Howdy! I'm sorry this chapter is coming out so late. A lot happened last week with family and my heath and I simply couldn't upload this chapter until now. But to compensate, yall still will be receiving Chapter 24 tomorrow! Anyway I wanted to address some stuff that was brought to my attention. Stuff is not going to be explained right away in this story. Especially political stuff like last chapter. That adds to the mystery element. Also, I'm not perfect and I do make mistakes. Please don't be afraid to tell me. Just make sure you're being considerate when you do. Also Also, I'm reediting the older chapters. I just updated chapter 3 and will be doing 4 soon. Chapter 1 might just get rewritten at some point. Anyway don't forget to Review review REVIEW! I look forward to another chapter in less than 24 hours! Don't forget to follow favorite and review!

I don't own Naruto

Originally published on 1/4/22

Deep in the forests of Water Country October 13th 52AFK

Naruto was wondering the forests of Water Country alone and cold. It had rained last night and he wasn't able to find proper shelter in time before a downpour occurred.

"Well," he mumbled to himself while walking through the forest "It's been how many days Kaa-chan, Baa-chan?" He asked the voices in his head as he continued his track through the woods.

"Well Guppie, to my count it's been about 60 days since you and that girl were separated. I'm shocked that Hiruzen hasn't sent out any men to try and find you." Mito said as she drank her morning coffee on the couch in Naruto's head.

"60 DAYS?!" He screamed into the trees that towered over the now 4-year-old boy."How has it been that long?!"

"Well, it would seem that after you both initially got separated, her Chakra wasn't detectable for you. That would make sense due to how extreme that explosion was. The residual Chakra in the air would have made it very hard for someone like you to find her." Mito explained to the child who groaned into his hands.

"I need to find her!" He exclaimed as he sat down and examined all the supplies he had left.

Naruto was very glad that all of his supplies was stored in storage scrolls. If he had brought something like a backpack to the exams, he wouldn't have been able to grab it before the explosion. He still had all of his scrolls on him and most of them were still full. He had 25 Kunai, 35 shuriken, and 20ft of ninja wire. He has all of his sealing supplies and clothing. The only thing he didn't have a large amount of was food. He had to hunt for all three meals since he had used up all of the food he had brought with him since he didn't think he would be gone for nearly 65 days.

Naruto put away all of his supplies and continued to walk down the trail he had found. He had been walking a normal pace so that he could try and have a better shot at sensing anyone that was in a 5 mile radius of him. Right now however, all he could find we animals.

"Ughhh this is gonna take forever!" He groaned in frustration as he continued to walk.

"Well, it could be worse. You could me injured." Mito remind the child who face palmed.

"Baa-chan! You're not helping!" He said to his grandma who chuckled in his head.

"Hai Hai!" She said with a smile on her face. "I'm just trying to make you laugh Guppie."

"Well I-" He immediately froze when he sensed people off to his left. Once he was able to confirm that they weren't ninjas, he started to tree hop towards them to try and catch up to them.

"Now Naruto remember to be careful." Mito reminded the boy who nodded his head in agreement. "It's been a very long time since I've been in this part of Water Country."

It took Naruto 20 minutes to reach the people who he had initially he finally stopped to find them, he noticed that it was actually a wagon being pulled by two horses. He decided that he needed a closer look so he hopped to another branch and noticed that there was group of people in the wagon as well.

After a few moment of observing the group he figured out that it was actually a family of 5. There was women who he estimated to be around 35 years old. She had dark red hair with green eyes and was around 5'7. She was wearing a pink dress with a purple belt around her curved belly showing that she was in the middle of a pregnancy.

The man he noticed looked to be around the age of 40. He had blonde hair with streaks of grey and blue eyes. He looked to be 5'10 and had very strong beefy arms. He wore black trousers and a dark blue cotton shirt which was stretched over his chest and arms.

The oldest was a boy with red hair and blue eyes like his father. Naruto observed that the boy looked to be around the age of 10. He wore green trousers and a brow long sleeve shirt. The second oldest was a girl with strawberry blonde hair and eyes like her father but wore a light blue dress with black flats. She was around 4'3 and was 7-years-old. The youngest was a little boy not much older than Naruto. He looked to be around 5 years old. He like the rest of the children had strawberry blonde hair. He had green eyes and wore a white shirt and red pants.

"Minato? Kushina?" Akari mumbled quietly to herself as she looked at the couple that Naruto was watching from the trees.

'What did you say Kaa-chan?' Naruto asked internally as he continued to watch the family as they walked down the path.

"Nothing Kit, just keep watching them." She said as she reminisced about memories.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders as he continued to watch the family. After a few moments, he decided that he needed to make his presence known to the family and figure out if they knew where Hinata was.

~~Road in Water Country~~

"Igagi-kun, it feels like someone's watching us." The woman said as she looked over her shoulder for the 5th time in the last 20 minutes.

"Rikono-chan it's provably fine. No one is in area. It's just the baby getting to your head." The grizzly man said with a wave of his hand.

"Momma! Look in the road!" The little girl called out while waving her finger. Igagi looked at where his daughter was pointing to and saw the small blonde child standing in the middle of the road.

"Oi boy!" He shouted as he stopped the wagon that his family was on. "What are you doing in the middle of the road?!"

"I'm sorry!" Naruto apologized with a bow. "I'm trying to find a friend of mine and I can't find her. H-have you s-seen her?" Naruto asked as he fumbled with his hands. He looked a the mother who instantly swooned over him.

"Oh sweetie why are you out in the middle of these woods?" Rikono asked the boy who shrugged his shoulder.

"We were running from Ki-kirigakure because of the bad stuff that was happening there. We got separated and I've been looking for her ever since!" Naruto explained on the verge of tears.

"Kid what were you doing in Kirigakure? The Last I heard it was in a total lockdown?" Igagi asked the child with a raised eyebrow. There hasn't been any news from the Hidden Village in a little under 2 months due to whatever happened during the Chunin Exams.

"W-well, we were taking the Chunin Exams and we got split up. Can you help me?" He cried to the family who looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"You a ninja?!" Igagi laughed at the boy who glared at him with tears on his cheeks. "Kid you look like you can't even open the pickle jar." He said as he continued to laugh. "What good is a pip-squeak like you gonna do as a ninja?"

Naruto growled at the man who continued to laugh at him. He then proceeded to make 3 copies of himself with no hand-seals. He and his clones then proceed to annihilate the surrounding trees with fireball Jutsus. Igagi and his family were amazed at the abilities that Naruto had.

"Does that prove it?" Naruto growled out as his clones disappeared into thin air.

"Yeah kid." Igagi replied with a smile. "Now you were talking about a girl?"

Naruto eagerly nodded his head; waiting with bated breath for any new the man would have. Igagi rubbed his chin in deep thought as he thought about anything having to do with a girl.

"Wait!"

Naruto looked up at wagon and saw that the little girl was talking. He looked at her with wide eyes and a smile. "Have you seen my friend?" He asked her to which she nodded her head.

"Rikigi-chan how do you know this kids friend if you have no idea what she looks like?" Igagi asked the girl who smiled at her father.

"Some of the men were talking about how they got a girl in the woods." She said with a large smile on her face.

"Wow," she gasped "I guess her running off and eavesdropping actually did some good for once." Rikono exclaimed with a sweatdrop on the back of her head.

"Thank you so much! Do you know where they were taking her?!" Naruto excitedly asked the girl who shook her head 'no'.

" 'M sorry I didn't hear it. All I head was girl with pretty eyes was found in the woods." Rikigi said with a frown on her face. Naruto looked at the man who shrugged his shoulders.

"Well that's all we know kid I hope you find your friend." The Patriarch of the family said with a kind smile.

"Thank you!" Naruto called to the family before taking off down the road.

"Guppie! Don't forget to ask where they heard that news from!" Mito yelled from the couch in Naruto's head. Naruto immediately stopped running and asked the family where they had heard. They told him that the town was about a days and a half walk.

Naruto once again thanked the family and started running in the other direction. Once the family was out of both sight and earshot, he channeled Chakra thought his body and held up the Ram hand-seal.

"Full body resistance seals KAI!"

Immediately, all the resistance and gravity seals that were on Naruto's body were released. He was quite shocked at how light he actually felt when he pivoted from one foot and the other. Naruto smirked to himself as he sprinted away towards the village.

It wasn't until mid day when Naruto found the first hurdle in his plan to rescue Hinata. He had only been running for about 3 hours when he sensed 3 Chunin level Ninjas in the trees.

"Ugh! I don't have time for this!" He groaned to himself as he sped off towards the ninjas so that he could determine if they were a threat to him or not.

Naruto once again found himself on a tree branch looking at a group of three Kirigakure Ninjas sitting on stumps eating cooked fish. The man sitting closest to Naruto was around 5'8, had grey hair and a scar across his cheek. He wore the standard Kiri Ninja uniform consisting of grey vests with vertical stripes on them, black pants with ninja pouches tied at their waists, and blue ninja sandals. The man in the middle was a 5'2, thin man with balding brown hair. He wore a brown vest over a long-sleeved white shirt, and black pants. The third was the tallest of the group standing at about 6'. He wore a grey coat and black pants.

"Hey Rikizaka-san, what do you think the boss is gonna do with that haul we brought up to Iwamoto Cove?" Asked the man in the grey coat.

"I think he'll be pleased that we brought him so many exotic catches." The man in the uniform, now identified as Rikizaka replied nonchalantly. "Plus Kanashima-san over here found us one of those famous Hyugas that everyone always wants."

"Yeah!" The short man name identified as Kanashima shouted with a fist pump. "She looked so tired and frail that it was easy to capture her."

"Man,I'm sure she's gonna be a real looker when she's older too." Rkizaka said a disgusting smile on his face. "Bonobu-san, you think she'll even make it to puberty?" He asked while glancing at the tallest member of the group.

"She has too. Everyone wants the Byakugan and they'll do anything to keep one." Bonobu replied nonchalantly with the wave of his hand.

"She's definitely going to make it past puberty! They're gonna be fucking her the very day she starts growing some ti-" That was the last thing he said before a Kunai was seen flying through the back of his head and out his eye.

Bonobua and Rkizaka immediately jumped to their feet and drew their weapons. They went back to back and started to frantically look around to try and find who the person who killed Kanashima was. They then heard some rustling in the trees and bushed but when they looked all they saw was a bunny rabbit.

"What the fuck?" Bonobua asked as he looked at the rabbit. "There's no way that a rabbit killed Kanashima!"

"That's because it wasn't the rabbit you fucking idiot!" Rkizaka facepalmed at the sheer stupidity of his parter.

"Umm but there's no one here!" Bonobua shouted as he tried to find the person.

"Kunai just don't go flying out of fucking trees! What's next, they start talking to us?!" Rkizaka asked sarcastically to his parter who was still shaken up.

Naruto had been watching the scene unfold for a few minutes before he got tired of it and decided that now was the time to make his presence to the Ninja known. He hopped down from his branch and held out two kunai in a reverse grip.

"Tell me where the girl is!"

Rkizaka looked at Naruto and laughed. Usually he was a very reserved guy who barely let out any emotion other than sarcasm, but when he saw this…toddler holding kunai like a Ninja, he couldn't do anything other than laugh.

"Kid what are you doing here? We're looking for someone who killed our friend!" Bonobua quietly shouted while pointing at Naruto.

"Tell me where the girl you were just talking about is or else I'll do much worse than what I did to your friend!" Naruto calm stated to the two men who merely raised their eyebrows.

"You?!" Bonobua asked the child who growled at him. "You killed a Chunin?!" He then proceeded to mimc his partner and let out a deep belly laugh.

'I don't have time for this!' Naruto angrily thought as he held up the Ram hand-seal. He then channeled Chakra through his body and smirked.

"Bring Down the Thunder!"

As soon and Naruto uttered the words of his signature Jutsu, a single bolt of low powered lightning shot down from the sky and hit Bonobua. While the tall Ninja was distracted, Naruto went on the offensive and sprinted towards Rkizaka who wasn't expecting the smal child to be able to move at such speeds.

"This should be over quickly." Rkizaka said confidently as blocked one of Naruto's swipes. He then backpepdeld up to a tree and kicked Naruto in the chest.

"Yeah for you!" Naruto went through 3 seals and cupped his hand over his mouth in the form of a cone.

"Fire Style:Giant Fireball Jutsu!"

Three fireballs launched from Naruto's mouth towards the Kiri Ninja who went through his own st of hand-seals. He smirked at the boy as he took in a deep breath through his nose.

"Water Style: Roaring Waterspout Jutsu!"

Rkizaka blew out a stream of bright blue water that clashed with Naruto's fireballs. Once the collision occurred, a large cloud of steam started to rise in the clearing. Naruto smirked and activated his Sharingan so that he could still see through the steam. He then felt the air move on his left side due to his whiskers so he dodged.

"Wow you're a tricky one!" Bonobua spat as he tried to punch Naruto while his back wasn't towards him.

"All you have to do is tell me where the Hyuga is and I can let you go!" Naruto yelled out as he dodged another punch from Bonobua. The man laughed as he tried to kick the boy who dodged his kick.

"We aren't telling you jack shit kid!" The man said as he threw some Shuriken at the boy who dropped to the ground to avoid them.

"Fine! I guess you want to do this the hard way!" Naruto said as he went through 6 hand-seals and slammed his hands on the ground.

"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"

Naruto sunk into the ground and started to move towards his biggest threat, Rkizaka. Once he found the man, he grabbed onto the mans legs and brought him into the group. He wasn't expecting Naruto to attack from under him, so he didn't have time to react. While underground, Naruto slit his throat with a Kunai. Once the man was dead, both bodies shot out of the ground. Naruto looked at Bonobua with his Sharingan active and put him into a hypnosis Genjutu (1)

"Tell me where she is!" Naruto shouted as he dashed towards the now hypnotized Ninja who didn't make any move to stop the boy.

" Iwamoto Cliff." The man said in an emotionless tone. Naruto glared at him to which the man simply looked down at him.

"Where is that?" Naruto asked the man who pointed in a direction.

"It's about 27 miles North by Northwest. You'll know you're getting close when the trees start thinning and the ground gets more and more rocky." He answered in the same neutral tone.

"Thank you," Naruto said as he sent a kunai into the mans jugular. He then took off in the direction that Bonodua point him to go in.

Something inside of him knew that he needed to go fast. That he needed work harder. He needed to fulfill his promise to Hitomi. He needed to get her back. Without even noticing, Naruto sped up to just beyond his maximum speed even while channeling Chakra without his weights. He was going to get Hinata back. No matter what it took.

~~Naruto's Seal~~

Akari and Mito watched the fights that Naruto were in with very serious expressions on their faces. Once he took off towards the cove, Mito turned to a deathly serious Akari and frowned.

"You know," She said as she poured herself some tea from a pot on the table. "He's scarily like Minato and Madara." She said before taking a sip of her tea.

"What do you mean?" The fox asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Naruto is a perfect mixture of Kushina's determination and Minato's ruthlessness. Sure he could be cute, nice, and relatively harmless. But like his father, Minato's wrath was second to none, and his revenge could be both quick and effective, or slow and messy. There's a reason why he became Hokage." Mito explained to Akari who nodded her head still confused.

"Mito I still don't understand what you're getting at."

"Akari, did you see how effectively Naruto took down those men?" She asked again as she took a sip of her tea with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah! He took down the targets, got the intel, and left no trace. He actually did a really good job."Akari commented while taking a sip from her glass of white wine.(2)

"Yeah a little too well." Mito commented to the women sitting next to her. "Naruto is a 4 year old who's a killing machine. He didn't need to hypnotize AND kill that Ninja. Hell it was within his power to get the that information form them without even using a single attack." Mito exclaimed while setting her cup down onto the table. "Akari I don't think you get it since you're not a mother. But right now, Naruto is starting down a path that could lead to a lot of bad things" She frowned while taking another sip of her tea.

"I think that he'll be fine." She said confidently with a smile. "I mean we're gonna be there to help guide him right? I believe in us and I defiantly believe in Hiruzen, and Hitomi and especially Mikoto."

"You know," Mito stroked her chin with her fingers. "I've always gotten a weird feeling about him. I mean don't you think it's a little strange that he hasn't sent any search or rescue parties after Naruto? The JINCHURIKI of the village. Along with some of his other…decisions he's made." She said calmly as she watched Naruto run through the woods.

Akari was getting slightly uncomfortable with what Mito was saying so she decided to change the topic to something else. "Do you think Naruto can keep this pace up?"

Mito glanced to her left in the living room and saw two colored status bars. The red one as his energy level which showed how much energy and stamina he had left. The blue one was his Chakra level which showed how much Chakra Naruto was losing or gaining.

"Meh," she replied while calculating the amount of Chakra and Stamina Naruto had left. "He's got about 40% Stamina left and 70% of his Chakra left so he should be fine but he could be getting into some fights later when he finds Hinata."

"And I can also supply-"

"No."

"No?" Akari turned her head to give the elderly lady a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean no?!"

"You'll destroy his body if you give him any of your Chakra. His body simply can't handle that kind of stress. It's barely coping with the resistance seals and the training that he's been doing. Children this young aren't supposed to be training, running, ad fighting like this." Mito gave Akari a sharp glare as she deflated, any argument she had vanishing.

"I just hope he gets out of this in one piece."

~~Woods of Water Country~~

Naruto was pushing himself to the absolute to get to Hinata as fast as possible. It had taken him nearly 2 and a half hours to get to where the man said that the rocks would start to change. He had been observing the trees and his surrounds while he was running, but now he was able to see what the man had been talking about.

All throughout the woods, there were different kinds of trees like some Weeping Willows, Red Maples, River Birch, and Overcup Oak were always present due to the wet and cold climate that Water Country was known for. He also noticed the birds and deer that were always around. He had been hunting rabbits, deer, and raccoons.

Now, there were a lot less trees and a lot jagged rocks. He also noticed that he was going uphill for at least half the time he was running. While he always enjoyed a nice run, the constant running was starting to get to him. 'I have to do it for Hinata!' He thought as he pushed himself even harder.

After another 25 minutes of running he finally sensed other people walking in the cliff face. He smiled when he felt her and subsequently sped up to to try and get to her faster.

When Naruto finally got out of the woods, he ran into a flat grassy clearing that had a few bushes dotted around it. He took a look around and noticed that there was a very sharp drop off at he end of the clearing. 'Those must be the cliffs' He thought to himself. What he didn't know was that they weren't just any cliffs. There were cliffs that were 750 feet tall and had jagged rocks at the bottom.

Naruto took a minute to catch his breath before he tried to locate Hinata. He turned his head and found her among 20 other girls of varying ages and races. There were 10 guards walking next to and near or then. All of the guards were wearing black pants and Ninja shoes with gray long-sleeved shirts. They all had multiple Ninja Pouches on their thighs and hips.

"Alright bitches get in line so we can count ya!" One of the guards yelled which imeidalty caused all the girls to go rigid.

Naruto observed the condition of the girls and he was stunned. All of them looked skinny and pale. His eyes tried to find Hinata and when he saw him he nearly blew his cover. Hinata had terrible bags under her eyes, bruises and scratch marks on her face and neck, and was walking with a limp. Naruto could also make out that she was shaking as well.

One of the girls, a young blonde haired girl, fell to the ground and started coughing up blood. She looked to be around 10 or 11 and was wearing a poncho like shirt with brow pants.

"Get up!" One of the guards yelled at the girl who merely whimpered.

"Boss, this one isn't getting up!" He shouted to the man at the front who shrugged his shoulders.

"Kick her over the edge!" He yelled from the front of the line. The man nodded his head and kicked the girl over the side of the cliff. Her screams could be heard for a few seconds before they were silenced by the roaring sounds of the water below.

Naruto locked eyes on Hinata as he formulated a plan to try and rescue his first and only plan. After a few seconds of thinking, he smirked to himself. He kicked a pebble over to where Hinata was standing praying that it was cross the estimated 30 ft (9.1M) between them. He was thankful when she looked up and him and her eyes widened.

Naruto held up a thumbs up and smiled at her. He then turned towards the guard that was at the back of the line. He grabbed one of the Shuriken that was in his pouch and threw it at the man. The guard wasn't paying attention and got it lodged in his throat.

"GRURH!" He shouted as he throat was filling with blood. The commotion caused all the guards to go on alert and start grabbing girls that were deemed 'valuable'. Naruto groaned when the leader of the guards grabbed Hinata by the wrist. 'Well this just got a lot harder!'

"Ninja!" One of the men shouted as they took up defensive positions. Some of the guards started throwing Shuriken and Kunai into the woods. Naruto dodged them and Shunshined to the open field above the cliff.

"Let my friend go!" He yelled at the leader who raised an eyebrow at him.

"And who are you to tell me what to do?!" He yelled while dangling Hinata above the ground.

"Give me my friend and I won't hurt any of you!" Naruto yelled as he raised his hands in the air while slowly walking over to Hinata who was thrashing around in the guards arm.

Naruto felt the air ship and ducked a Fireball coming from behind him. He then has to jump when he sensed someone under him. Once Naruto was back on his feet, he started going through hand-seals finally landing on the Boar seal.

"Wind Style: Giant Whirlwind Justu!"

Out of Naruto's mouth came a large gale of wind which nocked some of the guards back giving the child enough time to get to Hinata. When he finally reached the girl, he punched the leader in the stomach which forced him to stumble backwards.

"You little brat!" He yelled as he glanced at the other 8 guards who were either trying to get recapture some of the girls who had ran away due to not being bound, or were running towards Naruto and himself. "You'll learn to never mess with the Order of Gargoyles!" (3) He then proceeded to quickly kick Naruto in the stomach which caused the boy to keel over and loose his breath. The leader didn't let up and he tried to kick Naruto in the head while he was on the ground.

Naruto was able to feel the movement of air through his whiskers and dodged downward kick. He then landed a sweeping kick which caused the man to back up in order to avoid getting hit. The leader glanced over his shoulder and smirked.

"You said you want your friend?" He asked Naruto who glared at him. He didn't however notice that Hinata was dangling over the edge of the cliff.

"NARUTO HE'S GONNA DROP HINATA!" Akari and Mito screamed from inside of his head. He however was too late to try and get to the man before he let go of Hinata.

All Naruto heard for a moment was the sheik of Hinata falling over the cliff. He took one last look at the Leader of group before he sprinted towards the cliff and jumped over after Hinata.

"NARUTO!" She screamed as she plummeted towards the jagged, rocky bottom. She was trying to orient herself but was failing miserably.

"HINATA!" He screwed as he reacher out his hands in a desperate attempt to save her. 'I can't let her die!' He thought as he to plummeted towards the rocky bottom 'I can't loose her! I can't let her die. I won't let her die! I WILL SAVE HER!'

Suddenly Naruto felt his Chakra draining from his body. He looked at his stretched out arm and noticed that cream colored chains were shooting towards Hinata. They had a strange glow to then as they shot through the air chasing after the girl. If Naruto strained his eyes, he could see that something was at the end of the white mystical chain (4). It looked to be a small white claw.

But Naruto didn't care. All he cared about was saving Hinata. All he cared about was being reunited with his best friend. It didn't matter to him how he did it. Just that he made it happen.

(1) Yes Naruto can use Sharingan Genjutsu. I think it fits for what I have in mind for his character further down the road.

(2) I thought that I should spice up Akair and Mito's drinks. Just to add a bit of spice.

(3) I feel like the Naruto world as a whole seems empty. So along with fleshing out the sizes of these countries, I'm gonna include some gangs and crime orinzaions too. PM/review if you have any comments.

(4) Imagine the ends of Doc Ooc's robot limbs on Kushina's chains. Or you could imagine cartoon robot hands on rhe ends of chains. Either way they are gonna have a way for Naruto to grab stuff. He'll also be able to pull and push stuff. I'm gonna treat them similar to Spiderman's webs.

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