Chapter 1: Enter…, The Demon Lord.

Author's Note: Okay, forgot to put this in the summary. It's a Naruhina fanfic, I'll either announce the other couples later, have you guys vote or just make this the only pairing.

Uzumaki Naruto was no stranger to dreams and nightmares. In his dreams, everything he felt was surreal and happy. However, this was entirely different. He remembered falling asleep and he could vividly recall every detail of his dream, which wasn't much more then a world devoid of anything. More then anything, it felt more like…

"A message…," Naruto whispered. "And who exactly am I talking to?"

"Well, I'd like to call myself your friend, but we haven't met yet, have we?" Naruto turned to find the source of the voice, but found utter nothingness. "But as you guessed, this does have a point." The world around him twisted and moved to form a nice and comfortable living room complete with an armchair and the indistinct host. "There are always times where we can make a choice, good or bad depending on our point of view."

"Okay, I get it, so what?" Naruto asked, sitting down in the armchair.

"In the uncomfortably near future, you have a very important choice, Naruto. You get the pleasure of choosing whether or not your precious people die."

"Cut the crap and tell me what you want," Naruto snapped, growing angry.

"Only because you asked so nicely," his host replied sarcastically. The comfortable scene changed from a relaxing living room into a blazing Konohagakure. His friends lay death before him; their blank stares piercing him. Fear surged through his veins, draining the blood from his face and rooting him to the spot, forcing him to watch Konoha and his friends turn to ash.

"N-No!"

A rough, course hand marked by the frequent use of a blade shook him out of his nightmare.

"See through the 'truths' and be wary of your new allies. After all, what is peace without a little war?" The nightmarish world began to fade, and Naruto started to feel his usual drowsiness when he wakes up. But before he woke up, he saw a strange thing. He could vaguely see a young man who couldn't be older then him by at least a two years, and the weird thing was that he could only see a smile on his face. One that was. . .

(…………………………………………………………………………………………………….)

With a yell Naruto sat up, clutching a thin white blanket in his hands before calming down and examining his surroundings. Judging by the clean white room, the antiseptic smell and the fact that he wanted to get the hell out of the place as soon as possible he guessed he was in a hospital.

'It's just a dream, a really, really messed up dream.' Naruto thought in his hospital bed, until the door banged open and a busty blond burst forth, exuding her wrath.

"What're you doing here Baa-chan?" In one fluid movement "Baa-chan" crossed the room and punched Naruto hard enough to bruise his head.

"That's Hokage-sama or Tsunade-sama to you Gaki!"

"Aren't you supposed to be a doctor?! How is beating your patient supposed to stimulate healing?!" Naruto demanded, feeling the newly formed bump.

"By giving them a healthy dose of pain, respect and fear!" Tsunade laughed as if she actually did that to her other patients. Considering that all of them, besides Naruto, were currently in critical condition and she had enough strength to level a castle, it was good that she didn't. Killing your patients doesn't look too good when you're Hokage, or anything really.

"Baaaaa-chan," Naruto stuck out his tongue. "What do you want, besides giving me brain damage?"

"Pfff, as if you need any." Before Naruto could yell, Tsunade pulled him into a bone crushing embrace. "You got very lucky this time, you know that?" Naruto stiffened, remembering how easily his former best friend had beaten them. They hadn't even managed to touch Sasuke, much less punch.

"When can I get another shot at the Teme?"

"Not now, I'm sure more then a few people would miss you if you never came back." Tsunade released Naruto and took a few steps back, a grin on her face. Naruto blinked at the sheer array of colors in front of him. From flowers to food to cards, Naruto's bed stand was overflowing with gifts. With a curious stare, Naruto was about to open a card that was obviously from Lee judging by the word YOUTH! written on it when he saw something that made him a little sad.

A single white rose stood behind all the others almost invisible and out of reach of the sunlight. Unlike the others it was by itself, hidden or hiding from the sunlight. With a caring hand, Naruto plucked the delicate rose out of a handmade vase it was in and tried to smell it. At first, he could smell nothing and wondered if the flower was real. But a small, almost insignificant aroma tickled his nose after a few seconds. The smell of lavender mixed with the sweet smell of roses faintly reached his nose.

"Who sent this?" Naruto asked, carefully placing the flower in the beaming sun. Searching around the vast horde of gifts and get well cards he found the vase, and no card or tag attached. "Baa-chan, do you know who sent this?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll be able to find that person." Naruto glanced around the table, looking to see if the nametag had fallen off and missed the smile that tugged at Tsunade's lips. "Well, as a little break and to fill your wallet a little I'm assigning you a C-Rank mission." Naruto perked up at the sound of the word mission.

"Don't say escort the bridge builder, or find Tora." Naruto winced, remembering what happened on his first "C-Rank" mission. And he didn't really want to chase a cat.

"It's just a little bandit clean-up, nothing too hard." Tsunade said. "Think you can handle it?"

"I could do this with one hand tied behind my back!" Naruto shouted, flexing his muscle out of habit.

"Yes well, I'm not letting you try that. Instead your going with a team of three." Tsunade pulled three id cards out from her sleeves.

"Rock Lee," Naruto groaned. "Choji Akimichi," A small smile spread to Naruto's face. "And Hinata Hyuuga." The smile threatened to spread like an infectious disease.

"When do I leave?" Naruto asked, already throwing off the covers and looking for his hitai-ate.

"Impatient, aren't you brat? You leave tonight at 9 o'clock sharp. So that give you four hours Naruto, use it wisely to prepare-" Her words were forgotten.

"RRRAAAMMMEEENNN!" Naruto was out the door before Tsunade could punch him again.

(…………………………………………………………………………………………………….)

"YOSH! Naruto, we must see whose youth shines more brightly on this beautiful day!" Eccentric was an understatement when it came to describing Lee. Green spandex and leg warmers only added to his overall…features. That and the fact that he could make his teeth shine whenever he wanted and his eyebrows looked like giant hairy caterpillars.

"Lee I don't think-." Naruto started before Lee cut him off.

"If I lose, then I will run 300 laps in the Forest Of Death on my hands!"

"That sounds kind of dangerous."

"But I will learn something from it!"

"Yeah, how to treat poisonous bug bites and not to run in the forest of death," Naruto muttered to himself.

"What will you do if I my youth burns more brightly?"

"I'll give up ra-…. never mind, no way in hell. I'll take you all out to eat at any place you want." The big boned person rubbed his hands, silently thinking of ways to sabotage Naruto.

"Choji, what's with that hungry glint in your eyes?" Naruto nervously backed away from Choji and almost ran into a dark haired girl whose every feature seemed to emphasize shy and quiet. "Oh, sorry Hinata-chan!"

"I-It's o-okay N-Naruto-kun." Hinata couldn't help but blush at how close they were.

"Alrighty then! What are we doing 'cause I forgot!" Choji rubbed his eyes; he had forgotten who he was dealing with. Lee, however, was more then happy for an excuse to yell out youth.

"We are fanning the flames of our youth by defeating the devious bandits harassing Konoha's new allies in honorable combat where our YOUTH SHALL-!" A hand firmly planted itself over Lee's mouth and stopped him from getting too into his youth speech.

"I get the idea Lee, now be quiet so they won't know to run from us before we're even ten miles close to them. LET'S GO!" Naruto charged ahead before getting close lined by Choji's hand.

"Naruto, you're not the mission leader."

"I'm sorry Choji, you can lead the charge."

"Actually, that Hinata's job."

"Really?" A surprised face met a blushing one as Hinata's confidence went down a few pegs.

'He thinks I can't lead, but what if he's right?! What if I get in the way again and I'm so weak that I'm a burden?!' What Naruto actually said blew out all the thoughts in her head.

"Then I guess we don't have anything to worry about, huh? Alright Hinata-chan, where you go I follow!" Hinata beamed at his praise and let a small smile slip through. Lee, and just about everyone else in Konohagakure, knew of Hinata's feelings for Naruto and couldn't help but wonder what would happen because of the prolonged exposure between the two as a result of the mission. And he also couldn't resist giving Naruto a little push in the right direction.

"Everywhere Naruto?"

"Yup."

"OH! That is most dishonorable of you to follow a lady into the bathroom." Hinata said nothing, she simply fainted. Naruto was currently chasing a green blur down the road and Choji was happily munching on his favorite barbeque chips and enjoying the show. Suddenly, Choji exploded into a violent coughing fit and spat out a black feather that had fallen into his chips.

"Hey be careful Choji, you don't know what that has on it." Naruto said, holding Lee in a headlock.

"No, Naruto. This will be good for Choji-san, he may lose some weight if he empties his stomach more often." Lee didn't notice the threatening chi emanating from Choji as he slowly turned around.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

It simply means that you may need to lose a few pounds."

"Why?" Naruto instantly let go of Lee and tried to warn him.

"LEE NO!"

"Because your fa-."

"I'M NOT FAT!" With a roar that would scare off a person twice the size of Choji (height wise), he ripped a nearby tree out of the ground and swung it over his head. "I'm pleasantly plump!"

"LEE, RUN!"

(…………………………………………………………………………………………………….)

Nothing interesting happened to them over the few days it took to arrive at the bandit camp, not counting the time Naruto saw Choji eat his pillow in his sleep or the times when Hinata was so "sick" she fainted. To save time, Hinata presented her plan in written form instead of talking to them, as we all know how that would turn out. Naruto was to summon enough shadow clones to at least match the number of bandits present and to stay within earshot of Hinata so she could tell him where the shadow clones should go. Lee was to fight in the areas where the shadow clones were doing the worst and Choji would be handling the portion that was mostly empty of shadow clones.

"They won't know what hit them." Naruto smirked, expecting a nice warm up at the very least. There are at least two things that Naruto hadn't properly learned yet; how to tell if a girl likes you and that things are NEVER that simple.

What they found was disappointing, to say the least. All they found was a hooded person sleeping in the middle of the clearing where the bandit camp should have been. Without pause, Naruto ran over to the person and nudged him in the ribs a few times.

"Okina-san wake up!"

Who the hell are you calling okina?!" The man jumped to his feet and threw off his hood. A dark haired young man glared at Naruto, who returned the favor.

"YOU."

"I AM GOING TO KICK YOU ASS!"

"I'd like to se-mmph!" Naruto was silenced by Lee and Choji as Hinata tried to somewhat salvage the situation.

"A-Ano, have you s-seen any bandits around h-here Mr…?"

"Just Karasu, and no I haven't Hyuuga-dono I presume?" Naruto broke free of Lee's headlock and landed in front of Karasu.

"That's Hyyuga Hinata, the…big guy over there is Akimichi Choji and the person who seems to have caterpillars living on his forehead is Rock Lee. And I am Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage!" A smile was on Karasu's lips, which was quickly replaced by a fake one.

"Oh, well in that case Naruto I'm glad that I finally got to meet you." Confused, he looked up at Karasu's face. Out of nowhere, with no handseals, a black katana that was bleeding black chakra slashed at his head, attempting to behead him. Surprised, Naruto leapt back to the safety of his friends and drew out a kunai. On the side of the katana, the name Muramasa was etched deep into the ebony blade.

"What do you want?!" Naruto yelled, hoping that this was all for show and he was actually really weak.

"Your choice of course, what else would I want? Now, Uzumaki Naruto, will your friends live or die?"