Chapter 5: A Race Against Time

Sakura frowned as she made her way back to the Ichiraku stand as Hinata had quickly made her way back home with her gift. Her frown only deepened when she saw Naruto was already leaving the stand and waving to Teuchi before walking off. He caught sight of her and smiled but Sakura's frown only deepened.

She stood in front of him, her hands on her hips.

"Why would you do that?"

Naruto stared at her questioningly, a blonde brow arched in confusion, "Huh? Do what, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura was up close staring up at him with disapproval until she realized he honestly hadn't known what he had done. She faltered and let her arms drop, as well as her head, in defeat.

"Naruto… you really can't you see it?" Sakura asked as she looked up at him again, her seafoam green eyes attempting to convey something she suddenly didn't want to say.

Naruto's cerulean eyes were staring down at her and he was once again noticing the way her hair turned an almost orange color in the light of the evening lamps that had been turned on and the way he had to look down at her now as she spoke. She had her brows drawn as she asked him a question about seeing something. But for the life of him he couldn't understand what she was talking about.

"Naruto, you're really going to have to improve on your social cues" Sakura gave him a weak smile, not wanting to argue with him over something he had no clue of.

"Huh? Social what?"

"Nothing! I'm heading home" Sakura stated as she walked off to the direction of her apartment.

"Hang on! I'll go with you!"

"No thanks, you just make sure you get home!" Sakura waved her hand off as she continued walking without looking back but not before she heard his "Aw man." She couldn't help but smile as she recalled the other times she had turned him down when they were kids. But she also realized how more often than not he would immediately start walking in her direction. Since he would never officially ask during those times, she would never turn him down. Sakura couldn't help but wonder if he was already aware that he was walking her home or if he had found a loophole through her rejections. The latter frightened her more than the probability of whether or not he was actually oblivious to social cues.

Naruto walked back to his apartment at a leisurely pace, the chill of night bringing a calm that matched the calm he felt as he walked. Everything seemed right for the most part, yet he couldn't shake the past conversations from Sakura.

What do I have to see anyway, ya know?

Naruto sighed at the confusion he felt, but it was short lived as he saw Hinata in the short distance. She seemed to be talking to herself and holding a bag out, practicing for something.

"Hinata?"

Hinata squeaked as she quickly put the bag behind her, her face flushed from nervousness and embarrassment.

"N-Naruto!"

Now or never…

Her pearlescent eyes which had quickly held determination seemed to falter just as fast once her eyes lowered to the scarf he currently wore around his neck.

"That's a lovely scarf…" Hinata said with a hint of sorrow in her voice.

She noticed his eyes immediately softened, "Thanks... it's really special to me."

"I see…" Hinata felt her throat closing and the lump that was forming seemed impossible to swallow at this point; to make matters worse, her stomach grumbled loudly although she had no appetite, so she did the only thing she knew to do in that moment.

She turned and ran.

"Hey Hinata! You don't wanna come upstairs and have some ramen?!"

She could hear him call after her, but she didn't bother to turn to him, she couldn't as she felt her tears beginning to stream down her face. She only stopped running once she found herself in a children's playground and sat on the swings to continue to cry, her head hung low.

I'm too late… of course I'm too late.

"Why are you crying? You're ruining your scarf."

Hinata's tears immediately stopped as she looked up to the direction of the voice and met with a man dressed in white. His eyes were closed and he wore a soft smile, but this man radiated a powerful energy that she knew was not normal.

"Who are you?" Hinata asked cautiously, her hands subconsciously gripping her scarf. But this man's smile didn't falter, even as he spoke.

"My name is Toneri, and I have come for you"

Hinata seemed upset, and Naruto tried to wrack his brain trying to figure out what he had done wrong, but he needed answers as well. He continued to run in the direction that Hinata had headed and could have sworn he heard a woman scream.

Hinata would have to wait, someone was in trouble.

Naruto followed where the scream was and to his surprise, it was Hinata being held by a man dressed in black, while a taller man dressed in white had pushed a glowing bubble into her rendering her unconscious.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, you bastard?!"

"A meteorite? How strange… imagine if it would have hit Konoha?" Tenten asked as she studied the large crater on the outskirts of Konoha the following morning.

"Yes, the destruction of a meteorite can pose a danger to the surrounding areas. We must stay vigilant and protect Konoha however we can." Rock Lee stated as he clenched his fists at the thought of any danger.

"Hanabi was abducted from the Hyuga compound last night." Kakashi began as soon as everyone had entered his office. "This will be a four man cell assigned to the task to rescue her, Shikamaru will act as your commander. Hinata will be joining the mission per request." Nothing ever truly went unnoticed to the Copy-nin, and Shikamaru's subtle reaction to this news was no different.

"Shikamaru, there is a possibility that Toneri is the one moving the moon. He is the one responsible for kidnapping Hanabi, her rescue may lead to two missions, depending on whether or not our guess is correct." Kakashi continued.

"Your hand please," a man said as he made his way over to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru raised a brow at the man who had stood behind Kakashi, seemingly having waited for the perfect opportunity to move, then his eyes moved to Kakashi, the question went unspoken but Kakashi merely nodded in approval. Shikamaru held out his hand and once he had, the man formed a seal and created a disc with characters on it.

"What's that?" Naruto asked as he tilted his head in curiosity.

"It's a special clock that all five Kage currently have. Essentially, it's the countdown for Earth's destruction." Kakashi said as he stood and made his way to the five man squad.

"That sounds a little far-fetched don't you think? I mean, we haven't come across a bigger problem than Kaguya since the Fourth War. Besides, why would we take Hinata when he was after her?" Naruto asked as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Naruto, you dealt with Toneri and his attackers personally. You should know by now not to underestimate your opponent. As for Hinata, I have my suspicions that he will be making his presence known wherever she is."

Naruto remained pensive but gave a nod of acknowledgment all the same, not wanting to hinder the meeting further.

"Report whatever you can and we'll do our best on our end to defend the villages. You head out immediately to begin this task."

As soon as Kakashi had concluded the meeting, the five man cell set out to begin packing for the mission.

Sakura looked at herself in the mirror, tugging her red qipao and adjusting the black garment around her waist in place as she slung her pack to her shoulders. She opened her door and was slightly taken aback to find Naruto on the other side, his hand up as though he were about to knock.

"Hey Naruto, what's up?" Sakura asked as she watched his hand drop to his side. She noticed his mission clothing consisted of his trademark orange pants but he wore a black jacket with a red arm band on one arm and his sleeves rolled just below his forearms; he certainly looked the part of a more mature version of himself. He wore a serious expression on his face, one that seemed foreign to Sakura when he wore it outside of missions.

"Just wanted to see if you were ready… and…" Naruto trailed off, his blue eyes trailing down to her mission gear before quickly darting to the side.

"You were right" he said as he stared off at nothing in particular.

Sakura arched a delicate pink brow, "right about what?"

"… I shouldn't have let her walk home last night. If I hadn't found her when I had I don't think we would have set out just to find Hanabi."

"Ah" Sakura said as she felt a slight twinge in her heart at the mention of Hinata, quickly recovering and feeling guilt pooling in her stomach instead.

"Believe it or not Naruto, you don't have to come by just to tell me I was right." Sakura said as he stepped aside to let her close her door.

"I already know I am when it comes to you." She said with a smile and a wink as she walked ahead, leaving him to watch her back, a smile forming on his features as he went to walk beside her.

Shikamaru watched as another meteor passed by, leaving a trail in its wake until it landed, an explosion in the distance.

"We need to move quickly, everyone, we'll be searching from the sky, the sooner we can try to locate Hanabi, the sooner we may find Toneri. Naruto, you and Hinata will travel together, if Toneri tries to get to Hinata again, she'll have you nearby."

"Got it!" Naruto said as he climbed the ink bird Sai had created.

It was very subtle, but Sakura could see the very faint pink that painted Hinata's cheeks before she climbed the bird as well, her arms wrapping around Naruto's waist as the bird began to take off. Sakura quickly looked away as she climbed her own bird, it wasn't the time to think of silly little things, they had a mission to complete and quite possibly, a world to save.

TBC

A/N: The mission has begun! I just want to get these next few chapters done since my outline has just been sitting there. Apologies for the late update I am trying to stay afloat in my studies and the past couple of weeks have been very busy! I will try to update another chapter as soon as possible as soon as I can write it out. I will be skipping some scenes from the canon work because I am not trying to get flagged here. I am still up in the air about whether or not I want to make this a rated M story but for now we will stay with the T rating unless stated otherwise in a different A/N. Or I may just make a separate chapter altogether and put it as its own story to maintain the rating of this one. This has yet to be decided, once again, I have an idea of how I want this story to play out, it's writing it out that I still need to work on! Reviews are always welcome but no flames! I would also like to note that not much will change from the story of the Last, NaruHina has to play out for this story to make sense but there will be small details added to start pushing the story in the direction of the pairing.