Ch 2: A Butcher, A Scalpel, and A Tool

Author note: Alright, Hello all. *Super chibi me dancing* I actually got more than one review! It was like twelve, but that's good enough for me(twelve more than I thought I'd get). I would like too address two things. One would be the pairings, which was sorta brought up by Generation Zero.

Without mentioning what he said, I shall simply say even I am not sure what it will be. I am stuck between kyuubi and Hinata. I can make both work, it's just lots of people don't like the Hinata pairing because it is over used on this site. With kyuubi, it's more like *me talking to myself*, "How the hell do I get kyuubi outta Naruto's stomach without being cliche or bullshitty."

Now to address another thing Mr. or miss zero said was that the kurenai fight was skipped over and how Naruto was stronger than Kurenai and basically called BS. My reasoning for that is simple, a) It's redundant to have two Kurenai fights *wink* b) In canon Naruto before shippuden would use kyuubi to win any important fights (most the time) and shippuden Naruto went from chunin level to fighting Madara and not dieing. This is canon, dumb as bolts, believes in friendship Naruto. My Naruto is a genius, was trained by Itachi(a genjutsu master) for effectively three years, and isn't brain dead, 'Nuff said. Last thing, a few of the comments (cough Rickjames196 cough; thanks for the awesome comment) said something about Narumi not being mean. That is 100% true. But Naruto's mental state is basically abused and lonely child who is hated, has killed his only friend who is male, is constantly reminded by it with his left eye, and is ignored to extreme measures by his parents. I also stated, Narumi was a bitch when he was younger, well... as much as any little girl can be. As a child, Naruto was blamed for all of Narumi's wrong doings which even geniuses can act childish when they are four, Narumi always got her way, and Narumi would lie and get Naruto in trouble. Now this AN is too long but oh well, have a nice read.

"Hello" normal talking

"Time to die" mental thoughts

"I like donuts" biju/demon/jinchuuriki using biju chakra

"I shall lace the donuts with poison" mental thoughts of biju e.t.c

I grunted as I dodged the slice of an oversized butcher knife that was being swung by a prick. About 15 yards away Kurenai and my two team mates were caught in a fight with a Hyoton user by the name of Haku. The genjutsu jonin kept attempting to come to my aid but was instead forced to protect her two students who weren't quite as powerful as myself, or her. But you are probably confused(shh secret An: everyone knows this is wave). Hn, let me start a bit earlier then.

We, my team and I, were traveling to Tazuna's home country, Nami-no-Kuni. We had been traveling for a few hours, aka civilian who is old speed, and everybody except for me was relaxed(well for Kurenai, as much as you can be relaxed as a battle experienced shinobi).

That was when I spotted the puddle. The god-damned stupid puddle that mucked up everything. How, you ask, How can a little pool of water be such a nuisance? Well, I'll tell you. As we passed by the twice-damned puddle, the two chunin I had sensed in it showed themselves. Then in a surprisingly well laid trap, the two demon brothers, as I could now identify them, trapped Kurenai(she had let it happen, I assumed, for a chance to see my team fight and step in if necessary). I, stupidly, reacted on instinct. With that said, I dashed forward and nailing one of the brothers with a kunai in the shoulder. I then flicked a few shuriken at the other ex-kiri ninja while he was distracted by my sudden response. With one of the brothers dodging shuriken, the one I had stabbed, who was just now beginning to react to my attack, got to watch me send a jab which in turn knocked his head back. With his head reeling, I dropped kicked my foe and the missing-nin was sent flying and slammed against a tree with a sickening crunch.

The last demon brother threw a wild lunge at my blind spot, mad with rage. I parried it easily and stabbed him through his chest and effectively ending his life. That was also when I heard a stifled gasp. "Oh damn," was my thought. I already knew this wasn't going to end well. I turned around and there was my team, Kurenai and all, staring at me in unadulterated horror. Hinata and Narumi looked disgusted by the dead people, but strangely(in Hinata's case) concerned for me. Tazuna looked positively nervous and was currently freaking out, and Kurenai looked surprised.

I calmly, at least outwardly, shoved the dead chunin off my blade and cleaned it in the grass. The reason I wiped it off was because there was no point in having a dirty blade. I then walked over to my group. "WHAT WAS THAT," Narumi screeched! "That was me stopping two chunin from brutally murdering Tazuna-san," I replied simply. I had put two and two together and deduced that these Kiri-nin had no need for Kurenai, myself, or Narumi. That deduction was easily ascertained due too the fact that Kurenai was just a jonin, relatively new, and most likely wouldn't have a massive bounty like the Copycat Ninja Hatake or the Tailless biju Hoshigaki. The reason it couldn't be me or Narumi was because even though I and Narumi were the children of the Yondaime Hokage, we were both unknown for two reasons. One was because the fourth had kept it a secret that he had a wife until just after the kyuubi fiasco. Since Narumi and I were both born on the Kyuubi attack, making us twins and myself older by a minute, all of the other villages therefore in turn heard only of the Kyuubi attack and not my sibling's birth or mine. Secondly, the only village with known biju containers is Kumogakure with Killer Bee and Yugito. Those two containers also have very high bounties in the international bingo book. This left two options, Hinata or Tazuna. It was also made ever so clear it wasn't Hinata, because all throughout the nations everyone had heard of the blood-line civil war happening in the country of Kiri. Plus even though these two Kiri-nin were missing-nin they had no reason to be after bloodline clans of other villages. This left Tazuna, A man from the land of Nami-no-Kuni and also our client who had paid for protection.

"

But...but... YOU KILLED THEM!" Narumi screamed.

"Yes, I did," I once again stated smoothly. I really didn't understand her problem. "Maybe you don't understand," Narumi yelled.

"But you KILLED them, k-i-l-l-e-d, as in they no longer breath, live, do anything!" "I think I understand now," I stated.

"You are freaked out by death, completely illogical by dianoetic standards, but completely understandable. But Narumi, you know that as a ninja you are required to fight opposing forces and possibly terminate them, right?" (Definition for Dianoetic: of or pertaining to thought; Basically I meant thought standards, or moral standards)

"Yes-s-s... but, but," Narumi stuttered, struggling to find a counter argument that wasn't completely filled with morals in a moral-less job.

"But nothing," I chided. "Look at those despicable men," I murmured, "they would sooner have killed you then look at you. So deal with it," I declared with finality.

"Alright, quiet now, we need to figure out what to do now," Kurenai said. She spoke once more, "Tazuna-san, you would be better off if you explained for we shinobi have very short tempers-," I butted into her spiel, "Much like your life-span, now explain." I then flared my KI (or killing intent) solely at the elder for good measure, not just because I was annoyed that the man got me into this situation.

Of course when any ninja flares their KI and are generally above chunin, it actually can do something towards a ninja. This is simply because genin usually aren't powerful enough to wield their aura or simply have a weak presence, but even a genin's KI is powerful enough to effect civilians.

My KI happened to be slightly more powerful than a jonin's, when I am not trying. This could be because I'm powerful or because I have a massive biju demon in my gut known for killing people with her KI alone, and these people who she killed with it weren't just civilians but chunins and jonins. To finish this long tangent, the man basically defecated himself.

After a slight chuckle at his reaction, the old builder went on to explain how Gato, who was an extremely wealthy midget of a man(no offense to midgets, and if you're offended well too bad), had taken control of his country and had forced the whole nation into poverty. With no money to speak of, all the bridge architect could do was scrounge up what little savings he had left and acquisition a c-rank mission.

"I see your problem Tazuna," after several minutes of mulling over the recently revealed information. "But seeing as how you lied to me," Tazuna winced, "endangered my genin, and generally piss off everyone," Tazuna seemed to be figuratively hanging off a frayed rope over a cobra pit, if I had correctly read his visage, "I see no other option except..." the old fart looked prepared to die, hanging on to every word, "that we continue to accompany you as well as protect you from Gato and his cohorts." Tazuna's eyebrows rose so high on his forehead, they disappeared into his hairline. "REALLY," the man exclaimed! "Yes, but don't hug me." Everyone on team eight agreed with that sentiment.

After that the drama calmed down and we journeyed on trekking into the misty land that is Kiri towards wave. After monotonous hours of silent travel, Narumi decided she needed to converse with me. I needed her to go die in a hole. We don't always get what we want. "Naruto-kun," she said questioningly. "Yes," was my soft reply. "It's just... you've killed now," she spoke sadly. This threw me for a small loop. I don't think I have ever seen Narumi sad... ever. I almost choked though as she spoke, flashing back to my real first kill.

The event, though scaring, had actually blown over quite well for the rest of the village. After I had killed my brother, or at least the closest thing to it and told Mikoto, she had in turn told the rest of the clan. The week after that at the Uchiha clan was extremely tense, tense enough for the whole village to notice. This lead to several investigations and eventually a plot of a coupe came to be known.

Apparently in Itachi Uchiha's quarters, plans of obtaining Shisui Uchiha's eyes and obtaining the eternal mangekyo sharingan were found. Once he had obtained the eyes, he would have used them to control his clan brethren and enact the coupe. The main investigator of the mysterious death of a powerful Konaha shinobi and subsequent search of the Uchiha grounds was Danzo Shimura who later on once the investigation had closed had assured the Hokage of the village's safety who in turn informed the village. With my own self living in the Hokage mansion, I was able to gain such details.

But back to the present, Narumi forged on, "You have blood on your hands, don't you feel anything." I quickly interrupted her spiel before she could blither on about her petty morals.

"Let me tell you the truth of the matter, Narumi," I said slowly to get my point across. "We are ninja, do you understand this."

Narumi's face became a vivid shade of red. "Yes, I know that we're ninja," was her indignant reply.

"I don't think you do, Narumi. Ninjas kill, they are assassins, beings of the shadows. Long before the era of chakra powered ninjas, there was the true shinobi. Normal men and women who were never caught and eliminated their target without ever being seen. We are simply supposed to be more powerful versions of those ancestors of ours. We may have lost a lot of ground in stealth, but we are still assassins, we still kill and will continue to kill. My emotions on the subject do not matter, because shinobi are warriors, fighters, and above all killers, and emotional killers are dead killers. So when you ask me about how I shouldn't have killed those men or how I should feel something, be emotionally scarred because of what I had to do than remember. If I hadn't killed them then you, Tazuna, Hinata, and Kurenai might be dead."

…...Konoha Minato's view, third person omniscient...

Minato sighed. He truly missed his daughter. It was in fact only about a month from her birthday and Minato had something big planned. He had been planning it for awhile. SLAM! His office was singing from the noise of his office door slamming open. In marched Mikoto Uchiha, several fearful secretaries glancing in, their hair harried and expressions sorry.

The black-haired woman's hair was a rat's nest, eyes blood shot, In her hands was clutched papers and a painting. The room took the slightest of a red tinge, the outside of the window suddenly losing focus.

"Minato Namikaze, I have a bone to pick with you!" The woman was obviously drunk off her rocker with the way she had stumbled in, a few sake bottles trailing after her. "Are you aware you have a son," the woman slurred.

Minato raised a brow confused. "Yes," he said tentatively. "Do you know what he likes, what he dislikes, anything about him at all!" The woman's face was caught in a condemning sneer. Minato thought about it. And thought. And thought.

"Nothing," is what came to mind. Absolutely and positively not a single facet of information on his son. His own flesh and blood a seeming ghost in his memory with not a single fact to be known.

"I don't!" was Minato's distraught reply, his face contorted in disbelief. It was simply dumbfounding that he knew literally knowing about his child. This was augmented by the fact that he knew everything about Narumi. Minato felt ever so much like an ass right now.

Mikoto wobbled forward, papers and painting in tow. Her legs were unsteady as she moved closer to Minato's desk, the man in question further sinking into his chair. The woman slammed down the objects in her hands directly in front of Minato, her glare seemingly saying look if you dare.

The painting in front of him, which was also on top of the other drawings Minato saw Mikoto put on his desk, was a vivid drawing of nature. It showed his son Naruto wearing his usual attire he assumed, for he didn't know, stepping from the shadows of a great elm that rested atop the first Hokage's head on the Hokage monument. Minato knew for fact that such a tree did exist in that very spot. Half his son's body was being bathed in dark tones. Blues, grays, blacks, greens, and purples. A myriad of shadowing colors. The other half of the boy's body was drenched in bright airy colors. Reds, yellows, oranges, pinks and whites. It was a plethora of bubbly bright tones. All the colors came together beautifully to form a masterpiece.

But the virtuoso of the painting was not what drew his attention. It was the fact that his Hokage hat was grasped in Naruto's right hand in the light side of the painting. That in itself wasn't the peculiar part. The disturbing part was that his hat was on fire! Why would his son draw this? This question particularly plagued him.

"Look at the papers," Mikoto suddenly ordered.

Minato trepidly lifted the papers. Most showed some form of Naruto being hidden in the shadows of buildings and objects. A few were even people though the people in question weren't fully drawn in. Overall, the pencil sketches weren't all that strange. A few of the newer drafts Minato decided to label them showed Naruto with his team. There was few of the drawings from the entire pile that in particular that caught his eye. It was very well drawn for the fact that if nothing else it clearly got the point of the drawing across.

In reality the drawing was quite crude looking, but once more, it was easy to interpret. It showed two tall figures, one with red hair and the other with yellow. In-between the two tall figures he assumed was himself and his wife, Kushina, was a smaller figure with red hair. Going with his previous thought process, Minato assumed the small red head was Narumi. The three figures standing together had gargantuan smiles. Off to the side was Naruto, a frown clear on his face. He was walking away from the trio. The date signed on was eight years ago, when Naruto was five.

"What is all this, Mikoto," Minato asked.

"This is," Mikoto got closer, leaning heavily on Minato's desk, "what you've done to your son. What this whole village has done to your son." "But... but... HOW! WHY?," Minato shouted!

"You were so focused, so intent on, so in LOVE with your daughter and her hero stature in your CITIZEN'S eyes. You cared nothing for your son, nor for his development. You wouldn't listen to his pleas for love and companionship, for a family, for a father and a mother who cared for him. You abandoned him in his time of need and now he holds no love for you or Konaha." Mikoto was absolutely livid, the woman's presence murderous.

"Do you know why he stays, well do you?," Mikoto asked angrily, her face inches from Minato. The strong smell of alcohol found it's way deep into Minato's nose. "No," Mikoto thundered rhetorically, "Well, I'll tell you. He stays to prove he is strong, that he is better," Mikoto suddenly looked smug, "And he is."

"But I still don't understand how this happened, why I never noticed, why my village would do this to a child, why I would do this to a child, to my child."

"You will in time, now Minato I need you to do something," Mikoto seemed to have become quiet, less corporeal. "What?," Minato asked. "Wake up!"

…...Konoha...Minato's bedroom...

Minato threw himself out of his bed. He glared around wildly, one of his special kunai in his right hand. A sigh escaped his mouth as he recognized his bedroom. It was two o'clock in the morning and his wife snored on in bed spread out over Minato's now vacant spot form the mattress. These dreams had been plaguing him lately.

Ever since his daughter had gone on a c-rank to wave he had been dreaming of his son, and the dreams were not pleasant. Sometimes Mikoto would speak to him. Others Narumi. Hell, once it was even Itachi Uchiha. But mostly it was Naruto himself telling him of what he had done to him. Of all these faults and agonies that had been placed on him and that he, Minato himself, was one of the main causes.

Though the strange part was, the dreams had only gotten so vivid a few days ago. Before it was merely indeterminable voices and flashes of faces yelling at him to save his son or hateful comments directed towards Naruto and himself.

Now though, he had finally had enough. He was going to get to the bottom of the nightmares. But first he needed to see something, he needed to see his son's room. Minato passed slowly down the hallway towards his destination. A left, a right, then another left and... there was the room.

Right then Minato felt puny, almost like he was standing in front of Gamabunta. He tentatively slid open the door and entered the small area that was Naruto's living space. The room was pitiful in both size and condition. The room itself was little more than a glorified closet. In a corner was a minuscule roll away cot with a few springs poking out of the mattress. Minato had bought it while planning on getting a real bed for his son. Minato had also planned on getting the house expanded because there was only three bedrooms, this room that Naruto dwelled in being a space for a study.

Back to the cot though, Minato remembered buying the thing a decade ago for Naruto. Naruto was twelve now, which meant he had been using this cheap bed as his resting place since he was a two year old. The thought sickened him because not only was that a long time but the only reason he remembered buying the stupid bed and his son's age was because Naruto and Narumi were twins and he had bought a similar cot for Narumi before he had got her a real bed.

In a different corner of the room was an equally aged desk, of which was being crushed by the oppressive weight of the large amount of paintings and drawings on it. The closet he could see was without a door and held only three full outfits. One of the three was a ratty formal male yukata that looked several sizes too small for a 12 year old of Naruto's size. The second one was an eye killing orange and blue jumpsuit with a hole in the chest area and blood around it. Minato assumed the jumpsuit was some sort of costume. The third and final outfit was a pair of black shinobi pants and matching black shinobi shirt. Over the shirt was a black vest that reminded him of the anbu chest-plates with the dull black armor attached to areas of it, mostly the pectoral region and sides and back. The final piece was a porcelain mask that resembled a weasel with a triangle mark on the forehead, Minato struggled to figure out where he remembered the mask.

Finally after dismissing the mask, Minato turned to his son's many paintings. Every painting was framed in some cheap wood, and dated Minato noted as he perused. The dates started from when Naruto was a young child to just a month ago. Minato picked up the one from the bottom after moving a great deal of the paintings. Minato also carefully noted how the paintings were before to make sure he placed them back correctly. The picture he had picked up was the same one from his dream of Naruto walking away from Kushina and himself. But there was more near the bottom that wasn't in the dream. Even with it's age he could read it's delicate print.

It read, "In these shadows of my dread, belonging to a family to whom I am almost dead, I have finally decided to step from the shadows." Surprisingly poetic...and dark. Especially from a five year old. The Minato picked up the next and studied it's lines, it's message. And then the next. And then another. One after the other Minato studied the drawings, each time his gaze centered on a new one Minato felt like a kunai was stabbed into his heart.

Hours passed as Minato glanced at each and every single painting. With every look Minato wondered how he could have dealt such a horrible fate onto his son. Each painting after the other only cemented the fact that he had estranged his son from his own family. That he, Minato, had failed him. Most importantly, he had broken his son and what was left he truly didn't know. But that wasn't what scared him, for Minato knew he deserved whatever punishment fate would deal him, No it was if he could ever save his son from the darkness he had shoved the boy in.

….Wave country: Tazuna's home...Naruto's P.O.V...

I sighed. I had been sighing a lot lately actually. After an explosive fight against Zabuza Momochi, Kurenai was left with a severely injured leg and my own self carrying my sensei to Tazuna's home. The fight between the two jonins aggravated me to no end because I knew Kurenai could have won. It was just that Narumi and Hinata was in the way. She had spent more time covering my two teammates then Tazuna or herself.

…...Kurenai P.O.V... Zabuza fight...

I ducked and backpedaled as Zabuza flung his massive sword around like a toothpick. The man had almost cleaved me in half several times, and every time I had almost been able to counter-attack or unleash my own assault when my genin were targeted by the Kiri-nin. I grunted as I flew through one of my more powerful genjutsus but before I could finish Zabuza was flying toward Hinata.

I chased the tall swordsmen and threw several dozen kunai. The man refocused on me and Hinata, Narumi, and Tazuna visibly relaxed as the KI directed towards them was drawn away. I couldn't do a thing though about this damn fight and it made me so angry. So rather than being calmed by my team and client's terror being quelled, it mad me feel horrible. At the beginning of the fight Zabuza had blown away Naruto with a water dragon and I no longer knew where he was though I was sure he was fine. That boy had seemed like he had been sent flying by one of my jutsu during my genin test for my team when in actuality the boy had kawarimi'd away to a hiding spot. What he had switched with I didn't know but whatever it was it had left no trace.

But regardless of the agony of the moment I needed to beat the bastard in front of me. I trailed several hand signs before releasing a fire ball barrage and charged the sword wielder with a kunai. Before I could raise the blade in my hand, Zabuza was gone and then I felt a crippling pain in my leg and collapsed. Above me stood Zabuza blade already falling to end my life.

I closed my hands and laid there waiting for the end. After several seconds of silence and heavy breathing I opened them to see Naruto above me in a strange crab-like walk except he wasn't using his arms to hold himself up at the awkward angle he was at. Instead his hand were on either side of the massive carving knife in Zabuza's hands holding the blade perfectly still above him less than a centimeter from Naruto's face.

Abruptly Naruto yelled, "move Kurenai," and I rolled away. Naruto then as soon as he saw me get clear let his legs release their now obvious chakra grip and the ground and Zabuza's strength forced Naruto straight into the ground. But instead of Naruto being bisected, he just plunged into the ground like it wasn't there. Yet Zabuza's blade stuck into it like the solid that it was. Then, less than a second later Zabuza whirled around only to get kicked in the back of the head from the direction he had been originally facing. As Zabuza face planted, Naruto took off at a sprint and plucked me from my lieing position on the ground and started hauling ass away from the fight.

Without looking backwards Naruto summoned several clones and ran by Tazuna and the rest of my team, who seeing Naruto running, chased after him, the two girls working together to pick up Tazuna so they could run faster. After a few minutes I felt my consciousness fading due to bloodloss and my last sight was Naruto's grim mask, snarling in annoyance, the slits for the eyes showing two blue eyes staring ahead in determination.

…...Tazuna's house... Naruto P.O.V...Warning: extreme fluff...

After our less than stellar get away, we had managed to reach Tazuna's house. However that wasn't what was on my mind. It was the near uselessness of my teammates. The whole fight Narumi had been scared out of her wits, which lead to her doing nothing. Hinata on the other hand pissed me off far more. She had a chance to strike Zabuza before he had struck Kurenai's leg and possibly save her from the wound. Yet, for whatever reason she didn't take it.

It just completely stumped me. The girl herself was almost a genius, if not naturally than from hard work. She had almost a complete mastery of her taijutsu style and flexibility to make it that more effective. But for whatever reason, she completely and utterly lacked the will to fight even when her comrades are being attacked.

After settling into Tazuna's home, due to the lack of rooms, Kurenai and Narumi got a room to share and I got stuck with the Hyuuga princess. I, myself, actually didn't really dislike the girl. But the girl seemed to have inherited an inherent fear of me. She always had trouble speaking around me and sometimes get an extremely red face.

It was just frustrating. How could I fix the team if the problem couldn't speak to me. It seemed tonight would be a blessing and a curse. I being the gentleman that I am, and also not particularly feeling safe in such a comfortable bed, gave the bed to Hinata and elected to sleep in the closet. Of course I didn't tell her about the closet part. At the moment the Hyuuga was sitting on the edge of the bed fiddling with her fingers.

"Hinata," I said softly and kindly. You must be thinking, "Kindly? WTF!" Well, just because I am an emotionally and socially stunted boy doesn't mean I hadn't read a book on speaking to someone to get information. The book had denoted that yelling at someone only really works in interrogations. "Yes, N-N-Naruto-kun," Hinata replied in a stutter. Now that was something that bothered me. It was so disturbingly, maddeningly cute.

For sure now you're going, "What the hell! This is so not dark! This is not like the Naruto this story has portrayed so far. WTF. WTF."

Well, me too. I had no idea why I like stutters, I just did.(Totally not there for plot convenience. Also, yay for breaking fourth wall) So I just rolled with it. Well, rolled as much as a square can. Again, socially stunted.

"I need to speak with you," I replied. "What about," the Hyuuga heir seemed to whisper back. There was the slightest tinge of red peppering her nose and cheeks. I wondered about it for a moment.

This lead to me studying her face. Perfectly symmetrical. Small, pouty lips that probably looked wonderful when she smiled. A lively, warm, alabaster colored skin. A strange combination but true nonetheless. Two soothing lavender eyes. Their strange color just seemed to add to the mysticism of them. It also added to her beauty. I could stare at them for hours.

"WHAT THE HELL!" I mentally screamed. "I was tired, sleep deprived. Had to be it, I couldn't have been freaking bogotifying over Hinata Hyuuga. I don't need attachments!"I repeated the last part as a mantra.

"It was just about today," I started. "W-w-what about t-today," she questioned though I could see a suspicion on her wonderful face. ARGH! I don't need attachments, love, friendship, human contact. It's all worthless and will only hold me back. It would just mess with my head. I must control my emotions, my subconscious want and craving of anyone to love me for I don't need. It's just a sad crutch for weak people who aren't me. "It's about how you froze up when you could have helped Kurenai." "Oh," she murmured.

"I need to know Hinata, that if we are in a fight that you will fight," I said. Hinata went stark white at the proclamation. Then her face turned tomato red in what I assumed either embarrassment or an allergic reaction. I believe it was the former. Then, all of sudden she was shedding tears into my chest.

I flinched but was able to control myself at the contact. I was at a lost. Having no real actual experience with girls or any females of my age or older/younger except with Mikoto, after I of course I killed Itachi, wasn't exactly helping me react to this situation. I sat stock still as Hinata sobbed into my chest. I wondered where all these tears were coming from, knowing the obviously logical answer being from her tear ducts but my question being more figurative in it's form. It was just baffling for me.

Soon Hinata stopped sobbing and fell asleep, her arms gripping me in a death brace. Then I just awkwardly sat there for a few minutes wondering how in the hell I could get off the bed I was sitting on with Hinata gripping my torso. Before I could do anything of course, Hinata decided for me, pulling me in her sleep further onto the bed to get a better grip and with that the two of his were lying side by side in the bed, Hinata nearly on top of me as she slept. I struggled for a moment to stop my flash backs of a fat man from a mob long ago who had sat on me, slapping my face with his fat chubby hands before standing up and kicking me and leaving my crushed body in the ally way broken and gasping for air. As soon as I could control my memories I tried to sleep and eventually succeeded.

The next day I had managed to kawarimi with a pillow and stalked outside to blow up trees. It was 6 am when I left. Two hours later, a destroyed forest, and a happy me was very apparent. The day went on with Kurenai recuperating at Tazuna's house, Narumi fluttering over her in worry. I spent the day over-watching Tazuna constructing the bridge with his workers. Hinata would go between myself and Tazuna's house every few hours to inform the other of the happenings there and then stay at her new post and then repeating in reverse. I, deciding to be helpful, summoned 50 clones and had them help Tazuna. With my clones doing the grunt work of heavy lifting and transporting goods the workload was visibly easier for the citizens of wave. As I lazed around watching my clones and Tazuna scurry about, I thought hopefully that the bridge would be finished before Zabuza showed up again.

The days went by and with my knowledge of iryo-jutsu(medical jutsu), Kurenai healed at an exponential rate. Instead of six months of recovery time with however many months of rehabilitation due to muscle loss that would occur from being bed-ridden, it would only take a week. Kurenai decided in the meanwhile that Narumi and Hinata needed to train so she had them practice chakra control and a few simple genjutsu. Hinata quickly mastered tree-walking and went on to work on the few jutsus that Kurenai had parted with. Narumi on the other hand didn't even get to the genjutsu, to busy climbing trees with her feet and chakra. Then the week ended and the day came where Kurenai finally was healed enough to properly fight and move. This is where you found me. Fighting a prick with his over sized blade and the rest of my team against said prick's tool. I had a funny thought of the Hyoton user Haku being a scalpel and my team flesh. Morbid, but funny. I jumped out of the way of an overhead strike and threw three skuriken. Zabuza deflected them and charged again. I knew I could easily beat him if I went all out but it would hurt my teammates. So I held back of course. Damn budding conscience.

It was also infuriating with how good the swordsman could dodge. Every one of my attacks, all missed. I also couldn't get close for some taijutsu because his sword would cleave me into cute little Naruto chunks. That left me only three viable options. I didn't even want to think about my plan B because it was gross. It involved seven chicken-clones, a roll of ninja wire, and tap dancing. So, I wasn't going to use it unless necessary.

But to remain on topic, the three options were Fuuinjutsu, Genjutsu, and Ninjutsu. Can you guess what I chose? Did I say to hell with it and blew crap up with ninjutsu? Did I act all sneaky sneak and used genjutsu? Or did I use some super technical, really drawn out plan that required brain power with fuuinjutsu? Did you guess all three! Well, bravo.

I charged forward towards Zabuza, weaving a genjutsu that simply made me look like I was a few inches away from my real position to my right. I put multiple seals on my kunai by tapping them and grinned as the complicated runes spread over them before minimizing to small dots and tossed them at Zabuza. The demon blocked them with his blade and the knifes seemed to land in random spots around the man. I bellowed out the jutsu name, "Suiton: Water spear," but instead did a completely different jutsu. I used a katon jutsu called, "Katon: fire beast." This is where the genjutsu came into play again. It made the katon jutsu look like the suiton jutsu. Complicated, yes, fun, yes. The unexpected jutsu would allow me to use the seals I attached to the kunai littering around Zabuza.

With not a second glance towards Zabuza I activated my fuuinjutsu trap. The individual seals on each kunai take a small portion of chakra. By themselves they wouldn't really affect a jonin or even a chunin, but a dozen or so constantly taking chakra, even a kage would run dry. Zabuza was also no kage.

So with Zabuza reacting to a jutsu that wasn't coming and a large sudden chakra amount decrease, well... lets just say a very crispy swordsman was on the ground smoking and dead. A sad and quick death, not very memorable or special but realistic. I then turned to see how Kurenai and the others were faring against the ice user. My view was that of Hinata and Narumi on the ground, neither of their chests were moving.

A sudden all encompassing rage filled me. A blindingly hot, needling rage that was unstoppable. Blind fury clouded my vision. All I saw was my target and her inevitable death. With a large, "Throosh," of air, I blasted towards Haku. From my peripherals I saw red bubbly chakra surrounding my skin. The chakra did a wicked dance all around me, trying to what looked like the chakra attempting too devour the space it touched. It tried to suck the power out of the air in a way. Within less than a second I had crossed the area between my hand and the girl's heart. The last thing she saw was my two eyes glaring from behind a snarling kitsune mask. One pale cerulean, the other a blood red sharingan with three tomoe spinning. The left eye's tomoe seemed to be attempting to change but something held them back, an invisible force. With so much hatred clouding my judgment, the jutsu on my left eye had failed.

I took great satisfaction in the girl's death, feeling a release from my anger. It also told me that my lack of control over my chakra allowed my mask to fall from my face as the kyuubi chakra receded. The mask clattered uselessly on the ground while I turned my face to look at Kurenai, the only other conscious person on the bridge. The genjutsu mistress stared in fascination and alarm at my face. I simply stood there, my arm still lodged in Haku's chest, the girl's head lolling forward as blood trickled from her mouth. Kurenai's mouth continued to stare her mouth open as if to say something, but no words came forth. Just a choked intake of oxygen.

For a moment I entertained the thought of whether I could kill her so as not to expose my secret and get away with it. I abruptly squashed the notion. The woman in question suddenly stalked forward, a hand stretching out. She crossed the few feet of of distance between us and ran her smooth, long fingers over the scar that adorned my eye. She held her hand against my face as if reading the story of the wound and the eye. She then stepped back, grabbed my mask, picked it up and placed it on my face. She then ran over to Hinata and Narumi. I could see now with my medical expertise that my judgment wasn't obscured by rage that Haku had only put both of the girls in death-like trances.

I sighed again. It seemed sighing was becoming my habit. As Kurenai overlooked the two injured kuinochi I reflected over the feelings I held when I thought Hinata and Narumi died. It was extremely scary. It wasn't because I thought Narumi had died that my emotions had become so powerful.

That actually brought me elation. No, it was when I had thought Hinata had died. Why had her fake death affected me so? To that question I would need to reflect more. But one thing was certain. No matter how much I wished to deny it, I Naruto uzumaki had gained something I had thought I would never have again. I had gained an attachment to Hinata Hyuuga.

END CH. 2 Next CH. "Two scorned make a rose's thorn and beauty"

AN: Next chapter is Kurenai and Naruto's fight. Sorry for the long wait. Couldn't work on the story because I had schooling during the week days. Hope this makes up for it. Lot of stuff happening, Naruto and Hinata precursor but just because it's there doesn't mean this story is naruhina. Also, leave a review on my horrible writing abilities. Sorry in advance for mistakes. I will try to update every weekend. Yell at me if I don't.

Second An: edited for mistakes on may 10th. 3Rd AN: More editing