Like I said, it doesn't take long to pump out chapters.

Dudes (and dudettes), I wrote the second chapter, went to sleep for an hour and a half, and had a crapload of responses when I woke up! Thanks for all the attention, guys. As a reward, here's the next.

disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, sadly. I really could use the money

Oh, also: A little warning to youse guys out there, as there is some mild swearing here. Not for the kiddies, although I'm sure they'll read regardless of the warning anyway. Enjoy.


The sun rose only to be hidden behind the clouds of a muggy morning. Hinata awoke inside her tent outside of the city, hidden away in the packed foliage of the woodlands to avoid detection. This was how the morning began for her during the last fifteen years; always in hiding and always ready to be packed away.

She sat up feeling groggy this particular day. "Must've drunk too much," she thought as she stretched. Afterwards, she put on her clothes for the day, her average beige trench coat covering her stolen custom-made pistol and ever-vigilant weapon pouch. She shook her head at the memories the small bag brought to her mind and prepared for the day ahead.

The morning hours were to be spent checking out the base where the red-eyes were being held. She needed to gather intel on her location before making her strike, a mistake she would never make twice.

Once she was satisfied with the given information, she would spend the rest of the daylight hours preparing for the night. If all things went well, she would be ready to make her move that night. But things had to be perfect this time, no time for improvisation. The stakes were too high to risk it this time.

She put her hands together to form a seal learned long ago in a place far away. For the first time in months, she performed a transformation technique, disguising herself as the drunken soldier from the previous night.

She straddled her way towards the base and was happy to overhear a familiar man's voice chatting away with the soldier guarding the front gate.

"Yeah, man, Ralph ain't gonna be here today. He hooked up with some chick in a bar last night, but we found him later out like a light. Guy drank way too much. Turns out the bitch stole all his cash!"

The guard nodded. "Well, can't say I'm surprised. I've always told him if he keeps lookin' for strange women he'll hit up the wrong one eventually."

"Dude, not everyone's ready to settle down like you. You just got… huh?" The man turned towards Hinata. "Ralph?! What the hell're you doing here? Weren't you out cold last night?"

Hinata acted as if recovering from a mother of a hangover. She had them before, so she could pull off the deception convincingly. "Yeah, my head's still killing me, but I'm fine. Just give me some peace and quiet today and I outta be good."

"Well, alright," said the duped guard, "C'mon in… you're on watch today for the prisoners. Should be quiet enough."

She made her way towards the 'special' cells. Normally, she would have asked passersby where to find the place, but since there was so much talk in the air about the prisoners, she managed to find the place without the directions of others. On her way, she passed most of the camp, including the barracks, armory, weapon dump, and communications center. She made a mental note of everything as she casually strolled by; another lesson she learned many years ago while on her harsh journey.

Upon finding the cell, she was surprised to find the security rather lax. "Must be betting all the cards on the holding cell. Foolish." There were only four guards who posed minor threats, but there was no shortage of mounted cameras. Those would be problematic.

She took her 'station' behind a turret emplacement. When she sat down, she pulled out a pen and a slip of paper and started to note the blind spots of the cameras. Sadly, they did a proficient job at placing them as there were few places to hide.

She was in the middle of drawing out a rough map of the place for later reference when she felt the gazes of the red-eyed prisoners. She looked up to find just that: all the captives were staring at her. She didn't count on this.

The west had no concept of ninjas. Any precision job was done with the use of soldiers, who had the abilities to take out targets or defend others with the required accuracy. The only position similar to that of a ninja was that of a 'specialist'. Specialists were fairly in tune with their system of chakra, or 'energy' as they called it, capable of performing incredible feats with minimal effort. She was certain they were similar to the shinobi in the east, but she wasn't around long enough to make a fair judgment of that assumption.

The red eyed people were notorious for being the best specialists in the western world. Their power was unparalleled and feared by all, which was why they were hunted and killed without just cause. They had a tendency to fight back, which only made it easier to them to be demonized in the eyes of their tormentors.

The captives were still staring at her. "What?!" She said out of feigned annoyance. The soldier she was impersonating would surely have such a temper.

A few of the red-eyes smiled. "Hi, Ralph," one of them said with sarcasm in his voice. "What's goin' on, Ralph?"

Hinata was on full alert. These prisoners knew something was up. "Shut up!" she yelled, hoping that she knew the drunk soldier well enough to imitate his temper.

Another red-eyes spoke. "C'mon Ralph, don't be like that. If we ever get outta here, we could take down this whole base…" the man winked to convey his signal.

She gulped. They were onto her, but they seemed ready to cooperate. "Shut up! When I'm off my shift, I'm comin' in there to beat you to a pulp!" She twitched her cheek to give a cheap imitation of a wink, hoping they'd get the message.

Small grins appeared on all their faces. They understood. Tonight was the night.

(flashback)

Hinata was confused by it all. What happened to Naruto, where he was, how she was going to find him, why she was even looking for him in the first place were all questions that raced through her mind.

She spent the last six months searching out the Merchants. When she headed west from her initial starting point, there was no word on the gang passing through. Seeing that as a dead end, she started south on a whim. Luckily for her, that whim was correct, as people remembered seeing the group passing through. She always seemed to miss them by weeks.

The search for the Merchants ended the seventh month when she stumbled upon a destroyed castle and the devastated remains of the city below where the group was taking shelter before moving on. When questioned, the survivors claimed the Merchants sold a young blond boy to the master of the castle who was known for his… unusual tastes. Later that night, the castle exploded in a fury of chakra which proceeded to rip the town apart in search of the Merchants. Once found, the gang was pulverized into nothingness. All the citizens claimed to see the young blond in the center of the chakra. According to them, he wrapped himself up in cloth to replace his lost clothing and continued south.

Hinata had been following him ever since. When she first heard of the destruction, she couldn't believe her ears. "Naruto couldn't have done this… could he?" Her fragile mind struggled to understand how this was possible.

She was lost in thought when she crossed paths with a group of men.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" One of them made a show of pointing her out to his buddies.

"Looks like someone got lost on the way home…" They started to circle her.

"We should show her the way back, fellas…" They started closing in on her.

Hinata was frightened. She was about to get her first lesson about how cruel life really was.


Ahahaha! Like that cliffhanger?! Don't worry, I ain't gonna leave you hangin! There'll be an actual ending to this little situation. In the meantime, see you guys later!