"What?" Hinata stared in shock, she was devastated to be made to fight the love of her life to gain entrance to the Chunin exam finale.

She took a look towards Naruto who was looking just as shocked as she was, she watched as Sasuke placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, making him look towards him.

Sasuke offered a condolence smile towards his blonde friend, he knew it couldn't be easy to fight against someone you cared about.

Kyuubi chuckled darkly, "Yes, Naruto... now is your chance! Kill that wench, show me you're dedicated to our cause."

'But... Hinata...' Naruto thought, his head in a mess. The last person he expected to fight was Hinata, she had become very close to him after all, close enough that he shared his first kiss with her in the Forest of Death.

"Naruto! You made a deal, that you would let someone close to your heart and then destroy them! Don't forget the darkness inside of you, don't forget what they've all done to you!" Kyuubi yelled, trying to gain sway over the blonde.

'But Hinata-chan... she wasn't like the rest of them, did I make a mistake in choosing her?' Naruto replied, speaking mostly to himself though. 'Kyuubi, is there some way, some how that I can find someone else?'

"No, the first person you've come to accept must be the person you kill. There's no other way for this to work." Kyuubi replied, earnestly. "This is the only chance I'm giving you, do it now... and Naruto?"

"What, Kyuubi?" Naruto asked coldly, not in the mood for the foxes games.

"Make it bloody." Kyuubi laughed slowly yet darkly as he receded into Naruto's mind to watch the carnage enfold, if Naruto even made it so.

"Naruto? Naruto!" Kakashi called the spaced out boy, Kakashi moved to put a hand on his young students shoulder but Naruto came too and slapped his hand away.

"I know, I'm going already." Naruto replied coldly as he jumped into the arena to wait for Hinata to come fight.

Hinata surprised the Genin and Jonin that watched her descend from the stairs, she was confident... almost arrogantly so. It was a complete turn around from the usual Hinata they seen.

"What's up with Hinata? I've never seen her like this before." Kiba commented to his sensei, she shook her head and shrugged.

"I believe Hinata and Naruto-san have a hidden relationship." Shino commented blankly, "I believe that Hinata is confident to fight Naruto due to a promise I overheard her whisper during training."

"Really? Hinata and Naruto? He finally caught on to her then, huh?" Kiba said with a grin, "What was this promise, Shino?"

"She promised to fight Naruto in the final rounds with everything she had, to prove to her father and Naruto that she wasn't a weak girl. I believe we're going to see a different side to Hinata in this fight." Shino told him, just as blank as before.

Meanwhile, in the arena...

"Naruto-kun, fight me with everything you've got... don't expect me to hold back on you either, because I won't be." Hinata told him with a cute smile.

Naruto looked at her coldly, his stomach twisting in nots as he did so. "Don't worry, I won't be holding back... maybe you should be praying that I do."

Hinata looked at her blonde boyfriend in complete confusion. "Naruto-kun? What's the matter?"

"..." Naruto simply turned his head to the Sandaime and nodded that he was ready to begin the fight when he was ready to call it.

"This is the final match of the day, the only contestant to not participate, Inuzuka Kiba, will be given a bye into the final rounds." Sandaime explained, "Now then, the final match... begin!"

Hinata activated her Byakugan and gotten into the famous Jyuken stance, she glared down at Naruto as he stood there lazily.

"I don't you not to hold back, come and fight me Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled angrily. Naruto looked at her with a blank face but said and did nothing.

In fact, he was having a war with himself inside. Thanks to Hinata he had began to see the brighter side of life and that not everything had to be as dark as he pictured it.

But another part told him that she would betray him the first chance she got, it had happened before with others so why was she different?

The pain of thinking back on his past began to crush Naruto worse than the thought of hurting the one he loved and he began to crack.

Naruto's face twisted in rage as he looked at Hinata, he was surprised when he noticed her hand in his stomach. "You... you..." Naruto whispered with a hurt voice.

Hinata removed her hand and took a single step back, her face changed from confidence to fear at what she had done. "Naruto-kun... Naruto-kun, I'm so sorry!"

"You bitch!" Naruto yelled, swinging the back of his fist around to Hinata's face and sending her sprawling across the ground. "I knew it! I knew you would hurt me, just like the rest of them."

"No, Naruto-kun... it's just a match, please listen to me!" Hinata coughed, sitting up and trying to explain to the obviously insane boy, if the crazy look on his face had anything to do with it.

"No." Naruto stated simply, before vanishing in a black blue and picking Hinata up by her throat.

He threw her into the air and vanished in that black blur again, which the other Genin soon realized to be pure speed, and appeared above Hinata.
With an overhead axe smash, he brought his conjoined hands down on Hinata's stomach, knocking the wind out of her and sending her to crash into the ground.

Hinata shakily got to her hands and knees and coughed out a few splatters of blood. She tried to get her bearing back, but Naruto was upon her before she could even blink.

He threw her towards a clone he had made seconds before on the opposite side of the room. The clone made five familiar, to his team, hand seals and threw his hands forwards calling the name of his technique.

"Fire style; Multi-Exploding Fireballs!" Naruto screamed, he threw a good few so that Hinata had no where to dodge.

His team mates were shocked beyond belief when not only did one fireball self combusted but so did the rest of them.

It really showed how far Naruto had come using the technique Kyuubi had taught him. He could use it not only with his hands and mouth, but with his feet too. And even going so far as to make every fireball explode boosted this technique instantly from a simple C rank to an A rank.

"Wow, is this the same Naruto we've been fighting beside? Zabuza of the seven swordsmen was the only guy I've ever seen Naruto really go all out on like this, and he still lost." Ino commented, getting nods from both Kakashi and Sasuke.

"What? You guys fought a member of the seven swordsmen?" Might Gai's young duplicate student, Rock Lee, stated from nearby.

"That's right, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei both fought him... it was an unbelievable battle, but in the end even Naruto couldn't beat him." Sasuke stated.

"He ran me around all day after we got to Tazuna's house, you remember Sasuke? I should have given him D rank missions for life for that, troublesome bastard." Kakashi inserted, taking a phrase from Shikamaru's book, making his students chuckle.

Back to the fight...

Hinata had used a famous technique of her clan, the Heavenly Spin, to avoid the explosive blasts but was now out of breath, and had no way to hit the blonde haired boy now that he was on the offensive.

It was long before she braced herself for another beat down when Naruto vanished in a blur, she cracked one of her closed eyes open only to notice Naruto was nowhere in sight.

That was, until he called the name of his technique. "Wind style; Brutal Force technique."

Hinata had only a split second to reactivate her Byakugan and spot Naruto standing upside down on the roof whilst his wind attack came at her with full force, she dived out of the way but was unlucky enough to get attacked by Naruto's own made Taijutsu technique called 'Uzumaki Barrage'.

Again, Hinata crashed into the ground whilst Naruto landed lightly close by. He began making his way toward her heavy wheezing body as she looked at him with despair.

That was all he needed to see for him to make up his mind, if she would live or die. Naruto got closer and closer and soon he stood above Hinata's body.

"Good fight, Naruto-kun. I don't think I can carry on. When I'm out of the hospital, do you... want to go out sometime?" Hinata asked, any previous shyness she had around the boy was gone.

Naruto still looked blankly, tears began to sting his eyes as he realized that the choice he was about to make was the wrong one and that this new choice would bring sanctuary to his life.

"Why are you crying, Naruto-kun? You didn't hurt me that bad..." Hinata tried to lie, she was bloody, bruised and wheezing.

Naruto still said nothing as he looked at the beautiful face of his girlfriend. "Hinata..." Naruto whispered, getting on his knees.

"Could I make you the happiest girl in the world... by asking you to marry me? Would you be happy if you were my fiancée?" Naruto asked, his tears falling faster. The mood of the room wasn't as it should have been at a battle.

Hinata stared in shock, a red tinge now on her face. "Yes, yes Naruto-kun! I would be the happiest girl in the world if you were my fiancée!"

"Then, would you do me the honour?" He asked, not making eye contact with the beautiful girl.

"Yes, Naruto! I will!" Hinata rushed out, she was the happiest she had ever been and Naruto could see it in her eyes.

Naruto held his arms out in a hug, and Hinata slowly sat upright to return the hug. "I love you..." Naruto whispered, his tears cascading like a waterfall. "I really did love you..."

Hinata's face was held in pain as Naruto hugged her harder, before laying her body back on the ground. "You get some rest, Hinata... We'll meet soon." Naruto told her.

"At least at the end, I gave you the one thing you wanted most in life... the hope of being tied to my forever." Naruto whispered before he stood and walked away. "Even if it was just false hope..."

No one in the room spoke, no one wanted to be the one to break the silence... but alas, someone had to.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I declare you the winner of this match. Someone get Miss. Hyuga out of here, now!" Sandaime commanded with a serious face.

The medics placed Hinata's body on a stretcher, closing her eyes for the last time as they took her away. Naruto's tears had turned red with blood, the fox slit that made for his pupils would stay there forever as a reminder of the path he had chosen to walk.

The path of a demon...

Nine days later...

Naruto had been swaggering around the village for over a week now, ever since he took Hinata's life in the preliminaries.

He had no where to go and no one to talk to, and for the first time since he met his team he truly realized how alone he was.

His team weren't talking to him at this moment, Ino had slapped him for what he did to Hinata. He, in return, snapped her wrist and attempted to snap her neck but Sasuke got in the way and gave him a disgusted look.

Kakashi just stared at him with that annoying one eye in stern disappointment whilst taking his team somewhere to eat and grieve.

Hyuga Neji, the cousin to Hinata, had charged at him after the Sandaime was out of sight and swore on his pride as a Hyuga that he would kill Naruto for what he had done.

And if he had to make it worse, not only were Kurenai and her team out for his blood but also the entire Hyuga clan.

'My time in this village is slowly coming to a close...' Naruto thought to himself with a frown. His neck had been throbbing too, he had nearly succumbed to the curse seals mark in the exams when he began to use chakra but Kyuubi's chakra was more overwhelming than that of the curse mark and so it hadn't taken over him.

He had spent the previous day researching on this Orochimaru and found out quite a bit of information on the S rank missing ninja. He had been the Sandaime's student and one of the very few people in the ninja world to achieve a rank on par with a Kage.

He had been searching for some lab that Orochimaru had somewhere in the village, he was sure if he could find it then he could find some valuable insight into Kinjutsu he could use.

He was grudgingly grateful to Kyuubi too, over the past week he had kept to his word and taught Naruto some dangerous high class techniques that he doubted even the Hokage could pull off, but that was probably due to the age of the old man, after all he was no longer in his prime.

"I've no idea where that damn snakes old lab is!" Naruto growled with a sigh, "Maybe I should search him out? I bet he could teach me some cool techniques..."

Little did he know a silver haired boy with glasses overheard his little proclamation and with a smirk he made his way to his masters hide away...

Naruto woke up the next morning, as he sat up in his bed he sighed. Someone had been knocking on his door for five minutes now and wasn't taking the hint that he didn't want company.

As the person kept banging against his door, he yawned and put on his tight, black boxers before answering the door to Ino.

Ino stared at Naruto in annoyance when he finally opened the door, she had a light blush on her face when she saw what Naruto was wearing, but ignored it as she spoke.

"Finally!" She complained as Naruto opened the door with a glare, she soon barged past him and entered the house,

"Sure, walk into my house uninvited, why don't you." Naruto complained blandly. Ino took a seat at the kitchen table and waited for Naruto to close the door.

When Naruto walked closer to Ino he had an annoyed look on his face, "What do you want, Ino? I thought your team would be too busy training."

Ino's annoyed look softened as she took notice of Naruto's comment, "It's your team too, Naruto. And I'm here because I've not seen you since the preliminaries... Sasuke's gone off to train with Kakashi-sensei for the exams finale and left us behind."

"Like I care..." Naruto replied, going into his bedroom and putting his clothes on. When he exited his room five minutes later, he spotted Ino still sitting in his kitchen.

"Are you still here?" Naruto grunted, "Don't you have somewhere better to be? Somewhere that I'm not."

"Idiot," Ino replied back, "I've got no where to go, I'm still angry with you for what you said to me at the preliminaries by the way!"

"Whatever, I thought you'd care more about..." Naruto stopped what he was saying to begin frowning, he waved the comment off soon enough.

Ino stared at Naruto worriedly. "Do you want to... talk about?"

"No." Naruto replied instantly, and coldly. That was the last thing he wanted to do, it was still eating him alive. He never expected it to hurt him so much, but what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger he figured, and he was indeed stronger.

"Why?" Ino asked him after a few moments of silence. Naruto turned his head to look at her with one eye in a questioning manor.

"Why did you... kill her? I thought you loved her..." Ino asked quietly, not making Naruto's gaze. Naruto stayed quiet for a few moments.

"Because I had to, to get stronger... I needed to kill my heart. She became my heart and so I destroyed her." Naruto replied, honestly confused as to why he was telling her such a personal thing.

"That's it? You took the life of one of our friends because you wanted to get stronger?..." Ino replied, anger starting to rise in her voice.

She then had an idea pop into her head, "Naruto... Did the Kyuubi tell you to do this? Did he offer to make you stronger if you killed her?"

"What's it to you?" Naruto replied darkly.

Ino stared at him in horror. "Naruto, you should have known the fox was tricking you! It just wants to control you, and you're letting it!"

"Shut up..." Naruto growled.

"No! You idiot! Are you trying to turn into a monster?" She physically yelled, getting to her feet.

Ino soon found herself pinned to the wall with her feet hanging off of the ground. Naruto's fox slit eyes penetrated Ino's own and she finally noticed them for the first time.

"Your eyes!" She gasped.

"Yeah, I gave Hinata the happiest moment of her life before her death and in return she helped me gain these eyes..." Naruto told her, all sorts of crazy had taken over his expression.

"Let me give you a taste of but a fraction of their power." Naruto stated, his face turning dark with an open mouthed grin. "Mind Body Disturbance technique."

Ino's eyes widened in shock at Naruto using her a technique unique only to her clan, before her eyes closed and she remembered no more.

Ino came to her senses several hours later, lying on the floor in the middle of Konoha forest with her body covered in blood.

She looked up to find a thick blood trail leading into some bushes, Ino followed it warily to find the bodies of several dead Genin.

She collapsed to the floor, her eyes stinging with tears, in shock as she realized what Naruto had made her do.

She never noticed the glaring lavender eyes of Kega Mitsukai staring at her as the failed Genin began to blend into the shadows. "I've finally found you... the one who killed my parents..." Were her only words, as she vanished from sight.

I'm ashamed of the last chapter... it shouldn't even be called a chapter, I'll make a point in the next day or so to retype it and make it much, much longer. Until then though, how is this current chapter? Next time it's a time skip, Naruto met Jiraiya during his one month training period and has been trained a little for the exam finale, the matches have yet to be revealed but are just about to start, let the finale begin !