Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Twisted	By : Dot Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female > Naruto/Hinata Views: 10581 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I make any money off this work. All characters and world belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

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Twisted C3

Naruto was dazed as he opened his eyes. At first he could only see bright colors blended like a mixing pot, the only color that seemed to stick out was hues of pink. He blinked in confusion several times, and suddenly it became very clear. ‘Sakura-chan? Why is she here? What’s going on? Ugh… my head hurts.’ It was clearly Sakura though, sitting on him with her fist raised high. Her long pink hair framed around her face, which was set in anger.

Kakashi and Sasuke were also there, standing several inches away from them. He could almost feel the disappointment raiding off his sensei; Naruto winced inwardly at the look. Sasuke also seemed to give off his own disapproval, glaring at Naruto. ‘Like that guy can be disapproving of me.’ Naruto scoffed quietly, so no one could hear him, thinking of what Sasuke’s goal in life was. He glanced back up at Sakura, wondering how he would get her off of him. ‘When I dreamt about girls being on top of me… This isn’t what I pictured honestly…’ Naruto’s cheeks colored rosy pink at the impure thoughts. He watched as Sakura puffed out air with her fist still held high, clearly wanting to hit him again.

“Sakura-chan, seriously get off him!” Hinata stormed over and pulled the other girl roughly back to her feet. Naruto reacted instantly, leaping to his feet, and backing a bit away from the girls. Hinata didn’t let go of Sakura’s arm, instead she continued to rant. “I understand being anger about his insubordination, but seriously? You can’t just go hitting him! That’s a poor way to treat your teammate!”

“You are talking to me about bad teamwork?! He left without permission and no word to any of us!” Sakura fumed right back at the blue-haired girl.

“I am not saying what he did was right! I am saying that you can’t hit your own teammates!” Naruto sighed as he watched the point go right over Sakura head, causing both girls to continue in their heated debate. He jumped slightly when he felt Kakashi place a hand on his shoulder. His sensei tilted his head in a follow me motion and led Naruto further away from the other three.

They stopped right before the entrance of the forest; Naruto took in the lime green setting around them, and the calm breeze of the ocean. It was truly beautiful in the Land of Waves, if one could look past the suffering of the habitants of the small country. Naruto peeked up at his sensei, who had not spoken a word yet. Instead the older male continued to stare a hole into Naruto. The boy could feel his cheeks heat up, and he started to fidget. ‘I am not looking forward to another lecture… even if this is my fault…’

“You need to control your temper.” Naruto blinked, not expecting that type of lecture. He clasped his hands together in front of him, and twiddled his thumbs together. ‘I thought he would say something along the line of teamwork?’ “If you had better management of your anger, you would’ve been able to think out a better plan. Your emotions should never completely control what you are doing. While it is admirable to want do everything in your power to protect your comrades, if that power isn’t applied right you could just end up making everything worse.” Naruto looked up abruptly when he caught movement at the corner of his eye, to see Kakashi leaning closer to him.

“Your plan to come here on your own has already caused many issues, and likely more to come. For instance, instead of the Third Hokage sending a more advance team to help out here, now he had to send us. Thus putting not only our team in danger but also places Team Eight in a dangerous situation. Lucky for us, that the missing-nin is only a Rank-A¹. Imagine if the opposing ninja was stronger, and the only team that the Hokage could send was another Genin team? You could have killed all of us.” Naruto’s eyes widened, realizing what a huge mess he had caused. ‘What if Hinata had died because of me?’ He could feel as reality came crashing down on him, almost as if his heart was being sucked out of him. Hinata could not die, especially because of him, Naruto wouldn’t allow it.

Naruto almost leaped out of his skin, when he felt Kakashi’s hand on his shoulder. He took a deep breath and focused his misty blue eyes on his sensei. “I can see that you have seen the error of your ways. Hopefully you remember this lesson, in later missions. But just in case, here’s your punishment…”

Naruto could feel his breath being swapped away for a whole another reason, as his sensei detailed his punishment. His cheeks drained of its usual healthy pink, becoming completely pale. “Do you understand?” Naruto gulped and nodded, his eyes were now filled with misery. ‘They are going to kill me…’ Kakashi stood back up to his full height, his only showing eye filled with slowly fading disappointment. Naruto didn’t take note; instead his thoughts were miles away as he followed the sliver-haired man back to his team, and Hinata.

The girls had stopped bickering by the time they made their way back to them. Both of the girls had flushed cheeks, clearly still frizzled. Sakura’s cheeks were slightly puffed up and she kept glancing at Hinata, as if she wanted to say something else. Slightly behind the young kunoichi, was Sasuke who had his arms crossed in clear frustration, the boy’s attitude didn’t catch Naruto’s attention for once though. Instead the younger boy continued to stare blankly forward.

Slightly away from Sakura, stood Hinata, the blue-haired girl didn’t bother acknowledging the angry expressions sent her away from the other girl. What the scarcely older kunoichi choose to observe in its place was Naruto. She took in the downcast faded blue eyes, and the slumped back and reddening clashed fists at his sides. Taking in all the info she could from his form, her anger levels were again filled and redirected to the man who stood in front of Naruto. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her, setting off Hinata’s fumes.

“What did you do?” She hissed, startling Sakura and Sasuke out of their own realities into the present. Both looked over at their sensei and teammate, taking in the scenery. Neither was in the mood to address their teammate though, focusing all their attention onto Kakashi.

Hinata took a deep breath and continued to glare down the man. Kakashi didn’t react to the question, taking Hinata’s heated gaze with a quiet at ease aura. This didn’t help to stemmer down Hinata’s anger; instead it was like pouring oil on fire. She clutched her fists and puffed out another breath. She took several steps towards Kakashi, intending to give him a piece of her mind for causing turmoil in her friend.

Her wrist was grasped gently and she was tugged to a stop. The words that she had prepared had gone motionless in her throat. Hinata looked to the hand holding her arm, then towards Naruto, whose face was a cherry red. Then with a soft tone he spoke so that only she could hear. “I-I’m fine.” He watched as she took in his facial features. For a few moments, they stared at one another, and Naruto started to feel highly uncomfortable under her analyzing gaze. Finally she nodded and tugged her wrist softly out of his grasp, hiding her face from him.

“We only have a few more hours left of the day; we should take what time we have left to work on chakra control.” Hinata huffed and started to continue her way towards the forest clearing.

“Ah, perfect! How about Sakura and Sasuke go with you guys? They could all afford a crash course in controlling their chakra.” Kakashi cheerfully stated, seeming to completely dismiss what occurred several seconds prior. Sasuke and Sakura weren’t nearly as skillful in hiding their emotions. Sasuke was scowling, but whether it was because of the antics from his peers or because his sensei insulted his chakra control, was unclear. Sakura, on the other hand was frowning thoughtfully at Hinata and Naruto, trying to understand their relations. Hinata paused and looked back at Kakashi. She frowned and considered the offer that was made. Before she could give her answer though, Kakashi turned from the group and waved.

“I am going to go get debriefed, good luck on your training guys! I’ll fill you all more on the mission later alright?” Kakashi said to his team, continuing onward towards the house.

Hinata grimaced and then shouted for Team Seven to follow her.

Naruto tugged along gingerly as he followed everyone to the clearing that he and Hinata had inhabited earlier. Hinata had stopped them in front of a line of trees in the clearing; she leaned back against one of the trees, studying his team. Before she could begin the training though, Sasuke spoke up.

“Why do we have to learn from you? I doubt you know any more than us.” He sneered out. Naruto prevented a huff of annoyance at the comment, ‘how dare he talk like that to Hinata!’ Hinata smiled sweetly at the remark though, and calmly turned to face the tree, then promptly walked right up the tree. Naruto, familiar with the technique, watched his teammates’ reactions to Hinata’s ascent.

Sakura was frowning, her green eyes narrowed in annoyance at being bested by the loud-mouth Hinata. While Sasuke was folding his arms again, his dark eyes trained on the blue-haired girl. Instead of annoyance shining through the older boy’s eyes, there was a whole new type of shine in them. Naruto creased his forehead in thought, wondering what that new look in the other boy’s eyes meant.

Hinata grinned confidently down at them. “So… Mr. Top of Our Class, how about you climb up this tree?” Sasuke frowned in thought, and then took a deep breath, clearly self-assured in his abilities. ‘He’s clearly thinking that if Hinata can do it, he can. Dumbass.’ Sasuke walked up to the tree next to Hinata’s tree, and gathered his chakra. Out of the corner of Naruto’s eye he could see that Hinata had veins popping out angrily around her big rounded white eyes. Inside the white pupils were even more veins, that gave the impression that her eyes were cracked. Naruto understanding what she was doing continued to watch Sasuke as he try to climb the tree.

The overly confident shinobi backed up a few feet, and then at a run, charged at the tree. He made it up several steps before his foot indented the tree, then he fell back down to the ground. Naruto was disappointed when Sasuke didn’t fall on his butt, but instead landed like a graceful feline. Sasuke’s perfect landing didn’t stir Hinata off from laughing her butt off; her eyes now back to their normal state. Her chuckle caused Naruto to also let out a small snicker, he was also glad to see the genius fail at something. ‘That’ll knock his ego down a few pins. Serves the bastard right.’

To Naruto’s astonishment, their laughter caused Sasuke to beam a small scarlet. The coloring didn’t stay for very long though, it was gone almost immediately. The reaction made Naruto feel slightly guilty for making fun of his teammate. That feeling wasn’t long lasting though, when he remembered the way Sasuke treated everyone around him. The older boy needed to be shown the error of his ways, and Naruto felt that Hinata was good for that.

Naruto startled out of his thoughts when he heard a smacking noise from above him. His eyes instantly looked towards the sound, causing them to widen at what they were taking in. Hinata’s face had been thrown sideways from a slap to her cheek, leaving a reddening imprint of a hand there.

He could feel his skin bristling at the scene, and his darken blue eyes stared keenly at the offending hand and its owner. Hinata spared him a glance stopping him, before addressing the situation before her. Sakura blew out angrily and glared her olive eyes into Hinata’s white ones. Her pink hair flowed gently from the small breeze around them, while her red qipao dress rustled against the wind. Hinata wasn’t one to take being hit sitting down, and she showed it. She punched Sakura in retaliation, and much harder than the slap had been. Hinata’s fist smashed right into Sakura’s nose, causing it to leak some blood.

Naruto’s eyes widened when Sakura tackled Hinata and sent both of them tumbling to the ground. In a blink of an eye, their evening went from training session to one outright brawl. Naruto felt flustered in what he should do. Hinata had made it pretty clearly she didn’t want him to get involved, but could he really just watch the girls fight? They were all on the same side, for crying out loud!

Naruto looked over to see what Sasuke wanted to do about the situation, only to see that other boy was in his own world again. Instead of trying to deal with the situation, Sasuke was working on his chakra control and trying to walk up his tree. ‘That fucking idiot!’ Naruto decided to forget about his self-centered teammate to work on his other comrades.

Hinata was now sitting on Sakura, who was thrusted down on to her stomach. Hinata had her fist entwined with Sakura’s long rosy hair. Hinata was leaned forward whispering into the other girl’s ear. ‘I wonder what she saying…’ Naruto took in Sakura’s watery eyes, and decided whatever Hinata was saying that it wasn’t polite at all. ‘Ugh, this is terrible. I have never been so torn.’

Exhausted of the scene and how it pulled at his sanity levels, Naruto left the forest clearing. ‘It’s not like I need to work on walking up a tree…’ He chuckled at the thought that he also knew more than Sasuke in chakra control. ‘Maybe when Hinata is calmer, I’ll have her teach me the other stages of chakra control…’ He sighed, remembering why he hadn’t asked her to continue to teach him, so many years ago now. He frowned, continuing on further into the forest, remembering being taught by Hinata, brought on other memories. Many of the memories filled him with great pain.

Sighing, he settled himself down by a tree, clutching his heart. ‘I’ve been hurt so many times in my life, but I think the pain in my chest is always the worse. It doesn’t seem to heal either. It’s like a permanent tear in my heart…’ He grimaced at the intense thought, but then chuckled. ‘Hinata isn’t wrong; I really am very dramatic…’ Rubbing the left side of his chest, he lost himself in his memories.

A girl of nine years sat in a patch of flowers staring intently up at the treetops. She was dressed very unladylike, in a white t-shirt and blue shorts, her short blue hair flowing gently against the calm breeze around her. Her face was masked in a huge smile, “You did it!!! That’s so amazing! I am proud of you, Naruto-kun.” She exclaimed towards a young boy up on a very high tree branch.

The young boy was covered in many bruises from falling down the very same tree. His dark blue shorts were tattered at the bottom, and his black t-shirt had a newly formed tear on his left side, caused from being caught by a branch one of the times he had fallen. The skin that was exposed from the gash was covered in a poorly applied bandage. His golden hair was tousled, and upon his face was a small smile.

Naruto jumped down from the tree, landing right next to Hinata, who had moved from her position and was now standing almost directly under the tree. She grabbed him into a tight hug, “Good job, Naruto-kun!” Naruto’s cheeks burned and he hesitantly put his arms around her.

“T-Thank you, H-Hinata-chan.”

“NARUTO-KUN! I talked to you about this.” Hinata pulled out of his grasp and scowled at him. He turned his face from her, the burning on his cheeks spreading to his entire face. Hinata didn’t like being referred to as cute. ‘But she also doesn’t like me to use –sama either! It feels wrong to refer to her without an honorific though.’ Committing himself to his fate, he uttered a shy apologize.

“Good! Now listen, climbing up a tree with your feet is just the first step. Next is learning to walk on water! Mother taught me this a while ago! I am sure I can teach you too! It was bit harder than the tree climbing, but I got it pretty fast I like to think! Mother was pretty impressed actually! She told me that it usually took longer than a week to get water walking down, but it only took me a day!” Naruto couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face as Hinata rambled on about her mother. Sometimes he was jealous of Hinata’s family making him wish for his very own family. This feeling was usually washed away quickly though, by gratitude.

Hearing about someone else family, made it easier to imagine his own. He had meet Hinata’s mother many times now, and she was wonderful mother. She made them so many yummy treats and her ointment was amazing. ‘I wish I had a mother like Hinata’s. Maybe mine was just like hers?’ Remembering Hinata’s mother, made Naruto think of another aspect of Hinata’s family. Thus bringing back to what he had set out to do today.

“Right! So it’s still pretty early in the day, Naruto-kun. So why don’t we continue with training alright? I think I saw a waterfall, close to here; it shouldn’t take us to long to get there either. I’ll explain what you have to do with your chakra, while we make our way towards the waterfall okay? That should save us some time!” Naruto nodded his understanding of her plan, trying to form his very own.

Hinata smiled, grabbing his hand, and leading him towards the waterfall. He made a feebly attempt to prevent his cheeks from blooming into a bright red again. Then with a heavy heart, pulled his hand from her hold and walked in line with her, instead of behind. Hinata looked over at him in confusion, and if he was better at reading people, he would have seen the hurt in her round white eyes.
            Looking away from Naruto, Hinata started in on her explaining of how water walking worked. “While in walking up the tree, you only had to continually create the same amount of necessary chakra to your feet, its bit different with water walking. For you to walk on water, you have to send chakra to your feet that matches the weight of your body. Make sense?” ‘Not really…’

“Y-Yea.” Naruto paused, causing Hinata to stop along with him. She looked at him with confusion. “I-In fact, m-maybe I can do it myself?”

“What?” Hinata’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Do it by yourself? What do you mean?”

Clasping his hands in front himself, Naruto took a deep breath, “I-I wish t-to train by myself.” After sharing his plans, he looked down at his feet, hiding his face. He was sure it was masked in remorse.

“You... don’t want my help?” Naruto didn’t know how to respond to the hurt in her voice, so he just stood there, with his head bowed as she gazed at him. “FINE! WHATEVER! DON’T COME CRYING TO ME, WHEN YOU CAN’T GET IT RIGHT!” He had looked up at her yelling, but he couldn’t see Hinata’s face. She already had run off, so all he saw was her back disappearing into the trees.

Naruto was filled with guilt at his only friend running away from him. Unsure of what he should do now, he continued towards the waterfall. He stopped at the edge of the forest, taking in the huge river before him. Finally with heavy steps, he walked to river, listening to the rushing of the water, that fall down from the cliff. He sat down at the edge of the water, slipping off his dark sandals and plugging his feet into the stream. Bringing up his knees to his chest, he placed his head upon them and looked out at the forest around him. His eyes were in a daze, while hot drops of salty water fell from them.

“I am a terrible person.” He whispered quietly to the air, as he recalled Hinata’s hurt voice and the way the villagers’ treated him. ‘Maybe they all hate me because they knew that I only bring hurt to everyone around me?’ He clutched the sides of his t-shirt, watching the river as it flowed rapidly. ‘It would be so easy… to just be simply washed away by the current. No one would miss me, not even Hinata.’ He leaned forward towards the river, copulating if it would be all better if he was gone.

“What are you doing?” A girl’s voice spoke from behind him. Jumping at her suddenness, he looked over at a light pink-haired girl standing directly behind him. He found her hair to be very unique. It was very short, to the point that it only reached her shoulders. Some of her hair though was held back from her face, by a red ribbon, showing off her forehead. She was dressed in a red one piece swimming suit. Her light green eyes seemed to study him, intently.

Naruto wasn’t confused on who she was though; he had seen her in class quite a few times. He quickly ran through the list of girl names he had heard in the classroom. ‘Was it Sakura? Hmm… fits her hair.’

“You’re ruining your shorts you know, putting them in the water like that.” Naruto blinked, realizing that his legs were now in the river. He must have pushed them in when he was lost in thought. He bit his lip when he recalled what he had been thinking earlier, he was lucky that Sakura had come just then. “Though it doesn’t really matter since your shorts seem to be ruined already. So I guess it be okay if you swam in them. You shouldn’t swim over here though, the current is to strong! I am about to go further down the river to go swimming, you can join me if you want?”

Sakura offered with a gentle smile. Naruto blinked, not expecting her to offer to play with him. Not many people liked to play with him after all. ‘She very kind.’ Taking in Sakura’s green eyes and beautiful pink hair, he thought that she was also very cute. His heart pounded rapidly though, he wasn’t feeling up to being around people at the moment.

“N-No thank you.” He muttered quietly, moving away from the river, preparing to go home. Sakura frowned, for some reason insulted, and stormed off. Luckily though Naruto didn’t notice, so his gradually improving mood wasn’t demolished. He did watch the young girl walk away from him. He smiled weakly, ‘she’s safe. I think I could like her.’ He turned from the stream and made his way to his apartment. He was too tired emotionally to continue training today.

Naruto kept his eyes closed, as he sat leaned up against the tree. ‘Though Sakura can be very kind, she led too much by her temper.’ He rubbed his cheek, remembering. ‘Not that I can say I am any better. Kakashi-sensei is right, one shouldn’t be so controlled by their emotions it could cause issues in missions.’ Getting more comfortable against the tree bark, he continued to think about the girls in his life. ‘Why is it that both of them have such tempers? They express it so differently, yet so similarly. I wish they could get along…’ It was hard seeing Hinata and Sakura at odds; they were both very important to him. He wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t for them. He peeled his crystal blue eyes open to stare at the sky above him. Instead of white clouds and blue atmosphere, the sky was a charming pink slowly fading into a light orange and red. It was becoming very late. Figuring that he should head back to the house, he stood up, stretching his sore back. ‘I must have been sitting here awhile…’

He grunted, relieved when his back made a satisfying pop. He adjusted his bag around his chest, and started to make his way back. He passed by the forest clearing again, to see that only Sasuke remained. The tree, that the other boy was climbing, was filled with marks from a kunai. Clearly Sasuke had come to the idea, that he should mark his place in the tree. Naruto knew that Hinata would have given him the idea way earlier, but Sasuke seemed to piss Hinata off just as much as he pisses off Naruto.

Sasuke glanced at him as he stepped into the forest clearing, and smirked. ‘He obviously thinks he is ahead of me and that I am a total loser. If he only knew…’ Instead of responding to the smirk, Naruto continued to walk back to the house. He wondered what happened with Hinata and Sakura. He shouldn’t have left, he felt like he had failed his comrades by leaving them to fight. But even now, he was confused on how he would fix things between the girls. ‘Maybe it’s better to leave it to them?’

Naruto stopped in front of the house, to see that Shino had returned from the bridge. The boy was crouched down in the grass around the house, holding a container of sorts. Naruto blinked, quickly putting the scene together in his mind. Naruto nodded shyly at Shino as he walked by to enter the house. The other boy acknowledged him with a quick glance, and then continued to gather an insect from the grass.

Naruto repeated his routine from earlier, and slipped off his shoes in the entrance and made his way to the kitchen. He wasn’t really sure on what he was supposed to do in the house, but he knew that it was dinner time, so everyone was likely there. He paused in the kitchen to see that the table was pretty much full.

Kakashi, Sakura, and Kiba sat on one side of the table while Kurenai, Inari, and his mother on the other side. Seated at the front of the table though, was a man that looked fairly familiar to Naruto. ‘Have I seen him before?’ Dismissing the thought as not important, Naruto refocused on the people in the room. The old man had addressed him.

“So you’re the boy who ran all the way here, without permission.” Naruto’s cheeks beamed scarlet at the remark, and he quickly looked at his feet. “You don’t look like much; did you really think you be much of help around here?” Naruto could feel his heart start to thunder with anger at the rude remarks. He didn’t speak back though, the old man had every right to be upset, for his first team of ninja had been injured protecting him. Then instead of more advance people being sent out to help protect him, he got another novice group, all because of Naruto.

“I reassure you, that you will be perfectly safe with my team, Tazuna-san.” Naruto felt pride at the comment from his sensei. ‘He has a lot more faith in us, than I thought.’ He frowned when Inari scoffed, and stood up from the table, quickly advancing up the stairs. Naruto pushed down the sympathy for the boy though, ‘he’s just a drama queen.’

“You’ll have to excuse Inari.” Inari’s mother immediately replied after the boy had departed. Naruto politely tuned it out though, the boy clearly needed to learn manners. Inari’s mother then waved at him to take the boy’s vacant seat, as she stood to clear Inari’s plate. Naruto bashfully nodded his thanks and sat down. The kind woman gave him a new plate to eat from, Naruto smiled at her. ‘Inari-san is clearly missing what he has. What a fool. I wish I knew her name, it seems rude to just think of her as Inari-san’s mother.’ He blessed his food, and quickly dug in, he was famished.

Kiba across from him seemed to be just as hunger, for the boy seemed to inhale his food. Though every so often, he would tear a piece of his food, feeding it to Akamaru. Naruto blinked, just now seeing the dog was in Kiba’s jacket. ‘I need to be better at observing things…’ Kiba seemed to have felt his gaze, for the boy looked up at him, and glowered at him. ‘He can’t still be mad at me, because I upset Hinata could he? That was hours ago!’ Suddenly feeling greatly uncomfortable, Naruto looked down at his food, and ate his food silently but quickly; hopeful that everyone would just forget that he was here.

Naruto finished his food at the same time as Sakura, and unsure of what he should do next, he stood up to follow her to wherever she was going. Sakura didn’t seem to mind though; she fell in place beside him. They left the kitchen area, and made their way towards a room that was next door to Team Eight’s room. Sakura stopped though, instead of entering the room.

“Actually Naruto… can we talk outside for a minute?” He frowned when he realized that she was whispering. He didn’t see why she would; they were completely alone in the hallway. He didn’t refuse her though he knew that she didn’t like being denied. She quickly retraced her steps towards the front door. He replaced his sandals and followed his teammate outside.

Shino was still out there, the container now holding a bug inside of it. Shino seemed to be observing it. What the boy was trying to get from the insect, Naruto was unsure, but his fellow peer seemed content in studying the bug. So Naruto made a point in not distracting the other boy and continued to follow Sakura to the back of the house. He briefly wondered what was so secret that they had to walk so far away from everyone else.

When they came to the back of the house, he notice that there was a back door, and shook his head in embarrassment, clearly he and Sakura took quite bit of a unnecessary detour to the back of the house. Sakura sat down against the single tree in the backyard and gestured for him to join her sitting there.

“Naruto, I am sorry… again. I shouldn’t have hit you earlier alright? I was just so anger! Right after we talked about being better teammates, you immediately went and did something on your own! You should have talk to me or something! I could have helped.” Naruto blinked at her apologize in shock. ‘Is this Hinata’s influence again?’ Feeling ashamed that he had to again rely on Hinata to help him connect with his teammates, he clutched his hands in his lap. ‘I need to take care of these things myself…’ Naruto exhaled deeply.

“I… I’m s-sorry too.”

“Good, we both need to do better otherwise this team will not work! Kakashi showed us that the first day, and we keep messing up.” She stuck out her hand towards him, “I promise to keep trying to be a better teammate towards you, Naruto.”

“S-Same.” He quickly grasped her hand, his face set in a ruby red, and they shook on their promise. Sakura dropped his hand after a moment, and looked over at the house, while Naruto looked up towards the sky. It was a mixture of orange and red, and faint grey. ‘The sky is very pretty during sunset.’

“There’s something else, Naruto.” He turned towards her, to see that she was still looking straight ahead, so he couldn’t see her face. It was almost like Sakura was trying to hide her face from him. “You remember when I hinted that Hinata might like you? I was thinking I didn’t ask if you liked her did I?” Naruto’s eyes widened at the question, and his heart raced. He could feel his cheeks flooding again with heat.

He turned his face away from the pink-haired girl and looked over at the neighboring house. He wasn’t sure how to answer, or if he even wanted to. ‘There’s no way I can have this conversation with Sakura-chan!’ Sakura wasn’t looking away from him anymore at this point and he could feel her eyes trying to read him. He forced himself to not look back at her, but instead to continue to observe the neighborhood around them.

He didn’t take in to count, what his position would look like to Sakura though, so naturally she got the wrong assumption completely. “So you don’t? I almost feel sorry for her…” Naruto was too stone-shocked to correct her, and instead looked back up to the sky, hoping that whatever god there was to save him from this awkward moment. After several more minutes of silence, the uncomfortable atmosphere seemed to disappear around them.

Sakura stood up from her seat on the ground, and looked down at him. “Come on, let’s go back inside. Maybe Sasuke-kun is back!” He sighed at the last comment, hopefully Sasuke decided to stay out all night instead of coming back. He briefly wondered if Sasuke even knew where the house was. Naruto followed Sakura back inside, this time though they took the backdoor.

As they made their way to their room, they were met halfway by Hinata and Sasuke. They were standing fairly close in the cramped hallway; Naruto didn’t like how close Sasuke was to Hinata at all. He had to reason out that the hallway was very small, and he was being unreasonable. He made a nod of greeting at Hinata, only to see that she wouldn’t look at him. Naruto frowned, feeling a ping in his heart, ‘did I do something? She can’t still be mad at me? No… she was fine with me at the training area…’

“Team Seven, follow me into our room won’t you? I should fill you in on the mission now, with us all being here.” Kakashi said, seeming to appear out of nowhere. They obeyed him and entering their room, while Hinata entered the room next door. She still wasn’t sparing Naruto a glance.

Naruto try to shake off his negative feelings, trying to remember that he was on a mission, and didn’t have time to be all over the place. The room that his team had entered was not unlike the room next door. The only difference that was really noticeable was that the bags were different. He and Sasuke both placed their bags next to Kakashi and Sakura’s. He figured he would set out his bedroll later. ‘It will be cramped sleeping in here…’ He tried to not be overly upset about it though, these people were poor and still trying to be great hosts.

He settled himself against the north wall, opposite of Sasuke who was leaning against the south wall. It wasn’t very far from the other boy, but Naruto was stubborn, he was into much of a foul mood to put up with the other boy, being to close would definitely set him off. Sakura had to decide to sit right next to Sasuke along the south wall, while Kakashi placed himself in the middle of it all by the east wall.

“First thing we should start detailing out is how many people we will be up against. You all know, that Momochi Zabuza is a Rank-A missing-nin, and while Kurenai and her team had seen the man be ‘killed’ by a hunter-nin, we are fairly certain that the man is still alive. Therefore we can be certain that we are up against at least two enemy shinobi and several thugs hired by Gatō. Kurenai and I have decided that we would slip the teams into two. Naruto and Sasuke you will go with me and Hinata, after training, every day to guard Tazuna-san, while he works on the bridge. While Sakura, you will stay here with Kurenai, Kiba and Shino.”

“What? Why can’t I go with you guys? Aren’t we a team?”

“While yes we are a team, we still need work with both teams’ skills. Team Eight is really good with scouting and observing their surroundings. Hinata’s Byakugan will be very useful against Zabuza’s mist abilities, since her eyes can see chakra, while Kiba’s sense of smell and Shino’s bugs will be good to guard Tazuna-san family.”

“How did you decide that I would have to stay behind then?”

“We drew names.” Kakashi said cheerfully. “Now, Sakura, go ahead and talk to Kurenai about what your role will be here.” Sakura grumbled at the poor reasoning, and walked out of the room. Kakashi refocused on the boys of the team. “Let’s continue on what we know about the two we are going up against. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of information on the hunter-nin, just that he is highly skilled in the usage of senbon needles. However we do have quite a bit of Intel on Zabuza. Now listen carefully…”

            Naruto was lying against his bedroll, pondering everything that had happened in just two short days, and grimaced at how fast things seemed to go. It felt as if his emotions had hitched a ride on a never-ending rollercoaster. The feelings didn’t seem to settle, even while trying to rest. His teammates were asleep nearby, or at least they appeared to be asleep. Neither of them were very far from him, he could almost feel Sasuke’s breath on his skin, they were all so close.

            He felt goosebumps from the closeness of his teammates, he hated how cramped they were. ‘It’s better to get used to being this close though…’ He forcing himself to sleep on his back, since sleeping on his sides seemed to make him even more unbearably close to Sasuke or Kakashi. Then only a few steps away, were Kiba and Shino. Feeling very uncomfortable, he started to daydream, hoping against hope that he would forget how close he was to other people. At least he wasn’t sleeping with the girls, he would never sleep then. ‘Need to be well-rested, so that I will be useful…’ Naruto paused at that thought.

            ‘Hopefully Hinata isn’t so anger at me, she won’t train me…’ He frowned at his thinking, ‘Hinata would never be so petty.’ Realizing that he had gotten off track, he forced his wayward thoughts away, and focused on making himself sleep. Hinata was a problem for the morning. After several minutes, Naruto’s breath settled and he had entered a light restless doze, dreaming of several realities, some deeply unpleasant.

*thump*

            Naruto shot up from his covering, and looked around the room, trying to identify the noise. As he looked around, he saw that no one else seemed to have awakened from the noise. Had he imagined it? Naruto looked over to see that Kakashi was in fact not in his bedroll. What Naruto thought was his sensei was just the man’s bag, which had fallen under the covers. He felt a strange sense of curiosity, and gently stepped out the room, trying to not wake his still slumbering comrades.

            *thump*

            Listening closely to the noise, Naruto figured that it was coming from outside. ‘What’s going on?’ He quietly made his way towards the backdoor, again being mindful of the other residents of the household. He stopped when he got outside, and blinked. He had expected to see his sensei doing something odd. Instead he saw Hinata sitting against the tree that he and Sakura had obtained several hours prior. ‘Where the hell did Kakashi-sensei go?’

            *thump*

            Naruto jumped slightly at the noise, and looked to see that it was coming from his friend. She was every so often hitting the back of her head against the tree. ‘What’s wrong with her?’ He pondered, quickly forgetting about his missing sensei. He padded his way over to Hinata.

            “Oh did I wake you? I forget how freakish your hearing is…” He prevented a creeping redness from covering his face, and sat down next to her. Hinata didn’t look over at him, clearly still irritated. Naruto bit his lip and started to play with the grass around them, taking several seconds to figure out his emotions.

            “I-I am sorry for not telling you that I-I needed help in my chakra control.” Hinata looked at him for a second, and then looked back at the house.

            “You think I am still upset about that? Look, I am not happy about you keeping things from me, but we are friends right? So shouldn’t friends tell one another when they are struggling? How am I supposed to help when I don’t know things?” She didn’t look at him when she said this, and it made him highly uncomfortable. Naruto couldn’t remember a time when he felt this awkward around Hinata. “But I forgive you this time okay? We better go to bed we have training really early. Night,” She then left him by himself in the small backyard.

            He ran the words she had spoken in his head a few times, and couldn’t figure out what sounded wrong in them. He tugged out some grass blades, unclutching his fist afterwards to let the blades fly away in the breeze. Watching the grass tumble in the wind, he made a snap decision to start training now. If he couldn’t find out what was wrong with Hinata, he could at least make himself useful, for there was no way he was going to be able to sleeping now.

-Five Days Later-

            Naruto stood next to Sasuke and Hinata while they waited for Tazuna to get ready to set out towards the bridge. Kakashi was a few feet ahead of them, also waiting for the man. Sakura was leaning against the house, watching them. She had small pout on her face, still upset that she had been chosen to stay behind. Naruto didn’t feel bad though, it was good thing they separated the two girls. They’re relations hadn’t improved over the four days they had been training. Naruto let a small smile cover his face, at least a few good things had happened while training. Sakura and Sasuke both got hang of climbing a tree with just their feet. Admittedly Sakura got it in one try, while it took Sasuke the entire four days to get it down.

After learning that he was the only one to not be able to climb the tree with his feet, Sasuke had put his all in getting the skill down. Naruto smirked, knowing he could have told Sasuke that it was likely because he had more chakra than Sakura and Hinata therefore it was harder for Sasuke to control his chakra. Also adding that, Naruto, himself, had learned the skill years ago. But Naruto didn’t feel kind enough to indulge him; it was good for Sasuke to realize he wasn’t better than everyone else.

Another good thing to happen was that Naruto had learned to walk on water. It had taken him awhile, but it had helped that he had two teachers to teach him. Sakura, had gotten the trick down in just two days, and decided she would help both the boys in mastering their respective goals. Of course, Hinata had helped all of them from the get-go. ‘Hehe… and Sasuke is still a skill behind the rest of us,’ Naruto thought smugly. But then he frowned, recalling that Hinata was still not really looking at him.

Finally after several minutes of waiting, Tazuna came out of the house and they all set out. They had done the same routine as every other day, following in a protective stance, with Hinata in front of Tazuna, Naruto and Sasuke on the old man’s sides, and Kakashi behind him. When they got to the bridge, they pretty much stayed in that same format, but they would spread out more, to give the builders room to work.

Naruto wasn’t really expecting much to happen today, like he had the day before. He had figured that the missing-nin and hunter-nin would have attacked yesterday, as soon as the missing-nin had recovered. This hadn’t been the case, and Naruto was now slightly confused on when the other ninjas planned to attack Tazuna. ‘Maybe they noticed the switch in teams, and now are observing us?’ Naruto frowned; Hinata would have noticed someone observing them pretty easily with her eyes. So how would the enemy ninjas know that they had switch teams? Naruto cleared his thoughts he was likely just overthinking things. He went back to observing the workers around him, feeling quite bored. ‘Protecting people is rather boring…’ He fought the urge to yawn; he knew that wouldn’t go over well at all.

He stood up straight when he saw movement from Hinata with the corner of his eye, and leaped to the right of Tazuna, taking out a kunai from his weapon pouch, with Sasuke and Hinata also covering the man from their own sides. Mist was now covering the bridge, making it hard to see around him. He knew Hinata could see everything fairly well with her blood limit, and he felt jealous of her. Naruto couldn’t see Kakashi at all with how thick the mist was around him.

Clashing of weapons sounded from the front, telling him quickly where the man was. ‘He’s fighting one of the ninjas! It must be Zabuza!’ As his eyes sort of adjusted to the mist around him, Naruto let out a small gasp. All around him, workers laid on the bridge, with needles sticking out of their necks. Seeing that none of their bodies were moving at all, Naruto made a quick assumption that they were all dead. Naruto couldn’t help the terror that seized his body.

Sasuke moved quickly, blocking the senbon needles from hitting Naruto. Sasuke used his kunai to start fighting the newcomer. It was a boy about their age, whose entire face was covered by a hunter-nin mask. Both boys seemed to moving incredibly fast, Naruto trembled as he continued to watch the hunter-nin and Sasuke. While Naruto could tell that Sasuke was pretty confident that he could take the hunter-nin, something didn’t quite sit right. He wanted to be able to step in when everything went to hell for his teammate, but he couldn’t seem to pry his feet from their spot. ‘This is the worse time to get the jitters! Move body, MOVE!’

Sasuke and the hunter-nin seemed to hit a standstill, Naruto couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Sasuke looked to be in trouble. The hunter-nin had used a weird jutsu, with only one hand! Naruto blinked in surprise again as the water around the two ninjas, formed into several needles aiming right for Sasuke. Still Naruto couldn’t move, luckily though Sasuke was taking their training into mind was able to get the upper hand in the end. Finally Sasuke was pushing the hunter-nin back quite easily. Naruto felt himself slightly relax; it looked like Sasuke had the hang of things.

Naruto try to see if he could see how his sensei was doing with the Rank-A missing-nin, but he still couldn’t make anything out in the heavy mist. All he could hear was the clashing of weapons from where his sensei had been earlier. The sound comforted Naruto a bit, reassuring him that his sensei was holding his own against the missing-nin. Naruto looked back at Sasuke and the hunter-nin when he heard his teammate give out a gasp.

He let out his own gasp when he saw several mirrors now surrounding Sasuke. The other ninja had seemed to have disappeared. Naruto frowned in confusion, wondering what the hell was going on. Then suddenly Sasuke was hit several times by senbon needles. ‘Sasuke!’ Naruto’s eyes widened and he again try to move so that he could help his teammate.

“Your friend seems to be in trouble!” The old man exclaimed. Naruto ignored him, quickly assessing that the hunter-nin had missed all Sasuke’s vital points. Naruto still wished to join in the fighting, but his legs still wouldn’t pull him forward. ‘This is bad!’ Naruto watched as Sasuke has started to form seals, determined. ‘G-Good, he looks like he has a plan…’ Naruto stared amazed when Sasuke breathed out fire at the ice mirrors, and then was equally disappointed when it didn’t affect the ice mirrors at all. Instead Sasuke was again hit by senbon needles from all sides, knocking Sasuke to the ground.

Before the hunter-nin could hit Sasuke again, the needles were blocked… by Hinata! Naruto blinked, she had moved so fast, he had barely seen her. “Wow kid, even that girl has more balls than you.” Naruto winced inwardly at the old man’s comment, he wasn’t wrong. Naruto was coward. ‘But now it would be foolish for me to join in, I can’t leave Tazuna-san by himself!’ Naruto tightened his hold on his kunai and widened his stance, ‘I won’t be useless anymore during this battle! I’ll protect Tazuna-san!’

He continued to keep an eye on the battle in front of him though, Sasuke had gotten back up and both he and Hinata seemed to be chatting. “What??? I just saved you from getting killed!” He could hear Hinata yell, Naruto bit his lip, now wasn’t the time for them to be fighting among themselves. He was proven right, as the hunter-nin hit both Genin with his senbon needles. Naruto couldn’t help the small growl that vibrated through his chest. Tazuna behind him jumped slightly at the noise but otherwise stayed behind the young ninja.

Naruto pushed down his temper, his team was fine; again the hunter-nin had missed all vital points. Naruto frowned at that though, why was the hunter-nin missing? Was he just screwing with the two Genin? Naruto felt that, that would be a mistake on the hunter-nin part Sasuke and Hinata were surely going to work out a strategy against the ninja. He felt confidence fill his veins, if the hunter-nin wasn’t being serious, then his team would surely win.

Hinata and Sasuke both looked serious now. Clearly being hit by the needles, made them focus again. Therefore when the hunter-nin again started to shot needles, Hinata was able to avoid pretty much all of them, while again Sasuke was hit by them. Sasuke fell to his knees, slightly shocked. He wasn’t the only one though the hunter-nin had stopped also. This made it so Naruto was able to see him finally, ‘he in the mirror! What the hell?’

The hesitation on the hunter-nin’s part was a mistake. Hinata immediately leaped forward and hit the mirror. She was slip second to late though, and the hunter-nin got away again. Naruto gasped in shock, when the mirror cracked a little. ‘She must be using gentle fist! She got him! That hunter-nin doesn’t stand a chance, if she can break the mirrors!’

Hinata also came to that conclusion and started to rapid hit the mirrors around her, with her jutsu. The hunter-nin reacted to what Hinata was doing, and aimed for Sasuke, this time actually taking things seriously. Some of the senbon needles hit vital points in Sasuke’s legs and arms, causing him to fall over again, but this time he couldn’t get back up. Naruto didn’t have to be close, to know that the boy had cursed. Hinata reacted, and again covered Sasuke.

She was able to deflect the rest of needles from hitting her fallen comrade. Naruto bit his lip, this wasn’t good. Hinata wouldn’t be able to break the mirrors and protect Sasuke from getting hurt! Naruto’s paralysis seemed to vanish, and he almost started to make his way over to the other two. Then he stopped, and looked behind him at Tazuna. ‘I can’t just leave Tazuna-san! Shit, shit, shit!’ He looked back over at Hinata, he had to help her, but he wasn’t sure how he could without leaving Tazuna to a terrible faith.

Hinata was able to deflect another attack of needles from hitting Sasuke, but she couldn’t prevent the ones that hit her. Luckily, again all the needles missed vital points. ‘Kill him!’ Naruto closed his clear blue eyes at the impure thought, considering. ‘What no! I can’t kill someone! I can’t leave Tazuna-san!’ He took a deep breath to settle himself. ‘Yes you can! Kill, kill, kill!’ Naruto reopened his eyes; they were now deep shade of violet. ‘I-I can’t…’ His eyes slowly turned to a lighter shade of purplish-blue.

Hinata seemed to be doing okay without his help, she again deflected needles from hitting Sasuke, and this time instead of being hit with rest of the needles, she grabbed them. Then with barely a second later, she tossed the needles right back at the mirrors around her. The needles smashed into the mirrors, she had hit filled the needles with her own chakra. Naruto’s cerulean eyes watched in amazement when several mirrors shattered. ‘Awesome! She has this!’ Still Hinata and Sasuke were surrounded by eight mirrors. Naruto wasn’t worried though, Hinata would break the last ones soon enough.

The hunter-nin didn’t stop to recover his broken mirrors; in fact it seemed that he moved faster now that there was less mirrors. He was moving so fast that he was able to throw one round of senbon needles then right after, he threw another round in rapid session. Hinata was able to block the first round of them, but because she was so focused on the first round she had missed the second round.

Several of them plugged into her arms and legs, a few of them nudged themselves into her neck. She didn’t move after that for several minutes. Naruto frowned in confused at that, as she simply just stood there, while the hunter-nin just watched. ‘What’s going on?’ He took a hesitant step forward, wondering if he should join the battle now.

Hinata fell forward, landing harshly against the hard cold ground. Naruto didn’t take anything else in as he watched his friend die in front of him. He didn’t see that Sasuke had fallen unconscious, nor that the mist had cleared a bit and Kakashi was trying his best to make his way over to them.

Naruto’s blue eyes were completely taken over this time, filled with a ruby red. His nails became so sharp that they were like knifes. ‘Kill, kill, kill!’ Naruto’s body was covered in a red hue of chakra that seemed to be bubbling at his backside, slowly growing outward. ‘He took what was ours! KILL HIM!’

Naruto fell to all fours and in blur was in the middle of the mirrors. Tazuna gasped at the sight when the bubbling stopped to completely form a red tail. The old man was afraid, but at the same curious at this new jutsu that Naruto seemed to be using. He had never heard of it, and because of this, he stood his ground watching the scene unfold in front of him.

Further away, Kakashi cursed, finally deciding to lift his Konoha forehead protector. He needed to end the battle quickly, before Naruto went to out of control. In front of Kakashi, was a tall pale man, with short spiky black hair, and dressed in all black. The man had bandages wrapped over his mouth, and on top of his head he wore a forehead protector from the Hidden Mist Village, but there was a huge dash over the Mist Village’s symbol. For the man was the missing-nin, Zabuza.

Zabuza seemed to be surprised when Kakashi uncovered his right eye, which was red and had three circle-like shapes around the pupil. “Ha, so you have a Sharingan? Ha, ha you must be Copy Cat Ninja, Kakashi.” Zabuza only showed a second of concern for his young charge, for the blonde brat was sending off strong killer intent, but then continued to engage Kakashi in battle. The hunter-nin was only a tool, and nothing more.

He was not afraid of the Sharingan he knew its powers and was prepared for anything. Or at least he was, until Kakashi copied him completely when he attempted to use any jutsu. Zabuza frowned, trying to come up with a way to prevent Kakashi from reading his mind.

From the left of them, they heard a deep growl, and both of them looked over to see that Naruto had destroyed all of the hunter-nin’s mirrors and was now advancing quickly against the boy. The hunter-nin was barely able to block the strikes from Naruto, and he was slowly running out of chakra. Zabuza decided to help out and sent out several star shuriken towards the blonde brat. They didn’t hit, Kakashi had deflected them before they even made it close to their target.

Zabuza grunted, and quickly forgot about his tool, if the boy couldn’t take down that weak blonde haired brat, then the hunter-nin was useless to him. He immediately refocused on his battle against the Copy Cat. His mind now more settled, than it had been before. Zabuza lifted his huge broadsword, called a Zanbato. He hide himself among the mist he had made earlier, making it even heavier than before, watching as Kakashi looked all around for him. Grinning smugly, Zabuza moved quickly, swinging the Zanbato down upon the other ninja.

Kakashi vapored into a huge water splash. Zabuza cursed, when he realized that he had killed a water clone. Kakashi had copied him again. Zabuza wasn’t fast enough to dodge an attack from a kunai. He grunted, and again cloaked himself in the heavy mist around them. Zabuza revised his plans and moved silently in the mist, towards his actual target. He didn’t get far though, for some reason Kakashi was able to find him in the mist.

The man again attacked him, this time it was critical. Kakashi had hit Zabuza with a weird lightening attack, which Zabuza was sure would have killed him, if he hadn’t been moving. Instead it hit him partially on his side, causing him to spill a great amount of blood. The wound caused Zabuza to lose focus on the mist around them, and it started to slowly clear around the bridge.

With the mist finally clearing enough, the hunter-nin and Naruto were finally able to see Kakashi and Zabuza more clearly. Naruto though was far too gone, to notice anything really, and continue to attack the hunter-nin. On the other hand, the hunter-nin was slightly taken off track from the mist suddenly clearing. Filled with worry, the boy looked over to see his teammate, bleeding rapidly.

The hunter-nin filled with tension decided he was going to help his comrade out. Naruto didn’t let him though, instead the ruby eyed Genin lashed out. His claws ripped the hunter-nin’s right arm right off, causing it to spray plasma everywhere. The arm flew several feet away from them, and the hunter-nin gasped in shock. He quickly attempted to turn to protect himself from the crazed Naruto.

Naruto reacted at the same time, plugging his claw right through the chest of the hunter-nin. The hunter-nin gasped again, but for whole another reason this time. “N-No!” He stuttered weakly, trying to detach himself from Naruto’s arm. As he struggled, his mask slipped and fell to the ground. The mask hit the ground so hard, it broke in two. The hunter-nin stared at the broken mask for several seconds in a daze.

He coughed violently, giving up his struggle to get free. Thick blood dripped from the side of his mouth, and he spoke with a broken heart. “It looks like your will to protect your precious one, was better than mine, Naruto-kun…” Naruto’s red eyes widened at the sight of the hunter-nin’s face. ‘H-He’s the boy from before! OH MY…!’ He pulled his arm out of the other boy, and watched with tears as the other boy fell to the ground.

Naruto closed his eyes from the sight, ‘no, no, no! I didn’t… I DIDN’T!’ He reopened his now light violet eyes to see his bloody arm, and the very still form of his friend from before. ‘I did… I killed him… I am a murderer!’

¹_{I screwed up the ranking last chapter. I am an idiot! I’ll fix it. I have been busy so I haven’t gotten around to uploading my fixup jobs. I also made a line for showing scene changes, instead of a dash. Hopefully those show up this time!}

            AN: I thought I share, that I update where I am on chapters on my Tumblr blog, thatsadot. If you visit my page, and just click on the link, Dot Writes, you will see my updates. If I know you guys are looking at that tag, I’ll update it more. Oh, AFF.org members, I am not sure on how to respond to reviews for you guys yet, but I appreciate them all the same :). Sorry I took forever to update this chapter, and I hope you guys enjoyed!
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