Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This chapter contains graphic descriptions of violence.
CHAPTER 34
"Well done, Hinata. The knitting of the transition between the cartilage and bone of the ribs is flawless. And you were even able to reduce the mild arthritis in the acetabulum when you repaired the femur and pelvic fractures."
"Thank you, Shishō."
Tsunade looked down at what little could be seen of Jiraiya's face through the near mummifying amount of bandages on his head. "You should be grateful," she scolded with a chuckle. "Now you won't have that uneven gait when you walk."
"It wasn't a gait, it was my pimp swagger," he grumbled, unable to cross his arms as they were both casted up to his armpits.
"Puh-lease, Ero-sennin," Naruto snorted. "You've had that limp ever since I kicked your ass in that spar on Uzushio. You're just too proud to use a cane."
"No respect. I taught him everything he knows, and still, no respect," the Sannin grumbled into his wrappings.
Tsunade was immensely enjoying the current conversation, but business loomed, and so as Hinata straightened and rolled her shoulders in the way that meant she was getting fatigued, yet was not about to complain, the Hokage waved her hand at the two Chunin.
"Alright, that's enough for today, can't have you all tired out for the Jonin Exams. I expect both of you in my office bright and early tomorrow morning for your debriefings." At the words "bright and early" Naruto's shoulders slumped.
"Naruto, why don't you see Hinata home?" Minato smiled gently at his son, nearly holding back the waggle of his eyebrows. "It will give us a chance to discuss some of the details of our arrival with The Godaime, and you can discuss some things with her father as well, eh?"
Hinata missed the raging blush that spread over Naruto's face as she politely bowed before taking his hand. Naruto tried to scowl at his parents, but the sight of his mother's grinning face, despite her black eye which had swelled completely shut, and the way his father was calmly peeling an apple to feed her, just made his heart too happy. He shook his head and chuckled.
"Alright, see you back at the apartment. Since Dog and Shizune have taken over my room, you guys might as well take theirs. I can sleep on the couch just fine," he instructed, before squeezing Hinata's hand as they both disappeared in a shunshin.
As soon as they were gone, Tsunade gave her patients one more check before deeming Kushina fit for discharge. "Let's head over to my office," she announced as she casually cranked open the roller clamp of Jiraiya's intravenous sedation, ensuring that her old teammate would sleep through anything short of a second Kyūbi attack. Turning around she smiled openly at her two newest shinobi, "I'm sure Naruto has filled you in on a lot, but there are some things that he may have missed. And I have an idea for how we can get you both back into uniform without revealing your identities."
Minato raised an eyebrow but nodded and helped Kushina to stand, tenderly holding her hand as she tested out her weight on her twisted ankle. Tsunade felt her throat tighten at the unbelievable sight of the two of them, looking as young as ever, and she turned around to grip the handle of the door, biting her lip in hesitation over what she was about to do. But this was not a time to play games, and she was the Godaime dammit. So she set her shoulders and schooled her features, forcing her tone to sound light.
"Hurry up then," she said, "I'm sure what I have to tell you will be quite a surprise."
The trap by the window tripped, the one that he knew was the third line of defense. Instantly he was wide awake, his mind working to process the fact that whatever triggered the trap, it had somehow managed to disarm the first two without alerting anyone. In the darkness of the front room where he was sprawled out on the couch, Naruto's eyes flicked around the shadows even as he feigned sleep by remaining nearly motionless. The window was still shut, but he knew that it was where the trap had been triggered seconds earlier, letting out a mundane clock chime that would seem perfectly normal to anyone except the person who placed it, and knew Dog had cut the chime out of the clock because it made his pack howl like wild wolves.
He swept the room with his senses, yet nothing seemed amiss. He could feel Dog and Shizune in their room, and his parents were still peacefully asleep as well. All was as it should be, everything was quiet, even the faucet wasn't dripping.
The faucet isn't dripping!
He blasted his chakra to release the genjutsu and launched over the back of the couch just as a sword slashed into his blanket, slicing the couch cushion and the pillow where his head was just resting cleanly in half.
"You're gonna pay for that! That was my favorite pillow!"
The masked figure ignored his indignant threat, stomping on the shredded cushion as they pounced up and over the mangled piece of furniture, releasing a poof of feathers into the air. In the small space Naruto slammed his spine into the kitchen table as he bent backwards to dodge the wide arc of their blade, falling flat onto its hard surface and fiercely kicking the attacker with both feet. His feet stomped into the shinobi's crossed forearms with enough force to send them skidding into the small pile of empty ramen cups he'd left on the floor, and Naruto used the instant to sprint towards Dog's bedroom door.
"I hope you guys are decent because I'm coming in!" Naruto bellowed as he flung the door open. "We got company!" Slamming the door shut and flipping the flimsy lock out of reflex he panted, "Seriously, how are you two sleeping through this—"
The words died on his lips as he took in the wet glistening blood that coated the bed, the walls, and dripped into a puddle on the floor. The window was smashed open, glass adding to the glittering nature of the grisly sight, the curtains hung limply in the deathly still air. They weren't breathing. Their skin was pale as the once white sheets, and the first thing that crossed his mind as he slid shakily down the door, was that at least they died quickly, in each other's arms.
Snapping wood and pain jolted him out of his shocked stupor, the sword savagely stabbing through the door, aimed for his gut but slicing open his cheek instead as he sat dumbly on the soaked floorboards. Naruto fumbled around on his hands and knees, the smell of tangy copper suddenly filling his nose as he frantically scrubbed his bleeding face on his shoulder and tried to fight the panic rising within him like bile.
Wait, the smell of blood…stupid!
He's literally kneeling in puddles of the stuff but only now as it pours down his own face is he smelling it. Shit they got me again! Naruto pulsed his chakra once more, but now it is tinged with the anger of a demon. The massacred bodies disappear with the genjutsu, leaving only the neatly tucked shuriken-printed blanket. The sword spears through the door again, and again, aiming to free the simple barrier from its hinges.
Fury ignited the adrenalin already pouring through his body like fire chasing a trail of accelerant, and Naruto seized the reappearing blade with his bare hands, not even flinching at the way it dug down to the bones of his fingers as the assassin tried to wrench it out of his grasp from the other side of the entry. With a furious jerk he yanked the weapon all the way through the door while simultaneously booting his foot clean through the splintered panels and straight into the chest of the surprised ninja on the other side. They hit the opposite wall of the narrow hallway, the glass of framed photographs raining down upon both their heads as he tackled them.
A messy brawl of sharp taijutsu moves and brutal bare knuckle fisticuffs erupted. His opponent was smaller but swift, they reminded him of Hime, but their flexibility was nothing compared to hers, and the years of his training helped him quickly compensate for their style.
The apartment was being destroyed one brutal attack at a time. He's chucking chairs, she is ripping the curtains down to use like whips. He's ripping the leg off the table and swinging it at them with all his might, she is pulling herself up by the hanging lamp to dodge and swipe a kick at his head. He's throwing the silverware with enough wind chakra to embed them into the walls, she is bounding off the bookcase as she dodges, toppling the thing onto the floor with a massive crash.
The whole unit hit the couch on its way down and more feathers float into the air, and an idea suddenly hit him. Naruto clapped his hands together and released a Fūton jutsu that slashed the rest of the couch to smithereens with hundreds of blades of wind, blinding them both with a blizzard of snowy fluff. In the confusion he instantly spawned several clones who launched themselves blindly at the feather coated chakra signature, who had used the distraction to unseal another sword from somewhere and began effortlessly slashing at the clones before any of them could even land a hit.
Naruto and one other kage bunshin hung back from the melee, muting their chakra as he tried to think during the momentary distraction and obtain his bearings. The rest of the apartment is empty. Why? Where would they all have gone? Why did they leave me here? Naruto tried to spread his senses out further, but the memories of the destroyed clones were bombarding him, and he realized that his bunshin were almost gone and he needed to end this insanity before he focused on anything else.
The kage bunshin beside him was channeling chakra into its palm, preparing a swirling Rasengan as Naruto flew through hand seals as fast as he could. The intruder didn't appear to be winded in the least as she brought her sword down with a frustrated grunt, getting no satisfaction from the puff of harmless smoke that rewarded her destruction of his final shadow clone. Her hand snapped to her pouch, unleashing a hail of shuriken throughout the room in an attempt to take him down despite the feathery snow that obscured her vision and his muted chakra signature.
Naruto hunched protectively in front of the shadow clone, blocking the shuriken with a silent grit of his teeth as it focused on stabilizing the powerful orb in its hand. He couldn't afford a single setback, and if the clone was dispelled he would have to start over. He had to time this perfectly.
The ninja was frozen with intense concentration, poised with their sword, assessing, listening for the slightest hiss or grunt of a wounded man. The air shifted, and she twisted away out of reflex but Naruto's stealth techniques gave him just enough advantage for the clone to catch the intruder in the side. The Rasengan drilled through their thick vest and woven armor shirt, but just as it started to tear into their flesh Naruto dispelled the shadow clone, leaping in from the opposite direction to slap them with the seal he had been preparing. The inky black bands of chakra snake from where his palm had connected with their spine to wrap around their body with the strength of heavy chains, the binding fūinjutsu immediately absorbing the chakra from their network. The shinobi collapsed to the floor, struggling to crawl away as their arms began to shake. But the chains twisted further and further, enveloping their arms and legs, until the links encased them all the way up to the mask, leaving only the gaping eye holes visible.
Naruto cautiously stepped closer, watchful of any sudden chakra spikes, but the ninja was now completely incapacitated by the binding seal, lying helplessly on the splintered remnants of his home.
"Who are you?" he demanded as he leaned over them. Her only response was an intense glare from two brown eyes framed within the almond shaped cut outs of the mask.
"Figures," Naruto huffed in frustration, making feathers dance around the defeated shinobi's head. "I guess you'll not be telling me why you tried to kill me in my sleep?" If possible they glared harder, as though still trying to kill him with their furious scowl.
Naruto stood up, keeping a close eye on his captive as he finally spread his senses throughout the village. The Hokage was in her office, and Naruto decided that a late night visit would definitely be in order, but just as he hefted the surprisingly light body over his shoulder he realized that The Old Bat wasn't alone. Dog was there. Does he have a mission? Why didn't he tell me before he left? Something's not right…
He climbed up onto the roof and swept his awareness out further, reaching for Hime. She was at The Hyuga Compound, nothing too surprising there. But when he refocused on her Hiraishin seal, the emotions he felt from her made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. She was fighting, her adrenaline was pumping and her chakra was all over the place, Naruto could practically feel the bursts of power from her Gentle Fist technique tingling the palms of his own hands. He formed another shadow clone and tossed the growling prisoner to him, giving him a solemn nod before it disappeared into the night towards the Hokage Tower. He watched for a second as the kage bunshin truly became just a shadow crossing the rooftops of the village, his brows furrowing in suspicious concern as he again noted the lingering presence of Dog and Tsunade, like they were waiting expectantly for something, or someone, while the rest of Konoha slept.
Their first mistake was assuming that she was asleep.
With everything that was going on in her life, Hinata could only manage to lay in bed and stare out the window at the moonless sky, listening to the trickle of the small fountain in the middle of the quaint pond in the backyard. Her mind obsessively replayed the way Naruto had blushed and stuttered as he bowed to Hizashi and formally requested permission to date his daughter. Her father had smiled sympathetically at his nervousness and easily agreed, releasing the slight fear that had gripped her heart that he might possibly refuse based on the fact that Naruto was not a Hyuga. The relief that washed over Naruto's face as the Clan Head had slapped a hand on his shoulder had frozen on his features when Hizashi then leaned in close to whisper in the blond's ear. Hinata had nearly fainted when she read her father's lips as he threateningly reminded the young man that the Byakugan could see everything. And that no amount of fūinjutsu could protect him from a father's wrath.
Beyond the fresh and slightly frustrating memory of Naruto's subsequently stiff kiss goodnight, she continued to fight against the other anxious thoughts that wrestled in her head. The Clan, the Jonin Exams, protecting all her precious people…
Hinata scolded herself mentally, restlessly fluffing the pillow under her head once more in an attempt to find a position that would magically overwhelm her brain with the desire to sleep. It was shameful for a Hyuga to have such a bad case of nerves, but it was the sleepless anxiety that kept her involuntarily alert even into the dead of night, when a shadow passed by her window. Silent and swift.
It's them. Her instincts triggered and her body reacted, her heart beat ramping up in her chest like a rogue wave crashing out of nowhere. They have finally come for us.
She had always suspected they would eventually target her father, that all the attacks up to this point were just practice for the main event. She didn't even feel the bite of the cold air as she muted her chakra the way Naruto-kun had taught her and darted down the hall to protect her family. With perfect control she activated her Byakugan with the minimal amount of chakra, scanning the blackness of her home for the death that she knew was stalking in the shadows. There, on the roof.
The figure was directly overhead, surefooted even in the night as they crept across the sloped roof, head tilted downwards in acute concentration as though searching the dwelling beneath their feet for their victim. Hinata couldn't keep her lips from curling up in a snarl of concentration as she matched them step for step from below, mirroring their every move in a dark dance of stealth and anticipation.
The infiltrator seemed somewhat lost as they zig-zagged back and forth overhead, pausing briefly over empty rooms before moving on. Hinata followed, confused, if this person had the Byakugan, they should be able to see everything as clearly as she could see them. They passed over Neji's empty room, his team having been sent out yesterday morning on a mission, and she tried to focus on the prowler's face. But the mask they wore was charged with chakra, effectively barricading her bloodline from penetrating the disguise due to its intense nature. The shinobi was aware of the Hyuga's unique talent, and had taken precautions to hide their identity. This, plus the fact that they had made it past the guards that now patrolled The Compound more intensely than ever, had Hinata calculating this opponent to be at least a high Jonin level shinobi.
As she silently slid through the dark house, Hinata's fingers brushed against the flowers that adorned the heirloom vase on display in the empty hallway. Her light touch coaxing the water from within the priceless urn to curl up and around her left hand.
Onward the two midnight stalkers crept, one above and one below. Hinata traced the prowler's path, a shadow following its caster, her head angled upward, her bare feet padding along the cold floors of the house as she scrutinized the tall figure with the same intensity with which they seemed to analyze the tiles of the roof and the objects beneath it. The figure abruptly stopped midstep, and pivoted toward something that had caught its attention. Hinata quickly followed as they knelt over Hiro-san's room, their posture tense as they studied the sleeping woman. Hinata's eyes narrowed, her vision focusing on their hands, waiting to see if they began the fateful sequence of hand signs that would activate the Caged Bird Seal, while rocking up onto her toes, legs poised to leap in defense of her loved one. But nothing happened. The shinobi's hands formed no seals, but instead reached around their broad shoulders to produce an unstrung bow and string.
The figure stood and moved on, pausing only to string their bow, testing its tension as it stalked further across the roof. So they are a Sensor of some kind, even if not a Hyuga, and they knew Hiro-san was not who they wanted. Before Hinata left Hiro-san's door, she danced her chakra laced fingers across the wooden panels. Within the bedroom the cold water from the wash basin slipped over the lip of the bowl, across the floor and under the door, trickling up to Hinata's open palm to coat her right hand.
In the years since Hiashi's death, she had spent time perfecting her water bullet jutsu, and now the result of her research and training showed as two conical shapes formed from the clear liquid within her palms. Each projectile was the size of her thumb, with helical grooves spiraling down their shafts to make them rotate through the air with greater accuracy, and maximum deadliness. Now armed with her own weapons, Hinata confidently followed the intruder as they reached behind them once more to pull an arrow from what she now realized was a quiver on their back. Hyuga or not, they mean to kill us!
Hinata dashed for her father's room, breaking all propriety and scanning his bed while watching the shinobi above, noting that Hizashi was soundly asleep behind his traps which covered the window and the door, but not the roof itself.
Her heart was racing as her feet flew towards his bedroom, but just as she raised her fist to pound on his door, the stalker changed direction again, seeming to stare at the Clan Head's vulnerable figure and pass it over in search of someone else, as they nocked the arrow upon the string of the bow. Confusion crossed her face, clashing with the shock of her realization an instant later. They want…me?
Her hair whipped through the cold air as she spun around and flew back down the hall toward her own bed, throwing her hands out to create a water clone that was throbbing with chakra, and making the decoy lie down in her bed. The mizu bunshin slid between the sheets just as the ninja's sweeping gaze seemed to zero in on her room as they detected her revealed chakra, and their steps hastened. Hinata sucked in her breath, crouched beneath them as they drew back on their bow with the surety of a hunter who had locked in on his desired target. Her knuckles cracked in her clenched fist as she coiled up like a snake preparing to strike. The assassin planted their feet on the roof directly over her bed, charging the arrow with enough chakra to drill the metallic tipped missile through the tiles, the wood, the blankets, and her beating heart in one shot. In unison, both stalkers exhaled, paused for a heartbeat, and loosed.
The instant the arrow snapped free of the string she erupted through the roof, her chakra enhanced fist smashing into the building and the shinobi in one powerful punch. The ninja screamed as they landed in the pond, thrashing in pain as they rolled through the mossy shallows. They struggled to their feet, moaning as they clutched their right arm. Hinata's well aimed strike had shattered their scapula, clavicle, and humerus, making it impossible for them to draw and fire any more arrows. Her hands flashed through a blur of signs, and serpentine whips of water burst out of the pond like tentacles of some creature from the deep. The shinobi valiantly tried to leap away, but the lashing tails of water shot through the air, capturing their feet and wrists, yanking them back to the grass as they howled in pain before stretching them out spread eagle under her blazing bloodline.
"Who are you?" She hissed as she strode across the water towards the shaking man, two fingers tipped in chakra and poised threateningly over his heart's tenketsu in a stance that any ninja who had ever heard of the Hyuga would recognize and fear. The gasping prisoner snarled, but uttered no words as water dripped from his mask like sweat off a guilty convict. Hinata's eyes twitched ever so slightly, "I see."
The blur of her hands was a testament to her terrifying prowess as a master of the Hakke Rokujūyon Shō, and the shinobi bonelessly fell to the ground just as a yellow flash appeared at her side.
Naruto's hand slid up her back from where it rested upon his mark to wrap around her shoulders, "Hime, are you okay?"
Hinata nodded tersely, her anger still frothing within her mind as she glared down at the unconscious body. Naruto felt the multiple chakra signatures of the Hyuga guards closing in and glanced around anxiously, knowing anyone of them could be the unknown Caged Bird Seal attacker in disguise, looking to capitalize on a chaotic opportunity. "We need to get out of here Hime, they are after me too. Are you ready?"
"Ready." In an instant the only thing left of their presence were the ripples on the pond.
Hizashi jolted awake at the cracking and creaking sound of splintering wood. The accompanying splash and scream of pain that immediately followed had him surging out of bed with his Byakugan pulsing in an instant. His head craned left and right, finally locking in on the sight of his daughter commanding the water of their docile pond to crucify some masked man like a victim stretched upon the rack. He raced down the hall and into her destroyed bedroom, watching through the walls as she slammed the figure with a murderous Sixty-four Palm Gentle Fist. Just as he cleared the remnants of her window sill he saw Naruto appear, and before he could call out their names, all three figures were gone in a flash of yellow.
The guards found him standing in the middle of the trampled yard, his bloodline pulsing and throbbing as he searched further and further into the black night for any trace of his daughter and Naruto.
"Hizashi-sama! What happened? Who did this?"
His footsteps squelched in the mud as Hizashi brushed past them towards his room, his features full of the fury of an impending thunderstorm.
"I'm going to the Hokage."
The trees that surrounded their old hidden training ground were illuminated by the flash of Naruto's Hiraishin as three figures landed next to the battered post in the middle of the clearing. Naruto dropped the still unconscious body of his Hime's attacker onto the dirt with little care for the man's injured shoulder. Despite her barely waning anger, Hinata couldn't help but think that the fall would definitely not help the ninja's shattered bones.
As they trotted over to the largest tree at the edge of the clearing they filled each other in on their bizarre attacks. Hinata pulled aside the thick brush and began rummaging through a hollow at the base of the old tree where she, Neji, and Naruto had always stashed emergency supplies as kids, never knowing when the villagers would rise up against Naruto and he would have to sleep in the forest. Once Dog had taken an active role as his protector the hidden stores had become more of a routine part of their shinobi training than a necessity, but now Naruto hummed in approval as she pulled out the stash of food pills, clothes, and spare weapon pouches. "Nice, Hime! You kept everything in top shape the whole time I was gone," he complimented, crunching down on a food pill as she did the same.
"A shinobi should always be prepared for the worst," she said humbly, noticing the fact that he was only in his pajamas, as was she. Their breaths fogged in the chill air of the night, and as her adrenalin faded goosebumps appeared along her bare arms. She tossed Naruto a pair of standard issue pants and a long-sleeved shirt, pulling some out for herself and eyeing the white kimono style shirt that Neji had added before wrapping it around herself as well. The garment only fell to her knees, but the extra layer was welcome, and she tied it tightly around her waist as she contemplated their next move, she had a feeling this was only the tip of the iceberg.
Just as Hinata was about to voice her thoughts Naruto stiffened by her side, his eyes glazing over in the way that she knew meant he was either processing the memories of his clone or talking to Kurama. When his mouth settled into a firm line of displeasure, she braced herself for the worst.
"Hime," he said slowly, his voice a husky whisper of hesitation and dismay, "I think Tsunade is trying to kill us."
"W-What?"
The clone landed silently on the roof of the Hokage Tower, taking care to avoid the obvious chakra signatures of her ANBU as he crept toward the window which was at Tsunade's back as she sat in her high backed chair talking to Dog. The chakra bound shinobi slung over his shoulder grunted weakly at the awkward shifting of their positions, but with the seal still firmly in place, they were rendered completely helpless.
Remembering the suspicious hesitation of the Original, the clone placed himself where he could just make out their words from under the window sill.
"We should have heard something by now," Dog said, sounding grumpy and annoyed.
"Relax, perhaps they put up a better fight than we expected, but I sent the best assassins for each of their unique skills. Hinata's opponent is a skilled Sensor and can kill from a distance with perfect stealth. An ideal match for a Hyuga with a mostly close combat style. Even if she does manage to see him coming, he can still penetrate a kaiten with his chakra powered arrows."
The clone's fingers involuntarily dug into the legs of his burden, causing them to flinch at the sharp claws that had suddenly sprouted at the Hokage's words.
"But Pup has many different skills, most of which Jiraiya refused to divulge before the Exams for fear of ruining his surprise factor." Dog's footsteps could be heard shuffling back and forth across the office floor, perhaps he was no longer feeling too comfortable with whatever shitty plan they had made?
Tsunade's scoff made the clone grit his teeth in offense at her rude dismissal of his potential. "I have it covered. The kunoichi I sent after him is a master of Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, and most importantly: Genjutsu. The brat could never recognize one of those even if it smacked him on the ass and called him daddy. Besides, you gave her the paper seal that will bind his demonic chakra right?"
"Hai…though it seems a bit excessive."
"Absolutely not. The last thing I want in my village is a raging jinchuriki."
The last syllable had barely left her smirking lips when the window behind her shattered, and Kakashi suddenly found himself knocked flat on his back by the burden of a limp and bound body. Both shinobi gaped in shock as the figure of the kunoichi who was supposed to bring back the Container of the Nine-Tailed Fox rolled onto her stomach to reveal the words painted on the back of her gray vest in red blood.
"I see you."
"That's insane," Hinata repeated for the third time as Naruto paced back and forth in restless agitation.
"I know! I know! But what else could it be?" His hands gripped his blond hair, tugging on the mussed locks that still bore the distinct swirl of bedhead. "I mean, just a few hours ago she was smiling at us all sweet and making us promise to be on time for the Exams and now she is talking to our sensei about the best way to murder us in our sleep! And where the hell does he even get off helping her to assassinate his own teammates? What kind of scum—"
"Something's not right, Kakashi-sensei would never abandon his teammates." Hinata strode back over to her unconscious attacker-turned-victim and knelt down, reaching out to rip the shirt open at his left shoulder. There, plain to see against his pale skin was the dark swirling tattoo of the ANBU Black Ops.
"Motherfucker," Naruto growled as he slammed his fist through the old training post, then continued to mutter angrily as he shook out his throbbing knuckles.
Hinata frowned at his language, but she agreed wholeheartedly with his outraged sentiment. She went to his side, taking his bleeding hand in her own and enveloping it in her tingling healing chakra as she asked in a somber voice that shook slightly with her shivering and nervousness, "You know what this means, don't you?"
"Look underneath the underneath," Naruto sighed, seeing her tremble and reaching out to envelop her in his always smoldering heat. He held her as tightly as he could, drinking in her chakra and letting it calm his reeling thoughts as well as his aching hand. This was not the time for rash decisions, they had to think this through, their next move could seal their fate or stamp their names in the annals of Konoha legend. Their retaliation needed to be unpredictable, unnoticed, and yet unmistakable. His blue eyes widened as a brilliant strategy flooded in his brain like the sun bursting through a storm cloud, and Hinata furrowed her brow in worry as she saw the way his whiskers slowly curled up in a diabolical smirk that meant the world had better gird her loins for what was about to come out of his mouth.
"Let's kill the Hokage!"
Tsunade gripped the railing as she gazed out over the village from the top of the Hokage tower where she had gone to try and clear her worries in the crisp morning air. The biting wind and dark clouds that hailed the rapid approach of a rainstorm didn't even faze her as the architecture beneath her manicured nails began to crack from her angry grasp. Things were not going according to plan, and despite her attempt at a moment's rest she couldn't seem to escape her current tormentor.
"Tsunade-sama I'll ask you again, where are Naruto and my daughter?"
Barely withholding a snarl as she turned to face the Hyuga Clan Head Tsunade glared back at him with a force equal to his own fierce expression. The game was still afoot, and she had risked too much to tip her hand this early, so she doubled down once more and gambled on the hope that her own strategy would still see her through. The looming presence of the two new ANBU with bright red and yellow hair was not helping her ignore any of the many details out of her control.
"They are on a mission, Hizashi, I told you."
"And I heard you," he said with steel undercutting his calm tone. "But I have been to Naruto's apartment, it is destroyed as well. Your ANBU are crawling through every shadow of Konoha like an army of ants looking for a bread crumb. You are lying to me. You have no idea where they are, do you?"
Her teeth grit audibly. Blasted Hyuga. The ANBU that stood on each side of her tensed at his bold accusation, but Hizashi did not shift his cold gaze away from her scowling face.
"Listen here Hyuga," Tsunade spit out her words with venom as she moved toward him, ensuring that she pumped enough chakra to shake the building beneath her feet with each intimidating step, "I am your Hokage. I am the commander of the entirety of the shinobi force of Konohagakure, of which you are a loyal soldier. If I say those two are enemies of the Leaf, then they will be stamped into the Bingo Book by the end of the day. If I say they are the second coming of the Kami-damned Scions they will be worshipped in every temple throughout the Land of Fire. If I say that brat and your daughter are on a motherfucking mission," she stopped with her face mere inches away from his stony glare, her mouth twisting and Killer Intent punctuating each word. "Then. They. Are. On. A. Mission."
The two ANBU had slid closer, well out of range of Hizashi's Gentle Fist, but near enough to retaliate should he dare lash out under Tsunade's thinly veiled threat. But the man stood tall and sturdy as a tree, the power of her anger flowing through him as harmlessly as a summer breeze through his strong branches, the blast of her ire barely even ruffling his long hair. He studied her seething features, her barely controlled temper, and with a characteristically haughty dismissal that seemed ingrained into the DNA of every Hyuga, completely disregarded her attempt to intimidate him.
"With all due respect, Hokage-sama," his even voice was laced with an undercurrent of sarcasm that made her knuckles crack as she clenched her fists, "I have known Naruto since he was nothing more than an ostracized orphan left to wander the streets when the citizens labeled him a demon child, while you wandered from one gambling den to another in a drunken stupor. I have happily watched him grow up alongside my own children and I would die for that boy without hesitation. I see him as a son, Neji looks upon him as a brother, and Hinata has loved him longer than she even realizes. There is nothing you can say to ever make me abandon any of them." He sensed the way the ANBU faltered, and his voice dropped as he nearly whispered his next words. "Someday that 'brat' is going to take the white hat off your head, whether you hand it to him or he has to rip it from your death grip."
As Hizashi calmly folded his hands into his sleeves Tsunade could feel the veins throbbing in her head as she fought to control her fury, but also her shock at his brazen disrespect. She noticed the way her supposed guards had completely relaxed their stances and were now staring at her more closely than the Clan Head who now wore a regally smug expression on his face.
"I have more faith in Hinata and Naruto's Will of Fire than your words, Tsunade-sama." Hizashi stated with the unwavering confidence of a man who held complete trust in his precious people. "If I don't have some assurance of their well being by the end of the day I will send out a search party of my own."
She was just about to argue that this would be a blatant act of insurrection when a poof of smoke announced Kakashi's abrupt appearance at her side.
"Hokage-sama, the second ANBU has been found." He glanced over at the three others on the rooftop, but Tsunade impatiently waved at him to continue. "He was dropped off on the steps of the hospital by an unseen individual. He is unconscious and sustained major injuries, Shizune requests your presence at once." His single eye shifted away from her stern gaze and she frowned.
"Out with it Hatake, there's more?"
Kakashi nodded hesitantly, "On the back of his vest were the words 'I see you' written in blood."
Tsunade scoffed, grumbling something about dramatic teenagers before dragging a hand over her face. "Will that be enough 'assurance' for you, Hyuga?"
Hizashi smirked, clearly seeming to enjoy her frustration. "For now, Hokage-sama."
Though Tsunade rudely brushed past him to follow Kakashi to the hospital, the two ANBU remained on the rooftop, staring at the Clan Head with their expressionless animal masks. Hizashi studied them, their tattoo's were fresh on their skin and they seemed familiar to him somehow. The smaller one with the long red hair started to reach up for her mask but the taller blond one stopped her with a gentle hand and shake of his head. He then turned to Hizashi, and the Hyuga had the distinct impression that the ANBU was smiling at him.
"Thank you, Hyuga-sama. Your kindness will not be forgotten." Hizashi blinked in confusion as they both bowed to him much more deeply than he thought necessary, before they both shunshined away, leaving the Hyuga with the unsettling feeling that he knew them but couldn't remember their names.
As he descended the stairs and walked through the hallways of the Tower he passed by the Hokage Office just as Shizune slipped out of the door, carefully closing it behind her as she balanced a large box containing a variety of sake bottles on her hip. She glanced up at his approach and bowed nervously with a small laugh, "Tsunade-sama is getting more creative with her hiding places, ha ha." Before Hizashi could ask her why she wasn't at the hospital she quickly danced past him with a murmured excuse about getting rid of the stuff before the Godaime found out and disappeared down another hallway. He stood staring after her, his mind quickly piecing together what he had just seen.
The secretary would later claim she had never seen a Clan Head of the Hyuga laugh so hard.
The door of the Hokage office slammed open with such force the wall cracked. Tsunade stormed in and headed straight for her desk, immediately producing a bottle of sake from the false bottom of her top drawer and chugging half the thing in one breath. Kakashi delicately shut the door behind himself so as not to free it completely from its damaged hinges before turning a lazy eye upon his gulping Hokage. She exhaled harshly with a sigh of gratitude, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and smiling for the first time since last night when her plans had all gone to hell. Ignoring the annoyed way Kakashi jammed his fists into his pockets, she greedily lifted the bottle to finish it off. Kami I needed that. Those brats are making this all so difficult.
Finally satisfied that she would be decently buzzed in a matter of minutes, the Godaime straightened up and acknowledged the only other shinobi in the room, having left her other ANBU to await the awakening of the latest victim. Poor bastard might not draw a bow for weeks, that little Hyuga can be brutal when you provoke her. Tsunade intentionally ignored the small voice reminding her that an attempted assassination was slightly more than just 'provoking' and instead barked at her fellow henchman. "Report, Hatake."
"I can't find them."
Tsunade rolled her eyes, "Tell me something less obvious and more helpful."
Kakashi shifted his feet. "Naruto's smell is all over the village, it seems he spent his morning yesterday wandering around placing his Hiraishin seal in various places. His more recent scent leads to the Hyuga Compound, which corroborates Hizashi's statement about seeing him with Hinata and the ANBU before the three disappeared. I've checked all their normal hideouts: they stopped at their old training ground and grabbed some supplies, but otherwise there is nothing. As long as he keeps flashing them from one place to another, there will be no trail for me to follow."
By the time he finished his succinct statement, Tsunade was leaning forward on her elbows, her face planted in her hands and grumbling some sort of incoherent nonsense. Kakashi furrowed his brow at her slumped posture, the woman normally held her liquor a little better than this, and now was definitely not the time to get wasted. "Hokage-sama we have to stop hunting them like criminals and reach out in another way. I'm worried what kind of assumptions they may come to, Hinata is meticulous and deliberate, but Naruto can be rather hot headed and…are you even listening to me?"
Soft snoring was her only response. Kakashi stepped closer and picked up the bottle of sake with one hand, the other barely catching Tsunade's head before it hit the desk as her hands went limp. Bringing the ceramic bottle to his nose he recoiled a bit at the fumes, but other than her usual preference of petroleum level alcohol, he could detect no suspicious odors. There must have been something extra in there, though, he thought as he observed the puddle of drool forming under her chin. Just as he was about to lean over and shake her awake a loud blast beat him to it, once again shattering the panels of the newly replaced windows behind her chair and throwing them both over her desk amidst a shower of glass fragments. The door slammed open a second later, this time flying completely off its damaged hinges, to reveal a seriously panicking Raido.
"Hokage-sama! The Kyūbi! In the village!"
Tsunade swore heartily and with a heavy slur, struggling to grab the edge of the desk and hoist herself up to look out the broken window as she started to stream chakra throughout her system to help her sober up quickly. Peeking over the polished surface she gasped in horror at the unspeakable sight that met her eyes. The Nine Tailed Demon himself, in all his thunderous glory loomed like the Devil over his eternal fire as it smashed through the main market district on a hellbent path towards the Hokage Tower. The sight was unbelievable, but the thick, hate-filled chakra was undeniable. Tsunade gasped as she barely pulled her trembling body to her feet, leaning heavily against the desk as scrolls rolled to the floor and portraits fell from the walls, the earth shaking with each step of the monster's clawed limbs. His burning crimson eye seized upon her weakened body, and he grinned with a carnivorous vulpine smile as he stalked toward his prey with single minded murderous intent.
"Thought you could outsmart a 'raging jinchuriki' did you, Mortal?" The Kyūbi's rumbling voice reverberated through her heart, making Tsunade clasp her chest as she fought to breathe through his suffocating miasma of Killer Intent. But she was the Hokage, dammit, and even though she was still struggling to fight off the last of her suspiciously significant inebriation through the oppressive waves of demonic chakra, she did not cower before the beast, instead facing him down with an unyielding glare. The Fox laughed mockingly at her show of bravery, whipping his tails and unleashing a wind that uprooted ancient trees and ripped roofs off of buildings. "I see you, proud princess of Konoha. Well then, let's find out how you fare against a freed bijū?" With that final threat the massive entity turned and leaped away to spread his divine destruction as far as his wicked tails could reach.
"Kakashi!" Tsunade screamed as her nails tore grooves into the wooden surface of her desk, her head frantically swiveling around to find that the man had completely vanished, along with Raido. "ANBU! Where is everyone?!" They had better be manning their posts, she snarled internally as she blasted her chakra again, trying to burn away her stubborn sake haze even faster as she dove through the broken window and chased after the roving apocalypse that she had provoked into annihilating her village. Dammit! It wasn't supposed to get this far out of control. Naruto, Hinata, how could you let this happen?
The landscape blurred in and out of focus around her as Tsunade raced towards the outskirts of the forest where the Kyūbi had fled, leaving the village in shambles and seemingly bent on destroying the entire Land of Fire. Barely sticking the landing on the next tree branch she cursed herself for being so clumsy, and unleashed a third enormous wave of chakra through her system, finally washing away the last of what she was now certain was spiked sake, the act costing her significantly more chakra than she could afford to lose when facing a fight with a divine monster. And because of her stupid plan to sedate Jiraiya into oblivion in order to keep him from meddling in her schemes, she had lost her most trusted partner. Now fully focused, Tsunade forced her regrets aside and charged her fist with chakra, zeroing in on the beast's galloping back as she vaulted at full power off the tree, aiming to land a devastating strike squarely on his red coated spine.
But just as she reached the peak of her arcing leap, The Fox vanished. Confusion didn't even have time to dawn before Tsunade was slammed out of the air and into the ground with such extraordinary force her body cratered the earth and leveled the trees in a radius the size of the Konoha Arena. When she was finally able to crack her eyes open, the world was tinted a swirling red, but as she was trying to blink away all the dancing hues she realized that it wasn't her vision that was askew, but that she was completely surrounded by a massive four-sided chakra barrier.
"Shisekiyōjin,"the Hokage growled, picking herself up off the dirt and looking around to see four blond clones sitting at each corner within the ninjutsu prison.
"You'd better have a damn good explanation for all this," Tsunade snarled as she wiped the blood from her mouth and turned to look up at the two chakra signatures that stood behind her.
Naruto and Hinata looked down at her from the rim of the newest hole in Konoha's landscape with a glee for battle glowing in their eyes. "It's quite simple, Shishō," Hinata said with a calmness that belied the power rolling off of her as she activated her Byakugo no In. Gently flexing the fingers of her hand which had just delivered the haymaker that leveled the Slug Princess. Hinata stared her down as she got to her feet, "you tried to kill us."
"And failed," Naruto added with a smirk, his darkened whiskers and slitted red eyes giving the cocky expression on his face a fiendish veneer. He leaned down, planting his hands on his knees to display his claws and grinning widely enough to flash all of his fanged teeth. "So now, we're going to kill you."
Kakashi raced back to the village from the godforsaken corner of the forest where the supposed "Raido" had deposited him in a yellow flash, his Sharingan spinning angrily as he cursed himself again for allowing Pup to get the jump on him. Damn Henge. Damn Shadow Clones. Damn Thunder God Jutsu. Now the village is in danger and I'm going to be too late again…
The thought trailed away as he breached a final tangle of tree branches to see that Konoha was as pristinely peaceful as it had been that morning when he traversed it with Pakkun at his side in search of his not-so-cute-little students. Kakashi rubbed his left eye, he had been certain that he felt the unmistakable choke of the Kyūbi's demonic presence. Genjutsu, he realized with frustration, Hinata must have somehow laced the Hokage's sake and cast a genjutsu of the Kyūbi attack that Pup backed up with his bijū chakra for added effect. The reputed genius was so impressed with their stunt he wasn't even mad, but then an ear shattering boom rumbled through the landscape, accompanied by a mushrooming dust cloud and red barrier that made him sigh all the way down to the depths of his prematurely aged soul. I tried to warn Tsunade, I knew they wouldn't react like normal chunin. With another fortifying sigh of resignation Kakashi headed off to face whatever unpredictable disaster awaited.
By the time he reached a safe distance that still allowed him a clear view of the epic battle materializing between the Godaime Hokage and his two students, the gray cloudy day had morphed into a cold rainstorm that pelted his skin like icy needles as he flew from branch to branch. Hizashi and two ANBU were already there and watching, perched upon a high cliff overlooking what appeared to be a new valley that the three combatants were actively carving into the forest within the confines of the four-sided barrier.
"How are they holding up?" Kakashi asked the Hyuga Clan Head, nodding his greeting to the blond and red haired ANBU that appeared to be barely containing their excitement.
The veins of Hizashi's temples throbbed as he watched every maneuver with his dōjutsu, a smile playing at his lips. "Their synchronization is as perfect as ever, it's like they know what the other is doing before they move. Did you know, Naruto has complete control of his bijū?"
Kakashi chuckled, and stared harder with his own borrowed bloodline at the melee taking place. Tsunade and Hinata both were crisscrossed with the chakra markings of their Strength of a Hundred Technique, and Naruto was like a shining sun that burned with a blinding yellow chakra. Every chunk of debris that Tsunade threw at him he batted away with arms of yellow translucent chakra. Every Heavenly Spear Kick she unleashed Hinata blocked with barely a grimace. The elements of the forest were being tossed around amongst the three titans as though they were simply toys in a sandbox.
But Tsunade was not the Hokage, the Slug Princess, the Sannin for nothing. Hinata flashed behind her, slamming as many tenketsu as she could while Naruto's clones struggled to hold down Tsunade's powerful body. With a war cry of pure fury Tsunade blasted them with a wave of chakra that dispelled all the clones and ripped every closed point of her network wide open once more. The Original Naruto burst up from the ground beneath her feet, eyes surrounded in the orange hue that testified to his prowess as a Sage and rammed her with a fist that caved in her ribs, causing blood to shoot from her gaping mouth and splatter up his arm. But her healing was as legendary as her temper, and before he could even draw back for another swing she retaliated with a vicious blow of her own, sending him skidding over the broken earth with a howl of pain, his hands clawing desperately into the earth to stop his body from hitting the walls of the barrier.
The crowd atop the cliff grew as the fight waged on, Clan Heads, academy students, and the former Konoha rookies that grew up alongside the two chunin who now challenged the most powerful kunoichi of the shinobi world, all gathered to gape in awe at the spectacular display of power, skill, and cunning.
Naruto and Hinata had obviously not wasted the opportunity to make preparations; traps and hidden explosives constantly added to the chaos as they tangled with Tsunade, only for her to use every piece of rock and rubble to pelt them in return. At some point Hinata raised up a Water Dragon, pulling the rain clean out of the air with her perfect chakra control, unleashing a wave of tsunami level destruction upon her mentor and flooding the already soaked landscape.
Naruto slapped one gravity seal after another upon Tsunade's body in an attempt to nullify her fearsome strength, only for her to mock his efforts by simply pumping more chakra into her muscles and overwhelming the fūinjutsu's effect. His wind jutsu whipped across the muddy water, slicing at her clothes and hair and skin, but the strength of her healing merely replaced every drop of blood before she ever noticed its loss. Hinata commanded the deluge of the storm, redirecting it into a shower of water bullets, which Naruto perfectly combined with his wind chakra to form scores of ice tipped weapons, forcing Tsunade to block with the chakra enhanced speed of a Taijutsu master.
"They need something new," Shikamaru commented to his teammates, who were all devouring Choji's chips with nervous energy, their eyes glued to the impressively close fight. "She's seen this all by now, hitting her over and over again with the same tricks isn't going to get them different results."
"Ah, but perhaps that's the point," his father mumbled around his cigarette, which he had to relight more than once from Asuma's offered lighter. "Tsunade's greatest advantage is in her stored chakra and how she uses it to heal her injuries and inflict bigger ones. If together they can push her to her limits without expending all of their own stores, they could potentially force a stalemate."
"That's why they drugged her sake," Hizashi added, earning a surprised look from Neji and the rest of Team Gai, who had been on their way back from their mission when Neji's Byakugan saw the chaos and raced the rest of the way to the village and his father's side. "I knew that wasn't the real Shizune leaving the Hokage Office earlier today. They forced Tsunade-sama to expend a large portion of her chakra on her sobriety before she ever entered the fight."
"Sugoi," Ino breathed in awe, "I didn't even know Naruto was back, what a way to make an entrance."
Sakura's scream startled them all, and everyone but the two ANBU were joining her in horror. Tsunade had shattered a tree that Hinata launched at her, and turned the wooden shards into massive senbon, retaliating with a hail of rapid fire chakra enhanced javelins which rained down upon the two chunin like fire and brimstone from heaven. Hinata's kaiten briefly faltered, she had used it countless times already to protect herself from the litany of shrapnel they had already survived, and in that instant of weakness one flying projectile split the gap of her defense and impaled her clean through the stomach. Naruto bolted to Hinata's side, ignoring the continued volley of wooden shards, and as he was reaching for her, he was speared once in the shoulder and again in his back, instantly collapsing his lung. He staggered from the impact, falling to his knees and crawling the last few yards to where Hinata knelt in the mud, barely keeping herself from collapsing as blood poured down her legs. The brown puddles around them rusted with their mixing fluids as Naruto wheezed and spat, trying to suck air into his wounded chest and brace his Hime at the same time.
Tsunade teetered where she stood, weaker than she dared admit from the combination of the sight of such extreme exsanguination and her liberal usage of chakra, but her voice still rang out over the valley and up to the gaping audience with all the authority of her status.
"YEILD!" She bellowed at the two injured shinobi, who were lethally wounded and crouched in the freezing downpour that the heavens had unleashed. "If you do not give up, I will be forced to kill you!"
"We…never give up," Hinata rasped, reaching down with shaking pale hands to yank the rod out of her gut, unable to hold back the scream of pain as she wrapped glowing hands over her abdomen.
"It's our…nindo!" Naruto barked, his fangs dripping with frothing pink saliva as he twisted painfully to rip out the two shards from his back, the heat of his bijū cloak sizzling over the wounds as they disappeared. He panted through his agony as his body screamed at him for rest, but he stubbornly reached down to help Hime to her feet, steadying her as her own breathing evened out, and her blue lips gained a healthy pink hue once more.
"I will not hold back!" Tsunade threatened, the purple seal on her forehead surging with the last of her stored chakra, causing the earth beneath her feet to crack under the weight of her inherent power, and the wind to whip around her as even the elements warped in deference to her aura.
Naruto blinked away the water that dripped into his eyes and looked down at Hime's soaked form. Her hair was plastered to her bloody face, her clothes were caked in mud, her legs trembled with exhaustion, but as she raised her gaze to his, her eyes shone like quicksilver against the black markings of her Ninpō Sōzō Saisei, and he could read her heart as though she had whispered in his ear. I'm ready.
His chuckle resonated with the deep timbre of his demonic partner as both jinchuriki and bijū admired the breathtaking beauty and determination of the warrior woman at their side. Without taking his flashing eyes off of Hime's smirking mouth, he shouted back at the other Herculean kunoichi, "Neither will we!"
If Tsunade was the thunderstorm, they became the hurricane. Hinata's Byakugan flashed white as the lightning. Naruto's chakra roared like the gale force wind. He extended out his hand, a Rasengan of demonic chakra dark as an obsidian stone emerging from his palm. The black markings of her jutsu slithered across Hinata's skin, retreating from her body to join in twisting down her single arm and encase her hand as she reached out, daring to grasp the unholy orb with her bare fingers, gritting her teeth at the savage power expanding beneath her touch. The Bijūdama throbbed at her contact, and as Hinata added her own balance of chakra to Naruto's, it swelled, swirling faster as she pumped every last ounce of her reserves into a purple chakra cloud that materialized around it in the snarling visage of a ferocious lion. The atmosphere around them detonated as their chakras aligned and synchronized, and the blast of the Lion's roar blew even the bystanders back from their cliff. In chorus they cried out, "Jūho Sōshiken Bijūdama!"
Kakashi's Sharingan was the only eye amongst the staggering spectators that saw what actually happened. Naruto's eyes changed from the slitted red-orange of his Sage and Bijū Mode, and swirled into a crystal clear blue of a pattern that he had only read about in dusty old history scrolls. The devastating combo attack of their two divine dōjutsu's was on a direct course to potentially put Tsunade out of commission for weeks, if not actually kill her, and Kakashi's heart stopped as he realized that this had all gone way too far. Pup it wasn't supposed to be like this…
His Sharingan saw a yellow flash that most of the shinobi mistook for a consequence of the dominating jutsu's execution, split the closing gap between the three charging shinobi, snatching the Godaime off the earth and disappearing before anyone could see where she went. Naruto and Hinata collided with the empty ground where Tsunade had been, splitting the land open in a mawing chasm that devoured everything within the four walls of the red Shisekiyōjin, bowing its walls and spewing the destroyed debris up out the top with the velocity of an erupting volcano.
The onlookers were frozen in awe, only Neji, Kakashi, and the red haired ANBU were fast enough to make it to the ground just as the four exhausted clones dispelled their ninjutsu barrier. The two men leapt down into the deep crater and grabbed the nearly unconscious chunin, while the ANBU strategically stood on the rim of the deep crater with her back to the cliffs and shot down two golden chains from her hands to hoist them all back up the muddy slope.
If Neji had questions about the ANBU's unique ability he ignored them as they reached the top and he focused on adjusting his grip on his sister, who could only offer him a small smile of appreciation before her head dropped to his shoulder and she finally gave in to her overwhelming fatigue. Seeing that she was breathing easily, the protective older brother turned to level a harsh glare upon a battered Naruto, who was barely clinging to Kakashi's back as the ANBU kunoichi checked him over with unusually tender scrutiny.
"Do I even want to know why you two were trying to kill the Hokage, Naruto?" Neji asked dryly. The blond merely offered him a wobbly lopsided grin that crinkled his eyes with the satisfaction of a perfectly executed plan, before hoarsely offering up his indubitable defense.
"She started it."
The sound of her heels clicking sharply on the white tiles echoed down the hall as the Godaime stalked through the ward of the hospital that housed the two chunin who dared to challenge the Slug Princess and live.
Stupid brats, if Minato hadn't flashed me away I'd probably be a withered looking old woman right now from all the chakra it would've taken to heal from a direct hit with that…that…whatever that thing was. The idea that she could have yielded never entered her mind. Jiraiya would have never let her live it down if she let their own apprentices beat her in a fight. Although, the world had probably never seen anything like those two in…millennia.
Naruto's boisterous laughter greeted her as she swept unannounced into the hospital room where he and Hinata had been staying for the last few days. Shizune had finally discovered that the only way to keep Naruto from escaping was to place him right beside his Hime, and let the Hyuga be the one to force him to accept the medical treatments Sakura prescribed. When it came to hospitals he was as bad as his sensei, and only the presence of Hinata could make him smile within the confining concrete walls.
It was that lopsided smile which beamed up at her from his seat on the foot of Hinata's bed, and the flirtatious flush of the kunoichi's cheeks made even Tsunade's mouth turn up on the corners. "Alright enough of that lovey-dovey crap! I have come to announce the final decision of what will happen to you two deviants."
To her satisfaction both teenagers had the decency to look nervous, and both straightened up as they bravely met her eyes.
"You passed."
Hinata exhaled a breath she didn't realize she had been holding, her shoulders slumping with relief, but Naruto smugly crossed his hands behind his head and nodded with vigor. "Hell yeah we did! As soon as Hinata found that ANBU tattoo on that guy's shoulder we knew it was all just one of your tests for the Jonin Exam. I bet you didn't expect us to turn around and give you a taste of your own medicine, eh Baa-chan?"
Tsunade's fist connected soundly with the top of his skull, sending Naruto sprawling into Hinata's arms, where he glowered at the Godaime while massaging the new lump on his scalp.
"Watch your mouth, Brat. I never said you two were Jonin."
Naruto's blond hair raised like hackles on an angry dog as he lurched up out of Hinata's arms, which fell loosely to the bed in her own shock. "But we passed! Fair and square!" he shouted. "We literally kicked your test's ass!"
"And that has been duly noted." Tsunade reached into her sleeve and withdrew two scrolls, tossing one to each shinobi. They both stared down, jaws dropped open at the sight of the seal on the outside as the Godaime smirked at their stunned expressions.
"Welcome to Konoha's ANBU Black Ops. As of today you will no longer be Team Seven, but part of a four man squad operating under ANBU Commander Hatake Kakashi."
Naruto found his voice first, his dancing blue eyes brimming with a thousand questions that he was barely able to filter through and spit out in a coherent language. "Who are our two new teammates? Is it my parents? Can they please be my parents?!"
Tsunade was already shaking her head before he finished rambling. "No. Their identities must be guarded at all cost. I have made them a permanent part of my personal ANBU detail. Their job will be to infiltrate the village from the inside out and assist Hizashi with discovering the identity of the shinobi who is attacking the Hyuga. I have selected two other experienced ninja to be your new partners."
The Hokage glanced at her watch and smiled when at that precise second two masked shinobi appeared at her side in silent shunshins. "Right on time. You may remove your masks. I want to introduce you to your new teammates."
Naruto and Hinata stared with frank curiosity as the two men removed their white masks, revealing one to be a pale, dark haired teenager their own age and the other to be a brown haired man with kind eyes set in his serious face.
"Namikaze Naruto, Hyuga Hinata. Meet Yamato and Sai."
OMAKE 1
The night of the attacks...
Out on the dark streets Naruto and Hinata silently walked through the night hand in hand, the orange glow of the streetlights making their shadows orbit their closely pressed bodies as they passed underneath them one by one. They meandered slowly towards the Hyuga Compound after leaving the hospital room where Jiraiya lay healing from the beating he had just survived at Kushina's hands. Naruto was thinking about his father's suggestion that he talk to Hizashi, and Hinata was trying not to think about possibly sneaking him into her room for one more rendezvous. They exchanged no words, allowing the simple contact of their entwined fingers to be the bridge for their swirling chakras, the unutterable connection they shared solidifying with each step.
They crossed a busy street that was known for its popular restaurants and Naruto suddenly pulled his hood up over his head and muted his chakra. Hinata glanced around but saw no one other than the normal citizenry moseying about in the early evening. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw Chōji and Shikamaru leaving their favorite barbecue joint.
"Chōji, give it a rest already, you just ate the 'last bite' of every plate that place has to offer. Isn't that enough?"
"I will find him, Shikamaru, whoever that barbarian may be. And when I do, he is done."
"What a drag."
Hinata had not noticed that she had stopped walking until she felt Naruto yank on her arm, rushing her in the opposite direction. "What did you do?" She asked suspiciously of her hooded companion.
"I may have spent the morning getting reacquainted with my hometown." Naruto rubbed a finger under his nose to try and disguise his snicker. "I wanted to leave my Hiraishin mark on a couple of my favorite places. Ichiraku's, the Hyuga Compound, the Hokage Tower, the training grounds, y'know the important places."
"The most important, yes of course." Hinata nodded in sarcastic seriousness at his top ranking of what constituted "important".
"Hey now, I have traveled most of the known world and there is nowhere on this earth that serves ramen like Old Man Teuchi! Anyways, I may have come across some old friends and couldn't resist the chance to get in some long overdue pranking."
Hinata gasped, "Naruto-kun, tell me you didn't eat Choji's last chip!"
His snorts were all the answer she needed. "He never saw me coming!"
She buried her face in his shoulder, trying to muffle her laughter as they darted further away from the rare sight of a fuming Chōji. "But wait, wait," Hinata gasped between giggles, when they were a safe distance away. "You spent the first day of your parents' new lives wandering around Konoha all by yourself, pulling pranks?"
Naruto's face instantly flushed bright red, and he shuddered a bit as he fumbled around for the right words. "Well, I got to spend a lot of time with them in my mindscape back in Uzushio. And uh, well it was their first day in actual human bodies, like, that can do certain, er, activities that…people who are married…really, really, like to do…"
"Stop!" Her hand shot out to cover up his stuttering mouth, steam nearly coming out of her ears as she shook her head vehemently. "I do NOT want that mental picture!"
OMAKE 2
"I want to be the Fox mask!"
"I was his jinchuriki first!"
"He didn't even like you!"
Kushina gasped, punching her son in the shoulder, "Foxy-chan and I had a perfect understanding, I'll have you know!"
"Now, now! Naruto-kun, Kushina-chan, let's be reasonable," Minato tried to calm down his two snarling Uzumaki's with his unfailingly even temperament and gentle smile. Patting them condescendingly on their steaming heads, his eyes crinkled as he continued in a sing-song voice, "Neither of you is going to have the Fox ANBU mask, I will."
"YOU?" They screeched, turning in suddenly united indignation upon him. "You're not even a jinchuriki!" Naruto accused lifting up his shirt to proudly display his seal.
Minato's serene smile never flinched as his body suddenly lit up in a burst of yellow demonic chakra, putting his own bijū mode on full display. "You were saying, son?"
"What the fu—" Naruto's exclamation was cut off by Kushina's fist, but she sighed and explained anyway. "Your father split the Kyūbi's chakra between himself and you when he used the Shinigami to seal him. After seventeen years even Kurama couldn't resist his Namikaze charms."
"I see," Naruto was scratching his chin in thought, eyeing his father's smug face and chakra markings, trying to think of a way to one up his old man. Minato narrowed his eyes, knowing that look meant he had better be on his toes for whatever masterminded plot of cunning and unpredictability his son was cooking up.
"Bijū Chakra Arm Wrestling Contest. Right here, right now. Winner gets the mask."
Kushina rolled her eyes, "that's the stupidest thing I've ever—"
"Deal!"
Kakashi stood from where he and Hinata had been watching in open fascination at the most unusual family feud ever witnessed, knowing the contestants would demand his Sharingan be the judge of their 'little' challenge. Hinata caught his hitae-ate as he tossed it to her, looking up at her sensei turned ANBU Commander with her own Owl mask resting on top of her head. "This is our new normal isn't it?"
The Copy Ninja of the Sharingan Eye cracked his neck and took a deep breath, a smile of genuine joy warping his fabric mask. "Yup."
A/N thanks to MojoBlack for help with the jutsu name!