Hinata's Story

by KlosetAuthor

I was tired of Stories where Naruto goes from not noticing Hinata to cleaning her tonsils in 20 minutes or two paragraphs. So instead of complaining I decided to see if I could do better.

5. Not Too Much to Ask

Hinata's Story: Underneath Your Clothes

Ch 5: Not too much to ask

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Disclaimer: See Chapter 1, and feel free to introduce anyone who charged you to read this story to the back of a woodshed.

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Hanabi was panting heavily while keeping an eye on her opponent. Her cousin Neji, it turned out was far stronger than her. They had been sparring for hours now and he barely showed any sign of fatigue while she was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. Her father occasionally trained her for periods even longer than this, but those sessions had never been as strenuous as this one.

"Neji," her father's voice rang out gruffly.

Hanabi had been training with her cousin for several days now while her father waited for the new training facility to be built. Hanabi remembered waking up from her sleep on the hard wood floor of the family training hall where she had fallen asleep exhausted after that first night of her new training. It had been the scratching sound of the door sliding open that had awoken her. She had lifted her head off the hard floor to see her father's sandals just in front of her face. Other girls might have been embarrassed about people seeing them right after they had just woken up. Hanabi knew her body stunk because of her intense training and thanks to her last mission she hadn't been able to shower in two days. But Hanabi had simply looked up at her father with a smirk on her face. She knew he would be impressed with her.

Without a word being said Hanabi got up and walked toward the nearest wall. Once there, without missing a step she casually began to walk up the wall then walked along the ceiling. Her tangled hair hanging down toward the floor was the only clue that would have told an observer that she was on the ceiling and upside down. She moved as if she had been walking on ceilings all her life.

Once she had nearly walked the entire length of the ceiling she broke into a run and ran down the wall and halfway back across the training area before she broke into cartwheels and back flips. She continued her acrobatics the rest of the way across the room, up the wall and along the ceiling. Three quarters of the way across the ceiling again Hanabi stopped hanging from the ceiling by the palms of her hands and walking on her hands continued the rest of the way across the ceiling and down the wall apparently oblivious to the pull of gravity. Hanabi walked on her hands until she was almost back to her stoic father, who she could tell was having difficulty hiding his smile.

"Impressive," Hiashi had said when his daughter had righted herself with a flip. "Most Impressive, but what else should I expect from you?" Hiashi continued his complementing. "You will be a powerful leader of the clan some day Hanabi..."

Hanabi was then released from the training hall and allowed to bathe and eat. Since that time after her missions were over her cousin Neji would escort her to a secluded place near the Hyuuga mansion where her father supervised her training. He had told them that they would continue to train there until the construction of the new training hall was complete.

Hanabi was quite pleased with herself, but was drawn from her reverie by her father's instructions to Neji.

"Don't let her rest too much!"

Neji obeyed, and promptly began his onslaught against his youngest cousin again. Hanabi-sama he knew was no match for him. He knew that not even her older sister Hinata-sama was capable of matching him in skill or power. He didn't have to fight with all of his strength, so he was no where near as tired as his cousin and now that she was slowing down he was using even less energy than before keeping Hanabi fighting at her maximum. All in all it gave him plenty of time to consider the meaning of pain.

The young Jounin had lived in fear of the Hyuuga cursed seal for most of his life, despite the fact that it had never been used on him before. That is, hadn't until now. A few nights ago he had experienced pain like he had never felt before. Pain that he knew could kill him. But Hiashi hadn't killed him even though Neji wouldn't have blamed him if he had.

Hiashi had summoned him into his sitting room and asked him how he had beaten Hinata in their first Chuunin Exam. Neji didn't know how Hiashi had found out about what he had done, but he knew it was time to face the music. Facing his fear Neji began by telling his uncle about how he had attempted to force Hinata to give up, but had been surprised when after only the slightest bit of encouragement from the peanut gallery she had refused to give up. He then explained about his strategy to close the tenketsu in her arms thereby rendering her powerless. Neji had been mortified when his uncle had actually complemented him on the strategy, but he continued telling him about how Hinata had refused to give up even when she had found out what he had done to her and he had been forced to start to hurt her. Hiashi had even sounded forgiving when he had said he understood. Neji had almost lost the nerve to finish the story, but after apologizing profusely for forgetting himself and his duty he continued on and told Hinata's father how he had near fatally injured her and when she not only wouldn't stay down, but had pittied him he had attempted to murder her.

Neji had finished his story with his face to the ground bowing low in front of the man whose daughter he had nearly murdered. He began to apologize and beg for forgiveness when he heard Hiashi's growl and suddenly his mind was on fire with pain. At first he couldn't think about anything else but the pain. His entire world was pain. He began to feel as if he were outside his own body when the pain stopped just as suddenly as it had started.

Neji didn't remember collapsing, but he had found himself sprawled out on the floor when he had finally completely come back to his senses. He still remembered the menacing sound of his uncle's voice when he had told him that he had best not ever fail in his responsibility to protect the heiress of the Hyuuga clan again. So now at his uncle's instructions Neji was teaching Hanabi the very same technique he had used to defeat her older sister.

---

Hiashi watched his daughter train. Her skills were good, but she was getting sloppy as she got tired. When he was done training her she would not only be able to outlast any chuunin, but she would be able continue to fight effectively when she did get tired. Hiashi didn't know how they were going to do to increase his other child's stamina or why they even thought it would help, but by the time the chuunin exam finals come around he knew that Hanabi would be easily be able to outlast Hinata.

Not that it even mattered. Stamina was important when fighting multiple opponents and Hanabi would need stamina if she was going to survive life as a ninja, but in a one on one fight it was skill and techniques like the one her cousin was teaching her that would determine the outcome. No amount of stamina will allow someone to keep fighting with all of the tenketsus closed and their inner coils damaged.

Perhaps he would teach her how to act tired and sloppy to confuse her opponent and allow her to perform this technique unnoticed more easily. When people see what they expect they seldom question what they see, even when they are presented with proof that what they expected was incorrect.

It was a stroke of brilliance to punish Neji this way. He would never suspect the real reason why he was training Hanabi. Neji believed he was acting in penance for his attempt at Hiashi's oldest child, but in truth he was specifically training Hanabi to defeat that very same child. Neji was a jewel, one of the most talented Hyuuga Hiashi had ever seen and he was going to be sure that he continued to train the boy. He is a valuable asset to the Hyuuga clan, but Hanabi is going to be the heir and she will have to prove that she is the strongest. Hiashi was going to be absolutely certain that Hanabi would become a chuunin on her first attempt of her first year as a ninja. He was also going to see to it that she thoroughly defeat her sister; proving without question that she is the strongest.

---

"Don't you think it's too much to expect my father to change everything now?" Keiko asked her two body guards. They had seemed intent on taking her to see her father since they woke up this morning and were currently herding her to her father's audience chambers.

"No! Of course not…" Sakura began.

"Yes," Hinata said simply and quietly, but somehow her quiet melancholy voice drowned out Sakura's. Sakura was about to begin her rebuttal when Hinata continued. "But it's not too much to ask."

Hinata's sage advice was like a life line to Keiko. Her heart drank it in and her soul finally began to hope. The princess knew that because of the political ramifications of her engagement to that lightning prick there may be nothing that her father could do now. But her heart grasped onto the idea that if she asked that maybe he could do something. She knew that if she asked that would be all that she could do, but her heart clung onto this last chance as if it were her only source of air. The princess began to walk with purpose in her step and with every step she thought of how she would ask her father to alter the engagement. Hinata and Sakura fell behind Keiko-san and had to quicken their stride to keep up as the princess began to think of how she would plead to her father.

Sakura was upset. She had no idea that Hinata was such a drama queen! 'Yes, but it's not too much to ask!' Sakura grumbled to herself. She could have said, 'no, everything will turn out all right!' That's what a girl with a broken heart needs to hear, not some depressing don't get your hopes up speech!

'Well at least she's moving on her own now,' Sakura mussed, 'so it can't have been too bad.' Sakura was becoming quite pleased with herself. She found that she liked this whole love doctor thing. She'd have to offer it as a service when she opened her own practice. Maybe she could even start a Dear Sakura column in the Konoha Chronicles Sunday Edition!

Sakura was still lost in her own plans she began to notice Keiko's foot steps getting both louder and farther away. She looked up and saw Hinata's back shrinking as she started to chase the princess. It took a moment before Sakura started running after them.

'Yes!' the inner Sakura cheered as it stood in front of her Haruno Sakura LD placard. 'Love Patient #1 is finally getting in the spirit. It looks like were going to be able to save this ones love life!'

Sakura was grinning wider than the Cheshire Cat by the time arrived at their destination. Sakura had wanted to barge right in to see the Lord of Fire and set him straight on this whole Engagement Debacle, but Keiko, the ever dutiful and polite daughter that she was, stopped at the door and requested that they be admitted. If it hadn't been for the serious look on Keiko's face Sakura would have bashed in the doorman and then the door when she found out that they would have to wait. Sakura didn't care if they were deliberating over a case of life and death; this was an issue of love! Life and Death would just have to wait!

Just next to the door where the young ladies were waiting, some more patiently than others, stood a life size marble statue of a man. The man depicted in the statue only wore a short robe that hung loosely from one shoulder and showed most of his chest and stomach before it stopped just above his knees. Like most all statues of its type the musculature was sculpted in exquisite detail. Keiko knew the statue was one of her father's favorites, because of the position of the hands which were held out in front of its body. One hand was curled into a fist and buried into the open palm of the other hand which had its fingers extended in a straight line at a 45 degree angle over the fist.

This gesture, her father had always told her, meant peace through strength. He said that true peace could only be achieved through unwavering strength of purpose. People had to be able to live by and be ruled by just principles and only strength and the courage to live and defend those principles brought true peace. Any other peace was peace through fear. And that is the same as captivity.

But Keiko wasn't the one paying attention to the statue, it was Hinata. And when the three girls were left alone in the hall she finally spoke up. "Ano…Do b-boys really have s-stomachs like that?"

Her question drew both of the other girls out of their own reveries. Hinata was staring at the statue with her hands drawn close over her chest, finger tips tapping together slightly. She seemed to have trouble looking at the other two girls and oscillated between looking at the statue and at her feet. Despite that Sakura and Keiko could both tell she was blushing.

"N-never m…" Hinata began.

"S-some do," Keiko replied slightly embarrassed about this line of thought. She remembered seeing the soft bumps in Renji-kun's stomach. He had them all the places the statue did, they were nowhere near as big, but the memory of her accidental discovery still drove her wild. She hoped no one would ask her about it.

"Oh…" Hinata began again.

"Yes, but most aren't that ripped," Sakura began to explain in her best professor voice. Physical therapy was an important part of ninja-medicine after all!

"R-ripped?" Hinata asked questioningly.

"You usually have to train specifically to look like this," Sakura said as she began to walk toward the statue. "You see most people train for some type of activity, usually some sport or profession, line ninja work for example. And their muscles don't get quite as big or have grooves quite this severe between them." Sakura continued to lecture as she lazily moved her finger over the statue's exposed stomach to accent her lecture.

Sakura didn't seem to notice the princess who had now demurely placed her hand over her mouth to hide her reddening cheeks. She did, however notice Hinata's cheeks which seemed to have gotten as red as they could go. Hinata appeared to be trying to stare directly at the ground, but seemed to have trouble preventing herself from stealing glances at the statue.

"You aren't thinking about anyone in particular are you?" Sakura asked in her most conspiratorial voice as the wheels in her head picked up speed. 'Love Patient #1 is doing well, now it's time to start on love patient #2,' Sakura thought to herself. 'But first we'll have to find out who the lucky boy is,' the Inner Sakura said as she put on a double brimmed hat and stuck a pipe in her mouth.

Sakura didn't have long to complain about her inner voice's sudden interest in cosplay before here reverie was interrupted by Hinata's stuttered attempts at a denial. "Well I know Kiba isn't quite that ripped," Sakura drawled out, "but he's got a really firm stomach."

The fire country princess had apparently lived a little more sheltered life that Sakura, because she was completely unprepared for this particular shift in the conversation. She was completely speechless. Her cheeks were positively glowing. And her hand was pressed so firmly over her mouth that if she didn't let go soon she might never be able to kiss a boy again!

Sakura had gotten cold enough that Hinata wasn't quite so speechless however. In fact her curiosity was getting the better of her. She hadn't thought that Sakura was that kind of girl… "How do you…?" Hinata asked quietly and unsteadily.

"Well…I'm a medical ninja," Sakura said caught completely off guard by that question. "Part of my training involved giving physicals," Sakura continued, completely sure she didn't like were this was going.

"What kind of physical?" Hinata asked breathlessly uncertain if she herself wanted to know the answer.

"You don't mean the turn your head and…?" Keiko's face was completely ashen behind her hand now.

Fortunately for Sakura she was saved by the bell this time, or more correctly the doorman who returned to inform them that they could now be admitted. Sakura didn't wait a second before she ushered her two companions into the audience chamber. After all love waits for no woman right?

---

Renjiro had been getting sicker and sicker by the moment since he finished breakfast. Renjiro would never suggest that the food in the Palace of Fire wasn't good; it was the best in the country. Renjiro was quite sure it would have been delicious had he been able to taste it. Besides the Head cooks wife was a matronly woman who swung a mean spoon and had no compunction against using it on minor noble's sons when they needed it.

Renjiro's emotions had been a fluctuating, oscillating mess since he had gotten up this morning. He couldn't seem to make any sense of the swirling maelstrom of emotions that's only constant seemed to be the pain they caused in his stomach. The prince tried to push everything out of his mind as he focused on his preparations. He gave himself a grim look in the mirror before he checked the creases in his clothes for umpteenth time.

"So, you are going to fight for her," Naruto's voice came from behind the primping prince.

Renjiro hadn't heard him come in and was more than a little annoyed at the intrusion. "Oh, I thought you said you didn't understand all this politics stuff," the prince said bitingly.

"I don't," Naruto replied easily, "but I recognize the look in your eyes."

"What look?" Renjiro asked quickly. He had been trained not to give away his emotions on his face since he was a child. The ability to hide your emotions was vital in politics. Your opponents couldn't be allowed to see you fears or your intentions. He was in bad shape is some ninja with no political training could read his emotions.

"The look of someone determined not to loose," Naruto replied. "You've had the look of a kicked dog since we left Sukuro City. It's good to see the Renjiro I met in the forest again."

Not knowing what to say at that, Renjiro decided to stick with irritation. "Was there a reason you interrupted me?" the young lord asked with a little less bite than before.

"Yah," Naruto said casually. "Some guy came to say that it was time for us to go see Toshiro-ji-san."

Renjiro still had a hard time dealing with how casually Naruto spoke about the Lord of Fire. But it did remind him about something important. "Naruto this is my fight, I expect you to stay out of it," Renjiro said forcefully. "Don't speak unless spoken too and say as little as possible. You said yourself that you don't understand politics, so I need you to stay out of it. Can you do that?"

"Sure," Naruto said frowning slightly.

---

The audience chamber they were admitted into was immense. The vaulted ceiling was easily over three stories high and was supported by a forest of stone pillars. The room was lit by the nearly floor to ceiling windows on two sides. One could easily forget that they were inside while they were in this room.

The doorman announced Renjiro's presence by yelling loudly into the room leaving Naruto's ears ringing. Naruto and Renjiro began walking down the narrow carped leading to the thrones on the other side of the enormous room as the doorman began to swing the iron double doors closed behind them. They had walled three quarters of the way across the room before the Lord of Fire bellowed out his friendly greeting.

"Renji-kun!" the Lord of Fire yelled jovially. "It's good to see you. I trust Naruto-kun has been taking good care of you." The lord of fire gradually decreased the volume of his voice as the two boys approached where he sat.

The Fire Throne was made of solid gold, padded with red velvet and garnished with rubies. When the light from the windows hit it just right it made the throne and the Lord of Fire's own Red and gold ceremonial robes appear to be made of liquid fire.

"What could I possibly need to be protected from in you home my lord?" Renjiro asked rhetorically before he bowed low to his liege lord.

Naruto's jerked upright in the middle of his bow when he heard Renjiro's remark. "What do you…" Naruto asked incredulously before he was stopped by the most vicious glare he had ever seen on Renjiro's face. 'My Fight,' Renjiro mouthed to him before becoming all smiles again and turning back to the Lord of Fire.

"Well fine, see if I save you from any more cloud pricks," Naruto muttered quietly under his breath. Disgusted he leaned back against one of the stone pillars and crossed his arms across his chest moodily. He hated all that political garbage about pretending things didn't happen even though everybody knew that they did. If it hadn't been for that then those cloud punks would never have been able to get away with trying to steal Hinata.

---

Ketsuma Yukio was pleased with himself for having the foresight to keep track of that gutter trash Sukuro boy's actions. There was no way he was going to allow that back-wood prince to meet with the Lord of Fire alone no matter what Gyaku said. As soon as he'd heard about it Yukio had grabbed one of his tame ninja and left to interrupt it.

Threaten him? Attack him in his own room? Ketsuma Yukio would never do something so unrefined as that. What proof did that slandering coward have? Just the testimony of some low class ninja that was obviously in league with him. Yukio hadn't gone anywhere near that liar, Renjiro's room last night and he had dozens of servants and body guards to attest to that very fact. When Yukio was done decrying this outrage, he'd see to it that the annoying Sutra-brat was sent back home where he couldn't interfere with the plans of his betters.

The doorman hadn't wanted to let them through, even when Yukio had demanded entrance as the Lord of Fire's son-in-law. The bald man had been completely calm when he'd told them that the Lord of Fire was busy and couldn't see them. And he'd remained calm until Yukio had simply barged past him and pushed the doors open himself. Jinsha had silenced him easily enough however. He didn't leave a mark on the guard, but the man would probably never forget the feel of his bladed claws caressing his cheek as they slid underneath his chin.

Then entered unheralded and began to walk toward the throne. Yukio grinned to himself. Everything was going according to plan. He'd teach that insignificant underling to lie about him!

---

Naruto was the first to hear footsteps approaching. Renji and Toshiro-ji-san had just finished their pleasantries and were about to get to the point of their audience. Naruto recognized the scrawny blond guy in front. He was the cloud prick from last night. He was traveling with a different body guard this time. This one wore a dark scraggy cloak over a grey chest plate with shoulder plates and black and silver trim. Underneath the hood of his cloak he was wearing a cloth mask that covered his whole face and had angular blue markings where his eyes and mouth were. The most notable feature in Naruto's mind took him a minute to see. Underneath the Cloak Naruto was able to make out that the ninja was wearing very large metal gauntlets with blades along the fingers. Naruto wasn't going to shake hands with this guy anytime soon.

"Ah, Yukio-san, what an unexpected pleasure!" the Lord of Fire yelled out jovially. Renjiro would not have been pleased by any interruption, and especially not this one. But he smiled and bore it just like he knew he had to.

"Thank you Toshiro-sama," Yukio replied grinning widely.

"You remember Renjiro-san?" the Lord of Fire asked his soon to be son-in-law.

"Ah yes he joined us for dinner last night while his ninja friend told us those tall tales," the cloud prince said grinning. "We haven't had the opportunity to speak yet."

"What…?" Naruto began to shout before Renjiro glared at him again. Huffing to himself, Naruto leaned back against the pillar again clearly unhappy.

Satsu Jinsha watched his counterpart's antics. The ninja boy was clearly out of his depth here. The cloaked ninja didn't know what Gyaku saw in the kid, but he clearly wasn't powerful enough to get in the way of their plans.

"Well Renjiro-san had something important to speak to me about," the fire kingdom's ruler informed the cloud prince. "What was it you wished to speak to me about, Renjiro-san?" the ruler asked as he turned to face his vassal.

"Actually I'd like to speak to you about it in private," Renjiro replied simply.

"Surely it's not something about our young prince from the Kingdom of Lightning is it?" the Lord of Fire asked before Yukio could say anything.

"No, it's about your daughter my lord," Renjiro replied just as quickly.

Yukio didn't know what to do. Things weren't going the way he anticipated. Thinking quickly Yukio realized what the fool must be trying. If Renjiro could suggest that the Lord of Fire's daughter had been dishonored or was unworthy than he be expected to let the engagement slide and the powers that be would find another way to cement the peace less advantageous to him. But not if he played it right Yukio thought his grin returning for a moment.

"If you've defiled my fiancé…?" Yukio yelled out, but was interrupted by the sudden jerk of the young nobleman's back and the slow turn of his head toward the prince from Lightning country.

There was an ominous moment of silence as Renjiro turned the rest of his body to face his hated rival. Finally he allowed himself to show all of his anger and hatred toward the prince. His eyes almost glowed with murderous intent. "If you ever question Keiko-sama's virtue in front of me again, I'll emasculate you and strangle you with your own manhood." Renjiro's threat came through clenched teeth and even took Yukio's cloaked bodyguard aback.

It took a moment for anyone to respond. "How dare you…!" Yukio began

"You'll have to excuse Renjiro-san," the Lord of Fire interrupted the outraged prince. "He's been friends with Keiko-chan since they were both children. I would expect no less from him than to defend her honor so boldly. Perhaps you should leave us while we discuss this matter privately."

"No, I insist on being here to hear whatever slander this man has against my fiancé," Yukio said boldly.

"Insist?" the Lord of fire asked, clearly unhappy.

"Keiko-san is not here to defend herself, and I will not allow her to be slandered without someone to defend her honor in front of her father!" Yukio said loudly.

"Very well," the Lord of Fire sighed out still not very happy. "What do you have to tell us about Keiko-chan?" he asked Renjiro.

Renjiro didn't want to plead his case in front of that Lightning Country scum-bag. He knew that now that he was here his chances of success had dropped significantly. But he also knew that he would not get another chance, so he prepared to make is case.

"My Lord, Keiko-chan and I have been in love for some time now…" Renjiro began.

"What? You say such a thing without Keiko-san here to defend herself?" Yukio yelled out but was stopped when he saw the Lord of Fire raise his hand to silence him. He was not pleased, but knew that he would have to be silent for now.

"We had planned for me to ask for her hand on her eighteenth birthday," Renjiro continued.

"Why do you tell me this now?" the Lord of Fire asked.

"I have not been privy to the talks with the Lightning Country so I cannot tell you what you should do," Renjiro began.

"That's right you haven't!" Yukio yelled again before being silenced by the Lord of Fire's hand.

"But I would do anything for your daughter's hand and the privilege of being able to spend the rest of my life making her happy," Renjiro replied bowing his head.

"Perhaps you'd best make her happy by leaving her alone," Yukio spoke up again.

"You've both come and spoken to me about this," the Fire Lord began, ignoring Yukio's last statement. "But what am I supposed to do, have the two of you fight for her hand in a duel?"

"Sure," Yukio yelled out, "why not?"

Everyone present looked at the Lightning country prince as if he'd grown another head. The Lord of Fire clearly hadn't meant to suggest that a duel would be an acceptable option.

"I'm always up for a bit of excitement," Yukio said as if to explain himself. "And if a duel is the only way to win your daughters hand, then I'm all for it."

"Are you sure you want to duel over this Yukio-san?" the Lord of Fire asked hesitantly.

Smiling as if Christmas had come early Yukio replied without hesitation. "Yes, but there will be no cheating," he said while turning to face the blond ninja that was still resting against the pillar. "The first person to get caught using a ninja forfeits."

"Renjiro-san?" the Fire Lord said questioningly, hoping to find that one of them had at least a shred of reason left in them.

"My Lord, I said I'd do anything for your daughter and I meant it," Renjiro replied. "Those terms are acceptable to me."

"Well then, all that's left is to determine the weapons," Yukio said happily before the Lord of fire could say anything. "Personally I've always had a taste for knives."

"Well since you are issuing the challenge, Renjiro will choose the weapon," the Lord of Fire replied.

Yukio wasn't pleased that he was considered the one issuing the challenge, but it didn't matter. Once this duel was over, Sutra Renjiro would be dead and the Kingdom of Fire would be his. And once he had that eventually the Kingdom of Lightning would follow. And once he ruled the two most powerful countries in the world, the rest of the world would soon bow to him.

"Well I'm a bare knuckles kind of guy," Renjiro replied.

"What, someone of my standing can't be seen fighting like a barbarian!" Yukio yelled back incredulously.

"The love of a woman should be fought for with heart, not with steel," Renjiro replied.

"But fighting to the death bare handed is so…"

"You won't be fighting to the death," Naruto chimed in, speaking a full sentence for the first time since he'd entered the chamber. "You'll be fighting to the last man standing; winner by knockout."

"Naruto-kun!" the Fire Lord exclaimed

"Don't worry," Naruto said standing up straight, giving the Lord of Fire a thumbs up. "The one that loves your daughter the most will be the winner." Naruto's grin was contagious. Renjiro shared it and even the Lord of Fire had to stop himself from smiling.

Yukio was grinning for a somewhat different reason. "When will this duel be held?" he asked.

"That is up to you," the Lord of Fire said resigned.

"Excellent, then we will fight at sunrise tomorrow. My subordinates will find a spot and inform you where it will be." And with that Ketsuma Yukio turned on his heel and left the way he had came, his cloaked bodyguard following behind.

"Well, that went well," Naruto said after the two had left.

---

Yukio was quite pleased with himself as he returned to his chambers. He'd managed to find a way to both ensure his claim to the Lord of Fire's daughter and eliminate that infuriating Renjiro boy. He knew Gyaku would be mad, but he could let the traitor be mad as long as he still followed orders.

The Lightning Prince had barely gotten through the door to the sitting room in his chambers when it was slammed violently behind him and he suddenly found himself face to face with a man with completely jet black eyes. Then without warning the glaring face that was almost touching his own jerked back a foot and a half and began to yell at him.

"I told you that the Sutra brat was too late to do anything!" Gyaku yelled furiously at his benefactor's son, his eyes finally reverting back to their normal color. "You should have just let him speak to the Lord of Fire, he couldn't have done anything!"

While he had been prepared to face his insubordinate underling, Gyaku's display had been more than even Ketsuma Yukio could ignore and the young lord had found himself flinching back from the angry ninja. But it hadn't taken long for Yukio to recover and by the time the ninja could finish his tirade the prince was laughing at him.

Using the ninja's surprise at being laughed at Yukio began to lecture his subordinate. "If I hadn't have gone then I wouldn't have been able to find a way to both guarantee my claim to this pathetic country and dispose of that arrogant Sutra boy."

Suddenly it was Gyaku who was laughing at the prince. "Do you really think you can kill that Sutra boy with your bare hands? For once that loudmouthed liar was right, the one that loves the girl the most will win. That backwater nobleman's son will beat you down."

"How could you possibly know about the fight or what that lying leaf ninja said?" Yukio asked his surprise evident in his voice.

"Have you forgotten who I am?" Gyaku asked, his eyes flashing back to the color of midnight for a moment. "Did you think when I found you were gone, I wouldn't look for you. I can see every inch of this castle. I watched you making a fool out of yourself in front of the Lord of Fire!"

"Well that's not important," Yukio said waving the ninja's comment aside as he walked toward a couch. "Have you forgotten who I am?" the prince asked as menacingly as he could before sitting down. "I have no intention of fighting that boy."

"Than why did you make the challenge?" Jinsha, who had been quiet up until now asked.

"Don't any of you understand anything?" Yukio asked tiredly. "No one in my position would ever risk himself in a fight, that's what I have all of you for."

"Then why did you specifically specify that using ninja was forbidden?" Gyaku asked angrily.

"That's the beauty of the whole situation," Yukio said grinning. "If someone as insignificant as that fool Renjiro were to break his word to someone as important as me and cheat, he'll be thoroughly punished. But if I break my word or cheat against that fool, he'll be punished for slandering me." Yukio couldn't contain his laughter while Gyaku glared daggers at him. "You are ninja? You can use an illusion to appear to be me can't you?"

"Yes," Gyaku said through clenched teeth.

"Then there shouldn't be a problem," Yukio said dismissively. "I need one of you to find a suitable spot for this fight and notify the Lord of Fire. You may go now."

Gyaku could tolerate the dismissal. He expected to be treated like that by the people he worked for. It didn't bother him. He could even tolerate working for an idiot as long as that idiot didn't get in his way. But Lord Ketsuma's idiot son was not only jeopardizing his father's plans, but Gyaku's revenge. He'd better get a chance to kill some of those murdering leaf ninja if he was going to have to put up with this fool!

---

"Renjiro, You Idiot!" Keiko yelled as she barged into one of the fire palace's stables startling a couple of the stable hands.

Keiko had found out about the duel from her mother around noon. She had been looking for her father, whom her mother had told her was inspecting the area where Renji-kun and that Cloud prick were going to fight over her! She had stormed out of the room immediately, intent on giving Renjiro a piece of her mind.

It had taken her nearly an hour of fruitless searching before she decided to stop combing the palace and utilize the talents of the two ninja that had been following her. It had only taken Hinata a few minutes of searching to find him.

Despite the fact that only Hinata knew where they were going the two leaf kunoichi had a hard time keeping up with the impatient princess. She had to wait for her two body guards to catch up to tell her which stable Renjiro was in, but before her two body guards could stop Keiko started moving again. She pushed open the large wooden double doors to the stable and shouted before she even looked in.

A couple of stable hands near the door dropped what they were holding. A young woman in the loft dropped a bale of hay on the man below her. Completely ignoring them Keiko zeroed in on her target and stomped toward him. Renjiro was standing in front of a straw dummy held up by a pole. The top of its head seemed to resemble Yukio's hair style. Stomping toward him, and completely oblivious to the stares of the stable hands, Keiko began her rant.

"You fool, you're ruining everything!" the irate princess yelled as she finally got within speaking distance. "I refuse to be the prize of some back-alley boxing match." The princess was now leaning forward and gesturing frantically.

Sakura who had run in behind the princess couldn't contain herself. "But he's fighting for you! It's romantic. I wish…"

"Romantic, to be treated like an object!" Keiko yelled back at Sakura. "And you," she yelled turning back to face the original object of her consternation. "What were you thinking?"

"But I…" Renjiro began shakily before he was silenced by another scream from the woman he loved.

"Did it ever occur to you that I might actually want to get married?"

"To that prick?" Renjiro and Naruto both yelled out in shock

"He has his good points," Keiko said smoothly if perhaps a little uncertainly.

"Name One," Renjiro and Naruto demanded in unison.

"His…" Keiko began, but paused trying to think of one. "He...Once he….."

"You can't lie to me Keiko-chan, I've known you too long," Renjiro said softly. "Your father told us that you had talked to him," the young lover continued as he took a step closer to the woman he adored.

"But you could get killed," Keiko said bursting into tears as she lunged forward and wrapper her hands around him.

"It's just a fist fight, it's not to the death," he spoke softly into her ear.

"Don't worry. The one that loves you the most will win this fight," Naruto said boldly as he gave the sobbing princess a thumbs up and a broad grin.

"Yeah!" Sakura agreed loudly and began to shake her fist in the air. 'That's what a girl needs to hear,' Sakura thought.

Hinata found herself feeling uncomfortable talking about this sort of thing in front of Naruto. Blushing she looked away from the princess who was still in Renjiro's arms and placed her hands in front of her chest. Steeling the occasional glance at Naruto, she remained silent throughout the whole exchange.

"But this isn't some fairy tail children's story," Keiko began as she pulled back from Renjiro's embrace. "Love doesn't always triumph, just because."

"It will this time," Renjiro replied softly, "I promise."

"But Ketsuma-san isn't going to play fair, he's going to try and cheat," Keiko said grasping Renji-kun's shirt sleeves and looking desperately into his eyes.

"I won't be playing," Renjiro replied cockily.

"He's going to try and kill you," Keiko said forcefully. She gripped his shirt so tightly that she almost ripped it.

"That's what he'll be there for," Renjiro said gesturing toward Naruto with his chin. "We won't let him cheat and no one is going to die tomorrow," Renjiro said trying to comfort his princess. "Everything will be all right, I Promise," he said as he squeezed her to his chest briefly, but Keiko wouldn't let go.

They stood their like that for several moments before Keiko finally released her Renji-kun and took a step back. Slowly turning toward Naruto she spoke again. "If anything happens to Renji-kun, I will never forgive you," she warned before turning to walk away.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure everything turns out all right," Naruto said loudly, drowning out the sound of the princess trying to stifle her tears as she left.

Sakura and Hinata followed the princess without a word and almost as suddenly as they had appeared the girls were gone leaving Naruto and Renjiro alone with the stable hands again. They stood there for a moment as everything sunk in before Naruto called the love struck prince back to the dummy.

"This is the guy that's trying to take her away from you, are you going to let him do that?" Naruto asked loudly.

"No!" Renji yelled as he punched the straw dummy in the face.

"Is that all you've got…."

---

Keiko spent all the rest of that day in her chambers crying with two ninja trying to comfort her. Hinata tried to convince her that if Naruto-kun said he would take care of it Renjiro would be fine, but Keiko knew that the shy girl was biased. In the end both girls had promised the princess that they'd make sure that the cloud S.O.B. didn't cheat and didn't hurt Renjiro. So she had allowed herself to appear mollified and had cried herself to sleep silently after they had left.

So now she found herself standing outside in the damp predawn cold. The grass was damp with dew making her feet wet. She felt she owed it to Renji-kun to be strong. She'd been doing her best not to cry since she had left her room. She shivered not only from the cold air that turned her breath into a cloudy mist.

She stood on a beautiful green hill between two of the stone buildings that made up the palace. Behind her was one of the side entrances to the palace and below her was the small grass area where two men would soon be beating each other to death over her. Beyond that was a forest. Her father standing beside her with his friend the old ninja did nothing to sooth her nervousness. Not even the pleasant smell of the woods or the pleasant chirping of the birds soothed her; not with the knowledge that the man she loved might soon be dead hanging over her heart.

The doors to the buildings where the boys were preparing had been removed and replaced with hanging curtains that reached all the way to the ground. The princess watched them, intently waiting for any sign of the day's combatants emerging. She ignored the sounds of the small crowd of spectators that had begun to form, both hoping and fearing that they indicated that the two princes would soon be emerging.

The blond cloud prince was the first to exit. He was followed by his second, his tall dark body guard who was still wearing his ratty cloak. The prince was dressed in the simplest clothing she'd ever seen him in, but she could tell that he was still wearing clothes that he felt fit his station. His black leather boots nearly came up to his knees and were shined to perfection. His brown leather pants were tight, but his white silk shirt was loose. Keiko didn't know what to make of it. Normally when she saw him he seemed slimy, but this morning he seemed to dripping with dreadfulness. The presence he exuded terrified her and it was all the princess could do to keep from bursting into tears at the sight of him.

---

Renjiro had known that he wouldn't be able to eat when he had woken up before the sun that morning. Despite that Naruto had managed to force him to eat two small bowls of rice before the fight to make sure he had enough strength to fight. Then they had gone to the appointed place and gotten ready. Some stretches and a few punches and kicks against a straw filled bag to review proper form were all the worm up they did.

Naruto had told him that the first attack a ninja always used was against the mind. So they began their psychological warfare. It amounted to having Naruto peek out the curtain to make sure that they waited to come out until after the stuck up cloud prince did so they could make him wait. Renjiro wondered if all the waiting wasn't affecting him more that it would that punk Yukio.

Finally Naruto announced that the cloud prince was coming out. He had needed Naruto to physically restrain him from running out to start pummeling the stuck up lightning jerk. Now that the opponent was on the field Naruto finally decided to start his pep talk about how Renjiro was going to be able to walk over this guy and to remember what he was fighting for and to most importantly to just let him have it.

After Naruto finished with the speech he'd slapped together he finally let Renjiro out to face the prince, who he said should now be finished stewing.

The air was cold outside and Renjiro was unable to suppress a shiver as he stepped into it. Naruto had provided Renjiro with some baggy but very sturdy black pants, which he now wore with a cloth belt wrapped around his waist three times and some cloth wraps on his feet. But Naruto had convinced him to not wear a shirt. "You have a better physique that that cloud pansy, so if you show it off he'll know that you're stronger than him." More psychological warfare Naruto had claimed at first, but he also said Keiko would like it.

Renjiro was mostly embarrassed as he took his place on the field followed by Naruto who acted as his second. But the second he saw his opponent his embarrassment seemed to melt away as nervousness settled in the base of his stomach. He seemed to get more nervous with every step until he heard a sighing sound to his left and looked on top of the hill and saw her. Seeing Keiko-chan he fortified himself with the words Naruto had said about loosing her and finished walking toward his opponent with a grim resolve.

There was a brief staring match as they stopped and faced each other. After a few seconds Naruto locked eyes with the cloud prince's bodyguard and tilted his head toward the hill everyone was watching from. After the guard grinned and nodded they both walked away from the fighters and climbed the hill to stand with the other spectators. Through all of that they never completely took their eyes off of each other until they were both on the hill and satisfied the other would be unable to interfere. They were both wrong.

The Lord of fire then said a few words no one paid any attention to and a silk handkerchief fluttered down from the top of the hill and landed unnoticed two thirds of the way down the hill.

Rather than suddenly rush each other the two combatants stood immobile as if oblivious to the piece of silk or anything else around them. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity to Keiko's worried heart.

Renjiro's opponent was the first to move. He sauntered gracefully forward. He hunched forward and raised his arms into a halfway defensive stance. Renjiro couldn't shake the image of a stalking jungle cat.

"You should have known better than to defy you betters," Renjiro heard his rival say. Somehow he found it difficult to focus on him. "I've finally got you right where I've wanted you. I'm not going to let you walk out of here…"

Keiko was panicking. That Lightning scum bag was going to hit her Renji-kun and he didn't even have his hands up to fight back.

"Do you really think he's going to be good to Keiko?" Naruto yelled out to the entranced prince who didn't seem to notice his enemy's fist cocked back over his head. "Are you going to let him…?"

Drawn back to reality Renjiro finally noticed the hay-maker that was about to be sent his way. Enraged by the thought of how Yukio might treat Keiko-chan he ignored the incoming blow and threw a punch for all he was worth.

Renjiro connected just before his opponents blow knocked him to the ground. Renjiro was surprised. His foe not only appeared unfazed by the exchange of blows, but stepped back and let him stand back up.

"I warned you!" His antagonist's scream was the only warning Renjiro received before being on the receiving end of a barrage of vicious blows. Knocked back by the rapid punches Renjiro began to realize how hopeless his situation was. He heard yelling, but was unable to make it out. 'It was probably that idiot Naruto,' Renjiro thought, 'He doesn't know when it's over.'

"I told you I wouldn't let you leave this place alive," Renjiro heard his adversary tell him. He stood helpless as he watched his opponent's hand grab for his throat. It seemed like it was in slow motion. Renjiro closed his eyes waiting for the end to come. But instead he heard the sound of two objects imbedding themselves in the grass in front of him.

Renjiro opened his eyes to see his opponent scrambling back away from him. He was confused for a split second before a girl wearing a jacket landed in front him. He had to shake his head clear of the cobwebs before he remembered who she was.

"What is the meaning of this?" Gyaku yelled in the Lord of Fire's ear.

Hinata appeared completely oblivious to the bodyguard's angry voice. Bending her knees to absorb her landing, Hinata sprung toward Renjiro's hapless opponent as soon as her downward momentum was stopped. Her foe barely had enough time to avoid her deadly palm strike.

"Your ninja have clearly interfered," Gyaku continued yelling.

"Hinata what are you…?" Sakura yelled before she stopped and bit her lip.

Throughout the yelling Hinata didn't let up. When her palm strike hit nothing but air she allowed her body to continue around in a circle. She bent her forward knee and whipped her other leg out and around in an attempt to sweep her adversaries legs out from under him.

Her foe jumped back over her leg and rolled across one shoulder back toward where Renjiro stood transfixed by shock. He came back up from his roll facing Hinata just in time to see her charging back at him with a palm strike aimed straight for his nose. Desperately lunging backward he hit the ground and rolled backward this time.

"This fight is over, call her off or I'll…" Gyaku yelled out, but stopped himself when he saw Sakura's body flying through the air toward the curtain that led to the dressing room he had come out of.

Back below the hill Renjiro had jumped to the side to avoid his adversary who took another jump back after he came up from his backward roll. Hinata continued to charge unrelentingly and when she got close she sent her left hand toward her enemy's shoulder forcing him to dodge to her inside, back toward the hill and away from where Renjiro had jumped to.

Finally seeing his chance, Hinata's opponent dodged to the inside of her palm strike and swung a dizzying punch toward the wisp of a girl's head. Without so much as a blink Hinata intercepted the blow with her forearm and sent her left arm back at her adversary in a chakra filled slap to his kidney.

The blow sent spasms down the man's leg before it collapsed under him along with the henge /illusion/ he was using. The gasps from the crowd on the hill were drowned out by Sakura's sudden yell. "Look what I found!" Sakura cried out as she came through the curtain dragging a struggling Ketsuma Yukio out by his neck. She stood there with a pleased look on her face and her arms locked around the Cloud Prince's neck like a professional wrestler.

Hinata didn't look away from her opponent, but with the byakugan she didn't have to. The fear user was dressed differently than when she'd last saw him. His armor was gone and he no longer looked the part of an old samurai. Now he looked every bit the part of a ninja, complete with cloud hitai-ate /forehead protector/.

"What is the meaning of this?" the illusionist Kyoufu Hiroshi demanded from the ground. "You can't trick us with an illusion you leaf wench!"

"What are you talking about, I'm the real Lord Ketsuma Yukio you traitor," the boy Sakura held in a headlock yelled at the ninja.

"How dare you accuse me of cheating you little…?" Hiroshi yelled with as much indignation as he could muster before Sakura's prisoner interrupted.

"Shut up you idiot and get this hairy ninja slut off of…!" Yukio yelled out before his voice was drowned out by Sakura's thunderously loud scream.

"What?" Sakura bellowed at the top of her lungs. Her cry sounded more like the roar of a lion than a woman. It was terrifyingly loud, but somehow it was drowned out by the short silence that followed. Not even the birds dared to make a sound

Before Yukio could discover the tender mercies of a woman scorned Sakura was forced to jump away from him as the final member of his bodyguard swooped down from the top of the building. Unable to completely get away in time one of Jinsha's clawed hands cut her cheek.

Gyaku's eyes suddenly turned jet black and a shadowy figure of himself seemed to extend out of his body at impossible speeds and wrap its arms around the princess. A moment later his body was jerked along the path the shadow had taken. Before anyone realized what was going on he had his arms around the princess and had thrown a large smoke bomb onto the ground.

"Which way did he go?" Sakura yelled when the smoke cleared and the creepy eyed ninja was nowhere to be seen.

"That way!" one of Naruto's shadow clones yelled from the roof before it disappeared. It had been pointing over the rooftops into the forest.

"Let's go!" Naruto yelled before he ran down the hill toward his teammates. With a cheer from the Inner Sakura she turned to run ahead. She didn't make it two strides before she had to jump back to keep from hitting the ninja that had stayed behind.

The golden eyed ninja, Kyoufu Hiroshi, enjoyed the look of surprise on the girl ninja's face as she jumped back away from him. Surprise was one step away from fear, and he enjoyed being feared. He may not have been from the Doushi clan, that used hallucinogens and drugs as weapons, but he knew he was fear's one and only true master.

As a boy he'd always been the one that was afraid. Spiders, bugs, snakes, and lizards had all terrified him. Even the girls laughed at his fear of heights. He had always been looked down on by everyone when he was younger. Everyone told him that a crybaby, scaredy cat like him could never be a ninja. Everyone had laughed at him except his mother.

When she died he had hated himself for needing someone so badly. He swore that he would never need someone to stop his fear again. Instead he would be the one that everyone feared. To that end he used the basics of genjutsu that he'd been taught to create his first fear jutsu. Fear would no longer be his enemy, but it would be his tool, his weapon, his ally.

And ever since he'd used that first jutsu to frighten children, he had been hooked on the feelings of power it gave him. By the time he'd graduated from the academy, even his teachers feared him. Remembering his days frightening people in the academy and the look of surprise on all of these child ninja's faces, Hiroshi couldn't help himself. He laughed insanely in anticipation of these three's looks of terror.

"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere," the fear master said still chuckling. The surprise appearance and the laughter were all a part of the spell he was weaving; the Full Reikon Isukumi /Soul of Paralyzing Terror/. He was proud of that jutsu; it was his artistic masterpiece. And like all true art it had to be skillfully crafted. And it was as only as powerful as the effort the caster put into creating it. They had escaped from the simple painting he'd created for them before, but this time he would sculpt his ultimate masterpiece. "I wasn't able to use my power before and I've been getting a little frustrated waiting to hear your screams," he chuckled out before a loud gust of wind drowned out the sound of his laughter.

Sakura gritted her teeth. Somehow she could feel an almost palpable darkness emanating from the cloud ninja. The only light she could see was coming from his almost glowing gold eyes. Even the sun felt dimmed by the crushing darkness.

Hinata didn't dare to look down as she felt something brush against her legs, nor could she scratch the back her neck despite feeling the itchy feeling of bugs walking on it. Looking at Sakura, it appeared that shivering was the only motion her teammate could make until she reached up and felt the gouge in her cheek.

"Hinata," she latched onto the sound of his voice like a life line. "Can you take care of this guy?" Hinata could hear the concern in his approaching voice and it gave her power.

"Yes," she said warmly before all traces of kindness left her appearance. She fixed her opponent with a firm look and refocused the chakra in her eyes accenting the veins around her now completely white eyes.

"Let's go Sakura-chan," Naruto yelled excitedly as he bound past Hinata. "Catch up to us when you're done Hinata!"

"Not so fast!" Hiroshi yelled trying to move in front of the fleeing ninja. He stopped when Hinata's guttural roar announced her charge.

Hinata thrust her left palm toward the enemy ninja so her left arm would be between her enemy and her teammates. Remembering the way the female ninja was able to easily turn her motion into spins the fear master stepped back away from Hinata, making sure to stay within striking distance on her right side. He timed a punch to hit her when she would be the most off balance trying to turn to face him. He didn't anticipate the young Hyuuga stepping through with her right foot and sending her left foot around in a wide crescent kick at his chest.

Hinata's foot connected, but not before the golden eyed ninja's fist found its mark on her shoulder knocking her down. Hiroshi rubbed his shoulder momentarily as he jumped away from Hinata who had wasted no time springing back to her feet.

Hiroshi formed five quick seals as Hinata began to charge him. "Katsugan Isukumi no Jutsu/Piercing Eye of Paralyzing Terror/" Hiroshi yelled as he leaned forward to stare straight into the approaching ninja's eyes. Hinata stopped her charge with a jolt as she relived all of the most terrifying experiences of her life.

Katsugan Isukumi is a contest of wills. With it Hiroshi forced his victims to not only relive their most terrifying memories, but it also forced them to live through the most terrible things they could imagine. If their will was not strong enough to overcome his, the terror would destroy them. If they were strong they might end up in a coma, but if not they would die. Sometimes his victim's heart would explode, sometimes it would just stop other times their lungs would be paralyzed and they would die of asphyxiation. The master of fear didn't know which he enjoyed watching the most.

Barely able to perceive the outside world Hinata was reliving the most terrible moments of her life. She found herself on the ground with her father yelling at her. Somehow at the same time she was watching Naruto asking Sakura out on a date. And Neji was telling her to quit, because she could never become stronger. She stood at the mouth of an alley watching her own villagers beating Naruto while she was too scared to do anything to help. And even worse she saw Naruto go through all of the most terrible things she had ever imagined could happen to him while he was away while she felt the brand of the Hyuuga cursed seal being burned inter her forehead. Then she saw Hiroshi's samurai sword swinging down toward Naruto's head. Finally she saw what she feared most, what haunted her nightmares, Naruto's back as he left her behind.

"No!" Hinata yelled as she restarted her charge. "I will catch up!" she yelled as she threw a fist surrounded in a swirling cloud of chakra at her tormentor sending him plummeting into the wall of the palace. Hinata screamed like a beast as she charged the ninja that was currently sliding out of the imprint his body had made in the stone.

Hiroshi was so shocked that the girl's blow caught him flat footed. Only the strongest of wills could overpower his Katsugan Isukumi. He'd even killed one of his teachers with it. It took a ninja on the level of Hakumei Gyaku to defeat this technique. She hadn't done it as easily as Gyaku did, but it should have been impossible for a child like her. He was so stunned that he barely managed to jump out of the way of Hinata's jump kick.

When Hinata found that her kick had missed its target she used her extended leg to shove off the wall toward where he had dodged to. Hiroshi barely avoided Hinata's chakra enhanced fist. He had to jerk his foot away at the last second as she punched the ground causing a small explosion. He then watched in shock as the white eyed ninja used the punch to perform a fistspring and land on her feet.

Kyoufu Hiroshi had never seen someone change their fighting style so much so suddenly. Hinata's movements had gone from graceful and deceptively gentle to smooth, but violently powerful in an instant. Where before she would have sent a swift hand slap toward her opponent; now as often as not she sent her whole body into ferocious punches that eploded with chakra.

The cloud ninja had to be constantly leaping back to escape each of Hinata's barrage of attacks. He was trying to buy time for Hinata to tire or relent so he could get farther away from her. She didn't tire or let up until she had managed to back him into a corner.

Finally able to create more space between them, Hiroshi used all of it he could get and backed right into the wall. Once he saw the Leaf Ninja wasn't going to rush him immediately, he grinned and bit both of his thumbs hard enough to draw blood and immediately began to use them to write on both of his palms. In one he wrote the symbol for fear and the other for terror.

Hinata realized her mistake when she saw the cloud ninja clap his hands together to form the tiger seal and began making seals in quick succession. Forming hand seals as fast as he could Hiroshi barely finished before he had to dodge a punch that dented the wall and sent rock chips flying. Ignoring the scratches to his face, the cloud ninja looked into the fierce eyes of his opponent and yelled "Katsugan Isukumi no Jutsu/Piercing Eye of Paralyzing Terror/" The jutsu only held Hinata for a second, but a second was all he needed. "Kyoufu Shinfuuin/Terror Mind-Seal/" the master of fear yelled as he slapped one of his palms on Hinata's forehead.

Fear gripped Hinata and she jumped back. Fear of a seal on her forehead was something she had lived with for sometime. She wore her Hitai-ate around her neck so it didn't cover her forehead. All Hyuuga Main Family members kept their foreheads bare to show that they didn't have a seal. She wanted to run to find a mirror to see what he'd done to her, but she didn't dare.

"What did you do to me?" she screamed as she finally backed against another wall and curled up into a ball. Reflexively she covered the blood red seal that had formed on her forehead as if by covering it she could negate its affects.

Hiroshi found that he enjoyed seeing the looks of terror on young girls best; the younger the better. Men always seemed to resemble little girls when truly terrified, but the look just suited girls best. Now after their prolonged battle Hiroshi found he enjoyed seeing Hinata's terror even better. And the Bright Red Symbol for "Coward" was the best touch. The Symbol didn't do much for the seal. Most of the work was one by the hundreds of seals forming a circle around the symbol with small tendrils following some of the main chakra pathways into the brain. It was a work of art!

Hiroshi remembered the first person he'd ever put that seal on. It was the ultimate irony; despite his reputation as a coward early in life Hiroshi was known as the man without fear when he became a chuunin, and it was true! As a genin he'd stalked his biggest tormentor for months. Meticulously learning his likes, his dislikes and most importantly his fears, Hiroshi created a fear-jutsu tailored just for him. Hiroshi could have killed him with it, but that would be too good for him. Instead he'd burned that seal into his skull while he was prone from his fear. When Hiroshi released the jutsu, his tormentor had become the coward he had always been.

There was a similar seal over Hiroshi's heart with the symbol for Terror. It linked him to his victims and gave them all of his terror leaving him fearless. As an added bonus it allowed him to see their fears. It was beautiful, and over time he'd improved it causing it to increase the potency so now the victim experienced many times more fear than he had ever felt in his life.

"I've just revealed you for the coward you really are," Hiroshi laughed at her as he approached casually. He stopped when he was standing over her and placed his hands on his hips; the perverted smirk he wore on his face showing how much he enjoyed the sight of the terrified girl huddled in front of him.

The master of fear grinned even wider as he drew one leg back like a soccer player and kicked the huddled girl in the head knocking her on her side. Then he proceeded to kick and stomp on the prone girl. He laughed as she to cried out.

Most of the spectators that were still present had never seen something as terrible as this. A grown man beating a defenseless teenage girl. Except that she was far from defenseless and they all new it and knew that they could do nothing to help. Torn between his desire to help and his knowledge that he could do nothing the Lord of Fire turned to Jiraiya who was still standing next to him watching seriously. Tugging on his friend's sleeve the lord of fire began to whisper a suggestion that he help the girl, before Jiraiya gestured for him to stop. "Wait," Jiraiya said mouthed silently, "just watch."

Renjiro didn't notice this exchange and if he had, it probably wouldn't have changed his mind. Moving as quickly as he could stealthily he crept up on the evil ninja intent on punching him in the back of the head with everything he had.

Fear may have been this particular cloud ninja's preferred weapon in combat, but a life spent as a ninja had not left him without other resources. He heard the prince's approach long before he arrived. Just as he got close enough Hiroshi turned and kicked the young lord in the stomach doubling him over.

"You're anxious to die," the self proclaimed master of fear taunted the prince as he turned back to kicking the terrified ninja on the ground. "I'll get to you next. Why don't you wait your turn? After all I did tell you that I wouldn't let you walk away from here!"

Laughing in anticipation of what he'd do to the helpless prince Hiroshi failed to notice when Hinata stopped screaming. He didn't notice that the young ninja's body was now barely jerking with the impact of his kicks. And most embarrassingly he didn't notice that same helpless prince stand back up and hauled back and punched him for everything he was worth.

The blow was a slobber knocker that nearly knocked him over. Shocked and outraged Hiroshi stomped his foot back on the ground regaining his balance. With murderous intent glinting in his yellow eyes Hiroshi prepared to beat the foolish prince. But before he could throw his first blow an arm swung out beneath him knocking him onto the ground. Renjiro didn't waste a second before he stepped forward and began to kick and stomp on the ninja.

"How do you like…" Renjiro began to say before the cloud ninja swung out one of his arms and swept the prince's legs out from under him much the same way Hinata had just done to him. Just like he was trained Hiroshi planted his hands on the ground and launched himself into the air and away from the ninja and the prince.

Bending at his waist in the air he landed on his feet just in time to see Hinata had managed to stand back. One hand was clutching the side he'd been kicking and her knees were shaking and about to give out under her. Grinning, Hiroshi could tell that whatever backbone the girl had managed to grow was withering away.

Before the girl could fall back on her backside the master of fear ran forward and began to punch her relentlessly. Unable to block the individual blows Hinata crossed her arms in front of her and ducked her head behind them much like a boxer pressed against the ropes.

Hiroshi laughed as he skillfully keeping his opponent from falling with his punches by pushing her up into the wall behind her. "Did you really think that a coward like you could fight someone like me!" he began to taunt his victim. "I'm the master of Fear, it was only a matter of time before I found your weakness and now you're going to die!"

It wasn't Hiroshi's fault that he didn't notice Hinata's instinctual defense this time. One the ground a person's body rolls back and forth a lot when it's kicked, but the way he was punching Hinata into the wall her body barely moved at all. So he when she started to rock back and forth less and less it was nearly imperceptible. Further he couldn't see chakra so he had no way of seeing when it started to pour out of each of her tenketsu.

In Konoha training area 7 there is a large grass filled circular impression the genin that train there like to use for one on one sparring matches. They don't know how it got there or that just over a year ago the hole was just dirt. Hinata had dug the hole with her practice to master her families ultimate defense, the Kaiten /divination whirl/. She had practiced the move until it had become instinctual. So even in her current condition chakra began to pour out of her body to soften the blows she received.

So the only warning the cloud ninja got of Hinata's impending counterattack was the gut wrenching scream that came out of her lungs as she threw a vicious punch surrounded by a cloud of chakra at the ninja's jaw. The blow sent the fear user skidding halfway across the field.

Just like before, the second after she had knocked the cloud ninja away the uncontrollable fear came back. Fighting against knees that wanted to buckle with fear under her, Hinata tried desperately to remember what it was that had allowed her to fight.

Hiroshi was getting sore from the repeated blows he had received from his supposedly defeated opponent. He had never seen anyone fight that seal. There had been a few people that had fought back in desperation, but the look of terror never left their eyes when they did like it did with this girl. Their movements had stayed weak and sloppy, but this girl in her moments of clarity managed to move with proper form and nearly all of her power. He determined he would have to watch her carefully and finish her quickly if he intended to escape.

Finally Hinata realized what she had been doing both times that she had been able to fight back. Still barely able to stand on her feet Hinata began to perform the seals for her byakugan.

Hiroshi could see the grim look on Hinata's face as she began to perform seals with her hand. The look on her face and her hand seals didn't concern him however, because he could see her body trembling in fear barely able to hold her up. The fear in her eyes told him this wasn't one of her moments of clarity. She was finally succumbing to desperation.

Hinata managed to open her byakugan before falling to one knee. The cloud ninja was still walking casually back toward her. Examining her own chakra pathways she found no evidence of the seal on them. That meant that the seal had to be acting on the only chakra pathways she couldn't see; the ones in her head.

Hinata had taught herself the Hyuuga Divination Whirl: Kaiten. When it came time to master control of the tenketsu in her head, she had needed some help from a few of the books in the Hyuuga library that told her where the tenketsu should be. But even after than she had to experiment with slips of paper to find their exact placement. Placing the slips on her head she had attempted to blow them off. She couldn't do it until she found the exact place on her head where the tenketsu she had covered was.

The mind-seal had two major weaknesses. The first was its dependence on the matching seal on the caster's chest. The second was also its greatest strength. The seal was an intelligent seal. It traced its way down the chakra pathways in the brain until it found the nervous centers that controlled fear and stored the images the victim most feared. Consequentially the seal was never quite finished and stable. This meant that its affect could be countered by anyone who could tap into the chakra pathways that the seal was growing down.

Realizing that she would be unable to tell which of the chakra pathways were affected she began to blow chakra out all of the tenketsu in her head. The affects was spectacular. Suddenly the fear that gripped her so totally was pushed back to much more manageable levels. Hinata's hair was began to be lifted up of her head and began to flap around in the chakra wind she was generating around her head. Focusing on what had always given her strength she stood up.

Hiroshi's confident smirk slipped for a moment before he covered it with a laugh and a grin. "No one has ever been able to push back the Kyoufu Shinfuuin before, what gives you so much strength?" the cloud ninja asked with morbid curiosity.

"He does," Hinata said simply.

"He must be good," Hiroshi replied sarcastically.

"He is," Hinata replied simply, completely missing the subtext of the other ninja's statement. Fortifying herself Hinata charged her opponent before he could say anything else, but not before he could perform five hand-seals.

"Katsugan Isukumi," Hiroshi yelled at the charging girl as he committed himself to a full body punch. This time the hypnotic jutsu had no affect on the girl, something else that had never happened to him before. His punch connected full force into the young leaf ninja's head, just before her chakra filled palm strike landed over his heart.

Unlike the cloud ninja's strike Hinata's Jyuuken /Gentle Fist/ strike didn't depend on the force of the blow. Consequentially even though Hinata's blow was late, both ninja felt the full impact of the other's blow and were knocked back from each other.

They were both slow standing back up. Hiroshi was slowed down by the damage that the last blow had done to his heart. He stopped on his hands and knees to hack up some blood before he managed to stand all the way up.

Hinata was slowed down, because she had lost concentration and the fear had come back. For some reason it was slightly less powerful than before, but she was unable to stand up again until she began to push chakra back through her tenketsus to fight the seal on her forehead.

Now back on his feet Hiroshi tried to stare down the little girl that somehow managed to oppose him, but he couldn't stop another coughing fit. Wiping the blood from his lip when it was over the fear ninja laughed at the glaring girl. "Excellent, you have controlled your fear," Hiroshi said in a scratchy deep voice, not fully recovered from his coughing fit. "But unfortunately this fight was over the second you chose to face me." The cloud ninja laughed maniacally.

It was his early study into fear jutsus that had led him to create this jutsu. He quickly realized that if he could use genjutsu to paralyze someone with fear, he could also use a genjutsu on himself to remove his own fear.

He had used that jutsu throughout most of his genin career. He would use it on himself anytime he entered battle to remove his fear. He had no longer needed it once he had created the shinfuuin, so he altered it to create his Katsugan Isukumi. And even after he had mastered that technique he continued to experiment with it until he found the hidden use of the Katsugan Isukumi.

Hiroshi pulled out one of the kunai /knives/ from the leg holster he had until now ignored and flourished it in the air. He spun it around one of his fingers before he held it out at arms length, blade parallel to the ground in front of his eyes. He placed his other hand on the far side of the blade as if to hide it from his opponent.

Unsure of what he was doing Hinata crouched low into her fighting stance. One hand held palm out over her front knee, the other over her back hip.

"Katsugan Isukumi," Hiroshi yelled triumphantly!

Suddenly the cloud ninja's body seemed to pulse and tremble before all of his muscles seemed to bulge to twice their previous size. His arms which were previously smooth and toned were now ripped. His clothes which had fit him just slightly loosely now hugged the bulges of his muscles.

"Congratulations," Hiroshi said grinning confidently. "I haven't had to use this technique in battle for some time, but now this fight is over." Seeing his opponent wasn't convinced he continued. "Now you'll see the hidden use of the Katsugan Isukumi. You see a body becomes what the mind thinks it is. A mind that thinks is weak quickly causes the body to become weak. Scared the body becomes powerless. But a mind that believes it is invincible, well…" Hiroshi threw his kunai to end his sentence.

The knife flew like a bullet past the stunned spectators on the hill and embedded itself to the pommel in the stone wall, before cracks spider-webbed out of the hole causing the large stone to shatter. The knife however stayed where it was, because it had imbedded itself in the stone behind it. It was an impressive display of strength. Hinata stood her ground unfazed.

Hiroshi looked down on the little girl laughing confidently before he charged her. Even when the laughing stopped, the smirk never left his face as he punched at her with everything he had.

Hinata side stepped the blow and blocked with her forearm and two fingers from her other hand pressed into her opponent's upper arm guiding it. With a twist of her wrist she grabbed the arm she'd just blocked and pulled in an attempted to throw the hypnotically enhanced ninja. Unfortunately Hiroshi managed to keep his feet under him by continuing his charge. He turned and punched back at Hinata's head as he stepped past her.

Hinata could feel the air pressure blow past her nose as she barely managed to lean back enough to avoid that blow. Reaching up she stuck the offending limb with two two-finger strikes at sensitive areas on the arm.

That was when Hiroshi saw his chance. With Hinata leaning back to dodge his left arm and off balance he fired off with another right.

Hinata barely manage to twist around and squirm away. She blocked with her left forearm, which she rolled along his arm to tap his bicep with another two fingers while she jabbed the fingers from her other hand into his chest near the shoulder. The block was almost effective and instead of taking the punch dead on it only grazed her shoulder.

Taking the hit in her off balance position Hinata was knocked back and had to roll away as fast as she could to avoid the cloud ninja's stomping. Once on her feet again she charged but found herself unable to strike her opponent directly.

Fortunately for Hinata, in his hypnotically enhanced state Hiroshi relied heavily on his superior strength and neglected style and strategy to hit as hard as possible. Hinata knew that she couldn't take many hits, but because of his concentrating on maximizing strength only she was able to avoid most all of attacks. She however found it near impossible to get close enough to him to strike his vital regions. For a long couple of minutes all she could do was avoid his strikes while blocking with pressure point strikes.

Hiroshi could tell that he was wearing the girl down. All she had been able to do was dodge and block and since he had used the Katsugan Isukumi on himself he hadn't felt any damage from her. And as the fight had progressed she had been taking more and more hits.

The combatants now stood a couple of steps out of striking distance staring at each other intently. Hiroshi smirked, assured of his victory he asked, "Before you die, tell me, what do you see in him?"

"He's not like me…He's strong…He's not a coward!" Hinata said calmly before she charged her opponent again.

Deciding to end it he prepared himself, stepped forward and threw the most powerful punch he could at the approaching Ninja's head.

Hinata decided it was time to end this fight. Not bothering to avoid the opposing ninja's punch she lunged for his heart, her palm striking true to its mark.

Hiroshi felt his fist connect with the leaf shinobi's face just as his heart felt as if it had been lit on fire. Falling to his knees he looked on in shock as the girl, whose head he should have just knocked free of her shoulders, turned her head back to face him without even being forced a step back. "How did you..?" he asked just before a spasm of pain silenced him causing him to clutch his chest.

Looking at her opponent without emotion Hinata replied. "When that jutsu caused you to believe you were invincible, your subconscious opened up your stores of chakra to enhance your speed and strength. But when I closed off your chakra to your arms it was powerless to overcome your closed tenketsu. So all the Jutsu did was prevent you from realizing how weak you had become." Hinata explained the reason for his defeat to the ninja dispassionately before she stepped forward and struck the man with her last palm strike. This time she struck the top of the man's head shredding the chakra pathways in the brain killing him instantly. Blood dripped out of the corpse's nose before it fell limply at Hinata's feet.

Looking down near her feet, Hinata stared at the former cloud ninja's body. She waited until she had confirmed that all of the chakra in the ninja's body had been snuffed out. Once she was sure he was dead she wasted no time leaving in the direction she had seen her teammates go.

---

Naruto and Sakura had difficulty tracking the fleeing ninja through the treetops of the forest until Sakura was able to decipher the signs they were leaving for their teammate. Once that was figured out they make good time and quickly began to catch up to the cloud ninja who were each carrying someone.

Naruto and Sakura jumped from the braches they were on into a clearing that they realized too late was the perfect place for a trap. Trapped in the air on their way to the ground the clearing was suddenly filled with flying projectiles.

Thinking on his feet, or more correctly in the air, Naruto generated two Kage-Bunshins /Shadow Clones/ who promptly pushed Naruto and Sakura out of the way of the incoming projectiles, before they were destroyed by the shower of iron.

While they were able to avoid the majority of the projectiles their bodies were punctured by several bladed weapons before they hit the ground. Sakura's body however turned into a piece of dead wood just before it hit the ground. Naruto had been hit by three shuriken razor disks and a kunai before he landed in a crouch on the ground. One hand on the ground Naruto launched himself into a sprint for the tree line.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed as she saw him stumble and fall, his back covered with blood and shuriken. She didn't see his body disappear in a puff of smoke, because a spray of shuriken forced her to pull her head back behind the tree she was hiding behind.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Sakura could hear Naruto whisper from somewhere.

"How did you survive?" Sakura asked shocked.

"Kage Kawarimi /Shadow Replacement," Naruto replied.

"What?"

"Kawarimi /Replacement/ with a Kage Bunshin /Shadow-Clone," Naruto replied.

That was when Sakura hear it; the sound of things being dropped in the grass. "Naruto, did you get hit?" Sakura asked anxiously.

"Yah," Naruto replied with a suppressed grunt as he removed the last projectile that hit him.

"They could be poisoned, you better let me look at you," Sakura whispered back.

"They are, but poison doesn't hurt me."

"How?"

"It's kind of like a blood limit," Naruto replied nervously.

"The Kyuubi?" Sakura asked.

"Yah," Naruto replied, finally remembering in all the excitement that Sakura and Hinata both knew about it.

"Did you see how they were able to fire so many shuriken so fast?" Sakura asked getting back down to business. She could tell that Naruto did not want to talk about his inner-demon and now definitely wasn't the time to press him about it.

"The one with the claws fires them from his gauntlets," Hinata replied. Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin as she turned toward the sound of the voice. She could see Hinata standing by a tree only a few feet from her. Sudden motion caught her eye and she could see Naruto standing right above her trying to stay stuck to the same tree. Apparently he hadn't noticed Hinata sneak up under him. "The ribbons on them connect to his armor and it's all filled with shuriken.

"You can see through clothes?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"S-s-sor…Where did Naruto-kun go?" Hinata asked suddenly. She had been so embarrassed about answering that question so that Naruto didn't think she was a pervert that could look through people's clothes that she didn't notice him leave.

Cautiously both kunoichi looked around the trees they were hiding behind. The clearing was roughly ovoid. One end was where Naruto and Sakura had come out. At the other end Keiko was tied to a tree. The leaf genin had hid themselves a quarter of the way up the left side. The other ninja and the cloud prince were no where to be found.

Suddenly shuriken razor discs began to spray out of the forest at a point a third of the way down from the princess on the other side.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled out as if it where her own personal battle cry as she charged the origin of the shuriken. Now that Hinata knew where to look with her byakugan she could see the clawed ninja spraying the shuriken at Naruto who was running toward the princess. The second ninja was halfway back to the princess, but had stopped to yell at the first Ninja to make sure he didn't hit the princess with his discs.

Sakura gasped when she heard the shuriken, but managed to follow Hinata's charge. She had also spotted the clawed ninja. When he began to turn toward them, she knew they would never make it to him in time.

Without hesitation Sakura leapt forward and punched the ground with all of the force she could manage. The blow sent tremors through the ground causing it to ripple and crack open in the area in front of her. The shaking caused the clawed ninja to fall back sending shuriken well over Sakura's head. Hinata didn't need the clearance as the miniature earthquake had caused her to fall down.

---

Naruto was knocked from his feet just before he managed to get to Keiko-san. He fell forward in a roll and kept moving toward the Fire Country Princess. Biting his thumb and forming the necessary seals as he rolled he came to a stop a couple of feet away from the Princess with his palm on the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu/Summoning Technique/" Naruto yelled.

Keiko screamed in shock when she saw the frog appear. She hadn't been listening the other night at dinner when Naruto talked about summoning giant frogs. When the smoke from the jutsu cleared there stood a frog almost as tall as Naruto. It was thin and stood tall on two powerful legs that were mostly bent. The frog wore nothing but the katana on its hip which it used its webbed equivalent of a thumb to loosen from it sheath.

Naruto, who somewhat resembled a frog in the position he was squatting in, stood up and began to give the frog orders. "Gamamanzo, cut the princess loose and guard her," Naruto said loudly.

"Oh and Keiko-san, don't believe a word he says and if you kiss him he probably won't turn into a prince," Naruto said before he began walking toward the approaching cloud ninja.

"What's he talking about, frogs can't talk," Keiko said indignantly.

"No, of course frogs can not talk, what was messier Naruto thinking, eh?" Gamamanzo said before drawing his sword to cut the princess from the tree.

---

Gyaku had been off balance yelling at his blood thirsty teammate trying to remind him that they needed the princess alive when the girl's tremor jutsu had hit. He'd fallen down and consequentially hadn't made it to the princess before Naruto. It didn't really matter, because now all he had to do was defeat the leaf-genin and take the princess with them when they left.

"So is this the size of your giant frogs?" Gyaku asked mockingly.

"Nah, he's a pretty small one," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Well exaggeration and lies won't bring you victory here boy. You'll have to beat me for real." Gyaku said grinning as his eyes became jet black.

Then for the second time that day Naruto watched in shock as what looked like the cloud ninja's ghost ran out of his body at an inhuman speed. Only this time the shadow ran straight at Naruto and punched him in the stomach. Naruto was so surprised when all the ghostly punch did was make him a little queasy that he didn't think to move until Gyaku's body was jerked along the same path his spirit had just taken and its fist landed in Naruto's stomach doubling him over.

Gyaku couldn't decide whether he was pleased or disappointed about how weak his opponent was. He was hoping that he really was related to the man the bingo book said might have been the fastest man alive. The man who had just become the Leaf's fourth Hokage had single handedly killed hundreds of cloud ninja during the first part of the war. It was his fortuitous death early in the war that allowed the Cloud to escape ignominious defeat and fight on for three more years. He and the Hyuuga who had targeted the Hakumei clan were responsible for its near destruction. But it appeared that he would be denied revenge on the man that killed his father.

Still smirking Gyaku followed his punch with a swinging ax kick that came down on the back of his opponents head. He couldn't help chuckling at the opponent he'd just knocked to the ground before he ran toward his companion who seemed to be having trouble with the other two leaf children.

---

Sakura kept charging despite her embarrassment about knocking all of her teammates as well as her opponents down. She was surprised and more than a little impressed when Hinata, who had fallen forward broke her fall with her arms in a text book break fall, immediately pushed herself backup and took off in a sprint before Sakura could even catch up to her!

Hinata managed to reach the clawed ninja just as he finished getting up. Batting away a swipe from his left hand with a chakra enhanced slap to his forearm she lunged forward with her left hand. "Don't you hurt my…" Hinata yelled at the ninja as her palm struck the metal chest plate dead center over his heart. But her cry was cut short as the cloud ninja staggered back and swung his right arm around himself protectively.

Easily able to avoid the retreating ninja's claws Hinata was unable to lean back fast enough to avoid the ribbon feed that connected his gauntlets to his chest plate. The ribbon it turned out was also sharp. It sent of sparks as it cut through her jacket and into her upper chest.

Seeing Hinata's predicament Sakura rapidly began to form hand seals as she ran. Too late to keep Hinata from getting hit Sakura swung her green glowing hands at the ribbon cutting it with her chakra scalpel.

Because it was cut near the gauntlet the largest part of the ribbon fell back away from Hinata preventing her from being cut in half just as her foot flew up and knocked Jinsha's clawed gauntlet up into the air. Both ends of the ribbon feed spilled out shuriken.

Sakura knew that she would have to get rid of the cloud ninja fast if she was going to have a chance at closing up Hinata's wound. Seeing her chance she twisted back toward the ninja. Using the opening caused by the arm Hinata had kicked upward, Sakura punched at his ribs for all she was worth.

Jinsha was still hurting from the first girl's strikes to his forearm and chest. He couldn't believe that such simple slaps could hurt him through his armor. He could see now why the Hidden Village of Cloud wanted the secrets of the Hyuuga so badly. Seeing the obviously powerful blow coming from the other leaf kunoichi he brought his other arm around hoping to cut her with the ribbon-feed like he had the other girl.

Fortunately for Jinsha, he managed to get his left arm in front of Sakura's blow before it crushed his chest. Unfortunately she crushed the gauntlet, possibly breaking his forearm and broke the metal ribbon free from his gauntlet before he was hurtled back a couple of yards into a tree.

Hoping that would at least give Sakura the time she needed to close up Hinata's chest, and ignoring the minor scratch the severed metal ribbon had given her, she turned back toward her injured teammate. Hinata was right where she had fallen a moment ago, already trying to get up despite the blood beginning to soak through her clothes.

Sakura was prevented from jumping to her knees to start healing her teammate's injuries by a shadowy hand reaching through her chest. The hand jerked back beginning to pull out a shadowy form of Sakura as Hakumei Gyaku's body caught up two his disembodied hand.

The Hakumei Clan's feared speed stemmed from their Kurogan's ability to send their spirit out of their body. They could use this ability to astral project enabling them to see and hear things great distances away without being detected by anyone who didn't also posses the kurogan. But if they didn't completely untether their spirit from their body they found that there was a limit of how far they could move from their body, before it was forcefully pulled back to their spirit. The more powerful the user was the farther they could move away and effectively the faster they could move. But more feared than that was their disembodied spirit's ability to affect the spirits of other living things, including the ability to rip that spirit from the body of their victims, killing them.

Gyaku was finding it difficult to rip this girl's soul apart. This usually only happened with people from the strongest of will. Judging by this and the strength it would take to crush a metal gauntlet and knock its owner back as far as she did, Gyaku knew that this girl must be single.

It was a Hakumei clan secret, but this technique was a battle of wills even if the deck was stacked in the Kurogan user's favor. There were some people with strong enough wills to resist this technique. Gyaku had in his career as a ninja managed to run into two such people, who were now to his satisfaction quite dead. But despite the difficulty this girl was giving him he knew that she would not be added to that list.

After a few seconds he had managed to pull out half of the girl's essence. That was when the impossible happened. The girl's body began to swear at him as it moved its arms, which should have been devoid of spirit or chakra, to choke him.

Had he not been having trouble breathing Gyaku would have been inclined to take notes. Not even truck drivers could swear as fluently as this little girl was doing. Releasing the girl's sprit and watching it snap back into her body Gyaku send his ethereal body back out of the girl's grip, looping around behind her.

Hinata had seen the cloud ninja suddenly appear and start to rip part of Sakura's chakra circulatory system out of her body. She'd tried to get up to help, but before she could Naruto seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere. Appearing next to Sakura he elbowed the cloud ninja who had somehow managed to get behind her. The enemy ninja was sent through the air as Naruto skidded to a halt digging a furrow in the grass.

Gyaku was confused. The Hakumei clan had studied and documented the powers the kurogan granted them very thoroughly. Someone whose ethereal body had been removed from the waist up should have been completely immobile. That girl should not have been able to speak and under no circumstances move her arms. Then after he had successfully extricated himself from her grip and gotten behind her, before he could draw his knife and stab her he had been sent flying by something he hadn't even seen.

Confusion was something that he was trained to deal with however. Unable to turn his physical body to look behind him, Gyaku turned his ethereal body to see what had sent him flying. He was shocked to see the boy he though he'd knocked unconscious skidding past his female companions.

Naruto saw the airborne ninja's ghostly face sticking out of the back of his head. The sight almost made him want to throw up on the spot, but Naruto had seen the painful look on Sakura-chan's ghost body as it was being ripped out. He was not about to let any of his precious people be hurt!

Gyaku never took his spectral eyes off of his opponent as he landed and righted himself. Seeing his teammate was already moving back toward the girls Gyaku prepared to distract the boy who was proving to be more of a challenge than he had earlier assumed. He was starting to enjoy this fight.

"That ugly girl must have some kind of multiple personality or something!" Gyaku yelled as he began to walk toward Naruto.

"You must be half blind, but Sakura-chan has some kind of ability that helps her defend against mind control attacks," Naruto yelled back as he began to approach his opponent.

"Who knew that insanity had advantages?"

"She may have poor taste sometimes, but I'd hardly call her insane."

"Poor taste?" Gyaku asked.

"Well she did turn me down for some other guy," Naruto said sheepishly.

"Well, it seems she's more rational that I though," Gyaku said mockingly. In truth he was impressed. The boy kept his guard up, even when he insulted his manhood. He's got a lot of focus for a kid, but Gyaku doubted he even noticed his teammates fighting for their lives behind him. Knowing he wouldn't get a better time Gyaku made his move.

Despite the banter Naruto was making sure to pay close attention to his opponent. He knew he could cover the distance between them in a moment. Naruto could hear the sounds of Sakura and Hinata fighting behind him, but he was confident that they could take care of themselves against the weaker cloud ninja.

The cloud ninja's ghost suddenly shot across the distance between them, but this time Naruto was ready for it. The shadowy form of his opponent moved to one side of him. Naruto immediately jumped back to his other side and threw a kunai at it. The knife was halfway to its target when Gyaku's shadowy image extended from his body again, running behind Naruto's back to appear at his side again. Reacting as fast as he could Naruto swung a punch at the incoming shadow.

Gyaku was impressed. He seldom found ninja smart or fast enough to attack his ethereal body in anticipation of his physical body catching up. The kid was faster than he had first believed. But he wasn't fast enough, Gyaku thought as he grabbed the leaf ninja's incoming arm by the wrist and twisted, sending the Ninja rolling on his back away from him.

Naruto rolled like a log several times before he managed to stop himself and get back up. He was almost all the way back to his feet when he saw the shadowy body of his opponent approach again. This time he knew that not even he could get away in time.

Naruto tried to jump into the air, but the shadowy hand of his opponent entered his chest stopping him before he could do more than jerk.

Gyaku began to pull the leaf Ninja boy's spirit out of his body starting at the chest and head. The ethereal body came out very easily until he got to the stomach. The spirit seemed to actually be caught on something.

As Gyaku pulled trying to rip the boy's ethereal body out of his physical body he began to notice the most terrible spiritual essence he had ever encountered. Orange chakra so intense that it was visible to the naked eye began to swirl around the boy's body quickly changing its appearance into something more monstrous. Then the leaf ninja's eyes began to glow blood red and his body began to growl like a wild beast.

Had the Kurogan master not been so terrified he would have been intrigued to notice that the boy's spirit didn't change appearance to match his body even when it began to draw the orange chakra around itself. Despite all of the impossible things he'd witnessed today Gyaku was totally unprepared for what happened next. The leaf shinobi's spirit, now surrounded in the terrible chakra, reached out and clawed at him. The boy's ethereal body should have been insubstantial, but it actually managed to lacerate his arm forcing him to release the boy's spirit.

"What's wrong with you people?" Gyaku yelled breathlessly and obviously shaken up by the strange encounters.

Members of the Hakumei clan were known for their unflinching cool in battle. Nothing could ever scare them, because they were the most terrible warriors to ever exist. So Gyaku would not admit to have been scared, despite what he saw when he released the boy's spirit. There in his stomach he saw the face of a fox he knew to be a demon growling in anger at him. It wanted out and more than it wanted out it wanted blood. The sight terrified him. Uncertain if he could take revenge on his father's killer today, Gyaku decided he would at least begin his revenge on the Hyuuga, who had killed his brother and so many more of his family.

---

Hinata nearly fell back over as Naruto rushed past her, but caught herself. She couldn't imagine how painful having one's chakra circulatory system partially ripped out must be, but she could see that Sakura was having trouble recovering from it. Her pink haired teammate was leaning over with her hands on her knees breathing heavily apparently oblivious to the clawed ninja who was now flying through the air to pounce on the unsuspecting ninja.

"Hakke Kuushou/Hakke Vacuum Palm/" Hinata yelled as she threw one of her arms out in desperation. Alerted to her predicament Sakura turned just in time to see the body that had been barreling toward her through the air be hurled back into another tree.

Remembering Hinata's condition Sakura became desperate. She needed to stop the bleeding in Hinata's chest, not let her aggravate it by continuing to fight. Knowing she had to get rid of the cloud ninja first, Sakura ran screaming at her opponent, who had not yet climbed out of the second tree he'd become intimately acquainted with today.

Jinsha was trying to extricate himself from the splintery embrace of the send tree he'd made the acquaintance of during this fight when he heard the crazy girl's shriek. Looking up he saw her charging straight at him. He knew he would never be able to take another hit from her in his current state. The one blow he had received had destroyed his gauntlet and injured his forearm.

Ignoring the sharp pains in his forearm the nearly declawed ninja began to desperately form hand seals as quickly as he could. Satsu Jinsha swore he could see the blood vessels in the approaching ninja's enraged eyes by the time he managed to finish the seals.

"Iron Maiden-no-Jutsu!" Sakura heard the foreign ninja yell as metal seemed to wrap itself around the ninja, encasing him in a metal sarcophagus. The top of the sarcophagus like enclosure was identical to the hood and mask the ninja wore. It was all told a very scary looking jutsu. Sakura didn't let it bother her as she punched it square in the chest.

The blow cracked the metal enclosure and pushed it through the already damaged tree that the cloud ninja had been climbing out of. Determined to rip the sardine out of his can Sakura continued her charge readying another super powered haymaker.

Sakura jumped into the air as she approached the Can-O-Ninja and prepared to crush him with her monstrous strength. But her plans were thwarted when the metal surrounding the metal surrounding her opponent suddenly unwrapped like two batwings. One of them swung out brushing Sakura out of the way.

Without hesitation the young ninja punched for all she was worth. Her blow sounded like thunder as it cracked the living metal wing, but Sakura was hurled away behind the ninja further into the trees.

Curling into a ball and spinning in midair, Sakura deftly landed feet first into a tree. That was when she saw the cloud ninja's true objective. Hinata had somehow managed to get up. She stood shakily on her feet with one hand splayed over her bleeding chest in a vain attempt to staunch the flow. The now winged ninja was charging straight for her.

"Doesn't that girl know when to stay down?" Sakura thought as she waited for the tree, which was now creaking and bowing under the force of her impact, to swing back and catapult her back toward her opponent.

Sakura screamed as she was hurled toward her opponent. It gave away her position and warned her enemy that she was coming, but she needed to distract him from attacking Hinata. Besides there weren't that many things that even a ninja could do to stop a freight train.

The ploy didn't work. The cloud ninja was going to get to Hinata first and all three of them knew it. Sakura saw it before her target did. Without taking her left hand off her chest, Hinata lunged forward twisting her ankle allowing her to spin around and sending her heel at the approaching ninja's shoulder.

In what appeared to be a reflexive gesture one of the ninja's wings moved to shield him from the blow. It was the right wing, the one Sakura had cracked. The medical ninja wondered if Hinata had planned it that way.

"He said to catch up!" Hinata yelled, just before her heel connected with the metal wing. Her foot exploded with a brilliant flash of light shattering the metal shield. The charging ninja was forced to stop his attack to avoid the blow as it sailed through his supposedly invincible shield of steel. Then, even before her foot made it back to the ground Hinata lunged sending her palm into the off balance ninja's chest. Knowing that the thick metal chest plate he wore would help shield him from the attack's affects she put as much chakra as she could into the blow and was rewarded a second later with the sounds of her opponent coughing and hacking behind his mask. A moment later Sakura's fist impacted with the back of the Ninja's armor making a disgusting crunching sound as the cloud ninja's chest and armor were crushed, killing him.

Wasting no time Sakura moved around the collapsing cloud ninja to get to Hinata's side. "You're as crazy as Naruto," she said as she began to quickly but gently lay Hinata on the ground. "Now let's take a look at your chest," Sakura continued, trying to keep Hinata calm as she unzipped her jacket and began to cut open her shirt with her chakra scalpel to expose the wound. Fortunately this time Hinata was wearing more than just a tube top.

The cut wasn't as bad as Sakura had expected. It cut into her ribs in some places, but was actually very shallow in others. The ligaments of her Pectorals were still partially attached, but Sakura was impressed that Hinata could move her arms at all.

Sakura began mending bone and flesh immediately. It appeared Hinata had been very lucky. She wouldn't be in any danger of bleeding to death for another few minutes, but she was also in no condition to fight in the middle of a battlefield. She had just started healing the wound when a sudden gust of wind nearly blew her over.

---

Naruto saw the maniacal grin on his opponents face and he knew there was going to be trouble. He had let the Cloud ninja get between him and his teammates. Time seemed to slow down for Naruto. For the first time he was able to see what condition his teammates were in and it wasn't good. The other ninja was laid out, but Sakura was kneeling over Hinata's body performing some kind of medical jutsu. And now the remaining cloud ninja's shadowy form was streaking toward them.

Naruto could see the Cloud ninja's intention as its ghost knelt down and reached toward Hinata's chest. The ninja might have been a pervert, but somehow Naruto doubted that he only intended to grope Hinata's prone form. The world became red as Naruto did what he knew was the only think he could do to save his precious people.

---

Sakura and Hinata both turned their heads to see Naruto digging a furrow in the ground as he skidded to a stop. He was dragging the remaining cloud ninja by the forearm. Sakura was sure it had to be the sun reflecting off of Naruto's jacket, but her teammate seemed to be covered in s slight orange glow. Hinata, from her slightly better vantage point was the first to notice the not so subtle changes in Naruto's face.

Just before he came to a stop Naruto twisted around tossing the black-eyed ninja into a tree. Now facing his friends again for the first time they could see the full extent to the changes to his face.

Hinata was surprised to see the cute scars on her beloved's cheeks had darkened and grown angular and larger. But more disturbing was the change in his eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes that always seemed to hide pain behind cheerfulness and kindness; eyes that seemed to cut through the crap and see straight into a person's heart, revealing their pain. Now those eyes were crimson and menacing. Instead of offering hope to all he saw, now they promised no such thing. Filled with malice, they seemed to promise pain.

Sakura found Naruto's look a little disturbing. She could swear that she'd seen his eyes turn red and slitted like that before, but she had never seen his face become so feral looking. Naruto had always looked goofy to her, even when he was mad. He even accomplished his duties as a ninja, as much as he really accomplished them anyway, with that goofy, self-righteous look on his face. But now he looked like an angry beast. The silly scratches on his faced had transformed into thick black marks that made his face seem to resemble the mussel of a wild animal. And his teeth didn't seem to completely fit in his mouth. Despite all the time she had spent with him, she didn't think she knew this Naruto.

Putting aside her unease, Sakura realized that she had a injured woman she had to get back to. An injured woman that despite her injuries was trying to get up. After seeing Naruto throw what appeared to be the strongest of the enemy ninja around like a rag doll, Sakura didn't think he'd need any help.

"You'll just get in the way," Sakura said as she gently pushed Hinata back down so she could treat her injury. 'Great,' Sakura thought, now I'm on a team with two crazy people instead of just one. For some reason the thought brought a smile to Sakura's face. She was too engrossed in closing up Hinata's wound to notice the crestfallen look that came over her newest teammate.

"Why am I so weak?" Hinata asked pitifully.

"The muscles in your chest control the movement of your arms. With this wound you can hardly move your arms. Consequentially you won't be able to perform jutsus very fast. And your fighting style relies heavily on your hands doesn't it?" Sakura explained quickly and professionally. It did little to make Hinata feel less dejected. She wanted to help her Naruto-kun; to finally catch up to him and be a valuable teammate.

"So you'll have to wait a minute for me to fix it, before we show that cloud punk that Konoha Kunoichi are the strongest," Sakura said, looking up with a grin on her face. "But we'll get him!"

"Right," Hinata said with an uncertain grin on her face.

The cloud punk however had no intention of waiting to be taught anything about kunoichi from Konoha or anywhere else. He climbed out of the impression he'd left in the tree slowly hoping that Naruto would charge him. When Naruto happily obliged him Gyaku lunged forward out of his body toward the two hapless girls..

Hinata watched in horror as she saw the shadowy chakra of the cloud ninja rushing toward her. She didn't even hear Sakura tell her that she was ok now.

Sakura didn't know what to make of Hinata's sudden panic. She had just told her that she was good as new after all. That was when she saw the ghostly hand reaching over her shoulder toward Hinata's chest. In her frantic effort to get off of Hinata and combat the approaching threat she didn't notice the slight glow to Hinata's skin, the slight gust of wind that seemed to be emanating from her, or how slippery she became.

Gyaku didn't notice these things either but he did notice when his hand struck the Hyuuga girl's chest and instead of passing through it bounced right off. He looked at his hand and back at the girl in shock, when something else that he'd never experienced happened to him. Gyaku felt his body being jerked toward his spirit, but before it had traveled halfway to him he felt it get stopped by something and then dragged away at an angle from the path it was traveling.

Hinata didn't have time to feel relieved about her opponents failed technique or confusion. She could see his body flying toward her like a bullet. It was half way to her when Naruto-kun appeared. One moment he wasn't there and the next he was. Even with everything appearing to move in slow motion she had been unable to see his approach.

Naruto-kun had managed to grab the cloud ninja's projectile of a body by the forearm. He dug his heels in to the ground as he attempted to arrest his and the terrifying ninja's motion. Letting out a manly grunt of exertion as the cloud ninja's body kept moving Naruto-kun jerked it back by the forearm.

Instead of his physical body catching up to his ethereal form, Gyaku's spirit was yanked back away from his targets and back into his body. He reentered his body just in time to bounce off the ground where the blond ninja had thrown him. Rolling on his side when he hit the ground again, the cloud shinobi felt sharp pains shoot through his shoulder every time the arm that Naruto had grabbed hit the ground.

Ignoring the intense surge of pain it sent through his entire arm and chest Gyaku used his injured arm to push his still rolling body back up to his feet. Grimacing in pain he examined the Leaf Ninja that had done the impossible. No one in the entire recorded history of the Hakumei clan had ever been able to grab onto the body of someone using that technique, and he had. Perhaps the boy was the one he was looking for after all.

Sakura had managed to get turned around in time to see Naruto jerking the cloud ninja's body back by the arm. Her medical instincts told her that the action had probably dislocated the ninja's arm or worse. Her suspicions were confirmed moments later when she saw the unrestrained look of sheer pain on the ninja's face as he used his injured arm to propel himself to his feet. That was when she heard Naruto's gravely, growl like angry voice.

"You shouldn't have attacked my friends," Naruto growled out, barely able contain his rage. "I won't let you hurt my precious people!"

Hinata had sat up with a jerk when the cloud ninja's shadowy presence had jerked away form her apparently oblivious to how much of her chest was showing thanks to Sakura's cutting her shirt open. She was enthralled by the way Naruto-kun stalked toward the ninja who was getting to his feet. That was when she heart him say it. "People," not "Person" she'd heard him say "Precious People." That meant her too! The sky could have fallen down on her and she probably wouldn't have noticed it. Not just Sakura, her Naruto-kun cared about her too!

Gyaku couldn't help himself he laughed, and the young cloud ninja's resulting scowl made him laugh more. He saw how he could hurt the young ninja. The irony of it all was perfect for his revenge.

"You must be his son," Gyaku began. "Now my revenge will be complete!" he finished menacingly gleeful sounding.

Naruto didn't know what the cloud ninja could be talking about. If no one in Konoha knew who his parents were, how could some cloud punk know? He took a few steps back as the enemy ninja began to walk casually toward him. Naruto stepped back as far as he dared before holding his ground at a point that hopefully would be far enough away from the girls that he could keep his black eyed opponent from getting to them again.

Naruto's retreating steps were not lost on Hakumei Gyaku. He grinned widely, pleased that his opponent was scared of him. The fearsome cloud ninja couldn't wipe the smug look off of his face as he sauntered back toward his opponent. Victory was his.

After he had covered most of the distance toward the tensed up Leaf Ninja, Gyaku charged forward with his spectral body back toward the girls who, watching in fascination had not even gotten all of the way back up. Giving the male shinobi a wide berth Gyaku decided it would be best to leave the girl the boy had already admitted to having feelings for last. That left the Hyuuga. That was when it happened.

Sakura berated herself for just sitting on her knees when she saw the ghostly form of the enemy ninja shoot out of his body, curve around Naruto and move toward Hinata. She had trained relentlessly for over two years so that she wouldn't be the one holding her teammates back. Then as soon as Naruto came back she just slipped into her old place watching her teammate's backs as they moved on ahead of her.

Before she could get very far into her reverie or stand up Naruto suddenly appeared in front of the approaching shadow. He had one hand cocked back as he skidded backward staying in front of the attacking spectral form. She'd been asking Tsunade-sensei to teach her the teleportation technique that all the Jounin and even some of the chuunin used, but she'd always refused. Sakura was beginning to think that her teacher the mighty Fifth Hokage didn't know it.

It was comforting in a way to see that Naruto didn't quite have it right. He couldn't quite seem to even get the basics down, but he could learn all of these jounin level techniques with ease. It was a little intimidating, but there was no puff of smoke and the skid was definitely not part of the move. All in all, it made Naruto seem more human, because he was fallible. She felt that this time she could keep up with him.

Gyaku gaped in shock as the blond shinobi appeared in front of him. He had his arm cocked back and a swirling vortex of energy was forming it his palm. The boy was too close for the cloud ninja to move his ethereal form out of the way he realized in horror. He didn't know what the swirling ball of chakra in the blonds hand did, but his head was going to pass right through it.

It had taken a lot of effort for Naruto to make it so that his skid would be in the same direction the Cloud-punk was moving. But if his theory was right, the ninja's body would travel the exact same way his ghost had. So he lined up his rasengan to pass straight through the cloud ninja's ghostly head.

The resulting explosion of his rasengan took Naruto off guard. Between his lack of preparation and the lack of a physical target to absorb the backlash Naruto was completely unable to stand up to the blast and was knocked down by it.

Hinata however was able to see what had happened better than her Naruto-kun. She could see that when the cloud ninja's chakra left his body it took most of the chakra circulatory system with it. So when Naruto-kun's swirling ball of chakra passed through the shadowy chakra head, it shredded most of the chakra circulatory system that was usually around the brain before it exploded.

However she instinctively closed her eyes to shield them from the blast of wind from the explosion. So she couldn't see what had knocked her back down until she looked up to see Naruto-kun's face just above hers. He had pushed himself up with his arms but had stopped and was now staring intently into her eyes. His hair swayed ever so slightly in the wind and his face had the same slightly confused look on it that Hinata had always imagined he'd have when they….

"Hey you two," Sakura interrupted. "There's another lady present, and I don't need to see that." She knew it was completely innocent, but she couldn't help but tease her teammates.

Hinata was so caught up in the moment that she didn't understand what her teammate had said. She thought it was adorable the way Naruto-kun's face twisted in a thoughtful gesture. Captivated by his nearness and the sound of his voice she didn't think about the questioning way he said, "Lady?" But the moment was shattered by Naruto yelling another woman's name.

"Keiko-san!" Naruto yelled as he shot off of his blushing teammate. "I almost forgot!" his voice seemed to float back to both of the shocked girls he'd left in his wake as he ran back toward where he'd left the princess guarded by a frog.

When Naruto arrived to where he had left the Keiko, he found her unconscious in Gamamanzo's arms.

"What did you do to her?" Naruto asked incredulously.

"Nothing Messier Naruto," the frog replied stroking one of it's mustache like tentacles. "She was so shy that she fainted in my arms before I could shower her with kisses."

"Of all the frogs I could have summoned, I had to get the perverted one," Naruto mumbled as he took the princess out of the frog's arms and tried to wake her up.

Sakura, who had arrived with Hinata, had heard the end of the conversation and was not nearly as forgiving. Popping her knuckles she marched menacingly toward the unsuspecting frog before she yelled: "Pervert!"

End Chapter 5

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Poor Gamamanzo.

Sorry about the time it took to get this update out. Special thanks to JohnyG, Conquistador, witchfyre, Jetflash, and Vladimir "CrackBaby23" who's reviews and E-mails got me motivated to finish this chapter when I had gotten busy and stopped working on it. I especially apologize to all the people who I promised I would have this done last weekend, I forgot that I had to fly cross country and back that weekend. Unfortunately that kept me too busy to work on the story. Then finally, my proofreader's computer took a dive and we had trouble getting a good copy of MS Office installed on it. Thanks for all of your support.

This chapter so far was the longest; over 21,600 words and 45 pages. Thanks for all of your patience and thanks for reading all of you that weren't patient. I have finished an outline of the remainder of the story, which will hopefully make writing the remaining chapters easier and faster as well as make the love story work. See you all next chapter.

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Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Hinata's Story: Underneath Your Clothes.

Chapter 6 Tentatively: Be careful what you wish for

What will Hinata have to go through to get what she wants?