AN: I do not own Naruto. Ok, so I have two really great ideas for stories and they are driving me crazy because I and stuck between writing them and this. Argh! So I have decided… to continue this story to its full and complete end, no speeding up for myself. Anything for readers and reviewers. Thanks for reading everyone. Note on the weapons. Look them up, they are actual legendary weapons. The Naginata was the Japanese weapon used by the gods to create land, that is why I made it an earth jutsu power. The Shamshir-e was actually Turkish in history, but I thought it was appropriate, being that it was the only weapon able to injure demons. No a naginata is not a sword, but I don't care. The seven swordsmen of the mist don't need to actually have swords in my story, just bladed weapons. I mean, look at that guy in the filler arcs of Naruto, Raiga. His weapons were more like daggers. Also, I want to point out that I like Hinata being strong, so she will be fighting more in this fic. After all, why would she want to change herself in the manga and anime if it was just so Naruto could protect her whenever she was in trouble. No, she can fight and will, especially for Naruto's safety.
Chapter 5: Ice and Fire
Hinata was in her taijutsu stance with her back to the rest of her group. They stood in a circle, each protecting the backs of the others. The mist surrounding them had arrived the instant that Naruto had disappeared. Naruto… hurry back. "Byakugan!" Hinata stared into the mist with her all seeing eyes. What she saw was disturbing to her very core. Nothing. What? The mist around her couldn't be penetrated by her Byakugan, she could see less then see could see with her regular vision. The veins became even more pronounced as she pushed her abilities to the limits, not being able to pierce even three feet into the mist to see her comrades. It is almost like the mist isn't made of water… no, wait! It isn't! "Everyone, the mist isn't water! It's chakra! I can't see through it!" They all instantly went on guard even more then before, waiting for something to happen.
"That was very observant of you, girl."
"Yes, it was. Too bad what you know can't help you anyway." The two voices came out of the mist, but it seemed as if they were everywhere at once. Hinata couldn't pick up their location at all. She performed a few hand signs. "Water Style: Freezing Touch." Hinata whispered to herself the name, hoping she would be able to keep her now partially glowing hands a secret until it was too late for her attackers.
"Hinata, try using a kaiten." Jiriya was as serious as any of them had ever seen him. He had sensed the chakra of the two attacks at the moment they used the jutsu. This is not good, they feel like they are at Itachi Uchiha's level. And if that is true… the Akatsuki probably warned them about Naruto. They won't underestimate him, unlike that fool… This is not going to be easy, especially with Naruto not here… Hinata began to spin and release her chakra out of every tenketsu on her body. "Kaiten!" The spinning ninja created a sphere of clear air, only to watch as it filled in as she slowed the spinning.
"Alright, who are you and why do you want do die so much." Jiriya needed to stall, the chakra signatures of the two ninjas were growing, coming close to his own.
"Oh, our names? Names don't mean much, do they brother?"
"No, brother, they don't. I don't even think I remember my name. Do you, brother?"
"Hahaha. No, I don't know mine either. I know my sword's, though."
"Yes, I do to. My sword's name is very important."
"Do you wish to know our swords names, pathetic fat man?"
Jiriya's eye twitched at the insult, but knew that aggravating them would be a disaster. Besides, only a few swords had actually been named. This could provide very important information.
"My sword's name is Amenonuhoko."
"And mine is the Shamshir-e."
Two of the legendary sword masters of the mist village. This couldn't get much worse.
"You're friend won't be arriving anytime soon. We know how to deal with demons. He was caught in a trap and he doesn't even know it. He won't even realize time passed."
It just got worse. Jiriya prepared to use a jutsu by biting his thumb. "Well, it is too bad we can't stay and chat, but we have a previous engagement. Summoning Jutsu!" Jiriya slammed his hand against the ground, expecting to greet Gamabunta, or at least a war toad. What happened was… nothing. Jiriya went wide eyed as his companions turned to stare at what he ad summoned, only to be met with empty air.
"It is very funny to watch, brother."
"Indeed, brother. They haven't figured it out. It is really elementary."
Hinata was the first to understand. "We can't use any jutsu! The chakra laced mist is causing our jutsus to fail. As soon as we unleash our chakra, it looses focus and it will fail."
Whoa, and I was about to try a rasengan. Hinata tried to use her juken. It looks like I can control my chakra as long as I contain it in my body. As soon as it hits the air, though, it becomes almost impossible to control. It looks like it is just going to be a battle of weapons and taijutsu.
"Do you think they are despairing yet, brother?"
"No, brother, I think that they still have some hope. Maybe if they saw one of their friends die they would lose hope."
"I agree, that little girl who figured out our jutsu would be a worthy one to kill."
"It is true, her blood contains a Kekkei Genkai and she is the first to understand the nature of our jutsu. She would be a worthy one to kill."
"Do you want the pleasure?"
"No, brother, after you."
"Thank you, brother."
Hinata held her ground, ready to dodge anything. Come on, Naruto. Suddenly a long katana appeared out of the mist as it came stabbing towards her. She bent backwards, barely dodging the blade that would have pierced her heart. As she did she saw the blade pass over her and continue on. That is one long sword. He must be close. Hinata blindly fell to her back before kicking with both feet at where she assumed her attacker was. The outcome was her kicking thin air and being in a perfect position for the blade to come slicing down at her. She rolled out of the way, managing to only nick her shoulder. The pain from the wound was almost blinding, but Hinata jumped to her feet and grabbed the blade, freezing it. The blade immediately disappeared, shooting back into the mist.
"Hinata, those two blades they wield are not normal blades. The Shamshir-e can extend to five times its original length and the Amenonuhoko is a naginata that was known to be able to create earth." Shizune had her needles ready to fire in the direction of the next attack. Jiriya had a large kunai in preparation to attack, as did Sakura. Hinata stood with her hands glowing.
"Brother, the little girl froze my Shamshir-e."
"Well, brother, maybe we should both attack her, then."
"I agree, brother."
A long, wide blade came sweeping in from Hinata's side. She knew that it was a set up. It is the perfect height so I would want to jump it, because ducking would be hard. Hinata threw herself to the ground before rolling towards the wielder of the naginata. A katana blade passed over her head before changing directions and almost stabbing into her. Hinata rose from the ground and touched the pole of the naginata, freezing it. Then she threw her other hand in a strike, intending to smash the pole into fragments. She was surprised, and in pain, when the frozen pole resisted her attack, breaking her hand. The pole came up to her face, throwing her through the mist away from her friends. A blade came flying out of the mist in front of her, catching up to Hinata as she flew backwards. She saw it just in time and caught the blade between her feet, freezing it again. She used the blade as leverage and shoved it into the ground. She ran back up the blade, intending to kill its master. But before she was even halfway up the blade the blade retracted under her feet. Hinata's hand was now broken, making it impossible for her to do anymore jutsu. And, worse, her friends were nowhere to be seen. Damn it.
"Brother told me to kill you while he takes care of the others. You are indeed an experienced ninja, too strong to merely be a chunin as my information tells me. I will enjoy killing you, a worthy trophy, unlike the demon."
"You aren't even half the ninja he is!"
"And yet he falls into my trap the same way you have." Hinata grit her teeth at his insult. "But I don't blame you, little girl, for sticking up for him. It is too bad that he is not here to save you."
"I am perfectly capable of saving myself!"
"Then why don't you prove it?" Hinata watched as the long katana came sweeping down in a vertical slice that would have clove her in two, but instead of rolling to the side she ran towards it. She did a diving roll as the blade came close to her head. As she came out of her roll she ran at full speed to where the one holding the katana should be. The blade behind he kept shirking at an amazing rate and swinging down, nearly cutting her but her speed kept it barely off of her. She saw a figure in the mist. I have you! Hinata used her remaining hand to freeze the katana's handle to its master and then freeze both of his knees. She then kicked one of the knees, expecting it to break the leg. It shattered. The ninja she had just partially frozen crashed to the ground in a pool of blood. What? I shouldn't have been able to do that. She felt the blood on the ground. It was cold. This isn't blood. "A water clone." Hinata jumped instinctively out of the way as a separate katana came sweeping at her legs. Another blade stabbed towards her, and another, and another. Soon the air was filled with swords coming out of every section of the mist. It was all Hinata could do to dodge them. "Kaiten!" Hinata spun in a circle, every blade that came in close was bent backwards and disintegrated into water droplets. Soon the air was clear again. Hinata stopped spinning, breathing hard from the exertion of pouring her chakra out of every tenketsu in her body.
"Hahahaha… indeed you are strong! Stronger then even I could have guessed. No one has ever lived against me as long as you have. I should keep your head as a remembrance of your bravery and skill."
"Who says you are going to even get my head?"
"It isn't your decision. You don't stand a chance. Not when I can see you perfectly and you can't even tell where I am."
"All I need to do is hold out until Naruto comes back."
"I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you. The trap he is in was based off of the jutsu used to contain the Shukaku from Suna in a teapot for years. I think it can hold this Naruto of yours for long enough time for me to kill you." Hinata frowned. How long will it take for Naruto to escape? Suddenly she felt something brush against her leg. She smiled.
"Too bad, your trap can't contain Naruto for even ten minutes!"
"Really? Then why isn't he here…" Suddenly a grunt was heard by Hinata. The mist began to thin. She saw two figures in the mist and they slowly became more clear. One was her attacker, a tall man in nothing but a pair of black pants and black wrapping around his mouth. His sword, a katana with it's hilt covered in emeralds, was held in the air unmoving by what appeared to be nothing. The other figure, as Hinata knew, was Naruto. The katana's blade had barely missed his shoulder as it had extended to its near ten meter length. Hinata saw blood dripping off of the blade. Suddenly she knew what was holding the blade in midair.
"Hey, Hina, do you think this guy knows who he is up against?"
"Watch out Naruto!" Behind them stood the other three members of their team, each facing the other blade master of the mist. "That blade was specially designed to wound demons!" Naruto's eyes went wide as the katana master smirked. Hinata saw with her Byakugan the chakra he suddenly ran into the sword. Naruto fell to his knees, sweating and twitching in pain, but his tail, still pierced by the sword, didn't move.
"Naruto!" Hinata ran towards the mist ninja, ready to freeze his arms off, when the man swung his sword around, throwing Naruto off of the blade and into the charging Hinata. Naruto's genjutsu broke.
"Well, brother, it looks like the kid really is a demon. Not just a container like they told us." Sakura and Shizune gasped at Naruto's appearance. Naruto's whisker marks became slightly more pronounced as he stood up.
"Damn straight! You think you can beat me?"
"It is not so much if we think that we can beat you, it is more if we think we can take you alive and receive the extra cash for you." Naruto bared his sharp teeth.
"No one hurts my friends and gets away with it!" Naruto took his tails and poured chakra into them, each becoming as hard and as sharp as a sword, though as flexible and long as a whip. "Leave now, before I actually start to fight." The two ninjas just smirked. The one standing in front of Jiriya and the others put his naginata above his head. He stabbed it blade first into the ground. Suddenly Naruto was thrown into the air by a pillar of rock. Jiriya was ready for the break. "Needle Guardian Spiral!" Jiriya's hair surrounded his body completely as he jumped into the hair towards the ninja with the naginata. The ninja instantly removed the blade from the ground and used it to block the spinning sennin. Jiriya stopped the spiral and grabbed the naginata with his own hands and swung his now long and sharp hair around it. The attack perforated the shoulder of the swordsman.
Naruto blocked the follow up attacks by the extended katana with his tails, leaving two unused. It worked the first time I worked on the rasengan, it should work this time. If I don't have enough control with one hand I can just use two. The two free tails began spiraling around another, using the chakra to build up a large ball of chakra the size of Naruto's upper body. The energy, this time, was contained by the two extra tails constantly pouring their own chakra into the stabilization of the newly created rasengan. Naruto finally fell to the earth and used his immense speed to appear in front of the startled ninja. "Fox Rasengan!" The tail sped to where the ninja had been instants ago, but the s-ranked ninja managed to barely miss taking a direct hit. The rasengan hit the ground under the jumping ninja, exploding in a whirlwind of energy. All of the combatants were thrown to the ground, amazingly all five of the Konoha ninjas were closest to the large rocks while the two mist ninjas had been thrown back towards where they had come from.
"Go!" Naruto shouted at his friends. "I can take care of these two. Just keep going!" Hinata grabbed his shoulder. "No! We can help you…"
"Hinata, I know you can. But if I make a mistake and one of you gets hurt by me because of my lack of training in this body then I would never forgive myself. Please, run!" Naruto charged off towards the two ninjas, now standing, as Hinata stood behind. Jiriya grabbed her by the waist and threw her over his shoulder as he ran towards the rock.
"No, master Jiriya! He might need us!"
"Hinata, trust Naruto's judgement! If he thinks we could get hurt by one of his jutsus then we should at least get behind these rocks!"
"You mean…"
"No, we aren't going to leave him here. We just need to take some cover before he lets loose!" Hinata stopped her weeping and looked back at the three figures fighting in the distance. Good luck, Naruto!
"So, you escaped."
"Escaped what?"
"Brother, he doesn't even know he was trapped!"
"That is very funny, brother."
"Whatever, you two are going down."
"How do you plan on doing that, demon? My katana could paralyze you in pain."
"And my naginata could trap you in the earth like the fox you are."
"Oh, I plan on doing it this way. Naruto did a few hand signs, keeping his tails behind his back. He kept doing hand signs. And he kept doing hand signs.
"Brother, I think he is bluffing. There is no jutsu with that many hand signs."
"Indeed, I think he is just stalling for those other ninja. Do you think of them as friends, demon? No one is friends with a demon." Naruto's eyes opened from his concentration.
"They aren't just my friends. They are the people I have sworn to protect." Slowly Naruto's tails came out from behind his back, the top most one was straight up, unmoving as the rest moved around it at speeds unseen. The one tail above Naruto's head held a fiery ball of chakra. The two swordsmen stared at the ball, easily the size of both of them put together. Naruto smiled. "And I will protect them. You might think that your are unbeatable, but anyone who messes with my wife and comrades can consider themselves dead." The two ninja prepared for the final thrust of the ball of death, ready to jump either way. "There is no dodging this attack. Fire and Wind Style: Hell!" The ball of energy on top of his tail began to expand, and as it did the fire inside became more and more unstable. The last memory either ninja had was off the ball's walls collapsing in on themselves and unleashing a pain and heat neither could have imagined.
Tsunade sat at her desk drinking sake and trying to understand the paper in front of her when the sunset outside suddenly became the lesser of two lights brightening up the sky. Out, many many miles away as far as she could tell, an explosion the size of Konoha burst from the forest.
Jiriya, Shizune, Sakura and Hinata all crouched down into the hole Jiriya had made with an Earth jutsu, knowing that the only reason they weren't dead was because the large rock above them was thick and the hole behind them was filled in. Hinata reached up to touch the massive rock above their heads and instantly regretted it. It was as hot as if it had been lying in a fire for days. Shizune had already started to heal her broken hand and sighed as Naruto's wife burned her other one.
"Hinata, isn't it enough to wound one of your hands?" Hinata ignored the medic as she stared up to where she assumed Naruto was.
"I hope he is ok…"
"Don't worry. I saw him use this move once before and he wasn't hurt. It wasn't this powerful though… this was beyond anything I have ever heard of..."
"Yeah, if anyone can take care of himself, it is Naruto." Sakura and Shizune had gotten over the shock of seeing Naruto's true form, but were still waiting for an explanation.
"You're right." Hinata focused some chakra into her hands, trying to aid the healing process. "Naruto can do anything he puts his mind to."
Naruto stood in what had once been the middle of a road. Now the surrounding miles of land were a scorched wasteland. Not one tree had escaped the inferno, the closest to the epicenter had been completely incinerated, leaving no trace. The two rocks at Naruto's back had decreased in size, as the outer area had been turned into molten rock, filling the crack in between the two. The ground was black in some areas, molten in others, burned to the point of turning the clay into rock and the tiny particles of sand into glass. Naruto collapsed to his knees, completely fine and free from burns, but afraid. What the hell did I do? The first time I did that I at least left partial trees and it was only a few kilometers. This time... how do I control this power? It is almost like my best attacks will kill everyone in the area. I don't even know if my friends made it out of the blast area before… oh no, Hinata! I can't smell Hinata! I can't smell anything in this burned area! Naruto jumped over the rocks, not daring to touch the recently cooled molten rock. As he landed he saw that the devastation on this side of the rocks was not nearly as bad, but he still couldn't see the end of it. Be alive, be alive, be alive. Naruto used all of his speed in running off on the path his friends were supposed to take.
Jiriya sat in the hole, deciding on whether or not it was safe to come out or not. The rest of the group had begun to rest, Jiriya staying awake to let in air when it was necessary. Damn it, Naruto. Be alive.