ARGH!!! Gomen x 10019238440985029239840!!! I'm so sorry that I could not upload any sooner! I got too busy with playing Halo 1 for PC, which is why it wasn't posted on Friday, and then with the updates on , whichI do not blame, I couldn't upload the chapter! GOMEN!!!

RESPONSE TIME!!!

Irukapooka: I'm sorry, but Gaara has little relevance in this story. His wife will not be making an appearance. If you really care, I'll just give his imaginary wife the name of Yuki.

TFI-Muse: Whats a Nishi-Bishie?

I do not own Naruto or King of Fighters.

Onward!

Chapter Nineteen: Revenge: Chill For Better Taste

Naruto was almost at the Hokage's office. 'You are to come alone.' That was what the letter read. Naruto frowned. If he brought in reinforcements, then they would kill her without a second thought. He was in a tight spot. He knew he had to do it.

He would tell no one that Hinata had been kidnapped. It would be rather risky, but he had to do it. Then there was also the matter with her possible genin students. He would have to think of something to deal with them by tomorrow.

But now, he had to report to the Hokage to find out what happened to his house. After arriving outside the Hokage Tower, he quickly leapt up through the window, shattering it in the process. Tsunade, hearing the shattering of glass, awoke from her wondrous dream of actually winning a game of poker for once.

"NARUTO! What the hell do you think you're doing, leaping through my window?" Tsunade yelled. "Have you ever heard of something called a door?"

"I don't have the time for this, baachan. I'm in a hurry," Naruto retorted. "What happened to my house?"

"Your house can wait," Tsunade said. "So… how did the proposing go?"

'Damn it! We're wasting time here! And she's asking how it went?' "After you so wonderfully ruined the moment, I decided not to ask her today. She was in a mess. She thought I was breaking up with her."

"Oh… sorry," Tsunade apologized. "Anyway, back to your house."

"What happened to it?"

"You forgot to pay your water bill."

"Oh… I'm pretty sure that I paid for it…" 'Damn it! I know I paid for it!' Naruto then grasped a pen from Tsunade's desk and his checkbook. Quickly scribbling the amount owed, he tore off the check and handed it to Tsunade. "That should pay for it." Tsunade noticed that his hand was balled into a fist and that it was trembling.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Tsunade asked.

"I'm fine," Naruto placed the pen back onto her desk, his hand shaking. "I'll be going now." With that, Naruto left the room as calmly as possible.

Tsunade heaved a sigh. Naruto seemed so tense back there. He wasn't this tense when she saw him about an hour ago. Perhaps something happened. She looked at the pen that Naruto signed the check with.

It was bent in the middle. Oh yes, something was bothering him. Tsunade simply waved it away, thinking that he was angry with her for ruining the moment.

Naruto quickly went to his house. He entered his room, flopped onto his bed, and lay there. 'Damn it… of all the times, why now?' Naruto buried his face under his hands and heaved a heavy sigh. His thoughts drifted from one scene to another. Each time his mind stopped, it was playing a scene with Hinata and him as the stars of his little show.

Hinata. Hinata, Hinata, Hinata. 'I can't waste my time like this,' Naruto thought. 'Who knows what they could be doing to Hinata?' Thoughts of the Akatsuki members torturing her for information, killing her, taking out her eyes… Naruto stopped, not wanting to delve deeper into what they could, and probably would, do to her.

'I have to think of a plan… How am I going to get her back?' Plans formulated through his head, and he scrapped each one; every plan he came up with would either end up with either a dead or wounded Hinata, or a dead Naruto, which would lead to a dead Hinata. 'Damn it! This is something that I need Shikamaru for… But I can't tell him about this…'

Naruto stared at the alarm clock by his bed. Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock… CRASH!!! Naruto viciously threw the taunting chronometer against the wall, smashing it to tiny little pieces. Every second that passed meant one less second to come up with a good plan to get the both of them out of there in one piece.

Naruto instantly regretted what he had done. He now had no way of keeping track of time in his room. He now had to get a new clock, and that would cost money. But most importantly, Hinata gave him that clock. Getting up, he walked to the broken machine. Gingerly, he picked it up. A screw fell and hit the floor, the echo thundering in Naruto's ears. His thoughts drifted to the memory of his first celebrated birthday.

Flashback, Five Months Ago

Sasuke's feet were silent on the floors in Naruto's house. The rest of the group followed. Slowly, Sasuke was outside of Naruto's door.

Everyone had decided to throw a surprise birthday party for Naruto, in a way welcoming him back to Konoha, except for Chouji, Iruka, and Kakashi; they were on a mission. After gathering at the Ichiraku for their planning, they decided that Naruto needed to be reminded that he had friends who cared.

Sasuke motioned to Neji to tell him to use his Byakuugan. Neji did so, and then gave a thumbs-up signal to Sasuke. Naruto was still sleeping. As Sasuke was about to open the door, Neji stopped him. His Byakuugan eyes widened; Naruto had started to stir in his bed.

Naruto slowly sat up. He took a look at his clock. It wasn't there. He then remembered that he threw it out the window at some cat last night. Lucky for him that it was a Sunday. Otherwise, he would have had to deal with an angry Tsunade, saying that he was becoming like Kakashi.

Naruto took a sniff of air. He smelled eleven people and one dog. He gave off a small smile. They were there, right outside his door. He heard Hinata's soft whisper with his ears.

"Sasuke-san, you may not want to stand by the door…" Hinata said.

"Why not? It's just a regular door, right?" Sasuke whispered back. Naruto instantly smiled.

'So, they had plans to disturb my sleep?' Naruto got up from his bed and leapt to the door, delivering a fierce kick to it. 'I'll make sure he remembers this time.'

Sasuke forgot that the door to Naruto's room was a swinging door.

Neji simply watched as Naruto kicked the door open, sending Sasuke into the wall across from the room. "Thought that you guys could interrupt my sleep?" Naruto quickly appeared by Neji and gave him a flaming flick, which he had promised Neji months before. He flew a few meters, landed, and rolled a few more meters until he was flat on his back.

"Now let that be a lesson to you guys in case you come up with the guts to do something like that again." Naruto was about to walk back into his roomwhen Hinata piped up.

"Ano, Naruto-kun, we came to take you out for lunch."

"Oh… Well… what's the occasion?"

"Naruto, you baka!" Sakura screamed. "It's your birthday, remember?"

"It is?" Naruto took a look at the calendar. "Oh, you're right…" Naruto looked anxious about what he was about to say. "Um… what about my birthday?"

"Come on! Birthday parties? Presents? Cake?" Sakura asked.

"Well, no one's ever thrown a birthday party for me before. And no one really invited me to one before, so I have no idea what takes place at one."

"Oh…" Sakura replied. She felt bad that she forgot about Naruto's past and how everyone avoided him. Hinata also felt bad too. She had always wanted to invite Naruto to her birthday party. But she could never work up the courage. "Well, in that case, prepare to have a lot of fun today! Get dressed!" At the word of fun, Naruto tossed on some proper clothing after closing the door. He opened it to reveal the black garbs that he always wore.

"So where are we going to?" Naruto asked. But they didn't bother to answer the question. Instead, they tossed a blindfold onto him. "Hey, what's up with this?"

"It's a surprise! We can't let you see what it is, can we?" They slowly pushed, dragged, and guided Naruto out of his house. They led him down the street, slowly guiding him. The townspeople looked at the bizarre occurrence, shrugged their shoulders, and continued to do whatever they were doing.

"Are we there yet?" Naruto enquired.

"No!" Everyone answered. Slowly, they led him to the right. Then they led him to the left after taking a few steps. Naruto was so lost in the thoughts of experiencing his first birthday party, that he did not realize that the four remaining people were leading him in circles. The rest of the group left to get on with their next part of the plan.

An eagle was seen flying through the sky. That was the signal. Slowly, the four leaders led him on top of the Hokage Monument. There was the rest of the group, waiting for them. They took off the blindfold and Naruto was looking off the precipice of the cliff. "Um… I've seen this before guys…"

"We're not done yet." Hinata said, slowly walking up to Naruto. She walked up to him, leant in and gave him a kiss.

"Um… You've kissed me before, too," Naruto commented.

"We're still not done yet," Hinata suddenly put on a mischievous grin.

She pushed Naruto off the edge.

"What the hell?" Naruto said, slowly falling.

Splash. Smiling, Sakura turned off the genjutsu.

'What the hell is going on?' Naruto surfaced in the pool, which wasn't there before. "What was that for?" Naruto frowned. Hinata simply giggled. Everyone then dispelled his or her Henge, revealing everyone in a swimsuit.

"Pool party!!!" Kiba yelled as he jumped in with Akamaru following him. Then everyone jumped in. Naruto no longer wore a frown, but instead slapped on a smile, though he was still confused. Hinata swam to him and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Happy birthday, Naruto-kun." Smiling, Naruto hugged Hinata and gave her a kiss on the lips.

"Thanks. But did you guys really have to push me in? I mean, for a moment I thought you guys were trying to kill me."

"Well, it's more fun this way, wouldn't you agree?" Hinata tapped his nose.

"Couldn't you guys have just told me though? Now my clothes are all wet."

"Quit your complaining and enjoy yourself. Your birthday comes along only once a year. Besides, you probably would have jumped in anyway," Sasuke said, surfacing underneath Sakura and flipping her backwards. "We've got a lot of food on the table in case you're hungry." Naruto took note of it and turned back to Hinata.

She was no longer in his embrace. Naruto looked around when he felt something rise up, pushing his feet out from underneath. Naruto fell backwards into the water. Hinata rose from the water, laughing. Naruto stayed underwater, sporting a playful grin. He swam to Hinata, who had her back to him and was too busy laughing at Akamaru to notice. She turned around to notice that he was nowhere in sight.

Naruto pulled her under the water from the back, turned her around, and kissed her.

After a while, everyone got out to eat. The foods there did not originate from Konoha, Naruto noted. There were some things that only came from the Wave Country. Another dish came from the Lightning Village. And it was the same for every dish served on his birthday, down to the cake. And there was the world-famous sake from the Sake Village. From what Naruto heard, countries battled for control over the village, not for power, but for the worlds' best-tasting sake.

Naruto really enjoyed this day. It was fun, and the food was great. The day couldn't have gotten better.

Except that it did.

"Well, I guess I'll be going now. Thanks for the party," Naruto began to leave when Sakura called out to him.

"Hey, you can't leave yet! We still have to give you presents!" At the words of 'give you presents,' Naruto turned around sat back down.

"So what are you going to give me?" Naruto asked. Having never received a birthday present, Naruto was once again confused at the amount of colorful boxes, both large and small.

"We can't tell you," Hinata giggled.

"Then what's the point of getting something if I don't know what it is?"

"You get these!" Ino chirped. She handed him a box wrapped in a yellow box with red dots on it. On the very top, it had a bow with a tag attached, reading 'From: Ino, To: Naruto.' Naruto picked the box up and… and… and…

He stared at the box. "What do I do with this?" Naruto asked.

"You tear of the wrapping paper." Sasuke said, taking a sip of sake. Taking Sasuke's advice, Naruto gingerly removed the wrapper and ended up with a coffee maker.

So far, Naruto received a set of training weights, an ornamental kunai set, a coffee maker, several books, a bonsai tree set, some destruction bugs encased in amber, and a new leather jacket with the kanji for fox on the back. Now all that was left was the small gift from Hinata.

"Happy birthday, Naruto-hic-kun." Naruto gave off a small smile. Apparently, Hinata, though she had very little to drink, was a bit tipsy. She had a faint blush on her cheeks and had a somewhat difficult time walking in a line towards him. Naruto opened the gift to have a clock stare back at him.

It was a regular alarm clock. Not digital, but instead was a normal clock with three hands. In the center, there was an orange fox, sitting and staring back at Naruto. It was grinning its foxy little grin at Naruto, who, in turn, gave it his foxy little grin. "Arigato, Hinata," He stood up and gave Hinata a kiss on the lips, receiving a greater blush from her.

"So, -hic- how was your first birthhicday party?" Hinata asked.

"Wonderful."

End Flashback

Naruto now stared at the fox on his clock. It still had its foxy little grin on, but now it had a crack reaching from its left ear to its right shoulder. The clock's arms had stopped moving. Time itself had stopped moving.

That was the answer the clock offered to Naruto.

And he gladly accepted it.

'I'll stop time during the battle and kill off each and every one of them… maybe not Itachi; Sasuke deserves to kill him.' Naruto looked at the clock for the time. It read 11:50. Since Naruto threw it at the wall about ten minutes ago, he decided that it was twelve am. He stood up.

'I'll go now. They're expecting me in three days time. Screw the genins, I'll get Hinata back now.' Naruto quickly gathered some supplies. He stuffed the kunais into his holster, some food pills into a pouch, and put on his sunglasses. He left the house and quickly ran to the South Gate, leaving no more than a leaf dancing in the wind.

Blood would be spilt, and he would make sure of it.

Elsewhere

Hinata slowly looked from the ground to where the Akatsuki members were. She noticed that she was tied to a pole jutting from the earth. She felt weak, remembering that Itachi had put her under the Mangekyou Sharingan. "W-Where am I?" she asked out loud.

One of the members walked up to her. He put his finger under her chin and made her stare into his eyes. "You don't need to know."

Hinata then lost consciousness, only remembering the bright blue eyes of the person's face.