Chapter 15
As Monday night drew near Hinata was pacing nervously outside of the Mizukage's office.
The day had passed by quickly. After they finalized the diplomatic duties of their mission the rest of the day was spent doing reconnaissance and Hinata stayed close to the Mizukage under the guise of research. Each of the shinobi nations held a library of knowledge that was unique to their lands. Under the cover of wanting to learn more about the water element (which was her elemental nature), Hinata had spent the day in the library of the Kage tower watching over Mei-sama.
Kakashi and the remaining three Anbu had been stationed around the village to observe for unusual activity.
As the hour drew close to 6:30 PM, Hinata spotted Kakashi hurrying towards the tower. She rushed to intercept him but all she managed to glimpse was his form as he walked into Mei's office with the door swinging close behind him. Since then she had been pacing nervously back and forth outside waiting for instruction. About 30 minutes later a loud explosion rang throughout the city. After a moment of panic Hinata jumped to action at the sound and opened the door to Mei's office walking in.
She froze inside. Kakashi and Mei (along with their Anbu - the Rabbit, Fox and the Wolf) were all in the middle of a meeting with a group of Kiri soldiers and advisors.
Kakashi noticed her at once, "Hinata go check what that was, I will be right behind you". She nodded and left immediately.
As she scaled to the rooftop of the nearby buildings she noticed smoke coming from the direction of the harbour. The logical conclusion was that they had blown up the boats that provided exit from here to the mainland continent. Hinata took a deep breath and turned to head back to the tower. To avoid a mutiny it was imperative they keep Mei-sama safe.
Luckily she ran into Kakashi and the Anbu at the doorway to the Kage tower, "What is going on?" he asked.
"It looks like there was an explosion at the harbour".
"Shit… Mei is taking the emergency exit out of the city and going into a secured bunker for hiding. The leadership council is upstairs in a meeting, let's go, we have to keep them safe".
They ran up the stairs together and barged into the meeting room. It was chaos in there with people talking over each other in a panic. The ministers were arguing if it was safe to leave the room when they didn't know what was happening outside and twenty heads swivelled in their direction as they entered.
"There was an explosion at the harbour, you are all in potential danger and we need to get you to safety" Kakashi started explaining but the sounds of loud footsteps rushing up the stairs towards them could be heard over his voice. It sounded like a mob.
"Hinata and Fox-san, please assist in getting the council members to safety" Kakashi yelled out as he pulled out his kaunai and readied himself for battle along with the remaining two anbu. The council seemed unsure about trusting outsiders but they didn't have much of an option as what looked to be mercenaries barged into the room.
Luckily each of the meeting rooms in the Kage tower had a built in escape route. Hinata cued to Fox-san that she would take the lead and he nodded in understanding that he would follow in the rear. She opened the escape door by pressing a latch and ran into the dark and narrow hallway with the council members following behind. She used her Byakugan to lead the way and noticed a few heat signatures up ahead.
"Wait just a moment" she whispered as she soundlessly ran ahead. There were about 10 soldiers stationed at the exit of the passage. She jumped out while activating her gentle step twin lion fist and took out the soldiers three at a time with a combination of combat moves. This attack was designed to drain the chakra of anyone it touched, so without trouble she had disabled the soldiers within minutes.
She made a bird noise signalling to the party it was safe to follow. They continued to run down a secret path along the forest leading to a safe house. Hinata fell back to talk to Fox-san. "Do you know where to take them?" she whispered. The Anbu nodded.
"Great, I'm going to go back and see if they need any backup." The Fox nodded and with a wave she fell back running speedily towards the city. She arrived back in the meeting room and noted that Kakashi and the remaining two Anbu had been able to take out all of the mercenaries. However they had sustained some injuries in the process, she rushed over to heal them.
"Have you seen them?" Kakashi asked as she walked in.
"Who?... are you all okay?".
"The head of the five families..." he ignored her other question as she busied herself applying green chakra to the wound in his shoulder.
"We need to find the heads of the five families. I stationed a soldier by the harbour to notify us if there are any escape attempts made. I haven't received any signals. Which means they all should be within the city, unless they abdicated to the mountains…" Kakashi finished grimly.
Hinata finished patching up the Anbu as well and activated her Byakugan as they exited the Kage tower. No one was in the tower anymore.
It was chaos outside the likes of which she hasn't seen since the last great war. The civilians were trying to leave the city in a panic not knowing what was happening. They didn't seem to know where to go and It was a pandemonium.
Mercenaries were out and about harassing people wherever they could. This probably explained why they had been gathering in the slums recently. They had clearly been contracted by someone or someones.
"The Leaders are probably gathered in a house,'' she whispered. Her Byakugan had the ability to see 20 KM's in all directions. Kakashi nodded as he signalled them to fall back heading to the affluent district of Kirigakure where the rich and the famous lived. Before long with her long range vision Hinata was able to spot them and she scoffed. They were gathered at Hirohito-sama's house. How predictable.
Without delay the group made it to Hirohito-sama's house and gathered outside the library. They could observe a meeting happening inside and no one seemed to have noticed their presence. Perfect, they would be able to ambush the group!
Kakashi counted down silently and on five they all jumped in through the window without warning. The glass shattered and crashed dramatically around them as they crouched in landing. Kakashi immediately grabbed and immobilized Hirohito-sama before the leaders had even realized what was happening. Hinata and the two anbu did the same with three of the other members. This left Ryoko's dad sitting there in shock looking at the scene.
"W-what is the meaning of this?" Hirohito blustered.
"We know you are responsible for the coup underway, call off your mercenaries right now" Kakashi said without any pre-amble.
"How dare you! What coup? This is ridiculous, we haven't done anything, I was just entertaining guests in my home when you barbarians attacked us. There will be consequences for this! Wait until I contact your Hokage". Hitohoshi-sama yelled, turning red.
"Right…" Hinata interjected, "There was a National Advisory Council (also known as the Leadership Council) meeting tonight. If I were to use common sense the bylaws for the group should state every meeting requires a majority presence from the major families in Kirigakure. That is a standard precedence honored by all of the Shinobi Nations and by default at least 3 of you should have been at the meeting tonight. So why are you all gathered here?".
At Hinata's point the bluster of the group died down.
"Besides… we have evidence" Kakashi said authoritatively. "Arrest and detain them".
Luckily the Rabbit Anbu was from the Nara clan and was able to use his Yin release to detain all five members at once. About an hour later they had handed over the five leaders to the Kirigakure secret services. Now that the immediate threat was under control the Mizukage was on her way back to deal with this mess. As far as they were concerned the mission was over and done with.
They had gone to the Police station afterwards where Kakashi started briefing the forces on what they knew so far. The Anbu had left with the secret services to take care of the mercenaries still on the loose and Hinata had been observing Kakashi for the last hour waiting for instructions. Kakashi happened to look up at that moment and as they made eye contact he excused himself and walked over to her.
"Hinata you should go back and get ready to leave. There's no sense in us sticking around Kirigakure any longer, we will leave tonight. We need to head back to Konoha right away to get the information from the red book over to the other Kage's so they can start apprehending the spies within their own nations. Now that the biggest players of the coup are identified and under arrest the Mizukage should be able to get the situation here under control".
"When will you come home?".
"In a few hours" he glanced at his watch, "I will leave after I've had a chance to debrief with the Mizukage-sama. The Anbu are out apprehending mercenaries."
"I can help with that," Hinata insisted. "I don't want to stay at the compound waiting... I want to be useful". After a few seconds of hesitation Kakashi nodded. "Okay, do what you can but head home with enough time to get some rest. We have a long journey ahead".
It was around midnight when Hinata thought about heading to their suite. She had helped round up about 15 mercenaries. She swung by the police station and said her goodbyes to whoever she could and afterwards she headed over to their compound to pack up and get some sleep until Kakashi was ready to leave.
She was extremely tired and weary. It had been a long day of anticipation, worry and fear so now with the situation under control she finally let her guard down. Unfortunately she let her guard down a bit too much and did not scan the room with her Byakugan before entering, which was why she didn't even have a chance to fully register the blow to her head from the iron club before she passed out.
There were three mercenaries in the room. Two men and a woman.
"It's a girl" one of the men standing by laughed. "It's not the white haired bloke".
"Well fuck… what do we do with her. We were supposed to get the guy." the woman standing by asked.
"Kill her I suppose… that's what Hirohito-sama's wife asked us to do with the man".
"Hmm she's pretty... " the woman mused in amusement before she stabbed Hinata in the stomach.
The younger man laughed rolling Hinata over to her back and stabbed her again.
"That's enough…" the older man spoke, "that's a critical wound. Let's leave it up to fate to see if she makes it or not. We should go find the bloke who was our actual target, we are running out of time and we won't get paid if we don't kill him".
The three soon left after one last kick leaving Hinata to bleed out.
.
.
It was after midnight when Kakashi wrapped up talking to the Mizukage.
He was on his way home when he got ambushed by three mercenaries. It didn't take him too long to incapacitate them with a combination of taijutsu and chidori. Even though his Sharingan was now gone, he still remembered the jutsu he had learned over the years. Without the Sharingan constantly running in the background, his chakra density was higher leading to an improved ability to fight with speed and agility.
Kakashi enjoyed frying the last man until he collapsed on to the ground.
"Heh" the woman lying nearby laughed coughing "T-theres a surprise waiting for you… when you get h-home" she croaked before she passed out.
His expression darkened immediately and he started running towards the compound. The door to the suite was open when he walked in, and he was horrified at the blood trickling out into the hallway.
He found Hinata in the foyer of their suite laying face down surrounded by a pool of blood. She looked ghostly white.
He remembered staring at her paralyzed for a few seconds before scooping her into his arms and pushing a blood replenishing pill into her mouth with shaking hands before running towards the hospital. Could she survive after losing this much blood, her heartbeat was barely there, it was sluggish.
While he was running he tried to pulse healing chakra into her body, but he had no idea if it was working or if she was too far gone. His normally rational brain wasn't working. His body was numb, he couldn't even feel his legs anymore. He picked up his pace running but it was all a blur.
He remembered the flashing lights of the ambulances outside of the hospital. The hospital was packed with injured people due to the events of the day. He entered the building and yelled out for help. In the chaos he couldn't tell if the nurses heard him or not but he continued to push forward among the throngs of people heading towards the wards. Thankfully in a flash of white finally the nurses ran towards him.
Before he knew it, Hintata was transferred to a gurney and was getting rushed into the operating area. He followed the gurney until he got to the red line of the floor, marking where he couldn't cross anymore. The Operating Room doors swung close behind her and he finally collapsed to the floor.
He was sick to his stomach... it had been pure adrenaline carrying him to the hospital and now that was gone his body felt boneless and he started shaking. He was soaked in blood he realized looking down at his trembling hands. The entire front of his uniform was soaked in blood. He stared blankly at the OR doors.
How had this happened? Why had he let her go alone? He was in shock. He recognized the signs.
But he had things to do. He couldn't just wait here… and he also couldn't leave her here alone. Had she lost too much blood? His thoughts were scattered. He needed to leave for Konoha right away. He needed to brief the Hokage in person about what they had learned here. He couldn't send the details through a letter; it was too risky.
He had successfully briefed the Mizukage on the situation but chaos reigned in Kirigakure. Raids were happening into various homes and people were being pulled out for questioning. The entire city was on lock down, he needed to get out of here soon just in case trouble was brewing outside of Kiri. Time was of the essence. He looked up again at the clock. It was 1:15 AM. He needed to leave.
He thought of all of the things Hinata had done for him over the last few weeks. He thought of her smile and his heart clenched. What if he never saw that smile again? His eyes teared up and he felt like he was going mad. He knew that Neji, Kiba and Shino would personally kill him if he left her here alone. Finally he snapped out of it and turned on the portable walkie talkie he was carrying and paged a police officer. Within 20 minutes the Fox Anbu rushed to the hospital along with the police officer.
Kakashi sighed… he could leave Hinata with the Fox. He didn't want to, but he would have to.
He stood up to greet them praying to god that he had calmed himself down enough to pass as a sane commander. The two paused taking in his blood soaked outfit.
Kakashi opened his mouth to speak but his voice cracked. He had to take a deep breath so that his racing heart would calm down before he told the officers what had happened. He assigned the Fox to wait with Hinata until she recovered and to bring her to Konoha safely. She wouldn't be able to travel for a while… that is if she made it at all. But he couldn't think about that at the moment or he would go crazy.
With one last look at the operating doors and a prayer to all the gods he could think of, for her to be okay he left the building.
Before long he had grabbed his bags and left Kiri with the remaining two anbu. On his way out of the city he tried to find the mercenaries that had done this to Hinata, but they had already been picked up by the police. Fortunately or unfortunately... it was too late for him to kill them.