The Wanderers
Chapter 28 – Naruto/Hinata – Unseen Consequences
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Wind Element Techniques would be more inventive.
***Previously-On***
After escaping the Hidden Village of Sound, the group was accosted by a warrior covered in white armour, bearing a frightening resemblance to the warrior from Kakashi's memories. After a short monologue, in which he confessed to compliance in the destruction of Konoha, the warrior dispersed the Konoha shinobi under orders from a mysterious leader, causing all of them to be sent to different parts of the world. Now, separated from their friends and comrades, each of the surviving Konoha shinobi are struggling to find each other again before they are found again by the group that had caused them so much grief.
Ino was forced to work at a sleazy maid café to earn the money to travel, but when she reached her destination it wasn't what she had been expecting. At the town their group had visited twice before, a large fire had consumed the house she had been aiming for, where nothing else in the village had been touched. Charging into the burning building with a shield of water, Ino's worst fear was realising when she found the murdered bodies of Asuma and Kurenai, their throats having been cut execution-style. After searching the house Ino arrives just in time to save little baby Airi from the collapsing roof, taking the four month old out of the house and keeping her close. Resolving to take the responsibility of mothering Airi on herself, she adopts the little girl and becomes her mother. After a few weeks the two of them travel to town in the Land of Rivers, where Ino finds a comfortable place to raise Airi until such a time that they can work towards finding the others. Six months later, just before leaving to go to Suna to surprise Shikamaru, Airi falls deathly ill and Ino is forced to race to a hospital in the next town to save her life. To her amazement she is both greeted and helped by a sake-drinking Shizune, who told her that she had thought everyone was dead and that she was the only one left. Dead-set on raising Airi as her own daughter, Ino is offered a place at the hospital and the two of them settle into the hospital with their reunited friend.
***End Summary***
***Two Weeks after Separation***
Naruto groaned and struggled to pick himself up from the ground. "Okay, that hurt."
Across the field Hinata came running towards him with a concerned look on her face. "I'm so sorry, Naruto. I didn't know I could use that kind of strength."
She leaned down and offered him a hand up. With a sly grin he grabbed at her jacket sleeve and pulled her to the ground on top of him. She squealed in feigned surprise and tried to struggle but Naruto laughed happily and trapped her under his arms.
Across from the fooling around couple, Magnus let out one of his strange laughs and rolled his eyes. They had tried to tone down their displays of affection, but he had simply told them they were being absurd. Though he kept it to himself, their level of progress was frightening.
Eventually they got up from the ground and dusted themselves off. Hinata shook her head to reconstitute herself and went to walk back to her position. As she left Naruto lightly pinched her, but when she turned around in surprise he kept a completely neutral face.
The Uzumaki heir looked over at Magnus as Hinata prepared herself to attack him again. "What am I doing wrong? It doesn't seem to be working."
The old man shrugged with a grin. "You're not doing the trick right. You keep using chakra instead of physical energy."
"It's so hard to tell the difference" he said with a groan. For a week they had been using their breaks from traveling with Magnus' wagon to train, with his advice on using their abilities differently. Despite his interactions with the two of them, Magnus was surprisingly slippy when it came to giving definite answers. They had essentially been forced to work it out themselves, and while they'd had some progress it was difficult to progress too far.
Hinata placed up a hand facing Naruto. "Are you ready?"
Her boyfriend nodded slowly, digging his feet into the ground and clapped both fists into his chest.
Across from the blonde shinobi, Hinata gathered her strength and thrust her palm towards her lover with a grunt of exertion. Out of her palm shot a stream of condensed air, a technique both similar and different to her Hyuuga technique. Hinata had found it relatively simple to use her spiritual energy alone to produce air attacks, though she had no luck in doing so with water, which was normal according to Magnus.
The attack slammed into Naruto's chest, sending him back several metres but with a grimace he withstood the attack, breathing out slowly before relaxing his muscles. Hinata smiled in relief as Naruto punched in the air in triumph. "Hell yeah!"
Magnus grinned from his wagon, "Ah to be young again."
"That was amazing Naruto!" Hinata wasn't surprised that Naruto had found the trick to physical energy so quickly, but that didn't stop her from being extremely proud of him. When she had figured out the way to use spiritual energy the pride on his face had caused her to blush terribly, something she hadn't done in a while.
Naruto patted his bare stomach with his trademark grin, "I didn't feel a thing! What a strange way of doing things."
Looking at his watch, Magnus called the two of them over. They immediately rejected his offer of fruit and hopped into the wagon. According to Magnus they were just wandering around the land, but both of the shinobi had noticed that he would make small corrections to their path every so often. They both enjoyed the odd man's company; he didn't give them any reason to distrust him and seemed to be very wise, though of questionable ethics at times. He would frequently talk about cards and the best ways to cheat others at the game, and took an almost maniacal pleasure in being cryptic.
"You were amazing" said Hinata, letting the blonde shinobi wrap an arm around her shoulder affectionately. At night they had been too tired from training to have sex, but that didn't mean they couldn't keep their hands off of each other. At times they would make a game of it, but they would generally both cave in at the same time. It always seemed to surprise her how relaxed and open she could be around the noisy blonde, compared to a year and a half ago.
She giggled at a joke he made and stared into his blue eyes.
There is nothing that would make me want to be anywhere else.
oOoOoOo
Hinata found she didn't have the knack for using physical energy on its own; she used chakra to make up for that weakness instead. Upon testing she found that by drawing in her spiritual energy alone and not mixing it with the physical energy she could feel the air around her like it was completely at her command. She hadn't realised how close she had been to doing so before coming to this land, she felt like her body was naturally attuned to manipulate air in such a fine and precise manner.
They had found a nice oasis to stay for the night. As with the other nights Naruto had hundreds of clones training to try and work out how to use his own spiritual energy by itself. He still wanted to work more on physical energy, since it could fill in some of the gaps in his technique library. But seeing Hinata use wind manipulation with her spirit energy inspired him to work even harder.
He hadn't found the knack yet, but he felt he was very close. While his clones figured out spiritual energy manipulation, Naruto sparred with Hinata. They didn't really try to hit each too hard, but since they had started they had gotten a lot better at taijutsu by adopting the strengths of each other's styles.
Naruto ducked under a Jyuuken strike to his shoulder and flipped on the ground, kicking at Hinata's feet with a sweeping strike. She jumped up by instinct and floated above his head level.
Naruto frowned and pointed up at the girl in the air. "Hey, that's not fair!"
From her above position Hinata couldn't help but giggle softly. When she worked out spiritual energy manipulation she had accidently sent herself flying into the air. It brought back horrible memories of when she had arrived in the country, but she discovered that by increasing the air pressure directly under her feet, she could essentially fly. It wasn't very draining and she found floating in the air to be a very unique experience.
"It's a viable tactic, Naruto. You can't reach me up here, but I can attack you." She placed her hands together and summoned a small pool of water before forming the liquid into small bullets.
Before she could fire off the technique however, she gasped and clawed at her back. Naruto laughed from the ground and motioned for his ladder of clones to bring her down to the ground.
Hinata struggled but the blonde's grip was iron tight, though to be fair he had his arms around her waist and was tickling her relentlessly. "Naru…that's…not fair! You can't use…Hiraishin like that."
He laughed and brought her to the ground. "Says the girl who was flying in the air."
She shook her head with a smile, "Call it even?"
He nodded in agreement, then grimaced and held his head in pain. Hundreds of clones' worth of information slammed into his head. Normally he wasn't affected by such a small number, but the information they had given him was both in-depth and overwhelming.
Hinata leaned down and rubbed a hand affectionately across his back, "Are you okay?"
He took a few moments before looking back at her with a tired grin. "I got it."
"Oh?"
She helped him up and Naruto indicated for her to stand back. He barely had any control over the wind-element charged chakra, but with his inventive style of fighting Hinata knew that he had just taken a major step forward.
He placed a hand up facing a large rock far away from the two of them. A short distance away from the two of them, Magnus smiled slowly while picking at the fire in front of him.
These shinobi are quite remarkable. No wonder this land ended up this way.
Naruto concentrated and drew out a small amount of the wind around him. It was a strange feeling, but he could feel the power of nature around him like a soft gust across his skin. He took that energy and moved it through his circulatory system, manipulating it exactly as he would chakra, except it barely made him tired at all.
He made sure to aim the burst of air away from Hinata, since Naruto had a habit of being unable to control his strength. A large burst of air exploded out of his palm, but instead of a long beam of condensed air like he planned, a large ball of wildly flailing wind exploded out and sent him flying back into the ground.
He cried out in pain and picked himself up from the ground with a frown. He had gotten the power out as he intended, but he had no control over it. Looking up he waved off Hinata's concern, placing his hand back up to repeat the attack.
"Hinata, can you observe it with your Byakugan? I want to know where I'm going wrong."
The dark haired girl nodded and activated her white eyes, making a point to stand a little bit further away than what might have been necessary.
Naruto slammed back into the ground with a groan. At the campfire Magnus burst out laughing, holding his sides in clear pain. "It's too much…too much…"
***Three Weeks after Separation***
Hinata rode beside Magnus on the wagon, waving her legs absentmindedly while looking out over the grasslands. When they had set out earlier that day it had been relatively sunny, but after an hour it was absolutely bucketing down with rain. Magnus was concerned about his horse since they weren't anywhere near any terrain large enough to cover him, however Hinata had quickly shown that she could use her techniques for more than battle. Above the wagon was a thin bubble of water, forcing all of the rain to fall harmlessly to each side of the wagon as it moved down the dirt road.
She sighed and placed a bored hand on her chin. Beside her Magnus munched on an orange with an amused look on his face. "Something wrong, youngling?"
Hinata shook her head slowly and faced him with a smile, "I'm fine. I just…miss him."
Her companion barked out a laugh, "The two of you are quite the couple, aren't you?"
"I…thank you?" When talking to Naruto she found herself rather open about their relationship, but wasn't sure how she was meant to talk to others. Unlike Naruto, she didn't like showing off, and was still a reserved person the majority of the time.
Magnus laughed again and tapped his cane on the side of the wagon. "It's a good thing, dear. Don't worry, that boy is strong. He has a trickster's mind that one."
She nodded in agreement and looked back out at the wet weather. It looks rather strange to see a dozen feet of dry land and then torrential rain, but it surprised Hinata how little chakra it took to maintain the shell around their wagon.
Hinata looked back at her companion and quietly observed him. She wasn't sure what to make of Magnus, neither was Naruto. He was more than happy to help them, which they put to personal loneliness, and he seemed to know quite a bit about energy types. However what made him an interesting character was that he had a very nonplussed view on life, and seemed to encourage them to work things out on their own.
The wagon slowly came to a halt at a crossroads, Magnus taking a moment before pointing down one path with his cane. "That's where you guys will want to go."
When the two of them had expressed an interest in getting back to their country, Magnus told them that the only way to get to where 'shinobi reside' was to go to the harbour at the most southern point of the country. It was a long way away, Magnus couldn't give them an exact measurement but he estimated it would take them a month or so to get there.
"Is that where the city is?" Her Byakugan had a range of several kilometres, but she knew it was over a week away on foot. They had run out of 'real' food, and the two of them were eager to re-join their companions back in their own country.
Magnus nodded and began to move the horse-drawn wagon off the road to a nearby ruined building. Even though it was still raining heavily, Hinata could tell that the building hadn't been lived in in years. Hinata jumped off of the wagon and expanded the water shield to encompass the building. It got dark quickly in this land so she put down her boyfriend's pack and watched Magnus make sure that the horse didn't miss out on the shelter provided.
Looking out at the wet grasslands, Hinata subconsciously felt at the tattoo on her chest. It felt worse than she thought, but she had made a promise not to pine after Naruto. However she did have a few plans on what to do with him when she next saw him, which surprised her since she wouldn't have thought herself capable of thinking of.
Hours later, the rain had come to a slow stop and left the night in dull silence. Magnus had excused himself to his wagon, and despite herself inside her tent Hinata couldn't fall asleep. She drew her knees up to her chest and shivered slightly. Even in her jacket she was cold, but it wasn't because of the chilly night.
"I said I would be strong…but I'm worried about him. He has no sense of self-control." She knew she was talking to herself, but the past five nights had been like that and it seemed to reinforce how hard she had it in for Naruto.
If he asks…I know my answer.
A spike of pain ran through her stomach and she coughed twice into her hand. She'd had the cough for nearly two weeks, but she wasn't too worried. The headaches were almost non-existent now, but it was something she still kept from her significant other. Naruto had a tendency of fretting over the smallest things when it came to her, and she had worked hard to be a strong stable factor in his life.
Her eyes began to droop so Hinata shook herself out of it and moved to draw a blanket over herself. Before she could do so however, there was a flash of lightning that hurt to look at, but she knew immediately what it was.
She gave him no chance to recover. Wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders, Hinata slammed into Naruto's smiling body, sending him crashing into the soft bedding beneath the two of them.
"Hey you…" was all he could muster. He smiled as warmly as possible and reached up to run a hand through her hair. He loved her hair, and took every opportunity he could to play with it.
"How's…"
Naruto was cut off as Hinata kissed him passionately, giving him no time to ask her how she'd been since his departure. It didn't take him long to get into it, he had also missed her terribly and seeing her again was one of the happiest things he could think of.
After a minute they both felt the urge to not die by suffocation and parted lips, staring at each other's eyes intently. Feeling no sense of shyness Hinata began to run a hand across Naruto's chest underneath his shirt.
"Hey you know I'm a little sore…oh okay, you make a good point. Let me…wah!"
oOoOoOo
Threading his fingers between hers, Naruto stared up at the tent's ceiling with a smile. "You know I've been thinking…"
Hinata offered no response, merely happy to be lying next to him once again.
"We've done that quite a bit. What happens if…you know…"
The dark haired girl looked up at him with groggy white eyes. "The first time you see me…in six days…and that's the first thing you ask?"
Naruto stared at her stubbornly, "I don't want to hear that from the girl who jumped me before I was even finished teleporting."
Despite herself Hinata blushed and dug her head into his chest in an attempt to hide it. "Well I was happy to see you."
"And that's not a crime." He ran a finger down the line of her body, still marvelling at how developed she was, but mostly at her smooth skin. "But back to my original question."
"It's…" Hinata tried to work out a way of saying it without getting too clinical, she didn't want to spoil the moment between the two of them. Besides it felt odd to even think about while she had her arms around his bare chest. "It's not a problem."
"Oh. Well good." With a sly look that he was sure Hinata wouldn't approve of, Naruto lightly kissed her hand that was attached to his. "I guess we can do it more often then."
She looked up at him immediately at the comment, but was relieved when she saw he didn't mean now. She loved Naruto dearly, but she could see how exhausted he was. The Hyuuga heir turned and laid her head back onto his rising and falling chest.
Deciding to change the subject so that she could attempt to calm herself down, Hinata asked the question that she had been thinking about since he had gone off on his own.
"Was your training successful?"
Silence.
"Naruto?"
She looked up and a slow smile came across her face. Even in a seated position, Naruto still found a way to be fast asleep in the most comfortable position possible.
Not wanting to wake him, Hinata used her feet to kick a blanket over the two of them and wriggled herself even closer to him. She could feel his rough skin against her chest but she found it rather comforting.
I guess we can talk in the morning.
She took a final glance at Naruto. With little effort she reached up and kissed him lightly on the cheek before nestling back into his chest.
I love you.
Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes, cracking his neck absentmindedly as he had done lately every time he woke up. Looking down a smile immediately grew upon his face. Naruto didn't consider himself a pervert, despite what others from Konoha might say, but when it came to Hinata he was absolutely shameless.
If they had a beautiful girl asleep on top of them, I'm sure they would be perverts too. I wonder if Dad was like this with Mum?
Unlike him, Hinata slept relatively lightly. So the moment he attempted to shift his body she slowly opened her eyes and rubbed at them in a way that Naruto thought unbearably cute.
"Wha…is it?"
Naruto stroked her hair softly. "Nothing. Go back to sleep."
She muttered softly incoherent and put her head back down onto his chest. Naruto tried to get up again, but Hinata grip on him was iron-tight.
This'll take some time.
He spent ten minutes trying to find a way to get up, but the young girl refused to let him go, despite being fast asleep again. Naruto shook his head in amazement; he didn't think she could sleep so deeply right after waking up, particularly since she was normally a light sleeper. She had even bound one of his legs between both of hers, though Naruto didn't mind that in the slightest.
I guess I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.
An hour later he worked out a way to leave the tent, though not in the traditional manner. He had figured out how to make his Hiraishin no longer have a crack of lightning associated with it, and with that skill learnt his Kage Bunshin no longer made the puff sound when they appeared.
Having conveyed his orders upon creation, Naruto nodded for the clone to move, watching as the blonde ninja left the tent with a grim smile.
It was nearly morning; the sun had barely started to appear on the horizon as the clone of Naruto stretched out his arms. Shadow clones were replications of Naruto's current state, meaning that he still felt some of the original's exhaustion. Looking around the ruined building site, the clone's eyes widened when he saw the horse-drawn wagon slowly moving away down the dirt road, moving towards a north-western direction.
Without hesitation the clone of Naruto sped towards the wagon, easily closing the distance before jogging slowly beside it. Magnus waved at him with the friendly smile he always had on, indicating for him to join him on the seat beside him. The clone frowned but still hopped up and sat next to the old man, feeling the wagon bump as the horse navigated the dirt road.
"You're leaving?" It felt like an obvious question to ask, but Naruto made a point of being to the point, and his clones were no different.
Magnus nodded and stared at the slowly illuminated horizon. "We've all got places we need to be, and old men like me aren't exceptions to that rule."
"You don't want us to travel with you anymore?" The clone made an effort not to sound desperate and failed. It was hard not to like Magnus, he had the kind of rapscallion personality that Naruto had.
Magnus considered the question for a moment while pulling a hand out of his small pack. Having gotten sick of oranges he had switched to apples, throwing one to the clone.
He turned to the young shinobi with a smile, apple juice running down his chin. "I'm just an old man. My part in your story is long over. You two have important things to get back to."
The clone of Naruto frowned again, "We've been a bother. I'm sorry about that."
Magnus let out a short laugh, "Not at all! The two of you are great company. I could've done without the noisy nights though."
The blonde shinobi had the grace to blush, "Sorry I didn't realise…"
"It's fine. You two are young; it's what you should be doing."
The clone stood up slowly on top of his seat and turned to the old man with a smile, "I guess this is goodbye then. I speak for both of us when I saw we enjoyed our time with you. And thank you for your help, you have no idea how much it meant to us."
The old man nodded with a smile, but before the clone could disperse he felt a hand gripped against his arm. Looking down he saw a strangely serious expression on Magnus' face.
The old man tightened his grip and stared into the clone's eyes. "This is not a decent place. You must realise this. Here people can die on the whims of another."
The clone swallowed a comment; he felt it would spoil the moment since Magnus was clearly trying to tell him something in his cryptic manner.
"Particularly for you guys, as shinobi. Be careful who you trust."
Naruto's clone waited a few seconds, and when it became apparent that Magnus wasn't going to tell him anything else he nodded his acknowledgement and thanked him again for his help.
With a smile he disappeared into a puff of smoke, sending the information gathered back to the original Naruto. Sitting on his wagon, Magnus sighed and looked out over at the slowly rising sun.
I suppose that'll have to do for the moment.
Hinata was disappointed that Magnus hadn't said goodbye to her, but after Naruto told her about the conversation she understood his reasoning well enough not to be angry.
They had begun moving down the southern path towards the city Magnus had told them about, though they knew it would probably take another week to reach it on foot. The weather had cleared up surprisingly well considering the torrential rain from the previous day. Hinata had fretted over Naruto's drenched clothes, asking him why he had been out in the rain so much. His response was a simple shrug and telling her that he needed the extra time to get his training done.
"So did you finish your training?" asked Hinata, hoping that being away from him for five days was worth the trouble.
Naruto thought about it with an odd look on his face. He looked around at the dirt road they were travelling on, pointing at a large rock a reasonable distance away from them.
Using his free hand, the other being held by Hinata, he pointed at the rock with a sly grin. "Do you see that rock over there?"
She didn't need to look particularly hard, even without her Byakugan Hinata had far better vision than most people. "What about it?"
Naruto gripped her hand a little bit tighter and smiled at her before pointing down at the ground.
"You see it now?"
Hinata frowned and looked down at where he was pointing, her eyes widening when she saw that they were standing directly in front of the same rock they had just looked at. She spun around and looked back at the dirt road, seeing the place where their footprints had simply stopped.
She looked back at the rock for a few seconds before looking up at him, unable to hide her confusion. She hadn't felt a transition at all; it had been so smooth that she hadn't even noticed the environment getting closer.
"H…how?"
Naruto couldn't help himself, bursting out in laughter at her confused expression. It was rare that he understood something and she didn't, and to his credit Naruto thought it was ingenious how he had created the technique.
He let go of her hand and stood back a few metres. "Activate your Byakugan, and try and track my movements" he instructed.
Hinata did as he asked and stared at him through her black and white vision. She immediately noticed that beneath his rough skin were thousands of small cuts that seemed to have healed over quickly, covering his arms and chest. It disturbed her that she hadn't noticed them the previous night, since they had been so close, but she kept it to herself. She trusted Naruto to know what he could and couldn't handle, at least when it came to training.
"Okay. Now try and see this."
She nodded and stared at him, not seeing any activity within his chakra points, but considering what he was training that didn't concern her. She couldn't see physical or spiritual energy on their own with her Byakugan, and besides her instincts she had no way of telling what he was doing.
Naruto stood still for a few seconds and then, with Hinata watching in perfect clarity, he simply vanished.
She gasped in amazement and expanded her vision, immediately noticing Naruto standing nearly a hundred metres directly behind her, a massive grin on his face. She turned around and analysed him in the way that only a Hyuuga could, and as shamelessly as only a girlfriend could.
She had no idea how he had done it.
Not wanting to keep her in suspense, Naruto quickly ran back to his confused looking companion. She tried to figure how he could have fooled the Byakugan, but she knew Naruto had no talent in genjutsu which meant that it was a technique she had never seen before.
"How did you do it?"
"It was something my father said." Naruto didn't need to expand on that, Hinata knew about the time he had spent with his parents while the Kyuubi was being extracted. She wished she had been able to meet them, though conversely they both knew that with both of their families dead the hope of sitting down with their parents only existed in their dreams now.
Naruto indicated dramatically around himself. "I figured that with all this air around, I could utilise that to move around."
"Like the Hiraishin?" Hinata knew the mechanics of the Namikaze technique almost as well as Naruto did, in fact without his absurdly massive chakra supply she suspected she could possibly use the technique herself.
Naruto nodded slowly, "Sort of, yes. I came up with the idea after all that practise I did."
Standing directly in front of Hinata, Naruto disappeared once again. This time he appeared right behind her and ran a finger up the length of her back.
She gasped in surprise and spun around, lightly slapping away his hands with a smile. "You aren't going to keep doing that, are you?"
Naruto leaned over at kissed her neck lightly. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist."
"So you can teleport then?" The idea was bizarre to say the least. The theory behind the Hiraishin made sense, and moving so fast that it looks like you are just disappearing was just another technique, but Naruto's was clearly doing neither.
Naruto shrugged in response, "I guess. It's basically using the air around to move instantly. But I can only travel to places I can see; otherwise I would have no idea where I might end up."
"Is that all? That sounds really strong, Naruto!" Hinata didn't hide how proud of she was of her boyfriend. Already she could think of all the different ways he could fight with such a technique, though it didn't explain the cuts underneath his skin.
He rubbed the back of his head with a smile, "It's not that impressive…I can only do it every three seconds too."
"Why?" Hinata felt a strange feeling in her stomach, but a quick application of healing chakra got rid of it as quickly as it came. She'd been hiding it from Naruto for a little while now, since she didn't know what it was. She knew what it wasn't, and that in itself was a relief. She didn't think either of them were ready for something like that, at least not yet.
"Because I think my body would be ripped apart by the pressure. I think."
"Oh…"
Naruto began to walk down the path again, Hinata walking beside him as they continued their conversation. He started to talk to her about the other bits of training he did, though he left out some of the bizarre situations he got himself into. She didn't need to know about how he was thrown head-first into a cliff face, or when he had to eat a fish raw because the rain didn't let him cook it.
It was two days later that they started to notice a change in the scenery around them. The road was still clear, but the number of burnt out villages and buildings had increased exponentially. The two travelling shinobi had begun to move more cautiously, and when they encountered the first sign of people since meeting Magnus they knew immediately it wouldn't be the same kind of relationship.
Sitting in a disorganised camp a few hundred metres from the main road was a group of fifty largely-built men, each of them looking similar to the bandits that had attacked Magnus the first time they had met him.
They wore leather and fur-covered armour, which seemed to fit perfectly with the décor of the country, and were armed with a variety of sharp and blunt weapons. Naruto and Hinata had snuck as close to the group as possible under the cover of darkness, trying to overhear why such a group was seemingly waiting there.
The bandits were surprisingly tight-lipped and seemed unlike the type of bandits that they had fought in the past. While the camp was disorganised and they wore typically outfits for that line of work, both the shinobi could tell when a person had more training than they were letting on.
Naruto turned to Hinata and signalled to her silently. They are part of an army.
She nodded and responded quickly. Scouts, probably.
What should we do? Naruto knew what his instincts wanted him to do, but he wasn't about to risk her life just because he hadn't been in a fight in a while and felt out of practise.
Hinata went to signal back but both of their attentions were drawn as a bandit yelled out. They flinched at the sound of weapons being drawn, but it was clear that they had been discovered.
The two of them leapt back with their hands ready to fight, both of them noticing that all fifty of the bandits were preparing to face them.
Hinata had her hands ready to defend herself, but as she activated her Byakugan a huge spike of pain shot up her spine. She clutched at her stomach with a grimace, her mind going blank as she coughed into her other hand.
Naruto immediately recognised that she was down, dropping his hands and grabbing at her shoulders. He didn't even hide his concern for her, but still kept an eye on the bandits moving towards them.
"Hinata? What's wrong?"
The Hyuuga girl glowed blue for a few seconds and looked up at the blonde shinobi with a pained look. She tried to get up but Naruto shook his head and pushed her down. He stood back as five clones of Naruto appeared and took up defensive positions around her.
"Stay there, Hinata. I know you haven't been well…leave this to me."
She grimaced and looked up at him with surprise. "You…knew?"
One of the clones turned to face her with a grin, "You do you think you are talking to?"
Naruto nodded to his clones without a word, they knew what to do. He placed up his hands in an offensive stance and watched as the bandits began to charge towards his position, roaring with their weapons raised. Normally Naruto would create an army of clones and fight his enemies with overwhelming strength, but with Hinata watching he felt compelled to fight with his newly acquired techniques.
Besides, the clones will protect Hinata from any possible backlash. And we can teleport away if necessary.
He breathed out slowly and focused on the first bandit that reached him.
oOoOoOo
There have been many times Naruto has been close to death. The fight with Zabuza, his match with Gaara at the Chuunin Exams and the Kyuubi's extraction to name a few.
However when Naruto was training to use spiritual energy to manipulate air, it was pure agony. But as with most of his training, Naruto found a way to fight and protect his precious people in a new way.
An axe swung straight at his head, but Naruto instincts allowed him to easily avoid the blow. The bandit expertly moved the handle in his hands and swung it around to cleave his head from his shoulders. It was even clearer than before that they weren't regular fighters at all, but despite that the Uzumaki heir was still confident.
Before the steel blade could touch his neck, Naruto slammed a fist into the ground directly in front of the bandit. To the outside observer it appeared that his strike had missed the bandit completely, but you wouldn't know it if you saw the maimed cut-up body of the bandit lying in front of Naruto, his axe lying uselessly on the ground.
Several of the attackers running towards him hesitated, and in that time Naruto took the offensive. Using his new teleportation ability he disappeared and appeared directly behind a group of three bandits wielding spears. He swept a kick across their backs, again intentionally not making direct contact with their bodies.
Unlike the first bandit these three went flying away from Naruto with screams of pain. Naruto frowned as he watched them land dozens of feet away, clutching as their shredded backs in agony.
He took a moment to look down at his hand as the technique swirled around him.
It's not as tiring as I first thought. So long as I control when it comes out.
He heard a bandit come up behind him, but when he turned around he couldn't see anyone there. It only occurred to him at the last second what he was doing, the Uzumaki heir vanishing just as the axe buried itself in the ground from above him.
Appearing in front of his clones, Naruto noticed that a fair amount of the group was moving towards Hinata's fallen position. He knew the Hyuuga girl was fine, but despite himself he wanted to show her how much he had improved.
"Don't think you can beat us so easily!" yelled out one of the bandits, the one who seemed to be coordinating the others.
Naruto didn't respond to the taunt, preferring to work out a combat strategy that can maximise his new abilities. A slow smile came across his face as a plan came to him.
A shadow clone appeared beside him, though it wore a less than pleased expression on its face. It turned to the original with a sigh. "Really?"
Naruto nodded and grabbed its arm. The clone sighed again but let his creator swing him around wildly. Once Naruto had gotten enough momentum he hurled the clone straight at a cluster of bandits. They had the sense to move out of the way of the rapidly spinning shinobi and for a few moments it seemed like a pointless exercise since he hadn't hit any of his targets.
However the moment the clone hit the ground he exploded into a ball of lightning that struck out at many of the targets around him with fast tendrils of energy. The bandits struggled to get away from the explosive, and while some moved to assist their companions Naruto sped forth again, this time picking his targets more practically.
He appeared in front of a sword-wielder and drove a fist into his face, not even needing to slice him up to knock him out. He spun around and leapt onto his hands, using the momentum to spin around and strike out at nearby attackers.
The pain had subsided for the moment, but Hinata hadn't noticed, she was too entranced by watching her significant other fight their attackers. She had no idea how Naruto was defeating the bandits, at least not from remembering how he used to fight. She had complete faith in Naruto's ability to defeat their opponents; he had a knack for winning against uncanny odds.
He was almost systematic in how quickly he was dispatching the bandits, but she caught a few quirky smiles that indicated that Naruto was still the same crazy fighter that he had always been.
With fifty combatants, it should have been a more even fight, considering they had the combat strength of around a Chuunin-level shinobi, though without the chakra abilities.
The fight was over in two minutes.
Naruto took a moment to catch his breath before making his way back to Hinata with a wide grin on his face. He dismissed his clone shield around her and leant down in front of her, offering her a hand up. "You feeling better?"
She accepted his help and stood up with an awe-struck expression on her face. "Naruto…how…"
The clone-user chuckled and placed an arm around her shoulder, "Let's get out of here, then I'll tell you. We don't want them to wake up and attack again."
Hinata frowned initially and looked over the battlefield littered with bodies. Her original observation had proven correct; he had cut them to pieces with some kind of bladed attack, but to her surprise she saw that very few of the bandits had actually suffered fatal injuries. Naruto seemed to have purposefully not attacked vital areas, or the bandits were just that good to avoid death-blows.
The two of them disappeared and left the scarred enemies to their fates.
oOoOoOo
They came to rest under the peaceful shade of a collection of odd-looking bamboo trees. After nearly a month in the strange land not much surprised them anymore.
Naruto offered Hinata a newly filled water bottle and sat down beside her. Without a word she leaned on his shoulder and sighed. Naruto had asked her if her being sick was because of what he feared it was, but Hinata had reminded him that had that area under control. He repeated his faith in her healing abilities and said nothing more on the subject, but Hinata felt a warm feeling in her chest at his concern over her. She spent so much time worrying about him sometimes she forgot that he was just as protective of her, if not more so.
"So are you going to tell me what that was back there?"
"Ah, of course."
A clone appeared in front of the two of them. He frowned and looked down at the couple. "You could do this yourself, you know."
Naruto tightened his hold on Hinata's shoulder and glared at the clone without a word.
It stared back for a few seconds before letting out a tsk and turning to the side. "Tyrant."
Hinata watched the exchange without commentating. She'd often asking Naruto how his relationship with his clones worked, but the blonde didn't have any answers for her.
It seemed to be a strange situation where each clone was the same as Naruto and would obey his commands to a point, but they also had his flair for mischief. The amount of times he'd send them off to train and catch them either playing cards or eating ramen was uncanny.
While he cared for his clones, as demonstrated in the previous battle Naruto wasn't above using them as meat shields or sacrificial pawns to win a battle. She noted however that he was never cruel with them and had been abusing them less and less in recent battles.
The clone walked back a small distance and faced a bamboo tree. He sighed and pulled back a fist, taking a few moments before driving it straight into the tree. The impact was surprisingly quiet, but Hinata couldn't see anything through the smoke of the dispersed clone. She didn't understand why he had cancelled the technique, wondering if he had somehow messed it up.
Naruto didn't need to see Hinata's face to feel her confusion, resolving to simply point at the struck bamboo tree. They waited until the smoke had cleared, but even when she saw the damage inflicted she couldn't quite work it out. She even activated her Byakugan to analyse the damage more deeply.
It looked like someone had drilled straight into the tree, then lost control and let the metal slash randomly at the bark. There was no pattern to the damage beyond the fact that it was centralised on one location, but through her Byakugan she could see that there were no resistance marks whatsoever on the tree, just like the bandits from half an hour ago.
She could think of several ways to achieve that level of precision with wind chakra attacks, she had almost made a speciality out of it, but this was something completely new.
Trust Naruto to make a technique like this. And without using chakra either…meaning it uses far less stamina. Scary…
After a minute Naruto chuckled lightly. "You can't work it out, can you?"
She looked up at him with a defeated look, "I give up. What is it?"
Her boyfriend grinned widely. He knew she was much, much smarter than he was. But it was nice to occasionally find something he knew that she didn't, even though he could never feel jealous of Hinata.
"It's using spiritual energy, like how you do."
"But this seems far too…random for that."
He nodded in response; he still felt the stinging all over his arms and legs. "It would seem that my wind…stuff…is pretty chaotic. Besides that teleporting thing…which I should really come up with a name for…I have very little control over my spiritual energy when it is used like that."
"So you just let it swirl around randomly?" It explained why he had to do his training without her being there. If it was as chaotic and destructive as he implied, then the likelihood of friendly-fire was extremely high.
"Not entirely. If I control how much spiritual energy I let out then I can limit its reach. But as you saw, it's pretty effective. I call it the Kattoken." (Cutting Fist)
Hinata didn't hide how impressed she was. Naruto had been worried for a long while that he wasn't the most potent fighter in their group, and had confided in Hinata that he felt he was lagging behind the others.
He still had his father's scroll and had learnt much from it, though many of his father's techniques were simply not suited to him. And after meeting his parents Naruto had resolved to find his own style, so Hinata was extremely proud that he had finally found something to make his own.
She looked back at the tree and a concern rose in her mind. "Wait…why did the clone disperse then?"
"Oh, Kage Bunshin are awful at the Kattoken. They can't handle the backlash and disappear almost the moment it activates."
"Backlash?" Suddenly the scars she had seen underneath his skin made a terrible sense. Without hesitation Hinata clutched at him, hoping it wasn't as bad as she thought.
He waved off her concern with a grin, "It's nothing. After the first few days I worked out that using physical energy to harden myself mitigates most of the damage."
"Naruto…"
"I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
He rubbed her hair affectionately, "It just stings a little, that's all. Now…shall we keep going or hang here for the rest of the day?"
As much as she wanted to, Hinata knew they should keep moving. It had been nearly four weeks since they had last seen their companions, and she ached to see their friends again.
"We should keep moving. We'll want to get to that city as soon as we can."
Naruto kissed the top of her head and indicated for her to get up. "You are right, as always."
She stood up and offered him a hand up. Naruto took it and jumped to his feet, smiling at the young girl before moving towards the tree his clone had attacked. He placed a hand on the cut up bark, feeling the cuts between his fingers. It was not a completely form of combat just yet, but Naruto felt confident that he could use this strength to better protect both Hinata and the others.
The tree seemed to shake at his touch, and without warning a large piece of fruit fell from the top of the tree and crashing into his head.
It seemed almost comical to get knocked out by a piece of fruit, but as he felt himself crash into the ground he took comfort in the fact that a healer as good as Hinata was right by his side.
He also knew that she would look after him, not matter what happened.
Naruto grimaced as he opened his eyes, rubbing his head in an attempt to alleviate the pain. His eyes widened when he saw his surroundings. He had seen it before, but it still took him a few seconds to realise that he was in the sewer that he had first met his parents at.
"Why am I here?" he asked to thin air. He didn't think he hit his head that hard, but he didn't think this area would exist anymore considering the Kyuubi was dead.
He looked down and balked at what he saw at his feet. Nearly up to his knees was a slowly moving river of red liquid that, despite the surroundings, was strangely warm on his skin.
It took him a few seconds before realising that he was standing in a river of blood.
Unable to hide his disgust, Naruto looked around to see if there was somewhere that wasn't ruining his pants, but it seemed that the river was everywhere.
Seeing little other option, Naruto began to move through the tunnel. The current wasn't particularly fast, though he could've done without the smell. He recognised a few marks from the last time he was here, though it dismayed him that he couldn't see anyone else.
"Is this a dream?" That was only explanation he could think of. Since the Kyuubi had been wrenched out of him and nearly killed him, Naruto hadn't thought of this place at all, yet one knock on the head and here he was.
A few minutes of trudging through the blood-covered sewage brought him to a place that he needed no distinctive memories to recognise. Standing up to the roof was a massive set of bars, far taller than Naruto could ever reach. He figured it was the remains of the Kyuubi's cage, but the fact that the jail bars had been blown apart worried him immensely. It looked like they had been blasted away from Naruto's side and something pulled out against its will. The blood beneath his feet had lessened to the point that it was only up to his ankles. However Naruto saw that some of the splintered metal spikes attached to the bars were covered by the same coloured blood.
"What the hell happened in here?"
Being the type who hated the unknown, Naruto made his way towards the bars. He reached out and felt one the metal spikes on his hand, grimacing at the freezing cold temperature. Taking another step he heard a crunching sound beneath his foot, wincing with the realisation that almost anything could be underneath his foot.
He looked down but couldn't see anything through the blood, almost noticing that the river had left a red stain on his pants.
Well that's not going to come out. Wait, this is just in my mind. So it's all good.
Lifting up his foot he heard the same crunching sound, but this time he was listening carefully enough to recognise what it was. He reached down into the river and pulled out a large piece of paper, shaking it a few times to try and get most of the blood off of it. At first it looked just like a blank sheet of paper, but when Naruto turned it around he immediately recognised the ink mark of an Uzumaki seal.
I guess this is what kept the Kyuubi contained. Strange that it's here though.
He looked over the seal with interest; it was far more intricate than anything he could think of. His father had told him about the seals he had placed on the demonic fox when it was sealed within him, Naruto figured it must have been pulled off during the Akatsuki incident.
Seeing little other value in keeping the seal he dropped it back into the river at his ankles, looking down into the darkness behind the ruined bars.
A prison for a demon…I wonder what it is like?
oOoOoOo
Naruto had many ideas on what to expect.
A pit of fire drenched walls. An acid-covered ocean. A cage of spikes.
He was not expecting what lay in front of him.
The river of blood had slowly dried up at the bottom of a massive spiral staircase. It was heavily ordained and was covered in intricate seals; it looked like nothing Naruto could ever conceive of.
Suddenly intrigued, Naruto put the idea of escape out of his mind and began to climb. It wasn't tiring, the blonde shinobi prided himself on his stamina, but it did concern him that his surroundings were slowly getting lighter and lighter the higher he climbed, yet there were no light sources to provide such illumination.
After nearly ten minutes of climbing, Naruto found himself standing at the top of the staircase with a large blood-red coloured silk curtain directly in front of him. It looked entirely out of place considering the other aspects of his 'assumed' mindscape.
"Even for me, this seems unnecessary."
He pushed through the curtain and nearly fell over in surprise.
Behind the silk was a room, more suited for a queen of a country he had never seen in his life. The walls were covered by the same type of red silk curtains as the doorway, though they seemed to be adorned with golden jewels that appeared to hang without actually being attached to the curtains.
There were hundreds of cushions on the ground and a massive blanket-covered bed in the middle, but none of that was more concerning to Naruto as the small girl sitting patiently in the centre of the bed.
She had pale skin in a lightly coloured kimono. She had a small bob of dark blue hair with bangs to the sides of her face, and she had a set of pure white eyes that Naruto was very familiar with. However Naruto immediately knew that it wasn't a younger version of Hinata. Having spent so much time with the real thing, Naruto could tell without quite explaining it.
The little girl bowed slightly in his presence and smiled at him. Seeing a smile on a fake Hinata was enough to send a shiver down Naruto's spine.
He slowly clenched a fist, "Who are you?"
The smile on the little girl's face grew widely, but her mouth was full of razor sharp teeth and there appeared to be nothing but spite in her white eyes.
"I can't say I'm surprised you saw through it." Her voice was alluring and misplaced coming from a little girl, it sounded almost seductive, though it only served to deepen Naruto's suspicions.
With a ripple in the air the little girl appeared to change form in front of him, her hair turning to a bright flame-orange. Her pale skin turned into a light tan and the white eyes became a finely circular black and red colour.
Seeing the fake Hinata turn into that little girl, it finally clicked in Naruto's mind.
"You are the Kyuubi."
Again the little girl smiled, but without Hinata's face attached it was far more menacing. Her sharp teeth seemed to have a mind of their own.
"You are smarter than I remember. That girl has had a bigger influence on you than expected."
"What do you want?" Naruto was trying to keep his voice calm, but if this wasn't a dream then he had a very big problem on his hands.
The child-Kyuubi patted the large bed with a small hand. "A conversation, nothing more. A civil discourse between captor and prisoner."
Her voice was still seductive, and despite himself Naruto was less uncomfortable with it now that it wasn't coming from a face familiar to him.
"Is that why I am here?"
The little girl cocked her head with a slowly-drawn frown. "I could make you sit, if that would please you."
Naruto considered his position and made a decision. Beyond the curtain his clone placed a Hiraishin seal on the wall without the Kyuubi noticing, as Naruto sat on one of the ends of the round bed, crossing his legs beneath him, having removed his shoes already. He didn't trust the Kyuubi in any capacity, but as a little girl Naruto didn't fear it.
"What do you want?" he repeated.
The little girl gathered her legs underneath her light kimono and glared at him through her black and red eyes. "You seem to hate me. I can understand your position."
Despite himself, Naruto could feel all the little bits of resentment bubbling to the surface, all the things he had thought about since learning of his occupant. He struggled to raise his voice as he seethed through his teeth.
"All through my childhood…"
The Kyuubi raised a hand, "Let me stop you right there."
Even with his nearly hateful expression, Naruto let her interrupt him without comment. It was strange, but he could almost hear Hinata's voice in his head telling him to calm down.
She stared at him intently, "I have no interest in your sap story. You will garner no sympathy from me."
"Are you saying you were a victim?" asked Naruto, having never considered such a possibility before. His prior experiences with the Kyuubi had all been hate filled battles that had nearly driven Naruto to breaking point. In particular when the Kyuubi had tortured him for the sake of it during the First Exam in Suna certainly hadn't endeared him towards the demonic prisoner.
The Kyuubi snarled at him, but made no aggressive moves towards him. "We aren't here to debate you did what."
"Then why am I here?"
She leaned forward and placed her hands on her thighs. "Did you believe I would be so simple to destroy? That one act and I would no longer be your problem?"
With a slow grin, Naruto folded his arms in front of him. "Can't blame me for trying."
"I can, and I do, but that is not the point."
She continued to stare at him, not even moving an inch. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of the situation in general, but he didn't want to give any ground to the demon, presuming that it was what was in front of him.
After a few minutes of staring at each other a terrible thought came to Naruto, one that he felt he should have considered earlier. He leaned forward slightly and adjusted his gaze from a stoic stare to a concerned glare.
"What have you done?"
A grin slowly came across the girl's face, one completely devoid of warmth and entirely comprised of hate. "I have done nothing undeserved. Do you think I asked for this fate?"
"You nearly destroyed Konoha!"
"And I accept the responsibility for my part in that situation. But you had NO RIGHT to try and destroy me."
"What?!" Out of all the things for the Kyuubi to be angry at him for, Naruto hadn't thought that to be at the forefront. "You can't be serious."
With an indescribable growl the little girl practically spat into his face. "I AM IMMORTAL! And someone as insignificant as you tries to undo such a legacy? The arrogance…the hubris!"
"Please, tell me how you really feel." Naruto wasn't sure why it came out so sarcastically, he felt there was nothing he could do to make the situation much worse.
The Kyuubi seemed to move to strike at him, but hesitated and sat still instead. She breathed out slowly and glared at him. "It doesn't matter now."
"Yes…on that subject how did you survive the extraction?"
She shrugged in response, "I don't know, nor do I particularly care."
It seemed like there was nothing else for them to talk about, Naruto felt that anything the Kyuubi would say would only incite him further. He would much rather go back to Hinata. As his mind turned to the Hyuuga girl, as it often did, the question he had asked earlier and failed to get a response from came back to him.
He glared at his prisoner, "You've done something, haven't you?"
"You seem to be overestimating my ability to influence the outside world. My power barely affects this room now, and I'm stuck in this stupid form."
"I guess that would…wait. What do you mean now?" He knew the Kyuubi was capable of messing with him in any capacity, though he didn't feel any different.
Seemingly reading his mind, the Kyuubi leant back with a toothy grin. "Who says I did anything to you? Don't be so conceited."
She stood up slowly on the bed and straightened out her small kimono. She pointed at him dramatically. "I did nothing that you couldn't have avoided. If you can't protect her from yourself, then you are just as bad as that Akatsuki fool."
For a few moments Naruto didn't quite understand what the fox demon meant, but when he figured it out the world around him had already begun to fade away. He tried to reach for the Kyuubi but the young girl simply laughed a disturbing familiar laugh and faded with the rest of the environment.
Cursing the fox, not for the first or last time, Naruto waited patiently to be thrown back into the real world. He hoped what he suspected wasn't true, but when it came to the Kyuubi things had a habit of ending badly.
He held his breath and waited.
Author's Note:
Muhahaha! Fear the cliff hanger! I was going to write the next chapter and reveal what the Kyuubi did, but I thought that was a bit too cruel. I don't want to be that author.
I know it seems agonising not to do Naru/Hina for the next chapter, but trust me, the next set of chapters are very unique. They will be about Neji. And his story is awesome.
Full credit to the Kattoken goes to MattWilson83 and his story/manga NHC (NaruHina Chronicles). When I read that bit of his story, I just had to use it in mine. He was happy to oblige, and is a top bloke for doing so.
I know I dropped the Chuunin Exam thing with the Kyuubi in this chapter, and that will be expanded upon when I get around to writing the Prequel. I can't make any promises with that though; this story takes a lot of time to write.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to reply to each review, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.