Chapter Twenty
Hinata's eyes felt like they were ready to melt out of their sockets they were so strained. Merely activating her Byakugan was now outright painful on top of the now constant vice-grip headache around her skull. Damned if I do; dead if I don't. The group was spread out in a long line formation due to the narrow nature of the sloping path. Currently, Sasuke, and Kiba, were on rearguard duty; Kakashi and Shino were slightly ahead of the main body. Hinata decided to make the most of it while things were safe and give her Byakugan a rest while she could.
She looked out over the edge of the bluff toward the river. Under normal circumstances, the afternoon sun painting the landscape and river below autumn orange would be breathtaking. This would be a perfect picnic spot with Naruto someday. Turning her head further right, she saw Naruto, still pleasing to the eye if looking a bit haggard. Aside from brooding since they started hiking again, Naruto had clear signs of burnout: dark, puffy circles under his eyes, a walking gait that varied from normal to meandering, and he was sniffling like he was getting a cold. Hinata wasn't much better; her sinuses were pressing into her eyes and her mouth was dry with thirst despite the river a hundred feet below. Hopefully, they'd have a chance to fill their canteens again near the bottom of the trail.
Even better if we could get home tonight and all sleep in a real bed! She didn't mind roughing it in camp, but five days without a shower or a real bed was a bit much for her. Even worse, the air temperature was dropping at night. When she'd awoke this morning, there had been frost on the ground. The sleeping bag she brought was only rated to freezing; last night made Hinata wonder how accurate that rating was.
The march continued, and boredom set it in for Hinata. Everyone was lumbering like cattle and seeing Naruto this glum was starting to weigh on her. "Na-Naruto-kun?" she spoke.
"Yeah," he replied, mood not improving.
"You seem…" she paused looking for a word that wouldn't set him off, "…preoccupied. Is-is everything all right?"
"I'm fine, Hinata, I just…" he sighed, "…I just have the whole party treating me like a leper since rescuing Kakashi!" Naruto dipped his head. Hinata knew the feeling. After her outburst with Hanabi, everyone in the clan avoided her like she was carrying a contagious disease. Throughout most of her childhood, she'd never fully grasped why her parents, Aunt Kushina, and Uncle Minato made such a big deal about hiding the fact Naruto and she were jinchuriki. Now things were abundantly clear. Even old friends like Choji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru were keeping a mild increase in distance from Naruto. While Jiraiya and Kakashi knew for sure; Hinata was unsure if Asuma or Kurenai knew. Strangely she could empathize with the others being scared. Hell, I'm scared of myself, and I can only guess what Naruto is feeling!
Hinata began feeling her senses sharpen. An odd sound began filling her left ear, fizzing, like an open ramune bottle. Hinata immediately reactivated her Byakugan to see several nearby rocks with explosive tags about to detonate! "COVER!" She wrestled Naruto to the ground as the tags exploded, pelting the group with a shower of rock fragments.
Incessant ringing filled Hinata's head when she got her eyes open again. She and Naruto were both intwined right near the cliff's end. GET UP! GET UP! It took only a moment, but she got her Byakugan back up and focused. Kurenai, Asuma, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Ino were both flat on the ground, injured; but their chakra signatures were intact. Choji was bleeding from several minor wounds, having used a body transformation to shield Kakashi, Shino, Jiraiya, and himself from the worst of the blast. Even still, Shino, Kakashi, and Jiraiya were now bleeding from headwounds.
Hinata saw Obito strike as expected from behind. Kiba and Akamaru were visibly uninjured, but still stunned by the effect of the blast wave. Despite bleeding profusely from a forehead wound, Sasuke did manage to get his arms up to block Obito's first strike. Hinata could see the boy's eyes glowing red with his Sharigan. Sasuke managed to predict Obito's next attack, some kind of powerful lightning release, in time to try blocking it. Obito blasted straight through Sasuke's defense, the bright flash almost blinding Hinata. The blast of the attack threw Sasuke backwards over Kiba and into the rock wall nearby.
Hinata felt Obito's focus lock onto Naruto. Hinata pulled three shuriken from her jacket pocket, estimating the man's three likely approaches. In rapid succession he began running toward her carefully laid trap. She threw a shuriken toward his center mass and darted the other two like lightning toward either path of evasion.
It was a great plan until Obito appeared to warp ahead of the spiraling blades. SHIT! The blades whistled harmlessly past into the path. Obito on the other hand, warped right in front of her, his backhand strike clocked her across the face like a wooden club. Hinata staggered into the rock wall nearby, red stars exploding in her field of vision. Dizzily, she watched Obito turn toward Naruto.
The man gripped Naruto around the neck and lifted him up like a chicken about to be slaughtered. NARUTO! "You're coming with me you little bastard!"
Naruto's feet kicked ineffectively at first, but then Hinata saw something protruding from the front of his left shoe. A swift, focused, kick and Naruto drove the tip of a kunai hidden in his shoe beneath his foot into Obito's pasty white chest. As Obito dropped Naruto, Naruto rammed the heel of his hand into the kunai's handle piercing through where the man's heart should be – the tip protruding out the back of his ribs.
"NOW HINATA!" Naruto screamed as he landed. Adrenaline surged through her sore, achy body, propelling her forward like a rocket. Hinata focused her chakra to a fine point and smashed into the first chakra point she could find; her hand burning from the impact. She wound up with another palm attack, striking lower in the abdomen. Obito groaned in agony. So, you can get hurt after all! Hinata wound up for a third strike with her left arm when Obito's right arm took on a life of its own.
The white demon arm sprung forward like a rattlesnake attacking. Before she could react, she was back to the stone wall again, the creature or whatever it was firmly wrapping around her neck, her bladder tightened in reaction to her impending death. FIGHT BACK! Hinata sucked in what air she could, hoping she could react before it crushed her windpipe.
Naruto watched incredulously as the right side of Obito's body reacted despite Hinata blocking his chakra in at least two points. No one can do that! He watched the arm circle around her neck like some alien lifeform from science fiction, like the symbiote from the comics he read. My god, could that really be it! The pieces clicked into place. Obito wasn't just Obito, there was a second lifeform bonded with him. It's had it's own chakra network of immense power. That's how healed so quickly and can move so fast!
"Drop your weapons, or the girl dies!" Obito, or at least whatever was bonded to him, spoke in a slimy, otherworldly tone. Naruto froze, trying to think for the life of him how to kill a symbiotic lifeform. Acid, soundwaves… fire… FIRE! Naruto at least was pretty sure he had the answer, but it did no good. He couldn't risk using Kyuubi again, and the only fire-release attack he knew was fire-breath – it was extremely short range to be effective.
"Wait! Let's be reasonable!" Naruto signaled Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shino, and Choji not to approach. They froze.
"Fool, just like your father!" Obito's face twisted as the left half of his body came back to life; the kunai gradually pushing itself backwards out of his chest. "Drop your weapons and surrender the fox to me, or I'll crush this pretty little creature's neck!"
There was no alternative. Naruto felt a kunai turning in his guts as he watched Hinata staring at the creature, hyperventilating whimpers shook the poor girl as she tried sucking in air through pursed lips. However, her eyes while wide did not seem to focus in panic. She waved the index and middle fingers of her right hand back and forth nervously. Keep him distracted!
Naruto recognized the signal and understood the plan. Time to see if this guy's junk still works after getting crushed! Naruto slowly raised both arms in surrender. "All right you freaky bastard, UNCLE!"
Obito's voice became human again, "That's a good boy! Now heel and drop your weapons, dog boy!"
Naruto grinned, "Gladly!" Naruto opened his hands, dropping the kunai he'd been clutching. He didn't even wait for gravity to kick it as he moved his hand together for a transformation jutsu. In a flash of smoke, he'd changed into his sexy perverted jutsu transformation. He adopted a coy, provocative pose, blowing a kiss to Obito as Naruto caught the falling kunai between the toes of his right foot. "Come and get some, big boy!" he giggled in his best suggestive voice.
The effect was almost too good. Jiraiya, Kakashi, Choji, and Shino froze still with mouths agape, as did Obito. In Obito's case, the right half of his face twisted with pleasure while the left half opened with shock.
Naruto, grinned as he saw Hinata's stomach muscles contract. A blazing inferno shot from her lips and engulfed whatever pale lifeform was covering Obito, as well as his face. The inhuman part of Obito squealed loud enough to pierce Naruto's eardrums.
Unfortunately, the creature flung Hinata toward the edge of the cliff. Naruto exited his transformation and turned to run toward her, "HINATA!"
The ground beneath Naruto's feet quaked, and the rocky edge of the cliff collapsed under Hinata. He heard her scream as gravity pulled her from sight like an unseen river monster! "HINATA!" Naruto screamed as he leapt forward over the edge. Naruto swan dived through open space towards her, catching up as the rocks and the river below grew rapidly closer.
He got his arms around her and made the gesture needed; dozens of shadow clones formed beneath them to cushion their fall. Naruto rolled to take the brunt of the impact. Unfortunately, he'd miscalculated how far they had fallen, and they hit the clones with a sickening body slap in Naruto's right side. There was a sharp pain, like someone had stuck one on his mom's knitting needles through his right ribs and all the way up until it exited out the bottom of his neck below the ear. A loud POP followed as the shadow clones disintegrated.
Another loud slap hit him, and all sound was replaced with the rushing noise of water. Naruto couldn't hold air in, and he sucked in lungsful of water. Panic gripped him and his bladder let go. The current rolled him like a crocodile clutching him in a death rattle. This is it, I'm going to die! The light in his vision began fading, as did the sound of the water.
Hinata took the landing badly as the shadow clones collapsed. Her left ankle had impacted something solid, more solid than she was, and there was a sickening crunch followed by searing pain that shot up from her foot all the way to her left hip. She screamed out in pain as she felt the slap of the river hitting her in the face.
As she shook loose from her dizziness, she breached the surface, searing pain temporarily dulled by the flow of adrenaline and the sensation of freezing water. Naruto! She hadn't known when they separated, but it couldn't have been too long. Her arms and her right leg thankfully still worked as she paddled on the surface, trying to flow with the current. Hinata shunted aside the pain of using her Byakugan again, and she spotted Naruto, bobbing up and down below the surface, the contents of his back being scattered to the current. "NARUTO!" she screamed as she paddled toward him.
She felt little of the telltale resistance of her own load as she approached. Between the impact and the raging current, most of her pack's contents were either spilled in the river or were about to. As Hinata fought her way to Naruto, she debated about cutting the rest of her load loose – deciding against it. While Naruto's bedroll was gone, Hinata's clung stubbornly to what was left of her pack. This water is frigid, and it's going to be a cold night! Having the sleeping bag may be the difference between life and death if we can dry it out.
She reached Naruto, seeing his chakra network pulsating an unhealthy red. She approached him from behind and wrapped her left arm around him while using her good side to propel the two of them to the surface. She took several deep, heaving breaths as she surfaced. To her horror, Naruto wasn't breathing. "Naruto! Can you hear me!" she screamed; he flopped lifelessly in her arms. The current was now letting up a bit to the point that she could steer them toward an approaching patch of low-lying forest.
The tickling of slimy water plants along her left leg sent a shock up her leg. They had to get ashore. Furiously she used her right side to paddle toward the shallows until she felt the muddy bottom drag along her on her side. The current pulled, and the mud sucked, but she managed to get Naruto and herself out of the water and onto the coarse silt of the shore.
Hinata frantically laid Naruto on his back, his eyes glassed over, staring lifelessly at the sky. NononononononoNO! "Naruto!" she shook him, trying to remember how to resuscitate a drowning victim. ABC's, idiot! Airway, Breathing, and Circulation! Get to it!
Hinata leaned her face next to Naruto, definitely not breathing. She knelt next to him, fighting the childbirth like pain of resting her left knee and foot on the ground. Ignore it, it's worth losing the leg if it means saving him! Hinata tilted his head back, a quick visual inspecting showed his airway was clear. Her fingers scouted along his neck, desperately searching for a pulse. Faint and weakening, hurry!
Hinata braced Naruto's head in a tilted position, pinched his nose, and brought her mouth to his. Two quick breaths in, she could see his chest rise and fall. Lock my elbows, firm downward pressure on the breastbone, avoid the xiphoid, and please don't be dead! Hinata began pressing down firmly, trying to pump his heart. "Come on, Naruto! Breathe, dammit!" Hinata felt the heavy weight of reality set in as she pumped Naruto's chest – if he didn't recover soon, he wouldn't at all.
A sudden sputtering and gurgling erupted from Naruto as his eyes focused. Water, foam, and blood gushed from his mouth and nose as he heaved like a sink drain being unplugged. He rolled away from her onto his left side, purging foul liquid for several moments. He soon began heaving and whimpering in pain as he sucked in air.
"Naruto! Hold still!" She tried to stop him from writhing, fearful that he might hurt himself further. Naruto took several pained breaths, clutching his right side. Hinata focused her Byakugan; Naruto had at least three broken ribs on his right side, he was trying to purge what still looked like a decent amount of fluid in his lungs, and his right shoulder was dislocated.
A cool blast of fall air cut Hinata to the bone. Her teeth chattered as the adrenaline rush was replaced with the cool, numbing toothache-like pain radiating up and down her left leg. She gritted her teeth tightly. A quick inspection showed nothing broken, but she could already see fluid building up in both her knee and ankle – both would be double normal size before long. He can't breathe; I can't walk. What a pair we make.
She flopped back into the cool mud, watching the orange sky slowly turning purple and midnight blue. Every part of her wanted to just lay here and not move ever again. As she shivered, Hinata fought against marble limbs for movement. Get up! Move or you're going to DIE! Hinata recognized the signs of hypothermia all too well. They had to get out of the mud, dry off, and get warmed. Even if they didn't succumb to hypothermia, they'd be useless when the others found them. She wasn't about to be a burden to her team. "Naruto," she whimpered as she struggled to her side.
"H-Hinata!" Naruto winced as he spoke, his body shivering uncontrollably, "Th-thank you!"
"Don't thank me yet!" she grabbed his right arm, feeling a pang of guilt at what she was about to do, "This is going to hurt a lot!" A solid tug before he reacted, and there was the disgusting sensation of the joint sucking itself back in place. Naruto screeched in high-pitched agony, clutching his right side. "Na-Naruto-kun! It will pass in a minute!" Hinata wished she'd had more medical-nin training, but all she had was the basic course everyone got at the academy.
Naruto heaved shallow breaths through tears streaming down his eyes. Using his left arm, he propped himself up. His outfit was now caked in mud, as was the left side of his face. Naruto took several difficult breaths and tested his right arm. Satisfied it wouldn't dislocate again, he tried standing. He stumbled but stayed upright. "Can you walk?" he eyed her with concern.
"I-I can't," Hinata paused mid-thought. She wanted to tell him it was impossible to walk, but that was giving up without trying, "I can't get up unaided," she compromised, reaching an arm out to him. Naruto assisted her upright. She hopped on her good leg before testing the left one – the left buckled immediately. "AHHHH!" she screeched as she withdrew pressure from the leg, again hopping on the right. Useless! Useless girl!
Tears of pain and self-hate spilled down her face as the harsh reality hit her – she was useless to him! While the others might be looking for them, they were on their own for now. They were in a survival situation; no help would be coming for some time. She was his partner, his backup, and they were now both potentially going to die because she couldn't walk! "Naruto, leave me!" she cried. "I'll only weigh you down!"
"Not happening!" Naruto said as he brought her right arm around his shoulders, wincing as he took hold of her arm with his right. He braced into her side tightly, wrapping his left arm around her waist. "Come on, Hinata, we have to get a camp set up and a fire started!" They limped and hopped toward the tree line.