Chapter Fourteen
Temari followed the group down the tunnel, feeling like she'd climbed down the rabbit hole in a fairytale. Unfortunately, this rabbit hole is boobytrapped. She kept eyes and ears sharp as the cave of genjustu bubbles turned into a domed cavern. At the base of the cavern was another glowing pool of water. "I still can't see through," Hinata said, "You?" she asked Naruto.
"Nada," he replied with a shake of the head.
"How is that possible?" Temari asked. "I thought Byakugan could see through pretty much anything?"
"Whatever it is," Hinata said, "it's not impervious to Byakugan, but the image is so distorted, I may as well be looking at abstract art." Hinata explained.
"It's also not chakra causing this effect," Naruto added, continuing to stare hard at the surface.
"Well, what is it?" Temari asked, impatient.
"I don't know," he shrugged, "It feels similar, but it feels beyond just chakra – something broader."
"Okay…" Temari didn't know what to think. She'd seen the pure destructive nature of Ten-Tails and nearly died as a result. The possibility that there could be something or someone wielding an as of yet unknown power chilled her to the bone.
"In any case," Naruto pulled a kunai, "I think we should prepare for battle."
Temari uncased her fan at the suggestion "Got a hunch?"
"It's the bottleneck at the end of a tunnel," Shikamaru spoke, "and we have to pass through something we can't look through to move ahead. If I were going to lay a trap, it would be here."
"What a comforting thought," Temari readied herself. "All through at once?" she asked.
Shikamaru nodded, "Naruto, you Hinata, and Kushina take right. Temari, Sakura, and Sai will go left."
"What about you?" she asked.
"Someone has to take the middle," he chuckled, "Go!"
As Temari passed through the surface of what looked like glowing water, she sprouted from the opposite surface, and gravity shifted around ninety degrees. "Whoa!" she fell forward and onto her face across what felt like a muddy dirt cave floor.
"OOOFFF!" a chorus of grunts came as the others landed in the same awkward position.
The loud chittering of something solid over dirt and rock set off alarms in Temari's head, "We're not alone here!"
As Temari spoke, the ground erupted below her, lifting her up into the air. Temari barely managed to get her legs between her and the cavern ceiling. As she rebounded, Temari spread her fan and glided in the narrow confines of the stone room. She stared down long enough to see a gargantuan crab attacking the group, hurling boulders like they were pebbles. Hinata, Naruto?! She counted only Shikamaru, Sai, Sakura, and Lord Fifth among the group. Perfect place for an ambush!
Temari dove and circled, landing beside the creature's left flank. As she touched ground, she spun off her momentum and sent a wind scythe attack into the crustacean's chitinous hide. Despite the force of the attack, the shell was barely scratched.
"Raijin, Fujian! Sai summoned two massive golems from his scrolls and sent them to grapple the massive pincers. "Shit! They can't hold them!" he shouted.
"Shikamaru!" Lord Kushina shouted glowing chains expanded from her back.
"Shadow thread!" Shikamaru sent a tangled web of shadowy tentacles around the creature as Kushina's chains entangled the crab's legs and body. "NOW!" Chains and shadow pulled taut, restraining the creature into the ground. Both Kushina and Shikamaru rained sweat and had bulging veins in the foreheads with the effort to hold the beast down.
Temari again slashed her fan but with no real effect. Shit! Three of the of the most powerful shinobi in the village were barely able to hold this thing down, and it was starting to work free. "Temari, launch me up!" Sakura charged toward Temari.
Instinctively, Temari closed her fan and held I out like a springboard, flinging the pink-haired medical-nin toward the ceiling of cave. Sakura hit the ceiling with both feel and catapulted herself back down toward the union of the crab's head and back, one fist locked on target. "KIYAHH!" Sakura impacted with enough force to shake the ground and release an airburst in the confined space.
The overwhelming smell of fish guts hit Temari, followed by bits of shell, shit, and innards raining down on the group. She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, "Gah! Nasty!" The smell permeated her clothing, and she had to resist the urge to vomit it was so strong.
"Is everyone okay?" Sakura asked, her blood red tunic, pink hair, and khakis were now coated in a dense layer of crab entrails.
"Nothing as shower and twenty-four hours of sleep won't fix!" Shikamaru said, trying to wipe bits of crab out of his hair."
"HINATA! NARUTO!" Kushina called out, eyes wide as she scanned the area.
"They didn't go forward without us," Temari said, turning back to the pool. "This way, quickly!"
Hinata surged toward the surface of the water, face barely breaking surface when something tugged at her, hard. Before she could shout, she was back under the surface, being dragged into one of numerous stony outcrops that lined the tunnel of genjutsu traps. The invisible force pulled her about like a ragdoll until she landed on both knees. For a moment, she half-expected to see Pain standing before her, given how similar the effect had felt.
As she looked up, her bladder constricted at the familiar pale figure standing before her. While Pain had been menacing and malevolent, Toneri was altogether something different. "Hello, beautiful." His words dripped with less-sterling intentions.
"Where is Hanabi! Where is Akane!" she spoke with indignance. As she rose, she froze, mortified by what was now filing the man's once dead eye sockets. Undoubtedly, the Byakugan were Hanabi's, but they glowed pale blue, similar to Naruto with Uncle Hizashi's Byakugan.
"I've taken them to my castle, Hinata," he spread his right arm and the image of a room in a fairytale castle spread around them. Hanabi lay in an ornate bed, a blindfold encircling her head, and a wailing Akane cradled in her arms.
"What have you done to my sister!" Hinata demanded, taking a fighting stance.
"I've taken her Byakugan," he answered, matter-of-fact.
"Release them and return my sister's Byakugan at once!" Hinata ordered, sounding every bit of a clan leader that she was. Without her Byakugan, Hanabi is borderline powerless! Any hope of her sister's rescue being easy was now gone. Hinata would have to confront Toneri in battle to get Hanabi's Byakugan back; otherwise, her sister would be doomed to a life on par with the potentially crippled Konohamaru.
The memory of what this farce of a man had done to the sweet boy only fed her anger. However, he seemed to revel in it, "And tell me, Lord Hyūga, how do you intend to make me? I hold all the cards here. I give baby Akane three days at most if not properly cared for." His grin widened even more sinister than before.
"Monster!" she growled.
"You can save her and your sister, Hinata," he pleaded in a low croon, "All you have to do is surrender to me, and this will be all over."
"Don't listen to him, girl!" Nine-Tails groaned. "Listen to that advice and you might as well put yourself in a refrigerator for him!"
Nine-Tails wasn't wrong. Hinata remembered the sexual predator that was Lord Yamamoto – the first man she assassinated in cold blood. He trafficked women and girls, raped them, and thought nothing of disposing of them when he got bored. Toneri was cut from the same cloth. Erotomaniacs usually display warmth and affection toward the object of their affection initially, idealizing their target. Over time, they frequently exhibit violent outbursts of emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. Violence tends to exacerbate when the object of their obsession fails to live up to their ideal. The terrible knowledge only reinforced Nine-Tails' warning. "Give them back, or I'll take them by force!" Hinata growled, channeling the tailed-beast she'd bonded with since being in the womb.
"Amusing," he became condescending, "especially being that you don't know where they are!" A wave of his hand, and the invisible force he'd grappled her with dropped Hinata to her knees. "I was hoping you'd come quietly, peacefully," annoyance began filling his words, "but I see you might need more forceful persuasion."
"HINATA!" Naruto's heavenly voice lifted the restraining force as he appeared, making a sweeping kick toward Toneri. As Toneri dodged, Hinata got to her feet, charging her chakra to her hands.
Toneri backflipped away, noticing that he was now facing two opponents. So, he can't divide his attention two ways. Hinata charged forward to attack from the front as Naruto came at the man from behind. Toneri blocked her Gentle Fist strike; he clearly had some level of ninjutsu training. He ducked a follow up kick and one-two hand strike from Naruto. Despite knowing he'd see it, Hinata threw a kunai – easily dodged by Toneri.
Naruto disappeared in a flash and appeared by Hinata's side. Hinata made a hand seal, summoning a dozen shadow clones. "Naruto, swarm and a miss!" She called out the attack, and he tossed her a kunai. "Toneri!" she screeched, "Catch!" she tossed the kunai, intentionally going high and wide as her clones charged.
The blade sailed past as Naruto charged up a Rasengan, and he teleported to just over Toneri's shoulder. "Suck on this!" Naruto rammed the mass of wind-style chakra into the man's neck. There was a blinding flash, and Hinata momentarily had to avert her eyes. "Goddammit!" Naruto's frustration vented as she opened her eyes. Another goddamn puppet!
The body lay shattered, but the decapitated porcelain-white head continued to speak, "Amusing, but you'll never lay a hand on me." The cracked face formed what Hinata assumed to be a smile, "Two days, Hinata, and I will come for you." The words filled her veins with ice water.
Cold fear soon was replaced with burning indignance. I'm not some prize piece for your amusement! Hinata drove her foot into the face as its ghostly blue eyes faded. The head shattered like a pumpkin on impact. For a moment, all Hinata could do was heave in and out. She hadn't asked for any of this. Her life had been intruded on, her family had been threatened, and the whole world, literally, hung in the balance because some pasty-white bastard fantasized about her submitting to him. White-hot searing pain shot up her foot to her leg. "AHHHHHHH!" she screamed, venting pain, frustration, and the aggravation that came with two broken toes.
"Hinata, are you all right?" Naruto asked.
"GODDAMMIT, I'M NOT ALL RIGHT!" Hinata turned toward her lover and beat a fist on his chest with an audible thunk. Naruto's eyes and mouth opened wide as he stared. All of the anger, the fear, the unbearable sense of helplessness, and the sour frustration of the past few months boiled to the surface like a thick head of foam forming on jam as the burning heat of her foot continued. Hinata buried her face into Naruto's chest, strength rapidly abandoning her as she slapped her hand against him. "I'm not…" she sobbed, "all right!"
"Hinata, Naruto!" Temari's voice sounded solid, if a bit anxious. "Are you two okay?!"
"We'll be fine," Naruto answered for them. "Toneri tried taking her just now."
"Are either of you hurt?" Hinata recognized Shikamaru's voice, but didn't raise her head from Naruto's chest.
"I'm not physically," Naruto replied, running his fingers through Hinata's hair, "just shaken up." Understatement of the century.
Hinata hobbled off of Naruto, "I have two broken toes that require attention," Sakura was already rushing to her. As Sakura worked to heal broken bones, Hinata recognized the fact that she was at her breaking point. If Toneri were to appear right now, she'd probably not have the mental or physical strength to resist him.
"That is what he wants, Hinata," Nine-Tails warned, "He took Akane and Hanabi in the middle of the night, knowing you'd pursue without rest. He sent the letters and the puppets slowly, trying to make you tired over the course of months. If you give up now, you've played right into his hand!
Hinata clutched her hand into a fist. She'd be damned if all the suffering, all the misery of the past several months became meaningless. She stared up at Naruto, grim, but also determined. She saw the dark circles and the faint lines of worry. A ninja never gives up; that is my ninja way. Hinata gritted her teeth as Sakura put her toes back together.
By the time the group exited the cave, the weary aches Kushina Uzumaki had earned over years as a shinobi, a mother, and a Hokage made themselves known. Her eyes were lined with sandpaper, her back popped, and the long scar in the right side of her stomach made itself known. Even years after finally having the injury corrected, the scar would ache at times of extreme stress – a reminder against carelessness.
"Where in the hell are we?" Sakura asked as what looked like fading daylight greeted them.
Temari gestured in the distance, "Is that island floating in the air?"
"I don't think so," Shikamaru answered.
"It's distorted," Naruto said. Everyone turned to look at her son, his eyes glowing milky blue. "Everything here is distorted, artificial."
"Everything?" Kushina asked.
"I don't know how to explain it," her son shook his head. "It's like we're somewhere that doesn't exist in our world."
"Like a pocket dimension?" Shikamaru asked. "A space within another space?"
"Yeah, something like that," Naruto said.
"Son, can you still see where they went?" Kushina asked desperate – she hadn't held Akane since yesterday. Or was it two days now?! Her baby and her apprentice were prisoners somewhere, and she was out here playing shinobi.
"Yes," Naruto nodded, "the trail is still clear."
"Let's get going then," Kushina raised a fist.
"Kushina, as much as I hate to say it," Shikamaru spoke, "we should make camp for the night."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Kushina screeched, feeling her hair flailing behind her.
"Lord Fifth, he's right," Temari added, "we're all running on little more than adrenaline and about to crash as is. When was the last time you slept?"
"Twenty-four hours," she hissed.
"Thirty-six, Mom," Naruto corrected.
"Who the hell asked you!" she growled in response.
"M-Mom…" Hinata whimpered.
Hinata's soft stammer made the ache in Kushina's side intensify. Kushina's mind wandered to the last time she'd seen her own mom, a tearful goodbye without resolution. Soon, Kushina was answering the door to the house, finding a scared little girl speckled in blood when she'd protected Naruto from three bullies. "I…" Kushina choked on a lump in her throat.
"Lord Fifth," Shikamaru held out the watch she'd given him, "I'm aware more than most that time is short, but if we continue without a rest, we run the risk of dooming more than just your baby and Hanabi if we start to slip up now!"
"Shika…" Kushina couldn't finish words.
"Everyone set up camp," Naruto added, "We take an eight-hour rest, rotating watch every hour like we would do in a normal camp."
"There are only seven of us, Naruto," Temari spoke.
"I'll take last watch as a double and wake the camp," Naruto said without hesitation.
As the camp started taking form, everything became a blur to Kushina. She didn't remember Naruto helping her raise her tent, nor did she remember climbing into the tent. The world spun in a dizzy haze of fatigue. When she finally regained some semblance of awareness, she was on her right side, in a fetal position, and bawling her eyes out. Exhausted, alone, and vulnerable, the terrible thoughts she'd kept bottled in freed themselves much as Kurama had nearly done in her weakest hour. How could you let this happen? Is Hanabi even still alive? Is Akane being cared for? How long can she survive without someone taking care of her?! Burning tar spilled from Kushina's eyes and nose as she continued to replay the events of the past day and half.
"Mom," her boy's voice was unmistakable, soft, caring – all things she didn't deserve right now.
"Son, please," she cried, "I don't want you seeing me like this!" Kushina clutched her side where she'd been impaled at her son's birth.
"Mom, please," Naruto's voice shook. He, too, was ready to cry. Kushina didn't know how, but somehow, Naruto brought her to a seated position and clutched her in a hug as knelt beside her.
Kushina clung to her boy, the last thing she hadn't yet managed to break. Kushina held herself to him, with the desperate fear that she'd wake from a nightmare to find him gone, too. Her lip quivered, and she continued to sob. As she cried, the horrid nightmare from within the Infinite Tsukuyomi flashed before her – having Nine-Tails extracted, dying the day of Naruto's birth, and watching her baby boy grow up unloved and alone. "Son! I'm sorry!" she wept, "I'm such a bad Mom!"
"Mom, don't do this to yourself," Naruto pleaded through his own tears.
"I should have just stayed a stay-at-home mom and not given into the delusion that I'd be a great ninja, ever!"
"MOM!" Naruto forced her to stare him in the eyes, "You're tired and you're scared! I get that!"
"I shouldn't have come…"
"Mom, you're doing what any parent would do if their child was in danger. If our roles were reversed and it was my baby that had been kidnaped, you bet your ass I'd be out here! And I would have had the same argument with Shikamaru; that is what parents do!"
"I'm so sorry this is on your shoulders!" Kushina continued to weep.
"Mom, look at me," he commanded, and she did. "This was not your fault. Nothing we did could have stopped this… and…"
"And?" she asked, groggy between tears and exhaustion.
"And this had to have happened where Himawari came from, which means we get out of this," he said.
"H-how are you so sure?" she demanded.
"None of this was because of the war," Naruto said, "The events we're living through are too big for a wave of the hand to have stopped them, just like how Hima didn't think we could prevent the war."
"And yet," Kushina shivered, "She came back to save me and your father."
"Yes," Naruto nodded, "that's my point."
"What?" Kushina's tears paused.
"We got through this all, without having you, or dad, or hell, Aunt Akemi!" Naruto smiled impossibly large for his face. "A ninja never gives up! Just think of what we can accomplish with you beside us!"
Kushina blinked, momentarily seeing her granddaughter in Naruto's eyes. She came to make a better future. Are you going to let it fall apart? "Son… thank you!" she again embraced Naruto.
Naruto held tight, "I love you, Mom."
"I love you, too, son!"
By the time Naruto got to his tent, he was a good hour past the time he should have fallen asleep. Hinata had taken first watch and was already inside the tent sprawled out on top of her sleeping bag. Hinata's still tender right foot was elevated under Naruto's backpack. Naruto noticed Hinata's knitting haphazardly set to her side. Naruto delicately freed the red yarn from her hands and stowed it in her pack. She's doing that for me? At a time like this?!
Naruto chose a spot a slight distance from Hinata, rolled out his bedroll in the dark, and collapsed atop it. As he lay exhausted, everything in him demanded sleep but he couldn't close his eyes. If I close them now, what happens if Toneri comes? He stared at the separation between him and Hinata. He wanted to hold her, but he wanted her to rest. He wanted to fall apart, much as Mom had, to cry and be assured that everything was going to be all right. You have to be strong; you don't get the right to be weak.
He rolled to his back, staring at the top of the tent for several minutes until he heard rustling. Alarm and adrenaline nearly made him jump until he felt the thin, strong frame of Hinata clutching him. Even in his exhausted state, her body was heavenly as she squeezed herself to him with her head on his shoulder and her leg across his body.
The night's cool air replaced itself with awkward, uncomfortable heat as his heart raced and his pants tightened. Seriously! Now is not the time to pop a boner! Nevertheless, it was here. Hinata snuggled into his side. Damn! Naruto groaned in the sweet agony of his situation.
"Dude, you could put your arms around her! Most guys don't think twice about their girl wanting to snuggle!"
Just what the hell would you know about it, Nine-Tails?!
"Enough to know what it means when one animal seeks comfort from its mate, or have you forgotten that?!" Nine-Tails laughed at Naruto's discomfort.
I'm starting to get a bit concerned at the details you know about relationships, Kyuubi.
"You're telling me! I watched your parents make you on the dining room table they've served you and guests at for twenty years!"
Naruto squirmed at the uncomfortable revelation. Like most people, he never liked imagining his parents having sex, much less imagining them as sex fiends. Oh god, please tell me that's a joke! Nine-Tails' incessant chuckle made Naruto's cheeks turn pink. He'd never asked his parents about it, not that he truly wanted confirmation. "Naruto, hold me," Hinata whimpered.
"If you're looking for an invitation, that is it, FYI!" Kyuubi laughed.
Shut up, Nine-Tails! Naruto brought his arms down and around Hinata, only adding to the pleasant discomfort of her being on him. Who cares, it's not the grand gestures but the little ones that matter. Naruto's mind wandered to the growing swatch of scarf in Hinata's bag, already larger that the one she'd gifted him on his birthday. It took so much time to make a scarf, so much care. As he held Hinata, Naruto eyed the glimmer of her engagement ring in the faint ambient light. His mind wondered about another thing that took time and care – a baby.
Naruto shifted to better accommodate Hinata. After the mission to the Land of Sound, Hinata told him about the pregnancy scare – a result of their engagement and the unofficial vows they'd made that night. He wondered how it would happen, when it would happen. He wondered what it would feel like to finally be a father. As he wondered, his hand wandered down her spine to the small of her back. His ever-sneaky pinkie and ring finger slid past her beltline and found purchase on the top of her magnificent rump.
"Naruto?!" Hinata stirred suddenly with a sharp, alarmed whisper.
Oh damn! Naruto had been caught red-handed, and now had not been the time to start acting like a boyfriend. "Hinata, I'm sorry!" He raised his hand from her backside.
He felt firm pressure on his wrist, and his hand was dragged down firmly into the soft mass of Hinata's butt. "Naruto," she held the hand down, "if you're going to touch, I insist you do so properly!" Relieved, he squeezed firmly. Hinata again rested her head on his chest and shoulder, "It feels so nice," she sighed. "I could almost fool myself into thinking everything is all right."
Naruto massaged Hinata's butt and low back, methodically searching for knots, "It feels so amazing that you let me do this." He spoke hushed despite his thundering heart.
"As long as it its your perverted hands," she squeezed herself to him, "I know it can't be Toneri touching me!" Hinata must have caught the grimace that chiseled into Naruto's face at the mention of the other man. "Oh god, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kill the mood!"
"I know you didn't, purple eyes," Naruto gently patted her rump and resumed his lecherous massage. "We're both scared."
"And looking for relief," she groaned as he worked a few spots, "damn your hands are wonderful!"
"You'll get them as much of them as you want when we get out of this," Naruto felt the first true smile on his face in several days.
"I can't wait… N-Naruto?"
"Yes, love?"
Hinata's hands began massaging his chest, "What is the first thing we do when we get home?"
"Probably shower or take a bath," Naruto groaned, reminding himself that none of the group had bathed in at least a full day.
"Bath," Hinata said with a chuckle, "a good long soak with bubbles."
"Sounds amazing," Naruto's eyelids became heavy as marble.
"Anything else?" she probed. Naruto grinned at the surprise discovery about being married versus being wed. In the days since the discovery in the Hyūga Archives, Naruto had spent every waking moment not guarding Hinata reviewing old legal scrolls and books. Indeed, everything had confirmed – he and Hinata could be legally married and not have to have a wedding for up to several years. Not that we're going to wait that long! He stared down longingly at his future wife. "Naruto?" she asked again.
"That one is a secret," he winked and playfully spanked, "something to look forward to when you get back."
"Tease," Hinata gently patted a hand on his chest, "of course, I have something special of my own!"
"Oh, do tell?" Naruto asked.
"I'm not telling," she stuck out her tongue. "You'll just have to wait!"
"I guess," he closed his eyes, "this means we have to both make it back, and see who is more surprised." Hinata didn't respond, she just snuffled slightly. She's asleep, and you should be too. Naruto surrendered to the minor thread of normalcy and slipped away.
Shikamaru hated standing watch as his mind rebelled at idleness in the pre-dawn stillness. The situation was not helped by the fact that he knew the enemy had at least observed them or were actively watching them. This is cock-suckery! Why in the hell don't they attack? Shikamaru had weighed at several junctures why Toneri was holding back – none of which made logical sense.
Logic, the guy wants Hinata to come to him and give herself to him! There is nothing logical in trying to take another man's woman, especially if she doesn't want to be taken. "Shikamaru," Naruto spoke low.
"I'd say good morning," Shikamaru greeted, "but fuck that shit. This whole thing sucks," he yawned, "Plus, this still is night in my mind." Between the temperate environment and the desire to remain concealed, the team had not built a campfire nor left any lanterns out.
"You won't get any argument from me," Naruto shrugged, "how about you go back to sleep."
"I'm too jittery for a change," Shikamaru looked down at the watch to the end of the world. Less than a hundred hours.
"Shikamaru, can I ask you an uncomfortable question?"
"What a pain, sure," he sighed.
"Are you and Temari… planning on…" Naruto's voice was tight, not wanting to offend.
"On what?" Shikamaru insisted.
"… on having a baby anytime soon?" Naruto spoke quick, like he was trying to rip off a bandage.
Okay, that is random. "Where is this coming from?" curiosity outweighed Shikamaru's reluctance to talk.
"Hinata and I are talking about having our wedding in about a year and a half."
"Go on," Shikamaru gestured with his hand.
"Within a year of our wedding, you know… we have to produce an heir."
"How does this involve Temari and myself?" Shikamaru asked deep with confusion.
"Shikamaru, you've been my friend since we were kids. I was wondering… well, do we want to have our children continue that tradition?"
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "You mean, like, we both have kids at the same time and try to raise them as friends?"
"It was just a thought," Naruto raised his hands. "God, I must sound stupid talking about this with you!"
"A year and a half?" Shikamaru asked, scratching his chin.
"Yeah," Naruto nodded.
Shikamaru hooked his hands behind his head, "What a pain. I'd have to take it up with she-who-must-be-obeyed." He chuckled.
"So, you two are considering?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, that is… complicated…"
"How? Some kind of performance issue?"
Why the hell does everyone assume I can't get it up?! "Nothing like that," he huffed. "Take all the anxiety you and Hinata are having, and add to the mix what things would be like if she'd already miscarried and her mom had died in childbirth as well."
"I imagine that would make things difficult… I'm sorry…"
"Quit being sorry, Naruto," he groaned, "there is also the succession issue we face, much like you."
"What issue?" Naruto asked.
"If Gaara doesn't marry and have children, the title of Kazekage would pass to any children Temari might have."
"How is that a bad thing?" Naruto asked.
"She wouldn't tell me, but Garra did – several Sunan nobles have planned to kidnap her or eliminate me before we have kids. That was part of the reason we stayed at the Oasis and didn't go into the village often." Shikamaru shifted, "If I were to die or she was forced to annul our marriage and submit, another noble house could potentially claim Temari and produce their own heir."
"And here I thought I was the only one with problems like someone trying to steal my girl," Naruto shook his head, "So, if you had a kid, that would potentially stop things?"
"Probably not completely, but it would make kidnapping or murder a less palatable option," he shrugged, "Of course, if we can find Gaara a lady, maybe this is all academic. Got any leads?"
"I have a large number of panties with phone numbers on them," Naruto shrugged. "Maybe one would be excited by a call from the Prince of the Sands."
"Ha!" Shikamaru laughed, as did Naruto. "In all seriousness, about the whole kid thing…" Shikamaru now felt his throat tightening.
"Yes?" Naruto asked hopeful.
"Maybe, distinct maybe. A year and a half gives us some times to sort things out, and I wouldn't mind having the two grow up together." Shikamaru smirked, "Although, I can only imagine the storm my mom would make if Choji has one first!"
"Choji?" Naruto looked at him with wide eyes and a smirk. "You mean?"
"I told him to ask Karui; apparently, they've been serious a long time."
"Nice," Naruto shook his head. After several moments of laughter, Naruto became serious, "Shikamaru, why aren't they attacking?" Naruto asked.
"I've trying to figure that out; how many are there?" Shikamaru asked.
"Dozens," Naruto's eyes glowed milky blue in the dark, "the distortion they used to camouflage themselves from Byakugan is plainly visible to me."
"I can't be sure," Shikamaru bit the inside of his cheek, "but I get the feeling he's luring us into a trap."
"We're in the center of a spider's web now!" Naruto exclaimed, "What the hell is he waiting for? Either you or I could have slipped into an enemy camp, killed everyone there, and taken Hinata away in the night before rigor mortis set in."
"Naruto, we're not dealing with a logical person," Shikamaru felt things line up. "He needs the fantasy of Hinata willingly giving herself to him. The fact that he almost attacked her suggests the stress of the fantasy not happening is getting to him," Shikamaru rubbed his chin.
"What are you thinking?" Naruto tilted his head.
"Naruto, from here forward, do not leave Hinata alone with anyone else," Shikamaru grimaced, and don't let her more than a meter from you."
"What's up?" Naruto asked, expression turning worried.
"At some point, he's going to be in a position to isolate her again, just like he did in the tunnel."
"And?"
"And," Shikamaru looked down at his watch, tracking the time to world's end, "I get the bad feeling as time starts to wear down, he might become more desperate, willing to do things he wasn't willing to do before, when there was time." Naruto's grim look matched Shikamaru's own, "We need to be ready for when he lashes out, becomes violent – toward us and her. This whole affair up to now has been about wearing her and all of us out."
"And he's nearly broken us a few times now," Naruto drew out a long sigh, "I don't know how much more any of us can take of this." He shook his head, "Mom is near breaking point, Hinata is, hell, I am!"
"All the more reason we can't get careless," Shikamaru looked down to the watch in his hand, "Everyone is depending on us." He stared back at Naruto, "The only consolation, he's got to be feeling the pressure, too."
"What do you mean?"
"If he's setting deadlines," Shikamaru asked, "he's still putting Hinata in mortal danger somehow, and he loses her if he lets the deadline lapse."
"Wait a…" Naruto's eyes grew wide with protruding blood vessels bulging in around his eyes, and he eyes glowed unnaturally bright even for Byakugan, "AHHHH!" he yelled.
"Naruto!" Shikamaru raced to his side to catch him.
"We're inside the moon," Naruto said, pained and exhausted, "we're inside some pocket dimension inside the moon!"
"Buddy, just hold on! Are you sure!" Shikamaru hoped not to wake the whole camp.
"Yes," Naruto nodded. "Shikamaru?" Naruto stared blankly.
"Yeah?"
"Are you getting an odd sense of déjà vu?" Naruto asked with a haunted face.
"All the damn time; comes with a borderline eidetic memory. But yeah, I feel something oddly familiar about this whole place as well." Something in Shikamaru knew they had been inside the moon, even before Naruto had confirmed it. The feeling made no sense, much less that the feeling reminded him of home.
Author's notes: Hello everyone, and thank you for reading. If you are reading at the time of publication, hoppy Easter! I hope you all are well. Next chapter will see hard decisions as time runs out on Toneri's ultimatum.