Hello guys! Welcome back! It's been a while, and I can imagine what kind of expectations you have for next chapter! I personally don't think I have written any chapter better than this one in terms of the drama behind fighting that one person you hold dear. But of course, this story is young and so am I, I'm sure we'll see even more interesting, touching battles.
Almost 5000 people have read my fic, or at least viewed it, and I know you guys are inside that huge group, so I want to say thank you to all of those who have been following the story so passionately, despite the mistakes I might make due to my language skills and whatnot.
Have a good read!
[...]
VI. Snow.
[...]
"Are you sure you want to do this...? There's really nothing we can get from him other than ruining the good mood."
While his steps echoed throughout the uncomfortable, narrow corridor, the masked ninja pushed a relatively small wheelchair, in which a blue-haired woman was sitting. She had a determined look in her eyes, as if they were burning with the desire of something more important than her apparent physical lack of mobility. She had worn fresh, white clothes directly from the hospital she had been living up until then, and the fabric almost had as much light within itself as the shyly diminute torches trying awkwardly to illuminate the hallway. She nodded at hearing the man's question.
"I think I'm the only one who should actually talk to him. And also the only one who can, perhaps." Konan looked behind herself prudently. "I take it he was from Konoha?"
"Yeah."
"Any ideas what might have happened that turned him into... Well... That?" Konan asked, looking forward again, while she sensed her "bodyguard" going a bit apprehensive whenever the subject was brought up.
"From what I could gather, he witnessed the loss of a comrade who he loved dearly... At the hands of another comrade, who he apparently considered a friend."
"Is that so? And how did that happen...? Which comrades were they?" Konan suddenly felt quite interested. As soon as the masked ninja had mentioned "losing a comrade thanks to another comrade", her mind automatically flew back to her past, when she felt the pain of being powerless in front of the world's cruel reality... When her comrades had to follow the same path.
"Nohara Rin, from Medical Corps... She was a rookie Medical Ninja. And Hatake Kakashi, who by that time wasn't known as the Copy Nin, yet."
"What...?" Konan looked at the masked man again, her eyes wide open due to surprise and a feeling of guilt that, strangely, didn't belong to her. But it was there. As if, somehow, she had found a small connection to Kakashi in a hurricane of dead bonds in which no such word as "comrade" or even "friend" existed anymore. And that small connection made her feel guilty of listening to a man that had been his ally.
"I guess he was in love with her...?" Konan asked, turning her head again, feeling the road to a certain cell get shorter.
"You'll have to ask him that yourself, I'm afraid." The hooded ANBU made a right turn a bit harshly, and walked a few steps forward, until both of them reached the only cell in that floor. Or in the whole building, for that matter. A building that stood as one of the most feared prisons ever conceived by men in the Shinobi World. Jigoku.
There, in the midst of the darkest darkness possible, despite the constant cracking of the same torches and the faint, ghostly light emanating from Konan's clothes, a man about as old as Konan herself was gazing through the window... He was tall, well proportioned, and his hair gave the sensation of being made of darkness. He looked worn out. At least, as far as Konan could see. He was giving his back to them.
"What do you want...?" His cold voice asked away, leaving it clear that he had sensed them coming long ago.
"Are you sure that you want to go inside, miss...?" The ANBU enquired, seemingly fearing the worst that could happen. Konan smiled lowly, putting her hand right on his and giving it a small pat.
"Isn't this cell like, completely isolated from people and any possible Chakra sources? Plus, the Chakra one may have is constantly being drawin by these walls unless one has a seal like yours, isn't that right, Sekai-san? I'm sure I'll be fine... He doesn't even look like he would do anything funny."
"Yeah, you're right about the first thing. Okay. I'll... Wait outside. Scream or whatever if something happens."
"Roger."
Sekai made half a seal with his right hand, and a loud "CLANG" was heard, echoing all the way to the entrance door, perhaps. He pushed the wheelchair so it would be right in front of the sole prisoner, and then left without further ado, his robe flapping muffedly as he walked away.
"That voice..." The man turned his head, or rather, slightly moved it to the right, as if considering it uninteresting to actually see his visitor. "...You couldn't be...?"
"Konan. Yeah."
She squeezed the wheelchair's armrest with her hands for a bit, as the man wrapped in the darkness of the room walked towards the only bed... If that could be considered a bed... And sat on it, a pair of different coloured lights shining from his eyes. Purple and red. He apparently agreed with Konan, mentally, that having a conversation whilst in such blackness was completely unnecessary. Especially when looking at each other's eyes was prime priority. He moved his left hand, and activated a small lamp-like torch, resting in the wall beside his bed.
"What are you doing here...?"
"I just have some questions."
"How are you even alive...? I thought..."
"Well, then I'm happy to see you get the same feeling I had while I was losing our fight. Though unlike you, I can't really say I survived due to my abilities or my skills... I thought myself dead. But I was found by that ANBU who just left and his squad. They gave me first aid, took me to Konoha and had me treated by the Hokage and her assistant. I was lucky." Konan snorted while smiling. "Why, I didn't even want to survive... But at the same time, I just didn't die. My body just didn't stop moving... Working. I had lost the will to live, but apparently not my life itself. Now, I think I'm glad it went that way."
"Is that what you came here for? To tell me how my killing you turned out to be a failure and how you now live in that little rainbow world of yours? Please. I could care less."
"I know. I just felt like telling you."
"And now I just feel like throwing up."
Konan let out a faint chuckle, which gradually became loud laughter... But not an insane one. No. She was laughing from her heart, there was happiness coming out of her, and after several seconds of gasping and holding laughter back somehow, Konan stopped. Wiped out some grinning tears, and looked at the man.
"What's so funny?" He asked aggresively.
"The fact that, in the end... You and I shared way more than I had ever thought. And yet life decided our future to be so different... Or perhaps it wasn't life who decided anything, but us? I wonder. Anyway, it is funny. In a way, you and I could have been close friends... We could have found shelter on each other's arms. In fact..."
She looked closely at the man's face, which was torn in two. His right side was completely scarred and damaged. His left was unscathed, and was the one that gave her the feeling of speaking with someone her age.
"...Now that I can actually see what lies behind the mask, I almost felt like hugging you."
"It seems Tsunade did way more than just treating your wounds..." The man snorted, folding his arms. "...Perhaps her medical beverages had a couple illegal chemicals? Funguses? Herbs? You pick one. Though I'd say only Genjutsu, especially one as strong as the one from my Clan, could leave someone as mentally handicapped as you are. You and I sharing? Is that supposed to be funny?"
"Your name is Uchiha Obito, right?"
"You can call me that, Madara, Tobi... It makes no difference to me."
"I'll take that as a yes... It's nice to meet you Obito. And by the way... We do share a lot. I pressume you're familiar with seeing your comrades killing each other? Or more like... Seeing the person you love be killed by the one you trust as your friend?"
Silence. Obito's expression changed from sarcastic, bossy and arrogant, to enraged and hurt. All in less than a second. Konan smiled mockingly.
"You know, the best thing about dealing with those who "kill their emotions", is that you'll always find that one thing that triggers even the slightest emotion from them. And the feeling you get from making them realize how stupid they are for neglecting their condition as human beings, is actually priceless... If only I had a mirror with me... You'd be able to look at your own face, and see how much you care about those two."
"What do you want?" Obito said, his folded hands squeezing his biceps angrily.
"Where is Nagato's right eye?" Konan said calmly, though her smile disappeared instantly, and her face showed once more the fire and determination from minutes ago. "Where is Nagato's Rinnegan?"
[...]
"HAKKE KUUSHOU!"
The only reason why it was slightly possible to listen to those two words for a short second, was that the two persons who shouted them loudly danced, or rather, moved with such grace and such fluency before actually launching their attacks, that any man, woman or child watching the fight would have thought they were not fighting, but trying to seduce each other... Sort of.
It was a common, known fact that the Hyuuga Clan from Konoha housed the most beautiful and graceful battle style of all times, since long ago. No other style could bring so many people interested into battles to begin with. Many Taijutsu techniques and moves were inspired in the Hyuuga's soft Taijutsu and Juuken, and though these imitations have often gained enough reputation on their own right, the Hyuuga style remains unbeaten. But only those who had actually battled a Hyuuga realized how scary that beautiful style was. Not being able to use Chakra. Not being able to move. Having all your movements read one by one. all your ninjutsu and shuriken jutsu nullified... Certainly, unless some sort of careful planning had been made beforehand, giving your all against a Hyuuga will probably take you as close as a sweat drop from his or her body.
And this battle... This battle was out of anybody's expectations. Nobody was watching, but it was a battle that could easily be remembered for the rest of the course of history itself. It was not often that two members of the Hyuuga Clan fought to death... Least of all the most unlikely of those: Hyuuga Neji, a deceased genius, and Hyuuga Hinata, the current heiress. Just the name of the first technique had been cried out, and there were already furious holes in several tree logs. Neji and Hinata spun to their left, and attacked once more, yelling the same name for a second time. Their right palms stroke the air violently, as if using phsychic abilities to repel the atmosphere itself. The air could actually be seen, as a transparent blur, a colorless beam of wind that flew angrily towards its target. Each Hyuuga's heart.
However, both attacks clashed in mid air, making it explode like an invisible shockwave that forced both Neji and Hinata to back off several feet, by mere inertia. They looked at each other, Hinata gasping lowly and glaring at her cousin with her Byakuugan making her glare more threatening than it usually is.
"You've become strong, Hinata-sama. Stronger than I had expected. How much time has passed...?" Neji said, smiling kindly, unlike what he usually did in life. Hinata deactivated her Byakuugan for a moment, though she didn't break her battle stance. She was still mad. Very mad. But in her expression, there were also feelings of sadness, for having to face the person she wanted to face the least in battle... And of happiness, because she had secretly dreamed of seeing him again.
"Three to four months. It's been a bit hard to keep the record, since many things have happened after you died..."
"Tell me... Can I safely assume you won the war?"
"Yes."
"Then, Madara...? And that man who was Kakashi-sensei's friend...? The Juubi?"
"Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Madara were way too strong for us to handle. At least with the Juubi. We had to seal them away and then focus in the Juubi... It's a miracle so many of us survived the fight against that monster."
"Seal them away? How?"
"Uchiha Obito was sent to Jigoku, alone, after he and Kakashi-sensei had their battle. Madara fought with our unexpected reinforcements... The Edo Tensei Versions of The First Hokage-sama, Nidaime-sama, Sandaime-sama and Yondaime-sama."
"What?! How is that even possible...? Who brought them back?!"
"The same man who brought you, apparently." Hinata activated her Byakuugan again, regaining her intimidating glare. "For some reason, he left them do as they pleased during the war... It's thanks to them that we actually won. And Naruto as well. The fact that we encountered Orochimaru today is simply bad luck during our mission... But... As soon as I'm over with this, I'm going to help Naruto as much as I can."
"Huuuuh..." Neji smiled again, his blackened eyes depicting an expression that Hinata had never seen in him before, unless he was sparring with Lee. "...That's a nice source of confidence you have right there. Good. You will need it against me. Have you finally mastered it, Hinata-sama?"
But she said nothing more, and rather dashed towards Neji with her hands ready to attack. The brown-haired Hyuuga had little time to even worry about stances, and guarded as he could. Hinata went for his left shoulder first, but Neji deflected her hand upwards with his left arm. Hinata used the same deflected arm to strike Neji's left arm downwards, leaving him half-open to attacks. Hinata then attacked with her left hand, which moved as fast as an arrow, though Neji spun on himself like a top and countered with a low kick. Hinata did the same, spinning towards the opposite direction and stopping Neji's kick with her own. The clash forced them both to back off again, after which they returned to exchange blows. Neji went for Hinata's stomach, but she stopped his hand dead with both her palms.
"Bad choice for an attack..." She said, grabbing Neji's hand from the wrist.
"Nice reflects, Hinata-sama...!"
Hinata pulled Neji's arm closer, and raid it with incredibly fast attacks done with her index and heart fingers alone, from her left hand. Neji's right hand went numb afterwards, and though his Jounin uniform's black cloth hid the small, red dotted spots that her Juuken had hit in his arm, Hinata knew they were there. Her cousin smiled.
"Good job. But it's not over yet... Remember that I can activate the flow of Chakra again whenever I want with my own arm. You'll have to hit the Chakra circulation points in my left arm too, if you really want to rid me of my arms and my Juuken!"
"I'm on it."
Hinata launched a full attack right on Neji's chest, though she had of course underestimated her cousin's genius at the Hyuuga's Taijutsu Style. She used her both hands to attack as fast as she could, yet he only used one to guard against each of her attacks. She stopped suddenly, leaving his arm in the open. Hinata made to hit his arm with her right hand's index and heart fingers together, but at the same time, Neji decided to spin on himself towards his left side, completely hiding his arm from her attack and countering with a roundhouse kick directed to her belly. Hinata rose her left leg the same height as her waist, and stopped the kick dead. She deflected it, and went back to Neji's left arm.
"Wrong... You should have Juuken'd my leg as well, Hinata-sama..."
"What?!"
He was right. As Hinata dashed towards his arm, Neji took the advantage of Hinata's deflecting his leg to spin in the other direction, and he did it with so much speed and focusing so much Chakra, that Hinata had only a few seconds to react without getting blown. She jumped back as Neji's Chakra covered him in a blue, spinning fortress. However...
"His Kaiten is slowing down more rapidly, because he's not using his right arm. If could just..."
She aimed carefully, as her cousin's Kaiten slowly ended spinning. Then, she hit the air with her palm again.
"Hakke Kuushou!"
The vacuum aired strike towards Neji's chest, and caught him by surprise. The Edo Tensei'd ninja fell back, but before his body hit the ground, Hinata had shown up behind him. Neji's eyes widened greatly. It was just as if he was fighting with Lee, and as if he had just gone for a Hidden Lottus just then. "How did Hinata-sama get this fast?!". Hinata touched the middle of his back gently, and yelled the same words from before again. The vacuum air made Neji fly upwards, all the way to the top of the trees, from where he could easily see how fast Hinata moved, jumping from the ground to the branches, to where he was in a matter of seconds.
"If you did master it, Hinata-sama, this is the time to use it!" He spun on himself again, despite being in mid-air. From the amount of Chakra he was about to release, Hinata could tell he was about to kill her the moment she got nearer. She frowned and greeted her teeth on fury, cursing Orochimaru for turning Neji in nothing more than a killing machine. She jumped towards him as he continued the spinning, and she herself joined his act by spinning towards the opposite direction. Their voices echoed throughout the entire forest:
"CHOU HAKKESHOU KAITEN!!"
Two gigantic spheres of blue chakra surrounded both Hyuuga members, spinning like a star and expanding like a furious bomb. The contact between the two Kaiten attacks not only made both explosions harsher, but created a shock-wave of vacuum air that obliterated several trees on their whole. Hinata and Neji continued spinning like human tops, their clash sending sparks all over the place, until Neji's Kaiten sphere finally got smaller than Hinata's, and eventually vanished. Neji was then pulled in by the force created within Hinata's Kaiten, as are meteors attracted to planets once they enter they gravitational zone. As he so much as touched the sphere, his cousin's attack slashed him continuously like a hundred kunais, though the damage was done within. Had he had any actual vital organs, he would have died the second he made contact with her Kaiten.
Hinata stopped spinning in mid-air, which sent Neji flying downwards and threw him to the ground aggressively. His body landed in the messiest way possible, hitting several tree logs and rubble, and leaving a ground trail behind him. But Hinata didn't land yet. She used her slight floating advantage to attack again. Neji's eyes, which had widened for many moments throughout the battle and more than they had during his lifetime's battles, went wider this time as she spun on herself, but did not elaborate another Kaiten. instead, thin stripes of what appeared to be blue light were gracefully coming out of the tip of her palms.
"Shugohakke Rokujuuyon Shou!"
Another blue sphere surrounded Hinata this time, but instead of a spinning one, this one was made of countless stripes of blue Chakra, and the more Hinata spun on herself while she gracefully fell down to the ground, the more the sphere expanded and the closer it got to Neji, who smiled as he felt Hinata's strongest attach reach him and take him out as it did with the environment.
"Finally, Hiashi-sama... This is the daughter you wanted...."
Hinata landed right in front of him. Around them, many of the forest's trees were reduced to nothing thanks to Hinata's attack, which turned the place in a considerably wide glade. Neji tried to move and stand up, but he then noticed how every single part of his body was visually hurt, slashed, thanks to her technique. There were countless slashes throughout his body, arms and even face, which caused his Edo Tensei Reincarnation to begin fading away in the form of gray pieces of paper. He was beginning to regennerate. Hinata pulled out a regular kunai, and threw it to him... the kunai pierced his heart all the way to the tree log behind him, nailing him to it. Furthermore, as he caught with his eyes, the kunai's strange kanji-like markings in the handle reacted to his body. It was a Fuuin Jutsu. Neji smiled yet again.
"Impressive, Hinata-sama. Really impressive."
"I wish..." Hinata kneeled down and put a hand on his cheek. "...I wish you could have stopped calling me that long before you died, Niisan..."
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't the reason you hated me the fact that the Main Family and the Branch Family could never be too close to each other, unless it was about protection...? All what happened to your father... To you... I wish you had let go of all that, by calling me Hinata. Simply Hinata."
"I stopped hating you a long time ago, Hinata-sama. Even before Naruto left for those years..." Neji closed his eyes. "...My fight with him... Losing to him was what made me let go of my past and all what I thought I knew about my father and yours... Yes... Naruto is not only important to you, Hinata-sama. I obviously can't marry him or say that I love him, but... I'm glad that I could be his comrade and die protecting the both of you."
He let out a tiny chuckle, while Hinata's tears began to flow.
"... You two are together, aren't you...?I could see it in his eyes, before he left."
"Yes... Kind of."
"Kind of?"
"Sasuke-kun returned to the village... He's married Sakura-san, and you can imagine how hard that was for him... So I'm trying to make him feel better... And while at it, well, we..." She blushed a bit, even while crying, which made her look incredibly cuter than what she usually looked. Neji's laughter was louder this time.
"Hiashi-sama is going to kill him..." He covered his face with his palm, smirking. Hinata remained crying silently, as Neji's body started fading into the Kunai's Fuuin Jutsu.
"Hinata-sama..."
"Yes?"
"Remember what I said that time...? When it was snowing...?"
[...]
TWO YEARS AGO
[...]
She couldn't hear anything. She knew there was music, that hundreds and hundreds of people were present, that perhaps many of those hundreds were locked up in the same world of agony, the same dimension of pain she was. The leaves of Konohagakure had refrained from falling that day, and as sunset colored everything red and gold, the Hyuuga Mansion somehow seemed to be made of some of wood mixed with orhialcum, or some sort of golden, fantastic material. But she could not understand a single thing of everything that was happening. Why was it that the mansion chose to look so beautiful precisely that day? Or why is it that all these people finally come to understand the importance of that person when it's too late?
Why does everybody seem to get the right picture of things, when they are already powerless to do anything? Is it that they were too busy? Too scared? Is it that they thought it wasn't their business to meddle with? Or perhaps they actually thought that person could simply carry on, nurturing the village with that tremendously big love of hers, while not receiving nearly as big as much as she was giving away? Were they actually stupid enough to believe that she was going to live forever? that she was going to stay there with them, for as long as the village was alive?
No...
It was her. It was Hinata herself... It was Hinata, the one wearing black memorial outfit, standing in the middle of her mourning, yet serious father and her just as serious younger sister... It was that Hinata, her fists trembling with pain, and her eyes beginning to sting with tears, the one who actually thought that person, that beautiful woman, with blueish dark hair that was inherited by Hinata, with face features that resembled the latter as much as did the hair, and with a faint, little smile on that same face, though everybody knew she couldn't even see anymore, was going to live forever.
Her coffin had her name written on her...
HYUUGA HANABIRA
"Okaa-san..." Hinata thought bitterly, saying to herself that as a Shinobi, she shouldn't be showing her weaknesses off like that... But then again, all shinobi tried to act tough and cold whenever they are not the ones struck by the death of a loved one. Once they are the ones affected... Does that rule still apply? Is it bad if one still wants to cry and be weak for a little while? She was fifteen, a kid for many... Little more than a baby to her father. Would it be such a big deal if she showed weakness in front of all those strangers from which only about a quarter Hinata could actually say they really cared about her mother?
"Hinata-sama..."
The male, deep voice reached her ears and made her finally come back from her outer dimension. The music filling the place finally was coming to her ears too, and the air she was breathing had at last, a taste. It was like she had woken up from a dream, though she was not sure which was the dream anymore. Both were just as bad. Both were worlds without her. She turned around to find the source of the voice that had called her, and found Neji right behind her. For some reason, locking eyes with him had activated (if such was the right word to use) the natural effect of Konoha's trees. Leaves and flowers started falling again... Neji looked very sad, but he was still smiling. It was a smile too painful to watch, though Hinata did wonder what was more painful to watch in the first place... His expression, or hers.
"Come. Being here won't do you any good... Come with me."
Hinata merely nodded, and let Neji take her hand and guide her out and away from the turmoil, the crowd and the rest of the Hyuuga Main Family's coldness. While she feared she would get lost while walking behind him and trying to avoid so many people without pushing them, she also felt happy that Neji had taken the initiative and found her. She wouldn't have known what to do, stuck between the most painful thing that had ever happened to her and the fact that any and all tears shed would only feed her father's disappointment and Hanabi's superiority complex even further. She didn't know what to do even there, walking behind her cousin. Though at least that moment, she felt like she could at least be a little weak, if only for a few minutes.
Before she noticed, both she and Neji were on the Mansion's balcony. An especial place in which Hinata liked to spend a lot of time alone or with her friends from Team 8 whether it be to think, to play shogi, to see them training or get a great glimpse of the whole Konoha. Hyuuga's mansion was huge enough to have ascending territory, and right there, sitting on the wooden corridor and letting their feet hang from the edge, Hinata noticed how it was already getting dark.
"I know what you are going through..."
Hinata's face was suddenly shadowy, her blueish dark hair concealing most of her, and her hands shaking. Neji's eyes looked down at the village, and though he didn't cry, he did seem sad. He rested his right arm on his right knee and sighed.
"I know it's the Main Family's sort of... Self imposed rule, not to cry or show that you're weak in the inside. But right now, there's no Main Family Hyuuga watching. I'm a Branch Hyuuga, you see. And we do mourn our dead. Properly."
"Don't say that word...!" Hinata whispered weakly, and almost in a begging tone. She looked at him, her white gray eyes goint wet on the edges, and her hands shaking even more. She put her hand on her forehead and shook her head in a negative motion over and over again. Neji looked at her, both worried and sympathetically.
"Hinata-sama... You won't be able to move on unless you accept her fate. I'm not saying she had to die like this..." He added, as he saw Hinata's expression. "... I stopped believing in fate a long time ago. But... It reaches all of us. Death. It never stays away from any of us for any reason in particular. It reaches us, never late or early, but on the time it is supposed to. Hanabira-sama didn't have to die like this, true... But... Her role was already close enough to be over. And now it has been trusted on to you, Hinata-sama..."
"I can't do it..." Hinata hugged herself. "...I can't replace my mother. I'm not anything like her. I don't have the strength..."
"If you keep believing that, I'll eventually surpass you and take on your title by force. Do get soft on me, and I promise I'll make you pay for it." Neji replied strongly. Hinata looked at him, and saw half his Byakuugan active.
"What do you think you're going to do for Naruto when he arrives, with that pitiful attitude...? What do you think he would say to you if he saw you like this? And bear in mind that he's been alone since the start. He's gone through much more than both you and I. How are your arms supposed to reach him... Unless you beat me, unless you surpass me? I was beaten by him, but I'm still stronger than you. Do you think it should still be that way?"
"Stronger than me?!" Hinata half-activated her Byakuugan. Today was not the day for anybody to mistake her for the little girl everybody chose to not give a damn about, or to even think that they could screw with. She had no longer any patience or any sense of shame to go and spit up everything she was holding back, everything and anything she had held back for the sake of trying to be as good as her mother, or perhaps even better. But the truth was, inside... Her mother kept a graceful swan inside, flying, dancing, infatuating every single breathing soul around it. But inside Hinata, there was no swan. No gracefulness, no flying and no dancing. Hinata's soul was the roar of a lioness, and it slashed everything up, destroyed it and ate it aggressively as it saw fit.
"Do prove to me how are you stronger than me?! Last I checked, little man, I was the heiress of this Clan. The one appointed to take the lead of it and represent the cornerstone of the next generation. You think a little Byakuugan glaring is going to intimidate me? You're almost cute!" She completely activated her Byakuugan, and greeted her teeth loudly, standing up and adopting the Juuken fighing style. But to her surprise, Neji's Byakuugan was all but gone, and on his expression was a simple, honest smile.
"There it is. The Hinata I've been trying to see since forever ago. Good. This is what I need from my superior. Otherwise, she'd have to step down." He turned his gaze back to the village, leaving Hinata ready for battle and heated up for nothing. He chuckled, as she deactivated her Byakuugan and sat next to him.
"Did you know...?" Neji looked at the night sky once. "...They say that snow is one of the natural phenomenons that represent us Hyuuga members the most. Do you know why...?"
"Why?" Hinata asked, coiling up and wondering if it was okay to let her head rest in his shoulder.
"...Because, they say that our ancestors, our past leaders and mentors who died in battle or due to sickness, ascended to the sky in the form of crystals. Big crystals of ice. Not in the funerals, of course, but sometime after buried... When we can't see. And they say that when it snows, it means that they can sense your sadness and are crying with you. That's why, whenever it's snowing, you can feel the snowflakes melt on your hands, but it never gets cold until way later... They want to let you know that they're with you, and that they will cry enough for what you don't. That's one of the reasons behind Hiashi-sama's and the rest of the Hyuuga Main Family's lack of tears. But you know what else...?"
"What...?" Hinata had momentarily forgotten about her sadness and looked upwards, like Neji, as if trying to see any snowflakes.
"Sometimes snow makes people happy right? Kids play with it and whatnot... And, truth be told, the snow is beautiful. Isn't it kind of sad to make it only relate to tears...? That's why, we Branch Hyuuga members are always saying that when it's snowing, our people are not telling you to be sad or to cry, more like they're telling you to let go of the tears you need to let go of, and then move on. Of course, you can't play with your tears, so our people take the form of white snow so you can play with it, and smile right after crying. So you can make happier memories with it, and be stronger than what you are now. Oh, look!"
Sure enough, there was certainly some truth to what Neji had just randomly explained. Though they were in the middle of spring, there was white snow falling from the sky, and poking the ground. Hinata didn't feel cold, but rather looked back at where her mother's coffin would be, and then back at Neji, who nodded.
"Yes... She already wants you to be stronger, Hinata-sama. Both of us. So, you're more than free to go ahead and cry."
As one of the snowflakes poked Hinata's face, right below her left eye, she kept looking at Neji, before she finally broke down and sobbed like she had never done before. Neji held her. And the snow fell harder as Hinata's tears fell with it.
[...]
"...Y-yes... I remember." Hinata smiled, crying a bit harder now.
"Look... It seems she was also watching over me, Hinata-sama." Neji pointed his head up, and Hinata could see snow falling around them. Just like that time, another snowflake touched Hinata's face below her left eye, as if her mother had just put her hand on her cheek.
"You really have surpassed me. You're worthy of being the heiress of our Clan."
"Neji-niisan... I..." Hinata wiped out her tears and smiled while the snow kept falling. "...Our Clan will never be the same without the three of you. Hizashi-sama, you and Okaa-san... But Otou-sama and Hanabi-chan are here with me still. I'll... I'll make sure our next generation surpasses the both of us. For your sake. So please..."
She took Neji's right hand with hers, and squeezed it.
"Please keep watching over us..."
"Of course." Neji smiled, and he was finally sealed completely. His whole body faded away and was sucked up by the kunai's absorbing seal. The only thing Hinata could hear as Neji's presence evaporated away was...
"Don't leave Naruto's side...We'll watch over him, too."
The last couple of tears falling down to the ground, Hinata smiled and looked up to the sky. She swore she could see three little birds dancing and playing with the snow as she walked away and saved her kunai in her holster carefully.
[...]
"Shit... I did say that I would only fight him long enough for them to escape with our target and those freaks... But messing around with Neji and Hinata like that... How can I even try to overlook that?! Damned Orochimaru...!"
Naruto furiously ran through the forest, trusting his emotional sensing abilities during his Full Bijuu Mode. His ethereal robe kept flapping around like a real one would, and the light shining from his flaming, sun-like chakra was strong enough to illuminate for a good hundred meters forward or so. He was torn between three very important, personal decisions. Number one: he wanted to check on Hinata. He didn't want to think the worst possible scenario, and it was his duty as her teammate and as a fellow Konoha ninja to believe in her strenght. But and Edo Tensei, and one of Neji, at that...?
Number two: he was also worried for the safety of his team. Those hooded ninja were still with them, and though they were unconscious, people with Orochimaru's chakra could always get unfathomably powerful, from situations that seemed impossible. The whole reason Shikamaru's mission with him, Neji, Kiba and Chouji failed that time, was because of this exact kind of people. He was now wondering if he was better off running back to them.
And Number three: he had long since promised himself that whenever possible, he would not kill. Anybody. He didn't feel like he was in the right to end a person's life, no matter what kind of person it was. It could have been the worst criminal ever, the worst psychopath, sociopath ever to come across his path, yet he would always go for the peaceful option. Locking him up, punishing him, even torturing him to a certain point... Which was still wrong, but... He tried to refrain from killing. Yet, this time... With Orochimaru...
"Tch!" His steps were gradually stronger, leaving small holes in the ground as he ran towards the direction in which Orochimaru had been thrown to. "How can peace even possibly exist, when there are people like him out there in the world, toying around with people's lives and the deaths of their loved ones? Whenever someone like him arises, hatred is bound to appear... Even from my heart! I'm no God after all... There is no God..."
"The fact that there is no God merely proves that there was never need for one."A familiar, growling voice said from within himself. Though he didn't spiritually go to speak with the Fox Bijuu, Naruto listened to him carefully. "What do you think you would do, if there was a God?"
"I'd probably leave everything in His hands, and sit down and relax. Yeah... I'd probably slack off, thinking he'll take care of everything else."
"Precisely. You know, old man Rikudou did say something once..."
"Huuuh? I thought someone didn't like talking about the Rikudou Sennin..." Naruto teased, as he sensed Orochimaru's "malice" closer by the second.
"Not the time. Just shut it and listen... He said that, bringing peace to the world would mean that there was no peace to begin with, right?"
"Well, yeah. That would only be the logical guess."
"And why do you think there was no peace before?"
"Because people wouldn't try to seize it? They would give in to their hatred?"
"You got it. Sort of. See, war is born from hatred, and peace is born from love. That's what you people usually think... But there are plenty of wars created for the sake of people's love towards someone or something. And also peace that was born merely to supress the boiling hatred that's inside. So, if peace can be born brom both hatred and love, and so can war, how are you going to bring peace, Naruto?"
"...I..." Naruto squeezed his own fists hardly, thinking deeply about his own feelings, especially in times when something like what had just happened with Orochimaru happens again. And even more especially, in times in which he had to face the same frustration he had to face whenever he and Sakura crossed eyes. "... If I had to answer logically, I'd say that it's impossible. Because as it happens with moral terms, like "right" and "wrong" and "justice", "love" and "hatred" can change between people's hearts... The love I feel could easily be another's hatred. And even if I try to understand why, no, even if I do understand why, there's no telling whether or not I can change that difference. It is clear enough that you can't change all people. Some are just too submerged in their own worlds...
"I'm glad that you get the picture as realistcally as I expected you to. But then, what do you think the Rikudou would do? After all he did bring peace to this world once. Does that mean that he was able to change all people? Or what do you think he did?"
"I think... I think he did change all people. In his own way. I think he heard every person's problem. He lend an ear to each one of them, and whenever he could, even a hand. But as I say... In his own way..."
"And what is that way?"
"I think what he did was make people preach what he himself used to preach. Let them be their own Rikuodu. Let people be their own people's Messiah...Teach them, talk to them, and more importantly, showing them what love is."
"And what is love?"
"Love is...To never give up. To never back down... Or run away. To always be there. Not because of things, but despite of them. Learning to accept both hatred and love from others. Like my Father loved my mother for who she was, despite that everyone else saw her as an intruder. Like my Mother loved my Father despite his laid-back, carefree attitude. Or like the way I loved both of them, despite the fact that they were never here with me, or that they sealed you inside me. Love is... Always see the bigger picture. Always see what's great within what's not so great... I love my parents because instead of sealing a Fox Demon inside me, they gave me a friend that watched over me and kept me alive up until now."
"Heh... Get real. I'm not going to flatter you or anything for saying cute stuff."
"Never would I ask for that, Kurama. Never."
"So...? What do you want to do about him?"
"I guess the proper answer to that would be that I would want to know the story behind that snaky face...But..." Naruto frowned angrily. "... I can't just forgive him so easily. It's because of him that Konoha has suffered so many hardships in the first place... He is the source of so much hatred, even mine..."
"Well, did you actually forgive Nagato when you talked to him and decided not to kill him?"
"No... It wasn't until later that I could forgive him. Way later. That's why this time, I'll fight Orochimaru with all I've got, and then I'll show him mercy. I'll try to know what happened to him... But first, I need to wipe that disgusting smile out of his face."
Kurama seemed to agree to the course of action, and went back to sleep on his island-like chamber. Naruto, who found himself mere feet away from Orochimaru's location, sharpened his eyes' pupils in two vertical lines. He sprinted forward, almost hearing the constant sissing and crawiling of a thousand snakes around him. The forest around him turned into another small glade, lit by moonlight. Leaves fell gracefully, dancing in the air before touching the ground or caressing Naruto's face softly. Right in front of him, with his back against a thick, strong tree log, Orochimaru struggled to stand up as he grinned coldly, tasting his bottom lip with that unnormally long tongue of his.
"The power of Kyuubi no Youko... Impressive. How amusing would it be to have it my own." He opened his mouth wider than it was possible for any other human being, and Naruto was grossed out to witness how another Orochimaru made his way out of the other's mouth, imitating a snake's skin shedding process. This Orochimaru didn't have his stomach burnt by Naruto's Rasengan, and looked healthier than the other, whose body simply turned into a sort of lifeless sheet. As if Orochimaru had just taken a coat off himself. The huge snake that accompanied him crawled around the Sannin, sissing mockingly as it glared at Naruto from time to time.
"Huuuh...? What's this?" Naruto folded his arms. "Is it that you finally acknowledge my strenght, and now you want to take me instead of Sasuke? Flattering. But no thanks."
"Ah, but did I ever mention your name, Naruto-kun? I believe the one whose strenght I want is the thing that lives inside that soul of yours... Without which you wouldn't have been able to survive from even those tragic Chuunin Exams, from years ago." Orochimaru chuckled, standing up slowly and testing the mobility on his fingers and neck.
"Oh, I get it. You're another one of those fools who think my only power comes from Kurama, and that he is the strong one, not me. What a pity." Naruto glared at Orochimaru, yet his face showed incredible mockery. He was smirking in a way that he had only done with Sasuke, and just once, when they had battled each other... And right after he had made a similar remark.
"What is there to prove otherwise, Naruto-kun...?" Orochimaru rested his hands on his waist and looked at him in the same way he used to be looked at by his teachers back when he was twelve. Naruto snorted.
"Only a strong ninja can become a perfect Jiinchuuriki. Only a genius. It usually takes years, decades of fighting, negotiating and struggling with the Bijuu that lies inside you... For me, it took weeks. It's not my credit alone, of course... Kurama also helped me. But that's only because I was able to probe myself to him. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be able to call myself a perfect Jiinchuuriki." Naruto readied his battle stance, his Chakra cloak of light made flames began blazing harder and its light became brighter.
"People like you don't like to acknowledge people like me. Because it's hard for you to admit that someone can become every bit as much of a genius as you are, through hard work and never giving up. Those of you who have been called geniuses of your own generations hate to recognize a talent that wasn't there at first, but was born through that person's guts. Which is fine... I didn't work so hard to be recognized by the likes of you anyway. I worked hard to be acknowleged by the people whose opinions do matter to me. I worked hard to protect those people. You guys can roll over and keep whining about me being a "cheater" or something for being what nobody else can: Kyuubi no Youko's Only Perfect Jiinchuuriki. I could care less about you."
Orochimaru began laughing out loud. His laughter was one that sent chills down Naruto's back, and threatened to freeze his senses completely. The snake crawling beneath him seemed just as amused as its master, it didn't seem to be affected by Orochimaru's killing intent.
"Good! Good... You have some bravery in you... How very interesting." He licked his bottom lip once more, his viper-like eyes shining in the dark. "Very well... Shall I test you? Measure that strenght which makes you be so proud of yourself and that pet you keep inside?"
"Naruto, switch with me for a second."
There was a little flash of light. Naruto's whisker-like marks became more pronunciated, his eyes momentarily red, and his voice no longer his, but Kurama's. And the fox's response to Orochimaru was a cold, intimidating laugh. Orochimaru's snake shivered with fear and hid behind him, as even the air became hot and dense as Kurama laughed mockingly.
"Hey there, Orochi-brat."
"Huh...? So you can possess the kid, now?" Orochimaru asked, his smile disappearing from his face and becoming serious.
"More like him and I can take turns to speak... I've seen you several times from inside here." Kurama both leered at him and smirked, showing Naruto's sharp fangs. "It can be so hilarious to see a snot-nosed brat acting like he's some sort of all mighty deity. Speaking of Ninjutsu as if it was the sole purpose of being alive and yet hiding his ass behind the corpses of other people. And you come here and say Naruto would never be anything especial without me? That's a killer. I could barely hold myself back from laughing my tails off. But you know what...? Why don't we make an experiment?"
"Experiment?"
"Yes... Now that you so kindly asked, let's see how good can Naruto wipe the floor with you without using his Jiinchuuriki powers. Wouldn't that be interesting...? That would prove that, by your standards, if you lose to Naruto using no Bijuu Chakra, that means that you're no good against that which you call fodder. How about it?"
"Looking forward to do so. Just be prepared for saving his life more than once, Kyuubi..." Orochimaru said, smiling with a sadistic expression on his face.
"Hmph..." Kurama snapped his fingers and let Naruto back in his body. The ethereal cloak faded away, and the light illuminating his whole body in a flaming motion finally wored out. Naruto, whose eyes were closed momentarily, began absorbing natural Chakra.
"And you think a ninja like me is going to kindly let you gather your strenght?" The Sannin dashed against Naruto, moving like a snake, and using the actual snake he had as a pet as the source for his poisonous attacks. He made to punch Naruto in his face, to make his snake bite him afterwards... But right on that moment, the blond Jiinchuuriki deflected the punch and grabbed Orochimaru's arm. The Uzumaki opened his eyes, revealing the frog-like pigmentations and the gold irises and horizontal pupils, after which he carried Orochimaru's whole body from his arm and made to throw it to the ground violently. Orochimaru's snake sissed with bloodthirst, rolling around Naruto's arm to try and bite him, though by the time it opened its mouth, Naruto had sliced its head clean with his three edged kunai. Orochimaru's contact with the ground left a relatively small circular crack on the earth. He got free from Naruto's grip and summoned hundreds of snakes from his right arm's sleeve.
Naruto cut them all with his kunai, and dashed towards the viperish Sannin. He tried punching his stomach to cut his breath, though Orochimaru grabbed his arm halfway through, after which he unleashed even more hundreds of snakes from his mouth. They all bit Naruto in all sorts of places, though his body eventually dissapeared in a poof of white smoke. Orochimaru looked around himself, looking for the blond, as the hundred snakes sissed furiously because of the disappeareance of their prey. The Sannin then looked up, and caught the sight of Naruto in mid-air, holding a spinning shuriken made of incredibly wild, condensed Chakra. There was a blueish sphere, much like a Rasengan, on its core.
"What kind of technique is that...?"
Naruto threw it at Orochimaru, who rapidly jumped out of harm's way, just in time for watching all of his snakes be turned into mere dust, inside a great explosion that expanded the glade at least twice its natural size. As there were but a few trees left right before the glade to hide Orochimaru's position, Naruto was able to locate him quickly as soon as he landed. He dashed towards him, and Orochimaru decided to shorten the distance by jumping towards Naruto himself.
He made to kick the Konoha Jounin on his back, though he spun right on the last moment to guard the kick with the side of his left arm, after which Naruto used a right kick to hit Orochimaru right in his face. Just like it had happened before, Sennin Naruto's brute strenght sent the enemy flying to the ground and buried him on it as if it had been a sword. Though Orochimaru's body also disappeared in white smoke as soon as that happened. Naruto landed in one tree branch, frowning at his opponent, who was several branches away from him. Orochimaru kept grinning evilly, as if the battle was teaching him something he wasn't expecting to learn.
"I see... So, you have completed your father's technique. Well, I'm not sure whether to congratulate you or laugh at him... See, how pitiful must it be to not be able to live enough to complete your own techniques? It makes you quite the failure, that your son must complete what you couldn't..."
"Heh..." Naruto folded his arms. "...You really took it personally, didn't you...? The fact that my father was chosen Hokage and you weren't. I guess you thought you were so much better than him. But you can't even defeat his son... Who is the failure here, I wonder?"
Orochimaru's expression went serious all of a sudden. And Naruto knew he had finally hit the weak spot. Orochimaru's frustration for being overlooked and left behind, surpassed by a youngster. And it suddenly hit him.
"I see..." Naruto smiled. "...So that's why you keep ranting on about me and my weakness... That's why you think making me feel humilliated is the funniest thing in the world. You see him in me. You see his face. Through humilliating me, you're doing what you couldn't do with him. To think you'd hold such a grudge against my Dad... But let me give you some bad news..."
He suddenly vanished. Orochimaru merely blinked once, before realizing what Naruto had just done. He had warped behind him, and now a very unnaturally big Rasengan, held by to clones of the blond Jiinchuuriki, was about to strike his stomach.
"If you lose to me, you're also losing to him, yet again!"
His spherical technique hit the bullseye, and sent Orochimaru against the ground again, spinning like a fan. His clone vanished into white smoke, and the original Naruto landed beside the Sannin, seeing him trying to get up but failing.
"Hiraishin no Jutsu, huh?" Orochimaru said, smirking still, though blood was being spilled from his mouth, and his stomach had been burnt with the furious spinnin Chakra.
"What's wrong with you, you're not even using half of your strenght. Is it that you still think I'm weak?" Naruto glared at him, then closed his eyes for a moment to use his sensing skills, and glared again. "I get it. Edo Tensei takes a good bite of Chakra off you. And then the Skin shedding to cure from my other Rasengan..."
"Someone has done his homework..."
"Merely talked to Sasuke about it, you know, since he's my friend and all. See, that was your mistake. Thinking that Sasuke would never come back. Believing he was going to be some sort of puppet of yours. Well... Too bad." Naruto turned his back on the Sannin, and prepared to warp away. "I'm gonna let you live for now... And let Sasuke be the one who finishes you up."
"Getting scared of me, now?"
"Scared? Nah... More like grossed out. If I have to see you pulling things out of your mouth another time, I'll have to pause the fight to throw up. You're disgusting. Sasuke is more able to handle that... Sick nature of yours. Besides, the way you are now... I'm really not interested in you. If I want a fun battle, I might as well just ask Sasuke."
He looked back to Orochimaru, glaring with his golden, Sennin eyes, and smirked mockingly. He made a farewell sign with his left hand and let out a tiny chuckle.
"See ya, Hebi-chan..."
With that being said, the blond jiinchuuriki vanished into thin air.
[...]
The exact moment when Hinata felt the air around her get uneasy, she caught the sight of Naruto landing beside her, appearing litteraly out of nowhere. She muffed a scream as she could, though her ninja reflexes made her hold her ground and prepare to battle. The blond chuckled a bit once he saw her in that position.
"Don't kill me. I'm an ally."
"Jeez... I'm sorry." Hinata went back to normal, and ran to hug Naruto around his neck. The snow had stopped a long time before he had shown up, and so had her tears. But her worrying about the one person in the world she loved more than anything else couldn't just disappear that easily, unless she reunited with him. Naruto hugged her back, and kissed her cheek.
"C'mon, let's take this chance. I just said some really bad stuff to Orochimaru after paralyzing him for a bit... If we linger here, he's surely gonna come and kill us, the sick bastard."
"O-okay...!" She took his hand, and both of them warped away together, causing a tiny gale of spinning wind behind them.
[...]
Okay, I hoped you guys liked reading this chapter. Please do review the story, it helps more than you can imagine.