Beautiful People

Chapter 17: Fight My Battles

Beta: beta'd by strawberries and napkins

...

Naruto did most of the talking, while I just clung to the musky smell of his shirt and closed my eyes as we flew. It was embarrassing, but the only thing I was thinking about was whether Naruto was aware that I was nearly trying to commit suicide or if he was just avoiding the subject.

"Hina-chan, don't fall asleep on me now." Naruto chuckled and his laugh vibrated through his ribcage and into my ear. I didn't know how much I missed it until I heard it again. Where had all my progress gone? I had reverted right back to being obsessed. But I just couldn't…stop…

"I'm not falling asleep. I was fine…why are you here?" I mumbled, finally struggling to be free of his grasp. I looked down, although it was still dark, in midnight hour mostly, and the ground was so far from us. Naruto was moving too quickly, I couldn't move. I didn't…want to move.

He darted quickly to the left, avoiding a large branch. "You should know. Sasuke cares a lot more about you than you or he would like to realize." He laughs then at my seemingly comical expression. Flashes of Sasuke's smile and the taste of clean water invade my thoughts, and make me blush. It has taken me awhile to recognize how much I care about Sasuke, I still don't know if I do. After all, he did get away with Naruto.

My voice broke for a second. "W-Where is Sasuke? He sent you?"

Naruto didn't immediately answer me. Instead he carried me forward until we suddenly went down, down, down to the bottom of the forest. In front of the gates of Konoha. My heart sank down into my stomach as he set me down to my feet, but held me steady with his warm hands. My knees were already shaking, the height of the doors were extremely intimidating.

Isn't this where I wanted to be? Why do I feel so terrible?

Dear Sakura—

No, wait. I don't have that anymore.

"Sasuke's battling on the east, fighting pretty hard too. He sent me to go get you since he made it here first…" I snapped my head around to face him and opened my mouth, but he wouldn't let me speak.

"Don't get all defensive, Hina-chan. I actually wanted to see you too— I've heard some things…" His sparkling blue eyes dart from left to right, avoiding my gaze. My body quakes violently—I start coughing.

My lungs burn and ache. I want a bath. "You see me, don't you? I'm here. Now, the mission."

"Actually—" Naruto cuts in again, scratching his head with a mischievous grin. It's so sexy. "That's another reason. After this whole thing blew up into a 'protect konoha' thing, Tsunade-obaa-chan assigned me." He held both arms out, as if he was selling himself to me. "I'm here to help you. You want help, don't you?"

Yes. "No."

"But—it's only if you really need it." His eyes rake over my appearance with discomfort. "You…need it, don't you?" His echo rings throughout the forest, making it sound less and less like a question.

Yes! "No, I can handle this myself."

"Maybe I could just be here to guide you, fill you in on the background so you know what to do, you know? It's only just in case, alright Hina-chan?

Yes!!

Dear Sakura, now I don't—

Instead, I stopped. I shook my head negatively; smoothed over my clothes with my hand. I pulled out a kunai, and examined my face in the reflection. I don't trust my eyes around Naruto anymore. "I won't need your help, I just want to finish this and get it over with. Follow me, we're heading for the east gate."

It felt good to have the wind in my hair, but the place was a wreck. I could feel and see the impacts of both the enemies and Sasuke's chakra, with trees and overturned dirt scattered all over the place. Naruto whistled appreciatively.

The closer we got, the louder the sounds of fighting got. Other ninjas had joined in, and now I could see that our "enemies" were more than just a few confused men. There were tons of them, no doubt probably ranging from the thirty-to-fifty. My heart raced as we spend along, towards the large gates.

"Looks like my impressive talking skills won't work this time." Naruto chuckled from behind me. I shrugged and moved a bit faster, hopped on a branch and twisted my body, springing right into action. I had landed myself a spot right in the center of the action.

It was horrendous. Gruesome. They were actually…self-destructing themselves. This one mission that was just supposed to be retrieving a scroll had turned into an all-out battle against a couple of psycho killers. These men were literally trying to attach themselves to anything, trees, rocks, Konoha ninjas, and blowing themselves up.

My eyes widened. This must've been their Kekkei Genkai. Which means that Lia's 'special ability' was self-explosion. Which also means that Lia doesn't just have one brother, she has many.

Naruto came close behind me and pulled me away just in time before one of them had the chance to grab me. He shielded me from the bright light, but I could see it anyway. Their chakra was literally ignitable…flammable chakra. I gasped.

"You alright?" Naruto wheezed, stunned to say anything else. The arm around my stomach tightened protectively. I whimpered in response and closed my eyes when one of the men—our enemy—exploded against a tree and sent his limbs flying everywhere.

They weren't really causing Konoha any damage, our ninja were way too good to get caught by them, but they were destroying everything with their screams, shouts, and fiery anger. I didn't feel anything; I just wanted the noise to stop.

"I said, are you alright?" Naruto breathed hastily in my ear, like he was considering taking me away from all this. As if I couldn't handle it.

"Yeah," I said, pushing his hand away and took a step forward, stomping out the flames on the ground. The warmth singed my skin. "This is my mission, after all, right?" I turn to him briefly and flash a weak smile. He gave me a thumbs-up, and I know that he had no intention of helping me. I was glad for that.

Two of them rushed at me, chakra pulsating at a rapid rate. It was moving through their system so fast that I wondered why they hadn't dropped dead just from the exhaustion, but I see it now. They moved very slow in my eyes. Extremely slow.

It made things easy.

I changed my stance, tensed my body and watched as the world changed around me, manipulating my own chakra as my hands moved close to my body, and yet wildly. They kept coming, more, more, and more of them. I could see it, their chakra lapping up their anger, and how just a graceful touch of my hand to their skin cut, sliced, and silenced them.

They crumbled to the ground in groups of five, ten against my jutsu. Their jutsu wasn't a match for the Gentle Fist at all. I was careful, and touched everyone twice, making sure that they couldn't rebuild the disconnection of their chakra paths.

Five more. I jutted my palm upwards, cut three paths that surrounded his liver, one that entwined around his heart. He gasped, coughed blood and fell to his knees. So did his friends.

Three more. My hands flew outwards. Despite the situation, it felt good to be in control. I couldn't even see Naruto, nor was I concerned with him. This was my moment, wasn't it?

Two more. I found out the hard way that they were also able to ignite things around them, like my jacket for example. I took them down quickly and then tossed my jacket aside just as the flames began licking at my skin. I grimaced in pain, but shook it off.

"You okay, Hina-chan? Got it all out huh? I swear, I never get tired of watching that Gentle Fist style from either you or Neji, it's pretty amazing!" Naruto shouted from behind me, with a lopsided grin. He didn't have his jacket either. I smiled and nodded, taking a look around me. The flames all around us highlighted his tan skin and blond hair nicely, even though he was stepping over both dead and unconscious bodies.

I rubbed my arm awkwardly. I really did take it out on them.

Someone gripped me by the shoulder tightly. I flinched and spun around. It was only a masked ANBU member who nodded at me. "We'll take care of the rest. Good work."

Naruto and I looked around him, watching the other members with impressive water and earth jutsu as they put out the flames and cleaned up the scattered bodies and limbs.

He held his hand out. "The scroll…" the question was left open and Naruto and I exchanged frantic glances. I had totally forgotten, and it wasn't in my possession when I was coming back here…

"Delivered to the Hokage," a silken voice came from behind us. We all turned to look up the tree at a dirt-smudged yet satisfied Uchiha whose eyes locked on mine. He gave me a nod of approval.

"Sasuke!" Naruto chirped excitedly as the raven jumped down nonchalantly. Naruto tackled him full-force, planting the wettest kiss I've ever seen. I half-expected Sasuke to shove Naruto away and say something…Sasuke-esque, but instead he leaned slightly into Naruto's arms and kissed him back.

I rolled my eyes and turned back around with a weak smile to the faceless ANBU who I was sure was a bit creeped out watching them make-out. My smile got a bit bigger.

"Mission complete."

Thanks to everyone who has been sticking around and reviewing these chapters, I love all the support! I hope you enjoyed and please review!