Resurrection
Summary: "… There is really only one way to end this battle, Hinata. You must choose between Revenge or Resurrection." Both, in which no one can win. SasuHina.
A/N: Hello everyoneeee! I was dissatisfied with the way this story was going before so I have changed everything about it and now it has a completely new plotline! I hope that readers of the old Resurrection will be able to forgive me for this transition! Expect regular updates for this story—oh, yes—I am so awesome, jks…. Enjoy! ^^ :D
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything related to Naruto in this story as it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Chapter One
Written by 10ShizukaYuukiMistress10
"Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect dreams killed by hate."
―Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams
They couldn't win.
As the terrifying thought occurred to her, the thunderstorm of gleaming, razor-sharp kunais pursued Hinata and her teammates—fast like striking snakes and brutal like the telsons of scorpions, the arsenal assault of sharp kunais slashed and plunged into tree bark, transforming trees into cactuses, and narrowly missing their heads.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
The vain destruction of the forest left trees collapsing in resigned heaps, numerous holes plunged mercilessly through them.
It seemed, if not by a kunai wound, their enemies wanted them to die in the crumbling forest, let that crush them.
As each tree lurched and capsized to its demise, a high-pitched shriek of grief, pain and anger pierced the air, like the yowl of an animal about to become a dead carcass riddled with gaping holes like unseeing black eyes.
—The sinister music of a dying forest.
Slowly, Hinata came out of her terrified reverie. They were going to need cover. They needed to retreat. Hinata had to guide her team to safety with her last ounce of chakra.
They're long-range enemies, out of eyeshot. Use a wise approach. Hinata swiftly executed a three-hundred and sixty degree onslaught of kunais, sure at least one of them would impediment its victim.
Then, although her Byakugan was a risky choice—it was long since spent from several hours of use—Hinata activated it without hesitation and ushered her teammates out of targeting range, ignoring the searing pain behind her eyes from the strain.
"It'll only buy us time!" Hinata emphasised earnestly, running towards what looked to be their best bet for temporary cover. A tree lurched forward and Hinata deftly dived out of its way.
Kiba and Shino followed obediently, one of them occasionally turning in alarm to deflect a kunai flying helter-skelter in their direction. Akamaru ripped them out of the air with his keen sabre teeth and tossed them back in the general direction of the unseen thrower.
Now flanking them was a network of dense, tightly woven shrubbery, towering unusually high, providing them protection and enclosure.
Kiba, who was panting beside Hinata on the ground, collected his breath to speak. "Hinata, you're a life-saver! We're no longer in the path of killer kunais! You got us out of there easy!"
Shino shifted beside him uncomfortably. He stood up and pointed a finger across at the innocent-looking trees huddled in front of them.
"Now is not the time to start congratulating one another. It's not over yet." Shino murmured eerily. His glasses cloaked his darkly narrowed eyes from sight. "I think that's a genjutsu."
As if to boast Shino's point, the huddled trees, a mere genjutsu illusion, reshaped into three enemy ninjas. They promptly lifted out an assortment of Summoning scrolls, steely katana blades and shuriken, growling venomously at the three of them.
"They're everywhere!" Kiba yelled hoarsely. "What is this place?"
Reluctantly, he gave Akamaru—who'd been unexpectedly subdued and droopy-eared—another soldier pill.
Be careful, Kiba. Hinata thought.
Kiba approached their opponents, his expression murderous. "You make me poison my dog in order to fight you!"
They just chortled hideously. "Bring it, little boys and girls!" They jeered as one.
Akamaru barred his sabre tooth fangs defiantly. Although weakened, the persistent ninja dog kicked off forcefully from the forest floor, slickly propelling himself at their enemies.
Astonished by Akamaru's speed, one of them didn't move out of the way in time and received a fatal blow to the stomach.
Before Akamaru could turn on the other two and take them out, one of them dexterously tossed an explosive tag in his path.
"NO!"
The sound of Kiba's wrenching scream was instantly cut off as a massive explosion discharged, completely swallowing up the sound.
Alight tree bark shot up into the air and tufts of fragmented grass whirled in a searing and thundering cloud of dust and heat.
When the explosion was over, Hinata unshielded her eyes. Lying on the ground was Akamaru's limp body but not in the way she had expected: hundreds of bugs hovered and shifted closely around Akamaru, keeping him preserved inside a safe cocoon.
Kiba immediately rushed forward to hug his dog companion, muttering into Akamaru's dishevelled fur between sobs, "I won't ever make you sacrifice yourself for us again! When we get back home, I promise to give you all the ramen you could ever imagine! Shino, man, I'm eternally in your debt!"
Hinata also noticed that hundreds of other bugs covered their two enemies. Expect, instead of protecting them, the bugs worked rigorously to suck all the chakra out of them.
Two seconds later, their enemies collapsed face-down in charred, smoking grass, still as ice cubes.
"Let's go! There's no time to waste." Shino urged, arms already back to his sides and ducking back into the undergrowth to lead them back on the trail.
Following him, but coughing violently, Hinata cursed the suffocating pollution brought by the explosion.
"Don't worry, we should be moving into open air soon," Kiba whispered in her ear.
Lips upturning, Hinata murmured softly, "Thank you."
Within minutes of flying past trees and dashing on their sturdy branches, their surroundings changed dramatically.
Here, the blinding sunlight no longer hit them squarely in the eyes: trees rose so high that they shaded out most infrared light and glared down upon them murderously, like they were vexatious ants trespassing on their forest floor. Flickering shadows were cast whenever the trees shuddered or trembled in the wind.
I don't like this place, Hinata thought cautiously.
Out of nowhere, a shinobi barrelled face-first into the grassy forest floor, mere meters away from them.
The trio instantly dropped to the ground, hunched in a low crouch, ready to act at any sign of threat.
Hinata's head jerked to the left and there she saw a figure emerge from behind a towering Sugi tree.
It was a dangerous, tall and feline woman. Her straight hair was similar to Hinata's, but darker, in fact an inky black, and much, much longer. Her angular, aristocratic face struck Hinata. It was cold and unfeeling even as the woman picked up her opponent by the collar effortlessly.
Hinata had seen her in the Bingo book. Her team had no chance against her and certainly not in their feeble conditions. She was currently Iwa's most highly Wanted missing ninja. Whether because she was too dangerous, or just for her skill assets, it was unknown. This woman was simply Wanted desperately. Her name was—
"—Alia Hisoro, the strongest kunoichi in Iwa." Wheezed the shinobi in her clutches.
Alia merely narrowed calculating, pitch-black eyes.
"What are you going to do with me, hm?" The shinobi taunted, in a last attempt to disarm Alia.
Unfazed by the ploy, Alia tightened her white-knuckled grip on the shinobi, causing him to gasp for air.
"Listen here." She said. Her voice was like a blade: steely, cutting and candid. "You are like all the other shinobi trespassing on my village's territory. My word of advice to you is to never do it again. Or you may not be so lucky the next time we meet."
With that said, Alia carelessly dropped the shinobi back to the ground. Shockingly, the shinobi got up and flung a kunai hatefully at Alia's demeanour. "Look here you! You are an outcast to your village! You left it and became a missing ninja! You're just a phony kunoichi pretending that standing guard and taking care of people like me who trespass on your village's soil will somewhat ease the guilt on your soul after betraying your village!"
"You three Hidden Leaf Village shinobi should come out now. I don't take too lightly to those who hide from me." Alia announced, completely ignoring the shinobi that had just insulted her and contorted her pride.
Alia's piercing eyes were pinned on their exact location.
Hinata, Kiba and Shino froze. Not because she knew they were there but because Alia's right hand, silently hefting over her head the kunai previously thrown at her, slowly shattered the metal weapon like it was nothing.
Turning hardened eyes back towards the ninja that had attempted on her life, she vanished.
Swish! Slash! Swish!
Hinata and her teammates exchanged a wary look: they were caught up in a dangerous game but could not move a muscle or scamper away. They were too afraid of the consequences.
Alia reappeared.
She now held a tall weapon in her hand which Hinata distantly recalled reading about in the Bingo book. It was a legendary weapon passed down from the descendants of the Hisoro Clan from generation to generation.
Eyes squinted against the intense, wicked glint of Alia's Twin Blades of Devastation, Hinata watched one devastation rupture through the abdomen of Alia's opponent, the other following up instantaneously—unceremoniously slashing her opponent's face.
A crimson gush of blood splattered the ground and a chilling cry stabbed through the stilled air.
Sinking deeper into the undergrowth, Hinata's shoulder bumped Kiba's. She felt a warm hand press down onto the small of her back. It remained there, reminding Hinata that no matter what, her teammates would remain beside her throughout.
Alia roughly threw her opponent at a nearby tree, face not flinching once the whole time. Just when they thought Alia had won, things started to go wrong: her opponent clearly had not been incapacitated.
The shinobi tenaciously picked themselves up, keeping their eye on Alia's retreating back as she calmly approached Hinata and her teammates, and with a final cry of pain, hurtled at her the biggest explosive tag any of them had ever seen.
Hinata had genuinely wanted to cry out at Alia to move away but by the time the words gathered in her mouth, it was already over.
Too late, Alia flinched, turned around and met face-to-face an explosion which immediately cleared her off the ground, swallowing her up in a vibrant and violent vortex of discharging eruptions.
Hinata jerked her head to the right and witnessed the haughty shinobi who had brought Mighty Alia to her demise, lying on the ground, laughing cynically, a hand beating the dirt ecstatically.
It was a horrendous sight because their guffawing changed into a bloody coughing fit as they gasped their final dying breath.
They didn't even live to tell the tale.
As Hinata and her teammates turned away ashamedly, they failed to notice a serpent-like shape exit the dead shinobi's gaping mouth, still hanging in a silent scream for breath, and sliver all the way across to Alia's motionless form, stopping to admire her features for a few meticulous moments before jumping right into her mind itself.
They soon broke into open air.
The landscape now consisted of scarcely any trees or green grass, just boulders and rough, dirty gravel, stretching endlessly. Everything was a creamy yellow. On the horizon, Hinata could see the beginnings of the desert.
Shino had found the trail again: the trail of Naruto's blood. Cold, dried stains of it at least.
Naruto was dead. Dead to this world. They were just collecting his body and bringing it back to the Leaf Village.
All three of them already knew this yet they raced to get to him as soon as possible.
Hope. Because they hoped he remained undead, however ridiculous it sounded.
And even though Hinata trusted Shino, she had discretely activated Byakugan to see the trail for herself, now that her depleted chakra seemed to be replenishing itself.
Hinata remembered not a day ago, reading a book blissfully in her bedroom before Kiba had burst through her door and dragged her out hurriedly, explaining that they had a crucial mission right away—Hinata would never forget the seriousness in Kiba's usually exuberant voice: "Our team has been chosen for this mission because we are eligible trackers. We've got to find and return Naruto's body to the Leaf Village! We're the best tracking team for this job!"
Naruto had died while venturing into this heinous place. Hinata knew that Naruto had been weakened beforehand from an experiment him and Jiraiya had performed. However, she had never realised that the effects of the experiment would cripple Naruto so far as to be defenceless against all odds in this place. Something suspicious had gone on—there was no doubt about it.
Collecting his body was possibly the toughest mission her team had faced yet. Enemies kept popping up everywhere and whenever they did, her team only narrowly managed to escape. Eventually one of them would perish if they didn't get out soon.
Shino suddenly coughed to Hinata's left.
Her head wheeled towards him in question. He was frowning into the unadorned, pasty distance.
"What? Is something wrong?" Hinata inquired in concern.
"Yes. There is something wrong." Shino clarified, as he knelt down and pressed his palm flat against the dry ground. "I think the trail ends ahead. All my bugs are already coming back."
"How far ahead?" Hinata asked, her eyes raring to activate her bloodline limit and catch if not a glimpse of Naruto's body. However, her mind harshly reprimanded that idea: her chakra was only beginning to trickle back and she had already chanced using Byakugan once; the strain would be intolerable if Shino revealed that Naruto's location happened to be far away.
"I'm not sure." Shino blurted out, uncertain of himself. "My bugs are giving off mixed signals, in fact."
Hinata looked down, biting her lip.
At that moment, there was a dramatic shift in their surroundings. Kiba sniffed the air just as a mysterious shadow emerged from behind the jagged, creamy yellow boulder ahead of them.
As Hinata inspected the slowly growing shadow, she noticed that an abundance of spidery seals painted the ground surrounding the shadow and led all the way around the builder's circumference like an inky prison.
As the shadow's owner weakly slouched into view, Hinata realised that it belonged to a sickeningly familiar person.
"What? Naruto's alive?" Kiba's loud, brash announcement somehow lifted Hinata out of her shock.
"Naruto…" Hinata whispered uncertainly, tongue not used to pronouncing the long unused word. "How can you be..."
Shino also appeared confused about the situation but he didn't speak: he simply stepped forward and took Naruto's distinct hand in his, pulling it over his shoulder and supporting Naruto's weight. Already, the blonde's head was lolling, like he was in a drunken haze, but they knew better: whoever had attacked Naruto days ago had intended to kill him but Naruto never died easily. Thankfully.
Guilt tore at Hinata's pumping heart then, threatening to tear it out completely: they had all betrayed him, abandoned him—how could they forget Naruto's resilience to keep living and beat the odds?
"Guys... there's something I need to tell you." Naruto's weak, parched, broken voice rasped.
They all flinched at the drastic change in the blonde's usually exuberant voice.
"I think this is a trap. You should... return home right now. It's too late for me now." Naruto rasped, biting back a cry of pain. They could see it in the way his face contorted grotesquely: he was in unimaginable agony.
"I'll kill them, you hear me?!" Kiba screeched. "Who did this to you?"
Stunned, Hinata could only stare wide-eyed at the broken, dying boy she had always admired and cherished, bid them farewell.
Naruto looked straight up at her then, his swollen face riddled with deep lacerations and bruises. His sad, cerulean blue eyes brimming with tears, Naruto mouthed the words: I'll always be back and then an inexorable blade plunged straight through his torso out of nowhere.
Before Hinata could scream, Naruto's body went slack and dropped out of Shino's stunned arms like a sack of potatoes. Without thinking, she dived forward and caught Naruto around the torso before he could hit the ground, her clothes soaking up his blood. Hinata protectively clutched his head against her chest.
Meanwhile, Shino and Kiba faced their unexpected enemy: Alia Hisoro, burns all over her face, hair and clothes, hefting the weapon dripping with Naruto's blood.
He suffered immensely, now he has been put out of his pain. Hinata repeated sadly, if not hysterically, in her mind, closing her eyes. A new thought rang loud and clear in her head, though. Why had Naruto still been alive?
Alia uncharacteristically threw back her head and let out a high-pitched laugh, and at the same time, a tormented scream. She froze and blinked a few times, seemingly in shock.
"My host body won't fully cooperate with my will yet, it seems."
Her voice wasn't sharp and cutting anymore: it was blood-curdling, pulsating with immeasurable and disgusting desire. Hinata also noticed that Alia's features had changed: the piercing matt-black pupil's of her eyes seemed to have transformed into lucid vertical slits like twin yellow-coated fangs.
"Orochimaru,"
They all turned to see that it was Hinata who had spoken the abominable Sanin's name. She had already gently lain down Naruto's body and was currently rising from the ground like a phoenix from its ashes, Naruto's crimson red blood staining her front as if she had been the one stabbed through the torso instead of him.
"You killed Alia. Then you took her body. Now you killed Naruto."
"Yes, indeed. Hinata, you're right. Now I killed Naruto." Orochimaru admitted mockingly, his smile stretching to show his teeth. "I've been trying to for the past three days. That one never died easily. I managed to find the right host body to do it, in the end."
Orochimaru laughed, except his eyes were tearing up and the high laugh contorted into another scream. Tears started to flood down his cheekbones like cascades of blood.
"Ah. Alia must be truly upset about this transformation. And for killing Naruto. Look at all her tears of sorrow..."
Hinata felt her eyes flicker to the ground stonily. One. Two. Three. Three tears in total, exploded against the ground. Then they stopped raining down, as if Alia's pride wouldn't allow anymore tears to suffice. She was truly a graceful shinobi, even on the brink of death, her strong will reigning against Orochimaru's and fighting for dominance over her mind and body.
"It won't be long until I have complete control..." Orochimaru dawdled absently, voice predominantly feminine and exulting blithe.
Hinata's right fist clenched. One second later, it connected with Orochimaru's jaw. A hue of blue chakra billowed from her fist violently.
"Monster!"
Shino and Kiba, who had been silent in shock and horror the whole time, unfroze and gripped each of Hinata's shoulders in order to placate her. Now restrained, Hinata did the only thing left.
"Fight him! Don't let him win, Alia!" Hinata cried desperately, her voice cracking. "There's still a chance! It's not over yet!"
Instantly, Orochimaru blinked a few times, his expression going hazy and confused.
"Why is... What is the meaning of this? I'm losing control..."
"It's working!" Hinata shouted, hope gleaming in her eyes. "Alia, you can—"
"Just joking." Orochimaru reprimanded, this time throwing his head back and letting out a full-blown guffaw, vocal cords blasting high. "Alia is gone. How naive, it almost amuses me. Now it's time to end this."
Orochimaru brandished Alia's Twin Blades of Devastation, and rubbing his bruised cheek absently, he murmured, "You hit lightening fast. It's a shame I couldn't block it in time with this vessel."
Hinata distantly felt Kiba and Shino's hands dragging her back forcibly. They murmured, panic laced in their fast, clipped exchange of words. Kiba stepped in front of her protectively, spitting on the ground.
"Orochimaru, you're unbelievably evil! I won't let you kill anyone else on my watch." At that, Kiba stole a glance at Naruto's beaten, lifeless form, lying not far away.
Orochimaru advanced.
Just then, a prominent rustle in the trees make Hinata jerk her head to the right. She watched as two familiar figures emerged. The sunlight captured them perfectly.
Leaf Village Anbu.
Suddenly, the whole forest behind them rustled and a sea of dozens upon dozens of other Anbu flooded towards them.
Then three particularly unexpected figures emerged from amongst the dispersed Anbu members.
"Snakes just never die, do they? They always keep coming back and... consuming people, it seems. Will you ever stop, Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked, sighing.
Beside him stood Hatake Kakashi, his lone Sharingan pinned intently on Naruto's corpse. He didn't even bother to greet Orochimaru or show signs that he acknowledged he existed as he moved to collect Naruto's body.
Hinata noticed that the last figure was Danzo.
A bunch of Anbu holding foreboding syringes came towards Hinata and her teammates then. Danzo was regarding her coolly as he spoke to the Anbu beside him. Hinata involuntarily read his thin, scheming lips: Their memories of this day's events are to be wiped out completely. The Hokage must never find out about this under all circumstances.
Hinata watched as the Anbu drew nearer. Then, meticulously, the Anbu members ceased all movement—stopping dead in their tracks—like slack-faced zombies frozen in time.
Hinata glanced in Orochimaru's direction, wondering if this was any of his doing, but the Snake Sanin was preoccupied with Kakashi and Jiraiya, not even bating an eyelash in her direction.
It seemed only Hinata had noticed what had just happened.
Again spying the rigid positions of the motionless Anbu, their unfocused eyes boring into her, Hinata felt an inexplicable wave of dread unlike any other: it ravaged her gut in a smothering, relentless grip of fear.
Before she had the chance to tell Kiba and Shino about the unusual behaviours of the Anbu, or about Danzo's frightening scheming, Hinata felt a distinctive, sharp pinch in the back of her neck and her legs instantly turned into jelly. She sank to the ground, her panicked teammates lurching forward to catch her, then dropping like stones themselves. Kakashi and Jiraiya turned and watched the display as if it didn't surprise them, nodding towards Danzo, then fixing their attention back on Orochimaru.
Hinata's ridiculed mind of grief, terror and rage, tried to process the consequences of the contents of the syringe, emptied out into their blood streams, and what the intended effect was.
Briefly, the answer flared in her mind as clear and horrifying as day, and before Hinata could fully process the amount of torment that the memory loss serum would inflict upon her for the rest of her days, her mind was mercifully extinguished and the temporary bliss of nothingness overtook.
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