Foreword: Soundtrack is as follows.
Scene One: Gundam SEED - Flickering Truth
Scene Two: Gundam SEED - Battle Against the Dominion
Scene Three: Naruto - Alone
Scene Four: Naruto - Hokage
Scene Five: Rurouni Kenshin - Departure
Part Four: Shrapnel Spirits
Lament for the Flickering Star
It wasn't like Zabuza, who was arrogant and underestimated him. It wasn't like Haku, who was too gentle to kill. It wasn't like Orochimaru, who had mostly regarded him as a simple pest, nor was it akin to facing off with the Sound Five -- all of whom had regarded him as nothing but a mild irritation. It was something that lacked the desperate craving for victory and survival he had experienced in his battle with Gaara as well. It was almost like fighting an even nastier counterpart to Yakushi Kabuto.
Kabuto had acknowledged Naruto. Perhaps even if it was only mockingly, he had respected Naruto. Enough that he hadn't been so caught off guard by a Rasengan to the chest that he couldn't counterattack.
In a lot of ways, he figured, Kabuto was the scariest opponent he had ever faced. Not so much because of the chance of dying, but because of the chance of living. It had always been so easy to throw everything away in the face of unbeatable odds, but when confronted with an opponent who could beat him, yet could be beaten...
It was just unsettling.
The fact that his wounds were starting to open back up didn't help any. At the least, it was only surface bleeding, not the kind of lethal internal injuries that had almost killed him just a few minutes ago.
"That guy's nuts," he finally said to himself, though his voice was drowned out by the still-close rattling of people fleeing and rioting in the streets.
At least, he put a hand out and grabbed onto a drainage pipe connected to the roof of the building on his right. His free hand instinctively came down to the wound at his stomach and started to pick through his freshly-soaked jacket and shirt. He could feel the cut almost as if it were fresh, and when he finally poked at the edges of it with a fingertip, a sensation not unlike being stabbed with an electrified fork ran through his insides and left him wobbling.
After several haphazard attempts at assessing the damage, he finally gave up on it and pulled his hand free. His fingers were slicked red with blood.
Minus the bleeding and his would-be assassin though, this whole ordeal was starting to remind him of Konoha. After all, how many times had he stolen a Blast Note and detonated it in a public toilet, causing nothing short of riots in his wake?
... And how many times, he wondered, did he end up hiding in a back alley like this, praying they wouldn't find him and rip him limb from limb?
Of course, he had always wanted the acknowledgement, but not the look of sheer murder that had been in the eyes of more than a few people back then.
Suddenly, Naruto found that he actually missed Konoha. A lot. He missed everyone -- the other members of the Konoha Six; Lee, Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Kiba... Hell, Akamaru too. He missed Sakura, Iruka and even that bastard, Sasuke. He even missed Kakashi...
Kakashi would've been useful right now. Chidori would've been useful too, but he didn't have that technique. He had Rasengan.
He had a bomb for each hand. Perhaps that fit him more anyway.
"Gfuh," he finally sounded out. "Startin' to get philosophical about techniques... Not good."
It didn't take a doctor to notice the signs of injury and exhaustion on him.
Still, he stood his ground. Uneasily, clutching the pipe for support and wishing he could see all their faces again -- Tsunade, Hinata and all the other Genin girls too, Gaara and his siblings -- he still stood.
His eyes had gone blue again back up on the rooftop, and his teeth were normal as well. Perhaps the whiskers might've been a bit thicker than normal, but that always happened after the Nine-Tails chakra flowed through him. It would last a little while, then go away.
Finally, he took in a deep breath. Through willpower alone, he made himself stand up straight, and repeated a mantra that Iruka had once given him during his years as a dilinquent; "Walk your own path with your head held high."
He had never told anyone, but that had been the real birth of his Ninja Way. Not a gravesite after some glorious battle, but in a humble classroom, standing before a man he now regarded as his father. Perhaps it hadn't been in specifics, but it had been in what mattered. It showed him that he could be himself, and that paved the way for everything else.
"Walk your own path... With your head held high," he said to himself, forcing his posture upright and then staggering forward.
A few paces later, he took to running.
It had been quick. She was surprised with herself for even doing it.
Sakura had cracked about being unsurprised by what was presumably the result of Naruto's actions. Hinata had activated her Byakugan and, without so much as a word to anyone, lunged off of the overhang and into the crowd below. Almost immediately, she regretted it, but only until the voices of everyone else faded away against the background roar of the numerous people flooding around her.
It was like swimming against a current in the middle of an avalanche. Bodies of every size and shape took over for the rocks and debris found in a landslide, but Hinata just kept moving.
Somewhere down the line, someone struck her across the jaw. Without even thinking, she replied in kind, and a man three or four times her size went down with a loud scream. Before anyone had noticed, she had ducked and rushed forward again. After crawling between a woman's legs -- and under her dress, for that matter -- Hinata had popped back up in time to see everyone scattering from around the fellow she had taken down.
Behind her, the Byakugan's increased range of vision alerted her to the fact that Neji had his own Byakugan active. He was about to jump into the frey himself, but stopped when Kiba slammed a hand into his chest and drove him into a wall. Sakura had been about to jump as well, but Akamaru jumped onto her face and started throwing a fit, toppling the Genin unexpectedly.
If not for the fact that she felt like she was in the middle of a warzone, Hinata would've had to fight a laugh at the irony of Kiba and Akamaru pulling crowd control on Neji and Sakura.
Unfortunately, she didn't have the time to, and gave it no further consideration than to thank Kiba later and buy Akamaru a new toy.
With that, she ducked back down and rushed under a passing carriage, where she made it to a crouch. By now, the streets were just barely starting to thin a bit and--
Forward again. It was almost like playing a game. She went forward and if she messed up her timing, she'd be trampled. It was as simple as that.
For some inexplicable reason though, frogs came to mind before she was at the sidewalk. By the time she popped up again, that mental image had faded away as quickly as it had come. With that, she hurtled forward again, jumping through the gap in a cart between a pile of cabbages and its roof. The owner was startled, but Hinata had no time to apologize.
The Byakugan had him sighted, and she had questions. And answers. And inane comments that she had been rehearsing in-mind since she had first seen Naruto at the age of six, flipping off a flower-shop owner for not selling him any potting soil.
Finally, it felt as if the long road was coming to an end. She rounded the corner into the alley and--
"Walk your own path... With your head held high..."
His voice was ragged but confident, and in spite of the bloody hole in the back of his jacket, he wasn't stopping.
He ran forward, and Hinata tried to speak. She really did. She wanted to say so many things, but...
It felt as if every word she had wanted to throw at him had been blown away by a simple phrase. Her Byakugan deactivated, almost of its own volition, and as she watched, his exhausted stagger gave way to a run. The running carried through until he reached a wall, and although a normal person would've stopped and tried to find a way around it, Uzumaki Naruto simply jumped onto it and started running right up the side like it was flat ground.
A few seconds later, he had reached the top of the building and passed out of sight.
Hinata didn't know how long she stood there after that. It might have been a minute, or it could have been an hour. When she finally looked away from the course that Naruto had chosen though, she realized that her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. Her eyes were watering because she hadn't blinked, and not too far away from her, she could hear Akamaru barking as her companions finally started plowing through the crowd to get to her.
She didn't know why it had happened like that. For all the effort she put into it, he had disarmed her without even knowing she was there.
For all the lack of effort he had put into it, his words made her want to become stronger all over again.
"You're going to be a wise Hokage, Naruto," she said to him. He wasn't there to hear it, and maybe he wouldn't have even believed her if he was, but she meant it.
"I'll follow your advice. Take care."
She meant it a lot.
With that, Hinata turned and ran down her own path. She would meet her teammates and Neji before they even made it out of the street, and maybe she would get chewed out for her actions, but...
That didn't matter.
For the first time since they had left Konoha, Hyuuga Hinata actually believed in herself.
That made all the difference in the world.
The last thing Shunseito Kazuma's father had ever told him was that he needed to take care of his little sister. It had been right before the elder Shunseito, Kizumaru, had left for a mission. A few days later, word had reached the village about a Sharingan user who wasn't an Uchiha and a technique known as Raikiri.
He never saw his father again.
As the years ticked by, Kazuma discovered the Sharingan user's name to be Hatake Kakashi. The technique's true name was Chidori, and when he finally saw it in action a few months ago, wielded by a Sound-nin with red eyes, he knew why: It sounded like a thousand birds flapping their wings.
Kazuma bore no ill-will towards Kakashi, or his technique. He didn't particularly care, to be honest. Killing was just part of the work that both of them did for a living, and his father wouldn't have wanted him to be consumed by something so petty as a desire for revenge anyway. Not when he had a sister to take care of.
His reflections on the matter drew to an end the moment his sandals hit the roof. The streets were slowly starting to fill back up now, but Chimi Tensho was not a man to be seen so easily. Like a cloud, he had drifted here, unseen by the countless prying eyes below. All it would have taken to see him was a simple glance up. Thankfully though, no-one ever seemed to notice him.
Without a word, he bent down, located the secret panel and pulled it up out of the way. It was his private doorway into the home they shared, and though he had never advocated its construction, he didn't particularly mind it either. Once the panel was out of the way, he slipped down onto the ladder, let himself in and pulled the panel back into place, securing it with a hard tug on the handlebar built into its bottom. With that done, Kazuma simply pulled his mask off and jumped the rest of the way.
Eight feet later, he had landed in the small room that served as his living room and bedroom. The bathroom was in the back, the booth and kitchen were in the front and his sister--
"Kazuma!"
Was half-tackling him from behind.
Kazuma let out a half-pained sigh of relief. Even if the girl had a tendency to almost floor him whenever he came home, it was a welcome routine in an unwelcoming world.
"Ayane," he greeted, straightening up and prying her arms from around his upper body. "Are you alright?" He asked, finally turning around.
His sister, Shunseito Ayane, was eighteen years old. Like he and their mother, she was almost unhealthily fair-skinned and had dazzling blue hair. The cloudy eyes, tinged grey by nature, were the only major feature either of them had from their father. Where Kazuma was dressed like a consumate ninja though, Ayane worked as a ramen girl, running the booth up front almost singlehandedly. She was bubbly and cheerful, but--
"I'm fine, but you're bleeding!"
Far too easily worried for her own good. It was no wonder their father had specifically ordered her to never become a ninja.
"I'll be alright," Kazuma replied, favoring his sore leg as he made his way to the couch. For appearance's sake only, he allowed Ayane to help him.
"What happened? I heard an explosion and the streets went nuts and--"
"That boy from last night," Kazuma answered simply, unstrapping the sword sheathe from his back and setting it almost reverently onto the floor against the couch. His vest came off next, and he didn't have to worry about the shuriken holster. It had been blown off in the explosion. "Uzumaki Naruto."
"What did he do this time?" Ayane asked, only slightly distasteful at the mention of Kazuma's opponent.
For a moment, he considered not telling her a thing. Then he remembered that she had been living around ninja all of her life. Whether he liked it or not, she knew enough about the business to form her own conclusions.
"Broke into Ontai Asshuku's mansion. Beat up two guards -- Kurosawa Kenji and Takashi Ichimaru. Then he stole Kurosawa's sword and tried to leave," Kazuma recounted, unsure if he should be amused or disgusted by the whole thing.
"Does he have some grudge with Kenji?" Ayane asked with a half-worried tone. Kazuma knew quite well that the blue-eyed samurai had a thing for his sister.
Probably why he had made it a point to let Naruto beat the tar out of him to begin with. At least the kid was useful for something.
"No. I think he's got one with me though," he confessed. "Apparently, since he's got to protect Jiraiya, his goal is to defeat me. He wants to become stronger, and since that probably translates into fighting me on an equal playing field--"
"He went through all that just to get a sword?" Ayane asked, her jaw slacking as she pulled open a drawer on a stand across from the couch.
"That's what I said," Kazuma replied.
"That boy is completely insane," she concluded, and Kazuma nodded in agreement.
A few seconds later, what was left of his pants' leg below the knee was being pulled up and Ayane was going to work on his wound. She had no formal medical training, but while he had spent his years learning to kill, she had been able to pick up on most of the tricks of the medic trade just by virtue of how many times she had visited him in the hospital. Kazuma suspected that she could have been a genius for that sort of thing, but it was really a moot point since she would never be a ninja to begin with.
"I agree. He's also... Unusual. In other ways, I mean," he pointed out, not even wincing at the acidic burn of the chemicals she was using.
"Such as?"
"He survived two Raiheijin."
Ayane stopped.
"I thought..."
"It was impossible. I did too. I don't know how he survived the first one, let alone the second. I hit him right through the chest and drove him through a wall," Kazuma recalled grimly. "He couldn't even move well enough to get up. He had to use Kage Bunshin."
"Isn't that a Jounin-level technique?" Ayane asked vaguely, now returning to the matter of tending Kazuma's leg wound with a worried look on her face.
"Yes. He used one to escape, another to distract me and then the last one transformed into a giant Blast Note. I only barely got away from it in time," he commented.
"... You shouldn't fight that boy again. He's not normal."
"He's in the way of my mission to assassinate Jiraiya. I won't get another opportunity like this again," Kazuma replied smoothly. He had almost rehearsed this part of the conversation in-mind back before he had finished jumping away from the explosion.
"Then go around him. You don't have to fight him," Ayane pleaded, even as she started on the bandages.
"If I get the chance, I'll avoid fighting him, alright?" He lied, and knew that there wouldn't be such an opportunity at all.
Ayane didn't look at him for a long, long time. When she did, her eyes were starting to water, and the bandages around his leg had been tied in a perfect knot. Her technique made it smooth, unlikely to stick out in combat and alert an enemy to the injury. The rest would be up to him.
"I don't like this, Kazuma. He doesn't sound like the type who would give up for anything."
"He's just a boy, Ayane. I'll be fine," he replied, scruffing her hair and then standing up again.
She didn't reply to him this time. She just knelt there on the floor, staring over at his sword and looking worried again. He hated seeing her worry, but...
"Sacrifices must be made," he reminded himself.
"I'm going to go take a bath and then get some rest. I have until the end of the week for the poison to stay in effect. I doubt Jiraiya will leave until then," he said, turning away and heading for the bathroom. "Try not to worry about me too much, Ayane."
The door to the bathroom opened, then closed. Like so many other times, Kazuma was glad the bathwater kept him from hearing his sister cry.
Climbing up a sheer cliff wall would've been considerably easier if he had been able to do it without feeling like he was going to pass out every step of the way.
He had made it out of the city with no more trouble after clearing the wall of the building at the end of the alley. The only catch was how much chakra he had poured into running to make up for the blood loss -- something the Kyuubi had yet to fix. Just as he had on so many other occasions, Naruto was again realizing that his 'tenant' was utterly evil and untrustworthy. Its chakra was like a drug that provided a quick high when it was vital, then faded completely the moment it was no longer an absolute necessity.
It was something of a love-hate relationship, to be blunt.
Regardless of how much he and the Nine-Tails were coming to despise each other though, Naruto felt that he could use some of the demon fox's chakra right about now. It felt, more and more, like he was almost out of his own.
He was two thirds of the way up the cliff. The sword he had taken from that Kenji fellow was a barely-comforting weight at his side, but more than any comfort it provided, it was just weight. It was slowing him down just as much as everything else he had on him right now.
Somewhere along the way, he had pulled out a pair of kunai and resorted to stabbing them into the cliff wall to help himself up.
Somewhere near the edge, he had resorted to leaving them in place and pulling out another pair, standing on the first two to try and catch his breath. When he felt their hold on the cliff wall loosen and start to slip, he had finally pulled himself further up, and not long after that...
He made it.
Naruto gave one last heave and rolled up onto the top of the cliff, lying haphazardly on his side and barely able to see straight. Jiraiya and Kensei's presences greeted him, but neither said a word, and it didn't look like they even noticed his arrival.
"I'm back," He finally rasped out, trying -- and failing -- to sit up.
"Have fun?" Jiraiya asked, totally immersed in whatever dirty thing he was sketching now. Kensei was peeking over his shoulder and muttering things about how strange human pornography was.
When Naruto didn't answer, Jiraiya finally let out a sigh and put down the sketchpad. Then he neatly gathered the rest of his art supplies up and tucked them away into his vest before standing up and bracing an elbow against Kensei's rough, ugly hide.
"I take it you're ready to begin training now?" He asked.
Naruto could've strangled him on the spot. If he had been able to move, anyway.
For all the chaos in the streets, the walk back to the hotel was surprisingly calm and collected. Akamaru was chewing on a piece of what looked to be someone's shirt, Kiba had his hands in his pockets and Neji was walking with his eyes closed, scowling and with his arms crossed over his chest. Sakura differed from them in that she had her arms tucked behind her head and was staring up at the sky, and Hinata...
Hinata had to make herself stop smiling.
There hadn't been any of the questions she had expected, and though there was a vague sense of annoyed curiosity coming from Kiba, Neji seemed to understand implicitly and didn't say a word. Sakura had given her a look with one pink brow raised straight up into her forehead, but hadn't said anything either.
It was rather uneventful, really.
Now though, she and Sakura had made it to the hotel room they would be sharing. Kiba was next door, as was Neji. It had been a simple arrangement: Since Kurenai was a woman and Kiba was, well... Kiba, Neji had been selected to take her place as token Jounin watchdog for the three Genin. Both rooms were connected by a double-door, both had two beds and while Hinata missed her real bed, it would do...
And now, here she was.
Sitting on that same bed, watching a television as Sakura washed her make-up off in the background.
It was so utterly mundane that it she was still getting used to it. Not only was Sakura the first real friend she had who was a girl -- Kurenai didn't really count, as Hinata thought of her more like the mother she'd never had -- but Sakura had also introduced a hundred thousand different concepts to her. Kurenai had taught Hinata what it meant to be a ninja, yes, but Sakura had been the one to teach Hinata that it was okay to be a girl.
Shino and Kiba weren't exactly the type you could talk to about having a crush on someone, or having cramps during your period. Even now, Kiba had a tendency to go missing a few days every month since Kurenai, Hinata and Sakura had somehow wound up on the same cycle and...
And Hinata made a mental note to buy Kiba something alcoholic for when he came of age. That boy must have dearly needed it.
"What was he like?" Sakura's voice popped the nonexistent thought bubble from above her head. When Hinata looked around from the TV, the other girl was stepping out of the bathroom and pulling her protector from her head.
"W-What do you mean?" She asked.
"Was he Naruto?" Sakura didn't really clarify. She must have expected Hinata to have more familiarity with him, and while the Hyuuga girl wished that was the case, it wasn't.
"I still don't know what y-you mean."
"What did he look like? How did he act? Why didn't you drag him back?" Sakura explained, plopping down on the other bed and pulling off those boots of hers. The ones Kiba so fervantly enjoyed mocking.
"I only s-saw him from the b-back," Hinata answered, fighting back her stutter every step of the way. Speaking to herself was one thing, but speaking to others was still quite difficult at times. Especially when Naruto came into the conversation.
"Well?"
"He... Um... Looked l-like Naruto."
Sakura stared at her. Then rose a brow again and flopped onto her back.
"How did he act?"
"I... I only heard him say o-one thing. About following his own w-way. Th-then, he kind of... Ran off."
Sakura let out an annoyed sigh and scooted up onto her bed, then rolled to face away from Hinata completely. She didn't look like she was going to bother showering, and Hinata didn't blame her at all. It had been a long day. And a long night too.
"Typical Naruto," the pink-haired girl said, and Hinata almost thought she detected a hint of wistfulness to her voice. She couldn't tell if it was sisterly or something more, and in all honesty, she didn't want to know.
"Goodnight," Hinata offered.
"Night," Sakura replied.
With that, Hinata reached over and clicked off the lamp, more out of politeness than necessity. She left the television on though. White noise was still something new to her, and while Sakura and Kiba were both adept at tuning it out, she was still learning. There weren't any TVs or broadcast radios in the Hyuuga household, after all.
A few seconds later, to the drum of an old samurai action movie, Hinata allowed herself to fall asleep.
It had all come down to this.
Jiraiya had given him a few hours of rest. When he had been woken up(to the joyful declaration that he was a stupid little bastard), he had found that his shirt and jacket had been repaired and his wounds had finally finished healing. The old man shrugged off any questions about the clothing, and Naruto let the subject drop at that. Afterward, he had been given a few minutes more to wake up, and then...
Then Kensei had informed him that he was tired of waiting.
It was now or never, and as the sun began to rise in the east, Naruto found himself standing before the great bullfrog swordsman with Kenji's katana sheathed at his side and a feeling of pride swelling up in his chest. Against the odds, against a superior ninja and against his own rotten luck, he had managed to take the sword from a quality samurai, and now he was going to use it. Kensei would be the first, and after him, Naruto intended to take Chimi Tensho down a few pegs at his own game.
More and more, he was starting to like the idea that he was going to be using a sword. It made him feel more... He couldn't quite describe it. Perhaps it wasn't even the fact that it was just a sword, but that it was a samurai sword. A real samurai sword. A weapon that belonged to a high-class warrior who was seen and known by the public. Someone who didn't lurk in the shadows and someone who was loved for it. He had seen the dark side of samurai life back when he had taken down Gato's thugs. Now though, with this weapon of prestige at his side, he felt that he was starting to see the bright side...
And he liked it.
"Before we begin," Kensei said, his booming voice drawing Naruto back to reality in an instant. "You should know that once this fight kicks off, there's no backing out of it."
"Yeah, and?" Naruto shot back, unphased.
Kensei shot a look at Jiraiya with one eye. The man shrugged at him, but said nothing. The bullfrog let out a snort of disdain, then turned its attention back to Naruto.
"Since the Sage didn't explain, I will. This is a Chikarakurabe no Gama. The Trial of the Toads," he began, his voice so grave and serious that it threatened to make Naruto's legs shake. "According to the Gama Jingi, this is a fight to the death, kid. Once it starts, it can't be stopped for anything. The moment we draw our swords, we're gonna fight and we're gonna keep fightin' 'til one of us stops livin'."
Suddenly, the sword at his side didn't feel so uplifting anymore.
"If you don't wanna die, back out now. You won't get another chance."
And with that, Kensei silenced, staring him down with all the intent of rending him limb from bloody limb.
But the swords weren't drawn yet.
He could step down. He could walk away and not have to do this. He could live to fight another day, get stronger and try again.
But...
"No can do," he said, and meant it. "I don't run away."
"I'm tellin' ya, back d-"
"I don't quit, you big bastard! It's not my Ninja Way!"
Without even thinking, he reached down and grabbed hilt of the sword. Instinct guided his left hand to the sheathe, giving the handguard the opening push to unlock it and allow it to be drawn. From there, Uzumaki Naruto gave a pull and the katana met air.
"HAVE AT IT THEN!" Kensei bellowed, drawing out his own sword in a flash of steel and a whistle of death.
With a scream, Naruto took the katana in both hands and charged forward.
This was just like his battles with Zabuza, Haku, Neji, Gaara, Orochimaru and perhaps even the Kyuubi itself. He was up against an opponent he had no chance against, in unfamiliar territory and with only limited options. It was a desperate situation, but Naruto thrived in it.
With pride in his heart, the young ninja lashed out...
And Gama Kensei shattered his sword in one blow.
Hinata's dash through the street was partially inspired by a mixture of Frogger and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Especially the cabbage cart.
Ayane's name and appearance are both close to Ayame, the girl at the Ichiraku Ramen. Yes, she was the girl who was serving everyone in the last Part.
Jingi was mentioned by Gama Bunta wayyyy back when Naruto fought Gaara. It's the code of the Yakuza. I invented the Trial, since I've got no idea if anything like that(a duel to the death) actually exists in the Yakuza underworld.