oOo
Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
-Rossiter Worthington Raymond
oOo
Hinata knew there wasn't much point in struggling.
Her hands and feet were tied with cord, a heavy blindfold lined with lead over her eyes. It didn't completely stop the Byakugan, but what she could make out was only faint gray impressions just in front of her feet. She was light-headed and disoriented and the floor was never where it was supposed to be. Someone was leading her with a tight grip on her arm, though they didn't bother helping when she stumbled, only tried to hurry her along.
A squeal of hinges indicated a door opening, and Hinata was pushed out onto a metal catwalk, spun several times—which nearly made her puke—and shoved down into a chair. She was locked in before she could recover from the spinning.
The person that had been leading her took up a post behind the chair, and a set of shiny black shoes entered Hinata's narrow vision. There was a pinch at the back of her neck and Byakugan flickered out. Cold fingers removed her blindfold.
Grainy black and white photos were all she had seen of Kabuto before now, and they did not do him justice. Limp white hair hung around a haggard face pebbled with white scales, the skin bubbled and oozing where the scales met skin. Glasses covered slitted yellow eyes that glowed with the fire of a madman.
The pictures had scared her. In real life, she found she was more angry than afraid. This was the man who had broken everything, ruined everything, for nothing but his own pride.
He reached out to touch her face, and she nearly took his fingers off.
"Feisty, aren't you?" Kabuto whispered, just loudly enough that she could hear him. His voice was smooth and oily, his tongue forked. "I am glad. I was worried…"
He cocked his head to the side like he was listening to something, even though the only thing Hinata could hear was their breathing. She took advantage of his distraction and looked around, trying to find something she could use to escape. She couldn't see anything besides the catwalk, dimly illuminated by a single bulb above her head, and darkness beyond.
"Don't look down," Kabuto advised with a chuckle. "It's a long fall."
"What do you want with me?" Hinata asked.
"What do I WANT?" Kabuto screamed. His hands slammed against the chair, rocking her backward, his face inches from hers. Hinata's heart slammed up into her throat, and she pulled back as far from him as she could. Her feet couldn't find the floor. Kabtuo bared his teeth, breathing hard, and Hinata was sure he was going to kill her.
Instead, he set the chair down and leaned back against the railing, the façade of calm back on his face. Hinata tried not to shake.
"It's very sweet of you to ask," he said. "You're a thoughtful girl. I've seen that—I like it. Why, when you asked that cousin of yours to get your family out of the city, I was inspired. Family. Family is the most important thing, isn't it?"
He looked at her, and she could only nod, hoping that wouldn't set him off again. But he smiled.
"I'm glad you understand. That makes everything simpler."
Hinata felt ice crackle down her spine. She didn't want to make things "simpler".
"Family," he savored the word. "The most distant is still so close. Spiritually, emotionally… physically. It makes everything so much simpler. I thought you would fight it, but you won't. I know that now."
"What?" Hinata asked, and it came out as a croak.
Kabuto gestured to the person behind her chair, and they stepped around and into the light. Hinata stared, uncomprehending.
"Auntie?"
It really was Aunt Hitomi, in her lemon yellow party dress, her hair done up in her signature bun. Her makeup and the distant smile Hinata had seen every day growing up were perfectly in place, but her eyes didn't move. They stared forward, blank and glassy as a doll's.
"What—"
"What did I do?" Kabuto pulled Hitomi over and wrapped an arm around her waist, like they were a couple posing for pictures at a party. "Blood, my dear." He traced a blue vein up Hitomi's arm to her elbow, where he tapped the skin gently. "I only needed a little, in the end. I've developed something new, something incredible, that will change the entire world! I will control everything, and everyone, with just a little blood…"
Hinata started to scoot her chair forward, hoping to hit Kabuto hard enough to make him let go of Hitomi. He ignored her.
"It takes time to make, I know, but once you have the right compounds for the right family… you can have anyone."
He looked at her. His eyes seemed to burn right through her mind. "Anyone at all will do exactly as I say."
"Let her go," Hinata said, trying for bravado and pretty sure she had failed. "Now."
Kabuto locked eyes with her and lowered his lips to Hitomi's ear. He whispered something, and without a pause Hitomi grabbed the bar of the catwalk, and swung herself over it.
She fell without a scream.
It happened so suddenly Hinata couldn't even process it. One minute her aunt was there, and the next she wasn't. Hinata felt like a child at a magic show, waiting for the mirror to lift and show that the beautiful assistant was alright.
But Hitomi didn't reappear. There was no bunny to pull out of a hat, no mirror, no magic.
"Family," Kabuto repeated. "The most important thing. You understand that."
Hinata was unable to move; unable to think, breathe, feel. She had never even really liked Aunt Hitomi.
"Why?" she asked.
"I should have waited," Kabuto acknowledged calmly. He reached back and produced a briefcase, which he opened with a flourish. He started to prepare a syringe as he talked, filled with a viscous yellow liquid. "I was going to make you offer your arm freely in exchange for her life, then have her jump. But its better this way, don't you think? More screaming."
He lifted the syringe and pinned her arm to the chair. Hinata tried to do something, but her brain felt like it had turned to jelly. She could only watch as Kabuto slid the needle under her skin, and a burn started in her arm.
"I hope this doesn't kill you," he murmured after he had finished. Almost as an afterthought, he lifted her wrist and bit it, nodding in satisfaction when he was through. "You'll wish it did, but I hope not."
The burning intensified, sliding up her left arm and spreading across her chest. She felt like she was splitting apart, the heat in her veins screaming through her body and down into her bones.
Naruto, she thought. Naruto, if you can hear me—
Her vision exploded in white, and she started to thrash and scream, would have clawed the blood out of her body if Kabuto hadn't manacled her to the chair. Her head was seared, her lungs pumping in air until she felt like they would burst, and in every vein, every capillary, ran the serum. She had never felt anything like it, no even when she had been little and touched the stove. That had just been a moment of pain. This was never ending, seeming to build in intensity, until it felt like she no longer had a body, was just a pillar of pure heat, scorching anyone standing too close.
It didn't stop. It wouldn't stop.
So Hinata's mind did the only thing it could—it retreated.
It was like she had stepped inside a steel box, and slammed the door shut on anything that wanted to hurt her. The pain stopped, and she stopped screaming, stopped moving.
"Open your eyes," Kabuto said. "And keep them open."
Hinata opened her eyes without thinking about it, needing to know her surroundings. Kabtuo's moist breath was puffing against her nose, his eyes glittering with glee. She wanted to lean back, but didn't.
Kabuto remained silent, watching her, and Hinata noticed that he kept blinking. Her eyes began to tingle, and sting. She tried to blink, but her body wouldn't listen, wouldn't follow her commands.
No way, she thought. This is not Disney, I am no Pinocchio, I can blink if I want.
Kabuto cackled. "Blink when your body needs to."
Her eyes blinked desperately, and Kabuto howled with delight, clapping his hands together like a child. She willed her arm to punch him. It wouldn't move.
She had to get out of the box. Even if her body was still in that pain—she shuddered—even if it was, it was better than this. Better to die than be Kabuto's doll.
But when she looked, there was no door, no cracks, not a single seam in the steel bubble she had shut herself in. She couldn't get out. Couldn't get out, couldn't move, couldn't do anything!
"Stand up," Kabuto ordered, undoing her shackles. Her body complied. "Suivez moi."
Hinata had never taken a French class in her life, but it didn't matter. She complied to his directions immediately, following him down the catwalk and a narrow, winding set of stairs. Lights flickered on as they walked, great canned things that sounded like a band of insects playing death metal. They illuminated a carcass of steel and concrete, a warehouse stripped of anything and everything but the bones and sinew that held it together. There were no windows, and only one set of doors, great big things on rollers that looked like they opened up on the mouth of Hell.
Run, said her instincts. Clobber him and run.
She stepped off the last stair, and found herself almost directly below the catwalk, which cut the building in half, like a spine. Kabuto had stopped, and she was staring at his back. For the first time, she realized he was wearing a three-piece suit, dark and woven so tightly the price tag had probably been printed on gold. What she thought was a white scarf was wound around his neck, until it shifted and she realized it was a long, thin snake.
Shudder, said her mind. That's nasty.
No, said her body. I don't take orders from you.
"It's almost time," Kabuto said. "Just a few last preparations… Family. They always blow up at…"
He turned around, frowning. "Go clean up that mess on the floor," Kabuto snapped. "And be quick about it. Dump the excess outside."
Off he went, whispering to himself or the snake. Hinata moved forward immediately, and screamed within the box when she realized what the mess was.
Her aunt. Head cracked, dress dark red with blood, limbs cracked out at odd angles. Hinata wasn't sure how, but she felt like she was going to be sick.
For a moment, she was glad she was not in control of her body. It let her ignore what it was doing, bury herself inside, while her hands grabbed those tiny, broken wrists and started to pull.
oOo
Sakura was stuck bouncing in the back seat, a flashlight between her teeth and a map crinkled across her lap. They were on a street called Amelia 56, and it was not on the map.
They hit another particularly large pothole, and the flashlight fell out of her mouth, her teeth snapping together painfully. She swore a blue streak, bending down to search for the flashlight, her shoulder slamming against the seat at another bump.
"Slow down!" she hollered at Tsunade. Sasuke hadn't said anything for a while, and if his white-knuckled grip on the dash was any indication, he was officially noticing the outside world. "Better yet, pull over!"
"But this is the way the GPS told me to go," Tsunade whined. "I don't understand how it could be so wrong!"
"I don't understand why boy bands have made a comeback or why people think Jell-o without whip cream is an acceptable dessert, and it doesn't matter. Pull—"
Her breath caught in her throat as a terrible feeling of dread swept from her toes to the crown of her head and back again. Something was wrong. Something was horribly, horribly wrong. Her breathing went wonky, and spots started dancing in front of her eyes.
"Sakura?" Sasuke asked. She realized they weren't moving anymore, and Sasuke was in the back seat with her, touching her back lightly. He actually sounded concerned, which was the only emotion besides annoyance she had gotten from him in the last twenty-three hours. "What happened?"
"I—don't—"
"Breathe, honey, breathe," Tsunade ordered. "Why don't you keep paper bags in your car you stupid lemur?"
Paper bags? I don't need… am I having a panic attack?
The shock was actually enough to calm her down, and she let out a huge breath of air slowly. She realized she had been sweating, and her muscles felt weak and trembly.
"I have to go back," she said with absolute certainty. "Something terrible has happened, I just know it."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "We're going to Itachi. We're almost there."
"No," Sakura gasped, feeling her chest seize up again. "No, no, no! I have to get back. You can go, I'll walk, I'll take a bus—"
"We're in the middle of Oh-Look-Another-Cornfield, USA, you're not going anywhere on a bus," Sasuke said. "They still use horse-drawn carts here."
In a way, he was right. They hadn't passed a town for miles, and she had no idea where they were anyway. For all she knew Amelia 56 ran right into Canada.
"We only have another few hours," Tsunade assured her. "We'll drop off the baboon at Itachi's—"
"—what did you call me?"
"—and then drive you straight back."
"No!" Sakura exploded. "We need to go back now!"
Tsunade mumbled under her breath about stress and fiddled with her GPS again. Sasuke just watched her with dark eyes, all hidden agendas, and pulled away from her.
"Sasuke," she tried.
That was about as far as she got. Sasuke had gotten tired of waiting, and took action. His hand lashed out and caught Tsnuade in the back of her head. She slumped into the seat, and Sasuke shoved her into the passenger side, clambering up to take the wheel. He didn't even glance at the GPS, or at her, as he turned on the car and pulled back onto the road.
His eyes met her wide ones in the rearview, and she could see the calculation in them, numbers running, her plight reduced to a set of equations he measured against others.
After what seemed like a very long time, he looked back at the road. "We'll have to be quick. Hold on."
oOo
It was all going really well until Hinata tried to kill him.
Naruto had tracked Kabuto down to yet another abandoned warehouse. He wondered what it was about villains that made them so attracted to empty warehouses. Maybe they liked how big it was; of there were a lot of shadows from which they could chuckle malovently. Why were there so many abandoned warehouses, anyway? How many could one city possibly need?
On the upside, there weren't a lot of innocent civilians around to get caught in the crossfire. Too bad he was going to be in it—after this, he was taking a vacation. To the Bahamas, where he was going to have fruity little drinks and swim in the ocean and stare at all the bikini-clad girls until his brain melted—
-scratch that. He was going to stare at Hinata until his brain melted. Hinata in a bikini. He could feel the slime oozing out of his ears now.
Shaking his head, Naruto turned back to his merry men, who looked like a special edition of Guns and Ammo crossed with Schwarzenegger, crossed with Chuck Norris, crossed with Batman. If there was ever a band of people who looked more prepared to go to war than his little group did, it hadn't been seen since a group of soccer moms had wanted to buy the same last ticket to the Barney on Ice show.
Even so, it didn't feel right. Usually, he would have Sasuke and Neji on each shoulder, and Tsunade bringing up the rear. The raw crackle of power they formed was comforting to him, familiar, and now it was gone. Over the last several days, the city had almost completely cleared of his people—even Kabuto's "loyal" men were long gone, hiding under rocks until they knew which way this fight was going. There were also rumors that Kabuto had been experimenting on them, and bodies had been turning up in huge piles. That tended to cut down on numbers pretty quickly. It never really came down to other combatants anyway. When a King was challenged, everyone cleared out but the two fighting for dominance, and their three most trusted followers.
Naruto had brought Shino, Bear, and Bat with him. They were great, no denying that, and it had been a lot of fun to see how many, "We're going to Bat!" jokes he could get in before Bat pulverized him. (Fifty.) But… it wasn't the same. He didn't feel safe. In fact, he felt like he was waiting for a piano to fall on his head, his teeth replaced by ivory keys.
That might have been the paranoia talking. He couldn't feel Hinata properly. The little bundle of emotions he always carried in the back of his head felt like it had been wrapped in a million layers of cellophane, and all he could tell was that she was alive. He was worried she had been drugged, or worse, and it wasn't exactly helping him concentrate on what needed to be done.
At least she was alive. That was the really important thing.
He ignored the fluttering memories that told him there are many, many things worse than death. Lost eyes, fading, being pushed aside…
Unwittingly, he thought of Konan. The cracks inside of her were too big to hide now, too wide to cross. She's not alive, not really, because her most important people are gone, and she's just the shell that houses the memories. Once, she had come to him, drunk as a dog, and curled up on his couch, asking: "Why won't it scar?"
"Naruto," Shino murmured, his voice barely distinguishable from the breeze blowing. "The warehouse is empty but for two life forms. One is Kabuto. The other… a female. I'm not sure."
"Not sure?" Bat asked derisively. "You have a million bugs at your disposal and all you can give us it "female"? I can get more information by looking inside."
"No," Shino said simply. "Your head would have been blown off by the bomb my bugs disabled."
"Are there more bombs?" Naruto asked, before Bat can come up with a scathing retort.
"Undoubtedly."
"Do you know where they are?"
"None that will hamper our progress from here on out that I can detect. I am still searching the full complex."
"Right," Naruto said with a sigh. Neji would have been able to see them all. "Thanks, Shino. Everyone ready?"
"Yep."
"Sure."
"Yes."
"Go for it, Idiot," Sasuke smirked in his mind. "Try not to trip and fall on your face, will you?"
Shut up, Naruto thought irritably. It was a testament to how rattled the Kyuubi had made him that he was so terrified of facing Kabuto without his team. He could do this. He could do this.
Hinata should be here.
Seeing as that thought seemed to have taken up permanent residence, Naruto just shouldered it, straightened up, and strolled.
There was an art to walking into an enemy's lair like you owned the place. Naruto was level expert.
"Yo," he called blithely, standing in the light cast by the door. The warehouse was dark. Naruto wondered if Kabuto thought it added to the Creep factor, or if the idiot had gotten tired of waiting and forgotten to plug in his nightlight. "So I got your invitation and, sorry, but I totally forgot the weed."
He can practically see Neji hang his head in embarrassment, and Tsuande snickering. Behind him, the others don't react at all.
At all.
Naruto pivoted and brought his arm up just in time. A thin, pale hand slipped against his arm and away like a fish in a stream, the body already moving past him. On the floor, Shino, Bear, and Bat were crumpled like used soda cans. They were twitching, which at least meant they were alive.
The female. He would have sensed Kabuto's presence—could still sense it, somewhere overhead—but the woman he was fighting didn't seem to have any life in her at all, nothing he could use to follow her movements.
"Oh, what," he called, trying not to show his uneasiness. Where is she? Where is she? "You're going to have someone else fight for you? Weaksauce."
"I thought you would appreciate the opportunity," Kabuto said. He sounded extremely happy. Naruto wondered how much drugs that would take. Probably a good thing he hadn't brought the weed. "To reclaim what you have lost."
"How do you figure?"
Lights blossomed in the ceiling, big bulbs the size of his torso, loud enough that Naruto was glad he'd lived in NYC as long as he had, and could tune out annoying noises. The flash was sudden and bright, and for a second Naruto was blinded. He jumped away from where he was standing, waiting for his eyes to adjust.
When they did, he poked one just to make sure they were working, because he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Hinata looked like a ghost. Pale and waning in the light, dressed in white, hair and eyes like spills of black ink. Her hands were extended toward him, straight and sure, her feet balanced. She did not smile, did not blink. He couldn't feel her.
A tide of red anger made Naruto's vision spark, but he held on through the flow and turned his glare on Kabuto. He was going to kill that—
Pain flickered up his arm, and Naruto jumped back in surprise from Hinata's attack. His left arm hung limp at his side, completely numb from the shoulder down. The moment she had gotten his attention, Hinata was back where she started, unmoving.
"Brilliant," he hissed when Naruto was through. "Family, Naruto, is the—"
"Are you seriously going to villain monologue right now?"
"—most important thing. More important than life, it transcends even death. I have to come know this personally, though through a great price. A great price…" Kabuto muttered, rubbing the patch of skin where scales met flesh absently. Cracks opened up, and dark blood dripped down his face. "Everything has its cost. Even…"
While Kabuto was distracted, Naruto took a step toward the stairs, watching Hinata for her reaction. She stepped with him, in tandem, her blank stare never moving from his face.
Kabuto was still talking to himself in a murmur, and Naruto wondered where along the line the man had lost his mind. He had clearly done some kind of experiment on himself, and just as clearly it had not turned out well. The man had no forces of any kind, no followers waiting to be called forth to fight (Hinata didn't count—she was on Naruto's side. Technically) and was so wrapped up in navigating the broken planes of his mind that he couldn't even notice.
Naruto was actually starting to feel a little guilty about having to kill him. The guy was twisted and broken—how much of that was his own fault?
He took another step towards the stairs, and prepared to make a run for it. Hinata wasn't operating on a red battery, so it was pretty unlikely that she was going to match his speed. Or, really, come anywhere near it. Naruto considered this a good thing, as it gave him plenty of time to get past Kabuto's last "defense", kill him, and hopefully free Hinata from whatever spell she was under.
Naruto took off at a run, and two steps in was slammed against the wall. It felt like getting hit by a giant club, and spots danced in front of his eyes, he could feel a trail of blood running down the side of his head.
Blinking, he found Hinata's face, inches from his own.
"What the—"
Which was when she snapped his arm.
oOo
Hinata could still remember a college class she had taken on philosophy. The professor had a love of classics and leather jackets, and they often spent half of class just asking questions. One morning, he had come in and written on the whiteboard a quote by C.S. Lewis, all caps: "YOU DO NOT HAVE A SOUL. YOU ARE A SOUL, YOU HAVE A BODY."
He had tapped the board, and said: "Is this true?"
At the time, Hinata had agreed. The spirit was her essence, the body more a vehicle to cart it around.
Hinata was now beginning to understand, that without a body a spirit had nothing to attach itself to, no method of connection to earth. She was trapped, able to move and hear and see, but not of her own will. How long could a soul last like this?
Naruto flickered, and Hinata realized her thoughts had been drifting again. Her body turned to intercept Naruto's next attack, hand lashing out and slamming into his jugular. Naruto choked and stumbled, falling to his knees. He was fast, but she could anticipate his every move, his every thought. Her Byakugan could see the shifting of his muscles, the sparks of electricity crackling through his brain. It could also see the way his arm hung broken and useless down his side, the blood on the side of his head, his lip, his neck, his shoulder. It could see the bruises flowering up, and the slow drag of his right leg.
Hinata didn't have a scratch on her. Naruto wouldn't hit her, wouldn't even really try. His goal was to make it past her to Kabuto, and as long as he continued his useless plan, he would die, and so would she.
Kabuto was taunting him from above. "You didn't realize how strong she was, did you? That's your fatal flaw, Naruto Uzumaki—you want to protect everyone else. You won't make sacrifices, the necessary sacrifices. Family is the most important thing. But you have to protect them, you can never let anyone else stand on their own two feet, be an equal. Hinata knows what I'm talking about, don't you, my dear?"
Hinata's body responded with a nod, and in more than one way she found herself agreeing with Kabuto's words. Naruto didn't see her as his equal—he never had. He wanted to protect her, and she loved that about him, but at the same time…
"Tell him, Hinata," Kabuto said.
Her tongue was suddenly free. She found the words already waiting.
"Fight me," she said. "You know me, Naruto. I'm strong, I can take this. If you don't, I will kill you, and he will win."
Naruto looked like he was being torn in half. "But—but—" he stammered. "I can't just..."
"I don't want to hurt you anymore either. You said we're partners. Prove it."
Hinata almost had to laugh at the expression on Naruto's face, as his brain broke and he scrambled to fix it. Blood made a pool around his feet, and Hinata knew they didn't have much time left to decide.
But even before he lifted his head, and she saw the fire in his eyes, she knew his answer. With him, she always knew.
"I'm really sorry," he said. "For not… trusting you, before."
"I have a list of ways for you to make it up to me."
"Funny, so do I."
"And a list of ways for me to make it up to you."
There was that smile. "Funny, so do I."
"Enough talking," Kabuto snarled. "Kill him!"
Hinata's body was moving forward, and her mouth was no longer her own, she didn't have time to shout a warning.
Naruto's eyes gleamed red.
oOo
Hinata was a storm. It was almost as though she had been baiting him before, holding back despite her systematic destruction. Now all the switches had been flipped, and the only thing worse than the lightning was the thunder.
She struck, and the chakra in his arm bottled up, like she had built a dam inside his veins. But the chakra of the Kyuubi was not like others, and it pounded against those invisible walls until they were so much rubble. He grabbed hold of her arm, twisted, flipped her over backwards and into the floor. She kicked his feet out from under him, and he just barely rolled away in time before her hand slammed into the concrete, cracking it like glass.
Naruto was beginning to think he might actually be in trouble.
She was just so fast. On the rare occasions he could actually catch hold of her for a moment or two, she just used it to her advantage and blocked his chakra or broke his wrist before she danced away again. The Fox's chakra was healing him faster than she could inflict the damage sure, but he was starting to wear down.
If the smile on Kabuto's smug little face was anything to go by, he knew it too. Hinata didn't have an expression, of course, but he was pretty sure she was kind of enjoying showing off.
Not that he hadn't landed a few blows. Hinata had a few bruises, and she was favoring her left leg. He would have preferred a thousand times over to have those injuries himself, but he kept reminding himself that she was strong. She could take it. All he had to do was knock her out, and get to Kabuto.
She just wasn't making it easy on him.
Naruto jumped back and Hinata's fist just missed him, but the roundhouse kick took him by surprise. He flew back and hit the wall, shattering a window and possibly his spine. He hit the floor on all fours, and took a second to cough up the blood in his lung.
Despite the pain he was in, he couldn't help but be impressed by Hinata's lethal force. If he were anybody else, he would be dead ten times over.
What I need, he thought. Is to grab hold of her long enough to send a burst of Fox's chakra through her—that'll keep her down for a while.
But how? The only time he was close enough to hit her was when she was close enough to hit him.
And judging by the amount of blood he had just gotten out of his lung, letting her get near him was not a good thing.
Naruto got his feet under him, and looked around warily for Hinata. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet just in front of the stairs, waiting for him.
There was nothing in the warehouse he could use to his advantage, no chains or boxes. Nothing, except his three collapsed friends at the door…
Light bulb, Naruto thought gleefully.
Naruto didn't bother with any feints or half-starts, he went into a full-out sprint toward his friends, and slid to a stop next to them, already rifling through their pockets.
"Sorry, guys," he said. "Dinner on me."
His fingers locked onto his prize at the exact same moment Hinata locked onto his head, and threw him. He landed halfway between her and the stairs, but by the time he had gotten up she was already on top of him, knee whooshing toward his face.
"Sorry," Naruto told her, closed his eyes, and set off the flash bomb.
Hinata didn't scream or anything, and he was glad, because he knew it must have hurt. The Byakugan was great, but it was also sensitive, and the last time a flash bomb had gone off in front of Neji like that he had been out of commission for three hours.
With Hinata, Naruto figured it translated to about four seconds.
He sprang up, wrapped Hinata in his arms, and held on. Her eyes were redder than his, and streaming, but she still struggled against his hold. One of her hands got free, and she landed a blow to his arm just as his chakra snapped out and hit her hard.
The force of the explosion sent them both flying, rolling away. Naruto wasn't as bad off, and winced when he saw Hinata bounce three times before rolling to a stop against the wall, over by the others. It felt like he had dislocated his shoulder, and his vision was muddy with pain. He forced himself to his feet, and through the haze found Kabuto still leaning against the railing, watching Naruto with a confused interest.
Come on, Naruto told his body. Move.
Slowly, his body did as he ordered. Each step was painful, like a shot of liquid fire between each crack and bruise on his body. The Fox's chakra was sluggish to heal after the burst, and by the time he had nearly gained the stairs, he was still limping and clutching at his arm.
Kabuto watched him come, eyes wide, panting.
"Come down," Naruto ordered him, because there was no way he was going to climb those stairs. "Now."
"One," Kabuto hissed. "One…"
"Kabuto, stop playing around and—"
Naruto took a step forward, and Kabuto crowed in triumph. A symbol lit up the floor, and Naruto had just enough time to realize he was standing in the exact center before it flashed. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, and as the symbol started to suck away the Fox's chakra, he could barely even scream.
oOo
"Yes!" Kabuto shouted. "Yes, yes, yes! I will use the power of the Fox to resurrect you Lord Orochimaru! I have done it! I will kill you!"
Hinata could hear Naruto screaming, but tried not to listen. There was nothing she could do now, nothing but wait.
The Fox's chakra—which Naruto was going to explain in detail later—was apparently corrosive. Her own chakra was being eaten away, and with it, the poison Kabuto had injected into her system. Her finger twitched, and so did her mouth, almost a smile. It was taking too long, though, much too long. Naruto could be dead before she could do anything.
Waiting, waiting, waiting—why was it taking so long? Her hand moved, then her arm, she was able to twist her head enough to see the three comrades Naruto had brought along in a heap on the floor. One of their eyes were open, their weapons still clutched in their fists. Hinata reached toward them, and it took an eternity for her hand to finally touch the knife still in Bat's grasp. The woman's eyes blinked, and Hinata nodded.
She couldn't stand, but that just made her less obvious. She pulled herself across the floor, knife in her fist, using the shadows along the wall as cover. Naruto was on his knees, head thrown back, and mouth open, nine translucent tails swinging all around him. Kabuto was watching greedily, his glasses reflecting the gristly scene, the snake around his neck twitching with delight.
Hinata gritted her teeth and pulled herself forward another foot. Her vision was still blurry, and she knew she couldn't use her Byakugan. She wasn't sure she would ever be able to use it again, but that didn't matter now. She was below the catwalk, and there was a door. She remembered being pushed through a door when she was forced in here earlier and… yes, there it was, just above.
By some miracle, the door wasn't locked, and Hinata managed to heave herself in and close it behind her. She hoped Kabuto hadn't heard the squal of hinges, but Naruto was covering almost every other noise. Even in the tiny, cramped spiral stairwell she could hear him.
Up the stairs, open the door, she was panting. Her knees threatened to collapse at every step. Kabuto was there, only a hundred feet away, and he was laughing, laughing, laughing. There appeared to be two of him, swinging back and forth.
Hinata was halfway there when she heard a hiss and looked down. The snake that had been coiled around Kabuto's neck was in front of her, blocking the way. Usually, Hinata couldn't bring herself to kill living things. Even roaches she tended to scoop up with a paper towel and carry outside. But for the snake, she made an exception.
She dropped to her knees, and the snake rose up, mouth open and fangs glistening with venom. Hinata remembered a story of how her grandmother had dealt with snakes, and shifted her knife to her injured hand.
"Oh, please," Hinata gasped. "I… managed… bigger ones… than… you."
She lashed out with her knife, and the snake darted forward to bite at it. Hinata's other hand grabbed onto the snake's tail while it was distracted, and with a vicious crack she snapped the snake like a whip, and the head popped off, sailing away into the dark.
Thanks, grandma, Hinata thought.
Naruto's screams were fading, and the light was dimming. He was down to just two tails now, and even as she watched one of those disappeared. Hinata used the railing to get to her feet, and came up behind Kabuto. The knife felt so heavy.
"Yes," Kabuto whispered. "Yes, I can, I can do it. Almost, almost, just a little more…"
Surely, she couldn't just stab him in the back. Her hand was trembling, all of her was trembling, but Naruto was on the floor, barely even twitching, and she had to act.
"Kabuto," she said.
He turned, and his face was red with blood, tears leaking from one eye, or maybe snake venom. She wasn't sure. It didn't matter.
"Hinata," Kabuto said dismissively. "Go join your aunt."
"I would say the same," Hinata snarled. "But you two won't be going to the same place."
"You can't kill me, little girl. I—am—IMMORTAL!"
"Not anymore," Hinata whispered, and slammed the knife into his chest, letting it sink until the hilt was flush with his skin.
Kabuto stumbled back, blood already bubbling on his lips. Hi hand hit the control panel behind him, fingers slipping across it, still trying to finish what he had started. "I—" he gasped. "Hate…"
"The feeling's mutual," Hinata snarled, and pushed him over the side. He fell screaming.
Hinata peeked over the railing. Naruto was on the floor, one tail remaining, the light of the array around him had gone dark. The console beside him beeped.
"Countdown initiated," said a computerized voice. "Three minutes remaining."
Hinata didn't need to ask what it was. She knew. Kabuto had made her bury the bombs after she had buried Hitomi's body. She didn't care anymore.
She slipped limping down the stairs a few times, but she finally made it to the bottom. It took the last of her strength, and her body collapsed next to Naruto's. His eyes were barely open, and he managed a smile. His fingers tangled up with hers.
"One minute remaining."
"Together," Naruto muttered.
Hinata nodded. At least they had that. She could feel the silly, blue plastic ring on her finger, where Naruto held her hand. She wished she had gotten him one, so people would know, when they were found.
But they knew. And that was enough.
"Together," Hinata agreed.
oOo
Author's Note: And everybody died.
The End.
...I'm joking. There's an epilogue!