When Hinata opened her eyes and found herself curled up on dirt, she hurriedly sat up, trying amidst her confusion to recall what had previously happened. The sun was starting to lower itself, and sky was just tingeing on orange.

As she rubbed grit out of her eyes that had blown in from the wind, her memory rushed back with painful detail. She felt her stomach lurch, but she contained herself as she got to her feet.

Hearing footfalls behind her, Hinata spun on her heel with her eyes starting to strain - only to see Sakura and Sasuke walking towards her. They exchanged glances; Hinata's response had been extremely edgy for simple footsteps that were not even attempted to be concealed.

"Hinata,"

Sakura said quietly,

"We didn't tell anyone... yet. It might cause too much trouble, you know... so we're going to go find Naruto first."

Hinata looked at them, her eyes unreadable as she thought deeply. Then she gave a slow nod.

"You don't have to keep silent if you don't want to."

Sasuke said, and Hinata was surprised to hear him speak so softly. Sakura nodded in agreement next to him, and the two waited for Hinata's answer.

What had happened was definitely something to be reported, but Hinata felt there was something else. Something else was so wrong, it didn't even amount to her trauma. Hinata couldn't figure it out, and she wasn't sure she was supposed to. But...

She truly wanted to know Naruto better. The hidden pain and suffering had lashed out in the last look she had had at him, and she hadn't been able to forget it despite her own pain. Naruto was someone who she had never been able to really figure out, but this was too much for anyone to try to figure out. Naruto would never rape her. She didn't just believe it, she *knew* it.

Having made up her mind, Hinata lifted her chin up and looked at Sasuke in the eyes.

"I'll go with you."

He raised an eyebrow in mild surprise as Sakura's surprise was expressed less mildly with a dropped jaw.

"Hinata, you're-- you're not really in the condition--"

Sakura started to splutter, but Sasuke interrupted,

"Fine."

He started to walk along the path again, past Hinata, and Sakura hastily followed.

"'Fine'?!"

She hissed.

"She has a right to choose."

Sasuke answered, and then proceeded to give her a look that clearly said, 'you go figure'. She shut up.

Hinata walked behind, her eyes downcast again as she fell back into her chasm of thought, and continued to walk distractedly into the forest area.





Nine-Tails kept his eyes on a certain spot amongst the foliage.

It had been some time since the demon-fox had discovered the strangely ruffled-looking patch of leaves amongst his surroundings. The boy had obviously been so troubled and in such a rushed panic that he had neglected his stealth. Nine-Tails could envision very, very obvious clues marking the trail of the boy.

He had enjoyed the girl while it had lasted, even though he hadn't been able to completely satisfy himself, but now his desire had dissipated. Nine-Tails had expected the boy to release his frozen position once his mind had cleared of all sexual intentions, but the boy hadn't.

The demon-fox had then tried to move several times by stirring up a great amount of chakra to the boy's hands. Instead of feeling energised enough to move once the chakra was there, however, the demon-fox found that even the smallest twitch of a finger brought the body a searing hot pain that ripped at the very core. It was so excruciating even Nine-Tails didn't want to try in fear of wearing out the boy's nerves.

"Foolish boy,"

Nine-Tails grumbled through the boy's lips, enraged that he, the great Nine-Tails, was stuck in such an awkwardly stupid position. He kept his eyes on the leaves.





Sasuke looked as calm as he always did, but Sakura was showing visible signs of being distraught. She constantly swept strands of hair behind her ear, even though they weren't in her face, and her brows were slightly creased.

Hinata knew why Sakura was looking so uneasy. Naruto had heightened his ninja skills considerably over the years, and was well on the way from a Chuunin to a Jounin. Naruto's stealth was one of those that even Sasuke had trouble uncovering his tracks across a thirty-metre range of sand. Yet as the trio walked along the undergrowth of the forest, the trail of disgruntled leaves before them was a sure sign of someone having run through the forest floor.

At first, all three of them had thought that Naruto was tricking them by leaving such an obvious trail, but after checking almost every point of possible entry, they realised that it wasn't a trick at all.

Hinata could tell, even though Sakura hadn't said anything since they had entered the forest, that the absolute lack of caution worried her greatly. Caution was the essence of a ninja in many ways, and though Naruto sometimes proved to have none, Sakura knew he at least wouldn't leave a gaping pathway this obvious.

He must have been in another state of mind for himself to be so careless, Hinata thought. She took care not to crunch the yellowing leaves beneath her feet too loudly.

After nearly fifteen minutes of walking, Sasuke paused in his tracks for a second. His eyes briefly scanned the bark of a tree by him, and Sakura could have sworn she saw a flicker of a scowl on his face before he changed course and turned to his right. Wondering what was going on, Sakura quickened her pace to inspect for herself.

The sun was hanging low in the sky, still a burning disc of darkish yellow, and it filtered through the trees a dim orange light. Sakura saw on the bark, directly under a dappling of dim sunlight, a slight scrape of claw-like marks. She blinked, wondering why Sasuke had bothered to glance at some animal's marks, when she noticed that the gaping trail at her feet carried a few paces forwards before stopping.

Hinata stepped up behind her and looked at the marks over Sakura's shoulder with an expression of mild confusion. Sakura was considering calling out to Sasuke to ask why he had turned, when Hinata audibly inhaled sharply. Sakura turned around in surprise and concern, and saw even under the dim dapples of the yellow light that Hinata had visibly paled, her eyes fixated on the claw marks.

"What's wrong?"

Sakura asked worriedly, and winced as her voice penetrated the stillness of the forest. Hinata seemed to gain her stand at Sakura's voice, however, and breathed out slowly, trying to regain herself before she spoke again.

"Naruto-kun has been careless again,"

She said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. Sakura bit her lip as she stiffened at Hinata's words, but felt highly confused.

"What do you mean? How?"

She asked as she surveyed her surroundings, unable to link Naruto with the claw-like marks. Hinata trudged through a mass of leaves directly off the open trail and by the tree with claw-marks, following Sasuke's choice of path. Sakura stared after, question etched on every feature on her face before she hurriedly followed suit.

After about twenty paces, there was another trail that lacked undergrowth and revealed slimy ground below. Wet leaves lay flurriedly aside the trail, as though the person running through had hastily run and scattered leaves among its midst.

Sakura was severely confused, as she had no idea how Sasuke and Hinata had related the engravings on the bark to the path Naruto had taken.

"I don't get what those marks have to do with Naruto,"

She said, a hint of complaint edging her voice.

Hinata turned abruptly to Sakura, looking grave, and lifted a hand. Sakura opened her mouth to ask Hinata what she was doing, when she was answered as Hinata swiftly pushed down the sleeve on her left arm.

Sakura's mouth remained open as she stared at the claw-like marks that bruised Hinata's forearm and her wrist, with fading but still prominent red and white splotches colouring where it was not blue or purple. Hinata refused to let her eyes meet her own arm, and continued to divert her attention from it as she pulled the sleeve back into place. She walked on, picking up speed in effort to catch up to Sasuke.

Sakura had no idea what was going on with Naruto, but now she realised that neither Hinata or Sasuke understood either. She glanced at the clawed bark, the scraped out engravements of wood identical to the bruised marks on Hinata's arm.

She had always thought that Naruto reminded her somewhat of a mischievous animal, like a raccoon or something - what with those whisker-like birthmarks that his cheeks bore, and his constant nattering. But this was strange. The animal Sakura was thinking of now was something more wild... more monstrous. She shook her head quickly.

'Now that's just stupid and ludicrous,'

She told herself,

'Something *monstrous* in Naruto? Talk about over-dramatic. There's something up, but how does the word 'monstrous' make its way in?'

She smiled weakly in self-attempt to erase that train of thought, but as she caught up to Sasuke and Hinata, her mind could not help but ponder.





As the dim orange sunlight drifting through the leaves darkened just slightly as the sun sank lower, the demon-fox pricked his ears as smallest sound of clothes rustling past bark sounded.





At the end of the trail, there was a parting of leaves and twigs that opened to a space yet to be seen. Thin, yellow-orange light streamed onto the three ninjas through the very long and thin slit between the leaves as they tread on the undergrowth.

Sasuke stopped, tensing, and the girls paused behind him.

Someone was there.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke boldly stepped forward and brushed past the leaves and into the open space, not even attempting to be quiet. It was so un-Sasuke-like Sakura took several moments of shock before she could steadily pass the leaves herself, shortly followed by Hinata who looked extremely tense and nervous. She was biting her lower lip tightly.

Sakura took in her surroundings as she walked behind Sasuke. Chunks of old rock scattered the area, but the ground was hard-packed with only tiny tufts of yellow grass growing in random patches. The area had probably once occupied a large rock which had been quarried a long time ago, Sakura thought as she walked to a space beside Sasuke. Then she saw Sasuke's unmasked surprise at a certain entity before him, and she turned her eyes to the direction of his gaze.

Between two piles of rock sat Naruto. He was sitting there with his legs propped up and apart, his elbows nestling on either knee. The whisker-like marks on his face were longer and streaked with something darker. His chin was lifted, but his eyes were not. They were almost hidden beneath his fringe of yellow, glinting with the reflection of the gradually darkening orange light of the sunset.

Hinata joined Sasuke and Sakura by standing to Sasuke's right, and her eyes immediately widened at the sight of Naruto. She almost stumbled into Sasuke in surprise, but she managed to take a single step backwards, keeping her eyes trained on the blonde boy.

There was a long silence that stretched on as the orange light grew dimmer and dimmer.

Then, as Sakura watched, just the tiniest hint of a smile graced the edge of Naruto's lips.

Sasuke didn't miss it, and his eyes narrowed. And he finally chose to break the silence with the question laden on the their minds.

"Who are you?"

The smile on Naruto's lips grew sinisterly wider.







A/N: I know that's one wacked up last line... forgive me for that one. ^^;;

Thanks so much for your positive response. I know I didn't write for quite a while... I was kind of stuck in 'I-don't-wanna-write-no-more' world, but luckily for me, God pulled me out and kicked me back into my seat. I'm so glad He did. By any rate, here I am, and I'm absolutely gob-smacked by some of the comments. I'm just incredibly glad my writing's been somewhat accepted. *blushes* Thank you. *bows*

And by the way, peeps - have a really good new year, right? ^.^*