Chapter 8

His Salvation

Shikamaru watched in slight horror as Naruto seemed to disappear leaving only a slight red glow in his wake. The feeling in intense killer intent and such a large amount of chakra meant that the Kyuubi was close to the surface. Shikamaru didn't know as Sakura did how dangerous this really was. He trusted Naruto. Instead of looking for the blond demon vessel, he turned back to the still form of the now very pale girl and the frantic movements of his pink haired medical specialist.

Sakura, being a medical specialist and a ninja, was not phased by the 'death' of her patient but only worked more frantically. She knew that if she was fast enough Hinta could be revived and would have no permanent damage. Naruto's condition however, worried her greatly. She had witnessed the horrors of Naruto allowing the Kyuubi's chakra to affect him too much. It looked like he was doing the same thing now.

Sakura then noticed Shikamaru paying close attention to her work and not moving after Naruto like he should have been doing. But, she wasn't about to give their team leader orders on matters she wasn't qualified to supersede his judgment on. Sakura immediately started giving quick but understandable orders to Shikamaru, who obeyed without even the slightest hesitation. In times of combat and other instances, medical personnel can give orders to those around them in order to care for the wounded regardless of rank. It wouldn't matter if the medical-nin was a genin and the defacto nurse was the Hokage, the orders were still to be followed without question.

Shikamaru started removing Hinata's shirt, which was only getting in the way of Sakura working on the deep chest wound. Sakura on the other hand was running through a very fast set of complicated seals. She had a scroll open next to her that was smeared with Hinata's blood. With near perfect synchronization Shikamaru removed the cloth blocking the wound and Sakura finished her hand seals. She quickly completed the jutsu by slamming the scroll down across Hinata's chest.

To Shikamaru it appeared as though the jutsu had accomplished nothing…well, nothing to Hinata anyway. Sakura on the other hand looked exhausted and sweat was starting to form on her 'big forehead'. Sakura was kneeling over the small girl's chest with her hands in the middle of the scroll. The scroll was positioned diagonally across the Hyuuga heiress's torso so that the gap in her ribcage was perfectly centered under it. Sakura's hands were on top of each other in the center of the open scroll. From the position of Sakura's body it looked like most of her weight was being supported by her hands. But looking at Hinata, Sakura's hands barely seemed to make contact.

Then Shikamaru noticed something. Sakura's bottom hand seemed to have a slight pink glow to it. She was pumping chakra directly into Hinata's chest, and from the looks of it, directly into the inner coils system surrounding the girl's heart and lungs. That was inconceivable to Shikamaru. It would take impossibly good chakra control to do that. One would have to perfectly match the amount and 'preasure' of chakra moving through the receiver's inner coils system to do that. If too much was sent, the inner coils system could be damaged in much the same way thy Hyuuga gentle fist style damaged them; if too little was sent, the implanted chakra would block the bodies natural chakra flow, causing more damage. Shikamaru looked up at Sakura, her face was set with concentration, almost emotionless if not for that strong presence of determination.

Shikamaru remembered some of the basic medical field training he had received from the academy. If this wasn't done perfectly right, and withing 2 minutes of her 'death' then she would probably not survive. Well, judging by the loss of blood, she probably wouldn't survive even if Sakura got her heart started again. What felt like an hour since Naruto's loss of control in reality had been barely a minute, but to the three people concerned, it was longer than any of them wanted.

Hinata had been caught by surprise. She had allowed herself to stop focusing on the enemies behind her so she could concentrate on her patient. She knew Shikamaru and Naruto were taking care of the Sound and would protect her and Sakura. Then using her extended peripheral vision that her bloodline granted her, she saw someone moving towards her faster than she could react. She turned to face the incoming ninja and recognized he wasn't wearing a green flack jacket like Shikamaru would or bright orange like Naruto always did. Then just before she started to spin to perform the instinctual kaiten she realized who the attacker was, it was Kabuto. She wasn't fast enough in starting her spin. He had already been close, too close, only a foot away when she starting turning and expelling chakra. As it was, her spin only helped Kabuto's chakra scalpel cut deeper and faster through her exposed chest.

The pain of the slash wasn't as much as she expected it to be, but then again it was the sharp and clean cuts that hurt the least. She immediately lost her balance and started to black out. She didn't loose consciousness though. Not for a long time. She couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't open her eyes; all she could do was listen. Listen to her own lungs let air escape through the gaping hole in her chest, and listen to her heart pump blood onto her clothes and friends.

Sakura was immediately by her side. The girl was silent, but she knew it was Sakura because her hands were unwavering and purposeful. She noticed the cool feeling of chakra being sent into her chest to try and start the healing of the wound. She knew it was useless though, she was loosing blood far too quickly and the cut was too deep. She knew the life of a ninja was dangerous and she knew she was bound to die on a mission someday.

Then that whole line of thought died away as if it never existed. Her right hand was much warmer than her left. She then realized it was being held, caressed by someone. It had an odd feel to it, but she knew it was Naruto. She didn't know how, but she knew.

"You can't die. I can't live without you. I need you to keep me, me. You are what keeps me from letting the monster out. You can't leave me. I need you."

Naruto was her strength. Naruto was her example on how to press on even when there was no way she could see that she could carry on. She saw him as someone she loved and looked up to. Someone with flaws and failures but he was a proud failure and would get up and try again. Naruto needed her to live. He couldn't live without her, he saw strength in her and he used her to inspire him to fight his own demons, both literal and figurative. The fact that he needed her so much gave her such a shock that she felt her heart stop. The last thing she felt was a surge of warmth filled with fear, sadness, but most of all was rage.

Shikamaru knew there was nothing really he could do. This level of medical jutsu was way beyond the basic field and first aid skill that he posessed. He quickly looked around assessing the situation. Most of the observing Cloud had disappeared, apparently to watch Naruto and what was left of the Sound finish the battle. The few that remained were either watching Sakura very intently or were starting to inspect the bodies of the dead ninja. Shikamaru noted they were not going near the palace ninja that had come from the Leaf. They were only looking at the Sound casualties and the couple of missing nin that the Lord of fire had hired from other countries. It would be rude to gather info from the dead Leaf bodies while current Leaf were still alive and present.

Shikamaru was pulled away from his slight annoyance at the indifference of the Cloud by the sound of a shallow breath from Hinata. She was breathing, quick shallow breaths, but still breathing. Sakura seemed to slump back in a relieved position before she passed out from chakra exhaustion. The regenerative and reviving jutsu Sakura used takes a lot of chakra to use, and Sakura had already been working on other ninja before Hinata. As Sakura slumped onto her side unconscious, her hands pulled off the scroll, which was all that was covering Hinata's modesty.

Shikamaru saw that there was only a slight soft white mark where the gash in his subordinates chest had been. He glanced around and found a jacket that looked remarkably like Naruto's. He picked it up and put it over Hinata's prone figure to cover her from prying eyes as well as keep her warm. One's body heat drops fast when one looses that much blood, as well as her entire torso was uncovered and radiating heat without any clothes to insulate it. He hadn't noticed that the force of the Kyuubi's chakra had ripped the jacket off of Naruto when he let go of his rage. If Sakura had been at all concerned with it she would have remembered that the Kyuubi's chakra had done the same thing when Naruto was fighting Gaara to save her life during their first chuunin exam.

The first thing Hinata noticed a few minutes later was that she felt tired. But that was to be expected after such a long day and such a fierce fight with the Sound. Then it hit her, she had been injured, and should have died. She looked around. Shikamaru was on one knee checking Sakura and making sure she was ok. Hinata immediately activated her Byakuugan and noticed that Sakura's inner coils system was very low on chakra. Sakura had used too much in healing her. The next thing she noticed was that her upper body was only covered by Naruto's jacket lying across her. She slipped it on and zipped it up while still keeping her form covered.

Then it hit her. Naruto needed her. She somehow knew that that wave of warmth had been him letting go and giving into the Kyuubi's request to give so much rage. Hinata hadn't deactivated her Byakuugan after she checked Sakura. Now she stretched its field of long vision and found Naruto. Without warning and before Shikamaru could say anything to stop her, she got up and sped off towards the now ruined section of the city.

Shikamaru was very worried. He had one subordinate unconscious and would most likely not wake up for a day or two from use of so much chakra. One had just been revived and was now foolishly speeding off to rejoin the fight she had already almost died in, and one had lost his mind when he saw the aforementioned teammate 'die'. He couldn't leave Sakura there, defenseless but he needed to stop Hinata. Reluctantly he decided to let Hinata go to Naruto. Naruto would never harm Hinata. Shikamaru trusted Naruto, Kyuubi and all, not to harm any member of the Leaf, especially the one person Naruto had said he needed. Looking at the Cloud nin, almost so they would confirm that he was doing the right thing, Shikamaru noticed the Cloud that had remained all had slightly shocked and disbelieving looks. A dead Leaf ninja had just gotten up and ran off in the direction of battle. To Shikamaru, that was a slight relief. They would probably not side with Orochimaru if they believed Leaf-nin could come back from the dead.

Hinata's thoughts were on a single subject. Naruto. He had said he needed her. She was the one that kept him from letting the Kyuubi control him. From letting the immense chakra overpower his own and take over. She couldn't allow the one she admired, the one she loved to become the monster the village had believed he was. She loved him too much to loose him. To let him become the sealed demon all of the adults in Konoha believed he was. She had to get to him before she lost him.

She arrived at the decimated area of the forest just outside of the city within a few minutes. She had passed two unrecognizable bodies on her way but she knew they were probably the two Sound that had survived until Kabuto had attacked her. What she found when she arrived was Naruto, or more accurately a miniature red demon fox with four very long tails instead of nine. He was standing, or crouching, on all fours about fifteen yards away from Kabuto.

Kabuto himself, definitely looked looked much worse for the wear. His left arm hung at his side, and judging by the ruined flesh of his bicep, it was probably useless. The rest of his body was fairing only marginally better, laced with numerous large cuts and claw marks. His right leg looked like it had a nasty bite in the calf, showing Naruto's now more animalistic like nature to use biting as an attack. Kabuto must have swallowed a pill to improve blood clotting because it didn't look like any of his wounds were actively bleeding, though blood was everywhere.

Hinata looked at Naruto and realized a fifth tail was forming and the fox was getting more and more defined, though he did look to be in pain. Then she noticed something of far greater importance. Blood was pooling under Naruto. The Kyuubi's chakra was hurting him and causing him to bleed almost everywhere. The tears that had been forming in her eyes since she had started to run after Naruto now came full force. She knew it was wrong for a shinobi to show emotion on a mission, but she loved Naruto and would not let him go without a fight.

She raced towards the two figures. She didn't think she would make it in time for Naruto to form the fifth tail and attack, but she was never going to give up. Not on Naruto.

Naruto formed the fifth tail and charged Kabuto. Just as he was in range to attack he felt something hit him from the side and hold on. Whatever it was, it delayed him in his attack and his prey escaped because of it. It was going to pay. He hadn't noticed whatever IT was because it was masked by his own scent. It was wearing his jacket and covering its scent with his own. He turned to snap at it, bite it, and claw it off when he caught a whiff of something. Something familiar. Something that made him feel a fuzzy good kind of warmth. The feeling was very distinct from the burning and painful feeling of rage and anger.

The confusion over his feelings allowed him to hear something he would have disregarded mere seconds before. It was the sound of a sob, a very, very soft sob. Oddly, it made him feel worse than the pain from the demon chakra and demonic rage surging through his body. He didn't know why, but he felt he would do anything to make that sound stop and make this girl clinging to him feel better and happy. He wanted Hinata to be happy and for her never to cry again.

Narto's mind had been taken over by the Kyuubi's chakra. It was being ruled by rage and anger, but Hinata was pulling him out of it. Without realizing how or why, Naruto was reverting back to his human form. The Kyuubi's chakra started to subside and the number of tails decreased. Naruto started to look human again. Then all the rage and anger that made up the Kyuubi was gone. All of the demon fox's chakra was sealed inside a cage in Naruto's stomach again. He was left holding a crying Hinata close to him and trying to calm her. His whole body ached and burned because the damage the Kyuubi's chakra did to it when it was being drawn out at such levels. But now the Kyuubi's chakra was doing its normal job of starting to heal those wounds.

Naruto wasn't concerned about the pool of blood he was standing in, moslty his own, or about the extreme protest of now healing wounds as he moved. His mind was set on one thing, one person again. Only this time it wasn't hate and a desire to kill that controlled him. It was love that guided his desire to comfort the shy and scared girl that was now starting to regain control of herself. Her sobs were starting to subside as she looked up into his concerned and slightly happy face. He surrounded her with the warmth of a comfortable embrace and allowed her to hold on tighter.

Sakura woke up a two days later. Hinata was smiling when she looked at her dutiful nurse. Hinata, being the only one left conscious with medical training had been given the duty of taking care of Sakura while Shikamaru and Naruto guarded Shiro. Hinata informed her that the wedding had been postponed a day because of the attack. It was late afternoon when Sakura was finally able to get out of bed unassisted. The reception would already be underway and the happy couple would be married. There would no more real immediate threat from the Sound, and the Cloud had just as much to gain from this marriage as the Fire country did, if not more.

Shiro would be spending a couple more days in the capital for political and business reasons, but for all intents and purposes, the hard part of the job was done. Shiro had again been an arrogant prick, but this time it wasn't to the team of ninja protecting him. Actually he had become a lot nicer to them than he had ever even considered to be before. He was bragging to everyone that 'his' ninja team was the only one to survive the battle. The Cloud nin did not count because they did not engage. Hinata and Sakura were able to save some of the wounded ninja from dying, but fallen ninja's wounds were not superficial.

The entirety of the Fire Lord's own hired ninja were killed and any of the other nobles' ninja who had engaged had also died. The fire lord had actually tried to hire Shikamaru, Naruto and Hinata to be permanent palace guards. He didn't offer for Sakura because she was unconscious, and he didn't know the she was part of the team, let alone had been involved. The three Leaf-nins had politely declined the offer. Their loyalties were to their friends and village. This saddened the Fire Lord some because ninja still directly associated with their village were more expensive to hire than missing nin.

Shikamaru had sent a message to the Hokage as soon as he could. The message was short and direct, but also encryped. The message would only tell of music on the wind moving the leaves and making fire die and smolder, if the person reading didn't know the code. The basic information on the attack had been given in the message though a much more detailed report would be required when the mission was completed. Shikamaru also sent a second message, this time without any form of code, relating a request by the Fire lord for a 10 man team of chuunin or higher to be used as protection for his family and guards for his estate. This was odd because he usually only requested or allowed jounins to guard his estate and family. Shikamaru's team must have impressed him a little bit. It didn't help that the four of them had been part of the most talented class to graduate from the academy for a long time.

After Sakura was brought up to speed on the last two days and informed of her medical condition, she got dressed an both kunoichi left the room that had been given to them by Shiro. They made it onto the roof easily enough and quickly jumped off in the direction of the reception and their two teammates.

Author's Note:

Well, This is the end of this story. I'm glad a lot of you liked this story and enjoyed reading it. I probably won't be writing again for a while, school is getting hard again. Prog for this semester is coming up. I doubt I will write a sequel to this story, it already is a sequel to my previous romance "Lonely Birthday". I no this is a short ending, and a little anti-climactic for those of you looking for a fight. Any way, I hope you enjoyed reading the story and will continue reading and have fun with other people's works. I have to give thanx publicly to Crystlshake for helping me with the feel and flow of this story. The story's quality was improved by the help given.