I was strangely in a happy mood today.
I don't know why.
Disclaimer: I will never own Naruto

Chapter 17: Hinata's Strength

Who's that girl blocking his attacks expertly? She looks familiar. Ryu couldn't really see the person behind the bright blue chakra defense. He didn't really care right now. Right now he was angry - angry that someone has managed to block his attack.

Finally, all the arrows were successfully dodged. That left a panting Hinata in the middle of the battlefield. Ryu's eyes widened to see his last collection standing up in front of him.

"Wha-? Why are you here?" he asked frantically. He could see she had some scratches, and scratches don't look good on an item you're putting up as one of your prized.

"I . . . managed to . . . find you . . . with my Byakugan," replied Hinata between pants. Finding Naruto and Ryu wasn't so easy as the two were a little over 11km, farther than Hinata's limits. She used up most of her chakra to try and go farther, and when she finally found them, she saw the two men fighting. So she and Sakura hurriedly left, using more of their chakra on their feet to gain more speed. And when they finally reached there, Hinata had to use her jutsu and protect Naruto.

She was exhausted!

Ryu smiled his crooked smile. "That's why I treasure the Byakugan."

Meanwhile, Naruto was being healed by Sakura, who was still angry at him for calling her "Mr." Typical Naruto; whenever he's asleep or even hazy, he doesn't know who he's talking to, resulting in calling her names.

Naruto was feeling better. He could feel the wound closing and the poison retreating. However, something bothered him. With his eyes closed, he heard distant voices. He knew one was Ryu's, but who's was the other? She sounded quiet, yet strong at the same time. He tried to remember the image of her before he temporarily dozed off: midnight blue hair, lavender, and pale yet still beautiful skin, like a porcelain doll. She seemed very familiar, but also unfamiliar. Who did he know who has skin like that? The lavender was obviously the clothes . . . it was a jacket. He knows someone who has that light purple jacket. And the same person has the same colored hair. Was it her?

"You hurt him, I won't forgive you for that!"

The voice seemed soft enough. But why would Hinata say something like that? Was Neji here too? Or Kiba?

"Calm down, child. If you're talking about that blond idiot over there, it was his fault. I never wanted a fight, but he just went up to me and declared war!"

"Why would he do that?" Sakura wove her question into the conversation between the collector and the collectee.

"Oh, something about who gets the girl," Ryu waved his hand to indicate something like "Details, details."

"Who gets the girl?"

"He's talking about me," Hinata answered for Ryu. "They're fighting over me."

"Um . . . if Ino were her she'd say that that's totally gross. That guy over there"-she, for a moment, moved her hand and pointed at Ryu then back to the healing position-"is too old for you." (Imagine Hinata and Ryu with a sweat drop)

"No that's not what he-"

"Enough of this!" Ryu exploded. He turned to Hinata and said, "You, girl, are coming with me! If you don't want your friends to get hurt, I suggest you stop this and just give in."

However, Hinata shook her head confidently. "No. I'm tired of being hit, kidnapped, betrayed, and lied to! I'm tired of being used! I don't want to be displayed for your collection! I don't want to be an item!"

As she said that, her hands glowed blue. The concentrated chakra grew, making her hair fly due to its tremendous power. The chakra morphed into two lion heads, one on each hand. All six eyes (two lions, one Hinata) were filled with rage. When they were complete, Hinata dashed forward with impressive speed. She was suddenly in front of Ryu, whose eyes were wide with shock. His pupil moved slightly as he saw one fist heading towards his face. He dodged just in time, but his ear was grazed.

Ryu jumped away from the girl, but Hinata was not done. She tried again, each punch faster than the last. Ryu dodged all of them, but he knew he wouldn't last long. He has never faced an opponent like this before. He couldn't think now, because all of his concentration were on where the punches would land next. It seemed all punches were aimed for his head, so he only thought about his head, and only focused on that part of his body. That was his downfall.

Hinata noticed it, so she decided to aim for something else, all the while keeping him busy dodging her hands. She punched one more time with her left, and then slammed her right fist into Ryu's chest with all her might. "Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists!"

Ryu didn't see that coming.

The force of her punch sent him flying to the trees behind him.

The sound of the crash sent Naruto bolting up. Sakura was surprised also, the first being Hinata's new jutsu, and the second was Naruto's jolt. She asked him what was wrong. Naruto didn't respond right away but instead looked for where the sound came from.

"There was . . . something . . . " he said, dizzy. When Sakura was about to gently force him back down so she could heal him, she saw that the scratch on Naruto's arm had already disappeared.

That was quick, she thought (Sakura knows that he has the fox, right? Sorry, I haven't read or watched all of Naruto)

Soon, Naruto found the same girl with the lavender clothes and the black-blue hair. She was kneeling on the ground. With great effort, and a bit of help from Sakura, he stood up.

After her finishing move, Hinata had fallen to the earth. The jutsu had taken even more of her chakra. She was very nearly drained. She was near to dying. She was panting even harder; her chest hurt with every breath she took in; her eyelids grew heavy from the tiredness. Altogether, in her present state, she was weak. She was on her knees, but soon on her hands, too, and then finally she dropped completely. The last thing she remembered before falling off to unconsciousness was being turned onto her back and seeing two silliouhettes looking down on her, one of them being Naruto.

"Hinata, Hinata!" Naruto tried to wake up the Hyuga girl, but to no success.

"Naruto, stop," Sakura put a hand gently on his shoulder to try and calm him down. She could see tears crawling down his cheeks as he desperately tried to shake the girl back to consciousness. Sakura put her head down over Hinata's heart. She could still hear beating, but it was faint. The girl had overused her chakra. It might take hours for her system to fully recover. By the time Sakura lifted her head again, Naruto was gone.

He was off looking for Ryu. He followed the smoking trees trail that would have to lead towards him.

He heard a groan - a quiet groan. It was up ahead, just a few more paces. Quickly, Naruto ran towards it, and there he found Ryu laying on top of a fallen tree. He was a mess: his nose and mouth were bloody, and his teeth, too; the fabric he was wearing was torn on his chest, revealing a red burn where the chakra had entered through. All over him were scratches and wounds of all sizes. Hinata's new jutsu had really done a number on him.

Too bad Naruto didn't care. He took the collar of Ryu's robe and picked him up with ease all the way until their nose were close to each other. "What did you do to Hinata?" he asked in a cold voice.

"N-nothing . . . she did it!" Ryu whimpered. It had been a long time since he'd gotten damaged like this. He had forgotten how much it hurt.

"Naruto come quick!" Sakura's cry echoed through the forest. Without letting go, he dragged the old man back to the field where they first started in.

Ryu was leaning on a tree, asleep. Naruto and Sakura were crowding over Hinata, Naruto holding her hand. She was awake again.

"Are-you-sure-you're-okay-Hinata-you-don't-need-anything-water-food-I-can-get-you-anything!" Naruto was talking fast, worried sick about his friend.

Hinata chuckled. "Yes, I'm fine, just extremely tired."

Naruto didn't breath a sigh of relief but still looked at Hinata with sad eyes. He knows what it's like to have chakra drained almost all the way to empty, and it hurts. Every second feels like your last.

Hinata, who seemed to have read his mind, said, "Naruto, I've had my chakra depleting to near none before. Remember the Chunin Exams?" Sadly, the blonde ninja remembered that sad event.

A sudden bloody cough came from Ryu. Naruto didn't even want to look at him, but Sakura rushed over to his side. Earlier, Sakura had suggested to heal him just a little bit, seeing as he was in so much pain. Naruto disagreed and they had a long argument until they heard Hinata cough. After checking her over, Sakura went back to the other patient. All she did was heal the burn slightly, and then he fell asleep. As soon as she heard that cough and saw blood spitting out from him, she quickly walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" she asked, not wanting to sound concerned.

After another fit of coughs, Ryu smiled. Even his slightly opened eyes seemed to be smiling. "My time has come," he whispered with a rough voice. "I saw it in my dreams." He breathed deeply, wanting to smell the Earth air once more before he truly left. "I may not have completed my collection, but I did get to see the Byakugan in action. What's more it was even put against me. The eye saw my weakness. It was good to finally know how it works." With one final deep breath, Ryu settled down back on the tree. He closed his eyes, but he was still smiling. He grew limp, but the smile still remained. Sakura couldn't help but shed one small tear for him.

Even Hinata, who heard every word even though they were just whispers, started to cry. She didn't mean to kill the old man, but just to hurt him hard enough so he'd go back to the Leaf Village with them. Suddenly, she felt something wet on her hand. Since she, too, was leaning on a tree, she could see a small tear drop from the face of Naruto. Another one was about to drop, dangling from his chin.

Naruto didn't want to cry for the old man. He didn't want to feel bad for him because it was his fault all the events just now had happened. But he did. He felt guilty. It was his fault that the man died. He had challenged him to a fight. If he didn't, kept his cool, and just talked to him or put some punches here and there, he could have understood and let Hinata return with them. But instead he threw him into the forest for an unwanted battle.

The field where the Naruto and Ryu were fighting in was suddenly doused in light, but the three ninjas didn't seem to notice. Everything was peaceful and quiet; not one of them wanted to break the tranquility.

"Akamaru, you okay boy?" Kiba asked his dog companion. They were both breathing heavily, the whole time trying to defeat the giant slug-like slime that was made by Jug.

Jug had been watching them with fake pity, an evil smile on his lips every time they were hit. But suddenly he grew weak. It was like the air was just taken out right from his lungs. He gasped for breath, but couldn't. His monster had started decreasing its size. What was wrong? What was happening? This torture was like the one described by Master when he once told them that he will not live forever. Could it be that Master was . . . dead?

Kiba had the same questions. What was going on?

Soon, the black slug monster stopped miniaturizing. It was just standing there, frozen, its size still a little below the trees. It let out an ear-splitting screech before it exploded.

"Okay, now!" Shino let his bugs flow out from his jacket sleeves to swarm the wind-surrounded Kiro. It was like he had turned into a crazy tornado, for the winds were slashing wildly about. Shino had abandoned his plan earlier. He found out that after making a jutsu, Kiro has to recover for at least ten seconds before he can conjure up the winds again. But now that he's the jutsu himself, he doesn't need to recover.

The bugs flew over to their owner's desired target. Some were killed in the process of getting near the target, but most were able to hang on to the body.

Kiro saw the swarm of insects coming his way. Oh, no. Not again!he thought furiously as he gathered a powerful wind ball in one hand. "You're going down bugs!" he shouted this time. When he thrust his hand towards the army, the wind ball had disappeared. "Wha-?" He felt the winds leaving his body, exposing his thin body again. He dropped to his hand and knees, not believing what was happening right now. His powers were disappearing, which could only mean one thing: Master was dead.

The beetles continued to cover him, but it didn't matter to Kiro. He had no more meaning in life.

Shino walked over to the now empty spot of grass that was once occupied by the thin man that controlled the wind. In the distance, he thought he heard an explosion.

"My bugs, I told you to stop him, not eat him," he said with his still stoic face as his insects dispersed from the spot and crawled back to the safety of their home.

"I-I did it," Gloo mumbled to himself. "I can control this body!"

Slowly, Gloo backed away from the sleeping figure of Hanabi and at the same time putting away the kunai knife.

"Gloo, you did it!" the goo looked to his master, who was cheering him. Cheeringhim! With a huge smile crossing on his mouth, Gloo ran towards him. Unexpectedly, Gloo hugged Neji, but what was more unexpected was that Neji hugged him back. To Tenten, it was wierd seeing two guys hugging each other.

Soon, Gloo had them free of the sticky substance that stopped Neji and Tenten from rescuing Hanabi. But that was a blessing in disguise as stopping them helped Gloo control himself. When they were free, Tenten hugged Neji's pet too. When she leaned back from the hug to get a good look of his face, she said, "Y'know, you don't look that bad."

"Tenten," Neji said. The said girl looked at him with teasing eyes.

"Okay, okay. It's not like I was going to kiss him or anything," she giggled. That comment received a blush from Neji. He hid it by picking up Hanabi.

A pang of pain suddenly shot through Gloo's entire new body. He clutched his stomach, but he soon fell to his knees. Like Jug and Kiro, he knew what this was.

"Gloo!" Neji and Tenten cried as they rushed over to his side. Neji had to gently put Hanabi back down.

"What's going on?" Neji worried.

"It's my old master's master," he grunted through the pain. "He's dead."

Please Review!

Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists. That was in chapter 437 where Hinata confessed.
The timeline here is that Hinata hasn't confessed yet, so I put this jutsu like one of those normally used jutsus. Like "Rasengan" or "Fang Over Fang."

A question for you guys: should Gloo "disappear" or not?
Alive: Neji will be happy, he'll have a pet. I'll be happy, I might use him in future FanFics.
Consequence: he can't keep the body, so he won't be able to talk.

Dead: Neji will be sad, but he'll never forget him. I will be okay, because . . . I understand.
Good Thing: (I'm so selfish) I won't have to find a way for him to stay alive.

Keep those things in mind as you tell me what you want to do with Gloo. I really don't care. I just want to make sure all the readers are happy.
This is NOT a poll. You have to review to tell me.
But it would be good if you do vote on the poll that I have on my info, if you haven't already.