Hope this was worth the wait.

Place: Konoha Village Rooftops

Time: Evening.

From his perch above the rioting village Kakashi blew out a breath of air, sickened by the sight of his village tearing itself apart over matters that were arguably very trivial. No…they weren't trivial matters, otherwise neither he nor Naruto's group would be out doing what they were doing to stop the madness. Too many lives had already been sacrificed, and too much of the village had been destroyed in the infighting to be simply passed off as a trivial dispute between two factions.

"I'm disappointed in them too." Jiraiya sighed from behind him.

"Horrible isn't it? For us to come this far and to destroyed by this." Kakashi stood up, removing the covering over his left eye he nodded to Yamato. "Do what you can to quell the violence."

"No problem senpai." Yamato nodded and leapt down into the village.

"We should probably go down there too. Knock some sense into them." Kakashi sighed solemnly as he prepared to join Yamato.

"Let the kids bicker," Jiraiya placed a scroll in Kakashi's arms. "I'll handle things here, you get the words to the people on that scroll and tell them to meet the old woman above the Hokage mountain."

"Huh?" Kakashi quickly tore the scroll open, spotting his name amongst the many summoned by the old woman. "What's this all about?"

"Gather all those people together and find out."

"But what about the village?"

"Don't worry about it." Jiraiya said. "You'll understand it all soon enough." With that Jiraiya leapt away. Hoping he could do something about the violence.

Place: Hokage Mansion gates

Time: Evening

Neiji shut off his Byakugan and turned to face his friends.

"It has begun, we should leave now."

"Leave?" Naruto shouted, suddenly very angry. "Why should we leave and abandon Hinata like that? You know she's no match Hiashi."

"This is true." Shino interjected. "Your skills are said to surpass Hiashi's. Considering her current skill level it will be impossible for her to even lay a finger on him."

Neiji shut his eyes and took in a very deep breath. "You people," He paused, taking the time to look each and every one of them in the eye. "Disgust me."

Snatching Neiji up by his collar Naruto bared his fangs at the young Jounin.

"What did you say?" Naruto screamed. "I dare you to say that one more time."

"I said you people disgust me." Neiji replied in his usual monotone. Naruto directed a punch at his face, but his blocked it quickly and wrapped his fingers around Naruto's clenched fist as if he was proving his point. "You call yourselves her friends, and yet you treat her like she's a cripple. Yes, her chances of defeating Hiashi, or even touching him are slim. I myself doubt that anything will come out of this sacrifice she plans to make."

"Don't preach to me Neiji," Naruto screamed again. "Don't you dare…"

"However," Neiji continued on, ignoring Naruto's threats. "Despite my lack of belief in her ability, I do believe she is doing her best so you, her so-called friends, won't have to fight and suffer. She'd rather sacrificed herself so you, her friends could cheer her on. Yet here you are, trying your best to save her from her own judgment.

"By doing that you are being far more detrimental than simply doubting in her abilities. By failing to trust, and believe in that she is strong enough to make her own decisions, you treat her worse than the rest of the family. That makes you no better than the ones you're trying to save her from. That is what makes you so disgusting." Neiji pulled himself free from Naruto's grip and walked away heading back towards the riots that were threatening to overrun the village.

"So what do you wish us to do then?" Naruto yelled after Neiji. "Sit here and wait? Abandon her to her fate?"

"If it's a fate she herself has chosen, then yes. You should leave her to it. However," Neiji dug into his kunai bag and held up a strangely familiar, oddly-shaped, forked kunai. "If you believe in her, she will return. Besides, aren't you forgetting she's ANBU?"

Place: Hokage Mansion

Time: Evening

"Your form still hasn't improved all these years." Hiashi circled around his daughter, his hands tucked under his sleeves behind his back he kept a watchful eye on her as he complete his third lap around her. Hinata was leaning against her katana, on her knees struggling to slow her breathing. "You are not even worth me taking you seriously. How you made ANBU captain…surely wasn't because of your prowess with taijutsu. You are a joke, a defect, nothing more than a broken doll left on the side of the road."

"No…" Hinata breathed as she finally managed to push herself up to stand on wobbling legs. Legs that were keeping her from staying upright longer than a few seconds. She collapsed back to her knees again, out of breath and on the verge of tears. "I'm not…"

"Worth anything? Yes I know. I've known this for quite a long time." Hiashi looked out the window overlooking Konohagakure, the once great village hidden in the leaves. "The village burns because you did not understand your place. Had you just done as you supposed to and accept responsibility for your actions, then none of this would have come to pass.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Hinata sobbed, pushing herself once again to her feet. She propped herself against the wall, wiping the tears from her eyes she did her best to ignore the beating of her own heart in her ears. "I'm taking responsibility for my actions. I'm going even farther than that. I'm apologizing to then entire village with the sacrifice I'm about to make. I'm willing to give up something I know I'll never be able to have returned to me, in exchange for not only the happiness of the village, but for you. The father who never complimented me. The father who never once said he loved me, or was proud of anything I accomplished. The father who didn't bother to show up to the wedding he himself set up. The father who conspired to murder his daughter who was pregnant with his grandchild…"

"You were?" Hiashi spun around in surprise, nearly a grave mistake on his part. Hinata had pushed herself off the wall, sword cocked far behind her head as she flew across the room, ready to brush, cut…touch his body in anyway possible.

At the last second, Hiashi stepped out of the way, slamming Hinata's back against the glass hard enough to crack it. He quickly stepped back on the balls of his feet, and drove his palm hard into his daughters stomach, sending her through the glass and down to the ground below.

Hinata's back struck the ground first as she tumbled along the ground quite a distance before stopping just before the gate surrounding the mansion. Pushing herself up on her elbows and knees, Hinata watched her father speed towards her, his palms ready to strike. As she rose to her feet she willed her body to react. To execute some sort of resistance, or even for her legs to move so she could dodge. Her legs didn't respond at all.

Vomit and water poured out her mouth as her body took the full brunt of Hiashi's palm. She was sent rolling across the ground again, unable to regain control of her body parts, Hinata struggled to remain conscience.

"All you are is talk." Hiashi spat angrily as he stalked towards her. Again, she somehow found the strength to stand on her own two feet, though still dizzy and sick she finally dropped into a defensive stance as her father continued on. "You aren't even worthy even to be spare body parts for my true daughter. Worthless…that's all you are, and all you ever will be."

"I am not worthless," Hinata struggled against her own failing body, gathering enough chakra for one last desperate attempt to touch her father, she went for it. Hiashi blocked the strike, and proceeded to destroy every last single bone inside of her right arm. In pain, but still not giving up she went for a swift roundhouse kick, but Hiashi quickly stopped that too, striking her knee once, Hinata felt the last of the strength in her legs give out as the bones of her right leg shattered. She fell to the ground for the last time, unable to offer up any sort of resistance to a man who continued to dominate her life since birth.

"Like I said before," Hiashi sighed to himself as he watched the biggest defect his clan had ever birthed, make a feeble attempt at crawling away. "You aren't even worth being used for spare parts. Everything about you is sub-standard. You should have been tossed to the wolves and left to die." Picking up her fallen katana Hiashi raised the blade over his head, ready to finally end the miserable life of the life-form below him…

…when a over-sized shadow of a beast leapt over Hinata's head, and latched itself to the Hyuuga Clan leader's throat.

Using ethereal weight and power, the shadow beast pushed Hiashi down the ground, it's ghostly fangs tearing and ripping at life flesh as if it hadn't eaten in days. Hiashi flailed his arms and legs doing his best to somehow kick and throw the beast off, but found that his punches only became more frantic as they passed through the skin of the beast and touched nothing but air.

"No! stop it!" Hinata shouted at the beast, unsure if it would listen to her. "Don't…kill him…no!" She reached out with her palm, ignoring her fear about the beast turning its attention to her, she used the last of her strength to swat at its body the best she could….and the beast ceased in its mauling of Hiashi and turned to whine at her. The whine itself was familiar, reminding her of a familiar ally she had spent much of her youth with. "Akamaru?" Hinata gaped in both fear and surprise.

"Arf!" The shadow barked happily.

"Oh my god," Hinata covered her mouth in surprised, but quickly shook her amazement to check on the now unmoving form of Hiashi. She crawled over to her father's body, her eyes widening as she spotted the pool of blood forming under his head. Tearing off pieces of her uniform with her teeth she did her best to stop the bleeding. Once the makeshift bandage was complete she prayed that her body held enough chakra for her to make it in time.

Akamaru's ghost barked once, whimpering as he nudged her weak body with his frame.

"Please…don't let him die…" Hinata sobbed. "Please…"

The ghost dog barked once again, as if answering her request he sat back on his hind legs and let loose one long howl that echoed far and wide, touching the ears and hearts of Konohagakure. Both beast and man alike. Soon Akamaru's howl was answered by another, then another…continuing on until it seemed as if the village itself was howling the cry for help.

"That's a good boy." A familiar voice spoke from behind her. Turning her body the best she could, she could she a shadow kneeling a ways off, its arms outstretched. "You did good…time to come home."

"K-Kiba…" Hinata cried out, reaching for the ghost of her dead friend.

"Don't worry, everything's going to be allright." Kiba's ghost said as his companion ran up to join him.

"Yup," Hinata spun around to see Shikamaru's ghostly form standing a ways off, a unlit cigarette dangling from his lip.

"Don't worry. Everything's going to work itself out. No one else is going to die today. That we promise." Lee's ghost appeared in front of her, sporting his trademark grin and thumbs-up.

"So stop crying already won't ya?" Kiba said, as he ruffled the fur of his dog. IIno's ghost knelt down beside her, and ran a hand through her hair. "We'll be looking out for you from now on. So just shut your eyes and rest. We'll handle the rest."

"Let's go, times a-wasting." Shikamaru said. Akamaru barked one last time, and the ghost of friends turned and walked away, vanishing into the air.

Ino took hold of the back of Hiashi's collar and gently placed his head in Hinata's lap. "Take care of your dad. You'll be spending a lot of time together later on." She said, lying planting a ghostly kiss on her friends' forehead. "Take care of Naruto."

With that, Ino's spirit ran up to put an arm around Ghost Shikamaru and the two vanished together.

Turning back to her father's limp body she found that the bleeding coming from the wound to his neck had stopped, and even more, through the darkness and flames of the dilapidated buildings surrounding the Hokage mansion and without the use of the her Byakugan, she could see the entire village coming towards her direction. Led by Naruto and the others help came en masse.

Knowing that her father would be taken care of, Hinata quickly reached into her kunai pouch and drew out one blade and proceeded to carve out her eyes.