A/N: Well, this may be the second the last chapter of this fic, so let's make it good. Not long to go. If you hated my iteration of Gaara, this chapter is going to make you very happy.
Time for chapter 49
Enjoy!
Hinata tapped her foot impatiently as she sat atop the unconscious body of Kankuro. The puppeteer wasn't dead, but he was close. Many of his minor organs were damaged, and his face was badly bruised. Along with Kankuro, there were seven other bodies littering the lobby floor. Unlike the genin, however, those bodies were lifeless. They had all died of internal hemorrhaging brought about by the heiress.
'I tried explaining to them that I was simply to collect the hostage they were harboring as part of the arrangement, but no, they refused to listen' Hinata thought to herself as she admired her handywork. Much to her delight, there was very little blood on the ground, save for the small accumulations by the mouths of the fallen guards. It had been a fairly clean performance despite the chaotic nature of the scuffle. The thing that was nagging at her patience was the length of time it was taking for Temari to emerge from the upper level.
Hinata had considered simply walking up the stairwell at the back of the lobby, but was too wary of traps and hidden enemies to do so. It had been nearly two minutes since her brutal and swift drubbing of Kankuro, and there had been no signs of Temari. Just as the Hyuga girl was beginning to consider risking the stairwell, the sound of footsteps became audible. Hinata returned her attention to the stairs and narrowed her eyes. A moment later, Temari came walking down the stairs, her fan strapped to her back.
"Took you long enough. What exactly were you waiting for?" Hinata asked as the fan wielder looked over the situation carefully. After a few seconds of self-gathering, Temari responded to the question.
"I had arrangements to make. And, from the looks of it, you've been busy in the meantime" she said, the slightest trace of anger in her voice. Hinata shrugged and gestured to the bodies around her.
"All of this could have been prevented if you had just brought Nara-san to me immediately. Don't act as though this isn't partially your fault" she pointed out, standing up as she spoke. The sand kunoichi scowled and removed her fan from her back.
"Would you mind stepping away from my brother?" she asked rigidly. The heiress responded back kicking Kankuro off to the side of the room, earning a growl from Temari.
"What's gotten into you? You were a little irritating back in Konoha, but this is a new low. Even for you" she said. Hinata shifted into a taijutsu stance and activated her Byakugan.
"I'm in a foul mood. In no small part due to your kidnapping of my teammate" she said through clenched teeth. The sand kunoichi raised an eyebrow and unfurled her fan.
"Why does it bother you? From what I saw, the only person you gave a damn about is Naruto" she asked skeptically. The Hyuga girl bared her teeth and charged forward. Temari countered by swinging her fan and sending a blast of serrated wind in her direction to intercept her. Hinata defused the response by deftly launching herself straight upward toward the high ceiling of the lobby. The moment she made contact with the surface, she rebounded off of it and sent herself flying down towards Temari.
She landed two feet to Temari's left, giving her just enough distance to fully extend the right-handed punch she threw at her jaw. Hinata's fist crashed into the left side of the fan wielder's jawline, turning her face away and buckling her knees momentarily. Despite being stunned, Temari whipped around and swung her fan at nearly point-blank range. The motion sent Hinata tumbling backwards under the brunt of wind. She skittered across the floor and slammed into the back wall after a moment, drawing a painful cough.
It took her less than a few seconds to regain her bearings, and once she did, she went back on the attack. She threw a storm of kunai in her foe's direction to force her to defend rather than using her fan. Hinata followed up the projectile assault with another forward blitz. Unlike before, Temari wasn't able to intercept her in time. The reason being that Hinata had been inching forward the entire time she was throwing kunai, meaning that she had less distance to cover.
With her defenses open and compromised, Temari was struck on her right shoulder by a palm strike from Hinata, instantly dislocating and numbing the arm. The sand kunoichi was forced to drop her fan as a result, and the Hyuga girl immediately kicked the weapon away. A moment later, Temari's head was snapped back by a hard punch from Hinata, bloodying her nose and sending her back a step.
"Stand down, Temari-san. You were beaten by Nara-san in a taijutsu match, and I can assure you that I am far superior to him in that regard" the heiress said as the fan wielder. Temari growled and swung a wide punch at her in response. Hinata effortlessly pulled her head back just enough to make the strike miss before countering with a sharp, short punch to the temple. The strike momentarily froze Temari up, granting Hinata the time to plant her left shin across her ribcage.
The kick doubled the sand kunoichi over, but she refused to fall to her knees. Instead, she awkwardly skittered backwards in a hunched stance. Hinata assessed the distance between herself and Temari for a moment before exploding forward with multiple strikes to all levels of her adversary's body. The combination, like the kick to the sand kunoichi's ribs, buckled her without sending her down. Hinata growled out of frustration.
"You'd be well-served to drop soon. I'll stop hitting you if you do" she said in annoyance. Temari gave her a defiant scowl.
"Not my fault you hit like a housefly" she snapped. Hinata briefly tensed at the insult, but quickly regathered herself. She then stepped forward, flashed her left hand in the fan wielder's face to disguise the shifting of her feet, and spun rapidly to clip her heel off of her opponent's temple.
The wheeling kick only grazed her, but it was still forceful enough to completely destroy Temari's equilibrium and send her crumbling to the floor. After waiting to see if she would rise again, Hinata stepped over her and began making her way towards the stairs. She was halfway there when a searing pain erupted in her back. Her hands curled into fists immediately, as she knew what the source was.
"You have some nerve" she hissed, plucking the kunai out of her back and turning around as she spoke. Temari was back on her feet, wobbly and battered.
"Why are you so determined to keep me from Nara-san? What do you stand to gain?" the heiress demanded. Much to her surprise, the sand kunoichi smiled at the question.
"Something I didn't know I needed, and something you already have" she said vaguely. Despite the lack of clarity, Hinata instantly understood.
"Please tell me you're joking" she said rigidly, her temper burning with heat. Temari shook her head and stepped into a weak taijutsu stance. The Hyuga girl stared at her blankly for a few moments before weaving a short sequence of hand seals and grasping her own wrist.
"You endangered the life of my beloved for the sake of remedying your own lonesomeness. I'll feed your body to a thousand ravenous birds" she said coldly. The arm she was grasping at the wrist then began to spark and crackle with blue electricity. A loud chirping sound emitted from the jutsu as it pulsed and flared.
"Chidori" she uttered calmly. Hinata then rushed forward and reached forward with her free hand, grabbing hold of Temari and pulling her forward into her jutsu. Chidori punctured the sand kunoichi's left shoulder completely, with the heiress' arm protruding from her back. Temari coughed up a sizable amount of blood and slumped to the ground.
"I missed your heart, and I don't have the chakra to perform that jutsu again, so you're going to survive, but never forget that I spared you on a whim" Hinata spat as she turned to resume her walk to the stairwell. Once she had fully rotated to face the stairs, however, she saw a familiar face.
"That was a little much, don't you think?" Shikamaru, who had emerged from the upper level, asked. Hinata eyed him carefully as he walked past her and over to the fallen Temari.
"She's inches away from dying, you know" he said after examining the barely conscious kunoichi, his voice masking an unknown emotion. The heiress nodded and frowned.
"Yes, that was my intention" she said bluntly. The shadow user sighed and removed his overshirt, which he then used to apply pressure to the gaping wound on Temari's shoulder. Once the bleeding had subsided, he tied the shirt around her shoulder to maintain the pressure.
"Why are you giving her first aid, Nara-san?" Hinata asked skeptically. Shikamaru stood up from the girl's side and returned to his teammate.
"Because she doesn't deserve to die, and...she saved my life once. I'm just doing my part" he explained. The pair then made their way out of the building, stepping over the bodies of guards along the way. They walked in silence for a good while before either of them spoke.
"Since when do you know how to use Kakashi-sensei's jutsu?" Shikamaru asked. Hinata glanced down at her right hand, which she had used to perform the technique.
"He's been working on it with me for the past few months. Only once per week, so I haven't mastered it yet. What you saw was a very sloppy attempt, actually" she said, drawing a nod of understanding from the Nara.
"While we're on the topic, how much of that did you see?" Hinata asked as a follow-up. The shadow user shrugged.
"About half of it" he said matter-of-factly. The Hyuga girl frowned at the revelation and shot him a questioning look.
"Then why didn't you simply reveal yourself? I would have stopped attacking her if you had" she asked. Shikamaru pursed his lips.
"I made a deal with her. If she could beat you, I'd stay in Suna for a bit longer, and if you won, I'd be free to leave" he said. Hinata raised an eyebrow.
"It sounds to me like she's quite fond of you" she said. Her teammate shook his head and scratched his cheek.
"There's a little more to it than that. Circumstances played a huge role" he said. Hinata chuckled and shook her head as well.
"They always do, Nara-san. They always do" she replied. They then lapsed into silence again. They were both well aware of the destination they were heading for. The closer they drew to the edge of the village, the more their anxiety grew.
"We should speed up" Shikamaru said as they crossed into the desert. Hinata nodded in agreement.
At this, they took off sprinting to witness the brutal war of attrition raging in the plains of sand.
A mixture of blood and saliva flew from Gaara's mouth as he was struck cleanly across the left side of his jaw for the fourth time in thirty seconds. The pain in his mouth was searing, and his knees were growing weaker by the second as he was beaten pillar to post. The moment the battle had become a contest of technical skill in taijutsu, it had become a landslide in Naruto's favor. He outmaneuvered, outstruck, and outclassed the redhead at every turn.
Every time Gaara through a punch or kick, he would be met with a series of hard counters. Despite his exhaustion, Naruto was still managing to fire off a reasonable clip of offense at a consistent pace, and it was wearing his foe down quickly. Beyond the disparity in volume, Naruto was much more defensively sound. He, unlike Gaara, was able to press forward without fear of being nailed stepping into range. He would slip, roll, and pull away from the return fire every single time.
Naruto, in spite of the relative ease with which he was controlling the engagements and broader context of the fight, found himself wearing down himself. The sheer durability of the sand shinobi was daunting, and the blonde's hands were beginning to feel brittle from striking him so regularly.
'Is he made of metal or something?' he grumbled to himself mentally as he countered a lead from Gaara with a spearing knee to his ribs. Unlike the previous brutally clean strikes Naruto had landed, the knee caused the redhead to step backwards and reset. Now understanding what he must do, the konoha genin resolved himself to pressure forward. When Gaara stood his ground, Naruto dug the ball of his foot into his gut with a linear kick. The sadistic Jinchuuriki winced and stepped back again.
'Keep targeting his body. He has no answer for strikes below his chest' the fox urged. Naruto took a deep breath and nodded. He then burst forward as best he could and dug his right hand into Gaara's stomach, doubling him over and knocking the wind out of him. As he learched forward, the blonde seized the back of his head and slammed his knee into his forehead. The impact stood Gaara up straight, making him a prime target.
Naruto quickly capitalized on the opportunity with a hard punch that landed between the redhead's eyes and send him staggering backwards. Ignoring the lactic acid burning in his body, Naruto stormed after him. Once he was back within the proper distance, he definitively knocked his foe to the ground for the first time with a wide left-handed punch to the jaw.
'End it' the fox said. Naruto nodded and drew a kunai. He then threw himself down towards his fallen foe. As he crashed downwards, however, Gaara unvelied his final trump card. His left hand, which he had buried in the sand upon hitting the ground, shot up from the earth. It was encased in sand that was shaped into a twisted spike. The sedimentary blade sunk into Naruto's stomach as he literally fell onto it in an attempt to kill Gaara himself.
The blonde hacked blood onto Gaara's face as he struggled to breath properly. The redhead then forced his way back to his feet, his hand still embedded in Naruto's abdomen as he stood up. A scream of horror then erupted from the north, prompting Gaara to glance back over his shoulder.
"It seems we have an audience. How rude of them to eavesdrop" he said while twisting the spike further into Naruto's body. The blonde grimace and struggled to remove the spike to no avail. As he floundered, Gaara chuckled.
"Should you find a way to survive this, you have me beaten. I've emptied the last of my chakra into the sand currently tearing away at your intestines" he said as red sweat trickled down his face. Naruto returned the short laugh and reached out to grasp Gaara's neck.
"I think this one might end up a draw, Gaara" he said apologetically. Before the redhead could respond, Naruto's nails lengthened into claws and peirced his throat. Blood spilled from Gaara's mouth as his opponent severed his jugular vein and removed his hand from the redhead's neck.
"Checkmate" Naruto said raggedly. Gaara sighed and removed his sand spike from the blonde's body. He then stepped backwards and locked eyes with his greatest opponent.
"Why did you take it out? Why didn't you…" Naruto asked with wide eyes. Gaara's facial expression then relaxed, a look of peace overtaking his features.
"You're going to bring this world to its knees...N-Naruto" he said, his voice strangled and choppy due to the accumulation of blood in his windpipe. Then, he fell backwards and disappeared from sight. As it turned out, Naruto's forward pressure had brought the boys near to the edge of the massive sinkhole without the blonde noticing. Gaara had been claimed by gravity. Naruto stared down into the chasm for a length of time lost to him before gazing up at the sun.
In an instant, his world went black.
Shikamaru looked to Neji and nodded. The boys then took off running after Hinata, who was already halfway to Naruto's unmoving body. The sprint lasted nearly a quarter-mile, but the adrenaline coursing through their veins prevented fatigue from slowing them down. Once they had closed the distance between themselves and Naruto, they knelt down beside his body, which was already being tended to by Hinata. Her hands were glowing green over the horrific stab wound on his stomach, and slowly but surely, the injury was mending.
"He's unbelievably lucky. If Gaara had aimed even an inch higher, he would have completely destroyed his diaphragm. His intenstinal tract has been ruptured, but it won't be fatal as long as I can mend it" the heiress reported while she worked away. Neji mouthed the word 'wow' as he observed the medical proficiency of his cousin.
"Since when are you a skilled medical ninja, Hinata-sama?" he asked curiously. The Hyuga girl shrugged and checked Naruto's pulse for the sake of caution.
"I already knew a limited degree of it, but when plans were set to come to Suna I decided to sharpen up. Mother was an excellent medic during her lifetime, so I requested to study her notes. Father happily obliged" she explained. A moment later, Naruto's breathing stabalized. Hinata sighed in relief and cradeled his head.
"He's going to be okay" she whispered, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. Shikamaru laid a hand on his unconscious teammate's forehead and winced.
"He's still burning up. Probably from exhaustion. I'm willing to be that he won't wake up for a little while" he said. The Hyuga girl nodded and gestured to Neji for help lifting the blonde.
"Yes, he'll likely need to be carried for most of, if not all, of the trip back home" she said honeslty. The Hyuga children then gingerly raised Naruto from the ground and began the slow trek back to Suna to find Kurenai.
Unlike his comrades, Shikamaru did not leave the sight of the battle immediately. Instead, he made his way to the edge of the sinkhole and looked into the darkness below just as Naruto had.
'I may have hated you while you were alive, but I always understood you. To some extent, at least' he thought to himself. Shikamaru shivered as a breeze blew by.
'You walked into the wind your whole life, you were constantly kicked while you were down, and you never got what you wanted. All you were really looking for was somebody to put you out of your misery' the shadow user lamented. He then untied his forehead protector from around his bicep and tossed it into the abyss, a tribute to the dead. After a few seconds, he turned around to follow his fellow genin.
'If there's any peace to be had in hell, I pray that you find it, Gaara'
Naruto's eyes slowly opened as sunlight streamed through the window of his hospital room. His body was sore, particularly in his stomach area, and his breathing was a bit labored, but he was very much alive. After carefully propping himself up and looking around the room, he spotted a very welcome face sitting in the corner.
"Good, you're awake. Welcome home, my boy" Hiruzen said with a smile. The blonde let out a sigh of relief at the confirmation that he was back in Konohagakure. Noticing his lessened stress, the Hokage scooted his chair forward and put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Based on what I've been told, and your reaction just now, you had quite a difficult time in Suna" he said. Naruto nodded and cracked his stiff neck to better his comfort.
"Difficult is an understatement. Gaara took me to hell and back. I knew it would be hard, but I never could have prepared for the war I had to win" he admitted. Hiruzen removed his hand from his shoulder and stroked his chin.
"It fascinates me that the Jinchuuriki of the One-Tails could trouble you so much. The fox is and always has been much more powerful than Shukaku. According to Shikamaru, the two of you fought to what essentially amounted to a draw" he said thoughtfully. The blonde rubbed his eyes and reached for the glass of water that was sitting on his bedside table.
"Gaara was a lot stronger than me man to man. Without our inner demons, he would have mopped the floor with me. No doubt about it" he said honestly. The old man raised arched his brow.
"What gives you that idea? From what I saw, that boy never fought without the assitance of his demon" he asked skeptically. Naruto thought back to the final exchange between himself and the redhead, in which he was impaled.
"That sand he used isn't linked to Shukaku. It doesn't even require chakra. It defends him on his own. Even when we were dead tired, it was blocking my punches. By that point, Gaara had already suppressed his demon too, so he wasn't using its chakra" he said. Hiruzen's eyes widened.
"He suppressed Shukaku?" he asked, dumbfounded by the revelation. The Jinchuuriki smiled and nodded his head.
"Yeah, he did. With nothing but his own will and chakra. He may have been my enemy, but I couldn't help but root for him while he fought for control of his own body" he said in a reminiscing tone. The Hokage shook his head and stood up from his chair to gaze out the window.
"That is an absolutely monumental feat for a lone human to achieve. But, more improtantly, his death marks the end of Shukaku. There are now eight tailed-beasts rather than nine" he said. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows.
"Does that affect anything?" he asked. The Hokage sighed and straightened his robes a bit as he searched for a suitable explanation.
"There are men in this world that seek to control the power of the Tailed-Beasts. Be it through extraction from their Jinchuuriki or by manipulating the hosts themselves. With one gone permanently, their primary goal is thwarted. I still fear that they may find other ways to achieve their ends, though" he said. He then turned to face Naruto and gave him a serious look.
"You'd do good to take note of that. When you take the reigns of Konohagakure, you'll inevitably come across these ninja. They're more dangerous than any other threat currently being faced by our world. Both in the short and long term" he said sternly. The Jinchuuriki sighed.
"You shouldn't put much stock into the idea that I'm ever going to lead the village. My public image isn't exactly good or fixable" he said glumly. Hiruzen smiled and shook his head once again.
"That's where you're wrong, Naruto. I suppose I should tell you; It's been three days since your arrival back in the leaf. In that time, the Nara, Hyuga, and Akimichi clans have all held public speeches honoring you and your valiant effort in Sunagakure. Your popularity is on the upswing. Hiashi in particular did an excellent job of likening you to the civiliians" he corrected proudly. The blonde perked up at the news.
"Really? T-thats awesome. I mean, the Hyuga and Nara clans make sense, but why the Akimichis?" he asked. The Hokage shrugged.
"The heir, Choji, is closely aquianted with Shikamaru, so you bringing him back home brought the family great joy" he said simply. Naruto laid down in the bed and took a deep breath as he processed the information. After a lapse of silence, Hiruzen reached into the pocket of his robes and produced a notebook.
"Since you're going to be stuck in mildly intensive care for the next few days, I figured I'd give you a headstart on Kagehood" he said, handing the bound paper to Naruto. The Jinchuuriki eyed it skeptically, earning a chuckle from the Hokage.
"I know you aren't much of a reader, but I think you should give that a try. Now, I must be off. Hinata will be in to visit within the hour, so be prepared" the old man said. He then exited the room and left Naruto alone. Once he was gone, Naruto studied the notebook in his hands, flipping it over a few times to test its weight and density. As he did so, he came across an indentation. Upon further examination, it was a name etched into the back cover.
"...Minato Namikaze"
A/N: This was the final chapter of the main story, and I hope you all enjoyed reading this fanfic. If you feel like sticking around, there's going to be one more chapter. It'll be set quite a few years after this scene. An epilogue, if you will.
If you've never reviewed before, feel free to tell me what you thought of this story as a whole, and if you're a regular, give me your assessment.
See you all in the Epilogue :)
