CHAPTER 4
**DEMON COUPLE**
**DEMON COUPLE**
Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi and Roki were running towards Suna. They had to get there quickly and save Gaara. Gaara was taken by the Akatsuki earlier that morning and they would reach Suna by tomorrow if they kept up the pace.
"Naruto." Kakashi said in a warning tone.
"Yeah?" Naruto looked up to Kakashi.
Kakashi spoke without looking at Naruto, "Don't rush off to save Gaara when we reach Suna, okay? We need to meet up with Temari and we need to find out where he is first. Okay? This is the quickest way to get it done, alright?"
"Yeah…. I can't believe Gaara got Kazekage!" Naruto whined. He had been doing so once every five minutes since he learnt that Gaara was now the Kazekage.
"Yes we know, Naruto!" Sakura sighed in annoyance, "You've told us fifty times already!"
Naruto nodded hesitantly, "Okay. But how would they know where Gaara is when we get there?" he turned back to Kakashi.
"I will probably have to summon Pakkuun or one of my other hound dogs to catch his scent." Kakashi thought about it.
Naruto smirked, "Don't worry, Roki has that covered. He has really advanced senses, even for a fox."
Roki barked in approval.
Kakashi looked over to the fox, slightly suspiciously, "I've been meaning to ask you about Roki…"
Before he could go on, Naruto interrupted, "I would answer all your questions about him later because it's kind of confidential." He said, giving a small glance to Sakura unnoticeable to anyone but Kakashi and himself.
Kakashi nodded, he was a little bit more curious now, though. Since it had something to do with Kyuubi. But let it go for the time being.
**DEMON COUPLE**
"Temari! We're the team from Konoha to save Gaara!" Naruto yelled out when he saw the girl standing out the front of Sunagakure.
Temari looked up, a bright smile on her face when she saw exactly who was on the team that would come and save her brother.
"Come. We need to find him as quickly as possible." Temari said urgently, heading towards the Kazekage's tower.
Team Seven followed Temari to the Kazekage tower, where a secretary of Gaara was standing at the door, waiting for them to arrive.
"Misuchi!" Temari called out to the secretary, "I'm going to go inform the elders, take them to where Gaara was taken and hopefully they will be able to collect his scent. I'll meet you there." Temari said and disappeared as she ran up one of the many staircases.
Naruto followed Misuchi as she walked to Gaara's office. "Roki." Naruto ordered, "Find Gaara's… or the Akatsuki' s scent and tell me which way they took him." Roki just barked in recognition and pushed his nose to the ground.
"I'm coming with you!" The door burst open, leaving a girl standing there panting heavily, her brown shoulder-length hair sticking slightly to her face as sweat dripped down. "There's no way in hell that I'm going to stay here while my Gaara-kun's in trouble." She panted.
"But Matsuri-San!" Misuchi begged, "Temari-sama already said that you can't go."
Naruto looked over to the girl, who had obviously been under a lot of stress and walked over to her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay. If I was in your position and the girl I loved was taken by the Akatsuki there would be nothing in my way to get to her. But Temari's right. I promise I'll get him back for you." He said gently as the girl started breaking down again.
Suddenly Temari was standing in the doorway, "Matsuri-chan, you need to go back home, relax sweetie."
Matsuri turned to glare at Temari, "How can I relax! Gaara-kun might not be alive! I need to go out there and find him!"
"But Mat-chan! Gaara wouldn't want you out there in harm's way." She tried, wrapping the crying girl in a hug.
It was at that moment when the window burst open, "Where did they take Gaara-nee?" A feminine voice ordered standing in the center of the room with a large wolf by her side. Leaving everyone surprised at this girl's speed.
Naruto's breath was caught in his throat; all he could do was reach up and grab hold of the wolf pendant that was dangling down his neck and stare blankly at the gorgeous figure in front of him. She had blue eyes and her long bluish-back hair trailed down to her waist. Her figure was still petite but had filled out a lot since he had last seen her. But then again, the last time Naruto had seen her was three years ago.
"Who are you? You aren't supposed to be here!" Misuchi was shocked at the girl's sudden appearance.
Hinata sighed, "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm here now and I'm getting my brother back, then I'll leave you peacefully." She said gently.
"Let her go!" Temari sauntered through the door, "She's a friend."
"Thank you, Temari-chan." Hinata smiled at Temari. "I would say it's good to see you again but I'm not in a good mood."
"Well, you're going to help get my brother back, so that is all I need." Temari smiled at the girl.
"Well, he's like a brother to me too." Hinata then noticed the crying Matsuri, "Don't worry, Mat-chan. I promise I'll get Gaara back to you." Hinata said with a smile, leaning over to pat the girl on the back when she hit a chakra point, catching the girl as she collapsed into a light slumber.
"Thank you, she could've hurt herself." Temari looked over to Hinata with a small smile ad Temari placed the girl gently on the couch in Gaara's office.
I've got Gaara's scent. Roki snapped Naruto out of his frozen state.
"Roki has Gaara's scent." Naruto said, before turning to the long-blue-haired beauty. "You can travel with us." He was silently hoping no-one else would recognise her. He needed to ask her a few things before anyone would notice.
Hinata turned around and nearly fainted at the sight of Naruto. Luckily she pushed that down, but tripped as she was already starting to walk and landed face first on the ground, shaking slightly in horror. She got up, quickly controlled her blush and noticed Roki next to him.
Roki is like me. Misaki confirmed Hinata's thoughts, making Hinata lock eyes back with Naruto who smiled one of those smiles she loved and winked at her.
"Let's go." Kakashi said loudly, taking charge as Sakura followed and Temari jumped after them, after a subtle wink at Hinata. Hinata and Naruto followed along behind, Naruto trying to get a chance to talk to Hinata in private.
Roki headed to the front of the group when Hinata ordered Misaki to go to the front as well. "Who are you?" Sakura asked Hinata.
Hinata stumbled, "Er…"
"Guys, this is Tamika Hanoi," Naruto answered for her, earning a sigh of relief from Hinata, "We met while I was on my training trip."
Sakura gave Hinata one more suspicious glance before turning back around and heading forward.
"Hinata-chan." Naruto said quietly.
"H-Hi Naruto-kun." She whispered back.
"Oh man, I'm so happy to see you!" he smiled, reaching over and engulfing her in a hug, lifting her off of the ground so they could keep moving towards Gaara.
"You're not… scared of me? You don't… hate me?" Hinata blushed in Naruto's arms, "You… Roki? Are you… Like me?" She said quietly.
He nodded, "Yeah, you never really figured out why everyone hated me?"
Hinata smiled back, "I'm not that smart."
Naruto's smile disappeared, "I got something to tell you after we save Gaara." He said, gently putting Hinata down so she could run again.
"Okay," She agreed, "Thank you for not telling them."
"Hey, you're not off the hook yet." Naruto smirked.
Mistress! Two Akatsuki are up ahead in a cave. They have Gaara! The fight with Gaara must have taken a lot out of them, they are both low on chakra. Hinata heard Misaki's thoughts.
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata started.
"I know, Roki just told me." Naruto nodded.
Hinata nodded, but added some things that he might not have known because Roki didn't have the Byakugan, "They are both low on chakra. It obviously hasn't been long since they fought Gaara, at the moment they are vulnerable. But I don't want you guys getting hurt." Hinata looked down shyly.
Naruto looked over to her, "I could say the same thing."
The two of you take out the Akatsuki and we'll take a detour. Roki thought to Naruto.
Naruto nodded, grabbing Hinata's hand, "Come on." He quickly made two shadow clones, one of Hinata and one of himself, "We'll take out the Akatsuki. Roki is going to take them on a detour."
Hinata nodded, silently informing Misaki about their plan before activating her byakugan and heading towards the Akatsuki members.
**DEMON COUPLE**
"Hello again," Hinata smiled brightly when she walked up to the two Akatsuki members – Sasori and Deidara. Gaara was in Sasori's grip; unconscious.
"Hey, look. It's another little demon, un." Deidara smirked.
Hinata frowned, "That's not a nice way to speak to a lady."
"YOU TRIED TO SHAVE MY PRECIOUS HAIR OFF LAST TIME!" Deidara shot back.
"I was just wondering if it was as smooth as it looked." Hinata continued in her gentle calm voice.
"I'll see how you look when you're bold!" Deidara growled, and before he could jump at Hinata, something landed on him harshly.
"Now, now, I quite like Hinata-Chan's hair as it is thank you." Naruto was sitting on Deidara smiling brightly.
"Another one! We're too weak to take on two of them at once!" Sasori jumped backwards, shying away from the demon containers.
Naruto chuckled loudly, "Did he just call himself weak?" He asked Hinata.
Hinata nodded, "I think he did, Naruto. What are we going to do about that?"
"Let's show him how weak he already is." Naruto smiled.
"Let's do just that." Hinata agreed, "But I get Deidara-chan. I'm jealous of her hair. I didn't get to chop it off last time."
Deidara fumed, "I'm not a girl!"
Naruto acted like he hadn't spoken, "Nah, I like your hair better." He disagreed, getting off of Deidara so Hinata could go at him and charged Sasori. "I'll take on this guy then."
**DEMON COUPLE**
Hinata charged Deidara, dodging all the clay birds that were thrown at her. She smiled, she had already fought Deidara before so she knew she had to stay away from the clay because it can blow up any second.
She quickly gathered her chakra as he stared to throw more and more clay creatures, "Chakra pulse!" She yelled and pushed out a bit of chakra from each of her chakra points, throwing the clay in all directions.
She knew she could only beat Deidara in close combat, all she needed to do was get close enough. She could make it to Deidara, but it was going to take a bit. She sighed, this was going to hurt and charged towards Deidara at top speed. The clay kept blowing up near her but she moved at the last second so it wasn't going to hit a fatal position without stopping as she ran forward towards Deidara.
Quickly activating her Byakugan, she ran in for a jyuken palm to his stomach, when she noticed something wrong about Deidara. With a gasp in realisation, she tried to pull back before her jyuken palm could hit him, but she couldn't stop the momentum and when her palm hit the Deidara, it blew up, sending Hinata flying to the wall of the cave and tumbling onto the rocky floor covered in scratches and bruises.
Sighing in frustration, she got back into a standing position, ignoring the aching in her joints. She looked around with her Byakugan, trying to find where the real Deidara ran off to.
Her eye's widened when she saw him heading to where Naruto was fighting Sasori and where Gaara was lying on the ground, still unconscious. Hinata ran, trying to get to Deidara before he could do something. Luckily she was faster than him, and quickly kicked him in the side, sending him into a tree near where Sasori was fighting.
She was about to run back over to Deidara when she saw that he had already sent out clay towards Naruto. She wouldn't have been able to make it to him in time so she yelled, "Naruto! Whatever you do, stay away from the clay animals that are coming your way!"
Naruto looked up, clearly shocked by Hinata's shouting. Then noticed the clay heading for him, nodding to himself, he created six clones to take care of him as he turned back to Sasori. He was already breathing heavily, as Sasori had two puppets out in front of him. But he was lucky; thanks to the Kyuubi he was immune to the poison the puppets were throwing at him.
He charged again, he had already defeated a few of these puppets so he knew he had to hit them in the joints to disable them. Ducking under the spears the puppets were throwing at him, he pulled out a kunai from in his holder and slashed it across the elbow joint. Then he had to jump up into the air, dodging the second puppets axe. But now he was in the air, and falling down to where the puppets were waiting. "Shadow clone jutsu!" He yelled, creating ten shadow clones and all started creating a Rasengan. "Rasengan barrage!" They all yelled at once, twisting in the air to dodge the puppets moves and each pushed a Rasengan into the puppets.
There was a large explosion from the Rasengans and the real Naruto was thrown back and the clones disappeared in a poof of smoke. Getting back up with a bit of effort, he smiled when he saw the puppets on the ground, ineffective.
Suddenly there was a large blast from the trees behind him, and he saw Hinata flying towards him. Quickly moving, he jumped towards her, catching her in his arms. "Are you alright?" He asked.
She winced a little bit, "Yeah. I'm fine." She sighed as Naruto put her back up in a standing position and she stretched all her aching joints.
The group heard the blasts and we're coming. Misaki warned, and Naruto glanced at Hinata and they both nodded, knowing each other got the news and disappeared into the trees just as the group entered the battlefield.
"Okay, guys. Sakura Temari and I will take the red head. You other two will take the girl." Kakashi ordered, making clone Hinata/Tamika laugh.
"Wait." Naruto disagreed, "Me and… Tamika will take on Sasori. He works with poison. I can smell it on him. The poison won't affect me and Tamika is a venom specialist." Clone Naruto lied.
"Yes. That would be a good idea." 'Tamika' agreed.
Kakashi just nodded and, after a suspicious look to 'Tamika', ran towards Deidara who was fuming. "I'm not a girl!" He yelled as the four disappeared deeper into the woods.
Coth clone Naruto and Hinata disappeared then and the real ones jumped out of the trees they were hiding in. "Okay, let's do this." Naruto said, smiling.
"Do you think they will be okay?" Hinata asked, activating her byakugan again.
Naruto just smiled at her, "Don't worry. They'll be fine. Kakashi-sensei will make sure everyone comes out in one piece."
Hinata nodded, and then turned back to Sasori, "The quicker we defeat this guy, the quicker we'll be able to find out."
Both Hinata and Naruto charged Sasori, dodging his hits and attempting to land a hit on him. Hinata finally got a jyuken to the side of his arm, when she felt nothing happen apart from a small twitch in the palm of her hand.
Quickly jumping back, she called for Naruto to do the same before explaining, "My Jyuken does nothing to him." She looked over to her arm, pulling out a splinter, then looking at it curiously her eyes then widening in realisation, "He's made of wood!" (A/N… I know he isn't really made out of wood, but y'know, he is in my story :P )
"What?" Naruto turned to Sasori, a confused look on his face.
Sasori smirked, "I guess you figured it out then. Yes. I made myself into a puppet."
"That's creepy." Naruto shivered.
Hinata just nodded in agreement thinking through what to do about this new piece of information. "Misaki. Help us out here." Hinata called.
Misaki barked and jumped up to Hinata.
"He's made of wood right?" Hinata thought aloud, "Naruto? Do you know any fire jutsu?"
Naruto shook his head, no. But his eyes widened, "Roki, you know fire jutsu right?"
Yes. I know many fire jutsu. Roki barked, joining the group.
"Okay. Roki we need to set this guy on fire." Naruto looked over to Sasori.
Roki's body was coated in a demonic red chakra as he started to use his justu. Growing two more tails, he opened his mouth as a ball of red chakra was concentrated in his mouth. Suddenly the sphere burst out of him mouth into a large beam of fire that headed for Sasori, setting him on fire like they wanted.
"Good job, Roki." Naruto smiled at his companion, "Now to finish this off." He charged towards Sasori, creating an Odama Rasengan in his hands before pushing in into Sasori's chest, which blew up, making bits of burning wood fly everywhere.
Sighing, Naruto walked back to where Hinata, Misaki and Roki were waiting. "Good job. Now let's see how the others are going and find Gaara." Hinata said as the four ran towards where they last saw Deidara.
They were a little surprised when they reached the group and Deidara was no-where to be found, Sakura was using medical justu on an unconscious Gaara and The rest of the group were puffing slightly, but not nearly as damaged as Hinata and Naruto.
"Did you get him?" Naruto asked, surprised at how unscathered the group was.
"No. We could barely fight him before he ran." Kakashi explained, "Said something about three demons." He gave a pointed look to Hinata, a little cautious.
Naruto looked over to him, "Don't worry. She's fine. Trust me."
Sakura narrowed her eyes at Hinata, "Tamika, why are you here? You aren't wearing a headband or anything, yet you know how to fight."
Hinata looked over to Sakura with an innocent expression, "Gaara has been like a brother to me while I've been through some tough times recently. When I heard he had been taken by Akatsuki, I had to come as fast as I could to help him."
"That doesn't explain how you know how to fight." Sakura growled.
Naruto glared at Sakura, "She doesn't need to answer to you!"
"Why are you so grumpy these days, Naruto? Geez, first when I wanted to know about Hinata and now this!" Sakura yelled.
Hinata's eyes widened, then turned to Naruto, what exactly happened when I was gone?
Naruto continued to glare at the pink-haired kunoichi, "You're just being so nosy! There are some things you just don't need to know!"
Kakashi was watching the whole thing curiously, but he decided to stop them before it was too late. "Stop fighting guys, Gaara's waking up." He lied, but when everyone turned to the unconscious Kazekage he started to twitch until he opened his eyes.
"Mmnn…" He quickly got into a sitting position, looking around curiously.
Hinata's face brightened, "Gaara! You're okay? Thank god!" Hinata embraced the boy, making Temari laugh at her antics.
"Imouto? What are you doing here? Oh, it was the Akatsuki wasn't it? Thank you for saving me, Imouto." Gaara smiled, embracing the girl back.
Hinata let go of him, jumping back a few steps, "Don't give me all the credit, Temari-chan, Naruto-kun and his team did all the work."
"Naruto?" He looked around for the ninja.
"Hey Gaara!" Naruto smiled brightly when his eyes locked with the red-head.
Gaara smiled at him, "It's nice to see you again." He then turned to Hinata, "Kun? Is there something I don't know…?"
Hinata blushed at least four shades of red, "Well, your girlfriends freaking out back home, you have no idea how close it came to her coming out here alone."
Gaara looked to Hinata softly, "Thank you for convincing her to stay. I couldn't take it if she was hurt out here."
Hinata smiled gently, "I know, that's why I might have knocked her out."
"You knocked her out?" He glared, "If you hurt her… !"
Hinata continued to smile warmly at her brother, "Don't worry, I was gentle, I just hit a nerve on her neck. She's fine."
He sighed thankfully, turning back to team seven, "Everyone, I say we meet for a feast tonight. Okay? This is a thank you for saving my life. This goes for you too, imouto. And you better show up this time." He warned.
Hinata shook her head, "I can't. I'm leaving about now. And you know how I don't like attention. I'm not heading in the direction of Suna anyway. You know I can't stay here for too long. Now that I know that you are okay, I can leave."
Gaara sighed, "Fine. But keep in contact this time."
She just smirked, "You know that's not going to happen. I can't let anyone know where I am."
**DEMON COUPLE**
NARUHINA-NESS IS NEXT CHAPTER! Next episode is when Naruto confesses! STAY TUNED!