Chapter 7: Not Going Down
"Hinata…Hyuuga?"
Hinata ignored Kabuto's stuttered reply and once against swung Nova at his head. The wooden staff missed his head but caught his ponytail. Everyone but Erhen and Hinata gapped as Kabuto's silver ponytail got badly singed. Kabuto gagged a bit as the smell of burning hair reached him. Hinata frowned and flicked some black pieces of his hair off of his shoulder. Hinata frowned and flicked some black pieces of hair off Nova. Kabuto glared at her, his grew eyes dark.
"The runaway ninja from Konoha, Hinata? I thought you died!" he spat.
Naruto felt Hinata's eyes flickered to his face though her eyes were still hidden under that thick violet band.
"You weren't the only one" she said calmly, resting Nova on her shoulder.
"I see your blind now" he said.
Naruto frowned. Kabuto was planning something but what? Kabuto flickered for a moment and his smirk widened. Naruto blinked. The extra chakra had given his senses a major boost so you'd have to move pretty much at the speed of sound to beat them. Kyuubi growled under his breath and started uncomfortably in his cage. He snorted then went silent.
'Put Erhen down, pup' the fox ordered, growing still
Usually Naruto would ask why or just plain say no to any of the Kyuubi's orders but something in its quiet, wise voice said 'shut up and listen'. Without taking his eyes off the silver haired ninja, he set the still weak Erhen down. Erhen obviously knew more than he let on for he didn't even make a questioning look. In fact, he actually dragged himself farther away. Hinata glanced back, momentarily distracted by the movement when Kabuto moved. Not even Naruto saw the slice of a chakra blade until Hinata squeaked. There was a loud hiss, like water hitting red hot metal and Hinata was thrown back into a tree. As she hit it, there was another hissing sound before she dropped to the ground. She growled at Erhen and ripped her mask off, throwing it at Sakura, who caught the leathery material with clumsy hands.
'Whoa…' said Kyuubi, surprised.
'What? Tell me!' Naruto mentally yelled.
'That staff…it shot out chakra, not Hinata's, but it surrounded her like a suit. Head to toe…Haven't seen anything that powerful in years' whispered the fox, as if his voice that only Naruto could hear would confuse Hinata.
'When was the last time you saw it' asked Naruto, putting himself between Erhen and Sakura and Kabuto.
'Your father used it to lessen the pain when he sealed me in you'
'WHAT?'
'Watch the fight pup…'
It was more of an ambush though. The real Kabuto, the other one being a clone, jumped out of the tree and elbowed Hinata in the back of the head. Naruto let out a yell of anger as Hinata flew forward, using Nova to balance but Naruto's yell was met by a hiss and a scream of pain…but not from Hinata. Kabuto stumbled backwards, his arm black as if it had been burned. Hinata was completely unharmed but she seemed pale and her movements became less graceful. Her Byakugan deactivated, much to Naruto's surprise, but her glare was still painful.
"What did you do?!" screamed Kabuto, holding his arm.
"I told you Nova was not something to mess with" she replied, still cool.
Kabuto yelled and ran at her, already having healed him. Knowing if he just straight punched Hinata, the shield would come up and burn his fingers off so he took a different approach. Taking a kunai, he fused it was chakra, making it sharper and more dangerous, and then threw it at her. As soon as the kunai hit the shield, the hissing started but Hinata still yelped.
The shield obviously had trouble protecting against steel for Hinata grunted as she was thrown backwards into the ground. Nova flew from her grasp and literally disappeared into a young fern. Hinata opened her eyes in time to see Kabuto had summoned a silver, steel blade. She yelped and dodged to the side, picking Nova back up. Something was different about it. The staff was still 5 feet tall, black with intricate silver dancing along it. But now it had two large, elephant-eared leaves that seemed to be growing from the knobby top. Hinata eyes flickered from Erhen to the leaves and back again. The tanned boy shrugged and pushed Sakura and Naruto from the tree, following them closely and having to be caught by Naruto. Hinata opened her mouth to say something but snapped it shut and glared as Kabuto's blade hacked into Nova. Hinata swung and successfully hit Kabuto in the arm with a wham. Kabuto growled and went on attacking Hinata while Naruto blinked in surprise.
'Wood against steel…? And Nova has barely been splintered!' he thought
'Nova is more than just wood' the Kyuubi replied. 'Look at that tree you perched on, such brave creatures, trees be'
Naruto glanced at the tree. Healthy branches, emerald leaves, thick, brown trunk with a new chunk carved out of the wood. Wait…his sapphire orbs flickered to Nova, search the ebony wood for that cut and found none. Finally he understood. In return for killing the snake known as Orochimaru, the forest, this tree, was willing to die for her but by the pained look in Hinata's eyes and the way she dodged the blade rather than stopping it with Nova, showed she didn't like that fact at all. As she flew by, Naruto heard her mumble 'I'm so sorry…'
She kicked at a tree and propelled herself forward, her staff being held at her right as she prepared to swing it. Kabuto quickly made a hand sign and suddenly there were three Kabuto. One grabbed the real one and pulled him out of the way while the other dived at Hinata's back with a kunai, prepared to hit her blind spot. Hinata folded her body and she went into a midair spin. When she did a 180 so she was facing the Kabuto clone she kicked him hard in the chest. The clone disappeared but the force of her kick smashed Hinata into the ground.
There was a crack and Hinata let out a small scream of pain but she was back on her feet. Erhen was on his feet in a second and glared though it looked like he was confused at to whether to glare at Hinata or Kabuto. Kabuto smiled and one of the clones exploded, forcing Hinata to smash into the tree. The instant she made contact with the bark, vine wrapped around her body, protecting her against the kunai that quickly followed. But nature wasn't fast enough to keep up with gravity. Suddenly Hinata was surrounded by Kabuto clones, all of them with little white seals on their chests and grins on their faces. All the clones had explosive tags…Hinata glanced back at Sakura and the message was clear.
"Run!" she screamed just as the first 10 clones exploded.
Hinata was fast enough to swirl Nova in front of her so the staff was nothing more than a blur but everyone winced as the smell of burning flesh reached their noses. Nova was moving fast enough to protect Hinata's body from the explosions but not her fingers which were in the main path of the fire. Hinata whipped around and stared at Naruto, Sakura and Erhen as if they were at fault for global warming. Sakura took Erhen's hand without hesitation and ran into the safe of the trees. Naruto was about to follow when he took one last glance back…and gasped.
Another explosion must have thrown Hinata back for she landed feet first on the trunk of a tree and threw herself forward. She swatted at the Kabuto clones as she flew, their explosions burning her arms and face but the momentum of her kick keeping her moving forward. She grabbed on Kabuto clone by the collar of his shirt and made careful not to hit him against anything. Naruto's mouth fell open as he realized what she was doing. Hinata was flying towards the one Kabuto that didn't have an explosion tag…the real Kabuto. She'd smash the cloned Kabuto in him and the explosion would instantly kill Kabuto…and her too.
Naruto ran forward with a tortured scream just as Hinata smashed into Kabuto. The explosion triggered the other explosion tags and Naruto watched in horror as Hinata and Kabuto were consumed by a giant wall of fire…a wall that was speeding towards Naruto. Naruto ran at it, rather having to die than live without the Hyuuga girl, when a slim black form smashed into Naruto, knocking him behind the safety of a huge oak. Naruto's head knocked against the wood.
"Relax Naruto…I told you…we wouldn't go down without a fight…" said a familiar sisterly voice.
"Hinata…" Naruto groaned slowly losing consciousness.
The figure that had saved his life was nothing more than a shadow to him. She was clearly a female; she was crouching to the side so her form was shown. But when she turned to face Naruto…he could have sworn she had buns on her head…
"Don't worry about Hinata-chan. Her cousin has her covered…"
OMFG! I finally finished chapter seven! Woot! Sorry for the wait guys but I'm really not good at the fighting scenes! Seriously I suck at them. I think I did pretty well on this. Don't lose hope on me people! Oh! I'm going to Disney World for the next 5 days so I won't be able to write very much.
Blackiecatty
