Naruto: Dark Beginnings Original

Chapter 16

Chapter 13c: Whispers of Betrayal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto turned to his newly formed clone, "I need you to find where that Hiren has got to, I'll go and let Kaa-san know about him."

"Hai," The clone grinned and bounded away.

Naruto turned and raced towards the Hokage tower. He had a bad feeling about this Hiren, especially as he claimed to be related to Minato. He was half way to the Hokage tower when he collided into Jiraiya.

"Damn, watch it!" Jiraiya cursed as the pair hit a roof after colliding in mid air.

"Sorry Ero-Sennin," Naruto staggered to his feet. "I have some questions about my father."

"Er..." Jiraiya blinked, "What about him?"

"Is it true he killed almost all of his own clan?" Naruto asked.

"Almost, I guess you have met that Hiren guy then." Jiraiya sighed.

"You know about him?" Naruto felt his anger building, but kept it to himself.

"I just received a report on all the visitors for the Chuunin Exams; it looks like this Iwa-nin, Hiren, came to watch the exams."

"He is using the exams as a reason to enter Konoha," Naruto replied bitterly, "He made it perfectly clear his objective is to kill me."

"Damn, so he knows who you are?" Tsunade sighed, "That leaves us in a sticky situation, we are already on strained terms with Iwa, and killing off one of their nin would result in all out war being declared."

"I see," Naruto nodded.

'So...why aren't you going to kill him? Wouldn't you love to let yourself loose, to tear an entire army to shreds and make Iwa realise that your father isn't the only one who deserves a flee on sight order?' Kyuubi purred.

"But we can't let him attack Naruto like that," Jiraiya ran a hand through his mass of white hair.

"Don't worry, I'll sort it out." Naruto smiled, "I will claim it is clan business and that Konoha has nothing to do with it." 'That way it will be me versus Iwa!'

"That's not going to work," Jiraiya sighed, "Hiren is the last of his clan, as far as Iwa know, and he is definitely the last one with the Bloodline."

"Bloodline?" Naruto asked.

"Well..." Jiraiya sighed, "Your father's side of the family had some kind of Bloodline, I don't know the details, but I do know your father said it was a terrible ability."

"That's real helpful," Naruto scowled.

"I try my best," Jiraiya grinned, "But seriously, I want you to be careful. There's no telling what he can do."

"Understood," Naruto nodded and turned around. "I will try and take him down with minimal damage to Konoha as possible."

"How do you intend to do that?" Jiraiya asked.

"By luring him away from the city, I will finish my father's work," Naruto vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"He does so love a dramatic exit huh?" Jiraiya shook his head. "Come on; let's go back to the office."

Hinata scowled as she finally managed to leave the Hyuuga Mansion. It was bad enough that her father had effectively grounded her for two weeks, but the fact she had to spend it being lectured by Neji on how weak she was really sent her the wrong way. Neji had learnt the hard way that Hinata was slowly becoming a more...aggressive person. He found this when Hinata, on the final day of her training, moved with insane speed and skill, pinned Neji's arm to the wall with a kunai and head-butted him, causing his nose to spread across most of his face. Needless to say, Neji was stunned and was starting to re-evaluate his views on Hinata.