"What did you come here for?" Naruto asked.
'No Naruto,' Hinata thought, 'Why do you even have to ask? Why are you here? Why is that thing on your forehead? Why, why, oh kami why?'
Throughout her silent sobs Hinata manages to choke out a reply "Why...?"
Naruto sat silent for a moment before he said, "I've been forbidden to say, now answer mine or... else..." Naruto was hoping to scare them off in anyway, he didn't want to hurt his friends but he also couldn't afford to be captured either.
Shino spoke up quickly, hoping to cut off Kiba's heated reply as he saw his team mates face change from shock to anger. "We are not allowed to share our mission objectives with foreign Shinobi. Remove your hitai-ate and return to Konoha, I am sure Tsunade will gladly fill you in on what you've missed."
Hinata was always amazed at how calm Shino could be, what impressed her more was, with her byakugan activated, she could see all of his bugs as they moved out to attach themselves to the clones of Naruto that had taken to hiding themselves around the trio. Simultaneously while watching this unfold she could tell from Shinos facial movements, no matter how slight, that he was greatly agitated to discover someone else he knew well (for Shino at least) may have potentially betrayed them all.
That's when she noticed it. Naruto's body was covered in tattoos! They were everywhere! Red and black swirling around his body... but before she could continue her inspection, her focus was abruptly brought back unto the present.
A flash of pain shot across Naruto's eyes but it was quickly hidden away behind determination, a face that had become second nature to the blond. 'What happened to you Naruto-kun?' Hinata thought.
"Sorry to have to tell you but you're in no position to be making demands and" but before he could continue the volcano that was Kiba's emotions had just erupted.
"YOU BAKA! What the hell are you thinking? Don't you care about Konoha? About your friends? Your DREAM? Oh kami, there's not a soul you haven't told about becoming Hokage. Hokage hokage hokage..." Kiba's mimicking was cut off by a sharp reply.
"SHUT UP! I know all of that, and what the hell do you know?Now just go away, and..." Naruto had paused as he contemplatyed what he was gonna say next, and that look of pain again flashed across his eyes before they hardened with determination again, " tell everyone that Uzumaki Naruto doesn't need them anymore!"
Before any of them could reply Naruto's clones had jumped in from the trees to attack, acting quickly shino had his bugs that were attached drain some chakra to destabilize them. With a large poof, the clearing emptied out leaving Shino standing in the same position as before, Hinata in her traditional Jyuuken stance, and Kiba and akamaru already having performed their beast/human transformation and standing side by side off to the right of Shino and Hinata.
"Where is he right now Hinata?" Shino asked
"He's-" Hinata started to say, "RIGHT HERE!" Naruto Shouted, dropping from his position above Shinoto kick him in the back of his head. Right when his fist connected with Shino's jaw, his body dissolved into bugs which swarmed over him. Realising the vulnerability of his position, not because of the bugs since he knew they posed no threat to him, but of the fact that Shino was hidden and he was now exposed, even in the smoke from the smoke bombs Kiba had thrown he knew that Hinata and Kiba could tell where he was as if he was standing in the middle of the street at noon.. He put his hands together and began to shout "Tajuu Kage-" but was interrupted by a "Gatsuuga!" As Kiba and Akamaru attacked him. He jumped out of the way of the first one, which to his surprise was merely a feint for the second. Reacting quickly, Naruto summoned a clone and pushed himself out of the way and left the clone to his fate. Thinking highly of himself he landed in a crouched position and was stunned when he heard Hinata behind him say "This is for your own good Naruto, you're now in range for my divine 64 palm strikes!"
"Wait Hinata!" Shino yelled from his concealment. He had completely forgotten that Hinata and Kiba had missed the end of Narutos fight in the finals. And with the law created to hide Narutos Identity as a jinchuuriki, no one ever spoke about the end at all. Shino realized he should have remembered to tell his team mates about it, but he was too excited about going on this mission that was like the Sasuke retrieval mission which he had missed. His warning however was too late.
"2 strikes! 4 Strikes! 8 Strikes, 32 strikes, 64 strikes!" With that Naruto went flying and landed on the ground a few feet away from them. Kiba began approaching him. He knew that he must be almost out of it since this combo had worked against all the other people they had come against.
'Naruto-kun, please, forgive me but I had to..' before she could finish her train of thought a familiar voice was heard
"Get out of there Kiba! Now!" There was a sudden edge of panic in Shino's voice.
'What could have scared Shino?' Hinata thought. 'Nothing fazes him, what could possibly-' That's when she felt it. The intense killer intent that seemed to be radiating from from her Naruto-kun. That's when she also noticed the orange chakra that seemed to be enveloping him in the form of some strange beast. It was so bright and intense she had to deactivate her Byakugan. It would have been an understatement to say that she was surprised to see that the chakra was still visible to the naked eye.
As Kiba turned back from looking at Shino after recovering from his initial shock he came face to face with a feral looking Naruto.
"If you won't leave, I'll make you leave!" With that Naruto grabbed Kiba by the front of his jacket and lifted hin into the air with his left hand. With his right he powered up a rasengan. Before he could plow it into Kiba's right shoulder as an incapacitating blow, and and career ending move, Akamaru jumped between the two and was hit in the side of the face with it since this startled Naruto and he had a fair bit of difficulty of avoiding a killing blow. Even with that managed, Naruto's attack was still very messy. Kiba and akamaru had been blown back into the nearest tree with Kiba taking the brunt of the impact with Akamaru on his chest. When he got his bearings Kiba saw it. Laying on top of him Akamaru was breathing raggedly as he watched blood pooling out of what was left of his mouth. About a third of Akamarus mouth was now missing with all of his teeth knocked out and his tongue hanging out of the side of his face now covered in chakra burns. There was no fur left anywhere on the left side of Akamarus face and his eyelid had been torn clean off. It was surprising that Akamaru was still alive what with all the blood coming out of his mouth.
"Hinata, Kiba, pick up Akamaru and go. I'll hold him off, I'll catch up to you later."
Hinata and Kiba, not wanting to disobey a command from their leader, and being the trained shinobi that they are quickly picked up Akamaru between the two of them and sped off.
'Oh Naruto, why?' Hinata thought.
Thus it left Shino and Naruto on the forest floor staring at eachother.
"Aren't you gonna run off with them too? Or are you gonna make me force you?" Naruto asked menacingly.
"Come back now Naruto and maybe your life will be spared-" Shino was violently interrupted.
"Spared? What the hell do I care about my life? If it... No I can't talk about it. Just go, before you make me angry again." Naruto answered.
"I know of the Kyuubi being sealed in you, if it's that I can help you." Shino stated.
"That's not even the half of it. I'm done talking now GO!" With that Naruto sent out a chakra claw to smack Shino into a tree, only to find that he had brutalised a block of wood.
Finding himself now alone, Naruto stood up, cleaned the area of any sign that there had been a fight there, and then went back to training.
Farther away looking through a spyglass on top of a tree was Kabuto who had just witnessed the whole torrid affair.
'Well my little Naruto-kun, you're proving to be more entertaining than I could have hoped for. I can't wait to see what you manage to do to the Kazekage soon...' Kabuto thought gleefully as he jumped down from his perch to report his recent developments to Orochimaru.
"...and that is what happened Hokage-sama." Shino stated clearly.
"I see, do either of you two having anything else to add?" Tsunade asked of the other two members of team 8.
"Ano Hokage-sama, when I activated my Byakugan I saw something odd underneath Naruto-kuns clothes." Hinata blushed brilliantly at this since, even with her conflicted emotions over the blonde, she still felt embarrassed discussing her crush in front of others. That and she tried to avoid speaking of how she has seen every single one of her opponents naked due to her bloodline.
"Hi-his body was covered in some strange red and black tattoos. I know they were kanji but, Gomen nasai Hokage sama, I didn't have the oppurtunity to read them." Hinata looked down ashamed, thinking she had just failed everyone due to her actions.
She had been beating herself up about her loss of control which lead to their confrontation with Naruto. She was upset that Akamaru had gotten hurt because of her. Overall though these feelings were passing since she knew, after years of copying her idol Naruto, that she would only be strong if she got herself up from this and made sure she got stronger so that it wouldn't happen again. No what hurt her the most was the thought that she would never get the chance to tell Naruto how she'd felt.
That feeling of loss and failure had only increased when Shino then informed them of Narutos status as a Jinchuuriki to explain what happened in the fight to Hinata and Kiba.
"Thanks for that information Hinata, most hyuuga would have been too absorbed in the fight to have bothered to look for something like that." Tsunade proclaimed.
This comment helped to alleviate some of Hinata's painful feelings but did nothing to remove her from her depressed mood. Kiba however had something he had been dying to ask since his sister had seperated him from Akamaru so he could give his mission report.
"Hokage-sama, about Akamaru..." Kiba asked.
"He'll be fine and fit for active duty within the month. Your sister has informed me that his... injuries, were mostly superficial save for his jaw and eyelid. She told me that she plans on doing some reconstructive surgery to replace the lost teeth and jawbone, but the only thing she can do for the eye is to give you some eyedrops to keep it moist or to remove it entirely if it gets infected." Tsunade said this clinically, refusing to speak of the chakra burns thinking that if she doesn't mention it, it would be like someone else had done it.
"That's all. Please tell Shizune on your way out that I wish to speak with Kakashi, and to send out a missive to Jiraiya, wherever the hell that old lecher is, I need to speak to them." And with that Tsunade let them out.
Author's note: Okay so I finished that one, meant to send it out last night but power went out and I went to bed. Would have been sooner but I was reading Ah! My Goddess in my spare time, it gets to be quite an engrossing read later on. Go to for most DLs of manga and type in Keiichi to google to find a good free Anime Direct Dl too, these are quite fast although keiichi anime forever tends to be somewhat unreliable.
About the story. Akamaru is gonna look pretty sweet (the inspiration came while writing the fight scene) and should cement in a grudge with Kiba that will be interesting to play out. I know this chapter seems pretty darker but no worries the following chapters will be a bit lighter, although I may throw in a few emotionally heavy ones. Next update may take awhile since I haven't decided if I should continue directly to the main plot line point or take another detour into "Sasuke's world". One thing I am gonna point out though is that no, there isn't gonna be some magic way out for Naruto and his predicament. I know he seemed fairly powerful in the fight scene but that was merely because it was a mismatch in strengths. Kiba would have put up a better fight if he hadn't underestimated Naruto while Hinata and Shino merely lacked the raw power needed to bring down someone like Naruto. If you would like an explanation of why I had the fight play out as is, ask me in a review and I'll send you a reply. Now that I know not to reply from my hotmail account you should find I reply to everyone who asks me.