People Lie Chapter 25: Lies Made From Light and Fire: two, a naruto fanfic

Two Narutos raced through the forest on all fours, seeming almost like human sized foxes as they raced along the ground and bounced off trees. One carried Hinata, the other Sasuke, because Naruto was now moving at speeds even Sasuke couldn't match. Instead, Sasuke had his legs wrapped around Naruto's middle from behind, riding him almost like a horse as he fought to keep the wind of their passing from tearing the bento from his hands. Hinata did much the same, though she also held on to Naruto's shoulders and leaned forward to try and reason with him.

Reasoning wasn't working. Naruto didn't have an actual reason for running. He simply felt good. Powerful.

Free.

It was not to last.

As he leapt at a tree, it suddenly reached for him, the wood of the trunk and branches twisting unnaturally as they snatched the two Naruto's out of the air with perfect timing.

The violence of the stop was such that the clone carrying Sasuke died on impact, making Sasuke bounce off the limbs and tumble to the ground in a heap, covered in the remains of his breakfast. The real Naruto lost his breath as a limb caught him across the stomach, doubling him over and sending Hinata flying over his head, then impossibly strong wood wrapped around his arms and legs, pulling him back and holding him prisoner.

Sasuke managed to twist and land on his feet, then leap backwards away from the tree that had killed his Naruto clone, which was still twisting around the remnants of chakra.

Hinata rolled forward once and hit with her feet, skidding for several feet along the ground until she was able to stop and reverse her direction, already channeling chakra to her hands as she sprinted back towards the tree that held Naruto captive.

There was an ANBU there. Black clothes, dull or darkened equipment, and a white mask that didn't seem to indicate any animal in particular, an oddity as ANBU went. He was standing below Naruto, all of his intent focused on the blond.

He was making seals.

"STOP!" Hinata screamed, her mind lighting up with panic.

ANBU were like boogiemen. You knew they were out there, watching you, but you never actually saw them. They were just there. Watching. Waiting.

Ready to pounce on the bad little ninja.

The reason ANBU were so scary was, honestly, due a lot to the nature of their duties. Regular ninja took jobs ranging from spying to guarding, with assassinations against various targets an option at higher ranks. Regular ninja usually fought civilians, or bandits, or militia, or even samurai at times.

ANBU operated against other ninja. Unlike a regular shinobi, who needed to know a range of jutsu, so they could be useful in a wide range of missions, ANBU were trained to evade, track, capture, and kill enemy ninja. Their stealth was better, their techniques more deadly, and they were trained in how to counter ninja techniques.

Actually trained, not left to discover weaknesses on accident. Naruto was in mortal danger.

But many of ANBU's carefully hoarded secrets had been gathered by Konoha's two dojutsu using clans, the Uchiha, and the Hyuga.

This ANBU guy, whoever he was, had an ability to use wood. Indeed, even his weapons and armor were made from it, something that was immediately obvious to Hinata's eyes, and each wooden panel of his armor glowed with chakra, probably as a reinforcement.

Sasuke's attack from the rear, for he'd started moving as soon as he'd saw what she was about to do, would most likely bounce off harmlessly.

Hinata's would not be ignored so easily. Whatever jutsu he'd planned on doing to Naruto, she would stop it.

Her hands glowed with chakra as she closed.

Sasuke's flying kick hit the man in the kidneys, which were apparently unguarded. The ANBU didn't even stumble forward, though his hands changed and flowed through a new set of seals as Sasuke attacked. As the young man rebounded, a sapling burst from the ground beneath him and wrapped him in a painfully awkward hold.

Hinata aimed for a junction in his armor, where it flexed along his short ribs. She thrust her hand forward-

-and awoke three seconds later, her head pounding, and her view curiously inverted. It actually took her a moment to find the ANBU again, though he hadn't moved. She was over thirty feet away, unbound, but slumped upside down against the trunk of another tree, her back only just starting to scream in agony from the impact.

Naruto was wrapped into nearly a cocoon of wood, all of it glowing like mad with chakra as it fought to contain Naruto's Kyubi-fueled strength, but it was apparently up to the task. Only strips of his body showed between the leg thick coils of wood that wrapped him, but more interestingly to her eyes was the way the heavy red chakra of Naruto and the cool white chakra of the wood seemed to war against each other, with the wood never weakening and Naruto never being able to muster the strength to break free.

Whatever abilities this ANBU had were clearly up to the task of restraining Naruto, despite the Kyubi, which would clearly indicate why he was the one to respond.

Her vision, so adept at reading body language and intent, gave her a clear picture of what the ANBU was thinking.

He leaned backwards at a small angle, and just slightly to the right, one hand resting on the hilt of a wooden sword, a bokken. His expression was harder to see through the chakra flowing through his white, wooden ANBU mask, but she could tell one eyebrow was raised and there was a subtle tension across his upper lip as he stared directly at her. He was clearly incredulous that she'd been so stupid as to directly attack an ANBU of Konoha.

"Please don't hurt him," she gasped out as she struggled to turn over. Her arms and legs felt limp and shaky. "I was about to get him under control, I swear!"

It was no great leap of logic for her to figure out why an ANBU had suddenly appeared. With the knowledge gained from her father about the Hyuga that had been watching them, and concern over their mental health from their rather disastrous mission, she'd been worried about official notice from the moment Naruto had started leaking the Kyubi's chakra in unrestrained glee and tugged them all into an impromptu run through the forest, if they hadn't noticed even sooner with Sakura. She didn't know, but she'd been expecting it, and with the way the Kyubi was feared… Hinata was nearly close to complete panic, and the tears secretly soaking into the cloth backing of her hitai-ate were not all for her pain.

"Really." It was the first word the ANBU man had spoken since he'd arrived, and it was delivered in a calm, neutral tone of voice, though it carried just enough of a hint to tell her he didn't believe her.

"Really!" she gasped, pushing herself to her hands and knees. It was a lot harder than it should be. He must have hit some pressure points when he hit her, or perhaps a technique.

Or maybe he'd just smacked her really really hard.

Sasuke gurgled something from his position in the tangle of limbs from the small tree that had grabbed him, his back bent at a painful angle, his arms imprisoned behind him, and his head bent back even farther, with a piece of wood looped tightly around his throat. He was able to breathe, but shallowly, just barely enough that he didn't lose consciousness. Chakra flowed through the wood, making it far too strong for the genin to break.

Perhaps that was why he hadn't attempted to capture her? She would probably be able to break that wood with pulses of her own chakra…

"I was going to close his tenketsu," Hinata explained, getting one foot, then the other, beneath her and pushing herself upright, despite the protests of her body. She swayed and had to put one hand out to the tree to steady herself.

Naruto often advocated pretending to be hurt more than you really were if you'd taken a major blow, to make the enemy underestimate you, but she didn't have the luxury of pretending. Her body was one big bruise, and Naruto's chakra had only began to dull the pain and heal the damage.

The ANBU cocked his head deliberately, making a show of considering her words. "So you know that we cannot allow Uzumaki-kun to run loose, broadcasting his special brand of chakra wherever he wants?"

"Yes," she replied, her heart sinking. What could more could she say? To say he'd called on it deliberately could have terrible consequences, but saying it had overwhelmed him could be even worse. They were in a bad, bad situation.

"You do know that his use of that power is in direct conflict with the orders that Hokage-sama gave him five days ago?"

"The fault is mine, ANBU-san." Her voice firmed even as she bowed deeply in apology. "I take full responsibility." Hopefully, he would let her take that responsibility. Protected as she was by her importance in her clan, her punishment would almost certainly be less severe than what they would do to Naruto. This was why she'd fought so hard to secure her position as heir, so she could use her influence to protect Naruto. It was her privilege, and honor, to be able to help him.

"..hhhwee sshould hhave wa'ched… closs'r," Sasuke gasped, twitching.

"So you take responsibility for his actions? That is a serious matter, Hyuga-san, Uchiha-san."

She stopped an involuntary twitch. He was showing her a little respect, indicating he took her claims seriously. "Yes, ANBU-san. Sasuke and I agreed to help him obey Hokage-sama's orders."

A lie, but it sounded good.

"This is our failing, and I beg you for the chance to correct it. We guided him away from the village so we could resolve the matter within the team. Please, allow us to bring Naruto back to himself." She didn't have to act to put desperate pleading in her voice, though she picked her words with care. They had no more been able to guide Naruto than they could have guided the wind, he had picked the forest over the town, and Kakashi had once made it clear that he expected them to at least attempt to handle issues themselves before they brought them to him, so she hoped the ANBU would buy her reasoning.

The ANBU didn't betray his thoughts any more, simply staring at her. She grew more nervous under that cold gaze.

"He's not the Kyubi!" she blurted suddenly. "It's just some chakra! Naruto-kun isn't evil!"

The man shrugged, as if that was self evident. "Obviously. If he was truly ridden by the Nine Tails, all of Konoha would have felt his malice and evil intent." His tone darkened and his voice grew quieter. "I was there. I remember." His voice lightened. "No, if he was truly possessed by the greatest evil the world has ever known, more than I would be here to deal with it, and there would be no talking."

Hinata gasped in sudden realization. Naruto, for all that his words had echoed with the deep in-mind sense of power of the Kyubi, had not acted like the demon god. Gods did not make little jokes or carry their friends on a wild run through the forest for the fun of it.

Naruto did. Naruto… influenced by something that made him lose his mind and toss away rational thought. She almost fell over in relief.

The ANBU chuckled. "I can tell from your reaction that you had your own doubts, but no. This isn't an official mission to deal with a rampaging demon, this is… a favor to the students of my sempai and former Captain, before it got out of control and you got in real trouble. "

Her heart lifted as she realized that Kakashi-sensei's influence was about to give her the time she needed to fix this mess.

"Okay, I'll let you do what you have to do."

Hinata stumbled forward, pathetically grateful to the ANBU.

He had all the power, and they had none, but he would grant them the chance to help Naruto.

"I, uh, I need to be able to talk to him, and touch him," she explained hesitantly as she stood in front of Naruto, the ANBU having backed off to one side, watching them carefully.

He didn't nod, but he did form a seal, and the wood uncoiled from around Naruto like a giant python, except for four branches that remained wrapped tightly around his wrists and ankles that lowered and held him spread out, his feet just above the ground.

No longer gagged and covered from head to toe, Naruto growled menacingly at the ANBU, a deep, hair raising sound that stroked every primal human urge to run and hide from the things that hunted in the night. His chakra, red and wild, flickered and lashed, and the wood creaked audibly as he strained at the wooden bonds that held him. The scent of scorching wood filled the air, and even Hinata gulped nervously at the rage and killing intent flashing in Naruto's eyes. He flexed both muscles and chakra, and for a moment the wood seemed like it gave a little…

And then Naruto hung limp for a moment, drained by the effort. It would be a few minutes before he could make that level of attempt again.

The ANBU didn't seem bothered in the least. "Save it, kid. I saw the real deal. You may think you're hot shit right now, but no matter how much chakra you have, you're still just a genin."

"Naruto?" Hinata asked, keeping the trembling out of her voice.

His eyes flicked to hers, then back to the ANBU, and he growled some more, a sound human throats weren't meant to produce.

"Naruto, I'm going to close your tenketsu now. You have to stop using the Kyubi's chakra." She reached out and put her hand on his chest, feeling his wild heartbeat even through his clothes.

He looked back at her. "I feel fine. Free me… and we can take this man."

Her heart fell once again. She could free him, of course. The wood had flaws, she could see that, and she knew how to counter the chakra, but Naruto should know that even as they were, perhaps especially as they were, there was no way they could take the ANBU. To try would be to invite more disaster. She probably wasn't thinking very clearly when she'd reflexively attacked the man herself, and had allowed herself to panic.

Naruto's mind, his most deadly weapon, was made useless by the damned Kyubi's leaking power. "Naruto…" she began, searching for words. She pushed her hitai-ate up onto her forehead, revealing her solid black eyes, which seemed to bore into him.

"Release me!" he ordered.

Hinata glanced away, feeling helpless. She wanted to obey, but that would be the wrong thing to do.

The ANBU made a seal and suddenly Sasuke was able to flop out of his prison, rubbing at his throat and taking great gulps of air, wiping blood from his still bleeding eyes from his forehead and eyebrows, where it had dripped since his head was upside down.

Hinata looked at the ANBU, surprised.

He shrugged. "He can't be saved by just one man. Or woman."

She jerked in sudden memory. Kakashi had told her that, once. It was right after the test they'd all taken to prove themselves worthy of being his students.

Sasuke spoke up. "Hey, Naruto," he said seriously.

Naruto's red, slit pupiled eyes turned towards him.

"Listen to Hinata, alright? You know her. She only does what's right for you." Sasuke held his demonic gaze unflinchingly.

Hinata spoke. "Naruto, remember the bell test Kakashi gave us? The real one? It's like when you were under that genjutsu, you're not thinking clearly. You have to trust me."

Astonishingly, she could actually see his eyes clear, and his chakra pulsed for a moment. He did remember.

"…Really?" he asked.

She nodded quickly.

He closed his eyes and nodded. "Do it."

She nodded once more, relieved. He trusted her. Even with everything else gone, he still believed in her.

There was no need to take a stance. She had all the time in the world, and she was going to do it right. Her fingers glided carefully across his body, darting in with a spike of chakra from her fingertips to interrupt the chakra flow in his coils and seal a tenketsu.

She couldn't seal them, all, not without potentially killing him, and the shock of even having half sealed could send him into cardiac arrest. But she could seal many of them, especially the ones around his belly, where the Kyubi lurked in that strange other dimension, and the ones around his head, cutting of the tainted chakra from his brain.

Even taking her time, it took less than a minute.

Naruto sagged in his restraints, barely able to keep his sky blue eyes open.

"Naruto, remember, you can't call on your chakra," she said softly, willing him to get the intent behind her words. Everyone's tenketsu would eventually reopen on their own, but Naruto could will his open with a burst of chakra. It was really important that he didn't do so, especially in front of the ANBU.

"Woooo," Naruto replied, his head flopping back and forth. "Wow. What happened? I don't remember anything."

The ANBU spoke up. "Faking memory loss does not excuse your actions."

Naruto hesitated, then shrugged, rolling his shoulders. "…worth a shot," he mumbled.

"How much do you remember?" Hinata asked, worried about his mental state.

He winced. "Honestly, no kidding, not that much, except for pickles and…" he hesitated, remembering Sakura quivering in his arms, "…stuff, and there for a while it felt like I had the entire forest sitting on me. That was weird."

"You made some stupid decisions," Hinata informed him bluntly.

Naruto took a moment to look around. Hinata had tear streaks running down her cheeks, and was moving stiffly. Sasuke had just been released from an animated sapling and was only now getting his breath back. There was an ANBU ninja standing to one side, watching them. Naruto was tied up with a tree.

"…Yeah, I kinda got that," he admitted.

"Well," the ANBU said with false cheer. "Aren't we all glad that's over."

All three of them turned to look at him, and it was clear from the looks on their faces that not one of them thought it was over.

"Sempai was right. None of you have a sense of humor," the ANBU complained.

They still just looked at him.

He shrugged. "So, do you want your beating now, or would you like to try option B?"

They glanced at each other. Hinata started to open her mouth, but was cut off by the ANBU.

"Actually, I lied. I don't have an option B. I could go ask the Hokage, see what he thinks a good option B would be…"

Naruto suddenly laughed, a sharp, harsh sound utterly devoid of humor.

Everyone looked at him like he'd just farted.

He shrugged. "He said we didn't have a sense of humor. Couldn't let that pass."

The ANBU seemed to smile. "Comment retracted."

Naruto stared at him for a moment, clearly thinking hard. "They didn't do anything," he said finally. "I'll take my punishment as you see fit."

"Well, no, actually, you're the innocent party in this."

Naruto blinked. "…what?" he asked in an almost plaintive voice. "Now, see, that doesn't even make sense." He paused.

"How out of it was I that it's not my fault?"

"Sasuke and I have taken full responsibility for not being able to stop the Kyubi's chakra from overwhelming you. As we said we would, remember." Hinata's gaze bored into him.

The ANBU coughed slightly and looked away, allowing her to maintain the polite fiction.

Naruto gaped at her, then shook his head. "And you said I made some dumb decisions."

"You understate the issue, Naruto-kun," the ANBU said seriously. "Hinata and Sasuke attacked an ANBU with lethal intent. I would be within my rights to kill them both. And they have taken responsibility for your actions, so your punishment is transferred to them."

Naruto's blood ran cold. Both Hinata and Sasuke remained still, their faces stony.

The man stood up straighter. "You can save the threats, Naruto. We'll keep this just between us, no need to get the Hokage involved. Think of it as… a stern warning."

Hinata lifted her chin slightly and stared directly at the ANBU, almost challenging him. "I am ready."

She said she was ready, but she didn't feel ready. Her palms were sweaty. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Her breath came shallow and fast. Her heartbeat sped up.

Her mouth was dry. Terribly dry. She almost pulled out her canteen. Why was she so thirsty?

"Then come, stand in front of me." His voice held no emotion.

Naruto made a strangled sound in his throat and tugged hard on his bonds, then visibly stopped, shuddered, and took a breath, fighting for control.

There was no more joking. Hinata stood in front of the masked ANBU, her legs spread to shoulder width, her hands at her sides. Defenseless.

The first uppercut punch caught her in the solar plexus, and she crumpled around his fist, gasping for air that wouldn't come. When he pulled his fist back, she sank to her knees, coughing and gasping, her arms wrapped protectively around her ribs.

"Get up."

Still fighting for breath, she stood, dimly aware that Naruto had made some sort of sound, though if he'd said something she didn't understand it.

No sooner had she gotten to her feet than he kicked her in the side of her lower leg with bone jarring force, sweeping both feet out from under her so she spun in the air and landed hard on her side.

"Up."

Again, she rose, feeling like her leg was nearly broken. The next blow took her just under her floating ribs on her side, the same spot she'd aimed for on him. Then he hit her in the ear, and all sound was lost, drowned out by the sudden ringing. Her ear felt like it was on fire, and she made her first sound of pain, a short, high keen she quickly choked off.

A palm edge strike to the outside of her hip shouldn't have hurt that much, but it did, and she went down for the third time, rolling away from the pain in her hip and quickly scrambling to her feet again, knowing it wasn't over.

He made to punch her in the stomach, and she couldn't help it. She cringed, guarding her stomach with her hands.

He stopped.

"No, no. Let's do this right," he said mildly.

She whimpered, then. It was a moment before she was able to get enough control over herself to stand straight and put her hands at her sides again, her hands clenched.

"Straighter. And relax."

Her shoulders shook, and tears sprang from her black eyes, but she stood just slightly straighter and forced her hands to unclench.

"Straighter… straighter…" he coaxed.

She heard another noise from Naruto, possibly her name.

"Relax those stomach muscles."

Slowly, painfully, she did just that.

The two knuckle punch caught her just above her pelvis, right in the pit of the stomach. It was the same place she'd kneed Ino once, a long time ago. She folded up and retched noisily, sinking to her knees again, but there was nothing in her stomach.

Naruto screamed, then stopped.

It took her a minute to get to her feet again after that one, and she understood that that was as much of the punishment as the physical blows. It hurt as much to get up and face the next blow as it did to be hit.

He backhanded her twice across the face, and she spit blood, her head swimming. Then he made her stand there as he circled around, and she whimpered again, knowing what was coming next. There was a pressure point along the lower spine that could cause intense pain. Knowing didn't make the blow, when it came, any easier.

Her mouth opened in a soundless scream as she reached back with one hand in an ineffectual gesture and pitched forward into the dirt to writhe in agony.

"NOOOO! I WILL KILL YOU!" Naruto roared, angry red chakra flaring to life around him as he strained against the wood. It actually creaked for a moment, and then more branches were snaking around his arms and legs, and even his neck and waist to insure he couldn't burst free.

"Ah, it looks like Naruto-kun's red chakra is back. I'm afraid your technique didn't stick. If you would care to repeat the treatment…" he said, gesturing at the blond boy twitching in his restraints as he fought to break free and savage the masked man.

It took Hinata several long minutes to get up, and even then she was only able to stagger painfully over to Naruto, whose ferocious, demonic gaze seemed to both soften and get more enraged when he looked at her.

She did her duty and closed his tenketsu once again, sealing more of them this time. Hopefully, it would help with his control.

Naruto sagged, barely able to open his eyes. "Hinata-chan," he whispered, his voice strained.

"It's okay, Naruto-kun," she whispered. "It's a test for you. You have to control yourself."

He nodded, tears streaming down his own face.

She patted him on the cheek, then turned and returned to stand before the ANBU.

"Since we messed up, let's start over. We'll take it from the top."

She wasn't the one who sobbed.

xxxxxxxxx

Hinata woke up for the second time that day, leaned against the trunk of the tree that formed Naruto's shackles, her head pounding and her mouth coppery with blood. Naruto hung limply from the tree, his eyes fixed on the white masked ANBU who was currently kicking Sasuke in the kidneys as he twitched and grunted in pain on the ground.

He drew back his foot for the finishing kick to the head, then stopped and stood back before he sent the Uchiha into blissful unconsciousness.

Of course, as Hinata had discovered, as much fun as it was to be knocked out at the end of your brutal beating, the resulting wakeup was a bitch, so maybe Sasuke was getting off lightly.

The ANBU walked over to stand, looking down at both she and Naruto.

"Thank you," she croaked, honestly grateful. As much as it had hurt, and it had hurt, it was nothing compared to what any of them had gone through at times, much less their temple adventure. "Kakashi-sensei hits harder," she added, not as an insult.

"Yes, Sempai always did." He sounded like he spoke from experience, and he probably did. "Kakashi-sempai's hands off approach to teaching never did extend to an unwillingness to hit a team member who deserved it."

"Kakashi-sensei is more subtle, too," Naruto said weakly. Repeated closing of his tenketsu, and having all of his chakra shut off, had left him feeling not unlike he'd been the recipient of a beating as well.

The ANBU laughed at that. "Yes, yes, that he is. I could never match his gift for subtle lessons. But, I'm effective in my own way."

Naruto nodded helplessly. Yeah, he got the message.

Forming a seal, the ANBU caused the tree to unwind from Naruto's body again and sit him gently down on his feet. "You three are a good team. I know you'll never hear it from him, yourself, but Kakashi thinks well of you. Don't disappoint him."

Naruto staggered, his muscles feeling like jelly. Not having chakra flowing through his coils was an altogether new and unpleasant experience. He wondered if this was what chakra exhaustion felt like, and felt a whole new respect for people who actually had limited chakra. He only dimly registered what the ANBU had said, but it was enough to have his jaw sagging in shock.

"Well, now that we understand each other, I'll let you get back to running." He gave them a casual wave, and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

And they were left to pick each other up, dust each other off, and run, as best as they were able.

xxxxxxxxx

Far enough away to be out of sight of even Hinata's eyes, he hoped, Tenzo stopped on a limb and sagged against the trunk for a second, closing his eyes as he dealt with his own wave of pain.

He was almost hesitant to do it, but eventually he turned slightly and peeled back the black cloth covering the pale wood of his armor panel, noting ruefully that despite being wood formed by his mokuton jutsu and 'alive' with his chakra, which made it harder to break than steel, it had shattered into splinters, some of which had been driven through the under padding into his flesh.

And that was the least of the damage. There was a deep cut, more of a stab, really, as wide as a young girl's palm, right through his side, fortunately just low enough to miss his spleen and his other critical organs, although he'd be going to the ANBU medic shortly. He'd been lucky, he knew, and luckier still to know a technique for stopping blood flow in the middle of battle so he didn't give himself away.

"God damn, Kakashi," Tenzo said in exasperation, but admiringly at the same time, "You need to stop understating these things."

For a genin to get such a blow on the man in charge of ANBU…

Kakashi hadn't been kidding when he called them his cute little wild dogs.

xxxxxxxxx

Hinata and Sasuke both ran awkwardly, given that their bodies were a mass of bruises, but, ironically, Naruto suffered more, even on the purely physical level.

Watching Hinata get repeatedly hit until he was the one to finally get too exhausted and full of despair to muster up the rage that sent Kyubi's chakra flooding through his body again had left tears of shame and self loathing rolling down his cheeks. However, that had nothing to do with running.

Getting only a few hours of sleep one night because his girlfriend's dad had her cousins beat the hell out of him, running and fighting all day, then running for the next thirty some odd hours with no sleep so that he was only running on chakra had a lot to do with his condition.

Especially when that chakra was repeatedly cut off by his girlfriend repeatedly closing his tenketsu. The fingertip bruises left on top of each tenketsu didn't help matters either. He'd been so used to healing from minor bruises in minutes and always being able to rely on chakra pumping up his muscles that it made running just on muscle strength alone a very unpleasant experience.

He didn't complain, though. Considering that the ANBU had cruelly left him out of the punishment, he felt he couldn't.

So he kept up as best he was able, despite the steadily building ache in his legs and the burning in his chest. When his eyelids drooped, he bit the inside of his cheek, and when his steps faltered to the point he stumbled, he made a conscious effort to pick his feet up higher with each stride.

Despite his pain, and his exhaustion, the main thing on his mind was anger.

Not anger at the ANBU, faceless in the white mask.

Anger at himself, for putting them in that situation. With his mind clear of chakra, if not exhaustion, he could easily see how foolish and out of control he had been. Just the day before… or was it two days ago? He couldn't remember. But earlier, they'd commented on how much the Kyubi's chakra was affecting him. He'd thought he could just will it away, or burn the chakra until it was gone. But he had too much. Even running all the time hadn't drained it completely, and then he'd needed it, so he called more up, and he'd called up more than he could put down.

What a fuck up.

Naruto had never hated himself more than at that moment, though the time the Hokage had chewed him out came close.

He stole glances at his team, and he noticed that their visible bruises had already faded, turning an ugly greenish color, meaning they were healing. So at least they still had some of his chakra, and were healing pretty quick. That was good.

And at least this had caused him to rethink things, just like the asschewing.

Yes, he'd rethink things, and he'd come out better than ever.

Stronger.

Wiser.

Smarter.

Hopefully, it wouldn't lead to another embarrassing crying jag on Sasuke's shoulder.

Hell, he couldn't even muster up the chakra to do a henge.

Was this what everyone else felt like when they got tired?

Running out of chakra?

Wow, this really sucked.

He had a whole new respect for the hardships everyone else had to overcome.

Because being out of chakra SUCKED.

Hinata… wow. She must have hurt so much in those early training sessions.

He'd been completely inconsiderate. Damn. She hadn't been weak willed, she'd been dealing with the limits of her own body.

Hell, now he really felt like a jerk.

Damn. Was he really that much of an asshole?

He pondered the question for a while.

Reluctantly, he concluded that he probably was.

Damn.

Ah, hell, what was he going to do about Sakura?

Two minds? That was just weird.

"So… Does it count as a threesome if the girl has two minds?" he wondered aloud.

Their steps faltered for a moment, and Sasuke shook his head. "Your ability to shrug off even the worst possible events with a joke never ceases to amaze me." He didn't sound all that amused.

Naruto shrugged helplessly, aware of that aspect of his personality. "You know that place they talk about when they say, 'Yeah, I went there?' That's where I live."

Sasuke glanced at him, frowning. "You know that place that the ANBU guy kicked me three times? That's where my balls were. So shut up."

Feeling even worse, Naruto shut up.

Hinata glanced at him a few times, but, truthfully, she was hurting enough to not be all that sympathetic. She loved him with all her heart, but she had to agree with the ANBU. Naruto really needed to think twice before he did anything like that again.

Or better yet, just not do it at all.

Still, when Naruto's legs finally couldn't take it and he almost fell, both of them reached to pull him back upright before he ate dirt, and supported him between them.

Their 'run' speed slowed to a miserable crawl, barely more than a walk.

Enemy ninja could have them for free.

Team Seven was officially at the wall.

xxxxxxxxx

Tenten walked alongside Lee and Neji, a small bag of mail slung over her shoulders. Beside her, Lee limped along stiffly, his expression carefully neutral, though she knew he had to be hurting quite a bit. He'd spent a night and almost all of the previous day in the hospital due to the incredible strain he'd inflicted on himself using the gates.

Neji had only left the hospital the day before as well, though he seemed curiously well healed considering the injury he'd had. He didn't discuss it.

Gai had met with them all, individually, and had few words with them. She didn't know what he said to Lee, but the lanky boy had been unusually somber since then, apparently lost in thought. Neji, on the other hand, seemed almost at peace with himself.

For herself, she wasn't sure what to think about Gai's pronouncement that Naruto was a very intelligent, very perceptive young man who they could learn a number of lessons from, both in how and how not to be a great ninja.

But she got the feeling he agreed with Naruto's statement that she should stop hiding behind her teammates and start walking in front.

Then, despite their injuries, and an admonishment from the doctor that they weren't fit for training or duty, Gai had left them all with a series of missions that they were to do while he was away. Boring, repetitive D rank tasks that weren't physically pleasant, but weren't very taxing, either, such as secure mail delivery.

Apparently, the members of Team Seven weren't the only ones Gai was angry with.

Obviously, the easiest, fastest, most intelligent way to deliver mail was to split the load and everyone go their separate ways. Neji proposed it. Lee didn't argue.

Tenten overruled them. They would deliver the mail together, as a team.

And so they did.

She was as surprised as they were.

And so they found themselves staring at a picture, a polaroid type quick snapshot of a lean man in a green jounin's vest with one eye covered by a Konoha hitai-ate and the other squinted in a smile. His hair seemed to skewed to one side, and while one arm was apparently reaching out, holding the camera, his other arm was wrapped around the waist of an irritated looking woman in light grey ninja armor, a cream colored cloak, and a Mist forehead protector keeping her dark brown bangs out of her eyes. There was some sort of pale white round thing on the back of her head and neck, maybe a mask worn backwards, but it was hard to be sure from the angle. Her face was kind of angular, almost predatory, but there was a certain gleam to her eyes and her one visible hand rested near a sword hilt attached to her waist, though it didn't seem to have a blade.

Across the wide white strip at the bottom of the picture, someone had scrawled 'Wish you were her' in permanent ink. On the back, in large letters across the top, it said, 'Deliver to Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga, or Uchiha Sasuke.' Under that was apparently a personal message, and despite being written out in the open, none of the three read it.

"Well this sucks," Lee opinioned, looking over her shoulder.

She groaned slightly. "Gai probably gave us this duty so we'd have to talk to them."

"Not impossible," Neji agreed.

Reluctantly, they made their way to the edge of the village and waited for them to run by.

It came something as a surprised when the hateful trio limped into view.

And slowly, painfully made their way down the road towards them.

Lee gasped involuntarily.

To put it simply, they looked bad. Between the lack of showering, the slow, painful movements, and the greenish yellow bruises Sasuke and Hinata were covered with, they really looked like someone had beaten the shit out of them about two days previous.

And, yeah, Tenten and Lee had gotten their hits in, mostly Lee. But not that bad.

"That's going too far, Gai-sensei," Tenten whispered in protest.

"Are you okay?" Lee asked suddenly, startling the others so that they stumbled and nearly fell, swaying in place.

"Huh?" Naruto said cleverly.

"Didn't you see us?" Tenten asked.

After a whispered conference, they reluctantly admitted they had not.

Then the smell, wafting along behind them, hit. It smelled like a mission.

No, it smelled worse than any mission they'd ever been on. Days old sweat and blood and fear and pain.

"You guys haven't showered or changed clothes?" she asked, reaching forward and poking at a blood stain on Naruto's shirt with one finger.

He flinched back, even as the others half dodged, and fell on his ass.

"Ah… dang…" he said tiredly.

"We've been running," Hinata explained to no one.

"All this time?" Lee asked incredulously. "You haven't slept or anything?"

Sasuke thought about correcting his assumption, admitting to passing out for a while earlier, but decided it was too much effort. Hinata skipped the thinking itself as too much effort, and Naruto's eyes were apparently focused on a fascinating spot about six inches to the right of Neji's right knee.

"Who have you been fighting?" Neji asked, not forgetting the healing powers of the Kyubi's chakra.

All three flinched. Naruto grew more aware, and wiped at his face with one grubby hand.

"Not fighting," he said with quiet, bitter humor. "Punishment. My punishment, they suffered."

"Gai-sensei?" Tenten asked, her voice rising.

"What? Where?" Naruto asked, glancing around. "Shit, we'd better keep running." He levered himself to his feet, helped at the last minute by Hinata.

"No, did Gai-sensei do this?"

Naruto shook his head. "The bruises? No that was… what was that mask, Sasuke?"

"ANBU," Hinata supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, ANBU." Naruto shook his head. "Well, uh, we should be running." He started forward, but Tenten blocked his path.

"How long?" Lee interrupted.

Naruto blinked. "Uh, day and a half?"

Lee gaped. "You have to run for another day and a half?"

Naruto blinked again. "No, uh, I thought you were asking how long we had been running. He didn't tell us how long we had to, just to do it. He'll come back… eventually." Naruto shrugged.

"Gai-sensei had a mission to the capital!" Lee exclaimed.

"…oh. I guess we have a while, then."

Lee exchanged looks with Tenten, identical thoughts crossing their minds.

That was too much, even for what they had done.

"Anyway, we stopped you because we have mail for you," Tenten announced, getting back to business. "It's from your sensei." She pulled the postcard out and handed it to Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Hinata asked, perking up. Though she had her eyes covered, she still had demonic chakra in her and was able to see without difficulty.

"Is he dead?" Sasuke leaned over and looked over Naruto's shoulder as he stared blankly at the picture, then turned it over, glanced at the back, and turned it back over to stare blankly at their teacher and the strange Mist kunoichi.

"No…" Naruto said slowly. "He's still alive… But it explains nothing." He turned it back over so they could read the note.

The note on the back said: Yo! Your sensei thought he would take a moment to let you know he is (regrettably) still among the living. Wouldn't want you cute little genins to worry! I'm in good company, as you can see. Hunter-chan is taking good care of me. Try not to burn down anything too valuable, or maim anyone too important, while I'm away.

P.S. Don't forget to water the plants, Naruto!

The P.S. was followed by a little one eyed happy face with a mask and unkempt hair.

"Ah! My bonsai trees!" Naruto said with a tired curse.

"I didn't see any bonsai trees," Sasuke replied with a thoughtful frown.

"They're in the closet," Naruto explained.

"Ah." Sasuke lost interest.

"Ano… why do you have your plants in the closet?" Lee asked.

Naruto stared at him for a moment.

"You ask difficult questions, Lee," he said finally.

Lee and Tenten exchanged looks.

"Well, thanks for the mail," Naruto continued. "But we should be running."

"No, you shouldn't," Tenten replied. "Look at you! You can barely stand, much less run. Look, just go home or something. Get some sleep, get a shower. We'll talk to Sensei when he gets back. This is too much."

Naruto winced. "No offense… but you're not in charge. Gai-sensei is. We can't just stop because you said so."

"How about stopping because you're about to collapse from exhaustion?" Tenten countered, her hands on her hips.

"I don't think I get to do that, either," Naruto replied.

She sighed, admitting that it was probably true. Ninja didn't get to abandon missions just because they were tired. "So, let me ask you," she continued. "Knowing that you'd get in trouble… was it worth it?"

He shrugged. "We knew we were going to get in trouble. Didn't see any way around it. The only question was who and how much. Yeah, I screwed up, but…" He shrugged again, then met her eyes. "Before, I saw three individuals. Now… I see a team."

"I see kodama crawling in and out of the ground," Sasuke admitted. "But I think that's lack of sleep."

"I see the vast plutonian aether between the angles of our reality," Hinata added, not wanting to be left out.

"I… see…" Tenten said slowly. "You know, you're right. We should probably get back to our duties, too." She exchanged looks with her teammates.

"Thank you for your concern," Hinata said politely, bowing to them. Naruto caught her before she pitched forward.

"Hinata-sama," Neji said suddenly, before the trio ran off again.

Her head twitched around to present him with the metal face of her forehead protector.

"I discovered a solution to our mutual problem with our eyes," he said quietly, restraining the urge to smirk.

"Oh, that hit you, too, huh?" Naruto murmured softly.

Neji nodded slightly. "Yes. I did not want to waste chakra at the time, so I sealed the tenketsu around my eyes. I thought you might find some utility in my solution, Hinata-sama."

"…" Hinata said cleverly.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away.

Neither Lee nor Tenten understood what they were talking about, but Lee felt some sympathy for Hinata anyway. He knew what it was like when Neji said something really smart and you didn't know why.

Hinata finally nodded slightly to Neji in reluctant acknowledgement.

"Thank you, cousin Neji," she said stiffly, bowing in thanks. "Although my hands are shaking too much to attempt your solution at the moment, I will try it at the earliest possible moment."

Neji bowed deeply. "My place is to serve."

Hyuga were trained to have nearly perfect control over their expressions. Not even a ghost of a smile flitted across his lips.

They slowly continued their run.

"Genius, huh?" Sasuke added with a smirk, once they were out of hearing range.

"I knew there was a reason we oppress the branch house," she muttered.

xxxxxxxxx

"It's Gai-sensei!" Lee cried, darting forward in his eagerness to see his teacher.

They'd completed their mail delivery, though after seeing Team Seven, they'd moved a little quicker. Lee was still pretty sore, but compared to the others, he felt sort of bad for limping, so he'd let his mind reach the floating, disconnected feeling of hard training and moved faster.

Tenten had also suggested they split up to make it faster, since they actually had a reason to hurry, and they'd agreed. It'd taken less than an hour to finish the task and meet up back at the Hokage tower.

And there was Gai. He looked tired.

"Gai-sensei! You look tired," Lee said.

"And you are as youthful as ever, Lee-kun," he replied. He was sitting on a bench in the entry hall of the tower, his elbows on his knees. His hands were scuffed and bleeding.

"How long have you been back?" Lee asked.

"Just long enough to turn in my mission. I believe I will soon get a shower, and perhaps some lunch. Have you three had lunch?" he asked turning to Tenten and Neji. "Remember, your youthful bodies are growing, and need nutrition."

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" Lee answered. "We have not eaten yet, we were completing the task you set for us."

"Oh? That's good."

"Gai-sensei…" Tenten began.

Lee immediate closed his mouth.

Gai raised one bushy eyebrow.

"Did you… did you really intend for Team Seven to run all night and all day until they dropped?" she blurted, looking anxious.

His expression hardened. "Did they stop running?"

"No!" she replied quickly. "That's just it, they're still running! They can barely put one foot in front of another, and they're all beaten up, but they're still running! Sensei, that's too much!" she protested.

His expression softened, but didn't relax completely. "Tenten-chan, they attacked you three."

"But they didn't hurt us," she protested once more.

"My injuries were my own fault," Lee added.

There was a pause.

Lee blinked.

There was another pause.

Everyone turned to look at Neji.

"What?" he asked.

"…Anyway," Tenten continued, slightly embarrassed, "haven't they been punished enough?"

Gai held her gaze. "I don't know, have they?"

"Yes!" Lee cried.

"Yes," Tenten agreed.

"Yes…" Neji added, savoring the memories.

"Okay. I'll see all of you at training ground twenty three, seven AM tomorrow morning." He nodded at them and got to his feet.

"Yes, Gai-sensei," they more or less chorused.

xxxxxxxxx

Gai found Kakashi's students on the uphill slope of the Hokage monument, struggling mightily to put one foot in front of the other and lurch up the hill. Hinata was half crawling, and it was taking both Naruto and Sasuke to pull her farther up the mountain. He stood there for a minute, watching them struggle for each foot in altitude.

"You're done," he finally announced.

They were all so shocked by his sudden appearance, at least to them, that they all fell over. Actually, Hinata simply flopped forward. Between her exhaustion and her face pressing down into the gravel on the side of the mountain, her breathing changed to loud snores.

"Gai-sensei…?" Naruto said, clearly having trouble focusing.

"I said you're done. You can go home and get some sleep now."

"Thank you, Sensei," Sasuke said, enunciating clearly from his seated position on the ground. Then his head fell backwards into the dirt.

Naruto stared at him for a moment, then poked him in the side.

Sasuke didn't move.

Naruto looked up at the jounin in green, worry writ plain in his expression.

Gai's face softened. "This clears all debts. Clean slate."

"Yes, Gai-sensei," Naruto said, nodding. He pushed himself to his feet, braced against the angle, and formed a seal. "Kage bunshin no jutsu."

Instantly, a single clone of himself appeared to his side. However, there was something wrong with it. It seemed pale, almost insubstantial, and he could swear the very edges of its being wobbled in and out.

The clone looked down at itself, looked at Sasuke and Hinata passed out on the ground, then looked at Naruto.

"Hah ha hah… no."

Then it dispelled.

Naruto blinked astonishment for several moments.

"…Wow, that's never happened before." He remembered that he wasn't supposed to be using any Kyubi chakra, but his tenketsu had reopened nearly an hour previous, and it wasn't like he could do anything with no chakra at all. And given how tired he was, going on a demonic rampage was the last thing he wanted. But apparently, even something as basic as making a shadow clone was beyond him.

Shrugging painfully, Naruto reached down and started pulling his teammates into an over the shoulder carry.

"Naruto-kun, if you need help, I can carry you all to your homes," Gai said gently.

The look Naruto gave him, though silent, clearly said that Naruto neither expected, nor wanted, help.

Gai watched anxiously as Naruto precariously balanced his load, one over each shoulder, and staggered back down the mountain, stumbling once or twice but never quite dropping his teammates. As Naruto headed for the town, he followed discretely, but not once did Naruto ever show any sort of indication that he couldn't do it.

And that was it, Gai reflected. Naruto did not expect it to be easy. He didn't complain, he didn't whine, and he never even thought about turning his friends over to someone else. Honestly, it fit with the personality of someone who would suffer cheerfully through dozens, even hundreds, of hours of subjective boredom and drudge work as he split himself into ridiculous numbers of clones.

The clones might have done the work, but each one was him. You couldn't make a shadow clone and tell it to clean a toilet if you weren't willing to do it yourself. And if it did, you got the memory, just as if you'd done it yourself. Naruto, on the other hand, thought nothing of making clones so that his team wouldn't have to do the nastiest jobs.

Gai wondered if they even realized what Naruto did for them.

Considering their level of devotion to him…

Probably.

One thing was clear. He was wrong to have blamed Kakashi for their actions. He realized that now.

They were not children, and probably hadn't been for quite a while. Years in Naruto's and Sasuke's cases, maybe even in Hinata's. He owed Kakashi an apology for misunderstanding. He would do three thousand one armed pushups to make up for the mistake.

Ah, well. At least his team was no longer angry at them, and Team Seven would not be looking over their shoulder in fear of some future payback from him or his students. All's well that ends well.

And in the future...

The teams would either learn to work together, or he'd have to get youthful on their asses.

xxxxxxxxx

Naruto knew where everyone's homes were.

There was Hinata's nice Hyuga compound, and her understated yet refined home within. That was clear on the other side of Konoha.

There was his apartment, which was kinda on the northwest side. It was technically closest at the moment, but he also seriously doubted his ability to keep from killing them all as he fell down two hundred feet of sharply sloping cliffside.

Then there was Sasuke's apartment, which was more than halfway across the city from his clan estates, and more or less close to the middle. It was closest to the road when it finally got off the slope of the monument.

…Sasuke's it was.

And so, about twenty minutes later, shaking from the effort, Naruto literally dragged them up the stairs to the door of Sasuke's apartment, hoping they wouldn't mind a few bumps on the head, and ignored the looks from the neighbors as he found Sasuke's key in a slit on one of his sandals and opened the door.

He winced when he stumbled inside and almost fell, causing a small table to scrape across the wall and tear some wallpaper. He'd have to fix that later before Sasuke noticed.

Then, with one last burst of effort, he dumped Sasuke across the head of his bed. Then Hinata across the foot.

He spent almost a full second considering finding a blanket before he, too, pitched forward, unconscious before he even hit the covers.

xxxxxxxxx

Ugh, there was some god-awful noise. Hinata opened one bleary eye, then realized she couldn't see anything, anyway.

Flopping her arm, which didn't seem to work properly, she was able to scrape at her face and uncover her eyes.

It was apparently night time. Naruto was half snoring, half wheezing into the bed covers because he was sleeping on his face with his legs draped off the side of the bed.

She recovered her eyes, then suddenly twisted onto her side, violently enough that she shook the whole bed with her movements. Somehow, despite apparently being controlled by someone else who was only half hearing her instructions, there was some strength in her arms again.

After punching Naruto in the ear, she was finally able to get a hold on his shirt and dragged him farther up on the bed, cuddling him to her chest. The movement twisted his neck at an angle that had to be painful, but also cleared his nose and mouth, letting him breathe more easily.

Ah, silence. That was better.

She slept.

xxxxxxxxx

Ugh, there was some god-awful light. Sasuke opened one bleary eye, rubbed at the crust on his lashes, and glared balefully at the sunlight streaming in his window, directly down onto his head.

His arm didn't want to work properly, but it didn't have to be especially accurate to whack Naruto in the head several times.

Naruto woke with a snort and a groan.

"huhwazzatsasu…ke?" he grumbled, blinking.

"Light."

"wat"

"Window. Do something." Sasuke squinched his eyes shut and covered them with a forearm, but he could still sense the terrible photons.

Grumbling, Naruto pushed himself to hands and knees, then backwards onto unsteady feet. Slowly, he walked around the foot of the bed and fumbled at the blinds, half tying the strings into a knot until he finally managed to get the slats to fall. Then he twitched the curtains across for good measure.

Sasuke relaxed and uncovered his face.

Ah, darkness. That was better.

He slept.

xxxxxxxxx

Ugh, there was some god-awful smell. Naruto opened his eyes and stared directly at two thighs covered with some of the grungiest cloth it had ever been his displeasure to get a whiff of.

He rolled over.

He wasn't sure, but was willing to bet, that the person he now faced actually smelled worse.

Yawning hugely-

-oh god he could actually taste how bad they smelled-

-he sat up, realizing that instead of walking back around, so that they all lined up again, he'd just flopped back across the bed from the other direction.

…well, he hoped they got a good whiff of him, too. Serve them right.

Realizing there was no help for it, he got to his feet and stretched, feeling his joints pop. A peek out the slats revealed it to be late morning, which meant they'd been sleeping for nearly twenty hours.

Hell, Sasuke had to have a shower around here somewhere. Blinking and scratching himself, Naruto walked slowly out of the bedroom and closed the door. He made two kage bunshins and sent them out, then found a towel and a washcloth.

His clothes were actually stiff with dried sweat and dirt when he peeled them off, and the reek from beneath was nothing short of amazing. He actually spent a minute walking around naked before he found some trash bags in one of Sasuke's kitchen cabinets and stuffed them into, tying the top tight so the contamination couldn't leak.

After a moment, he left out several more.

The shower was hot and the water was plentiful, and he emerged feeling a lot closer to human. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he padded back into the living room to look around. The table was out of place, so he fixed it, and tried to hide the torn wallpaper, though it was pretty noticeable. Crap, he'd need to do something about that.

For a moment he just stood there, breathing. The sun was out, the birds were chirping, Gai wasn't mad at them anymore, and they had another temporary sensei to deal with in three days, but this time they didn't have any sort of agenda to worry about. They could just relax and train and plan.

Hell, he felt pretty good.

He needed his toothbrush, gargling shower water probably didn't do much and he wasn't going to impose on Sasuke THAT much, and he needed deodorant and probably a longer shower, and food, and clean clothes, but other than that, he felt good.

Damn good.

Smiling, he silently crept back into Sasuke's bedroom. Both of them were still dead to the world, but hell, twenty hours ought to be enough for anyone.

Slowly, careful to avoid waking Sasuke, he pulled Hinata off the bed and carried her out of the room.

She murmured sleepily as he moved her, but she didn't really wake up until she felt her pants and panties sliding off her hips, and apparently her top had disappeared somewhere when she wasn't looking. She raised her hitai-ate and looked at him with a wondering expression.

"Good morning," he said, amused, and kissed her.

Startled, she barely had time to kiss back before he stepped down between her ankles, pinning her pants to the floor as he simply lifted her out of them.

"Naruto?" she asked as he carried her naked to the bathroom.

"Shower time," he explained. "You need one."

She wobbled as he put her back down, right outside the door to Sasuke's shower. The mirror was still fogged from earlier, and there was some cold water on the floor.

When had he gotten her shoes off, and why hadn't she noticed?

She stared at him as he gathered up the last of her clothes and stuffed them in a trash bag before tying it shut.

Oh, wow, she really did need a shower. She stank. And she was naked in Sasuke's apartment, and Naruto was running around taking care of her.

…actually, she felt pretty good. She scratched her scalp beneath her headband, dimly noting her greasy hair, then though of Neji.

Concentrating for several moments as she focused on looking at herself, she lightly tapped each of her tenketsu around her eyes, mentally reaffirming their location. She practiced several times, but there were only fourteen tenketsu she would need to close and it didn't take long.

Breathing deeply to steady herself, she quickly closed all the tenketsu.

And that was it. Her byakugan was off, and she was seeing the world in plain old three dimensions. After seeing it either with the byakugan, not at all, or with the even stranger shin'engan, which was literally indescribable, it was almost bizarre.

Colors seemed muted, but the primary colors stood out more, and she didn't see the deeper purple of ultraviolet or the more red than red glow of heat any longer. Light was brighter, shadows were deeper, and she kept trying to look around without actually turning her neck, which was kinda starting to give her a headache.

Most importantly, she no longer had to use chakra just to look around. That was awesome. She even looked in the mirror for a moment, just to see the usual liquid grey of normal Hyuga eyes without the stress indicators of the byakugan. There was some pale scar tissue around her eyes where her veins had exploded, but it wasn't badly noticeable. Her bangs hid it for the most part.

And the pink scars on her body were paler today, almost a normal white of year old wounds, though they were still several shades lighter than her already pale skin.

Still marveling at the world in normal vision once again, she stepped into the shower and turned it on.

The water felt wonderful on her sore muscles, and she started to run fingers through her hair to get it all wet, but her fingers caught on the cloth of her headband. She'd forgotten about it, she'd been wearing it on her forehead for so long.

"Naruto?" she asked.

"Yeah, Hinata-chan?" he asked, poking his head back into the bathroom.

She angled the water away from the door and slid it open a crack, dangling her soaking hitai-ate outside.

"I forgot to take this off, could you get it?"

"Sure," he replied easily, glancing at her indistinct figure behind the fogged up pebbled glass of the shower door.

However, she changed her mind when he reached for the forehead protector, and instead of grabbing it, she grabbed him.

And pulled him into the shower through the suddenly open door.

One wet hitai-ate and one wet towel hit the floor, forgotten.

xxxxxxxxx

"Mmmm, Naruto… I don't think that's clean yet."

"Mmm… Hinata… I think that is…"

"…"

"Hey, turn up the hot water."

"…"

"YEEEK!"

Apparently, Sasuke had a small hot water heater.

xxxxxxxxx

Ugh, there was some god-awful giggling.

And…

…was that a shriek of girlish delight?

Sasuke frowned and twitched. There were happy people in his home. Reflexively, he reached for a kunai.

"Food's here!"

And now there were three happy people in his home, because he was acutely aware that he hadn't eaten in over a day and a half, and only poorly before that. It'd been a while since his bento had been smeared across a tree. Fortunately, Naruto had gotten food. He'd known there was a reason he put up with the blond.

Stretching slightly, he jerked the door open to his bedroom and infiltrated his living room with a stiff, lurching gait.

Naruto and Hinata were sitting side by side on the elderly sofa he'd gotten from somewhere, wearing nothing but towels, enthusiastically munching on a wide variety of foods arranged around them on the couch and floor, because he didn't have a coffee table. There were taiyaki and onigiri and little cardboard boxes with a dozen kinds of food in them.

"Didn't know what you wanted, so I got a bunch of different things," Naruto explained. "And you might want to eat first, since you're, ah, out of hot water." He scratched the back of his head and chuckled quietly. It's not like his first shower had been THAT long.

Hinata sent Naruto an accusing look that meant nothing to Sasuke.

"You're on my couch," Sasuke complained. "Naked."

Naruto gave him an exasperated look and held up the corner of a towel that he'd folded and sat on.

"I'm sitting on like five layers of towel," he explained.

Sasuke turned to Hinata.

She shrugged, looking unsure, and picking nervously at the hem of the towel that was wrapped tightly around her breasts.

"Just the one I'm wearing," she admitted. "Naruto said that would be fine… because… I'm a… …girl?" She didn't appear to believe Naruto's argument.

Sasuke nodded. "That's true. Gimme food." He collapsed into a seated position on the floor and grabbed a random box with a pair of chopsticks sticking out the top. For the next three boxes, he ate so fast he honestly couldn't have told anyone what he'd just put in his mouth.

And then, as suddenly as his ravenous hunger had come, it was gone, and he was full. There was still a lot of food left, though he realized he'd probably be hungry again in a few hours. They'd burned massive amounts of calories.

Full, rested, but still grungy, Sasuke rose, nodded thanks to Naruto, and started preparing to get a shower, after he grabbed some clean clothes from his bedroom. He disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door.

xxxxxxxxx

Naruto and Hinata had finished eating as well, so they stood up and started quickly closing boxes and stuffing the leftovers in Sasuke's refrigerator. That didn't take long, and Naruto headed for Sasuke's bedroom again.

They'd slept on top without pulling back any covers, so his sheets were probably fine, but the blanket had a certain aroma by association. Naruto quickly stripped it off, figuring he'd at least help clean up since Sasuke was nice enough to pass out and not object to their use of his apartment.

He was just wadding the blanket up to be smaller when Hinata tackled him and they both landed on Sasuke's bed.

"Hin-mmmph!" he said, because suddenly his mouth was busy, her hands were running over his chest and back, and he had an armful of healthy, clean girl and damp towel.

The towel had to go, so he plucked at the top where she'd tucked it in over itself to make an impromptu dress. It fell off, and soon she was squirming on top of it as he kissed and nibbled at her lips.

Soon her hands slipped beneath his towel, and it fell away as well, and soon she was holding something she knew from personal experience was very, very clean.

"That's my bed."

They both looked up. Sasuke was dressed, his hair wet and slicked back, and not yet in his distinctive wild crest, and he was standing in the doorway, staring at them with an expression not of lust or amusement, but vague outrage.

"Um, we're on a towel?" Hinata offered. Her bare butt was pointed his direction, but she wasn't especially concerned. Sasuke was a breast man.

"And you're on my bed. What do you think you are doing on my bed?" he demanded.

Naruto looked at him, looked at her, then looked back at Sasuke. He formed a seal.

With a burst of chakra smoke, he transformed into a busty, long legged girl, her breasts pressed into Hinata's own and her hand resting possessively on Hinata's thigh. One of Hinata's hands was tangled in long, unkempt blonde hair, and the other was out of sight between them.

Naruko just looked at Sasuke.

He opened his mouth to protest, holding one finger in the air.

"…"

He closed his mouth. Looked thoughtful.

"…"

Suddenly he turned and walked out of the room.

Naruko and Hinata looked questioningly at each other sky blue meeting pale liquid grey. Naruko shrugged. Hinata kissed her. Her lips were soft.

Sasuke came back, dragging his single chair from his kitchen. He spun it around and sat in it backwards, leaning forward, both hands on the back of the chair, and his sharingan spinning.

"…proceed."

Naruko barked laughter and buried her face in Hinata's breasts. Hinata shrieked laughter and surprise and curled her hands in Naruko's hair.

"Clothes here!" came a call in Naruto's male voice from the living room.

"Your place?" Hinata asked, looking flushed and excited.

"My place," Naruko agreed, looking horny.

They bounced out of the room, the towels forgotten, to grab their clothes.

Naruko paused, threw Sasuke a jaunty salute and a grin, then continued, turning back into Naruto in the process.

Sasuke watched them go, then turned back to his bed, blanket on the floor, sheets rumpled, two damp towels strewn across the top.

"…that was my bed."

Authors lie: And if you think you know what's going to happen next…

You're absolutely right that it will have to be posted to aff or mediaminer.

But, the lemon bits are purely optional canon. If you don't feel like reading about sex, don't. You won't need to know what happens in the lemons to continue with the fic as it's being posted here on ffdotnet.

At least they're not running any more, and this also marks the end of the almost solid block of time I've covered. Do you realize that it's been seven linear story chapters, one flashback chapter, one story arc, two filler chapters, and that little reminder thingy I should have deleted but forgot to since Naruto has last slept?

There are things I hate about my writing style.

I'll start picking up the pace from now on. After all, we need to know what's going on with Jiraiya, Sakura, Asuma, Kakashi, and…

The bad guys and the even worse guys.

I hope this chapter cleared up some of the issues with last chapter. The Kyubi didn't take over Naruto, it was Naruto basically being high on the Kyubi's chakra. Still not a good thing, though.

Also, this should make Gai's plan more clear. Team Lie had to run until they were less an object of hatred than an object of sympathy for his own team members. Despite all the running, this actually leaves Team Lie in better shape, because they'll realize that Team Gai, and especially Gai himself, will no longer bear a grudge against them. The next time they all get together, it will be as equals. Wary equals, but not hostile enemies.

And before some of you totally freak out over Tenzo, aka Yamato, remember that Naruto has been observed disobeying the Hokage's order about not using the Kyubi's chakra. The Hokage can't officially notice it, or he'd have to really punish him, so by keeping it on a more personal level they're actually letting him off the hook.

Remember, this is a mostly military culture they're living in. You still have to follow the rules you don't like. They overlook a lot of things with Naruto as it is.

But yeah, he's not happy about it. His priority now, besides Hinata, is to straighten out his problems, figure out his powers, and start getting some more control over his life. Hinata was right to sexy-tackle him before he had a chance to start brooding.

No one takes over the world in a day, or even a month.

So, I hope this didn't put anyone off. It's not an easy ride, but you'd be surprised at how far they've come.

Hell, they had an ANBU bluffing them into submission. The fact that Hinata nearly killed him, and that all three of them together would have been a real danger if they hadn't been stupid tired and caught off guard…

Their superiors are being very, very careful to avoid letting Team Lie know just how much power they really have.

Reviews make me happy! I like being happy!

And I hope you're happy, too!