A/N: HOLY MOLY. I have no idea what happened to the original copy of this chapter, something went seriously haywire. I uploaded it the way I normally do? Regardless hopefully this fixes things, I'll check again in a few minutes to make sure it doesn't go wonky like the last one did. Thanks to the ppl that let me know that something went horribly wrong.
Chapter 12 – Sudden Storm
"Give me back my summoned soldier and I will leave this village in one piece!"
The fuinjutsu scroll Rynn was reading dropped from her hands to the bed as she heard the unnatural boom of the amplified voice. Panic swelled in her chest. It was happening. All the horrible things that everyone had predicted about her presence in the village were about to come true. In fact, most of the village probably wasn't aware someone like her was even here. All at once, the huge risks that the Hokage and all of her new friends and taken seemed to fall into place.
She didn't want to be the one got them all killed. Rynn was sure her friends in the village would never allow something to happen to her, but therein lay the problem. They would fight to help her, and that could get them injured or worse. She remembered quite clearly her first experiences in this world and how much chakra was held back by the carefully laid seals and she also remembered how the other captives had easily been able to use it…
Heart in her throat, Rynn threw the covers off her bed and scrambled to change into the darkest coloured outfit she could find on her floor. The redhead was straining to formulate a plan as she threw clothes on. Her first priority was to get out of the village. She was unsure if she would hide or run or surrender once she was out, but either way, everyone would be a lot safer if she escaped.
Dressed head to toe in black, she grabbed her training bag and left her house, running at full tilt to get outside the village before someone found her. It was only a matter of time before Hinata, Naruto, or someone else she had befriended showed up. She was certain they would have a plan, but she was equally certain that it would probably be far more risky then her own. Her plan would be less risky for them, at least.
The only thing Rynn figured she had going for her was the fact that she didn't have a chakra signature to track due to the seals. Not that it would help with certain ninjas, like Hinata or Kiba… Shaking her head, she focused on running, silently thanking Lee for forcing her to run so many laps of Konoha. Rynn crossed her fingers that she had the advantage of a head start.
As she began closing in on the outer wall of the village, Rynn thanked her lucky stars that she had made it this far without being detected. Leaping up as high as she could muster, the red haired student climbed along a metal pipe snaking along the side of the wall until she reached the top. Swallowing as the top as she peered over at the long drop, she jumped. She landed and rolled exactly as she had been taught, but still felt a sharp pain in her ankle as she landed. She cursed under her breath as she started to hobble into the forest. It'd be at least a few minutes before she could run again. Finding a thicker area of underbrush, she pulled herself into it, resigning herself to hiding until she was sure she could run again. Rynn wasn't sure what she was going to do now. Most of her plan had hinged on her getting out of the village, something that she had even doubted would happen. Now that she was out, she was far more afraid.
Rynn tried to calm her breathing as best she could to help keep herself hidden, while thinking about her next move. She doubted she could stay hidden forever, especially since she was just outside Konoha's walls. Thinking about being found by the woman demanding her back chilled her with fear. She decided that once her ankle was less painful, she would run further.
Snap! Snap snap! The fledgling ninja held her breath as she heard the snap of several twigs nearby. Someone was close. Rynn froze, afraid to even peek out to see if the person nearing her was friend or foe. It sounded like the person was coming up behind her. She squeezed her eyes closed. There was no help for it. She was caught.
"Byakugan!"
The veins and arteries around Hinata's pale lavender eyes became prominent as she scanned the darkness for her fiery-haired friend. The Hyuga was sitting atop the roof of Rynn's apartment, which she had found empty only moments ago.
Rynn had been acting odd and withdrawn for a couple weeks, and after watching her sneak out of the gathering earlier in the evening, Hinata had decided to go talk to her friend, despite the lateness of the hour. She had only just left her house when she heard the announcement. She was surprised to find that Rynn wasn't at home and she feared the worst. Maybe an enemy had entered the village to look for her, even though the proclamation had stated otherwise? Or worse, there was a chance that Rynn had decided to leave on her own, which was still a problematic scenario. Hinata's mind flicked back to Kiba's words months before about Rynn being a dangerous presence. She hoped he hadn't shared his opinion on the matter too much with his temp co-worker…
The raven-haired ninja hopped forward a couple houses. From here, she could just make out the outer wall of Konoha with her Byakugan. She peered at the wall and her heart skipped when she saw a flash of red by the wall. Rynn had been balanced on the top of the wall and jumped over the side of it. Hinata frowned. If she could see Rynn's 'escape' then surely the enemies could as well. She was certain they would be watching the perimeter of the village.
An uncomfortable heaviness settled into Hinata's stomach as she ran over the Konoha skyline, jumping haphazardly from one rooftop to another. She had to reach Rynn before the enemy did. As hard as Rynn had been working, she was still basically as helpless as an academy student and the likelihood that she didn't stand a chance again whatever army was outside was high.
It only took Hinata a minute or two to get the edge of the outer wall, but her heart sank as she peered down into the moonlit forest. Rynn was concealed roughly in a dense patch of shrubs, and two people in strange grey clothing were closing in on the redhead's poorly conceived hiding spot. The Hyuga's breathing sped up as adrenaline flooded her system. She would have to fight them two to one if she was to save her friend. Steeling herself, she leapt gracefully off the outer wall, landing only meters from Rynn's would-be assailants. She smoothly transitioned into the Gentle Fist stance and addressed the two grey-clad foreigners, struggling to keep her voice level due to her inner worry. "Leave at once and I won't be forced to hurt you. All I want is my friend's safety; I don't want to fight needlessly."
Rynn had her eyes squeezed shut as she heard a couple people come up behind her. She was done for. She wasn't any good in a fight against someone of even half these people's caliber and her throbbing ankle reminded her that she wasn't going to be able to run for it. Her mind flashed back to the time she had spent in that awful muddy cell. She had never felt so fearful since Captain Yamato's team had found her.
A quiet thump alerted Rynn the presence of someone else. Peering through her lashes, Rynn made out the form of Hinata and her despair tripled. Hinata was one of the people she was trying to keep out of this horrible mess!
A trickle of hope appeared in her mind as her first friend in this world slid fluidly into her Gentle fist stance. "Leave at once and I won't be forced to hurt you. All I want is my friend's safety; I don't want to fight needlessly."
There was a quiet confidence to the way in which her friend spoke the words. Rynn swallowed hard. Hinata didn't look scared, even though the two people here to collect Rynn were both smirking and dropping into their own fighting stances. The fear that Rynn felt for herself and her friend paralyzed her, but she remembered how much Kiba and Naruto had previously praised Hinata's skill as a kunoichi. Rynn realized that she tried to keep that image of Hinata out of her head, even when the raven-haired girl was teaching her how to fight. She always thought of the soft spoken girl as her friend, and never as a ninja. The two ideas seemed nearly incompatible.
Out of the two warriors that were now facing Hinata, the scariest was a large man with thick, woolen brown hair. His grey uniform clung tightly to his muscle bound frame and his deeply set scowl didn't help the matter. Compared to him, Hinata seemed extra tiny. Despite that fact that he was only meters away from her and that his viscous looking female counterpart wasn't far behind him, the raven-haired girl stood her ground.
In response to Hinata's somewhat bold declaration, the duo only chuckled, not bothering to answer. The man ran at her first, his massive fist swinging far faster than Rynn would have imaged for a man of his size. Hinata dodged easily, and began a counterattack that was so fast, Rynn could barely track it. Her hands flew with almost surgical precision, and within several seconds the man was knocked backwards. He coughed and Rynn noted a small splotch of blood on the back of his meaty hand. "I'll kill you for that, you frail little bitch!"
The man rushed the Hyuga girl again, and Rynn watched, fascinated, as Hinata's hands weaved through an extensive set of hand signs. Rynn blinked and there were three Hinatas on the field, all with identical expressions of stern concentration. This was not the Hinata who Rynn woke up to in the hospital. This wasn't the Hinata who patiently explained the nuances of flower-pressing. This was Hyuga Hinata, kunoichi of Konoha and Heiress of the Hyuga clan, and her skill and determination were terrifying.
"I'll kill you for that, you frail little bitch!"
Hinata bristled slightly at the word frail. She hated being called weak or frail, an understandable aftereffect of her childhood. The giant of a man came at her again with the same unpolished zeal as before. Stepping back, she weaved the needed signs to create water clones. Ordinarily, it would be too taxing for her to use two clones this far from a source of water, but the midnight air was thick with un-deposited dew. She motioned to the clones and they instantly broke apart. One clone went to engage the female warrior that had thus far been hanging back, and the other stood protectively above Rynn, who was still frozen in her previous hiding place. She herself slipped backwards to allow more space to dodge or block the mammoth man in front of her. His fists swung at her wildly, but with enough speed that she had to remain focused not to get hit.
There wasn't enough water left in the surrounding air for Hinata to make another large scale water-based jutsu, and this only left her with her Gentle fist or her Lions, both of which wouldn't be ideal for this enemy. Hinata kept her stance and weaved in and out of the man's fists, successfully avoiding a hit.
Suddenly, the brute stopped and glared at her. She met his eyes. The bloodlust there was chilling, but it wasn't something she hadn't encountered before. Without a word, the man's countenance burst into a dark orange glow. At first, the man's entire body glowed, but soon the colour was only concentrated in his fists. The man's gruesome smile had returned. Her enemy stared her down as he punched a nearby tree. The tree all but exploded, and Hinata had to take her eyes away from the man for a moment to shield her bloodline from the wave of tree bark and other organic debris.
A small bolt of fear ran through the Hyuga girl, but this was overshadowed by the calm voice in her mind reminding her that this man was very foolish to show her what his technique could do before attacking her again. She took a deep breath and tried to exile all negative thoughts from her head while she exhaled. Certain that she was calm and rational, Hinata returned all of her attention to defeating her opponent. 'Avoid his fists, attack from behind…'
This time, she was first to go on the offensive. She sprinted at the monstrous warrior, sweeping to the right at the last second to dodge an explosive swing of the man's fist. With her left hand, she grabbed on the man's uniform and used the momentum she had leftover from her running to propel herself up onto her opponent's back. Before the man could properly react to the lithe attack from Hinata, she used all of her might to strike several serious blows to the back of the man's ribcage. The man let out a gurgling roar as his lungs began to fill with fluid.
Even with his lungs badly damaged, the man was still a serious threat, as his chakra covered fists swung haphazardly over his head and back. Hinata made a few more hand signs to summon a handful of chakra needles. Her vision still enhanced, she drove the sharp constructs into the man's motor nerve clusters. His swinging arms fell limp, and the man toppled over. The raven-haired kunoichi leapt off the man's back at the last second.
She didn't get much of a chance to celebrate her victory, as the memories from her water clone came flooding back to her. Her clone had been defeated by the sharp-featured woman, who was wielding two swords of pulsating purple chakra. The revelation of her clone's final moments gave Hinata just enough time to launch into a back flip to get out of the way of the arc of the vibrantly coloured weapons. She was only partially successful, and winced as she felt the tip of one of the blade slice along the side of her thigh. Hinata landed slightly off balance, hand on her bleeding leg.
The woman didn't give Hinata much time to think up a strategy. Purple streaks laced through the air. The woman's fighting style was far, far more practiced than the man's had been. It was also troublesome for Hinata's gentle fist, as getting in close to the woman to land strikes would be a difficult task because the two chakra scimitars had a much longer reach than the weaponless Hyuga. She only had one option left: her newly acquired upgraded Twin Lions. Hinata was determined to not let them falter this time.
The raven-haired ninja jumped backwards several meters to allow herself some time away from the blades. With a deep breath, she poured her chakra into her most powerful jutsu. She felt a familiar rush as light blue chakra flared along her arms and across her back. The snarling faces of the Lions appeared over her fists and she pressed the jutsu further until the blue glow coming off them reached up to her elbows. Hinata would need her arms to be protected against her enemy's blades.
In the time it took for Hinata to prepare her Twin Lions, the woman had caught up to her in a twirling mass of swinging swords. Instead of dodging the next attack entirely, the heiress blocked the rightmost weapon with her chakra-infused arm. The purple blade was blown backwards with a small explosion, and Hinata took this opportunity to launch a strike at the woman's unprotected torso but her enemy was too quick. The blow didn't land but instead was blocked by the woman's second sword. The charge between the two different chakra types was palpable and the Konoha nin was pushed back from the force between the two.
It only took both women a split second to notice that the run in between Hinata's jutsu and the woman's chakra weapons had warped the purple blades. Filled with determination, Hinata leapt at the woman while her swords were damaged, aiming several blows at chakra points connected to the woman's organ systems. Once again, the woman was too fast for her to land a clean hit on, but this time her right fist connected with the woman's shoulder as she attempted to dodge to the left of Hinata's attack. The woman cried out in pain as the Lion connected with her body, destroying the chakra network in that area. Grabbing at her wound, she glared at Hinata as rivulets of blood trickled down her limp arm.
Hinata could already feel the start of her chakra exhaustion. She needed to finish this fight quickly and get both herself and Rynn back behind the safety of the Konoha walls. As she rushed at the woman, she noticed the woman chanting: "sei rei geh so noh!"
The syllables were foreign sounding to Hinata, but as she got close enough to hit the woman, the purpose of the chant became clear: she was summoning another weapon. The Hyuga girl as was the cautious sort and broke off her attack, just as her enemy pulled a long spear from midair. Her realization wasn't fast enough though, and a hiss of pain escaped her as the woman's newly minted chakra spear bore along her left side.
Crouched on the ground a short distance from her enemy, Hinata's thoughts drifted to her cousin Neji and her love Naruto. What would they do in this instance? Her stamina was fading fast due to her use of the clones and the most powerful Lions she had ever produced. Neji would calmly assess the situation, looking for weaknesses to exploit. Naruto would probably throw as much power as he could into a single attack…
Her enemy's movements had started to slow down as well, and the woman was walking towards Hinata with a more hatred in her face than her partner had even managed. The glimmering purple spear was raised in the woman's left arm and her right arm hung down beside her body, still useless. The Konoha kunoichi knew that she needed to get onto the woman's wounded side to strike the final blow. Hinata's pale eyes flicked up to meet those of her final remaining clone, which was still standing protectively over Rynn. It gave a nearly imperceptible nod.
It would be decided in one hit. Hinata rose to her feet, exhaling her held breath. She poured all the remaining chakra she could muster into her Twin Lions and sprinted at the enemy woman, ignoring the pain in her leg and side. The woman began a motion to throw her spear at Hinata, but the latter gave no indication of dodging the attack. The woman's face split open into a grin. She thought her victory was now assured.
The spear nearly connected with Hinata, but at the last second her last water clone grabbed onto the spear, dragging it off course. The real Hinata pulled both her Lions back and then delivered a massive double-fisted blow to the woman's chest. The foreign woman was blown backwards several meters and stopped dead as a tree exploded, blocking her path. She fell to the forest floor, unconscious and utterly defeated.
At the same time, Hinata's clone splashed out of existence and the Heiress herself fell to her knees, exhausted. She had used up more of her chakra reserves then she had ever remembered doing since the end of the war.
Rynn was on her in an instant with huge tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry Hinata, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault! I'm sorry you had to do all that for me. I never wanted any of you to be in danger, that's why I left in the first place and it was so stupid and I'm just so sorry!" The redhaired girl trailed off into quiet sobs.
Hinata still managed to smile. "It's alright Rynn. It's my duty to protect those under the protection of Konoha. And I would never let anything to happen to a friend, no matter what."
"What a noble sentiment."
Hinata and Rynn both glanced up. The raven-haired kunoichi swallowed, she didn't sense this woman's presence or even see her until she was already in the clearing with them. Clad in dark maroon robes, with her pale face framed by dark inky locks the woman looked…evil. There was something off about her that made Hinata's skin tingle with fear.
"Congratulations on defeating two of my warriors. They were not quite my weakest soldiers, but if they couldn't deal with you they certainly didn't earn a place at my side. I'd offer you a position to take their place, but given your little speech a moment ago, I'm quite sure you aren't going to be convinced to join my cause. It's tragic, but I will have to kill you. All I need is that summon behind you."
Rynn gasped through her tears, and Hinata moved herself slightly to be between Rynn and the mysterious woman. "Leave Rynn out of this, she isn't the person you're looking for."
"I can sense all my summons, little raven girl. You aren't fooling me."
Hinata summoned all the strength she had left to stand, and reactivate her bloodline. With her injured leg shaking, she once again slipped into her gentle fist taijutsu stance. "I'm not going to let you," she said quietly.
