Naruto was wondering around in his room, trying to think on what he could do. Ever since the fight yesterday, he found himself feeling rather odd. It seemed rather odd that he could stop the demon's grabby hand from even coming close to Hinata. How did that happen in the first place? It just seemed so out of place. Stopping in place, Naruto frowned as he felt like it shouldn't be natural to have that kind of strength. It didn't, yet at the same time, it felt natural.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" He mumbled, letting out a soft sigh as he turned and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He couldn't help but frown at his own reflection. The dark circles under his eyes showed that he hadn't slept much that night. How could he? All he would dream about was him stopping the demon with his bare hands, and with some odd new found strength no doubt. Only for those dreams to change to something else.

What they were though? He had no idea. Everything was just blurred to the point that he could only make out the faint outline of people and colours.

Shaking his head, the young man took a deep breath, hoping to relax himself. Getting himself stressed out like this wasn't going to help him in any way. Looking back at his reflection, he couldn't help but frown a little as he stared at himself. Squinting his eyes, he looked closer as he saw the odd crack along the marking on his stomach.

On one of the curled circles just on the outer edge, had what looked like a flesh coloured crack in it. What was that about? Tilting his head to the side, Naruto wanted to know what it was that could have caused that. Wasn't that a birthmark along with the one on the back of his hand? Shaking his head, he didn't have time to think about this right now, looking out the window of his room he saw that the sun was starting to peek into his room. "May as well get dressed. Hinata will be waking up soon."

He was still thankful that Hinata didn't tell her father about what had happened, though at the same time he couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had he told Lord Hiashi about his new found strength. "Lock me up and most likely kill me." He grumbled before letting out a sigh.

Throwing on his clothes, Naruto walked out of his room and started to make his way toward Hinata's room. He had left a little earlier than he normally did but at the moment he couldn't sleep. Though his skills may be a little lacking due to lack of sleep, though he was still a powerful warrior to deal with. Regardless how little sleep, he was still a warrior that had fought in much worse situations.

Taking a deep breath, closing his eyes hoping to relax his fried nerves, the young man tried to think of something else. Something that would allow him to calm down fully. Though, what could he do really? 'Hinata's bright and cheerful smile. That always calms me down…' thought Naruto with a soft and gentle smile on his face. Chuckling to himself, he started to make his way to her room, a smile on his face and a slight skip in his step. No one was around to see that, and for that he was thankful at the very least. He wouldn't never live that down had anyone seen it.

Making his way to Hinata's room, he gently knocked on the door though, it was a lot louder than he had meant too. Blushing madly, he hoped that she wouldn't think that he was in a rush for her to wake up. Pulling his hand back, he couldn't help but stare at his closed fist, did he still have that strength? Thank god he decided to hold back something or he feared he would have just broken a hole in her door. Shaking his head, the young man tried to calm himself, what the hell was happening to him?!

"I'm coming." Came Hinata's voice, making him panic a little more. Damn it, if he did still have this strength, what was he to do? What if he hurt her by mistake? Sure he was still stronger than the average human man, but now? He had monstrous strength and it frightened him. Gulping a bit, he closed his eyes and visualised Hinata's smile once more and that seemed to calm him down a little bit. Though not enough for his breathing to even out.

"Take your time Hinata. I'm not in a huge rush." Naruto said with a calmness to his voice, when really he was panicking. He hoped that she would take her time just so he could relax his nerves. If he still did, indeed have this strength then there was a chance that he would hurt someone. No matter if it was himself or those around him. He couldn't risk that. He would have to find some way to control this before it got too far out of hand.

Soon, the door opened causing Naruto to blink as he stared at the princess as she walked out of the room. Her hair was down, her kimono was just a simple white. Though her pale lavender eyes stared at Naruto in concern, it was as if she knew that he was troubled with something. Or, maybe she just knew that he was troubled because she just… knew him better than anyone else really.

"Naruto, didn't you sleep last night?" asked Hinata, he figured that she noticed the dark circles under his eyes. Of all the things that she had to notice, it had to be the dark circles under his eyes.

Letting out a soft sigh, the young man said "I had trouble sleeping." He rubbed the back of his neck, not sure why he felt like she was giving him a lecture but, he knew that was what was going to happen.

"Naruto, you need sleep." Hinata said with a frown.

"I need to keep you safe Hinata. That is the only thing that matters to me. Just because I lacked sleep this night doesn't mean that I'll be lacking in anything. Don't forget, I've protected you very well with even less sleep." Naruto calmly pointed out with a small smile on his face.

Hinata frowned a little as she reached up and cupped his cheek against her palm. Honestly, Naruto had to resist the desire to lean against her touch though just stared at her with a calm yet soft gaze. "Hinata, I'm okay. Really, you don't need to worry so much about me. If anything you need to worry about yourself." She just stared at him, as if wanting to fight him more about this but knew that there would be no use in it. Naruto would only counter act it by telling her that it wouldn't matter. He was her protector, her guard and her friend. Nothing else mattered to him other than her safety.

"You still need to see someone about your strength." Hinata suggested.

Okay, she had a point there. Though, who could he trust with something like this? He couldn't go to Hiashi that was obvious. The other guards, there was no way in hell that they could be trusted with something like this. It irritated him that they still thought of him as nothing but a child warrior even though he was still far stronger than them beforehand. Oh wait, he knew one person that could be trusted with this kind of problem. "Think Iruka would be able to help?" asked Naruto with a frown.

"It's possible. He is loyal to father yes, but he is also loyal to me."

Nodding his head, Naruto walked with Hinata toward the dojo that resided near the gardens. Well, maybe he should say Hinata's personal dojo since no one else was allowed to use it other than Naruto himself, or Hinata and Iruka. "Will Iruka even be there though?" asked Naruto with a frown on his face.

"He should be, if not I'll ask a guard to go get him."

"Alright."


Meanwhile.

In a castle far away a man wandered the halls. He had his hand resting against his chin as he tried to think on what he could do. It just seemed that his plan had failed to make sure that he was safe. Even after all these years, his job was not done, he had promised to keep the boy safe and yet, it was starting to disappear. At some point, everyone will start to sense him, and then he'd be in danger.

"What am I to do though? What can I do for him?" He asked himself, not sure if he would get any kind of answer in the first place. All of this was starting to frustrate him to no end. It took everything he had just to make the trip to check on the kid, and he could only do that once a year if that.

He felt like he was failing his promise to his dear friends. A promise, to protect the one thing that mattered more to them than anything else in the whole world. To them, their lives meant nothing, so long as they could keep their child safe.

Stopping dead in his tracks, arms falling to his sides as he let out a soft sigh. Even now, he can still hear their screams as they fought to their last breath. The only thing he could do, was to listen to them and take their child away and to safety. That was the only thing that he could do, and he had. Yet, now that plan was failing. It was starting to fall apart at the seams, when it shouldn't have in the first place. Yet, because it had been such a rush job to be done, it was bound to fail in time.

"I'm a failure." He whispered to himself before rubbing his forehead. Even after all these years, he felt nothing but guilt over what had happened. Yes, he knew that it wasn't his fault but, damn it. There was that thought in the back of his mind, telling him, yelling at him that he could have done something to save them.

Growling, he slammed his fist against the wall, letting out an angry yell as he tried to wipe the memory from his mind. "Damn it, why can't I escape this? Why can't I escape the memories of my failure?" He tightly shut his eyes, not sure what he could do.

"There you are." Came a voice, causing the man to quickly turn around and stare at the man within the shadows. "I have been wondering where you have taken off too." The man stayed in the shadows, yet his golden eyes was the only thing that the other man could see. The look itself though, was enough to make the once angry man back up a bit, trying to keep his wits about him.

"King Ryuu." Said the man, trying to have his voice sound like he gave a shit about the man. Though really, he didn't. This man, was the reason why everything had gone to shit.

"I've heard that you just returned from your… 'trip'." Ryuu said with a narrow of his eyes.

"I do not know what you are talking about sire. I've just been wandering around the halls." He said, hoping that the King didn't know what it was that he had been doing. Damn it, doing this every year and yet the king had known. Yet, for how long though? He backed up a bit, trying to remain calm.

The king just stared at the other man. His gaze almost seeming bored, though it held within the depths of his calculating on what kind of punishment he would deliver. Though, the king had some kind of twisted smile on his face. It seemed as if he was ready to bring out his punishment but was withholding it until he deemed fit. "Tell me, what did you really do? If I remember, I made sure that you could never leave the palace."

"I didn't leave." He retorted, trying to remain calm.

"How did you leave?" he asked again.

"I didn't leave. I had no way to leave the castle King Ryuu." Damn it, the king wasn't going to let this go. There was no way that the king could have caught on to him already. There was a way out of course, it was how he got the boy out of here all those years ago and only the royal family would have any kind of access to it in the first place. Well, them, and himself as he was the most trusted advisor.

Ryuu just glared at the man before him. It seemed that he wasn't going to let that go any time soon. The man knew that he would have to think of another strategy if he was going to come out of this alive. Taking a deep breath, the man calmly said "I don't know what you want me to say King Ryuu, I can't get out. You made sure of that." He had known that the king had tried to have people spy on him for years now, though he had always made sure to lose them in the process.

Though did he still figure out how he got out? No, he doubted that or he would have stopped the man beforehand. Taking a deep breath, the young man calmly said "You don't have any kind of proof that I had managed to get out somehow."

"That is true, but you have out grown your usefulness." With that, he snapped his fingers and that was when the man knew that he was in trouble. "I won't have one of their followers stay alive anymore. Good bye, I'd say that you were a good warrior but really, you never fought for me." Laughed King Ryuu before he started to walk away.

Clenching his hands into tight fists, he watched as the two men made their way toward him. He couldn't see what they looked like as they wore padded armour along with helmets that hid most of their faces from view. He was a top warrior before being held captive so to speak in this hell hole of a castle, but he knew that he would fight his way out if he had too damn it. There would be no way that he would simply allow himself to die here.

He had a mission to complete and he would do whatever it took to complete it.

Growling, he rushed at the men, pulling out a sword as he swung at them. Thank god that the guards here didn't have steel armour, the king was smart but at the same time was a complete idiot. "You won't get away!" shouted one of the guards, making the man narrow his dark eyes at them as he flipped over them and slashed at them with the sword. There was no way that he could keep fighting, at some point the fight will alert the other guards.

Looking over his shoulder, he knew that this may be his only chance before getting caught up in a worse fight. "See ya later." He said before starting to run off. Though the guards didn't let him get far. One of the guards managed to catch up to him and threw him into the wall. Letting out a choked up gasp of pain, he turned around only to scream more as one of the swords went through his ribs. 'Damn it, I have to get out of this somehow…' he thought before letting out a scream of rage…

The only sound that people throughout the castle could hear were the sounds of people screaming. Both of pain and anger.


Naruto and Hinata had made it to the training room. Iruka, a tall man with brown hair pulled back into a pokey ponytail. His tanned skin surrounded dark yet kind eyes as the man stared at his two students. The man had a scar across the bridge of his nose, no one knew how he got it, and no one dared to ask him of the how in fear of their lives.

Iruka is a kind man, no doubt about that. Yet, he was also a powerful warrior, second to Naruto himself. He wore a simple white shirt and black pants and black fabric shoes. He stared at Naruto for a moment with concern on his face. The man could read either of them like an open book. "What's wrong Naruto? Princess Hinata?" Asked Iruka with a frown.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. How was he to explain all of this in the first place? He had no idea, though he knew that he had to do something. "Iruka, can you keep it a secret? Please?" Naruto pleaded, he didn't want anyone to know. Didn't want anyone to know of his new found strength, it scared him to no end. Looking up at Iruka, his eyes showed just how scared of this he was of what was bothering him.

Nodding his head, Iruka calmly said "Alright. I promise that I'll keep this a secret. Now, what's wrong? What has you so bothered?"

"Iruka… while Hinata and I were on that mission I…" Naruto froze for a moment, damn it. Why did this have to be so damn hard in the first place? Shaking his head, the young man calmly said "I seemed to have developed super human strength."

Iruka frowned at that. "But, you've always been strong Naruto." Iruka pointed out.

"That is true but, I wasn't able to stop a giant demon's bare hand with my own!"

"Point taken. Do you know what could have caused this?"

Naruto just shook his head. Honestly, he had no idea what it was that had happened. No idea, what it was that had caused all of this in the first place. It just seemed rather weird to him, the only thing that he can remember was… "Well, I did feel something off about myself before the mission started." Iruka frowned a little more at that. It seemed that even he didn't know what it was that could have caused this to have happened to the blonde. "I don't want Lord Hiashi to know about this. If he knows, he may think I'm some kind of monster or demon or something and… I don't want to be killed because of something I don't know."

"I can understand. He is a rather difficult man. I'm sorry Princess Hinata."

"It's okay Iruka, I know that he is."

Naruto let out a soft sigh as he calmly said "Thank you Iruka, but can you help me though? I need to control this before anyone else finds out." He almost felt like he was closing in on himself, yet trying to sound like it didn't bother him. But really, it terrified him. What the hell was he? Shaking his head, he tried to calm himself as he said "Please Iruka. Please help me?" He almost sounded like a frightened child when he said that, and he wanted to wince at the thought of it.

Iruka crossed his arms as he stared at Naruto. The blonde haired man almost thought that Iruka would slap him or something but instead Iruka's voice caused him to stare in shock. "Naruto I'll help you. You don't need to worry about a thing. I want you both to be here in the morning and we'll practice for a few hours. It could help you curb this new found strength of yours. We can start tomorrow so it gives me time to prepare everything. Until then, just be careful okay?"

Naruto nodded his head. At least he had a plan now, though he couldn't help but frown a little more in deep thought. Turning to Hinata, he asked "Can you wait in the hall for a bit. I want to talk to Iruka about something alone." Hinata looked like she wanted to object but the look on Naruto's face, told her not to argue with him.

"Okay." Hinata said with a soft sigh before walking out of the room and closed the door behind her. Naruto looked over at the door, he couldn't make out any kind of breathing or sudden sounds. There was nothing from the hall and that made him breathe a sigh of relief at that.

Turning to Iruka, Naruto frowned a little as he tried to think of the best way to ask him this. "Iruka, there was one other thing I need to show you. I noticed this when I was changing this morning." That had Iruka interested, what could have changed? "Remember that weird symbol on my stomach? Ya know, the one that everyone was curious about when Hinata had first mentioned it?" At Iruka's nod, Naruto continued. "Well, I did notice a change in it this morning."

"What was it?" asked Iruka with curiosity.

Letting out a soft sigh, Naruto undid the knots that kept the jacket closed before lifting his shirt to show Iruka the symbol on his stomach. And just like when he noticed this morning, there was a flesh coloured crack on one of the markings along the edge of the swirl within the center. "I don't know what could have caused this, only that I noticed it was there this morning."

"Odd, I don't think I've ever seen a mark doing this before. I'll see if I can find anything out about this. If it gets worse let me know okay?" Iruka said, still looking at the seal as he tried to think on what it could be that is causing this. It almost seemed odd that something like this was even on Naruto in the first place. There was no record of this being a birthmark, or that it belonged to another clan. Maybe it was something else, and Iruka knew that he would have to find a way to learn about what this could be.

Putting his shirt back down and tying the knot for his jacket once more, Naruto let out a soft sigh as he asked "Do you have any idea on what it could be though?"

"I have a theory, but I don't want to share it yet until I've been proven it to be correct." Iruka answered with a soft sigh before rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, I think Hinata is tired of waiting for you. Run along, I think Hinata has to go back to the study to look on some things today."

Oh right, Naruto forgot about that. He let out a groan that was the one thing that he hated about his job. Hinata is to study more so she could learn more about the lands and her people. Yet, he knew that he still had to keep her safe no matter what would come his way. It was just the waiting in the silence that he hated. What was she to learn next? How to dance or something? That would be a laugh… 'Unless I could be her dance partner…' He thought with a grin before walking out of the room. May as well get the day over with.