I don't own Naruto. But if I did, Kurenai would have two sleeves most of the time.
Chapter 26: Grim News About Akane's Disappearance
Hinata was still with Sakura, Ino, and Tenten talking about wedding things while the guys had been gone for some time. Actually, a more apt description would be that the girls wanted to go walking around and keep chatting with Hinata but the guys just weren't into that sort of thing. Hinata understood that this was something men just couldn't get as excited about and told Naruto if he wanted to go off and have some fun his own way he could. He gratefully thanked her and the other guys followed suit.
Naruto was out for a stroll, in no hurry to go get Akane because she might actually enjoy spending some time with her grandfather. Half of the other guys in his group had left to go do their own things, but Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru had stayed with him for some company and maybe a few more questions that were coming to mind now. They came to a stop at a vending machine by a convenience store to get a drink, and Kiba was the first to ask what was on his mind.
"So Naruto, bet you're looking forward to being with Hinata privately eh?"
The orange-clad ninja wondered if maybe there was more to this one than just polite small talk. Kiba wasn't exactly the politest of his comrades and there were times Naruto wondered if he himself fancied Hinata. "Are you asking about what we'll do in the bedroom?"
Kiba just shrugged nonchalantly. "C'mon, the girls aren't around; it's just us men we can talk about this at least."
"Well, maybe some stuff is best left unsaid." Shikamaru commented. "I'm sure Hinata-san wouldn't like it if she or one of the other girls had heard Naruto talking about their sex life just to fit in with the guys."
"So is that why you never told us about what you and Temari did around Valentine's Day?" Kiba asked.
Shikamaru looked like he had just seen Hidan come back from the grave. "W-what the...? What are you talking about?"
Kiba grinned playfully, showing off his fangs. "You may have been able to foul the others, but me and Akamaru could smell her all over you. No mistaking what that meant."
"Wait a minute. You and Temari-san actually did that?" Chouji asked his oldest friend.
Shikamaru sighed. "It's my own business guys. And besides, even if I wanted to brag about it, Temari-chan would beat me over the head for it. And that's if she was in a good mood." Then he turned to Naruto. "Word of advice man: Don't brag about your own trysts. Something tells me that Hinata-san might not be so gentle herself. And I wouldn't want to piss off a woman with X-ray eyes and the ability to kill with her fingertips."
"And yet you're in a relationship with a girl who can cut you in half with a swing off her arms. And if she doesn't kill you, her brother will." Naruto pointed out.
"He's got you there Shika." Chouji added.
Kiba relaxed against the wall of the building. "I don't know what you see in that chick. Personally I wouldn't want a mate who thinks she's the alpha."
"If there's one thing I've learned from Otou-san besides games and jutsu, it's that for humans, women are the alphas Kiba-san. And you can make things a lot less troublesome by not fighting it." Shikamaru stated, finishing with a light nod towards Naruto who got the message. "Besides, if women aren't the alphas, then why do we have to ask them to consent when proposing?"
"If that's not whipped I don't know what is." The Inuzuka boy thought aloud, trying to keep sounding macho.
Shikamaru just shrugged. "Well, good luck getting a girl yourself with that attitude."
Naruto chuckled, but stopped when he felt a chill for no reason. 'Why do I suddenly feel like something really bad just happened?'
Ino, Sakura, and Tenten had practically dragged Hinata into a dress shop to look over what to wear for the ceremony. They were led to the bridal section and all but made the Hyuuga heiress a life-size doll. She tried on about six outfits for the fun of it, their fun mostly because she already intended to wear her mother's dress that Hiashi had stored away for just such a thing. After they had settled down, Hinata asked them for ideas regarding the brides maids outfits, and they got fired up again. Each of the three girls had picked out different looks with different colors and argued whose looked better.
'Wonder what they're going to be like when it's time for their own weddings.' Hinata thought to herself as she sat down for a bit. 'Maybe that's why they're so energetic, because none of them are getting married yet so they're going crazy over me doing it.'
"Hinata! Tell Ino-pig here I'm not wearing a purple dress!" Sakura told the soon-to-be bride while holding up a red conservative dress.
Ino came up behind her holding a purple one that was a bit more showy but not sleazy. "And you think I'm wearing a red outfit that doesn't do my figure justice? There are going to be guys there too checking us out and that makes us look like uninteresting prudes."
"Well, yours might be a bit too daring. It's Hinata's day so she deserves the most attention you know." Tenten stated as she pulled out a yellow dress that was pleasing to the eye and allowed the girl wearing it to tease a guy who saw it. "Now this one might work."
"Yellow doesn't work on me. Clashes with my hair." Sakura pointed out.
Hinata sighed and put her hands behind her head to rest it. But a sudden chill down her spine made her sit up quickly. 'My women's intuition tells me something horrible just happened. What could it be?'
Naruto said goodbye to his friends as they left for home and headed towards the Hyuuga mansion to go get his daughter and wait for his fiancee to return. Before he got there, Neji came right up to him. "Naruto, thank kami I found you. You must come with me now to the estate. It's a very urgent matter."
"How urgent?" Naruto asked, wondering if something had happened.
"Perhaps it would be best if you were told there so you don't act irrational here." Neji commented and led him in a rush back to the mansion. They entered and saw Hiashi standing around by the koi pond looking bothered. "I've brought him Hiashi-sama. Now I'll try to find Hinata-sama." Hiashi nodded his approval, and Neji vanished.
"Naruto-san, you might want to sit down for this. Would you like for me to wait for Hinata to arrive too?" Hiashi started, trying to delay and soften the inevitable.
"What happened to Akane-chan?" Naruto firmly asked, still standing. He didn't need to be told that was what this was about. He and Hinata had just been called to the place they left their daughter at and she wasn't right there like she usually was when they picked her up from some place. Something bad had to have happened to her while he was away.
Hiashi sighed sadly, almost hesitantly, and this did nothing to comfort his future son-in-law. "Naruto-san, I have good news and bad news. I'll tell you the bad news first so the good news will make sense. You see, when Akane-chan was showing me a few of the skills she'd learned under yours and my daughter's care-"
"No offense Hiashi-sama, but please get to the point. I'm in no mood for build-up." Naruto gruffly interrupted, something most wouldn't dare do to the Hyuuga head.
He took no offense however; he was a father himself after all. "Akane-chan was just kidnapped, by what I can only presume to be demon foxes."
Naruto's body got rigid all of a sudden and his eyes were ready to pop out of his head. "Demon foxes?"
Hiashi nodded. "Seven foxes came out of nowhere and bit onto her like leeches, then they disappeared as if by shushin, taking her along with them. I believe they were demons because of their unnatural colors and multiple tails."
Naruto frowned. 'Have the demon foxes somehow found out about Akane? What are they planning? And where have they taken her?' "Wait, what's the good news?"
"Luckily for us I was able to knock one of the seven off her before they disappeared and I rendered it unconscious. Then I placed chakra restriction seals on it so it couldn't shushin away before we tried to get information out of it. It's locked away now in a room nearby, and maybe it can tell us just what's going on and how to get her back."
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thanks Hiashi-sama. Good thinking."
Neji then reappeared with an overly nervous Hinata. Hiashi thanked him and Neji left to go tell the rest in their group to try and locate the red haired girl if at all possible. Hiashi told his daughter what he just told the blond, and she broke out in tears. Naruto placed his arms around her shoulders to comfort her. Hiashi couldn't help but notice how attached they were to this strange girl that just happened to fall into their laps, and felt they would do just fine as a married couple.
Hinata wiped away her tears and gave her father the sternest look she had ever given him, or possibly anyone. "Where is this fox demon? Take me to it now." Her tone reminded Hiashi of the times his own wife would not take 'no' for an answer. Naturally Hiashi complied and led them into the room where a small green fox with four tails was bound and gagged but now conscious. It tried struggling but could only shake. "Father, place the anti-byakugan barrier up. Nothing in here leaves this room."
Hiashi nodded, both surprised and immensely proud of his timid daughter's new iron will, and placed up the barriers that cancelled out the effects of the byakugan. This was a feature in every room in the estate since the Hyuuga like their privacy and in a house full of people with x-ray eyes that was hard to get any other way. Once the barrier was up Hinata grabbed the fox by the scruff of its neck and raised it to eye level.
"What on earth were you trying to do? I know you can answer me." Hinata demanded just before she took the gag out. She figured if it was a demon then it could speak the human language, and even if it couldn't, it wouldn't be too hard to bring Kiba in to translate.
Apparently that wouldn't be necessary. "I was just following orders to grab the kit." The voice showed it was a male fox.
"Orders from who?" Naruto asked.
"The Council of Eight. It's a group of eight foxes, usually six-tails thru eight-tails, that assist Kyuubi-sama in governing our region and rule in her absence. They recently ordered her return when they found out she was no longer imprisoned inside you."
Naruto and Hinata shared a look of upset and fear, while Hiashi just looked confused. "Wait a minute. Naruto-san, you no longer have the demon inside you?"
Naruto and Hinata gave him a worried look, then glanced back at each other, each silently coming to an agreement. Naruto sighed as he turned back to the Hyuuga head. "Hiashi-sama, what I'm about to tell you never leaves this room ever. Clear?" Hiashi curiously nodded. "A few weeks ago I had a run-in on a mission with Hinata's team with one of Kiri's Seven Swordsman. The sword cut the seal on my stomach and for some reason the seal disappeared. The Kyuubi did escape my body, but it turned into a small child instead of a fox. That child... is Akane-chan."
"But Akane-chan isn't the Kyuubi, Father." Hinata butted in before her father could interject here. "She has absolutely no memory of anything before being released and Konoha's best interrogators already confirmed it. Akane-chan is a kyuubi, not the Kyuubi, and don't ever imply otherwise or I will hate you forever."
Hiashi didn't reply or move for a moment, taking all this in. The little girl his daughter was so affectionate to and considered her own was the greatest demon known to man reborn? And she was a completely different personality than the one that tried to destroy Konoha over eighteen years ago? Well, that last one was clear as crystal, for there was no way the Akane he knew was the same identity of the previous Kyuubi. But the same entity, even if different mentality? Rather than ask how all this was possible, he focused more on if he should accept it all.
The look on his oldest child's face told him that. "Akane is Akane, and no one else. That little girl may be a hellraiser, but she's no monster. Instead, she's my granddaughter. So don't worry, Hinata."
Hinata smiled, but Naruto kept giving the green fox a pissed off look. "Tell me how this fox council found this out and what they want with her anyway."
The fox looked defiant now. "And why should I?"
Hinata gave him an icy expression and lifted him by the neck to her eye level. "Because if you don't I'll snap your neck here and now and turn you into a pelt." And to prove she wasn't bluffing, she grabbed a kunai and placed it underneath the fox's body, the point pressing right at the fox's privates. A small twitch or even a sneeze by either one of them would result in a very, very painful wound for the fox.
'Whoa, where did that come come?' Hiashi asked himself as he saw his daughter act so fierce.
'Note to self: Never ever be the target of her bad moods.' Naruto told himself.
The fox did what any male would have done in this situation and folded like origami. "A-fox-was-in-the-area-saw-her-and-told-the-rulers-abo..."
"Slow down." Hinata told him, no more gentle then before.
The fox squeaked in fear. "A fox who happened to see her contacted our lands and told us about the nine-tailed one being free again. Who it was I have no idea. Some others who work with the council already checked up on her but she refused to cooperate, saying something about already having a home and family, and they didn't want tot accept that. So they've been preparing something that will destroy the personality that currently dwells with the Kyuubi's body and bring back the previous one."
Now it looked like Naruto wanted to snap this animal's neck too. "Take us to her. We won't allow it."
The fox quickly had to think of the best answer for this one. "I'm sorry, but unless you have a summoning bond with the multi-tailed foxes you can't get there in time. It's impossible." Hinata looked ready to cry at the thought of loosing Akane forever and lowered the fox. Naruto however looked as undaunted as ever and ready to make good on Hinata's threat. "B-but... if you let me go, I can get there right away and bring her back to you."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "How do we know you'll really come back?"
"I know just the thing." Hiashi added, making them all turn towards him. "I know about an old type of seal that was made when we were still trying to create the current caged bird seal. This one can be placed on the fox and if he fails to come back within twelve hours it'll kill him."
"Sounds perfect." Naruto grinned.
Hiashi had to go off into the clan archives to find out how to apply the seal and take it off if the fox succeeded. Once he did he put it to use and a seal formed over the heart of the fox. He was warned once more of what they demanded of him, and he fearfully cowered and vanished, hoping things would work out for him.
Naruto and Hinata meanwhile hugged each other for comfort, hoping their daughter would be brought back to them the way she was.