He was not himself, no, he was some kind of beast. A terrible monster driven by rage and a desire for vengeance.

He could smell smoke, hear screams, and taste blood. At first he could see nothing, but the shadows lifted, and all around him were the scientists who had used him like a lab rat. Who had humiliated and degraded him. They were looking at him in horror before they ran for their lives.

There was a fire, spreading to all of the other rooms within the facility. Cylinders and test tubes filled with chemicals exploded when they became overheated causing the fire to spread even quicker.

But the mind of this beast was not focused on the building flames. Instead it was focused on the group of cowering and fleeing scientists, who had their escape thwarted by a sealed door. Desperately, they screamed for help and tugged at the handle to the point it broke, forcing them to resort to clawing at the door while others battered it with their shoulders

The beast approached them, a growl escaping from his throat as he flexed his fingers and bared his teeth.

One of the scientists who seemed to lack both brains and sense actually tried to run past the beast in order to find any form of a second exit. But as quick as lightning, the beast's hand shot out and grabbed the scientist by the throat, lifting him off the ground as if he was weighed nothing at all. The scientist kicked and struggled, but all that did was make the beast tighten its grip. The scientist struggled a bit longer, his face turning red then purple with his eyes bulging. Then his eyes rolled back into his head and he ceased to struggle, and the beast hurled the body into one of the burning rooms.

It then turned its attention back to the other scientists who were staring at him in horror and fear. Some of them returned to banging on the door and screaming 'HELP' or 'GET US OUT'. Others were on their knees begging the beast for mercy.

But the beast did not understand mercy. It only knew hate and rage.

The beast fell upon the remaining scientists in a frenzy. The first scientist it reached had their head smashed into one of the concrete walls, exploding like an overripe melon. The next one was lifted up above the beast and ripped in half, showering the beast in blood and gore. One of the scientists took a chance at attacking the beast when it was busy, but their throat got torn open with the beast's bare fangs.

And then there was only one left, a woman. She wore horn rimmed glasses, her once pure white labcoat now soaked red in blood. Her eyes were filled with tears and terror. She sputtered and choked, holding herself in a fetal position, having little to no hope of getting out of this alive. "P-please… we were just doing what we were ordered… it wasn't our fault… it wasn't personal. Pl-please have pity."

The beast stared down at her, for a moment his eyes softened and the female scientist had a small look of hope on her.

Then suddenly the beast remembered something. A time when this woman hooked him up to several electrodes then shocked him repeatedly, smirking as she did so. The expression of the beast hardened again and it drew back its arm. Seeing this killed any hope the woman had, and once the beast swung his arm at her neck, everything else she had was killed too. Her neck snapped, she slumped to the floor, her body a useless heap.

No prey left to prey upon, the beast turned its attention to the steel door. Having seen the others fail to escape, it knew that using it the normal way would not work. So it clenched its hand into a fist and with strength fueled by rage it punched the door, sending it off it's hinges with a single hit. The door clattered to the floor down a hallway on the other side, allowing the beast to step out. Up ahead there was a staircase that spiraled upwards, reaching a closed ceiling hatch.

Reaching the hatch was simple, and fortunately it wasn't as faulty as the steel door. A few turns of the handle, it unlocked, with the beast shoving it open. It climbed out into the outside world. For the first time in a long time the beast felt the wind on its face, smelled fresh air and nature, and felt… water.

The beast looked up and saw dark clouds and felt water splatter on its face. It was cool and refreshing.

The beast stood there, closing his eyes and letting the rain cleanse him. He felt all the rage and blood lust leave his body.

Then with a heavy sigh of…


…reluctance Naruto opened his eyes, feeling unusually content, warm, and comfortable. The dream in comparison to all the others that he had experienced and suffered from since he returned home, was actually more pleasant than all the others. In fact the dream, although he did not understand it, filled him with a kind of euphoria.

Especially when considering the restless nights, he had been having lately, this was more than welcome, but he couldn't help but wonder the origin of the dream. All the others that he had experienced were memories of the events he had suffered, but he had no memory of a beast being on the rampage within the facility.

However, something else occupied his thoughts and made him switch priorities. The memory of last night came to him quickly and when he felt the warm mass next to him he knew exactly why he slept so well.

Looking to his right he saw blue-tinted black hair resting by his shoulder, making him feel even better. While he felt bad for what she had to go through with her family, a part of him was greatly flattered that she was willing to be with him so much. She gave up her family and will likely have to deal with disapproval from other people for this, yet she did it all just so she didn't have to give him up.

The list of people he knew that was willing to do that for him was short… VERY short.

In fact, if he was really being honest with himself, too many of the people that Naruto knew seemed to take his friendship for granted. How many of them would give up anything just to keep his friendship? Would Chouji give up the last chip in a bag? Would Shikamaru give up his daily nap? Would Sakura give up Ino again? Or vice versa?

Not that Naruto wanted them to or would even give them that condition, but if they had to give up something to keep on good terms for him, what was the extent of the sacrifice they'd be willing to make?

At what point would they say Naruto wasn't worth it?

The blonde boy tried to push the thought out of his mind, but the uncertainty kept lingering. Just how much time and effort had been spent looking for him when he had spent all that time in that hell, being treated like a human guinea pig? How long had they actually spent looking for him before they gave up and chalked him up as a lost cause?

The thought made his blood boil, but he took a breath and let himself calm down. Perhaps someday there'd be an opportunity to find out just what his life was worth to this village. But now was not that time. No, for now, he wanted to be in a good mood. And Hinata certainly was having no problem with making that possible.

'I think I owe Ero-sennin one hell of an apology. No wonder he's always in the mood for sex. Right now I feel like I could die happy if I never set foot out of this bed again.' He thought to himself, massaging his girlfriend's bare back. This made her moan contently, and started to wake her up.

Hinata slowly opened her eyes and saw Naruto's smile. This settled any brief confusion she had over whether or not last night had really happened. That and the unfamiliar but not unwelcome sensations in her loins made it perfectly clear too. "Good morning Naruto-kun." She said before moving to kiss him. "Sleep well?"

He nodded, deciding not to tell her about the last dream. "I don't think any other sleep I'm ever going to have in the future will be as good as last night."

"We'll have lots of nights like last night in the future Naruto-kun." She told him with a smile. "In fact, I don't know when we won't have a night like that again. Maybe never."

Naruto grinned. "Is my Hinata a pervert?" He asked as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in close. Her skin was as soft and smooth as well polished ivory.

She blushed. "What gave me away?" She asked coyly.

"If I told you, you'd slap me." He joked, making her giggle.

'If only he knew.' She thought. 'The byakugan is very handy to have. When Naruto-kun first returned from his years of training, more than once I've peeped in his apartment. To see just what the 'results' of that training were of course. Of course, there's no way I'm telling him that.'

Hinata then stood up from the futon and with a smirk turned around, knowing full well Naruto could not keep his eyes from drifting downward to her bare heart-shaped backside. The sight made him feel hot and part of him wanted to reach over, grab her, and pull her back down with him. But he focused his mind.

"If you think you actually can keep your pants on for a few hours, I do have something in mind for us." He told her, eyeing her bending down in a teasing manner.

"Oh really? What?" She asked curiously as she slid her panties on and then turned back towards Naruto.

"Well I heard something about a woman's touch being important..." He started, but stopped when he saw her bemused expression. "Not that kind of touch, though I'm not going to disagree in principle." He added with his typical grin before he tossed the blanket off himself. "Anyway, my point is I was thinking of spending the day helping you to start feeling at home with me. We can get some new stuff in here, stuff with you in mind, or maybe we could even get a new place if we can find one cheap enough."

Hinata was speechless. She felt so touched right then and there. Naruto didn't just want to give her a place to sleep off the streets, he wanted to give her a home. To make his home their home. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so welcome anywhere, not even when visiting Kurenai's apartment.

"Naruto-kun..." She paused for a bit, not sure what to say. "Can you even afford that?" She hated drawing attention to his finances, but she didn't want him to go broke just to give her something they could potentially do without. Especially since Hinata didn't have any money of her own since it had all come from the Hyuuga clans finances, which were controlled by her father.

Naruto's grin then became a smirk, it was like he was about to share something. "I'm going to let you in on a secret Hinata. I might not be rich, but I'm not poor, at least not as poor as people think that I am. I've got enough money to get an actual place with stuff to put in it too."

The white-eyed girl blinked. "But... but how?"

"Part of it was Ero-sennin liked going to a few placed with gambling on our trip, and I needed something to kill the boredom. It was either gamble or watch Ero-Sennin mess around with strippers." He remarked casually. Hinata glowered at the idea of Naruto being at a strip club, with some random woman touching HER Naruto. "Also, the rent on this place is dirt cheap so I was able to save up a ton of money over the years." Especially since his food bill had mainly consisted of frozen meals and ramen… so much delicious ramen. "I've saved up all the money from my missions." And since a number of what many had thought were simple D or C ranked missions often seemed to turn to B and A ranked missions, he always ended up receiving a higher pay. "So anyway, money's no problem for me now Hinata-chan. Anything you want to get for this place, I can cover." He continued.

"Still, you don't have to." She insisted, it was a touching offer but it felt weird to have Naruto spend money on her.

However, Naruto, after putting on some grey boxers, walked over and took the Hyuuga's hand. "Hinata-chan, what else am I going to spend that money on? It's not like I needed to redecorate for myself. Or move somewhere bigger just because I could. Seriously, making you feel at home away from your father is the best thing I can do with that money."

"Naruto-kun..." She said softly, her heart warmed by this. She leaned in to softly kiss him, and he was more than happy to oblige. They held each other tightly, and their kiss became more passionate and soon their tongues were wrestling with each other's.

Naruto, unable to resist, had his hand move down and grasp Hinata's firm buttock, which caused her to break the kiss and giggle softly.

"Keep acting like that and you'll definitely need to get a new and bigger bed."

"Why would I need... oh." Naruto said with a mischievous grin.

Then the two of them, their bodies become hot fell back down onto the futon, ready for round two.


"You know why I called you here Hiashi?" Tsunade asked, steel in her eyes.

"I'm not an idiot Hokage-sama. It's about my daughter and that blonde demon." The head of the Hyuuga replied unhappily, his brow furrowed in a deep frown.

"Then I'll be blunt. Stay away from her, or else I will deal with you."

Hiashi narrowed his eyes to the point of becoming horizontal slits. "Is that a threat?"

"Only if you're planning something. Otherwise, it's a warning." She countered. "Either way I don't care. I will not have you do anything to that girl just because she hurt your pride with this. Which by the way wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tried to attack her."

"She was hugging the boy in broad daylight!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Oh, clearly you had no choice."

Something clicked in Hiashi's mind. "This is about the boy isn't it? Let me guess, he didn't take not getting a promotion well and you're protecting my daughter in an attempt to get back on his good side."

Tsunade clasped her hands together. "This may surprise you Hiashi, but people can have non-selfish interests in others. I don't have to get something in return for ensuring Hinata's well being. I'm just doing my job as Hokage, making sure my citizens don't attack each other like children in a schoolyard."

Hiashi stayed silent for now, not sure what he should say. He honestly refused to make any promises regarding the well being of either Hinata or Naruto right now, but he couldn't get away with admitting that right in front of the hokage.

"You have anything to say Hiashi?" Tsunade pressed.

"You didn't ask anything Hokage-sama." Hiashi quickly pointed out, grasping onto this small but effective technicality. He didn't have to promise anything if she didn't ask him to.

"Well then, I'm going to make this an official order. As Godaime Hokage, I am ordering you and the totality of the Hyuuga clan to leave Hinata and Naruto alone. If anything happens to them and I can link you to it, I will consider it an act of treason and punish it as such.

"Treason? So the lives of those two children now equal the lives of an entire clan, who has serve and protected this village faithfully since its founding?" Hiashi asked, offended.

"Attacking someone the hokage specifically ordered you not to attack is treason Hiashi, whether that person is a child or political figure. Now, do you comply?"

"Comply?" He repeated, not expecting that word to be used here.

Tsunade nodded. "I'm not leaving you any loopholes to exploit. Do you comply with my order that you and your clan cannot take direct actions against Naruto and Hinata nor persuade anyone else to act for you? Do? You? Comply?"

Hiashi lightly sneered. 'Sneaky little bitch.' After a bit though, he sighed. "Yes, I comply."

"Good, now you can go." Tsunade told him.

Hiashi didn't hurry, but he sure was glad to get out of there. Before the door even closed completely, his mind was already formulating a plan.

With the head of the Hyuuga clan gone, Tsunade pressed the intercom button and told Shizune to send in the next appointment, the group she was actually looking forward to seeing.

Some time later Kakashi entered the room first, followed by Shikamaru, Shino, and Kiba, who had been told to keep Akamaru outside since the last time that big dog was in the building he had tried to devour little Tonton.

Tsunade stared at the four shinobi with intense eyes for a moment. "I assume that you are all wondering why I summoned you here."

"The thought had crossed my mind, Hokage-sama." Kakashi replied with a simple shrug.

Shikamaru yawned. "I assumed it was a mission."

"You are correct about that. I am sending the four of you out on a special mission."

"Why the four of us?" Shino asked, his voice as monotone as it always was. "Why not our regular team arrangement?"

"Because the four of you together I think stand the best chance of completing this mission." Tsunade stated.

"Which is…?" Kiba asked, somewhat impatient to get this meeting over with.

Tsunade took out a map and laid it on her desk. "You are going to find out exactly where Naruto was being held all that time."

The group was silent for a moment, until Kakashi spoke up. "Hokage-sama we already tried that. We sent everyone out and they couldn't find him."

"And now that he's here what's the point?" Kiba added.

"Simple. For starters when we were first looking we only sent out single units. That is likely why we never found what we were looking for. Obviously that approached failed, so I am suspecting that the four of you together would be able to find the location as opposed to just one of you at a time."

"Does Naruto remember anything? That would help shorten the search significantly." Shino asked.

Tsunade pointed to a large red dot on the map. "Here is where we are." She then pointed to a blue dot. "Here is where Naruto was returning from based on recollections from him-" She then pointed to a green dot. "And here is where Hinata found him. So it stands to reason that the location of his place of captivity is somewhere in this general area" She said as she circled her finger around an enclosed area that she had previously circled in black.

Shikamaru raised a brow. "That still leaves hundreds of miles of forest to cover."

"My insects could cover that amount of space if I sent out several swarms." Shino mentioned as he looked over the map.

Tsunade looked at Kiba then at Kakashi. "Could your dogs pick up the scent?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Naruto's scent would be heavily faded if not totally gone by now."

Kiba scoffed. "Please, me and Akamaru could track a butterfly over a mountain. Plus Naruto has such a strong scent, so remnants might still be there."

Tsunade smiled. "Good, I want you four out there. I want you to check in every hole in the ground, look under every rock, and in every tree until you find something. And when you do find something I want you to tear it apart and bring back every shred of information you can carry." Then the slug sannin's eyes became as hard as steel. "And I will make this perfectly clear. If anyone of you returns with empty hands, I will bust you all down to genin and keep you on D-rank missions until you are all older than me."

That put the fear of Kami into them.

"I've already had Shizune prepare your mission gear, so be ready to head out immediately. Treat this like an A-Rank mission and to keep it between yourselves."

The council did not know about this mission and she wanted to keep it that way.

The group agreed and they left the office to get their gear and head out for their mission.

When they left Tsunade sighed and sat back in her chair. She prayed to Kami, or whatever deity existed that they succeeded in finding something.

And she prayed even harder that if they did find something it would let her help Naruto.


The sun was shining brightly that day and there was not a cloud in the great blue sky to obscure it.

Hinata and Naruto, their arms linked together, walked down the streets of the village. Their eyes focused forward and ignoring the occasional looks of the people who looked at them and whispered.

Once they were out walking, Hinata realized something that she had never thought about before. How exactly do people find homes in Konoha? Having lived her whole life on a clan compound, she had never before considered what needed to be done when getting some personal property. Sure, she had always imagined her and Naruto getting their own place away from the Hyuuga when they were together, but the actual process of getting the place had been an overlooked detail at the time.

For a moment, she thought about asking Kurenai on how she had gotten her apartment, but immediately shot the idea down. Kurenai would have had far more questions of her own regarding that and most likely some advice or 'suggestions' that frankly Hinata was just not in the mood to be told. She also knew deep down that her sensei would most likely disapprove of her and Naruto living together. She would certainly approve of her standing up to her father, which Kurenai had said she always needed to do, but she would almost certainly say that it would be better if Hinata lived alone or with her rather than stay with Naruto.

No, she'd have to do this on her own, and with the help of her byakugan, she did.

Her doujutsu led her and Naruto to a building marked Leaf Realty in the same part of town as the Yamanaka Flower Shop. This being the best place to start, the two walked in.

"What the hell do you want?"

They were greeted, if that word could be used here, by a grumpy looking woman with glasses at a desk who sneered at the two teens, or more specifically, Naruto.

"What do you think we're here for?" Naruto asked, having already suspected he'd be treated hostilely here. Though he admitted that might have been just his anger at the recent events making him a little more cynical than usual.

"Well get out of here! If you want a place to live go dig yourself a hole in the ground! Preferably with the dirt put back in on top of you."

Hinata glared at the hostile woman with her active byakugan and held her right hand like she was ready to attack. "You say one more thing like that and you'll be the one put in a hole in the ground."

The hostile woman rolled her eyes. "I'm not afraid. You Hyuuga act tough but you're afraid to stain your reputation."

"You'd be surprised how apathetic I am to the Hyuuga reputation. Now, give us a listing of available residences and we'll be out of your way."

The hostile woman closed her eyes for a moment, looking like she was taking a deep breath. "No."

"No?" Both teens said together.

"No. Now get out."

"You can't do this." Naruto protested.

She opened her eyes, looking at him like he was snake to decapitate. "Yes I can. Like everyone else, I have the right to refuse service to anyone for whatever reason I consider valid. You don't like it Kyuubi? Tough shit."

Naruto surprisingly smirked. "Now you're in for it. You broke the law."

She also smirked. "Big whoop. Everyone in town has broken that law multiple times over the years and no one has been punished for it. You think the hokage is going to execute everyone in Konoha demon freak? Now get out before I tell the Anbu you're trespassing. Who do you think they're going to believe or care about?"

Naruto growled in the back of his throat, but Hinata lashed out her hand and jabbed the hostile woman in the heart much like Neji had done to her. But since this woman had no ninja training at all, she was more vulnerable to such an attack and her heart ruptured, death coming in seconds if not immediately.

"I told you you'd be killed if you talked to him like that again." Hinata said, oddly feeling no remorse for her actions yet thinking she should.

"What do we do with the body now?" Naruto asked, also strangely not feeling remorse but thinking he should feel something.

"We have to dispose of it. And we can't go house-hunting anymore. If we do, the Anbu will realize we were the last to see her alive." Hinata warned.

Naruto nodded, seeing the logic. "This should do for now." He said, pulling out a supply scroll and opening it. "Ero-sennin suggested I could seal up some shadow clones to use in case one of my scrolls got stolen, they'd be a sort of built-in security feature. I think the same method can be used here."

Hinata watched as the whiskered blonde sealed away the corpse, buying them time to get rid of it for good. Fortunately with her method of execution there would be no evidence behind, and her byakugan wasn't detecting any surveillance cameras in place. She had just gotten away with murder.

'Why do I feel proud of that?'

Done with the job, Naruto pocketed the scroll. "Let's go back. I don't think either of us are in the mood to do any shopping anymore."

She nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Naruto-kun, do you... feel okay about this?"

"I don't know how I feel, but I'll tell you one thing. At some point I am going to find out how well that law regarding the fox is actually enforced."

"She might have been exaggerating, but yeah we should check it out. It's safe to say that despite everything there are still people who cannot get over their anger, and it's time to do something about it."

They both smiled, and unknown to them their chakra began darkening to a deeper shade of blue.