Vengeance in Seven Days

By: Crystal Avatar

Disclaimer: Character names do NOT belong to me! They belong to Kishimoto Masahi! (Looks like it wasn't the last time I'd have to say it. Oh well…)

Author's Note: Welcome to Chapter Five, Part Three! Thanks to all those who have come this far- you guys probably want to see how this story ends. Not long now… muhahaha.

C.A

Punctuation Notes

"Talking" 'Thinking' SFX (Author comments)

Day Five – 'Conflict', Part III

Naruto and Hinata rushed out of the entrance hall and into the pink gardens of the mayor's residence. By now, the surroundings had become painfully familiar to the young ninja.

He turned to the blue-haired girl at his side and stared at her for what felt like a year.

Her straight blue hair ran down her cheeks, ending just below her chin's level. The rest of her hair was tied into a small tail at the back of her head. Her chest and legs heaved, as if carrying the small sword in her hand was some awful burden. She looked back at him.

"Hinata-san," he said after some time, "I want you to leave."

"What?" She gasped, out of breath and still panting.

"Leave this town. Leave Leaf."

"Come with me," she replied after some time.

"I've already made up my mind, Hinata-san. I'm going to stay here and kill him."

"Do you really know if he's was a part of the rebel, I mean," Hinata paused, catching herself, "His father's plans? What if he has nothing to do with all this? We can leave now… We can be safe from all this and runaway together… to the castle…"

"No," he replied flatly.

"Why?"

"Revenge. He took something away from me."

"What? What did he steal from you?"

Suddenly, thoughts of Sakura flooded his mind. He couldn't reveal that to her.

"Leave!" Naruto ordered, bringing his blade to her neck. "Leave now, Princess!"

"Naruto! What…" She became quiet, deeply hurt by his gesture.

The boy held his word. His eyes were empty of emotion.

"It's like you forgot about what we shared in just one thought… what is it that this boy took from you that's more important than us- more important than me, Naruto?"

Naruto remained quiet.

Hinata did not want to remain in his presence any longer. The shy, brooding little girl from her past came back to haunt her and told her to run away from him and this stupid town. To leave the only man she had ever loved, the only one she had trusted her heart with.

With a sob and a fallen tear, she turned around and ran, heading square for the exit gates.

Naruto stood still and silent, dropping his sword to his side and turning around so that he would not feel that strange pain in his chest as he saw her leave.

Then he heard a twig snapping under someone's foot and he looked up in front him, at the tree that dropped sakura petals all over the floor, even as it gently did now.

It was Sakura. She was holding a katana. She was trembling like a mouse.

He was silent for some time. Then he spoke.

"Sakura-san. Leave now and I will spare you."

"H-how do you know my name?"

"What?" Naruto replied, genuinely surprised by her question.

"How do you know my name?" She screamed, angling her sword clumsily towards him.

"You really don't remember me? You're kidding right? You brought me here, Sakura, a few days ago on this very week. How can you not remember me? The man you crushed…"

"What… what is this nonsense?" She screamed again. "My love is only for Sasuke-kun! You have no right to accuse me so rudely you… you stupid peasant boy!"

And with that, she charged at Naruto, raising her sword high above her head and chasing at him. She was an awkward swordsman and didn't appear very experienced with the weapon, but chased him down all the same, without fear, angered by what he had said.

Naruto spent a second in his confusion before he realized that she had made her attack. He parried her blow with perfect timing, and just as she had arrived on him with full charge, she tripped over the geisha, using her own momentum against her.

He turned and pointed his blade at her chest, her beating heart. Her rich robes were ruined and her perfect hair was now in shambles. She stared back at the boy with a rage that burnt like a thousand suns. Naruto tried to remember when he had seen desire in them instead.

"Sakura…"

"Kill me… kill me so that Sasuke may avenge me, you sick, little man."

"How could you forget me, Sakura… please tell me you're not pretending you don't know me. It was Sasuke wasn't it? He did something to your head! He stole your memories!"

"Kill me! Insane fool!"

Just as Naruto realized that she had honestly convinced herself that she had never met him before, he heard a cry from the other side of the garden.

"Naruto!" A dark voice yelled out, howling his name into the night.

Sasuke.

Naruto turned his head and saw him, and then he felt his heart sank to his knees.

"Let her go, Naruto… You see, I know your real name now. She told me."

She referred to a girl he was holding against his body. It was a girl who he held at the point of his sword, who, at a moment's whim, could slice her throat open from ear to ear.

She was Hinata, Princess of Tokugawa.

"Fuck you, Uchiha."

"No- fuck you, Naruto. Let go of Sakura."

"Let go of Hinata… NOW! Or I will kill your beloved Sakura."

Sasuke thought about what he had said for a second, his dark hair flapping weakly in the evening breeze. His eyes narrowed in joyful contempt.

"Kill her then. She means nothing to me."

Naruto's eyes went wide and he choked inside, fully knowing he was serious.

"You… this is crazy, Sasuke."

"No, Naruto," He replied evenly, suddenly pushing Hinata free, "This is vengeance."

And he lifted his sword and stabbed it into her back so that the tip of the sword came out of her abdomen. He withdrew his sword and allowed her to slump forward, keeling forward into the dirt and falling in a heap of blue hair.

"Naru-chan…" She whispered with all her strength.

Naruto saw the tip of his blade puncture through her clothing. The surprised expression cemented into her face. Her mouth opened and said something as she fell. He wanted to be there and hold her, but he knew it would be too late.

He could not even hear her final words.

Something boiled within him and then it was over. He freed Sakura and stopped thinking.

And charged towards him with full force and fury.

"Die! Sasuke!"

CLANG!

His blow was blocked, the force absorbed by the strength in the dark ninja's wrists. They both locked into each other, holding each other down and staring at the other.

Then they fought.

A series of lightning-fast swings accompanied by near-death defensive blocks were played out like some sort of dancing routine. They held their ground solidly, only letting their arms and eyes fight their personal war, their legs occasionally changing stance to regain or improve vital balance. They fought with a rage that knew no bounds.

"You killed my father!"

"He deserved to die, Sasuke! Don't delude yourself!"

The spoke hurriedly as they fought, arguing as if they were both trying to convince themselves that their reason for revenge was stronger than the other's.

"For what- your stupid master or this stupid country? Tokugawa deserves no one's loyalty- not mine or anyone else in this town! My father nearly made everyone realize this… and you…"

"Your father was consorting with an enemy warlord. He could've gotten us all killed. Tokugawa is a great and honorable leader. Kusunoki is scum!"

"What do you know, stupid ninja? Only what your masters have taught you?"

"No matter your belief- Lady Tokugawa did not have to die."

"She did… I wanted you to feel how it was like to lose someone you love…"

"I freed your father from disease."

It was as if the words had hit him in the heart. Sasuke dropped and stepped back immediately, letting his sword and arm relax by his side. He stared darkly at his opponent.

Naruto continued to speak.

"We both know he would not have survived. He was dying and in pain…"

His eyes turned red and strength returned to his eyes.

"Die!"

Naruto opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he heard an angry female voice screaming behind him. He turned around and saw who had screamed out.

It was Sakura. Her perfect robes were ruined and her makeup had been smudged all over her face, particularly under her eyes where streaks shaped like tears ruined her pretty face.

She had grown tired of watching with her jaw permanently locked, gaping open. She had run to aid her lover.

Sasuke, as well, was genuinely surprised by her sudden leap back on to her feet and her sprint towards him. It was his expression that warned Naruto to turn around just in time to stab his sword deep into her stomach, just as her own sword was inches from the back of his neck.

And at that moment, as Naruto buried his blade deeper into her body, her own blade dropped uselessly to the ground. Her body hung for a moment more on her feet, standing weakly on her dying strength as it faded from her body. Her face became sad.

"Why, Sasuke, why did you tell him you did not care whether I lived or died?"

Sasuke remained quiet.

"Why, Sasuke?" She screamed one more time before her life left her completely, dropping her backwards from Naruto's blade and into the ground behind her.

The red crimson stained her dark robes, darkening the shade of red that colored the sakura blossoms, her new bed for her lifeless body.

"Why, Sakura… you could have been with me. Could have been with a man who actually cared…" Naruto whispered, tears streaming down his face.

And with those words he dropped his own sword and went over to her as if to prove to himself that she had really died. At that moment he would've done anything to make his guilt go away. The guilt he had for killing an innocent girl.

'First, Hinata and now… Sakura. They're both dead. I killed her…"

Sasuke couldn't wait for his pathetic chivalry. There was no honor in war. He attacked.

"Die, Naruto… the end has come!" Sasuke screamed out from behind him.

Then Naruto heard the young man stop suddenly and gurgle sickeningly.

He turned around and saw him, stopped dead in his tracks, by the very same girl he had murdered.

Hinata, still on the ground, had somewhat managed to stay alive and was now stabbing her own blade into his lower back from behind. She pulled out her sword and stabbed again and again and again. Her arms seemed weak, but at the same time, strong. A dying hand held up with an almost inhuman, murderous intent.

"I love you, Naruto… even as you would have never loved me."

Sasuke's face turned to surprise and he fell quickly, and silently, bleeding from several wounds in his back. His time was over.

"Hinata!" He called, leaving the dead Sakura and running to her side, just as she dropped the sword she had been using. He crouched down and lifted her up into a sitting position.

She smiled and brought her hand to his cheek, smearing him with her blood.

"You're alive?"

"Barely," she coughed.

"I love you, Hinata. Please live… my time with Sakura was a passing dream; it wasn't even real enough to survive. My feelings have died with her… what I had for her is now over. I want you to know that… please listen… I want you to know how much you mean to me. It's all become so clear to me after you've arrived…"

He continued to drill his words into her, never quite knowing if she was listening or not, always uncertain of whether or not she could hear him.

Hinata's smile slowly faded from her dimples, her neck eased to the side.

"Hinata? Hinata…?" Naruto asked innocently.

She was dead. This time, for sure.

"Hinata!" He screamed.

He looked down on her clear, blue-green eyes. They were open and contained no feeling, but they seemed to stare back at him. 'Why had you forgiven me for taking you for granted? Why did you protect me even after I betrayed your feelings with Sakura? Why did you have to die?'

"Why!" He yelled into the empty gardens.

That's when he heard the heavy footsteps, like marching, heading towards him.

The guards were coming.

His thoughts were burdened with loss but he knew not what else to do. He scooped up her dead body and slung it over his shoulder and disappeared into the night, fleeing across rooftops and hidden ledges. His only intent was to leave the village behind.

Leave the place of the memories that would scar him forever.

Soon he had reached the post in the paddock where the horses had been tied. There he carefully and quickly slung Hinata's body in front of him, so that he could hug it and hold on to the reins of his beast. Now there was nothing in his mind but sorrow, nothing on his face but tears. The least he could do was take her back to her father. Take her to be buried at home.

Then he saw Hinata's horse waiting idly by his own, staring at them both with a dumb, unknowing expression on its face.

Naruto leapt off and untied the ropes holding it down to the post.

"Your master has been set free from the pains of this world. So shall you be set free."

The horse took the hint straight away and, without hesitation, galloped into the rapidly brightening horizon. Galloping towards an edge of the world where the sun had begun to rise.

The morning was approaching. A new day was arriving.

And as he dashed back home towards his castle town, towards his Lord Tokugawa, the image in his memory of Hinata's horse being set free reminded him of a poem that he had been taught as a child.

'Beasts aren't like humans/ When they choose to love someone/ At least they're honest.'

"Oh, Hinata… I am sorry," He whispered as the breeze carried away his streaming tears.

THANK YOU READERS! NEXT IS "Day Six-Resentment"!

As always, I am flattered by your attention, people!

In the next act...

An awful secret is discovered!
Was so much death caused by mere coincidence?
Or is one soul responsible for all this destruction?

Find out who or die trying...

Stay tuned for some dark revelations in the next chapter!