DECLARATION OF WAR – HINATA
Over One Year Ago, Outside Mars' Home
'Ah, I understand now, I understand everything,' Hinata said to herself, 'What a time to wake up, as always, far too slow Hinata.'
Hinata lifted her hands, catching the ball of 'fire' that Mars just through in her direction.
Mars was shocked. The golden 'fire' cloak around was supposed to be his symbol of absolute power. He was a class 7 warrior, defeating a class 6 warrior like Hyuuga Hinata should not have been difficult at all. He has fought countless adversaries before, but even amongst those stronger than him, none of them have ever caught one of his attacks before. Hinata treated it like it was nothing, she made a fool of him.
After catching the 'fire' in her hand, Hinata looked back at Mars, almost pitying him. After a second, the 'water' energy that flowed around her disappeared and was replaced by a cloak of 'fire'. Then, after another moment passed, that cloak was replaced with a golden variant. Hinata had jumped from a class 6 warrior to a class 7 warrior.
Hinata crushed the ball of 'fire' with her bare hands. It exploded with tremendous ferocity, superheating the nearby area. Even those watching from afar could feel the heat rising. She did not know they were there at this point, otherwise she may have given more consideration to their safety.
Mars watched as Hinata's hair began to change, the result of a bizarre genetic defect, a strange inheritance given to her by her parents. When Hinata woke from her long slumber she had hoped that this defect would be gone, after all her new hair was straight. It turns mostly flame red, with a tiny portion turning ocean blue. This is a consequence of her divine energy, mostly 'fire', but now partially 'water'.
Hinata pulled a strand hair in front of her eyes to inspect it, she groans in annoyance before discarding it again. She had always thought it would be very difficult to be taken seriously in her position with this genetic defect. Her appearance mattered little to her though, especially when compared to the present state of Homeworld. After all, now that she was back, Homeworld is hers to look after.
Hinata looked at her attacker and noticed that he didn't seem particularly happy to see her. She cycles through a few old memories from her past life and places him. The family hired him once to help defeat some of the final remnants of the Dark Dimension's forces. This man is the mercenary known as Mars.
"So, you've awoken, Princess Endou Hinata."
Hinata was stunned at this point when her brained was filled with all sorts of new information. She was suddenly blessed with all these strange techniques that she never had in the past, and with the physiology of a pocket-worlder. She now knew how to move in an entirely different way, how to call on this strange new power called chakra, and most usefully to use omni-directional eyesight.
Hinata activated her byakugan instantly boosting her eyesight several times over. Along with this boost in eyesight, she felt her other senses had improved slightly too. That's when she noticed a terrifying power approaching. This power had a terrible feel to it, but a familiar one. It is the man who she presumed still ruled Homeworld, Emperor Furst Jonas, the empire's former scientific advisor. She assumed that Mars called him here to hand her over and earn his fortune.
Hinata began to walk towards Mars.
Mars stepped back, intimidated by her new power. Hinata was now a class 7 warrior, the same as him. Not only that but her condition was far better.
Hinata watched the back of Mars' foot hit a stone, tripping him. She used that opportunity to rush towards him, finding that her legs carry her much faster than the last time she was in Homeworld. She arrived before him and with a single mighty blow to his chest she knocked him down into the ground.
Hinata had defeated Mars with a single strike.
Mars coughed extensively after hitting the ground. He had been through a war that day, fighting both Uzumaki Naruto and Endou Hinata. Encountering those two monsters at the same time might have been the most unfortunate finding he has ever made.
"What will you do now?" Mars asked, "Are you going to kill me? You should kill me; I won't stay quiet about your return when the emperor arrives."
Hinata stamped on Mars leg, provoking a cry of pain from the elite mercenary.
"Furst Jonas is a false emperor," Hinata declared, "When my father died, I became the true empress of Homeworld."
Mars laughed. "I doubt that he will see it that way."
Hinata could have lectured Mars about her right to the throne all day, but time was not on her side. Furst Jonas was drawing near and right now she had no chance of fighting against him. She fled the scene as quickly and as subtly as she could, making sure to travel in the most obscured direction possible. She knew Homeworld well, and she knew how to go undetected as well. Even though Furst arrived a few minutes after her departure, she had already gone too far for him to track her.
When Emperor Furst Jonas did arrive, he was expecting to find an excellent bounty. From what he had been told Mars had come across the most valuable targets in the history of Homeworld. Instead, he is greeted by a broken man, crawling about on the floor.
Mars had two high value targets. He had the only other man who could use Endou Akashi's element, and he had Endou Akashi's daughter. The two of them had been in his custody only moments previously. Despite each of them only having been a class 6 warrior at the time, each of them escaped from him.
Furst was not impressed.
Mars promised the emperor the world. Instead he delivered the worst news since Furst took the throne from Endou.
While Furst and Mars were discussing his failure, Hinata was heading east. She walked through Homeworld's diverse environment, away from the continent of Aturia and back towards the central region of Okarin. Okarin is where she grew up, it is where her father lead Homeworld from and it is the seat of the greatest power the world has ever known.
There are few ways to enter Okarin without climbing or getting wet. The nation is elevated slightly higher than the others. The incline between Okarin and it's neighbours is mostly made up of waterfalls. These waterfalls are tremendous in height, most people would be crushed by the weight of the water if they were to stand beneath them. Princess Hinata is no ordinary person.
Hinata walked to the border and begin to walk north, searching for a waterfall of particular significance to her. She marked this waterfall a long time ago, she drew a silly pattern into the rocks next to it. Fortunately, the eyes she gained from her time as a pocket-worlder sped up her search tremendously. What would have taken several years took her only one.
One Year Later, the Okarin-Aturia Border
When Hinata found the waterfall she was looking for, she walked into it. She stopped to feel the tremendous weight of the water falling on her, knowing that at her current battle class it won't harm her. She experimented briefly with her new element, with 'water', using it to stop the water falling onto her. She created a small halo above her head, allowing herself to keep dry as the water poured down.
Hinata quickly stopped doing this, walking into the cave that she knew to be behind this waterfall. If the plans she put in place a long time ago were still active, then she could expect to find a couple of friends waiting for her in this place.
Hinata reached the back of the cave and there they were. Her two most loyal friends were waiting for her. A young woman wearing the colours of the imperial household and a horse.
Michel the Horse, a former member of the Beast Clan who sided with her family in the conflict between their two factions. He has been loyal since before she was born and was an important part of her childhood. She always used to feel safe when he was around.
Yoshida Mana, who under the Furst regime shouldn't legally use her family name. She was a slave long ago, her family rescued from a great purge in the continent of Seblix by a revolution started by Akashi and completed by now-Queen Nadia. She was raised in the imperial household, formally a servant to Princess Hinata but more like a sister in reality. To this day she keeps her hair died a grotesque shade of purple, keeping it this way to help Hinata feel at ease with her own genetic defect.
Mana immediately ran to Hinata, hugging her tightly.
"Hi sis," she said tearfully, "It's been so long since you disappeared. Far too long."
"Princess Endou, welcome back, it is so excellent to see you," Michel added.
Hinata had no concept of how much time had passed when she woke up in Homeworld. Her memories of her life here came flooding back in an instant, making it feel like only yesterday that she went away. She dismissed the opportunity to continue the tearful reunion, instead opting to dive right into the problems with the empire at the present.
"What is the state of the empire?" Hinata asked.
"The situation is most dire indeed princess," Michel explained. "Furst Jonas and his chosen royals have completely taken control of this world. The empire full of beauty that your father led no longer exists. Now the people experience tyranny and poverty. So many have died and been born since you went away, now the people don't even realise how bad the situation is."
"Who are the royals now?"
Mana lists them for her friend.
"King Weiss Max of Aturia.
"Queen Huen Petra of Fayoth.
"Queen Hirsch Nadia of Seblix.
"King Hoffman Swen of Gavaria.
"King Hertz Erik of Cheqitori.
"And Queen Mauer Sabine of Ewoa."
Hinata shuddered at the last name. Queen Mauer Sabine was a terrible individual, one of the great villains of Homeworld. Her father worked long and hard to make sure that she couldn't do any more damage to the people of this world. She feels disappointed that Furst elected to free her and make her one of the royals. At the time which Sabine was causing a nuisance Furst had seemed to be in favour of capturing her, and as scientific advisor he helped in that endeavour. It makes her feel foolish, back then none of them realised what Jonas would do.
"We recently heard news that someone from your pocket-world appealed to the War Council asking for help, he was allegedly a student of your uncles."
"Uncle Sora?"
"That's right," Michel continued, "He made a speech to Yuuki Terukatsu and the other representatives, telling them that what they were doing right now is not enough. He told them that it was their duty to declare war on Furst Jonas and free Homeworld."
"I assume they didn't go for it?"
"Actually they did."
"What?"
Hinata was struck when she heard this news. Her plan was to appeal to the War Council after returning to Homeworld. She expected that the return of Endou Akashi's daughter would be enough to spur them into action. She knew what Yuuki Terukatsu is like, a cautious man. She expected that only someone like herself could convince him that the time was right to fight back. A pocket-worlder being able to talk him around was totally beyond her expectations.
"Who is this pocket-worlder?" she asked.
"His name is Uzumaki Naruto. It turns out he beat you to the punch Princess Endou."
"So it would seem."
"Still, it was great to hear that he was able to persuade them. I'm certain that asking Terukatsu to declare war was part of your plan anyway. Now that war has been declared, are we going to be joining the fight ourselves?"
"Uzumaki," Hinata muttered to herself.
"Is something wrong?" Mana asked.
Uzumaki. Uzumaki? The name rattled around in Hinata's brain, like a distant memory from her childhood. She concentrated hard on the name, thinking where she might know it from, but nothing arrives to her. The name comes from the same part of Homeworld that her parents were born in, though given that they occupied the same pocket-world, that is likely not a coincidence. The odds appeared low but perhaps she knew him from that world when she lived there.
"It's nothing," Hinata eventually answered Mana. "First thing is first, if I am going to defeat Furst and reclaim the throne I need to find the sacred sword."
"I believe your father left directions in a temple in Aturia," Michel recalled.
"They will not be necessary; I remember the way."
Present Day, the Tower
A few minutes passed since Naruto saw his wife. Neither he nor Himawari coped particularly well in the immediate aftermath. Kushina and Minato respectively took them aside and sat them down, calming them. They each are shocked themselves, but they appreciate how much harder this must be for Naruto and Himawari. They have just learnt that one of the most important people in their lives is still alive.
Kushina rubs Naruto's shoulder as she hugs him tightly.
"Are you going to be OK?" she asks.
"Yeah, yeah I'll be OK."
Kushina nods. "In that case I'm going to go and check on Himawari."
Hannah and Claude have been talking to one another about the situation while the Uzumakis calm themselves down. This whole revelation that Naruto's wife was thought to be dead but is now alive is confusing to them. They don't understand how she and Princess Endou can possibly be the same person. They are very curious, and when they see Kushina moving to check on Himawari, they approach Naruto to ask him about it.
"Do you mind if I ask about her?" Hannah asks.
"Go ahead."
"How did you meet?"
"We met when were kids, we were both quite lonely back then, each for different reasons. It feels like a hundred years ago now. Since then we have been through so much. She was with me when my best friend went away. She was with me when I returned to the village, when the Akatsuki were attacking me. She was the one who came to my help when Pain attacked the village. We fought together in the war and worked together to stop that moon incident. Somewhere amongst all that we fell in love.
"Now we have kids of our own. I'm really proud of them and I know she was too. Himawari's hear with us after all. She has fought through all this pain, struggled against the obstacles that Homeworld has put in her way, but she has kept up with us. She wanted to stop being a shinobi you know, but she put her own desires aside and came all this way."
"Your other child is a boy, right?"
"He's more of a man now," Naruto smiles. "You met him, Boruto. You fought against three shinobi you told me. They would have been Senju Hashirama the 1st Hokage, my student Uchiha Sarada the 9th Hokage and Uzumaki Boruto. Boruto is the Shadow 9th Hokage and he's my son."
"He was quite good at fighting," Hannah remarks. "Not as good as his father though. I'll have to thank my sibling student one day; she was the one who sent me to you."
"She was Boruto's fiancée at one point."
"Really?"
"Boruto is on the wrong path at the moment. He made a bad decision and followed Hashirama down a different road than ours. He is fighting against Homeworld. I know that he will see the light one day though. He's a good man. If he is presented with the chance to kill the people of this world, he will look back at the people he has known, at his master, at his sensei, at his fiancée, and hopefully at his mother and I. Then he will realise that what he has done is wrong."
"You have a lot of confidence in him," Claude says.
"Of course I do. He's our son."
"I know that her appearing here must have been a shock to you," Claude begins, "But you must be happy beneath it all, right?"
"That day when I was captured by Mars, I thought I had lost her," Naruto remembers sadly. "I got captured trying to rescue her, I even managed to beat Mars at one point. Despite everything he goaded her into going back when I was helpless. I was convinced that she died that day, I was convinced she died because I was too weak to save her. I thought that when Boruto did come back to me, I would have to tell him that his mother died because I failed. Her being alive, having the chance to be with her again, it's the best thing, it's more than I could ever ask for. Yes Claude, I'm happy."
Nearby the mercenaries are back in their huddle, looking at the moving images of the floors above again. They begin to make less and less subtle comments about the people they see above.
"It really is a pity that she is competing against the boss," one of them says. "A beauty such as hers should be preserved, but he won't be merciful because of something superficial like that."
Naruto, having overheard that comment with the One True Sense gets to his feet.
"It's inevitable, our boss is going to be the one who kills Princess Endou Hinata."
Hannah and Claude each heard that last comment, having taken notice when Naruto stood. They both find it disgusting, but they know that the comment was made loudly in an attempt to irritate Naruto. They turn to him, ready to tell him that Princess Endou can likely look after herself, that he should pay no attention to them. But Naruto was already at his breaking point. They are too late.
Naruto powers-up his leg, launching himself across the marble room.
Naruto grabs the unsubtle mercenary by his jacket. He pushes him back into the wall forcefully, shaking the room.
"I have a message for you to deliver to your boss," Naruto says, "If any harm comes to Princess Hinata, I will find you, every last one of you, and I will kill you."
Author Note
Hi Everyone,
I feel I should talk about the Hinata reveal.
I first revealed that Hinata had a strange power that made her uncharacteristically strong in chapter 98 (A Red Flag for War).
However, I planned to put her in this role from very near the beginning of the story, first starting to reval tiny bits of information in part 5 (War Never Ends).
I uploaded the first part of part 5, which was chapter 76 (3 Years Later), on the 20th November 2017.
Using my best maths that means I've been planning this reveal for 2.5 years and over 150 chapters.
I have been building to this for so long and I really want to thank everyone for the kind reviews.
Hearing that everyone liked it really has made all this planning and waiting worthwhile.
Of course, I hope that I can continue to entertain you moving forward.
Thank you very much,
Cbehrills
PS Some reviews aren't showing up in the list and are only showing up by email. If I don't respond to your question it's because I haven't seen it.
In Response to Demon90340's Questions
About various subjects
It was funny that Hinata appeared in the very next chapter after your question.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I'm sorry if I said that about Naruto's power, it's wrong.
Naruto can simultaneously use Chakra mode and his 'life' cloak.
And can I say your english is fantastic.
As a native speaker I can't do any other languages, so I find your grasp on english very impressive.
Thanks for reading.
In Resopnse to S's Question
About the difficulty of 'life' vs 'destruction' and Jonas appearance
Both elements are double-transcendent. Nobody has ever used both so it's hard to tell which is harder to grasp.
In-universe Naruto's allies tend to believe 'life' is harder. Jonas allies tend to believe 'destruction' is harder.
I'm sorry, I can't find any use of the word green in chapter 176.
For clarity on what Furst looks like, he is a scientist and he once changed his appearance using Dark Dimension technology to what he considers ideal.
He looks like he's in his late 20s and his appearance is based on an article I read once about what humans might look like in the future as people from all over the world begin to intertwine.
I can't remember where I saw the article sorry, but I'm sure you can find similar ones.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Guest's Question
About if reincarnations are a thing in this story
I can't say one way or the other without giving away a potential spoiler.
However, some characters like Sora have considered that Naruto may be a reincarnation of Akashi.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to ultimusred's Question
About Naruto's level
It depends what you mean by base level.
If you Naruto just used chakra it would be 3.
If he used 'life' energy it would be 6.
If he used his 'life' cloak then it would be 7.
His divine oddity makes him stronger within his level but it doesn't push him to a higher level.
Sometimes you can beat people on a higher level though, as Naruto did with Mars, but that depends on individual competence.
Naruto could probably beat one of the less-skilled class 8s, but there aren't many people on that level who aren't skilled.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Karma09's Question
About manuals
The manual usage is limited as you have predicted.
You can only use one manual in your life, and it is only compatible with Homeworld physiology, so Naruto couldn't use one.
Each manual can advance you up to 3 levels.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to sarada chan san's Question
About if Hinata is the princess
If this chapter didn't make it clear, yes, Hinata is Princess Endou of Homeworld.
Also, Sarada and Hannah are now sibling students.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to edwardlumpkin3's Question
About if Hinata actually died
I hope this chapter answers your question.
Hinata never died, she just woke up to her true identity.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to Kinguuu's Question
About why Furst didn't go after the sacred sword
Furst doesn't believe the sword is real.
As stated in chapter 219, most people believe that the weapons from the legends are just bedtime stories.
Endou Akashi and Endou Hinata each knew the weapons to be real though.
The reason they never went after them in the past is that they didn't realise they needed them.
Furst Jonas betrayal came as a surprise to the Endou family.
Thanks for reading.