I've noticed something, a lot of people apologise at the start of every chapter, including myself, just something I've noticed. Anyway next chapter, I have written a lot of the next chapter too but i think i might be rewriting chapter 2, it's a bit short for one of the key events in the story.

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Naruto's and Hinata's recovery mission. Twenty-six days since Fukushi fought off Naruto.

"Naruto? Naruto, you in there?" A quiet knock followed by a quiet voice, it was Hinata, knocking on Narutos front door to his apartment. She was worried that her voice wouldn't be loud enough for Naruto. In the past, it would have been nigh on impossible to wake the boy this early in the morning. For a Hyuuga, seven was the time you were at least awake and starting the morning ritual, training, or house-work. Though Hinata had the 'luxury' to practice more womanly arts of sewing or painting this early. Today however, Lord Kakashi had asked for them to see him as early as possible for a mission. She had a guess it was to pick up another page, this would make it the forth mission and it was ideal for both herself and Naruto to quickly go and get them. Shino, Kiba, Lee, and Tenten were still on training duties and won't be properly available to help with the situation for a few months still. The new genin had a much less eventful year for them. With the exception of Lee's team. So training had been pretty vanilla, without shortcuts and no less time consuming. Again, apart from Lee's team who had stepped up to Lee's level of activity and training, improving the two genin at a frightening rate. Choji was the only exception of the friendship group. He was organising security in the new sections of the village, new people arriving had meant the village had grown into something alike a city. Though through careful planning by Kakashi the layout was wide and fluid with many green areas and in keeping with its forested heritage of which the village founded itself on.

Hinata was about to give in and come back in half an hour when Naruto opened the door.

"Oh morning Hinata, I thought it was you." He looked her up and down and gave her a smile and breathed in the morning air. "Another mission? Alright!"

"Yes, we should get a move on. Kakashi said he is waiting for us now." she blushed a little when she saw her love.

"Give me a second." Naruto quickly hugged the girl and left her at the doorway blushing brightly. A minute passed before he returned with breakfast, a pot of ramen. "I'll have to eat this on the way over." He tucked into the hot dish as he walked side by side with Hinata. He was eating slower for two reasons. First, he was moving and had to concentrate on where he was going. Second, Naruto was trying to earn more respect from her father. He had overheard the complaints as he ranted to some of his family members as they had worked him up over it. Hiashi was usually icy cold and never showed any sort of emotion. Like a living statue he could stare anyone down and he had the air of authority from it. He led the Hyuuga clan but his influence stretches beyond the compound and into the village as a whole. He had but one flaw, Hinata, he loved his daughter and did his best to give her everything she needed. Granted he didn't always get this right. A good example being Naruto, at first, he tried his hardest to persuade Hinata subtly not to see the young Uzumaki. Over time he got harsher and desperate in fear the boy would ruin the family's reputation. All of which changed over the course of Naruto's career. Despite nit-picking at his childish behaviour and eating habits, Hiashi now respects Naruto. He had made it clear, and to put it in his words, he wished that Naruto was 'better house trained' before he would openly support Hinata to be with him. Without a doubt this was probably the main reason the couple weren't official so Naruto could be spared from the wrath of Hiashi.

They walked side by side through the plaza and headed straight for the Hokage tower, standing tall in front of the stone faces, now numbered in six as Kikashi's face was constructed once he took up the kage's hat. The walls were painted bright red as to show the will of fire and stood as a much more impressive building since Pein destroyed the village. To anyone who knew the building, most of the floors had boring offices in which you could find Shikamaru working as hard as he could without being troublesome. The ground floor held the council chambers, being the biggest room with many smaller corridors and rooms jutting off the base of the tower. From the angle that Naruto could see, the large windows of the Hokage's office. Of which the Hokage could peer down and survey the village from the vantage point right at the top.

Within minutes the two were standing infront of Naruto's old sensei, now Hokage, Kakashi. He had a much smaller pile of papers than usual but the pair passed it off as the next pile had not arrived yet.

"Morning." Kakashi spoke causally and waved them to relax. "How goes your training?"

Hinata smiled while Naruto grinned and gave him the thumbs up. "It's going great, I think I'll be there in a weeks' time actually." He still grinned which scratching his head. "I guess that makes you the closest one to guess how long it would take to learn the Hiarishin." This earned him a quiet growl off Kurama who was half asleep still but knew he lost the bet. Kikashi smiled under his mask and turned to Hinata.

"I've been practicing my trigrams still Lord Kakashi."

He sighed at the lord. But after taking a deep breath he gave his orders. "This one is slightly different, still picking up a page from a noble like last time but the idiot is wanting to make this public. He is saying so it proves he doesn't have it but now he is in danger, should our favourite two rogues attack."

"Still no word?"

"No, Sai says he has almost located the area they are in but for now, just rumours. A lot of bounty hunters and rogue assassins from the bingo book are going missing though, their bounties are not collected but we are assuming they have been killed."

Naruto crossed his arms. "Not exactly an amazing feat now though." He was referring to the Bingo books' lack of colourful characters since the war. The new entries were a dime a dozen and couldn't hold a candle to the likes of itachi, pein, or the rest of the Akatsuki.

"True, well, the mission details are in this scroll. The man in question is known as Saratobi, another noble who is terrified that he is going to die, so has paid us enough for an A rank mission. If you don't find Fukushi or Monica this would probably be boring to you, but needs to be done." Kakashi sighed and tossed over a scroll to Naruto who caught it and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Where to?" Naruto asked.

"South, about ten miles. Town of Tsurui. Saratobi is a tax collector so shouldn't be too hard to find."

The two shinobi bowed and said their thanks and left Kakashi to his work. Naruto, with Hinata left the tower and headed towards the south gate. It was not far and they were expecting a mission so both had already packed and were ready for the journey. They walked down the waking streets of Konoha as shops began to open and people were already filling the streets with the presence and chatter. The shops here contained everything a person could buy, even some larger buildings acted as a small indoors market in themselves. Holding smaller stores for potential customers. The pair would have walked on by if they hadn't spotted Shikamaru standing by a jewellery store looking like he was struggling with picking something.

"Oh hey Shikamaru." Hinata called out and Naruto drew his attention to the most intelligent friend he knew. While Shikamaru gave a half-arsed wave in acknowledgement. He kept the same pose even as the blond haired and white eyed ninja approached him.

"I can't decide which one Temari would like, hmph this is really troublesome." Shikamaru continued to stare down the sets of earrings on display. "Her birthday is coming soon."

To this Hinata lit up, she smiled and jumped over to Shikamaru's side while Naruto stood back and idly look at the other jewellery present at the stall. Hinata kept picking up a pair, closed her eyes and returned them. She kept doing this until she was satisfied with a set of gold earrings with polished jade set in the gold as small teardrops.

"There, she would love these." Hinata smiled and handed the pair of earring to Shikamaru.

"Are you sure?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Yes, the colours are similar to her but subtly different so they can be seen but not stand out completely."

"You're a life saver, I would have been at this for hours."

"Should try painting or something to do with the arts, I think you'd be really good. Especially when you're supposed to be working."

"Hmph too troublesome." Shikamaru sighed while Hinata giggled at his response and just before she turned to join Naruto on their mission. Shikamaru did a jutsu that neither were expecting him to do.

"Shadow Style: shadow scroll." A black banner made of shadows erupted into existence and just as quickly left in a puff of smoke to reveal a small bag full of money. He paid the shop owner and he weaved the same hand signs and in a flash of Shikamaru's black chakra the earrings were safely stored in the pocket dimension.

"Woah cool jutsu, I have never seen you use that before." Naruto commented, he flashed a grin at Shikamaru who smiled back in pride.

"I learned it off Monica actually. She left behind some notes and this was the jutsu that was on them." He looked smug as he looked at both of his hands. "My, my it is a useful jutsu. I only need to remember the pattern and I'll never lose anything again. Talk about perfect for me."

"And you don't need scrolls to store it?" Hinata said who observed he neither took out nor returned anything to his person.

"Nope, though not sure how it works. I only know how to use it. It's a drag but I am still happy with it." He admitted.

"That does sound useful, hey Shikamaru mind teaching me it, after my mission of course."

"Ever hungry for jutsu aren't you Naruto? Tsh sure, I've been using it for a while now and I don't see a reason not to."

"Great, Thanks! I'll owe ya' one." Naruto gave the thumbs up before gently nudging Hinata to follow suit. She gave a small bow goodbye and left with Naruto. He was right, they have a mission to get to. They walked on without too many distractions and just made light small talk about what that storage jutsu could store, if it was infinite or had some limits. They had left the south gates and were wondering past the new communities being built outside the walls. Surrounded by high walls to protect those who lived there but nowhere near as impressive as the villages main walls.

"Hey Naruto, if this guy is going public with shouldn't we hurry and get there? He is in danger."

"Good point, alright, try to keep up!" He grinned at her as he concentrated his chakra into his legs and in a flash, he was gone. Hinata was ready for this and like a shot she was speeding ahead. Being faster than Naruto, unless he used sage, biju, or his new Hiraishin. Hinata caught up and used the branches to step, jump, and swing to maintain momentum through the forest. At this speed, ten miles was covered in under an hour and neither ninja were tired at all.

The town that lay below them was a large civilian town called Tsurui. It was large enough to house their own ninja force but compared to even the smallest shinobi village their numbers were pitiful and could be easily counted on fingers. If the rumours were to be believed then the towns ninja originated from an old rogue shinobi long dead but had taught a small team of genin who in turn grew up to teach their own teams and so forth. However, this was probably made up to keep the actual shinobi leaders from tapping their feet at them. Nevertheless, the town operated by itself. There was a large river flowing through the middle of the town, splitting it up but yet still surrounded by walls and defences. The old town still had many traditional looking houses made of wood and stone while some areas were being built to accommodate the newer designs as the world still progressed despite the wars. Hinata even observed several small ships with one or two masts sailing away from the towns river docks to carry out their trade.

Hinata was wondering how they were going to find their charge but as they walked through the main gates, a pair of impressive oak doors which spanned the main road and about two stories high. A team of shinobi were waiting. They looked similar to leaf shinoibi in the way the jonin of the team had a green flak jacket with black ninja attire underneath and a pouch strapped to his leg. However the four who stood there all had the fire hanji instead of the leaf symbol on their headbands. The jonin was a woman who was clearly favoured by the merchant class as Naruto spied gold earrings, rings, bracelets and even the Naginata she was wielding had gold leaf on the base of the blade and an ornate stylised fire calved into the rest of the blade, showing it was probably an expensive weapon to hold. The three genin stood in front of her, two girls and one boy aged around fourteen had standard causal clothes on with pouches strapped to their legs and Naruto guessed they only had training in kunai and shurikens.

"Are you going to take us to Saratobi?" Naruto called once they were within hearing range.

"Yes, he should be expecting us." Hinata calmly spoke, she was much better with words but sometimes Naruto bluntness was what diplomacy needed.

"Ah great you've arrived, we were also expecting you. I'm Emiko Yamanoki." The jonin bowed. "This is my daughter, Chiho. My student, Ikumi. And my other student, Ashkan." The three genin bowed in turn. "They will be shadowing you to see how ninja from the leaf operate err miss…"

"Hinata Hyuuga"

"Naruto, Naruto Uzimaki"

There was a moments silence as the four 'fire' shinobi stood in silent awe until one genin, Ashkan, spoke out.

"Woah, the Naruto? The famous one? The hero of the war?" Shining sparkles were in all three of their eyes.

Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his blond hair. "Yeah that's me."

"Are you going to show us some cool jutsu?"

"Mn with a bit of luck nothing exciting will happen." Hinata interrupted, earning her a frown. Naruto chuckled and waved his hands placidly.

"She's right I'd rather nothing would happen, but once the mission is over I'll be happy to show you."

However, Emiko shook her head. "I have a bad feeling about tonight." Naruto and Hinata stiffened up as both knew full well how 'good' Naruto's luck was with these kind of things.

"What makes you say that?" The raven-haired woman asked.

"Have you not heard the rumours? Being here with merchants means you get the freshest news. The demon has been making moves."

"First bit of news we have got on the pair." Naruto said gloomly. He sighed. "Take us to Saratobi, we know we can beat him but not without collateral if it comes to that. I'd rather not have the genin mixed up." He gave a slightly jaded smile.

"Unfortunately, this is their mission. They'll do as you order them too though, you have my permission."

Naruto couldn't help but draw so many parallels on his first 'C' rank mission to the land of waves. But he comforted himself knowing they came out on top in the end. So, with a bit of luck the same will happen to these genin. They were lead through the town and heading towards the merchants' quarters. Naruto was entertaining the genin with some of his adventures while Hinata walked with Emiko and talked about all the requests that Saratobi had asked them to do. They were heading to the less busy part of the town, probably the hotels and houses where the merchants stayed. After turning into a courtyard surrounded by a two-story building of traditional Japanese architecture. It had the same cool feel that the Hyuuga gave off as the sun wasn't able to reach the interior of the courtyard. Waiting for them in front of large double doors on the balcony for the second floor was a large built man with an impressive black beard and wearing white robes, cape but a leather jacket with many trimmings and buttons. Giving the impression of not just wealth but power.

"Ah great you are early, plenty of time to set up, you sure this is enough security?"

"Don't worry, Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto grinned as he quickly summoned ten additional Naruto's. "We have plenty of eyes."

"Great, so who is going to accept the page?"

"That will be me, would you like me to do something specific?" Hinata called from the courtyard.

"Mhn yes come up here dear lady, all you have to do is sign the ownership and make it obvious you have the product, ah yes, we need to set up the cameras."

"People watch this?" Naruto questioned from under his breath. So the merchant couldn't hear. "Are we expecting anyone else?" Naruto called up at saratobi.

"Hm only members of the merchant's guild, they will have identification though." He looked around and thought for a moment. "So I can leave security to you?" Satisfied with the nods he turned into his room to prepare for the televised trade. With a wave of his hand the Naruto clones dispersed and took up several spots on the roof and a few inside in some of the empty rooms. Hinata walked with Emiko to help with setting up. They felt that having Emiko in the presentation would help her popularity and continued support. Naruto still didn't quite understand why he was doing this at all but he kept himself busy by entertaining the genin at the main entrance to the compound. If anyone was to attack they would have to be something special with stealth because as soon as a clone dispelled then Naruto would instantly know exactly where the offender was attacking from. He was becoming as good of a storyteller as Jiraiya, his late sensei, only leaving out the perversion and exaggerating a few moments of action for the young genin. The three were listening intensely and getting all sorts of inspiration to become the next best ninja in the world. While Naruto was story-telling, Hinata and Emiko were getting ready with a little bit of make up and going through the details of the purchase, how it needed witnesses, signatures and so on. What quickly became apparent to Hinata was his motivation. He stressed how thrilled he was that a Hyuuga was buying something off him a little too much so Hinata worked out his game was for renown rather than fear of being attacked. A move which would pay out well if it hadn't put him directly into the firing line. Many of their previous pickups just wanted to be rid of the pages or at least with a small sum of cash of which the leaf village could easily afford. Their value had dropped once Fukushi was known to be hunting them down and there were a surprisingly large number of them once you know where to look for. The main danger was soon their value would rocket as there will be fewer of them and the cost of having a dangerous relic would attract the less sane people to the pages. Or so was described to Hinata who was politely listening to Saratobi explaining the world of money.

Meanwhile as the hour ticked by and hiding in the cover of a small sheltered woodland with shrubs an leaf foliage to hide a single figure. He sat cross legged and with his right eye closed and left covered by a ribbon of white cloth he was concentrating his chakra and holding a jutsu. Surrounding him was eight kunai floating and as time passed they started to quiver with electrical energy and glow as wind chakra sharpened the blade. He was in enough shelter for his attack to go unnoticed. Fukushi knew an opportunity when he saw it and took it as his next target to obtain the page that Saratobi held. However, taking a more level-headed approach he knew that this was just as easily a trap with the page as bait. Something he couldn't ignore; until now he was yet to encounter anyone using it as a trap. Well, truth be told, once it had been set up as a trap but this was back in the land of Earth and before he was known to the world. Some bandits caught wind that these pages were desirable and so stole one off a noble. Their fate ended in a single night upon Fukushi's blade. He opened his right eye and released the jutsu. Eight kunai shot out with loud cracks, like at the start of a race when the gun is fired and the runners shoot out with all their might.

Naruto only realised he was attacked, not by when his clones were hit and impaled by the deadly weaponised chakra but one of the kunai hit with such an angle it had impaled a clone. Shot through the window, then an oak door, across the courtyard through the other oak door and lastly striking a second clone who was stationed on the other side of the compound. Naruto immediately put on his game face and shouted his orders.

"Three of you get to Saratobi, stay close to him a guard him with your lives." He flicked a tri-pronged kunai to the roof and before he teleported he gave them a look of 'do it now, no questions.' Fukushi had hoped to get to the wall surrounding the compound. But a volley of Naruto's kunai were thrown at in his path. With his katana, he slashed two kunai out of the air and threw a summoned kunai back at a Naruto clone who decided to engage him. Both promptly ducked behind cover before either were hit. Naruto saw the tree which Fukushi had took to covering behind. Fukushi was not teleporting as he was expecting but instead spinning from cover and letting loose more kunai before diving back behind a tree, now impaled by many of Naruto-clones' kunai. Naruto had to jump down as three kunai were aimed right at him. He dived just as the kunai reached him.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" and twenty clones were summoned and scattered into cover. Two were kept behind and began to meditate and draw up nature chakra. The roof where Naruto was standing a second ago was struck by lightning strikes. As if the kunai acted like markers to target the strikes. The roof tiles were dislodged and fell with Naruto who landed on the ground two stories down. The avalanche of tiles fell to his left and kicked up dust and dirt where they crumbled.

Fukushi, who now recognised his target, just as two dozen clones leaped over the boundary wall throwing kunai to cover their assault, gritted his teeth. He threw two kunai and with his left hand he sailed through more unusual hand signs. With a grunt he released the jutsu and several lightning bolts struck the ground in front of him in a wave.

"Genus Fulminis: Fulur Unda" He muttered satisfied that he had caught a few clones in his attack. But it was not over as through the smoke came yet more clones each with a resengan in their hands. They charged forward without any care for their safety. Fukushi knew better than to be cocky against Naruto so he kept his moves straightforward. He stepped to the left of the first clone and with a downward swipe of the katana he cleaved off the arm. Keeping momentum, he spun and sliced a second clone in half at the torso. Gripping the blade, he thrusted deep into the chest cavity of the third clone. Three down. Fukushi had to jump back as a clone slammed a resengan into the floor. He then had to teleport away as jumping back left him open to another clones' attack. In a flash of lightning he was behind a clone and slashed him in the back. Flicking two kunai at the necks of two clones who were too close to dodge. A clone punched him in the gut, the force knocked Fukushi away but not before he could flick a kunai at his attacker. He landed on his lands and flipped himself the right way. Slashed and disarmed a clone who held a kunai in his left hand. Fukushi had forced his arm wide and finished him off with a summoned kunai brought down on Naruto's neck.

While Naruto's clones were getting slaughtered one-by-one the original Naruto was busy collecting nature chakra himself before entering the fight. Joining him was Emiko who was waiting for Naruto's mark to attack. She was watching and learning how Fukushi fought. He was fast and relied on teleporting to get behind his targets and killing them off with brutal efficiency. He rarely aimed at anything other than vital points of the body. Save if it would incapacitate or mitigate an attack. For example, the limbs. If the clones hadn't puffed into smoke upon being his she was sure the place would be covered in dismembered limbs. In the smoke produced by the clones she could see the last clone blocking a few thrown kunai before his opponent leaped over the clone and as he did so he released four kunai which were floating around him into the spin of the clone. Dispelling before dropping to the floor with the kunai also dispelling before they touched the floor. If it wasn't for the collateral damage no one would have guessed that a battle had taken place here.

Fukushi took a deep breath and readied his katana. Judging by the lack of blood he knew the real one was still watching from afar. He glared through the smoke and he saw an incoming projectile. He took a step to the right but as he watched the kunai he recognised the fuuinjutsu engraved onto the hilt. His eye widened at first in shock but then in determination. With all his might, he gripped his katana and swung from left to right and brought it down on Naruto who teleported in front of him. Naruto's kunai met the katana in a loud clang of metal against metal. The world stood still. Smoke was blown away revealing the two ninja, face to face. Glaring into each other's eyes. Naruto had orange patterning around his eyes and even his irises had turned orange with the pupil becoming a black slit. While Fukushi had one eye with a dark purple and full of determination. Both men were channelling wind chakra into their weapons creating a blue glow upon the point of contact. At first Fukushi's momentum seemed to push Naruto's arm away but the blonds' raw strength caught up and he threw Fukushi off and with his heightened reflexes he spun and kicked the one-eyed shinobi back. Naruto himself jumped back with the kunai ready.

"So, you've learned my teleportation jutsu? Tell me, how is the dizziness?" Fukushi teased.

"This was my father's jutsu, like hell I'd learn anything from you!" Naruto rebuttled.

"I don't intend to teach. Look just give me the damn page."

"So fucking arrogant aren't you? Thinking you can just take what you want? The world doesn't work that that you idiot."

"They were taken from me. Do you expect me to just give up and let someone else have them? They were given to me, I am to protect them and I am going to get them all back."

"And you think they are worth more than people? You're just greedy, you don't deserve life. Thinking only about yourself." Naruto called out as he could feel Kurama's chakra reacting to his anger. Just seeing someone acting so righteous when in reality he was nothing more than a common murderer and a thief. Worst kind of scum possible in this world. Fukushi looked more like Sai, he had a face of neutrality but his actions spoke louder than words as he teleported to Naruto's side and just as he slashed at him he spoke.

"That's not true, I think of someone else."