Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: Gosh this took a lot longer than I expected, sorry! ^^'

I don't know why really either, guess I've just haven't had the inspiration to write any on this one… I'm not too fond of the fighting scenes, I always have to force myself to read them, and apparently the same goes for writing them ^^'

I did manage to finish this one now though, and I'll definitely try to finish the next one sooner, I promise!!

Chapter 37: Moments of shock

Even though Hinata was a chuunin she wasn't in the mountain. Since she was now the head of her clan she was considered one of the strongest in the village and basically no one could tell her what to do. And according to her – and everyone else – her place was with the Hyuuga clan. She was however worried about Naruto and the rest of her friends, her only comfort there was the fact that they were supposed to be in the mountain, and Naruto should even be under surveillance since he was the container of the Kyuubi.

The Hyuuga clan had gotten the responsibility to take care of all the small fryes – apparently the Akatsuki had in some way managed to gather a bunch of regular shinobi who came with them as a smaller army – at first the clan members had been angry. They didn't think that the prestigious Hyuuga clan should get the spot to take out the weak ones. Then Hinata had spoken to them, and they had all changed their minds as they realized how important it was to take out those so they wouldn't be in the way.

They had divided the clan in to several smaller groups, with one commander to each group. She was of course one commander, and Neji was supposed to take charge of another group.

He was however not there, and no one seemed to know where he was.

Her group was at the moment all the way back in the village, next to the mountain, readying themselves to go in to battle.

In the corner of her eyes she saw something moving on the mountain side. She looked up to see a truly shocking sight.

What she saw was Naruto falling next to the mountain side, he was falling fast, towards the ground. Her heart started to beat faster as fear gripped her. Then the next second he held out his hand towards the mountain and soon he stopped. She quickly activated her Byakugan and saw how he was concentrating chakra in to his hand, and keeping himself still in that way. A sigh of relief came from her as she understood that he was safe once again.

"Homame-san" she called out to the only member of the council who had been on the old council as well.

"Yes Hinata-sama" he said with a bow as he came up to her.

"You're in charge of this group now, I have something I need to tend to" she told him before walking away. He had earlier been a member of the group she was going to lead, but she couldn't ignore Naruto's appearance on the mountain wall and there was no one in her army she trusted more as a leader than him.

"Naruto" she called out as she reached the mountain. She saw him look down at him.

"Hinata?" she heard him call back.

"What are you doing up there?" she asked him. She didn't like him being up there at all, he was supposed to be under surveillance, she herself had been with to make sure he was.

"Ehm, trying to get down" Naruto answered before he suddenly started to travel towards the ground in a speed she thought was a little too fast. Hurriedly she stepped away from the wall as he landed in front of her.

"Hi Hinata-chan" he said with a goofy grin.

"Are you supposed to be under surveillance so the Akatsuki don't get their hands on you?" she asked him in a stern voice, because of her fear of him getting hurt she was right now in her head of the Hyuuga clan mode and not really her usual self.

"Yeah but Neji's team helped us escape" he answered with a smile.

So that was where Neji was? She felt betrayal stab at her, Neji was one of those who truly knew how worried she was over Naruto. He was one of those who truly knew how relieved she felt over the fact that her blond boyfriend was going to be under surveillance and nowhere near the Akatsuki. He was the one to go and help Naruto escape?

"Na-Na-Naruto" she said as her eyes filled up with tears, taking a hold of his hands.

"Please" she managed to press out. He looked at her shocked, not having expected any reaction even similar to this one.

"Hinata?" he said as he embraced her "what is it?" he asked her.

"Please. Don. Don't. Go" she pressed out between the hiccups, as she stood there she realized just how worried she had been over Naruto. At her words he sighed once and held her harder for a while.

"Hinata-chan" he said as he held her on an arm's length and looked her in the eyes.

"I have to go!" he told her as he looked at her, at the sight of her tear-filled eyes however he almost told her that he wouldn't go, anything to make her happy. Then he ignored that feeling, knowing that he had to go.

"Sorry" he said before planting a kiss on her forehead and ran away towards the fights. Hinata stood there shocked for a while before she regained her senses, cursed to herself and went off after Naruto.

Rin breathed heavily with relief as she managed to take a hold on the bird again with a chakra whip.

She had really been scared when she fell, and then without noticing it she had instinctively taken a hold of the bird with the chakra. As she looked up again she noticed how they were nearing another bird, almost identical to the one she was holding on to – except that one was bulkier.

On top of it stood a member of the Akatsuki with blonde hair, he was laughing loudly at something as he called down to the people on the ground. Suddenly she could hear Tori scream something from the bird's back.

'Did she just scream niichan?' Rin wondered to herself as she looked up at the man.

She discarded the thought quickly as a plan took its place in her mind. Without hesitation she drew out chakra and let it close to the leg of the other bird.

At the same time she glanced up at him to see that he didn't notice her, to her luck he seemed occupied with staring at Tori with a large eye.

After just a short while she had managed to take a hold of the other bird and therefore let go of her own. As she got to the other bird she slowly started to climb up it, using her chakra at all time so she wouldn't fall. She looked over the side of the bird to see the back of the man as he still watched Tori who was still just standing there on the other bird.

The next second she quickly jumped up in to the air and towards the man, drawing out a kunai as she went. While still in the air she saw how the man tried to turn around, but didn't have the time until she landed on him and placed the kunai deep in his neck.

As she did she noticed that Tori was screaming at her, looking up she realized that she was screaming 'no' at her. The next second she felt how the man's neck gave away under her hand and as she looked down from Tori she saw how he had turned to mud, a clone.

But then where was the man?

She looked around herself to realize that he wasn't anywhere on the bird, which was made out of exploding clay. Shit!

Sakura stood at the edge of the cliff again, looking around. The situation on the ground hadn't changed much since she looked at it last, and she couldn't see Naruto or Rin anywhere.

Up in the air she could see two large white birds, as she looked at them she suddenly saw how one of them exploded, leaving only one. As it did she felt Rin's chakra mount, and her location seemed to be the explosion. Fear filled Sakura and she was nearly gripped by panic when somebody called out to her from behind. She turned around to see Kiba and Shino come running towards her.

"Rin's over there" she said, pointing towards the explosion.

"What?" Kiba asked her confused as they stopped beside her.

"Rin's over at the explosion" she repeated. Kiba and Shino looked over at it, she saw the fear on Kiba's face and felt how Shino's chakra picked up as well as realization hit him.

"We have to get over there" he said, sounding far calmer than she knew he was. Then before either she or Kiba could react he had jumped. The last thing they heard was how he told them to follow, so they did.

Naruto heard and felt the explosion and as he looked up and saw the other large bird with Tori on top of it confusion filled him. Where had that explosion comed from?

Still yet he sped up, wanting to get there as soon as possible to help her and Rin. Then suddenly he was cut off, forcing him to halt quickly, nearly making him fall. In front of him now stood a man wearing the black Akatsuki cape with the red clouds, covering his face was an orange mask with a spiral with its center over his right eye.

"Who is this then?" the man said with a surprisingly childish voice. He seemed to survey Naruto as he grabbed a hold of his own chin and started to hum thoughtfully.

"Orange clothes, Blond hair, blue eyes, whisker marks and a Konoha headband" he stood silent for a while before he suddenly jumped and hit his left hand with his right one in a fist as if realizing something very suddenly. Then the next second he started to point at Naruto fiercly as he started to stutter slightly.

"Yo-yo-yo-you're Naruto!" he exclaimed "Tobi's a good boy!" he added, sounding pleased with himself.

"Who the Hell are you?" Naruto yelled at the weird man, instead of answering he just keept on ranting that this Tobi was a good boy while doing something that seemed somewhat like a victory dance.

Quickly Naruto whipped out a kunai towards the man as he turned his back towards Naruto. To his big surprise the thing just went straight through the dancing man. And as he turned around to Naruto afterwards and started to speak he seemed serious now.

"That wasn't very nice Naruto-san!" he told him as if scolding a child. Naruto just stood there staring at the man with the mask.

"What the…" he mumbled absentmindedly, unable to grasp what had happened. Had the kunai really just passed right through him?

The next second however the man seemed to freeze before he without a warning toppled over, revealing Hinata behind him with her Byakugan activated. It seemed as if she had managed to sneak up behind the man and stun him with the Jyuuken. Making him seem all too weak to be a part of Akatsuki, should somebody really be able to sneak up on them like that?

Still yet the fact that his kunai had gone right through the man troubled Naruto.

"Are you allright?" Hinata asked him as she watched him over with her Byakugan.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get out of here. I think Rin and Tori are in danger" he said before he ran past her.

"Why don't you just check?" she asked him as she joined strides with him. He turned and looked confused at her.

"Can't you three share your thoughts with each other before of the bijuus?" she asked him wondering. At her words he suddenly realized that she was and had forgotten all about it. Without a second thought he reached out with his mind, trying to find Rin or Tori.

Lee was running at full speed, enthusiastic about the sudden competition.

The fact that their village at the moment was a war zone didn't become him any, he was barely aware of it. All he cared about at that moment was to get there ahead of the others.

At the thought of winning he started to wonder where the others were, immediately he felt an urge to look back which he fought – he didn't want to lose speed now would he?

He could however not fight it entirely and just a few seconds later he looked back to see, no one. Absentmindedly he stopped, wondering where his friends were.

Had he really run that much faster than them?

A broad smile spread on his lips as he realized how much better he must have become to get that good. So it was with extra vigor to his steps that Lee kept running down the mountain, sure how his victory.

As Sakura landed she saw Kiba and Shino running in the direction that she knew lead to Rin and Tori.

Just as she went to follow them she felt another chakra signal however, the first one she had ever felt with her newly discovered kekkei-genkai.

For some reason that signature made her change direction and run directly towards it, letting Kiba and Shino keep moving without her.

She rounded a corner and saw how Kakashi fell down to a crouch, barely keeping awake, as he was released from Itachi's gen-jutsu. It looked as if her ex-sensei had taken it on himself to fight the Uchiha and had managed to get caught in a gen-jutsu.

"Kaka-sensei" she screamed as she ran out and positioned herself in between the crouching copy-nin and Itachi, stretching out her arms to protect him. She heard how he managed to press out her name and something that she guessed was an order to get out of there, she ignored him however as she watched in to the now obisidian eyes of Uchiha Itachi.

He observed her with a blank expression, and still yet she got the impression that he took in everything about her, suddenly knowing all her strengths and weaknesses.

To her great horror she felt through her kekkei-genkai how he started to consentrate chakra in to his eyes, making her certain that he was about to activate the Sharingan.

Instead of being gripped by fear or looking away as she should have she stared right at him, holding his gaze steadily. All of her being willed his chakra flow to his eyes to stop. And suddenly out of nowhere it was as if she got a set of extra hands that reached out towards Itachi and clamped down around his chakra-channels, making the flow stop.

She could of course not believe the feeling, it had to be imagination – she just wanted it to be like that – what she could believe though was her sight. His eyes hadn't changed, they were still the darkest of black. And they did seem surprised, all of his expression looked shocked.

The expression didn't fit him, it looked weird on his face, as if he hadn't been made to feel something as shock. She didn't think about this however, Sakura herself was too occupied by being shocked. Had she really just stopped his chakra flow? No, that couldn't be it – that was impossible!

Kakashi panted heavily as the gen-jutsu finally released its hold on him. He had been too careless and had gotten caught in the Tsukiyomi and been tortured for what felt like an eternity only to realize that it had been mere seconds in the real world. Everything in him screamed out as he wanted to collapse down on the ground.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Sakura had appeared in front of him with her arms outstreached as he could hear how she screamed his name.

"Sakura, ge the Hell out of here" he told her only to get ignored.

Anger boiled up within him as he willed her to get out of there, she wouldn't stand a chance against Itachi.

Then the next second he could hear her gasp and as he looked at him the least expectable sight he could've imagined came over him.

Was Itachi really staring shocked at the pink-haired kunoichi?

As if she had done something he couldn't have imagined, almost as if he was frightened of her. Then the next second his look of surprise was replaced with his usual blank one, almost making Kakashi believe that he had imagined the whole thing.

"Ohh, that's an interesting ability you've got there" Itachi said with his monotone voice as he regarded Sakura, because of his Sharingan Kakashi was able to notice that the Uchiha wasn't entirely calm.

"It seems to have exhausted you though" he then said, a slight smirk tugging on the corner of his lips. As he said it Kakashi realized that he was right, Sakura seemed to be breathing heavily and seemed to have trouble standing even as she crouched deeper than normally. To his utter surprise he heard how Sakura then chuckled.

"I don't need much chakra, and you still can't use your Sharingan" she said, even though he couldn't see her face Kakashi knew she was smirking. He wondered how she could be so certain of herself, and especially of the fact that Itachi couldn't use his Sharingan.

Rin looked shocked at Tori as they stood on one of the many rooftops in Konoha – one of those who hadn't been destroyed.

What was wrong with the other girl? As soon as Rin had landed on Tori's bird, after jumping from the exploding one, the blond Jinchuuriki had started to attack Rin furiously.

"What the Hell are you doing Tori?" Rin screamed out at her. Instead of answering Tori snapped out three kunais and threw them at Rin who quickly made sure to dodge them.

"Why did you do that?" Tori screamed back at her before launching herself at Rin, kunai ready in hand. Rin could hear the anger and sadness in Tori's voice.

"What are you talking about?" Rin pressed out between her teeth as she quickly brought up a shield of chakra to parry Tori's attack.

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down ladies! There's no reason to fight over me like that, un" somebody suddenly said, interrupting them.

Tori looked up towards the sound with a shocked expression on her face. Rin watched from her over to the blond Akatsuki that stood there with a cocky expression. She felt how she tensed up and got ready to fight him when, suddenly, Tori screamed out.

"Deidara-niichan" she screamed as she launched herself at the man, throwing herself around his neck whilst crying her eyes out. Rin just stood there and looked shocked at the two of them as Deidara started to pet the top of Tori's head.

"There, there, Imouto, it's allright, un" he said to her in a comforting voice.

Tobi looked after the too kids as he got up. He had heard them speak about how Jinchuurikis could communicate with thoughs. He smirked to himself as he thought of what an interesting fact that was.

"I wonder how we can use it?" he asked to himself as the masked man seemingly disappeared from the spot.

A/N: I hope you all liked it… shocked at Deidara's reaction? Hadn't really planned it, I just wrote something and that's how it turned out … and I don't really know how to continue that =.=

Well, time for a thank you to my lovely reviewers!

Thank you GraityTheWizard, Ancient Kyubi, Rena the pirate jedi wizard and sabaku-vs-uchiha-vs-uzumaki for reviewing this story and keeping up my motivation to keep writing this thing ^^