Another tricky chapter for me to write, but I liked the way it came together. Hope you all enjoy!
If this was the afterlife and what it felt like to be dead than this fucking sucked ass.
Hinata struggled to get up, her body still in pain from being impaled. For goodness sake she still had a gaping hole in her body! She had to stop being killed that way, very painful and total bullshit. What the hell though man, she was still in pain and it hurt like hell. She thought the afterlife would have been more freeing and relaxing, and where the hell was she anyways. Where was the sunflower fields that you frolic through, her deceased family members, hell she would even feel okay with seeing that older Uchiha.
She forced her pained body to sit up and look at her surroundings, well, she was still wearing her battered ninja attire. That sucked, she thought she'd be wearing some afterlife white robes or something. Really, she felt kind of mislead from what she was taught while growing up.
Where was she? Another planet, the ground had no grass and it looked so foreign here.
"Because it's the moon… Byakugan Princess."
Hinata froze and turned her head behind her to see a middle-aged man with eyes like hers sitting not too far from her, looking as if he was there the whole time waiting for her to wake up. Wait…did he say moon?
THE AFTERLIFE WAS ON THE MOON ALL ALONG?!
"Child…you're not dead. Yet."
"So is this some…middle ground. Umm like a passageway?"
"…No."
"Umm, what is it then?"
"The moon."
Hinata's eye twitched and she bit the inside of her cheek. "Okay…I don't understand."
He ignored her inquiry and rolled his eyes, "My name is Otsutsuki Hamura."
"You're related to the woman Kaguya." It was more of a statement than a question, not really taking long to add two and two together.
"Yes, very observant. I am her son."
She refrained from telling him how much his mother said she didn't like her sons. "If you do not mind me asking, what am I doing here? Why did you call me the Byakugan Princess?"
"Your eyes are the purest Byakugan that has conspired since me. You are a descendent of mine and it is important that you must live. While I love my mother very much, I acknowledge that she is evil and should be stopped. She cannot ruin the world my brother worked so hard to create."
Well he's right, his mother was evil.
Hinata remained silent and stared at the man, he held his mother's features. She wondered if he was her favorite, he still seems so loyal towards her. While he looked different from Hinata and the Hyuga clan, he looked alike at the same time. He had that dominate look to him, that higher authority persona. He looked intimidating and looked as if he did not like to make many jokes. He reminded her almost like her father.
"I do not think I am as pure as you believe I am. My Byakugan has not been used for the fairest reasons. I..do not love the village or the world your brother has created. It's tainted and evil. My eyes are something people kill for, all for a profit or to use it as a weapon. People do not understand the Hyuga and our looks, so they target us or say vile things about us. I grew to ignore it and overcome it. In the end, as I grew older, I grew to hate it and I let that hate consume me. I've done bad things in my life Hamura-sama, I do not think I am the person you are looking for."
It was true, over time she did grow to resent the village. Nevertheless she wanted to raise the Hyuga clan to become something strong, but united. There was no need for main and branch families, together united they were stronger, they were a force. People shouldn't have the cojones to kidnap Hyuga children and think they could get away with it.
The man before her was quiet for some time and she looked at him to see what he was thinking. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a grin.
"Are you always this melodramatic?"
Her eyes widened and she frowned at the man, "I was trying to be…honest."
"Yes, yes I see that. Very noble of you. I guess that is something inherited from my genes, to be so…serious. Funny thing about my brother, he was always the life of the party and I was the stick in the mud stuck up one. That being said, you fail to see the good in yourself. Yes, even with your…many flaws, you are still pure. Still good. Still the purest of the Byakugan. Please. Take my chakra and use it in this battle with mother. She needs to be stopped and I believe you will be a trusted help."
Well that was drastic, take his chakra? She couldn't even control her emotions, how was she going to control her emotions with someone like his chakra surging through her. This man was a historical legend.
"You know the good thing about meeting me?" Hinata watched as he gently grabbed her hand and pulled her sleeve up, he placed his hand over her arm and wiped down. The curse mark ultimately vanishing with him doing this. "You get a new life and new beginnings. You are on the right path, keep doing what you're doing." With that she felt foreign chakra molding with her own and she closed her eyes, taking the powerful feeling in and taking a deep breath.
When she opened her eyes, she realized she was gasping for breath and looking Kakashi in the face. He had a panic look in his eyes and was shaking her shoulders.
"You gave me a heart attack." For someone that was experiencing a heart attack he was very calm about it.
She immediately sat up, wincing at the pain above her abdomen. It still upset her that out of all things this couldn't be something that healed up, she wouldn't complain though, after all she was still breathing, and she felt like she was still able to fight. Hinata pulled her sleeve up and saw that in fact the curse mark was removed. Kakashi saw her line of vision and eyes widened, what in the entire fuck just happened.
"Did you? How? What happened?"
"I do not quite understand, but we have to help Naruto, I'm sorry, I'll explain later!"
With that she made her way to her feet and over to Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. With her Byakugan activated she surveyed what was happening, and the best way to make a climax of this whole battle, they couldn't fight forever. The woman was far stronger than all of them were is what Hinata concluded, but while she had the strength she didn't have the training.
Sensing her slightly different chakra Naruto turned to look at her with bright eyes and saw the determination in her eyes. Kaguya had just made the killing blow to Obito, the man had just risked his life for them and really, he had just about enough of this evil beast. The two made eye contact for a moment and Naruto took the hint that she was about to make a move and to get out of the way.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm!" The others made the gap as she made for a swift attack and came close encounters with Kaguya. The attack was not effective at all, Kaguya having a technique stronger than the Hyuga's. Still, there was a major difference behind the power used to perform the technique, it was different from her usual chakra flow.
Even though the older woman was unaffected, this was fine and what Hinata expected, she just wanted to clear the space and make room for just them two. At an arm distance away the two Byakugan users faced one another.
"Somethings different about her." Sasuke noted this while watching her, she still had that dark cloud around her, but she had a light pep in the way she was carrying herself.
"I noticed that too…I like it." Naruto smirked at this. Sasuke gave him a weird side glance before looking back at Hinata with mix matched eyes, "She's buying us time to come up with a final plan, so let's use it wisely.
"You wouldn't have those eyes if it wasn't for me. I am the reason you are what you are."
"I would like to beg to differ, the Hyuga clan wouldn't let their Byakugan lose to people that know little to nothing about it."
Off to the side Naruto's eyebrow twitched, he'd hate to admit it, but whenever her Hyuga ego came out it always crawled under his skin, it was the only annoying trait he'd admit she started having. Thanks to Neji. Even going against an unbeatable opponent that her family inherited her eyes from, she still talked shit. Wow.
He noticed her typical bluish black chakra had took on a purplish black color and as she created her twin lions it was three times the size, something definitely happened to her. Was it the curse mark, did she let it take over again? She seemed so different, so free like. She usually liked to be more confined and closed in to herself.
The two stared off at one another for a moment, it was tricky fighting someone with a Byakugan like yourself. It was easy to just look at one another, catch slight movements and accelerations and pulse movements to see if the other was trying to do something. Hinata took a deep breath and moved to attack. She told herself she was the trained ninja here. Even though she wasn't a God, she wasn't reincarnations of her sons, she wasn't a super strength healing machine, she wasn't anything special of those calibers.
But, she was a ninja. Hyuga Hinata.
She was trained, she fought her fair share and she lived. Before years ago, she didn't want to live. She didn't understand why people thought her life was worth it. Now, she understands why people thought her life mattered. She was someone, to somebody and she wanted to live and continue to be with that somebody.
One upper hand she had, and the others had against this horrible woman, was they didn't fear her. Shinobi and Kunoichi's don't fear in battle.
"To be betrayed by your son Hagoromo had to be one thing, but to be betrayed by Hamura-sama as well…that had to hurt you to the core."
That was the reaction Hinata wanted, Kaguya was searing with anger now meeting Hinata half way in the fight. The two collided and a giant dent could be in the ground, causing an erosion.
Hinata concentrated on making her breathing even, moving to strike the woman was difficult. Not because she was fast, just for the fact that she had so much force that went with her when she moved, it was like a mass of chakra crushing you. No surprise there, this woman was basically chakra itself, she was out of this world stronger than her and she had to act accordingly when going against her. With the chakra molded into Hinata from Kaguya's son, she was able to make penetration to the woman.
It was strength vs. skill.
Her twin lion fists made contact to Kaguya's shoulder and the burning pain made the woman pause. Hinata canceled out her twin lions and went for closer range attacks. She counted the numbers in her head and aimed at the correct point on Kaguya's body for Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. She breathed in and out and made sure not to take her eyes off the rabbit woman in front of her.
She could feel that her attacks were more powerful, that she was executing them to the highest caliber a Hyuga could do. She had to give team seven a little bit more time, she wouldn't let Naruto down.
Completing the technique, Hinata made space between her and the powerful woman to make sure she wasn't too close for an immediate attack back. Surveying Kaguya, she saw that the woman looked very…agitated. Her clothes didn't look so pretty and silky white anymore and she looked worn and battered. Plenty of fight still left in her though. Observing this Hinata moved back into her fighting stance.
"You've stabbed me, by using eyes that was blessed from me to pinpoint my vital organs. You have attacked me and actually put your vile disgusting hands on me. You have a lot of nerve."
Kaguya stopped speaking when she saw with her Byakugan a kunai bolting her way from behind her, she turned around and quickly caught it and at the same time turned her head to the right and wasn't able to react in time to a serpent coming head on to her and crashing into her. It had her in a perfect bone crushing coil.
"This one had nothing to do with my Byakugan capabilities."
Hinata watched as Kaguya used a mass amount of chakra to obliterate her serpent and free herself, fury clearly evident on her face from the games being played.
"You think fighting for them is going to make them accept you? I have news for you child. These humans will let their fear of you consume them and they won't love you anymore! Your clan will shun you, because they don't understand you. So, you're doing all of this is for nothing!"
"I think me doing all of this was for something."
"Why? You cannot possibly beat me."
"I know I can't. But I proved to be an excellent distraction. Team seven is going to annihilate you."
I liked the way this went, hope you guys did too. I never wanted Hinata to be like Godly overpowering. I hate when characters are just too OP. Just how I feel. The next chapter is the last chapter (The full circle chapter) and then the Epilogue. See you all tomorrow!