Chapter 5

A Run In With an Heiress

Naruto and Ryo both squinted as they stepped out into the morning sunlight. Naruto shoved his hands into his pockets and slumped his shoulders. He glanced back over his shoulder at Ryo who smiled meekly back at him. "Man, this bites! I'm sick and tired of these babysitting missions." he mumbled to himself.

Ryo sensed Naruto's anger. "I'm sorry about the inconvenience I've caused. I'll do what I can to make it up to you," he said cheerfully.

This lightened Naruto's mood and he smiled back at Ryo. "Well, the first place we should go is the hospital and pick up your clothes!" Naruto laughed loudly at the thought of Ryo walking around town in the pajamas that the nurses had given him.

Ryo looked down at himself and turned a slight pink in the face. He still had on the dorky looking green pajamas that the hospital had given him to wear. When he looked back up Naruto, who was still laughing heartedly, "Shut up loser!" he shot with a hint of venom.

Naruto stopped immediately, not from fear of Ryo's wrath but from what he said. Loser, that's what Sasuke used to call me, he thought to himself. You know if his hair and eyes were dark and he didn't smile so much he'd look just like him.

The two of them continued on in silence until they arrived at their first stop. After going to the front desk a lady who worked there handed them Roy's washed and mended clothes. Ryo went into a bathroom to change while Naruto waited in a chair outside. When Ryo emerged he was wearing the strangest clothes Naruto had ever seen. His shirt was a white short sleeved tunic that the hospital had repaired kunai holes in the back for him. Worn on his hands and forearms were a pair of black leather gauntlets. Around his waist was a wide belt with an ornate silver buckle in the shape of a horse head. His leggings were a pair of baggy brown pants that had patches over his knees. And lastly a pair of large black leather boots that his pants were roughly tucked into. The entire outfit gave Ryo a very rugged and wild look about him.

"What's up that weird look?" Naruto asked waving his finger at Ryo's attire.

Ryo at first glanced at him with a confused look on his face, and then he just shook his head and smiled. "When you live on the road a lot, you need comfortable clothes that still show people who you are." He said smugly. "That and I think they make me look cool." He added with a grin.

Naruto rolled his eyes and got up out of his chair. "Whatever," his said with a laugh. "My house is on the far side of the village." He stated changing the subject. "Normally I could get there in under a minute, being one of the best ninja in the village, but I'll slow down so I can walk you there." Naruto put his hands on his hips and smiled as he mentally patted himself on the back.

Ryo raised one eye brow at this statement. "Well, thank you so much for accommodating for me." He said with a hint of irony in his voice. "Anyway I did want to see a bit more of the village, and I was hopping for some lunch on the way."

"Cool!" yelled Naruto. "I know just the place. I'll even buy." Naruto then grabbed Ryo by the sleeve and pulled him out the door and down the street.

A few minutes later the two of them were sitting on stools bellied up to the counter of the ichiraku ramen shop. Ryo's stomach growled as he realized that he hadn't eaten anything at all that day.

"ODERS ARE UP, NARUTO!!!" hollered the old man behind the counter as he passed two bowls of steaming hot ramen to the two teenage boys.

"Great!" said Naruto as he pulled his bowl closer. He then picked up his pair of chop sticks and broke them apart. "Time to… huh?" Began Naruto, but before he could finish he looked over to Ryo who was already gorging into bowl. "Wow, you're even hungrier then I am." said an amazed Naruto.

Ryo stopped and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Sorry I forgot my manners for a second there." He said sheepishly. "It's just I've been on the road so much lately this is the first real meal I've had in about a month. I don't count that crap they fed me yesterday in the hospital." Ryo then returned to his bowl but this time was a little more self-conscious of his table manners.

Naruto did the same and for a moment there was silence. Then Naruto couldn't take it any longer. "So, all we know about you is that your name is Ryo something. Care to enlighten us a little further? It's not very polite to be so secretive you know." He exclaimed.

Ryo stopped eating mid noodle, swallowed what he had in his mouth before turning to face Naruto. His eyes then narrowed as he looked at Naruto. From Naruto's perspective he appeared to be looking right through him. After a moment Ryo's eyes returned to normal and he said, "I suppose I can trust someone like you, Naruto." Ryo slurped down the remainder of his bowl, set it down and pushed it away from himself before relaying his story. "I was born in the Land of Lighting about seventeen years ago, in the village hidden in the clouds." Ryo paused before continuing. "At age thirteen I left my home, namely due to a parting of the ways with many of my fellow villagers. So since then I've been on the road, living off the wild and what anyone would give me." He paused as he felt Naruto's discomfort after being told the last fact of Ryo's life.

Naruto tried to change the direction of the conversation. "So you lived in the cloud village, did you ever train to become a ninja?" He asked sounding hopeful. He had never met a cloud ninja before.

Ryo smiled, "Yes, well, kind of…. My father tutored me until I was eight, then he requested that a professional complete my training. Unfortunately I did not make a good student and I never finished." Ryo paused as he recalled his ninja training. "In the cloud village all shinobi must specialize in a particular weapon, mine was a round shield and a gladius." Ryo paused hoping he had not revealed his identity by accident. After Naruto did not respond as if he knew who he was, Ryo continued to speak. "But enough about me, tell me a little about yourself. You are my host after all. All I know about you is your name is Naruto something."

Naruto grinned at the chance to boast about himself. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki. I'm sixteen years old and a member of team Kakashi. I like ramen going on missions and my dream is to be the next Hokage." Naruto stopped when he noticed that Ryo was listening to him as if he believed him.

"That's cool. What about your teammates?" Ryo asked

"Well, there's Sakura. You met her already. She's training to become a great medical ninja and her master is granny Tsunade. She's the pink haired girl that helped save you."

"Is she your girlfriend or something?" asked Ryo.

Naruto turned pink and looked away. "Well, not exactly. I mean I like her but she's always liked my other teammate. What made you think she was?"

"Oh, err…" stuttered Ryo as he searched for a good excuse. "It was just, err, the tone of your voice. I could tell you liked her." He quickly thought up an appropriate subject change. "What about your other teammate?"

Naruto's expression changed dramatically. His normal wide toothy grin turned to a depressed frown. "Well," he began. "The third was Sasuke Uchiha." He paused. Ryo sensed that the very name caused him great pain. "A little more than three years ago he left the village." Naruto told Ryo about the whole Sasuke story from start to finish. "After he left, granny Tsunade assigned a guy named Sai to our team. But when we met up with Sasuke again it turned out Sai's real assignment was to kill Sasuke for the head of an elite anbu black ops team that went behind Tsunade's back. So I killed him myself."

Ryo let loose a long sigh. "Man, and I used to my shinobi training days were ruff." He said with a defeated tone to his voice. He then dropped his chop sticks into his bowl and pushed his bowl towards a pile that had been building up from to boy's meal. "With that, what do you say we head home?"

As the two of them continued on their way a large group of houses appeared on a street that turned off from the main road. When they walked closer they could see a pair of large wooden gates that barred the entrance. Ryo stopped in the middle of the road and gazed up them and asked, "Who lives in there?"

Naruto looked up for a second and then back down at Ryo. "That's the Hyuuga compound. The whole Hyuuga family lives there." he said plainly. As Naruto watched Ryo, he noticed that his eyes looked the same as they did back at the restaurant, the same far off look. Suddenly Ryo pushed the gate open and ran inside. "HEY YOU CAN'T JUST"

Naruto was cut off by Ryo. "Someone needs our help in here!"

Naruto dashed in after him. The two of them blitzed with incredible speed toward, where now could be heard, the sounds of battle. The two boys bust into the inner training area they saw what appeared to be a fight between two girls, one about five years younger then the other against a boy seeming to be Ryo's age. All three had long dark hair and pale eyes.

"Naruto? What are doing in our house?" said the young man with surprise and irritation in his voice.

"Oh… uh…" stuttered Naruto for a moment. "Sorry Neji it's just that" he was about to tell him that Ryo was acting weird and just ran in when Ryo himself stepped forward.

"Oh, I'm very sorry." He said with a smooth voice. "It's just when I said that I heard you fighting." Ryo quickly scanned the room until he spotted the girls. "Naruto ran in here to see if you girls were alright."

Naruto looked at Ryo and raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you-"

"It's alright to be embarrassed, man." said Ryo loudly. He then leaned closer to Naruto and whispered, "Just work with me."

Naruto grinned and said, "Yah, I guess. Sorry about that Hinata."

Hinata started to fidget with her fingers. Naruto came to rescue me! she though to herself. "That's alright Naru-" she didn't finish her sentence even before she fainted.

"HINATA?!" yelled Neji as caught her just before she hit the ground. "Hanabi, go find your father! Tell him what's happened!" "And as for-" he started but soon realized that Naruto and Ryo had vanished.

Naruto and Ryo had just cleared the gates of the compound and turned to wards Naruto's house. In a matter of minuets the two had reach the apartment, climbed the stares and burst into Naruto's room. The boys stood there gasping and doubled over laughing.

"You… are the… craziest guy I've ever met." said Naruto though his laughs. "How'd you know she'd pass out?"

"I didn't! I mean, I new she liked you but I didn't realize…"

Naruto stopped laughing abruptly. "Wait a minuet did you just say that Hinata, heiress to the most powerful clan in the leaf village likes me?"

Ryo finally got himself under control enough to answer. "No. I'm sure she passed out because of something she ate. OF COURSE SHE LIKES YOU, YOU IDEOT!!" Ryo then looked at the clock on the wall, which read eight thirty. "I'll leave you to ponder that. I'm hitting the sack early. I'll take the couch."

The two boys made for their respected sleeping areas and collapsed. Within minuets both were out cold. Naruto dreamt of Hinata sitting in a field of flowers on a picnic blanket holding a cup of ramen. Ryo's dreams, however, were not so pleasant.

CRACK!!!! A cat o nine tails whip lashed across thirteen year old, Ryo Higawa's back, cutting deep grooves into his skin that bled furiously. Ryo stood in a dark prison cell with his arms out stretched and tied in place to a large wooden board. His body was covered with the signs of torture, ranging from beating bruises to welts from scorpion stings. Even though there was a barred window it was so dark out side that the only source of illumination, was from a torch that was being held by one of two men standing behind him. The other man raised his hand to bring the whip down on Ryo's back once again. CRACK!!!! Ryo managed to stifle the sound of his agony into a cough.

"Here, let me help you clean up." the man said with a sneer.

Ryo herd the man set his whip down and picked up what sounded like a bucket of water. For a moment Ryo wondered what could be next. The man began to slowly pour a warm salty liquid over the open wounds on Ryo's back.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Ryo could no longer contain himself as he let loose a blood curdling scream. He tried to turn and face his tormentors but remembered all too late that his feet had been chained as well. Ryo collapsed from exhaustion and did his best to fight back tears of pain and despair.

"Come on," said the man holding the torch. "I've had enough for one day, I'm tired."

The second man set down his bucket and stretched out his arms. He then slapped his hand down on Ryo's back that was covered in blood again. The man then leaned down to Ryo's face and made sickening smile. "Hey," he said, "it's your lucky day. It's Friday, we'll take the weekend off while you heal up, and start, AGAIN on Monday." And with that the two men walked out of the cell and slammed a heavy iron door behind them.

Ryo slowly pulled himself up to the wall and set his back against it and looked into what he believed to be the center of the room. "I really need to learn when to keep my mouth shut." he whispered out loud to himself. He thought back as to got him into the whole mess he was in. "I guess one day down, god know how many more to go." He stated jokingly. He watched the empty black space as it continued to do nothing for hours. Slowly a bit of moonlight began to shine in through the bars of his window. At last, a little light, something good for a change, he thought. He was just about to fall asleep when a flicker of motion caught his eye. Ryo grunted as he tried to stand up. Once again he saw something dash across the light let in by the window. He did his best to turn and face the opening and when he did he saw to dark figures approaching. Ryo didn't even have to reach out with his feelings to know who they were.

As the two reached his window the moon shone upon their faces revealing them to be twelve year old cloud shinobi, one boy and one girl, both with red hair. The girl was the first to speak, "Oh Ryo, what have they done to you?" she said sadly.

Ryo was not happy with his team mates coming to him in the dead of night. "What, the hell are you and Kenji doing here? If they catch you they'll think you're trying to bust me out of here. You'll be executed." Ryo said angrily. The girl didn't answer; she merely opened a pouch on her belt and pulled out a canister of healing ointment.

"Be still!" She hissed as she began rub on the cream. "Does it sting?"

Ryo's expression then changed. "I'm fine," Ryo said as cheerfully as possible. "You should see the other guy, Akiko."

"Yeah, I'm sure he's beat up on the inside," said Kenji sarcastically. Kenji's smile quickly turned to a frown. "Why'd you do it Ryo? You knew this would happen."

Ryo frowned back at his friend. "Somebody has to stand up for the honor of this village. I refused that mission because the cloud shinobi have integrity. Beating poor villagers up for protection money is deed for the Sound and Grass ninja, not me. Our feudal lord, Ryuichi is just lining his pockets as well as drawing more and more power to himself. If I have to stand against him alone, I will."

Akiko beamed at Ryo for his devotion to his nindo. But she dropped her gaze as she remembered what had happened before Ryo was tossed into his prison. "You know you father didn't mean what he said about disowning you. He was just trying to protect your family. You know what Lord Ryuichi would have done if he didn't."

Roy looked down at his feet and then back to his friends and grinned as he tried to change the subject. "What would I do without teammates like you guys?"

Kenji snickered "You'd be a lot more beat up," he joked. "Here's how we got it planed every night we'll come back to he-"

BAAAANNNNGG!!! Kenji was cut off when a large fist collided with his jaw breaking it.

"AAAAHHHH!!" he yelped as both he and Akiko stumbled back.

Suddenly a large man stepped in between Ryo and his teammates. "What do we have here?! A pair of would be jail breakers!!!"

"No we weren't, honest, please!" yelled Kenji.

At that time Ryo could here more guards coming. A cloud moved back across the moon and all went dark and Ryo was forced to use his clan's kekei genkai sense to find his friends in the shadows. "KENJI!!!! AKIKO!!!! RUN!!!!!!" screamed Ryo to his teammates.

"Shut up!" shouted one of the guards as he butted Ryo in the face with the blunt end of a spear.

Time moved slowly for Ryo as he fell backward. As he lost his conciseness he heard his teammates being beaten, shackled and finally dragged towards the entrance to the prison.

Ryo shot up off the couch he had been sleeping on. He looked around the room for his old cell walls but saw only the crappy, falling apart sheetrock of Naruto's apartment. In the next room he could hear Naruto snoring loudly. He fell back onto the couch and whispered, "Thank god. It was just a dream."

A.N. Sorry this chapter took so long. I broke my collar bone in a fight THAT I STILL WON! Anyway I'm not getting very many R&Rs so I'll do what I've been doing with other stories. If you review you can ask me to R&R any of your stories and I will as soon as I can. The next chapter is gonna be violent… You have been warned!!!