A/N: I received a review from shadeywon08 with two main points. First was that I should get over the introduction and get on with the story (although he said it a lot nicer) and the second was asking if this fic was Saku/Lee or Saku/Kiba. The other pairs are pretty much set now but I've decided to give you all a chance to decide involving Sakura, I can fit it in either way. Just to let you know, I am of the opinion that no-one could still 'love' someone after they knocked you out to run away and stabbed your team-mate through the chest with an assassination technique. So send a review saying who you vote Sakura should be with. Now, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The Heart of the Storm.

Chapter Four: The End of the Beginning

Chapter four: The end of the Beginning

"Ready, go!" Lee leapt back as Kiba and Akamaru shot forwards, splitting up to circle around Tenten and Shikamaru.

"Gatsuga!" It was almost like a battle cry. As the two grey cyclones approached the two ninja prepared to retaliate. Just before they were hit they sprung into action.

Tenten un-sealed a scythe and swung it around, catching Akamaru and flinging him at Kiba, who sensed Akamaru's approach and stopped spinning trying to catch him.

"Kagemane no Jutsu success!" Kiba was caught, but almost as soon as Shikamaru had him he let go, he was just stalling him.

It worked, Akamaru stopped spinning but was still airborne and crashed into Kiba with a resounding thud. Tenten smirked but Shikamaru frowned. "It's not over yet Tenten." The Nara sighed. "Kiba's being troublesome." Both Kiba's vanished in a puff of smoke.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "So they were shadow clones… it's interesting that Kiba gave them both enough chakra to use Gatsuga… He must have a lot more chakra then when we left, huh Hinata-chan?" The indigo haired girl nodded and searched around with her Byakugan.

Shikamaru suddenly spun and tackled Tenten to the ground, moments later a tree trunk soared over them. The two scrambled to get up and looked at where the tree had come from, only to see four Kiba's go up in smoke.

The blond shinobi frowned. "They're not shadow clones, at least, not entirely… something's different."

Hinata spoke up. "It seems he does use shadow clone jutsu, but he uses a weak chakra pill in each one to allow it to do a few moves before dispersing."

The number one hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja chuckled. "So his clones can probably take a few hits too… he didn't show that before because he wanted it to be a surprise."

Hinata frowned, mimicking Naruto's earlier expression. "Hmm… I don't think they can… it seems as if he creates the clone using chakra straight from the pill, so they're not really shadow clones, they're… pill clones I guess."

Sakura gasped. "But that means he can make as many clones as he has pills and not use any of his own chakra… that's incredible! How can he do that?"

The Aburame spoke up. "It is his own Jutsu Haruno-san. He created it to help him defeat Uzumaki-sans clones." He shifted to the side. "But your analysis is slightly inacurate. Each clone does use a small amount of his chakra in order to ensure they have his appearance."

Shikamaru leant over and whispered in Tenten's ear. As the pineapple haired boy outlined his plan they both swept the surrounding area, trying to find Kiba. "So, you got that?" The weapons mistress nodded "Good, then lets go."

The pair ran into the center of the clearing, with Skikamaru leading the way. Kiba lay prone in a tree, watching, wondering what plan Shikamaru had come up with, and what he and Akamaru (who was hiding behind the tree) could do to throw a spanner in the works.

As the two shinobi reached the middle of the field Shikamaru spun and cupped his hands. Tenten stepped on them as he threw her up. "Ninja Art! Ring of Impalement no Jutsu!" She flicked out her scroll and spun it around her as she rose. When she reached the top of her arc she began to spiral around, the scroll circling her as weapons began to rain out into the trees. The 'ring' of weapons began to shrink and the watching ninja glanced at each other. Naruto quickly flipped his sword up into the air and slammed the sheath down hard, creating a rock wall that crumbled when the weapons had passed.

Oh crap! Kiba and Akamaru burst from the tree they'd being hiding in as a mace, an axe and what looked suspiciously like an iron maiden shattered their wooden barrier. The Inuzuka reached into his ninja pouch and flung some chakra pills at Shikamaru. Flicking through a few hand signs and settling on Naruto's signature sign the brown haired boy yelled "Ninja Art! Chakra Pill Clone no Jutsu!"

Five pills became five Kiba's who all shot at the pineapple headed shinobi, dropping on all fours to perform Kiba's signature move, Gatsuga.

Before they had started to spin however they all froze in place. "Tajuu Kagemane no Jutsu. Success." As Tenten landed next to him Shikamaru reached into his jacket and pulled out seven exploding tags. The Kiba's (including Akamaru) who mimicked him, but were Shikamaru pulled out explosives Kiba pulled out a dog bone. "We win huh?" The Kiba clones (and Akamaru) growled and strained against the shadow possession, but couldn't get free.

"I surrender." The Kiba clones vanished, leaving the real Kiba and Akamaru standing there. The Inuzuka threw the bone to Akamaru who easily swallowed the treat whole.

Tenten opened her scroll and with a giant tug all the weapons were lifted up, pulled through the air and re-sealed.

"YOSH! That was a most effective strategy! It clearly showed how brightly your flames of youth burn!"

"Thanks Lee." Shikamaru turned to Tenten.

"You can understand him?"

"Of course, he's my team-mate, and he is copying our sensei… But shouldn't you be able to figure it out?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Huh, it's much too…" He trailed off.

"Troublesome?" Supplied Choji.

"Yeah, and pointless, if he's anything like his sensei when he has something important to say it'll come out normal… I hope."

At (almost) the same time, but not the same place.

While the Konoha 11 were watching Kiba take on the lazy genius and the weapons mistress, Tsunade, grand-daughter of the First Hokage, grand-niece of the Second Hokage, student of the Third Hokage, friend of the Fourth Hokage, herself the Fifth Hokage, was sleeping.

She would have been snoring, but as she was lying back in her chair, gravity conspired with her un-naturally large assets to give her only enough oxygen to keep her alive. It was because of this Shizune was unaware that her mentor was asleep, and when she rushed into the office babbling she assumed she would get a response.

Not again Tsunade! This is definitely Not the time for this! Alright, Plan E! "Hm, what have we here, Tsunade's secret stash of sake?" The blond Hokage woke up, spluttering and leapt over to a filing cabinet. From her position at the doors she could hear the Slug Sannin mumbling about saving her 'precious'.

"Um… Tsunade… There's a message here for you. It's urgent." When Shizune spoke the blond woke up properly, closed the filing cabinet, smoothed out her robe and took the letter. "It's an immediate request for an A-rank mission. Who should we send?"

The Sannin had just finished reading the letter, and was pondering the answer to the same question. "I'm not sure who we can send. We'd need at least Jonin level ninja to deal with this, but all of our Jonin are either already on missions, or have just returned…"

"How many ninja do you need?" Jiraiya's voice interrupted the frantic musings of both women.

"More than we have available… two or three, all Jonin level, and we've only really got Chunin not doing anything at the moment. We're having to use Anbu to do our long range patrols and village defence. We lost almost one-hundred ninja either during the invasion or in the months that followed as other countries 'rouge' ninja tested our defences."

"Well, why not send Hinata and Naruto?" The toad sage offered.

"Did you hear the part that I said Jonin? They may have gotten better but they're still only Genin." Tsunade thought of Naruto as a little brother, or possibly even a son, and here was Jiraiya trying to send him into a situation he couldn't possibly handle, even with Hinata's help.

"You're right, they have gotten stronger, but they've been trained to take out large numbers of hostiles, and they're both easily mid-Jonin level strength. I said that before, if you let them take the Jonin exam they'd cream it!"

"Look, no matter how strong you say they are this mission still needs a few certified Jonin."

"How about Kakashi goes with them? He may not be ready to go on another S-rank mission, but he should be fine on an A-rank, against only a couple of dozen bandits. Besides, Jiraiya-sama's report does seem to indicate that Naruto-otuoto and Hinata-chan can deal with it." Shizune may have thought of Naruto as a brother, but she always thought that Tsunade was a bit too protective of the blond shinobi.

The fifth Hokage sighed. "Fine, Shizune send a messenger to get them."

About one minute later, back at training ground 13.

As the Konoha 11 laughed, the group noticed a messenger approach. "Excuse me. Naruto-sama and Hinata-san?" The two looked up at the messenger. "You are requested at the Hokage's office, you have a two day mission." The man vanished.

"What!? A two day mission! But we only just got back!" The pair stood up and bowed (Hinata bowed and pulled Naruto down with her) to the group. As the pair rose Hinata grabbed Naruto's arm and they shushin'd away.

"Whoa! You see that! They can do Shushin! Dang, I gotta get someone to teach me how to do that." Sometimes Kiba is very easily impressed.

Meanwhile, back at the Hokage's office.

When the two arrived in Tsunade's office they bowed (same as before) and stood at attention. Naruto opened his mouth to speak but 'Harmony' tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced at her and received a look that said, 'You promised me you wouldn't'. He quickly closed his mouth again.

Tsunade jaw dropped. She had been trying to get Naruto to be quite and respectful for what seemed like forever, and here Hinata could do it with a simple glance! It was amazing.

What Naruto said next amazed her even more. "Tsunade-sama, you requested our presence?"

Now Shizune's jaw dropped as well. Jiraiya on the other hand had seen it before and had gotten used to it. "Kid, they've got a mission for the two of you, but since Tsunade-hime doesn't know of your skills, Kakashi is being sent along to evaluate you."

The slug Sannin shook her head to clear it. "Yes, it's an A-rank mission. Between twenty to thirty bandits are holding an entire inn hostage, estimated civilian hostages number at least fifteen. If the bandits demands aren't met within forty-eight hours they're going to start killing hostages. You two will need to take them out before any of the civilians are killed."

"So this is a rescue and destroy mission Tsunade-sama?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, here are your dossiers, meet Kakashi at the front gate in two hours, the inn is about twelve hours travel so bring some soldier pills." The Hokage thought for a moment. "And, don't let Kakashi know it's you, unless you have to. Think of it as a secondary mission objective. Now get going!"

"Right." The two nodded and shushin'd away.

A/N: Okay, now that that's out of the way Naruto and Hinata's first mission is next.

Remember to review and vote for Saku/Kiba or Saku/Lee. You have until the end of this mission to vote. Please review, even if it isn't to vote. I'd like to know what people think of this story, good/bad, did you like the little showcase of fights or should they be longer, Naruto and Hinata too strong? Anything, tell me. Please.

Until next time: The Inn Under Siege.