"Oki!" Hisa gasped, staring at her friend. "How did you find me? What are you doing here?" She paused. "You smell like paper."
Oki kept her eyes on Obito, but he remained crumpled on the ground. Reaching behind her, she grabbed Hisa's hand.
"Let's get out of here. The ANBU are searching everywhere for Obito, and no one knows he's here. We need to tell them before he gets up."
"Seriously, how did you find me?"
"I was meant to be guarding the filing room just down the hall, but I was bored. I stuck my head out the door just as something blew past. I had no idea that it was Obito, but I called for the ANBU and told them that something had gotten past me, and they started searching every room. I remembered this room from when we were kids, but since none of them seemed to know about it, I decided to check it out." she shrugged "It was mostly a string of very lucky coincidences, and the fact that Obito bothered to boast about this place, which gave me time to get here. Does he monologue a lot?"
"Yes, yes he does. The funny thing is that for a guy so smug, he's yet to seriously hurt me. Physically at least, I have the Mangekyo Sharingan now thanks to him."
"Who died?" Oki asked instantly.
"My brother and… Kawa."
Oki's eyes hardened as she turned towards Obito.
"Come on. The sooner we get the ANBU, the sooner this dick is dead."
They started moving towards the door. Oki reached to push it open wider, but withdrew her hand sharply a second before her own sword pierced it. The sword smashed against the wall and bounced back falling at her feet.
Hisa spun around just as Obito pushed himself upright. The there was a visible hole where the sword had stabbed him, but there was no blood. Obito noticed her shocked expression and chuckled.
"It'll take more than a sword stab to kill me, or even hurt me. You actually thought you were safe? How precious."
Oki quickly grabbed her sword and pointed it at Obito.
"Hisa, get out of here, it's you he wants. Find as much help as you can. I'll hold him off."
"Oki, I can't do that!"
"Yes you can, and you're going to do it right now, because the more time you waste the less chance we have of-"
"Almighty Push."
Oki was knocked off her feet and slammed into a wall, her sword clattering to the ground. Suddenly Obito was directly in front of Hisa. She raised her hand, but he grabbed Oki and pressed a kunai against her throat. Hisa froze.
"Good girl. Now then, I have two options here. I can hold this girl hostage, forcing you to do whatever I tell you. Or I could kill her, and still force you to do whatever I said. Unfortunately for you, Hisa Uzumaki, I really don't like you. I think I'll go for option two."
Hisa was only half paying attention to what he said. Her eyes were on Oki's right hand. She was slowly counting down on her fingers. When she reached one, Hisa stuck out her hand. Obito raised an eyebrow and started to talk. Oki's hand curled into a fist.
Then she kicked Obito square between his legs.
He loosened his grip for a split second, distracted by the pain, and Oki managed to slip out of his hold. Hisa shot an Almighty Push towards Obito, and he slammed into the wall. Oki ran to Hisa's side, scooping up her sword as she went.
"I can't believe that actually worked." she said incredulously.
"I can't believe that worked twice." Hisa replied "I did the same thing to him when he was fighting Dad."
"Who knew that he had a weak spot? I would have thought that replacing most of your body with wood would have, you know, numbed that place a bit."
"It's not like he'll ever use it. He's still in love with his dead teammate."
"The one who he only knew when they were twelve? That's kind of touching and kind of creepy."
Hisa noticed Obito slowly climbing to his feet, a look of cold rage on his face. To her surprise, he seemed angrier at Oki than at her.
"I'm done playing games with you children." he spat.
Hisa would have definitely come up with a comeback, except that Obito didn't give her time. He flickered behind her, and punched her head. Oki swung her sword, but it hit nothing but air. Obito was already on the other side of the room. Hisa staggered from the blow and clutched her head.
"Damn, he's fast." Oki muttered, reaching into her pocket.
She pulled out a handful of purple balls and threw them on the ground. Smoke exploded from them and covered the entire room. With her sharingan, Hisa could still see Obito, but her head was pounding from where he had struck it. Her eyes were watering with the effort of keeping them open.
"Let's go." Oki whispered, grabbing Hisa's hand.
Hisa kept a careful eye on Obito as they tiptoed towards the door. She knew that the Rinnegan gave above average eyesight, but it was nowhere near the level of a Sharingan. At best, he should only be able to see a faint shadow. Both she and Oki were careful to hide their chakra, so he wouldn't be able to pinpoint their location. To be extra careful, Hisa and Oki made two shadow clones each. Each clone made a small 'poof' sound as they came into existence, causing Hisa to wince at the noise and pray that Obito hadn't heard them.
Unfortunately for them, he had. Four kunai killed four clones, and the fifth one snagged the real Hisa's sleeve and pinned her to the wall. She tugged it out, but Obito had already thrown more. They pinned her arms and legs to the wall with unnerving accuracy and speed. Not a single one actually touched her skin, only her clothes. She gulped. He couldn't even see her clearly and he could throw this well? For the first time since she met Obito, she realised the full weight of him being an S-Class criminal.
While she struggled to pull the kunai out, Obito closed in on Oki. Despite being heavily outmatched, Oki gripped her sword and stared determinedly at him. Obito smirked, his full confidence restored now that Hisa was stuck.
"Ah, little Oki Yamanaka, I'm afraid that I have no use for you. Unlike your teammates, you aren't strong enough to leave a mark on this world. Your fate depends entirely on my mercy towards your friend, and as I've said before, I don't like her very much." His rinnegan eye gleamed, which Hisa found less creepy than when his sharingan had done it. "You are going to die child."
Oki blinked.
"Wow." she said "Hisa was right. You really like to give pointless monologues, don't you? All these words pour out of your mouth, but only half of what you said made sense to me. I don't really care about my fate or leaving a mark on this world. I care about the fact that you messed my teammates up pretty badly. I mean, just look at Hisa."
Hisa's head was currently pounding, and the voice from when Kawa died was back. Now it was telling her that Oki was going to die. She wanted to scream or put her head in her hands, but her arms were still stuck against the wall. She tried reaching for her Asura Path powers, but something was wrong with her rinnegan. The chakra behind her eye was pumping at a much wilder pace than normal, and Hisa feared losing control if she tried to use it. In front of her, a vague outline of a man that resembled Naruto flickered in and out of view, like a phantom. When she looked with her sharingan, there was no trace of the man.
There's nothing you can do about it on your own. Let me help you, the voice whispered.
Hisa felt petrified. . What was this? It didn't feel like a genjutsu or a Yamanaka clan technique. It felt like it was coming from inside her, and she had no idea how to deal with it. Things that attacked her physically she could deal with, but attacks like this left her feeling powerless. She looked over towards Oki and Obito. Although Oki kept her face and voice calm, her sword was shaking slightly. Hisa knew her friend well, and she knew that right now, Oki was terrified. However, she kept talking calmly to Obito.
"Look, I don't really care about your evil plan or whatever. My ninja way is pretty simple: If you fuck with my friends, I'll give it back tenfold. I'm not stupid, and I can see how powerful you are, but I'm still going to try."
She thrust her sword forward, and Obito dodged to the side. Hisa looked on as they began to fight, dreading the inevitable conclusion. Oki was a chunin who was skilled with a sword, but Obito had the Sage of Six Paths doujutsu and had been trained by Madara Uchiha. A sense of hopelessness filled Hisa. The voice in her head was growing louder, and although she kept tugging and straining, the kunai kept her firmly pinned. On top of that, she was now struggling to keep the Rinnegan under control, as more and more of her chakra was swallowed up by it.
As she watched Obito lift Oki up into the air and slam her on the ground with one Almighty Push, she felt herself take a deep breath. Obito tugged Oki's sword from her limp hand and raised it above his head, ready to swing down. Hisa let the air rush out of her lungs, and did something she had never done before.
She gave in.
She felt her body grow slack as the power of the Rinnegan pushed through her pathways. She stopped trying to fight both it and the voice in her head, and suddenly her vision started going white. She found herself standing in front of the man from her visions. He had blonde hair, with two tufts sticking up like horns. He was wearing the same white cloak and necklace from before, and this time Hisa could see his face. He looked a bit like Naruto, but even more like the Fourth Hokage, and he had a goatee on his chin. She felt like she knew him from somewhere, but she didn't know where.
Once she had finished staring, she looked at his eyes, ready to ask him why he was here. His purple Rinnegan eyes stared deep into hers, and she felt herself falling to the floor with a gasp. The sheer power emanating from him was stifling.
"Who… Who are you?" she croaked out, struggling to remain kneeling.
His eyes were surprisingly gentle as he looked at her, but she could barely meet his. His chakra was like nothing she had ever felt before. It was like a killing intent so strong it paralyzed you, and yet there was no malice or desire to kill in his chakra. It was almost… peaceful.
"Welcome, Hisa Uzumaki." he said "My name is Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, but you know me as the Sage of Six Paths."
!
Neji sat down, and Tenten copied him. She was surprised that they could sit down, seeing as they were floating around in nothingness, but she had more important things on her mind, namely: Neji.
"Neji, what's going on? Why are you here? Where is here? Is this some kind of-"
"Tenten," Neji interrupted "It's fine. Calm down. I'll explain everything."
She took a deep breath, and nodded.
"First of all," Neji said quietly "I'm sorry. I had no idea that you were pregnant, and I'm sorry that you had to bring Hizashi up all on your own. I know it must have been hard."
"If you had known that I would get pregnant, would you still have done everything you did?" Tenten asked.
Neji stared at her for one, long moment.
"I think that, yes, I would have done it all." he said slowly. "I don't regret that night, and I don't regret sacrificing myself. I could lie to you and tell you that I would have chosen you over Hinata and Naruto, or that I wouldn't have gotten you pregnant in the first place, but I'm not that noble. That night we spent together was the best night of my life, and I'm too selfish to give it up."
Tenten nodded again, reaching out to squeeze Neji's hand.
"That's good." she said softly. "I don't think I would have changed anything either. I just wish… I wish we could have had more."
"Me too." Neji said sadly. His eyes widened suddenly and he gave her a worried look. "You don't blame Naruto or Hinata do you? It wasn't their fault at all. Blame me if you want, but don't blame them. I-"
"You idiot!" Tenten interrupted "I couldn't blame you if I tried. And no, I don't blame anyone. Hizashi… He was angry at you for a long time, but Naruto's kids helped him get through it."
Neji smiled, and Tenten was startled by how carefree and joyful it seemed. Back when he was alive, Neji had practically been the opposite of carefree and joyful (An image of Lee and Gai-sensei trying to teach Neji the 'youth-dance' popped into her head. Tenten had taken pictures, grinning as Neji's face had changed from 'mildly annoyed' to 'angry' to 'downright murderous'). Now, he seemed relaxed and peaceful. Tenten felt tears well in her eyes as she realised that it had taken death for Neji to finally be free.
"Tenten." Neji said, his smile disappearing as he noticed her tears. "Don't cry. It's alright. I understand why our son would hate me. I'm glad he's better now."
"It's not fair." Tenten muttered, the tears starting to trickle down her cheeks. "I wanted to spar with you again! I wanted to go on another awkward date with you! I wanted to see the shock on your face when I proposed to you, and I wanted to marry you!"
Neji's arms wrapped around her, and she started sobbing into his chest. A small part of her was angry that she had ruined the reunion, but the rest of her was busy crying and relishing the comfort of Neji's arms around her at the same time.
"You know why I'm crying? Because even if all of that had happened, you would still be happier when you died."
"That's not true." Neji said immediately. "I may be freer now that I ever was alive, but most of my happiest memories are of you and Lee. Before I found out the truth about my father, there were times when I truly considered dying and freeing myself. But then Lee would race up and challenge me, or you would call my name, and that was the end of those thoughts. I won't say that you were the only thing that made life worth living, but, as much as I frowned and moaned about it, being on Team Gai certainly made my life better."
Tenten looked up at him, and Neji smiled down at her.
Then she was kissing him, because really, what else was there left to do? They had talked through their biggest problems, and his face was right in front of her. She felt him stiffen in surprise when her lips met his, but after a second he relaxed, and deepened the kiss. Her hand ran through his hair, and he kept his hand on the back of her head. They stayed like that for a few minutes, kissing and relishing the fact that they could kiss each other again. Tenten pushed herself closer to Neji; then she paused.
"Is there anyone else here? Can anyone see us?"
"Tenten, we're in your mind. Unless you're schizophrenic, we're completely alone."
Her grin reminded him of a predator about to leap on its prey.
"Good."
!
Nawaki lay in a cell, tossing a small ball against the wall. Sasuke had left him here half an hour ago, and he was both bored and worried. He couldn't hear anything from the village, but he didn't know if it was because of the thick walls and lack of windows, or because the fighting had actually stopped.
His question was answered when Sasuke walked into the cell. Nawaki grabbed the ball and sat up, looking hopefully at Sasuke. Sasuke shook his head grimly.
"The attacks haven't stopped. What arrangement did you make with Obito?"
"He said that he'd find me as soon as I killed you, and that he'd cause a distraction. I can't remember if he had any other motive. I don't think he told me."
Sasuke stared at Nawaki, thinking hard. Nawaki shifted slightly, unsure of what to do. Finally, Sasuke seemed to reach a decision. He turned around and walked towards the door.
"Follow me. We're going to track him down."