The Wanderers
Bonus Chapter 8 – If We Lose
A/N: Even though the main series seems to be coming to an end, this story won't until it's finished. Including this chapter, there are 12 chapters to go. Just wanted to clarify that.
A/N2: Remember people, this is a Bonus Chapter. While it is very relevant to the story, it isn't entirely…true. Rather, this chapter is more of a 'What If?' scenario. Some food for thought. It might happen. I'm that kind of twisted writer, remember. These characters are only acting this way because the bad guys won the 'final' battle.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the bad guys would win. Just for a change in tempo.
Her prey was fast. Too fast for any regular beast to catch.
But the beasts under her command were no regular beasts, and they were bred specifically to catch the prey that she was currently chasing. Atop a massive tiger that had a spiked chain around its neck that was larger than most of the soldiers that rode on their own beasts at her side, Shouri looked over the darkening landscape.
There was less than an hour before the sun set and they would lose the light, yet the indications from her beast told her that they'd closed in on their prey quickly. It had been weeks in the making, but her hunt was almost over.
On the horizon, a single dot moved away from her force as quickly as it could, knowing what would happen if they to overtake it.
But it wasn't moving fast enough. She pushed up a hand towards the darkening sky and a convocation of black-tipped eagles shrieked into the air from nowhere in particular, circling around the Quiraji hunting force before obeying her commands.
The eagles shot through the air much faster than her beasts on the ground were able to close the distance to their target quicker than they would have. At her command, the eagles swooped down on their target and tried to claw at him with their talons. Even at his speed, he wasn't able to ignore the eagles attacking him, forcing him to halt his frantic pace and fight back against the birds of prey. His arms and legs were as fast as blurs striking back against the eagles.
With her distraction in place, the hunter pushed her beasts faster and closed the distance between her group and her target rapidly. Within moments they were upon him, even as he finished off the eagles and turned to face his pursuers.
"No more running for you, little man," said the hunter with a wicked grin on her face. "We've got you."
Her target moved to flee again, but her beast riders moved around instantly to circle him, forcing him to clench his fists and consider fighting his way out. The Quiraji soldiers trained their bows on him, but their hands were shaking at the thought of facing him in battle. Despite their leader at their side, he'd killed more of them than any shinobi that had fought in the war and had a tendency to be somewhat brutal about it.
However, the hunter wasn't going to let him kill anymore of her soldiers. She'd come to take his head, and that's exactly what she was going to take. Leaping off her oversized tiger onto the ground, the Quiraji leader put away her bow and picked up the spear that had been strapped to its side.
"For you to come so far, with your injuries, is mightily impressive. But you're at the end of your road now."
The target glared at her through hateful black eyes, even as blood was still running from wounds in his shoulders and he silently snarled at her.
Shouri smirked and twirled her spear threateningly in front of her, "Oh that's right, I forgot about that. My brother can be so brutal when he gets on a roll."
Her target didn't seem to want to hear any more of her taunting, placing his fist down on the ground in front of him. The fact that he was still standing was a testament to how stubborn he really was, as one of his legs was barely holding him up due to the bone sticking out just below his knee. He'd built up a reputation as a dangerous foe that even the Quiraji leaders couldn't properly pin them.
But months of fighting and relentless pursuit had slowed him down considerably, and with little energy left in his tank, the Konoha Green Beast had finally been cornered.
As any good hunter knew, it was when a beast was cornered that it was the most dangerous.
Physical energy exploded outwards from Rock Lee as he pushed his body beyond what it should have been able to reach and prepared himself to attack Shouri with everything he could muster.
But Shouri was a hunter and not a fool. While she approached the shinobi cautiously with her spear ready to make the single strike necessary, her other hand made small motions at the ground.
Just as Rock Lee sprung forward on his remaining good leg, a pair of burrowing creatures sprung out of the ground and dug their claws into his legs, forcing him down flat to the ground. He struggled and kicked at the creatures with his broken leg, ignoring the pain and trying to take them down.
Not one to waste time on wounded prey, Shouri leapt forward and drove her spear directly at Lee's back. He had the instinct to turn himself as much as he could so that the spear only grazed his side, but coming up from behind the hunter was the tiger she'd rode in on shot forward and slammed its front paws onto the back of his neck.
Even with his inexhaustible stamina and strength, Rock Lee wasn't able to fight against inevitability. He struggled again, but once the tiger dugs its claws into him he stopped for fear that it would pierce through his spine. Shouri pulled her spear out of his side and dug it into the ground before kneeling down beside his head.
"This isn't a death to be ashamed of. It is honourable to be taken down by a hunter of my calibre."
Slowly she drew a long knife from her belt and showed it to him, taking in the hateful stare that he gave her before taking her deserved kill.
This was the moment she lived for. This was what it was like to be a hunter.
But now there were less interesting prey to hunt down. It was almost enough to get bored and consider other lines of work.
But she was Quiraji. There was only the slaughter that was to come.
Where once they numbered in the hundreds of thousands, now the ranks of shinobi survivors numbered less than two hundred, a testament to the thoroughness of the Quiraji hunters over the past few years.
The last remnants of shinobi resistance hid from the Quiraji forces by keeping mostly to themselves in underground bunkers, suppressing their chakra-based abilities in the hope that the enemy wouldn't be able to find them. They fought back where they could, but it was akin to the last fall of a bird with its wings clipped.
Their strength was spent and their future was short.
The rebellion had been on the move to keep ahead of the Quiraji that were determined to exterminate them, but with their numbers and families they were often forced to spend time re-supplying and recuperating before moving on.
At this time, the rebellion headquarters were underground in the Land of Lightning, deep underneath a great mountain that had once been linked to the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Kumogakure had long since been destroyed, but many of their secrets remained and the rebellion used those secrets to continue to be a thorn in the Quiraji's side.
Despite their hidden location and desperation to keep a low profile, the shinobi sentries kept a close eye on the surrounding area for any hint of Quiraji scouts or armed forces. Their numbers were few, but they were as vigilant as they had ever been, for many of their families lived within the Kumogakure bunker that housed the resistance.
So when Tokugawa approached the mountain, the bearer of grim news, he had to give them a sign that he wasn't an enemy. He made camp just within line-of-sight of the mountain and used specific smoke signals to indicate that he was a returning scout. The next morning he approached one of the secret entrances and submitted himself to inspection before being waved through to the Jounin that was in charge of processing any intelligence they had gathered.
It didn't take long for him to convince the Jounin commander that his information needed to be told to their leader directly, as he'd travelled all the way from the Land of Wind and refused to rest until he delivered his information. Under heavy guard he was led through the tunnels underneath the mountain, passing a number of armouries and training areas where the youngest of their ranks were learning how to resist the enemy. Their desperation had become clear once they'd been forced to train young children in their ways to help hold back the Quiraji, but even a young scout like Tokugawa could see that it was a futile effort.
His guards kept their comments to themselves about his appearance, escorting him directly to the war room where the leader of their rebellion was planning their next move. They announced his arrival and took their positions at either side of the door, keeping their hands close to their weapons at all times. Though they knew Tokugawa personally and didn't believe that he would betray them, the times forced them to be distrustful of their own people.
But beyond that, they knew they had to protect their leader's life. Without their leader, the rebellion would have been crushed long ago.
Tokugawa snapped off a quick salute to the rebellion leader and waited for her to turn her attention towards him.
Leaning over a war table with her hands covered in bandages, was the leader of the rebellion and one of the most powerful shinobi that still remained in the world. She wore a long black and white robe that was weathered and covered in blood stains that refused to be washed out, while her dark blue hair was cut short and roughed behind her face. Her hands moved quickly over the figures that represented Quiraji strongholds in the shinobi lands, before letting out a sigh of frustration and looking up at her visitor.
Even though he'd been working for her since the rebellion started, Tokugawa still found it unnerving to look at the rebellion leader in the face. Though the rest of her form was scarred and cut from years of constant battle, the rebellion leader's face still held the soft beauty that had been the subject of many admirers before the war had turned so heavily against them.
However, her white eyes betrayed no false honesty as they glanced directly at him. They spoke only of anger and hatred that threatened to be unleashed at the slightest provocation.
Hyuuga Hinata said nothing for several moments, examining Tokugawa with intense scrutiny before motioning him forward. As he approached the war table, she reclined back into the stone chair that had been set at the table, feeling its cold stone on her pale skin through her thin robe. It wasn't designed to be comfortable or practical. It was a chair that was a constant reminder of the need for her not to get complacent or soft.
After a while she cut off her eye contact and crossed her legs underneath her robe. "Speak your piece, Tokugawa."
The young scout snapped out of his fear of the leader and nodded quickly, "Of course. Sorry. I have word from the Land of Wind. Sabaku no Gaara and the last Sunagakure shinobi have fallen to the enemy."
Hinata absorbed the information with no obvious reaction on her face. It seemed that she didn't care that the last real bastion of shinobi power had been destroyed, but after working with the rebellion leader for a reasonable amount of time, Tokugawa knew the real reason for her lack of obvious emotion.
She'd already resigned herself to defeat. The rebellion's existence was to just go out in a reasonable blaze of glory, or to survive as long as possible before inevitability came for them. The Hyuuga survivor kept her own counsel on their long-term plans, but few in the rebellion truly believed that she even had a long-term plan.
Uncrossing her legs slowly, Hinata leaned forward and considered the information she'd just been given. Her white eyes made their way back to the scout's face and she could see how uncomfortable her scrutiny was making him.
She didn't care. He held no importance in her eyes. Without a word, she motioned with her hand for him to leave her before dismissing her guards in a similar manner. Hinata kept to herself so that she could remain an enigmatic figure in the rebellion, but also for her own sake.
Once the room was bare except for her, Hinata sighed softly and stood up from her chair to lean over the war table once again. In a slow deliberate motion she reached over to the figurine that represented the ex-Kazekage and his force and removed it from the map. She shook her head and placed it in the small box that contained similar-looking figurines. As it was now, there was only a single shinobi figurine that remained on the map, while the rest was covered in models that represented Quiraji strongholds and army forces. It spelled out a bleak picture, but one that she had already come to expect.
"The sphere just continues to shrink," she said to the empty room. "How long before the noose comes around our neck?"
"You know the answer to that already."
Hinata shook her head and gave an angry stare to the figure standing in the corner of the room. "I don't have time for this. The Quiraji will learn of our location eventually. We have to be ready."
"You will come to my side eventually, love. Why delay the inevitable?"
It was with words like that that she knew that the figure wasn't real. He was just a figment of her grief.
One that was becoming more convincing by the day.
A knock on the door by one of her guards drew her back to the reality of the room, to which Hinata moved to the other side of the table and called for them to enter. The two armoured shinobi bowed their respect to their leader before the leftmost shinobi stepped forward. "There is a person approaching the mountain that hasn't given the proper approach signals."
Hinata's eyes narrowed slightly, "Why hasn't this person been taken out yet? We have protocol."
The two guards glanced at each other for a moment before the first guard continued, "When confronted by our shinobi, she claimed direct knowledge of you and your position. She requested to speak to you specifically."
The rebellion leader's constant frown deepened and she brought up a single hand into a handseal. Deep within the mountain bunker there was less risk of detection by Quiraji forces, so they had the capacity to use chakra-based techniques so long as they didn't maintain it for too long. With that mind, she activated her Byakugan and stared through the black and white vision towards the mountain entrance. She could see the rebellion survivors each preparing themselves for the unknown future that continued to linger ahead of them, but pushed through that to look at the mountain scouts that had confronted the unknown figure.
Even with her veins popping out the sides of her face with her Byakugan active, Hinata couldn't help but let her eyes widen at the image she saw. The female figure that had approached the entrance was surrounded by four shinobi rebels that had their hands on their weapons and continued to demand that she identify herself properly.
"Who is it, Hyuuga-sama?" asked one of her guards in the war room.
While keeping her eyes on the commotion outside, Hinata kept her emotions in check with a deep breath. "I thought she was dead…"
"Madam?"
Hinata cancelled her Byakugan and turned her back to her guards, "Give the scouts permission for her to enter. Bring her to my chamber as quickly as possible."
"What about the inspection process, madam? That'll take at least thirty minutes."
The rebellion leader glanced backwards at her guard and gave him a look that gave him a cold chill throughout his body. He didn't doubt for a moment that she could have smeared him against the wall without a second thought if he questioned her once more.
"You have your orders," she said at a threatening tone before moving her attention back to the war table. The guards behind her had to take long breaths to calm themselves before rushing to comply with her command.
After giving the order to a scout that rushed out to the mountain entrance to escort the female figure into the bunker, the two guards glanced at each other with trepidation in their eyes.
"She's getting worse, isn't she?" said one of the guards with a dark tone in his voice.
The other guard nodded grimly, "Every day. There may be a time that staying with her isn't the safest place to be."
"Don't kid yourself. Even here, we aren't safe. There's nowhere safe left for us in the world."
The first guard had to agree with his companion as they awaited the stranger that they were to escort to the rebellion leader's private quarters.
Hinata's room would normally be a reasonably sparse affair, as her personality didn't lend itself towards overburdening herself with possessions, but many things had changed over the years. The rebellion leader found herself glancing over the small things she'd kept all these years.
On the peg that used to hold her robe, now held a dusty cloak of white and faded blue. In the centre sat the fan symbol that the wearer had once worn so proudly, splattered with his blood from the battle that had taken his life. It had been recovered when their bodies had been displayed as a warning to other shinobi, though she didn't have the heart to wash the blood off.
Sitting pegged against one of the rock walls were a pair of bladed gauntlets that had once belonged to the female Tailed Beast container from the very village that once built the bunker they now inhabited. In desperate times Hinata had been forced to wield the poisoned gauntlets herself in battle, but now the blades were blunted and useless. They suited the wall as well as anything else she possessed.
On a study table pressed against the opposite wall to the door sat a stone tablet that read a long list of ancient names. They each held the same last name, and there had been four names scratched in at the end with a kunai that she had performed herself. There had been times when she'd considered scratching her own name into the tablet and committing herself to a final fight, but the more stubborn side of her kept that insanity at bay.
At least, for now.
The final memento that she kept stored in her private chambers sat on a wooden table beside the head of her sleeping mat. On top of the table sat a pair of items that was all she had left of him: a cracked forehead protector with a leaf symbol etched into it, and a broken sword hilt that no longer held the energy blade that had served him so well in battle. She hated that it was all she had left, but Hinata also knew that any more reminders and she might go mad with fury and hatred.
The visions weren't helping.
She didn't need to wait for the knock on the door, spinning on her heel to open up the entrance to see a person she never thought she'd see again. She looked like she'd walked through hell and back, yet still had the presence of mind to fix her blonde hair in a long ponytail that still had the fine polish it always seemed to.
Despite how badly she wanted to embrace her old friend in a hug, Hinata couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead she took her in by the shoulder and forced a smile onto her face, "I thought you were dead, my old friend. How is it that you came here?"
The last Yamanaka shinobi left in the world looked at her for a moment before taking up her offer to enter her chamber. Her hands sat within black gloves that many shinobi had started to wear as representing their grief over their lost comrades, and a single look into Ino's face told the rebellion leader that she'd suffered just as much as any of them had.
"It…has been a long time," said Ino slowly. Her voice sounded more gravelly than Hinata remembered, but she dismissed it for the fact that she finally had someone from their generation she could speak to.
Hinata frowned at her friend's tone, but offered her a seat on a chair at her study table. "Would you like some refreshments? The shinobi at the entrance said you gave them quite a fright. We're a bit jumpy here."
"That wasn't my intention." Ino glanced around the room with slow deliberation, her hands not leaving her knees for a moment. "You have some familiar items in your room."
"Yes…I know." Hinata clasped her hands together and sat down on the other chair opposite the blonde kunoichi. "Ino, everyone thought you were dead. No one survived the destruction of the Fire Temple, we were sure of it."
Ino bit at her lip, as if to imply she wasn't sure herself. "That was…a long time ago."
The rebellion leader looked over her old friend, noticing a number of scars that seemed to poke out of the edges of her clothes. They looked like they were several years old, though Hinata wasn't going to judge her on those. She had similar scars, though not as many on her body. "Ino…how did you know we were here? You've been gone from the world without a trace for years."
"There was a small shinobi group in the Land of Water that spoke about your rebellion. They had information that they thought you could use, so I offered to bring it to you." Ino spoke in a low tone, without any of the inflections that she used to use when speaking. To Hinata, it sounded like all the life had been beaten out of her and all that was left was an empty shell.
The comparison was frightening to see.
But what she said peaked her interest, and for the moment she was the rebellion leader before old Konoha friends. "What information was so important that you were willing to risk your life with that kind of journey through Quiraji-occupied territory to come here? If it hadn't of been you, I would've ordered the guards to kill you on the spot. We can't be too careful these days."
"There are rumblings that there are some problems with the Quiraji leadership. Apparently some of the leaders aren't happy with the way that things have been progressing over the past few years."
Hinata's mind began to unravel the information she'd been given, processing it in the way that only a leader could. It had some particularly devastating consequences for their struggle against the Quiraji, and opened up a number of retaliation possibilities for their rebellion. It sounded almost too good to be true.
Despite the source, Hinata had reason to suspect what she was being told. Something didn't sit right with her.
She tried to think of how to phrase her next question, but she knew that the time for pleasantries had long since passed. With a heavy heart, she asked the one question that she needed an answer to.
"Ino…what happened to Airi?"
For a moment the blonde kunoichi seemed to freeze in place, like nothing in her body was responding to her commands. Then she shook herself out of it and glanced at Hinata's feet, unable to look her in the face.
"I…I don't…who was that?"
With a grim expression on her face, Hinata stood up from her chair and walked over to the despondent kunoichi. Praying that she was wrong, the rebellion leader placed a hand on Ino's chin, bringing her face up to bear. "Look me in the eyes, Ino."
She didn't get the chance to confirm her suspicion or not, as the moment she brought up Ino's face, the blonde kunoichi snapped to attention and shot up from her chair. Hinata jumped back at the motion and then gasped in pain as she looked down to see a long knife sticking out of her stomach. She swore loudly and grasped it with one of her hands before wrenching it out of her stomach with a cry of pain. Blood started to pour out of her stomach freely, even though she put pressure on it with her hand and tried to heal the wound using chakra.
"Why, Ino? Why?" She wasn't sure why she was asking, she knew the answer already. It should have been obvious from the beginning, but Hinata had let her feelings get in the way of her judgement.
Not willing to let her target recover in front of her, Ino reached for the table and picked up the lamp that sat there. With a step forward faster than the rebellion leader could react to, she slammed the piece of furniture into the side of the Hyuuga clan leader's head. There was no anger in her expression as did watched her old companion collapse to the ground in a mess of dark blue hair and blood, nor any other emotion displayed on her face.
There was nothing at all.
Hinata lay on the ground wracked with pain; the blow to her head had thrown off her concentration and likely given her a concussion, so she found it difficult to maintain her medical technique on her stomach. Under normal circumstances she would have been able to dodge the blow to her head with little effort, but Hinata had seen Ino's face and had hesitated for just a moment.
That moment had cost her, and now she was lying on her back, bleeding from both her stomach and her head. Her mind tried to process the situation, make an assessment and react to it, but everything felt like she was wandering through a fog. Old memories and new faces bombarded her mind as she struggled to stay conscious.
Her attacker glanced around the room again for another weapon before looking down at the floor to see the bloody knife she'd driven into Hinata's stomach in those first few moments. She leaned down to pick it up to finish her target, but she wasn't able to bring it up as if it was stuck in the ground. Looking down, she saw that her target's hand clamped around hers in a death grip that was covered in blood. Using Ino's arm as leverage, Hinata dragged herself up to her feet and pulled back her other hand. Blood was running down the side of her face and her dark blue hair had begun to clump from the wound, but Hinata's eyes spoke nothing of her fatigue.
She only exuded fury and hate.
With the blow to her head hindering her concentration, Hinata didn't have the precision to mould chakra to use her Hyuuga taijutsu techniques against her old friend.
But she didn't need it, as she slammed her hand into the centre of Ino's chest. The force, combined with her concentration of physical energy sent the Yamanaka kunoichi flying into the back of the wall, breaking the stand that held the Uchiha cloak. There were two snaps that Hinata heard, one of whom made her heart break at the sound. She knew what she had to do, but that didn't mean she liked it.
She stepped forward to finish it, but Ino's eyes snapped to attention and she swung her fists at Hinata wildly. With her years of fighting experience, Hinata was able to avoid the strikes easily, while stepping forward and driving her own hands into her friend's chest. She didn't want to make her friend suffer anymore than she had to.
But she wasn't going to hesitate anymore either. Ino had clearly been sent to kill her and Hinata wasn't going to stand for that. She hated to see her friend being used in such a way.
However, Ino wasn't about to let her end it right there and then. While her attacks had missed the rebellion leader's head, on the return her hands glowed with a familiar-looking blue that made Hinata recognise that she had erred. Ino's hands dragged along her neck and quickly made their way towards her midsection, forcing Hinata to leap back before she could do any serious damage to her.
Her hand shot to her throat as she felt the muscles that had been cut by Ino's chakra scalpel, messing with her chakra system. She'd forgotten that shinobi under his control retained their abilities; meaning that at any point Ino could flood the room with water and kill them both. Without ful access to her chakra, there wasn't too much that Hinata would be able to do about that.
It seemed that her blonde attacker had thought the same thing she had, as Ino placed her hands together and began running through handseals in a frighteningly quick manner. There was a struggle within her green eyes, but Hinata knew that Ino couldn't truly fight against his control. She looked around for a second before noticing that their struggle had knocked off one of the blunted gauntlets from the wall and it was in arm's reach.
She moved quickly to her side and scooped up the Tailed Beast container's gauntlet and hurled it straight at Ino's head. It wasn't meant to cause any damage, but it succeeded in causing the Yamanaka kunoichi to move her head to avoid the blow, staggering the speed at which she could form handseals.
In that moment, Hinata shot forward and grasped the wrists of her attacker tightly. With her knowledge of Ino's abilities and strengths, she knew that without her hands she wasn't as significant a threat.
She still wasn't able to mould chakra to do what she wanted to do cleanly. So she filled her hands with physical energy and crushed them completely.
Being under the enemy's control didn't prevent the shinobi from feeling pain. Ino's shriek of pain was deafening in the small chamber, but Hinata pushed through the sound to pick up the knife that her old friend had buried in her stomach earlier. Not wanting to waste any further strength on techniques, Hinata took no pleasure in shoving the knife straight into Ino's chest. She pressed down hard with both hands to press it through her rib cage, but the knife wasn't long enough to reach the blonde kunoichi's heart.
However, it was enough to drop Ino to the ground, unable to do anything except stare at her target with a hateful look that belonged to a face that wasn't truly hers anymore.
While Ino lay bleeding out on the ground, Hinata moved over her and placed her hands around her throat, watching the life fade away from her. She didn't need to know why Ino had attacked her, or why she had been so confused before stabbing her with the knife.
Within the blonde kunoichi's green eyes, Hinata could see the flashes of red that she knew had to be there. The implications of that single colour's presence were far and wide in number, but one thing stayed at the forefront of Hinata's mind.
There was only one cure for that man's control.
With physical energy flowing through her hands, Hinata took no pleasure in the action that she had to do. Despite the hatred and anger that she felt in that moment, it was still her friend beneath her hands, her friend that she'd once laughed with and played with her little girl.
Hinata did not hesitate for a moment. Her hands acted like a vice and crushed the last surviving Yamanaka shinobi's throat into dust. Ino only lasted a few moments, choking on her own blood before dying under her friend's sorrowful gaze. During that time, the red colour in her eyes became more prominent until the very end, when Hinata could no longer see her friend in those eyes at all.
She could only see the man that had sent her to kill her. The Ino that she'd known had died years ago at the desecration of the Fire Temple.
The several injuries that she'd accumulated over the few minutes of battle struck her once again and Hinata wavered on her knees before turning to hear the guards outside, banging on the door, demanding to know what was going on. She hadn't seen her do it, but the assassin had sealed the door with some manner of technique in the moments after she'd shut the door behind her, but only now she could hear them.
With almost a casual gesture, she sent a small force of spiritual energy towards the door to blow it open. It sapped more of her strength than she would have suspected, but Hinata didn't really care too much.
She had something she had to confirm. Her concentration had returned to the point that she was able to use chakra again, but before she could give an explanation she had to know.
With her once-friend dead at her feet and her guards bursting in to help far too late, Hinata took in a deep breath and moulded the chakra necessary to activate her family doujutsu. Through her black and white vision, she did her best to not concentrate on any specific point, but push out the large perspective as far as she could.
Eventually she came to a point where she couldn't go any further, but before she could regroup and push it further, a sharp pain struck her eyes and she forced herself to cancel the technique. In her regular vision she looked down to see a pair of medical shinobi treating her various wounds, which stung far more than she would have thought it should. Hinata could hear one of the shinobi mentioning something about poison on the knife that had pierced her stomach, but her mind was already trying to process the information that she'd seen before her doujutsu had cut out.
"How long…until you finish?" she asked between heavy breaths, realising that the healing process was taking a lot out of her.
One of the medical shinobi healing her stomach looked up at her with an unsure look, "It's hard to say, madam. It's not closing up the way it should and it's playing havoc with your chakra system."
"That means too long, Hinata," came the image standing on her bed mat.
The Hyuuga leader bit her lip and turned to one of the guards making sure that Ino was truly dead. "We need to…be prepared. Code black, full alert."
The guard frowned for a moment, as if he hadn't quite heard her correctly. "Madam? Are…are you sure?" He didn't have to wait for an answer to his question, as the look in Hinata's eyes was all he needed to know. Despite the humid temperature that sat underneath the mountain, he felt a cold chill spike up his arms and over his shoulders, before turning to his fellow guard with terror in his eyes.
The two of them hurried out of the room to prepare their forces as quickly as possible, while Hinata started to move out of her chamber towards the war room.
"Madam, if you don't stay still, we won't be able to heal you properly," complained one of the medics that had sealed the cut on her head and was doing his best to wipe the blood from her face.
"Do what you can, but don't interrupt my work," said Hinata, ignoring their protests as she dragged herself towards the war room. She left Ino's body to sit in her chamber for the moment, while everyone else readied themselves in accordance with her earlier command.
Once she reached the war room, she noticed that the young scout Tokugawa was standing around with a look of confusion on his face. While she was dragging her medical shinobi along with her, it was clear that she'd been in a dangerous fight, but the scout seemed more worried about the shinobi that were now running around, arming themselves and speaking to their families.
"What is going on, madam? Why is everyone running around like the end of the world has come?"
"The leader has enacted code black, son," said one of the older medical shinobi, while he scrunched up a bloody rag and tossed it into a nearby trash container. "Don't you know what that means?"
Tokugawa shrugged in a way that only someone of his age could pull off, "What does that mean?"
Hinata leaned on the table that had the map spread out on it, feeling her strength returning to her and the sharpness of her vision had begun to return in earnest. She glanced over at the young scout and gave him the most accurate description of their situation that she could possibly say.
"They found us."
oOoOoOo
The previous times they'd been discovered by the Quiraji, it was usually a single squad of scouts or a mobile column of troops, never more than fifty troops at once. The shinobi rebellion force would take out every shinobi without prejudice before picking up everything they had and moving as far away from the location as possible. It had kept them safe for the past years, though each time they lost people that were impossible to replace.
This was not one of those times. Under the cover of darkness, groups of White Assassins teleported to selected locations where the shinobi scouts were positioned, while Red Warriors escorted Black Robes towards the entrances. Behind the specialist troops came the common Quiraji soldiers, whose job it was to clean up what the specialists ignored. When the Black Robes reached the entrances they each fired the same cloud of green smoke into the openings, while the Red Warriors protected them from the shinobi that the White Assassins missed.
This wasn't an accidental discovery or half-hearted attack. The Quiraji had come to finish the job they had started a long time ago.
The moment she saw through her Byakugan that the Quiraji were flooding the bunker with poisonous gas Hinata ordered everyone to get out of the bunker as quickly as they could. She knew it would likely deliver them into the waiting blades of the Quiraji at every entrance that they weren't flooding with gas, but they would last longer outside of the bunker than they would within.
Ignoring the protests of the medical shinobi, who complained that the poison from Ino's knife would continue to spread through her body if she moved too much, Hinata ordered them to evacuate with everyone else and charged as quickly as she could to the nearest entrance. Her hands were still covered in blood and her anger was beginning to peak again as she crashed into the closest Black Robe she could find, holding her breath to stop as much of the poisonous gas as she could.
She knew it was probably invading her system regardless and shortening her life-span considerably, but she didn't care.
She'd seen a blank area in her Byakugan sight and that was her target. Nothing else mattered.
A pair of Red Warriors tried to attack her with long blades, but Hinata parried the blades by hitting the flats of the blades with her hands before shooting across the battlefield faster than they could follow.
As she covered ground quickly towards her target, Hinata kept an eye on her forces and her heart sank at the sheer number of people she was losing in the battle. The Quiraji had come in force, and the rebellion had been undermanned since its inception. They'd been fighting against the inevitable for too long and didn't have the strength to stop an enemy as thorough as the Quiraji.
She cancelled her doujutsu and focused her regular vision on the tall man that was leading the Quiraji attack. Every attack that she'd led against the Quiraji had been with him in mind as her target, but he'd avoided her at every turn, mocking her as she went.
But now here he stood, almost inviting her to come at him.
She was going to take the bait and tear him apart. Her anger at him was so great that she couldn't even think about anything except her vendetta against him. The fact that innocent shinobi were being slaughtered no longer factored into her mind.
As she came into range, she cut her speed and stood at mid range from her target, clenching her fists angrily and glaring at him intently. In the years since she'd last fought him, he hadn't changed at all, though most of the time she'd fought people under his control.
This was the man that had sent Ino to her death. She wouldn't leave the battlefield unless it was with his head in her hands.
Sensou stepped forward in his red plate armour and a wicked smile spread across his twisted face. "I guess that present I sent you wasn't able to finish the job. Did you like it? I wanted to make it particularly personal. She was feisty at first. But they all submit eventually."
Hinata's eyes blazed at his words, though she recognised he was baiting her into attacking him without thought for her own safety. Without her leadership, the rebellion would crumble with little resistance. Even though she had no real faith in their ability to fight back any more, she was the cornerstone of shinobi power that remained in the world.
Seeing that she wasn't going to leap at that, Sensou revised his approach and took a step towards her with his arms open. "How does it feel, knowing that you had to kill yet another person that you cared about? Did you enjoy the feeling of her life fading beneath your feet? Perhaps you are closer to being one of us than you thought."
At that, Hinata's mind snapped and she let out a roar of fury that spoke of the years of anguish that had been building within her. Her body exploded with wind spiritual energy and she shot forward towards her hated enemy at top speed. Even with her superior vision granted to her from her Byakugan, Hinata could only see the red of her enemy's armour and the arrogant expression on his face.
She was determined to remove his head from his shoulders and pound his body into dust until her hands were soaked in blood. Nothing else would satisfy her any more.
In a way, she was glad that she was the only one of their old group that remained. That way none of them had to see what she'd been forced to become.
With her body covered in spiritual energy, Hinata sped towards her foe, not even noticing the other Quiraji leaders that were approaching the battlefield. Her spiritual energy collected around her fists in a wild flurry of blades until they formed into long drills, easily able to pierce through any force she threw herself at. She didn't care that the technique was doing serious damage to her arms; she wasn't in the proper state of mind to cover herself in physical energy to offset the damage.
She only cared about offense.
Within seconds she got into range of the Quiraji leader, who still hadn't moved from his unguarded position. He didn't seem worried about her attack in the slightest, even as she skidded to a halt in front of him and shot one of her hands forward with the intention of gutting him where he stood.
Sensou still didn't react. He seemed content to let her kill him.
Despite the high speed of her attack, Hinata's strike never reached its intended target. Just as her blow looked to pierce through Sensou's body, a large shape came out of her flank and slammed itself into her, driving her into the ground to the side of her target. The sudden attack caused Hinata's spiritual energy to spiral out of control, cutting up both her attacker and herself at the same time.
When she came out of her blood haze to pick herself up from the ground, Hinata noticed the large beast that had attacked her. It had been torn up badly from her Kattoken attack, but it was clearly one of the oversized beasts that had been hunting down her shinobi one after the other. She turned her head to see a woman clad in gold and white armour walking towards her with an arrow notched in her exquisitely adorned bow.
The rebellion leader leapt to her feet as the Quiraji leader shot the arrow straight at her. Hinata instantly covered herself in a cloak of spiritual energy and parried the arrow so that it flew past the side of her head.
At the appearance of a second foe, Hinata recovered her mind and refocused herself. She'd forgotten both herself and her own style of fighting, and it had nearly gotten her killed. Despite the fact that she was now facing two Quiraji leaders, Hinata took a moment to calm herself before sliding into her Hyuuga-style form and staring down her opponents.
"You should have killed her when you had the chance," chastised Shouri as she notched a new arrow into her bow and brought up a pair of massive panthers to her side.
Sensou snorted and placed his hands on his side as he turned to face their opponent, "Where would be the fun in that? I prefer it when they take themselves out."
Hinata wasn't able to use her Byakugan to fight, as she'd learnt many years ago that seeing the Quiraji leaders through her black and white vision caused her serious pain, but she didn't need her 360 degree vision to know that the shinobi she'd gathered at their mountain bunker were being slaughtered by waves after waves of Quiraji soldiers. All the preparations and safeguards they put into place for such an attack had failed purely because of the sheer amount of strength the Quiraji had brought against them.
With her own techniques, Hinata knew that she could likely escape the battlefield to fight another day, but the Hyuuga kunoichi refused to even entertain such a possibility. There was no value in being the last shinobi, doomed to be hunted down and slaughtered like a wild animal.
This was the time and the place. She would make her stand here.
She knew she couldn't save her people. With such opponents facing against her, she would be taken down and killed the moment she turned her back on them.
While she couldn't save them, she could avenge them. That was her mission now.
"She looks focused," said Sensou with no lack of amusement in his voice. "So determined."
Shouri ignored her compatriot and watched their shinobi enemy carefully; she was wary of the previous time they had fought. The furious look in her white eyes was still there, but it had a focus that made her dangerous.
Hinata shifted her weight onto her front foot and prepared herself to attack her two opponents at once. The beast-master wasn't very strong in close combat, and Sensou was only dangerous once he built up a rhythm with his weaponry. In that knowledge, Hinata, as a close-combat specialist, had an advantage that she wasn't about to not take advantage of.
Yet her instincts told her it wasn't the right time to attack. Her instincts were proven correct as a bolt of water screamed through the air towards her back. In a movement that looked more like a dance than a taijutsu manoeuvre, Hinata spun around and collected the water attacking her in a sliding motion with her own spiritual energy before directing it at the person that had attacked her with it.
The water splashed against an invisible barrier and fell to the ground as the attacker was revealed. He still wore the heavy set of black robes that she recognised, but his appearance was much more youthful than the last time she had fought him.
That could only mean that he'd been very busy before coming to face her with his companions. By turning her back to confront him, Hinata had left herself open to attack by both Sensou and Shouri.
The panthers tried to flank her, while Shouri shot her arrow directly into the area between her shoulders. While that was happening, Sensou shot forward with a long blade that would have skewered a wild beast. As she knew those attacks were coming, Hinata kept her white eyes on Kyoukou in front of her. He seemed to be gathered his energy for a blast attack, looking to sandwich her between the attacks.
She was no fool though. Hinata knew that she only had one avenue of movement available to her. With a culmination of chakra in her feet, she leapt up as high as she could, easily clearly two dozen metres off the ground. Seeing his target disappear from his sight, Sensou stopped himself from completing his attack, while Shouri's panthers nearly crashed into each other before they were struck by Kyoukou blast of fire that had been aimed at consuming the rebellion leader.
While in the air, Hinata used the moment to re-adjust her position and prepare her descent for a direct attack at the red-armoured warrior that had taunted her earlier. With enough force and momentum she knew she'd be able to get through his defences, and he likely still underestimated her despite all these years.
It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was all she had. Her injuries and fatigue had started to pile up and she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to fight at her full speed and strength. While she had that advantage, she swore she would at least take him out.
Once she landed back on the ground, just to the side of the burning panthers, Hinata pumped as much strength into her legs and shot towards Sensou with her hands poised in spears to pierce through his armour. Her opponent seemed surprised by her ferocity, but still brought his sword up to bear and seemed in the perfect position to counter her attack.
He never got the chance to attack her as a powerful force moved through the air and slammed into the rebellion leader, sending Hinata spiralling into a nearby rock formation. She crashed through them and felt several of her bones crack and break at the impact, far more powerful than any of her previous opponents could have produced.
With blood once again running down her soft features, Hinata could see through her eyes a large figure striding towards her, shirtless and without scar. Blazing black eyes regarded her with cold determination and hate that she couldn't hope to match.
"He's come for you, my love."
Hinata blinked and saw the vision once again, standing between her and the large man that had blasted her away. It looked different this time, younger than when she last saw him. He wore the same youthful smile that had first drawn her to him; he even wore the same outfit he had at that time.
The image was waved away as the Quiraji leader stepped forward and motioned with his hand to wrench her to her feet with his ability, putting pressure on her from all sides to prevent her from moving.
"You are too brazen with your attacks," he said with a forceful tone. "Even if she is a broken shinobi with nothing left to live for, you shouldn't underestimate her."
"We weren't underestimating her," said Sensou with annoyance clear in his voice. "She just surprised us, is all."
"Everything is under control, Father," said Shouri slowly, putting down her bow.
Kyoukou made no comment as he walked towards their leader and turned his attention to their enemy. Walking behind Benkei without making a sound was the last of the Four, her feet shifting underneath her pale cloak that left a trail of dead grass and rocks behind her. She had not participated in the battle at all; her existence was to stay at his side and nothing more.
She was a weapon that was no longer necessary.
"You won't ever get us all," spat Hinata with as much vitriol as she could muster. "You'll never win."
Benkei released his control and used enough force to bring her to her knees, "We already have. You are the last of your kind."
Hinata tried to stand to her feet, but Benkei slammed down his fist and she felt the crushing force slamming her down into the ground again. Blood had started to trickle down the front of her face and it didn't take a medical shinobi of her abilities to realise that she didn't have long to live.
"Why do you continue to resist us?" asked Benkei with legitimate confusion in his voice. "Everyone you know or cared about is dead. Your world has disappeared and can never return. Yet you seem to want to stand and fight against the inevitable."
Struggling under the pressure that his spiritual energy put her under, Hinata spat a globule of blood onto the ground and coughed painfully. "So long…as I draw breath…I swear I will never give up."
"Should we kill her, sir?" asked Shouri, pulling back an arrow in her steel bow and aiming it at the Hyuuga clan leader's head.
Benkei waved away her bow with his arm and knelt down next to the defeated kunoichi, grabbing her chin with his large hand and bringing up her broken face so he could see it with his own eyes. "Why do you persist?"
Through heavy breathing and blood filling up her throat, Hinata stared defiantly into the dead eyes of the Quiraji leader and said the only thing that mattered to her at this point in her life.
"Because that's my way of the ninja."
Upon saying that, she spat a large amount of blood into the Quiraji leader's face and hurled herself up to her feet. She didn't have much strength left to fight with, but her statement hadn't been made in vain. With a kick of physical energy in her legs, she leapt over Benkei's head and landed directly in front of Sensou, who seemed just as surprised as the others at her defiance. Despite that, he still reached out to place his mark on her to place her under his control, but Hinata was too fast for his hand to catch.
In a fluid motion that would have made her father beam with pride, Hinata weaved her way around his hands and placed both of her hands on the centre of his armour plate. Pumping as much physical energy into her hands as she could muster, Hinata glared at the Quiraji leader through her white eyes with burning hatred. "This is for Neji-niisan, you son of a bitch."
Using chakra, Hinata would have been able to shut down all of her opponent's chakra points from this distance. However, as the Quiraji leader didn't have chakra points for her to attack, Hinata would instead use physical energy in a surgical manner.
In less than a second, her physical energy invaded Sensou's body through his armour and shredded his insides. The Quiraji leader was barely a shell by the time Hinata was finished with him, though it took the vast majority of her remaining energy to accomplish the deed.
In that moment of attack, an arrow pierced through the back of her shoulder as Shouri drew another arrow, while Kyoukou reached forward to suck the life from her with a single touch. Hinata didn't make a sound at her injury, using the momentum to turn around and look at Benkei as he advanced towards her, wiping her blood from his face. The Quiraji leader called down his subordinates and stepped forward to take care of her himself.
With an arrow lodged in her shoulder and her energy drained from killing Sensou, Hinata wasn't a significant threat to him. Benkei had come to finish the last of the shinobi rebellion with his own fists, and that was exactly what he was going to do.
Knowing that she was already dead, Hinata did the only thing she could think of. With a roar of fury she charged forward with all the energy that remained in her body, praying that she could get a single shot in.
The Quiraji leader pushed out a hand to send a wave of pressure to crush the young woman, but Hinata's flexibility and speed allowed her to slip past his attack and stab a hand towards his muscular face. She didn't have enough physical energy to use a powerful technique, but she had enough strength left to make a sharp blade with a spear-hand strike aimed at Benkei's throat. Should it hit, she knew that she'd be able to seriously injure the Quiraji leader, perhaps even kill him.
Benkei moved his head out of the way of the strike like it was nothing, though not quickly enough to completely avoid her attack. A small cut appeared at the side of his neck as he reached out and clutched her side with one of his hands, slamming her back down into the ground. It was only a light cut, barely deep enough to draw blood.
But it was enough to enrage the Quiraji leader, to the point that he wasn't going to give her any final words.
Without a hint of ceremony or mercy, Benkei crushed Hinata into the ground with the full force of his strength, putting an end to the shinobi rebellion once and for all.
Stepping away from the body, Benkei looked out over the soldiers that were cleaning up the shinobi corpses with the stare of a conqueror. He felt at his neck with a hand for a moment before glancing down to see a single drop of blood on his hand. He scoffed at the notion and turned back to his subordinates.
Kyoukou nudged the kunoichi's body with his foot, regretting the fact that he hadn't been able to destroy her himself. "What should we do with the body?"
"Leave it for the worms," said Benkei with a triumphant nod. "The time of shinobi is over."
Author's Note:
Again, just to avoid any confusion, this is a 'hypothetical' chapter. This hasn't necessarily happened, nor will it necessarily happen. Unless they lose. I'm a bit of a stinker in that way, aren't I? I do what I can.
Please don't hate me for making Hinata that way for this Bonus Chapter. I've wanted to explore the 'troubled' leader idea for quite a while now and she gave me the perfect opportunity to give it a go. If I had more space I would have explored it further, but this is just a Bonus Chapter. I hope I conveyed her troubles properly without doing a disservice to her character, while still making the scenario interesting to read. It was interesting to write her as an angry troubled person. Not that I want to continue writing her this way, I prefer Hinata in the rest of my story.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.