Disclaimer:
Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto.
I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 43: What did you do?
"This better be an actual emergency!"
He heard the annoyed voice of Sakura and turned around to face her.
He had not wanted to do this but was left with little choice. So he used the communication device Kakashi had given them to contact Sakura.
"This is a real emergency, look…" He pointed at the person resting on the park bench.
After Hinata had passed out, he had carried her, along with his heavy box, to a nearby park.
Thankfully, this small park was not a popular one and had been empty since he arrived.
Sakura made a loud gasp when she saw the unconscious girl. Her shock quickly shifted to anger.
"What did you do to her?!"
"Nothing… I just asked her if she wanted to have dinner with me tomorrow."
"You asked Hinata on a date?" Sakura gave him a look of suspicion. She found it a bit hard to believe the current Naruto would be asking anyone on a date.
"But then again… that would explain what happened to her…" Sakura muttered while peeking at her.
Anyone with half a brain could tell that the girl was obsessed with Naruto, for some reason she didn't understand.
But her extreme shyness had made things very difficult for Hinata.
Sakura had seen her almost collapse on a few occasions when Naruto gave her a few words of praise when she got some academy assignment right.
She glanced at the peaceful expression on Hinata's face as she slept and knew that Naruto was telling the truth.
"Looks like she is having a nice dream…"
"Now that you understand the situation, can you help me out?" Naruto requested again.
"Why did you even call me? Just take her home. I'm sure you can find the Hyuga compound… it's huge."
"And what do you think their reaction is going to be like when I show up with the unconscious body of their heir?"
"Ah…" Sakura could see his point now. The situation could clearly be misinterpreted. And Naruto didn't have the best reputation in the village.
"Fine, I will accompany you and give them some excuse to explain the situation."
"Thank you. I knew that beneath all that anger, there was a reasonable person."
"You better compensate me for this…" Sakura frowned at him. "I had plans to go see a movie tonight."
"Sure, I can buy you some ramen," Naruto offered.
"I don't want ramen!" she complained.
"Here, you carry this while I take her." He handed the box to Sakura while he went to pick up Hinata.
"Huff… this is heavy. What are you carrying here?"
"Secrets belonging to the Fourth Hokage," Naruto said casually while lifting the girl and placing her on his back.
Sakura glanced at the box.
"And why would you have something like that?" She decided to humor him.
"Because he was my father?" he simply said.
"Naruto…" She gave him a stern glare. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But if you are going to make up something, at least try a bit harder."
He shrugged and didn't say anything else. If she didn't want to believe him, that was fine by him. He would not put any extra effort on that front.
<><><><><><><><><>
They walked mostly in silence through the dark streets of Konoha until they reached the entrance of the Hyuga compound.
It was hard to miss it. The entire location was surrounded by walls decorated with the symbol of the clan.
They were received by two guards who seemed to be in a very bad mood.
"State your business!" one of them huffed.
Naruto was glad he made the decision of bringing Sakura with him.
"Wait! Is that?..."
"By Kami! That is Lady Hinata!"
The guards just noticed the girl Naruto was carrying.
Before the situation got worse, Sakura hurried to give the two men a made-up story about how Hinata had passed out during a joint training session between their teams and how she and Naruto had offered to bring her home.
Had he come alone, things could have gotten very ugly. Apparently, Hinata was supposed to be back an hour ago and the Hyuga had already sent people to look for her.
<><><><><><><><><><><>
With the situation resolved, Naruto and Sakura went their separate ways.
When he arrived at his apartment, Naruto was beyond exhausted.
He had barely eaten or slept in the last forty-eight hours. But he could not relax yet. There was one more thing he needed to finish before he could finally rest.
He placed down the box and opened it up.
The books about Fuuinjutsu were left on one side, to be stored later on.
What was important now was to secure the three scrolls he had brought. He could not be certain of how valuable the Uzumaki sword technique was until he studied it further.
But he had no doubts about the other two.
The Rasengan was certainly a high-level ninja technique. And the other one was even more valuable, even in its incomplete state.
Today's events had done more than enough to demonstrate how risky it was to have these scrolls lying around.
It was just a matter of time before they got stolen.
Luckily, he knew a method to engrave this knowledge into his very own soul, so it could never be taken again.
Once he did that, the scrolls themselves could be destroyed without him suffering any sort of loss.
Naruto placed the three scrolls in front of him and began to focus.
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