Leaf Village Forest

3 km outside of the village

"blah" speaking

'blah' thinking/sound fx

"blah" flashback

Just outside of the Leaf Village four people were walking on the main road towards the village. All of them were clearly kids. The one dressed in a blue and orange jacket with pants to match and a leaf headband around his neck was complaining.

"Man that mission was sooo boring!" The orange kid said.

"I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with you Naruto." Said the one with red marks on his cheeks, a grey jacket, a leaf headband on his forehead and a white puppy walking beside him.

"I mean who needs help with gardening anyhow?" Naruto continued.

"I-it wasn't t-that bad." The two boys looked over to the only girl in their group who was wearing a light grey jacket, pale white-ish eyes and had a leaf headband around her neck.

"I guess not Hinata, but it was still soooooooo boring!" Said Naruto. The only one that hadn't spoken was the boy in the back with a long grey coat, black round glasses and his hood up.

"Let's stop here for the night." He suddenly spoke.

"What?! We're so close to the village why should we stop now Shino?" Naruto said.

"Because we need our rest, especially you and Kiba from complaining so much."

"Hey!" They both said.

A while later they had their tent set up and dinner cooking in a pot and a cup of instant ramen next to the fire.

"Naruto do you eat anything but ramen?" Kiba asked.

"Sure, I'll eat anything Hinata makes she's a great cook!" Hinata blushed at the comment. "I'll be right back." Naruto got up and started to walk to the forest.

"Where are you going?" Kiba asked.

"I gotta pee." Naruto replied.

"Oh…"

Naruto walked further into the forest looking for a more private spot to 'go.' After he found one and had done his business he began to walk back. When he was crossing a clearing something tripped him.

"Ahh!" 'thump' "What the hell just tripped me?!" He yelled. Looking behind him he saw a moss and dirt covered rock jutting out of a ground. "Huh? Just a rock?" Naruto went over to the rock and tried to lift it out of the ground but he couldn't. "Why, won't, this, thing, move!" He grunted. Naruto sat on the ground panting when he noticed that he'd wiped some of the dirt from it and saw orange glinting underneath. "Huh?" Naruto wiped all the dirt off and discovered what he'd tripped on wasn't a rock at all. "What the-?" Wiping off the dirt and moss revealed an arrow with some kind of orange glass in it. Around the arrow was some kind of light-ish grey stuff with raised shapes on it that look like pyramids on the inside where it curved, and a strange pattern of indents near the outside.

"What is this?" Naruto said. Examining it closer he found that there's more to this thing that goes into the ground. Naruto thought that maybe the others knew what it was, but just as he was about to call out to them he had a thought. Whatever this was it was probably some ancient artifact of something and that if he called the others they'd tell Granny Tsunade and she'd send a team to dig it up and take it away where he'll probably never see it again. Deciding against telling them he reburied the thing and decided to keep it a secret and look at it later. He couldn't quite tell why but something about it seemed important.

(a/n: Have you guessed what it is yet? If you haven't this'll help…)

STARGATE NARUTO

Chapter 1: The Finding

After returning to the Leaf Village the four reported to the Hokage Building to see the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade.

"So the mission was a success?" She asked them.

"Yes it was." Shino replied monotonously.

"No trouble from Naruto?" Tsunade said in a playful voice. "Hey!" Naruto yelled. Tsunade chuckled at his reaction.

"Well he did complain a lot." Kiba said.

"Grrr… Can I go now?" Naruto asked.

"Yes you may." Tsunade replied in an annoyed tone. Without another word Naruto dashed out the door.

Hinata was in one of the training fields well, training. She was working on her Byakugan seeing how far she could see and pushing her limits. So far trying to see more than half a kilometer was stressing and she was just trying again when something caught her eye. She focused in on it and found it was Naruto. Hinata had had a long time crush on the orange ninja and even though her teammates, Kiba and Shino, could easily tell, Naruto was oblivious as ever. But that's not entirely why the orange ninja caught her eye. The other part was because he was walking through an area of the forest that was difficult to spot someone in, even in orange. Hinata was puzzled as to why Naruto would be traveling through such a part of the forest and it only added to her puzzlement that he was checking his surroundings every several meters. Common sense told her that it wasn't her business to spy on what Naruto was doing but her curiosity took over and she began to follow him.

A Hinata followed Naruto further into the woods she noticed he was checking his surroundings more often. Eventually he exited the woods and onto the main road that led away from the village. Keeping her distance so as not to be noticed she continued to follow him until he led her to the place they had camped with Kiba and Shino the night before. Then suddenly he veered off the path and back into the forest. Hinata was about to follow when she remembered that was the same direction Naruto had gone to go pee last night. She decided to wait a little not wanting to walk in on Naruto peeing, blushing at the very thought.

(With Naruto)

Naruto arrived in the clearing where he'd discovered the 'thing' the night before and was relieved that it was still there covered in dirt and moss. Checking once more that no one was watching him he performed his signature jutsu.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He yelled. In a puff of smoke 14 Naruto's appeared in the clearing and began digging out the object with their hands. The clones, and Naruto, dug deeper and deeper finding more of the strange arrows and found there was more to what he'd seen last night. The clones had uncovered an inner ring of sorts with strange symbols on it he didn't recognize. Eventually they had dug out the entire thing and it was huge! He thought it was maybe almost 7 meters and had more of those raised pyramids, indents, arrows and symbols. Getting out some rope he'd brought with him he sliced it into pieces and gave a part to each clone. After they'd tied each part on, they started pulling.

(With Hinata)

Hinata was getting worried now. It had been almost an hour since Naruto veered off the road and she was beginning to think she had missed him. Hoping to catch up she ran through the forest at full speed until she heard him. Getting behind a tree to listen she could make out what he was saying.

"All ritght. Easy. Easy. Man this thing weighs a ton! Well it's huge what'd you expect?"

'More than one Naruto? Oh they must be clones.' Peeking around she saw she was right. There she saw she was right about the clones but they were really dirty and just raised more questions in her mind. Hinata noticed that the clones were each pulling on a length of rope. Taking the chance she might get caught Hinata peeked around the tree a little more, but what she saw she never expected.

At the end of the ropes was an enormous ring she guessed was about 6 1/2 meters tall, with strange shapes and patterns on it, symbols she guessed was in some old language, 9 large arrows with some kind of orange material on them and made of some kind of light grey stone as far as she could tell. While she was staring at the ring she didn't notice that she was in plain sight of Naruto and his clones. Unfortunately Naruto did.

Naruto and his clones were having a hell of a time trying to get this thing out of the ground. Even with them pulling with rope on one side and more clones pushing it up on the other side. They had soon gotten it upright and had tied some of the ropes to tree limbs to keep it up. He had just canceled the jutsu, when he noticed Hinata standing at the edge of the clearing.

"Hinata?" He said.

Hinata was snapped out of her awe induced trance and looked to who had called her name. When she saw it was Naruto she panicked, jumped behind the tree and uttered a small sound that sounded like an "Eep!" Thoughts began racing through her head.

'Oh no he saw me! Oh he's going to think I'm so weird for spying on him! What am I gonna say?' Naruto then poked his head around the tree.

"Hinata?" She nervously turned her head slightly towards him

"U-umm… H-hi N-Naruto." She nervously said.

"Um, hi. Uh… How'd you find me?" Naruto inquired.

"Umm… I-I followed you…"

"You, followed me?" Hinata slowly nodded. "How? I was being really careful I even went in a really thick part of the forest."

"Umm… I-I spotted y-you with m-m-my Byakugan and y-you were a-acting r-r-really s-strange."

"So you followed me here?" He finished.

"Umhm."

"Oh…" There was an awkward silence between them before Hinata found the courage to speak up. "S-so… Wh-What is that… thing?" She asked still stuttering.

"You mean the ring?" She nodded. "I… I have no clue. I found it last night walking back to the tent."

"Could I-I take a c-closer l-look?" Hinata asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Umm, sure I guess."

Hinata spent the next half hour or so looking over the ring asking questions periodically such as "What's it made of?" or "What are these arrows for?" and Naruto would answer usually with a "I dunno." Eventually she gave up asking since it was clear that neither of them knew anything about it, but Hinata had one last question she needed to ask.

"Why didn't you tell someone?" To that Naruto responded.

"Because I knew if I told someone then they'd tell Granny Tsunade, she'd send a team to pick it up and take it away to someplace where I'll probably never see it again. And I can't explain it but I just get the feeling that this thing is important somehow, and I just wanted to find out on my own." He answered with determination in his voice.

"Oh." There was more silence 'till Naruto spoke again. "So, I guess you're gonna tell her."

"Huh?" Hinata said confused at the question.

"You know. You're gonna tell Granny about this thing. It would be the smart thing to do." Naruto said looking a little down.

"No." She replied with a surprisingly strong voice.

Naruto looked at her puzzled. "You're not?"

"No. Y-you said y-you w-wanted to f-figure this… thing o-out on your own, s-so I won't t-tell." Naruto looked at her dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that she was going to keep this a secret.

"You're really not gonna tell?" She just shook her head. Naruto smiled a little. "Thanks. Umm think you could help with something?"

For the remainder of the day Hinata helped Naruto pack hard earth around the ring and secure the ropes so it would stay in place. Once that was done Hinata said she had to go home. They said their goodbyes and Naruto stayed a little longer to look over the ring but eventually, he went home too.

(The next day)

Hinata had gotten a very restful sleep due to the hard labor she had done yesterday helping Naruto with the ring. She couldn't get her mind off it, it was so strange. It didn't really look like it was from this planet at all. Her mind also wandered back to the part where she'd said she would keep it a secret. Her common sense had told her to tell someone so it could be turned over to someone that specializes in the field of Archeology but she could tell that Naruto really wanted to do this so she just couldn't deny him that. She was just finishing her breakfast when Neji walked in.

She and her cousin had gotten on better terms since the Chunin Exams when he'd made an attempt at her life. He had helped her improve her Gentle Fist style and even apologized for putting her life at risk. She had accepted his apology and asked him to drop the formalities around her. Hinata was never much for formals anyway and preferred to be called by just her name.

"Good morning Hinata." Neji said.

"G-good morning Neji. I-I thought you already had breakfast?" She questioned.

"I did but that's not why I'm here. Someone's here to see you." Hinata was puzzled. Who could be here to see her? Shino had a solo mission today, Kiba was most likely still walking Akamaru, Kurenai-Sensei was also out on a mission and she wasn't good friends with many of the other Genin. "W-who is it?" Hinata asked.

Neji simply responded. "I'll show him in."

Neji went back down the hall and was gone for about 3 minutes when she heard two voices coming down it. "She's right in there." "Cool, thanks Neji!" The first voice she could easily tell was Neji's but the second one made her freeze. She almost thought her mind was playing tricks on her but she was sure it wasn't when she saw the familiar orange of Naruto's jacket come into the kitchen. Her mind was being sent into overload. Naruto was in her house and he'd come to see her! For what reason she did not know but she was too caught up in her own nervousness to think straight.

It was Naruto's first time in the Hyuuga compound and to him it was huge and confusing. Finding it wasn't all that hard since it was one of the village's more, larger buildings but navigating his way through it was a nightmare! He figured he was probably wandering around for 10 minutes before Neji found him. Naruto took a seat on one of the mats on the floor across from Hinata. "Morning Hinata!" He said cheerfully.

"G-good morning N-Naruto." She said nervously. "Umm… Why are y-you h-here?"

"Oh, well… Remember yesterday when you followed me and saw the…" Naruto's voice trailed off as he drew a small circle on the table with his finger. To anyone else it would've been a meaningless gesture but Hinata could clearly see what it meant.

"Oh! Y-yes. D-did you f-f-find out a-anything?" She asked anxious to know anything about the ring.

"Uhh, no. That's kinda why I'm here." Hinata gave him a questioning look.

"You see… I don't really know anything about this kinda stuff and since you were really nice keeping this a secret yesterday, I thought you might… What I'm trying to say is, you're the only person that's ever been nice to me and I trust you more than anyone with this… and I need your help." Hinata was stunned. So many things he'd said were making her mind swim but the one that stuck out the most was that Naruto was asking HER for help! Realizing that Naruto was staring at her she quickly gave a response.

"Y-yes of c-course I'll h-help you!" Naruto smiled.

"Great common let's go!" Naruto said excitedly and began to leave.

"Umm, g-go where?" Hinata asked. Naruto froze in his tracks and turned around.

"Uhhh… Ok, where should we go?" He asked rather sheepishly.

"Well I g-guess w-we should go to t-the L-Library f-first." Hinata suggested.

"Ok let's go!" Naruto said and once again started leaving again.

As the two of them walked through the library Hinata looked around for the section with books on ancient cultures while Naruto just, looked. "Wow! I've never seen so many books!" He said in awe.

"H-haven't you e-e-ever been in an l-library before?"

"Umm, well no." He answered scratching the back of his head. They eventually found the section that had books on ancient cultures, languages, and structures. "These are gonna help us?" Naruto asked.

"Y-yeah, the, 'thing' y-you found y-yesterday is p-probably from an a-a-ancient culture and the s-symbols on it an o-old language." She explained being careful to avoid mentioning the ring.

"Oh, that makes sense." They both went through the section looking for books they thought could help them. Hinata had found most of the books and Naruto only one, but nonetheless they were pretty thick and found a total of four. While they were waiting in line to check out the books Naruto was looking through them to see if there was anything in there that could explain the ring. Unfortunately he had no luck but he admitted he had no idea what to look for. Once they got to the front of the line, which Naruto complained it took forever, Hinata noticed that the librarian shot Naruto a cold glare which he intentionally avoided by looking at the nameplate. Hinata was confused and a little mad too, as to why the librarian looked at Naruto like that. Naruto had even avoided the look like he was expecting it. She made a note to ask him later, right now they had some pretty thick books to go through.

(About a week later)

It's been about a week since Naruto asked Hinata for her help in discovering what the ring is and what it's for. So far they'd had no luck. They had gone through all the books, front to cover and found descriptions of rings but none that fit. Not even a language that looked remotely like the symbols on the ring. But something good had come up over the week, Hinata's stuttering had gone down to about one or two words per sentence. But they were both pretty frustrated by now.

"I don't get it; we went through every book we got page by page twice! Why isn't there anything in there?" Naruto yelled.

"I-I don't know. Maybe it's n-not in the books we g-got."

"You mean… we missed some books in there?" Hinata nodded. "Ugh. My brain needs a break." Naruto slumped down in front of a tree and laid his head back. Hinata, following his example, sat down in front of the tree next to his.

While they rested Hinata thought about some book she'd seen in the library that might have had the answers they were looking for. While she was thinking her mind wandered back to the cold glare the librarian had given Naruto and how he'd seemed to be expecting it. She'd been looking for a chance to ask him and now seemed as good a time as any. "Umm… N-Naruto." She said a little nervous.

"Hmm?"

"Umm back in the library I noticed that the librarian… glared at you," Naruto's eyes snapped open. 'Uh oh.' "…and I was wondering, why?"

"Uhh, it was nothing." Naruto said trying to avoid the question.

"But you avoided it like you were expecting it." She pressed.

"I said it's nothing." Hinata was a little taken back by his answer, especially sense he said it in a somewhat harsh tone. Naruto seemed to realize they way he'd said it and quickly tried to explain it. "It's just, something I try to forget."

"Oh… D-do you want to t-talk about it?" She asked wanting to help.

"No."

"Are y-you sure abo-"

"I just don't, want to." Naruto cut her off rather sharply.

Hinata tried to think of why he wouldn't want to and unfortunately came to one of the worst conclusions. "Y-you don't trust me…"

"What?! No I trust you!" Naruto yelled.

"Then why can't you tell me?!" Hinata yelled back.

"I-I-I-I…" Naruto stammered trying to find an answer.

"Y-you don't k-k-know do you?" Hinata said tears beginning to stream down her face.

"No it's just… I mean I…" Hinata began to stomp away, angry that he didn't trust her. "Hinata wait!"

"Why should I?" She snapped.

"Because… I don't want to lose you." Hinata turned slightly towards him.

"Huh?"

"I have a lot of friends, but most of them call me names all the time or are just really hard to talk to. You're the only person that's ever been really nice to me…" He took a step closer to her and she turned around. "…and I don't want to lose someone like that."

Hinata wiped away her tears. "So… y-you do trust m-me?"

"Yes, more than anyone." Naruto said with sincerity.

"But then, why can't you tell me…"

"Well what happened there wasn't really nothing, but it was private, but it's also, really, really, really, REALLY personal. It's something that's been bothering me for a long time. I would like to tell you Hinata I really would, but I'm, just not ready yet." Hinata was now feeling angry with herself that she'd been invading Naruto's personal life especially something that upset him just thinking about it. Right now all she wanted to do was make up for it. "I-I'm so sorry."

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry for getting mad at you, I'm sorry for asking about something that wasn't my place to ask about, especially sense it was something very personal to you." Hinata had begun to cry again. "I'm so sorry."

Naruto was glad that she'd forgiven him but at the same time he felt guilty that apologizing to him made her cry and he just wanted to comfort her. "Hey Hinata don't- Whaa!" 'thump' Naruto tripped on something while approaching Hinata.

"Oh! A-are you okay?" Hinata asked a little worried.

"Yeah I'm fine. Ugh. What'd I trip on?" Naruto grunted.

"Umm that." She pointed to a small mound.

"Man! Why is it that I always trip on something! It's always…" While Naruto was rambling on about being tripped Hinata noticed a glint of orange where Naruto's foot hit the dirt mound. "…I mean it's a stupid rock that always trips me!"

"Uhh, N-Naruto."

"What?" Naurto said almost immediately stopping his rant.

"I-I don't think rocks are orange."

Naruto was instantly alert. "Orange?"

"Yeah l-look." Naruto crawled over to the 'rock and wiped off a little more of the dirt to reveal an orange orb. They both stared at it for a bit.

"Hinata." He said still looking.

"Yeah." She replied doing the same.

"We're gonna need a shovel."

Several hours later they'd dug up their newest finding, lifting it out of the ground with several clones, and filled in the hole they stared at it in awe. "What do you think it is?" Naruto asked.

"I-I don't know." Hinata replied. Their newest finding was a sort of pedestal with two circles inside each other, with the inner raised higher than the outer, with the orange orb in the middle Naruto had tripped on. Both circles had the entire set of symbols from the ring on them.

"The same symbols from the ring." Naruto said.

"Maybe it means something. I think I remember seeing something like this in one of the books." Hinata started flipping through one of the heavy books laying on the ground while Naruto was looking at the symbols. His eyes went over all of them until he stopped on one.

'Why does this one seem… familiar somehow? Arg! I know I've seen this somewhere but I just can't, wait…' "The Big Dipper!" Naruto yelled. "Huh?" Hinata asked. Naruto pointed to the symbol on the inner ring of the pedestal that looked like a scoop. "That one right there, it's the Big Dipper." Hinata took a closer look at it and realized he was right. "Torus, Pieces, Sagittarius, Orion's Belt, the Little Dipper, they're all constellations." Naruto said naming off a few.

"What does that mean?" Hinata asked.

"It means… we need another book. I'll be right back." Naruto dashed out of the forest back into the village leaving Hinata to wait.

Another week passed of them examining the ring only this time they identified each of the symbols to the constellations in the book. They'd so far identified 35 out of the 36 symbols on the ring. The last of which wasn't a constellation but some kind of glyph, as Hinata called it, which looked like a triangle missing its base with a circle above the point. Right now they were taking a break to eat lunch.

"So whatta think the last one means?" Naruto said with a mouthful of food.

"I don't k-know. It c-could be anything." Hinata said while flipping through the pages of an old and very dusty astronomy book. Hinata closed the book and sighed. "I thought the library took better care of its books?"

"It does." Naruto simply said but that just served to make Hinata confused.

"T-then why is this so, dusty?" She said brushing off some dust with her sleeve.

"Oh I got it from the, back of my closet." Hinata looked at him with a surprised look.

"I didn't know you l-liked astronomy."

"Yeah… When I was 4 the Third Hokage found me looking at the stars one time and he bought me that book the next day. I've read that thing a lot of times, learned all the stars names and stuff. I even used to wish on them."

"W-why'd you stop?" Naruto turned on his side away from her.

"I don't believe in it anymore, it just made my life worse." It broke Hinata's heart to hear that. While she didn't know much about Naruto's childhood she'd heard it was bad. Now she was beginning to question just how bad it was.

"I'm going to sleep." Naruto said and fell asleep against the tree.

Several minutes later Naruto was still asleep and Hinata was still looking through his old dusty astronomy book. She was still thinking about what Naruto said about him not believing in wishing anymore. "I don't believe in it anymore, it just made my life worse." Each time she replayed it in her head it still broke her heart. She decided one thing then; Hinata was always going to help Naruto from now on and maybe one day find out what made his past so bad. Hinata was pulled from thought when she heard a faint rumbling sound. It wasn't like an earthquake more like a stone-on-stone rumbling. 'kachunk!' Hinata jumped at the sound and looked around for the source. It wasn't until she looked over the pedestal that she realized where the noise was coming from. The inner part of the ring… was moving and the arrow on the top right corner… was lit.