- I thought you wouldn't go back. Is the Hokage job that heavy?
Minato asked with a spark of amusement in his voice to the gentleman in front of him.
Hiruzen took a drag on his pipe, and stood up from his desk. From the look on his face, the matter was serious.
- No, you're the one who's dramatic, it's even easy. Believe me, I didn't want to call you. Especially with your daughter about to be born... by the way, how long?
He gave a warm smile, an attempt to lighten the mood, which seemed to work from the smile Minato returned.
- It's due between these next two weeks.
- That's great. I remember how scared I was when my wife was about to give birt... good times. My son was not as rebellious as he is today.
He said with a smile and a distant expression, but soon, a sigh escaped his lips, and he got that serious expression again.
- I'll be blunt, Minato. The ninja who were sent to help the Hyuuga clan reported back yesterday. They are following the leads, it seems that Hiashi's daughter was kidnapped and taken away, apparently still alive.
He took another drag on his pipe.
- When they set up camp yesterday, and checked the area, they found traces of three-tailed chakra.
Minato's eyes widened at first, and soon, his face closed as his body stiffened.
- Apparently Rin has been in the vicinity... what makes it a bit more... worrisome, is that they are close to the cursed forest.
They were silent for a while, until Minato sighed wearily.
- After all these months... have they found out anything else?
- Yes. They suspect that Rin is the leader, or one of the leaders of the remaining groups in Kiri and Kumo... besides, it's only a hypothesis, but she might be working for Akatsuki.
-... Which explains why she went to the forest... Kyuubi is there.
- They have already captured two Bijuus counting the three tails... I doubt that they will be able to capture Kyuubi, but, it is something to worry about. I ordered them to continue with the focus of helping the Hyuugas, but to back off if the situation escalates, and if possible find out more about it.
-... Do we have the location of their hiding place yet?
- Some suspicions, but nothing concrete, besides being far away and difficult to access.
Minato closed his eyes and sighed.
-... Understood... If necessary, I will help as I can. And if they discover the hiding place...
- I'll let you know. Don't worry. But, Minato, I ask you not to worry about that, I have already contacted Jiraya and Tsunade, and we have support from Suna. Focus on your family, and forget about these problems for a while... you, and especially Kushina, need it.
Minato nodded, bowing slightly, before turning and leaving the Hokage's room.
The woman was the first to attack, concentrating chakra in her arrow, she whispered some words which were muffled by the cutting noise of the lightning that surrounded her bow, and soon, an electric arrow was shot towards both of them.
However, at the same time that man, Dae, advanced.
Hinata took the lead and concentrated chakra in her hands.
- Hakkeshō Kaiten!
The girl began to release a large amount of chakra from every chakra point on her body, as she began to spin violently.
The arrow hit her chakra shield, where the two techniques fought with each other, until the shield did better, and the arrow was reflected back at the woman, who jumped away from there.
The shield also stopped Dae's attack, who was off balance only for a few moments due to the spinning force in the area around that jutsu, not to mention that inside the shield, the girl threw some lightning needles towards him.
Instants of imbalance that Naruto didn't waste.
The boy advanced towards Dae with his fists wrapped in chakra.
Dae recovered quickly and prepared to block the attack. However, he was surprised when a clone appeared right behind him, hitting him in the side of the torso with an adamantine punch, throwing Dae to the side. Hinata then took action, advancing toward him with her palms open.
She tried to attack him at his chakra points, however, she was forced to interrupt her blow when the woman shot another arrow in her direction. This time, a sharp wind arrow.
In reflex, the girl jumped back. Yet, still in the air, their leader appeared behind her, intending to knock her out.
But Naruto advanced towards him, being propelled by a clone and trying to land a punch on his opponent. The man defended his attack, however, and countered with a punch to the boy's stomach, causing the boy to bend over and widen his eyes as he felt the air being expelled from his lungs.
Then the man grabbed him by the neck and threw him violently to the ground. A large cloud of dust rose as Naruto's body hit the ground, obstructing their view of him.
The leader tried to move against Hinata, however, he was forced to dodge when a water dragon advanced toward him. The speed and force behind the dragon was considerable.
Still from within the cloud of dust, several "Narutos" were hurled, like a human machine gun. The leader began to slash and pierce all the clones that were thrown in his direction.
The woman did the same, shooting arrows with speed and precision at each approaching clone. However, she was taken by surprise when the original was also launched in her direction, as he deflected her arrows with wind and managed to punch her hard in the stomach, throwing her backwards.
She groaned as she felt her back crash into a tree, and despite the great pain, she recovered quickly, spitting fire at her arrow and shooting it towards Naruto. He, however, dodged. But before he could counterattack, Dae appeared beside him, trying to cut him down with his sword. But the boy dodged again, also deflecting the sequence of slashing blows as best he could.
The woman took advantage of the moment and concentrated chakra once more, this time putting three arrows in her bow, each one with a different element, being wind, fire and lightning.
The woman shot the arrows. As soon as she did, numerous clones appeared all at once, surrounding her like a dome, and consequently preventing the arrows from reaching the original and exploding extremely close to her.
The real one, in turn, used a strong blast of wind to stop another attack from the man, and counterattacked with a kick to the stomach, followed by an adamantine punch to the face.
Dae groaned in pain and backed away, but soon, he disappeared from Naruto's line of sight.
Turning around, the leader tries to attack Hinata again, intending to, again, knock her out. But, she jumped back, at the same time throwing some water needles in his direction. But the man, as expected, just deflected them.
Dae acted, and positioned himself behind the girl, taking advantage of her distraction with the needles.
However, as he tried to attack her, he was surprised when the girl suddenly turned around and attacked his upper arm. A shock ran through his body, and acting fast, he kicked the girl aside, who defended the blow with her arms, but was still thrown from the force of the blow.
Dae looked at his trembling arm, his skin had been "pushed" into his arm, as if that part had been sunk by the girl's fingers.
- Oh, shit! She... Fuck! I can't use this arm anymore! It will take at least a few hours to get it back to normal!
He grumbled loudly in clear irritation, looking with fierce eyes at Hinata, who was unmoved.
- She's a Hyuuga, what did you expect? They are trained to kill from an early age. Your fault for letting your guard down when you went to attack her.
The woman said, standing next to him. Naruto stared at her wide-eyed, despite her damaged armor, dirty face and blood dripping from her forehead, she was acting as if what happened before was no big deal.
- Shut up, Hana!
- They're good... well, they're better than I thought they'd be, but we've wasted enough time already.
The leader said suddenly, grabbing Naruto by the neck, who was taken by surprise by his sudden increase in speed.
- Hm, too bad, I was enjoying the two of them. Can we go harder on the girl?
- Yes, but don't kill her, if she dies, you will regret it. The boy is another story. He's really worth a lot... but I don't like him.
The leader looked deep into the eyes of Naruto, who punched and kicked his arm in an attempt to get free, but without much success.
Then, still holding Naruto by the neck, he began to punch his stomach viciously, controlling his force so as not to destroy his internal organs, but strong enough to cause pain, lots of pain, alternating between his abdomen, chest, and face.
The woman didn't even wait and attacked Hinata, giving her a powerful kick to her stomach. Dae came up behind her and grabbed her by the back of the neck, throwing her several times violently against the ground.
Hinata moaned in pain and spat out a certain amount of blood, but she expelled her chakra from her body, pushing them both away, and attacked Hana, who was closer.
Pointing her fingers at the woman, Hinata expelled a strong gust of compressed vacuum towards her. The jutsu was practically invisible, as well as extremely fast, making it really hard for the woman to dodge.
Especially since Hinata began to expel several vacuum bursts, like a machine gun at her fingertips. These bursts, when they hit the trees, destroyed part of their trunks.
(Just think of freeza throwing those little fingers of Ki, but in Hinata's case, they are with both fingers and in a slower way, and of course, less powerful)
Hana couldn't dodge all the bursts, and also couldn't get close to Hinata or conjure any other jutsu due to the speed with which the girl was attacking her. So Dae acted, appearing behind the girl.
However, Hinata leaned her body to the side, raised her arm pointing her fingers up, and threw another vacuum blast, which hit Dae's shoulder.
Gritting her teeth, the girl obeyed Nibi's orders in her mind and turned around. Her chakra was not infinite, especially against two opponents, she had to get it over with soon.
- Hakkeshō Kaiten!
The girl began to spin at extreme speed while expelling a large amount of chakra through her chakra points, only this time offensively, where her spinning shield engulfed Dae's body, and within her jutsu, she began to viciously attack his chakra points.
- Hakke Sanjūni Shō!
The girl attacked Dae with the intention of hitting thirty-two of his chakra points, however, despite his speed, the man was able to dodge a large portion of her attacks, although he could not get out of her spinning shield.
Nevertheless, those few points she hit were enough to slow him down. Gritting her teeth, Hinata struggled to keep her chakra shield active, and remembering the little lessons Naruto had given her about her chakra elements, she began to imbue her element into her shield, while increasing its size, power, and spinning speed.
Lightning began to emanate violently from the shield, where its surrounding area was destroyed by the shield. The force of the blow cut leaves into several pieces, and Hana's jutsus simply could not penetrate that barrier.
The lightning became stronger, and using a small amount of Nibi's chakra, the blue lightning became stronger.
And along with the lightning, fire began to be expelled from the jutsu, where an elemental explosion took place, completely destroying the surrounding area.
Hana was forced to move away, but was still hit by the impact.
Even the leader who was hanging Naruto was forced to let go of him and move away from there. However, Naruto didn't let him go too far, and with his clones, held him back, using him as a shield from the impact.
The jutsu was undone, and Hinata was on her knees in the center of a large crater, panting, sweating and tired from the great expenditure of chakra.
But this was not in vain, since in front of her, Dae's body was almost unrecognizable.
There were large holes all over his body, where his organs were visible, destroyed and mutilated by the jutsu.
Even though his dead body was in that pathetic state, it was surprising that there was anything left of what had once been a man. That jutsu was capable of destroying a body from the inside out on a cellular level.
The girl, however, didn't have time to rest, as she soon felt a large amount of chakra rapidly approaching in her direction.
Hinata grumbled, she didn't have much chakra, so she was forced to jump away. But she was tired, and even after dodging the wind arrow, she was still caught on impact.
Hana then acted quickly, kicking Hinata still in the air and throwing her violently backwards.
Without giving the girl time to recover, Hana grabbed her by the neck and started to viciously punch the girl's face, which was defenseless against the strong blows of the woman.
After some time, Hana let go of Hinata and gave her a powerful kick to the stomach, causing the girl to "fly" until she crashed into a tree.
Hinata could no longer move, not fast enough to dodge the blows, or continue to fight. But still, Hana kept attacking her, beating the girl's face, abusing kicks and blows on her stomach and all over her torso, even going so far as to stick a kunai on Hinata's shoulder.
The woman would continue attacking her, but a hand tightened its grip on her shoulder, stopping her.
- Hana... what did I say about killing her?
The leader said, not even seeming affected by the impact of the previous jutsu. And not far away, Naruto was lying on the ground, blood dripping from his mouth.
- She killed Dae!
- And I will kill you.
His cold voice made her shut up. The woman lowered her head and stared at the ground, straightening her posture and taking a few steps away from the girl's body.
The leader examined Hinata's body, sighing wearily soon after.
- Argh, who will buy her like this? What were you thinking? You didn't feel that way when-
He was interrupted by a strong sphere of wind in his face, throwing him violently through the air, so strong as to break the trees he was hitting with his body.
The woman was surprised by the sudden attack, being caught by surprise by several clones that held her back, and soon, Naruto hit her in the stomach with a big rasengan.
But unlike the man, he kept pressing the jutsu against her stomach, not caring about the sound of flesh being destroyed, or the woman's screams of pain and agony, not even when the blood started to swirl around his sphere and her organs were slowly being destroyed.
After a while, he threw the jutsu, and the woman's body was thrown along with the sphere, exploding into wind soon after, not far from there.
Naruto undid his clones and looked at Hinata, panting.
Those punches really damaged his body... he could barely walk. Still, the girl was in a worse situation, he had to get her out of there as soon as possible.
"The... honeyfruit..."
He thought, taking the girl in his arms. Unfortunately, Nibi had entered the seal with the last of the honeyfruit, she would have to leave the seal to deliver them... that was if the fruit hadn't been destroyed when she returned to Hinata's body.
The boy gritted his teeth, his stomach ached, it felt like it was on fire. He staggered as he walked away, he felt the leader's presence, heard his heartbeat, but he didn't focus on him.
There was something else that needed his attention, and it was approaching quickly.
His heart beat even harder, desperation grew in his chest to be fast enough to get out of there. But he knew he couldn't.
Especially with the leader already on his feet.
- It was a good attack.
The man's voice made itself present just behind him, and then he felt his body being thrown violently to the side, releasing Hinata in the process.
Naruto spat out blood as he hit a tree trunk, which broke as he was hit.
He would have to fight, even though he had no chance.
Getting up, Naruto prepares himself.
An action he should not have done.
The man attacked with his sword, an extremely fast cutting attack. Too fast for Naruto to see.
A blink of an eye, and his left eye was pierced by that blade.
At first, the boy didn't even felt pain, he just felt strange, a certain discomfort at having half of his line of sight diminished.
Half of the things he could see disappeared, simple as that, from one instant to another.
And soon, the sharp, excruciating pain spread, especially when the man withdrew the sword from his eye.
A cry of pain tore through his throat, his knees gave way, and he instinctively put his hands to his eye, feeling the blood trickle through his fingers, down his cheek, and watching the crimson red drip onto the floor.
- For a child, you are strong. You and the girl are amazing... maybe she is stronger than you... Hm, hard to say, unfortunately, your oppo-
The man was interrupted by a huge chakra blast. Not only strong enough to destroy the surrounding area and push him violently backwards, but it was also an opportune moment for Naruto, who even without an eye, could sense the presence of his opponent, and with his hands on the ground, began to manipulate the ground.
Not only turning it into a kind of quicksand, but also destroying the earth and, mixed with the wind element, throwing huge chunks of soil towards his opponent. Something that needed a stupid amount of chakra and wasn't very practical, but counting on the fact that he didn't have time to make hand seals, much less a jutsu strong enough to push that man back, he had to appeal a bit.
Soon, all the pieces of dirt and stone he threw at the man exploded in a cloud of smoke, and several "Narutos" advanced toward the man with rasengans ready in their hands.
However, he was a skilled opponent, and he dodged all the jutsus, even grabbing some clones and throwing them at each other while dodging.
Making a few hand seals, the man jumps.
- Katon: Housenka no jutsu!
He spat out a huge amount of fireballs towards Naruto. Strong enough to destroy the clones without them exploding into fire.
Naruto jumped away, dodging the fireballs as best he could, but even while jumping away from the area hit, he was still caught in the explosion of flames.
Dodging with one less eye was proving to be a challenge.
- Doton: Sando no jutsu!
The man slammed his hands on the ground, and soon, two rock formations formed on opposite sides of Naruto, and closed in on the boy.
The rock formations cracked, and the man quickly approached. His eyes focused on the remains of his jutsu.
Soon, his face closed as he felt the heat emitting from the rock formations. But then his eyes widened.
The ground on which he was standing suddenly rose up and moved swiftly towards another piece of land that was approaching.
The man was taken by surprise, but he would manage to escape. But before he could jump away, both his legs were grabbed. As he looked down, several hands began to grab him from the waist down, making it impossible for him to move, especially when the ground became a kind of quicksand, leaving him stuck with the clones, which would not disappear with simple blows.
And to make his situation worse, he gasped as he saw the other piece of ground explode into smoke, and the real Naruto move forward with a large spinning sphere in his hand.
It was all too fast, and the jutsu hit him right in the stomach. The nukenin gasped again, and his body was thrown backwards violently, being propelled by the sphere that was still spinning in his stomach, until it finally exploded.
But Naruto didn't stop there, this was no time to save chakra.
Making several clones, he divided them into two groups.
The first group, jumped, and the second stayed on the ground, making some hand seals.
First group- Katon: Housenka no jutsu!
The clones, still in the air, started spitting numerous fireballs towards the cloud of dust that the explosion of his rasengan caused, leaving the crater even deeper.
Second group- Goton Dairendan no Jutsu!
Several elemental projectiles advanced against the crater, and again, a huge explosion of mixed elements took place.
Naruto shattered his clones, and his knees gave way. He gasped heavily, he had expended a good amount of chakra, too much for a child, especially for a normal person.
And yet, that guy was still alive... he had no time for that.
Something was approaching. He had to get Hinata out of there.
Gritting his teeth, he groaned as he stood up with some difficulty, and soon, began to run as fast as he could towards her.
He was staggering, it didn't take much to fall, but he forced himself to keep going.
The ground began to shake, and an extremely loud and frightening noise echoed through the forest.
- Hinata!
The boy called out to the girl, who was crawling toward him.
As she approached, he made a clone with a certain amount of chakra and immediately took her in his arms and started walking right away.
However, an explosion right next to him stopped him from continuing, and he needed the help of his clone not to fall, even though it was a relatively weak jutsu.
- Where do you think you are going?
The nukenin said, and Naruto looked over his shoulder. He was walking slightly bent over, his armor had been destroyed, there was a piece of branch stuck in the side of his abdomen, blood dripped down his face and arms, staining the ground where he passed.
His expression was serious, but his eyes burned with anger.
- You are good... I feel like a fool for underestimating you, and I apologize for that.
He concentrated chakra on his sword, his steps became heavier, and his presence became overwhelming.
- I never thought I would have to fight a child for real. If the situation were different, you would be an extremely valuable member of my group.
The boy staggered a few steps away, an expression of horror on his face.
But it wasn't because of the nukenin, no. His presence was no match for the one right behind him.
The man immediately tried to attack him, but was unable to.
His body was violently thrown aside by a huge gray-skinned paw with extremely long and sharp claws. The single blow was so strong that the man was thrown hundreds of meters, killed as the paw crashed into his body, and what was left destroyed countless trees, until it was nothing more than a heap of shattered flesh.
Unrecognizable.
Naruto's eyes focused on the creature in front of him. Huge, terrifying. Its long horns atop its lion-like head, mixed with the smaller sword-like horns just below, along with its huge fangs and teeth made it even more frightening.
His yellow eyes stared at Naruto, who was slowly walking away.
-... A... Behemoth...
Behemoth, one of the only races of creatures that could be compared to a Bijuu. They weren't that old, and that made them even more dangerous, because the older the stronger they were.
No one knew exactly where they came from, but there was a belief that they were not originally from the shinobi world.
The creature growled, and soon, a huge roar hurled Naruto away. His ears bled from the noise, leaving him dazed to the point that he didn't even feel his body crash into some trees, before finally stopping.
His vision blurred, his body ached excruciatingly. Leaning on the log beside him, he slowly stood up. His ears ringed, and all the noise around him became muffled.
His stomach rumbled, and he bent over, spitting out a certain amount of blood.
Even in that state, he started walking toward where his clone was. His clone was not undone, good thing, it meant he could buy a little time until he arrived.
That honeyfruit would come in handy at that moment.
As he got close enough, he widened his eye as he saw the Behemoth running after his clone. There was no comparison, the creature was much faster.
Gritting his teeth, he let his body be wrapped in a thin layer of chakra, enough for him to move faster.
Concentrating chakra in his hand, he forms a powerful Rasengan of cutting wind, with its massive chakra inside.
Groaning, he begins to run towards the creature, and at one point, he leaps towards the Behemoth, and hit his Rasengan precisely on the side of its head.
A great explosion of wind occurred, and he took advantage of the jutsu's impact to jump to his clone.
However, a sphere of energy quickly advanced towards both of them, and the clone hurled Hinata into the real one, before he was hit by the jutsu.
A huge explosion of pure chakra ensued, hurling Naruto into a tree further ahead.
The boy gnashed his teeth, but held on, and even with his body at its limit, began to run again.
- N-Naru... to...
The girl spat out a small amount of blood, and looked up into his face. Her weak pearly eyes stared at the left side of his face, stained with blood, and the cut on his eye.
Naruto didn't even seem to hear her, the Behemoth's fast paces behind him didn't let him concentrate on the girl.
He couldn't run away. Not really.
And his clones weren't strong enough to hold that creature, plus he didn't have much chakra to create enough clones to keep the Behemoth busy.
Concentrating most of what he had, the boy creates a clone even stronger than the previous one.
The Behemoth suddenly moves forward, even faster than before, its yellow eyes focused on Naruto.
The boy widens his eye, and throws Hinata at his clone, moments before being impaled by one of the Behemoth's small horns.
Naruto spat out a large amount of blood, though smaller than the ones on top of the creature's head, having one of those horns pierce him, was like being struck by a sword.
The clone looked at himself in terror, as did Hinata, who could barely hold back her tears as she watched the scene.
The Behemoth began to move, however, Naruto concentrated chakra in his hand and grabbed its horn. In his other hand, he made another rasengan, weaker than before, but strong enough to destroy one of the Behemoth's eyes.
The explosion of that jutsu, followed by the loud roar of the Behemoth, were the last things the clone could hear, before he left the forest.
He came across an almost entirely flat green field, with a small hill ahead. A huge river, a little way away from there, that probably circled part of the forest by its alignment.
An incredibly beautiful place, followed by a forest filled with death.
The clone had no time to appreciate the place, he had to leave Hinata as far away as possible. After Naruto was impaled, he had no idea how much time he had left before he disappears.
He ran, ran as fast and as far as he could.
Until at one point, he spotted people. A huge group of ninjas, for some of them had chakra concentrated in their eyes.
The boy was a little afraid at first, but when he saw the eyes of those people, he took a deep breath of relief.
Hinata's clan.
The clone ran towards them, and as soon as they noticed the weak chakra and recognized the girl in her arms, they ran towards her as well.
A man among them took the lead, him having sterner expressions, and a powerful chakra, as well as a powerful presence.
Even more powerful than that of the man he had fought earlier.
- Hinata!
The man shouted the girl's name, and Naruto delivered her into his arms, just as he approached.
The girl had passed out, and the boy watched as the man used his doujutsu to check the girl's body.
Several other ninjas approached, hundreds, perhaps. Some of them surrounded him, asked him questions, but he didn't even seem to have heard them.
The clone's gaze focused on the girl's bloodied and sleeping face, the noise around him became muffled, and with a rather sad smile on his face, the jutsu became unstable, and he disappeared.