-1Treasures Ignored

Ch. 4 Simply Smile

Naruto sighed as he examined his portion of the room; it had become quite boring as of late. His eyes wandered over to the now familiar form of Hinata Hyuuga asleep in the chair next to his bed. They had grown close over the last week and a half; she would visit everyday for at least a couple of hours. Naruto had come to find that he really enjoyed the girl's company that is after you get her out of her shell. During their visits they would talk about missions and friends, sometimes when the conversing was good they go into deeper subjects like dreams and ambitions it was an eye opening experience for Naruto. He had come to realize that there was more to Hinata than the shy, timid girl he used to know, but for some reason it felt good to see her in a different light.

His eyes then met with the exotic flower that was incased in glass on the table next to his bed. It was brought to him by Temari and Kankuro when they had dropped by a few days ago.

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It was your typical reunion, the standard trivial niceties where exchanged, and he was given the flower by Temari. Kankuro handed him a note that Garra had sent since, being the Kazekage, he couldn't just up and leave Suna. Temari and Kankuro watched quietly as Naruto read the contents of the letter:

Naruto,

First and foremost I apologize for not being able to visit in person, I assume you understand. I hope it was worth it to you Naruto, I don't see how it is. You're the one who taught me the idea of having precious people Naruto, but I think you take it too far. I would have let the bastard go, or killed him, but then again that's probably why your you and I'm me. I heard from some merchants about the little incident with that pink haired girl you seem so fond of. I've chosen not to tell Kankuro or Temari for fear of that fool's life, so you probably shouldn't say anything. Naruto I know you care for that village, though I don't understand why, but if you ever realize just how much that village doesn't deserve you, there will always be a seat by my side for you here in the Sand. Watch yourself Naruto your like a brother to me.

Garra.

P.S. You tell anyone about that brother thing and I will kill you.

Naruto couldn't help but grin at the letter, it had been awhile since he had seen the angry red head, but from what he had heard from the other sand siblings he was becoming more human everyday. His contemplating was cut short by the yanking of the letter from his hand. He looked up to see Temari smirking at him while she began to read. "What are you doing?" the blonde boy questioned arms flailing in the air.

"Reading." Temari replied matter of factly.

"Stop that. Give it here."

"Huh? Aww come on Naruto, this is the first non business letter I've seen him write. As his older sister I would be a fool to not see how his humanity is coming along."

"If he wanted you to read it he would have let you."

"Please Naruto. Do it for Temari onee-chan." the sand kunochi cooed.

"What are you babbling about?

"Naruto you know your like family to me right?"

"Now that's a cheap tactic trying appeal to my loneliness, cold Temari, just cold." Naruto hung his head only to lift it when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Naruto I was teasing about the letter, I'll admit that. However the part about you being family was the absolute truth.

"Really?"

"I could never lie about something like that. You've done more for me and my brothers than even are own father. I doubt you could ever grasp just how dear you are to us." Temari's voice began to tremble at the raw emotions that had been evoked.

"She's telling the truth kid." Kankuro chimed in breaking the silence that had enveloped them. "You gave us our little brother back, not only that but you showed him something no one else ever could. For that you will always be family."

"You have no idea how much that means to me." Naruto was pulled from his appreciation by Temari.

"Naruto?"

"Yes Temari onee-chan?" Naruto loved the way his new title for Temari sounded.

"That pink haired girl that you seem so found of, is that the bubble headed one that is always treating you like dirt?"

"Hmm. Yep why?"

"What was this incident that Garra wrote about?"

'Oh Crap I can't believe I forgot about that' Naruto thought frantically trying to find away to avoid answering. "Oh nothing Temari onee-chan, don't worry about it."

"Mmhmm. Come on Kankuro we got some one to see."

"Get real like I want to talk to that air head." Kankuro said planting his foot in defiance.

"We're not going to see her; we are going to talk to Shikamaru if anything happens in this town he knows." With that the two members of Naruto's new found family walked out of the room.

End Flashback.

"Family Huh?" Naruto looked down to the still sleeping Hyuuga and smiled gently before saying

"Yeah…family." With the thoughts of a family dancing in his mind Naruto closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

All was quite when the two kunochi crept into the room that housed the two broken teammates. Sakura stopped in front of a curtain that ran down the middle of the room and peeked inside to find a sleeping Naruto and Hinata. After motioning an ok to Ino, she led Ino behind the curtain to Naruto's side of the room. Sakura and Ino sat in to chairs opposite the side that Hinata was on. "So you ready?" Ino asked as she brought her hands up in the familiar triangle pose.

"Yeah." Sakura said without a moments hesitation.

"Wait a minute what about are bodies."

" Huh?"

"Are bodies are gonna be lifeless while we are in there. Sure we're sitting down but what I someone comes in to find us dead to the world?"

"Don't worry about that the only one's who we'll treat Naruto are Tsunade and Shizune. Shizune's on a mission right now and Tsunade being the Hokage won't be by until nightfall at the earliest. You sure you can do this, didn't you say it was Jounin level on the way over here."

"Sure as long as I can have complete focus."

"How many times have you done it?"

"Once."

"Huh?"

"Once but it was easy enough. So are you ready?" Ino prepared her self again. "Ok. Kokoro Hokousha no Jutsu!" She called out as Sakura looped her arms through Ino's.

"What are you two doing?" the girls turned to see a very confused Shikamaru. Before the girls could reply they felt the strange feeling of being pulled from their bodies, and then darkness.

Ino and Sakura awoke to find themselves in a corridor of sorts. The faint light that leads its way down the corridor was red in color. There was this intense feeling of dread amongst the two as they began walking down the corridor.

"This is Hinata's mind?"

"I guess so. I've never seen anything like this." Ino said a slight tremor of fear evident in her voice.

"So what do we do?"

"We look until we find what we have been looking for." The two girls walked or what felt like eternity until the came into a huge room. The room was shrouded in a dark read haze as the girls walked in and tried to look around. "What the hell?" Ino asked as she walked up to what only could be considered a gargantuan cage. Her question was answered by a booming yet ragged voice.

"What the hell, indeed. Get out of here you wenches."

"Oh, no." Sakura mumbled.

Ino unable to hear Sakura spoke up. "What the hell are you? And what in God's name are you doing in Hinata's mind." Some shifting went on in the cage, and a pair of crimson eyes peered out of the darkness.

"Well if it isn't a Yamanaka? I haven't seen one of your clan in years. For being so mind jutsu oriented your group always was on the stupid side."

"Don't insult my clan! You still haven't answered what you're doing in Hinata."

"Ino… this isn't Hinata's mind."

"What are you talking about?"

"Ding, Ding, Ding. Give the girl a prize. You two aren't in the Hyuuga you idiot. You're in the presence of the almighty Kyuubi!"

"Naruto?" Ino whispered.

"Yes you're in his mind you dope. But I don't want to talk to you where's the one that figured it out, she seems smart enough to have a conversation with. Come on out." Sakura stepped forward out of the haze.

"Oh, it's you." Contempt coating every word. "What do you want, come here to hit me too? I'll tell you one thing unlike the kid you even look at me the wrong way and I'll rip your throat out." Sakura just stood there shivering. "What's a matter? Can't talk trash when the monster is in front of you? I hear everything the kid hears, I see everything he sees, and I know everything he feels. So let me guess you where gonna toy with the mind of that Hyuuga girl weren't you? What where you gonna do, take away one of the only people that care about him?" The Kyuubi roared and the room they were in shook.

"No we weren't going to do anything like that. We-we just wanted to see what she sees in Naruto." Ino replied trying her best to shake off the fear.

"What do you care?" They kyuubi seemed only further enraged at the explanation. "She doesn't see any thing in the boy all she sees is the boy." The Kyuubi'voice began to grow softer. "This boy has taken so much trash from you idiot villagers; any other one of you bastard humans would have killed yourselves long ago. All this cause they can't see past me, I vowed long ago that I would see this boy get everything he deserved and I intend to keep that vow. You want to see what she sees in him? How about I do you one better you worms, take a look in his life. See if you still don't think he deserves a little bit of happiness."

With that the crimson eyes of the Kyuubi began to glow and the dark red haze turned began to swirl around the room. Suddenly shouting was heard, shouting and the sounds of blows being landed. Sakura and Ino walked towards the source of the noises to find a crowd of people gathered around a fallen boy. The crowd wasn't gathering to check on the boy however, they were gathered to beat him. Blow after blow landed on the object of their scorn. Curses and taunts littered the air. The girls tried to intervene but found they couldn't move. Slowly the crowd died down as the fervor of the beating apparently had passed people began leaving.

The girls cold do nothing as the now beaten little boy slowly rose, bloody, battered, most of his close torn to shreds. The boy began to walk away when he stumbled into a nice elderly lady, they boy apologized profusely and was about to walk away. The two girls gasped as the elderly lady swung the cane full force against the side of the head of the child, snapping the cane in half. The lady gave one last curse before walking away. The boy slowly got up and turned towards the two girls, blood pouring down his face.

The girls would never forget what they saw next this child, who had just been beaten to the point that most grown men would have died, looked them dead in the face and simply smiled. The smile that they had known as the trademark of one of their friends.

"…Naruto…" was all they could say.

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Yo so hopeully this is of higher quality than the last chapter. For those who are concerned about Inner Sakura don't worry we'll see her in the next chapter. So if you have a question or a request just let me know, although I can only promise to consider ideas. See ya.