Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto… You should know that.

Eyes

Chapter 9: Hidden in the Leaves

Ninja villages or Hidden Villages, as they are more commonly known, are basically cities that have a large population of shinobi. They are independent from the local government and are ruled by a Kage or a village council. Hidden Villages are in fact very powerful city states; they have their own government, their own military, and they owe no allegiance to the local lord. In fact, they will accept contracts from nearly anyone as long as they have the money to pay for the requested services. A wise lord keeps on good terms with the local hidden village. Even the lesser villages, like Rain or Grass, have a military nearly twice as strong as any non-ninja force that any lord of the elemental countries can muster.

The first Shinobi village was the Village Hidden in Shadow. It was formed when the scattered Shinobi clans of Claw Country united together to fight the Eight-Tailed Snake.

The Hidden Shadow was destroyed during the First Hidden World War by the Hidden Leaf. The Shadow was betrayed by its own secret weapons. The red sharingan eyes of the Hidden Leaf…once belonged to the Hidden Shadow.

Naruto rolled out of his sleeping bag and let out a catlike yawn. "Hey Gaara, anything happen last night?"

"No," Gaara answered. "Just a few raccoons, nothing major. Go wake everyone up."

After a week of walking, the group had crossed the Demons Bridge and entered the heartlands of Fire Country. The dense coastal vegetation had given way to the thick forests that surrounded the Hidden Leaf. However, they were close, only a few hours away at the most.

"You mean we once had another hidden village, Grandpa?" Inari asked, as the group walked down the main road to the Hidden Leaf.

"Yup, the Village Hidden by the Tides," Tazuna answered.

"What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed," Tazuna answered bluntly. "It happened a long time ago, back when I meet your Grandmother."

"How was it destroyed?" Naruto asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Two things actually. First, it was attacked by the Gobi, the six, or was it seven-tailed Demon. They say the strongest ninja in the village gave their lives to seal it into a baby who was but a few hours old."

"What happened to the child with the demon in it?" Naruto asked, even more interested in the existence of another jinchuuriki.

"I don't know," Tazuna admitted. "The thing is, just a few days after the demon attack, the village was destroyed by… I think it was the Hidden Storm, or maybe was it the Hidden Whirlpool… that village that supported the East during the civil wars up in Water Country… ah, forget it! Anyway, most off the people that lived in the village were killed. Only a handful escaped. Maybe the demon kid was killed, maybe it is still alive."

"Whoa…." Inari breathed as he digested his grandfather's story.

Suddenly, a young red fox burst from the brush on the side of road and jumped into Naruto's arms.

"How far are we from the village, Kye?" Naruto asked the small vulpine.

"Not far! A half an hour," the Fox chipped. "Can I have some candy now?"

"Of course," Naruto answered, as he dug a small bag of peppermints from his pocket. "Don't get a stomach ache from eating all of those at once."

"Thank you Naruto-san!" Kye said as he picked up the bag of candies and vanished in a poof of smoke.

"You're spoiling that fox," Kimimaro commented.

"Awe, com'on, that little guy is the main reason why I am glad the Fuzzball gave me that summoning contract as part of the deal!"

Kimimaro rolled his eyes. "Never mind, we still have a half an hour left till we reach the Hidden Leaf."

The Village Hidden in the Leaves

Sarutobi took a puff from his pipe and tossed the form he was reading into the trash.

Archive Day. The day he was required to go through at least five years of documents, make copies of anything vital, and file, A.K.A. burn, the rest.

He picked up the next item in the pile. A seven page report on what had become known as the Mizuki Incident.

A Chunin instructor at the academy, Mizuki, had tricked an 8 year-old Naruto into stealing a scroll of highly secret and highly dangerous jutsu under the pretense that it was an academy test.

Naruto had been largely successful in his attempt. He had managed to steal the scroll and arrive in the arranged meeting area without any trouble. He had even successfully learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu in just under an hour. However, he had been discovered by his teacher Umino Iruka, who revealed the truth of Mizuki's deception.

They had then been confronted by Mizuki, who told Naruto about the Kyuubi inside him. Mizuki had then murdered Iruka, who had tried to protect Naruto. Naruto had, in turn, shredded Mizuki in a blind rage, by use of the Kyuubi's chakra and over 100 shadow clones. ANBU, arriving on the scene, had found Mizuki's unrecognizable, mutilated remains and Naruto crying over Iruka's corpse.

Because Naruto had viewed Iruka as an adopted father, Sarutobi had thought nothing of letting Naruto have a few days off school. Two days later, the morning shift vault guards found the night shift unconscious due to massive blood loss through the nose. In addition, the vault was plundered of the Forbidden Scroll and various other jutsu scrolls. Hiashi Hyuuga had then come to him in order to report that his eldest daughter had been missing since the following evening.

By the time they had figured out what had happened, Naruto and Hinata had crossed the border into Wind Country's Great Desert and promptly vanished. The only thing the spies in the Hidden Sand had to report, was the disappearance of the Kazekage's youngest son. Nothing on Naruto and Hinata.

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama." His secretary's voice roused him out of his reflection. "The engineer Tazuna is here to see you, along with the representatives from the Forsaken Village."

"Send Tazuna in," the Hokage answered wearily. "Tell the Forsaken representatives I'll be with them in a minute."

The secretary nodded and closed the door behind her. She came back leading Tazuna and Inari.

"Good day Tazuna," Sarutobi greeted. "Please have a seat and we will discuss your contract. We need you to help shore up some bridges on the main road. You probably passed them on the way here..."

Inari squirmed in his seat as his grandfather and the Hokage continued to talk about bridges. "Grandpa, Grandpa!"

Tazuna looked annoyed at being interrupted. "Yes Inari."

"I'm bored," Inari complained.

Tazuna looked even more annoyed, and was about to speak when the Hokage cut him off. "Actually, I have a grandson, Konohamaru, he is somewhere in the tower. You might want to meet him." Inari nodded and went towards the door. "Also," the Third added, "could you tell the Forsaken ninja that I will see them tomorrow morning?"

Inari nodded and left the office. The Hokage turned back to Tazuna. "Despite the fact we are almost done, I want to know a bit about the ninja that escorted you here."

"Those kids? What about them?" the bridge builder questioned warily.

"You seem familiar with them. Are they friends of yours?"

"A little," Tazuna admitted. "They helped our country out big time, so they are considered heroes by most people."

"Can you tell me what they look like? So I can recognize them."

Tazuna shrugged. "Sure. First, there is Kimimaro, scary kid; he's the real pale one with white hair and the red dots on his forehead. Then there is Haku, he claims he's a boy, but he looks so much like a girl I can't tell. He has long black hair and brown eyes. There is Gaara, he's a REALLY scary kid, doesn't sleep a wink, always has those black rings around his eyes, and I think he's a little psychotic. Anyway, he's the one with the short red hair and the tattoo on his forehead. Hinata is okay, she has the short purple hair, though I think she is letting it grow long now. Those eyes of hers are creepy though."

"Eyes?" the third questioned, suddenly very interested in Hinata's description. "It couldn't be!"

"Yeah, creepy eyes," Tazuna elaborated. "No pupil whatsoever. She claims they let her see through solid objects."

Though the Hokage never let it show, his mind was whirling. "That's definitely Hinata Hyuuga! She's alive! That might even mean…"

"Finally there is Naruto," Tazuna continued.

"Naruto!!"

"He's a ball of energy, got this spiky blond hair and blue eyes. Oh yeah, and these strange birth marks on his cheeks, three lines on each cheek, like whiskers."

"So they are alive," the Hokage thought, as he asked his last question. "No last names?"

"Nope," Tazuna simply answered. "They use titles like surnames though. Kimimaro of the Graveyard, Haku of the Tundra, Gaara of the Desert, Hinata of the Sun, and Naruto of the Maelstrom." Tazuna paused as something occurred to him. "Oh yeah, Naruto sometimes calls himself an Uzumaki. Never heard of that family before."

The Hokage nodded. "Thanks for sharing that with me." You've told me more then you know. "Let's resume business."

Meanwhile

Inari walked down the halls of the Hokage tower, totally lost. He had found the five ninja in the waiting room. Kimimaro and Gaara, still playing poker, approaching the 56th hour of play. Naruto had a rubber ball in his hand and was doing something to it, Inari couldn't figure out what. Finally, Hinata and Haku were looking through the latest issue of "The Medic-Nin Journal." They were very annoyed when Inari had relayed the message.

Inari sighed as he turned the corner into another hallway.

WHAM!!

He looked up, rubbing the sore spot on his head where he had collided with another person. The person he had run into was a boy about his age, with his hair up in some sort of helmet and a long scarf wrapped around his neck. "Are you Konohamaru?" Inari asked.

"Yeah," the boy answered. "Why?"

"Your grandfather told me about you, and I'm sort of lost. Could you show me the way to the Hokage's office?" Inari answered sheepishly.

Konohamaru sighed. "Sure, follow me."

As they walked down the halls, Inari broke the silence with a question. "Konohamaru, you're the Hokage's grandson. Does that mean you know a lot of cool jutsu?"

"No," Konohamaru answered sourly. "Ebisu, my tutor, is always going on about things like, 'to be Hokage you must learn a thousand jutsu'. He never teaches me anything."

"Ah, Naruto will only show me the Replacement, Clone, and Transformation Jutsu," Inari complained. "He says he won't teach me anything else until I learn them. I've already got the Clone and Transformation Jutsu down, but can't get the Replacement Jutsu. When I ask him if he will teach me anything else, he told me to try and steal a jutsu scroll and learn it myself!"

"Did you try and steal a scroll?" Konohamaru asked.

"Yeah," Inari said, rubbing his arm as if feeling a phantom pain. "I accidentally set off an explosive trap and blew the roof off their house. Man, I bet this place has tons of scrolls."

Konohamaru stopped. "I know where Grandpa stores all the scrolls here."

Hokage's Office

"Well, I think that sums up everything," the Third said, as wrapped up the discussion with Tazuna. "When can you start work on the bridges?"

Suddenly, the door opened and an ANBU walked in with Konohamaru and Inari slung over his shoulders like bags of rice. "Hokage-sama, we found your grandson and his 'friend' trying to break into the scroll vault."

Sarutobi and Tazuna groaned. "My apologies for my grandson's behavior Lord Hokage," Tazuna muttered.

"That's okay," the Third responded. "But, if they try again… they will be cleaning ALL the bathrooms in this village. Agreed?"

"Sounds fair," Tazuna agreed, to the horror of Inari and Konohamaru. "Now, Inari, I'm going to get us a hotel room. Don't cause anymore trouble!" Inari nodded and Tazuna walked out of the office leaving Inari with Konohamaru.

"The same goes for you, Konohamaru," the Hokage added. "Go and play with Inari, but don't try get into trouble."

"Yes Grandpa," Konohamaru answered apologetically, before leaving with Inari.

"So, now what do we do?" Inari asked as they walked down the halls.

"You said this Naruto would teach you more if you learned the three basic jutsu?" Konohamaru inquired.

"Yeah."

"Then we try to learn those three jutsu as soon as possible and get your sensei to teach us something cool." Konohamaru suggested.

"Okay!" Inari agreed.

Authors Note: Sorry for the delay. My laptop, complete with story data, busted just as I had finished this chapter. TT

Anyway. This is a small view into what made Naruto run away.