The title of the chapter pays homage to the most famous line in Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility." (RIP Stan Lee)

Chapter Eight

Great Power and Responsibilities

When she and Neji slipped back home, she really had to try to stop crying as he drove them back. Suppose her father caught them and demanded an explanation, as well as why she sobbed and showed it, even going far as to assume she'd been raped, which was far from the truth. And it wasn't like they could tell Hiashi the truth.

How could they go back to how things were, after this? Now that their home was in danger, as well as the rest of the world if they just stood by and did nothing?

Thankfully, Neji was the one to do the talking as he got them home. "Want to...be in my room in case you have a nightmare and I should wake you up? Like I did when we were children?" he offered with a warm smile that she was forced to return, because it hurt so much. Just as it hurt to give her maturity speech back in the cavern. She really needed someone after the horror she was subjected to - it also affected Naru and the boys - and was so glad Gaara had been there to hold her first. He hardly showed his emotions, but he KNEW she needed it. There was always something about him which made her feel protective ever since she interfered with the outbreak between him and Shion. For him to be there for her the way he did...

Hinata wasn't sure when it began, but maybe it had always been there. I'm in love with him, more than just as a friend.

The kind of love that was described as sweet and kind, strong no matter what happened, hadn't ever come her way. Not only was Neji overprotective against any guy who approached her - often trying to proposition her based on her looks or believing she "led them on" based on how SEXY she was - but that provoked not only him but Naru who threatened to kick them in the balls for acting like jackals. Even Sasuke and Gaara came to her side. However...

"Suppose you had the right to think you can acquire a young woman because she looks like a doll - someone you can have your way with and then put on the shelf to gaze upon once the fire cools down? You're a fool who knows nothing of women, even if you had one or two before. I suggest you take courtship classes and learn to respect them in the future."

Who ever defended her that way, before Gaara? He had one bad experience but still knew how to treat a lady. That was one reason she...

Thinking about him made her calm down a little and ignite in certain areas, but not enough that she'd have trouble sleeping that night. I should take Neji's offer just to be safe. I need a melatonin supplement.

Itachi said they all needed to try to not only sleep on this, but to take all of this in with the space they needed. Though that begged how he might be dealing with a resistant Sasuke, making Hinata worry if something could break out between him and Naru.

Hinata managed a good night's rest thanks to the supplement, waking up feeling calm until the wave of last night hit again. She tried not to cry and decided she wanted some coffee to try and make herself chipper.

"How are you since last night - no, dumb ass question," Naru said with an exhale. The Hyuuga was in the kitchen, her father long since gone to work and Neji at the gas station for their pit stop, which gave her the opportunity. She had her friend on speakerphone. "I had a hard time myself. I thought about getting a hard drink without Pervy Sage and Orochimaru knowing, but they'd have my ass if they found out."

"I know." Hinata inhaled the caffeine and sighed heavenly. Her stomach rumbled; if she had this without any food, it might fill her up, which wasn't healthy in the long-term run. "Neji gave me a melatonin. Makes me worried I might end up relying on it after this, more than I used to." Naru sniffed, and then there was the sound of slurping which was not appropriate for a lady, though it made her laugh. She's eating ramen this morning again.

"Last night made me so on edge I could eat more ramen than I do - like now. But to hell with it; I know what we have to do, and I'm so pissed at Sasuke for what he said. I won't be surprised if he and Itachi are at it, or if they're bonding again. But what about you, Hina?" Without being direct, she didn't even want to scare her more with the subject of that horrible vision, which Hinata was grateful for. She cleared her throat and shakily took a sip from her mug.

"I do want your help, best friend to best friend. I think I'm...in love with Gaara. We've known each other all our lives, and I know you can help me. Anything but last night and the future." For now.

~o~

Hinata was unable to stop crying last night, so thank God he was there for her and was all too happy to help her. He appreciated Gaara for being there, too, though he had to be wary especially since this had been his idea due to a stupid sighting...

...although, since the story of the mutated creatures was true, he assumed that "white thing in the woods" was one of those White Zetsu. No individual identity, needs or wants, or sense of self. Who the hell would willingly agree to a fate like that? But Neji knew that if this HAD been made public, it would send the entire country and the world into a frenzy, driving most into meaningless hiding and wasting what was left of their lives away in despair, thus leaving him and his friends as the only ones they were.

I would never let this happen to us and everyone we love, as well as those who live in ignorance and innocence. I'm with Naru when she says yes. Damn it, Sasuke!

He was certain Gaara was feeling responsible and knowing they couldn't get out of this now, so it was no surprise he said yes out of guilt and righteousness.

Here he was now, at the gas station for the coffee and breakfast sweets he knew would cheer Hinata up, and it was there that he also ended up running into a familiar face he hadn't seen in a while. "Why, Tenten! You're working here now?" She was at the counter, chocolate hair in two rounded pigtails like a feudal princess, wearing the maroon apron of an employee with a white t-shirt that fit her in the right places. She smiled at him warmly.

"Been a while, Neji. How's that cousin of yours, and how have you been?"

They were classmates, going back to year one in high school, and while they were never more than friends, he appreciated her observances, easy-going nature and beliefs that girls were just as great as boys - but she also looked down upon immature ones. Someone who helped others during hard times was just who Neji Hyuuga appreciated, and now that he was here, he wished he could stay longer and chat with her, because his cousin did need him back home.

He had all summer to speak with her and perhaps get to know her better than before, though it turned out she would end up leaving Konoha and go to the same college as him.

~o~

"So, let me get this straight," Temari was saying with that smirk of hers after he told her everything. Today was her day off, so it was just the two of them, and their father was off at the office. "You've been in love with Hinata Hyuuga all this time, now feeling you should come clean and tell her, but you don't know how to." She drummed her fingernails on the surface of the maroon dining table in the traditional area consisting of shoji screens.

"Never thought I'd be coming to you regarding this," Gaara stated, looking down at the plate she made for them, consisting of rice bowls, miso soup, eggs and grilled fish pieces. "But yes, I love her. I don't want to incite a conflict with her cousin when he finds out."

His sister snorted with laughter, picking up her chopsticks and holding them accordingly as she reached for her fish. "You know it's gonna happen anyway, otouto. Just like it is with the parents of your boyfriend or girlfriend who have to make sure you don't mistreat their child. Not like Hinata's father could care less, I'm sure. Although, had it ended up being a thing before marriage..." There was that devious smirk and twinkle in her seawater-colored eyes which made Gaara stumble with his words and almost choke on his miso, especially the white paste pieces.

"Temari!"

"What? You want my advice, so I'm giving it to you."

"But not an immediate birds and bees lesson!" Gaara insisted, wondering why the hell they were even talking about this during breakfast - and especially when he was in a crisis.

Actually, two of them, but she can't know one of them. I always talked to her about anything. All the more reason he was bent on keeping HER safe from the Infinite Tsukuyomi; his resolve on that was made.

Temari cleared her throat then and there, getting sober now. "Right, ahem. So, Gaara, since Hinata isn't the kind of girl to coldly turn you down, there is one way you can be bold and all man, since she's not so hard to get..."

~o~

He knew that what he did was against the entirety, but he had to. After what he witnessed, it was like a trigger had been pulled when he said what he had.

Rightfully, he supposed, his girlfriend was pissed at him and told him that he'd better think long and hard about this until next meeting, and to get shit right with Itachi now that they all knew what he'd really been up to all this time...all these years, after their parents died. Going to extreme lengths to make sure Konoha and the whole world were protected. Only him, and a godlike being who survived millennia via the rare, virtually unknown crystals in the mountains.

A god whose mother is all-powerful compared to him, is alive somewhere still but we have no idea where - or who she is! And if we don't do something, everyone here at home will be just like those mutated monsters in the Shinju Tree...

...and so will we.

Sasuke actually agreed with everyone, so his refusal was a way of bracing himself, but how else could he deal with it? He knew he was being selfish, so he deserved Naru refusing to answer his calls and texts.

He wasn't sure how she and the others were faring, if they were dwelling on this as much as he was.

"Relentlessly obsessing will only make yourself feel worse, Sasuke."

He scowled up at the person who spoke. Said speaker took both him and Naru home, dropping her off and allowing her to slip back into her room before her guardians found out. Now they were both at home so they could have a long-awaited conversation, however the next morning. "After all the years when I wondered what kept you from your own little brother - is this what's all there'd been? What about your important job at the borders you always reminded me about?"

Itachi sighed, no longer looking him in the eyes and frowning deeply. It was just like back then when the elder told him he had no idea what to do with him anymore. "To tell you the truth, I found the cave one day while patrolling, but it was accidental. At first, I didn't believe it myself when Lord Hagoromo appeared in front of me. The very first time, I ended up being trapped inside when the cave entrance closed behind me, just before I reached the water, and the rest is history. I touched a crystal not much differently than you and your friends have; that was the reason he chose not to do away with me as I'd been an intruder. He told me exactly the same story you were told, even added that a larger group should one day come his way to stop his mother from launching her spell on the world. I wanted so much to tell you why I was rarely ever home, divided between Konoha and ANBU against the Sage of Six Paths, being his correspondence to the outside world. No one knew of his existence -"

"- until we came," Sasuke finished, everything coming together. "You couldn't tell me because I'd never believe a 'fairytale', and what would have happened if this got out?"

"Chaos without an explanation. Imagine if you were taken away from me."

Lead others to think the world was about to end - which is going to happen if we just stand by - or just see that Itachi was mental and put him in the asylum, which would have happened back then after Mom and Dad died. I would have had nothing then, no one else. "No way you could have done something to prevent this yourself, when she didn't even come about until now - and the old sage hadn't even told us yet who she was? Why us, when we're not soldiers and practically still kids? How are we supposed to save the world?" Sasuke demanded, on the verge of shouting now in renewed frustration.

"I don't like this any more than you do," Itachi answered heatedly. "If I had the chance to switch places and keep you all safe in exchange for someone else, I would do so in a heartbeat, but we don't have the time now. You heard Hagoromo when he said that the training you will receive is going to take three years until the full moon turns red. I'm not the so-called chosen one, but I'll be there as moral support." He smiled now. "Imagine how Mom and Dad would feel if they knew about this."

Sasuke knew exactly what that was: they'd both be terrified, do anything to keep this from happening.

"I know this is a great weight on five pairs of shoulders, but there's regrettably no backing out. There are many in this world who go their lives without this, never knowing the burden, but when it lands, it hits hardest. It's called a purpose that lifts you to greater heights." His brother then reached across the table to take one of Sasuke's hands into his own. "I know you're afraid, because when I saw you and your friends, I wished it had been someone else."

So do I, nii-san.

He knew the old sage was right in that there could be no one else, and that his existence could NOT get out no matter what, but this also meant the cost would be this: someone in their group could die in this epic fight. History showed what happened when war was in play, casualties being on both sides, and no matter who the victor was, there were people lost all because there was no such thing as a peaceful conflict.

"...the world is going to end if I keep refusing," he said at last, the sound distant to his own ears. "It's plain and simple: you, Naru, the others, everyone else - and me. It's gonna happen regardless. But..." He felt himself harden just as the words did.

"But?" Itachi pressed, eyes sparkling.

"It's NOT gonna happen, big brother," Sasuke answered, and it was as if previously said weight was taken off. "I'm gonna tell them all sorry and that we'll do it even if we'll lose sleep."

How long had he wanted his brother's approval and the support he was showing now? The attention and time he craved but hardly ever got since their parents were killed? It was right here, but it had to be at a time when the fate of the world was at stake.

Itachi...I was such a stupid brat who didn't even understand a thing, never could have. I never would have guessed you guarded our hometown the way you did, took so much upon yourself. Why was I a little shit after everything you did for me?! At the thought, his heart and throat both constricted, his eyes burning with tears he struggled to keep in and failed. They rolled down his cheeks and scalded them like lava devastating the land. "I-Itachi, I'm so sorry...for everything."

The elder raven then leaned over, across the narrow table, and bumped his forehead against Sasuke's. He wanted to hear the words, but it seemed they weren't necessary. The message was there: you're forgiven.

~o~

They were all in agreement that the Divine Tree was more of a living nightmare than they thought, while still trying to grasp onto it despite knowing the gravity.

Sasuke hadn't thought of it too much, but he seemed to get a handle on the knowledge the two of them were reincarnates of Old Man Six Paths' sons - it sounds weird, but we aren't directly blood-related - and it seemed like they'd been destined to be together since the moment they met.

Naru had been so pissed at him for his actions, so she deliberately ignored him until next group meeting, and when they reunited at the mine site a week later, there her boyfriend was with a soft and resigned smile which told her everything. She was happy he came around, but he owed her big time in one way they knew best.

The old man had more to tell them, and since he never said the name of his mother, that was owed to them, too.

All we ever wanted to do was leave this hellhole, but now...it's ironic that we are going to protect it because it's HOME, and there are a lot of people we love here. The Infinite Tsukuyomi is not going to take that away from us. We won't stand for it!

When Itachi and Sasuke have their heart-to-heart and elder brother talks about the weight on your shoulders about being a hero, it was inspired by a scene from Trollhunters, though Blue Kitsune is to thank for that. She loves the show so much, except I hadn't found the time to watch it myself just yet.

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