Blah blah blah: regular text

"Blah Blah Blah" regular speech

'Blah Blah Blah' regular thought or flashback

"Blah Blah Blah" Kyuubi/demonic or summon talking

'Blah Blah Blah' Kyuubi/demonic or summon thinking

Currently my ingeniously over complicated plan to own Naruto has fallen through

Who's the Hostage

By: EDelta88

'Dammit teme-no-kitsune, shut the fuck up.'

"It's your own damn fault kit."

'I didn't ask for your opinion!'

"Weeeeell~ ya kinda did, and I quote 'Kyuubi a little help here!'."

'God dammit! Why does he have to be so smart?'

"Well, I'm a couple thousand years older than you that might have something to do with it."

'How did I get in to this mess?'

"Well it all started when..."

Prologue

Gates of Konoha, Post Sasuke Retrieval Mission

Just outside the walls of Konoha a barely conscious, battered, bloodied, and broken Uzumaki Naruto barely clung to consciousness as his sensei, Hatake Kakashi, carried him out of the woods abreast of the medic team carrying the more injured members of what would come to be known as the Sasuke retrieval team.

Awaiting them at the gate was a rather small crowd of people, most of which were hoping to see Uchiha Sasuke but, unfortunately, Sasuke had escaped and was somewhere in Rice country right now. Some people among the crowd were there to help the retrieval team, among them were Haruno Sakura the soon-to-be apprentice to the Gondaime, said Hokage (Tsunade), Shizune (Tsunade's other apprentice), and the members of the rookie nine and Team Gai that had not been sent on the retrieval mission. All of which where surprised to see the extensive damage to the last retrieval team member being carried in his sensei's arms.

Uzumaki Naruto, who should have been down and out, hell he should have been dead several times over, but unlike nearly all the other members of his team was somehow still fighting the urge to pass out.

The look on Naruto's face was mask of failure and depression. How was he going to tell Sakura-chan?

"I couldn't bring him back..."

"I failed..."

"I couldn't do it..."

These words and more passed through his mind as he tried to find the right thing to say but, sadly, he was out of time.

"Naruto, what-?" Sakura started. She sounded rather concerned but, before could continue, Naruto interrupted her.

Even though the look on his face said it, he felt he had to say it himself. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan... I cou...couldn't..." He never was able to finish as, at that moment, his body finally gave out.

As his azure blue eyes rolled into the back of his head, Naruto could hear people yelling as he fought a losing battle to hold on to consciousness.

"...RUTO!"

"SHIT! HE'S...WE NEED A...NOW!"

"GET...HOSPITAL...MOVE IT!"

...and then all was darkness

Chapter 1: Shatter Point

"Oh yeah... this is how we were thrown in to this whole mess!"

'Furball, do you have one helpful thought in you body? Or whatever it is that you are now?'

"Not a one kit, thanks for asking, though. You could ask your 'hostage' to help you."

'God damn scheming little furry bastard-wait, did you hear something?'

"Naruto-kun, where are youuu?"

'SHIT! She found me!'

Konoha General Hospital, Room 42

Blinding pain. Pure and simple, the first thing that Naruto felt when he woke up. And of course, that didn't exactly sit well with the blonde haired ninja.

'Why does it feel like I was on the receiving end of one of Baa-chan's fists?'

"You may remember a certain emo-looking, kunai-with-exploding-tag-up-his-ass punk who ran you through with a ball of screeching birds?"

'That's right…wait...SINCE WHEN CAN YOU TALK TO ME OUTSIDE THE SEAL!'

"Since ever, I just didn't have a reason to," Kyuubi answered before going silent.

But without Kyuubi distracting him Naruto was left to brood and for a long time after that Naruto just lay in his bed staring unseeingly at the ceiling, he had failed. He had promised to bring his friend back and he had failed…

"-I don't care what you say he did! You will let me in to see him! Even if it means this hallway gets a fresh coat of red paint!" someone yelled from the hall.

"Y-y-y-yes H-h-h-Hyuuga-sama," now that would be 'just-shit-his-pants asshole orderly #42.'

To Naruto's surprise the door opened, and in strode a girl of roughly thirteen in a tan jacket with dark indigo blue hair and blank white eyes. It was Hinata, he realized... well, sort of. It was definitely Hinata, kunoichi member of Team 8, but this was a side of her that Naruto had never seen before. The Hinata he was used to would have her head down and be stuttering uncontrollably whereas this Hinata seemed to be a mixture of confident (most likely due to excessive irritation via uncooperative hospital staff), pissed, and one-hundred percent pure she-demon.

In too much of a rage to notice much of anything, Hinata marched into the room and planted herself firmly in a chair opposite the door muttering some incoherent nonsense about ignorant fools running around in green pajamas.

Inside Naruto's mind scape

Naruto felt his tenant let out something akin to a purr followed with "Helloooooooooo, Beautiful."

Why Kyuubi was acting this way? He would never know... not that he tried particularly hard to find out.

Back in Naruto's Hospital Room

Shizune came in several minutes later, presumably to check on Naruto's condition, she smiled as she noticed that he was awake.

"Oh Naruto-kun, you're up," spoke Shizune.

Hinata, who up to now had been glaring holes in the ground, went from her state of 'SILENCE! I kill you!' back to her usual stuttering self in the time it took for her to raise her head.

"N-Naruto-kun?" she said surprise written across her face. "H-how long have you been a-awake?"

"Since a little before you chewed out that guy in the hall," he answered not taking his eyes off the ceiling, consequently he didn't see when Hinata turned the color of a red delicious.

"Y-you heard th-that?" she asked in a very small voice as she became rather interested in the flooring.

"Yep! Remind me never to get you mad at me," he chuckled meaning it as a joke but when he didn't get a reply he glanced to the side. Why did she look like that? She looked defeated, almost ashamed. "Oi, what's with the long face?"

"You m-must think I'm a t-terrible person to talk like that..." She sounded like she was about to cry.

Naruto was thick as a brick, unperceptive, and socially retarded but there was one thing he could do better that anyone else, cheer people up in the most unorthodox and random fashion jinchuurikily possible.

WHOOMPH!

Suddenly Hinata was assaulted by the soft fluffy whiteness of Naruto's pillow. Caught totally off guard, the lavender eyed girl stared at the heavily bandaged boy in surprise.

"I will have no 'sad' in my hospital room! It's bad juju," Naruto proclaimed, brandishing his pillow like a sword.

"But-"

WHOOMPH!

"NO BUTS!" he yelled.

By this point Shizune who had been watching in utter amazement spoke up.

"Naruto, you really shouldn't be moving right now... Actually, I don't know how you're moving at all right now without being in screaming agony," she said with a frown. She knew he healed fast because of the fox but this was ridiculous!

"What are you talking about that hurt like hell," Naruto replied, his voice as flat as Sakura's chest.

Face Vault

"Then why did you do it?" Shizune asked incredulously.

"Hinata-chan was sad," he said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, which for him it was.

All Shizune could do was shake her head in disbelief as she looked him over checking exactly how far along he was.

'Naruto-kun,' thought Hinata, smiling despite herself. 'You're amazing Naruto-kun. Always thinking of and helping others even when you're in so much pain.'

"Ok from the looks of it you'll be ready to start moving around in about two weeks so for you tomorrow," she paused, "So seeing as this is Naruto we're talking about, Hinata you'll be here tomorrow around 7:00."

"What was that about Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto, thoroughly confused as to why she would be coming into the hospital. Had she gotten a job there? It would make sense if that cream she had given him during the preliminaries was anything to go by.

"Oh, umm, I'm supposed to take you around to help you get used to moving your legs again," Hinata answered shyly.

"Moving my legs again? What happened?" Naruto asked, his face scrunching up in confusion.

"During your attempt to retrieve Sasuke-san the amount of chakra in your legs disrupted the regular circulation patterns and rendered you unable to move your legs. The flow is, for the most part, back to normal. The damage done to other areas of your legs healed, you just have to learn how to use them again."

Two weeks later

Naruto was back in his apartment and almost back to normal, he just had a few balancing, equilibrium, and bending issues to work out. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your opinion, those problems were just the right combination so that he still couldn't dress himself very easily, so the duty fell to his 'volunteer assistant' though the way it was going he would be fine by the end of the day.

After getting him up and dressed, much to the embarrassment of all those involved, and after they made their daily trip to the hospital, otherwise known as "The deepest pit of hell," they were walking/hobbling towards the gate i.e. on their way to Ichiraku ramen. The way there though was, as a certain Nara would put it "Troublesome", just about every villager on the way there called him 'demon', 'bastard' or, his personal favorite, 'Traitor'. Apparently, trying to stop a missing-nin-to-be and almost getting killed in the process is considered a traitorous offense in Konohagakure.

Arriving at the stand, Naruto had his usual ten bowl order plus one for Hinata. After having a little talk with the old-man and 'Ayame nee-chan' the 'couple' (as Ayame had dubbed them) began their way back, much to Naruto's protest.

Hinata still couldn't understand why Naruto was treated this badly, it made no sense, sure he was a loud and a prankster but that shouldn't constitute this level of abuse. Yet he just brushed it off like it was nothing...like it was normal.

Naruto himself didn't mind this too much. As long as he kept his happy mask up around Hinata, or anyone else for that matter, everything would all be fine, right? Then, as luck would happen to have it, one of the nins who had lost everything during the attack 13 years ago (seriously, this guy lost his wife, three kids, his dog, and every thing else that night) wobbled out of a bar, we're talking completely sloshed, saw the pair and made the one remark he'd regret for the rest of his short existence. "Hey everybody look! The demon got himself a whore!"

Hinata, being the kind and unhurtful girl she was, just let this roll off her shoulders, the man was obviously too drunk to know what he was saying he was probably making a mistake.

Naruto, however, heard this and stopped dead in his tracks, his face going from cheery happy-go-lucky to a cold scowl as he began to turn around to face the man who had spoken.

EDITED: 7/1/12

End Notes

Ok revised and up hope you like it (Now taken over by Delta)

Author's note: Well finally chapter 2 is up. To those of you who are wondering why I took story down, at the time, it just wasn't getting anywhere. So delta, being the lukewarm-hearted sonovabitch he is, convinced me to take it down until got some progress on the story. Thank you to all who read, review if ya feel like it and flames will be used to fuel this story and roast marsh mellows. Oh yeah my little sadist of a, use-human-skin-to-wallpaper-my-room-and-make-a-doormat-with sister says "hi". EEEEEEPPPPPPPP knives and pointy things of death, Runs away in search of his buffy-proof-bunker that was constructed months ago

Delta-mmm can we make smores?

Cliff Notes

(1) Chidori translates to "1000 birds" or something like that, dumb thing to name a jutsu.