Nawaki knew it was almost over when his vision started to go black around the edges. The pain in his chest was so agonizing that he was almost happy it was over. If he focused, he could still feel the tingle of Oki's lips on his, before he had asked her to leave. He didn't want her to have to watch him die. The kiss hadn't been the romantic moment he had dreamt of, but now he had no regrets when it came to her.
He stared up at the sky, wondering how much regrets he had. He regretted not revealing the truth about his identity, but when Hisa got back to Konoha with a Sharingan the truth would come out anyway. Again, it wasn't how he imagined it would go, but it did ease his mind.
Nawaki's thoughts turned to his mother. He would miss her the most, and he knew she would miss him the most. Although he had made bonds in Konoha, his mother was the only person that he was comfortable admitting he loved. Nawaki hoped that his death would bring her back to Konoha, and that she could resolve the issues that drove her away. He wished he could have discovered the full reason behind her deserting the village, but he wouldn't get the chance to now.
He blinked twice as his new right eye began to adjust. The Rinnegan was draining his chakra. His body wasn't suited to housing a Rinnegan, but he doubted he would live long enough to die from chakra exhaustion.
His blackness at the edge of his vision was slowly beginning to expand. He thought he could make out a shadowy figure looming over him, but by this time his brain had started to shut down. He could no longer tell what was real and what was in his head.
He remembered the story of his mother's old sensei Kakashi. He knew how Obito Uchiha had given Kakashi one of his eyes, and Kakashi had gone back to Konoha believing Obito dead. It was almost exactly like what was happening now.
Except this time, Nawaki thought as his body went numb, I really am going to die. I guess history doesn't always repeat itself.
Then the pain in his right lung reached its peak, and Nawaki's world went dark.
!
They stood amongst the slaughtered for a while, not quite sure what to do. Hisa cleaned the blood off her sword, while Oki checked to make sure that every single missing-nin was dead. Hisa was starting to worry about Oki, the cold empty expression hadn't left her face yet.
She watched as Oki kicked over the feebly stirring body of a young missing-nin who couldn't be older than sixteen. He moaned, clutching the kunai lodged in his side. Oki raised her sword and for a second Hisa was tempted to ask her to spare his life. But then she remembered that these were the people who had killed Nawaki, and her feelings of mercy vanished. Oki stabbed her sword into his throat, and his moans were replaced by gurgles.
He was the last one to die. Once Oki had finished checking, she came and sat beside Hisa. For a moment, they just sat in silence. Then Hisa spoke.
"We need to find Konohamaru and explain to him what's happened. We'll have to tell him the full story, there's no hiding it now."
Oki nodded and got to her feet.
"How do we find him?"
Hisa held out her hand.
"I gave him a special kunai. I can try to teleport both of us. It'll be hard, and very dangerous, but right now I don't really care about that."
Oki nodded and grabbed Hisa's hand. Hisa knew it was terrible, but she was glad Oki had also seen Nawaki die. It made her feel like she wasn't alone in her misery.
She took a deep breath and emptied her mind. It was a lot harder to do than normal, but also easier because she was desperate to escape the feelings of grief. It took her twenty seconds to locate the kunai she had given Konahamaru. She had filled it up with her chakra, but not to the brim. That way all she had to do was push some chakra into it, then yank it all out. He was at least two miles away. Hisa had never done a teleportation this difficult, but she was feeling lucky.
Or perhaps she was feeling suicidal. Either way, she was doing the jutsu.
She focused on the thin link between her chakra in her body and her chakra in the kunai. The greater the distance, the thinner the link, so Hisa had to strain hard to push her chakra into it. Once she felt it fill to the top, she quickly pulled her chakra back out again. As she began to teleport, she gripped Oki's hand tightly, hoping that she could teleport the two of them successfully.
The next thing she knew, her chakra pathways were burning and she was falling hard onto a tree branch. Dazed, she looked up and saw Konohamaru staring down at her in concern.
"Hisa what-"
She blacked out.
!
She didn't know how long it took for her to wake up. Both her arms were throbbing with pain, but she managed to sit up and look around. Konohamaru was sitting across from her. When he noticed that she was awake, he ran across and helped her sit up.
"Hisa! Are you ok?"
She nodded, not quite sure how to start explaining.
"Konohamaru-sensei, Nawaki is…"
Konohamaru sighed, pain visible in his eyes.
"It's ok Hisa. Oki told me everything."
Oki!
Hisa jumped up, ignoring the pain, and looked wildly around.
"Where is she? Is she ok? What happened to her after I did the teleportation?"
Konohamaru put his hand on Hisa's shoulder, calming her down slightly.
"She was in the same condition as you. She woke up ten minutes earlier. She's in pain, but she'll pull through."
Hisa dropped onto the ground like a limp rag-doll. She curled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees.
"I almost lost her." she mumbled quietly. "I wasn't thinking straight after Nawaki. I didn't care what happened to us, and I was glad that she was suffering with me. What kind of idiot am I?"
"Hisa."
Hisa's head jerked up. Oki stood in front of her, leaning against a tree. The cold expression was still on her face, but her eyes had softened slightly.
"Remember what Nawaki told you." she said "Don't take yourself so seriously. I don't know exactly what went down between you and Nawaki, but none of this is your fault. Things like this happen on a mission, you couldn't have predicted the outcome. Don't be too hard on yourself. It's as much my fault for getting kidnapped in the first place as it is yours."
Hisa didn't know what to say after that. She just let Oki crouch down and wrap her arms around her. They stayed like that for a long time, Hisa sobbing, angry and tearless, into Oki's shoulder. Oki holding her, letting her get it out of her system.
Finally, Hisa ran out of steam. She pushed away from Oki and turned to look at Konohamaru.
"What happens now?" she asked, her voice dry and rough.
Konohamaru looked just as sad as Hisa felt, but he also looked slightly confused. Hisa understood why. Konohamaru hadn't seen Nawaki die, just heard it from the two of them. It would take some time for the news to sink in.
"I found the children and managed to rescue them." Konohamaru said after a pause, "So since the mission is complete, the best thing to do would be to head back to Konoha. We'll talk to Naruto and we'll figure out what to do about…" His eyes drifted towards Hisa's closed right eye. "Nawaki's parentage claims. I had a hunch for a long time, and so did Naruto. To be honest, it was one big elephant in the Hokage building. I'm sorry for not telling you, but Naruto didn't want anyone to know. I myself only know part of the whole story, and I have a feeling Naruto only knows part of it too." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, a look of grief on his face. "The only person who knows the full story is Sakura, and no one knows where she is. When she finds out about Nawaki's death, things will get a lot more complicated."
Hisa pushed herself to her feet and jumped into the nearest tree.
"We have a long journey back." she said dully. "We might as well get started now."
Konohamaru looked uncertain.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay for a while? I'd understand…"
Oki was the one who answered him.
"There's no point to staying here. There's nothing left here for us."
!
They spent three hours jumping through trees before they broke the silence. Konohamaru stayed a little way in front of them. He preferred to show his emotions in privacy, and both of them could respect that. Hisa knew he felt guilty, but she didn't know yet how to convince him that it wasn't his fault.
Hisa and Oki jumped tirelessly from tree to tree. Neither of them could find the energy to break the heavy silence that hung over them. After three hours, Oki spoke.
"How are you going to cope? People were already scared of you with your Rinnegan, but hundreds of shinobi lost family members in the war thanks to a sharingan. Madara, Obito, even Sasuke. They all are feared not only by civilians but by shinobi too. How do you think they'll react to you?"
Hisa laughed once, but it was a bitter laugh.
"Do you know what Oki? I don't actually care. I've spent all this time worrying about how they'll see me, wanting them to like me. But now? I couldn't care less what they think. My family will accept me, Naru… Dad will understand. You won't shun me, and neither will Konohamaru. That's all that matters to me, and that's all that should."
She laughed again, slightly hysterical.
"I should have figured this out years ago, but I didn't. Nawaki had to die for me to understand what's really important. How messed up is that? What the hell is wrong with me?"
"Stop." Oki said. "Stop trying to put yourself down. Nawaki basically told you not to hold his death against yourself. It was his dying wish for you. So do it, if not for you then for him."
Hisa was quiet after that.
!
They arrived back in Konoha in the middle of the night. Hisa kept her eye shut as they passed by the sentries. Kotetsu gave them a friendly wave, not noticing their missing member. Izumo was snoring in the back of the guardhouse.
Once they were inside, they didn't even need to discuss it. They headed straight for the Hokage building.
Naruto was awake, sorting through the mounds of never-ending paperwork. He smiled as they walked in, but it soon turned into a frown when he noticed Nawaki was missing. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it once he noticed Hisa's right eye. He raised an eyebrow at her.
Hisa opened her eye.
Naruto's eyebrows shot all the way up into his hair. He flicked his head to Hisa, then to Oki, then to Konohamaru, then back at Hisa. Then he slumped back in his chair.
"Well," he said at last, "I'm guessing you have a story to tell me."
!
Once they had finished telling Naruto the whole story, Hisa could almost see the gears turning in his brain. He sighed once and put his head in his hands.
"This is a mess." he mumbled "This is such a big mess. I'm so sorry that this happened to you. I never thought that Nawaki…" He raised his head to look at the two youngest members.
"I'm going to need a bit of time to figure something out. I don't think the two of you should go back home yet. There's a spare bedroom down the hall with two beds, you two get some sleep. I'll call in some people I trust and we'll figure this out."
"What do we tell anyone if they ask?" Hisa asked.
Naruto ran his hand through his hair, much like Konohamaru had done earlier.
"You won't meet anyone tonight. Tomorrow I'll wake you up and tell you what I've decided. Until then just get some sleep. If I'm being honest, you're going to need it."
They left the office and made their way down the hall. Naruto would inevitably call Sasuke, and Hisa didn't feel like explaining why his son's right eye was now in her head.
She climbed into the bed, thinking that she wouldn't get much sleep tonight. Nawaki's smile as he lay dying echoed through her head. But despite that, she was too exhausted, mentally and physically, to stay awake for very long.
Within a few minutes, both she and Oki were sound asleep.
!
Sasuke shook as Naruto finished recounting the story Team 7 had told him. He didn't even notice he was shaking until Naruto reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"What happens now?" Sasuke asked, his normally smooth voice hoarse and choked.
Naruto turned around to look at the other three people in the room. Out of the three of them, Konohamaru, Sai and Shikamaru, he was looking at Shikamaru for the answer. Shikamaru sighed and stepped forward.
"From the amount of evidence that we know of, there are two possible scenarios. The first is that Nawaki is truly dead. In this case, I imagine Sakura will come to Konoha, if not to discuss herself then at least to confirm his death."
Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed Sasuke's shaking getting worse. His face was as blank as ever.
"What's the second scenario?" Naruto asked.
Shikamaru sighed again.
"We know that Sakura's been in contact with… Him. I know you said he could be trusted, but I still don't see him passing up on the opportunity to 'help' Nawaki. If this scenario is true- and it's very likely to be- then we're in a lot more trouble than if Nawaki was dead."
Konohamaru stood across from Shikamaru and glared at him.
"Look, tell me the truth. Which scenario is most likely to be true? I've just lost one of the kids I was supposed to protect, so don't fling hope into my face unless you can back it up."
Shikamaru didn't even flinch.
"Knowing… Him, and from what we've gathered about his patterns, they the second scenario is most likely to be true. Nawaki's alive, but we're in big trouble."
Naruto turned back to the window, staring out at the city. He would do anything to protect Konoha, but since becoming Hokage he had learnt that he couldn't do it all on his own. This was an extremely complicated situation, and there were too many influences for any of them to predict what would happen.
"So now we wait," Naruto said, "We wait, and we prepare."
Behind him, Sasuke clenched his hands into fists.
"If he comes…"
Naruto didn't even let him finish.
"We still don't have any real proof that he's gone back to his old ways. He switched sides in the war and that's what most likely made us win. He's a good person."
Sasuke still didn't look satisfied, so Naruto changed tack.
"You were like him once, but now you're protecting this village by my side. If you can change, why can't he?"
Naruto had a point, Sasuke knew this. But that didn't make the uneasiness go away. He didn't know how to explain it, but he knew that Naruto was wrong. Something big was brewing, Sasuke could feel it.
!
When Nawaki opened his eyes, his first thought was that he was dead. He was surrounded by pitch black darkness, and he wasn't in pain. He was a bit disappointed, he had expected the afterlife to be… brighter.
Suddenly, he became aware that he wasn't alone. He shot up, surprised to see that his new rinnegan and his sharingan were both activated. He could see that the figure was a grown-man, but his face was hidden. When the man spoke, Nawaki knew who he was.
"Calm yourself child. As I have told you before, I am not your enemy."
It was the man from his first Chunin Exams, the one who had saved his life when he had fallen off the bridge. The one with the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Nawaki tried to stand, but for some reason it was hard to move. It wasn't painful, more like numb. The man noticed his efforts.
"I'd advise you to stay seated for a bit longer. You're rinnegan was draining too much of your chakra, so I had to put Senju DNA into your bloodstream. It was the only way to save your life, I'm sure you understand."
Nawaki realised that his rinnegan wasn't draining his chakra anymore. In fact, his body felt stronger. Still, he felt sad when he heard the man's words. He had joked with his mother about Senju DNA being everywhere, but now that it was inside him, it wasn't funny.
"How am I still alive? How did you know how to find me?"
He turned to look at the man fully. He knew that the man wouldn't hurt him, but there was something about him that terrified Nawaki.
"Who are you?" he asked "How…"
Even though Nawaki couldn't see his face, he knew that the man was smiling.
"I saved you because you and I are family. My name is Obito Uchiha."
A/N And this is where part 1 of the story ends. I was originally planning to split the story in two, but I've decided to just put it all in one. I'll be taking a short break from the story, so I'll probably update in a week or two.
I don't normally like asking for reviews, so this is probably the only time I will. If you have read up to here, could you please leave a review? I'd appreciate it a lot.
I know a lot of things are unclear, but I'm hoping to explain them as the story goes on. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed.