Her mind was trapped in an abyss from which she could not rise up.
She had no idea what was going on in the outside world, but she knew she wasn't dreaming. She had full consciousness.
She wished that she was stuck in the Infinite Tsukuyomi again. False peace was better than a real nightmare.
She tried to anchor her thoughts to something, anything, to avoid going mad.
Was there real peace somewhere?
If there was such a thing as true peace in the world, she would definitely seize it. Naruto told her that quote was found in Jiraiya-sama's first novel, The Tale of a Gutsy Ninja.
Naruto? What was he doing now?
She didn't think he would ever give up on the mission. It wasn't his ninja way, or her ninja way, either.
Did her feelings reach him?
All that time agonizing over how to tell him of her feelings, and he beat her to the punch.
If their situations were reversed, she would move the Earth and moon to search for him. Maybe...maybe he would come and search for her. She corrected herself. He would come and search for her.
His tone was dead serious when he told her, "I love you."
Naruto never gave up on the people he loved.
When this mission was over, she would beat him to the punch.
Then, maybe, they could seize true peace together?
"Hinata?"
Who was that?
"Hinata!"
Wasn't she trapped in the prison of her mind? How was Naruto's voice reaching her?
Her eyes opened to see Toneri in front of her, holding a green orb.
"It's too soon for you to wake up," he said. Then his Tenseigan "growing pains" hit again and his grip on her slackened. He crumpled to his knees.
"Is this the last phase?" he rambled.
She took the opportunity to make her escape.
Her heart vaulted into her ribs in joy.
"Naruto-kun!"
"Hinata!" Naruto staggered to his feet and walked towards her.
"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry. I just..."
"I understand," he said. "Don't say that. If anything, I'm the one who's sorry. What about him?"
Toneri was still on the ground, writhing in pain.
"Now's our chance to destroy the Tenseigan!" she said, sprinting towards the exit.
"Tenseigan?"
She didn't have to keep looking over her shoulder this time. Someone had her back.
"If we destroy this," she explained, "we can stop the moon from advancing."
"Gotcha!" Naruto said, confidently palming his fist. "I'll use Rasengan."
"You can't."
He looked at her quizzically.
"A curse has been cast on the eye. Only someone of Hamura's blood can touch it, or their chakra will be extracted."
"What?"
She stepped forwards. Her hands became cloaked in lion shrouds – it seemed that receiving Hamura's chakra had turned them purple instead of their original blue.
"Eight Trigrams Twin Lions Crumbling Attack!" she yelled, striking with all of her might.
The Tenseigan crackled with blue sparks for several moments, then stabilized.
"I can't destroy it!"
Naruto grabbed her hand. "Hinata, we need to infuse chakra together!"
"What?"
"We could destroy it together," he said.
She didn't have nearly as much chakra as Naruto, but he couldn't touch the Tenseigan. Neither could do it separately. But together...Hinata's face brightened and she nodded.
Their combined chakra swirled together in an eclectic mix of purple and orange. It was just like that time in the war.
Naruto's hand was big and warm. Her confidence surged despite the insurmountable odds.
"Let's go!" said Naruto.
"Okay!"
They struck together, his Rasengan enveloped with her Lion Fist.
The Tenseigan didn't stand a chance. Hundreds – thousands? – of white eyes sprang free.
The Tenseigan...was a cluster of Byakugan?
They met up with Shikamaru at the castle. Evidently, he had finished off the puppet army.
"Hinata? Are you okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "I'm sorry." Shikamaru was the team leader and she ran off without even telling him what she was planning.
They must have all been worried sick.
"Let's save that for later," he said, turning to Naruto. "What happened anyway? The artificial sun just disappeared."
"This place was powered by the Tenseigan," Naruto said. "We destroyed it, so the moon should have stopped moving too."
"What?"
Shikamaru checked the timer in his palm, and sure enough, the clock had stopped.
They met up with Sakura and Sai in one of the castle chambers.
Defeated puppets lay on the floor, completely lifeless. And in Sai's arms was…
"Hanabi!"
Hinata bowed to Sakura and Sai. "Thank you."
Sakura held out a scrap of the tattered red scarf.
"Isn't this yours?" she asked.
Hinata stared at the hours of painstaking labor in her hands, ripped to shreds by Toneri's thoughtless cruelty.
For the first time since being freed from Toneri's control, she realized that she was wearing a strange black wedding dress. Her blood curdled at the idea of what might have happened if his plan had succeeded. She would have been married against her will and…
Only bad thoughts lay in that direction. She comforted herself with the thought that his plan had zero chance of success. Not while her Konoha teammates were alive. They would have stopped Toneri even at the cost of life and limb.
To her surprise, Naruto spoke up. "Is that the scarf that Toneri ripped up before?"
"How do you know that?"
Naruto stared at the floor. "Back when I pulled Toneri's jutsu out of your body. I saw some memories of yours..."
"Didn't you want to give it to Naruto?" Sakura asked.
A heavy silence followed.
"Did you really make it for me?" asked Naruto, turning to meet Hinata's eyes.
"Yes," she mumbled.
"Can I have it?"
"But...it's ripped to pieces."
"I don't care about that...I mean, I'd still like it," Naruto said firmly.
She stared at tiny scrap of scarlet cloth, the only remaining proof of the depth of her love.
Then she handed it to Naruto. He accepted it reverently.
"Thank you so much." Naruto stared at her softly – lovingly? "I'll cherish it forever."
"Naruto-kun..."
She wept with joy.
Here she was on the falling moon, spending possibly the last day of her life with Naruto.
It was true happiness.
Then the clock embedded in Shikamaru's hand started ticking.
"Why's the clock moving again?" Naruto asked frantically.
"I don't know!"
An explosion knocked them off their feet.
"What's..." Sakura muttered.
A massive statue swung its hand towards them. Naruto grabbed Hinata and jumped out of the way.
The statue was of...Hamura. Was this Toneri's doing?
Naruto switched on his Bijuu Mode, glowing gold and causing Hinata to squeeze her eyes shut. The team escaped on Sai's ink birds as the Kyuubi engaged the Hamura statue in an intense fight.
Toneri pursued them on a bird of his own. He appeared livid.
He weaved a series of hand signs, and, just like Naruto, his body became cloaked in chakra; only it was green rather than gold. Was this an effect of his Tenseigan?
Black orbs materialized in front of Toneri, detonating and unleashing a gale-force wind on the rescue team.
"Silver Wheel Rebirth Explosion!"
Sai's ink birds were absolutely destroyed and they were all thrown into a free fall. Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand as the explosion sent them crash landing into the barren, pockmarked landscape of the moon.
The Kyuubi's battle with the Hamura statue raged on.
"Hinata, are you okay?" asked Naruto, struggling to his feet.
"Yeah," she said. However, just as she was getting up, another explosion knocked her off her feet.
She yelped as Toneri roughly grabbed her hair.
"Hinata belongs to me," he said gloatingly. "You can watch his last moments in there."
He threw Hinata into a cage that had materialized out of thin air.
"Hinata!"
The battle between Naruto and Toneri began.
They traded a barrage of attacks, green and orange chakra cloaks blitzing across the moon. Meanwhile, the Kyuubi still hadn't finished off the statue.
Hinata could barely keep up, but her heart froze in horror and she cried out as Naruto got caught in one of the explosions generated by Toneri, and a beam of orange light cut the moon in half.
A deathly silence descended on the scene.
"It's all over," Toneri declared.
"It's not over until I say so!"
A barrage of Shadow Clones attacked Toneri with superhuman ferocity. Toneri's beams of light and protective shield couldn't save him from the onslaught of the Rasengan Barrage.
Toneri was stunned by the blows he received, but recovered quickly.
"It's pointless. Give up," he snarled.
Naruto took the scarf fragment from his pocket.
"Like I'd ever give up! It takes time to knit a scarf, ya know? The deeper the feelings, the longer it takes!"
"This ends now!"
He fired an explosion towards Naruto, who charged forwards, undeterred.
"You can't decide that!" he roared. "Expressing your true feelings...it takes a lot of time!"
Their fists collided and Toneri was blown backwards.
"That's why I won't let it end here so easily!"
It was ironic that Naruto would win with just one punch, after Toneri declared that his fists would never reach him.
Naruto ran towards her. The cage had rapidly dissolved.
"Hinata!"
"You're okay!"
They shared a look, then glanced in Toneri's direction. She strode forwards.
"I'll be taking Hanabi's eyes back now," she said coldly.
She ripped the eyes out of his sockets as he screamed.
"You...dare…?"
"Now it's over," Naruto said.
"Not...yet..." Toneri opened his eyelids.
A comet of purple light descended on Toneri.
"What...what are those things?"
His body was getting coated in a thick, gelatinous substance. He cackled madly.
"With these eyes, I'll finish everything!"
He looked like a deranged lunatic, slowly suffocating under the weight of a million white eyes. Despite everything he'd done, Hinata felt a twinge of pity.
Just then, the rest of the team found them.
"Naruto!"
"Hinata!"
Naruto gestured for them not to come closer.
"Toneri, stop! You don't have to follow your ancestors' misguided teachings anymore!" Hinata called out.
"Silence!" he snarled. "As the last Otsutsuki, I must fulfill Hamura's celestial decree!"
Another green sphere materialized in Toneri's hand, and Naruto fell to his knees as his chakra cloak suddenly faded.
"Naruto-kun!"
"My...chakra's being drained away."
The orange-gold Kyuubi chakra was pouring into Toneri's sphere.
Toneri still wasn't laying off with the evil cackles. "And now you feel the power of Hamura, strong enough to move the moon! You're finished, Naruto!"
Naruto...didn't have enough chakra, but she did. The reverse of what happened when they needed to destroy the Tenseigan.
She grabbed his hand and let her chakra flow into his body.
"Hinata?" Naruto asked.
Orange and purple chakra swirled around them for the second time that day.
"What are you doing?" Toneri asked.
"We won't let it end like this," said Naruto.
"But...how?"
"Hamura's chakra flows within me too." Hinata looked radiant, wreathed in purple light.
Naruto gripped her hand tightly. "It's time to stop."
Toneri had snapped. He was drowning in the Byakugan, screaming in an unhinged fashion as he prepared to fire another explosion.
"The world of the Sage has fallen! I will destroy it with the light of justice!"
The ground split open as his jutsu backfired completely.
He was floating off into space, devoured by the Byakugan that his clan had collected for centuries.
"What's happening?" Sakura asked.
"It's his jutsu," said Shikamaru. "It absorbed the energy of the sun and he's broken his chakra limit."
Toneri screamed in agony.
Naruto jumped upwards in Toneri's direction.
"Naruto-kun!"
"Naruto! It's too dangerous! Don't go there!"
Naruto lent Toneri a helping hand.
"Why...why would you go so far to help me? I'm your enemy," Toneri panted.
He had collapsed to his knees, totally devoid of any strength. Naruto had barely released him from the Byakugan bubble that he was slowly dissolving in.
"Yeah, yeah, Obito, Madara, Nagato. I've seen tons of people like you," Naruto said. "They all said the same thing. 'The world is awful. We must burn it all down and start over, they would be the new peace and justice and all that.' It gets old after the first few times."
"What...are you talking about?"
"Anyway, we need to let Kakashi-sensei and everyone else know that we've completed the mission," Shikamaru cut in.
"How are we supposed to contact them all from up here?" asked Sai.
That was true. There was no way to communicate with anyone on Earth.
Enormous footfalls shook the ground. It was the Kyuubi. He was no longer glowing like a heavenly fox, but had reverted to his usual orange-brown color.
Naruto waved. "Yo, Kurama! Did you get rid of the statue?"
The fox winced. "Stop yelling so loudly, idiot. Do you want to destroy my eardrums?"
"Well, did you?"
"Yes," he growled. "Now what do we have to do?"
"I want you to write a message to Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, totally ignoring Kurama's directive not to.
Kurama stared at Naruto blankly. "What?"
"WRITE A MESSAGE TO KAKASHI-SENSEI!"
"I TOLD YOU TO STOP YELLING, FOOL. I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME! WHY DO YOU WANT ME TO WRITE LETTERS TO RANDOM PEOPLE? DO I LOOK LIKE A PROFESSIONAL CALLIGRAPHER TO YOU?"
Hinata giggled. How Naruto managed to get into a shouting match without even trying was beyond her.
"Kyuubi," Shikamaru said in a businesslike voice. "Naruto has a point. You, with your massive size, can easily carve in a message on the ground so that people on Earth can see and stop panicking about the moon."
Kurama twitched his ears.
"I guess that makes sense," he said. "Please donate your brain to Naruto. His skull is totally empty."
Naruto stuck his tongue out at the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi stuck his tongue out back, then scowled and started scratching a message out on the moon.
"Making me write characters," he muttered under his breath. "I'm not good at calligraphy."
"Before we leave," Hinata said. "Toneri, there's something I would like to show you. Everyone, please follow me."
"Okay." Naruto began swinging their intertwined hands together. "Where do you want to go?"
For once, Toneri looked deflated and sad. He'd completely lost all of the smug overconfidence that had characterized their previous interactions.
"This...this..."
"Soon after we arrived, the soul of Hamura guided me here," said Hinata.
Toneri gloomily sank to the floor.
"I...I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I will punish myself for all of my transgressions."
"Toneri," Hinata began. "I'm sure all the people of Earth would welcome you."
"I will remain here on the moon and atone for my crimes," he said solemnly.
"Toneri!" Naruto called out.
"Please come to Earth one day, Toneri," Hinata requested.
"I...swear that the moon shall never approach the Earth again."
Toneri rounded a corner and vanished from sight.
The journey home was sure to be easy. But before they started, an old doubt wormed its way to the forefront of Hinata's mind.
"Naruto-kun, I want to ask you something."
Was this another moment of deja vu? But their positions were reversed again. That had been happening a lot lately.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Your scarf..." Hinata said. "Who is it from?"
Naruto took it out of his bag. "This? It's from my mom. She made it a long time ago."
Embarrassment prickled her stomach as her mind conjured up an image of Naruto's mother swatting her head for jumping to stupid conclusions. "You're wrong, ya know?"
"Oh," said Hinata. "I'm so silly."
"Nee-samaaa," Hanabi complained. "How long are you going to just chit-chat? Forget it, I'm leaving."
"Hurry up!" Shikamaru called out. "The passageway is disintegrating."
"Let's get back to Earth," said Naruto.
"Okay."
They took off together, hand in hand.
"Hinata?"
"Yes?"
"Remember, back at the Academy when we were asked who we'd like to spend our last day on Earth with?"
Oh...that time. She'd written down Naruto's name back then.
"I couldn't think of anyone's name to write down. I didn't know who my parents were and I didn't have any friends."
They picked up speed, jumping from one lump of sand to another.
"But now, I know exactly who I'd choose. There's no doubt about it. It's you, Hinata. I want to be by your side forever, until I die."
That time when she faced off against Pain...her words to him back then rang in her mind.
"I wanted to catch up with you and walk with you forever. I always wanted to be at your side."
Her dream was the same as his. Sparkling tears spilled forth from her eyes.
"Naruto-kun..."
Her arms fit perfectly around him.
She would never let go.
They soared into the night sky together, propelled by the force of his Rasengan, and Hinata found herself staring into Naruto's eyes, illuminated by the moonlight.
"Hinata."
"Naruto-kun."
His hand gently caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes and tilted her face.
Their lips met for the first time ever.
A/N: Hi everyone. I'm so sorry for the delay. I wanted to get this chapter up some time ago, but as you all know, the site went haywire and new chapters weren't showing up. I hope you can see chapter 18 now. Please do tell me what you think. And as always, thanks for the reviews. Hinatamyqueen, I'm glad that you like the story.
Thanks for the suggestion, VeAryaMuse. I think I can write a one-shot set in that timeframe. But I have another idea that I really want to write first. So I'll PM you when it's done. Should be sometime by the end of this month or beginning of next month.
Lila08, you mean like a high school/college AU? Eh...I think those are very common, and mine would just be a drop in the ocean. Do you have any other ideas?