Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and its characters. M rated scenes and proofreading credits goes to Shirahane Aikawa, thanks a lot to her help and kindly read her stories here in this site as well.
Chapter XXXIV:
"What do you think about this mission, the gang back together again?" Naruto asked with much enthusiasm in his voice.
Sasuke didn't bother to reply he just kept his focus on the mission.
"I wonder how Hinata-chan keeps up with this attitude of his." Suddenly an idea pop in his head and Naruto smiled wickedly as he walk ahead of the raven and catches up with the girls (mainly Hinata).
"Hey Hinata-chan will you do me a favour and giggle."
"What?"
"Please I just want to tease Sasuke-teme there he's so serious."
Hinata looks back to Sasuke with his usual scowl in his face.
"But…"
"Please…" Naruto whined pouting.
Hinata sighs before giggling.
"Dobe!" Sasuke said glaring at Naruto's back.
The group composing of Shino, Sai, Tenten and Lee scouted the nearby villages and asked questions about the attack. Sai who has been scouting the land from above decided to join the others on foot.
"They are strong all of them, they attacked at night destroying one house from another killing anyone in their way asking us where we are hiding this certain someone and they have this unique set of eyes." A village elder said.
"Who is this someone they are looking for and what unique set of eyes they have?" Tenten asked softly to the village elder.
The elder closed his eyes for a short time terrified just at the thought of remembering the eyes of the killers, "Their eyes have a blue pupil surrounded by blue and white flower like iris."
Sai who listens to the description given draws the said unique set of eyes.
"We should report this back to the second team when we regroup with them." Shino suggested.
"Hai." His team said in unison.
Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata scouted the road ahead going to the Hidden Waterfall Village and when the pathway was clear for them to pass, they called the rest of their team and they proceeded towards the waters where they have to dive and swim to the underwater cave. Upon reaching the underwater cave they will have to walk through craters of three deep holes of water, where only one of those craters will lead them to the Hidden Waterfall Village.
Thanks to Naruto and Sasuke's past mission in the said village, navigating through its treacherous waters is not as hard as it look for them. However upon reaching the village no words can describe the scenes of devastation before their eyes, the former glory of the Hidden Waterfall Village as Naruto and Sasuke remembered is totally eradicated. The once giant holy tree surrounded by the majestic clear blue waters is now gone and cut into two.
The stench of blood and burning wood is prominent in the air and it doesn't need the advance sense of smell Kiba and Akamaru have to know what lies underneath that smell.
"This is…" Hinata wasn't able to finish the sentence the destruction on the Hidden Waterfall Village was just too much almost the entire village is devastated.
"Argh this is inhuman!" Naruto growled.
"Shut it dobe just do your task." Sasuke said in an emotionless voice although he is actually seething inside.
"Oh I will do my task and beat the people responsible to a pulp." Naruto huffed.
"Troublesome… Just look for clues for now and be prepared for anything that could happen."
Before they could even reach further into the village, a man blocked them who has ink blank eyes with long dark brown hair wearing a forehead protector with his village symbol and shinobi status. His grey pants are stained with blood so are his green shirt with his shoulder pad is almost destroyed from too much fighting.
"Who are you and what are you doing in my village? Are you here to finish what you've started?" He asked in a raised voice.
"We are a Shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village, we're sent here to investigate the recent attacks occurring at villages near the Leaf Village."
However Shibuki is not convinced he can't be too trusting after what just happened, not when the children's lives hangs in the balance.
"Take them on!" Shibuki screamed summoning the remaining able Shinobi of his village.
"Wait old man, can't you remember me and Sasuke?" Naruto asked almost pleading. "We we're once assigned to escort you back to your village five years ago don't you remember?! We even fought alongside you when Suien-bastard tried to force you to give him this Hero water thing from you…"
"What?" Shibuki said unclear of what the blond was saying (It's been a long time so he forgot about it) "Just shut up!" he then turned to his men, "What are you ALL waiting for? Finish them!" Shibuki screamed and his remaining men prepared to attack.
"This is not good, defend yourselves everyone." Shikamaru ordered. "But don't hurt them!"
With a smirk Sasuke easily sends a shinobi into his genjutsu rendering him unconscious.
Shikamaru just blocks and evades the attacks being sent to him.Why would he sent his men to attack us can't he see our forehead protector?
"Are you playing with me because I am weakened?" The shinobi Shikamaru is fighting said and produced a water ball jutsu in his hand sending it to Shikamaru.
Shikamaru already anticipating the attack easily performs his shadow clone jutsu on the shinobi and forces it to sleep.
Hinata uses her byakugan well to send her opponent unconscious after hitting some pressure points in its arm.
Kiba, Akamaru and Choji fared well against their opponents so are Sakura and Ino who easily defeats their enemies.
Naruto who was facing Shibuki was not doing anything against the village leader he just dodges his attacks.
"Stop it old man we are not you enemies."
"Argh!" Shibuki growled and tried to deliver a roundhouse kick to Naruto's head, but his leg wound he sustained from fighting the destroyer of his village re opened and he forcibly withdraw his leg, grabbing it as he lay on the ground whimpering in pain.
"Old man…" Naruto said with concern and reached Shibuki.
"Damn it! Take my life instead just let the children live." Shibuki said through pain.
"We won't hurt anyone in your village Shibuki-sama, we are here to investigate and help any way we can." The soft voice of Hinata reached the leader's ears and calmed himself.
"I…"
"Sakura heal his wounds." Shikamaru said.
Sakura nodded and followed as instructed.
After healing Shibuki and rousing his remaining shinobis and healing their wounds, Sakura and Ino attended to the injured.
"There are too many needing medical help, can you summon Katsuyu?" Ino asked as she focuses her chakra to her palms to tend to her patient.
"Yes." Sakura answered and walked to an open area to summon the great slug Katsuyu.
"Sakura san you summoned me."
"Hai, I need your help Katsuyu, there are too many people injured needing medical help."
Not needing to be told twice, Katsuyu divided herself into smaller sizes to attend to everyone injured in the village.
Kiba, Akamaru and Hinata searched for remaining survivors in the village with Naruto Sasuke and Choji close behind them.
"Help me lift this." Hinata said as she tries to lift a column that fell down on a man's knees.
Kiba, Choji, Naruto and Sasuke helped in lifting the column that they managed to lift with their combined strength.
"Thank you." The man said weakly due to his rapid losing of blood.
"Can we still save his knees?" Naruto asked.
"I'll try." Hinata used her byakugan to somehow stop the bleeding from the knees by hitting some vessels in his knees however the nerves are too much damaged to save his knee.
"…"
"It's alright you all tried your best." The man said weakly.
"Let's carry him back to Sakura and Ino." Choji suggested.
Naruto helped Choji carry the injured man.
"So that's what happened…who is it they are looking for did they mention any name at all?" Shikamaru inquired taking note of everything Shibuki said to him.
"No they didn't mention any name those sick bastards." Shibuki said with resentment.
"Anything distinguishable on the attackers markings, looks?"
"Their eyes…with some sort of dojutsu I am not sure."
"Eyes? What did their eyes look like?"
The search continued where Hinata renders first aid to survivors they could find with Naruto, Choji and Kiba carrying them back to Sakura and Ino to be healed by Katsuyu, while Sasuke searches for any clues left by the attackers with Akamaru trying to get just a whiff of scent of the attackers to find where they went to next.
The search was strain full for Hinata as dead bodies are more prominent than survivors.
"This too much Sasuke-kun…" Hinata said with exhaustion from using her byakugan for a long time now and seeing the devastation of the village in its full vision and the dead bodies everywhere.
"I know." Sasuke replied.
"Wait." Hinata said after seeing a still breathing man a few meters from where they are.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked.
"There is someone there in the river. Akamaru call Naruto."
The large mutt barked in agreement and run to fetch Naruto.
Sasuke and Hinata walked towards the river where they saw a man barely breathing wearing a white kimono hugging a log floating in the river.
After dragging the unconscious man out of the water, Hinata checked for his breathing and his pulse.
"He's barely breathing and his pulses are deep and shallow."
"Meaning?"
"He must have drowned or something I need to perform CPR on him." Hinata said with determination.
"No way I will let you do mouth to mouth breathing on him." Sasuke said in a raised voice the sight of his wife doing mouth to mouth to any man except him will never be allowed by him.
"But…"
"I'm here." Naruto announced and rushed to where they are.
Sasuke shoved Naruto on the unconscious man.
"What the heck teme."
"Do CPR on him."
"What?"
With Hinata's knowledge and guidance Naruto was able to do CPR on the man with a look of disgust on Naruto's face after every mouth to mouth breathing he's giving on him, and when the man finally chocked out the water he ingested Hinata breathed a sigh of relief.
"We should bring him back to Sakura and Ino to check on his wounds and other injuries."
"Come on Sasuke help me carry him."
Sasuke helped carry the man begrudgingly.
"Who is this where do you find him?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously upon seeing the wounds in the man they carried.
"We found him by the river."
"Do you know him is he one of you?" Shikamaru asked to Shibuki who looks at the man with interest.
"No he isn't one of us."
"Leave him be he could be one of the attackers for all we know."
"I agree with him, if he isn't one of the citizens here then he should be one of the attackers." Sasuke said agreeing with Shikamaru.
"Not you too Sasuke, he could just be a visitor caught up in the conflict it wouldn't harm us if we help him."
"Hinata-chan's right, he's still a human being and must be saved." Naruto added.
"Whatever." Shikamaru said and left.
"He needs help we found him at the river." Hinata said to Sakura.
"Of course lay him at the bed. I'll check on him." Sakura ordered and Naruto and Sasuke carried the man at the bed. "He looks like Sasuke-kun." Sakura thought upon seeing the man's dark raven hair and pale skin.
"Hey Hinata eat this you look exhausted." Choji said handing over chakra pills to her.
"Thanks Choji." Hinata said as she eats one chakra pill.
"Shino and the others are here." Naruto announced upon seeing their other friends.
"Anything useful?" Shikamaru asked to Shino.
Shino gives the sketch Sai did and told him about the information they gathered at nearby villages.
Sakura wiped her sweat from her forehead after healing the man who is currently suffering from hypothermia, broken ribs and wounds all over his body.
"Do you think he'll make it?" Ino asked.
"I don't know I've done everything I can it's up to his will to live now."
"How is he?" Hinata asked with concern.
"He's barely alive Hinata I've done everything I can."
"Is this familiar to you?" Shikamaru asked to Sasuke and showed him the drawing.
"No I haven't seen it before."
"We should report this back to Kakashi."
When Shikamaru saw Sakura and Ino left the tent where they tended to the injured man Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata carried with them he talked with Sakura.
"Any markings on him, eye color?"
Sakura closed her eyes remembering any distinguishable mark she saw on him, "Yes, he has this unique tattoo at the nape of his neck and for his eye color... I dunno the guy is still asleep…"
"Tattoo what kind of tattoo?"
"Cross with daggers surrounding it."
"You seem to have taken interest in him." The cold voice of Sasuke interrupted Hinata's thoughts.
"Sasuke-kun, it's not like that I'm just concerned with him."
"Hn."
"Shikamaru wants us to return to Konoha now." Naruto said when he called Sasuke and Hinata.
"Finally." Sasuke muttered and walked out.
"Naruto I need your favour."
"Anything for you Hinata-chan."
"Are you sure about this we will be getting into trouble for this." Tenten said upon hearing Naruto and Hinata's plan of bringing the stranger back to Konoha.
"He's barely alive and we can't leave him here alone since Shibuki-sama doesn't recognize him he could be imprisoned when he wakes."
"Just do it I'll take responsibility for this don't worry, we can keep him in my place and ask for Ino or Sakura's help in treating him there secretly." Naruto said.
With a heavy sigh Tenten performs complicated hand signs to hide the stranger inside one of her scrolls.
"Thank you Naruto, Tenten."
The trip back to Konoha went smoothly with Naruto, Hinata and Tenten acting as if they are not hiding anything.
Shikamaru reported back to Kakashi every information they gathered that he collated.
"This is interesting, a unique set of dojutsu unknown to anyone I must research about this." Kakashi thought deeply.
"Wait you did what?" Ino asked in a scandalized manner.
"Keep it down Ino you will bring us into trouble with that big mouth of yours."
"Fine…where is he?"
"You've been spending a lot of time out of the house lately." Sasuke said after noticing Hinata always leaving early and returning late afternoon.
"Ano…"
"You bring him here didn't you?"
Hinata fiddled her fingers she knows Sasuke will be mad if he knows about what she did.
"Don't worry I won't tell Kakashi, but starting today I'll come with you whenever you visit him."
Hinata smilled at him and nodded.
"He's healing well but we need Sakura's expertise in broken bones for his ribs." Ino said after healing the stranger.
"The many people who know about this the more suspicious it will be." Sasuke said.
"But we need Sakura's help, Naruto will you tell her about this?"
"Sure thing Hinata-chan leave it to me."
Shikamaru and Ino are eating at the Yakiniku restaurant. It is rare for them to have a date like this despite the fact that they still have an ongoing mission (to do)
"You've been disappearing lately and Naruto seems to be cooped up in his apartment are you guys hiding something?"
"No." Ino blatantly denied.
"If you say so." Shikamaru boringly said as he eats a piece of meat.
"Oh no Shikamaru can't know our little secret he'll be mad about it and report us to Kakashi-sensei." Ino thought worriedly.
Later that night after eating, Ino said her goodbye to Shikamaru.
"This is unusual for you…" Shikamaru said startling his fiancée.
"W-What are you talking about Shikamaru…" Ino said nervously, it couldn't be that Shikamaru already discovered their secret?
"Usually you kept on wanting me to walk you home well not that I would let you walk home alone…" Shikamaru said while rubbing the back of his neck.
"W-Well yeah I-I have to go shopping today w-with Sakura s-so got to go…" Ino said as she hurriedly walk away.
Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, "Shopping? At 10:00 pm…"
"I think he's waking." Naruto said upon seeing a small twitch in the stranger.
Slowly the stranger stirred from his slumber taking a look around his surroundings.
"Where am I?"
"You're in my home here in Leaf Village."
"Leaf Village? Argh." The stranger grunted in pain at his massive headache.
"Here drink this." Sakura said handing over medicine and water to him.
"Thanks, I don't know why I'm here…"
Sasuke looked at him suspiciously.
"We found you at Hidden Waterfall Village where you are nearly dying and bring you here back with us." Hinata said softly.
"What's your name?"
"Shin…"
The voice of Shikamaru startled the people inside Naruto's apartment, "I see so this is why everyone is acting really weird."
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites and to those reading SH. I hope you all like and enjoy this chapter and I have to admit it is hard to write in the hot summer weather here in the Philippines. Kindly leave a review about your thoughts. Oh and before i forgot the OC Shin belongs to my beta reader Shirahanae Aikawa, I also changed my user name from kumagers54 to apolakay54 since kumag in Filipino language doesn't mean good. I also changed the summary of SH. Anyways expect a lot of fighting scenes for this next season of SH.