I felt like this chapter was something needed to get out of the way. Not my favorite chapter, but something that needed for the story. Still hope you guys enjoy it, the comedy is pretty good and at the end it will all come together!

Panic

That's what Shikamaru was feeling right now, and that meant a lot because he was a man that took pride in his relaxed personality. We loved the simple things in life and refused to let anyone ruin his worry-free small world he created for himself. However, for this war, Shikamaru had to do a lot of things that he would normally not want to leave his self-created world to do.

He was a good leader, even though he didn't care if he was a leader of a team or not, but he would have to scale himself as being a good leader if he had to. He could weigh out the pros and cons, the good and the bad of things. He was a genius, yes everyone knew that. It was a blessing and a curse. Made him kind of a douche sometimes to people, but it came with the trade.

In this war he was chosen to be a leader to something major and it was really an honor to be looked at as someone so important. He felt he was doing a good job, things could be going better, there could be a lesser body count, but for the most part he was doing the best he could without emotions getting too involved.

That was before Ino was in danger.

It all happened too fast really, before it clicked in his head where the ten tails were aiming for. His father was speaking to him of the last bit of important information that could aid them in battle. He was receiving his last goodbyes from him.

That meant that Ino wasn't going to make it. The woman that he told he was going to spend his last moments with. This couldn't be happening.

"Nara…you worry too much. Do you think Ino went through so much in life just to end up dying in a boring melodramatic way?" Shikamaru turned and looked at the worn out Hinata as she looked at him, a light smile on her face.

"You are needed here. Yes? Let me take care of Ino for you, just one more time." He notices as she spares a glace in Naruto's direction, him not looking at her at first, immediately picks up on her energy and spares her a glace. They lock eyes for a moment before he gives the briefest nod and just like that Hinata flickers away.

Shikamaru is left in a little shock and looks over at Asuma and Choji. The older of the two Jonin looked at the spot Hinata just vanished from, "She cares a great deal for Ino, Shikamaru, all you can do now is trust that she'll get there in time."

It felt like an earthquake, the ten tails was so damn powerful. All Ino could think about was continuing the task at hand with Shikaku and getting the hell out of this building. The two had evacuated as many people from the building as possible. Telling everyone to get the hell out of dodge while they sent the last of important information to the soldiers on the ground. Ino refused to say any goodbyes to anyone. Once Shikaku was done relaying his details to Shikamaru and the remaining allied forces he went to say his personal goodbyes to his son.

"Alright, with all due respect Mr. Nara, it's time to get the hell out of here."

Ino wasted no time in throwing the equipment off of her, this was not how her story was going to be written. She stood up and took in her surroundings, you would think there would be an emergency exit around this fucking place. She looked at the wall with a window to it and opted to channel a moderate amount of chakra to her hand and kicked a hole in the wall. When the dust cleared she saw the ten tailed beast ball coming hotly at them, her eyes widened but her will to fight till the last breath was greater than her means to accept defeat.

She stood in front of Shikaku, in a protective manner. It's what her father would have done for one of the two men that he held dearest to him.

"Stand back. I'm not fucking done yet!"

Her fist glowed and if she was going to die and not make it, it was going to be on her terms. She wasn't going to die inside a building just sitting there waiting for death to hit them. She'd run up to death in the face, kicking and screaming, before she let it take her alive.

She channeled as much chakra as she could into her fist, "I'm gonna hit that thing. If I explode with it, maybe that means you still live another day. My…my chakra might be enough to throw it off course. Tell Shikamaru that I always loved his pompous, genius ass. That if anyone can help that chicken head ass and moron in this war, I know it's him. I..I hope you see me less of a monster Shikaku, and more like the person my father wanted me to be. I..I hope I made up for my past and I hope I made him and you proud."

Shikaku stared at the young woman he's known since she was a baby. He remembered watching Inochi hold Ino as an infant, he remembered Inochi playing with her as a toddler. He was so proud of Ino, he spoiled the girl rotten and held no ill will about it. His dear friend was gone, and his daughter, on her path to redemption was willing to join her father at such a young age of 17.

"In my eyes Ino, you were a daughter to me before you and my son became one. I was always proud of you, I never stopped."

Ino grinned at this before she made a jump to the massive deadly ball.

The ground continued to shake violently and Ino supposed the intense ball coming towards them was earth shattering. Never did she think a snake summons would come out the ground and devour her and Shikaku.

Ino lifted her heavy eyes and didn't realize she had gone unconscious, her body felt sticky-wet and she noted how her body was swaying like she was in something moving. Once her vision focused she saw Hinata looking down at her with a soft smile. Ino immediately sat up in alert.

"Relax Ino. I'm sorry to have made you nervous, traveling with my summons is a lot more convenient and faster than by foot. It also keeps us a little bit out of the danger since we're underground."

"Oh, fuck Hinata, my damn shoulder is killing me. Did you have to snatch me that damn hard? You knocked me unconscious. Hey…where is Shikaku?"

Hinata gave an odd chuckle and scratched the back of her head, "Yes, well I dropped him off at the nearest safest unit. Him and the rest of the forces from HQ. I did not think him coming along would be needed."

Ino nodded at this, very much relieved that the older Nara was alive. "So, where are we going?"

She arched a brow when she saw Hinata give a sneaky-sly smile in return, "Oh, I thought we could use some help out there."

When word got to him that HQ was in fact destroyed and he saw the ten tailed blast hit its target his stomach dropped. However, a painful 60 seconds passed of nothing but his ears ringing before a snake slithered itself up Shikamaru's shoulder with a note in its mouth, once he took the note the snake puffed out of existence.

'She's alive, I got them."

Asuma walked over to Shikamaru and read the note with him, he then let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, "Damn, that girl Ino has nine lives." Shikamaru grinned reading the note over one last time, Hinata included the word them meaning she also had his father as well.

Wait, so where the hell where they now?

"So, it's another dark, cold and wet place. Why are we here Hinata?" Ino looked around the establishment noting it was another hideout, she was clearly over hideouts. She watched as Hinata looked around the establishment like she was looking for something specific.

"This is the Uzumaki Clan's Storage Temple. I studied with Orochimaru a great bit and took a lot of his information he had written down after I defeated him. This could lead to something very important; it could help Naruto a great deal in the war."

Ino watched as Hinata picked up a mask and looked at it, like she was connecting it to a memory. "Yes, let's take this and move. We do not have much time. I want to get back to the others."

Ino had to look of concern on her face watching Hinata but chose not to address it. "Ino do not worry, if I get too out of hand…than just kill me. You know the early signs better than anyone else, attack me while I am still vulnerable." Hinata talked like her life was indifferent and Ino hated when she talked like that. Her life mattered, to her and so many other people.

Ino frowned at this, a rare serious face plastered on her, "Let's just hope it does not come down to that." They continued out the temple and jumped onto the rooftops of the deserted village.

Once again Ino had an uneasy feeling as she watched Hinata walk into the shrine, for the most part Hinata looked like she knew what she was doing. It seemed that she collected more from Orochimaru then she was willing to share. She watched as Hinata lite the flames and made the right layout on the ground, like she was going off of memory.

"This seems about right. Now then let us begin." Hinata than pulled out her sealing scroll and laid it out, performing the right signs to release four barely alive white Zetsu's. "Ino, help me lay them out. For this jutsu I needed bodies to use for reviving, what better bodies than these annoying little things."

Going along with it, Ino helped lay out the four bodies in the marked positions, "Okay, one last important thing." Hinata than released to Ino's surprise a barely breathing, battered and swollen looking Kabuto. He was gargling on his own blood and his face was beyond mutilated.

"Okay Kabuto. I'm going to put this mask on you, and then you will do me a favor of sacrificing yourself, do you understand." The man painfully moved his eyes over to Hinata and noticed her hands already forming into a familiar position, one that caused him great pain that he didn't want to relive again. He weakly shook his head and Hinata continued to give him that cold calculating look, "If you try anything funny, I'll slit your throat before you even knew I did it."

Hinata than placed the mask on Kabuto's face and backed away to where Ino was, it took about 15 seconds before Kabuto started to holler in pain. His body coming back to life due to the trauma the mask was creating.

"Slice open the Death God's stomach Kabuto." Hinata said the order so calm, Ino was surprised to see the man listen to her like she was the one doing mind control on him. The torture she did on him beforehand must have carried its weight. The two women watched as Kabuto did what he was told; four large chakra balls came out of the demon and Hinata made her way up to Kabuto.

"You…did good Kabuto. I'm sorry just one last thing." She placed her hands on his ailing shoulder and dug her nails into him. Ino noticed chakra starting to seep out of Kabuto's body and him hollering louder in pain from it. "You won't be needing this. Neither will Orochimaru. So, I'll take the chakra. Maybe it will come in handy." She spoke so light as she watched the life leave Kabuto's body, knowing he wouldn't be recovering from this Jutsu.

Upon witnessing the true death of Kabuto and Hinata withering in pain from the chakra consumption, Ino was at odds. She was noticing signs, but she wanted Hinata to fight through it.

"Come on, come on. Push through." Ino mumbled under her breath as she slowly made her way towards Hinata.

"It's okay…I'm okay!" Ino paused hearing the frantic Hinata wobble awkwardly to her feet, hands still covering her face and head. She was breathing hard and Ino noted again how she was ignoring very alerting signs.

"Reanimation Jutsu!" Hinata fell to both her knees as she completes the summoning, and Ino watched as the Zetsu's became consumed, morphing into four historical figures before them. Once everything seemed settled, Ino rushed over to Hinata to see if she was indeed okay.

She held in the gasp at seeing Hinata's neck pale and scaly. Within a couple of seconds the look went away, but she wondered if it was something permanent or not.

Ino couldn't tell if it was her Naga form coming through or her worse nightmare. Hinata was still trying to catch her breath and gain control of herself, she put her small body through quite a bit, so she was a bit out of it.

"You two brats have a lot of nerve doing this." Ino laid eyes on the piercing man with snowy hair, obviously the one with the most aggravation on his face.

"Yamanaka….Ino?" Ino than looked on to the third Hokage and gave an awkward grin back, "Well…this is awkward. It wasn't really my idea to do this you see." Ino gave a dry laugh as she spoke, she stood up and in doing so forced Hinata on her feet as well.

"Young Hinata…what happened?" The Third Hokage eyes widened as he laid eyes on a little girl he remembers very fondly, and she didn't look like this at all from what he remembered. Now she looked like someone, someone he hoped she never had to encounter.

"It's really a long story Third Hokage, err sir. I mean, kind of long. I can give a quick rundown. You see, we were on a mission to save the last Uchiha..umm Sasuke, that had willingly left with Orochimaru to gain power so he could kill his brother that had massacred his clan. Of course, Third Hokage sir, you know all of this. Well it was a real big shortage in ninja's due to you know, the village being attacked back in the Chunin exams and…you dying. So, a jonin, me and Hinata are sent to retrieve him back. Only after the first mission went to crap and a lot of people from our graduating class almost died. Anyways...Good news! We got Sasuke back! Bad news, we get captured ourselves, like major bummer and we get tortured for like two and a half years until Hinata here kills Orochimaru and we escape!" Ino gave a longwinded explanation and looked at the four figures with a bright smile.

The Third Hokage is just flabbergasted, the Second Hokage still not impressed, "What are we doing here and who gave you the right to summons us." Ino frowned at him, wow, rude much?

She chose against saying this because the man looked like he would crush her like a bug for any little reason. "There is a war. Not just any war that us current people couldn't handle, but this guy happened to resurrect Uchiha Madara, and he is working with Uchiha Obito, which we just found out was Obito, because everyone in the world thought the guy was dead. I swear other than Sasuke those are the last two Uchiha's alive! Ha-ha…so yeah, they happened to summon the ten tailed beast…and honestly guys it's a shit show out there and if you guys could be kind enough to go get your guy from your time line that would be great because he's kind of on the crazy and ridiculously strong side. Not saying we aren't strong, but he like has a whole ten tailed beast ya know."

Hinata placed her hands on Ino's shoulder to stop her friend from rambling and Ino couldn't be any more happier than to let Hinata take over.

"First, Second, Third and Fourth Hokage…please. The hidden leaf village that you all worked so hard on is in danger, the world is in danger due to these crazed men. I…am so sorry for doing this to you. You should all be in peace in the afterlife, but our precious people are in danger right now." Hinata had finally gotten her balance back, still perspiring a bit, but she has regained enough to get back into the fight.

"Again, Lady Hinata what happened to you?" Hinata frowned at the Third Hokage, something he has never seen from the always blushing child. She didn't understand why Hokage's always wanted to ask 'What happened' like that was something important right now, it was a whole fucking war going on for goodness sake.

"I was captured by Orochimaru years ago. He placed the curse mark on me." She remained tight lip on anything else and continued to stare at the powerful men. She watched as Hiruzen Sarutobi placed his hands on his chin and shook his head in sorrow, "Ohh… Lady Hinata, your innocence is gone. I see it so easily. What have you let happen to yourself." Hinata remained unresponsive and gave off a typical Hyuga reaction, nothing.

Hiruzen chuckled at this and turned to Namikaze Minato, "You know, she had the biggest, deepest crush on your son. Only one in the village, I swear. She used to stalk the boy, hide behind trees and watch him play or eat."

Ino looked on as Hinata become beet red at this, something that was a rare sight to see now a days. Trying to regain her composure Hinata closed her eyes until the color receded to just her ears, "Excuse me sir, but this is very inappropriate. We are in front of two very strong leaders of the leaf village, these two men are our founding fathers."

Hiruzen gave her an amused look, "So, do you still have a crush on the knucklehead."

"He's not a knucklehead… he's saving people's lives right now! As best as he can! He's a key person in this war."

"So, I take that as a yes?" Hinata stared wide eyed at Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage. "SIR? I beg your pardon?!"

"Oh, she's not crushing on him anymore, they're…" Ino made the motions of dry humping in front of them and Hinata let out an awkward high pitch yelp, "Yamanaka Ino! You stop this right now! This is not the place for that! And in front of Naruto's father." The last comment Hinata whispered venomlike to her best friend, Ino silently laughed to herself, it was so hard to take Hinata serious with her being so flustered right now.

"Oh my…you look like your mother. But this personality screams Hyuga Hiashi all over it." Hinata slowly turned from Ino and looked at the laughing Fourth Hokage, her lover's father, "Sir?"

"Your father never wanted to just relax a little and have fun. He was always a stick in the mud at meetings and always the serious one. When your mother was around, she used to make him so flustered. It was nice to see. It is nice to see my son has the same effect on you. That he can bring emotion out of you even after your time with Orochimaru." Minato smiled a warm smile at Hinata, who became quiet after this.

"So, my old friend Madara has turned a very dark path again I see." Hinata again meet eyes with Hashirama, but soon lowered them. The image of a blooded Tsunade almost being beheaded popping in her mind. "I assume so, yes."

Hashirama looked at Hinata for a long time before going from a grin to a warming smile, "So why are you doing this? You throw out things that you know will get our attention to aid in this war, but the realness that you even care about the war is not there." Hinata still couldn't look at him in his eyes, she felt like such a messed-up person.

She dropped to her knees in front of Hashirama in a begging like manner, "I'm sorry. I almost killed your granddaughter."

Ino looked at Hinata like she lost her mind, "Granted! Granted that she almost killed her because she was tortured by a terrorist leader beforehand and he tampered with her curse mark and drove her too it. She didn't kill her though! Tsunade is Konoha's Hokage now and she's also currently fighting tooth and nail in the war." Ino bent down to try to pick up the emotional woman from the ground in a desperate manner.

"No Ino. He should know, they should know the type of person that is asking for their help! I tried to kill the Hokage, I was incarcerated for it. The only reason I was released was because of Naruto, my father and the fact your granddaughter is too forgiving. Naruto is kind, I do not deserve him. I betrayed his village that he holds dear to him, I killed Orochimaru and never returned to the village. I willingly after a while became Orochimaru's student, than after I killed him I became a murder for hire basically so we could survive. I left my village, teammates and Naruto behind. I am SCUM, but…Naruto saved me. So, I will do any and everything to save Naruto and my precious people. The curse mark punishes me for the sins I have chosen to do and that is my fine, it is a punishment I deserve while I seek redemption. So please, we need aid right now!"

Hinata kept her head on the ground in front of Hashirama, no tears came from her, but she wanted to let this powerful man know who she was. She couldn't possibly expect them to aid her when she had harmed people they cared about.

"Young Hyuga, look at me." Hinata hesitated for a moment, but then picker her head up to look at Hashirama. "No person in this world is perfect."

"But, I'm a horrible person."

"That you are." Hashirama elbowed his brother Tobirama, giving him a scowl. His brother in return looked off in another direction, continuing to cross his arms.

"Yet, you are here seeking help to aid your precious people. That is enough for me! It is very obvious you are on your own pathway young lady, and you are only doing this to help the man that has your heart!"

Everyone looked at Hashirama awkwardly.

Minato walked over to Hinata and tapped her shoulder, she looked up at him and he held his hands up to help her on her feet. Hinata hopped on her feet with no aid and seemed to be holding her breath when looking at him. He chuckled at the odd behavior, he was a little odd when he was young too.

"Breathe Lady Hinata. Now, I must ask before I personally agree to come with you. Since you and my son are already…in a relationship. Do you love him?"

"Yes. More than you could ever fathom…sir." Came her immediate reply.

"Alright that's good enough a reason to have me on board, let's go help my son than."

"Did you say my granddaughter was Hokage?!"

This chapter was okay, like I said at the end everything will add up. Still, just because I want to, I'm going to update another chapter tonight. So stay tuned for the other chapter tonight!