Hi all, it's been a while :) (apologies, reposting this as I posted a bit too soon, had to make some edits!)
CHAPTER 21 - SEARCH & RESCUE - PART ONE
It was quiet. Eerily quiet. And bright. Hinata's eyelids weren't even open yet and she could tell that it was bright in the room. Long eyelashes fluttered open weakly, and she stared up at the white ceiling as she got used to the light.
Slowly sitting up, she took in her surroundings in confusion. The hospital, she finally realized as she looked around the bare, sterile room. The last thing she remembered was leaving Naruto's mindscape. She must have fainted from fatigue and Naruto probably brought her here. But where is he? she wondered as she looked out the window.
"Byakugan Princess."
Hinata jumped and whipped her head around, her breath catching in her throat when her eyes fell on the old horned man once more. She tensed and sat up straight, gearing herself up to flee.
"What…what do you want?" she asked slowly, eyeing him warily.
The man did not move. "You must make haste. The Tenseigan is nearly complete. Only you can destroy it. The human race is at stake."
Hinata frowned heavily. "But, why can only I destroy it?"
"Because you possess my blood. Only those of Otsutsuki blood can possess the ability to create and destroy Tenseigan."
"Otsutsuki…" Hinata whispered, her memory flashing back to the Nobu library. "You mean to say…I have Otsutsuki blood? And…are you…an Otsutsuki?"
The man nodded his head slowly. "I am Otsutsuki Hamura. My descendants on Earth were the beginnings of the Hyuuga clan, of which you are a part."
Hinata let go of a breath. She was in the presence of her greatest ancestor.
She slipped out of the bed and fell to her knees in a deep bow. "Ojii-sama…h-how do I destroy the Tenseigan?"
"You must travel to the moon through the chakra portal. This is where the Tenseigan is hidden. When you find it, you must attack it with great force. Only your chakra will break the weapon."
Hinata's eyes widened and she picked her head up to stare at the apparition in disbelief. The moon? She furrowed her brows as she recalled the accounts of the puppets coming and going through so-called chakra portals, but she would have never dreamed they led to the moon of all places.
"Hai…" she agreed softly, her eyes hardening in decision.
Hamura simply nodded. "Go now…"
Suddenly she was staring at the white ceiling. Hinata laid there in the hospital bed, wide awake. She sat up quickly, but Hamura was no longer there. The room was dark as the day transitioned to night outside.
A dream…
A breeze fanned into the room and the acrid scent of burning hit her nose. She blinked and jerked upwards as she became aware of shouts and wails piercing the night outside the building. Through the cracked room door she saw doctor nins rushing back and forth, wheeling in injured persons on stretchers. Suddenly a flash of pink whisked by. She heard an exclamation of surprise, and then Sakura abruptly entering her room.
"Oh, you're awake!" the pinkette said in surprise, rushing to her bedside. "How are you feeling?" she asked critically as she checked her vitals.
"Sakura! I feel fine…what happened? I was with Naruto-kun and…" Hinata paused awkwardly as she reconsidered mentioning the Kyuubi. "I mean…we were fighting the puppets, and I think I fainted. Is he alright? Is the attack still going on?"
Sakura nodded quickly. "Yes, he brought you here after you exhausted your chakra. Luckily, the attack ended shortly after you arrived. We are now trying to treat as many injured as possible. The puppets have retreated and the moon has stopped breaking apart for now at least. But Naruto had to leave with Kakashi-sensei on a search-and-rescue. Hinata…"
She looked at Hinata worriedly. "They…they took Hanabi."
Hinata froze. "…W-what?"
Sakura continued quickly. "I don't know why – you were at the Academy so you didn't see what was happening – but they were focusing their attack on the Hyuuga estate. They also seemed to be trying to get to you at the Academy, but as you and Naruto managed to fight them off I guess they reconsidered. Your father and Neji are okay, but Hanabi was taken before anyone could get to them. I'm sorry… but a large group went straight after her and- hey where are you going?"
Hinata had jumped out of her bed and began to hurriedly pull on her shoes. "I'm going after them." she said simply.
Sakura held up her hands in alarm as she moved to block the doorway. "Hinata, I know you must be super worried but you are supposed to be on bedrest, your chakra is still low even though I replenished some of it earlier."
Hinata gave Sakura a hard look, making Sakura blink in surprise. "Sakura, I am very grateful for your care and concern. But I cannot…I will not stay here while my sister is in such danger."
Sakura looked at Hinata's stubborn expression for a moment and instantly was reminded of a certain blond-haired ninja. To Hinata's surprise, her friend gave a faint smile. Sakura suddenly turned and started activating a machine in the corner of the room.
"Um…Sakura?"
"We are going to have to boost your chakra even more if you are going to do this. This machine will help me do it faster."
Hinata looked at the busy girl, a relieved smile forming on her face. "Thank you, Sakura."
"Don't worry about it. So I take it you don't know at all how to find Naruto and the others?"
Hinata balked. No, she didn't know at all how she was going find Naruto and get to the moon. She had no idea which way the mission team went. She felt panic rising in her system.
"N-no, I don't…"
Sakura chuckled good-naturedly. "Don't worry." she replied, her green eyes sparkling with mischief.
"I do."
Naruto gritted his teeth as he pushed his and Neji's ink bird faster, tilting back and forth to evade chakra attacks from the squadron of puppets they were chasing. Luckily, Kakashi's quick thinking directly after the attack allowed Naruto's team, which included Kakashi, Yamato, Sai, Shikamaru and Neji, to catch up with the retreating enemy forces.
To ensure any reinforcements could find them later, Naruto's team was dropping special chakra-powered markers that revealed themselves only if one casted a special genjutsu that Konoha ninja were trained to use for tracking.
"Naruto, to the left!" Neji said suddenly, and Naruto grunted as he pushed their bird sharply downwards to avoid another barrage of attacks.
Neji grunted as he worked to stay seated on the bird. "Do you think you could fly a bit smoother?" he bit out.
"Sorry!" called Naruto over the wind. Your cousin didn't complain so much, Naruto thought with a smirk.
Suddenly the group of puppets in front of them veered sharply to the right, running down into a river gorge. Naruto's team pushed to stay on their heels. Naruto saw one puppet sign a jutsu, and ahead in the steep rocky riverbank, an entrance in the rock appeared.
"It's a portal! We must make it in there with them." called Kakashi. The puppets were still quite a distance ahead, and the entrance to the portal was already closing like a big stone door.
Two puppets unexpectedly sent a series of chakra bombs directly at Naruto's team formation, causing them to break apart.
"Shit…" growled Naruto as he banked hard to the left. At this rate they weren't going to make it!
"Hold on!" yelled Yamato, who was rapidly signing. A thick chunk of wood suddenly shot up out of the ground and wedged itself into the portal, blocking the door just in time.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru quickly made some hand seals. Suddenly, some long shadows created by the setting sun shining on the forest trees shot forward and grabbed each of the puppets, preventing them from using chakra.
Naruto and Neji reached the riverbank first and didn't waste any time smashing the puppets with Rasengan and Jyuuken attacks. The door to the portal remained open.
The rest of the team landed and made their way rapidly to the entrance. Neji employed his Byakugan to search the interior before they entered.
"It appears to be empty, but there is some kind of large pool of water inside."
Kakashi nodded. "Fine. Let's go then. Sai?"
"Hai." Sai replied, pulling another marker out of his bag. Activating it with a quick seal, he dropped it right by the portal's entrance. And with that, Naruto's team entered the portal.
A few moments later, the team stood at the edge of an eerie glowing lake.
"So…are we supposed to go in there or something?" queried Naruto.
"I think so…this is the only place the puppets could have went." responded Neji albeit a bit uncertainly.
"Can you see if there is anything down there?" asked Shikamaru, eyeing the lake skeptically.
"No." answered Neji, engaging his Byakugan. "For some reason, my Byakugan cannot see through the water. It is very strange."
"Ah. Well, it looks like we will have to be prepared for the worst. Alright, everyone ready?" said Kakashi. The group affirmed with grunts and nods. With that, Kakashi led the charge in diving straight into the lake. Naruto took a running leap and dived alongside Shikamaru and Sai, ninja training kicking in as they all took deep breaths of air before jumping and charged their legs with chakra to propel themselves downwards.
Naruto blinked as he surveyed the vast interior of the lake. Up far ahead he could see a circle of light indicating an exit. All around them, huge bubbles floated. Naruto passed one nearby and he eyed it curiously. He tensed as he saw a figure within the bubble but realized soon it was just his reflection. He frowned as the surface of the bubble suddenly rippled, and his reflection changed. Suddenly, Naruto was watching a young boy with blond hair and blue eyes in an orange jumpsuit fighting a brown-haired boy and a dog.
Naruto stared at the bubble in disbelief. That was him as a Genin fighting Kiba during the Chuunin exams!
A cloud of bubbles escaped his mouth as he foolishly tried to call Kakashi before remembering they were still underwater, and he jetted off quickly upon realizing most of the team was up ahead of him. His eyes flitted around to other bubbles passing him by. Him eating ramen at Ichiraku. Him traveling with Jiraiya outside of Konoha. Him meeting Tsunade for the first time.
Everything about this mission was just bizarre.
A slight dizziness warned him that he needed air soon and he sped up a bit more. Finally, he reached the exit and propelled himself to the edge, gulping in air as he hoisted himself out of the pool of water. As he staggered to his feet he noticed that the water somehow hadn't left him soaked. He was as dry as if he had never touched the water.
Before he could process that, he heard Shikamaru. "Well that seems troublesome."
Naruto frowned and looked up in the direction the rest of the team was staring. His eyes widened as he took in the foreign landscape. It was a desert-like wasteland, the rocky ground remaining a drab grey as far as the eye can see. The sky was black as night with some swirls of blue and purple here and there while thousands of stars twinkled across the sky.
In the center, a huge castle stood ominously. Its turrets pointed high in the sky, and its walls were protected by tall threatening spikes that stood on top of every wall and rooftop.
Neji was scanning the castle meticulously. "This must be the enemy's base. The place is crawling with puppets. Hanabi-sama must be in there!"
Kakashi nodded. "Good. It would be better if the others were here with us, but we have to move quickly to ensure we can retrieve Hanabi alive."
"Hn. Based on how we know the puppets attack, we shouldn't bother with trying to eliminate all the puppets at once. We should aim to infiltrate the castle and take Hanabi undetected." remarked Shikamaru.
The group murmured their assent and huddled to formulate a plan.
Hinata and Sakura sailed swiftly above the forest on an ink bird, hot on the trails of the mission teams that had been sent out before them. Thanks to her proximity to the Hokage, Sakura knew where to go to nick an extra ink bird scroll and had known the general direction the teams had taken initially. The girls knew they would soon lose the trail if they didn't know their exact destination. Luckily, after Sakura tested a revealing jutsu on a whim, the girls found a steady trail of ninja markers leading off to the west.
Now the girls were moving as fast as they could in an effort to catch up.
"How are you feeling, Hinata?" Sakura called to her.
Hinata nodded. "I am fine, thank you Sakura." Sakura had done an amazing job boosting her chakra back at the hospital, but she was still not one hundred percent. As they traveled Hinata struggled to remain vigilant for any enemies, but her mind continued to swirl with the remaining shock she still felt from the events of the day.
Learning Naruto was a jinchuuriki filled her with remorse and anger. A huge piece of the big puzzle that was Naruto's rough childhood had been revealed, and all she could do was replay scenes from those days with a new perspective. No doubt it was the reason why so many villagers in Konoha treated Naruto so badly. It also must have something to do with why Naruto left for years with his sensei Jiraiya. From what she knew of the jinchuuriki, in the past they had been hunted by various factions across the shinobi nations to be manipulated and used as weapons of war. Naruto was probably taken away by Jiraiya in an effort to hide him from enemies while helping him get stronger.
Speaking of getting stronger. Her stomach clenched in dread. How was she going to destroy this Tenseigan? Her ancestor Hamura said that only she could do it, but despite having Otsutsuki blood, did she even have the power to destroy that huge weapon she saw in her vision?
The sun had set long ago and the kunoichi were focused on navigating in the dark and ensuring there were no additional enemies waiting to attack. Hinata used her Byakugan every few minutes and Sakura continued to use the revealing jutsu to check for more markers.
Finally, the markers led them to some sort of cave in the side of a river. The entrance to the cave was held open by a huge wedge of wood.
"Yamato-taicho must have done this." Sakura remarked as they approached the entrance carefully. "This is where the markers lead to, so they all must have gone inside."
Hinata nodded and peered in with her Byakugan. "No one is inside. Do you think this is one of the portals? I thought they disappeared after the creator locked them with the jutsu."
Sakura shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe it's a different kind of portal? In any case, let's just hope there isn't a nasty surprise waiting for us on the other end."
Hinata hummed in response. They couldn't waste any time hypothesizing anyways. The girls cautiously entered the cave, Sakura holding onto one of Hinata's shoulders as Hinata guided them with her Byakugan. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a strange body of water. It glowed with blue-green light, but Hinata struggled to make out anything in its depths.
"I can't see anything down there." Hinata said, unsure of how to proceed. "There is nowhere else in the cave to go…do you think they went underwater?"
Sakura frowned and executed the revealing jutsu, her eyebrows raising at the sight of the final marker by the water's edge. "Looks like they did. The other end of the portal could be down there. I guess we will have to find out!"
Hinata nodded quickly, thinking about her sister, Naruto, and the words of Hamura. Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath.
"Let's go!"
"Let me go! What are you, stupid? When my clan finds us they are going to kill all of you idiots for kidnapping me! My otou-san and nee-san and nii-san will use the most painful Gentle Fist jutsus on you! Let me go!"
"A loud one, she is." tittered Orochimaru in amusement as he watched the puppet minions carry the struggling Hanabi to a holding cell.
Toneri didn't even blink as he silently watched. "What about the other Hyuuga girl? The eldest daughter?" he asked pointedly to his attendant beside him.
"My Lord, I regret to inform you that unfortunately our forces were unable to recover Hyuuga Hinata from Konoha due to the interference of Konoha shinobi. We were only able to recover the younger daughter of the Main family from the Hyuuga clan grounds before the clan was able to retaliate."
Toneri frowned deeply. "It is quite hard to believe that despite the fact that I deployed hundreds of puppets and even released attacks from the moon that we were not able to capture Hinata. And I had specifically asked for Hyuuga Neji to be brought so I can use his eyes for the final transformation, as he is one of the strongest Hyuuga besides Hiashi."
"This girl may still be of use." mused Orochimaru, grabbing Toneri's attention. "She is younger but strong, and her youth may make the eyes more…malleable…so to speak. It could enable a faster transformation."
Toneri listened quietly with narrowed eyes. "Hn…I can accept that reasoning. Still, I will need Hinata to help me rebuild the Otsutsuki clan once I have used the Tenseigan to subdue the shinobi world. Now that Konoha is alerted of our presence, it will be much more difficult to retrieve her and…what is it?"
Toneri turned to another attendant rushing towards him. "Toneri-sama, please come to the viewing mirror! It is urgent!"
Toneri frowned and strode to the pedestal near the right wall of the chamber. On it was a shallow basin of water. The attendant executed a rapid jutsu and stepped aside for Toneri and Orochimaru to peer down into the water, which was now rippling to reveal several images. The two masterminds stood silently as they watched a group of Konoha shinobi moving stealthily down an empty hallway of the Otsutsuki palace.
"Hn…as I should have suspected. These Leaf shinobi are irritatingly stubborn." Toneri said under his breath.
Orochimaru hummed. "An accurate statement. But, this may be a strike of fortune. Look there…" he pointed to the water with a smirk.
Toneri's eyes widened as he noticed Neji in the middle of the team of ninja. "Quite fortunate indeed. Taking Hanabi may have proven to be more useful than I thought. I wonder then…"
Toneri made a few more hand seals, and the water in the basin started to ripple once more. He flicked through a number of different windows until he suddenly stopped, his eyebrows raising high and a genuine smile curving his lips as he watched Hinata and Sakura swimming through his genjutsu lake.
"Very useful indeed…" he murmured, promptly spinning on his heel and walking towards the chamber exit.
"Do not engage the intruders until we can get them cornered. I also want to give Hinata more time to arrive here as well. We will let them come to us." he barked at his attendants.
Toneri turned to Orochimaru. "Please make sure security is alerted at the Tenseigan. We cannot let them potentially damage it."
"Of course." the Sannin replied easily, drifting off into the dark corridor.
Naruto stepped swiftly and silently down yet another long hallway, walking in the middle of the team with Neji. The group had decided to keep Neji central as they knew he was on the enemy's target list. They had been moving within the castle's maze-like corridors for the past thirty minutes after successfully entering through a side entrance. Neji and Naruto were using the Byakugan and Sage Mode to stay alert of patrolling puppets.
It was a very ornate, very old looking palace, more luxurious than even the Fire Daimyo's estate. Everywhere Naruto looked he saw what seemed to be a clan symbol etched into the stone fireplaces and the gold medallions on the doors at the ends of the hallways. A crescent moon that cradled another circle in its center. Although he couldn't name it he knew that it didn't come from any of the modern shinobi nations.
Before his thoughts could continue he saw Kakashi signal them to halt as he peeked outside the exit that they had come to at the end of this hallway. Craning his neck, Naruto could see that the hall opened up to a large courtyard within the palace walls. The team remained in the hall shadows as Neji scoped the place.
"It's clear…" Neji murmured to Kakashi. Kakashi nodded slightly and signed to the group to follow him and keep quiet.
Naruto and the team stepped out swiftly, keeping to the shadows. Naruto channeled chakra to his arms and legs and proceeded to scramble along the stone walls in-between the large windows. All seemed to be going well.
But then the wind picked up a little, and Naruto felt a chill run up his spine that made him halt in his tracks. He frowned at the center of the courtyard where a small tornado of dust was quickly forming. His eyes widened when a spiral of energy burst out of nowhere above the tornado and began to grow rapidly. In the blink of an eye it had widened into a chakra portal the size of a small house.
A huge insect-like leg slipped out of the portal and touched the stone ground. Then another. And another.
"Fall back!" shouted Kakashi. Naruto jumped to the ground and started to backpedal slowly as he watched what could only be described as a giant crab exit from the portal. Its exoskeleton was black all over with an extra thick shell lining its torso. The monster hissed and snapped its enormous claws, and then out of nowhere it released a powerful jet of water from its crustacean mouth.
Naruto and the team scattered to avoid the water release jutsu. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two more crabs coming out of portals at either end of the courtyard.
"Looks like we've been found out!" grunted Neji as he activated his Byakugan.
"Great observation, genius." retorted Shikamaru.
Naruto made a cross with his fingers and summoned thirty clones. "Don't worry, they won't last!"
Naruto's clones fanned out with the rest of his team as the enlarged group of ninja split to attack each crab at once. After a few minutes, it was quite clear that the crabs wouldn't be going down without a fight. Kunai and shiruken barely left scratches. Naruto skipped ahead to Rasengan, but even after three hits the crab just stumbled back for a moment before attacking once more.
Kakashi stood off to one side collecting electric chakra. He then ran forward at the crab he was facing.
"Chidori!" With a loud sizzling crack the crab flew back several feet after receiving a Chidori to the center of its torso. It fell to the ground with an earth-shaking boom and twitched a few times before finally becoming still.
Meanwhile, Naruto decided to test out his newest weapon. With two clones he hung back letting Yamato and Neji cover him while he gathered both normal and wind chakra.
"Lee! Yamato-taicho! Move!" he yelled before sprinting forward. "Rasenshiruken!"
With a powerful swing he threw the Rasenshiruken straight at the crab in front of him and watched as it cleanly sliced off the crab's head. The crab's body froze immediately and came crashing to the ground.
"Yes!" cheered Naruto.
Meanwhile, Sai and Shikamaru were finishing off the third crab. Sai put the finishing touches on an ink drawing while Shikamaru held the crab in place with his shadow jutsu. A huge ink giant rose from Sai's parchment and marched over to the struggling crab, promptly ripping it in half with its strong hands.
The Konoha shinobi could barely catch their breath before another three portals appeared in the courtyard, delivering three new crabs that snapped their claws menacingly at the ninja.
"I think we may have a problem if this keeps up!" grunted Shikamaru as he struggled to keep one crab immobile while Yamato squashed its torso between two huge chunks of wood.
"I think the correct observation is that we currently have a problem." Sai replied conversationally, pointing at the sky. A flood of black cloaks were descending from the rooftops encircling the courtyard walls, closing off any means of escape along the perimeter.
"Damn!" Naruto cursed as he barely got out of the way of another strong jet of bubbles and water from the crab nearby.
"Looks like they are trying to win by tiring us out." said Kakashi as he fought back a group of puppets. "This needs to end quickly!"
Naruto glared at the enemies encircling them and leapt backward to stand behind Yamato.
"Yamato-taicho, cover me!" Naruto shouted before shutting his eyes to draw in natural energy.
Yamato blinked in surprise but quickly erected thick wooden walls around the two of them as temporary protection from the chakra attacks.
Naruto felt his senses expand and his strength grow as Sage Mode was activated.
Hinata and Sakura stood staring at the floating castle that greeted them once they emerged from the strange lake.
"My sister must be in there." Hinata murmured nervously.
Sakura nodded. "It's the only place we can go. I wonder how far the others have gone. They probably are trying to find a way in if they aren't in already."
Hinata nodded fiercely. "Hn. We have to catch up somehow without alerting the enemies of our presence, otherwise we may ruin their undercover mission."
With that, the two kunoichi began to sprint as silently as possible to the base of the castle, using the high grass to their advantage. The castle loomed ominously as they approached. Suddenly aware of the deserted atmosphere, Hinata activated her Byakugan to check for enemy sentries. But so far she saw nothing. Strange…where is the security?
Then suddenly she caught some movement deep within the castle walls to her left, and Hinata slowed her pace to focus. Three huge chakra signatures had just appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and a few seconds later a second team of signatures popped into view.
"Sakura! There seems to be a confrontation somewhere far inside the castle." Hinata said hushedly, skidding to a crouch as she studied the activity. "I think that is our team…I am pretty sure I can sense Neji and Naruto's chakras."
Sakura frowned and nodded curtly. "Okay. Looks like they may have ran into trouble anyways. Can you see a way to get inside?"
Hinata scanned around quickly and found a large grate in the side of the stone wall that appeared to have been broken into. "Here is an entry way, it looks like they must have used this to break in."
"Great, let's go!" said Sakura, and the girls began to race to the open grate.
Hinata's fingers had barely touched the metal when she heard Sakura grunt in surprise behind her.
"Ack…Hinata!" Hinata spun around and widened her eyes at the sight of Sakura seemingly frozen in place.
Sakura gritted her teeth as she tried desperately to move. "Ugh…I-I'm stuck! Something's stopping me from moving!" she said frantically.
Hinata's heart rate spiked as her Byakugan suddenly registered a body directly behind her. Instantly a kunai was in her hand as she twisted around, but she faltered as her body just stopped moving, and her breath caught in her throat as she looked straight into two cold blue eyes.
A chilling chuckle was heard. "My my, what a way to greet your to-be husband, Hinata-chan."
Naruto's brows were furrowed in concentration as booms from the crabs' chakra attacks echoed around him and Yamato as they took cover under his wooden shelter.
"I hope you're almost done Naruto!" called Yamato through gritted teeth as he pushed against a new barrage of attacks.
Naruto's eyes, fiery and golden, flew open in that moment. "Yeah, I'm there." he responded, shifting into a crouch next to Yamato. "Let go of the jutsu!"
Yamato groaned and shoved the wooden walls away from them in all directions, exposing them immediately to the chaos. All around them, the Konoha team was in vicious combat with the hooded puppets. The crabs were momentarily shoved backwards from Yamato's attack, but they quickly rolled back up and brandished their huge claws angrily.
Naruto was positioned like a sprinter waiting for the gun to go off. A half-second of quiet buzzed in the air, and then Naruto was off, catapulting towards the first crab like a rocket. With a fist he smashed through the crab's armored chest, swinging his feet under him to provide the leverage to yank his arm out of the beast's insides. As he pushed off he aimed for the second crab nearby, a Rasenshiruken popping into existence in his right palm. Bringing down his arm with a cry, he sliced cleanly through the crab's body. Landing on all fours behind the two halves of crab, he turned to the final one that was currently fighting with Kakashi. Naruto knew Kakashi would take out the crab, but his attention snapped quickly to the contingent of puppets heading straight for his sensei. With a growl he sprang into action, feeling the power of Sage Mode accelerating him to Kakashi's side within seconds. A powerful Rasengan formed in his palm as he took a brief moment to position himself for the center of the attacking unit, and then he ran, thrusting the Rasengan in front of him towards the puppet leader. He slammed into the group like a bowling ball rolling through a set of pins, the Rasengan letting loose an enormous shockwave of energy that took out the majority of the puppets in the vicinity.
The disturbance Naruto created allowed the rest of the Konoha team to quickly dispatch the remaining puppets, but to everyone's dismay the flow of backup puppets had not slowed at all, with reinforcements coming from every possible direction. Naruto quickly summoned a troop of clones who stationed themselves around the castle plaza, glaring up at the descending puppets in unison.
"We may have to rethink our approach!" shouted Kakashi as he kicked one puppet in the neck and stabbed another one swiftly in its groin. "Naruto, summon as many clones as you can for backup. Yamato, Shikamaru, and Sai, stay here and keep the puppets at bay enough so that Neji, Naruto and I can get into the castle. From there we will go to extract Hanabi, and the rest of you can retreat."
Yamato didn't seem to like the idea of letting such a small group into the rest of the castle, but he curtly deferred to Kakashi. "Hai. Let us give you cover!"
Kakashi looked to Naruto. "How many can you give?" Naruto hesitated briefly. He wanted to give as many as he can, but he knew that he should save as much chakra as possible for whatever awaited them inside the castle.
"Can do seventy or eighty, is that enough?" he responded as Yamato, Shikamaru and Sai got into position around the rest of the group. Kakashi nodded. "Should give us enough time to figure out where Hanabi is within the castle. Let's go!"
The clone army popped to life and the clash resumed. Shikamaru and Sai joined the clones to create a distraction while Yamato raised a protective wall to temporarily hide the rest of the team. "Go now!" he shouted.
"Follow me!" said Neji, his Byakugan eyes analyzing the side of one of the castle walls. "This part of the wall here is weaker." Kakashi and Naruto followed in a tight formation crouched low to the ground, taking care to not bring attention to themselves. Kakashi and Naruto generated twin Rasengans as they approached and punched forward, the wall promptly crumbling to reveal an entry point. The team of three wasted no time in entering, Naruto taking once last look to the fight outside. Yamato nodded in silent encouragement before he turned back to the scene in front of him.
"Let's go Naruto!" called Kakashi in a low voice, and Naruto pivoted to follow his comrades into the darkness.
The relative silence that greeted them within the castle walls was deafening at first. It seemed that Neji had found a narrow internal tunnel that probably connected multiple chambers of the castle. So far it seemed based on Neji's quick scan that there were no enemies within the tunnel, so they continued to penetrate at high speed, pausing briefly at tunnel intersections for Neji to select the path that seemed to take them towards the castle center. It seemed there were protective genjutsus within the castle that still prevented Neji from directly seeking out Hanabi's location. Kakashi stopped Naruto from using Sage Mode so as to not give away their position to potential enemies, at least until they found a safer spot to do so. The group began to ascend into the castle's depths as they came across internal staircases leaving them no choice but to go upwards.
Finally coming to a large door within the tunnel, Neji signaled to stop. "There is a small room past this door, don't feel any chakras on the other end, perhaps a good entry point?"
Kakashi nodded. "Let's give it a shot". Neji channeled fire chakra from his hands to the large keyhole on the door, melting enough to break the lock without much effort. He opened the door cautiously, the group on high alert, but the door only revealed a small office-like chamber, with a long polished wooden table in the center and ornate chairs in the corner. Closing the door behind him, Naruto noted that the door was made to look like part of the bookcase on the wall next to it.
"Can you see anything from here Neji?" murmured Kakashi after he had performed a quick sweep for enemies.
"No, I'm struggling to see farther than thirty meters from here." said Neji in a frustrated tone as he felt along the other walls like a blind man. "Hanabi-sama can be anywhere in this blasted castle!"
Naruto stood off to the side of a small window at the other end of the room. He could see the turrets of the castle standing adjacent to the section they were standing in. "We should just find the asshole who took Hanabi and attacked Konoha! We'll beat the crap out of him and then he will just have to tell us where he hid her!"
Suddenly Neji was at his side, peering intently out the window. "Wait a minute, there…I can feel her, Hanabi! I can feel her chakra!" he said, pointing quickly at the tallest tower they could see outside the window. "She must be within that tower somehow."
Kakashi joined them at the window. "Are you sure? Even though you can't see her signature?"
Neji nodded. "I've lived with Hanabi-sama long enough that I can pick up her resting signature quite easily. It is faint, but it is there."
Naruto pounded his palm with his fist. "All right! Let's do it then! And then we can find the bastard that did all this damage!"
Kakashi shook his head. "This is a search and rescue, not an assassination Naruto. Once we find Hanabi we must return her to Konoha safely, then we can regroup with reinforcements from other shinobi nations to address the enemy."
Naruto huffed in response. They may not have orders to attack the enemy directly, but Naruto had other plans. This unknown person who had directly attacked Hinata and her family had earned the top spot on Naruto's shit list.
I'm not leaving until I find you he vowed inwardly, feeling the Kyuubi stir at his words.
Meanwhile, with the help of Naruto's clones, Yamato, Shikamaru and Sai had been able to beat back the puppets enough to make it back to the original entrance the group had entered. To their dismay, another crab had been stationed at this point most likely to prevent the Konoha intruders from escaping. This one had armor that felt like concrete, and all of their attacks had only served to stall the giant beast from seriously harming them. The only reason the puppets weren't on their tail was because Naruto's clones were holding them off back in the courtyard.
"Ugh…this is very troublesome." muttered Shikamaru as he lost grip of the crab with his shadow jutsu. Sai unleased his ink giants, which stomped over to the crab and grabbed each of its enormous claws. The giants tussled with the crab for a moment until the crab swung one of the giants against the castle wall next to it, causing the ink jutsu to break apart. The crab used its free claw to pinch the other giant and rip it in two. The crab snapped its claws as it refocused on the exhausted shinobi in front of it.
"Shit…" hissed Yamato, "Fall back men!"
The crab began to bring down its claw on the team, when all of a sudden it halted its movement, as if it had turned to stone. The crab seemed to squirm and writh, but it was stuck in its position.
"What the…" murmured Shikamaru, eyebrows raising when he felt two chakra signatures fast approaching behind the crab.
"HIIIIIII YAAAAAAAA!" The crab suddenly jerked forward momentarily before promptly splitting in two, its insides showering in multiple directions. In-between the crab a pinkish blur shot through.
The three men, now covered in crab guts, stared in surprise at the person who rose to face them.
"Sakura! What are you doing here?"
"I came here with Hinata. When she awoke in the hospital she insisted on coming to help rescue Hanabi and I couldn't dissuade her, so we came here together and followed the markers you left in your path. We were trying to approach the castle when this man appeared out of nowhere and…he took Hinata." Sakura said in a rush, clenching her fists in anger. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop him! But now we need to find her too. Where is Naruto?"
"That's not good news at all." said Shikamaru. "Naruto, Neji and Kakashi went ahead to break out Hanabi while we held off the attackers. We will need to get to them and let them know about Hinata."
"Yes, we cannot waste time now that two Hyuuga have been abducted. Neji is at risk as well. Let's move forward." said Yamato.
The group quickly arranged themselves in a defensive formation before sprinting down the direction that Naruto's group had taken earlier.
