Okay, I have learned several things about today: one thing is that the site won't accept my WordPerfect applications, when I use html the words turn to into a bunch of mumbo jumbo, and when I use text all the quotation marks and apostrophies turn to question marks. Yes, I am using text right now . . . how I hate it so. I had to clean out all the junk manually and put in html tags in order to get the italics and bold going . . . Fanfics are seriously starting to be a pain to make.
oOoOoOo
"Hey Sakura-chan, why don't you and I go out tonight?" Naruto grinned slyly.
"You idiot!" Sakura screamed, "How many times do I have to say 'no' before it gets through that thick skull of yours?!" she then walked over to Sasuke with the most pleasant face that she could manage and asked, "Hey Sasuke-kun, today's Saturday, why don't we go out and do something together?"
"I have other plans," Sasuke said cryptically.
"Yeah," Naruto jumped in, "You could do so much better Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme is way to stuck up to go out with anyone."
"Shut-up Naruto!" Sakura growled angrily and turned back to Sasuke, "So, what are you doing anyways? Maybe I could help out?"
Surprisingly, Sasuke's face flushed at Sakura's question, "I-It's nothing, and no, I don't need any help."
Sakura's face fell. Naruto looked at Sasuke in shock, "Are you blushing?!"
"No!" Sasuke denied and then composed himself, "If you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to." The Uchiha then disappeared without a trace thanks to his unparalleled speed.
'Damn show-off,' Naruto thought and then said, "What the hell is with that guy?! Every single time we spar, when we're done, he runs off saying that he has to do stuff. I wonder what the hell he's doing, if he's not lying about it."
"Sasuke wouldn't lie about anything," Sakura defended her crush.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Sure," he said sarcastically, "That's like saying Iruka and Kakashi are going out."
Sakura began, "Actually-"
"Anyways, I guess I'll see you tomorrow Sakura-chan!" Naruto cut her off and ran from the training ground, barely catching Sakura saying good-bye in the increasing distance.
'I wonder if I should stop by Ichiraku's to get some ramen?' Naruto thought at the growling of his stomach. He glanced up at the sky and for the first time, realized how dark it was.
'Whoah,' he thought, 'Has it been this late the entire time? I didn't even notice it,'. he pouted, 'Ichiraku's probably closed now.'
As he approached the village, he sighed heavily, "What the hell does Sakura chan see in that bastard anyway?" he mumbled to himself.
'Doesn't she realize that Sasuke-teme doesn't give a damn about her?' he thought solemnly, 'I guess though that Sakura-chan doesn't give a damn about me either.' Naruto brooded at this thought.
'Maybe, she wasn't the one for me in the first place. Maybe, the person I'm looking for is just waiting for me,' he thought optomistically, 'Yeah! All I need is a sign to show me who's waiting for me!'
With an unremovable smile, Naruto picked up his speed until he was hardly a blur that was zipping down the streets.
"Let go of me you damned PERVERTS!!"
Naruto's 'unremovable' smile turned downcast.
'What the hell?' Naruto picked up the scream, 'Is someone in trouble?' Without a pause he ran towards the direction of the scream.
He must have been close to the scene because next he heard a loud cry of pain.
'What is going on?' Naruto thought in frustration. He needed to get there fast.
Finally, as soon as he darted around a street corner, he came to the source of all the noise.
Four or five men were all huddled on the ground. One was lying on the ground with his face in his hands cursing, but the others seemed to be preoccupied with whatever it was they were doing.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted to the gang before him, "What's going on around here?!"
All of the men, excluding the one with his head in his hands, looked up at him in surprise.
"N-nothing," one of them stuttered at the appearance of Naruto.
Another man quickly remedied his companion's somewhat pitiful excuse, "We're just detaining a criminal," the man said. At this claim Naruto noticed that the group was composed entirely of ninja.
"A criminal?" Naruto repeated, "Oh . . . Wait! I thought I heard someone yell something about perverts earlier."
"Uh . . . ," the same man said, but seemed at a loss for words.
Another ninja decided to help out his comrade by saying, "Are you sure? We didn't hear anything like that around here. You probably just heard us shouting far away and got things mixed up. Why don't you just go on home, kid?"
Naruto really didn't like the way the man was talking to him. 'I mean really,' Naruto thought, 'What kind of ninja would send away someone who could help, when they obviously are having so much trouble with something? And what the hell is with them? They sound like they're wasted.'
Suspicious, Naruto asked, "Who is the criminal? What did they do?"
"You know what?" a ninja suddenly asked and stood from his crouched position, "I'm getting tired of this dumb-ass. Tojiro, why don't you and I take care of this guy and the rest of you take the bitch to my place?"
The others nodded in agreement and another man stood from group (supposedly Tojiro).
"Wait a minute," Naruto said and immediately went on the defensive, "You mean you guys attacked some girl?"
"That's none of your damn business," Tojiro snapped and walked away from the group with the other man beside him.
With the two cleared away, Naruto could get a better view of the presumed 'criminal'.
"Hinata?!" Naruto gasped at the sight of the Hyuuga heir.
Her shirt was torn to shreds, showing her bra, and in her mouth was a strip of cloth that prevented any words from escaping her. Her face had an unpleasant bruise across it and the rest of her body was covered in blood from the many cuts and wounds that littered her body. The most impacting thing about her was not the blood or the lack of a shirt--it was her eyes. They gazed at Naruto with a strong intensity. Eyes that held tears, desperation, and a certain admiration.
"What have you done to her?" Naruto growled in a voice barely above a whisper.
"Just having some fun," the man beside Tojiro stated, "Why don't you just scamper off now? Or is it that you want to screw the bitch with-"
"Miraga!" Tojiro yelled in shock as his partner was suddenly knocked flat off of his feet. The man had a large, bloody fist imprint on the side of his face.
Naruto was not slow to dispense of the second man called Tojiro in a similar manner.
"What the fuck?!" a ninja and his counterpart, near Hinata, jumped away from her to give themselves a fighting chance.
As if.
Naruto charged at the two and jumped. The one on the left couldn't raise his arms fast enough to guard himself before Naruto's heel smashed into his face and quite possibly lodged his nose into his brain.
The one on the right tried to run in the other direction, but Naruto's right hand grabbed the back of the ninja's vest collar and pulled while his other hand slammed into the man's spine. The shinobi let out an ear-splitting cry.
Naruto eyes scanned the street for any other signs of life. His eyes laid upon the man beside Hinata that had a bloody face that wasn't caused by Naruto. The already wounded ninja looked at Naruto completely paralyzed with fear.
Naruto kicked the man across the head soft enough to just knock the man out, but hard enough to smear Naruto's sandal and the man?s head with crimson blood.
Naruto breathed heavily, trying to calm himself from his fit of rage. He twisted his head to look at Hinata.
She looked at Naruto in amazement.
The ninja didn't bother to tie together her wrists, because there was so many of them, they didn't find the need to (although it probably would have saved them a lot of trouble). With the gang unconscious she could have easily removed the gag from her mouth on her own, if it wasn't for the fact that she was in so much shock.
Naruto slipped off the cloth from her mouth for her, "Are you okay?" he asked in a quiet, slow manner.
Hinata's eyes spilled over with tears and she buried her face into Naruto's chest. Naruto instinctively wrapped his arms around her bare waist.
Hinata's body shook, "T-t-th-thank y-y-y-," she cut herself off as she choked on a sob.
Naruto assured her softly, "It's alright."
Naruto looked down at Hinata with a worried expression written across his face.
'I'm so stupid,' Naruto berated to himself, 'I wish I could have helped her before things got this far, but at least she's okay for the most part. Those bastards! I don't care how out-of-it those guys were, this is unexcusable! When I become Hokage I'll rat-out any potential rapists and have them castrated before anything like this happens,' Naruto eyed the men with an evil glint in his eye, 'Maybe I should start with these lousy excuses for ninja?'
Within an uncounted for amount of time, Hinata's sobs gradually became a series of hiccups.
'We shouldn't stay here for long,' Naruto felt his face heat up suddenly, 'but I can't take her anywhere without a shirt or else someone will get the wrong idea if they see us.'
Naruto pulled away from Hinata and unzipped his jacket.
"N-n-na-n-naruto-k-kun?" Hinata looked up at Naruto in confusion.
"Here," Naruto said as he slid off his jacket, revealing the black shirt underneath, and handed it to her, "Go ahead," he egged. Hinata stared at him for a moment, but then nodded at him gratefully and slipped on the jacket.
Naruto noticed how the jacket was a little large on her. Hinata blushed, if possible, even more as she realized that as well.
'She's kinda' cute,' Naruto thought, 'Of course, she'd look better without the blood and bruises on her.'
"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Naruto looked at Hinata's cuts with concern, "Or do you just want to go home?"
"H-ho-home," Hinata said as a few more tears slid down her cheeks; she wiped them away in anger.
"No problem," Naruto said with a smile that he hoped would cheer her up. It didn't really help much, but he thought that he seen a small tug at the corner of her lips.
Naruto put one arm behind Hinata's back and slid the other under her knees. He picked her up with an ease that only years of training could present.
"Eeek!" Hinata cried out in surprise at the sudden loss of ground.
Naruto laughed despite his dark mood, "With a high note like that, I bet that you're a great singer, huh?" he joked to lighten the atmosphere.
Hinata buried her head into Naruto's chest in utter embarassment.
Naruto took a second glance at the unconcious men to make certain that they would stay that way for a while and then took off running with a firm, but gentle grip on the Hyuuga heir.
oOoOoOo
Her face was so hot from the series of events. She was so embarrassed, and yet so relieved.
The thought of all those men bearing down on her made her shiver.
'If Naruto had come any later,' Hinata thought, 'I'm not sure if there would have been anything left of me to save.'
This thought had two meanings, the first one--and the most obvious--was that the gang probably would have slaughtered her when they were finished. It would have been the most obvious thing to do. After all, the dead can't tell secrets. The second was that if it had gotten any further, she didn't know what kind of state of mind she would be in when Naruto finally came. In all likelihood, she probably would have become dead to the world. Neither caring about the events that unfold on the earth or wanting anything to do with it.
'How could people do such things?' Hinata pondered, 'Why would they do something so horrible?' Tears welled in her eyes and she let out sob into Naruto's shirt. Thinking about what happened, what could have happened, scared her.
Then just don?t think about it.
'It's so hard not to,' Hinata thought back to the foreign voice inside her head.
It's not that hard. Just forget about it.
'I wish I could.'
You can.
'I can't . . . I don't think I'll ever be able to forget it. No matter how much I wish I could . . .'
Just try.
'There's no point in it. It wouldn't work anyway.'
You never know until you try.
'Just shut-up. Shut-up and leave me alone,' Hinata thought angrily back. She wasn't in the mood to put up with this. She didn't have to put up with it. Enough people had controlled her life and she didn't want some stupid voice in her head taking control of her mind.
"Just leave me alone."
"What was that, Hinata?" Naruto looked down at her puzzled.
Hinata stared at the blonde in surprise, 'Did I just say that outloud?' she asked herself.
"N-n-n-noth-th-thing," Hinata amended.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, "Okaaaay . . ." he let it drop.
'Thank you, Naruto,' Hinata gave a ghost of a smile, 'Thank you so much for saving me. I never would have thought that if anyone was to save me, it would be you. Actually, for a while back there, I didn't think anyone would save me at all. Thank you so much Naruto. I probably owe you my life. I hope you really know how much I appreciate it.'
At her thoughts another tear escaped from it's imprisonment, although this time, for different reasons.
"Umm . . . Hinata," Naruto broke through her reverie, "This is kinda' embarassing to say this, but . . ."
Hinata's heart fluttered at his sentence, 'Could it be?'
"Where exactly is your house?"
Like a needle stuck in a balloon, something popped on the inside of her in a very painful manner that made her fall back down to earth.
"W-what?" she asked, a little confused.
Naruto's face could clearly be seen flushing despite the dark night, "I've been running around for a while and knew that there was something wrong, but I never realized it until now," he elaborated, "Truth is, I'm trying my best to get you home, but I have no idea where you live."
"O-o-oh . . ." Hinata said in a somewhat depressing tone. She glanced at the street they were going down and recognized it, "I-it's c-cl-c-close. Y-you ha have t-t-to g-go we-w-west th-though," she finally managed to say.
"Okay then!" he said and leapt onto a rooftop to the left to take less time.
Actually, it didn't take long at all. Soon a large piece of land came into view, revealing the Hyuuga estate with a mansion right in the middle of it.
"Is this it?" Naruto asked as he jumped down from a building.
"Y-y-ye-yes."
Hinata felt a sudden sadness wash over her when she realized that their journey was nearly over, 'Naruto will probably go back home now.'
"Whoah," Naruto stared at gardens and statues that surrounded the large building with wide eyes, "Hey Hinata, are you a princess or something?"
Hinata shook her head in denial so she wouldn't have to speak in stutters.
"Whatever you say," Naruto said in a tone that clearly stated 'I don't really agree with you'.
Naruto walked over to the front door and gently let down the shaken girl.
Before either of them could open the door, it suddenly slid open with a great deal of speed and force.
"Hinata?!" a man let out a startling yell at the door entrance.
Hinata opened her mouth to say something, but before a word was said the man tackled Naruto to the ground. He crouched over Naruto and held a kunai to his neck.
"What the hell has happened to my daughter?!"
oOoOoOo
Blood slowly dripped down his nose and flecks of it landed on the roof beneath his feet.
Sasuke giggled with a perverted grin on his face.
'Sakura didn't even notice that her bathroom curtains were open,' he thought slyly.
"I should have brought popcorn," Sasuke mused.
"Your here too, huh? I'm surprised, you didn't seem like the type to cross over to this version of 'the dark side'," a voice suddenly said beside him.
Sasuke turned in surprise to the sudden appearance of the man.
"Jiraiya-san?" Sasuke looked at the man in total shock and then changed to anger, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Catching a good show," Jiraiya said innocently as if he was watching some Saturday night sit-com. The white-haired sannin chewed on the popcorn that was from the bag he was holding.
"This isn't a public 'show'," Sasuke said with clenched fists.
"Your watching it, aren't you?" Jiraiya asked the raven-haired teen that was practically on the verge of spontaneously combusting.
"This is 'my' show."
"Your quite territorial aren't you?" Jiraiya stated more than asked.
Sasuke snapped, "Now leave before I hang you by your large intestine."
Jiraiya ignored the threat, "So, how come you haven't told her you like her?"
"None of your damn business, now leave me be."
"Your such a pervert," Jiraiya snorted, "I tried to get Naruto into this sort of thing, but everytime I tossed him into the women's bathhouses he ran off screaming. Although, I did see a healthy amount of blood coming out of his nose when he turned fourteen."
"I don't need to know this," Sasuke stated simply, "Now go away before I tell the Hokage exactly what happened between you and Orochimaru when you were teenagers."
Color drained from Jiraiya's face, "He told you that, did he?"
A pained expression crossed Sasuke's face, "In detail . . ."
"Why can't people just understand that we were just experimenting?! It was never anything serious and we both grew out of it!" Jiraiya exclaimed.
"Orochimaru didn't."
Jiraiya stared at the Uchiha for a moment; then cringed, "I'm leaving now," he stated and turned to leave.
"Good," Sasuke smirked, "Leave the popcorn while your at it."
Jiraiya frowned, but complied at the demand, because he would do anything to keep that certain incident as quiet as possible.
oOoOoOo
So, what do you think so far? Did the story seem a little too fast paced? How bad were the spelling and grammar errors? I don't have any sort of spell check, so all this was done using a dictionary and since doesn't support text, I had to use html tags in order to get this thing working. This whole thing's been a bit of a bother, but I just had to post at least the second chapter. Now, do you guys think there should be a third?
No, don't look for any ShinoXHinata or KibaXHinata here guys, cuz it just isn't gonna' happen. I didn't plan on sticking in that little scene at the end until later, but I felt that the story needed a bit of humor in it. I planned on having a part in there were Naruto ran into Sai while he was walking home and Sai was going to ask if he could stay at Naruto's house because his burnt down. It was supposed to be a running gag, but I thought it would make the chapter too long so I just chopped it out.