Time Travel Lovers **BEING REWRITTEN/EDITED WITH MAJOR CHANGES**

Chapter 28: Zero

They made their escape from the compound. Creeping past rooms of sleeping Hyuga's, bypassing sentries, and getting last looks at the place they had called home. Once they cleared the buildings and then the walls of the Hyuga estate, they ran for it. The streets were nearly empty, save for a older gentleman just nodding along as he strolled in the night air, and provided a more direct route to the gate than the rooftops did at the moment. Roof tops also tended to make noise at night. During the day when no one was home, the rooftops were a good option. During the day there was no one to complain at the sound of feet on the roof. But at night everyone is home, asleep, and grouchy from waking up. So taking the roads was a much better option.

 The Village Gate came into view in front of them. It was still open, since the village was not in any immediate threat the gate remained open to welcome any returning shinobi. Hinata glanced to her side and was reassured with a sad, tense smile as Naruto took action. Naruto pulled a scroll from his jacket pocket and prepared. They weren't taking the time or the risk of stopping and slowly passing through the gate and the guards. They could try a transformation but the likely hood of it passing scrutiny and the fact that their names would be checked first was too risky. They had to make an exit fast. So instead, they had a fake mission scroll detailing a mission of utmost urgency requiring them to leave immediately with no time for a gate check out. They would toss the scroll at the guard and keep going. The guard would read the scroll, make a note in the log book, and continue on with their long night as the pair made their way away from the Village.

It would take two days to reach the Land of Waves if they didn't stop, and kept running at their max speeds. Well Hinata's max speed because she wasn't as fast as Naruto and Naruto refused to leave her side now that they were out of the relative safety of the village. But, nonetheless, that wasn't a healthy option. They would drop from chakra exhaustion and muscle strain once they stopped. They would also be rendered immobile for two days after. Hinata more severly than Naruto. And Naruto was not going to let Hinata hurt herself like that. Hinata may be the fiercest and most capable woman Naruto knew but that did not mean he didn't worry about her and her well being all the time.

So instead of a run till they dropped, they would be running until day break, then they would stop and rest for a hour, and then set out a fast walk. Anyone trying to follow or track them from the village would be faced with paths splitting off in multiple directions. Clones of Hinata and Naruto, with special scrolls that fed the clones chakra, were branching off every fifteen minutes they ran. So by the time any tracker got halfway to where they would stop, the trail would have gone cold with the clones having dispelled after burning the chakra packed scrolls that sustained them.

That was the plan at least. Naruto was hoping that their current bad luck with plans didn't keep up. Seeing as the gate was looming even closer, there was no time for a rewrite of the plan. Naruto readied his hand and chucked the scroll as they blew past, surprised shouts echoing behind them, died off as the guard was either reading the scroll or had  realized the pointlessness of their shouting. Hinata activated her byakugan so that she could guide them outside and also to watched for pursuers. A scan of the area told her that they had no immediate pursuers. Just the guard at the gate holding the scroll.  She smiled and nodded at Naruto. He grinned and they picked up the pace. They were no where near their top speeds from after the was but with their current speed they would cover a lot of distance. Traveling at a Jounin level speed was definitely going to put a large land gap between the village and themselves.

Naruto's chest tightened. He hated this but it had to be done. He did something so extremely stupid and now he and Hinata were paying for it. There was no way they could have told Hiashi the truth, and the elder Hyuga would have seen through any lie they could have told him. Hiashi was done with not knowing too. He would not have let them brush it off. He was a good father through and through. Any parent should know the inner workings of their young child's life so that they can help the child grow. But Hiashi just wouldn't be able do that this time. Naruto did not want anyone else to know the horrors of the previous timeline. He would protect and save everyone he could and he would try to give the people he cared for the life they deserved. 

The people Naruto knew and who he knew them as might change but they would still be his friends and his family. And maybe it was wrong for him to think that it was his responsibility to change things. Maybe he shouldn't have interfered at all and just let the reality be the reality. That bastard and his group of murderous thugs had destroyed the village. Had killed the people Naruto had almost died to protect. But he and Hinata could have rebuilt. Could have gone somewhere else. Researched jutsus to restore the people they had lost. But what option did they choose? They chose to fucking time travel! 

And now they were paying the balance. Instead of an easy ride with only a four to five year gap between the past they fixed and the present they knew. They were now in a world 15 years behind them. With a daunting task before them. Naruto was going to be completely honest. He was scared. He was so scared. He didn't want to live through the pain again. He didn't want anything to happen to Hinata. 

Naruto's frame rattled as he sucked in a deep breath trying to dampen down the rising panic inside of himself. Now was not the time to freak out. Not when they were in the middle of the biggest change they could make.

Hinata grabbed his hand and Naruto felt his heart beat steady and his muscles relax as he fell into a rhythm with Hinata at his side. He looked at her. His wife. The woman he was doing all of this for. For her he would endure. He would be the rock for her to lean on. He would do his best for the best thing to ever happen in his life. He had caused so much turmoil and trouble in her life that it still amazed him that she loved him. He had turned her world upside down more times than he ever thought possible. She had stood firm in the face of his greatest opponents. Bled and nearly died to protect him and to prove herself, not just to him but to herself. With a woman as amazing as Hinata by his side he would get through it all.

So hand in hand and with sad smiles on their faces, the two raced towards the horizon.