The Avatar and the Demon….

Disclaimer I own neither Avatar: The last airbender nor Naruto. The story begins right at the end of the battle at the valley of the end. Warning: Sakura and Sasuke bashing. If you like that great, if not I advise not reading. Real angst in this story. Mature theme over time.

Chapter 1 – The return…

Sasuke collapsed next to Naruto as the rain storm subsided. The pain was too much for him to bear. He had a broken right arm and the curse mark was burning like he had never felt. 'I won but not well enough to make good my escape. Damn you Naruto. Why did you stop me? I need power and can only…' Sasuke thought as he finally passed out from the pain.

Kakashi arrived with Pakun seeing that Naruto on the ground and Sasuke near him. Kakashi noticed a pool of blood forming around Naruto and saw a sight that even had him wondering if Naruto would survive. Naruto had three holes in his jumpsuit.

The jumpsuit was burnt, and on the left chest was a hole and the skin was scarred but healing. There was a hole in the center of his chest that was open but it was closing, the rain had pooled the blood and it was running down his side to the ground. The third hole was on the right abdomen, the skin was scarred and discolored.

'It looks like the Kyuubi is working overtime. Good work Naruto, mission successful. Now to get both of you back to Konoha.' "Kage Bunshin" Kakashi says as a clone of himself appears and picks up Sasuke after tieing him up. Kakashi bandages Naruto's chest wound as best as he can. He then grabs him and heads back to Konoha.

Kakashi and his clone were carrying Sasuke and Naruto on their backs. After a few minutes of travel from the valley of the end he met up with an advanced medical unit. "Kakashi, what is the status of Uzumaki Naruto?" One of the medics asked.

"He is severely injured but should be ok for the trip back. Sasuke is similarly injured but not as bad. Both should be able to handle transport back to the village. Can one of you take Sasuke, as my clone will not last that much longer? And what is the status of the others?" Kakashi asked.

One of the other medics took Sasuke off the clones back and the clone dissipated, with the transfer they continued back to the village. "Lady Hokage dispatched the first through fourth quick medical response teams. The others are as follows, Nara has minor injuries, Inuzuka is worse off but in no danger. Akamichi and Hyuga are both in critical conditions and could go either way." The medic answered.

The rest of the trip was quiet as Naruto fell into unconsciousness. The next thing he knew he woke up smelling the anti-septic smell of the hospital, the one place he always hated. Opening his eyes he saw the blurry room, as it came into focus he saw Shikamaru sitting on his bed fiddling with his fingers, while one of them was in a brace as if were broken and himself covered in bandages. Shikamaru turned to Naruto as he noticed movement. "Finally awake?"

"Yak…" Naruto croaked his mouth dry. "Yeah, I am awake. How is everyone else?"

"Well everyone will live. Choji and Neji got really beat up. I hear you took the worst of all of us but you are the first of the ones in critical condition to wake up." Shikamaru replied.

"I am glad to hear we all made it back alive. So we got him back, right?" Naruto said with a sad look on his face as Shikamaru nodded.

The door opened and Sakura walked in with a blank look on her face. Naruto immediately had a smile on his face. "Sakura-chan! I was able to bring him back, just like I promised. Isn't that great?"

Sakura's face contorted and turned to anger. "How could you have done that to him? He is still unconscious! He has a broken arm and several other injuries! So the answer is no! You did not fulfill your promise! You brought back a near corpse! If he ever recovers he will not be the same Sasuke-kun. I hate you! You are a liar! I hate you! You are just a demon-brat like my mother told me, and you are useless!"

The door slams open as Hinata ran into the room. "Sakura-san! How dare you yell at Naruto-kun like that? He promised to bring Sasuke-san back, and he did. Have you taken a look at Naruto-kun? He has more bandages than Sasuke! He put all his effort into bringing back Sasuke, and all you can do is tell him that he did not do enough? How dare you! Naruto-kun made you a promise and I am sure he did everything he could to not hurt your precious Sasuke, but from the looks of it Sasuke fought to not be taken back!" Tsunade and Shizune walked in as Hinata was yelling at Sakura.

"Shut up demon lover! We all know you love Naruto! So just shut up! He hurt my Sasuke-kun! I will never forgive him for that! How can Sasuke-kun ever come back from the beating he received from Naruto-baka?" Sakura yelled.

Tsunade was getting very angry and was looking at Naruto who was totally confused at this point. "Haruno Sakura! You will immediately quiet down! This is a hospital and there are sick and injured trying recuperate. First Naruto went after Sasuke on orders. Second Sasuke was considered a missing nin at that point so any means of bringing him back was acceptable. Third he injured Sasuke in self defense as far as I am concerned unless Naruto has learned to use fire jutsu and chidori. Forth why are you calling him demon? I am waiting Haruno!" Looking at Hinata and smiling kindly, "Are you are in love with my little brother, Naruto-kun?" A large smile crossed Tsunade's face, while Hinata's turned bright red. She turned back to Sakura "I am waiting for an answer Haruno Sakura?"

"My mother says he is a demon, and the way he is able to wield that evil red chakra, he must be a demon." Sakura said with venom in her voice.

"That curse mark on Sasuke is more evil than Naruto's red chakra." Tsunade replied, but was interrupted from continuing.

"Naruto is not evil! He might have pulled pranks but he never hurt anyone with them!" Hinata pleaded.

"Sakura-san, enough! You were not on the mission! You were specifically excluded because you had already tried to stop him from leaving and failed. I was the leader of the mission and I had five others that went with me. One troublesome one was not invited but came anyways. From what Lee-san told 

me Sasuke-san walked off while Naruto-san was fighting someone and taunted Naruto into following him with the intention of either beating him or killing him. So Naruto fulfilled the mission and the promise. You begged for him to do it, so you have no place to criticize how he did it. I know you love the jerk but he did run from the village with known enemies. We have seven injured shinobi including four genin, two jonin and one chunin, myself. I got away with the lightest injuries. And I am not including Lee-san because he was already injured, but that would make eight if you include him. We had to fight five sound ninja of jonin level and Sasuke himself. So if he was not running to Orochimaru then where was he going? And why was he fighting to not come back?" Shikamaru asked.

"I know that Naruto was driving him crazy and he just wanted to prove that Naruto was weaker than himself after all." Sakura said with a smug smile.

"Sakura, I tried to talk to him. I really tried, but he would not listen." Most everyone noticed he was not using chan when speaking to her.

"Shut up Naruto! Why would he listen to you?" Sakura retorted.

"Why did you beg me to go after him then? You said I was the only one that could reach him. Why did you say that? Also Shikamaru told you we might have to use force. Did you forget that?" Naruto asked angrily.

"I wasn't thinking right and you always started fights with him! You think you could have talked nicely to him and persuaded him to come back? No! I bet you taunted him and yelled at him to fight you." Sakura said nearly in tears.

"What are you talking about? I thought of him like a brother and I was also on a mission to get him back. I tried to talk to him and all he did was laugh at me and taunt me. He said he was going to Orochimaru for power. I tried to talk him into coming back and he attacked me, so I attacked back. I held back so as not to kill the teme. Hell I thought of him as a brother. Did you know he drove a chidori through my right lung? Did you?" Naruto asked yelling at Sakura and starting to cough up blood. The two things together caused Hinata to feint and Tsunade to run up to Naruto. She checked his vitals.

"Haruno Sakura you are here by ordered to leave! I will see you in my office later to discuss your conduct in this room. Shizune please put Hinata up on the other bed while I heal Naruto he reinjured his lung from yelling at Sakura." Tsunade ordered as her hand was covered in green healing chakra, she then moved it over his injured chest. His chest appeared to almost be fully healed a slight scar was evident on his chest where new skin has covered over the hole that was blasted in his chest.

"Ok Naruto I would like you to quietly go over what happened at the valley of the End with us so that we know what happened." Tsunade lightly ordered.

Naruto took the next hour recounting in very vivid detail what happened. He also included when the Kyubi chakra enveloped him after a pile driver attack that should have broken his neck. He talked about how Sasuke wanted to break the bond of friendship that he and Naruto had so that he could attain power. Hinata had awakened early in the retelling and was shocked and surprised that Naruto was the 

container of the Kyubi. After he finished the tale about the valley of the End he explained how he was the child who the Forth Hokage had used to seal away the Kyubi as he could not kill it. Hinata upon hearing this broke down in tears and walked over and hugged Naruto wishing she had done it sooner.

Naruto was dumbstruck by her gesture. He did not know what to do or how to react. Shikamaru of course had to put his troublesome comments in. "That does help in figuring out why things have been the way that they have. For a friend you are so troublesome."

Hinata still holding Naruto, "How so?"

"Well he is hated by most if not all of the older generation, they chase and beat him, exclude him from stores and the like. And that hatred is passed down through the children by them not wanting to associate with him. I am impressed you did not become like that Gaara guy was before you beat him after the chunin exams. Your insane amount of chakra, fast healing, and insane stamina, those can be either attributed to either the Kyubi or a new Kekkei Genkai. Hey with the Kyubi you got a tie with Sasuke, you should have been able to wipe the floor with him without that curse mark he has." Shikamaru's statement was more a questioned than anything else.

"Well we fought that fat guy, then we got into several other fights, then I fought that bone guy, and finally I fought Sasuke. He used his curse seal to… what did he say? A second level or something like that. He changed, he even grew wings. And his skin turned black then gray his hair grew and turned gray also. I kept on fighting him to a standstill even after he hit me with a chidori in the right lung. He was aiming for my heart but I was able to shift the target. Baa-chan he was trying to kill me and it was all for power. He acknowledged our friendship but wanted to end it."

Naruto started to cry, Hinata was attempting to soothe him by holding him close and brushing his hair with her hand. "All I wanted to do was to bring him back and make Sakura happy. I did what I promised but she now hates me even more than before. I am happy to know that Hinata loves me." Looking up at Hinata now, "I know now how much a fool I have been for not noticing you before. I am sorry."

Hinata smiled cradling his head, "It is alright Naruto-kun. You noticed now and that is what I wanted. I am sorry that Sakura was so mean to you but I cannot control that, she was also not the right person for you. I have known you from afar for a long time. I have known a lot of your suffering, but I have not known to the extent you have suffered. I will not let you suffer anymore if I can help it because I lo… lov… love you Naruto-kun." The last part came out as whisper but came out much to her relief.

"I also know the difference between your smiles. The real ones and the ones you put on to hide your suffering." Naruto wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her for all he could while he wept into her jacket.

"The only problem we have now is that we have is, its Naruto's word against Sasuke's. It does help Naruto that Sasuke was caught leaving the village. From what I heard from Kakashi both you guys had a fight on top of the hospital before he went rouge. Is that correct Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto turned his head to face Shikamaru not wanting to leave the embrace of someone who cared for him. "Yeah we did. It started as spar but turned into an all out fight. We traded blows but he was better at taijutsu and was decimating my clones."

Naruto paused catching his breath. "He finally hit the roof with a fireball as I got a rasengan going. He got started a chidori and we were headed towards each other. He was falling and I jumped his way being caught up in the moment. Sakura came out, after watching up to that point, yelling for us to stop. But at that point we couldn't stop. Luckily Kakashi arrived and sent us each into a water tower to dissipate our jutsus. I am sorry Hokage-sama I didn't mean to do it." Naruto recounted the story.

"So it was you two that took out the water supply for the hospital? I would give you a pass as he is the one who instigated it, but you both have to pay for repairs." Naruto just nodded to this information. "I thought the damage looked familiar. His had a fist size hole and yours had two holes, one in front about the size of a pen the other out the back side was about two meters wide." This brought a shocked look to Hinata's and Shikamaru's face.

Tsunade turned to leave. "Well Hinata I will leave Naruto in your care, believe me he needs lots of love." She winked at Hinata causing her to blush.

The door opened suddenly with Kakashi entering. "Hokage-sama, the council wants to talk to right away. They do not seem very happy. And member Haruno is very pissed. Do you need me to come along?"

Shaking her head, "No Kakashi I do not need you to accompany me. But come along anyways, I may have a use for you in dealing with Sakura's mother. Shizune I need you too. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Hinata enjoy your afternoon. I will check on you later." With that Tsunade left the room with Shizune and Kakashi.

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A/N: Fear not I will have chapter 2 up soon more trouble for Naruto to come...