Argh! This chapter came out a little late. I had to make some last minute changes. Once more, thank you for the reviews! We are nearing the end of the story, so enjoy!

I do not own Naruto or King of Fighters.

Onward!

Chapter Twenty: Those Damn Mass Murderers

The silent patting of feet was heard through the forest. Pit pat pit pat pit pat. Naruto quickly ran towards the Valley of the End. 'I got to get there before they do anything to Hinata-chan!' Even though he was already moving faster than most shinobis could, he picked up the pace.

Leaves were trailing in the distance. Naruto ran so fast, that leaves were being plucked off of the trees and slowly flitting down towards the ground. The thought of a clock, slowly ticking down, rang in Naruto's mind. With every tick of the second hand, he felt that a kunai was being brought closer and closer to Hinata's neck.

Speaking of clocks, Naruto remembered that he needed to apologize to Hinata about breaking the clock that she gave her. But he would do that after he saved her.

Valley Of The End

Blue eyes. Those blue eyes that defined the word blue. Eyes that was bluer than the ocean. That was what Hinata remembered when she woke up. Wearily, she opened her eyes to see that the bright morning sun had risen. She tried to move her body, but she was tied to a pole with chakra-enhanced rope.

Her hands were tied in a way so that she could not make any hand seals. There would be no way that she could get out of this herself. She would need Naruto to save her. She lifted her head up to see her captors stare back at her.

"W-Who are you guys?" Hinata whispered.

"We are the Akatsuki," one of them said. Whoever said it had a calm voice. Hinata looked towards the direction of the sound, only to get a pair of Sharingan eyes.

"Uchiha Itachi?" Hinata hoarsely cried out. The mass murderer simply turned around.

"Be quiet," he harshly said. "We don't have time to answer your questions." Hinata did not listen.

"What do you guys want? And why do you need me?"

"Shut up," Itachi gave her a punch across the cheek. His ring put a cut on her cheek. "We don't have to tell you." Hinata began to think. What could they be after? And why would they use her?

"Naruto-kun… You want Naruto-kun, don't you?" She asked. Itachi and the other members turned to face her. Itachi walked to her. "What do you need him for? And why am I needed? You're strong enough to get him yourself, right?"

"I told you to shut up," he used the back of this hand to slap Hinata's other cheek, putting a cut on it from the ring. "It would be wise for you to listen to me. And no, we are not strong enough to get him ourselves. In fact, not a single one of use could lay a finger on him, even if he did not use his bloodline limits. Only our leader could put up a good fight against him."

"He will come for you," Itachi turned around. "Being the only person who loved him when no one would waste their breath on him, he would do anything to protect you. You of all people should know that."

"You guys are a bunch of cowards, you know that? Just a bunch of cowards! I bet that Sasuke's stronger than you!" Hinata had hit a chord. Itachi spun around and delivered a swift punch to Hinata's gut. She lurched forward and coughed, blood making its way out.

"I warned you to keep your mouth shut," Itachi said once more. He slowly walked away, leaving Hinata gasping for air.

A sudden gust of wind blew. A crackle of electricity was heard and Itachi was screaming. Everyone looked towards the shrieking man.

Naruto had grabbed Itachi by the head and was currently putting him through his lightning torture. Naruto had a look of rage on his face, though his sunglasses hid his eyes.

"Don't EVER even think about touching Hinata-chan!" He held Itachi there in his hand a little longer, relishing the screams. Then he crushed Itachi's skull. He dropped the now dead Itachi on to the floor, blood bubbling from the disgusting wound. Naruto's bloody glove dripped with the Uchiha blood.

"Crap! He's already here!" Naruto heard one of the members yell out. Naruto had arrived a day earlier to surprise them. And it looked like he did a good job of it. Naruto gave off a deadly smile.

After recovering from the initial shock, the rest of the Akatsuki members surrounded Naruto. One of them rapidly began to do hand seals. He took a big breath. "Ninpou: Howling Winds!" the missing nin exhaled a gigantic blast of air. Naruto stuck up his hand to absorb the winds.

But it was the wrong move for Naruto. As soon as the winds reached him, they howled by, pushing Naruto off his feet into a wall. 'Damn it! Right when I think I got it all figured out, it throws another curving shuriken at me!'

Seeing his vulnerability, the members threw forward their shuriken and did hand seals. "Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!" They cried out. Naruto instantly saw thousands of shurikens head towards him. Changing his glove to the alignment of water, he quickly conjured up an ice wall. Behind it, he did a one-handed seal.

But something felt wrong. He did not feel that time had stopped. He released the wall of ice, letting the shurikens that seemed to have coated it like a pincushion drop to the ground. Immediately, a man with a gigantic, strange-looking sword charged at him and slashed the sword downwards. Naruto sidestepped and had the water around his body freeze into icicles, piercing and killing him instantly. Naruto held nothing back. These missing nins deserved to die. He charged forward.

Changing his glove to red, he summoned the flames to his hand. He brought his right hand through the left chest of one of his victims. Caught up in the flames, he burned and became ashes in mere seconds. Naruto turned to face another member. The member began to do hand seals. Slowly, darkness began to engulf Naruto. But his sunglasses saw through the genjutsu.

Walking up to the shaking missing nin, he stuck up his right hand. He gave a flick to his forehead, this time not holding anything back. The member's head came flying off as the rest of his body fell backwards.

Three members were down. Naruto turned to see that only a few more remained. He quickly disappeared and kicked the head off of one member. Using the fact that they were surprised by his sudden speed, he viciously punched through the heart of another. Now the rest of the Akatsuki members were scared.

Relentlessly, Naruto slaughtered the members. One by one, they fell with a thud on the ground. Only the leader remained. The leader clapped, applauding the effort of the powerful shinobi. The hat he wore hid his face.

"Good, very good, Naruto. As expected of the carrier of the Kyuubi."

"What do you want? And why did you drag Hinata-chan into this?" Naruto demanded. The leader only gave off a chuckle.

"I knew that you would come after her. So we used her."

"You sick bastard, I'll kill you!" Naruto formed the one-handed seal again. But nothing happened.

"You can't stop time here," the leader chuckled.

"And why not?" Naruto spat.

"You never don't know what happens when two Uzumakis fight, do you?"

"Two Uzumakis? But I thought that they were all dead. What's going on?" Naruto said. The leader simply chuckled some more.

"You're not the only Uzumaki here," He threw off his hat and revealed his blue eyes. "I am Uzumaki Keisuke, the murderer of the Uzumaki clan." Naruto stared wide-eyed in horror.

'This man… he killed all of them? Then…' "If you killed all of them, then why am I here? I should not have been born then!" Naruto asked.

"You're mother," Keisuke began, "is my sister. Thus, that makes me your uncle. She had left to go to Konoha a day before the mass murder took place. But the Uzumakis paid allegiance to no village, and the incident went unheard of. Only my sister knew. She stayed in Konoha and married your father, the Yondaime."

"You bastard! You killed everyone in my clan! You took away my relatives! And now, I live alone, thanks to you!" The thought of having possible relatives once again was doused. "What happens when two Uzumakis fight?" Naruto asked.

"When two Uzumakis fight against each other, the bloodline limits we carry are rendered useless. We cannot stop time, and you cannot make explosions with your eyes," Keisuke explained. "That also means that you can't use your glove to help you out here. Oh, and you can't transform into a nine-tailed fox either."

Naruto inwardly cursed. This fight was going to be a lot harder. No bloodline abilities could be used. And that would make this fight a lot harder than his fights with the other Akatsuki members.

But the thought of having kids who would be able to do as much as he could was thought provoking. Would they have Hinata's eyes as well? Perhaps they would. But for now, Naruto had to concentrate on the battle ahead.

"Now, Naruto, Show me how powerful you are." Naruto's uncle got into a battle stance. "Show me whether you are worthy of the name of Uzumaki!"

At that point, Naruto's feelings of loneliness came back to him. Every strand of hatred and anger rose out from the depths of his body. They called out to him.

For every time Naruto was wronged, he would return it ten times over. Whenever Naruto was left to be alone, he would leave them in the dark for ten times longer. Whenever he was hated for what he was, he hated them back ten times stronger. Naruto opened his eyes and selected the scapegoat of all of his pains.

Uzumaki Keisuke would feel pain today. And Naruto planned to torture him until he begged Naruto to kill him. His lips formed a malicious smile.

"Uzumaki Keisuke! Today, you will die!" Naruto charged forward. His feet leaving craters with the amount of force pushed out from them.

With amazing speed, Naruto threw many vicious punches and kicks, only to get them blocked. Naruto leapt back. He did a few hand seals. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Five Naruto clones were produced and they charged at the Keisuke together.

Smirking, the mass murderer moved faster than Naruto see. Keisuke immediately beat down each and every one of Naruto's clones. When he got to the real Naruto, he gave him a swift punch to the stomach, knocking Naruto off his feet and caused him to roll along on the ground.

Getting the chance to apologize to Hinata seemed to have taken longer than Naruto expected. Slowly, he got up to his feet. 'Incredible… he's even stronger than me! It looks like I'll have to use it…'

Hinata watched as Naruto gathered chakra into his right hand. Slowly, a rasengan formed in his hands. Naruto then quickly dashed at Keisuke, his rasengan digging a straight line into the earth. "Die!!!" Naruto yelled. He thrust his hand towards his enemy.

"Not good enough, my nephew," Keisuke smirked as he grasped Naruto's wrist, pushed it aside, and delivered a fierce push kick. Slowly, the kick seemed to morph into five legs. They all collided with Naruto's chest, shoving him back ten meters. Naruto slowly picked himself up.

"Don't you dare call me your nephew! You lost that right when you killed everyone!" Naruto screamed out in rage. His uncle simply smirked.

"It appears that I should have just gone to get you myself. Oh well, I guess I won't be needing this girl anymore," Keisuke took out a kunai. Naruto just realized that Keisuke had put himself between him and Hinata. Slowly, Keisuke threw the kunai at his girlfriend.

'No… Hinata-chan!' Naruto ran as fast as he could, but he could not reach or deflect the kunai. 'Damn! I can't stop it! … Well… There's one more option…'

Hinata braced herself for death. Tears were streaming down her eyes. 'How could I have been so stupid to think that Naruto was breaking up with me? Here he is, putting in everything he has to save me…' The knife slowly traveled to her.

'Now!' Naruto thought.

Then, Hinata felt something weird.

The sound of metal slicing flesh was heard.