A Bewitching Dance

by Haerrlekin

When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful, red-haired woman with violet eyes and a warm smile. Oh, and a white void, but that was besides the point! In which Naruto fails to summon Gamabunta and goes splat in the chasm; Jiraiya did a whoopsie, Kurama is a jerk, and Hinata brings good vibes. Who knew that crippling, life-threatening injuries could feel so good?

16. Survival of the Fittest

Heya,

If this chapter comes out when I plan for it to, then Christmas was yesterday, so Happy Jesus-day to you all. I hope you all had a good day with family; maybe got some dope gifts and all that. Me? I drank a ton and got fucked up, then had to go to work the next day.

So I'd say it was great.

I'm trying to keep my pace consistent but reasonable, which means chapters should generally be coming out every other week, twice a month.

Last chapter we left on some spicy activity, so let's see how all of that plays out, and where our story goes from there.

Enjoy.

---

Sasuke's general tolerance for Sakura sat on a pretty unsteady spectrum. On some days, she was alright; on others, he really just wished she'd leave him alone…

Still, for all of Sakura's many flaws -at least as far as Sasuke was concerned-, one boundary that she had never broken was breaking into his home.

So despite his initial fury, he'd been inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt when she all but kicked his door down, early in the morning, and dragged him out of his house. She'd only just given him enough time to don a shirt and some shoes before marching him along to visit Kakashi in the hospital. Amidst his pink-haired teammate's breathless babbling, the Uchiha survivor was able to glean that their Jonin leader was in critical condition.

Now, for all of the issues that Sasuke may have had with certain members of his team, he did care. Which was probably why he'd even let her drag him off in the first place. Fast forward a bit, and that left the two of them sitting awkwardly on one of the waiting benches of the intensive care unit.

"None of our efforts have done much to revive his consciousness. I'm afraid he's entirely unresponsive," One of the present doctors had mournfully updated them.

Kakashi's strength and competency as a shinobi was an objective truth; he'd seen it firsthand. Sasuke knew exactly how potent and resourceful that the man could be, which begged the question:

What kind of monster was dangerous enough to put a man of Kakashi's caliber so thoroughly out of commission? That question had gnawed at him so all-encompassingly that he'd barely even acknowledged Sakura as she sobbed into his chest.

"We need to send word to Jiraiya-sama, Asuma!" The voice of Team Eight's Jonin leader caught Sasuke's ears, and before he could even think to stop himself, he was eavesdropping. "They all need to know that those two are on the move!"

"Kurenai, do we even know where they are? Even if we did, sending a message too recklessly might be exactly what Akatsuki is waiting for; for all we know, they might track any messenger we send and have it lead them right to Jiraiya and the kids."

"They're headed to Tanzaku town!" A huff. "I'm sending Gai as backup."

Sasuke startled. Akatsuki? Jiraiya? Naruto had mentioned a man by that latter name a few times, while they'd trained together. It was familiar, though he couldn't tell where from.

Whatever, that wasn't important. What was important was that Naruto hadn't come to train with him in the last few days, which meant he was likely one of the kids Team Ten's leader was mentioning. Judging by the sound of it, someone or someones were after the boy.

Which meant it was suddenly his business.

Just as Sasuke was about to approach them and demand answers, the woman's next words made his blood run cold.

"You saw what that man did to Kakashi; the doctors aren't even sure if he'll ever recover from that genjutsu… God, to think that the sharingan was capable of doing something so terrible; there's no way the kids will be able to handle something like that!"

Genjutsu… Sharingan…

All at once, Sasuke was a kid again. The world was a twisted perversion of his childhood home, dyed in black and white, and washed with blood that felt all too real. The space around him roiled about, nauseatingly, and Sasuke watched, almost drunkenly, as his loved ones were murdered in front of him.

His aunt's throat was opened, spilling her life messily across her apron.

A cousin, younger than even he was, then, collapsed to the ground in a pool of her own filth, a brace of shuriken piercing the meat of her back.

Two young men, little more than civilians, desperately tried to bar the door to protect their little sister; they were sent crumpling back as the door was kicked off its hinges. Then a boy, only just a teen, cut them down with soulless crimson eyes. The little girl, barely more than a toddler, whimpered as the boy before her, who had once smiled so kindly at her -who had once seemed so gentle and safe- buried the business end of a kunai right down to its hilt, right between her eyes.

Sasuke's own mother and father, Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha, slumped together in a pile of blood and limbs.

Right in front of him.

Dead. Everyone dead. Everyone he had ever known and loved, killed-no, butchered like pigs… All at the hands of one man.

Itachi Uchiha.

Sakura squawked in surprise as Sasuke suddenly tore himself free of her grasp, sending the girl stumbling to the floor.

"S-Sasuke!? What's gotten into yo- Sasuke! Where are you going?" Sakura whined in confusion as her crush barreled away from her, his eyes tinted a crimson of his own. Not far from Sakura, the two Jonin startled to attention, both going pale with realization as the last Uchiha sped away from them.

"Hey, Uchiha-san! Hold on!" Asuma called out to him, stumbling to his feet. He waved, staggering back onto his seat as his wounds reasserted themselves. Kurenai rushed to steady him, only slightly better off from the man.

Sasuke had no words for any of them; there was no time for talk. Itachi had returned. Itachi was after Naruto.

He was back to take from Sasuke again, just like all those years before.

Unacceptable. He wouldn't have it! Not again!

"Never again!"

---

When Shizune had been accepted as the sole apprentice of the Tsunade Senju, she'd been overjoyed. Tsunade the Slug Sannin, granddaughter of Hashirama Senju and unquestionably the greatest medical ninja in all of ninja history; the fact that someone with a resume as extensive as hers had taken an interest in Shizune of all people -well, Shizune had been flying high on that pride, neighboring somewhere between ecstatic and out-of-her-mind manic with joy.

Years later, and much of that pride remained, even if sometimes she wished her mentor would explode.

Repeatedly.

Oh, she loved the woman with all of her heart. The two had long-since shared a special sort of bond, if not for their medical history together, then for their shared relationship with the late Dan Kato -Tsunade's lover and Shizune's uncle, respectively. Perhaps that was exactly why Tsunade had chosen her in the first place, each being the last connection the other had of Tsunade's late lover.

Some people might blanche at the thought of getting such a prestigious role like apprentice to one of the Sannin, through nepotism. Shizune had no complaints.

Well she did, but they had little to do with the 'nepotism' thing.

More to do with her raging alcoholic of a mentor who had just finger-flicked the bartender through a casino wall.

"I'll drink until I say I'm done, you limp-dicked bastard!" Tsunade roared, drunkenly. "Now pick your ugly ass up and bring me s'more sake, or I'll flick your nuts next!" She let loose a loud, ugly laugh that was entirely at odds with her flawless face and physique.

Really, for all that Shizune admired the woman, she would've been far more envious of the woman's sheer beauty if not for her gorilla-like behavior. That, or the fact that much of her youthful splendor was all the part of an elaborate transformation.

"Oink!" Nestled under one of her arms was Lady Tsunade's pet pig, Tonton. She crossed her tiny front limbs across her body, turning her head up and snorting at her master's behavior. "Oink, oink oink!"

'You said it, Tonton...'

"Oi, don't sass me, you ruddy pig!" Tsunade jeered back at them. She turned back to the object of her attention, a large, colorful slot machine. "This time for sure!"

All around them, the audience was Lady Tsunade's most recent tantrum had begun to shrink back from her, many within the crowd looking torn between ogling the seemingly oblivious woman and making themselves scarce, so as to avoid becoming the bartender's twin in misfortune.

A series of chimes went off as Tsunade pulled the lever of the slot machine, followed by a loud 'bzztd', which caused the woman to laugh.

"So close!" Tsunade made to take another swig of her drink, but only found reason to whine; not a drop came from the porcelain bottle. Comically, she stuck her whole tongue through the rim of the bottle, trying to wring the last few drops of drink before giving up with a groan.

"Hey, asshole! I said bring me another drink! Asap! Pronto! With haste! Expeditiously- hurry the hell up!"

"Erm- Tsunade-sama… I don't think he's getting back up." Shizune wrung her hand against the fabric of her black kimono, stewing in discomfort at the scene her mentor had created.

The man who she'd just assaulted did not stand from the pile of rubble that Tsunade's thoughtless flick had buried him under. The only sign that he was even alive was the agonized groan that wheezed from his lungs, her victim fighting for every breath he tried to take.

"Hehe whoops, I think I broke him." Tsunade at least had the grace to look vaguely embarrassed. "Guess men these days are built like plywood… Shizune, that's gonna be a 'six-one'. Be a dear and patch him up for me, will ya?"

A six-one. Otherwise known as six broken ribs; one ruptured lung -not two, that was a '6-one-squared'. The fact that she'd been able to clock exactly how many ribs she'd broken just off the sound of his wheeze was a firm reminder that Lady Tsunade was every bit the master of her craft that she claimed to be.

Even if she wished the woman would just not assault the innocent, albeit pushy bar-staff. Or at least keep a better handle on her monstrous strength.

Meekly, Shizune set Tsunade's ninja pig down. "Please make sure she doesn't get any worse, Tonton," Shizune pleaded to the little pig, sighing in relief when said pig gave her its best approximation of a salute.

Tonton was the reliable sort.

Rising from her seat, Shizune moved to repair the man her sensei had broken, muttering gentle apologies to the barely conscious victim.

"I am so, so sorry about all of this. She's normally a lot better than this- er, it's the anniversary of her- well, I guess it's not my place to talk about all of that. I'm really sorry!" Diligently, Shizune pieced the man's ruined ribs back together, divesting his mangled lung of bone shards and stitching it back together.

For all of the trouble that Lady Tsunade tended to bring everywhere she went, the fruits of her tutelage were plain as day to see. It took only minutes for the man to be patched up to a point that he was completely out of the woods. A few more, and he was good as new. As he finally roused himself to consciousness, he weakly glanced past her toward the blonde bombshell that was her mentor; she had stolen a glass of wine from a cowering old woman, chugging the whole thing like it was a common beer.

"Please never bring her here again," The bartender pleaded. He clutched at the sleeve of Shizune's kimono, pulling her closer. "Dear god, please. Never again."

"Sorry," Shizune mumbled, her embarrassment laid bare for the man to see. "I'll- uh… I'll see what I can do."

Just then, another chime went off, and both heads turned to regard the blonde Slug Sannin, who had begun shamelessly dancing in place. The slot machine she'd pulled had already landed on one 'lucky seven', now rapidly cycling for its last two draws. A second chime sounded, indicative of a second seven, and Tsunade did a pirouette, throwing herself onto a table and flailing about with an unorthodox grace that was completely contrary to her sloven drunkenness.

Shizune sighed, ready to hear the 'Legendary Sucker' get humbled yet again. Her heart dropped down into her guts as a third and final 'ding' went off, signifying a massive cash prize.

"WOOHOO!" Tsunade cheered, launching herself from the table and dragging two gasping men into excruciatingly tight headlocks on either side of her. Then, shoving them both away, she ducked down to scoop up a whining Tonton and began swinging her through the air. "I won! Shizune we won! We're Rich with a capital 'r'; which means drinks are on me tonight!"

The crowd roared at the news, with the tense silence caused by her earlier show of force being completely overtaken by her cheer.

Beneath Shizune, the bartender grinned. A cash prize usually meant he'd have an influx of business over the coming weeks; usually suckers from neighboring towns, trying to harness the leftover 'sparks of luck', or whatever nonsense. That business would easily be worth the cash prize and then some. "I guess today wasn't all that bad after all, huh?" Then he looked up, intending to share the joy with the young woman who had healed him, only to stop short. "Y-you… Are you alright?"

An ashen-faced Shizune tore her gaze from the cheering Tsunade and gave the man a shaky smile. "Oh… Oh! Yes, of course! What great news!"

---

The town they'd chosen as a rest stop was a welcome departure from the typical leaf-greens and dirt-browns of the rough wilds. Even Naruto, frantic and impatient as he had been the last few days, had breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of an actual shower.

He'd turned down the last few spots, albeit far more politely than the first time. However, the breaking point had been the overly pushy crow that kept trying to make a nest in his hair, one morning.

"How long are we staying here, Pervy Sage? We've gotta keep moving, ya know."

Clearly though, their haste was still the only track on his mind.

"Keep your panties on, twerp. We'll spend the night and resupply. We're out again first thing in the morning." Jiraiya chanced a pat on the boy's head, noting with silent pleasure when the kid merely let it slide with little more than a grumble. "One of my contacts is actually in town here. I can get an update; see if we can catch up with Tsunade on the road."

"That's an interesting way to say 'go perv on a bunch of onsen chicks and street whores', ya know." Naruto gave the man a long, unimpressed roll of his eyes.

"Ah-ah-ah, you mean studying the artistic beauty of onsen ladies and respectable, business-minded women," Jiraiya corrected him, cheekily. He wagged a finger in Naruto's face chidingly, jumping back with a grin as the boy haphazardly swiped at him.

"Oh, that's rich, coming from you!"

"Hey, just because I'm a pervert doesn't mean I'm not a feminist." Jiraiya's grin widened even further as Naruto scoffed.

"Well I hope for their sakes then that your ugly ass tips well."

"Hey, I'm not ugly, I'm quirky, and I'll have you know I tip handsomely." Jiraiya took Hinata's stifled giggle as a win, even as Naruto rolled his eyes yet again. Scribbling quickly on a tiny notepad, he tore the page away and stuffed it in Naruto's hand.

It was a cartoonish drawing of a toad with a coin in its mouth.

"Take that to Higurashi's Inn & Massage in the west district. Give it to the pretty lady at the front whose name I forgot and tell her to put it on my tab. Er, also, don't tell her I forgot her name. A-anyways, that should be good for a standard single dorm room and a hot meal, both on me. If you want a massage though, that's coming out of your own pocket." Then, he wiggled his eyebrows at the two, a grin threatening to split his face as Hinata's own lit up with realization.

"Yeah, unfortunately, you kids are gonna have to share a room. I'm sure you'll be fine with that eh, kid?"

Groaning, Naruto crumpled the note to stuff in his pocket, only shortly after retrieving it to fold it neatly instead. "God, can you go like- I don't know, five minutes without being weird?"

"Nah, I'm weird down to my bones!" His grin lasted just a moment before Jiraiya suddenly sobered up. "Look kid, I need you two to be super careful here, alright? Don't go anywhere with anyone unless they can tell you the name of the first toad you ever summoned."

Jiraiya looked them both up and down, then frowned. "Conceal your identities. Just- well, just don't take any dumb chances, alright?"

"Uh- okay?" Naruto frowned for a moment, his eye subtly glossing over as he extended his senses. Then his eye widened and he paled, a touch. A deep breath, and hard amethyst stared back. "Got it. We'll be alright."

Good. He understood.

Jiraiya left the two, and Naruto wasted no time. He grabbed Hinata's hand in a grip that was just short of being uncomfortably tight. "Come on. We need to move." Without waiting for a response from the girl, he began to drag her off, his face set in stone.

"Um- w-what's going on?" It was rare to see him so thoroughly disturbed by anything. The expression on his face though…

"Two massive -and I mean massive- presences are fast approaching town," He whispered to her, steel in his tone. "One of them has chakra that is comparable to mine at my best. The second dwarfs us both many times over. We're not sticking around to find out who they are or what they want."

Ah. Suddenly his worry made plenty of sense. Hinata offered no further questions as he pulled her with him into a busy crowd. He twisted the fingers of his free hand together and she watched with awe as his form shifted with the flow of the masses, taking on the visage of a brown-haired young man with a messy bun and a plain face, save for two shallow scars running through his brow and lower lip. He was taller than before, with even his clothes shifting in their shape and color to better accommodate him; a simple gray tunic with what looked like faded oil stains at the hem; olive-green trousers with the legs rolled up; and a pair of well-worn straw sandals.

She recognized several of the features he'd donned to have been picked carefully from the myriad crowd they'd waded through, contorting it all into a convincing amalgamate of them all.

She felt his chakra gently trying to creep over her next, from the contact of their joined hands. Surrendering to the feeling, she felt her body change.

"Stay close and don't let go of my hand," Naruto whispered. "We'll take shelter for the evening and see if they pass over."

Hinata swallowed heavily. "What is Jiraiya-sama really doing?"

"I'm not sure," Naruto admitted. "He could actually be getting an update. But- uh, I think he's trying to draw them away. There's a hopeful chance that it's just coincidence, but if they're coming for us, they're probably aiming for him."

"Or you," Kushina amended within. Naruto's tongue felt heavy in his mouth.

"Ah- will he be-"

"Don't know… I hope so. Uh- we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Her disguised boyfriend looked back at her, his dull-gray eyes meeting her now-brown. "Chakra levels aside, anyone gunning for Pervy Sage is gonna be way out of our league. Let's worry about ourselves first; we need to disappear."

Mousy-brown tresses shook loosely as she nodded. "Understood."

The pair navigated slowly through the town, Naruto's grip on her hand never faltering for even a moment.

"I used to pull this one to make a clean break whenever I pulled a prank that I knew the ANBU would be on my ass for." Naruto grinned, his new scars stretching to fill a grin that was so him, even with his brand new face. "Iruka-sensei was the only one who ever managed to catch me, and usually only when I changed back or isolated myself… Shikamaru and I used to joke that Iruka-sensei had a pair of screw-in byakugan eyes."

Hinata chuckled, nervously. "M-my father would h-have a conniption."

"I bet… There it is." Not far from their position was a modestly sized building, a pristine sign reading 'Higurashi's Inn & Massage.' When they entered, it was just as Jiraiya had said; a youthful-looking woman with meticulously curled black hair and a beauty mark on her cheek accepted the note. She gave them a sweet smile, handing the pair a stubby metal key and sending them on their way.

"That'll be room three-oh-eight," She'd told them, warmly. "Room service will bring you this evening's special at seven, if that is amenable." The three exchanged polite nods and pleasantries, ultimately leaving Naruto and Hinata to climb the three floors and finally hole themselves up in their given room.

Thankfully, there were two beds. Hinata didn't think she could've survived the embarrassment, had there only been one to share. It was only after that thought had been quelled that she noticed Naruto's attention had been pulled elsewhere.

"W-what are you doing?" She asked as he stalked around the decently sized room, glaring thoughtfully at the walls.

A sigh. "I didn't want to bring this up until we were secured, but there is a possibility that they're after us."

"O-oh… You mean me," Hinata hung her head shamefully. She hadn't meant to cause them problems, but she damn well should have known something like this might happen.

He left off an undignified snort. "Either of us, actually." Naruto palmed the wall, his eyes snapping back and forth as he seemed to think. "Your pearly whites, sure. But I'm also the last Uzumaki, as far as I know. Many of the techniques that my clan were known for are baked into our dna, just like the byakugan is for you. Certain villages might want a piece of either of us; both of us, if we're really unlucky."

"You should mask your chakra."

Yeah. "Even weakened as they are, my reserves alone are gonna be a huge freaking beacon for anyone looking to sniff us out, assuming they have any sensory abilities. Yours too, actually." He gave an appreciative nod her way and Hinata blushed, shyly pushing her index fingers together. "We're in a city of civilians; we've definitely gotta mask ourselves."

Four of his chains crept out from underneath his poncho, metal barbs extending from each of the ends and fastening themselves to the surface of each wall. Molten red kanji bled from the points of contact, eventually winding all the way around to finally connect in one seamless sequence.

Humming in satisfaction, the Uzumaki boy humored her obvious curiosity. "It's a chakra-suppression matrix with a one-way gate, meant to keep our chakra hidden within the room. Chakra can get in, but not out." He took a second glance over them, just to be sure. "So long as it holds, I should be able to keep our chakra from leaking out of the room. That way, any sensory types should go right past us." Looking her way, he asked, "Do you have any more of those rubber balls Pervy Sage gave you? We're probably stuck here for a while; might as well get some practice in.

"B-but i-is it… Is it safe to use chakra while we're possibly being searched for?"

"We don't even know yet if we're the ones being looked for," Naruto rebuffed, a mask of optimism in place. "But yeah, it should be safe. So long as I retain enough chakra to keep the seal powered and we don't go overboard, any chakra we spend oughta be contained within the room. Er, just don't open the door or windows."

Hinata drew the blinds closed. "Just to be sure, then."

---

Kabuto had never bothered to hide any of the disdain that he felt for many of Lord Orochimaru's underlings. Barring a scarce few, many of them were either brutes or layabouts; the bottom of the barrel dredges that the Snake Sannin pulled during his hunt for the real diamonds in the rough with interesting abilities and sufficient mindsets, like Kimimaro or himself.

Of course, Lord Orochimaru didn't exactly value those brutes and layabouts beyond what they could do to further his goals, so if a few of them disappeared from time to time- well, his boss had made it perfectly clear that the occasional treat from time to time was perfectly acceptable, for his right-hand man.

Thus, seeing the Sound Four lose his lord's favor so utterly had made the young man nearly giddy with excitement. Once the Snake Sannin's treasured diamonds, they were quickly losing their value in his eyes, in light of their most fortunate failure.

Well, fortunate for him.

So, so very fortunate for Kabuto that any of the man's toys that he threw away were perfectly fair game for the Sound Village's premier spy and medical ninjutsu expert.

Thankfully, most of the four were meek enough in the face of Lord Orochimaru's earlier wrath that they all complied with his tests with minimal hesitance or prodding. Jirobo in particular had practically fallen over himself to give him everything he'd asked for.

Kabuto scoffed. Anything to regain their master's favor... Any fool with eyes could tell that they were on their way out the door; Lord Orochimaru was cruel and fickle, but he absolutely didn't torture the people he liked. He was a villain, not a mon- okay, he was that, too.

Well, not that Kabuto was complaining...

In any case, this all brought him to the one among the four who seemed smart enough to understand their situation, but too damned bold and stupid to keep her thoughts to herself.

"Quit looking at me like that, you fucking pervert." Tayuya's glare was vicious, and the vitriol that was bound to come from her tongue was even worse. Wanting to get ahead of it, Kabuto gave her an easy smile.

"I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot, Tayuya-san. I'm just trying to make sure Lord Orochimaru's- well, let's say his 'disappointment in you', hasn't left any lasting damage." He tilted his head to avoid the haphazard swipe she took at him, making a conscious effort to keep the resulting sneer from making headway on his face. "I'm just looking out for your best interests, I'll have you know."

"Don't kid yourself, jackass. You're not as clever as you think you are." Tayuya wrenched her arm free of his grip, stopping him from taking any more blood than he already had. "You've been treating us all like a bunch of lab rats since the boss left you with us, and I'm sick of it. So let's shelve the whole 'checkup' bullshit and skip to the part where you let me outta here."

"You really should be more thankful." Kabuto gave her another fake smile. "You were suffering from a severe case of nerve damage as a result of Orochimaru-sama's punishment- that is, before I went ahead and patched you up. As your dedicated medic, I'm obligated to make sure you're healthy before I give you a clean bill of health."

"Go ahead and dedicate these nuts in your mouth, you sissy bitch." Tayuya snarled his way, taking brash pleasure as his grin grew brittle. "You've had me here with my tits out while you make me dance around like your damn test-monkey. Hard pass! I'll take the nerve damage or whatever if it means I get to stay clear of whatever the hell you think you have in store for me." Shuffling to her feet, she threw her shirt back on with an air of indignance. "If Orochimaru-sama has a problem with it, he can come torture me again himself; I don't give a fuck."

Her tantrum done, she stormed off with a dark glare set in stone, nearly tearing his door off its hinges in her haste to get away from him.

"For the record, you're flat as shit," Kabuto grumbled childishly under his breath.

Really, did she have to be so crass? Once upon a time, Lord Orochimaru had adored the girl for her strong personality and youthful defiance.

"It's always the selfish ones who have the furthest to grow."

Now though, that her effectiveness was in question, her rebellion had grown tiresome. Where once the Snake Sannin had found her entertaining, now he seemed almost eager to be rid of her.

It was easy to forgive one's flaws when they were convenient or useful; Kabuto simply supposed that a broken toy just didn't have the same magic.

Another huff, then he put her out of his mind in favor of the two vials he had managed to get from her before her impatience had seen her leave.

She in particular was one of Lord Orochimaru's more interesting specimens. All the things he could learn from her, if his master would just give him the green light for a proper vivisection.

Ah, whoops. He was drooling, again.

Perhaps down the line, she'd screw up enough that her master would cut ties with her entirely; surely if he asked, Lord Orochimaru would hand her to him, himself, should such a time come.

For now though, a pittance of blood would have to be enough, he supposed.

---

The cacophony of their efforts sounded in their room, which had quickly begun to fill with bits and pieces of rubber as the day had dragged along.

"That's four and a half seconds," Naruto noted, twitching as Hinata's most recent 'bang' strew remnants of rubber flesh onto his hair.

"S-sorry," Hinata mumbled, a shy smile on her face. She padded forward on her hands and knees to relieve his lightening and lengthening locks of the debris. "That's got to be annoying."

"Nah," Naruto lied, easily as she grabbed another ball. "It's not that bad." Another explosion sounded, once again decorating him with another ball's corpse. "Okay, that one was on purpose."

Hinata giggled, chancing a grin his way. It was hesitant, like she expected him to suddenly decide that he was angry, after all. He grinned back, palming his own ball and letting it swell for a few seconds before a 'pop' of his own filled the room and covered her hair as well. Her shoulders loosened and her smile widened into something more sure of itself.

"Oh, you two are just adorable," Kushina cooed, within.

"Should we take a break?" Hinata asked him, tilting her head to let him relieve her of her own rubber adornments.

"We could. We've made tons of progress, so far."

When they'd started, Hinata had required a solid six seconds and some change to burst her balloon. Now, she was down to a more comfortable four. He was lagging behind a bit at seven, needing to pace himself a good deal more to avoid overstressing himself.

"Once you've recovered, you'll be much better off."

Still, both of their improvements were plain to see. By Hinata's own admission, the pain that had previously been associated with her efforts had dulled down to little more than a bit of soreness.

It made sense; the chakra points served as the entry and exit points, by which chakra could be manipulated. Frequently pushing their limits without causing lasting damage was bound to strengthen them.

The experience that she had with manipulating large concentrations of chakra had definitely put her ahead of him, even disregarding his own injuries. Still, the rasengan was a different beast when it came not just to control, but the sheer scale of output needed to sustain it. By his count, she could only manage a complete pop of the rubber ball five times before needing a break to mould more chakra, and that wasn't even accounting for the final and seemingly most taxing step, which she had yet to manage.

In his current condition, Naruto had only been able to confidently manage three-per-period before Kushina had warned him against overdoing it.

Still, the growth that they were experiencing, both in the potency and control of their chakra was plain as day.

"Um, your h-hair is changing again." Hinata's warning cut through his thoughts, reminding him to mind his transformation for what felt like the umpteenth time. With a soft huff, he took just the moment needed to reinforce it.

"Thanks." He did the same for her after spotting the blue tints bleeding back into her locks as well.

"A-actually, c-can I… Can I ask you something? Er- well, it might be a bit of a dumb question," Hinata warned. Once Naruto had smiled encouragingly at her, she licked her lips, which suddenly felt so very dry.

Really, why was she still so nervous? She knew down to her bones that he wasn't going to bite her head off for it.

A breath, then, "I thought your transformation was a physical one? W-why does it keep failing… Is it because of your injuries?"

"In a sense, I guess." How to explain this, Naruto pondered. "Okay, let me ramble a bit and we'll see if all this makes sense… So my shape-changing jutsu uses yang-release to transform my physical body, instead of the regular transformation, which naturally uses yin-release. The transformation we learned in the academy is just an illusion and doesn't actually have any physical parts, ya know?"

She nodded, and he twisted his fingers, showing her the hand seal he always used for it. "The shape-changing jutsu is a physical transformation that pretty much puts my body in this state of being 'unlocked', for lack of a better way to put it. I become like a fluid and I sculpt my shape to match what I need. It's why I can do stuff like make changes without having to dispel and recast the jutsu. It's also how I can shape my chains to do my formations; I'm really just changing their shape and manipulating them like I normally would."

Hinata frowned. "So we're just a liquid right now?"

"I guess? It's hard to explain, and I don't think I'm even explaining it correctly, to be honest. But the best way to put it would be that my shape becomes fluid and the actual act of transforming is just me changing the mold for it to fit in. Stuff like my size, shape, and even things like my voice, and gender all become flexible like this." To accentuate his point, his body changed to grow slimmer and more effeminate, indicative of his classic 'Naruko' appearance. Then he shifted again, to something larger, wider, and far more masculine. Showing off even further, he rapidly cycled between a myriad of forms, ranging from Jiraiya, to Iruka-sensei, to even herself. Extending his arm, he showed her his fingers; they lengthened by several inches, becoming something more akin to a grisly, gnarled set of claws. When he spoke, Kurenai's voice came out. "But the changes aren't true. They're all temporary and I need to keep reinforcing that 'fluid' state to make sure I don't slowly just meld back to what my body remembers." He shifted back to his disguised voice and appearance. "Normally it's whatever to just set it and forget it, but with my chakra so low it's not so easy to just do that, ya know?"

"So then how does your body remember what it was?"

He had a theory. Well, Kushina had a theory, but he couldn't quite say that. "Uh, I think it's like this: yin and yang chakra are two parts of a whole, and they kind of reinforce each other. The shape of our physical bodies need to be in line with the shape of our soul, and also our perception of ourselves. If they clash, then one of them needs to change to compensate, and I guess the body is just easier to change. Maybe yin-chakra is just weighed more heavily since it's technically made up of two things, versus yang's one. I don't know… But that's also why I couldn't just shape-change my chakra coils back to being one-hundred percent… I think. Even if my body could do it, my spirit has an impression of the damage and my mind remembers what I did to myself. I guess if I could somehow completely alter my perception of myself, I might be like- two thirds of the way there and my spirit might just change since I'd then have the 'majority vote' or whatever." A thought. "If I could somehow alter all three, then I could just reinforce all three into whatever I need and it'd be pretty hard to actually hurt me, I guess."

He was rambling, he realized. A surge of embarrassment started to rise until he saw Hinata's completely awestruck face.

"A-ah but that'd be like- super tough," Naruto rushed to clarify. "I'm not nearly clever enough to figure that kind of stuff out. I've got a whole two brain cells- one knows how to fight, and the other likes to make jokes." He laughed, throwing an arm up to rub the back of his head. "It'd be like looking left and right at the same time, 'cuz it'd require expertise in both yin & yang release- enough to use them both at the same time, probably."

Hinata didn't look deterred in the slightest. "But you can do it. Iruka-sensei said that Lord Second was able to use yin-release and yang-release at the same time. Why wouldn't you be able to figure it out?"

"Ah, well I guess it's definitely possible. My chains use yin & yang release, but the thing is: I don't really have to think much about how to make them. I just kind of… Do, I guess." Gesturing to the bracelet he'd made her, Naruto added, "Transforming my chains is easy, because they're conduits and most of what I do with them just comes down to instinct. Changing myself might not be impossible, but it feels pretty overwhelming to think about."

His girlfriend said nothing in response, but her wide, admiring eyes told him she would not be convinced against it.

She really believed in him that much… It was humbling.

"I-I guess I could try to figure it out, hehe…"

A polite rapping on the door took them out of the moment. Hinata activated her byakugan immediately, and Naruto followed up with his Mind's Eye technique.

All clear, they both confirmed to one another.

"No concerning signatures close by," Naruto whispered.

"It's the lady from downstairs; she has our meal," Hinata whispered back.

A further examination of the clock confirmed for them that it was exactly seven, and a secondary check from Naruto, pushing past their immediate surroundings, found no notable chakra signatures anywhere close.

He breathed a sigh of relief, rising to his feet and unlocking the door. "Heya. Thanks for the mea-" He stopped, suddenly going dead quiet.

Hinata shot to her feet. "Naruto-kun?" She went pale as she took in the placid expression that had taken hold of his features.

"Good evening, Naruto-kun. You're a hard one for my birds to track." A smooth voice sounded from the doorway. Each word, well-articulated, carried the faintest hints of a frigid undertone. "Will you step outside with me, for a moment?"

The boy did so in a daze. His transformation slowly began to bleed away from him, revealing his true features. Hinata realized with growing horror that the same was happening to her.

What's more, her boyfriend was a shambling zombie, trudging straight past the woman, who seemed to be just as dazed as he was. The air around them shifted, revealing two men in black cloaks with red clouds.

Ah shi- "Naruto-kun, no!" Before she could stop herself, or even really think about what she was doing, Hinata rushed out after him. She tried to grab his hand and drag him back, but froze in place as a massive body stepped in front of her. It was the larger of the two, a blue-skinned behemoth of a man, who leaned down until he was looming over her.

"Oh hello!" He gave her a sharp-toothed grin, and Hinata saw her death reflected in his jaws. "Hey, Itachi-san, is this one of those Hyuga kids? She's got a really nice set of eyes on her."

Itachi? Hinata chanced a hesitant glance at the man. Her eyes found crimson and her heart was paralyzed in her chest.

Sharingan eyes, just like Sasuke's, except they were so, so much more terrifying than the Uchiha boy had ever been.

"Don't mind her, Kisame. We're just here for the Kyuubi." Itachi looked over to the dazed woman they'd obviously used as bait. "Thank you for your service. You can go back to whatever it is you were doing."

The Kyuubi? What were they talking about? Another glance at Naruto confirmed for her that he was well and truly out of it. His posture was entirely limp and obedient, his visible eye entirely glazed over. Hinata could swear she saw a tint of red reflected in the lone orb, three tomoe eerily reminiscent of their aggressor's dojutsu spinning lazily in the boy's empty gaze.

"Well we got him, didn't we? Come on, at least let me chat for a bit. I love kids!" When the other man simply bowed his head, the giant shark-man looked back down to her. "Heya kiddo, what's your name?"

They were going to die. They were going to die if she couldn't buy them time. She needed to slow them down somehow. "H-H-H-in-ata H-Hyu-Hyuga… Sir?"

"Sir!? She called me sir! Hear that Itachi-san? I'm a sir to some people!"

"I'm very happy for you," Itachi Uchiha responded, absently.

"My name's Kisame. Now there's nothing you need to worry about, kiddo. We just need this little scamp for a bit and you can have him right back once we're done. Don't you worry your pretty little head."

Hinata looked between the three in front of her, the fear in her heart worn plainly on her sleeve. "Um, o-our guardian sh-should- well, I t-think he should b-be-back any m-m-moment now, if you c-could ju-just wait for him?"

A warning, and a bluff. Surely they knew Jiraiya was nearby, or they wouldn't be acting so discreetly, right? Perhaps the man's presence could scare them away…

"Oh you are just adorable!"

No dice, then.

Kisame reached down to pat her on the head, and Hinata's instincts screamed themselves hoarse at her. Before she could even think about it, she ducked on reflex, the sheer terror she felt just at his presence overwhelming even her desire to play along and buy time. "Doh! Alright Itachi-san, I guess we can go."

The two men turned to walk away, leaving the paralyzed girl to watch them go…

They were walking away from her. They were walking away with her boyfriend- with the boy she loved… And she was just standing there, watching. Why was she just watching it happen!? He needed her. She needed to move!

Naruto. Needed. Her. To. MOVE!

Her hand twitched, then suddenly white-knuckled a kunai; its point found purchase in the flesh of her thigh.

The pain was a welcome shock; it was a wake-up call that reminded her just how much she had to lose, and with it, Hinata was barreling forward before she'd even thought up a proper plan.

The bracelet that Naruto had made for her felt warm, and a vision popped into her head. Her palm on Naruto's back. He was obviously under a powerful genjutsu. If she could just touch him, she could disrupt it, and they could try to flee-

Hinata's world shifted, and pain blossomed in her chest as she smashed bodily into the wall. The massive, club-like weapon that had previously been oh-so-casually laid over Kisame's back had been used to crush her against the hardened surface, wringing every bit of oxygen out from her lungs.

"Hah! There you go; I knew you had some fire in you!" Kisame grinned, something almost affectionate dancing in his eyes. Then a haze of bloodlust settled just over it. "Let's see what you've got then, kiddo!"

Mercilessly, Kisame yanked the blade away, letting Hinata stagger down to her knees. Then he stepped forward, snatching her up by her hair and slinging her around. He smashed her face-first into the wall, the impact filling her vision with stars. Gripping her collar next, he dragged her along the wall, heaving her up like a pitcher before slamming her right back into the pile of rubble that her impacts had created.

Hinata screamed, partly to call attention to the scene, but mostly because it really, really freaking hurt!

Still, in for a penny, and all that… Reorienting herself through the pain, she wrapped her legs around the man's bicep and jammed a thumb into the flesh of his wrist. A surge of chakra flowed into the digit at maximum output; calling forth the training that Jiraiya had given them, she rotated and condensed the outgoing chakra and injected it into Kisame's chakra point, fully intending to grind clean through the man's limb and tear his hand right off. Her focus was a bit off in her haste, and her thumb snapped under the pressure of all that unregulated chakra, but her control was fine and the blow struck true, carving deeply into Kisame's wrist and showering her face and clothes with the man's blood.

"Woah! Looks like Konoha kids have teeth after all!" Kisame laughed as if he hadn't felt it at all as he stepped back to observe the mangled limb. It was hanging loosely by a few now-limp tendons. "Nice shot! My turn." He stepped forward and slammed his foot into her chest, pulverizing the debris behind her and leaving her to crumple under the rubble. She curled inwards, trying to protect her torso from any further damage.

"You really should've gone for the head though. I even went and gave you a free shot and you wasted it." Kisame frowned. "Word of advice kid, when given an inch, always take a mile." Then, he flexed his ruined hand and Hinata watched in disbelief through half-lidded eyes as it mended itself within seconds.

She was still trying to process that the man in front of her had just regenerated when he snapped forward again, palming her face with crushing force and yanking her up so that her legs were dangling furiously off the ground. She tried to lash out again to make him drop her, but this time found that her strikes couldn't even pierce through the massive blanket of chakra that was beginning to roil off from him.

Twisting around, Kisame once again smashed her headfirst into the wall, this time causing the girl to black out for a moment. She was woken rather roughly as the tip of his club slammed into her chest, crumpling her ribs like dry leaves. Hinata's ribs compressed and snapped inwards; they crushed themselves over her screaming lungs, like a yowling cat in a trash compactor. It was coal was burning in her sternum, so hot and fierce she thought it'd cook through her guts and kill her then and there! Then, he left her to slump limply to the ground, hacking and sobbing in pain.

"How many hits was that, Itachi-san?"

"Seven, if you count putting her through the wall."

"Seven, then!" Kisame slung his weapon back over his shoulder. "You're one tough bitch, kid! I like you!"

"Leave Naruto-kun alone," Hinata wheezed, her tone somewhere between a plea and a threat. She clawed at her surroundings, desperately hunting for strength in her legs that her agony seemed to be sapping away just as quickly. "He-he's done nothing to you. Leave him alone."

"Oh you poor girl, he your boyfriend or something?" Kisame cooed, patronizingly. "Girl, you have no idea what that little runt really is. If you did, I doubt you'd be so willing to throw away your life for him."

"I don't care!" Hinata sneered at him, her rage giving her the strength to drag her feet underneath her; she gripped the wall for support and staggered til she was mostly upright, even as the pain in her ribs made her want to keel over again and vomit. "I don't care what you think he is! Keep your hands off my boyfriend!"

With a loud belly laugh, Kisame threw his arms out. His whole body seemed to vibrate with an almost childlike excitement. "Alright then! Come on! Round two!"

"Make it quick, Kisame. We have places to be." The order in Itachi's tone this time was something that Kisame seemed less eager to test.

Her pain could wait until later.

Hinata rushed the man with a half-choked scream, her byakugan blaring so intensely that the veins around her eyes had gone scorching hot. Kisame stepped forward, intent on repeating his initial swat that had floored her so easily before.

It was faster than before, but she was ready for it this time. She slid under his lazily-made strike, bracing her feet underneath to find purchase in the wood floor. Kisame turned with his initial strike, making to slam his club down on her and pin her beneath its force. Hinata lept and tilted herself all the way back in mid-air, slamming an upside-down kick into the body of the man's club. Making use of the force they'd both generated, she kicked off from the wrapped weapon, throwing herself up to land firmly on the ceiling and launching a kunai with each hand.

The kunai were effortlessly deflected above Kisame, where the matching set of explosive tags she'd planted onto them sizzled for just a moment before detonating and raining rubble down on the shark-like swordsman. Before the falling mix of stone and wood had even fully reached him, Hinata shot off from her spot, gunning straight toward Kisame; she tilted just enough to avoid a spear-strike from the man, palming the flat end of his blade and hand springing over it. Flipping through the air, she ricocheted off some of the still-falling rubble to drop down right behind Kisame.

"A bit flashy, wouldn't you say?" Kisame chuckled, almost disappointedly. "Kids these days always forget their fundamenta- oh." His grin returned in full force as a heavy smoke rose up, obscuring his sight.

So she hadn't just been showing off; she had mixed smoke bombs among the falling rubble!

He was really starting to like this kid.

'Eight Trigrams…' This was her only chance to make a difference against this man! "Sixty-Four Palms!"

Hinata streaked forward into the billowing smoke, slamming her palm into the flat side of Kisame's blade. She danced around his retaliatory strike, raining blow after blow of her own on his guard as her sparks flew. She felt herself getting sick at the rattling sound in her chest, which she realized with some terror was the sound of her creaking ribs.

Again, she concertedly blocked the pain from her mind, instead focusing on the showering sparks. As she caught them, she began rotating and condensing all that heightened chakra in preparation. Sixty-Four strikes crashed into Kisame within mere seconds. Were she keeping track, she would've noticed that she'd far outstripped any of her previous records with the technique, even in spite of her injuries.

Even still, not a single one of her blows managed to make it past his guarding weapon…

But that was fine.

Her final blow sent him skidding back out of the smoke entirely unharmed; a moment later, it cleared, revealing her with a massive sphere of chakra building between her too-small hands. Her arms and knees both quivered under the sheer weight of it all.

It was also a giant, glowing beacon for Jiraiya.

"Oh?" Kisame learned forward, intrigued. "Now that looks interesting!" The bandages on his blade began to tear at the tip to reveal the blue-gray scales of Samehada. The blade bristled, its excitement growing as the sphere in her hands continued to develop. Kisame prepared his blade to counterattack as she rushed forward.

But he wasn't Hinata's target. She stopped just short of the man, feeling the rush of displaced air as the massive weapon swept just short of her head. Then she slammed the unstable sphere into the ground, letting it tear the floor beneath them asunder. Every person in the vicinity lost their footing and went tumbling down to the floor below.

Except for Hinata, who was prepared for it. Discreetly, she unzipped her sweater and began to move.

Itachi narrowed his eyes as he righted himself, and Kisame let out a genuine squawk of surprise before grinning again.

"Would you look at that!? You Leaf nin sure are a wily bunch!" He reached out, lightning fast to snatch Hinata by the fabric of her sweater as she once again ricochet off the debris and launched past him. Again, he let out an appreciative whistle as she readily slipped out of it, her fingers wrapping tightly around Naruto's wrist.

All of their feet touched the ground seemingly at once, surrounded on all sides by the rubble of the demolished third floor. Hinata channeled her chakra through him, a moment of triumph swelling within her. Naruto would know what to do, there was no one in the world as unpredictable as he was…

Why wasn't he moving?

Her heart dropped in her chest as her boyfriend continued to remain still.

"Well, you certainly tried," Itachi said, impassively. "A whole lot of effort for nothing, though. Disrupting genjutsu, even for another person, requires that you are able to interrupt their chakra flow. My sharingan genjutsu is more than sufficient to rebuff your efforts."

Every word was enunciated with a clinical intentionality, like he hadn't just sucked every ounce of hope out of her heart and stomped it to pieces.

A massive hand clamped down around her head, Kisame's terrifying grip threatening to crush her skull to bits. As Kisame yanked her head back to meet her eyes, his grin ever-present, Hinata's byakugan reminded her that Jiraiya was still at least a minute away, and all of the strength in her legs left her, seemingly for good, this time.

They were going to die before he reached them.

---

Complete paralysis, induced at a mere glance.

The two sharingan eyes were a dead giveaway as to who he and Hinata were facing, and Naruto really didn't like their odds.

Panic came quickly, and Naruto would've been cursing a storm within his head if not for Kushina's quick intervention.

"Focus. You need to get out of this as quickly as you can," Kushina's voice pierced through the veil.

That's right. He needed to control his emotions; he couldn't find them an out if he was too busy throwing a tantrum in his own head.

Deconstruct the enemy's technique and figure out a solution… Which led him to analysis.

Obviously, he was under genjutsu. He was aware, but his senses were restricted; his sight was blurry and his hearing muffled. He couldn't feel his limbs at all! Hell, even the passive chakra sensitivity of his mind's eye jutsu had been diminished to just a shadow of itself. Still, he was just aware enough of his surroundings to know the gist of what was going on, even if his body wasn't responding to his will in the slightest.

So Itachi had used his sharingan to hypnotize him, driving a wedge in the connection between mind and body, then using yin-release suggestion-genjutsu to take direct hold of the latter. Kurenai-sensei would've called it inspired. Naruto just wanted to punch the man.

If his senses were being restricted like so, then it meant that the yin-chakra flowing to and from his brain was being actively suppressed, like some kind of jammer to prevent his nervous signals from reaching the body.

Naruto knew from his lessons with Kurenai that doing such a thing was the work of great finesse and power. At their current range, Naruto could tell with certainty that Itachi Uchiha's yin-chakra eclipsed his own.

Which meant he was fighting an extra uphill battle, here.

"This is bad. The only way you're getting out of this is if you can slip his hold long enough to disrupt your chakra flow," Kushina advised him, her own voice sounding strained. Still, she spoke calmly, clearly trying to keep a lid on the worry she felt for him.

'Is it possible for you to disrupt it for me?'

"Unlikely." A pause. "Right now, it's all I can do just to keep your senses from being shut down entirely. The chakra you allocate to keep me here is only a small fraction of the whole, but it's still a drain on your reserves, and any strenuous actions that I take also consumes chakra; chakra which you don't have to spare. Anything that I could try doing would hurt you more than help.

Which meant he was on his own, from here. Judging by the commotion behind him, Hinata was obviously trying to buy them time, which hopefully meant that the Pervy Sage was on his way.

Clearly though, these guys weren't stupid; they knew damn well what she was trying to do. If they were humoring her like this, then it potentially meant that they weren't afraid at all of a confrontation with Jiraiya.

Looking between the red-eyed psychopath looming over him, and feeling the suffocating presence of the brute of the man who was currently thrashing his girlfriend, Naruto wasn't quite so sure that he liked their odds.

If he wanted to free himself, he needed leverage. Turning his chakra sensitivity inward, he isolated the mass of chakra that Itachi had injected into him. It was like a barrier of highly concentrated chakra, and his own yin-chakra was trapped within, separated from the rest of him.

Breaking free from the inside was a tall order; he needed to find a chink in the armor. Pushing against Itachi's own chakra with all of his might, he found the barrier to be every bit as solid as Itachi's confidence seemed to suggest.

Which meant he needed to make his own cracks. In a moment of inspiration, he recalled his rasengan training.

"Huh… Now there's an idea!"

Naruto said nothing back to her. Harnessing his yin-chakra, he began to condense and rotate it.

Hinata began to scream, and his focus nearly wavered immediately.

"Focus! Take that rage and harness it, but do not distract yourself! You'll probably only get one shot at this."

That's right. They couldn't afford for him to lose his head; not now.

Naruto's heart ached, yet he continued his machinations with iron focus. His rage was easy to find. Hinata was fighting tooth and nail to defend him, even though they would have left her alone if she'd just stayed out of their way! She was going to be killed trying to defend him if he didn't find a way out.

The mere thought of what that Shark-bastard was doing to her at that moment... His rage was building, and with his emotions, his yin-chakra began to rise, rapidly.

Still nothing.

Hinata slammed audibly into the wall and slumped, her body just short of broken. As the shark-faced man, Kisame, egged her on, she began to stand again.

Naruto felt her chakra fading rapidly, and his fury spiked again. He mastered it, condensing it further until he could envision a bead of chakra so dense his head felt like it would split to let it loose. The unstable chakra began to grind at Itachi's barrier.

He tried to command his body to move, but still it, no matter how viciously he tried to fight against Itachi's influence. In the eyes of the Uchiha killer, he was helpless; so terribly weak, compared to the monsters who were just freely toying with them.

All at once, he was back at the bottom of the ravine, broken and alone, just waiting in agonizing pain for his life to finally ebb away.

But he wasn't weak anymore. Not like he was, back then. He wasn't alone either.

Because Kushina was here now to offer him some much-needed guidance. Hinata was fighting tooth and nail for his life, knowing damn well she was going to die.

Fuck. That. Rage was just one of many emotions that were bubbling at the surface.

Fear at the thought of losing her.

Love, knowing that she was enduring all of this for him.

Determination to pay these cocksuckers back, tenfold, for what they had done to her; for what they likely planned to do to him, too!

This time, when his chakra spiked again, it continued to climb, growing faster by the second.

His eyes shifted, almost imperceptibly, his hatred for the two ninja before him boiling to the surface. The floor fell apart beneath them, and Hinata's palm touched him. His chakra shifted under her touch, but Itachi's hold did not break.

But it did waver, and Naruto seized the chance as the man's chakra lessened for just that moment, letting the mass he'd developed grind into Itachi's chakra without restraint. In his mind's eye, he saw the cracks beginning to form.

His finger twitched. Hinata missed it, but Itachi obviously didn't. His eyes narrowed, the weight of the man's hold growing so heavy that Naruto thought he was being crushed to death. But he pushed back even harder, refusing to give up the tiny shred of leverage that Hinata had fought and bled to give him.

Then he heard shouting.

"Itachi!" Sasuke stood at the far end of the corridor, his two-tomoe sharingan eyes glaring at the back of the man's head.

Slowly, Itachi turned to regard the boy. There was a gleam in his eye, something perverse- like affection, soured. Then his eyes panned back to Naruto, whose rising chakra levels had begun to grow problematic. The man's power came down on him again like a judge's gavel, but still, Naruto didn't buckle.

"Look at me, you piece of shit!" Sasuke punched the wall, his eyes still settled squarely on the tall, immovable form of his older brother. "I've hated you, despised you every day since you took them from me! I've stewed in it every second- every moment of my life, praying for this day! The day I get to see you die!"

Still, Itachi did not so much as look back at the boy. "Can't this wait, Sasuke? I'm a bit busy, you see."

Sasuke's eyes finally found something other than his brother, his glare shifting to something closer to horror as he took in Hinata, Kisame's massive hand now gripping entirely around her head; he took in Naruto's paralyzed form, Itachi's sharingan reflected malignantly in the boy's lone visible eye.

A thousand birds began to screech. The walls began to shudder and crack as lightning arced about, tearing a trench in the spot surrounding the now-hysterical Sasuke.

"YOU GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" The chidori was plunged into the wall, tearing up debris with increasing force as the lightning loosing from the boy's palm continued to climb in potency. The curse mark burst free from the seal on his neck and coiled over his flesh like its creator's namesake, its searing heat injecting Orochimaru's putrid chakra into his system. The lightning erupting from his palm tinted a deep purple color, surging chaotically in all directions. Then Sasuke threw himself at his brother, faster than Naruto had ever seen from the boy- so fast that it dwarfed even himself, at his best.

"CHIDORI!" The Uchiha boy's scream was fierce and watery as he plunged the violent ball of lightning towards Itachi's chest. The surrounding area detonated on impact and a hole was blown through the wall.

Where Itachi had effortlessly redirected his young brother's attack.

"I thought I told you not to bother me unless you had eyes like mine." Itachi's grip on his kid brother's arm tightened like a constrictor's coil, snapping his wrist with ease.

Sasuke screamed in pain, trying with all of his might to wrench himself free of the grip of his clan's killer. Itachi's fierce grip remained true though; he pulled the boy closer to him until their noses were barely touching. Something close to fury had emerged in the man's eyes.

"Oh, no. You wanted my attention? You've got it, little brother." He snatched Sasuke's other incoming fist out of the air with his other hand, snapping that wrist too like it was nothing. Sasuke's follow-up scream did not even get to make it out before a vicious knee smashed into his gut, causing him to spit up all over Itachi's pants leg. "Now look at what you've done." His foot slammed into Sasuke's chest; a crack sounded, and Naruto watched helplessly as his friend was sent careening back down where he'd come from and smashed spine-first against the wall.

"Woah!" Kisame chuckled, ironically. "I don't think I've ever seen Itachi-san look so heated. Hey, go easy on him will ya, Itachi-san! He's just a kid, pal!"

Itachi prowled toward the slumped boy, scoffing as Sasuke tried to find his feet. The latter could only fall back to his knees and vomit again.

Not him too...

'Leave him alone!' Naruto raged, within. His chakra raged against Itachi's grip like a wild dog, grinding into the man's chakra with viciousness. 'Don't you dare touch him! Don't you fucking touch him!'

"I'll stop you," Sasuke gasped, the delirium in his eyes hinting at a concussion. "I won't let you hurt him. I won't-" He gave up on trying to find his words in favor of stumbling forward with a scream. Itachi wrapped a vice grip around the boy's throat, causing him to choke. Then he hefted him up against the wall until they were eye-level.

"That's your problem right there, baby brother. You're still thinking about other people; maybe you should worry about yourself, for a change?" Itachi sneered, his eyes slowly shifting in pattern. "Remember these eyes? These are the eyes I told you to find… So long as you keep trying to come at me with that pitiful amount of hate in your heart, you're not worth another moment of my time. Tsukuyomi."

Itachi's chakra dipped and his focus waned, and Naruto made his move. The chakra he'd amassed detonated against Itachi's own, leaving massive cracks in the wall he'd built to keep him restrained; Naruto's chakra began to force its way through. One of his adamantine chains burst from his shoulder underneath his poncho and wrapped around his finger. His finger burned as it was snapped at the joint, and as the shock came, suddenly he could move.

At the same time, Sasuke let out an anguished wail, heavy-laden with a torment that was steeped down to the boy's very soul.

And Naruto's rage hit its peak.

"Itachi-san really is one vicious bastard, huh- Oh!" Kisame didn't get much farther as dozens of chains began to burst from Naruto's back, arcing about at numerous angles and impaling the surrounding area. He stepped away with a grin, letting the chains take his place and circle protectively around Hinata. On the other side of the Kyuubi jinchuriki, his chains began to dig through the surrounding walls, obscuring their vision from him and twisting against the surfaces to create tiny bulbs as they went before making a beeline toward Itachi, who merely glared his way with interest.

Amidst the chaos, Hinata saw Naruto's intact fingers begin weaving through hand seals before finally crossing into a familiar sign.

Itachi released the now-comatose Sasuke in favor of evading the bloodthirsty strikes of the incoming chains. He tried to catch Naruto's eye, but noted with some interest that the boy had closed them, preventing the killer from capturing him again with his genjutsu.

Itachi's eyes panned down to the boy's broken finger and he raised an eyebrow, the tiniest hints of a smirk peeking out from under his collar. "A bit crude, don't you think?"

Weaving around the chains with terrifying speed, he pushed forward, intent on capturing Naruto again. He paused, however, as the coiled bulbs of his chains unfurled, revealing a multitude of metal jaws in each.

"Shut up and burn, "Naruto hissed. From every one of the nearly one-dozen maws, a deluge of gold-red flames filled the space where Itachi stood, fully intent on immolating the man. As the masses of flame intersected on the man, the very space around them began to shift as the building heat burned the hallway to slag, stopping only just short enough to avoid cooking Sasuke as well.

Kisame's massive pool of chakra was fast approaching; without looking, Naruto directed a trio of maws behind him, curving around Hinata and shooting a combined gout of flame that had the remnants of that side of the corridor also crumbling down to ash. His flames parted, and a large, blue-gray mass with teeth snaked out from it, trying to take a bite out of him.

"Naruto-kun!" Her adrenaline surged again, her body seemingly recognizing the opportunity before even her brain had fully caught up. Byakugan once again on full blast, Hinata planted her palms against the ground, kicking upwards and diverting the trajectory of the creature. She cried out as one of its razor-sharp spikes extended, stabbing roughly through her foot. Still, her efforts bought the boy just enough time for him to whirl around and blast the creature directly with a fireball, which rotated and condensed in its mouth and before detonating.

With a screech, his target reeled back, looking unharmed but irritated. Its serpentine body coiled in anticipation, the ends of which leading back to an unperturbed Kisame.

"That's quite the firepower you've got there, kiddo!" He snorted shamelessly at his joke. "I guess I should expect nothing less from a jinchuriki; even Samehada doesn't want a taste of that fire-style." Kisame's shark-like grin widened as he took in the boy's slumped form. "You don't look like you're holding up well though. Are you sick or something?"

"Bite me!" Unable to help himself, Naruto hissed at the man, his teeth lengthening into daggers not terribly unlike Kisame's own. His ear twitched, and he whipped around as the ground burst just behind him, revealing a pristine Itachi. The Uchiha palmed a kunai and lunged, his precision allowing him to scrape the boy's face as he weaved to avoid it. The follow up strike was far too quick to dodge, and Naruto settled for sprouting chains from all sides; they formed a wall of spikes in front of him that threatened to impale Itachi against the wall, if not for his sheer speed allowing him to clear the threat unscathed.

Blood trickled down from the wound on his face, but Naruto paid it no mind in favor of Kisame, who had finally begun to form seals. As he did so, a small fly landed itself on his shoulder amidst all of the mess.

"You showed me one of yours, so I'll show you one of mine, alright?" Kisame blurred through seals at a speed that Naruto couldn't even begin to follow.

"Tiger, ox, dragon, hare, dog, bird, rat, dragon, ram. Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Juts-" He wasn't able to complete his technique before Naruto raised his own fingers in a one-handed tiger seal.

"Go to hell!" The fly on Kisame's shoulder detonated without warning, consuming the man's head in a condensed explosion that rocked his body and sent him stumbling.

"When the hell-" Again, Kisame didn't get a chance to even think before Hinata had blurred forward, slamming a kick into the side of his neck and driving him bodily into the wall with a muted burst of chakra. "Heh, nice shot!" He complimented her, now itching to pay her back as she finally fell prone. "My turn!"

As Kisame made to strike back against the girl who'd now gone completely limp, he startled in surprise, realizing he was unable to move. "Oh, now what!?"

"Now, you face me." Jiraiya's voice was unlike anything either kid had ever heard from him. There was a dark edge to it that utterly dripped with the man's fury. "Summoning: Toad-Mouth Bind." The walls around them began to change, taking on a fleshy texture. Kisame realized in an instant that the flesh-like growths had completely overtaken a portion of his body, buried as he was into the wall.

"Well that's no good." Kisame found that even his own immense strength was unable to easily resist the mass of flesh that was beginning to consume him.

"The inner walls of this toad's throat will be your grave. A fitting end for a pair of animals like you." Across from Jiraiya, the toad's stomach had gathered up Sasuke, and was now beginning to consume Itachi's feet.

A flash of a kunai, and Itachi managed to cut himself free in a flash. "Kisame, we're leaving!"

"On it, Itachi-san." Kisame stuck a tongue out in concentration, gripping his blade and wrenching his arm free just enough to try cutting himself free. He wasn't able to get far before Jiraiya rushed him, leaping up and smashing a powerful kick into the hilt of his sword to drive it deeply into the all-consuming flesh of the toad's stomach.

"Alright, none of that now!" Kisame released the weapon in a flash, using his now-free arm to shove Jiraiya into the wall across from him with crushing force. Snatching a kunai out of the air, sent his way by Itachi, he cut himself free as well before gripping his blade with both hands. "Alrighty Samehada, upsy-daisy!" With a massive heave, he once again attempted to rip the blade free before rushing to join Itachi; Samehada whined as he did so, a few stray barbs breaking off from its body so its master could finally wrench it out. "Out of the way kiddies!" Quick as a flash, Kisame barreled past Naruto and Hinata, completely overwhelming any efforts from either to even slow him down. His blade easily cleaved through all of the boy's chains, which he'd set to restrict his and Itachi's movements.

"I won't let you get away!" Jiraiya roared, slamming his palms down. The walls of the toad's stomach began to rapidly close, just as both enemy ninja rounded the corner.

There was a brief lull, then there was an explosion, followed by a wave of heat so intense that they felt it all the way from where they stood.

"Shit!" Jiraiya rushed past the kids and rounded the corner himself, his jaw dropping at the massive hole that had been burned through the toad's stomach.

The stomach of one of the fire-breathing toads of Mt. Myoboku…

At the edges of the hole, scorching black flames continued to mercilessly eat away at its flesh, as if taunting the very impossibility that that should have been.

---

"Woohoo! Now that was fun!" Kisame damn-near cackled as the two sped away from the scene. "That girl was pretty damn resilient, and the Kyuubi even went and broke one of your sharingan genjutsu. They really were something else, eh Itachi-san?"

"I suppose." Itachi shrugged, noncommittally. "What I want to know is why you saw fit to mess around so much with them. Had we simply left when we could, we'd be long gone with the Kyuubi jinchuriki, by now." A pause, then, "You never planned for us to capture the boy, did you?"

"And what, just hold onto him for a few years while we wait to nab the others? Seems like quite the waste of potential, don't you think?"

"Why do you care?" Itachi glared back at the man, his sharingan fading from his eyes.

"I already told you. I like kids!" As Kisame grinned his way, Itachi noted the faintest hint of suspicion in his eyes. "Besides, you sure as hell weren't complaining when you got a chance to beat the piss out of that baby brother of yours. I know you saw him coming long before he got there… If I didn't end up stalling us, you definitely woulda found some way to, right?"

When Itachi said nothing in response, Kisame let out a loud belly laugh. "Just kidding! Truth be told, killing a pair of kiddies just doesn't sit right with me. Let them get stronger and fatten up a bit, and I'll be happy to gut them, then."

Itachi sighed. "And if they get too 'fat' for us to take down the next time we see them?"

"Then I welcome it!" Kisame simply waved him off. "There's no joy to be had in a meal that doesn't fight back… And if Pain-sama asks about it- well, Jiraiya ain't one of the Legendary Three for no reason, eh?"

The conversation died down to nothing, and Kisame grinned to himself.

He sure hoped that girl went and got stronger. Maybe next time they met, Samehada would have a friend of its own to play with, too.

---

"Ugh, looks like they got away after all…" Jiraiya let out a tired sigh, looking back to Naruto and Hinata. "You kids okay?"

His blood froze in his chest, seeing the two children slumped down together. Naruto held a motionless Hinata tightly in his arms, close to a petrified Sasuke. He was damn-near hyperventilating.

"She just passed out!" He whined at Jiraiya, looking between the two for guidance. "What do I do!?"

Jiraiya doubted her most recent fainting spell was the result of her usual antics. He scrambled down to kneel beside the pair, hastening to press two of his fingers against her neck.

Her pulse was weak, but steady. Rubbing his knuckles against the girl's chest, Jiraiya just about flinched as he felt the damage.

"She's gonna be fine, kid. Just- well, she's just really fucked up, is all."

"She just passed out," Naruto muttered again. As Jiraiya looked into the boy's visible eye, he understood just how overwhelmed the kid must be feeling. "She- she passed- Those guys they- I mean they showed up all of a sudden and I didn't even sense them coming and so I opened the door because I thought it was the room service- then I looked into his eyes and I couldn't move and then Sasuke- then Sasuke, he-"

"Kid, kid!" Jiraiya placed his hands on his godson's shoulders. "Breathe. I'm here, kid. It's going to be okay."

"It's not!" Naruto snapped back at him, throwing the man's arm off him. He was shaking so fiercely, his terror plain to see. "I couldn't move and they were going to kill her! Sasuke showed up to help and his piece of shit brother did that to him! He isn't moving! He hasn't even blinked! Pervy sage, I can't feel his chakra at all!"

Oh…

Jiraiya chanced a look at the boy they were huddled near. His eyes were entirely blank; not an ounce of life seemed to ebb from his form. It was only when he hastily checked his pulse too that he was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"I don't know what's up with him, kid, but he's still alive, alright kid? He's still breathing!"

Naruto said nothing, instead gathering Hinata and Sasuke both into his arms. He clutched the two of them in a tight embrace, a choked sob shaking his entire body.

"I thought… I thought…" Naruto seemingly had no words left, and Jiraiya's heart broke seeing the boy in such a state.

"You saved them, darling."

'I'm the one that needed to be saved!' Naruto screamed, internally. 'If I'd just been more aware, Hinata wouldn't have had to get hurt bailing my stupid ass out of trouble!'

"You saved each other," Kushina pushed back, firmly. "Naruto, everyone makes mistakes. Moreover, you were being tailed by two S-ranked ninja far beyond your current abilities. You can't be blamed for being outsmarted by them."

'Then I should have been stronger! I should have been smarter! I should have done something, instead of letting them hurt Hinata and Sasuke! They're like this because of me!'

"You're putting too much blame on yourself," Naruto could just about feel Kushina's touch, a specter of her hand, trying to brush his tears. "It's fine to critique yourself, but you need to be fair; if the roles were reversed, and you'd been hurt trying to protect Hinata, would you hold it against her?"

Naruto had no response for that.

Jiraiya patted his head, comfortingly. "Hey, it's going to be okay, alright? Hey, look at me." Naruto struggled to tear his eyes off the two in his arms, as if afraid they would disappear once he did. Palming the boy's cheek, Jiraiya finally captured his eyes and smiled, warmly. "Naruto, it's not okay right now, but it will be. But in order for that to be the case, we need to endure, alright? If you ever learn anything from me, it should be this: a ninja endures, so that their comrades get to go home and their loved ones stay safe. You hear me?" He patted his cheek and stood. "It's going to be okay. We'll make it okay. But for now, I need you to breathe. Big one, kid; take a big, deep breath!"

Naruto did so. He took a long inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

He didn't feel better, per se. But it did help him focus. It helped him think; to analyze.

Hinata got hurt by that shark man because he'd been dumb enough to let himself get caught in genjutsu. But how had they managed to slip by his Mind's Eye sensory technique and Hinata's byakugan? Two massive chakra signatures didn't just disappear and reappear like that; while it was possible to conceal one's signature, it was an incredibly rare skill, it was incredibly difficult to do it while on the move, especially while also casting the genjutsu necessary to have hypnotized the woman they'd used to get his guard down…

Unless Itachi had also cast a genjutsu over himself and his associate. But that was imposs-

Naruto cut that thought off immediately. The very idea of an impossibility was stupid, to him. His clan had built the very bones of their renown by challenging ideas previously thought impossible.

"Good, I was worried you were losing your touch, love… So you think he cast a genjutsu over himself. How?"

"He shaped his yin-release into a dome around himself," Naruto muttered. Jiraiya blinked slowly, taking a moment to understand that the boy wasn't actually speaking to him.

Still, this was far preferable to letting the kid have a panic attack. He let the boy take charge for the moment, if only to distract him from his own fear.

Naruto scrunched his eyes tight, considering every possibility he could think of. He tasted the remnant chakra left behind by Itachi; all of it led back to one impossib-improbable outcome. "He- uh… He sustained a moving bubble, then projected his own perception into that bubble. Like a miniature domain or moving barrier, which hid him from those outside the barrier. I couldn't sense him because as far as my senses should've been concerned, he and his buddy didn't even exist… Moutziaaki/Unbelievable how the hell is that even possible?"

Jiraiya's ears perked up at the word, filing it away for later. "What about it is so hard to believe?"

"Yin-chakra isn't physical. It's a mental, spiritual power with no physical form or influence. He created an active, tangible barrier with his chakra that contained his technique, then I guess shifted its alignment post-casting to cast a genjutsu that targeted no one and everyone. As if that wasn't enough, he then moved that bubble all the way through the town to completely bypass my senses! Moving a fully completed barrier... I-I can't even begin to figure out how he could have done that." Then a thought struck him. "But maybe Iruka-sensei might. He knows a ton about barrier jutsu! I need you to deliver a letter."

"Done. What else?" Naruto blinked owlishly, looking up at the man. "I told you I've got your back, kid. What do you need from me?"

"Uh… We've gotta get Hinata and Sasuke healing, obviously. We still don't know what was done to Sasuke but I'm betting on genjutsu, based on all the yin-release that jackass left behind. Hinata's suffering from extreme chakra exhaustion; I think that fish guy's sword eats it, since it ate up my fire jutsu too. She needs a transplant." He thought back to his and Sasuke's fight with Shukaku and an idea began to form. " And I think I might be able to do it." Another pause, then, "Bushy Brows' sensei is fast approaching. We can have him bring Sasuke back to Konoha for immediate attention, and I can try to stabilize Hinata's chakra… If we can find that teammate of yours, do you think she can fix her up?"

"I've no doubt that she can, kid. It's not a bad plan, but in the meantime, we oughta do what we can for her injuries so she doesn't get infected."

The sound of feet skidding on wood alerted them both that Maito Gai had arrived. Jiraiya just began to look up to address the man before the bottom of his sandal entered the man's vision.

"Dynamic Entry- wah?"

"We don't have time for this shit," Naruto growled, his chains straining against Gai's momentum. "Super Bushy Brow-sensei, some assholes with painted toenails and immaculate fashion-sense showed up and kicked the dogshit out of us. Can you take Sasuke back to the village for treatment? Tell the doctors he's suffering from a genjutsu attack from the sharingan."

Gai's eyes narrowed with an uncharacteristic seriousness, quickly taking in the condition of their surroundings. "Ah, so those deplorable Akatsuki louts got here before me after all. What's worse, it seems that young Sasuke has been afflicted by the very same ailment that holds my dear eternal rival, Kakashi… I'm deeply sorry, young Naruto. If I hadn't skipped my usual two-hundred grams of protein for breakfast this morning, I would have been twelve-percent faster, and you all might have been spared."

To the shock of Naruto and Jiraiya both, Gai bowed, deeply.

Quickly recomposing himself, Naruto tore his eyes away from the man in favor of extracting a roll of bandages, instead trusting Jiraiya to see to the man. He really wasn't in the mood for his usual antics, right at that moment...

So Kakashi was comatose just like Sasuke was, huh? Naruto shook his head and refocused himself. That was a topic for later.

As Jiraiya fully updated Team Nine's sensei as to the situation, the blonde saw to Hinata's wounds as best he could.

There were a lot. Their field training from the academy had demanded that each student be able to identify, clean, and wrap basic wounds. Naruto had never been particularly talented at that- a deficiency that he was currently cursing himself for.

Her ribs were the biggest issue to speak of. His hands shook for a moment and he floundered, trying to figure out where to even begin.

Still, he wasn't entirely hopeless, and so he did what he could, simply hoping not to make her condition any worse.

"Not a terrible job by any means, kid." Jiraiya kneeled back beside him, and Naruto realized with some embarrassment that Gai had already taken off with Sasuke. "Your wrappings are a bit tight, but it should keep the bleeding to a minimum; we'll wanna rewrap her once we touch down for the night… Here." Jiraiya handed the boy a scroll, which he took with a curious mind. "That Mist ninja left behind some pieces of his sword. I sealed them away in case they're meant to track us, but I guess you can play with them when we touch down somewhere safer."

"I like stuff," Naruto tried to grin, but found he didn't quite have the energy for it.

A moment of peace passed between them before Naruto mournfully broke it.

"We can't stay here, right?" Naruto side-eyed the Toad Sage, his eyes searching for guidance. "Those guys, -Gai-sensei called them Akatsuki- they could be back."

"Yeah. It's a slim chance, but they might come back with reinforcements; we're gonna have to move through the night, I'm afraid."

"Hinata and I were disguised the whole time… I don't know how they found us; we were even using a dome-suppressor to conceal our chakra."

"Itachi mentioned birds. What do you think about that?" Kushina piped up, her tone challenging.

"I think he was using some kind of bird-summons to scout for us," Naruto tried to hedge. The crow from earlier that morning came to mind, though he couldn't be sure.

That complicated things. They couldn't reasonably stay out of the sight of every bird in existence!

Jiraiya thought for a moment. "Not to worry. I've got a trick or two that I use to get around discreetly. I'll teach you on the way… Can you travel?"

Truth be told, he was exhausted. His legs already felt weak, just at the thought of trying to travel after the day's events. But resting really wasn't an option, was it?

A deep breath, and Naruto hefted Hinata onto his back, securing the bandaged girl's arms and legs around him. "I'm good. Let's go."

---

It was only when the first bits of light had begun to shyly peek out past the horizon that Naruto had even realized that, barring a few short breaks to recuperate and drill the boy on the basics of his stealth jutsus, they'd been traveling for much of the entire night.

When they finally touched down at Tanzaku town, Naruto all but collapsed, his own condition finally catching up to him amidst all of his own adrenaline.

"You held up well," Jiraiya had noted, holding the boy up with a firm grip around his shoulder. Already, his condition had improved a staggering amount, just within a couple of days; he was a far cry from when they had first left the village, when less than a two-hour's trip had nearly put him out of commission.

Naruto supposed he'd always done rather well under pressure.

Setting his girlfriend down on a cushioned mat, he'd been quick to change her clothes at Jiraiya's urging- well, at least as well as their own modesty would provide, and rebandage her wounds. Once her condition had been secured, he'd found he had nothing left to give, passing out just by her feet without so much as eating or changing.

He woke up hours later, still so groggy and sore that he'd nearly let the active buzz of cicadas lull him back to bed.

Well, if not for the set of gorgeous, pale eyes staring curiously back at him.

It took a moment for his brain to put the pieces together. When they did though…

He shot up so quickly that his head swam and went fuzzy. "You're awake!"

"Mm…" Hinata looked around slowly, taking in their surroundings. "W-we made it out, then?"

She smiled. "I'm glad." Then, she tilted her head curiously, looking him up and down. "Are you okay?"

Naruto wanted to freak out -to remind her that it was her that had been hurt.

"You saved each other," His mother's words reminded him.

He smiled and wiped his eyes. "Yeah. Thanks to you."

And Sasuke, he amended, within. Thoughts of his Uchiha friend's condition flitted to the front of his awareness for a moment. "Sasuke got hurt bad, just like you. Gai-sensei stopped by after you passed out. Apparently Kakashi got hit with the same genjutsu; they're both in a coma…"

"I-I see…" A moment passed, then she frowned, looking down at herself. She took in her state of dress and began to blush so fiercely that Naruto would've sworn to every god and then some that she was about to pass out.

"I-I- uh, I swear I didn't do anything weird. You just really needed first aid and Pervy sage said the jacket and pants needed to come off so I could clean your wounds. Then I thought it'd be more weird to put you back into dirty clothes and really that just felt sneaky and- Okay I'm just making this worse, aren't I?"

He'd never seen Hinata angry at him, but there was a first time for everything.

She took a long, steadying breath. "I'm not mad," Hinata calmly assured him, her blush dying down just a touch in the face of his own discomfort. "I-I'm just- well, I'm obviously em-embarassed. But I understand… Thanks for taking care of me, Naruto-kun."

"Ah… Mhm," He nodded so hard his head began to ache. Inwardly, he could hear Kushina cackling unabatedly.

Looking for a subject change, he looked away from the girl, suddenly finding the cracks in the wall highly interesting. "Uh- Pervy Sage stepped out for a bit to check on some feelers for Tsunade. He left a toad behind to babysit us."

Naruto pointed past the girl and she followed with her gaze, spotting a brightly colored toad with a pink pigmentation; it was lounging on its back by the open window sill.

"Sup? I'm Gamakaori." The toad flexed its webbed fingers in a 'peace sign', which Hinata shyly returned. "I'm less of a babysitter and more of a trained bodyguard. I'm proficient in twelve deadly taijutsu forms and am certified in cpr. If you need a heart stopped or restarted, I'm your guy."

"O-oh! Well- uhm… Thank you for your service?" Hinata slowly turned back to Naruto, not quite wanting to be so rude as to dismiss the toad entirely. Thankfully, he seemed not to care, once again staring off into space.

As their eyes found each other again, Naruto coughed. "How are you feeling?"

She felt like shi-crap. She felt bad… "Pretty good, actually!" Hinata smiled sweetly at him, her visage falling when it became clear that her boyfriend wasn't buying it.

He sighed. "You got the stuffing knocked out of you, and were suffering from an extreme case of chakra exhaustion. Whatever that guy did to you, he went and put the paws on your chakra system; by the time you'd collapsed, you were going into shock.

Ah… That made twice now that she'd had that happen, and in a very short timeframe, at that.

"I was able to use my chains to filter some of my own chakra to you over the night. Which confirmed my earlier theory, by the way. You do convert yin chakra to yang-chakra, and at a higher yield, at that. Your byakugan activated while you were unconscious to balance you out, which honestly would explain why you woke up so quickly. It also seems to have jumpstarted your natural healing, I think." A groan. "But your ribs are fucked. At this point they're held together entirely with imaginary duct tape and a dream... Er- that is to say that getting you out of the woods was about the best I could do. I- well, I don't even know how to begin actually healing your injuries… Which means we now need Pervy Sage's gambling addict friend to patch you up too."

So that was Lord Third, Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and herself, who now needed the aid of Lady Tsunade. Hinata really wasn't looking forward to trying to convince the woman to help them with their growing list of problems.

Locking eyes with Naruto, it was clear that he was thinking the same thing. A mutual understanding fell between the two, and Naruto snickered; Hinata ducked her head and covered her mouth to contain her own giggles. Then, all at once it spilled over and they began to laugh together.

It felt so good to see him laughing again, especially after the funk he'd been in, the last few days.

Naruto's laugh slowly died down until it was just a few lowly chortles. Then, a sad smile took its place.

"I thought I was going to lose you." There was something in the way he said it that made Hinata want to scramble to her knees and embrace him. "They were- that guy was toying with you; he was torturing you, and I couldn't do anything to help you, even while you were fighting for our lives." He hiccupped, throwing his arm over his face. "I could see everything going on, but I couldn't get out…"

"You were scared…" This time, Hinata did pull herself to her knees, throwing her arms around his neck and holding him. She started to shake, herself, as the reality of it all- of just how close they'd both come to dying, really settled in. "I was scared too," She assured him, not wanting him to feel alone. "I thought we were going to die."

"But you tried to help me anyways," Naruto murmured into her neck, sounding lost. "Why?"

Hinata didn't have to feign the grin that found its way on her face. It was an unfamiliar one- all teeth, and maybe even a little aggressive. "Because I feared losing you even more."

It was the prettiest she'd ever been, to him.

"Will- uh... Will you faint if I kiss you?" Naruto felt her stiffen against him as she processed his request.

"P-p-probably." She went silent for a long moment, as if considering it further. "B-but- um... I don't mind trying?"

"For science, then." Naruto pulled back just enough to brush his lips on the corner of her own, before burying his face in the crook of her neck yet again. The hot pinkening of her skin was predictable enough, though he was so very pleased when she tightened her own grip around him and giggled, goofily.

"My baby's in looooove!" Kushina sang. Naruto couldn't see her, but he knew damn well that the woman was dancing around, in there.

'Read the room, woman.' Naruto groaned, flopping down into his side. 'My girlfriend got taken to the thunderdome by that big blue bastard and my friend got his brain turned into goo by his rat bitch brother.'

"Language," Kushina hopelessly chided him. When he snorted at her, she scowled. "Things aren't great- okay, things are very bad right now, but you're alive to reflect on it. Most importantly, you're not dealing with it alone. That counts for something, love."

Yeah... He supposed she was right.

Because they had survived it all. The last few days- hell, the last month and then some had been nothing but stressful event after stressful event, for him.

But he'd survived his fall.

They'd made it through the invasion.

They'd survived against two S-ranked ninja, and they'd make it through this, too…

Even if he had to fist fight an old granny to do it.

The door opened, and Jiraiya poked his head in, looking between the two. "You two look cozy. What'd I miss?"

"Nothing important," Pulling away from his girlfriend, Naruto merely chuckled. "Did you find her? Is she here?"

Jiraiya grinned. "We've got a dinner date."

---

And that's the chapter for now. This chapter had a lot going on and there's still some stuff I'm a bit uncertain about. I went through multiple iterations that each went pretty differently. Some had the kids doing more, some had them doing a lot less. I was feeling pretty unsatisfied with them just being saved without at least doing something to earn it, but I kind of struggled to find the right balance in giving them agency while also making it perfectly clear just how out of their league they really are, here.

That's about all I'll say on the topic, here. I've decided to save all of my post-chapter analysis for the discord, moving forward; that way the bottom of the page is less of an eyesore for y'all.

Which brings me to that actually: The discord is up. You can find it on my profile hanging loose like a damn ikea chair; some assembly required. Unfortunately, FFnet is a pain in the ass when it comes to links and the like, so the only way to make it show up is to have it fragmented. If you're interested in joining though, please by all means stop by. There are no real requirements other than just basic decency. You can read my insane rambling there, get news on upcoming updates, and offer your feedback in a way that I can directly respond to. If you care in any way about the story, please stop by and engage further.

Again, you can find it in my profile. Some assembly required [delete the spaces and you're golden].