Fight scene! Hope you like it! Thanks for reading and for all the encouragement!
RE: Naruto-chan…let's just say Hinata's pushing the limits of socially constructed linguistic gender norms…yup, Hinata's progressive like that : P ; )
RE: Breaks in the story…apparently these line things are the only ones that will show up. All of mine disappear after the upload to fanficnet. Sorry for the confusion!
Japanese Terms: mamoru (to protect) ureshii des (I was so happy)
Awakenings 7
Naruto sat waiting at the spot up in the trees for Hinata to arrive. He had looked forward to seeing her all morning during his training with Jiraiya to refine his Rasengan and his lunch with Iruka sensei at the ramen place. He sat lounging on the branch, lost in his thoughts.
Being in this same spot reminded him of the day before yesterday, when he had found her here upset. He frowned a bit; he still didn't know why she had been so upset. Then he thought of his unexpected show of affection and the domino effect of events that followed soon after. His mind wandered back to what had sort of triggered it all—his talk with Sakura.
"I was just wondering why you liked me so much…" she asked.
The question caught him off guard. He hadn't thought about those feelings for a long time now, but he had spent enough time pondering about them before so he did have an answer.
"You were really shy when you were little, and then you changed, became more confident and successful. I thought that was cool," he said, not looking at her.
"I also thought you were really funny, like you laughed at the same jokes that I did, only sometimes you didn't want to show it," he turned to give her an impish smile.
Sakura chuckled admittedly, and then looked ponderingly ahead at the path that lay before them.
"Naruto, I'm sorry I was so mean to you. You're really a good person."
Naruto shook his head, "Nah, that was just kids stuff. You, Sasuke, and Kakashi sensei are family to me. Like I said, I promise to bring Sasuke back so that we can all be a team again."
Sakura's gaze lowered to the ground, a hint of sadness swept over her eyes. She had always taken Naruto for granted. When he promised to bring Sasuke back, she realized painfully that that's the way their relationship had always been. Naruto giving to her everything he had, protecting her, saving her. The more she had grown to understand that, the more she promised herself that she wouldn't be that kind of person, someone who took others for granted.
They had walked in an awkward silence for a while when she caught him off guard with another unexpected question.
"So you really like Hinata don't you?"
Naruto's face turned bright red.
"Everyone's talking about it."
Sakura skipped ahead of him and stuck her tongue out at him. He gave her an embarrassed grin through his blushing face, and was enough of an answer to her question. Everyone is talking about it? Has he been that obvious?
The talk had forced him to admit outwardly that he really had feelings for Hinata. Then finding Hinata upset right after that and having her withdraw from him was so painful. He had felt impelled to reach out and hold on to her to keep her from going away.
When she had slipped her hand into his in midair yesterday, it was enough to tell him that she wanted to be more than just friends. Ureshii des…
He glanced over at the sun and sat up a bit startled. He had been too lost in his thoughts and had not realized the time. Hinata was very late. This was very unlike her. He looked around at the view from his perch, straining to see far in the distance with no luck of finding her ink-blue hair glistening in the afternoon sun. He hopped down from out of the tree and headed for the Konoha streets planning to make his way to the Hyuuga mansion. He had barely set foot on concrete when he heard the sound of running feet hitting the pavement.
Ino and Sakura suddenly turned the corner and when they saw him, they gasped and headed towards him. He was about to give them a hasty greeting and be on his way when he saw the looks of distress on their faces.
"Naruto! I'm so sorry! I just heard the news!"
"What news? What happened?"
Sakura and Ino threw each other a horrified look.
"You…you don't know?" Ino asked in disbelief.
"Know what?" Naruto asked, not knowing what to expect.
Sakura gave him one of the most pained expressions he'd ever seen on her face.
"Hinata's been kidnapped."
Naruto felt the ground fall out from underneath him as the words hit him.
"Who?"
"People are saying that it was a member of the Hyuuga branch family. One of Hinata's father's most trusted guards," Sakura said frantically.
"When?" Naruto could barely get past uttering one word at a time.
"It happened sometime last night," Ino added, equally frantic.
"Tsunade sent out a team of anbu to rescue her. She sent Ino and me to…"
Before Sakura had finished her sentence, Naruto was all ready off, flying from roof top to roof top, a look of panic in his eyes that had never been there before.
The Fifth Hokage sat quietly at her desk flipping through the pages of a medical manual. The day's events weighed heavily upon her, but she had an important operation to prepare for. She was just turning another page when her door flew open and through it burst a blur of orange and yellow.
"WHERE'S HINATA?" Naruto yelled.
Tsunade closed her book calmly. She had been expecting this. She shook her head.
"I've all ready sent an Anbu team to rescue her."
"WHERE? DO YOU KNOW WHERE?" he yelled again, making no effort to hide the hysteria trembling in his voice.
"It's being taken cared of Naruto. You must trust me on this. We have a top Anbu team after her. She'll be back before tomorrow. Kakashi sensei is heading the operation. You know yourself that his mission success rate is practically flawless."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU SEND ME? JUST TELL ME WHERE!"
"Naruto, if you go now, you may interfere with the current operation and put her in more danger," Tsunade said sternly.
Naruto tried to control his breathing and slow down his racing pulse.
"Why her?" he said, more to himself than to the 5th Hokage.
"It's not the first time she's been kidnapped. There have been many attempts to take her and her sister ever since they were born. It's their bloodline limit. A ninja's body holds the secrets of the ninja's village. Rest assured, Naruto, trust me; she will be safe and back by tomorrow."
Naruto's hands were clenched tightly in fists. He turned around and went out the door slamming it behind him. Tsunade sighed.
Nartuo stood outside the Hokage's office facing away from the door, staring at the spot where the wall in front of him joined the floor. He tried to control his rage and anxiety. Tsunade was right, if he barged in now, he might jeopardize the rescue effort. Now that he was just standing there, though, and not running or yelling, he found it harder and harder to hold back a tide of thoughts that he had, out of panic, blocked off. His mind began to conjure up all sorts of horrors of what could be happening to Hinata right now at that very moment. His fists unclenched only for his hands to come up to his head, his fingers digging into his skin, as if he were trying to hold his skull together and keep it from bursting. The dam that held back a flood of emotions was breaking and Naruto was starting to drown.
He hunched forward and slowly squatted down, hands still holding his head. At that moment, Shikamaru and Chouji happened to walk around the corner for their meeting with the Hokage. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Naruto squatting and holding his head as if he had a massive migraine headache.
"Oi, Naruto, are you okay?" Shikamaru asked as Chouji tossed another chip from his snack bag into his mouth and crunched down on it with great satisfaction.
They watched as a blue, misty flame engulfed Naruto's body and then suddenly turn an angry red. His fingers elongated along with his nails forming what looked like the sharp claws of a wild animal. His teeth began to sharpen and grow as well and the pupils of his eyes stretched vertically and became slits in a pool of blood red iris.
Shikamaru and Chouji gasped as they watched the transformation.
"Na...Naruto?"
Naruto looked up at them and let out a low, deep growl, his body surrounded by the red flame that flickered menacingly at the air around him.
Deep inside Naruto, where the nine-tail fox demon Kyubi lay trapped and sealed in the body of this young boy, the consciousness of the evil and destructive entity mentally formed a word that had never been a part of its vocabulary before…mamoru.
Kyubi snorted at the two Konoha ninjas that stood gaping at him and turned around to face the door of the Hokage office. The red flames around Naruto's body formed the image of whipping and slashing tails behind him, one, two, four, seven, nine tails. Kyubi got down on all fours, then pounced, breaking down the door and staring past the startled 5th Hokage who had been wondering what all the ruckus outside her door was about.
Tsunade stood up in shock at the site of the nine-tale demon possessed Naruto.
"NARUTO!" she yelled with as much authority as she could project. Naruto gave no indication that he had heard the Hokage's call, then pounced towards her but instead of attacking her, jumped clear over her head and burst through the office window behind her. At that moment, Shikamaru and Chouji had just run into the office about to offer their assistance to the Hokage only to watch Naruto fly out the window sending shards of glass flying out into the late afternoon sky. The three of them ran to the widow and watched the streak of red fly across the roof tops of Konoha, heading straight towards the Hyuuga mansion.
Hiashi Hyuuga stood at the top of the hill where his most loyal guard from the branch family usually perched, standing watch over the private training grounds of the Hyuuga main family. He looked out in the distant horizon contemplatively, his lips tight with worry. The sun was just about to begin its descent, the light it gave off beginning to take yellow and orange hues.
His eyes suddenly grew wide as he sensed something approaching, something with an ominous aura that he recognized all too well.
Kyubi…
He turned around to see the streak of red that was heading towards the serene visage of his home. He began his descent down the hill, his movements simultaneously smooth and powerful. Naruto reached the mansion before him, moving at a speed that had not been witnessed in Konoha since the days when the 4th Hokage protected the village.
Kyubi sped from spot to spot, sniffing the ground, the air, the walls.
Mamoru…this new concept echoed through its will.
Through his byakuugan, Hiashi could see the blue chakra intermingled with the red chakra, both chakras evenly balancing each other out. The hated Kyubi and their own Naruto fused almost as one—a heavy burden indeed. Everyone knew Naruto would be upset at the news, but no one had expected this. Hiashi barely had time to take in the image of Naruto in his possessed state, hands like claws with nine, red, transparent tales whipping menacingly behind and above him. And those eyes, the same eyes Hiashi had seen a decade and a half ago, eyes that held an ominous image of a destroyed Konoha.
He must be contained.
Hiashi inched closer, struggling to keep up with Naruto's speed. Kyubi appeared to have found the scent it was looking for and was about to take off. Hiashi jumped in front of him, his hands poised and began to strike at Naruto's critical chakra flow points. Kyubi reeled and growled irritably at him, its back bristling like an angry cat. He aimed to cut off the Kyubi's chakra flow and disable much of Naruto's own chakra as well. Strike after strike, Hiashi aimed with impossible precision only a Hyuuga could accomplish, but each strike failed to hit its mark. Naruto was forming solid forms of chakra at every spot on his body that was under attack blocking every attempt on his chakra flow system. Both the Kyubi and Naruto's chakra remained at full force, unaffected by the attacks. This defensive move was part of the process of training for the Hidden Kunai of Konoha. Even in this state, Naruto was able to execute his newly acquired technique.
Hiashi's forehead furrowed with worry; he had hoped to end this quickly and contain Naruto with as little damage as possible. The task was turning out to be more complicated than he had anticipated; he had not exerted himself this much in a long time. Hiashi himself had created this obstacle that was preventing a quick, clean containment of the Kyubi.
In a last attempt, he executed a high level Divination Field, a move that attacked all the chakra points at a god-like speed that made all the attacks practically simultaneous, hoping that the combined speed and sequence of this multidirectional attack would break through Kyubi's defenses .
His robes flew melodiously and majestically around him, flapping and flowing with every movement, as if he were performing a powerful and elegant martial dance commemorating a legendary warrior. The ninjas of Konoha would have wanted to witness this rare sight of a Hyuuga successor battling at full force.
The attack failed. A combination of the chakra defensive technique and Naruto's speed was enough to fend it off. Again, the Kyubi growled irritably at Hiashi, impatient to get on with its task.
Hiashi had no choice. If the Kyubi is out of control, if Naruto is out of control, it could mean the destruction of Konoha. He stopped in his tracks, straightening up in the same stately position that he had taken on the first day he began training Naruto. His breathing evened out, and the nerves and veins around his eyes bulged with the hyper-activation of the byakuugan.
"Hidden Kunai of Konoha!"
His deep voice echoed operatically over the hills. Through his extra sensory perception ability, Hiashi watched as a storm of chakra knives flew through the air at Kyubi. The attacks on Naruto's duel chakra flow were ineffective, and he had had to resort to this assault on Kyubi's physical body. Even in taking this extreme measure, Hiashi had aimed for non-vital yet disabling points on Naruto's body. He knew he was gambling with Konoha's future by not aiming to mortally wound the Kyubi, but he could not ignore that Naruto was a ninja of Konoha as well, one of their own…a future hokage…
Kyubi turned its claws menacingly upwards, and with a roar, its chest expanded and a perfect, spherical, red chakra shield formed around Naruto's body. The Hidden Kunai was completely deflected for the first time in history.
Naruto's hands came together and began to form a series of seals. Hiashi's eyes grew wide. He recognized the sequence, a technique that few knew about let alone could execute, a technique of great legend that was purported to be responsible for the formation of Konoha.
"Impossible…"
The word slipped out of his mouth in an incredulous whisper. The next thing he knew, Naruto's palms had hit the floor and he felt restraints wrapping around his ankles, his wrists, his waist, and even around his neck. He released chakra from all parts of his body to cut through the restraints, but it barely scratched the plants that had wrapped their limbs around him, plants with limbs that flowed with blue and red chakra. He was raised from the ground, and as he soared unwilling up into the sky, he was afforded a full view of what was once the beautiful garden in his backyard. It was now full of massively over grown plants, some of which had a hold on him. His whole body was soon covered by plant tissue save for his face, and he was rendered immobile.
Hiashi watched helplessly as Naruto bounded away over the hills towards a blood red horizon.