Legend:
-Thoughts-
Narration
"Talking"
(With Certain Character or Scene Change)

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything relating to it, but I do own this plot!

I Always Knew

Chapter 2: The Chase Begins! Truth And Comfort!

Curious and concerned Sakura, Ino, and Tenten stepped out of their hiding places to find out what was going on and where Naruto had gone off to. The girls had been tailing the two for some time hoping that they might be able to do something to bring them closer together, or at least make Naruto even see Hinata's feeling for him. They were now confused as to what the conversation they had seen was all about since neither of them could get close enough to hear what was being said. However keeping good to her promises, Hinata claimed not to know where he'd gone or who Naruto even was which surprised the girls to no end since the entire village knew that she was head over heals in love with him. Sakura checked to see if Naruto had placed some kind of jutsu on her, but found nothing and took her to see Tsunade who couldn't find a single thing wrong with Hinata either.

Gritting her teeth in frustration Tsunade then realized that Naruto had asked Hinata to do this and quite possibly had already left the village. Knowing that getting Naruto back would be an S-ranked mission Tsunade smirked, -Very good Naruto. You knew that most of the chunin, jonin, and ANBU were all going out on missions today and all that I would have left to spare to go after you are these three girls right in front of me. Of course what you probably don't know is that Kakashi has come back from his mission today as so can help track you down, wherever that lazy-ass pervert is.- "Ahh," she sighed in frustration and banged her fist on the big oak hokage desk, "that idiot, okay guys I need you to go and bring Naruto back here alive this is going to be an S- ranked mission."

"Huh? How can that be? Naruto isn't that hard to find or catch I mean he falls into the most obvious traps," Ino stated -This has got to be some mistake, Naruto can't be that good. Can he?-.

"On the contrary Naruto is actually one of the best shinobi that we have and it will be quite a challenge to find even a single trace of him at all, let alone capture him. I was thinking of instating him into the ANBU today, but it looks like that's not going to happen any time soon, if at all," Tsunade countered much to the three girls' surprise, Hinata on the other hand was one of the few who knew what Naruto was capable of, but Tsunade knew that she wouldn't do anything to help no matter what was said she would just stand there pretending to be ignorant.

"Hokage-sama, since I would be of no assistance for this mission do you mind if I take my leave now?" Hinata asked looking straight into the Hokage's amber eyes.

"Sure, go ahead Hinata," Tsunade dismissed feeling somewhat miffed by the girl for some odd reason.

"Thank-you Hokage-sama," she said politely, bowed, and left the office as quickly as she could.

As they all watched her leave it was only then that they realized that Hinata had spoken confidently and without stuttering even once, not only that but she seemed to have the air of power and prestige encircling her that could only belong to the Hyugga clan. "Now the rest of you go find Kakashi and tell him what's going on, he should be able to help. Then I want all of you to go after Naruto," she ordered being the first to recover from the shock and snapped everyone else's attention back to the mission at hand.

"Yes ma'am Hokage-sama," the girls said in unison and hurriedly took off to find Kakashi, who was training at team seven's training spot with Gai, team eight's sensei.

"Kakashi-sensei we have a mission, Naruto's leaving," said Sakura quickly informed the jounin instructor as soon as the girls were in hearing distance as they came running up to them, her at point.

Upon hearing this news both jounins immediately stopped their sparing match knowing how important this mission was. Kakashi then quickly summoned his nin-dogs and sent them to track down Naruto. Within seconds they heard five dogs howling, Pakkun then interpreted their cries, "Renji, Baku, Don, Garu, and Pon all say that they have Naruto's scent, but there's something strange about it."

"What is it?" asked Tenten curiously -What could be this time?-.

"Well, it seems that Naruto has found a good use for that shadow clone jutsu of his, he's going in five different directions at once and all of them think that they have the real Naruto. You know how hard it is to fool us Kakashi; I know you said this kid was good, but I didn't think that he was this good," he answered Tenten as he eyed Kakashi suspiciously.

"Neither did I, but I think I know some who does and which direction he's headed. Okay, Sakura, you take the eastern path, Tenten, you take the western path, Ino, you take the Northern path, and Pakkun, you take the southern path. Gai I'm going to need you to take the north-western path while I go and try to get Hinata to talk," Kakashi ordered.

"You can count on me Kakashi let's go you guys we have a ninja to catch," said Gai in his serious voice and they all took off in their assigned directions.

As soon as they were gone a cloud of smoke poofed around Kakashi to reveal yet another Naruto clone who then released the real Kakashi, who was hidden in a bush, from his genjutsu and simply knocked him unconscious with one punch before he poofed into nonexistence leaving him to be found by a very confused Tenten, who was the first to return some hours later.

It wasn't long before Sakura caught up with Don, the black and tan rottweiler that was going down the eastern path, only to find him laying on the ground in an apparent sleep, but really locked in a powerful genjutsu. Cautiously, as she approached the dog and bent down to see if his vitals were alright, but as she did this she didn't notice a dark figure coming towards her from behind until it spoke. "Hey Sakura," the figure greeted solemnly.

Taken by surprise, Sakura quickly twisted her body around and jumped back with a kunai in hand; for a second she didn't recognize the teenage boy in front of her. Suddenly it dawned on her that it was just Naruto and that the only reason that she hadn't recognized him right away was that he was now wearing dark neutral colors instead of the loud orange as was his signature. The next thing that she took in was a more devastating blow than if he were to kill her right then and there, he wasn't wearing his headband. The headband that he had worked so hard for, the one that he made a mad dash at an enemy on many occasions for, but more than that the light and laughter that Sakura had once felt could never be extinguished from his cerulean blue eyes had vanished. It was as if that light had never been there to begin with. –I don't think anyone, not even Hinata can convince him to come back to the village right now. I know that I can't beat him either, he has a sense of power rolling off of him; it's almost suffocating. He's really going to leave me, just like Sasuke-kun did- Sakura felt herself slowly fall apart at her depressing thoughts.

–I knew this would happen as soon as she saw me. To see one teammate leave you is hard enough, but now two and not only that, but she can see that I have no intention of ever coming back or having anything to do with this village again for as long as I live.- Naruto then walked slowly to her side, put his arms around her, and comforted her gently and patiently until her crying had ceased before he spoke again. "Sakura it's time that you learn how to control your energy and become the powerful kunoichi that I know you already are, but for that to happen you need both me and Sasuke to disappear for a while. In the time that I am gone I won't forget my promise, I'll bring Sasuke back to you as soon as I can," Naruto said soothingly in her ear.

"Then you'll both stay in the village," she asked hopefully –Please say yes-.

Naruto hated to break her even more than it already was, but knew that she had to know so with a heavy sigh he told her all the while avoiding her pleading eyes, "I never said that, but when that day comes I will only be here for a short while unless the village changes the way they feel about me. Because of them I can't risk getting into relationships more serious than friendship. If I do, they would hate that person or worse hurt them and it would take all the self-control I possess not to go to after them and kill them. Meanwhile it would tear me apart knowing that the person that I am with was getting hurt because of me, I couldn't live with myself if I allowed that to happen."

"I don't understand," she asked confused –Why would the villagers be so against him and if that were true, why is he try to go out with me? Is he protecting someone else then?-.

"Yes you do Sakura," he said now getting up, "you've seen me in that state before, what you don't understand is how it is possible. You see, the villagers lied to you, the Kyuubi wasn't killed that day fifteen years ago, no it was sealed within me just after I was born. The only thing is, it can only control me in extreme emotional distress or weakness, or loss of consciousness during a life or death battle. I have to go now Sakura, but feel free to tell anyone you want what's happened and because I told you the law is now null and void so you won't get in trouble."

He turned to walk away when Sakura stood up and called after him, "Naruto wait, I have one more question."

"If it's about coming with me the answer is no, you need to stay in the village. If it's about Hinata, she made a few promises to me, I asked her to do it even if it was cruel you can probably figure out what they are, but neither Hinata nor I will tell you. If it is neither of these things, though I can guess they were on your mind, then ask away," he replied with his back to her.

A few moments of silence passed before she finally asked her question, "Where are you going?"

–Trust Sakura to throw a curveball at you. I hadn't quite figured that out yet, I've been waiting for the signal.- "Away, far away, as far away as I can possibly get, then turn around and start looking for Sasuke like I promised. Look, don't worry so much, I haven't made so many friends on our missions for nothing, though I was hoping that it wouldn't have to come to this, but I had to take the necessary precautions just in case," he stated as coolly as if he was reporting the weather and disappeared instantly, at that moment Don had been released from his genjutsu, but the scent was lost, it was as if he had never been there.

Before Sakura could turn around she heard a voice on the wind, and it sounded just like the old Naruto it said, "Bye Sakura! When I get back I'll be stronger than ever! I'll even be dragging Sasuke back on his sorry ass if I have to! That's a promise, believe it!"