Dear Readers,

I would first like to say that I know I told some of you that the next chapter of I Need You would probably be out next week, but as you can see it was a much shorter wait. There are many reasons why, but the main reason is that I need to redeem myself.

Some reviewers have pointed out that Naruto's fighting was very weak in the last chapter. I completely agree with them, he was. I did that on purpose though. Here are my reasons why:

1. Naruto just got out of a very powerful genjutsu, and used up a lot of chakra to get out of it. Yes, I know his chakra replenishes quickly, and that is in this chapter. Plus, Akito used his Gyugan on Sasuke for the entire time Naruto was in the genjutsu, so he is low on chakra as well, hence why Iwao had to interfere with the fight with the last of his chakra.

2. I need Hinata to fight Akito for plot reasons…I can't tell you why it is necessary, but I can tell you that you will find out soon enough.

3. I planned it out that Naruto would get a chance to recuperate from the genjutsu and his fist fight with Akito as he sits on the sidelines, and once he is recuperated (it won't take long) he will show why he is the future Hokage! He will have different jutsus which he did not have in the manga/anime. Just don't expect the fight to be long…Naruto is pretty strong and smart.

4. He needed to have a weak fight, so Hinata could feel the need to intervene and reveal herself.

I hope this clears up everything, and if you have any questions, critics, praises, feel free to tell me because I love getting all of them because they all push me to be a better writer. So, to all the reviewers who pointed this out, I thank-you and I hope this chapter makes up for it. Also, to the reviewers who gave me very positive feedback I thank-you as well because you also inspired me to write the next chapter faster! Hope you enjoy this chapter and that it makes up for the sucky fighting scene in the last one.

Lexar


Ch. 9: Battle Royale

"BYAKUGAN!" Hinata yelled as she slipped into her fighting stance. Akito charged at her with the intent to kill. Hinata was using her kekkei genkai and her past knowledge to figure out the best way to fight Akito. Alright let's see…his Gyugan traps his opponents much like how the Sharigan snares their victims, so if I avoid eye-contact I should be fine. However, I have heard that they can control the blood in another way, but I do not remember what it was…well for now I'll just focus on his tenketsu and try to close them, that should work. Hinata thought as Akito came at her, but stop half way through his charge to take a soldier pill, and started to perform many hand seals.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" A huge dragon made of water sprung forth from the water under the bridge and headed straight for Hinata. The Hyuga heiress smiled as she decided how she would counter.

"Hakkeshō Kaiten" Her chakra came out of her as she spun around to form an impenetrable shield that broke the water dragon. The water from the dragon started to rain down on Akito and Hinata. "Suiton: Suishōha!" The water that was in the air became a spiraling vortex that the top exploded into a huge wave. Hinata used her hands to direct the huge wave towards Akito.

"Very impressive, Hinata-chan, but not good enough! Suiton: Suiryūben!" The water from Hinata's jutsu turned into an orb of water that surrounded Akito and sent out multiple water whips towards Hinata. Hinata did a back flip to avoid the first whip. The second almost hit her before she landed, but she was able to tuck herself into a ball in mid-air to dodge it. The third one came at her on her right while the fourth came from the left. Hinata jumped up as high as she could into the air, narrowly missing both attacks. As she was in the air a fifth whip came at her, but she had no way to dodge it. The water whip hit her with full force, and set her flying to the ground with force. Akito began laughing evilly as Hinata slowly got up. Crimson blood dripped down out of the corner of her mouth. She held onto her side in pain, but Hinata was far from done.

"Like I said before it's Hyuga-san!" Hinata charged with determination in her eyes. She could tell Akito was tired from his last jutsu, so this was her chance to close his tenketsus. She was a little worried, she had not used this move in battle yet, and she was not sure she would be able to pull it off, but it was now or never! "Hakke Sanbyakurokujūichi Shiki!" This technique is the ultimate technique of the Hyuga Clan. It closes all 361 chakra points, paralyzing them with each blow, and when the last blow hits, the victim's last breath is certain to follow. Hinata mastered the Eight Trigrams 128 Palms, and she had been working on this one, but she was not yet confident. Little did she know she executed the move perfectly.

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Neji stared at his cousin in awe as he broke out of his rock prison by sending out his chakra out of his tenketsus in order to break the rock. As soon as he was freed he ran over to Sasuke to get him free as well. Ryuuta and Chuugo were to absorb in Hinata's and Akito's fight to notice the stealthy Neji free himself.

"Wow, Hinata, is amazing." Sasuke whispered in awe. He would never have thought Hinata could be that strong. Yes, he had heard of her mastering her element of water, and that she was becoming very proficient in the Hyuga style of fighting, but he would never have imagined this.

"Yes, she is. Akito is as good as dead once she hits him the final time. No one has ever survived that attack." Neji smirked in pride of his cousin's accomplishment. He freed the Uchiha with little to no problem at all. "Alright, they caught us by surprise. I say we do the same to them."

"Yes, they have not noticed that we escaped, so I have an idea." Sasuke smirked.

"Don't mangle them too much, we still need them alive. Tsunade-sama will want them alive to interrogate them. Since they attacked us for no apparent reason, she is going to believe that Hinata was not their only motivation."

"Maybe she is…" Sasuke trailed off, but Neji looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"It's probably nothing. Let's just focus on capturing those guys, and helping Sakura and Kiba." Sasuke said as he pulled out his sword.

"What about Naruto? We need to free him too." Neji said. Sasuke smirked and let out a small chuckle.

"Naruto is the next Hokage; he can take care of himself. Besides turn on your Byakugan, and you'll see what I mean." Sasuke replied as he slowly made his way to the oblivious Chuugo and Ryuuta. Neji did as he was told and could see that Naruto was using this time to rest. His chakra reserves were replenishing quickly, and were almost to full capacity. He is just letting Akito think he is out for the count, but he is just biding his time. Very clever Naruto… Neji thought. He decided to turn his attention to his cousin who was very low on chakra, but was in the middle of the last blow.

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Akito's body fell forward onto the floor. Hinata began gasping for air; the attack took a lot more out of her than she thought. She still needed to work on her endurance for the attack and her speed, but she was able to do it. She smiled at her accomplishment, but the only problem was explaining to the Hokage why Akito is dead. That will be fun. Then something strange began happening to Akito's body. It started to turn crimson. She took off her Byakugan, since it was not helping her figure out why Akito was turning to red. On closer inspection, she realized that his entire body was made out of blood. The blood began losing Akito's shape and turned into a puddle of deep crimson blood. Hinata stared wide-eyed at the puddle.

"Impressed? It is called, Ketsueki Bunshin no jutsu. It is exactly like the shadow clone jutsu except it is far more powerful. You see instead of dividing the user's chakra evenly between the clones and user, the blood clones are exact copies of the user. In other words, I do not have to split my chakra amongst my blood clones because they have the same amount of chakra as I do. The only downside to the jutsu is that it takes up a lot of chakra, but that's why there are soldier pills." Akito explained as he popped his second soldier pill into his mouth. Hinata glared at him, but her legs gave in under her. The jutsu took too much out of her; she could barely move her arms. "That technique of yours is amazing, and the fact that you executed it perfectly is a testament to your skill, but you wasted it on a blood clone. Now, Hinata-chan, last chance, come with me now, and I will put this whole thing behind me."

Hinata looked at Akito. If I go with him everything I have done would have been in vain! There is no way I will throw away everything I have done to improve myself , and to prove myself to Naruto-kun for. Though Hinata could barely move a muscle due to her extreme chakra exhaustion, that was going to be the last time she did high-level water jutsus followed by the most powerful Hyuga technique, she slowly stood up. All that watched her slowly stood up thought back to the Genin Hinata who refused to stay down in her fight with Neji during the Chuunin exams. Her will of fire never left her eyes as she stared down Akito. "I will not go with you! And for the last time it is HYUGA-SAN TO YOU!" Hinata yelled as she held her torso in pain. Akito laughed. He realized that Hinata was staring directly into his eyes, this was what he was trying to get her to do during their entire fight.

"GYUGAN!" Akito yelled as he activated his kekkei genkai on Hinata. Hinata let out a yell of agony as she clutched her torso even tighter as she fell to the ground. This time Akito decided that making her blood feel like acid was not enough, so he did something he always wanted to do to someone. He altered between making her blood feel like acid to feeling like frozen nitrogen (which is very very cold!). The concept behind this is to slowly kill the person while causing them to go insane at the same time. "Well, than die, Bitch!"

"RASENGAN!" Naruto yells as he brings his Rasengan towards Akito. Akito stops his kekkei genkai and tries to dodge Naruto's attack, but is held down by two of his shadow clones. The Rasengan hits Akito square in the chest sending him flying across the bridge. "Take that, Bastard."Naruto was very pissed off at Akito. No one hurts Hinata and lives to tell about it. As Akito flew, Naruto sent a shadow clone to take Hinata to Sakura where she would be safer. Naruto then noticed that the Akito he used the Rasengan on, was actually a blood clone. Naruto snarled as he began searching the area for Akito. He sensed Akito's chakra flare up randomly. He just used a soldier pill, but by the feel of his chakra, he took two. Well, that's not smart because now I can find him. Time to try out this new technique. "Fūton: Kami Oroshi!" Naruto formed a vortex (this word is so fun) of wind and sent it in the direction where he sensed Akito's chakra spike. Akito dodged it barely. Akito stood in front of Naruto staring him down, but Naruto would not look him in the eye. Based on my previous fight, he is fast, but not faster than me now. Also, if I stare him in the eye, I will fall into his trap, so I can't do that. Hinata had her Byakugan, so she was able to avoid until she took it off. Hmmm…wait! Guy watches Kakashi's feet when he fights against Kakashi's Sharigan, so maybe the same thing could work here. Naruto thought.

Not a bad idea there kid, but I say you should use my chakra! Come on don't you want to obliterate this guy? Kyuubi coaxed. Naruto really wanted to give into Kyuubi's request, but he could not risk his teammates getting hurt by the Kyuubi. Naruto had perfect control of the Kyuubi up to seven tails, he was currently working with Yamato to get the eight tails under control, but it is harder than he originally thought. Besides, it was too easy to slip from seven tails to eight tails, and he would not be the reason his teammates got injured. Besides, he wanted to do this out of his own strength and power. He was the next Hokage, and he did not need to depend on some stupid furball to kick some bastard's ass.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" A powerful column of water was sent flying at Naruto. The blonde ninja smirked as he began performing hand signs.

"Fūton: Kazekiri no Jutsu!" Naruto cried as he summoned a large slicing wind to head towards the column of water. The wind sliced through the water, completely negating the attack. Akito looked shocked, but quickly regained himself as he charged at Naruto. Naruto and Akito began exchanging blows, but unfortunately for Akito, Naruto already got his fighting style memorized and was able to dodge his attacks. Akito, however was having a more difficult time dodging Naruto's. Naruto had no set fighting style, he used a combination of different taijutsu styles, but blended them so they would flow right into each other. Naruto punched Akito square in the gut, and sent Akito skidding a couple of feet.

"Alright, enough messing around with you! It is time I end this! Sui…" Akito began with rage in his voice but he was cut off by a kunai pressed against his throat. Naruto stood behind him with an angered glare in his eyes, but he was very careful not to look at Akito directly in the eyes. "H-how d-did you…"

"Appear before you? That's simple, Hirashin no jutsu. My father, Konoha's Yellow Flash, used this technique, so it only makes sense that his son used it too." Naruto answered with a smirk on his face.

"I know all about that technique, but how did you get it to…"

"Simple, while we were fighting earlier, I placed a small sheet of paper with the Hirashin's formula on it, on you. I was going to use the technique when I gathered enough chakra, so here we are." Naruto said the last part with a subtle threat-like tone in it. "Now I don't want to kill you…" That's a complete lie, after what he did to Hinata-chan, I should massacre this guy! "But, I will if you do not cooperate. So this is what I want you to do: you are going to be a good little ninja and not struggle as I tie you up, you will also not give me any trouble when I hand you and your team over to Ibiki. He has been pretty bored lately, so your team should provide enough entertainment for him until we figure out what to do. Got it?"

"Understood." Akito grumbled. Naruto smirked as he was just about to start tying him up when he felt four more chakra signatures coming towards them. Naruto slowly began pulling out a kunai to defend himself.

"Oi, Naruto, no need to do that to your back-up." One of the chakra signatures called out. Naruto smiled to himself as he placed the kunai back into his pouch.

"Well, about time you guys showed up! You missed the fight!" Naruto yelled out to Shikamaru, Shino, Sai, and Choji.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Choji replied. Shino walked straight over to his teammates and let out a small unnoticeable sigh of relief when he saw Hinata. Sai headed towards the Iwao, who fell unconscious after trapping Naruto in his jutsu, and Tomo to tie them up.

"What do you need us to do?" Shikamaru asked even though he could pretty much figure out what needed to be done.

"Well if you could finish arresting this guy here, and if Choji could give Sakura a soldier pill so she could work on our injuries that would be great." Naruto said as he handed Akito to Shikamaru. Both ninja did as they were told and Naruto slowly walked over to Hinata who was in the middle of being healed by Sakura who just took the soldier pill. Naruto waited until everyone was done fussing over Hinata being back. When Sakura moved on from Hinata to Sasuke and Neji, Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino went to go help Choji, Sai, and Shikamaru gather up their new prisoners. Hinata sat where she was, since she was still tired from her battle with Akito.

Well go on! What are you waiting for? She is alone. It is time to talk to her. The Kyuubi growled in exasperation. Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously.

It's not that simple. Naruto said.

Oh and why not?

...

So you are going to give up on her then?

No, I don't believe I will ever stop loving her like this, but…

But what? Don't you NEED her?

I do…it's just…

Whenever you want to start making sense just let me know.

It's like what Ero-sennin said to me while he was training me, 'Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'

What does that quote have to do with anything?

I need her, but it's scary. No one has ever had this much of a hold on me. If she rejects me…I just don't know. Plus, she loves someone else…

Well, it's your life. With that Kyuubi went silent to leave Naruto to his thoughts. Naruto sighed, but started to walk towards Hinata.

It's now or never.


I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter! I really liked the fighting scene with Hinata and Akito, but I kinda wish I made the Akito vs. Naruto fight longer, but I don't want to give Akito too much credit haha!

Also, I would really love some feedback on the fighting scenes. Did I redeem myself for the crappy fighting scene last chapter? Did Naruto seem more Hokage like? Wasn't Hinata awesome? Please give me your opinions! Okay the next chapter will probably come out in the next week or two, but I don't know. I do know that it will not be a back to back update like this though.

Anyway, the quote that inspired the title of my story is here! Yay! The quote is said by Erich Fromm! Tehe so happy I got it in this chapter! Anyway please review!