THE END WAR – HINATA VS SABINE
Dunstone, Ewoa
Michel runs over to Naruto, bringing Sasuke on his back. Naruto nods to them but pays no further attention than that. He redirects most of his 'life' energy to Sasuke immediately but also continues to heal the wounded civilians being brought into his bubble. He estimates that so far they have evacuated about one quarter of the population that must have been effected, the rest are unaccounted for. He hopes that by healing Sasuke his friend will be able to use his 'spacetime' powers to speed up the search in some way.
"I assume it was Furst," Sasuke says.
"No time to discuss that now, save the civilians as quickly as possible," Naruto says.
Sasuke hardly knows where to start, there is so much to be done. He runs towards an area of the fallen quadrant not currently being searched, gesturing to Michel for the horse to follow. When they are both over to that area they quickly clear as much of the debris as they can that is covering the wounded civilians. After finding ten people Sasuke lifts them gently onto Michel's back and tells the horse to quickly return to Naruto while he digs for others.
Searching like this is too slow Sasuke realises. He creates a series of clones to help with his search, but that alone will not be enough. He uses the Rinnegan to pinpoint the location of twenty injured people at once. He activates his golden 'spacetime' cloak and focuses in on the locations of these people. Using 'spacetime' like this is very difficult, but it is what he must do. Once he has concentrated on the positions of all the wounded he waits until they are stationary and clicks his fingers. The wounded all disappear, five seconds later Sasuke has focused on a safe location to place them, he clicks his fingers again and transports them all to safety. Doing this is only possible if his targets remain stationary at the moment, but as he repeats this process he will get quicker. For now this is the fastest way for him to evacuate people.
Nearby, Dunstone, Ewoa
Minato teleports to Naruto's side, bringing Ming Dai and Shao Chin with him. They both appear to have minor injuries. Naruto using his divided mind instantly heals those injuries, hoping that the two powerful warriors will join the rescue effort for the rest of the civilians. However, they have another issue on their mind right now.
"I need you to get to work rescuing the civilians," Naruto tells them. "Shao Chin, you are good at finding people aren't you? Start looking for the most vulnerable immediately, I need you to bring them here before they are too weak. Ming Dai, your 'strength' is needed for moving the heavy debris. Clear the rubble as quickly as you can. Dad, I need you to move people here as quickly as you can with your teleport technique. We need to act quickly if we are going to save them."
"Naruto, we have another problem!" Minato shouts clearly panicked.
"What other problem? What could be worse than this?"
"Sabine has arrived at the opposite end of this quadrant; I think she is trying to take back the throne of Ewoa. Right now Hinata is fighting her to protect the people but she won't be able to hold her off forever."
"Then I will go and fight her."
"Naruto, you can't," Ming Dai says.
"I am not leaving Hinata to die!"
"You have a duty! You are the King of Ewoa, the Pocket-Emperor of Homeworld. You can't leave your people now when they need you the most. Hinata is a class 9 warrior, she is not weak, she can fight on her own. Right now you need to stay here and help as many people as you can!"
Naruto looks around at the wounded passing through his bubble. When they emerge out the other side they are physically OK, but they are still emotionally wounded. Many have lost family and friends as a result of this attack, that is a story that will be true throughout the city. Ming Dai is right. If he stops now the suffering will increase many times over. He has a duty as the King of Ewoa, a duty to put the needs of these people above his own. Still, Naruto wants to protect Hinata and he searches his mind for a strategy to do that as quickly as he can.
The pressure is on for him to think of a plan. His concerns are warranted, if left uninterrupted long enough the fight between Hinata and Sabine will result in Hinata's death. The only way to reliably end that fight without Hinata dying is for him to intervene. He needs to rescue the injured as quickly as possible and he has limited resource to do that with, he needs to act as quickly as possible.
"Save everyone as quickly as you can," Naruto says. "Just go!"
Minato, Ming Dai, and Shao Chin all run into the remains of the flattened quadrant leaving Naruto to deal with the situation here. He has a plan but it will require maximum effort from everyone and they will have to move as quickly as they can. He removes his royal-grade communication stone from his pocket and squeezes it, sending a message to everyone in the city of Dunstone except for Sabine.
"Everyone, the city is under attack by Sabine. We don't have long if we're going to survive. I need everyone to help with the rescue effort. I know I am asking a lot of you, that most of you aren't trained to run into this much danger, but please, we need to hurry! Save everyone as fast as you can, bring the critically injured to me and take the rest to the hospitals. If we all do our best I know that we can get through this together. Ewoa will not fall back into the hands of Sabine, never again!"
Nearby, Dunstone, Ewoa
Hinata launches herself at Sabine, activating both her golden 'fire' and golden 'water' cloaks, drawing on the memories of two separate people and pooling all of their fighting experience. She arrives before the former queen and swings the Sacred Sword at her like a bat. Sabine bats the first sword strike away and then eloquently dances her way through the subsequent strikes avoiding five in total before she grows bored of waiting. Sabine swings her leg, arching it through the air and hitting her foot against the back of Hinata's head, sending the Endou-Hyuuga stumbling forward.
Hinata turns and points her hand at Sabine. She gathers golden 'fire' energy on her hand and unleashes it towards the former queen. Sabine raises her own hand and creates a golden 'chaos' shield to block the incoming flames. She points a single finger around the side of the shield and fires a bolt of golden 'chaos' at Hinata's hand. This causes the shinobi's flames to explode in her face, almost setting her on fire. Hinata is quick to uses golden 'water' to extinguish the flames around her but before she can restart an attacking Sabine has arrived before her.
Sabine strikes Hinata three times without reply, she then grabs Hinata's head with both hands and slams it down into her knee. Hinata stumbles backwards, her head unclear as a result of the impact. The former queen sweeps Hinata's leg out from under her and stomps towards Hinata's head twice. Hinata rolls out of the way to avoid each of the stomps before driving her sword upwards towards Sabine when she sees an opening. Sabine maniacally catches the sword with her left hand before striking Hinata three times with her right. She pulls the sword from the Returning Empress' hand and throws it to the side before striking her three more times.
Sabine looks down on Hinata with a look of triumph on her face. To taunt the daughter of her greatest enemy she shows the cut the Sacred Sword made on her hand and how it has been almost completely healed by her Super Healing divine ability. She suggests with this display that the fight between them is already over, and it might just be. She kneels down above Hinata once again and strikes towards her face. Hinata catches this incoming punch, snarling as she does so and slowly pushing Sabine back away. When there is enough distance between them Hinata places both her feet on Sabine's abdomen and kicks her away.
Hinata scrambles to get back to her feet but Sabine refuses to allow it. Pumping golden 'chaos' energy through her feet into the ground Sabine throws a series of stones and rocks up into the air around her. She then swings her hand with such velocity that it creates an air current, that air current then carries the airborne stones towards the fallen Hinata. Fortunately Hinata is saved at the last second. Minato teleports to her side places a hand on her shoulder and then teleports the two of them to the Sacred Sword. Not having time to stop and help he immediately teleports back to Dunstone to help with the rescue effort.
Hinata mutters a small apology and then begins to gather energy on the Sacred Sword. Sabine smiles gleefully, she has no idea where Hinata is finding this much energy but it excites her to fight against it. Hinata rushes at Sabine and swings the sword at her twice. Sabine manages to avoid the first two strikes, but the third is an upward swing that lands on her torso. Her Super Healing powers mean that she begins to recover immediately but she questions how Hinata's speed and power suddenly increased so much. It is the Sacred Sword; its power seems to be multiplying several times over.
Sabine settles on a crazy strategy, she will treat the Sacred Sword not as a weapon but as one of Hinata's limbs. She stands her ground and begins to exchange strikes with the Endou-Hyuuga as if the sword is nothing to be concerned with. Each time she is hit by the sword it does significant damage yet she ignores it, pressing on as if it is nothing to be worried about. Her Super Healing ability lets her continue to fight Hinata like this and within twenty seconds she gains the upper hand, striking Hinata's head with a hand covered in golden 'chaos' energy.
Stumbling back Hinata begins to feel sick. Whatever that 'chaos' energy is doing to her is not good and if things continue like this she will definitely lose. She tries to walk towards Sabine but the world seems to spin around her as she does so. Hinata stops and hopes that she can bluff Sabine into thinking that she is still well enough to fight.
"You know there is no point fighting here anymore," Hinata says.
"I quite agree princess, you're finished. But I will give you one chance to increase the chaos in this world. Run away, abandon the people you claim to care for and the false king."
"I can't do that. I would rather die here than run away now."
"You're clearly wasting time princess; you're not moving anymore so you are probably feeling dizzy. My attacks do that sometimes, especially when I aim for the head. But you clearly have a big speech you want to give so let's hear it."
Hinata is confused. "You want me to waste your time with words?"
"Sure. You think that wasting time is a good idea and if you have a plan it would be weak of me to avoid it. But you have to hope that luck is on your side."
Sabine stamps her foot on the ground. She projects a circle of golden 'chaos' energy around the two of them. The circle begins to spin at great velocity. Every five seconds the ground shatters at one point on the circle, firing rocks at a random direction until they hit the circle again and begin to build momentum. It is a dangerous position for both of them to be in, clearly Sabine's offer to let Hinata talk is not without cost.
"Princess, tell me, why do you fight?"
"I fight because of a woman's memories. She has told me of how she saw Naruto protect his village from a man who flattened it with a single attack. She told me how she saw Naruto run after his friend for years. She told me how she stood beside him during the biggest war their world had ever seen and how they fought together. Going through all those experiences together with him she learned a great deal.
"She told me that she saw his determination, how she was inspired by his determination to live by those words. Never give up, that was his ninja way. She learned from that and vowed that she would live the same way. She told him that that was her ninja way too and she promised herself that she would protect him until her last day. And that woman was a shinobi from his pocket-world.
"That woman is me! Let's keep fighting Sabine! Knock me down as many times as you like because I will get up again every single time! That is my ninja way."
Finally one of the rock groups thrown by Sabine's circle hits Hinata in the back of the head. These rocks push her forward towards Sabine who then strikes her heart with a golden 'chaos' powered kick. The strike knocks Hinata back to her original position. The shinobi tries to get back to her feet but the dizziness is the least of her problems as she does so. She feels a tremendous pain all through her body, a pain that would make standing almost impossible even if it weren't for Hinata's existing dizziness.
"Can you get up again?" Sabine asks jokingly.
Hinata using the Sacred Sword and miraculous determination does somehow find her way back to her feet. This does surprise the former queen but she is not disappointed. If nothing else fighting against Akashi's daughter has proven fun.
Then the complexion of the fight changes entirely when someone arrives behind Hinata. He immediately applies golden 'life' energy to her back, removing the two afflictions that Sabine caused her. To many he is recognisable as the King of Ewoa, Pocket-Emperor of Homeworld, but to others he is known by the words marked on his cloak. It is of course the 7th Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto.
"You took your time," Hinata says.
"I have helped everyone with life-threatening injuries," Naruto reveals. "For now I will leave the rest up to the doctors. It looks like the biggest problem is right in front of us."
"I'm a bit more than a problem for you now," Sabine laughs. "Look at you. I would say you have at most a quarter of your total energy reserves left. Do you really think that you can defeat me, the true queen of this country, with that pitiful amount of energy?"
Naruto stands upright and does his best to make himself look as strong as possible. Seeing him do this Hinata does the same. They stand together, placing themselves between Sabine and the Free Peoples of Homeworld. This is the first time they stand together like this as the rightful Empress and Emperor.
"I still have half of my energy reserves," Naruto bluffs. "Hinata is also back to her full vitality. The two of us can easily defeat someone like you."
Hinata resists her natural reactions. That bluff wasn't particularly convincing and it is far from the truth. Even after his application of 'life' energy she is not even close to her full vitality. She imagines that he is bluffing too. Truthfully Sabine's estimate might have been generous, she wouldn't be surprised if Naruto's energy reserves are below one quarter. She knows that he recovers more quickly than most but not even he can fight Sabine while stalling to recover energy. She wishes that he knew the Regulation battle principle.
"How many 'might' enhanced Detonation Martial Arts attacks can you two do?" Kokuo asks Kurama and Naruto.
"Realistically, one," Kurama answers.
Isobu sighs. "You better make it a good one."
"If you leave now we don't need to fight anymore," Naruto says. "Sabine, I am giving you this chance to leave without any harm done. If we continue to fight you may not survive."
Sabine cackles, "Whoever can survive among all this 'chaos' must be the strongest."
Sabine throws herself towards Hinata and Naruto, ready to attack with her full power. Hinata looks towards Naruto and hopes that he has something up his sleeve. Naruto closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He powers-up his leg and launches himself towards Sabine. Just as the two are about to meet Sabine strikes forward towards the quick-moving Hokage. Naruto power-transfers to his other leg and uses it to slow his momentum avoiding Sabine's attack, he power-transfers to the first leg and moves towards her again. Now moving towards Sabine at great speed, Naruto power-transfers to his arm and enhances it with 'might' energy, striking Sabine as hard as he can.
The strike drives Sabine backwards over one mile. It's power stuns her and she feels more pain than she has felt from a single attack in a long time. When she eventually stops she looks at the trail of red energy that has followed her and the distance between herself and her attacker. She is forced to wait twenty seconds for her Super Healing to get her walking again. She stands and looks at Naruto, shocked by the raw power he was able to put into that attack.
Naruto is now almost completely devoid of energy.
"I don't suppose you can do that again?" Hinata asks.
"Not a chance."
Sabine looks at the two of them and guesses at the odds of her victory. She then reconsiders her method of deciding; chaos should determine whether she acts or not. She takes a purple coin from her pocket and flips it in the air, adding golden 'chaos' energy to it as she does so. When the coin lands it rests on neither heads nor tails, it has landed on its side. That is as clear a sign as Sabine is going to get, the most chaotic thing to do here is to attack. She runs towards Naruto and Hinata, closing the gap very quickly.
"We're doomed," Hinata says.
"Don't flinch."
"What!?"
"She might be bluffing."
"And if she's not?"
"Then we're done for."
Sabine is not bluffing. She is now only a few steps from the two of them, but the Returning Empress and Pocket Emperor remain strong. She takes one more step and then Hinata decides she can wait no more. Hinata bravely places herself between Naruto and Sabine, determined that she will at least save him from this attack. Naruto reaches forward to try to pull Hinata out of the way, but his lack of energy has made his movements slow. Everything seems to move in slow motion and he worries that this is the end for her.
Then a beam of light appears between Sabine and Hinata!
Hands clapped around the beam of light their saviour arrives; Hannah arrives! It is her Light Speed technique.
Hannah jumps up and kicks Sabine in the head, pushing her back once again. Hannah herself is low on energy from being the most active member of the rescue effort. However, she has much more energy to spare than Naruto and Hinata. Now thankfully it looks like Sabine is also low on energy reserves.
"It's over Sabine," Naruto says. "Three against one, you can't defeat us."
"You've bluffed every step of the way so far."
"I can defeat you Sabine, that is no bluff," Hannah says.
Sabine looks at the experiment and smiles after a few seconds. Once more she withdraws a purple coin from her pocket, applies golden 'chaos' energy to it, and flips it into the air. If this lands on its side again she is going to attack. Naruto doesn't think Hannah is bluffing but he doesn't want to find out. If the coin lands on the side again Sabine's Super Healing will help her to defeat Hannah in a battle of attrition, the only hope is that Hannah has enough strength left to defeat the former royal quickly.
With the One True Sense Naruto senses that the coin is about to land on its side. Hannah's instincts and Hinata's Byakugan also confirm this terrible hypothesis, but they cannot interfere at risk of angering Sabine. They hold their breath and hope for a miracle.
"You can change it you fool!" Kurama says.
"I don't have enough energy left to use 'fate'!"
"You don't need to use 'fate'!"
Naruto realises Kurama is right and intervenes at the last second. The coin flutters a tiny bit mid-motion. This surprise Hinata but Hannah's instincts tell her what happened right away. The coin has changed path and has landed on heads.
Sabine shrugs. "I guess today is not the day. Uzumaki Naruto, Furst will catch you in time, that will be when your life draws to a close. But Princess Hinata, rest assured the privilege of killing Endou Akashi's daughter will be mine."
Sabine leaves.
"How did that change path?" Hinata asks.
"Energy Projection. Chomei's 'wind' energy," Naruto reveals.
Hinata sighs and collapses to the floor. "Hannah, do you have any instincts about this war? Do we stand a chance?"
"My instincts can't predict the future," Hannah admits. "But if today has shown us anything, no, we don't stand a chance."
In Response to Blue Force
Who asks if Mirai's fusion is going to be mentioned again
If it was I couldn't say without giving away spoilers.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Hyokage
Who asks what Sasuke's potential level would have been
Either 7 or 8 looking at the other test results.
But that is just an estimate, I would need to give it serious consideration if it were to be mentioned in-story.
Thanks for reading.