Silent Echoes

Yugao did not speak. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes. How she wished she could apologize. How she wished she could hug him. How she wished she could show him that she meant no harm, but she could not. She could feel her arm slowly reaching for her blade in order to cut him down.

"Please. Not to him. Please don't make me do it! I'll do what you ask, but please let him live...My Lord" Yugao pleaded to the blonde watching. She squashed her pride and her anger. For the one she loved, she would do whatever was required of her. She begged that she not be the one to pass her lover from the physical plane. She knew he could hear her.

Naruto tapped his finger on his table. Truth be told, Naruto was going to have Yugao attack Hayate as more of a power move. Kill? Maybe not. Maim? Probably. Yet, the idea didn't sit well with him. Currently, he was aware of his limitations. His control over Yugao wasn't as easy as it seemed. She didn't know it, but she could actually break free anytime she wanted. Naruto was actually surprised that he lasted this long with her still under him.

She was an Anbu and he was an academy student. He wasn't stupid. If they had a test of will, then she would beat him, and pretty badly at that too. The only reason she didn't was because she didn't know she could and he had no intention of informing her until he could contest her enough.

"If I make her kill Hayate-san, then that's gonna make her even angrier at me and that anger might be enough for her to break from me. Tsk, it's a shame, but I guess that's my own fault for trying to subdue an Anbu without training with this power. Then again, I did say he would try and kill her under the Council's orders. Ironic coming from me, but I don't need to rush yet." Naruto said to himself with a slow nod.

Yugao felt the blood still. Her blade stopped just short of its sheath. She slowly placed it back inside. As much as she hated Naruto for this predicament, she gave him sincere thanks. "Oh, don't thank me, Yugao-neechan. You're going to wish I hadn't saved him." Naruto said more to himself. His eyes gleamed in the darkness of his room.

"Come on, this way. We can get out before they regroup," He said to her. She did not deny him and, picking up her package, ran with him. They steps faded into the sewers as they got away from the commotion of the other side of the village.

About ten minutes passed. Hayate raised up a manhole cover and surveyed the area. There was no one. "Clear. Come out," Hayate said. Yugao climbed out and pulled her target with her. As soon as she did, she found a kunai to her back. She did not move.

"Yugao, I know you're in there somewhere. I...still have my duties as a Konoha shinobi. I know you would understand, but...I'm not as great as you think I am." Hayate said, a hard cough upon his lips. Yugao heard the clang of metal upon the ground. She looked back and saw his kunai on the dirt. Hayate had his back turned.

"Please...stay alive. We'll beat this...somehow," The tokunbetsu jonin replied. She said nothing. She wasn't able to. She picked up the body and vanished in a burst of speed. Hayate did not watch her leave. He felt like he would break down if he did. As much as he wanted to stop her, he did not want to see what this...person would make her do to his comrades which is why he cut off the escape. He did not wish to test his luck.

....

Yugao arrived home, taking constant care to not alert anyone to her presence. She closed the door of Naruto's apartment and locked the door. She walked into his bedroom. "Throw him on the bed. I'll get to him later," Naruto replied to her. She did as he ordered and dropped the blonde's interest on the bed. Even now, when she looked out of the windows she could see the distant flames burning.

"Go take a bath. You smell," Naruto ordered. Yugao scowled. And whose fault was it that she smelled bad?! She wanted to ask this, but she found herself moving without complaint. She stepped into the bathroom and ran the shower.

Meanwhile, Naruto pushed back from his desk. Now, one might be asking, Naruto, how did you of all people create an explosive bomb inside a videotape? Also...why a videotape? "No point in telling Yugao that I created that from the memories I saw of her making one when she bombed an Iwagakure facility.

As for the videotape, well now Hayate's the only one with a copy," Naruto said to himself and stretched his back. Truth be told, it wasn't hard to make these types of plans when Naruto just considered them to be more advanced pranks. Deadly pranks, yes, but the execution was pretty much the same.

The village pariah jumped in his chair when he heard a crash from the bathroom and raced to the door. "What are you doing in there?" he asked. He could see her blood rushing into her muscles and he watched her muscles cramp to the point of pain. He frowned. Damn, he had forgotten she had been hit by the kunai from that jonin.

He held out his hand and started churning the blood in her body, willing it to relax the muscles. Yes, this was hard and the sweat which poured from his face proved it. In fact, this would have been damn near impossible if he hadn't gotten a crash course in human physiology from the Anbu in question.

"I'm going to have to get her out of there, aren't I?" Naruto asked himself. He grumbled before he opened the door. He grabbed about three towels and covered them over her body. This was not the ending to the day he had planned. Once she was covered, he placed her on the bed and dragged his captive off into another part of the apartment far away from her. That was enough embarrassing things for him to do.

He released a breath when he closed his room door. "Never gonna live that one down," He thought, but he quickly cleared his mind and turned back to the matter at hand. He exited his hallway and entered his living room area where he had left his current victim.

He could see the Shingen's blood flowing slowly through his body. No doubt because of the sleeping powder Yugao had used on him. Now, he had a living, breathing test subject to work on. He doubted this one would be waking up in a couple of hours.

For about three hours, Naruto worked based off the knowledge he had acquired from Yugao's studies of the human body and what he was seeing in the man's blood flow. He tried many methods such as moving blood from one area to the next. He came close to killing his subject at least seven times in those three hours, but he began making sketches, notes, and highlights in his notepad. He figured he was starting to understand even more the nature of his abilities.

....

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