Why the hell would he want to know my name? He's just going to kill me anyway… So what does it matter anymore?
She looked up at him, resigned, and muttered softly, "Tayuya."
Naruto pulled the kunai away from her throat without hesitation.
"Nice to meet you, Tayuya! I'm Uzumaki Naruto future Hokage of Konoha!" he declared with a wide, cheery grin.
Is he mentally unstable?
Tayuya blinked at him in disbelief. "So… you're not gonna kill me?" she asked cautiously, still trying to make sense of what just happened.
"Nope! I'm getting you out of here and taking you to the hospital in Konoha!" he said without a shred of hesitation.
She stared at him like he was mad then the realization hit her.
"Oh no you don't, you bastard! You just want to bring me in for interrogation and collect some damn bounty on my head!" she snapped, pointing a trembling finger at him. "Might as well finish me off now and save me the torture!"
"That's not what I'm doing! I just want to help you!" Naruto yelled back, clearly offended.
"And why the hell would you help me? I'm your enemy! I tried to kidnap your emo teammate, remember?" she barked. No way in hell was she going to believe someone would help her out of kindness. Last time she trusted someone, she ended up half-dead under a forest.
"Because it's the right thing to do."
Tayuya blinked. That made no sense.
"I can see it in your eyes the pain, the loneliness. You've been rejected. I know that feeling."
Her breath caught. Could he actually… understand?
Confused, she reacted the only way she knew how.
"Don't pretend you know a damn thing about me! You don't know what I've been through! Go talk to a damn tree, you leaf brat!"
He didn't react to the insult. Instead, he just stared at her with those eerie purple eyes, like he was looking into her soul.
"I've been alone since the day I was born. Until recently, I didn't have a single real friend. The whole village hated me. I've been beaten, stabbed, even set on fire. I nearly starved as a kid. I was thrown out of the orphanage at five and lived by myself. There were assassination attempts. Plural." He gave her a bitter smile. "So yeah… I know a thing or two about messed-up lives."
Tayuya stared at him, speechless. Her jaw might as well have fallen off. Her own life hadn't been sunshine and rainbows, but no one had tried to kill her as a child.
He's… an orphan too.
"Even if all that's true… the moment your damn ANBU or other tree-huggers see me, I'm done for. I can't go back to Oto either. We failed, and Snake-bastard doesn't exactly reward failure…" Her voice cracked. "Just do me a favor and end it now." The words were laced with pain, not venom.
Naruto looked at her, his mind racing. Then a thought struck him.
"Tayuya… are you still loyal to Orochimaru?"
She blinked, then snarled.
"Hell no. If I had the chance, I'd kill that bastard myself!"
Naruto smiled.
"So… you don't have any problem telling us everything you know about Orochimaru?"
She nodded slowly.
"And for your information," Naruto continued, "I know the Hokage personally. I can talk to her about placing you under Konoha protection maybe even assigning you to a proper unit, if you cooperate."
Tayuya stared at him in disbelief.
Did this idiot just offer to let me join the damn Konoha forces?
She hesitated, weighing the thought. Can I trust him? What if he turns out like Snake-face? No… he doesn't seem like that. He's loud, annoying, and an absolute moron… but not evil.
"How do I know you won't hand me over or treat me like that chalk-skinned creep?" she asked skeptically.
Naruto gave her a blank look.
"You don't. You'll just have to trust me. And tell me do I look like someone who bathes in pedophile energy?"
She blinked.
Okay… fair point.
"Fine, shithead, I'll cooperate. Now get this damn tree off me!"
Naruto stood, cracking his knuckles, and called out to Kurama.
"Need some chakra, fuzzball."
The familiar surge of warm energy coursed through him. His skin shimmered faintly with reddish chakra as he heaved the first tree trunk off her, tossing it to the side like it weighed nothing.
Tayuya's eyes widened in disbelief.
Who the hell lifts tree trunks like they're firewood?!
One by one, he removed the logs until the last one rolled off revealing the mess that was once her legs. Bent at unnatural angles, bruised and bloody, one thigh was impaled by a long splinter that went clean through.
Naruto leaned in and gently touched her leg
WHAM!
"OWW! What the hell?!" he yelped, rubbing the fresh bump on his head.
"How dare you feel me up, perv?!" she shouted, rearing back for another strike.
"I wasn't feeling you up, I was checking your injuries! Calm the hell down, will you?!" he groaned.
She scowled. He sighed and got serious.
"Hold still. I need to check for other wounds."
Grudgingly, she let him continue.
He inspected her legs carefully, his hands steady and deliberate. She clenched her jaw but said nothing… at first.
But when his fingers moved a bit higher to her hip, her cheeks turned red. Then his hand got dangerously close to a very specific place, and she snapped.
WHAM!
"OUCH! Again?!" he yelled, backing away.
"You were groping me, you damn pervert! That's no way to treat a lady!"
Naruto groaned and muttered, "I'll treat one properly when I actually see one…"
That was his mistake.
He felt the air shift. A dark presence flared behind her. Her hair seemed to split and fan out into nine fiery locks.
Even Kurama stirred.
"Kushina?"
"You're dead meat, moron…" she growled lowly.
WHAM! SMACK! WHAM!
One painful beating later…
Naruto, sporting several lumps and a black eye, crouched down.
"To carry you properly, I need to remove those splinters. You want to do it yourself?" he asked.
Tayuya glared at him a mix of pain, fury, and reluctant trust.
She knew it was going to hurt. But she also knew she couldn't do it herself.
"Just do it quick… and if you try anything funny, I'll shove my foot so far up your ass you'll be coughing sandals."
Naruto gulped and nodded.
He handed her a thick piece of bark to bite down on. She accepted it wordlessly.
He started with the smaller splinters, pulling them free one by one. She winced, but didn't cry out.
Then came the big one.
Naruto hesitated, his fingers wrapping around the end.
It'll hurt her like hell… but it has to come out.
He yanked it out in one swift motion.
For a brief moment, there was no sound.
Then pain struck.
Tayuya let out a high-pitched scream and passed out cold.