Hinata of the White Lotus
Death Match
This had turned into a complete and utter mess.
Naruto had been putting on a brave face this whole time, but he was seriously on his last leg at this point. The amount of blood gone from having lost his arm was enough to make him anemic. His vision swam and legs buckled beneath him.
Sure, he had managed to replace the arm with some quick thinking, but the wound itself was technically still there and it hurt like a bitch. In fact, he was pretty confident the only reason he was still conscious was the pain.
Despite all that and with the help of an unexpected ally, he somehow managed to win. They had freaking beaten Kimimaro to the point all his bones were broken and he couldn't move anymore.
So why?
Why in the hell was this happening?
Some abomination had come outta nowhere and fused with Kimimaro, making him stronger and more powerful than ever before. In the first place, where the hell did that thing come from? No- it didn't matter.
It had shown up and merged with Kimimaro, now it was up to him to deal with it. When his opponent had first arrived on the battlefield, he had been pale and even sickly. Then halfway through the fight he had transformed, white skin turning a rusted red, back hunching over, and sprouting a tail. Now he was massive, towering over them, standing at least two stories high. His skin had turned pitch black, in contrast to the pure white bones that stuck out from his back like fins. Opening his elongated snout, Kimimaro let out a deep and guttural roar. A noise no human could possibly imitate.
That's right, this thing was no longer Kimimaro. It may have taken over his body- for whatever purpose could only be speculated at- but it was painfully obvious that the man whom Naruto had been fighting until now was no more. This was simply a monster through and through.
With an agitated swish of the tail, the beast formerly known as Kimimaro charged them. Its taloned feet tore up the ground with every stomp that shook the very earth and rattled Naruto's bones. Despite its size, or perhaps even because of it, Kimimaro was on them only a second later.
"It's freaking fast, we gotta move!" Naruto jumped backwards and into the forest, hoping the trees he had created earlier would succeed in slowing it down if only a little. Only after he jumped did he realize Tayuya hadn't followed him.
No, it wasn't entirely correct to say she hadn't. It would be more accurate to say she was incapable of it. The curse mark on her back glowed bright red, reacting to the same sickening energy Kimimaro was oozing. It appeared to be that mark which Kimimaro was after too, eyes zeroing in on the kneeling form of his former teammate, ignoring Naruto completely.
"Dammit," Naruto quickly flew through the seals before stretching his new right arm outwards. "Mokuton: Transformation Jutsu!" The outstretched arm stretched even farther, going beyond humanly possible. This was because it was no longer his flesh and blood, but the wooden arm of a clone he had hastily used as a replacement.
It was an unexplainable sensation, having an arm that wasn't your own. He didn't even understand how it all worked, but he knew his chakra had something to do with it. When in its base form, his brain was even able to trick itself into thinking it was just his normal arm. Even when stretching out like it was now, more like a winding tree branch, he still maintained some semblance of feeling in the arm.
That was why when it wrapped around Tayuya and yanked her back towards him, narrowly saving her from the snapping jaws of the transformed Kimimaro, he could feel her waistline as if he was holding her himself and not with some wooden appendage.
"The fuck are you doing?" Tayuya managed to sound indignant through the pain her curse seal was inflicting on her. "You don't have time to worry about others right now!"
"Shut it!" Naruto rebutted, landing on a branch at the edge of the forest, holding Tayuya against him to make sure she didn't slip and fall. "I'm not about to abandon anyone that I consider a comrade, even a pain-in-the-ass like you!"
Tayuya opened her mouth to rebuff him, but no words came out. Instead she snapped it back shut, settling for a click of the teeth and a small, "Do whatever the hell you want." There was no more time for words, Kimimaro spinning around and slamming his massive tail into the line of trees.
Naruto was forced to retreat deeper into the forest, pulling Tayuya along with him. They dodged in the nick of time, the trees snapping apart like twigs, whole trunks being sent flying into the moonlit sky. The roots of the shattered trees pulled up globs of dirt and tore apart the ground, causing even more trees and ferns of bone to topple over. All from nothing more than a mere flick of the tail.
"Hey, can you move at all?" Naruto asked as he landed on a different branch, this time letting Tayuya down enough for her to stand on her own two feet.
"I think I can manage…" Tayuya gasped out, gripping her shoulder where the curse seal was. It was all buster and Naruto knew it, because that was about all that was keeping him going right now too. All the same, he needed her to play her part.
"Good, then do me a favor and run." He said, already predicting the glare of anger she shot in his direction. "That thing is being drawn to you, right?" He cut her off in a hurry, not wanting to listen to another swear-filled tirade. "You lead it away and I'll hit it in the back." He didn't think it was his greatest strategy ever, but it was all he had at the moment.
"I'm not your fucking bait." Tayuya spat out, not appearing convinced in the slightest. She attempted to rise to her feet, but failed even that as another wave of pain racked her whole body. Naruto didn't have a curse seal, but even he could sense the sickening energy radiating off Kimimaro's whole being.
"You're not bait." Naruto gave her the most confident grin he could in the situation, stretching out his left arm to shove a thumbs-up right in front of her face. "That thing won't get anywhere near you. I give you my word as a Ninja. And I always keep my word to my comrades."
"…Shit." Tayuya looked to struggle with his proposition, the idea of running away not sitting well with her. As Kimimaro turned back around to glare at them, his piercing red eyes boring into her, she came to a decision. "You better knock it out in one hit." She finally agreed. With that, she turned and leapt into the forest, finally moving with her own strength alone.
Kimimaro seemed to realize his prey was getting away, letting out another inhuman screech as if to tell her to stop running. Then he charged, every movement knocking over a tree or a fern of bone. As predicted, he ignored Naruto completely. Something he was about to make him regret.
"Let's go guys!" Naruto shouted, calling for all the clones he had left behind in the forest. The half dozen remaining clones leapt into the fold along with the original, all of them inflating the wooden right arm to massive sizes.
The Uzumaki Naruto Rendan had worked once already, but just to be safe, this time he would up the number of blows, fully intending to bounce the massive Kimimaro around until Naruto and his clones couldn't stand anymore. Even if it had to be a hundred hit combo, he would fulfill his promise and end everything with this one attack.
The first blow to begin the combo never landed.
Naruto had assumed Kimimaro was ignoring him completely, acting out on some baser animal instincts and only hunting the source of the curse mark. That was why he left his back completely exposed. It never occurred to Naruto that this opponent was simply so far above him that it didn't need to bother defending.
The white bones composing the scales on Kimimaro's back began glowing a bright purple. "Uh oh…" Naruto didn't need to even guess what was going to happen next. Beams of pure purple energy- chakra or otherwise, Naruto didn't know- enveloped everything above Kimimaro. Naruto and his clones were incapable of dodging, simply from the sheer density of beams alone.
Searing, white hot pain racked Naruto's whole body. So great he couldn't even see. He could only feel it as his body ragdolled through the air. The memories of his clones feeling the exact same thing before they were shredded apart assaulted him at the same time, adding to the confusion. The smell of burnt flesh and searing wood assaulted his nostrils. He thought about crying out in pain, but his voice was too hoarse.
Everything came crashing to an end, literally, as his body smacked the hard earth with barely a thud. He laid there in an unmoving heap, completely incapable of so much as twitching his fingers, let alone rising back to his feet.
This wasn't the result of that single attack just now, but the combined fatigue of everything that had hit him in this battle. Even the red chakra couldn't possibly help him any further.
The earth shook. Then again. It was more like a rhythmic pulse, the very heartbeat of the earth… or more accurately, the massive footfalls of the transformed Kimimaro. The giant, lizard-like monster had turned to inspect its kill, having temporarily forgotten about chasing Tayuya. It seemed even in this state, the original Kimimaro was still in there somewhere.
Naruto's hair rustled, blown by the very breath of Kimimaro, which was more like a small gale now with every exhale. Along with each gale was the rancid smell of his breath. Like he had eaten a thousand corpses. It was enough to make Naruto puke.
The awfulness of the smell alone sent shivers racing up Naruto's spine. Adrenaline coursed through him, not enough to stand, but enough he could tilt his head and glare into the glowing, blood-red eye that leered down at him. The eye somehow reminded him of Sasuke's Sharingan, but without the tomoe. More importantly than that now were the razor sharp teeth jutting out of Kimimaro's elongated snout. A single tooth alone could skewer him top to bottom. The entire row of them… he didn't even want to think about it.
He wouldn't have to either, Kimimaro widening his jaw to make that morbid thought a bleak reality. Just as he prepared to snap down, however, he stopped. Craning his neck, Kimimaro spun to look behind him. And while Naruto couldn't see it from here, he knew what had happened.
Tayuya had watched as the purple beams tore apart Naruto's clones, and wrecked the original. She saw him fall, and even heard the thud when he hit the dirt. Even still, she was prepared to run. So long as Kimimaro followed her, she could ensure Naruto had some chance of someone coming to save him.
However, Kimimaro didn't do that. Instead he had turned around. Either deciding she wasn't worth it or in order to deal with easier prey, she did not know. What she did know: Naruto was in danger.
That stupid, dense, knuckleheaded kid was about to be eviscerated and the only one that could help him was her. She thought she might have hesitated. In the past, she never cared what happened to her comrades. It was kill or be killed. That was the world she grew up in. Yet she couldn't live like that anymore. Not with this kid, who might have been family. But more importantly, who ended up like this because of her.
"Leave him alone!" Tayuya yelled, pumping power into her curse seal. She entered stage two of the transformation. The power of her second stage seemed to resonate more closely with that of whatever it was Kimimaro had become and she found herself able to move again, if not quite as fluidly as before.
Channeling the power of her absorbed Doki into her legs, she kicked off the branch she had been standing on hard enough to snap it in two. She was off like a bullet, the branch crashing to the ground below.
Kimimaro's back was turned to her, neither he nor Naruto aware she had jumped back into the fray. That was until she landed, grabbing Kimimaro's tail. It was as thick as a full grown tree trunk and she had to stretch both arms to even get a hold of half. The moment she latched on and Kimimaro's head spun to look back at her.
It was too late. Channeling the strength of all three Doki into her arms now, Tayuya grit her teeth and flexed. Her heels dug into the ground, burying her up to the ankles. With a grunt of exertion that turned into a yell, she pulled with all of her might.
In a feat that seemed impossible, she lifted the massive body of Kimimaro up and over her, launching him backwards and further into the forest. She hadn't tossed him far by any means, but considering his size it was amazing she had been able to throw him at all. The trees he crashed into fell around him, and the ground quaked with his descent.
Tayuya was barely paying any attention to all of this, instead running to the prone form of Naruto. "Hey, you alright!?" She felt stupid just for asking. His orange jumper had been completely incinerated, leaving behind a singed black tee shirt. The point of his arm where it had been severed was painfully obvious now. While the wooden skin had healed, looking completely like his unblemished usual tan, the rest of him was covered in burns. The connection was far from seamless, a small trickle of blood oozing out from the as yet unsealed wound.
Her first instinct was to bend down and pick him up. Try and run while they still had the chance. However, she knew trying to move him now would only make his wounds worse. That red chakra which had been healing him before seemed to be tapped out too.
"…Tayuya." Naruto gasped, tilting his head to look up at her. Instead of gratitude or words of thanks, he glared at her and said, "You were supposed to run."
"The hell!?" Tayuya had to restrain herself from kicking him. "I came back for you because we're comrades, you fucking idiot! Aren't you the one that said you would never abandon a comrade? Well that goes double for me! I'm not just gonna run and leave you to die!" She had finally found something worth fighting for. She wasn't going to give it up now.
"That's…" Naruto started to say, and she thought her words might have reached him. Until he continued, "Not the most convincing coming from someone that only just betrayed their comrade." He had her there, and the fact she didn't have an immediate come back caused her ears to burn red in a hot blush.
"Tch," she turned away from him and back to Kimimaro, who was now staggering back to his feet. "If you have the energy to be that sassy, you're probably fine." Tayuya cracked her neck and took a couple steps forward, standing defensively in front of Naruto. "For what it's worth, I never considered Kimimaro to be my comrade. If I have to die fighting him to prove that then so be it."
No response came from behind and she knew Naruto must have slipped unconscious from his injuries. That was fine with her. If he was unconscious, then he wouldn't do anything stupid like try and rejoin the fight. If he moved any more he would seriously die. There was nothing left to interrupt her and Kimimaro's death-match.
The idea of fighting Kimimaro to the death had at one point frightened her. So why was it now that she didn't find him so scary anymore? Now, when he was stronger than ever. The massive, lizard-like form of Kimimaro rose to its full height. Its red eyes glared at her and she returned that glare full force in stalwart defiance. As if to tell him this form of his was far less scary than when he had been small and pale.
As if sensing she wasn't terrified of him anymore, Kimimaro let out a loud, bestial roar. Then charged. Tayuya felt the curse mark on her shoulder throb once more. Only now it permeated throughout her whole body. No doubt a side effect of being in the second stage transformation.
Even so, she pushed past the pain and charged back head on. Kimimaro slashed, the razor sharp claws on his hands tearing up the earth like it was butter. Tayuya leapt clear over, fist extended and drilling into his elongated cheek. Kimimaro flew to the side, knocking over more trees and ferns of bone.
Tayuya landed. Just as she moved to push off the ground again, however, she collapsed. "Huh?" She wondered aloud. What the hell was happening?
Suddenly, it felt like all the strength inside her had just vanished. A moment later and she realized exactly what it was; she was no longer in a stage two transformation. She had slipped back into stage one, her pale skin crawling with little black vines. In other words, her power was being siphoned.
There was no time to worry about the cause, the thundering footsteps of Kimimaro signaling he was upon her again. Using all the strength she could muster, Tayuya pushed off the ground and stood with two shaky legs. Just as she did, Kimimaro's massive jaw covered her completely. She leapt forward, barely escaping being swallowed whole.
Knowing she needed to make distance between them again, Tayuya raced to the nearest appendage she could find, wrapping her arms around his tree-trunk sized left leg. Like before, she would throw him into the forest. It was the only strategy that seemed to be working for her.
Until now that is.
The moment Tayuya grabbed him and she knew unequivocally what had been happening. The rest of her strength was sapped from her, the marks of her curse seal being absorbed into Kimimaro through direct skin contact. This was the third time she had made contact with him directly.
The first when she threw him by the tail. Then when she punched him in the cheek. That had been enough to drain her of her stage two power. Now, what little was left had been absorbed by this maneuver of hers.
She felt her legs go slack, only managing to remain standing by leaning against the leg she had been grabbing onto. Everything was dull now. Her vision swam and she found it took extra energy to do even normal things like breathing. Of course, fighting back any further was entirely out of the question.
She was powerless to do anything as Kimimaro flicked his foot, sending her flying through the air. That's right, it hadn't even been something as powerful as a kick. Just a mere flick, as if he was shaking off an insect.
The world spun, vision alternating between the moonlit sky and pitch black earth. Then it all came crashing down, Tayuya hitting the soft earth and rolling several times over before coming to a complete stop.
As her eyes cracked drearily back open, she realized that she had been tossed coincidentally right next to Naruto. Their bodies lay facing in opposing directions, only their faces briefly overlapping to look at one another.
Well, for her to look at him anyways. He was softly snoring away, looking far too peaceful for a kid that had just been in the most challenging battle of his life. Tayuya would admit she was kind of jealous. She wished her rest could be that peaceful. Of course, she had a feeling they were both about to enter a permanent state of sleep in a couple minutes.
"Shit…" Tayuya just barely managed to croak out. "Sorry, guess I blew it." She didn't know why she was apologizing. It wasn't like Naruto could hear her anyways. In the first place, she wasn't even sure he was the one she was apologizing to. Maybe it was her mother? Which would have only been all the more ridiculous, as she had been dead for over five years now. In the end, she just didn't know anymore.
All that was left for her was to wait for death.
"No, you didn't blow it." A monotone voice she didn't recognize answered the apology she hadn't expected anyone to hear. "Why is that? It's because you bought enough time for us to regain our strength." Glancing up, Tayuya saw it was the bug user, Aburame Shino, that stood over her and Naruto.
"…You not holding a grudge then?" She asked. Last time she had seen this guy, it had been to make an example, throwing him down towards Naruto with enough force to make a crater. There was no way he was caught up on all the developments since then and by all rights he should still consider her an enemy.
"My kikaichu have been watching." Shino answered, holding out his hand for several insects to land on. "I don't understand all the details, but I know enough to understand you're no longer an enemy."
"That's good then…" Tayuya had a million other things she needed to tell him, but she didn't have the energy anymore. What she really wanted to tell him was to run. But she had a feeling that would just result in wasted breath. If he had come out with the intention of running, he would have grabbed them already. The fact he was standing here so casually meant he intended to fight.
"Gatsuga!" Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru also burst onto the scene, their bodies nothing more than gray drills. They collided into Kimimaro, catching him off guard and knocking him onto his side.
There was no way the three of them should have been moving so soon, let alone capable of fighting. This kind of recovery was way too quick… that was when Tayuya remembered that they had been grabbed by Naruto's trees for protection. His wooden arm had been healing him… so maybe it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that it had healed them too.
Even then, there was no way they could win. Tayuya had beaten the three of them when they were fighting at full strength. And while they may have recovered, they were far from back to perfect health. Not to mention Kimimaro was even stronger now than ever. The math just didn't add up here.
Channeling the inner power of her Doki, Tayuya managed to get her arms under her. Pushing her body up caused her elbows to shake and she thought her wrists might snap. It was all she could do to roll over. Once she did, even just the act of sitting up left her exhausted and gasping for breath, like she ran a marathon.
"Do not push yourself." Shino stood next to her, hands in his pockets. He didn't offer her any help to stand, not that she would have taken it even if he had. "We underestimated you and paid the price for it. Things are different this time."
Tayuya scoffed, but again didn't say anything. The way she remembered it, Kiba had been the one to underestimate her. After she mercilessly beat him and his clone with nothing but her fists, Shino had been forced to intervene, cascading their failure and getting him wrapped up in it.
Now he was putting his faith in the same teammate that had failed him once in this fight already.
"You ready, Shino?" Kiba hollered, turning back to glance at his teammate. He and Akamaru were both pushing their chakra to the limit, standing side by side in similar stances now.
"Ready." Shino adjusted his broken glasses and with an authoritative nod, gave Kiba the go ahead. Tayuya may not have known why he would put his trust in Kiba, but to Shino it was all too obvious.
Certainly, Kiba was loud, brash, and always charging head first into danger. However, he was also loyal to a fault, protective of his friends and most importantly… he hated to lose. After the humiliating defeat they had just been handed by Tayuya, he wouldn't allow himself to be so easily overcome once again.
This was why Shino was going to trust him. That and because Kiba still had an ace up his sleeve he hadn't yet revealed.
"Human Beast Transformation: Double Headed Wolf!" Kiba and Akamaru were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. When that smoke dissipated, a single form was left behind. Like the name implied, a giant wolf with two heads.
Shino couldn't help but smirk as Tayuya let out a surprised gasp. This was their strategy. Kimimaro had grown large, too large to fight reasonably at their current size. Kiba and Akamaru's combined transformation leveled the playing field at least a little.
Kimimaro rose back to his full height. He was a bipedal monstrosity, back hunched as if he was carrying a boulder too heavy for him to support. Nothing about him looked human anymore, but the same could be said for the two headed wolf that Kiba and Akamaru had transformed into. Kimimaro appeared to be sizing up his new opponent, red eyes glaring at the wolf from an equal height. In response, Kiba and Akamaru let out a deep feral growl.
Taking this as a challenge, Kimimaro roared. The noise that left his mouth was deep, and guttural. It wasn't human, but it also felt wrong to call the noise animalistic. The closest word that applied might have been otherworldly. It caused Shino's kikaichu to buzz in agitation.
Just as he managed to settle his colony, Kimimaro charged Kiba. The two headed wolf charged back, the two large creatures shaking the earth with every footfall. They collided into one another with enough force to create a shockwave that nearly knocked Shino over. Despite his earlier healing, he was also barely standing as it was. Even so, he braced himself and stood tall. He still had a part to play in this plan.
The two monstrous entities became entangled in a mix of slashing claws and snapping jaws. It was impossible to get any sense of what was happening between the two of them, the white hair of the wolf and pitch black flesh of Kimimaro swirling together like a pinyin.
Finally, a winner was decided; Kimimaro spinning around and slamming his tail into the side of Kiba and sending him crashing into the forest. Almost all the trees Naruto had created had been toppled now, along with the majority of Kimimaro's bone ferns.
"I hope you guys had more planned than just size." Takuya remarked glumly. It would seem some of her strength was returning, but it was still far from enough to do actual battle. No, Shino and Kiba were on their own for the rest of this fight. That was fine, however.
"We do." Shino responded cryptically, seeing no need to explain their plan any further than that. It was true, Naruto had come to see her as an ally throughout the battle, and while she wasn't hostile at the moment, Shino didn't dare trust her. As he had given his cryptic response, Kiba once more rose to all four paws, shaking off any damage he and Akamaru might have just sustained. They could still go.
That was good, because their real battle started now. Kimimaro was on the pair again, ready to strike them down once and for all. His claws swung through empty air, however, the twin-headed wolf having leapt high in the air above. At the peak of their ascension, just as they slowed and gravity began to pull them back down, they began to spin. Far faster than when the two were individuals, the intensity of this rotation was so intense it made a loud whirring akin to a buzz saw. The ear-grating noise was so painful that it seemed to cause Kimimaro, who was standing directly under them, immense pain.
Shino also felt the urge to cover his ears, like Tayuya was now doing. However, he didn't do that. That was because his turn was finally up. The intensity of the rotation was too great, effectively rendering Kiba and Akamaru blind while executing this technique. The pair could normally get around that by "marking" their prey, however, attempting this marking posed too much risk with Kimimaro in his current form. So instead they combined this with Shino's own specialty. He had placed a special insect on Kimimaro, one that emitted a powerful smell for the pair to track. In other words, they were the main power, but he was an equally indispensable support.
"Garoga!" Kiba's voice somehow managed to carry over the sound of the whirring drill. They raced straight down, too fast for Kimimaro to dodge, slamming into his back and pushing him into the ground. There was a loud grinding noise, the drill chipping away at the white bones that made up the spines of Kimimaro's back. Orange sparks flew in all directions, creating a beautiful- if not disturbing- light show. Kimimaro once again let out an inhuman roar. So foreign was the sound that it couldn't be placed, but Shino believed the only thing that roar could possibly signify was pain. The intense pain of having your very bones whittled away by a hypersonic drill.
Some of the bones began glowing a deep purple, before beams of pure energy radiated off of Kimimaro's back, striking Kiba point blank. However, the rotation of the drill was so powerful it merely deflected the energy right off, leaving the pair unharmed. With that attack failed, apparently Kimimaro's last act of defiance, his body went limp and the alien screeches stopped as his elongated chin struck the earth, snapping his mouth shut. The two-headed wolf flew backwards, coming out of the spin and landing several yards away.
"How's that!?" Kiba laughed, the sound looking incredibly unnatural coming from the mouth of a wolf. Even as he took the chance to gloat, Kimimaro remained unmoving, lying face down.
"Y'all should have led with that." Tayuya said, in what Shino decided to interpret as praise, even though it was more likely criticism.
With this, it looked like things were finally calming down on their end. It had been touch and go throughout, but they had managed to resolve things without Hinata. Now all they had to do was wait for her to wrap up things with the Moonfire Flower and they could call this mission a success- A hard-earned success at that. Hunted by two groups of enemy Shinobi, for as of yet unknown reasons. However, in a stroke of luck, both times resulted in a betrayal on the enemy side. It was only by these betrayals that they managed to survive, yet it was still odd that it happened twice.
This was as it should have been. Everything finally simminering to a close. Just as everyone began to relax and drop their guard, however, is when the ground began to shake.
The source of the sudden quake made itself readily apparent, giant ferns of bone splitting the earth open right beneath the twin-headed wolf. Kiba and Akamaru didn't even have a chance to cry out in pain, those bones skewering them like a wild boar. Their body was lifted off the ground and hung suspended for several terrifying seconds. Before their combined transformation broke in a burst of smoke. Kiba and Akamaru's bodies fell from the smoke, rolling down the ferns where they hit the ground with loud thuds. To Shino's relief, they appeared physically unharmed as the bones that pierced them had hit their fake body. However, the mental shock appeared to have temporarily knocked them back out.
"He can still use that technique…" Tayuya uttered, her voice once more full of dread. Like her, Shino had assumed this form of Kimimaro's had abandoned all reason. Until now, he hadn't used anything that could be considered Ninjutsu and was simply throwing his massive size and power around randomly. That assumption had just cost them dearly.
Kimimaro stood back up. His clawed hands had dug into the earth, until now hidden from them by his body lying on top of them. The bone-like fingers had been what sunk into the ground, growing like weeds until they struck right below Kiba and Akamaru. With an audible snap, he detached his fingers from those bones digging into the ground and turned to face them.
Tayuya and Shino were the only two left standing now; if you could even call them that. Neither of them had the strength left to actually fight and running seemed about just as impossible. Even if they could run, that would leave the city behind them exposed. A section of the wall had already fallen, onlookers gathering there to see the commotion outside. Once all the Shinobi fell, it was highly likely Kimimaro set his sights on them next.
The apex predator formerly known as Kimimaro took a threatening step towards them. Then another. Shino's mind raced, trying to come up with something. His kikaichu were incapable of eating whatever dark, sinister energy that was, making them useless in this battle. He called out to any insects he could, but his range wasn't wide enough to find something that could actually help them. If he had more chakra than maybe… but as he was, it was impossible.
Their whole situation only had one conclusion: Doom.
As if to deny that very thought, a streak of hopeful white flew over their heads. Against the massive size of Kimimaro, it was nothing more than a rabbit to a human. Yet this "rabbit" hit the giant predator with the force of a bullet, striking him in the jaw and bringing him down to his knees.
The white streak bounced off of him, landing just in front of Tayuya and Shino. Only then was its true form revealed. Not some force of nature, but a small girl with short blue hair tied in a ponytail. Her hair and black, loose fitting clothes danced in the air around her, as if being moved by some invisible force. As she turned to look at them, her Byakugan eyes seemed to glow in the dark. In particular, the white lotus pattern blooming in the middle of them.
"You're-" Tayuya started to say, the words getting caught in the back of her throat. This was who she had been searching for. The one her mother told her about. There was no doubt about it now. Tayuya had been unsure before because she hadn't gotten a good look into her eyes. Seeing the lotus blooming inside the Byakugan, it was enough for Tayuya's thoughts to freeze.
"Hinata!" Shino named her, but it wasn't joy or relief which filled his voice. "The Moonfire Flower?" He asked. For if Hinata was here now, that could only mean one thing; She had abandoned the flower in order to chase after the thing that possessed Kimimaro.
Their mission was a failure.
Hinata vs Kimimaro
Hinata stood on the battlefield.
Where she should have been was the mouth of a volcano, collecting the flower that would save their teacher's life. However, she couldn't ignore the impurity that had fled from the island either.
Hunting such things was her duty as Kali's reincarnation. That alone wouldn't have been reason enough for her to abandon the flower, however. No, there were three other reasons on top of that. The first, was the impurity being released had been her fault. Her lack of experience had caused it to break away from the shrine and be set free. The second reason was because the number of lives at risk far exceeded that of a single one.
The final reason…
Looking down at the unconscious form of Naruto, Hinata knew she had made the only choice she could.
In order to cross the distance between the island and the mainland in as little time as she had, Hinata had already opened up the first two of the eight gates. Enormous power flowed through her now, creating a slight breeze around her that lifted her clothes and jostled her hair. Even with the enhanced speed all this power gave her, it would appear she had been too slow.
Naruto was in the worst condition. He was covered in burns… and his arm. It was there, but something was wrong about it. Like it had been turned into wood. She was severely lacking in details, but that would have to come later.
Kiba and Akamaru were conscious, but they both seemed incapable of moving, their bodies convulsing in pain. Surrounding them were inexplicably tall ferns that looked like they were made from bones. The bones of what, it was impossible to say, but she knew it must have been the enemy's Jutsu. Judging by the size too, it had been used to take down their combined transformation, which explained their lack of external wounds.
Shino looked to be the most well-off of her team, but that was hardly saying much. He was covered in mud and bruises, his sunglasses shattered to the point she wondered how he even saw anymore while still wearing them. He was also obviously exhausted to the point it seemed a miracle he was still standing.
"The Moonfire Flower?" He asked her. In response, Hinata shook her head as if to say they could talk about that later. They were in a battle right now and she couldn't afford the distractions. On top of that, there was pressing information she needed to understand what exactly was going on here.
She had chased after the impurity and it was here… but it was different now. Before, it had been more like a slug with a single giant white eye. Now it was like an ancient predator, covered in scales made of white bone and with two smaller, piercing red eyes. Why had it changed? She had a feeling even if she asked, they wouldn't understand the answer. So instead she asked the next most pressing thing on her mind.
"Who are you?" Her question was directed at the red-haired girl sitting next to Naruto. She was equally as injured as everyone else, but it would appear she wasn't an enemy. If she was, there would be no reason for her to be in the position she currently sat in. That said, Hinata detected a trace of the impurity on her… and she felt like she had seen her somewhere before, but couldn't place it.
"It's Tayuya…" The girl answered, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I came here to meet you." Meet her? But why? Before Hinata could ask that question, she answered. "I was there when you brought down Orochimaru's barrier."
"Ah!" Hinata gasped as the memory came rushing back to her. She had been so focused on Orochimaru at the time and the evil energy rolling off of him, she barely noticed anything, or in this case, anyone else. However, there had certainly been four others there, maintaining the barrier she destroyed. This had been one of them. So she was an enemy? No, not necessarily.
After all, she said that she had come here to meet her. She didn't use the words "fight" or "kill" but to meet.
"That's Kimimaro over there." Tayuya continued, nodding at the rising impurity. "Although I don't know what's happened to him… it's like he's unlocked a new stage to the curse seal transformation." Those words sent Hinata's mind reeling.
"I see… So that's what happened." She said, piecing the puzzle together. If Kimimaro was another henchman of Orochimaru, then it stood to reason he also had a cursed mark made from an impurity. So the dreadful abnormality Hinata had accidentally released had been drawn to that and fused with it, resulting in the monster in front of them.
"Do you have some strategy to deal with it?" Shino asked. He seemed far from satisfied that she had dodged his earlier question, but he recognized their current urgency as well. At best, they had seconds left to talk.
"Probably…" Hinata said, hating that even as a Chunin she sounded so unconfident. She looked once more at Tayuya. "Though I don't think I can save your teammate." Even if she purified the impurity, it looked to her like it had fused completely with its host. Whatever Kimimaro was before, he was more monster now than anything else. Killing the impurity meant killing him.
"Tch, fine with me." Tayuya said with a click of the teeth. There was no love for her companion, and it seemed there may have never been any to begin with. The amount of holes in information was still far too many, but Hinata was beginning to get a more clear picture of what led to the current state of affairs.
There would be no time to gather further information, however.
The impurity had recovered from her earlier attack and was back on its feet. It was staring right at them, more specifically at her. This was good in a way. The wall to the city behind her had been damaged and a piece of it knocked down. So long as the focus on this thing was on her, it wasn't going after the gathering citizens.
All the same, she didn't like the gaze of this thing. When it had just been an impurity, it had almost seemed terrified of her. Now that it was fused with Kimimaro, however, it almost looked… angry. Like it was holding some kind of grudge for some slight she didn't even know she had committed. In a way, that was fine with her. She didn't know what she had done to upset him, but he had done plenty to upset her.
Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, they were all injured because of this thing. For the first time, perhaps in her life, Hinata felt the sensation of white hot rage boiling in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and she wished she had remained ignorant of it for the rest of her life. That was impossible now, just like this battle.
"Shino-kun, Tayuya-san." Hinata said, her voice quiet but rarely authoritative. "Leave this to me." She didn't wait for a response. Even if she had, she knew they could only agree. They were in no condition to fight. The only one that could do anything anymore was her. A thought she didn't relish in, but accepted nonetheless.
In a blur, she was off. The ground where she had just been standing exploded, a direct result of her kicking off to sprint forward. It actually wasn't so much of a sprint, but more like she was gliding across the earth. As if it was made of ice, that was the speed at which she could travel upon opening two of the gates. To the outside world, she appeared as little more than a blur encased in a white glow. That light came from her chakra and the natural energy mixing together and then exploding outwards around her.
Yet as fast as she was, it seemed like Kimimaro was able to follow her movements. Those red eyes of his were eerily similar to a Sharingan, only lacking the signature three tomoe. She had caught him off guard with her previous attack, but it appeared that wouldn't be possible again.
That wasn't to say Hinata was at a complete disadvantage here. She had one thing working in her favor: size. This had been in Kimimaro's favor up until now simply due to his raw power in addition to his massive frame allowing him to completely overpower the others. However, that size only put him at a disadvantage now that he was fighting someone similar in strength and considerably faster.
Hinata ran up until she was right beneath him, before then jumping upwards, changing her orientation from horizontal to vertical without so much as slowing for a second. Kimimaro swung at her with his arms, claws aiming where she should have been if she had obeyed the normal laws of physics and hadn't been able to change course on a dime. Instead he hit empty air, allowing Hinata to strike him straight in the jaw a second later.
He stumbled backwards as Hinata continued into the air, flying high above him. As Kimimaro's red eyes tracked her upwards, Hinata's frame seemed to momentarily disappear under the light of the moon. As if the white aura surrounding her and the moonlight were of the same frequency, effectively camouflaging her. Hinata pushed off the very air itself, pulling this off by following the course of nature.
It was like an invisible line only visible to her with the power of the Nichiren Byakugan. By following this line- or current- it allowed Hinata to move along with nature itself. Not fighting against the flow of it like all others had to do. This was the secret to her being able to perform miracles such as changing direction without slowing and kicking off of the very air itself.
Unable to see her even with his enhanced vision, Kimimaro was blindsided as Hinata's second strike fell down upon his head with the force of a hammer. His pitch black skin ripped apart and the bone of his skull cracked. These blows weren't just physical, but also enhanced with the Hyuga's speciality, the Jyuken, meaning it struck inside as well.
Kimimaro staggered, both the damage to his skull and even his very brain was enough to have killed most regular adversaries. Kimimaro was already far beyond such norms, however. Even as just a human, his Kekkei Genkai had granted him a one-of-a-kind level of toughness. Now that was combined with the power of an impurity. The damage to his brain was hardly a concern, for it simply had to be filled in with the parts of him that were no longer human, causing him to slip further into the form of a beast.
There was an ear piercing screech. The noise itself was worse than nails on a chalkboard. It wasn't enough to call it high pitched- no, this was far worse than that, the noise so virtrol it affected the very air, the very natural energy of the world around it. The current Hinata had been following was thrown into disarray. Her vision swam… rather, the flow of energy around her wobbled, causing it to seem like it was her vision.
Regardless of how you worded it, the end result was the same; Hinata's center of balance was thrown off and vertigo took over. She thought she might throw up again, saved only by the fact she had previously emptied the contents of her stomach back on Toyama Island. Her knees wobbled and it took everything in her power to remain standing. She staggered forward- right into the tail that swung around to meet her.
Hinata was sent airborne, flying over her friends and towards the wall of the city. She crashed down just short of it, the impact knocking the air from her lungs. She could barely concentrate through the pain and disorientation, but she forced her body to move all the same. The power of the second gate allowed for an influx of natural energy, which theoretically increased the rate at which she healed. There was no reason to think her opponent would give her the time for that, however.
So against the will of her body, Hinata forced herself to her feet. As she looked forward though, the massive body of Kimimaro was no longer there. She blinked in surprise, wondering for a moment if he had fled. No, that couldn't be the case. The heavy energy of the impurity still clung to the area, hanging around it like a thick fog. It was here. That much she was certain of.
The question now was: where?
Using her Nichiren Byakugan, she scanned the area all around her. Her team and the mysterious girl were still at the edge of the artificial forest, having not moved and being left undisturbed since Hinata had arrived. Further into what little of that forest remained was nothing, just the unusual chakra Naruto had used to create it in the first place.
Behind her was the damaged wall of the city. A slowly growing crowd came out to witness the commotion, the tenor of their voices rising now that the battle had been brought so close to them. Hinata wanted to tell them to run, close enough now that even her soft voice would surely reach them. However, she couldn't afford such a distraction, not when she still didn't know where her opponent was.
Sensing he wasn't in front of her or behind, Hinata instead turned her attention to the sky. She had used the power of natural energy to hide in the moonlight, however briefly that may have been. It didn't seem likely Kimimaro had such an ability himself. The imbalances caused by his very existence now would make any such attempt to do so mute.
That left only one place. Just as Hinata turned her attention below, warning bells sounded off inside her head. She couldn't actually see the attack coming, but she felt it. She jumped backwards, landing on the broken rubble that was once the wall to the city.
In the spot where she had just been standing a giant fern made of bone shot up, exactly like the ones surrounding Kiba and Akamaru. If it had hit her, she would have surely been torn in half. She could tell just by looking at this bone that it was insanely dense. It couldn't be broken by normal strength alone. However, Hinata didn't need to use normal means to damage it.
She leapt forward, single finger extended. She struck the bone at the natural tenketsu point, causing it to shatter and the towering fern to topple over. The moment she struck and she could feel Kimimaro's rage. As if an animal reacting to the coming storm, Hinata read Kimimaro's emotions and traced it deep into the earth below. He had melded with the earth, not so much as burrowed, and was now expanding his Kekkei Genkai to attack her.
The first fern fell just as a second took its place. Hinata skipped backwards, dodging by a hair's breadth. Before it had even finished growing, she struck at its tenketsu and once again brought it down. Just as quickly a third fern rose to take its place. Hinata spun on her heel, moving with the grace of a trained ballerina.
An elegant game of cat and mouse began, Kimimaro's ferns shooting up from the earth only to be brought down just as quickly. This was as Hinata danced away, a single finger her only means of attack. She quickly led the ferns away from the gathered citizens and back out into the open field. To everyone watching, she was barely a blur, the ferns popping up every second, leaving behind a trail of broken stalks.
Only once she had gotten a safe distance away from the walls and her own teammates did Hinata unleash her counterattack. Instead of striking the fern and dancing away, Hinata unleashed a second finger. It was an otherwise insignificant movement, unnoticed by everyone watching. Simply switching from one extended finger to two shouldn't have changed anything. That was what anyone lacking the Nichiren Byakugan would assume.
The natural tenketsu points visible to Hinata's eyes were a little different than the chakra tenketsu of a person. Calling them points in the first place was a misnomer. They were more like cracks or fractures in the very world itself. By widening that fracture a little, Hinata could cause massive damage. That was why even a single finger was enough to destroy the whole tree-sized bone.
So what happened when you widened that gap even further with a second finger? In addition, Hinata didn't just strike at this tenketsu, but instead slashed downwards, ripping the whole fracture wide open. This caused the damage to spread beyond just the bone, reaching into the ground it was coming from.
The entire city shook with the force of an earthquake as the field Hinata had been dancing through was ripped asunder. Dust flew in the air, obscuring everything in a cloud of brown, the once grassy hillside now reduced to piles of rubble. As the cloud of dust settled and the quaking ceased, silence settled over the entire area.
The crowd of people grew even larger, every single person waiting with baited breath to see what would happen next. They were terrified and yet at the same time they couldn't possibly look away. It was a battle unlike anything they had ever seen, a young girl clad in white aura doing battle against an apex predator long thought to be extinct. For a brief moment, they all wondered if the fight was already over.
They didn't need to wait long for that notion to be proven folly.
From within the rubble a mass of pure black pushed its way to the surface. Kimimaro's body was only all the more deformed now. The black flesh was ripped wide open in multiple places, scales of white bone growing in to attempt to cover the damage. An obvious stopgap, the more this body was overgrown with scales and the less efficient it became. The whole thing was a lopsided mess now, barely recognizable as a beast or human of any sort.
Yet the more removed from nature it became, the stronger it felt like this thing was becoming. It was as if the very nature of this thing was to contradict existence.
Hinata knew that with its body as it was now, her victory should have been assured. Yet somehow the situation felt simultaneously more hopeless than ever. The effect it had on the natural balance around it was so perverted by this point, Hinata could no longer clearly see the current she had been using to fight. Relying on her eyes to win this battle simply wasn't possible.
The lopsided monstrosity made some kind of gurgling noise. It might have been intended as another roar. Perhaps it was a laugh? Whatever it was, the windpipe once belonging to Kimimaro was being crushed by the very bones he had made to sustain his life, resulting in this wicked sound.
This battle couldn't be allowed to go on. Whatever was happening, this was getting dangerously close to creating an anomaly that there was no coming back from. If she didn't stop things quickly, Kali's worst fears would be realized.
"Third Gate of Life: Open!" Hinata pressed on the tenketsu located just below the center of her collar, activating the third gate. Power even greater than before flowed into her. She lowered her stance, preparing to charge.
The abnormality still called Kimimaro lumpered towards her, taking uneven steps. She kicked off the ground, crossing the distance between them in less than a second.
A force of pure white met an entity of pure black.
And their battle entered its climax.
"Uzumaki Naruto, I command you to wake!"
A voice clear as the autumn sky cut through the air, reaching deep into Naruto's soul and jolting him into consciousness.
"Huh!? Whazzup?" Naruto lurched into an upright sitting position, unsure of what was happening. He glanced left. Then right. Nope… he had no idea where this was.
Last thing he remembered, he had been fighting Kimimaro under a moonlit sky just outside of Koto City. Wherever he was now… clearly wasn't there. This was deep in the forest, both familiar and yet somehow unfamiliar to him. It felt like he had been here hundreds of times, yet he didn't recognize a single landmark. The sky in the air above him was a blue so pure, he almost thought it couldn't possibly belong to the world he was from.
A thought that turned out to be exactly right.
"Finally, I thought you would never arise." An unknown voice said from behind. Naruto jumped to his feet, spinning around with fists raised for combat. He needn't have bothered, the one standing before him posing no threat.
It was a man. One with short brown hair and sporting a white kimono. His jawline was dignified, yet something about him also felt incredibly boyish. Naruto couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about him felt like looking in a mirror. Or more accurately like he was looking at his own future.
"I know you?" Naruto asked, sounding slightly more accusing than he intended. His training was telling him to be on guard, whereas all his instincts seemed to tell him there was nothing to worry about. In the end, he had no idea which sense to listen to, resulting in him being a bit of both.
"Not likely, although you do have my arm." The man said. It was then that Naruto noticed his right arm was missing. Or rather, it had turned into a mass of pure yellow chakra, the appearance of it absolutely ghastly.
"What the heck do you mean I have it-?" Naruto inhaled sharply at the end, looking down at his own right arm. That was right, he had lost it in the fight with Kimimaro. Then he had stuck a wood clone's arm on it as a makeshift replacement. However, the arm that was there now wasn't wood.
It was the same arm of the man that was before him, as if Naruto had stolen it and stitched it onto himself. He lifted the arm and it obeyed him without hesitation. Of course it did, it was attached to him and his nerves. There was no way the arm wouldn't listen to him if he told it to move.
"My name is Asura." The man introduced himself, startling Naruto out of his shock. He turned to look at the man whose arm he had stolen, unsure if he should apologize or give him gratitude. "We will have to talk later. Your battle isn't yet over."
"That's right!" Naruto gasped, the reality of the situation finally catching up to him. "Kimimaro! And Tayuya… what the hell happened!?" He spun around, but saw no sign of anyone else, friend or foe.
"You lost consciousness." Asura answered simply. "You and I were finally able to meet after you grafted a part of my chakra onto your physical flesh. However, the fight outside is still raging. Kali's reincarnation is battling now and she needs your help. She is not someone we can allow to fail, so I ask you to once again rejoin the fray."
"Hold up!" Naruto yelled, spinning around and holding up Asura's own arm to silence him. "You're using way too many words I don't understand, alright? Who the heck is Kali? What do you mean by reincarnation? And how in the heck am I supposed to fight anymore?"
"Haa…" Asura sighed, shaking his head. "Why do all my reincarnations have to be like this?" He lamented to himself. "Look, for now I only have time to answer the last question. Things for Kali are really bad, so listen up! The only thing you need to do to keep fighting is to ask Kurama for help. His power should be enough to get you through."
"…Kurama?" Naruto asked, looking perplexed. His confusion caused Asura to sigh once again.
"Never mind… I'll do it." He said, looking behind Naruto and somewhere deep into the forest. "Rather, I would. But you've been listening, haven't you?
"Kurama."
Tayuya once again forced all the strength she could into her legs. Yet the most she could do was barely manage to stand.
"Shit, shit." She cursed her own weakness. Why was this happening? She should be stronger than this. The one she had been looking for was fighting… and she needed help.
Hinata and Kimimaro clashed in the distance. She awash in pure white energy. He leaking more and more of that black miasma. There was no more strategy to their battle. They were simply two titanic forces throwing all their power and weight at one another, both sides vying for absolute superiority.
That's what their fight had turned into. It was obvious even from here this wasn't the battle Hinata desired. However, her desperation to wrap things up quickly had resulted in this strange stalemate. One that could only last so long. Hinata's power would wane first… that was obvious to anyone watching. This was simply a battle she could not win on her own.
That was why Tayuya once again tried to stand. She had made it all this way. Only for it to fall apart here? Right in front of the finish line? She refused to accept that.
She would help Hinata if it killed her.
Just as that thought crossed her mind and there was a third explosion of energy. However, this one wasn't in the distance where the two forces of black and white were throwing down. No, this burst came from right next to her.
Red chakra exactly like that of earlier rolled off Naruto's body, covering him like a cloak. It lifted him off the ground and to his feet without him having to move a single limb. His whiskers were more pronounced, teeth growing into fangs that pushed past his closed lips. Red eyes glared forward, looking at the battle that was happening, both contestants still unaware of his reawakening.
"Naruto?" Tayuya asked. She had no idea what kind of emotion it was she had spoken his name. On the one hand, she was relieved. He was okay, and what's more, still had the strength to fight. On the other hand, she was angry at him. He needed to rest, rejoining this fight was clear suicide for him after everything he had already been through.
Saying his name seemed to snap him out of whatever funk it was he had been in. He turned to look at her, and instead of saying anything, wordlessly held out his hand. She wasn't sure what his intention was. Yet for some reason she felt inclined to take that offered hand.
The moment she did and the red chakra surged across, covering her in a similar energy. "Wh-!?" Tayuya started to shout in shock as she felt strength flow into her. Not just any strength, but twice… maybe even three times as much as she had before. "This is…?" She asked, looking at the red cloak that enveloped her now too.
It was a strange feeling. She was stronger now, certainly, but there was something more. A kind of burning sensation, like the chakra was slowly eating away at her.
"Our only chance to fight." Naruto answered. "It's a little unstable, and you'll probably be more tired after using it… but I figured you wouldn't have any complaints."
At those words, Tayuya smirked at him. "Damn right." She said. It had already taken a deal with the devil to get this far. Selling her soul was barely anything to her anymore.
Naruto let go of her hand and turned to Shino next. "What will you do?" He asked, not even surprised to see he had rejoined them. The bug user had a choice. Risk using the volatile chakra and possibly bringing further harm to himself, or sitting the battle out.
"You do not even have to ask." Shino said without hesitation. "Why is that? Because Hinata, our team leader, is fighting. Which means so shall I." He took Naruto's hand the second he finished talking, the same red chakra flowing to him as well.
Like with Tayuya, Shino felt an incredible surge of chakra. The things once out of his reach were now possible. His kikaichu also ate at it hungrily, quickly growing addicted to the new nourishment.
"Oi, Naruto!" Kiba stumbled forward, resting a hand on Naruto's shoulder. He had dragged himself over, carrying the still wounded Akamaru. The moment he made contact with the red cloak and the same chakra spread to him as well. Even Akamaru was gifted with the unnaturally powerful energy. "Thanks." He said. He had been nothing but a hindrance this whole fight. That was why at the very end he would make sure he did at least this one thing right.
"Save that for after we help Hinata." Naruto took a step forward, standing in front of the three of them. This chakra still wasn't enough for them to do much. His seal didn't allow for enough of the Nine-tails chakra to come through yet and even if it could, the others wouldn't be able to handle anything more than he had given them. This was their limit.
They had one shot to make this work.
"What's the plan?" Shino asked. In the past, he never thought he would ask Naruto to be the one to guide them. Of course, he had never seen him wield such power as now either.
"We just need to hold that thing down." Tayuya answered instead, cracking her knuckles. "We do that, and your leader should be able to land the finishing blow." She believed that whatever Kimimaro had become, Hinata was the only one that could truly stop it.
"Simple. Just the way I like it." Kiba snarled happily and Akamaru let out a quiet bark of agreement.
Naruto turned and nodded to them. He didn't have any grand words of encouragement. Just a short signal to charge.
"Let's go."
Hinata hit the ground with a loud thud.
Her earlier attack had destroyed the terrain, making it difficult to maintain her footing. The same could be said for her opponent, yet for some reason that barely seemed like a hindrance to him at this point. It was almost like the unevenness of the terrain they fought on was to his benefit.
She supposed this was just another way in which his essence as an impurity born from imbalance reacted with the world around it. In the end, there was still too much she didn't understand about Kali's position and what her own job was supposed to have been as her successor.
That lack of knowledge was costing her now in the worst possible way. If things continued as they were, she really was going to lose. No sooner did she have that thought, and the status quo was once again thrown into disarray.
"Mokuton: Transformation Jutsu!" Naruto reached his right arm forward, that arm elongating unnaturally and taking on the properties of numerous wooden branches. Those branches wrapped around Kimimaro's fattened right arm, binding it in place.
Kimimaro flexed and pulled, but the branches would not break, being strengthened by some kind of strange red chakra that Naruto was emitting from his body. She recognized it immediately as the chakra of the Kyubi, but had no idea he had such control over it before now.
Still, it wasn't going to be enough. Before Hinata could even prepare a technique of some sort, Kimimaro swung with his left arm, the claws aiming to shred the wooden branches in two. Even enhanced with the red chakra, they wouldn't survive such an attack. Which is why the attack was never allowed to land in the first place.
"You think I'll fucking let you!?" Tayuya had raced around to the left side, covered in the same red chakra that Naruto was. How she had it, Hinata had no idea, but that wasn't important now. Tayuya spread her arms wide and extended her torso as if to give a chest bump. From her stomach sprung out a half dozen golden chains.
Those chains wrapped around Kimimaro's left arm and snapped it to the other side, spreading both his arms wide and leaving him open to attack. However, there was still one more limb to watch out for. His tail swung wildly, attempting to smack at either bond in a desperate attempt to get free.
"Human Beast Transformation: Double Headed Wolf!" Kiba and Akamaru once more unveiled their ultimate technique, transforming into a large twin-headed wolf. The two heads bit onto the tail, holding it in place and once again causing Kimimaro to make that strange gurgling noise.
Kimimaro then bent forward, uneven black legs flexing. At any moment he would leap. Even with the three of them holding him, she doubted they could maintain their grip if he succeeded in jumping.
"Hinata, prepare your attack." Shino walked up behind her, hands in his pockets and the red chakra cloak also clinging to him. "I have already called for backup." Just as he finished that statement, the ground once again began to shake.
This time the earth beneath Kimimaro shifted, massive worms large enough to eat Hinata in one bite bursting out from the ground to wrap themselves around his legs. He was completely trapped. Unable to move so much as an inch.
However, it wouldn't last long. The red chakra everyone was using to power their Jutsu was already beginning to flicker and fade. Hinata had only a couple moments to prepare her stance and begin the dance.
In the madness of battle she hadn't been able to properly line herself up in order to unleash Kali's prized technique. Now the stage was set and she could focus without hesitation.
"Thank you." She said, only Shino able to hear her for now. That was fine, because she would say it again later. After they all survived this fight.
Hinata took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them back up, she could see her path. The abnormality had been trying to blind her from it, but it was there. The steps she had to take were all lined up. The only thing she had to do was follow them.
"Byakuren: Some no Mai!" Hinata called, beginning the first dance of the white lotus.
She crossed the distance between herself and her opponent in a blur, body spinning around and around with every step, building up momentum with each rotation. By the time she reached her opponent, she was like a tornado.
The first dance of the white lotus was a series of eight strikes. The first one passed through Kimimaro, hitting him straight through the chest. Before he could react she was on him again, this time coming from behind. In the span of only eight seconds, she initiated every blow.
However, it wasn't enough. Kimimaro didn't fall and the impurity didn't vanish. It had already grown too strong for her to defeat with a single dance.
Which is why she wouldn't stop at just one.
"Yaezaki!" Hinata roared, the loudest her voice had ever been. If the First Dance of the White Lotus one time was insufficient, then she would simply do it eight.
The dance that was meant to be a series of eight strikes would be repeated… until it was sixty-four.
Every movement she made left behind a streak of pure white. To the onlookers, the first completed dance left the mark of white lotus imprinted on the one struck by it. By doing the dance eight times, she left a field of lotuses blooming on top of one another, the angle slightly adjusted until it looked like a three-dimensional sealing.
Finally, her feet touched down on the broken dirt with two small taps. Hinata stood with her back facing Kimimaro, inhaling once sharply, before then letting the breath out slowly. There was no sound from Kimimaro or the impurity anymore. Instead, she watched as it silently turned to dust, like ashes being blown away in the wind.
The worms holding its legs slunk back into the holes they had come from. Kiba and Akamaru maintained their grip on his tail until it was no more. Tayuya's chains of gold fell, slinking back into her torso. And Naruto retracted his wooden branches until his arm once again took its normal shape.
The red chakra cloaks faded from them all. With the cloaks, so too did all the strength they once had. All four of them barely managed to maintain standing, but somehow they were able to regroup in the center.
"Thank you, everyone." Hinata once again gave her gratitude, this time so they could all hear. She looked them all in the eyes, stopping last at Tayuya. The red-haired girl inclined her head, not able to maintain Hinata's gaze for more than a single second.
If even a single one of them hadn't been here, then she doubted things would have gone that smoothly. She was only able to use that technique because they had all worked together. Even if Tayuya had once been an enemy, she had demonstrated her value as an ally.
Before that, however, there was something more pressing at hand.
"Hinata," Shino repeated his earlier question. "The flower?" He asked her, but there was no hope in his voice.
"Oh yeah!" Naruto and Kiba shouted together, appearing to have forgotten about it completely. Their faces quickly fell as they seemed to realize the implications. If Hinata had made it here in time to help them then…
"It's okay." Hinata said with a small smile, contrary to their sunken expressions.
"Hinata!" Kiba shouted, tears building in the corner of his eyes. "Kurenai-sensei is-"
"Going to be fine." Hinata assured him, turning to the crowd of people watching them from the broken wall. Just as she did, there was a commotion from inside. The crowd parted to reveal…
Hyuga Hinata.
"What!?" Her team all exclaimed their surprise, even Shino unable to mask his shock.
"It's thanks to you, Naruto-kun." Hinata answered, turning to smile at him. "I didn't know what to do. Chase after the flower or come to help here. When I asked myself what you would do… I realized what it was I should."
"When did you even learn the Shadow clone?" Naruto asked, still not sure he believed what he was seeing.
"No, her learning it really isn't the surprising part here." Shino said. Of course, Hinata was always watching Naruto. It really wasn't weird that she would have learned his signature technique.
"For real." Tayuya continued. "You mean to tell me you fought Kimimaro like that, and it was after your strength had been split in two?" When put like that, Hinata couldn't help but blush and started pushing her index fingers together.
"I didn't mean it like that…" She mumbled, glancing at everyone to make sure they understood. It wasn't like she had been trying to brag or anything. She had been desperate, that was all.
"Whatever, it don't matter!" Kiba laughed, throwing his arm around her shoulder and patting her roughly. "This means what I think it does… right?"
"Y-yeah." Hinata nodded. They had all managed to come out alive. The impurity had been dealt with, they had gained a new ally. And their mission could be considered a success.
They had managed to save their teacher.
Chapter End
AN: Yaezaki（八重咲) is translated as double blossom. However, the Kanji it's written with can more literally be read as Eight Stacking Blossoms. So here it is the first dance performed eight times in succession, bringing the total number of strikes up to sixty-four, like some of the other iconic Hyuga techniques.