The rebel soldiers swarmed the castle almost immediately after the blast, Kakashi barking orders. "Secure the exits! Subdue any and all soldiers! Get them out of there!"
"Sir yes sir!" His men and women responded, leaping into action.
War cries and the clashing of weapons echoed through the great hall within only a few minutes.
Hinata and Ino ran past a group locked in hand-to-hand taijutsu. When they were far enough away, Hinata stood behind her as she stomped her foot on the ground, trying to find the perfect spot.
Only a moment later, she nodded, satisfied. Ino clasped her hands together in a seal before stomping her foot onto the ground, eyes narrowed in concentration. Suddenly the ground around her rumbled, attracting several soldiers.
"Lady Yamanaka, what the hell are you doing?!" One shouted. "Is this where you've been all this time?"
"Your parents are worried sick about you!" Another added in concern. "Stop roleplaying and come home!"
She glared at them, and at that moment, the ground split around the two and a giant vine began to climb from the rubble, a sturdy leaf carrying the women upward and towards the castle towers.
Several guards exclaimed in surprise at it, and several fire natures tried to burn the base. Ino winced at the fire, but leapt from the vine once she was close enough to a balcony. Grinning when she recognized the vines clinging to the door, she turned to extend a hand to Hinata, who leapt forward and into her arms.
"Thanks for that," she breathed with a smile. "That was fun!"
Ino laughed, throwing open the doors. "C'mon, let's go get that Billboard Brow!"
The two raced into the room, and Hinata winced when she noticed discarded, dead flowers in the trash can. Petals were strewn out across the desk in colorful hues, yet they were already wilting.
"She really must have been upset," the blonde commented with a frown. "I don't think I've seen this many from her before."
"She must have felt so alone," Hinata sighed, clasping her hands together. "Oh, I hope she's okay."
Ino glanced over to her with a contemplative expression before nodding firmly. "Right. Let's go."
The two girls exited the bedroom and darted into the hallway. They skidded around a corner and Hinata fought the urge to audibly gasp when they came across Naruto lying on the floor.
"Naruto-kun!" She breathed, rushing over and collapsing to her knees before him.
Hinata rolled him over onto his back and frantically pushed her index and middle fingers onto his pulse point. "C'mon, please be okay…!"
Ino watched as she waited for a few seconds before she slumped over in relief.
"He's okay," Hinata announced, looking up with a smile. "Just unconscious."
The blonde woman parted her lips, her eyebrows raising as she pointed to something behind her.
Hinata barely had enough time to react before she was ducking out of the way of a senbon. Her eyes narrowed as she recognized the symbol on it, and when she turned, her stern expression faded into shock as she beheld Mikoto's slouched form.
"Ah, a Hyuuga," she murmured in surprise. "I didn't expect to see you here. Why are you in this hallway?"
"You." The cold tone in her voice shocked even Ino as the Hyuuga got to her feet in one fluid motion, never breaking her stare. "Did you do this?"
"Hm? Oh, Naruto!" Mikoto chortled woodenly, her lips stretching over her teeth in an unnerving smile. "What if I said it was?"
"You… you…" She grit her teeth, clenching her fists. "How dare you? I thought you saw him as a son!"
"Yes, yes, he and Sasuke-chan are very close," she waved it off with that same unnerving expression. "But sometimes you have to do unusual things for the greater good. Wouldn't you agree, traitor?"
Hinata took an abrupt step forward. Everything was steeped in red, the veins in her eyes beginning to bulge dangerously, yet her face remained impassive; it was an impressive feat that her father had taught her once. The faces of her friends - Naruto, Hideki, Aika, Rin - everyone flashed through her mind's eye and only fueled the deep-settled, unbridled rage she felt.
Ino grabbed her shoulder, but she violently shrugged it off. "Stop, Ino. This one is mine."
"Revenge isn't the way!" She protested. "We can beat her together! You can't take on the White Lily by yourself!"
"Go!" Hinata barked. "Go find her. This is my fight, and mine alone. I've got a score to settle."
"B- but-" Ino spluttered helplessly, looking from Mikoto to Hinata and back and forth.
"Go find her." Hinata slipped a kunai knife out of a holster at her thigh. "And when you do, tell her that I'm sorry I'll be late."
It took a second more of hesitation before Ino sighed, shaking her head. "Be careful, please."
"I'll be just fine." Her stare never left Mikoto's hollow eyes.
Ino's hand found hers, and she felt a revitalizing burst of energy tingling in her hands and through her body - and then she was gone, leaving her alone with the queen.
Hinata stared her down, an undeniable bubble of hatred rising in her chest. "You aren't quite alive anymore, are you?"
"What are you talking about? I'm plenty alive!" Mikoto scoffed. "If I were dead, could I do this?"
She threw another senbon from her sleeve, and Hinata nimbly dodged it as it lodged itself in the wall behind her.
She kissed her teeth. "Your chakra signs are abnormal - they're erratically jumping here and there. That doesn't happen with… let's say, a normal person."
"Am I abnormal?" She wryly questioned as she ducked below the younger woman's arm.
"Not abnormal, but rather, controlled." Hinata nodded firmly as she dodged another strike and countered with one of her own. "Where is your puppeteer?"
"What silly nonsense," the queen huffed as she started the hand signs for an elemental attack. "If you so believe I'm being controlled like some useless puppet, then I encourage you to look! But you won't find anyone!"
She blew a stream of fire from her mouth and Hinata stiffened, barely managing to duck out of the way as she ran at her.
She hit the woman's bicep with her palm, and with a grunt of pain, her arm hung at her side.
"I'm going to make you pay your penance to Morino," she seethed as she raised her arms for another strike.
Suddenly, Mikoto's other hand snapped up, and Hinata screamed as a blade was driven into the side of her neck in a near miss.
She grasped the blade and tried to steady it as she fumbled for some medical wrap, and in her confusion, she mistakenly let Mikoto flee.
Through the chaos, Temari, along with Sasori and Kakuzu, raced through the halls to the dungeon. They soon made it into the basement area and searched for the dark cells.
"Deidara!" Sasori called as soon as they found the blond, lying limply in his cell.
When he got no reply, he gripped the bars tightly with a glare. "You brat, if you don't answer me I'm going to replace your clay with Sculpey!"
The blond flinched at the sharp tone and slowly rose his head, squinting. "... Sa... sori? You..."
"Kakuzu, that you?" Hidan's voice exclaimed from further down the hall. "Rescue me already, you slow hermit son of a bitch!"
"Calm down, you flapping ape, we're making our way to you." Kakuzu growled, glancing to the end of the hall as someone's leg emerged. "We've got company, Sasori."
Temari gasped sharply as Mikoto walked into view, her body slumped forward, as if being controlled by Sasori's chakra strings. "Wh- what-?!"
Said puppeteer sneered. "How tasteless. Her controller should be close by. We just need to subdue her long enough to sniff them out..."
"I must become the wolf to protect the herd," she was mumbling in a broken monotone, her lightless eyes hyper focused on the puppeteer in particular. She reached down, nearly tipping over with the added weight of her useless right arm, and grabbed a poison senbon from a hidden thigh holster in a slit in her skirts and flung it at them almost mechanically, too rigid to be human.
The three of them dodged, and the senbon embedded itself in the wall. Quicker than they could properly react, Mikoto pulled out a sword from the decorated black sheath hanging firmly from the obi of her yukata and leapt at them, determined to impale them.
Sasori clucked his tongue at her and threw her out of the way with chakra strings, making her body slam into the wall.
She crumpled almost lifelessly to the floor, resting for a brief moment before slowly getting to her feet again.
"What the hell is she?!" Temari shrieked, drawing a kunai knife from her bag when the woman's eyes glinted with murderous intent.
"She's being controlled," Sasori flatly answered, as if it wasn't already painfully obvious to the trio. "See the seal under her shirt collar?"
Temari squinted, and when the woman prepared to attack, her collar slipped a few inches and, sure enough, there was an inky-black seal surrounded painfully by reddened, raised skin. It looked as if she'd been stung by a scorpion, or perhaps bitten by a snake.
"Hold her there," Kakuzu ordered. "We can't release it ourselves, but we can incapacitate her until we can do as ordered."
She slackened under the chakra strings until Temari got close enough, to which she threw her body forward, the sword driving cleanly through Temari's side.
The blonde let out a scream as she fell back, her hands immediately flying to the gaping wound and to cover the exposed skin. The blood was already seeping through her torn shirt, and she looked up helplessly as Sasori caught a poisoned senbon mid-throw. The cold of the dungeon made her shiver, and for a brief second she wondered if the blade was laced with poison.
As he tossed it away, his eyes narrowed when the tip pricked through a gap in his wooden fingers. A thin, clear liquid began to seep through a flat edge of the blade. Had he been fully human still…
He shook his head at it before tossing it aside, sending Kakuzu a quick tight-lipped frown.
"That's enough from you, Uchiha." He turned when he heard the quiet swishing of Mikoto's skirts and knocked her out with a fist. He bound her arms tightly at her back with the chakra strings, carrying her to an open cell.
Kakuzu helped him chain her to the wall, and they placed a seal over her chakra before locking the door behind them.
Kakuzu knelt beside Temari, whose eyes were slipping shut from exhaustion. Her entire face was damp with a cold sweat, and she was beginning to tremble slightly.
He nearly swore aloud. "I don't have much time before she falls unconscious... dammit! What did that woman lace these with?! Even Sasori seems..."
"Don't faint," he ordered, pinching her arm to wake her. "I can sew the wound shut long enough to get you back to a safe resting spot."
She nodded woozily and watched as he began to work. She winced when he jabbed at her side with a needle before looking away, her stomach lurching in warning.
Meanwhile, Sasori managed to break open the doors and let Deidara hang off of his shoulder, Hidan steadying himself against the wall. His legs were bent and twisted out of shape, and if you looked you could see splinters of bone poking out through his shin. Every step he groaned in pain at, although morbidly, also seemed to shiver in arousal.
"I dunno where they took her, but they broke his legs," Deidara was saying, grinning despite his split lip. "They broke my arms."
"We'll get you to medical, then," Sasori replied in a bored tone despite his irritation, gripping his incapacitated partner's shoulder tight. "Let's get moving. The sooner you're healed, the less helpless you'll be in the battle to come."
Karin threw another punch, knocking a soldier clean out as she adjusted her glasses.
She glanced up when another explosion rocked the castle, and several more cried out in alarm as a giant vine emerged from a tower, its thorns digging into the stone. She grinned, thrusting her fist into the air. "All right!" She exclaimed, before doubling over and hacking.
Shikamaru's jaw dropped in surprise when Ino emerged onto a walkway above, with similar vines snaking down her arms and budding with flowers.
"Damn, these kids learn fast," Boruda whistled, catching his attention. "I didn't expect her to take training that seriously once Sakura left."
"Wait, you knew?" He questioned.
Boruda raised an eyebrow incredulously. "And you didn't?"
"I knew, but- I didn't think-"
The older man barked a laugh and smacked the younger's upper back, causing him to jolt and stumble forward a step. "Son, when you've lived half your life followin' around the legendary Senju Tsunade, you learn to keep your eyes peeled. That right there?" He pointed to Ino, who was jumping about and fighting soldiers in hand-to-hand combat without breaking a sweat upon her brow. "That right there is the kind of talent she looks for."
A/N: I hope you enjoyed.
