Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Retrograde
Chapter Two
It was raining when the woman finally made it to Amegakure, unsurprising considering the name of the village. Her sharp gaze quickly took in the tall industrialized buildings, noting the abundance of lightning rods that dotted the roofs and the never-ending strings of cables that ran between the buildings supplying power. At ground level there was very little movement except at the checkpoint where she spotted four shinobi standing vigilant and ready to move at a moment's notice.
The woman stood in the shadows at the very edge of the massive lake Ame resided in. Instead of the bright colored kimonos and yukutas she normally favored, she was dressed in a nondescript black long sleeve shirt with matching pants and a gray haori. The outfit was reminiscent of the one she would wear during the Second War, but she'd worn a standard flak jacket instead of a haori with her hitai-ate tied around her neck. She hoped it was bland enough to keep anyone from identifying the village she belonged to.
One of the shinobi at the checkpoint suddenly moved and her eyes narrowed as she tracked his movements. But he only turned to the man beside him to exchange a few words with him.
Not wanting to take the chance that one of them might have sensed her despite erasing her chakra signature, her hands moved to form the appropriate seals. Inu. I. Hitsuji. The transformation turned her bright red hair blonde, her eyes to a dull brown, and gave her the face of someone half her age.
She needed a mirror to be sure, but she probably looked a little like her distant cousin. Hopefully it was enough to help in her mission despite the risk.
The mission itself was uncertain at best. Although she had rushed straight to Ame without stopping the moment she'd woken, there was no way of telling whether or not she had arrived in time. She was either much too early or far too late. It was even possible that the mission was well underway, and she was standing around waiting for nothing.
Almost as if to prove her right a massive tremor rocked through the village, sending an aftershock through the lake water beneath her feet. She immediately spotted the area where the disturbance came from and saw a gigantic bird with a strange beak circling overhead before suddenly diving. Even from this distance she could recognize the distinctive purple ring pattern of the Rinnegan in the summoning creature's eye.
"Jiraiya," the woman murmured softly to herself before slipping into the water.
A few moments later she surfaced beside the dilapidated buildings at the source of the explosion. Debris and fragments of concrete and steel pipes littered the water and directly in front of her stood five shinobi wearing black cloaks with a red cloud pattern marking them as Akatsuki. Thankfully, she was hidden in a blind spot to their shared vision as they scanned the surrounding waters for Jiraiya.
Her eyes flicked across the water and within seconds she spotted his long white hair as he swam to the surface. She immediately dives back underwater and intercepts him, clamping her hand down on his shoulder. Jiraiya reacts reflexively and turns to lash out at her but freezes. His eyes widen in shock as he took in her false face and she knows he can see her cousin looking back at him. But she's too busy taking in his condition, noting the missing arm and the toad attached to his shoulder eying her suspiciously. Two bloody puncture wounds are visible on his chest and there's blood spilling down his mouth, too. He's not as bad as she'd thought he'd be but still worse than she would have liked.
Her cousin's name formed on his mouth and she did bother trying to correct him. Instead, she signaled to him that the remaining Six Paths of Pain were just above them. Resolve flared in his eyes and he shook off her hand to swim to the surface. With no other choice, she followed him.
She surfaced behind him next to one of the outcroppings in the water, already preparing her jutsu just as Lord Fukasaku produced a fūma shuriken and flung it at one of the Pains. As expected the Rinnegan bearers react. One of them dove into the water to grab Jiraiya, but she's faster.
She slams her palms down against the water, creating a massive wave that lifts her and Jiraiya both high into the air and slams against the Pains closest to them. The Pains get thrown back by the force of her jutsu and once the wave brings her high enough into the air, she releases her next jutsu without any hand seals. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" she shouts, and the massive dragon shoots out to attack one of the three remaining Pains. It coils its body around in the air before striking and swallowing him whole, trapping him in its watery belly.
Movement out of the corner of her eye catches her attention and she shoved Jiraiya back, producing a fūma shuriken of her own from the pouch at the small of her back. She released it just in time to counter the one aimed at them and dropped back into the water with Jiraiya and Fukasaku. But just as they're about to break the surface an unseen force stopped them, forcefully dragging them through the air in the direction of one of the Pains.
"I do not know who you are, woman, nor where you came from," Pain said, holding them suspended in the air in front of him. "But know that you will die here today together with Master Jiraiya." And without preamble, he sent them back out across the water.
She hit the surface of the water bluntly and let out a sharp cry of pain as her arm was shoved out of its socket from the awkward angle she'd landed on before continuing to harshly tumble and roll. Her teeth bit into the flesh of her lip, drawing blood as she forced herself to grab the back of Jiraiya's bloodstained haori and pull him closer to her just as a barrage of chakra receiver rods rained down on them. The Wind Style jutsu she releases from her mouth lessens the blow and stops them from landing on their target, but two still pierce Jiraiya square in the chest and another nearly grazes her thigh.
"Jiraiya-boy!" Fukasaku exclaimed as she forcefully dragged them beneath the surface.
Even more blood poured out of Jiraiya's mouth as they sunk deeper toward the bottom of the lake. His eyes drooped further and further closed as the old toad sage began to panic. Fukasaku detached himself from his student's shoulder and begun to slap the man across the face to keep him awake.
With Jiraiya rapidly losing consciousness, she quickly kneaded chakra in her stomach again and forced out a massive gust of wind from her mouth that created a small pocket of air around them. Lord Fukasaku's worried yelling immediately fills the space and she ignores him to bring her good arm to her mouth. She pressed her thumb to her teeth and wasted no time biting into the calloused flesh before shouting, "Summoning Jutsu!"
Just as the water around them refills the space, a massive hawk appeared below them. She grabbed the beast's feathers the best she could with her injured arm while looping her good one around Jiraiya's. At her signal the summoning hawk shot through the water in the opposite direction of the Pains before finally careening upward. They burst out of the very edge of the lake surrounding Ame moments later and the woman's head whips around to search behind them as they soar through the air.
Unnervingly, there's no movement from the village. No Pain. No pursuers. Nothing. She can only hope that they think she and Jiraiya drowned, but she's doubtful.
"Hiroto!" she shouted urgently over the whipping winds, "Take us to the Leaf!"
"Yes, my Lady," the hawk replied.
She turned her attention to Jiraiya's semi-conscious body beside her, taking in his shallow breathing and the blood flowing freely from his various injuries. "Can you take those out?" she asked, eying the rods protruding from the Sannin.
Lord Fukasaku nodded. "Yes," he murmured before carefully pulling them from Jiraiya. "They were disrupting his chakra," the toad sage told her. He turned back to her with that suspicious look in his eyes again. "Who are you child? Why did you help Jiraiya-boy?"
She forcefully pops her shoulder back into its socket with gritted teeth. The sudden, sharp pain that radiates out across her body disrupted her focus and puts an end to her transformation, revealing her true face. "I'm Fumiyo," she told him, biting into her thumb again, "Fumiyo Uzumaki. I've known Jiraiya since we were young." Fumiyo made the appropriate hand seals and slammed her hand down in front of her before firmly shouting, "Summoning Jutsu!"
A small cloud formed beside her and when the smoke cleared two red pandas wearing matching green kimono-style shirts with the Uzumaki clan symbol on their backs stood before her. The only difference between the two was that one had long traditional sleeves with a white obi while the other was sleeveless with a blue obi. Without giving them the chance to say their usual greetings Fumiyo started issuing orders.
"Shinta, go to the Hokage at once," she told the one with the blue obi as she held her palms over Jiaraiya's chest to begin healing his wounds with the little medical ninjutsu she knew. "Tell her that Master Jiraiya was gravely injured during his mission in the Hidden Rain and that I'm bringing him home."
The red panda bowed. "Of course, Lady Fumiyo," he said before disappearing with a pop in another cloud of smoke.
Fumiyo pulled her palms away once the blood was staunched and proceeded to start rapidly weaving hand seals. "Kazane, help me apply the seals," she ordered as she formed the last hand seal before placing her hand against the stump of Jiraiya's arm. "Seal!" The sealing formula extended out from beneath her palm and the strings of kanji, katakana letters and other symbols spread across the flesh to apply pressure and seal the wound temporarily.
"What mess have you gotten yourself into now, Fumiyo?" Kazane demanded, little clawed paws rapidly forming the same pattern of hand seals as her.
She ignored her. "My Lord," Fumiyo said to Fukasaku, "I'm sure the summoning contract has nearly run out. You should return home. Please leave Master Jiraiya in my care until I can get him to Lady Tsunade."
The toad sage remained silent, watching as she and Kazane continued applying seals to Jiraiya's wounds. "Thank you. For saving him," he finally says before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Kazane applied the last seal on Jiraiya's back and Fumiyo gently laid him back down. The summoning animal crossed her arms, glaring up at her mistress. "What happened? Are you hurt? How did Master Jiraiya get these injuries?"
"It's a long story, Kazane," Fumiyo sighed tiredly. She reached into her pouch to pull out one of her storage scrolls and quickly unsealed it. A new dark green haori with the Uzumaki clan symbol on the back along with a black hitai-ate marking her as a Leaf shinobi appeared. With a wince Fumiyo replaced her wet haori before sealing it back into the scroll.
She carefully tied her long red hair back into a ponytail before tying her hitai-ate to her forehead. Fumiyo glanced up to stare at the horizon when she was done, if only to avoid Kazane's annoyed glare and her prying questions. All she saw was a never-ending canopy of trees ahead as Hiroto flew them to Konoha that gradually became thicker and thicker the closer they got to the village.
Her mind wandered as she watched the leaves sway in the wind and she silently wondered where the kids were right now. She wondered if they had reunited yet or were currently searching for each other. Fumiyo hoped that they were together but knowing how close those four were it wouldn't be long before they found their way back to one another if they hadn't already.
The thought brought a smile to her face and she settled in for the rest of the flight home.
Hinata kept a steady pace behind Naruto as they ran through the trees with the rest of the group.
When she came to, she was instantly relieved that the seal had sent her back to the exact moment in time they had intended to return to. She was running with the rest of the team that was originally deployed to track down Itachi, but after a few seconds she'd realized that they were now at the point of the mission where they were pursuing Sasuke. This was both good and bad. It meant the seal she, Naruto, and Fumiyo had spent a month working on had worked for her, but it also meant that she couldn't tell if the same could be said about Naruto and Sakura. They were both less than a meter away from her, but with the others around she couldn't ask them.
The only thing she could do was look.
She activated her Byakugan and scanned Naruto's chakra pathway. It looked normal, or at least normal for him. But there was something about it that seemed different. Like something was missing.
Hinata could only hope that whatever was different wasn't caused by the seal. They'd made sure to make it even numbered as a precaution, but Fumiyo had said that because of its nature she didn't know if it would even make a difference. And if it did something to Naruto's chakra, and by extension to Kurama, it made her wonder if it had done something to Sakura's or Sasuke's. Or to her own.
But she couldn't worry about that now.
"Hinata, are you sure you don't see anything?" Kiba suddenly asked.
Hinata reactivated her Byakugan and took a quick look around. To her surprise, she could still see twenty or so kilometers around her like she could before waking in the past. She scanned the dense forest surrounding them for Sasuke but didn't see his chakra signature anywhere around them. The only ones of note were their own.
She made to tell them that when she saw Naruto suddenly lose his balance. His chakra flared unnaturally and then he was falling.
"Naruto!"
Hinata dove and caught him around the waist meters before he hit the ground. She landed at the base of the closest tree and gently laid him on his back before taking another look at his chakra again as the others rushed over.
Sakura got to them first, her hands already glowing with chakra. "Do you see anything?" she asked quietly.
Hinata quickly searched her gaze before looking to her unconscious husband again. "His chakra was briefly disrupted right before he fell," she told her just as quietly. "It looks okay now, but…I don't know. There's still something wrong…Maybe from the seal."
"Well, he's not hurt physically," Sakura murmured, pulling her hands away from his chest.
"Is he alright?"
Both girls froze for half a second before glancing over their shoulders. Kakashi stood just behind them, concern written across what little of his face was visible. Captain Yamato and Sai flanked him on either side with Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru just behind them.
"He's not hurt as far as I can tell, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura told him. "But I don't know what's wrong with him."
He nodded, peering past them to look at Naruto before turning his attention on Hinata. "Good job catching him. I didn't even see him start to falter."
She turned back to look at Naruto. "I only noticed because—" His eyes suddenly twitched, and she paused to lean over him. "…Naruto?" she whispered softly.
Naruto suddenly let out a shout that made her jump as his eyes snapped open. They stared at each other in shock for only a second before he threw his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. "Hinata," he sighed as she hugged him back.
"Are you okay?" she asked, tightening her hold around his waist.
He nodded once and pressed his lips to her ear and she has to strain to hear him. "Only half of Kurama is sealed inside of me again. And Dad's seal is back, too."
She frowns but isn't surprised. "Then it's like Fumiyo thought," she whispers back.
A cough sounds behind them and they jumped apart. Hinata turned away, her face bright red, while Naruto smiled sheepishly as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Sorry about that, Hinata," he apologizes for their audience. "I kinda just grabbed you." He leans around to peer at her face and she can see the teasing smile that the others can't. "Are you alright?"
"Oh!" She jumps back too dramatically judging by the snort of laughter Sakura disguises as a cough. "Um, yes. I-I'm okay. Are you though? You just suddenly fell."
Kakashi crouched beside them. "What happened, Naruto?"
"One of my shadow clones found Sasuke," he revealed with an annoyed scowl. "He'd put it under genjutsu before dispelling him. It caught me off guard and I fell." Naruto jumped to his feet, pulling Hinata up with him. "We need to get to him before he kills Itachi."
The silver haired jōnin nodded as he stood. "You're right. We're wasting time standing around here."
Naruto formed the clone seal and four shadow clones popped into existence. He pointed west. "Scout ahead for us, guys," he ordered and they each saluted him before taking off into the trees.
"Let's go," Kakashi said and they followed him through the forest, running at full speed.
Naruto ran at the head of the group beside Kakashi with Hinata and Sakura flanking him on either side. Hinata silently ran through the plan again in her head. It certainly wasn't enough to stop their opponent, not with what they knew about him, but hopefully it would be enough to scare him off. But with the old seal back in place, Hinata wondered if she and Naruto would even be able to perform that jutsu now.
Even if they were able to pull it off, it would probably raise suspicion on all three of them from Kakashi and Captain Yamato. But that was a risk they were willing to take, even if it got them thrown into I&T.
Hinata looked ahead again, immediately spotting the four identical chakra signatures belonging to Naruto's clones lying in wait. Beyond them though was a strange, unfamiliar one lurking in the gnarled trees ahead of them.
"There's someone up ahead," she called out.
Naruto jumped back mid leap just as the masked man wearing an Akatsuki cloak stepped out from his hiding place.
"Howdy!" Tobi greeted with a wave as Hinata, Sakura, and the others caught up. "Well, now. How's it going there...there...and there? Imagine running into Hidden Leaf folks in a place like this...and it's two, four, six, eight against one." He laughed nervously. "Heh, heh. What bad luck!"
Kakashi and Captain Yamato started talking strategy, pointing out that Tobi was also an Akatsuki member that wasn't on the roster list Kabuto had given them. Kiba made some sarcastic comment that went mostly ignored while Tobi continued to verbally toy with them.
"Don't be rash," Kakashi warned. "We need to wait and see. Study the situation first. We do have a numbers advantage."
"Oh, dear. Am I being underestimated by you guys?" Tobi wondered aloud.
Hinata ignored him and watched with her Byakugan as three of Naruto's clones fell back while the last one dropped down directly above Tobi with a Rasengan in his hand. As expected, Tobi disappeared just as the clone was about to hit him and reappeared a few meters away. The clone pulled out a kunai to attack again but was kicked away and dispelled once it hit the real Naruto. He dropped into the lake and furiously burst out a second later with a splash to stand on its surface.
The confrontation continued to remain mostly the same as before just as they had planned. Formation B led to the same conclusion as Hinata remembered and while the team dodged Tobi's odd game of whack-a-mole, she and Sakura switched places with two of Naruto's shadow clones transformed to look like them.
The three of them stood high above on a tree limb overlooking the others. Sakura cracked her knuckles while they observed the scene below them. "Do you still think you guys will be able to do that jutsu?" she asked, readjusting her gloves.
Hinata met Naruto's gaze, his eyes now yellow and toad-like with orange markings around them. "What do you think?"
"I think we'll manage," he said with a small smile, tapping a finger under one of his transformed eyes.
She held out her hand and activated her Byakugan yet again. "So do I," she agreed as he took her hand.
"Then let's get this over with so we can meet up with Sasuke," Sakura said with a faint smirk before leaping away to get into position.
While they waited for their moment to strike, Hinata watched as Naruto's clones and the others tried to land a blow. They each failed one by one before falling back to regroup. But then the Sakura clone broke from the group to punch Tobi straight in the face.
"Uh, uh, uh, I can't let you do that!" Tobi taunted as he grabbed the clone's wrist before the hit could land and tossed her. Naruto's remaining shadow clones leapt forward to catch the third and all three dispelled with a pop and a cloud of white smoke. "Shadow clones?" he questioned confused, cocking his head to the side. "When did that happen?"
Before anyone could react, the real Sakura dropped down from her tree limb, ready to land a chakra-enhanced blow. "Shannarō!"
As expected, her punch passes harmlessly through him to create a deep crater in the earth behind him. But Naruto and Hinata are already in motion. Just as Sakura is in the middle of passing through him and Tobi's distracted by her attempt, they drop down from behind. Where their hands meet and their chakra's combined, a large, dense lion's head is formed and within it rests a Rasengan.
"Try and dodge this!"
Although Tobi did dodge at the last second, their hit still lands, aided by Naruto's senjutsu, and he's sent flying so far back that they can no longer see him.
Hinata quickly searched around for his chakra. "He's gone," she reported, slightly relieved.
"Good," Sakura grunted as she jumped out of her crater. "One less obstacle between us and Sasuke."
"What was that?" The three of them freeze and turn to look at Kakashi. He stares at them with his uncovered eye, confused and slightly suspicious. His gaze travels down to look at her and Naruto's still joined hands and Hinata pulls away, her face turning warm.
A bemused smile spread across Naruto's as he stared back at Kakashi. "What was what?" he asked cluelessly.
"That jutsu you and Hinata just used," Captain Yamato said, stepping forward to look at them too.
"Oh, that!" Naruto exclaimed with exaggeration. Sakura turned and rolled her eyes so that only Hinata could see. "I'd just seen Hinata practicing her new jutsu and I thought we should combine it with my Rasengan to create a new one together."
"When did you find the time to train?" Kakashi asked incredulously.
Naruto grinned, scratching at the back of his head. "That was our first time doing that with each other, you know."
Kiba laughs like it's the most hilarious thing he's ever heard until Shino silently drives his elbow into his ribs.
Kakashi ignored them and turned to Hinata. "Is this true, Hinata?"
She nodded. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei."
There must be something in her expression that makes him doubt her because his gaze lingers on her face a moment longer than necessary before he finally nodded. Thankfully, Sakura noticed and placed her hand on Hinata's shoulder, squeezing gently. "Well, all that matters is that Naruto's plan worked and now we can get back to finding Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei."
At her words, he nodded, looking back in the direction Tobi had previously been blocking. "You're right. Let's go," he ordered before leaping away.
The three of them shared a sigh of relief before following him with the rest of the group.
"That was close," Hinata sighed softly as they continued travelling again.
Naruto nodded sharply once, his mouth set in a hard line. "The real test will be when we finally meet up with Sasuke."
