"Are you sure it's okay to pair them up together on this mission?"
"Shikamaru, are you doubting my decision?" Kakashi asked his assistant.
He sat behind the Hokage desk and watched as Shikamaru, with his head bowed, attention away from him, arranged the files on top of the table. The younger shinobi's face was crumpled into a frown.
"Yes," Shikamaru answered without pausing and looking up from his task. "For all your wisdom, Hokage-sama, you have such a soft spot for Naruto."
"Look who's talking," Kakashi only answered mildly.
Shikamaru abruptly stopped what he was doing and looked at the Hokage. His smile was sheepish. "Okay, fine," he admitted.
They both laughed.
Shikamaru continued, "But I mean, they're dating and they've been together for months now. I just don't think it's a good idea to send a two-man cell of Hinata and Naruto on this mission, especially since they're still in the honeymoon phase of this relationship."
Even though it was hidden behind the dark mask, Kakashi kept the smile on his face. "They'll be fine. Hinata's got a level head. She's been doing wonders for him."
Shikamaru frowned. "Yeah, but I don't trust him. She has a soft spot for Naruto, too, and he can always break her down."
Shikamaru then looked out the window, into the distance and in the direction of where the couple would be right now. He noted how dark it was outside. His voice full of disapproval, he muttered, "For all we know, at this moment, they could be doing something they shouldn't be doing in the middle of a mission."
Kakashi shook his head, his eyes twinkling with humor. "No, Shikamaru. Hinata will prevail."
Shikamaru humphed. "We'll see."
"Oh, god, Naruto. Harder!"
A long, drawn-out sigh. A high keening wail, then a breathy voice calling out "Aaah, Naruto!"
"Shhh!" Naruto hissed in panic. "Hinata! Not so loud! Everybody will hear!"
There was a nervous giggle and then Hinata's apologetic voice saying, "I'm sorry, but you're the one who wanted to do this."
"Yeah, but I didn't expect you to be so loud!"
"I can't help it! It feels really good!" came her exasperated voice.
Naruto stopped what he was doing, slapped a hand over his eyes, and groaned with embarrassment. "Now everybody thinks we're having sex."
Hinata smothered her laughter as she gazed at Naruto's pink face inside their tent. How adorable, she thought. Despite him being the most affectionate person she's ever known, he could still be embarrassed so easily when it came to things like these.
Still, it was his fault
"Naruto, you're the one who wanted to give me a foot rub!"
He pouted then glared at her when he saw the teasing gleam in her eyes. "Hinata! You're doing it deliberately! Making all those sexy sounds."
She grinned at him knowingly. "You only offered to massage my feet because you were hoping to get lucky tonight."
He continued to frown at her. "Maybe it's because I thought all that walking made you tired and I wanted to do something nice for you?"
She smiled. "Nice try. Can you come up with another excuse?"
He laughed then. "Okay. You win."
"Naruto, I know you," she said.
"Yeah, you do," he said and his gaze suddenly burned at her, the look in his eyes unmistakable. "So what am I thinking about now?" he whispered.
She stopped laughing as the breath left her. This time, she started backing away from him in real panic.
"No! Naruto! We're out in public!" she squeaked. "And there are other teams around!"
His hold on her foot tightened as soon as she'd started to flee, and he deliberately and slowly slid his palm up her calf, up her thigh until his thumb slipped under the pant leg of her shorts.
"Naruto…"
"Hinata, you weren't shy a few minutes ago when you were groaning aloud in ecstasy!"
"That's because we weren't really having sex!"
His eyes suddenly squinted as he thought of something. "Wait, what?! Hinata! Are you saying you're faking the sounds when we really do have sex?"
She laughed nervously. "Only you would pick up on that. No! I meant I can get loud because I know for sure we weren't actually doing it in public."
"Okay," he suddenly said with a mischievous smile as he leaned in to kiss her on the mouth. "I was only joking. But one of these days…"
"Never!" Hinata said in a shocked tone.
He only laughed. "Now I really want to try even harder to convince you."
Hinata shook her head and resolutely folded her arms. "You can try but I'm not going to let you win this one."
Naruto beamed at her angelically but he said nothing. He kissed her again and gave her feet and her legs a final caress before he stood up.
"I have to take the first watch, but I'll come back in a few hours and wake you up, okay?" he said.
Still with the smile on her face, she nodded. "Thank you."
"Get some rest, Hinata."
He turned and headed for the entrance to their tent.
"Oh, and Naruto?" she called out.
He glanced back at her in question.
"I never fake anything when we're together. It's all genuine," she admitted, her smile soft and shy.
He blinked a few times then a grin lit his face.
"Good night, Hinata."
Hinata watched him leave the tent and flopped down onto her sleeping bag on the ground. She found herself suddenly exhausted and gave a sleepy yawn.
Naruto walked out of the tent and approached the other members of the group.
Aoba and Genma sat together on a log. Across from them, Chouji and Sai were warming their hands by the fire.
Genma chewed thoughtfully at the senbon he treated as a toothpick clamped in the corner of his mouth. He slid a gaze full of amusement at Naruto's flushed face.
The other three purposefully avoided making eye contact with him, which made Naruto feel grateful that they weren't going to tease him.
Genma cleared his throat then said, "I take it she's resting right now."
Naruto nodded but said nothing else. He kept walking and headed for the tree he'd chosen for his guard duty. Soon, the three men went to their tents and left him alone to watch over their small camp.
In the darkness, Naruto created a couple of shadow clones and sent them towards the perimeter of their tents to keep watch and to give them advanced warning of any enemy attack.
He clambered up the tree, found a sturdy branch, and leaned back against the trunk. From his pocket, he took out the mission document everyone had gotten from Shikamaru. There was enough light from the moon to allow him to read. He reviewed their assignment:
In three separate villages, a series of strange events were happening. Shikamaru had created three two-man cells to investigate these reports of monsters attacking villagers. Naruto and Hinata were teamed up while Genma and Aoba were the other team. Chouji and Sai made up the last cell.
Though the villages had nothing in common, they were linked by the same accounts about fearsome creatures that attack at night. Because of their danger, the villagers had locked themselves inside their homes and hardly ventured out at night. In the meantime, their crops disappeared and the food supplies have gone so low that some of the people were hungry.
Some brave souls, however, had ventured out of the villages and gone on foot to seek help from Konoha.
Hinata and Naruto, being sensory-type shinobi, were there to investigate the monsters. The other four, meanwhile, were sent to distribute essential food supplies to the starving villagers. Their primary goal was to help with the matter of food, but if they could, they were allowed to investigate the cause of the stories.
Tomorrow, the groups were going to separate and head in different directions.
Hinata woke up instantly when Naruto gently shook her awake. She nodded her thanks and hugged him before she left their tent to take up her position as watch. She activated her byakugan and started scanning.
She smiled to herself as she heard the snoring from the men. Even in their sleep, she could tell who was who from the distinct way they were breathing.
Not surprisingly, the loudest one was Naruto.
A few hours later, she woke Sai up for his turn. She returned to their tent and tucked herself into Naruto's arms and rested against him. He opened his eyes drowsily and pressed a brief kiss against her ear before they fell back again into sleep.
That morning, when the time for their departure came up, all the teams met by the dying embers of the fire and went over their assignments again.
"Right," Genma said. "Remember that every night we have to send each other messages to make sure we're safe. Keep the communication scrolls as accessible as possible in case you need to relay an emergency signal for help."
"Yes, sir!" the younger teams chorused.
"Alright. Let's head out," Aoba said.
Naruto and Hinata got to the town where the stories had originally popped up.
The town leaders of Sunagawa met with them and brought along the eye-witnesses.
"I'm Tsurui," said the most distinguished-looking one as he bowed to the two shinobi.
Hinata and Naruto introduced themselves and delivered the few provisions they'd been able to carry between the two of them.
"Thanks for coming to help us," Tsurui said as he took the food. "We've been luckier than others, our stock helped us out these last few months. I've heard there are other villagers suffering much worse than us. But still, it's good to have something to give to the villagers because our crops still haven't fully recovered from the damage."
Naruto nodded. "Could you give us more information?"
Tsurui indicated they follow him and they walked to a little cafe that remained empty of customers.
The three sat at a table while the others went to deliver the food to the people.
The older man sighed and looked at Hinata and Naruto. "I'm incredibly grateful that you're both here to investigate. Thinking back, it's a pretty crazy story. It's so outlandish that I can't imagine anyone would actually believe it."
Hinata gave Tsurui an encouraging smile. He smiled back at her and began his story.
"For some time now, we've occasionally had problems with small gangs that come and go. This is a merchant town so lots of business is done here. Most of the time, a group comes in and tries to threaten us, but we've been strong enough to hold out against them."
Tsurui looked out the window, into the empty streets.
"A few months ago, though, a group came in but they weren't suspicious at first," he continued. "They weren't violent. They just kept to themselves and didn't mingle with the townspeople. Whenever anyone from this group got crazy in town, they would disappear a couple of days later, never to be heard from again. A few weeks of this went by and then suddenly we started seeing the monsters. We'd hear crazy howling. At first, they were described as bears—"
"Bears?" Naruto interrupted. "You mean the size of them or their appearance?"
"Both," Tsurui answered.
"Okay."
Tsurui started up again. "But then several witnesses said these giant creatures were more like half-man, half-wolf in appearance. They would come out at night and go crazy, attacking anyone and anything. They never really came into the town itself, just at the edges of the city. But anyone venturing at night beyond our gates usually got attacked. We've had several victims and their bodies all have huge claw marks."
Hinata and Naruto looked at each other. Tsurui seemed to be describing werewolves.
"No deaths?" Hinata asked.
Tsurui shook his head. "No, thank god."
Hinata looked relieved, but they were dashed by Tsurui's next words.
"Or, we haven't confirmed for sure. We still have missing people."
Naruto nodded slowly. "Let's hope they're still alive. And if they are, Hinata and I will find them and bring them back."
Tsurui sighed. "I really hope so. We're putting our trust in you."
"Thank you," Hinata said. "If you guys don't mind, could we talk to the rest of the villagers and see what everyone else has to say?
"Of course," Tsurui said.
Even without his sage mode, Naruto could feel the fear that the people had. They were guarded when they answered his and Hinata's questions. Since she had a more gentle touch, Hinata fielded the questions and gave everyone their assurances and promises to make sure to get to the bottom of the mystery.
For the most part, everyone was reassured by her quiet and soothing nature. At the same time, Naruto's unmistakable confidence and exuberant presence lifted their spirits and eased their worries somewhat.
As they walked around town, nothing suspicious jumped out. They both decided to head to the area where the stories appeared and saw the wreckage that the creatures had created. There were fierce claw marks against trees and walls of empty homes. The surrounding farms had rotting crops that remained unharvested. Whatever had been planted underneath that could have been salvaged were already dug up and disappeared.
Naruto looked up and shivered in his jacket. The night was cool and the dark sky illuminated the bright stars.
"You cold?" he asked Hinata, who was still peering into the trees trying to sense any type of presence.
She blinked and her byakugan de-activated. She shook her head. "I'm not cold, Naruto. I'm just worried. There's just such a weird feeling in the area. There's something out there but it's too indistinct. I can't pinpoint it with my byakugan."
Naruto nodded, but he reached out to rub her arms anyway. She smiled at him even as he continued talking about the mission. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I sense it, too, but it could be just the general fear that's around the town, you know."
She was about to answer but a rustle of leaves made her silence her reply. Naruto suddenly pulled her down and wrapped her in Kurama's cloak just as two giant hulking figures struck out against them.
Hinata activated her byakugan and whirled around, sending up her kaiten protective barrier to avoid the kunais that also suddenly came flying in their direction.
"You missed them!" a voice cackled with glee. "You barely even got a hit in."
"Hold!" another voice called out. The giant creatures stilled mid-movements.
Naruto and Hinata quickly backed away.
Two smaller, more human-like creatures stood a few feet away but they were smiling. One had a scar that crossed diagonally against his face while the other had brown spiky hair with a red bandana across his forehead. The monsters flanked the two humans.
"Oh?" said the scarred one as he took in the symbol on Naruto's head protector. "Konoha shinobi came to Sunagawa."
"I told you we should've left already," said Red Bandana. "Now they've come to ruin our plan."
He then pulled out a kunai and started continuously stabbing the monster by his side. The werewolf didn't even react as the blade pierced his body.
Hinata flinched at the cruelty. How any of the townspeople hadn't died was a miracle.
"Stop it!" hissed Scar. "They're still people, I told you!"
Red Bandana laughed unrepentantly but then stopped after one last stab. "Whoops, sorry!"
Naruto was on high alert. He and Hinata remained silent as they assessed their enemy. He was suddenly reminded of when he was young, when he and the rest of the boys had first gone on the recovery mission to rescue Sasuke and had faced The Sound Four, those four ninjas who had worked under Orochimaru. There was a similar feel to these villains.
Hinata tensed beside him. "He's right," she whispered, her eyes zoning in on the creature standing next to the one with the scar. "I can distinctly see a human heart beating and identify human chakra flowing inside him."
Red Bandana suddenly moved and they both braced for an attack, but the villain was only reaching for something in his pocket.
Naruto had been around Sakura enough to know what he held in his hand. He recognized a vial filled with some type of liquid.
"Drugs," Hinata murmured beside him. Her byakugan was still activated and she was peering intently at the contents inside the vial. She recognized enough of the chemical components to know that they were man-made.
The man suddenly laughed and plunged the vial in his arm and howled.
"Goddammit! I told you to tell me first if you were planning on transforming!" said Scar. The two creatures beside them shook their fur, reacting to the now former-man in the red bandana who was suddenly growing a foot taller even as his fingers elongated into claws with sharp talons.
"Hold!" said Scar as he shook his head in frustration at his partner's antics.
"Hinata, stay close to me!" Naruto said. "We need to protect each other's flanks."
"I know," she said. "But we need to lure them away from the town. We're still too close to the people."
It was obvious that the scarred man was the one in control. His partner had completed his transformation and resembled the other two creatures, who were now crouched low and were growling fiercely at Hinata and Naruto.
"Okay, when I say run head northeast," Naruto said. "From the map Shikamaru gave me, there's a clearing there that leads to a river."
She nodded.
"We got this," Naruto said, his voice confident.
Scar must have sensed their battle-readiness and gave the order to attack just as Naruto yelled, "Run!"
The two sprinted in the direction Naruto had indicated. As they did, he kept looking back to carefully eye their pursuers.
They made it close to the cliff and Hinata called out to Naruto for them to make a stand. They got in formation, backs to each other, just as the monsters and the scarred man reached them, too.
"You're in our territory," said Scar. "We're going to have to ask you to leave."
"This is Sunagawa's village. You've harmed people and their livelihoods. You guys need to leave," Naruto replied.
"We haven't harmed anyone. We just need a place to test out our drugs," the villain said. He pointed to the two without the bandana on their foreheads. "We need lab rats."
"What's with the drugs?" Hinata asked.
"They're performance-enhancing drugs," the man said with a grin. "Why? You interested? They're good for shinobi who want to boost their techniques."
Hinata's face wrinkled in distaste just as Naruto activated his Kyuubi mode. It flared more visibly tonight, Kurama lending more than usual of his power to show these creatures that Naruto didn't need anything more to boost his techniques.
"Nah," Naruto said. "I'm going to pass on your offer."
He reached out to swipe at their enemies, but the monsters didn't budge, their bodies hard as steel.
"Hmph!" Scar said with a sneer. "Told you you need a boost."
He raised his arm and all three of the half-wolf-half-man creatures attacked at once, converging on the pair of them.
Hinata only had a split second to whirl around for her taijutsu defense, the kaiten barrier to protect herself against the muscular arm that had lashed out.
But her enemy's more powerful drug-induced state was no match for her normal state. The creature's heightened speed was faster than her defense and the steel-like arm hit her on the head, knocking her unconscious and sending her flying across the edge of the cliff. She plunged headlong into the rushing river below.
"Hinataaaaa!"
Naruto, engaged in his own fight with their enemy, felt the sudden emptiness of her disappearance and his heart froze when he realized she'd fallen off the edge.
Something rammed into his stomach, but he didn't care. His only thought was rescuing Hinata.
He ran to the place where he'd last seen her, looked down, and saw the current take her downriver.
Without thought, Naruto dove into the water and managed to reach her after swimming a few yards. The current, though, was strong and fast, and it took them far away from their enemy. He half-dragged her to the riverbank even as he struggled to stay afloat. He pushed her up to the ground and quickly clambered after her.
"Hinata!" he yelled even as his teeth were clattering from the effects of their plunge into the cold water. He shook her but got no response.
He checked for a pulse and his worry slightly abated when he found it. He then quickly performed CPR on her and was gratified to see her cough up the water that had lodged in her throat. He laid her on the side and pounded as gently as he could on her back.
Still, though, she didn't open her eyes.
With his Kyuubi mode on, he scanned for a place where they could find shelter. He quickly found a small, cave-like space on the face of a mountain and started sprinting in that direction, Hinata in his arms.
He looked down at her limp body and felt a spurt of fear. But she was breathing normally so he took heart in that.
At the same time, he created shadow clones and sent them ahead to work. They quickly gathered kindling to start a fire inside the cave.
Once he got there, the fire was already burning and the inside of the cave was warmer than expected.
Gently, Naruto laid Hinata on the ground and quickly stripped her out of her wet clothes. He did the same to his own and did several jumping jacks to warm up his own cold body. When he felt warm enough, he laid down on his side on the ground, positioned Hinata as close to the fire as safely as possible to keep her between his body and the burning pile of wood.
The icy touch of her skin, of her back against his chest made him gasp out loud from the shock. He then rubbed vigorously at her arms, her chest, to warm up her body.
Meanwhile, his other clones were busy hanging up their wet clothing close to the fire to dry them. The other clones were on guard outside, setting up a perimeter to keep watch over their temporary shelter. He closed his eyes and reached out to them. From what his clones could tell, the monsters hadn't followed them.
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe for now.
But he opened his eyes and leaned over to look at Hinata's pale face.
"Hinata, you gotta wake up," he muttered even as he tried to calm down and slow the pounding of his heart. "I love you."
These last few minutes, he'd acted on instinct to save Hinata. They still weren't out of the clear yet—she was still cold, a battle against hypothermia. There was also the head injury that had knocked her unconscious.
But his adrenaline was finally fading. He was blanketed by fear and the only way to keep from folding under the weight of it was to talk to her.
"Damn it, Hinata!" he mumbled. "I told you to stick close to me. Why the hell did you decide to go on a swim on your own?"
He sighed, held her closer, but he didn't stop rubbing her back, trying as best as he could to give her warmth. He brought his lips close to her ear. "Hinata. Come on, now. This is no time to slack off and take a break. You need to help me. We've got a couple of monsters to slay."
Seeing her so deathly still filled his heart with ice.
"Wake up, please," he murmured against her ear. "Please, Hinata."
He touched the right side of her head gently and encountered the swollen lump from the blow she's suffered from their enemy. He was suddenly filled with rage, and it was enough to keep him warm and blocked out his worry and fear.
Naruto took a deep breath. He had never been a spiritual guy, but he found himself praying for the first time. He prayed in his soul that she was okay.
"Hinata, if you can hear me, I love you. That's it."
Eventually, her body warmed up to her normal temperature and the color of her face changed from pale ice to her usual healthy complexion.
But still, her eyes remained closed.
It was a lonely vigil that night, watching over the still, silent Hinata all by himself. Though he was tired and filled with worry, he couldn't sleep, fearing something would happen to her if he let his guard down.
The fire kept burning, his shadow clones steadily piling on the wood to keep it going.
The hours stretched on.
Until finally, Hinata let out a low, faint groan and her eyelids fluttered a crack.
"Hinata?" he asked as his arm tightened convulsively around her waist.
"Naruto," she breathed. "My head is throbbing. When I open my eyes, it hurts even more."
"Thank god, Hinata," he whispered, his tone so full of relief. "Keep your eyes closed, if it helps."
Hinata heard it, hugged him back, and tried to reassure him. "I'm going to be okay, don't worry."
But he didn't respond, only pulled her closer to his body, and nodded. It was all he could manage.
"Why am I naked? I know you're desperate to have sex outside," Hinata joked as she felt his warm skin pressing directly against hers. Her voice was still weak and she kept her eyes closed. "But I just don't think this is the time."
Naruto didn't laugh, though, and Hinata was finally aware of the seriousness of the situation.
Still, she tried to tease him, to keep the mood light and to ease the bleakness he was feeling. "Naruto, are you sure taking off my clothes was the best solution in this situation?"
"Yes!" he said. "If I'd kept your wet clothes on, you'd die from the cold. The only way I could think to warm you was your skin against mine. Now shut up and let me warm you."
So saying he hugged her closer once more to his naked body.
"I'm sorry," she murmured.
"God, Hinata. I've never been so scared in my life, seeing you so pale and lifeless."
"I'm fine now."
"But there'll be times when you won't be," he said as he looked at her face. "And I don't know how I'll be able to deal with those days."
Her hand reached out to touch him on his chest, right over his heart. "I don't know, either, Naruto."
He sighed. "Hinata, you're the other half of me. I'm never going to be whole if you're not by my side."
"I love you," she responded. She could hear clearly the depth of his feelings for her.
"I know. Because it's the same for me."
They were quiet for a while, both lost in thought. His mind was full of Hinata disappearing from his life while hers was full of determination to live through the night.
"How's your head?" he asked.
She touched the bump on her head and softly hissed in pain. "It hurts but I'll live."
"You better."
"Mmm." She reached out blindly and managed to find his cheek. "I know you're tired, too. Let's get some sleep for now."
He held on to her and closed his eyes, finally letting his exhaustion claim him.
"I love you, Hinata," he murmured so low, Hinata felt she must have imagined hearing it, but the blackness was claiming her once again.
In the morning, Hinata managed to fully open her eyes without much pain—only to encounter one of his shadow clones peering at her intently.
She gingerly sat up then looked down at the original, who was still asleep.
She smiled at the clone, who smiled back. He didn't say anything, but something must have conveyed to the original because the real Naruto's arm tightened around her waist.
Hinata noted their cave and their uniforms finally dry. She touched the lump on her head and sighed with relief when it felt smaller and less painful than last night. She didn't feel woozy or dizzy, which meant she wasn't suffering from major head trauma.
"Any word from the guards outside?" she quietly asked the clone.
He shook his head. "No. It's weird. They backed off after their attack last night."
She frowned. "That is weird. They should have followed us to make sure we were really dead."
"Maybe they just really wanted to get human test subjects and not necessarily kill people."
Her frown deepened. "Yeah, but I'm still not convinced."
"No discussing the mission with the clones," came Naruto's sleepy voice. "Only I can do that with you."
She looked down and saw him smiling up at her.
"How do you feel now, Hinata?" he asked as he sat up.
"I feel much better."
"You look much better." His eyes took in the healthy complexion of her face and then because he couldn't help it, slid down to her neck, and to her naked body.
She laughed. "Such a one-track mind!"
He smiled, but he turned back to her with a serious expression on his face. "I'm just happy you're okay."
"I know, Naruto. Me, too," she said and reached out to grip his hand. He squeezed hers almost painfully.
"Can you move?"
Hinata was quiet for a moment and ignored his question. Finally, she looked into his eyes and said, "Don't worry about me. Go after them. They might attack the villagers."
He frowned at her, understanding what she was saying. "No."
"Naruto, we're still on a mission. You can't abandon the people, the mission. We have orders."
He shook his head stubbornly. "This was a team effort. We're supposed to work together."
"But we promised the villagers—"
"No, Hinata!" he yelled. "After last night, I'm not leaving you ever again!"
"Naruto, you're not thinking clearly! I'll be fine, I'll be battle-ready after a day's rest. Now, though, we need to protect the villagers who can't fight against those monsters."
"This isn't a choice, Hinata. It's always going to be you. I'm not leaving you by yourself. You're injured and we don't know for sure how many enemies we have to face."
He folded his arms and glared at her.
She shook her head. "Naruto, I'll be able to join you in a couple of days."
"No," he said, his voice firm, unshakable even as he scowled at her. "We do this together, you and I."
She sighed. "Naruto, think about those people. They need us."
Naruto looked at her for a long while, his gaze steady, intent. "Hinata, I need you."
And it was at that moment that Hinata understood that she was going to lose this fight. Because for him, there was never a question of abandoning her. He would try to do the right thing, of saving both her and the village at the same time.
She had nothing to say anymore.
He reached over and hugged her. He pressed his lips against her temple, on the side without the bump. "Hinata, I don't think you understand how close I came to losing my mind when I thought I'd lost you. You can't ask me to leave you. I can't do it. I just can't."
She wrapped her arms around him and nodded.
He pulled back and looked at her once more. "Look, I'll send out the clones to the village and let them know the situation. Between the two of us, we can come up with a plan to defeat those drug fiends."
"Okay," she said. "We'll do it together."
"Always!" he replied, this time with a joyful smile knowing they weren't going to be apart. "And we didn't send a message last night to Genma-senpai and the others so they know we're in trouble. They're probably on their way here now."
"Yes, you're right." She smiled back, feeling much better than she had a few moments ago. "And the villagers are tough. They'll be okay for a few hours."
He nodded approvingly, filled with relief. "They've managed to survive without us so far, they'll be fine."
"We got this," Hinata said. Then she looked down at her naked body and then at his. She flushed. "But I do need to put some clothes on, though. I don't think I can work naked."
He grinned at her. "Too bad! I was really enjoying this. I like seeing you naked by the fire."
His dry boxers suddenly smacked him in the face. It dropped down and Naruto frowned at his forgotten clone, who'd flung his underwear at him. "The hell, man?!"
The clone glared at him. "Put some clothes on, you pervert!"
Naruto's clone got to the village and explained the situation to Tsurui, who was relieved they were unharmed. Luckily, none of the creatures had attacked the village last night.
The messenger scrolls had disappeared into the river so there was no way to let the others know where they were. Instead, they knew that Sai would reach out with his ink creatures and try to find them.
Meanwhile, the two strategized on their attack.
"I can find them, a quick scan would show us where they are."
She nodded. "If it's chakra we're dealing with, we've got my byakugan and I can target their tenketsu."
Naruto frowned, rubbed at his arm as he remembered his fight with the monsters. "Yeah, we're going to have to do something about their bodies, though. They were tougher than they looked underneath all that fur."
"I can pierce through it, I know I can. Neji taught me that every armor has a chink, a soft spot. If I can find it, we're golden."
He slowly shook his head up and down. "Uh-huh. And if we figure it out, I've also got the frog kumite with my sage mode. Once we figure out where it is."
"Then we're back to the tenketsu points. But I'm just one person with a byakugan. We need more of me," she said.
Naruto grinned at her.
Hinata met his eyes and slowly smiled.
Hinata and Naruto quickly found out that one of the side effects of taking such powerful drugs was the intense crash that came after imbibing the chemicals.
With his sage mode, they'd found the hideout a few kilometers away from the Sunagawa area.
They kept their distance and observed from afar. With Hinata's byakugan, she clearly saw that there were monsters on the ground, their blood flow sluggish and their breathing labored. She counted five lumpy bodies on the ground, grouped around a campfire with dying embers.
But the hideout bustled with a few more, a mix of the half-man-half-wolf creatures and human figures.
"That makes five of the monsters and four humans," she told him. "The one with the scar is smoking and the red-bandana guy's drinking. Looks like he's able to shake off the effects of the drugs much easier than the others."
His sage mode was on, too, scanning and sensing just as she was. "Yup. Their chakras kind of all blend together, though. Did they mix their blood? Cause it really looks like it."
Hinata frowned. "That would make sense. If they all shared the same vials and the same needles got passed around, the blood might have mixed. I don't think they're careful about infections."
"Ugh!" Naruto shuddered.
But Hinata's face was concentrating on the monsters, her gaze piercing past the fur, the skin, right into their heart and traced the chakra network and looking carefully for the tenketsu points.
The head? No.
She moved her gaze lower. The back of the neck? Not there.
The weak spot had to be somewhere where the flesh was softest.
And she found it—the armpits, an area of the body that would be hard to get to.
She deactivated her byakugan. Her face was grim when she looked at Naruto.
"The tenketsu points are in their armpits. The blood and the chakra flow are weakest there."
"Damn," he said. "Overhead attack then. We have to make them raise their arms before we could hit."
Incredibly, she beamed at him, her eyes filled with pride. "Good thing you've got a jutsu that we can rain down from above."
He laughed. "Hinata, you really do know me."
It was a rout.
Their surprise attack came just as Hinata had envisioned: a barrage of giant rasengans that Naruto brought down from the sky.
Both monsters and humans had looked up in panic to see the whirling wind spheres from above and brought their arms up instinctively to their faces to block against the twigs and branches that had swirled along with Naruto's rasengans.
At the same time, Naruto activated his beast mode, wrapped Hinata in Kurama's cloak, and created shadow clones. The outer circle was composed of hundreds of Naruto clones. They were back up.
But the inner clones were different. With consecutive loud poofs, eight Hinatas appeared in a circle that surrounded the villains. Quick as a flash, while their enemies' arms were still up in their protective stance, the original, linked to the other Hinatas through Kurama's chakra, rushed in to attack. With their byakugans activated, Hinata and her Kyuubi-enhanced clones pierced the tenketsu points on each of their enemies' armpits.
Blood flow stopped and all nine slumped to the ground.
For extra precaution, Hinata hit the tenketsu points of the other five slumbering bodies on the ground.
She gazed at them a moment and then looked up when Naruto approached her.
"They could be the missing villagers," she said. "We don't know for sure, but they should be okay."
He nodded then turned to their enemies.
The clones disappeared in a puff of smoke and left behind the struggling man with the scar on his face. The crazy one with the red bandana was surprisingly calm as he lay face-up looking at the sky and waiting for Hinata and Naruto's approach.
"The hell did you do?" Scar asked, his cheek pressed to the ground. There was a note of panic in his voice. "I'm paralyzed!"
"It's only temporary," Hinata answered.
Naruto walked over and sat him up. "Stop fighting it and answer our questions. It's useless to struggle against it. She'll release the jutsu once we get back to Konoha and you guys are in jail."
Red Bandana drawled from his perch on the ground, "Oy! Don't you remember anything about the clan with the byakugan? She's one of them."
Scar glanced at her lavender eyes and stopped struggling. He sighed. "What do you want?"
"Why did you guys choose this place?"
"No particular reason other than they got a steady food supply that's easy access and they got people we could easily snatch and use for experiments."
"What's the purpose of the drugs?"
"What else?" the man snorted. "Money!"
Hinata patted the man's body and extracted the vial hidden in one of his pockets. She held it up to the light then glanced back down at the creatures. "It's not perfect, is it? That's why you guys are still grabbing the villagers for your experiments."
There was a mocking laugh from Red Bandana.
"No!" Scar scowled. "Our buyers want a better product. So far, the side effects make the drugs unstable. Once we get it perfect, though, the monsters become perfect weapons for tracking and attacking."
"Some trackers!" Naruto scoffed. He shared a look with Hinata, both thinking about Kiba and his ability to scent enemies from far away. "You guys barely even knew we were around the area this time around."
"That's why we're still working on it, dumbass!"
Hinata punched him in the face before she could stop herself. "Don't call him a dumbass!"
"Hinata, stop," Naruto called out, but there was a huge smile on his face. "What this piece of crap says doesn't bother me."
"Sorry," she said sheepishly at him. "I think I just wanted to do that to get my revenge for the lump on my head."
Which made Naruto stiffen and suddenly glare at the man. "Oh, yeah! We still owe you for that!"
Naruto loomed threateningly over the scarred man and raised a fist, but a barrage of squawking crows suddenly appeared and circled above them.
"Damn it! That's Aoba-senpai's jutsu," Naruto said with regret in his voice. "I don't want him to scold me."
He turned back to Scar. "You're lucky the cavalry's arrived to save you guys."
But as he looked admiringly at the purple color forming on their enemy's right eye, he grinned at Hinata with pride. "Nice punch."
She laughed. "Thanks! But now I'm the one who's going to get it from Genma and Aoba-senpai."
Tsurui and the villagers waved their good-bye and watched as the Konoha shinobi headed back home.
"Kakashi and Shikamaru's going to be pleased," Genma said.
Chouji bobbed his head happily. "Yup! We got the food delivered, took care of the villagers, and rounded up the villains. I say good work all around."
Sai smiled. "But Hinata and Naruto did most of the work, though."
Chouji shrugged. "Sure, but we did our part, too."
Hinata laughed. "We all did. You guys got to us in time and helped us figure out an antidote for the drugs. I'm just glad the villagers are all safe now."
"Yes, it is. That's a very good thing," Aoba added.
They all walked, still in their two-man cell formation for some reason.
Aoba and Genma in front, Chouji and Sai in the middle.
But the third pair fell back further and further behind the group because there was something Naruto wanted to talk to Hinata in private about.
"So we're camping tonight before we can reach Konoha tomorrow," he mumbled low. His face was expectant. He raised his arms then linked his hands behind his head. "And we've got the same tent again. We're not on watch for the night..."
Hinata firmed her lips then said, "No. I already told you that's never going to happen, Naruto."
A pout was starting to form on his mouth. But then he brightened as he remembered something. "But at least, I got you naked out in public, didn't I?
She grinned, remembering their night in the cave. "Doesn't count! I was injured and dying."
"Hinata!"
She laughed then and instead flung herself into his arms. "But I don't mind kissing you in front of the others."
So saying, she reached up and brought his mouth closer to hers.
Then Naruto moved his lips close to her ear and whispered for her alone, "You know, you never said I couldn't try again to convince you to have sex outdoors."
Her squeak of protest was muffled by his lips on hers again.
"Yuck. More lovey-dovey stuff. Do these guys ever stop?" came Sai's mild voice.
Chouji's laughter rang through the air. "Oh, stop it, Sai. Leave them alone."
Genma looked back at the kissing couple then turned his gaze forward again without breaking his stride.
Get used to it, Sai, he thought to himself. Because those two were not going to stop when they were so in love with each other.
Naruto and Hinata.
Two halves becoming one.
An endless loop.