Hey guys! This is kind of a lame chapter, but it provides the necassary drama I need to the story. I've thought about deleting it, so let me know your opinion of it after you read it! Like I said, this splits off from the anime now, and Gaara/Hinata is one of my favorite couples. Happy Reading!
Misaki shifted nervously as the anbu guards glared at her and Kyuubi. With Kyuubi glaring back at them, it couldn't have made the situation any more awkward. Suddenly, the door opened, and a short-indigo-hair girl walked in. She wore a light zip-up jacket and black capris. Misaki noticed the girl had no pupils, and briefly wondered if she was blind. The girl turned to the anbu guards. "Could you please leave us alone?" The guards looked hesitant for a moment, but a red headed boy entered soon after her, after glaring at the guards briefly, the guards ran out of the room. "That was kind of mean Gaa-kun." The girl giggled.
"It's not like they didn't deserve it." He grumbled. He turned his attention to the girl, curled up to the nine-tail fox. Looking back at indigo girl, she nodded, and both approached them. Notcing that Kyuubi felt calm in their presence, Misaki releaxed as well. Offering the girl a slight smile, he said. "Hello, my name is Sabaku no Gaara, please call me Gaara." Misaki smiled back in response.
"And I am Hyuuga Hinata, it is pleasing to meet Suzuhara-san." Hinata extended her hand to a surprised Misaki.
"H-how do you know my name?" She asked nervously.
"Naruto told us about you, and the idiot dragged us over here for an emergency meeting. Apparantly, the Fourth Hokage-bastard finally blew Naruto's cover. The man's getting desperate about something." Gaara explained.
Blinking, Misaki asked. "You guys knew? How long of you known about me and Naruto?"
"We've known for about four years now." Hinata answered. Noticing the girl was starting to get upset with her blonde friend, Hinata quickly interjected. "Gaara and I saw Naruto come out of the portal a couple years ago, after sensing us, Gaara and Naruto had a short fight, intending to kill Gaara." Misaki gasped. Hinata continued. "We saw his secret that could've revealed you to Konoha, his fear was understandable. But after Gaara had managed to constrain Naruto in his sand, we promised Naruto we would never tell anyone his secret, if he would never tell ours."
"…What was your secret?" Misaki asked quietly.
Both looked away from each other blushing, but Gaara managed to continue. "Hinata can tell you that after I leave the room, to this day, I still find it embarrassing. How Sabaku's instincts took control of me like that…"
'From what the raccoon told me you were quite good, is this true Hyuuga?' Kyuubi smirked. Blushing bright red, Misaki got a pretty good idea of what happened, but was it possible when you're that young?
Glaring, Gaara replied, "Shut it, damn fox." Turning to the still-incomrtable girl, Gaara said, "We are friends of Naruto, and as Naruto's future mate, you are a friend of ours."
"We'll take care of you, and help protect you, when Naruto-san and Kyuubi-san need help." Hinata said sitting down beside her. Looking to Gaara, she signaled him to leave. Nodding, Gaara gave one last smile to Misaki, and left to find Naruto, leaving the girls and Kyuubi alone.
After a few moments of silence, Hinata spoke up. "Are you angry with Naruto-san?"
"…I can't help but be a little angry…but I don't know why." Misaki replied.
"Because it's natural." Hinata smiled gently. "You feel like Naruto's kept a whole world from you, and now you're experiencing why. It wasn't your fault of coming here Suzuhara-san, but your anger is rooted to Naruto-san because of the weakness you fear he sees. You want him desperately to acknowledge you has someone who can defend herself, and fight alongside him, rather than hide behind him."
Turning to the girl, stunned. "H-How'd you know?"
"Because Gaara-kun was like that with me at first." Hinata answered. "I met Gaara when I was very young, on my third birthday infact, he was the only one at the party besides Neji-niisan who smiled at me. He and his siblings stayed the night at our house, but tradegy almost struck. A man broke into my room and kidnapped me, Gaara stopped and killed him. Unfortunatly, the people of the Hyuuga clan and his siblings called Gaara-kun a murderer because that ninja was from the Land of Lightning. The war between Konoha and the Land of Lightning had just ended, there was even a festival to celebrate. Due to the delicate nature of this, no one wanted to stand by Gaara. But I did." Misaki's eyes widened at this. "I stuck by him, no matter what people said about him. Would you believe me if I said I used to be so shy, that I didn't speak regularly?" Misaki nodded. "Well it's true. I used to be terrified of everything until I met Gaara, for some reason, I couldn't keep my mouth shut when it came to him."
Misaki was glad that this was turning out to be a good story after what she had been through so far in this world. "So Gaara-san's your boyfriend?"
"Fiancé actually." Hinata replied. Misaki fell over. How could they be engaged that young. "We're not marrying until we're older of course, but the idea of Gaara-kun as my husband makes me very happy."
"Are families normally okay with arranged marriages?" Misaki had seen it a couple of times in her world, but they always ended in disaster. At this, Hinata's eyes turned slightly downcat. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend-"
Raising a hand to stop her, Hinata continued. "It's fine. Konoha is very traditional and not very modern, so arranged marriages are actually quite common here. But it's rather extreme in my family, because we're the oldest clan in Konoha." Misaki gaped for a second. "But in order for me to be with Gaara, I was eventually disbanded from the Hyuuga clan."
PAST
Nine-year-old Hinata and Gaara bravely walked down the hall of the Hyuuga council room, where her father and the Hyuuga elders awaited her. After two minutes of walking, they came across to room smilar to a court room, just darker and more depressing. In the judge's place stood Hiashi, tall and smug, and behind him stoof the Hyuuga elders, glaring down on her. With Gaara holding her hand, Hinata glared right back at them, and with the help of Gaara's stare, the elders looked away in submission. On the jury side, sat Hanabi and Neji, loking nervously at the pair.
"Hinata." Hiashi spoke, trying to once again, intimidate his daughter.
"Yes sir?" Hinata replied curtly.
"I asked you to come here alone, your friend will have to wait outside." He motioned for Gaara to leave.
Both children looked at him briefly, and then back at each other. "Do you want to go get ramen?" Hinata asked. Completely shocking the group of people, aside from Gaara.
"Sure. It's too crowded in here anyways." He said coldly to Hiashi, and the two children began to leave.
"STAY!" Hiashi roared.
Turning back to him, Hinata asked. "Yes?"
"What do you think your doing?!" Hiashi demanded.
"Getting ramen, we're hungry. Since you cooked meat tonight, I didn't eat anything, so I'm hungry. It's as simple as that." Hiashi seethed. The desert boy truly rubbed off on her. "What business do you have with me, sir?"
"Call me father." Hiashi seethed.
"Only when you deserve to be called one." Hinata replied, her expression not changing.
"What?" He growled out.
"Before Gaara arrived, you beat me, called me worthless, and at several points, tried to touch me inappropraitly due to how much I look like my mother. I managed to escape because I told you other people were coming. Indicating that you knew what you were doing was wrong, and that you do have an unnatural attraction towards children." Hinata replied. "Don't call yourself a parent in front of me."
"Look here, brat!" Hiashi snapped. He then smiled cruelly. "I called you down to tell you about your arranged marriage."Notcing Gaara's sand rearing, Hinata squeezed his hand tighter. "His name is Taihen Monoshun, he's twenty, and powerful lord of the moon country. You will depart-"
"She's not going." Gaara said simply. All eyes landed on him. "She either stays here or goes with me."
Hiashi was momentarily stunned, but then grinned. "Well Hinata? Surely you wouldn't adondon-"
"When do we leave Gaara-kun?" Hinata decided before Hiashi finished.
The elders roared. "How could you?!"
Hinata raised her hand to silence them, and turned to her cousin and sister. She gave them a reassuring smile. "I leave the heiress title Neji-niisan, he is far better suited for it anyways. In doing so…" She placed her hands in a specific handsign. Hiashi and the elders recognized it immediately and moved to stop her, Gaara's sand held them back. "I destroy the curse mark!" After a loud scream from Neji, his mark was gone. After taking in everyone's astonishment, Hinata spoke again. "A powerful family should only have the respect of a powerful family, when that family actually treats others of respect themselves. After finding the Hyuuga history book, I figured out how to remove the curse mark. I tested it on a couple of people from the Branch family already, and with my final parting gift, I leave this family to you nii-san." She waved, and Gaara's sand engulfed them both. Never to be seen by the dreaded family again.
A few hours later
Hinata was exploring the woods one last time, and wanted to show Gaara her favorite spot before she completely left Konoha. Upon reaching their destination, Gaara and Hinata smiled in amazement. You wouldn't know they were eight from what they just did a few hours ago. Walking out into the water's edge, the water illuminated her pale skin. Suddenly feeling being pulled to another body, she turned around and smiled at Gaara. But she noticed something different. His eyes were slightly, red, and mouth was now covering a pair of hangs. Eyes shining, Hinata knew what was coming.
"May I mark you Hinata?" Gaara asked turning her to him. His lips over neck.
Ever since Gaara had told her about this when they were four, she wanted to be his mate, and those feelings had only grown stronger. But he kept insisting they were too young. Hinata guessed today had shocked Gaara, to where he was willing accelerate the date. "Please do Gaa-chan." Without further notice, Gaara's fangs sunk into Hinata's neck, her moan was drowned in the pleasure of that night.
"And when we were about to make love, Naruto appeared out of the lake. All of us were shocked to say the least. I've been living with Gaara in the Sand village ever since." Hinata finished smiling. To say Misaki's face was priceless was an understatement.
"A-Are you s-sure it's okay to do something like that, that young?!" She stammered.
"My family was going to make me sleep with a 30yr old man for political gain when I was merely eight." Hinata frowned.
"O-Oh r-right." Misaki sputtered. 'I guess that's political marriage in a nutshell.'
"Suzuhara-san…" Misaki turned to her. "Naruto-san and Gaara-kun both wanted me to talk to you about the mate mark. I'm sure Kyuubi-san shares the same sentiments." Turning to Kyuubi, she asked. "Please make sure no one comes in." The fox nodded. Without any warning. Hinata took off her jacket, and her sleeveless shirt, leaving her in her undershirt (remember people, she's living in a desert, she'd die in her normal coat). Misaki couldn't help but admire Hinata's curves, she was a stick compared to her. Hinata was thin, yet had all the desirable parts a male wanted. Smiling at the girl's embarrassment, Hinata pointed to a large black spiral with a star incasing it, on the jugular point of her neck. Misaki stared; it went all the way down to her shoulder. "It's the mark of Gaara-san and Sabaku-san, stating that I belong to Gaara-kun and no one else. It turns red when I'm in danger, alerting Gaara where I am, allowing him to teleport instatnyl, turns blue when I'm sad or depressed, and he's at my side in a second."
"So you and Gaara-san have a telepathic link?" Misaki asked.
Hinata nodded, glad the girl understood. "The mark works both ways, I can tell when he;s in trouble, when he's sad, and what he's thinking. The stronger our bond is, the stronger the mark's effects are."
"Will it always be there?" Misaki asked.
"Until we turn sixteen, I'm afraid so." Hinata explained. "When a human turns sixteen, our hormones level are at the peak, inducing the best times to become permanent mates. You see, even if Gaara had succeeded in having sex with me when we were eight, he had only would've done it following Sabaku's instincts, so when Gaara follows his own instincts in the same act, only then will the mark will settle."
"I see." Misaki replied, still a bit confused. "But what does this have to do with me and Naruto?"
"…According to Kyuubi-san, you and Naruto-san desire each other as mates, and I want to explain how the mate mark works, since you are, like me, a human and a girl." Hinata said carefully.
"WHAT??!!" Misaki practically shouted.
"Please keep your voice down." Hinata knelt down beside her. "It's nothing bad, and demon boys make the best lovers." She winked.
"L-Lovers?!" Misaki squeaked.
"Yes. Suzuhara-san, please be calm about this. I don't mean to be rude, but this concept obviously isn't new to you, and you've desired Naruto-san for quite a long time." Hinata scolded. After receiving an ashamed nod from Misaki, Hinata continued. "As you know, Naruto-san is a demon vessel, who has already infused himself with Kyuubi-san's chakra before, so he follows a different courting system than humans do. Demons find their destined mate and mark them, while humans must offer gifts. Don't get me wrong, you may still have a normal wedding and such, but Naruto's way of proposing is quite different. When Naruto marks you, you become his, there's no other way to put it. After he marks you, he'll protect you with his life, and love you with his heart, but in this, you have to be careful. In this new level of affection, comes new aggression. However, there are also some perks in it for you as well, with that mark, you gain Kyuubi's power as well. That mark symbolizes you as his equal, not his property, so you have right to Kyuubi's chakra as well. Even with this new power, Naruto will most likely beat or threaten any male that approaches you, no matter the relation to you at first, and he will not leave your side for the first few weeks, unless if it's the washroom. The mark is a wonderful, beautiful thing, but only when the time is right. Do you still wish to become Naruto's mate?"
Blushing seven different shades of red by now, Misaki nodded. "When do I know I'm ready? How do I know I want this?"
Smiling softly. "You'll just know, its instinct, as a woman to know what you want from a man. As for your second question, do you like lying in Naruto-san's arms, do you like him blushing at things you do, do you want him to stay with you forever?"
Misaki was silent for a moment, and then quietly said, "Yes. I want it to be Naruto, and no one else!" But then thought of something. "If I were to get marked by Naruto now, does that mean we absolutely have to have-"
'Miss Hyuuga was exaggerating. I can keep the kit's sex drive under control, all the mark does is activates puberty early. The best sex you'll ever have, if you have sex when you're first marked, but I honestly don't want to see you or the kit do it yet. I'll allow the bite, but no bedding until marriage!' Kyuubi replied, earning himself a glare from the Hyuuga. 'What, like you're one to talk about this?'
"Anyways, Suzuhara-san, I'm sure you and Naruto-san will make the right decision, so take life in stride before that happens. I assume, you have a lot to ask about Konoha?" Hinata asked.
Smiling, Misaki nodded. "Oh yeah! But I have one more thing to ask." Hinata nodded, signaling her to continue. "I want to stand beside Naruto in a fight, not behind him, and I want to face whatever's coming with him. Will that mark give me the strength to do so?"
'Her confidence rose…just like how mine did with Gaara.' Hinata smiled, and said. "Most definitely."
With Gaara and Naruto
Opening his eyes, Gaara turned to Naruto. "Hinata's done speaking to Misaki about the mark."
"Hmmm." Naruto replied. Both ninjas laid on the roof top, with their girls in the room below them, enjoying the tranquility before all hell broke loose. "Thank God for Hinata."
Raising an eyebrow at his friend's groan, he asked, "What do you mean?"
"I didn't want to talk to Misaki about that. It's a girl-to-girl talk." Naruto replied. "Looks like my secret's out huh?"
"…You could always live with me and Hinata in the sand." Gaara offered.
"Thanks for the offer Gaara, but I promised Misaki that I'd leave here as soon as possible, when I could." Naruto replied.
"What of Arashi?" Gaara asked carefully.
"I'm facing him the day I turn sixteen." Naruto said closing his eyes.
"So are you going to go through with it?" Gaara asked patiently.
Looking at him, Naruto grunted, "With what?"
Gaara rolled his eyes, "Marking Misaki and fighting Arashi."
"Figthing Arashi's easy, I don't want to think about the other one." Naruto turned on his side, facing away from Gaara.
"Either you do it, or she'll be claimed by someone else. At least do it for the security benefit, every Konoha-nin wishes to kill that girl, the mate mark would be the best for protection. Not only will it tell you and Kyuubi exactly where she is, but it will also give her access to your chakra. It's best you do it." Gaara reasoned.
"…I don't want to push her into anything. She barely talks about that. Besides, what if she doesn't want me that way?" Naruto couldn't argue with the appeal of Gaara's argument, but the idea of placing that mark on Misaki made Naruto both excited and guilty at the same time.
"I wouldn't worry." Naruto turned back to Gaara. "Misaki just agreed to it. According to what Hinata's telling me, Misaki wants the mark, in that, she wants to be your equal."
"What do you mean my equal?" Naruto growled.
"She wants to stand besides you during the storm, not locked away in a safe cabin." Gaara responded.
"I'll think about it." Naruto replied standing up. "Take care of the girls, I have to go to the meeting with the Hokage and everyone else official." Suddenly, Hinata and Misaki appeared in front of him. Looking to Hinata, she shook her head and gave Naruto an encouraging nod.
"I'm going with you. If you're going to mark me as yours, then I get to mark you as mine! And that means we fight battles together!!" Misaki said firmly, stretching her arms and legs out to try and stop him from passing. Looking at her stunned. Naruto smiled and sighed. Making a handsign, Naruto whispered a summoning, calling Kyuubi back to the seal. A soft glowing emited from Naruto, and after Kyuubi was back in, Naruto smiled at Misaki. Smiling back, Misaki reached her hand out her Naruto. Gladly accepting it, Naruto positioned Misaki on his back. Turning back to Hinata and Gaara, he smiled. "It was nice meeting you Hyuuga-san!" Misaki waved goodbye.
"Thanks Gaara." Naruto bowed his head slightly. Nodding at his friend, Hinata waved happily, and soon, both were engulfed by Gaara's sand. Turning around, Naruto made sure Misaki was secure on his back, and jumped to the Hokage's office. Ready to face anything, with the girl he loved.
