Yo! 'Sup? I was rather surprised at the reception of the last chapter. I knew it was something everyone here was looking forward to, but never this much. So far, it has the most reviews of them all! Still not nearly as many like some big name fanfic writers (Lifethane, thinkin' of you...), but I like to delude myself into believing that more people read than actually review...

Anyways, here's the next chapter. Enjoy.

disclaimer (as always): Once again, Naruto does not belong to me. Damn!

Language warning! (Now go and read it anyway...)


Hinata locked up. Despite the fact that she had long grown up from being a shy little girl, she could feel that old side of her resurfacing.

"Naruto? Is that really you?"

"Yeah… though not many people know me by that name. So who are… huh?!" He was surprised when the odd white-eyed woman suddenly hugged him out of the blue. He was about to push her away least she be another assassin when he felt something cold on his bare chest. "Tears?" He thought. "Who the hell is she?"

The Hyuuga realized what she was doing and pulled herself back. It wasn't so much that she missed him rather than being in shock that she had actually found him. At least, that's what she thought.

"Uh, come on in," Naruto said as he lifted the flap to his tent.

Hinata entered and took a seat in one of the old felt chairs, Uzi taking the one across from her. She squinted to get a better look at the blond man through the dim light, clearly noticing that he had changed his appearance over the years. In place of the gaudy orange jumpsuit was a faded olive green army recruit jacket with missing sleeves and left unbuttoned, revealing the finely toned musculature of his torso and abdomen. His pants had a reddish hue to them and were messily tucked into his well worn leather boots. His right arm was bandaged from the shoulder down and his left hand had red tattoos that resembled gashes on the inside joints of his fingers and palm. He also had what looked to be a metal ring implanted into his left wrist. Most notable of all, though, was the stark contrast in colors in his eyes and hair, his long spiky hair having bright red streaks and his blue irises shining amongst the burning crimson in his eyes.

"So, once again, who are you exactly?"

She wiped the drying tears from her face and composed herself. "I am the White Eyes of Death…"

"Holy crap!" He interrupted with an excited smile. "You're that person that got Trench and his gang out of that prison! I didn't think I'd get to meet you!" He held out his hand. When Hinata hesitated with newfound tears welling up in her eyes, he leaned forward to get a better look at her eyes. "You know, you look kinda familiar. We met before?"

She nodded. "We have, even though you didn't notice me at the time."

He sat still while staring at her pearly white eyes. "You do look familiar…" he said to the wind as he thought out loud. "Maybe someone I met on the way here? No… farther east, maybe?"

Hinata didn't feel like waiting for him to backtrack through his entire life. "My name is Hinata. Hinata Hyuuga."

Naruto paused as the name rang a bell. He was stiff as a statue as he mulled the unique name in his head for a few seconds. "Wait… Hyuuga… Hyuuga…" he repeated the name as he recalled memories of his old home. "Hyuuga! That's the name of a family in… uh…" He paused again to remember the name. "Konoha! Wait, you're from Konoha?!"

Hinata smiled. "At least he hasn't forgotten everything," she thought.

His mood suddenly turned sinister. He stood up and brushed aside his jacket, revealing his trademark Uzi. "You're not here to take me back, are you?" He inquired with apprehension in his voice.

"What? No, no!" Hinata waved her hands in a panic. "I..." She took a deep breath as she organized her thoughts. "When I heard that you left the village, I was worried. So I packed whatever I could and left to find you."

His eyes widened as he relaxed. "But… That was over…" He did the math in his head. Time had obviously gone by unmarked in his mind. "Fifteen years ago."

Hinata nodded her head. "Yeah, about fifteen years."

"Wait, you've been looking for me for fifteen years?"

She nodded.

"Why?" He sat back in his chair and asked with sincerity.

She bit her lip. "At first, it was because I… it was because I loved you. Back then, I looked up to you in such a way that it couldn't have been anything short of love." She saw his red eyes widen slightly as he listened intently. "But now, I'm not so sure. I've gone for so long without seeing you and lived on my own strength that I don't know why I've continued until this point." She swore under her breath as she felt more tears welling up. "So, that's why."

Naruto nodded. "I see. So you've devoted most of your life for lookin' for me even when you've lost sight of why you were doing it in the first place." He stood up and walked over to her. "Well, I can't say that I know what it was like because our reasons were different," he put his bandaged hand on her shoulder. "But thanks. Good to know that someone out there's willing to go that far."

The pair was silent for a moment as they let each other's words sink in. Needless to say, it was awkward as hell.

"So," Naruto started in an attempt to lighten the mood, "You hungry?"

Hinata smiled as she was marginally content with her new situation. "Yeah, I'm starving."

---------------------------------

The pair of easterners had been eating at their bench for quite some time while sharing various tales of their separate journeys.

Naruto gave a small laugh. "You know, it's kinda like looking into a mirror. Most of our stories are kinda similar, you know?"

Hinata giggled. "It is kind of weird. I guess that's what we get for leaving so young, though." She remembered something that she always wondered about since seeing the first demolished city that Naruto passed through. "Naruto," The blond red-eyes looked up. "I've been wondering about this for a while. When I was following your lead, I kept running across all these scenes of destruction. At first I thought it was coincidence, but then I kept seeing it wherever you were. How did you do that?"

Uzi's eyes shifted their gaze downwards as he thought about his response. He lifted his head with resolve and looked into her eyes. "Listen, Hinata, about that… it's the reason I got kicked out of Konoha in the first place."

The Hyuuga bounty hunter cocked her head in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, uh, you see… remember that old story we got told as kids about the nine tailed fox?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Good," He was obviously uncomfortable about the topic. "Well… the fox wasn't actually killed."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he got sealed instead. The only thing the fourth Hokage had to seal the fox into was a newborn…"

Hinata's eyes went wide as she made the connection. "And that was…?"

"Yeah, that was me." He looked at the white-eyed woman with sadness in his eyes. "The villagers always thought I was the fox rather than its container. When I first got picked up by a group of 'merchants', they traded me to some rich pervert asshole in a big castle. That night, he tried to…" He trailed off while thinking of how to say his next words. "Do something unpleasant."

Hinata gasped lightly at his implication.

"I was scared and angry, and somehow that tapped into the fox's energy and that allowed me to blow that castle and part of the town to hell. Since that point on, I've slowly figured out how to access that damn fox's energy." His gaze turned dead. "Well, that's all there is. What do you think of it?"

Hinata was shocked to hear the blonde's secret. "Was this his burden all these years?" She smiled at her captured target. "You were forced down a path that leads to unnecessary suffering. It's not your fault…"

"No, no…" He interrupted. "Ever since I started to figure out how to manipulate this power, I've used it more and more! I've caused the deaths of many innocent people!"

"So have I!" She yelled to garner his attention. When he looked at her with surprise, she continued. "Whether directly or indirectly, I've caused the deaths of plenty of people who didn't deserve it. It's not something I'm proud of, but an old soldier once told me to keep on living for their sake, even if I was to blame. That's all we can do, isn't it?"

Naruto was surprised by her words of wisdom. Being a red-eye connected his mind to his comrades, so pain and suffering was commonplace to him. But here was this woman who understood what he felt all on her own. He smiled and let out a light laugh. "You make a good point, Hinata. You know…"

"Hinata! Uzi!" A familiar goggled face appeared by their side. "I see you two hit it off fairly well."

Hinata laughed. "Yeah, we did."

"Shades!" Naruto stood up and shook her hand. "Long time no see! You here on business?"

"Yeah, I just loaded up on that concoction that the freak family made. I'm about to head out. Just wanted to say 'bye' to you two."

"Oh, c'mon! Have a seat! We'll all have a drink!"

She held up her hand to refuse. "Nope! Duty calls. Uzi, good seeing you again." She turned to her white-eyed friend and cracked a mischievous smile. "Hinata, I'll see you around!"

"See you, Shades. And thanks for bringing me up here!"

"No prob!" She waved her hand as she walked away. She suddenly spun on her heel and faced them while walking backwards. "Oh, yeah! Name one of your kids after me, will ya?!"

"What?!" The pair simultaneously yelled back. The red-eyed smuggler kept on walking without skipping a beat.

Hinata let out a sigh. "She's… really something…"

"You're tellin' me. A real tomboy…" He sighed and looked at her with a glint of hope. "Hey, are you really cool knowing that I got that damn fox locked up inside of me?"

She smiled at him. "Yes. You've always been you. I'm absolutely fine with it."

"She… took that really well," he thought. "I don't even know how my other friends would react…"

The Hyuuga runaway decided to inquire about the evolution of Naruto's powers. "When I saw that you became a red-eyes, I started noticing your power changing. How did that happen?"

His eyes lit up. "Oh! Well… let's see… these red-eyes actually work as a weird form of telepathy. In other words, we can communicate at a basic level using only our minds. That helps us learn things from each other because we aren't just learning them; we understand them at the same time. Does that make any sense?"

"Uh… kind of. Keep going."

"It's hard to describe to someone without red eyes, but that's cool. Basically, when I became a red-eye, I learned from all our specialists how to refine and manipulate energy more effectively. I started applying what I learned from the veterans to my own techniques. In fact," he lifted his left hand and flashed his tattoos, "This is one of them."

Hinata looked curiously at his palm. "How does that work?"

"It'll do a lot of things, really, but it's good for anything involving lots of energy. I send energy through my arm into these tattoos and they channel it into pure force. It took me a real long time to get it down, but I can pull off some insane stuff with it!"

"I see," she lied. The description was far too vague to make any sense without seeing the technique in action. "What happened to your arm?"

"This?" He lifted up his bandaged limb. "Oh, the Agende Vhansin family just inked another energy tattoo into me. It needs to completely heal before I can use it, or I'll mess it up real bad."

"Can I see it?"

He gave her a look akin to embarrassment. "Sorry Hinata, but I was told not to take off the bandage for at least another couple of days. Doc's orders, you know?"

She pouted playfully. "What about your hair? Don't tell me you dyed it. I liked it when it was only blond."

He scratched his head. "The stripes started developing when I started redirecting the fox's energy into myself. Best I can guess is that it's a side effect."

The Hyuuga bounty hunter was about to bring up another question when an air raid siren sounded. She instinctively stood up and saw Naruto do the same from the corner of her eye.

"What's that?" She asked.

"We've got company." He said as he turned towards her. He let loose a large grin and said, "Let's ride!"

She returned the grin with the added excitement of finally being by his side. "Got it!"


The only phrase I could think of when trying to add Shades's little comment was: Oh behave, baby... (shameless Austin Powers fan...)

This weekend is looking to be absolute HELL! My teachers really are trying to get us to finish projects before Thanksgiving break (we still have Mon. and Tues. classes. //cry). So, as usual, lower those expectations! Lower 'em good! New chapters may not appear for a few days...

Oh, and post some reviews and lemme know how the not-so-suspenseful-anymore storyline is (there's still plenty of action left, this I promise!).