. Not much fun really. My new assignment is a lot more fun. And a lot easier. To bad that I didn't have time to finish the job."

At this moment Neji and Hiashi came in obviously woken up by the noise Naruto had been making. Daichi sighed and looked at the half unconscious girl in his arms. "Well princess I guess your friend always gets in the way of our fun. Guess this will have to do." He gave a rough kiss on the lips and before Naruto could do something he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto ran up to Hinata in time to catch her and kneeled down with her. "Hinata?! Hinata what's wrong?!"

Hiashi and Neji sat by him and Hiashi's hands lit up white while it went quickly over her body.

"What's that?"

"It's a scanning jutsu to see what's wrong with her. It looks like there is Choral hydrate in her system."

"What's Chloral hydrate?" Naruto asked.

"It's some kind of rape drug." Neji replied. "It numbs the person and makes them less aware of reality. It takes away fears, boundaries' and it's good for sexual appetite."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. "He was planning on raping her. Why? And how did he get that in her system?"

"I didn't know how they drugged her. She didn't eat anything unusual." Neji said.

A light flashed on in Naruto's mind. "Takumi said earlier today he needed to find a new chef because the normal one was sick. That's how they got it in her food. But it still leaves the why."

Neji bit his lip wondering if it would be al right to tell but in case Hiashi made no attempt at all to stop him he decided it was probably alright. "In the contract Hiashi and the Tsuchikage signed there were some rules that had to be followed and one of them was that, like in most arranged weddings, the bride had to remain a virgin in all objects. Now that this man has kissed Hinata I don't know if the wedding will continue or if it will be canceled. In either case the people of Iwagakure will not be happy that not all demands are met."

"That's not fair! It wasn't her fault!" Naruto exclaimed only getting a sad shake of the head from Neji and a glare from Hiashi.

"I'm going to talk with the Tsuchikage and the elders. There might still be a way to save the marriage and I'll make sure that they track down that cook. Neji take care of Hinata." He walked off while saying to himself. "Just when I thought everything was going smoothly something goes wrong. What is it with that girl?"

Naruto wanted to run after him and punch him in the face. He probably would've if Hinata wasn't lying half unconscious in his arms. He picked her up and placed her in her bed. He heard that she was saying something or trying to say something but he couldn't understand.

"Shhhh shhhhhh it's okay. Just go to sleep." He brushed some hair from her face and covered her up with a blanket.

He turned towards Neji who wad investigating the seal Yamato had placed. "Do you think the wedding will be canceled?" Naruto asked him.

"Probably" Neji said on his normal tone of voice. "They're probably going to be mad that the demands we agreed upon weren't met. I think Hiashi is going to have to reason with them. But Hiashi's probably going to be able to reason with them."

Neji's face stayed the same it always was when his feet were lifted from the ground. His back slid up the wall as Naruto lifted him with his collar. "How can you stay so calm?! How can you say that with a straight face?! Like you're talking about some business agreement! We're talking about Hinata-chan! The sweet, innocent girl lying right there! There shouldn't be any demands or conditions and deffinatly no reasoning! This wedding isn't right and I don't care if it's the best for everyone! I'm going to stop it! And nobody is going to stop me!"

Neji slowly placed his hand on Naruto's on his collar. "Naruto you're just upset. Hinata is alright. You need to calm down."

Naruto's grip on him loosened and slowly Neji slid back down the wall. Naruto's hand ran through his blond locks while he sighed. "I'm sorry Neji." He glanced back at Hinata's sleeping form. "I guess I was just a little overwhelmed by all this."

"Don't worry about it Naruto we both care for Hinata. Do you have any idea who hired this guy?"

"No."

"It's obvious he wanted to rape her to cancel the wedding. Good thing you noticed in time to or he would've succeeded. That silence seal is very rare and there aren't a lot of people who could do it. They must have planned this beforehand. They probably also poisoned the chef so they could get their guy in to poison Hinata. They probably did some research."

"Who would want to stop this wedding?"

"A lot of people. If Hinata and Takahiro are married it means that there will be peace between Konoha and Iwagakure. They will work together and because Konoha already has a strong band with Suna thanks to the loyalty of Gaara. A lot of people wouldn't want the 3 nations to be united. The list of suspects is endless. The Akatsuki, Orochimaru, every missing-nin in the bingo-book, other countries. There's no way of knowing who did this and there are multiple ways to stop this wedding."

"It's only two days before the wedding. If they want to stop it they're going to have to hurry. But they'll have to get by me first! I'll stop them no matter what!"

"I thought you wanted to stop the wedding yourself?"

"I do! And I will! But first I will stop them from stopping the wedding and then I'll stop it myself! I'm Naruto Uzumaki there's nothing I can't do! Believe it!"

Neji slowly shook his head as the blond kept on ranting how awesome he was. 'That's a pretty stupid tactic Naruto. You would be better off just letting them stop the wedding. But I guess that's typically like you.'


That night Naruto slept awesome. Neji was planning to take the night shift of guarding Hinata himself while Naruto continued the day. Because Neji didn't need his room anymore, because he decided he would sleep on the couch in Hinata's room, Naruto got his room instead. The room was way comfier than Naruto's and was right next to Hinata's so he could step in if Neji needed him. (Another reason he got the room) Naruto's room looked like the room of a servant (Still better than his apartment) Neji's room looked like an ordinary guest house and Hinata's room looked like the room of a princess. A rich one Naruto might add.

It irritated him that the rooms were given by order of importance. Hiashi's and Hanabi's room were probably 100 times better than Neji's because they were from the main branch. Neji would probably have gotten the same room as Naruto's if he hadn't been family.

When Naruto wake up that morning the first thing he wanted was to check up on Hinata. He had wanted to stay by her as she slept to make sure she was alright but Neji had forced him using the lame excuse that he had to be rested to guard her by day.

When he left his room he noticed that Junko was kneeling down in front of Hinata's door trying to get the floor clean of the guards' blood. She was cursing like mad because it didn't appear to be working. Naruto sympathized for a moment. He knew how heard it was to get bloodstains clean. Being a shinobi and all.

He walked past her and knocked on Hinata's door. "Hinata? Are you dressed? Can I come in?"

"Y-Yes." He heard Hinata's shaky voice.

He opened the door and was relieved to see that she looked like normal. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?" He asked worried.

"I'm f-fine. I don't remember a lot it's all v-vague."

'Good' He thought. 'The last thing Hinata-chan needs is the memory of that dirty pig putting his hands on her.' He knew he couldn't say that so he just asked. "A side affect of the drug?"

"Y-Yes"

"I'm glad you're alright. The guests will arrive soon. Do you want to go and await them?"

Hinata nodded following Naruto close behind while they left her room. When they came out and Hinata noticed the bloodstain Naruto noticed a small whimper coming from her. He softly grabbed her hand and pulled her along while he gave her a reassuring squeeze. He didn't say it out loud but they both knew it meant. 'Don't worry. It's not your fault.' Hinata gave him a squeeze back which he knew meant 'Thanks.'


They were waiting at the front door for the arrival of her friends. They would all be traveling together and after weeks apart both of them missed there friends. They were supposed to arrive any minute now but they were late.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Yes."

"I wanted to say t-thank you. For s-saving me last night."

"That's okay Hinata. I didn't do anything really. I didn't even have time to attack that bastard. He just ran away like a chicken instead of fighting me."

"Still thank you N-Naruto-kun. But… c-could you not tell a-anyone about it. I wouldn't want them to w-worry about m-me."

He nodded and smiled. 'That's so typically Hinata. Always thinking about others. She's by far the nicest and kindest person I've ever met.'

He wanted to say something when they saw a whole group of people heading towards the gates.

Naruto recognized everyone immediately. Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, Team Guy all the senseis (including Iruka-sensei) Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya and some people he didn't know.

First up to greet her was of course Team 8. Kiba immediately took her in a body crushing hug while swirling her around. "I missed you so much Hinata! I've been so bored! I had no one to talk to. You know how Shino is." With this the dog-nin received a glare from said bug user. "I hope you like the hug because that's all I could afford. Don't you know how incredibly expensive those wedding gifts are?"

"Kiba-kun I can't b-breath."

"Oh sorry." He said before releasing her from his deathtrap/hug.

He than walked away greeting Naruto while Shino came up to greet her. Hinata gave Shino a hug while he rolled his eyes at his annoying male teammate. "I guess than our present is from the Aburame clan and Kiba. In name of our clan I wish you the best of luck and happiness. And as a friend I of course do the same."

"Thank you S-Shino-kun."

Next up were Kurenai-sensei and Asuma. (He's not dead for people who want to know. She doesn't walk around with a corpse.)

"I missed you a lot Hinata. It was lonely with just the boys." She said while hugging her student. "This present is from Asuma and me."

"T-Thank you Kurenai-sensei."

The next bone crushing hug she received was from Ino. "Ah! Hinata I can't believe you're going to get married! I'm so excited! I can't wait to see how your dress looks like! Where did you get this outfit from? It looks so cute on you! This is from the entire team. We all chipped in and I bought the present. Because Shikamaru thought it was too troublesome to go out shopping and Chouji doesn't know what girls like. It's for your wedding night." She said with a mischievous smirk.

Hinata blushed at the remark but than hugged Ino. "Thank you Ino-chan," She looked over Ino's shoulder at Shikamaru and Chouji. "Shikamaru, Chouji."

Hinata didn't seem to be spared because she was soon attacked by the most bone crushing hug of all. Obviously from Guy-sensei and Lee. "Hinata! We wish you all the luck while your youth blossoms like 1000 springs with your new husband!" Tenten quickly pushed them aside before they could do more harm to the already battered Hinata. "This is the present from Lee, Guy-sensei and me. They wanted to get you the green jumpsuit first but I took care of it."

She gave her friend a hug. "Thank you Tenten-chan, Lee, Guy-sensei."

Then Sakura came up giving Hinata a hug. "This is from Team 7. Me, Kakashi and Sai concluded Naruto because we knew he would probably forget all about getting you a wedding gift."

Naruto scratched his head embarrassed while looking at Hinata apologetic but she just smiled in return. "Thank you Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun, Sai." She said before receiving a hug from Sakura.

Next were Tsunade and Shizune who gave a present in the name of all people in Konoha.

"Thank you Tsunade-sama."

And finally there was Jiraiya. "Pervy-sage? I didn't know you knew Hinata!"

"I don't but seeing as I'm a very important Shinobi and a famous writer on top of that of course I was invited to this wedding. All important people are invited to this very special occasion. Of course I also received an invitation."

He turned back towards the girl. "These are all the books of the Icha Icha reeks. And all of them have my autograph." He looked at her perversely. "It will help you a lot with pleasing your man."

"Pervy-sage!" Naruto yelled while Hinata's face started to get very red and her shaking hands politely accepted the gift. "You pervert!"

Jiraiya grinned and to both Hinata and Naruto's surprise gave her a hug. Naruto wasn't as surprised anymore when he saw Jiraiya stroking her butt.

After Jiraiya received a nearly deadly punch from Tsunade and some unknown hotshots from Konoha politely presented their gifts the group walked in the direction of the mansion.

Mouths dropped wide open and Kiba even muttered. "The Hokage's tower is nothing compared to this." They entered after Kiba received a punch from Tsunade.

When the door opened a handful of servants and Takahiro were waiting for their arrival.

"Welcome everyone." He said in a cheerful way that made Naruto want to barf. "My name is Takahiro and I'm Hinata's fiancé. I have to apologize to you all. This wedding is of course very exclusive but still we managed to invite over 150 guests from all over the world. Seeing as we only have 50 bedrooms. We don't have enough room to host all our guests. Rooms will have to be shared and we even had to pay for some of our guests to stay in a hotel. Everyone will have to share a room with 2 people. It's a very big house so these people will lead you to your rooms. Afterwards I would all like to invite you to lunch with me and my future wife. Seeing as you are the only guests that already arrived. Most won't arrive until morning. You are free to use all the accommodations in the mansion. Feel free to drop by in the library, the bath house, the training area or the beautiful garden where my wife likes to spend so much time."

He threw an arm around Hinata's shoulders and pulled her closer to him. This resulted in an unheard grunt from Naruto and a very red Hinata. "If there are no further questions you will be guided to your bedrooms and after you unpack they will come to escort you all to the beautiful garden where lunch will be served."

Everyone turned to leave to unpack there suitcases while Takahiro asked Naruto to stay for a moment. "Well Naruto seeing as the wedding is coming up your mission has been completed. Thank you very much for the good work you've done. The hokage received the money for the mission so all you have to do now is ask her for the money you've earned. From now on you are nearly a guest in this house and I hope you will join us for lunch."

Naruto nodded and walked off while 'accidentally' bumping into Takahiro's shoulder with his own which made Takahiro slightly move to the side.


A/N: This was another long chapter more than 4000 words. I had a total writers block at the dance scene and it didn't came out the way I wanted.

I sucked at the action scene. Fighting/Action is my weakest point. That's why I try to have as little as possible.

It thought it was Gai but apparently it was Guy. I own the Naruto game for the PS2 and they said Guy. Hmmmm who knew. -.- I'm totally not good with Lee/Guy speeches. And I think a lot of characters were OOC but it was okay. I'm pleased with it.

I couldn't think of a title :/

After the attack I think it was pretty good. I didn't plan it. It just came out because I didn't have anything to write about. This was the day before the wedding. So only one time sleeping and it'll be time. I think about 2 more chapters. The 'Big Finale'! But I'm going to upload them at the same time I think. Depends on how long it's going to be and where the first chapter is going to stop. I hope I can upload both chapters before I go on a vacation this Sunday. (02/08/2009) But it can be that I won't get finished in time if have any trouble with the story. (Seeing as the things that are going to happen I think I'll have a lot of trouble writing the things coming up.) So I hope to see you guys before I leave and if not I'll see you after 09/08/2009 and you'll have to wait around 2 weeks.

Fingers crossed