XXVII: True Sight
The Land of Sea: Three Months, Twenty-Six ago:
Things were grim in the Land of Sea. Thousands upon thousands of the fish-men sea monsters had marched out of the ocean, surrounding the main island completely. The shear number of them, along with their seemingly mindless nature, allowed them to overcome Naruto's well laid traps. No matter how many were killed by a spiked pit or exploding tags, there were more right behind them, relentlessly closing the distance from the sea to the barricades at the edge of the beach.
When Naruto's clones sounded the alarm the villagers immediately locked themselves in their homes, preferring to try to save themselves and leave the actual defense of their village to four Shinobi on vacation.
Despite enemy's overwhelming numbers, Team Seven was cautiously optimistic. They were caught off guard during the last attack, but this time they were well prepared, fully equipped and waiting for the attack. Unlike last time they each had their favorite weapons and equipment with them before the fish-men were even sighted. Sasuke had his ninja-wire and the Raijin no Ken, Naruto had the Uzu no Tsubasa already summoned and was in its Ryokuryū form before the horde cleared the shores, Hinata didn't need any weapons to fight but they all had enough Soldier Pills on them to keep fighting for a week. They also each had a radio headset to allow them to keep in contact during the battle.
They had divided the island into four quadrants, North, East, South, and West, each member of Team seven took one. Naruto had the West quadrant; Kakashi the North, Sasuke the East, and Hinata had the South. To assist them each quadrant also had five of Shiromari's strongest warriors and ten Toad soldiers armed to the teeth. When the horde finally cleared the beach they were met, not by three confused teenagers at the beach but by a group of well trained and well armed Shinobi ready for them and fifteen large summons ready to kill.
The fish-men from the west were the first to breach the defenses laid out on the beach. When the first one was in range Naruto lashed out with the dragon's tail, wrapping the whip like appendage around the monsters neck. Much to Naruto's surprise, the chakra whip didn't immediately separate the creatures head from its shoulders. Instead there was a momentary grinding noise as the wind blades that made up the tail had to chew through the monsters scales. Puzzled, Naruto struck the next closest creature with the Uzu no Tsubasa; once again there was a grinding sound before the creature's scales gave way. The delay was momentary, but it was enough to prevent Naruto from pushing the horde back to the sea. "Guys, is it just me or are they stronger than last time?" Naruto asked his teammates over the radio.
"Th-They're f-faster too, I'm having t-trouble hitting their hearts with m-my Juuken strikes." Hinata answered, as she ducked under a monsters swipe and tried to counter it with a Juuken strike to its heart, only for it to dodge at the last possible second, so instead of crushing its heart and killing it in one blow her strike collapsed one of the monsters lungs allowing it to fight a little longer before dying.
"I had to up the voltage on my Jutsu too." Sasuke grunted, he had a group of the monsters netted with ninja-wire and was trying to fry them with lightning chakra, but he had to triple his chakra out put to do it, and was already contemplating using a soldier pill.
"It's like they changed themselves to counter us, I've never seen anything like it." Kakashi said. Kakashi had started his fight with several large scale earth jutsu, since they seemed resistant to lightning and water, his two main elements. Now he was fighting with two Lightning enhanced Kunai, a trick he learned while fighting a ninja from Kumo. They were nowhere near as effective a weapon as his father's White Light Chakra Saber but they would have to do.
"These creatures taste unnatural." One of the lizard warriors, fighting alongside Naruto, growled as it spat half a fish-man out.
Much like the last battle, the fight was a war of attrition. After four hours the fish-men's relentless charged had slowed to an equally relentless crawl, not because their numbers had diminished, but because so many of them had died that the beach had turned into bloody quicksand and the horde had to climb over the bodies of their dead to even reach the defenders. Yet the horde never stopped coming.
Despite the poor footing and the amount of chakra required to maintain the Uzu no Tsubasa's Ryokuryū mode, Naruto was still going strong. Naruto had allowed the Kyuubi to add some of his Chakra to Naruto's own, which then flowed into the Uzu no Tsubasa, giving the wind shroud's cutting power the boost it needed to be able to cut through the fish-men's tough scales in one blow.
Sasuke had hit his stride at the three hour mark, he had learned so much about lightning transformation while trying to fry the fish-men that he felt he had almost mastered it. But by the five hour mark he was out of kunai and shuriken and was running low on ninja-wire, soon the only tool he'd have left would be the Raijin no Ken and while the sword felt natural in his hands he didn't know how he would fare against multiple opponents with it.
Hinata, however, was beginning to wear down, the battle had been going on for six hours at this point, and now the sun was high over head. She had already used two of her Soldier Pills and was almost out of chakra again. Honestly, she was jealous of Sasuke and Naruto's ridiculous chakra reserves, she knew she had the most chakra of any of the girls her age, and she probably had more chakra then all of the other guys her age too. But when it came to endurance she just couldn't compare to Naruto or even Sasuke.
As Hinata reached for her third Soldier pill, a purple and tan blur landed in front of her. "Need some help little girl?" Mitarashi Anko, clad in her battered mesh armor and tattered trench-coat, had arrived to assist in the battle. "Let's see how these things like my snakes! Sen'eijashu! (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)" Anko threw her hands forward and a dozen snakes shot out of her sleeves, biting the closest group of fish-men and binding them until the poison did its work. "Oooh looks like they don't like that!" Anko began to chuckle evilly.
"Umm…Anko-san…the monsters…" Hinata tried to warn Anko of the never ending horde.
"Whoa there, wait your turn! There's plenty of fun to go around!" Anko complained when a monster interrupted her evil laugh. She punished it by stabbing it in the eye with a kunai. "Never interrupt a lady!" Anko threw several dozen more snakes at the approaching horde while laughing maniacally. "It's been years since I really could cut loose." She giggled while tearing a fish-man's head from its shoulders with her bare hands.
Hinata was impressed, despite Anko's apparent insanity; the woman was good, really good, at tearing her enemies apart. Shrugging, Hinata popped her third soldier pill of the day into her mouth, and re-joined the fray.
Soon enough the horde finally seemed to run out of fish-men to throw at Team Seven, and Anko. "I haven't seen a fishman in five minutes." Naruto announced over the radio. "You guys clear too?"
"I haven't seen anything for eight minutes." Kakashi stated disinterestedly, before letting out a perverse giggle.
"If Kakashi is reading his porn then it's safe." Sasuke grumbled
"Oooh, which one you reading?" Anko questioned Kakashi.
"I'm actually helping Jiraiya edit his latest book." Kakashi sounded unbelievably smug.
"Will you share? Pretty, pretty please?"
"Um…guys?" Naruto sounded alarmed. "There's some thing coming my way and I think I might need your help…" Within moments the rest of team seven and Anko had arrived.
"What the hell is that?" Moving swiftly towards them across the surface of the water was a giant transparent…thing… seemingly made out of water. Atop the …thing…stood a tall thin man with grey-blonde hair in a short pony tail and small beady eyes dressed in a lab-coat over a purple-grey collared shirt and matching slacks.
The water-blob-thing stopped a hundred feet fro mthe shore, "I can't waste anymore of my experiments on a group such as yours." The man growled. "How a group of lowly Genin could defeat my Kaima army is beyond me. Still I have gathered very valuable combat data to use when I create my next batch."
"Who the fuck are you?" Anko swore at the stranger.
"Oh, if it isn't Mitarashi Anko…I had heard Orochimaru's lap dog had left him. You don't remember me? You should, after all you threw my out of your master's base because…what was it? Oh yes… my experiments had 'crossed the line from merely unethical into inexcusably vile, and pointlessly sadistic.' Bloody hypocrite."
"Amachi?" Anko sounded puzzled for a moment. "I think I remember you, my memory from then is a little hazy." Anko sighed. "Well that was a waste of time; I came here looking for a lead on Orochimaru not some two-bit nutjob that makes Orochimaru look like an angel."
Amachi's face contorted in rage. "YOU LITTLE BITCH! Orochimaru is too afraid to make the final leap to real science! He clings to the shreds of his past, refusing to let go of what little morals he has! I shall find him and show him what you can do if you're willing to go all the way!"
Naruto had heard of the things Orochimaru did before Konoha found out and exiled him. This guy thought it wasn't enough? "Are you mad? Orochimaru is a monster! And you think he should be worse?"
"You have no idea what you're talking about Brat! Umibōzu show this Brat what a real scientist can achieve when he let's go of all morals!" The blob of water Amachi rode on began to change shape until it vaguely resembled the upper body of a large fat bald man. "Behold! My master piece the indestructible Umibōzu! There is no ship that can compare to him!" As Amachi was ranting Umibōzu began to shoot large powerful blasts of water out of its hands, leaving huge craters wherever the blasts landed.
"We're going to have to go out there and fight it." Kakashi said, "It's too far away for any of us to reliably hit."
Naruto nodded and signaled his teammates to follow him. After ducking and dodging the high pressure blasts from Umibōzu, Naruto was the first of his team to arrive. He swung the Uzu no Tsubasa in an overhead arc bringing both the weapon and the chakra whip down on its arm, completely severing it from Umibōzu's body. Naruto followed his first attack with a side swipe that blew half of Umibōzu's body away. "He doesn't seem so indestructible to me!"
"Naruto!" Hinata's panicked shout alerted Naruto just in time to avoid Umibōzu's fist as it shot out of its side.
"I told you, you can not destroy Umibōzu! As long as a drop of him remains in the sea he can regenerate from anything!"
"Okay, what do we do now?" Naruto asked his teammates after jumping back to avoid its attack.
"You don't have time to think!" Amachi shouted as giant pillars of water shot out of the ocean. "As long as you're even near the sea Umibōzu will kill you! He truly is the perfect summon."
'Summon?' Naruto thought, 'maybe I can force it to obey me.' Naruto jumped directly in front of the massive creature with the ring in his left eye glowing, "Umibōzu stop! Don't attack us!"
Umibōzu began to thrash around wildly, its shape changing randomly. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Amachi shouted as he was thrown from Umibōzu's head. "YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL! WITHOUT ME CONTROLING HIM HE'S A MINDLESS BRUTE!"
"RAAAAAAAGH!" Umibōzu roared and charged towards Hinata, arms extended. Its body swelled in size as it charged, she tried to dodge out of its path but Umibōzu's arm grew in size as she jumped.
"Hinata!" Naruto pushed her out of the way at the last second, only for Umibōzu's massive hand to land on him instead.
"Naruto!"
Naruto struggled in its grasp while Umibōzu tried to squeeze the air out of him
Amachi stood shakily on the surface of the water, "At least that fool will die; take your time with the brat Umibōzu, soon you'll be back under my control."
Team Seven could only watch in horror as Umibōzu swallowed the barely moving Naruto whole.
"Naruto…"Hinata began sobbing. "GIVE HIM BACK!" tears streaming down her face she tried to charge Umibōzu, but Anko grabbed the collar of her jacket.
"Don't throw your life away girl!" Anko reprimanded Hinata, "He just saved it! Is his sacrifice worth that little to you?"
"HE'S NOT DEAD YET!" Hinata shouted as she struggled in Anko's grasp.
"Think! Is there anything you can do to help him? NO! Sometimes people die and there's nothing you can do!" Anko said while she pulled Hinata away from the rampaging Umibōzu, who was still randomly thrashing around and lashing out randomly.
Naruto's vision swam; the pressure inside the monsters body was terrifying, it was like being at the bottom of the ocean. Naruto tried to move but the pressure was so immense that he couldn't actually move, in fact he could feel his bones begin to break under the monstrous weight of it. He could feel the creature trying to force its way down his throat and his nose in an attempt to drown him. Naruto tried to blast his way out with his eye, but instead of blowing a hole through Umibōzu's side, the blast made Umibōzu's surface ripple like someone dropped a pebble inside of a pond and then it ricocheted back towards him, the force of it nearly tore him in half.
'Kurama! Please help me!' Naruto was answered with a powerful wave of chakra, enough to get him to four tails easily, but instead of forming the fox shaped chakra shroud that he so desperately wanted, the chakra seemed to stop at skin level. Now Naruto felt like he was going to be crushed into nothingness and blown into a million pieces all at once. 'What's happening Kurama?'
"This…unnatural thing is made of pure water chakra, my chakra is fire elemental! I can't put enough chakra out to counter it without breaking the seal, and that would kill you!" The Kyuubi was silent for a moment, "I'm sorry Naruto, there's nothing I can do."
Resigned to his fate Naruto gave up. Outside Umibōzu Hinata saw Naruto go limp, "NO! No…no…no…" The trauma was too much for her and Hinata stopped channeling her chakra to her feet. But Anko caught Hinata before she sank under the water, she didn't say anything to Hinata she just held her in as warm an embrace as she could.
'So this is dying huh?' Naruto thought to himself, 'Hey…Kurama… want me to break the seal?'
"I'll stay…" Kurama's normally deep voice was chocked with grief, "I'll be back to normal in ten years…but…you're the first human who's cared about me as a person instead of a weapon since the Rikudō Sennin himself. It was an honor to know you Naruto."
'It was an honor for me too Kurama…I…hope…you…find…happiness…some…da…" Naruto's mental voice trailed off as Naruto began to black out from lack of oxygen.
Naruto drifted in pitch darkness for what felt like an eternity, before the world lit up. 'So…is this the famous light at the end of the tunnel?' Naruto thought to himself. 'I always thought it would be bright white not dark blue.'
"Naruto?" Kurama's voice startled Naruto awake, "You just drifted off in the middle of your sentence and started rambling about lights and tunnels!"
'I'm still alive?' Naruto thought to himself (and Kurama), 'then the lights I see?' The lights swam into focus a vast web of dark blue energy, tangled around Naruto and spreading into the distance. It took Naruto a second before he realized what he was seeing, 'It's Umibōzu!' Naruto thought excitedly, even as he felt his body shut down. 'The light it's Umibōzu's chakra!'
Outside Umibōzu Hinata stopped crying. "He's alive!" Hinata shouted, her voice filled with hope, "Sasuke don't you see it?"
"Has the poor girl finally snapped?" Anko asked Kakashi.
"I don't see anything, in fact it looks like Umibōzu is crushing Naruto's head, the water's full of…blood…" Then it hit Sasuke, Hinata had activated her eyes when Anko had tried to prevent her from seeing Naruto's last moments. Sasuke quickly activated his Sharingan; he could see the soft glow of Umibōzu's chakra surrounding Naruto, whose chakra had almost completely dissipated, except around Naruto's left eye where it was steadily growing brighter.
Kakashi had reached the same conclusion just moments before Sasuke, and had lifted his hitai-ate while Anko was talking to him, "I…think…she may actually be right."
Naruto stared at his hands, which had drifted in front of his face during the moments he was unconscious. 'It's beautiful, can you see it Kurama?'
"Yes I can, Kit." Naruto's chakra wasn't monochrome like Umibōzu's. His had four colors, Green and a dark blue, that was lighter then Umibōzu's, twisted around each other in a double helix. Surrounding those like a net was the third color, a blue so pale it was almost white. Finally separating them all was a very thin layer of brown. "And you're right it is beautiful."
Most interestingly, to Naruto at least, was the way Umibōzu's chakra spun and danced around Naruto's finger tips, it was almost like water spinning around a drain… On a whim, probably caused by lack of oxygen, Naruto pictured removing drain plugs from his fingertips.
"Umibōzu's Chakra…" Sasuke trailed off slack jawed without finishing his sentence.
"It's…it's draining into Naruto?" Kakashi was at least as shocked as Sasuke.
Hinata said nothing, with her Byakugan's ability to see chakra so clearly she could see the entire web surrounding Naruto swirl into him, brightening the faint spark of his own chakra back to its former glory, and beyond, soon Naruto's chakra glowed so bright it hurt her eyes, but she refused to look away.
"Hey, Kit, this creature was made with the Sanbi's Chakra!" Kurama growled with indignation. "Someone's experimenting with our chakra!"
Naruto barely heard Kurama, there was barely any oxygen left in his blood, and his lungs were slowly filling with water.
The amount of chakra Naruto absorbed had reached the point that it was visible to the naked eye. Inside Umibōzu, Naruto's aura glowed bright silver. Hinata tore herself away from the slack jawed Anko and ran towards Naruto and the now sluggishly moving Umibōzu.
Amachi had just finished the Jutsu required to bring Umibōzu back under his control, "HA HA HA! NOW UMIBŌZU DESTROY THEM!" He had, however, mistaken Umibōzu's sluggishness for docility. Umibōzu turned slowly towards Hinata and ponderously raised its arm over its head. "UMIBŌZU I SAID DESTROY THEM!" Instead of striking, Umibōzu's arm began to dissolve. Too late Amachi realized that something was seriously wrong with Umibōzu. "NO! What has that brat done to you?"
Umibōzu dissolved completely, and Naruto crashed unto the surface of the water, he barely remembered to support himself with chakra before he began to cough up the water he had inhaled.
"THIS ISN'T OVER YOU BRAT! I'LL BE BACK!" Amachi shouted as he ran off.
As Naruto stood shakily to his feet Hinata came barreling up to him tears streaming down her face, "Its okay Hinata, I'm fine." Naruto tried to reassure her. Hinata's answer surprised everyone, except Anko, first she smacked him in the face as hard as she could. Then she grabbed him in a tight hug "What was that for?" Naruto was so shocked that shy soft spoken Hinata would smack him like that, that he completely missed the fact that she was hugging him.
"You p-p-p-p-promised me Naruto! I…I thought… you…d-d-d-died!" She sobbed into his shoulder.
"Hey, now," Naruto wrapped his arms around Hinata's shoulders, trying his best to comfort the sobbing girl, "I'm right here. I kept my word didn't I?"
Hinata hiccupped as her sobs died down, "N-Never do that to m-me again Naruto, I d- don't think I c-could survive if you actually d-d-died in front of me."
"What? Why?" Naruto was shocked that Hinata would say something like that.
"Naruto…I…I love you." Hinata leaned in and planted a tender kiss on Naruto's lips.
A/N I was going to end the chapter with Naruto passing out while talking to Kurama but I think you lot would have probably killed me. It was soooooo tempting. Though I might end the chapter there during my planned re-write, we'll see.
So how do you think Naruto is going to handle the confession? Or the kiss?
So…I lied…NEXT chapter will bring this mess to close, and take us back to Konoha. It'll probably have some Naru/Hina fluff in it too. The chapter after next (and maybe the one after that, we'll see) will be pre-Chunin exams Konoha fillerish stuff, (Not anime filler, some character stuff probably about Fu and Haku, and the rest of the Rookie Nine) before we can actually get to the exams. Also, Warning the next chapter will be pretty dark, and yes it will involve Isaribi I didn't write her out completely. If you don't hate Amachi by the time I'm done I've failed horribly.