It was a calm autumn night in Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves; this however, was simply the calm before the storm. Rain clouds began to form in the sky as two figures meandered towards the ninja village. When the guards spotted the two, they immediately tensed up. They had good reason, the only groups that they knew of that traveled in two, were the Akatsuki, and Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto. Neither group were particularly welcome in the village.
It had been a long three years for Uzumaki Naruto, the intense training he had received from the frog hermit was easily the most taxing activity he had ever done. Upon seeing the walls of the village for the first time in three years, the blonde wanted only one thing.
"Ramen!" The fifteen year old boy yelled at the top of his lungs.
Even though the distance between Naruto and the wall guards was large, the sound of the boy's voice carried quite easily. Upon hearing the call the guards had different reactions regarding the loud mouthed ninja's exclamation. About half of the guards were relieved to find out that they wouldn't have to face off against the S-class criminals. Those who shared in this belief were of the younger demographic. The older guards were less than happy. After three years of relative peace, the Kyuubi brat was returning.
Unfortunately for Naruto, Jiraiya had other plans.
"Sorry kid, but we've got to check in with Tsunade." The hermit reminded his apprentice.
"Yeah, yeah" replied Naruto, dejectedly.
Upon reaching the gates, they were ordered to go directly to the Godaime Hokage's office. The sun had finished setting as they headed directly for Tsunade's office.
"Don't you think it's kinda late to be working?" Questioned Naruto.
"For most people, yes" replied Jiraiya. "But considering it is Tsunade, she's probably asleep on top of her paper work again."
At the thought of the Hokage, sleeping on mission reports and assignments for the next day, both master and student couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey kid" the old hermit said, in between howls of laughter, "I'll make a bet with you. If I win then you've got to promise not to tell Tsunade about that little mishap back in Suna."
Naruto was forced to quit laughing to ponder this proposal. "Hmm, now which mishap would that be?" He asked quizzically. "Would that be the one where you took all my money for 'research', and ended up spending it on sake and women? Or how about the one where you had me practicing taijutsu, and I hit the log so hard that after it hit the back of your head, it sent you sailing into the women's section of the local bath house? Or how about the time, when you had me practice Goukakyuu no Jutsu, and you insisted that I was doing it wrong and ended up burning half of the camp site, and some of the town?"
"Heh, heh…" Jiraiya sweat dropped, remembering all the different occasions that had gotten them almost removed from Sunagakure. "Ok, let's make this interesting, If I win, you can't mention any of those incidents. If you win, I'll teach you Togeyomi."
"Ok, sounds reasonable" responded Naruto. "What are we betting on?"
"The bet is that when we enter Tsunade's office, she's asleep and when she wakes up she'll have paper work stuck to her face!" Replied Jiraiya.
At the thought of this, the two characters were once again sent into fits of laughter and had to calm them selves down for five minutes before they could continue. As they wound themselves along the staircase leading to the Hokage's office, they had to stifle another round of laughing. When they entered the building, the office was pretty empty. Everyone was gone except for Shizune, Tsunade's traveling companion/day planner. At first Shizune didn't seem to notice the two when they entered the room. When she looked up, she saw Jiraiya with whom she could only assume to be Naruto. Although, you'd never have been able to tell that the adolescent man before her was at once a short loud-mouthed Gennin. Naruto had grown a lot in the past three years. Not just physically, but he'd also picked up a semblance of what could almost be construed as manners. Instead of the bright orange jump suit he used to wear, Naruto now wore black pants with a black shirt, with orange stripes around the shoulders. His forehead protector was tied around his forehead just as it had been three years ago.
"Hey Shizune-nee-chan, is Tsunade-obaa-chan in?" Questioned the blonde ninja.
Both Shizune and Jiraiya sweat dropped upon hearing Naruto refer to the Godaime Hokage as obaa-chan.
"Yes she is, but I'm going to warn you now, if she hears you call her that, you'll wish that you hadn't come back." Shizune warned.
She led the two into a room to find Tsunade…actually doing paper work.
"Hah! I win" bellowed Naruto when he saw what could only be described as a miracle.
Tsunade looked up from her work to see her old team mate Jiraiya standing with a taller, more mature looking Naruto.
"Win what?" questioned the Hokage with an air of curiosity in her voice.
"The bet I made with Ero-sennin. If I won he has to teach me Togeyomi, if I lost, I couldn't tell you about all the stuff that Ero-sennin did during my training." Naruto replied.
"Oh, and what kind of stuff did he do?" Asked Tsunade with a malicious tone to her voice as she eyed Jiraiya intent on finding out what stupid thing he had done.
"Well, for starters there was the tmmm." Naruto was cut off by Jiraiya forcibly restraining the blonde from finishing the sentence.
"Oh, he means all the times that he wanted to learn some insanely dangerous jutsu and I wouldn't let him!" Exclaimed Jiraiya hoping that he might be able to avoid the wrath of the Godaime.
Tsunade glared at him knowing full well that his previous statement was a lie, but she decided to let it pass, just this once.
"Jiraiya, that's a lie and everyone in this room, knows it. But I'm feeling lenient right now, seeing as I just finished all the paper work for tonight. I'll make a deal with you. I'll forget that you even tried to lie to the Hokage so long as you don't attempt to do any of your 'research' while you are here." At that point, Tsunade grabbed a hold of the frog hermit and pulled him closer to her. "But if I hear even one scream of 'Pervert' then I'll make sure that you'll never be able to go near another bath house for a very long time." She finished glaring into her former team-mate's eyes with an intensity that would cripple most shinobi and cause pandemonium amongst the civilian population for a week.
With the thought of banishment from bath houses looming over him Jiraiya was only able to mutter a "Hai" before proceeding to chastise Naruto about proper etiquette around his superiors.
"Jiraiya, quit abusing your student and just give me your report so I can go get a drink and end this day properly." Said Tsunade rubbing her temples in annoyance.
"All right" grumbled the older man. "Uzumaki Naruto was placed under my care for the purposes of training for the past three years. During that time, he was instructed in chakra control, taijutsu, and ninjutsu. The purpose of the training was to allow Naruto to access and control large amounts of Kyuubi's chakra without loosing control. He has proved himself to be highly proficient at ninjutsu and slightly above proficient at taijutsu. I wouldn't hesitate to say that he is at least a high chunnin level ninja at this point, if not jounin level." As Jiraiya is finishing his report the noise of someone running in the hallways entered the room, only slightly before Hyuuga Hiashi did.
Upon entering the room, the head of the Hyuuga clan did something very out of character given the resolute and stoic behavior he was known for. He collapsed onto the floor. In the blink of an eye Tsunade was hovering over the man analyzing his condition.
"It's just fatigue; sit him on the chair in the corner, hurry." Tsunade ordered. "Hyuuga-sama, what is so urgent that you ran over here your self to tell me?" Asked the Hokage.
"My…daughter…has… been… abducted." He managed to say in-between gasps of air.
"What happened?" Questioned Tsunade, as she motioned for the ANBU outside of her office to begin to search the surrounding area for the child.
"I was in the study attending to clan business, when I heard a commotion out side. I ran to investigate, and found carnage. Around 15 of the Hyuuga guards were dead or injured. I heard the sounds of a fight coming from around the corner, and so I ran towards it. I saw one man taking on three of the guards as another exited my daughter Hinata's room. I saw that she appeared to be unconscious and slung over the intruder's back. When the man's partner saw him with Hinata, they both exited the compound and vanished. I've already sent out some patrols, but I haven't heard any news yet." Hiashi was calming down as he spoke, but much of his information was delivered between gasps for air and he seemed to be quit upset.
"Did you get any kind of look at the assailants, were they cloud nin again?" Tsunade asked.
"No, they weren't cloud ninjas, but I did see them." Hiashi responded.
"What did they look like, if you don't tell me than I can't determine the best way to get your daughter back." Exclaimed Tsunade.
"They fit the description of Hoshigake Kisame, and Uchiha Itachi perfectly." Hiashi said, calming himself down a bit.
Before the words were out of his mouth, the sound of a door slamming shut and running was heard. Before Tsunade could turn around to yell at Shizune to get more ANBU into the forest to cut of any escape routes, Uzumaki Naruto was running straight into the forest, in an attempt to stop the two missing nins.
Anger washed over Naruto as he sped towards the forest surrounding Konoha. He was beyond angry, and mad. He had exceeded the level of pissed off. He was in a state of pure uncontrollable rage. It was bad enough that Akatsuki was after the Kyuubi no Kitsune that was sealed inside of him by the Yondaime Hokage, but now they were taking his friends just to get to him. Well, it was working. If Akatsuki wanted the Kyuubi, then they were going to get it. The Kyuubi's chakra started to envelope Naruto as he ran into the forest. His eyes turned from shimmering blue to glaring red. His finger nails elongated into sharp claws. His face began to darken, and the three whisker marks on his cheeks became more pronounced. The last part of the transformation was the formation of three chakra tails behind him. With his new changes, Naruto began to search for the traitors not by visual clues, but by scent. Part of the transformation had heightened his sense of smell beyond that of an ordinary human and into that of a fox.
He sniffed around a little bit before catching the scent of blood. He ran undeterred through the trees at speeds that only Lee and Gai would be able to match. Along with the eyes and claws, Kyuubi had heightened Naruto's speed so that he would be able to catch up with the two missing criminals and Hinata.
It had begun to rain as Itachi and Kisame made their escape from Konoha. The felt the explosion of Kyuubi's chakra far behind them and continued on their way. Gradually, the enormous chakra signature that was Naruto began to catch up to the two Akatsuki members.
"Damn it!" Swore Kisame. "He's gaining too much ground. We can't make it back."
"Agreed" replied his partner. "Since he would have an advantage in the trees against you, we should head over this way. There is a clearing. That should take away any advantage he may have over you." Itachi was very calculating. In his mind, he doubted that the location of their inevitable battle would matter at all. Naruto was just a gennin, and Kisame was one of the Hidden Village of the Mist's legendary seven swordsmen. However, given the fact that the boy had eluded the organizations grasp for the past few years, Itachi wasn't going to risk the opportunity to capture the nine-tailed demon.
They had made it to the clearing and turned towards the direction of the chakra they felt, and they waited. Less than five minutes after they had stopped, the signature turned towards the two ninja and their captive. Less than two minutes after that Naruto arrived at the clearing.
Standing on the limb of a tree Naruto took stock of the situation. Itachi and Kisame were standing in front of him, with Hinata lying on the ground between them. Naruto was lucky. The moon gave enough light to identify her, by her purple hair. It was longer than he had remembered, it now reached to her shoulders. The jacket which she wore was still present, and it seems that she had just returned from training. Bruises and scrapes gave testimony to the work she was doing before her capture.
'If I stay in the trees I can only use long range attacks, but I might hit Hinata.' Thought Naruto. So he did the only thing he could. He dropped to the ground and approached the two ninjas.
"Ah, Uzumaki Naruto, vessel of the kyuubi no kitsune, to what do we owe the honor?" Kisame chided.
"What did you bastards do to her?" demanded Naruto through clenched teeth..
"Nothing too severe just caught her in a handy genjustu." Replied Kisame. I only wish I had the Mangekyou Sharingan like Itachi so I could have had the opportunity to torture her a bit but my method works just as well." Smirked Kisame.
Suddenly, the chakra coming from Naruto's body became more intense than before, and almost as suddenly, Kisame didn't have a head. If Itachi didn't have his sharingan active, he wouldn't have been able to see what happened. Even though he did, he could only see the technique that Naruto used, not his body, just the red ball of chakra that had been forced into Kisame's head and caused it to explode like a balloon. Actually, Itachi didn't even see that much, all he saw was a red flash, and a deep cry of "RASENGAN" from the blonde ninja.
Once Kisame died, Hinata was released from the genjutsu she was trapped in. Looking around she saw the headless body of a tall, blue skinned man on her right, and a boy with blonde hair behind him, a crimson chakra surrounding him.
'It looks so much like him' she thought 'but what is that weird chakra around him?'
Naruto turned around towards Itachi and Hinata. Itachi was in shock from what he'd just seen. Hinata looked up to see the face of her savior; his eyes were no longer the deep blue that she remembered but a fierce red that rivaled that of the sharingan.
"Th...That technique…" stammered Itachi "It isn't supposed to be around any more. You can't possibly know that. No one can, it can't be copied, it's too fast!"
"You're right" came Naruto's reply. Only his voice was deeper, and laced with malice. "No one can copy that technique with a sharingan. It also shouldn't exist any more. But I did copy it. So it does exist.
"How?" came Itachi's stuttered reply
"Easy, it was the only move the Yondaime showed me when we fought. I'd have to be some kind of idiot demon not to be able to figure it out in 15 years of imprisonment." Came the reply.
"Kyuubi!" was all that Itachi could mutter as his eyes began to form the feared Mangekyou sharingan.
"Wh… what is he talking about N…Naruto-kun?" Hinata turned to ask. But when she turned around the boy was no longer there, and the sounds of battle rang out from behind her. She spun around to see Naruto behind Itachi, who had staggered to the right of where he was a second ago. A rasengan shaped hole now appeared on his side. The Mangekyou had saved his life. It had allowed him to see the ball of whirling chakra that was speeding at him, but not enough to dodge the blow completely. Immediately Itachi tried to flee, but Naruto flashed in front of him and greeted him with a punch to the face. Itachi back flipped away in mid air after receiving the blow. He then put his chakra reserves towards staunching the wound on his left side. He only had enough chakra for one attack, and even then it wouldn't be enough to kill the enraged boy.
So he used a move that he had copied off another Akatsuki member. He began to gather all his energy in towards the center of is body. Naruto didn't know what was happening, and ran towards the older brother of his rival in an attempt to kill him. He didn't have enough energy, even with Kyuubi's help to maintain the shunshin. That is how he had caused the death of one of the most dangerous ninja around and mortally wounded another one. As he ran towards Hinata he felt the chakra in Itachi reach a threshold. It was then he knew what was going on. Itachi was trying to take both of them out with him. He was turning his body into a bomb.
Naruto stopped in front of Hinata just as he felt the chakra in Itachi's body shatter every tenketsu in his body, killing the missing nin, and creating an explosion that was meant to kill both teenagers. Kyuubi receded into Naruto's subconscious at that exact moment, he was tired from using shunshin too much and for creating the changes that naruto had used to track the missing nins. As Naruto took control over his body, he realized what was happening, and closed his eyes in an instinctive reflex. It wouldn't save his life though. He heard the explosion; he felt the shock wave after it was over. But he didn't feel pain. He didn't feel anything. He opened his eyes to see two white sheets in front of him. He was obviously dead, if he was seeing white sheets. Wasn't he? He looked around him, the sheets were enveloping him. But when he looked directly behind him, the sheets seemed to grow thinner, until they disappeared into Hinata's back.
"Hinata?" He asked quietly.
The girl raised her head to see the boy who had saved her life standing over her; the back ground was entirely white. Slowly the sheets began to separate and he could see that they weren't sheets, but enormous wings.
The last thing he remembered before passed out due to exhaustion was his voice
"Are you an Angel?" He asked before darkness and sleep overtook him.
Hinata attempted to stand and run towards the boy, but the effects of the Genjutsu had robbed her of much of her chakra and no sooner had she made it to Naurto's side, than she too passed out.
Naruto awoke to the sound of yelling. He looked around and realized that he was in the hospital. On his left, Hinata was sitting up looking over at him.
When she saw him move, a wave of relief washed over her body. When Naruto saw that Hinata was unharmed, he felt the same wave of relief.
"It's my fault you're in here, I'm so sorry." They both said at the same time.
Needless to say, this left both teens very confused.
They were both going to say something when Tsunade came rushing into the room.
"ARE YOU INSANE?" She yelled at Naruto. "YOU WALKED RIGHT INTO THE PEOPLE WHO WANT YOU DEAD!"
"Ts…Tsu…Tsunade-sama, i it's my fault that Naruto-kun is here.
"Obaa-chan, it's my fault that Hinata was taken and why she's in here now." The blonde said.
Tsunade looked just as confused as the two teens.
'How is that possible?' she thought. "Why don't you tell me what happened at least. We have no idea what happened after you ran off Naruto, and the circumstances around your abduction are hazy as well Hinata." Replied the Hokage.
"I…I'll g go first" stuttered Hinata. She took a big breath and began
"I I was g getting ready for bed w when I h heard a s shout f from o out side. W When I w went to look I I was s stopped by a big b blue man. H He put me under s some k kind of g g genjutsu. Th th the next th thing that I r remember was Naruto-kun standing b behind me and th the blue man didn't have a head." She recounted.
"When I left, I ran towards the Hyuuga compound and out into the forest." Began Naruto. "I started to track the smell of blood for a while, until I came into a clearing. Kisame was standing with Itachi and Hinata was lying on the ground between the two of them. I dropped out of the trees and tried to figure out why they wanted Hinata to begin with. Then Kisame said some things, and I kinda let 'him' take control." His voice tailed off when he said the last sentence. Tsunade's eyes widened in shock.
"YOU DID WHAT?" She screamed.
"I could still take control if I needed to, but it all worked out. So the first thing that happens is he creates a rasengan and then uses some special technique called 'shunshin' to go really fast, and he forced the rasengan into Kisame's head. Then he used shunshin again and was able to wound Itachi with another rasengan to his side. Then he punched him. Then Itachi did something weird, he started to gather all the energy her could and turned himself into a bomb." Naruto finished.
"How did you survive?" Asked Tsunade
"I…I don't know" Naruto said. "I took control back and closed my eyes and waited to die. But instead, something big and white blocked the explosion and when I looked around it looked like sheets were hanging around me, but instead they were wings and they came from …from Hinata's back." He said.
At this point all three of them were puzzled. Tsunade wondered what the hell happened with wings coming from Hinata's back and why the Akatsuki was after her, Hinata wondered why Naruto talked like he had some kind of split personality, and Naruto was wondering about what would happen in the aftermath of all of this.
Suddenly a thought crept into the Godaime Hokage's head. It was a long shot, but she wondered none the less.
"Hinata" she began "can I see your back?"
"W…What for H Hokage-sama"
"I think I may be able to figure out what lead to all of this."
She stepped over to Hinata's bed, as Hinata was removing the jacket that she always wore. It had to large holes in it, from where the 'wings' had come out. When she did, Tsunade saw what she had hoped not to find. All along Hinata's back and arms were intricate black loops and designs, it was a seal. When Naruto saw the lines, he didn't know what exactly was going on.
"Naruto" the Hokage said "I need to see your seal."
"Why it's not like its broken or anything?" He asked.
"Because," Tsunade said with the hint of a threat in her voice "I said so, so humor me and let me check it."
Seeing the writing on the wall, Naruto pulled up his shirt and molded some chakra so that the seal was visible. Hinata let out a gasp as she saw it.
"S…So what that man said a about Kyuubi…the K Kyuubi is sealed i inside of y you?" Hinata asked tentatively.
Naruto looked at Tsunade who simply nodded her head.
"Yes." He said, slowly and softly, still not wanting to say it. "I'm sorry I caused you all this trouble Hinata-chan, as soon as I can I'll leave and that way you'll be safe. Those men only came after you to get to me. They want the Kyuubi that's sealed inside of me."
"N-no Naruto-kun, I I don't think that you understand, I-I have a demon sealed inside me too. The nibi no aosagi, the two tailed swan. Those were the wings you saw. I used her wings to protect you." Hinata said, finishing without a stutter. "My father always that the vessel for the nibi would be strong, that is why he calls me weak. He doesn't see me, as his daughter, just the container for some demon." She said dejectedly.
"I'm sorry to hear that Hinata-chan. I know how you feel. I always get icy glares from people in the street and people that don't see me as the container, just as the Kyuubi."
Upon hearing him call her 'Hinata-chan' Hinata began to blush.
"Are you ok, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Hai…it's just I'm not used to calling me 'Hinata-chan'"
"I'm sure you'll get used to it after a while." He said scratching the back of his head and grinning.
"Well, you both seem to be recovering fine; you'll just have to stay here for observation for a couple of days. I'll be back to check on you two in a few hours." With that Tsunade left.
"A-ano, um Naruto-kun, now that I know about Kyuubi, it makes sense. You always seem so happy and energetic just like a fox. It suits you well." Hinata said as she blushed.
"Thanks Hinata-chan. I think you're a lot like a swan actually. You're kinda quiet, but you're really smart, and you're very graceful." Naruto barely managed to get out the last part before his voice disappeared and a bright red blush overtook his face.
"Thank you Naruto-kin" Hinata replied.
"Hey Hinata-chan, when we get out of here, would you like to go get some ramen with me?" Naruto asked rather sheepishly
"Sure" She responded while blushing even deeper.