Author's Note: Yes, me again. Boy, these are becoming a habit. Anyway, I must give credit where credit is due. A grand thank you, again, to Cupricanka for all her help and that marvelous death scene in the last chapter. Sakura, for all her irksome behavior, really did deserve no less.
Hypergraphian, I did not catch that mistake until you mentioned it, thank you. I've since fixed it. By the way, if you don't finish your story Colors, I will be extremely upset. I mean it. I've always wanted Naruto to be portrayed as strong, but intrinsically messed up and the art descriptions leave me al tingly and inspired to paint, not that I can, really. I must have more, more I tell you!
Also, I have borrowed, without express permission, the name of a fictional inn from Neil Gaiman, a fantastic and fantasy-ridden author whom I cherish. It now resides in the title of this chapter. But, then, the ending of the World as we know it must always remain free to all or it would not be the end, would it?
I'm enclosing here the URL to an amv on Youtube set to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End the track: Drink Up Me Hearties. It is meant for this chapter, well, for the battle anyway, like all the tracks I place here for your enjoyment; at least, in my opinion.
/watch?vhU-3BG8VB4
Again, I thank you for reviews, both past and, hopefully, future ones . . . hopefully. J More please, and bring many more friends. I need the ego boost.
Please, don't upset me with mundane complaints about there being an original character. I am not so banal a writer that I would suffer you all that punishment without good reason. He is necessary to the plot but also minor in importance. Trust me; this is not one of those unbelievably juvenile original character stories. You will enjoy this one, if your responses to my previous chapters aren't telling me cruel lies.
All you have to do is read.
Chapter 6
World's End Inn, a Free Establishment
Staring out at the wasted expanse of ground before him, Naruto pressed his lips together and then blew out a breath. He was beyond annoyed, beyond angry. He wanted this done because he was tired, tired and hungry and very possibly dying from all the blood loss and overuse of chakra. He'd been pushing it at the end of his battle with the Pain clones and now he was beyond his limits. Well, that was what his body was saying. His thoughts were busy, plagued with images of lily white skin and eyes that, in the right light, reminded him of precious stones or the sea on a clear day.
Naruto closed his eyes and groaned then rubbed at the lids a bit. He swayed slightly and, for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour, scanned the horizon for signs of Kyuubi or Konan. He could search for Kyuubi's signature, even obtain glimpses of Kyuubi's emotions or rough pictures of thought and motion but he was too tired and he knew he would need all the energy he could scrape together to put that bitch in her place.
Taking a deep, cleansing breath, Naruto blew it out forcefully and along with it went most of his anger and pain, at least, for now. He then concentrated on remaining still, perfectly and utterly still, until he could feel the leaves of the tree limb he was in rustle against his skin as if they were sandpaper and the pain of his injuries had receded somewhat. He wasn't healing any faster than slightly above human capacity now, but the nature chakra he was forming and collecting into himself was helping to ground his energy and conserve it; he would be relying on outside chakra for this fight.
Feeling the deep seated energy balance within him, Naruto opened his eyes to scan the ground again, looking for the hint of Konan's chakra he'd caught earlier. He was able to see it better with the enhancement of natural energy. It was fainter than before but definitely there. He followed it with his eyes to a rough crag of rock not two hundred yards away. Leaping out of the tree branch he'd been curled around, Naruto cleared most of the distance in a single bound only having to make one more leap off the soft earth before coming to a stop atop the rock. Looking down, he spotted Konan's flower and the crown of her head on the other side.
Steeling his resolve and gritting his teeth he prepared a Rasengan and pooled a little wind chakra into it to form a muted version of his Rasengan Shuriken. Leaping off the rock and into the air above her head, Naruto came down fast, so fast, but Konan must have sensed him because she moved off to the side and pivoted to face him, lashing out with those infernal paper shurikens. Naruto flew through a few hand seals and used one hand full of wind chakra and melded water chakra into the other. The technique coalesced into freezing ice surrounding the paper and they fell to the ground, harmless.
She sneered, curling her lip and whipping her hand into the sleeve of her cloak.
Four razor sharp kunai came barreling out of the mist created by his technique, but Naruto was ready for them. Jumping back onto the rock, the kunai clanging off the surface harmlessly, he made several more hand signs while calling to Kyuubi to check on his location. Finding him at the other end of the field dealing death blows to a group of ninja from Kirigakure and with no time to find out more, Naruto spun and dissolved into the wind to reappear behind Konan. He brought his hand down in a chopping motion to the back of her neck only narrowly missing when she stepped just out of reach and turned to face him again.
"Well, little boy, you seem to have grown," she said to him.
"Funny, that's almost exactly what your precious teammate said . . . before my God-beast ripped the soul from his abominations. I took care of all his heads, or, took them off, whatever," he scoffed. The look on her face, her lips thinning out and her jaw tightening and her eyes hardening told Naruto he'd hit a soft spot. Good, he wanted her to hurt.
"You killed my friend," he ground out then spit in her face.
Konan screeched and jumped back as if she'd been burned, wiping at her cheek.
"That little insect? She barely stung, I could hardly let her filth touch me," she cried.
"Fuck you!" was his only reply as energy swelled around him to create the cutting winds he was now so comfortable with. Wrapping them around himself and using the remainder to boost himself and Konan off their feet, he took them up into the hazy, clouded sky. Judging that they had come far enough, Naruto slowed their ascent and covered Konan with as much wind chakra as possible to keep her from dissolving into paper and frittering away on the wind. Forming what he hoped to be his last set of hand seals, he drew in a deep breath and blew it out straight at her, spewing the famed toad oil of Mt. Myouboku all over her robe. It had the added affect of helping to keep her there, just where he wanted her.
"That fat, old oaf tried the same thing with me. You really think I won't be able to get out of it?"
"Not without your precious Nagato, you won't." Naruto watched as her face paled and twisted into a mask of rage and he had a moment to realize that he could very well end up like that if he wasn't careful. But Sakura's face, that cold, near-dead kiss and her smiling face whenever he'd caught her watching his training . . . Would he be able to see it again if he succumbed to that all consuming darkness that gripped Sasuke so tightly, even now? He didn't think so and the image of his Sakura, his beautiful, strong and so smart Sakura, kept the anger from engulfing him. This had to happen, Konan needed to die, for the sake of keeping that pain from anyone else.
Quickly changing their positions so that Konan was spun clear to the opposite side of him Naruto realized she was trying to form some kind of earth barrier to clear away the oil, or, at least, trying to coat herself in it. He guessed she was expecting a fire attack next. It made sense, considering how flammable the oil was. Smiling thinly, Naruto turned strategies over in his mind. What he wouldn't give for Shikamaru to suddenly appear right now. Shaking the moisture formed by sweat and the growing mist from his shoulders and blinking the stinging water from his eyes, Naruto frowned. This wasn't all mist and sweat. Some of it was rain. A light spattering of it covered them from the clouds that seemed so close yet he knew to be so far away.
Risking a glance up, Naruto could see the storm forming directly above them, but its calming gift might not come fast enough. How to make it come faster? Naruto darted his eyes back to Konan who'd succeeded in dousing herself in dust from the surrounding soil. He needed rain; it would effectively keep her from using the paper techniques as even her chakra level wouldn't be enough to keep the water from hedging her attacks to almost nothing.
Closing his eyes, he tried to remember something Sasuke had told him about rain and what caused it. He'd been using his all favorite sarcasm and Naruto had been too incensed at the time to pay him much attention. He would much rather have beaten that stupid smirk right off his face. He'd said something about a cold front meeting a warm updraft and enough moisture from evaporation needing to be present. Well, he had a cold front, or cold air, anyway. And, he had moisture; Naruto could feel it misting them at this very moment, chilling the sweat on his arms and making his weapons slick to the touch.
Konan began to form enough earth chakra to call a barrier she then tried to use to break his wind technique and he growled frustratingly. She needs to stop that, it isn't going to do any good, he thought. He forced the wind chakra to sharpen a little more and cut right through her barrier with little effort. Suddenly realizing he could get what he needed without really trying, Naruto let out a cascade of laughter that melded with the crack of nearby thunder. The clouds were trying to move off in the direction of Kyuubi's battle that Naruto could hear raging in the background. Angry shouts, pained screams and low, throaty growls the like of which no human could produce played a dull, haunting soundtrack in his ears.
Calling back a little of his wind chakra but not enough for Konan to find a chink in her prison, Naruto lifted a hand and forced nature chakra out through his palm and used t to calm the raging swirls around them. Reaching out in the distance with senses enhanced by all that was around him, he found a trickle of warm air to the north near where Kyuubi had another swarm of enemy ninja pinned. He sounded as if he was playing with them, mice that they had become. Grinning, Naruto coaxed the warm air up and into the clouds above them. The water broke forth and over them, soaking his clothes and the very core of his being in an icy deluge.
Calmly, breath leaving his body in vaporous wisps, Naruto reached that same palm toward Konan. He had stopped smiling.
"If you had any morality left in you, I would not be doing this."
Her only answer was to smirk at him, twisting her features into something Naruto could not see as human. Then, she did speak, finally.
"I am beyond morality. It was bled out of me by all your former comrades, the ones who will also leave you to empty your blood on the ground if it means their mission is a success. Morality is only a matter of opinion; the opinion of foolish idealists and cowardly monarchs, all of which can sit in safety while someone else dies for them."
"Well then, that's just one more thing I'll have to work on," he answered quietly.
"Stupid boy, foolish boy, Nagato was the only one with that much power and you've killed him." The last part came out hitched, an almost sob. Naruto did not feel sorry for her. The pain of Sakura's last moments with him still too fresh in his mind and heart. He shook his head.
"Nagato had power, but that isn't all that can change things, surely not if you want them to become something more than what they were before."
Naruto strengthened his hold on the biting blades of wind, using the natural power of the rain and some water chakra. Splicing it all together, he sent them all into Konan with the last of his waning strength and she gasped once. Speared through in a multitude of areas by wind and ice and chakra, her eyes began to glaze over and her breathing quickened before slowing to a crawl. Naruto let go of all that had held her immobile as her eyes closed and her heart stopped. Her body plummeted to the earth with an expression Naruto saw as something very human. She had finally found some peace. He wondered if he had not just granted his most hated enemy something special instead of something meant to punish, hurt, and mutilate her despicable being.
Breathing a sigh of relief and feeling the nature energy leave him, Naruto could barely keep enough wind chakra up to keep him airborne. Suddenly, a loud explosion ripped through the air to the right of him and Naruto turned his weeping eyes to the ground, coughing and choking on the hot smoke. A Kiri ninja had gotten under Kyuubi's guard and aimed an explosive kunai at Naruto. Kyuubi had already dealt a clean blow, severing his spine and the man crumpled limply forward. But, the damage was done. Naruto could not correct his descent marred by the chaotic, concussive force from the attack. His body listed to the left and he felt utterly weightless as crushing winds rocked his chest downward and he plummeted to the ground. Able to catch himself mere feet from the earth and add just enough of an updraft so that he didn't break all the bones in his body, Naruto hit the earth with a reverberating crash that cracked the ground beneath him. He had felt almost none of it, having passed out from chakra exhaustion mere moments after trying to buffer the impact.
Hinata caught a flash of gold hair and black and red cloth as it fell alarmingly fast to land with a sickening crash on the earth. Her breath caught in her throat. There were no ninja she knew with that particular feature save one; Naruto. Pulling her chakra reserves to her feet, she sped off in the direction she'd seen Naruto fall while aiming a honed and deadly accurate kunai over her shoulder at the last enemy she'd been fighting. It thunked soundly when it hit flesh she did not see but knew the hit to be mortal. She did not spare a glance back as she quickened her steps to reach her fallen friend.
"Oh, God," she whispered as she came upon Naruto's body. His left arm was twisted at an unnatural angle beneath him and his legs looked wrong too. His back was twisted away from them and Hinata knew that to be a sign that his back was most probably broken. No, not just broken but twisted out of alignment. It would require a more skilled ninja at medical technique than she was to even hope to fix it all, let alone for him to walk again. Blood stained the earth around his head and Hinata stared hopelessly down at Naruto while trying to quiet her breathing and calm her pounding heart. It hurt deep inside her chest and she knew it was more than the strain of the battle and the exertion of having to fight for a prolonged period of time.
Keeping in mind all that she'd learned in the academy about moving an injured person, Hinata crouched down at Naruto's side, taking care to keep one hand near his injured head and the other bracing his back. Curling his right arm around his body and keeping his head level, straight and stable with her left hand, she shifted Naruto onto his back and checked his airway and breathing. He was rasping out air in quick, strained pants and there was blood trickling down both sides of his mouth. That wasn't good. He might have a punctured lung from the fall, which would mean he also had broken ribs. His back didn't seem as injured as she had thought at first, though.
It appeared as if his left hip, the one he must have landed on, was broken badly. Hinata could feel the fragments of bone shifting under her questing fingers. There were broken ribs, too, shards of which poked into his flesh though none protruded through the skin. Suddenly, she stopped her assessment of his injuries. Perhaps she was making everything worse? She wasn't sure, didn't know enough about anatomy and deceleration injuries and little more about ones caused by blades and fire. He had second or maybe third degree burns on the left side of his face, the clothes on that side singed and still smoking. The portion of his right arm and hand that was visible sported shiny red patches. Hinata sucked in a breath and stood up. He needed help and if she could not find Sakura nearby, she had memorized Kakashi's last known location and knew him to be a quick and efficient fighter who rarely had to use more than the space he was currently in to ground enemy ninja permanently. Turning eastward Hinata released her Byakugan to its widest range and caught the familiar aura of Kakashi's chakra tinged with lightning. He must be using his Chidori. A rasp from the prone Naruto stopped her and the quiet whimper had her turning swiftly to meet heavily lidded, but open, eyes.
"Hinata? Iz . . . at . . . you?" he choked out. Hinata was on her knees in an instant trying to comfort him and hush his small movements. He couldn't do that in his condition or he risked damaging his vital organs and his spine further.
"Hush, Naruto. You're injured and need to lie still. You'll hurt yourself more if you try to move."
"This? This is nothing. You . . . should've . . . seen me . . . after Kabuto . . . ," his voice broke and he began to choke again, blood frothing and trailing down his chin to coat his now shredded shirt. Naruto looked down cautiously at himself.
"Damn. And I just bought this shirt. Good thing I have a spare," he half-laughed, half-choked stopping suddenly when he caught sight of Hinata's worried gaze. The sun had started to filter through a break in the clouds and the surrounding canopy to highlight her hair. In Naruto's pain addled mind she looked more beautiful than when he'd seen her stand firm against her cousin in the Chunin exams, fire in her eyes and a firm set to her shoulders. He tried to speak again but Hinata leaned down and pressed trembling fingers to his lips. They were warm, everything was so warm.
He couldn't feel the light drizzle of rain that saturated his clothes further or the already stiffening blood making them scratchy. He couldn't feel his numb feet and could barley make out through the pain of his arm and chest that his head was splitting open in front of her. It had to be for all that it felt like it.
Taking off her outer coat, Hinata did her best to cover Naruto with the thick weave. He would be more visible this way since the coloring was lighter than his own clothes and stood out from the green and brown of the foliage. Though, lilac didn't suit him and the thought of her beloved wearing her clothes, even if it was only to protect him from shock, made her blush fiercely. She leaned over some more and long strands of her hair caught and reflected the light in shining waves. Naruto reached his right hand out, the one not on fire from dislocated shoulder to wrist but burning all the same, and ran his fingers clumsily through the locks he could see. His vision had begun to get hazy and he had trouble finding her face. The tears streaming down it were a surprise to him. He knew she was quiet and weird and determined but to be so emotional over a few broken bones and scrapes . . . .
His hand moved back up to cup her face and he caught a stray drop of moisture and then rifled through her hair again.
"Naruto, please. You need help. I have to go," she whimpered and her breath made the same misty trails his own had up above them. Had it been moments ago? It seemed like hours, he mused. What had he been doing up there anyway?
"I like it better . . . like this," he whispered, not able to make his voice any louder for all the pain. "Do you?"
"Yes," she whispered back. She knew she needed to move, time was never enough when someone was so injured, even if the rumors she'd heard about his advanced healing were true. He couldn't seem to use it now, anyway, and that scared her. Naruto being this injured simply terrified her.
"Cheh, you think this will get me? You tell . . . that ol' hag . . . I still gotta get her job." With that, Naruto passed out again and Hinata all but tore out of his grip on her hair to speed off in the direction of Kakashi praying that she had not waited too long.
Branches and leaves rustled and shifted imperceptibly as the small group of Iwa ninja made their way through the outer edges of the forest. The leader halted suddenly and motioned for the other four ninja with him to do the same. Two of them took to the trees to stand guard while another gathered wood to prepare a small fire and the last began pulling rolls of bandages and medical supplies to address any wounds incurred during their last fight. Finding only minor cuts and bruises to tend to, the man settled against the trunk of a tree to relax. The leader appeared restless as he readied and fixed a batch of tea for them all.
This man, Tachibana Hiroku, had not set foot in this part of Fire Country for nearly sixteen years. While the situation between the major ninja nations had changed little, in his opinion, since the uneasy alliance their leaders had formed, Hiroku could not deny that Konoha truly seemed to honor its allies. Why else would the Suna ninja have come to help them? In the past, when a particular ninja village, even one belonging to a Great Nation or perhaps especially one of those, found itself mired in conflict or natural disaster, no one from outside that country intervened. There was always some kind of excuse to allow the other Great Nations to weasel out of helping anyone else, be it money or resources or 'internal stability'. That last one had made Hiroku laugh when he'd heard it. Really, Kumogakure had to have been in dire straits or incredibly opportunistic for them to admit such a thing to keep from having to lend ninja to Rain country during the last great flood they'd had.
This pre-emptive initiative of Konoha's had stirred up murky images from his past he would rather have eradicated completely. But, the sludge and oil of all that anger and hatred had drifted to the surface and now he was stuck in a forbidden realm filled with them. So toxic and noxious had it all become that his heart and soul had wizened to a mere shade of what could be termed human. Hiroku did not care. In fact, he much preferred it as it had helped push him over the edge during his battles with the Suna and Konoha ninja earlier in the day. He and his subordinates were all exhausted from their efforts but they had managed to cut down quite a few powerful Jounin and even two complete Chunin teams. They would return to Iwagakure heroes and bask in the afterglow and maybe the company of a few women while their leader cooked up a new scheme to acquire enough supremacy and influence to push their borders outward. None of that really mattered to Hiroku; he doubted any ninja truly cared for anything politic unless it had the potential to gain influence or status for them and their families.
Frowning at that last thought, Hiroku hunched down next to one of his comrades at the fire's edge. His hair had turned prematurely white years ago, around the same time he'd left Fire Country to return to his ancestors' village of Iwa. Lines along the corners of his mouth and his forehead belied an advanced age, though he was only thirty-six. He supposed, for a ninja, it was an achievement and a testament to his own strength to reach middle age without too many serious repercussions, he wondered silently. Standing, he turned to put out their meager fire and spread the ashes to minimize any sign or trail.
"Captain Tachibana?" the team medic questioned, pushing the muddy brown bangs from his hazel eyes, the rest of his hair shortened to an almost buzz-cut. The two guards had alighted from the trees to appear at his side as well.
"Are we leaving then, Hiroku?" one of them, the only one wearing shades of brown and green and sporting a black Mohawk to match his black eyes, asked. The others of the group had all elected to dress in solid black garments.
"Obviously," Hiroku replied tersely. "We've got a lot of ground to cover before reaching Iwa and I, for one, would like to make it in time for the festivities."
The other guard, this one a redhead, smirked. They all knew that even though Konoha had been able to stop the army and its main leader, the village would not be fully recovered from its losses for quite some time. Hopefully, the Tsuchikage could monopolize on their plight for the benefit of the village.
Grunting, Hiroku followed his team into the trees and began heading west toward the border between Fire and Grass Countries. They would reach Earth Country, where Iwa rested just forty miles south of the ocean, through Grass Country. Keeping a well trained eye on their surroundings in case the Kazekage, who had apparently joined the battle alongside his ninja or the Hokage, decided to comb through the forest for any lingering enemies, Hiroku caught sight of blond hair and what looked to be blood on the ground not far to their right. Deciding that, if nothing else, they could always use a few more kunai and another fallen ninja's head, which was always good to capture whenever possible in case it held any secret techniques, Hiroku ricocheted off several limbs and a tree trunk to land beside the body.
What he was able to catch from the sight of the young ninja's face and hair and the Konoha symbol on the forehead protector made his stomach curl in on itself. This . . . this could not be. He was supposed to be dead. Then, Hiroku crouched down to get a closer look and made out three whisker-like scars on each cheek. Realizing his mistake but also the potential for finally seeing his son's murderer punished more soundly than in just killing a few of Konoha's finest, Hiroku began to laugh. The sound swelled until the wood in the trees hummed with it. His teammates, who had circled back by then to discover what it was that had their leader so intrigued, gaped at each other. They had never seen such behavior from him before; it was unsettling, to say the least. In truth, Hiroku was only going to visit suffering upon the spawn of the most hated and vile creature he had ever known. But, it would be more than enough to satisfy him. Reaching down to encircle the boy's ankle with one large hand, he began to pull it out of the rubble it was half buried under. Turning the body slightly and grasping the arm he could tell was either broken or dislocated, he wrenched it up and over his head and the rest of the body followed to sit across the broad expanse of Tachibana's shoulders. He snickered at the pained groan from the young one and made his way to the tree branches again, with his team in close pursuit and still marveling at his altered behavior. The only things remaining after their departure were a pile of ashes strewn haphazardly about and a stained purple and white jacket sitting almost forlornly to the side of the rubble the boy had been found in.
The battle was dying away. Kakashi looked around. Now, when the number of enemies was reduced to an amount Konoha's lower class ninjas could take care of, he finally had some time to assess the situation.
They had withstood great losses, but not nearly as much as they would have if Naruto hadn't pulled all that he had out. All that had happened had left Kakashi overwhelmed and even somewhat scared; dealing with the consequences, however, might have more repercussions than any of them could handle at the moment. But, he was also oddly proud of Naruto and a little sorry he hadn't had time before all that had happened to get the boy to confide in him a little.
Luckily, Kakashi's part in the battle had left him with a lot of chakra to spare; he had required only a little of his special abilities. So now, at the very end, Kakashi was grateful he had enough left in him to finish things up using Chidori, as it was the most efficient way to deal with the remainder of the enemies before him. A thought about sparing as much chakra as he could had crossed his mind, in case reinforcements surged the enemy lines, but that event was unlikely. Besides, he had felt the Kazekage's distinctive presence. Suna was here to help Konoha and it was time to finish this and begin to triage the injured.
So, Kakashi took care of what was left of the enemy on his side using Chidori, and then started to roam the area, looking for those in need of assistance. The medic teams were working all over the place; their first priority, Kakashi knew, was to see that the seriously or critically wounded were taken care of first and that took time. The others, who seemed to have only minor injuries, were placed to the side, awaiting the medics or any fellow ninja with enough chakra to see to them.
Kakashi gave clipped instructions to a few Chunin to carry the bodies of people that he knew Konoha's scientists would want to examine to another area of the field they were working in. Maybe the pathologists could take something valuable for the further protection of Konoha and her allies from them.
Many had died, on both sides. Kakashi was thinking about how many more might have fallen if it hadn't been for Naruto. He had a sudden and overwhelming urge to know for certain that all his teammates were all right, Naruto especially. Ignoring any protests from the other ninja stationed near him, Kakashi hunted out and began to follow a weak trail of his team members' chakra, that skirted the edge of the field and disappeared into the woods.
Kakashi realized the pattern of movements on the trail below him was very familiar to him after only a couple of steps. He also realized it was not Naruto that had made them. Kneeling to examine them closer, Kakashi surmised that whoever had left the footprints had to gain a lot of stability to try and land a single hit. It left no doubt in his mind that they were created by either Tsunade or Sakura, and he knew that Tsunade had been advised to stay within the boundaries of the village for the preservation of Konoha. He knew, also, that he had sensed Sakura's chakra signature not far from this spot. He had not seen her anywhere near the vicinity of the injured, which was odd, because no matter how exhausted she became, Sakura would have found some way to help in caring for the injured, even if it was just to bring water, blankets and bandages.
Kakashi's mind raced frantically with the only other possibilities left and he sped up.
He knew she was dead as soon as he saw her and the angle that her body made while pinned to the tree. The wound had been impossible to survive, but it was quite clear Sakura had fought to try; if she had died quickly, as the injury to her abdomen would suggest, there wouldn't have been so much blood loss.
Kakashi stood there for a few seconds, knowing he should move if only to help her down. He needed a minute for himself; the first moments of grieving were always the hardest for containing emotions. Though, anyone would feel real pain after the loss had a chance to truly sink in.
The fast approach of a foreign chakra alerted him. Kakashi identified the person coming his way as Hinata Hyuuga.
He moved quickly in the direction Hinata was coming from. Even if they weren't close, there was no reason for the girl to see Sakura in this state. They had gone to school together, after all. Maybe Kakashi couldn't spare all of them, but he could certainly try.
"Naruto is hurt!" The girl cried out as she reached him. A shot of fear ran through Kakashi's veins.
"Show me," he ordered.
It didn't take long; Hinata was moving very fast, almost in a panic. She must have left Naruto in pretty bad shape. But when she stopped, he could see nothing, just some blood soaked into the ground where she was staring.
Hinata looked at him then, her eyes wide and horrified. "He was right here!"
Kakashi scanned the area quickly finding no sign of Naruto having left under his own power.
Voice shaking Hinata said, "His spine… and burns! He couldn't move. I'm sure he couldn't . . ."
A sob broke through the hysteria. She was losing it. Kakashi turned to regard her sympathetically.
"Calm down," he said sharply.
She nodded, using one hand to wipe her wet cheek and turned away to help begin the search. Kakashi watched her disappear and then made his way back to Sakura's body. Whether they would be in time to save Naruto or not, Kakashi would not speculate, but he at least would send a clone to the assemblage of medic ninja assessing the wounded and retrieving the dead.
Both of those thoughts were just naive attempts to ease his own mind. Running with the help of chakra, Kakashi tried to keep the picture of Team 7 talking about their dreams and hopes from overtaking his mind. He remembered clearly his fear for Sasuke before his departure from the village, his hope for Naruto and how Sakura had amused him, and his throat began to close up painfully.
He feared he had lost all three of them now.