Chapter Ten

Shwooooosh, shwooooosh, blew the wind in his ears as Naruto jumped through the trees. Tsjak! It sounded as the bottoms of his feet touched the branches.

It was just about an hour before midnight. The Lavender Tear was already fading, she knew. But there's still some time left, as long as it hasn't died yet. She began to grow a little more optimistic as she realized they had already searched through almost the whole forest. There was little space left they hadn't gone through yet, so the chance of finding it was getting greater and greater every time she left another open spot empty-handed.
She began to feel thirsty. She stopped for a moment and pulled a bottle filled with water from the small stream nearby their camp, out of her backpack. She placed it upon her lips and started drinking.
A few drops escaped and ran down her chin, where they slowed down and fell on the ground. She put the bottle away and wiped her chin off with the sleeve of her hoody.
She looked around. There is something strange with this place...

She is starting to realize it. Finally, I have been waiting so long for this moment, now I get to have my victory at last!
The feeling of pure euphoria was almost causing him to laugh out loud. He had to hold it in for just another moment, though; he couldn't reveal his position just yet.
He saw her disturbed look; her step backwards into the shadows of the trees.
Almost....almost!

There was a vague feeling of disturbance growing in Naruto's stomach. Something was not right; he could feel it.

Now!

Hinata started to feel a little weird; it was like her body got heavier every second. The shadows around her were getting darker and darker, as if ready to absorb her in its claws. She wanted to move, run away from this place, but she couldn't. It was as if her feet were glued to the ground. It was now that she realized there was something very, very wrong.

(now, back to Konoha)

''What is it, Shizune?''
''It's the report from the squad you send a month ago to check upon the borders with the Land of Water'', Shizune answered, still panting.
''So? What's so disturbing you came rushing in like crazy, thereby interrupting me in my important Hokage business?''
''Tsunade-sama, please read the contents''
Tsunade took the document from Shizune and read it quickly.
''Oh no...''

Hinata tried to force her muscles to move, but her entire body was frozen. She couldn't even scream.
Just as she was about to panic, her eyes unravelled an emerging shadow, slowly taking form. Genjutsu? No, byakugan can see through that. This is definitely not genjutsu. But then, what is that...

''Shizune, when did this report arrive? I want the exact time, right now!'' Tsunade exclaimed.
'J-Just now Tsunade-sama, the squad thought it to be of so much urgency they send it ahead, and I came to you as soon as I saw the contents!''
Tsunade closed her eyes, silent for a moment. ''So he has escaped already, huh? This situation demands quick acting. Shizune, bring me the latest records about him!''
''Right away Tsunade-sama!'' And with that, she immediately went to get the files.
Tsunade sighed and sat back in her chair. This is most alarming...

Adrenaline was racing through Naruto's legs now, enabling him to accelerate in speed. He was so amazingly fast that all you could see was a yellow flash moving through the forest. He knew it wasn't fast enough yet though; it would still take him quite some time to get where Hinata probably was now. Too much time.

''Here they are Tsunade-sama!'' Shizune cried as she ran back into the Hokage's Office. She came to a standstill in front of the desk. ''He seems to be in some way related to Konoha's Nara clan, but has been banned from Konoha due to kidnapping locals and trying self-invented jutsu's on them. We don't have much information about his techniques, but we do know that he uses the shadows to capture his enemies. However, not in the same way as the Nara clan does. At the end of his battles, his opponents were always found to be...-''
''Yes?''
''...- completely sucked out...Sucked out of chakra and any life-energy whatsoever...with death as a result...''

The emerging shadow was now almost close enough to show his outlines. All Hinata could see was that he, or it, or whatever is was, was very tall. However, the most urgent question was not what he looked like, but what he was going to do to her. In her head she screamed for Naruto to come to her aid, but he was probably too far away to even make it in time.
Due to the huge amount of energy she had already lost, her vision started to blur and her byakugan was faltering.
All of the sudden, she noticed something; when her byakugan was activated, she was able to see him. However, when her byakugan was failing, he was, somehow, invisible. So if it wasn't for my byakugan, I wouldn't have noticed him at all....
But he was quickly getting closer, and she should have been able to see his chakra system very clearly now, but, as said, she was almost out of energy, causing her byakugan to fade. What she could see was already amazing though. Such enormous chakra! Its vibrations are so strong, it's almost audible....
Counting up even the little information she had, she came to a threatening conclusion; it didn't matter how strong she had gotten, he didn't look like someone she could defeat, especially not in the situation she was in right now.

Tsunade closed her eyes in disgust of what it must be like to have all your energy being sucked out. ''What else do we know?''
''Not much more than just his name...''
''Which is...?''

It came to her almost as a whisper from the wind itself.
'Narahashi Yushiro. Nice to finally meet you.'

Author note: Oay, now finally some action on the way. Come on, Naru-chan, go save her from the scary man!