Naruto was jogging down the street with a smile on his face, pulling along a blushing Hinata as he did. He was smiling, so much so that it gave question to how he could even see where he was going. Still, he managed to navigate a path through the moderately crowded streets of the afternoon hours, making sure to account for his companion as well. It wasn't particularly difficult, thankfully; though prosperous, Konoha was hardly overcrowded, and that made the village comfortably navigable by almost anyone, even in the middle of the bustling day. Hinata, for her part, seemed contented to simply follow along, marveling at the feel of his hand holding hers, and not attempting much more thought passed that to avoid turning even redder than she already was or, heaven forbid, a spell of fainting. She enjoyed that about Naruto; so often, he let her forget that various troubles and problems of life through both choice and, in the case of avoiding the fate of temporary unconsciousness, necessity.
It helped to not focus too much on their relationship either, as strange as that was. It had evolved naturally, something that she always had a hard time pinpointing the start of. They'd fallen into it some time after the mission to the Tenchi Bridge and the fateful encounter with Naruto's former teammates that followed. It was a subtle thing, a barely noticeable change from there being you and I to we; from a him and her and me to a them.
They hadn't had much time to talk about anything after he'd returned from the long trip, thrust right into a mission to save the Kazekage from Akatsuki. After that, guided by the information gleaned during that mission that had led them to that fateful bridge in Grass country, they once again found themselves thrust into the whirlwind. Thankfully, the hokage had deemed a period of respite fitting after the two high class missions, and had been granting team Kakashi only the barest minimum of missions, and a scant few of those were anything more than easy Rank Cs.
Suddenly gifted with time in excess, both Naruto and Hinata found themselves falling back into an old routine from years past; they'd meet up relatively early and spend the day together. At first, this was simply a matter of training, as they often had done before. But slowly it bled away into simple time spent together, often on the most mundane of things.
It was a subtle growth. They had not at all realized that they had begun a relationship. Instead, the pair fell into it. Sweet to behold, the small acts they did for each other came as easy as breathing for them; Naruto would bring flowers sometimes, sometimes bought with his long-saved wages but often also grown from his own little gardens. Hinata brought him the results of her culinary explorations; little treats and snacks in amusing shapes.
They had, without at all realizing it, become the sweetest couple that Ino Yamanaka had ever laid eyes upon.
Ino watched from her seat in the corner café. It was a small and mostly informal place she'd learned about from her training with Morino-sensei, frequented by members of the ANBU, and more specifically by members of the Torture and Interrogation Unit she was now a part of. Naruto and Hinata jogged past, hand in hand, far too engrossed in each other's company to notice their old classmate quietly nursing a cup of cherry tea. Ino didn't mind. She was, after all, a romantic herself. She could not fault young love.
"Well, aren't they cute?"
The young interrogator turned to find another member of the ANBU, abet out of uniform, approaching at a leisurely pace. The pair had become moderately closer, sharing connections with the ANBU, abet different divisions, and with the still officially denied relationship that their jounin sensei shared. Ino smirked, having to admit for a moment that Kiba had filled out quite nicely since graduation. He had taken to leaving his jacket open, showing off a well-chiseled chest and abs. The rigors of ANBU life had made an already physical man even more impressive. If Ino was into that sort of thing, she surely would be after Kiba in a heartbeat.
But she wasn't.
"It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen." She replied with a smile. Kiba pulled the chair to the left of her out quickly and quietly, spinning it around and sitting down with his arms folded over the 'back.' Akamaru, sporting an eye patch as his most obvious physical disability, laid down next to his master. Even though injuries from that fateful mission had ended his short career as a nindog, Kiba and the canine were still inseparable when the former had off time.
"So innocent and sweet. I understand Hinata, but who would have thought Naruto could be that way." She continued. Kiba simply chuckled.
"Yeah, well, I'm still keeping my eyes on him so he doesn't try anything funny." He said with a grin.
Ino didn't even need to drawn upon the countless hours of training that Ibiki had put her through on reading people to know that there was a hint of truth behind Kiba's joking words. She did, however, draw on those skills on the matter of why. Some might have thought he harbored a flame for his old teammate, but Ino knew better; Hinata was a little sister to the tokubetsu jounin, and any desire to be anything more than that was quickly snuffed out by just how obvious Hinata's affections were for the blond-haired knucklehead. That was a single target sexuality in action.
But, like an older and very protective brother, Kiba still seemed to see Naruto with some amount of suspicion. It was inevitable and, in it's own way, quite cute as well. Ino chuckled internally. Kiba was full of surprises, like so many of her class had been. Some surprises, of course, where less enjoyable then others. Her training let her control her expression and she gave no hint of the pang of sadness that washed through her when she thought of her best friend, and an old flame.
She was colder now, she knew. It was little things. Watching Lee grind away each day, hoping blindly to reach a level that he could rescue his supposed love. Ino suspected it would have faded eventually, if he and Sakura had actually interacted. But he had been locked into the past of his own mind and quirks. It was borderline self-destructive, and concern amongst their group of friends had been shared. His teammates had tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to help, but now reserved themselves to simply watch for signs of it getting any worse. What they would do then was hard to say, even for Ino.
Kiba. He handled things perhaps the best of them all. Ino had long ago admitted her own obsession, with a small bit of help from a certain pineapple-haired shadow user, with never being surprised had become almost as unhealthy as Lee's obsession with training, and had taken steps to reign herself in. Kiba had been similar; he'd thrown himself into training after Kakashi offered his help, but even after his elevation to tokubetsu jounin and joining the ANBU Black Ops, he'd remained strangely… him. He still walked with Akamaru, he still spent time with his friends and family. And, though she'd toned down things she was still a master of reading people. He was perhaps the most honest person she knew, both to him self and to others.
"He won't." Ino said, slightly late she realized. Kiba just grinned his toothy grin.
"Yeah, well, you'd know, huh? You should really stop trying to read everyone's mind. I mean, I know that's your thing, and all but… well, you know, eh?" Kiba said. Ino furrowed her brow. Yes, honest and blunt. Ino was cursed. Why were all of the men in her life like that?
"Not like it takes much effort with you simple brutes." She said, hint of truth lacing her words. If Kiba picked it up, he didn't seem to care, and responded simply with a laugh as the waitress brought around his usual order. He flashed a flirty smile to the young lady, who returned it with gusto. Ino shook her head. Yes, he was definitely the best adjusted of them all.
A sudden and unstoppable frown overtook her features as her mind turned to the cute couple who'd just passed by. Naruto and Hinata. They were adorable, and fantastic for each other, she knew. But she worried about them. She understood why Ibiki-sensei and, to a degree, Anko-san were the way they were. It wasn't the seeing things that got you, that were just the start. For people like them, it was the understanding. Understanding was as much a curse as it was a gift. It forced you to realize things, know what you never wanted to know, and deal with what you never wanted to deal.
Naruto was amazing for being so emotionally resilient, but there was that simmering layer of anger and sadness that lurked beneath things, and most of all resentment. It was tempered by boundless amounts of determination and love, but it remained never the less. There seemed to always be something else inside of Naruto, locked away. Ino wasn't sure she ever wanted to see it get out. But even for all of that, Hinata was even worse.
Hinata was the biggest liar that Ino had ever known, and being a member of the Torture and Interrogation unit meant that she encountered truly remarkable examples of them as a part of her job descriptions. She was the best kind of liar too, the one that rarely ever spoke their lies. Instead, she kept it all hidden away, much like Naruto, but whereas he countered it with his natural energy, she had only her shyness and baggy clothes. She had learned much from Naruto, and Ino truly hoped she picked up that side of him as well. Ino understood something else very clearly as well; while Hinata was the hardest of their friends to read, she was also a strange sort of cornerstone; rarely noticed or recognized, but vitally important never the less. If she succumbed to the rigors of Shinobi life than it would leave an unspeakable wound on the rest of the remaining Konoha Twelve. Ino had no idea what it would truly do to them all.
'That bond; so natural and young. That might end up saving them- us- all.' she thought. Her inner romantic took hold of that thought and forced her to smile. It was a good thought, after all.
Naruto pushed onward towards the training field that Hinata and he had, in a de facto way, claimed as their own. The third training field, same place where Naruto and the original Team 7 had their fateful 'bell test,' but also the place that, in a very important way, changed Hinata in Naruto's eyes. She went from the shy, dark weirdo to someone who, while still quite shy, he found himself admiring.
She'd been there for him too after that fateful mission, and in more ways than one. Tsunade-baa-chan had said something about her helping him recover, and then all the times she'd come to visit him, brought along meals to escape from the somewhat less then palatable hospital food. After that, they'd fallen into a strange sort of groove. They began training together, a fact that greatly helped the pair in a very real way.
For Naruto, training with someone at all was an improvement; even working as a part of Team 7, Sasuke was always reluctant to do any actual training with Naruto, and Sakura was barely any better. As they began to train more and more often, Naruto rapidly began to make up for a great amount of lost time. However, while Naruto was making steady progress, Hinata was increasing by leaps and bounds.
Each day she seemed to show marked improvement. The young Hyuuga heiress' byakugan showed the most notable level of improvement; she was reacting faster, her eyes becoming even more precise. After a few weeks, her raw range had doubled, though she hadn't realized it till far later. She became more and more skilled at tracking, learning to pick out a specific hidden shadow clone that carried some random object they'd chosen from out of dozens or more, scattered through the various forests that surrounded the village.
Regular practice with the jyuuken style of taijutsu outside of the somewhat more critical dojos of the Hyuuga family compound was allowing her to feel far more comfortable with it, focusing more on being effective than copying each move perfectly. And, against an erratic and wild opponent like Naruto, she was developing the adaptability that all fighters required; what use was knowing all the forms when fights were never so choreographed.
Naruto sat down, leaning back against the three wooden posts that jutted up from the center of the field. He threw his arms out in a wide stretch, yawning wide and loud. Hinata brought her hand up to her face in a giggle, sitting down next to him and setting the cloth-bundled containers of food she'd been carrying down next to her. He turned and grinned at her as she laughed, a fact that caused a rosy tint to appear on her cheeks, something that only made him grin wider.
Back then, they'd been friends. What they were now was hard to say. Hinata looked off into the sky with a sigh and smile. She felt as though she was living in a dream; never had she imagined that she would be able to spend her days like this, with Naruto at her side. She was becoming stronger, she thought, because of him. And, remarkably to her, he was becoming stronger too. Hinata was helping him too, and that simple fact seemed to fill her with such happiness that it was hard to even describe.
She pushed thoughts of he strange dreams from her head as they attempted to reassert themselves, even the ones that made her smile rather than cry; she found it hard to think of one with out the other, after all. Instead, she simply sat and enjoyed the moment, pushing the memories of those vivid images deep away.
Naruto continued to look at Hinata, similar thoughts running through his own head. He was no idiot; simple, perhaps, sometimes, but definitely not an idiot. Naruto could see his own feelings, and he realized now that Hinata felt the same. It was a strange thing; they'd never said a word to each other about it. Where they together, now? He found himself being pulled deeper down that path.
Suddenly, he felt a strange desire wash over him, slight foxy grin returning to his face. There was, of course, one way to find out.
"Hinata-chan?" He asked softly, building up his courage. He'd faced down deadly foes time and time again, but suddenly he felt like the scared little boy he'd been so long ago. He took a gulp of air.
"Naruto-k-mph!?" Hinata replied as she turned, only to be sharply cut off. She realized in an instant what was happening; no slow realization that she'd read about in so many silly love stories, but the effect was all the same. He was kissing her. Naruto was kissing her. It was sloppy, hardly the picturesque scene she might have expected, but once again, the effect was all the same. Blood rushed through her face.
It lasted only a few seconds. It was a sloppy, inexperienced kiss. They stared at each other for a short while, Naruto scratching the back of his head to hide his nervousness. Hinata said nothing, eventually letting a smile creep to her face, somehow fighting off a fainting spell, though unable to hide the rosy color that flushed across her face. No words were spoken.
The second kiss was slightly less sloppy, and slightly less inexperienced than the first.
The third was even better.
By the fourth, at least to them, they had it spot on.
Sasuke sat cross-legged, deep black sheath of his sword resting across his lap. He moved his thumb lightly back and forth over it's hilt, breathing low and direct. There was no sound in the small room save the low flickering of the candles on the wall and the dancing shadows they cast.
His eyes we closed as he meditated, but even in that state he was aware. Behind him, Sakura sat with equal silence, but where Sasuke seemed to assume an almost petrified state, still as a statue, Sakura felt like a tightly wound gearbox, full of stored energy to the point of bursting, kept contained only by a sheer force of will. It was strange to think that, in a way, they were that way because of each other; Sakura calmed Sasuke in a way he'd only recently begun to acknowledge, while Sakura seemed driven ever more by Sasuke's presence. She'd become strong and determined.
'And devoted beyond all measure." Sasuke thought, letting the barest twinges of a grin spread across his face. He let the feeling over pent-up energy wash through him, calming him in its strange way. It was trust, he realized. He had grown to trust Sakura, devotion and love being catalysts for this quiet alien feeling. It was a strange thing to know that, should someone appear from the shadows, he would be protected before he even made a move. The fact that it would be unnecessary, being more than capable of taking care of himself, was irrelevant.
'Itachi was a fool.'
Sasuke paused internally for a brief moment as that thought crossed his mind. It had been nagging him for some time now. Itachi told him to hate with all he was, but Sasuke felt stronger than he ever had when he'd given up a small portion of that hate, replacing it with something that seemed just as strong to him. Love, passion, and trust; they mingled with his hate. He was thinking clearer now, driven on by the maelstrom they kicked up rather then attempting to subsist exclusively on the rage his brother had instilled in him.
It felt good to disobey his brother, Sasuke had realized. It felt right. He'd made his own way in life, his own path of vengeance. It started that night in the valley, and it had brought him here. He was stronger now, he knew, and he had something that Itachi did not.
He had Sakura. He had his love, a fact he more readily accepted as he realized just how useful it was. Sasuke did not feel callous to think of it as such. Acknowledging its usefulness did nothing to mitigate its truth in his eyes. It was what it was.
He stood up quietly. Sakura was at his side before he could say a word, springing from his place on their bed in and instant, just as he knew she would be. Slowly, he tucked the sheath of his weapon into his sash. His hand moved for the door, but he froze suddenly.
"Sasuke?" Sakura asked with a hint of concern. He simply turned part of the way around, planting a small kiss onto her lips, much to her surprise and delight.
"For luck." He said charmingly, pushing the door open as he did.
"I fucking hate all this walking!" Hidan exclaimed, throwing his head back as he did. His feet hurt and his back was killing him; they'd been walking for what seemed like days now, apparently lost in some sort of tropical maze. Hidan's scowl deepened when he realized that Kazuku had just kept walking on.
"Hey, you bastard! Wait up!"
"No. Time is money, you keep up." The patchwork man said, already agitated. This had taken far too long. They'd entered the Land of the Waterfall months ago, searching out the jinchuuriki of the seven-tailed horned beetle. It had been Kazuku's old homeland, but his knowledge was somewhat limited for modern times; he hadn't been to Takigakure no Sato very often since he'd gone rogue, much in the same way that Deidara was not exactly a regular visitor to the Village Hidden in the Rocks.
Trails had become overgrown in many places, only to be cut anew by another group of travelers or trampled down by the various creatures that roamed these lands. The entire country wound with dirt paths, and the few trafficked and permanent roads were too public for the black-robed missing-nin to make use of. None of those permanent roads would take them to their eventual goal anyway; they did not call it a hidden village for nothing.
"Jeez, not even a moment of rest. You're a fucking slave driver, Kazuku!" the grey-haired and foul-mouthed fanatic shouted, jogging lightly to catch up with the inexorable pace of his partner. Kazuku said nothing.
For some time, the pair simply walked in silence, Kazuku leading them down yet another path. The only sound was the chirping of birds or the scampering of some other creature that inhabited the forests. That didn't last long.
"So, Kazuku, you know this Fuu chick?" Hidan asked, hands folded behind his head as he strolled along. Kazuku said nothing.
"Nah, guess not, you're old a shit, she must be pretty young, yeah?" he continued, apparently unconcerned with his partners lack of response. "Wonder if she's hot. Or fuckable, at least. Hey, Kazuku, do you still have a penis?"
There was a heavy thumping sound as Hidan fell forward in a heap, one of his legs severed cleanly from his body. It landed a few feet away, leaking blood from the stump. The Jashin fanatic sputtered and cursed, confused for a moment before rolling over to get his mouth out of the dirt as he did.
"You motherfucker! That was my damn leg, goddamn! That hurts like shit! You ass!"
"Shut up, Hidan." Kazuku said, already moving to retrieve the leg from the ground, tendril-like threads wrapping around and moving it back into place.
"Hey, it was a valid question!"
Kazuku managed to restrain himself from removing something higher up.
Orochimaru sat upright in his bed, silent and still. To an inexperienced eye, he might appear to be a corpse, and in a since it was correct. The white snake of the sannin cursed his crumbling body; twice cursed the knowledge that had eluded him for so long; and thrice cursed the damnable Sasuke Uchiha who had taken so long to arrive. But even as his mind raged, his body remained still; his control over the slowly rotting thing was diminishing, and he felt no desire to wallow in the pain that occurred whenever he sought to move.
His jutsu was almost perfect. After countless years of study and experimentation, he'd finally managed to crack the gates of heaven and snatch immortality. He had the power of reincarnation in his hands, and he was perfecting it every time. But even one as prideful as he had to admit it had its flaws; the time duration was an unsavory, but necessary flaw, one he had hopes to correct. But, had he bonded his soul closer to this body than it might have lasted longer, but would have prevented him from leaving it for even longer then the three year duration.
In a moment of anger he lashed out, knocking a collection of vials and unguents from the desk next to the bed, ignoring the biting pain that coursed through his body as he moved. This shouldn't have been. He should have had the power of the sharingan by now, and the secrets of true immortality should have been his! But three times it had been denied to him. To him! It was unfathomable!
His head snapped up, staring at the wooden door to his bedchamber, a sudden snarl crossing his face. There had been no sound, but there hadn't needed to be. Even with his body in this state his senses were not dulled.
"You little bastard!" He rasped, just moments before a brilliant spear of light pierced the wooden frame of the door. Orochimaru threw up his hands in a defensive reflex, gasping as it pierced both his attempt to block and his lung, numbing tendrils of electricity shooting through his system.
The door came apart, diced into tinder. It fell to reveal Sasuke, sword in one hand and crackling power of chidori eisou in the other. Three black tomoe swirled over blood red orbs, aura of almost palpable malice bleeding from him. But, both shockingly and insulting to the pale snake-nin, Sasuke had not activated the Cursed Seal of Heaven that sat on his neck. Orochimaru strained to exert his will over it, but with the subjects will reinforced by the binding seal that circled it, such attempts garnered nothing but more pain for the most fallen of the sannin.
"I regret to inform you that I must dissolve our working relationship, Orochimaru." Sasuke said with a wicked grin. "My reasons are both personal and professional, I'm sure you understand."
"You think you can beat me, boy!" Orochimaru barked, eyes beginning to glaze over as they did.
"Think? I know. You're weaker then me, Orochimaru. There is no reason for me to give you my body any more. How pathetic, the lauded genius that was one of the Sannin, brought this low. You couldn't get Itachi, so you tried for me, but in the end, you're just nothing compared to the Uchiha.
"You wanted our power so bad, so you immersed yourself with foul medicine and stealing other peoples bodies. For all your supposed genius you're nothing but a spoiled child; a pathetic little thief of other talent. It's disgusting!
"And for what reason? You want to tug at the threads of existence, or unravel the logic of the world, or however you want to say it. You toy around with people like they were toys for your amusement, such a stupid and selfish reason."
A sound like the chirping of birds drowned out all other sounds as Sasuke fell silent. He stood, holding the crackling spear still as a memory flashed before his eyes, rousing greater anger from inside of him.
"You make me sick!" he shouted, spitting out the words as if they were poison. And, without another word, Sasuke threw himself forward, glinting silver of his sword slashing out. He thrust the blade forward, aiming to pierce Orochimaru between his eyes.
Orochimaru threw his mouth impossibly open. Moments before the blade impacted, an equally impossibly sized object shot from it, covered in slime, landing with an foul squelching sound a few feet from the bed. Sasuke looked over his shoulder with contempt.
"A white-scaled snake. How fitting of a true identity." Sasuke said, barest hints of red beginning to flood his cursed seal. "You're not even human anymore, just a beast to be put down!"
"Now… Sasuke-kun… your body…" Orochimaru hissed in return, bringing his massive form up to full height. It was true, he had become utterly inhuman; a massive snake, four-fold the length of a man, covered in thousand of snakeheads in place of scales. Orochimaru's maw dripped with a foul ichor, and his silted eyes focused down upon the Uchiha with untold malice and greed. He reared back to strike. "Give it to me!"
Sasuke vaulted to the left, tucking and rolling as he hit the ground. Two of the snakehead-scales hissed and shot off from the body, growing from it as they sought after Sasuke. The Uchiha lashed out with his blade, slicing through the pair and showering the room with thick, dark blood.
The beast reared up again, howling incomprehensibly. Dozens upon dozens of the heads began to shoot out, rearing up all the same, eyes all focused upon their much wanted prey. It was a crucial mistake.
"In the end, you're nothing but a snake that crawls around in the dust and dreams of flying." Sasuke said, defiance in his eyes even as the creatures filled the room around him. He grinned. "You've become so inhuman that you can't even understand people at all, Orochimaru. Pathetic."
Rage filled hissing drowned out all sound. The white snakes swarmed over Sasuke, wrapping around binding him completely. Orochimaru began to cackle, as he watched, mad joy filling his eyes. What a fool the boy was, to challenge a being such as him!
He was caught with total surprise as the pink crystals burst from the writhing mass of snakes, severing heads from bodies and dicing the snakes by the dozens. Orochimaru howled in pain and anger. Sasuke hadn't stopped grinning, even as the bodies cleared to reveal a pink crystalline shield.
Sakura was crouched at the shattered doorway, hands flat against the ground. She was grinned even wider than Sasuke was, marveling at the success of her handiwork. A crystal had formed around her beloved Sasuke-kun, diamond hard. She hadn't stopped there, however, allowing wild crystalline spires to grow from the geode. And, just as fast as they'd formed, the crystal growths shattered away.
Sasuke leaped up, blade flashing as he went for the kill.
Hinata's eyes grew wide as chakra flooded through them, veins around their edges bulging. Her byakugan had grown in power remarkably, particularly because of this sort of training that she'd been doing with Naruto for some time now. Thoughts of the blond-haired ninja made her face flush even more than it already was as she remembered his earlier boldness, and she felt as though she could fly.
He had kissed her. HE had KISSED HER. No matter how many times it ran over in her head, it never got old and she never seemed to come down. The world seemed brighter, the future clearer, even as it filled with a host of new unknowns. But even these unknowns were ones she was looking forward to, many causing greater blushes on her young face.
She shook herself, as her mind drifted to one such thought for the dozenth time, cheeks burning. Hinata forced herself to focus on the exercise had hand; Naruto was waiting for her, after all. Her perception shifted, extending outwards as she scanned the forest for over half a dozen kilometers in all directions. Unbeknownst to her, a strange symbol flashed across her eyes, and she felt her perception tugged onto a specific point.
A frown crossed her face as she watched a red hawk swoop down and pluck a wounded white snake from the grass, disappearing into the sky. What a strange thing to notice…
Hinata cleared her mind again and refocused. After all, she reminded herself once more, Naruto was waiting.