J3F\\\ Journey of the Three Failures
Chapter Thirteen
Yo! (Jumps behind desk which is then peppered with kunai) I know, late!
Super long AN, but I promise there's a chapter under it!
So the chapter I had planned turned out about twice as long as chapter seven (the longest T-T) so I'm splitting it into two chapters. Good news – I have the next part written already, so I did two chapters in less than two months. If you look at it that way, I am not late but early! Heh heh… yeah. (swats a shuriken away)
So I did finish my summer homework on time, for once, but since school started I've basically had homework in every class (except basketball) every day, even weekends (All Pre-AP. Fun). And it's driving me insane XD. And I just got cruelly kicked off the basketball team a couple of weeks ago (not good enough… Hmph. I don't need your stupid team *sniffles*) so that was pretty depressing, after I worked so hard.
Anyways, thanks for all your awesome reviews!!!, loyal yakul, FantomoDrako, narutos vixen, Omega the darkness, Quantum Cat, No Hugs Peach, Sgt. Nolisten, InARealPickle, Rena-san, Naybi, Lady Azura, Dominican Kitsune, Cybergades, ComicXArena, chibi heishi, SaphireShade, dundee998, FenixFirestrome, Blizzard of love, Shizuka Taiyou, InfiniteDragon, YingYang890, Darkside8548, , Hikari no Minerva, Mercury044, and anons who signed Daniel, Frigid, Demon Ninja, and zzz! Y'all are the bestest! I mean, seriously – from 204 to 248… Thanks for all the support! (If anyone doesn't want to be mentioned here, just tell me in the review, k?)
On another note… Okay, a few anonymous reviews…
Okay, one of them – I appreciate the review, but seriously? A little extreme. Naruto seems "lightyears ahead" while "hinata and lee get to sit there and suck"? Naruto's "ALWAYS the one doing the saving and never having himself saved" and Lee and Hinata "are only endangering him" apparently. Since a few people pulled this up, I spent ten minutes on a quick tally.
-Lee saved Hinata from Neji
-Lee saved Hinata and Naruto from Kozue
-Lee saved Naruto and Hinata from the Akatsuki's first paper bomb, and Naruto saved Lee and Hinata from Kisame's kunai
-Lee took out Kisame, Hinata saved Naruto from Itachi three times, and Naruto gave Hinata time to draw ink seals
-Hinata saved Naruto from the Kyuubi
-Lee performed CPR on Hinata
-Hinata saved Lee five times from Jirobo (3), Sakon, and Ukon
-Lee saved Hinata from a kunai from Sakon, kept the Sound 4 busy while she healed, and helped her deactivate the Blood Seal
-(AFTER the two, despite with difficulty, defeated the four that took six people and a dog in canon) Naruto saved Lee and Hinata from the reinforcements
-Lee saved Naruto from getting stabbed in the back of the head by a levitating ninjatou
-Naruto saved Lee from getting his throat slit by Torakou
-Naruto and Lee saved Hinata from a kinjutsu
-Lee saved Hinata and Naruto from getting BLOWN UP
So! Giving one point for each actual save, subtracting one for each time one was saved, giving two points to one for saving two and subtracting one point from one who is saved by two (while both rescuers gain one point), I came up with:
Naruto: (9-9=) 0, Hinata: (11-11=) 0, and Lee: (11-9=) 2. Lee wins. (and in fact, the way I see it he IS still the strongest, Naruto and Hinata pretty even behind him, though catching up) No, I didn't plan that out.
Okay, so also in the battle with Akane "as usual Naruto was the one who didn't get ANYTHING done to him" – Did anything happen to Lee? In that fight Naruto focused on support and defense whereas Lee and Hinata landed 100 percent of the actual blows, as whenever Naruto faced the jounin he could only dodge. They weren't dependent on Naruto so much as making use of his unique abilities, same as they were. Isn't that the point of teamwork?
So maybe Naruto alone sabotaged the army. What, was Lee supposed to make a few bunshin himself, or would it help if Hinata wasted her chakra adding three or four clones to Naruto's hundreds?
And to another anonymous reviewer, who I'm not even sure reads the story or not since your 'review' had nothing to do with it, and who also… I don't know, apparently thought it would be hilarious to spew a stream of spoilers (one of which was incorrect – she didn't die, and if she had she would have come back;) in response to chapter five, the chapter where I stated in an AN that I am only caught up to the English dub so please don't tell me "how Itachi is innocent or whatever": that applied to when I wrote chapter five. I got tired of waiting and caught up to the manga months ago. So – you fail.
If you review, please don't be nasty about it.
Had to get that out… Anyways…
Enjoy the chapter, minna-san!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! I do own a cute Pakkun vest-cape thing and matching headband with earholes I knitted and stitched and sewed for my adorable terrier last Halloween, and – right, chapter!
Journey of the Three Failures
Thirteen: Breaking Point
Part One: Setting the Stage
Hanabi ハナビ
"Hurry!" Inuzuka Ken shouted at me and his little sister. The fifteen-year-old suddenly stopped running and scooped me into his arms. "Akita-chan, hop on my back and hold on tight!" She did as told, and Ken took off at full speed.
The halls thundered quietly with the echoes of dozens of pairs of racing feet. The alarm had died down a minute ago; now most of the shinobi were moving to the outer edge of New Konoha to prevent the Sound from entering, while the rest were rushing any children to safety in the innermost area.
I shook my head. "I don't understand – what time is it?"
"About a quarter to eight," Ken answered, eyes trained ahead.
"So they must have changed their plans…"
He snorted. "Maybe… but let's just say I thought something smelled funny about that Uchiha. We shoulda' known."
Sasuke-san… Could he really have…?
"But for whatever reason," he went on, "the Sound ninja seemed … caught off guard somehow."
Neji ネジ
Why?! Why are three-fourths of our shinobi lagging behind?!
I searched furiously with the Byakugan, the kunai I would have thrown in a few more minutes clenched tightly in my hand. Two hundred of them were supposed attack on my signal at 7:50 and storm their headquarters together, but someone else had thrown a paper bomb five minutes early. And then, only fifty surprised Oto and New Oto-nin had charged on the attack.
I ground my teeth and jumped off the rooftop, racing down a street toward another captain's group. I needed to get to the bottom of this!
Naruto ナルト
"Kill them."
There was movement – I falling back and the others taking stances in front of me as six shinobi blurred out of the crowd, passed the captains, and darted toward us. A speeding kunai whizzed my way, and Lee snatched it from the air to whisk it back as I drew back my fist. No pulling punches today.
I struck sharply, hitting the two nearest us with shadow strikes branched from the same move. They cried out, one with a broken nose, and in an instant Hinata and Lee had taken them out. The next four swiftly converged on them, and the rest of the army observed, utterly motionless, as my friends engaged two Sound ninja each, while I threw in a few quick Shadow Strikes. Hinata, after brushing a Juuken Stream from his shoulder to hip, thrust her shoulder into her enemy's breastbone in a fiercely sharp move that shot him ten yards with force that seemed disproportionate to a girl her size. At the same time Lee landed three fast, hard punches before snapping into a backwards jump kick that briefly knocked his foe clear off the ground. Within five seconds the three of us had left six chuunin unconscious or groaning on the ground. We settled into ready stances again, glaring together toward the captains. Bring it…
They discussed at low whispers. "Send these grunts after them, and we'll crush them with sheer numbers – though at the price of some casualties on our side for certain," the older male Oto-nin said. I noticed (it was tough not to) his headband was tied at eye level. Weird. How did he see?
"So we crush them ourselves, right?" a slouching girl in her mid-to-late teens said uninterestedly. "It ought to be a decent warm-up…"
"Patience, Midori-chan," Torakou lightly scolded the green-haired captain. "Let's not be rash. Carelessness will get even the strongest ninja killed."
The blindfolded guy agreed. "They obviously know how to work as a team. We don't. Why hand them a free advantage when in fact we control the situation here. Captain…?"
Torakou nodded. "They're too powerful together. Split them up."
I tensed as the sword-wielder raised his hand up, and the youngest captain did the same.
Their hands fell, and they and two-thirds of the shinobi body flickered.
A shadow clone appeared beside me. "Dispel!" I shouted, and it vanished. A moment later twenty kage bunshin of kage bunshin hiding a few miles away vanished as well – along with a fair number of flak jackets, other pieces of armor, shuriken holsters, kunai pouches, and anything else that happened to be a fake copy of the true equipment they'd smuggled away. An uproar of surprise and confusion raised throughout the army's ranks, and the two groups fleeing northeast and southeast on the water stopped for the moment.
Nice stealing… I thought, impressed at how much they'd gotten away from them even as I dropped to my knees. The sensation of staying up all night twenty times over was only slightly eased as the thirty I'd left to catch a little more sleep at Tazuna's place dispelled as well.
"Naruto-kun," Hinata said.
I shook my head, standing. "I'm fine. I was hoping we could stay together, but we don't have much of a choice here, do we?"
"Right," Lee said, "I will handle Torakou-san."
"And I'll take the kunoichi," Hinata said. "Don't worry; we won't let them get into the village."
On a quick thought, I dug my necklace from the neck of my shirt, holding out the diamond-shaped pendant. "Don't forget, you two, we're always together."
We tapped our necklaces together for a moment, and I nodded.
"Here we go."
They turned and began to move away, Hinata to my right, and Lee to the left. Time seemed to halt as full realization washed over me.
The next time I saw them, would they be wounded and bleeding? Would they be in pain, or in distress? Would they even be ali–
Yes. They would.
Even as this at least was decided, I felt I was reaching out, grasping a hand.
"Hinata…"
She stopped easily and let herself be pulled back, and I soon found my hand tenderly cupping her cheek, her face a short few inches from my own. The smooth skin under my hand grew warm as I looked into the girl's soft, surprised lavender eyes.
You're very, very special to me…
But as those seemed like the words of one prepared for death, "Don't do anything reckless" came out instead. Nonetheless I grabbed her into a tight hug, which she returned.
"Okay. You, too."
As we separated I felt a light peck, so brief that her lips just barely brushed against my cheek, but with a certain sweet deliberateness that ensured it wasn't accidental.
And my surprised heart tripped, jumped up again, and began racing.
As she pulled away, her lips passing an inch from my own open mouth, my eyes were momentarily transfixed on the mingling fog of our breaths in the chilled air.
With a quick smile she turned away, and she and Lee leapt from the bridge and raced over the top of the water in swift pursuit.
Yyyyatta!! I thought, taking my stance, Time to finish fast, and help the others!
"Well, it certainly wasn't difficult getting you to split up," the blindfolded man remarked. "So you're really trying to protect this place, of your own accord?"
"What's it to you?" I snapped.
"Nothing, nothing." He waved a hand. "Your determination to defend this place is almost suicidal. Despite the obvious strength of this determination, you three didn't kill any of the ones who attacked you just now, though you had the chance to. Tell me, how did Akane die? A suicide attack?"
"How did you kn–?!"
"How many people have you killed, boy?"
Disconcerted, I was shocked silent.
"None," he answered himself with a snide smile, and I knew if I could see his eyes they'd be laughing at me. He began walking forward at an unhurried pace. "You couldn't bring yourself to kill me if your life depended on it, could you? The fact is, you kids are just a bunch of softies."
"Shut your mouth–!"
"Or what? You'll kill me?"
My teeth locked. Mind games. That's all it is…
"I was once something of a nukenin myself," he went on. "Did you know a nukenin's life is measured by how many lives he can wipe out with his own? How many inferior existences have ceased due to his own life? You're nothing, boy. Do you honestly think you, with your soft white hands, have what it takes to end someone who'd probably taken dozens of lives by the time you were born?"
"You sure talk a lot, you know that?! I'm not about to sit back while some graying old geezer talks crap like he knows me!!"
I ran toward him, throwing a Shadow Punch. He slipped aside, dodging easily – and his leisurely strides became a full-out sprint. He dodged a second Shadow Strike, and with deadly speed he closed the distance between us. He was literally inches from spearing me with a dagger when I substituted behind him.
I leaned to the side, and my shoulder was nicked sharply. I yelped, and a heavy boot impacted my chest.
With a sloppy kawarimi I crashed to the ground twenty yards away. Grunting, I hastily sat up.
"Stay back," he commanded his forces, "I'll finish him…"
Shoot… This guy's n-no joke. This is a true elite ninja…
Lee リー
My feet skidded to a halt near the treeline just as Torakou and his shinobi blurred into existence on the field and beach before me. Not winded in the least from the long sprint, I grinned inwardly as I spotted many in the neat rows of ninja panting for breath from the exertion of matching their captain's pace. We were now a fair distance from the bridge, having circled along the edge of the group of islands until reaching one in the southwest of Wave.
"You're pretty fast," Torakou noted. He, too, showed no sign of weariness.
"The same to you," I said, and he chuckled.
Wasting no more time, he drew the two ninjatou that were sheathed horizontally across his back. The other shinobi stayed back as he walked forward, stopping a comfortable fifteen yards away from me. "Excuse me, but if you wouldn't mind I believe a re-acquaintance is in order. I can assure you that my real name is Torakou."
I drew my katana. So he intends to fight alone; the better for me. If we are able to take out the captains, we might just have a chance… I bent my knees, swords held at the ready. "I am Rock Lee – the Hidden Leaf Village's handsome green beast."
"Well, Rock Lee, this time we'll fight for real – and you'll die for real."
"Not likely."
CLANG!
Four swords were abruptly crossed between us.
"I guess I can't catch you off guard, huh?" he laughed.
My right and his left had locked in front of us at the hilt. If I were to shift my left hand even a bit, I could tear a gash across his abdomen – though to deter the thought his other blade, resting outside mine, was positioned in such a way as to ensure that should this be attempted I would suffer a similar injury.
He broke away and lunged again, following with a fierce slash. I dodged and parried, and found myself retreating at a controlled backpedal as we engaged in a rapid trade of blows. Metal sparked and clanged and rang as I kept on the defensive. An opening caught my eye, and soon enough my shin was meeting his ribcage.
He grunted, his stance weakening. In another instant one of his blades was sent sailing. I slashed, and he blocked with his remaining sword – leaving me free to stab past our locked blades with my other hand. If he moved his blocking sword to catch it, the katana he held off would meet his neck.
Icy terror lanced through me as my sword neared a vital point in his abdomen. I did not falter. I could not.
Then, by sheer luck, I glimpsed a curious gesture of his empty hand. A quick memory and a burst of intuition saved my life: I shifted aside, and a ninjatou whistled past my shoulder to clap into Torakou's hand.
The moment it was caught he lashed toward me; I moved a sword to block, and his blade slid swiftly along it, reached the tip, and lurched toward my head.
"Agh!" I cried as I turned away, and I felt a line of pain blaze from an inch in front of my ear to just below my eye. I spun out of my narrow evasion, wincing as I hopped several yards back. My enemy smiled.
"Well, I can ascertain that you are, indeed, a shinobi rather than an amateur civilian. But your never having been professionally trained with a sword is the truth, isn't it? Your form is just short of dreadful; you've gotten this far with strength, speed, and instinct alone. Form or force – I'm not completely sure which would win out in the end, so I suppose I shouldn't take chances and face you at close range, should I?"
He flung his swords skyward and jumped several meters back, weaving a quick string of seals. At movements of his hands the blades spiraled about each other in their descent, before plunging point-first toward him as he crossed his arms. As the blades began to pass him, he caught both by the hilt with a firm clap. When he uncrossed his arms he let the crossed swords grind against each other – and with the shriek of metal silvery flames were ignited down their lengths.
…Show off, I thought, though admittedly a bit perturbed by the fire-coated swords. "Chakra strings?" I guessed of their uncanny flight capabilities, and he nodded.
"I'm not a washout like Akane. Meet your demise at the silver tiger's flaming claws…"
I grunted, ignoring the sting on my face and the trail of blood that finally spilled down my cheek as I prepared for an attack.
"But you know… Midori-chan is stronger than I am … probably," he said with a nod to himself. "The only reason she's not in charge of the mission is that she's a bit … well, let's just say she's not exactly commander material. Tame enough around her superiors, sure, but she's quite the temperamental child, you see, and her former sensei was the only one who could really control her. Knowing her vindictive streak, her only regret will probably be that she couldn't finish all three of you herself… Anyways, I hope you've put your strongest against her, though to be completely honest with you it won't make much of a difference," he finished, shrugging innocently.
I gasped.
Hinata-san!
Hinata ヒナタ
"That … kekkei genkai…" I whispered, shocked. My body giving a little quiver of fear, I got to my feet.
"I'll ask again," came her menacingly toneless voice as she glared down at me. A hand raised to her head level beside her, and I watched with the Byakugan as a small spark of very focused chakra appeared in the air above it. Particles were attracted from the air around her to fill and surround the shining droplet of chakra. "Are you the one who killed Aka-nee-chan?"
Before I was given much time to answer, I was forced to roll to the side as a fist-sized sphere of iron sand went rocketing down to where I'd been.
She's – a descendant of Suna's Sandaime Kazekage?!
Neji ネジ
"Captain Jin!" I shouted as a shunshin placed me in the training field. He and his force, fifty more shinobi… "Why are you just sitting here?!"
"What do you mean?" he asked, surprised and a little scared. My eyes must have changed. "Hyuuga-san, your orders were for us to move in at noon – we still have hours!"
"What?!"
"H-here," he said, hurriedly fishing a small scroll from his bag. I recognized it – I had written it. He was hesitant, as though he feared upon reading it it would be proven he'd failed to follow his orders due to a careless error on his part. Finally he handed it over, and I unrolled it.
…Nani?
My eyes narrowed in on a single phrase on the assignment scroll. I read and reread, in my own handwriting:
…Your force is to attack at 1200 hours…
"I didn't write this…"
"Pardon–?"
"I didn't write this! Get over there and help, now!"
He saluted. "Yes, s…! Hyuuga-san?"
"What?" I snapped, following his gaze as he pointed. I spotted a collection of blurs speeding across rooftops in the distance. Smoke from a recent paper bomb hung in the sky.
"That's Akiha-taichou…" he noted. "Hyuuga-san, are you okay?"
"Our strongest group … was supposed to strike last…" I got my fists to unclench. It wasn't an easy task.
"Sir–?"
"Yes, attack now! And send someone to tell the group behind the wall to do the same!" I commanded, and took off again for the main village. The invasion's falling apart… Kuso! They were stationed too far apart for radios! Should I try to contact the other groups first – or stop the imposter-saboteur who's sending up false signals?
"Byakugan!"
I scanned the ground under the place the exploding tag had gone off. There were a few masked, black-clad figures in the vicinity, and one of them…
YOU!
Hanabi ハナビ
The wall of Konoha – actually, I guess now it was the wall of New Oto – it had been fully repaired several weeks ago. Escape had been impossible even before the sand monster's damage to the wall had been fixed, though; Oto had had the perimeter of the village heavily guarded at all times since the takeover.
Just recently, New Konoha had built a nine-foot high wall of stone as many feet from the inside of the wall, running along it for the whole length of New Konoha's 'territory.' A stone ceiling slanted upward from it to connect with the great wall, and the structure was reinforced by intermittent wooden beams.
It was within this long, curved corridor that I and a bunch of other children were sitting together, almost like a lockdown drill at the Academy, with Ken and five other New Konoha ninja standing guard around us. Next to me, Akita was nervously stroking the shivering ball of fluff draped across her lap; Konohamaru also sat nearby, Udon dutifully at his side.
"Coming through!"
I looked up in time to see Kiba bound from a hole in the ground near the earthen barrier, springing so far that he nearly ran into the opposite wall. Chouji scrambled out after him, and Sakura followed before quickly giving Shikamaru a hand up. The boy staggered to the side, his face red as he collapsed against the wall.
He exerted himself, though he's still recovering…
Pulling a stopwatch from his pocket, he pressed a button on his radio. "If you're not out yet, you've got fourteen seconds!"
While he was saying this more of our shinobi filed into the corridor from holes placed every fifteen or so yards; these passages had been formed the day before by several Inuzuka, forming narrow, slanted tunnels from walls at the edges of the underground base to the floor of the corridor.
Soon enough Shikamaru spoke again. "Sound off! Team One is accounted for!"
"Team Two!" Anko said from not far down the hall, her voice corresponding with a crackle of Shikamaru's earpiece. The squad leaders swiftly continued, confirming all their members were out of the tunnels.
I knew this was one of Shikamaru's plans. They'd retreated into the mazelike tunnels and swiftly navigated their ways here. The stone corridor was necessary so that after fleeing for the tunnels from the opposite, outer side of New Konoha, the enemy, unable to see us, wouldn't know we were all back aboveground. Believing them to be in the tunnels, most of New Oto's shinobi would follow and search for them underground instead of cutting across the land. And since they were unfamiliar with them and proceeding with caution of traps, it would take the Oto and New Oto ninja much longer to get here – if they were given enough time to.
"And sixteen noncombatants, accounted for," Ken declared, concluding the count.
"That's everyone," Shikamaru said, "Fire types, get in position!"
Inuzuka Ken knelt in front of the hole Kiba and the others had come through, forming hand seals. Further away, I spotted Anko doing the same at the next hole.
We'd spent all of yesterday in the group effort of lacing the dirt floors of the tunnels with gunpowder – not enough in any one place to bring the tunnels down, but plenty to keep a powerful fire jutsu moving.
"Ready, and… Fire!"
Neji ネジ
"Uchiha!!"
As soon as he turned around I was crashing against him, knocking him down. We slid several yards before stopping almost at the edge of the rooftop, and I tore away his black mask.
My nose twitched.
Sasuke smirked.
"Who're you calling 'Uchiha'?" he asked. Smoke burst outward, and the black clad ninja pinned beneath me had a different face and a Leaf headband.
I brought a fist to his grinning face, and with the thud of skull against rooftop he went limp.
I stood up. With the time I spent chasing this fool, he's probably far away doing something inconspicuous by now. There's no point in searching for him. Almost unconsciously I turned my head as my ears caught the faintest sound in the distance.
…Fire–?
All at once, dozens of geysers of flame erupted into the air over New Konoha. My kekkei genkai was immediately active. The tunnels were filled with an inundation of rushing, explosive fire; it had burst through every trapdoor and entrance. Only when the powerful blaze began to fade did I notice what remained of Akiha's and Jin's forces.
"No…"
Hanabi ハナビ
Kiba, who with Chouji was peeking out through a small window, whistled. "I think it worked."
Shikamaru sighed like a weary old man, rubbing his neck and shutting his eyes as he leaned his head against the wall. "If so then that's about a hundred and fifty down, right?"
"More than Uchiha said there'd be," Ken pointed out.
"Aw, just skip it for now. For all we know he was intentionally misinformed…"
Meanwhile, cheerful relief was rolling down the corridor. Konohamaru (the little dork) jumped for joy and threw his arms around Udon. Voices that had been grave and sober last night carried triumphant, hopeful tones.
"It worked – Hakage-sama's plan actually worked!"
By chance I noticed the way that Akita, a troubled look on her face, was looking at her still-trembling fluffball of a dog, and my own smile faltered.
In the instant before it happened, half of the shinobi I could see seemed to tense. My hands smacked into a seal.
Byaku–!
A Sound ninja crashed through the ceiling, landing right behind Ken, smiling viciously, a knife in hand. A swift motion, and a streak of crimson splattered against the wall.
Ken hit the ground. I screamed. Akita shrieked "Onii-san!!" And before anyone else could react the Sound ninja was jumped and mauled by Akamaru, by Ken's ninja husky, and by a very angry Kiba.
The ceiling and wall were crumbling; more Oto and New Oto-nin appeared. An enormous fist knocked away a large chunk of stone before it could fall on us, and Shikamaru's shadow shot to branch outward. I squeaked as a Sound ninja was frozen a foot away from me.
"Get the kids out of here!!" Shikamaru barked. Chouji's other hand expanded, and his palm blasted out a large section of the breaking stone wall so that it fell away from and not toward us.
Sakura and Kiba stood at opposite sides of the group the other children and I formed. "That basement!" Sakura ordered as the two formed three quick seals, and leaves began to dance and swirl wildly around us.
Group Shunshin, I realized, but they can't flicker this many people!
I was on my feet, hands already moving through the same trio of seals. I aligned my chakra with theirs, and focused on the group and on the basement separate from the tunnels I knew they were talking about.
Wind whistled in my ears, a huge amount of chakra was wrenched from my coils, and most importantly we were all somewhere else.
"Hanabi!" a high-pitched shrill pierced my ears as I crumpled up on the ground, clutching at a sharp ache in my belly and coughing softly. Never used… that much ch-chakra at once…
"It splits the required chakra evenly," Kiba calmed Konohamaru, and I felt a hand pat my back. "I'm fine, and Sakura's just a little shaky, but Hanabi's reserves aren't used to that kind of strain yet. You did good, Hanabi-chan. Are you alright?"
"I'm okay," I grunted, "It's good t-to know I saved you and – Sakura-chan from falling into this s-state…"
He chuckled and helped me up.
Red caught my eye, and I flinched away so sharply that I stumbled and fell on my rear.
"…Sorry," Kiba said, noticing the blood on his almost clawlike nails. He hid that hand behind his back, and surprisingly enough that really helped a lot. I took his other hand to let him help me up again. Sakura had already directed the others to the basement; she, Kiba, Konohamaru, and I were the only ones still out in the open. "Come on, you two," Kiba said, "You'll be safe down there–,"
"Get down!" Sakura yelled.
Kiba shoved the two of us over, and a flurry of shuriken sped by, one landing behind his shoulder and another in his thigh. A harsh Juuken palm on the back sent Kiba to the ground.
"O-oba-san…?" I squeaked inaudibly as the white-eyed New Oto-nin rose to full height. Of course Hyuuga Hireiki wasn't really my aunt, she was probably Father's cousin or something – never mind.
Kiba tried to get to his knees. The Oto shinobi who'd thrown the shuriken strode up to kick him in the side, dropping him again. The man turned in time to smack away Sakura's hand like a fly, knocking a kunai from her grasp, and his other hand clamped onto her neck.
Scared. I'm scared… My heart was pounding in a too-familiar sensation. Kiba was trembling on the ground. Blood was oozing from his shuriken wounds. Sakura was suffering in front of me. Konohamaru was running toward–
"No!" I cried, but he ignored me.
"Let her go right now–!"
The man released Sakura and moved to trip the clumsy boy. Konohamaru fell flat on his face.
"K-Konohamaru-kun…"
The older Hyuuga looked at me, and I flinched.
She smirked and walked toward me, and I inched away. "Look at you," she said, kneeling down in front of me. I whimpered as her hand lifted my chin. "The elite heiress of the Main House, out here playing rebellious with a bunch of miscreants. You look scared, Hanabi-sama."
"Don't h-hurt me," I found myself pleading, shaking my head. "Don't hurt me, d-don't–!"
I heard a sharp clap of skin, and I felt a sting searing against my cheek as I fell onto my side.
"You're pathetic," she spat. Hair was pushed out of my face, and a thumb brushed across my bare forehead, and I squeaked as she then traced with her nail a painful line into my brow. "Showing tears, cowering in terror; you won't even try to help that little boy, will you?"
Sniffling miserably, I looked past her. The man was holding a kunai; he'd said something about how Hyuuga-sama had said to leave small children unharmed, but if they did the ones like Konohamaru would just start a resistance all over again in five or ten years. The boy was scared, but glared defiantly up at him all the while.
"K-K-Konoh-hamaru-kun…"
You idiot… You stupid little idiot!
Are you trying to get yourself killed?
B-but…!
The knife rose up, and suddenly I was standing up, shoving past the woman, somehow completely disregarding the warm substance I could feel on my forehead. Teeth clenched, I ran forward.
But if even a fool as hopeless as him can go charging in without any plan, without a second thought, for the sake of someone else – Why can't I?!!
Chakra sizzling and crackling violently on the surface of my palms, I let out a furious, wordless cry.
The man turned toward me at the last moment. Head down, I thrust both palms straight into his abdomen.
His eyes widened, and his body gave a violent shudder. We were still for a moment – then blood spurted from his mouth, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed.
"Did you not get the memo?"
"Huh–?"
A boot slammed solidly into my belly. "The rest of the Hyuuga are with New Sound!"
My eyes snapped shut, and a screaming yell of pain burst from my mouth. But somehow I thought to hook my arm around her leg and, cracking an eye open, shove a palm against her calf.
She threw her head back and loosed a horrible scream. I released her, took a quick step, and lashed my palm into her stomach.
Unblinking, she slumped to her knees, arms a stiff cradle around her midsection. Her eyes rolled as she fell onto her side, and crimson spilled from her mouth.
I winced and toppled sideways, hugging my still-aching belly. Konohamaru, for once, was stunned speechless; Kiba, though conscious, still seemed to be having trouble moving; and Sakura, who'd recovered and been about to run and help, now stood shocked.
"Holy f–,"
"Fishsticks," Sakura absentmindedly cut Kiba off, sparing the several pairs of virgin ears nearby.
"H-Hanabi, are you okay?!" Konohamaru ran up to kneel next to me. "You're not d-dying, are you?"
Tears were leaking from my half-lidded eyes, and a confused array of emotions and memories churned and bubbled around inside me as I stared ahead, and my vision lost focus. My mouth formed a trembling word.
"What is it, Hanabi?" Sakura asked in concern, her hand on my shoulder. "Does it hurt bad?"
"Bl-blood… blood, there's blood…"
With a sad smile, she gently scooped me into her arms.
Thirteen, Part Two: Wily Fox, Seasoned Hound
Naruto ナルト
It's like when I fought Hinata-chan… Somehow, this guy can sense my next move perfectly. But how? With his eyes covered…
This ninja, Ryouken, was strong, as was expected of any jounin. I couldn't even get close to him; all I could do was try to attack from a distance and swap away whenever he got anywhere near me. And I'm already low on chakra, but…
I formed a handseal. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Fifty doppelgangers surrounded the man.
"Feh. You think that'll work on me?" he said, dismissing the anxious whispering of his forces.
I pointed toward him. "Go!"
Battle cries filled the air as the shadow clones raced toward him. He grinned and attacked.
His dagger flashed savagely about; he turned and slashed and stabbed and punched and kicked and elbowed, taking no damage himself. Heck, he was enjoying himself. I stared on as he cut down clone after clone in a ferocious blur. This guy's just too quick; Bushy Brow would've been a better match for him…
He always knew when a clone was coming from behind, it seemed, which I guess wasn't insanely shocking since he obviously didn't see with his eyes. He slit a throat, sliced one across the abdomen, threw a backfist into a face, kicked his heel into the side of one behind him, stabbed another between the eyes – and then one of the twenty remaining clones used another's back as a springboard.
My eyes narrowed as he made an overly large, unnecessary motion to escape the bunshin's path of flight. It threw its kunai, and he barely dodged in time; the knife grazed the side of his headband. He growled and lunged to smash his dagger into the clone's neck.
It was dispelled, and the incident splashed all the clearer into my mind. He had reacted slower than when combating the rest of the clones. Why'd he have to dodge that one? He'd simply bulldozed the rest with offense stronger and faster than their own. The only difference had been...
The clones, similarly enlightened, jumped back to let fly some kunai. The projectiles shot toward him, closing in on all sides.
He shifted smoothly, dodging most and deflecting the rest with his dagger.
What? But I was sure…
The doppelgangers converged to attack again. He shunted aside a fist, beginning to form a swift chain of seals. Ducking under a shuriken and dodging a lunging clone, he crouched and clapped his hands together – and a few bunshin were smacked away as a small pyramid of earth sprang up around him.
His style's totally different from just a minute ago, and now a protective jutsu? What exactly is it that made him go on the defensive?
The clones surrounded the stone cage, kunai and shuriken ready. I formed the seals Uma, Tatsu, Tori, Saru, Inu, and held Hitsuji, waiting.
With a sharp crackling the pyramid was coated in fine spiderweb patterns. Then it exploded outward, and every shadow clone was pierced and dispelled by the shooting fragments of stone.
Luckily I was further away, so I inhaled, prepared the jutsu, and fired.
Looking toward me, he raced through a familiar seal sequence, reared back, and fired more swiftly than I could have.
His air bullet blasted easily through mine and kept moving, not even slowed. I jumped aside, narrowly avoiding the tightly packed sphere of wind.
I gasped.
My eyes stretched wide as they would go as a crushing fist smashed into my stomach. The blow threw me at least ten yards, and I hit the ground and rolled to a stop on my side.
I locked my teeth a moment, embraced myself, and curled in slightly, too weakened to even reach the fetal position. My head was tilted back in pain, eyes squinted shut and mouth silently open as I struggled pitifully to inhale. I retched out a mouthful of blood that had collected in my throat.
I heard him approaching. "That kawarimi trick of yours is useless if you're not alert and ready. If you're distracted or not focused – or if your opponent's just too quick for you to react – you don't stand a chance of getting away in time. Your infallible defense is just an illusion…"
I could only weakly cough and hack in response. My vision was fizzy, but I could tell he was standing in front of me. Not good. I needed to substitute–
CRUNCH!
"AAAAAAAHHH!!!"
I howled as a boot slammed down on my knee and ground brutally against it. Shudders wracked my body like an electrical force, and stiff hands clutched at my lower thigh near his boot.
"When our nation was destroyed in the Third Great War, my best pal and I became mercenaries."
I don't care!
He stomped firmly. I hollered again.
"We fought side by side for years, but at some point – I can't even remember why – my friend became an inconvenience. So I killed him," he said simply, his foot leaving my knee so he could lift me up by a fistful of my hair. I was sweating in pain, eyes watering, raggedly gasping for breath. I couldn't move. I couldn't substitute. I could hardly think. I noticed his eyes were white. A milky, cloudy white. He's blind…
"He was just one more among the dozens to stain my hands with blood… Just as you will be."
Force slammed into my face, knocking me again to the ground. I whimpered as my broken knee was jostled with the movement, and when I stopped on my back I could feel it lying at a weird-ish angle. The sensation made me want to puke.
"You're nothing; just a brat with a few fancy tricks. So you see, it really is laughable that you and your little friends thought you could stop us."
Friends… My friends…?
My friends!
With vision suddenly sharp, I focused on the air above him. A kage bunshin appeared and drew a kunai – and the jounin whirled, quickly skewering the clone with the dagger he'd probably been ready to put in me. I couldn't walk, but my arms were fine. Withdrawing a knife myself, I lashed toward his Achilles tendon; he jumped away before it hit, and I Shadow Swapped with a newly formed doppelganger twenty-five yards back. Now lying on the bridge, I substituted twenty-five yards further.
I'm not about to die here! I thought, forming three handsigns. Heck no! Not while Lee and Hinata are fighting their hardest! My hands lit up as they hovered over my injured right knee. It was a mess – even with my limited experience, that much I could tell instantly. With plenty of clones' help, I'd learned yesterday how to fix at most a sprained wrist. This was a different matter entirely, but combined with the fox's healing power…!
"Where'd he go?!"
"The bridge, taichou!" someone called.
Shoot, gotta hurry! The collateral ligaments… The more important stuff was mostly still in place, and it didn't seem to be dislocated. There were stretches and ruptures, though, and that would make moving impossible at worst and difficult and agonizing at best. Channeling plenty of chakra through the leg as well as my hands, I concentrated on a tear. I grunted as I got the ligament on the inner side to pull into place, where it began to knit and regenerate.
Ryouken stopped briefly at the start of the bridge – and sprinted toward me.
Concentrate, concentrate!! The similar ligament on the outer side – it was stretched, swollen. I fed healing chakra into it, soothing the connective tissue, and the fox's power worked it quickly, albeit painfully, into its correct position and shape. I looked up.
A dagger was coming at me.
"Die!"
POOF!
Twenty-five more yards back, I hastily rose up, weight balanced on my good leg. I panted lightly for breath, sweating despite the cold.
The man's blank, unseeing gaze pointed toward me. His eighty or so shinobi had moved to stand nearer the bridge.
A chilled breeze tousled my hair about as I glared back at the jounin.
"Frankly, I'm surprised that you can still stand as I am that haven't given up."
"I can do a lot more than just stand." I pulled out a kunai, spinning it about a finger before clasping it in front of me. "I'm going to defeat you, pal, here and now."
He chuckled, pointing with his dagger. "You're a brave little fool; I give you that much. It's been fun." And with that, he charged toward me.
I stepped forward. Pain blazed in my knee whenever the slightest pressure was put on it. Even so I kept moving, half limping, half hopping toward my foe.
We were ten yards apart when I lunged off my left foot with all my strength. Simultaneously I happened to glance upward, high into the gray sky behind him.
But upon spotting a lapse in concentration, he must have put on a burst of speed.
"I–itai…"
My hand opened. A kunai fell to the ground. And I lurched to shower in blood the arm that had driven a dagger through my stomach.
"It's done."
N-not yet… I've gotta last a little longer. I c-can't go – just yet!
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu…!"
Two clones appeared on opposite sides of the bridge, some fifteen yards away on either side of him. Loosing attack cries, they charged as fast as they could.
Ryouken tried to pull away, and my hands latched onto his forearm.
"You're not g-going anywhere…"
He smirked. At once a fist cracked into one clone's jaw and a boot rammed into the other's belly, knocking them from existence.
"Thought you had me? I just told you, it's over – so fall over and die already, will you?" He twisted the dagger sharply, trying to get me to release him.
That's it. I can't go on… But before I left, I managed to quickly say:
"You're darned right, it's over – However if you think you can win by stabbing shadow clones then you're sorely mistaken!"
When I'd looked into the sky, I had in fact split my chakra in half, put a clone there, and promptly replaced with it. I couldn't fall just yet, though; I needed to remain unnoticed a little longer. So I looked up as I started to fall, formed a clone, and substituted to place myself twenty yards higher, dispelling the clone immediately after and repeating a few more times. All the while my body's actual momentum was still moving down – so I was literally rising while I was still falling, and a five second "drop" left me a great distance above where I'd begun.
It was there, very high in the cold sky above the bridge and about forty yards behind Ryouken, that I felt two flashes of memory correspond with the disappearance of two antlike specks on the ground. It was time to descend, and to do it fast. I knew this time he wouldn't detect me.
I clenched my teeth and ignored the pain as I slightly bent my knees and spread my arms, guiding the freefall so that I was moving somewhat forward in my descent. Freezing droplets of water collected at my front, quickly soaking my clothes in condensation that streamed off around me as I crashed through the frigid wind, hair whipping wildly, almost like I was flying. Within two seconds I substituted five times more, fluently linking the kawarimi to both quicken and guide the path of the fall; moving my body smoothly even as I jumped through space, I managed during that time to swing my legs forward to get my feet under me, and began raising a kunai in both hands. With another Shadow Swap I was fifteen yards behind the man and as far from the ground.
Some soldiers began shouting as they spotted me.
I appeared directly behind and just above him, knees inches from his sides.
The clone went up in smoke.
And my knife slammed down between Ryouken's shoulder blades.
He dropped immediately, whether because of the blade through the spine, the full enormous downward-forward momentum I'd generated crashing against him buckling up his knees, or a combination of the two I couldn't be sure. He fell fast and hard, driven solidly to the ground, and in that moment I could almost feel the life crumbling under me, cleanly obliterated as if by some savage, crushing force.
Eyes half-lidded, I panted heavily for breath, drawing in biting cold air, blowing out cloudy wisps of fog. My knees were straddling his sides, the right throbbing horribly, and my hands, cold and numb as was the rest of my body, remained locked on the blade they'd buried in the base of his neck.
A cracked, soundless breath found my ears.
"H…ho…w…?"
"Your jutsu made it obvious; you're both an earth and wind type, right…? You can f-feel your enemies' locations and positions through vibrations of anything that's touching the ground … and also can sense any disturbance in the air around you. But the earth, thicker than air, must give a clearer if more limited picture… which is why you focus mainly on it in combat. When the clones started using aerial and projectile attacks, you switched to defense because you needed to rely on a less defined reading from the air… But even for a jounin who's been working on the skill for who knows how long, focusing on both elements at the same time is like trying to use two elemental jutsu at once – just about impossible. So I tricked you into believing you'd caught the real me and forced you to focus on earth – the only way for you to effectively combat those two clones, since you wouldn't be able to dodge them in your situation. And since you w-were convinced I was dying in front of you and hardly expected an aerial attack … you didn't bother switch over to wind in time to detect the real me coming from behind."
"Im…pos-si…ble……"
"I guess a wily young fox can outsmart a seasoned old hound every once in a while…" I said, and I felt his heart slow to a stop.
"Ca– CAPTAIN RYOUKEN!!!" a Sound ninja shouted, finally registering that his captain was dead.
Dead.
I… killed him…
Thirteen, Part Three: Tigers' Claws
Lee リー
I jumped. A sword swept by under me and flicked away. Turning and hacking upward sharply, I knocked aside a ninjatou flying toward my neck.
This fellow might be a better match for Hinata-san… With eyes that could see the chakra strings and an affinity for fire herself…
They were stabbing toward me from either side. I moved one katana forward and the other back, redirecting the flying blades so that both shot past me. They halted ten yards off and began spinning as they lurched toward me again; I jumped, arms outstretched, spinning parallel to the ground. A blazing sword passed below me, just in front of my face, while the other passed above.
The puppet blades flew in from in front of me, attacking rapidly together; I backpedalled steadily, barely fending off the ninjatou as they flew in a wild frenzy of strikes, the ferocious and violent slashes of an invisible, malicious beast.
This is ridiculous!
I thrust both of the attacking swords away with my own, and wasted no time in dashing between them, heading directly for Torakou. He swept his arms back, but I sprinted faster even than his swords could fly. I crossed my arms and prepared to slash, but he backflipped at the last moment so that he landed crouched on the side of the tree behind him.
He sprang over me, and I turned to see his diving form twist in the air, clasping a sword's hilt in one hand whilst sweeping the other hand toward me. He swung the ninjatou he held to send a wave of fire whipping toward my face, and I raised my arms in defense. The fire slice stung and drew blood on my arms, but did not cut deeply. Upon opening my eyes I sharply shifted my arms; a stab was diverted from my neck, but white hot pain nicked the side of a forearm before plunging into my shoulder.
I screamed.
Before I could escape Torakou grabbed the hilt of the sword that had lodged itself in my shoulder, roughly shoving me up against the tree. Holding his weapon firmly in place, he smirked.
"You know, Rock Lee, I honestly can't stand people like you."
Heat erupted through the sword, blasting from his hand down the blade and into my shoulder. My mouth flew open as I cried out again, and my vision whited out for maybe a moment, maybe several. It ended, and I found myself hanging by the blade's cruel support, shaking my head, gasping for breath.
"Ignorant people who insist on remaining so utterly blind to Orochimaru-sama's undeniable power…"
A fist shot into my cheek, snapping my head to the side. The man was no weakling. I gagged as he rammed his knee into my stomach, and then another fist crashed across my face. Blood sprayed from my mouth.
The sword was pulled from my alarmingly numb shoulder, but I was not allowed to slump down; the tip of a scorching though no longer blazing blade was pressed up painfully beneath my jaw.
"Konoha was only the first step; Kiri's the second. Eventually all will crumble in submission before Orochimaru-sama's might."
I tried not to squirm; if I were to even open my mouth the blade beneath my jaw would pierce it. So I endured silently, sweating in pain as he slowly ran his other blade in a shallow line across my belly.
"Only Orochimaru-sama possesses the grand ambition to set things in motion, to create the new world…"
Slsh.
"U-uhn…!"
"He will conquer all that will join him, and destroy all that oppose him."
Snickt.
"Gh–!"
"And yet you really believe three children can stop this, hm?"
Teeth bared, I opened my eyes and glared fiercely at the man. I do not know – but as surely as we are Leaf shinobi, we will try! I thought with a snarl.
Clearly I had gotten my point across. Unfortunately, he frowned and laid the tormenting blade perpendicular to the one under my chin, positioning it to slide down the other blade … and meet me for a clean decapitation.
"Sorry, Rock Lee, but you've chosen the wrong side. That one will be destroyed."
As if I intended to die so easily!
Gate of Opening! I thought, pulling my good shoulder forward. My strength leaped to a new level.
The white ninjatou was set ablaze as it swung toward me. I could escape neither to the left nor to the right, and obviously not to the front. And that left only…
Behind!!
I slammed my shoulder back, throwing the whole of my strength and weight against it. The tree trunk gave out like paper as I smashed through it.
I landed on my back and sprang to my feet, shutting the First Gate once more. I had not fully recovered from the devastation wreaked on my body when using the sixth a few days ago; I knew I would not last if I attempted to sustain even the first one for long.
Torakou was dodging the falling tree. I threw a kunai past him.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!!" I bellowed, flying back into the open. He jumped away to avoid the kick, and I landed in a crouch to snatch up the katana I had dropped.
"So you want to keep going, huh?" he asked.
I sank into my stance. My shoulder was stiff, but moveable. "You are right – alone, we cannot stop Orochimaru. However, I know that I am MORE than strong enough to stop you!!!"
He nodded toward the felled tree. "I couldn't do that, I'll readily admit. You're in no way short on brute strength, and you're quick and agile; in straight taijutsu you probably would best me. But blade-to-blade? Never."
I frowned. "I find it most disturbing – the way you are capable of going from an Orochimaru-worshipping drone one moment to an almost friendly, if not somewhat competitive and overconfident swordsman the next."
To say the least, I struck a nerve or ten. "What did you just say, boy? I didn't quite catch that."
"What I am saying is simple: I wonder if some form of sloppy tampering has not been done to your mind."
I sidestepped. He shot past me, blade outstretched.
"Oh, dear. Is the little tiger angry, perhaps?"
He yelled and jumped toward me. A quick dash put me beyond the treeline.
"My, my! It would appear the unruffled Captain Kotora-san holds quite the temper!" My tone changed. "Or perhaps it is effected to some sick scheme or other by that disgusting, twisted thing you enjoy calling Orochimaru."
When he loosed a rather freakishly ferocious roar, I turned and ran. Definitely a better match for Hinata-san…
I sprinted through the forest, darting and weaving past the trees as I dashed at full speed. I could hear him following behind. In four minutes I slid to a stop through dead leaves and quickly sheathed my katana to remove my leg and arm weights, laying them on the ground. A few seconds later Torakou flickered into existence ten yards from me, swords ready.
"Thought you could get away with that?" he growled.
"You are a fool."
"What–?!"
"Whether you revere him of your own accord of you have been in some manner brainwashed to love him, it is your fatal weakness – one way to instantly and consistently enrage an otherwise cool and rational shinobi. Have you yet to realize you were led here, separated from your troops?"
"…Shut UP!" he yelled, the fervor of a fanatic in his eyes as he flung his swords toward me. I ducked back into the trees, cut to the side, and bolted toward him again.
His eyes widened visibly at my increase in speed. I landed a solid blow to his face.
Torakou raised his arms, swiftly blocking a second strike and a third. Focusing my chakra, I drew my fist far back before driving it into his crossed arms with all my strength. Crushing Fist!!
Teeth snapping together in surprise and pain, he staggered back a few yards. I rushed forward, feinting with my left hand, kicking over his head with my right foot, and spinning out of it to spring the back of my left fist against his chest.
"Agh!" He was thrown against a tree trunk with a sharp thud. His knees shook for a second before he caught himself and reached out with a hand to sweep his arm back.
I launched into an aerial backflip just over the ground. Two ninjatou shot past below me, and I landed in a crouch, katana in hand, as he caught his own blades again.
"That puppet-sword trick is rendered ineffective here," I pointed out. "We are surrounded by trees; with such limited open space you would be required to break and reconnect the chakra strings too frequently."
"So you think you've won? You forget, little fool, I still have the upper hand. You're good with hand-to-hand, but you're slow with a blade – clumsy."
"Slow and clumsy…" I muttered, "Is it really that bad?"
"Indeed your swordsmanship is; and unfortunately for you, what you lack in form cannot be made up for in brute strength. The blade is worthless to one who cannot handle it properly."
"I was not speaking merely of my swordsmanship… but I suppose you are quite right – I still have a ways to go to master full control over the maximum weight."
"What are you talking about…?"
Knees slightly bent, I raised a straight right arm up and behind me, blade outstretched; I would not want to strain my injured left shoulder if I could avoid it. "Try me and find out."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Captain!" a distant holler faintly reached our ears.
"Where are you?!" another called.
"Captain Torakou!"
"Come," I said, "Unless you fear to face me until your men arrive."
He rushed toward me.
I lightly tipped the sword back, allowing tension to build in my arm as I stopped its weight and began moving it forward.
Torakou, seeing as I was apparently unprepared and my blade moving too slowly, lunged toward me.
I channeled a measured amount of chakra down the blade as he slashed.
BOOM–! CRACK!
And that was the sound of Torakou's crashing bodily through two trees. Well… through one, and against another behind it. He had barely blocked the swing in time, but the glancing force had proven enough to send him flying.
That was only half of them… I thought, watching as the second tree began to tip over with a crackling roar.
The jounin flew from the dust cloud to attack from above, flipping in the air and swinging both swords down. I raised crossed blades to catch the slashing ninjatou, allowed my arms to begin to bend further as I prepared to sweep them out – and ran chakra into the blades.
He shot to the treetops as if from a cannon, grabbed ahold of a branch to keep from going further, and swung himself toward the ground; after a quick flip he landed lightly on his feet, though nearly stumbling.
"Wh-what… was that…?" he said, "Can you control your strength?"
I held a katana horizontally in front of me, providing him a clear view of the blade. "Chigau. It is the opposite in a way. I can manipulate the resistance; I am not getting any stronger. In fact I am dropping force, and gaining speed."
He gritted his teeth. "So it's those seals?"
I nodded. Thank you, Hinata-san… There were eight black seals evenly spaced down the length of each blade, and each one directly affected the entire sword's weight. "Depending on the amount of chakra I channel into the sword, I can extend it to any one of the eight levels in an instant. The seals' effects are nullified on contact with my chakra, producing a spike in speed and power…"
"To utilize a sudden drop in resistance… This should be even more difficult to control than using a sword that's too heavy!"
"Really? I have trained myself to remove leg and arm weights on the fly without the slightest awkwardness in transition. It took practice, yes, but I can manage; you might say resistance training is my forte."
The man growled.
"I remember what you said to me the other day, Torakou-san. Our style is one that requires strength and control in equal parts. I have perfected both, and reached beyond them."
"Don't get cocky, boy! Orochimaru-sama's might will destroy all who stand in his way!!"
As he charged toward me again, I dropped my left foot back to turn my body partially away from him, my right lashing toward his side. "Weight Magnifying Seals…!"
CHING!!
He crossed his swords and turned to block the swing, and on contact the katana pushed him slightly but began to slow…
"Blade of Acceleration!!"
I ran my chakra to the fifth seal as I finished turning my body – and my arm whipped one-eighty degrees from where the sword had initially been blocked, carrying Torakou in a half circle before sending him crashing into and sliding far along the ground.
Springing up in a backflip, he yelled out and leaped toward me again. I parried one slash, and then another; he lunged once he had landed, and I blocked a flurry of rapid strikes while shortly hopping back. I ducked under a wide slash and lunged past him from low, swords aligned horizontally and swinging toward his abdomen. He brought his blade to block, and I pushed to the sixth level to thrust my arms out. He crackled the bark of a sturdy tree and burst into a log.
I whirled to see him dashing toward me, drawing back a flaming sword in preparation for a fire slice. I drew back my own sword, charged it to the seventh level, and blazed past him. His sword was buried in a tree in front of me.
I jumped back toward him, and he blocked with a forearm as I kicked first with the sole of my left foot before turning to kick with my right. The force pushed us apart, and as I landed he moved toward me while swinging his remaining sword over himself and down in a wide, powerful arc; I moved toward him and crossed swords to intercept the downward slash, and I spun once to disarm him, hopped lightly as I turned again to fling the captured ninjatou aside – and came out of the second spin throwing a boot into his gut.
He smacked into a tree and coughed blood, barely keeping on his feet; he was forced to stagger forward until he caught balance near the center of the clearing. Gasping and glowering, he pulled both swords back into his hands.
"That d-does it… I'm finishing you!" he roared madly.
CLANG!
"Ie," I said simply, swords sharply crossing in front of me as I bent my knees. "I am finishing you."
It is time.
I raised the katana higher. Now sliding them apart, I pointed them downward and crossed them again. They separated and met at my right, and again to meet at my left. I began to move faster, crossing them next at the upper right, lower left, upper left, lower right – and the katana rang as I ran my chakra to the first level and swiftly hit all eight points again. The third, the fourth, and fifth – each time hitting eight points in some order in between – were cleared in moments. Sixth, seventh… the swords were flying now, the rhythm growing faster at an exponential rate. In no more than one second I had cleared them both. My teeth ground, and my shoulder seared as I reached the final pair of seals and maintained the flow and the pattern. Sparks were flying as the katana rang.
More speed … more … more – more, more, MORE–!!!
Kin-kin-kin-kin-kin-kin-kin-kin–
Explode, my youth!!
"HOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The first of the inner gates burst open, letting off what seemed like a shockwave as the swords exploded with speed. The ringing kin became almost indistinguishable as a steady hum as swords lighter than air invisibly churned the space in front of me. My hair whipped wildly, dust danced, grass on the ground stirred and waved, fallen leaves scampered hurriedly away, all at the wind the blades produced. And the sparks – flecks of silver light rapidly flickered in front of me, focused the most strongly in a ghostly ring of flashing light encompassing the eight points the blades crossed.
Maximum speed, attained!
"A t-true … g-genius…" Torakou breathed, unblinking. He took a step back.
Teeth clenched, my face dripping with sweat, I bent my knees further, prepared to move. The regular Blade of Infinity focused on rapidly targeting and attacking a number of specific points. This was different.
The results of the training… My true power!
"ULTIMATE INFINITY: BLADE OF DEVASTATION!!!"
Torakou flung a kunai my way.
The circle of white light contracted toward it to meet the knife as a blazing streak of silver. The kunai landed in several pieces, unrecognizable at my feet. I shot forward.
He flung himself to the side in attempt to dodge.
Focus to the right!
The circle was drawn to one side, painting the air to my right with a curved streak of vibrant silver as I passed.
The side of his arm was instantly a mess of red.
He howled as I skidded to a halt ten yards behind him. I turned and bolted again.
The jounin lunged from my path, and I shifted the focus again. My blades shredded his flak jacket and grazed his back, and in moments a few inch high trail clear across his back was covered with blood.
It was difficult to turn if I charged at full speed, and thus when I did I could only move in a straight line. But if I landed even one direct hit…
I turned so that he was again central in my line of sight, within the flashing, slashing circle, and charged. As he faced me the circle pulled into a blazing white sphere pointed straight toward his stomach.
He crossed his straight swords; rammed by the full brunt of the silver focal point, they were peppered with nicks and dents as he staggered clumsily back.
Running out of time…!
I cut to the treeline so that I met it at an angle, and turned to plant a foot on a trunk. I circled the clearing twice in as many seconds by sprinting along the tree trunks, the flashing silver concentrated upward, to my left, to rid the trees' inner sides of leaves.
Slipping back to the earth, I circled rapidly as Torakou watched, trembling, from the middle of the clearing. In seconds the man was surrounded by a raging, whorling whirlwind of leaves.
"Konohagakure no Jutsu! Art of Hiding among the Leaves!"
I shot across the clearing. Torakou simultaneously dodged away and deflected the brunt of the blows with his own swords, though his forearms and hands were dealt several scratches and cuts from the strikes that got through. I vanished into the swirling typhoon of leaves and attacked again, and six times more he barely avoided vital damage in time.
C-cannot keep this up…
I was in front of him when forced to break from the vigorous motions of Devastation's Blade. So many times had it been repeated, it was actually a sizable effort to break from the pattern; but as I quit running my chakra through them and with gritting teeth slid the blades apart and flung my arms wide, swords outstretched – a position that occurred at no point in the course of the pattern nor any variation or shift of it – I was able to force my arms to freeze.
Torakou lunged toward me in the moment of opportunity. Grunting, I shoved chakra to the fifth seal of my left-hand sword.
"Acceleration!" I cried, slamming the stabbing ninjatou from his hand.
I began to reverse my turn and swing with my right. His remaining sword moved to defend–
"Infinity!" I nullified the eighth seal, and my sword zipped past his with a burst of speed before opening six slashes across his flak jacket in an instant. Shallow…
I spun out of the last swing, and while facing away drove the heel of my left boot into his stomach, knocking him momentarily off the ground.
"Remember, the blade is worthless…!"
He wheezed and stumbled away, and I landed on my feet in a low crouch. Leaning forward, shoulders facing down, I swept out my left arm and threw my sword toward him.
"…To one who cannot handle it properly!"
I had thrown it tip-first and so that it would have passed just over his head. As he was weaponless, he reached up and reflexively caught it with his empty hand.
And was thrown off-balance by the katana that, all magnifying seals active, was suddenly more than a few times his own weight.
His eyes were huge. "Nanda… K-kore ha…?"
I kicked my left foot upward and then pushed from the ground with my right, spinning my body almost parallel to the ground. My feet landed one at a time, and the heavy sword in my right hand swung downward behind me.
Torakou had recovered and dropped the katana to avoid falling down.
My eyes caught the twitch of his fingers above his head, and I leaned further forward.
A ninjatou whistled over my back and swerved to clap neatly into his hand, pointing skyward.
My katana's tip dragged against the ground in its swing, the blade crackling and carving its way through the earth even as it was wedged four inches deep.
He brought crossed swords down with all his strength.
All at once – my katana freed from the earth, and my chakra shooting to shift it from maximum weight to the neutral minimum.
Ki–SKRASSH!
Suddenly I had sprung to full height, right knee off the ground, the glinting blade in my hand extended upward as it flowed in a grand, smooth crimson arc – after slicing from navel through sternum through clavicle and partially a side of the neck. His head was thrown back, an explosion of crimson erupting from his open mouth. He was still clutching the hilts of his ninjatou as the better parts of their blades clattered to the earth, cleanly severed.
I spun on left heel as my blade completed its circle, flowing down and sharply snapping to a halt to whip crimson clear of its blade.
Eyes white, the jounin slumped limply to his knees.
Torakou was dead before he hit the ground.
Thirteen, Part Four: Proof
Hinata ヒナタ
Th-this isn't looking good… I thought, panting lightly as I held her cool gaze. I can't get anywhere near her. She'd be a better opponent for Naruto-kun; he can sustain a long range battle. On the other hand, all I have is the fireball jutsu…
The battle hadn't been going on long, nor had I taken any direct hits, but from a tactical standpoint I could tell I was outmatched. Iron sand attacks were thrown almost lazily, as if for now she was content with watching me scramble for my life. Thankfully I had plenty of stamina to spare today, but she wasn't even being serious. Yet.
"Aka-nee was always so kind to me…" she said quietly, her head lowered as her eyes gained a sort of light but eerie glaze. "Almost like a real sister, and eventually more… She made me feel so loved, so special…" Growling slightly, she sent a dangerous sphere of iron sand hurtling toward me. I rolled to my left and strode on all fours – a natural, comfortable movement – to dodge as five smaller spheres shot past me in quick succession. Sliding to a halt in a low stance, I formed three seals, formed one more, and body flickered.
"I don't know a lot about you or Akane, but I'm an older sister, too, you know," my plain bunshin yelled as I crouched behind a crate at the side of a building. We were in a field at the edge of a residential area, and though the citizens had evacuated to well further in I hoped to avoid letting any damage be done to the homes and other structures. Fortunately her soldiers remained well further away, and much too far to aid her should she need it; but this also went to show they hadn't the slightest fear I would defeat her.
"You're losing," Kurogiba muttered sourly next to me, his vision trained ahead.
"Urusai!" I whispered back without looking his way. I concentrated on the bunshin.
Midori shouted at my clone, "What's your point?!"
"To resign myself to dying and fight with the suicidal recklessness she did – no matter what the situation, I'd never do that if it meant leaving my imouto behind!"
"What do you know?!!" she demanded, suddenly enraged. More sand exploded skyward from the canister on her back; at the command of her arm it went spiraling down like a drill, crashing over the copy and raising a large cloud of dust too quickly to spot evidence of illusion.
Darting from my hiding place, I raced forward and sprang toward Midori from behind.
She glanced back to spot me, gaze unreadable. "Metal Detector," she murmured simply, and thrust the opposite hand over her shoulder.
"Gah!" Force sharply compressed against my abdomen, throwing me back. I hit the ground clumsily on my backside and tumbled a short way before coming to a stop on my front, wincing in pain. I raised my head. "N-nani…?"
Now facing me, the jounin lifted a palm and drew it back. "Three… Two…"
"Kuso!" My hidden weapons! I quickly sat up, ripping off kunai pouch, shuriken holster, tossing aside the knives strapped to my forearms. I tore off my jacket which had six slim kunai stowed at the lower front, leaving the formfitting black shirt, and pulled off straps of the knife holster–
"One."
The things I'd discarded shot to slam through a building behind me – and I yelped as my hitai-ate, pointing back, yanked me up by my neck. My arm was wrenched as the kunai sheath, almost off, was jerked away.
On one foot and clutching a hand at my neck, I could do nothing to avoid the wave of iron sand that blasted into me. I was shoved back, slammed harshly against a wall that crackled lightly behind me; the sand then fell away, and as my knees began to give a pair of hands caught and firmly pinned me at my biceps. Immobilized, I shrank under the older kunoichi's piercing but still unreadable gaze.
Wh-what's she going to do–? Oh!
Her lips smashed onto mine, and my breath hitched, my eyes grew as shock and the early registering of something akin to disgust effectively shot my mind blank. I could tell my body had stiffened, sensed warm breath on my flushed face, and I could feel something prodding about my locked teeth.
Without warning, before I could respond or attack or at least try to push her away – a hand slammed, clawlike, onto my stomach, fingers digging in cruelly, pressing and squeezing with all her strength. A jolt went up my spine. My first reaction was to scream, and it was muffled by her mouth; seizing opportunity, a searching tongue slipped in and explored vigorously. A lustful hand roamed from my shoulder down my right side, and up again before stopping to cup and almost tenderly grasp my chest. My head thrown back against the wall behind me, eyes torn wide open, body paralyzed, trembling and rigid, I could only squeeze my eyes shut and whimper in pain as she moaned back and pressed her body up against mine.
By the time she finally released me my vision was swimming up, whether an effect of the painful hold or from lack of oxygen or both I couldn't be sure. My eyes were watering as she pulled away, and it was all I could do to turn my head enough to spare my nose any damage as my limp body crashed to the ground. The impact made my throbbing stomach area sear and ejected a spurt of wetness from my mouth. Whimpering and squirming weakly in pain and horror at what had just happened, I clenched my teeth as my eyes spilled over with tears.
Since the point was probably to humiliate me, maybe I should get the heck up before I get killed while I'm whining like an idiot.
What – where did that thought come from? My eyes opened already locked on Kurogiba sitting twenty yards away, staring expressionless toward me. L-like you care… I thought, eyes narrowing miserably as fresh tears fell.
The jounin swayed above me, hands cradling her head. "Aka-nee's kisses were so wonderful, so perfectly sweet… She promised me a long one as soon as the army caught up and we were together again … but that's a kiss I'll never get…"
She and Akane were… She was confused – lapsing partially into the past again. And somehow in her muddled, twisted mind I'd been both her enemy and her deceased lover, and simultaneously she had tormented me and indulged herself on my lips.
The me of a few months ago might easily have stopped fighting there to wallow in senseless embarrassment and the appalled feeling of uncleanness, the sense of being violated that clung to me after being handled in such a way. As things were, however, I broke out my depression relatively quickly; and when I did, a certain something occurred to me. And once it had, I calmly mounted a response to the situation.
I smacked my lips lightly. There was a taste in my mouth.
Besides the ridiculously familiar taste of my own blood. There was something funny, in my mouth…
She had just swapped spit with me. A freaking enemy ninja, a complete stranger four or five danged years older than me, another girl, had just flipping locked lips, groped my breast, put her darned tongue in my mouth, and shared all her stinking spit and germs with me.
But more significantly…
Head down, I slowly got to my hands and knees.
She…
"You…"
The b!$#&……
"STOLE MY FIRST KISS!!!" I screamed, rising and slamming an angry fist square across her face. Feet taken briefly off the ground, the young jounin nearly toppled over and reeled, staggering to keep on her feet.
She shifted aside as I pounced hard, a hand outstretched. I touched ground hands-first behind her, swinging my legs around so that I landed already facing her back. I darted in the same fashion to a few feet from her other side, and I pulled a sort of angled cartwheel precisely as she was turning the other way, pushing from the ground with my hands to slide nimbly into a crouch a few yards behind her, undetected.
I sprang onto her back, locking left arm around her neck, legs around her waist, and right hand onto her stomach.
"I was saving that for Naruto-kun, you B#$!&!!"
"What the – get off of me! Let go!"
"NEVER!"
Okay, maybe I k-kind of sort of lost my mind for a minute, but I mean… A girl's first kiss is…
A sharp blow jammed into my left side, eliciting a yelp, and she punched and elbowed repeatedly in attempt to dislodge me as I held firm in trying to throttle her. Her head jerked to sting my nose, and she flung herself back, slamming me between her back and the ground. She worked her chin down through my loosened chokehold and bit into my arm. I shut one eye, grabbed a nice deal of hair in my teeth, and wrenched. She only bit harder, and with the hand on her stomach I clutched and squeezed.
"How d'ya like that, huh?!!" I yelled savagely (my voice cracked, unaccustomed to the tone) as she wailed out. I was at a worse angle than she had been, and not specifically targeting any nerves or pressure points or whatever (as she had definitely done something), but as my hand, steadily filling with chakra, was practically glued to her I had a much better grip. Kicking and thrashing, she rolled onto her front. I rolled off of her and latched my left hand onto the ground. Rolling left again, I summoned up all my strength and swung my right arm around, bent at the elbow, to throw Midori over myself and slam her back against the earth.
Gentle Ferocity Blast!
BOOM!
The force threw me off the ground, my right arm high. I spun twice before landing in a low crouch with my left knee fully bent and that hand touching the ground, and right arm and leg extended out beside me. Wait, had I just landed in some kind of pose? Lee-kun's antics have rubbed off on me…
My eyes narrowed as I soon spotted a figure slowly standing up in the thinning dust cloud.
She's already on her feet? How? "Byakugan," I grunted as the dust settled.
The Oto-nin was looking at herself with mild surprise, a hand resting on her stomach. Black sand was falling in a light but steady trickle from the bottom of her flak jacket, coming from a pad of iron sand on top of her shirt and covering her abdomen. Though much larger than my palm, the entire patch glowed with my chakra. It absorbed the brunt of the blast, acting as a cushion…
"Ee? What a frightening attack… If the sand shield hadn't distributed the force, I'd probably be in trouble right now; still, some of your chakra just barely got through. It almost tickles," she remarked, patting her belly to let he weakened sand shield fall. A stream of new sand flowed toward her and streamed down the neck of her flak jacket, spreading to coat and lightly hug her torso. "Guess I shouldn't take chances. Now get ready to die."
Abrupt… I thought, eyebrows drawing toward each other as I cocked my head slightly. "Let me ask you, if you don't mind… What did Akane mean to you?"
Her eyes darkened. "Kumo kidnapped me from my home in the third war, and years later I escaped. When I was weak and ready to starve to death Aka-nee found me… She gave my life purpose again… She saved me and brought me to Orochimaru-sama, and I was taken in as a shinobi of his village. Aka-nee mentored me, trained me to be a ninja … she protected me from everything she could, and h-held my hand though whatever she c-couldn't…"
"Orochimaru experimented on you."
"How did you–?!"
"It's common knowledge that some villages work to divulge the secrets of other lands' kekkei genkai, testing their workings and limitations and searching for ways to reproduce them," I said bitterly, "It's a fate I would have suffered as well, had Kumo succeeded in abducting me ten years ago." I hadn't been taken, and still the incident had messed up my life – getting Hizashi-oji-san killed, which in turn bred Neji's hatred toward me and now…
"I will readily be experimented on if it is Lord Orochimaru's desire!" she shot back, and went on more quietly, sadness briefly flickering up in her eyes. "Still, it was hard… I wouldn't have made it through without Aka-nee's support. Over the years I grew older, and our once sisterly bond grew stronger and eventually transformed into something beautiful…"
"Listen to me," I said, "Orochimaru is a manipulator. I don't want to be harsh, but I have a feeling he used Akane so it would be easier to use you."
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "What are you trying to say?"
I stared back evenly. "She kept you happy and obedient; you didn't complain, and you stayed cooperative. And an avid Orochimaru-worshiper herself, I'm guessing she's the one who mentored you to love and revere him, so you would remain under his control."
"You're wrong! Aka-nee loved me!"
"Whether she truly did or not, she loved Orochimaru more. When she blew herself to pieces for him she didn't care it meant leaving you behind."
"Shut up! You're one to talk after you killed her!!"
"I didn't kill her, and neither did my friends. I already told you, she died of a suicide attack while she was dying from a suicide jutsu. To persist on channeling your rage toward me anyways… You're still just a broken little girl inside, aren't you? Angry at the world…"
"Noisy brat," she hissed, "If you hadn't come here, she'd still be alive!"
"I'm sorry, but we can't just sit and do nothing while Orochimaru does as he pleases! He's no god – just an insane man with a black heart looking to serve his own twisted aspirations!"
"Our loyalty is to Orochimaru-sama above all else; that is our purpose and our duty, so I don't begrudge Aka-nee for leaving me behind. If she were here she would scold me for saying it – but no matter how hard I try, I can't help it! I loved her, even more than I love our Lord Orochimaru! I'm a h-horrible person, I know I am, and you – you who dare to oppose him are the blackest sinners of all!!"
I wonder if she knows she's crying…
I shifted to dodge several small spheres of iron sand, and raced toward her. Acting on the Byakugan's insight, I dodged left and right as two more spheres zipped by; three yards from her I touched hands to the ground to duck under another, and with one more stride I lunged to attack.
The sand particles that floated in the air around her grew more concentrated near my arm and side; my punch was diverted away at a lazy swing of her arm, and I lowered my hands to kick one foot back toward her side. She spared not even a glance my way as she curled her fingers and thrust out the heel of her palm. Roughly a disc of sand condensed from the air to block my foot and push against it, and I rolled forward and back onto my feet before rushing from behind.
I prepared to aim my left palm for her spine, but when I was a yard away the magnetic dust flew in and swept up from below. The wave lifted me on my front and easily flung me over its master before dispelling in all directions as I was almost upside-down in the air. I cried out and landed on the back on my neck, grunting sharply in the moment before I bounced and slid a short way on my back.
I kicked my legs up and rolled backwards, swiftly on my feet and lashing with the back of a fist. Midori's arms crossed her body and swept out again in a blur – and force shoved into my left shoulder and right ankle. I flipped head over heels almost one and a half times before my side hit the ground. I cringed as my breath vanished in a strident wheeze, and then was on my feet in a flash and throwing a punch. It was deflected by the sand, and I threw strike after strike. She stepped backwards at a measured pace as I attacked furiously, fists and palms and barefoot kicks flying but none connecting.
"What's wrong?"
I stepped back as a tall wall of sand flashed by between us; when it had passed the jounin was gone and two arms were wrapped around my middle.
F-fast…!
"You must be the weakling of the group," she remarked casually behind me, one hand rising to rather firmly squeeze my–
Warmth flushing my face, I yelped with a start. An uncomfortable moment ticked by (At least, it was uncomfortable for me. She, or rather her hand was busy with… er… AHERM!). Then I growled and prepared to quite literally claw that hand off.
Too late. She was gone.
"Claws?" she said ten yards in front of me, an eyebrow raised as she took in the change in my nails.
Kill…
"Shimatta!" I screeched. The sudden crashing wave of primal rage broke over me like nothing I'd ever experienced before, pounding furiously inside me. The mark was thirsty, it knew the full moon was near, and it had been too long, too long since I had changed. My nostrils flared, and my clawed hands twitched and popped noisily. I wanted to unleash myself now–!
Fangs slammed into my left hand, and I gave a muffled cry. He warned me this might happen. I couldn't use the mark today, too unstable – after skipping a full moon, I could lose myself today at any moment in battle, the smallest bit of anger or malice could explode–!
I didn't care!! The urge was too much – to teach that stupid woman a lesson, to break her up and tear her to pieces and devour–!
NOT HUMANS!!
CRACK.
I gasped, eyes snapping open. Midori was staring warily at me, knees bent and ready to move, and I wondered what I must have looked like during my internal struggle. I removed my hand from my mouth, and promptly found that both hand and mouth were dripping with blood. I'd bitten deep, and it felt like I had fractured it. But the claws were gone, my hands perfectly normal and familiar.
It's never felt anything like that – not like that… and with the mark not even activated, no less. To need to snap myself back with pain…
"…Ee? That was interesting," my opponent said. "What happened?"
I spent a few more moments catching my breath. "I decided … to defeat you on my own strength!"
I shoved toward her. Magnetic sand rushed to divert whatever attack I might throw.
My foot touched ground, and I whirled as I jumped forward. "Kaiten!"
The spinning shield sprang out, shoving sand away and lightly pushing the surprised jounin back. As the sphere shrank and faded, I landed in front of her and rammed a fist into her stomach.
It was like punching stone. …Or, on second thought, a shell of iron sand.
"Forgetful, aren't you?"
My arms were wrenched back, wrists encased in sand, and a force pushed on the back of my skull – and shoved my head down onto a sharply rising knee. The world flashed toward white as fire spread from my jaw, and I was held there an instant longer before the sand behind my head dispelled and allowed me to be thrown back.
My arms were wrenched forward. My hands were passing the woman's hips on either side when I saw what was coming and squeezed my eyes shut.
THAM!
They flew open again as another knee crashed into my jaw. The sand promptly released my wrists, but my head had already been whiplashed back. My feet came off the ground as I sailed back, and it seemed they'd met the earth again as I started tipping backward. My vision, so recently blanketed white, dulled and darkened as my eyes relaxed, free of my control, and my fuzzy sight tumbled away into the top edge.
It slid down again, and light and color reappeared. The world sharpened. What in – why'd I woken up falling? What was I doing again…?
My back met the ground, and automatically I rolled up on my shoulder blades and pulled in my knees before springing onto my feet.
"Ita!" I whimpered, a hand gingerly resting at my chin. And then it came back to me.
I'd been, er … 'unconscious' for all of half a second. The full moon wouldn't let me rest today.
"That's disconcerting," Midori stated with a frown. "If you weren't so weak I might be seriously scared right now. Fifty percent of the people I've hit with that combo died instantly of a broken neck. At least eighty, maybe ninety percent had broken jaws. But now, thanks to you… I can no longer say it has a one hundred percent knockout rate…"
"Can you ever forgive me?"
Her eyes narrowed. "That hurt my knee. I saw your eyes go white–,"
"My eyes are always white, Midori-san–,"
"Just what the heck are you?"
"Mostly human."
"I think you might need a reminder of who still has the upper hand here."
I ducked, and a violent kick flashed over my head. After blocking two more strikes I attacked, but my Juugouken was again deflected by shifting clouds of sand. I couldn't land a single–
"Urk!" I croaked, clutching at my neck as a small bit of something grainy slipped into my mouth to lodge in my throat.
"Here, let me help you with that."
With almost disarming laziness she drew back a fist – and smashed it into my stomach. I glared at the ground as I doubled up in pain, air whooshing past locked teeth. Unblinking eyes watering, I staggered past Midori before toppling clumsily to the ground to cough and sputter.
At the very least, the sand was out…
"Yes, you must be the dead weight of the group. I wonder if the guys are having any more fun… Or maybe I'll even need to help them out?"
I lunged toward her. "Haa– ah!" Sand wrenched my foot upward, and I once again found my back smacking into the ground. I swept a kick toward her ankles – and a block of iron sand caught the blow, surrounded my lower shin, and wrenched sharply so that I spun several times before landing on my back once more.
"Still, your stamina is impressive…"
I threw myself toward her with a yell.
THUDD!
A baseball-sized sphere flew from behind her to crash into my stomach. I clenched my teeth a moment, and then hacked out all my breath.
Then another iron sphere, twice the other's size. It drove me fifteen yards and into a wall with a booming crack, and my head shot up with a silent cry of pain.
Before I was allowed to fall, more sand bullets pounded against me, the barrage bombarding my abdomen until an especially solid blow knocked the wall down. I half blacked out, and then woke to find a pile of rubble sitting on top of me. Shoot… a wall of someone's house…
After a moment of wheezing, I brought my hands together. Mi, Hitsuji, Saru, I, Uma, and Tora…
I reached up in the confined space, placing a hand on a large chunk of wall lying over me. I thrust my arm out, shoving it forward, and got to my feet. A small dust cloud sprang up as the rubble landed, and as I leapt through the cloud I fired.
Goukakyu no Jutsu!
Midori's eyes widened in mild surprise, and she blurred aside to dodge.
"K-kuso…"
"Oh, look – you melted some of it."
"Kaiten!!" I cried as a dozen chips of iron shot toward me. They bounced away and swerved in the air, and aimed for my lower legs and feet as the rotation ceased; I jumped as each embedded itself into the ground, and when I landed stumbled in haste to distance myself from them.
"You look scared," she said tonelessly, holding out an arm. Sand thickened in the air around me, and suddenly it was very difficult to move. I paled in terror as I was lifted slowly into the air by a light glove of sand around my torso. I struggled, but could hardly squirm in the grip of the magnetic sand powdering my body.
"An attracting force in front… a repelling force behind…" She cracked a hint of a grin. "This will hurt."
She took a hopping step and sharply pulled her hand back. I was yanked toward her, and my eyes widened as she thrust out a leg.
I saw stars. If I could have passed out today, at that moment I would have. Gladly.
My forward momentum was crushed, broken cruelly over her boot in my stomach. My head jerked down, my arms and legs stretched forward, my eyes huge, vision flashing as pain crackled from my middle to every corner of my body. Blood shot from my mouth as an awful cry tore from my throat.
Then I was shooting backwards, propelled away by the force and its shove on the iron sand. My back smashed through something, and then something else, before I was halted against a solid something made of stone.
"Koinu!!"
I blinked groggily, my head low, my upper back resting against a wall behind me. Was that… Kurogiba…sama…? I groaned. Everything hurt. It was so hard to breathe… And liquid was drizzling from my nose and mouth, down my black shirt…
I placed a hand on the ground in front of me, and after a few tries managed to fully sit up and move the other hand. I pulled myself forward, pausing briefly at hands and knees – and wincing as I sensed the warm wetness that accompanied the pain in my back – before pushing to my feet. Two aligned holes were in the walls of the shop in front of me, and beyond them I could see the distant figure of the Oto jounin. I slowly walked through the opening, across the shop, out the other side. An arm draped across my middle, panting lightly, I glared with one open eye at the older girl.
"I'm not done…"
"Says the one who looks like she's trying not to cry," Midori returned flatly.
"Stupid pup," Kurogiba snarled, getting all our attention. "Are you suicidal? If you don't get out of here, you'll die!!"
Silence followed his outburst. "…I'm not going to run away. I'll never give up – not while Naruto-kun and Lee-kun are giving their all, too."
"Don't you see you can't win–?!"
"I can … and I w-will." I turned my gaze on Midori. "I'm not about to be defeated here."
She smirked. "Ee…?"
Quicker than I could react, a focused force came barreling into the side of my face, knocking my head to the right as it shot past. Drops of crimson hit the ground.
I turned my head to face her again, my glowering eyes not leaving her as I momentarily turned my head to spit.
"Not even close."
"Tough talk. You're a real glutton for punishment, aren't you?"
"I'm not joking. You won't win."
"Hmm? Everyone has a limit, dear, and you look close to it. Let's see how long it takes to make that cute face of yours cry." Sand pooled and rose around her, quaking with her excitement.
"Captain!"
Her gaze stabbed into the chuunin that flickered in beside her. "What?" she spat, "I'm busy."
The man frowned. "What's taking so long? She's a walking corpse; I could finish this scrap of meat myself…"
"I'll finish her when I feel like finishing her…"
"Look, you, there's no time for your little games today. Captain Torakou specifically assigned me to keep you in line–!"
"What'd you do to piss off Torakou?"
"Huh–?"
SLASH!
One graceful, savage motion of her arm. A swift bolt of sand lanced across his throat, and the man keeled over, dead. My jaw dropped. Wh-what…?
Her eyes slowly returned to me, a predatory smile on her face. "Now… Let's begin."
My left palm shot out. A sphere of magnetic iron sand melted into lifeless dust on contact with my hand. Byakugan active, I lashed at each sphere that came my way; it seemed when my chakra hit, the effect of her chakra-generated magnetism was nullified. I dodged and jumped and swatted and struck, and then two came shooting from the left and right at once, faster than any of the others. My palm rose, and my right arm automatically moved to block – and I howled as a gumdrop-sized sphere of iron crunched into the tape at the back of my right forearm. The scar – why now?!
Wait. The scar… The scar!
That's it!
A dozen bolts of sand exploded toward me. My hands flew into a seal. Shunshin!!
I laid a hand over my heart. That was too close…
"Body flicker, hee? Where'd you go? Surely you didn't run away…"
I peeked around the corner of the building and quickly ducked behind it again, pressing my back against the wall. Calm down. Suppress your chakra… I ripped the tape from my arm and pulled a fine brush from my kunai pouch.
The chakra blast didn't work, regular Juuken won't get through, and simple punches and kicks to the body will hardly affect her through that shell of sand. And aside from that, I can't even get near her…
Boom!
I bit my lip, utterly conscious of the building twenty yards from my hiding place falling down.
If I do get close enough, I need to make it count.
"Come out! What are you, all bark and no bite?"
I unscrewed the ink flask and dipped the brush, a formula coming to me already, though far from a way to use regular Juuken with my right arm. The chakra blast – a way to make it even more powerful. If I got close enough to hit her, I would finish it in one blow.
The brush danced over my arm; I'd gotten quite good at writing with my left hand. I modified the design, adding symbols, wiping some off, my heart pounding in excitement and panic.
Here – a simple barrier seal made it deflect back up my arm, but… I drew in five seals on the front of the arm, one opposite each of the claw scars. The brush flew over my arm, drawing five hasty rings of black running just below each scar, broken only by the aligned seals. The natural barriers created by the wounds – they were reinforced as I connected the seals to the rings. The chakra drawn to my palm for a normal chakra blast was already slow in moving past them, and now would have more difficulty. The strongest block was the one nearest my hand; the weakest was the one farthest from it.
I flinched as a small shed nearby was filled with holes and eventually destroyed.
Focus! The attracting seal on my palm – I drew in a touch to strengthen it, and added more attracting seals, two between each of the black rings, on opposite sides of the arm. Tiny seals were scrawled in rapidly, so that the focus of the drawing force would be placed between each pair of seals – the center of my arm rather than the sides of it.
Now above each black ring of ink – simple blocking seals that would more strongly discourage the chakra from moving backwards past the barriers. They were then linked to the attracting seals, so that the chakra wouldn't be affected by the seals it had already passed.
Finally I sketched in seals down the length of my arm – actual barrier seals. This chain of markings was linked to the rings so that their effect would circle the arm for the length that was scarred, preventing the chakra from escaping it. The only release point would be my palm.
I quickly examined my arm, and the handiwork I'd done under the inspiration of pressure. Would it work? Theoretically it looked like it should, but I had thought that about most of the formulas I'd tried…
A shadow passed over me.
I looked up to spot a cloud of iron sand, and it promptly began to rain. I leapt aside as the shower of iron slammed down where I had been, and I body flickered.
Behind Midori, I clapped my left palm onto my right wrist, prepared to channel chakra into it – by entering at the wrist, it would be pulled forward by the attracting seal on my palm. If I could catch her again–!
"Where could she be!" With blinding speed a heel snapped across my face.
Well… Ouch.
I staggered back, and before I could regain balance had to scramble to dodge a hail of sand bullets. I backflipped, but my foot landed on a patch of sand; it shifted suddenly, and I began to stumble.
Four more, larger spheres – pain slamming into my knee, the side of my ribs, the center of my back, the top of my shoulder. I dropped to the ground.
"Ee? Thought you could sneak up on me?"
"Gr… Got to… keep going…" I started to my feet, determined not to stay down for long.
"It's hopeless… Why are you doing it?" Kurogiba asked, his voice unreadable.
"I c-can't give in…!"
"Stop this madness! You'll die–!!"
"If you're not going to help then shut your mouth already, Kurogiba-sama–!"
Thop!
A small sphere bruised my forehead.
Iron sand sprang up from the ground around me. Not in spheres, not in waves, merely thousands of particles of sand.
I shut my eyes, and shielded my face with my hands, and barely withheld a cry as it whipped into a violent, shredding frenzy around me, slashing and cutting with no remorse. In three seconds it ended, and I dropped once more.
"Hey, give the dog a little credit. At least he's got sense – he's smart enough not to fight with a loser like you."
"Kuso…" Trembling, I got to my knees. A cut at my hairline was leaking down the side of my face; stinging scratches littered my body. I shakily began to rise. "You th-think that's enough to stop m-me…?"
"You keep getting up. Why is it that you keep getting up? They're usually groveling and screaming for mercy by now."
"Knock me down as many times as you l-like… You can't call me a failure until I stay down…"
My stomach – another little iron gumdrop, connecting horribly, hitting the celiac plexus and forcing the wind out of me in a choked gag, a sharp, airy cry of protest. My head fell, arms curled up at the elbows, hands clasped at the point of contact as my mouth speckled the ground with blood. I felt sick…
"Strange – I can't pierce through you…" Midori noted half in annoyance, half in interest, as if speaking of some curious anomaly, and I yelped as something small thunked squarely against my lower ribs. "I can't break you, either. Why is your body so strong…?"
Thop!
"Ah!"
Thump!
"Urk–!"
Shlik!
My eyes grew as something shot into my stomach and out my back. Teeth snapping shut in a grimace, I barely managed not to flat out scream.
"Aren't we the little tough girl?"
I shuddered with each blow as five more iron globes, each no larger than a fingertip, shot through my abdomen. My eyes turned skyward as I swayed, and blood was trailing from my mouth as I slumped face first to the ground.
"Hee…? Even if your body is tougher, put the same force on a smaller area and eventually it has to give."
I whimpered, choking back tears as my body quivered. It hurts…!
"I guess it's over – failure."
But… But I……!
"K… Koinu…"
I pulled my arms and legs in slightly, lying on my forearms and knees. A wet cough rose in my throat. My shoulders, my back, my arms, my legs, my whole body trembled as it struggled to pick me up again.
"Come on… Come on…!" Blood dripped from the wounds. Sweating in pain, I ignored it and lifted my elbows, shakily shifting some weight onto my hands…
WHAM!
Struggles were cut short as a tremendous impact at my upper back knocked me to the ground.
"Interesting… Interesting!" Midori yelled, pelting my back with sphere after crushing sphere. "Why do you keep getting up?! Why don't you just lie down and die already?!"
I could only drape my hands over my head, fighting not to cry out. She attacked relentlessly, beating and pounding at my back without pause. My fingers clenched, clasping at my hair. Crimson kept spurting through my locked teeth. But I refused to cry out. I couldn't…!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
My teeth ground. I pulled my hair, unblinking as tears fell. Stop it… Stop it… Stop it… Stop it…
I knew she wouldn't stop. Not until I was dead. I realized in terror I couldn't even pass out – I would remain conscious to the end. My eyes were pouring now.
S-someone…
Anyone…
Mommy…!
"AAAAAAAHHH!!! HELP MEEEEE!!! Please!!"
It ended.
"There now, was that so hard?"
I lied there, whimpering like a whelp, gasping for breath, unblinking eyes running with tears as I trembled and shook. I shut my eyes and wailed out, bawling like a little girl. Which I was, it occurred to me. I was really nothing but a little girl, out of her league…
I squeaked when a boot rolled me onto my back, fearing more pain. Hesitantly I cracked open my eyes to see the woman standing above me.
"It'll be over before you know it. Want me to end it quickly?" Her smiling face turned abruptly malicious as a sphere of sand materialized over her open hand. "Or do you need a little more time to think about it?"
I shrieked out loud, my heart flying. Not the pain. Anything – anything but the pain–!
"So what, are you just giving up now?! I thought you made me a promise, or didn't you?!"
His powerful voice, fraught with emotion, boomed across the field. I stared skyward in shock as it became choked up, utterly unfamiliar to me.
"Or… or was I just right all along?!" he demanded, pain breaking into his voice. I thought that if it were even remotely possible, he'd be crying right now. I found the stunned words taking shape on my lips as something clicked neatly into place.
"Is that… is that why you refuse to help me…? Because you're afraid to have hope?! You coward… You coward, Kurogiba-sama!"
"Kuso!! I told myself I wouldn't count on you. I told myself, I knew it would end like this, but s-still I…!"
So was it his mistake … for having put faith in me…? Was he right after all? Is it true … that pain is all that comes of never giving up…?
"The truth is, at some point… Hyuuga Hinata and I became friends!"
–"I promise you, Kurogiba … that I'll be a kunoichi you can be proud to fight alongside."
"Heh. I won't count on it…"–
"I remember, Kurogiba-sama…" My hands snapped up, clutching both of Midori's ankles. "It's up to me, to prove you wrong!!" I cried, grinding my teeth, swinging my legs up, and ramming both feet into Midori's belly in a hard Juuken kick.
She grunted as she staggered back at the suddenness of the strike, and I rolled onto my feet to spring a sharp backfist across her face.
I forced chakra past the first, and weakest, barrier on my right arm.
Gentle and Ferocious!
I leapt into a Sempuu kick, and she ducked under a heel strike before blocking a lashing follow-up from the other shin – and crying out as I slammed interlocked hands down onto her head.
The accumulated chakra burst the second barrier and, trapped between the second and third scars, bounced wildly between the barrier seals surrounding it.
I wouldn't give her an instant to retaliate. Ignoring pain, I landed a quick Juuken palm before swinging my right fist solidly into her face. I whirled to whack my left elbow into her midriff, and kept turning to brush the straightened fingers of a cupped hand across her abdomen in a Juuken Stream.
Sand trickled from under her flak jacket. I tapped my left palm against my right wrist.
I drove an explosive fist full-force into the center of her chest, but as my arm straightened I opened my hand to chakra-adhere, jarring her to a sharp halt before she could be thrown away.
At this point a truly massive amount of concentrated chakra was frenzying behind the fifth and strongest barrier as I fed still more energy down the arm. It moved easily past the already broken barriers, but still was not allowed to backtrack.
I then pulled my arm back, and Midori with it – and buried my left fist deep in her no longer protected stomach, chakra blazing from downward-pointing knuckles.
Shippurendan!
She jerked forward in pain, and I felt the wind shoot out of her as she spewed blood over my shoulder. I squared my stance, braced my feet with charka, and aimed a word for her nearby ear.
"Sayonara."
BOOM!
Energy broke past the last scar in an explosion – an explosion directed forward by the attracting seal on the palm, but far too powerful to be halted even momentarily behind it. My hair whipped in the air, and I ducked my head into a backlash shockwave as my chakra blasted her away in a massive surge of blue-white light.
Midori landed like a ragdoll fifteen yards off and lied spread-eagled on her back. I stood panting for several moments, still glaring ahead, my arm outstretched and the aching palm smoking lightly. Slowly I lowered my arm, squeezed my eyes shut with a brief grimace, and started forward.
Still breathing in soft gasps, I stopped a yard away. The older kunoichi was trembling at erratic intervals, her eyes, gazing at me and straight through me, filled with despair.
"O-or-rochi-m-maru…sama…" she barely made out, struggling desperately to raise her head. Gore was running from her mouth. Her eyes were empty, her body was convulsing, and still she was holding on for…
"…Go see Akane," I murmured. "You don't have to work for Orochimaru anymore…"
Her eyes watered as she flinched slightly, and her head fell back onto the grass. "Aka…nee…" she whispered with a soft smile, the torment on her face swept away with the name. Her body relaxed, and her eyes slid shut.
Midori was dead.
I don't know what happened, what took hold of me. It was probably another effect of this point in the moon cycle.
But with so powerful an enemy's death, even as my eyes ran over with tears, I spread my arms, turned out my palms, and threw back my head to let forth a bellowing roar of triumph at the sky.
Thirteen, Part Five: Breaking Point
Naruto ナルト
I struggled my way off the ground, grunting as I pushed off my good knee and balanced myself on one leg.
"You think you're t-tough just 'cause there's a lot of you?! Come on!!"
An army of scattered Oto-nin lined the bridge, starting fifteen yards off on either side of me. If I'd wanted to I might have fled into the water if I was quick enough, but who's to say I'd survive it or even escape? But I had no such plans.
I have to stand and fight! I thought, softly panting as I continued to glower toward the Sound ninja that had effectively surrounded me. I almost sensed it as they prepared to attack.
Lee リー
A frown on my face, I eyed the dozens of ninja that soon lined the clearing's edge. Several sharp whistles pierced the air, undoubtedly signaling the others in the area.
A healthy burning was within my arms as I raised my katana in challenge. I took a deep breath as the slightest movements revealed them prepared to spring.
That is right – it is not over yet. The fight for my life has only just begun.
Hinata ヒナタ
The roaring howl caught their attention quickly enough. Shouting for their prone captain, spitting furious expletives, the shinobi that had been carelessly waiting more than a hundred yards off came dashing across the field.
For a moment my knees shook unsteadily. I dragged my arms up into a defensive stance. I'm not sure if I c-can go on…
A bolt of crimson fire lanced toward them, hitting earth and shifting to spray a line of billowing flames across the approaching army's path.
He landed gracefully next to me from a grand bound, glaring toward the momentarily halted shinobi.
"K… Kurogiba-sama…?" I whispered, eyes widening.
He turned his gaze on me and grunted one word. "Together."
My cheeks gained the slightest warmth as my heart swelled with hope. Face set in determination, I nodded curtly.
He lowered his head and spoke quickly and clearly.
"Hyuuga Hinata, kunoichi of Konohagakure no Sato, rightful heiress of Clan Hyuuga, wolf-friend, my summoner…"
My hands lied lightly on the sides of his neck and muzzle before I shut my eyes and bowed my head, resting my forehead against his, and words flowed effortlessly from my lips.
"Fifth Grand Ookami Kurogiba, son of the great black-blooded Houkou-sama, ruler of fire, my familiar…"
Our voices came together. "Let us join at the mind, and our souls become as one! Youkai Hou: Soul Link!"
Our eyes snapped open at once, and after looking forward together we leapt apart to avoid a hail of shuriken.
Naruto ナルト
I'm about to die.
The thought came as a statement, simple and true, a small, calm revelation to an otherwise frenzied mind flailing in desperation. I was trying. I was beating them back with Shadow Strikes branched ten ways or more, I was Shadow Swapping wildly in defense, all the while hardly able to walk. Still they got through. There were too many.
There were too many, and they just kept getting up.
And just as I found foremost in my mind, with morbid serenity, that I was about to die, in the very back of my mind but ever-present all the same pounded another notion – an immense, frightful secret, deadly and awesome. Though it could save me, I quailed at the thought of it.
I substituted from immediate danger and struck out, hitting eight adversaries in front of me. My shoulder blazed with pain; two shadow steps placed me at the western end of the bridge, where the group spotted and again began to run toward me.
Cold air burned my lungs as, staring unblinking ahead, I pulled a shuriken free of my shoulder.
I'm about to die…
They're about to kill me.
Because…
Lee リー
This … is who we are.
Katana clashed with kunai as I traded blows with a particularly skillful chuunin. It was during this deadly exchange, as the man struck with fury to kill, that the entire enormity of the solemn truth was acknowledged.
No…
This is what we are.
I grunted as a knife grazed my side. Yet though every single one of them wanted to kill me and could most certainly do it, no blood but Torakou's stained my blade.
We are made to kill. Emotionless, as machines.
Clang–ching-clang–cl–kin–!
It is our purpose, for we are shinobi.
Hinata ヒナタ
This is what shinobi do.
The obvious dawned a bewildering revelation as I fought, Kurogiba at my side.
All shinobi can fight. And kill.
The wolf surged into my mind and bade my legs to jump, manipulating my body easily as would I. A shower of senbon skewered the ground.
Our intentions conflict. I am a hindrance to them, and so they strike to kill.
We danced across the battlefield. Weary and bleeding, I threw punch after kick after palm, struggling to subdue the horde, struggling to protect the life they were so bent on and in all likelihood near snuffing out. And whichever one stole my life from me, he or she would probably feel little to nothing.
This … is the universal way of all shinobi… And not even we can escape it.
Naruto ナルト
Is this it? Am I really…
Lee リー
…Am I really going to die this way? Is it…
Hinata ヒナタ
…Is it over? Is this how my life ends?
Naruto ナルト
The Shadow Strikes were losing effect. The moment I noticed this I found myself dodging a flying kunai – but my movement was slow, and it thunked into my arm. I cried out, and as a sword swung toward me I substituted to an open space in the crowd with painful difficulty.
Pain crashed into my head and seared across my stomach. I thought for sure I had just been killed when I dropped to my hands and knees, paralyzed. I blinked, which only seemed to make more spots pop in front of my eyes. And my body wouldn't listen to my mind, but not because of any physical strike.
It was confused.
No – why now?!
The… the b-backlash of the Kageken… I thought, trembling and helpless as smiling Oto-nin spotted and charged toward me.
Lee リー
Their numbers did not seem to be getting any lesser.
Shooing one back with the swing of a katana, I threw my boot into another's jaw. I turned and drove my fist into a nose. I deflected four shuriken and lunged, feinting with the blade before bringing two knuckles to land between a young man's eyes. I turned again in time to swat a knife downward and hop toward the wielder, swinging my arm over myself to sharply drop the side of a hand beside her neck.
I felt fairly certain I was the singly strongest and fastest ninja remaining, but they seemed endless in number. My blows were growing weaker, slower. I had lost count of my injuries; most were shallow, a few were not. And–
A kunoichi dropped to the ground under the sword I had sprung toward her. Her hand shot down, and a pillar of earth erupted before her to clip my jaw.
The next thing I registered was pain slamming into my sternum. Eyes wide, I was beginning to curl inward when my body thudded against another, nearly knocking someone over. The ninja behind me managed to catch me, an arm folding securely across my throat.
It was in that situation that I regained full awareness. I found that I was fighting for air, struggling weakly; that a coppery wetness was in my mouth; that the one holding me was trembling; and that the nearest others were shouting.
"You've got him – what are you waiting for?!"
"Kill him!"
My ears caught a nervous gulp. With slight movement behind me, I then heard a kunai slide swiftly from its pouch.
I saw our shadows, though hazy under the dull light of the clouded sky, stretched out before me. I could see the silhouette of two figures, my head to the left of and a bit lower than his, one of my arms tugging at the one locked over my throat. His other hand rose up high above our heads, the knife's shape pointed down, toward me.
And as I wondered vaguely which vital point would be hit, I found my eyes drawn oddly to the shape extending to the left of my silhouette head – the hilt of a still sheathed katana. The other, which had been dropped, was lying across the shadow; its gleaming blade stretched across the trembling figure's throat.
Hinata ヒナタ
I could almost sense it, almost taste it – every ounce of blood coursing through his body. The tantalizing scent was infuriatingly dulled, in a way that stirred outrage within me, as it deserved to be freed and spilt upon the world; but from where I was behind him I could so easily split this vein or that, free the scent to explode into its true brilliant glory–!
'Kurogiba-sama!!'
His mind took a firm hold of mine, and a mental blow crashed down onto my soul. My knees were driven immediately to the earth, and I was myself. I had almost lost it, and I felt that if I started killing I wouldn't be able to stop.
I was at the third level. I hadn't meant to activate it, but I had. Without Kurogiba, I would already have lost it.
The wolf rammed into the man in front of me, knocking him aside, and I ducked my head as he turned to spew a jet of flame over me. I knew he had deterred a shinobi coming at me from behind.
'On your feet!' his thoughts barked. He looked to my left, and I turned that way to sharply throw a shin across an approaching ninja's ankles. Kurogiba headbutted the man, and as I spotted a sword swinging toward the wolf he whipped his head around, clamping down on the blade. I leapt over him to throw a spinning heel kick into the assailant's face.
I cringed as I landed, arms cradling my middle where the spheres of iron had stabbed me. I wanted to scream; every move made the wounds throb and my bruised back sear with agony. A lapping wave of encouragement washed over from Kurogiba – who due to our connection was hurting just as much but showed no sign of weakness – and I pulled myself together.
A small water missile neared us, and he lunged behind me as I performed the Kaiten. The water deflected, I broke sharply from the rotation and shot to plant a fist beneath a kunoichi's seal-locked hands, squarely in her stomach. I brought my right hand back to deflect a kunai strike from behind with a hit to the wrist, and turned to drive the heel of my palm into the shinobi's abdomen forcefully enough to knock him away. I grabbed an attacker's arm and vaulted over him, and from behind rose to ram right shoulder and left palm against his spine.
There was no end to them! They just kept–!
I moved forward. A kunai ran shallowly across the middle of my back. Screaming madly with rage and pain, I rounded on the attacker – and was frozen in place. The wolf's front paws slammed him to the ground.
It was him. He wasn't letting me move!
He took the opportunity to ease the fury inside me as the fighting came to a momentary pause. "This thing was created to be unstable. It plays on your emotions, takes hold of the smallest angry impulse; the darkness takes root and multiplies in attempt to consume you. For someone like you it may take longer, but you know it's very possible for you to fall under all the same. That's why you learned control. Fight it off!"
I snarled and started to struggle against him, and another mental blow slammed into my mind, turning my head aside as if I'd been struck. I snapped out of it.
'K-Kurogiba-sama, I'm not sure how much more I can take! I want to awaken now! I want to–!'
He was momentarily infected by the strength of my desire, and almost let me unleash it. Almost. 'No, you don't want to – the mark does. You're wounded, and it's affecting your judgment, but you're not badly hurt.'
He didn't think the word, but I couldn't help catching the sense of 'yet' that radiated from the end of the statement. I wanted to cry in despair, to pass out at the pain, to vomit with fatigue, to slash someone apart in fury. My head spun, and he could barely help ease the stress any longer.
'Just be strong, and keep going. I'm with you. We'll get through this–!'
He knocked me down, and six arrows dotted his right side.
My right side blazed with invisible, excruciating pain, and I opened my mouth and screamed.
Naruto ナルト
Well, I can't say I missed him… Though admittedly I was much happier to see him than I would usually be, and it was nice to know what the heck was going on with my chakra. Man, did it look different in here! For one thing, the seal was coated in a purple barrier of … I guess it was my chakra. It was looking pretty good, and clearly hadn't taken any damage since the last time I was here. What was really weird was that the room was filled with floating bubbles of red and blue fog or energy or something, the red centered on the fox and the blue on me. And there was kind of a spiral of red chakra connecting us, flowing from the fox, widely looped several times about me, and entering me at a slug's pace – except near me, where it met my blue aura-majig, the red shifted to purple. So that had been happening constantly since a month ago, huh…
"Hey, time's not really passing on the outside right now, right?" I said, watching curiously as I shifted briefly left and right and the spiral moved with me.
"It is, very slowly…" the nine-tailed fox growled simply, and I took its word for it. "Look, did you hear a word I just said or not?"
I waved my hands. "Yeah, I got it. So after being scorched up by your chakra – twice – my keirakukei healed with a mega-huge immunity to your destructive chakra, even stronger than before. That's why when you attacked and I tried to kill us by overloading on your chakra, our chakras just got … twisted together or something…?"
The beast slowly nodded a massive head. "Unfortunately, so it seems… Your chakra is a mixture, usually held at some sixty percent yours to forty my own, fused at a surprisingly basic level... My power is acting somewhat as a fixed supplement to yours. You focus more of your chakra, and consume mine at an elevated rate; you exhaust your chakra and leave little to add on to, and the draw on my power is slowed... But, should you willfully draw out more of my chakra and shift the proportion…"
"So that's what this is about. You think you'll be getting another test drive of my body, huh?"
A deep, throaty rumble rolled from the cage. "You misunderstand… When my chakra reaches you in this way, it's practically yours… Your chakra is strengthened, and with it the barrier you've subconsciously maintained over the seal is strengthened. My chakra would need to outweigh yours a greater deal for me to seize it back and wrest complete control of you… So go on. Have a bit more, it won't hurt…"
The stream of red began to quicken in its spiral. I raised a hand, and rather than the expected blue, a barrier of indigo purple sprang out to arrest its motion. "I don't trust you."
"My interest is in our survival. Trust is irrelevant – the choice is as simple as choosing life over death. I can help… Accept my aid, and show the fools what you can really do…"
I started as its eyes glowed deep crimson. "You d-don't mean…!"
"I do."
I shook my head, trying to ignore the logic I knew was behind him. The very thought… "N-no – I can't. Those techniques, they're too… It's n-not…" Honorable? Humane? Fair?
"Not fair?" It gave a monstrous laugh, causing me to jump. "Did they consider 'fair' when they took you on eighty to one? Nothing is fair in the world of you shinobi. The single fairness that has been established and long settled on… is to kill or be killed. If you have power, use it!"
I don't – I don't want to die!
Teeth grinding, my hand fell.
Power surged into me. The meager chakra I had left exploded with new intensity, and with a gasp I was thrust back into my real body in the real world. Concentrated energy crackled in a frenzy inside me and blazed a violent violet around my body as I rose easily to my feet, pulling the kunai out of my arm and drawing my hand far back as I stared, unblinking, toward the charging line of shinobi twenty meters off, wide eyes sweeping across them.
'DO IT!!'
I don't think the fox would have had to say a thing.
The brief flicker of existence, a momentary tessellation line of orange and blue – and it was as though a blade wielded by a giant had invisibly flashed down the line of soldiers, gouging a straight path of crimson instantly across all their bodies.
I stared in awed horror, barely able to comprehend as twenty unsuspecting shinobi and kunoichi dropped dead.
Lee リー
We were naïve to think it might have gone any other way.
And after all… I was the one who had told them not to hesitate.
My right hand flashed up, clapping onto a hilt, pulling to turn the katana and sheath against my back, and sharply rising to run the length of the blade across my captor's throat in the very sweeping motion in which it was unsheathed.
I was released. Crimson splattered to the ground. The kunai of my would-be killer bounced a few feet. And as I turned I managed to glimpse a boy who could not have been a day older than Naruto crashing lifeless to the ground.
My stomach clenched. I gritted my teeth.
…When I must, I need to be able to become a shinobi as well.
As a man leapt toward me, kunai raised, I drew back the arm which held a dripping sword.
…Accelerate.
SLSSH!
Hinata ヒナタ
'Pull yourself together! I'm fine, and you're not really hurt! Just don't break this Soul Link!!'
"K-Kurogiba-sama!!" I yowled. I didn't even know why. I couldn't think straight. My heart was pounding violently inside me. My blood could have been at a rolling boil. And the pain, pain!
But I didn't want to do something I'd regret! I wouldn't–!
But where the heck had sparing my enemies ever gotten me?!!
'That's it, koinu. Come now, why restrain yourself this way? You have the power to survive. Use it…'
Survive. I would survive–!
'No, Okaa-sama, what are you saying? Koinu, don't listen to her! Hinata – can you hear me?'
Somehow, a distant sound, a flickering combination of other senses – I turned and batted with my hand three arrows from the air.
'What good comes of exercising mercy?' the five-tails mused.
A random surge of bloodlust – oh, the sweet, luscious blood waiting to be spilled!! – I don't know how I fought it.
'The scars that cripple your arm, courtesy of your cousin…'
I swatted down another arrow, freaked by my own reflexes. Kurogiba roasted a few more projectiles, urged me to stay with him, not once letting go of me.
'A near-death encounter with a Youkou's kinjutsu – that could have been avoided…'
'Stop it, Mum, leave her alone!'
My neck throbbed horribly, and I couldn't tell if it was agonizing or not.
'And of course…'
SPLIK!
'…Kidomaru's arrow,' a snide voice finished.
My eyes had snapped wide as I was thrown a stumbling step back, mouth flung agape when the arrow pierced my stomach.
Suddenly my eyes had traced the path, had found him. Before I knew what I was doing the world blurred past, forty meters between us reduced to nothing in an instant.
And with incredible force, I found my clawed hand, ablaze with darkness, smashing cleanly through his chest.
Though somewhat appalled, I couldn't suppress a tiny moan of pleasure at the profusion of hot blood soaking my hand and arm.
Somehow I looked up from the dripping blood – and I gasped as the raised veins framing his huge eyes faded.
"H-Hina…ta…" he sputtered.
My mouth moved.
"Hiken…kun…"
With this sad and pathetic mockery of an attempted apology, in a sort of dazed shock, I pulled my arm from his body. My barely-older cousin crumpled to the ground.
It was so fast…
My sharp teeth ground. My trembling hands clasped my hair. My hurting body shook. My unblinking eyes dripped. And my open mouth watered at the absolutely beautiful scent filling the air, surrounding me, embracing me, drowning out all else, rich and thick and overpowering.
It happened then – a chain reaction of a thousand explosions going off inside of me. A screaming roar of rage and agony was hurled into the column of darkness that stretched into the gray sky above me, as my body convulsed violently, as bones cracked and popped and shifted crazily, as the confined power once held in restraint just beyond my grasp tore eagerly through my body and soul. My limbs shifted in structure, and something especially amazing happened at the base of my spine, and then something else at the sides of my head, and the top. All the while I screamed.
My howl drifted off to an end, and I swayed in a moment of shock before I sank comfortably to all fours. The heavy darkness swirling thickly around me faded to a light, fiery mist. I reached behind my back, hardly wincing as I yanked out the arrow sticking annoyingly through me and tossed it aside.
I blinked. The world was a new one, dazzlingly sharp around me. I smelled every last drop of blood in every body, heard every pulsing beat of the fearful, speeding hearts that sent it though their veins. Something primal stirred at the heart of my being as I found they were frightened of me, and a smile broke across my face as my tail whipped left and right behind me.
I felt wonderful.
"Hinata?"
My ears twitched, and my eyes darted to land on the wolf. They tracked the movement as he took a cautious step toward me.
"Easy there, koinu… Remember, this wasn't supposed to happen 'til nighttime? Just–,"
My hand flowed upward, pointing at him. I grinned when my will froze him in his tracks. Trying to sneak into my head, was he?
"You're not going to stop me," I hissed darkly, almost surprised at the fierce power in my voice. He tried to escape, and he couldn't, and I snickered as my soul screeched with glee.
I slammed his mind with all my force, and he went rigid and yowled. Smirking, I brushed a hand across my middle, wetting my fingers with blood, and I broke my mind away from his.
In a swift motion I flicked my arm out, sending blades of darkness flashing through the air, shooting toward the reeling wolf. They met him with explosive force, and he yelled as he was blasted into a building dozens of strides away, clouds of dust whipping into the air.
I laughed out loud in sheer delight. He couldn't stop me, and neither could anyone. Why had I ever fought it?! This was perfect. Power raced through my veins, flowed sure and strong. I was strong. Never before had I felt so amazing, and as I marveled a growling chuckle purred into the air. And…
And all around me. There were so many, trembling, eyeing me warily…
So many to be destroyed…
So much blood to be spilt!
Neji ネジ
We were done. I had coordinated an invasion, and the Uchiha had counter-coordinated expertly from the shadows. The disorganization had destroyed us, and our numbers had been decimated.
I halted when the snarl tore unprompted from my throat. Something restless thrashed inside me, but briefly it faded. I clutched the mark on my neck, three black diamonds – for the two that were lost that day had long since regenerated.
I shook my head, eyes wide. What was that?
"Hyuuga-san?" one of the Oto-nin who'd been running behind me asked hesitantly.
"What is it?" I asked, collecting myself.
He shifted nervously and pointed. "Look."
I followed his eyes to the tallest standing tree in New Konoha, a proud old oak. Perched atop it in an image of cool nonchalance that almost suggested their act was of little consequence, were Shikamaru and a few other ninja – one of whom waved a large, black flag slowly, methodically left and right.
Oh dear…
I frowned, chewing my lip as I watched the mass of pitch fabric undulate and sway high in the still, bitter cold air. This was their response to the attack, and the message was clear enough.
The opposite of a white flag. No surrender.
In other words, war.
The Nara's eyes, though distant, found and locked squarely with my own in a challenge. I held his bold glare, and my teeth clenched.
"Retreat! Everyone, fall back!"
Hanabi ハナビ
"N-Neji's calling the retreat!"
"What, for real?!"
"Yeah! They actually did it!"
I heard all this without really hearing it. Whatever was in front of me, I saw the image clearly with no interpretation. My breath was shallow and shaky as I lowered my head, curling up and clasping my freezing hands over my heart.
"Hanabi?" Kiba asked over the rising chatter, concerned. "Hanabi, what's wrong?"
"Nee-chan… Something is very wrong with Nee-chan…"
ナルト / リー / ヒナタ \ ハナビ \ ネジ
End Chapter Thirteen
Hinata: Activate: Cursed Seal of Mitsubishi! Wait, what the... These aren't my lines–!
Kurogiba: Pfft-snort- HAHAHAHAHA! Hahahaha!
Hinata: Kurogiba-sama!
(static–)
Lee: That is it, then. In the aftermath of a bittersweet conclusion, all one can do is move on and look to tomorrow.
Naruto: Don't miss the next thrilling installment, and the shocking conclusion to Part One!
Hinata: Next is Chapter Fourteen: Crimson Wave. Naruto-kun, Lee-kun, Kurogiba-sama… I'm sorry…
Phew! Wow. 64 pages on Word. This is like – MEGA CHAPTER!! RAWR! XD
They probably won't get much longer than this ;)
How was the chapter? I hope so many fight scenes didn't get 'exhausting' to read; I know that happens to me sometimes, when I read a long battle or whatever and eventually I'm like "When will it END?!"
Sorry for so many OC's, but there aren't really that many Hyuuga or Oto-nin to pick from. So when I need a Hyuuga or Oto-nin or whatnot character, I make one!
Yes, Akane is female. Yes, Midori is also female. Please don't review "eeewww, they're like gay, that's nastyyyy!" I don't want to hear it.
Lee's fight scenes are always so fun to write – throw together some crazy taijutsu action and a dramatic finish! Some of his training scenes might make more sense now. How were his new techniques, and Hinata's? Pretty cool, huh? (Yes I'm proud of the techniques I come up with… especially Lee's, it's hard to make techniques for him ;)
Yes, there is something special about Hanabi's Juuken. There've been a few hints here and there, but all will be revealed next chapter!
Next chapter is already done, by the way; I wonder if I should post it soon or make you wait… Nah, jk, I'll post it as soon as I get it typed!
Please let me know what you thought of the chapter! And if you have any questions feel free to ask!
:o)Hinata0321:o)