Chapter 10

Naruto and Hinata were on their way to Takumi village, jumping from tree to tree in silence.

'I should probably say something,' Naruto thought.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For last night… I don't know what's wrong with me lately… I don't feel like myself and I even have holes in my memory…"

It was true and it as really beginning to bother him.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it," she whispered.

They continued in silence, and Naruto didn't know what to say anymore. He wasn't really sorry at all about last night. He was just very confused. He'd gone more than half of his life without feeling anything and it was great. He didn't understand why that had to change now and complicate his life.

"S-So… what was it that you had to do before we left?" Hinata finally broke the silence.

Naruto visibly tensed up at the question. "Uh… well…" 'I just stopped by the hospital to get a few blood bags for the trip. You know, in case I get thirsty and want to rip your head off.'

"Oh…" she said, and he realized she must have used her Byakugan to see inside his new not-completely-legally-paid-for backpack. "D-Didn't you… manage to feed enough last night?" she blurted out.

That was unexpected. He would never have imagined her to ask something like that. For a moment Naruto didn't reply. If he told her everything, she would know that he really was a monster.

But then, to both their surprises, he answered.

"It's never enough. I could drink dry every single habitant of this planet and it would still not be enough. I would still be thirsty."

"R-Really? That sounds horrible…"

"Yeah, well… if you drink three times a day it gets dull enough that you can concentrate on other things and forget about it." 'And the more you drink, the more powerful you feel' he thought, but abstained from sharing that detail with her. "Besides, that's the only downside. There are many upsides."

"Like…?" she asked. He then started to tell her about the cool parts of his lifestyle.

"Well, I can hear and smell things from really far away, I can see in the dark, I'm really fast, and strong, and I'm quiet when I walk. As you've seen, when I turn my eyes red, I can command people to do whatever I want… also, I can read minds."

"Eh?!" exclaimed Hinata. "R-Really?!" Naruto looked over at her and gave her a smirk. He saw how flustered she was as she started panicking, trying to remember if she thought anything embarrassing while being with him and at the same time trying not to because he was with her right now. He smiled.

"You really are cute," he said, making her turn as red as a tomato again, which only made him chuckle more.

"D-Don't laugh at me…" she whispered.

"I'm not laughing at you, seeing such a cute Hinata makes me happy," he replied, smiling. If possible, she turned even redder. He found that he enjoyed making her blush. "Don't worry; I only started getting the hang of it yesterday. Anything you thought before is safe."

Hinata let out a relieved breath. "So what else do you do?" 'I don't sparkle in the sun if that's what you're thinking' he thought.

"Hmm…" he thought about it for a second. "Well, technically I can heal people…"

"Really, that's wonderful! How?"

"If I give someone some of my blood, that'll carry some of my chakra into their bodies and with just a few sips they'll be completely healed… but that's not what it's meant to be used for… I got scolded really badly the one time I tried to use it…"

"By whom?" she asked. He hesitated a moment, and then figured Kurama wouldn't want him to give out his name so freely to human strangers.

"Kyuubi," he said. "That one time I used it… it was to help this girl."

"Apologize!" he heard someone yell in the distance.

"It was right after I awakened Kyuubi and made the deal with him ten years ago."

Not really wanting to get involved, but not being able to just ignore someone getting picked on, he got closer.

"Apologize!" the kid yelled again. There were about five children surrounding a little girl that was clearly younger and weaker.

"This little girl, she was getting bullied."

"I-I'm sorry," he heard the girl whisper.

"That's not good enough! Get on your knees and say it like you mean it!"

"They made her apologize on her knees and they got skinned."

Kyuubi had said he wasn't supposed to feel anything after their contract but he did. He was angry. He was outraged. Those were the same kids that used to pick on him for no apparent reason. They humiliated him like that too. And he couldn't stand it anymore. He just would not stand this anymore. He was powerful now. He felt powerful. He just knew it would be so easy to kill them all. It would be so easy to snap their necks; so easy to drink their blood.

"Oi!" he yelled at them. "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size?"

'Huh?!' they all turned to look at him.

'Oh, it's that boy.' They said, and you could see the tick mark appear in his forehead.

'Yeah I'm that boy. The boy that's about to give you all a lesson so you learn not to mess with demons.' He said dramatically, turning his eyes red. He elongated his fangs and claws just because he enjoyed the look of terror in their faces.

"I tried out my Commands for the first time;"

"Step away from her!" he ordered, and they obeyed. He then figured since they liked humiliating people, they deserved the same. "You! Dance for me!" he commanded. And he loved knowing that the boy couldn't disobey.

"I made the bullies stop and dance or do jumping jacks or something silly like that."

"Now get out of my sight before I kill you all!" he really wanted to kill them but he figured it would not be wise as he would have to murder the girl as well for she would have seen too much. He'd do it later.

They all ran and the girl, still on her knees, looked up at him, uncertain. He smelled it; the sweet, delicious scent of blood. 'Her knees are skinned,' he realized.

"And then I don't know how, but I knew that if I let her drink some of my blood, she would heal."

With his fangs still sharpened, he cut his wrist.

"Here," he said. "Drink this. It will help."

The girl looked very confused and even outraged. She was trying to decide whether he was crazy, or all that she'd seen was real and she was the crazy one.

"And then Kyuubi yelled at me."

'What the hell do you think you're doing, kid?!' Kyuubi yelled inside his head.

'I'm trying to help her…' he thought.

'Why would you do that? Are you insane? That's not what you use your blood for! Do you realize how valuable the liquid running through your veins is? It's basically the fountain of youth! It cures all wounds and illness, and extends life! You can't just give it away like that! And to a human! You know what the only case you would use your blood like that to a human would be? If you wanted to keep a human pet! If you wanted to keep drinking from the same source! That's the only reason.'

"He told me that that was not what you use your blood for and that doing that was probably the stupidest thing I could do because humans…" he stopped himself. Why was he telling her this?

"Because humans…?" she asked, for him to continue. He was going to stay quiet but then a voice rang inside his head.

"Because humans are horrible creatures," the voice said.

"Because humans are horrible creatures," he repeated obediently, not being able to stop himself.

"And they aren't worthy of being healed by the blood of a Jinchuuriki."

"And they aren't worthy of being healed by the blood of a Jinchuuriki," he finished. He shook his head, trying to clear away that voice, and tried to regain control of himself. He didn't want to say that. He didn't want her to think he was a monster.

"I told him that wasn't true…"

"Not all humans—" he tried to say, but was interrupted.

"What is going on here?!" an adult voice yelled, walking into the scene. Fortunately, Naruto had calmed down and turned back to normal just in time.

"…but then the girl's caretaker showed up…"

The adult ran up to the girl and made sure she wasn't injured. And then he looked him up and down.

"Ugh! It's that kid!" he said and swatted his hand in the air like he was some kind of animal. "Shoo! Go away!"

"…and he yelled at me and told the girl to stay away from me…"

"Stay away from that boy! Do you understand Hinata-sama?!"

'Hinata?' he thought, realizing who the girl in his memory was. But he wasn't distracted by that too long because the voice was back. "Humans are horrible creatures," it said, and shoved him back in the memory to see the caretaker's face.

"…and his eyes were all… filled with disgust."

The voice then wasn't just a voice anymore. There were thousands of voices, breaking off into whispers; whispering all the cruel, unforgiving words that had been sent his way. Ugh, it's that kid, the demon kid. Monster! Go away. Why don't you just die? We don't want you here! Murderer! Nobody likes you, nobody needs you, nobody would miss you. Why don't you die? And they threw him into an ocean of dark, painful memories. All the memories of him being hungry, cold, lonely, hurt, unwanted, and unloved replayed in his head over and over again.

"Remember," the voice demanded.

"All of them are. They all look at me like that. And they all… do horrible things. They all treated me horrible."

"Because humans are horrible creatures," the voice said.

"'Because humans are horrible creatures,'" he quoted. "Humans are horrible creatures…" he suddenly stopped on his tracks and Hinata stopped behind him. No; no, not all of them. He turned around to look at Hinata. "…but you… you're different. Hinata, you're— ungh!" He clenched his throat and doubled over.

"You fool!" Kurama yelled in his mind. "What do I have to do for you to understand?!"

As he did, he lost his balance and fell off the branch, but he seemed to hardly notice.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata caught him and prevented him from landing too roughly. Naruto fell on his knees and started screaming.

"That's it," he said calmly. "I tried to play nice by only messing with your memories and your psychological barriers but it seems this problem requires more drastic solutions.

And then his eyes turned red and he stopped abruptly. His face looked like he was… hypnotized.

"The human girl needs to die."

He straightened up and looked at her. Then, he smiled, showing off his sharp teeth. Hinata gasped, that wasn't Naruto. His lips pulled back and he let out a hiss. He lunged at her. She rolled to the side and jumped away. Naruto was crouched low, growling. His muscles tensed to jump but he stopped abruptly. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his hair with his hands.

"N-No…" he heaved. His eyes were turning from red to blue and back. "I don't… I don't want to hurt… Hinata…"

"It's for your own good, kid."

"No! Run, Hinata… Run! Please!"

Hinata ran, and he was so grateful she listened to him for once. But she could not get far.

Kyuubi was in control now.

Running at an incredible speed, it was not long before he caught up to her. And with one final lunge, he caught her. He pinned her arms to her side and sank his sharp teeth into the skin of her neck. He barely heard her scream.

"Naruto… please! Wake up! Naruto-kun… it hurts…" he heard a whisper. He was buried deep inside his own subconscious. But he couldn't let Hinata die. Not Hinata! Not the only person who has ever been kind to him! Not Hinata! With great effort, he managed to stop. He retrieved his fangs and started trembling. His eyes were squeezed shut and he was panting hard. He was fighting, trying really hard to regain control of himself. Not Hinata.

"Don't make me…" he breathed. "Don't make me hurt Hinata…"

"I know you can't see it now, but you will thank me for this one day, kid."

"…please… no…"

"Say your good-byes."

"NO!" and with that final burst he made his chakra explode and spread all over his body. Similar to how you dispel a genjutsu. He burned away all the red chakra clouding his mind. And finally he released her and jumped away from her. He fell on his butt and sat there, panting.

"N-Naruto-kun…?" Hinata whispered. When she received no response, she tried to approach him.

"No!" he yelled, jumping to his feet. "Stay away! I… I'm…" he stared at the ground.

'I'm a monster.'

"I'm sorry, Hinata. I'm so, so sorry."

"Naru—" before she could finish, he ran away

"Target sighted," a man in a mask said into a microphone around his neck. Four other men in masks sat behind him, standing on tree branches. They watched as the blond teenager sprinted through the forest. "It's time."

Naruto was exhausted. He didn't know how he was able to sprint through the forest like that at all. He just wanted to lie down somewhere and die. Suddenly, he was ambushed. That was strange; normally he would have been able to sense them. And there were so many, he was surrounded. His fight or flight instincts kicked in and he looked around for a possible escape route. There were none. Seeing there was no possibility of flight, he chose to fight. He lounged at them, planning on using his red chakra like he had always done for the last decade. But there was none. His body was completely drained from red chakra, except for inside the seal on his stomach. Not only that, he barely had any chakra of his own left, since he used it all to clear away the red chakra he needed now!

Outnumbered and overpowered, the blond was quickly pinned to the ground. His hands were bound behind his back, and several chakra-suppressing seals were placed on his body. Emotionally unstable, exhausted and now weakened, all he could do was lay there on his stomach, panting. To his surprise, the men weren't done. They forced something into his mouth. It was some sort of device that pressed painfully on his teeth and prevented him from growing his fangs. And then it clicked, they knew.

"Uzumaki Naruto," one of them said, "you are under arrest."

"Ngh," Naruto groaned. His entire body hurt and felt as heavy as lead. His ears were ringing and his head felt like it was going to explode. He groggily opened his eyes but all he could see was a big blur. He blinked once, twice, and by the third time the blur began sharpening and making more sense.

Rock, he concluded. There was a rock wall in front of him, and now that he was paying attention, all around him. The one behind him had a tiny window with bars, set very high up, letting moonlight flood into the room.

He pressed on his forehead; his head hurt. Something cold on his wrist soothed his pain minimally. He snapped his eyes open and stared at his wrist. He was cuffed. He tried pulling his arm but he found the cuff was attached to the wall. Panicking, he tried to stand up and found that his ankles were also chained to the wall. Suddenly, the memories of the past few weeks flooded his mind; all his memories.

'Hinata! Gaara! How could I forget all that? And now… I'm locked up?' he had the sudden urge to laugh. As if some puny humans could keep him locked up! 'How did I even get here?'

He then figured they either knocked him out or he passed out from chakra exhaustion because on top of everything, they had to suppress the little chakra he had left. He sighed, this was annoying. He still had lots of chakra-suppressors on him.

And then he realized, Kurama! He should be furious at him! Where was he?! A cold chill ran down his spine when he realized, he couldn't feel any red chakra.

Hi! I know, I know, I took forever, I'm sorry. I actually had this done a while ago but I stubbornly kept trying to make it longer. As a result I already have part of the new chapter done (up until I hit a wall and have no idea how to get my next idea onto paper) so hopefully it'll be ready sooner. By the way, this is basically the real version of most of chapter 9. Chapter 9 happened that way because a friend suggested I write a chapter in Hinata's perspective it's actually very hard to explain what's happening from Hinata's point of view because she doesn't know what's happening xD so I think I like writing in Naruto's perspective a lot better. Anyway, I'll stop talking now. Thank you SO much for all following, reviewing and adding me to your favorites, I REALLY appreciate it! Hope you enjoyed :D