I've ignited some new kind of passion to write.

This story in particular stands out among my others (yes, my hidden ones that haven't even been posted yet :^))

so here it is, a new chapter, very recently.

Don't expect this kind of treatment often... I was just uniquely inspired to write this one.

Setsuna winced as the grounds exploded.

Two yelps of pain echoed across the training field, followed by a quick and decisive smack to the back of Itachi's head.

"What have I told you about outer matrices?" Naruto fumed, rubbing his head from the pain of the explosion.

"That it is unwise to break them or edit them while channeling chakra into any of the inner matrix?"

Naruto gestured exasperatedly towards the destroyed space, "that!" he gestured to the charred ground and the burning spots of fire which dotted the area, "is why it is unwise"

The no longer masked blond spun on his heel, pointing up towards the tree that Setsuna was resting in, supposedly reading.

"And you! She-devil!"

Her eye twitched, "excuse me?"

"You heard me" Naruto growled, "get down here and start practicing your brush strokes. You're months behind my best student ever but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you fall further behind"

Setsuna decided not to respond, instant jumping down to the space in front of the blonde, a forced smile on her face.

"Hai sensei"

"Now why can't you be like that Itachi?" Naruto asked the elder brother, who had already summoned a new clone and was preparing the space again for another breaking test.

Both the clone and the original rolled their eyes in exasperation.

Setsuna huffed as well, before she sunk to the floor and made a clear space to work with the sealing paper.

Naruto's new favourite training space had changed from the top of civilian buildings to the more peaceful and 'educational' friendly training grounds.

This new take on sealing spaces had nothing to do with the Hokage getting a steadily increasing number of complaints about explosions within the village and flying ninja.

Not at all.

"You're more distracted than usual" Itachi stated solemnly. He was leaning against a tree as his clone was attempting to break apart the seal that Naruto designed.

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm always 110% focused" the blond grinned at his student, idly ignoring the sense of fear in the back of his mind that the Uchiha might possibly know something.

"Mhm" Itachi nodded, "Would Hana agree with that?"

Itachi noticed out of the corner of his eye that Naruto's face went through a series of different colours, emotions and reactions.

His cheeks burned bright red for a few moments, then his eyes closed and his face got pale. He had gone from happy to very sad, then to calm, then to pensive.

'Sensei never makes things easy' Itachi reminded himself.

"I suppose she would" Naruto hummed, his eyes turning up to look at the sky.

"Who's Hana?"

Both the Uchiha and Naruto turned to look at Setsuna. She had an unreadable expression across her face… and her eyes were fixed on the blond.

"Oh she's-"

"-just a friend of ours" Itachi finished calmly.

Naruto and the Uchiha heir shared a look.

'Thank me later' was the glare that Itachi gave him.

"Hm" Setsuna turned back to her seal work, and Naruto turned back to his cloud gazing, the empty look still on his face.

Only Itachi noticed the red tinge on his sister's ears.

"I know you're there" Naruto mumbled, and Hana stepped out from the tree's.

He had dismissed his two Uchiha students almost thirty minutes ago… exactly the time that Hana got off from her work.

What had started out as a one time thing became a little more than what both of them expected.

Hana had thought she was just bagging a pretty face, hot body and rich smartass.

Turns out that when you spend time with people, your understanding of them changes.

Strange, huh?

And now the physical affection that they shared for each other had morphed into something else. Apart from passionate nights spent at his lab or in her room, the two spent time together since their first coupling. A mutual interest sparked something that might easily be mistaken for a relationship, but was actually more along the lines of care.

They cared for each other.

But it was only baby steps right now. Both of them didn't really know where to take it. Hana was wild and free, and she would always spend her time with other guys…. But now she just didn't feel like it.

She had someone that filled every possible expectation… and hole (o3o)… that she could ask for.

He wasn't perfect.

Kami no.

But he had the qualities of someone she could fall for.

The culmination of a person that didn't attribute anything to family, but rather his own constitution, of what he had learned in his life, no matter how short it currently was.

"Hey" she smiled, sauntering up to him in the grass, before dramatically slumping to the ground and placing her head in his lap.

Naruto's hands crawled up sides and began to pet her hair, scratching here and there.

Hana hummed in pleasure.

"What's the matter whiskers?" Hana smirked up at him, her eyes still closed. She knew he was thinking about something, and more then likely he wouldn't be able to share it…. Again.

Being the son of a previous Hokage meant he was involved with some pretty heavy secrets.

"I don't know" Naruto said honestly, and Hana opened her eyes to look up at him, "I've just been feeling strange all day"

"What's causing it?" she sat up to look at him, his eyes still pointed up in the air.

The two blue oceans drifted down to her, his gaze locking with her own, and a calm aura was exuded from him.

"You" he smiled slightly, "I've just been thinking about you all day"

Hana processed this.

Then she felt her cheeks burning slightly.

Instead of turning away or hiding as others most likely would, she socked him on the arm.

"Ow!"

"That's what you get for being sappy" she mumbled, before leaning forward and giving him a kiss.

"Then what was that for?" he asked when they broke apart.

"For being you" she smiled.

A silence spread between the two of them, until eventually they both spoke at the same time.

"Do you want to get dinner?" he said.

"I have a mission tomorrow" she admitted.

They both just blinked at one another.

"Dinner sounds great" Hana smiled, her hand coming forward and holding his. She knew he was emotionally weak.

Hana Inuzuka had been informed of the Kyuubi no Kitsune by her mother the day after her hook up with the blond. While she didn't have the best of initial responses, her mother calmly explained to her the exact method of the sealing.

Eventually Hana had tracked down Kakashi, finding a way to learn more about the blond she had banged.

As more and more half secrets and details flew her way, the Inuzuka heir understood one very simple principle about Naruto.

He was emotionally stunted.

Not in general, but in the sense of care and affection. She'd seen the exact same symptoms in wolves and younger pups that she cared for. After harsh experiences, some of them traumatic, these pups or the wolves would turn away from contact with other wolves, and only care about their immediate family.

Similarly, Naruto had been worried only about his immediate family and the ones he holds dear to him. But now she had someone found a way in.

And Hana was going to make damn sure that she busted down his enclosed space.

So that was why she smiled so brightly when he offered a night out for the two of them, and not just rutting in his or her bed.

"Do you have anything specific in mind?" Hana stuffed away her thoughts and returned to his careful gaze.

"Not… not really" he mumbled, squeezing her hand slightly.

"Well I know just the place" Hana still held her angelic smile, "and I expect you to meet me there at 7. Old Man Yashu's"

Hana stood from the grass, "don't be late" she almost growled, and left him with a deep kiss before walking away.

Naruto stood from the grass as well.

That didn't go so bad, did it?

Then the chakra held within his gut blurted through his body, cutting through his stomach and sending lances of fiery pain to pulse in his veins.

The Namikaze heir doubled over in pain, a silent scream on his face an instant before he teleported back to his lab.

In the next 10 minutes he would descend into the lower floor, and he would not come out for four more hours.

At 6.30pm Naruto was dressed smart and made his way out of his small slice of heaven.

He had a date to attend after all.

The Following day

"Have you been to the lower floor yet Jiraiya?" the Sandaime spoke calmly as he looked over his student and the village's spy master.

Jiraiya of the Sannin had arrived earlier in his office to discuss an ever increasing problem.

"Surprisingly enough, no" Jiraiya frowned from his seat in front of the Hokage's desk. He had been hiding in the room earlier when Hana Inuzuka and her Chunin team mates had entered in order to retrieve their escort for a mission outside the village.

A mission to the land of waves.

The Inuzuka heir in question was someone who had recently become very important in maintaining the strength of the village, due to her relation with the Jinchuriki.

Hiruzen felt like it was some kind of power play, but the reports from the Anbu's tracking Naruto were the only thing he had to go off of. They didn't allow him to make his own conclusions. Fact could never find a way to properly account for emotion outside of the chemical explanation. For all intents and purposes, Hiruzen wished he could assume that Hana had Naruto's best interests in mind.

But the Sandaime Hokage was a man who hoped for the best… yet prepared for the worst. He had saved many lives with this mind set.

So naturally he had made sure that a contingent of Anbu watched over Naruto.

Kakashi used to be apart of this contingent when Naruto was in his younger days, up until the moment that the Hatake adopted him.

"Only a handful of the village know about the existence of his true laboratory"

"There's clues in his workspace" Jiraiya nodded. Files and documents listed other papers and tests, referring to other experiments that Naruto had completed, but the references never went into detail, only project title.

Each of these project titles could not be found in the main library or the hidden library in Naruto's workspace.

Therefore there was another location.

Some place that Naruto didn't even trust Jiraiya with,

In fact, as Hiruzen had reasoned earlier, if it had not been for Danzo, no one would have known about it.

"Human experimentation" Hiruzen's eyes glazed over and Jiraiya stiffened. Both of their thoughts were focused around Orochimaru, "that's a topic the village takes very… negatively"

"That's putting it lightly" Jiraiya scoffed, thinking of the hundreds of families, if not thousands, that wanted Orochimaru's head on a platter.

"So you can see as to why I'm hesitant about Naruto's lower floor"

Jiraiya almost choked on his breath, "he's experimenting on other HUMANS?!"

Hiruzen shook his head.

"No Jiraiya… it's far worse than that"

"What?"

"He's working on himself"

Jiraiya couldn't speak.

Words refused to form.

"This is how little he has begun to view his life, as well as his importance towards the village as a Shinobi. Naruto is probably the most unstable Ninja at this current point. The chakra, his knowledge, his seclusion from others…" Hiruzen palmed his face, "I fear that the smallest of things will set him off"

"That's why you're more concerned about the Inuzuka?" the Sannin gave his teacher an arched brow to show his confusion.

"Only because she found a way into his little circle" the old Sarutobi leant back in his chair.

"I'm not sure how to proceed from here…"

"Don't look at me old man"

"No. Not in concern to just Naruto, but to the village as well" Hiruzen reached for the pipe in his desk, slowly opening the drawer to retrieve it.

"War is approaching Jiraiya, and try as we might, peace does not seem very likely"

"There will be coming casualties" Jiraiya nodded, his spy network relaying the same information as the other villages most likely. That everyone was stressed, everyone was at each others necks. Konoha was going to be dragged into the next war kicking and screaming.

"Perhaps it would be best to keep the Inuzuka in a more… protected region?"

Before any of them could answer however, an Anbu member appeared in a crouch before the desk.

"Hokage-sama! It's the Chunin team…." he took a deep breath, "they've…" he couldn't say it.

He couldn't speak the words.

They had been in the office only four or so hours earlier.

"What happened?" Hiruzen demanded.

The Anbu shook his head.

He was an Inuzuka clan member.

So he was taking most of this as a shock.

"You'd better come see sir… and you'd better be quick"

A howl of pain and strife cut across the village sky.

Hana's team had returned.

The following day

For some reason...

The world can't give nice things to anyone without a sense of loss or deception to come with it.

Itachi had a fun night out, so did Shisui… but they were both reprimanded by the Uchiha clan elders for making a silly example of themselves.

For acting 'beneath their stature' as Shisui often mocked them.

Occasionally they would be allowed to snap out of their order demanding lives, and then one day they'd be given a chance to just let loose. But it always came with a cost.

Everyone else's problems seemed superficial at this point.

Naruto's nice thing was meeting Hana Inuzuka, and establishing a connection stronger than friends with her. They were confused most of the time in the short span which they spent together, yet they would both argue that it was a happy confusion.

But from the rooftop, soaked in rain, Naruto could feel nothing but pain as he thought about her.

It was supposed to be a simple mission.

C-ranked.

A trip to the land of waves, to escort some bridge builder, and then return home.

But not return in a body bag.

Naruto watched the Inuzuka clan, who had shown up en mass to mourn the loss of their heir. Tsume's fists were clenched in fury, her eyes stinging with tears as her daughter was lowered into her grave.

Why?

Naruto's hands were beginning to shake.

Why did the world have to be like this?

Of course it had to be pouring with rain as well. The world never did anything in halves… it was always an extreme.

…

They had smiled and chatted at dinner, 18 hours before her death. If he had known it was the last time he was going to see her, the last time he would have a chance to say anything to her, his thoughts would have changed.

"I'm cursed" Naruto mumbled.

Somehow it was his fault.

He knew it.

As the host of the Kyuubi, misfortune was meant to befall him. For befriending the beast that decimated his home, ending countless lives, it was now his curse.

Hana should have never gotten involved with him.

Maybe if he had given her one of his Kunai, he could have been there?

Or if he had gone with her as a support ninja?

But what if he-

Naruto collapsed on the rooftop, his knees colliding with the ground as tears began to cascade from his eyes.

It had been so very brief.

A strange relationship that withstood so many different opinions and understandings to the point that those involved in it didn't even know where they stood with the other.

It was a strong hand that grabbed him, and hauled him to his feet,

Itachi Uchiha stood there, a calm and sorrow filled gaze burrowing into the Namikaze's empty sight.

Naruto could no longer see the light.

"It's alright" Itachi whispered, pulling the slightly shorter blond into a hug, being careful to make sure he wasn't too firm with his grip.

"It's alright" Itachi comforted him, holding him atop a random rooftop, knowing he felt hurt.

His mind brought him back to when he had left with his Mother and Kakashi from the training ground after 'rescuing' Setsuna.

'He has a big heart than,' he remembered the remark from his mother, and his sisters equally fast response, 'that means he'll feel a lot of loss'

"What do I do?" Naruto gasped out, fresh tears washing down his face. He had kept the scream in his system, the roar of fury which he couldn't let out.

He wasn't allowed to feel this much pain for someone whom he was just beginning to know properly.

'It was the Inuzuka who had the right to feel like this' Naruto argued with himself. He had no right to feel worse than they did. He had no right to pity himself and how he was feeling.

Yet he did it anyone because his heart and mind demanded it of him.

Kiba had even gone missing a few hours after the announcement of Hana's death. Naruto didn't blame the poor boy.

"Survive" Itachi said simply, his eyes watching as the family members began to leave the funeral area one by one.

Tsume was the only one who remained at the gravestone, her stance rigid and firm.

Itachi looked away as Naruto began to shake.

"Training ground three" Itachi said simply, and they ported away.

A second later, Setsuna was startled out of her tree by the arrival of two familiar chakra.

Naruto and Itachi stood there in the middle of the field, completely soaked in the rain which blanketed Konoha.

'They must have come from the funeral' Setsuna realised, about to step off the tree and greet them when an aura of Chakra stopped her.

And just like that, Naruto let out a howl of pain himself, a roar to the heavens at his feelings of not only Hana, but of the village, the Kyuubi, the deaths of those which stained his hands, the responsibilities and the promises of which he had failed to uphold.

A chakra empowered fist, with an orange-red aura smashed into the ground, causing large cracks to snake through the earth in different directions.

Naruto was still crying and trembling, but it wasn't as bad as before.

"Oi" Setsuna leapt down from the tree, approaching her teacher with a confused look, "what's wrong?"

Naruto didn't turn to her but Itachi did. He was gently rubbing the blonde's back, trying his best to be a supportive friend in his moment of need.

"Naruto will be staying at our clan compound for a few weeks Setsuna" Itachi stated firmly, ignoring how Naruto stiffened.

The Uchiha heir did not care, His friend needed to be around people that care for him and can help him.

While the Uchiha held a reputation for being the least caring individuals in the village, Itachi knew that a large majority of his clan were friendly and his family definitely fell into the category… once you nipped around the rough edges of course.

"We should get Naruto inside" Setsuna remarked, looking at both their figures up and down, "you both need to get into something dry and warm"

Itachi just nodded.

"Inform mother of the arrangements Setsuna… Naruto and I will be on our way momentarily"

The young girl nodded at her older brother, stealing a quick glance at the sullen shinobi he was holding before she vanished off into the woods.

Naruto would spend the next few weeks at the Uchiha residence, his room would be down the hall from Itachi's.

And that is the truth of the ninja world. A horrible truth that people lie, and people die, and not everything is going to turn out hunky dory. I'm sorry to hit you with this death so soon, but it is only because of the fact that I need to help build up the motivation for Naruto's departure.

What the village thinks is that he's becoming more unstable, and its no longer him, they couldn't be further from the truth.

Naruto is worried about himself, but only because he feels he will lash out and destroy the one place he knows, the one constant in his life aside from Kurama. The death of Hana just proves that those he tries to bring in face the risk of death every day, and he may just want to shut out all these feelings.

It was sudden.

But that was my plan.

Nothing in this story is going to guide you with baby steps, (except for a few of my explanations maybe), and that is how it is going to stay.

I hope you have a great new year, and I'm sorry if you felt Hana was going to be along for the rest of the trip.

-Freedom