Chapter 9

Something compelled him to bite her. He suddenly remembered how good her blood tasted. He wanted her blood again. It tasted so good. He needed to try it again… He needed to! He got closer and closer to her until he was just inches away. She bravely put her hands on his chest and tried to push him away but he pinned her arms down to the mattress.

"N-N-N-Naruto-kun…!" she stuttered, blushing and fidgeting under him. Suddenly, he chuckled, snapping out of trance. So cute, he thought.

"W-What?" she asked. He hadn't realized he'd said that out loud.

"You're so cute, Hinata," he said which just made her blush more furiously.

"Eh… Eh?! Sono… e-etto… ano…" she mumbled, looking lost and panicked. Naruto started to laugh again. Then he forgot everything about blood. He didn't even think that was possible. Blood had been his entire existence since that night.

He released her hands but didn't move from where he was. God, Hinata really was beautiful. He tucked her midnight hair behind her ear and ran his fingers through it, playing with it. It was so silky and soft. Her big, pearly eyes were also lovely, wide in shock as they were. And that blush that seemed to be permanently painted on her cheeks drove him nuts. He stopped with her hair and used the back of his hand to gently stroke her cheek. He traced her jawline with his fingertips and the outline of her lips with his thumb. Those rosy lips were also so gorgeous…

No, he didn't want blood, he wanted something else. He leaned in and kissed her. This, he thought. He wanted more of this. It was so strange. It had nothing to do with blood, nothing to do with calming his thirst or his cravings. So why did he…?

Why did this feel so right? It wasn't like one of those club girls that acted like prostitutes. There was no nagging pit in his stomach. It didn't seem like he was kissing some other girl. This felt right.

'Feels right? What the hell am I talking about? I don't feel anything,' he thought. Somehow, it seemed like a déjà vu moment. He had thought something like that before… when? Why were there holes in his memory?

The sun had come up, and there was a stirring sound. Yamato was waking up. Sakura would soon follow. Irritated, Naruto pulled away, sighed and stood up. Yamato sat up, looking disconcerted. Then, as expected, he just seemed to shrug his questions off and started stretching.

"Morning already? Wow. Well, we should get going then…Why is Sakura on the floor?" he said.

"Must've fallen off the bed," Naruto lied smoothly. Then the pinkette started stirring up, stretching and rubbing her eyes. Before she could ask why she was on the floor, a messenger bird flew in through the window, landing on Yamato's outstretched arm. He untied the message and read it, looking more distressed the more he read.

"What's wrong Yamato-taichou?" Sakura asked, forgetting all about her confusion.

"It seems they need half of us back in the village, and the other half to complete the mission," he replied. Oh, Naruto was so not going back to the village so soon. It was such a hassle getting out. And he wasn't being lazy; it really was a lot of trouble going out of the village. He had to avoid patrolling ninjas, hypnotize the ANBU people that were often following him, leave through the river side of the village and not the main entrance which brought him to the water country border where he had to avoid more ninjas so there wouldn't be a panic that an intruder had snuck in. Walking out the main entrance, not having to avoid ninjas, and still being in the fire country… it was all so easy. So, no, he was not going back yet.

His little moment feeling something had passed and he was now calculating in an intelligent manner who should leave. The obvious choices were Yamato and Sakura. They didn't—couldn't—know about his secret, and it would be much easier to hunt without having to hypnotize anyone.

"Maybe you should go Yamato-taichou, it could be important," he said, turning his eyes red. "Sakura is a medic so she will most likely be needed too."

In trance, Yamato nodded. "You're right, Naruto. You two, finish delivering the package. We'll expect you back in the village in two or three days. Sakura you're with me. We should get going," he said. He rushed out the door so hastily that he dropped the paper with the message and the wind carried it away.

Sakura, still a little confused, nodded and followed him quickly.

Hinata was still amazed that Naruto-kun could do that.

"Guess it's only you and me," Naruto said. "How about we—" before he could say "head out", he noticed Hinata had bags under her eyes. "Did you sleep at all last night, Hinata?" he asked.

Hinata stared at the floor. She hadn't, she'd been too worried about him and where he may be, why hadn't he come back yet, what could have happened to him in the middle of the night. Naruto sighed.

"Well, I have something to do before we go so try to get some sleep, okay?" he offered. Hinata nodded and when he left, she actually lied down on the unused bed without worries or doubts. He couldn't have… used that red-eye thing on me, could he?' she though faintly before falling asleep.

Naruto did have something to do. Why was he doing it, he didn't know. The whole point of going outside the village was to enjoy the hunt. So why was he in front of the local hospital about to steal blood bags?

He shook his head. 'In case of emergency,' he excused. Even though he couldn't think of an emergency where some blood bags may be needed. Seeing the huge line of patients, he passed on pretending to be a patient. He transformed into a nurse and began walking around. Blood bank… blood bank… that way!

"Hinata…" she heard her name. "Ne… Hinata wake up…" she slowly opened her eyes and was greeted with the deepest, most beautiful blue eyes she'd ever seen. "We should get going," he told her. They went out the door and headed north, never noticing the piece of paper with the message that Yamato had dropped.

There is enough evidence to confirm Uzumaki Naruto is the culprit of the recent murder spree. Your real mission was to get him out of the village in order to lower his guard. Good work. It is also suspected that he has a way to alter people's will. As confirmation of this, say half of your platoon is needed to return to the village. If he does not return with you, we will take this as confirmation and proceed with his arrest with extreme caution.

Minutes later they were on their way, jumping from tree to tree in silence until finally Naruto decided to break it.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For last night… I don't know what's wrong with me lately… I don't feel like myself and I even have holes in my memory…"

"Oh, no, don't worry about it," she whispered, blushing at the memory. They continued in now awkward silence until Hinata couldn't take it anymore. "S-So… what was it that you had to do before we left?"

Naruto visibly tensed up at the question. "Uh… well…" Hinata wondered what was wrong and noticed Naruto had a backpack he didn't have before. She silently used her Byakugan and saw what was inside… blood bags.

"Oh…" was all she said. But she didn't want to go through another period of awkward silence so she just blurted out, "D-Didn't you… manage to feed enough last night?"

For a moment Naruto didn't reply and Hinata kept kicking herself mentally. But then, to both their surprises, he answered.

"It's never enough. I could drink dry every single habitant of this planet and it would still not be enough. I would still be thirsty."

"R-Really? That sounds horrible…"

"Yeah, well… if you drink three times a day it gets dull enough that you can concentrate on other things and forget about it. Besides, that's the only downside. There are many upsides."

"Like…?" she asked, happy he was opening up to her.

"Well, I can hear and smell things from really far away, I can see in the dark, I'm really fast, and strong, and I'm quiet when I walk. As you've seen, when I turn my eyes red, I can command people to do whatever I want… also, I can read minds."

"Eh?!" exclaimed Hinata. "R-Really?!" Naruto looked over at her and gave her a smirk. She started panicking, trying to remember if she thought anything embarrassing while being with Naruto and at the same time trying not to because he was with her right now. And then she heard him chuckle.

"You really are cute," he said, making her turn as red as a tomato again, which only made him chuckle more.

"D-Don't laugh at me…" she whispered.

"I'm not laughing at you, seeing such a cute Hinata makes me happy," he replied, smiling. If possible, she turned even redder. "Don't worry; I only started getting the hang of it yesterday. Anything you thought before is safe."

Hinata let out a relieved breath. "So what else can you do?"

"Hmm…" he thought about it for a second. "Well, technically I can heal people…"

"Really, that's wonderful! How?"

"If I give someone some of my blood, that'll carry some of my chakra into their bodies and with just a few sips they'll be completely healed… but that's not what it's meant to be used for… I got scolded really badly the one time I tried to use it…"

"By whom?" she asked, though she kind of already knew, and was afraid of, the answer.

"Kyuubi," he said. 'He talks to him… well, obviously he does,' she thought. "That one time I used it… it was to help this girl. It was right after I awakened Kyuubi and made the deal with him ten years ago. This little girl, she was getting bullied. They made her apologize on her knees and they got skinned. I tried out my Commands for the first time; I made the bullies stop and dance or do jumping jacks or something silly like that. And then I don't know how, but I knew that if I let her drink some of my blood, she would heal. And then Kyuubi yelled at me. He told me that that was not what you use your blood for and that doing that was probably the stupidest thing I could do because humans…

"Because humans…?"

"Because humans are horrible creatures, and they aren't worthy of being healed by the blood of a Jinchuuriki," he finished. Hinata was going to say something but before she could, he continued.

"I told him that wasn't true… but then the girl's caretaker showed up and he yelled at me and told the girl to stay away from me and his eyes were all… filled with disgust. All of them are. They all look at me like that. And they all… do horrible things. They all treated me horrible. 'Because humans are horrible creatures.' Humans are horrible creatures…" he suddenly stopped on his tracks and Hinata stopped behind him. He turned around to look at her. "…but you… you're different. Hinata, you're— ungh!" He clenched his throat and doubled over. As he did, he lost his balance and fell off the branch, but he seemed to hardly notice.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata caught him and prevented him from landing too roughly. Naruto fell on his knees and started screaming.

And then his eyes turned red and he stopped abruptly. His face looked like he was… hypnotized. He straightened up and looked at her. Then, he smiled, showing off his sharp teeth. Hinata gasped, that wasn't Naruto. His lips pulled back and he let out a hiss. He lunged at her. She rolled to the side and jumped away. Naruto was crouched low, growling. His muscles tensed to jump but he stopped abruptly. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his hair with his hands.

"N-No…" he heaved. His eyes were turning from red to blue and back. "I don't… I don't want to hurt… Hinata… No! Run, Hinata… Run! Please!"

Hinata realized he was fighting with the demon inside of him. She wanted so desperately to help him but she knew all she could do now was get away and spare Naruto some guilt afterwards. So, she ran. But she could not get far.

Naruto—no, Kyuubi—was following her. Running at an incredible speed, it was not long before he caught up to her. And with one final lunge, he caught her. He pinned her arms to her side and sank his sharp teeth into the skin of her neck. It hurt! It hurt like when Gaara did it. It was not like the first time when he was in control of himself, this was an attack. He didn't want a little of her blood, he wanted to tear out her flesh and get every last drop. Even if he had to decapitate her.

"Naruto… please! Wake up! Naruto-kun… it hurts…" to her surprise, he stopped. He retreated his fangs and started trembling. His eyes were squeezed shut and he was panting hard. He was fighting, trying really hard to regain control of himself.

"Don't make me…" he breathed. "Don't make me hurt Hinata… please… no… NO!" and with that final burst he released her and jumped away from her. He fell on his butt and sat there, panting.

"N-Naruto-kun…?" Hinata whispered. When she received no response, she tried to approach him.

"No!" he yelled, jumping to his feet. "Stay away! I… I'm…" he stared at the ground. "I'm sorry, Hinata. I'm so, so sorry."

"Naru—" before she could finish, he ran away.

"Target sighted," a man in a mask said into a microphone around his neck. Four other men in masks sat behind him, standing on tree branches. They watched as the blond teenager sprinted through the forest. "It's time."

They jumped from branch to branch in a remarkable speed and landed in front and behind the blond, cutting off any possible escape route. The teenager looked around, clearly distressed. Using his flight or fight instincts, and with the possibility of flight ruined, the blond lunged at them. But the Kyuubi was not helping him.

Outnumbered and overpowered, the blond was quickly pinned to the ground. His hands were bound behind his back, and several chakra-suppressing seals were placed on his body. Emotionally unstable, exhausted and now weakened, all he could do was lay there on his stomach, panting. To his surprise, the men weren't done. They forced something into his mouth. It was some sort of device that pressed painfully on his teeth and prevented him from growing his fangs. And then it clicked, they knew.

"Uzumaki Naruto," one of them said, "you are under arrest."

Hi! I'm SO sorry I disappeared from the face of the earth! But I made this chapter extra long! So, please forgive me! Hope you like this chapter! Thank you to everyone that has followed, favorited or reviewed! Really, really, thank you so much! Reviews make me happy so please leave one! See you next time! :)