Chapter Twelve

'Get the hell away from her dattebayou!' Naruto yelled. He was standing on a tree branch only a few feet above the ground, but high enough to be able to oversee the whole scene. And it wasn't a very nice scene. Hinata had been caught by an enemy, at least, she seemed to be, because even though no one held her, she seemed to be almost glued to the ground, not moving a limb. And that tall, black-clothed guy standing there with her couldn't possibly mean well. Screw that stupid herb. Helping my important teammate comes first.

Seems like he's arrived. This is going exactly as planned. Good. I like it that way.
He smirked unnoticeably. Let's play a little, shall we? He turned to face the boy.
'Good evening, nice to meet you. I'm Narahashi Yushiro.'

What's this? He's introducing himself to me? What a weird guy...
'Let her go!' Naruto yelled at him.
'Nice to meet you Let-her-go-san.' Yushiro said and smiled to the now a little confused boy. 'Although I suspect it's not your real name. It is commonly considered rude to lie when one politely asks for your name, don't you know that?'
Naruto raised an eyebrow. What's he doing?
'Don't play dumb with me!' he yelled. 'What are you doing to Hinata!'
'Oh, I see.' Yushiro turned his attention to the frozen girl in front of him and brushed her chin with his index finger. 'Hinata, huh? Mmmm, it fits you perfectly.' It sounds as softly as her face looks. He repeated her name a couple of times, as if wanting to get used to sound of it. 'Yes, perfectly.' He raised his arm to feel her skin.
'Don't you touch her!'
Yushiro looked at him, only slightly disturbed. 'Why, is she your-' He swayed with his little finger in the air.

Hinata, who had been silent the whole time, turned now bright red.
'No, of course not!' Naruto had also reddened.
Even though this was the only answer she could have expected from the loud-mouthed ninja, she still felt hurt by his denial.
'Right. Well, I have a request for you.'
'What is it?'
'I'd like you to come down from there.' Yushiro pointed at the tree branch Naruto was standing on. 'I'd feel much more comfortable if we could speak while being on the same level.'
Again, Naruto raised an eyebrow. This guy sure is weird, he isn't acting like a normal enemy at all! Talking about being polite and shit like that...What the heck he thinking? He narrowed his eyes. There must be something to it.
He looked at Hinata. She still hadn't moved a tiny bit. She also didn't look very energetic.
'Don't bother, my friend, she can't speak to you. It's you and me now.'
Naruto gritted his teeth and put his hand on his kunaipocket.
Yushiro sighed wearily. 'Well, if you're not coming down, I might as well have some fun with your teammate here.'

Hinata's eyes grew bigger and she shrivelled up inside. He was approaching her again, and there wasn't one thing she could do to stop him. Her byakugan had failed already and her chakralevel was alarmingly low. And if it wasn't for Yushiro's technique freezing her muscles, she would have fallen to the ground a long time ago.

It was face to face now. She could feel the intense vibration of his chakra heating her skin, his breath blowing on her face. His hand was reaching towards her- She closed her eyes in fear, waiting to feel his touch.

The sound of two metal objects clinching.
Nothing.
The spot where she had expected to feel his touch remained cold.
She opened her eyes and saw Yushiro holding a kunai, his pose a defending one, the kunai that had been thrown to him falling to the ground.
More kunai flew through the air, but Yushiro dodged them all perfectly.
'Come on, don't tell me that's all you've got?' He provoked.
Hinata knew he was just luring her blond friend out of the tree, and she hoped Naruto would notice it too, and he wouldn't fall for the same trap she'd fallen for.
Yushiro opened his mouth again to say something, but never did. For Hinata, it all went so quickly now, she could hardly see what was going on. She hadn't even noticed Naruto throwing a fuuma shuriken until she saw Yushiro avoiding it with a graceful move.
He smirked. Looks like this kid is pretty simple-minded if he thinks he's got me with such a simple attack. It was not until then he saw a second fuuma shuriken appear in the shadow of the first one. Shit. He had been able to avoid the first fuuma shuriken, since it was kind of obvious from where it was thrown and what its way through the air would be, but the second one wasn't that easy to predict. He realized there was no way to block it nor to dodge it, and judging from the amazing speed with which it was coming to him, he would be dead if it hit him. Fine then. There's no other way.

Hinata had seen it all, and expected the second shuriken to hit Yushiro an wound him badly, if not fatally. But instead she witnessed something entirely different.
Somehow the shuriken deflected in its arc through the air, but only a little. It was now easy for Yushiro to avoid it. He bent over backwards, until his head almost touched the ground, and his body formed a 90 degrees turned capital C.
He closed his eyes and smiled, his head still hanging upside down. So you're a little smarter than I thought, I'll give you that, but you still don't impress me.

Until now Hinata had been able to keep it secret that she could still speak, that she had still a some chakra left, even if it was only very little. But as she saw Naruto jumping down from the tree branch into the shadows of the ground, in full attacking mode, she screamed out to him.
'No! Naruto! Don't touch the ground! Stay away from the shadows!'
Her screaming was in vain, Naruto had already touched the ground and was running towards the still backwards bent Yushiro. Judging from his speed, Yushiro wouldn't be able to get up quickly enough to prevent Naruto's rasengan from hitting him hard.

This is it. Naruto and Hinata both thought.

But it wasn't.

Just as rasengan was about to smash Yushiro, Naruto's muscles froze.