Chapter Nine
Remember This Moment
Naruto woke up with a terrible pain…absolutely everywhere. He tried to clench his hands, and almost yelped. From what it felt like, each and every one of his fingers was broken. The wooden roof of the cabin came in and out of focus. Naruto groaned, and let his head fall sideways and his eyes slide closed again, even if just for a minute.
"Naruto. Oh my god, Naruto, can you hear me?"
With a deep breath and all of the strength that he had in him, Naruto forced his eyes back open a sliver. And twitched a smiled. He knew it wasn't necessarily a good thing, but he kind of enjoyed it when Sakura gave him that really worried look of concern. He licked his lips and cracked his mouth open. "Hey," he breathed out.
She exhaled a sigh that made it seem that she'd been carrying the weight of all the world on her shoulders. Her head fell forward, obscuring her face with that pink mane of hair. Finally, after a long moment, she brought her head back up, her eyes glistening just a little too brightly, and smiled back. "Welcome back to the world of the living, idiot."
Naruto still wasn't all there, as his senses took everything in blearily. "…Utakata?"
"You've been out for about ten hours. Honestly, that in itself is a miracle. I swear, only with your recovery rate… Anyway, Kakashi-sensei has gone to give Utakata to the Akatsuki."
A volt went through Naruto. "Give them Utakata?! What the hell are you talking about!?" He wrenched against his body, and felt as though he was wrenching against the ironwood clamps that had been placed on Utakata, so heavy were his limbs, and so painful the movement. He snarled against the pain.
"Naruto! What are you doing?! You have to lie still!" In an instant, Sakura was over him, pinning his arms to the floor.
"They can't take Utakata! Not after everything we've done! How could Kakashi-sensei even think about something like that! Let go of me Sakura-chan, because I'm gonna-"
"UTAKATA'S CLONE, NARUTO! I meant Utakata's clone!"
Naruto froze, blinking up at her in confusion.
She sighed. "Honestly, I sometimes forget just how thickheaded you really are. You remember that Ino cut Sir Utakata's hair, yes?" She slowly nodded at him, encouraging him to nod along with her, which he did. "And you remember all the trouble Captain Yamato went through to make a second dome in which to perform the medical ninjutsu necessary to make a fresh body, yes?" Again, nod. Nod. Pause. Think.
"Ooh! The zombie!"
Sakura closed her eyes, and prayed for patience. "Yes, Naruto. The zombie. Kakashi-sensei is about to go and give the zombie, which now has the Bijuu in it, to Akatsuki-"
"…Sakura… your hands."
She looked down to where his gaze had fixed. The palms and fingers of her hands were red, and raw, and angry. The poisonous chakra of the Bijuu which had leaked out to envelop Naruto's frame had left its mark – as it did on anyone who had not been raised on it as a normal human being was raised on oxygen.
"It couldn't be helped this time," she said, pressing her palms gently against the cover of his sleeping bag. Naruto opened his mouth, and she already knew what he was going to say. He was going to disagree, to beat himself up, to claim that he broke his promise never to let his chakra hurt her again. She didn't let him. "You were saving a life. …You were saving lives. And they're about to complete the transaction. It's almost all over."
Naruto thought for a moment, now possessing the information he had been given. Finally, his mind was made up. "I have to go anyway," he said, pushing himself up in an attempt to get to his feet.
"What. No. Naruto," Sakura grabbed at his t-shirt. "Listen to me. Kakashi-sensei is taking care of everything. You cannot move. The fact that you are even conscious at this time is bizarre. No normal person could possibly have survived what you've survived. The strain of so much chakra on one body is-"
"Sakura!" Naruto lurched out to grab her upper arm with his own. He gnashed his teeth together as he forced his face from contorting with the pain. "I have to go. Believe me. It won't be good it I'm not there. That guy… Pain… It won't be good if I'm not there."
Sakura stared at him. She looked alarmed. He didn't like this kind of alarm on her face. He tried to give her shoulder an encouraging squeeze, and found that pain lased up his hand. Damn.
"How do you know? Naruto… what are you talking about?"
"You weren't there. He made me promise that I would bring Utakata back 'personally.' It was the last thing he said before we left the hideout. The only reason Kakashi-sensei would be doing this is because we're nearly out of time. Are we almost out of time?"
Sakura nodded. "Our second day is almost up."
Naruto remained silent for a moment, lost in thought and aching muscles. "…Kakashi-sensei knows Pain's terms. He heard them. I have to do this."
Sakura stared at him, alarmed. "Why? Why you?"
Naruto opened his mouth, but he couldn't think up of a single answer. "I don't know," he finally said. "Somehow… somehow I just feel that that guy was trying to prove something to me. Maybe it's because I'm a Jinchuuriki. I don't know. But I've got to see it through. For Utakata's sake. For Hotaru's."
Sakura held his gaze for a moment longer. Then, none too gently, she hauled him into her arms, bridal style. Naruto yelped. "EHEHE?! What the hell, Sakura-chan! What are you doing!?"
"I am taking the most moronic Jinchuuriki in the world to the Akatsuki meeting that he can't bring himself to miss. However, as your medic, I am refusing to let you get there by yourself. I'm carrying you to the edge of the lake, and dumping you in. From there, I'm sure your idiocy will know what to do."
"If you're my medic, then stop crushing my ribs like that. I'm in pain, damnit! Ow! Ow! OW! Who. Wait. Hey, hey, hey- what are you doing?! You're just gonna launch yourself out the window!? Aren't we on the top floor or something? I don't want to ride like this in your arms! Sakura-chan! Stop being scary!"
…
He would not be giving them the key to the Eight Trigrams seal, which was, as it always had been, transcribed onto a great scroll upon sealing a Beast. He decided this as he looked over the stillness of the lake – before remembering to look away. The genjutsu still hovered over its surface. The sooner they were away from here, the better. …Anyway, giving them the key hardly seemed necessary. The Akatsuki seem to have their own ways of separating body from soul, and he saw no point in making their task easier than it already was. …He was exhausted. And the most dangerous part of their mission was still ahead of them. …How was that even possible? Then again, he doubted very much that there was really any single part of this mission that could be labeled 'most dangerous.' When he'd watched Naruto heave that chakra out of Utakata's body and across the air… He could hardly think about it. Thank the Will of Fire Sakura had been there to guild his hands, even in the heat of that moment. The thought that all that power might have broken loose in that instant… And now Naruto was out, and they had to meet with Akatsuki for a second time. Without him.
"…You will bring it back personally." "Sure. Whatever."
In all honestly, the thought of going in there without Naruto, and expressly against Pain's stipulations, unnerved him more than he could possibly say. So much so that, as he clamped his hands behind his back he knew his body well enough to know that the knuckles were once again turning white with the sheer pressure and-
Kakashi could not believe what he saw when he heard the 'thump' of someone land on the sandy beach behind him and turned around. There was Sakura, with the most sour look on her face that'd he'd ever seen. And, having known Sakura for as long as he had, that was pretty bad. And there was Naruto. In her arms. Bridal style. The look on his face was a combination of very alarmed and very pleased with himself. For a moment Kakashi merely blinked at them, trying to choose between being relieved and livid. It was actually a very difficult choice, now that he thought about.
Finally, he just walked up to the two of them, winked at Sakura, and then looked down at Naruto in her arms. "What took you so long, Naruto?"
"Eh?! Seriously!?" Thump. Sakura dropped him.
"Seriously," Kakashi replied, looking down on him. "We almost had to proceed without you. Now," he looked back up at his surroundings, "We're just missing Sai."
Naruto looked around himself for the first time since his arrival. "Why isn't everyone here?" he asked, pushing himself back up onto his feet as best he could and dusting off the sand on his clothes. Kakashi didn't know why he was bothering, actually. They'd be getting into the water momentarily.
"They're around," Kakashi reply mildly, surveying the tree line.
Naruto looked about again, clearly not understanding, opened his mouth to say as much- and his eyes landed on one group of people that were on the beach. Ino and Hotaru were crouching over someone, who in turn was leaning against one of the large rocks jutting out of the dunes. "Ah yes," Kakashi said, following his gaze, "Naruto, please meet our vegetable ninja of the hour."
Naruto blinked for a moment, and then Ino moved, clearing his view. "EHEHE?! WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT AND WHY DOES IT LOOK EXACTLY LIKE UTAKATA?!" Sakura clamed a hand over his mouth from behind.
"Naruto!" she hissed. "We are right outside an Akatusiki base!"
Naruto, however, hardly even registered her presence. He simply continued to flail, now with his mouth clamped shut by Sakura, his arms beating around wildly, and a finger pointing and re-pointing at the person slumped down between Ino and Hotaru.
It was Utakata; Utakata, to the very last detail – save for the vacant eyes, the slightly parted mouth, and the absolute absence of any expression or presence of being. Otherwise, however… the features, the shoulder length hair, even the kimono which he'd worn up until they'd retrieved him from the Akatsuki almost two days before. "Why is he wearing the kimono!?" Naruto wheezed in abject fear when Sakura finally allowed him to speak again.
"One, he looks like Utakata because we used his DNA, idiot! And two, the kimono was all that Hinata could find when I sent her to the cabin to get him some clothes," Ino snapped at him, glowering. "Someone had bunched it up and thrown it in the corner of one of the rooms. We couldn't exactly have him slumping around naked, could we?! Not that I would have really minded," she concluded, flashing an all-too-fond glance at the Utakata look-alike. "Have to say, Lady Hotaru, as someone who saw him in his birthday suit, he's got quite the-"
"I don't care if it's all you could find to put him in!" Naruto blundered on. "It looks freaky! Wait a minute. Hinata's here? And for that matter, what are you doing here?" He said, blinking at Ino.
Hotaru's face, meanwhile, had gone scarlet.
"Idiot, we're the medic team that made this vessel!" Ino snapped at him, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from her creation.
"…oh."
"It doesn't look that much like me, now does it?" Naruto wheeled around. There, being partially held up by Sai, was Utakata. Naruto blinked, stared, turned, stared at the Utakata propped up against the rock, turned, and looked back at the Utakata being propped up by Sai.
Surprisingly, it was true. In that moment the two Utakata's did in fact look like completely different people. The Utakata lying on the beach looked every inch the Utakata whom Naturo had first met not even two weeks before. However, the Utakata standing before him was a different man entirely. His hair was cropped short, though someone had clearly made an effort to even it out since the ritual. He had once again been dressed in a well pressed set of turtleneck and pants which were customary to the ninjas of the Hidden Leave. Then, of course, there was the pallor. The pallor that came with losing a colossal amount of chakra, despite Naruto's best efforts to replace it, in an infinitesimal space of time. He looked like Gaara, after his Bijuu had been extracted, and he had been returned to life. Also, the yellow that had tinged Utakata's eyes was entirely gone. They were a light golden-brown now, and would remain so.
Utakata looked like a changed man.
"Master, you should be resting," Hotaru had come up alongside Naruto and Sakura. She was looking down at the ground as she spoke, her face still tinged pink, though Naruto had no idea from what.
Utakata looked at her for a moment in silence, and then reached his free arm out to rest his hand on her shoulder. "…Are you alright?"
Her head snapped up, and she met his gaze. "Master, really, if anyone should be asking that of anyone, I should be asking-"
"Are you alright?" he repeated.
A long moment passed, and she smiled. "Never better."
He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Good." He tore his eyes away from her and back onto the rest of the company. "Does she have to go with you?" he asked.
"It's safer if she comes," Kakashi said. "We were only going to leave Naruto because we thought we had no other option. Pain will be wanting to see them both. After all, the deal we made was regarding them both. Don't worry. We'll be back out in a few minutes." There was no certainly in his voice.
Utakata let his arm drop from her shoulder, resignation rippling through his stance. "Sai says that the last time you traveled under water you were inconvenienced by the tunnel," he said, changing the topic. "I thought I'd make you a few bubbles you could step into for convenience. You can direct them with your chakra. Just touch them with a finger. That way you wouldn't have to worry about anything, from Sai's scrolls moistening, to having to deal with the sight of Naruto's boxers."
"Asshole."
Utakata just smirked weakly, before his eyes landed on his lookalike on the sand. His expression wavered. "And there's no chance that he's…"
"No," Sakura said assuredly. "Not a chance."
"If you guys want to do this, I'd recommend doing it now," Ino called. Her hands were pressed on the vessel's exposed abdomen. "It's all I can do to keep the chakra from ripping though him. Without a consciousness he's little more than a sack of meat – which quite frankly isn't the best container for anything."
Ino's words seemed to convince Utakata entirely. "Hotaru, may I use your bubble blower, and the spare solution that I gave you before we left Mount Katsuragi?"
"Oh, of course," Hotaru pulled from her sash the small bubble blower which she'd shown Naruto a few days before, and a small circular compact case full of solution, half of which she'd already spent on the bath which Sakura had had her take the day before. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I forgot most of our supplies when…" When she had awoken from the genjutsu-induced sleep Utakata had laid upon her. It did not need to be said.
In silence she handed him the bubble blower and, fingers shaking, unscrewed the cap of the compact case.
"Sai, if you could just set me down on the ground…"
"Of course."
Once settled, Utakata looked up at all of them. "Ready?"
"As ready as we will ever be," Kakashi replied.
"Should you really be left out here in the open?" Sakura asked.
"I'd rather wait here. Besides, Ino said that she would keep me company," Utakata nodded past them all with a tired smile of acknowledgment to Ino.
Hotaru didn't seem to like this arraignment at all, and she opened her mouth to say as much when… bubbles. Utakata had dipped the bubble blower into the solution that she had opened for him and now, all about them, were bubbles.
It crashed upon Hotaru then that, in her heart of hearts, she had never actually thought to look on such bubbles again.
A knot formed in her throat as they glistened about her. She looked to the ground, and tried to blink the welling tears away. It always hurt so badly, trying not to cry. As though a jagged, unyielding rock wedged into her throat, and would not be unmoved until she gave into the tears. She could remember, even now, when she and Sir Utakata had first met Naruto and his friends… She'd cried then. She'd hardly known them, and had cried in front of them. It was when Sir Utakata had said his services were no longer needed, now that she had the Leaf Ninjas. And he had left, as though he could not wait to be away. And she had started crying, even as she screamed after him, soaring away in his bubble. "And I promise never to cry!"
"Hotaru," she blanched. Naruto was standing next to her, with the Utakata lookalike who now bore the Bijuu draped across his back. It sent a chill up her spine. It was all she could do to remember that this was not the same scenario, where only the day before yesterday just such a Naruto had carried just such an Utakata out of the Akatuski Lair… but a very different scenario. She chanced a glance down at the real Utakata, and wished she hadn't. He could see the water in her eyes.
"I wish you weren't taking her," Utakata suddenly burst out, the bubbles rippling around them. "She's of no use to you in there." His eyes were steely, and fixed on her again. There was no answer that anyone could give to him. So the statement simply hung there, among the bubbles.
"Well, come on then," Naruto said, readjusting the Utakata on his back. He walked up to one of the bubbles hanging about them, and poked it. It instantaneously grew to a man's size, and he stepped inside.
"Hotaru-" Utakata reached out and grabbed her wrist as she turned to a bubble herself. She looked back sharply. He looked as though he wanted to say something. Something important. She smiled. Silly Master. He already had. At the ritual site.
"I know," she said, slipping her hand into his. "I know. …But just as you had to go through last night, I have to go through this morning. You said it yourself: there's no turning back now."
His eyes narrowed. "Somehow it was easier to accept when I was the one going through the ordeal."
Hotaru smirked a little that heiress smirk which had not graced her features in days, gave her master's hand a light squeeze, and followed Sai, Kakashi, Naruto, and the Bijuu's vessel into a bubble of her own.
With a single thought they each directed the bubbles into the air, took them across the water, and with four consecutive ripples, they submerged beneath the water.
…
Utakata watched as they sunk beneath the surface of the lake. The bubbles rippled in rainbow colors as the soap once more came in contact with the water. He watched as that head of dark blond frizzy hair vanished from his sight. Again. He swallowed. This was not the last time he was going to see her. This was not like when he had gone to talk to the Mist ANBU. Once Utakata had come round after the ritual, just a few hours before Naruto, he'd argued with Captain Yamato about joining the team that was about to meet with the Akatsuki. He in turned had told Utakata quite bluntly that they already had one 'dead weight' that they were taking with them. They wouldn't need the second.
With that thought, his eyes slid onto Naruto, his knees and upper legs quickly disappearing into the water after Hotaru. The vessel that was to take his, Utakata's, place was securely wedged onto his back, its head resting motionlessly, cheek flat on the back of Naruto's shoulder. Utakuta could only see half his face from here – half his own face.
And then, just as both Naruto and his load were about to disappeared from view completely, Utakata could have sworn that one pale yellow eye fixed on him.
His body went cold, and his lips parted in shock. The water of the lake's surface rippled gently, and then stilled – the only sign that anything in the least bit strange was transpiring at this scene. That had not been an unknowing being that had made eye contact with him in that moment. No. That was not what made the deep chill coarse up and down his spine as he stared at the body of water before him. No. Rather, the consciences that he had just seen, if he had indeed seen a conscience, had been one of a being he knew all too well.
Almost despite himself Utakata thought back not even a week, to when he had asked the Slug for its power to suppress The Forbidden Jutsu, which would undoubtedly have killed Hotaru's entire village in its blast. …It was true that the Beast had once killed his master. Yet where the blame truly lay in regards to that terrible even Utakata could no longer see as black and white. At other times… the Slug had almost been an uneasy ally. And now he, Utakata, had handed him over to these rouge ninjas….these Akatsuki… all in exchange for the preservation of his own life.
Sitting on that lake, Utakata could not help but feel the taste of betrayal in his mouth.
"Utakata-san," Ino crouched down next to him, flinching him out of his thoughts. "You'd best not look at the lake too much. Remember what Neji said: the genjutsu."
"Yes… of course… the genjutsu." Utakata shook his head a little in a vain attempt to clear it, took in a shaking breath, and proceeded to ease himself back into a reclining position on the sand, his arms tucked behind his head as was his norm. He closed his eyes, and waited.
…
"You came…"
"Did you doubt that we would?"
"…no."
Pain narrowed his eyes. Had they merely returned to him the body of the Jinchuuriki, having had no success in the extraction of its Bijuu? There was a crack, and the cold light of pocket-glow sticks flickered to life out of the water, and into the cave. He watched from the shadows as one by one the same four ninjas, along with a fifth body, stepped out of human sized bubbles that had surfaced at the lake entrance of the hideout. The bubbles in turn shrunk to hover by their sides. It was as though nothing had changed. The scene was identical to that which had played out before him only two days prior. …No. that was not entirely true. He stared at the body, draped as it had been before over the back of the Fox Jinchuuriki. The Bijuu's chakra was still encased in it, but the host's was entirely absent. How was this possible?
Then his eyes settled on the bubbles hovering around the ninjas' heads. Somehow the Slug Jinchuuriki's technique still lived, though this body now housed nothing but the Bijuu. Such a remarkable assembly of facts, it was almost of interest to him – were it not all, eventually, pointless.
"You have brought us the Bijuu, I presume?" Pain asked what he already knew.
The Fox Jinchuuriki shifted the weight of his burden, as though to indicate that yes, they had. "Where do you want him?" he asked quietly.
"Where you found him."
The boy nodded in acknowledgement. Then Kakashi, the Copy Ninja, stirred. "Naruto, perhaps it would be better if I took him this time-"
"The Jinchuuriki took him. The Jinchuuriki brings him back," Pain interrupted.
There was silence. "What guarantee do we have you won't attack Naruto," the man answered with steel in his heart. Brave. And moronic. But still… a question warranted an answer.
"You have the world of Pain. And Pain never breaks an oath. Such is its nature. It never forgets a promise." Silence once again.
Pain saw through the darkness as the boy smiled a reassuring smile at his team captain. He then turned to the Hotaru girl, "Hotaru, you stay h-"
"No." It was the girl who interrupted now. It was the first time that Pain had heard the girl's voice. There was a strength in her carriage that there had not been two days ago. A confidence. A hope. She believed that her master was safe. She believed, though perhaps not in this exact moment, that they were all safe. Foolish little girl. "I began this with you. I end it with you." The boy seemed about to protest, but she simply raised her glow stick a little higher, took a stance by his side, and set out first across the cavern.
Once again, as it had been two days ago, their footsteps could be heard echoing around the cave as they made the journey from one end to another. This time, however, their sandals did not squelch with water, the bubbles that they'd traveled in having kept them dry. This time, their goal had been accomplished, and they moved with all haste to be out of this place: this last place, they believed, where they might still lose their lives.
The girl, the boy, and their baggage, passed between himself and Konan – the two of them standing on opposite sides of the cavern, and watching as the three passed between them. It would be so easy to kill them now. Just to reach out and do it. But no. Pain would no capture the Jinchuuriki until he was back within Konoha. That had been the agreement. The boy and girl passed them, and set down their load. With a gentle thump it hit the ground. Then footsteps once again. The two passed them again. The moment was gone.
They had rejoined their companions. Pain pushed himself off of the wall that he had been leaning against, and stepped forward. It was only a small gesture, and he was no more in the light of their glow sticks than he had been a moment ago. But every single one of them went ridged, and turned on him. They were well trained, the Leaf Ninjas. He'd give them that.
"We're done here," Uzumaki Naruto announced, as though he had no need or desire for Pain's permission to leave this place. As though he was in no way at his mercy.
"All that you have done in the last two days: it has all been for nothing." Silence. "The lives you have risked. The injuries you have endured. The effort that you have put into saving this one life… it is all meaningless. We are the World of the Ninja. Our legacy… is only Pain."
"Yeah, we're done here," the boy said again with more firmness, his back now turned, as though not just on Pain, but on his mantra as well. Arrogant child. How he could see Jiraiya-sensei in him.
"No. Not quite." He took another step.
Kakashi and the other boy jumped forward, blocking him. The Hotaru girl flinched back. The Jinchuuriki…stayed absolutely still. He only turned his head slightly, and fixed a blue eye on where he knew Pain stood. That look. It was truly as though he was staring into the eye of his Master again.
Even though Pain knew full well that he'd killed the old fool over two weeks ago now.
Pain jerked his right arm up in one fluid motion. Kakashi and the other boy pulled their kunai out in the same breath. "Shake hands. To call the bargain done."
The shock that rippled through the cavern was complete.
The boy turned back to look fully at where he knew Pain stood. He stared, at where he knew Pain's eyes would be, but where he could not see. "Sure."
"Naruto," the Copy Ninja cautioned.
"Naruto-san," the girl whispered, gripping onto his arm.
"A deal's a deal. I'll shake hands on it," he said, not looking at either of them.
Jiraiya-sensei would have been proud, Pain could not help thinking with contempt. The boy stepped forward again and clasped Pain's hand. The Jinchuuriki's hand was blistered, and Pain could see that his fingernails were completely splintered and purple with bruising. But his grip was strong.
Pain looked at him for a long moment, holding the silence, and the grip on the Jinchuuriki's hand. "Remember this moment." When you shook hands with the man who killed your Master, and did nothing. Remember it always.
And, just like that, Pain let him go. For now.
…
Naruto was once more by her side. She lifted her hand numbly and touched a finger to one of the soap bubbles drifting around her head. It engulfed her. Hotaru held her breath with each step as she made her way back into the pool at the edge of the cave. Could this be it? Had they truly escaped? Were they truly free? … Was Sir Utakata truly safer?
"…Live…" Her bubble was almost fully submerged when that word, that one deadly word, echoed across the cave to her. With a gasp, she wheeled around to look back into the darkness, and found herself staring only at water. The bubble had been completely engulfed. Around her, everyone was traveling forward. No one seemed to have heard anything. In panic, she followed.
Her ears were filled with the rush of water and silence.
"What was that?!" She cried out as the bubble broke the surface on the beach, and she in turn broke the bubble. "Did anyone else hear that?" They all looked as her in confusion. "He spoke! He called out to me!" she splashed out of the water, and ran for Ino. Hotaru gripped her by the front of her shirt and shook her. "You said he was just meat! You said he was not living! How was he able to call to me as I – we – abandoned him to his fate?!"
"It- it's impossible! You're being crazy!" Ino spluttered, trying to claw the younger girl's hands off of her without hurting her.
"…No. Not impossible," Sakura stared into the ground, some feet away from them. Everyone on the beach turned to look at her.
"Sakura, what do you mean?" Kakashi asked darkly. "You said that this vessel would just be a vegetable. You said that he would –"
"–A shadow," Sakura concluded. She looked up at them, her eyes steely. "He is a shadow."
"…How do you mean?" Utakata asked, exhaustion and fear written across his pale face. His mind coursed back to the gaze that had gripped him in one final farewell.
Sakura took a deep breath. "It was an inexact procedure that we performed last night. How could it not be? No one had ever done it before, and lived. Naruto and I did our best – better, if I may say so. However," she thought for a moment, choosing her words carefully, "however, it is all too likely, when the pressure of the extraction became too much, and we were no longer able to cleanly cut Bijuu from Host… that Naruto took an imprint of a part of Utakata with him when he ripped the Slug from his body."
They all stayed silent on the beach. There was only the sound of the rippling tide among them.
Sakura continued. "It would have been a part of him that was both powerful and fresh in his memory, yet at the same time, the part he would have been most willing to give up.
Hotaru thought for a moment, and then looked to Sir Utakata. "Your last words to me through your genjutsu…"
Sakura nodded. "The part of him that knew he was about to die."
Utakata took a deep breath, looking down into the sand, thinking. "It is not a memory that I have lost."
"No," she answered coolly. "But it is a memory your replacement seemed to have gained, and there is nothing to be done about that." She turned her back on the lake, and faced the forest. "We should go now. We will achieve nothing more by lingering here." With that, she shot off into the trees.
…
From the beach, from the surrounding trees, and from the lake, they all returned back to the wooden cabin that was their headquarters. As the distance between them and the lake grew, with every leap, with every tree branch, there also grew an odd sense of quite accomplishment among them all. They had done it. They had really done it. All wanted to celebrate, but all felt it would be indiscrete to do in the shadow of what was still the Akatsuki's current lair. Many were simply exchanging sheepish smiles, unsure of how to express the sheer adrenalin of a victory going through their veins.
"Pack up camp," Kakashi finally said when they landed. "I want this site clean and ready to evacuate in one hour."
Now all they had to do was face their village. Oh joy.
Hinata joined the other medic-nins in packing the scrolls and supplies they had used the night before. Everyone moved quickly and efficiently, even though each and every one of them had deep bags underneath their eyes. They were all exhausted. Yamato-sensei would be in charge of disassembling both domes. It was a task which Hinata did not envy him. She smiled at the knapsack into which she was folding the excess of bandages. They had done it!
"You did it."
Hinata wheeled around to see her cousin, Neji, standing before her, a small and respectful smile playing across his aristocratic features. "That was truly some notable medical ninjutsu, Lady Hinata. The mission would have been a failure without it, and our lives along with the mission." And upon this Neji inclined a small bow of acknowledgment to his cousin, who was now blushing profusely.
"N-niisan…"
Neji's face was a combination of pride and of mild embarrassment in his own right. He knew Hinata was about to thank him, and that it was entirely unneeded of her. He scanned the field in which they stood with his clan's keen eye, and found a suitable distraction and target.
"-A moment," Neji cut Hinata off, her mouth still open, but his eyes now fixed on a point behind her. The awkward smile he had just been wearing had been whipped clean off his face. "I apologize, Lady Hinata. I must go and take care of a certain matter." With that, and with a rustling of his sleeves, Neji sailed past her with purpose in the direction of, Hinara saw when she turned around, of a very alarmed looking Kiba.
"Lady Hinata?"
Her gaze snapped back. "Lady Hotaru," she said, making a deep bow to the girl before her, who had suffered so much, and been so brave in the face of it. Before Hotaru could begin, Hinata interjected, "I must apologize for the clothing in which we dressed the vessel of Sir Utakata. I could not find anything in the cabin except for the one rag discarded in a corner, and I certainly did not think that it would be Sir Utakata's own kim-"
"No, no!" Hotaru shook her head in alarm. "No. I… I just wanted to express my gratitude to the medical team…"
"Oh," Hinata felt the heat rising to her face again. "I, that is, we, thank you."
The two girls smiled at one another, before Hinata looked about them. Sakura was speaking with Kakashi-sensei, and Naruto-kun with Sir Utakata, who was leaning against a tree. She smiled at Utakata and Naruto. "I am truly happy that we were able to save Sir Utakata. What will you two do now?"
"Go forward with my training, I hope." Hotaru's eyes had followed Hinata's. "Wherever it is that the Leaf ninjas take him, my place is by his side. Though I am the heir of my clan, I do not wish to return to my village until I am a ninja worthy of the Tsuchigumo name." The sound of wood cracked and snapped around them as Yamato set to work on the first of the enormous domes. "Also…" Hotaru seemed lost in thought, "once, I think I was the only one to believe in Sir Utakata. To believe in his worth as a ninja, and as a man …even when he did not even believe himself. I see now why that is. What, in his life, would have made that so. However, though I am honored to have been the first, I do not intend to allow myself to be the last." Her cheeks had pinked, but her eyes remained steady with resolve.
Hinata smiled. "I see," she answered mildly. "As I am the heir to the Hyūga title, I think can understand your desire for self-improvement. You too have the expectations and honor of your ancestors rested upon your shoulders." Naruto-kun was laughing raucously, before devolving into whimpers, clutching at his still bruised body. Sir Utakata was smirking, shaking his head, though clearly in quite a bit of pain as well. Hinata's eyes traveled back to Naruto. "…I envy you," she said quietly, her eyes fixed. "You, who were the first to see the beauty in such a one who never did seem able to see it in himself. You, who know with certainty that you will be bound to one another, forever. It is something which I have only ever dreamed of…"
Hotaru turned her head to look at Hinata, her lips slightly parted in surprise. "…You're in love with Naruto-san."
The wind rustled in the silence between them. Hinata grew cold, and then hot, in so many seconds. To hear that declaration aloud, and in this world, rather than as a whisper at the corner of her own mind… Her palms grew sweaty. Her fingers twitched.
Hotaru placed a hand on her shoulder. Hinata did not flinch. "In this respect," she spoke softly, "it is I who can understand your desire. …You, like me, are an heiress, born and bred for the finer things in life. You, like me, were the first to see the beauty in a man not fine, and not bread. You, like me…" Hotaru's lips tightened, "…knew perhaps too soon that you would do anything for his wellbeing." She and Hinata met eyes. "I wish you all the best of luck." Hinata smiled weakly. Hotaru gave her shoulder a last squeeze. "And thank you, for everything."
Not twenty feet from them, Sakura stood with her arms crossed, shaking her head at Kakashi.
"I'm afraid not, Kakashi-sensei."
"But why ever not?" Kakashi kept his one eye focused on Sakura, willing her to change her answer.
"We cannot take the experiment to Lady Tsunade as a solution to the Bijuu and Jinchuuriki problem, for the simple reason that this extraction could never work again. Please understand, Harusame was a genius of an unprecedented level. However, it only even worked last night because we had Naruto with us. And even so… I doubt we could have pulled it off without Lady Hotaru. It's just too unstable. This," she gestured around her at all the ninjas packing camp, "was a one-time trick."
Kakashi's shoulders slumped a little.
"I'm sorry," Sakura said. She uncrossed her arms and, for the first time that day, Kakashi saw just how much the fatigue was weighing on her. She hadn't had a moment of rest since well before the extraction. Sakura genuinely looked sorry too. After all, thought Kakashi as he watched her eyes scan the field and fix on one specific point, she more than anyone would have welcomed the opportunity for a particular Jinchuuriki to have that which he had never been offered – a choice. Sakura half smiled.
"On another note," Kakashi said, now casting his gaze to a very exhausted and teetering Yamato, who had only just begun disassembling the second dome, with accompaniment of much groaning and protestation. "About the vessel that we gave to the Akatsuki–"
"–We did what we had to do," Sakura cut him off, once again with the full authority of her medical training. "There was nothing more we could do. We did the right thing."
The right thing? Kakashi had learned years ago that there was rarely so clear a distinction in the ninja world. However, as he watched Lady Hotaru approach Utakata, with such a smile as she had now, he acknowledged that, perhaps, this was as close as a man could get.
"Let's regroup," he ordered. The hour was almost up.
…
Packed and ready, with their knapsacks on their backs, everyone assembled in the clearing, now completely devoid of the two domes that had towered their only a short time previously. Naruto straightened his knapsack squarely on his shoulders, wincing a little. He took a deep breath, and set his jaw. Even from here he could sense Sakura's eyes fixed on the back of his head. She was worried. In any other case he would have raised an unholy stink and tried to bully Lee into carrying his share.
However, Sakura was worried.
He made his way through the chatting group, all of whom had already said their goodbyes, and up to Hotaru and Utakata, where he was gently leaning his weight on her shoulder. "So," he said, smirking at the two of them. "Where to now?"
"We're actually waiting to find that out from Kakashi," Utakata said somewhat restlessly. "I know that the information that was used to save me was gotten from my own village, and from Terumii Mei herself. Also, I've been told that the orders you had from your village were to bring me back with you–"
"–Not exactly true, actually…" Kakashi seemed to simply materialize behind Naruto out of thin air.
"GAH! Kakashi-sensei! Don't do that!"
Kakashi didn't pay Naruto any mind, but simply turned the page of the book he was reading. One of the Pervy Sage's, no doubt. "Your mission is to find Utakata of the Hidden Mist and take him back from his kidnapers.' Were those not the Hokage's exact words, Naruto?"
"Uum…yeah. I think so," Naruto muttered out, eloquently as ever.
Kakashi flipped another page. "So, our orders were to save you, Utakata. Not to bring you back to our village." With a snap, he closed the book, and lifted his head to look at them. "And, as you are no longer a Jinchuuriki, and it seems that it would be better if you were assumed dead anyway, I hardly see the necessity in it." Though it was often hard to tell beneath that mask, it seemed as though Kakashi was giving the thunderstruck Hotaru and Utakata a reassuring smile.
"So they can go traveling, the way they wanted to?! That's great! But Kakashi-sensei, is that really going to be alright when you talk to Grandma Tsunade?" Naruto gave him a wide eyed, innocent look of concern. It was almost touching.
"Hahahaha…" Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "I will have to find some way of explaining everything to her, yes." He was really not looking forward to being a 'smooth talker' to another powerful woman in the same week.
"I wonder…" Utakata's eyes were fixed on Kakashi's retreating back. He had a faraway look to him. "Was it truly alright… to give them the Slug so freely?"
"Huh?" Naruto turned to face him, having also watched Kakashi leave.
"Not in relation to me," Utakata continued. "But…" he cast his gaze down to the ground. "After having been bound together for so many years, having lived together, fought together…" his grip tightened on Hotaru's shoulder, "killed together… was it truly right of me, to surrender him like that." Not to die together, he thought.
As though she could read his mind, Hotaru shifted her weight, and Utakata tilted his head, and looked down. His eyes locked with hers. Therein he found the only answer that truly mattered.
This, he thought, a small smile gracing his lips, even as the furrows still remained on his forehead. This is why I am alive now. "We will travel," he said aloud, addressing Naruto, but still looking to Hotaru, reassuring her. "Quietly, we will make our way."
"Together," she said.
The word was so foreign to him. Utakata nodded. "Yes."
Naruto smiled at the two of them, and then turned to look at his teammates. However, the concern that had flitted across Utakata's face stayed fixed in Naruto's mind. Utakata had been concerned for the Bijuu who had shared his body. Naruto's smile faded. He remembered Kakashi mentioning something of the connection between Utakata and the Slug during their first debriefing on this mission. Utakata had felt loyalty. It was a feeling that Naruto could not relate to, even at the furthest stretches of his imagination.
And yet, on some level, he felt that he would like to.
Within him, something stirred, hot and caged.
…
"Why?" It was the first word Konan had uttered in hours.
Pain had summoned the Demonic Statue, and the stone walls of the cavern cracked and shook around them as it rose from the ground. Pain lowered his arms when the task was complete. The sound of pebbles falling from the structure reverberated throughout the cave.
"The boy made light of my dream," he finally said, surveying the colossus before him. The other Akatsuki members would soon arrive, and then the extraction could begin. "And now… he will learn."
He watched as Konan's paper jutsu carried the body that contained the Bijuu into the center of the great stone structure. Humorous. It almost looked like the figure of a boy asleep on a bed of flowers. So peaceful.
"He will learn disillusionment, revenge, and pain. And he will die. Along with the rest of his village." May the boy know, when he learns of Jiraiya's death, that all his efforts to save one life were fruitless. For, even as he risked his existence for the Slug Jinchuuriki, the Toad Sage lay somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
Pain almost wished for the satisfaction of seeing the boy's face when he heard of their Master's fate. Almost, but for the fact that satisfaction, like all other emotions, was only an illusion.
A bubble that had lingered in the cave popped.
…
Naruto and Sakura smiled at Utakata and Hotaru. Everyone else had already said their goodbyes. "If you should ever need us, call," Naruto said, smiling. "Send one of your messenger pigeons, or something."
"You too, Naruto-san," Hotaru smiled back at him. "By then, I should be a somewhat more qualified ninja. My dream is still of restoring the Tsuchigumo Clan to its former glory."
"Well," Sakura said, nodding to Utakata, "it seems that, between the two of you, that dream is in capable hands."
"Tish," Utakata merely smirked down at Hotaru. "I'll make you a ninja yet. And don't expect that I'll be going easy on you."
"I would never!-"
"Naruto! Sakura! Let's move out!" Kakashi had called out, before vaulting into the trees, along with the rest of the Leaf Ninja. The branches shook, and released a shower of leaves.
"Let's go, Naruto." With a last nod to Utakata and Hotaru, Sakura followed suit.
"Yeah," Naruto said, flustered. He had never been good with goodbyes. "Well, see you guys later. There's a bowl post-mission ramen back at Ichiraku Ramen Bar with my name on it! Haha..haha…" He swallowed, and then smiled at them, as they smiled back. "See you later, asshole," he finally threw out at Utakata. "Hotaru." One last time he looked into those now beautiful, excited and happy green eyes. He would never forget this adventure, with the two of them.
With a nod, and a smile, Naruto turned, and followed his fellows into the trees.
Moments passed. The last of the leaves settled to the ground.
Utakata looked down at Hotaru, an eyebrow raised. She, meanwhile was giving him one of those insufferably radiant smiles. "Well," he sighed as though in resignation, "if I must, I must." He gestured out to the greenery before them. "Shall we?"
Hotaru looked about her, at all the many trees, and all the directions they could go, and then she set out, taking Sir Utakata's weight with her. Slowly, steadily, they so began their journey, away from Konoha, away from the Tsuchigumo Village, from Mount Katsuragi, and away from the ominous lake.
Where their journey would take them Hotaru couldn't say. However, at last, she knew that she and Utakata would live and travel as student and master. And perhaps…someday… something more. Only time would tell.
It was the fourth day since Hotaru had found that Sir Utakata was missing, and a little under two weeks since they had first met the ninja's of the Hidden Leaf. Their journeys would take them many different directions. However, they would be friends for the rest of their lives.