Author's notes: I had first planned to throw a HUGE 10000-something words chapter at you guys, but later on decided to cut it into 2 parts: what you'll be reading now is the first part of chapter 4. I should be updating the relatively short second part soon enough to wrap it all up, but only as I complete writing it. C'mon, gimme some credit here: it's hard writing this stuff while trying to stay original. You'll notice the focus has switched from Naruto to some of the other characters which hadn't had their chance in the spotlight yet...
(note: the chapter turned out to be 20 000 words long and took another 2 months later to complete...)
Chapter 4. Vendetta: The Path of Pride -PART 1
"Is Auntie Hinata really going to be okay...?" she had asked, on the verge of tears.
Her father didn't know what to answer, so he simply did what he did best: he remained silent and looked cool while doing so. Her mother however kneeled down and hugged the little girl tightly, reassuring her as best as she could: but Ino was herself in need of courage right now. It pained her terribly to see Hinata lying in bed like this, unconscious and wired to a life-support system. After all, Hyuuga Hinata had always been a close friend of the family, and she didn't know what she would do if ever...
This was one of those things Ino simply couldn't laugh off and complete with a snort.
"Honey, Tsunade-sama did whatever she could. I'm sure...your Auntie Hinata will be fine. Right? Right, Shikamaru?" she turned to her ex-teammate for hope.
Shikamaru sighed: he had been in a coma-like sleep himself for the past few years since he had forgotten to set his alarm clock, but even then no one had cared enough to notice his missing in action. But that was beside the point: right now, he was starting to seriously regret having ever woke up. What was it with other people, dragging him out only when they had to be faced with something as depressing as this...?
"I wouldn't be worried if it was anyone else, but Hinata's medical history shows she had already sustained heavy damage to her vital organs in the past, making her more vulnerable to internal bleedings. I'm not sure just how badly she's been hurt in this incident, but it's still cause for worry. Also, that wound she's got on her arm doesn't look very good...You see, normally when you get stabbed or even ran over by a jeep, as long as it's not fatal the injury should be capable of eventually closing up by itself, or at the very least should be able to do so with the proper support. But in this case..."
"The damage is too extensive, and the shattered flesh and bones won't be able to heal naturally even after extensive surgery. This is no ordinary wound."
The room quickly fell silent as everyone turned their attention towards the raven-haired Jounin, whom by now was taking a closer look at Hinata's injuries: this was the first time he had spoken since he arrived to the hospital. Sure, it was sudden, but Sasuke never wasted any words and everyone respectfully kept quiet whenever he opened his mouth to talk or belch: Shikamaru may have been better at sizing up a situation, but when it came to insight for this kind of things the Uchiha was still the best. The best AND the sexiest: that definitely had to count for SOMETHING. Sasuke continued.
"This is one of the particularities of the Dokugami (Poisonous Bite), the name of the technique that Hinata has been attacked with: it's a very deadly skill which can cause heavy damage on both the surface and the innards of anything it hits. Like the name implies, it's a actually a 2- part technique: first, the 'bite' is a clawing motion which tears right into the flesh, and the 'poison', so to speak, consists of a violent chakra release originating from that 'bite'. If we were to describe this 'poison' in simple terms, it's actually something like a destructive shockwave which resonates throughout the whole chakra body of the victim. Think of it as something similar to the Naibu Hakai (Inner Explosion) of the ancient Taijutsu schools, a twist punch so explosive that the hit would be projected beyond the actual point of impact, breaking through any possible type of defense. However, the Dokugami is a lot more dangerous than that in terms of damage. You see, when the claw actually penetrates the victim's flesh, it also becomes a medium to canalize energy throughout the wound's opening: it's a simple maneuver, but since there are no forms of chakra defense whatsoever within a human body, the damage of this 'poison' will multiply by several times. And unlike the Naibu Hakai which can only pack up to the power of a single punch, this technique relies on the user's own indefinite amount of chakra: the damage could thus easily expand tenfold and add up to the destructive properties of, let's say, a stick of dynamite inserted into a wall of cement. This is an advanced form of Taijutsu which goes way beyond the level of Neiji's or even my own: the way I see it, it's something that fuses together principles of both the Iron and Gentle Fist styles into one instantaneous attack. And in Hinata's case, that blow and its following resonance were simply so powerful that it shocked her cognitive functions into a temporary shutdown, even though her body was hit at a relatively safe and remote place: considering that, you can probably guess the severity of the damage AT the actual point of impact, the wound at her arm. The fact that Tsunade-sama's previous surgical intervention couldn't do anything more than stop the bleeding should all tell you something: damage like this is absolutely permanent unless the patient has undergone special chakra training by which his or her molecular structure then becomes restorable at will, which, luckily enough, is Hinata's case. In other words, there's nothing more we can do for her right now other than wait for her awakening: the only person who can save her now is herself."
Immediately after he was done talking, as per habit Sasuke pulled up his sleeve and clicked on his watch, starting the chronometer: he was incapable of explaining in any simpler terms than that technician mumbo-jumbo and it usually took everyone else quite a while to even register what the heck he was talking about. After 3'53 minutes Neiji finally exhaled, showing sign of life and demonstrating he was the first in the group to grasp the concept: AND it was probably due to the fact that he was already familiar with many types of Chinese martial arts. As you can imagine, Ino and her daughter would simply sit there open-mouthed with a blank clueless look on their faces for at LEAST another 5 minutes. And as for Shikamaru, who's supposedly the smart guy here...well actually, Shikamaru would have probably understood it all instantly if he hadn't fallen ASLEEP in the middle of the explanation: he wasn't narcoleptic, but seeing him you'd think the word described him nicely enough. Time hadn't been kind to our favorite shadow-user, as his attention span had decreased even MORE with age: by now, the poor guy was totally losing his edge. Aw, dammit, this might take a while: okay, well since we've got time on our hands before Ino resumes breathing again, let's talk about Nara Shikamaru and check up on what he's been up to these days.
You see, it was one thing to be the #1 strategist of the Leaf, but since he had become Anbu captain and been assigned a group of grunts under him to kick around, Shikamaru had become lazier than ever, if that was POSSIBLE. Being a leader was quite practical in Konoha Village you see, since there was no such thing as misuse of authority: it was socially acceptable to send your minions to do your groceries or your house chores, and basically slave-drive them into doing anything you didn't feel like doing yourself. As long as you kept bringing everyone back alive after successful missions, your superiors couldn't complain, and as long as you were the one handing out the paychecks at the end of the month, neither could your underlings. Understandably, Shikamaru placed that knowledge into good use and often indulged himself into entering a vegetative and quasi-permanent state he called 'resting', which usually either consisted of himself playing Shougi or simply himself napping while his pawns had to bust their asses off to do all his housework: at this rate, he thought, he didn't even NEED a wife since his quasi-slaves did everything AND spared him the nagging. Now, it would have been fine if Shikamaru's attitude was the only thing that been affected by his promotion, but you see, oversleeping also had had some very negative effects on him. Remember this, kids: just as sleeping a lot on weekends can't make up for overall schooldays insomnia, sleeping too much could KILL your brain cells. In other words, as of late Shikamaru had really been getting out of shape both physically and mentally, and that affected the quality of the plans he came up with: just as he had gotten more lethargic, his plans had gotten, well, sloppier. Basically, what happened was that his IQ of 200-something had dropped to about 100 over the years: it was a real shame, but even sadder was the fact that he was STILL considered a genius, considering Konoha Village's subhuman intelligence standards. I mean, just take a look at the current Jounin exam and you could get a pretty good idea of your average Konoha ninja's IQ. Yes, THAT low. The Shidaime Hokage would cry in the Afterlife if he only knew how things would turn out for the brave little village he had founded with his own two hands...
Or maybe he wouldn't even care, actually. It just occurred to me, but has anyone of you ever really wondered WHY the Hidden Leaf Village was named that way? Simply put, the Shidaime had never really intended to build a ninja village in the first place: he only wanted a plantation. That's right, what the First Hokage had founded originally wasn't a village but a plantation, 'hidden' from the authorities, and where he could tranquilly grow his own brand of brain-killing hallucinogen 'leaves'. And at the time, the title 'Hokage' didn't mean being chief or protector of the Village: we only now understand it that way because the original definition had been grossly deformed as it was passed from generation to generation. But in reality you see, initially 'Hokage' was more along the terms of 'drug lord' as it simply meant owning the Hidden Leaf plantation and having the right to shoot anyone trespassing on the territory to protect what was wrongfully yours. As for the idea of Ninjutsu itself, it was only adopted after the Hokage realized he needed effective and sneaky ways to smuggle the 'goods' through the borders, a not very noble but efficient purpose nevertheless: that illegal business finally paid off so much that he decided to build a Village to accommodate the workers of his plantation, whom up until then had been living in holes like a bunch of animals. Well, these people probably didn't care all that much about getting housing, either: being a bunch of perpetually high junkies with no life, they were probably too stoned to even realize that ...Now just a damn minute...These people are the ones who would become the ancestors of everyone in the present Konoha Village, right? Hmm...You know what? It's actually quite a valid theory: looking at how the Village was nowadays, it wouldn't be surprising if it was because it already went back for 5 WHOLE generations in terms of stupidity! I think we're unto something, here.
Oh, but I digress...maybe it's just time for us to head back to our friends in the hospital room.
...Okay, so Ino's STILL just sitting there, even though it's already been five minutes. Geez, just how thickheaded can you...? Fine, fine, I'll just keep on talking then. Where was I? Oh yeah. Shikamaru.
So lots of things had happened in Konoha Village in the past 8 years: just as for Naruto, time had moved on for everyone, and one of those peculiar changes that time had brought along was the formation of Shikamaru's Anbu unit. It's a strange but interesting little anecdote, really: you see, when Tsunade had first given Shikamaru the Anbu captain title, he had requested the freedom to personalize his own squad, a privilege which the amused female Hokage had then granted him. And that's how it all started: instead of bothering to train new recruits or use any of the veteran Anbu soldiers, Shikamaru only went fishing for human resources amongst the 12 original Genins he graduated with, since he believed there was certainly a lot of talent in that group. Well, when taking into account all the absences and exemptions from active duty, the number had actually trimmed down quite a bit: amongst others, there were the cases of Uzumaki Naruto, whom by then had already left the village with Jiraiya, Uchiha Sasuke, whom was frankly a category by himself, and finally Yamanaka Ino, whom had become the wife of the previous category. Subtracting both Naruto and Sasuke from the party did weaken it considerably, but Shikamaru went on and assembled his remaining comrades anyway: after all, knowing all of these guys' competencies as well as their personal oddities, they were still the easiest for him to work with.
This also simplified a lot of things for the lazy Nara since, possessing perfect knowledge of the skill distribution on his team, he could efficiently assign specialized roles to each of the members by sticking to a series of basics whenever he planned out missions. This generally involved the use of: the shrewd himself as a team captain/coordinator, the vigilant Neiji as a scout, the taciturn Shino as a mobile resource, the dutiful Hinata as a medic, the annoying Kiba as a decoy, the horizontally-gifted Chouji as a human shield and finally the utterly expandable Tenten as cannon fodder since that was the only marketable function Shikamaru could think up for her other than giant doorstop. Yes, she was THAT useless, giving competition to even the Queen of the Sucktacular, Kurenai: for instance, during the Leaf's counter-raid on the Hidden Sound village, the two women had been single-handedly beaten to an inch of their lives by Orochimaru's blind and wheelchair-bound paraplegic grandmother, whom in the report they later wrote supposedly 'outnumbered' them. Actually, they would have probably both perished in that assault if their opponent hadn't suddenly gotten an heart attack after Asuma crashed his own jeep through the house, giggling hysterically and having the time of his life randomly destroying stuff. So as you can imagine, with the line of 'defeated by fossilized creature' to add on her impressive curriculum, Tenten couldn't really complain that she was even GIVEN a place on Shikamaru's Anbu team. Anyway, that pretty much sums it up: there was maybe only one other thing that made this unit stand out, and it was the fact that lawnmowers were assigned as the weapon of choice for the whole squad, without making any exceptions. For some odd reason, Shikamaru favored the use of those big and loud machines on stealthy assassination missions, and even MORE strangely he always managed to integrate them in his plans and work it all out just fine in the end. NEVER underestimate the ninja power of a lawnmower, as he liked to say. And...wait, something sounds very wrong in all of this...It's as if...Oh, I see, I had forgotten something! Actually, as Kiba was now in extensive rehabilitation after they found him overdosing on Soldier Pills, he had been temporarily placed off the task force. So yup, it was currently our favorite goody-two-shoe Rock Lee from the reserve who enthusiastically took on Kiba's place as a decoy. And surprisingly, he revealed himself to be a damn good one too, being capable of buying his team just about any amount of time by maintaining the enemy's attention on himself. This was probably due to the fact that the enemies just couldn't RESIST the temptation to slap him whenever they saw his face: he was such a living insult to all that was beautiful that he instantly became the focus of the enemy's disgust whenever he even took the field. I mean come ON, here! Even Chouji looked like a sex machine when he and Lee were placed aside each other, and we're not even talking about the eyebrows: those tight green body suits were simply unforgivable.
Anyway, as much as this team lacked style when they worked (complement of Shikamaru's massive IQ drop), they seldom were unsuccessful at completing their objectives. EVER. For his clever and innovative so-stupid-they-work plans, Shikamaru actually enjoyed a certain amount of success as Konoha's best strategist: his reputation preceded him as an ingenious and cunning young man, very capable and very unique in his own ways to do things. He was the leader of the most elite AND less dysfunctional of the Anbu units, one which Tsunade herself only deployed when dealing with important S-class missions where failure just wasn't an option: and by God, when these guys got into it, they were NOT overrated. One of the most memorable missions of Shikamaru's career was probably when he and his ragtag bunch of Anbus had infiltrated CBS to carry out what would be remembered as the assassination of the century. It had all went very smoothly, from the very beginning of the plan to its very end: first, Shikamaru had Shino drop everyone at the TV station and then subtly wait for them there with the car engine still running. Well, 'subtly' in relative terms of course: basically, what Shino did was park the van vertically right in front of the building, jamming car traffic in both directions. Eh, they were Konoha ninjas and had one heck of a reputation to uphold. Anyway, after purposely setting off the fire alarm, Shikamaru then had Tenten take the blame and draw the attention of all the security guards upon herself by having them beat the crap out of her for wasting their time: of course, he could have just as well placed Lee -the unit's official decoy- back there instead, but Shikamaru finally opted for Tenten because he didn't want to sacrifice GOOD and USEFUL members whenever he could help it. Anyway, with the large breach in security, the five remaining members of the team had then infiltrated the building, lamely disguised as the Backstreet Boys: WTF? Why them, you ask? Because these were the only TV personalities famous enough to unconspicuously enter the building and YET infamous enough to not have a single soul bother them for autographs: every single detail had been PERFECTLY planned out. Afterwards, the team climbed up some stairs, sneaked right through the station's metal detectors and then finally eliminated both Ronald McDonald and Barney the Purple Dinosaur as they were having an affair by bludgeoning them to death with rubber chickens, in broad daylight and with all the cameras in the station taping it from every possible angle. It had all been good up to then but since Shikamaru had fallen asleep during the briefing he had also forgotten to think up an escape procedure: so once they were done disposing of their targets and stupidly hiding them into the main elevator, the team simply made a crazy, disorganized run for it through the fire escape. Unfortunately, they didn't know that some CBS technicians had previously booby-trapped the stairs with banana peels in an attempt to kill their annoying anchorman, so the whole Shikamaru unit tripped and loudly crashed down the building for about 30 stories before reaching ground level, where their misery would end up in a massive football pileup. Some of the members seriously got injured in that process, mainly Chouji whom everyone else had instinctively grabbed and used as a human sled, but thanks to that it only took them five minutes to retreat back to their transport vehicle, a military jeep which by the way had been camouflaged into a bright pink hippie love-van for the occasion: the afro-haired Shino disguised in a Saturday Night Fever outfit then hauled everyone's asses out of there in a hurry, at the same time running over 2 police officers and evading an impending parking ticket. And since they still had their unused lawnmowers in the van, they just tossed the things out the backdoor at tailing police cars, blowing off their pursuers in a Terminator explosive fashion. By the time CBS realized that an assassination had taken place and rejoiced, our favorite Konoha Ninjas were already MILES away from there...although they did forget a half-dead Tenten onsite and decided gas was way too expensive for coming back for her to be worthwhile. The scary conclusion to all of this was that soon after the completion of the mission, the police had more than enough evidence to lock up the REAL Backstreet Boys for a case of lamest clownslaughter and crime of passion ever, therefore making of the whole operation a 2 bird-killer stone: they were THAT good. Who cared if they were unorthodox? They were freaking brilliant, the only ones in their darned Village capable of coming out CLEAN from any scene even after wreaking hell like this. You definitely didn't want to piss off Tsunade too much when she could send this kind of freaks to wait for you in a dark alley.
Shikamaru suddenly woke up and yelped in pain as Ino violently stomped on his foot.
"What the heck was THAT for!.?" he asked, quite annoyed.
"For falling asleep and ruining the serious atmosphere." Ino responded, her fists on her hips.
Shikamaru grumbled: it had always been like this for as long as he knew her, and even though he was now a higher-ranking officer Ino often kept on brutalizing him for no reason at all. He usually attributed that to the fact that she was quite jealous of his NORMAL intelligence, which she considered wasted on a slacker like himself. And IF Shikamaru had only an IQ of 100 in this story, then Ino was simply very, VERY retarded: the fact that her brain only finished processing Sasuke's explanation right about then with a time of 14'36 minutes was proof enough of that. But Sasuke, who by then had seen a lot worse, was neither disappointed nor impressed by his wife's performance: stopping his chronometer, he simply pulled his sleeve back over his wrist without making any comments. Now, you might think it was really cocky of him to time other people to see just how dense they are, but it's not like Sasuke had a superiority complex or anything: since the average ninja in Konoha Village just incredibly sucked at mentally processing information, the waiting times could sometimes be just like hemorrhoids. Yes, a ROYAL pain in the ASS. And Sasuke was only mildly retarded himself, so timing people was one of the only ways he had found to kill time and keep himself amused during these extended 'loading' periods.
"...Hinata-sama is herself a medical-nin: I'm positive she's quite capable of regenerating from her wounds." Neiji coughed out, trying to smoothly resume our story from where we had left off.
Yes, I know...I've still got to work out some of the transitions in this story...
"Yes, but unfortunately, she has to regain consciousness first, which is the REAL problem at hand: this wound will only worsen as time passes by. Unless she wakes up and performs that healing seal on herself in the next few hours, she will be crippled for life. But I'll be honest with you, losing an arm is actually a real bargain when you consider the severity of a Dokugami: if the blow had just been an inch closer to her thoracic cage, then she'd already be..."
Almost on cue, Hinata began violently coughing up blood, interrupting Sasuke before he even got to the part where he would reach for his watch: this placed everyone in the room on alert again.
"It's an hemorrhage! Crap! Someone get some hospital personnel in here!" Shikamaru yelled out.
"No good! The only one on shift right now is that fat old nurse who stabs people with empty syringes!"
"This is NOT the moment to be picky! We...Wait a minute. That kills people, doesn't it? WTF! Aaargh! All right... I saw a big ugly nurse with tattoos downstairs! Get HER!"
It was really ironic, considering that the best medical-nin in the hospital right now was probably Hinata herself. As you've probably noticed, as far as medical personnel went, Konoha Village was also screwed. Come to think of it, there were actually lesser things they WEREN'T screwed in than were: I'm detecting some form of screwiness pattern, here.
"Auntie Hinata! Don't leave me!" the little girl cried as she couldn't hold her tears back any longer.
"Hang in there, Hinata-sama!"
"Hinata! Hinata!" the blond woman clung to her convalescent friend's arm. "HINATAAAAAAAA-snort!"
It hadn't even been a very long time. One hour? Maybe two hours ago? It had been Neiji who found both Hinata and her father in that sad state, when he stopped by his cousin's house. You see, since she had been disowned and cut away from the Hyuuga Main Branch, Hinata lived by herself in a modest little house she had purchased with her own winnings as a medical-nin: this was actually the same place where she had taken care of Naruto in the past. She was a completely independent woman by now, but Neiji, loyal to his duties, still passed by every week or so to check on her and to see if she needed anything. Besides, she was always hospitable and he in turn was well-received, so it wasn't an errand that really bothered him: as a matter of fact he considered those visits quite pleasant, compared to the lack of warmth he found at home with his own close relatives. Not that he cared for either them or the Main Branch, by the way: as far as Neiji was concerned, the only allegiance he held in the Hyuuga system was towards Hinata-sama herself, whom his own father had assigned to protect on that same fateful day he had been marked with the curse seal of servitude. To Neiji, this was his father's last order to him, and no matter if Hinata wasn't from the Main Branch anymore he wouldn't submit to anyone else, be it the Head of the Main Branch or the other young Hyuuga heir, Hanabi. So you're probably asking yourself, why didn't the trigger-happy old bastard just activate Neiji's curse seal to punish his impertinence? Simply put, there were a lot of privileges you received once you had become by far the best your clan had to offer: as these guys after all flattered themselves to be the strongest clan of the Leaf, they couldn't afford to lose their champion without losing face. It was a question of honor and prestige...of the healthy Hyuuga kind. But all this mattered more or less to Neiji: he didn't really care about where the clan stood in the Leaf's hierarchy as long as the Main House simply had to tolerate his insubordination. That, he felt pretty good about.
Anyway, when he earlier stopped by Hinata's place as per habit, he had been alarmed to find that one of the side walls of her house had been completely destroyed. Being an experienced scout, he instantly deployed his Byakugan, and proceeded into entering the house after unsuccessfully scanning for hostile forms. Call it dumb luck or not, but it was then that he had found Hinata laying unconscious in her own blood, still freshly wounded: had he come by her house any later she would've already expired. It had been a nightmarish and confusing moment for the young man as he rushed by her side: she was in a sad and horrible state, bleeding from every orifice of her face and yet without any trace of injury on her body. What's more, her left arm was in a complete mess, as if its insides had suddenly exploded. It was only when he noticed the five large dents that Hinata bore at forearm level that Neiji understood: he recognized that type of wound only too well, as he too had learned to fear it.
They were unmistakably the mark of the Byako (Albino Fox).
"Why...? Damn you, Uzumaki! Why did you attack Hinata-sama!"
Oh, and for those that it interests, Neiji also found his uncle's body crushed under the pile of rubble made from the aforementioned destroyed wall. The old dude was pretty much dead by then, considering that while Hinata only had one wound in a relatively non-lethal place, he already had most of his torso area inwardly blown up: so he simply laid there, having long already grown cold and immobile, as blood dripped profusely from his stiffened lips. His lifeless silver eyes kept wide-opened, permanently embedded with fear: he bore the unmistakable stare of a defeated Hyuuga, whom had been overwhelmed in combat and then killed in a most ugly and painful way...But Neiji certainly didn't care: they were related, but that was probably the only connection there had been and now would ever be. As courtesy for a higher-ranking Hyuuga, all the young man could do was close his eyes in disgust and keep himself from glaring at the disfigured corpse, as he would do for any lowly maggot off the streets: moreover, he had someone important to take care of, right now, and no time for the dead. Neiji quickly nailed some of the wounded Hinata's opening points and wrapped her up in his shirt to temporarily slow down her bleeding: he had then picked her up in his arms, intent on sprinting to the hospital's emergency room at the very limits of his speed...BUT before that, he hesitated for a moment on whether he should step on his uncle's corpse or not, and decided to, what the heck, indulge himself a bit before getting on with his business...But AFTER that, Neiji pivoted on himself and silently walked away from the scene, never to look back again. It had been both a sad and wonderful moment for the young Hyuuga.
"Phew...Things have finally calmed down..." Shikamaru slumped down into a chair, exhausted even though he didn't do a damn thing. Welcome to my world.
Hinata's breathing had regulated after the big tattooed nurse gave her some injections: it hadn't been really pretty to watch, considering that the woman had a beard and looked like a pirate captain, but at least she had been competent enough to get the job done. So you couldn't only take looks into accounts: it's what inside of a person that matters. In a twisted kind of way, I feel like I'm giving out some sort of life morality here.
...Naaah! SCREW PERSONALITY!
"I still can't believe Naruto would do such a thing to Hinata..." Ino shook her head. "I mean, seeing them together, I thought maybe he liked her. It's just so...sad..."
"You've seen the marks: that's the Taijutsu ONLY Uzumaki can use." Neiji pointed out.
"But couldn't there be another suspect? For instance, couldn't Kakashi-sensei or Sasuke copy that Taijutsu style with their Sharingan?"
It was a pretty valid point that Shikamaru had brought up, but as the Taijutsu expert in the room Neiji simply shook his head.
"It's not a bloodline inheritance, but the Taijutsu Uzumaki developed relies greatly on his own unique fighting instinct, which makes it impossible to emulate. For instance, probably Uchiha and I could copy his Aragami (Wild Bite ) or even his Dokugami, but unless we possessed Uzumaki's own reflexes and fighting experience, it wouldn't prove effective in combat at all. You see, unlike most schools of Taijutsu which can be learned and taught, Uzumaki's style is something that has been born of innumerable near-death experiences and years of fighting multiple opponents at once. It's something that's particular to him, and to him alone."
Silence fell again in the room, as everyone returned to their own thoughts. Ino never personally liked the Fox-boy all that much: he was both too cheery and annoying for her taste. But that was also exactly why she couldn't believe the jovial Naruto to be capable of such ruthless and...senseless violence. She sighed: in times like these when she didn't know what to think, she turned to her husband for guidance.
"What's your take on this, Sasuke-kun?"
Since the earlier commotion, Sasuke hadn't moved even an inch from his seat in the back of the room. He just sat there pondering, with his little princess by his side: by now she had fallen asleep and rested her head on his lap. She did snore loudly and disgustingly while he gently passed his fingers through her pink hair, but he was used to it: that was after all one of the traits passed on by her biological mother. Even so, as distracted as he was, after hearing Ino's words Sasuke seemed to break out from his own deep train of thought.
"It just doesn't make any sense. This isn't like him at all. I'm sure there's still something we don't know..."
Neiji snickered.
"How do you know for sure if he didn't just go crazy? When he's angry, he can become just like an animal sometimes...I mean, look at the facts: he did technically slaughter mercilessly the Head of my clan, whom...Uh, by the way, when one of you does the autopsy, try not holding the big foot marks into account. I, uuuh...tripped on the guy."
"I can say this because I KNOW Uzumaki." Sasuke snapped back in an icy tone, disregarding completely the Hyuuga's last unimportant comment.
Neiji shuddered: the peaceful Sasuke of these days rarely ever even took that tone unless he was seriously pissed off. The Hyuuga decided to leave the conversation at that: it wasn't the moment to start an argument but to search for the missing piece they were lacking. Besides, just then Sasuke had opened his mouth to belch loudly: in Uchiha dialect, in more ways than one it basically meant 'shut the fuck up everyone'. So everyone sat silent and thoughtfully entered their own personal analysis of the situation, except Neiji who was simply wondering nervously if foot marks could really be traceable back up to him.
Little did they know the answer to everything would come to THEM instead.
It was about 10 minutes later when a sudden noise had made them all jump up: Neiji was such a pack of nerves by then that he had yelled like a sissy and plunged out the glass window in a blind panic. And they were on the 3rd floor. BUT as Hinata's team leader, Shikamaru promptly identified the repetitive sound as the dial-tone she kept on her cellphone: the group soon fished it out from her personal belongings which had been placed aside.
"What's this number? Should we answer?"
Shikamaru shook his head, taking the cellphone away from Ino's hands: something told him the caller wouldn't stick around unless he could personally talk with Hinata herself. No, it was better they took their chances on a voice mail.
After the 4rth tone, the phone stopped ringing and they waited in silence for a few minutes, to give any incoming message enough time to register. The Anbu captain then took a deep breath and calmly flipped open the cellphone: their answer obviously laid there.
When Neiji came back into the room, still pulling out some broken glass shards from his body, he was surprised to find everyone sitting around a cellphone which emitted nothing but static: BUT as they all looked like they were listening too intently to even have noticed that he had stupidly jumped out the window, he figured he's just sneak back into the group as if nothing happened.
By then, Shikamaru's guess had already been confirmed since a voice mail had indeed been left for Hinata. Cranking up the volume to its highest setting, the group had then waited for the message to play: but some time had passed already, and there was still nothing but static.
They were about to give up hope when they suddenly heard Naruto's voice, whom was obviously in quite a shaken state.
"...Hinata-chan? It's me...Naruto...I...I'm calling to see if you're okay now...I..."
Static filled the void again...then the voice suddenly broke.
"I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have snapped at your father! I don't know what happened after I activated the second level of my seal, but...I'm sorry, Hinata-chan...I'm just...so sorry...I probably have no excuse for myself now...D, don't come looking for me! I can't face you anymore! I..."
There was another long pause after the sudden outburst.
"I...I have nowhere left to go, now...Probably your clan will hunt me down and try to kill me...I'm just a demon fox, after all...But, but I can't die yet. There's something very important left for me to do, and I won't let anyone but HIM claim my life...I'll...I'll even deploy the final level of my seal if that means surviving long enough to confront him! So, forgive me if I have to kill again, Hinata-chan, but right now I have to live, by any means possible. I'm sorry, I've already said too much...And, Hinata-chan? Please be safe...Please?...Don't you DARE die on me..."
The transmission then abruptly ended, and it was all.
Neiji suddenly stood up.
"I've got it!" he yelled out. Everyone gave him a questioning look.
"...Uh...Well, you see, now that I think about it, that dial tone on Hinata-sama's cellphone was actually a Spice Girls tune. I had ALWAYS wondered if she...Oh, never mind."
He sat back down and tried to ignore the fact that everyone was staring at him in disbelief. Well, that sure was a waste of time. Shikamaru was considering asking the Hyuuga just why he suddenly had little cuts all over his body when something else distracted our group of friends. More surprisingly, it was laughter: a loud and healthy laugh like one sometimes does when reading this fic. And yet, it was also very terrible in its depth: to the attentive listener it sounded more like a heartbreaking cry of sorrow...
Sasuke was simply there, laughing: and for most of them, this was the first time seeing him do so.
"Oh...so THAT'S what it's all about." Sasuke said when he finally regained control. He looked wildly amused.
"What is it, Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked.
Sasuke gently placed his daughter's head aside and got up from his chair, his hands automatically sticking themselves into the depth of his pockets. But nobody in the room missed that gesture, since it was one of the Uchiha's most noticeable habits: he used to do that to stifle his own warrior's tremble before entering combat.
"Ino, take my daughter home. Nara, how much time do we have before the authorities get to Uzumaki?"
Ino was a bit offended that her husband completely ignored her question, but seeing the serious look on his face, she decided to comply and picked their sleeping daughter up into her arms. As for Shikamaru, although at first surprised by the sudden question, he professionally brushed the feeling aside and made a quick mental estimation.
"The Hyuuga are a proud clan, so they probably requested to Tsunade-sama the permission to handle this situation themselves. Since Neiji only turned in the death report to the Main Branch some time ago, considering the time it would take for them to mobilize, I'd say we have about half an hour. And in a fugitive situation like this, the village should already be locked down nice and tightly, so I don't think Naruto'll be able to get pass the defenses, even at his level. I think it's safe to assume that's he's still somewhere in the village: most likely, he placed that last call from his own cellphone, and considering that our primitive network doesn't go very far out of the village that cuts down a lot of possibilities about where he could be hiding. Finally, with the frequency of static emitted during the transmission, I'd say he's also somewhere with a lot of high trees...Which pinpoints to us his exact current location, since there's only one place in a 2 miles radius where we could actually find trees taller than ...Wait, you ARE thinking of hunting him down, aren't you?"
"Not at all." Sasuke snickered. "I would hunt him down, but he's not running away at all: thanks for the information, Nara, but I already know where he is. He's waiting for me."
"Sa...Sasuke-kun! What is this all about!" Ino cried out, completely confused: but she only received a cold glare from him.
"Don't you understand, Ino? This is about Haruno. This is about Sakura! It has always BEEN about her. Uzumaki leaving and Uzumaki coming back...it has all been because of what HAPPENED to Sakura! He's not here to visit or anything, he's here to settle his own accounts with me! It all makes perfect sense now!"
Sasuke started laughing again, surprising everyone with his sudden bursts of emotions: he was usually so cool-headed that they hadn't seen him getting this agitated since...well, since he simply stopped being an active ninja. You see, nowadays, excitement wasn't something Sasuke openly demonstrated unless he was surrounded by more than 5 enemy Jounins out for his blood, thus giving him some challenge. Not that he had many chances to, either: lately, he just spent most of his days staying home, killing time with stupid little hobbies, and only getting up when his presence was absolutely necessary, under penalty of castration. Don't ASK: that was the only thing Uchihas were actually scared of. So why was Sasuke expressing so many emotions right now? Sensing an impending crisis, Shikamaru made a quick phone call: just as everyone else, this facet of Sasuke which seemingly hadn't come out in a long time was starting to worry him. Ino seemed especially distressed, and for a damn good reason.
To her, there was a whole lot more riding in this: she had been with Sasuke for only too long now, and she knew very well there were only a few things capable of stirring his blood up like this. And it wasn't only the perspective of some regular impending combat, either: she hadn't seen him so lively ever since they had gotten married. Come to think about it, on that same day, he had also taken his retirement from active duty and from doing missions so that he could spend more time raising his daughter...It suddenly appeared to her just WHY she was so scared right now: Sasuke was literally reverting to the person he was before they had exchanged vows. Right now, he wasn't the caring husband and father she knew but the Uchiha warrior whom defeated more than 100 great ninjas in his prime. The coldness in his eyes when he had glared at her had suddenly made everything crystal clear: the only reason why her husband had laid down his weapons was because he had been waiting for this moment, when he would face his only true rival in combat and finally give a conclusion to the story that had now for only too long haunted the both of them. Her lips trembled.
"And the reason that you will go meet up with Naruto...is because you both still love her."
Maybe if he had at least tried to deny that, she would have felt better: heck, he could have even told her she was the only one for him, even if then it would be nothing more than a painfully obvious lie. At least he would have said SOMETHING.
But Sasuke simply remained silent.
Ino suddenly felt her cheeks wet as her own body became very weak: to everyone else in the room, it was a painful spectacle but to watch her stumble towards the door, looking devastated and utterly defeated. But before another word could be said, she had already crashed out of the room, her daughter in hands, and as she ran away a gentle weeping could be heard echoing throughout the hospital's cold and lonely halls.
"How DARE you treat a woman that way? She's your wife! You're no better than Uzumaki!" Neiji said as he grabbed the Uchiha by the collar, visibly angry.
As for Shikamaru, he simply stood there and waited for explanations: this had been the first time he had EVER seen his ex-partner acting feminine. He was genuinely impressed.
"Leave her: Ino is a strong woman, this won't affect her long. Besides, we've got work to do." Sasuke simply answered for his defense.
And he was right: the priority had now become the capture of Uzumaki Naruto. Getting overwhelmed by emotions such as anger or sadness wasn't going to resolve anything. Neiji spat in frustration, but Shikamaru decided not to get involved in the Uchihas' family business and stayed cool. There was probably more he didn't know about, and getting angry spent too much energy anyway.
"I need your help, Nara: half an hour is not long enough. How much more time can you buy me?"
The shrewd captain clasped his hands together and closed his eyes, as he usually did when forming a plan: it was a wonder how he could think faster by doing this, but as it worked fine enough nobody cared about the details. It took him about 30 seconds before coming up with something: as close to narcoleptia as he was, when it came to action, Shikamaru didn't even blink.
"We don't have time to assemble my whole unit, but I had guessed we would come to something like this. I've already contacted Shino: with him and Neiji, I just thought of something that could stall the Hyuuga's Main Branch momentarily. I can promise you up to one hour."
"That will be enough. Arigatou." Sasuke gave Shikamaru a slight bow: coming from an Uchiha, that was almost an honor.
"By the way, you ARE perfectly aware that by now, with an account of murder and one of attempted murder against the Hyuuga, Naruto is up for a lynching as a S-class criminal, don't you?"
"Yes, I'm aware of that."
"If you're going to meet up with him like this and thus interfere in the Hyuuga's business, you do realize you will be considered Naruto's accomplice, right? Even your title of #1 Konoha Jounin won't be able to help you there. Why won't you simply let the Hyuuga Main House solve this?"
Sasuke chuckled. Death as a criminal was probably the least of his worries right now.
"I owe Uzumaki for a lot of things. I'll end everything myself for his own sake and mine."
Shikamaru closed his eyes and smiled sadly: he had guessed the proud Uchiha would say something that.
"Then so be it. I'll back you up."
Neiji, whom had been standing at the window and scanning the horizon with his Byakugan, suddenly pointed out at an approaching vehicle.
"Uh, Nara, I think Aburame's here. WITH our very gay pink van we didn't bother to redecorate yet. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's still wearing that afro: man, it just looks so wrong on Asians..."
Shikamaru struck out an energetic pose, lamely pointing towards the open window.
"YOSH! TO THE SHIKAMOBILE!"
Neiji looked as thrilled as a coffin salesman at the idea of setting foot back in the squad's colorful vehicle, but as they were technically on mission now, he couldn't comment on his superior's decisions. He scratched his head.
"Soooooo...are we gonna go fetch some lawnmowers at the armory this time?"
"We don't have time: we'll just requisition some from the first sucker's tool shed we find on our way. Can't go without lawnmowers."
Sasuke, even in this very serious moment, rose an eyebrow.
"...Lawnmowers?"
Shikamaru simply answered Sasuke with a wink as he and Neiji jumped out the window and slid down the hospital's gutter pipe in a very lame 60's superhero fashion.
"NEVER underestimate the ninja power of a lawnmower."
They then quickly embarked into Shino's van and, after performing a masterful 180, the Aburame floored the vehicle and drove it off into the distance at breakneck speed. They did unexpectedly crash into Tenten -whom had just managed to come back to the village by WALKING- along the way, but without even slowing down Shino simply washed her off the windshield by activating the wipers.
And then they were gone, to do whatever it is they did best: the rest was up to him. Sasuke passed a hand through his dark hair and took a deep breath: looking up, a familiar red color could be seen glowing in his eyes as he resolvedly grabbed his trademark Jounin vest and made his way to the door.
He was heading out for the fight of his lifetime and possibly his own grave: this was going to be a some night.
Author's notes/driveling: Well, I would have liked to post in chapter 4 of the story earlier, but unfortunately, a lot of pressing matters came up and I couldn't complete the chapter's editing…Yes, you've heard right: although it may seem like I'm just throwing in stuff totally randomly in my chapters, it DOES take a minimum of organization or else it just wouldn't (somewhat) flow. Yes, even stupidity must be organized sometimes or most of the impact would be dulled through the process of writing. But as most of the stuff I come up with is completely spontaneous, it's really hard sometimes to all fit into the final draft (not to mention that most of the comments are just there for really cheap laughs). Anyway, I'll now answer some of you folks' questions about the time-shifting since I seem to have arisen a lot of confusion and questions.
So, the timeline: some of you wondered just 'when' each chapter took place. Well, you see, the thing is that there IS no timeline. How can I explain this…?
Imagine this story as a puzzle, and each chapter of it as a single piece. I am not going to give out the pieces in a precise and chronological order, so you peeps will simply have to figure out how it all fits together in the end. For those who read carefully, you'll notice I DO drop some hints about exactly 'when' which chapter happens.
Basically, this story will only switch between 2 times: the time 'before', in which Naruto is still a teenager, and the time 'after', in which Naruto is a grown adult. A pattern I will maintain for your convenience will make every odd-numbered chapter take place in the 'before' time, and every even-numbered chapter take place in the 'after' time. For instance, you might have noticed that chapter 1 and 3 closely follow each other in the 'before' time. But keep in mind it's not always that way: just as chapter 5 might just wander off totally to somewhere else in the 'before' time, the events in chapter 4 can be very far from those that occur in chapter 2. Anyway, if you don't understand now, you'll grasp the concept as you tag along.
So why the HELL am I bothering to do this, you ask? Because certain events wouldn't be as interesting if all told in chronological order: it's a lot harder to build up suspense if you already have all the pieces, wouldn't you agree? But you can tell the DULLEST story in this way and still have people interested, since it maintains a certain degree of mystery until the very last piece is placed into the puzzle. Or sometimes, I'll simply never give out a piece and leave it to your imagination. I've said it when beginning this fic: 'I do believe that the way in which a story is told can alter it completely'. And this is the way in which this story will be told. Too complicated? Then there are plenty of other stories out there for you: I have no say on whatever entertains you best, and if you don't like a story, simply stop reading it. I know there are also some plot problems in this chapter, but I just couldn't do any better if I tried. Do you have any idea how painful each time I need to re-read through the whole thing for corrections? Argh...
Oh, and finally, 'Byako' simply means "Spiritual Fox" or "Albino Fox": it's not to be confused with 'Byakko', which is the White Tiger God, Guardian of the East (or was it West?) of the Chinese Imperial City. As for the names of the techniques, they come from a 2-D fighting game of which I have been a fan for years, although the technique in itself is something I came up with. Can anyone trace up the reference? ;P
See y'all next chapter.
Finch - What It Is To Burn