Naruto: Shattered Mirror Ch4

Tsunade was in her office looking at Kurenai and her genin team. None of them looked like anything resembling a good mood. Kurenai and Shino looked the calmest, but that was only because Kurenai was more used to great deals of trouble on a mission than her students.

As for Shino, he always kept his face hidden and you never really knew what he was feeling; ever. Kiba looked like he was wary of something bad about to happen any second, while Akamaru whimpered on top of his head. Hinata meanwhile kept her face down so it couldn't be seen, but her hands were clasped together tightly and her shoulders were slightly trembling.

'Whatever it is, this has bad news written all over it.' Tsunade briefly thought and she hated bad news, since bad news meant more work and as Hokage she had enough work on her hands. "Team 8, what happened on your assignment? I'm judging it was a failure since the target doesn't appear to be acquired."

Kurenai sighed and briefly closed her eyes before answering. "It was. We couldn't find Naruto Uzumaki anywhere. All we did find was a dead-end lead with rather... unsatisfying results."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "Go on." She still remembered when she had assigned this mission.

-Flashback-

"Where the hell is that idiot?" Tsunade demanded. Naruto was two weeks overdue from his mission.

"Um I am not sure madam." Her assistant Shizune said as she set down a huge stack of files onto Tsunade's desk.

"But it's unlike him to take this long. Especially when I gave him such an easy mission." Tsunade lightly smiled at that comment. She had Naruto think he was going to be given A-ranked mission when in reality it was just a C-rank scroll delivery to Wave country. She remembered laughing at him after he had left, but not in a downright mocking manner.

"Perhaps he simply has not checked in yet." Shizune offered. "Whenever he gets back from a mission he always stops and gets some ramen."

Tsunade shook her head. "No, I already had all of his usual haunts checked out and no one has seen him. Some even claimed their profits were down due to his absence. No, something is wrong." Then she pulled out one of the files on her desk. "Team 8 is currently not doing anything. Send them out and find that baka. Maybe he just got lost?"

"We sure hope so, don't we?" Shizune whispered.

"Yeah, we do." Tsunade affectionately agreed.

-End of Flashback-

"On our way to try and find out what was taking Naruto so long to return, as you ordered, we happened to encounter a band of bandits having a fun night. We would have just ignored it and continued on, but we heard something that drew our complete attention." Kurenai started. However out the corner of her eye she saw Hinata's shoulders begin to shake harder.

-Flashback-

"Wait! Stop!" Kiba quietly told his team as they were trying to sneak around a bandit group of about twenty without being seen.

"Did you notice something?" Kurenai whispered.

"I'm not completely sure, but I think I just heard one of those guys mention something about beating a ninja not too long ago."

"Ok, fan out everyone and try to see if this can be confirmed or not." Kurenai told her students, who nodded and spread out to hide in the foliage to spy on the group.

Kurenai herself used a genjutsu to hide against one of the trees and not be seen. She could have made herself look like one, but she didn't want to risk the chance that one of the targets was perceptive enough to notice a new tree appear out of nowhere.

Kiba and Akamaru listened in with their enhanced hearing for anything of interest. Shino used some of his bugs to get a closer look, and Hinata used her byakugan to read their lips and see if they had anything on them that might prove Kiba's claim right. She gasped once she saw one of the members had a damaged Konoha hitai-ate in his pocket.

The bandit held it out before his companions. "Remember this man? A little prize from that stupid blonde leaf ninja." He gloated loudly as he tossed the hitai-ate into the air and caught it.

At hearing that, Hinata tensed up worse than she ever did when being chewed out back home. 'No, it can't be...' Her eyes began to well up with tears.

"Stupid is right." Another bandit, most likely drunk, shouted in agreement. "If that's okay fer a ninja village, they must really have let their standards go or somethin'."

"Do you think that was a serious ninja or just some wannabe?" One of the sober men asked.

"Don't know don't care. All that matters is we can honestly say we killed a ninja. Even if we did gang up on a young one in his sleep to do it, but that'll be our little secret." The leader claimed as if that was something to be proud of.

All members of Team 8 were starting to see red. 'They ganged up on a thirteen year old boy while he was sleeping and assaulted him, and act like this? I haven't seen lowlifes this bad in years.' Kurenai thought bitterly. Then she tried to give her one female student a sympathetic look. 'I sure hope they don't say anything worse, for her sake and his.'

Unfortunately, they did.

"Don't ya think we maybe shoulda cut off the head to prove it?" One of the drinkers asked, looking a little unbalanced.

"Naw, with how dumb that kid acted it would have just been empty space to lug around. This headband is prize enough, and probably smarter." The leader replied.

That apparently was the catalyst for something no one could have expected. Hinata practically erupted from her hiding spot silently fuming and charged at the leader. Everyone was so surprised at this that no one reacted to it, not even her team. Once she got there she swiftly kicked the man in his groin like her foot was a hammer and then juuken'ed his throat until he could barely breathe. And once he was down she moved to the next person in her sight, repeating the same attack. Her eyes were wide with rage and they could see tears streaming down her face.

While her team watched in shock and awe, some of the bandits regained their senses and trying to gang up on the pale-eyed kunoichi. Too much in a rage to retreat into old mannerisms, Hinata used the protective eight trigrams maneuver to defend herself and cause a little more damage to them. When she stopped, over half the group was downed and only a few more remained unharmed. And they didn't know what to do.

"What's the matter? Afraid to fight someone who's actually prepared to fight back? You people are scum." Hinata stated bitterly. Her face a mask of rage and pain.

Before any of them could actually do anything about her, Shino used his bugs to subdue them and Kurenai hit them all in the back of the head, knocking them out. Kiba and Akamaru came out, ready to do more if any of the downed men tried to get up, but for now his focus was more on his teammate. "Holy hell, who are you and what have you done with the real Hinata?" He asked, totally bewildered.

"Not now Kiba. First let's make sure these thugs can't be of any harm and then see if we can get anything confirming out of them." Kurenai ordered as she pulled out some rope. Everyone on the team took some and tied the men up. Once done Kurenai used a small water Jutsu to wake the leader up. Looking down at the leader of the bandits, Kurenai crouched down and locked her eyes with his. "Now... describe this ninja you claimed to have beaten." She asked him calmly.

The bandit looked at her with utter terror in his eye. "Ninja? What ninja?" He said, feigning innocence as soon as he could breathe again.

Kurenai held out the tattered hitai-ate. "The one you got this from. Do you take me for an idiot?" She said, her tone remained the same.

"Uh well I found that and-"

"Stop talking." Kurenai interrupted before she tossed the headband to Kiba "What can you tell me?" She asked her student as he caught it, already having an idea on what the answer would be but wanting confirmation.

Kiba sniffed it and immediately caught the scent of ramen and Naruto's blood. Then he let Akamaru smell it, who after a moment barked in agreement. Kiba looked at his sensei. "This definently has Naruto's scent on it."

Kurenai grabbed the man and held him up in the air. "Where is Naruto? Tell me the truth or I swear to Kami I will make you suffer like never before." She ordered in a very dangerous tone as she shook him.

The bandit grew very afraid. "Wait wait! Ok ok I will tell you everything just don't hurt me." He cried. Kurenai stopped shaking the man and then she dropped him to the ground. The bandit looked at his captors and began to talk. "We were passing through a forest not far from here about a week ago. We saw someone in an orange outfit sleeping up in a tree but not so high we couldn't see him. Some of my men were restless and threw rocks at him for fun and it knocked him out. When he fell we saw the ninja headband and they decided to attack him before he could attack us back."

"I always knew that outfit was bad news." Kiba muttered to himself. He had told Naruto so many times that no one should wear orange.

"And where is this boy now?" Kurenai asked but she already knew the answer.

"We... umm..." The bandit seemed really hesitant to answer and kept adverting his gaze. "I mean after we attacked him… he seemed to wake up... he stared to fight and uh... when his back was turned one of my men kinda hit him across the head; hard." He gulped. "Uh I mean he looked dead…he was bleeding pretty badly…and well we just sorta tossed his body into the ocean an-"

But he could not finish because Hinata jumped on him and began slamming her fist into his face harder and harder. She was screaming at the top of her lungs "DAMN YOU DAMN YOU!" It took the strength of both Shino and Kiba to drag her off the man, whose face looked horrible. His nose was broken, his lower lip split and several of his teeth were gone. Blood was everywhere. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! I'LL KILL HIM!" Hinata screamed. And then finally she just burst in sobbing.

"Hat irl ish crazy she hould e locked op." The man said as best he could.

But then Kurenai stared down at him and he shuddered under the gaze of her crimson eyes. "I would not worry about her… because what she did to you will nothing compared to what happens to you when you faces charges for killing a ninja."

-End of Flashback-

Tsunade blinked, she remained the same "Are you telling me that Uzumaki Naruto is-" She seemed to have trouble saying the word 'dead'. She said.

"Hokage-sama we asked assistance of local sea-front town harbors and they sent out any available search boat… and they found nothing. And when we returned to the village I had each of those men interrogated, all of them told the truth. I truly believe that the Leaf Ninja Uzumaki Naruto is dead." She said calmly. And with that she reached into her pocket and pulled out Naruto's headband and placed it on the desk.

Tsunade looked at it for a moment then she reached over and picked it up. "Thank you for your report… you may go now." She said as she turned her chair around.

The members of Team 8 bowed and left, leaving Tsunade alone as she gripped the headband tightly in her hand and whispered quietly. "That idiot." Then the tears began to flow.


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Kurenai had left the group to go speak to Kakashi, leaving Kiba, Shino, and Hinata alone. Hinata was very silent; she had not said a word since they had gotten back, so it was just Kiba and Shino talking.

"It is hard to believe that Naruto is gone." Shino said; his voice as empty of emotion as it always was.

Kiba nodded. "Yeah I know. I always figured that Naruto was too stubborn to die." He said. Hinata's eyes widened. Kiba, not noticing, continued "I mean though he should have been smarter than that. Sleeping in a tree out in the woods, and wearing orange. Orange is a dead giveaway. If he hadn't worn that stupid jack-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Hinata screamed at Kiba and hit him in the back of his head. Her hit wasn't quite as strong as Sakura's would have been but it got the same point across.

Kiba was completely caught off guard by her sudden outburst. "What Hinata-chan? I don't mean to speak ill about the dead but-"

"HE IS NOT DEAD!" The kunoichi cried and ran off.

"Hinata-chan? Wait!" Kiba yelled and attempted to run after her but Shino stopped him.

"Let her go. She needs time." He told him.


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Kakashi walked down the street reading the newest issue of Icha Icha. He just loved his smut books. And he had even heard that they were planning on making it into a movie. He would make sure he was the first person to see it.

"Kakashi." A voice reached him.

The copy cat ninja stopped and turned around seeing Kurenai coming up behind him. He closed his book. "Kurenai how are you" He said as he smiled beneath his mask.

"I'm... just fine Kakashi." She said in a distraught tone which caused him to raise a brow.

"Whats wrong?" He asked.

"Kakashi I have some bad news." She took her friend and told him the dark news, and Kakashi dropped his book onto the ground.


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An hour later, Tsunade sat alone in her office. Just staring out the window, staring into the night. She was holding a bottle of sake not drinking just holding in one hand, and Naruto's hitai-ate in the other.

"And so… my cursed necklace takes another." She said aloud. She had given her necklace to Naruto just has she had given it to her younger brother and her beloved. Both of them had died and she had thought that Naruto could break the curse. But no, now he was gone.

She hated that baka. She hated when he had always called her obaa-chan. She hated his pranks. She hated his idiocy.

And she had loved as if he were her son. She loved his courage. She loved his happy-go-lucky attitude. And she loved his determination to overcome any obstacle no matter the odds against him.

But now he was dead and so was his dream.

Then there was a knock at the door. Tsunade turned around, wondering who would be here at this hour. "Yes, come in." She called. The office door opened and in stepped Hinata. "Oh Hinata?" Tsunade said with surprise as she put the still full sake bottle onto the desk.

"F… forgive me if I am disturbing you Hokage-sama." Hinata said as she bowed.

"Um not at all girl. I was just... uh... looking over some papers." Tsunade lied.

"I would like to ask a favor Hokage-sama." Hinata stated with a great deal of courage in her voice.

"Oh yes of course what it is?" The medical master asked

"I would like Naruto-kun's hitai-ate." She pointed to the headband that was still gripped in Tsunade's hand.

Tsunade looked at it and then at Hinata. "Why do you want it? As a memento?"

Hinata shook her head. "No. I want it so I can someday return it to Naruto-kun."

Tsunade looked at her and then sighed. "Hinata, Naruto is dead an-"

"No he is not." Hinata stated defiantly.

"What?" Tsunade asked skeptically

"I do not believe… no, I know Naruto-kun is not dead." She said calmly.

Tsunade folded her hands and looked at Hinata. "How do you know this?"

Hinata was silent for a moment she seemed hesitant to answer but then she gathered up all of her courage. "I am in love with Naruto-kun. I loved him from the first time I ever saw him." She said boldly and proudly.

Tsunade was taken back by this. She had never expected the heir to the Hyuuga to be in love with a knucklehead like Naruto. "Y… you loved Naruto?"

Hinata nodded "Yes. With every fiber of my being. And I can feel in my heart that he is not dead. Call it instinct or women's intuition or whatever, but I just know he's still alive somewhere." She said.

Tsunade stared at her, not taking her eyes off of Hinata. And then she stood up from her desk and walked over to Hinata and then encompassed the girl in a hug. "I believe you. I believe that Naruto is still alive." Although a more accurate thing might have been 'I want to believe too.'

Then she released Hinata and handed her the hitai-ate. She looked at it for a moment then she tore off her own headband and put on Naruto's in it's place. "Now can you get ahold of Jiraiya-sama?"

"Why?"

"Because he's the only one who'll want to find Naruto-kun as much as we do. And maybe the only one who can."