Naruto : The Angelic Swordsman
Chapter Two : Heroes Come Back
Naruto moved at high speed through the desert, he was running so fast that the sand had started to slipstream behind him, he had already used a scarf he found in his bag to cover his mouth and nose to prevent sand from entering either one of them. He had considered stopping at the Sand village to visit Gaara, but ultimately decided against it, he had been away from the elemental nations for almost three years, he had no idea what the current situation was regarding the relationship between Konoha and Suna.
Naruto was a few miles away from the border between the Wind and Fire countries when something caught his attention. Naruto quickly skidded to a stop which in turn caused the slipstreaming sand to impact him.
"WAA!" Naruto screamed as the sand impacted him.
After a few moments Naruto pulled himself out of the sand, pulled down his scarf and sniffed the air, years of training had honed his senses greatly, the area he was in now had been traversed by several people whose scents he recognised. Naruto closed his eyes as he slowly separated the scents.
'… Two scents are unknown and a few days old… there's a third with them, Gaara… there are four more scents only a few hours old… one is unknown… the other three are…' Naruto thought to himself but his eyes opened when he recognised the last three scents.
"Kakashi, Sakura and… Sasuke…" Naruto said with a smile, Sasuke was with Kakashi and Sakura… that must mean…
"Sasuke went back to the leaf!!! Hahaha!!" Naruto jumped with glee and punched the air for a moment.
"Ok then, let's see what my old team is up to" Naruto muttered as he pulled the scarf back up and started sprinting in the direction that the scents lead.
After about an hour of full speed sprinting Naruto eventually came to a large gorge on the edge of a forest, Naruto looked down into the gorge, the bottom was filled with water but alone the whole gorge were large tree roots that protruded from one side and du into the other side of the earth.
Naruto took another quick sniff. 'Four of them are heading this way'
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Deidara quickly shot along the inside of the gorge atop a large bird made of clay as he tried to escape his pursuers while he left the old hag and the pink haired Leaf-nin for Sasori to deal with, unfortunately that left him to deal with Kakashi and Sasuke Uchiha.
"These guy's just don't give up" Deidara mumbled as he gained more distance.
He turned around for a moment to see if they were still behind him but smiled when he saw nothing. Deidara turned around to face the way he was going only to have his eyes widen when the bottom of a boot was heading towards his head, he managed to swerve his clay bird to the side just before the kick collided.
"SHIT, WHO THE HELL?!!" Deidara cursed as she stopped his bird and turned to see his assailant. He quickly spotted him standing on one of the giant roots bridging the gorge. A teenager wearing a scarf around his mouth and nose and had three Katanas strapped to his side.
Naruto had reacted instinctively when he saw what Deidara was dressed in, a black cloak with red clouds.
"Akatsuki…" Naruto mumbled as he pulled his scarf back down a bit "… it figures you asses would still be around causing trouble"
Deidara's eyes widened when he saw Naruto's face, the whiskers were a dead giveaway.
"You… I've seen a picture of you Uzumaki Naruto… rumour has it you're dead…" Deidara said with a wild grin, in his mind he was going through the ways he could capture the Jinchuuriki and take him to Pein.
Naruto reached to his forehead protector and quickly pulled it from his arm, he then started to wrap it around his head…
"Judging by the smell, you have a friend of mine in the mouth of that bird… you only have one chance to walk away from here alive… let him go…"
The fabric of the protector was larger now, so it completely covered all of his hair and his eyebrows and stopped just above his eyes causing a shadow effect to fall over them giving him a very sinister look, with one last tug the forehead protector was tightly in place.
"Hah, I don't think so… you see I've read the report on you, I know how strong you are… and that's how I know that this fight won't last more than one attack!!!" Deidara screamed and with that his bird tilted forward and shot towards Naruto.
Naruto grinned and used his thumb to flick the hilt of one of his Katanas, he quickly slid it out of it's scabbard and pointed it at Deidara.
"You just made the wrong decision, but at least you were right about one thing…" Naruto said as he took the sword into both hands and raised it over his left shoulder.
"…this fight won't last more than one attack… Ittoryu :…" (Single Sword Style)
Naruto waited until Deidara was a little closer and then.
"SAN-JUU-ROKU PONDO HOU!!! (36 Pound Cannon) Naruto shouted as he swung the blade long before Deidara was even in range.
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Kakashi and Sasuke were finally catching up to the member of Akatsuki that had escaped with Gaara. Kakashi looked the same as he was three years ago but over the years Sasuke had changed, he was now taller and his hair had grown a little longer, he wore a pair of black pants with a blue cloth wrapped around his lower stomach and upper legs held in placed by his Konoha forehead protector, he also wore a white shirt with a small Uchiha clan crest on the back, the shirt was open revealing his chest. Finally there was a hilt-less sword tucked into the back of his forehead protector.
"We're catching up…" Kakashi called back.
Sasuke simply nodded and sped up a little.
They slowed a little when they heard a shout up ahead, they couldn't hear what had been shouted but a moment later they saw something that made them stop dead in their tracks, suddenly the sky ahead of them was filled with a helix of dust that had shot up out of the gorge.
"W-What was that?" Sasuke asked.
"I don't know but be careful, it could be a trap" Kakashi warned and jumped on ahead quickly followed by Sasuke.
they quickly reached the area where the dust had shot up, they were surprised by what they saw, Deidara's clay bird was laying on one of the roots bridging the gorge missing it's wings. Deidara himself was laying not too far from it with a large slash across his chest. his chest slowly raised as he took in ragged breaths.
Deidara turned his head to look at Kakashi.
"T-The sword… it… it didn't even touch me…" Deidara sputtered out in a surprised tone.
After a few more moments his chest stopped moving as he drew his last breath. Kakashi leaned down and looked at Deidara's wound.
"… This was not caused by a blade… it looks like it was caused by… wind…" Kakashi muttered.
"A wind Jutsu… maybe Temari was here…" Sasuke offered
"No… she's guarding a checkpoint near the border, besides I didn't feel a chakra spike when this happened" Kakashi said as he stood up and walked towards the clay bird.
"No chakra… so this wasn't caused by a Jutsu?" Sasuke asked in a surprised tone.
Kakashi leaned down to the bird and wrenched open it's jaw, inside was Gaara's body.
"Whatever happened here we'll deal with it later, right now we need to get Gaara back to Sakura and Chiyo.
Meanwhile Naruto had pulled his scarf back up and was sprinting along the ridge of the gorge back the way Kakashi and Sasuke had been coming from, after beating the Akatsuki with the bird he had remembered something that Jiraiya had mentioned a few years back, Akasuki members work in pairs, so if Kakashi and Sasuke were dealing with one then Sakura and somebody else must be dealing with the other.
'… Kakashi and Sasuke can take care of Gaara, but Sakura up against a member of Akatsuki… I can't see that ending well…' Naruto thought as he picked up his speed.
After sprinting for a few minutes he reached the end of the gorge and looked down, the scents lead down into a cave surrounded by a lake.
"Crap… water… gotta be careful…" Naruto muttered as he jumped down and landed carefully to a stone protruding out of the water, he quickly jumped from stone to stone until he reached the save entrance.
Naruto leaned around the edge of the opening and peeked inside, he quickly spotted Sakura thanks to her pink hair, she was a little taller and wore tighter clothes but over all she looked the same, next to her was a small old lady wearing Sand village clothes.
opposite them was a young looking man with red hair, but something looked strange about him. his arms were segmented and his eyes were wide open as if they were never meant to close, he also had a strange cylinder in his chest with a red Kenji on it. It didn't take long for Naruto to realise that the boy wasn't a human.
but the thing that really gave him away was the hole on the right side of his chest with hundreds of chakra strings shooting out of it connected to almost a hundred puppets that were preparing to attack Sakura and the old lady.
'… and I thought I was the one in the team who always bites off more than he can chew…' Naruto thought with a sweat-drop as he quickly drew two of his Katanas.
Sakura fell to her knees in exhaustion, after fighting Sasori for only ten minutes she was exhausted, already they had fought against his fake scorpion body, his Kazekage puppet and now he pulls out an even bigger surprise, 100 puppets all at the same time, he body was still weak from the poison that had effected her.
"No way… how can he still have enough chakra to control all of those puppets?" Sakura murmured to herself.
"You see now, you never had a chance, either of you…" Sasori said in his still calm voice. "… Now… it's time for you to die…"
without even moving his own body all 100 of the puppets suddenly flew through the air towards Sakura and Chiyo.
Chiyo readied her fingers to try to take control of some of the puppets and Sakura raised her fist ready, but before either of them could act, something shot past them with a scarf trailing behind him.
"Nitoryu…" (Two Sword Style) the person said as he shot towards the puppets with great speed whilst holding a sword in each hand. with unimaginable speed the newcomer shot from the puppet to another whilst slashing randomly, it looked like the puppets had slowed down while he had sped up. in less than 5 seconds he had passed all of the puppets and reached Sasori who actually looked shocked, with one last slash the newcomer stopped moving behind Sasori.
"… Hawk Wave!" the newcomer finished.
Immediately every single one of the puppets fell apart slashed into pieces, finally Sasori's arms and head fell off followed by his torso from his legs.
the newcomer quickly twirled his swords around and slid them back into their scabbards.
'Well, these Akatsuki fellas felt a lot more powerful three years ago…' Naruto thought in disappointment, he was hoping for a real fight.
Naruto turned around and started walking back towards Sakura and the old lady.
Sakura was ready for anything that could happen, this newcomer could very well be another enemy but she calmed down considerably when she noticed the Leaf headband wrapped around his head, but his scarf he wore covered his mouth nose and cheeks, the only part of his face she could see were his bright blue eyes.
As Naruto turned his back he failed to noticed several different parts of different puppets moving towards each other, luckily Sakura did noticed it.
"Hey look out!!!" Sakura shouted.
Naruto's eyes widened when he realised what was happening. Naruto twisted around whilst at the same time ripping one of his Katanas from it's scabbard with his right hand. The puppet finally finished putting itself together when two arms each holding a sword clicked into place, it also had Sasori's head attached to it. the puppet shot at Naruto just as he finished turning around. Naruto only just managed to block both of the puppet's swords with one of his own.
"Heh, now that's more like it…" Naruto said with a grin under his scarf.
Naruto quickly pushed Sasori away and drew a second Katana with his left hand.
"Nitoryu…" (Two Sword Style) Naruto said as he jumped at Sasori with the swords held parallel to each other with the tips pointing left and right, when Naruto reached Sasori he slashed outwards. "… Nigiri!!!" (Double Slash)
One sword separated Sasori's head and arms from the torso, the second sword cut through the middle of the torso separating it from the legs.
As the separate puppet parts fell to the ground something happened, the same cylinder that was in the chest of Sasori's original body flew up out of this body's chest.
"What the?…" Naruto muttered in confusion.
"Hey kid!!!" A voice shouted from behind him, Naruto turned around to see the old lady shouting at him.
"The cylinder contains his heart, it's what's keeping him alive!!!" Chiyo shouted.
Naruto looked back up and saw several puppet parts heading towards the cylinder.
"Got it… Nitoryu…" (Two Sword Style) Naruto said as he crossed his arms at his stomach and let the swords hang by his ankles. then with great speed he pulled both swords upward in a cross slash. "…Tourou!!!" (Climbing Tower) As the slashed ended, two crescent shaped blades of energy appeared in the air and shot towards the cylinder, they both struck it, passed right through and kept going until they both struck the ceiling of the cave leaving a large hole where sunlight shone through. A moment later the cylinder split into four pieces and a red liquid fell from it, Naruto twisted his swords around and slowly slipped them back into their scabbards, just as he finished clicking them into place the remaining puppet pieces hit the floor.
"… and that's that…" Naruto said with a grin under his scarf.
Naruto turned around and saw that Kakashi and Sasuke had turned up carrying Gaara. it seems that they had turned up just in time to see Naruto's final attack.
Kakashi placed Gaara down and Sakura and Chiyo went about healing him. Kakashi and Sasuke approached Naruto.
"You… you're the one who took out Deidara…" Kakashi said, it wasn't a question.
"You mean the guy with the weird bird… yeah, that was me…" Naruto said as he smiled and put his hands on his waist.
"… You wear a Leaf headband but I don't recognise you, who are you?" Kakashi asked.
"Heh… you don't recognise me Kakashi?" Naruto said as he reached up for his scarf, he was about to pull it down when he suddenly realised something…
"… I have a better idea… I'll show you my face if you show me yours…" Naruto said with a grin.
Kakashi was very wary now… it would be easy for somebody to forge a Konoha headband, the only leaf-nins on this mission was team Kakashi and Team Gai, no other Leaf-nin were in Wind country, plus there were no longer any Ninja of this newcomers level of skill with a sword at Konoha. Kakashi reached back and pulled up a pair of Kunai, one in each hand and rushed at Naruto.
Naruto quickly jumped back in time to dodge both swipes.
"Hey! what's your problem!!!" Naruto yelled as he fingered his Katana.
Kakashi raised his Kunai in a defensive stance.
"You are not a Konoha ninja… the way you beat both Deidara and Sasori with those swords would suggest that you're a swordsmaster, but Konoha has recently only had one swordsmaster, Hayate Gekko, but he died almost three years ago… now I ask you again… who are you?!"
Naruto's eyes darkened.
"Think about what you're about to do Kakashi, because if you challenge me in a battle of blades…" Naruto quickly flicked his Katana slightly out if it's sheath. ".. You will not win"
"We'll see, Sasuke, with me!" Kakashi said, and with that he charged, Sasuke wasn't far behind as he reached back and drew his sword with his right hand.
'Shit, they're really gonna attack… if I fight I'm gonna end up hurting them…' with his mind made up Naruto rushed towards Kakashi and Sasuke, a moment before they collided, Naruto said one word.
"Soru" (Shave) Suddenly Naruto flickered for a moment and disappeared, he reappeared at the entrance of the cave and kept running.
"What the… Flash Step!?" Kakashi recognised the technique the Mystery man had used. "Damn it, Sakura stay here and help Gaara!" Kakashi said before sprinting off after their new target.
Naruto had jumped along the stones protruding out of the water of the lake and jumped back up onto the cliff leading to the desert with Kakashi and Sasuke hot on their.
"Damn it… this is what I get for helping out old friends…" Naruto muttered in annoyance as he looked back at his pursuers. Naruto turned to look back the way he was running but was surprised when he saw a fist heading for him.
"HOLY…" Naruto didn't finish what he was saying, instead he leaned back and watched as the fist passed over his face without touching. Naruto quickly skidded to a halt and prepared himself, he found himself surrounded, in front of him was Neji in his Jyuuken stand, Tenten with a pair of Kunai, Gai in his Gouken stance and the owner of the punch that almost hit him, Rock Lee also in a Gouken stance. Behind him Kakashi and Sasuke had just caught up with him.
"Kakashi my eternal rival… we saw you chasing this young man and opted to assist…" Gai said to Kakashi.
Naruto looked around for any way to escape, he was surrounded by six ninjas and nothing but sand for miles around…
'In retrospect… it may have been a mistake to try to escape into a freaking desert!!!' Naruto scolded himself.
"Give up, there's no way to escape!" Kakashi said as he inched closer.
Naruto turned to Kakashi and smirked.
"There's always a way, you just have to see it…" with that said Naruto hooked his fingers around the hilt of one of his swords and quickly pulled it up with such strength that the sword shot up out of the scabbard and high up into the air. Just as planned everybody looked up, Naruto quickly pulled down his scarf and drew his two remaining Katana's, he leaned down and with great strength jumped high up into the air, it all happened so fast that nobody got the chance to see his face, Naruto rose up into the air with a Katana in each hand, when he reached the peak of his jump he caught the airborne Katana by the handle in his mouth.
"Santouryu…" (Three Sword Style) Naruto managed to say through the sword in his mouth.
Kakashi down below was a little confused.
"Three swords at the same time… there's no way that…" Kakashi didn't get the chance to finish what he was saying.
As Naruto approached the ground he quickly started to spin around.
"… TATSU MAKI!!!" (Dragon Twister)
Naruto hit the ground whilst spinning and slashed outwards with his swords, as he did the sand underneath him was picked up in a powerful gust of wind. the blast of wind and sand was enough to push all six ninja's back a few feet before they adjusted.
slowly the sand died down, but to their surprise, the mystery man was gone.
"What the… where did he…" Kakashi muttered as he looked around, but he saw nothing but sand for miles and no footprints leading away from them. "How the hell did he… Neji!" Kakashi said,
Neji understood and quickly activated his Byakugan to sweep the area. Kakshi waited anxiously. after about a minute Neji deactivated his technique and shook his head.
"Nothing"
"He couldn't have disappeared into thin air…" Kakashi muttered.
he considered looking around some more but decided against it, if Neji hadn't seen anything then it was doubtful they would.
"Come on… we have to get back to Sakura and Chiyo" Kakashi said and turned around. he was quickly followed by the others. Sasuke gently replaced his sword and moved to follow Kakashi, but as he did something caught his eye, something white and half buried in sand, he leaned down to pick it up, as he did he realised what it was, a single white feather.
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Naruto jumped from one tree to the next at high speed, it had taken almost a day to trek through the vast desert of Wind country, not to mention getting away from Kakashi had taken a lot out of him, but now that he had crossed into Fire country he was finally able to really speed up by travelling through the trees like he used to. He had long since taken off his scarf and replaced his forehead protector on his upper left arm.
When Naruto was about two hours away from Konoha he felt his stomach start growling and Naruto's speed sharply fell.
"Ahhhh… hungry…" Naruto slowed and slowed until he came to a complete stop and jumped down from the tree he was in.
Naruto swung his bag around and started rummaging through it.
"Please please please please please… YES!!!" Naruto said in triumph as he pulled out a small box and thrusted it into the air.
"BENTO!!!… thank you Sanji!!!" (Bento : A Small Lunchbox) Naruto immediately sat on the ground with his legs crossed and started digging in.
'God I'm really gonna miss this…' Naruto said as he found himself slowing down to enjoy it as much as possible, after all this may be the last time he gets to eat Sanji's cooking.
His meal was interrupted when suddenly a shrill scream echoed from the south and birds form that area suddenly took flight. Naruto looked up at the direction he had been heading, he considered ignoring it, but then he realised that he was less than an hour form Konoha, so whatever was happening may have something to do with his home.
"-sigh-… So much for savouring it…" Naruto said as he tipped the rest of the food into his mouth and stood back up.
About a mile away from where Naruto was were two ninja's sprinting through the forest, was tall and had a goatee and short brown hair, the second was shorter and had a scar in the shape of a crescent moon around his left eye and shoulder length black hair, he also had a large scroll strapped around his shoulder, they were both dressed in black pants and top with Chuunin jackets, finally they both wore a headband from the village of stone with a slash through the centre.
"Damn it, this is all your fault Kinta!!!" the one with the goatee and brown hair shouted.
"How is my fault Riki? It was Jubei's idea!!!" Kinta shouted back in anger.
"Yeah well I don't know whether or not you noticed but Jubei just got eaten by a half a million bugs!!! So I can't blame him, therefore you're the only one left!!!" Riki shouted back.
After their shouting match they turned back to face the way they were running and their eyes widened, there was somebody standing in the middle of the road. They both skidded to a halt and prepared themselves, the first thing they noticed was the leaf headband wrapped around the stranger's arm.
"Damn it… they caught up to us already…" Kinta said as he dropped the scroll he was carrying and readied himself.
As Kinta dropped the scroll Naruto noticed it… it was the same scroll that he had been tricked into stealing three years ago by Mizuki. He also noticed the Rock headbands with the slash through them.
Naruto grinned and placed a hand on the hilt of his Katana.
"I'm gonna have to ask you to hand that over…" Naruto said with a toothy grin.
"K-K-Kinta, maybe we should j-just hand it over…" Riki sputtered in fear.
"Are you senile?!! It's only a kid! Besides, do you know how much this scroll would be worth to the Rain or Cloud villaAAAHH!!!" Kinta was cut off when the bottom of a boot collided with his face, the kick was so powerful that Kinta was sent flying backwards towards a nearby cliff.
Naruto landed after his kick and grinned at the ninja still standing.
"I love it when they underestimate me…" Naruto muttered through his grin.
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Meanwhile a few miles back through the forest, three figures were jumping from tree to tree. The first was a boy dressed in a black leather jacket, he had short spiky brown hair and red markings on his cheeks, he also happened to be riding atop a huge white dog, this ninja was Kiba Inuzuka and his companion Akamaru.
The second was dressed in a black shirt that covered his mouth and a green jacket with a hood over his hair, he was also wearing black goggles to cover his eyes, the combination of clothing almost completely covered his face, his name was Shino Aburame.
Finally leading the team was a young woman with pale white eyes and waist length lavender hair tied back in a loose ponytail, she wore navy blue pants and black t-shirt with mesh sleeves and v-neck. She also had a black ninja sword strapped to her back with a Konoha forehead protector, the sword's scabbard was completely black as was the handle and square hand guard. This girl's name was Hinata.
The team was currently chasing after two missing Rock-nin whom had infiltrated Konoha and stolen the forbidden scroll, they had already dealt with one member of their team thanks to Shino's bugs. As they continued jumping from tree to tree Akauru suddenly gave a quick but loud bark, Kiba gave the signal to stop. The three of them jumped down from the trees and approached each other.
"Why have we stopped?" Hinata asked.
"Akamaru smells something…" Kiba said as Akamaru lifted his nose and sniffed the air.
Suddenly Akamaru's disposition changed, he gave a quick happy yip and started waggling his tail.
"What? What is it?" Kiba asked.
Akamaru gave a few quick barks and Kiba's face faulted.
"T… T-That's n-not po-possible!!!" Kiba stuttered in surprise.
Hinata stepped forward. "What's the matter Kiba?… You're starting to sound like I used to…" Hinata joked, she had long since overcome her stuttering habit.
Kiba quickly channelled Chakra into his own nose and sniffed the air, he had to know for himself, this was the first time he had ever doubted Akamaru's nose. After a moment his eyes widened.
"… My god… it's true!!!" Kiba said with the look of surprise on his face.
"Would you spit it out already, what's happening?!" Hinata said in a raised voice getting irritated.
"The two ninja we're chasing have ran into someone who's scent both me and Akamaru recognise…" Kiba explained.
"So, who is it?" Shino asked.
"… It's Naruto" Kiba blurted out.
Hinata's eyes widened and she stepped back a few steps.
"K-Kiba… that's n-not funny!!!" Hinata said in an angry tone, her voice started stuttering as Naruto was mentioned.
"Hinata this is one thing I would never joke about, especially around you… the smell is exactly the same… with just a hint of Salt water…" Kiba said as he gave the air another experimental sniff.
Without a trace of hesitation Hinata slapped her hands into a seal and channelled chakra into her eyes.
"Byakugan!" Vein's around Hinata's eyes bulged as her technique activated, her sight immediately zoomed ahead through the forest to where the Rock-nin had escaped to.
Her sight reached the area and she saw three figures, one was apparently unconscious near the edge of a cliff with a fractured jaw. The second Rock-nin was shaking violently as a third figure slowly approached him, the third figure had three Katana's strapped to his waist, he also had a bag around his shoulder that was filled with several strange things, including what looked like a sea shell. Around his lower leg under his pants he had three pieces of metal pipe strapped to him, it seemed to be some kind of collapsible staff. Hinata looked at his face and froze… the spiky hair, the six whisker marks, it was him… it was unmistakably him.
"N-Naruto-kun!!!"
After saying those two words Hinata jumped into the nearest tree and started towards her target at almost twice the speed she had been moving at before.
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Riki was close to peeing himself right now, Kinta was one of the most skilled ninja he knew and he was taken down by a single kick that they weren't even able to sense coming. As Naruto walked towards him he panicked, he quickly slapped his hands into the tiger seal and readied himself to use his most dangerous Jutsu.
"Doton : Yurasu Kujiku No Jutsu!!!" (Earth Release : Rock Crush Technique)
Suddenly the earth to Naruto's left and right hardened and shot up out of the ground as if on hinges, they swung and attempted to crush Naruto between the two slabs of stone.
Naruto smirked and whispered.
"Soru…" (Shave)
Naruto's body flickered for a moment as the two stone slabs closed and crushed him.
Riki was ecstatic, he had done it, he had won.
Before he could celebrate though he felt somebody move at his side, he slowly turned his head only to come face to face with the blond leaf-nin smiling at him.
"Oh shi…" Riki's curse was cut short as a fist shot up and into his gut.
Naruto pulled his fist back and let the rock-nin drop to the ground unconscious.
"-Sigh-… after travelling the grand line for two and a half years it's gonna take a while to fight somebody who can actually put up a fight… hmm, I wonder if Lee's gotten better?…" As Naruto started to list everyone in Konoha who might be able to give him a good fight, his thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice saying two words.
"N-Naruto-kun…"
Naruto turned around to face the direction that the rock-nins had been fleeing from, there, standing in the tree line were three Konoha ninja, the first was Kiba, easily recognisable by Akamaru… even if he had grow 30 times bigger than he was three years ago… the second one was harder to identify due to his face being almost completely covered but his scent told Naruto that it was Shino. Finally standing between Kiba and Shino was a very recognisable girl with white eyes and lavender hair, she had a surprised look on her face, but at the same time she looked happy.
Naruto grinned when he recognised them.
"Kiba, Shino, Hinata-chan! Long time no see…" Naruto said with a wide grin, as he looked at them he found himself paying more attention to Hinata than the others.
'… Wow… when did Hinata-chan turn into a babe? I wonder if she's seeing anybody…'
While Naruto was stuck in his thought's Hinata was in her own.
'Oh god… please don't let this be a dream, please let my Naruto-kun really be alive' as these thoughts circulated around her head Hinata had started walking towards Naruto, after a moment she sped up and before she knew it she was jogging towards him.
Hinata and Naruto were so lost in their thoughts that they failed to notice the first ninja Naruto had knocked out getting back to his feet.
Kinta rushed forwards whilst everyone was distracted and grabbed Hinata around the throat with one arm and placed a kunai to her throat with his other hand.
"Hinata!!!" Kiba shouted as he readied himself to do something.
"Hinata-chan!!!" Naruto said with worry as he grabbed one of his Katana's and drew it from it's scabbard. "Let her go!!!" Naruto growled through his teeth in anger.
Hinata struggled against the Rock-nin's arm for a moment but stopped when he pushed the kunai harder against her throat drawing a little blood, he quickly started to back up towards the cliff.
"I don't think so kid…" Kinta said with a smirk as he tightened his grip on his new hostage. "… see, thanks to you and your friends I can't get away with that scroll, but I know a few cloud-nin who would pay good money for this chick's eyes, what luck that I would run into a Hyuuga"
Hinata stopped struggling for a moment.
'T-This… I can't believe this… after thee years I still can't do anything?… No… I won't allow it… I'll show Naruto that I've grown too…' Hinata thought to herself as she leaned forward into the Kunai slightly.
"M-My name is not Hyuuga…" Hinata said through her teeth.
"What?… don't lie… I can tell by your eyes Hyuuga…"Kinta said as he tightened his grip on the Kunai and Hinata's neck.
Naruto spotted the blood on Hinata's neck and clenched his teeth so tightly that they started to creak.
'Damn it… I just need an opening!' Naruto thought to himself.
Suddenly Hinata leaned forward even further letting the kunai cut her more.
"I said, my name is not Hyuuga…" Hinata said though her teeth, "… my name, is Hinata Uzumaki Yuhi!" with that said Hinata trusted her head backwards suddenly, Kinta wasn't ready for it and Hinata's head struck him squarely in the face, a audible crunch was heard from Kinta's nose.
"Arrgghh!!! You bitch!!!" Kinta yelled, he quickly spun around and let go of Hinata letting her stumble towards the edge of the cliff, below them there was nothing but rocks.
'NOW!!!' Naruto realised, he quickly lifted the Katana in his hand and placed it in his mouth…
Hinata spun around ready to fight back but was not ready for his next attack.
-SLAP!-
He slapped her hard across the cheek, so hard that it almost knocked her unconscious. Hinata stumbled backwards and fell over the edge of the cliff.
Kinta spun around ready to fight, but he wasn't prepared for what he saw, the ninja who had kicked him in the face a few minutes ago was rushing at him with a sword in either hand and one in his mouth. The most frightening thing was the look in his eyes, almost primal.
"THAT WAS A MISTAKE!!!" Naruto shouted in anger even with the sword in his mouth.
Naruto jumped past Kinta and slashed outwards with all three blades.
"ONIGIRI!!!" (Demon Slash)
After slashing Kinta Naruto kept moving until his body fell over the edge of the cliff. Naruto looked down whilst he was falling, he quickly spotted Hinata's body falling, he had about ten seconds before she hit the ground.
'I don't have a choice… I have to use them again…' Naruto thought as he unclenched his hands and let the swords fall from them, he did the same thing with the sword in his mouth, then he straightened out his body and fell towards Hinata.
After a few seconds something strange happened, Naruto's shirt started to stretch outwards from the waist, as if something was trying to grow but didn't have room.
Just as Naruto caught Hinata a loud ripping sound filled the air as Naruto's shirt was ripped to pieces, suddenly Naruto and Hinata stopped falling and just seemed to float there in mid air.
Hinata slowly let her eyes flutter open after shaking the cobwebs from her head, the first thing she noticed was that Naruto was holding her bridal style, this caused her to blush and look down at the ground, but her eyes widened when she realised that they were hanging about 50 meters up in the air.
Hinata quickly turned to look back at Naruto hoping that he could explain what was happening but found her mouth agape when she found the answer for herself, protruding from Naruto's back were two huge white wings.
"N-Naruto-kun… you're an angel?…"
To Be Continued…
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Coming soon...
Naruto and team Kurenai return to Konoha.
Naruto is reunited with his old friends
Naruto is reunited with team Kakashi
Hinata's new name 'Hinata Uzumaki Yuhi' is explained
Naruto's new skills are tested
and Naruto tells a story about a time he ate a really awful tasting fruit. The Tenshi Tenshi Fruit.