Naruto ground his teeth in an attempt to hold back pain that always accompanied letting the Kyuubi's power out to such an extent without loosing control. If he could just hold on for a few more seconds, Sakura would be finished doing whatever it was she was attempting, and they could all go home. Maybe once there, Tsunade could fix whatever was wrong with Hinata. She'd gone with him to Orochimaru, who had been more than glad to have her. What happened next, he wasn't sure. They'd lasted three years pretending to be on Orochimaru's side, and as far as Naruto knew, the snake-bastard never suspected a thing. Hinata grew a little more self-confident as their friendship became stronger from the hours they were forced to spend together. Then . . . she was different.
Late at night, when no one was around to watch them, Naruto and Hinata had talked. Sometimes they reflected on the awful things they knew were going on outside of the village Orochimaru was holding them at. They both agreed that destroying the Sound would be necessary once they retrieved Sakura. Naruto smiled for a second. They'd also talked about themselves – about their families or lack thereof.
Apparently, the only reason Hinata'd been able to work up the courage to follow Naruto was Neji. The bastard had defeated Hinata again at training. Although Naruto suspected that it was just that the older boy'd been having a bad day, it didn't change the fact that rather than simply walk away like he normally did, that time he continued. Even though Hinata was completely out of chakra, her cousin had continued his assault. Feeling he was trying to kill her again, Hinata had run and ended up with him.
Naruto thought she'd overreacted.
She was his friend, of course – sometimes he thought they might be a little more than friends, in fact. That didn't change his opinion though. She'd been scared, and had every right to have been, but it would have done her more good to stay and confront those fears than go to Orochimaru. Naruto winced as the once quiet girl burst out screaming, ending the tirade with a blow that disabled Sakura's left arm. He definitely shouldn't have taken her with him to the Sound. Somehow that snake bastard managed to convince her that Neji was the most evil entity on earth. More recently, Naruto'd begun thinking that Hinata was dead, and the girl he traveled with was just Orochimaru pretending to be her.
Sakura glanced at Sasuke, risking giving away what her teammates were doing. She couldn't keep taunting the other girl forever, and she was beginning to get the feeling that something was wrong. Hinata was not like this. With every attack delivered by the dark-haired girl, the thought grew in Sakura's mind that Hinata should have been an unassuming genin who would never even think of treating another like this – even if they were the enemy.
Naruto noticed the look and turned to see who she was looking at. His eyes narrowed. Why did Sasuke always have to be at the center of everything? A yelp drew his attention back to Hinata, who'd just hit Sakura in the forehead. Hinata started laughing. Almost immediately, a strange green haze filled the air, just barely tingeing the color of his surroundings. What the hell? The blonde-haired boy checked Hinata, but she seemed as lost as he was. A quick turn of the head proved that even Kakashi was at a loss. The only ones who seemed to have any semblance of understanding were Itachi and Sasuke, whose expressions were so eerily similar that Naruto wondered, just for a moment, how two people so alike could possibly hate each other so much. Then Sakura's hair turned blood-red and he didn't have time to question it any longer.
Hinata's eyes widened at the sudden amounts of power pouring out of the girl in front of her. She'd closed all sixty-four chakra holes throughout the conversation, carefully pretending that she was just responding to Sakura's attempts at riling her up. Yet somehow, with that last one, the green-eyed kunoichi'd turned into something else. She glanced at Naruto, brow furrowing. Suddenly inspiration hit, and she knew what was happening, if not why. She and Naruto practiced from time to time, but Naruto never seemed to have any trouble with her fighting technique. Now someone else reacted in the same way – by producing more power than ever. Hinata smirked. So Sakura was a demon as well. That explained quite a bit of the Hyuuga's questions, though why the tap to the forehead had caused it all. Naruto'd never needed her to close all sixty-four holes. She shrugged. Demons she understood. Laughing quietly, she gathered her chakra together in a tight shell around her.
Almost immediately after releasing the demon, Sakura shot forward, extending a flame of chakra out, watching in satisfaction as it shot through the black-haired genin. In a puff of smoke, the clone disappeared as the original attacked Itachi. Sakura followed, ignoring Naruto. The boy stared. Sakura was moving even faster than the time at the valley of the end. She was moving with Sasuke. The two of them were approaching Hinata at speeds even the young heiress couldn't approach. His eyes narrowed. He could though – he could easily match and overcome even those speeds. They were planning on killing Hinata.
Author's Note: Yeah yeah. I just suddenly dropped two pages. Sorry – there's just no other place to end this chapter. On the up-side, this entire fic will finish at thirteen chapters. Have fun with the next chapter. Ja