A/N- It would seem that my current update schedule is basically whenever I find the time in my new crazy life. I'll strive to keep it within the three week marker. There aren't many chapters left now anyway, so savor what you get.
Do not speed-read this chapter or you will miss a lot of important details. Oh, and Kirin is the name of Sasuke's ultimate technique in which he harnesses natural lightening. Just so you know. Guess that kind of hints at the direction this chapter is taking. ;-)
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto of course.
Enjoy!
Ikigai
in Ferocity
Chapter 28
Crimson eyes studied the torch lit chamber from the shadows of the doorway. Darkness shrouded every corner but through the columns a figure stood, features hidden. His chakra snapped and twisted, unfamiliar and yet….
Sasuke stepped into the ring of light and he could fairly feel the satisfied smile on his opponent's face.
"You're getting slow, Sasuke-kun. I expected you sooner."
So it was Kabuto, even if his chakra was far more erratic and potent than it used to be. At least his search was over.
The medic-nin moved to the edge of the light, a faint frown creasing his brow. "No hello? No death threats? How disappointing."
He'd never been much of a conversationalist during a battle, not like Naruto, but there was one thing he needed to know. "Where is she?"
Kabuto chuckled and an eerie chill of familiarity trickled down Sasuke's spine. "Hinata-chan has been delightful company! Imagine my surprise when I came looking for you and found her instead. Does she know, I wonder, how long you sat by her side, watching her suffer? You enjoyed it, didn't you?" The deceptively calm cadence shifted into a silky rasp. "Perhaps the apprentice is not quite so different from his master."
Sasuke's hand curled around the hilt of his sword, drawing it slowly from its sheath. "I know what you've done and it will not save you."
Kabuto tsked. "Always so arrogant and disrespectful, a true Uchiha. Tell me, did you like my present?"
The distance was irritating. He wanted to end this, not chat like old friends, so he started stalking further into the chamber. "My brother is dead. Now you will join him." He leaped the distance, sword slicing through the air with crackling power to miss his target by a hairsbreadth. The blade pierced stone like butter and he yanked it out, spinning in time to swat a cascade of kunai.
"So eager, Sasuke-kun," Kabuto chastised. "I haven't even explained the rules of the game yet."
"The end result will be the same."
"Perhaps for us, but what of your dear Hinata-chan?"
He stopped short and growled at the amusement radiating from the medic-nin. "Where is she?"
Kabuto pulled a kunai with a lit tag and tossed it idly into the darkness. Flames swept through the room, bathing the entire chamber in a warm glow and giving Sasuke a clear target.
A smirk twisted the lips of the medic-nin into something inhuman, his mismatched eyes; one black, one gold; no longer hidden behind thin frames of glass. If Sasuke had doubted before what really happened to Orochimaru's body, he did no more. The conflicting chakra was undoubtedly the result of Kabuto and Orochimaru fighting for dominance, not altogether different from his own battle with the sannin.
The medic was clearly losing.
His gaze flickered over scaly mutations before riveting on the still form partially shielded by Kabuto's body. Without thinking he stepped forward, so drawn to her that he almost missed Kabuto's satisfied smirk.
"She's still alive, as long as you don't get too close."
Heart in throat, Sasuke swept over her slumped body with acute vision, searching for obvious injuries and finding none. For all appearances, she might have simply fallen asleep in the stone chair if not for the metal bindings clamping her small wrists to the arms. Her head leaned awkwardly to the side, face serene in repose, but she breathed and that was all that matter just then.
Snapping his eyes back to his opponent, Sasuke spun his sword and charged his chakra. "No more games, freak."
"Aw, but I like this one. You see, even if you manage to kill me, you will never get to her in time. Just one step past this perimeter," he lightly tapped his toe on the stone and Sasuke watched in horror as a kunai shot from one of the pillars, driving deep into the stone beside Hinata's head with a sickening thunk. Had she been leaning a little more to the right—
"Not so cocky now, are we, Sasuke-kun."
He took a step back before he could stop himself, fist clenching around his sword. "What do you want?"
Kabuto grinned, raising his left arm for his first summon. "I want you to die."
***
A throbbing ache spread up through her body into her head and she wanted nothing more than to return to the superficial sanctuary of sleep. But her bed kept shaking and a sharp chirping pierced through her over-sensitive ears into the fog enshrouding her brain. A blast of heat too close for comfort forced her to turn her head and a sharp stinging in the opposite cheek sliced the last vestiges of slumber away.
Sightless, lavender eyes snapped open, hands instinctively reaching to cover the aching pain spreading out from her abdomen only to be restrained by cold metal.
He didn't! He couldn't! The press of a scalpel against her skin was the last thing she remembered, his threatening promise following her into the shadows of dreams.
A loud explosion flooded the air with dust and she coughed, turning her face into her shoulder to keep her lungs clear.
"Ku ku ku, Sasuke-kun. Is that the best you can do?"
Her head shot up as the fierce crackle of static lightening drowned out the taunt.
He's here! He came! She strained against the cuffs holding her, growling when they only cut into her skin. Sitting back with an irritated huff, she once again felt the press of something sharp dangerously close to her face. Turning towards it, she cautiously nudged against it until she felt the smooth texture of the hilt. Twisting and straining the protesting muscles of her aching body, she grasped the kunai in her teeth and yanked it out. The back of her head smacked against the stone behind her and she nearly lost her grip in the resulting daze. Shaking her head once, she leaned down to grasp the hilt with her hand and started digging at the edges of the cuff.
Another quivering boom rained debris down on her and she hunched her shoulders, wincing when a large piece clipped her temple. Blood slickened her wrist from straining against her binds to dig at the latch, but she pushed the pain aside and frantically worked her hand back and forth until a sharp chink awarded her freedom. Shaking her hand loose, she put the kunai to the second cuff, ignorant of the crumbling pillars and walls around her. She sliced her hand twice in her eagerness to be free, and not a moment too soon when she heard her name screamed with more desperate fear than she'd ever heard in her life.
The cuff snapped and she dropped to the ground, metal slashing through the air above her and smashing stone. Deafening silence shrouded the room and she slowly pushed her knees beneath her.
"Don't move!"
She froze and Sasuke breathed out in relief. He should've deflected, not evade. The large shuriken imbedded where Hinata's head had once been was meant for him. Had she not managed to pry herself loose—.
Even still, the stone surrounding her was littered with traps and there was no way she'd be able to dodge them all.
"That was rather unexpected, wasn't it," Kabuto mused, drawing Sasuke's attention back to him. "Perhaps you should be more careful, Sasuke-kun. It'd be a shame to lose her after coming all this way."
Sasuke snarled and the pulsating seal on his shoulder shattered. Chakra ripped through his body with the force of a tidal wave. Every seam of his body pulled and railed and he dropped to his knees, helpless against the surge of pain and power. No! He never intended to use the curse seal, never intended to put himself and Hinata at such risk, but as long as any part of Orochimaru survived….
Kabuto grinned, the scaly mutation spreading across his skin. "Don't fight it, Sasuke-kun. I've been waiting too long for this moment." He stalked across the debris littered floor, savoring the defenselessness of his prey. At last, the Sharingan would be his!
Threading his hand through thick raven hair, he jerked Sasuke's head back to meet gleaming golden eyes. "Let's take care of that unfinished business."
***
The flood of malice and hatred took her breath away. The seal has broken! Fingers slick with blood curled tightly into fists. He can't have him! Energy surged through her body and she leaped to her feet. Sasuke told her not to move but there was no way she was going to sit here and let Kabuto destroy what they had worked so hard for!
A sharp whistle, too piercingly high for the average ear, spliced the air and she twisted to the left, feeling the rush of metal flying past her as she spun again to the right. Her feet barely touched the ground even long enough to register the uneven terrain as she sprinted towards the overwhelming waves of chakra. Snapping her hand out to grab a weapon from the air, she flung it high and fast.
Her target moved, jumping back in time to dodge her throw, shifting stone as he landed and then rebounded towards her.
"Little girls should know when to stay put!"
She expected him to come from the right but the blow struck her in the back sending her crashing head first into stone.
"Hinata!"
Sasuke struggled to his feet, gasping beneath the pain of the forced transformation. He raised his hands to summon when Kabuto flickered in front of him and seized his neck, slamming against a pillar. Pain pierced through his stomach and blood surged into his throat.
"I'm not done with you yet," Kabuto sneered. Releasing the hilt of the blade pinning his prey to the pillar, the medic raised his fingers in sign for the Living Corpse Transformation. Orochimaru failed once before, he would not fail again.
Staring into wide Sharingan eyes, Kabuto grinned, his chakra swelling to encompass them both into a world of shadows. Only a moment, just one moment more….
His building power suddenly halted, frozen in place and he barely registered the sharp poking in his back.
"Son of a—," he spun and back handed Hinata, sending her sprawling. She quickly scrambled back to her feet, wiping a trickle of blood from her lips as her vacant eyes shifted back and forth.
"You are beginning to try my patience," he snarled.
Her hands fisted at her side. "You can't have him."
Kabuto smirked. "And you're going to stop me?"
Her abdomen ached with memory and reality. If she couldn't even protect herself, would she be able to protect Sasuke?
She gracefully sunk into a taijutsu stance. I will. I must.
Kabuto eyed her with amusement. "Is he really worth dying for?"
"I don't expect a monster like you to understand."
"Monster, am I?" He chuckled. "Then what would you call the man who sat beside your bed, watching you suffer in my genjutsu for months without so much as lifting a finger?"
Months? Had it really been that long? She shook her head and glowered towards the composed voice she was beginning to loathe. None of that mattered anymore. Sasuke was no angel, but he was hers just the same: her light, her sanctuary, her salvation.
"You talk too much," she said.
Stone crunched beneath his feet and she threw out a palm, blocking his fist. His hand twisted and seized her wrist, jerking her into his chest. "What makes you think you stand a chance against me, girl," he hissed, hot breath caressing her ear.
A small smirk twitched her lips and lavender eyes shifted, locking with his. "I can see you."
Her palm slammed into his chest, chakra exploded out and through him, the force flinging him across the room. Hinata wasted no time, sprinting for the embodiment of light in her perpetual darkness, needle sharp fingers stabbing out one glow after another, dodging each frantic swing of his arm only to come back and stab out more. She didn't have to kill him, didn't have enough chakra at her disposal to even try, but with one swift jab after another, his tenketsu blinked out, short circuiting his chakra coil and his means to use ninjutsu.
With a frustrated yell Kabuto jumped back and flung shuriken at her and with one sweep of her arm, a sharpened blade of chakra shattered them out of her path. It was enough of a distraction that she noticed the glow of tenketsu directly in front of her half a second too late. The heel of his sandal slammed into her abdomen and she couldn't withhold the strangled scream as she crashed into stone, agony lancing straight through her body and choking her breath.
Kabuto panted harshly, drawing himself up with considerable less grace to glare at the crumpled kunoichi. "I thought you were blind," he snarled, pressing a faintly glowing hand over the tear in his lungs. If that first blow had been a bit further to the right, she might have killed him, so powerful had been the force of her chakra.
Hinata curled in on herself, broke sobs ripping from her throat even as she struggled to force healing chakra into her own body.
I'm sorry, Sasuke.
The uneven scrapping of sandals against the floor told her Kabuto hadn't escaped unscathed, but it wasn't enough. The glow of his presence was still too bright in her midnight world. Cringing with each racking wave of pain, she forced her hand to uncurl and summoned all of her remaining chakra into her palm. She would not go down without a fight.
An explosion of radiance singed her retina and she squeezed her eyes shut, for once finding comfort in the darkness that had become her reality. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end with the pulsing energy saturating the air and she hesitantly cracked her eyes open. The glow of Kabuto's tenketsu was nothing compared to the surge of power radiating in waves off of Sasuke. It was like staring into the sun and yet she couldn't bring herself to look away as he slowly raised one hand above his head.
Lightening crawled through and around him, the pain of the sword pinning him to stone lost in the utter fury and hatred feeding the seal of heaven. Rock crumbled, shaken from its foundation by their battle and Kabuto glanced up startled into a blackened sky when water dripped on his nose.
Eyes widening, he quickly raised his hands into a transportation seal, but his chakra sputtered and failed to heed his summons. Swinging towards the crumpled beauty watching with half-lidded eyes, Kabuto leaped towards her, determined to take her with him even as he heard the whisper of his death.
"Kirin!"
Hinata threw her arms over her head when the world exploded in a flash of searing light, her cry lost beneath the anguished scream of another. Heat washed over her, sizzling and snapping against the thunderous crash of thunder and stone. Sharp licks of fire nicked her body, but she remained curled and shaking until the roar of thunder subsided into spewing dust and rain.
Rain? Inching her arms away, she tilted her face up to the soft drizzle pattering down upon her like gentle motherly kisses. How did…when did….
Her ears rung too loudly to hear anything and a swift glance with wide open eyes confirmed she was once more shrouded in complete darkness. There were no tenketsu to draw her focus and her heart faltered with possibility.
"Sasuke?" she called hesitantly. Did he really bring the entire ceiling down upon them?
Forcing herself to uncurl from the pain still thrumming through her body, she swallowed and strengthened her voice. "Sasuke!"
Stone shifted, sliding gently before stilling again and she swung her head towards the sound. Gritting her teeth, she patted the ground around her and curled her fingers over uneven rock, slowly dragging herself over the rubble. It would not end like this. Not if she had anything to say about it. She did not survive against all odds to lose everything now!
Slumping over a jagged piece, she panted harshly between a wheeze and a whimper, eyes scouring the blackness. Had it only been temporary? An explosion of chakra caused by adrenaline and fear that allowed her to see before?
Stone sifted again, closer than before and she pulled herself over the block in her way. Tumbling down the other side, she collapsed in a heap and gasped for breath, curling her fingers in the debris beneath her.
I will not die here!
Forcing her protesting body to obey, she lifted her head and froze. A faint glow beckoned her, a lamp hidden in the mist and she dazedly reached towards it, fingers slipping through the intangible. Riveted on that flickering light, she dragged herself up jagged rock slickened by her own blood, ever reaching forward until at last, she grasped the luminance within her bare hand.
Curling fingers tightly around his limp warmth, Hinata slumped against the wreckage, too weak to even care about the cool drizzling rain soaking her through. Tears streamed freely from her eyes and she felt she could finally rest, if only beside him.
"Don't leave me," she whispered and on the fading vestiges of consciousness, she felt his fingers grasp her own.
***
Everyone froze when the ground forcefully shuddered.
Sakura latched onto the two men beside her, verdant eyes staring wide into the darkness. "What was that?"
"Sasuke." Kakashi grabbed her arm and swung her up onto his back, ignoring her startled shriek. "Let's move!"
Neji sprinted into the darkness on point, Kakashi hot on his heels. Their search had continued to be futile with no sign of Hinata anywhere to be found. There could only be one other place to find her and that was with Kabuto himself, but judging from the force of that explosion….
Shaking his head, Neji veered to the right.
"This isn't the way we came," Kakashi said.
"The seals released. I can see Naruto up ahead," he threw back. That was a good sign, right? It meant whoever placed the seals in the first place no longer had the strength to hold them.
Skidding into the next hall, he nearly slammed into Naruto who jumped back with a yelp.
"Sweet Hokage, Neji! A little warning next time!"
Sakura struggled to get down and Kakashi let her slip down his back. She quickly scurried over to her fiancé, running her hands over his body to check for injuries.
Naruto grabbed her wrists firmly. "I'm fine, Sakura. Save your chakra. Sasuke went ahead of me but the tunnel caved a few minutes ago. We need to find another way in."
"This way," Neji sprinted off into the darkness. "I see two chakra signatures, but they're faint."
Naruto kneeled for Sakura to climb on his back, grasping her securely beneath her knees. "Where's Hinata?"
"With Kabuto, we think," Sakura said, cinching her arms tightly around him when he leaped into a breakneck speed. Digging her face into the back of his neck, she tried to sigh out the anxiety that had been steadily building the longer they failed to locate Hinata. Could she have been wrong about the corpse?
A gentle squeeze on her thigh broke her deviant slide into doubt. "If we can't find another opening, you might have to make one for us."
"Only as a last resort," she conceded. "After that last explosion, I don't know how stable these tunnels will be."
He squeezed her thigh again and she smiled, nuzzling back into his neck. "I'm glad you're okay," she whispered.
She could fairly hear the grin in his voice as his thumb caressed bare skin. "You can show me how glad when we get home."
Neji stopped so abruptly Kakashi and Naruto nearly collided with him. Splaying his hands over a slab of rock, he cursed. "This used to be a doorway."
"Let me down, Naruto." Sakura wiggled off his back and joined Neji. Trailing searching hands over the dimensions of the blocked entrance, she silently calculated the consequences of using force.
"How far away are those chakra signatures?"
Neji narrowed his eyes on the wall. "On the far side of the room."
Sakura nodded and took two steps back. "Get ready to move fast. This might not stay open for long."
Chakra surged into her fist, and with a guttural yell, she punched the rock. Granite exploded outward and a strong arm seized her around the waist, winging her through the dangerous shrapnel before she could even think of moving herself. Her feet gently touched the ground and she looked up into the amused eyes of her ex-sensei, barely registering the fact that she could see again.
"Always so dramatic, Sakura-chan," he smiled.
She elbowed him sharply, satisfied with the undignified oomph to compensate for the smile she couldn't keep from twitching her lips. "Ne, I learned from the best, Kaka-sensei."
"You okay, Sakura-chan?"
Kakashi relinquished the pink-haired medic to her concerned fiancé and glanced around the room. The ceiling had caved in, baring the underground to the open night sky. A cleansing rain pooled water into tiny streams clotted with dust and blood.
Sasuke always did have style, he mused.
"Hinata!"
They all turned sharply to see Neji scramble over rock and disappear behind a heap of rubble. Dropping beside his cousin's still body, he gently worked his hands beneath her, turning her over into his arms. Blood caked her head and hands, one latched firmly onto another sticking out from beneath the rubble, unwilling to let go even in the cold clutches of oblivion.
Brushing soaked tresses away, he tenderly stroked her cheek and willed her to open her eyes, to prove they hadn't come too late. The glow of healing chakra flared in the corner of his sight and he turned anxiously to watch Sakura.
The intense frown of concentration on her face eased only slightly. "Torn tissue and muscles…the concussion may be the worst of it. Try to wake her up if you can."
"Sasuke."
They both froze at the soft whisper and bleary lavender eyes cracked open before slipping closed again.
Neji jerked his head towards the hand Hinata clutched and Sakura sucked in her breath. "Kakashi! Naruto! Move these rocks!
The two materialized beside her instantly and started shifting the debris.
"You better move Hinata away," Sakura said.
"I can't. They won't let go."
Verdant eyes softened and she nodded once before applying her inhuman strength to digging out their teammate.
Curling Hinata against his chest, Neji nuzzled his face into her dripping hair and breathed out his relief. "It's going to be alright, Hinata," he whispered. "I've got you."
Sakura braced a precariously balanced slab as Naruto and Kakashi heaved another away, baring the stark white face of their comrade. Heaving the slab aside, Sakura dropped into the crevasse and inhaled sharply.
There's so much blood. He was practically bathed in it. A broken blade protruded from his torso, failing to hold much of his lifeblood in but just enough, she hoped, to keep him alive. Carefully closing her hand around the blade, she poured chakra into the wound, cauterizing the blood vessels as she slowly pulled the blade free.
Once free of his body, she flung it away with a little more force than necessary and pressed both hands to the gaping wound. "Don't you die on me now, Sasuke!"
Naruto kneeled above her, watching wide-eye as her hands flared brightly. "How bad is he?"
"He's lost a lot of blood," she murmured in a daze. "The blade nicked his spleen. Internal bleeding and burns…." Her eyes flickered to his. "It's bad."
Azure eyes turned grimly to the frail woman clutched in Neji's arms. "He'll make it." He had to, because he couldn't conceive telling Hinata otherwise.
"I'll stop up the bleeding best I can, but until we get him back to Konoha…." Sakura sighed when she finished bandaging his midsection and wiped a bloody hand across her forehead. "Okay, try not to jostle him too much."
Sinking down into the crevasse, Naruto worked his hands under his shoulders, hesitating when Sasuke's fingers remained locked around Hinata's. Closing his hand over theirs, Naruto leaned down beside Sasuke's head. "It's okay to let go, Sasuke. We're taking you home, both of you. She'll be there when you wake up, dattebayo."
Fingers twitched and finally went limp and Naruto shot Sakura a small grin. "Oh yeah, he'll make it."
Sakura helped ease Sasuke onto Naruto's back and shot a questioning glance at Neji.
"She's still out," he said, lifting Hinata carefully in his arms.
"That's probably best," Sakura said.
Naruto looked around the ruins and frowned. "Where's Kakashi?"
The three glanced around and Sakura pointed at the silver tuff of hair poking above a pile of debris. "Over there." Hopping up higher, she opened her mouth to call him, and hesitated.
The copy-nin kneeled in the debris, arms propped on his knees as he eyed a scorched body.
"She really did a number on you, didn't she?" he murmured.
Golden eyes shifted to focus on him, a sneer twisting mutated lips.
"You might've been able to survive Kirin with your Secret Healing Wound Destruction technique…if Hinata-chan hadn't cut off your chakra." Kakashi stroked his chin. "The funny thing is Hinata was never able to see tenketsu before you got a hold of her."
Kabuto's eyes widened, struggling to breathe through scalded lungs. Brandishing a kunai, Kakashi smiled. "Guess you wrote your own destiny after all."
Glancing away from the finishing blow, Sakura met somber blue and silver eyes. "Let's get them home."
Ingrid- "But women produce new eggs every month, how could whatever Kabuto did be permanent if he didn't make the female equivalent of sterilization?"
The current scientific understanding regarding ova in higher mammals (like humans) is that the females are born with a set amount of ova in their ovaries. They do not produce more after they are born. Once a woman hits maturity, then her ovaries release an egg every month or so (not everyone has an exact 30 day cycle), but they do not form new ones. At this point only Kabuto knows if he took Hinata's ovaries (which he threatened to do) or only some of the ova.
Whew! It was not easy writing a Kabuto/Orochimaru personality. Hope I hit it pretty close at least. Thanks for all of your lovely reviews and see you in a couple weeks! Only three more chapters to go!
