A scream pierced through the freezing air.

Naruto rushed towards the sound, which seemed to be emanating from a deserted playground.

It was Hinata, being taken away by some strange men…?

One of the strange men was holding a green orb towards Hinata as she kicked and struggled.

"What are you doing to Hinata?" Naruto yelled.

He surged forwards, only for his fist to connect with thin air. A horde of masked men descended upon the scene.

Naruto fought them all off with a barrage of punches and kicks, then activated his Shadow Clone Jutsu to engage them.

It was a waste of time to fight all of them personally. Hinata was nowhere in sight.

He finally spotted her, being carried away by one of those masked guys. He set off in hot pursuit.

Just as he was gaining in on them on the rooftops, more masked men appeared. Ugh, did they disperse his Shadow Clones?

Naruto wove his way through the exploding beams of light they fired at him, tearing the men apart with Wind Release Rasen-Shuriken.

He finally leapt in front of the one holding Hinata, only for his fist to connect with thin air again. Another exploding barrage rained down on him. He scowled and sped up. He couldn't let Hinata get kidnapped by some random weirdos! He created another Rasen-Shuriken, guiding its trajectory towards the masked man who had captured Hinata.

He was instantly torn apart by the deadly blades of wind chakra, releasing Hinata from his grip.

His heart almost stopped beating when Hinata fell off the edge of the building. The only thing stopping her from reaching the ground was a red scarf that had got caught on a hook.

"Hinata!" he yelled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" came her voice.

Just as he was about to help, more exploding beams raced towards him.

Naruto was getting seriously annoyed. Why wouldn't they just stay down? He finished off the one who'd attacked him with a Rasengan, then rushed towards Hinata.

She was falling, falling, falling –

He caught her just before she hit the ground.

Hinata was staring mournfully at the shredded scarf as he asked her where the strange men had come from. She had only just said she didn't know, when the tall white-haired man who had been holding that green orb appeared in front of them.

"The final day is coming," he said in an eerie voice. "...Before then – "

Naruto attacked.

The man disappeared, only to reappear in midair.

"Hinata, I'll be coming for you."

As he faded, a burning hot object appeared in his place.

It flew beyond the village of Konoha, beyond the Hokage Monument, and into the deep forest.

An explosion turned the night sky into day.

What the hell?

"Hinata, we have to tell Kakashi-sensei about this," Naruto prompted.

Hinata nodded, her eyes fixed on the ruined scarf. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

Together, they set off towards the Hokage Tower.

A thousand thoughts buzzed in Naruto's head. Who were those masked weirdos? Why did they try to take Hinata? Who was that white-haired guy, and why was he coming for Hinata? What was up with that explosion?

He gave Hinata a puzzled glance, but she only shook her head.

Excited and fearful chatter filled the air as they walked through the winding streets of the village.

"Did you see that explosion?"

"Mmm, I made a wish on it. It was clearly a shooting star."

"You idiot! That was not a shooting star. It was a gas explosion."

"A gas explosion in the middle of the forest? What are you smoking?"

On most nights, Naruto might have joined in on the gossip. Tonight, though, he exchanged a meaningful look with Hinata and they sped up their gait.

The lights were still on when they reached the Hokage Tower. Kakashi-sensei still wasn't asleep yet? Well, Sakura kept telling him that baa-chan went through the same thing before she retired. Actually, he was pretty sure that the sleep deprivation and burn-out and general lack of free time was one major reason she'd been eager to dump the job onto Kakashi-sensei and go back to her favorite gambling dens.

He shook the stream of random thoughts out of his head as they climbed the stairs and reached the Hokage's office.

Naruto didn't even knock. He just barged in.

"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei! You won't believe what happened! There were these masked guys, and they tried to kidnap Hinata, and I stopped them, then this pale-haired weirdo showed up and said some stuff about final days and that he would come for Hinata and – "

"Calm down, Naruto," said a very surprised Kakashi-sensei, who for some reason was wearing his full Hokage robes. "Start from the beginning."

Hinata cleared her throat.

"Kakashi-sensei, I was attacked by a group of strange masked men just half an hour ago. Naruto-kun stopped them from kidnapping me. None of them appeared to be from Konoha nor any other village. The white-haired man whom Naruto-kun spoke of called himself Toneri. He said that he would come for me."

Kakashi-sensei stood up from his desk as though struck by lightning.

"Could it be that this has something to do with what we just discussed – "

Before he could finish the thought, the door slammed open again. It was Hyuuga Ko, Hinata's old childhood bodyguard.

"Hinata-sama, Hokage-sama! Terrible news! Hanabi-sama has been kidnapped!"

A/N: I hope the battle scene was good. And I hope my missing moment scenes are also fine. It's fun to write the missing moments more, you know?

Thanks for the kind words, Sunflower and starfiction123. :)

To El Publicano: The story of Kaguya and the Otsutsuki clan alien origins make a lot of sense when one considers that they were inspired the very old Japanese story "The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter." The tale is over a thousand years old and it's about a girl named Kaguya who was found inside a bamboo stalk and raised by a bamboo cutter. Kaguya turned out to actually be a princess from the moon. So...yeah. I think a lot of non-Japanese fans might not know about this story though. I didn't even know about this story until recently. Anyway, don't worry. I'm not focusing too much on the Otsutsuki clan in this, I'm mostly focusing on Hinata and Naruto's relationship, as you can see. Hope you'll still enjoy. :)

Also, I just saw the spoilers last night. It sounds exciting. :) But I don't think Naruto is really going to die yet, since Kawaki hasn't hurt him yet or sent him away to wherever he is in Boruto ch. 1.

To Lila08: Yeah, I've read the novel several times and I'm using it as a reference while writing this. It's a very helpful resource. :)

To Beta117: I think you must have gotten confused while reading another fanfiction. I checked chapters 698 and 699. It's true that Yin Kurama says that he'll go to sleep after giving the last of his chakra to Naruto for his final Rasengan. But Yang Kurama was later freed from Sasuke's Chibaku Tensei and he seems fine and not in a coma. And presumably Yin Kurama woke up again after he got back to full power and was rejoined with his other half.