Crippling

Chapter 1

The Chase

Author's notes: Thanks for clicking on my fic. Standard disclaimer, I don't own Naruto or any of the characters depicted in this entire story. I had this idea last week and thought it would be a good story. I have the outline for the first arc, and most of the second arc up, but I don't post super often these days. I'll continue this story if it gets plenty of reviews and follows/favorites. For those that haven't read any of my stuff, I get stuff pretty dark, but also gets pretty fluff. I love writing a fight scene.

This fic is going to have a powerful Naruto, a much faster growing relationship between him and the 9 tailed Fox, however, this will not lead to an all-powerful Naruto anytime soon.

Hinata Hyuga shuddered as she followed Kurenai sensei down the path towards the Land of Springs. They were walking with their client who had hired them to take him back to his village just outside the Land of Fire to track a group of bandits who had robbed the village.

The young Hyuga heiress couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling she had that someone was watching her. They had been traveling Northeast for three hours and this feeling had started two hours into their journey. The heiress threw up a hand seal and activated her clan's legendary dojutsu, the Byakugan. The veins around her eyes swelled as she gained a 364-degree field of vision. She sighed, this had been the tenth time she had activated her eyes, but still, she saw nothing. She rotated her head slightly in order to negate that degree of blindspot in her vision that started directly behind her nose and got bigger the further behind her that her vision went.

The bluenette could still only see 50 meters out from herself with her Byakugan, but she could see through trees, bushes, anything and see the chakra network of everything within the range of her vision.

Hinata cursed herself, she was just being a scared little girl again. She wanted to voice her concern to her team but was worried about what they might think of her. It came down to the fact that she couldn't prove it. She was now frustrated with herself, she hated every part of herself, she hated that she was the shy, timid, weak girl that she was. She sighed, she had to get over this weakness of hers, it was ruining her life. Her father couldn't stand her. She was his greatest disappointment, his greatest failure. Hinata knew she was, he never tried to hide it. She had overheard a discussion between him and an elder just last week that she was to be removed as heir in favor of her younger sister. She had never been able to bring herself to speak to her crush without stuttering, never could she tell him how she felt. Not that there would be a point, he would never like her back. He liked strong, and pretty girls like Sakura, the pink haired girl, he had been so excited to be placed on a team with. Her self hate was enough to at least put the feeling of being watched into the back of her mind.

They continued walking for another hour before Shino, her typically quiet and soft-spoken teammate spoke up."Kurenai sensei, we have a problem. We're surrounded. My scouts have just informed me that we have been surrounded by a group of ninja. They appear to be a mix of Jonin and Chunin chakra levels." Shino told his sensei.

Kurenai looked worried immediately, something was fishy about all of this. "How many, and what are their positions?"

"I have knowledge of ten ninjas. Six Jonin and four chunin. They are all keeping their distance, staying outside of Hinata's 50-meter byakugan range. This leaves me to believe that they know who we are, therefore the next line of logic is that they are here specifically for us."

"Where are most of the Jonin located?" Kurenai asked.

"Behind us, there are four Jonin and two chunin behind us." Shino told her, "It would seem they want us to try to break through towards the front, which would lead us further from the village."

Kurenai nodded, "They do seem to want us further from the village, it all signifies they want one of us. They are very organized, which means they most likely aren't rogue ninja, which means they most likely don't care about me. You are all heirs of clans with valuable Kekkei Genkai but Hinata is the first unmarked Hyuga to leave the village without a convoy in a while. I don't believe in coincidences, this all leads me to believe they are after you Hinata."

Hinata almost stopped when Kurenai told her not to, "All of you if we stop moving they will attack if they think we know they are here. The further we get from the village, and closer to the border the better for them."

Kurenai then turned to their client. "Are you working with them? How did they know we would be leaving, and out of which gate?"

The man turned to throw a kunai at her, figuring there was no point in preserving his cover, but she had already captured him in a genjutsu. He stood there motionless as she appeared behind him, stabbing a kunai into the side of his neck and ripping it outward tearing out his throat. The man dropped to the ground, gurgling as he tried to draw breath, but to no avail.

Hinata watching in shock at the brutal precision with which her own sensei operated. She couldn't believe what was going on, they were after her, they were going to take her prisoner.

Kurenai quickly went through hand seals and started another genjutsu. The world around her team paused. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata looked around in frightened wonder as the trees stopped swaying and a bubble went up around them.

Kurenai spoke quickly, "I've put us into a genjutsu that pauses time, I have to give you the plan. There is an old Leaf village safe house, barn not too far from her, we have to make it to there and try to wait out reinforcements. Shino, I need you to start by sending several of your hives out. I want you to send one to the village to your father to inform him of our situation and tell him we need help. Send the rest of them out to find other leaf ninja in the area. I know Kakashi's team should be directly South of us, they are probably the closest, but I need you to send them out everywhere, try to get any reinforcements you can. Once your bugs find someone have them send word back here and I will send a message when I know where they are. " Kurenai told Shino.

She then pulled out a parchment, jotted down a very quick note, and sent chakra into it. The parchment turned into a bird and went soaring into the sky towards the leaf village. "Alright, I'm going to start another genjutsu, and then release this one. We are going to try to trick them into thinking we kept going straight, instead, we will go as fast as we can to the barn. Run fast, do not slow down, and do not stop for any reason."

Hinata's heart was beating fast, faster than it had in a while. She started breathing heavily, she didn't want to be taken, however, she also didn't want anyone else to die because of her as her uncle had.

"Y-Y-You should all l-leave me here. I-I'll go with them, willingly. You guys get out of here." Hinata told them, trying to put on a brave face for them, even though she was shaking so hard it was difficult to speak.

Kiba spoke up, "No way! I'd never leave you like that! If you stay, I stay!" Akamaru barked in agreeance.

"Neither one of you are staying, I gave an order as your Sensei and you will both follow it. Hinata we aren't leaving you. I will protect you until my last breath. That goes for all of you, you are all my precious students and I would never abandon any of you." Kurenai told them strictly, "We don't have time for this, let's go."

Kurenai sighed, went through hand seals and Hinata never heard what she muttered under her breath but as soon as she did they all started running.

Hinata wasn't convinced yet, she ran alongside the black haired woman she looked up to more than any other adult in the village, "Sensei, are you sure about this, I don't want you, Kiba or Shino to die because of me."

The older woman turned to her, "I'm positive. This better be the last I hear of you wanting to sacrifice yourself. We'll be having a discussion when we get back to the village as it is, is that clear?" Kurenai told her strictly. Letting Hinata know there were repercussions for disobeying her, and they would get worse if Hinata brought it up again.

Hinata nodded, "Yes Sensei." She said quietly, though she was still not convinced, she knew there was no room for argument.

Kurenai continued through the trees at a fast pace with her students behind her, she was spurting ahead setting a trap here and there, just to slow down their followers once they realized they had been trapped in her genjutsu. She believed it would only take them an hour to realize. Her team would have to hold their position inside the barn until reinforcements arrived. Their chances were very slim.

Her team arrived at the barn and went inside, "This has an armory in the back, thousands of kunai, explosive tags, bombs, and trap seals. I want you three to start getting us ready to make a stand here, I'm going to set up traps outside. Work fast, and hard, we're on a time crunch, the preparation right now will be the difference between life and death."

….

Kakashi grinned as he followed his bickering team. They had just completed a mission, it was supposed to be a C rank mission, but everything had gone wrong at the outset. They were quickly attacked by rogue ninja, and it only escalated from there. The mission ended up being high A to possibly even S rank.

His team had grown so much, Naruto for sure. The young blonde ninja had grown the most and learned a lot. His strength was growing exponentially. He had defeated Haku on his own after Sasuke had fallen and was thought to be dead.

Sasuke had unlocked his Sharingan and evolved it. Growing stronger with it, he had even saved Naruto at the risk of his own life. All this to say that he is growing as a person as well. The silver-haired ninja gave a smile as he continued walking, his whole team had gone through quite the ordeal on this last mission, yet they had all grown in maturity. They came out of it closer than ever, even as they bickered he could tell they had formed an unbreakable bond between themselves.

Kakashi had been worried about them as a team before this mission. Sasuke was an Avenger, all he wanted was to kill his brother, he treated Naruto and Sakura like shit. Sakura was obsessed with Sasuke, fangirling after him constantly, even foregoing her training to go after Sasuke. Naruto had been a mess, with no friends, but instead, a teacher that treated him well, he was constantly seeking attention. For some reason he saw Sakura as the prettiest girl in their year, so he pined for her attention, and she treated him like shit for it. The three of them still had their differences, but he could tell Sasuke was starting to tolerate them a lot more. Sakura was a little more focused on her training, and a lot softer to Naruto. Naruto had discovered a reason to be a ninja, to get stronger, all to protect those few precious people he had.

Kakashi grinned, it had indeed been a long and tough mission, but he was glad his team had gone through what they had, they had all grown stronger. Kakashi looked up from his book, folding it and putting it away, a bug had just landed on his hand. It let out clicking noise and spread its wings as if signaling another bug. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, how odd. He knew from experience that nothing like that happened out of coincidence, that bug was from the Aburame family, he knew something was wrong. He listened closely as he heard more clicking, multiple bugs were clicking off in the distance getting further and further away.

"Everyone, stop," Kakashi told his students in a tone that told them they were to not move. "We're changing course, something is wrong, follow me."

He took off after the bugs clicking, following them, he thought hard what was that way as his team followed him jumping through the trees. It wasn't long that a bird-shaped parchment landed in Kakashi's hands.

He opened it and read it quickly, he cursed, he knew there was something wrong, he slowed down and signaled his team to come closer to him as they hopped through the trees.

"Sensei what are we doing?" Sakura asked.

"I had a sinking suspicion, the message I just got confirmed everything. Kurenai and Team 8 are being attacked outside of the village. We're heading to the safe house they are barricaded in to give them reinforcements. This will be an A Class to S class mission, so if you want to back out and head to the village do it now.

"Why is someone after team 8?" Sakura asked.

"They are after Hinata Hyuga. Most likely the cloud ninja. They want to breed her for her eyes." Kakashi told his team.

Naruto stopped for a moment falling slightly off his branch before rebounding and catching up. Hinata was in trouble. 'She was that weird girl with white lavender eyes. She was really weird, always got super red when she spoke to me, and always stuttered. But she was also really nice to me. She always helped sneak me answers on the tests and homework assignments. She has always been one of the few people in the village that has always been nice to me. Now she's in trouble." Naruto thought to himself. For some reason, he couldn't bear the thought of never seeing her red cheeks and shy smile. She was his friend, "I will save her." Naruto took off, faster than he thought he could run, he would get there as fast as he could.

"Naruto! Slow down!" Kakashi yelled as he took off after his student, he had never seen Naruto moving this quickly. His other students wouldn't be able to keep up if they went at this pace. They had earned the right to help along with Naruto, these were their comrades, their friends, and they had proven themselves in this last mission capable. Kakashi grabbed Naruto's arm and almost jumped back in shock when Naruto started to emit evil feeling energy, red chakra pouring out of him, and his eyes were demon red. "Don't slow me down Kakashi, I can feel it, I don't know how, but I can feel that Hinata is in trouble."

Kakashi forced him to slow down anyways, "I told you she is in trouble, but we can't leave the rest of the team behind, we need numbers, not speed."

Naruto looked at him furiously, "You don't understand, they, they already HAVE HER!" The blonde roared at his sensei.

"'How do you know that?" Kakashi asked his student.

"I don't know, I can just feel it." Naruto told him, "We have to save her, she's, she's one of my few friends." Naruto told him.

"Naruto, it's just a bad feeling, but even if you get there now, there's nothing you can do, we are outnumbered, if they have her we will follow and attempt to get her back, I won't let them get away with a fellow leaf ninja. The Team went as fast as they could, but even though Kakashi knew his reasoning was sound, and Naruto had slowed down. In the 30 minutes, it took them to get there, they were too late. When they arrived Naruto instantly regretted slowing down, the barn was on fire, and the enemy ninja were nowhere to be found.

"Naruto, snap out of it, you have other comrades in that burning building. We need to see if they are still alive.

Kakashi and his team went around the barn looking for an entrance, they couldn't find one. Naruto was getting anxious though, "Ugh! This is taking too long." He exclaimed angrily, he ran at the building and jumped at the wall, breaking into the barn through the fire and burning wall.

Kakashi couldn't believe what he had seen, his student was very rash, that could have potentially collapsed the barn. However, it hadn't. "Sasuke, you and Sakura guard the perimeter, incase there are any other ninja left," Kakashi told his team before he charged into the hole after his student, grunting as his shoulder was burned slightly. He immediately saw Kurenai lying unconscious under part of the second floor that had collapsed. He got there and called Naruto, "Naruto, come here, I need you to help me pull her out. I'm going to lift, you pull her out, and get her out of here."

Naruto appeared next to him, "Sensei we only have a couple of minutes to get out of here before the whole building collapses."

Kakashi nodded, and grabbed the heavy board that had caught fire, and pulled it up with all his might, it moved slightly and Naruto got under it, grabbing Kurenai under the arms, and pulled her out, but what he saw behind her, further under the rubble made him curse.

"Kakashi sensei, I need this lifted higher, Shino and Kiba are under here as well. Naruto created 4 shadow clones, he tossed Kurenai to two of his clones, then as Kakashi grunted lifting it higher, he went under and grabbed Shino, tossing him out to his other clones. He cursed and created another clone, throwing Akamaru to him. Then he grabbed Kiba and pulled him out.

"Great work Naruto, let's get them out of here!" Kakashi told his student. Commending him on his performance and bravery.

They went back out the hole they came in, and after Kakashi jumped through the barn collapsed in a burning heap.

"Set them down over here Naruto," Kakashi told him pointing a good fifty meters from the collapsed barn. Naruto nodded and set them down gently in the grass, that was when Kurenai woke up.

"Kakashi?" She asked hopefully.

"Kurenai, are you okay?" Kakashi asked her.

She tried to get up, but failed miserably, "Please get her back for me Kakashi! They took Hinata."

Naruto stood there shaking, how would they get Hinata back. Kakashi nodded, "I will, I just need to make sure you get proper medical attention."

"Go! I'll be fine!" Kurenai told him fiercely.

Kakashi nodded, "Sakura, you and Sasuke stay here, wait for a medic team to arrive, the village should already have a team coming this way." He then went through hand seals, "Summoning Jutsu!" He said and a pack of dogs appeared. "Pakkun, a young Hyuga girl has been taken by a group of cloud ninja, we need to follow them and get it back." Pakkun nodded and took off after sniffing the air. "One of you head towards the village, and bring the medic nins our way, we will need a medic and reinforcements. I need the rest of you to stay here with my team."

"Naruto lets go!" Kakashi told him taking off at a high speed.

Naruto sprinted off after him, he was going to save her. He had to. They traveled for a couple of hours at top speed when they finally slammed to a halt, Naruto was breathing hard, traveling at that speed for two hours had worn him out, he growled, he had to get stronger. He looked up and what he saw terrified him. Hinata was bound with chakra disrupting rope, and gagged. Sitting in the dirt. Her arms were bound underneath her legs, she was in a sitting position with her knees close to her chest, her feet on the ground. Her legs were tied at her ankles, knees, and her upper thighs. She had a cloth tied tightly into her mouth, Naruto could tell from where he was hiding in the trees just how tight the gag was. She was also blindfolded, she was shaking from fear of the predicament she was in. She was struggling as hard as she could, but it was to no avail.

Naruto growled, his eyes red at how she was treated by these bastards, they had stopped for a short rest.

"Naruto," Kakashi said his name quietly, "They are going to leave soon, we are still outnumbered though. There are 4 Jonin and 2 Chunin. We have a small chance, Get Hinata, I will try to stop them, if they come after you, keep running. I'll be able to hold most of them off, run towards the village, use your shadow clones to hold off others."

"Sensei, I can't just leave you to them," Naruto argued.

"I appreciate that, but I can kill all of them, my only worry is if they kill Hinata to stop us." Go now" Kakashi told him, and then disappeared.

Naruto charged at Hinata creating shadow clones, but before he got close Kakashi was trapped in a seal, and a man appeared next to Hinata, grabbing her by the hair and lifting her up, putting a kunai to her neck. She screamed though it was muffled by the gag in her mouth.

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, Kakashi was chained to the ground glaring at the man holding Hinata.

"It was a good plan, however, we knew you were there, and the best-laid plans, never truly do survive the battlefield." The man holding Hinata told the two ninja.

Kakashi glared, at him, he was already working the manacles on his wrist with his lock pick set, cursing himself, he should not have jumped in like this, it had been reckless, but they were short on time.

Naruto didn't know what to do, he was so angry, but at the same time, what could he do, the bastard had his sensei in a seal, and his friend and sword point. Naruto froze, he wasn't sure what to do, this feeling, the fear boiling up in him, it was crippling.

He tried to make himself move, to blitz the man, to try to free Kakashi, anything, but no, this fear had him stuck.

The man that held Hinata grinned, he turned and disappeared running away, Naruto cursed, they needed her alive, they wouldn't kill her. He should have attacked the man. He looked towards Kakashi, who was screaming at him.

"NARUTO! SNAP OUT OF IT! GO! Go rescue your friend! I'm fine! I'll follow you." Kakashi told him. Kakashi screamed at him.

Naruto nodded and chased after the man, thinking to the beast inside of him, the one he met last mission. "Hey! I need your power to rescue my friend!"

The beast growled and Naruto was suddenly in the giant sewer that held the beast, "You think you can just demand this power from me?" It growled at him.

Naruto grit his teeth, "You've been inside me, taking up space, doing nothing for me, I think it's time for you to start paying rent!"

"It's not like I want to be here!" The beast roared.

"Please." Naruto begged quietly, "I'm too weak, too slow, too pitiful to save her on my own. I need your help. Please. Short of letting you out I'll do anything if I can just get your power right now to save Hinata." Naruto ending his plea on his hands and knees, begging his tenant.

The beast laughed at him, "I could get used to this, fine, stop your groveling, for now, boy and take some of my power."

Naruto grinned as he felt a rush of power roll through him. It was different than last time though, it was much cleaner, less corrupting. A lot smoother this time, Naruto had even more power, and his head was much clearer. His eyes had turned a crimson blood red, and he took off at a much higher speed chasing after the man that had his friend.

It took him only 20 minutes to catch up and pass the man, who was running along a cliffside, holding Hinata over his shoulder.

Naruto ran through the trees as fast as he could, getting past the bastard, in order to cut him off. Naruto edged past him and jumped down in front of him. "Stop!" Naruto growled at him.

The man skidded to a halt, pulling out a kunai in his free hand, "Don't move if you don't want her dead. I don't know why you would follow me, your situation hasn't changed. The rest of my team should be eliminating your sensei as we speak, why would you leave him to that fate to chase after this worthless girl?" The man asked.

Naruto growled, "Don't you ever call her that again." his voice turning somewhat demonic.

Hinata was squirming, wriggling around and screaming from her gag as she was terrified.

Naruto moved closer to the man, "You won't kill her, you can't, you need her alive. You plan to do terrible things to her, to my friend!" He roared out, his voice sounding more and more like a demon's with every syllable he spoke.

The man in front of him was starting to get frightened, this boy was turning into a demon. "Stay back, I will kill her before I die."

"You kill her and I promise I'll rip you limb from limb," Naruto told him darkly, his voice made it sound as if he would really enjoy it.

"Boy! You need to calm down, you're getting too angry right now, it will affect your judgment. You can't have that in this situation. Calm down and think." The voice inside his head boomed, stopping Naruto from moving forward.

Naruto took a deep breath, "We can help each other here. You want to live, to get away, I want my friend, just put her down, and walk away, I'll take her, you get to live."

The man started to laugh, "Put her down you say? I'll put her down!" The man hoisted Hinata off of his shoulder and maneuvered closer to the cliff side. He held her arms behind her and shoved her so she was leaning over the cliff. Her blindfold slipped down her face to her neck, and she could see. Her eyes went wide with fear and she screamed, below her were jagged rocks, and trees, while tied up like this with no chakra, she would fall to her death.

Naruto's eyes went wide, "H-hey, wait, don't do that, don't hurt her!"

The man looked at him with cold eyes, he pulled her back, but twisted and turned to throw her back off the cliff as far as he could. Hinata screamed as she plummeted towards the ground.

Naruto's eyes went wide as he paused for a moment, not sure what he could do, that second would cost him dearly. Naruto ran and jumped going through hand seals, "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He free fell reaching for Hinata. He grabbed for her arm but right as he did, she hit a tree branch back first. Naruto, with his superhuman hearing, heard a horrible crack come from her back. He grabbed at her arm, but missed, "NOOOOOO!" He screamed as he watched her hit.

End of chapter

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