Hmm, it took me forever to write this for some reason.

I wrote the first thousand or so words within one session, but didn't complete the rest until a few weeks later in another session. Altogether it was written pretty quickly, the span of time however, not so much.

Take a look at the outside world, get drunk on it, breathe it in. And when you're intoxicated; crush it. Because something so beautiful yet twisted at the same time can't exist.

His breath froze in his throat. Suddenly he found himself drowning, and before he knew it, he was chasing after her.

He walked his narrow path, all the while checking over his shoulder, ensuring that no one was watching. He was making dangerous deals in the dark. It kept food on his dusty table, and books in his desk.

He'd do almost anything for money. Almost being the thin line between prostitution and drug dealing. Sure he'd give a limb, or maybe even a kidney. But never in a million years would he sell his soul. His soul was the one thing he had left. He'd make sure to keep it that way.

He stopped abruptly, finding himself in a dead end alley way. He whistled three times, drawing out the last one, before the brick in the walls opened up. He looked back one last time before hurriedly shuffling into the opening.

"You weren't followed right?" He looked up at the voice. It belonged to a tall girl. She had two neatly wrapped buns on top of her head, framed by bangs parted down the middle. She had a sour look on her face, like she had somewhere better to be.

"Nah, ya' know I'm too good for that, Tenten." He offered a cheesey grin and pushed passed her.

The brick door was only the pathway, nowhere near the hideout. The long winding road was dark with a few lights along the way, but other than that you couldn't even see your own hand.

Naruto chuckled to himself, their leader sure did like his secrecy. He had an inkling feeling it was paranoia rather than safety and protection.

It was a fifteen minute walk the rest of the way. And when he finally reached his destination he was greeted by the second sentry. A pale teen with pitch black hair and eyes, wearing an obviously forced smile on his face.

"You're late." He stated bluntly. That was Sai, always straight to the point.

He produced a sheepish grin. "Sorry, sorry, those lackeys were a bit tougher than I'd originally thought."

Naruto had been sent to take care of some minor thugs that were screwing around on their turf. They were obviously idiot noobs who had no idea what they were messing with. One of them had even used a gun despite the fact that Konoha's gangs had all made some sort of unbreakable agreement that guns weren't to be used. They were flashy and always attracted the police's attention. If guns were to be used, it had to be done discreetly. Silencer on, in a deserted area with no witnesses.

Their town wasn't like those filthy gangs that you saw on T.V. No, they were far more sophisticated. Not quite on mafia level, but definitely not on street gang level. Hence their group's name, The Inbetweens.

They got down and dirty, just inconspicuously.

"Hurry up and go through, I really don't have all day. I have an art class to get to."

Naruto chuckled to himself once more, and headed in.

…...

Honestly, she hadn't meant to overhear the conversation. She had been on her way to the convenience store to purchase some womanly goods when she had seen him.

She had noticed the way stereotypical looking thugs would either avert their eyes or stick up the middle finger behind his back.

Hinata was an observant person, so naturally when she saw the way the sunny haired kid was being looked at, she followed.

It was a couple blocks away from where she originally was. She watched him go into a dead end alleyway and with her God-given acrobatic skills jumped onto the roof using the fire escape of one of the parallel buildings.

She saw him whistle few times before the bricks were removed by someone on the inside and he disappeared.

That, however did not explain her current situation. After suddenly finding the entrance to what she could only assume was Wonderland, Hinata figured the best course of action was to go back to the store and get what she had originally intended and hopefully clear her mind of the strange events.

On the way back to her new house ( she moved around at least once a year) she saw some kid around Hanabi's age being harassed by a couple of thugs. The scene was oddly nostalgic to her but instead of jumping in and saving the boy she decided to watch. She was no hero after all and at least someone would be able to get a small taste of her suffering.

"Hey, lil' man!" The pale one spoke, "You work wit' dem rich mofos right?"

The kid puffed out his chest proudly before removing his unnaturally long scarf. "What if I am?"

His subtle taunting stirred something up in the pale thug making him walk toward the prepubescent child. His dark skinned partner moved a hand across his chest so as to tell him to stop.

"Chill, Doug, it ain't that big a deal."

The dark skinned thug placed a loving arm around the brown haired kid's shoulders, almost as if they were companions.

"We just need to know where the lame-ass hideout of them inbweteen dudes is at." He gave a broad smile, showing his many missing teeth.

The kid nodded his head as if to show he understood, "Okay. I'll tell you,"

The gangster's eyes lit up in shock for a split second. They obviously hadn't expected it to be this easy.

"if you give me a million bucks." The child laughed to himself starkly, as if he had just told the funniest joke in the world.

The paler one of the two obviously had a short fuse, and the kid had just blown it. He rushed toward the child, raising his fist to throw a punch the child saw this coming and dodged.

He threw out his long, blue scarf as if it were a lasso, and got hold of the pale one's neck. His partner obviously wasn't just going to stand by and watch, so he pulled out a switchblade and tried to cut the scarf. When it didn't work he stood there in shock, lowering his guard.

"What the f-," Was all he could get out before the child twisted the scarf around, trapping both thugs inside of it.

The dark skinned one appeared to be hiding a million other switchblades underneath his baggy shirt and whipped one out accordingly, throwing it toward the kid. The kid was too preoccupied with subduing the attackers. The only way for him to dodge was to release them, so he did.

They chuckled darkly as the kid's eyes widened in fear. Hinata watched from afar, her blood boiling. The fights in her old town were nothing like this. They were always lame and ended quickly, this however was on a totally different level.

The attackers rushed forward, zigzagging and crossing paths as the dark skinned one pulled out a few switchblades and the paler one appeared to be holding thin air.

Hinata, the ever observant one, noticed that he was not holding thin air but small silver strings. It was then that it clicked in her head, they were meant to be partners. Whoever was their boss had put them together for a reason.

She had only looked away for a second but when she turned back the kid was on the floor, covered in blood.

"Dammit, Jay, we went too far." The pale one spoke.

The darker skinned one shook his head, "Nah, he's still conscious."

He approached the child and crouched down to his level, "You wanna tell us where they are now?"

No response.

His Nikes made contact with the open wound as he pushed into it. The kid screamed out, reminding Hinata of when Hanabi got hurt like that.

Still no response.

"Dawg, I hate to do dis' to ya' but I ain't got no choice."

The pale one of the two approached the kid with appeared to be a half empty bottle of vodka that had been littered about. And she knew what he was using it for.

Her body moved on it's own, and soon she was flying toward them flipping through the air and aiming a kick at the one holding the alcohol. It was light, but it had scraped his chin and knocked him unconscious.

Before the other one knew what hit him she had grabbed the vodka and splashed it into his eyes, causing him to scream out in pain.

Hinata was no fighter, but with precision strikes and her agility, she could get rid of someone if she had to. If only she could stand up to her father like that.

The kid backed away from her, and she smiled so as to calm his nerves. "It's o-okay, I'm here to help."

He relaxed although still somewhat tense, she removed her jacket and threw him on her back, wrapping the jacket around his small body.

With no where else to take him, she headed for her house. Her dad wouldn't be back for a few hours and Hanabi would understand.

…...

Naruto tapped his foot impatiently. The boss' messenger was always late. All naruto wanted to do was go home, watch some T.V, and eat some cup ramen. They had come out with a limited takoyaki flavor and he was dying to try it.

He looked up at the sudden slam of a door, and the scraping of a heavy object against the floor.

It was Suigetsu, the messenger. His light purple shirt was splattered with blood, creating a color Naruto hadn't even known existed. Suigetsu chuckled lightly as he made his way over, licking the blood that had made its way onto his face off.

Naruto felt the corners of his mouth rise, "Karin beat you up again, waterbug?"

Suigetsu sighed in resignation, "I didn't even say anything' offensive, just commented on the fact that she was still single and it had to be because of her dashing personality."

Naruto barked out a laugh, "Was that supposed to be advice or…"

"I was genuinely trying to help! She's your cousin dude, do something about it."

Naruto was going to correct him, saying that she was some extremely distant relative and whether or not she was his cousin remained unknown, but he had suddenly whipped out a white envelope stamped with a red seal.

The boss' orders.

Suigetsu gave a curt nod in farewell and promptly left the weird room-corridor-thingy.

The thing about the boss was that nobody knew who he (or she, Sakura made sure to slap him every time he left the she out) was. Orders were always given through a third party, and while Suigetsu swore he had absolutely no idea as to who the boss was, Naruto thought otherwise.

Shaking his head in exasperation, he tore the rim of the envelope open to receive his orders.

One word was written on the otherwise blank sheet of paper:

Recruitment

Hinata ran a hand through her shoulder length locks, which were getting too long for her liking and should probably be cut. This kid was troublesome, why the hell had she taken him in?

She recited to herself what she assumed most people told themselves after seeing her and her sisters situation, "Mind your own business and you won't get hurt."

But nooo, she had decided to play hero and had had probably gotten herself into some deep shit.

She watched as the beaten up kid talked animatedly to Hanabi, who took in every word as if he were speaking some foreign language.

"Yeah- and then Hina-oneesan was like, 'boom!' and the guy was knocked out cold!"

Hanabi nodded her head excitedly, like they were talking about some episode of Power Rangers.

Hinata decided to break up their little chit chat, "Umm, kid, do you have someone you can call to pick you up?"

He looked at her as if she had just told him his mother was a whore, "I'm perfectly capable of taking myself back home!"

She gave a soft smile as he jumped up too quickly, and ended up nearly knocking Hanabi over in the process.

"Yeah, I know you're strong, but you're injured. A soldier needs their rest after all." She insisted, and he begrudgingly complied.

"Ahh, but I can't call Asuma-ojisan, he'll want to know why I'm all banged up..." He thought aloud, tapping his finger on his chin.

His face lit up as he reached a solution, "I'll call Naruto-niichan!"

Assuming he was his brother or something, she handed him the phone.

There was a barrage of, "Yeah.." "Mhhm" "I'm fine!" Before he finally read the address off of the sheet of paper she had given to him earlier.

He gave her phone right back to her, "Naruto-niichan will be here soon!"

She smiled at him. Good, I really don't wanna deal with this kid.

Hinata watched idly as the two adolescents chatted together. It was odd. Hanabi was selectively mute, only speaking to Hinata and making sure no one else knew she even had the ability to speak. But this kid had gotten her to talk pretty quickly, and from the looks of it they were already friends.

A ghost of a smile graced her lips before the sound of the doorbell brought her back to her senses.

Konohamaru jumped up excitedly while proclaiming, "It must be Naruto-niichan"

Hinata gave a sigh of relief, happy that the kid was leaving before her dad showed up. She opened the door hesitantly, not knowing what to expect.

She stifled a gasp as the person on the other end revealed himself. He was that kid she had followed earlier, the one that wasn't popular with the locals. The one that had wondered into a dark alley way. The one that had disappeared inside the walls of said dark alley way.

A smile so bight she had to shield her eyes from made its' way onto her face. "Hi! I'm Naruto Uzumaki- is the ki- is Konohamaru here?

Regaining her composure she nodded her head and moved her arm aside, allowing Konohamaru to be visible.

"Naruto-niichan!" He shouted as he rushed forward, eager and hyper.

"Hey Kono," He greeted as he patted the smaller kid's head. Hinata found herself suddenly wishing she was as blind as she looked as the brightness of his smile shown through as he said his next words.

"Thanks for taking care of him, he wasn't too much trouble was he?"

Something wasn't right, none of this made sense. Why was some brat having a battle to the death? Why was said brat relying on someone that disappeared into brick walls?

"We just need to know where the lame-ass hideout of those inbetween dudes is at."

"You work with them rich mofos right?"

It all made sense now. The blonde kid standing in front of her was apart of some secret society and the little one next to him was connected to it. She had also discovered the hide-out of said secret society that was supposedly very valuable information.

Recalling that she as in the midst of a conversation, and although only two seconds had passed it felt like forever, she replied to him.

"Yeah, it was no problem. I couldn't just stand there and watch some low-lives pick on a little kid for no reason."

Lie. She was fishing, hoping he would call her out on the 'no reason' part.

Sorry Hanabi, she thought. According to their current situation she as very capable at letting others get picked on for no reason.

She caught him tense slightly at her words. Most people wouldn't have been able to spot it, but she lived with a liar so it was easy.

"Yeah, Kono's always been an easy target for bullies."

Konohamaru as about to protest until he realized that was the cover story.

"Well, sorry for the trouble! See you later, maybe.." Naruto said the last part to himself.

Konohamaru waved excitedly as he said farewell, "Bye Hina-oneesan, Hanabi!"

Hinata waved back but Hanabi stood still, stark mute in the uneasy presence of the blonde haired teen.

The next day as her new teacher, Iruka, introduced her to the class, she spotted the yellow top that belonged to the unruly head of none other than Naruto Uzumaki.

They made eye contact, and while he smiled, she was simply filled with dread.

I know, I know! I'm a terrible person aren't I? Feel free to stone me, let's just have a public stoning.

The ending was rushed, just like the first chapter but I'm more proud of this one. Hopefully next chapter I can divulge into more about Naruto and his secret society madness.