Character Thoughts

"Character Dialogue"

_ = Scene Break

Chapter 10 - Uchiha Hitomi

Shooting up with a pained sweat, the young Uchiha was left gasping for air as she attempted to reign in her sense of reality and her emotions. Rubbing her hands in her face, shaking off the fatigue of the nightmare, she rose out of her plain single bed and quickly dressed into her ROOT uniform and left immediately, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

In the next moment, she arrived in a dark, desolate stone hallway. Staggering on her feet she collected herself, holding her head in her hands as through her mask, a single tear fell from her eyes, her eyes hardened and resolved steel'd. Taking a deep breath, she began to traverse the expansive system of hallways until she arrived at a large, expansive room.

The stone around seemed more polished and clean, the air despite this was hollow, barren and suffocating. The source of this, coming from a throne-like wooden chair situated at the end of the room, with its occupant, staring menacingly at her. Glaring at her. Leaning on his cane placed in between his legs, he sat up straight and emanated a cold, deathly aura, the guards at his side not moving a muscle all the while.

Taking a few steps forward into the room, she knelt upon the ground, the man now twenty metres away. Narrowing his eyes at the lone Uchiha, "You know what is expected of you and the consequences of failure today. Are we clear?" He bellowed in a stern, promising tone that, while hidden, caused the young Uchiha to seethe in anger but despite her emotions proclaiming otherwise, she responded firmly in agreement, keeping her head down and avoiding all eye contact with the bandaged, old warmonger.

Seemingly satisfied with this answer, he flicked his wrist and she disappeared, his stone cold demeanour turned to one of sour excitement. Standing up from his throne, leaning on his cane he began to walk out of the room, escorted by his guards, a smirk plastering itself onto his face as they were embraced in the darkness of the labyrinth-like hallways. Leaving a concerned pair of ocean blue eyes to stare off into the darkness.

On the surface, Hitomi emerged, a scowl plastered onto her face and a fiery rage behind her now blood red eyes. Screaming in rage, she punched the nearest tree she could find, slicing it cleanly from its roots and sending it crashing on the ground. Such a commotion was not unnoticed, as a ball of red hair shot out from the foliage, worried and confused.

"Hitomi?" the Uzumaki asked, concerned, as his eyes questioned why she froze at his voice and presence. With her back to him, her face out of view, his worry only built and built until he took a step closer. The sound of the grass crunching underneath his weight echoed around them, as a calm breeze swept through.

One step befell another, until Naruto had been able to reach out to his trusted friend, his arm outstretched, aiming to calmly rest on her shoulder. However, he paused. Hesitating. Noticing the tear drops falling toward the ground, staining the grass. Quicking shifting his gaze, he only now, noticing the jittering of her frame. The position of her left hand at her waist, grasped firmly, shaking in hesitation.

Suddenly, spinning on her heel, her left hand grabbed a kunai and in a single, lightning quick, fluid motion, sliced upward to the face of the Uzumaki, with the kunai missing its mark, but slicing his right eye deeply. Quickly, albeit staggered and disorientated, he jumped away without a moment's hesitation.

The confusion he felt. The pain. The heartbreak. All of those emotions swirled in his mind like a vortex, stabbing at his heart and mind, peering into his eyes in the forms of both normal and bloody tears. Snapping his gaze onto his… His lover. He found everything he was feeling and more, reflecting itself like a mirror in her eyes. The suffering in their hearts was unquantifiable, it only heightened his deepening confusion.

Hesitation, however, is a death sentence in combat. Something that neither were willing to be humiliated to find out, both drawing their tanto and katana respectively, their tear-filled eyes steeling themselves begrudgingly, as they stared each other in the eye. At the drop of a single tear, they dashed and clashed blades, each strike and slice creating sparks and movement akin to a dance, the combatants flowing against one another in an evenly matched bout.

Until Naruto managed to push back against a downward strike, sending the Uchiha a significant distance away, enough for the Uzumaki to weave a single sigh, two fingers of each hand making a cross. "Kage bunshin no jutsu," he announced in a coarse, rough tone, as two clones appeared either side of him. Instantly, the clones rushed forward as the original, flowed through hand seals rapidly.

The Uchiha, landed roughly, rolling as she attempted to gather herself, only to find a volley of water bullets shot at her, requiring her utmost skill and finesse to evade. Without a chance to fully recover, lightning fast strikes of two katana swung at her without remorse or mercy, finding their mark as she made eye contact with the clones.

In the same moment, the clones dispersed resulting in Naruto to be slightly stunned at the genjutsu he had just received two fold. This brief reprieve was enough to allow Hitomi to charge toward the injured Uzumaki, gracefully dodging and parrying every water bullet shot her way, swiftly closing the gap until they were a metre away from each other.

With a slight glance to the ground in front of her, with it cracking and caving in on itself, she continued until golden chains shot out of the ground, to which she jolted to her side at the last moment, retaining her momentum. With her tanto readied, she aimed to finish him, noticing that Naruto's feet were planted firmly onto the ground as a result of his chakra chains.

In disconnecting his chains, he briefly staggered, allowing Hitomi in too close, a tanto flying into his chest.

Tears in her eyes, her eyes morphed, her tomoe swirling in pain as they formed shuriken in her eyes, a trail of blood falling down her cheek. Only to find herself falling forward in a cloud of bloody smoke, her eyes widening in shock as she attempted to spin around only to see the red head knelt on the ground.

She stood up straight, her tanto falling limb at her side, she watched as the man she loved coughed up blood, his hand covering the wound she gave him and the other supporting his weight on his knee. The sight broke her, the stream of bloody tears flowing like a raging river as the mouth quivered in pain.

"Why?" he coughed out, his voice echoing in her mind, repeating itself over and over and over again. The simple question brought further instability and pain to her mind, but he deserved the truth. He didn't deserve to lose this fight, but she held too much to lose.

"It was either your life, or my life and that of my sister's." She whimpered in shame, the guilt driving her to crash upon the ground in a self-loathing pity. The sight caught Naruto's gaze, despite his deteriorating situation, causing the young Uzumaki to shed a lone tear. "She's the only family I have, Naruto. I can't lose her…" she almost muttered to herself, attempting to affirm her decision in her mind as she tried to regain what little composure she still retained in her heart and mind.

"Neither of us can afford to lose." He croaked out, pushing himself up from the ground and standing up gingerly, looking down at the Uchiha's confusion running through her mind, her lips quivering as if trying to speak, but her voice fell silent. With another tear running down Naruto's cheek, "Why did you not kill me when you had the chance?" he asked, the pain in his chest fading but still everpresent. This question, however, froze her in place.

Moments as her breath got more and more taxed, the sound of her rapid, sharp breaths ringing in his ears. Until her eyes locked with his, the pain again like a mirror to his own. "I don't want to kill you," she cried out, Naruto's expression much to her surprise remained the same, only with the addition of a few more tears falling down his cheek.

"Then let us make this quick, Hitomi. Neither of us have a choice." he painfully stated, the anguish in his face being disguised poorly as a few more tears fell. Hitomi, not being able to take this pain any longer, stood up shakily and the two faced off against one another.

"You have been the best thing to happen to me, Naruto-kun," she expressed, the sorrow raw, the pain and rage like an open book, as she readied her tanto with lightning enveloping the blade.

"Same here, Hitomi-chan," Naruto mournfully confessed, his eyes locking on her attempting to rally the last of his resolve to block out his emotions for these next few moments. As he rose his katana to be ready at his side, gusts of wind swirling dangerously around its blade.

On the drop of a leaf, the two lovers charged at one another, their blades clashed in a tide of wind and lightning, sparks of electricity shooting off around as rouge slashes of air cut chunks into the neighbouring trees around them.

Pushing off the other, Naruto's blade swung upward to meet the descending blade of the Uchiha's tanto. Their blades inched closer to one another, their opposing chakra natures shooting against the other until a vibrant flash of red light enveloped the Uzumaki, leaving the Uchiha in complete shock. Only to feel a katana through her chest.

Naruto now appearing above her had driven his blade swiftly through her back, piercing cleaning through her, all the while tears rained from his eyes. Her body began to plummet to the ground until another flash of red light permeated the area as the Uzumaki reappeared below the Uchiha, catching her in her fall and gently resting her body, her head on his arms.

Turning her body, so that they were facing one another, a trail of blood began to run down her body, through the hole left by Naruto's katana. "You completed it?" she coughed out in amazement, her shock now turned to loving pride. Raising her hand to wipe some of the tears from his face, her face sported a pure, loving smile at the mournful, grieving Uzumaki.

"I'm… so proud of you… Naruto-kun," she struggled to express, her strength fading as body could not heal from such an injury, staring into her lover's closed eyes. "I'm sorry… for breaking our promise." she muttered out, her voice fading with each passing moment, her hand slowly falling down his face.

"Please… protect my clan… take my eyes…" she instructed, a smile ever present on her face, the light in her eyes starting to fade, the strength of voice fading even faster. However, with one last bout of will, her mouth quivered. "Live, my love," she managed to squeak out, her body gradually falling more and more limp until it remained lifeless in his arms.

With a gust of wind passing over him, a cloud of dust was kicked up and launched around him, rustling the trees around the outskirts of the clearing and causing some of the leaves to fall to the dirt below. The acrid, iron-rich smell of blood filled the air as it suffocated his lungs, clawing into his heart and mind. Tasteless, was all he could feel in his mouth as it ran dry. Ringing, was all his ears were assaulted with. Numbing, was all he could feel as he froze, staring at the corpse in his arms.

Hovering his hand over her eyes, she slowly and carefully closed them, lifting the veil on his emotions as his heart poured out to the surface like a tsunami, his anger, self-loathing, sadness, bitterness, confusion and numbness rushing all out at once resulting a mess of a boy. Culminating in a loud, powerful explosion of rage, his screams echoing for miles around.

Until they quickly subsided, the flood of tears remained ever-present as he clutched the cold body of the girl he loved desperately in his arms. Wailing out of pain and anguish, Naruto remained blind to the world around him, the landscape scared by his greatest test. My final punishment.

Within the refuge of a cold, dark cage, a pair of red eyes gazed into the weakening chakra emanating from the seal. Feeling the turbulent torrents of water crashing below him, the fox closed his eyes in anger, as a sliver of refined red chakra slipped out of the cage. Feeling the waves of emotion within the space. Feeling the breaking of a child's innocence completely.

He didn't deserve this fate, father.

Feeling a wave of comfort flow through his body, the boy's tears remained, but he regained his senses. "Live, my love." repeated over and over within his mind, motivating him to grab her body and hold it bridal-style, his arms scooping her in a tight embrace as he attempted to get up. Successfully doing so, despite the great pain he felt and overwhelming fatigue that plagued him as he began to walk home attempting to form the chakra needed to teleport home to no avail.

However, all of a sudden, much to his surprise, the chakra needed to use the technique flowed within him and within the blink of an eye he disappeared in a flash of red light. All the while, a conflicted pair of eyes was left staring at the destroyed forest before him. Quickly regaining his composure, however, he too sped away in a pillar of leaves.

Dropping to the floor as he reappeared onto his kitchen floor, the cold body of the Uchiha landing on top of him, he struggled to keep his eyes open, but he needed to get her sealed. To keep her safe, from those who'd wish her further humiliation. Quickly doing so he was left on his kitchen table, alone. Gazing off at the window, where she used to always appear, every morning. He then turned his head to the chair opposite to him, staring at the place she used to sit when they ate, together. Staring then to the scroll in his hand that kept her sealed.

A few more tears fell from his broken blue eyes, as he clutched the scroll with care and affection, setting it down. He took off his bloodied amour and shirt, drew a seal on the right of his chest and sealed the scroll close to his heart. With the beautiful blue chakra beginning to fade, the light from the sun beginning to fade, his mournful blue eyes turned resentful and filled with callus hatred.

"Your attempt at making your perfect weapon is going to bite you, Danzo." He spat out to himself, his hands firmly closed, his knuckles glowing white and some blood dripping from his palm. However, before his anger could take him further, a tsunami of fatigue crashed into him, the adrenaline fading and pain in his eye and gut screaming in his mind. The strength he once had leaving him, his body relaxed and loosen as his head slowed rested itself on the kitchen table.

I live for you, my love. I'll try my best to.

Thanks for reading this chapter, hope you liked it :D

Well, well, well. Umm. Yeah, stuff has happened in my life which brought me away from writing. A lot of it was down to motivation to be quite honest, I wasn't gonna force myself to write cuz then it'd just produce shit but changes in my personal life, for better and worse just never brought me the opportunity to write.

I make no promises to a consistent schedule, because at this point that'd be lying to you guys and I'm just not gonna do that, but I'll try. I cannot begin to thank everyone of you guys who have liked what I've written. Honestly, I think it's iffy at best but just so long as people enjoy it that's enough for me, I guess you are your own worst critic right?

Once again, thank you for reading my stories. I hope I can continue to bring a little entertainment to your lives through this. Cya in the next one you legends.