Chapter 7 – Awakened Dōjutsus

"Talk"

'Think'

A/N – Thank you Oblivion168 for your comments.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto sensei. So…yeah.

Four years later (cont.)

It was after midnights. Shizuka was walking home with sleepy Naruto and Noriko after her shift in hospital.

Once she was certified to be an Iryō nin a few months ago, she was offered a position in Konoha Hospital; she declined as she felt more confident to leave Naruto and Noriko at home when they are 5 years old. Nevertheless, she accepted a part-time position and filled in when the hospital was under-staffed, like tonight.

Today, there was a festival in Konoha, celebrating the peace treaty between Konohagakure no Sato and Kumogakure no Sato hence the hospital is under-staffed as many take leave to join the festival.

Shizuka has promised Naruto and Noriko to watch the fireworks with them after she finished her shift at 8 pm. At 7.30 pm, Kosuke arrived at the hospital to drop them off before he went off to chat a.k.a exchange news a.k.a ninja gossip with his fellow shinobis.

Unfortunately, right before she was about to leave, Head of night shift caught up with her and asked if she can stay a bit longer as one of the night shift's doctor was called away in a drunken brawl. Since the firework started at 8.30pm, the Head offers her access to the roof to watch the fireworks and hospital beds for Naruto and Noriko which Shizuka accepted gratefully (not many people would have made that offers, especially to jinchūriki in general).

The drunken brawl led to a bloody mess and as a result, Shizuka, Naruto and Noriko left the hospital after midnight.

There are many routes from the hospital to their house; the shortest one was closed to the Hyūga compound. As they walked closed by, Shizuka heard a rustling from nearby wall, she turned to the sound and she saw a man jumping down from the wall carrying a child in one of his arms.

The man was startled when he saw them, and then he smirked when he saw a small woman with two kids on both of her sides. Taking out his kunai from its holster, he aimed a stab at the woman-

Shizuka was surprised when she saw the man jumped down from the wall. Her surprised turned to fear when she saw the man wearing Kumogakure hitai-ate. When she saw his smirked, her fear was confirmed and upon seeing the man reached out for his kunai, she steeled herself, knowing that while she cannot outrun a jōnin with two kids on tow.

She was left with one choice that could have kept both Naruto and Noriko safe; she eyed the kunai carefully, calculating its trajectory (her stomach) and accumulating chakra on her abdomen to cushion the blow as well as reducing the damage on her torso.

Once the kunai stabbed her (which hurts like ****) and the shout of "Obasan/okaasan!" from Naruto and Noriko, she grabbed the hand of the Kumo shinobi and hold on to it firmly. As long as she's holding the hand, he cannot hurt Naruto and Noriko.

That's when she heard Naruto's voice "Eh Noriko?"

Up until the stabbing, tonight was a happy night for Naruto. For the first time, he got to see fireworks up-close and it was beautiful! Before that, Kosuke-ojiisan treated them at the ramen place where Teuchi-ojiisan gave him a free bowl of ramen. A free bowl!.

He was sleepy when they were walking back home and was surprised to see a man jumping down from the wall. His mind did not register anything until he saw the kunai moved and stabbed Shizuka-obasan and automatically he screamed "Obasan!"

That's when he saw Noriko "Eh Noriko?"

Tonight was a whole new experience for Noriko. She saw the festival and observed that a lot of kids like her were wearing yukata (maybe next festival she can ask one for her and Naruto), had dinner outside (normally when they eat out, it was lunch), watched the fireworks, slept at the hospital, walking back home in the dark, saw man jumping down the wall carrying a kid-

'wait a minute' thought Noriko. She saw the man smirked, talking out his kunai- 'No! No! He gonna stab mom! He gonna stab mom!' Noriko thought panickly, her eyes never once took off from the kunai. She saw the kunai made contact with her mom's cloth and penetrate through it and red blood started showing on the cloth- 'He stabbed her! He STABBED her! Gotta do something or she's gonna die!' she thought frantically.

Mentally she forced herself to move but her body was paralyzed with fear. Her eyes were fixated on the kunai stabbing her mother that she did not notice the changes in her vision where the image was getting clearer and sharper and there's a large chakra accumulated inside her mother's abdomen.

Despite of in pain, Shizuka tried to hold the hand of Kumogakure shinobi while amassing chakra on her abdomen when she heard "Eh Noriko?"

She turned and gasped when she saw that Noriko was staring at the wound in her torso with a red right eye and a pale pupil-less left eye.

The Kumogakure shinobi knew he was in a fix; he thought the small lady was just a simple housewife when he decided to eliminate her. She surprised him when she grabbed his hand and hold on to it like her life depends on it. Her action immobilized him as the other option is to drop the Hyūga girl which might wake the girl up from the sleep jutsu he casted on her.

While mulling his options, he heard the blonde boy's voice "Eh Noriko?" follow by a gasp and the pair of hands that was holding his arm slackened. This allowed him to pull his hand back and assessed his situation; he was ordered to capture a Hyūga girl but if he capture the black hair girl, Kumo would have two of Konoha's prized dōjutsus.

Making up his mind to tie up the loose ends, he proceeded to eliminate all but the black hair girl-

-when his eyes met with a pair of angry Byakugan. 'Oh ****' he thought before his world when black.

End Chapter 7

Hitai-ate – forehead protector

Iryō nin – medic ninja

Konohagakure no Sato – Hidden Leaf Village

Kumogakure no Sato – Hidden Cloud Village

Obasan – Aunty

Ojiisan - Grandfather

Okaasan – Mother