I do not own Naruto
* * thoughts
{soul connection talk}
Chapter 11;
The next morning Hinata shook Naruto awake as she gathered their things for the exchange this morning.
Naruto rolled out of bed wiping the sleep from his eyes as he regained his focus. He smiled as he was greeted by the sight of Hinata's smiling face sitting in the chair opposite him in the corner.
He pulled on his shirt and jacket and walked over pulling her to her feet. She giggled as he pulled her into a close embrace pressing his lips to hers.
She sighed, and wished they could spend all day like this. Naruto was so caring when they were alone, it was like he let all the walls down and let her see the real Naruto.
Slowly he released her, tied the handcuffs onto his back, and headed for the door. He held it open as she exited and then locked it behind them.
They quietly made their way downstairs where they met the rest of the team. Ino was sitting in Kiba's lap feeding him cereal from her bowl as he did the same. Shikimaru was lazily picking through his granola eating all the raisins first.
Naruto quickly made himself a waffle and glass of orange juice as Hinata had found the cinnamon rolls and was getting a glass of milk.
They quickly took seats at the table and ate as Temari approached the table.
"Morning everyone!" she said coming to sit next to shikimaru.
They all muttered their greeting while trying to hurry and eat. Shikimaru was the first to finish and placed his arm around Temari.
She blushed a little but quickly turned serious "so, how do we want to travel on the way back? Any specific grouping or order?"
Shikimaru nodded "well sauske will obviously be in the middle. We'll put Hinata in front followed by Naruto. Kiba will immediately follow sauske with Ino close behind. You and I will travel on either side of him so that we can keep him covered."
The rest finished their breakfast and quickly scooted closer into the table "right, but here's a question, why is it that everyone seems to think we'll be attacked? The akatsuki and Orochimaru are both gone right?" Kiba asked.
Shikimaru looked at Temari for a second and then sighed "Itachi is still alive. If we are to believe a recent scouting mission, he will probably make an attempt on sauske while were still here in the city."
Kiba nodded "so we need to be ready for anything?"
Shikimaru nodded "we all need to be on guard"
Meanwhile naruto was focusing on Hinata talking to her in their mind link.
*Hinata, we need to tell the team*
Hinata sighed and just looked at everyone before responding
*are you sure? Remember the more we talk about it, the more likely Itachi may hear.*
Naruto thought for a second and then nodded and coughed grabbing everyone's attention. The team all turned and faced them. Shikimaru looked concerned as he saw Naruto had a serious look on his face.
"there's something Hinata and I need to tell you guy's, something that only a few other people know about." Naruto said
Most of the team nodded except shikimaru who quickly spoke up "Naruto! What if Itachi is listening?"
Naruto thought for a second and looked at Temari "how sure are you that Itachi isn't here?"
"well the city watch hasn't reported any strange activity and we doubled the patrol's since we learned of sauske's arrival." She said looking around the room being sure they were alone.
Naruto pulled Hinata into his lap and wrapped his around her before beginning "two days ago Hinata and I attempted to perform a jutsu that hasn't been done in hundreds of years."
Naruto turned his head showing the others the earring attached to his right ear "these earrings allow us to perform the jutsu, once we do though we are useless for the rest of the mission. It drains all our chakra and strength leaving us vulnerable."
The three members nodded and listened intently as he went on "the jutsu is called soul connection jutsu. It gives us all the experience and knowledge of the other, as Tsunade said, two souls inside one body."
He stopped and waited for the others to comment watching their faces as they took in all he had said. Ino was the first to speak after a moment.
"so when you guy's connect, it's like sharing the other person's mind and body? Isn't that kind of dangerous if one of you gets hurt?" she asked with a confused look on her face.
Hinata was the one who spoke up this time "true we share everything while we are connected but as long as we look out for each other there shouldn't be any problems."
The team left the hotel and headed for the east side of town, as they did Naruto could have sworn he felt someone watching them.
When they arrived at the east gate four guards wearing lightning village headbands immediately drew their weapons
"halt! Who goes there?" one asked stepping forward towards the ninja
Temari spoke up " the transfer team, I am Temari of the sand village here with a letter of introduction and transfer papers for one sauske Uchiha." Temari handed the papers to the one who had stepped forward.
Once he had finished looking them over he nodded to his team who parted and allowed the teen to come forward. Sauske was dressed in his black jacket and shorts with his kohona headband tied across his forehead.
Shikimaru nodded at naruto who stepped forward and opened the case showing sauske the cuffs
"I'm sorry" he said before placing the wooden stockades over his wrists and tightening them down. Naruto then pushed all twelve pins of the cuffs into sauske's wrists making the teen wince in pain.
Temari and the others bowed to the other ninja as they headed back towards the eastern mountain range they called home.
As they made their way through maze of sand buildings Naruto got that uneasy feeling again and quickly tapped into Hinata's mind.
{Hinata, be on the lookout something isn't right.} he thought as they moved along.
She nodded looking over her shoulder at him and activated her Byakugan as they passed by the fountain they had been at the day before.
Suddenly a figure leapt from the water grabbing Hinata by the waist and pulling her in front of him, Naruto's anger rose as he saw that It was Itachi with a kunai at her throat. He felt the fear rise inside her and the tears that came to her eyes just made him angrier.
"hello everyone, thank you for bringing sauske to me, it saved me the trouble of tracking him down after he betrayed us all."
Naruto looked at sauske with hate growing inside of him "what is he talking about sauske?"
Itachi laughed a low and evil chuckle "he didn't tell you? He's the reason that the akatsuki and Orochimaru aren't around anymore. Once we removed the curse mark for him he wanted revenge but our leader wouldn't help him, so sauske went back and played us both by causing a small civil war. In the end I only escaped by following him at doing what he does best. Running away, the little coward didn't even stay to watch the leaders kill each other."
Naruto looked back at sauske and just stared at him blankly "so you knew that he was still alive and coming? Why give yourself up then?"
Sauske sighed, "because as much as I don't want to say this I needed your help, I might be fast enough but I'm still not strong enough to beat him. That's where I need your help naruto; you're the only one strong enough to beat him."
Naruto looked at shikimaru who nodded Naruto started to walk towards sauske until Itachi cleared his throat. Naruto stopped and turned to face him glaring with all the hate he had.
Hinata turned her head so that Naruto could see the earring and tried her mind link but found that she wasn't able to talk to him. The voice that responded felt evil and dark, she realized all of the sudden that the voice belonged to the nine-tailed fox.
{Don't worry sweetie, I won't hurt you, I'm here to help. Naruto's blocking you out so he can come up with a plan. However, I have an idea, if you can somehow turn the tables on Itachi after Naruto frees sauske then he can use the cuffs on him.]
Hinata listened and agreed that it was a good plan but with one problem {what if Itachi breaks free of the cuffs?}
She heard the deep and evil laugh from the fox {don't worry the time that it takes him to break them will give you enough time to re-group and kill him.}
Meanwhile Naruto scrambled in his mind to try and figure out a way to free sauske without putting Hinata in more danger. Naruto looked back at sauske but saw that one of the needles had fallen out.
Naruto looked at sauske's face and he was grinning. Naruto knew he could get free; he just needed a way to get Hinata away from Itachi.
Itachi tightened his grip around Hinata and the kunai dug into her skin drawing a small line of blood from her neck.
"now Naruto if you don't mind, why don't you bring sauske over here and we'll trade off?" he said. He planned on killing the girl anyways just to make Naruto suffer.
Naruto walked over and grabbed the top of the stockades purposely jarring a few more needles as he did. Naruto flashed sauske a grin before he cautiously walked with sauske towards where Itachi was holding Hinata.
Itachi loosened his grip around Hinata's waist but did not move the kunai, as they got closer. Hinata had been waiting for this chance. She focused all her chakra into her palms and pressed them into Itachi's sides.
Itachi bellowed and dropped the kunai and pulled away from Hinata. Meanwhile Naruto had pulled all the needles out of the cuffs and pulled them off him.
Itachi realized that Hinata had just used a genjutsu on him and quickly jumped to a safe distance and quickly regained his composure.
"It seems I underestimated you Hinata, but no worries none of you will make it back alive." He launched himself in Naruto's direction slicing at his midsection with his sword.
Naruto quickly jumped back blocking the slash with a kunai, sauske had drawn his sword as well and brought it down in an overhead cleaving motion.
Itachi saw sauske's blow coming and rolled to the left and brought his hand up making a quick set of hand signs
"fire style; dragons breath!" he shouted as a tunnel of flames erupted from his mouth heading straight for sauske.
Sauske rolled as shikimaru moved in behind Itachi forming hand signs for his shadow possession. Temari saw shikimaru move into a buildings shadow to give himself enough shadow to stretch.
She quickly drew her fan and whipped up a sand storm blinding Itachi and the team from seeing each other. Kiba took initiative and threw Akamaru in Itachi's last known direction. Kiba formed his hand signs and akamaru took on his human form.
Shikimaru was trying to find Itachi inside the sand storm that Temari had whipped up. He knew that he was directly in front of him but found that there was not anyone there.
Temari allowed the sand storm to die and saw that Itachi had used it as a means of disappearing.
The group came together back to back and faced out from the fountain and Hinata began to scan the surrounding buildings.
As she looked for Itachi Naruto turned and looked at shikimaru "so what 's the plan now?"
Shikimaru just shrugged "try and kill him before anyone gets hurt. I mean we can't predict what he'll do next."
As he finished speaking Itachi appeared on the top point of the fountain "you ninja have gotten stronger! But not strong enough!"
His hands were a blur as he formed his hand signs and shouted "amaterasu!"
Sauske's eyes widened as he saw which jutsu Itachi was going for, and yelled "Itachi!" jumping and slashing trying to stop him.
Naruto had seen the same thing sauske had and quickly formed a few short hand signs and raised his hands and shouted "ice style! Water wall jutsu"
The wall sprang up just in time creating a vast cloud of steam in the small plaza. The team quickly dispersed
{Naruto we need to connect, maybe we can catch him off guard that way?}
{ok, lets go for it!}
Naruto quickly focused his chakra into the seal on his hand and felt the earring begin to thrum.
Soon he felt Hinata's mind press into his and said "soul connection jutsu!"
Itachi panted as he tried to stop the bleeding. He hadn't counted on sauske being able to connect a blow before he was able to complete the jutsu.
He finally sealed the wound and began to look around to see If he could spot his young brother. He cursed as he saw the immensely thick fog surrounding the area.
He noticed two glowing lights that seemed to be getting closer and closer. They finally got close enough that Itachi saw it was Naruto and Hinata.
"Ahh, has the young couple come to try and fight? Or are they just a distraction for little brother?"
Naruto looked up at Itachi and smiled "no were here to kill you!"
Itachi's smile faded as he listened to the threat. He couldn't tell if it was Naruto or Hinata who was speaking ad then he noticed that Naruto's right eye wasn't the same shade of blue it was before.
Instead, it was the same shade of lavender that Hinata's was. He quickly looked and saw that Hinata's left eye had turned the same shade of blue as Naruto's.
Itachi felt his anger rise and closed his fists "so you found them did you?" he said referring to the earring's that were shining in their ears.
They both smiled "that's right, and now you're finished!"
They both dashed at Itachi who was still recovering from his injury. Hinata stopped in front of him and took her juyken pose "Ryu Juken! 128 Palms!"
Itachi was quick to avoid her strikes but didn't see Naruto coming from behind with a resenegan in hand.
He heard him coming and tried to move but found he was unable to and looked down, he cursed as he saw that his shadow was longer than what it should have been.
Shikimaru smiled and shouted "Finish him!"
Naruto slammed the orb of chakra deep inside Itachi's back sending the former ANBU flying into the fountain. As they saw Itachi flying through the air sauske jumped over the top and brought his sword around in a long slicing arc.
His body fell to the ground in a slump and sauske walked over to Itachi's head and quickly formed a few short hand signs.
"fire style; dragon's breath." In a few short seconds Itachi's body was burned to ash and scattered to the wind.
Sauske quickly crumpled to his knees clutching his right arm. Even though most of his body had avoided the flames his right arm had still been caught in the torrent in order to connect the blow.
Hinata and Naruto rushed to his side and looked at Temari "Where's the hospital?"
Temari dashed in front of them and led them to the hospital where they rushed sauske into the emergency room.
As soon as his arm was treated and wrapped the team quickly made their way back to kohona taking care to be sure that they had no other surprises along the way.
As soon as they reached the city gate's Tsunade and a team of ANBU were waiting for them. She saw sauske injury and looked at shikimaru.
As he explained the events of the day Tsunade's expression went from rage to annoyance and then back to rage.
She glared at sauske "as much I would like to welcome you back with open arms we need to be sure it safe to let you back into the village. We need to question you and be sure it's safe. Are you willing to comply?"
Sauske nodded "yes, I realize now how stupid I was to leave my friends and allies behind. I'll do whatever it takes to earn your trust back."
Tsunade nodded "very well follow us. Oh! And Temari, please come by my office tomorrow? I Have an offer I would like to extend to you."
Everyone went their separate ways back home including Naruto and Hinata.
When they finally reached home they severed the connection and collapsed onto the couch.
Naruto looked over at Hinata and smiled "you were awesome today! Great idea burning itachi with your chakra!"
Hinata blushed a little "actually it wasn't my idea, it was the nine-tails idea. He helped me when you blocked me out for a minute to think."
Naruto's jaw dropped and he quickly closed his eyes concentrating on the foxes chakra source.
"* hey kyuubi! Thanks!*"
The foxes evil laugh came rumbling across the floor of Naruto's mind "*kit, don't even mention it ok? She's connected now, what happens to her happens to you. just means I gotta take care of two brats now instead of just the one!*"
Naruto shook his head and left that part of his mind coming back to Hinata who was fighting to keep her eyes open.
Naruto forced himself up and picked Hinata up one arm at the bend in her knees the other behind her neck carrying her like a child.
Hinata sighed and closed her eyes as Naruto carried her upstairs and laid her down on the bed. she quickly rolled off and grabbed her night clothes and headed for the bathroom.
Meanwhile Naruto grabbed his and changed quickly crawling into bed, when Hinata returned she smiled as she saw he had already fallen asleep.
She climbed in beside him and settled into him. She felt him automatically wrap his arms around her and she sighed closing her eyes.
Today had been amazing and terrifying, she just hoped that they were ready for what other trails may come their way.