Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series.

Enjoy!

Chapter 18

Mystery solved

Hinata moaned from yet another self-inflicted cut. She found kunais and shurikens laying on the ground from Sasuke and Orochimaru's battle.

"Yatta..." She cheered as she had successfully cut herself free. She saw the jar of chakra once again. She was curious as to know who's chakra it belonged to. She looked at her crystal that beamed fast, she took that as an 'Open it'. She gulped before taking the jar in her hands and slowly uncovering it.

The lavender chakra flew out like a rocket. The young heiress was taking by surprise when it aimed after her. "What?" She covered herself from the chakra that showered her.

"I-It's n-not hurting me?..." She carefully let her arms fall and looked above of her, it felt like a star rain. She felt a major boost in endurance flow through her. For a minute, she felt relaxed and a tiny bit sleepy, her eyes slowly gave in to the blissful moment. But knowing that the shower wouldn't last forever, she opened her eyes. She stood up. Her scratches were healed as well.

I have got to help Sasuke!

She looked at her crystal and picked it up, feeling a sense of hopelessness fall upon her already. Let's try one more time...

...

Blast!

"Why can't I unlock it?!" She slammed her hands on the ground, between her crystal. "Can't you please tell me, what am I doing wrong?!"

A picture of Kurai and Sasuke popped into her mind. This time, showing the similarities between them. "What does that have to do with anything?..."

She saw a flashback of her conversation with Nana about Kurai. "Pl-Please don't make me think that S-Sasuke and K-Kurai are the same person... 'Cause they are not..." A quiet mourn escaped her lips.

"I don't want them to be the same person..."

"And besides, whether Kurai and Sauske are the same person is not what I'm supposed to think about right now. Right now, Sasuke is in need for help and I... I want to help him!" She heard big lumps of tear drops smack the ground. "So please, help me save the person that once saved me!" She couldn't believe that she was actually shouting at an object, if this wasn't crazy enough then she didn't know what was.

"Please, I don't want to lose a close friend like Kurai again..."

She took the crystal and let it hover before her. Hinata, having obtained the chakra she had lost during the fight against Yoroi, concentrated all of her chakra into this final try. She would feel a breeze running through her hair, as if it was dancing with the wind. Her crystal was heating up for every enchant she made.

Had Hinata been a tad bit more crazy, she would think that small bits of chakra was following with the wind from the trees. Her arm was slowly letting go as her crystal was hovering on its' own.

Sasuke, don't worry... She could almost picture how the fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru was proceeding, and it didn't look too good.

I'm coming! She snapped her eyes open, feeling the veins around her eyes tighten, and cried the enchant out.

UNLOCK!

"What's wrong, Sasuke-kun?! Scared to face me because your girlfriend isn't there to watch?!"

Sasuke was hiding behind a tree. The Uchiha hated to admit this, but he was no match for Orochimaru. Even in his Guardian state he felt powerless. Orochimaru said that he too was a Guardian but he hadn't even activated his Armor. The only thing Sasuke could do was to create a big enough distraction, so that he could flee and find Hinata and escape this forest.

Sasuke's instinct kicked in as he dodged the snake head that attacked from behind. He threw countless fireballs at Orochimaru while running in another direction.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked while stretching his arm towards Sasuke, catching him. He swung his elastic limb across the field, dragging Sasuke on the floor.

The Uchiha reached for his katana, he yelped as Orochimaru tightened his arm around him. He succeeded in getting a hold on its' end pommel. He brought it out and stabbed the tip as deep in ground as he could.

Orochimaru frowned from the forced pull. Sasuke wasn't done yet, he forced his chakra to have an inward affect. He focused the fire within him to surround his aura, burning Orochimaru's rubber-like arm.

"Ngh!" Orochimaru retreated his arm, watching as Sasuke fell flat on the ground.

The Uchiha tiredly pulled himself onto a sitting position, using his sword as support. He could barely catch his breath, he knew he was done for if he didn't get away from this. When Sasuke looked at his opponent, he almost cursed to himself. He witnessed as Orochimaru walked over to him with a smirk across his face. How could did he heal so fast?. As the Uchiha had gotten himself onto his feet, his saw Orochimaru charging at him once again. He groaned as he knew how much this would hurt.

"Sasuke-kun!" Instead of sending a deadly jutsu his way, Orochimaru stretched his neck. It confused Sasuke until he felt a sharp sting at his neck. The Yang Guardian screamed in agony as he felt Orochimaru inject something in him. He tried to grab his neck, but all his remaining strength was drained. His knees felt the cold ground, and so would his torso if he didn't do anything.

"Huh?"

Sasuke felt Orochimaru's canine force itself off of his neck. He smelled the scent of inner earth and felt the dust run through his face, his upper-body slowly gave in to his weakened state. The Uchiha felt gentle arms hinder him from falling flat on the ground. He heard the figure utter his name in a concerned tone before gently laying him down.

The Yang guardian caught the hand of his saviour before he gave into the dark. "Hi-Hinata..."

A giggle escaped the figure's mouth, it was very girlish but at the same time cute. "Don't worry, she's safe." She slowly let his hand fall to the ground and stood on her feet. She took a few steps forward and activated his Byakugan.

"Even with your full chakra capacity, you won't beat me."

Hinata smirked. "We will see."

Hinata dashed towards the snake Sannin. She let her palms dance upon his body, but her opponent was more flexbile than she thought. The Yin guardian threw herself back and sent several tools at Orochimaru. The snake Sannin countered that by sending a mighty wind at the attack. He sensed her from above and saw as she repeated the same trick. Another clone from behind imitated the trick as well.

"That's lame." He crumbled together before unleashing a windy outburst, sending the kunai and shurikens in every other directions.

"You're the one that's lame!" The Yin Guardian had managed to borrow her fellow guardian's katana and throw him on her back. She combined her elemental chakra unto the sword and stuck it in the ground, erupting the ground towards Orochimaru with flames and thunder following it.

"Wha-?"

As soon as Hinata saw the explosion, she disappeared into the trees.

Orochimaru cleared the dirt off of his robe as he let the Yin guardian flee. "Heh."

The young heiress panted from the heavy package she was carrying on. Her knees told her to stop, but her mind couldn't stop worrying about Sasuke's weakening heart beat. Don't worry, Sasuke. I will save you!

A quiet grunt from the person on her back drove her attention to him. He was muttering words that she couldn't quite make out, so she told him to stay quiet and rest for the time being.

Where am I?.. Thought Sasuke. He knew he was in the forest, but what part. And where was Orochimaru? His mind drove to the person he set out to rescue in the first place. He skipped from log to log, searching for his goal.

He spotted a lavender haired female on the ground, bleeding. He jumped from the log and took her in his arms. He gently shook her, hoping for a flinch of any kind. "Open your eyes, Hinata."

A sadistic laugh behind him shocked him. He saw Orochimaru laughing and grinning, looking straight into the Uchiha's rage-filled eyes. "You did this?"

Orochimaru continued laughing, intimidating Sasuke into leaving Hinata on the ground and slowly walk up to him. But something was weird, his neck was stinging. And it hurt. Really much. His feet stopped and his hand squeezed the area where it kept stinging. The evil laughs from the Sannin kept ringing in his ears, he looked back at Hinata's lifeless body. It stirred his anger even more.

"OROCHIMARU!" A purple chakra burst from where Sasuke was standing. His skin felt tingling in a way, as if something was crawling from within him and onto his skin. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"Sasuke!" Hinata didn't see any of this coming. Sasuke suddenly hopped of her back, with his body badly hurt he could barely stand. She offered him to get on her back again, but instead he pointed his sword at her. And before she knew it, she was rolling on the ground, confused.

Sasuke neared Hinata. The young heiress crawled backwards, not wanting to engage in any combat. She kept calling his name, to the point that she was shedding tears. Don't tell me...

"Were you put in a genjutsu?..."

From his attempt on cutting her in two, she took that as a yes. She tried to unarm him but failed miserably. If she was to unarm him by force, she would have to land psychical attacks on him and she couldn't bring herself to do that.

After countless of beat ups combined with his katana slashing every piece of her up, Hinata would get on her feet. But this time, she could barely feel her fingers flinch. In fact, she couldn't feel any of her previous wounds. A rusty cough escaped her rough-looking lips, she let another amount of her inner liquid escape through her throat.

"Sa... Ahh!" She gasped. The Uchiha had her up against a tree with his fingers squeezing her neck. The purple aura that had devoured his atmosphere grew stronger.

"I was planning on telling her the truth." He whispered to himself.

T-truth?...

"She deserved to know the truth about Kurai before she died..." Hinata's eyes widen from the mentioning of Kurai. K-Kurai-kun?... His grip loosened. She took the opportunity to kick him away and air palm his katana into the air, seeing as it landed elsewhere.

Hinata used the tree behind her as support. She panted heavily as she looked at her opponent who was nearly shedding tears from the bangs that hid his eyes. A picture of Kurai that night by the river struck her mind.

"K-Kurai-kun...?" Her voice was a mixture of confuse but surprise at the same time. She... knew that the similarities weren't a coincidence, but she didn't want to believe it. I knew it couldn't be a coincidence... No matter how much I wanted it to be... She wanted to leave Kurai in her past and welcome Sasuke into her future, but guess that plan failed.

"I will kill you Orochimaru! Why did you have to take them both away from me?!"

"I'm right here, Kurai-kun." She managed to ignore the pain in her muscles and crack a smile.

...

...

...

A moment of speechlessness fell upon Sasuke. He clutched his hands and gritted his teeth. How far was this snake going to mess with his feelings?!

"Orochimaru..." He muttered, the Uchiha ran in full speed. He saw as the snake sannin spread his arms out, in a 'hug me' manner. "You little!" He summoned his sword.

Hinata tried to keep her smile up but a part of her just wanted to breakdown in tears from the realisation of Sasuke being Kurai all along. She cursed to herself from the tears that escaped her eyelids. There you go again, crying like a little baby.

In a way, the young heiress felt a joy rush through her. Her childhood friend who she didn't believe to be dead was right here. This could have been the perfect moment to tell each other who we really were... But yet...

"Is this how we are gonna end our past together?! Kurai-kun!" She cried out, nearly collapsing from her excessive use of oxygen.

As Sasuke held his sword up for the final blow, the light from his crystal mixed with a little lavender blinded him. Wait, sto-

"OROCHIMARU!"

Sasuke-kun... -sob- I can't help with the 'kun', gome ne... Hehe.. Thank you for solving my endless misery. And thank you... For-

Slash

If any of you are confused at the part where Hinata used her elemental chakra. Yeah, it stood on the Naruto wiki so... forgive me if it's incorrect ^^;

Hope you enjoyed his chapter just like all the others! *shivers* Sasuke, you savage...