I pulled myself out of bed, dawn barely breaking, and over to my closet. I grabbed a roll of bandages and began to wrap my abdomen. I pulled out my shinobi wear. Black halter that kept my back bare and stopped just below my bust and a small pair of black shorts. I threw on a light, white haori with the symbol of fire in red on the back. I strapped on my belt and thigh pouch. I gently picked up my naginata from its spot beside my door and slipped it into the loop in my belt. I threw my hair up into a bun, pinning it in place with twelve of my hair pins. I looked myself over in the mirror quickly, everything seemed in place. A knock sounded at my door. "Enter." I picked up my plate and strapped it around my waist, above my belt.
Yoru opened the door, a hand carrying in my breakfast. "I've sent the Konoha ninja their meals as well. They will meet you at the northern gate in a half hour." He stood there for a moment while the hand entered and left the tray of food on the table at the foot of my bed. She left hastily down the hall. "You should send for your brother to go instead."
"Yoru," I sighed. I picked up my tea cup, earl grey. "I am going." He opened his mouth to protest again. "Yoru, there is no way that I am going to stay one more day locked up here. I am going to make myself useful before I am stuck here again." I placed the empty tea cup down, took a croissant, picked up my small bag, and left through the door. He called after me, but I kept walking until I was outside the manor doors. I had already finished the pastry in my annoyance. I sighed, wiping my hand on my leg.
They were more than likely already on their way out to the gate, if not already almost there. I stretched out my neck as I began to walk down the path towards the northern gate. As soon as I had left the first gate out of the court yard, I could sense an unknown chakra signature. I kept walking, hands at my side, as if there was no change. I had just left the second of the three gates when he attacked. I rolled my eyes as I easily dodged his blade. He was tall and thin, long white hair framing his boyish face. What a shame.
"Princess Corrine, you'll be coming with me." He smirked, the edge of his kunai shining. His crescent moon headband had a crack through it.
"For the Akatsuki bounty," I questioned. I kept my head up, hands folded in front of me. He threw the kunai straight for my chest. I deflected it with a wind blade without moving an inch. A look of fear spread across his face. "It's too bad that you had a death wish." I turned and snapped my wrist. The boy immediately went up in flames, screaming for me to stop. I kept walking. It only took a mere moment before he stopped.
The Konohagakure shinobi were waiting outside of the final gate. Lee looked at me confused, "what was that smoke?"
I shrugged, "there was smoke?" I asked, using a few wind blades to the disperse the smoke. I turned around, "I don't see anything."
"Are you good to go?" Guy interrupted. I nodded, walking alongside Tenten as we exited the village. It was a day's journey on horseback, two by walking. We walked until the sun was high in the sky, peeking out from behind dark clouds. Something was off.
"I'm so hungry," Tenten groaned as we walked. "We've been walking forever. Let's take a break."
"We may not have time," I frowned. She looked at me curiously. I pointed to the dark clouds and birds that were seeming to rush from the direction of Konoha.
Neji nodded, "Lets head straight for the village."
"I'm going on ahead." I said, sidestepping before Guy or Tenten could object. I stood on top of the Hokage monument, the village below me looked to have been literally pushed away from the center outward. Jiraiya had smashed one of the six Pains into the ground. No. That was not Jiraiya. This kid could use the sage techniques too? He must be Naruto. Nature energy flowed around him. I smirked – I may not be needed after all. The first Pain summoned a large Rhino and attacked head on, but Naruto caught his horn and threw the summon out of the village before he moved to attack the others while his own summons attacked the other summons. He was able to take down a second Pain in a few more moments. I watched as he created two shadow clones and began to form a shuriken of wind and chakra. He threw it, just catching a third Pain and tearing him to shreds. He became locked in hand to hand combat with the fourth Pain – the one who could use summoning.
One of the frogs Naruto summoned covered the field in dust while another threw the bigger frog. The summons from the fourth Pain disappeared. The frog opened its mouth and spit out the Pain and Naruto. He was no longer in sage mode. Guess it's time – oh, wait. Naruto was still going. He had something planned with that large scroll he had been carrying around. I watched intently as the frog used the scroll to reverse summon another Naruto. No, a clone. I wanted to laugh, he had found a way to easily restore his chakra to perform the sage jutsu. He let another shuriken go, but the second Pain defended it by absorbing it. Damn, the fifth one had taken the time to revive him. A cloud of red dust blew up around Naruto. He took out the fifth Pain by tricking the others on who he was attacking by attacking all of them. The sixth Pain became surrounded by his three large toad summoning's, but was able to repeal them back. Shit, the battle was turning – Naruto was caught in the second Pain's arms. No! He was sucking out all of Naruto's sage energy. I smirked as he began to pull more energy back in. The second pain had turned into a stone frog. One puppet left. I turned my head as Naruto's hands were stabbed together into the ground.
Guess it was my turn now. I turned to jumped into the area, but stopped when a flash crossed the field. Who was this girl that jumped into the middle of the fight?! She had those same lavender eyes – a Hyuga. I gasped, she must be the daughter of the head of their clan. I had met her once when we were much younger. She was poised to attack Pain, but turned and began to attack the black rods that were keeping Naruto in the ground. I felt chakra swirl around her fists as she lunged at Pain landing a hit, then at Naruto again. Pain put his palm up to repulse. I sidestepped into the blow.
"Who the hell are you?" Naruto yelled out as I tumbled through the air. I sidestepped again, between the girl and Pain.
"Get him out of here." I said, reaching behind me to pull out my naginata. "I'm his opponent now." Pain thrust his palm out again. I felt the repulsion move through me and land hard against the girl. I began to swipe at Pain. He used a rod to defend against each strike. I heard her land hard behind me. You better be alive. I spun around to the other side, throwing my naginata at his head. I followed it instantly with a shock of lightning. He dodged my naginata and repulsed both my lightning and me. As I tumbled through the air again, I watched as the girl reached Naruto and tried to free him again. Pain threw her into the air, slammed her down between himself and the boy, then took the same rod and drove it through her. The nine tails chakra was leaking out of Naruto quickly. I sidestepped again, picking up the girl before sidestepping out of the battle field.
I laid her down gently. She was still alive – for now. I focused my chakra into my hands and tried to slow the bleeding. Healing jutsu were my worst techniques. I growled. With Naruto using the nine tails' chakra like this, there was no way that I would be able to get in the fight.
"Is Hinata alive?" A pink haired girl yelled as she ran over rubble to me.
"Yes, but she needs someone adept at healing jutsu," I said. I could feel the chakra of the nine tails' and of Pain retreating away from the village. The pink haired girl got onto her knees across from me and began to take over. "I'm going to go after the two."
"Be careful. Naruto's at six tails, he doesn't know what he's doing." The girl explained, worry creasing her face.
"I've got him," I stood, instantly sidestepping. I reached the two in the middle of a gorge. Seven tails already? I focused my chakra into my belly, opening up seven of my eyes and began to consume the chakra of the nine tails. If I could consume just enough, then he would return to his normal self again. My body felt hot as the anger that caused Naruto's transformation flowed into me. Another tail sprang up, then another. I forced open two more of my eyes to keep the consumption rate the same. Shit, if I had to open up my last eye then we were all in trouble.
Pain moved to stand beside me. "Why are you putting yourself at risk?" I let out a low growl. He grunted in reply. A tail disappeared. I let out a short breath as I released one of my own eyes. "We could easily take the two of you with us after you've completed that technique."
"I dare you to try," I barked as a second tail dispersed. I dropped another eye. I would need a technique that could use up as much of his chakra as possible. I would not repeat last time. Suddenly, the remaining seven tails disappeared. I closed off all of my eyes as Naruto returned to his normal self. How was I going to get rid of his chakra? I gripped my naginata, forcing the chakra into the blade. His red chakra swirled around the blade as it extended out another two feet. I began to attack, swinging my weapon widely, yet swift and precise. He tried to use his rod to attack me directly, but I grabbed it with my free hand. I held him close as I slashed at him from a closer range. The rod burned my hand. He repelled my weapon. I let it fly widely out of my hand. "Bad move." I gripped his shoulder tightly with my own free hand and began to channel chakra into him. I used as much of the nine tails' chakra as possible before the spark detonated and the explosion sent me flying back. I hit the rock wall behind me hard, my back cracking on impact. I hit the ground below on my side. I watched with hazy eyes as Naruto walked towards me with my naginata. I sat up slowly, leaned over, coughing hard. A small puddle of blood splashed below me, more trickling from my mouth.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked me, extending a hand. I nodded as I hastily took it. He pulled me up to my feet. "Just who are you?"
I forced a pained laughed. "It's only been seven years and you forgot me." He handed me my naginata. I took it, sliding it into my belt. He gave me a confused look. "Corrine."
He jumped back a few feet, looking me over in pure shock. "No way. Y-you're so different!" He walked around me once. "Damn you got strong." I chuckled, coughing up more blood. "You need to get back to Konoha!"
"I'll be alright," I reassured him. "My body's just not used to your chakra."
His face paled. "You're why I felt as if I was being drained!"
I nodded, "you would have been gone if I hadn't." I scanned the area for any sign of Pain. Nothing. "You're still strong enough to go and find the real Pain, right?" He nodded. "I'll let the village know what happened."
"Can you make sure that Hinata's alright?" He asked, casting his eyes downward.
"Of course," I smiled, sidestepping. I stood back in Konoha, just mere meters away from where I had left Hinata in the care of that medical ninja.
"Corrine!" I gave a small wave to the group that I had abandoned far back. "What did you do?" Tenten rushed over to me. "You look like crap."
"I know I do," I sighed, wiping my mouth of any remnants of blood. I coughed again, blood landing on my leg. I forced my chakra through my body, trying to heal any damage done by the foreign chakra. "How's she doing?"
"Hinata'll be fine." The pink haired girl said. I watched as a shadow covered me. I looked over the sandaled feet and up into Neji's eyes.
"Thank you," Neji said, bowing his head sharply.
I looked at him confused. "For what? I couldn't save the village from being destroyed."
He stood upright again, shaking his head slightly, "for saving Hinata." I was about to protest. I had barely helped her.
"Hinata's awake!" The pink haired girl yelled. I moved my head just enough to see her slowly sitting up. Thank god she was okay.
"Wh-where's Naruto?" Hinata asked, looking around at the group. "Is he okay?"
I tried to make my way to her, stumbling as I coughed up more blood. Both Neji and Tenten caught me to stop me from falling. "Sakura – can you look over Corrine?" Tenten asked, worried.
"I'll be fine," I tried to pull away from the two. The medic-nin stood and rushed over to me as I was gently forced to the ground. "I'm fine."
The pink haired girl and Tenten sent me a killing glare. "You're coughing up blood. Let me work." Sakura growled. I slowly allowed myself to lay back as her hands focused over my stomach. It only took a moment for her to know the after effect of what I had done. "All of your organs and systems have been damaged. Just what did you do?" I could feel my muscles knit themselves together and bleeding cease. She was good.
"I stopped Naruto from going past the eight tails and got rid of the last fake Pain," I explained. Sakura shared a hesitant look with Neji while Hinata smiled and thanked me. Green lights began to fall from the sky and land upon the bodies of the deceased. I felt a rush of chakra surge through the decimated town. Everyone watched in shock as those that were dead began to rise again, as if nothing had even happened to them. Sakura stopped healing me for a second, and the pain from my injured organs flooded back. I bit the inside of my check. "Go take care of them – I'll be fine." Sakura looked me over once, nodded and rushed off to check everyone who was coming back to life. I sat up, the pain far more noticeable now. I waited a moment – all the while Tenten lectured me on running off to fight – before I rose to my feet.