Hey everyone, this is the final partial update of aAP, next update will be a full chapter and won't take a month. Why? I have two weeks off. But, just so you know, after the two weeks, until the Christmas holidays, the lack of updates will occur again. Now, I implore you people, stop telling me to update, or to update quicker. It seriously doesn't motivate me to write, it does the opposite in fact, I just have one last thing to say, NinjakungfooactionstabstabHanabiftw!

Jon

The forest around Hinata appeared to be one gigantic green blur as she, Naruto and the incapacitated Sasuke tore up the upper levels of the forest. Every so often Hinata focused the direct gaze of the Byakugan upon Naruto. She had no idea what he was thinking. The glare upon his eyes told her more then enough. He was angry, but mainly at what, Hinata did not know.

When both Naruto and Sasuke had been knocked out, she did not have time to think about what had happened, the Situation would not allow it. But now that Naruto was able she had time to. And the first thing that came to her mind was the way that Naruto had been defeated.

Defeated wasn't the word, Hinata decided, Naruto hadn't been beaten… He had just submitted. Something she was not used to him doing. Even when he was just beginning his Hidoi Hira training he had not given up. Not even when fighting her father, and to her satisfaction Hanabi. She, herself had never fought against Naruto, no matter how many times he asked her to.

"We need to rest for a moment." stated Naruto blandly as he narrowly missed the upcoming tree branch and fell to the ground. Hinata's eyes widened for a moment, but then she took note of the lack of apprehension in Naruto's posture.

Without a sound Naruto landed upon the ground and shifted Sasuke off his shoulders. Hinata let out a wince as Naruto simply let Sasuke fall to the ground off his shoulders. She was saved further worry as Sasuke landed softly on his side.

"Naruto-kun…what hap-"Hinata began softly.

"I don't want to talk about it." Snapped Naruto icily before he turned away and began to walk away from Sasuke's body.

"But perhaps you shoul-" She tried again, only to be once again overrode by Naruto's voice.

"I said I don't want to talk about it." Naruto all but yelled as he approached the boundary of the tree's surrounding the small patch of barren land they were in.

Hinata was slowly losing her composure. Her cheeks had already begun to redden at Naruto's lack of co-operation. The sheer action of him continuously not allowing her to talk was aggravating her sense of pride.

"I don't care what you want." yelled Hinata back as she slowly advanced upon Naruto's back.

Naruto froze at Hinata's tone and faltered. Slowly he turned his head around and faced her. His teeth were gritted together, he narrowed his eyes at Hinata momentarily before turning his body around with his head to face her. He was quite surprised to see the anger so clearly visible on Hinata's face. Although he had seen her get angry at other people, and himself he had never quite seen her in such a state. Probably because no one had ever stopped her from talking or ignored her, he bitterly reasoned.

Naruto silently stared into Hinata's eyes, he remained silent as he waited for her to speak, but she never did. Slowly he began to turn away, only to have his head snapped in the opposite direction as Hinata's palm collided with his cheek.

"I can't begin to imagine what happened to you…But we are still a team, and team-mates don't block each other out… especially when they need each other to survive." said Hinata softly.

Slowly Hinata inched forwards before she wrapped her arms around Naruto and hugged him to her tightly. Naruto remained still before slowly bringing his arms up from his sides and wrapping them back around Hinata in a gentle embrace. His shoulder's sunk slightly as he closed his eyes and began to relax.

"I'm sorry…I just am confused." Naruto said as he lowered his head and laid it upon Hinata's shoulder. A ruffle at the edge of the clearing caught Naruto's attention and had him snap his eyes open. Acting on instinct Naruto dug his heel into the ground and spun around, lifting Hinata off the ground.

Hinata's eyes opened just in time to witness a barrage of Kunai and Shuriken strike Naruto's back. She winced lightly as the Shuriken and Kunai sliced into the sides of her arm, narrowly avoiding hitting them directly. Naruto's arm's tightened around her for a moment before relaxing. Hinata attempted to step backwards away from Naruto and get into a defensive position, but his arms would not budge. Her struggle against his arms stopped as she felt his Chakra caress her arms. She winced as the Kunai's and shuriken began to slowly rattle, before picking up frequency and dislodging from Naruto's back entirely. Without a pattern they fell to the ground.

Hinata remained motionless as heat began to envelop Naruto's back, soon the smell of burning flesh made its way to her nose and she could not remain still any more. With a jerk of her body she moved backwards, and succeeded with detaching herself from Naruto's back.

Hinata stumbled backwards, before falling to the ground. She stared up in horror as a dark cloud of chakra began to erupt from Naruto's body. Had she not been a Hyuuga she would not have noticed the difference between it and his normal chakra; the difference was minimal.

Hinata had no time to think, from three direction's weapons sliced out from the foliage. Without thinking Hinata pushed her palms against the ground and moved her body onto her feet. Just as she was about to jump to Naruto's aid, but a field of translucent red energy erupted in front of her body and knocked her back down.

"You…" Naruto began, only to falter as yet another barrage of projectiles cut from the foliage. The moment the Projectiles came within five meter's of Naruto the translucent red barrier warped into reality and deflected the weapons.

"Idiots..." snarled Naruto as he flung his arms outwards. From his hands a surge of the translucent red energy tore outwards. Hinata closed her eyes and prepared for the pain she was sure was about to come. But it never did, slowly her eyes slid open, her breath hitched in her throat as she looked out over the land around her and Naruto.

The land was bare up to a certain range, at which a pile of debris surrounded them in a circle. Her eyes were instantly attracted to a small bit of movement amongst the trees and shrubbery; a twitching, bloody hand. Beside her Naruto began to walk towards the area she was looking at, deep down she was beginning to feel dread creep up inside her.

Naruto waved his hand carelessly in front of him and a surge of Chakra erupted from his hand, passing through the debris in front of him. He quickly tore his hand upwards from his side and the debris began to shake, before from underneath it a body was torn upwards.

Naruto remained motionless as his eyes stared across at the bloodied body of a man older then him. Beside him Hinata sharply inhaled as she caught a glimpse of the man's face.

"He has a Konoha Forehead protector." stated Hinata in disbelief. Hinata slowly composed herself as Naruto stared across at the battered and bloody Leaf Nin, seemingly evaluating the man who had attacked them.

"What should we do with hi-" Hinata began to ask.

Naruto's hand tore to his right, towards Hinata and along with his motion, the Leaf Nin's body jerked into motion, on an almost direct path with Hinata. Without thinking, Hinata dove to her side, away from projectile-like body. As her side came into contact with the ground, Hinata allowed herself to continue to roll, before striking out her legs and moving directly to her feet. In a flash a Kunai was in her hand and she was ready to attack. She was up just in time to watch a gigantic gush of blood tear from the Leaf Nin-projectiles body.

The world seemed to stop for a moment as the gore slowly descended towards the ground. Only to kick into hyper drive as the probably dead body of the leaf Nin rocketed away into the direction where the attack had come from. As the body slammed into the bushes a dark green blur shot out of its path, trying to move out of Naruto's immediate sight.

They never had a chance. Naruto's left hand reached out in an instance towards them, and with a small twitch, it caught them in a net of Chakra. But Naruto wasn't done. He dug his heel into the ground and kicked off with his right foot, causing his body to spin around. Using the momentum Naruto slashed his left hand towards a seemingly innocent bush. The innocence vanished quickly as a jet of fire burst forth from the shadows. But luckily for Naruto, the body of the airborne enemy had already moved between him and the incendiary attack.

Naruto swore lightly as the flames distorted his view beyond the bushes. The only clue that the enemy had moved was the small rustle of the leaves. Hinata whimpered as a blood curdling scream erupted from their ally's mouth. Even when they had gone up against the Unknown Ninja that had captured Naruto, none of them had made a sound when the life was snuffed out of them. Genin, however were not adverse to it. The horrendous screams continued to wench at Hinata's heart strings, and before she could stop herself she was calling out.

"Naruto-kun, Stop it!" she screamed.

Naruto paused for a moment before turning and looking into Hinata's eyes; they were glassy, as if she were about to cry.

"Why?" Naruto questioned blandly as he spared a glance to the smouldering corpse of the person that had attacked him.

"They attempted to harm us, why should they not feel the pain they wished to inflict?" asked Naruto coldly as he turned his head towards Hinata. She was momentarily taken back by Naruto's blunt question. Still, she never had a chance to answer.

From above Naruto a blur of movement caught both Naruto's and Hinata's attention; A large amount of weapon's were plummeting down towards both him and Hinata. Naruto relaxed for a moment before his eyes caught sight of a pale hued slip of paper attached to each of the handles. A frown appeared in Naruto's lips as he assessed the enemies attack.

Each of the Kunai were aimed at different part's surrounding both himself and Hinata. He could not risk using his defence for the simple reason that the energy would most likely set the explosive tags off. Naruto was completely focused on the attack above him. Hinata however was not; in the few moments she had after Naruto had spoken she had activated her Byakugan, Thus she saw what Naruto could not. She saw what would hurt herself, Sasuke and Naruto.

"Doton…" came a haggard voice from below them.

Hinata without a moment to spare charged towards Naruto with an excess of speed she did not think she was capable of prior. "Taitan Oshitsubusu" finished the voice just as Hinata reached her target; Naruto. She braced herself as she threw her arm open and slammed into Naruto, forcing him off the ground. Hinata grimaced as she heard the ground cracking open, without warning a gigantic column erupted from where Naruto had been standing. The monumental spike of earth however did not remain intact for long. The Kunai raining down just happened to glance off the side, with the small disturbance in the metal, the explosive tags upon the handle activated, instantly incinerating and obviously exploding.

A chain reaction occurred amongst the explosive tags, starting from one, with the explosion triggering the rest. The stone obelisk couldn't take the shear force which was acting upon it, and within moment's it was blown apart.

Pieces of rock slowly rained down upon the area, but Hinata could feel naught a stone upon her back. As she slowly rose up from her crumpled position atop of Naruto she realized why; The Translucent red barrier was surrounding both her and Naruto. Every time a piece of rock hit the barrier it shattered as it was repelled by the vile energy.

"Thanks…" Naruto said gruffly as he gently shifted Hinata's weight off his chest.

A grimace soon appeared on his face as his Chakra pathways began to burn. It appeared as though he had reached his limit for the moment with his Chakra expenditure. Without warning, the translucent barrier protecting him and Hinata from the debris faded away, allowing the few minor pieces of earth to fall haphazardly near them.

"Well… that's bad." stated Naruto blandly as he stared out into the canopy over head.

Over from where Naruto had carelessly thrown Sasuke a power spike was starting to form, slowly at first but soon it gained momentum and before Naruto could comprehend what was happening it's presence was shown physically as wave after wave of tainted Chakra pulsed outwards over the forest floor.

"That could be bad." Naruto said worriedly as he sat up and stared over to the source of the Chakra.

Naruto's eyes met the sight of Sasuke standing up straight and staring up into the canopy, as he had just been doing. The most obvious sign that something was wrong with Sasuke, was the black markings covering half of his visible body, they seemed to be the source of the tainted Chakra which was tearing through the debris littered area.

Sasuke tilted his head downwards towards Naruto for a moment and their eyes made contact for a second before Sasuke smirked.

And then he vanished.

Immediately after, a series of screams erupted from behind the shadows and foliage, accompanied by the unmistakable splatter of blood. Beside him, Naruto could feel Hinata shudder as the screams and sounds of gore splattering upon the landscape met her ears. Hesitantly Naruto reached over and placed his hand upon her shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze.

Hinata's head snapped up, and her eyes met his. Naruto winced lightly as he stared into Hinata's Byakugan. It was obvious why she was reacting the way she was; she was able to witness the fate of those who had attacked them. Considering the pattern of screams, and splatter's of blood, it was safe to say that the enemy's deaths were beyond violent.

Without warning a bloodied body broke down through the canopy and plummeted towards the ground at a dangerously high speed. From high above the Canopy a spark of fire dimly lit the sky.

"Katon: Sokusha Yari no jutsu!" echoed Sasuke's voice throughout the clearing as once again a spark of fire lit up the sky.

Instead of fading out, the spark ignited into an inferno. Naruto watched silently as from high above the Canopy a torrent of fire tore down through the foliage, searing the upper forest as it passed by. As the flames passed out of the canopy they exploded. From the original source of the flames dozens upon dozens of separate fire spears converged upon the falling body.

Naruto watched and listened in morbid fascination as the enemies body was set alight and torn asunder by the fire lances. Their screams seemed to echo through Naruto's ears unendingly, before slowly they died down, along with the spark of life within the enemy's body.

"That was overly dramatic if you ask me." Naruto said bemusedly as he slowly moved from his sitting down position into a standing up one.

In front of him Sasuke landed with a small thud against the ground, smirking.

"Yes, and tearing someone's heart out of their chest is not overly dramatic at all" drawled Sasuke mockingly.

"Touché" Naruto said blankly as he reached down and grasped Hinata's hand and gently helped her up. Naruto turned his head and pointedly look at Sasuke.

"You didn't burn their scroll did you?" accused Naruto lightly as his eyes flickered to the smouldering body behind Sasuke.

Sasuke let out a harsh laugh before reaching into his weapons pouch and withdrawing a Heaven Scroll. Idly he waved it in front of him before tossing it to Naruto, who snatched it out of the air and inspected it, before throwing it back.

Sasuke reached up to catch it, but faltered and let out a short gasp of pain. The markings disfiguring half his body were pulsating and slowly spreading further across his skin. Sasuke clutched at his neck and dug his fingers into his skin. Slowly, but surely Sasuke's will power won out and the markings withdrew back into the cover of his clothing, into the spot he had held upon his neck.

"I sure wish I had one of those." stated Naruto blandly as he turned his back upon Sasuke and the scene of the visible area which had been disturbed by both his and Sasuke's individual fights. His eyes scanned the area around them critically before speaking again.

"We should head-"Naruto began, but was soon drowned out.

"We should head that way." stated Hinata shakily before pointing slightly more east then Naruto had been looking.

Naruto blinked in surprise, he had not expected Hinata's mental state to recover so quickly after witnessing the probably dismemberment and unintentional torture of the enemy Genin's. A small smile appeared on his lips for a moment before vanishing; he nodded to Hinata before turning slightly to the east and kicking off of the ground.

Sasuke soon followed after him, leaving Hinata staring after Naruto. She soon began to move after Naruto, after deactivating the Byakugan. The Horrific scenes she witnessed seemed to partially vanish from her memory, as she stared ahead with clear eyes.

The foliage and tree density seemed to increase as they continued to progress towards the tower in the centre of the forest. Periodically Hinata activated her Byakugan and corrected their path ever so slightly to ensure that they would not stray too far from the quickest path. Every time she used her family's bloodline she was given a painfully accurate evaluation of her two team-mates.

Both Naruto's and Sasuke's Chakra coils and pathways were worn out. It held truer for Sasuke then Naruto, however. His pathways seemed too had been forced open, and were slowly shifting back to their original state. Naruto's on the other hand were indescribable. While they seemed to have been worn out, there was no evidence of the fact except for the slight abnormalities in their formation. His tenketsus were a different story, they seemed to be basically destroyed, an over exposure of the Chakra he had used to protect them was probably the cause.

Hinata would have been worried, but she was spared that for a single thing she noticed, the tenketsus were ever so slowly regenerating, rebuilding themselves. Something she did not believe was possible, something which should not have been possible. It was something she would not speak of until she returned home, and only then she would speak so to her father, to find out the cause of the miraculous occurrence.

Just ahead of her, the target of half her curiosities was more aware of what she had seen than she could have been aware. There was very little Naruto could do except ignore the pain encompassing his entire body and push forward, towards the Tower in the middle of the Forest, the only place it would be safe to rest and leave consciousness, to allow the pain to run it's course.

With the countless training methods he had been subjected to in the Hyuuga complex to tighten his control over his Chakra it was more then obvious what the problem was. His Tenketsus were ruined. And he had more then a small idea why; The Chakra he had been using to defend both him and Hinata was both foreign of his body, and yet at the same time it was something he had always had within him, although he had not always been aware of its actual purpose, he had been aware of its existence since he could hold thought.

There was something else.

His entire body felt off. But at the same time it had never felt stronger. Whatever Orochimaru had done to him was both beneficial and yet detrimental to him. From his time retraining his body with Hanabi it was glaringly obvious that his muscles had worked beyond any possible capacity they should have had and from a completely useless baby-like appearance they had evolved far past his previous level of muscle density and composition. They were for a lack of a better phrase, New and Improved.

A scowl appeared on Naruto's lips as he focused on another addition of his body. His left eye; He had no idea what had happened to it, but it was painstakingly obvious that it was a- He did not even know what to think of it. It seemed to give him near godly reaction speeds, yet if by following occurrences after its activations rendered him completely submissive to that sub-human piece of filth Orochimaru.

It seemed that he was not the only one who Orochimaru had chosen to taint. From the feeling that radiated from Sasuke when the markings had covered his body, Orochimaru had somehow gotten to him to. As far as Naruto was aware Sasuke had not come into contact with Orochimaru besides the quick skirmish which resulted in their utter obliteration.

The thought troubled him.

Naruto slowed down slightly and let Sasuke take the lead towards the tower; he placed himself near Hinata in terms of the travel arrangement.

If Orochimaru had been able to get to Sasuke in that small amount of time, he shuddered to imagine how quickly he'd have been able to taint Hinata. The question was, in Naruto's mind was; Why had he not used the opportunity to get Hinata as well? From the attack on them from the bunch of Cloud Nin, who he now assumed to be Orochimaru's henchmen, it was painstakingly obvious that they were also after Hinata.

A quick glance to his right allowed him to watch Hinata as she rushed forwards over the branches with a high level of dexterity.

Although prior he had snapped at Hinata, he truly did care for her, as a friend, not only as his charge. It seemed like an eternity before, that Hiashi had called him to his private study without any information as to why he needed him. Naruto, at the time thought it was something to do with his training, which he had all but accomplished.

Hiashi had been sitting at his desk, staring down at the numerous papers covering the desk. Upon noticing Naruto enter the room he had told him to sit down. The tone of his voice had not been lost upon Naruto, it was harsh, forceful. As he moved forwards, to the seat in front of Hiashi he caught a glance of the sheet of paper atop of the small pile. It had Hinata's name upon it, along with a few names he recognised, they were villages. Kumogakure in particular seemed to the most frequent on the list. Naruto had a sinking feeling in his stomach. While he had been mainly training since he had been given access to the Hyuuga's library, he had taken time to read up on both the History of the Hyuuga and the new occurrences. One of the major events in recent history was the attempted kidnapping of Hinata, the heir of the Hyuuga's main branch.

Up until that point, Naruto had not known why Hanabi had no parents around. He had assumed they died in service of Konoha. The reality was far from the fact in his eyes. Hanabi's father, Hizashi, had been sacrificed in order for Hiashi, Hinata's father to remain alive. While from the transcripts it was obvious that he had not been forced, he in fact suggested it, along with the elders, it still irked Naruto somewhat. Hanabi's mother on the other hand, had not taken it quite as well. She, within a matter of days committed suicide, leaving Hanabi by herself. It really was not a wonder that Hanabi had turned out the way she had, so jaded with the world around her and the rest of the Hyuuga in particular.

It was amazing that Hanabi did not blame Hinata for her parent's misfortune. But, Naruto did not have time to dwell on thoughts of the past. Somehow, within the brief time his mind slipped away from reality they had come within range of the final destination; The Tower. Naruto was surprised by its appearance; he had assumed it would at the least look professional; as it were the tower looked like it was only being held up by the patch jobs which had been done on it. Naruto suspected a bit more then concrete and wood had been added to the design.

Slightly ahead of Naruto, both Hinata and Sasuke were looking around the entrance of the next stage of the Chuunin exam. Both of the born Doujutsu users seemed to converge upon the wall to the back of the lobby at the same time. From where he was Naruto was able to read the kanji scrawled over the white board.

'If you do not possess Heaven; Gain knowledge and be prepared.'

'If you do not possess Earth; Run through fields and seek strength.'

'If you open both Heaven and Earth scrolls; Dangerous paths turn into safe ones.'

"Shall we open the scrolls?" Hinata asked grumpily as she brought a pale coloured scroll out of her weapons pouch.

Across from her Sasuke mimicked her actions, and withdrew the scroll he had taken from the team who had tried to oppose them most recently. Both Hinata and Sasuke flicked their thumbs across the seal binding the scrolls. From the Scrolls blooms of smoke began to disperse into the air around them, almost mechanically they both threw their separate scrolls As they unwound and laid over each other an explosion threw the smoke circulating the air above them away. From beyond the dissipating screen of smoke a slightly feminine figure was taking shape. Soon it was clear enough that Naruto could take a guess at who it was.

"Hana-senpai?" Naruto echoed blankly as the smoke finally cleared and he was granted with a vision of Kiba's sister.

The slightly older Inuzuka blinked for a few moments in silence, before recognition lit up within her eyes.

"Naruto-san?" she asked, surprised, before she, without waiting for Naruto's response walked forwards and slapped him on his arm playfully.

"Good to see you! How was your exam?" she asked happily as she slung her arm over his shoulder and lead him further away from his two team-mates, both who looked like they were an inch away from attacking the overly friendly girl.

"It was slightly tiring." Naruto admitted. "We were attacked by quite a few teams, but that is to be expected I suppose."

Hana nodded lightly.

"Luckily, when I had my exam we didn't get attacked much, in fact we did most of the attacking." she said grinning.

Naruto couldn't help but smile up at Hana, despite himself.

"Let's just say, the people who attacked us came off a lot worse then we did." Naruto remarked casually.

Hana blinked a few times before she mimicked Naruto's grin, and in a split second, she had her arm around Naruto's neck, and was grinding her fist into the top of his head, as she laughed. While Naruto could have evaded the headlock, he saw no reason to, if he had reacted he would have been in pain, instead of just mild discomfort; his body was still recovering.

"You aren't so tough!" Hana said playfully as she finally, released Naruto from the headlock she placed him in.

A few meters behind Hana and Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke were glaring at the Inuzuka Chuunin. Hinata, couldn't stand to watch the older girl man-handle Naruto any longer. "Excuse me, Miss, what are you doing here?" Hinata asked loudly, drawing Hana's attention off of Naruto and onto her, along with Naruto's.

"Hey, yeah, what are you doing here, Hana-senpai?" Naruto asked as he straightened up and looked up to her face.

A look of confusion passed through Hana's face for a moment, before it disappeared, and she snapped her fingers.

"Oh yeah, well congratulations on passing! I'm just here to explain to you what the scrolls mean… But we can skip that I doubt you guy's need the lesson." Hana said, before turning to Naruto and giving him a cheeky smile. "Instead let's just head on through, only a few other teams are here, like only two I think." she finished, as she turned upon her heel and beckoned for the three Genin to follow her.

"Hanabi's team, and the team from sand right?" Naruto asked, as he turned his head to Hinata, only to turn his head back to the front as she nodded a yes to his question.

Naruto fell quiet as he followed Hana forwards, past a quite well hidden door on the side of the room. No one said anything as they walked on, not even Hana, who had seemingly lost all traces of excess energy that she had exhibited prior.

Soon enough they entered a lobby-like room, which was barren of life, despite the many chairs which lined the walls.

"This is where I leave you to get yourselves comfortable and rested, you have a day or so before the other team's start to pile in, I think, well anyway, have fun and all that." Hana said offhandedly, before thinking for a moment and continuing. "Naruto, next time I see you, you better be a Chuunin, or else I'm getting you back into the clinic to help with my three puppies again." she said, before grinning and winking at Naruto, before shifting her hands into a seal, and vanishing in a burst of smoke.

Silence held for a few moments after Hana left, before Sasuke broke the silence.

"Let's find somewhere to rest?" he asked unenthusiastically, before nodding to the sign on the far left side of the room, which read 'lodgings'. Both Naruto and Hinata nodded absently and followed Sasuke towards the sleeping quarters. It wasn't long before they arrived at the nexus to all of the room's, and within moments they had picked a room out, among the many that were open, and the two that were closed.

Naruto was half tempted to peek into one of them to see if Hanabi was awake, but he held back the urge, and gave into the temptation of sleep, and the relief it'd bring from the pain he was still feeling throughout his entire body. And yet- he didn't feel like joining Hinata and Sasuke in the room yet. Instead, he chose to quickly drop off his belonging's and wander around the tower, to see what else it had within its walls.

Silently, Naruto walked towards the lobby. No matter how hard he strained his ears, he could pick up not a single trace of sound, despite the slight creek in his muscles that was made every time he moved. After what seemed like an hour, Naruto finally broke free of the corridors and staircases which made up the facility, and came out upon an arena.

A small frown appeared on his lips as he stared down at the dirt laid floor of the area underneath the balcony he was on. There was no doubt that the arena would be used, which meant that they'd be fighting more. That was worrisome. At the rate his body was recovering from his previous battles, he would not be able to let them drag out, there was no way he'd be able to use most of his techniques either, the longer he waited to finish, the more time he left for surprises, the higher the chance would be that he'd fail.

The frown upon his face deepened. Ever since he woke up, he had been trying to not think about a certain person. A certain serpentine person, the same person, who had become the sole reason for his to date greatest wish; To strangle the life out of Orochimaru, with his own bare hands.

"Naruto-kun?" questioned a familiar voice from behind Naruto, causing a smile to break through the frown, which had been occupying his face.

"Hanabi-Chan!" exclaimed Naruto happily as he turned around to face Hanabi.

The second his eyes landed upon Hanabi's, he was knocked back, against the railing, with a hand pushed against his throat. Naruto's eyes became alight with confusion, as his hands jumped up and his finger's wrapped around the wrist which was connected to the hand which was strangling him.

Hanabi's eyes glared hatefully into his.

"Who are you and where is my Naruto?"

Isn't that a nice place to end it?