Chapter 19

Sitting on a seat in the waiting room, Atossa waited impatiently, her mind in complete turmoil. Nearby there sat Naruto, his face a twisted worry, and his eyes still carried the same shock that had been there since his kunai struck down Mardonius.

Atossa looked at him with sympathetic eyes. Even though he was the reason why her love was in critical condition, with his lungs and stomach punctured, the she-demon could not blame the blonde. In fact, on hindsight, she realized that she and Mardonius had some responsibility over what happened.

In the Nathmenid tradition, a Nathmenid baby was to have most of its power sealed when it was born. It would be stayed sealed up until the Nathmend reached an age where he had enough life experience, around fifty years old, when the power would be unsealed in a maturity ceremony, which Mardonius had already gone through while Atossa had not. It was done so that the Nathmenid would have the maturity of mind to control the power responsibly, and to resist the temptation to evil that such a tremendous power would give. Even so, each Nathmenid was given a power crystal, a pendant that the demon would hang around the neck for the rest of his or her life, in order to help in control the power that he or she possessed.

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" was a fact that all Nathmenids knew all too well, particularly Atossa and Mardonius. After all, it was power that turned their friend Kunbujiya into the monster that was nicknamed the King of the Dead.

For Naruto, though, there was no "fifty years" for him to mature before he was given the power of the Nine Tails, which was huge even by Nathmenid standards. Arm with only about twenty years of life experience, the blonde had to resist the lure of this corrosive power, something which even most mature Nathmenids would find difficult to do without a crystal of power. Therefore it should become no surprise to Atossa that Naruto, for a brief moment, gave into the temptation and the thrill that such power had brought. In fact, it was impressive that the blonde only did what he did.

Had she and Mardonius thought of that part before, they would not have taken out the Nine Tails spirit. Then again, they need Naruto to control the demonic energy without hindrance…

Atossa eyed Naruto, who was twisting and turning in discomfort, sharing the same guilt.

---

Hinata rushed down the corridor of the Konoha hospital, reached for the door on the third right, and pushed.

Just as the reception had told her, Naruto was in the waiting room.

After the Undead retreated, the first thing that Hinata was worried about was Naruto. Knowing that they were after the blonde, Hinata thought that the reason why the Undead left was that they had reached their goal: Naruto was held captive somewhere by some undying monster. Therefore she was very much concerned when the flood of zombies backed off from the village.

Leaving behind the Hyuugas alongside with whom she had been fighting, Hinata rushed to query for Naruto's whereabouts. The first people that came into mind were two Nathmenid demons. However, rushing through all those people in the streets, who were starting to clear up, she could not find Mardonius and Atossa anywhere.

Then, by chance, she was at the Konoha main gates when the two entered the village.

Hinata was very much surprised by what she saw. Rather than standing and towering over most people, Mardonius was unconscious and was held up by his girlfriend, who was also holding a bloody wound at his side. It was a strange sight: a petite girl holding up the lifeless body of a giant of a man. Yet Atossa showed no exhaustion at all. Rather, the only thing that was written on her face was fright and worry.

Very quickly, Atossa told Hinata what happened. Hinata was totally shocked when she heard that Naruto had injured Mardonius so. Then she recalled the time just before the blonde disappeared into the crowds of Undead. She remembered the blood-thirsty look in his eyes.

That was not the Naruto she knew.

They rushed the unconscious Mardonius to the Konoha hospital. They were greeted by complete chaos. Medic-nins and nurses rushed everywhere as more and more injured ninjas were rushed in. The smell of blood and burnt flesh filled the air. The moans of the dying completed the apocalyptic picture.

Fortunately, they managed to locate Shizune, who was directing patients here and there, trying to bring some order back. Classifying Mardonius as "critical but treatable", she quickly sent him to the third floor, where Tsunade and Sakura were treating such patients.

As Atossa went with the bed holding her lover to the elevator, Hinata was pulled back by Shizune, who needed her hand in directing the patients. She was to classify them into three categories. The "mild" ones were those with flesh wounds and could wait. They were to be sent to the third floor. The "critical but treatable" ones were like Mardonius, who had treatable wounds but require instant attention. They were to be sent to the second floor to be taken cared of by the Hokage herself and her apprentice. The last were the "untreatable" ones, who were so seriously wounded that there was nothing that could be done. Those were sent to the ground floor where they would be left to die.

Basically, Hinata had to be a judge, deciding on who should live and who should die.

It was an unpleasant task, especially when she had to send people she knew to the ground floor. Several Hyuuga were dying when they arrived. Hinata sent them to the ground floor. It was hardest when Shino came in with hideous injuries that forced Hinata to categorise him as "untreatable". Hinata felt as if she had executed her former team-mate.

Hinata did the same thing, over and over again, for the whole day, until she was sick of it, sick of being the judge, sick of condemning those she knew and loved. She felt ashamed, guilty of murder.

Shizune felt that she had done enough, and thus freed her of her duties.

Hence Hinata continued her search for Naruto, hoping that he was not captured by the Undead already. It did not take very long, however, since Naruto had come into the hospital as well to check on Mardonius, and was in the waiting room.

That was where Hinata found him now.

Sorrow, regret, worry, her Byakugan eyes could see all that in Naruto's blue ones. Just as it had been hard on Hinata, it had been hard for Naruto was well. Even though she still had no idea why the blonde went berserk like that back then, Hinata could only feel his pain, the same guilt that she carried as they hurt their friends. She knew that he was no cold-blooded murderer. Something must have made him to be like that.

Naruto stood up as Hinata approached, her mind a turmoil as she walked up to him. As their eyes stared at each other, Hinata felt something inside her heart about to burst. Her cauldron of emotions: guilt, fear, shame, passion… suppressed feelings that she did not even know were there, exploded all at once.

"Na… Naruto-kun…"

She wrapped her arms around Naruto and buried her face on his shoulder in tears.

---

Naruto widened his eyes with surprise.

Never in his life had he ever been held by anyone like that. Back in his childhood days, no one would ever possibly imagine being held by the vessel of the Kyubi. Everyone hated him so much that it was not even possible to be approach anyone without spite, let alone being held. Naruto had been held once in his life, and it was part of Jiraiya's "maturity training". However, Naruto realized, being held by prostitutes who did that for money was not exactly the same thing as being hugged by someone who just wanted to hug him. To him, it was a completely new sensation; reminding him of the love that he received from those he considered to be important to him: Sakura, Sasuke, Iruka… only this was far more intimate.

Naruto did not know what Hinata had been going through, and yet he knew that the battle, which was a marginal victory for the Konoha, had been hard on her as well. His eyes softened as he held the black-haired girl close. He would be a comfort to her, if that was what she needed.

He suddenly remembered that Hinata was one of those people who had seen him going berserk back then, and Naruto was caught in a sudden fear; fear that Hinata would abandon him, afraid of him, just like the other villagers used to fear him a lifetime ago.

"Hinata…" without knowing what to say, Naruto began. "I'm… sorry. I… I didn't mean to…"

He gave her a slight pat on the back of her head when the door burst open, and a very red-faced Hokage entered.

"Hokage-sama?" Naruto said. That made Hinata looked up.

"Kunka-Tsunade!" Atossa called out as she bounced up from her seat. "How's Mardonius? Is he…?"

Tsunade panted a few times to catch her breath. Naruto held his breath as he waited for the answer. He would hate to hear that Mardonius had perished, for he would blame himself for the rest of his life.

However, he hated the anticipation more.

"He's… he's fine," she replied. "We knew little about Nathmenid anatomy, but it seems that he is recovering. He has regained conscious."

The room literally exploded.

Naruto suddenly felt lightened as he began to breathe again, as if he had unloaded a heavy load in his heart. He found himself smiling at Hinata.

Atossa's reaction was far more extreme.

"HURAAAY!!!!" she flung her arms around the Hokage. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…" she said as she kept pecking on Tsunade's cheek.

"Hey, cut it off!" the Hokage pushed the Nathmenid roughly away. "I've got other patients to treat, damn it!"

"Can… can we see him?" Naruto's voice was still shaky.

"He's at room 212," replied the Hokage. "Don't linger there long. He needs rest!" With that final note, she ran through the door and was gone.

"Did you hear that? Mardonius's all right!" Atossa literally screamed as she hugged Naruto and Hinata. "Come on, let's go! Room 212, here we go!"

---

Lying on his back and wings, Mardonius felt a dull ache at his side.

It was lucky that the bed was soft, or else his pair of wings would give him a hard time. Having nothing else to distract him, he let his thoughts drift. Inevitably, the first thing that came into mind was the battle just then.

The battle was tough, that was expected. After all, the Konoha was so outnumbered that it would have been little more than an ant standing on the way of a giant. On top of that, the Undead were quite resilient to die, or to put it more properly, de-animated. It was a miracle that Konoha could hold up at all, and not crushed by the Undead soldiers of Kunbujiya in mere seconds.

It was not due to him or Atossa, Mardonius knew that very well. After wasting most of their power in the forest, the Nathmenid couple were at their weakest. Mardonius could not even conjure and control one Kataya from a distance. Hell, he could not even dodge a kunai, which was the reason why he was lying here. It was rather embarrassing.

However, resting here could allow him to rejuvenate some of his power. That would mean that the next time the Undead struck, and Mardonius was sure there would be a next time, he would not end up in such a sorry state.

Still, the Nathmenid could not help but to give credit to the Konoha shinobi soldiers, towards whom he gave his respects to. It was them who held up against enemies that outnumbered them by at least a thousand to one which gave a chance for Mardonius and Atossa to, by chance, have a strike against the Undead commander.

His mind quickly drifted to Naruto as he thought about the Nathmenid general. He recalled the bloodlust that was in his blue eyes before he reach for his kunai. As a Nathmenid, Mardonius recognized that to be a sign that the blonde was being corrupted by demonic power. On hindsight, he could not blame him. After all, like Atossa, he knew what power could do to people, especially when one had the maturity worth less than twenty years of life experience. Maybe removing the Kyubi spirit was not such a good idea, after all.

It was about then the sound of a door opening broke his reverie.