Sanctuary

Chapter 36

A saving grace

Shino walked along the dimly lit street following the leading tracker Kikaichu that stopped in the middle of the street. People stared curiously at the Aburame's sudden stop. The silent young man stooped low picking up something small off the ground. Closing his hand around the small object he continued down the street having lost the trail. It seems that whoever had taken Hinata knew she was friends with the Aburame heir, because they knew enough to remove his tracking beetle before taking her. The ever quiet Shino clenched his fist angrily. Aburames weren't ones to show emotion so he surprised many when he slammed his fist into a wall in anger.

"Damn it!"

Neji scanned the village along with a handfuls of Hyugas, skeletons of houses being rebuilt was all he seen for miles. Fighting back anger and worry he continued looking for any signs of his little 'sister'.

Naruto's mass of clones could be seen rampaging through the forest as the blonde teamed up with the Inuzuka looking for Hinata on the fringes of the village. So far their search was having little results.

Shino glanced to the ground when he noticed something…something that had he not been a tracking ninja he would have missed. A gleaming blue thread shined on the ground, again the Aburame stooped to pick it up but this time he knew he had found something of importance, for this was no blue thread, but instead it was a long strand of hair.

Sai trooped up the dark hallways with the unconscious Hyuga on his back and his mind stayed focused on his task: Get out. The sound of footsteps could be heard ahead of him and the sound of a door snapping shut.

"Give me your report."

"Sir. The prisoner has been taken to the deepest cells located near the living chambers. Any attempt of escape will prove futile." A grunt of approval could be heard.

"Dismissed."

"Sir." The footsteps continued down the hall and the Anbu/ROOT member passed the pair hidden in the shadows without a second glance. Another sound of heavier footsteps were approaching, the familiar silhouette of a bandaged man passed them by as well walking farther into the darkness.

Sai knew the underground compound like the back of his hand, the problem was how to get Hinata out without being spotted and raising the alarm…then again maybe the alarm could help.

Hinata woke to the sounds of alarms, opening her eyes she noticed there was something covering her face, as her hand reached towards it, she was stopped by a sudden hiss.

"Don't touch it." The thundering sounds of people could be heard and as Hinata glanced around she noticed that the others were going in the opposite direction, suddenly they were stopped by a large man with an Anbu's mask.

"All personnel are to report to the alarm site." He said monotonously Sai responded in a similar voice

"She was wounded by the perpetrator and I was told to bring her to the infirmary."

"Understood." Hinata could feel them moving at high speed again. In minutes she could feel the cool autumn's air on her skin and once again fell into darkness.

"Stutters, wake up. Dickless will be angry of you aren't well. Are you ok?" Hinata could open her eyes easier now.

"Sai…Don't call Naruto that you know he doesn't like it." Hinata said softly sa she pushed herself up.

"But the book said that giving nicknames…" He sighed. "Never mind that. What were you doing in the ROOT holding cells?" he asked as he sat her against a tree deep in the forest.

"I don't know." Hinata said holding her head. 'What had happened? How did I get there?' Hinata remembered leaving Kurenai's for the evening, but after that it was all a blur.

"Where am I?" she asked wincing as she felt a bump on the back of her head.

"Forest." Hinata nodded. How in the world did Sai of all people find her? Sai once again puller her on to his back. "We need to get you out of here, if for some reason ROOT's looking for you then you're in some trouble whether you're aware of it or not." Hinata nodded.

"Thank you."

As Kiba and Naruto made their third lap around the forest, Akamaru suddenly changed course and began barking.

"I know, I've picked up something too boy!" Kiba said darting after his ninja hound who bound through the trees. "Yeah, we've got something Naruto, but there's more than one person."

"I don't care how many people there are as long as I get Hinata back." As they neared the two could hear the sounds of clashing metal and see sparks in the distance. Naruto sped forward dodged between the fight and grabbed the long haired girl who took that moment to give him a glare and punch him right in the face.

"Naruto what the hell are you doing!" Hanabi snapped angrily punching him again. "Let me go damn it!" The blonde stared in shock before dropping the Hyuga and began dodging strikes thrown at him with terrifying speed and accuracy.

"Hanabi! Quit it, Ack! I give! I'm out you win!"

"What the hell was that Naruto? You interrupted my training with Amon! He can only help with my sword training two times a week, what the hell!" Hanabi huffed with her hands on her hips. Naruto stopped his three part apology and shook his head.

"Hinata's missing, Akamaru led us here, I thought you were Hinata fighting somebody."

"What happened to my sister?" The brunette girl asked staring intently at the orange clad blonde.

"She's been missing for several hours, were trying to find her now." Hanabi nodded as she walked back to the clearing where Kiba and Amon were happily talking.

"Amon…" The blonde looked up at her with a grin.

"Don't worry Hanabi, we're definitely joining up with these guys." He said with a sinister grin that the brown haired girl came to love. Her eyes narrowed as she smirked.

"You ready for this?" he said tossing her the sword she had dropped.

"Damn right I am." Activating her Byakugan Hanabi looked around. She concentrated and stretched her vision farther away.

"Ten o'clock almost a mile away, there's a group of what seem to be Anbu, four of them chasing after two people. One's carrying the other, we should go intervene." With that Hanabi took off, the others following her eyes and again Akamaru barked running ahead.

"I can smell her Naruto!" The blonde pushed ahead and the group stopped just as a figure passed them from above.

"Sai?"

"We have to go Naruto. Hurry up!" the pale boy said not bothering to slow down. Naruto saw the flash of indigo hair and hurried along falling into step beside his team member.

"Sai, what's going on?"

"Later, we need to lose these guys first." Naruto nodded, one distraction coming up in an instant 28 clones appeared and then transformed into the various members of the group, then they split up, some even doubling back.

"Naruto, it's working, their separating." Hanabi said from the rear. The younger blonde poked her.

"How does the area look from all sides?"

"Completely clear Amon, why?" the boy simply sighed.

"I don't think that Anbu are that easily fooled." Hanabi nodded and kept her Byakugan activated until they finally came to a stop. Minutes later Amon's thoughts proved true because the four ROOT members were converging on their area from all sides.

"Naruto, Kiba, Sai. We've got company coming from all sides, it's just four though."

"Yes, only four but their ANBU/Root members, their no weaklings Small Hinata." Sai said as Hinata dropped from his back.

"Hanabi." The older girl corrected. "My sister's name is Hanabi Sai." The younger blonde sighed.

"I don't mean to be critical, but were kind of in a situation here… 'Nabi, where are they?" Amon asked scanning the area, his sword steady in his hand.

"They're slowly moving, but we're boxed in. I think their trying to catch us off guard. They could be preparing a trap or a genjutsu maybe. Kiba, can you smell them?" The dog ninja shook his head, this was strange, had they been surrounded he'd have caught a whiff of the enemy by now, especially if they were on all sides.

"Naruto, if Kiba can't smell them, but Hanabi can see them then they're not really there. Their just formed masses of chakra, it's obviously some kind of trick…Hanabi, focus as much as you can in the direction we were heading, what's ahead of us?" Hinata asked as she tried and failed to manipulate her chakra. Being unable to do so frustrated her immensely. Now she was just going to be a burden, something she had tried to prevent being for years. She didn't even have her usual cache of weapons that she had earlier in the day.

"Damn, we're in trouble. Hanabi said softly. "If it was just the four of them against the six of us it wouldn't be that bad, but there's about twenty of them a half a mile just outside the village. Not that I don't think I can hold my own, but our current route would entail us fighting about twenty of those guys. And if their Anbu tough then we're going to have some trouble."

'After all, I'm just a genin… my skill is nothing to laugh at but against anbu? I'm not so sure about the outcome of that match.'

"Twenty? That's no problem, we'll just find another route, I'll send my clones over there in masse and we'll go around them while their distracted." Naruto said already forming the hand signs, but Kiba smacked his hands down.

"You idiot, all you're going to do is waste chakra. They weren't tricked when you sent out the other groups of clones, why would they be distracted if a bunch of yous just attacked them?"

"They'd be confused and freak out dog-boy!"

"Not really." Naruto was about to snap back until he realized that it wasn't Kiba who responded, but Sai. "ROOT members are how I used to be. They don't feel or let emotions like fear and confusion cloud their judgment." Naruto narrowed his eyes at the ground as he thought about it, Sai had a very good point there. As he thought Hanabi went back to scanning their perimeter, the majority of them were ahead of them, there were several on the right side and even less people to their left.

"Guys if we go left we'll have a better chance of getting away, theirs five or six of them over there, but they're more scattered than anywhere else."

"I think we should go for it." Hinata said surprising them as she tied her hair back with a strand of cloth from her ripped sleeve. Seeing her sister's determination Hanabi smiled and handed her several kunai, then squinted at her cocking her head to the side.

"You can't use your chakra?" Hanabi stated more than asked as she inspected her sister. To the rest of the group it looked as if Hanabi was merely playing the part of annoying younger sibling and poking her sister randomly before finally smiling. "That better?" Hanabi asked with a smirk watching as Hinata's locked up chakra once again began to circulate through her body.

"Much better." Hinata said as she felt the blue power source course through her body. Moments later she activated her Byakugan, scanning the area her sister had suggested. She was right, this would be their best option. Immediately she went to work thinking of a plan to get them all safely out of here, but the problem was that nothing really stuck, how the hell would six people fight twenty anbu? And not just six people, two genin/pseudo chunin, and three chunin/ pseudo jonin and a jinchuriki. Sure with pure strength and chakra Naruto could take them all, but the real question was how to do this with-out managing to utterly obliterate their villages' major defensive players.

"I know that when we make our move their going to go after us and probably attack. I don't think we should kill them, but we most certainly won't go easy on them. We don't want to handicap the village because twenty ninja killed is tough to bounce back from, especially Anbu. We should aim to disable. Naruto, and Kiba, knock out your opponents, Hanabi lock up their joints, aim to make them immobile, Sai you work on containment. With your jutsu try and keep them from moving, we want them to be alive…" Hinata said drifting off trying to think of what to tell the sword wielding boy before her.

"And me? I know you don't want them dead…I…I can use my family's kekkai genkai to incapacitate them. I'll have to work with Hanabi though." Hanabi looked shocked as she blinked several times.

"Amon, you hate using that-…"

"I'll be fine."

"But-…" He cut her a quick look and Hanabi stopped arguing as she hung her head and sighed.

"Fine, I'll keep an eye on you, ok? I 've seen how it works so I'll keep you from going overboard." She said softly placing a hand on his shoulder which he smiled at.

"Thanks." That simple sentiment meant more to the boy than he'd ever let her know.

"Alright, we know what we're doing so let's do it." With that they ran through the forest, and just as the Hyuga girls predicted, they were immediately pursued. Without thinking the group of six split up into three groups of two and scattered as the enemies converged on them. Hanabi and Amon went to the left, Hinata and Naruto stayed in the center and Sai, Kiba and Akamaru went to the right.

The ninja hound growled as the ROOT members surrounded them, his hackles raising. Sai pulled out his scroll, ink and brush and began drawing forms of large beasts. Kiba narrowed his eyes as he assessed the surroundings then suddenly he smiled and quickly formed hand signs and turned into a more feral looking form of himself, Akamaru did the same and they charged the group.

"Gatsuuga fang over fang!"

Naruto and his five clones charged the group in front of him, two holding a ROOT member while Hinata cut off their chakra and knocked them out. She dipped back to avoid the swing of a kunai, and holding herself up with her arms she kicked the man in the chest, watching as he flew across the clearing before flipping back on her feet. A Naruto clone dove in front of Hinata taking the brunt of the attack from one of their enemies. Spinning on her heel, Hinata knocked away an attack from behind and began striking chakra points on the person in front of her. Suddenly several people went at her at the same time only to be flung away by a dome of chakra, Hinata stopped spinning as she faced them, her Byakugan still flaring.

Hanabi ducked under her attacker and using her sheathed sword cracked him in the back of the head, watching as he fell, completely out cold. Her Byakugan was on, but not completely trained on her foes.

"Amon, enough!" The blonde immediately released his hold on the ROOT member and watched as he fell to the ground almost lifeless. Hanabi ducked just in time to avoid the blade of a sword, and pulling hers free from its sheath, the two collided in a flash of sparks and the sounds of ringing metal.

Ink serpents slithered across the ground binding enemies' ankles and wrists as Sai's painted beasts attacked knocking them to the ground. The pale boy scanned the area still feeling the presence of their enemy as Kiba and Akamaru sniffed the air. Somebody was still out there waiting to act. The two boys and Akamaru dodged, separating as a fireball flew at them. Kiba panted heavily, popping a soldier pill and tossing one to Akamaru who made a dramatic color change once it was ingested. Sai readied his brush as two figures jumped from the trees above them and attacked.

"Rasengan!" Hinata watched as a ROOT member flew past her from the impact with the swirling chakra ball. The group that pursued them was now lying at their feet in varying states of unconsciousness, and as their last enemy hit the tree with a satisfying thump, Naruto faced Hinata with a smile.

"How's everybody else fairing Hinata?" Hinata looked around spotting the two groups.

"They're still fighting, you go to Kiba's group and help them, just keep heading west." She said pointing him off in the right direction. "You can't miss it, I'm going to help my sister." With that they took off in opposite directions, Naruto heading to aid the Inuzuka, and Hinata heading towards her sibling. As she approached she watched Amon, who was simply holding one of the enemies against a tree while Hanabi was in the middle of a sword fight.

'What is he doing?' She thought to herself, but that was answered quickly. The ROOT member's chakra was fading. 'Are his abilities like that Yoroi guys back from the first chunin exams? No…he's not taking his chakra…' As his chakra was about to flicker out Hanabi once again called to her partner who dropped his opponent as if he'd been scalded by him, then quickly jumped into the fight with Hanabi who immediately backed off the second Amon made contact. Again he simply stood there, his hand touching the man's bare flesh. Hinata watched acutely, picking up the tiny changes in the man's body, the chakra faded, the heart slowed, brain activity slowed tremendously. It was as if he were dying, then Hinata realized that he was, his life force was slowly leaving him. Just as Hinata was about to call out for the boy to stop, Hanabi beat him to it.

"That's enough." The blonde dropped the man immediately and Hanabi slowly approached her friend who simply stood there looking away from the body.

"Amon, are you alright?" She reached out to touch him but he jerked away.

"Don't touch me!" He snapped, pulling his gloves from his pockets and putting them back onto his hands. As Hanabi reached over again, he snatched her wrist in his hand. "I said don't touch me. Do you see what I did to those guys Hanabi? I'm a damn m-"

"No you aren't, and don't you say it! You're just-"

"Hanabi, don't try and tell me that I'm something I'm not!" He said angrily as he released her from his grasp. "When I touch people I kill them, what kind of normal person does that huh? Tell me! You can't can you? I. AM. A. MONSTER!" Hanabi stared at him determined to change his mind set about himself, but blinked when he placed his gloved hand on her cheek and sighed.

"You remind me so much of my family and friends long gone. Believe it or not 'Nabi, I view you as important to me, maybe even more so because you're like a sister to me. A person with my curse can only dirty your image. Everything I touch loses its life force and dies, plants, animals, people. It would kill me if anything bad happened to you because of what I am. I just-"

"It is not your decision who I hang out with or associate with Amon. If I want to 'dirty my image'…" Hanabi said with exaggerated air quotes and heavy sarcasm. "…by being around you then I will. You are my friend. I don't care that touching you could kill me, if I want to give you a damn hug then I will! So don't you ever dare to say that you want me to stay away to keep myself safe from you, because that's a lie and you know it! You're scared. You're scared of people rejecting you because of who you are so you push them away before you can get hurt! So just stop it because I'm not going anywhere!" She said with a scowl as she crossed her arms and glared at the blonde who stared at her in surprise. Finally he smiled, then laughed.

"As you wish, let's go." He said walking towards the bushes, only to pause when the younger Hyuga grabbed his arm.

"Wait. I want to ask you something." He turned his head to show that he was listening, and Hinata who by now had hidden herself listened intently.

"Why? Why did you offer to do this when you hate it so much?" Amon blinked.

"I do whatever I have to do to keep the people I love safe." Hanabi released his arm as he continued to walk ahead.

'He…loves me?' snapping out of her thoughts, Hanabi ran to catch up to her blonde just as Hinata entered the clearing.

'Well this explains a lot.' She thought simply as she chased and caught up to her sister.

"About time I found you two, we're regrouping , Naruto's already with Kiba and Sai. Let's go."

"You guys are so troublesome." A bored voice said to the three males in the clearing. The fire wielder was a bad matchup for Naruto, because when he tried to Rasengan him, he kind of made the fire ball much larger… However as luck would have it Neji having been talking to Shikamaru and Shino at the time noticed the large fireball that shot up from the trees in the middle of the forest. When they arrived, the Nara took hold of him with his shadow technique while Shino's insects drained his chakra.

"Where's Hinata?" Neji asked looking around but not seeing her.

"Right here." The indigo haired girl said as she jumped from the tree onto the ground, quickly followed by Hanabi and Amon who were mere seconds behind her.

"Hinata what happened? Where were you?" Neji asked, worry coloring his voice.

"We were all concerned for you Hinata." Shino said as he looked at his former teammate. "Whoever took you knew much about your background and your associates." He said showing her the dead Kikaichu beetle in his hand. While most people would have been disturbed at the thought of having an insect on them, Hinata just stared in shock.

"They knew you'd have one of your allies on me." She said softly earning a nod from the Aburame.

"Correct."

"Well, let's discuss this on our way back to the village, I need to speak with our acting Hokage and my father." With that said they made their way back into the village, it was going to be a long night.

Well, that's this chapter, hope you like it. I had fun coming up with Sai's nick names for people, and I enjoyed finishing up this chapter, and now that I have internet once again, I can update! Bwahahah! Oh, and school starts on the 7th, sigh, but oh well I shall live. I think I might finish this story around 40 chapters or so… I don't want to drag it out, but I certainly don't want to rush the ending either… Thanks for reading guys, let me know your opinions!