Whirlwind

Chapter Twelve

-Operation Day Eight: Naruto and Hinata-

Naruto had been searching the city for what felt like hours, finding no sign of Sakura, or Gaara. So, he decided to find Ino or Hinata and see if they knew where his pink haired friend was. They were girls, so they would know the whereabouts of their fellow female, since he was pretty sure they had tracking devices so that they could always find each other. It was the only logical way he could explain why they always traveled in packs, and were hardly ever alone.

Walking down the streets of Suna, he could hear the villagers whispering. It didn't really bother him, since he had gotten used to it long ago. It wasn't until he heard Sakura's name being murmured that he tuned in to what they were saying.

"Isn't he from Konoha? Maybe he knows what's happened to Sakura-sama." A woman said, looking to the man beside her.

The man nodded. "Yeah, but I heard he and Kazekage-sama are good friends. So maybe he knows where Gaara-sama is."

Becoming alarmed at the news that none of the villagers had seen either of his friends, he began to run towards the hospital. Perhaps one of the nurses there could tell him where Sakura was.

When he walked through the doors and into the lobby, his eyes lit up at the sight before him. It seemed that Hinata had had the same idea as to where to look. This was great! Now he wouldn't have to look for Sakura, because Hinata could just use her homing device thingy! He ran up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey Hinata! I'm glad I found you! Do you know where-" he froze as Hinata turned towards him. Silent tears were running down her face, and her lower lip was quivering. Suddenly the girl began to try and wipe them away, embarrassed at having Naruto see her in such a state.

"Hinata….who did this?" he asked, his anger beginning to build. She merely glanced to her left and then back at him quickly. Peering behind her, he saw an old brunette woman, sneering maliciously at his friend.

"What did you say to Hinata?" he yelled at the stranger.

The woman made a sound of contempt. "I merely told her my opinion about her pink haired tramp of a friend."

He growled, his canines beginning to elongate. "What?"

The brunette simply brushed some dirt off her shoulder, as if she didn't care in the least that she had an angry jinchuuriki in the lobby. "I informed her that her friend is no better than the ladies of the evening. And that she should be careful, because being friends with someone like that, their habits tend to rub off on you. So when she comes crawling into a hospital pregnant and alone, I will give her no sympathy."

At this Hinata's shoulder began to quiver beneath the blonde boy's hand. He slowly released her shoulder and stalked towards the older woman. "You said that, about my Sakura-chan, to my Hinata?"

Hinata turned red at his statement, her eyes widening slightly. He thought of her as his? She gasped suddenly, as she felt the angry red chakra of the Kyuubi seep out of the blonde, causing the air pressure in the lobby to increase.

Not catching on that her life was in danger, Yoko continued, "No you have it all wrong, stupid. She is the one that I expect to be pregnant and alone. At least that pink trollop has the skills to prevent herself from getting pregnant. This one looks like she's only good for one thing and one thing only."

Naruto's rage began to boil over. Nobody accused his friends of being whores, nobody. Before she could blink, Yoko found herself pinned against the registration desk by her neck. She looked up, only to be met with fiery red eyes.

"How dare you say something like that about my friends." He snarled viciously, as he slowly began to squeeze the life out of the infuriating woman beneath him. Added to the pressure of his hand was the feeling of something pricking the skin on her neck, this being due to Naruto's now claw-like fingernails. "I'm going to kill you!" He yelled, some of the Kyuubi's voice coming through and making him sound all the more menacing.

Just as he brought his other hand up to form a rasengan, Hinata's delicate one stopped him. His head whipped around to face her, ready to attack the one who dared come between him and his prey. Seeing slightly wet lavender eyes, red instantly turned to blue.

He loosened his grip on Yoko's neck, causing her to gasp for the oxygen that was denied her moments ago. Turning back to her, he pulled her close, so that her face was inches away from his. "If I ever hear you say anything like that about Sakura-chan or Hinata again, I will kill you. Make no mistake of it." He paused, as if thinking about what he was going to say next. "Now apologize to Hinata." He ground out.

Scared brown met worried lavender. "I-I-I'm s-s-s-sorry!"

Naruto shook her roughly, bringing her attention back to him. "You better be. If you ever make Hinata cry again, you will suffer a fate far worse than death at my hands." He dropped her then, causing her to fall onto the receptionist's desk. Everyone in the lobby had stilled, watching the whole encounter.

The blonde merely grabbed Hinata's hand and dragged her out of the hospital. "You didn't have to do that Naruto-kun." The shy girl said once they were away from that place.

Naruto gave her one of his classic smiles, all traces of anger gone from his face as quickly as it had come. He liked the way her hand felt in his, and decided to hold it more often. "Of course I did Hinata-chan! You are one of my most important people!" Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him, and he decided to act on it, since they didn't happen very often. "Hey! Do you wanna go get some ramen with me? Ramen always makes me feel better when I'm upset!"

Not being able to say no to her long time love, she nodded affirmatively. His face broke out into an even bigger grin. "Great! You can be my lunch date!" He declared. Still holding her hand in his, he led the way to his favorite ramen stand in Suna, a tomato red Hinata following behind.

It didn't take long for them to reach the ramen stand, since Naruto had practically run the whole way. Once their food was delivered, a perplexed blonde looked between his bowl and Hinata's.

"Hinata-chan…what is that?" he asked, appearing somewhat hesitant.

She looked startled at his question, and then hastily replied, "It's the vegetarian ramen Naruto-kun."

He raised a brow at her. "You mean, you don't eat meat?" he asked incredulously. She was weirder than he thought. This only caused her to giggle.

"Of course I eat meat Naruto-kun! But ramen is very unhealthy, so I always get the dish with the most vegetables in it."

He smiled sheepishly, a small blush coming to his face. For some reason, it made him happy that he had been the one to cause Hinata to laugh so beautifully. Regaining his exuberance, he picked up some of his ramen with his chopsticks and held it out to her. She gave him a puzzled look.

"Here, try some of mine. It's not real ramen if you don't order it with everything on it." He said with a smile.

She blushed, and slowly leaned forward, afraid that she was dreaming. When her mouth was around his chopsticks, she knew that it was, in fact, reality. Turning a darker shade of red, she quickly sat back in her chair and ate the ramen offered to her. Her eyes widened in delight.

"This is delicious!" she exclaimed, smiling at him.

"See! I told ya! Hey, let me try some of yours!" he said, leaning forward.

Caught off guard by this, she began to feel faint. She didn't know if she could handle all this attention being bestowed upon her by the blonde male. Before she could succumb to the darkness, she shook her head. She refused to faint in front of Naruto. They were on a date, their first one in fact, and she wouldn't ruin it.

Quickly putting some ramen on her chopsticks, she held them out to the blonde, and watched as he took them into his mouth, eyes wide in awe. It was over sooner than she would have liked, but before she could think further on the topic, Naruto was speaking again.

"That's not half bad! Still not as good as my usual, but maybe if I get that every once in a while I can tell Sakura-chan that I'm eating my vegetables and not have to lie about it!" he said happily.

She stared at him for a few seconds, and then burst into laughter. Naruto smiled, although he was confused. "What's so funny Hinata-chan?"

"You sound like a child talking about his mother! I just thought it was funny, that's all." She said, trying to stifle her laughter, and failing.

He gave her a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I guess when you put it that way it does, doesn't it? But in reality, Sakura-chan is more like a sister than a mom."

Hinata froze. She had always thought that the blonde jinchuuriki had harbored different feelings for their pink haired friend, and that that was why he hadn't ever spoken to her about her confession to him a while back. But this new knowledge made her happy, and so she turned her attention back to her food, a small smile on her face the entire time.

Once they finished their lunch, they began to wander aimlessly around the city. Naruto would make lame jokes every now and then, trying to get Hinata to laugh once more. After he had said something particularly funny, they both broke out into laughter. That was when Naruto heard the whispers.

"How can they be so happy when our Kazekage is missing? At the fault of one of their own comrades too." Someone said.

Suddenly he remembered why he had visited the hospital in the first place. Becoming serious, he stopped in the middle of the street and looked at her, curiosity evident in his eyes. "Why did you talk to that witch anyways?"

The smile instantly left her face and she looked at the ground, ashamed that once again, she needed to be rescued. "Well, I was looking for Sakura, and thought that, since Yoko was once the head medic, she would know where I could find her. But all she did was say nasty things about Sakura, and when I told her to stop, she merely directed her comments to me."

"Yoko?" He asked, not putting two and two together.

"The witch." She muttered, her mouth lifted slightly at the corner in a smile at his name for the brunette woman.

Naruto blinked in realization. "Oh."

Hinata looked into his eyes then, perplexed. "Why where you at the hospital, Naruto-kun?"

"I was looking for you, actually! Or Ino, but I'm glad it was you, because Ino is mean. I figured one of you would know where Sakura-chan was." He told her.

"We could try checking at Gaara-sama's mansion. Maybe they both went back there after beating each other up." Hinata suggested.

He gave her an appreciative look. "Wow! You're really smart Hinata-chan! I never woulda thought of checking the mansion!" In his excitement he grabbed her hand again, dragging her in the direction of the redhead's home.

They walked up to the large oak doors slowly. The place was emanating a foreboding aura, as if nothing happy ever happened there. Naruto reached out and knocked on the door three times. Almost immediately after he pulled his hand away, the doors opened, only to reveal Sakura dressed in Gaara's clothing. She looked at him and Hinata, and then past them, into the street. Suddenly what little life left in her eyes vanished.

"Where is he? Why isn't he with you?" she asked them desperately.

Naruto gave his heart's sister a confused look. "What are you talking about Sakura-chan? Where is Gaara?" he asked.

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "He never came home." She said pitifully. Then the door shut in their faces, and they heard it lock. Naruto turned to Hinata, only to see sadness in her eyes.

"She must be really worried about Gaara-sama. I doubt she's eaten anything, her face was so thin." Hinata stated.

He turned and began to walk down the sidewalk, the Hyuuga heiress next to him. "Well, the only thing we can do now is go find Kakashi-sensei and tell him what happened."

"Why?" she asked.

Determination flooded into his eyes then. "So that he can send out his dogs, find Gaara, and beat him up for what he did to Sakura-chan." He said, punching his fist into his hand. He turned to her then.

"Will you come with me Hinata-chan?" he asked pleadingly.

She blushed, finally realizing that he had added the endearment onto the end of her name. Maybe pining after him wasn't so hopeless after all. "I would love to Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled brightly and took her hand once more, before they began their search for the copy nin.