Chapter 6

Naruto sat up in bed. For a moment he was still very drowsy, suddenly he remembered what Ryo had said to him the night before. OF COURCE SHE LIKES YOU, YOU IDIOT!! Naruto leapt out of bed ran to his bedroom window and flung it open. Standing there, in nothing but his underwear and his green nightcap, he held out both hands in the V for victory sign and shouted, "YEAH!!! WHAT NOW!! ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL, RICH…" He paused as he remembered back when he saw a beautiful girl dancing naked in the moonlight. That was during a mission with Hinata. He thought to himself. His eyes widened as he had reached an epiphany. Oh my god! That was Hinata! "AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT,GORGIOUS GIRL LIKES ME! AND YOU BETTER BEEEELIEVE IT!!!!" he continued at the top of his lungs.

A large crowd of people had stopped what they were doing and were now looking up at, the all but naked, Naruto.

"THAT'S RIGHT! I'M TALKING ABOUT HINA-grrmf…" A hand had reached from behind Naruto and cupped his mouth as it pulled him back away from the window. Naruto was flung to the back of the room where he could see his assailant.

Ryo shut the window that Naruto had been shouting through and then turned to face him. "She won't think so fondly of you if she ever hears about this." he said grinning.

Naruto looked away as he muttered to himself. "Yah, I guess that would be a little bit embarrassing."

After the two of them had gotten dressed and were eating breakfast Ryo spoke. "Judging by your actions, you've never had a girlfriend before, right?"

"Well, he he…" Naruto began. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"That's alright man. I can tell this chick has liked you for a long time." said Ryo before taking another bite of his cereal.

At that moment there came a knock on Naruto's door. Naruto got up to answer it. "It's Ino and Sakura." He said confused. As Naruto opened the door he greeted the two. "Hey Sakura. Hey Ino. What are you girls doing here?

"Oh, we're just here to see our mysterious friend, Ryo." said Sakura, politely as she showed him a small medical bag that Ino was carrying. "He was only in the hospital for two whole days. To tell the truth I'm surprised he could get out of his room, let alone doing it without anbu realizing." she added glancing around for her patient.

Ryo appeared behind Naruto at that moment. "Ladies do come in" he said smiling, "How may I assist you?"

Ino hopped forward. "We want to run a quick checkup, just to make sure you're alright. If that's ok with you." She asked sounding hopeful that he would agree.

"All right." he said as he sat on the couch. "What's first?"

"Ok we'll start with me listening to your heart. So take off the shirt." Ino blushed and had to try hard to keep a straight face.

Ryo grinned as he disappeared beneath his shirt collar. "Hmm, straight to business eh?" he said with a suggestive voice.

Ino's smile turned to a glare. "Get your head out of the gutter, you animal!" she yelled as she whacked his concealed head.

Hanabi Hyuuga opened the door to her sister's room only to find that she was still asleep from yesterday's incident. She walked over to Hinata's bed and shook her gently. "Sister… Sister… HINATA GET UP!!!"

Hinata woke with a start. "Oh, it's you Hanabi." she said in her usual meek tone. "Sorry. I was having a dream."

Hanabi rolled her eyes as she sat beside her sister. "Let me guess," she said sarcastically. "It was about that Naruto boy, right?"

Hinata sat up at this point and began to fidget with her fingers, the way she does when she's nervous. "No! It was about erm…" she began but couldn't finish.

"Oh, yeah right." said Hanabi with an evil grin. "I've known you liked him for forever now." She paused before continuing, "Don't worry about it. Guess what today is."

Hinata blinked and looked around the room for anything that would give her a clue. Suddenly it came to her. "That's right today you're coming along with my team while we train." Hinata remembered when her father had asked her to take her sister. At first she argued. But afterwards she was happy that he had asked her and not their cousin Neji.

"Yeah, we're supposed to go over field maneuvers." Hanabi said gleefully. She got up off her sisters bed and called back to her, "You'd better get ready I can see Shino, Kiba and Akamaru about half a block away.

At this, Hinata sprang from her bed pulled on her clothes as quickly as possible. Before Hanabi could leave, Hinata asked, "Hey, little sister. Do you think Naruto likes me?"

Hanabi looked back at her sister and rolled her eyes skyward. "I think so but if you ask me, the next time you see him, you ask him out. Enough of this wimpy crap." she said and then walked out the door.

Mean while, by a stream on the training grounds, Naruto was hard at work combating a platoon of his shadow clones using only Taijutsu. Ryo sat nearby whittling a tree limb into the form of a short sword.

After Naruto had dispatched the last of his clones he took a seat beside his new found friend. "How's your head?" he asked before taking a swig from a water bottle. "I mean, Ino really knocked a knot on your skull." Naruto added with a slight chuckle.

Ryo ran his fingers through his thick, recently turned, blonde hair. "It doesn't hurt anymore and the swellings gone down." he said followed by a slight moan. As his bangs fell in front of his eyes, he blew them back and said, "I'm still not quite used to have blonde hair."

A moment passed in silence. Then Naruto got an idea. "Hey, Ryo!"

"What?"

"You said you were taught how to fight with a sword." said Naruto as he got up and faced him with a look of excitement on his face. "Do you think you could teach me some moves?"

"Sure." Ryo said smiling as he too got to his feet. He then brandished the stick he'd been carving, "Show me what you got."

A.N. begin mortal kombat theme now.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!!!" shouted Naruto. An exact mirror image of himself appeared. "TRANFORM!!!" At that moment the shadow clone transformed into a shimmering katana, which the real Naruto snatched out of the air. "I'll use my chakra to guard the blade so it won't slice through your stick." said Naruto with a smirk.

"I do appreciate that." Ryo said with a calm grin. He then reversed his stance, left foot forward, sword arm back, held in a high guard. "What are you waiting for? Come and get me!"

"HIAAAA!!!!" Naruto charged forward, blade held high. But as he brought it down, Ryo simply batted it away.

"Wrong, all wrong." Ryo laughed as he dodged a slash to the abdomen. "Keep trying."

Naruto leapt away and came back in for another attack. This time he held the katana at eye level as if he was going to skewer his opponent. At the last minuet he spun a full circle and reversed the blade to slash upward.

Ryo blocked the attack by bringing the flat side of his stick down across Naruto's blade. His motions blurred as he swerved outside of the attack with his counter. As he passed Naruto, Ryo smashed him in the face with his elbow and block his leg with his own. Naruto was flung into the air, where he seemed to hover, horizontally for a moment. Then Ryo turned back, Teed up with the hovering Naruto and brought his wooden blade down on his exposed stomach. Naruto folded around the stick just before falling back to the ground in a heap. Naruto gasped for breath as he clutched his gut. Ryo knelt beside Naruto waiting for him to catch his breath. "That second attack was good and I'm starting to see your probl-." He was stopped by a vicious kick to the head from Naruto which caused him to stagger backward.

"Did you actually think I was beat?" asked Naruto with a snarl as he recovered.

Ryo recomposed himself and took his ready stance. "Well, I was going to stop there but how about we test your defense." He then charged forward. Naruto barely managed to bring his sword up to block Ryo's downward slash. Ryo rotated his body and used the bottom of his fist to hammer Naruto's exposed stomach for a second time causing him to bend forward. He then gave Naruto's knee a sharp rap forcing him to kneal. To finish his attack Ryo placed the tip of his stick under Naruto's chin. "Well, we're going to have to make some changes I guess."

Naruto moaned but managed to say, "I don't think I did that bad." He then motioned with his eyes to look down. Pointed at the center of his chest, Ryo could see the tip of Naruto's katana, just grazing his shirt.

"Excellent!" Ryo said with a smile. "But I held back a great deal, and in a real fight, a tie is as good as a loss. You're still dead." Ryo helped his friend to get to his feet. "You handle yourself well but I think you need a different kind of weapon." Ryo walked toward the stream bank and used his stick to draw in the sand.

Naruto quickly joined him squatted down close by. "What do you mean a new weapon?" he asked sounding confused.

"Your form is good but for the wrong style. I mean, you're not fast enough for a katana which relies on its speed for effectiveness." The figure Ryo was tracing in the sand began to take the shape of a broad double bladed sword. "When I watched you fight, you looked more like a power fighter. Let's try and play to that strength." He said standing up looking at Naruto. "I never finished my ninja training but you should be able to make a transformation based on this." he stated pointing at his drawing.

Naruto tried to picture Ryo's drawing as if it was a real sword. "Shadow clone jutsu. Transform!" The same process began again this time his clone turned into a steel version of Ryo's art work. It wasn't as impressive looking as the first but it did look like it could cut right through a man on force alone. "How's this?" Naruto asked feeling proud.

"Looks good." Ryo said with a surprised look on his face. "The type of sword you're holding is called a claymore. Most people find them a lot to blade heavy and get tired quickly. But with your stamina, it should be perfect for you."

After a few minuets rest, the two of them took their positions again. "Alright," Ryo was now grinning at the thought of a real challenge. "I won't be able to hold back so much." He then picked up a second stick. This one had a strangely shaped limb that provided a grip. Ryo held the stick in a way that it protected his left arm and became a shield.

"You ready?" Naruto asked with a smirk, the claymore feeling good in his hands. Ryo nodded as he took the stance he had used before. "Good, because here I come!"

About a quarter of a mile from where the two boys were practicing, team Kurenai was waiting patiently. Hinata was spinning on the spot. Her arms were flowing randomly as she practiced her own variation of the rotation jutsu in slow motion. Kiba and his dog Akamaru were wrestling in the grass. All the while, Shino was simply talking to a grasshopper on the tip of his finger, oblivious to his companions.

Kiba pushed his huge dog off of his chest and sat up to catch his breath. "Hey Hinata!" he called. "Does your sister normally take this long?"

Hinata stopped her spinning and looked around. "Well, umm, not usually." she said with a hint of worry. This is really strange, she though. All she had to do was run back for her lunch. She's taking an awfully long time.

"I'm sure she's fine." Shino said calmly letting the insect fly away. "She probably got sidetracked at the house." This reassured Hinata and she smiled at her teammate.

"Yeah, you're right I…" She stopped as she spotted a dark figure approaching through the nearby forest. As it entered the clearing where the team was gathered the figure took the shape of a farmer wearing the signature straw hat.

"Excuse me." the man said. "I've just come a long way to see a young friend of mine." The man's voice was incredibly silky, like the voice of the computer you hear when you leave a phone off the hook. "I had heard that he had been injured and I'm here to take him home. Where could I find him?"

Kiba got up and stood next to Hinata. "Do you think he's talking about that guy named Ryo that Naruto has been babysitting." he whispered. Akamaru growled and ducked underneath Kiba's legs causing him to ride on his dogs back.

Shino stepped forward and announced, "If you're talking about a guy name Ryo, he is in our custody. If you want to take him, you'll have to prove you're a friend of his."

The farmer looked at the group and put on a huge fake smile. "You know… That was the wrong answer!" Suddenly the man dissolved right in front of them.

"We're under attack!!" yelled Kiba as his dog gave a ferocious roar. "It's must be a clone jutsu!"

At that moment, five sound ninja charged out of the bushes. All at once they unleashed a hail storm of shuriken.

Hinata leapt between her team and the steel onslaught to protect them. She then began to rotate on the spot. Her arms flailed wildly, drawing lines of chakra so powerful it appeared as a fine, blue mesh. "EIGHT TRIGRAMS ROTATION!!!" As the shuriken collided with Hinata's shield, they disintegrated into a cloud of smoke.

Through the smoke Kiba's voice could be heard. "BEAST MIMICRY JUTSU!!! FANG OVER FANG!!!" Two grey, spinning torpedoes burst out of the fog toward their attackers. Three of the five managed to escape the attack. The other two weren't quite so lucky and were torn apart by the attack.

Two of the shinobi that escaped, turned back to face Kiba and Akamaru. As they formed hand signs to counter Kiba's move, Hinata took them from behind. She used her byakugan eyes to see her enemy's chakra points. Hinata attacked with her clan's special chakra strike technique to the backs of their heads, shutting off all energy to the brain. The two would be assailants hit the ground dead.

The remaining sound ninja silently circled behind the young Hyuuga heiress and placed the tip of a kunai blade in the small of her back. "Amateur." he said. "Never leave your rear unprotected." No sooner had the words left his mouth, he sensed a small tingling, itchy feeling crawling up his leg. He looked down to see a horde black beetles crawling up and eating through his pants.

"That's funny." said a voice from the cloud of smoke that was still lingering. "I was about to say the same thing." As the smoke cleared Shino appeared. "Kill him." he said calmly. The screams of the enemy ninja were quickly silenced as the tiny bugs bored holes into and out of him.

"I think that is enough." said a man leaning his back against a tree. His head was turned down obscuring his face and a large bull whip was wrapped around his torso. "If I were you I'd calm down now." The man looked up showing the gaping hole he had for a right eye. He then pointed towards the village where the team could see two men dragging Hinata's younger sister Hanabi.

When they got closer Hanabi caught a glance of her sister. She tried to call out to her, "I'm sorry sis-." Hinata hissed at her to be quiet but she was too late.

"Ahh, I see. She's your sister." said the one eyed man. "I can see the family resemblance."

Kiba and Akamaru snarled at this low trick. "If you hurt her I'll"

"If you so much as move the little girl will be killed." the man said. "Even if you kill me, she'll still be dead too." The man spoke with a slow oily tone, making his voice a tool for torture. "So I believe it would be a good idea for you to do as I say."

Kiba dismounted Akamaru and stood next to Hinata, who was glaring at this new villain. "What should we do?" he asked in a low voice.

Hinata swallowed before stepping forward. "What do you want?"

"Good girl." said the one eyed man. "All we ask is that you tell us where Ryo Higawa is hiding." He paused before continuing. "It's in your best interests. He's a traitor, a criminal and a terrorist. All we ask is that you help us bring him to justice."

"That can't be true!" Hinata shouted. "I met Ryo yesterday. He seemed like a good person."

The man grinned a hideous grin, made even more hideous by the gaping hole for an eye. "Whether you believe me or not, you're going to help us." The man took out a small knife and walked toward Hanabi. He then laid the flat of the blade against her face and slid the point down her cheek and throat.

CLAP!!! Ryo and Naruto clashed by the river bank, wood on steel. The force of the blows was causing the chakra surrounding Naruto's blade to spark.

"Excellent." Ryo said stopping the match. "It looks like the claymore is your kind of weapon."

Naruto smiled. "Yeah if I can hold my own against you with it, it must be good." Naruto's sword disappeared in a cloud of smoke like any other shadow clone.

Ryo frowned at his comment. "Now hold on a sec." he said with sarcastic anger. "If I had my weaponsI would be kicking your…" His voice trailed off as he looked away. Once again Naruto saw Ryo's eyes seem to lose focus, as if looking at something that isn't there. Suddenly he looked back at Naruto with a look of great urgency in his eyes. "Naruto! There's someone there that needs our help, badly!"

Naruto folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, last time you said that, you made me look like an idiot in front of Hinata and Neji."

"Look you've got to trust me!! If we don't go now there's a little girl who's going to get hurt!!"

Naruto saw the seriousness in Ryo's expression. "Ok, but you better not be pulling my leg again. Which way?"

"This way, follow me!" Ryo shouted. The two of them ran into the forest in the direction of team Kurenai, Hanabi Hyuuga and their attackers.

A.N. " Whew" glad that chaps over. Sorry if it wasn't as violent as I said it would be. I ended up bumping it to the next chap. If I don't get some reviews I'll kill everyone in the next chapter and don't think I won't do it.