Rough she landed on the ground, unfolded with a hurting rib and got up elegantly as possible. Now she faced a good dozen surprised ninjas. Quickly she tried to remember the books in Konoha's archives. Only able to remember some of it she recognized the four senseis: Hatake Kakashi, Kurenai, Might Guy and Sarutobi Asuma. The two gennin she identified were Uchiha Sasuke, Itachi's brother, and Uzumaki Naruto. The first attack came sudden and quickly. Natsuki felt a huge pressure on her right side. Her barrier protected her of any damage, of course, but the view of a close-up rasengan made her step back a little. For a moment she was about to faint thanks to the sudden loss of chackra. "Naruto!" Immediately the shadow clone disappeared and the blond guy shrugged. Natsuki hoped urgently Hidan would be clever enough to not interfere in this situation. Theoretically she should be able, too, to make them display as many abilities as possible. "What do you want?" she asked, challenging. "Ah right" she continued, not giving them a chance to answer (bad habit of her) "You found our HQ and think you can beat us now…" Again she paused dramatically and looked at her hands. "Sorry to disappoint you but I can't let that happen." She looked up. "You'll first have to beat me." She yelled and grinned provoking. She noticed some moves in a flash and immediately sank down cross-legged. Not a second too early her barrier stabilized, as everywhere around her pressure appeared. She sat still while the others kept launching attacks at her. If she hadn't stabilized her barrier fast enough, like before with the Naruto-boy, she would've lost again 40% chackra. She only had 70% of her chackra she could use… After all already 30% were in use the whole time for keeping up her emergency barrier. Quickly she disposed of those thoughts and fell into a state of trance to keep the consumption of chackra as low as possible. Trusting the other members to recognize and remember the displayed abilities of the enemy she closed her eyes and let her mind flow.
She had no idea how much time had passed when she opened her eyes again. She blinked and tried, without real success, to suppress the dizziness as she straightened up. To keep her from tripping an arm was put around her waist. Out of reflex she put a steadying hand on the arm. Without looking up she breathed deeply. Then she broke loose of the grip. "Thank you but that wasn't necessary." As she looked up she stared into magenta-colored eyes. Hidan grinned. "I think it was." To provoke her a little further he kept his arm around her waist some seconds longer before pulling back. Only then Natsuki noticed their situation. Kakuzu, Hidan and her stood in the midst of 17 Shinobi, who seemed to be quite confused. She was about to request an explanation from Hidan as Sasori, Deidara and Kisame also left their hiding spots. Specifically each of them attacked their assigned enemies and separated them from the group. Natsuki guessed Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke, which were the leftovers, to be hers. Fortunately she already knew about their abilities. It took a heartbeat for her beloved Katana to materialize. Accepting their enemy the two shinobi began to attack her.
It seemed to become a habit that she didn't know how much time had passed. But suddenly the balanced situation changed as the Kyuubi-boy ran towards them. She managed to dodge though the power of the rasengan on her barrier sent her flying against a close-standing tree. She gasped at the impact. Even though she knew breaking down could mean her death her legs didn't listen and she sank to the ground. But before the chidori of the young Uchiha could hit her something got in its way. Hidan's body twitched as the electric ran through it. "Hidan!" Natsuki yelled frightened. With a single swearing Sasuke pulled his hand back noticing it hadn't the expected effect on the enemy. Hidan's legs deteriorated as the electricity left his body. Quickly Natsuki kneeled next to him. "You idiot! Are you ok?" Hidan grinned. "Of course!" Relieved she replied with a smile herself. It disappeared though as she analyzed their situation. The others, too, were getting tired. Some were already hurt, like Hidan. Should she dare it? If it turned out bad, she would lose everything… She pushed her thoughts aside and a determined expression appeared on her face. She sent Hidan an apologetic look. Even though Hidan noticed it only shortly he knew exactly what she planned. "Natsuki, no! He'll kill you himself if you do it!"She blocked him out. Calmly she put her hands over her heart. Slowly light emerged from inside of her. Her body was lifted into the air by an invisible force while light got continually stronger. Concentration and pain were crossing her face. Suddenly she bent backwards and her mouth opened in a silent cry. Big white-silver wings appeared, coming out of her back, and stretched towards both sides. Her hair fell in red cascades over her shoulders. At first her eyes seemed to be pure light though it slowly got weaker and in the end left silver eyes. The energy which had been released at her change had sent all people present to the ground. All eyes were set on the girl whose feet now touched the ground again. The Katana holding in her right hand she stopped to look around. A quick movement turned away from the angel. Shuriken and kunais were flying towards the girl. Without blinking she stood there. Suddenly a feather severed from her left wing and turned away the weapons in the midst of their straight flight. Another feather severed and found its destination in a girl's shoulder which had been the origin of the weapons. She yelled out and held her shoulder. "Tenten!" yelled a guy in a green costume worried. "Natsuki, stop it! It's enough!" Hidan yelled now, too, lying behind her. He watched frightened and worried as the blood, coming out of the wounds her own wings had caused her, colored her white dress red. As she turned her head for a second Hidan saw the fear and pain deep inside her. It had to be a fucking scary feeling if she even showed it… She looked at him determined. "What's that?" Uzumaki asked suddenly. Only now Hidan turned away his eyes from hers and stared at a halo that had appeared above her head. "Rest in peace. May the Gods keep holding a protective hand over you. May the light be always with you and lead you in times of darkness. Oblivere." Her eyes stayed on the young Uchiha a moment longer. Then she lifted her arms above the confused Konoha-nins, using her wings to stay in the air. Suddenly the shinobi were surrounded by a sphere of light. Though they tried to get out of it at first, they soon calmed down and closed relaxed their eyes. The jaw-bone of some of the Akatsukis dropped, excluding Kakuzu and Sasori. Only a minute ago they had been fighting against those shinobi and now they were lying there sound asleep in a bubble of light. As the light disappeared the last of the Akas had regained his manners. What happened next would cause a lot of serious discussions. Natsuki turned from the enemy and lifted again her hands. "May the light always protect you and be the savior at the end of a dark tunnel. Sanitare." The Akas were surrounded by light. And even though they didn't want anything else than escape its warm arms they soon calmed down. And for the first time, for most of them probably in ages, they were able to relax. Hidan caught a last glimpse of Natsuki before his eyes closed, too. It almost frightened him to see this loneliness, fear and pain in her usual strong eyes.