(A/N) It's that time again! The time for the next chapter in "Tossing away the masks". But first let me respond to a few people who were worried about whether this will be a harem or not and go on a little rant. This story WILL NOT BE A HAREM. (Rant begins) I do not like harems simple because it makes no sense for Naruto to ever get one. The only person who deserves to be with Naruto is Hinata. She is the only one who acknowledged Naruto's personality flaws, and saw past them to see the person who he really is, BEFORE he actually became powerful. No one else (who is female) was able to do that and they all saw him as a failure, until he became powerful, and then what do you know, suddenly he is a cool guy. Damn superficial bastards. Hinata, while acknowledging the fact that Naruto was indeed a failure, saw past seeing only that, and saw that underneath was an actual person with a never-give-up attitude that turned him into, as she called him, "A proud failure". It was this that lead to Hinata falling in love with him and sharing his nindo, which is a verbal pronunciation of that never-give-up attitude. No other female in the story has that attitude, and that is one of the reasons why I truly think that those two are meant for each other. The only way Hinata would EVER let someone share HER Naruto-kun, would be if that person could prove to her that they loved Naruto to the extent that she does. And the only person that I can think that would grow to love Naruto in the way Hinata does is Fem Kyuubi. After all, if you were stuck in someone of the opposite sex's gut for all of their life, I'm sure that you could fall in love with them. That is why I will only truly accept stories that are Naruhina or Naruhinafemkyuubi. A small exception to this was one story that was Naruhinahina, which I found to be quite amusing since the other Hinata was her RTN form. It's a pity that that story was only a two-shot (For those of you who want to read it, it is called "Who in the world is Menma Uzumaki?").

On to canon Naruto's supposed obsession with Sakura. I am completely happy to say that I think Kishimoto is ending that, if chapter 469 was anything to go by. And that was a while ago, and with Hinata becoming more and more involved in the manga, it would appear that Kishimoto has decided to listen to his fans (I think he finally listened to what the character polls were saying, that Hinata is the most popular female character in Naruto) and might actually make Naruhina a reality after the war is over. Or at least that's what I hope. Also it appears that he might actually try to redeem Sasuke, if the events of chapter 627 are anything to go by. While my views on Sasuke are in conflict, since I think that while Sasuke is pretty cool, his personality makes him a total bastard, if Kishimoto does actually make Sasuke a good guy once again, then Naruhina is even more likely, since Sakura (who I still think is a useless fangirl, don't even get me started on why…if you do that will be a whole other rant. Actually I might do that rant next chapter because I REALLY don't like Sakura, especially if she is being compared to Hinata) will definitely follow Sasuke around and be the fangirl that she is, most likely causing Naruto that Sakura is definitely not for him and causing him to fall into Hinata's waiting arms.

And that's the end to my rant. It felt really good to get that off my chest, and I think I will do my Hinata vs Sakura rant at the start of next chapter (For those of you who are fans of Sakura being bashed, I'm sure that you will enjoy it, although a lot of it will be of how awesome Hinata is).

Anyways, today I was a ranting man, but it is finally time to get on with the actual story.

Hajime!

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Chapter 8: Compound Secrets

Naruto and Hinata had just finished their make-out session on the kitchen table and were now deciding what they wanted to do with the day. Team assignments were not going to be given out until the next day, so they had the whole day to do whatever they wanted. While they did know what team that they were going to be put on, they decided that they would show up anyways so that they could reveal their true selves to their classmates. Besides they were curious as to what the other teams would be. It would be good knowledge to have in case they ever had to work with another team.

"So what do you want to do today Hina-chan?" asked Naruto.

Hinata was thoughtful for a moment before she answered "Well Ruto-kun, I was thinking that since we didn't have time last night to finish exploring, we could do that today. Also I think that we should visit the vault so that we can fill our wallets, along with seeing what your father meant in his letter when he said "A few special things". That has me really curious."

Naruto grinned and said "Well we could always summon him and ask him ourselves, but where's the fun in that?"

"Exactly Ruto-kun, so let's save the vault for last and take our time exploring the compound." Replied Hinata.

With that they set off. They first went back out front to where the main gate was since they never really got the chance to inspect the opening area since when they first came in it was dark and when they left this morning they were in a rush to get to the council meeting. They were pleasantly surprised with the state of the grounds. Normally, if you left grounds like this uncared for 13 years, you would find that the grass would have grown wild and there would be weeds everywhere. What Naruto and Hinata found was what appeared to be freshly cut grass and instead of weeds everywhere, there were beautiful wildflowers growing all over the place.

"I'm pleasantly surprised with the state of our lawn, Hina-chan. I guess my dad must have somehow invented a seal that keeps the grass cut at a certain length." Commented Naruto.

"I guess that is plausible, but I for one am really pleased with all of these beautiful wildflowers that have grown. I don't think that I have the heart to remove them. I am also amazed that I cannot see even one weed growing anywhere." Said Hinata.

"In that case we won't do anything to the lawn. We will let the wildflowers grow as they please, and the seal will keep our grass at a manageable length. So it seems that we will never have to do any lawn maintenance. I guess we just got lucky with the lack of weeds though."

They then continued walking along the perimeter of the compound, observing that the state of the lawn seemed to be the same not just at the front of the compound, but everywhere. As they followed the compound wall along, the wall stopped and gave way to a mountain. Naruto and Hinata noticed an entrance to a cave that went inside the mountain. They entered it and walked along a passageway that was lit by what appeared to be seals giving off a pleasant blue light. The passageway opened up to reveal a huge cavern that had several steaming hot springs in it on one side, and on the other had a large waterfall that spilled from a crevice in the cave wall into a large crystal clear lake of pure water. The room was lit by the same seals that emitted the blue light, and the light reflected off the surface of the lake turning the whole room a brilliant shade of aquamarine.

"This is absolutely amazing Ruto-kun, to think that such a place of natural beauty existed in a clan compound is unheard of." Said Hinata in awe.

"Your right Hina-chan, and it's ours to share with each other. No one else but us gets to experience this place. It will be our own private haven." Said Naruto.

At this Hinata turned to him and enveloped him in a huge kiss, which he returned with great fervor. They broke apart only because they were both running out of air. When they did so, Hinata noticed a passageway that was not the way that they had come in. Walking over to it with Naruto in tow, she noticed a carving on the wall next to the entrance of the passageway. She gasped when she realized what it was.

"Ruto-kun, this carving is a map of a series of tunnels and passageways that lead everywhere in the village. There is even one that leads straight into the Hokage tower." Said Hinata in amazement.

"Your right Hina-chan." Said Naruto. Then grinning mischievously, he said "Think of all the pranks that we could get away with if we utilize these tunnels."

Hinata giggled and said "You're right Ruto-kun. Konoha won't know what hit it! But that is something for another day. We should head back and finish checking out the compound before it gets late. We still have plenty we haven't seen."

They then headed back out the way that they came in and continued following the perimeter. When they got to the back of the compound they noticed that the area they were in was the garden. They explored the garden a little further and were delighted to find that it was filled with all sorts of fruits and vegetables on one side, and on the other it was filled with the most beautiful flowers that they had ever seen. Naruto picked one flower and gave it to Hinata and was rewarded with another passionate kiss. When they broke apart Hinata took the flower she had been given and put it in her hair.

Naruto upon seeing this said "Wow Hinata, you look even more beautiful with that flower in your hair." He was rewarded with another kiss, and Hinata mentally noted to herself that she would come by the garden every day for a different flower to put in her hair.

They left the garden and continued along to the only side of the compound that they hadn't been and found a large pool with several benches and lounge chairs situated around it. Seeing this Naruto commented "Why did my family need to get a pool when they had a lake that they could go to?"

Hinata giggled and said "I think it's so that in case your family ever had any guests they didn't have to reveal a secret place while still allowing their guests to be able to relax in the water. Also the lake doesn't have any sunlight so girls wouldn't be able to lay in the sun and tan."

They then proceeded to reach the front of the compound again and entered the main building. The first place that they visited inside was the clan's library. To say that it was big would be an understatement. The library was absolutely MASSIVE. There were thousands of scrolls, and they were all neatly alphabetized and separated by their content type. The jutsu section alone was three-fourths of the library's total contents. Naruto spoke up and said "I don't think that I'd be able to even read through half of the jutsu scrolls in my lifetime, let alone master the jutsus in them."

Hinata once again giggled and said "You're forgetting one thing Ruto-kun. We are both Hanyous so we have all the time in the world. Also we both know the shadow clone jutsu so that will definitely speed up the process."

Naruto just stood there dumbly and said "Oh yeah, right. How did I forget about that?"

Hinata just giggled and they moved on to the next section of the house, but not before leaving some shadow clones to start on learning the new jutsus.

The next place was the study, which was a small room with a large desk in the middle. In the corner of the room were blank scrolls of all sorts of sizes. Seeing these, Naruto remembered something he had previously forgotten and said "Hey, I can finally copy the scroll of seals with those."

Naruto then took a scroll that was around the size of the scroll of seals and took out the piece of paper that he had used on the scroll of seals. Placing the paper on the blank scroll, he injected some chakra into it and the kanji on the paper disappeared, indicating that the scroll was successfully copied. Naruto and Hinata both made some shadow clones and set them to work examining the scroll. The originals left the clones to their work and left the study to move on.

First they stopped by the kitchen where Hinata made them dinner consisting of curry and rice. It was around 8:00 P.M. and they hadn't eaten since lunch, so they were pretty hungry. They quickly ate before getting up and moving on after doing the dishes.

They briefly examined the guest rooms, which were surprisingly of higher class than they thought they would be, and moved on to the armory. The armory was well stocked with not only kunai and shuriken, but also all sorts of interesting weapons like swords, senbon, kusarigamas (the weapon Hanzo uses), spears, and naginatas. What was even more impressive was the shear amount of paper bombs that the place held. There were all sorts of creative verities other than the original explosive kind too. Naruto and Hinata both mentally noted that they would try and learn a weapon style to complement their own abilities.

Finally it was time for them to check out the clan vault, so they walked down the staircase that lead to the basement of the compound. They walked down the path that was lit by what seemed to be ever-burning torchs (A/N: I love seals because I can do pretty much anything I want with them. I'll be sure to include some of the more "creative" seals in later chapters. You'll also see a lot of the creative ones in the Omakes) until they reached a dead end. The wall however wasn't like the normal stone wall that the rest of the basement was. It was jet black and made of pure obsidian.

Naruto was thoughtful for a moment and said "I figure that this is the vault. I also assume that it is equipped with a phasing seal just like the main gate, but I can only assume that the supplementary protective seals are a lot worse if you set them off than what the main gate would do to you. However we shouldn't have that problem."

With that said he grabbed Hinata's hand and injected his chakra into the wall, marking Hinata as a person that could enter the vault. Still holding hands, they stepped through the wall. (A/N: This is the perfect point for a cliffhanger, but I am not going to torture you guys this time)

Inside was a large, well lit room that was covered in a sea of Ryo. There was literally enough money in the room to last Hinata and Naruto through their immortal lives. But that was not what caught Naruto and Hinata's attention. What they were drawn to was a weapon rack in the corner of the room. On it were some very unique weapons. First was a katana that glowed softly blue in the light that had a swirl for a tsuba, and a small red whirlpool on the bottom of the hilt. Next was a kusarigama that had a soft lavender handle and a pitch black blade that seemed to absorb all of the light that was around it. Then there was two butterfly daggers with wavy blades of what appeared to be pure crystal that light reflected off of, causing rainbows to appear on nearby surfaces.(A/N For those of you who have played Soul Caliber II, the shape of the butterfly daggers is the shape of Taki's ultimate weapon, Kris Naga) Finally, there were a pair of knuckle blades (A/N: Asuma's weapons) that were bright orange, that seems to be glowing orange with power. Naruto couldn't help but be drawn towards the sword and the knuckle blades, while Hinata was drawn towards the kusarigama and the butterfly daggers. They picked up said weapons, and they felt extremely comfortable in their hands. They exchanged weapons, but each other's weapons just didn't feel as natural in their hands. (A/N: If anyone else tried to pick up these particular weapons, then they will receive a nasty surprise. I will explain that later though) They gave each other's weapons back and they resolved that they would each become masters of their weapons. Naruto strapped the sword onto his back and put the knuckle blades into his pouch while Hinata strapped the kusarigama to her back and the butterfly daggers to her hips, (A/N: Again, think Taki) before they refilled their wallets with some of the money that was lying around and they headed out back through the door and back to the master bedroom. They kissed each other goodnight before getting ready to go to bed and hopping into their bed, falling asleep to the sound of each other's breathing.

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And that's a wrap. I hope you guys like the weapons I thought up of, but I need your guys' help. These weapons need names and powers. Nothing too overpowered though. So if you guys think of anything good, leave a review and if I like it, I might use it, and I will be sure to give you credit if you want. You guys will have several chapters time to leave me a response, since they won't be discovering their weapon's abilities for a little while. Also I have another question for you guys. Should I let Sasuke get branded with the cursed seal or not? I have not decided yet and I thought I would let you decide whether he gets the seal or not. Either way, he will still be the egotistical bastard that he is, as you will see next chapter during the team assignments. Finally, I'm still contemplating on whether I should have Naruto and Hinata be backup for team 7's wave mission. So your input on that is appreciated.

But we are not done just yet, we still have an Omake to do! I hope you guys enjoy it!

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Omake: The wheel of torture part 1

If you said that the root members were angry about Danzo's death then you would be wrong. They were trained by that very man to feel no emotions, and as such, they felt none when Danzo died. However, they did feel the need to get revenge on the person who they believed to be the cause of their master's death.

They wanted revenge on Naruto.

So they gathered a few members and went to the Namikaze compound at night. They were currently trying to figure out how to get past the iron door. They had seen Naruto drag Hinata straight through the door the previous night, and they were wondering how he did that. That was when one of the younger root members had the bright idea of injecting his chakra into the door.

Bad idea.

He injected his chakra, and suddenly the seals on the door lit up, and the kanji for various things started to cycle on the door. Finally it stopped. The kanji on the door read "Legend of Zelda chickens".

The root members were completely confused as to why the door said this.

That was then they heard it.

The horrifying sound of an ungodly amount of angry chickens flying straight at them.

Many root members lost their lives that night. The rest of them regained one of their emotions that they had previously lost. Fear. Fear of what? Fear of chickens.

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And that wraps up my first Omake chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Feel free to suggest what I should torture the root members with. Try to make it something from a videogame or anime that is creatively painful.

And that's all for this chapter.

Until next time.

Slice N Dicer