Team 8: by S'TarKan...Author of 8 Stories

[Pandora Green]

Chapter Seven
Because they were to patrol a couple of miles within the border, Team 8 was required to set up their own camp well back from the boundary with the Land of Earth. Kurenai merely shook her head when their first patrol discovered the subtle traces of Dariketsu's camp. They had claimed a small clearing within sight of the actual border. Naruto supposed the Hokage had been right… those bakas were spoiling for a fight if they did that.
Naruto tried to pay close attention to how Kurenai-sensei had them do things, because there was almost always a reason behind it… like the way they randomly varied their patrol patterns to make it harder for someone to slip by them undetected. It was embarrassing, but sometimes he did have to ask her why. At least she didn't berate him for being stupid when she answered his questions.
Instead, she seemed pleased that he wanted to know. Not knowing why she did this began to bother him until he finally had to ask her about that as well. Some instinct made him wait until Hinata and Shino were sparring after dinner, because he wasn't sure what the answer would be.
Kurenai kept her eyes on her students as they fought. Running the patrols was helping their speed and endurance, but she said she still wanted them to train a little when they took breaks. If their bodies were too tired, she would go into what Naruto recognized as her "lecture mode" and talk to them about things they needed to know. Those were usually interesting, but it was another time when she also welcomed questions. Why was this so?
"Ano, Sensei," Naruto said in a low voice as Hinata slapped aside Shino's punch and made a strike toward his midsection that forced him to quickly backpedal. She still wore the weights, but they were slowing her down less and less. He wondered if she even noticed this.
"What is it, Naruto?" Kurenai replied.
"Er, I've been asking a lot of questions lately," he said, but his voice trailed off. How could he say this without sounding like a baka?
"Yes," she said, her eyes still on the combatants, "I'm glad you've been taking a more active role in learning strategy and tactics."
"But that's just it," Naruto said, the words tumbling out easier now. "Why are you so happy that I'm asking all these questions? Almost all the teachers at the Academy got mad when I ask questions!"
"Everyone but Iruka?" she asked softly, Shino used his greater reach to force Hinata to retreat again.
Naruto shrugged. "Iruka's different. He grew up without parents like I did, so he cuts me a break."
"No," Kurenai said firmly, "he's not. He's doing his job properly. Evidently, he's one of the few instructors that is."
"Nani?" Naruto asked, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
Kurenai sighed. "Naruto, why do you ask those questions? Are you seeking attention? Are you trying to delay me so I don't start talking about a new subject? Or are you simply trying to irritate me?"
"No Sensei!" Naruto said quickly, "I just asked because I wanted to know!"
"Exactly," Kurenai murmured as Hinata leapt over Shino's leg sweep. "A student that actually wants to learn is a blessing to a teacher. Why should I want to discourage that?"
"But… why didn't the instructors want…" Naruto's voice trailed off. "It's because of me, isn't it?" he asked coldly.
"Not precisely," Kurenai said in a voice little more than a whisper. "Naruto, I'm not going to excuse their behavior, but I think it might help you to understand. When the Kyuubi attacked, it was like a natural disaster. It was unstoppable. I was miles away from the battle and I could still feel… it. More chakra and killing intent than I'd ever imagined was possible to exist. I'd never been more afraid in my life, and I imagine that was true for everyone else in Konoha. Then it was defeated, but at the cost of the Yondaime's life. It's hard explain how much we all loved the Fourth Hokage, but I think any one of us would have given their lives in his place, were it possible. But then he was gone, and so was the demon responsible for his death. Everyone was angry and grieving for the Hokage and everyone else who'd died… and there was no real outlet for that grief and rage. I know the Third and Fourth Hokages wanted you to be seen as the savior of the village, but I don't think it was possible, not with everyone still full of rage. Especially since there was really only one obvious outlet for that rage…"
"Me," Naruto finished her sentence dully. After another quick exchange of blows, Hinata and Shino sprang apart, panting.
"It's hard to break an ingrained habit," Kurenai said, slipping into her lecture-mode for a moment, "but once someone does manage to see the real Naruto, they don't go back to seeing you as a demon, do they?"
"No, they don't," Naruto said with a sigh. "But I was at the Academy for years, and it seems like Iruka is the only one that bothered. All of the other instructors were just trying to get back at my prisoner by making me feel stupid."
"As I said, I will not excuse their behavior," Kurenai agreed, "but I also know that Iruka really does care about you. When he heard about the spy, he thought I'd ordered you to fight… until I explained, he looked like he wanted to kill me."
Naruto was mortified that Iruka almost attacked another shinobi because of him, especially a jonin. Oddly enough, he also felt a strange warmth to know that the man cared about him that much. "G-gomen," he choked out, apologizing.
"No need for apologies," Kurenai said. "I'm glad to see the truth of his feelings. We had a very productive conversation, and I think I may be able to call him a friend in the future. But do you realize why my attitude toward questions may be somewhat at odds with what you have previously experienced?"
Naruto looked puzzled for a moment and then nodded. "Because the others wanted me to stay ignorant and fail as a ninja… that was the only means they could see for getting even with the Kyuubi."
"That is an accurate summation," Kurenai said as Hinata landed a solid hit on Shino's shoulder, making him stumble backwards. "Understanding and teasing apart the motivations of others, based upon indirect observations, is a valuable skill to cultivate for a shinobi. Even more so for a Hokage."
"Everything is a lesson with you, isn't it?" Naruto asked, half-jokingly.
"Of course," Kurenai replied softly as she stood up. "We have a lot of ground to make up, and I am responsible for your education now."
Naruto blinked as he absorbed that statement. He barely listened as Kurenai gave a detailed critique of the sparring match they'd just watched together.
OoOoO
Things were quiet, at least at first. When Kurenai was satisfied that their stamina and chakra reserves were up to the task, they began following their patrol routes through the tree cover rather than on the ground. After mastering the water-walking exercises, using chakra to keep their footing on tree branches was easy.
Before the day was over, they were leaping from tree to tree, subtly boosting their leg strength with small amounts of chakra to improve their leaping distance. Even with his weights, Naruto could make a twenty meter jump from a standing start, without really straining himself. He did, however, make sure he aimed for branches that were sturdy enough to handle his extra weight. Getting dumped on his head once was enough.
While this method was faster, Kurenai cautioned them to not use it in hostile territory, or when they feared they would be ambushed. It was damned hard to dodge a thrown kunai when you were in mid-leap, and landing on an explosive tag can ruin your whole day.
With a little subtle begging, Naruto also persuaded Kurenai to show them some more jutsus. It had been embarrassing to admit it at first, but she also showed him why he had so many problems using the body substitution technique, Kawarimi no Jutsu. It worked some times, like when he ambushed Sasuke-teme, but it failed more often than not.
As he suspected, he'd been throwing far too much chakra into the technique, which surprised him at first. He thought moving your body in the blink of an eye, and replacing it with a nearby object would take a lot of energy. Kurenai-sensei merely shook her head and explained that if the common shinobi technique required as much chakra as he used, it would kill anyone weaker than a jonin who tried it.
It was a little disturbing to realize just how much more chakra he had available than other… well, normal ninjas. Of course, as Kurenai pointed out, as bad as his chakra control was, he wasted so much that it wasn't that obvious. But in the same breath she promised to work with him until he was as efficient as she was. Naruto couldn't wait… he wanted to show everyone that he wasn't just empty boasts.
Kurenai's repertoire of ninjutsu seemed somewhat eclectic. She seemed to know techniques from a variety of styles. Sensei reiterated her motto of "there is no such thing as useless knowledge" when Shino asked her about it as she introduced them to a Doton jutsu. "Doton: Wana" let one mold chakra to influence the ground around their target. It required you to touch the ground as you released the molded chakra. But making the earth flow up around the target's feet, slowing them down or trapping them, was really useful if used correctly.
This jutsu was especially tricky for Naruto, because if he molded too much chakra into the technique, the ground would liquefy around Kurenai's feet, letting her merely step out of it. Fortunately, all the practice he'd had getting Suiton: Gyoushuu under control paid off here, and he mastered it almost as soon as Shino and Hinata.
He was a little puzzled when he finally got it right. Hinata was trying to apologize for something, but when he asked her what she did wrong, she wouldn't tell him. Remembering Kurenai's words, he just shrugged and smiled at her. "Whatever you did, I'm not mad at you. You're a good person, Hinata, so I know you'd never do something to be mean."
For some reason, she spun around and quickly walked away. Naruto turned to Shino with a questioning expression, but the bug user wouldn't say anything. Again, Naruto had the oddest feeling that Shino was smirking at him. He hoped Kurenai introduced a Katon jutsu next, so he could 'accidentally' burn the collar off of Shino's jacket.
OoOoO
On the second week of the patrol, Hinata's Byakugan caught traces of swift movement at the edges of her range. They changed courses to track what had to be a shinobi and followed it all the way back to the border. As quick as they were, it still crossed back over the border before they could catch it, and Kurenai called a halt when they were still several meters short of the invisible boundary. Naruto noticed they were standing near the clearing that Dariketsu's team had used as a campsite.
At the other end of the clearing, on the Earth side of the border, were four figures that seemed to be around Kurenai's height. Naruto wondered which one had violated their border to lead them here. He looked left and right, his nostrils flaring, wary of an ambush. Hinata's Byakugan were active, and some slight motion in the grass around Shino's feet meant his bugs were deploying as well. A few seemed to have taken to the air after moving well away from their host.
"Have we satisfied your curiosity?" Kurenai called out.
"Somewhat," the largest of the four Rock ninjas replied. They were all dressed in tans and neutral grays, and the lower portions of their faces were covered as well. "I'm somewhat insulted that Konoha sends a group of children to match us."
"We are not here to contest with you," Kurenai said firmly. "The Hokage does not want any more incidents along this border. Dariketsu was recalled for that reason."
"That's too bad," the Rock leader yelled back with an evil laugh. "He was fun to bait, if a bit too predictable."
Naruto didn't really want to draw attention to himself… but he'd become rather warm during the extended chase through the trees. He slowly unzipped his heavy jacket so the cool morning air could cool him down.
As slight as that motion was, it still drew the attention of the Rock shinobi. Naruto froze as he felt sudden spikes of killing intent, radiating from across the clearing. His ears strained to catch the whispered words exchanged between the Iwa ninjas, but he could barely make out a few, such as "b*****d", "flash", and "yellow". It really didn't make a lot of sense to him, but he froze in place, not wanting to provoke anything more until Kurenai said the word.
"I see your mission is not as innocent as I would have believed," the Rock leader called out as they split up and disappeared into the trees. "You will not catch us unaware when you come for our blood."
"Back into the trees," Kurenai hissed. Naruto waited until Shino and Hinata were halfway there before he began backing out of the clearing. His senses seemed extraordinarily sharp, and he could almost hear the individual blades of grass flex under his sandals.
As he slipped through the trees, Kurenai caught his eye. Her frown faded as he quickly glanced at Shino and Hinata, verifying their positions. She nodded and motioned for them to follow her. As previously arranged, Hinata sped up until she was even with Kurenai. Her Byakugan was active and checked their path for ambushes or traps. Shino trailed behind them, and Naruto was a little farther back. If any of his team were attacked, he was in a position to see it immediately and counterattack. If he was targeted, Hinata's all-around vision would let them know as well.
Kurenai-sensei led them on a circuitous route, doubling back many times to check for pursuers. Nothing more dangerous than a frightened deer was found, so eventually they returned to their camp.
"A-ano, Sensei," Hinata said as soon as they stopped. "What happened back there?"
"I'm not completely sure," Kurenai said, frowning.
"Their sudden aggressiveness is worrying," Shino said gravely. Naruto could only nod in agreement.
"I could read their lips, a little, through their masks," Hinata said, blushing. "What does 'Yellow Flash' mean?"
Kurenai stiffened at Hinata's words, and then she turned and peered closely at Naruto. "I suppose… if they saw him at a distance… and no real clues for gauging his height…" she murmured. She let out a sigh as all three of her genins frowned at her in confusion.
"All right, I think I know what that was," the jonin said. "You've all seen the carving of the Fourth Hokage on the cliff overlooking Konoha, right?"
They nodded.
"Well, from a distance, Naruto bears a passing resemblance to the Yondaime," she continued.
"Did he have yellow hair like I do?" Naruto interrupted.
"Yes," Kurenai replied. "And because of that, and a special jutsu of his, he was often known as 'The Yellow Flash of Konoha'."
"But why would Naruto's resemblance to the Fourth Hokage cause such a reaction?" Shino asked before Naruto could.
Kurenai took a deep breath and sat down on a log they'd moved near the fire pit. "Well, as you know, there was a war between Konoha and the Hidden Village of Stone back before you were born." She paused for a moment while they all nodded. "Before becoming the Hokage, the Yondaime was a jonin who fought in many battles. He was known for his clever plans and skillful leadership. It is suspected that the Rock leaders knew of this and wanted to draw him out. Shinobi historians don't know for sure that the Iwa ninjas specifically targeted his students, but we do know that one was killed, an Uchiha named Obito."
Kurenai paused, taking a deep breath. "Whatever they hoped to accomplish by killing the Fourth's student, it did not succeed. After his remaining students returned to Konoha to recover, he returned to the battlefields and… well, by the end of the war, over half of the Shinobi of Iwagakure had fallen to 'The Yellow Flash' and the attacks he led."
Naruto felt his mouth drop open in shock. That wasn't something they'd lectured about at the Academy. "H-he killed half of the whole village?" he asked in shock.
"The shinobi, yes. We were at war," Kurenai said gravely, "and that's what happens in a war. Some people think the Sandaime is weak because he favors peace… I call them fools."
Naruto shook his head. "They can't really believe I'm the Fourth Hokage, can they? I mean, that's crazy!"
Kurenai shook her head. "No, though scared people often believe irrational things. But they may think you were sent specifically to intimidate or provoke them. I don't think the Hokage anticipated this reaction when he assigned us this mission. Hopefully, they will be encouraged to stay on their own side of the border for now."
"If they do not, I will know," Shino added. "They stood there long enough for at least one of my allies to climb onto each of them. Those were female kikai bugs, so I will quickly know if they get within scent range of one of my sentries."
"Very good, Shino," Kurenai said with a smile. "While they initiated this encounter by crossing over into Fire Country territory, we have gained far more than they in the exchange."
Naruto remembered Kurenai's words and tried to stay optimistic as he gathered wood for the cook fire. The thought of the heroic Yondaime killing people made him feel ill, but Kurenai was right… it was a war, and he supposed he didn't have much choice. And neither would he, if war broke out again. He wondered who those fools were that Kurenai had talked about, and resolved to be a little nicer to the Hokage next time he saw the old man.
The blond-haired genin went about his chores, but he would think back on this conversation many times in the years to come.
OoOoO
The first hint of trouble came from Hinata, whose head snapped around while they were on a routine patrol.
"Sensei!" she hissed.
Naruto, who was in the process of leaping toward the next tree, caught himself with one foot still touching bark, so he increased the chakra in that foot and awkwardly recoiled back onto the bough. Hinata was looking to the right of their current course. "They are under a genjutsu," she said as she shook herself and suddenly launched forward. Naruto watched four dark objects drop toward the forest floor from where she'd been standing and knew she'd discarded her weights.
"Hinata!" Kurenai barked, reaching toward the Hyuuga genin.
Naruto wanted to follow, but he knew he needed to see what was going on. "Naruto Majutsu: Chakra Pulse!" he growled as he hurriedly crammed chakra into his hara, and then practically hurled it in the direction Hinata had jumped.
The recoil nearly blew him backward out of the tree, and the bough his feet were chakra-glued to creaked alarmingly. But the ripple sped outwards, knocking a few leaves from the trees like a stiff breeze, and making several figures shimmer into view under a tree in the distance. Three adult-sized shapes swam into view, two of them carrying large bundles.
Naruto had no idea who these men were, or why Hinata was attacking them, but he wasn't going to let her go alone. He jumped after her, Shino and Kurenai barely a step behind.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto called out, his hands forming the familiar seal sequence as he dropped toward the men. The three of them were joined by a score of clones.
The man on the left dropped his cloth-wrapped burden and began making seals, his fingers a blur. "Katon: Gurando Fenikkusu Kachuu!" he snapped, and a trio of fireballs sprang from his fingertips. They spiraled outwards, leaving trails of fire that grew ever wider as they spread. Shino and Kurenai avoided the worst of it, but the vortex of flames had been aimed directly at Naruto and his clones. Naruto threw his arms in front of his face at the last moment and tried to shift his chakra to protect his face. The heat that washed over him was intense, and he didn't need to hear the multiple pops to know his clones had been destroyed. When he broke through the funnel of fire, the cool air beyond was incredibly sweet. He dropped to the ground in a crouch as he spread his arms again. His face felt tight and hot, and the smell of scorched hair was unbelievably foul, but he was basically in one piece.
"Damn, Kouro, you're slipping," the largest of the strangers said, "I thought you were going to cook that little b*****d for dinner." He was tall and heavily muscled, and wore only loose pants and heavy boots. His shaved head shone in the sunlight that filtered through the trees, and his cold black eyes gleamed like chips of obsidian.
The man on the right wore a blue and black uniform that contrasted with the fire-user's red and black one. He was fending off Hinata with a staff made of gleaming ice, but was having some difficulty handling the weapon while trying to juggle the large bundle he was also burdened with.
Finally, he growled in exasperation and threw his bundle into the air and swung the staff at Hinata crosswise with both hands. The staff was little more than a blur, but the Hyuuga was even faster as she leapt upward, grabbing onto the bundle with both hands and swinging it onto her back as their combined momentum spun her into a tree trunk. Naruto gaped as her feet found purchase on the rough bark and she ran up the trunk in a continuous motion. She angled toward a large branch and began running along the underside of it without even slowing down.
"Dammit, we can't let them delay us. Kill them all," the large shinobi barked. An instant later, his hand flashed upward and deflected the kunai Kurenai had thrown at his face.
"With pleasure, taishou!" Kouro snarled, his hands flashing through seals again. "Katon: Kaenhoushaki no jutsu!" he said and a blot of flame shot from his hands toward the still smoldering Naruto.
"Suiton: Gyoushuu!" Naruto snapped as he ran through the seals. It was a little tricky, trying to align the condensation vortex along a vertical plane instead of a horizontal one, but he didn't have to worry so much about holding back his chakra this time.
A spinning chakra vortex a foot wide opened up and the air around them became parched of moisture as a blast of water erupted like a fire hose, intercepting the flame blast.
Naruto looked away, blinking rapidly, as steam blasted across the battlefield. There was a loud grunt of pain that brought a fierce grin to his lips. He hadn't missed. A flash of motion drew his eyes to the side.
When Hinata reach the end of the bough, she didn't even slow down and instead launched herself toward the ground. She twisted in midair so that she absorbed the impact with her legs, cradling the bundle as she sank into a low crouch. A kunai flashed and the fabric parted to reveal a young girl, bound and gagged, with furious white eyes like Hinata's.
"The other bundle is Konohamaru-kun," Hinata said as she quickly cut her sister's bonds. Kurenai's eyes widened and she turned toward the package Kouro had discarded, but Naruto was even faster. His fists snapped up and he struck himself a sharp blow on each shoulder, and then threw his arms forward. From under the sleeves of his jacket, his forearm weights flew forward and struck the large ninja in the face, staggering him backward. The discarded weights fell to the ground, where they embedded themselves in the soft forest loam.
In a flash Naruto was running past the leader, whose fist made a crater in the ground inches behind him. Naruto silently thanked Gai and Lee as he grabbed the other bundle and slung it toward his sensei. Kurenai caught it without missing a beat, her kunai already moving.
Things were moving rapidly, too rapidly for him too keep track of. The guy with the ice staff was closing in to reclaim his prize, but Hinata stepped over her sister, leaving her a kunai to finish freeing her legs, and set herself in his path.
The staff flashed forward, but this time she was ready, and shattered it with a Jyuuken strike. A sharp shard left a line of blood along her cheek and Naruto bared his teeth in a feral snarl.
A ball of chakra-enhanced fire struck him in the back, knocking him to his knees as it tried to ignite the tough jacket material. Naruto somersaulted forward, feeling blisters rise on the back of his neck. He raised himself into a handstand, looking behind him. Kouro was starting another set of hand seals, but a volley of kunai from Kurenai made him abort that attack and leap backwards. Naruto saw the thrown knives imbed themselves up to the rings in the earth and silently reminded himself never to get his sensei mad. He flexed his arms and launched himself into the air, marveling at how much easier this was with half of his weights gone. He struck the quick-release catches for the leg weights as he tumbled, and then snapped his legs out straight to launch them at the flame user.
Kouro jumped backward to avoid those as well, hissing in frustration. But his annoyance was brought up short when a mass of kikai bugs swarmed up his legs and Shino's right arm wrapped around his neck, laying a kunai across the front of his throat. The fire-user's eyes widened and he froze in place.
"Good one, Shino!" Naruto crowed, then turned back toward the big guy. The leader was moving to help the ice-nin with Hinata. "Hey teme! I ain't done with you! Doton: Wana!" He slapped the ground and the soil under the large man's feet writhed and flowed up over his boots.
The largest ninja caught himself as he started to stumble. Then he turned toward Naruto and smiled. His skin took on a metallic sheen and his feet began to sink inches deeper into the ground. With a heave, he tore his feet free of the earth-snare and began striding toward the much smaller green-clad shinobi.
"Naruto! No!" a shrill voice yelled. Roughened as it was from the gag and whatever else he'd been through, Naruto could still recognize Konohamaru's voice. "Don't! He, he killed Iruka-sensei!"
Naruto froze in place. He couldn't move, could breathe. He didn't just hear that. He couldn't have. It was impossible. He felt the blood rushing in his ears as his fingers curled into claws. His blood was turning into fire in his veins as his mind shut down.
He saw Hinata hesitate, jumping back from the ice user and turning toward him, her eyes wide. A quick jutsu from the blue-clad ninja launched a volley of ice shards at the Hyuuga. Her Byakugan still active, Hinata avoided or blocked most of them, but the last one struck the side of her head. She dropped to the ground.
Kurenai hands were a blur as she launched a volley of kunais. The ice-nin dodged and blocked, but still ended up with one jammed into his shoulder. Kurenai charged at him a blade in each hand. "Get out of here! Run!" she shouted at the children who were gingerly climbing to their feet. Konohamaru grabbed the Hyuuga girl's hand and they ran into the forest.
"Now!" the leader said as he stomped toward Naruto, beginning to pick up speed.
A sudden roar of flames from behind him made Naruto turn, even as he spun away from a fist that nearly flattened him as it drove into the ground.
"I don't need to use seals to do this one, boy!" Kouro smirked as his body was wreathed in flames. There was a loud crackling sound as Shino's kikai bugs were incinerated. Shino himself was blown backwards off his feet, his right arm a mass of flames. Naruto continued sidestepping, trying to keep both of the bastards in front of him, and lead them away from Shino and Hinata. The fire user didn't seem to be that interested in Shino, because he began flicking small fireballs at Naruto, making him jump to the side as they ignited the parched grass.
Shino rolled over and over in the grass, eventually smothering the flames as he rolled away from the clearing. The right sleeve of his jacket was burned away, and what Naruto could see of his arm was a mass of red that didn't look good at all. Against all reason, Shino tried to struggle to his feet, holding himself up with his good hand. The ever-present sunglasses gone, the Aburame boy locked gazes with Naruto for a moment. Then his hazel eyes rolled back into his head… he slowly toppled forward and was still.  

[Pandora Green]

"Come on," the leader said. "Cook this little brat and then we can triple team the jonin and get out of here."
"I'd like to take my time with her and the girl," the flame-wreathed ninja leered, "but it shall be as you command. Stand still, boy, and I'll make this quick."
Naruto froze in place. The thought of these two hurting his sensei and Hinata finished a process that began with Konohamaru's shout, and gathered momentum as he watched Hinata and Shino fall. He felt something snap inside.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" he screamed and charged toward Kouro, whose eyes were suddenly wide. Everything seemed to be covered by a red haze, and Naruto vaguely realized that the Kyuubi's red chakra was exploding out of his skin. He wondered if this meant the seal was breaking, but he didn't really care as long as it meant he could stop them from hurting his friends.
The fire-user hurled fireball after fireball at the short ninja, who suddenly didn't seem so ridiculous an opponent. The pronounced whisker-marks the boy could feel etching deeper into his face probably had something to do with that, along with the pronounced canines that were starting to draw blood from his lower lip. Naruto batted the flaming missiles aside with contempt, ignoring the sting in his palms that disappeared almost as soon as it registered.
As he leapt onto him, Kouro finished a series of frantic seals. "Katon: Okibi Shounetsujigoku!" he screamed as flames exploded outward from his body.
Naruto crashed through the flaming shockwave, feeling it as little more than a warm breeze through the haze of rage and the red chakra that seemed to feed it. He landed on Kouro and drove the shinobi to his knees as his hands locked around the b*****d's throat. The man's hands tore at his wrists, but Naruto's arms could not be moved. The fire storm around them gained in strength as the man's struggles grew more frenzied. Naruto grinned, enjoying the weak man's terror, but a flash of light grey in the corner of his vision seemed to nag at something in his mind. With a wrench, Naruto turned his eyes away from the intoxicating terror in the man's eyes and looked to his left. The firestorm jutsu, heightened by mortal terror, was still expanding. Kurenai and the ice-nin, still locked in mortal combat, were forced to move away, but the flames were also creeping toward Hinata's unconscious body.
Naruto felt like he'd been dunked in ice water. His head snapped back around and he snapped the fire-ninja's neck with one quick motion. He turned toward Hinata, but the metallic ninja was in his way, his face twisted into a rictus of hate.
An enormous fist cocked back and rocketed toward Naruto's face, but he simply raised one hand and caught it. The man grunted and slammed his foot into Naruto's stomach, picking him up and throwing back backward into a half-burned tree trunk.
"I don't know what kind of freak power you have," he snarled, "But I can turn my skin into solid steel! You have as little chance of defeating me as that stupid teacher that tried to protect those brats. I'm going to crush you, and then your leader, and then I'll kill your little friends before I collect my prize… and there is nothing you can do to stop me."
Rather than standing, Naruto raised himself onto all fours, balanced on his fingertips and the balls of his feet. In a flash, he drove forward, sending gouts of churned earth flying into the air behind him. The metallic ninja laughed and launched himself forward as well, his fist poised to crush the runty brat who dared kill one of his men.
There was a loud crunch as the two collided, and dust and debris filled the air around them. As it settled, one could see where a huge fist had smashed into the ground, flattening everything under it as it made a crater nearly six feet across.
A much smaller fist could be seen protruding from the broad metallic back. Blood poured out of the wound, joining the growing pool beneath the crouching giant.
Smeared with blood and dirt, Naruto levered himself out from between the dead man's arm and his legs. He'd managed to beat the punch, letting it land harmlessly behind him as he slammed his fist through the b*****d's chest… but he hadn't changed back from steel with death, and he was heavy as hell.
The blond genin finally squirmed free and looked for his sensei.
OoOoO
The ice user, whom Kurenai recognized from the Bingo Book as Lisuke the Ice Knife was surprisingly skillful with his created weapons, and they'd exchanged over a dozen blows before Kurenai was fatally distracted by the burst of killer intent radiating from her genin. Was the Kyuubi about to break free after all?
Seizing his chance, the ice user bound her feet in ice. She instantly threw her kunai at him, but he'd anticipated that and ducked them easily. Another Hyoton jutsu bound her arms at her sides, rendering her helpless.
But rather than immediately kill his helpless opponent, the ice-nin watched in shock as the blond brat exploded with a ferocious red chakra and killed both Kouro the Flame and Kazuyo the Anvil. Turning toward the boy's jonin, and now his best ticket to getting out of this alive, he laid the point of his ice-sword alongside her throat and hoarsely asked her the question burning in his mind: "What the hell was that?"
The answer came from an unexpected direction, a whisper from behind his ear as the helpless jonin in front of him wavered and disappeared. "Kyuubi no Kitsune," was all it said, sounding almost scared. It was the second to last thing he ever heard.
The last was the dull scrape of sharp steel on bone as a kunai was rammed into the base of his skull.
OoOoO
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as Kurenai-sensei's genjutsu wavered and faded out… and the last of the kidnappers fell like a puppet with its strings cut. As the red haze disappeared, he suddenly felt horribly tired and sore. After a moment, it was all he could do to stay on his feet.
"Naruto?" Kurenai asked in a quiet voice.
"Hai, sensei," he answered. "Something weird happened. I… I think it started to get out or something." He shuddered violently. If Kyuubi was in danger of breaking out… He jumped when Kurenai put her hand on his shoulder. Why was she willing to stand so close to him?
Kurenai looked him in the eyes as she slowed her breathing and seemed to gather her thoughts. "Naruto," she began, "from what the Hokage told me, your seal was designed to let some of Kyuubi's chakra filter out into your own. Apparently you drew on that when you became afraid."
Naruto nodded, not bothering to correct her. He hadn't been afraid, he'd been furious. "If I'm not going to go insane and kill everyone, can we check on Hinata and Shino?"
"I'll take care of that," Kurenai said as she knelt down next to Hinata. "Can you track down Sarutobi Konohamaru and Hyuuga Hanabi?"
Naruto nodded and took a deep breath. "Konohamaru!" he yelled.
"Yeah?" a voice echoed from the trees nearby.
Naruto shrugged at Kurenai who had turned toward him, scowling. "He never does what he's told to do," Naruto explained.
"All right," Kurenai said. "If you know him, reassure him that everything is all right, and keep an eye on Hinata. I think she's just stunned, and I need to see to Shino."
Naruto nodded and slumped down next to his teammate. He was worried about Shino's arm, but Hinata looked so still, lying there like that…
"Naruto?" Konohamaru whispered. Naruto looked up, but he couldn't immediately see the little brat. Maybe he wasn't so bad at the camouflaging art when it was for real.
"It's safe to come out," Naruto said wearily. "We… we got them. We got them all. They won't be hurting anyone ever again." He tried to push Iruka-sensei out of his mind, but it wouldn't cooperate. He'd never get to treat him to ramen like he promised himself he would, dammit.
The bushes to his left stirred and Konohamaru cautiously stepped back into the clearing, still leading the little girl who must be Hinata's sister. The white eyed girl looked at Hinata's unconscious form with a curious lack of interest. "She'll be okay," Naruto reassured her, "she just got hit on the head."
"I'm not surprised she was defeated," the girl said in a clear voice. Her accent was cultured like Hinata's, but the coldness of her words made Naruto scowl.
"She. Was. Not. Defeated," Naruto snarled, angrily biting off each word. "She charged in there and rescued you, achieving her objective. The ninjas that kidnapped you are dead and we're all alive. We won."
Konohamaru glanced uneasily from his rival to his fellow kidnapping victim. "Ah… that's good, Naruto-san. I'm glad Kurenai-sama was able to defeat them."
Naruto sat for a moment, looking down at Hinata. "What happened to Iruka-sensei?" he asked quietly.
Konohamaru looked down. After a moment he sniffed loudly. "I'm sorry, Naruto. They grabbed me at recess, but I saw them at the last moment and called out. Sensei tried to stop them, but… the big one hit him so hard, I heard his bones break. But Sensei kept trying to get up again…"
Naruto closed his eyes, remembering how Iruka fought so hard to save him from Mizuki. "That sounds just like him."
"The b-big one kept hitting him until he stopped moving. I was tied up and couldn't do anything, but they made me watch before they put me in the sack. Sensei w-wasn't breathing," the boy sobbed.
"He should have been stronger if he was going to interfere," the girl snapped. "If he'd been properly trained, he would have stopped them and they wouldn't have gotten away with either of us."
"You shut your mouth!" Konohamaru shouted at the younger girl, making her flinch back like she'd been slapped.
Her face went red and her eyes narrowed. "How dare you! Do you know who I am?" the girl snarled.
"He's the Hokage's grandson, so I believe he outranks you," Naruto snapped, "not even counting the fact that you are an awful brat. I can't believe you are Hinata's sister, or that she'd even bother to try and rescue you." His revulsion and grief at what had happened was rapidly turning into anger, and this spoiled brat who badmouthed Hinata and Iruka-sensei was really asking for it.
He swallowed his anger with great difficulty and looked down at Hinata. Her breathing was slow and even. Concentrating on that seemed to calm him. He failed to protect his teammates, but at least none of them had died. Shino might be badly hurt though.
As his stomach twisted with worry, he heard footsteps approaching. Naruto silently rolled to his feet, bringing his hands up in a taijutsu stance. Konohamaru inhaled sharply, staring at Naruto's right arm. Previously concealed behind the genin's torso, it was coated with drying blood up to the shoulder.
Naruto wearily released his breath and nearly dropped to his knees when Kurenai helped Shino limp into the clearing. There were bandages wrapped around his right forearm, and the sleeve of his red shirt was scorched and seared where it protruded from the right arm hole of his jacket. Naruto blinked. Seeing that unexpectedly bright red shirt at a distance, he'd thought Shino's arm had been burned far worse than it was. He felt a small smile tug at his mouth, the first since they'd left for patrol that morning.
Hinata stirred at last, rolling onto her side and clutching her head. Naruto carefully pulled a cloth from his belt with his left hand, wetted it down with his canteen, and wiped at the clotted blood along Hinata's hairline.
His teammate's eyes shot open and she winced in pain.
"It's all right, Hinata," Naruto said. "We got them. Your sister and Konohamaru are safe."
Hinata seemed to relax slightly at this news.
"My name is Hanabi," the younger girl snapped irritably.
"Your name will be face-in-mud if you don't shut up," Naruto replied with a glare.
"I-it's all right, Naruto," Hinata said quietly. "Hanabi, were you injured?"
"No, no thanks to you. Father will be furious when he finds out you were the first to fall." Naruto thought the girl derived some weird sort of satisfaction from this pronouncement.
Hinata sat up quickly, and Naruto noticed she bit her lower lip and shut her eyes for a moment. He glared at Hanabi, but the girl didn't comment. What the hell was going on with these two?
Hinata slowly climbed to her feet. Naruto thought she was barely keeping her balance, but some impulse kept him from reaching out to steady her. "If you are unhurt, we should probably return to our camp to regroup," she said.
"That might be a good idea," Kurenai said, glancing over at Naruto. "But we should moderate our pace for our guests."
They set out for their camp, walking slowly along the forest floor. After a few minutes, Naruto felt his energy returning and he no longer had to concentrate to avoid stumbling. Of course, putting his weights back on didn't help the situation.
Shino was right in front of him, along with the two young children, both of whom seemed to be a little afraid of the quiet bug-nin. Hinata was in the lead with Kurenai.
"Hinata," Kurenai said, her voice carrying through the still air. "I understand that you were concerned about rescuing your sister, but do you think it might have been better if we devised a plan before attacking the kidnappers?"
"G-gomen, Sensei," Hinata said, ducking her head apologetically. "I would have preferred to have done that," she continued, her voice clearer than it usually was when she was embarrassed and apologizing. "But there wasn't time. As fast as they were moving, if we didn't immediately intercept them, they might have outrun us to the border with Earth Country."
"I see," Kurenai said thoughtfully. "I agree with your reasoning, Hinata. Your decisive action not only saved two lives, but it also prevented a diplomatic incident, if not a war."
Hanabi let out a snort. Konohamaru shushed her, glancing worriedly back at Naruto.
Naruto didn't say anything, but he could feel his upper lip curling. Hinata really had saved their butts… so why was her sister being such a brat about it?
OoOoO
The sun was setting and Naruto was very happy when they reached the camp so he could sit down for a moment… even if Hanabi didn't seem to think much of it.
Konohamaru, on the other hand, thought it was 'really neat'. Naruto knew he was training to become a ninja of the Leaf. Maybe this was a preview of what he might be doing in a few years when he'd have missions of his own. On the other hand, there was no telling what Hanabi's problem was.
After a moment, he rose to his feet and made his way to the nearby stream. The blood came off his hand fairly easily, as did the bloody mud that stuck to his pants. But the blood in his jacket had soaked in, and he really had to scrub to get it out. The heavy fabric was waterlogged before he was done. He grimaced and carried the folded jacket back to the tents, planning to dry it by the fire.
The evening air was cool on his skin, and the breeze ruffled his black t-shirt as he walked toward the fire. Konohamaru looked up and peered at him curiously. "What's that, Naruto-san?" he asked, pointing at Naruto's wrist.
Naruto peered down at the rounded bracer of leather and metal. "Ah, that's my wrist-weight. It helps me increase my speed and strength."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hinata look up suddenly, her expression chagrined. Kurenai wordlessly reached into her bag and handed Hinata her weights. Hinata accepted them with a blush.
Hanabi peered at him curiously. "What's the point of slowing yourself down with those?"
She hadn't noticed Hinata, for which Naruto was quietly grateful, so he answered her question, ignoring the tone. "If I wear these all the time, my muscles get used to moving with the extra burden… then when I really need it, I get rid of the weights and I move that much faster. Wearing these when you train is also good for building up your endurance."
"You spar with weights on?" Konohamaru asked, eyes wide.
"Yeah," Naruto said. "I learned about them sparring with an older shinobi named Rock Lee."
Hanabi let out a laugh. "I know him. He's that loud crazy baka that Neji-nii-san is saddled with on his team. I wouldn't do anything he told me to do."
"It was Gai-sensei's idea," Naruto said coldly, "who is Lee's sensei and must therefore be this Neji's Jonin sensei as well. Why don't you ask your 'Neji-nii-san' if his Sensei is a fool? That man knows more about taijutsu than almost anyone I can think of."
"NARUTO!" a loud voice cried out, making him cringe reflexively. "It warms my heart to hear you defend my teachings! You have truly not forgotten the fire of youth!"
"Gai?" Naruto gasped.
"Yosh, Sensei!"
"Lee…" Naruto said, rubbing at his eyes.
Gai and Lee leapt into the clearing, obviously practicing their "Dynamic Entry" jutsu. They were followed - less dramatically - by several ANBU in their distinctive animal masks, a large, rough-looking woman with red marks on her face and shaggy hair, a huge black dog, a man with long hair and white eyes, and a tall man with sunglasses and a large concealing full-length coat that had to be related to Shino. Tenten and a boy with the distinctive Hyuuga eyes rounded out the crowd.
Hanabi immediately ran toward the white-eyed man in long, flowing white robes. She quickly bowed before him and he nodded his acknowledgement. Hinata shakily rose from her seat and presented herself similarly… but her bow did not receive any acknowledgement.
The tall woman grunted and scratched the black dog's ears. "I told you the kids had been released," she grumbled. "Their scent trails held no hints of duress, and Kuromaru can always tell the difference."
"I am… surprised that those three were bested by a team of mere genin," the white-eyed man said. "It would be more likely that they had their prize stolen by Iwa-nin taking advantage of the Hokage's laxness."
Naruto scowled at that. Their counterparts across the border only tried something once… well, that they knew of. Still, they didn't seem eager to test them after that first confrontation.
"However unlikely it may seem, Hiashi-sama," the man wearing sunglasses replied in an urbane tone, "it would appear that those three missing-nins were, in fact, defeated by a genin team." The man turned toward Shino. "To what extent were you injured?"
"I sustained first degree burns to my right forearm, with some second-degree tissue damage in one spot on the top of my wrist, along with mild smoke inhalation," Shino replied in a curiously detached voice. But then he frowned enough for his eyebrows to become visible. "Unfortunately, I was surprised by a seal-less fire jutsu and sustained significant losses to my colony. I estimate my kikai-jutsu capacity has been decreased by sixty percent."
The older man nodded slowly. "It was fortunate that you had not committed more of your reserves. However, when you accompany us back to Konoha, you can bind more to your queen to restore your colony."
But Shino shook his head. "Unfortunately, our relief is not due for another three days."
The large woman let out a loud bark of laughter. "I think the ANBU can cover for you for a couple of days. Your team looks like it went through a meat-grinder, you most of all."
"A-ano," Hinata said hesitantly, drawing annoyed glares from the two Hyuuga men that made her falter for a moment. "The Hokage ordered us to stay here until we received a specific written message," she continued quickly, ducking her head.
Naruto blinked. He was honestly surprised that she'd managed to get that out… not to mention a little proud of his shy team mate. "Hinata's right," he said loudly, drawing the attention of the angry Hyuugas. Not that he cared – they were probably idiots like Hanabi, anyway.
Gai-sensei frowned. "Kurenai?" he asked.
"My genin have accurately summarized our orders," she said, and the pride in her voice was unmistakable. "We would be failing to complete our assigned mission if we left the border now… unless you have specific orders from the Hokage?"
"Are you openly defying my authority?" the elder Hyuuga asked in a dangerous tone.
Kurenai lifted her chin. "Not at all," she said coolly. "But our orders came from the Hokage, and only he may countermand them. You, Hiashi-sama, are not part of that chain of command."
"No one wishes to usurp your mission, Kurenai-san," Shino's father said quickly, cutting off Hiashi and earning a glare of his own. "We merely thought your team was not in a condition to complete it."
"Your concern is appreciated," Kurenai replied politely, "but Hinata and Naruto are basically uninjured, and Shino's mobility is unimpaired. Additionally, the Rock ninja appear to be… less than eager to test our defenses."
"Were they scared off when we all arrived, sensei?" Lee asked Gai.
"No," Shino answered, shaking his head, "they think Naruto is the Fourth Hokage and are therefore terrified of him."
Naruto wanted to sink into the earth – without using a Doton jutsu – as the adults all turned toward him in shock. One of the ANBU snorted behind his mask. Naruto supposed Shino was getting payback for all the times he'd knocked him around during their latest sparring sessions. "Hey! They were standing a long distance away!" he grumbled.
"A very long distance," the wild-haired woman agreed, laughing coarsely, "if they though you were the Yondaime!"
Naruto scowled and stuck his lip out. The patient, watchful corner of his mind that Kurenai-sensei had been encouraging him to develop noted the way his antics had dispersed the tension in the air. Most of the adults were smiling slightly, except Hiashi-teme, who was glaring at him, and the other genins looked bored. At least no one was glaring holes in Hinata, or acting like they were going to try to force them to abandon their mission.
"However," the older version of Shino continued after a moment, "my son will still be operating with a significant handicap with his depleted kikai swarm."
"My sentries are still in place," Shino replied calmly. "While I may not have as much directed capacity, Naruto and Hinata's capabilities have grown well beyond my projections. They will more than offset the deficit."
Naruto was a little embarrassed that Hinata puzzled out their teammate's words before he did, and was the first to turn toward Shino in mild shock. Was he actually praising their strength, in his own weird way? He found himself anticipating bragging about such an unexpected development the next time he saw Iruka-sensei… then his stomach tried to turn itself inside out and it was all he could do to control his facial expression.
"I am gratified that your first-hand observations have proven to be superior in terms of accuracy," Shino's father replied. "However, there may be another option. I will leave one of my smaller colonies with you, and replace it when I return."
"A-a second colony?" Shino said, stammering for the first time Naruto could remember.
"Yes," the man replied. "You are due to begin hosting a second group, as you are well beyond my own projections regarding your development. I commend your sensei for her suggested training regimen." He paused to nod slightly toward Kurenai, who returned the acknowledgment, blushing slightly. "We have already discussed the theory behind managing multiple queens," he continued, "just make sure their reproductive cycles do not conflict and you should do well."
"Thank you," Shino said as his father put a hand on his shoulder. Naruto tried not to make a face as a large number of bugs crawled out of the man's sleeve and flowed over Shino's collar. Just watching it made him itch between his shoulder blades. He knew Shino probably had him bug-tagged as a precaution – he just preferred not to think about it.
Naruto decided to casually look away before the compulsion to scratch became too strong. Gai-sensei caught his eye and nodded gravely. "I hope you are keeping up with your training," he said. "Lee has already increased his weights again."
Naruto grimaced. Crap…"I've sparred as much as I am able, but we've been working more on Jutsus and chakra control."
Gai planted his fists on his hips and struck what he probably thought was an encouraging pose. "That's all right, Naruto. You can practice those while you are away. Lee and I will get you back in shape when you return. I'll also want to hear about your battle. Those missing-nins were serious opponents, and I'll want to hear about your contributions to your team's victory."
Naruto made a face, but nodded and quickly changed the subject. There was a question that was eating at him anyway. "Er, do you think the, uh, funeral will be held before we return."
Gai frowned in confusion. "We won't hold a funeral for those criminals, Naruto. The ANBU will retrieve their bodies for study, but they deserve no better than that for what they did."
Naruto shook his head. "No, I mean for I-Iruka-sensei," he said in little more than a whisper. His throat was trying to close for some reason. Just saying it made it all too real.
Gai let out a laugh, which sparked a momentary rage in Naruto. "Iruka was badly injured, but he was found in time and brought to the hospital. Before the ANBU located the kidnappers' trail, I was told that he is expected to make a full recovery."
Naruto's eyes widened. "YATTA!" he screamed as he leapt into the air, pumping his fists. All the others were staring at him, some of them with obvious distaste, but he couldn't care less.
OoOoO
Gai, after a quick consultation with Kurenai, led his team on a quick circuit of the border zone "for practice" as Shino's father, Aburame Shibi, finalized the colony transfer to his son. Hiashi stood at the edge of the camp, his arms folded in obvious impatience, as the rough-looking woman (who'd been introduced as Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mother!), stood next to him, telling jokes to the silent ANBU; of course, she might have received more reaction if they had been good jokes.
Konohamaru joined Naruto in a relieved mixture of crying and laughter when he realized that he'd been wrong about Iruka. Hanabi looked like she was about to say something when Hinata suggested that she should report to their father. The younger girl looked sharply at her sister, her eyes widening slightly in surprise, but she didn't say anything before she stalked off.
"I'm glad Iruka-sensei will recover," Hinata said in a quiet voice.
"Yeah," Naruto said. "I'm sorry I kind of went nuts when Gai told me." He scratched at the back of his head as his face colored a little. Recalling the contempt of the Hyuugas' faces made him scowl.
"Is... is it a bad thing to care about people, Naruto?" Hinata asked. "It's not something… something you should be ashamed of, is it?"
Naruto frowned. Was she asking him or telling him? He wondered if she thought about that a lot. "I don't know, Hinata. We were told in the Academy that shinobi are supposed to be emotionless, but Kurenai doesn't seem to feel that way." He recalled how she encouraged him to think of his teammates as friends to be protected. Even if that was his role on Team Eight, she didn't seem to just think about it in that way. "That's good, too," he concluded after a moment, "because I don't want to be a ninja like that, do you?"
Hinata smiled shyly, shaking her head as her eyes veered downward.
"You were worried about your sister, weren't you?" he asked after a moment's thought. Konohamaru still sat off to the side, listening quietly.
Hinata hesitated before nodding.
"When you grabbed her from that missing-nin… you should have seen how you moved, Hinata. You were incredible!"
"I was?" she asked. "I don't remember… I just remember being scared she would be hurt."
Naruto shook his head. "You grabbed her and ran up that tree so fast I could barely see you. In a flash, you had her behind Kurenai and were cutting her free. Do you think you would have done as well if you didn't care?"
Hinata shook her head slowly.
"Good!" Naruto said, "and if caring about people is not the regular way for shinobi… well, we'll just make our own way of the ninja, right?"
Hinata looked up, meeting his eyes for once. "Right!" she said, her normally velvet-soft voice carrying a hint of steel.
Naruto couldn't help but smile at her fierceness, and she immediately looked away and excused herself, saying she needed to see about dinner. He frowned at her back as she walked toward the fire. What had he said wrong now?
He looked down at Konohamaru, whose face was scrunched up in a frown. "I like that nin-do, Naruto-san. I'm going to tell Oji-san that I want to follow that nin-do as well!"
Naruto made a chagrined face as Konohamaru stood up and walked over to get a better look at Tsume's enormous nin-dog, Kuromaru. He didn't want to think about all the trouble he would be in if people thought he'd corrupted the Hokage's grandson into following some heretical nin-do. Of course, the aggravation it would give that stuck up ero-baka, Ebisu, might be worth it.
The blond genin sighed as he stretched before leaving to gather more wood to build up the fire. Hinata was preparing most of their stored meat and dipping heavily into the rice bag, using the largest collapsible pot to boil it. He supposed she was right to do so, if she planned to feed this many people.
Kurenai gave Naruto a pointed look as he returned with an armload of dead wood. She cut her eyes toward a very industrious Hinata and smiled slightly. Naruto nodded and left to get more wood. A lot more.
OoOoO
The campsite smelled rather appetizing when Team Gai returned.
"Your system of semi-random paths is very devious," Gai announced in a grand voice. "It would be quite difficult for an intruder to anticipate your position at any particular time… especially if young Shino has made good use of his 'little friends', ha ha ha!"
Naruto did his best to show respect and not wince at Gai's… humor. Shino and his father nodded at each other and stood up. Naruto's ears could almost make out what sounded like a faint buzzing sound coming from them, but he couldn't be sure.
Hinata was setting out their entire store of eating utensils, and Tsume was eagerly walking toward the fire when Hiashi's voice interrupted them. "If the Aburames are done, we should leave now," he said.
"Hey, she just fixed dinner for us!" Tsume objected.
"It will soon be dark," Hiashi said in a patronizing tone. "We are very near a semi-hostile border. You may risk the Hokage's grandson if you wish, but I do not want my heir to linger here any longer than necessary. Now that the Aburame is finished with his son, I insist that she be brought back to Konoha. With a full escort. Immediately."
"Hiashi-sama is within his rights to make such a demand," Shino's father said in a very bland tone. Naruto glanced at Shino out of the corner of his eye. He had some suspicions about when Shino talked like that, and they were now being confirmed. "We will return now. Kurenai-san, we will report to the Hokage as soon as possible. Understand that I will advise him to recall your team immediately for a thorough debriefing. Try to record any words the kidnappers may have said or any clues as to the identity of their employers. The direction of their flight may not be a completely reliable indicator of their objectives."
Kurenai nodded as the visitors all stood up. Naruto noticed Hinata hurriedly placed some of the rice balls and seasoned deer skewers into a folded cloth and quickly handed it to Tenten. The weary kunoichi smiled and bowed to the girl, as did Lee, whose stomach let out a low growl.
Naruto guessed they would be traveling fast, because the Hyuuga boy, Neji, picked up Hanabi and Gai lifted a protesting Konohamaru into his arms. They leapt into the trees, surrounded by most of the ANBU squad. Shibi, Hiashi, and the rest of Team Gai followed. Tsume scowled after them, but smiled when Hinata handed her another bundle of food. The jonin playfully mussed the girl's hair as she thanked her, then she followed the others into the trees, Kuromaru loping into the woods below her.
Still, when she turned back around, the blushing Hinata looked at all the remaining food she'd worked so hard to prepare and her face fell.
"Well…" Naruto said, racking his brains for something to say to her. "More for us! I'm really starving, and Shino is eating for three now!"
In all honesty, the fight had taken a lot out of him, so he joined his team at the cook fire and proceeded to stuff his face. Shino and Kurenai also seemed unusually hungry as well. In the end, his stomach hurt, a little, but there weren't any leftovers from the large meal. Hinata's eyes had gone a little wide as Naruto continued to eat the simple, but well-prepared food.
When he was finally done, Naruto leaned back and patted his slightly distended stomach. He could barely move, and they'd have to hunt tomorrow, but Hinata was smiling, a little ruefully, at her teammates.
That night, as Naruto struggled to find a comfortable position to sleep in, he wondered about this new nin-do he and Hinata were going to follow. He'd need to think about this. A lot.  

[Pandora Green]

"Come on," the leader said. "Cook this little brat and then we can triple team the jonin and get out of here."
"I'd like to take my time with her and the girl," the flame-wreathed ninja leered, "but it shall be as you command. Stand still, boy, and I'll make this quick."
Naruto froze in place. The thought of these two hurting his sensei and Hinata finished a process that began with Konohamaru's shout, and gathered momentum as he watched Hinata and Shino fall. He felt something snap inside.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" he screamed and charged toward Kouro, whose eyes were suddenly wide. Everything seemed to be covered by a red haze, and Naruto vaguely realized that the Kyuubi's red chakra was exploding out of his skin. He wondered if this meant the seal was breaking, but he didn't really care as long as it meant he could stop them from hurting his friends.
The fire-user hurled fireball after fireball at the short ninja, who suddenly didn't seem so ridiculous an opponent. The pronounced whisker-marks the boy could feel etching deeper into his face probably had something to do with that, along with the pronounced canines that were starting to draw blood from his lower lip. Naruto batted the flaming missiles aside with contempt, ignoring the sting in his palms that disappeared almost as soon as it registered.
As he leapt onto him, Kouro finished a series of frantic seals. "Katon: Okibi Shounetsujigoku!" he screamed as flames exploded outward from his body.
Naruto crashed through the flaming shockwave, feeling it as little more than a warm breeze through the haze of rage and the red chakra that seemed to feed it. He landed on Kouro and drove the shinobi to his knees as his hands locked around the b*****d's throat. The man's hands tore at his wrists, but Naruto's arms could not be moved. The fire storm around them gained in strength as the man's struggles grew more frenzied. Naruto grinned, enjoying the weak man's terror, but a flash of light grey in the corner of his vision seemed to nag at something in his mind. With a wrench, Naruto turned his eyes away from the intoxicating terror in the man's eyes and looked to his left. The firestorm jutsu, heightened by mortal terror, was still expanding. Kurenai and the ice-nin, still locked in mortal combat, were forced to move away, but the flames were also creeping toward Hinata's unconscious body.
Naruto felt like he'd been dunked in ice water. His head snapped back around and he snapped the fire-ninja's neck with one quick motion. He turned toward Hinata, but the metallic ninja was in his way, his face twisted into a rictus of hate.
An enormous fist cocked back and rocketed toward Naruto's face, but he simply raised one hand and caught it. The man grunted and slammed his foot into Naruto's stomach, picking him up and throwing back backward into a half-burned tree trunk.
"I don't know what kind of freak power you have," he snarled, "But I can turn my skin into solid steel! You have as little chance of defeating me as that stupid teacher that tried to protect those brats. I'm going to crush you, and then your leader, and then I'll kill your little friends before I collect my prize… and there is nothing you can do to stop me."
Rather than standing, Naruto raised himself onto all fours, balanced on his fingertips and the balls of his feet. In a flash, he drove forward, sending gouts of churned earth flying into the air behind him. The metallic ninja laughed and launched himself forward as well, his fist poised to crush the runty brat who dared kill one of his men.
There was a loud crunch as the two collided, and dust and debris filled the air around them. As it settled, one could see where a huge fist had smashed into the ground, flattening everything under it as it made a crater nearly six feet across.
A much smaller fist could be seen protruding from the broad metallic back. Blood poured out of the wound, joining the growing pool beneath the crouching giant.
Smeared with blood and dirt, Naruto levered himself out from between the dead man's arm and his legs. He'd managed to beat the punch, letting it land harmlessly behind him as he slammed his fist through the b*****d's chest… but he hadn't changed back from steel with death, and he was heavy as hell.
The blond genin finally squirmed free and looked for his sensei.
OoOoO
The ice user, whom Kurenai recognized from the Bingo Book as Lisuke the Ice Knife was surprisingly skillful with his created weapons, and they'd exchanged over a dozen blows before Kurenai was fatally distracted by the burst of killer intent radiating from her genin. Was the Kyuubi about to break free after all?
Seizing his chance, the ice user bound her feet in ice. She instantly threw her kunai at him, but he'd anticipated that and ducked them easily. Another Hyoton jutsu bound her arms at her sides, rendering her helpless.
But rather than immediately kill his helpless opponent, the ice-nin watched in shock as the blond brat exploded with a ferocious red chakra and killed both Kouro the Flame and Kazuyo the Anvil. Turning toward the boy's jonin, and now his best ticket to getting out of this alive, he laid the point of his ice-sword alongside her throat and hoarsely asked her the question burning in his mind: "What the hell was that?"
The answer came from an unexpected direction, a whisper from behind his ear as the helpless jonin in front of him wavered and disappeared. "Kyuubi no Kitsune," was all it said, sounding almost scared. It was the second to last thing he ever heard.
The last was the dull scrape of sharp steel on bone as a kunai was rammed into the base of his skull.
OoOoO
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as Kurenai-sensei's genjutsu wavered and faded out… and the last of the kidnappers fell like a puppet with its strings cut. As the red haze disappeared, he suddenly felt horribly tired and sore. After a moment, it was all he could do to stay on his feet.
"Naruto?" Kurenai asked in a quiet voice.
"Hai, sensei," he answered. "Something weird happened. I… I think it started to get out or something." He shuddered violently. If Kyuubi was in danger of breaking out… He jumped when Kurenai put her hand on his shoulder. Why was she willing to stand so close to him?
Kurenai looked him in the eyes as she slowed her breathing and seemed to gather her thoughts. "Naruto," she began, "from what the Hokage told me, your seal was designed to let some of Kyuubi's chakra filter out into your own. Apparently you drew on that when you became afraid."
Naruto nodded, not bothering to correct her. He hadn't been afraid, he'd been furious. "If I'm not going to go insane and kill everyone, can we check on Hinata and Shino?"
"I'll take care of that," Kurenai said as she knelt down next to Hinata. "Can you track down Sarutobi Konohamaru and Hyuuga Hanabi?"
Naruto nodded and took a deep breath. "Konohamaru!" he yelled.
"Yeah?" a voice echoed from the trees nearby.
Naruto shrugged at Kurenai who had turned toward him, scowling. "He never does what he's told to do," Naruto explained.
"All right," Kurenai said. "If you know him, reassure him that everything is all right, and keep an eye on Hinata. I think she's just stunned, and I need to see to Shino."
Naruto nodded and slumped down next to his teammate. He was worried about Shino's arm, but Hinata looked so still, lying there like that…
"Naruto?" Konohamaru whispered. Naruto looked up, but he couldn't immediately see the little brat. Maybe he wasn't so bad at the camouflaging art when it was for real.
"It's safe to come out," Naruto said wearily. "We… we got them. We got them all. They won't be hurting anyone ever again." He tried to push Iruka-sensei out of his mind, but it wouldn't cooperate. He'd never get to treat him to ramen like he promised himself he would, dammit.
The bushes to his left stirred and Konohamaru cautiously stepped back into the clearing, still leading the little girl who must be Hinata's sister. The white eyed girl looked at Hinata's unconscious form with a curious lack of interest. "She'll be okay," Naruto reassured her, "she just got hit on the head."
"I'm not surprised she was defeated," the girl said in a clear voice. Her accent was cultured like Hinata's, but the coldness of her words made Naruto scowl.
"She. Was. Not. Defeated," Naruto snarled, angrily biting off each word. "She charged in there and rescued you, achieving her objective. The ninjas that kidnapped you are dead and we're all alive. We won."
Konohamaru glanced uneasily from his rival to his fellow kidnapping victim. "Ah… that's good, Naruto-san. I'm glad Kurenai-sama was able to defeat them."
Naruto sat for a moment, looking down at Hinata. "What happened to Iruka-sensei?" he asked quietly.
Konohamaru looked down. After a moment he sniffed loudly. "I'm sorry, Naruto. They grabbed me at recess, but I saw them at the last moment and called out. Sensei tried to stop them, but… the big one hit him so hard, I heard his bones break. But Sensei kept trying to get up again…"
Naruto closed his eyes, remembering how Iruka fought so hard to save him from Mizuki. "That sounds just like him."
"The b-big one kept hitting him until he stopped moving. I was tied up and couldn't do anything, but they made me watch before they put me in the sack. Sensei w-wasn't breathing," the boy sobbed.
"He should have been stronger if he was going to interfere," the girl snapped. "If he'd been properly trained, he would have stopped them and they wouldn't have gotten away with either of us."
"You shut your mouth!" Konohamaru shouted at the younger girl, making her flinch back like she'd been slapped.
Her face went red and her eyes narrowed. "How dare you! Do you know who I am?" the girl snarled.
"He's the Hokage's grandson, so I believe he outranks you," Naruto snapped, "not even counting the fact that you are an awful brat. I can't believe you are Hinata's sister, or that she'd even bother to try and rescue you." His revulsion and grief at what had happened was rapidly turning into anger, and this spoiled brat who badmouthed Hinata and Iruka-sensei was really asking for it.
He swallowed his anger with great difficulty and looked down at Hinata. Her breathing was slow and even. Concentrating on that seemed to calm him. He failed to protect his teammates, but at least none of them had died. Shino might be badly hurt though.
As his stomach twisted with worry, he heard footsteps approaching. Naruto silently rolled to his feet, bringing his hands up in a taijutsu stance. Konohamaru inhaled sharply, staring at Naruto's right arm. Previously concealed behind the genin's torso, it was coated with drying blood up to the shoulder.
Naruto wearily released his breath and nearly dropped to his knees when Kurenai helped Shino limp into the clearing. There were bandages wrapped around his right forearm, and the sleeve of his red shirt was scorched and seared where it protruded from the right arm hole of his jacket. Naruto blinked. Seeing that unexpectedly bright red shirt at a distance, he'd thought Shino's arm had been burned far worse than it was. He felt a small smile tug at his mouth, the first since they'd left for patrol that morning.
Hinata stirred at last, rolling onto her side and clutching her head. Naruto carefully pulled a cloth from his belt with his left hand, wetted it down with his canteen, and wiped at the clotted blood along Hinata's hairline.
His teammate's eyes shot open and she winced in pain.
"It's all right, Hinata," Naruto said. "We got them. Your sister and Konohamaru are safe."
Hinata seemed to relax slightly at this news.
"My name is Hanabi," the younger girl snapped irritably.
"Your name will be face-in-mud if you don't shut up," Naruto replied with a glare.
"I-it's all right, Naruto," Hinata said quietly. "Hanabi, were you injured?"
"No, no thanks to you. Father will be furious when he finds out you were the first to fall." Naruto thought the girl derived some weird sort of satisfaction from this pronouncement.
Hinata sat up quickly, and Naruto noticed she bit her lower lip and shut her eyes for a moment. He glared at Hanabi, but the girl didn't comment. What the hell was going on with these two?
Hinata slowly climbed to her feet. Naruto thought she was barely keeping her balance, but some impulse kept him from reaching out to steady her. "If you are unhurt, we should probably return to our camp to regroup," she said.
"That might be a good idea," Kurenai said, glancing over at Naruto. "But we should moderate our pace for our guests."
They set out for their camp, walking slowly along the forest floor. After a few minutes, Naruto felt his energy returning and he no longer had to concentrate to avoid stumbling. Of course, putting his weights back on didn't help the situation.
Shino was right in front of him, along with the two young children, both of whom seemed to be a little afraid of the quiet bug-nin. Hinata was in the lead with Kurenai.
"Hinata," Kurenai said, her voice carrying through the still air. "I understand that you were concerned about rescuing your sister, but do you think it might have been better if we devised a plan before attacking the kidnappers?"
"G-gomen, Sensei," Hinata said, ducking her head apologetically. "I would have preferred to have done that," she continued, her voice clearer than it usually was when she was embarrassed and apologizing. "But there wasn't time. As fast as they were moving, if we didn't immediately intercept them, they might have outrun us to the border with Earth Country."
"I see," Kurenai said thoughtfully. "I agree with your reasoning, Hinata. Your decisive action not only saved two lives, but it also prevented a diplomatic incident, if not a war."
Hanabi let out a snort. Konohamaru shushed her, glancing worriedly back at Naruto.
Naruto didn't say anything, but he could feel his upper lip curling. Hinata really had saved their butts… so why was her sister being such a brat about it?
OoOoO
The sun was setting and Naruto was very happy when they reached the camp so he could sit down for a moment… even if Hanabi didn't seem to think much of it.
Konohamaru, on the other hand, thought it was 'really neat'. Naruto knew he was training to become a ninja of the Leaf. Maybe this was a preview of what he might be doing in a few years when he'd have missions of his own. On the other hand, there was no telling what Hanabi's problem was.
After a moment, he rose to his feet and made his way to the nearby stream. The blood came off his hand fairly easily, as did the bloody mud that stuck to his pants. But the blood in his jacket had soaked in, and he really had to scrub to get it out. The heavy fabric was waterlogged before he was done. He grimaced and carried the folded jacket back to the tents, planning to dry it by the fire.
The evening air was cool on his skin, and the breeze ruffled his black t-shirt as he walked toward the fire. Konohamaru looked up and peered at him curiously. "What's that, Naruto-san?" he asked, pointing at Naruto's wrist.
Naruto peered down at the rounded bracer of leather and metal. "Ah, that's my wrist-weight. It helps me increase my speed and strength."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hinata look up suddenly, her expression chagrined. Kurenai wordlessly reached into her bag and handed Hinata her weights. Hinata accepted them with a blush.
Hanabi peered at him curiously. "What's the point of slowing yourself down with those?"
She hadn't noticed Hinata, for which Naruto was quietly grateful, so he answered her question, ignoring the tone. "If I wear these all the time, my muscles get used to moving with the extra burden… then when I really need it, I get rid of the weights and I move that much faster. Wearing these when you train is also good for building up your endurance."
"You spar with weights on?" Konohamaru asked, eyes wide.
"Yeah," Naruto said. "I learned about them sparring with an older shinobi named Rock Lee."
Hanabi let out a laugh. "I know him. He's that loud crazy baka that Neji-nii-san is saddled with on his team. I wouldn't do anything he told me to do."
"It was Gai-sensei's idea," Naruto said coldly, "who is Lee's sensei and must therefore be this Neji's Jonin sensei as well. Why don't you ask your 'Neji-nii-san' if his Sensei is a fool? That man knows more about taijutsu than almost anyone I can think of."
"NARUTO!" a loud voice cried out, making him cringe reflexively. "It warms my heart to hear you defend my teachings! You have truly not forgotten the fire of youth!"
"Gai?" Naruto gasped.
"Yosh, Sensei!"
"Lee…" Naruto said, rubbing at his eyes.
Gai and Lee leapt into the clearing, obviously practicing their "Dynamic Entry" jutsu. They were followed - less dramatically - by several ANBU in their distinctive animal masks, a large, rough-looking woman with red marks on her face and shaggy hair, a huge black dog, a man with long hair and white eyes, and a tall man with sunglasses and a large concealing full-length coat that had to be related to Shino. Tenten and a boy with the distinctive Hyuuga eyes rounded out the crowd.
Hanabi immediately ran toward the white-eyed man in long, flowing white robes. She quickly bowed before him and he nodded his acknowledgement. Hinata shakily rose from her seat and presented herself similarly… but her bow did not receive any acknowledgement.
The tall woman grunted and scratched the black dog's ears. "I told you the kids had been released," she grumbled. "Their scent trails held no hints of duress, and Kuromaru can always tell the difference."
"I am… surprised that those three were bested by a team of mere genin," the white-eyed man said. "It would be more likely that they had their prize stolen by Iwa-nin taking advantage of the Hokage's laxness."
Naruto scowled at that. Their counterparts across the border only tried something once… well, that they knew of. Still, they didn't seem eager to test them after that first confrontation.
"However unlikely it may seem, Hiashi-sama," the man wearing sunglasses replied in an urbane tone, "it would appear that those three missing-nins were, in fact, defeated by a genin team." The man turned toward Shino. "To what extent were you injured?"
"I sustained first degree burns to my right forearm, with some second-degree tissue damage in one spot on the top of my wrist, along with mild smoke inhalation," Shino replied in a curiously detached voice. But then he frowned enough for his eyebrows to become visible. "Unfortunately, I was surprised by a seal-less fire jutsu and sustained significant losses to my colony. I estimate my kikai-jutsu capacity has been decreased by sixty percent."
The older man nodded slowly. "It was fortunate that you had not committed more of your reserves. However, when you accompany us back to Konoha, you can bind more to your queen to restore your colony."
But Shino shook his head. "Unfortunately, our relief is not due for another three days."
The large woman let out a loud bark of laughter. "I think the ANBU can cover for you for a couple of days. Your team looks like it went through a meat-grinder, you most of all."
"A-ano," Hinata said hesitantly, drawing annoyed glares from the two Hyuuga men that made her falter for a moment. "The Hokage ordered us to stay here until we received a specific written message," she continued quickly, ducking her head.
Naruto blinked. He was honestly surprised that she'd managed to get that out… not to mention a little proud of his shy team mate. "Hinata's right," he said loudly, drawing the attention of the angry Hyuugas. Not that he cared – they were probably idiots like Hanabi, anyway.
Gai-sensei frowned. "Kurenai?" he asked.
"My genin have accurately summarized our orders," she said, and the pride in her voice was unmistakable. "We would be failing to complete our assigned mission if we left the border now… unless you have specific orders from the Hokage?"
"Are you openly defying my authority?" the elder Hyuuga asked in a dangerous tone.
Kurenai lifted her chin. "Not at all," she said coolly. "But our orders came from the Hokage, and only he may countermand them. You, Hiashi-sama, are not part of that chain of command."
"No one wishes to usurp your mission, Kurenai-san," Shino's father said quickly, cutting off Hiashi and earning a glare of his own. "We merely thought your team was not in a condition to complete it."
"Your concern is appreciated," Kurenai replied politely, "but Hinata and Naruto are basically uninjured, and Shino's mobility is unimpaired. Additionally, the Rock ninja appear to be… less than eager to test our defenses."
"Were they scared off when we all arrived, sensei?" Lee asked Gai.
"No," Shino answered, shaking his head, "they think Naruto is the Fourth Hokage and are therefore terrified of him."
Naruto wanted to sink into the earth – without using a Doton jutsu – as the adults all turned toward him in shock. One of the ANBU snorted behind his mask. Naruto supposed Shino was getting payback for all the times he'd knocked him around during their latest sparring sessions. "Hey! They were standing a long distance away!" he grumbled.
"A very long distance," the wild-haired woman agreed, laughing coarsely, "if they though you were the Yondaime!"
Naruto scowled and stuck his lip out. The patient, watchful corner of his mind that Kurenai-sensei had been encouraging him to develop noted the way his antics had dispersed the tension in the air. Most of the adults were smiling slightly, except Hiashi-teme, who was glaring at him, and the other genins looked bored. At least no one was glaring holes in Hinata, or acting like they were going to try to force them to abandon their mission.
"However," the older version of Shino continued after a moment, "my son will still be operating with a significant handicap with his depleted kikai swarm."
"My sentries are still in place," Shino replied calmly. "While I may not have as much directed capacity, Naruto and Hinata's capabilities have grown well beyond my projections. They will more than offset the deficit."
Naruto was a little embarrassed that Hinata puzzled out their teammate's words before he did, and was the first to turn toward Shino in mild shock. Was he actually praising their strength, in his own weird way? He found himself anticipating bragging about such an unexpected development the next time he saw Iruka-sensei… then his stomach tried to turn itself inside out and it was all he could do to control his facial expression.
"I am gratified that your first-hand observations have proven to be superior in terms of accuracy," Shino's father replied. "However, there may be another option. I will leave one of my smaller colonies with you, and replace it when I return."
"A-a second colony?" Shino said, stammering for the first time Naruto could remember.
"Yes," the man replied. "You are due to begin hosting a second group, as you are well beyond my own projections regarding your development. I commend your sensei for her suggested training regimen." He paused to nod slightly toward Kurenai, who returned the acknowledgment, blushing slightly. "We have already discussed the theory behind managing multiple queens," he continued, "just make sure their reproductive cycles do not conflict and you should do well."
"Thank you," Shino said as his father put a hand on his shoulder. Naruto tried not to make a face as a large number of bugs crawled out of the man's sleeve and flowed over Shino's collar. Just watching it made him itch between his shoulder blades. He knew Shino probably had him bug-tagged as a precaution – he just preferred not to think about it.
Naruto decided to casually look away before the compulsion to scratch became too strong. Gai-sensei caught his eye and nodded gravely. "I hope you are keeping up with your training," he said. "Lee has already increased his weights again."
Naruto grimaced. Crap…"I've sparred as much as I am able, but we've been working more on Jutsus and chakra control."
Gai planted his fists on his hips and struck what he probably thought was an encouraging pose. "That's all right, Naruto. You can practice those while you are away. Lee and I will get you back in shape when you return. I'll also want to hear about your battle. Those missing-nins were serious opponents, and I'll want to hear about your contributions to your team's victory."
Naruto made a face, but nodded and quickly changed the subject. There was a question that was eating at him anyway. "Er, do you think the, uh, funeral will be held before we return."
Gai frowned in confusion. "We won't hold a funeral for those criminals, Naruto. The ANBU will retrieve their bodies for study, but they deserve no better than that for what they did."
Naruto shook his head. "No, I mean for I-Iruka-sensei," he said in little more than a whisper. His throat was trying to close for some reason. Just saying it made it all too real.
Gai let out a laugh, which sparked a momentary rage in Naruto. "Iruka was badly injured, but he was found in time and brought to the hospital. Before the ANBU located the kidnappers' trail, I was told that he is expected to make a full recovery."
Naruto's eyes widened. "YATTA!" he screamed as he leapt into the air, pumping his fists. All the others were staring at him, some of them with obvious distaste, but he couldn't care less.
OoOoO
Gai, after a quick consultation with Kurenai, led his team on a quick circuit of the border zone "for practice" as Shino's father, Aburame Shibi, finalized the colony transfer to his son. Hiashi stood at the edge of the camp, his arms folded in obvious impatience, as the rough-looking woman (who'd been introduced as Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mother!), stood next to him, telling jokes to the silent ANBU; of course, she might have received more reaction if they had been good jokes.
Konohamaru joined Naruto in a relieved mixture of crying and laughter when he realized that he'd been wrong about Iruka. Hanabi looked like she was about to say something when Hinata suggested that she should report to their father. The younger girl looked sharply at her sister, her eyes widening slightly in surprise, but she didn't say anything before she stalked off.
"I'm glad Iruka-sensei will recover," Hinata said in a quiet voice.
"Yeah," Naruto said. "I'm sorry I kind of went nuts when Gai told me." He scratched at the back of his head as his face colored a little. Recalling the contempt of the Hyuugas' faces made him scowl.
"Is... is it a bad thing to care about people, Naruto?" Hinata asked. "It's not something… something you should be ashamed of, is it?"
Naruto frowned. Was she asking him or telling him? He wondered if she thought about that a lot. "I don't know, Hinata. We were told in the Academy that shinobi are supposed to be emotionless, but Kurenai doesn't seem to feel that way." He recalled how she encouraged him to think of his teammates as friends to be protected. Even if that was his role on Team Eight, she didn't seem to just think about it in that way. "That's good, too," he concluded after a moment, "because I don't want to be a ninja like that, do you?"
Hinata smiled shyly, shaking her head as her eyes veered downward.
"You were worried about your sister, weren't you?" he asked after a moment's thought. Konohamaru still sat off to the side, listening quietly.
Hinata hesitated before nodding.
"When you grabbed her from that missing-nin… you should have seen how you moved, Hinata. You were incredible!"
"I was?" she asked. "I don't remember… I just remember being scared she would be hurt."
Naruto shook his head. "You grabbed her and ran up that tree so fast I could barely see you. In a flash, you had her behind Kurenai and were cutting her free. Do you think you would have done as well if you didn't care?"
Hinata shook her head slowly.
"Good!" Naruto said, "and if caring about people is not the regular way for shinobi… well, we'll just make our own way of the ninja, right?"
Hinata looked up, meeting his eyes for once. "Right!" she said, her normally velvet-soft voice carrying a hint of steel.
Naruto couldn't help but smile at her fierceness, and she immediately looked away and excused herself, saying she needed to see about dinner. He frowned at her back as she walked toward the fire. What had he said wrong now?
He looked down at Konohamaru, whose face was scrunched up in a frown. "I like that nin-do, Naruto-san. I'm going to tell Oji-san that I want to follow that nin-do as well!"
Naruto made a chagrined face as Konohamaru stood up and walked over to get a better look at Tsume's enormous nin-dog, Kuromaru. He didn't want to think about all the trouble he would be in if people thought he'd corrupted the Hokage's grandson into following some heretical nin-do. Of course, the aggravation it would give that stuck up ero-baka, Ebisu, might be worth it.
The blond genin sighed as he stretched before leaving to gather more wood to build up the fire. Hinata was preparing most of their stored meat and dipping heavily into the rice bag, using the largest collapsible pot to boil it. He supposed she was right to do so, if she planned to feed this many people.
Kurenai gave Naruto a pointed look as he returned with an armload of dead wood. She cut her eyes toward a very industrious Hinata and smiled slightly. Naruto nodded and left to get more wood. A lot more.
OoOoO
The campsite smelled rather appetizing when Team Gai returned.
"Your system of semi-random paths is very devious," Gai announced in a grand voice. "It would be quite difficult for an intruder to anticipate your position at any particular time… especially if young Shino has made good use of his 'little friends', ha ha ha!"
Naruto did his best to show respect and not wince at Gai's… humor. Shino and his father nodded at each other and stood up. Naruto's ears could almost make out what sounded like a faint buzzing sound coming from them, but he couldn't be sure.
Hinata was setting out their entire store of eating utensils, and Tsume was eagerly walking toward the fire when Hiashi's voice interrupted them. "If the Aburames are done, we should leave now," he said.
"Hey, she just fixed dinner for us!" Tsume objected.
"It will soon be dark," Hiashi said in a patronizing tone. "We are very near a semi-hostile border. You may risk the Hokage's grandson if you wish, but I do not want my heir to linger here any longer than necessary. Now that the Aburame is finished with his son, I insist that she be brought back to Konoha. With a full escort. Immediately."
"Hiashi-sama is within his rights to make such a demand," Shino's father said in a very bland tone. Naruto glanced at Shino out of the corner of his eye. He had some suspicions about when Shino talked like that, and they were now being confirmed. "We will return now. Kurenai-san, we will report to the Hokage as soon as possible. Understand that I will advise him to recall your team immediately for a thorough debriefing. Try to record any words the kidnappers may have said or any clues as to the identity of their employers. The direction of their flight may not be a completely reliable indicator of their objectives."
Kurenai nodded as the visitors all stood up. Naruto noticed Hinata hurriedly placed some of the rice balls and seasoned deer skewers into a folded cloth and quickly handed it to Tenten. The weary kunoichi smiled and bowed to the girl, as did Lee, whose stomach let out a low growl.
Naruto guessed they would be traveling fast, because the Hyuuga boy, Neji, picked up Hanabi and Gai lifted a protesting Konohamaru into his arms. They leapt into the trees, surrounded by most of the ANBU squad. Shibi, Hiashi, and the rest of Team Gai followed. Tsume scowled after them, but smiled when Hinata handed her another bundle of food. The jonin playfully mussed the girl's hair as she thanked her, then she followed the others into the trees, Kuromaru loping into the woods below her.
Still, when she turned back around, the blushing Hinata looked at all the remaining food she'd worked so hard to prepare and her face fell.
"Well…" Naruto said, racking his brains for something to say to her. "More for us! I'm really starving, and Shino is eating for three now!"
In all honesty, the fight had taken a lot out of him, so he joined his team at the cook fire and proceeded to stuff his face. Shino and Kurenai also seemed unusually hungry as well. In the end, his stomach hurt, a little, but there weren't any leftovers from the large meal. Hinata's eyes had gone a little wide as Naruto continued to eat the simple, but well-prepared food.
When he was finally done, Naruto leaned back and patted his slightly distended stomach. He could barely move, and they'd have to hunt tomorrow, but Hinata was smiling, a little ruefully, at her teammates.
That night, as Naruto struggled to find a comfortable position to sleep in, he wondered about this new nin-do he and Hinata were going to follow. He'd need to think about this. A lot.  

[Pandora Green]

Shino did not answer, and instead began re-wrapping his bandages. Hinata moved to help him, but he waved her off, proving to be surprisingly dexterous with his left hand. Hinata went back to preparing the skewers while they all sat in silence. Naruto propped up his jacket and pants to dry near the fire, flashing a grin at her embarrassment, then began feeding small twigs into the flames. Kurenai took out a kunai and began slowly filing a nick out of the blade.
"Hinata?" Kurenai asked after a few minutes.
"Yes, sensei?" Hinata answered as she packed fragrant herbs around the sliced fragments of meat. Another pot of rice simmered over the coals.
"Why did you say I needed to talk to Naruto?" the jonin asked as she tested the edge of the kunai she'd been sharpening.
Hinata swallowed. She gave Naruto an apologetic glance. "Sensei, I do not believe Naruto received the proper… instruction at the Academy. On the subject we discussed this morning."
Kurenai-sensei's eyes widened as she seemed to understand what Hinata was hinting at. Hinata didn't want to repeat Naruto's painful words if she could help it. The idea of anyone saying that to someone training to be a shinobi was awful… but saying it to someone like Naruto-kun was just… unforgivable.
Sensei seemed to share her opinion because her eyes narrowed and the air suddenly felt much colder. The three genins froze in place as the killer intent swept over them. It was fortunate that all of them knew they were not the target of this rage.
"Naruto, come with me," Kurenai snapped.
Naruto jumped to his feet and followed their sensei out of the clearing without a word.
Hinata swallowed and resumed preparing dinner, hoping that the familiar task would soothe her taut nerves.
OoOoO
Naruto was thoughtful as he and Kurenai returned to their camp, following the appetizing smells of Hinata's handiwork. He was a little embarrassed that he hadn't really considered that the old man might have sought to sabotage him as much as the instructors who hated him. The old man was an expert on human psychology, which was why he conducted the counseling sessions… and he'd known his own subject well enough to know how to conceal his distaste for the Kyuubi's jailor. That's what made his false advice and assessment so effective.
But it didn't make Naruto feel any less stupid.
Kurenai's anger had been awe-inspiring, not to mention a little frightening. When they'd withdrawn far enough from the camp for a private discussion, she made him sit on a fallen log and tell her everything that was said during the counseling session. Before he was even halfway done, she was up and pacing as he talked. When he was finished, she turned away from him for a moment. Her hands moved too quickly to see and a trio of kunai imbedded in the trunk of the tree she was facing. That wasn't so unusual, but the fact that they'd penetrated halfway up the handles was.
After retrieving her kunai and taking several deep breaths, Kurenai-sensei explained what he should have learned at the Academy, before ever graduating, before even thinking about going on a mission.
As a shinobi of The Leaf, he would sometimes be placed into mortal conflicts, and inevitably would have to take a life. That was part of the job, and it didn't make him a monster to have done so. More important were the details. Was it possible for him to have avoided killing? Would avoidance have placed his team mates or his mission at risk? Or was he looking for excuses to kill? Was he antagonizing potential enemies in order to have an excuse to fight and kill them?
In that context, yesterday's battle appeared quite different. The enemy had struck the first blows, attacking Iruka and kidnapping Konohamaru and the bratty Hanabi. There was no question of letting them escape with their captives, even if Hinata hadn't already engaged them. With Hinata and Shino down, he and Kurenai were outnumbered… he just wished he hadn't been quite so gleeful with Kouro.
Kurenai-sensei seemed to share Hinata's intuition. "What did he say?" she asked. When Naruto just stared at her, she continued, "I was concentrating on a genjutsu, but I could hear that they were talking. I don't think you would have experienced such strong emotions in a combat situation without provocation; Gai and I both taught you better than that."
Naruto was silent for a moment. "The big one told Kouro to cook me so they could gang up on you. Kouro said he'd rather take his time with y-you and H-Hinata," he whispered as his nails dug into his palms. His hands still shook.
Kurenai quickly leaned forward, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him. "Naruto!"
"What?" Naruto asked, shaking his head to clear it of those memories.
"Try to calm down," she said. "Your chakra was spiking very strongly, and I could see a faint red glow around you. As I said before, you seem to tap into its chakra when you are feeling strong negative emotions."
"I'm sorry, Sensei," Naruto mumbled as he looked down. "I was just-"
"You were just acting in your role within the team," she finished for him. "A role I set for you and a role you fulfilled beyond my expectations yesterday."
"But Shino and Hinata got hurt!" Naruto protested.
Kurenai frowned. "I do not expect you to intercept every blow aimed at your team mates, Naruto. That would be an unrealistic, not to mention unfair, expectation to place upon you. I apologize if that was the impression I had given. Do you think Shino and Hinata are weak?"
"No sensei!" Naruto said quickly. He'd wanted to smack that brat Hanabi when she said that about Hinata.
"Good. They are shinobi of The Leaf, the same as you. Do not insult them," she replied. "They know the risks the same as you. While your abilities seem to be better suited for a direct confrontation, they are not helpless."
"But…" Naruto choked out as he struggled with his emotions. "They're my friends," he said in little more than a whisper. He looked up as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Kurenai was sitting on the log again, smiling at him. "Was that so hard to admit, Naruto? You care about your friends. That doesn't sound like the behavior of a demon, or a hardened killer, does it?"
Naruto slowly shook his head. "I don't want anyone on Team Eight getting hurt," he said.
Kurenai gave his shoulder a squeeze, startling him as she removed her hand. "I know how you feel," she said quietly. "I felt the same way about my team when I was a genin. Killing an enemy is never something to be taken lightly, but when it is done in defense of another life… no one will fault you, Naruto."
"But I was… enjoying…" Naruto protested.
"Their threats made you angry, didn't they?" his sensei asked.
Naruto took a deep breath and nodded. He didn't even want to think about that again.
"That… person… also taunted you as we fought," Kurenai added. "While you did not allow him to goad you into making a mistake, it is understandable that you might feel a sense of… vindication… when you were finally able to come to grips with him. Does that make sense to you?"
"I suppose…" Naruto said in a dubious voice.
Kurenai sighed. "Given that you seem to tap into the red chakra easier when you are feeling strong emotions, there is a possibility that your prisoner will attempt to influence you at such moments. However, your behavior during that skirmish was well within the bounds of acceptable behavior for an active-duty shinobi. Stay on your guard the next time this happens and I am sure you will continue to make me proud to have you as a student."
Naruto felt like he'd been clubbed. "P-proud?" he stammered.
Kurenai just stared at him incredulously. "Naruto, you defended your team and defeated two enemies of higher rank. I am not sure I would have been able to defeat all three at once, so you quite possibly saved several lives yesterday. Do not let your concerns blind you to the fact that you performed your role well above my expectations."
Naruto felt like an idiot, sitting there with his mouth hanging open. But he was completely numb. An hour ago, he'd been thinking about… well, nevermind. Now, his sensei was telling him that what he'd done yesterday made her proud of him, and that he had done nothing he needed to worry about. It was almost too much for him to deal with.
Kurenai sniffed the air. "I think Hinata has dinner almost ready. We'd better get back or we'll hurt her feelings, right Naruto?"
He nodded dumbly and stood up to follow his sensei back to the camp. His mind was still trying to catch up, but he knew it would. Eventually.
OoOoO
Shino carefully flexed his right hand, feeling the dull ache as the skin pulled taut under the bandages. The medicinal cream Hinata loaned him was surprisingly effective at dulling the pain. When he asked her where she had purchased it, she shyly admitted that she'd made it herself. He wondered how she had become so adept at medicinal preparations, but he wasn't sure he really wanted to know.
While Naruto wasn't the most perceptive of shinobi, he had been able to sense that something… was not right with Hinata and the other Hyuugas. It was hardly his place to pry into the workings of another Konoha family, let alone a clan with the influence and secretive nature of the Hyuugas. However, once Naruto had raised his suspicions, it was almost impossible for him to not pick up on any clues that presented themselves.
He wondered if his team mate had done that on purpose, but that seemed unlikely. Naruto was hardly manipulative; he lacked both the awareness and the inclination to make use of others in such a way. He was, for example, still ignorant of Hinata's feelings for him, which was an impressive feat in and of itself.
He might have compared the Hyuuga girl's affection for Naruto to the behavior of Uchiha Sasuke's fan club, but for several key differences. Hinata's behavior was far less forward than that of the kunoichis who pursued the last Uchiha of Konoha. She funneled her energies into improving her abilities by training with the object of her affections, a far more useful activity than pointless histrionics and bickering with 'rivals'. Not that Hinata had too many rivals, of course. And that brought him to the last major difference.
Given what he had seen of Uchiha Sasuke's behavior, he seemed less than interested in any of the kunoichis chasing him. As an object of romantic attentions, he was far too self-absorbed and taciturn to make an ideal partner. Rather, they seemed to be chasing an impossibly idealized mirage they had built up in their minds and dubbed 'Uchiha Sasuke'. They pursued the boy because they didn't really know anything about him. Hinata, on the other hand, seemed to understand Naruto better than anyone else… and it was only after being on the same team with them for months that Shino was starting to realize that.
Aburame Shino had always prided himself regarding his observational skills. He liked to think that he saw things as they were, rather than letting emotions or prejudgments cloud his vision, so this was a particularly galling conclusion to reach. Nonetheless, correct behavior required that he admit his error.
"Hinata," he said quietly, watching her turn the fragrant skewers over the coals.
"Yes, Shino?" she said, looking up.
"Do you recall our conversation at lunch the day we were assigned to Kurenai-sensei?"
Hinata didn't answer, but merely nodded, her eyes curious.
"Upon further consideration, I am forced to conclude that you were accurate in your initial assessment of Uzumaki Naruto, and I was incorrect," Shino said, trying to maintain his normal, precise diction.
Hinata frowned at him, which was somewhat unexpected. "Are you saying that because of… what you had confirmed today?" she replied, her voice somewhat sharp, which was even more surprising.
Shino paused to gather his thoughts before formulating a response. Hinata's friendship with Naruto was having an even stronger effect on her personality than he expected. It would remain to be seen if this would be fortuitous or not. "Not directly. However, I am beginning to realize the degree to which his learning environment was compromised by the rancor of the adults at the Konoha Ninja Academy. It was the subtle discouragement and negative feedback he received from the instructors that retarded his development, not a lack of focus or an unwillingness to apply himself. Observing his progress after he began working with jonins like Kurenai-sensei and Maito Gai has given me a much more accurate conception of his work ethic and overall capabilities. This has, in turn, drawn me to new conclusions."
Hinata's pupil-less eyes seemed to look right through him, even without the Byakugan active. Shino found himself somewhat uncomfortable under that gaze, which was another first. While he'd hoped Hinata would be able to coax Naruto out of his funk, he had no idea what passed between them while he and Kurenai dressed out the deer. Whatever transpired, it seemed to have had a significant effect on both of them. Naruto had revealed his secret to someone, probably for the first time, and it seemed to have galvanized the normally shy kunoichi. "What are your conclusions?" Hinata asked, snapping Shino's mind back to the present.
"I think you may be correct regarding his potential. With help, he may well become Hokage some day," Shino said.
Hinata's eyes widened slightly, and then she nodded. "With our help," she added.
Shino computed the probabilities of him recovering consciousness yesterday before one of the kidnappers killed him. Without Naruto's presence, they were marginal at best. "With our help," he agreed.
"Thank you, Shino-kun," Hinata said, smiling.
Shino straightened his glasses. "Konoha will prosper with a strong Hokage," he said.
OoOoO
Naruto felt almost giddy with relief as he sat down next to the fire. Shino and Hinata looked up as he and Kurenai returned, but Hinata just smiled and returned to her cooking while Shino… did whatever he did behind that collar of his.
"I'm sorry I was acting like a jerk earlier," he said.
Shino made a small noise that almost sounded like a snort.
"A-ano, Naruto," Hinata said as she carefully laid the hot skewers on the plates, "we understand now."
He smiled and scratched at the back of his head. It was a little uncomfortable, being around them after the conversations he'd had with Shino and Hinata. It was strange: he'd been dreading revealing his secret for so long, but once it was done, and nothing bad had happened, he still felt oddly exposed.
He slowly began to relax as they ate. Hinata had outdone herself again. He didn't know how she'd managed to gather so many fresh greens to go with the rice and meat, but they added a nice touch. It wasn't ramen, but it was really good. Maybe she used her Byakugan while they were patrolling…
As they ate, Kurenai discussed their plans for the remaining three days of their assignment. They would need to keep an eye out for their relief, but any shinobi without a properly-sealed scroll should be treated as potentially hostile. It was not unknown for an infiltration team to take advantage of the changing of the border guards.
When they finished, Naruto jumped up to collect the plates. When he bent over to get Hinata's, he gave her a big smile. "That was really good, Hinata-chan!"
While she blushed, for once Hinata didn't look away when he said something nice to her. "T-thank you, Naruto," she replied in a small voice.
He gave Kurenai-sensei a big grin when he grabbed her utensils, which she returned with a raised eyebrow.
Shino's plate still had a little rice left on it. "You sure you ate enough for all those extra bugs?" Naruto asked him in a worried voice. "I don't want them chewing on me in the night if they get hungry."
Shino made an exasperated sound. "My allies receive more than adequate nourishment, Naruto. Furthermore, they are incapable of attacking humans in the absence of specific instructions from their host. The Aburame family has spent years breeding their kikai bugs for absolute obedience, and there have been no fratricidal incidents since they were introduced…" Shino's voice trailed off as Naruto's laughter could no longer be contained. Shino silently handed him his plate as Naruto got himself back under control again. "Idiot," he said as Naruto turned to walk away.
Naruto's laughter carried all the way back to the camp as he carried the dishes down to the stream.
OoOoO
The following day's patrol was fairly routine. The Rock ninjas seemed just as reluctant to test their vigilance again, a fact that never failed to bring a smile to Naruto's lips. He wondered how badly they would freak out once he became Hokage…
Thinking about why they feared the fourth Hokage wiped the smile from his face. As he leapt from tree to tree he remembered his shock at thinking the fourth Hokage had killed people. Kurenai said that things seemed to have gotten more serious after one of his students was killed. Now he had at least some idea of what they'd been talking about.
If he'd been willing to kill to protect his team, how would it be for the Hokage, who was supposed to protect the entire village. Would he be ready to do what was necessary to protect everyone? Would he even be able to live with himself if was forced to wage war to protect his people?
Since the ambush, Naruto had fallen into the habit of keeping an eye on Hinata as they traveled through the trees. It only made sense, given that she was usually the first to sense danger with her eyes. But watching the Hyuuga girl leap from branch to branch also supplied him with his answer. He remembered how relieved he'd been when he realized that Shino and Hinata were all right. Yes, he could do what was necessary to keep his precious people safe.
As they were looping back toward camp, Hinata stopped suddenly. Naruto's hands were already forming seals as her head snapped to the side. She held one hand behind her back, with three fingers extended. Shino dropped silently to the ground and Naruto knew his bugs were already in motion. Hinata and Kurenai changed directions and leapt into a tree to the left of their original course.
Naruto followed them; accelerating so he was able to land next to them when they touched down to confront the trio of interlopers.
They wore the masks and hooded robes that just shouted "ANBU" to any resident of Konoha, but Naruto didn't relax at all. Kurenai said they needed to beware imposters, and she and Hinata would be right in the middle if a potential battle broke out.
"Can we help you?" Kurenai asked coolly. Naruto noticed a couple of kikai bugs pass by his feet, heading toward the intruders.
"We're your relief," the middle ANBU said in a bored tone, his voice slightly muffled by the boar mask.
"You're early," she observed.
"Hokage's orders," the ANBU replied laconically.
"Do you have proof?" Kurenai asked.
The boar-masked ANBU slowly pulled out a scroll tube and tossed it to the jonin.
Naruto blurred into motion, snatching the scroll out of the air and pivoting so his body was between it and his team. "Hinata!" he barked.
The ANBU dropped into defensive stances as Naruto braced himself for an explosion or attack.
"It's all right," Hinata said quickly, her pale eyes glowing in the afternoon sunlight. "Just paper and ink. No chakra."
Naruto relaxed slightly, and handed the scroll to Kurenai. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her closely examine the seal before breaking it and scanning the message.
"Suspicious little b*****d, aren't you?" the boar-masked ANBU asked in a conversational tone. "But you'd do well not to startle us. Someone could have gotten hurt."
"It's authentic," Kurenai said after a moment. "And it's probably not a good idea to startle us, either." She nodded her head toward the thirty or so Narutos dropping out of the trees behind the ANBU.
"We sensed them," the crow-masked ANBU spoke up. "It's a lot of Bunshin, but they're hardly likely to distract us from you."
Kurenai smiled sweetly as they turned to leave for their camp. "Not Bunshin," she corrected. "Kage Bunshin."
One of the clones, smirking, smashed his fist into a tree, splintering the bark. The ANBU twitched at the sudden sound.
OoOoO
It only required a handful of minutes to break down the tents and pack up their equipment. Hinata left most of the meat and gathered greens for the ANBU to use, but Naruto made a special point of gathering the leftovers from Hinata's cooking. She blushed a little when he said that it was too good to leave for strangers. He was starting to get an idea of why she acted so weirdly when he complimented her, but he didn't like where his thoughts were taking him. So he left it alone for a while.
Within the hour they were on the road back to Konoha. Naruto felt some of the tension flow out of his body as they left the borderlands. It would be good to return home, where hot showers and ramen could be found; the latter in large quantities. As he adjusted his heavy backpack, he glanced over at Hinata. She didn't seem to be as eager to return.
Naruto thought about that a lot as their steps carried them home.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter Nine
Yuuhi Kurenai couldn't recall ever being quite so relieved to see the familiar skyline of Konoha again. The only time that even came close was when she returned alone that time… but she'd been too numbed by the death she had seen to feel much of anything. She was annoyed to find herself unconsciously smoothing her sleeve, but the fabric wasn't stiff with Mattai's blood.
Perhaps Sarutobi was correct about her living far too much in the past.
She glanced back at her genin team, proud of the way they maintained their formation and remained alert. Only the occasional smile from one of them indicated that they weren't still in the border zone.
Shino, of course, was as reserved and taciturn as usual, even disregarding how little of his face was visible. Hinata had been quiet since they'd received orders to return to Konoha, and her face seemed to settle into a mask as the gates appeared in the distance.
No, it was Naruto who was different. The blond genin had changed since the day he'd finally revealed the truth to his team mates. Kurenai wasn't normally one to become overly smug, but she'd been exactly right about the effects of him opening up to Shino and Hinata. A weight, present for as long as she'd known him, seemed to have lifted from his shoulders. She knew that her acceptance of him had made a difference, but the acceptance of his peers, especially given the implications of the Hokage's law, seemed even more crucial.
Rather than rejecting or fearing him, as the Sandaime seemed to fear, Hinata and Shino had accepted the presence of the Kyuubi within Naruto in as positive a way as Kurenai could have hoped. Indeed, if what she'd pieced together was correct, Hinata had reacted in a rather… violent… way to the implication that Naruto was a monster. Nothing else could explain the distant shout that had carried up from the stream.
Kurenai grew more concerned for her other students now. After her father's abominable behavior at their camp, she wasn't surprised that Hinata seemed to dread returning to Konoha. More surprising was the undercurrent of anger she seemed to sense in Shino. The boy was as quiet as ever, but his forehead, the only portion of his face fully visible, seemed to be furrowed with a frown more and more often. When she'd asked him if anything was the matter during a rest stop, he'd merely said that he was "being forced to re-evaluate his assessments of a large number of parties". This was unusually opaque, even for an Aburame, but he seemed to be feeling an echo of her own anger regarding how Konoha dealt with… certain issues.
All the same, she needed to caution the boy to be circumspect. If her suspicions were true, there might be a deeper issue than simple bigotry – not something a genin should be directly involved in, no matter how talented he might be. She supposed she might be hopelessly paranoid, but she'd rather that than to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Maybe Umino Iruka would be ready for a visitor after they reported to the Hokage.
OoOoO
Aburame Shino let his body move automatically, his team mates and allies alert for danger, while his mind composed a list of people.
At the top of the list, of course, were his parents, especially his father. While he appreciated the strictures the Hokage's law forced him to operate under, Shino did not appreciate the paucity of hard information that his clan had acquired before formulating their opinion of Uzumaki Naruto. He hadn't missed the concerned silence among many of his relatives when his team assignment had been announced. Even more galling was the realization that he'd allowed their unreasoning distaste for the prankster to color his own opinions while they were both students at the Konoha Ninja Academy.
Shino did not know whether it was more annoying to realize he'd been wrong, or that he'd picked up their attitude without realizing it. Either way, it was past time for him to realign some peoples' attitudes to make them more congruent with the reality of the situation.
In short, he was highly offended.
That was the only word that really fit. His clan had compromised the integrity of his logic and his objectivity. And that was completely unacceptable.
Not for the last time, Shino heard the low buzz as his new colony became agitated. He forced himself to let his aggravation abate. It would not do to upset his new allies.
OoOoO
Hinata felt her stomach contract with dread as the gates of Konoha appeared in the distance. She loved her village, but in this situation, she dreaded what the sight of it symbolized. Their mission was coming to an end.
The border patrol had been a dangerous, dirty, strenuous job. Her muscles still ached, with or without the weights, from the endless patrols they'd run. Despite bathing in the stream as often as possible, she still felt grimy, and her jacket was several shades of grey darker than when she left, due to the build-up of ground-in dirt. She'd been in dangerous situations more than once, and if it hadn't been for Naruto, she would likely have died trying to rescue Hanabi.
Yet, it had also been one of the happiest times of her life.
It was puzzling at first, the joy she'd taken in such a difficult mission. It wasn't until she thought back on her father's visit to Team Eight's camp site that it began to sink in. It was reasonable for him to join the pursuit of Hanabi's kidnappers, and to make sure every means was used to secure her freedom and guarantee the safety of the Hyuuga bloodline.
Nonetheless, it had felt… wrong… for him to be there. The camp site that they had spent so much time preparing, the camp that had witnessed so many meals and idle conversations with her team… it felt violated by her father's presence. When Hinata realized that she didn't want him to be there, she was initially scandalized by her blatant disrespect. He was her father, and more importantly the head of the clan. She should have felt honored by his presence, however fleeting.
She tried to make him and the others feel welcome, preparing as good a meal as could be managed in such rustic surroundings, but she was too slow and that had been thwarted as well. Even now, her face burned at the thought of all the wasted food – the sign of a foolish host. She regretted it later, but she'd been gratified that Naruto and Shino ate so much, even as she realized that they were doing it solely to save her feelings.
Just thinking about her team mates made her wish they were leaving for another patrol, rather than returning from one. She knew she'd sleep better in the small tent she shared with Kurenai-sensei than in her soft bed in the Hyuuga compound. A place where no one wanted a failure like her.
OoOoO
Naruto's heart sped up when he saw the gates of Konoha. Their mission was coming to an end. More importantly, everyone was returning under their own power. Shino's burned wrist was hardly more than an annoyance at this point, and the larger boy made a point of sparring with Naruto more than once on the way back. Shino was a little careful how he blocked with that arm, but when Naruto found himself unconsciously easing up on his team mate, the bug user blew him off his feet with a side-thrust kick that drove the air from his lungs.
Naruto shook his head at the memory of rolling to his feet, gasping, only to see Shino standing in a taijutsu stance, right arm extended and making a "come here" gesture with his fingers. After that he relaxed and went all out against his friend, and they were both thoroughly bruised within half an hour.
Friend. That word again. He wondered if Kurenai-sensei ever got tired of being right all the time. It made a huge difference to know that Shino and Hinata knew about the Kyuubi, and just didn't care. Moreover, Shino figured it out on his own, and Hinata had guessed. His team mates would have to have been extremely dense or self-centered for him to be able to conceal his differences for much longer.
But they knew, and more importantly, they accepted him. He didn't think he'd ever forget the shock when Hinata had just exploded like that. He never imagined that she could ever get angry like that, but watching her get absolutely furious on his behalf – that was an odd feeling. Unsettling… but nice.
However, as they returned to Konoha, the kunoichi became increasingly quiet and withdrawn. Naruto wasn't the most perceptive shinobi in his class, but the change in her demeanor was more than obvious to him. It was puzzling, especially in its timing. They were leaving the danger zone now, and returning to a safe area – as safe as any village full of shinobi, that is. Naruto was looking forward to some civilized amenities involving heated water – ramen and showers – and he would have thought Hinata would as well. At least the showers anyway.
Instead she looked increasingly uncomfortable as they approached the gates. He wondered about some things he'd learned during their mission. Hanabi was a brat, of that there was no question. Naruto had no siblings, but he'd heard Kiba complain about his older sister often enough to realize that brothers and sisters didn't always get along.
On the other hand, her father should have been proud of the way Hinata had rescued her sister. Instead, he and that jerk cousin of hers looked at Hinata like it was her fault Hanabi had been kidnapped in the first place. Naruto didn't understand it. But he didn't have to understand it to know he didn't like it.
Uzumaki Naruto rubbed at the back of his head as he thought it over. Thinking like this wasn't one of his strengths, but Kurenai-sensei had been pushing him more and more to see 'underneath the underneath'. It was a really goofy phrase that meant trying to understand all the subtle undercurrents in a situation. It was a good skill for a shinobi to develop, because on a mission, unseen things could end your life. On the other hand, Naruto didn't think it was supposed to be applied to understanding kunoichis.
But for all that, it wasn't too hard to put together. He remembered how tired and sore Hinata had been from that special Hyuuga training, and how she seemed to revive once they were out in the woods. He remembered the long hours she volunteered to do extra training with him, and her embarrassed silence when he'd asked if her family wouldn't object to her working so late and missing dinner. Combining that with the cold way her father had treated her at the campsite led Naruto to only one inescapable conclusion.
Hinata's family sucked worse than cold ramen.
Naruto was about to congratulate himself on his perceptiveness when the natural follow-up question left him stumped. What could he possibly do about it? He didn't think beating the crap out of Hyuuga Hiashi would help, even if he were capable of such a thing. Puzzling over this eroded any sense of triumph he'd gleaned from his realization. Furtive glances at his team mate seemed to confirm his guess, as her gaze seem to sink lower and lower toward the ground as she approached the walls of Konoha.
Naruto's mood sank as well. Even though he thought he knew the source of the problem, he couldn't think of anything he could do to help. He hated feeling helpless, especially when one of his friends was hurting, but how could he protect her from her family? He let out a sigh as they passed through the gates, causing Yuuhi Kurenai to glance back at him.
Maybe Kurenai-sensei will know what to do, he mused. A little weight seemed to lift from his shoulders at the thought. He'd never seen her at a loss before.
Well, maybe except for that one time with the Lee-spandex-Henge.
OoOoO
In accord with standing orders, no sooner had Kurenai reported to the Chuunin guarding the Hokage's door than they were ushered into his office. The old man was concerned, but he still smiled as Team Eight filed into the room and stood before him. They stood at attention, but he waved over one of the Chuunins and folding chairs were brought for all of them.
"This may take a while, he explained. "But before we begin your official debriefing," he began, setting down his pipe, "I want to personally thank you for my grandson's safety. Konohamaru still grumbles about having to be saved by his 'eternal rival'," the old man paused, smiling as Naruto rolled his eyes, "but I can tell from his eyes that it was a very close thing. I can't tell you how relieved I am, or how proud I am that you are all shinobi of The Leaf."
The three genin all looked down, clearly embarrassed from his praise.
The Hokage cleared his throat and asked Yuuhi Kurenai to make her official report. He listened intently as she summarized the events of the last few weeks, but he did stop her at some points for clarification.
"They mistook Naruto for the Yondaime?" he asked, both startled and alarmed at that revelation.
"That is correct, Hokage-sama," Kurenai confirmed. "The Iwa shinobi grew quite alarmed at his presence, but they did not seek to test our vigilance again after that initial confrontation."
Sarutobi rubbed at his chin as he pondered this. "A quiet border is a blessing, but I will send a communiqué to our representative in Earth Country to explain their mistake. I would rather they did not feel that we were provoking them in such a fashion."
"Send them my grades from the Academy, oji-san," Naruto said with a grin. "Let them know they were scared of the 'dead last' in his class."
The Sandaime was shocked by two things. The first was the fact that Naruto would make a joke about his poor grades in the Academy, something that had previously been a sore point with him. He couldn't imagine him bringing that up, even for the opportunity to make someone else look foolish.
The other was the reactions of his team mates. The little Hyuuga girl turned toward Naruto, eyebrows drawing together and mouth half-opened. She hesitated, and the Hokage imagined that his presence was the only thing preventing her from protesting Naruto's words.
Even more surprising was the Aburame boy's reaction. He merely turned his head and glared at Naruto. Well, it was impossible to see his eyes, but his body language was unmistakable.
Naruto's reaction supported the Hokage's assessment as well, for he immediately flushed and scratched the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. "I was just kidding," he mumbled. Beside them, Kurenai kept her face immobile, but her eyes were dancing with a mixture of pride and vindication. Sarutobi gave her a small nod of agreement. He was gratified to witness that Naruto was less defensive, and that he had made such loyal friends of his team mates. Perhaps one day the boy would be able to share his secret with others of his generation.
The light mood darkened as Kurenai began to describe the battle against the kidnappers. He was a little surprised to learn that the Hyuuga Hinata initiated the engagement, but her sensei made a point of explaining the rushed nature of the interception and how she fully supported Hinata's reasoning. He also noticed Naruto nudging the girl, who was looking down and blushing.
"Yuuhi Kurenai is not one to lightly praise another's logic," the old man observed, making Kurenai grimace as the girl's blush deepened. "The ability to make sound judgments on the spur of the moment is not one to take lightly."
"Arigatou, Hokage-sama," the girl said in a quiet voice.
As Kurenai described the battle, which had been as brutal as it was abrupt, the Hokage's tension was only visible in a slight tightening of the weathered skin around his eyes. One of the hardest parts of this job, at least for him, was hearing about the battles of his shinobi after the fact, too late for him to do anything about it. The blood was already drawn, the lives ended. The only thing he could do now was try to draw as many lessons as possible from the now-concluded missions.
He winced internally when he learned of Shino's burns, but the bandages on his arm were compact, and he did not seem to favor it. He grew alarmed for other reasons when he heard how Hinata was stunned by a lucky hunk of ice. With only Kurenai and Naruto facing three opponents…
"At this point," Kurenai continued, "I heard Naruto shout as I fought Lisuke. He successfully drew on the Kyuubi's chakra and used it to shield him from the flames so he was able to close with his opponent and…"
She stopped as the Hokage's hand slammed down upon the desk. He stared at his jonin, wondering what had possessed her to break the law concerning… and then he noticed that her genin were all staring at him. And while they might have been startled by his outburst, they didn't seem to have reacted to her casual mention of the nine-tailed fox.
"They already know," Naruto said quietly, his voice sounding far too old for the energetic prankster he knew. "Shino figured it out on his own, and Hinata mostly guessed it. But I confirmed it, so no one broke your law."
"And we did not run screaming into the night," Shino murmured. Hinata frowned, and Sarutobi noticed her hand twitch, like she wanted to reach out to her team mate, but the motion ended almost as soon as it began, and he doubted anyone else even noticed.
"Naruto… " the Hokage began, then stopped to consider his words. "It's good to know that they accept you. Perhaps I was being too cautious when I made that law, but I decided to err on the side of caution regarding your future."
Naruto looked up and locked eyes with the Third Hokage. "I understand," was all he said, but it still shook the old man to his core. The boy's eyes were an odd mixture of emotions: anger, sadness, and loneliness so poignant it shriveled his soul. But overriding all the rest was another emotion: forgiveness. Maybe there were better ways the whole situation could have been handled, but Naruto acknowledged that he'd tried his best.
It was both a liberating and a humbling experience. He wondered what else the boy had gone through during the mission.
Kurenai continued her narrative. He was a little shocked and saddened that Naruto had been put in the position of having to kill two of the kidnappers. But all that was forgotten when he heard the words "…and I learned that his psychological preparation at the Academy had been sabotaged. However, we were able to discuss what he should have learned, and…"
"Sabotaged?" he asked sharply.
"Yes, Hokage," she replied. Her voice was calm, but her eyes were not. Naruto looked somewhat uncomfortable, but his team mates were staring at their Hokage, almost daring him to speak.
"Give me a written summary of his actions," he said in a hard voice. "Once I have reviewed it, I will have him brought to Ibiki."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kurenai said. Naruto and Hinata looked mystified, but the Aburame boy merely nodded approvingly. Sarutobi had little doubt that Aburame Shibi had acquainted his son with the names of Konoha's important shinobi. The chief interrogation specialist would definitely be on his list, the old man mused as Kurenai resumed her report.
When she was done, the Hokage gave each of them a labeled envelope. "Here is your pay for an extended C-class mission," he said. He then took out three more envelopes with official Konoha seals on them. "These are for the three missing nins that were eliminated," he continued. "There were substantial bounties placed on their heads by their home villages, as well as other people they'd committed crimes against." He gave one of the envelopes to Kurenai, and tried to hand the other two to Naruto, but the blond boy shook his head.
"Naruto," Kurenai said gently. "You've saved some people a lot of trouble by your actions. It's all right to accept this reward. For many of their victims, offering a bounty is the only way they can strike back at someone who had hurt them or their family."
"That's not what I mean, Sensei," Naruto corrected her, his voice grave. "I understand the rewards, but these two shouldn't be for me alone. We fought as a team. I mean, I wouldn't even have seen them if Hinata hadn't spotted them through their genjutsu, right?"
"Ano, Naruto, it's all right," the girl said hesitantly. But the boy just shook his head stubbornly.
"By the rules, Naruto struck the killing blows," Kurenai observed. "But that means the money is his to do with as he will. If he wishes to share with his teammates, then so be it. I can get all three of these vouchers cashed and we can split the rewards."
"Ah, sensei," Naruto said quickly, "I didn't mean you had to-"
Kurenai cut him off with a gesture. "I just happen to agree with you, Naruto. And am I not a member of the team as well?" She turned back toward the Hokage. "You will have a written report of my observations by tomorrow morning," she promised in a tight voice.
The Third Hokage of Konohagakure dismissed Team Eight with a bemused smile on his face. He really should have talked Kurenai into taking a genin team long before now. He hadn't seen a team that seemed so in tune with each other since…
It was hard, dreadfully hard, not to let other faces over-shadow the young ones before him. His own genin, that grew up to become the Sanin, the Yondaime's first-and last-genin team, the Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka trios that seemed to crop up in each generation… They were all unique, really. The human mind just tries to find patterns to make sense of life, even when there are none to be found.
But it didn't require a historical perspective to realize that Kurenai's genin had grown together as a team, and had done so to a greater extent than many experienced shinobi even realized was possible. Hatake Kakashi might understand, when he wasn't too distracted by the ghosts of his past.
And while Kurenai had done an excellent job assembling her team, much like a skilled mason might build a brick wall capable of withstanding anything, the Hokage also realized something else. While Kurenai was the mason, Naruto was the mortar that held them all together. Their acceptance had given him something he'd always craved without even being able to understand why. But at the same time his awkward and often foolish demeanor masked a drive and a… wisdom… of a sort that the Sandaime only caught rare glimpses of during their infrequent talks. For someone with few real friends, Naruto was amazingly open and accepting. As he'd anticipated, once someone showed the boy some simple kindness, they discovered they'd also made a friend for life... one of surprising loyalty and determination.
The Third Hokage sighed and rubbed at his eyes. He got up from his chair and paced around his office, wincing at the pops and crackles as his old bones realigned themselves after sitting too long. He paused near the window and looked out across his beloved Konoha, toward the Hokage monument. His eyes lingered on the stone visage of his successor, and, sadly enough, predecessor as well.
"You did better than you knew," the old man whispered before returning to his paperwork.
OoOoO
Oddly enough, Kurenai did not immediately dismiss them once they left the Hokage's office. Naruto frowned a little when she said they had one more task to perform as a team, but that ended the moment she said it was a tradition she'd learned from her old sensei.
It didn't take a genius to realize that Kurenai-sensei never talked about her original team, except in the most general of terms. Having been around shinobi much of his life, Naruto noticed how many of them would mention their old teachers or team mates. According to Shikamaru's complaints, his father did little else when they talked, much to the lazy boy's annoyance. However troublesome such habits might be for others, it only made the exceptions to the rule that much more noticeable. Naruto was curious as to why Kurenai never talked of them, but he hesitated to ask. Kurenai was a very private person in some ways, despite her forthright nature, and he suspected that her reasons for not speaking of them were sad ones.
It wasn't that Naruto ever forgot that they were all shinobi, trained assassins who could be assigned any mission, no matter how dangerous, for the good of their village. But after a while the dangers just seemed so normal, that it was hard to keep them in the forefront of his mind. And perhaps that was for the best, because every time he even considered the possibility of losing his team mates on a mission, his mind sheered away from the enormity of that potential loss. Not for the first time, he realized that he literally would rather die than suffer the loss of one of the few people that cared for him. Kurenai-sensei said that she never expected Naruto to intercept every attack aimed at Shino or Hinata, but that was exactly what he wanted to do. He'd do whatever it took to keep his friends safe. Anything at all.
Naruto felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to rise and realized with a start that the unnatural chakra he'd felt during the battle was returning. Remembering Kurenai's words, he took a deep breath and made an effort to calm himself. He clenched and unclenched his hands, trying to ignore how sharp his fingernails were becoming, and hoping that his canines didn't look as large as they suddenly felt. He looked up at his team mates, to remind himself that they were all right. Shino was walking silently beside Kurenai, hunched inside of his spare trench coat. Hinata was walking beside Naruto, seemingly lost in thought.
Though she walked with her eyes downcast, Naruto noticed that she'd fully adapted to her weights, and walked as gracefully as ever with their mass added to her arms and legs. Somehow the sight of her seemed to calm him, quelling the rising tide of anxiety about the future that wanted to overwhelm him. He could feel his body returning to what, for him, counted as normal.
Almost as if she were sensing his thoughts, Hinata glanced toward Naruto, only to jump a little when she locked gazes with him. Her face turned red and she clasped her hands together. "A-ano?" she asked hesitantly.
"Looks like you're ready to increase your weights again, Hinata-chan," Naruto said brightly, relieved that the anxious pressure building inside of him was draining away.
"Oh!" Hinata said, looking crestfallen. "S-sorry," she stammered, "I should have noticed sooner, a-and-"
Naruto frowned and her words cut off suddenly and she looked away. Why was she always apologizing for things that were not her fault? "Er, you know, Hinata, we've been out in the woods for several weeks. It's not like you could buy extra weights from a squirrel."
The kunoichi didn't respond to his lame attempt at humor, and just looked down at her feet as they walked.
Naruto sighed. He didn't know why his words always came out weird when he talked to Hinata, but he was getting tired of it. "Look," he said. "I was just trying to say that you've fully adapted to wearing the weights, probably because you work really hard and probably slept with the damn things on. I need to get more weight added to mine as well. I'm sorry if it came out wrong, but I was trying to say 'Nice work.' And I'm really glad you're on my team, too. I can't picture Ino or Sakura working as hard as you have." There, he thought with some satisfaction, no way can she take that wrong. He smiled at his team mate.
Hinata was left several paces behind as her legs momentarily froze in place. Her face turned bright red and Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if her hair started to smoke and frizz up. He blinked, then ran back and waved his hand in front of Hinata's eyes, startling her out of her daze. She ducked her head down with a small smile and they turned to follow their team mates…
Only to discover that Kurenai and Shino had turned around as well, and were staring at them.
Naruto shrugged and scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. At least he'd made himself understood properly. It was about time.
OoOoO
Hinata managed to get her face back under control by the time Kurenai-sensei led them to their destination. She found it difficult to concentrate after Naruto's blunt, but honest words. She realized he was mirroring her words to him when she reassured him that she still wanted him to stay on Team Eight, Kyuubi and all, but it still shocked her when he said that he'd rather have her on his team than Ino or Sakura. Especially when she considered all the times he'd tried to ask Sakura out when they were in the Academy.
Naruto was glad she was his team mate. Her. The Hyuuga reject, who failed everything she ever tried to do… except maybe at being Naruto's friend? She knew she'd helped him, at least a little, that day by the stream – even if she had gone about it all wrong. She supposed she should be grateful to the fates: if she were only going to be allowed to do one thing right, then this would be the one that she would pick.
Hinata's bemused thoughts cut off in surprise when Kurenai led them to Moritake's for their last task of the day. The jonin's face was even more somber than usual as she explained that her jonin sensei always brought his team here after a long mission away from Konoha to discuss the mission, plan what they would work on next, and generally celebrate their success.
Hinata knew from the way their sensei always spoke of them in the past tense that Kurenai-sensei's team was no more. She was nowhere near as skilled at reading people as a proper Hyuuga should be, but she didn't have to be to know that something dreadful must have happened to them. Shino and Naruto seemed to pick up on this as well, because they were silent as Kurenai led them inside, greeted the owner with a nod, and settled them at a table in a darkened corner.
Despite their stated purpose of celebration in coming there, they were all silent as they waited for their orders to arrive. Kurenai seemed extremely distracted by something, and frowned off into the distance. Hinata noticed Naruto fidgeting nervously. If she wasn't used to the frequent formal dinners at the Hyuuga compound, she'd probably do the same. Finally, Naruto could no longer contain himself and spoke up.
"Sensei?" he asked, "what was your jonin-sensei like?"
Kurenai froze with her sake halfway to her lips and Hinata held her breath. While she was equally curious, she couldn't believe Naruto had just asked their sensei like that.
"Why do you want to know?" Kurenai asked in a far-too-quiet voice. Hinata had only seen Kurenai become really angry once, after speaking to her father. She'd come out of the conversation possessed by a cold fury that was frankly terrifying. She didn't understand what her father had said to provoke such a reaction, but she knew she never wanted to see such rage in her sensei again.
Naruto's voice took on an unusually thoughtful tone as he stared into the distance. For an instant, Hinata pictured his unusually somber expression under the Hokage's traditional hat and felt a shudder of premonition. Was she watching fates change before her eyes?
"He was your sensei," was all Naruto said after a moment.
To their surprise Shino spoke up as well. "If he's had anywhere near as large an effect on you, as you have had on your students, then a desire to know more about him is only logical."
"Yeah," Naruto added, nodding, "That almost makes him our sensei as well, doesn't it?"
"I would be honored to hear of him as well," Hinata heard herself adding. She was horrified at the thought of prying into potentially painful memories, but Naruto and Shino's reasons had moved her. And she had to back up her team mates as well.
Kurenai-sensei was quiet for a moment as the waitress brought out their orders. After she left though, the jonin began to talk. "Kobaru-sensei was not the sort of person you would picture as a shinobi. He was even stockier than Sarutobi Asuma, who works with your class mates on Team Ten, and Kobaru was nearly a head taller; as… a team mate… once said, he looked like a boulder that had grown legs and gone for a walk.. With his size and strength, he was formidable with taijutsu, but he always said "only a fool hunts with one arrow in his quiver", so he made a point of learning…"
Hinata sat, utterly still, as her sensei's voice painted a vivid picture of the man who'd played a major role in making her the kunoichi that sat before them. Their food sat, cooling and forgotten.
OoOoO
It was after dark before they left Moritake's. It was odd for Naruto, to feel like he'd come to know someone he'd never met, but it was a good sort of odd. He could see where Kurenai-sensei had learned a lot from the man, but added her own spin to his lessons before she passed them on. He wondered what he would teach his genins when he was a jonin. Hopefully by that time everyone would have forgotten about 'Sexy no jutsu'; if they didn't, he was going to have to have a little "talk" with Konohamaru...
Naruto shook his head at that thought. When Kurenai dismissed them, the pensive jonin gave them the next day off to rest and replace any damaged or worn gear. It was well past visiting hours at the hospital, but he'd make time to visit Iruka-sensei tomorrow. Naruto grimaced at the thought of all the laundry he needed to do before he went to sleep. The sooner he resumed working with Gai and Lee, the less pain would be involved in catching up. Tomorrow morning he would seek them out again. Maybe Gai would have some heavier weights he could borrow…
Naruto's musings were interrupted as Shino and his sensei made their goodbyes. He turned toward Hinata, but the slump of her shoulders suggested that she was less than enthusiastic about going home. Naruto frowned as he wondered how accurate his conclusions about her family were. If he wasn't delusional, that might explain why she lingered outside the restaurant instead of immediately going home.
"Er, Hinata?" he asked.
Hinata jumped and looked up from the fingers she was absently pressing together. "Y-yes, Naruto?"
"I'm going to do some extra training tomorrow with Gai-sensei and Lee, if they aren't out on a mission. Would you like to come as well?" he asked.
"A-ano," she said hesitantly as her cheeks reddened slightly, "wouldn't that be rude? To come uninvited?"
"Nah," Naruto said. "I'll just tell Gai that you were so impressed with my progress that you wanted to see his training methods… He'll go crazy, so just nod politely every time he says something about that 'Power of Youth' thing." He shook his head. "And don't look at their teeth when they smile or you'll be rubbing the spots out of your eyes for a while."
Hinata's eyes widened at Naruto's open duplicity. "I-I- I mean, I can't-"
Naruto nodded quickly bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Sure you can. He's actually nice, in his own weird way. And Lee really wants to beat your cousin, who is his 'eternal rival', and practicing with another Jyuuken user can only help him, right?"
Hinata nodded slowly.
"Great!" Naruto said with a smile. "But you better get some sleep. Those two keep some really early hours. Can you meet me in front of Ichiraku's at five thirty?"
Hinata smiled a little this time, and Naruto felt an odd sense of accomplishment. "Hai!" she said, agreeing.
"See you in the morning, Hinata-chan!" he called out as he raced toward his apartment. He needed to get his laundry going, take as hot a shower as he could stand, and then reacquaint himself with his bed.
OoOoO
Hinata stared after the boy as he left, wondering what she'd just gotten herself into. If Naruto actually wanted her there, she supposed she could deal with the awkwardness. If Gai and Lee didn't want her around, she doubted they'd be shy about letting her know. No one else was.
She tried not to dwell on where she was going as her feet carried her home. The branch family member on duty acknowledged her return with the barest of nods as she entered the compound.
Hinata was relieved she was able to slip into her father's house without encountering anyone. Once in her room, with the door shut, she let out a shuddering breath and tried to relax. She unpacked her bag, setting out the items that desperately needed cleaning. The uniform she was wearing was definitely in that category as well, so she changed into a bathing robe and, after setting out her laundry, crept into the bathroom for a long soak.
The hot water soothed her muscles, but just being in this house was increasing her mental tension. She wasn't wanted here. She didn't belong here. She was a failure in a clan that didn't tolerate failures. The realization she'd come to on the way back to Konoha burned ever brighter in her mind.
She didn't want to be here.
OoOoO
Naruto's fingers were still tingling from his shinobi alarm clock when he arrived in front of Ichiraku's. Hinata had evidently arrived a little early, and was watching the old man fuss over his stove as he prepared for another busy day.
He waved goodbye, promising they'd be back for breakfast, and led Hinata to Gai and Lee's favorite training ground.
"Ah, Naruto!" Gai called out as they entered the clearing. "I heard your team had returned to Konoha, flush with victory and the fire of youth! Are you ready for more steps on the path to become a Genius of Hard Work?"
"Er, yeah," Naruto said, rubbing at the back of his neck while Hinata stared at the odd duo. "And I brought someone who works even harder than I do."
"Yosh!" Lee cried out. "My favorite sparring partner and rival of hard work has returned to Konoha!" Naruto wasn't sure if it was possible, but his eyebrows seemed even thicker than he'd remembered.
"Lee! You are so passionate! You are truly my student!" Tears were streaming from the jonin's eyes, making them sparkle unnaturally in the dim morning light.
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Uhm," Naruto said, interrupting the happy duo; he could have sworn that he heard music off in the distance. "This is Hyuuga Hinata," he said, nudging the dubious-looking girl forward.
"Ah!" Gai said, distracted from their cacophonous duet. "You must be the cousin of my student Neji."
"Hai!" Hinata said, bowing quickly. Naruto thought she looked like she wanted to bolt out of the clearing and hide.
"She's heard me brag about your incredible training techniques," Naruto said quickly. "And she wanted to see for herself. I think they are probably superior to the Hyuuga methods, but only Hinata can judge that for certain." Hinata spun toward Naruto, her mouth hanging open in shock.
The blond shinobi had been a little worried about laying it on too thickly with the green-clad jonin. He shouldn't have wasted the energy.
"Yosh! The fire of youth extends even into the cold Hyuuga clan!" Gai exclaimed happily. "Neji is a genius, but he lacks Lee's fire and enthusiasm! I will be more than happy to fan the fires of her determination to excel!"
Hinata gaped at the jonin as he and Lee broke into another chorus. She turned to Naruto, her expression puzzled.
"That means you are more than welcome to train with us, Hinata-chan," Naruto translated with a grin and a roll of his eyes.
As they set to work, Naruto braced himself for an unpleasant task – getting caught up to Lee again. The spandex-clad genin was even faster than he remembered, and while Naruto wore his weights on the border patrol mission, he couldn't afford to train himself to exhaustion in hostile territory.
At first, all Naruto could see were green blurs as he tried to block a typhoon of kicks and punches. Even when he did successfully block, Naruto had to lock his stance to avoid being blown off his feet. He could feel his sandals skidding backward on the grass.
He grew frustrated enough to anchor his feet to the ground with chakra, only to have Lee go aerial on him, and send him flying with a spinning jump-kick that went over his block.
Naruto tumbled when he hit the ground, finally skidding on his shoulders and back as he tried to get his eyes to focus. Then he pulled his knees up to his chest and did a kip-up. He was a little dizzy, but his feet were steady. "I see you got soft while I was away," Naruto said cockily, even as his vision swam slightly. "That should have knocked me out!"
"Yosh!" Lee shouted and came at him again. As Naruto's blood got moving, his aches faded away in the excitement of combat. Lee scored three more solid hits, but Naruto sprang to his feet even faster and returned to the battle.
Finally, he successfully ducked away from one of Lee's palm-heel strikes, and managed to grab the boy's elbow before he could pull back. Lee chopped at Naruto's elbow, but the blonde's other hand grabbed that wrist before it could connect. Naruto forced his hands apart, yanking Lee temporarily off-balance and right into the knee Naruto slammed into his stomach, even as his forehead cracked into Lee's jaw.
Lee staggered back, gasping for breath and rubbing at his jaw. "It's great to have you back, Naruto-san!" he exclaimed happily. He turned to Gai. "Sensei, do you think I can attempt that move again?"
Gai frowned thoughtfully, his eyes wandering over Naruto, and then Hinata. "With me here to supervise, I think it will be safe. Naruto, Hinata, Lee has been working hard to perfect a special finishing move. He would like to work with Naruto for his first attempt, but it is important that no one mention this move with others. It is to be Lee's secret weapon!" His voice rose at the end, and he gave one of those "nice-guy" poses that made his teeth shine with unnatural brightness.
"All right," Naruto said dubiously. Then he shook his head. Gai wouldn't let him be injured, even if this was a 'finishing move' – Kurenai-sensei would kill him. For all his quirks, Maito Gai didn't appear to be suicidal.
All the same, Naruto couldn't help but gulp as he dropped into a defensive stance. Lee had his hands clasped together and gasped "First Gate: Open!"
Then he disappeared in a blur of motion.  

[Pandora Green]

Naruto's eyes had just begun to track downward when Lee's foot drove upward into his stomach, launching him into the air. He heard Lee shout "Kage Buyo" and suddenly he could see his sparring partner out of the corner of his eye, leaping into the air behind him, in a parallel arc.
Naruto felt something wrapping around his arms. He looked down as he struggled to free himself. It looked like Lee's arm bandages. Then the boy's arms wrapped around his upper arms in a grip of iron. "Omote Renge!" Lee shouted as they began to spin rapidly. As he struggled to break free, a corner of his mind observed that he was very lucky to have not eaten breakfast yet.
It was hard to tell with all the spinning, but Naruto thought they had passed the top of their shared trajectory and were now shooting toward the ground at high speed. As he frantically tried to break free, he realized the purpose of this strange attack. With the way Lee gripped him, his head would strike the ground first – with their combined momentum behind it. Truly a deadly technique.
Naruto's appreciation of the technique was, of course, marred by the fact that he was about to become its first victim. He was seriously considering calling on the red chakra when the two of them jarred to a halt.
"That's enough!" Gai shouted as he caught the two of them. With Lee's grip relaxed, Naruto was able to burst out of the bandages. He tried to turn around and immediately fell to the ground, too dizzy to walk.
"Did I do it right?" Lee asked in a worried tone as leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees.
"If you didn't, I don't ever want to see the right version," Naruto groaned as he tried to swallow. Empty or not, his stomach was feeling rather delicate at the moment; that launching kick certainly hadn't helped either. He saw Hinata, out of the corner of his eye, watching anxiously. He gave her a small wave and she looked down with a sigh of relief.
"Yes, Lee…" Gai said, pausing dramatically. "You have mastered the Omote Renge!" he shouted.
"Such a flowery name for a move that plants your opponent like a turnip," Naruto groused as he tried to climb to his feet, sternly addressing his rebellious inner ear; how Lee was able to stand up at all was completely beyond him.
"Yes, Naruto," Gai said as he helped the genin stand up. "It's a very dangerous move, and only to be used in extreme circumstances. Is that understood, Lee?"
Lee nodded, and then pulled out a small notepad and pencil and began writing. "Yes, sensei. Now that I know I can do it, I will only use it in 'extreme circumstances'."
"When I tell your team mates of your success in the first phase of your initial training, they will be so proud!" Gai exclaimed.
"Yosh, Gai-sensei!" Lee agreed.
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
At this point Naruto's stomach had enough and he vomited on Gai's sandals. "Sorry!" he murmured as he stumbled backwards, still feeling like the world was spinning around him.
"Ah, the aftereffects were more severe than I anticipated!" Gai exclaimed, raising one be-smeared foot and frowning at it. "Make a note of that, Lee."
"Yes, Sensei!" Lee replied with a serious expression, notepad in hand.
Paradoxically, Naruto felt better after puking, which didn't make much sense to him. A light touch on his shoulder made him turn his head. Hinata offered him a clean cloth and a cup of tea from her thermos. Naruto accepted both gratefully, realizing that she seemed to always be prepared for any emergency with her bag – something he would do well to emulate.
"While Naruto-san recovers, would you do us the honor, Hyuuga-sama?" Gai asked politely.
Hinata's face immediately reddened, but after an encouraging smile from Naruto, she nodded.
Watching Hinata spar with Lee was interesting, and soon Naruto's spasming stomach was forgotten. Lee was still pretty fast, but doing the Omote Renge seemed to have taken a lot out of him. Nevertheless, after the first few exchanges with the Hyuuga girl, he started to go all out again.
Naruto noticed Hinata doing many of the things she used against him when they sparred. He supposed his personal taijutsu style had been influenced by Gai and Lee's goken, but it was still illuminating to see his team mate flow around Lee's attack and make delicate-seeming jyuuken strikes that left the boy moving slower and slower.
Finally, she got through his guard and scored a glancing blow to his left shoulder that made the whole arm freeze up. Lee jumped back with a frown, rubbing at the joint. "Ah! Just like with Neji," he groaned.
"Lee! Do not let yourself become discouraged!" Gai said in a serious voice. "Naruto-san, you regularly spar with Hinata, do you not?"
"Hai!" Naruto agreed with a nod, ignoring the way Hinata's fingers were pushing together again.
"How do you defend against her Jyuuken strikes?" he asked.
"Well," Naruto said slowly, trying to ignore the way Lee had his notepad out again, hanging on his every word. "I usually can't block them directly without getting zapped, and slowing down until she has me at her mercy." He said the last bit with a straight face, but grinned at her blush. "I have to dodge more and block less. In fact, unless I am close enough to block her upper arms, I don't block at all. Otherwise, she pushes chakra into my arm muscles or one of my tenketsu points and that hurts." He shrugged. "I have to come in at odd angles a lot more. And I have to be ready to re-open any tenketsu that get closed."
"Re-open?" Gai asked sharply.
Naruto nodded. "Yes, if I push a hunk of chakra towards that point on my body, it usually pops back open." He shrugged. "Hurts like hell, though; like that pins-and-needles feeling, only about a hundred times worse."
"I see…" Gai said dubiously.
Lee's eyes had gone wide however. "Sensei! Can I learn to do this?"
Naruto shrugged. "Hinata helped me figure out how," he said.
Now the jonin and both genin were staring at the Hyuuga girl, causing her cheeks to glow a bright red. "A-ano," she said hesitantly, "Naruto did most of it out himself. I just told him when it seemed to be working."
Still, Lee's enthusiasm would not be deterred. After fifteen minutes of effort though, Lee's shoulder was just barely able to flex. According to Hinata, his chakra couldn't push quite hard enough to re-open the tenketsu point she had closed. Lee looked downcast as he told them that the reason he concentrated so much on taijutsu was because his chakra coils were severely underdeveloped.
Hinata looked mortified that her technique had forced the proud young genin to admit to his weakness, and Naruto didn't miss the way her hands bunched into fists holding the hem of her jacket.
"Hey," he said quickly, causing Lee to look up, "at least you didn't fail the genin exam three times like I did." He smiled ruefully. "If Mizuki hadn't been a traitor, I might still be at the Academy."
Of course, after saying something like that, he had to explain the whole mess that ended with him wearing Iruka-sensei's hitai-ite. Naruto hadn't had much experience telling stories before, but with this audience it was easy. Both Hinata and Lee seemed to hang on his words, and even Gai-sensei listened quietly, nodding thoughtfully.
It wasn't until halfway through the tale that he hesitated, wondering how he should handle Mizuki taunting him about the kyuubi. Gai, of course, already knew, as did Hinata. Only Lee was ignorant, but Naruto knew Lee would follow Gai's lead. He'd been right to trust Hinata and Shino, maybe telling Lee would turn out as well…
"So Mizuki started taunting me about the village's secret law, which made Iruka-sensei really mad. He continued, though, telling me about how when the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked Konoha, the Yondaime wasn't really able to kill him – no one could. Instead, the Hokage sealed the demon up inside a new-born baby, namely me. Well, suddenly things started making a lot more sense – like how all the adults hated me, because I was holding the demon that killed their loved ones, including Iruka-sensei's parents. I was so shocked I could barely move when Mizuki hurled this huge fuuma shuriken at me. Next thing I knew, I was on my back, and Iruka was crouched over me, with that big shuriken stuck out of his back."
Naruto paused to catch his breath and check his audience. Lee's unnaturally round eyes were practically bulging from the sockets, and Hinata looked to be on the verge of tears. Gai nodded grimly, though his eyes were bright as well.
"Iruka told me that he didn't blame me at all, and that he could tell I wasn't a demon. He said we were both alike, in that we grew up very lonely…" Naruto's voice trailed off, as he hadn't originally intended to go into that part.
"Anyway," he continued after a deep breath. "Mizuki came after us again, only this time I was more mad than anything else. So I tried the new technique I'd learned from the forbidden scroll, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." He grinned. "Iruka looked like he was going to have a heart attack, but Mizuki just started screaming as all my clones jumped on him and beat him down. Then Iruka-sensei stood up and told me to close my eyes. When I opened them, he'd tied his hitai-ite onto my head and told me that I'd passed."
"YOSH!" Lee roared, making Naruto and Hinata both jump. "Naruto-san," he continued in a slightly quieter voice, "you are such an inspiration! Surely you are an incarnation of the Power of Youth!"
Naruto wasn't so sure about that, since it sounded a little painful. But at least Lee wasn't making his ears ring anymore, so that was something.
"Lee is correct, Naruto," Gai added in a more reflective tone as he nodded at the blond genin. "That was no doubt a very difficult tale to share. Thank you for using it to inspire Lee."
"If Naruto can overcome such obstacles," Lee declared, his eyes seeming to catch fire, "then a lack of chakra is nothing. I will find a way to defeat Neji, even without chakra!"
"You ever catch him with that turnip-planting move, you'll kick his a**," Naruto agreed, his stomach rolling slightly at the memory.
"Lee has indeed worked very hard to perfect that move," Gai agreed. "Tonight, we will celebrate his success!" he declared. "You two are both invited, as well."
Hinata's eyes widened, but Naruto answered for both of them. "We'll be there," he said.
"Good, good," Gai said punching the palm of his hand. "Hinata-san, you are welcome to join us any morning you wish. Any assistance you can give Lee, will be most welcome. However, I would ask that you not mention any of this to your cousin, Neji. He is highly skilled, but I think it would be good for his training if he were to receive some 'youthful surprises' when he spars. It will demonstrate how he should never underestimate his opponents. Is this acceptable to you?" he asked politely.
Hinata nodded, eyes wide.
At this point, Naruto and Lee were both recovered, but Gai had Naruto and Hinata spar while he and Lee took copious notes. Hinata seemed a little self-conscious at first, but they soon settled into a quick rhythm of attack and counter-attack.
Naruto slipped first, and felt a spike of chakra blast through his elbow, locking the joint as capillaries ruptured and the muscles cramped painfully. But he was able to grab Hinata's forearm with his good hand before she could pull back. Naruto rolled backward, planting his feet in Hinata's stomach like he'd done before and launching her into the air. His working hand flashed toward his kunai pouch and he sent a trio of blunted shuriken toward his team mate. Hinata's kunai appeared in her hand like magic and she deflected the two shuriken that would have hit her. She tucked her legs up to speed her rotation so she would land feet down.
But no sooner did her feet touch the earth than Naruto was right on top of her, a flash of yellow on his palm as his hand brushed the sleeve of her jacket. "Raiton: Shokkingu Haji!" he said as the jutsu discharged.
Hinata flinched violently at the shock, but Naruto had summoned just enough electricity for her to feel it, but not enough to hurt.
Naruto stepped back, proud of scoring a hit, as well as the proof of his hard-earned chakra-control. Then he saw Hinata's head and the grin froze on his face. The electrical discharge left Hinata's hair standing on end, forming an indigo cloud around her head. It was pretty funny, but Naruto refused to laugh at her expense as he massaged his bruised elbow.
As the kunoichi settled back into a ready stance, Naruto hesitated. He knew Hinata was easily embarrassed, and the condition of her hair would probably mortify her, as funny as it might be. He was tempted to just not say anything, but Gai and Lee were watching. Finally, it came down to the fact that she was his team mate. If he let it go without saying anything, he was turning his back on that.
"Hey Hinata?" he asked.
Hinata frowned. But she didn't make a connection between her hair and the vague gestures Naruto was making over the top of his own head. Finally, he just gave up and stepped forward, rapidly patting down her static-raised hair. Unfortunately, individual strands wanted to cling to his fingers, so he had to stroke the dark blue hair a couple of times before it would lie flat.
He'd been hoping to save the kunoichi some embarrassment, but her face was bright red when he stepped back. "Er, your hair, it was sticking up from the jutsu," he explained.
"Oh," was all Hinata said. Then she dropped into a Jyuuken stance and came at him again.
OoOoO
By the time they left Gai and Lee, Hinata was as tired and hungry as her team mate professed to be. Even her stomach growled once as they walked back toward town, making Naruto crack up as she looked horrified.
"Neh, Hinata," he reassured her, "you're hungry because you've been working hard all morning. No one's going to think you're rude because you want to improve!"
Hinata tried to draw encouragement from Naruto's words, but she could still feel scourged by her father's contempt for crude behavior. Her face was downcast as she tried to banish his hateful words. "Ano," she asked after a moment, "where are we going?"
"This is the other half of my morning routine," he explained. "Gai and Lee train too early for me to eat breakfast first, and they work me hard, so I always have a healthy appetite… and here we are!" He gestured grandly and Hinata realized that they were standing in front of Ichiraku's. "I get something to eat before I meet with Team Eight! Go to make sure I don't pass out when we're looking for that damn cat again!" Naruto said enthusiastically. He quickly looked left and right and then leaned forward. "It's not quite as good as yours, of course," he whispered confidentially, "but nice and quick."
Hinata found herself blushing again. It was nice how Naruto, and even Shino, always complimented her on cooking, especially when she wasn't that good. She'd prepared a few meals for her family on special occasions and none of them had remarked on their quality. Still, it was nice that her team mates tried so hard to make her feel better, so she obliged him by smiling a little.
A couple of villagers got up from the counter at that moment, and Naruto grabbed her hand and hauled her forward before someone else claimed the vacated stools. Hinata thought her knees were going to collapse when his fingers closed around hers, but she managed not to squeak. She knew her team mate was just concerned about filling his stomach, not that she wasn't hungry as well, but it was pleasant, for a moment, to pretend that he was holding her hand for other reasons. Futile, but pleasant.
"Oi! Old man! You have no idea how much I missed this place!" Naruto called out as he plopped down on one of the stools. Hinata was a bit quieter as she sat down as well, a little disappointed when Naruto let go of her hand.
"Hello Naruto!" the old man called out happily, "it's been far too quiet these last few weeks. Hey Ayame! Look who's back!"
The cook's daughter looked up from the vegetables she was chopping. She smiled and waved at Naruto, and to Hinata's surprise the young woman winked at her when Naruto had turned back to her father.
"So what's the special today?" Naruto asked eagerly.
"Himono with rice, miso soup, and pickled daikon," the old man replied with a smile.
"That sounds perfect," Naruto said as he pulled out his bulging gama-chan wallet. Before they went to Moritake's sensei had stopped at the bank and cashed in all three Bingo Book vouchers, splitting the money between the four of them. Hinata wanted to refuse at first, but after distracting Naruto for a moment, Kurenai-sensei had whispered to her that sharing the reward was one way for Naruto to lessen his anguish at being forced to take two lives. She didn't think he'd be able to enjoy any of the reward unless it was shared with his friends. That had effectively stifled any of Hinata's objections – she'd do anything to make him feel better.
That said, she still didn't want him spending his money on her now. "Ano, Naruto," she said quickly, "I can pay for my own," she objected.
"That's okay," he said with a grin. "You can pay for tomorrow's."
Hinata opened her mouth and then closed it again. The strange jonin and his student had invited her to train with them any time she wanted, but she was sure he was just being polite. Or perhaps he was just being courteous to Naruto, who they both seemed to respect. She was happy to see others who appreciated her friend's positive qualities, but she didn't want to presume upon that either.
On the other hand, they did seem interested in studying her Jyuuken techniques. Lee's commitment to defeating her cousin was laudable, and reminded her of Naruto's unflagging determination. While she was nowhere near Neji's level, perhaps she could help in some small way. But did that make her disloyal to her family? Gai said it would be good for Neji to be surprised occasionally, as it would make him less likely to underestimate a real opponent.
At first she'd been a little dismayed to see how easily Naruto revealed his secret to Lee, in comparison to the difficulties he had telling her. In truth, he hadn't told her so much as give a few hints and then confirm her guesses. It… hurt… to think that he could be so much more open with Lee. But then she noticed how he was smiling at her when he paused for breath in the middle, like they were sharing some secret joke. It made her very warm inside, this inclusive feeling. It was then that she realized that it was her and Shino's acceptance of him that made it easier to him to tell Lee. That alone had made the whole morning worthwhile.
Lost in thought, Hinata was slow to notice as Naruto's face fell, but his words captured her attention. "Don't worry about it, Hinata," he said in a falsely cheery voice that she was only lately able to detect, "I know I keep some ridiculously long hours with all this training, so…"
Hinata shook her head. "I would be honored to train with the three of you, but will I not be more of a bother?" Whether she attended or not, she wasn't about to let Naruto think it had anything to do with him. She almost cringed when she realized he was hiding his true feelings again. That would not do at all.
Naruto shook his head firmly. "Did you see all those notes Lee took? When they were assigned to Gai, he and Neji were put on the same team because Neji had the highest scores in the Academy, while Lee barely passed. He doesn't talk about it, but I think your cousin said some things that first day that really ticked Lee off. He's been dying to find some way of defeating his 'eternal rival', and Gai wants all his hard work to pay off in the end."
Hinata's eyes went wide at that explanation. Naruto didn't show it often, but she was occasionally surprised by how much he picked up on. Of course, training with someone three or four hours every day would doubtlessly give you a lot of insight into their character, but still… "I see," was all she could say to that. "I don't think it would be disloyal to my family to assist in training my cousin's team mate."
The grin that split Naruto's face was genuine this time, much to Hinata's relief. The fake one made her feel slightly ill, wondering how long he had worn it to make the disguise so seamless. "You're the greatest, Hinata-chan!" he beamed.
Hinata ducked her head down instinctively, even as her cheeks reddened again. Fortunately, her embarrassing moment was cut short as the kindly older man set a pair of plates down before them.
"Itadakimasu!" they both said, Naruto in a far louder voice, and then they fell on their food like a pair of starving wolves. Hinata, as a Hyuuga, of course maintained perfect table manners at all times – but her chopsticks moved rather quickly nonetheless.
OoOoO
Aburame Shino awoke and performed his morning ablutions with the same precision he always followed when at home. He moved through the house like a soundless wraith, and was soon tending a rather promising-looking colony of winged kikai bugs. Their ability to fly at an extremely high rate of speed gave them exceptional maneuverability, but they performed somewhat erratically under stress. It was thought that the enhanced speed with which they moved made that inevitable, but he and his father were testing that hypothesis by crossing them with more phlegmatic ground-borne strains. Only three of the resulting sub-strains retained their wings, and only this one showed any signs of improved responsiveness or obedience.
Despite his concentration, Shino was fully aware of the opening and closing of the door behind him.
"Is there something you'd like to discuss?" his father asked in a low voice as he looked over his shoulder at the armature-mounted magnifying glass Shino was using to observe the queen's egg production.
"Perhaps," Shino allowed. He'd said barely three words since arriving home late the previous night. He was highly annoyed regarding some issues, but that was not sufficient reason for him to behave in an overly emotional manner. Shouting at his parents and the clan elders would be highly counterproductive, even if it would entail a certain, visceral, satisfaction. "I know the secret behind the Hokage's law regarding Uzumaki Naruto," he finally said.
"I see," his father said with a quiet sigh. "I suppose I should see the Hokage about getting you assigned to another team?"
Shino turned toward his father. "Why would I desire such an irrational action to be taken on my behalf?" he asked in a clipped monotone.
Aburame Shibi opened his mouth, but then closed it without speaking. After a moment he began again. "I assumed that your anger was related to the secret being revealed. As this is apparently not the case, I will await your interpretation of the situation."
Shino adjusted his sunglasses. "My dissatisfaction with the situation stems from the attitude of the elders toward my team mate, a shinobi who had borne a large burden, practically since birth, with a dignity and aplomb that leaves me embarrassingly humbled," he said in a tight voice. "Despite this, the elders of our clan openly disparaged him throughout his childhood. This attitude, promulgated through the elder generation, infected the thinking of myself and others of our cohort, to the extent that their distaste for Uzumaki Naruto was communicated, in full, to practically everyone he came into contact with. I now find myself questioning the judgment, rationality, and fitness to lead of the elders, as well as the rest of their generation. I find myself questioning the Aburame clan's commitment to logic, and whether I still have a place within it."
Shibi's eyebrows were completely visible above his sunglasses. Shino's statement was the equivalent, in Aburame terms, of shouting himself hoarse and setting all their houses on fire. "I… see," he said slowly. "I admit I have had little to no contact with the boy; most of my opinions were likewise formed listening to reports from our representative to the village council. I believe he is known as a chronic prankster, and many have petitioned the Hokage to have him removed from the Academy or censured in other ways."
"Naruto's… eccentricities…" Shino said, choosing his words with care, "are somewhat understandable when viewed in light of his almost total social isolation. It is also a matter of public record that since he began working with Kurenai-sensei and Team Eight, Naruto has yet to pull a prank on any of the villagers."
Aburame Shibi stared at his son for a long moment. "What do you intend to do at this point?" he finally asked.
"I would speak with the Aburame elders regarding Naruto," Shino answered. "Loyalty to my team mate and a fellow shinobi of The Leaf demands no less."
"And if they refuse to ameliorate their attitudes?" Shibi asked.
"I believe one of Uzumaki's sayings comes to mind," Shino replied. "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter Ten
As a rule, Naruto tried to avoid the Konoha General Hospital. He'd been there several times when he was younger, usually in conjunction with one of the many 'accidents' he seemed to be involved in at the orphanage. The sharp, astringent smell of the disinfectants brought back painful memories, as did the cold eyes of the nurses and doctors.
Let's not even get started on the needles.
In any event, he was more than happy to let Hinata do the talking for both of them. The receptionist's voice was pleasant in tone, albeit somewhat formal, when she told Hinata Iruka-sensei's room number. She still shot Naruto a rather venomous glance, but broke it off when Hinata thanked her in a clipped voice.
Naruto immediately wondered if Hinata had issues with hospitals as well. Glancing over at his team mate, he saw the faint crease on her forehead. If he didn't know better, he might have thought she was angry or something. As they headed down the hallway, her features smoothed and she glanced over at him. Naruto quickly looked away, but not before she jumped a little as well.
"Sorry, Hinata," he said quickly. "I guess visiting a hospital isn't much fun on your day off, is it?"
"Ano, Naruto-kun," she replied, "I would like to see Iruka-sensei as well."
"Ah, okay then," Naruto said, confused, as they continued down the corridor.
When they found room 205, Naruto started to pull it open, but stopped when Hinata shook her head. He shrugged and knocked on the door. "Iruka-sensei, are you decent?" he called out. He didn't think he'd been that loud, but Hinata cringed nonetheless.
There was a low cough. "Come in, Naruto!"
Naruto grinned at the sound of the chuunin's voice and opened the door.
Umino Iruka lay on a hospital bed, both of his lower legs wrapped in bulky casts. His ribcage was swathed in bandages as well, that extended below the line of the blanket draped across his lap. His left wrist was also in a cast, but his right arm appeared undamaged. He used this to wave the genin into the room. "I was hoping I'd see you again when you got back!" he said in a cheerful voice.
Naruto's stomach dropped as he took in the extent of his important person's injuries. He remembered Konohamaru shouting that Iruka was dead. For an instant, he recalled the feeling of his fist punching through Kazuyo's chest and shuddered a little.
Iruka shook his head at his former pupil. "It's not as bad as it looks," he said quickly, "I have a few broken bones, but they're all healing rapidly. I should be out of here within a week or so."
"He's right," another voice added. One that made both Naruto and Hinata stand straighter. Sitting in a chair next to the bed, partially obscured by a curtain, was their sensei, Yuuhi Kurenai. She stood up quickly and nodded to her students. "I was just leaving," she added, then turned back toward Iruka. "We can continue this conversation after you've been discharged."
Iruka nodded, smiling faintly. As the door closed behind his sensei, Naruto turned toward Iruka with raised eyebrows. Then he gave the man a roguish smile. "Way to go, Iruka-sensei!"
Iruka's face turned red and he sputtered as Hinata looked away. But not before Naruto noticed a small grin on her lips.
"I swear, if I wasn't confined to this bed…" Iruka snarled. Then he grinned. "Konoha has been far too quiet without you around, Naruto!"
Naruto laughed and looked down, scratching at the back of his head. He could have sworn that he heard a little chuckle from Hinata as well.
OoOoO
Kurenai smiled to herself as she made her way out of the hospital. Her grin grew positively evil as she saw a squad of ANBU half-carrying, half-dragging an older, bespectacled man out of a comfortable-looking office. His muffled protests carried down the corridor, causing the hospital personnel to stare. Sarutobi was proving to be as good as his word; she'd only dropped off her report a couple of hours ago, before coming to speak with Umino Iruka.
Unfortunately, Iruka hadn't had much time to investigate the suspicions she'd shared with him. Even before the kidnapping, he'd been tapped to help with the preparations for the upcoming Chuunin Exam. All the same, he'd managed to do a little digging while he was re-organizing the testing records.
An ANBU squad had been assigned to keep an eye on Naruto after he left the orphanage. Far too many 'accidents' were happening near the boy for it to be coincidence. The second time he'd been 'accidentally' run over by a produce cart, he was severely injured and was in a coma for the better part of a week. Given what she knew of Naruto's recovery rate, Kurenai knew a normal little boy would likely have died from those injuries. Fear of the Hokage's wrath was likely the only reason there were no 'unfortunate accidents' in the hospital itself.
Naruto's injuries, along with the loud complaints he heard about how often 'the demon' had come to them with new wounds, led the Sandaime to assign guardians to keep an eye on the boy. Their reports were kept in a separate file, but it was one Iruka was allowed to see. He'd recorded the dates of various 'incidents' through the years, somewhat dismayed at how often someone had tried to hurt the boy. Naruto hadn't said a thing, but it was too much to hope that he hadn't noticed the ones that were foiled ahead of time.
Kurenai shook her head as she wondered, not for the last time, how her student still managed to be as… human, as he still was. In his place, she didn't think she would have been able to ignore so much hatred.
Iruka's notes did, however, reveal something interesting. There seemed to be a pattern to the incidents. They almost always happened within the first week of each month. This observation remained a statistical curiosity until Kurenai remembered that the village council always met on the last day of each month. If the bank manager could be believed, it was likely that some faction was using those meetings to plan things, or even just fanning the flames of resentment and then hoping others would take action. That would account for the timing of the attacks.
Umino Iruka was an optimistic man, one who tried to assume the best about people. That helped explain why he was able to give Naruto the benefit of the doubt when few else would, something for which Kurenai was very grateful to the man. At the same time, he was also resistant to the idea that members of the village council were actively working to subvert the Hokage's will, and bring harm to an innocent child. But while the timing of the attacks was not direct proof of a conspiracy, he could not come up with a more innocent explanation.
In the end, he agreed that he would continue seeking proof after he was released from the hospital. Kurenai thanked him sincerely for his efforts – any allies she could gather in this cause were precious indeed – bringing a pleased blush to his face. She was gratified to note that the man was willing to ignore his better nature where a threat to Naruto was concerned. She also didn't miss the happy smile that spread across the scarred chuunin's face at the sound of the genin's voice when her students arrived.
On the other hand, his injuries and workload made him of limited use for what she needed to do. She thought about Morino Ibiki, the interrogation specialist she'd come to know in the weeks of questioning after her team mates were killed. The special jonin had a sufficiently suspicious frame of mind – the timing of the attacks would speak volumes to him. On the other hand, she couldn't be sure of his loyalties regarding Naruto. He was utterly loyal to the Hokage, but might he be one who sought to protect the old man from his own softer nature? She didn't think it likely, but the consequences if she were wrong would be too severe.
If the danger were only to herself, she might have risked it. She'd done so before when she shared her suspicions regarding Mattai. Ibiki-san had given her good advice, words she had taken to heart. "If you are right," he said gravely, "then this goes far too deep for an easy resolution. You are a small target, girl, and one that won't be missed for very long if you start to worry the wrong parties. Gather your information as best you can, without revealing your purpose or what you know. Then present it all at once, holding nothing back. That way, they have nothing to gain by killing you."
As wise as his words may have been, she couldn't trust Naruto's safety to an unknown factor. Morino Ibiki had a well-deserved reputation for ruthlessness, especially after the botched mission where he'd acquired those horrific scars. Kurenai didn't know all the details, but she did acknowledge that Ibiki would do what he felt needed to be done, disregarding all else. If he thought Konoha's safety was best guaranteed by murdering an innocent, she didn't think he'd hesitate.
It was an uncomfortable realization for Yuuhi Kurenai, this acknowledgement that she could consciously place the welfare of her genin before that of her village. She supposed that the injustices inflicted by the villagers on her team made this almost inevitable, and Naruto was only the most obvious example. Hinata displayed the signs of chronic emotional abuse, most likely inflicted by her b*****d of a father. Shino appeared to be well-treated by his clan, but, like most Aburames, he was rather isolated from his classmates who didn't understand or were frankly disgusted by his family's distinctive jutsus. Never mind how often the kikai bugs had proven invaluable in missions or open warfare, the Aburame were actively encouraged to keep to themselves.
Maybe that was why she'd taken Kobaru-sensei's lessons on teamwork and emphasized them even more. Perhaps if they trusted each other enough, when one of their personal situations boiled over they would be able to help each other. Kurenai knew she'd do what she could, but an effective sensei works to make their own presence unnecessary. Some day, when she was gone, perhaps these three would still be able to rely on one another…
Kurenai shook her head, amused at her suddenly morbid train of thought. She would approach this situation like any other mission. She would gather her information, biding her time until it was time to act. And she would groom Naruto to become the village council's worst nightmare – a Hokage.
OoOoO
Naruto and Hinata visited with Iruka-sensei for over two hours before the nurses asked them (with a polite nod toward Hinata and a scowl for him) to let Iruka rest.
Of course, Naruto had told Iruka everything about their mission and the ambush. Hinata wasn't sure if this was allowed or not, but Iruka was a chuunin, and they hadn't been expressly forbidden from speaking, so she remained silent while Naruto entertained his captive audience.
She worried that Iruka would be angry that she led Team 8 into such a dangerous situation, but his eyes were understanding when she finally gathered the courage to stop staring at the floor. A short while later, when Naruto revealed that she knew of his prisoner, the honestly grateful look Iruka gave her spoke volumes. She couldn't remember ever receiving such a look of fervent approval before, and began to realize just how much Iruka worried about his most troublesome student.
She'd give anything to have her father look at her like that. Just once.
That realization soured her enjoyment of the visit, though she didn't let it show. Naruto was so happy to see Iruka in good spirits that she couldn't let herself do anything to spoil it.
Still, she was quiet as they left the hospital. After a minute, Naruto asked her if she wanted to go spar, as this was their normal team training time. Hinata nodded, but they had taken no more than three steps before Neji appeared out of the crowd, standing in front of her.
"Hinata," he said, not even acknowledging Naruto's presence. "You are to report to Hiashi-sama immediately."
"Hai," she agreed quickly, looking down. She didn't raise her eyes until her cousin's angry presence had departed. When she did, she was surprised to see Naruto frowning.
"I have to go," she said.
Naruto nodded. "Do you think you will be done in time to meet Lee and Gai?" he asked quietly.
"I don't know," she said, biting her lower lip. "Father probably wants to discuss my performance on the mission."
Naruto scowled fiercely, which surprised her. "If he gives you any crap," Naruto whispered, "remember what sensei and the Hokage both said."
She said her goodbyes somewhat mechanically, promising to meet early next morning, wondering what Naruto meant by that. He seemed to think her father would find fault in her conduct, which was depressing but probably accurate. But at the same time, he was telling her to recall the words of others.
Yuuhi Kurenai is not one to lightly praise another's logic, the Hokage had said. The Hokage said that he agreed with Kurenai-sensei – she had done well. If father disagreed with that, did it make him wrong? Or did he just understand her better? Perhaps they did not hold her to the Hyuuga standard, which her father did. But if the head of the clan disagreed with the Hokage of the village, who was right?
These unsettling thoughts accompanied her all the way back to the Hyuuga compound.
The branch family servants directed her to the audience chamber, where she found her father sitting stiffly in his usual formal white robes. With scarcely a nod of greeting, the questions began. Off balance, Hinata began answering them as best she could, trying not to let a stammer creep into her voice.
Her father seemed unusually interested in their last mission, more than he'd ever been before. She answered as truthfully as she could, trying not to stammer when he scowled or frowned thoughtfully. The Iwakagure shinobi mistaking Naruto for the Fourth Hokage provoked a fierce scowl, accompanied by a visible clenching of the muscles along his jaw.
It wasn't until she described fighting Hanabi's kidnappers that his questions became slower and more… cautious. She puzzled over this as she groped for the answers. Her father wanted something from her, but didn't want to tell her what it was. It wasn't until he asked if Naruto had displayed any special abilities that the pieces all fit together.
"Not that I saw, Father," she replied without missing a beat. While it was literally true, since he didn't use the red chakra until after she was knocked unconscious, Hinata was still shocked at how easily the words left her lips. She next described waking up with Naruto cleaning off her face and Hanabi standing over her as she wondered why she had, well, not lied, but she had certainly not told the entire truth.
Father suspects something happened, she realized after he had fallen silent. Why does he care, unless he wants to use this information somehow? She remembered his reaction to her first mention of her team mate's name. I think he wants to use it against Naruto somehow. Maybe he hates Naruto - like how the Hokage was worried Shino and I would if we found out the truth... He wants to hurt Naruto-kun!
With that the smoldering anger returned again, the frustration of failure and anger at her helplessness… but still she maintained her façade of apathy. It was this mask of ice she'd learned to don over the years around her family. It wasn't perfect, but sometimes it made it hurt less when she spoke to her father. This time, for Naruto's sake, she held it almost perfectly.
"Do you have any idea how Uzumaki was able to defeat his opponents?" her father finally asked.
Hinata tried to look thoughtful. "He trains very hard, in addition to what Kurenai-sensei does with our team. I-I am working extra as well, in order to keep up, so I don't become a burden on my team mates," she answered. It was a half-truth – Naruto's improved taijutsu had definitely played a role in his victory, and she could see how his training with Gai-sensei had helped. She included that last part as an echo of her father's admonishments to not drag down her team and embarrass the clan.
She felt vaguely uneasy about deceiving her father, but found to her surprise that she could do it for Naruto if she had to. The burn of shame in the pit of her stomach was drowned in her concern for her team mate. Had her father seen through her mask? Was he even now concluding that she knew more than she was telling? She knew he would find any deception on her part inexcusable…
Of course she was nervous under her father's gaze, despite her efforts to mask her emotions. That made this interview no different than scores of previous ones, where she'd hoped against hope for his approval. And so Hyuuga Hiashi came to the only logical conclusion – his daughter hadn't seen anything of use.
"Next time you return from an extended mission, you will report directly to me," he said severely. "Return to your quarters and do not leave them for the evening meal. You are dismissed."
Hinata bowed and rose to her feet as gracefully as she could manage with her stomach fluttering like a sparrow in a net. She left the audience chamber on silent feet, retreating to her quarters as quickly as decorum would allow.
As victories go, it wasn't much. But it was a first. Being confined to her quarters was a small price to pay, especially since she had a packed bento in her bag. Her only regret was missing the celebration for Lee.
OoOoO
As he surveyed the ruins of the restaurant, Naruto was glad Hinata hadn't been there. Things had started off badly and had deteriorated rapidly.
To start off, Hyuuga Neji was there, apparently at the insistence of Gai. The white-eyed genin was coolly formal with his sensei and Tenten, ignored Lee, and looked at Naruto like something to be scraped from his sandal. Recalling the way he'd acted toward Hinata, Naruto had to actively restrain his temper.
But at least he wasn't the cause of the disaster.
Gai had led them in a series of toasts to Lee's success, which had led to much amusement for the other genin. Tenten just smiled at the antics of her sensei and his protégé, but Neji was noticeably less subtle. Naruto saw Lee's eyes narrow, but that might have been the end of it.
If it wasn't for the sake.
Gai was drinking the traditional beverage for such an occasion, but he insisted that the underage genin drink non-alcoholic potables. Naruto didn't have a problem with that – he didn't want to become drunk, and he knew an alcoholic couldn't become Hokage. He settled for water, since he was still slightly dehydrated from his afternoon training, Tenten had some fruit juice, and Neji drank coffee in the western style, a concoction that seemed to suit his bitter disposition.
Lee, however, had opted for a clear but spicy fermented ginger beer – it didn't contain alcohol, but it came in ceramic bottles that resembled Gai's sake containers. Naruto wasn't sure that Lee's mimicry of his sensei was entirely healthy, but he had no idea how much of a premonition those concerns would prove to be.
At some point in the toasts, Gai and Lee had evidently switched bottles. After the last "Kampai!" Gai frowned and looked down at the bottle he'd poured his drink from. Lee's face, on the other hand, turned bright red and his normally wide round eyes were half-lidded. Naruto stared at his friend while Neji let out a quiet snort of amusement.
"Bashtard!" Lee slurred as he dove across the table at his team mate and rival. But what he'd done wasn't half as surprising as how he'd done it. Naruto was used to the boy's blinding speed, but what he saw now was comparable to what he'd been like after that 'first gate' thing.
Neji, the Hyuuga genius, was caught flatfooted by a right hook and sent tumbling to the floor. Tenten let out a squeak and shot backwards out of her chair, right before the table edge went through the space her lap had occupied a moment earlier.
Gai was only caught flatfooted for a moment before his hands shot forward to grab his student, but Lee twisted like an eel and was suddenly free, leaping from their table to an adjoining one before launching himself at Neji again.
The Hyuuga genin blocked three quick punches from the green-clad boy, and countered with a Jyuuken strike at Lee's chest that was sure to incapacitate him… Except Lee bent backward almost ninety degrees at the waist, letting the strike pass harmlessly overhead. Then he calmly placed both palms on the ground behind him and, digging his fingertips into the hard wooden floor, shot up into a perfect handstand.
Of course, in doing this, his feet, complete with weights, whipped upward, catching Neji in the stomach and sending him flying backward. The Hyuuga bounced off another table, smearing his tunic with hoison sauce and sending fragments of the meat dish flying amongst the diners. He finally sailed through a window – accompanied by a cloud of shattered glass.
"Lee! You must stop this!" Gai shouted, grabbing at the genin… but Lee just disappeared and reappeared next to Tenten. "Doan worry," he slurred to the kunoichi as she jumped back in surprise. "Yer nishe. Doan wanna hit joo. Doan see why ya like dat cold fish doh. He's not as nish as his coushin." Just as Gai's hands were reaching for Lee's shoulders, Lee fell back into a somersault, rolling between Gai's feet as smoothly as if they'd practiced that move.
"You wanna spar, shenshei?" Lee asked, hiccupping. Then his head turned and he saw Naruto. Lee peered at him owlishly as Gai pleaded with him to calm down and wait for the alcohol to wear off.
"Joo tink Hinata ish nisher than her coushin?" Lee asked.
Naruto nodded warily, testing his footing on the sticky floor. As Lee's daily sparring partner, he was amazed he'd been spared so far.
"I tink she is nish. I tink she likesh you too," Lee announced with a crooked smile. He rubbed at his eyes as he let out a laugh. "That's funny becuz she sho quiet, and you sho loud. But joo quiet too. Never shay anyting about shtuff, even dat ting inshide joo, dat –"
He never completed his words because Naruto launched himself forward closing Lee's mouth with his fist. Fortunately, the drunk genin seemed was distracted by his own monologue, or Naruto doubted he would have even connected. The impact sent Lee tumbling into another table that had already been abandoned by fearful diners. Before the last plate had hit the ground, Lee was being held down by half a dozen clones. The taijutsu specialist arched his back and kicked, sending the clones flying upward to explode against the ceiling.
But the distraction was long enough for Gai to get in close and tap two extended fingers against a spot on the back of Lee's neck. The green-clad genin stumbled forward a step, rolled his eyes up in his head, and collapsed bonelessly to the floor.
Lee was still out cold when the ANBU patrol showed up. Naruto supposed he shouldn't be surprised that the restaurant owner tried to blame him for the chaos, but it still rankled. Privately, he was just glad this wasn't Moritake's, otherwise Kurenai would never forgive him. Gai, however, accepted all the blame for the situation, and promised to pay the damages… which made Naruto profoundly grateful to the man.
In fact, the jonin just nodded distractedly while the restaurant manager ranted on about damaged furniture and lost business. His eyes were fixed on Lee, who dozed fitfully as he lay across a trio of chairs that Naruto had dragged together.
Tenten had re-entered the trashed dining room with a wobbly Neji a short while earlier. The Hyuuga's eyes were unfocused and he seemed to have trouble standing up straight… but he still shook his head when Tenten offered him a steadying hand.
"A natural suiken fighter," Gai murmured, almost too quiet to hear. "Who would have thought?" He straightened up when Tenten cleared her throat.
"Send me the total once you've added it up," he said brusquely to the manager. "Tenten, please make sure Neji makes it home alright. Uzumaki-san and I will take care of Lee."
Tenten nodded, ignoring Neji's disgruntled expression as she took his arm. She gave Naruto a sly wink before turning away. Naruto helped Gai pick Lee up, who only shifted restlessly and hiccupped in his sleep. As they stepped outside, watching Tenten lead Neji out into the night, Gai lowered his voice as he spoke to Naruto. "You acted decisively to keep Lee from breaking the Hokage's law," he said.
Naruto shrugged. "I don't want him to get in trouble because of me," he said uncomfortably.
Gai shook his head. "He won't. I had no idea he could possibly have such a strong reaction to alcohol. Probably he had an ancestor or two that were gifted Drunken Fist masters. That's the only thing that would explain his hair-trigger reaction. We'll have to ensure he never has access to alcohol, unless it's an emergency."
"I think him having alcohol would be an emergency all by itself," Naruto said doubtfully.
"You didn't notice?" Gai asked, raising an eyebrow.
Naruto wondered what sort of effort it must be costing the loud jonin to speak in little more than a whisper. He just shook his head in response.
"Lee has never been able to get a decisive hit on Neji, for as long as they've sparred together. Tonight that was not the case." The jonin smiled. "I think the sake has revealed some of his true potential. Now all we need to realize that potential…"
"…is a lot of hard work," Naruto finished the sentence, smiling.
"You're catching on," Gai said with an unsettlingly wide and shiny smile. "Kurenai-sensei must be very proud."
Naruto looked down, his face reddening. When he looked up again, Gai and Lee were nowhere in sight.
OoOoO
Shino sat quietly as the Aburame elders filed into the meeting room. As a clan, the bug users were far less formal than most, but they still observed certain protocols. Normally, only adult members of the clan were able to call for a meeting or bring new business before them. As an active-duty genin, Shino's status was unclear with regards to this rule – such a situation had never before arisen. But his father was more than willing to oblige him by calling for a meeting himself.
The eldest shinobi, Aburame Suba, brother to Shibi's father, looked every bit the part of the elder statesman as he took his seat at the head of the table. "Aburame Shibi, may we know the reason you have called for this meeting?" he asked as the others sat along the far side of the long table, facing the chairs of the petitioners.
Shino's father rose to his feet in a smooth and economical motion. "I have requested the attention of the council with regards to information acquired by my son."
Shino rose to his feet as all eyes turned toward him. In some ways, he supposed this was considered to be intimidating. Fortunately, he was unconcerned by such peripheral matters. "It has come to my attention that a grave injustice has been perpetuated, and that both myself and my clan have been a party to this undertaking," he began without preamble. "It is my intention to ascertain the degree to which this treachery was committed intentionally before I undertake further action."
Suba stared at his long-dead brother's grandchild for a moment. "Those are serious accusations. What is the nature of this betrayal? And who was the wronged party?"
"Ingratitude for services rendered unto the clan and Konohagakure," Shino replied, "and the person involved is Uzumaki Naruto."
Some of the council had obviously guessed at the purpose toward which he was in attendance, because the first objections were placed even as he finished speaking.
"Esteemed elder?" one of his older uncles, one Aburame Bataru, asked aloud.
"Yes, Bataru-san?" Suba replied.
"In light of Shino's youth and… lack of knowledge… regarding the relevant facts, I move that we table this discussion to avoid breaking certain village laws," Bataru continued, garnering several relieved nods from his fellows.
"If this lack of knowledge," Shino replied in a flat voice, "is with regards to Kyuubi no Kitsune, you may rest assured that I am fully aware of its existence sealed within my team mate."
"Who told you that?" Bataru demanded, anger evident in his voice. While even Suba's eyebrows had lifted at Shino's revelation, none of the others in the room had resorted to an outburst like that.
Shino idly wondered how long the man been a member of the council. "No one broke the Hokage's law, uncle," he replied coldly. "I was able to deduce the existence of Naruto's prisoner through sparring and training with him. When Uzumaki-san indirectly broached the topic with me, he merely confirmed my deductions." He paused. "As I told him at the time, I am neither stupid nor unobservant. Moreover, it is highly likely that, without the Kyuubi's chakra to draw on, our battle with the missing-nin would have had a far less optimal outcome."
Aburame Suba forestalled Bataru's objections with a raised hand. "We are aware that the vessel itself is exempt from the Hokage's law, if it wishes to allow the truth to be known. But what is the nature of our clan's betrayal?"
"Your choice of pronoun speaks volumes, esteemed elder," Shino replied, returning to his flat voice. "Naruto's imprisonment of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, in accord with the Fourth Hokage's plan, is the only reason Konoha survived the attack. Yet he is literally shunned within our borders. The rancor of the adults is all too apparent, and he is disparaged at every opportunity by the same villagers he protects from the demon's wrath. I am ashamed to admit that I myself had acquired this low opinion of Uzumaki by listening to conversations between the adults as I matured. When it was announced that I was to be placed on a team with him, I accepted this assignment with only the greatest misgivings." Shino had begun pacing before the table as he talked, which was the only visible indication of his annoyance. His voice continued in a perfectly even tone, even as his choice of words grew sharp enough to draw blood.
"Instead, I discover a shinobi who has labored under severe handicaps for most of his life. Yet, with the introduction of even minimal support from his sensei, begins to progress at a rate I find unbelievable. Except for the fact that he regularly works sixteen hour days, or longer, constantly training… now that someone is finally willing to give him a chance." He stopped before the center of the table, straightening his dark glasses. "I find his actions to be well beyond the possibilities of a discontinuous variation in personality. He did not change like this overnight. I wish to know the reasons why I heard older clan-members openly disparaging my team mate, one of the most gifted and quite honestly the hardest working genin I have ever encountered?"
"He's always pulling pranks!" Bataru snarled as more than a few eyes turned toward him. "Did you not see what he did to the Hokage Monument?"
"Such acting out, desirous of provoking a reaction or some acknowledgement, is not unknown behavior in someone who is being socially isolated," Shino observed. "Given the fact that he has yet to engage in such behavior since leaving the academy, it seems likely that you speak about a reaction to this conspiracy of isolation, rather than one of its antecedents."
"There are reports of theft from merchants, breakage and vandalism," Bataru countered. "However well behaved he is now, he was a public menace when he was younger."
Shino stared at the man. He remembered the way many of the merchants regarded his team mate, but more importantly he remembered how Naruto reacted… he looked away, avoided their hateful gazes, and otherwise tried to distract himself. "My apologies," he replied, deliberately allowing a quaver to enter his voice. "I was unaware of his past misbehavior. I'm sure his sensei will wish to deal with this personally." When Bataru nodded indulgently, he sprung the trap. "That being the case, if you will provide me with an itemized list of the offended parties, Kurenai-sensei can deduct the damages from his mission payments."
Bataru frowned. "List?"
"Of course," Shino replied. "If you have knowledge of these crimes, then justice must be done. Since any merchant will keep close track of any thefts or breakage as business losses for tax purposes, we should have quite a list to set straight."
"I don't have this information," Bataru snapped, the tightening skin visible around his glasses indicating that his eyes were narrowed.
"You don't?" Shino asked innocently. "Then how do you know that these incidents occurred?"
"I heard about them at council meetings," Bataru explained curtly.
"I see. Then as the clan representative to the council you can request the records from them," Shino concluded.
"I- I am not sure they were actually recorded," Bataru said quickly.
Aburame Suba was frowning visibly. "I was given to understand that the Uzumaki boy's predations were a matter of public record, Bataru-san. Is this not the case?"
"I, they talked about him almost every meeting," Bataru insisted, his stammering increasing and emotional equilibrium decreasing in proportion to each other. "Representatives from most of the guilds would voice their complaints, b-but everyone knew the Hokage favored the boy, and would hear no ill words about him. So some money was set aside in a fund to reimburse those who'd suffered losses, as long as they reported them to the council."
Shino stared at the man. "And who investigated these claims?" he asked.
"I… don't know," Bataru admitted.
"So, to sum this up," Shino said, beginning to pace again. "If representatives from one or more the merchants came forward with reports about Uzumaki Naruto stealing or damaging their merchandise, they would receive compensation from the Village Council. And you are unsure if the damage claims were ever investigated to determine their veracity. Uzumaki Naruto thereby acquired a reputation within the Village Council as a thief and criminal at a very young age. The various representatives attending these council meetings report this information back to their organizations, and soon everyone in Konoha knows of his reputation."
Shino stopped pacing and spun on his heel right in front of Bataru's section of the table. "But there appears to be no proof that any of these claims are truthful," he spat, making his now least-favorite uncle flinch backward slightly.
"He's still a damn demon," Aburame Bataru snarled, completely losing control of his emotions.
"No," Shino corrected. "He's the demon's jailor. We, of all people should understand that what someone holds inside themselves is not the sum total of their being. I've dealt with that issue among my peers, as I am sure each of you have done at some point. Many cannot look beyond our allies. The presence of kikai bugs hosted within our bodies makes it impossible for many to relate to us in any meaningful way. But just because I have two colonies of kikai," he continued, ignoring the startled looks several elders shot his father, "doesn't mean I am a kikai… just as Uzumaki Naruto containing the Kyuubi no Kitsune doesn't mean he is the demon." He shook his head in what was undoubtedly a somewhat theatrical manner, but meeting with the elders had tarnished his conception of them. Bataru was the worst of them, but they seemed far more emotional and far less rational than he'd expected. His father was a far clearer thinker than most of them, and he'd yet to be offered a seat at this table.
"Given what I have heard today," Shino concluded, "I think it is clear how this deception was perpetrated. I will take my leave of you now, and will not trouble you further." He bowed and turned to leave.
"What are your plans?" Aburame Suba's voice stopped him as he approached the door to the chamber.
Shino stopped and turned back toward the gathered elders. "I cannot, in good conscience, remain a member of a clan willing to engage in such slanderous activities. As such, I plan to visit the Hokage's offices and file papers requesting formal emancipation from the Aburame clan. I will move to an apartment within Konoha and trouble you no further."
Shino had often wondered about the saying "you could hear a pin drop", considering it an exaggeration at best. But the silence that followed his words appeared to a very close approximation to just such a condition.
Aburame Suba turned toward his nephew, Shibi, raising an eyebrow.
"Misato and I will support our son in whatever he considers to be the most honorable path for him to take," Shino's father replied urbanely as he opened up a portfolio and shuffled some documents around. Shino didn't imagine his sire to be overly pleased at such a thing, but he found himself… oddly moved at this show of support.
The angry murmurs between the elders were increasing in volume, and Shino felt his colonies begin to react to the pheromones released by a considerable number of perturbed kikai.
"Silence!" Aburame Suba snapped, his voice cutting across the muttering like a kunai. "Aburame Shino, you have more than made your point. It appears, in all likelihood, that we have been party to something we never should have been," the elder concluded, ignoring Bataru as he half-rose from his chair. "Rest assured that I will get to the bottom of this," he continued, "and we will make amends as they are needed." He paused. "I ask only that you take no precipitous action until we have concluded our investigation. Is that acceptable?"
Shino bowed deeply. This was a far greater concession than he had hoped for, thus it behooved him to be gracious. "I thank you for your consideration, honored elder," he said in the formal manner.
After he left the chamber with his father, Shino found his hands trembling for some strange reason. From a physiological perspective, he supposed it was from nervous tension, but he hadn't felt that nervous beforehand. This was highly curious, and something he noted to himself to pursue at a later date. "What do you anticipate being the outcome of their deliberations?" he asked his father quietly.
Aburame Shibi was quiet for a moment. "Some will argue that you are attempting to force them to action via threats, something which should not be encouraged. But I think Bataru will be reassigned to other duties in the near future, and someone with greater ability to detect deception will be in his place. Beyond that I can only speculate."
Shino nodded. "Your support at the end was appreciated," he said.
"Your mother would be highly displeased by such an occurrence," Shibi observed, "but your commitment to correctness of action is commendable and must be supported whenever possible."
They were silent the rest of the way back to their home.
OoOoO
Naruto was happy to see Hinata join them early the next morning at training area twenty three. He was half-afraid her father would have forbidden her to come once he found out. Or had he? Naruto decided to leave well enough alone and just not ask. Her manner was somewhat diffident, but she smiled slightly when he said good morning. Life was good.
Lee definitely looked somewhat worse for the wear that morning. He evidently strained several muscles the previous night when he'd trashed the restaurant, and was in no condition to do anything very strenuous until they had a day or so to recover. So Gai asked Naruto and Hinata to spar again, and worked with each of them on their forms.
To Hinata's obvious surprise, Gai-sensei appeared to have learned a lot about Jyuuken from having Neji on his team. Naruto's respect for his abilities as a teacher went up another notch when he began working on the subtle details of Hinata's footwork – just like he'd done for Naruto. Hinata's face seemed to run the gamut of emotions, ranging from shock that an outsider could be so knowledgeable about her clan's unique taijutsu, to gratification that he was willing to spend so much time with her.
Naruto began to entertain some doubts about that 'special Hyuuga training' she'd gone through, but he kept them to himself.
Gai also suggested that Hinata might want to learn some basic goken forms as well. Not only would it improve her ability to defend against conventional taijutsu, but it would also give her something to fall back on if her chakra reserves were exhausted. The Hyuuga girl accepted this reasoning, and while she was a little awkward at first, working on forms in tandem with Naruto seemed to help her settle down.
At the end of the class, Gai presented Naruto and Hinata with some specialized inserts for their wrist and ankle weights. The metallic slugs had been graven with special seals, so if chakra was pushed into them in the correct manner, their apparent density and weight increased to a large degree.
"I was wondering what we would do after all the weights were in," Naruto said as the light of comprehension dawned. "If these things got much bigger, they would start to get in the way."
Gai nodded seriously. "Without these special weights, Lee would never be able to see his feet again."
For some reason, Naruto found this image outrageously funny and nearly collapsed on the ground laughing. Hinata resisted the urge, but couldn't help but smile at her team mate.
After a hurried breakfast, he and Hinata made a quick trip to see Tenten's father and pick up some replacement gear. He'd managed to lose several kunai and almost half of his shuriken on the patrol mission, but he had more than enough money to replace his losses from the mission pay alone, let alone his share of the bounties.
Most of the bounty money had been deposited, he reminded himself as he tore his eyes away from the stacks of explosive tags. He really needed to learn a jutsu that made explosions, but he somehow doubted Kurenai-sensei would be teaching him that any time soon.
Even with their detour, they still made it to their designated meeting place with plenty of time to spare. Shino was there already, greeting them with a raised hand. Naruto couldn't be sure, but his team mate seemed to be more… relaxed? At least more than he'd been the previous day. Naruto was curious, but knew better than to ask.
When Kurenai arrived, she made a point of checking their gear to make sure they'd followed instructions, and then told stories of several shinobi teams who'd flubbed important missions, in one case losing a team member, because they either didn't bring the appropriate gear, or had a crucial item break at a bad time. By the time she was done, Naruto was carefully checking over the kunai he hadn't replaced.  

[Pandora Green]

It wasn't until they were halfway to the Hokage's tower to get a mission that Naruto noticed the faint smile on her face. He bit his tongue, but wondered when he'd have the opportunity for another Lee-henge-style prank for his sensei.
Going back to regular D-rank missions was almost a let down, in a way. That didn't stop them from working to make sure it was completed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Shino was the original driving force behind that, but Naruto and Hinata soon took it on as a challenge as well. Competing to see how quickly they could locate the Fire Lord's wife's cat gave them something to work toward, rather than simply becoming bored with the routine mission.
After the quickest cat-capture they'd managed so far—courtesy of Shino's kikai bug that was still in residence under the cat's collar—their second mission was a little unusual. They were tasked with demolishing an abandoned building on the outskirts of the village, outside the defensive wall. The decrepit structure might once have been intended as a livery stable, but now it was little more than an eyesore. Naruto was hoping Kurenai-sensei would take the opportunity to teach them a fire jutsu. But when he broached the topic, she reminded them that fires could burn out of control far too easily.
And so they were left with physically breaking down the structure to minimize the potential for collateral damage. As usual, each member of Team Eight found different ways to best use their abilities. Shino's bugs immediately began eating away at the building's remaining support members, turning the thick beams into sawdust. Naruto got to practice some of the goken power moves that he'd learned from Gai-sensei, while Hinata used her Byakugan to help locate load-bearing stress points within the structure that should be targeted first.
It was a dirty, nasty job, and even slightly dangerous when it came time to bring down the roof. But for all that it was over soon enough. When the building was flattened, Kurenai stared at her filthy subordinates. Each of them was smeared with sawdust, grime, and cobwebs from the old stable.
"I think that's enough missions for today," she said firmly. "We can pick up the pay tomorrow when we report in."
Naruto frowned up at the sun. "Isn't it a little early to quit now?"
Kurenai just rolled her eyes.
"Ano," Hinata offered quietly, "I'm not sure we are really presentable anymore. Not to see the Hokage anyway."
Naruto looked down at his jacket and frowned. He tried to brush off the worst of the mess, but only managed to grind most of it deeper into the fabric.
Kurenai left, saying she needed to check on something, as the three genin re-entered the village and trudged up the street.
"You know," Naruto said after a while, "that was kind of fun."
Shino nodded a fraction of an inch. "Overtly destructive behavior is normally frowned upon. Therefore, being placed in a situation where it is not only allowed, but encouraged, would be a pleasant contrast."
"Er, right," Naruto said dubiously. He leaned back, catching Hinata's eyes behind Shino's back, and making her smile as he rolled his eyes.
"A precise manner of speaking is not a liability," Shino reminded them. His head hadn't turned at all, nor had he given any other sign of noticing their byplay. "Though I suppose it might be considered out of character for some," he concluded.
"Are you saying I'm stupid?" Naruto asked with mock belligerence.
"No," Shino answered. "Merely imprecise."
"Oh," Naruto replied, nodding slowly. "That's all right then." He held his face in an innocently stupid expression long enough for Shino to glance toward him and sigh. The blond genin laughed out loud.
Hinata didn't join in, but she did smile fondly at her team mates.
As inevitable as gravity, when Team Eight finished their missions early, they tended to end up at Ichiraku's. The place was fairly quiet before the dinner rush began, and the old man who ran the place seemed to have developed a liking for Naruto and his team mates. It also didn't hurt that Naruto's work ethic and metabolism left him hungry, in varying degrees—typically from 'quite' to 'very'—most of the day.
He was on his third bowl (the others barely into their first) when he looked up from his food and swallowed hard.
Limping down the street were the members of Team Seven, looking rather the worse for wear. All of them were covered with half-healed scratches and cuts, their uniforms ragged and frayed in places. Even the normally impeccably groomed Uchicha looked like he'd been thoroughly mauled at some point in the recent past.
Naruto swallowed and elbowed his team mates. Hinata gasped quietly when she saw them.
"Oi!" Naruto called out. "What happened to you guys?" Any rancor he might have retained toward his former classmates was overridden by his curiosity. Anything that could do that to Sasuke…
Kiba's head snapped around, nearly dislodging Akamaru from his perch. He smirked, and began walking slowly toward Ichiraku's. Sasuke frowned, but Sakura appeared to persuade him to follow their boisterous team mate.
"We just came back from an A-ranked mission!" the dog-user announced in a loud voice. Old man Teuchi looked up from his broth pot and fixed the Inuzuka with a gimlet eye, making the boy duck his head.
"I understand that your team was given a C-ranked mission," Shino observed.
"We were," Sakura said as she joined them. When the old man's glare shifted to her, she quickly sat down and ordered a bowl of vegetable-flavored ramen.
Kiba's nostril dilated and his stomach growled, a high-pitched noise that made Akamaru peer down at his master. He quickly ordered a bowl of beef ramen, as did Sasuke. The old man filled their orders without a word, evidently having a long memory.
"Anyway," Kiba continued. "Turns out the old drunk who hired us was lying about the mission. He had a missing nin after him, but he couldn't afford to pay for an A or B-ranked mission, so he pretended he was just afraid of bandits."
"You should be more respectful of Tazuna-san," Sakura scolded her team mate.
"If he'd told the truth, he'd still be alive today," Sasuke said coldly.
Kiba frowned. "Yeah, well, it was a mess. There were four of them, only one of them was just a kid our age. But the older one was this guy called Zabuza of the Mist. Kakashi says that facing someone like that automatically made it an A-ranked mission."
"Ano, is that what happened to you?" Hinata asked in a sympathetic voice.
Sakura nodded and Kiba continued his tale. "They were pretty tricky. We fought two on the way down, but they were punks. Me and Sasuke held them off and Kakashi nailed 'em. Some losers called the Demon Brothers. But that eyebrow-less freak was tough. He fought Kakashi-sensei to a standstill until he got sharinganed. Then that kid showed up and acted like he'd killed him." He shrugged. "After he recovered, they came back and attacked Tazuna at the bridge." Kiba opened up his jacket and rapped his knuckles against the thick leather armor underneath. "If I hadn't been wearing this, Haku's senbon needles would have cut me to pieces."
Sakura nodded. "He moved so fast that Sasuke-kun was the only one who could catch him."
Sasuke grunted.
Kiba shrugged. "We fought him while Kakashi-sensei had another re-match with Zabuza. This time, Zabuza didn't get away. Kakashi-sensei did this assassination technique on him…" he shuddered. "He didn't have a chance after Kakashi-sensei's summoned dogs pinned him down. Haku surrendered after that. He was only fighting for Zabuza, and if Akamaru hadn't latched onto his leg, I think he was going to try and throw himself between Kakashi and Zabuza to save his master." Akamaru let out a yip when his name was mentioned, but Kiba's frown grew darker.
"He said… he was just a tool," Sasuke said in a quiet voice.
"When was this?" Sakura asked in confusion.
"When I was resting after the tree-climbing exercise," Sasuke answered. "He approached me in civilian garb, pretending to be a villager. He mentioned having a precious person, and how he would do anything for them." The Uchiha frowned. "I didn't realize it was the same person until after Kiba broke his mask."
Kiba shook his head. "That makes more sense now. After Zabuza died, the gangster who hired him showed up. One of his men shot Tazuna with an arrow and they were about to unload on us when Gatou spit on Zabuza's body." The larger boy let out a sigh. "Haku was standing in place, staring at Zabuza's body. He didn't say a word when Gatou's men seized him. But the second Gatou degraded Zabuza, it was like he just disappeared. Suddenly men were dying left and right, then Zabuza's sword disappeared and the next thing we know Gatou was spitted on it like a fish." Kiba shook his head.
"And then Haku appeared in front of Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. "He said that Zabuza had once forbidden him to take his own life, so he asked Kakashi-sensei to kill him."
Naruto eyes had grown wide at this tale. "Did he?" he asked.
Sakura shook her head. "No, he hit Haku on the neck and knocked him out."
"We just got finished carrying him back," Kiba said. "Kakashi-sensei said capturing someone like that would probably earn us a bonus as well."
"But we failed in our primary mission," Sasuke added darkly.
"At least," Sakura added quickly, glancing at her team mate, "with Gatou dead, Tsunami and the others have enough money to hire a construction crew to complete the bridge. So Tazuna-san's dream of finishing the bridge will be fulfilled, right?"
Sasuke nodded silently, then rose from his stool, leaving some coins on the counter. He stalked off without looking back.
"Man, he makes me want to smack him so hard," Kiba muttered.
"Don't!" Sakura said sharply. "Just… don't. Please." She turned back toward Team Eight. "Sasuke-kun is just upset that his first big mission wasn't a total success. Kakashi-sensei said we did very well, but Sasuke-kun expects a lot from himself."
Naruto nodded faintly.
"So," Sakura added brightly, obviously trying to change the subject. "Anything interesting happen in Konoha while we were gone?"
Naruto opened his mouth, but then shut it. What was the use? "Nothing really. Just a lot of missions."
Sakura nodded faintly, but her eyes appeared troubled.
Naruto ate quietly until Sakura and Kiba finished. As soon as they were gone, Hinata spoke up. "Ano, Naruto-kun, why didn't you tell them about our mission."
Naruto shrugged. "Why didn't you?"
That question left Hinata speechless for a moment, but Shino stepped in. "She probably wondered why you were hesitating, and assumed you had a valid reason for doing so. Now, we would like to hear it."
Naruto snorted, but then his face went serious. "I don't know, it just… didn't feel right. You know, to act like we were bragging when they were all so down about their mission."
"These are the same people who picked a fight with you the last time you saw them," Shino pointed out.
"Yeah," Naruto conceded, "but it's… different now, isn't it? People died, you know. On both missions." He broke off for a second when he realized that Hinata was staring at him. "I don't know - it just didn't feel right," he concluded lamely.
There was no further conversation as they finished their meal.
OoOoO
Kurenai frowned as she approached the Hokage's tower, thinking about the scroll Shino had slipped her between missions earlier that day.
She was slightly surprised by the degree to which the silent boy had taken the initiative in dealing with his clan. The anger she'd noted during their return to Konoha must have run deeper than she'd expected. While it was gratifying that at least on clan was revising their opinion of Naruto, his information regarding how those lies had been spread was far more illuminating. Someone with considerable influence on the Village Council was abusing their power in an attempt to subvert the will of both the Third and the Fourth Hokages.
She sat through the meeting of jonin instructors, preoccupied by Shino's revelation, until she realized the purpose of the gathering.
"…and while it is allowed for newly graduated genin to compete in the chuunin exam, it is up to the individual instructors to determine whether they feel their students are ready or not," the Sandaime continued. "Given the dangers, I suggest you give it a lot of thought."
Kurenai's mind raced as the meeting ended. Kakashi had returned from his mission, looking somewhat worse for the wear. He glanced at her, his single exposed eye crinkling in a manner that suggested he was smiling under that ridiculous mask. "I don't know about you," he said in a conversational tone, "but I'm going to give my team the option if they want to."
Kurenai merely raised an eyebrow. "You think they are ready?" She challenged.
Kakashi's manner went deadly serious with a speed that still caught her by surprise. "They faced death on their last mission, and had to deal with some very dangerous missing nins."
Kurenai nodded. "As did mine," she added with an enigmatic smile.
Of course, at that point they had little choice but to retire to Moritake's for a mutual game of question and answer. Kakashi's description of their fake mission was rather grueling, making Kurenai wince at certain points, but the infamous copy-cat ninja lost his fabled cool when she described the end of the melee with the kidnappers.
"You mean Naruto, Uzuamaki Naruto, the loudest ninja in the village?" Kakashi demanded. "The only person I ever saw who dressed worse that Gai? He took out two missing nins himself?"
Kurenai nodded, fighting to keep a smug grin off of her face. The battle had been a close thing, but the effort invested in her "special project" had more than paid off. "Both of them were listed in the Bingo Book as high-B / low-A in classification, so they were no pushovers."
Kakashi leaned back in his chair, his eye staring into the distance. "It'll be interesting to see how your students match up against mine in the Chuunin Exams," he finally said.
Kurenai nodded, only then realizing that her mind was already made up. For at least two of her charges, becoming a chuunin might offer them some security from the forces acting against them. And taking the exam when it was held in Konoha also cuts down the potential dangers. And while she would not be there for the actual tests, for the most part they would have each other to rely on.
She would at least offer them the option, but she knew there was little doubt that Team Eight would go for it like they did most things. Together.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 11
"You want us to test for Chuunin?" Naruto asked, amazed. He couldn't believe his sensei, who arranged extra training so he could become a respectable genin, actually thought he was now ready to become a chuunin! He looked around their usual training area, wondering if this was a prank of some sort.
"I am willing to authorize you three to participate in the Chuunin Exam," Kurenai clarified.
Naruto frowned. That was what he'd just said, wasn't it?
"I believe Kurenai-sensei is specifying that the choice is ours," Shino explained.
"A-ano," Hinata said in a hesitant voice, the unexpected news having evidently made her fall back on older, more tentative mannerisms, "isn't it unusual for a team to take the exam during their first year?"
Kurenai nodded. "It is, but I think it would be a valuable training experience for all of you. Also, with the exam being held in Konoha, it should be fairly safe, while still giving you three a chance to see what it is like. That will increase your chances for success at a later date."
Naruto frowned a little. "You make it sound like we're guaranteed to fail," he objected.
Kurenai shook her head. "Not quite, but the odds are very low. Keep in mind how rare it is that rookie genin teams are allowed to participate at all. At the same time, teams of any age taking the exam for the second time have a much higher rate of success."
"You say it's rare for rookie teams to be allowed," Shino observed. "Are any of our former classmates to participate?"
Kurenai nodded. "Asuma and Kakashi are giving their teams the option as well."
"That means Lee and his team will be there as well," Naruto added. There was no way Gai-sensei would let his "eternal rival's" team trump his.
"It would be prudent that our first exposure to the exam occur in the company of allies," Shino observed.
Naruto grunted. "I agree, except that part about us being guaranteed to fail," he said with a scowl.
Kurenai took a deep breath. "That is merely a matter of statistical fact, Naruto. However, I do expect you three to make a good showing. There is no reason you cannot outperform your classmates, and in fact I expect you to do so! If, after all your hard work, you are shown up by Asuma's genin, I will never hear the end of it… and therefore neither will you. Do I make myself clear?" Her voice had gone a little frosty at the end, so Naruto merely nodded and refrained from saying anything else.
The group sparring exercises they did together before their mission were particularly grueling, but no one complained.
OoOoO
Kurenai allowed herself a small smile as her team quartered the affluent neighborhood Shino's bugs had tracked the cat to this time. It had been too long since she'd been around adolescent males; she'd forgotten how competitive they could be. Their determination to pass the Chuunin Exam on their first attempt, as rookies, no less, was as laudable as it was impractical.
Still, Naruto tended to prove people wrong, especially those who doubted him. Kurenai wondered what kinds of odds Asuma would give her…
She shook her head. Such conduct was unbecoming to a Konoha Jonin. At least, betting for money would be. Perhaps a wager of forfeits could be negotiated. Forcing Asuma to give up cigarettes or Kakashi to forgo his 'little orange books' for a month… could prove to be highly entertaining. Of course there was also the matter of her forfeits. She was fairly certain that playing to their male egos could let her avoid anything too onerous.
At the same time, she was guiltily glad that Iruka was still convalescing from his injuries. If he'd been there when the three of them volunteered their rookie teams, the man was sure to object. Still, she would make a point to break the news to him personally, and explain why she was anxious for her students to make chuunin as quickly as possible.
Kurenai shook her head to clear it of such extraneous thoughts as Hinata led her teammates back, carrying the pampered and escape-prone housecat in her arms. Before their meeting, Shino had intercepted his teacher on the way to the team's usual meeting place. He had had a proposal, one she was rather surprised to hear. But it was a good idea, one long in coming.
"After we return the cat," Kurenai began as they walked up to Hinata, "we will break for the day. Naruto, Hinata, I know you've been working hard pretty much every evening since we returned, but I'd prefer that you refrain from unsupervised training until the exam starts."
Unsurprisingly, Naruto scowled at this. Hinata's reaction, however, was just as visibly dismayed – at least by her standards. Kurenai secretly congratulated herself for nudging those two toward each other, but held up her hand to get their attention.
"First of all, I don't want you to risk injuring or exhausting yourself when the exam is less than a week away. Secondly, there are many visitors entering Konoha for the exams. Training by yourselves presents a significant risk. I'm not saying you two are incapable of defending yourselves – I'm more worried about a potential competitor spying on you to learn your techniques and tactics. It's unavoidable that you will reveal much during the exams. That is one of the purposes behind having them after all. But I'd rather you didn't give away any more than you have to."
Naruto looked thoughtful during this explanation, and finally nodded. Hinata acquiesced as well, though she looked somewhat crestfallen.
"If that is the case," Shino said, interjecting into the silence that followed. "I would like to extend an invitation to all of you for dinner with my family."
Naruto actually jumped a little. Kurenai didn't think he'd actually forgotten his silent teammate was there… but it was rarely enough that he interrupted anyone that it was just as surprising. She also suspected that, deep down, Shino enjoyed twitting his teammate like that.
But what Naruto did next was even more distracting. As his teammate's words registered, Naruto's eyes grew very wide. "A-are you serious?" he asked in a shocked voice. The naked emotion on the boy's face made Kurenai feel slightly sick. It was a bald reminder of how he'd been treated for so long… a deliberate isolation that made her ill when she allowed her thoughts to dwell upon it.
"It was a serious request," Shino replied smoothly. "My parents have expressed a desire to meet with my teammates, and this is a logical social mechanism for facilitating such a gathering."
"I would be honored to meet your parents, Shino-kun," Hinata replied gravely, making a short bow.
Naruto blinked and then nodded. "Uh, yeah, Shino, that would be cool."
"Unfortunately," Kurenai said, "I have to attend a meeting the Hokage has called for all the jonin tonight." While there was a meeting scheduled to go over security arrangements for the upcoming Chuunin Exam, she could probably beg off if she wanted.
But if she attended this gathering, her presence would undoubtedly influence it in many ways. Hinata and Naruto were her subordinates, and would no doubt defer to her when they met with the Aburames, just as they let her do the talking with the Hokage or even with that pig, Dariketsu. That was only proper, and in accord with the respect a genin should show for their jonin-sensei.
However, it would also prevent the Aburames from meeting the real Hinata and Naruto. The Hyuuga girl was repressed enough under normal circumstances, and Naruto had his undeserved reputation working against him. But they were both good kids, and Kurenai felt that people intelligent enough to raise Shino would no doubt see that for themselves… and do so all the better if they were acting normally.
Shino nodded gravely. "Given the timing of the exam, this may be the last free night we have for a while, so with your permission we will go ahead with it."
Kurenai waved her hand dismissively. "Feel free. Your free time is your own. That goes for all of you," she added.
OoOoO
Hinata was surprised and a little anxious about the unexpected invitation. Of course, she'd attended innumerable clan functions as a member of the Hyuuga Main Family, but what her teammate described sounded a lot more informal than that. She had some formal kimonos she could wear, but she thought those might be too dressy.
As Kurenai left for her meeting and Shino went ahead to bring word of their acceptance to his parents, Hinata's eyes flickered over toward Naruto. It was then that several pieces slid into place for her. No, she wouldn't wear a kimono. She knew from their camping trip that Naruto didn't have many clothes aside from his uniforms and a few t-shirts and pairs of shorts. Certainly nothing dressy. And he didn't have time to purchase something before the dinner. She would sooner take poison than embarrass her friend by dressing up and making him appear shabby by comparison.
She was also heartened to know that Shino had been as good as his word. This invitation was proof that he was making headway with his clan regarding Naruto-kun. Given the reactions she'd seen on the street, she doubted anyone would willingly invite Uzumaki Naruto into their home without strong persuasion.
She was jolted out of her reverie when the subject of her thoughts hesitantly tugged on her sleeve. "Er, Hinata," Naruto asked, hesitantly.
"Y-yes, Naruto?" she answered, damning herself for the quaver that still showed up at times. She was much more comfortable talking to him than she ever thought she would be… but sometimes he would catch her off balance and her old habits would reassert themselves.
"Uh, I, well, you see…" he began, but let his voice trail off. "What am I supposed to do?" he finally asked, his frustration clearly overriding his nervousness.
"Do?" Hinata asked, confused.
"About this dinner thing," he added. "Am I supposed to bring something? How do I dress? What am I supposed to say?"
Hinata blinked and quickly bit her lip. Of course Uzumaki Naruto had never been invited for dinner at someone's house before. He had no idea what to do, and it clearly distressed him. Hinata surmised that Naruto realized what a break from custom Shino's invitation represented and didn't want to waste it. Without thinking, she let her free hand rest on his wrist in a comforting gesture. "I understand, Naruto-kun, I-I think this is mostly going to be an informal affair. Shino just invited us today, so probably no special preparation is expected. Our uniforms are still clean, and will be appropriate if they remain so." Her wardrobe suspicions were confirmed when Naruto let out a relieved sigh.
His eyes flickered down to her hand on his and Hinata quickly withdrew hers with a rosy blush. But he didn't tease her about it. "Thanks, Hinata-chan," he said sincerely. "I guess you know more about this kind of stuff, huh?"
She nodded. "I had a lot of lessons on etiquette and protocols from Father, as well as the kunoichi lectures."
Naruto's eyes darkened when she mentioned her father, but she had no idea how to ask him about that without seeming to pry. "Well, I'll just watch you a lot then," he said with an impudent grin.
The idea of Naruto-kun watching her, taking cues from her actions, was enough to set the blood to flooding her cheeks again.
OoOoO
Naruto shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other as Hinata pressed a lacquered tile set into the doorframe. Faint chimes could be heard through the door. Shino's parents lived with the other Aburames in a neighborhood informally known as 'The Hive' to the rest of Konoha. Given their hobbies, it seemed that other people were reluctant to live in close proximity, Shino had observed as he gave them directions. But that made it easier for them to buy up all the adjoining real estate.
Naruto had thought about that as his teammate departed to let his parents know how many were coming for dinner. He had personal experience with how intolerant some people could be. It made him feel just a little better that it wasn't only him that suffered for it. He snuck a glance at his teammate as she clasped her hands in front of her stomach in a nervous gesture. Being in a prestigious family didn't guarantee you'd be treated well either.
He suppressed the surge of resentment that always accompanied such thoughts these days. This wasn't the time for it.
The door opened and what seemed to be a larger version of Shino stood in the doorway.
As Naruto hoped, Hinata took the lead. "We are honored to be invited to your home, Aburame-sama," she said, deliberately using the more deferential, polite form as they both bowed deeply.
Shino's father politely inclined his head. "You may call me Shibi," he said gravely, "That is an unusual method of address, coming from a Hyuuga," he observed as he moved aside to allow them entry.
Hinata's cheeks colored, and Naruto didn't have to be reminded how the Hyuugas were considered first among Konoha's ninja clans. Her father's arrogance during their last mission had made an indelible impression on his mind. And it made Hinata's humility and politeness all the more noteworthy, even if such attention flustered her. "Well, you're still Shino's dad," Naruto said with a shrug, as if that explained everything.
Like his son, Shibi wore dark glasses, even inside his own home, so his eyes were unreadable as they gazed at Naruto for a moment. He nodded slightly, as if in acknowledgement, and then led them toward a sitting room where he informed them that his wife and son were waiting.
At this point, Naruto was expecting Shino's mother to be much like her husband and son, except perhaps with a slightly more feminine jacket. He could not have been more wrong.
The lady of the house wore an emerald green tunic over long pants. The former had an exotic cut to it and the color matched her eyes perfectly. The fact that her eyes were visible was a shock of its own, but her behavior was even more so.
"You must be Naruto and Hinata," she said, rising from her seat with a large smile. "Welcome to our home."
They began to bow, Naruto watching Hinata from the corner of his eye to make sure he went far enough, but she waved them off. "No need for that, this isn't a meeting of the clan elders, otherwise Shino would be bullying people and making them feel stupid. We just want to get to know our son's friends. I'm Misato, and I see you've met Shibi-kun already."
Both the Aburame males looked chagrined at different points in her speech.
Naruto looked up and locked gazes with the cheerful woman. She didn't hesitate, or refuse to meet his eyes. Naruto saw curiosity and good-natured teasing in abundance, but no fear. "You're not from around here, are you?" he asked. He hadn't intended to voice the question out loud, and the sound of his own voice startled him just a bit.
"Not a bit," she said. "I met my husband when he was the official envoy to Hidden Mist." She smiled over at her husband. "He was so serious and solemn that I never stood a chance. His assignment ended right after Shino was born and all three of us returned to Konoha."
Naruto looked over at Shino with raised eyebrows. He never knew Shino hadn't been born in Konoha. Not that it really made a difference, but it underlined how little he really knew about his friend.
"Anyway," Misato concluded, "that's why I'm a little livelier than these two." She cracked a teasing grin as Shino and Shibi both raised visible eyebrows above their glasses. "I had such hopes for Shino, too… he was such a pretty baby, always laughing and so ticklish." Her eyes took on a wicked glint as she exercised her parental prerogative to embarrass her child in front of his peers.
"A-Ano," Hinata interjected. "S-Shino is very lively," she continued, defending her friend. "He's just, er, quiet."
"Yeah," Naruto added quickly. "He makes up for me being so loud."
Shino let out an audible sigh from behind his jacket collar.
"Shino…" Misato said in a tragic voice, her eyes dancing with mischief. "This is the first time you've brought friends home. I have a lot of time to make up for."
"Perhaps," Shibi countered, "we can continue this discussion over dinner, as that was the reason our guests were invited."
"Very well," Misato agreed and started leading them toward an archway. "The roasted termites are probably about done, but they won't stay crispy for long."
Naruto paused for a moment as his brain struggled with some disconcerting mental images. He swallowed heavily and silently renewed his vow to do nothing that would spoil the evening.
"She has an… unusual sense of humor," Shino muttered quietly as he fell into step next to him.
"I heard that," Misato said as she entered the dining room.
"And good hearing, too," Naruto commented.
OoOoO
Fortunately for Hinata, the dinner was fairly normal fare for Konoha, although prepared with obvious precision. She'd had to eat some unusual things at formal dinners, but she wasn't sure she could eat roasted bugs without some time to prepare herself. Shino's mother was not what she'd expected, especially after meeting his father on the border patrol mission. But while Misato had definitely caught them off-balance, she was still quite nice – in addition to being a good cook. Her sense of humor reminded Hinata of Naruto at his pranking best – teasing and playful, but never deliberately cruel.
The conversation over the dinner table was somewhat more serious, as Shino's parents set to learning more about their son's comrades. However, Misato had obvious difficulty keeping a straight face once Naruto confirmed that the rumors about Maito Gai were fairly accurate. Naruto's imitation of his taijutsu tutor's "power of youth" rant was uncannily accurate. It also left Misato looking like she was about to injure herself or at least collapse due to lack of air.
They seemed a bit surprised at the training regimen that she and Naruto adhered to. Objectively, she knew that many kunoichi her age desired more free time to be with friends and family or just to have fun. But her shyness meant she had few friends, even if Father would have allowed her to make friends outside the clan. Shameful as it was to admit, the less time she spent around her family, the better she seemed to feel. Training with Naruto and going on missions with her team was, in fact, about the most enjoyable thing she could think of to do.
Hinata was seized with a vague sense of wrongness when she thought about how different her life seemed to be, compared to other genin. But dwelling on that didn't seem to be a good idea. Getting stronger, helping Naruto and Shino become stronger… those were good things. Productive things. Things she could actually make a difference in.
When they finished their recital of "A Day in the Life of Team Eight", Shino's parents exchanged a look. "Your assessment of the relative deficits was accurate," Aburame Shibi said, turning toward Shino. "While I do not, at this time, believe you are a liability, that may change soon. You will now spend the mornings working with your mother on her weapons specialty."
Hinata wasn't sure what that referred to, but given the speed at which Shino turned toward Aburame Misato, it seemed to be important.
The woman shrugged and gave a lazy grin that was almost a smirk. "I promised my teacher I wouldn't pass anything along to someone not of the village, but technically, you were born there."
Shino nodded slowly. "I see." He turned back toward his father. "And the breeding project?"
"It will continue," Shibi confirmed. "But as your Uncle Bataru's replacement, I can assign one of the other clan members to take charge of the maintenance. It is, after all, a project that will benefit the clan as a whole if it is successful."
"Project?" Naruto asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.
Shino took a deep breath, but paused and looked at his friend. He shook his head briefly. "Faster bugs," was all he said.
"Really?" Naruto asked. "Cool."
"So are you looking forward to the chuunin exam?" Misato asked, obviously steering the conversation onto safer ground.
Hinata couldn't help a small smile as Naruto talked about the exam, his natural enthusiasm eroding any lingering awkwardness. Thought she did wish he hadn't included her when he stated that 'Team 8 would kick everyone's butt and all make chuunin'.
"You do remember our sensei stating the odds of rookie genin passing the test?" Shino asked in a slightly acid tone.
"Never tell me the odds," Naruto said firmly. "Besides," he added. "We have Hinata-chan on our side! Right, Hinata-chan?"
Hyuuga Hinata promptly wished she knew a Doton jutsu she could use to sink through the floor. Her face grew redder as Naruto unabashedly boasted of her finishing off the shinobi that broke into the Hokage's tower, and how she pierced the kidnappers' genjutsu and rescued her sister with "spectacular acrobatics".
Oddly enough, when Misato asked Naruto what he'd done in those fights, he just shrugged and said "I hit them a few times." He paused. "Well, more than a few times if you count the kage bunshin."
While Misato seemed to lead the questioning, Shino's father just listened quietly for the most part. But Shibi's attention still felt like a physical weight when he was focused upon you. Hinata was slightly uncomfortable with how that reminded her of her father in some respects, but his gaze seemed to lack the anger that always simmered in her father's eyes. Of course dealing with years of failures on her part had to have a lot to do with that, she realized.
The time passed with surprising speed, and before they knew it dinner was over and they were lingering over one last cup of tea with the Aburames.
"Thank you for inviting us into your home," Hinata said in a formal tone as the evening seemed to be winding down. Naruto nodded his agreement and Hinata had to suppress a blush. It was… odd, to finally encounter a situation where Naruto had to rely on her so heavily. It felt good. For once, she had an opportunity to guide him after all the times he'd helped her, or inspired her. Even beyond that, she found that without the nervousness inspired by her father's assessing gaze, she'd actually enjoyed taking a meal with strangers and getting to know them. It was also refreshing to go an entire meal without slipping up, forgetting what to say, or otherwise embarrassing herself. Perhaps it was because Naruto needed her knowledge to guide them both… but she was pretty sure it was something else.
"The pleasure was all ours," Misato said with an impish grin. Shino's mother was so unlike her husband or son, but Hinata intuited that they actually enjoyed the differences between them. Having been raised under the strict Hyuuga protocols for proper behavior, both in public and in private, it was a startling concept for Hinata to digest. Startling, but strangely attractive nonetheless.
"Agreed," Aburame Shibi added. "You both are welcome in our house at any time."
Hinata, not trusting her voice at the moment, merely bowed deeply. Out of the corner of her eye, she was relieved to see Naruto aping her, despite the confused look on his face. The declaration by Shino's father was the highest complement that could be paid to a guest, and amounted to an offer of alliance and even temporary sanctuary, if needed.
"That is not necessary," Shibi said, though his tone was not sharp. "Shino's assessment of your nature and characters logically requires this. Even beyond that, if his teammates were not capable, brave, and loyal, our son might not have survived his first C-ranked mission."
"Shino did his part too," Naruto said as he straightened up, scowling.
"Yes, he did." Shibi agreed. "But if you two had not done yours as well, the mission could have ended in failure, or even death. Your success is integral to his success – that is the nature of a team. Even beyond that, there is the matter of the prisoner that you protect us from."
Hinata bit her lip as Naruto froze in place at the mention of the Kyuubi.
"Everyone here is aware of your burden, Uzumaki Naruto, so I am not breaking the Hokage's law," Shino's father continued. "That said- we are guilty of relying on hearsay as to your previous actions and character. That situation has since been corrected," he added, giving Shino a sideways glance, "but I would still like to extend an apology, on behalf of my family and my clan."
Hinata could almost feel the jumble of emotions coming from Naruto as his face went pale, then pink. He ducked his head forward, his eyes having grown suspiciously shiny. "Apologies are not necessary," he said quickly in a thick voice.
"As you say, Uzumaki-san," Shibi replied. "But you will not be slandered without cause within my hearing."
Hinata looked up from Naruto and ended up locking gazes with Misato. The woman's bright green eyes seemed to bore into hers for a moment. Then she gave the pale-eyed girl a slow, deliberate wink—for what, Hinata wasn't sure.
OoOoO
Naruto was still a bit numb as they made their goodbyes and left the Aburame neighborhood. Objectively, he'd hoped to win over the people of Konoha when he became Hokage… hoped they would acknowledge him and the burden he'd carried for them since the day of his birth. But to have it actually happen… was not something he was prepared for.
The Aburame were not the largest or most prestigious of Konoha's shinobi clans. But to have even one family break ranks from the rest and declare him welcome into their home at any time… He didn't need Hinata's whispered explanation as they walked along the moonlit streets of Konoha to know how significant that was.
And he was far too excited to be calmly walking down the street.
With a grin he grabbed Hinata's hand and leaped onto the nearest roof. His sparring partner's reflexes were as fast as his and she managed to time her leap to meet his own. With the moon, it was as bright as noon to their dark-adjusted eyes. With a playful grin, Naruto let go of Hinata's hand and tapped her shoulder with his fingertips. "You're it!" he said as he sprang away.
In an instant, Hinata was pursuing him across the rooftops.
Fortunately, they'd both increased their weights recently, so they were fairly evenly matched as they darted from roof to roof. Given their normal training regimen, they were used to far more physical activity than they'd had that day. Aside from that, Naruto had never had the chance to play games like this before – and playing tag with your own shadow clones was just pathetic.
At one point he landed near an odd-shaped roof cornice that shimmered and melted away to reveal a figure wearing an ANBU mask. "Pursuit training," Naruto said quickly as he leapt away.
"Excuse me ANBU-san!" Naruto smiled as he heard Hinata's voice echo from the roof he'd just vacated.
Their game meandered across the rooftops of Konoha until they cut across a block of buildings usually reserved for visiting officials. As he landed, Naruto was engulfed in a miasma of killing intent more intense than he'd ever felt. Instead of leaping away, he dropped into a crouch and spun, seeking the source of the murderous rage.
There, standing on the roof beam was a smallish red-headed shinobi with a large gourd strapped to his back. Teal-colored eyes, ringed with dark circles, glared at him with frightening intensity. Above one eye was a kanji symbol obscured by hair and shadows. The sash securing the gourd in place held a Hidden Sand symbol that glinted in the moonlight.
Fighting Kazuya to the death wasn't nearly as frightening as having this strange kid just look at him. Naruto clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking. His feet felt rooted in place. If this strange kid attacked, would he even be able to dodge?
Just then, Hinata landed next to him and let out a quiet gasp. Without thinking, Naruto found himself moving, standing in front of his frozen team-mate, facing the terrifying shinobi with a kunai in each hand. He could feel the red chakra pulsing in his coils now, raging like a living thing, wanting out. His eyes, suddenly seeing with incredible clarity, picked out the small wisps of sand circling around the boy's feet. His nose picked up the smell of old blood. Was it coming from the sand or from the gourd? And how was he smelling it from here?
It wasn't until Naruto noticed the faint red glare reflecting back from the dull tiles around him that the boy spoke. "You're like me," he said in a voice as quiet as the grave.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Naruto asked, his voice coming out calmer than he felt.
"I am Sabaku no Gaara," the boy answered, again in that dry whisper. "I am here to participate in the Chuunin Exam."
Hinata edged to his left. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto could see her Byakugan activated. He resisted the urge to move between her and the sand shinobi again. But when Gaara's eyes moved toward her, Naruto spoke up to keep the attention focused on him. "Maybe I'll see you in the exam then," he said in a mocking voice.
Gaara nodded, either missing or ignoring the sarcasm. "I didn't know Konoha had created its own weapon. You and I will fight, in this exam. And then I will kill you." Gaara smiled then, and Naruto had to revise his 'most terrifying experience' list again. Those teal-colored eyes held no hint of sanity.
"Maybe, maybe not," Naruto said lightly. "But in the meantime, I need to escort the lady home. Enjoy the moonlight." With that, he turned toward his teammate, making finger signs with his left hand the moment it was concealed by his body.
Hinata nodded and leapt away, Naruto following close behind her. He wasn't comfortable turning his back on this Gaara, who… what-ever he was, even if they were fairly far away. But the boy didn't seem ready to fight just yet, so Naruto kept his own tone as casual as possible. It seemed to work because they landed on the next roof unmolested.
"Let's get you home," Naruto said urgently. "Kurenai-sensei was right, with all these strangers in Konoha, this isn't a good idea."
Hinata didn't look happy about it, but she nodded in agreement.
OoOoO
Kurenai was a little exasperated to hear of her students' late-night encounter with the foreign shinobi. She'd asked them to avoid late-night training just to prevent such an encounter… but it was also gratifying that they didn't hesitate to reveal their disobedience. But to end up in a life-threatening situation over a game of tag…
She looked at them again, taking in the uncomfortable postures, Naruto's scowl, and Hinata's nervous fingers… and suppressed a sigh. Sometimes it was easy to forget that they were still kids in some ways. A genin was mostly an adult, at least in the eyes of the village, but the trappings of childhood were not so easily shed. And in these two cases, she was sure neither of them had experienced much of a childhood in the first place. And a late night game of tag, conducted with sufficient stealth to apparently startle an ANBU, was hardly defiance of her orders. They'd merely had the bad luck to encounter an unusually frightening competitor on that rooftop.
"Thank you for telling me this," Kurenai said. "In the future, you should probably not wander around after dark – especially if there is a chance that this Gaara person may seek you out. I'll see what I can find out about him."
Naruto nodded, but the troubled look on his face persisted. "He said that I was like him," he said in a quiet voice, "and that he didn't know that Konoha had created its own weapon."
Kurenai stared at her student. There were… possibilities… implied in those words, possibilities too awful to speculate about.
"A-ano," Hinata interjected, flinching slightly when they both turned toward her. "N-Naruto, when I looked at him with the Byakugan, there was some gold-colored chakra mixed in with his."
"Like me," Naruto echoed. "He has a demon… like me?"
Kurenai nodded, her mind now racing at the possibilities. She had no idea how powerful it might be, but this was something the Hokage needed to know immediately.
"Hardly like you in most respects," Shino objected. "You do not display an excessive amount of bloodlust, nor are you given toward idle threats." He paused. "This Gaara also seems to demonstrate a certain economy with his words that you lack."  

[Pandora Green]

Naruto blinked. "So he speaks better than I do? Thanks a lot, Shino." He smiled at his impassive teammate.
But Hinata still appeared troubled. "And you don't see yourself as a weapon, Naruto-kun… but that's what he called himself," she said, her brows stitched with anguish.
"That's right," Naruto agreed, frowning.
"W-what…" Hinata's voice trailed off as she stared into space. She swallowed. "What would it be like, Naruto-kun, if you had no one like us, like Iruka-sensei, like the Hokage-sama. What if everyone hated and feared you, and no one accepted you?"
Kurenai's mind, augmented by her studies of the human mind for advanced genjutsu, came to a conclusion first. But she held her tongue to see if the others would figure it out on their own.
Surprisingly, Naruto answered first. "I… I think I'd probably hate them back. Do you think that's what happened to him?"
Hinata nodded slowly.
"However," Shino interjected, "that does not make him less dangerous."
"I agree," Kurenai added. "I would suggest that you avoid him at all costs during the exam. I need to go speak to the Hokage, so you are released from your duties today. I think this constitutes an even stronger reason to avoid being outside for long after dark."
"D-do you think it will be alright to train within our homes?" Hinata asked quickly.
Kurenai nodded. "I think that will be fine. Tomorrow we will go over some things that might help you on the exam. I take it all three of you are still interested in taking it?"
After they nodded, Kurenai dismissed them and made her way to the Hokage's tower at a rather quick walk. Anything more would have drawn potentially hostile attention.
OoOoO
"This kind of sucks," Naruto muttered as they walked toward Moritake's. He'd pressed for ramen, but been outvoted.
"We've eaten at Ichiraku's four times in the past two weeks," Shino observed, with just a hint of tolerant amusement.
"I don't mean where we're going for lunch," Naruto snapped irritably. "I mean us having to cut back our training." It was like Shino didn't think he was capable of worrying about something besides ramen. Wonderful, hot, savory ramen…
"It will not heavily impact my new training regimen," Shino observed. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed him rolling his shoulders slightly. Didn't Misato say something about weapons training?
"Yeah, but that's just because you can train at home," Naruto countered, rolling his eyes.
"A-ano," Hinata stammered. "C-could we not train at your apartment?" she asked.
Naruto paused as he struggled to absorb the idea. "It's not very big," he objected.
"We can still work on chakra control," Hinata insisted. "Perhaps some light sparring," she continued.
"We won't really have much room to maneuver," Naruto said with an embarrassed catch in his voice. His apartment was nothing to brag about.
"Sometimes combat occurs in close quarters," Shino countered, "so it might be useful to practice in such a setting. My… new instructor… has me practice my forms in our basement, which is filled with incubation equipment."
Naruto nodded slowly, but was even more convinced by the obvious relief Hinata was displaying. She was actually pretty good at hiding things when she tried, but he was slowly getting better at reading her. He didn't have to be a genius shinobi to realize that she'd rather train than be around her family, so even cramped quarters at his place would be preferable. He'd just have to make sure he cleaned up and didn't leave any dirty underwear on the floor.
OoOoO
Kurenai sighed as she left the Hokage's office. He'd been highly concerned when she reported Naruto's encounter with the Suna boy, Gaara. But it wasn't like they could summarily dismiss him from the exam… not without a serious explanation. He was the youngest son of the Kazekage, which only complicated things.
Even if Suna was a nominal ally of Konoha, their entering a demon-host, especially one as bloodthirsty as this Gaara seemed to be, would be like dumping a piranha in a goldfish bowl. But if they objected to his presence, they'd have to explain how they knew… and Gaara's words only made sense if one knew that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki as well.
Barring one without barring both of them would be seen as the worst kind of favoritism, and the Hokage was not willing to reveal Naruto's secret to the leaders of the other delegations. There were already rumors of the shadowy Akatsuki organization taking an interest in Konoha, and there was nothing to be gained by adding fuel to that fire.
But they would be on their guard at least. Team Eight had fulfilled its primary function as a recon team – finding out important information and reporting it to the Hokage. Using that information correctly was their leader's responsibility. She only hoped he made the right decision.
OoOoO
The day of the exam dawned with typical Konoha weather, bright sunshine and a hint of coolness on the breeze… weather that made Naruto want to stay outside all day and half the night. He met Shino and Hinata at their training ground in a frame of mind that was not really conducive to taking a long test. He'd been bouncing on the balls of his feet, bursting with nervous tension since he left his apartment.
This was it, really, the first step on his path to becoming Hokage and making everyone acknowledge him. How could he possibly remain calm? Everything was changing, even his morning training sessions with Gai, Lee, and Hinata. The last couple of days, instead of pounding each other into the dirt, they did light warm-ups, advanced forms, and attended an informal seminar on battlefield tactics. The latter showed Naruto something he was only beginning to understand.
Maito Gai was a lot smarter than his wardrobe or haircut suggested.
Outside of his… enthusiasms… the jonin could be just as ruthless as a mission called for. And since he focused on taijutsu, he'd given a lot of thought on how to handle multiple opponents, how to deal with long-range attacks, and how to neutralize an enemy's advantages.
Naruto was a little uncomfortable with the thought that Gai-sensei might be helping them beat his own team, if the chuunin examination included head-to-head competition. He knew that Tenten was getting some special genjutsu training from Kurenai, but he still realized that Gai was going far beyond the original bargain.
It wasn't until the end of the last session that Gai became very serious, and Naruto came to understand his reasoning.
"Tomorrow you will be entering the chuunin examination," he said as they sprawled on the grass after performing what he called 'simple cool-down exercises'—which most people would probably consider to be an entire workout on their own. "While you three will be better prepared than many genin, and your Power of Youth will shine very brightly for all to see…" Gai stopped and visibly restrained himself from going off on that all-too-familiar tangent. "Keep in mind that the examination itself can be very dangerous. Do not underestimate your opponents, but more importantly, do not forget who your friends are." He paused, seeming to take in their curious looks.
"Even though the exam is being held here in Konoha, there will be many participants from other villages. Some of them may not hold very honorable intentions, and may seek to harm or kill another competitor to give them an edge. Although not encouraged, this is not strictly against the rules the Hidden Villages all agreed to." Gai drew those incredibly thick eyebrows down into a fair approximation of a frown. "Please watch out for your fellow shinobi during the exam. Even the strongest rivalry should be put away when facing shinobi from another village. That is one of the Leaf's greatest strengths… if we forget that, then we have truly turned our backs on the Power of Youth."
That's when it really struck Naruto… Gai wanted them all to pass, everyone from Konoha. And if they helped each other as he asked, then that would improve the chances for Neji, Tenten, and Lee as well. Naruto, stunned by this unexpected complexity, just nodded vigorously. Gai gave him one of those blinding smiles that made Naruto want to go buy toothpaste.
Still, such sobering thoughts couldn't compete with Naruto's competitive nature, so he was wound as tight as a spring when he met his teammates.
Of course, if Shino had any concerns about the exam, he wasn't showing any of it. Sometimes the Aburame boy's calm deliberation was more irritating than the entire Konohamaru Corps on a sugar high. For an instant, Naruto wondered if he realized that and just did it on purpose… No, not possible, he decided as he turned toward Hinata, who'd just entered the clearing as well.
For once, she was able to meet his eyes without looking away. She was standing a little straighter than usual as well. Naruto softly exhaled the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. She was so calm and centered that he couldn't help but absorb some of that himself. For some reason, just her presence seemed to relieve his nervous agitation. The chakra control exercises she'd led him through definitely benefited from that. Even that pesky red chakra seemed to behave itself better under her watchful eye.
Naruto had lost count of how many times he'd cast the water-summoning jutsu into his sink… but bit by bit his control had improved. He was able to further reduce the amount of chakra he molded into the technique, while reducing the amount of time it took to complete the seals.
Of course, his progress was nowhere near even. The first time he'd made a breakthrough, his elation caused the jutsu to spiral out of control, spraying water across his small kitchen. Interestingly enough, when this happened Hinata threw up her hands in reflex and the spray of water seemed to split and mostly flow around her instead of soaking her jacket.
"Are we ready to go?" Hinata asked softly, jolting Naruto out of his reverie. He nodded, hoping he hadn't been staring at her or something weird. He stayed quiet as they walked toward their destination. Kurenai-sensei said that all the jonin had been drafted to help with the exam, but that she hoped to see them in the later stages.
As they entered the building where the exam was being held, Naruto felt uncomfortable, almost like someone was watching him. His suspicions were borne out as they climbed the stairs and Hinata whispered "genjutsu" in a voice that barely carried as far as her teammates' ears.
As they approached Room 301, or what looked like it anyway, there was a crowd of younger shinobi gathered outside the door. Two rough looking older genin had just finished knocking Lee and Tenten back as Team 7 objected.
"We're doing you kids a favor, keeping you out," one of the older genin said. "None of you look like you can handle us, let alone a test that makes some people forever give up being a shinobi – or just kills them."
"That's a sound argument," Sasuke said in a challenging voice, "but I will pass. And undo this field you've created using an illusionary technique. I want to go to the third floor."
Naruto noted the small smile on Tenten's lips as they walked up to the altercation. Evidently she'd spotted it as well. He began concentrating chakra in his center. Something was a little fishy about those genin.
Sasuke and the unnamed genin started to exchange kicks when Lee appeared between them in a flash of green, grabbing their legs while the kicks were still chambered. For a stunned moment, both Sasuke and the genin were held in place until Lee released their legs and they had to back off to retain their balance.
Naruto released the chakra pulse while everyone's attention was focused on the aborted fight. He frowned. He'd barely pushed anything into it, and the pulse still washed across the hallway and probably enveloped the whole building.
Still, it did what it was supposed to do. The two suspicious genin were revealed as adult chuunin in the grey uniforms of examination proctors.
Neji, who was starting to rebuke Lee for showing off, turned and glared at Naruto before turning back to his teammate. Naruto gave him a jaunty wave, guessing he'd figured out where the pulse had come from. Too bad his Byakugan hadn't been on so it could have blinded him for a bit. Hinata's cousin was way too arrogant for his own good.
"Evidently the exam actually began the moment we entered the building," Shino observed.
"And we should expect other parts to not be as they seem," Hinata added.
Naruto grunted and nodded, but his attention was more focused on Rock Lee. His cheeks were bright red as he asked Sakura out on a date. She turned him down, of course, glancing sidelong at Sasuke as if to see whether he was jealous of the attention paid to her. Naruto noted with a sinking stomach that it only seemed to fire up Lee's determination.
He saw Lee speak briefly with his teammates as the crowd split up, now ignoring the amused chuunin, one of which was openly smirking at Naruto. When Lee followed after Team 7, Naruto knew he had to do something. "I'll meet you on the third floor," he said quickly as he took off after Lee.
Fortunately he managed to catch his friend right after he challenged Sasuke to a fight. "Excuse us," he said as he dragged Lee around the corner and down the hall out of sight of Team 7.
"Naruto!" Lee said, struggling to remove his elbow from Naruto's grasp. "Why are you interfering…?"
"Lee! Have you forgotten what Gai-sensei said?" Naruto snapped. Those were words he never thought he'd say.
Lee flinched like he had been struck a heavy blow.
"The test has begun," Naruto said quietly. "They are still Konoha shinobi, even if Sasuke is a jerk. We don't fight allies. Not in this kind of situation."
Lee looked down. Naruto thought he looked unusually subdued. "After the exam, I will run two hundred-"
"Lee," Naruto said quickly, "why did you want to fight Sasuke so badly?"
Lee didn't say anything, but let out a heartbroken sigh.
Naruto massaged his forehead with his free hand. Sakura. He wanted to impress Sakura.
"Lee, we're friends, right?"
"Friends and eternal rivals, like Gai-sensei and that terribly cool and hip Kakashi!"
"Er, I thought Neji was your rival."
"He is too cold, Naruto-san. I want a rival that burns with the Fires of Youth as hotly as I do!"
"Ah. Right. Okay, well, even as a rival. Well.. you know, Lee, some things transcend rivalry."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean being a guy, Lee. We're both guys, right?"
"Yosh!"
"Right. So, as one guy to another, I have to warn you about Sakura. I used to like her… I used to like her a lot – before I got to know her. Sakura isn't as nice as she seems. She only likes one person and she doesn't really give a damn about anyone else. I don't want to see you waste your time on her like I did. She just isn't worth it."
"Oh, Naruto, you sound so bitter. Surely the Power of Youth has not left you forlorn?"
"One of these days that stuff's going to make sense to me, and then I'll know I'm in trouble. Look Lee, as your friend, as your rival, I'd rather see you pursue someone nicer than that. Take my advice or not, but if you don't you'll come to regret it."
"I will think about what you have said, Naruto-san, but I find it troubling. She is so beautiful, I just…"
"I know, me too."
Lee looked down at his elbow and Naruto released it with a sheepish grin. "We better get going before our teams kill us for making them late," the short-statured blond said.
OoOoO
Neither shinobi noticed the pink-haired girl leaning against the wall around the corner from where they'd held their discussion. Her bright green eyes were clouded over and her face held an expression of chagrin. Even her inner self was decidedly subdued. Neither boy had said anything that Inner Sakura could really get angry about.
Naruto thought she was beautiful, but wasn't very nice. And he was concerned that if Rock Lee pursued her, then he would be hurt as well. This coming from the boy who'd always pestered her for dates while they were at the academy. But that had stopped the day they were assigned to their teams. Belatedly, she began to wonder if she'd hurt him with her constant rejections.
It wasn't all her fault though. It's not like she was obligated to go out with him just because he asked. And she didn't want to spoil her chances with Sasuke-kun…
Unbidden, memories of some of her more… forceful… rejections came to mind, burning away a lot of her self-justifications.
"I'm not a very nice person," she whispered to herself. Her voice seemed unnaturally loud in the empty hallway.
OoOoO
After taking a 'short-cut' that wasn't, Naruto and Lee caught up to their respective teams right outside the examination room. Surprisingly, Kurenai-sensei and Gai-sensei were there as well.
"I'm glad you decided to join us," the red-eyed jonin said in a slightly sarcastic manner.
"S-sorry," Naruto said. "I needed to talk to Lee about something."
Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "I hope it was important, because you two have kept both teams waiting."
Naruto glanced at Lee out of the corner of his eye. The green-clad genin's eyes were locked onto his teacher, who was standing slightly behind Kurenai, giving them a discrete thumbs-up. "It kind of was," he said slowly, hoping Kurenai didn't immediately press him for details. She'd seemed a little extra irritable lately.
"It better, since your teammates cannot enter without you," she replied dryly.
"What if not all of us wished to enter the exam?" Shino asked.
"Genin can only enter the exam as an entire team," Kurenai clarified.
"But then why did you tell us…" Naruto started to ask, but his voice trailed off as he put the pieces together. "You wanted to make sure all three of us really wanted to test." It wasn't a question.
Kurenai nodded, smiling slightly. "Very good, Naruto," she congratulated him. His sensei didn't go into wild histrionics like Gai, but her simple words of approval warmed Naruto, almost making him blush.
Team Eight stood politely aside while Gai ushered his team into the exam room. Naruto made a point of ignoring Hyuuga Neji and the cold glares he shot at them. He didn't know if it was Hinata, or if the boy somehow held him responsible for Lee's drunken rampage. Naruto was completely innocent of that fiasco. However, he had to admit that if he'd known Lee would beat the snot out of the arrogant Hyuuga when liquored up, he'd have made sure it happened.
Frequently.
"I want you three to be careful in there," Kurenai said in a voice little more than a whisper. "For political reasons, we can't exclude this Gaara person from the exam. So I want you three to avoid him at all costs, is that understood?"
Naruto nodded along with the rest, but privately he wasn't sure Gaara would cooperate. The odd boy seemed almost indecently focused on Naruto after he realized Naruto's secret.
"Then good luck," she whispered as she opened the door for them.
Objectively, Naruto realized that there would be a lot of participants in the chuunin exam. Subjectively, he wasn't completely prepared to have almost a hundred pairs of unfriendly eyes lock onto him the moment he stepped into the testing room.
Naruto found his feet moving without thought, placing himself between his team and the potential hostiles, while his fists clenched and his face twisted into a ferocious scowl. The closest genin immediately backed up a couple of steps and Naruto wondered if they were jockeying for room in which to attack. "Don't even think about it!" he snapped, a muscle along his jaw jumping with nervous tension.
"Oi! Naruto! Stop making a scene, it's far too troublesome…" a bored-sounding voice snapped him out of his focus.
Naruto eased back out of the combat stance he'd dropped into and turned toward the familiar-sounding voice. Clumped together beside the door were the members of Team Seven, Team Ten, and Team Gai - who'd just preceded them into the room. Shikamaru was leaning against the wall while Choji stood next to him working on a bag of chips. Ino was talking to Sakura – and they weren't arguing for once. In fact, Sakura seemed oddly subdued. On the other hand, Kiba was 'talking' to Akamaru, who seemed oddly agitated. Sasuke and Neji were both giving him strange looks as well. Tenten seemed to be whispering a question to Neji, but wasn't getting an answer. At least Lee seemed somewhat normal – normal for him anyway – and wasn't visibly pursuing Sakura, to Naruto's relief.
Cautiously, Team Eight went to stand with the other rookies. Technically Team Gai wasn't a rookie squad, but they were only a year older.
"The older genin seem to resent our presence," Shino observed.
"Well, duh," Kiba said, placing a rather nervous-looking dog back on top of his hood. "If you had to wait three or four years before your sensei let you take the chuunin exam, people like us make you look bad."
Shino paused, seeming to stare at the Inuzuka boy. Naruto wondered if his teammate was becoming more expressive, or if he was just learning to read him better. "That is completely irrational," Shino finally said in an annoyed tone. Maybe he was just becoming more irritable.
Kiba just shrugged. "You tell them that. We'll give you an honorable burial," he said with a tight grin.
"Not a chance," Naruto snapped, his former anger returning. No wonder he was jumpy with all the ill-concealed hostility in the room. Anyone laying a hand on his team better be prepared to have it ripped off.
"A-ano," Hinata said hesitantly. "I t-think he was just kidding."
"It's a miracle," Kiba said with wide eyes and a taunting grin. "She talks!"
That crack got him a glare from Shino, which he ignored, and a blush from Hinata, which widened his grin. What it got from Naruto was a narrowing of his eyes and a low growl that seem to rumble from his chest of its own accord. Akamaru suddenly let out a low whine and made a series of sharp, high-pitched barks. Kiba's eyes widened slightly and then he made a face. "It was just a joke," he said with disgust, "get a grip."
"Your alleged sense of humor leaves much to be desired," Shino said in a dry tone.
"Yeah, yeah," Kiba said dismissively, waving a hand as he turned and began bothering Sasuke.
"Hey, you guys," an unfamiliar voice called out. "You should quiet down a little." Naruto turned along with the rest to see a silver-haired genin approach. Despite his hair, he only appeared to be a few years older. "So you're the rookies that just graduated from the academy, correct?"
No one answered him immediately, but he continued. "You're all fooling around… this isn't a field trip."
His dismissive tone seemed to irk several of them, but Yamanaka Ino was quickest to reply. "Who are you to tell us that?" she demanded.
"I am Yakushi Kabuto," the young man answered, "and if you look around you'll see that everyone is on edge. I don't want to see you get singled out. I guess you can't help it, being rookies and not knowing anything. It reminds me of how I was when I first took the exam."
"Kabuto-san?" Sakura asked hesitantly. "Is this your second time taking the exam?"
"No," he answered. "My seventh."
"Does that mean you know a lot about the exam?" she asked with a hopeful smile.
"Yes, I suppose it does," Kabuto said with an embarrassed grin.
"More like he knows how to fail the exam," Shikamaru observed in a bored tone. "If the exam is that difficult, it's going to be even more troublesome."
Kabuto seemed a little nonplussed about the abrupt dismissal, so he upped the ante. "Maybe I should give you kids some information then, with these recognition cards."
Naruto tensed as Kabuto reached into his kunai pouch, but he only pulled out some orange and black cards.
"These have information I burned into them using my chakra," he said. "I've collected information on this exam for the last four years on these two hundred cards. They appear blank, and cannot be read without my chakra." He knelt down and began to turn one on the floor with an extended finger. After a moment, there was a soft pop and a cloud of smoke blew away from the card to reveal a map of the region. On the legend was a tally of the genin entered by each country participating in the exam.
As Kabuto began to hold forth on the purpose of the chuunin exams and how they help maintain the balance of power, Naruto was thinking. Why was this guy being so helpful? Was he a friend of one of their sensei's? When he tried to look 'underneath the underneath' it made him a little uneasy. Others might accept a complete stranger helping them out of the goodness of his heart, but Naruto knew that happened pretty seldom – even in Konoha, which Kurenai said was often denigrated by other hidden villages for being 'too soft'.
Naruto was wondering what, if anything, he should do about his half-formed suspicions when Sasuke spoke up for the first time. "Are there any cards that have detailed personal information?"
Kabuto admitted that they did, and Sasuke asked to see information on Rock Lee and Gaara, earning him a quick look from Naruto. It was a little rude to ask for information on Lee right in front of him, but Naruto wondered how Sasuke even knew Gaara's name. Had he run into the boy as well? Or had his jonin warned him to stay away from the Suna genin at all costs? Naruto doubted Kurenai would have kept information to herself if it could potentially save the life of an ally… and Naruto had a feeling that anyone going after Sabaku no Gaara unprepared was risking everything.
Naruto wondered if he should add his own warning. But how could he reveal what he knew of Gaara without exposing himself? And would the arrogant Uchiha even believe him?
Thankfully, the sketchy information that Kabuto had regarding Gaara was enough to make anyone cautious. Completing a B-ranked mission as a genin was almost unheard of, going by Kabuto's expression. The total lack of information regarding the foreign shinobi's capabilities was also an effective warning. Concealed abilities were almost always more dangerous than known ones.
And never having been injured on a mission was downright scary.
To top things off on the anxiety scale, Kabuto then went into a big explanation of how five other villages sent their best genin to compete in this chuunin exam. To compete against a bunch of genin who'd only left the academy a few months ago.
Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Hinata looking down. Even Rock Lee looked a little hesitant. Oh no, this would not do.
"Good!" Naruto said in a loud voice, making everyone around him jump. "If this was easy, then making chuunin would mean nothing. Strong opponents mean we get to really show what we can do! Right, Hinata?" He added the last while gently elbowing his teammate.
Hinata's head shot up. "Hai!" she chirped, her cheeks already coloring.
Naruto gave her a warm smile that seemed to fluster her even worse and then turned to his other teammate. "Right Shino?"
Shino adjusted his glasses calmly, but Naruto thought he could detect a quiet buzzing coming from the Aburame boy. With his arm raised, Naruto noticed that the sleeves of his jacket were cut wider than normal. He had a strong suspicion there was more than just arm in there. "That is correct, Naruto," Shino said, his voice a bit louder than usual.
"Good!" Naruto said. He then turned toward the nearest older genin, who, although they wore Konoha hitai-ite, seemed just as hostile as the foreign shinobi. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha, and if you have a problem with me being here, form a line!" he roared.
The rest of the Rookie Nine and Team Gai were all staring at him incredulously. Ino asked him what the hell he thought he was doing, but he tuned them all out. His attention was on two things. The first was the small smile of approval Hinata gave him. The second was the pair of genin with Hidden Sound hitai-ite making their way toward the group of Konoha-nin at high speed.
The two Sound males appeared to be setting up a combo attack on Kabuto. Even if the older genin was a little patronizing, he was still a Konoha shinobi. As the skinny guy leapt over the crowd and sent a pair of throwing kunai at the silver-haired genin, Naruto was already in motion.
Grabbing a thrown kunai out of the air was usually an iffy proposition, given how much of it was sharp and how little of it was safe to grab. But if he just deflected them, they were likely to hit one of the foreign genin and undoubtedly spark a general brawl. Fortunately, Naruto's timing was just right and he was able to grab the handles of the kunai as his path crossed theirs. One sharp edge dug into the palm of his fingerless gloves, but didn't penetrate. Of course, the quick motion of his arms made his body begin tumbling as it continued to fly toward the ceiling. With a wrenching twist, Naruto managed to get his feet to hit the ceiling first, and charged with chakra they held him there upside down.
The bulky Sound genin was still heading toward Kabuto, but without the thrown kunai backing his target up into the wall, the Sound genin had to alter his path to cut through the Konoha rookies. His arm was drawn back for a haymaker swing at the silver-haired genin when Shino stepped into the arc, his own forearm held vertical, the heel of his hand turned outward. The genin's arm's clashed with an audible clang, but surprisingly, Shino did not move an inch. The sound genin's one visible eye glared at Shino, but the Aburame genius seemed completely unaffected.
"This is unseemly," Shino said, as if he were discussing Naruto's table manners at Ichiraku's.
The sound genin's eye narrowed and his other hand moved under his cloak.
"Please stop," Hinata said softly as she appeared by Shino's side, her palm extended, glowing with chakra, less than an inch from the bandages that covered most of the sound genin's face.
The bulky genin froze in place, and then slowly straightened. Looking down from the ceiling, Naruto also saw Sasuke palm a pair of kunai, Kiba edging around for a better angle, Neji holding Lee back from the fight, and Shikamaru, of all people, standing there with a look of focused concentration on his face. The shadows cast by the overhead lights seemed to be pooled around the Nara boy's feet.
The skinny sound genin landed next to his comrade. "Hidden Sound is not a minor village. And we don't need to all gang up on someone to stop them, either," he spat, glaring at the rookies.
Naruto released the chakra in his feet and jumped down from the ceiling behind the sound genin. To their credit, neither of them jumped at the sudden noise. With a smile he casually handed the kunai back to their owner, who was visibly seething.
"You speak of our greatest strength as a weakness," Shino said urbanely. "I find myself pitying you."
"And if either of you want a piece of me, the offer is still open," Naruto said in a low voice. The lack of intensive physical training the last few days had left him fidgety and just a little irritable too.
Just then there was a loud explosion and smoke billowed from the front of the examination room. "Quiet down you punks!" a rough voice bellowed.
When the smoke dissipated Naruto saw a tall scar-faced man sporting a Konoha hitai-ite and a black trenchcoat. Flanking him was a squad of chuunin dressed in proctor's uniforms, including the two clowns he'd uncovered earlier.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," the man, who appeared to be a special jonin of some sort, continued in a smoother voice. "I am the examiner of the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki."  

[Pandora Green]

He paused to scratch his cheek while thinking of an answer. In the background, he could hear Akamaru's and Kuromaru's chatter, without really listening to them.
"I think she's pretty disappointed in herself, even more so then Sasuke. Most of the time, she couldn't do much beside covering Tazuna-san. Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and I handled the fighting against the enemy ninja. I guess she might've felt... well, useless.. And maybe she's disappointed in Sasuke as well. Or rather, in the fact that he didn't live up to the image she had of him." He shrugged.
"She tries to cover her worries by behaving as violent and aggressive as usual, though. She's not unlike sis in that manner. Don't tell her I said that, though..."
"Tell what to whom?"
Upon hearing the voice of his very own sister as she entered the room, Kiba shot a pleading glance towards his mother. Tsume just gave him a smile. "Nothing. Just that both you and Sakura are violent and aggressive."
Chuckling to herself she returned her attention toward the food she prepared and listened to the squabble between her two children that ensued. It ended soon enough, as this kind of fight often did, and she finally got the opportunity to put the meal on the table. She noticed that Akamaru was still busy telling his story to Kuromaru, though he seemed to slowly reach the end.
"It seems this year's got some strong and interesting pups," Kuromaru mentioned in the human tongue as soon as Akamaru had finished his story. Turning towards his partner, he was met with a questioning look. "Kiba and his pack, now, and the pack we met on the hunt a few days ago," he elaborated in response.
Tsume spent a few moments searching through her memory before her eyes lit up in understanding. "Ah, you mean Kurenai's team."
Kiba stopped in his meal to throw his mother a questioning look. "Naruto, Hinata, 'n Shino? I met them on the way back. What's with them?"
"They were on a border patrol mission just a few days ago and we ran into them during a rescue mission. Didn't they tell you?" She asked with her eyebrows raised in surprise. From what she had heard about them from Kiba's school stories, she would have expected for Naruto to brag about the events, at least. Shrugging slightly, she began to fill in Kiba on what happened.
"Three missing-nin of B- to A-rank kidnapped two inhabitants of our village and escaped toward the border that Kurenai's team patrolled. They intercepted the missing-nin and defeated them shortly before the rescue team that I was a part of arrived. I don't know the details, but Naruto killed at least one of them."
"Naruto killed one of them?" Kiba asked in disbelief with such a funny face that Tsume couldn't help but let out a bark of laughter that was joined by her daughter.
"I wouldn't believe it, myself, if Kuromaru hadn't told me," Hana supported her mother's claim, although her attention was more focused on Akamaru. The exchange between her mother and little brother didn't interest her too much, since she already had heard the story from her mother a couple of days earlier. Instead she beckoned the white dog to come to her and bribed him with a few pieces of meat from her food to tell her about the mission he and Kiba just had returned from. Although he had his very own meal, the prospect of some extra food made him happy to comply.
"He smelt of fresh blood," Kuromaru explained in the meantime to Kiba. As he opened his mouth, probably for some sort of protest, the canine interjected. "Human blood." Apparently, the black dog wasn't too pleased with the fact that Kiba wanted to doubt either his nose, or his statement.
"I guess you'll have to ask them yourself, if you want the whole story. We had to return to Konoha immediately after retrieving the two kidnappees from Kurenai's team. I hadn't even the time to taste out the cooking of the Hyuuga girl." The last sentence Tsume muttered more to herself than to her son. Damn that Hiashi. Who would've been hurt if they had stayed and rested for a night, or a few hours at least? Hinata had seemed like she did her very best to prepare a good meal for them, and from the appetizing look and smell it had had, she had done a damn good job at it. Somehow, it seemed like Hiashi went out of his way to make his daughter feel miserable, which was something Tsume couldn't even begin to wrap her head around.
Meanwhile, Kiba stared down at his meal with a mixture of emotions. Disbelief and anger were the prevalent ones, with a good deal of confusion thrown in as well. He and Sasuke had fought and bled and cursed together just to bring down a single enemy nin, whereas Naruto managed not only to defeat one as well, but completely on his own if what Kuromaru had told him was true. That just couldn't be right; after all Naruto hat been a complete looser at the academy.
As the moments passed, however, Kiba noted something entirely different; the fact that the Naruto now seemed different from the one he remembered from the Academy. When he met him today, he didn't brag about it like he should have without hesitation. And if he remembered the clash at the ramen bar correctly, Naruto didn't shout or scream at that time, either, and just left instead. Kiba wasn't sure what to make of all this, besides asking himself the obvious question 'How much did you change exactly, Naruto?'
And the runner up is Alle, who offered an intriguing look into the life of an Inuzuka…
Inuzuka Kiba couldn't help a relieved smile as the delicious smells of meat stew and fresh leather-home-hit his nostrils. Comfortably snuggled into what was left of Kiba's jacket, Akamaru yowled sleepily, keeping his eyes closed. Kiba shared his companion's sentiment. He felt thrashed, not that he'd ever admit it. He envisioned a warm meal, and then a warmer bed, and he couldn't decide whether he was more hungry or tired.
Kiba approached the cottage from the direction of the wind, letting it announce his arrival. He knew, from a previous unfortunate experience involving night-time, a bet, and sake, that there was no way to creep past his family's noses and ears. Even if he could fool his sisters and the dogs, which in itself was no small feat, his mother or father would always know. Passing the last tree, he brushed his shoulder against it, leaving his mark while taking in his family's. His mother was home, the tree's scents told him; his sisters were home earlier that morning. His father's trace was fainter than he remembered: still away, probably in the latest long range mission with his hunter-nin uncles.
As he entered the dining room, his gaze was drawn to the steaming bowl on the table, then to the left, where his mother Inuzuka Tsume was putting the finishing touches on a familiar-looking, brand new piece of leatherwork. A smaller bowl was on the floor under his chair, and immediately Akamaru's head popped up from Kiba's collar and he struggled to break free. They both sat down before their meal.
"Welcome back, pup", Tsume said, as she embraced him from behind. Kiba grunted gratefully, engrossed in the wonderful waft coming from the soup. Tsume smiled and nudged his back, letting him know that he should tuck in. For the few seconds it took the pair to devour dinner, the room was silent. Then Tsume refilled their plates and sat down as well. "How did it go?"
Kiba mumbled "Fine." and paused between mouthfuls, looking back at the mission to find something he should say to quickly sum it up. For some reason, the image of his bed kept popping up in his mind. When he found something suitably impressive, he started gesturing and talking: "Akamaru was amazing! You should have seen it... When a missing-nin was distracted he chomped on his leg, and kept him still so Sasuke-chibi and I could nail him good!"
Tsume raised an eyebrow, saying nothing. The senbon holes, and the smells of blood from Kiba's ruined clothes, still present even after his washing them, told of a brutal fight. There was her son's blood, far too much of it for her comfort, and she smelled his teammates, and Akamaru and someone else as well. At that time she wasn't feeling particularly impressed with Kakashi's judgment. She reached down and lifted Akamaru up, closely examining his bruised body. "Good boy", she simply said, then she touched his muzzle with her nose and gave a good lick at his collar. Akamaru panted in adoration at what amounted to highest praise, then shot towards the kennel, eager to show off the pack leader's scent to his brothers and sisters. "I feel neglected now," Kiba joked, pouting and Tsume smirked at him. "See if that jacket fits you then", she said, pointing at her handiwork from before. Kiba couldn't suppress a grin as he passed his hand over the perfect fur. "Thanks, mum. I'll try to make this one last longer."
Tsume considered letting her son rest. He seemed oddly subdued, which spoke of exhaustion, certainly, but what if there was something more? She took in his appearance, and made a decision. "Tell me everything."
Kiba sighed.
As he told her the full story, properly embellishing his own contribution, Kiba could detect his mother's alternating tension and relief, just as he knew she would sense his own elation and excitement. There were very little secrets in the Inuzuka clan. When both you and your family could easily smell strong emotions such as anger and fear and embarrassment, being anything less than straightforward was just futile. Which suited Kiba's character just fine, thank you very much, and in fact had had a big part in forming such character in the first place.
"...and then we got back," Kiba concluded. Tsume got up and absently refilled his bowl a third time. Her son looked at her expression and some of it suddenly made sense. "Is Kakashi-sensei in trouble?" he asked. She laughed and said: "We'll see", which Kiba correctly interpreted as a resounding 'yes'. Then Tsume got serious and asked, "When you found out the Leaf had been tricked into accepting the mission, you were given the choice to return. Why didn't you?"
Kiba thought about what to say. The largest part of it, he knew, was that Inuzuka Kiba does not turn back from danger, especially not when his two teammates jump into the thick of it without hesitation. Such a revelation, he suspected, wouldn't go down well with his mother. But as he pondered more, he discovered another truth that he'd always known, just never recognized. And it did sound loads better. "That village that lied to us... They really needed our help, mum."
Tsume didn't look at him then, but he didn't need her to. Just seeing her shoulders relax, Kiba immediately knew he had said just the right thing, and could imagine her lips had that light smile she made when she was either happy or proud, or both. And he thought: 'Off the hook! Go me! Bed, here I come!'
It wasn't to be. Still looking away, Tsume said, "Kiba... What does your father tell you, is the best thing about the Inuzuka clan?"
Kiba grinned. "That we can smell when a girl is in-Ow! MUM!"
Tsume put the kettle back in the cupboard. "The other thing."
Kiba felt the growing lump on his head, grumbling. "Should've specified. It's... It's that every Inuzuka knows his place in the pack." He cleared his throat and tried imitating his father's gruff voice. "It's not your nose, cub, but patience that is the key to tracking. The most powerful combat technique in the world is the wait-until-your-opponent-is-asleep jutsu. And never, ever forget your place in the pack."
Tsume nodded. "Glad you listened to that. Go on." She kept looking at him, and when Kiba didn't add anything and just stared dumbly, she sighed.
Kiba was trying his best to look thoughtful, but this was quickly turning into the kind of girly conversation that normally had him running for his life. However, he was also well aware of the fact that Inuzuka Tsume would not be deterred by anything, much less her son's utter lack of interest. He had to show an effort before his eventual escape.
"Let me tell you something", Tsume said eventually. "While you were on your mission, three missing-nins came to our village and kidnapped a Hyuuga child and the Hokage's grandson. I took Kuromaru with me and we lead the pursuit. The tracks showed they were running for the border, probably would've made it across before we got them, but they were intercepted by a few of your classmates. It was Kurenai Yuuhi's team."
Tsume knew she had her son's attention then. "Aburame, Hyuuga... and Uzumaki?" he asked. She nodded, and Kiba scoffed. "Well that's probably why they seemed so down when I saw them, earlier today. They must've gotten their asses kicked pretty bad."
Tsume arched her eyebrow. "Actually, when we arrived, the hostages had already been rescued and all missing-nins were dead. And those three guys weren't exactly pushovers either. From what I gathered, the Aburame and Hyuuga kids were in trouble early in the fight. The last enemy was killed by Kurenai after Uzumaki had dispatched the first two."
Before his mission in Water Country, Kiba would have protested loudly by this time, that he knew how Uzumaki Naruto was a next to useless ninja, and the only jutsu he'd mastered, only made things worse by creating even more useless ninjas. Now, however, Kiba couldn't help but remember Naruto's somber expression, while finding a disturbingly similar feeling resonating in him. Naruto's wasn't the look of failure; it was the look of success, right after you got a glimpse of
the attached price tag. While frantically trying to stamp down on his newfound respect for the fellow genin, Kiba realized that his mother hadn't stopped talking... And he hadn't been listening.
"...and that cute kid even prepared dinner for all of us. I was impressed. So, Kiba", Tsume finished sagely, "Kurenai's team is a good pack."
Kiba nodded mutely, perfectly aware that there was something important his mother had been trying to convey, that had passed miles above his head. As he got up and reached his bed, he had an uncharacteristic buzzing in his head, which only grew louder as his body shut down.
It wasn't making sense. Kiba openly admired his parents. He loved being an Inuzuka and the huge world of sensation his blood and training opened for him. But he knew his role in Team Seven, and it was nothing like Naruto's. He was the tracker, he would warn the others about danger, and Akamaru and him were handy in a fight. One day he would be just as strong as his father, which was more than enough to get things done. And that was it. All Naruto did was... Well, be loud and obnoxious and eat ramen.
And he'd killed two missing-nins. Big deal. After Hyuuga and Aburame had been taken out, his mother said.
It dawned on him right then, at the edge of sleep.
It wasn't about fighting or anything else. What Naruto had done, was protect his teammates. That was Naruto's place in the pack. "The same as mine", he whispered. Inspired by his discovery, he turned it around in his head. Did he like it? Was it enough for him? Was it worth the trouble? Would it matter if his worth was recognized or not?
Unbidden, images from the previous days came to mind. Kiba wondered at Sasuke's expression of triumph as those weird things appeared in his eyes, and he could suddenly see into the future. Kiba figured the future wasn't a happy place. Then Kiba stared at Sakura's tear-stained face as she broke down crying and hugged them both, her arms painfully constricting their necks, right after the tragedy on the bridge. Girl had muscles.
Yeah, Kiba decided; it will have to do. He would keep his pack safe.
After all, they wouldn't stand a chance without him.  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 12
Naruto stared down at his paper, holding his head in his hands. The rules, as explained by the scarred special jonin, were pretty straightforward. The teams were split up into randomly-assigned seats before the test papers were passed out. Everyone started with ten points, but wrong answers cost a point for each question. Getting caught cheating cost you two points every time you were caught. Run out of points and get removed from the exam. Simple, right? Oh, and if you get a zero your teammates fail as well… Just answer the questions and don't cheat, right?
Except for the fact that Uzumaki Naruto was abysmally bad with written tests. They were the bane of his existence at the Konoha Ninja Academy. Practical exercises were different. He failed a lot of those too, but at least there was a chance. Sometimes he could figure out a way to succeed, or work around the rules. Like with the kunai-throwing examination – Iruka hadn't specifically forbidden him to use an explosive tag, and the bull's-eye was certainly destroyed, even if he'd struck the target three inches to the left of center…
But a written test… there was only one way to answer them correctly. No way to distract the examiner and move the starting line. And only one correct way to actually do the problem. No room for creativity at all.
A drop of sweat rolled down Naruto's forehead and traced a path down his nose. He rubbed at it irritably. At least the first question wasn't multiple-choice. The parabola, B, represents a shuriken's path after being thrown by an enemy ninja from a height of seven meters. Calculate the strength of the enemy ninja that can be observed from the trajectory followed by the shuriken and figure out the maximum throwing distance on flat ground. Explain your reasoning.
Oh crap, he thought with horror, it's even worse - they want me to do math!
OoOoO
Hinata leaned forward with her eyes closed, appearing to be lost in thought to an outside observer. This motion also caused her short hair to hang slightly forward along the sides of her face, as her hands moved under the desk. She oh so carefully twisted her concealed fingers into the seals that would activate her family blood-limit, whispering "Byakugan" in a ghost of a whisper. Her chakra flow was so slow, and so controlled, that the students on either side of her didn't even look up. The bulging veins on her temples were now concealed by her hair, so she gave no outward sign as her closed eyes scanned the papers of nearby candidates. If she was going to cheat, as this test seemed to require, she was determined not to get caught.
Finding one who seemed to have filled out most of his test, she began memorizing his answers. Everything was going according to plan. She'd hoped when they began assigning seats that she'd be able to sit near Naruto-kun, but of course the 'random' assignments would be altered to separate teammates. Much as she wished she could help her friends, she was confident that they would find some way to succeed.
OoOoO
Shino nodded slightly as his spy returned. A specially-bred subspecies of kikai, it had extremely well-developed compound eyes to assist with reconnaissance missions.
Unfortunately, its brain wasn't quite as well-developed. Though he could communicate with it easily by using one of his attuned queens, its conversational skills were as underdeveloped as those of his teammate when contemplating hot ramen. In addition, the flying insect's memory was only sufficient to memorize a single answer at a time.
Though tedious to use, it was effective nonetheless. He only hoped that his teammates were also finding ways to succeed. A single zero would bar the entire team from progressing.
OoOoO
Naruto sweated as he looked over the other test questions. None of them looked particularly easy. Most of them he felt he could eventually puzzle out given unlimited time or access to the right books, but he had neither at the moment.
Why is this test so freaking hard? He asked himself, grinding his teeth in frustration. I don't think anyone in my class, except maybe Sakura, could answer all of these in time! Why did they even let us take this test? We're not going to get any experience if we fail in the first hour!
That gave him pause, and Naruto's face went blank as he pondered this. Kurenai-sensei wouldn't put them into this situation if it was impossible, so there had to be a way around it. He went over the rules again, how the points were awarded and how points were deducted if you were caught cheating. Funny how lenient that was. Iruka-sensei would kick you out of the classroom if he caught you cheating on one of his tests.
Naruto's eyes narrowed. Why is this test so hard, but easier on that one aspect. It's almost like they want to encourage… I'm an idiot. This is a Shinobi Rank Exam. They want to see how sneaky we can be.
Right at that moment, one of the proctors called out a number, making Naruto jump in his seat. "Number 52, you fail," he said in a bored tone. "17 and 43, you can follow your teammate out into the hall." Naruto glanced over at the chuunin as the angry genin filed out of the room. The predatory gleam in the older shinobi's eyes held a hint of triumph, but no anger or outrage.
His suspicions were correct. The chuunin proctors were his real opponents.
As more teams were eliminated, Naruto began to sweat harder. He needed to find the answers, but he kept his eyes on his own paper. Those proctors were not messing around!
It wasn't until one of the shinobi wearing a Suna marker and lots of face paint asked to be excused that he got some inspiration. Less than a minute later, Naruto had the rough outlines of a plan worked out. He just wished he had Shino handy to look for flaws…
"What is it, twenty-three?" the young-looking proctor on his row said when Naruto raised his hand.
"I, uh, need to go to the bathroom too," Naruto stammered. He grimaced and held his stomach. "I think I drank some bad milk," he added.
The proctor didn't react, other than to smoothly rise to his feet and gesture for Naruto to follow. Naruto wisely kept his eyes down for the most part, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Sakura look up, eyes widening in surprise, as they walked past.
In a quiet voice, the proctor directed him to go to down the stairs to second floor, before proceeding down the hall. Naruto guessed that they wanted to make sure he and that Suna-nin didn't come into contact. That was fine with him, if he was with Sabaku no Gaara, he was at least dangerous by proxy.
But to Naruto's dismay, the proctor followed him into the bathroom, standing beside the sinks. Naruto clutched his stomach again and ducked into one of the stalls. Aware that the chuunin could see under the stall doors, Naruto dropped his trousers and sat down. He also pushed up the jacket sleeve on his left arm leaving the skin of his forearm exposed. After pausing long enough to very carefully mold the chakra, he coughed loudly as his fingers formed the seals.
There was a loud pop, immediately supplemented by Naruto placing his mouth on his forearm and blowing hard. The noise was deafening in the enclosed space as mist billowed out under the stall door.
In a flash, Naruto fixed his sleeve and pulled his pants up. He flushed and opened the stall door and stepped out toward the sinks, in time to see the chuunin edging back from the smoke. "Gomen," Naruto said as he quickly washed his hands, "definitely some bad milk, but I'm lucky it was just gas. Wouldn't want to do that in the middle of the exam though."
The chuunin didn't say a word, but his steps as he led Naruto back to the examination room were a bit quicker than before, as if he was reluctant to let Naruto get too close.
OoOoO
No sooner did the sound of their footsteps fade within the bathroom then the other stall doors flew open and the three Narutos crouched on top of the toilets jumped out. Their faces screwed up in concentration as they made the seals with their hands and suddenly they were replaced by Umino Iruka, Maito Gai, and Yuuhi Kurenai.
The two faux jonin and the faux chunnin left the bathroom quickly, moving with purpose. But not before washing their hands, of course. It was fortunate that no one was on hand to wonder what the genjutsu mistress was doing in the male restroom.
Moving quickly across the rooftops of Konoha, the three clones descended on the library. They only had a handful of minutes to get the information Naruto needed and get it back to him. Luckily, each only needed to look up information for three or four questions, and Naruto had already given some thought on where to find the information. So while the Kurenai-clone was opening up a book on ciphers, looking for a match to the one seen on the exam, the Iruka-clone had a physics book open and was scratching down equations for the kunai problem and the Gai-clone was looking up the names of the founding kage for each village. Working independently, the kage bunshin found the answers, or most of the answers, within their allotted time and met up at the entrance to the library.
But as they made their way back to the building where the examination was being held, the final obstacle confronted them, one the original Naruto didn't have enough information about to work out ahead of time. Their information was useless if they couldn't get it to Naruto before the test was over.
With all the foreign shinobi, the building was heavily guarded, and getting out without speaking to someone was a lot easier than getting back in. The closest they could get without a risky encounter was a rooftop that had a view of the side windows to the examination room.
Using a well-polished forehead protector as a mirror, they tried to reflect the mid-day sun at an angle to catch Naruto's eye. Using a signal code to transmit their information would be time-consuming, but it was better than nothing at all.
The only problem was the original Naruto's determination to not get caught cheating. He never looked up enough for the light to catch his eye.
Unfortunately, their efforts did not go completely unnoticed.
"I can't believe you three," an annoyed-sounding voice spoke up behind them.
In spite of themselves, the three clones jumped guiltily and spun around. A Konoha shinobi with a cloth over his head and a senbon needle in the corner of his mouth was glaring at them. "I thought it was a little odd to hear about such young teams in the exam, but I never thought I'd find some of you cheating for your students. The Hokage is going to be very disappointed."
The Kurenai-clone, realizing the man's assumption, spoke up without thinking. "No don't!" he pleaded, before he realized that he wasn't acting anything at all like his cool and rational sensei. The thought of getting Kurenai-sensei in trouble with the Hokage had evidently short-circuited his common sense.
The other Shinobi picked up on this as well. "Okay, who the hell are you?" he demanded as senbon needles appeared between his curled fingers. When the clones didn't immediately answer, he whipped his hands up and flung the needles at the imposters.
The clones tried to dodge the missiles. Often senbon were coated with drugs or poisons to disable the target, but given how much chakra they had left, the first hit would be fatal. But as they crouched down or threw themselves to the side, the Konoha Shinobi did a seal and the senbon seemed to multiply in mid-air. Each clone was punctured by one or more needles and exploded into a puff of smoke.
OoOoO
Naruto abruptly stiffened in his seat as his brain was suddenly flooded with information. That jerk! He cursed to himself, why did he have to interfere with… Wait! How do I know what happened to my clones? I wasn't there…
His questions cut off as he abruptly realized that he had the information needed for the test now. He went back to the first question and began writing down the equations before he forgot them. There would be plenty of time to think about his clones when he wasn't taking a test.
Naruto's pencil moved frantically as he filled in the squares allotted for his answers. As he provided workable solutions to the first nine questions, the knot in his stomach slowly began to loosen. It was by no means perfect, but at least he'd been able to 'show his work' on all of them… a better showing than he'd ever made at the Konoha Ninja Academy.
Of course, all his nervous tension quickly returned when Ibiki's voice jarred him out of his reverie, almost making him drop his pencil.
"Okay," the scary-looking man barked, "I will now give the tenth problem!"
Naruto couldn't help but glance at the clock. Indeed, forty-five minutes had passed since the beginning of the test. It had only felt like an eternity. This Ibiki guy really should be working at the Academy – he was perfect for that place.
His musings were cut short as the weird Suna shinobi finally returned from the bathroom, only to get a sarcastic remark from the examiner. Naruto wondered if the guy didn't get enough fiber in his diet – he certainly looked dyspeptic enough as he returned to his seat.
"I will now explain," the scar-faced man in the black trench coat continued. "This is… a hopeless rule. First, you are all going to choose if you wish to take this tenth problem or not."
"Choose?" asked a blond kunoichi with a Suna hitai-ite worn loosely around her neck like Hinata. Despite her hairstyle, she was the most normal-looking person from Suna that he'd noticed so far.
"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero," Ibiki answered with a faint smile, "In other words, you will fail. Your two teammates will fail along with you."
That statement, of course, sparked off a low rumble of muttered comments and denials from the remaining candidates. Naruto's eyes narrowed. This couldn't be that easy.
"And here is the other rule," Ibiki continued, ignoring them all as he seemed to savor the moment. "If you choose to take it and you get it wrong, you will lose the privilege of taking the Chuunin Exam forever."
Unsurprisingly, Inuzuka Kiba was the first to break the shocked silence. "What kind of dumb rule is that?" he demanded. "There are people here who have taken the Chuunin Exam in the past!" Of course, the boy's indignant fury was not enhanced by the small white dog on his head punctuating his statement with two high-pitched barks.
Ibiki just laughed at that, a sound that seemed to send chills down Naruto's back to gather in the pit of his stomach. "You were unlucky," he said. "This year, I am the rule. That is why I give you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it, and take the exam next year, or the year after that." He chuckled again, and Naruto felt his jaw clench.
"Let us begin," Ibiki said. "Those who will not be taking the tenth question, raise your hands. After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."
After a long moment, the first hand went up from a seat near Naruto. An older-looking Konoha genin with a goatee and a pinched-looking face stood up. "I quit!" he said, looking like he was in pain, "I won't take it!" The man apologized to his teammates as their numbers were called out as well, but the one Naruto could see didn't seem to mind very much.
As he turned to watch them file out, he saw Hinata. She seemed to have shrunk down in her seat and her face had gone very pale. He tried to give her an encouraging smile, but her eyes seemed frantic with worry. That puzzled Naruto as he turned back around. Hinata didn't seem to be that concerned with her rank, so much as becoming stronger so her father would appreciate her, the b*****d, so why… then it hit him. His dream was to become Hokage, not hers. She was worried about him. Naruto frowned as he pondered this.
That first surrender seemed to open the floodgates as others raised their hands. After their numbers were called, each team filed silently out of the room. Some looked relieved, some looked angry… but to Naruto, the worst were the ones who filed out silently, their faces impassive masks. He wondered if those would remain shinobi much longer – he doubted those teams would remain intact for the next Chuunin Exam. How bad would it be, to fail the examination because one of your teammates lost… their nerve? Or chose to make the team fail so they didn't personally risk being barred forever from Chuunin?
Naruto's eyes narrowed as they focused on the chief examiner. He was playing with them, in some sick way. The man had a slight smile at the corner of his mouth. Seeing that, and remembering Hinata's obvious distress made something inside of him snap. In a sick way, it was gratifying to have someone more concerned about his ambitions than their own, but she deserved a lot better than to be tormented for it. He couldn't talk to her, and hand signals were not practical for this, so he'd have to do it indirectly.
Naruto vaulted onto his desk, taking care not to step on his test paper. He pointed accusingly at Ibiki and yelled, "This is a load of crap!"
The examining room went dead silent.
OoOoO
Hinata's hand was twitching, about to be raised, when Naruto-kun's voice rang out. She'd been engaged in a fierce internal debate in the short time since the terms of the tenth question had been explained. She didn't want to see the end of Naruto's ambitions occur in this stuffy classroom. It would crush him if he was forever limited to genin, and she didn't ever want to see such a thing happen. For a moment she wondered if this whole examination had been constructed as a trap to trick Naruto into destroying his dreams. Once, she would never have thought people could be so cruel, but the more time she spent with Naruto, the more she saw how he was treated. There were adults in Konoha who wouldn't hesitate to do something so cruel in an effort to avenge themselves on what they saw as the Kyuubi no Kitsune. She wasn't sure if Naruto saw the trap laid before him or not… would it be up to her to save him from himself?
She'd darted a quick glance at Shino, but he seemed unperturbed by the situation. Not that he ever really showed any emotion when he was caught off guard. Her hand had been trembling from nervous tension when Naruto's shouted accusation made her go rigid in her seat.
"Number twenty-three, what is your problem?" the examiner asked in a bored tone.
"Even if they gave you the authority to make such a rule," Naruto growled, "do you think another village's kage will cooperate and not allow their own genin to ever test again?"
"You seem awfully sure of that," Ibiki said. "Are you willing to bet your future on that? This is a choice that will impact the rest of your life."
Naruto put his fists on his hips and straightened up even more. Hinata's breath caught in her throat. "I bet my life every time I go on a mission and I never give up – it's my way of the ninja! And even if they did let you bar me forever, I'll still get stronger and I'll just be the first genin to become Hokage… and then I'll fire your a** for making up stupid rules!"
With that, Hinata relaxed a little, because it was true. Naruto would not let them stop him from realizing his ambitions. She was wrong to have doubted him, even for a second. She was wondering if she should get up on her desk as well, to show her support when the examiner spoke at last. "We'll see if your gamble pays off, twenty-three. Now get off that desk before I disqualify you immediately for insubordination!"
Naruto hopped back into his chair, but Hinata could still faintly feel the waves of killer intent coming from her teammate.
"For the rest of you, this is your last chance to leave before your fate is sealed," the scar-faced examiner announced in a deep voice that made Hinata's insides twist. She concentrated on the spike of anger that came from her friend. She would see it through with him, or not at all. As teammate, friend, or even the Chuunin guarding the door to his office… where he lead, she would follow… watching his back.
Ibiki-san waited, looking around the room. But Hinata didn't think anyone else would leave after Naruto's words.
And she was right.
"For the First Exam, everyone here… passes!"
OoOoO
Naruto stared at the examiner, wondering if he'd heard him correctly.
Sakura, surprisingly, was the first to ask the question they were all thinking. "Wait, what's the meaning of that? We pass already? What about the tenth question?"
That lead to the one of the scariest things Naruto had ever seen… even worse than Gai and Lee singing karaoke of "I Got You, Babe!" at Lee's celebration.
Morino Ibiki was laughing.
Not a sarcastic chuckle, either. A full-blown, mouth hanging open, belly laugh. "There was no such thing to begin with," he explained with a wide smile that made Naruto want to reach for a kunai, "or you can call the choice you made the real tenth question."
"So what were those previous nine problems?" the Suna Kunoichi asked in an annoyed tone. "It was all a waste!"
"No, it wasn't," Ibiki disagreed. "Those problems accomplished their purpose, testing each individual's information gathering skills…"
As Ibiki explained how testing as a group just added to the tension, since people didn't want to let their teams down, it just reinforced Naruto's opinion that the man was a natural sadist… and that his guesses about the test had been correct. At least that was somewhat gratifying.
It wasn't until the examiner removed the cloth covering the top of his head that Naruto was distracted from his musings. He had a similar cloth for concealing his bright hair color, but Ibiki's was for a far different purpose.
"Information can have greater value than life at times, and in missions or on battlefields," he said as everyone stared at the gouges and massive keloid scars that covered the top of his head, leaving no hair at all on the ruined scalp. "Information is paid for with the lives of people!"
"If you are detected acquiring information, the enemy can then account for that, making it far less useful. They may even use what you learned to lure your side into a trap," Ibiki continued as he re-tied the cloth around the top of his head. "That can lead to a disaster for your team and your village. So we eliminated those that were not able to gather information without being caught."
"But then what about that last question?" the Suna kunoichi asked, although this time in a much more subdued voice.
"That question was the main point of this exam," Ibiki answered spreading his arms dramatically. "You were presented with a 'do or die' situation, being given the choice to go for the question or not… Look at it this way. You are a Chuunin, and your mission is to capture a secret document, but the opposition, their numbers, and their capabilities are unknown. There may be traps set up in advance by the enemy. Now… will you accept this mission or not? Just because your life and the lives of your teammates may be in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions? The answer is no."
Naruto frowned, trying to reconcile this with what Kurenai-sensei had been telling him. She'd been awfully cautious about all the situations Team 8 seemed to get into… But she hadn't turned down the border patrol mission, had she? And Kurenai-sensei had agreed that Hinata was right to lead them against the kidnappers. Maybe it was less avoiding dangerous missions than it was planning ahead and working to minimize those dangers?
"There are missions that carry heavy risks," Ibiki continued, "but cannot be avoided. This is what we look for in a Chuunin, or squad leader. Those who cannot bet their lives in a critical situation… those who give up when given the chance because there is a next year, and let their minds be swayed over an uncertain future… They are fools with no determination who have no right to become a Chuunin. You are here because you gave the right answer for the tenth question, and you can deal with the difficulties you will face."
Naruto blinked and swallowed.
"The first portion of the Chuunin Examination ends now," Ibiki announced. "I wish you luck," he concluded in a voice that sounded strangely sincere to Naruto.
Of course, this touching scene was utterly disrupted when a dark object exploded through the side windows in a hail of glass that narrowly missed the head examiner. Two kunai were thrown into the ceiling supporting the corners of the unfolding bundle of dark cloth. When the cloth finished unfolding behind the figure straightening up from her landing, it announced "Second Examiner, Mitarashi Anko is here" in kanji characters two feet tall.
To say the woman was dressed oddly, even by Konoha Shinobi standards, was to make a massive understatement. She wore a skin-tight metal mesh body suit that ended well above her knees, along with shin guards over her sandals, a very short miniskirt, and a tan, knee-length trench coat.
"Everyone, there's no time to be happy!" She announced, "I am the Second Examiner, Mitarashi Anko." As if they couldn't read.
"Let's go to the next exam!" she roared raising her fist into the air. "Follow me!"
The silence as all the genin stared at her was deafening.
"I don't think they get you," Ibiki said quietly as he stepped out from behind the hanging cloth.
She didn't answer, but just frowned at the remaining candidates. "Ibiki," she said out of the corner of her mouth, "why did you let so many pass? The First Exam must have been too soft." She concluded with a glare.
"It looks like there are a lot of good students this time," Ibiki said diplomatically, and Naruto had the impression that they'd known each other before the exams.
"Oh well," she said. "I'm going to have to make more than half the teams fail in the next exam. I'm getting excited!"
Naruto swallowed. If anything, she was even weirder than Ibiki.
"I will explain the details tomorrow," Anko announced. "We will go somewhere else, so ask your jounin sensei about the rally point and time. That is all. Dismissed."
OoOoO
Several of the Konoha jonin-sensei were occupying an unused lounge at the Hokage's tower. The space was normally a back-up ready room used when a full ANBU muster was called, something that almost never happened. But the seats were comfortable, there was an ashtray for Asuma, and talking amongst themselves gave the jonin something to do while their students were tested.
The fact that the Hokage always reserved the room for them, and that it was far away from the examination building, was surely just a coincidence.
Despite her intentions, Yuuhi Kurenai found herself on edge as she sat there, brooding about how her team would do… especially under a sadistic genius like Morino Ibiki.
She'd come to know Ibiki from her debriefing after the disaster that claimed the lives of her sensei and teammates. It was only later that she realized the significance of having a man of his talents in charge… but by that point she could view the circumstances dispassionately enough to understand.
When all but one member of a team was wiped out, it was natural that there should be some suspicions. Had she betrayed them? Was she a disguised infiltrator? Had she struck a deal with the attackers to spare her life?
Ibiki listened once to her fragmentary, disjointed description of what had happened. He asked her a few questions, and then sent her off to the hospital to have her wounds tended. He'd visited her there several times to check off various details in her story, but his face had not betrayed any signs of disbelief… or any other emotion.
It wasn't until over a month later, when she'd had time to think about what had happened and gone looking for him, that she discovered he was the head of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Unit. The realization that she'd been under suspicion when she returned was daunting, but it didn't stop her from telling him of her own thoughts.  

[Pandora Green]

He'd stared at her for a long moment after she finished. His eyes flickered toward the seals painted on the walls and she realized that, with his door closed, his office was one of the few places in Konoha that guaranteed absolute privacy.
That's when he agreed with her that the circumstances of the attack did not add up. Too much force had been used to gain too small an objective. There was something else at stake - that much was clear. He'd also cautioned her to keep her head down and her thoughts to herself until such time as she had iron-clad proof of her accusations, lest she be made to join her team in the afterlife.
Kurenai's stomach was churning as she left that meeting, which Morino Ibiki had logged as the 'final debriefing from aborted mission #2579-b'. It was gratifying that he'd taken her seriously – too many sexist fools would disregard the words of young kunoichi, regardless of her intelligence. It was a relief that such a professional agreed that something was going on here – she wasn't just suffering from paranoid delusions triggered by her grief. But at the same time, his observations had chilled her. Whoever had set them up had access to resources and information to a degree that was frankly terrifying when she stopped to consider the implications. And this unknown party had demonstrated no compunctions about shedding blood to achieve their goal. Her future survival truly depended on her discretion.
She'd never felt so alone as she walked back to her family's house. Fortunately they were out of town on a visit to one of her father's suppliers in Wind Country when she'd returned to Konoha – at least she'd been able to spare her mother the worry of her only daughter being in the hospital. But any mistakes she made if she tried to pursue an investigation could cost them their lives as well… so she decided to wait until they returned and speak to them both.
A week later, a scroll arrived, detailing the fire that claimed her parents' lives. At that point, Yuuhi Kurenai realized what being all alone really meant.
Kurenai shook her head, as if to clear it of unwanted memories, and glanced up at the clock. The test should be over by now. She glanced at the others sitting there. Kakashi was reading one of his little orange books, Gai was doing one-armed push-ups on the floor, and Asuma was smoking and trying to talk Gai into joining him in some elaborate betting pool regarding the exam results.
The door to the temporary waiting room opened and everyone looked up. However, instead of Ibiki with the test results, they saw two of the younger special-jonin, Gekko Hayate and Shiranui Genma. The latter stopped after entering the room and just started laughing for some strange reason.
"What's so funny?" Asuma asked in a faintly belligerent tone.
Hayate just shook his head and elbowed Genma. "Sorry, but we have to ask. Have any of you left the lounge since the exam started?"
All four jonin shook their heads.
Hayate let out a sigh. "That's what I thought," he said.
By this time Genma had mastered his amusement and cocked his head, peering at them. It seemed to Kurenai that his attention was focused on her and Gai. "At least the henge were good likenesses," he said after a moment.
"Excuse me?" Kurenai asked, narrowing her eyes.
Genma looked over at Hayate, who sighed and nodded. "I was assigned to patrolling near the examination building this afternoon," Genma explained. "I caught three people on a rooftop trying to signal someone in the examination room. They appeared to be you and Gai-san, along with Umino Iruka, one of the Chuunin who teach at the Academy, but when I confronted them they didn't act quite right." Genma shook his head at that point. "I hit them with some poisoned senbon, but they just exploded… I'm pretty sure now that they were shadow clones. I stopped them, but we're still wondering who did it."
Kurenai shook her head. She knew of only one clone-user that would pick her, Gai, and Iruka as models. But what the hell was he thinking?
Kakashi looked up from his book. "Since the first exam is over now, did Ibiki-san use the Prisoner's Dilemma, the Impossible Task, or something even more devious and twisted on our students?"
Hayate looked puzzled at the question, but he answered the copy-ninja nonetheless. "I believe he went with the second option, with two of his confederates seeded into the examinees to copy from."
At that point, Kakashi's face twisted under his ever-present mask. It wasn't until Kurenai noted the tilt in his visible eye that she realized he was smiling. "You've been had, Genma-san."
"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked sharply.
"Do any of you regularly use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Kakashi asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
Kakashi shrugged. "It's not surprising; it takes a lot of chakra to summon a clone that will disappear the first time it's hit. More than a few will tap my reserves, so it's only useful in certain situations. One of the reasons it's such a chakra drain is because you are molding enough chakra for it to have a physical presence, without a sustaining material to give it mass, like with Mizu Bunshin. Another reason is because the user is creating a faint impression of his consciousness on the bunshin, allowing it to think somewhat independently."
Kurenai remembered working with Shino on the roof repairs, and carrying on a conversation with one of Naruto's clones, thinking it was the original. "Does the degree of independent thought depend on the amount of chakra used to create the clone?" she asked curiously. It was odd, once you got Kakashi talking about the technical details of an advanced jutsu, how his goofball persona seemed to just fall away for a time.
"To a degree," Kakashi agreed with a nod. "One side effect of the impression process is this: when a clone is dispelled, the knowledge and memories gained by this secondary consciousness will revert to the original."
"So what you're saying," Asuma interrupted, crushing out his cigarette, "is the jutsu user will know everything the clone knows?"
"That's right," Kakashi said. "I remember the night we agreed on the team assignments, Iruka said something about Uzumaki Naruto mastering Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?"
Kurenai frowned. "Yes, and those were probably his clones. But from the way you described Ibiki's strategy… I believe you called it 'The Impossible Task', and his use of confederates… the students were supposed to cheat to pass?"
Kakashi shrugged, but Hayate nodded slightly.
"It sounds like Naruto had enough time that night to learn a jounin-level technique," Kakashi said with an obvious smirk under his mask, "but not enough time to read all the fine print. Otherwise his clones wouldn't have been trying so hard to signal him… they could have just dispersed themselves to give him whatever information they had collected."
"Wait!" Genma shouted, the ever-present senbon falling out of the corner of his mouth. "That means when I…"
"When you disrupted his clones, you helped them achieve their mission," Kakashi said lightly. "I'm sure Kurenai-sama appreciates you helping her genin… maybe you should ask her out on a date?"
Kurenai glared at the infamous copy-ninja. "Do you really think you have enough traps guarding your 'literature' collection, Kakashi?"
Kakashi paled for a moment, but then nodded.
"If I hired my team for a C-rank mission to burn them all, it would be money well spent," she replied. "Do you really want to bet all your little orange books against the deviousness of the most notorious prankster to ever graduate from the Academy? I must warn you, he's been saving up – he even fooled me once with a genjutsu."
Kakashi visibly swallowed and slowly shook his head.
Asuma grunted. "You fight dirty," he said approvingly.
Kurenai just smiled at him.
At this point Genma was banging his head against the wall, while Hayate tried to console him. Gai finished his push-ups, but seemed to still have a lot of nervous energy. He jumped to his feet and began lecturing Kakashi about how he should never try to be 'cool and hip' toward Kurenai-san, a sensei who so obviously understood the power of youth… not noticing that Kakashi had his nose again buried in the book cradled protectively in his hands.
All the noise was starting to give Kurenai a headache, so she got up and began walking toward the door. As she reached out to open it, it moved aside on its own. Ibiki stood in the doorway, his face impassive but his dark eyes glittering as she stepped back to allow him entrance.
"Is that Uzumaki brat one of yours?" he asked without greeting.
Kurenai merely raised an eyebrow. His words betrayed more emotion than he usually allowed to show. "Yes. Yes, he is. What of it?"
"That's what I thought," he said as he handed her the test results. "Got your fingerprints all over him, so to speak. Got one of the highest scores without being observed cheating at all, my assistants are still trying to figure out how he did it."
"He had some unwitting assistance," Kurenai replied absently as her eyes flitted down the scoring summary. She smiled slightly. All of her genin had done well, exceptionally well in fact. She looked up at Ibiki, who was visibly glowering. "We just figured it out – you can ask Genma. Now what else happened?"
Ibiki sighed. "The last question was a gut-check, to see if they could commit in a high-stress situation. I told them that if they chose to answer the last question and failed, they could never take the exam again."
Kurenai frowned. "That must have gone over well."
"Well, it did the job. All the wimps were bailing out like rats leaving a sinking ship, when your genin jumps up on his desk and starts shouting at me," Ibiki continued, scowling. "He tells me I don't have the authority to declare such a rule, and if I did, he'd be the first genin to become Hokage and then he'd fire me."
"Fire you?" Kurenai asked, going very still. When Asuma nudged her shoulder, she handed him the exam results, still maintaining iron-rigid self control.
"Yes," Ibiki confirmed sarcastically. "I believe the exact words were 'I'll fire your a** for making up stupid rules!'."
"I see," Kurenai said as she carefully edged toward the doorway. "I'll have a word with him immediately regarding his language," she promised as she slipped out into the hallway.
If anyone in the room heard the sound of muffled feminine laughter receding down the hallway, they chose not to say anything about it.
OoOoO
To his credit, Naruto actually blushed at Moritake's that evening when Kurenai questioned him regarding his words toward Morino Ibiki. It was clear he'd been overwrought when he'd confronted the special jonin, so she eventually let it pass. Overall, she was in far too good a mood to let anything minor spoil it. All three of her genin had tested out near the top of the group, even when counting only those who had passed. Though she would never say so aloud, Hinata and Shino doing well was only to be expected… but Uzumaki Naruto had never seemed to be much for scholastic excellence, or even subtlety. She hoped that Iruka took the opportunity to rub his colleagues' noses in that fact when the scores were released to the Academy. Naruto's use of kage bunshin had been inspired, even if it did indicate that he wasn't fully aware of how they worked.
Not that she refrained from bringing that up when it was his turn to describe his tactics. The rosy blush that returned to his face more than made up for any embarrassment she'd suffered in the jonin lounge. On the other hand, it was gratifying to note that he'd already mostly figured out that aspect of kage bunshin on his own.
Moreover, she was cautiously optimistic regarding the confrontation between Naruto and Ibiki. Of course, the jonin had been irked at how… publicly… Naruto had called his bluff. But at worst, he'd only have to deal with some kidding from the other instructors. Out of anyone in Konoha, she was sure the head of the ANBU torture and interrogation squad could appreciate what had been done to Naruto, and respect the boy for not turning into a murderous beast. Even his comments earlier that day had been laced with grudging respect. Hopefully when the time came, he would regard defending Naruto from a faceless conspiracy to be in the best interests of Konohagakure.
As they finished their meal, Kurenai also couldn't help but notice that Hinata had been even more quiet than usual. The pale eyed girl described her surreptitious use of the Byakugan in as few words as possible, looking down the whole time. She even looked uncomfortable when Naruto praised her for being 'extra sneaky'.
After giving her students directions on how to reach the second examination, using a map of the Konoha training areas, Kurenai suggested that they go home early to pack their equipment and get as much rest as possible. But after she paid the bill, she followed her students out.
"Hinata, would you stay a moment?" she asked the Hyuuga girl in a voice that was little more than a whisper.
The girl nodded. As soon as Naruto and Shino were out of sight, Kurenai spoke again. "Now what's bothering you?"
The young kunoichi looked even more uncomfortable, if that was possible. "A-ano, Kurenai-sensei… I am j-just disappointed in myself," she said quietly.
Kurenai refrained from comment as she gestured for Hinata to follow her. After they both sat down on a bench not too far from Moritake's entryway, she took a deep breath. Hyuuga Hiashi's treatment of his daughter was atrocious, and every time she had to deal with the consequences, it became harder and harder to restrain her anger. "Please explain to me why you are disappointed, Hinata," she asked in as gentle a voice as she could manage. "I have heard nothing tonight that you should not be proud of."
"I'm sorry, sensei," Hinata said in a miserable tone, "it was wrong of me to conceal my failures. But I didn't want the others to know…" her voice trailed off. "To know how close I came to making us all fail," she added rapidly, the words practically tripping over each other.
Kurenai frowned, trying to make sense of the girl's words.
"During the tenth question…" she choked out. "I almost raised my hand. I couldn't bear the thought of Naruto being limited to genin for the rest of his life. I know he isn't stupid, but I thought maybe they'd introduced that rule because he was taking the test this year. So many people are cruel to him… I couldn't bear the thought of… but I should have believed in him!" Hinata's shoulders hitched as her words became fragmentary.
There were few people on the street in the early evening to witness the Hyuuga heir having a public breakdown, but nonetheless Kurenai quickly cast a simple genjutsu to conceal their identities. The last thing she wanted was word of this to reach the girl's father. Then she stiffly leaned over and wrapped her arm around her student's thin shoulders.
Hinata went utterly still for a moment, and Kurenai worried that she'd misread the girl's psychological state. She was about to lift her arm when Hinata turned and wrapped her arms around Kurenai with surprising strength. The girl was shaking like a leaf, but Maito Gai's weight training program had very noticeable results.
Kurenai swallowed the lump that tried to form in her throat. She'd long ago discarded any plans of settling down and raising a family, but moments like this made her question that decision. For other reasons, Hinata's reaction made her scowl. She wondered how long had it been since anyone had comforted her in such a manner. Since her mother passed away?
When Hinata's trembling began to ebb and her breathing returned to normal, Kurenai finally spoke up. "Hinata, I don't see where you did anything wrong. You were concerned for your teammate, and were looking out for his best interests. When it was clear that he correctly assessed the risks and chose to continue, you went along with that. You have nothing to apologize for, either to me or to your teammates."
Hinata let go of her sensei in order to look up in at her in confusion. Kurenai ignored the odd pang she felt as she let go as well. "But I would have made us fail," Hinata protested in a small voice.
"But you didn't," Kurenai reminded her.
Hinata slowly shook her head. "Only because Naruto-kun stopped me," she protested. "It was foolish of me to think people would go to all this trouble to make Naruto fail," she continued.
Kurenai froze in place for a moment as she weighed the risks. It was only an instant, so she was mildly surprised when Hinata looked up at her. "Sensei?" the genin asked in a worried voice.
"Hinata," Kurenai said, choosing her words carefully. "There is something you should know, but you are under no circumstances to discuss this with anyone besides myself. Do I make myself clear?"
Hinata nodded, eyes even wider than normal.
Kurenai glanced around. No one was nearby, but she quickly performed another genjutsu that would mask their words from any curious ears. "Your suspicions are not completely unfounded," she told her student after a moment. "Between Shino, Iruka-sensei, and myself, we have uncovered signs that some people are acting in ways to hurt Naruto and prevent him from being accepted in the village. I don't think they would be able to change the Chuunin Examination rules to accomplish this, but I am cautious about everything where Naruto is concerned."
Hinata's next words caught Kurenai completely off-balance. "Is my father involved?" she asked, tension visible in the trembling of her jaw.
"I don't know," was all Kurenai could say. She hadn't anticipated Hinata making that connection so fast. "The head of the Hyuuga clan would have the influence to do some of the things we've uncovered, but that alone is not proof."
Hinata's eyes had gone very still, and seemed to bore into Kurenai's as she spoke. "He asked me, after we returned from the border, about the fight with the kidnappers," Hinata said.
Kurenai's breath seemed to catch in her throat. If he knew that Naruto had drawn on the Kyuubi's chakra, he could use that to…
"However," Hinata continued, "I was unconscious for some of the battle and could not answer his questions. He seemed very disappointed."
Now Kurenai finally recognized why Hinata's eyes seemed to have unnerved her for an instant. Her student was angry. "Your discretion is highly appreciated, Hinata," she said evenly as she remembered a discussion between her own parents that she'd overheard a year before she graduated from the Academy.
They'd just returned from the funeral of one of her father's trading partners, one Hiroto Yasuri. He and his daughter Natsuki both died after eating a meal prepared with some wild mushrooms that turned out to have been highly poisonous. It was ruled to be an accident, but Kurenai's parents didn't believe it. The daughter had been thirty-nine at the time, an unusual age for a once attractive girl to remain unwed. It wasn't however, for a lack of suitors. Her father had rejected the young men of the village who'd asked permission to court his daughter, hoping she would catch the eye of one of the nobility. He was extremely wealthy, but money couldn't buy entry into the nobility of Fire Country, so his only option was through marriage. Unfortunately, his insistence that his daughter could only marry someone of that class had left her alone until her youth had fled. While many who knew the family felt bad about the situation, Natsuki never complained and never spoke about it… But she'd prepared the meal that claimed her and her father's life.
Kurenai blinked, as she wondered what had stirred up that memory. As a shinobi of the Leaf, Hinata was not quite as constrained as Hiroto Natsuki had been. Perhaps it was the reminder that a meek and soft-spoken exterior could conceal surprising depths. It was a lesson she was sure that Hyuuga Hiashi had yet to learn.
OoOoO
Naruto made sure he arrived at Training Area Forty-Four at least an hour before the second exam was scheduled to begin. As it was, Shino was already there, and Hinata arrived at roughly the same time. After all the nervous tension of the first exam, and then unwinding at the celebratory dinner at Moritake's, he'd fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Now, after sleeping far later than he was used to, he felt ready to take on the world.
Which was a good thing, given how some of the other examinees were eyeing him as they arrived at what signs announced was a 'forbidden area'.
Shino was quiet as he paced back and forth, facing the fence that marked the boundaries of the training area. Naruto had never seen his friend, well, fidget like that before. He supposed that the seriousness of the situation was finally getting to the normally unflappable Aburame.
Serious or not, he doubted Shino would appreciate him commenting on his behavior, so Naruto stood next to Hinata and went through his mental checklist of the equipment he'd packed. The instructions relayed from Kurenai-sensei said to come prepared as they usually would be for a mission. Given that some of their missions were weeks long - that could mean a lot. Also, when he looked at sensei's map of the training areas, Area Forty-Four, located at the northwest edge of the village and extending well out into Fire Country, was a circle twenty kilometers in diameter. That suggested that the second exam might last far longer that the first.
So he, and to a lesser extent Hinata, had packed heavily for this 'mission'. The chakra-enhanced training weights on their wrists and ankles could always be adjusted to make up the extra weight. While doing this slightly changed their balance, they had adjusted by the time they reached the training area.
Hinata left the normal bag she carried around Konoha at home, and instead wore a full-sized backpack over her jacket. Naruto's pack was slightly oversized for his height, but was strapped on tightly and didn't interfere with his movements. He'd even tested this by wearing it during a sparring match with Lee the day after he'd purchased it from TenTen's father. The fabric directly over his back concealed a thin layer of metal links between it and the lining. It might not stop a kunai, but it could slow one down.
He also wore both kunai holsters and equipment pouches today. Some of the other genin looked at him curiously as they arrived, but others looked thoughtful or worried. He wondered briefly if they thought he had some inside information about the next stage, but it wasn't like they couldn't make the same deductions his team had.
He scowled for a moment. He was starting to sound like Shikamaru. Next thing he knew he'd be lying on his back, staring up at the sky and calling his teammates 'troublesome'.
He glanced over at Hinata. Truth be told, if he'd been stuck with Ino, it would have been troublesome. There was no doubt in his mind regarding which kunoichi he'd rather have backing him up. His mind wandered back to his former crush on Sakura, and he was surprised that his lingering anger and disappointment were gone. Perhaps talking with Lee had helped himself as well.
"Hey Hinata?" he asked quietly.
Hinata jumped a little, but quickly turned toward him.
"Do you think we might have forgotten anything?" he asked.
Hinata shook her head. "I went over my list three times last night before I went to bed. I checked it again this morning."
Naruto nodded. "I checked too, but I think I might have forgotten something."
Hinata shook her head again. "I don't think you'd-"
He smiled at her. "When I get excited, I sometimes forget the little things. You're more… what did Kurenai-sensei call it? Detail-oriented?"
Hinata blushed and looked down. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just get worried about forgetting something, so I tend to go over things compulsively."
Naruto frowned at her. "I think it's a good thing that you do. We'd probably screw up a lot more if you weren't looking out for us."
"Shino-kun is very careful with –" she objected, her cheeks coloring slightly.
"Okay," Naruto capitulated with a grin. "I would probably screw up a lot more if you weren't looking out for me."
This time an unmistakable blush spread over her face, giving Naruto an odd sense of satisfaction. He'd been giving this a lot of thought. Kurenai-sensei wouldn't say exactly what was going on with Hinata, but she'd hinted a lot. Remembering how he'd felt when Kurenai complimented him on something… acknowledging that he'd done something praiseworthy… he'd started to understand why Hinata seemed so flustered and embarrassed when he tried to compliment her.
The problem was, he could understand why he was so unused to praise. But what reasons could there be for Hyuuga Hinata, heir and member of main family of one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha? That wasn't something he'd figured out yet, and sometimes he wondered if he really wanted to know. But in the meantime, he could build these elaborate traps out of words, maneuvering Hinata-chan into accepting his words at face value. It was odd, of course, how she seemed to want to believe him, but still couldn't… of course, that just added to the challenge didn't it? And Uzumaki Naruto lived for challenges.
"Hinata," he said suddenly. "Could you use your eyes to check me out?"
His teammate froze, her face turning even redder. "N-Naruto?" she choked out after a moment.
"I mean, with your Byakugan, you can see inside my backpack and see if I forgot anything," he explained. "I don't want to open it up and dump it out here in front of everyone," he continued. "I don't want anyone to see all the stuff I have packed."
"O-oh," Hinata said after a moment, as her face began to return to normal. "That makes sense, I suppose." Her fingers quickly formed the seal for her bloodline ability. "Byakugan!" she murmured. A hint of red remained on her cheeks as she circled around Naruto. "I can't see anything you missed," she said quickly, as her attention drifted down to his weapon pouches and kunai holsters for a moment. She quickly spun away and her eyes went back to normal. Oddly, her cheeks were flaming again.
"You seem to have plenty of shuriken and kunai," she said quietly, facing away from him. "Though you only packed one box of ration bars in your backpack. What if this takes more than a week?"
"That's still in there?" Naruto asked in surprise. "I thought I'd decided to throw it away. I figured I can always eat some tree bark if I get hungry and can't find anything else. It would taste better." Maybe that would remind her of how much better her cooking tasted.
Hinata stifled a giggle at his comment. Unfortunately, her self-restraint wasn't perfect, as an extremely unlady-like snort escaped from her nose. She froze, mortified, as Naruto burst out laughing.
He wasn't trying to be cruel, but Uzumaki Naruto couldn't help it. It wasn't unheard of for someone to make an odd noise when muffling laughter, but to hear it come from his refined teammate was just priceless. The horrified look on her face just made it even funnier. It was a few moments before he could even stand up straight again. "Arigato, Hinata-san!" he said, bowing deeply before his embarrassed teammate.
"Naruto?" she asked, her curiosity seeming to override her embarrassment for the moment.
He gave her his widest smile. "Here I am, getting nervous about the exam, and wondering if I forgot something… and then you do something like that to distract me. You rock, Hinata!"
Hinata's face paled dramatically, then gradually returned to normal, albeit with a slight pinkish cast to it. Naruto felt inordinately pleased. He'd done something right, even if he wasn't sure what it was.
Shino finished his nervous pacing before too many of the other examinees arrived and stood next to them. Given some of the hateful looks they'd been given the previous day, Naruto preferred that they all stand together when around strangers. That wasn't even taking into account what they knew about Sabaku no Gaara.
Of course, this Mitarashi Anko wasn't exactly increasing his sense of security. He didn't even notice her arriving, which was unnerving enough. Her words didn't help either. "This is where the second exam will take place: the forty-fourth training area, also known as the Forest of Death," she explained in a casual, yet creepy voice.
Some of the candidates murmured at that.
"You will soon be able to experience why this place is called the Forest of Death," she continued happily. "But before we begin the Second Exam, I'm going to pass these out to everyone." With that, she pulled a thick stack of official looking forms out of her trench coat. "These are consent forms. Those taking the exam must sign these."
"Why?" several examinees asked.
"From here on, people will die," she replied in a casual tone. "Therefore we need people's consent before we continue. Otherwise, I'd be held accountable." She ended with chuckle, but no one else seemed to find her words funny.
"Now, I will begin to explain the second exam," she continued after a moment. "To be brief, this is going to be a survival test." She handed the stack of forms to Hinata, who took one and handed the stack to Naruto, who took a pair for himself and Shino before handing the rest to Shikamaru.
"This area," she explained as she unrolled a map she'd pulled out of her trench coat, "is a circular region surrounded by forty-four locked gates. In addition to rivers and forests, there is a tower in the middle. It's around ten kilometers from any entrance to the tower. Inside this area you will have to fend for yourselves as you battle over these scrolls," she explained, pulling two sealed scrolls from inside her trench coat as she replaced the map. Naruto wondered briefly if there was a jutsu that allowed her to carry so much stuff in it. The light-colored scroll displayed the kanji for 'Heaven', while the darker-colored one displayed the symbol for 'Earth'.
"Twenty-eight teams passed the First Exam," Anko explained. "Half of those teams will get the Heaven scroll. The other half will get the Earth scroll. Each team gets one scroll."
"What is needed to pass?" Sasuke asked in a serious tone, making several people look around.
"Bring the Scrolls of Heaven and Earth to the tower with your teammates," Anko answered.
"In other words, fourteen teams, half the people here, will get their scroll stolen and therefore fail," Sakura said thoughtfully.
"It also needs to be done within the time limit," Anko added. "This Second Exam has a time limit of one hundred twenty hours, or exactly five days."
"Five days?" Ino asked, incredulous.
"What about food?" Chouji asked, horrified.
"Scrounge it up yourself," Anko said in a dismissive tone, "This forest is a treasure box of nature. There should be plenty of food." Naruto had a feeling that Team Ten hadn't taken a look at a map, or realized the implications of the training area size, until now.
"However," Kabuto added helpfully, "there are a lot of man-eating beasts, poison bugs, and poisonous plants."
"Oh no!" Chouji murmured as Ino scolded him.
"This test seems quite difficult," Lee said with a grin that made his teeth gleam. Neji gave him a dirty look while Tenten sighed.
"And we're surrounded by enemies," Sasuke added thoughtfully. "We won't be able to sleep in peace."
"People will get hurt in the process of fighting over the scrolls," Anko said, "and those who cannot deal with the difficulties will be revealed."
"So can we forfeit if that happens?" Shikamaru asked.
"As a rule, you are not allowed to give up during the exam," Anko announced. "You will spend the full five days in the forest."
"Just as I thought," Shikamaru said with noticeable disgust in his voice. "How troublesome."
"While we're on this topic," Anko continued, ignoring the Nara boy, "here are the conditions that will fail you. First, if you do not arrive at the tower with three teammates and both scrolls, you fail. Second, if your team loses a member, you automatically fail. Finally, you are not allowed to look inside the scrolls until you reach the tower."
"What happens if we do?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Then you will get a surprise," Anko promised with a nasty smile. "If you become a Chuunin you will be handling top secret documents. It's a test of your reliability. That's it for the explanations. We will exchange three signed consent forms for one scroll over in that hut."
Naruto's eyes looked where she was pointing, and saw it was manned by several Chuunin proctors, some of which he recognized from the previous day.
"After you are assigned a gate entrance," Anko continued, "everyone will begin at the same time." She sighed gustily. "Here's a last piece of advice: Don't die!"
Naruto's eyes narrowed as he clenched his fists.
OoOoO
It took a few minutes for the chuunin proctors to set up a curtain around the hut where the forms were to be turned in. This gave them plenty of time to fill them out, with a little left over for Ino and Sakura to snub each other. Naruto stretched to get some of the tension out of his shoulders, and saw Lee doing some warm-ups. The two boys exchanged a nod. While their teams had a fifty-fifty chance of competing directly against each other, depending on how the scrolls were distributed, they wouldn't forget Gai-sensei's words either. The shinobi of the Leaf would stick together if the situation got out of hand and there was a chance of permanent harm.
When it was their turn, Team Eight moved silently behind the curtain. When the chuunin held out a Heaven scroll, both Hinata and Shino gestured toward Naruto. Naruto shrugged and silently removed his backpack, shoving the scroll all the way to the bottom before closing it and putting it back on. He was touched that his teammates wished to trust him with carrying their team's scroll, and vowed not to let them down.
After all of the teams were done, Anko sent each team off with a chuunin to guide them to their assigned gates. It wasn't long until they arrived at gate sixteen and waited for the chuunin guide to allow them inside. After consulting his chronometer, he unlocked the padlock and stepped aside.
In a flash the three of them were through the gate moving into the forest at high speed. The first chakra-assisted leap got them up into the canopy so they stopped leaving tracks on the ground. Hinata was between the two boys, and slightly in front, allowing for the best possible coverage with her all-seeing eyes.
Shino signaled danger ahead and to the right, so they smoothly veered to the left. At Hinata's signal they came to a sudden halt on a thick bough that easily supported their combined weight.
"No one is in range of my eyes," Hinata whispered.
"Good," Naruto grunted. "Shino, what was that back there?"
"I saw signs of a large colony of Konoha Forest Leeches," the Aburame answered. "I assumed you wanted to avoid them." He paused. "I don't sense any of the other teams near us," he reported.
Naruto frowned. "How…?"
"I arrived early and seeded the grass in the meeting area with female kikai bugs," Shino explained. "I believe that one or more members of every team have one riding on them now. And as you know, other members of my colonies can-"
"-smell them from a mile away," Naruto finished, grinning. "Shino, you sneaky b*****d!" he congratulated his teammate.
"As a reconnaissance team, it would be foolish not to play to our strengths," Shino said as he readjusted his dark glasses  

[Pandora Green]

Chapter 13
Naruto flew backwards, his ears ringing from the heavy blow. Arching his back he managed to get his hands and feet in front of him before he smacked into a tree-trunk with stunning force. Bits of bark shot into the air and he barely managed to concentrate enough chakra to stick his hands and feet to the wood before he fell. That freaky grass genin was strong.
He shook his head to clear it, scanning the clearing for his teammates and allies. They'd only been traveling an hour before things started to get hairy. They'd avoided one team by using some forest leeches as a distraction, and were circling around to ambush them when Shino's colonies sensed the pheromones of a single kikai bug approaching at high speed.
His super-sneaky teammate planted his kikai on all the other participants, but they should have been together in groups of three. Whether a lone competitor was a threat or an opportunity, they decided to see who it was.
Whatever it was that they had expected to see, it hadn't been Kiba being chased by a giant snake.
OoOoO
Shino could see that the Inuzuka was clearly winded, and the snake was gaining on him. As the monstrous reptile reared up to strike, Naruto came in from the side, tackling Kiba out of the way. Unfortunately, Akamaru went flying from the sudden change in momentum. But Hinata was a heartbeat behind, and caught the tumbling canine with little more than a startled yelp. The snake, angry at being robbed of its meal, turned to pursue them, but that mistake proved fatal.
Shino dropped out of the trees above the snake, his arms trailing behind him. His hands flexed and a long baton of dull black metal shot out of each sleeve of his jacket. He caught the ends with the sureness of intensive practice and there was a distinct click as narrow, slightly curved blades folded out of each baton. They locked at a right angle to what were now the shafts of the modified kamas, the razor sharp metal pointing downward. With his arms above his plummeting body, they resembled scythe-like wings. Shino's sandals landed on the back of the snake's head, but before it could even register his presence, the blades continued their trajectory, curving into tight arcs as he straightened, his arms snapping downward.
The blades buried themselves in the snake's eyes, ramming deep into the creature's brain. The carcass slammed down, skidding on the ground. Shino extracted his weapons with a sharp jerk, cleaning the blades on the grass before folding them up again. By this time, his teammates had circled back into the clearing with their 'prisoner' – though by this time Kiba had reclaimed his dog.
But not before it had licked Hinata's face several times, to her visible embarrassment.
Naruto let out a low whistle before speaking. "Is that what Misato-sama was teaching you?" he asked, clearly impressed.
Shino nodded as he slid the hafts of his weapons into his sleeves again. With an audible click, the spring-loaded holders locked them into place.
"You have the coolest parents," Naruto muttered as Kiba got his breath back and began to explain. He'd been separated from the rest of Team Seven by some freaky wind attack, only to find himself on some monster snake's dinner menu. As he talked, he began to lead him back to where he'd been attacked.
As they approached the clearing where Team Seven had been separated, Akamaru began to bark and Shino started scanning the greenery around them. "Something is wrong," the boy murmured, "my colonies are sensing a large amount of chakra being expended up ahead."
"Akamaru senses it too," Kiba added as he patted the puppy that was now burrowing down into his jacket.
"Up above," Hinata whispered, her Byakugan gleaming with the bits of late afternoon sun that filtered down past the leaves.
Shoving a bit of chakra into his legs, Naruto leapt into the canopy in a single bound, the others less than a step behind. Entering a potentially hostile situation at ground level was to be avoided whenever possible. Iruka-sensei's lectures on tactics seemed so boring back at the Academy. Now, it was all Naruto could do to keep the remains of his last meal down.
Landing on a thick bough in a stealthy crouch, Naruto scanned the branches. Sasuke and Sakura were there, still alive too. On the other hand, Sakura looked like she'd seen better days and Sasuke had a bloody wound on his thigh. He ignored the slight twinge in his stomach and examined the third person, who was standing on a separate bough.
The Hidden Grass genin stared right at him with a look that was simultaneously bored and contemptuous. Naruto hadn't made more than a whisper of sound when he landed, but he'd still been detected. He swallowed as the stranger's eyes bored into his with a mixture of mild annoyance and more killing intent than even Sabaku no Gaara generated. There was no way this creep was a normal genin.
"More insects here to interfere?" he… it murmured in a peculiarly androgynous voice. "I'll have to talk to my friend about his performance. I send him to kill one, and instead four come back. Very disappointing, but I'm only interested in testing Sasuke's potential. I'm afraid you'll all just have to die. Maybe Sasuke would like to watch, hmmm? Just like before…"
Sasuke launched forward a fraction of a second before Naruto. The Uchiha threw a rapid flurry of punches that the genin blocked with a single hand. The instant before Naruto's fist connected with the back of the freak's head, the other arm whipped around in a backhanded blow that sent him flying into a tree trunk.
OoOoO
By the time Naruto had regained his bearings, Sasuke was stumbling backwards from the freak's counterattack. Naruto frowned. Since when were Sasuke's eyes red?
The Grass ninja's follow-up was interrupted by a spread of kunai thrown by Kiba. Shino was circling around the fight, no doubt spreading his kikai-bugs, but Hinata was darting in toward the enemy's rear, her hands up for a Jyuuken strike.
Naruto almost shouted for her to stop, but he had to trust that she knew what she was doing. Instead, he put his hands together into the ram seal and summoned a score of kage bunshin, spread around the nearby branches. They instantly began circling as well, waiting for an opening.
Hinata almost made it, but at the last second the freaky genin pivoted and drove a back-kick into her stomach, driving her off her feet so fast she didn't even have a chance to hit any of the tenketsu on his leg. Fortunately, one of Naruto's clones was close enough to catch her, and pivoting, tossed her to a second clone on a higher branch right before the freak's follow-up spin-kick drove through the first clone's chest, making it explode.
"Kage bunshin?" the weirdo said in a voice that was really getting on Naruto's nerves. "Maybe you aren't as boring as you look."
"Get out of here!" Sasuke yelled, "All of you! He's way above our level!"
"I don't think it will be that simple," Shino said as he threw a pair of kunai. At first, they looked to be underthrown, but when they embedded in the wood to either side of the Grass ninja's feet, they each had an explosive tag that was already flaring.
The explosion filled the air with smoke, but not flying body parts as Naruto had hoped. He couldn't even smell any blood. When the smoke cleared the bough was gone, but in its place was an even larger snake, with the Grass-nin standing on top of its head.
"Oh hell no!" Kiba yelled. "You have got to be kidding me!"
Sasuke looked like he was about to explode. He kept glancing at his teammates then shook his head and his eyes faded back into their normal black color. "Fine," he snapped, as he pulled something out of his pouch. "You want our scroll, you can have it."
"No!" Kiba yelled. Even Sakura looked dismayed.
"This is not worth us all getting killed like Tazuna," Sasuke snarled.
"I suppose that goes for us as well," Naruto said, slinging his backpack off his shoulders and rummaging around in it. He knew Hinata and Shino were staring at him, but he just ignored them for the moment. It took a little digging, since he had their scroll in the very bottom of the bag for safe-keeping. He even had to get one of his clones to step around the tree and help him for a moment.
All the while the Grass freak had this amused little smirk on his face, one that made Naruto's knuckles itch. But now was not the time to scratch them on his way-too-pretty-to-be-a-guy face.
Meanwhile, Kiba and Sasuke had gotten into a heated argument, one that culminated in Kiba grabbing the scroll away from Sasuke and tossing it back over his shoulder to Sakura. Amazingly enough, she didn't immediately hand it over to her crush. When Sasuke started to argue again, Kiba told him to shut up and used the index and middle fingers of his right hand to doink him on the forehead.
Sasuke went completely rigid when the slightly taller Inuzuka did this, and for a moment Naruto thought he was going to go after his teammate. Instead, he turned away with a glare.
"Fine," Naruto announced in a loud voice. "My team was just passing by. Here's our scroll. We can go now, right?" He carefully tossed the scroll to the Grass genin.
"That is the way of prey," the weirdo said in response as it weighed the scroll in its hand. "When confronted by a predator, they offer up something in their place, hoping to be left alone."
"But there is no guarantee that you will do that, is there?" Shino asked in a very chill tone. Hinata had regained her breath and moved away from his clone. She was frowning at Naruto, and that bugged him more than a little.
"No, there isn't," the Grass ninja agreed with a leer.
"Good," Naruto announced brightly. "Then I won't feel bad about this."
With a poof, the outer seal on the Heaven scroll disappeared, revealing explosive tags wrapped around a blank scroll. They promptly exploded, enveloping the creepy shinobi in a ball of fire.
The enormous snake let out a hiss that sounded like a boiler explosion and lunged for Naruto's branch. Naruto timed his leap for the last second and managed to vault over the snake's head and land on its neck, chakra gluing the soles of his sandals to the undulating scales.
No sooner did he land than he was in the middle of a hurricane of fists and feet. Effeminate or not, that weirdo still hit as hard as Gai-sensei. Naruto blocked as best he could, but the blows that slipped past to clip his head were making his ears ring. Finally, a kick to the stomach knocked him loose from the snake, and the instant his feet lost contact the snake was rearing back to swallow him.
Naruto barely had time to use a substitution technique with one of his clones to keep from being swallowed. About half his clones were gone now, most of them crushed by the snake thrashing around. As he created more, he saw Kiba and Akamaru make some kind of spiraling wind attack that gouged into the snake's belly scales. Elsewhere, Sakura was throwing kunai at the eyes of the giant reptile, without much luck.
Sasuke, surprisingly enough, had decided to fight once more. He'd thrown some kind of weird shuriken trailing wires around the snake. Not only were they starting to cut into the thick scales, but he was swinging around the snake's body, pelting the Grass shinobi with fireballs as he swung overhead. Shino wasn't immediately visible, but a wide section of the snake's scales were beginning to gleam wetly with blood, making Naruto shudder as he recalled Shino mentioning carnivorous strains of kikai bugs.
The Grass freak managed to sidestep the worst of the fireballs as Sasuke flashed overhead, so Naruto sent a brace of shuriken his way to keep him off balance. A trio of his clones contributed as well, even though they were quickly dispelled. He noticed that the ninja's left hand, which had been holding the scroll, appeared to be horribly burned, with the skin sloughing off in places, but it didn't seem to slow him down at all.
On Sasuke's next trip around the snake, his wires had wrapped around the thick body, pulling him low enough that he managed to put both feet into the side of the Grass-nin's head. For once, their enemy's eyes widened a little as it was knocked off of the snake and into free-fall. Hinata darted forward out from under cover, leaping at the freak's back, right hand pulled back for what could well be a lethal Jyuuken strike.
Naruto leapt forward as the snake's tail caught Kiba and Akamaru right after they'd gouged a wide trench in the armor-like scales on its underbelly. Two of his clones shot down after them, hopefully in time to break their fall.
There was a visible flash as Hinata sent a massive burst of chakra into the center of their enemy's back. Naruto tried not to think of the mess that must have made out of the freak's insides. The Grass shinobi arched his back, but instead of signifying death throes, it was just the prelude to him reaching back with one inhumanly flexible arm and grabbing Hinata's shoulder. Still in free-fall, he hurled the kunoichi at the tree trunk they were falling past. The recoil allowed him to land on a branch, while Hinata struck the tree with a sickening thud. She fell limply away from the trunk, leaving a splotch of blood on the weathered bark. One of Naruto's clones caught her, but she hung limp in the horrified bunshin's arms.
Naruto let out a scream of rage just as the snake reared up and swallowed him.
OoOoO
Shino watched as Sasuke leapt after the imposter, his movements even faster than before. Not only was he moving with greater speed, he seemed to anticipate his opponent's actions by a fraction of a second. After flipping backward to escape his opponent's counter, the Uchicha came to rest on a higher branch for a moment, facing in Shino's direction. The gleam of red in his eyes indicated that the class genius had managed to activate his bloodline, the Sharingan.
His first colony had managed to get several kikai onto their opponent while his attention was otherwise occupied. However, the anomalous genin didn't even seem to notice the chakra they'd managed to drain from him. This meant that either their opponent was another jinchuuriki, which was highly unlikely, or it was a very advanced shinobi, of at least upper jonin rank.
His second colony was working its way towards where he estimated the enormous reptile's vital organs would be located. But their rate of progress did not bode well for a timely end. As it was, without its master guiding it, it did little more than thrash about, trying to shake them off without much success.
His eyes also tracked the progress of the kage bunshin carrying his teammate Hinata. She wasn't moving and the clone's face seemed unusually grave. Shino frowned. He was the last member of Team Eight still in the fight, but his efforts thus far had met with limited success.
"Good, good," the Grass shinobi murmured as he blocked another combo from the Uchiha heir. "Your skills have progressed nicely, all things considered." The overly familiar tone of voice seemed to be calculated to induce discomfort and fear. Shino merely found it to be a childish affectation.
Finally, Sasuke began to show signs of fatigue and his attacks slowed. Shino wondered if he'd ever had to spar someone as inexhaustible as Naruto. The Grass ninja grabbed Sasuke's arm and twisted, locking the joint. His other hand drew back for a strike as Shino soundlessly descended.
The Aburame boy felt a twinge of annoyance as their enemy jerked his head aside an instant before the blade of his kama transited the space it had been occupying. Displaying an inhuman degree of flexibility, the shinobi flipped backwards.
"Yet another insect interferes with my test," it sneered in an insinuating tone.
"Your statement implies that is supposed to be an insult," Shino said as he stepped forward, beginning one of his mother's intermediate attack patterns. The Grass ninja stepped back smoothly, dodging each blow almost as soon as it was launched. He supposed one might consider this frustrating, but he did not deviate from the kata. Overextending a strike in an attempt to catch his elusive foe would only give him an opening to launch a counter-offensive. Instead, Shino stuck with the pattern, the whirling blades giving no opening to his enemy as he steadily forced the unarmed shinobi backward.
"Ah, so those annoying little creatures are yours?" He asked. "Well, it's easy to deal with such… infestations." With that he leapt backward and up, bringing his hands up to his mouth at the apogee of his flight and sending a dense stream of fire down at Shino.
Shino crossed his weapons in front of himself and pushed as much chakra into them as he could in an attempt to duplicate one of his mother's more advanced techniques. The kamas glowed pale blue for a moment before they were engulfed in flames. However, his hands were not burned and the stream of fire seemed to part around him. When it was over, the wood on either side of him was smoldering, but he was untouched. He did, however, fall to one knee as the sudden expenditure of chakra had left him drained and weakened. For all that, he'd only barely repelled the fire technique.
As soon as he landed, the Grass shinobi was charging again. Shino took a deep breath as he regained his feet, but his foe was intercepted by Sasuke, who flung a double-handful of shuriken. They arced out in a seemingly random pattern, none of them coming close to their target – unless one noticed the wires trailing behind them. Before the Grass shinobi knew what was happening, he'd been bound to an adjacent tree trunk and the Uchiha fired off a massive stream of flames that raced down the wires to engulf his enemy.
Shino felt his eyebrows rise over the tops of his glasses. The katon jutsu had actually burned a hole completely through the five meter thick trunk, leaving their foe little more than a smoldering corpse.
And then the corpse darkened and slumped into a pile of mud and Shino felt something strike his back, sending him flying through the air. He held onto his weapons though, and despite acute shortness of breath was able to hook one blade into a passing branch and swing his body up. He landed carefully, then deliberately took a deep breath, wincing as tender ribs flexed. But he was still combat effective, so he waved off Naruto's clones as they moved to help.
Most of the remaining bunshin were circling around Sasuke and the Grass shinobi. Occasionally one would see an opportunity and attack, but most of them were destroyed without landing a blow. Given the extent of Naruto's taijutsu training, Shino found this worrisome.
When Sasuke was knocked clear again, all the clones dog-piled the Grass shinobi, only to have it use an advanced variation on the substitution technique. In this case, the enemy's body was replaced by a log festooned with explosive tags. The ensuing conflagration destroyed most of the remaining clones.
With no immediate sign of their foe, Shino and Sasuke both headed toward Sakura's perch, a wide bough where the last clones had deposited Hinata, as well as Kiba and Akamaru. All three were unconscious. As they circled around the still-thrashing snake, Sasuke spoke up. "Do you think we should… well, try to recover his body?"
"I don't think that will be necessary," Shino answered.
Sasuke turned to glare at Shino as they landed on the wide bough.
"His clones are still here," Shino murmured. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly and he turned to look at the snake as Shino knelt by his teammate. Hinata had a split lip, a bloody nose, and the whole side of her face was bruised. At best she'd have a mild concussion. Shino looked up at the worried clone hovering protectively over her. "She's badly hurt," Shino said in a flat voice. "If this battle goes on much longer she may die." Which was the literal truth: the young Hyuuga was in no condition to defend herself.
The clone spun toward the snake, its features drawn into a rictus of fury. It had barely taken a step forward before Shino stabbed it in the back with his kamas. The clone dispersed before it could even change expressions.
"What the hell was that for?" Sakura asked, outraged. Standing this close, he could see how watery her eyes were, and wondered if she'd thought things through.
"Naruto told me something interesting at dinner last night," was all Shino could say before the Grass shinobi dropped onto the branch beside them. The bug user barely had time to turn before a two-handed combination sent him skidding along the rough bark. But even as he tried to roll with the blow, his colonies registered a massive chakra spike nearby.
OoOoO
Sakura felt worse than useless, pulling out her last kunai and taking a wobbly defensive stance over her unconscious classmates. She knew when it was her turn she wouldn't last nearly as long as Shino, who was only now coming to a halt in a small blizzard of bark chips. Sasuke and the weird grass guy were moving so fast she could only see blurs now. It was amazing that Sasuke-kun was even holding him off this long.
That was when the giant snake's head exploded.
A sudden wave of… something… washed over her and she felt her hands trembling. In spite of herself, she found her head turning toward that sickening crunch. Surprisingly, so did the two battling not ten meters from where she stood.
A section of scaly skin at least two meters wide was missing. She could just make out a fist sticking up, coated in thick red fluid – with chunks. Before her gorge could finish rising, the whole snake's body began to glow brightly and then exploded – just like one of Naruto's clones.
Sakura flinched away from the explosion, just in time to see that Grass weirdo take advantage of the distraction to attack Sasuke-kun. A huge snake shot out of his sleeve and wrapped around Sasuke's torso, trapping his arms. The massive body flexed and Sasuke dropped to his knees as the air was forced out of his lungs. Sakura was about to charge forward, hoping her sacrifice would buy Sasuke enough time to escape, when a reddish blur shot past her.
"Get away from them!" something shouted in little more than a guttural roar. Sakura felt her knees turn to water as something, some instinct, made her want to turn and run until she died of exhaustion.
Sakura blinked. Standing in front of her was a rather rumpled-looking Naruto. He was facing away from her, but the hands fisted at his sides were trembling with what had to be rage.
There was a loud crack and the Grass genin went flying backwards to slam into the tree trunk hard enough to make an impression on the wood.
The genin flexed its arms and the wood literally exploded around it. "Those eyes," it murmured. "So that's what happened to it."
"Shut up, you b*****d!" Naruto growled.
Sakura rubbed at her eyes, but there was nothing wrong with them. Naruto was not only wrapped up in enough chakra to see, but it was red. What the hell would make him have red chakra? Was it some weird blood limit she hadn't heard about. Inner-Sakura, the, uhm, more assertive voice inside her head, demanded to know how Naruto, of all people could have a blood limit. Then again, Kiba said he'd heard Team Eight had been in an incredible fight on their patrol mission.
As if to prove the point, Naruto charged forward, punching and kicking in a blur of motion. He was moving even faster than before, and this time he was holding his own, at least for the moment. Snapped out of her daze, she spun toward Sasuke-kun, gripping her last kunai.
The last Uchiha in Konoha was getting red in the face as the snake continued to squeeze. It hadn't even tried to bite him; it seemed more like it was playing with him, holding Sasuke down for its weirdo master. But it spun and snapped at her as she approached, the sharp fangs missing her by inches.
"Sa-Sakura," Sasuke gasped. "Get… out of here. Just… go!" he said in a wheezing voice.
Sakura's eyes widened. Did he think she'd just leave him like this? Who did he think she was? Did he think she was a coward? But his voice didn't seem angry or disappointed, just… worried. Afraid. Not of the snake, either. But maybe… for her? On one hand, such a realization warmed her slightly, and gave her hopes for the future. On the other hand, Inner Sakura was pissed. Did he think she was that useless?
Sakura scowled, shifting the kunai so it lay under her wrist. She held out her free hand, taunting the snake. This was no different than the slapping game Ino had taught her when they were young. The python took the bait, and lunged at her free hand, even as Sasuke tried to jerk backwards to stop it. Sakura pivoted at the hips, drawing back the empty hand even as the other one shot forward.
The kunai slammed down through the top of the snake's head with a sickening crunch. In a flash, Sasuke was free of the loosening coils. Sakura spared him a glare as he raced past her, trying not to think too hard about what she'd just done. Throwing up would rather spoil the effect.
"Thanks," Sasuke murmured as he charged back into the fight.
As the summoned snake disappeared, Sakura scooped up her now free blade, which she decided was her 'lucky' kunai. Then she spun to follow her Sasuke-kun into battle.
OoOoO
No matter how angry he was, no matter how much of the freaky red chakra he used, Naruto couldn't seem to get a clean shot at this Grass b*****d. The freak's taijutsu was very different from Gai-sensei's Goken, but it was effective nonetheless. It was hard to stay centered too – the anger that came with the chakra seemed to undermine his control at every opportunity.
But it was down to him again. Shino was down and Hinata was unconscious, maybe dying if Shino was right. Kiba was out as well and the rest of Team Seven was struggling. A hard backfist strike clipped his jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. Even as he regained his footing, the b*****d was finishing his seals. So fast. And the next instant Naruto was borne aloft on hurricane winds, glancing off of one tree trunk and slamming into another one. Not bothering to use chakra this time, Naruto dug his fingertips into the bark, only slightly surprised when blunt claws found enough purchase to hold him there.
He had to be careful this didn't go too far. There was no telling what might happen if he used too much of this. But so far, this wasn't enough. At least, not enough to put down the b*****d that hurt Hinata-chan and Shino.
Sasuke was fighting it now, dodging more than blocking, but still clearly outclassed. Naruto hit the release on his weights and launched himself forward like an arrow.
OoOoO
Sakura was a step or two behind Sasuke, so she saw everything. The Grass weirdo knocked Sasuke tumbling backwards, and then palmed a kunai. It drew back to throw, clearly not aiming at Sasuke, but at their unconscious comrades.
Sasuke, who was about to charge forward, hesitated for an instant. That fatal indecision gave their enemy time to do a complicated seal with his other hand. Sasuke-kun had said that Haku could do seals one-handed, but this seal was not one Sakura had ever seen before. Even as she was racing forward, her muscles locked in place and she was frozen, completely helpless.
"I think it's time to draw this game to a close," the weird shinobi murmured. And then its neck began to stretch, impossibly long, carrying its head forward. As it approached, Sakura could note, to her dismay, that the skin of its face was coming off as well, revealing another one beneath it. The mouth yawned wide, just like a snake's, as the canines enlarged. It dipped toward Sasuke's neck as it was intercepted by a green blur outlined in crimson.
OoOoO
Naruto didn't know what the hell that thing was trying to do, but knocking its head off seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, he'd slightly underestimated his own speed, so rather than having his fist impact the freak's skull, he'd just grazed its nose. Still, he had the satisfaction of hearing an audible snap of breaking cartilage, right before something clamped down on his forearm and injected molten steel under his skin.
OoOoO
Sakura's eyes weren't good enough to see what happened, even if she could have done something. There was a crack, the head snapped back, blood streaming from its nose, and Naruto collapsed to the ground, screaming until he passed out. She could see Sasuke's hand's shake with the effort of trying to move, but he was held just as helpless as her.
The Grass weirdo, head retracted again, glared down at Naruto, and then he said something that made no sense to her. "Well, thab's juds ab well. All I'b done id tick a fuz in their petty liddle bomb. Led the olb man deal wid it if he can." He scowled suddenly, then reached up and grabbed his nose, ignoring the blood streaming down. With an even louder crack that turned Sakura's stomach, the Grass shinobi wrenched it back into position. Then he looked back at Sasuke, smirking at the Uchiha's helpless glare. "Now where were we?"
Sakura could only stare in horror as that awful head extended toward her Sasuke-kun, dipping down to bite at his neck like some creature from folk-tales.
As that freakish head withdrew back towards its body, Sakura finally found her voice. "What did you do to them?" she shrieked. Sasuke groaned and slowly collapsed, twitching violently.
"I gave Sasuke a little goodbye present," the strange shinobi answered. He didn't even glance toward Naruto. "Sasuke will seek me out someday. He will come to me for power."
He smirked at her again as he began to sink down into the wood. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time. I have so much to look forward to now."
With that, the Grass shinobi passed from sight. Sasuke let out a final agonized cry before he fell unconscious, leaving the canopy in silence.
OoOoO
Shino climbed painfully to his feet. His ribs ached with every breath he took, no matter how shallow.
"Are you all right?" a voice asked hesitantly.
He turned to see Haruno Sakura, who had just moved Naruto and Sasuke's bodies over near Kiba and Hinata, who was finally beginning to stir. Shino nodded and then asked, "What happened? I couldn't see very clearly."
"He… he bit them!" she replied with a shudder. "And then they collapsed." She peered at Sasuke's neck and then carefully pushed up Naruto's sleeve. "It left some weird design on their skin as well."
Shino frowned and carefully made his way over to see. "It appears to be a seal of some sort," he observed. "But I have no idea as to its purpose."
"It can't be good though," Sakura fretted.
"That is a valid assumption," Shino agreed. "Logically, we should withdraw from the exam. We have four disabled allies and only the two of us currently conscious. I myself am injured and not fully effective."
Sakura's lips pushed together mulishly as she shook her head. "I… I don't think Sasuke or Kiba would like that," she said after a moment.
Shino nodded slightly. "For that matter, my teammates are also highly motivated to do well in the exam. While I am unsure as to the status of Naruto and Sasuke, my allies indicate that Hinata and Kiba should be awake soon."
Sakura's head came up with an almost audible snap. "But you said Hinata was dying."
"I said she might die," Shino corrected. "And if the fight continued on much longer, she may very well have been killed while she was unconscious."
"But… you told Naruto… I mean his clone..." Sakura asked, frowning.
"My teammate doesn't always think things through, particularly when he is anxious about a friend," Shino explained while minutely straightening his glasses. "I surmised that information would provide sufficient motivation to… expedite his release from the summons."
"What did he do?" Sakura finally asked. "That red chakra… is it a blood limit or something?"
"You will have to ask Naruto," Shino said firmly. "That information is confidential, and not mine to disseminate."
"Okay," Sakura replied in a clearly dubious tone. "So what do we do now?"
"I will recover Naruto's equipment," Shino replied. "I believe he has some smelling salts in his backpack. If we can revive Kiba and Hinata, we should be able to move the others to a more defensible locale. At that point we can see if there is a change in Naruto or Sasuke's condition."
Sakura nodded.
OoOoO
Hinata couldn't ever recall her head hurting this much before. Not even after the worst of her family's special training sessions. One eye refused to open all the way, and the skin around it felt puffy and tight. Her mouth was foul with the taste of blood and her upper lip was caked with it. Her body ached as well, feeling like her bones had been pulled apart, ground up, and then shoved back into her abused flesh. She supposed she should be grateful to even be alive, but she didn't think it was possible to hurt this much and not be dying.
All that went right out of her head when she saw who was lying on the tree limb next to her.
"N-Naruto-k-kun!" she lisped, her swollen lips making her own voice sound alien in her ears.
Shino leaned back, discarding the sachet he'd been holding under her nose, as she sat up. She ignored Sakura's curious looks as she quickly laid her hand on her somnolent friend's chest. The steady rise and fall of his respiration reassured her, even as her head reminded her why sitting up quickly was a bad idea.
Shino handed her a red pill and a blue pill. "I've recovered our packs," he said quietly. "Your chakra is low enough that it's advisable to take the soldier pill, and the analgesic is definitely warranted." Farther down the bough, Hinata could see Sakura start ministering to Kiba, who in turn attended to Akamaru.  

[Pandora Green]

Shino returned to peering into the largest pack. "I don't know why Naruto brought the collapsible tents, but it is a good thing that he did so."
Naruto and Sasuke showed no signs of waking, so they were carefully bundled up into sections of tent, hoisted by their teammates. Hinata was a little shaky at first, but she insisted on helping to carry her friend.
This, of course, meant that Kiba insisted on carrying Sasuke by himself.
After a very cautious descent, they reached the forest floor. Shino dispatched a fair number of flying kikai bugs, and a few moments later declared the area safe. He led them with a sureness that had Sakura and Kiba a little confused, but he didn't stop to explain until after they were getting settled into a surprisingly spacious cave left by a partially uprooted tree.
"Some of my allies can comprehend simple images, and transmit back to me rough impressions of what they have seen," he said without preamble as he helped her settle Naruto down onto the soft earth. "I propose a temporary alliance, at least until our teammates have recovered. Each team will keep their own scrolls and act together for mutual defense. At the moment, both teams are weakened, and many will see us as easy prey."
"I suppose we can help you guys out," Kiba drawled, "right, Sakura?"
Sakura winced at the Inuzuka's arrogant tone.
"I should probably point out," Shino replied, straightening his glasses in a manner that Hinata had come to associate with him being irritated, "that the only person to actually strike that false genin and still be conscious at this time is Hinata."
Hinata swallowed as all three of her classmates turned to stare at her.
"A-ano, I only hit him by surprise, I-in the back…" she explained.
"You are a ninja, correct?" Shino asked.
"Uh, yes, Shino-kun," Hinata answered, dropping her eyes.
"Then the fact that you struck from surprise in no way diminishes your accomplishment, correct?" Shino continued.
"Yes, Shino-kun," Hinata answered, her voice more sure this time.
"That said, the sentiment Naruto ascribed to your… taijutsu tutor… is an admirable one," Shino concluded. "It is only appropriate that we offer assistance to fellow shinobi of the leaf. While I believe it would be more prudent to withdraw from the exam, given the circumstances, I will abide by the desire of the majority to continue. If anything, it will be a fair test of our ability to cope in adverse circumstances."
Kiba frowned and grunted. Sakura turned to Hinata with a questioning look.
"Shino thinks Konoha shinobi should stick together," the Hyuuga girl explained. She supposed she was just used to the way her friend spoke – he was usually laconic around strangers.
OoOoO
Their first night in the Forest of Death passed quietly, though it was still very tense. After a short meal of ration bars and summoned water they split the night into shifts in which two stood watch at all times. Hinata's watch was set for the latter part of the night so she'd have time to recover.
While Kiba promptly went to sleep, curled up with his dog, Sakura and Shino used the remaining daylight to set up traps in the area surrounding their refuge.
For her part, Hinata tried to sleep, but found it difficult. Both Sasuke and Naruto began to tremble slightly as their unnatural slumber became increasingly agitated. Both appeared to be running fevers. Though wet cloths applied to their foreheads did little to help, Hinata and Sakura kept reapplying them – if only to have something to do, the Hyuuga realized.
Hinata had been through many unpleasant experiences, many of them related to her family. So it was a surprise to realize that the worst feeling she'd ever experienced in her short life was caused by Uzumaki Naruto.
It was this feeling of profound helplessness that she couldn't stand. She supposed she'd felt something similar when her mother had died, but that had happened long enough ago that she couldn't clearly remember that awful day. But now… she could look at Naruto-kun's face, contorting in pain, and feel like she wanted to die. He was hurting, and she could do nothing to stop it. She tried to remember her father's face the day her mother died, wondering if he had felt like this… but she couldn't recall ever seeing him at all. She remembered the branch family servants who came to her room with the news, the old woman who held her as she cried, promising she'd tell no one of her lack of composure.
It was sad how she can remember that old woman's face more clearly than her mother's.
Hinata's breath caught in her throat as she followed her thoughts to their logical conclusion. She didn't just admire her teammate.
OoOoO
With the light failing, Shino and Sakura armed the last of the kunai traps and returned to the cave. Their task took longer than expected due to the simply ridiculous number of extra kunai and shuriken Naruto was carrying in his pack. But Shino was determined to make their lair as secure as possible, so they used most of them as ammunition for their traps.
Surprisingly, Haruno Sakura seemed to have a gift for designing and setting up traps. Her plans and layouts indicated that she possessed a grasp of tactics and spatial awareness not usually found in kunoichi of her age. This was very much at odds with the persona she'd projected at the Konoha Ninja Academy, where Shino's memories of her were primarily those of a squealing fan-girl chasing after Sasuke along with the rest of her peers.
Perhaps she had changed, or his initial estimate of her had been as flawed as his opinion of Naruto. In either event, her stock in his estimation rose, even as the sun set.
As they returned to the cave, she displayed yet another net improvement. Hinata had finally managed to fall asleep, but had apparently done so while tending to Naruto. She was curled up on the ground next to her teammate, her head pillowed on his left shoulder. His right forearm, with its peculiar wound, was still propped up on his stomach, the sleeve pushed up to the elbow.
"Awww…" Sakura whispered. She silently made her way to the packs and retrieved an all-weather blanket that she carefully draped over the indigo-haired kunoichi. Looking up at Shino, she silently gestured that they should move back to the entrance.
Once there, Shino silently checked with his allies. The immediate vicinity was still clear of any hostile presence. He looked back when Sakura quietly cleared her throat.
"She really likes him, doesn't she?" the pink-haired girl asked. "Hinata, I mean."
Shino just nodded, remembering Haruno's disparaging attitude toward Naruto that evening at Ichiraku's.
"That's so sweet," Sakura whispered with a wistful smile. "He doesn't have a clue, does he?" she asked.
"I think he has some inkling, but not explicitly, no," Shino answered in a guarded tone.
Sakura sighed. "She seems like such a nice girl, I hope he doesn't hurt her."
"Uzumaki Naruto is constitutionally incapable of acting with malice aforethought," Shino declared with what he admitted was some heat.
Sakura frowned at him, but then shook her head. "No, I suppose not. Not intentionally, anyway."
"That's an… unexpected admission, coming from you," Shino replied.
Sakura actually blushed a little. "I've… had a few things pointed out to me. There have been times that Naruto really got on my nerves, but I haven't always been fair towards him either." She sighed. "I'm trying to be a better person," she admitted.
"That is… an admirable goal," Shino allowed.
"So…" Sakura asked, clearly wishing to change the subject, "how far away can your bugs sense trouble?"
Shino inclined his head politely and began his standard lecture on kikai bugs and their capabilities.
OoOoO
By sunrise, Hinata's head had stopping aching quite so badly. Her face was still a mess though, and it even hurt to blush when she woke up with her unbruised cheek resting on Naruto-kun's shoulder. To her disappointment, both he and Sasuke's conditions were unchanged.
Shino said nothing when she'd relieved him at midnight, and she'd fortunately risen before Kiba. Sakura, on the other hand, gave her a smile as she headed back into the cave to rest. Despite her misgivings regarding the kunoichi's previous behavior, Hinata felt Sakura was being sincere.
A few moments later a yawning Kiba joined her at the mouth of the cave. Shino gave her a brief summary of the traps that had been set, and she was able to double-check them using her Byakugan. Though Shino was sleeping now, he'd assured her that his colony had been instructed to wake him if his pickets encountered anything. Just how that wake-up would occur wasn't something she really wanted to think about. In the meantime, she would also periodically use her eyes to scan for intruders that managed to elude everything else.
Kiba nodded as she explained their precautions, and then yawned again. "You two are pretty useful to have around," he said with grudging respect. He hesitated, and then added, "My mom was pretty impressed with your team, and that's not easy to do. I… appreciate you all helping us yesterday."
Hinata swallowed and struggled to keep a blush away from her battered face. "We're all Konoha shinobi," she replied. "It's only right that we should help each other."
Kiba shrugged as he scratched the back of Akamaru's head. "I don't think the older genin teams feel that way. Maybe the rookies from our class. And that other team, is that Hyuuga your cousin or something?"
Hinata nodded, not really wanting to think about meeting Neji out here in direct competition. He seemed to resent both her and Naruto, albeit for different reasons.
After a while, they just sat in a semi-comfortable silence, using their enhanced senses to stand watch.
It wasn't until late morning that their perimeter was breached.
OoOoO
When Naruto gained awareness of himself again, he was lying in what appeared to be a basement. He slowly sat up, wincing as blood began to flow into areas that had been cut off by the hard concrete beneath him. His right arm felt like it was on fire, and he could barely move the shoulder or flex his fingers.
There was no sign of Hinata or Shino, nor of Team Seven. Had they been captured? Had he? Somehow, he didn't think they were anywhere near.
The air felt damp; like this place had been flooded and only recently had the water receded. The lights were muted, and the illumination they cast lent a gray pallor to everything. At first Naruto thought there were circulating fans that ran roughly, but soon he realized that the sound he was hearing was too irregular to be mechanical.
Turning around, there was no break in the patterns of hallways that surrounded him, but the sounds seemed to be slightly louder in one direction. With nothing better to do, he slowly walked toward the source of the noise.
As he shuffled along, he kept trying to flex the fingers of his right hand. They barely moved and the pain grew worse. Looking down at his forearm, he could see a weird black seal that looked like three tomoe in a spiral. The skin around them was angry and red, and he swore a faint ribbon of vapor appeared to be rising from the center of the design.
The further Naruto walked toward the source of the noise, the more uneasy he became. It was a sensation that was both disturbing and oddly familiar. It was a little like being around Gaara again, but not quite. If anything, it was even worse.
Finally, the hallway opened into a room with a very high ceiling. Dominating the far wall was a huge metal gate with vertical bars at least fifteen meters high. The two halves of the portal were closed, but there was no bar or lock. Instead a thin strip of paper held the massive gates together. The paper seal was adorned with a single kanji character that was, oddly enough, the symbol for 'seal'.
As Naruto peered at the seal, that oppressive feeling spiked again and an enormous pair of red eyes appeared over a mouth full of huge teeth. The features were shrouded in a haze of red chakra and Naruto began to put the pieces together.
"Boy, come closer," a deep voice rumbled, resonating in Naruto's bones.
"I think I'll just stay right here," Naruto answered in a wary tone.
A set of gigantic claws moved out of the darkness, sliding between the bars of the gate. As one, they slammed down onto the concrete, the points scarring the unyielding floor.
"I'd like to eat you, but this gate won't open," the voice growled. "Damnable seal."
That only confirmed Naruto's suspicions. "Well I'm not real happy about having you here either, a*****e!" He glared right into eyes that were bigger than his body as a lifetime's worth of frustration and anger filled his mind with flames. "If you'd just had the decency to freaking die when the Yondaime kicked your a**, I wouldn't have been putting up with crap from everyone as long as I can remember!"
The huge eyes blinked. Whatever reaction Naruto had been expecting, it wasn't the rusty chuckle that echoed from behind the gate. "You didn't mind it when you were using my chakra to save those two weaklings you run around with."
Naruto scowled. "Well, if you know that, then you know that one of those weaklings is probably the only reason I didn't slit my wrists afterward. Practically every crappy thing that's happened in my life is because of you, you damned fox." Hinata had been badly hurt getting a solid hit on that freak – he wasn't going to let anyone call her a weakling. He just hoped she was okay, wherever she was.
"You've got a lot of nerve saying that," the Kyuubi no Kitsune growled, "considering that it was your precious Yondaime that ruined both our lives with his little technique."
Naruto bit back his first response. That was at least one lecture of Iruka-sensei's that he'd paid close attention to. Despite all that had happened, the story of the Fourth had only strengthened his desire to become Hokage some day. "And whose village were you destroying at the time?" he asked sarcastically.
"That's a long story, you hairless monkey," the demon growled. "But we have more immediate problems. Look at your arm."
Naruto glanced down at his paralyzed forearm. The seal was burning now, covered in purple and black flames, and the pain was getting worse.
"You managed to let my den get marked with another seal, you careless buffoon," the Kyuubi growled.
"What the hell is it doing?" Naruto asked nervously. The fact that the demon actually sounded a little worried was setting off all kinds of warning bells in his mind.
"It's trying to tap into your chakra coils. It seems to be designed to strengthen the wearer by adding its own chakra to the body's inner coil system. I'm not sure where it's pulling that black chakra from, but its bad news."
"How is more chakra bad?" Naruto asked cautiously.
"It's… not… normal chakra. Portions of it seem to be gravitating toward your pea-sized brain. In addition to whatever it might try to do to your alleged mind, your coils are already under stress from holding your chakra as well the fractions of my chakra that leak out of this cursed seal. There isn't room for a third chakra in here." The huge lips twisted into a feral sneer. "You don't want to explode, do you?"
Naruto shook his head slowly. "So what can we do about it?"
"Well, if you hadn't wimped out and gone unconscious, I'd suggest just cutting the arm off at the elbow," the fox suggested. "Oh, stop making faces. I bet I could grow it back. Eventually. Anyway, due to your pitiful pain threshold, we have to do this the hard way."
"The hard way?" Naruto asked, feeling a bit ill. If cutting off his arm wasn't the hard way, he wasn't sure he wanted to know what was.
"I push as much chakra as I can past this seal and hope that seal gives before your inner coils explode," the demon explained.
Naruto felt his mouth drop open. "That sounds like a really bad idea to me!" he protested.
"I'm not overjoyed either. If you die, I die. But as much as being inside of you is an exercise in torment," the voice continued, "being inside of you while you are being controlled by whoever put that seal on you would be worse."
"How do I know I can trust you?" Naruto finally asked.
"Can you afford not to?" the voice asked as the eyes narrowed. "If you fall under that seal's influence, who do you think will be in the most danger?"
Naruto took a deep breath and let it out. The pain in his arm was growing worse by the second. "What do I do?" he asked.
"Just stand there and don't resist," the voice replied, the deep reverberations dropping away as the volume lowered. "I need you to act as the conduit for this," it continued as a flood of red chakra began to seep out from under the gate, heading toward Naruto's feet.
"And try not to die," the Kyuubi's voice concluded as the chakra reached Naruto and his world exploded in agony.
OoOoO
Hinata heard Shino stirring in the cave behind her even as her eyes picked up a trio of fast moving shapes through the canopy. Shino had roused Sakura and made it to the mouth of the cave when the first traps went off.
Amid the twangs and whooshes there were muted curses, indicating that some of the projectiles had found their mark. Finally, there was a loud yell of frustration followed by a cry of Zankūkyokuha as a copse of trees near the mouth of the cave was obliterated.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" a female voice asked in a plaintive tone. "That note might not have been from sensei."
"Yes I'm sure, Kin," a deeper voice answered. "I can feel the echoes of a cave from my ground waves. That's probably where they are hiding like little rodents."
"That's good enough for me, Dosu," another male voice replied. A thin man wearing a tan tunic over a grey camouflage jumpsuit stepped out into the clearing. Hinata didn't need to see the symbol on his forehead to recognize one of the sound genin they'd encountered before the first exam.
"Yo," he said in an arrogant drawl, "we're here for the Uchiha."
"Well you can't have him!" Sakura snapped, clearly incensed by his cavalier attitude.
"We're here to kill him," the bulkier leader in the grey tunic, bandages, and fur mantle said as he joined his subordinate, "a few more bodies doesn't really matter to us, does it Zaku?"
The skinnier sound-nin shook his head, smiling.
"Why are we even bothering to talk to these brats?" the long-haired sound kunoichi asked as she joined them.
Hinata glanced at Shino, who didn't even open his mouth. She knew from experience that he'd have kikai bugs seeded all around the clearing. It was only a matter of time before they began draining the chakra from the sound nins.
Then Dosu stuck out his right arm and rapidly spun in a circle. "We were warned about your tricks, freak," he snarled. "But it's not that hard to figure out the resonance frequency of your bugs' shells, is it?"
Kiba and Akamaru both let out low cries, Kiba grabbing at his ears as Akamaru whined and put his paws over his ears. Shino winced visibly as well and Hinata wondered how many of his allies he'd just lost. He'd have to pull the remainder inside his body as well, if he wanted to protect them.
Her feet were in motion before she even finished that thought. Her audacity appeared to have caught the sound nins off guard, and she was only a couple of steps from the leader, her hand drawn back for a Jyuuken strike, when a solid wall of air sent her flying. Hinata rolled when she struck the ground and flowed back onto her feet to see Zaku moving his open palms to point at her.
Hinata had just registered the presence of the metallic air nozzles embedded in his palms when he shouted Zankuha and a ripple of air began racing towards her. She leapt to the side as the shockwaves demolished a tree where she'd been standing. Glancing back toward the cave, she could see Shino charging out with his kamas unfolded, followed by Sakura as Kiba struggled to his feet. She hadn't heard the ultrasonic waves the Sound leader had used to destroy Shino's kikai bugs, but evidently Inuzuka had a wider hearing range than normal. Only now it was proving to be a liability.
Kin began throwing senbon needles at Sakura as Shino stalked toward Dosu. He couldn't use most of his jutsus until that one was disabled. Unfortunately, that left her facing an opponent with a strong long-ranged attack.
Hinata might ordinarily have been concerned, since she was facing someone who was not a good match-up for her skills. But she had no doubt what would happen if they made it into the cave while her Naruto-kun lay helpless. Both of the unconscious boys would be dead in moments. That was not something that would happen while she had breath in her body.
So she began stalking her opponent, carefully dodging his attacks as she worked her way closer and closer. Zaku's mounting frustration as he continued to miss her seemed to distract him from his growing peril, a realization that brought a slight smile to her cracked lips.
Remembering Kurenai-sensei's lectures about maintaining situational awareness, she spared a glance for her teammates as she rolled away from another hurricane blast.
Sakura seemed to be having some trouble with her opponent. She'd been struck in the leg by one of the needles, but her movements suggested that she was at least a little disoriented. Hinata hoped the needles weren't poisoned.
Shino, on the other hand, had managed to close with his foe. His weapons flashed in the morning light as they spun in his hands. Dosu was blocking with two kunai and his right forearm, which appeared to be armored, but he was unable to counterattack and his uniform was dotted here and there with blood from minor wounds. Shino-kun seemed quite intent on avenging his fallen allies.
Hinata dodged another blast, moving in even closer, when Kiba leaped out of the bushes and slammed into Zaku. The sound nin let out a grunt as they slammed into the ground with Kiba on top. The Inuzuka was moving a kunai toward the sound nin's throat, either to take him prisoner or kill him, when the whole point became moot. Hinata didn't even have time to shout a warning as Zaku got one of his upturned palms onto Kiba's stomach and blasted him into the air.
She charged forward as a second blast caught Kiba in the air, tearing off a piece of his jacket and sending him tumbling toward Shino and Dosu's battle.
Fortunately, Shino heard Kiba's grunt of pain, and stepped back before his swinging blades accidentally eviscerated his ally.
Unfortunately, that seemed to be the opening Dosu was waiting for. The sound nin quickly swung his right arm around in front of him and Hinata could almost see the ripples coming off of it and converging on Kiba and Shino. Kiba let out a strangled cry as they converged on his head, making blood shoot out of his ears as his eardrums ruptured. Shino bent forward as the sound waves slammed into his torso with a visceral crunch. He barely retained hold of his weapons as a bright gout of blood exploded from his mouth.
Zaku watched this as well, and didn't realize her proximity or his own peril until the last second. As Hinata made her strike, he was just raising one palm to stop her. She launched the index and middle fingers of her right hand, wreathed with a visible glow of chakra, at her foe. At the last instant she diverted her strike, sending the chakra spike lancing into the nozzle that was just being brought to bear. The results were spectacular.
The back of Zaku's hand exploded into a spray of aerosol blood, coating his face and blinding him, even as his other hand came up and fired blindly at her. Unfortunately, as close as she was, she couldn't completely avoid his counterstrike, and was launched back toward the cave.
Hinata struck the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. She made it to her hands and knees in time to see Sakura catch Kin in the side of the head with a very solid punch that dropped the sound kunoichi to her knees. But the next instant a kunai thrown by Dosu buried itself in Sakura's upper arm while another ripped through her hair, narrowly missing her skull.
But neither that nor the screamed curses of Zaku could distract Hinata from what was happening inside the cave. Landing where she did, she had a clear view of both Sasuke and Naruto. Both were wreathed in dark purple chakra that flickered and waved like some sickly fire.
Suddenly Sasuke stood up, a black silhouette amidst the purple flames, but with blotches of glowing red oozing across his skin like flowing embers. The flames around Sasuke died down a little, but glowing red marks on his skin remained, eventually fading to black.
Naruto jerked awake and screamed as the purple flames around him spiked even higher. He made it up to his hands and knees. Despite his violent trembling, Hinata could see that the seal on his arm was replaced by a jet of purple-black fire that extended nearly a foot from his skin. With her Byakugan active, she could see that his coil system was now under attack, with red chakra fighting black chakra, and blue chakra caught in the middle. His tenketsu were opening on their own and vomiting out mixed and contaminated chakra. His coils heaved and began to crack.
Naruto was dying.
"Naruto!" Hinata gasped. She didn't think she'd even spoken aloud, but he looked up, directly into her horrified eyes.
And he smiled.
"Hinata… chan…" he groaned as he sat back and gripped his forearm with his left hand, right around the seal. He took a deep agonized breath. Then he pulled a kunai from his pouch and slammed it into his forearm, directly into the seal.
There was a loud explosion that rocked Hinata backwards. It even made Sasuke step back as his chakra flames wavered under the onslaught. He turned to look back at Naruto as the kunai was ripped from his fingers and the half-melted fragments were imbedded in the wall of the cave.
The purple-black chakra expanded outward in a shockwave that covered the clearing. It was just blind luck that Sasuke's aura blocked Hinata from the worst of it; because she could see the others shiver and twitch as it passed over them. The tongue of flame extruding from Naruto's forearm abruptly switched from purple to red flames as his aura became completely red. And to Hinata's relief, his chakra coils stopped pulsating like they wanted to rupture and explode.
Sasuke nodded and stalked out of the cave, his altered skin making him look more than a little monstrous. His roving eyes stopped moving when he saw Sakura wrenching the kunai from her arm. "Sakura," he said in an eerie voice. "Who the hell did that to you?"
Sakura's eyes widened but she didn't answer. Hinata was a bit distracted herself as Naruto slowly walked out of the cave. He reached out and oh so gently let his fingertips touch a fresh scrape on her cheek. "Who?" he asked in a far too calm voice. He looked over toward Zaku, who was wrapping a bandage around his wounded hand.
Sakura seemed to remember that they were still in a fight, because she quickly turned to check on Dosu and Zaku. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he seemed to recognize the crumpled form of his teammate at Dosu's feet.
Both Naruto and Sasuke seemed to disappear as Zaku fired a massive blast with his uninjured hand. Dosu was just starting to swing his right arm around when Sasuke appeared behind him. The number one student of his class reached over, grabbed each side of the sound-nin's head and gave a sharp twist. When he let go, Dosu dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, blood pouring from the corpse's nose and mouth. Zaku was pivoting for another blast when Naruto appeared beside him, grabbed his wrist in a chakra-wreathed fist, and crushed it utterly.
Sasuke glanced over at Naruto, and then began to stalk toward the remaining sound ninja, his face impassive and his tread as implacable as an executioner's.
Sakura seemed to realize what he planned because she lurched forward at the last second and wrapped her arms around Sasuke, pleading with him to stop. "Sasuke!" she finally whispered, "what's wrong with you?"
"I… I feel pretty strong right now. He gave that to me. Now I can truly be an avenger." Sasuke glanced down at a smear of blood on Sakura's leg. "Now it's her turn."
"You are not the Sasuke I know!" Sakura said in a tearful voice. "Just… just stop this. Please, Sasuke?"
Kin had finally recovered at this point, and looked like she'd rather be semiconscious again. She was visibly cowering until Sasuke finally grunted. "All right, Sakura," he quietly acquiesced. But when he looked back at Kin his voice was hard again. "Get your teammates and go. Now." The black marks slowly began to fade from his skin.

Naruto turned to glare at the now-disarmed Zaku. "You'd better help her," he added with a glare.

It was only after they left that anyone noticed that, accidentally or intentionally, they'd left behind their scroll.