please continue to support my story. And i keep on loosing my edits, they take ages and things keep on happening. Not to mention i always feel like i forgot the little details that i managed to get in on the first round of edits. Ah well maybe i'll come back to it.

Hinata was holding her hands together and giving a small internal prayer that Naruto would be alright as she could hear the cracks of lightning from outside. The genin were a little shaken and nervous because their jonin sensei had left them alone. Not that the genin didn't trust Hinata but they weren't used to her either. She gave them a small smile of reassurance while Saratobi was cowering behind the genin and finally understood how dangerous of a situation he had put himself in. It served him right in Hinata's opinion. She scowled at the man who was willing to hide behind children a third of his age.

"Oh, hello Hinata, long time, how is the village?." Hinata heard a female voice from behind her and turned to see a cloaked woman with her hands concealed in the fabric. She had finally dropped the headband altogether and instead kept her orange hair lazily in place and out of her face with some pins.

"It's Mrs Hyuuga to you, traitor." The Hyuuga lunged forward but before Hinata could strike she was forced to bend below Monica's blade, which was slashed out in reverse grip from behind the cloak. Hinatas moment of hesitation allowed for Monica to summon a kunai and throw it. Hinata foot kicked her hand though and sent the kunai off target. The projectile lazily spun in the air before thudding and biting into the floor boards. Causing someone to scream with a high-pitched voice. Not from the genin either. They immediately backed off and pushed Saratobi out of the way as what appeared to be a river of fire flooded the floorspace around the kunai and began to burn a bright blue flame. Monica knew better than to engage a Hyuuga in close combat. She slashed back from left to right to give her enough space to jump away.

"Aww come on Hinata just give me the page and I won't have to kill anyone." She said with a creepily friendly voice like they were childhood friends and not fighting to the death. Monica had jumped back and held her sword behind her back as if she could hide her intent to kill and drop Hinatas guard.

"You're insane, more-so if you think you can defeat me." Hinata struck out twice but Monica was keeping her distance, skipping back as the space allowed it.

"Just give me the page, slut." Monicas voice sounded cold all of a sudden, her eyes darkened and her smile was wiped away. She tried to strike the Hyuuga heiress without getting into full contact. But all Hinata had to do was dodge the blade, an easy job especially with her byakugan active and allowed her to see all potential threats.

"Slut? From you? I am saving myself for one man while you abandoned your village for dick." Hinata blushed from her crudeness, she quickly took a deep breath to regain composure. but her taunt did its job and Monica got worked up over that comment.

"What do you know bitch, you were Naruto's last choice!" Monica lunged at Hinata with her Wakizashi. But Hinata was expecting to goad her into a sloppy attack. So she stood back.

"Lion Head Punch!" A lionhead of dark blue chakra covered her right fist as she punched Monica square in the stomach. She had used so much force that Monica was blasted through the main oak doors and out into the courtyard below. Hinata walked calmly and regained total composure. She wanted to finish with a witty come back like 'Fukushi is just using you, you're the one not loved by anyone.' Hinata never got the chance as he walked to the broken balcony rail and saw Monica charging up several fireballs around her head in a crescent formation with her chakra.

"Let's see how you can handle this, bitch! Fire Style, Fireball storm!" Four fireballs where shot at Hinata who instinctively dived to the right and out of harms' way. She did a summersault which would have landed with grace had the fireballs not suddenly exploded upon hitting the building. Setting fire to everything they touched in more blue fire Hinata was blown further across the balcony and showered by splinters of wood. The Hyuuga had no time to see if the genin or her charge were unharmed. Another fireball was fired at her. Hinata got up and ran with all her speed across the building complex. The balcony crumbled behind her with every strike. 'How did she become so… explosive?' Hinata thought. As she was fast approaching the end of the balcony where she could jump to safety. Or so that was the plan as a fireball struck the corner of the complex and brought half the building and balcony down with one blow. Fire now blocking both ways; Hinata was forced to look at Monica who didn't hesitate to unleash more fireballs at Hinata.

Hinata took a deep breath. Her projectiles were chakra and chakra was her specialty. To her time seemed to slow down as she reached out to the fireballs and using her own chakra she managed to grab the fire and with a quick spin she turned the attack back onto the caster. Two fireballs were way off target as Hinata feared them going off in her face to risk aiming right but two balls were sent straight at Monica. She showed a face of panic as she was forced to break jutsu and jump out of the way. Not fast enough as she was caught in the shockwave and blown across the courtyard. Hinata couldn't stay where she was. A loud groan followed by a snap could be heard as Hinata jumped off the last bit of balcony on the left wing gave in and collapsed. The entire left wing was now on fire. Monica's blue fire was becoming mixed with orange fire as the timber caught ablaze. The two colours fought to smother each other out and battled for dominance. Thirty seconds later and part of the roof near the corner that Monica had struck collapsed.

The white-eyed shinobi stood up to face the rogue shinobi who managed to pick herself up. She was singed by that attack and her eyebrow and lip was cut, sending a drop of crimson blood down her face. Hinata took a step forward. Bad mistake, she winced as she realised that she must have been hit by the splintering wood. A deep gash on her left thigh. She was able to stand but now Hinata was suffering for it. Both women glared at each other. Wakizashi in one hand and the gentile fist in the other.

"What are you going to do when he abandons you?" Hinata resorted to teasing, it was an easy way of forcing Monica to make the first move. Taunting was not her usual strategy but when she found out it worked well against her, the Hyuuga couldn't pass the obvious strategy.

"What?"

"What are you going to do once he gets what he wants and doesn't need you?" Hinata continued to poke at her insecurities, any other time she would feel bad but she had brought this on herself and deserves what she was getting. "He will just leave you, alone, no home and a bounty on your head, and hunted for the rest of your life!"

"He'd never leave me, I've earned his respect!" Monica smiled at her own thought. "But he has to get that page, that is his mission. And I swore to see him through it." Monica charged Hinata who immediately pushed her back with her gentile fists. Neither could afford a hit as Hinata was unarmed while Monica had a vulnerable chakra network. Hinata dodged and leaned back from Monica's blade. She was getting good at switching from offensive to defensive with a mere flick of her blade and a change of stance. Monica saw her opportunity and took it. Hinata had lost her footing because her leg unexpectedly gave out from under her. She screamed out in pain which grew silent gurgle as Monica spun her Wakizashi around and plunged it through the Hyuugas' left shoulder and though her heart. Red blood spilled down her body with no signs of stopping.

Or so Monica thought. She was suddenly struck in the stomach, snapping back to reality she realised she had stabbed nothing but an illusion of Hinata. Right arm struck, by the bicep. Left shoulder, Right flank, Stomach, Stomach, her throat and lastly a kick to the chin causing her to summersault in the air and land painfully in the dirt before the Hyuuga. She spat blood and tried to speak, each word was painful as Hinata had not only cut off the chakra there but also had ruptured her vocal cords.

"He… Loves…" She got up to face her opponent. "He… Won't… Ever" Chocking after each word, tears falling from her eyes as her mind was torn between fight or flight.

Hinata took a deep breath and regained her composure, ready to finish off Monica here and now. Few people could survive the gentile fist. By the looks of Monica, she couldn't. Her chakra to her legs were weakened, she could hardly talk and her weapon arm was numb and basically useless. That left her a left arm or the unlikely possibility of reinforcements.

"At least I never had to prove anything to Naruto. He accepted me for who I am and nothing more. While you have given everything to no one special, a murderer. That's all Fukushi is. You'll both be dragged back to my village and tried for your crimes." Hinata blushed despite herself. But her eyes shone with determination. Yes, Naruto showed that never giving up and hard work meant that anyone could earn the fruits of their labour, but Hinata never had to trade one for the other. She never lost out, or lost more than she received.

Monica wanted to scream out and rip Hinata limb from limb. From her point of view, Hinata was given everything, a guarantee, no luck, no hard work. While she was saved by a who risked death, just for her and her alone. She felt betrayed by her village for leaving her alone while everyone else got training and attention they needed, she needed. Of course, she would do anything for Fukushi. He saw value in her, potential, and strength. He was her last hope, an opportunity she could not afford to let slip by with complacency or laziness. The orange haired shinobi summoned two kunai and threw them one after another. She still had chakra, enough to fight, and she had the range advantage.

Both kunai were immediately poked out of the air playfully by Emiko's Naginata. She had leaped in to help Hinata.

"Damn, leave some for me. Sorry I am late, Naruto is dealing with Fukushi and looks like he is winning, I was just getting my genin to safety." Emiko stood next to Hinata with her spear ready to deflect any projectiles.

"Naruto is ok?"

"Yeah, wiping the floor in fact. Hinata, don't get on his bad side, I am sure he's a great guy but damn he's strong."

Hinata smiled at the complement. "Do you want to finish her off? She has a bounty on her head."

"That will do nicely." Emiko readied her weapon as the fire-user. She was taking the defensive with a set of kunai in her left hand. The heat of the burning building was getting intense and the three women could feel their skin getting too hot to even bare. The fierce flames had engulfed half the compound now and over the roar of the fire time could be heard snapping as bits collapsed here or there. Both sides flinched and were ready to kill but Fukushi's body was thrown though the right wing of the complex. Smashed through both walls and flung across the courtyard. He only stopped once he had crashed through the wall of the left wing and caused half the building to collapse. Hinata and Emiko jumped back to avoid being crushed. Now that the building was wide open they could see Fukushi standing up inside the building. Glaring with his remaining eye and expecting some attack. Naruto calmly walked through the hole he had made using the rogue ninjas' body. He used an arm of Kurama's chakra to casually brush away the debris from in front of him. He had the look of pure anger and disgust on his face. He threw his special kunai across the courtyard and into the burning building. Monica couldn't say anything. She tried but choked on her words as more blood was spat out.

Fukushi brought his weapon above his head and with the strength he had left he forced it down on Naruto as he teleported in front of him. With his left arm, he grabbed Fukushi by the hand and stopped his attack cold. With his right, he grabbed the younger ninja by the throat and picked him up and brought him directly face-to-face. A tail of chakra radiated out from Naruto's golden Biju cloak. On the tip was a blue orb of spinning chakra, the deadly resengan. Fukushi looked coldly into his eyes.

"Give me one reason to let you live?" His voice mixed with Kurama's anger and rage. "Just one reason that makes you sound like a fucking decent human being!"

Fukushi tried to let out a smile. Proving difficult with a hand squeezing all life from his body. "Her." With a bright light, and a loud crack he was beside Monica and helping her to get up. Naruto was used to the bright flashes and so wasn't blinded by the close proximity of the teleport.

"Monica, we have to go, we are outclassed here." He let her lean on him. "We know they have the page at least." Fukushi sighed at the failed mission. Monica tried to speak but was hushed soothingly by Fukushi. He could see a lot of blood was pouring from her mouth and she would need to heal before she could speak again. Fukushi wasn't so badly injured. He had managed to outlast Naruto's sage mode, only to be utterly outclassed by his biju mode. Which was able to see through all his ninjutsu, too fast to dodge or hit, and strong enough to attack with powerful strikes. He saw Naruto pouring chakra into another ransen-shuriken. Going wide-eyed, He propped Monica against his chest and started signing for a jutsu. First five kunai summoned above his head and shot out in a ring around him. Next the fuuinjutsu pentagram drew itself from the kunai and Fukushi was finished just as Naruto threw the resengan. A bright flash of yellow lightning and the pair vanished before Naruto's attack could hit home. The rasen-shuriken continued into the remaining part of the building and with a deafening bang the building was torn asunder. Sending debris all over the town, causing much more chaos than initially intended.

"Fucking Coward! Always running at first sign of trouble." Naruto shouted into the air once the dust settled. The compound was levelled to the ground. The sets of buildings nearby were looking worse for wear as the collateral spread around the area. In the distance screams, crying and men shouting could be heard. Naruto was breathing deeply and retracted his biju mode turning him back to more human colours without the visible chakra to cover him. He had a few cuts from Fukushi's sword but nothing deep or permanently damage.

With a deep laugh, Kurama spoke up. "Ah that was so… Exulerating! I should have shared my senses sooner. That fight felt so good! Hate him all you want but he knew how to keep you on your toes."

"Shut up Kurama." Naruto spoke out loud he had too much adrenaline to be mindful of the people around him. However, him snapping did nothing to shut Kurama up.

"Oh and the pain, I always thought it was fun to see others hurt but… I love this heat it gives off, If I knew being in a Jinchuriki could feel so, real." He ended on more of a purr than a growl. To this Naruto could only sigh.

"First big fight since the seal broke huh?" Hinata spoke behind Naruto causing him to jump. He had forgotten that the world had other people inhabiting it for a moment.

"Hinata, you're alright?" He turned to look at the beautiful shinobi. He froze momentarily. "Are you alright?" He spoke with more concern as he spotted that her clothes were blood soaked from her hip down.

The white-eyed heiress smiled and approached the Jinchuriki. "It's nothing just a scratch from Monica's attacks. What about yourself?" He stood in front of him and rubbed a scar the Fukushi had made on Naruto's cheek. He was able to use wind chakra to extend the range of his blade so while Naruto was able to dodge the metal, the chakra was still able to cut him all over. Hinata rubbed his blood off with her thumb to reveal the cut had healed without scabbing. Thanks to Kurama, Naruto had the ability to heal very quickly but the damage still left slight discolouration as it was new skin on against old skin. Hinata, who had been up close to the man, could see the many marks that adorned his skin since childhood. Despite knowing his healing prowess, she still worried that he was in pain and so she leaned in and kissed the healed scratch.

"I hope you feel better now." She whispered in his ear.

"I already do." He smiled and looked into her eyes before a cough grabbed their attention. They turn to see Emiko who was standing there looking displeased.

"You two should come, Saratobi is accusing you of collateral damage." The leaf shinobi looked unimpressed, their eyebrows furrowed and they followed Emiko away from the fire which had a couple more shinobi that they hadn't seen before using water jutsu to tame the flames. Everyone was acting quickly to deal with the damage but to Naruto it seemed like an hour passed before they walked to Saratobi was sitting by a fountain in a plaza not too far away from the battle-scene. He looked like he was still out of breath, breathing heavily and trying to fuel his anger, enough to face the shinobi who were paid to protect him. Aside from him looking like he just ran to Konoha and back, he was otherwise unharmed.

"You two!" He snapped once he noticed the leaf ninja approach. "You better pay for the damage you caused with your reckless fighting. Do you have any idea the damage you caused under my name."

At this, Naruto lost it. Having pent up frustration from the battle ending in stalemate and not leading them anywhere. His eye flashed red as he wanted to get his point across with no room to mistake it for anything else. "No! do you have any idea how stupid you were for attracting those two. Didn't you read the news, I thought Merchants were supposed to do that! They kill those who have the page. Get that in your fucking skull. If it wasn't for us you would be dead!" He punched the man in the jaw and despite being bigger than Naruto he was knocked to the floor while holding his jaw in agony.

"I thought ninja were supposed to be discrete, how the hell is this discrete?" He motioned at the fact all the windows where put out here and some debris had scattered itself over the cobbled plaza.

"You should know that wasn't really an option." Hinata said, as a Hyuuga she was much calmer but you could hear the frustration in her voice. "Most of the damage was done by the attackers."

"How dare you blame us for the damage, we saved your ungrateful life!" Naruto backed up.

"I'm going to take a complaint to your Hokage, I'll make sure that your ninja careers are over!"

"Oh, I wouldn't do that." A new person entered the fray. An elderly man with short gray hair, wrinkles on his face but a thin body, almost lanky. He wore a blue velvet jacket over white shirt and black trousers, both with cuffs and gold cufflinks. He wore boots made of black leather and again gold buckles. Accompanying him were two ninjas. One male and one female, both looked similar to each other and had purple-red hair. The man wore glasses but aside of that they had standard ninja gear.

"My lord." Saratobi stuttered and realised he was in for it now. As if the day couldn't get any worse. He got on his knee, unless his actions caused further offense.

"From where I am standing, you have wilfully attracted two assassins into my city. Not only did you underpay my ninja for a 'D rank' mission but you underpaid the leaf village as a 'C rank' mission. It is common knowledge that we are facing some very illusive and wanted criminals. You hadn't taken the necessary security risks. Performed private transactions on public not private land. Endangered lives of some of the most prestigious guild members. Do I need to carry on?"

"No, my lord."

"You are hereby fined and demanded to pay the sum of money of two A-rank missions to both teams in full. Also, you will have to pay for all damages caught by your egotistical stupidity." The lord was firm on his judgement and his voice betrayed no signs of weakness in his authority.

"But… that would ruin me, I can't afford that."

"It's money or imprisonment and we will acquire your assets anyway. You should have thought of the consequences before you invited a pair of killers into my city. Or were you too blinded by your greed from overcharging the Hyuugas?" He waved a hand towards Hinata. "Those pages are only worth blood now, people are starting to ban the trade of them in certain towns." He looked at the man who was cringing in pain before him. Each word was hitting him hard as he worked out the cost that he would have to pay. "How surrender the page to them and come with me." He sighed and looked around. He thought how much of a pain the clean-up will be but at least he had finance for it now.

Saratobi stood and handed the rolled-up page to the lord of the town who gave him and small smile. More of a twitch than anything else. He took the scroll and immediately tossed it at Naruto as if he would be cursed if he held onto it longer than he ought.

"We will reimburse you for your efforts, at least no one was killed. Now if you excuse me we will need to arrange for Saratobi to surrender his funds, come." Ikumi and Ashkan took this as a signal to help the man up to his feet. Saratobi was still rubbing his jaw from Naruto's punch, he was sure a tooth or two were wobbling now. He kept silent as he knew now the weight of his actions. Naruto only had to take one glance at his face to be satisfied that his message had gotten through his thick greedy skull. The two bowed at Emiko and set off to return to the village. A short mission but no less important, they had some new information about their rogue shinobi problem. The pair hardly left the battlefield when a pale ninja jumped infront of them.

"Hello dickless." It was Sai, his unnatural smile gave away that he was the real deal, his face relaxed into resting blankness. "Have you seen two Shinobi, one with orange hair and the other with one eye?" Naruto was about to comment on his attempted humour, stressing the attempted, as he was clearly looking at the levelled buildings, one of which was smouldering away as the fire died down already. Granted with the help of a single water-user splashing water over the ruins. Instead Naruto swallowed his annoyance and opted to answer the man.

"Yeah but you just missed them, teleported out once the battle was looking one sided."

"It is a very useful jutsu but it's making my job difficult. Though I thought they were trying to get these pages, even at the cost of their lives."

Kurama spoke, although only Naruto could hear him at this time. "I think he said something like 'We know they have it.' If it helps at all."

"Thanks, Kurama." Naruto spoke within himself. "Kurama said that they left knowing that we have the page."

"Change of tactics, why. Oh well. I'll see you around!" Sai jumped up and was grabbed by an ink eagle, before he was out of site he had climbed to the top of the bird and flew over the tree canopy that the Land of Fire was well known for.

"What was that all about?" Naruto asked.

"I think Sai is having trouble finding them." Hinata replied as the two left the town, although the citizens would be half right, Naruto did not want to take the blame for raining wood over the town.

"How's your leg?"

"It stings, but I'll heal once I see Sakura. What about you? I know you heal quickly but you've been slashed all over."

"Urg Kurama enjoyed that battle much more than I did. He was keeping his distance from me and outlasted my sage mode. He seemed to be concentrating more, I couldn't land any decent hits until I entered biju mode."

"I think they have been training."

"Bit rich, seeing as they are on the run."

"True, but Naruto, She was definitely hitting me with new jutsu."

"Tsh, thinking the world is theirs. Can't wait to punch his smug face out."