Hinata could not understand how this was happening.

There she could see, plainly under the sunset, the blonde sixteen-year-old boy they had been searching for. He had his orange clothes, his forehead protector with the Leaf Village emblem and his blonde hair.

Yet nothing seemed more out of place with him than now. It wasn't just his lengthened birthmarks, his hunched shoulders, the strange glint in his normally blue eyes or the incredibly sinister smile at his lips. It was the fact that everything that had changed was so drastically not like Naruto, yet it seemed so... *natural*.

'To have a different attitude is different to having the characteristics already embedded naturally in yourself,'

Hinata thought as her eyes darted over his widening smile.

One of the most startling differences, however, lay in the atmosphere. Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata could all sense the horribly dark and icy aura Naruto was emitting. It was not visible to the naked eye, but they could feel it snaking its dark tendrils around their legs, around their necks. It was all they could do to not shudder.

It was all this that allowed the three to immediately come to their conclusion:

**This person could not possibly be Naruto.**

"Did you not hear me?"

Sasuke's voice took on an icy edge, his eyes coldly boring into Naruto.

Then Naruto let out a snarlish laugh that sounded a lot like a bark. Hinata was so taken back by the sudden, unfamiliar sound she shrank behind Sasuke, looking scared.

"I'm impressed."

He rasped in a voice completely unlike Naruto's; it held a somewhat animal-like bite to it. Sasuke was surprised to hear Naruto speak, but he did not show it.

'...A clone? No... the differences are too obvious - he would've changed back by now,'

Sasuke thought,

'Possession through Spirit Jutsu, like Ino? No... then the body should be nearby, and I can't sense a thing.'

Naruto seemed to be able to sense Sasuke's mounting frustration because he spoke next,

"I am admittedly surprised that you know that this body is currently not in original state of mind. But do not bother to fathom who I am, boy. You apparently do not know of this boy's past."

"...So you are a spirit who has possessed Naruto?"

Sakura asked tentatively, utterly confused.

"Did-- did you do all those things to Hinata?"

Hinata inhaled sharply and sent Sakura a frantic glance, but Sakura was determined.

She needed to know if there was a reason behind the sudden changes in Naruto's behaviour. Possession of the mind was as good enough as any reason Sakura could think of, and she badly wanted this reason to pin the pain she had witnessed on.

Naruto snorted.

"That much is obvious. I would have thought you would have figured that one out by now. I feel I have over-estimated you."

At these words, Hinata felt as though her insides had dropped out quite suddenly. She felt the urge to hurl again, but for entirely different reasons.

'I was nearly hurt-- by this-- this-- it wasn't even N-Naruto-kun--'

"Who are you?"

Sakura demanded, her eyes blazing as the mere thought of Naruto being manipulated into hurting someone she knew he cared about a lot. What sort of horrible entity would force someone else to do something like-- *rape*?

Naruto's only response was the vanishing of his grin. Sasuke spoke again, and his tone startled Sakura. She had known Sasuke to get pissed off before on several occasions, but she had never seen him try so hard to conceal his anger. Then she realised that was the wisest thing to do.

Quite apart from having dark and evil aura, Naruto was also emitting a great sense of power. There seemed almost impossible to Sakura for anyone to have such powerful expanses of chakra, and it was probably unfathomable to Sasuke, too.

Caution is, after all, Sakura reminded herself, a ninja's very essence.

"You seem to know Naruto very well,"

Sasuke said in a low voice. There was no answer, and Sasuke tried again.

"Where is Naruto now?"

"He is lost in his own mind. There is no way to retrieve him until he chooses to arise himself."

Naruto said quite calmly. There was a short silence as the statements sunk in.

"What do you mean by that?"

Sakura asked slowly, and there was just the slightest of trembles to her voice.

"I am saying,"

Naruto said in an impatient growl,

"that the fool has been traumatised. He is suffering in his own depths of pain, and there is nothing you can do about it."

That hit a nerve in Sakura.

"What do you mean, 'there is nothing you can do about it'?"

She asked, the shakiness in her voice now due to an entirely different reason,

"We happen to be his closest friends!"

"Then why did he kick him?"

Naruto asked coldly, and Sasuke stiffened. A surge of anger shot through Sakura as it usually did when someone didn't understand Sasuke. She spoke angrily through clenched teeth.

"He appeared to be raping someone in a violent manner. Sasuke-kun had every right to kick him away."

"But it wasn't him."

Naruto said, an amused glint in his eyes as he surveyed Sakura's expression change from anger to faltered confusion,

"You call yourself friends but you do not understand that he is not himself when he is caught doing something I am sure he would never usually do."

Sakura was startled out of her wits when Sasuke abruptly bent down and grabbed Naruto's clothes by the collar, dragging him up to his face to glare at him. Naruto visibly winced at the gesture, and when Sasuke spoke, his voice was low and angered beyond reason.

"Let me get this straight. You know Naruto very well, and from the sounds of it, Naruto knows you too. Am I correct?"

The blonde boy did not answer, and Sasuke gave a sharp shake of his hands, jerking Naruto's neck as he snarled,

"Answer me!!"

Naruto muttered something that sounded like 'I don't believe this' before saying in a rather pained growl,

"You could say that."

"So you are telling me that you possessed Naruto's mind in an attempt to rape Hinata against his will?"

"Perhaps."

"Is this,"

Sasuke growled, his eyes darkening as he spoke,

"A common occurence?"

"You might say that,"

Naruto said vaguely, and was immediately slammed against a rock. He let out a sharp yowl of pain as Sasuke practically shouted,

"I cannot believe this! Naruto has had you - this dark, huge monster-like entity - lurking around since *when*?!"

Sakura grabbed Sasuke to drag him off, quickly and desperately saying,

"Sasuke-kun! Please stop it-- we don't know--"

"You forced Naruto to do this?! Who the freaking hell are you to do that?!"

He yelled angrily, and Naruto rested against the rock, closing his eyes and breathing a little heavily. He seemed to be in great pain, and he swore under his breath.

"Please-- please, whoever you are-- tell us, tell us what is going on,"

Sakura begged, her arms thrown around Sasuke's middle,

"Tell us what is going on!!"

***...He could tell that the black-haired boy did not usually reveal his emotions so easily, and he was surprised to say the least at the sudden outburst. The pink-haired girl he could see a desperate wanting and true passion in her feelings of friendship towards Naruto - and the girl behind had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her hand over her chest as she bit her lip tightly in pain...***

"Perhaps,"

Naruto growled, causing the other three ninjas' heads to snap up in attention at the change of tone in his voice,

"You are all closer to the boy than I thought..."