The Dark Side of the Hyuuga
Chapter 9- "I'm awake, I'm alive, I no longer dead inside"
"Thanks for brushing my tails, Naruto-kun" Hinata said putting the brush back in her bag as they neared the hidden rain village. It was a long trip between Suna and Ame for they had switched several times between flying on the hawk and riding on the back of summonings. Finally, the group saw the metal structures of Amegakure and decided to land as to avoid getting in trouble. As soon as they landed, their animal instincts told them to stay alert as something didn't feel right when they touched the ground.
"Where are all the guards?" Naruto asked looking around as if they were about to be ambushed.
"Stay on alert" Itachi said, seriousness heard in his voice as he quickly made his way to the gates of the rain village with the others right behind. As they approached the entrance, they were expecting someone to be there to stop them and ask their business but once again no one was around, not even sounds from inside the village. This just made them even more curious and suspicious as they cautiously went into the rainy land.
"Okay, something BIG is definitely going on" Kurai stated as she and Hinata used byakugan but couldn't find a living soul around.
"I think we should send someone to survey the area and see if they can find anything" Sai suggested which everybody agreed was a good idea.
"We need to stay under the radar though because whatever has made everybody go to hiding has to be very powerful or very intimidating."
Agreeing, Sai said that he would make hawks using the blue ink so they could blend in and stay alive long enough to report back.
"What if something big is happening and somebody needs help and by the time the hawks come back it could be too late…" Naruto said worried about Konan and anybody else who were in trouble and that he couldn't do something about. As the group pondered on what to do, Hinata and Kurai looked at each and smiled.
"Sai, quick make two water hawks" they said before pulling out a kunai and cutting the tip of their index finger. Wondering what they had planned Sai quickly dipped his brush in the blue ink and was about to draw when Hinata and Kurai grabbed the brush, let a drop of their blood hit the paint before handing it back to Sai. Confused, he drew two realistic hawks with the ink-blood mixture and summoned them off the bag.
"Think of it like Bandit's third eye jutsu" Kurai said as she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating along with Hinata as the two hawks flew high in the sky. "Byakugan" both kunoichi muttered softly as they activated their blood-line trait before looking at the group, a grin growing on their faces as they nodded. "Yes it was a success, now we can see out of the ink bird's eyes and tell you what is happening ahead" they said as the group started to run over the water chasing after the birds.
"Now that gives a new meaning to a bird's eye view" Naruto joked lamely making Sasuke and Itachi groan while Hinata and Kurai giggled. The birds flew all around the village, took in the sites, and looked for the cause of the rain village's mysterious nature as the group followed quickly on the orders of Hinata and Kurai. Going towards the largest building in the village, Hinata's hawk spotted something that made the group below stop and take shelter as they neared the tower.
"Okay, I see the one called Konan and a cloaked figured who…I believe is wearing an orange swirly mask…" Kurai told the group making the boys curse as they knew who was behind the mask.
"Sai, bring the hawks back now before they're spotted" Sasuke said quietly as he wore a grim look on his face along with Naruto and Itachi.
"Who is that guy?" Sai asked as he turned the hawks back into ink which was soon washed away along with the blood.
"That weird masked guy is known as Tobi-" Naruto said but was soon interrupted by Sasuke and Itachi who had more to add.
"That is but a fake name for he is better known as-"
"Madara" Itachi finished with a slight growl.
"What is Lollipop doing here then?" Kurai said making the group smile at her nickname referring to Madara's mask.
"I don't know but I think we better get closer so we can figure out what he wants and try to prevent him from getting it."
They all began to fuel chakra, after teaching Sai how to thin his out, and turned invisible to sneak their way closer to the tower and scene in front consisting of Madara and Konan having some kind of show down.
"What's Konan doing talking with that idiot" Naruto said angrily as the team, using their acute hearing, listened in on the conversation between the origami angel and the masked Uchiha. The group was surprised when they heard the origins of Nagato as they looked at Naruto who also held a look of surprise. "Nagato…was from the hidden whirlpool village too…I never knew…" Naruto felt sad that a member of his mother's birth home was dead as he knew there was a few left hiding in the world. They continued listening as they learned that Konan was still protecting her team-mate's bodies as to stop Madara from getting his hands on Nagato's eyes. "Grr, we got to help Konan please" Naruto begged, looking at the group who nodded in agreement.
"But how…I know for a fact that although Konan is strong, she is still no match for Madara" Itachi stated looking at the two in question as they wrapped up their conversation.
"Yea but if he gets the rinnegan then not even the Kages will be a match for him" Sasuke said as he knew that Madara was even more power hungry than he was.
"The only thing we can do is hide Nagato's body and set up a replacement so he can't get the eyes" Hinata said as the group agreed but one thing still bugged Naruto.
"What about Konan? We can't just leave her to die…I won't allow it."
Hearing sounds, the group turned back to the scene where Konan was currently battling Madara who was plotting on getting the eyes no matter what. "She is going to get herself killed" Naruto whimpered, tears in his eyes as he felt like he was losing another friend. Feeling his pain, Hinata made a decision and shared it with the group.
"I will possess her and stall for time while you go and make the switches on the bodies. I will try and keep her safe too."
As predicted, Naruto was about to argue saying she could be hurt mentally doing that but was reminded that they didn't have a lot of time left. Looking back at the fight Naruto nodded and gave Hinata a soul-searing kiss before telling her to be careful. Everybody got ready to sneak into the tower as they watched as Hinata activated her byakugan, focus on Konan, make the fox hand sign, and mutter softly "Demon style: Human Possession" before Hinata's spirit left her body on a one way course to Konan. As Hinata's spirit reached Konan's body she quickly left a part of essence of her mind, effectively controlling Konan as she dashed back over to her body. Gasping as she came to she nodded to the group to let them know she was okay.
"It worked, now go for I won't be able to control her long" Hinata said as she started to link her mind with Konan and control her body. Hinata watched as the group made their way towards the tower as Konan, taken over by Hinata, turned the battle to where Madara's back was to the tower as the SFC hurried inside. The longer Hinata was controlling Konan the faster her chakra drained so she physically and mentally prepared herself to fight one of the strongest opponents she has ever faced so far.
'It's now or never' she thought before she went back to attacking Madara and stalling for as much time as possible. The rest of the members of the silver fox clan were currently making their way up to the top of the tower where they were sure they would find what they were looking for.
'Please be safe Hinata-chan' Naruto thought he and the rest of the group pushed chakra through their legs to increase their speed towards the top of the tower.
"Don't worry Naruto, Hinata is strong, she will get through this just fine" Kurai said with a smile, which Naruto returned and focused on getting to the top of the tower as fast as he could. Back to the fight, Hinata was quickly running out of chakra and taking some serious damage from Madara's attacks.
"Time to finish this" Hinata said in her own body as she locked onto a special jutsu in Konan's mind and called it forward. "Secret Paper Jutsu" Hinata/Konan called out as she split the water in front of her to reveal one billion explosion tags set to go off at the same time. As soon as the first one went off there was a loud explosion that seemed to shake the foundation of the rain village to its core.
'Hinata' Naruto screamed into his mind as Hinata flew Konan's body back to where she was before losing the possession.
'I'm okay…Naruto-kun…just…tired' she said in between pants as the use of so much chakra was taking a toll on her body. 'It's over.'
As soon as the explosions went off, the boys and Kurai finally made it to the top of the tower where the site of millions of origami flowers and scenery greeted them.
"Wow, this is amazing…I suggest hiring her for your wedding Naruto" Kurai teased as they made their way over to the two bodies laid amongst a pile of paper flowers. Naruto smiled sadly as he noticed the small smile on Nagato's face as if he died happily knowing all was right.
"Let's hurry for Hinata is very tired" Naruto said as he and Itachi carefully picked up Nagato's body and took it over to one of the hawks Sai just drew. After they carefully placed the body on the hawk, Itachi and Kurai summoned a large bake-neko that followed Sasuke, Sai, and the hawk to the ground where they went to find a safe place to hide the body. Looking at the empty space where the body was, Naruto quickly made some shadow clones that laid in the spot where Nagato's and Yahiko's body, now being placed on the second hawk by Itachi and Kurai, were laid before. Coming back, Kurai picked up a single gray strand of hair and placed it on one of the clones while she quickly went over to the other body, plucked an orange hair off, and placed it on the second clone.
"Naruto I need some of your blood" Kurai stated quickly as they watched Sai return back on the hawk. Nodding and a warning from Kyuubi saying not to channel his chakra, Naruto cut open his palm and let the blood drip over the hair and Naruto clone. "It's should work best since the both of you are Uzumaki" Kurai said as she started to make some unusual hand signs before ending in a sign she called the "cat" sign and said, "Demon style: Corpse Absorption Switch." Right in front of their eyes, the group watched as the clone henge into a Nagato look alike that was very much dead. Quickly doing the other clone, with Sai's blood this time, they jumped on the hawks when Naruto got a bad feeling, a feeling that told him something big was about to go down.
'KYUUBI' Naruto yelled in his mind as he felt that Hinata was in serious danger and that he wouldn't make it in time.
"On my way" Kyuubi said and Naruto felt the necklace glow bright red as the Kyuubi quickly sent his soul through the necklace to Hinata.
"Hinata's in trouble, we got to go NOW!" Naruto all but yelled as he jumped onto the back of Sai's hawk as Itachi and Kurai took the bird with the body down just as things were about to go south with Hinata. Hinata withdrew all her control over Konan who blinked and looked at her surroundings before she noticed Hinata taking deep breaths. She wore a look of confusion as she noticed the ears and tails on Hinata and wondered how she got there.
"Team-mates safe…Madara dead" Hinata manage to say in between pants as all she wanted to do was lay there and rest. Konan's eyes grew even wider as she processed what Hinata had told her. "Find Naruto…have bodies" and then Hinata finally caught her breathe as the chakra started to flow back through her. Konan, still in shock, nodded and flew off towards the sky where she spotted two hawks landing in an abandoned building. As Hinata was looking around, she suddenly got a bad feeling as her instincts told her something was not right. Sighing, she quickly henge to look like Konan and made her way to where to the split in the earth.
'Something isn't right' she thought as her instincts kept telling her to watch out, but for what she didn't know. That's when she sensed somebody behind her and before she could so much as utter a curse she would never use, Madara had snuck up behind her and was telling her about his past life. 'Why does the bad guy always got to go into a monologue about their life or something I don't really care about?' Hinata thought sulkily as Madara continued to talk while Hinata tried to find a way out his iron grip.
"Vixen" was heard in the lavender fox's head as Hinata knew that Madara was about to use his sharingan to finish her off.
'Help me please' Hinata cried, tears running down her face as she felt that it was the end. Just then Kyuubi's voice range clear in her head as he started to name spells.
"Demon style: Time-Illusion" and time around them seemed to slow down at a marvelous rate then Hinata felt her spirit being pushed to the back of her mind as Kyuubi took over her body. Then the nine tails, using Hinata's body, made a single hand sign and created a shadow clone right next to them. The clone was then fueled with chakra for it to last longer as Kyuubi used a substitution jutsu to switch places with the clone. Making some final hand signs, ending with the fox sign, Kyuubi called out "Demon style: Fox-Fire Flight" where in a blink of an eye he was gone just as time as sped up. And just like that the battle ended with Madara ending the life of the shadow clone and going to retrieve the eyes while the SFC were hiding in a nearby building watching the show unfold as they notice Madara enter and exit the tower before they felt they were safe. Kyuubi was in the middle of the group just as he left Hinata's body back for his body in Naruto. As soon as Hinata came too, the stress from having the Kyuubi inside her, using multiple jutsus one after another, and then "teleporting" her way to Naruto was too much and she passed out. The last thing Hinata heard before succumbing to the darkness was the sound of Naruto calling her name.
*time skip*
Moaning from the pain in her head, Hinata slowly opened her eyes to notice a brown wooden ceiling that she didn't recognize.
'Where am I?' Hinata thought as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and all the events of what happened came flooding back. Gasping as she remembered the battle with Madara she tried to sit up and look around the gang but couldn't from the pain all over her body. Groaning from the pain that could be felt in every joint, she suddenly felt several people around her as she opened her eyes to see Kurai, who was smiling at her.
"Please don't try to move just yet, your body has some serious strain and you shouldn't move too much" she stated as she gently placed a hand on Hinata pushing her back down.
"Where are we?" Hinata asked as she tried to gather her surroundings but couldn't in her line of view.
"In a safe place" a voice to her right said just out of range of her vision as she sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Kurai, giggling, said all right and helped Hinata into a sitting position as she quickly scanned the room.
"Where is…" Hinata asked as she looked around the room but didn't notice anybody else in the room but her and Kurai.
"Oh, Naruto and the rest are-" before Kurai could finish her sentence there was the sound of shuffling feet and a loud cry of "Hinata" from Naruto as he and the rest of the boys entered the room with Konan following behind them.
"Naruto-kun" Hinata said softly as she noticed the look of worry and relief etched on Naruto's face as he moved by her side. With a weak smile and close to tears, he hugged Hinata like she was about to disappear from his arms.
"I'm so glad you safe and alive…you could have been killed." Hinata also had tears in her eyes as she said "sorry" and lightly hug Naruto back for she was still very weak. Sighing, Naruto let go and look at her before he said "I just glad you're okay" as the rest of the group crowded around the bed.
"Yes, thank you Naruto-kun and you too Kyuubi for saving me" as she tried to get into a more comfortable position. Naruto fluffing her pillows, Hinata took in her surroundings and noticed Konan a little distance away playing with a cat by rolling a small bell around.
'Why does that cat…look so familiar?' Hinata thought which caused Kurai to look and soon everybody followed their gaze. Seeing as how the group had grown quiet and was watching them, Konan and the cat stopped playing around and made their way towards the bed. Konan grabbed a tea set on a nearby side table and handed Hinata the tea saying that it will help with her sore body. As Hinata drank some of the warm liquid and placed the cup down, the cat had jumped onto the bed and sat in her lap, watching with its large unusual yellow eyes.
"Wait…those eyes…the fur…the goggles…" Hinata eyes grew wide as she looked at the cat which tilted its head, opened its mouth, and said one word.
"Hi" the cat from their dreams said as she smiled looking up at the group with familiar face expressions.
"Um…hi?" Hinata said awkwardly as everybody stared down at the too happy cat which was tilting her head side to side as to some invisible music.
"What a second…you're the cat from our dreams" Naruto said loudly making the group stare at the cat even harder as they noticed some of the features that match the dream cat.
"Really, I've seen this cat around Konoha a lot" Sai said as he remembered the times he saw the cat in a tree or casually strolling the streets of Konoha.
"Yep, I'm that cat" said cat said still smiling, making sweat form on the back of everybody's head at the feline's too happy expression until Hinata took a closer look at the cat's eyes.
"Wait…your eyes. You have the same eyes as JT. Do you know JT? Are you JT's cat?" Hinata asked excitedly as she picked up the cat and held it up to her face as the group looked at her questionably.
"Who's JT?" Naruto asked as he looked between the cat and Hinata, a confused expression on his face. Before Hinata could answer she saw the cat's eyes glow as it smiled and jumped out of her hands. Landing on the bed she ran to the end, jumped down and said from below,
"I'm not JT's cat. I am JT" and with that the cat started to shift and shape into the girl Hinata saw that night in the clearing. The others watched in fascination and confusion as they watched JT turn from a cat into a girl before looking at Hinata.
"Who in the world is JT?" Naruto asked again even more confused as he noticed how Hinata, Kurai, and Itachi were staring at the girl.
"You're the girl from that night in the clearing…" Itachi said as he looked at JT who just nodded and looked around as if searching for somebody. Everybody heard a growl as Naruto went to strike JT who jumped out the way.
"You're the cause of all this. What have you done to Hinata-chan? Why did you do it?" Naruto said his iris's slit as the anger was taking over him.
"Oh, I made her better" JT said smiling as she went back to looking at Hinata and Kurai.
"You did WHAT? She was fine the way she was. You will PAY for what you've done!" Naruto screamed at JT, wielding a Rasengan in his hand before he was stopped by Konan and Itachi. "Calm down Naruto" Konan said as she and Itachi quickly grabbed the angry blonde who growled at JT. JT just started humming the chorus of "Headstrong" by Trapt which seemed to make Naruto even angrier as he struggled harder to escape Itachi's and Konan's grip.
Back off I'll take you on
Headstrong to take on anyone
I know that you are wrong
Headstrong we're headstrong
Back off I'll take on
Headstrong to take on anyone
I know that you are wrong and this is not where you belong
Naruto broke free and tried to hit JT with the Rasengan but found out he couldn't.
"Wha-what is this?" Naruto said as he was lifted in the air unable to move. Before JT could answer a voice, that sounded irritated, said from across the room that all will be explained shortly. The group turned towards the sound of the voice and noticed a figure standing in the doorway looking at JT.
"Put him down before I tell Hyou you've been using your psychic abilities for fun again."
Frowning and sticking her tongue out at that figure (yea I know real mature) she slowly placed Naruto on the ground and kept him there until he dispelled the Rasengan in which he looked at the door with a confused look.
"Kakashi-sensei, is that you?" Naruto asked as he saw the forehead protector tilted slightly but he quickly figured out it wasn't as he saw the eye turned toward him, which was green, and JT laughing as she said "I told you look like him" to the stranger who let out a growl-like sound.
"My name is Maakasu-" the stranger said before being interrupted by JT with "or Maru for short" earning her a glare from the white-haired shinobi. Sighing, he made his way into the room and stood next to JT as the group took in what they saw. JT had changed out of the silver and blue kimono and was now wearing casual clothing that looked like she was going on a mission. JT was wearing blue pants with a pocket on the left side that stopped at the calf, flat open toed shoes complete with a gray short sleeve t-shirt with a blue stripe down each arm. She accompanied the attire with blue fingerless gloves, blue striped leggings with a green Konoha vest and a yellow forehead protector matching her eyes on her left bicep. The symbol on the protector was that of a crescent moon. When the group looked at Maru, they only saw a Kakashi replica due to his forehead protector covering his right eye. He was wearing black pants that came down to his calf with double loops below his thigh and calf. Red shoes that went up to his ankle with his toes exposed. He wore a light green sleeve t-shirt with a black stripe down each arm under a red Konoha vest. He accompanied the look with long red fingerless gloves with a metal plate and a black coat with a light green stripe down the front which he placed on a nearby chair. His protector was black and also sprouted the same symbol of a crescent moon as JT. The group could barely make out a face marking because it was hidden by his protector and long white hair. The group then looked closely at Maru who wore a slight frown as he stared at the group.
"Wait a minute you look familiar…" Naruto said forgetting about JT and looking at Maru.
"You're the cat aren't you…?" Itachi said as Maru nodded while Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai were still confused.
"The cat from the desert, yes" Maru said as Naruto finally figured out what they were talking about when everybody heard the edge in his voice and JT's snicker. As he let out a breath, it blew his hair out of the way enough for Hinata to recognize the upside down triangle that was the marking of the Inuzuka clan.
"You have the same markings as Kiba…except his is red" Hinata said absent-minded as she noticed the triangles were green that matched his eyes. Those words made Maru stop glaring at JT and stare at Hinata, a slight gleam in his eye.
"You mean to tell me there is an Inuzuka clan around here? I been so close to them all this time?" he asked as he looked around the room as if they would appear in front of him.
"One of my team-mates is from the clan" Hinata said hesitating as she noticed Maru's behavior.
"Really, let's go to Konoha then, oh I can't wait to meet him" Maru said excitedly which Hinata misinterpreted that he wanted to harm her team-mate.
"You can't meet them you dolt or did you forget Hyou's warning?" JT snorted as Maru glared at her before both turned toward Hinata who growled.
"Don't you dare try and harm any of my friends" Hinata said angry, her fox ear twitching a bit as she snarled at Maru who looked up in surprise.
"Harm him…I would never do that to any of my ancestors" Maru said quickly before his eye got big and he covered his mouth.
"What do you mean-" Hinata asked but she was cut off by JT who said, "We'll explain later." JT then moved from her spot next to Maru and over by the bed, her still too big happy smile shining on her face.
"Are you feeling better now?" she asked as she noticed that Hinata's tea cup was empty. Surprisingly, she did feel better and was strong enough to get out of the bed.
"Now explain to us what is going on around here?" Naruto said slightly agitated because they weren't getting any answers that they wanted.
"Okay, we'll explain you see…" After about an hour of explaining what they were, how they got there, and a whole bunch of other nonsense I'm not going to bore you with, the group stared at them as if they lost their natural minds.
"So what you're telling us it that you two…are creatures from a different dimension. Your dimension got destroyed because some bad man tried to take it over and you're in this world because said bad man is now trying to control our world while you two are trying to find a home, am I correct?" Sasuke asked, trying to figure out what mental problems JT and Maru had and if they should leave before they got caught up with these people.
"Yep, that's correct…isn't it cool?" JT said as Maru sighed and looked at the non-believing group.
"I know it sounds really hard to believe but look at it this way…would you believe about a month ago all the things that has happened to you up till now?" The group stayed quiet as they realized he had a point as they looked around at Itachi, Kurai, and Sasuke.
"Okay we believe you, as strange as it sounds, we believe you. Now why did you send us the dreams?" Kurai asked looking at the odd pair who was staring at them, JT with her happy expression and Maru with a slight frown.
"Well the dreams were to send you in the right direction as to set you off on your adventure. We made your adventure easier when we possessed Tsunade and Kakashi so you could go on your mission. Oh by the way how were your missions and did you like that we help you get them. Also did you have fun on your adventures like the desert and off to iron country. I tried to get Maru to tell me how it was in the desert but he was angry with me so he kept quiet. Also did you have fun coming to rain village and battling like Konan? JT asked randomly as the group slowly backed away, trying to figure out if they should answer or not.
"Uh…" is all they said until they heard Maru sigh and told them to ignore JT.
"She gets distracted very easily and can never stay on one topic" Maru said as he was currently having a glaring contest with JT.
"But please do tell us about how your adventure went because I'm curious as to how you got here with animal parts…with Itachi who I thought was dead… and his brother with Madara" Konan asked as she finally noticed all who was in front of her. Pouring herself and everybody some tea the group began their long speech on all the events that had taken place. When they had got to the part about Inari, Hinata stopped as she remembered something that Yokaze had given her and told her what to do.
"Um, where is my backpack?" she asked looking around until Naruto went and retrieved it from the corner and gave it to her. Opening it up, she pulled out the small gift given to her by Yohaze and looked at JT. "Here you go, it's a gift for you given to me by-" before she could finish her sentence, JT grabbed the package saying "yay, I love presents" to open it and find…
"My bell, I thought it was lost forever!" she said loudly as she went into a chant of "my bell, my bell, my bell" as more sweat drops formed while Maru sighed and said thank you for JT.
"See what I mean" as he waved his hand towards JT who had transformed back into her cat form where Konan placed the bell back onto her collar. "Please continue with your story for that should be the end of all the distractions" Maru said and let them finished telling of their adventure.
"Wow what a trip" Konan said as she looked at the group who nodded in agreement.
"Konan, exactly where are we?" Itachi asked looking around at the wooden walls of some kind of cabin while Hinata stood and stretched her legs that had gone numb.
"We're in an old hiding place known by me, Nagato, Yahiko…and Jiraiya" Konan said, a catch in her voice when she said Jiraiya's name.
'Why did she have that pause before saying Jiraiya's name? Is she worried about hurting Naruto?' they thought as they looked at Naruto who was brushing Hinata's hair.
"So is your adventure over now that you found JT who will explain why Kurai is split from you Hinata?" Konan asked as she looked at the cat that was still chanting and added a weird little dance with it that had Maru snorting in laughter.
"Well, we still have to find the star-ball since it's supposed to help with our adventure some kind of way."
When Naruto mentioned the word star-ball, JT's ear twitched and she looked up from playing with her collar.
"You guys are looking for the kitsune star-ball?" JT asked, finally tuning back in to the conversation.
"You mean they really exist?" Maru asked curiosity heard as he looked at JT who nodded. Maru then narrowed his eye and asked how she knew that.
"Oh, I seen one in the tomb of the 'sage of the 6 paths'" she said calmly before going back to play with the bell. There was about a 10 second pause before everybody in the room screamed out.
"What-Where-When-How" everybody started asking at the same time until Maru, being the loudest, yelled "Why did you go into the tomb of the sage of the 6 paths?" Everybody quieted down as they saw the anger emitting from Maru as JT seemed oblivious to it.
"You know very well it's forbidden to enter without permission. Do you know the strings Hyou had to pull just to have us go see it?" JT looked up at Maru with sad, teary eyes.
"My bell fell off my collar and rolled into a hole in the wall-"
"YOU STILL NEED PERMISSION!" Maru yelled even louder, making everybody flinch due to their sensitive hearing.
"But I got permission from Hyouuu" JT whined, teary eyed, making the group feel sorry for her.
"Oh stop yelling at her Maru, she said she got permission so there" Konan said as she stared at the white haired shinobi who just sighed and told JT to continue.
"She told me to grab my bell and hurry back-"
"Hardly believe you to hurry back" Maru muttered but was ignored. The SFC gave each other a quick glance before turning back to the two friends.
'Odd pair these two are' was what's going through their minds until they heard a loud yelp. Turning quickly they noticed that Maru was holding his hip while JT had an evil smile on her face. Maru growled, eye dilated as he bared his teeth and transformed right into a cat before their eyes. Maru kept on growling while JT looked at him with wide eyes.
"…snicker" JT began to laugh loud and hard as she rolled around clutching her stomach, which looked funny in her cat form as Maru stopped growling and stared at her like she lost her mind. "You look so funny growling like a dog, but in the body of a cat" JT said tears rolling down her face as she tried to catch her breath. Maru's visible eye twitched as he transformed back into his human form and left the room. Konan suddenly spoke up as she knew how Maru felt about JT's teasing.
"JT please stop teasing Maru and finish the story" Konan said as Maru came back into the room.
"Ok, where was I…oh yea. Well I changed into my cat form and squeezed through the hole to find my bell. I found it by this weird statue and that's when I realized that I was in a separate cave. When I looked around there was a scroll hanging above the statue's head that said the 'tomb of the sage of the 6 paths' and on the wall was a picture of the sage with the 9 biju below him and the 10 tailed beast above. I also noticed a nine-tailed statue next to him with a star-ball in its mouth and it looked like so realistic. Oh and there was this weird picture on the wall in front of the statue that looked a lot like Naruto and Hinata in their hanyo forms except their fur and tails were different for some strange reason."
The group was quiet as they processed what JT had told them while she went back to her bell.
"So what is so important about the star ball?" Sasuke asked not knowing why everybody was making a fuss over it.
"Well a kitsune star ball, with a fox's blessing, can bring anybody back to life-"
'we already know that from Inari'
"or let somebody live outside the body like if the soul was split like Kurai and Hinata".
Everybody blinked on that last comment before exchanging a look.
"…" the group was in shock after hearing that for Inari never mentioned anything like that.
"…you mean Kurai-chan…can have her own life if we find a kitsune star-ball that's been blessed?" Itachi asked making Sasuke look at his brother an eyebrow arched.
"Yes, that's how she brought back Itachi and the others" JT blabbed out before Maru slapped his hand over her mouth. However, it was too late as everybody in the group beside Hinata and Kurai, who were talking over each other, tried to find out what JT meant. Hinata and Kurai were both thinking about what JT said about the split soul being able to live.
'I wonder where we find the star-ball we're looking for?' Hinata opened her bag and pulled out the third scroll from the fox backpack.
The powers within you, will soon be unlocked,
Now the real challenge begins, as you chase the clock.
You must accept the star ball, the soul of your kind,
You must hurry, for you're running out of time.
To find the star ball, you must face the sun,
And prove to them, the battle you won.
Bring back the body of a black fox, and he will see,
You are ready for the secret hidden in the tree.
The fox whose fur is as black as the night,
With bright pale eyes that seek the light.
The black and white fox, looking for their mate,
Will soon join together as seen as their fate.
This is the final riddle, time for me to go,
Take care of each other, Hinata and Naruto.
"This is what the riddle meant. We must find the kitsune star ball to save Kurai since I'm a kitsune hanyo so I'm technically a fox and that explains when it says the soul of your kind" The group finally stopped pestering Maru and JT and went over to Hinata who was reading the scroll. JT jumped back onto the bed and sat in Hinata's lap to look at the scroll.
"Hey, I recognize that handwriting…" Maru raised a brow as he made his way over to the bed before he took a peek at the scroll before he rolled his eye, shaking his head slightly at JT's comment.
"You should, it's your handwriting" Maru sighed as he took a quick glance at the scroll before moving away.
"Nani, you wrote this?" Naruto asked as he looked at JT who shook her head.
"Yes…and no."
The group frowned at the odd answer.
"What do you mean yes and no?" Sasuke asked as he and the rest felt something was about to happen as the air around them grew thicker.
"I didn't write this, Hyou did but-"
Just then Naruto who was way beyond confused screamed out, "who is Hyou and how does she know the use of the star-ball?"
Just then there was a loud poof and a cloud of smoke as a group of people suddenly appeared in the room.
"Because-" a voice said as an unknown female appeared from the smoke.
"I used them-"
Hyou said smiling.
"To bring back-"
Shin, Sai's "brother" said beside Hyou along with a lot of familiar faces.
"Some old-"
Granny Chiyo laughed.
"And young-" Sasori smirked.
"Faces-" the 3rd Hokage smiled.
"Back-" Asuma said chewing on a pocky stick.
"To life, un" Deidara stuck all three of his tongues out.
The last person came out with his perverted grin and laugh. "Hey Naruto, long time no see" Jiraiya, the legendary toad sage said as he looked at the group's shocked faces.