I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

Italics means thoughts.

"Italics with quotes means conversations with Kurama."

Race Between Enemies

Hinata opened her eyes slowly and groaned as the pain in her arm flared again. The only good thing about the pain was that her arm had been reset so it hurt slightly less than before. She was pinned to a wall by the same threads that held Kakuzu together. He told her that he would take her heart once he had finished with her then he would take Naruto's. She seriously doubted that he would be able to take Naruto's heart but she wasn't very excited about him taking hers and she wasn't in the mood to watch him hurt Naruto whether he would succeed or not.

Once Kakuzu had reached the hideout he and Hinata currently occupied, he had pinned her to the wall, then had shredded her clothing. Then he had spent an hour using a kunai and acid to torture her for his own enjoyment. Naruto could have arrived by the time he started had he known where to look. Hinata wasn't even sure she knew where they were herself.

Kakuzu walked into the room and drew a knife. He also pulled a jar of acid out of his cloak and smiled.

"This time I'm going to have all day to enjoy myself," Kakuzu said. "And when I'm done, I'll enjoy myself a lot more before removing your heart."

The way he said it insinuated that he didn't mean by torturing her. Hinata gulped as he removed the cover on the acid jar and dipped the knife in it.

"Ingenious this acid," Kakuzu said. "Doesn't effect metal in the slightest. Burns organic matter like nobody's business, though. Oh, well, I guess it is your business."

With that, he stabbed the knife into her arm and the acid instantly began to burn her. The pain was beyond any and all imagination. It felt like Kakuzu was using razor wire to cut the flesh off of her bones. Kakuzu pulled the knife out and walked back to the acid. This time he poured some into a cup then walked back over to Hinata.

"Such a shame to have to cause such a beautiful woman such pain," Kakuzu said running a hand lightly over Hinata's cheek then down her neck and cutting her shoulder. "The pain can stop if you agree to some terms of mine."

Before she could say anything, Kakuzu poured the acid into the cut. She screamed and the pain grew until it completely eclipsed the previous pain. He skin began to dissolve as did anything else the acid touched. Finally Kakuzu poured water onto the acid and washed it away.

"So," Kakuzu said. "What do you say?"

"You haven't said what you want yet," Hinata said.

"Ah yes," Kakuzu said before slashing Hinata's cheek leaving a shallow cut. "You would have to leave your village and become my...bride, of sorts."

"Never," Hinata said.

Kakuzu sighed then walked over to a fire place and started a fire. Then he set the knife on an anvil so that the blade was over the fire and stood. When the blade was glowing red he picked it up and walked back over to Hinata grinning evilly, even though she couldn't see it through his mask.

"You sure you don't want to reconsider your answer?" Kakuzu asked.

Hinata spit in his eye. He wiped it away and drove the knife into her side in a non-fatal spot.

Naruto jumped from one branch to another searching high and low. Fifty feet to each side, two more Naruto's did the same. Fifty feet beyond them, two more. The line of clones was over fifty miles long consisting of hundreds of Narutos. The real Naruto was dashing around anywhere his clones missed in Sage Mode so that he could sense Hinata's chakra or even Kakuzu's. He had been searching for nearly an hour and a half when he finally found them. Kakuzu had used a transportation jutsu so Naruto had lost him. Now Naruto could sense them on the horizon. He could also sense that Hinata was in pain so severe that he doubted she would recover fully.

He released all of his clones just as he exited Sage Mode. He swore and began moving toward Hinata at full speed but he knew he couldn't move fast enough. Then he remembered something Choji had given him when he had gone on his training with Jiraiya. He pulled it out and grimaced. It was the same set of three food pills Choji had used during his fight with Jirobo. He didn't have very much body fat after training with Jiraiya so the pills may not help much. He opened it and ate the first pill. He stumbled when the pain first hit then adjusted and sped up. He moved at ten double his normal speed and pushed on despite the near debilitating pain.

Hinata screamed yet again as the glowing kunai cut her skin and burned her for what had to be the fiftieth time. This time, when the pain was at its peak, Kakuzu poured some acid in and the pain rose to a level previously unreached.

"Impressive," Kakuzu said. "Most would have black out by now. I'll offer one last time. Will you accept my offer?"

"Go to Hell," Hinata said. "Better yet, untie me so I can do it myself."

"There's a little fight in you," Kakuzu said pointing at her with the kunai. "I like that."

"Then you're gonna love me," Naruto said appearing behind him.

Kakuzu drove the kunai into his forehead and Naruto disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Looks like we're almost out of time," Kakuzu said. "Guess we should start the main even. It's about time."

Kakuzu removed his cloak and reached for his belt but stopped and smiled.

"As much as I would love to get started," Kakuzu said. "I want to enjoy it a bit more. I think I know just the way."

He let her fall from the wall only to lift her with threads and mover her toward the fire.

"Now I can enjoy myself both ways at the same time," Kakuzu said.

He again reached for his belt but before he could even reach it, a chukato sprouted from his chest and his eyes widened. In his surprise, he dropped Hinata into the fire. She screamed and Naruto threw Kakuzu aside then lifted Hinata out of the fire receiving a few burns himself in the process. He lay Hinata on the ground carefully and took in the extent of her injuries. Naruto was beyond happy that he hadn't had to use either of the other pills but now he had almost no energy left.

"I need help," Naruto said.

"Let me see," Kurama said then whistled. "That looks like it might sting."

"No duh," Naruto said. "What do I do?"

"Medical Ninjutsu," Kurama said showing him what do do mentally. "Here, use my chakra."

Naruto did as Kurama showed him and his hands began to glow green. Hinata's wounds began to mend themselves slowly. He focused on her more serious burns, like the ones she got when she fell into the fire. Once that was fully healed, he moved on to the wounds that had been done by acid. Then he healed the wounds done by the heated kunai. Finally he healed the remaining wounds. The one on her cheek left a faint scar and so did all of the other cuts. The burns from both the fire and acid healed perfectly though. Finally Naruto finished healing her and she began to stir.

Hinata opened her eyes and saw Naruto's face covered in fear and worry. The first thought that jumped into her mind was that Kakuzu had ruined her clothes. She blushed bright red but saw the worry on Naruto's face deepen.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked.

Hinata nodded and sat up wincing at her still broken arm but staring at her completely healed scars.

"Oh right," Naruto said. "Broken arm."

He healed that in a moment and she stared at him in surprise.

"How do you know Medical Ninjutsu?" Hinata asked.

"A friend showed me," Naruto said then glanced at Hinata's body. "We should probably find you some clothes."

He handed her his jacket and coat then stood and helped her up.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked again worry still cemented on his face.

"I'm fine," Hinata said forcing a smile that did nothing to ease Naruto's worry. "Thank you for saving me."

Naruto nodded then hugged her. She hugged him back smiling and they stayed like that for a time.

"Next time I tell you to run, run," Naruto said.

"Okay," Hinata said.

Naruto pulled away and saw that Hinata was crying slightly so he gently wiped her tears away. She smiled then they wordlessly turned and began to head back to the Leaf Village to get her some clothes. As they traveled, Hinata noticed that Naruto seemed to be in pain and asked about it.

"Choji gave me some food pills a while ago and I had to use one to reach you on time," Naruto said. "One side effect of the pill is pain."

Hinata nodded and they continued in silence for a while until it got too dark to continue. They stopped and Naruto set up his tent. It was the only tent they had an it was barely big enough for two people.

"You get some sleep and I'll keep watch," Naruto said.

"You need rest too," Hinata said.

"I'm fine," Naruto said.

"Liar," Kurama said. "We're both running on empty. Just share the friggin' tent with her wuss."

Naruto bit back and argument and sighed.

"You need rest," Hinata said again. "You can have the tent. I'll be fine under the stars."

Just then, thunder rumbled in the distance.

"We'll share the tent," Naruto said. "You go first."

Hinata nodded and walked over to the tent but simply lay on top of her sleeping bag rather than getting in it. It was warm out, despite being about to rain.

After a few minutes, Naruto got up and went into the tent after stashing their swords in a log to keep them mostly dry. He also lay on top of his sleeping bag and lay facing Hinata. She was laying back to him and he could tell she wasn't asleep even though she was pretending to be. Naruto Tried to focus on the fact that he had been able to save her from death but his mind kept moving back to what Kakuzu had been done to her because he had been to slow.

"Hinata," Naruto said.

"Yes Naruto?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Please try to be more careful from now on," Naruto said.

Anyone he had said that to in a normal tone of voice would have been offended but his tone was far from normal. There was pain, worry, sorrow, guilt, and even regret in his tone.

"I don't know what I would do if..." he trailed off but she understood perfectly.

He doesn't know what he would do if I died, Hinata thought finishing the sentence. Naruto's worried about me. And he's in pain because of what happened. I think he even feels guilty.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah?" Naruto answered.

"It wasn't your fault," Hinata said. "I was the one that was too slow to beat Sasori."

Naruto knew she was right that it wasn't his fault but that didn't change anything about how he felt. Hinata knew he wasn't going to answer so she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Naruto closed his eyes as well and slipped into several nightmares all happening at once. All of Naruto's nightmares were of Hinata being tortured and then killed by Kakuzu. At the same time, Hinata was having a nightmare that was simply an instant replay of the torture. While they slept, Hinata scooted closer to Naruto and Naruto pulled her against himself. Then both of their nightmares stopped and Hinata fell into a dreamless sleep while Naruto began to dream of something better than any dream he could remember.

THE END

Read and review. I feel horrible for the way I made Kakuzu treat Hinata. I love Hinata and apologize for her treatment.