Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any other ninjas for that matter.

This story takes place two years after the Genin are placed onto their teams, thus the Genin are 14 years old. Things in the ninja world have not come to pass as quickly as they would have had Naruto been left in Konoha.

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Outcasts Are Alone

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"I'm coming for your soul. How long can you deny my freedom? It is only a matter of time until I will devour you, you pitiful excuse for a life form. Who will save you when you are all alone? But before you die you must first suffer as I have," Naruto started awake just as the red eyes had bore down on him. Shivering as much from the dream as the cold Naruto looked up at the sky. He must have fallen asleep while taking a break from training.

Sitting up slowly Naruto sighed to himself, "Who will save me when I'm all alone?" The only answer to his pondering was the silent mocking of the night sky. Slowly Naruto stood up and stretched as he walked to his cabin, where he had lived for as long as he could remember. "I wonder when they are going to bring some more food again. I hardly have any ramen left," Naruto always lost track of time. What did it matter what day it was when every day was the same?

Pushing the door open with his foot he surveyed the clutter that had built up on the floor, empty food containers, dirty clothes, unused weapons, the only thing in the whole room that had any kind of order was the stack of scrolls in one corner. Making his way through the garbage to his bed Naruto collapsed onto it in a heap of orange, not bothering to get undressed.

This is how things had been for as long as he could remember, alone. Every so often someone would stop by and leave him more food and trade some of the scrolls for some new ones. At one time he cared enough to try and learn who it was, but it had been years since he really cared about anything, other than training. Someone left more food and gave him some new scrolls to read, he just accepted the fact and left it at that. If they had wanted to talk to him they obviously knew where he was. Tomorrow he would just have to go fishing; at least it was something to do.

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Miles away in the Leaf Village another person sat thinking out loud to the night sky, "Who will save me when I'm all alone?" Again the answer came in the form of silence. Another pair of lonely eyes gave up searching the night sky for answers. Quietly the figure made its way back to its window and slid back inside. "Tomorrow we have another mission to do, I better get some sleep."

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"I still don't think it is right leaving him all alone out there, I mean if something happened to him no one would even know," arguing his case for the countless time, Iruka had still not given up.

"Do you think that they would even care if something did happen to him? Some still say that we should have killed him right on the spot, before the Forth Hokage's body was even cold. No, it is best to leave things the way they are. Some things should stay the same, its better for the village that way," knowing this would not change Iruka's mind the Hokage sighed. All he could ever do was sigh after telling Iruka that he couldn't bring Naruto back to live in the village, like he did every time he sent Iruka to deliver more supplies. "Before he died the Forth's last wish was that the people see Naruto as a hero who made a sacrifice for everyone, but few see him that way. Bringing him here would only cause trouble for Naruto," silently the Hokage finished his thought, "and who knows how much trouble people would case for him."

"Yes, Hokage I'll do as you wish, and that is to do nothing more than deliver the supplies," Iruka left the room in a huff like he always did after having this argument.

"How long will you follow orders Iruka, before you do something foolish?" The Hokage wondered out loud to himself.

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Early the next morning Iruka stood with Kakashi sipping from a hot cup of coffee, "Shouldn't you go meet your students, Kakashi? I though you said they were meeting you at dawn."

"Hold on, I love this part," Kakashi had his book out and was reading what looked like a dog-eared page. "So you can handle everything yourself today? Are you sure you don't want to wait and let me come with you?"

"Look, I know what the Hokage said and I am not going to do anything stupid," Iruka was exasperated because now even Kakashi was treating him like he didn't know his place. "Just make sure you are on time meeting up with me tonight, okay?" Kakashi's only answer was to close his book and disappear off to meet his students. After watching Kakashi leave for a moment Iruka headed out to pick up the supplies he was going to be delivering.

Watching from where she had stumbled across the pair talking Sakura smiled to her-self, "So that is why he is always so late."

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"So your mission today will be to look for an unknown assailant in the woods to the west of here. I'm not going to give you any more information than that. When you find that person they will tell you what to do next," Kakashi spoke in his normal bored tone.

Sakura glanced over at Susuke and raise her hand, "Is there going to be a time limit or anything?"

"There are no rules on this assignment, once you find the person they will tell you what to do next. Well, I have things to do and all, so off you three go," Kakashi made his exit in a puff of smoke.

Sakura watched as Sasuke quietly stood up and stared to make his way towards the gate, "Umm...Sasuke-kun I think that we should head to the west to look for Iruka-sensai, I saw him talking to Kakashi on my way here and he said something about meeting up with him later."

Nodding Sasuke started off with both hands in his pockets, not bothering to wait for his teammates. Sakura sighed, she thought he would have at least thanked her for the information. "Well let's go," Sakura started walking after Sasuke, but stopped when she didn't hear anyone else walking. "Hinata, are you coming?"

Hinata looked up quickly, she had been deep in thought and wasn't been paying much attention to her teammates. "S-sorry, I'm coming," Hinata said in her quiet voice.

Sakura noticed it looked like Hinata wasn't sleeping very well again. Sakura starting off right behind Hinata wondering what could possibly bug someone like Hinata; she always was slightly jealous of Hinata's high family status and advanced bloodline. "Oh well, at least I'm with Susuke and her, not someone like Ino," Sakura thought to herself.

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Iruka wasn't in a hurry to get to the cabin were Naruto lived. He decided to take his time so that he would get there under the cover of darkness. "I wonder what Kakashi had in mind for today's training mission. How did I ever put an Uchiha and a Hyuga on the same team? Hinata's not really as weak as people think she is. Well, I guess if anyone can teach the strange ones it would be Kakashi. I wish I could have convinced the Hokage to let me teach Naruto; he works so hard by himself. If only he was given the chance to be normal I wonder what he would do," Iruka continued musing as he walked along a long unused forest path.

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At the same time Naruto was just starting to get out of bed. He usually was good about getting up to train, but tonight was going to be a full moon and on nights like this he never got much sleep. For some reason he seemed more apt to lose control on the night of the full moon than any other time of the month. He supposed it had something to do with the markings on his stomach and the voice in his head. Whatever it was he usually would wake up somewhere out in the woods his body and clothes worse for wear, but not as bad as whatever formerly living thing that was always laying nearby. That is why Naruto hated nights like that. The only good thing was that he never could remember what had happened or what he had done.

Rising out of his bed Naruto slid his jacket back on, which he must have thrown off at some point during the night. On days with a full moon he noticed he seemed to be much more focused and his training always went much better too. He had taken to trying to wear himself out during the day so that he wouldn't have so much energy when night came around. Last night during one of his bouts of nightmares he had gotten an idea for some new fighting stances. The ones he had been working on still seemed to be too stiff and unnatural. Picking up the weapon pouch he used, Naruto headed out to his training ground. Looking up at the sky he noticed how cloudy it had become, "Aaahhhh! I hope it doesn't rain tonight, I'm going to get another cold."

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Team 7 was making good time. They had found Iruka's tracks easy enough, even if they were a ways behind him. Something was bothering Sasuke though, "It's almost like he isn't even trying to hide them. Be ready there will most likely be a trap somewhere up ahead."

Sakura swooned to herself, "Sasuke is so cool. He looks out for me like that all the time!" Sakura was too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice that something else was starting to bother Hinata, and if Sasuke noticed it he chose not to mention anything. Sasuke was usually irritated at Hinata's lack of confidence, which sometimes got her and the team in trouble when the fighting started.

Hinata often came out into the forest to gather herbs for her medicine making. While she had never gone this far out from the village something didn't seem right around here. There seemed to be no animals around, there were signs that they had been here in the last day or so, but there were none around now. More than just the fact the animals had left the area, was the odd pattern of them all heading anywhere but west. As usual she kept her thoughts to herself not wanting to bug the others.

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Like always there was no one at the cabin when Iruka got there. He could hear the sounds of someone training off in the distance. Leaving the supplies and scrolls he had brought with him Iruka sighed and decided to leave without even taking a look at the boy; if he did he may do something stupid, like talk to him. "Those idiots in town, how can they treat someone this way? If it hadn't been for his sacrifice we would all have been killed. Its not his fault that you used him to save your own skins, and yet you make him live out here all on his own, forever if you have your way too. Iruka silently left still fuming about what the people in town were doing to this poor boy. "Maybe I can get Kakashi to support my idea to let him come live in town, I'll ask him tonight after he gets back from his team's training in the woods," Iruka thought to himself.

Iruka had long ago admitted that some of his sympathy for Naruto came from the fact that he too was an orphan. He knew how it felt to be all alone in the world, and he also knew that some times the darkness and hatred would build up in you if you let it. He was worried even more lately as Naruto's training was focusing more and more on dangerous and offensive techniques. Iruka had to admit that Naruto was becoming a good ninja, especially in the eyes of someone who knew who and what he was. If Naruto began to hate the Leaf Village he could become a very dangerous person, and none of that would have ever even become a possibility if he had been treated differently.

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Naruto sighed, he had really gone all out that day, but it had really paid off. He had finally gotten his technique just the way he wanted it. The sky was already darkening as he sat eating a bowl of ramen from his new supply, "Someday I am going to find out who comes by and leaves these for me, they taste so great!" Naruto was fully unaware that as he sat eating team 7 was steadily getting closer to him. Normally he was much more aware of his surrounding, being able to not only hear and smell, but also to sense the chakra for a good distance, but he was already thinking about what was going to go on tonight, which would be much too soon for his taste. Finishing his meal he quietly stood up to go and put his things away in this house.

Stepping outside, wearing one of his scrubbier sets of clothing, Naruto could already feel the call of the cool night air to the voice, what he thought of as his alter ego, as he ran off into the wood. A smile played on his lips, after nights like these the nightmare would finally lessen till this time next month; he would be able to rest peacefully for a while again. Little did he know that his alter ego was also mirroring his smile, as it had sensed what Naruto had not.

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Team 7 had been following Iruka's tracks all day and just after night had fallen they had come to what looked to be a training ground with a small cabin sitting near by. This must be where Kakashi had sent Iruka to meet them. "Hinata, take a look around to see if you can spot Iruka," Sasuke ordered.

Nodding silently Hinata focused for a second, "Byukagen." Hinata activated her enhanced vision and began to look around for any sigh of Iruka. While she couldn't find anyone something kept blurring in and out of her vision, almost like it was trying to adapt it's chakra to avoid being seen.

"Well, what do you see Hinata?" Sasuke interrupted. He was already a bit on edge as he still had a feeling of something being wrong around this place. This didn't make sense; it was all too simple for something that Kakashi had come up with.

"Iruka doesn't look to be here, but..." Hinata trailed off, "s-sorry, its nothing." A gasp from Sakura made both Hinata and Sasuke spin around expecting an attack or a trap, but both saw that Sakura was looking at some strange scratch marks on one of the boulders they were hiding behind. It looked as if someone had cut the stone with a blade, leaving deep groves in it. In the excitement Hinata had not released the Byukagen yet and for Sakura's sake it was a very lucky thing. "Sakura get down," Hinata warned Sakura just as Susuke pushed Sakura out of the way of some thrown attack.

"We need to get to some better cover, now!" Sasuke took off for the cabin at top speed with his teammates just behind him. Sasuke should have expected something like this from Kakashi. Just finding Iruka didn't seem like much of a mission. Reaching the door to the cabin Sasuke jerked it open and after both girls had stumbled through slammed in shut to find no latch on it.

Team seven listened for sounds of pursuit but everything was silent. Taking notice of the state of the cabin all three children seemed rather appalled by their choice of cover. Candle light revealed food containers, unwashed cloths and junk littering floor. It looked like the messiest room any of them had even seen. From the discarded weapons that had been throw into the wall and ceiling and the small pile of scrolls in one corner of the room it looked like a ninja lived here, but there were no decorations or pictures to tell them anything about the person who lived here. What was much more attention grabbing were the bloodstains that seemed to be a bit too common on almost everything in the cabin.

Suddenly Sakura grabbed her shoulder in pain. The others looked on as she pulled the shirt collar to reveal a deep cut in her shoulder. "How did I get cut?" Sakura seemed just as perplexed as her team mates. "That blade missed me, my shirt isn't even ripped." Sakura starred at the others as she put pressure on the cut. It wasn't a very bad cut, but the seriousness of the situation seemed to be solidified by the sight of her blood.

"Chakra," exclaimed Hinata almost making the other two jump, "that m-must be how I saw the attack coming from so f-far away." Hinata did her best not to seem too scared. This whole thing seemed a bit out of their league.

"Someone used chakra when they throw the blade, maybe it was some type of jitsu," Sasuke seemed more interested in thinking about the attack then in the situation they were in. All three members of team 7 jumped again as they heard something land up on the roof. They could all hear the sounds of something slowing circling the whole thing. "So the purpose of this training was to beat the person we found, this is getting to be a much more interesting mission," from the looks on the faces of his team mates Susuke was the only one holding that opinion. Just then things got a little to quiet to be natural. Everyone seemed to be holding his or her breath waiting for something to happen.

All three started as something smashed through the window and plowed into Sasuke, knocking him across the room and into the wall. After a cracking noise and a gasp he fell to the floor. In the commotion the candle in the center of the room was knocked over and had gone out. Something slowly got up from the floor, and stood considering the two girls slowly swaying back and forth like a cobra ready to strike, the moon light pouring into the room from the window only added to the sense of power and danger the person exuded. Hinata had managed to draw a dagger, but the still form of Sasuke lying sprawled out on the floor stunned Sakura. Finding Sakura the easier target the creature made its attack. Leaping into a crouched position on the floor mere inches from where Sakura was standing the attacker smashed into her unguarded stance. The force of the blow sent Sakura flying in the air to have her fall broken by the filthy table.

Hinata let out a squeak as the person turned its full attention onto her. Hinata was not one you would expect to put up much of a fight, but for some reason the flight part of her fight or flight instincts did not seem to be working. Hinata knew she couldn't beat someone who's movements were so powerful in the small confines of the cabin, so hoping for more room to fight and to draw the person away from her team mates she leaped out the window to made a run for the open grass of the training area. Glancing back to see if she was being followed Hinata watched of the person jumped through the window not minding the broken glass as it bite into it's hands. Standing up to his full height, the moonlight finally revealed the attacker. He appeared to be a boy about her age with unkempt hair, but on closer inspection she could make out the fact that he seemed to have an animalistic look to him, including a snarl complete with sharp teeth. He looked much more dangerous than the puppy dog look of another ninja, Kiba, who had been in her class at the academy.

Slowly he began to circle her. Hinata had seem animals out hunting doing this, he was either going to go for the kill or was just going to play cat and mouse with her. Dropping her dagger she went into her fighting stance. This only seemed to make the boy happier as her stopped circling and got into a low crouching stance with his sharply clawed hands open wide as if intending to cut her with them. Time seemed to stand still. Hinata was starting to wonder if he was going to stay there forever when he made his move. She saw him jump up into the air but when she looked up there was nothing there. Hinata heard someone landing behind her and spun around. The boy had landed there in the same position. Hinata wondered what had happened until she felt a pain in her ankle. Quickly glancing down she say a set of claw marks beginning to bleed. He was way too fast for her, time to try and even things a bit, "Byukagen!" With her improved vision she could hopefully keep up with his movements. This time when he made him move she managed to almost land a hit in his mid section, but she was rewarded for this by getting grasped by the hand while he was flipping over her and being thrown several yards away, to end up leaning on a boulder. Pushing her-self into a sitting position she saw the boy slowly approaching her again. Even without landing a hit Hinata knew that she had caused a lot of damage to him. He seemed to have an even more sadistic smile on his face as he approached, then suddenly he just blurred and disappeared from her vision.

A few seconds later, just as suddenly as he had disappeared he popped back into her vision with a look of surprise on his face as he let out a small cough of blood followed by several much more violent ones. Taking advantage of this Hinata struggled to her feet. Even without a direct hit her tai jitsu was more than dangerous. She had not really been aiming he attack, only striking out of instinct and a sense of self defense, but it looked like she had hit him right in his chest. Hinata's chakra charged attacks could easily rip up someone's insides in a few good hits.

Soon the coughing stopped and the boy seemed to regard her with much more respect. Hinata stood in her fighting stance waiting for the next attack, but all of a sudden the boy relaxed out of his fighting stance. Hinata's confusion only grew as he spoke to her in a deep voice that seemed to be evil incarnate, "You are much more fun than I expected, normally I would kill you where you stand, but I think it will be much more fun if I let him see what he has done. Those cuts from my claws are not just normal slashes, they each carry a sort of negative chakra, and soon you will find pain that you never knew could exist, as your own chakra becomes poisonous to you." Hinata didn't seem to feel anything besides the normal throbbing pain of the cuts. Maybe he was just trying to intimidate her. Hinata's thoughts were interrupted when the boy's animal like features seemed to shrink into themselves. His eyes closed and opened in a much more normal human expression. Hinata noticed that the eyes, which had been almost a glowing red, were now a deep blue. Along with that she noticed that the boy went through several emotions in rapid succession; first bewilderment, followed by shock, almost fear at seeing her, finalized by a blank look as he passed out.

For several minutes Hinata just stared at him, not daring to move, when suddenly she felt her entire body start to burn from the inside. It felt like her entire chakra system was lava flowing through her. Grasping herself she fell to her knees in pain, "Help, someone, please help," but her plea was little more than a whisper, as she sprawled out unconscious on the ground.

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Kakashi looked up from the book he was reading. He had been waiting for his students to find him for hours, "Maybe I should go look for them, normally they are really good about getting their mission done quickly." After thinking about it a moment he decided to go tell Iruka that he would be later than he expected and then to go look for his team.

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Naruto hated when he woke up on an empty stomach, but for some reason he seemed to have a lot more than just hunger pains. "Well, I doubt I ate anything last night, or I guess I hope I didn't," that reason seemed good enough for him, and he tried to roll over onto his back. "Hmm, I'm more stiff than usual after an evening like that," Naruto thought. His legs and arms felt like he had been training for hours. Finally, with a sigh, Naruto rolled over letting his arms flail out. When his arm hit the ground, the ground seemed to let out a small moan of pain. This also struck Naruto as something odd. Now, Naruto's mind never woke up till much later in the morning, but it was curious enough to find out what was going on to wake itself up a bit early.

Opening his eyes Naruto was confronted with something wearing a pink/tan sweatshirt with oddly colored dark hair. "What kind of animal wears sweaters?" He asked himself dumbly. Naruto's mind was now not so sure it wanted to get up any time soon, if at all, ever again, now that he was slowly realizing what he was laying next to. Anything he was laying next to after a full moon would not be a pretty sight.

All at once the picture slid into place, full moon, the voice, some kind of new prey it had found and something about intruders. Bolting up right Naruto looked down at the unconscious girl, "What have I done?! No one has ever been around here, I never thought there would be other people nearby during a full moon!" Quickly Naruto crawled over to her side, "Wait, she is still breathing!" Gently rolling her onto her back he could see that he had indeed attacked her. He could see the scratch marks and bruises on her. Naruto had never had any contact with people before, so he was unsure of what he should do. Putting a hand on her shoulder he tried to awkwardly shake her awake, but she didn't even seem to stir, even though her sweater he could feel her fever induced shivers. Once he had awoken with a self inflicted scratch, and had spent hours in searing pain as his own chakra seemed to burn him from with in him.

Naruto gingerly lifted the girl up and carried her towards his cabin, only to find more surprises, not only was his window broken, but the room was trashed as well (Well, more then it normally was at least). When his eyes adjusted to the dark lighting of the room, he could make out the bodies of two others lying where they had fallen. What had he done last night?! Naruto, in his despair, almost dropped the girl he was holding as his mind reeled with the stress of trying to remember last night. Regaining his senses he made his way over to his bed, laying the girl on it he quickly ran to the pond making a makeshift washcloth out of his shirtsleeve. Soaking the cloth he returned to the cabin and laid it on the girl's forehead. Carefully making his way across the room he reached the selves that held the ointment he had used on his own scratches. It was one of the few things that he thought of as his own, as it had always been there on the shelf for as long as he could remember. Moving back to the bed her applied some to the cuts on the girl's ankle. Not knowing what else to do he put his dirty blankets over her shivering form.

Turning he looked over the other two children in his house, one looked as if she had been thrown though his dinner table, and the other looked like he had made a large dent in the wall before collapsing to the floor. Naruto was pretty good treating everyday injuries, as he often had to patch himself up after accidents while training. He first gathered up what few spare blankets he had and laid the two out on them; the girl looked like she had just taken a bad blow to the back of the head, and the boy looked like he had several fractured or broken ribs. Naruto patched them up the best he could and then sat in his now very crowded house. It was almost comical, for the first time he had met face to face with other people, and they couldn't speak to him. It was all his fault. The feeling of stiffness and pain from his chest was really starting to get worse, and on top of that he felt like he could use a good nap. Naruto propped himself up against the wall determined to not fall asleep in case they needed him or they just woke up and left.

From the way they were dressed and the weapons that they carried Naruto could tell that they too were ninjas, just like him. Naruto had to use all of his self-control from taking one of the headbands that the three wore.

Maybe they were the ones that had brought him food and supplies for so long. What if now that he had done this they didn't want to help him anymore? What if they woke up and decided to hurt him, he was out numbered three to one, even if they were a bit out of it right now. Naruto had never put too much thought into what other people would do if they saw him, or if he left to look for other people.

Every so often Naruto would refresh the cloth on the first girl's forehead, and finally around noon she seemed to finally start to stir. Naruto had been trying to think of something to say all afternoon, but had managed to come up with nothing.

-----

Hinata felt someone putting a moist rag on her head as the pain she was feeling slowly started to wear off. She tried remembering what she was doing last but came up with a blank. Slowly she opened her eyes to see a blond boy carefully putting the rag on her. Who was this boy? It's not Susuke, he has dark hair, and Kakashi doesn't look anything like this person. The boy had blond hair that was uneven and messy, most likely from cutting his own hair, she noted in the back of her mind. His eyes looked like deep blue pools and he had some sort of whiskers on his face. Wait, normal boys did not have whiskers. All of a sudden it all came back to her. Pushing herself away from the boy towards the corner of the room as fast as she could Hinata raised her arms up to try to ward off an attack.

Seeing this Naruto jumped back seemingly in more fear of her than she had of him. He had been starring into her eyes as she had been examining him. They were all white, even the pupils, nothing like his. Hinata watched in confusion as he suddenly grasped his stomach and after several violent gagging motions collapsed onto the floor. This didn't seem like the taunting monster she fought last night. "Why did he just collapse like that?" Hinata thought out loud.

"Because you must have hit him last night," Sasuke answered her. All the commotion had awoken him moments before. He was standing with a dagger in one hand and his ribs in the other. Shakily he made his way towards Naruto, a cold look in his eyes.

"Sasuke! W-what are you-you doing?!" Hinata knew that Sasuke was a very driven, if not cold person, but to kill someone when they couldn't even fight back? He did mention that his greatest ambition was to kill someone, but she didn't take that too seriously until now.

"I'm going to make sure that this monster doesn't have a chance to get up again," Sasuke had a calm look on his face. The thought of killing wasn't giving him any thrill, but he had to make sure this guy did not get up to fight again; he was just to dangerous. The unconscious boy reminded Sasuke of his brother, and that did not bode well for Naruto.

Just as Hinata was going to try pleading with Sasuke again a puff of smoke appeared in the room and Kakashi stood between Sasuke and Naruto. "Killing is not something that should be taken so lightly. Even an enemy has the right to live," Sasuke lowed the dagger he had raised in surprise. "I see the three of you have meet the greatest secret of the Hidden Leaf Village," Kakashi stated in his neutral voice.

Everyone looked back as Sakura let out a moan of pain as she moved her stiff body into a sitting position. She gave everyone a look of surprise as she surveyed the room.

"Sensei?" Sakura was very glad that Kakashi had gotten there in time to save them, even if she didn't show it. Looking at the boy lying behind him though she couldn't hide her confusion. "He is the one that beat us so badly?" Sakura looked at the orange lump of unconscious Naruto, who looked somewhat lacking to her. Inner Sakura's thoughts were much the same.

"Looks like it," Kakashi was recovering from the shock of finding his entire team beaten up by someone who had never actually been taught the ways of the ninja. One could only learn so much from scrolls; Sakura was a good example of this. How had he beaten them all, and then managed to treat their injuries after taking a good hit from Hinata's attack was beyond him. Not only that but he had obviously started his attack outside, and the only sign he could find of Naruto's movements was the broken window. Perhaps Iruka had something when he said that Naruto should come live in town so he could be taught at the academy. Taking nothing else into account just this would put Naruto on level with a genius. "You are all just lucky I decided to track you down after you never came and found me." Kakashi stated breaking from his thoughts.

"But I thought we were supposed to track Iruka," Sakura was sure that she was right. They had been talking together before the mission, and then Iruka headed out of the village, in the same direction they were supposed to go. Not many people just wondered out of town for no reason.

"I never said that you were looking for Iruka, it looks like you all made some bad intelligence assumptions," At the sound of Hinata's voice Kakashi turned towards her. "What did you say Hinata?"

"Sh-shouldn't we do s-something for him?" She pointed nervously at the blond boy on the floor, who had a small stream of blood coming out of his mouth and dripping down to the floor. Hinata knew not only how much it hurt, but how much damaged was done by her attack style. Her old teacher often expressed his disappointment in her progress by showing her how it was done properly. Hinata was glad that he was not teaching her any more; even if that just added to the disgrace she brought her family.

"Well, there's not much we can do here, I guess we will have to take him back the village with us," Kakashi knew that he was going to get in a lot of trouble for this, but he didn't have much of a choice right then. Hinata and Sakura seemed relieved that they were not going to just leave someone so badly injured all alone, but Susuke looked like he still wanted to argue about it. "You are not to tell anyone of what happened here, absolutely no one, unless I or the Hokage okay it. This means friends, and family are included."

-----

As the group slowly made their way towards the village, being slowed down by Sasuke and Hinata's injuries and by the added weight of carrying Naruto, Kakashi spoke to Hinata. "You did very good fighting someone so strong, if you would fight like that all the time you will become a much better ninja than you are now." Hinata blushed at the complement. "But you are lucky that someone was there to take care of you while the fever was so high, many people much stronger than you have been killed by it."

-----

Hinata was very confused. How did Kakashi know about the fever? Other people had been killed by the same poison? So had he fought other people before and killed them? How was someone her age that much stronger than her and her teammates? Why did he stop attacking her so suddenly last night? Why did he take care of her while the poison ran it's coarse if he was a murderer? She had so many questions, and no answers. This boy seemed to make no sense to Hinata, but for some reason she wanted to know more about him. She did not want to be afraid of him. Secondly, he was like her. She didn't know why she thought that, but she knew it was true. Maybe is was his pain filled eyes.

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End chapter one.