Kohona's Yellow Storm:
Chapter 13: A going away present…
A/N: I just realized something that almost made my heart stop, lol…so here comes my disclaimer…And BTY, my 19th birthday is in a few days so this is a present too you all….
I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! And now…on with the show…
Naruto woke up in his room and immediately he knew that something was very wrong. He slowly blinked and stretched out his arms while giving a yawn trying to play it cool. He slid one hand under the pillow next to his hand where a hidden kunai was waiting. He grasped the handle of the blade as he felt the figure in his room rush at him. He waited patiently until the intruder was close enough and with an explosion of speed, Naruto slashed at the figure only to have a strong hand grasp his wrist and hold back the blade with ease.
Naruto eyes widened when he saw whom he was staring at. A million thoughts ran threw his brain at once but the only word his lips could utter was, "Itachi…"
With Hinata and Neji
Neji had woken up to find his cousin making a nice breakfast for the both of them. She smiled at him and let his know a cup of coffee was waiting for him at his usual spot at the head of the table. Neji nodded to her politely and sat down in his chair where the warm cup of coffee and the daily newspaper were waiting for him. Neji gave a rare, small smile to her as she brought him a plate of warm, delicious food. His smile quickly turned to a frown when he saw the look on Hinata's face as she sat down. He looked into her eyes and found her stare to be…distant. He had to call out her name a few times to snap her back into reality so he could question her.
"Why do you seem so preoccupied today Hinata?" Neji asked her calmly.
"I…I wish to go see Naruto today Neji…I want to make sure that he is doing okay after having his father leave so soon." She said trying her hardest not to stutter her words out.
Neji simply grunted a reply that told her that they would go visit him after breakfast. In all reality, Neji did want to see Naruto, but it was only to give him back what he owed to him, which was money for the clothes they bought. As much as he saw Naruto as a friend, he didn't want to get too close to him just in case something went wrong. And yet he knew, he knew his cousin was in love with the loudmouthed ninja that defeated him at the first Chuunin exam. He knew it was a dangerous thing for her, but he also knew that only a fool would try to stand in between true love.
However, for the second time that day, a small smile formed at his lips in the thought of his cousin getting married to someone who would forever make her happy. Of course he would never tell anyone this, such were the thoughts of this genius, he wasn't a cold person, he just felt he had to act like one to be strong…such was his ninja way.
After letting Hinata know that they would go visit Naruto, her face lit up and the two of them enjoyed a very delicious breakfast. After they were done eating, Hinata did the dishes and Neji cleaned up the kitchen table. They then locked up their house and began to walk towards Naruto's home…
Back at Naruto's Home…
Naruto grunted as a hand grabbed his neck and lifted him up in the air. Naruto was breathing heavily from the beating he had taken at the hands of the man that murdered his own clan. "How…how can this man be so strong and fast? I am the fourth's son! I should be able to beat him without a problem!" Naruto's mind screamed at itself as he tried desperately to keep his eyes away from Itachi's, because he knew what was in store for him if he did look.
Itachi punched the boy hard in the stomach and grinned as the boy hunched over and coughed up blood. But a part of him was disappointed, he was hoping that the boy that had merged with a demon would be more of a challenge, but he seemed to have guessed wrong. He went to punch the boy again but his eyes widened in surprise as two hands caught his and razor sharp nails dug into his skin.
"Ku…Ku…Ku…" Naruto laughed with killer instinct rising up in his voice.
Itachi tighten the grip on the boy's throat trying to shut him down, but he gasped as the boy did a half flip and caught his chin with both his feet. Itachi slid back and the boy landed gracefully on his feet. Naruto would have given a smirk, if he had had the time. But Itachi zipped forward and hit the boy in the chest with an open palm slam that sent the boy flying threw the wall of his room out into the street.
Naruto flew towards the building on the opposite side of his and slammed into it with incredible force. He groaned as he felt red-hot pain sear his back and chest as something brought him to a sudden stop. Naruto looked down at his body to see a giant splinter of wood sticking threw his chest. His eyes began to glaze over as he watched his precious blood drip down to the earth below him. Naruto was almost completely out of it until a bloodcurdling scream snapped his attention to the one who made the noise. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of Neji and Hinata, the woman he loved standing there so close to where Itachi was.
Naruto tried desperately to call out to them to warn them of the danger but his voice failed him. In fact, it worked against him in the fact that Hinata saw he was trying to say something and she ran over to him. She sobbed horribly as she gently pushed the golden hair out of her love's face. Naruto managed to gather up just enough energy to choke out the following words, "Danger…get out of here…you're both in grave danger…"
At those words Naruto groaned again as his body began to fall victim to shock. His eyes glazed over again as his body went numb. And then…as if in slow motion, he watched Itachi jump out of the window, race towards him, smack Hinata out of the way, and grab his throat in one hand with a tight grip, and the other grabbed his left side.
Itachi grinned and told the boy that this was going to hurt as he ripped the boy off of the stake. Naruto's scream of agony was enough to send Neji over the edge. He raced towards Naruto only to have Itachi fling Naruto's body into his own which caused him to fall under the weight.
"Time to make the little fox snap…" Itachi said sadistically as he began to walk towards Hinata's limp body. Itachi went to pick up the girl before he realized the horrible error he had made. With lighting fast speed, Hinata used her gentle fist style of combat to successfully render both of Itachi's arms useless for a few hours at most. Itachi cursed her under his breath and jumped onto the roof of Naruto's house. He leaped from house to house until he had disappeared from sight.
Hinata quickly ran to Naruto and Neji's side only to see a look of horror in her cousin's eyes. She began to shake as she watched the love of her life dying right before her very eyes. She sobbed harder when Naruto gave her a weak grin and a thumb up like everything was okay. She quickly put her hands onto Naruto's wound and began to pump healing charka into it. She gasped when she felt Naruto's already cold hand grasp hers and pull them away trying to stop her efforts. She slapped his hands away and tried again and again to heal the wound but to no avail. At this she fell to the ground and wept bitterly over her dying love.
She looked at the blood on her hands and she began to shake, if only she had gotten their sooner, if only she were stronger, then maybe, just maybe she would have been able to stop his death. She heard her cousin gasp but it no longer mattered to her; she just looked away in disgust because she knew that she was too weak to do anything for either of them. It was then that she saw a hand get stuck in her face that wanted to help her on her feet.
She looked up at the owner of the hand and gasped to see a bloody Naruto standing over her. She looked him up and down in shock. She could see all the blood on his body, but the wounds were gone, and then it hit her…this was one part of the Kyubi that had merged with Naruto making the power complete, the power of healing.
Hinata took his hand and was lifted to her feet, but she didn't stop there, she leaned forward and fell into her love's body and began to sob as his strong arms wrapped themselves around hers.
"Shhh…its okay Hinata, it's going to take more than that to kill me…shhh…everything is going to be okay…" Naruto whispered to her as he rocked her body back and forth.
Naruto heard yet another scream today that made him snap his head to see who made the sound. He saw a middle aged woman pointing at the two of them and screaming her head off. He looked down at a confused Hinata and saw exactly what was making the woman scream. He was covered in his own blood, she was covered in his blood, and he was holding her. For someone who had not seen everything that happened it looked like he was killing her.
"N…No…" He said when he saw a few ANBU jump down from rooftops to come at him. Naruto was about to bolt with Hinata in his arms when he watched Neji jump in front of them and hold out his arms so his body made a "T" shape.
"He didn't hurt my cousin, and if you want to get to him you must come threw me…" Neji said with a calm, cold as ice expression on his face. After this little incident, the ANBU decided to leave the situation alone and went to console the still hysterical woman.
Neji turned to both Hinata and Naruto with a slightly less menacing glare and Naruto just chuckled saying, "That sure was a hell of a going away present wasn't it?"
At the Hokage's Manor
"I…I don't understand why you only plan on sending me and Hinata with him! This boy isn't even on our team!" A slightly frustrated Kurenai stated to Tsunade who had become frustrated with the woman.
"Look, I don't care wither you like this or not, Hinata will help to keep that boy in line, I have seen it, on this trip she will need a female companion that she can count on when boys become useless, that would be you. And now to the part that I am truly sorry for but I feel there is no other choice…Naruto's male companion will be none other than…Jiraiya."
At that comment Kurenai sweat dropped and began to yell how there was no way that she was going to go on a mission with a pervert like that especially with a fragile Hinata around. This burst of comments made Tsunade snap and she screamed at the woman with such force that it drained her will to argue any further.
"NOW, AS I HAVE TOLD YOU…YOU HAVE NO CHOICE IN THIS MATTER…YOU WILL PROTECT HINATA AND YOU WILL PROTECT NARUTO…AND YOU WILL PUT UP WITH JIRAIYA'S PERVERTEDNESS UNTIL YOU REACH THE STORM VILLAGE. YOU WILL THEN COME BACK HOME AND GO ON WITH YOUR NORMAL LIVES UNTIL THE TIMES COMES TO GO BACK AND PICK UP NARUTO. DO I MAKE MYSELF PERFECTLY CLEAR?"
Kurenai, knowing that she had been defeated bowed to Tsunade and asked one little big question. "And if Hinata decides that she doesn't want to come back but instead stay with Naruto?"
Tsunade pondered this and came up with an answer that shocked Kurenai, "Let her do what her heart tells her to do…"
Kurenai nodded and left the room to find Hinata to inform her that they were leaving at nightfall. Tsunade sighed and ordered two ANBU to go and find both Naruto and Jiraiya and bring them back to her office immediately.
It was just after the two ANBU left that more ANBU poured into her room and told her that there had been an attack at Naruto's house. She began to panic but was quickly calmed down when Hinata, Neji, and Naruto walked into her office. Tsunade's panic attack however, went back into full swing when she saw that both Naruto and Hinata were covered in blood. Tsunade ran to them both and began to check for injuries until Naruto said rather loudly that they were both ok. She sat the three of them down and they explained the situation to her. Tsunade took it all in and told Neji that Naruto and Hinata would be gone for a long time on a mission and that he should say goodbye to them here and now.
Neji would have protested this if he had not seen the look in Tsunade's eyes that told him to do no such thing. He looked at his cousin and Naruto and told them goodbye while wishing them luck as he exited the office to find his team. Tsunade explained the mission to Hinata and told them both that their leaders would be Kurenai and Jiraiya. She told them to back their things and meet herself, Kurenai, and Jiraiya at the front gate at 10:00 P.M. They both nodded and went their separate ways to get ready for the mission.
Main Tower…10:00
Everyone was on time and Tsunade explained to everyone once again that they were headed to the village hidden in the storm as escorts for Naruto. They were to leave as soon as they got him safely in and report back home. The all nodded as the giant gate opened revealing the forest surrounding Kohona. Tsunade gave everyone (except Jiraiya) a hug and wished them luck. With that they were off towards the storm. Little did they know what troubles would be awaiting them along their path…
A/N: WOO HOO! Let the adventure begin, just to clarify, the beginning of this chapter happened the morning of the day after the last. Just in case this turn of events confused people. And just exactly what role does Itachi play in Naruto's life? Stay tuned to find out!
P.S: READ AND REVIEW! I WANT LOTS AND LOTS OF REVIEWS FOR MY 19TH BIRTHDAY!