Sword of God -- A Naruto Fanfiction

| 32 | Rematch

A note in the most protected environment can invoke feelings of curiosity into any person's mind, especially when it is from an anonymous benefactor that had slipped it into such a homely place.

A cue of sorts to unravel memories like twine and eventually allow total recall to materialise.

To remember the past.

Such is the case with Hinata Hyuuga, who had been slipped a note, wafer-thin and the area of a thumb with the neatest and most compact handwriting she had ever seen.

It had the words; It's been a month.

Perhaps the most inexplicit clue given in the most groundless manner, possibly for the better.

This leaves us to the present, a meeting of two individuals, a benefactor and a benefiter.

Naruto marches into the clearing, his stride confident yet refined, each step light and never heavy.

His pace is fast but not overly so as to not alight attention from any as his chosen path derails from the rest of the village.

His step quickens, the hushed footsteps dissolving into the whoosh of air as Naruto glides off the main road and into the forest.

A minor concentration of wind chakra allows for him to muffle his footsteps in the form of an invisible cushion, as well as solidifying to provide the extra height that makes his movements eldritch.

The forest becomes eerily silent as the man steps into a brightly illuminated forest clearing, circular in shape yet heavily obscured by the irrational, sporadic touch of nature.

Naruto's eyes drift off to the side, a new addition to the clearing having surprised him. Several, to be precise as he lays sight upon multiple new features.

Decorative wildflowers? Rather exotic too, he notes as he kneels down to observe several plants of varying size and toxicity, ranging from a thornbush with a pale liquid oozing from it, dripping and splashing onto the ground with a consistency like a slime, to fluorescent purple flowers that possess a pleasant lavender scent.

He is vigilant, his acute senses picking up even the most insignificant of details such as a small nook in the ground that had presumably been caused by Naruto's soles digging into to it, with a small quantity of fungi growing within it.

Consequently, it comes as no shock to him when a midnight blue blur streaks down from the canopy that had grown since the last time they had been present, allowing only a trickle of moonlight to escape into the atmosphere instead of the previous broad beams.

It hands, the lack of velocity yielding more detail as to the person that leaves Naruto unfazed in the slightest as he stares her down with a calculative gleam in his eye.

"How'd you slip the note into the crook of my favourite tree?" Hinata accuses. "Moreover, you knew I would go there, too!"

"Good to see you too," Naruto dryly deflects but proceeds to answer regardless. "You told me in passing that piece of information, so why are you accusing me of something less innocent?"

Hinata's eyes widen as she stutters out the most incomprehensible gibberish of sentences that anyone could attempt to interpret but fail miserably.

"You also have to work on your confidence. There's a lot of work to do concerning your attitude," Naruto deadpans, sighing depressively.

"Sorry," she squeaks, hanging her head.

Why is she so damn emotional? Naruto frustratedly asks himself but doesn't linger on the liability that she carries. "Don't be."