Yugao Uzuki always pictured her death, she always wondered how it would feel like. If it would be cold and a painful or if she'd feel nothing at all and see darkness with a bright light at the end. It was how many thought the afterlife was like after you died but Yugao didn't witness any of that.

Instead the purple headed woman was left in a forest, surrounded by trees and a small river bank, the place was pitch black with only the moon illuminating light for the woman.

Was this heaven or hell?

Yugao looked around, she didn't understand, one minute she was protecting the Hokage and the next she wakes up here.

"It has been quite sometime..."

Her eyes immediately widen when she recognized the voice, she was frozen in place, Yugao couldn't find the strength to turn. "Ha-Hayate?" She managed to call out before slowly turning towards the person.

Yugao couldn't believe it, standing at the other side of the river was her late lover, Hayate Gekko, the one she had lost a few years ago when the village had been attacked back then. Hayate stood in his normal Jounin uniform, he looked the same as she remembered him except he no longer had those bags under his eyes and his cough was gone. Yugao was on the verge of tears, she ran towards him but only to be stopped by the harsh water rapids as they some how had a mind of its own. She was so close, the only thing that stood in her way was a damn river.

Hayate made no attempt to crossover, he merely smiled at the woman he loved before closing his eyes and giving a content sigh. He was happy to see Yugao again, he really was but he felt as if he had left her alone, he felt guilty.

"Forgive me, Yugao... I wasn't strong enough"

Yugao looked away from his sadden expression. She had gotten stronger after mourning Hayate's, she had decided to follow his example and yet, Yugao perished by the hands of an Akatsuki. She never did introduce herself to him, she only watched from the shadows as he worked hard to save his friend and become Hokage. Yugao had always visited Hayate's grave as she talked about the one she admired, the one who saved her from falling into the wrong path.

"I tried so hard not to give in after your death" Yugao clenched her fist by her sides and trembled. "I wanted to make them pay for your death! Even when we had come to an alliance I wanted revenge but in the end I couldn't..."

"So I tried to end it all!" Yugao held her tone carefully as her voice started to break. "Just to be with you again, just so I wouldn't feel this heart aching pain anymore" Yugao pressed her fingers on her chest, pointing to her heart.

"I-I'm sorry" Hayate began as his eyes strayed away from Yugao's. "I wasn't there for you, if I was... Then maybe you would still be alive"

Yugao brushed her arm over her eyes before she shook her head. Hayate's eyes glanced at her and they caught the surprising smile on Yugao's lips, one that he had only seen when they were together.

"It wasn't your fault Hayate. There was someone who helped me pull myself back together, he helped me make the right choice and follow a path I was proud to take"

Yugao remembered all the struggles and hardships she went through alone but no matter what, she always thought about Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who she saved her from herself.

Hayate closed his eyes and smiled, he was glad that Yugao was able to smile even after living a life all alone. No, she wasn't alone, she had someone there for her, someone that made her smile like he once did.

When a sudden bright light engulfed Yugao, Hayate smiled as she was surprised at the radiant warm light around her body. "I guess you still have something else back there"

"Wa-Wait!" Yugao called out, she was ready to accept her fate, why was she being called back to the world of the living. She jumped into the water and tried to swim her way towards Hayate but it wouldn't allow her even if she was just step away from him.

"I'll be waiting for you so don't rush into anything unless you are sure it's worth it" Hayate gave her a small grin as he reached out his hand for her. Yugao was an inch away from his hand before she was pulled back into the moon and into the world of the living.

Yugao woke up in the middle of the night, her eyes glanced towards the window as she stared at the full moon. It was just like in her dream, no it wasn't a dream, it was a memory. The day she was brought back to life. Yugao rose from her bed, that day when she had been brought back to life was something she was never going to forget. Yugao had met her deceased lover, even if for a little bit she was happy she got to see him once more. But it was not only that but the day Naruto was the village Hero.

She had heard the story from others, how he had defeated the powerful Akatsuki member known as Pain and how Naruto was able to change his beliefs through words and not violence which ended up bringing all the casualties back to life including hers.

"Naruto, you're a special brat you know that?" Yugao said to herself with a smile, she then turned to the moon before her eyes turned fierce. Her mission was only a few hours away and Yugao was already getting ready for it. Even if Naruto didn't know who she was, Yugao would make sure she'd protect him from any danger, that included the blonde woman. Picking up Hayate's old katana, she began to put her gear on. "This mission will give me a little bit of info on her until then I can't trust her"

Samus woke up to a rude awakening, while she didn't like to sleep in as much, she actually did want to catch a few more hours before getting up. When she opened the door she took note that the sun wasn't even up yet, usually she woke around this hour why was she so tired? Samus was too caught up with her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Shizune standing right in front of her. "Uhhm, Samus-san?" Shizune said carefully as she waved her hand in front of the blonde girl which snapped her out of her daze.

"Sorry" Samus said a she shook her sleep away. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Like why you are waking me up at this hour" The blond girl though rudely but quickly scolded herself.

"Well it is an urgent matter Lady Tsunade would like to have with you" Shizune said

"Can this not wait till later?" Samus asked only for Shizune to shake her head. "No, the Hokage wishes to discuss about the parasite you have been looking for, she says she has found a trail" At this Samus woke up, it was the last Metroid that had escaped her, she had been analyzing it's traits the past couple of days and needed to find it quickly before it caused anymore trouble.

"I understand, I will be there as soon as I can" With a nod from the medic nin, Samus turned to her room and closed the door before she was to get ready.

A few minutes later and Samus was in Tsunade's office, she wondered when Naruto would get here and also questioned why the masked woman was here. As her eyes narrowed and glanced at the purple headed woman, Samus tried to figure out what she was up to. Was she going to brief the Hokage on what Naruto and her had been doing? If she was then there was nothing bad, Samus was sure, she had been a good friend.

In fact, yesterday she had almost kissed him, had it not been for the inconvenient rock breaking them apart she would of definitely kissed him.

"Oh no!" She shouted in her head as she started to blush. "Did she see us?!" Samus asked herself, her face started to feel hot, she didn't know what to think. "First the Hokage, then the flower girl and Ayame too" Samus turned to her feet as she cooled down, she could just picture a big toothy grin behind that mask as the woman was ready to tease her as well.

When the door behind them opened, Yugao turned to Samus only for her to quickly avoid her stare, the purple headed woman raised and eyebrow behind her mask.

"Ah good, you're both here" Tsunade said as she and Shizune entered the office before she made her way towards her desk and sat down."Now we can get started"

Samus looked behind her at the door to see if anyone else was coming through, specifically Naruto, when she didn't see anyone else Samus turned to Tsunade. "Will we not be waiting for Naruto to be joining us as well?"

"No, I'm afraid Naruto will not be joining us" Samus narrowed her eyes carefully and nodded, she was sure there was something going on.

"You're new partner..." Tsunade motioned to the masked woman. "Yugao Uzuki"

Samus frowned and turned to Tsunade, she had been very clear back then that she was not going to take a mission with another person especially this woman. "I have said before that I would only work with Naruto as my partner"

Tsunade smiled, she knew Samus wasn't going to agree working with someone else. It was kinda cute to the blonde woman, she could see Samus acting like a little girl who refused to work with other simply because it wasn't the person they liked. Tsunade nodded as she crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes. "I see" she said.

"Let me ask the both of you something, do you wish to protect Naruto Uzumaki no matter what?" Tsuande asked as she opened her eyes and waited for both Samus and Yugao's answer.

"Yes!" Both females said simultaneously, which surprised Samus how quick the purple headed woman was to answer but said nothing.

Tsunade smiled once again as she saw the blonde girl react to Yugao's answer but then dropped it. "If you care about his safety then it would be wise to keep him away from this mission" When Tsunade saw Samus' confused expression she turned to her assistant for her to inform them. Shizune nodded and stood in front of the two females.

"As you know Samus-san, these parasites feed off anything with a strong power source" Shizune said as she brought out some samples. "As you can see here these are pieces of the Metroids we've collected" the dark haired woman held three different vials, Yugao examined each one.

"The first one is from the parasite that landed here, which you were first pursuing" Samus nodded before activating her power. Although you couldn't see it, Yugao had her eyes widen at the armored Samus Aran, it was an impressive power up close indeed.

Samus stepped closer as she scanned the same two samples she had seen before.

[Scanning...]

She recognized the first one, it was a piece of a normal Metroid. "The second was one that had absorbed the Kyuubi, the nine tailed fox's chakra" Samus said as Shizune nodded with a surprised look on her face. "That's right"

"The third one is a bit tricky" Shizune said as she held out the vial containing a red shard to Samus, "It's got the same properties as the previous sample but it also contains faint trails of Naruto's Chakra"

[Scanning.]

[Scanning..]

[Scanning...]

[Complete]

[Small tracess of two unknown power essence detected]

Samus used her visor to analyze the red crystal, sure enough Shizune was right, it had two unknown elements that she guessed were the Kyuubi and Naruto's.

"This particular Metroid seemed to be fond of Naruto as it had drained nearly all of his chakra" Shizune lifted her hand before pointing at Samus. "I had trouble patching you up while you were out. During your fight, your body was exposed to these shards" the medic nin said as she raised the vial to prove her point. "And because of that you were able to absorb some of that power"

It took her a while to process what Shizune meant but when she did, Samus was taken back by the news. "Na-Naruto's inside me?" Samus stuttered as she grew red in the face. Shizune smiled and then nodded. "Precisely"

Yugao couldn't help but frown behind her mask.

"But that is beside the point, what those Metroids see in Naruto is nothing but an infinite supply of power. Putting him on this mission would endanger his life" Tsunade said as she sat on her desk.

Yugao nodded to herself. "I see now, it would be best if he was not involved."

"As you two move to our recon nin, we will have a perfect opportunity to move Naruto"

Tsunade pulled a small scroll from her desk and handed to Shizune, who then gave it to the purple headed woman. However Samus was too caught up with her own thoughts to notice. "With Naruto far away from the Metroids, it would definitely make this mission much easier." Samus then turned to Yugao and examined her.

"But can I really trust this person to get the job done?" Her blue eyes narrowed, Samus didn't believe that someone like Yugao was going to easily work together, the masked woman already didn't like her so it was going to be tough.

Samus then reverted to her Zero suit form and examined her body a bit. She didn't feel any different, she felt perfectly healthy so why was having Naruto's chakra still making her feel strange?

When Naruto had been awaken by Captain Yamato, he had been confused as to why he and a group of Jounin had been assigned to a mission all of a sudden. Not only was it a mission to an island but the mission was S-ranked class. With so little time Naruto barely had any time to pack, in fact he hadn't packed at all. Yamato had a backpack filled with his basic needs ready for him.

"But what about my condition?" Naruto asked as he raised his bandage covered arms.

"Don't worry this is a simple mission Naruto, I doubt you'll be engaging any fights" Yamato said with a nervous smile.

"Even though I just said that we are taking an S-rank mission" Yamato kept his fake smile on but began sweating as Naruto stared at him. "Damn it! Has he got on?!"

With nothing else to say Naruto smiled a bit before nodding. Yamato sighed as the blond turned to get dressed, why was he always put on these certain situations?

It was just before noon and Naruto's team had already been traveling quite sometime, Naruto had been quite for most of the trip except in the beginning of their mission where he was asking Yamato, Gai, and even Aoba about the mission. It turned out that it was a dull S-rank mission.

"I hope Samus didn't think I left her out" Naruto thought to himself. With his sensei rushing him to the gates of Konoha, Naruto was unable to stop by Samus' room to let her know. He had been smart enough to leave a note on his door so she could hopefully know of his whereabouts. He wanted to finish this mission already so he could return to Konoha.

"But with all this that's going on..." Naruto examined his team as they walked, he looked up forward and saw that Yamato was taking the lead. Naruto turned his head back and saw Gai in the back. Both Yamato and Gai were equally far apart from him while Aoba was right next to him. Usually this wouldn't surprise Naruto as it was a way to protect yourself from incoming attacks but seeing how everyone was acting was starting to make this mission a bit fishy.

Naruto had to get to the bottom of this.

"Uhh Sensei?" Naruto called out to Yamato as he stopped.

"What is it?" Yamato asked as everyone else turned to the blond.

"I'm going to take a quick bathroom break" Naruto said with sheepish smile as he touched his knees together and hopped up and down. "I'll be quick" before Yamato could say anything else, Naruto skipped to the forest wandering into the wilderness.

The wood style user sighed before frowning, he might as well allow Naruto some freedom after all a small piss couldn't hurt anyone.

Gai's eyes widen when he realized that he was due for a bathroom break as well, "I'll join Naruto as well!" He said before running into the wilderness.

"Are you sure letting Naruto out of our sight is a good idea? I mean the mission was to look after Naruto at all times." Aoba said as he stood next to Yamato.

"No but if I don't let Naruto take even a bathroom break then he'll know something is up" Yamato crossed his arms over his chest as he remembered how Tsunade had clearly explained that Naruto wasn't to be out of their sight.

"If Naruto found out that the blond woman he has been hanging around with is off to find those things they've been fighting, then we can predict what Naruto would do at this point." Aoba, who didn't really know what was going on with the blond woman, even knew that Naruto would run off without another word.

"Exactly, that's why we shouldn't let him go out so carelessly. He already has the Akatsuki after him, no need to make matters worse." Yamato looked at the road up ahead before turning to the path Naruto and Gai had disappeared to. "We are almost to the ship, once we're there we'll be able to get him to the location where the Hachibi is"

Yamato stared at the direction Naruto had gone towards, he was really taking his time.

" Don't tell me-!" His eyes widen when he realized that Naruto had chosen the chance to escape.

"C'mon on Naruto-kun, tell me how you went to the bathroom with on using your hands!"

The voice of Maito Gai put Yamato at ease. Both Naruto and Gai came from the nearby bushes they had disappeared to, the Jounin had been pleading his rival's student about his ability to piss without the use of his hands.

But Naruto wouldn't budge, his lips were sealed, a secret that would probably never be revealed.

"Alright then we shouldn't be too far now" Yamato alerted everyone as he once again took the lead. As he had his back turned and everyone else was looking forward Naruto narrowed his eyes as he tried to bandage his arms back on. "It seems Yamato-sensei won't tell me if I ask him and if I do I get the feeling he'll stop me from going anywhere" It wouldn't be the first time Yamato had prevented Naruto from acting. Back at the Kage Summit was proof of that.

"I'll just wait until I've gotten enough distance from them, in the mean time I'll just..."

"Naruto!" The bushier brow sensei had called out, snapping him out of his own thoughts. "You're falling behind! It's very unyouthful!" Naruto nodded before grinning. "Oh! Sorry!" he said with a sheepish expression.

"Honestly Naruto if the Hero of the Leaf village is going to be empty in the head then I don't think many people will look up to you... especially the ladies" Aoba teased making Naruto scoff and frown.

"I don't need fangirls!" Naruto exclaimed as he crossed his arms.

"Are you sure you wouldn't want Sakura or Hinata? I've heard Ino has got an eye on you now." Yamato said without looking back, he might as well enjoy teasing the Hero of the Leaf.

"Maybe my little Tenten?" said Gai as he was oblivious to Aoba and Yamato's teasing.

"No! They're my friends I wouldn't want them!"

"But I thought you liked Sakura?" Yamato asked.

"I did- I mean I do but-!"

"But what? Has Naruto Uzumaki moved on?" the wood style user was actually beginning to grow interested in Naruto's love life for some reason.

"No! I just don't want them like that." Naruto tried to argue, he still loved Sakura but maybe not like he use to. He was still confused, still trying to figure out what he felt for Sakura, for Hinata and even the girl from another world, Samus Aran.

"What do you mean?" Gai asked as he was also curious what was troubling the blond.

"What I mean is that ever since I became this Hero, the village girls have been only acknowledging me for that reason." Naruto paused for a moment, he didn't want that he was glad the girls liked him but he didn't want someone just because he was a hero. Not after all he's been through, not in that way.

"I don't want Sakura for that same reason or anyone else for that matter" His words silenced whatever was left of the conversation the group had. All three Jounin knew what he meant, if Naruto wanted someone then he was going for a woman that would love him for him not because he was famous.

As they continued to traverse into the forest, Naruto looked down somberly. In the opposite gender department he was clueless, he thought he liked Sakura as she was the prettiest girl to capture his attention when he was little but now Naruto was feeling something else, something for someone else.

Naruto's face suddenly glowed red and some how he started to produce steam. The reason was because of yesterday's awkward moment with Samus. The entire night Naruto had been tossin' and turning in bed wondering what if.

"Oi Naruto's imagining something perverted" Aoba said casually.

"Am not!" the blond retorted.

"Naruto for someone your age that is very youthful and unyouthful at the same time" Gai said as he patted the blond in the back with a boisterous laugh.

"This is going to be a long trip..." Yamato said with a long sigh.

Note: Short Chapter. Yeah I know. I've been busy and with low inspiration and motivation to write. Check my profile for details.