Rise from the Dark, Step from the Shadow

by MadScrivenings

Crazy Naruto AU. Semi-crack. My first poor attempt at a story. Plot bunnies and other problems like grammar, poor writing, bad ideas, and other stuff galore. Sharingans, girls like Naruto, there is an insane slug summoner, crazy plans, secrets, and hatred. NOT NARU/HINA Not a crossover, no matter who I add from other universes. Sequel Out.

4. Ch 4 In the jungle, the mighty jungle

CH: 3 In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle

Author Note: So guess who's back. That's right, a Canadian bacon salesman. Just kidding, I love Canada. I mean amazing hockey and Niagara falls, 'nuff said. A few things to address, most of which involve either Naruto killing/leaving Konoha, the pairing of the story, and the one thing I was hoping people would comment on which is Naruto's parents or more specifically Minato.

First of all, Naruto is almost guaranteed(though there is a slight possibility for him to leave) to stay in the leaf simply because where would he go. Iwa, not possible because of the whole absolutely hate Konoha and the fourth Hokage thing. Kumo, I feel like that place is already overpowered with the fact they live on mountains with two jinchuuriki who can fully control their biju and have a kage who is almost as fast as the yondaime; that and the fact that Kumo is a jerk. They have tried to steal bloodlines and are generally war-mongering. Kiri and Suna are out for nearly the same reasons, either involving jerkiness or transgressions that they pulled off towards Konoha.
That leaves only all the smaller villages. If I chose the smaller villages, that would just lead to that village suddenly being as strong as the big five. If I had Naruto go solo it would just be Sasuke all over again without a village and if I had him join akatsuki it would be awkward. Second part, if I had Naruto kill his family he would ultimately be destroyed by either his father or the rest of the village. Second subject would be the pairing, I am pretty much set on kyuubi or Hinata but I'll set up a POLL. Three, how did Minato get the dreams and why isn't Kushina feeling regret or getting the dreams.

Well, you'll see. It's pretty cool how I set up the dream thing if I do say so my self. With Kushina, well that's coming. Also, prepare for some kyuubi time and bullshit power up because I need it to progress the story line. On with the story.

Also, HERE COMES NARUTO'S KURENAI FIGHT. Just pointing it out.

Ps: It took Naruto's team a week to get to wave, and a week for Kurenai to heal. After all that it took only a day or two for Naruto and his team to return to Konoha. So to explain this, the timeline is four weeks before Naruto fought and killed Zabuza, two weeks before the mission was received.

Secon Ps: I no longer will do the Hinata stutter cuz I am lazy.

"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

…..Four weeks earlier before Wave mission... Day after genin test...

…..September 02, unknown year in my Naruto-verse...

After the genin test Kurenai had put us through she stated we were going to train for two weeks so as to completely skip d-rank missions. She also told us that she had enlisted some, "friends," to help in this little endeavor. All I knew was that her creepy expression while she said this and the evil eye glare she was sending my way was not going to be good for me or my health. A few minutes of silence and awkward staring then commenced as Kurenai continued her evil stare at the three of us.

Then after the boring wait time a large puff of white smoke appeared. I, being startled from the sudden explosion of smoke, flicked a kunai out of my sleeve and rolled backwards a dozen feet away. Regaining my feet from my impromptu roll, I positioned my self in a loose battle stance watching the smoke curl in the air wearily. I nearly dropped my kunai from the sight in front of me.

Three new kuinochi stood proudly in a triangle. My two teammates were both completely trussed up in ninja wire, looking disoriented. Kurenai was standing behind the five kuinochi, three grown-up and not tied together and the other two still growing and tied together, looking smug. Noting all the new possible combatants that my sensei had enlisted were at least jonin, I gulped.

I may be strong, but I'm not stupid. Four jonin ranked women, one of which who holds a grudge most likely from yesterdays rather fun fight. My sensei was a master of genjutsu but Itachi was better and a lot more sneakier with his application of the tricks, and was the only reason I did better against Kurenai. I knew how the woman worked because of my genjutsu knowledge and theory from Itachi. But three other jonin, skills unknown and filling the air with their animosity toward me because of whatever reason they had was enough to make me take another step back or five.

"Great," I thought, "this is going to go well for me." I then, the master of deducing the obvious noticed I was the only male in the vicinity. I however was clouded by lust and other frivolous teen emotions like other males of my age. If that wasn't a bad sign for me then I didn't know what was. I just wasn't looking forward to getting my ass whupped by angry women.

I sighed, "This is gonna be a long day," I muttered. Turns out, I underestimated the situation.

"Hello Ku-chan," a loud, buxom endowed purplenette screamed. The woman who had screamed seemed to float around on her toes in her skimpy outfit which consisted of fishing net, a bra, a short skirt, and a trench coat, with a chilling grin plastered on her face.

"The great and sexy Anko-chan as well as the two equally magnificent and beautiful mistresses of Konoha," she paused to breath, "Hana Inuzuka and Yugao Uzuki are at your service." In accompaniment of her short spiel, two small fireworks and a banner that had Anko Mitarashi crossed out and under the crossed out words was painted on Mistresses of Konoha behind the three kuinochi. With Anko's words thrown silence took over the field with my teammates coherent enough to cower and a whimper noise filling the absence of sound in the air. I didn't even know I could whimper.

Of course, with my amazing luck the noise caught the attention of the three women and Kurenai and their eyes turned toward me. At that moment I wished I could use Hirashien. "So," Hana barked, "these are your cute little brats you asked us to train for the next two weeks in the forest of death."

The forest of death didn't sound very appealing at all. I didn't even try to hide my disparity at the notion and started backing away. "Heh, it looks like," Yugao drawled, "the lone male is scared of some little harmless kuinochi; by the way Ku-chan who is he?"

"He is my student of course, Naruto," the red-eyed woman proclaimed. "Oh, so this is the male heir of the Namikaze family," Anko blurted. The devious look that overtook the woman's face after that added another step to my large amount of steps away from the group.

"Alright, alright, stop scaring my pupils, it's time to explain the training exercise we are about to torture- I mean put them through. The regime of training will last for approximately two weeks. During the exercise the three of you will be running for your life and surviving," Kurenai pointed said to my cohorts and I. "What do you mean by running for our lives," Hinata questioned, to scared to stutter. "Oh, just that the four of us," Kurenai's hand panned towards herself and the other three jonin, "are going to hunt you for the next two weeks inside training ground forty-four."

"And," the Uzuki woman added, "is pretty much Anko's backyard."

"Also," Kurenai piped up, "If we hit you with a 'killing' blow, which of course we aren't really going to kill you, you officially lose and then have to help us find whoever is left. If everyone is caught, we restart and repeat until the two weeks are over. There is also no leaving the grounds nor quitting. It also starts as soon as we enter the training ground."

I was already running because I was the only one left. What do I mean? Well, this was all explained in aforementioned training ground and both my teammates had already been captured when our hunters had showed up. As I dashed into the underbrush away from the kuinochi I groaned. This just had to be my day. By myself in an evil forest being chased by sadistic women with pointy things. Fun.

Soon I sensed someone pursuing me, and I peered behind me only to see to my own surprise none other than Hinata. She was being chased by Hana who seemed to be growling in anticipation as she chased my Hyuuga comrade. I whirled around in mid-air, hurled a skunk bomb into the Inuzuka's face, threw Hinata over my shoulder after landing by her, and ran faster while pumping chakra to my legs. While I ran I summoned fifty bushins of which half henged into Lavender-eyed females. With my mastery over the jutsu the clones easily copied everything about Hinata anatomically and visibly even down to scent and heart-beat. After that quick spawn of clones I ran on for thirty minutes, Hinata's arms thumping about awkwardly unable to find a good place to hold on without inhibiting me in some way.

Finally I collapsed under a massive oak with Hinata dotting over me in her own way with furtive glances and her teeth pressing lightly on her bottom lip. I glanced at the reason for my exhaustion, a long, thin sleep dart sticking crookedly out of the side of my left thigh. Due to the kyuubi, I could resist all poisons, but they still affected me in some way if it was the first time it was used on me. But regardless of my own troubles, I knew my clones would buy the two of us at least a day. I then turned my sluggish gaze to Hinata, even my exhaustion not stopping my mind from roving over small inconspicuous details.

"How did you get away," I mumbled as I rose to my feet.

"I," Hinata began, "was able to cut the wire the moment I was captured and as soon as you bolted I followed." I then took notice of Hinata's own puffing chest from exertion, I guess my shoulder slamming into her abdomen for a half-hour forced the air out of her chest quite often. I attempted to sneer at the weakness of the girl but the sedative obviously had a stronger grip than I thought because I had great trouble controlling my facial features.

As our breathing came under control, I grew bored. With no real goal in mind I had nothing to focus on other than my other goal in life and that was something I didn't feel like musing on. Even though I could have the greatest patience when it came to waiting for the right moment to strike or act, I was already mind-numbingly bored due to the sudden lack of action and the sleep dart fucking with my body. With nothing else to do, I became determined to do something. That something was to find out Hinata's skills.

"How are you, Hinata?" I started the conversation.

"Fine, Naruto-kun," was her stuttering reply.

"Since," I questioned softly in the low light of the evening, "we are going to need to work together, what is your skill set."

"What!" Hinata exclaimed back, something about my question startling her.

"I said what is your skill set, your skills, what can you do?"

"My father wouldn't like it if I told you," Hinata squeaked.

"Regardless, if you don't we won't make it through the night in this exercise," I said to add some deadline incentive. "Well," she spoke hesitantly, "I have the Byakugan, my family's blood limit, and accordingly can use several techniques that involve the kekkai genkai. I have also trained in my family's taijutsu style for years though my father is disappointed in my skills in the fighting style, or the lack thereof."

I groaned internally. I didn't know if she was a master of her taijutsu style or an amateur due to her contradictory statements.

"What about you," she asked.

I thought for a moment, "I use a variety of iryo-jutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjutsu, fuuinjutsu, and traps." "Oh," was her elegant reply. "Why don't you specialize in anything?"

"I don't specialize in anything because I try to specialize in everything. Counters and re-counters. Actions and reactions of course. If I stayed set in one line than it would be easy to counter me. I simply think in branches, where I make my choice by following the branch that would lead to the best output. Like evolution, the branches that would lead to death die out. The branches that flourish survive and are added to my repertoire."

…...12 days later...

Two ragged genin surged forward, three furious women behind them. The two prey, a slender girl with stunning lavender eyes and a male clad only in a facsimile of a what was once a shirt and pants and a mask of a snarling kitsune, were running for their respective lives. Weaving through the trees, dodging and dashing away from their pursuers, the two ran with not a single glance at the ground and quickly left their chasers in the dust. The two were not going to be tricked again and ran on. Suddenly the female buckled and in a flash the male had grabbed her and ran with her arms hanging on to his neck. They duo ran on, for they had reached an understanding. It didn't matter what had came before, there was only now. IN this very now though they had to run and help each other if they wanted to make it.

…..Naruto's P.O.V...

I slowly trailed into one of Hinata's and my own base of sorts. We had several of which we relocated to every six hours. I laid her down on to a bed of leafs. As soon as I set her down I noticed the threadbare-mess that was her outfit after this long ordeal the two of us had experienced. Her outfit was greatly in need of help. While not nearly as bad as my own situation, it wasn't particularly fitting of what counted as Hyuuga royalty. Her outfit, or what was left of it, consisted of pants-turned-shorts, and her black shirt she had been wearing before-hand and was now adorned with holes, mud, and other stains from our adventure. Her jacket which had been a major part of her outfit had long ago been shredded for use in other endeavors such as bandages and traps. The girl who was adorned in the ratty rags was conked out, not of choice a course. No, the sleep was courtesy of the half dozen of sleep darts planted firmly in her calfs. It seems she hadn't escaped them like she had believed. I quickly removed them I knew she would wake up soon. It was actually surprising how quickly the girl in front of me became immune to the darts.

As I moved away I formed a clone with a thought and then had it go check the many traps I had set to stop the two of us from being sneak attacked. All 273 of them. I had been bored during one of the lulls in combat and paranoid and in turn made all of them from twigs, leafs, and branches. As soon as my clone dispelled several minutes later I knew it was ok to crash for awhile. I did so.

Looking at Hinata to check on her I saw something surprising. The girl was crying in her sleep, something I hadn't seen her do before. I promptly rose and approached her. All most on instinct the girl attached herself to my leg as soon as I was close enough to her.

I groaned, why was she touching my leg. I didn't know what to do. Then I stood there. I didn't know for how long or when I had fell asleep while standing but I knew it had been awhile for when my eyes had flew open I saw it was later in the day than it had been earlier. As I looked around I noticed I in fact was kneeling rather than standing and in my lap strangely enough was Hinata's head. Staring up at me was two white eyes staring in intense curiosity. I could do nothing but stare back into the entrancing orbs in front of me.

I could see the years of worry, the years of neglect in the eyes that faced me. For a moment I thought these eyes that had ensnared me so were my own. But my eyes were blue. Well, blue and red but the red one was genjutsu'd to look blue. So whose eyes could they be, my sleep-fogged brain churned having already forgotten Hinata was laying in my lap. I panned my gaze to the face the orbs rested in and suddenly alert and awake realized it was Hinata. Wait, Hinata!

At the same time both I and the Hyuuga flew to our feet. I then questioned loudly, "What color were my eyes!" My loud tone seemed to physically hit her. I felt a strange emotion after seeing her flinch. Was it guilt. I pressed on, "WELL, WHAT COLOR WERE THEY!"

"They were blue!" she yelled back. I sighed with relief before realizing that we both had been shouting. Even though the genjutsu to hide my sharingan had held, the two of us were now in deep shit. Though less so than if the jutsu hadn't. Then I would have some explaining to do.

I quickly dived at the girl, saving her from a dozen sleep darts and the two of us ran. After a few minutes of fruitlessly trying to shake our hunters, Hinata was suddenly tackled and I watched in my peripherals as she was metaphorically killed. I suddenly felt alone. After twelve days of constant companionship, I was abruptly by myself again. I felt a cold rage wash over my body. In less than a second in each of my hands I held a long thin kunai that resembled a conglomerate of an ice-pick, a kunai, and a stiletto(an Italian blade characterized by it's long thin make).

I then glared at the now six kuinochi surrounding me. Behind the genjutsu on my left eye my sharingan swirled. I smirked behind my mask. This eye was so helpful when it came to genjutsu. A tense motionless moment filled the air then passed and all the female ninjas attacked. I flipped over the Inuzuka's gatsuuga and planted a kick in her hind quarters and earned a, "Oof," of indignation as I sent her to the floor. I then engaged the sword user Uzuki. Her blade was a whirlwind of steel flashing through the air.

Every-time the blade slithered forth to kiss my flesh I blocked with a killer's instinct. As the frustration grew on Yugao's face, I sensed a person attempting to attack me from behind. I jumped above Mitarashi and said kuinochi plowed into the single kenjutsu user of the group. I then turned to face my teacher as the rest of the kuinochi pulled themselves to their feet.

My sensei glared at me, her ruby eyes flashing with the humiliations I had put her through the past couple days. The woman began blazing through seals and I decided to mess with her and copied her seals with my sharingan down to the millisecond. I grinned as her eyes grew wide and watched as she fumbled to go faster in her symbol work. I easily matched her.

At last she roared the jutsu's name, I repeating her every vowel in tandem, "Raiton: Assimilating Butter fly."

The chakra surged off of my opponent and I, rising into the air to form two identical and massive butterflies. Once both chakra constructs had fully formed, electricity blasted from their bodies and encased themselves in Lightning armor. The two beastly creations then began to circle their twin, their hulking wings flapping and creating monumental gusts of wind. The Raiton techniques bellowed, though how a butterfly can bellow I don't know, as they simultaneously attempted to kill off the other. While our constructs battled in the air, Kurenai duked it out with me beneath them. I threw a jab at my sensei's gut and it struck home. She collapsed, but then poofed into smoke and a splintered long. I flipped about to face my blind-spot only to receive a boot to the face and flew back. But it wasn't Kurenai who had kicked me. It wasn't that insane woman, it was the other one, Anko.

I was back on my feet in less than the blink of an eye and was once more thrown into a fistfight. Above my head the two electric bugs finally dissipated, their last acts to scream battle cries(or whatever the equivalent of that is for butterflies). My purple haired foe rushed me mean while, letting loose snakes from her sleeves while yelling, "Seneijashu." I grabbed said serpents by their throats and crushed them.

Two kunai thrown later and I was gone. I faster than ever before. I sent more and more chakra to my legs as I dashed away from the fight I had been in. Suddenly I collapsed after tripping over my own exhausted legs. Though I hadn't shown it while fighting the kuinochi, I was extremely tired from constant running and surviving while the Kuinochi chased myself and Hinata down.

As I dragged myself under a bush in a small attempt to conceal myself I wondered if I was here for the gods to torture. A poor life for a poor soul of course. Regardless, times like this made me wonder if I would ever be able to fight my father in combat. Even kages thought a moment before engaging him. His bingo book page literally had the words, "Do not engage; flee on sight."

MY own powers were nowhere near enough to fight the man and it made me sick. If I couldn't fend myself against some jonin then how would I ever face my father. I just simply needed a way to become stronger. I just didn't know what. That was when a thought struck me. I had a demon fox in my gut who had fought the man and almost won. I concentrated briefly so as to enter my subconscious. I was out like a light.

I opened my eyes to the room that contained the nine-tailed biju. "Fox," I growled into the darkness. Two massive eyes flicked open, a strange gleam in them. The gleam was some sort of emotion but I didn't feel the need to decipher it.

"Yes, my ill-tempered container, what do you want," was the oily words that spilled from the beast's mouth. A sickly grin of sharp teeth walking in line with the sentence as Kyuubi stared directly at me. "I need to know how to get strong enough to beat my father," I requested with a bellow.

"So you wish to defeat your father?" the kyuubi mused. "Well, there is two options boy," the words slithered from her tongue, filling the air with a strangely sweet aroma.

"What are they," I asked.

"Either you learn your father's jutsu the Hirashien, which would make you a copycat and also would be nigh impossible with your amount of chakra or..." she let the words hang suggestively.

"Or what?" I demanded, the anger in my voice easily discernible.

"I could give you a power-up of sorts... at a price," Kyuubi said, her voice untroubled and Stygian.

"What is this price," I asked suspiciously.

"It is merely," Kyuubi hung her face closer to mine, well as close as a giant and really thick metal cage will let you, "a... hug."

The kyuubi wanted a hug. A hug for supposedly extremely powerful and potent powers.

"You want... a hug?" I said incredulously. I was of course going to be skeptical. The queen of all foxes was asking for a hug.

"Yes, a hug... unless you don't want to beat your father of course," was her suave reply.

"I will take your deal," I grumbled as I slowly walked into the cage of my biju. A huge flash of red light over took my eyes for a second and instead of a hundred-foot fox, a girl a few inches shorter than me appeared. The girl eerily looked like Hinata except for her eyes. The eyes were darker than my blood-red sharingan. A deep, evil shade of red that contained a million levels to it. Each level deeper and more confusing.

The girl held her hands and arms wide. A fox like grin was sewn on her face. It looked so much out of place, so mislaid, that for a moment I thought a possessed Hinata was the one beckoning me for a hug. Even though I was bothered by the startling resemblance, I kept edging forward towards the girl, the kyuubi, the whatever. It didn't matter how creepy it was, I needed more power.

Slowly my arms encircled the biju's false body, pulling her into a tender hug. The kyuubi then nestled her face into the crook of my neck and shoulder. Her soft breaths tickled my neck. It was strange how it felt like a normal hug. I had expected something to feel amiss. Then we stood there, our warmth spreading into each others' bones.

Then she bit my neck. Her small canines clamped with a soft pop sound straight into my flesh. I felt more than saw the hurricane of red energy twirling above my head. It circled me and kyuubi, dancing every which way. Then it drained into the four identical holes in my throat in what was the most unpleasant feeling I have ever felt. It felt like a thousand bugs were crawling through my veins. Each singular bug biting all my flesh in an impossible way.

As soon as the last wisp of red vapor entered the small wounds healed and on my neck was a tattoo of an albino nine tailed fox encircling a red nine-tailed fox. Then the tattoo morphed, the encircled fox became white while the circling fox became red. Then it morphed back. Then changed again until both of the foxes were a weird mismatch of red and white.

I fell to my knees, not a single muscle in my body complying to my commands. In my ear, a few soft words were whispered. "You are now a hanyou, a half demon. The knowledge to use the powers that come with this responsibility will be in your mind. Now farewell..." I faded away into sleep, the kyuubi's final words being lost to obscurity, "My love."

…..Kyuubi 3rd person view limited omniscient...

The wistful smile on the kyuubi's face was a shocker. She had just turned her container into a half demon. She had also given him the sole responsibility of being a fox sage, something that had not existed for millennium's due to the her own self being the last of her kind. The last of the kitsunes. Before she was a mass amount of chakra, she was a simple young fox, part of the largest and most powerful summoning clan that would only allowed themselves to be summoned by Uzumaki. But with the fall of the Uzumaki clan, her clan fell into disuse and eventually died off.

The reason for their mass death was simple. The kitsune's were the only clan that required human mating. With no human mates they could not reproduce and eventually succumbed to old age. She had in fact been close to death when she heard a voice calling to her. Then a flash of light and she was what she was now. A giant immortal fox made of chakra. But now she had marked the boy with the mating contract of her clan. This contract also made her powers far more easier and efficient should Naruto need to call upon them. No other jinchuuriki would even be able to attempt to wield and control the power as well as Naruto would one day be able to.

With the contract laid and binding, the boy was her mate yet he didn't know and would hopefully never know until it was far too late. If he learned too soon of the plans laid in motion for him by herself and the red eyed mortal she had seen poking about in her container's head then all would be lost. But she held hope, she would get her revenge against the fourth Hokage.

As the kyuubi's form shifted back to a gigantic fox, her eyes stayed the same. Happy and revenge-crazed.

…...Naruto's P.O.V...

I groaned as I woke, my back feeling like a tree had punched it. It was daylight and last I checked, I had dived under this bush at night. I let loose another sigh. As I crawled out from under the bush and regained my feet three hunkering dogs landed around me. As they stalked forward I frowned. It seems I never get a break. For a second I hoped they would go away.

As always, I didn't get what I wanted. At the last bit of that thought filtered through my brain one of the dogs decided it wanted to maul my face. I caught it by it's slobbering maws and tossed the ninja-mutt at another of the three. The last seemed to think a moment then charged. Instead of grabbing the dog, I jumped over the hound and allowed it to barrel into Hana who had tried to sneak up on me. The female Inuzuka let out a loud curse, I assumed because she thought she had me.

I then ducked in mid-air, a flying heel kick from a mad woman obsessed with blood passing over with a hair-breath of space between the sole of her shoe and my noggin. Said woman who after missing slammed into a tree which in turn subsequently dropped thirty various woodland critters who scampered away in fear. I then landed heavily on the floor and dashed away from the attempted ambush. After running for a few moments I came about the original clearing that Kurenai had explained the exercise in. Standing there in the clearing looking determined was Hinata and Narumi. Both were in battle stances. Behind me the purple-haired anbu Yugao and Kurenai landed.

I sighed once more and then threw up my arms in a simple stance. I was determined to end this. It was about three hours later when I reacted to the first punch that was thrown at me. I mean Narumi was taking years just to wind up a weak hay-maker. When she finally reached me I wrapped my arm around her neck in a faux-noose. I then kicked her legs out from underneath her and she plummeted and I placed a finishing blow directly into her nose, effectively ending the fight. I felt so fast, so strong. I didn't know where all this power was coming from but I felt invincible.

Then Yugao mad her move attempting to capitalize on Narumi's momentum and add her own attack. She then tried her darnedest to vivisect me. I supposed having a twelve year old kick your ass is annoying. I whipped a smoke bomb in her face after another missed swipe and then ran the two feet towards her and slammed the top of my skull into her face and dazed her enough to knock her out of the fight.

Next came Kurenai's attempt. She skipped all pretenses and went straight for the win. I slapped a fake explosive tag to the base of her neck as she passed by and she was sent flying and then landed a few yards away, face in the dirt. It seemed I wasn't the only one who was exhausted from these past two weeks. Lastly, I turned to Hinata.

I stared her down from my spot in the field. She seemed to wither from my gaze. The all of sudden she seemed to gain resolve and attacked me. Her new determined expression reminded me of the look Kyuubi had taken. I froze from the shock. My hesitation was just enough to allow Hinata to blow a fully powered gentle fist strike to my heart. Suffice to say, I was blown away. Two dozen feet away I landed, Hinata's chakra still snaking in the air in Hinata's direction. The look of horror on Hinata's face seemed to be etched in stone. I didn't understand why she was so horror-stricken.

I then glanced at my chest only to see it wasn't moving. That meant I wasn't breathing. The Hyuuga then ran forward falling to her knees when she reached my side. Her face peered over mine, worried white eyes dripping tears. I heard shouts and saw Hinata looking between me and whoever was shouting. Hinata then unexpectedly ripped my mask off. My fogging mind hoped to any listening deity I kept my genjutsu up. The Hyuuga heiress then did the thing I thought she was most unlikely to do. She clamped her lips over mine. Her thumping heart pounding over my failing one as she tried to save me.

Suddenly I gasped after Hinata had pressed on my chest a few times and began trying to suck in as much Oxygen as possible. I then fell back to the ground dazed. Who knew not breathing made you need Oxygen and also made you dizzy? I hope you know I said that sarcastically. Somehow during my gulps for air my hand found my mask and I re-donned it.

I then layed there just trying to breath. The crisp air that had once seemed so redundant now seemed so precious. I sucked in what seemed like gallons of the stuff. I could see from my position on the ground everyone else watching me. I looked around at each face. All of which were no longer concerned but angry. I tired to lay still as if I wasn't there. Everyone looked at me with one last look of contempt except for Narumi who was still knocked out and Hinata whose attention was being held by the surrounding kuinochi. I hummed internally. It seems no matter how much I proved myself, no matter what skills, what powers I unleashed, that I always was weak and cast-off as nothing. Just more garbage to be thrown away. For the first time in a long time I felt the despair I had felt in the early days of my childhood. The feelings that even if I beat my father and proved my worthiness of acceptance, my resolve, that even then I would just be discarded as merely the one who beat his father in a traitorous coup or some other false ideal that would be dealt onto me. It makes the notion of ever aspiring to more in this lonely world seem an insurmountable task. A momentous mountain to never be climbed. To never reach the glorious resolution and be celebrated. Against inconceivable odds of immoderate harshness, to rise above and be hailed as a champion. Those ideas seemingly foolish and only for the golden childs of destiny, never for a tainted egg. Never for the white light with the black spot on his heart. Always to be an unsung hero who was never a hero to began with. I guess it just means, all philosophical meanings aside, that I will be indefinitely one thing. I will always be seen as the second best.

END CH. 3

Next Ch. Chunin Exams

An: So a lot covered. I will attempt to update every weekend. Sorry for mistakes in advance. If someone wants to be a beta PM me. Next up, the chunin exams. Don't forget to vote in the POLL. It is located on my author page on this very site. Enjoy.

Signed Ole Mad.

Updated May 17 after being beta'd by Roanes steel.