AN: Jeez Louis, fifty chapters, that's way too many. Today we have a midday Christmas Eve update since I'll be busy tomorrow, and a "This Chapter Has Some Disturbing Content" warning as well. Hope you enjoy the chapter: I'm sending you all some holiday cheer.
Obito-Sensei Chapter 48
The Spark
A dreadful mistake was surely made in creating such dastardly tools as the devices my shinobi discovered within Fukami City. Indeed, if such a plan was not hatched from some wretched vagrant-filled pit, I would suppose Lightning's air is even thinner than I had known. That these discontent elements believed a direct attack on the Land of Fire's currency was necessary will be taken as a mark of pride and faith in our Ryo, for only the most towering of institutions will draw the eye of something with its belly pressed so firmly to the ground. However, it behooves me to speak the obvious in the face of such a craven maneuver, to educate the world at large of the realities that such designs polish to a mirror sheen.
Unchecked ambition leads only to self destruction...
###
In the dead of the night, eleven shinobi crept through the moonlit dark, all readying themselves in their own way for what they believed was coming.
Sasuke led the group from the front, marveling at how loud and bright Fukami City still was even at midnight. He felt alert and alive, just like the city, and he wondered if that was because he was at the head of a spectacular shinobi team. Maybe that was a little conceited, but with ten other shinobi at his back, nothing seemed impossible.
"It's nearly time," Haku said. The boy checked the enormous case he'd procured somewhere, taller than himself. The Kubikiribocho was nestled safely inside amidst the soft lining of the case, like it was an instrument for music instead of killing. "Sasuke, will you be coming with us?"
"Yes," Sasuke said. It was simply a perfunctory check: the arrangement of shinobi had already been haggled over extensively, and he was confident in the composition of both teams. "Sakura, you're in charge while I'm gone, alright?"
Sakura nodded. She was the only reasonable pick, Sasuke thought. Naruto and Suigetsu were too impulsive, Karin not enough, and Zabuza had refused to not be present for the black market sale. Zabuza's stubbornness left things more split than he'd like, but he trusted Kurenai and her team. There was simply no escaping compromise on a night like this.
The shinobi began to split up, divisions drawn in the murky street as they traveled north towards the docks. Sasuke, Zabuza, Haku, and Karin went right: Sakura, Naruto, Suigetsu, Kurenai, Shikamaru, Ino, and Hinata went left. With the team's split in Leaf's favor, it was a true alliance now. However, Sasuke liked the composition for more pragmatic than symbolic reasons: it left each team with a sensor, a medic, and someone who could identify counterfeit currency, though each had a member who was pulling double duty.
"These radios aren't very good," Kurenai noted, tapping at the earpiece hidden by her black hair. She was right; they'd picked them up at a local vendor after determining they would follow both leads, but they were closer to children's toys than the equipment of professional shinobi. "Contact will probably be sporadic."
"We can find each other," Sasuke said. There were four headsets in total, split between him, Kurenai, Sakura, and Zabuza. "It'll be good enough." He raised his hand, bringing both teams attention, and grinned. His Sharingan spiralled out, lighting up the dark. "Good luck, everyone."
Two teams of shinobi vanished into the dark, each heading towards the sea.
###
Moving through the streets of Fukami City, Hinata wondered if things would be finished by the end of the night. She wouldn't mind if that was the case: it would be impressive to finish a mission like this in less than a week, And yet, the idea brought a bit of melancholy with it.
The sooner the mission was finished, the sooner Team Seven and Sasuke would be going back to Amegakure. Hinata didn't want that. Seeing them again, here, happy and healthy and strong, had only reopened the wound. It was more obvious than ever that Team Seven didn't belong in Rain, no matter what they said about it. The friendship had reignited too fast for that: they were still shinobi of Konoha below the surface.
And that applied to Sasuke more than anyone else. He commanded others with such surety and fortitude that Hinata was sure he'd been born to it; it only made her admiration deeper. She wanted more time to talk with him, not another abrupt departure.
"Hinata," her sensei said, and Hinata sighed, returning her attention to reality. They didn't have the power to stop Team Seven from leaving, so thinking about it was pointless. Though depending on how things went tonight…
"Near the docks, sensei?" she asked, and Kurenai nodded. The moon was so huge and bright that Hinata could see through the dark like it was day. It was full, dominating the sky, and a faint red. A harvest moon…
A pink moon. That's what it was called. Hinata had finally remembered it.
"Time to find him, I'd say," Kurenai said. Hinata was forced to agree: the streets were growing wider and wider, great stretches of concrete opening up as they approached the sea. Even though the Great Channel Bridge had reinvented the city and country, the docks were still a fundamental part of the economy. Even at midnight they weren't totally dead: the odd worker was still unpacking crates filled with goods, and there was a loud group of teenagers chattering and throwing bits of debris into the sea.
"Just a moment," she said before raising her hands and activating her Byakugan. The world expanded, the docks made clear, and what little darkness that remained was stripped away. Sasuke and his team were heading east: Warehouse Four was on the other side of the bridge. There were two people waiting there, Hinata saw: an older man, presumably Haku's buyer, and a shinobi. The man wore a mask with no markings, but beneath it he had pale skin and teal hair. He was atop the warehouse watching Soichiro, who had set up a folding chair and table before the building. Hinata tapped her sensei's shoulder.
"I believe the buyer is there," she said, focusing on the shinobi. It was strange: even under the Byakugan he shimmered and wavered, as though he were made of mist. The effect extended out from him, a visual distortion. Hinata had never seen anything like it before. "He is accompanied by a shinobi: a rogue, I think. He's… strange. Indistinct."
"Hired security, most likely," Kurenai muttered. They stopped, waiting for Hinata's direction. "Does he have the money with him?"
Hinata focused. The man had a briefcase with him, stuffed with bills. They were Land of Fire script for sure, but the first couple she saw were real: scanning the entire case would take her some time.
"He does. I can't tell if they're counterfeit," she said. Kurenai shrugged.
"Did you hear that, Sasuke?" she muttered into her radio, and there was a burst of static in response. It resolved into a single world.
"Affirmative."
"He'll take care of it," Kurenai said, thumbing her radio off. "What about Darui? Can you see him?"
"I did," Hinata said, drawing her attention away from Sasuke and back to the west. The man was waiting not five hundred meters away from them, sitting atop a building with his legs crossed and his hands together, fingers laced. Chakra pulsed around him: it was clearly a dedicated sensor jutsu, though obviously one that required more concentration. "He's waiting for us, fifteen hundred feet in that direction," she said, pointing. "Probably to see if we decided to come. He's alone."
"I'll approach him," Kurenai said, looking at the rest of the team, even Sakura and Naruto. They both nodded.
"He met you and Sasuke first," Sakura said as they set off, navigating the darkened alleys. She was wearing her flak jacket, the pale coloring of Amegakure blending well with the darkness. "Since he's not here, you're the logical option."
"He's a powerful shinobi," Kurenai warned. "If this is an attempt to draw us out, you all have to be ready." She grimaced in good humor. "If I'm unlucky, he could kill me before we have a chance to retaliate. If that happens, make sure to avenge me."
"That's not happening," Ino declared. "If he tries anything, we'll nail him."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "There's no chance. Plus, he's just waiting there, right? If it was a trap, he woulda brought friends."
"Maybe," Kurenai said. "Let's hope."
It was not necessarily true, Hinata thought as they climbed a building in total silence and began navigating the skyline towards Darui. There were shinobi who could fight all of them at once confidently. There was even another in the city, right now. If he really was the right hand of the Raikage, Darui could be just that extraordinary. At one hundred meters, the shinobi opened his eyes, turning towards them with a dour expression. That must have been the limit of his jutsu.
Kurenai went ahead, leaping from one roof to another and confidently approaching the man. He stood to meet her, and she drew up short slightly farther away than was polite.
"Darui of the Hidden Cloud," Hinata's sensei said, nodding at the man. The Hyuuga held her breath as Darui nodded back. The others were all spreading out, getting clean lines of fire; their chakra was rushing, Ino's in particular, building up in her skull and arms and forming a vicious vector. She was determined to strike Darui with a Mind Switch if he tried anything, Hinata was sure.
"Sorry," Darui responded. "I don't know your name." He stepped forward, extending his hand. Hinata had reduced her world to the man alone, looking for anything that could betray his intention. Darui's chakra was still, his muscles relaxed. He was focused, but held no malice.
Kurenai took his hand. "Kurenai Yuhi," she said. There was a single firm shake, and then they both released, cautiously backing away. Hinata breathed out.
"It's okay," she muttered half to herself, glancing over at Sakura. The girl's hand remained on her sword. "I think it's okay."
"It'll be okay when it's over," Sakura said. Her chakra was tight and cold, so controlled that it took Hinata's breath away. Sakura's whole body was like a spring that could leap out and cut down a building. Over on the other building, Darui turned away without another word.
He started moving, slowly at first but then starting to pick up speed, and the other shinobi followed. Kurenai called out, slowing slightly and waiting for her team to catch up.
"Where are you taking us?" she asked, and Darui paused, looking back. His face twisted into a frown.
"I don't want to talk," he said. "The more talking I do, the worse this could go."
"We're not going to follow you without question," Kurenai said, a grin tugging at her lips. "You're still a shinobi of the Hidden Cloud, after all."
The man sighed, turning around as the other ninja came up alongside Kurenai, Hinata included. "Nosy…" he muttered, and Hinata frowned. He'd been the one to approach them, after all. "I'll put it in a nice way. The Land of Lightning had something here. They lost it. I came to get it back." His eyes were hard and darker than the night. "I don't want to get it back. Understand?"
He didn't wait for confirmation, just started moving again. Hinata and her team were forced to move or be left behind. They raced across the roofs, and Hinata looked to Sakura at her side.
"It sounds like Lightning had an operation here," she muttered. Sakura nodded. "But not the Hidden Cloud. He doesn't seem happy with it."
"Cloud has been stockpiling materials for war for a long time," Sakura mused. Shikamaru was drawing up behind them, hands stuffed in his pockets. "Everyone's always talking about that. But I doubt they want a war. If the Land of Lightning was doing something like producing counterfeit currency that targeted the Land of Fire… maybe that's causing a conflict?" A sneer flashed across her face. "The Daimyo could be trying to leverage his village."
"I doubt the Daimyo would be that stupid," Shikamaru spoke up, and Sakura looked back at him. Her chakra hadn't receded, Hinata thought. It was still sharp and ready for a fight, just like her.
"The Daimyo could be plenty stupid," she said with a bit of bite. "It's to their advantage for the villages to fight; it keeps them focused on each other, and makes the government plenty of money for missions besides." It was another Sakura talking for a second, Hinata thought, one that had completely internalized Rain's ideology. But a second later, the more familiar one was back. "Or maybe they really just thought the operation would never be discovered."
"He said it was 'lost,'" Shikamaru said, and Hinata nodded. Darui was drawing farther away, but his direction was becoming more obvious; a series of warehouses on the docks. The strain of the Byakugan was beginning to sting a little, but Hinata began migrating her focus over to the warehouses, away from herself, her team, and Sasuke. "But the counterfeit currency has still been going out, and recently."
He shrugged, hands still in his pockets. "So maybe the operation was subverted by people who want it to appear that Lightning is antagonizing Fire. Or someone with a grudge against the government, or the Hidden Leaf. There's too many factors to speculate about now." A slight grin. "Plus, he could just be lying. Maybe there are more lying in wait." He gave Hinata a meaningful look and she cast her gaze ahead, trying to figure out Darui's final destination.
"There are no shinobi where he's headed," she said. "Just some…"
She paused. Blinked. Hinata resisted the urge to rub her eyes, and looked again.
"... buildings…" she muttered. Shikamaru cocked his head. They were less than a minute from the docks, but now Hinata's attention was completely focused on it. Up ahead, Kurenai, Ino, Suigetsu, and Naruto were starting to slow down as Darui leapt off a building and landed on the street.
"Buildings?" Sakura asked. Hinata shook her head. The Byakugan wasn't like a lamp; turning it on and off again wouldn't fix anything, but that was still her initial instinct.
"I can't see inside one of them," she said. Sakura sucked in a breath.
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru was all business now; his playfulness had vanished.
"I can't see inside," Hinata said, struggling to explain. "It's exactly like the others, but the walls, the doors, I can't… focus on them."
This was a Hyuuga clan technique. Hinata's breathing was speeding up, her heart hammering in her chest. It was like a childish seeing eye puzzle, the kind where focusing on it made coherence impossible. The warehouse was set amidst three others just like it, but to her enhanced perception it was so much static. Looking closer only gave her a headache.
It wasn't a technique that could be replicated by accident. Hiding from the Byakugan was possible with the right knowledge or jutsu, but denying it was something else entirely. Chakra had to be channeled through the structures in strict intervals, filling it like water rushing through a broken pane of glass. There was a barrier jutsu involved as well, though Hinata didn't know it. The seal needed to be refreshed frequently, and only someone like her father or another clan head would know it.
Darui had stopped in the street, but he was staring at the warehouse. That was definitely his destination. Hinata rushed ahead, desperate to catch her sensei before she jumped down as well. She just barely managed it, snagging the back of Kurenai's flak jacket.
"Hinata?" Kurenai looked back at her, perplexed. The others stopped as well, and Darui looked back and up at them, obviously curious about the sudden hesitation. After a second, the whole group was together at the edge of the building, the last of several apartment complexes before the city ended and the wide, flat docks began. "What is it?"
"That building," Hinata said, pointing to the warehouse. "I can't see inside it." She breathed out. Focus. Stay in control. Everyone is relying on you. "It's a clan jutsu."
Kurenai's face went flat. "There aren't any rogue Hyuuga," she said, looking down at Darui. The man crossed his arms. "Could it have been-?"
"No," Hinata said. "I don't think so." She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. "What if the Hidden Leaf is involved in some way? My clan? Or what if he's using us to find something from our own village?"
"What, you think?" Naruto said. He scratched the top of his head. "I feel like that'd be a little convoluted…"
"The Hokage would have told us if there was a Hyuuga operation in Fukami City," Kurenai said, sure and full of authority. Some of Hinata's anxiety melted away. Sakura was muttering next to her, speaking into her headset.
"Sasuke says go for it," she said after a second. "And I agree. Maybe someone else has figured out your clan's jutsu, Hinata. And if there are Hyuuga in there…" she shrugged. "You can explain what's going on."
There was a flash in Hinata's vision, and her eyes were drawn to the east. For a second she thought it had just been Sasuke and his group moving, but that wasn't quite right. Something had moved on the skyline, not at the street level. She focused, scanning the world for any flicker of chakra, but couldn't find a thing.
Her stomach was sinking. Something was wrong. Something was deeply wrong. But she couldn't see anything, not inside the building and not on the nearby rooftops. She could speak up right now, tell everyone to wait, to give her a couple minutes to comprehensively scan the surrounding area for threats. What if there was a ninja out there who knew how to hide from the Byakugan? If they were suppressing their chakra, they could be lying in wait, watching and waiting for them to move.
But Hinata was frozen by uncertainty. Ino tapped her shoulder.
"Hinata," she said, and the Hyuuga sucked in a breath. "You're our eyes. You've got it, alright?"
"Does Karin sense anything?" The words burst out of her, embarrassingly high and directed at her sensei. "I thought I saw something. I think there's someone else here."
Kurenai paused, paraphrasing into her headset. There was a pause, but Hinata's ears, straining, could barely hear Sasuke's words on the other side.
"You're surrounded by people, but there's one that might be a shinobi near you," Kurenai repeated softly. "To the north-east. At the roofline. One hundred feet or so."
She'd been right, Hinata thought with a sick thrill. Someone was hiding out there. Maybe one of Darui's allies, waiting to draw them into an ambush. She cast her vision that way, but couldn't see who Karin was talking about. It made sense if they had suppressed their energy to that extent, she thought. They must be a master of concealment; with that in mind, it might even be easier to spot them with normal eyes than her Byakugan, which relied so much on chakra to pick out fine details from a distance.
Maybe her father could find the spy with a simple scan, but he wasn't here, and Hinata couldn't. Her missing finger ached. She felt about as useless as it.
"Okay," Kurenai decided. "Listen." She crouched down, and dropped her voice as well. The other shinobi followed suit. "I'll go with Darui, into the building." She glanced back. "We'll see what's inside. The rest of you, stay on the roof and spread out. Hinata, keep an eye out for the other ninja. I'll stay in contact with you, Sakura," she said, making eye contact with the pink-haired girl, "and you stay right at Hinata's side."
Sakura nodded with a serious look, taking the order without protest. Kurenai stood back up. "I don't care who it is over there: if they move, bring them down. If it is Darui's ally, that'll be his fault for not mentioning them." She grinned. "Good luck."
Then Hinata's sensei stepped back, plummeting off the building and landing without a sound down below. Darui glanced at her.
"Everything alright?" he asked, and Kurenai nodded. Hinata watched the conversation and the rooftop with equal anxiety as they spread out.
"Just deciding who should go in with you. It'll be me alone," she said. Darui shrugged.
"There are guards inside," he said, moving towards a door on the side of the building. "I don't know how many. They're guarding something valuable, so I doubt they'll want to talk."
"Don't worry," Kurenai said with a smile. "I'm very persuasive."
They both set up by the same door, and Darui's chakra began leaking out. It was the first time Hinata had truly seen it. She knew Karin had described the man as 'sticky,' but it went beyond that. His chakra was thick and dark and viscous, and it moved throughout his body like globs of oil in water. She wondered what kind of technique could cause that.
Everyone else was spreading out across the rooftop, Hinata moving unconsciously with Sakura at her side. They found a comfortable place next to a huge air conditioning unit and squatted down, Hinata watching her sensei intensely. Shikamaru was on the building's southern edge, Naruto on the east. Suigetsu was on the north, staring out at the darkness of the night and apparently daring it to try something.
Ino was with Shikamaru, apparently arguing about something. After a moment, Ino jumped down, off the building, and settled in the street. She watched the warehouse from there as Darui and Kurenai prepared their breach.
"Hey," Sakura said, placing her hand on the back of Hinata's. Hinata looked down at it, marveling at the perfectly painted green nails, and then up at Sakura. It felt like it was just the two of them in the dark. "Your sensei's got it. I'm sure it will be fine."
Down below, Darui unsheathed his sword and kicked the door down in the same motion. He swept inside, Kurenai following after him and already running through hand-seals. They vanished from Hinata's sight as soon as they passed the door's threshold, becoming part of the static.
There was shouting, a thud, both from the warehouse and from the headset that Sakura was wearing. The girl raised one hand, pressing the piece into her ear and concentrating. Another twenty seconds of chaos, and there was a sudden silence.
"Building is clear," Kurenai's voice suddenly came through. "Sakura, still nothing?"
Hinata shook her head before Sakura could ask, and the girl grinned. "Nothing out here. No one's moving."
She wanted to be watching Sasuke right now, but she couldn't afford to split her focus. All of Hinata's attention was irrevocably directed to the north and east, searching for the same flicker she'd caught last time. Her vision swept over the rooftops like someone picking up and turning over one stone after another, but she couldn't find anyone.
"What's it look like in there, Kurenai?" Sakura asked, and Hinata couldn't help but eavesdrop.
"It's full of machines. Printers, other things. Money too. It's all the Land of Fire's…" There was a rustling sound, a murmur that Hinata couldn't make out. Darui's voice, she thought. It was low and slow. "I can't tell myself, but I feel like this might be the main production center." Another pause, a click. Something mechanical whirred. "Sasuke, you read? I think we've got it."
"I read." Sasuke's voice, after a moment. "We just made contact with the buyer, but it sounds like it'll be a waste. We're coming." Another click, maybe a laugh. "Thank Darui for me, will you?"
"Will do." As Kurenai signed off, Sakura turned to Hinata with a smile, dropping her hand from her ear.
"See?" she said. Hinata offered a weak smile back. She was still searching, still finding nothing. There were only a couple rooftops left. "Everything's-."
As Sakura was starting to say "alright," Hinata experienced the longest half-second of her life.
It was a short time that unfolded moment by moment, each eternally burned into Hinata's mind.
The first was the warehouse below exploding.
The entire building went up in the blast, and only in hindsight would Hinata understand that its walls must have been filled with explosive tags. They were hidden from supernatural senses like her own by the jutsu and from plain sight by the walls themselves. It was a controlled demolition that sent debris flying across the city and collapsed the roof inward, crushing anyone and anything that was inside. The obscuring jutsu vanished at the same time as the blast went off, which meant Hinata could watch with perfect clarity as several tons of rubble nearly crushed her sensei and Darui to death.
Nearly, because while Kurenai was driven down by the blast, her entire body rattling, Darui breathed out an equally ferocious detonation of lightning so black it made the night look bright and vaporized all of the debris above them, like he was a dragon instead of a man. It only saved them from certain death: the shockwave, fire, and shrapnel still washed over both the older shinobi with irresistible force, cutting them in dozens of places left unprotected by their jackets. It slammed them to the ground and broke bones.
There were others in the building, eight men and two women. Some were unconscious, and some were standing in a haze, snared by Kurenai's genjutsu. None were shinobi, only mercenaries and workers. The blast blew them all to pieces and splattered their blood and flesh across the docks, and the rubble crushed what was left.
Rubble went everywhere, slamming into the surrounding buildings with hollow thuds and loud blasts. On the roof, Hinata and her friends were shielded, but Ino was on the street, and she took a brick to the chest which slammed her back into the building, denting the concrete. She wheezed and dropped, eyes fluttering. There wasn't just rubble but money as well, hundreds of thousands of bills fluttering down across the docks in a paper rain.
The shockwave kept going, shattering hundreds of windows across the docks and echoing out over the water and throughout the city, and Hinata instantly understood that every single shinobi in town would immediately know their location. She didn't have time to really think about that because at the same time the explosion went off someone stood up on a rooftop at the very edge of the apartment block two hundred feet away, chakra flooding their whole body.
They shone like a beacon to the Byakugan, and Hinata started to turn, to ready herself. She couldn't be ready for what she saw.
It was a woman, a tall one, dressed in a simple white t-shirt and black pants and holding a tremendous greatbow in her left hand. She was obviously a shinobi, muscular and focused, but was plain but for three features.
A black manji burned into her forehead.
A throat marred by a deep scar, so deep that Hinata wasn't sure how she could be alive.
A Byakugan, pale blank eyes staring out without a single thing in them. That frightened Hinata more than anything, more than even the explosion.
Other shinobi would sometimes say it was difficult or even impossible to read expressions in the Byakugan, that you had to rely on the rest of a Hyuuga's face. Eyes by themselves couldn't carry emotions, of course, but Hinata couldn't agree nonetheless. Her family's eyes were just as expressive as any other; it only took some time to get used to them.
But in this woman's eyes, she couldn't see a single thing. No pain, no hatred, no anticipation. She may as well have had flawless white marbles in her head.
But as she stood up from her concealed position, the veins pushed out: the woman's chakra burst out of her as her perception expanded. She reached back, pulling one of seven arrows the size of her arm from a quiver slung over her back and nocked it with unbelievable speed. She had it ready to fire before Hinata could finish taking in her first shocked breath, her arm pulling back as enormous muscles rippled with the effort of what must have been a several hundred pound draw weight.
Her eyes flicked from target to target, the visual micro-adjustments that only a Hyuuga would notice, and as Hinata finished taking her breath she realized the woman had settled on her. She tilted, the arrow coming to align with Hinata's chest, and released.
That was near the end of the half second: when the other Hyuuga released the arrow, it covered the distance between herself and Hinata, all two-hundred and eighteen feet of it, in a fraction of a fraction of that second. The sound of the explosion had barely passed them when the arrow was released.
Hinata was frozen. She watched her death come and had no power over it.
'Damn,' she thought, figuring that the time to be polite had long passed. 'I'm dying with regrets?'
'That sucks.'
Sakura stepped forward as Hinata stumbled back on reflex: her back slammed into the air conditioner. She lashed out with the knife Ino had given her at her fourteenth birthday, a blade of ice and water manifesting from the edge and slashing out with a vicious crack.
The rotating blade sliced right through the head of the arrow, splitting it cleanly in two. Sakura couldn't destroy its momentum, so while the broad arrowhead didn't slam into Hinata's heart and kill her instantly, one narrow slice of death went up and the other went down.
The first pierced clean through Hinata's shoulder, pinning her to the air conditioner. The second burst through Sakura's thigh, sending her toppling forward with a furious grunt of pain. Her headset fell off, clattering on the rooftop.
The half second passed, every moment of it eternally burned into Hinata's brain, and she coughed as the impossible rogue Hyuuga paused for a heartbeat and then reached for another arrow.
"ARCHER!" Hinata screamed out at the top of her lungs, and then Shikamaru was moving towards Kurenai, Suigetsu was moving towards the rogue ninja, Naruto was moving towards her, and Sakura and Kurenai and Darui weren't moving at all.
The archer drew another arrow. This time her focus was on Suigetsu, who was charging directly at her. She was incredibly skilled, Hinata thought, unable to quell a faint sense of admiration. Firing at a moving ninja was a losing proposition. It was just too simple for them to change their trajectory, and plenty would be able to predict the path of the arrow.
Which was why she waited until Suigetsu jumped the gap between two buildings to loose her shot.
If Suigetsu had been a normal ninja, the arrow would have struck him in the heart and killed him instantly. Instead, it blew a head-sized hole in Suigetsu's chest and cut his momentum in half. Instead of leaping right into the shinobi's face, he barely landed on the edge of the building before surging forward with a yell.
"Wait!" Hinata shouted, trying to pull herself forward. She was remembering a tense conversation she'd had with Neji shortly after the Chunin Exam regarding the finals, but the memory was driven away by her arm exploding into agony. "She can hurt you!"
Suigetsu didn't slow down, and Hinata let out another yell of frustration. The next second, Naruto was at her side.
"Holy shit," he muttered, looking over her and Sakura before shaking his head. He put his hands together. "Hold still! You're all torn up!" Two clones appeared, and all three Naruto's looked back and forth between Hinata and Sakura, his face a little pale. "Sakura-"
"Get Hinata first!" Sakura snapped from the ground, trying to struggle to her feet. A puddle of blood was steadily forming around her foot. One of the clones rushed to her side. "She needs to be able to focus!"
"I'll get you both!" Naruto snapped back. One of his clones placed one hand on Hinata's arm and another on the arrow shaft. He moved with surety without looking for permission. Sasuke had told them all that Naruto knew some medical ninjutsu, but it was Hinata's first indication that he was a real medic now. The other one was already on Sakura. "Don't move, either of you!"
"Don't talk!" Hinata said, shocked at the force of her voice. She was expanding her vision again, trying to get a handle on the situation, but her arm made focusing impossible. All she could see with clarity was the archer and her sensei, prone and bleeding on the ground. "She's aiming again!" Her eyes went wide.
Five arrows left. Hinata was her target again.
"Naruto!"
Somehow, he understood her meaning. Naruto turned, teeth bared, and thrust both his hands out. A Rasengan formed between his hands like a small blue apple.
The archer released her shot, and Naruto shouted. The Rasengan surged, chakra exploding out of his core, and Hinata watched in shock as the jutsu swelled up to the size of Naruto's torso. The arrow slammed into it and was vaporized by the violently rotating chakra.
Hinata saw the archer blink. Without taking even a second to gloat Naruto turned back to his clone and nodded.
"Sorry!" the clone shouted, and then he yanked Hinata back. She groaned in pain as the arrow jostled in her shoulder, and Naruto made two quick motions, snapping the shaft and yanking it out. It was quick and painful, and it left the entry wound larger than it had been before. Hinata felt a moment of faintness as shock rippled throughout her body before Naruto slammed a hand down on both the entry and exit wound.
Hinata had seen medical jutsu before, the gentle play of chakra convincing the body to mend itself, but she'd never seen anything like this. Naruto's explosive orange chakra burst into her body, knitting together the meat and muscle and twisting back to shape the bone of her shoulder in less than three seconds. He released her and she sagged, letting out a harsh breath. It hurt almost as much as the arrow had, but at the same time her whole body was jittering with energy. She felt more awake than she ever had in her life.
Suigetsu had almost reached the Hyuuga, and she brought the bow down instead of preparing another shot, gripping it in her left hand. Chakra started sparking around her right: it was a sinister greenish-purple color, almost like mold. A leering Lion Face sprung into existence.
That was what finally made Suigetsu slow down, an uncertain look creeping across his face. The Hyuuga turned to run.
Hinata bared her teeth and took a step forward, looking down towards Sakura. Naruto was working slower on her, working more carefully with the arrow and sending his chakra into her. Her femoral artery had only barely escaped being pierced. Sakura whipped her head towards the archer, eyes full of fury.
"Go, before she can reposition!" she shouted. Hinata was already starting to move. "We'll be right behind you!"
"Ino's hurt!" Hinata shouted back. "On the street!" When Naruto nodded, Hinata dropped her head and ran.
Even if the thought made her sick, she was the only one who could stop the rogue Hyuuga.
As Hinata ran, her perception expanded again. Suigetsu was chasing after the archer, who was headed north. He'd thrown a knife at her as she'd leapt off the apartment block to flee towards the water, and she'd caught it right out of the air. It had started to crumble from the force of her chakra. Suigetsu's hesitation had vanished, but he was falling behind. Hinata knew the second the distance increased, the Hyuuga would start firing arrows again.
Hinata's vision kept going, taking everything in. She ran and cataloged at the same time, her mind racing. Sakura was up on her feet now and true to her word was moving towards the rogue Hyuuga as well. Naruto wasn't following: Sakura had told him to get Kurenai and Darui up, and he and his clones had leapt down towards the shattered warehouse. Shikamaru was down there, his shadows writhing around him like an amorphous agitated animal. He was checking the two older shinobi over for injuries, but everything was already plain to Hinata.
Kurenai was out cold, a deep cut across her throat. A piece of shrapnel had nearly severed her windpipe, and the rest of her body was perforated. Her radio had been completely destroyed. Several of her ribs were broken, along with her left leg, but she was still alive. Naruto could definitely save her. Darui was better off: he was missing the tip of one of his ears and had a broken arm, but was still conscious. He watched Shikamaru's shadows with obvious wariness, but made no attempt to move away.
Her sensei had taken the brunt of the blast, though Darui had kept them from being crushed. Hinata didn't know how to feel about that, so she obliterated the thought. With less than a hundred feet to the rogue Hyuuga, her sight swept over the rest of the city.
She realized it was a mistake as her heart faltered, skipped a beat. More knowledge hadn't made her feel better at all.
Sasuke wasn't coming.
Sasuke, who was over two miles away, was currently in a standoff with nearly twenty shinobi of the Hidden Mist, most of which were clones of two ninja, a man and a woman. They all wore face-concealing masks, the mark of Hunter-Ninja. Karin was at his side, and Haku was there as well, in the midst of all the clones with a mildly concerned look on his face. There was a shinobi in front of him hefting the Butcher's Blade, admiring it. The buyer, the old businessman, was watching with a smug smile, starting to yell something. Even if it had been called off at the last second, the weapon sale had clearly gone horribly wrong.
Hinata didn't see Zabuza at first glance, but she didn't have time for a more dedicated look. Even if Sasuke wasn't coming, just about every other ninja in the city was.
Including Gaara of the Desert, both of his siblings, and their sensei. They sped across the skyline of the city, Gaara in the lead. The rest of the team was just trying to keep up with him. His eyes were flat, though he occasionally glanced up at the enormous pink moon and twitched.
No. No no no nononononono.
Everything had gone all wrong all at once, and Hinata knew that unless a miracle occurred it was somehow about to get worse.
Sakura was thirty feet behind her, and the rogue Hyuuga about a hundred and fifty feet ahead. She and Suigetsu were both racing across the docks, heading for the open water. But the woman was starting to change her trajectory, shifting eastward.
The bridge, Hinata realized. It wasn't the highest point around, but it was the easiest way out of the country. She really was making a run for it.
Somehow, Suigetsu was starting to catch up. The Hyuuga's bow was huge and heavy, and it was slowing her down. Several more seconds of running, and he was only thirty feet away from the woman. He leveled both of his hands at her back, index finger pointed.
"Quit running!" he barked, and then there were simultaneous cracks as he fired water from his fingertips at deadly speed.
The Hyuuga reacted before the sound reached her: she dropped to her knees and slid, a thin sheath of chakra depriving her legs of friction. The shots passed over her head, dissipating into mist after another ten feet. Hinata watched the buildup of energy in the Hyuuga's core spiral and swim down her arm as the woman spun back towards them as her slide continued, and shouted out a warning.
"Suigetsu!" she screamed. "Duck!"
Suigetsu didn't listen; he pressed ahead and fired another volley of water bullets. The Hyuuga thrust out her arm, not attempting to dodge, and a Vacuum Palm exploded out of her hand. It tore the air in front of her apart, destroyed the water bullets, and slammed into Suigetsu, who barely had time to look surprised before he burst into a welter of water.
Hinata didn't know if he was still alive or not. No one else would be if they were turned into a puddle spread across the docks, but the puddle was full of Suigetsu's chakra, still surging. She didn't have time to consider it. With her moment of peace, the Hyuuga came up to one knee and brought down her bow, anchoring it to the ground; her momentum instantly vanished. Hinata sped up, knowing what was coming. She was sure that the Hyuuga knew there would only be time for a single shot before she was within range.
This was her final stand.
The rogue ninja drew three arrows at once, leaving her with only one remaining. Hinata bit the inside of her cheek, tasting blood. Sakura was behind her: only a hundred feet separated the two of them and the older Hyuuga, a heartbeat for a ninja.
But the Hyuuga could fire in that heartbeat, and she did: she nocked two arrows at once, her knuckles white from the weight of the draw, and released them. They weren't aimed with precision, but one was certainly set for Hinata and the other for Sakura.
The moment the arrows were released, the shinobi slammed her bow into the ground with a guttural yell and began making hand seals. Everything was clear to Hinata as she ran forward: she didn't know this jutsu, but she understood its purpose nonetheless from the flow of the woman's chakra. She shifted, bleeding some speed to fall in front of Sakura. On a collision course with the arrows, there wasn't time for conscious thought. Hinata was moved by her heart instead of her mind.
Eight hand-seals in the blink of an eye, all before the supersonic arrows had covered more than ten feet. The Hyuuga's chakra surged, and the arrows exploded into smoke. Their trajectory didn't change, but they were joined on their flight by ten, twenty more, a wall of wood and steel. Each had been duplicated ten times over.
It was a tremendous amount of chakra expended for a sure kill from point blank range. Against anyone in the joint Leaf-Rain team, it would have been certain death. As Sakura realized that Hinata had stepped in front of her, her eyes went wide in horror. She flourished her blades, ready to try and strike every arrow out of the air no matter how impossible it was.
Hinata didn't give her the chance. Instead, she let out her own primal yell, and spun.
Hinata had never used the Kaiten in a fight before. It had only ever been at home, training with Neji. She'd swallowed her family's meaningless pride and asked her cousin to help her learn the secret clan jutsu after the Chunin Exam, and he had obliged with a rude glee.
She'd never used the Kaiten in a fight before, but in that moment where her and Sakura's life rested entirely on the technique, Hinata executed it perfectly. Her dark blue chakra flowed out of her tenketsu in a cool stream, sheathing her body and expanding with her momentum. The jutsu wasn't as large or advanced as Neji's, but it didn't need to be. It provided a shield just large enough to deflect the arrows as she and Sakura rushed forward towards their target.
But when Hinata's spin ended her chakra fluttered away like a million blue embers, and she struck out in desperation with a wide, harsh swing as her pounding heart echoed in her head.
The cloned arrows had just been a distraction, after all. Hinata had seen the real attack from the beginning, the one solely meant for her. The third arrow that the Hyuuga had drawn; the one she hadn't fired, but had instead kept clutched in her hand. It had been attached by a piece of ninja wire to one of the arrows she'd fired and cloned, and because of that it had followed roughly the same trajectory when the woman had released it from her palm with another, incredibly subtle Vacuum Palm; hidden in the shadow of the arrow storm, it was headed directly for Hinata's gut. It was different from the others, smaller and covered in something shiny and clear.
Hinata almost got it. The arrow was faster than her, but not impossibly so. Now that she was on guard, deflecting it wasn't out of the question. Her hand made contact with the side, but that only made it clear that there was no way she could knock it away.
So Hinata settled for what she could get. She pushed the arrow to the left as hard as she could. That altered its trajectory just enough that it sliced through her side and left a deep gash instead of punching right through her stomach.
Hinata staggered as hot blood poured down her side but didn't slow down. With less than thirty feet between her and the older Hyuuga, Hinata screamed out a final warning.
She was finally in range.
"Stop!" It was pointless. The Hyuuga was already reaching down for her bow, reaching for her final arrow. She wouldn't stop fighting until she was forced to. Hinata grit her teeth as Sakura charged past her, casting a worried glance at the wound in her side.
"Stop!" she screamed again, and this time she raised her hand in a modified Ram seal. "Please!"
This time, the Hyuuga stopped. Sakura did too, obviously not knowing what to do.
They stared at each other. Sakura had both her sword and her knife unsheathed, and both were covered in blades of water and ice that twitched in anticipation of violence.
"What?" Sakura asked. "Why'd she stop?" Hinata ignored her.
"Please," Hinata said again. Sakura gave her a funny look and stepped back, gaining some distance. The Hyuuga shifted, clearly getting ready but still not attacking. Her eyes were fixed on Hinata, still empty. Hinata couldn't take her gaze off the woman's slit throat. Her head was pounding; her side was burning. There had been something on that arrow, that clear viscous coating, and the woman was waiting for it to take effect.
"I don't want to do this. I don't know how you ended up here, but there's surely something we can work out." Hinata took a step forward, not dropping the seal. "Were you running the counterfeit operation? If the clan did something… there can be another way."
She was shaking. Hinata's whole body was shaking as burning acid raced through it. She'd never felt more pathetic in her life. Her voice cracked.
"Please don't make me use it, okay?"
For the first time, Hinata saw something in the woman's eyes.
It was nothing but hatred.
The Hyuuga's face twisted into a furious sneer, and she very deliberately drew a thumb across the scar marking her neck.
"You're a village of traitors," she hissed, her voice quiet and hoarse, nearly impossible to make out. Her vocal cords had been damaged, and that hateful whisper was all she could manage. Sakura jerked, her blades shifting. "That's all you are."
Then she charged, a Lion Fist screaming in both her hands.
Hinata froze, unable to commit. Her head was pounding. Poison, she'd definitely been poisoned and it was robbing her of the ridiculous clarity she'd had. Sakura stepped forward and swung both her blades in parallel blows, a tremendous scissoring strike that would slice the Hyuuga clean in half. The charging ninja jumped and spun between the swords, avoiding them like it was nothing. She was slower, but not slow enough.
'I can't do it!'
The rogue ninja was practically in Sakura's face and striking out with the Lion Fist before she could redirect her swords. The attack would cave in Sakura's throat and drain her chakra dry to boot. She'd be at the Hyuuga's mercy.
'I made a promise to myself, right?'
Sakura let out a roar and swung down, her knife smaller and faster than her sword, but it would be far too late. Hinata could already tell her blade wouldn't make contact; the Hyuuga was just too fast. Too fast and too strong, much stronger than either of them. Sakura would die, and Hinata would be next, and then she would pick up her bow and kill everyone else.
Hinata let out a scream of pure frustration and activated the curse seal.
The rogue Hyuuga locked up, her Lion Fist guttering out as her chakra went wild and began tearing her body apart from the inside out. Veins bulged in her face as her head filled with blood and she fell forward, unable to control her own momentum.
Sakura completed her strike, and her lesser Flowing Water Blade cut the woman's right arm off. It sliced through her bicep and cleanly severed the limb, which flew off into the night and landed on the ground with a dull thud.
Sakura looked down as the woman convulsed, her eyes wide and confused, and then back at Hinata. Hinata could feel tears streaming down her cheeks, but she kept the seal locked in place and moved forward, forcing more and more of the woman's chakra to be drawn into the curse seal on her forehead. The convulsions grew more violent, like a seizure. It didn't matter how disciplined you were, how high your pain tolerance was. The cursed seal absorbed chakra and turned it against its owner, like it was replacing your blood with poison. Eventually, it would annihilate the eyes and brain with a chakra auto-immune reaction that would leave them nothing more than dead, partially dissolved goo.
Hinata knew every detail of its function, and that only made her loathe herself more for using it.
"Hinata," Sakura said, backing up a little. "What is this?"
She couldn't bear it anymore. Hinata dropped the seal, and the woman's silent seizure ended. She lay on the roof, blood pouring from her severed arm. She was so still she could be dead.
But Hinata was sure she wasn't.
"She's a member of the branch clan," Hinata said with a wince. Back at the warehouse Naruto was getting Kurenai up, Ino at his side. That should have made her feel glad, but all she wanted to do was throw up. "The seal…" Her throat closed up. She couldn't bring herself to say it. She was starting to feel woozy.
"Like on Neji," Sakura muttered, and Hinata nodded, not caring about how Sakura could know that. She needed to speak up. They couldn't afford to be talking right now, standing on this dock like the danger was over.
But Hinata's mouth was sealed shut. If she opened it to speak, she was sure nothing coherent would come out. There was a migraine growing behind her eyes that threatened to burst her head open. Because of what had been on the arrow, or because of what she'd just done?
"I think I know this woman," Sakura said. Her hands were shaking. She used a sword, but had she ever cut someone's limb off so mercilessly before? The way Sakura was acting made Hinata think she hadn't. "I didn't know she was a Hyuuga, but those arrows are one of a kind."
Sakura knew her? Hinata blinked, trying to take in a deep breath and recover herself. It wasn't working. Gaara was coming closer every second. More shinobi besides him too. The docks were about to fill with ninja. The Hyuuga was starting to stir, blood gushing from her missing arm. She'd bleed out in a couple minutes at this rate: Hinata didn't know if Naruto could fix that.
Sakura saw the question and desperation in her eyes. "She's a former member of ROOT. Leaf Black Ops. She tried to assassinate Obito back at the Hidden Waterfall." Her eyes lingered on the woman's slit throat. "I guess he didn't finish her off."
None of that meant anything to Hinata. The fact that this woman had tried to kill Obito Uchiha, the notion of ROOT, that Sakura had apparently seen her sniping technique before, it all slid off her mind like water the moment the Hyuuga turned over. The woman glared up at Hinata with her hatred-filled eyes as blood continued to pour from her severed arm and veins throbbed beneath the pale skin of her forehead.
Sakura stopped talking, bringing her blades to the ready immediately: the water and ice shone in the moonlight. The Hyuuga's focus didn't waver; her gaze was reserved solely for Hinata.
"I'm sorry." Hinata's muteness finally shattered. She took an unsteady step forward, the pressure of the woman's chakra crushing her heart. More blood dripped down her side; her whole leg was sticky with it. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to… we'll get Naruto, he'll stop the bleeding-"
"You don't get it," the woman rasped, and Hinata stopped. It occurred to her that if she got closer the woman could probably stop her heart or destroy her brain with a Gentle Fist strike, so she stayed where she was. "You serve a worthless village and a worthless clan. I came here to destroy you all," the hateful whisper continued. The Hyuuga's eyes slid down to her missing arm. "And now, with you here, I'm just as worthless." She narrowed her eyes. "I should have used every arrow I had on you. A failure to the end."
"You don't have to come back with us," Hinata said, desperation filling her. She saw Sakura stepping to her side, a warning on her lips. "If the printers are destroyed, it won't matter. We can-!"
Without speaking another word, the Hyuuga made a modified Ram seal.
Hinata stepped back on reflex, sure of what was coming but not able to believe it. Her mind irrationally scrambled for an alternative explanation: some other jutsu, an explosion, a clone, anything directed at her and Sakura.
The seal on the woman's forehead lit up with dark green light, and she began convulsing. Sakura blinked, shock plain on her face. Hinata was stuck where she was, unable to move forward or retreat. If she got closer, the Hyuuga might attack her, but she couldn't dream of stepping away. All she could do was scream.
"Stop!" The Hyuuga didn't. Hinata made the seal as well in desperation, trying to cancel out the jutsu, but the woman's convulsions didn't abate. "Stop!"
The Hyuuga toppled over on her side, her whole body shaking. Blood was pooling in her mouth and the corner of her eyes, and it dribbled out onto the roof forming a pool of crimson around her head and soaking into her hair.
"STOP!" It didn't matter how many times or how loud Hinata screamed it. The Hyuuga's concentration never wavered. Even when her eyes were black with blood and her head shook so violently that it hammered a steady drumbeat into the concrete, her hand never even twitched, staying rock solid and clasped in the one-handed seal.
Hinata finally broke, rushing forward and falling to her knees, shaking the woman without regard for her own pain. It wouldn't work. It was stupid to get close. She knew that, but she did it anyway.
All it accomplished was that when the woman's face twitched into a final sneer and then abruptly went still, Hinata was able to watch her eyes and brain collapse in on themselves like melting ice from less than three feet away.
Hinata stayed there on her knees and stared into the dead woman's face for what seemed like years, her body buffeted by freezing winds coming in from the sea. In death, the woman's eyes were nothing but malice: they were glossy and black, and Hinata felt like they were peeling away her heart and mind layer by layer, revealing more shame and loathing with every pass.
Her left hand dropped, settling in the pool of blood, and the warmth shocked Hinata back to consciousness.
She started hyperventilating, the world closing in around her. Her control over the Byakugan was slipping away. Her body felt heavy, too solid and yet hollow at the same time. Sakura came to her side, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"Hinata," she said. Her voice was cold, but her hand wasn't, and it helped Hinata figure out which way was up. "We've gotta go."
Hinata sobbed. "Gaara's coming," she said, and Sakura's hand tightened around her shoulder, so tight it hurt. "And Sasuke's in trouble." She hiccuped, trying to stumble to her feet and almost falling over. Sakura kept her as steady as she could.
"And I think there was something on that arrow. I think I'm…"
It didn't matter that Sakura was there, trying to keep her upright. Hinata collapsed forward on top of the other Hyuuga's body, and darkness swiftly took her.