This is a small work dedicated to my Beta Lucifer-Allheart as a bit of a surprise fiction so please excuse small errors.
I hope this makes you feel better Lucifer, and I hope you did well in your competition this weekend.
Disclaimer – As usual, I do not own Naruto.
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Bring Me The Horizon
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Naruto gazed at Pain with fear in his eyes. Purest genuine fear. His hands pinned to floor with a single spike, taking willpower to merely maintain his breathing.
Thoughts of 'I'm going to die' molested his mind.
The chapped ground was being caressed slowly by the wind brought with the coming of chakra usage. The sun blinded in its splendour by dust, casting a foreboding shadow across a field of blood. Blood of the innocent and the guilty.
He was a pitiful spot on the face of Konoha now, lying on his stomach being held down with no effort on the part of his captor. This man… no… this God Among Shinobi, he couldn't beat him. This was beyond human limitations.
Hinata had been watching this scene from the lip of the crater; waiting with Ko, her temporary bodyguard.
"I'm terribly sorry Miss Hinata, if I had been more careful, neither of us would have been injured" repented Ko for the 5th time in what could only have been 20 minutes.
"It is not a problem Ko, you will not be punished. I promise," said Hinata quietly as she observed the exchange between the two shinobi.
'Naruto… you wont die. I promise.' Thought Hinata as she watched her crush being talked to by Pain. Then she gasped.
Back with the two battling shinobi, Naruto had been impaled on several of the spikes already in his hands along non-vital pathways on each side of the body. An almost impossible amount of accuracy was needed for that.
"KID! If You Give In Now, I Will NEVER Forgive You! You Are The Child Of Prophecy!" yelled Shima at Pain from the side of the battle.
"Silence" said Pain as he activated Shinra Tensei. A wall of nothing exploded around her small toad body and crushed her already brittle bones, squeezing the very life from her organs. She flew back, breathing her last slowly.
"Noisy Frog"
Naruto saw red at this; this woman had given him a roof and food while training. She wasn't his sensei but she treated him like a warrior should. And he respected her for that.
"You BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!" cried Naruto from his place, bound to the floor like a goliath to its prison.
Pain looked around, satisfied in the destruction he had caused to Konoha. Not that he didn't enjoy the sheer thrill of meeting strong ninja, fighting them, and eventually killing them but he knew when to call it a win. This would most definitely cripple Konoha for decades to come.
He then turned his gaze to match that of the Kyuubi. He stared at those eyes, those blue eyes; those blue eyes with an elongated pupil.
"It's time to go Kyuubi"
As soon as the words had left his mouth, something snapped.
A lilac blur sped across the crater, lip to epicentre, beyond normal ninja speed.
'Jyuuken Step!' thought Hinata as she leapt into the air behind Pain, a chakra imbued palm ready to hit his temple in a move affectionately known as 'Death Touch'
Pain felt her coming and used Shinra Tensei on the earth in front of him, forcing him several feet back to avoid the touch.
"HINATA!" 'Damn this leg of mine!' thought Ko as he watched from the edge of the crater.
Pain regarded the intruder with little interest; just another bee to kill if one wants to gain the honey.
"Reinforcements?"
"I wont let you lay another finger on Naruto" stumbled out Hinata, managing to keep a glare at the same time.
Naruto looked at this in shock. This was Hinata, the weird, cute girl who made excellent food and always seemed to have a fever.
"What are you doing here Hinata?! You're No Match - !" started Naruto
"I know…" muttered Hinata, effectively silencing him.
"?!" was all Naruto could respond with.
"I'm just being selfish…"
"What are you talking about?! What are you doing here?! It's dangerous!" yelled Naruto, honestly worried for the young woman's safety.
"I'm here of my own free will"
"What?"
"…I always used to cry and give up… I nearly went the wrong way"
Naruto listened intently, even though he ignored most of his social lessons that Jiraiya taught him, he had learnt to know when to talk and when to listen.
"But you…you showed me the right way. I was always chasing you… wanting to overtake you… I just wanted to walk with you… I wanted to be with you"
Naruto lay breathless on the ground, his mind in a small state of shock. Hinata was pouring her heart out to him.
"You changed me! Your smile saved me! So I am not afraid to die protecting you!!"
At her next words, they would hit him harder than Mizuki's words had all those years ago.
"Because I… Love You…"
To Naruto, something suddenly changed. He saw her, glowing in front of him. The guardian angel he wished for all those years ago. And her eyes, they shone brighter than stars on her porcelain face.
They were Radium Eyes.
Hinata couldn't say anything else.
She charged forward to attack Pain.
To save Naruto.
To keep her promise.
"Juho Soshiken!" came the first yell Naruto has heard Hinata do.
Two lions of chakra formed around her palms; jaws open, they lunged for Pain. Just mere inches from his flesh, Hinata was pushed away so she lay just in front on Naruto.
Naruto could see the blood starting to pool around her head.
'That's easily a skull fracture, she needs help NOW!' thought Naruto 'Damn it! I need to protect them!'
Pain raised a spike above Hinata, his intentions clear merely from the look in his eyes.
"STOP!"
Of course, words were never going to stop him.
The blade slid swiftly between her 6th and 7th ribs, perforating her liver if the bile was anything to go by. A fatal wound.
"Love breeds sacrifice… which breeds hate"
Saying Naruto was angry was beyond stupid. The young man was seething for the blood of Pain.
Then it started.
Black and red chakra leaked from Naruto in an explosion of heat and mass. Hinata's skin gained major 3rd degree burns from the close contact but the spikes holding him to the ground were vaporised.
"Then you can know my pain" said Pain, looking at the form of a four tailed fox demon.
'The foxes power… looks like Naruto's anger has awakened it…' thought Pain
"Do you hate me?" asked Pain to Naruto, the shape rapidly descending into a feral state.
Naruto's only answer was to start forming a bony exoskeleton around him and the six tails he now had. He had had the Demon Foxes Cloak. Now he had gained the Demon Foxes Armor.
Naruto let out a low growl as the form finally settled on a stable shape.
"Do you really think people can understand each other like this?" asked Pain
His answer was a loud roar in his direction.
"That's it… But my pain is greater than yours."
While this exchange was going on, no one was paying attention to Hinata. Before she had even come close to the battlefield, she had been caught in a rather large explosion. Mainly consisting of slugs. Katsuyu.
Many slugs had fallen on her, much to her disgust, and she thought she had removed all of them. Except she didn't notice one getting in a loose section of her breast bindings. This single slug had held Hinata at a stable level for nearly 2 minutes alone, and its time was up.
She would never look down on a slug again. Not after this.
Katsuyu had detected the sheer amount of damage Hinata had taken and relayed it to Tsunade. This didn't sit too well for her. She made a small stretcher of the remaining Katsuyu and had them fetch Hinata to her.
It was miracle she wasn't dead already.
Her heart was on the way to giving out though, this was not easy.
"Lady Tsunade, your chakra is beyond critical. I hope you understand the consequences of proceeding," said Katsuyu quietly.
Tsunade thought for a while before answering.
"Katsuyu, how old am I?"
"I'm unsure Lady Tsunade, I lost track"
"I'm 54… I think its time for change, no?"
"Lady Tsunade?"
"Make sure it happens Katsuyu, make sure they happen."
"You aren't going to continue?"
"Why not Katsuyu? I already have one foot in the grave as it is; I'm as dead as all the Hokages before me. But there's one thing my grandfather always said to me. 'Its not the way a ninja lives, it's the way they die that their true worth is shown'"
Katsuyu could not find a response to that, so she stayed silent.
"Sōzō Saisei"
Slowly but surely, the remaining energy was taken from Tsunade's cells as they reached apoptosis.
But her work was done soon enough. Hinata's wound closed and the skin started creeping up her body like being dunked into a vat of cream paint.
Tsunade grabbed Hinata's slowly awakening hand as she watched Pain and 6-tailed Naruto duke it out not 50 metres away. They made quite a pair. Tsunade in her natural body and Hinata au naturel.
"Huh… Lady Tsunade? What's going on? Where's Naruto?" asked the drowsy girl, completely unaware of her nudity, clothes burnt off by the fierce flames of Kyuubi's chakra.
Tsunade looked pained at her body before answering.
"He's in front of you, using his power for everyone. Especially you, I might add"
Hinata gazed at him slowly, watching the Torrent Of Power fight the God Among Shinobi.
Tsunade suddenly coughed up a glob of blood onto the ground before leaning against Hinata, breathing heavily.
"Lady Tsunade!"
Tsunade no longer had the strength to do much, in fact, she only said two more words and they were both for Hinata only. Tsunade beckoned her closer before mumbling in her ear "Baton… Pass" with her hand to Hinata's.
Hinata slowly looked around, still shocked.
The Fifth had died next to her. For her.
She could only watch as Naruto destroyed Pain. There was not much of a fight, Pain had been defensive for the majority of the battle. When two tails disappeared under the ground, he didn't care. But when they ran through his chest, then he cared.
As the chakra in the last of the Pain Rikudo ran out, so did Nagato's life force. The God Among Shinobi was truly just a mortal man.
But Naruto, the young man who had been defying fate from birth and flipped several gods the bird on the way, was truly powerful. A warrior who fights to protect.
The words of the Third made more sense than ever before.
As Naruto's demonic visage faded; Hinata ran to him, not caring about a thing other than her Naruto was alive.
As they met, they stopped, and stared.
The pressure was just too much and eventually Hinata leapt at Naruto, their forms melting into an embrace a decade in the making. Hinata's slighter form put her head into Naruto's chest with her arms around his waist. His head found its way into her hair, and his hands holding her on the small of her back.
He was her demon, and she was his angel.
"I love you too Hinata," muttered Naruto into her ear.
The future was looking bright at the moment for the young couple, and all they could think of was their future together.
"All the things we can do once Akatsuki is gone; Naruto, it's just on the horizon" whispered Hinata
"Bring Me The Horizon then Hinata, I'm sure I cant wait."
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Wow…. I actually wrote some fluff. I was kind of disappointed that no one had written an optimistic ending to the Naruto vs Pain fight, so I did it myself. I hope you all enjoyed it and will review.
As a small note, I am in the process of writing a somewhat long oneshot about Jiraiya and Naruto in a non-romantic way, so keep your eyes out for that sometime in the future.