Soul Fire a NaruHina fan fic

Volume 1

Chapter 12: Rest

'So warm...' She curled up closer to him. 'So soft...' She nestled her head into his chest. He rocked her back and forth, slowly, gently. 'Hmm, Naruto...' She didn't want it to end, but gradually the dream began to fade away.

Hinata could hear the ocean waves. She felt the ship roll gently from side to side. Then came the unpleasant prickling sensation in her temples. Her eyes felt dry and cold. She tried to open them but quickly squeezed them shut again. They felt as though they were full of sand. For a moment the girl just lay back and listened to the sound of the water. Then she heard someone breathing. She turned onto her side and pried one eye open just long enough to see Sakura lying on her stomach in the bed across from her, asleep. Hinata sighed. Her friend was alive. Their mission had been successful, and they were on their way home.

A few minutes later, she heard the pink haired girl stir. "S-Sakura?" Hinata whispered.

Sakura groaned softly. "Hey," she breathed.

Hinata could tell the young medical ninja was still very weak. She didn't have much energy herself, either. Again she managed to open her aching eyes. "You feeling okay?" she asked quietly.

"I'll be fine," Sakura whispered, a slight smile tugging at her lips, "thanks to you."

Hinata lay back down and let her eyelids fall. Soon they both drifted back to sleep.


Naruto sat on the edge of his bunk, his hands balled into tight fists. "So that's what Kabuto was doing there," he growled.

"Yes, it seems Orochimaru had a hand in all of this," replied the jonin sitting across from him. "He may have even masterminded the entire coup d'état."

The boy gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles loudly. "I should have just taken that traitor apart, right there and then!"

"You made the right decision, Naruto," Kakashi said calmly. "You know we couldn't have fought them all."

Naruto relaxed his hands and looked at the floor. "Yeah... But I still wish I could've stopped him somehow."

"It was already too late for that." Kakashi lay back down on his bunk and sighed. "Even if we had taken out Kabuto and Kusari, it wouldn't have made much difference. It seems that Orochimaru's plans are already in motion."

"So what, are we just gonna sit around and wait for them to invade?"

"Of course not. Once we get our information back to the village, we'll figure out a way to beat them. They may have caught us by surprise last time, but that's not going to happen again."

Naruto's thoughts drifted back to the events of three years ago. So much destroyed... so many people killed, like old man Hokage. He thought of Konohamaru. He'd taken his grandfather's death so hard. He thought of the funeral... all of those sad faces... all of those people dressed in black... all of those tears. He didn't want anything like that to happen ever again.

He looked over at Kakashi, reclining on his bunk, reading his perverted 'Make Out' novel. "Hey, Sensei...?"

Kakashi turned his attention back to the boy. "Hmm?"

"A lot of people are... gonna die... aren't they?"

For a few moments they just looked at each other. Kakashi sighed. "Yeah, they probably are."


Hinata awoke the next morning, still with the prickling sensation in her chakra pathways. She and Sakura had both spent a whole day and night recovering. Both were exhausted and had done little but sleep. Hinata looked out through the porthole. The early morning sun stung her eyes as it glittered on the water. She turned away and lay back down on her bunk.

The girl began running over the events of that night in her mind; the first time she'd really done so since it happened. She couldn't remember having pushed herself so hard before. So many times she'd trained herself to what she thought was her limit. She'd even collapsed from chakra exhaustion once or twice. But that night, she went far beyond what she thought she was capable of.

The battle with the mist ninja played over and over in her head. How did it happen? How was she suddenly able to see their chakra points? She remembered the strange feeling she'd had in her eyes before it happened. Her eyes seemed to be telling her that they wanted more chakra, as though they were only half full. Then she began to wonder if she could do it again.

Hinata sat up and looked over at Sakura, still asleep in her bunk. 'Maybe I could do it right now?' the girl thought. She stood and stepped over to the pink haired girl who lay on her stomach, breathing softly. Slowly and carefully, Hinata began to feed chakra into her byakugan. The prickling became worse, but she ignored it. Soon, the glow of Sakura's chakra well appeared before the girl's eyes. More came into focus as she gradually increased the flow. Hinata concentrated on the needle wounds on Sakura's back and shoulders. They looked like they were healing well. Then she focused on a small part of her back, looking for the chakra points that she knew were there. At first she couldn't see them, so she fed more chakra into her eyes. Gradually they began to show, like stars appearing in the night sky after dusk. But she'd been able to do that before.

During the battle it had been different. All of the mist ninja's chakra points had been perfectly clear. Hinata hadn't needed to look for them. They'd almost seemed to leap out at her. But now it was taking all of her concentration just to pick out one or two. The young Hyuuga couldn't understand what was wrong. She tried to push more chakra into her eyes, but it was like there was something in the way, restricting the flow. She pushed harder and harder, but nothing happened. It felt as though her eyes were already using as much of her chakra as they could, and simply couldn't take any more.

Hinata made one last push to try and break through the barrier, but her vision just started to blur. She staggered backwards a few steps, dizziness threatening to overcome her. 'Why can't I do it?' she wondered, as she held her throbbing temples. 'What was so different before?'

The air in the cabin felt heavy and stale. Once the pain had receded a little, Hinata pulled on her jacket and headed for the door, opening it quietly so as not to wake her sleeping friend. She stepped outside and carefully slid it shut behind her. Hinata made her way down the hall and up the stairs to the deck. Shielding her eyes from the sun, she stepped over to lean against the railing. The cool morning breeze felt heavenly. The girl closed her eyes and inhaled the fresh sea air.

"Hey, Hinata," a familiar voice called out to her.

The young Hyuuga turned to see Naruto waving to her, his trademark grin spread wide across his face. Already the blush was rising in her cheeks when he joined her by the railing.

"Great, you're up," he said, beaming at her. "I was getting worried about you."

Her blush deepened as he reached her side. 'He was worried about me?'

"So you're feeling better now, right?"

"Um, y-yes... thank you," she mumbled.

The boy leaned forward and looked at her intently. "Hmm, you look a little red. Are you sure you're okay?"

His sudden closeness did nothing to reduce the colour in her face. "Um... I'm s-still a little t-tired," she stammered, shrinking back slightly.

He stood straight and grinned again. "Yeah well you deserve the rest. You did great the other night."

She smiled a little, tapping her index fingers together. "Th-thank you, Naruto."

His smile was replaced with a look of concern. "Oh yeah, what about Sakura, is she gonna be okay too? Man she was really hurt, wasn't she? Please say she's gonna be okay."

'He's worried about Sakura as well,' she thought. Her heart sank a little, though she felt guilty for it. "Um, I th-think she'll be alright. She's still asleep."

He let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. She looked like she was hurt really bad. You know I'm glad you were there."

She looked up at him timidly. "Y-you were?"

"Yeah. I mean if you weren't there... Well who knows what could have happened." He smiled, but the fear in his voice was clear. "It's a good thing we had two med nin in our group."

Hinata looked at her feet. "Um... well... I'm n-not really a med nin."

Naruto was confused. "Huh? Then how did you fix her up like that?"

She tugged at the hem of her jacket, still looking at the deck. "Well... you see... S-Sakura taught me some medical skills while we were coming over on the ship."

Naruto gaped at her. "So you only just learned a few days ago?"

Hinata nodded meekly, afraid of what he might think.

"That's amazing!" he exclaimed. "You must learn really fast! And you must be super smart too. Whenever Sakura talks about all that medical mumbo jumbo, I have no idea what she's saying. You've gotta be a genius if you can learn all that complicated stuff in just a few days."

Hinata's face went bright pink. All she could do was twirl her fingers and smile.

The boy grinned from ear to ear as he continued. "And then there's the way you handled those mist ninja. Man, that was incredible! I mean you barely touched them and they just dropped! How did you do that?"

At that, Hinata's smile began to slip. "Um... well um... I... I don't know," she mumbled.

"Huh?" The boy furrowed his brows at her again. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

Hinata looked away from him. "Well I... s-struck their ch-chakra points," she said at barely a whisper.

"Whoa, you mean like Neji?" he said, remembering his battle with the Hyuuga prodigy. "That's so cool! Isn't that supposed to be really hard?"

She nodded. "I c-could never do it before. Only a few members of my clan can do it."

Naruto looked at the girl in awe. "Hinata, you are just incredible! You must be one of the strongest in your whole clan. I can't believe you learned medical ninjutsu and how to do that chakra point thing, all in less than a week. You're awesome!"

The girl just looked at her feet, her face tinged with sorrow. "No... I-I'm not," she mumbled. "I d-don't think I can see chakra points anymore."

"What do you mean?"

The girl shrugged. "I d-don't know how I did it, and now I can't seem to do it again." She gave a heavy sigh. "I tried to look at Sakura's chakra points, but I just couldn't see them. I don't know why. It just..." She closed her eyes and put a hand to her temple. "It hurts t-too much. I'm not... I'm not s-strong enough." She tried to hide the tear that trickled down her cheek.

Hinata jumped when she felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. She looked up into the dazzling blue eyes of the boy in front of her. "Don't worry, Hinata," he said with a warm, encouraging smile. "I know you're a lot stronger than some people think. I bet if you just try hard enough you can figure it out, no problem."

Her heart was racing. She felt a tingling warmth spread from her shoulder into her whole body. 'He really believes in me.' A smile spread its way across her lips. His words sank deep into her heart, wiping away all doubt. She knew she could do it. As long as he believed in her, she could do anything. Perhaps even the thing she feared most.

Then before she realised it, his hand slipped from her shoulder and he turned away. "Well, I'll see yah later, Hinata. I'm gonna go see what Kakashi sensei's doing."

"Wait," she called after him.

"Hmm?" he looked back over his shoulder. "What's up?"

"Um... well I..." Her heart beat even faster, her blush deepened even further. "I w-wanted to t-tell you..."

He turned back to face her. "Tell me what?"

But again she found herself lost in those sparkling cerulean orbs. Again the words caught in her throat. "Well I... I j-just... w-wanted to..." Those piercing eyes overwhelmed her, she couldn't think, she couldn't speak. She lowered her gaze to the deck. "To th-thank you... for c-catching me... and c-carrying me to the ship." On the outside she was smiling, but on the inside she was crying. 'I still can't say it.'

"That's okay, Hinata." He grinned at her again. "You're my friend. And like I said, I always look out for my friends." And with one last wave, he turned and walked away.

Hinata sighed to herself as he disappeared from view. 'It's alright,' she told herself, 'Someday I'll be strong enough.'


"Hey, Sakura, you sure you're gonna be okay?" the boy asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Sakura replied. She smiled at the dark haired girl next to her whose shoulder she'd borrowed for support. "I've been treated by the best."

Hinata blushed slightly at the compliment.

The four stood by the docks in the small fishing port where they'd started their journey. They were finally back in the Land of Fire after their two day voyage.

"Alright then, let's get a move on," Kakashi said, taking the lead. "We'll take it easy, but we don't want to slow down any more than we need to."

The three teenagers soon fell in behind him and they began to make their way home.

It took them another five days travel before the gates of Konoha finally came into view. Naruto beamed at the sight. He looked over at the two girls, Sakura leaning heavily on Hinata's arm. Both smiled in relief.

"Alright, mission accomplished!" the boy proclaimed. "Let's get over to grandma Tsunade's, quick. We should be done just in time for lunch."


"Satou Chishio and Kusari Assaiki..." Tsunade hissed through her teeth. Her hands balled into fists. "In league with... Orochimaru!" She stared at her desk, her whole body shaking with pent up fury. "As if we weren't having enough problems." She took a deep breath and let her head drop into her hands. "Things just keep going from bad to worse."

"There is some good news," Kakashi said. "They're still not in complete control of the Land of Water yet. And they're not planning to make their move for another two years."

"Hmm, well that's something," Tsunade sighed. "We'd just better make sure we put that time to good use."

"Hey, Grandma Tsunade, who are these Satou and Kusari guys, anyway?" Naruto asked tentatively.

Tsunade looked up at him, frowning at the use of her nickname. Fortunately for him she brushed it off. "Shizune," she yelled, "have you found those files yet?"

"Just a second," Shizune called back from the next room. A few moments later she burst through the door carrying two folders. She squeezed between Naruto and Kakashi and placed them on Tsunade's desk. "Here they are, Lady Hokage."

Tsunade snatched them up and opened the first. "That him?" she asked, turning the open file toward Kakashi.

The jonin looked intently at the photograph before nodding. "That's him, alright. Kusari Assaiki."

Tsunade dumped the first file on her desk and opened the second. "And this is Satou Chishio," she laid the file out in front of them, "head of the Hidden Mist Village's Chishio clan and now, apparently, the new Mizukage."

Naruto leaned forward to look at the file. "So what's so great about this guy?"

Tsunade took a deep breath before answering. "The Chishio clan were once one of the most influential clans within the Hidden Mist Village. They were a noble clan, possessing a Kekkei Genkai."

"Kekkei Genkai..." Naruto breathed. He passed a sideways glance at Hinata. "What kind of Kekkei Genkai?"

"That's what's interesting," Tsunade said, stroking her chin in thought. "We have no idea."

"Huh?" Naruto looked at her quizzically.

"The Chishio clan's Kekkei Genkai was said to be extremely rare," she continued. "Though their clan wasn't small, the bloodline ability itself only manifested in very few of its members, perhaps only one or two per generation. What's more, the clan went to extreme lengths to keep the secrets of their unique ability to themselves. It's said that only a handful of people within the Hidden Mist Village knew anything about it. And even within the clan itself, few were aware of its exact properties."

Naruto continued to stare at her with a puzzled expression. "But didn't people see them using it? I mean they must have used it in battle or something, right?"

"Well there were plenty of attempts by other hidden villages to learn the secrets of their bloodline, but as far as we know, none of them were successful. In any case it didn't seem to matter much. The last known user of the clan's bloodline trait died over thirty years ago. After that the Chishio clan lost much of its influence. Without their Kekkei Genkai, they were just an ordinary clan with no particular status or privileges."

"Well then, what's the big deal?" the boy asked. "If nobody can use it anymore then what does it matter?"

"That's what's so interesting about Satou," Tsunade answered. "From the moment he became leader of his clan, he is said to have made it his mission to recover the clan's bloodline trait and restore their honoured position within the village. Then about eight years ago he disappeared, along with a few members of his clan and his prised student, Kusari Assaiki. Nothing was heard of them until two years ago, when he and Kusari suddenly reappeared out of nowhere. Since then, the Chishio clan has rapidly risen in influence within the Mist Village."

Sakura looked up from her seat by the window. "So do you think he managed to recover it? The bloodline trait, I mean?"

"Well we can't say for sure," Tsunade answered. "But it would make sense. It's something to look into at least. But for now that can wait." She closed the files and put them aside. "Was there anything else, Kakashi?"

"That's all the important things," Kakashi said. "But I would like to make a special note about our additional team member."

Hinata turned to look at him in surprise.

"Hinata's abilities were invaluable to the success of our mission, and her overall performance was superb," he stated. "In fact, without her, I'm not sure we would have all made it back home in one piece."

"Really?" Tsunade turned to the girl with a curious smile.

Hinata could hardly believe her ears. 'Is he really talking about me?'

"What's more," Kakashi continued, "it seems she and Naruto make a good team. They worked together to get Sakura and I out of trouble more than once."

Tsunade's smile widened. "Is that so?"

"Sure is!" Naruto exclaimed. "Hinata is awesome. I'd have her on our team anytime."

"Oh, and you might be interested in this." Kakashi produced a large scroll from his pack and placed it on the Hokage's desk. "Hinata was able to make a detailed map of the Feudal Lord's entire palace complex. I recommend that it be added to our archives. It would certainly come in handy for any future missions."

Hinata's cheeks were burning under the light of all their praise. She could only smile timidly as she tugged the hem of her jacket and looked at the floor.

"Hmm..." Tsunade mused as she looked at the young girl, "very interesting. I look forward to reading your full report, Kakashi. But for now it looks like you could all use some rest. Excellent work, dismissed."

The group filed out of the Hokage's office and made their way out into the midday sun.

"Alright, guys, let's celebrate," Naruto said eagerly. "C'mon, let's all go out to lunch together."

"Not me," Sakura replied wearily. "I just want to get home and rest. I'll see you all later." She gave Hinata one last smile before leaving.

"I'll have to pass, too, I'm afraid," said Kakashi. "I really should get on with my report." And with a puff of smoke he was gone.

"Well, Hinata," Naruto said, turning to the blushing young teen, "looks like it's just you and me."


Authors Notes:

Sorry about the late update. I kept getting an error message when I tried to open the edit story page.

To the person who asked: NO I did not kill off uh... what's-her-name, the excessively hot Mizukage. Remember that this chapter was written in 2008, well before she appeared in the manga (did I mention that? no, I guess I didn't... sorry). Nobody knew who the other Kages were back then (other than Garra). Maybe Satou killed off her predecessor? I may even include her in the story at some point. I haven't decided yet.

Hope you enjoy. The next chapter will conclude the current arc. Plenty more to come after that, though.