Training Montage 10: Interrupted


"That." Naruto remarked, looking up at a pretty dope waterfall, "Is a pretty dope waterfall."

"I know, right? It's a surprise tool that will help us later." B dropped his pack of gear on the grass and sat down next to it.

The island they were on was nice enough. Scenic. Cliffs basically covered the entire coastline, leaving no way for outside eyes to see what was on the inside. Turns out, once they'd left the dock and passed through a tunnel, that inside was actually a fairly pretty grove-y place with butterflies and trees and all that, with a couple of building complexes where their group had made camp.

It was two bases, in a boxed canyon, in the middle of nowhere.

It was boring as hell after the first five minutes.

"So, bijuu." B stretched out, lying back. "Tell me everything you know."

"They're the split off remnants of the ten-tails, the monstrous manifestation of the god-tree, or Shinju tree." Naruto recited. "They were made by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the sage of six paths, using the Creation of All Things technique. They all have their own personalities, and all have fragments of the ten-tails chakra (which means a helluvalot of chakra) and have different abilities and specialties due to the splitting process. The Kyuubi is the strongest, the bitchiest, and doesn't have any special powers really because he doesn't need to when he can fire bijuu bombs that can decimate entire countries."

B tilted his head. "...Kid what the fuck."

"What?"

"How do you know that?"

"Fox told me." Naruto shrugged. "What, you don't-"

"No, as a matter of fact I-" B turned to glare into the middle distance. "Yo Gyuki what the fuck? You never told me half of this shit!"

"I thought you were supposed to be teaching me." Naruto remarked, a little smugly, before frowning. "Wait, you know yours' name? Mine won't tell me!"

B closed his mouth and sighed. "You know what? Just, just come here."

He held a hand out. Naruto hesitated, then took it, and with a flash they weren't in the clearing anymore.

Naruto let out an impressed "whoa." at B's mindscape. It was a lake, by the looks of it, with wooden buildings on palisades and bridges between them rising above the waves. After a moment, there was as a great roaring of water, and a massive maroon shape burst above the surface, sending metre high waves in all directions that crashed into the shore B and Naruto were standing on. It was a...

"Are you a Bull-Octopus?" Naruto shouted, gleefully. "That's awesome!"

"Well met, Uzumaki Naruto." Said the creature, one tentacle reaching above the water and waving in a very adorable manner. "I am Gyuki. You will likely know me as the Hachibi, or the Eight-tails."

"Cool!" Naruto enthused, feeling like a twelve year old again. He turned round, "Hey Kyuubi look! It's one of your...um."

The 'um' occurred when Naruto finally noticed the stark, sudden separation between the two mindscapes. A neat line separated B's scenic, beautiful landscapes from Naruto's...sewer.

The Kyuubi, from behind its bars, looked up and huffed before closing its eyes.

"Uh, yeah, sorry about the mess." Naruto winced. "It looked better, I swear, but I had a bit of a mental breakdown and trashed it and uh, was a bit busy after that I wasn't expecting visitors-" He shouted deeper into the sewer "Kyuubi! Get up, we have guests!"

"I'm not talking to lying-rat-traitors." The Nine-tails growled.

"Now brother." Scolded Gyuki. "When have I ever-"

"You really wanna go there?"

"...When have I recently lied to or betrayed you?"

"Oh, not that I know of. I didn't mean you." The Fox didn't open its eyes. "I meant the brat."

"Oh come on are you still pissy about that?" Naruto complained. "Dude, it was like a literal act-of-Kami."

"Uh, what happened?" B leaned in.

"I was gonna let the Kyuubi kill me after I killed the bad guy but then the bad guy brought all my friends back to life." Naruto summarised. "And now somebody won't stop sulking about it!"

"Hey Gyuki, is there a liar talking?" The Kyuubi called out. "If there is I can't hear him. Because I don't let negativity like that into my life."

Gyuki sighed. "Come now, you're being unreasonable K-"

"DON'T. Say my name or I will tear you to pieces." The Fox was on his feet in an instant, glaring across at his fellow Bijuu and emanating red chakra that splashed against his cage.

"...You would tell him about Father but not your own name?" Gyuki asked, sounding upset. "Brother..."

"Dad's dead, 'Ki. The kid's still got to deal with me..." The Fox grumbled, turning back away from them.

"But the sharing of names is essential to perfecting the bond!" Protested Gyuki. "How can you hope to become a perfect-"

"Not. Interested."

"...I could just tell him."

"Again, I would kill you."

"You're imprisoned in there." Gyuki reminded him. "Technically, you can't do anything to me."

"I can tell them both about what you did to that poor fisherman's wife." The Kyuubi grinned, frighteningly. "In detail."

Gyuki froze. "You wouldn't."

"I would."

"It was seven hundred years ago!" The Octopus seemed to be blushing, "And she asked, okay, and nobody saw-"

"'Nobody saw' my ass. There's a painting."

"There's a WHAT?!"

Naruto clapped his hands, loudly, deciding he did not want to know what that was all about. "Soooooooo...'Perfect Jinchurikki'. You two keep talking about it, what's it mean?"

B, looking very perturbed by the bickering Bijuu, shook his head and looked down at Naruto. "Right, yeah. So it's a well known fact that when a Bijuu feeds chakra to its Jinchurikki, the host's own chakra network gets stronger due to the two interacting. The beast can give you chakra using the 'tails' cloaks. Everyone can use the version 0 with no tails appearing, and the one tails version 1. Now each bijuu's one-tails cloak is the same, only Shukaku can't do more than 1, Matatabi can't do more than 2, Isobu's max is 3, you get the gist. Once you're using half of your beast's tails, it goes from version 1 to version 2, and stops being a chakra cloak and starts being a physical transformation. Even bigger powerup. How far have you gotten?"

"Eight tails version 2." Naruto recounted. "Uh, I first went V2 in four tails? That's less than half of nine?"

"He's always been an overachiever." Said Gyuki, chuckling.

"Well whatever." B shrugged. "Now if the beast tries and succeeds to take control, either by putting you unconscious or killing you, it will gradually transform into its full beast form. I hear this is what the Kazekage kid did when he attacked Konoha, right? But the trick is, if you can really start co-operating with your bijuu, you can make that happen willingly. I can pull out tentacles and shit, or turn into a full on giant octopus-bull."

"Cool..." Naruto's eyes widened. "Can I do that?"

"Hell no." Interrupted the Fox. "I mean, you could, but why would you. I can give you KCM."

"K-C-who?" Naruto asked.

"It's only the best powerup ever." The Kyuubi replied, smugly. "Out of all the loser powerups you've got so far. Better than sage mode."

"Can I have it?"

"No, I just thought I'd tell you about how cool it is since you're never ever going to get it ever. Mleh."

"Bitch."

"Brat."

B leaned in and whispered "How have you two not killed each other yet?"

"Oh this is just the way we talk, don't worry about it." Naruto waved him off. "Go on. You were expositioning."

"Right, where was I." B snapped his fingers and a diagram appeared, floating in the air of his mindscape. "If you wanna get the beast transformation, and all sorts of other good shit, you need to allow the flow of your chakra back into the Bijuu's supply." The diagram was a rough picture of two chakra pools, one with a crude person drawn on it and one with a crude fox. As B gestured, passages appeared between the two and the 'chakra' began to flow between them. "This lets the benefits of the chakra mixing go both ways, buffing both of you. There are lots of tricksy ways to start this process off, but eventually you reach a point where you both share chakra freely and willingly, and there's basically no distinguishing between the two different pools. At that point, you're a Perfect Jinchurikki. This is the bit that requires you sharing names-"

"And it's the bit where I have to be free of the seal, so I kill you." The Fox spoke up. "Hey Gyuki! Why isn't your human dead yet?"

"We tight." Gyuki replied, simply.

"Oh yeah, Gyuki could technically break out and start a rampage at any time." B said, casually. "I'd have to fight him, la di da, you know the deal. That was what happened a couple decades ago when the Third Raikage was kicking his ass every other week. But he won't, cos we tight."

"This sounds...massively dangerous." Naruto gulped. "Why do we even try for this?"

"Oh it's risky." B agreed. "The only Perfect Jinchurikki I know of are me and the Ex-Mizukage, Yagura. Maybe one or two others since the end of the warring states period, since that's when the process was made."

"Ex-Ex-Mizukage." Naruto corrected, proudly. "My Good Friend Haku (qualified badass) has that hat now." He paused. "Wait shit that means both my international friends have beaten me to Kage, dammit!"

"-But the benefits are worth it." B continued, apparently deciding to just ignore Naruto's outbursts. "A perfect Jinchurikki has access to all that combined chakra, meaning they have the raw power of a Bijuu focused through the skillset a ninja. Strength and versatility. You can spam high power techniques until the cows come home."

"I think you're underestimating how much I can already do that." Naruto pointed out.

"Kit, you have a lot of chakra." The Nine-tails spoke up from behind him. "The fact that it's even relative to mine is crazy, it really is. But you don't even have half as much as me, and remember I've only got half of my chakra. Do some maths on that."

"You only have half your chakra?" Gyuki frowned.

"Long story." The Kyuubi stood up and looked at them all. "Look, kiddies, it's been fun. Little brother, it was good to catch up. But let me be clear; I am not allowing anyone else to take advantage of me and my power. Put me in front of a Rinnegan or a Sharingan again I will happily lend you my power to crush anyone who possesses those disgusting eyes. But beyond that? Either let me out, or leave me alone."

There was a jolt, and the two were back in the canyon.

"That...could have gone better." Naruto sighed. "We'll need to give him a few days to chill before I try and talk to him again."

"You know, it's your mindscape." B pointed out. "You should be able to go in there whenever, whether he wants you to or not."

"Yeah, but I'm not gonna invade his privacy like that." Naruto wrinkled his nose. "Who knows what he's doing in there. Trust me, I'm the victim of the Event Neither Sasuke Or Hinata Are Ever Allowed To Talk About, I'm a big fan of protecting personal space."

"Heh. Well, there's one thing we can do in the meantime."

Naruto looked across at B. "Oh yeah? What?"

B grinned. "Meditation!"

"Ugh. Whatever, Pervy-Sage, I'll get right on it."

"Uh, what did you just call me?"

Naruto's face tightened. "N-nothing. Don't worry about it."


Sasuke jumped, flinging kunai left and right, before landing on top of a puppet. He heard it make an impressive rendition of a scream before he ripped it's head off, dropping to the floor behind it. He heard the whistling of a blade coming in towards his head and brought a sword up to block it.

He did not hear the wooden leg that swept out from behind him, cutting his legs out and dropping him to the floor.

"Twelve seconds and a bit!" Called Kankuro from one side.

"Fuck you." Sasuke groaned, getting back to his feet.

"You can't ask me to time you and then get pissed when I do it."

"I can and I will." Sasuke stretched. "I was making progress that time. Let's go again."

"Why are we even doing this?" Kankuro asked. "You get your sight back inside of a fortnight, right?"

"Exactly. I've got a short period where I can do this without cheating." Sasuke sighed. "Look. Do you know how many fights I've had to win using my bullshit dojutsu? Because the answer is, like, most of them. It feels kinda like cheating, like, I don't know, I'm only winning cos of this power I was born with."

"You had to watch your teammates and sibling die to get those powers." Kankuro reminded him.

"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. Point is, I wanna prove I can do it without all that. That I'm more than the eyes."

"Mmhmm." Replied Kankuro, sounding distracted.

"And that's why-"

There was a tug, and Sasuke yelped as something grabbed one of his legs and yanked him upwards, dangling him above the ground.

"Zero and a bit seconds." Kankuro told him. "What was that about improving?"

"Fuck you!"


Hinata walked through the cave. It had a bunch of weird glowy ball things in it and she had no idea what they were and didn't particularly care. Weirder still was that they all seemed to show her images of her childhood.

It was, like, 80% Naruto.

That was a little embarrassing.

She spied an exit to the cave and moved towards it, taking a second to curse the fact that she couldn't see everything properly. She knew she could use her base byakugan without it killing her, but something about this cave was ruining her vision. There was...something about the place that was messing with the fabric of the world around her and making her dojutsu less than useless.

Her gut said that there was some kind of space-time ninjutsu going on, and if there was one thing any genin had learned from school, it was 'you do not screw around with space-time ninjutsu without a PhD in the subject. Not unless you want to end up with that one guy who's corpse is currently sharing atom-space with Konoha's cliff.'

So she allowed the lack of vision, for now.

And as she approached the exit, her thoughts went to the letter she had found atop Neji's corpse.

Dear Hyuuga, the inside had read:

This letter lies atop the body of the most intolerable meddler of your age, who's plots within plots spread deep across the world and to places you could not possibly imagine.

He has caused me great duress over the years, and so now that he is dead, I have taken from him some small recompense.

I should thank you for slaying him, and yet I notice that you have taken one of his eyes with you.

I would very much like to have it.

Thirty leagues southeast of this structure is a cave, through which you will be able to access my home. You are invited to come and meet me, where we might discuss matters further.

If you require more motivation; I intend to crash the moon into the planet and kill everyone on it. I do not need your eye to accomplish this. If you cooperate with me, I will spare yourself and a certain amount of your loved ones from the complete annihilation of your species.

If you still do not wish to talk, you will at least need to confront me if you wish to mount a futile attempt to stop me.

Come alone, or the cave will not permit you to pass.

Sincerely;

Toneri, last of the Otsutsuki.

It was, she had to admit, a really damn good letter from a family-politics-shit-talking perspective.

She was still gonna go kick his ass.

Neji's eye hung heavy in her pocket as she stepped out into the light, shielding her own eyes and taking a look around.

She looked out, trying to see the horizon. Then looked up, and up, and up...

"Huh. He wasn't fucking kidding." She said, thinking of Itachi's last genjutsu as she came to terms with being on the inside of a very, very large globe.

"...I'm on the inside of the moon."


Tobi felt the tug of Kamuiy as he appeared in the Akatsuki base, and immediately realised he wasn't alone.

He turned, slowly, and saw a hooded figure stooped in the shadows of the Demonic Statue.

It would have been hard to tell who the intruder was, but, well, the Byakugan is bullshit.

"Uh, Kabuto, right?" He asked. "Rochi-kun's boy-toy?"

"Wow, leading with the shoutout to the dead master?" The young man stood, and pulled down his hood. "I see why you weren't in charge of Akatsuki PR."

Tobi tilted his head, taking in Kabuto's form. Grey-green scales covered his entire body, and his eyes were yellow and slitted. Tobi frowned under his mask. "You made your dick bigger?"

"I-What?" Kabuto recoiled a little.

"Your dick." Tobi told him. "Last time I looked it was smaller."

"I combined my DNA with that of half a dozen unique and powerful bloodlines, including Lord Orochimaru's." Kabuto sighed. "Yes, my dick got bigger, but that wasn't the point-"

"If your such an ubermensch now why do you still need glasses?" Tobi asked, pointing to the spectacles. "You've obviously done something to your eyes-"

"I don't need them." Kabuto bit out, flushing slightly. "They're there for the Aesthetic. Are you not going to ask me why I'm here?"

"Well not since it's pissing you off so much."

Kabuto glared, and Tobi relented. "Gasp! Intruder! What are you doing in my bachelor pad?"

"Thank you-"

"Is it to seduce me?"

"NO!" Kabuto shouted, angrily. "I'm here with an offer."

"I'm not interested in your science dick-"

"I'm not offering you my body." Kabuto exhaled, and smiled. "But I am offering you quite a few others."

Tobi nodded. "Ah, I see. Hookers."

"For the love of-" Kabuto threw up one hand and flexed his chakra. Tobi almost killed him there, but realised that he wasn't picking a fight. Ten or so coffins rose up from the ground, and at another gesture from the Snake-man, some of their lids popped off.

Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Kakuzu, Neji...and Nagato.

"Edo tensei." Tobi remarked, letting himself be serious for a moment. "Don't you need a little bit of their DNA or chakra to make these? Not to mention a human sacrifice."

"I've been busy picking up after a lot of messes." Kabuto replied, smugly. "And as for the human sacrifices-" He slapped the side of the statue. "This bad boy can fit so many fucking human souls in it."

"Ooooh, nice one." Tobi threw out some finger-guns.

"Thank you. You know, your Zetsu is such a fascinating creature. There's the black one, and then...millions of these little cell thingies hidden in this here statue. I channeled in some sage chakra, and poof! Free bodies! And they count, too. You could use the reaper death seal with these. Or in my case, sacrifice them to bring back some zombies. I can only get so many right now, but..."

"You asked me to ask you why you were here." Tobi pointed out, entirely unhappy with how much the young man knew. "And now you're just flexing your dead guy collection. Are these the hookers? As much as I want to get in Naggy-kun's pants I draw the line where it comes to the dead."

"Very well, allow me to be more straightforward." Kabuto turned back to look at him. "You want to pick a fight with the five nations. I want in."

"I'm not sharing the bijuu with you." Tobi deadpanned. "My collection's almost complete."

"I don't want the bijuu." Kabuto's expression soured. "I want Hinata Hyuuga. Specifically, I want her head on a spike, while her headless body serves as my maid. I even have the outfit picked out."

"Damn. I thought I had issues." Tobi shivered. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't need your help."

"Really?" Kabuto said. "Ah, of course. Fighting all five Kage and their servants isn't much of a challenge for Madara Uchiha."

"I am pretty dope." Tobi admitted.

Kabuto smiled again. "So, wouldn't you like to have Madara on your side?"

Again, Tobi almost killed him. Instead he controlled himself, remaining very still and asking "Now whatever do you mean?"

Kabuto snapped his fingers, and another coffin appeared in the room. Tobi's fists tightened, his eye showing him the contents long seconds before it actually opened.

"Funny." Remarked Kabuto, leaning on the coffin. "You can't summon the soul of someone who's still living from the pure lands. So," he pat the corpse of Madara Uchiha on the head, "If I've got him reanimated here...who are you?"

Seconds ticked by.

"...Of course I don't really care." Kabuto continued, breaking the tension and stretching calmly. "Here's the deal; if you help me get my hands on someone with wood release, I can get you an army of thousands of white Zetsu, and hundreds of the strongest ninja in history. I'm talking all the Kage (except the Hokage, they're all in the Reaper's belly and I can't get in there), all the seven swordsmen of the mist, all the Akatsuki, as you can see. And," he flicked a finger, and Nagato and Madara opened their eyes. Purple concentric circles were revealed.

"How in the actual fuck?" Tobi asked. "There's only one pair of Rinnegan in existence."

"Oh, they're artificial." Kabuto admitted. "They reanimate with their eyes intact even if they lost them in life, isn't that crazy? But they work. And they're linked to this statue right here. And you and I both know that the Human path of the Rinnegan can drag out the soul of a Bijuu in a matter of seconds, and send it to the statue. Or they can do it using the chains, or the rods." He spread his arms. "I'll help you trap your runaway pets. In return, I'd like you to help me bring down Team Seven. But don't kill Hinata, please, I want that honour myself. I know you can use that Kamuiy of yours to put her in timeout."

Tobi stuck out his tongue and blew, making a "pthwthwthwthw" noise. "You brought Madara back with the Edo Tensei. Do you have any idea how much more complicated that makes things?" He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared. "You know I could just kill you now."

"You could." Kabuto shrugged. "But why? I'm going to go pick a fight with them anyway. We may as well co-ordinate. And I mean, I imagine once you've got the beasts you'll pretty much be a god and you'll want to hunt me down for knowing all your secrets, but I'm confident in my ability to hide. May as well use me while I'm useful, right?"

"You're unusually chill about knowing I'll probably betray you." Tobi pointed out.

"Yeah." Kabuto nodded. "But I also performed unsafe experimental DNA tests on myself, resurrected the most dangerous man in history and plan to pick a fight with literally all of the everyone. So maybe I'm just insane."

Beneath his mask, Tobi smiled. "Welcome to the club! Prep your shit, we attack in ten days."


Ten days later

"Boy do I feel good about being free from mind control." Yamato said to himself. "I sure hope nothing else that bad happens to me, like being used as a battery to power the attack of an undead army."

That was when Kisame brained him over the back of the head with Samehada.

"There's no way someone didn't notice that." Edo-Deidara rolled his eyes.

If Kisame wasn't a diagnosed psychopath, he might have found it weird to be doing a mission with the zombie of his ex-teammate. As was, he just chucked Yamato's form over. "Get him on the clay bird, get him back to base." He grunted. "But you're right. I'll cause a scene, give you a chance to escape."

"You got it, boss." Deidara began to fly away, and Kisame put his hands together.

The occupants of the boxed-canyon-in-the-island-in-the-middle-of-nowhere definitely noticed the geyser of water the exploded outwards from the trees, flattening a good chunk of the woods. Kisame stood in the middle of the devastation and waited, seeing multiple dots from around the area begin to move towards him.

"That's fifty ryo!" Shouted the blind puppeteer, reaching Kisame first, "I bet fifty ryo they'd find us inside of two weeks! Gai, pay up!"

"I'll pay you later!" Shouted the Taijutsu master, beginning to glow with a green aura as he squared up. "Naruto and B are meditating by the waterfall, we must deal with this man as fast as possible!"

More nameless ninja appeared, from the ANBU of various villages, and Kisame grinned, preparing to draw his sword, as-

"EVERYBODY HOLD UP!"

Everybody did, in fact, hold up.

Another blindfolded boy (this one not wearing ridiculous face paint) barrelled onto the scene, hands splayed outwards. "Waaaitwaitwaitwaitwait guys timeout!" He pointed at Kisame. "Kisame Hoshigaki!" Then he turned and stage-whispered "that is Kisame; right? I can't actually-"

"It is I." Kisame nodded. "You are Sasuke Uchiha, correct?"

"Das me." Sasuke continued pointing. "Kisame! I challenge you to a duel for ownership of Samehada!"

There was a brief pause, where all that could be heard were some disgruntled birds chirping.

"Sasuke." Kankuro explained, patiently. "We have him outnumbered-"

"I accept your challenge!" Kisame declared, far more interested now than he had been when he'd first been given this mission. "What are your terms?"

"A battle to death or surrender." Sasuke declared. "Winner claims the sword(or swords) of the loser."

"Sasuke, you are blind-" Kankuro hissed.

"Kenjutsu only?" Kisame asked.

"No holds barred." Sasuke told him.

"Oh, I'm so glad you said that."

"Sasuke, what the actual fuck." Kankuro demanded, grabbing his shoulder. "You're giving him a chance to take you out of the battle before he has to deal with us!"

Sasuke turned his head, and the disdain on his face (even without his eyes) was palpable.

"Gai!" He called. "What is it I'm doing?"

Gai threw his head back and laughed. "YOU ARE CHALLENGING YOURSELF TO AN INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT BATTLE WHILE SELF-SABOTAGED! YOU INTEND TO COMPLETE YOUR COLLECTION OF SWORDS WHILE ONLY UTILISING THE ABILITIES YOU HAVE ATTAINED THROUGH HARD WORK! I HAVEN'T WITNESSED SUCH A DISPLAY OF THE FIRES OF YOUTH IN YEARS!"

"Everyone from Konoha is fucking insane..." Kankuro threw his arms up and walked away.

"You'd get on well with a girl named Tenten! I'll introduce you to her later!" Sasuke called to him, cackling.

"So. Are we doing this?" Kisame reached to his back and pulled loose the gigantic slab of a weapon there.

"You're damn right we're doing this." Sasuke reached down to his bracer. With a poof, the two sides of Raito appeared in his hands. In spite of everything, he smiled. "This is the most Naruto thing I've done in months...bring it, fishcake!"


The light had began to take on twilight hues by the time Hinata dropped silently to the stone floor, looking up, left and right. Undetected, as yet, by the puppets that swirled around the structure, and in fact the entire inside of the moon.

It had been a hell of a trek to get here, but as the only landmark in the entire globe (a giant palace that stretched up to Touch The Fake Sun) it had been clear where she should go.

And here she was.

Her damn byakugan still wasn't working, though. Whatever was in that sun, it was so bright it was impossible for her to see anything else. That had never happened before, and it had her on edge.

She darted into the archway of a small door, at the side of the building proper. At a test, it was unlocked, and she slipped through and in.

The carpets were soft, and deep, but she quickly had to jump to the roof as another puppet drifted almost silently along the hall.

That was the issue, she noticed. This entire place was silent.

Empty.

Her feet padded along the roof, taking her from corridor to corridor, reaching a staircase and running up the wall to the highest floor she could reach. Or, the...lowest? The place was big enough to span the curvature of the moon and it was playing hell with her sense of direction. She reached the top, looking left and right at the next hallway...and paused.

She could hear something.

Her ears perked at a high pitched noise, and she picked the corridor that took her in that direction, running down it and hearing the sound get louder and louder.

This hallway seemed to feel more...lived in. The carpet had signs of wear. Doors were left ajar, and Hinata took brief looks inside them, surprised at what she saw. One was full of dressers, dozens of dresses and costumes hanging up or draped over chairs. One had an easel in the corner, with every wall covered in hand-drawn paintings. One had a swimming pool. And as Hinata ran, the sound resolved into a voice.

A female voice.

"Jealousy, turning saints into the sea-"

Hinata smiled. This Otsutsuki lady cant have much ninja training, if she isn't keeping an ear open. Unless she's using Neji's...no, his eye should be just as ineffective as mine, shouldn't it?

"Swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis-"

The voice was coming from the door on the end of the hallway. Hinata reached it, took a deep breath, and slipped through.

It was a bedroom. A large four poster was central, against a large wall that was over 90% window. The view was breathtaking, the vantage point showing a panorama of the curved terrain. The upper part was almost completely dominated by the central light, which (as Hinata had witnessed over the last few days) changed to glow with the blue-white light of a moon.

"But it's just the price I pay! Destiny is calling me-" Sat on the bed was the source of the singing. A young teenage girl, brushing her hair. There was a delicate, elegant blindfold across her face. A face which Hinata looked at for barely a moment before letting out an involuntary gasp.

"Open up my Eager Eyes...cos I'm-Hm?" The girl turned towards Hinata. "Toneri, is that you?"

Hinata shook. The face she was looking at...it was older of course, but...but it couldn't be. This was impossible.

Neji's voice echoed in her mind; "The universe does not care what you believe to be impossible."

So, voice cracking, Hinata spoke. "...Hanabi? Is that you?"


Oh, Jesus, what are people gonna think of this-

Yeah. Hanabi's alive up there. If you look back, you'll notice I hinted it at the end of the timeskip. Why's she up there? Why's she a part of the blindfold club? Find out next time.

And yeah, I really do have a thing for blindfolds. There's even one in one of my older (bad) fics. I don't know, I like the aesthetic, don't judge me...