Here it is, my not so epic, so-called masterpiece, not so fresh from Deviantart. Enjoy.

Naruto was running back to the Leaf village as fast as humanly possible, the heavily injured body of Hinata in his arms, barely conscious. Naruto wasted no time in getting to the hospital and demanding for the hokage's immediate attention. He explained to Tsunade everything that happened while Sakura fixed her injuries as fast as she could.

"What! You were attacked? By Stone ninja?" Tsunade shouted, shocked. Naruto nodded.

"Lady Tsunade, you may want to have a look at this." said Sakura.

"By the way Naruto, what happened to your headband?" Tsunade asked, just noticing that he wasn't prominently wearing it on his forehead.

"Oh, well I have to the metal piece," He pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to her, "But I used the cloth to seal the wound on her arm." Sakura removed the sickeningly blood-covered black, formerly blue cloth to reveal an enormous wound, still bleeding. Tsunade stared at the wound, stunned, and terrified. Where should have been a lot of bright red blood protruding from the wound, there was instead somewhat sickening dark blue blood. Naruto and Sakura both knew about Tsunade's hemophobia (Fear of blood for those who don't know.) but this was something completely different.

"Snake blood virus." Was all Tsunade was able to say.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, knowing that he wouldn't like where this was going.

"Not nice," Tsunade said, obviously having seen people with this virus first hand. "It's banned biological warfare. In the last Great Shinobi war, it was very dangerous, capable of eliminating entire armies with a single infection. Don't worry this infection was done pretty sloppily," She added, seeing Naruto and Sakura moving away from the still barely conscious Hinata. "The virus has infected her, but it won't affect any of you. However, I'm afraid she doesn't have long to live."

"How long?" asked Naruto. Tsunade paused and said, with no satisfaction at all, "One week." Naruto's heart sank.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. There's absolutely nothing I can do for now. I will try my best to find a cure, but I can't make any promises. It may be impossible." Naruto stayed with Hinata that night, lost in dreadful thought. "Hinata might die because of me. Damn it. I shouldn't have been so stupid and let them hurt her. I, I love her. I can't bear the thought of her dying."

"Naruto..." Hinata murmured weakly. Naruto came closer to her."What is it, Hinata?" He asked softly. Hinata gave him an odd-looking scroll from her pocket with a weak, shaky hand. "It will help. I can save me..." Hinata spoke in barely a whisper. "Find it. I... l-lo..." She closed her eyes and slept deeply. Naruto spent the whole night reading the scroll, remembering every pain-staking detail.

"Oh, naruto, you're still here?" Sakura came to check on Hinata the next morning to find Naruto, smiling strangely, especially with the recent events.

"Hinata got this scroll off those stone ninja somehow." Naruto opened it to a certain part and showed it to Sakura, "Nice, huh?" With that, we can save Hinata." Sakura read the writing shown to her.

"Naruto, you're such an idiot." She said flatly. "This is just some stupid myth of the Stone village."

"Oh? Then tell me why they were so intent on getting that thing back that they attacked us with illegal biological warfare?" Naruto retaliated smartly. Sakura was stunned. For the first time ever, naruto actually won an argument with Sakura.

"Getting what back?" Tsunade entered the room, obviously listening in on the conversation. Naruto showed the scroll to Tsunade, who read through it quickly.

"Ah, now that was a fun memory, finding that artifact. It can only grant the wish of the pure of heart."

"Wait you've actually found this artifact?" Sakura said, shocked.

"Yup. I don't really qualify as 'pure-of-heart' though, especially with a wish for tons of money. But you should be okay, Naruto. Unlike me, you have a noble cause."

Meanwhile, in a secret, unknown location...

"Well, well, well. Now this is interesting." Said Zetsu, or rather Tsu. "Ze tells me a certain nine-tail jinchuriki is looking for something quite... interesting."

"What is it?" Asked the shadowy Akatsuki leader, "A tailed beast or something related to them?"

"Even better," Tsu laughed evilly, "Some sort of artifact that can grant its reclaimer anything they want."

"That IS quite interesting." The unknown leader said, "Where is it?"

"We don't know, but Ze tells me the nine-tails does, so wherever he goes, we'll go."

"What is the artifact called?"

"The Dragon Ball."

Well, what did you think? Feedback (especially reviews) is always welcome. Before you start typing your review however, I would like to point out that this series is in alternate reality, so forget everything Shippuden told you, because this series will have a completely different story to tell. For example, most of the tailed beasts and their Jinchuriki will be different, as will a few members of Akatsuki, character origins, and so much more. As the story description says, this takes place within the pre-shippuden filler arc time frame, so Shippuden hasn't happened yet and so there's a completely different story to tell. Just thought I'd clear that up ahead of time. Well, enjoy, and please review.

Also, see Legacy of the Legend, cosplay photos from Otakon 2009 and possibly other future anime conventions, and a few other, lesser quality fanfics at my Deviantart account, Gyarretto7. See you later!