Chapter 2
"I want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most."
– Ally Condie, Matched
"We don't even ask happiness, just a little less pain."
– Charles Bukowski
Gaara threw up a wall of sand to intercept Naruto, but that meant little to the blonde. Naruto turned in air, sweeping his wing into the sand wall. The second it hit the wall was knocked over. The construct had been a good ten feet wide and fifteen feet tall, so the sand hit the ground with a resounding thud as Naruto continued towards the boy from Sand.
Meanwhile, up in the stands, most were having thoughts of surprise. There was almost complete silence as the civilians who had shunned and hated Naruto came to terms with the fact that the boy who contained the Kyubi had just sprouted wings and taken the appearance of an angel.
'THIS is what he was hiding? Kakashi thought, glad he had known something was amiss but astounded it was something so huge. 'It would explain it all… Sarutobi must have known, that's why he said Naruto would be fine without aid! And his style was missing something, his wings! And the fight against Kiba, his wings are what were straining against his jacket, although I'm curious about the extra height and strength. Then a month ago, this was why he knew he could win! And the feather, it's exactly like Naruto's! It makes perfect sense that my student just... Sprouted... Wings...
"The fuck?" The man muttered as his book fell from numb fingers.
Meanwhile Naruto was trying to fight Gaara, a task proving difficult to initiate. Just as he had reached Gaara, he had been forced to avoid a massive jet of sand. He twirled in the air in an impressive show of air acrobatics, skirting around it.
The sand tried to follow Naruto, but his wings moved him at least twice as fast. He quickly outran it and moved in a circle around the arena until he was directly behind Gaara, before flying at his fellow Jinchuriki.
He reached the red haired boy in two seconds with a massive burst of speed from a flap of his black-orange wings. Once he was near the boy Naruto formed his favorite hand seals and ten more winged Narutos appeared. One of them slid on the ground and came before the redhead, nailing him with a kick right under his jaw that sent him flying upwards.
Two more flew up and kicked Gaara higher and higher, in the chin, in the stomach, in the... Naruto wondered if it still hurt to be kicked there through the armor. Two more flew up and kicked him, more and more. Each kick propelled him further from the ground. Ten feet, thirty feet, sixty feet, eighty feet...
One hundred feet off the ground, and a clone grabbed the boy in a full nelson with other clones grabbed on to his legs and arms, completely immobilizing him as his sand raced from the ground to catch up to its master. The original Naruto floated about ten feet about his fellow jinchuriki.
Meanwhile, Gaara was ecstatic despite his position, or rather because of it. He had met a worthy opponent! He could not focus long enough to move his sand, and the sand could not keep but with how fast he was being knocked around the arena - nobody had ever tried to separate him from his sand like this. But his armor would protect him from whatever attack this boy was planning! He would prove his existence through the Uzumaki's death! The ravings of a mad man continued sounding off in his head.
Naruto, sane in a sense and objectively thinking, was reflecting how simple it was to come out on top if you would just come up with a strategy to defeat your opponent in the month you had, Sure the fact that they learned new things made that difficult, but with an opponent like Gaara, cocksure in his own strength and unlikely to grow and change, it was easy to plan ahead.
Smash Gaara's sand armor, cut off his seal, and knock him the fuck out. Right now, he was working on step one. Unfortunately, Naruto forgot the most important rule of war and battle; even the best plans get fucked up when the enemy arrives.
Naruto channeled chakra into his wings, as he would to strengthen any limb. He made it where they would flap with exponentially more force than normal. Then, he strengthened the fragile membrane with chakra to keep it from breaking with the tremendous force he would have to put behind them.
Finally, he pulled back his wings and brought them forward.
"Wind Style: Gale Force." He whispered to himself.
The gust of wind created went at least three hundred miles an hour, greater than most wind attacks and any hurricane in Konoha's recorded history. This entire gust was directed at Gaara in an area of five square feet.
This would have killed most men in a second, but Gaara's sand armor kept him alive. As he moved towards the ground at record speeds, something Naruto had not accounted for occured - the sand, previously hurtling upwards to free its master from the grip of clones, instead stopped moving altogether and caught the redhead, forming a cacoon around him.
This cacoon did not have nearly the strength to stop the descent in its tracks, but it did slow him gradually, more and more, until the cacoon of sand stopped barely a foot above the ground. It opened to reveal Gaara, sitting on a cloud of sand with crossed legs and a feral look of excitement on his face. The boy raised his right arm and a stream of stand was launched at his opponent.
'Of course it's not that easy.'
Naruto avoided the sand barrage with deft flying, locking eyes with Gaara. The two sped towards each other and engaged in a sort of aerial dogfight. Gaara knew an actual hand-to-hand battle would be to his opponent's advantage, and so the redhead always worked to keep a couple of meters between himself and the blond, leaving more than half his sand swirling around him to lash out if Naruto got too close.
Naruto knew he needed to get close, but he didn't know how to, stuck in a pattern. He was on the offensive in a sense, but he had yet to be able to get close enough to throw an actual blow. Meanwhile every couple of shots Gaara threw connected, at least glancing him, and eventually one would hit him way worse than that.
That shot came as Naruto was considering it. The Sand jinchuriki had the bright idea of throwing a second smaller blast behind first one but in the direction Naruto was likely to roll. Guessing correctly as to where his opponent was moving, the Sand ninja had Naruto dead to rights. The winged boy tucked his wings against him as the blast approached, trying to torpedo through it. The sand was packed thicker than he would've guessed, so instead he was sent tumbling back hard.
He managed to right himself, hitting the arena wall feet first and creating a small crater, about a meter in diameter. Although his head was ringing he was able to quickly go through his options. His ranged attacks were either too weak to do enough damage or would take too long to prepare, and Gaara could likely match him blow for blow from afar. He needed to make this up close and personal and he needed to find a quicker way than flying directly at him to do that… A plan forming in his mind, the blond pushed off towards his foe.
Gaara's sand was once more avoided by Naruto, who barrel-rolled aside a blast meant to catch him against the wall. He followed up by flapping his wings at Gaara while upright, sending at least fifty feathers at Gaara. The boy easily through up a shield of sand to intercept them, but, to the surprise of most watching, they flew through the shield and straight onto Gaara. There were all stopped by his much harder sand armor, but the idea that any of his defenses could be breached with such small projectiles obviously rattled the boy.
"How did he do that?" Shouted Kiba, moving to grip the rail. Next to him, Asuma answered.
"Wind manipulation is my guess." Asuma said. "He covers his feathers in his own wind-nature chakra. This makes the individual little bits of the feathers sharper than your highest quality kunai, and the wind chakra behind them make the feathers move three times as fast as any Jonin could throw projectiles. Problem is, they bend and break easier, so the sand armor, which was as hard as rock, was able to stop them."
"That's... Cool..." Kiba breathed from the Konoha part of the box, also on the edge of his seat. He was in awe of Naruto. The dead last of the academy, the boy Kiba had always beaten in spars, now looked to be beyond Chunin level! Hell without the wings and acting like an idiot Naruto was stronger than him...
'I need to be stronger!' He thought, clenching his fist. He had always slacked, just learning his clan techniques. He remembered all those times Kurenai had offered to help him diversify, try to learn how to use a weapon or maybe even genjutsu. His natural chakra control wasn't half bad. But he had instead done the bare minimum at team training sessions and then done the bare minimum to learn his clan techniques, expecting them to carry him through the day.
It hadn't against Naruto when he had been an utter dumbass, and it wouldn't have against Naruto now, or that monster Sand ninja Gaara. "I need to get stronger..." He thought to himself furiously, the railing creaking in his fist as it bent.
The feathers served their purpose in giving Naruto enough time to execute a series of handseals. Finishing on the Tiger seal, he shouted, "Wind Style: Air Cannon!" The flying blond spat a massive ball of compressed, spiraling air at his opponent.
Gaara threw up another shield of sand, at least twice as thick as the first one. The bullet was fast and powerful enough to smash through the shield, but the jutsu was not designed to pierce like Wind Style: Wind Fang Bullet. Naruto had derived Air Cannon from the jutsu, but had adjusted it to explode on contact. It had been intended for aerial bombardment, but it also had use whenever the winged teen needed massive concussive force.
He formed many projectiles with the sand, from kunai to shuriken to senbon, and sent them all at Naruto. Naruto responded with his own barrage of feathers, matching each sand weapon blow for blow. Naruto then followed up with a regular kunai of his own a small bit to the left of Gaara. The boy did not bother blocking it, and not seeing it as a threat neither did his sand.
This proved to be a mistake, as the second the weapon was next to Gaara, Naruto substituted with the projectile, putting him right next to the red-haired boy. Most people wouldn't have had the chakra to waste, as the amount of chakra expended was proportional to the difference in size of the object and the person when talking substitution, but Naruto had plenty to spare. Before anybody could catch up except the present Jonin, Naruto had delivered a roundhouse kick to Gaara's head. He followed up by slapping the the boy across the body with his wing. The experience of being hit by the powerful appendage was similar to being hit by a brick was at ninety miles an hour, and the boy flew to the side.
Once more, his sand came behind him and captured him, but this proved useless as Naruto preformed the same trick. Gaara's sand didn't register the off-target kunai immediately as a threat, and Gaara was too distracted to react himself. Therefore, as Gaara was about to hit the nearest arena wall, Naruto appeared behind him and held out his leg perpendicular to the shit-kicked, hurling jinchuriki.
Gaara's body did a strange bend around Naruto's foot, spinning slightly, and hanging on the blonde's outstretched leg. Naruto took the second before the sand caught up with what was happening and observed the damage done to Gaara. The boy's sand armor was cracked and chipped, but not to the level Naruto had been hoping for.
Had his Gale Force technique worked, Gaara would be in a much worse state, covered in cuts and bruises and his sand armor shattered. He would have hit the ground faster than anyone could possibly move, perhaps at up to 350 miles per hour. It would have allowed Naruto to get to the flesh the seal was written on, wherever it was on Gaara, and put up his counter seal.
He would need something better. He could continue kicking Gaara around, but Naruto didn't think the trick would keep working too long, not long enough to finish the boy's armor. Even with Naruto's flying speed, the blonde didn't think his wings would work for fighting Gaara's sand. He didn't want to risk them if they were crushed like Lee's limbs, they would never heal. He wings being crushed would cause him more pain than the average male getting his genetalia destroyed, except Naruto wouldn't die.
He could attempt his jutsu again but he was already feeling some intense soreness from using Gale Force once. The strain put on his wings by the attack, even when chakra-infused, was massive. Repeated usage in short timeframe could break them. That would heal with regular medical attention, but Naruto would be down for the count for months, and the village couldn't afford to have him hurt with the upcoming invasion.
Then he remembered what had happened to Gaara's armor when Rock Lee had used his Lotus technique. It hadn't quite been destroyed, but it had been damaged to the point Naruto had it at now. Surely if he could pull off something similar the armor would be shattered, but it wasn't as if he had the training or the equipment, maybe not even the speed... What could he - the blond mentally hit his forehead. The Naruto Uzumaki Barrage… He would have to change that name to something less masturbatory.
Naruto tossed Gaara up with one leg then kicked him up with another, sending the red-haired boy a hundred feet off the ground once more. Naruto then made a clone, who flew up, kicking him further. He created a couple more clones who did the same while Naruto himself put every single ounce of his speed towards working above his mid-air foe, just barely keeping ahead of the sand pursuing its master put increasing his berth every second.
Once the blond was above Gaara, about three clones and fifty more feet later, the blond folded his wing twisted his body hard, doing a full one-hundred and eighty degree spin. All the force generated by this went into Gaara's sky-turned stomach via Naruto's foot. The tanuki boy went downwards at a frightening speed, so fast that when his sand, much closer now, once more attempted to catch him, he passed right through it. The sand followed its master to the ground: Gaara formed a large crater on impact, and his sand smashed him further into the ground.
A lot of dust was kicked up but once it cleared, Naruto saw what had happened, or at least made an inference on what had happened. It appeared Gaara's sand had rushed after the red-haired boy and had hit the ground shortly after the redhead himself. It had smashed onto the boy and broken his armor completely, and a few bones, judging by the amount of sand that had hit. It was amazing how Gaara's most powerful weapon could be so easily turned against him.
Seeing that Gaara was nearing unconsciousness, Naruto folded his wings and made himself into a sort of wedge, allowing him to clear the distance in less than three seconds. Less than twenty feet from the ground, he opened his still chakra-infused wings and glided to the ground next to his fellow jinchuriki
Naruto pulled out the previously made seal, and thought humorously of how it looked like the seal Orochimaru had put on him a month ago. He was lucky he'd known enough about sealing to realize it was the kinda of seal that was neutralized by chakra channeled into it in the exact same manner the seal was applied, and been able to remove it the second he got home after the preliminaries… Albeit with considerable pain.
He was moved out of his musings by the sound of sand moving. He saw that it had begun swirling around Gaara. It covered parts of his body and began making a sort of shell around him, while the boy himself began ranting. "You made me bleed, Uzumaki! You will die! Die! You will prove my existence!" He shouted. He then screamed like a mad man. "Mother wants your blood, Uzumaki! Mother wants you blood!"
Naruto's only reaction was to channel chakra into the seal and slam it onto Gaara's still-visible seal.
There was silence from the Sand-nin, then he started shivering. "I can't hear mother!" He whispered hoarsely. "I can't hear mother!" He screamed. He then began sobbing as the sand forming a sort of Tanuki shell dissolved around him.
Naruto looked down at the boy, feeling a sort of pity. This was an unusual feeling for winged boy, as he view those as unable to provide or protect themselves not worth his time. But he saw how easy it would have been for him to turn into Gaara, had his father made the slightest mistake with the seal. How he could have become so dependent on his demon...
The thought made him sick.
He knelt beside Gaara and whispered, in a much warmer tone than many would hear from him for a long time. "Gaara." He called. The red-haired boy's eyes turned to Naruto, filled with fear and pain, and Naruto once more felt a stab of pity. "I'm going to tell you this once. To live, you do not need to kill everyone you can. You do not need anyone but yourself. You do not need your village, you do not need your family, and you do not need mother. You need only yourself."
He sighed. "That being said, there are those that will be worth your time. You will be strong enough alone, but those people that care for you will make you even more powerful - they will help you grow your own power, instead of just being dependent upon your demon. And anyone who shuns you? Their existences don't matter enough to fuel your own."
Naruto then reached up to Gaara's neck and squeezed a pressure point, knocking him unconscious. He ignored Hayate announce him as the victor and flew back up to the contestant's box.
The entire exchange had taken about ten minutes.
The 'Kazekage' was currently cursing all things above and below the sun, especially the boy in front of him. Gaara had been the tool he was going to crush Konoha with, and his fucking tool had just been broken!
Orochimaru had no doubt that he could easily return Gaara's seal to its original form, but the boy himself was broken, Orochimaru could tell. He was a talented lip-reader and had witnessed the verbal exchange between the two jinchuriki.
The snake admired the Kyubi brat's philosophy, he had to say. However, the focus on that had been the abject fear in Gaara's eyes. The Sand ninja could not be beaten, at least that was what he needed to believe. The thought that he could be defeated, that one day someone else would end him to prove their existence, was too much for him in that moment. He wasn't able to comprehend the idea.
He had lost his confidence, and without confidence in their abilities a ninja could not fight. Having Gaara of the Sand as the Ichibi Jinchuriki was the equivalent of giving the Nidaime's sword to a toddler - a pointless waste of a weapon.
Orochimaru would have to go to plan B. It would leave him fighting his old sensei alone, but the village around their battle would fall all the faster. Besides, he could kill that decrepit old monkey! He had no fear of the old man anymore, none! He had just found the idea of the man falling to his own
This invasion could still work. Perhaps it was better this way, if the rumors of Jiraiya in the village were true. The old toad had no chance against the first two Hokage, much less his old student, if that actually worked.
No, this invasion would still work, he just had a little bump. It would take longer to set up, perhaps even until they awarded the trophy to the victor of the tournament. And besides, now he had something new to do.
Killing and dissecting Naruto Uzumaki.
Said boy landed in the contestant's box and took his seat, ignoring the shocked stares around him. The entire group remained silent for a moment while a few earth manipulators repaired the arena.
"Naruto." Sasuke spoke first.
"Yes Sasuke?" Naruto responded, pulling out another cigarette.
"You have wings." Sasuke stated, not a question but simply an establishment of fact.
"Yep." Naruto said with a nod as a shadow clone came into the room, holding a recently purchased lighter. The Naruto clone handed the fire starter to the original before dispelling; Naruto had made it when he realized he didn't have his, discreetly. The blond lit up and took a puff.
"How?" Sasuke questioned.
The winged boy took a deep inhale. "That." He said, "Is a long story that requires the reveal of quite a few more secrets. So, if you don't mind, can it wait?"
"Can it wait?!" Kiba demanded from the metaphorical peanut gallery. "Dude, you just sprouted wings!"
"Already established Kiba, but I see you're trying so A plus for effort." Naruto cut in glibly.
"Dude!" The dog boy said again.
"Kiba." Kurenai cut in. All eyes turned to her. "Maybe we should just let Naruto explain when less is going on. I'm sure we're all curious, but something like this is liable to be a time-consuming explanation."
"Very curious." Sasuke stressed.
"Once more, understood." Naruto countered. "And I would be in your shoes. But I plan to let some things loose when I win this thing, so after that I can clear things up for everyone. For now, let me just say it isn't a bloodline limit."
There was more silence. Then Sasuke gave a small snort. "When? You'll need to suddenly get a lot more than wings to beat me. Like skill."
"Oh really, bastard?" The blond rival responded with his own small snort. "Maybe if your Sharingan lets you see me coming doesn't mean you'll be able to stop me."
"I can find other ways to rip off your wings." Sasuke responded in kind. He curved his lips into an o-shape and let out a puff of smoke. "Remember who has the elemental advantage here."
"That's not how that works and you know it." Naruto retorted. "Besides," he continued, letting out a puff of smoke, "I can breathe fire too. It isn't as half as hard as you make it look."
The two continued like this, insulting back and forth. If anybody else said any of these things to either of them, they would be fighting words, but between those two they were par for the course. Bastard and idiot had gone from childish insults to terms of endearment in a way.
At first those not too familiar with the situation were worried there was actually going to be a fight. But when the first missile was launched, Sakura smiled, and Kakashi did the strange thing he did with his eye in lieu of smiling. This was how the two functioned; they really were brothers at this point.
Still, in the back of Sakura's mind, and in the back of Naruto's, they both recognized Sasuke wasn't quite the same as he was the month before. He was different, more open, friendlier. Some of the insults the blond was throwing would've crossed a line before, but now Sasuke too them simply as jokes. This was not a bad change, but it was a curiosity almost as strange as Naruto himself.
Hinata Hyuga was nothing even approaching mentally healthy. On the outside, she seemed simply a shy, withdrawn girl, but that was not even a fraction of the truth. Hinata Hyuga was a girl on the verge of collapse.
Her life had started off fine. Very good in fact. She'd been born heiress of the Hyuga clan, arguably the most powerful in Konoha. She had loving parents, a loving uncle, and a cousin who desired only to protect her, as was the role he had been assigned in life. Had these things been constant, she would've grown up to be gentle and strong girl, beating Sasuke Uchiha as head of their class and becoming one of the strongest ninja of her generation, stronger than her prodigy cousin.
But that was not to be. From a young age, Hinata slowly had these blessings stripped away from her. She first lost her uncle at the age of three, the man dying in her father's stead. He had chosen this for himself, but that was not something known to any besides her father. When she had lost her uncle, she also lost her cousin. After all, the only reason anyone had needed to die was because she was kidnapped for her bloodline limit and her father had killed the man who did so; an important visiting Cloud dignitary whose death demanded response. To avoid war, somebody had to die. Since it was he uncle, her cousin irrationally blamed her and grew to hate the girl. Her father even grew cold to her.
But still, life was good. She was still heiress of the Hyuga, after all. And her father still loved her, and her mother still loved her. She even gained a baby sister who she adored, unaware of what a new child would mean for one of them. But it was not to last.
Shortly after the child's birth, Hinata lost her mother to illness. When she lost her mother, she lost her father as well. The man allowed Hinata, so similar to her mother in nature and appearance, to become a symbol of his own failures to save the love of his life. And so, he grew to hate his daughter. He took away the protection he had always given the girl, protection from dissident members of his clan who doubted the girl for her kind nature, for her love of the Hyuga branch family.
But still, the girl was heiress. She still had the little sister she adored. Life wasn't yet horrific, despite the cold eyes of the daddy she loved. But soon, she faltered in her training, unable to respond to the cold, harsh methods the Hyugas used to teach. Her sister meanwhile, she learned fine. Her father saw her sister succeed and decided that she was more worthy than Hinata. He disowned the girl as clan heiress in all but name, allowing her to feel the full displeasure of her clan. He turned her little sister into his mirror, teaching her the sister who loved her so, poor Hinata, was to be scorned. He turned the girl over to Konoha's ninja forces, unheard of for most main branch members, hoping to an extent she would die in the line of duty and rid him of this failure, his failure.
Yet the girl persisted. Despite her nature, timid and shy, she tried. But she could not learn from rage and disappointment, she could not learn from how she was taught. And as her father grew colder and colder, open palms in the training room turned into closed fists.
Hinata had sat on her bed the night before beginning the academy, all of seven years old, contemplating the stolen kunai in her hands. She had raised it, ready to bring it down into her stomach and end the shame that she now perceived herself to be. But then she saw her mother's smiling face, and felt a shame so great she could do nothing but allow herself to live with it. She dropped the knife and fell to sleep, tears rushing down her face.
This was fortunate, for the next day at the academy she found the ray of light she needed. Bullied by boys unknowing of her pain for having rights she no longer possessed, the light saved her. The light of Naruto Uzumaki, for at that time he was a light, still largely untouched by the evils of the world, the betrayals he would feel. He saved her from this abuse at the cost of his own well-being.
She saw this boy, and over the coming weeks she saw him persevere though troubles equal to her own. She saw food thrown at him openly in the streets. She saw him shunned. She saw him hated. Yet she also saw him laugh and smile, saw his eyes shine in a way she couldn't fathom being possible. And in this boy, Naruto Uzumaki, she found strength. She admired him so, and over time that admiration turned into affection and even love, a love beyond something simply romantic. At so young an age, only eight at the time she realized her feelings, she loved Naruto Uzumaki. She loved the strength she gave him, the courage. She loved his smile, his shining blue eyes. She loved the ideals he embodied that, to her young mind, promised the love of her father once more if she too could exude them like he did.
For a short time, she grew stronger. Her younger sister could barely match her as she fought with her for their father's love. He grew not warmer, but still less cold. He even smiled, once, briefly. She even came close to be courageous enough to talk to the boy she held so fear. But then her father discovered the source of his daughter's strength, the village pariah, and he felt nothing but fury.
He brought his daughter before the clan elders, ordered her to apologize to them and himself for her disgrace, to cease any and all thoughts of Naruto Uzumaki. Yet Hinata knew she could not do that; without Naruto, she would not be strong. She could face her sister, learn from her cold tutoring. She had built the person she was becoming around him, he was the pillar that held her up. Without him, she would collapse, and her father would not care for her anyway.
And so, deciding she needed to keep something, she did the unthinkable and denied her father. And in response he struck her, demanding an apology again. Again she refused, seeing not her father but the beautiful cerulean eyes she loved. Again he struck her. This continued for hours, the clan elders watching impassively.
He beat her beyond what could dismissed as discipline or training, beyond any right he could argue to have as her parent. For hours, he tore down what she was trying to build. By nightfall she was a quivering mess upon the floor, and one last time he demanded she bow to his will. And in response he whispered that word she would have said for no other cause, not even her own life.
"No."
And so he kicked her aside, in the wall like trash. He and the elders left her there, shaking their heads at what a disappointment she was. For a week she was abused further, and another week her visible marks allowed to heal, before she was permitted to return to the academy. All her progress undone, she received middling grades. She faded into obscurity among her classmates. She became dead to her father and the clan. Unknowingly, she had even lost Naruto, who had been betrayed and given knowledge that changed him fundamentally.
But he hid this well and continued being the boy Hinata loved so much. And that boy he pretended to be became her only reason for living, the one light that shined in her abyss. She took what had been destroyed by her father and to an extent rebuilt it, growing stronger than she showed. She did not show this strength, as it was derived from Naruto and would not gain her the love of her family. She hid it so well her own teacher Kurenai, who she was closer to than all others, did not see it. But even unseen it gave her a reason to live. It allowed her to keep that which she was shunned for, her kindness. It gave her hope.
Notice the comparison of Naruto to a pillar; he is the main support to the person that is Hinata Hyuga, the fragile construct she is at thirteen. And when you knock the main support down in a building, the building falls into rubble. It was not right or fair that the boy was held on such a pedestal by her - in fact, she did not realize, but she had fallen less for the person Naruto was and more for the person she needed him to be to stay kind in the face of her pain. And so she gave him more significance than anyone had ever held in her life, and made gaining his affections and approval her most important goal. She was happy dreaming about these things from afar, because they were always possible. But if the possibility of Naruto loving her was taken away, should he die, or worse reject her, it was hard to know how the girl's fragile mental state would react. She would likely become an entirely different person should such a thing happen.
And trying to process Naruto's rejection was, unfortunately, the state of Hinata Hyuga the morning of the Chunin Exams, stumbling through the halls of the arena, coughing up blood. Earlier, Naruto Uzumaki had revealed himself for what he was at the training grounds, when she met him to wish him good luck.
She had been waiting here, knowing he would pass through one his way to the arena. It was the most direct way from his apartment. When he finally came, her heart skipped a beat as she saw him in his new clothes. She was surprised, but not put off. He was handsome in them, looking far older and more mature. He even wore his headband as she did, an inconsequential fact that made her heart flutter.
She stepped out from behind the log she had been using to hide. Poking her fingers together, she looked up, expecting to see the happy blue orbs she adored. Instead, she was greet by a look of disdain and hatred, emanating from frozen lakes.
Hinata learned hard again the wall, fire in her chest from lingering damage Neji had caused. She needed to see a doctor, but… Did she even want to?
"H-hello Naruto." She stuttered out, unnerved by his eyes but not totally put off.
"What do you want?" He demanded of her, his tone spiteful. The words drove a knife into Hinata's heart.
Still, she was sure it wasn't her. She hadn't seen him like this before, but he had helped her weather so many storms, he needed the same right now it seemed. Maybe he was just nervous to fight Gaara, though she had absolute faith he would win.
"I-I just w-w-wanted to w-wish y-you l-luck." She stuttered out, not able to meet his cold eyes.
"R-r-r-really?" He stuttered out back in a mocking imitation of her voice, even copying her nervous face. "I'm s-s-so t-th-hankful." Then his face turned hard and cold, his lips turning into a sneer that mocked the smile that had made Hinata so happy. "Cut the bullshit. I know what you want."
Hinata slid down the wall, coughing up blood. She felt her heart break as she thought back to his words, his cruel, cruel words.
"W-what?" Hinata asked, her heart beginning to beat wildly. No, he couldn't be saying these things, mocking her.
"You heard me." Naruto hissed vehemently. "I know you think you can use the fox to get back status in your clan. You probably even hope that getting that much power under your control might get you a little approval from daddy. But I'm not the kind that can be taken advantage of with lies anymore."
She stared at him, dazed by his accusations. "Wh-what are you t-talking-"
He was an inch from her face in a second. In a low tone, dangerous, he said, "Cut the bullshit and use your big girl voice."
Use your big girl voice, he'd said. Her father had said to use the voice of a Hyuga, years ago as he'd beaten her. To use a voice of authority. She coughed up more blood on her lavender shirt, staining it.
She wasn't, she couldn't, and there was no accepting this for her. This was Naruto, the source of her light. This wasn't happening.
After a moment of silence, Naruto smiled cruelly. "Or just lose your voice entirely then. That's even better really, it shuts you up." He shoved past her, brushing her hard with his shoulder. She stumbled back as he walked past.
She didn't… No. No. She stood silently, hearing his footfalls as he walked past her, walked away from everything she had loved in him. No. No. She couldn't.
She turned, tears falling down her face, she screamed, "Naruto!"
He stopped, turned his head, leveling his cold eyes to her over his shoulder. "What?" He demanded of her.
For a moment, she didn't know what. She didn't know what to say to what she was seeing; her beacon, turning his back on her? It was the worst thing she could imagine; no, not even that good. She would never have been able to fathom what had happened, his words. Not until he felt them pierce her.
"You can't!" She shouted, tears streaming down her face. She'd sworn off crying, as he had. It accomplished nothing, but… But he had broken so many things…
"Can't what?" He scoffed. "What can't I do?"
"You can't abandon me!" She screamed. "My father did, my mother did, my uncle, Hanabi, Neji, not you too!" She fell to her knees. "I can't lose you!" She sobbed pitifully.
Then he laughed. A harsh, cruel, discordant sound she would've never been able to associate with him. "Playing the family card? You know, if I was more naïve that might work. But I'm no fool Hinata." He turned fully to her, shaking his head. "You hide yourself, like me. I see your movements. Every single hit thrown is being held back; you're good at hiding, but you can't hide from me. You hide your true strength, strength greater than almost any other genin. If you'd used it from the get go with Neji, you would have beaten him."
He walked closer to her, each word accentuated with a footfall. "You are like me, but not for your own defense. You deceive the village and your family because you know no matter how strong you get, your father will hate you because you look like your mother." He smiled cruelly at his stricken look at his words. "Branch members love to get drunk and talk shit in the poor side of town, where the main family would never be seen."
He sighed. "I have to say, it's a shame. If you had fought at your full strength from the beginning against Neji, you would have beaten him. But even then you wouldn't be safe. No, you need the power of the Kyubi to really be safe."
The Kyubi. Hinata coughed up more blood, pulling herself slowly to her feet. She never would've imagined something so impossible to be the source of Naruto's suffering. But it made sense. His birthday, his stamina…
"What?" Hinata asked, her voice small.
"Don't play dumb." He scoffed. "The Kyubi was sealed in me by the Fourth the day I was born. I'm a Jinchuriki. That's why you're pursuing me, isn't it?" He looked at her face for another moment before shaking his head in disgust. "Pathetic. You won't even own up to it when you've been totally figured out.
"… This isn't you." She mumbled. She stood, her heart beating fast. "No, this isn't the Naruto Uzumaki I know!" It had to be some kind of trick, some kind of cruel deception… Where was her Naruto, the boy she loved…?
He snorted derisively. "That's because he's dead and gone."
Her heart fractured like glass as she stumbled to standing, hearing the echo of those words in her mind. Naruto Uzumaki was dead and gone. Those words, each syllable like a knife in her heart. The boy she loved-
"He never really existed, honestly. He was a curtain hiding me, something to keep the villagers away from me, to keep other villages from trying to kidnap me, to keep them from thinking I was really a threat, until I could stop them myself. I'm glad I finally did away with him." The blond continued.
Naruto Uzumaki was gone. She clung to her memories, shining eyes, golden hair, perseverance, courage, his smile…
"No, my name is Naruto Namikaze. I'm very different. Smarter." He continued, turning again and beginning to walk away. "I'm past foolish needs like respect of the masses. I'm past the idiotic belief in the kind of love you suggest, especially the kind of love you suggest." He stopped for a moment and threw her one last glance. "I've dropped my mask. I suggest you drop yours, now that your reason for it is gone."
She said nothing in reply as he continued to look at her. Then he turned his head back, walking away and whistling a tune she didn't recognize. Soon, even the tune and the sound of footsteps were gone.
Then she started coughing up blood.
Kabuto Yakushi had to admit some worry after seeing Gaara of the Sand go down. He, much like his own master, knew that without Gaara the heavy-hitting elements of the invasion would be spread uncomfortably thin.
The plan had been to release the one-tailed jinchuriki on the village at large, tying up forces in the village while summons wreaked havoc from the outside and their ninja pillaged as they pleased. Meanwhile Lord Orochimaru would use the summoned dead Hokages to kill his old mentor in a delicious bit of irony.
Now however, they would have to move to a contingency plan. The henchman assumed it would be the plan in which one of the two old Hokage would be summoned outside the barrier the Sound Four would erect to trap the Third; Orochimaru would kill the old man himself.
The traitor could only assume. Still, he would need to cast his genjutsu technique to knock out the civilians in the stadium. The disguise of an ANBU captain he had employed was perfect; nobody questioned him. He had even had two ANBU agents defer to him earlier: he'd sent them to useless positions entirely out of the way of Sound troops.
Now he was just pacing through the halls of the stadium, waiting for the end of the tourney; they'd originally planned to attack once Gaara lost it, but he was useless now, so the tourney would be allowed to continue the end, to sate Orochimaru's curiosity about the strength of Leaf genin.
Briefly, Kabuto considered how likely it was that his master's pride would be the death of him. If they had attacked before the match had even begun, as the spymaster had suggested, Gaara would currently be wreaking havoc in the middle of the arena and their plan would be rolling full force. Instead, Orochimaru had decided the chance to see the Kyubi fight was too exciting to pass up.
That kind of arrogance had brought low even stronger men than the sannin throughout history. While he would never have voiced it for fear of execution, he doubted his master could still beat Sarutobi. If he was being honest, he expected this entire thing would go belly up by the end. He had plans to deal with such events, just in case...
The spymaster was brought out of his musings by the sound of sobbing and coughing from around the corner. He paused for a moment, trying to decide if he cared to get involved, before shrugging and deciding he had nothing to lose.
As he turned the corner, he saw a girl, tiny in stature he noted, struggling to her feet and using the wall as support. She fell again, thudding to the floor with a cry. Laying prone, she curled in on herself, coughing violently. He noticed blood come from her mouth, a sight that made him at least curious enough to help.
He walked to her side and kneeled down, turning the girl onto her side to where he could see her face. Her eyes were getting glazed over; she'd passed out, he realized. She had to be in great pain. She wore a forehead protector around her neck, indicating she was a ninja, and he noted her pupiless eyes showed her to be a Hyuga… An unmarked one.
He may have to take her for experimentation purposes, but for now he needed to figure out what was wrong with her. She was still coughing bloody mucus, and putting his hand on her chest as she breathed he got an idea of the problem.
He ran a quick diagnostic to make sure and was proven correct. The girl was suffering from massive internal damage to her lungs, heart, and kidneys, seemingly dealt to her via the Gentle Fist. Looking at these injuries, he realized he was not dealing with just any Hyuga, but the one publicly recognized as clan heiress.
He remembered she'd been severely injured in a battle with a clansmen during the Chunin Exam Preliminaries. He'd recently made a ninja info card on her for his collection. The injuries were severe, but oddly enough seemed to be half-healed. The heart was mostly untouched, not surprising considering the way it was harmed was hard to see for the average medical ninja or doctor. The lungs and kidneys had been attended to however, just poorly.
In fact, he realized that they were healed in such a way as to have the girl die from stress. Her heart, damaged as it was, essentially had arrhythmia, a condition that affected the beating of the heart. It could become irregular with this condition, and if severe enough, as the Hyuga's were, could lead to death under stress. Her lungs and kidneys were healed such as she would be constantly short of breath and have a steady case of pneumonia building…
This was meant to kill the girl over time, seemingly of simple complications from severe injuries. Most coroners wouldn't notice that the wounds had been intentionally healed to cause said complications. Most medic ninja wouldn't either, so perhaps they hadn't been purposely healed that way. Still, it seemed a bit too coincidental that someone of her stature…
He ended his diagnostics jutsu, content that he'd found the problem, and quickly went about healing her. To a doctor and medical ninja of his caliber, the wounds were a simple thing. Soften the tissue here, break down blockage there, and reconnect this tendon in the heart…
Within minutes he was done repairing the damage; the injuries were even simpler than he first expected. Physically she may have to catch up a slight bit after so long unable to exercise, but other than that she was back to perfect form. Her breathing was returning to normal and her eyes had drifted shut. He was about to pick her up and take her to Sound forces outside the village as quickly as possible so as not to miss anything when, to his surprise, she stirred.
Before he could attempt to put a seal on her the girl's eyelids fluttered open, revealing once more those lavender orbs he coveted, although they were now awake and alert. She saw him and seemed to shrink into her coat in surprise.
He chuckled and stood up from his kneeling position, offering her his hand. "Don't be frightened child." He said genially, using an affectation upon his voice to make himself seem less frightening. He needed an opportunity to quickly and efficiently knock her out.
She inspected for a moment before leaving her coat, placing her hand in his. He hoisted her to her feet, making the obviously shy girl squeak again. Once she was standing a hand went to her chest as she noticed the absence of pressure.
"I repaired the damage." Kabuto cut in, receiving a look from her shocked eyes. "It wasn't healed right by whoever inspected it last, seemingly not on accident." Her eyes went even wider, a sight somewhat disconcerting with her lack of pupils. "If allowed to continue in the state you were in, you would have died very soon, probably minutes ago."
The girl stared at him for a few seconds before slowly looking down, contemplative. After another few seconds, he spoke again. "Seems you have enemies."
She nodded, meeting his eyes after another few seconds. "So it would seem." She said, her voice almost a whisper. She seemed to think for a second, as if remembering, before her face twisted into pain.
The reaction was so sudden and unpredictable the spy actually jumped a fraction. He reached out, thinking he may have missed a nuance to her injuries, but she fell back from his touch and into the wall.
She grabbed her chest, but not where she should have due to complications from her injuries. Rather, instead of going for her diaphragm, she went for her heart. Then she started whispering.
"No." She whispered, her voice raw with despair. "No no no no no. Not him, he can't be gone. Not him."
"Kid, you okay?" Kabuto demanded, confused a little put out. He'd hoped for a bit more thanks.
She seemed to finally really take notice of him, these words catching her attention. She looked at his masked face, and he knew she was only now seeing who he appeared as. Oddly enough however, she did not seem to care. She looked back down, silent again. Finally, she said, so quietly he could barely hear her, "No."
After a pause, Kabuto asked, "And why is that?"
There was another pause. Finally the young girl said, "Because I just lost the most precious person in my life." Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.
The spymaster mentally sighed. Great, teenage angst, he thought to himself. Just what he'd wanted to deal with. "Child, you'll find another boyfriend, it isn't the end of the world." He said, exasperated.
She surprised him again by letting out a choked laugh. "Boyfriend?" She barked, the disbelief not fitting her voice. "I never had the courage to make it that far." Her laughter turned into sobbing, and Kabuto remembered that the girl should be stuttering a great deal more than she was, according to his file on her.
Deciding this may be a slight bit more serious, he asked, "Then what did you lose?" He was legitimately curious; all things human concerned his studies, even the way they worked emotionally. He was always interested in finding new ways mental anguish was caused.
The girl didn't answer for a moment before she sobbed again and said miserably, "Everything. Without him, I'm nothing."
Realizing if he wanted to get this girl vulnerable to being incapacitated swiftly and quietly he would have to get here away from the wall and back to him, the spy pulled out a small handkerchief, offering the article to her. "Dry your eyes." He commanded her. His tone was one fitting of his disguise, kind and wise with experience.
She then seemed to care about who he was masquerading as, standing a little straighter as she took the offered article. She dabbed the corners of her eyes quickly before meeting his own gaze. "I am sorry for my behavior, sir." She said, her voice still shaky and raw.
"Think nothing of it." He said, keeping in character. His curiosity had actually been piqued enough that he was willing to pretend to be sympathetic. "We ninja still have emotions." At least, the poor ones do, he acknowledged to himself. This was why he hadn't formed any new attachments since entering the employment of Orochimaru. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
The ninja needed something to pass the time, after all, and this would do. He expected the girl to break down again and tell him some sob story, but to his surprise, she simply looked contemplative.
After a moment, she looked at him and asked, "What would you do sir, if the thing you valued most in life was taken away from you without warning? What would you if you found yourself with nothing to keep you going from each pointless day to the next?"
He was somewhat taken aback by the question. It was far darker than he had been expecting from the small girl, but a fascinating question all the same. He recalled briefly when he had been put in a similar situation…
"Please stop! I-I'm sorry, I didn't know!"
"Did Nono ask you to stop, I wonder?"
"When I was put in that situation, I sure the person that took her suffered for both of us." He spoke without much thought. When he realized what he'd said, he looked down and saw the girl's face having grown even more contemplative.
He did not speak for a moment before continuing. "Girl, listen closely." He said, catching her attention. "Revenge isn't what anyone says it is, at least not to me. It's not about getting even for yourself. It's about putting to peace what you lost by ensuring that which destroyed them has paid their penance. Revenge will likely never grant you peace, and what you become when you get it may horrify you." He turned away from her, his head aching as he recalled things he'd long since buried. "But it's all worth it for the thought that what you loved it smiling in its grave."
He did not further meet the girl's eyes. He couldn't, not with his mind whirling with his own pain. The spy had forgotten he'd wanted the girl for experimentation. He walked down the hallway and turned the corner, recalling…
He came back to the village he called home now a man of Orochimaru, no longer loyal to Danzo and his Root organization. He found himself hating Danzo; he didn't like Orochimaru either, but at least for a snake he was a fairly straight shooter. If you had irreplaceable skill, he would treat you right and fairly.
He had to check on Nono, make sure she was recovering all right. He hadn't injured her too badly when they'd met a mere fortnight ago, but he still felt worried for her. Just think of the way her flesh had ripped under his knife…
It made him sick.
He leapt from tree to tree, finally coming up on his home. Instead of nostalgia however, he felt only horror.
Fire engulfed the small town. People were screaming as they were cut down by the swords of bandits. He saw the dango stand where he'd savored small treats as a young boy get knocked over, stained red with the owner's blood. He saw the park he'd played on littered with bodies, swings being pushed aside as children tried in futility to escape bandits. And the orphanage…
"The orphanage!" He screamed aloud, the sick realization hitting him. His body moved without his mind willing it, rushing through the streets. He was accosted by a bandit her or there, but they swiftly fell each to a precise cut or stab from his chakra scalpels, leaving the barbaric men bleeding on streets already painted red. He ignored cries for help; he cared truly only for the one thing that reminded him who he truly was.
He came upon it soon, his earliest memory, Nono's orphanage. It wasn't on fire, a small blessing, but his stomach dropped to his shoes when he saw the door broken off its hinges. He rushed in, hoping not to see the worst.
Instead, he saw exactly that.
The bodies of children were everywhere. A few of them were gathered up in the arms of equally dead women, volunteers who had tried and failed to protect their wards. Chairs and furniture were tossed aside, broken in an effort to find something.
Find something.
He let out a strangled cry as he realized why this was happening. He ran through the building, his shoes making sickening splashes in puddles of blood. He opened each door he came across, hoping to find survivors, a specific survivor, but each time he found only more bodies – but still, not her body.
'Be alive Nono!' He thought to himself. Then he heard a crash from down the hall. He sprinted towards the sound, pushing every ounce of speed out of his legs when he heard an all too familiar, high-pitched scream.
He ran into the room, a second too late as the sound of an axe rending flesh entered his ears.
"Nono!" He screamed. The bear of a man turned, pulling his axe out of Nono's chest when he did so. She slid down the wall, taking in short, shallow breaths while her eyes glasses over.
"Missed a kid." The man grunted, walking towards Kabuto and hefting his ax. The boy saw red and rushed forward. Ten years old and only a bit over four feet, he slid easily through the bandits legs, using his scalpels to cut both the brute's Achilles tendons. The bandit screamed in and toppled forward, hitting the ground with a mighty thud.
The boy didn't really care. He ran to Nono, there had to be something he could do. Part of him acknowledged that was a delusion, but the rest of him told that part to shut the fuck up.
He kneeled in front of her, looking at the massive cut in her chest. It was fatal, he finally acknowledged. It was too deep, had damaged too many internal organs to survive. She would have been able to defend herself but… She was already injured.
"Nono!" He sobbed pitifully. She looked at him, seeming to have significant trouble focusing. "Nono, it's me, Kabuto!"
"Kabuto?" She questioned, eyes still glassy. Finally she managed to focus, looking at him with a sudden urgency. "Kabuto!" She hissed, obviously in massive amounts of pain. She gripped his shirt with more strength than her condition should have allowed. "Kabuto! The armoire! You have to-" She started coughing up blood, her black dress turning even darker. "Please…" She moaned, her last bit of will running low in the face of the massive pain she must have been feeling. "Keep them safe…" With these words, Nono sighed out her last breath.
All Kabuto could hear was the sound of ringing, as if his ear drum had just burst. Nono was dead.
He stood, turning to the armoire Nono had died speaking of. It was large, large enough for an adult to fit in, or perhaps…
As he drew close to it he heard crying. He knew what the closet held. Positioning his body to hide the grim scene in the room behind him, he opened the doors. Among the hung clothes there were two little girls, one with bright red hair and pale skin, the other with raven locks. He could tell much of the brunette, who had her face hidden in one of Nono's dresses. The redhead though, she stared at him defiantly.
"Go away!" She ordered him, a slight quiver in her voice. Kabuto was rather surprised by the girl's strength.
"It's okay." He said, trying to make his voice sound calm even though he wanted nothing but to scream. "I'm a friend of Nono's. My name is Kabuto."
The girl looked at him with some distrust. "Mine is Tayuya. How do you know Nono?"
"I used to live here too." Kabuto said. "Then I became a ninja." He looked over his shoulder when the bandit groaned. "Listen Tayuya, Nono wanted me to take you and your friend somewhere safe, but first I need to do something."
Tayuya seemed to be a little less on guard. "A ninja?" She asked.
"Yes." He agreed. "A ninja with a mission. I need to do that mission first. Now, I want you and your friend to close your eyes, cover your ears, and stay in here for a bit while I do that. Then I'll come back and take you somewhere safe, alright?"
The girl eyed for a moment before swallowing and nodding. "Alright." She said, sitting down and covering his ears with her hands. "Don't take too long though. It's dark in here and Yujin doesn't like the dark."
Taking the other girl to be Yujin, Kabuto nodded and closed the doors, turning on the bandit and emptying his head and heart of emotion. He walked towards the man, each step slow and deliberate.
Murderer.
"Who hired you?" Kabuto asked the bandit, kneeling down next to his head.
"What?" The man asked. In response, Kabuto cut off his ear.
"Who hired you?" Kabuto asked again as the man screamed. "Your men aren't taking anything, they're just destroying. It's obvious you came in here looking for Nono as well."
"Some ninja!" The bandit yelled. "He was wearing all black! I didn't catch his name!"
That confirmed it for Kabuto. This attack was Danzo's doing, ensuring that Nono, the last loose end, was tied up.
Murderer.
"Alright, you got what you wanted, now stop! If I'd know she was important to someone like you I wouldn't have done it! I'm sorry, I-I didn't know! Please stop!" The brute howled.
Kabuto looked into his eyes impassively. "Did Nono ask you to stop, I wonder?" The man's eyes widened as Kabuto raised his scalpel again…
The spymaster, back in Konoha again, gripped his head. He hated thinking of that day; every time his mind turned to it he relived it. He had tortured that man for almost an hour, then slaughtered every bandit in the village. Tayuya had become a member of the Sound Four, and Yujin, who had no real talent as a ninja, had been cared for until she was old enough to look after herself. As a personal favor, Orochimaru had arranged for her to end up with her own shop in Rice Country. Kabuto still checked on her on occasion.
The spymaster didn't like remembering that Nono's true killer was still at large; Danzo. So long as Danzo was an ally of Orochimaru, he was untouchable… As the spymaster emerged into the light of the sun, now in the stands of the arena waiting for his master's signal, he sighed.
For now, he was untouchable. After today that would hopefully change. The young man reflected briefly on the Hyuga girl. She had hit a cord in him entirely by accident, and as a result he had forgotten his original goal in at all talking to her. He had even given her legitimate advice instead of saying something that might have pushed her against Konoha. It was rather unfortunate, but that didn't mean the girl was beyond use. He would still attempt to take her during the preliminary stages of the invasion; he'd always wanted to experiment with the Byakugan.
What he didn't realize was his advice had given the impressionable girl just enough to go off of. The girl stood in the hallway he'd left her in, thinking on the words of the strange ANBU captain she had just met. Contemplating. Pondering.
How could she avenge Naruto Uzumaki?
Naruto took the last puff his cigarette had left to offer, taping it over the ramp before throwing it in a nearby trash can. The other genin were chattering quietly to each other, or not so quietly in the case of Ino and Kiba. Even Sasuke was speaking with the group, continuing his odd sociable streak.
The blond would've liked to take advantage of that sociable streak to continue talking with his brother, but at the moment he was too focused on upcoming events. He once more shifted his eyes to the kage box, where he knew Sarutobi was sitting next to an S-rank missing ninja would wanted nothing more to kill him.
He was nowhere near their level, but he still worried immeasurably for his adoptive grandfather. The old man was one of the constants in Naruto's life at the moment, along with his team, Ichiraku's Ramen, and Jiraiya of the Sannin to an extent. He didn't want to lose another precious person-
'Fuck.' He thought to himself as his breathing constricted. He still couldn't think in those terms. It still hurt too much to even heed that wisdom. He pulled out another cigarette and lit the cancer stick, taking a quick puff. He needed some peace of mind.
The youth turned and walked towards the door. As his fingers closed around the handle, he heard from behind him; "Where are you going Naruto?"
The blonde turned his head and saw Kakashi behind him, the only one who seemed to have noticed his impending departure. The cyclops, who had been leaning next to the door, was looking at him with seemingly impassive eyes, but eyes that were steeled just enough to let the blond know his teacher was asking him as a superior.
"The kage's box." Naruto replied, taking a puff from his cigarette.
"Only the kage and their guards are allowed in there." The jonin reminded him.
In response the blond gave a small shrug. "I'm listed as a guard. The old man left the ledger out, and hey, there's no rule against it."
"Beyond forgery, considering you put your name on it yourself." Kakashi retorted.
"Semantics." Naruto discounted. "Besides, you act as if the old man wouldn't be glad to see me."
His teacher seemed to think for a moment before shrugging and eye-smiling. "Fair point." However, his expression then went back to serious. "Naruto… You've kept secrets from me."
Naruto was silent for a second. "I have." He finally replied.
"Do you still?" Kakashi demanded.
Naruto inhaled deeply, thinking about his reply. "Yes." He said.
The jonin's eye narrowed. "Why?" He asked. "You're my student Naruto. I think it's fair to say this is the type of shit I deserve to know."
The blond felt like sighing, mostly because Kakashi had a point. Everyone had secrets, that was a given, but between a sensei and student the big things like, "I'm a mutant baby who can sprout wings" tended to be treated less like harmless little quirks and more like a big fucking deal. It had a lot to do with field usefulness and trust in the field, but there was also the simple fact that it hurt when someone who was supposed to trust you definitively, who you thought did, was keeping something big from you.
After contemplating his answer for a second, the blond finally said, "My wings were kept secret because I wanted to master their use before I revealed them. Circumstances changed that. As for the last secret I keep... I don't know if you're strong enough for it, Kakashi."
"Strong enough how?" The copy-nin questioned.
"Emotionally." Naruto answered. "If I reveal to you my last secret, you will never look at me the same – and yes, you can say you won't, but trust me, you will." The boy cut Kakashi off before he could protest.
The copy-nin was obviously thinking hard, his face tightened almost imperceptibly. Should he push, should he wait? The blond hoped it could wait; Kakashi would have more questions than the blond had the time or patience to answer at the moment.
Finally his sensei's muscles twitched and then relaxed. "If you're sure Naruto. But I don't want a bit at a time. After all of this is over, I want an explanation. The whole truth."
Naruto nodded, knowing he did owe the man that much. The legendary ninja would probably declare all out war on Jiraiya and Sarutobi when he learned that his sensei's son - someone he would've gladly raised as a little brother - had been hidden under his nose the whole time.
"Oh, and Naruto?" Kakashi interrupted again. "Make sure you watch Sasuke's match. He's got a few new tricks to show off, and I promise you won't be disappointed."
Naruto only smirked before walking out the door.
Like I said, I get ahead of schedule, two chapters in a week. I thought this one would at least take me until tomorrow, especially with how careful I have to be with Hinata's scenes, but I had more free time today than I expected and managed to get it up to my own standards. So, Naruto is a badass and a jackass, calling Hinata an emotional trainwreck would be an understatement, Kabuto is getting some focus and look at that! I even gave Kiba a scene. Next chapter things will just keep getting interesting.
Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, followed, reviewed, or even just took the time to read at all. Please keep offering me ways to improve! I'm writing this stuff to become a better writer and could use all the tips and critiques the readers have. Until next time!
