Chapter 56
"People always say they want to know the future so they can live without fear of the unknown. But in the end, the present can be just as confusing."
It was official.
Writing letters was hard.
Masaru silently sulked as he jumped across the rooftops, staring sourly at the envelope clutched in his hand. Theoretically, letters should be an easier way to communicate than talking. If he made a mistake he could just erase it or start over, and the other person would never know. But no. The blank page presented endless opportunities, an entire canvas he could fill with any thoughts he so desired. Too much possibility. Where did he even begin with writing this?
He sighed as he landed on one roof and tilted his head back, staring at the swiftly-darkening sky. Sunset had already come and passed, night having set in for the most part with only a few rays of daylight lingering in the horizon. "Hopefully I'm not too late," he mumbled to himself as he turned his gaze forward to continue onwards. As he leaped to another rooftop movement caught his attention below, and he glanced down to spy a blur of blue and beige rushing along the empty street. It wasn't until he had crossed a couple of other rooftops that something clicked in his mind, prompting him to land and turn to glance after the figure, his eyebrows drawing together.
Was that Hinata?
Frowning, he glanced down at the envelope in his hands with a small twist of hesitation in his stomach, only to freeze as he spied a familiar shade of eye-searing orange in the empty street below him. His grip on the envelope went slack, the paper slipping from his fingers and fluttering to the tiled rooftop as his mind went blank, his lips parting to form one word:
"Naruto?"
Naruto floated in a thin layer of water, staring into the black void above with sightless eyes. Somewhere nearby a loud rumble shook the waters, hot breath dusting over his face and body.
"Pathetic," the Kyuubi huffed, voice full of scorn and derision. "Knocked out by a girl who was crying, not even getting a chance to put up a fight. This is a new low, brat, even for you."
For once Naruto didn't rise up to the taunt, didn't even look at the damned fox. He just kept staring upwards at the void, Hinata's teary-eyed face etched into his memory.
"I'm sorry, Naruto. I love you. Goodbye."
I'm sorry.
I love you.
Goodbye.
Never had such simple words filled him with such unimaginable pain and grief.
'I'm sorry,' she started. People never apologized to him, not so sincerely at least. People only apologized when they did something wrong, and they usually just blamed him even when it was their own faults.
'I love you,' she said next. I love you. I love you. I love you. He'd never heard those words in that exact order, directed at him and him alone. No one ever wrapped him in warm embraces and declared their love for him. Not Jiijii, not Iruka-sensei, not Teuchi or Ayame or Sakura or Masaru or Sasuke—no one ever said that, not to him. And now, after nearly thirteen long years of being alone, someone finally had.
But then—
'Goodbye.'
Is she going somewhere?
'...aru...'
Where was she going?
'...aruto...'
Why was she leaving?
"Naruto!"
A face flickered into his vision, hovering above him with dark eyes full of worry. He stared blearily at the hazy image, only able to make out a scant few features, but even so he felt a flicker of recognition, his lips parting in a breathless whisper.
"Ma...sa...ru?"
His eyelids fell shut and when he opened them again he saw only the endless black void, stretching far beyond what the limits of his vision.
When Hatake Kakashi returned from his mission in the middle of the night, he expected to drop off a report with the night shift clerks at the administration building and go straight home to procrastinate on writing the full report.
He didn't expect the Hokage to be waiting for him in his office, face grim and tight with his pipe no where in sight.
They wasted no time. A body flicker had him at the hospital's entrance, Kakashi for once darting inside the doors instead of fleeing. Medical ninja dodged out of the way as the silver-haired jounin slid down the dim hall, his exposed eye wide and the normally-dormant Sharingan swirling to life beneath his hitai-ate. Masaru sat in a chair outside one of the rooms, lifting his head to look at him as he arrived.
"Kakashi?" he greeted dully, head tilting to the side slightly. His eyes looked tired, almost lifeless in the darkness of the halls. Kakashi panted heavily as he strode over, staring at the door.
"He's in there?" he questioned, and Masaru nodded.
"The doctors say he's fine," the boy intoned hollowly. "He just needs sleep." He didn't sound particularly convinced, though he also didn't sound particularly unconvinced either. Mostly, he just sounded... tired.
Kakashi could relate to that.
He took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders as he turned to look at the genin. "What happened?" he questioned. He'd heard the general details from the Hokage just minutes earlier, had barely even waited for the man to finish before rushing to the hospital, but he wanted to hear it from Masaru's own mouth.
The boy blinked once, slow and mechanical, before giving his head a tiny dip and complying. "At around eight fifteen I was walking through an empty street when I noticed something bright orange on the ground," he reported dully. "I recognized it as Naruto's jumpsuit and found him unconscious with a steady pulse. I immediately flared my chakra to summon help as per official procedure."
Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly as he listened. "And he had no visible injuries or cause for him to lose consciousness?" he questioned lowly, and Masaru shook his head.
"None. ANBU arrived and confirmed him to be stable before transporting him to the hospital."
"Our medics confirmed it to be the work of a Hyuuga clan member," the Hokage offered behind him, and he turned to see the elderly God of Shinobi approaching with a worried-looking nurse trailing at his side. "Someone used the Gentle Fist to strike just the right tenketsu and vital points to knock him out."
"Uzumaki-san will be fine," the nurse interjected. "We had a Hyuuga medic on shift when he arrived who unblocked his tenketsu. He'll need to sleep it off, but he should be fine once he wakes up." Kakashi nodded slowly, relaxing a bit. Naruto always recovered fast, he'd be fine.
"Any ideas who the perpetrator is?" he questioned. Logically Naruto should be able to tell them once he woke up, but he didn't like the idea of waiting that long and leaving his assailant free.
"I sent a missive to Hyuuga Hiashi to inform him of the situation and ask for his cooperation in finding the culprit," the Hokage responded, still sounding so very, very tired. "He's still gathering the whereabouts of all Hyuuga clan members since several have been stationed at temporary guard points around the village since the invasion, whether under orders or voluntarily to ease some of the more worried residents. I expect the report should be delivered within the hour."
Kakashi nodded once, unhappy with the timeline—it was already midnight and Naruto had been found at eight, how long could it take?—but accepting he couldn't just go out. "I could go to the crime scene with my ninken and check for any scents," he volunteered, but the Hokage shook his head.
"Thank you for the offer, but there's no need for that. We already have a narrow pool of suspects and the culprit hasn't left the village—we've strengthened the seals on all of the walls, and the gate guards have confirmed no Hyuuga have left. There's no urgency in locating them, we can deal with them properly in due time."
Kakashi frowned, still displeased with the lack of immediate action, but he couldn't argue with the Hokage's reasoning. They knew that Naruto's attack hadn't been some random serial mugger or foreign ninja, and they already had plenty of suspects who couldn't just blend into a crowd. Konoha had far higher priorities at the moment than chasing some stray Hyuuga who'd attacked him. People needed a sense of peace and security more than anything after the invasion, so they needed to focus their limited resources on that.
However, the fact that a Hyuuga attacked Naruto at all unsettled him. Horrible as it was to admit it, plenty of people did not like Naruto and still blamed him for the Kyuubi's attack. Supposedly the Hyuuga would know better though, thanks to their Byakugan allowing them a better understanding of chakra in general. If anyone would be able to understand that Naruto was not the fox, it would be the ones who could see the distinctly separate cluster of chakra sealed in him.
More than that, the Gentle Fist was highly distinct and identifiable, especially to Leaf ninja. So why would they choose to use that to attack him?
Something didn't add up. His eye slid to Masaru, the boy still slumped in the seat. "Ah, Masaru-kun, it's pretty late," he commented casually. "Sasuke must be getting worried by now. You should go home." An unspoken dismissal, a request for him to leave so Kakashi could speak to the Third about confidential matters.
And somehow, Masaru either missed it or chose to ignore it.
"Good," he grumbled, scowling as he pulled his feet onto the chair to tuck his knees to his chest. "Maybe then he'll come looking for me and he can wait for Naruto to wake up too."
Kakashi ogled the boy for a moment, surprised his dismissal had been soundly rejected. He shot a glance at the Hokage and found a glimmer of amusement in the man's eyes, faint and poking above the tension in his face. "Masaru-kun, I believe Kakashi wishes to speak to me alone," he offered, and the boy huffed, looking away.
"I'm not leaving. Someone has to be here when he wakes up." Kakashi just stared at him, because did he really just backtalk the Third Hokage? He never would have pegged Masaru as the type to ignore orders like that.
Fortunately the Hokage seemed more amused by the blatant disrespect than anything, his lips twitching upwards as he regarded the boy. "You really do care about him, don't you?" he asked softly, and Masaru pressed his cheek against his arms, still staring at the door next to him.
"He's my friend," he mumbled. "'Course I care."
"Very well then. Kakashi, I believe there should be an empty room for us to speak in privately." Kakashi just nodded, still staring at the boy in mild alarm and wariness, but dutifully turned to follow his leader. The nurse led them down the hall to a closed door, opening it so they could enter before quietly closing it behind them. They stood inside a generic doctor's office, standard layout of a desk and filing cabinets with a few personal touches here and there that Kakashi paid no mind to.
"Well, it seems Masaru still cares for Naruto after all," he commented carefully, and the Hokage smiled, walking around the desk to stare out the window.
"He does," he agreed quietly. "I worried about those two after everything that happened, they seemed to drift apart. It appears I was wrong, and Masaru instead continued showing his loyalty from the shadows." His phrasing made Kakashi wonder, sensing some unspoken story behind those words, but this was neither the time nor place to delve into the boy's past activities.
"Speaking of shadows, have you considered the perpetrator might be operating there too?" he inquired, and the smile fell from Hiruzen's face, his expression hardening once more as he turned to face him.
"You suspect Danzou in having a hand in this," he deduced calmly, and Kakashi nodded once.
"He hoarded children with rare abilities. It wouldn't be too strange for him to seek out a bastard with the Byakugan." He couldn't think of any motives for Danzou to have Naruto attacked just yet, but he couldn't discount the possibility. Not after everything he'd seen and experienced with the man, not after reading that damned letter linking him to the Uchiha massacre.
Across from him Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, clearly disagreeing. "Given your history with the man, I don't blame you for being suspicious of him," he allowed carefully. "However, consider this: the Hyuuga's Caged Bird Seal has a function which prevents them from creating bastard children."
That... did not occur to Kakashi as a possibility. "What?" he breathed, staring at him wide-eyed. "I—what? How?"
"The specifics are unimportant, but they've been using it as a form of birth control for years. As it stands, members of both sexes can only conceive a child within the walls of the Hyuuga compound."
"I'm surprised there hasn't been a revolt," Kakashi muttered, still reeling from this revelation, and the Hokage smirked ruefully.
"From my understanding, they're actually quite supportive of it. It's a fairly recent modification, only added since Konoha's founding after a certain... incident, with some other clans' children." He grimaced as he spoke, and Kakashi felt himself grow somber as he recognized exactly which incident the Hokage spoke of, though it had happened well before his birth. Several children from various clans had been left for dead on various missions, only for a single girl to come crawling back to Konoha revealing they'd been captured and used for breeding purposes.
The news had caused a major uproar. The rest had been rescued within a few months, but some of the girls had already been pregnant. He remembered a Yamanaka girl with near-black hair, and Asuma had a single cousin with a shock of dusty blond hair as opposed to the typical browns and blacks in the Sarutobi clan. Minato-sensei himself suspected his father had been from Iwa after noting an uncanny resemblance to some Rock ninja he saw, though he never did seek out direct confirmation.
After that, it made sense the Hyuuga wouldn't be opposed to incorporating birth control into their seals. The whole tragedy just made it disturbingly clear that some heinous people would never see children as children, but instead as raw resources for future generations of soldiers and tools. Tsunade and Mito had invented a birth control seal for kunoichi to prevent such a travesty from occurring again, and they'd willingly distributed it to other hidden villages, one of the few cases of total international unity in recorded history.
He pushed the grim thoughts away, deciding to focus on more pertinent matters. "So then the only way he could attain a Hyuuga would be through willing recruitment, or kidnapping one before they got sealed. And either scenario would be vehemently and loudly opposed by them." The Hyuuga would never allow someone to get their hands on the Byakugan, even a Branch House member who'd been sealed; and they would definitely notice if one of the members suddenly walked around sporting a new seal on their tongue.
"Exactly," the Hokage confirmed with a nod, and Kakashi felt himself relax, just a little. Someone had still attacked Naruto, but at least it wasn't Danzou and more likely to be a random attack.
Before he could say anything further they both felt a sharp spike of dark chakra, both men stiffening as their blood ran cold. The hairs on the back of Kakashi's neck stood on end, flashes of red and a heartbroken howl flashing through his mind. Without a word both men surged out of the room, crossing the length of the hallway within a single second to halt outside Naruto's door. Masaru sat on the floor before it in shock, his eyes wide as he stared into the room.
Kakashi wasted no time rushing inside, finding his student sitting up with tears streaming down his face even as red chakra wavered around him. Being so close to the Kyuubi's chakra made him feel nauseous and sick, bringing back all sorts of unspeakable memories, but he pushed through his discomfort to rush to the boy's side and grab Naruto's shoulders. Teary blue eyes snapped up to look at him, fear and grief whirling in them in equal parts.
"K-Kakashi-sensei?" he sputtered. The chakra had already started to recede, withdrawing back into him, and Kakashi tightened his hold. The Kyuubi's chakra only leaked when Naruto got particularly emotional, which didn't bode well.
"Naruto," he said, "What happened?" The blond sucked in a shuddery breath, his face crumbling.
"She—she left! Sh-she was crying and knocked me out—" He stopped short, shaking his head. "She—she sounded so scared! She kept apologizing and rambling, it didn't make any sense, b-but she was crying, i-it sounded like sh-she was saying goodbye forever—"
"Naruto," Kakashi cut in, silencing the ramble. He looked Naruto in the eye, projecting as much seriousness as he could. "Slow down. Who knocked you out?" Naruto stared at him for a moment, still looking so lost and overwhelmed, but then he sucked in a shuddery breath.
"Hinata-chan," he forced out, tears pricking his eyes. "She knocked me out!"
At that point the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees, Kakashi's blood turning to ice in his veins as his face went slack with disbelief. Hinata? Shy, timid Hinata who had a crush on him? He stared at Naruto in shock, questioning if he'd misheard, only to stiffen as he felt a sudden presence appear behind him. Twisting his head, he found the Hokage hovering directly behind him, a grave expression on his face.
"Naruto, did you just say Hyuuga Hinata was the one to knock you out?" he asked lowly, and Naruto bobbed his head, eyes still shiny and brimming with wetness.
"Kakashi-sensei, Jiji, she sounded so scared! She kept saying all this weird stuff about her family and not being s-strong—she, she said they terrified her!" He shook his head wildly, frowning deeply. "That can't be true! She's not a bad person, and her cousin's a jerk but that's not enough to make her want to leave! They're her family, they can't be that bad! Someone must've told her something and tricked her into leaving!"
As he continued rambling the Hokage just regarded him gravely, exhaling quietly through his nose. "Naruto-kun," he interrupted softly. "I understand you're upset. However, right now we need to have the medics check you. We'll listen to your full report once you've been given a clean bill of health, alright?"
The blond deflated but nodded, tears still pricking his eyes. "It's not her fault," he whispered, soft and almost broken, and the Hokage nodded before turning with a gesture for Kakashi to follow. The jounin lingered a moment before doing so, his gaze flicking to Masaru who stood in the doorway with wide eyes. Two medics pushed past him to crowd around Naruto and began an urgent examination, and Kakashi quietly closed the door behind him to give them privacy.
"I don't think it bears reminding you none of this should be repeated yet," the Hokage commented to Masaru softly. The boy just stared at him in shock, turning to the closed door with still-wide eyes. Kakashi ignored him for the time being, focusing on his leader.
"What happened while I was away?" he demanded lowly, because he knew there was more to this story. None of what Naruto just said fit in with his profile of Hyuuga Hinata. The fact Naruto mentioned Hinata claiming to be terrified of her family particularly rang alarms in his mind. He'd been away from Konoha running missions nearly constantly since the invasion, he'd fallen out of the loop with local politics.
The Hokage just eyed him evenly, soon huffing a defeated sigh. "I have not been keeping tabs on the situation, but I've been told Hinata has only returned home once since the invasion." If he didn't have Kakashi's attention before, he certainly had it now.
"She ran away?" he questioned, eyebrows furrowing. Clan children ran away from home on occasion during their rebellious years, but for one to stay away for more than a month? And nervous, introverted Hinata, at that?
"Apparently she's been staying with the Aburame," Hiruzen answered, shaking his head. "I have no details, but I suspect she felt overwhelmed by the pressure from her family after she fled from her match, and sought refuge with her teammate Shino. Since the Aburame and Hyuuga are both Noble Houses, the Hyuuga cannot use their political sway to demand they turn her over."
Hearing the Aburame name brought to mind the small boy who had transferred into his squad to replace Itachi and the Aburame who'd followed the young genius after his promotion to captain, the buzz of kikaichu an incessant presence in Team Ro's barracks for the first few weeks. The Aburame clan had struggled hard to reclaim Torune from Danzou's grasp, and once they had him they had no intentions of risking him being stolen away again. It didn't surprise him they'd extend that protective attitude to another fearful child.
"This is too extreme a reaction for just that though," he muttered. "Even if she got tricked into believing them to have worse intentions—"
"I don't think she was tricked." The interruption came not from the Hokage, but Masaru, his voice quiet but angry. Both men turned to look at the teenage boy, finding him still staring at the closed door. His eyes had shifted to red at some point, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
Anger, Kakashi identified, an almost irrational amount of it, while the Hokage turned to face him with a stern look. "Masaru, do you know anything about this?" he demanded quietly. The boy's gaze flicked towards him, his mouth thinning briefly before he nodded.
"Yesterday Ino told me Hinata's cousin Neji visited her family's flower shop looking for her. And the day before that, I saw a Hyuuga elder talking to her." The six tomoe in his eyes spun a little faster at that, pure rage and loathing flashing across his face for the briefest of moments. It took Kakashi aback to see such vehement, cold hatred in the usually quiet and docile boy, and he instantly felt himself stand on edge.
Just as quickly as it appeared the look faded and Masara squeezed his eyes shut, turning back to the door. When he opened them again his eyes were inky black, his rage more subdued now but still there. "I couldn't hear what he said, but she looked ready to cry. I didn't want to get involved because I figured it was clan stuff. If I knew it would turn out like this..."
He trailed off, while the two men exchanged pointed looks behind him. A threat from a clan elder, and her cousin looking for her? It sounded like the Hyuuga clan may need to explain some things as well.
"I assume you heard that," the Hokage said. On cue two masked figures melded out of the shadows, his ANBU guards kneeling behind him to await orders. "Alert the council as quickly and discreetly as possible, and also inform Hyuuga Hiashi to report to my office in an hour." The pair nodded and disappeared to carry out their tasks, while he turned his attention to Kakashi. "In the meantime, we should go there first. It's a bad time, but unfortunately I have some other news to discuss with you."
He raised his hand to press beneath his right eye with his thumb as he spoke, brushing away sand from his lower eyelid. Kakashi's stomach dropped at the motion, his whole body chilling as he struggled to maintain his usual unaffected front. He recognized the gesture, they'd established it as a signal for the masked man. And given what he'd just said, he doubted it had to do with the situation at hand.
"Did my students get in trouble again?" he asked, inclining his head while drawing upon all of his skill to sound casual.
"Unfortunately, yes," the Hokage confirmed gravely, and Kakashi's stomach sank. The aged veteran turned to Masaru. "Masaru-kun, please wait here. I would rather not leave Naruto alone after the medics are done." The Uchiha finally turned away from the door, an almost offended frown on his face.
"I'm never leaving Naruto," he said firmly. The Hokage sighed and nodded, turning back to Kakashi.
"Let's go, our time is limited and there is much to discuss." With that they took their leave in the form of body flickers, Kakashi's chest twisting with dread as he followed his leader.
At that same time Shimura Danzou marched down the halls of his house, two of his Root agents trailing behind him. Normally he would be asleep at this hour, but this particular night he felt a sense of unease that left him unusually restless. Perhaps it had to do with the news of the attack on the Kyuubi jinchuuriki or lingering concerns about security after the invasion, but the reason ultimately did not matter. Experience had taught him to trust his sense of paranoia, so he'd decided to patrol the base himself.
His cane made no sound as he walked, his steps just as silent as the two Root shadowing him. On the surface, everything seemed fine. The atmosphere lacked any strange tension or the cliché of being too quiet, and the entrances showed no sign of anyone besides himself or his agents passing through. Not even a single fly had managed to penetrate the security and buzz through the halls. All in all, the quiet almost made him feel his unease to be unjustified.
He stopped in front of a sealed door, tapping it with his cane. Dark seals lining its perimeter lit up briefly before fading to a dormant gray, allowing him to push it open. He stared into a windowless study with only a dim lamp to provide light, the shelves neatly organized and the desk in the back bare.
Danzou froze, his eye widening in alarm.
He wasted no time entering, crossing to the desk in two long strides and looking at the bare surface. His gaze flitted to the shelves, skimming the books and scrolls within a few seconds before spinning to face the two agents who'd shadowed him. "Send messengers to the administration building and Sarutobi's residence immediately," he ordered. "Tell him an emergency has occurred and I will be there within five minutes."
The Root nodded and vanished to carry out his orders, while Danzou turned to survey the room with tightly pursed lips. He knew this wasn't a mistake on his agent's parts. Only he could seal and unseal the door, and he never left anyone in the room unsupervised. When he'd left that evening, he had personally made sure everything was still in order himself, the current research project left on the desk. The fact the desk was bare told him two things:
Someone had somehow broken into the room, and that person had stolen the Second Hokage's notes on the Edo Tensei.
Not much action, but lots of important stuff and setup here. Things are going to be exploding fairly soon. This arc and twist is definitely a tricky one, and I'm honestly still not 100% sure how it will ultimately turn out, but I can't say I regret it.
So with that said, bad news:
I am putting Echoes of Light on a brief hiatus.
Right now we're almost caught up on the draft, and I want to tweak what I have written of the next couple of chapters. Between writing these two stories and my summer class, I don't have time to get a satisfactory version done. This chapter is a bit less cruel of a note to end on than last, so I'll stop here. My summer class ends on June 19th, so the next chapter will be June 27th.
Thanks to all my reviewers: goofboy96 (this actually IS mercy), Elise142, XWingWolfX, xXSpades231Xx (1. Sure, why not? I already made the Great Fireball actually kill someone anyway. 2. He was a bit late. 3. Not sure. 4. Probably not, I only saw a few of the movies and filler arcs can get annoying. 5. She's fine for now, but come morning she's going to be freaking out.), Beyogi (yep, she ran), .tatiana (thank you very much), NetherLord, 125b (thank you, I humbly accept this award and will save my evil laughter for later), and KadeBear (Orochimaru's pretty much good as dead right now, so she won't have to deal with him at least).
Thank you all for reading this, both reviewers and my silent readers as well. See you all on June 27th.
