A/N: Sorry for long update. Better explained after chapter. For now, just questions are always welcome. REVIEWS ARE GODLY, SO KEEPING SENDING THEM IN.
Some Random Pocky Stick: Thanks…I guess. Updates will be harder though.
Korrd: Umm….yaoi….yeah…I kinda forgot what that meant so if you don't want it, then just explain a little bit more.
Kirallie: Yeah, my brain can sometimes be a little hard to follow. Sorry. I'm not very good about putting everything I think of on paper, just bits and pieces, sorta.
Basicallyinidiot: confused again…sorry. I'll try to make them less confusing. This one might still be a little. I'll clear things up next chap for sure.
MegagirlX: Thanks…and try to, can't guarantee fast updates tho.
HarbringerLady: My writing confuses everybody. Just, try to follow along. I'll make the next chap a clear-uppie for sure, but not this one.
Last Chapter Update
"Neji!" Naruto breathed.
The man stopped. He lifted an eyebrow and waited for his opponent to undo his face coverings. The cloth fell and his blond hair revealed. His whiskers were same as usual but his face looked… mor mature.
"N-Naruto?"
Chapter 3: Life of the Pursuers
It was hard to explain. Naruto wasn't sure why he did it. The bandanas, it's like they came off by themselves. He didn't even remember untying them. But he did, and they were off, now.
"Wow, two years, that's how long it's been isn't it?" Neji asked, observing the changed ninja in front of him.
"Yeah, it seemed like such a long time ago," Naruto uttered, his voice full of doubt.
Realizing the uncertainty, Neji quickly asked, "Are you going to stay?"
Naruto shook his head gently.
Neji didn't reply. He just stood their, still sizing up the blond's strength, trying to see how much strong the teenager really grew.
Finally, he seemed to grow satisfied, and continued to gather more information. "Everyone missed you."
Naruto looked passed the rookie-of-the-year. "Not everyone," Naruto breathed.
Neji caught the remark, but let it go. "Everyone is growing more and more like you, just to fill in the silence that you'd usually fill up by yourself."
Naruto smiled, remembering his old ways.
"Hinata has grown less shy; Sakura has undergone tough training, but endures and continues it; Lee, well he was already loud to begin with; Kiba and Akamaru have grown more dedicated; Ino is less into looks and more into training; Shikamaru, well, he's grown less lazy; Heck, Chouji's even gotten skinnier."
Naruto smiled, listening intently on the changes of his comrades. "And Tenten and yourself?"
Neji blushed a little. "You don't have to know anything about us."
A small laugh escaped Naruto, who changed to a stoic expression. 'Wow, things have really changed. Even Neji's got a girl now.'
"And 'baachan?"
Neji seemed a bit taken back and Naruto's disrespect but adapted to it. "She's the same if somewhat more melancholy." Seeing his blank expression, Neji clarified, "sad, sorrowful."
Naruto acknowledged the easier words, but he didn't change. "Things really have changed here." Naruto let out another laugh, "It's funny to think that an infiltration mission would bring me back."
"Infiltration?" Neji's eyebrow rose out of curiosity.
"Some strange old cloud-nin asked for my help to bypass the guards and kidnap your leader. It's funny, he even had a map of your mansion, and a pattern sheet of where your guards went at what time and stuff."
"Cloud…" Neji repeated. "Shit!"
Regaining movement, Neji ran past Naruto, roughly shoving him aside, as he ran through the hall and turned.
"Hey! Wait up!" Naruto called after, quickly recovering onto his feet and following.
"Oy, OY! What's going on?"
"Naruto, what's this cloud guy look like?" Neji asked, voice suddenly turning from soft to serious.
"Well, he was big and sorta built. Why?" Naruto asked.
"In the past, when we were all kids, a cloud clan attempted a kidnap of Hinata. It's what killed my father."
He didn't really understand the 'father' part, but ignored it. "That guy tried to kidnap Hinata?"
"Those cloud scum have been after our byakuugan for decades," Neji explained as he opened a door.
"Hiashi-sama!" The door was slammed down. Inside, blood stains covered walls and part of the floor but no one was there.
"That bastard!" Naruto, having seen the bloody sight, indignantly rushed out of the room.
Neji turned to see him go. He waited longer, closing his eyes in prayer. Suddenly his eyes reopened, filled with indignant determination. "Your kidnapper will be sought out and brought to justice."
BREAK
The fresh air rushed to meet a blond ninja as he ran out and jumped over the walls, flipping before he landed on a branch that hung over the rock barrier. He smoothly jumped from tree to tree, every once in a while, catching the branch with his hands and using the momentum to swing himself up. The chases were never the best part of the missions but Naruto still enjoyed them. It was another time he could be free, but this time he had a purpose with him.
As he swung through the mass of trees, Naruto smiled, feeling as the air swiped past his face. Bark crumbled underneath his feet, the sound adding to the others which Naruto had come to enjoy. But he priority was to find his client. His enjoyment could wait. He had, what seemed like, a mission to fulfill for his friend. Naruto gathered the Kyuubi's chakra into his head, heightening his senses. His eyes seemed to glow with the red chakra, almost like the flames in Lee's eyes when he felt passion. Though his nose and ears didn't have any physical changes, Naruto could still feel their sharpness increase.
By now, he was used to it, having received them as gifts from the Kyuubi on his previous birthday about nine months ago. He wasn't sure why the red furball had all of a sudden began to grow soft on him.
For the past year and a half, it seemed he began to pity his human container, granting him special skills and teaching him unique techniques derived from foreign countries outside of Japan. Naruto wasn't certain of the origin, but he liked them, all of them. Of course, he underwent cruel training to earn them, but he felt it was well worth the effort. It just granted him so much strength that he was scared whether he should really be receiving it, after all, the Kyuubi was deemed evil and evil people had tendencies to obsess over immense power. In the back of his mind, Naruto wondered whether Kyuubi was just using the poor container. But either way, Naruto felt that it was ultimately used for good, to protect all those precious to him. He gladly accepted.
A presence appeared close by. Naruto turned behind him to see another body jump to his side.
Naruto smiled at the reinforcements whose white eyes just stole a brief glance at him.
"He's close," Naruto said, Neji nodding in agreement.
Naruto jumped down to the next branch. Using the momentum, he grabbed the branch and swung himself up, rocketing past the canopy. The moon was so bright. It sparkled like a diamond. Naruto's tense body relaxed, soothed by the majestic presence of the ball. He began to descend and looked down through the thick group of leaves. Passing right through the branches, Naruto landed on the next branch with a thump!
Neji eyed the boy suspiciously who just responded with the all-too familiar foxy grin.
"We should slow down." Naruto looked ahead to see a figure resting in a clearing nearby.
Naruto just shook his head. "Not gonna happen." He jumped through the bushes that proved as a barrier between the forest and the clearing. His client jumped, startled by such a sudden presence.
"Ahhh…it's you. I must congratulate you for your work." Naruto just looked at the lifeless body beside him.
"Well, your work is done too," Naruto said. "I'm not going to let you continue with what you're doing."
Suddenly, Neji stood up from behind the bushes. "Naruto, stay out of this. This has nothing to do with you."
The man's eyes narrowed, yet his face looked interested. "Ahhh, the branch member, Hyuuga Neji, said to be a prodigy…for a branch member.
Neji didn't even flinch. "You two seem to be familiar with each other."
Naruto simply pulled his hitai-ite out of his pack. "I was, once a former leaf shinobi."
Neji eyed the headband, but didn't turn his head. "Enough of this. I'm here to take back what you have stolen. Jyuuken!"
The Hyuuga prodigy lashed out aggressively, hands and feet going at almost blurred speeds. His hands moved swiftly, the right one pushing through, trying to hit the heart. The man pushed it away to his left. Without missing a beat, Neji spun, using the momentum of the block, and this time, attacked with his left. Once again, the attack was aimed for the heart. The man jumped back, the emitted chakra barely making it to his chest.
"Not bad," the man admitted. But Neji didn't answer, his onslaught just continued. He forced his opened palm at the man, but he grabbed it. Neji smirked for a second before using his other hand and hitting the man's arm away. He jumped back to a safe distance.
Naruto had seen it, all of it. 'Clever, Neji,' he thought, smiling with approval. He leaned back on a tree, arms folded at his chest.
Neji charged the man again, throwing another open palm. The man attempted to move his hands, but they didn't. Knowing the cause, he began to panic, seeing his next attack coming.
"I shouldn't need to explain what I did to you," Neji smiled as swiped his hand again at the man.
But the cloud-nin just smiled. He ducked, and with free hands, grabbed Neji's wrist and flung him over his head, pushing a little electrical charge through on contact. Neji's body shook violently and his pupils (not like they were ever very visible) had gone. Slowly his eyes closed and he lay lifeless.
The cloud nin walked up to him and hoisted the young Hyuuga up onto his shoulder.
"He's not dead," Naruto muttered behind him.
The cloud just turned around and smiled. "I know, he's just unconscious."
Suddenly, the body whirled out from his arms grip. Neji's hand met the ground, supporting his weight as his feet connected viciously with the man's head. His collarbone shattered in a loud SNAP as his body rammed roughly against the tree, making a big enough dent to cause the tree to collapse.
"Lee's attacks have worn off on me." Neji smiled.
"I see," Naruto beamed, obviously proud of his friend's improvements. "If the snapping collarbone didn't kill him then the chakra you sent to his brain would've."
Neji flinched, having thought that he chakra was unseen.
Naruto looked at the rag doll under the fallen, and then turned back toward Neji. "You aren't the only one with special eyes."
His eyes had turned red, glowing with that strange chakra that he had used in the finals at their first chuunin exam, but from what?
The young blond simply blinked and they returned to their normal twinkling cerulean color.
"Well, I'd better be going," Naruto said, stepping aside. A small burst of wind appeared and sand with leaves mixed in began to cover him. "I'll be coming and going a lot, hopefully." The wind died down and the leaves and sand was blown away. Naruto had left once again.
'Leaves and sand, eh? He really is the #1 ninja for surprising people,' Neji smiled with approval. Naruto had passed his test with flying colors.
A/N: Okay, you might not understand what I mean by "test". Neji has just been sizing up Naruto's power and improvements. That was his test. If you still don't understand than too bad. I'm sorry it took so long. The fighting scene was terribly hard. I couldn't think of anything and before long, I had forgotten about fanfiction. I've been busy throughout the whole entire summer with volunteer crap (well, maybe not crap) and other shitty stuff (even though vacation is exactly shitty). But yeah, that's my excuse, so just accept it. Next update should come soon…I think….hehehe.
NOW I HAVE A SURVEY.
Would you like….longer chaps and longer updates? Or shorter chaps and shorter updates? Decisions, decisions.
O yea, and vote for pairings too. I cnat guarantee them. Just no gay and no really really old w/ really really young.
