You know, I put too many mysteries in this story.
I can't go in depth with NaruHina.
And I want to finish this already so I can start the sequel!!
. . . Oops . . .
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; he's too strong; he owned me.
Chapter 19: The Look-In Glass
"Fang Over Fang!" A sharp gray swirling vortex of doom started spinning towards the roof of the rectangular room, which was beneath him. He crushed the somewhat soft rock carefully, for Hinata still didn't want anything damaged.
While Kiba and Akamaru were doing that, Neji, Shino, and Naruto were inside the room underneath the hole making sure that he didn't accidentally hit something. Sakura, Hinata, Tenten, Hanabi, and Gloo were watching them from the sidelines. "Hmph, boys!" Sakura scoffed. Tenten nodded in anger.
After a few more minutes, the hole was complete. The pieces of crumbled rock were quickly moved away by Shino's bugs. The room was now in light, the sun's rays gliding across the floor. Kiba looked up at the sky. They had to finish this investigation if they wanted to arrive at Konoha in time. The sun was already setting, even though it was still a little early for sunset.
"Kiba, come down!" Neji's voice echoed to him. He patted Akamaru's head before they both headed down.
There were glass cases embedded all along the walls. Neji estimated that there was about 20 in here. Each glass contained a perfectly preserved body inside standing upright. Their faces were expressionless, their eyes were closed and their mouths were set in a straight line. They looked pale and seemed old, yet none of them had aged a day.
"H-how can they be this preserved?" Sakura asked, growing pale herself from seeing so many dead bodies.
"They must be frozen," Neji said as he walked up to one of the glass cases, Gloo closely behind. There was a man inside with his face free from any growing facial hair that would have started already if he were still alive. Neji looked down and saw a sign attached to the glass case. "Shikotsumyaku," Neji read aloud.
"What?" Naruto ran up to where Neji stood to see the man. Neji asked what was wrong. "Th-that's Kimimaro's kekkei genkai."
So it's true, Hinata thought to herself. He was collecting them.
"Hey check this one out," Kiba called to his teammates. "Wood Style, isn't that Captain Yamato's kekkei genkai?" There was another man with dark brown hair and manly features. He must have been really handsome when he was alive.
"Naruto, there is an ice style," Shino said. Naruto remembered battling someone with ice style on his first mission. He chuckled as he remembered that he first thought Haku as a girl.
"There's lots in this place!" Tenten whistled. "Like this one: it says Rinnegan. What's that?"
"No clue," Naruto said and went to search out more. (You can tell this was set before the Pain battle)
"Naruto, I found Sharingan!" Sakura sqealed happily. Inside she saw a handsome Uchiha with the same raven black hair as Sasuke's. "I think all Uchihas are supposed to be cute!"
"Look, Neji, a Mangekyo Sharingan," Hanabi pulled on her much older cousin's sleeves. "But I bet it's no match for the Byakugan!"
"Right, Hanabi!" Neji patted his cousin's head. When she walked away to find more people, Neji's dark features came back on. Where was the case for the Byakugan? Gloo looked up at his master's frowning face. He wanted to comfort him, but he seemed deep in thought, so he said nothing.
"Where are the women who uses Kekkei Genkai?" Tenten asked impatiently. She's looked through almost all of them and there wasn't one woman that she could find.
"Um, I think I would be the only one," Hinata gulped. She was standing near the throne where the end of the collection was. She looked paler than usual and was sweating, though not a lot. Her teammates walked over to where she was. They had found a glass case like all the others entitled "Byakugan."
"They've already got the case ready!" Kiba said. Naruto was angry; if he had come late, Hinata would have been in there, frozen like the rest of these life sized porcelain dolls. That was another reason why he was confused about Hinata still wanting Ryu to have a peaceful burial.
"Well, Hinata," Neji stretched. "Now you know what's in this room. Maybe it's time to go?"
"But wait what do we do with these bodies?" Hinata argued.
"When we get back to Konoha, we'll tell them about this. They'll send ninjas to investigate right away."
"But it takes two days to get from here to Konoha, and when we finally tell them, the ninjas will get here in another two days. They'll be in here for four days!"
"Hinata, they've been preserved for over ten years; I think they can wait for another four days."
Her cousin had a point. Without seeing anymore points to argue, they headed towards the other room where Ryu's body lay. Which brought up another issue: what were they going to do with it? However, Naruto already had an idea after seeing so many of the bodies in the glass case. "We'll just put him in the spot where the Byakugan was!" His teammates looked at him like he was crazy. "What?"
Because they were all tired, they didn't deny the idea; Shino's bugs and Gloo helped take the glass off. Kiba and Naruto were carrying the now stinky body into the hollow wall as Neji directed them. The girls again had nothing to do. "I can't believe them!" Sakura shook her head. Before they could put the glass back on they had another problem: how could they keep him upright? None of them had the ice style, so none of them could freeze anything.
"How could this Ryu guy get them to freeze, then?" Kiba scratched his head.
"Maybe he studied the ice style kekkei genkai," Shino suggested.
Naruto clapped his hands once. "Well, since we can't make him stand, we'll just have him leaning." He grinned devilishly. "He could lean against the glass so his face is pressing up to it!"
Sakura bonked Naruto's head painfully. "You idiot! When you die you want to be put in a glass case only to get humiliated?!"
"Oow, Sakura!" Naruto didn't know why he ever had a crush on this girl. She was nothing like the sweet, gentle, caring young woman whom he was now falling for.
This problem gave Tenten an idea. She finally had something that would help. "I could make him stand upright!" She took two kunai knifes out of her pack. She walked over to the boys who were holding Ryu and commanded them to hold so he was standing straight. Kiba and Naruto obeyed her order. She then took the knifes and pinned them onto Ryu's shoulder sleeves. When she let go, however, he still slipped down into an awkward bent position. Naruto started to laugh, but Sakura slapped him again. Tenten thought for a while and then took out her scroll. Her scroll was magnificent, as it has never really gotten a scratch when she's in battle. She summoned a double scythe chain. She swung the chain around the body; it went around and around until she was satisfied. She then took the two blades and pinned them way above so Ryu would stand.
"Excellent idea, Tenten!" Neji cried, but he blushed as soon as he blurted it out. Tenten just giggled. To make himself busy, he ordered for Shino and Gloo to put the glass cover back in place.
"Okay, we're done," Hanabi sighed. "Now can we please get some rest?"
----
They were back at the place where Neji, Naruto, Kiba and Akamaru, and Shino first camped in: underneath the tree where the branches intertwined and the leaves laid on top. Hinata was surprised they found this place. When they've put up the tents, made a fire, eaten, and were now gathered around the campfire, Hinata told them her story of what happened after she was whisked away on the wind platform. After that, Neji told them how he had met Gloo. They were having good laugs. Soon, though, one by one they grew very tired, so they decided to sleep. Hanabi was the first to go to her tent. Next came Kiba and Akamaru. After was Shino, then Neji, then Tenten, and finally Sakura. The only two left were Naruto and Hinata. They were sitting on the same log, facing away from the fireplace and tent and looking past the tops of the trees into the starry night sky. The fire was already doused, so they were under the light of the moon.
"Um, that was brave of you. You know, escaping those two goons and all," Naruto said nervously, hoping to start a conversation. They were sitting close to each other, but not too close. His was leaning on his hands that were behind him, but his right hand pointed towards Hinata.
"Thanks," Hinata smiled. She was holding her right knee up as her support for balance. Naruto, from the side, saw Hinata's smile. He thought it was pretty, and if he thought it was pretty from the side, he wondered what it would look like when it faced him. He soon got his answer because Hinata turned to him. "But in truth I was really scared."
Hinata was surprised that when she turned she was met with Naruto's beautiful blue eyes. She expected him to be looking up as well. She got lost in his eyes as she continued to stare. Naruto was, too, mesmerized by Hinata's eyes. He never noticed how cute they were. Sure they were white and all, but the moon shining from above gave it a tint of lavender color that matched her outfit perfectly. They were like two shiny pearls. His eyes wandered down to her lips. Besides the accident with Sasuke, he's never had a kiss from someone before. A small blush formed on his cheeks as he thought about how soft it looked.
Hinata was the first to break out of the trance. "Ah! I-I'm sorry!" she cried. She had let go of her knee and put her hands up near her chin as a force of habit. She looked like a scared rabbit, a scared cute rabbit. So he was disappointed when she turned away. Embarrassed, Hinata stood up to go. Not wanting her to leave, Naruto took her arm and made her sit again. Stunned, the Hyuga turned back to him again with a scared look. What stunned her even more was how close his face was. She had to lean back so they wouldn't be too close, with her left hand still near up her chin. Her face turned bright red.
When he saw how close Hinata's face was up to him, Naruto blushed himself. After five seconds, which seemed like an hour, he scrambled backwards. "Uh, sorry!" he apologized. He could see Hinata was trembling, but miraculously, she didn't faint. Also, she was already recovering from the shock. She breathed deeply and slowly. Hinata was having a moment with Naruto, she didn't want to ruin it with her shyness. As she tried to be calm, she remembered about being tied up with the goo inside the room. When her friends had found her, they didn't believe she was the real one, so she had to think of something to say. She was taking more breaths if she was going to continue.
Naruto watched her remain calm. When they were young, she was always panicky. He didn't understand why he hadn't noticed how cute she was. Maybe it was because he was blinded by love for a different girl, one that would never love him back. After watching her carefully for the past days, he'd noticed she had grown up. He also took a deep breath as he decided it was time to tell her what he thought of her. He feared she might reject him, like with Sakura, but he had to say it. When he opened his mouth, they both had started to talk.
"Naruto do you remember--" "Hinata I have something--"
They stopped. "D-did you want to say something?" Naruto nervously asked. Hinata was equally embarrassed, but she nodded. "Um, me too."
"You can go first," Hinata said quickly. What he'll say might be more important than a silly confession. However, Naruto shook his head.
"No, you go first." Hinata was about to argue when Naruto stopped her. He insisted. What she'll say might be more important than a silly confession.
Hinata really didn't want to go first, but she continued. "D-do you remember when I was about to say something, back at the temple?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it was going to determine wether you were the real Hinata or not." Hinata nodded also.
"Well, I was going to say . . . um . . . I wanted to tell you . . . uh . . . I-I . . . I lo--"
"You love me?!" Naruto suddenly cried. A small "eep" came from Hinata. How did he know? Then he started laughing. On the inside, though, he was berating himself for making such a stupid joke. "I'm kidding, Hinata, go on."
But the Hyuga didn't know how to go on. Naruto had just finished her sentence. He even noticed how she wasn't talking. "You . . . you love me?" he asked more seriously this time. Tears in her eyes, Hinata nodded. "Hey, wait a minute! Why are you crying?!" He scooted closer to her, wiping away the falling tears. "You think I'm going to reject you? No way! 'Cause I love you too!"
Hinata's salt-teared eyes widened. What did he just say? "C'mon Hinata, stop crying now!" He was desperately wiping all her tears away, but the tears weren't of embarrassment, now. It was for happiness. Naruto said he loved her too! Unable to hold back, she happily pulled him into a hug. She was sobbing onto his jacket now, but she hoped he wouldn't mind.
Of course Naruto wouldn't mind. He was actually completely glad that she had let go of her shyness. He started patting and rubbing her back. "Let it all out, Hinata," he whispered.
They were probably in that postition for over fifteen minutes, rubbing and sobbing. When they finally parted, Hinata's eyes were partially red, but she was okay. The tears were gone and she was smiling shyly. Naruto chuckled. "Done?" The Hyuga nodded. Then Naruto frowned. Hinata turned scared. "Hey, you haven't cleared all your tears, yet." He pointed at her lips. "There's still something there. I'll get it for you!"
The female Byakugan user was searching her lips for any wet stuff by hand, not realizing what Naruto really meant. It was too late though, because as soon as she took her hands off, shook her head, and was about to tell the boy in front of her that she found nothing, Naruto leaned forward and gently kissed her soft lips. Surprised, she nearly fainted. However, she fought consciousness. Instead, she slowly closed her eyes as she kissed him back.
It was their first kiss ever, and they shared it under the moon and stars.
Please Review!
I've always wanted to do a NaruHina scene under the moonlight!
Sorry if it wasn't very romantic.
I write better stories when it's just about adventure; no romance scenes, and no fighting scenes.
Those are my two worst subjects, so my fics will mostly be about adventure, or humor.