Hinata watched from the sidelines helpless to do anything.
Naruto ran up towards Sasuke, Sasuke sidestepping his punch and slugging Naruto across the face, blood flying from Naruto's mouth. Sasuke snickered. "Naruto!"thought Hinata. Naruto snickered, ducking under and grabbing Sasuke's arm, throwing him over his shoulder. Sasuke landed, beggining to skid back as Naruto ran forward, jumping up and coming down with a kick, Sasuke just barely dodging, naruto and Sasuke directly in front of eachother, both on a single foot. Sasuke smiled, thrusting a kick at Naruto who dissapeared in a puff of smoke. "What the!"gasped Sasuke. He turned behind him, dozens of shadow clones appearing. One of the Narutos had cut Hinata free, Hinata removing her gag. "This is my battle Hinata, please stay back"said Naruto. Hinata nodded, the clones rushing towards Sasuke.
Sasuke ducked one clone and sweeped him, another trying to club him from above but was uppercutted. Sasuke leaped over one clone and pushed him into another, ducking two Naruto clones who punched eachother out. Sasuke got on top of one Naruto and leaped into the air, forming familiar handsigns, just as Hinata stood up. "I reconize those signs!"she thought.
"Phoneix fire jutsu!"
A wave of flames came down towards the Naruto clones. "No!"yelled Hinata. She began to slide back from the impact of the blast. "So easy. How could he have defeated Neiji?"thought Sasuke landing. Naruto was lying on the ground, out cold. Hinata gasped. Sasuke walked towards him with a cocky smile. "You're nothing compared to me. What a waste of time"said Sasuke. From below Naruto shot up, hitting a viscous uppercut on Sasuke. Sasuke flew back, stopping at the edge of the mountain. Naruto had a triumphant chuckle.
"Naruto!"said Hinata. Sasuke got up, snickering. "I see, while I wiped out all your clones, the impact also made a hold, which you went down while making another clone to cover it up. I should've known it wouldn't be that easy"said Sasuke.
Neiji staggered through, injured and exhausted from his battle with Kimimaro. He heared footsteps. "Who's there!"demanded Neiji. Ten-ten stepped out, carrying Temari on her shoulders. "You're allright"said Neiji. "Thanks to her"said Ten-ten. Neiji smiled. "Let's find the others"said Neiji. She nodded.
Sasuke smiled sinisterly. "Let's see what this new power is really worth. Cursed seal activate!"
"That thing!"gasped Naruto. Dark marks appeared on Sasuke's face and arms, as well as his legs. "Is he really stronger now?"thought Hinata. Sasuke's shariguan activated. "This will be a pleasure"said Sasuke. Sasuke rushed forward with tremendous speed, hitting Naruto in the gut, then spun around with a kick to the head, naruto spinning in mid air before hitting the ground.
"What power! He's as fast as Neiji now!"thought Hinata. Sasuke snickered as naruto struggled to his hands and knees, Sasuke stomping down towards his head, naruto rolling out of the way and getting up. Naruto punched forward, Sasuke catching his wrist and slugging Naruto across the face. Naruto, with his head still facing the other way, attempted to counter atrike with a kick but Sasuke let go of his wrist and leaped back to avoid it, naruto rushing towards him but Sasuke fell on his back, his leg extending up and sending Naruto flying over him. "No!"gasped Hinata.
She rushed over next to Sasuke looking, Naruto positioning himself so he could land on his feet, which he did, causing a huge splash. "Not bad fool"said Sasuke leaping off himself. Chakra began to build in Naruto. "Mass shadow replication!"
Even more shadow clones came, forming a pyramid and then leaping off in the air towards Sasuke. Sasuke caught one by the wrist, spinning around and throwing him into two more before landing. The clones surrounded him. "Phoneix fire jutsu!"
He tore through a group of clones, others coming from all sides. "Too easy"thought Sasuke. Sasuke ducked and kicked one away, then grabbing another and brining him to a knee. he elbowed one that came from behind, easily tearing through all the clones, until he stood a few feet apart from Naruto. "It's just you and me now, unless you want to waste chakra by sending more useless clones at me"said Sasuke. Naruto growled.
"I'll take you down!"said Naruto running towards him. Sasuke snickered. Sasuke ducked the punch, extending his leg into Naruto's gut. He then uppercutted him, kneed him in the gut, grabbed his arm and tossed him towards the land area at the mountain side. Naruto just managed to bounce off with his legs, spinning around and throwing a kunai at him, which Sasuke sidestepped, Naruto creating two more clones in mid air to send at Sasuke, Sasuke thrusting out 2 shuriken that destroyed the clones, Naruto appearing behind him but Sasuke saw him coming, elbowing him away. Naruto bounced across the water, finally getting to his feet and skidding back a bit. "It's useless, I can track your movements easily with my Shariguan. I can also tell the clones apart from you easily"thought Sasuke.
"That seal's giving him a lot of power, even Neiji would have trouble with him now. Still, I'm taking you back Sasuke, one way or the other, and it looks like it's the other"thought Naruto. "Shadow clone jutsu!"
He created four shadow clones. "This again?"thought Sasuke. "I know you don't want me to get involved, but, how can you beat him at all?"thought Hinata. The clones all rushed towards Sasuke, Naruto close behind. Sasuke ignored the rest, rushing straight for Naruto. "You're mine!"said Sasuke. The clones moved out of the way as Sasuke came closer to naruto, then rushed in. One went for a baseball slide towards Sasuke, Sasuke leaping up in the air as did Naruto, Sasuke catching him with a round kick and sent Naruto flying, Sasuke landing on the other clone, making it dissapear. Sasuke kicked the other clone coming from the side, the others attacking at once from different sides. One tried to sweep, the other going for a kick to the head. Sasuke caught the kick to the head, leaping up and spinning, smashing the one clone into the other, destroying them both, as Naruto sunk into the water below.
"Naruto!"cried Hinata. "I told you loser, you're nothing to me"said Sasuke. From below, Naruto was still concious. "I can't beat him like this"thought Naruto. Sasuke turned, beggining to walk away, when he heared bubbling behind him. Turning around, Naruto emerged from the water, kyuubi's chakra flowing through him. "What the?"thought Sasuke. Hinata sighed.
"Why do you keep trying?"asked Sasuke. "Because you're my friend, and I'm brining you back!"said Naruto. He rushed towards him, punching Sasuke in the gut. Sasuke fell to his knees, then tried a sweep but Naruto leaped up then kicked him away, Sasuke bouncing off the water. Sasuke bounced back to his feet. "I can't track him anymore!"thought Sasuke, Naruto hitting Sasuke shoulder first, knocking Sasuke back into the mountain side, then went over and hit Sasuke with a barrage of hits while he was still in the mountainside, before stepping back, Sasuke dropping face first on dry land. Sasuke stood himself up.
"You've proven yourself Naruto, now I see how you beat Neiji and Gaara. Now that you've shown your full power, it's time I showed mine. Curse seal level 2!"
His skin became dark, growing wings and long purple hair. "Sasuke!"gasped Naruto. "What, happened?"thought Hinata. Sasuke sped at Naruto, hitting a kick in the gut easily, then swining his other hand, which Naruto caught and he countered with an elbow.
They went at eachother again, Sasuke hitting Naruto across the face, who spun around and hit a kick in Sasuke's gut. They continued to trade blows across the water, until their punches collided the two skidded back.
"We're even!"they both thought. "I didn't expect it would come down to this"said Sasuke, making hand signs for his chidori. "Me neither"said Naruto creating a clone, creating a Rasegan.
"I'll win!"said Naruto. "Don't get cocky!"said Sasuke. Their attacks formed, the two attacks clashing in a huge explosion that created a large tidal wave. It crashed into the mountain, Hinata falling off but catching herself on a stone just above the ground.
"Naruto!"yelled Hinata. The smoke cleared, Sasuke(back to normal) standing above an unconcious Naruto on land. "No!"yelled Hinata, rushing over. Sasuke turned, too tired to dodge as Hinata shoved him away. "Naruto, are you allright?"asked Hinata. "He's fine. I won, but just barely"said Sasuke. "Still weak"said a familiar voice. Hinata and Sasuke gasped as they turned, Itachi and Kisame there.
"We'll be taking Naruto back with us"said Itachi. "No!"said Hinata standing defensively in front of him. "How cute, did she actualy take the leader's comment to heart, about you being one of the strongest? Please, most of us are jounin and kage level ninja, you're just a shrimpy genin"said Kisame. "Now, move aside or you will die Hinata"said Itachi. "No!"said Hinata. "I will take care of her"said Itachi walking forward. "Toad Blade cut!"
Itachi barely dodged the sword strike of a giant red toad, Jirayiah on top of it. "Jiryaih!"said Hinata. "I'm out of here!"thought Sasuke running. With Jiryiah were Kakashi, Gai, Asuma and Kurenai.
"We can take them"said Kisame. "No, all of them at once are too much. We need to retreat. Besides, Naruto is nowhere near our level, we can capture him another time"said Itachi. Both fled.
"Are you allright?"asked Jiryiah jumping down in front of Hinata. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help. My chakra was drained, and Naruto told me to stay back and-
"It's okay"said Jiryiah. "No it's not! I've ruined everything! Sasuke wouldn't have betrayed you if he never fought Itachi, who he wouldn't know about if not for me! Naruto came and got hurt because I got captured! I was too weak!"said Hinata. Hinata was becoming unstable, on the verge of tears. "I didn't want Naruto to do this, I didn't want this! He fought his best friend, it's not right! I didn't want this! Damn it, damn it, damn it!"she yelled, slamming her fists into the mountaiside until they bled. She continued to curse, slamming them into the wall, Jirayiah and the others watching her. She finally tired herself out, falling to her knees.
"Hinata, this would've happened without you"said Jiryiah. "Sasuke's just like Orochimaru, ambitous, and he would've found out eventualy how weak he was and Naruto would've come out after Sasuke anyways. You can't keep blaming yourself. You're a strong genin but no genin can beat the guys you've crossed"said Jirayiah. "I know, but still-
"No buts young lady, now stop blaming yourself for everything. The important thing is you've turned your life around for the better"said Jirayiah. Hinata nodded, getting up and picking Naruto off the ground. She put him on her shoulder. "Let's go"she said.
TBC