The Ballad of Hinata
Hinata, Sasuke, Kiba, Sakura
Rated T
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its extensions, and I don't own Disney's Mulan.
The Ballad of Hinata
Chapter 10
After getting the summon to go to the front from General Uchiha Fugaku, none of them knowing it was fake, the entire army had packed up and headed that way. It was a long trek and before any of the soldiers knew it, it was snowing, alerting them that winter was upon them. And one day as they were trekking through the snow, Sakura suddenly gasped and said, "Hina-, I mean Hizashi! You're birthday is coming up soon."
Hinata nodded and replied in her man voice, "Yes, in four days time if I've counted correctly."
"Hyuuga, your birthday is coming up?" Kankuro asked.
"Yes, I'll be turning nineteen."
"That's great!" Kankuro slung an arm around Hinata's shoulders, almost knocking the disguised girl over. "We'll have to celebrate if we can."
Stepping out of the man's hold Hinata shook her head and said, "I'd rather not, but thank you anyway."
Naruto piped in and said, "But we have to! We did for everyone else who's had a birthday so far."
"Thanks for the offer, but really I'm fine without one," Hinata insisted. "I don't think I'd be able to focus on it anyway with what we're going to be walking into soon."
She turned her head to keep moving forward, only to stop in her tracks and let out a gasp. There, before her and her fellow troops, was where General Fugaku's army was, or was supposed to be, along with what may have been a village. Everything was burnt to the ground, little to nothing left. And among all of the debris were still, lifeless bodies. The carnage was disturbing and Hinata found herself unconsciously moving closer to Sakura, seeking comfort as she tore her gaze away.
The troops looked to Captain Uchiha as he moved past them on his horse and commanded, "Spread out and search for survivors."
Everyone spread out and began searching for any survivors, calling out 'Hello?' and 'Is anyone out there?' and 'Is anyone alive?'. Hinata couldn't even bring herself to call out these questions as she slowly moved through the carnage and destruction, glancing at the spilled blood and weapons that were cast aside in the obvious fight. She knew there were no survivors, the Akatsuki wouldn't leave any. Sakura placed her hand on her shoulder and said softly, "This is awful."
"Yes," Hinata replied just as soft. "It's hard for me to believe my father witnessed this years ago. And now here I am doing the same. It's so…sad."
Sakura nodded before moving along with a few others, searching for survivors though it was futile. Hinata too began to walk and only stopped when she saw a handmade doll lying in front of her. And not far off from the doll was the lifeless body of a little girl who was probably no more than three. Trembling Hinata bent down and picked up the little girl, staring into her lifeless brown eyes. Tears filled her eyes and before she knew it, she was holding the little girl close to her chest as she cried. This wasn't fair. This little girl probably had so much to look forward to in her future with a fantastic life to live, and it had been taken away from her before she could even begin to experience it.
A gentle hand placed itself on her shoulder and she looked up to see Sasuke looking down at her with sad eyes before saying, "We'll avenge her Hizashi, I promise."
Hinata nodded before laying the girl back down in the snow, reaching over and grabbing the doll and folding it into her arms. She then gently closed the girl's eyes before standing and leaving her, wiping her tears away. She stepped up next to Sasuke who was looking around and heard him murmur to himself, "Where is he? My father should be here."
"Captain!" Ebisu called, an unreadable expression on his face, though his face had turned pale.
Sasuke rushed over to the advisor and looked to where he was pointing, only to stop in his tracks, his body going completely rigid. Hinata, Sakura, Naruto, and the other troops rushed over to see what their captain was seeing as well. Hinata covered her mouth with her hands as her pearl eyes widened. Before all of them was General Fugaku's army, all of them slaughtered as well as their horses. Movement caught their eyes and they turned to see Shikamaru walking towards them holding something in his hands. Looking at Sasuke he said lowly, "Captain, the General."
Bracing himself Sasuke walked over to Shikamaru and saw to his horror his father's head held in his soldier's hands. Shoved in Fugaku's mouth was a piece of cloth, which turned out to be a part of his father's headband when Sasuke pulled it out. Familiar writing was scrawled across it, its words making Sasuke shake in rage, his eyes hardening as he read them.
Foolish little brother. Father was easy, you will be as well.
Sasuke crumbled the cloth in his hand before throwing it down, then taking his father's decapitated head from the other man's hands and walking away into the sea of fallen ninja. His troops watched him walk away before being advised by Ebisu to file back in line and to wait for the captain. Sakura had to pull Hinata along as the disguised girl kept standing and staring after Sasuke, her heart going out to him. Her father wasn't dead but could have been, and she could only imagine how Sasuke was feeling at the moment.
A few days after discovering the carnage that had been the aftermath of General Fugaku's army fighting and losing against the Akatsuki, everything suddenly came to a head. It was Hinata's birthday and she was now officially nineteen years hold. However she found no reason to celebrate considering what had transpired. Not to say it wasn't acknowledged by a few, but everyone knew it wasn't an appropriate time to celebrate.
They were still tromping through the snow in the mountains, on the alert for any suspicious movements or sounds. They had acquired wagons some time ago to carry some of their heavier weaponry, some of those being canons. Hinata's horse was one of the many pulling wagons, though she would trade off with Sakura's horse every other day. However today her horse was pulling the wagon.
They had walked about another mile when all of a sudden, a loud 'BOOM' was heard, causing Hinata, Sakura, and everyone else to duck. Hinata glanced up to see a canon flying through the sky and disappearing before turning around with a scowl on her face, looking through the burnt hole in the wagon at Kiba. Kiba looked at her before pointing to Shino who was frowning at him and said, "It wasn't me?"
Sakura glared at Kiba as well and practically growled, "What…the hell?"
Before Kiba could respond the sound a galloping horse was heard. Turning the disguised girls saw the captain coming their way, an irritated expression on his face. As soon as he reached them he asked, "What happened?"
"Uh," Hinata started, but Sasuke continued talking.
"You just gave away our position! Do you have any idea what you-"
An arrow suddenly cut through them, embedding itself into Sasuke's armor near his shoulder. The impact knocked him off of his horse and caused everyone else to look in the direction to see where it came from. Several pairs of eyes widened as they saw hundreds of arrows and kunai flying through the air, intent on raining down on them all. Sasuke tore the arrow out of his armor and yelled, "Save the canons! Move into position! Move!"
Everything turned into chaos at that moment. Troops were running everywhere, grabbing canons from the wagons, moving to prepare to fire them off. Many of them however were unable to escape the rain of arrows against them and were struck down, Captain Uchiha's numbers dropping quickly. Sakura was struggling to keep her horse calm enough so she could get on him, while Hinata had to take her sword and cut her horse away from the wagon. A fiery arrow had landed on the wagon and Hinata knew there were some explosives in it, causing her to act to save her horse. She was successful and she and her horse ran off, gaining distance between them and the wagon before it eventually blew up. Attacks from both sides went on for a while before Sasuke finally commanded they cease fire.
Smoke that had been filling the air began to slowly dissipate, the view becoming clear once more. Everything and everyone was still, eyes trained up higher in the mountains from where the arrows had come from. Once the smoke had cleared, Sakura and Hinata gasped softly at seeing the vast amount of ninja in the opposing army. The Akatsuki army was huge! There was no way they would win, not without some sort of miracle.
The leader of the Akastuki, some orange haired man with more than enough piercings in his face looked down at them from his horse before raising his arm. Sasuke's army went rigid at the movement, anticipating what he would do next. The orange haired man held his arm still for a moment, and then brought it down harshly, his troops letting out battle cries before they all began to ride their horses down the mountain down to the opposing one below them.
"Stand your ground, be ready to fight," Sasuke told his remaining troops as they drew their swords. "If we die, we die with honor for our country."
Hinata and Sakura drew their swords as well, Sakura transferring hers into her other hand. Reaching over she grabbed Hinata's and held it tightly, Hinata returning the tight grip. They both knew that this could very well be their last day as best friends alive. But if they were going out, they would go out together and fighting.
Looking down at her sword Hinata looked at her reflection, taking in her pale face and frightened expression. But the thing that caught her attention the most was her eyes, how in them she saw determination, will, and courage, things she very well struggled with all of her life. It was hard for her to believe she had those things in her at the moment, but if one was about to face their likely death, it was better to do so this way than as a coward.
She vaguely heard Sasuke continuing to give orders, but she did hear him say one thing that caught her attention greatly. He had just told Kankuro to take their remaining canon and aim it at the leader, whose name was 'Nagato'. Frowning Hinata looked to see Kankuro setting the canon in place in the snow before looking back at the advancing Akatsuki. She looked back at the canon before looking up at the slightly curved snow covered mountain towering above all of them. She stared at it for a while before an idea struck her. It was crazy and dangerous, but it was worth a shot.
Sheathing her sword she let go of Sakura's hand, ignoring her surprised cry of her name as she ran towards Kankuro. Reaching him she knocked him away from the canon before grabbing it and running towards the Akatuski, ignoring the alarmed shouts of her fellow ninja. Stopping about fifty yards away, she set the canon down and began trying to light it, not being able to strike her matches, or striking them but them going out too soon. Kiba, who had somehow made it into her armor at one point, popped out and looked to see what she was doing as well as see how quickly the Akatsuki were going to be on top of her.
"Okay, you might want to light that right about now," Kiba told her in a calm yet panicked voice. "Also, pretty boy is coming as well, so you might want to hurry up."
Hinata struck her last match and was about to light the canon when it suddenly went out. Pearl eyes widened and she instantly began to pat herself down searching for more matches before her eyes settled on Kiba on her shoulder. Grabbing him she pointed his snout towards the wick of the canon and yanked on him, causing him to breath out fire while also letting out some sort of dog yelp. Letting go of Kiba she covered her ears as the canon fired off, right when Nagato got before her. The sound startled his horse as well as him, the canon going up and above his head towards the mountain. As it soared and inched closer to the mountain, she could hear Kiba yelling, "YOU MISSED! HOW COULD YOU MISS?! HE WAS THREE FEET IN FRONT OF YOU!"
"I wasn't aiming for him," Hinata said softly as the canon made contact with the mountain. She smirked as she saw it begin to rumble and fall apart, eventually turning into an avalanche that was barreling down towards them. She smirked as she saw Nagato's shocked expression as he realized what she had just done. However it quickly disappeared when he raised his sword and swung it at her. She ducked out of the way, not even registering that he had cut her right in the side of her abdomen.
Scrambling up to her feet she ran back towards the rest of the troops, grabbing Sasuke along the way as he had been staring flabbergasted at what she had done as well. However the rumbling snow was beginning to overpower them, as it had completely buried the Akatsuki army by this point. Luckily Sakura came along on her horse, Naruto on Hinata's yelling, "Come on!" Naruto jumped from Hinata's horse onto Sakura's with her, Hinata climbing on her horse and reaching a hand out to grab Sasuke's. Unfortunately Sasuke was pulled under by the weight of the snow. Hinata looked around before finally spotting her captain being carried away by the moving snow. Pulling the reins of her horse she made her way towards him, able to reach him and pull him onto her horse seeing as seemed to be unconscious.
"Come on, boy! We can do this!" Hinata yelled as they began to move towards what was left of their army and their horses. All of them were taking shelter underneath some large, curved rocks that were protecting them from the large amounts of moving snow. It was a struggle but they managed to fight the snow and make it, taking shelter under another rock. Pretty soon the avalanche finally stopped, all of the snow that had fallen from the mountain going having gone over the cliff.
Hinata slid from her horse and helped Sasuke off of it as well, the man coming back around. Everyone moved out from their shelter of the rocks and moved towards Hinata and Sasuke, eyes wide as they looked at her in awe. Sakura rushed towards her and enveloped her in a tight hug whispering, "Never do that again!"
"I won't," Hinata replied as she hugged the pinkette.
"Hyuuga," Sasuke's voice suddenly cut through them. Pulling away from Sakura Hinata faced her captain, tensing a little at seeing his hard expression. He gazed at her and said, "You are the craziest man I have ever met in my whole damn life." He continued to look at her before his lips cracked a genuine smile. "And I owe you my life for it. I would have never thought to do something like that and still be able to save myself and the rest of Fire Country. I hope one day I can return the favor. Well done."
A blush appeared on Hinata's cheeks and she looked down with a smile adorning her lips. However she was surprised when Naruto suddenly shouted, "Give it up for Hizashi: the bravest ninja ever!"
Everyone around them cheered save for Sasuke and Hinata. Hinata grinned brightly at the praise and looked around at her friends. When her eyes landed on Gaara however she saw him frowning at staring at her, or somewhere on her anyway. Tilting her head she asked, "Gaara, what's wrong?"
"Blood," Gaara instantly said pointing at her abdomen.
The disguised girl looked down at her abdomen and saw a large blood stain through her uniform. She placed her hand over it before taking it away, looking at the blood staining her hand. Suddenly feeling lightheaded, Hinata rocked a bit before stumbling back, practically falling only to be caught by Sasuke. Sasuke looked at the blood in horror before yelling, "He's wounded! Get help!"
Sakura dropped down next to them and picked up a handful of snow, placing it on the wound. Looking at her friend with tears in her eyes she told her loud enough for only her to hear, "Don't you leave me here, Hinata. Don't you leave me just yet."
Hinata looked up at Sakura through eyelids that were threatening to shut as she was quickly losing consciousness from the blood loss. Faintly she heard Sasuke saying, "Hizashi, hold on, alright? Just hold on."