Chapter 56 Fate of one hayate

The Hokage was an old man but at times like this he truly felt his age, when the young are injured or killed it reminds him of all those that fell before over the years. At the moment he was in a hallway with Hiashi. After Hiashi and Naruto managed to get help and bring Hayate to the hospital it had been looking grim. The man had so many injuries and had lost so much blood, it was true that medial jutsu could do wonders that even doctors that couldn't use chakra could do, and it still had limits. It also wasn't like his old student Tsunade was still around either. Ever since she left the medical field had lost someone that could have tough so much to the next generation. Although Konoha's medical ninja were top of the line thanks to her earlier work, there was still room to grow.

After Hiashi had left, the Hokage had been given the details, that night he hadn't slept very well and even now the lack of sleep showed. Hayate had been at death's door the entire night and as he came to the hospital in the morning he had checked up on the man.

"So there was nothing to be done then," Hiashi stated as he was told that Hayate had passes away in the night.

The Hokage sighed, "None, the wounds were too bad for him to survive for long. That is why I called for you and Naruto, as the only witnesses I need to know if there was anything he said or anything you saw that would tell us who did this, and why. Although what were you two doing out at night anyway?"

Hiashi to his credit didn't show any emotion on his face given the reasons why they had been out there. After everyone he had gone home last night to his frantic daughter. Apparently she had asked what had happened and why Naruto wasn't around, she heard the story of her father chasing Naruto for some reason. So after a very long and embarrassing talk, he found out that Naruto hadn't made his daughter do something inappropriate. Although the boy would have to be watched just in case that he got it into his head that he could take liberties with his daughter before a deadline was set. He would have to make it known that in no uncertain terms, that Hinata would remain 'pure' until she was married. And as head of clan Hyuga he would see to that and heaven protect anyone that tried to stop that.

"It was a private manner that has been resolved for the most part," Hiashi said not wanting to go into detail.

The Hokage gave him a look but didn't press the matter, he got the feeling it was unimportant to these events and where of a personal nature. Normally he would be curious but not with something like this hanging over their heads. It was very troubling, there was an ill wind blowing in the village, he could feel it in his old bones but where it was coming from, and what it brought he didn't know.

Down the hallway another figure was lurking, Kabuto had heard the report from Baki and he was disappointed in the Suna ninja for not making sure the job was done. Now he had to see if Hayate not only lived but spoke to anyone. The problem was getting in there he could dress up as an ANBU, that was easiest to slip in after taking one out. But two deaths this close together would make everyone go on high alert. He had tried to sneak in several times but ANBU were everywhere in teams. He had first tried to sabotage the operation his medical skills were good enough to do that unnoticed. But he couldn't slip in, by the time he had got to the hospital it had already been underway and anyone else just walking in would have been noticed.

He had tried later to sneak into the intensive care room, there were many little things he could have done to make it look like the man just hadn't survived the surgery. But the place was too well guarded he couldn't even get close, at least not without killing anyone. If Orochimaru's plans were ruined things would not go well, the man did not tolerate failure.

He felt someone walk up behind him and quickly turned around and put on his 'mask' of the innocent little genin. He was surprised to see Naruto Hatake of all people walking upt he hallway. The young masked boy looked at him and seemed to get happier.

"Hey, Kabuto-san!" Naruto hadn't expected to run into the white haired genin. He felt bad that the older boy had to drop out of yet another chunin exam. Plus he never got to see how strong Kabuto was either. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh a friend of mine was injured and I just though to check in. What about you?"

"Oh, the Old Man wanted to speak to me about…well something," Naruto didn't go into detail. That night had been one crazy night but the body covered in blood had been something he wouldn't forget. "Well I better not keep him waiting, plus I'm missing out on training, bye I hope your friend gets better."

Kabuto smiled and waved it off as he slipped against the wall like he belonged there. With luck if they didn't go anywhere maybe he could pick something up in the hallway. He had been listening earlier to the Hokage and the head of the Hyuga clan before Naruto showed up.

Naruto froze when he saw Hiashi there next to the Hokage he gulped and started to look for exits. The windows didn't open in the hallway so unless he wanted to break them (which would get him in trouble with the hospital staff) they were out. He saw a linen cart so maybe he could hide in that until the man was gone. Or slip into another room, as long as the man didn't use his eyes to look for him through objects, Naruto had various options.

"Ah, there you are Naruto." The Hokage said noticing the black and orange clad boy.

Naruto winced, knowing that he was screwed. Hiashi now saw him, there was no way to hide now and the man was fast. No room to really dodge in the hallway either, yeah he felt like his life was nearing its end. His face went pale as the head of the Hyuga walked slowly towards him. All those threats of death came back into Naruto's young mind.

'Well…it wasn't so bad a life. Had a great dad, nice family, good friends and I had a really cute girlfriend.' Naruto prepared himself for the afterlife, wishing that he could have at least became Hokage, or maybe at least second base with Hinata…maybe third. Homerun when they were old enough, oh well, life didn't always get you want you wanted and he really wished he made a will out.

Hiashi stared down at the boy with an expressionless face. Although on his return his daughter had explained everything, he was inclined to believe her. After all she couldn't lie to really save her life, but that was besides the point. He needed to make sure that the boy knew his place, he may like the boy but that didn't mean Naruto could ever take liberties with his daughter. He needed to ensure that if thoughts like that ever entered the boy's mind, he would remember this moment.

He leaned down so only Naruto would hear what he was going to say. "I will refrain from killing you, for the moment. My daughter explained but let this moment be perfectly clear in your mind. If I ever even suspect that you actually try anything like what I thought was going on. I have a large amount of land, and the only people that could see through the ground to where a body could be buried, all of them are under my command. Keep that in mind."

Naruto looked up and nodded quickly as suddenly images of him being buried somewhere in the Hyuga compound came to his mind.

"Now let's not keep the Hokage waiting," He said as he turned around and walked back to the leader of the village. Naruto followed looking like a scolded dog, and a bit paler. As they came up to the Hokage they were to give a report on what happened. Mainly it wasn't much just that they stumbled upon his body. Hayate had been in no condition to talk about what had happened, so it was still a major mystery. While they were talking a medic took in a gurney where the body would be placed and taken to the morgue.

"Let me see him!" A female voice yelled out. "Damn it I want to see for myself!"

The voice was of Yugao Uzuki, a beautiful young woman with long purple hair, she was also Hayate's girlfriend and lover. She had been on an ANBU assignment and had only just heard the news. She needed to see for herself the truth that her love was dead, murdered by the sounds of it. She was currently being held by two hospital staff.

"Let her through," the Hokage said as the two staff members let go immediately.

She paused only for a moment before running into the room, a moment later a wail of anger, pain and of loss filled the air. It soon turned into crying as those in the hallway turned as if trying to give her space for her grief and pain.

The Hokage sighed hearing the poor young woman, whose heart was just shattered. "Death is never an easy thing to face when it is the one you love."

"No...it isn't," Hiashi stated remembering the death of his own wife. Although it had been years since she had passes away the hole in his life had never been filled.

For Naruto he remained silent, he couldn't stand listening to that woman crying. It brought back the memory of when Hinata had lost her mother and she had cried in his arms. Is this the thing that would happened to her if he died one day, or what if she was killed? What if anyone he knew would be killed one day and then what? He knew that death came to anyone, he had liked Hinata's mother and she had died.

Kabuto grinned as he pushed his glasses back up, it would seem that maybe all wasn't lost. Although he didn't like the fact that the man's body would be taken to Inoichi Yamanaka, if he could find anything in the memories that still lingered deep inside of the brain, it wouldn't go well. The body would be put into the morgue to keep the deterioration slowed, but the body wouldn't be as guarded. It would be much simpler to go into there and ensure the brain wouldn't be accessed. A simple little injection that would make the brain turned into jelly.

-10 Days Later-

"Water style: Aqua Tower!" Sakura's voice rang out in the training area. A pillar of water shot out of the ground as it moved forward to attack several training dummies. The water tore the straw scarecrow like beings into pieces. Sakura was sweating and breathing hard from the training but she was smiling.

That had been the first time she had used that jutsu perfectly like she had. It hadn't been easy to learn water manipulation, and even harder to learn how to make water when there was no nearby source. Although there was water in the human body and in the air it was dangerous. Using too much of your own water that reside inside of your body could apparently kill you from dehydration. Using the moisture in the air took time and more chakra.

But still, the two women training her and Hinata had made the two girls train in how to use the water style jutsus with little to no water to draw on.

"Water Style: Water Shockwave!" Hinata called out as a spiral of water was formed from the water in the air. The spiral moved and hit a large rock as it exploded on contact.

"Nice one Hinata," Sakura said to the dark haired girl. Hinata smiled at Sakura's encouragement, over the last few days they had spent a lot of time helping each other out. Hinata felt a sense of strength from how sure Sakura always seem to be, at least in the training.

"Not bad girls," Kurenai smiled proudly at the two of them. "Keep this up and you two will have some major surprises for your teams. What do you think Anko?"

Anko who had been sitting in a tree watching them jumped down and walked over to the two girls. Out of the two women, Anko was always the hardest, she didn't believe in being gentle in training. She never did anything that would hurt the girls permanently or land them into the hospital. But she wasn't gentle either, she pushed the girls because she felt they could take it. So far she hadn't been too disappointed, but she tried not to show it too much.

"It's getting better," Anko simply said to the two young girls. "at any rate I think it's time for a break before you girls collapse."

That had been music to their ears as they both felt like collapsing at that moment. As they rested in the grass both girls minds went to thinking on the future. For Hinata, she was thinking of her future with Naruto. Ever since her father gave him that warning about what the Elders could do, it worried her. She couldn't think of her life without Naruto being a part of it. Now that they were a couple she felt like she would rather cut an arm off than lose him. He made her happy, made her feel confident in herself and she felt like she could do anything. He was a source of great strength and inspiration for her, plus she trusted no one else more so than she did.

Sakura's mind was occupied by two things the first was the upcoming matches. She wasn't sure how the training with the others were doing but she was sure they were training hard. She needed to be ready for her own match Sakura hadn't seen Ino since that day of the preliminary matches. She was sure that Ino was doing better now, but no matter what she would get even for Ino. The other thing her mind had been on as always was Sasuke. She sighed in a bit of depression ever since she had made the deal with him she had kept her word.

She never once asked him out again but she still wanted to. Sakura looked over to Hinata and felt a bit of envy of the other girl. She had at least got the boy she had been crushing on, while Sakura was still behind in that point. "Hey Hinata, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"How did you get Naruto to ask you out?" Sakura asked the girl plainly, she figured that it had to be Naruto to take the initiative as Hinata couldn't muster the courage to do something like that. If she could, she would have asked a long time ago.

Hinata blushed as she found out the real reason Naruto noticed her, she didn't think telling Sakura to train naked at night and having Sasuke see her was the best thing to say. Plus it was too embarrassing to confess to that. She had been thinking about that, on the one hand it wasn't the best way to get a boy to notice her. Then she remembered how Naruto couldn't stop talking about the mysterious girl. It had made Naruto see her as a girl and not just as a friend.

But she had no way to tell Sakura how she had done it and the other girl was waiting for an answer.

"I think she just used her body," Anko chimed in as she had been listening in.

"Anko," Kurenai snapped. Although she too had been listening she didn't like Anko implying such a thing.

"Hey I know the brat better than you do," Anko said in her defence. She then struck a pose to help her next point. "Besides a woman's body is her main weapon against a man. Don't you remember that as one of the private lessons in school only for the girls?"

Now both Sakura and Hinata were blushing, there were certain things that kunoichi learned differently than the boys. Flower arrangement had been one, but the more embarrassing where the ones when a professional courtesan came in for an introduction to seduction. That had been extremely embarrassing day for those girls.

"There are better ways at getting a man than that," Kurenai said to Anko clearly not amused.

"Says the woman that's still single," Anko stuck her tongue out at the older and now slightly fuming woman. "How much longer are you going to wait for Asuma to make the first step anyway?"

"Asuma, as in Asuma-sensei?" Sakura looked up in surprised at the red eyed woman.

"I-I didn't know that Kurenai-sensei, liked Asuma-sensei." Hinata spoke up in surprise.

Kurenai felt her cheeks heat up as Anko made this public. She was about to deny it but Anko beat her too it. "Are you kidding? She's totally has had a crush on that guy since she was still a chunin. Kind of pathetic really, at least when I started to like Kakashi as more than a friend, I did something about it. And I got what I wanted," Anko smirked at Kurenai who was now blushing much like Hinata.

Sakura thought about this, Anko was always so confident and she took no prisoners. She was a great kunoichi that Sakura had come to respect and she did get Naruto's dad. If there was one woman that could help her with Sasuke, than Anko was the person for it.

Sakura quickly got to her knees as she bowed her head to Anko, "Please Anko-sensei, can you help me with getting Sasuke to like me?"

Anko was surprised by the girl's request but she couldn't help but also feel a sense of perverse pleasure in moulding the girl. Kurenai sighed as she saw the look in her friend's eye she had seen that look many times and felt a bit sorry for the girl. Anko asked Sakura to explain everything, she went into the things she had tried, the deal she made even how jealous she was when Sasuke took noticed of Tenten. Anko asked for a better explanation on what kind of person Tenten was.

Anko thought about it all of it and soon to came to a conclusion.

"Okay first things first, you made one hell of a bad first impression," Anko said bluntly as Sakura hung her head feeling even more depressed. "From what I can tell the kid hates 'fan-girls', they just annoy him and you went along with the pack in school. Big mistake there as he placed you into the same grouping, but there is hope. You haven't been like that anymore so maybe his opinion of you has changed."

"He also seems to like the more mature types and strong girls. Given that you said he wants to restore his clan, he'll want to have a strong woman to do it. Now in order to get him to notice you, you'll have to show him that you're more mature and stronger. Thankfully we're working on the stronger part now and you can show him that in the matches. Now you'll have to work on your personality a bit, you have to come off as more confident, make the boy want to chase you instead of you chasing him."

"Last thing...you need a new look."

"I-I do?" Sakura looked down at her red dress.

"You're not a little girl anymore you're a ninja and its time to dress the part. So after training I'm taking you shopping to get you looking like a real ninja. As well as making him take notice of you as a woman."

Sakura liked the sound of that, if she looked more mature it might help.

Anko looked to Hinata, "Maybe we can do something for Hinata, get the brat a little hot under the collar. Hell I saw what you looked like in a bathing suit I wish I had developed like you did when I was your age."

"Anko, you are not dressing up my student," Kurenai said sternly with her friend. "Hinata is a proper girl and I will not have you dressing her in anything else."

"Are you making a comment about me or something?" Anko asked a little angry. She hated it when people made very negative comments on her look. She liked the functionality of her choice in clothing as well as the physical appeal. "Besides I'm not saying anything drastic, just maybe lose the jacket or at least get a slimmer one."

As the two adults started to argue over fashion it left their students wondering which one had the right idea. Kurenai dressed in a more exotic look but it didn't show too much, while Anko dressed in a provocative manner but it still held function. At any rate it was awhile before they started training again that day.

-Later that Night-

Gaara had been very bored lately there was no real reason for him to train. He had never found anyone that could challenge him so there was no need to get stronger. He was already the strongest there was, even adults were afraid of him and they were right to be afraid of him. He was the walking death of the desert. He didn't sleep either, since the demon within would devour his mind. The sand was the only thing that he could trust it had been the only thing that protected him, that was there for him constantly. It had been his mother for his life, already wrapped up in its comforting embrace and he would feed his mother the blood of his enemies.

But there was someone else out there whose blood called out to him. He wasn't sure if he could wait until the end of the month. His mind kept going back to that one match, the man that had tried to drain the chakra out of the masked genin, the one called Naruto Hatake.

The screams of that man still rang in his mind, it was a glorious sound. But Gaara knew what had happened he knew what that masked boy was. He was like him, he had a demon inside as well, he could just tell. This was the first time he met someone like him, someone that interested him this much. He would have to kill that boy he felt every part of his body screaming out for the blood of Naruto Hatake.

Naruto groaned as he walked home, today had been even a harder day than normal. After Jiraiya had found him practicing that trick with the water balloons that his dad taught him the old man hadn't left him alone. He didn't really see why at first, he kept the practice of that training test ever since his dad showed his team how shape manipulation worked. But at any point whatever interests was in the old man was gone as they continued on their training.

Although the old pervert left him alone for some time, mainly for more 'research' so Naruto was left to experiment, and it had been his shape training that made Naruto remember that one move in the Forbidden Scroll he and Hinata had been tricked into stealing. He remembered that one jutsu that if done wrong would rip apart someone's hand. Wind jutsus were apparently dangerous but what if he could find a way to control the shape of the chakra? It was then that he had begun his experiments and when Jiraiya had found him.

-Flash back a few days ago-

Naruto stood by the river as he tried to figure out his new move. His own dad came up with an original jutsu at about his age, then again his dad was a genius. But that never stopped Naruto, so he had been trying to create a move similar to what he had seen. He wished that he had read that scroll more, he kind of forgot a few parts. He had been trying with hand seals and the balloon training but so far nothing.

"Come on, it can't be that hard to create a jutsu is it?" Naruto said as he tried something else. He closed his eyes as he thought of drawing out his wind chakra. He held the image in his mind, then Naruto extended his hands slightly apart and the palms facing each other. He slowly began to picture the wind chakra moving through his body and going into his hands. Next step was to force it into the shape of the balloons. For a minute he thought that he had just started to get somewhere.

"Alright I'm doing it, I'm-" BOOOOOM!

The explosion of the mismatched chakras ended up exploding in his hands he was sent flying back as he hit a tree. He had blacked out after that and it wasn't until he felt someone shaking him and someone calling his name.

"Hey kid, Naruto wake up!"

Naruto groaned as he felt his arms tingling like they had been numb for a bit. He slowly opened his eyes as he looked up to see sky, and Jiraiya looking down from him.

"Oh good you're not dead," The man grinned as he looked over the area. "What the hell were you doing? I thought you were supposed to be training with the summoning and calling out your other chakra to help give you a boost."

"I was trying to make up my own move," Naruto explained what he had planned to do but somehow it had backfired.

"Kid do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" Jiraiya couldn't believe the kid would do something so dangerous. Although he had to admit, for the kid to try something so advanced on his own was impressive. "Look kid, you're nowhere near ready for using such an advanced move. Hell, what you were trying to do was infuse chakra into an unfinished technique."

"Unfinished technique?"

Jiraiya nodded, "Yeah that thing your dad showed you is actually the first step of training to use a different technique. Although you got the first part down, it would take too long to train you to use it." He noticed Naruto's downed expression. "How about this, for the last week I'll teach you how to use that jutsu that is similar to the one that you were trying to recreate."

"Really, you can teach me that?" Naruto said excited but then he remembered that was still some time off. "But what about before then?"

"Well you still have trouble with the damn chakra you can't seem to access the Fox's at will. I have an idea how to fix it but it's pretty hard and I'm not sure you're up for it." The Sannin told the young boy.

"I can do anything, so bring it on Ero-Sennin!"

-Present-

'Man that had been a mistake,' Naruto thought to himself remember what had happened two days ago. 'Stupid old pervert, making me do all that stuff and then throwing me off a damn cliff! Then that stupid Boss Toad making me ride him for the entire day in order to be his 'minion' and then there was the Fox. The stupid Fox was a big ugly jerk too.'

Naruto had been pushed off a cliff by his teacher just so that he was put into a life or death moment, he had gone into his mind for the second time. When he got up to the cage he had remembered a dream about being in that dark place before. Turns out it hadn't been a dream and that had been a memory of when he had been stabbed. He still remembered a bit of that day, he had always thought it had been just a nightmare when he passed out. But the Fox had remembered him from when he had been a child, well this time he wasn't afraid of the stupid thing and told him so right to his big harry face.

Although Naruto didn't like using the Fox's chakra, he wanted to use his own strength but he would use it if he needed to, but only as a last resort.

Now he was dragging himself home dreaming of his nice soft bed. Too bad his dad was still camping out wherever he was training Sasuke. He was also pumped he couldn't wait to see what Sasuke and Sakura had learned and what they would do in the finals. That thought gave him a bit more energy as he made his way through the dark streets. Although ever since he had found Hayate's body he kept looking around into the shadows. Something was wrong, even he could tell that but he didn't know what. He told Jiraiya about everything but the old man just had this serious and deep thinking face. The man never said anything about it but Naruto got a feeling that the old man was thinking something was going on as well.

It was only because of that heightened sense of alert that he felt it, the killing intent. Naruto although his body was sore and tired he moved quickly. He spun around with the hand on the hilt of the sword on his back. He was surprised to see ten meters away was the Suna ninja, Gaara.

The other boy really made Naruto nervous, the whole boy's demeanour just screamed out danger. It was a long moment before the other boy spoke up in that gravelly whispered voice of his.

"So you're this village's container." Gaara spoke as he looked at the boy. So far he wasn't impressed and he could feel the fear coming off the other boy. It kind of disgusted by it actually, to think that another demon container was like this.

Naruto was shocked by what the other boy said, "How the hell did you know that!" Naruto really did want to know, it was a secret, hell he didn't find out what he was until he graduated. But this boy from another village knew?

Gaara stared at the other boy, he wanted to just call up on his sand and kill the boy now. But he was told to wait, wait until the matches started up again. He didn't want to wait though, this boy was his prey and the sand called for his blood. It took a lot of will power to quell the blood thirst in him.

"How that two people that are the same can be so different. I can't figure out why you're not more like me, aren't you hated and feared for what you are? This village should fear you with good reason, you should be able to destroy this village but you're just weak. But at any rate, I look forward to killing you Naruto Hatake. You'll be the first of our kind that I'll be able to kill." Gaara grinned a maniacal grin as the sand swirled around him and soon Naruto was left alone in the street.

Naruto just stood there transfixed as the boy's words rang in his head.

"So much alike...of our kind...does he mean that..." Naruto paused as the words slowly sank into his mind. And Gaara's words would echo into his mind for the rest of the training that month, and when the day came for the final matches he wasn't sure what he would feel the next time he meet Gaara.

Next up Chapter 57: The Finals