Okay, so all that mush before actually built up to something else besides just Naruhina fluff, yes? Thanks everyone for your kind words and for continuing to read! I guess I'm putting my martial arts training and movie watching to good use in describing action scenes : ) Not to mention the makers and animators of Naruto are just darn awesome with action sequences! There are definitely elements here that match my own original novel, so this has been good practice for that. Hope you enjoy this new installment! All hail the Narutoverse kami-sama (gods) who own Naruto!

Awakenings 8

Hidden behind the leaves of a forest bathed in the darkness of night was a white mask with red streaks across it. The mask slightly resembled a cat's face, though was rounder and smoother than the features of most felines. Bursting out from on top of and behind this misleadingly benign and composed wooden countenance were streaks of gray hair flying this way and that. Below it was a sleek body that was covered by a gray vest piece and black body attire—the standard uniform for a Konoha Anbu.

The mask observed carefully the target before him: a hidden mansion in the depths of the forest surrounded on all sides by overgrown trees. Weaving onto the compound was a road, apparently well worn for a place that was so hidden. On the roof perched 10 ninjas, 5 of which were hidden but not well enough to escape detection. On the grounds were about 20 ninjas. The ground offered more places to hide and thus he could not be sure he and his team had found all of them. They bore the symbol of the Village of the Hidden Mist.

Behind him dotting the branches of the forest were the other members of his team, all wearing the same attire and similar masks, hidden expertly within the dark shadows. They watched silently as a large caravan of men wearing simple yet clean servants clothes came trotting in carrying huge poles on their weary shoulders. Attached to these poles in between the rows of men was a large, rectangular box. As the servants wound up the road to the front steps and slowly lowered their load onto the ground, the front doors of the mansion opened and out came some men wearing nondescript brown and black robes, all with swords strapped to their belts. Out from behind a blue curtain that covered the contents of the box came a large man.

"Boss Tanaka."

The men all said this in scattered unison respectfully. Boss Tanaka walked into the building, the men with swords filed in after him, and the door closed. His caravan attendants squatted, waiting for his return.

Another Anbu mask appeared out of the darkness and spoke in lowered tones behind streaking gray hair of the commanding Anbu.

"I've located our target. Hinata is being held in the basement under the watchful eye of Hyuuga Ryozo."

Behind the Anbu mask he hadn't worn in a long time, Hatake Kakashi's eyes narrowed. The Hyuuga branch family member, the heavy guard around the building—they were dealing with someone of great influence and resource.

He raised his right hand up into the air and held up three fingers, then made a fist and lowered it slightly, indicating that three of the team members were to stay behind, hidden in the trees as back up and continued surveillance. He opened his hand, then flipped it so that the palm faced backwards, then faced it forward again and motioned for everyone else to move forward.

The time to set their plan into action had come. Anbu members spread out, surrounding the compound in a pattern like a spiderweb with the mansion at the center of the trap. They inched closer, readying their weapons.

At that moment, rumbling roar rolled unexpectedly through the forest. A host of sleeping birds took off from the trees around them. All of the guards around the compound were alert. The Konoha Anbu shrank back, the disturbance automatically putting their attack on hold in order to reassess the situation.

A blur of red, yellow, and orange burst out of the tree foliage and landed on the ground 5 yards in front of the caravan sending a cloud of dirt rising wraithlike into the still night air. The caravan attendants fell and stumbled over each other as they yelped with fear and scrambled away from their posts.

Rising slowly up on his legs, Kyubi stood looking up at the building in front of him. Naruto sniffed the air. A corner of his mouth twisted up in a wicked smile, and Naruto screamed in triumph, a deep roar accompanying his human voice, a roar that no human lung could emit. The nine otherworldly, transparent red tails whipped excitedly behind him, the black pupil slits cutting through red iris glimmered with anticipation.

Kakashi's eyes grew wide in recognition.

Naruto…Kyubi…

A grip of Hidden Mist ninjas surrounded Naruto. They brandished kunai and began inching towards him. Kyubi grunted with irritation again. Simultaneously they jumped up and flung a thick shower of kunai upon him, but the kunai embedded harmlessly into the soft earth. Naruto was up in the air with them taken out one of them at a time, criss-crossing the air space between them, using each defeated ninja as a jumping platform to the next. The Mist Ninjas fell unconscious to the ground, Naruto landing back on his original spot, feet placed easily in a open space between the kunai protruding from the ground. Another wave of ninjas came at him. With a blinding spin, Kyubi turned into what looked like a red vortex. Flying out of this vortex were kunai and they found their marks, cutting critical tendon points on all the incoming ninja who fell, blood flowing out of their wounds, many of their limbs immobile from the attack.

Naruto ran forward, over bodies of unconscious and immobile foes, crashed through the contraption that had brought Boss Tanaka, and destroying the front doors to the mansion as he passed through. Kakashi was hot on his tail, barely able to keep up. At the moment of impact with the door, however, Kakashi saw a window of opportunity and leapt forward with his right hand outreached. His fingers wrapped around Naruto's ankle, partially covering over the blue fabric of his shoe. Kyubi stumbled forward and fell to the ground, turned and glared at Kakashi with a growl.

"NARUTO! CALM DOWN!"

Behind him, the Konoha Anbu were securing every opening and possible escape route from the mansion.

The group of men that had greeted Boss Tanaka showed up, their swords out of their sheaths and flashing in the indoor lighting as they walked towards the now demolished front door in the high-ceiling entrance hallway.

Naruto looked up at them distracted, and Kakashi, seeing another opportunity, pulled the foot he had in his hand under him and grabbed Kyubi's leg with his other hand. He quickly had a firm grasp on Naruto's right arm and was pushing his chest down against the floor with his other hand.

"Calm down," he said firmly again.

Kyubi threw him an angry look and its legs twisted up and caught Kakashi's body in the scissor grip. With his free hand, he knocked Kakashi hard in the face with a full fist while at the same time twisting his body and legs in a torque motion. The combined force of the blow to his face and the unidirectional circular flipping of his body sent Kakashi's head smashing into the ground. Dazed for a second, he quickly shook it off only to find Naruto running towards what looked like a garden of blades waving furiously at him in a menacing wind.

Kyubi jumped up on to the wall and ran up to the ceiling, then took off diagonally for the other wall on the far side, passing over the point that was dead center in the crowd of henchmen. A shower of shuriken flew down and the slicing of flesh and flying of blood droplets filled the hallway. All of the men fell to the floor, each grabbing a different deep cut wound on their bodies, some of them with more than one. Naruto bounced off of the other wall and landed running on the floor behind the crowd. Kakashi stood up and ran after him, jumping lightly over the injured henchmen who lay moaning all over the floor.

Underground, Boss Tanaka, two henchmen, and Hyuuga Ryozo carrying a bound up Hinata over his shoulder were running down a secret underground escape passage.

"You stupid Konoha dog! They must have followed you here! If we don't get out of this, you get none of what I promised you. Do you hear me!"

Boss Tanaka breathed heavily as he ran. Ryozo ran on silently. Then his calm countenance widened in horror. He felt something coming, something familiar in a terrifying way. Suddenly that something pounce on his back, pushing him forward. In the fall, he twisted to change the path of Hinata's fall in a way that reduced the injury she would suffer from the fall, his hand catching on a rope on her hand and pulling it free.

"Be careful with the cargo, you moron!" Boss Tanaka yelled as he heard the thud behind him, but when he turned around, his arrogance evaporated and he, along with his henchmen, yelped in fear at the image before his eyes. On top of and unconscious Ryozo's back was a young boy with yellow, spiky hair wearing a bright orange jacket. His body was engulfed in a red flame whipping and flickering angrily, his eyes were blood red and cat-like burning with intense loathing and rage, and one of his wild, sharp clawed hands was raised and poised for a death strike.

"NARUTO! NOOOOO!" Hinata's scream echoed through the tunnel just as Kakashi appeared out of the darkness. She had used her free hand to pull off the piece of large, heavy duty tape that had muted her earlier. Kakashi was about to jump, grab Naruto's arm, and pull him back when he realized that it had paused in the air, heeding the call of the young girl. It lowered.

In yelps of fear, the henchmen and Boss Tanaka started to run off. Naruto growled. A blur of yellow hair and red chakra shot passed them and they found that their escape route was blocked off. They started running back the opposite way, straight towards Kakashi. Apparently an enemy ninja was less frightening to them than a demon possessed youth. Kakashi, let them run past him without lifting a finger. The rest of his team would take care of them. Besides, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Na…Naruto?" Hinata's voice came out, filled with shock, concern, and fear. Her mind tried to digest the image she saw in front of her. Before she had time to fully grasp the situation, Kyubi was up in the air flying towards her. She looked up at him like a deer in headlights, her wide, pale eyes staring into the blood red eyes surrounded by fiery red chakra flames. Naruto's claws were pointing towards her.

Kakashi rushed forward her, not knowing what Naruto would do in his current state. Before he could throw his body in between Hinata and Naruto, he saw Kyubi brandishing a kunai knife in his hand, and Kakashi's eyes grew wide with concern.

Cut pieces of rope slipped to the ground. Naruto sat on the ground on his haunches, much the way a golden retriever would, black kunai firmly held in his mouth by the handle. Hinata sat up, a bit frozen in place, her eyes transfixed on the wild looking possessed Naruto sitting vigilantly on the ground next to her.

Running feet came, and Kyubi growled a warning. An Anbu member ran up to Kakashi, Naruto's growl causing him to hesitate a bit before he looked at Kakashi and spoke.

"We have secured the main target, sir."

"Good, send word and prepare to return to the village. I'll be out there soon."

The Anbu nodded, threw a furtive look at Naruto and took off back down the tunnel from where he came.

"Naruto, Hinata is safe now. Calm down."

Kyubi looked up at Hinata who had not taken her eyes off of him. The red flames around him began to subside, his pupils smoothed out from their sharp and angular shape, his eyes fading from red to blue, and his teeth and claws shrinking back to their original size. The kunai fell out of his mouth.

"Hinata…"

As her name came weakly out of his mouth, Naruto's eyelids drooped and closed, and he began to lean and fall to the floor away from Hinata as if he had been injected with a high dose of tranquilizer. She instinctively caught him before he hit the ground, holding his limp body in her arms, cradling his head over her shoulder.