A/N: Will the real Hinata fans please stand up.
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"I no longer want to run away."
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The shinra tensei had left the villages in ruins, any remaining survivors knelt in despair. Hanabi pushed the concrete slab off her, clutching her bleeding shoulder. These people were too strong. Even with her skills, she could barely keep a single enemy at bay. Their best strategy - their only strategy - was to retreat for now and live to fight another day.
"Nee-san, we need to-"
Her sister was gone.
Pein stood unobstructed, his five other bodies descended from the skies. Together, they made six, but those six were enough to make an entire army bow at their feet.
Only the granddaughter of Senju Hashirama refused to submit. Her body was battered and beaten, the last of her stamina drained, but she stood all the same, to protect her village and her people, as was her duty as Hokage. It was a futile effort though, and as soon as the villagers see their leader fall, the last of their hopes would leave them.
His eyes widened when the Asura Path failed to make contact, bolts and wires sent flying, its mechanical arm shattered in three places.
Tsunade had collapsed from exhaustion, but in her place stood another figure.
"I-it can't be…"
Sakura turned to the Hyuuga soldier by her side. "What is it? What's going on?"
The Hyuuga soldier swallowed, vision focused on the front lines. Standing alone against the invaders was an undeniable chakra signature.
Pein said nothing, watching as the dust cleared to reveal a girl of opaque eyes, her body twisted in the traditional stance of the most powerful soft-style martial arts in history. Her presence was timid and her nerves were weak. Yet, her will was strong, strong enough to not bow when all others have.
The Animal Path stepped forth, expression blank. Even the strongest of wills will eventually break.
Summoning inscriptions spiraled out the ground, as a monstrous rhinoceros charged forth. The ground vibrated under its weight, and the shinobi snapped shut their eyes at the eruption of earth, the breakage of stone in all directions. When they reopened their eyes, it was to the sight of a mass sent flying kilometers away in the air.
Hinata stood her ground, unmoved from her position. The other summons were as demonic as the first, but whatever force they came at her with, she opposed them with a force just as great, the vacuum strike of a palm providing her with a repulsion technique parallel to Pein's.
That did not mean her powers could rival his own. Her novelty had worn off, and Pein tired of her resistance.
Hinata gasped at the hand clutching her skull, broken through her defenses from behind. She could feel her limbs going numb, as her chakra pulled away from her body, absorbed into the Preta Path.
"Hinata!" Kiba yelled, scrambling past the rubble alongside Akamaru and Shino. From the opposing side, Hanabi was rushing forth. Sakura forced her legs to work, sprinting across the debris. Outside the village, Neji pushed himself to maximum speed, along the rest of his team.
None of them would arrive in time. Hinata's vision blurred, her thoughts gone hazy. Her energy was draining too fast. No one would save her in time.
No…
She lifted a shaking hand.
No, there was still someone who can. Someone who can save her.
The Preta Path stiffened.
Hinata broke out a smile. She still had a hero.
A loser then, but a hero now. Someone who had worked hard for the past three years, someone who improved and became strong, one step at a time, someone who she knew she could look up to and look up to with pride.
The Preta Path shattered, destroyed under the crushing force of the juho sohiken.
Both her palms glowed, wisps of chakra ethereal to the eye, the energy flow within her body rebalanced and resynced to be in harmony with nature.
She had worked hard for the past three years, fighting for sun, becoming the change she wanted to see. And now, she was finally ready be her own hero.
"Impossible," Neji whispered. Hinata's signature had soared, deafening those of all nearby. Every one of her tenketsu were wide open, the boundary between her body and her surroundings shattered. It was a feat not even Hanabi could achieve, not even he himself could achieve, for she had ascended beyond the limits of a shinobi.
Hinata had become a sage, the veins around her eyes gone. Once opaque, her pupils were transparent now, piercing enough to stare straight into heart of her enemy.
It proved to be a doujutsu able to challenge the Rinnegan. For his eight eyes she needed only two, the entire landscape drawn before her in perfect clarity, her vision existing outside the confines of her material self. Her body twisted and dropped, softer than water and as untouchable as the air, through their attacks, through their defenses, in a strike of 2, of 4, of 8. The ground below her feet became hot. Of 16. Darkness and light had split in two. Of 32. The yin-yang circle spiraled. Of 64. One concentric ring after the next glowed. Of 128. Expanding, growing. Of 256. Faster and faster. Of 512, 1024. Vaporizing all in its path. Of 2048, 4096, 8192-
Pein made his retreat too late, as the rings shot across the landscapes, rippling across the forests and through the mountain in waves, like a heart beat of the earth itself. Alive. Pulsing.
Like her own heart.
Thu-thump.
Through the devastation, the Deva Path rose. He stood single, alone. His power had finally returned, his shinra tensei allowing him to shield against Hinata's blast.
It would appear that blast was also her one and only trump card, as she now struggled to not collapse, her clothes vaporized and her skin burnt, blood trailing down her lips. Every one of her muscles was shredded, the aftermath of 8 million, 388 thousand, and 608 simultaneous hits.
Had she gotten the Deva Path, maybe she would have won. But she had not.
It was over.
Pein walked forth, examining the kunoichi. Though she stood, she had lost consciousness long ago. Yet, her expression was a curious one.
She had failed to defeat him. She had failed to destroy him. So why were her lips pulled into such a subtle…. smile.
"Mama?" Knelt on top of the rubble, a child was looking at his palms. "What is happening to me?"
His mother had no answer, speechless by the glow of her own body.
"The hell…" Konohamaru turned to see his teammates were the same.
"This... this is…" Kurenai's voice shook.
"I'm not the only one, right?" Kiba demanded. "The only one who…"
"... feels it," Shino whispered.
Sakura gasped. Her chakra system was more sensitive than most, and to feel this, all at once, coursing in through her...
… it was an exhilaration Lee had never experienced before. By his side, Tenten was just as overwhelmed, though the most shell-shocked of them was Neji. The gentle fist was meant to be a weapon, created to disable an opponent through closing all their tenketsu, it wasn't...
… meant to be like this. Hanabi reached the front lines, her body struck precisely three hundred and sixty one times, one for every tenketsu that Hinata had opened for her, one for every boundary she had broken. Natural energy now pulsed inside her, in harmony with the physical and spiritual, threading her existence with those of the world.
Pein stood alone, but he was surrounded, by kunoichi, by shinobi, by civilians, by a crowd that had fallen apart but now stood united, in their strength, in their power, in their will. The same energy coursed through them all, as they transcended to be something more than what they individually were.
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"I just wanted to change myself…"
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Thu-thump...
Thu-thump...
Hinata knelt in darkness, as images faded in and out in fragments. She saw the back of her sister, so much smaller than her own, yet there for her protection. She saw the feet of her teammates, running ahead to save her from the nausea of a fresh kill. She saw the hand of her sensei, pulling her away from the ambush before a kunai could pierce. She saw the forehead of her cousin, how instead of pushing him down, a curse only made him more great.
They were all so strong.
The images faded into the eyes of her father, the frustration and disappointment in them that mirrored her own. They were all so strong, yet she was so weak. So weak, tumbling and falling, as she was in the Chuunin Exam once more, harsh words and even harsher blows. Too kind. Too agreeable. Too accepting. Too weak.
Hinata was sent across the arena, slamming into the ground. Too weak...
But are you?
She was, but not anymore. Not anymore, she tried to convince herself. After all, she had worked hard, she had worked so hard to change herself.
Her mother gave a sad smile, stroking her hair, watching a blond boy run just as valiantly. He was not necessarily that strong either, but that did not stop him. Their punches could not hurt him. Their words could not smear him.
Like Hinata, the blond boy ran, but he was not running away from himself. He also wanted change, but not change of himself.
He did not want to change himself, because he was not ashamed of himself. No matter what the world said, he was not ashamed. He did not let them define him. Not as a loser, not as a failure.
Because he believed in himself.
Do you?
Sakura sighed in relief when Hinata reopened her eyes.
"It's okay, Hinata, we've won. It's over."
Hinata forced herself to stand. "No... not yet."
Buried deep inside a mountain was a chamber crafted of paper. Konan stiffened at the figure entering their hideout. Nagato sat at his throne, his Rinnegan against her Byakugan.
In a rasp, he asked, "Are you here to fight?"
Hinata swallowed, her hand instinctively gathered at her chest in a mild gesture of protection.
"N-no."
Her voice was genuine and enough to make Nagato laugh. "Are you here to talk then?"
Hinata closed her eyes. She had wanted to change herself, but at the end of the day, she could not. She was still too kind. She still wished for harmony and avoidance of conflict. Instead of resistance, she still preferred agreement. Instead of individualism, she still preferred cooperation. She still had little sense of self and could not see herself as superior. And for these qualities, she was deemed weak.
Hinata reopened her eyes, Byakugan deactivated, her hand lowered.
And sometimes, what others call weak may just be the greatest strength in the world.
"I am here to listen."