the fox espada

the one she loves?

After his ordeal with the villager, Naruto decided to go home. If you could call a rotted out shack with spider and cob webs everywhere home. "This is disappointing. So this is the way they treat their hero's home. Well, looks like I'm gonna have to go see Tsunade." And with that he sonido'd away.

When he arrived in Tsunade's office, Naruto was not happy. "Why is my apartment completely destroyed?" Naruto almost yelled, however, he kept his composure. Tsunade replied with, "you were...gone for so long. I didn't think you'd be coming back, so,I stopped trying to keep it in perfect condition." Her voice was somber and depressed. She knew she'd failed him. Naruto saw her expression and added, "it's ok Baa-chan, just set me up in a hotel for now, I'll get it rebuilt at some point. Anyway, to all the Anbu hiding in this room, I have no intention of hurting Tsuna- I mean Baa-chan. So you're fine." 'how did he know where they were?' Was Tsunade's question as Naruto suddenly disappeared.

He reappeared in training ground 7. "You can come out now Hinata-chan" Naruto said as he looked into the forest. All that could be heard were footsteps as Hinata Hyuga walked out of the bushes. "H-hello...Naruto-kun, h-how are you today?" Naruto just shrugged and said, "good". Hinata blushed, " t-that's good. Would you like to tr-train?" Naruto's face remained indifferent. "Sure" was his only answer. 'N-Naruto-kun seems different. But after what happened to him...atleast I get to spend time with him' Hinata thought as she took a standard 8 trigrams stance. Naruto in response took the standard ferocious fist stance. This actually surprised Hinata, as she had never seen Naruto use that form before. In truth, Aizen had made sure that Naruto had extensive knowledge of the Leaf's combat disciplines. So naturally, he knew the gentle fist's weaknesses. However, he wanted to prolong the fight, so he decided not to exploit those weaknesses. Although, Hinata was going to have a surprise coming for her.

Hinata ran at Naruto, chakra charged into her hands, she went to strike his stomach, but Naruto was prepared for it and flipped back several feet. His next move was to charge her and strike out at her stomach. While he didn't use his maximum speed, he did move fast enough to sneak inside her guard and get a sure hit. Hinata staggered back as she was hit. 'Wow, Naruto-kun is stronger than ever. I might not stand a chance, but I have to try' she thought as she tried running at him again, this time stopping short of hitting him, but Naruto still instinctively jumped above her. Hinata smirked as she began spinning around in one place. "Protective 8 trigrams: 64 palms!" She shouted as Naruto slammed into the attack. 'Good job Hinata' Naruto said as he was blasted back. Hinata knew it wasn't over, which is exactly why she expected Naruto to run at her with a rasengan. Instead, he just suddenly appeared in front of her, and grabbed her by the throat. "That hurt, for that you will pay" Naruto said cryptically as Hinata gasped for breath. "N- Naruto-kun, what are you doing?" Hinata barely croaked out as the air was being squeezed out of her. All Naruto did was whisper, "cero" as he blasted Hinata with the attack. He didn't kill her, he just used enough power to batter her up...and knock her unconscious. "This is my power, remember it" he said as he Sonido'd away.