Hinata of the White Lotus

The Sound Four

Itachi cursed his own foolishness.

He should have known better than to let his emotions get the better of him. No matter what happened, it was imperative for a Ninja to keep a level head. Analyze first and then act.

He knew that, and yet now he was in this situation because he failed to follow his own advice. The moment he heard Sasuke had been taken prisoner by Danzo, he should have thought it was strange. It was too gutsy a move for a man that lived his whole life in the shadow of the village.

Itachi should have realized that Tobi was the one behind this scheme. For all the good knowing might have done him. Tobi had sprung his trap, pulling Itachi and Danzo out from the shadows and into the limelight. At the worst possible timing too, when Itachi was only a step away from victory.

Now he was out in the open, standing over Danzo, who was nothing more than a helpless old man with a missing arm. Even if Itachi's identity wasn't immediately obvious to those around him, there was no way he would be identified as the virtuous one in this situation.

"It's Uchiha Itachi!" A voice from the crowd around them shouted, recognizing him immediately.

"Isn't he dead?" Another called. Things were getting more complicated by the second. He could try and strike Danzo down while he had the chance. No, that would only make things worse. What he needed to do now was flee. Regroup himself and take stock of the situation.

Before the crowd could come to a consensus on what was happening, Itachi utilized the body flicker jutsu to take to the buildings above them.

"Don't let him escape!" Danzo barked out the moment Itachi had vanished from sight. The lights from the city below shone so brightly that he was exposed even atop the roofs. He turned to flee-

Failing to take so much as even another step.

"Dynamic Entry!" Might Gai's foot flew through the space where Itachi's head had just been a second before. Had he reacted even a moment slower and his head would have been knocked clean from his shoulders. That was how powerful even a simple kick was coming from Konoha's Majestic Green Beast.

If Gai was here, that also meant-

"Raikiri!" The sound of a thousand chirping birds reached Itachi's ear a moment later. He raised the Totsuka sword, using the broadside of the blade to deflect the Copy Ninja's only original Jutsu.

"Hatake Kakashi." Itachi greeted, while also cursing himself yet again. He had been the one to recall Kakashi, hoping he would be able to look after Sasuke in his place. Just typical that they would return now, when everything had already gone to hell.

"You seem spry for a dead man." Kakashi already had his headband lifted, Sharingan eye meeting Itachi's gaze without fear. He seemed to be under the misconception that a Sharingan could only be countered by another Sharingan. It wasn't exactly wrong, in theory. However, he wasn't taking into account that Itachi's had already evolved far beyond what the Copy Ninja could use.

"I need you to calm down and listen to me. I'm not your enemy." Itachi said, already using the power of Kotoamatsukami to plant the Genjutsu that would trick Kakashi into complying.

"W-What?" Kakashi's lightning blade slowly began to disappear. He blinked several times, trying to fight off Itachi's genjutsu. It was too late.

"Kakashi!" Gai seemed to realize on an instinctual level what was happening. He jumped towards them again, forcing Itachi to disengage and once again dodge out of the way. As he did, a volley of kunai flew at him from where he intended to land. He swung the Totsuka sword, blocking the incoming projectiles and knocking them to the streets below.

"Did it hit, Neji?" Tenten asked, having been the one to throw the kunai with her eyes closed.

"He blocked them. Your aim was spot on." Neji had his Byakugan activated, using it to see the area around them without looking in Itachi's eyes directly. It would appear Gai had already warned them about the power of the Sharingan.

Even still, these two were incredible for mere Genin. To be able to throw kunai so accurately with your eyes closed required Shuriken technique that rivaled even Itachi's current level. And Neji's ability to accurately describe the ever-changing battlefield to his partner so accurately and concisely for her to utilize that skill… These two had incredible talent.

"Wait, he's not an enemy." Kakashi called for them to stand down, drawing all their gazes .

"What are you saying, Kakashi!?" Gai asked, placing a hand on his rival's shoulder and channeling chakra to break the genjutsu. It wouldn't work. Kotoamatsukami wasn't that kind of illusion. It couldn't be broken so easily.

"Isn't this the one Hinata-sama supposedly killed?" Neji didn't drop his guard despite his superior's command. He had good instincts, Itachi would give him that.

"Hinata and I are allies." Itachi decided to try and gamble. As he talked, he sheathed the Totsuka sword back inside the sake gourd before the time limit expired and his soul got absorbed as well. "You can ask her yourself." If he could just get Neji to look him in the eyes, he could convince him with genjutsu as well.

"Do not give him your ears!" Too bad Danzo had finally managed to pursue him from the streets below and up onto the rooftops. The old man wasn't walking with his own power, despite the fact he was certainly able to. No, he had one of his Root guards carrying him, a pale boy no older than Sasuke was. All part of his fragility act. "Itachi will trap you in a genjutsu the moment you give him a chance. Same as he's put on the Copy Ninja now." Damn it. Two could play in that game, however.

"The one using genjutsu is Danzo." Itachi pointed at the old man, specifically his right eye. "That eye once belonged to Shisui the Flash. Analyze things calmly and you'll know what this means." For Itachi to have the Sharingan was one thing, but Danzo had no good excuse for himself to have one.

"…What is going on here?" Gai didn't know where to look anymore. It seemed like every second longer this conflict continued, the more confusing the whole thing became.

"There is only one thing you need to understand." Danzo nodded to the young man that was holding him up. Sai formed a one-handed seal, extending his index and middle fingers upwards to unleash his jutsu. A blotch of ink flew in the sky, exploding in a dark firework that was almost entirely invisible in the twilight sky.

A moment later and a couple dozen Root Shinobi had them all surrounded.

"Kill Uchiha Itachi… or die along with him."

Hinata fell into pure darkness.

It reminded her of the interstate where she spent time training with Kali. This was the same kind of black, which stretched infinitely into the distance.

There were a couple noticeable differences here. In Kali's interstate, there was the eight trigram symbol etched into the equally black floor, that symbol the only source of light in the entire world. In here, there were numerous floating blocks that sat at varying levels throughout the whole dimension. These blocks appeared to be the source of light for this world- Kamui, as Tobi had called it.

Just why was the dimension he controlled so similar to the place Kali existed? What kind of connection did she and Tobi share? And was that why he had taken an interest in her? The longer this mission went, the more questions that Hinata was starting to have.

The answers to such questions would have to come later. For the moment they jumped into this dimension, Tobi's game had begun. They were in a battle of life and death now.

Hinata fell towards one of the white blocks, there having been no floor on the other side of the gate they stepped through. Before she could reach the nearest block, however, a string seemed to appear out of thin air. Not a string- a web. Hinata flipped at the last second, landing nimbly on the sticky web with her feet. The web pulled taunt and stretched, but it didn't break. It was tough, that much was for sure.

"What the hell is this!?" Naruto and Tayuya hadn't been quite as lucky. Unlike Hinata, they didn't possess the eyesight to see the web until it was too late. Now the two of them were ensnared, just like the enemy intended. Hinata would have been stuck to it too, but she had placed a small layer of chakra between her feet and the web to prevent that.

In response to Naruto's question, was a barrage of golden kunai which appeared to be made of a hardened version of the webs that now trapped them.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted too late. Not that she needed to be worried. The kunai struck their targets, Naruto and Tayuya being shredded to bits, and turning into hunks of wood. In the span between when Hinata had taken her eyes off them, Naruto had created two wood clones and had one transform into Tayuya.

Down below, she saw the real Naruto and Tayuya climb up onto one of the numerous blocks. As they were beginning to climb up, Hinata saw another volley of kunai already coming right at them. This time she was prepared. Jumping down to land on a web between her friends and the kunai, Hinata took a defensive stance.

"Shugohakke: Sixty-four Palms!" Hinata swung her arms, leaving streaks of blue light in her path. The streaks criss-crossed like a net, acting as a barrier that protected against the kunai.

"Hinata!" Naruto called from below, and she knew immediately what his intent was. As her absolute defense deflected the kunai, she was already analyzing the full structure of the room they were in.

The gate they had come from was still wide open. The outside of that gate was covered in red spikes. Hanging at the same height, forming a triangle around the area they now fought in, were the other two gates. Like the first one, these also had the faces of an angry ogre etched into the door. The biggest difference was the frame, one of them covered in blue spikes and the last in green.

"Sasuke-kun is behind the blue gate!" Hinata answered Naruto's unasked question. In the heat of battle, she didn't have enough time to spare any more information than that. The other gate must have been their escape, assuming Tobi had been telling the truth.

"I'm on it!" Naruto sprung for the blue gate, already trusting his back to Hinata. He stretched out his right arm, the wooden appendage elongating more like it was made of rubber. He grabbed a hold of the gate and the arm began to reel him in, sending him flying towards it.

"Leave the other to me!" Tayuya went for the green one. As she ran, she called a warning over her shoulder. "You're up against Kidomaru, the spider fucker!" With that simple explanation completed, she unleashed a golden chakra chain from her torso. Like Naruto had done, she used the chakra chain to swing towards her assigned gate.

Kidomaru didn't have the chance to go after either of them, his kunai barrage that Hinata intercepted only just being completed by the time they had decided their roles.

"You Konoha Shinobi sure are cold bastards." The voice of Kidomaru called out from within the darkness of the Kamui dimension. Wherever he was hanging out, it was outside the range of Hinata's vision. "It would have been better to take me on three-on-one. Not that it would have helped your odds any." He snickered, his confidence heavy in the air. He was completely unlike Hinata, with absolute belief in his ability.

At least, he was completely unlike how she used to be.

"They're trusting me." Hinata responded. It was simple, but full of assurance. In the same way she believed Naruto and Tayuya would accomplish their tasks, they trusted in her to accomplish hers. That was all she needed to know. Because just that was enough for her to believe that failure wasn't an option.

Naruto would save Sasuke.

Tayuya would secure their way out.

And Hinata would protect their backs.

Mitarashi Anko had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time now.

The chance to finally contribute in taking down Orochimaru. While she wouldn't be fighting her old teacher face-to-face today, taking out one of his own personally selected bodyguards was as good a way as any to weaken the walls around him.

"Don't get cocky just because you were also a former student of Orochimaru-sama!" Sakon charged Anko head on, fist swinging right at her. Anko licked her lips, drawing a kunai in either hand.

Instead of aiming to stab him, she simply held the kunai up, just asking him to mutilate his own fists. To her surprise, Sakon's fist didn't slow down for even a second. Just before his fist struck, it was like an optical illusion, two more fists coming out to join the first. Anko's kunai was knocked from her hand. And the fist drilled into her solar plexus.

Anko gave a cough of blood, flying backwards and landing on her back several meters away. Her vision swam, the punch having not just been powerful, but absurdly so. It was like she had been hit simultaneously by three fists at once.

"What was that?" She asked, wiping the blood from her lips as she struggled back to her feet.

"Hahaha!" Sakon laughed, clutching his stomach with one hand and pointing at her with the other. "You mean that traitor bitch didn't tell you about us or our powers?! That's hilarious! And you were so confident that you could beat us too, we thought you must know about our abilities."

"We?" Anko didn't miss his slip of the tongue. No matter how she looked at the situation though, there was only one person present.

"Sakon, shut up and finish it." A second, gruffer voice scolded. Where it came from, Anko couldn't tell, as Sakon's mouth hadn't moved. Yet it definitely came from near him. Almost like there was someone just out of sight.

"Sorry, brother." Sakon continued to chuckle as he once more charged. Anko wouldn't let herself be caught by the same trick twice. Just as they got in range, she dropped a smoke bomb. There was a small explosion, the smoke causing Sakon to cough and flounder.

In the same movement that she had dropped the smoke bomb, Anko had already moved into position with blinding speed. She stood behind Sakon now, kunai coming down to strike him in the spine. She wouldn't kill him. After all, she needed him alive to get more information about Orochimaru.

Her strike never fell. Just as it had been about to, two pairs of hands came out from Sakon's back, grabbing her by the wrist. Those hands squeezed tight, causing her to flinch in pain and drop the kunai. It was then that she saw it. A second face looking back at her.

What she assumed as a growth on Sakon's back, had been a second head. And it was awake, glaring at her.

"Got you now, you bitch!" The gruff voice from earlier had come from this second head. It was the same moment that Anko put everything together that Sakon spun around, his fist backhanding her in the cheek and sending her spinning. She collapsed to the ground, blood oozing from where she had been struck.

"One correction from earlier." Sakon chuckled as he slowly ambled towards Anko, prepared to finish her off nice and slow. "That masked freak referred to us as the Sound Three. However, we're still Four. That's because we're both Sakon and Ukon." He stood over her now, ready to bring down the finishing blow. "You understand that?" He asked.

"Thanks for the info." Anko placed her hand on the ground, the blood from her wound being used to complete the contract "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A summoning circle appeared below Sakon and Ukon too fast for them to react. From the circle was a giant snake's mouth opened wide. A moment later and they were swallowed whole, a snake large enough to eat cattle being brought into their dimension.

Placing a hand on the snake's hide, Anko hoisted herself up to her feet. Sakon and Ukon may not have looked muscular, but their individual blows fell with the strength of at least several people. No doubt a perk of their unique Kekkei Genkai. She would have plenty of time to ask them about such things when she brought them back to Headquarters. The snake let out a loud burp, causing Anko to chuckle.

"You enjoy dinner?" She asked the snake playfully. "Unfortunately, I'm gonna need you to cough it up later. Sorry, but I'll prepare a proper sacrifice next time. That sound good?" Even though she hated her former teacher, she didn't hate the snakes she came to bond with through the summoning contract he taught her.

So when the giant snake exploded into hundreds of hunks, it felt like a part of her own soul had been ripped out too. Anko thought that maybe she screamed for the snake, but it was impossible to tell. She could no longer hear her own voice, the force of the explosion having temporarily robbed her of her hearing.

Snake flesh and guts covered her entire body, hitting her with enough force to have sent her sprawling for the third time since the fight began. As she pushed herself back up, she was forced to wipe the blood of the snake from her eyes, her vision still partially obscured.

It looked to her like Sakon was covered in red, but not just because he too was covered in snake guts either. No, this was the stage two awakening of his curse seal. He looked absolutely demonic now, one horn growing out the side of his head. Half of his body was covered in some kind of scaly armor. His very appearance struck terror into Anko's heart and caused her to lock up.

"Surprise." Ukon deadpanned, the voice coming from right next to her ear. If it hadn't been that close, she wouldn't have been able to hear it, with her hearing still stunted as it was. She slowly turned her head to see Ukon's growing out of her shoulder.

When did he have time to do that? The only timing she could see was the moment they broke free from the snake, using the explosion to hide the fact that they had separated. Not that it mattered. Now that Ukon had invaded her body, the fight was decided.

"You never did learn to use the Stage Two transformation, did you?" Ukon chuckled at her, but it wasn't from a place of contempt. No, it almost sounded like he pitied her. "You, who were once Orochimaru-sama's original prodigy. Had you accepted his gift, it's entirely possible that you would have been by his side instead of us. Now you're going to die, instead. A failure."

"What makes you so sure of that?" Anko asked, just trying to keep him talking as long as she could. It was the only thing she could do now. Fortunately for her, these two brothers really loved to talk.

"Now that I've merged with your body, I can do whatever I want." Ukon gloated, clearly enjoying what he imagined doing to her. "Your body will begin to degrade little by little as I destroy your very cellular makeup. I'm like a poison in your-" Before he could finish talking, he gave a cough of blood. "W-what!?"

"Speaking of poison." It was Anko's turn to chuckle. "I've been taking it since Orochimaru first started training me in order to build up a tolerance to it. The amount of poison circulating through my system now is probably about twenty times the lethal dosage. And since your technique allows you to fuse with me at a molecular level, that same poison is now running through you too."

"You bitch-" Ukon couldn't say more than that, coughing more blood until it dribbled out of his mouth like a waterfall.

"It's my turn to make a correction now." Anko grinned at him. "That 'traitorous bitch' told me all about your abilities." In other words, she had been waiting for this opportunity the whole fight. By pretending she didn't know what they could do, she knew she would be able to trick one of them into jumping into her body. "Sorry bud, you guys aren't as smart as you think you are."

"S-Sakon!" Ukon called for his younger brother, his body disentangling itself from Anko's molecular structure. He didn't get so much as a single step, face planting on the ground as the poison continued to eat at him.

"Brother!" Sakon made to run for him. If they could just merge together, they might be able to take on the poison together as it would also activate their enhanced healing capabilities. In his haste to save his brother, he briefly forgot about Anko. It was only for a second, but in a battle against Shinobi, that was all it took.

"Striking Shadow Snake!" Anko held out her hand, two snakes coming out from beneath the long sleeve of her trench coat. The snakes bit into Sakon, spreading a numbing poison that immediately froze Sakon in his tracks.

With that, the battle was hers.

Now then, she would love to go and help the rest of the team she led into this mess. Unfortunately, she had taken more damage in the battle than she expected. It was going to take her a couple minutes to catch her breath.

She just hoped those kids could hold out that long.

Tayuya pushed open the gate, prepared for whatever it was that laid beyond it.

Although she already had a pretty good idea of who, what she hadn't expected to find was the forest just outside of Konoha. She could see the village in the distance, the faces of the four Hokage etched into the mountain still visible in the light of the setting sun.

"Son of a bitch, so he wasn't lying…" Tayuya didn't understand why. What did Tobi get from telling them the truth and giving them a way out? Was he actually just playing a game with them all? But for what purpose? No, never mind all that for now. The why could come after they cleared his stupid game. And this way certainly beat backtracking all the way up through Root's territory.

"Not everyone is as deceitful as you." Just as Tayuya suspected, the last of her former teammates approached her. Jirobo had already entered into the stage two transformation of his curse seal. Which meant he was plenty pissed and intended to beat her into an unrecognizable pulp. To which she would say the feeling was mutual.

"Sup, you fat fuck?" She asked him as if greeting an old friend. "It just me or you get even fatter since I last saw ya? My betrayal must really be eating you up if you've been binging even more than normal. I didn't even think that was possible, by the way."

"Shut your mouth, you traitorous bitch!" Jirobo roared at her, taking the bait even easier than she expected. Now she just had to try not to get taken out in a single blow. In his stage two form, a single strike from Jirobo would actually be enough to kill her.

He bent down, grabbing at the very earth itself. Then with a mighty heave, he pulled a hunk of it free. A boulder ten times bigger than they were was hefted over his head and despite the fact it should have been impossible to throw such a thing, he did it like it hadn't weighed so much as a gram.

"Show off," Tayuya cracked her neck. Despite the giant boulder flying right at her, she didn't turn tail and run. No, she faced the boulder head on. In the battle against Kimimaro, she hadn't fully assimilated to the three Doki after only just absorbing them. Now their strength was at her complete disposal.

Feeling the power of the three ogres flowing through her, Tayuya cocked a fist behind her. And with a powerful swing, she blasted the boulder into hunks of harmless pebbles that rained down around her.

"W-Wha…?" Jirobo could only stand there and gape at her display of strength. Among the Sound Four, physical power had always been his thing. In fact, it was about the only thing he had been good for. Now she had gone and taken that from him too, as if to add salt into the wound of her betrayal.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this." Tayuya began to stalk forward. "Of all the Sound Four, you were always the one that pissed me off the most. For that, I'm gonna beat your fatass into the ground." She began to pick up pace until she was charging right at him. As she came to the hole he created when picking up the boulder, she jumped.

"That's my line!" Jirobo shouted back. He didn't move from his spot, swinging an open palm forward to meet Tayuya's fist head on. Their blows met with the sound of a thunderclap. The forest around them rustled like a storm blowing through it. Birds for miles in every direction took to the sky.

Neither of them noticed.

Jirobo swung with his other fist. Tayuya dodged out of the way, his punch splitting the earth she had just been standing on. She slipped behind him, wrapping her arms around him as much as she could. Then with no small amount of effort, she hefted him up and bent backwards, catching him in a suplex. Jirobo's head disappeared into the ground, the rest of his limbs flailing wildly.

Tayuya couldn't put enough distance between them in time, one of Jirobo's flailing elbows catching her in the side. Despite it not being a direct blow, she was blown backwards, flying into a nearby tree. The trunk of the tree split in two, collapsing as she struggled back to her feet. In that same amount of time, Jirobo managed to pull his head back free. He glared at her, baring razor sharp teeth. However, he didn't charge right away.

"Why don't you use your curse seal?" He asked her. "Even now, do you continue to look down on me?" It wasn't his fault he didn't know. Despite that, Tayuya couldn't help but laugh at him, throwing her head back as if what he said was hilarious. And yet he still waited patiently for her answer.

"I don't have it anymore, dumbass." Tayuya reached up, rubbing the spot where the mark had once been. Sometimes she still felt the phantom pains of the mark. But it was certainly gone, along with her connection to Orochimaru. "I'm not stupid enough to keep something that snake bastard put on me."

"Yet you are stupid enough to think you can defeat me without it." Jirobo charged her. Even the way he pushed off the earth caused shockwaves and despite his size he was fast. Too fast for Tayuya to dodge his blow entirely. And even being grazed by one of his powerful blows was enough to decide the battle.

It was as if gravity itself had multiplied a hundred-fold. Tayuya's body crumpled and she collapsed into the ground, the force at which her body hit it creating a small crater. Jirobo leered over her, looking almost disappointed at how easily she folded.

"You are a disgrace to the Sound Four." He spat at her. Not able to bear to look at her any longer, he turned and began to walk away. "Now lay there and die in agony." He knew the fight was already over. That blow had almost certainly shattered her internal organs. Even if she did manage to crawl out of the crater, she wouldn't live more than a couple minutes. And she most certainly wouldn't be fighting any further.

It was exactly as he thought, Tayuya no longer able to move any of her limbs. Which was just perfect. It was true, she didn't have the curse mark anymore, but one side effect from having once held it still remained. In order to control this side-effect, she had asked Hinata for advice. This would be her first time actually using it in combat, however.

Natural energy began to flow into her. The curse seals were created by weaponizing an impurity. In other words, corrupted natural energy. So this meant the cursed transformations were simply a form of Sage Mode. And since Tayuya already knew the feeling of sage mode, it was second nature for her to absorb and meld the proper amount of natural energy. With natural energy now flowing through her, the power of her Doki's exceptional healing was pushed to the max, fixing even broken bones and crushed organs in a matter of seconds.

"Oi, fatass." Tayuya crawled out from the crater. Jirobo spun around, his face rearranging itself into disbelief. When using the curse seal transformation, Tayuya's skin would darken, her hair would change to a shade of pink, and she would grow a crown of horns. Now she had the horns, but none of the other features of the cursed mark transformation. This was her Sage Mode. "I'm not done with you." She said, reaching into her pouch to pull out her old flute.

"You don't know when to quit!" Jirobo roared, once again crossing the distance between them faster than one could blink. Even if Tayuya couldn't see him coming, she could sense him now. Relying not on the power of sight, she dodged out of the way by reading the warnings of nature itself.

Jirobo's palm met empty air. And Tayuya's counter-strike hit without him ever realizing it. She buried the tip of the flute into his ear canal, striking directly into his brain. He died in an instant, body going slack and tumbling into the crater she just crawled out of.

A moment later and the crown of horns shrunk back into her head, signaling she had already lost the boons of Sage Mode. While it was true she could enter it easily enough, she still didn't have the knack for melding the large amounts of natural energy needed to maintain the form for more than several seconds.

For now, it had been enough.

She just worried it wouldn't be for the battles still to come.