Hinata of the White Lotus
Hinata vs Amaterasu
Chakra erupted off of Hinata.
The opening of two gates concurrently, along with the outpour of natural energy, generated enough power to warp the very air around her.
The goddess, Amaterasu, may not have been phased by such a display of power, but Uchiha Obito had been knocked backwards, nearly stumbling off the flaming steps the three of them stood upon. He managed to maintain his footing, but only after having slipped a couple steps down.
Obito cursed under his breath. He had made a mistake, thinking that Hinata was a person more like himself; someone with low self-confidence, and little faith in the world's ability to be kind. He assumed that once his objective had been complete and a goddess was summoned that she would fall into despair, understanding that she had already failed.
It would appear that was not the case.
"Allow me to take care of her," Obito climbed a step up, having to fight against the powerful wind rolling off of Hinata's explosive power. Nevertheless, he pressed on, because this had been his failure. He never would have brought Hinata so close had he known she still intended to fight. If this went badly, he would lose what little faith he managed to earn from the temperamental goddess.
"No! That is quite alright." Amaterasu smiled. It was a wicked and evil smile, full of self-assurance. "Kaguya's offspring- nay, Hinata of the White Lotus… was it? I shall instruct you myself. My vassal, ensure the others do not interfere." She thrust her hand forward and a Jyuken of red chakra flew at Obito.
It hit him before he even had time to activate Kamui, but this hadn't been a technique to dodge. No, this hadn't been a normal Jyuken like the Hyuga's special ability to attack your internal organs directly, but a fragment of Amaterasu's power. Obito felt his chakra reserves triple, unusual strength flowing through him that until now he would have thought impossible. His stolen left eye transformed, turning into a Mangekyo Sharingan, Amaterasu blessing him with the power that had once been Itachi's.
Obito smirked.
"At your command." He inclined his head in a polite bow, before then turning to look down at all those that would challenge him and his goddess. Kakashi, Itachi, and the others had been joined by a slowly growing number of Konoha Ninja, their forces beginning to rally as they closed in on the obvious anomaly: The black sun.
Most of the ninja wouldn't be in the village at this time, a great number of them out on missions. After the Chunin Exams and Orochimaru's failed invasion, Konoha had been lacking in resources, in no small part because they sent a sizable number of their Ninja to oversee the Sand Village. This meant those that stayed behind had to pick up the slack, many of them working consecutive missions without break.
In addition, Sarutobi Hiruzen had taken a not insignificant force to go battle with Root, a fight that was happening underground and thus leaving them ignorant to everything that was happening above. This meant that Obito was only going to have to deal with a mere fraction of the village's true might. Even a fraction though it may have been, it wasn't to be underestimated. Without his new powers, he would probably be made short work of.
As he was now, he didn't feel like he could lose.
"Mokuton: Hydra no Jutsu!" Obito didn't hold any of his new power back, unleashing a giant, three-headed, wooden dragon. Then with the power of his new Mangekyo Sharingan, he planted the ability of Amaterasu inside the hydra. The three heads of each dragon roared- and spewed out funnels of black flames. The buildings below were immediately incinerated, the burning black flames eating anything and everything in their path. Several of the gathered Shinobi were too slow to retreat, also being caught in the eternal flames.
Just like that, he had wiped out a small section of the village, all in a manner of seconds. This was already beyond the damage the Kyubi had caused when he unleashed it over thirteen years ago. The mere thought of that caused Obito to throw his head back, letting out a loud, child-like laugh. How exhilarating, he thought. If Amaterasu could give even someone like himself these kinds of abilities… then his plan to change the world wasn't some pipedream, after all.
His deranged laughter was cut short, however, a new surge of chakra appeared from within the black flames. Even though it shouldn't have been possible, as it meant someone had survived inside that hellish inferno. A minute later and it became apparent as to why, only one person capable of such a feat.
"Itachi… you never learn." Obito mumbled as his one time collaborator emerged from the black flames in an emerald-green avatar. The spectral warrior rose up, standing nearly as tall as Obito's hydra. "Are you trying to call Susanoo to this world as well?" It didn't sound like such a bad deal to Obito. If Amaterasu was capable of this much, he could only imagine what they could accomplish with her younger brother as well.
"This isn't Susanoo." Itachi corrected, causing Obito's grin to slip. No matter how you looked at this spectral warrior, it was clearly the god of storms summoned to life. In truth, however, Itachi had lost the ability to use Susanoo. This was because he was a petulant god, a rebellious teenager who hated his parents, Izanagi and Izanami.
So when Itachi had used their powers to cheat death, Susanoo had abandoned him and he could no longer summon his avatar. Even now, after barely retrieving Shisui's other eye in time and planting it in his socket, giving him a matching set of two Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he could not use Susanoo.
However, he found that he had awakened a similar ability. It was as if the spirit of his best friend lived on inside of him now. That was also why Itachi had been able to manifest the eyes as Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, despite the two of them not being blood-brothers. It was like Itachi had inherited his very will. And so this chakra armor he summoned now wasn't Susanoo's avatar, but Shisui himself.
"Now then, allow me to revive this as well: The name of Shisui the Flash!" In the blink of an eye, Itachi's spectral armor had crossed the distance to Obito's hydra, a powerful kick knocking it into a section of forest where no further damage to the residents and their homes could be unfurled.
"Damn you, Itachi…" Obito grit his teeth in anger. Just when everything had finally been going his way, that thorn in his side once again found a way to dig itself deeper. No matter, for he had power now. And Itachi couldn't fight him and the hydra at once. As Obito moved to jump into the fray, however, two surges of chakra rocketed towards him, forcing him to use the power of Kamui to dodge in the nick of time.
"Don't think we'll let you!" Might Gai had opened six of the forbidden chakra gates, his skin turning red from the increased blood-flow and the faintest traces of green sweat rolling off him.
"I don't know what's happened to you, Obito. But I can't just leave you to destroy our home." Hatake Kakashi had recovered from his earlier shock, the Sharingan eye that Obito had given up glowing brightly in defiance.
Down below, the other Shinobi were doing their best to seal away the eternal black flames, that being the only way to reasonably contain them. Just doing that left them with their hands full, leaving only Itachi, Kakashi, and Gai free to fight.
Although Obito would admit it was the smartest course of action for all involved. At the level they were fighting at now, everyone else would have simply been in their way. This was an arena that only the strongest could stand in.
The pinnacle of which Obito had only just finally reached.
At the same time as all this happened, the fight between Ohirume Amaterasu and Hyuga Hinata had also already begun. No- to call what was about to happen a fight would be misleading.
"What's the matter child, were you not going to stop me?" Amaterasu stood with her arms spread wide, not even the slightest hint of trying to defend herself. Her Gurengan looked down into Hinata's Nichiren Byakugan. She seemed aware of Hinata's plan to knock her back in the portal, and yet made no move to put distance between it and herself.
Hinata understood that she was being underestimated. That was about the only advantage she was going to be able to find. Her opponent was a god, so winning was never really an option in an outright battle. All she needed was a moment. If she could just catch Amaterasu off guard for a split second, it would be plenty. Just enough to knock her into the portal and then purify it by striking the natural tenketsu points.
That was her win condition.
Hinata had no response for Amaterasu. Instead, she wordlessly slipped into her clan's prized combat stance, one palm held out in front of her, the other down by her hip, feet spread wide apart. She could feel the power of two gates, as well as the natural energy the ghast of Kali was currently melding for her.
Amaterasu didn't even try to stop her, allowing Hinata to take the stance as slowly as she pleased. Even so, Hinata didn't drop her guard, and prepared to cast the Yata Mirror's spectral shield at a moment's notice. Amaterasu was the kind of opponent that could blow up your head with just a glance, the same way she had done to Danzo. She wouldn't take such an opponent lightly.
The flaming step Hinata was standing on shattered, the force of her movement too powerful for the jutsu that created it to support the power of her kicking off. She didn't throw her palm forward in a Jyuken strike. No, she knew a single fist wouldn't be enough to stand up to this goddess. So she threw her whole body into her attack, tackling Amaterasu with her entire body mass.
The two of them had only been several steps apart. At this range, it should have been impossible for Hinata to miss or Amaterasu to dodge. At two gates, Hinata's movement was nearly enough to break the sound barrier. The time it took her to cross the distance between them was less than a millionth of a second. And she knew that the Amaterasu in front of her was the real deal.
There was no faking that amount of natural energy. Her whole being was like that of a very star, the amount of natural energy she exhumed was indomitable. It made her shine like a beacon to Hinata's Nichiren Byakugan, even in the dead of night, and it also gave her incredibly dense mass. Just standing this close made Hinata feel like gravity had increased several fold.
All this to reiterate that the chance of Hinata's strike not landing was beyond the thought of even being negligible. It was an absolute certainty, in the same way that laws of nature were immutable. Even as powerful as Hinata had gotten in such a short amount of time, she could not change the laws of nature.
Such power belonged in the territory of the gods- of which Amaterasu was one. And not just any god, but the goddess of the sun. In the olden days, she would have been among the pinnacle of the hierarchy of the gods. So if anyone had the ability to avert destiny and change the laws of nature- then it was her.
This was why Hinata's blow did not land. A fact she didn't even realize right away. For Hinata still possessed the brain and reflexes of a human. And actions happening in the span of a millionth of a second were still outside the range of her capabilities to recognize. To her eyes, it seemed like she had succeeded- until it hadn't.
Hinata phased through Amaterasu like she wasn't even there. For a beat, she thought it was the same ability that Obito had been demonstrating with his original Mangekyo Sharingan- Kamui. However, she knew that couldn't be the case. Amaterasu was Amaterasu and Kamui was Kamui. They may have both been gods, but they had domain over different concepts and abilities. No- it wasn't that she phased through Amaterasu, it was just that in the millionth of a second before Hinata crossed the distance and Amaterasu had already moved.
What Hinata had struck was an afterimage, meaning Amaterasu had to have moved beyond the speed. She caught herself several steps up, hitting the breaks and spinning around, having already located where Amaterasu had moved to. She floated in the sky now, hanging directly above Hinata and looking straight down at her.
"You'll have to be faster than that if you wish to reach the sun, child." Amaterasu said like she was speaking to a baby. The smile she wore hadn't changed so much as a fraction, still exuding the same confidence as before.
Hinata realized now that Amaterasu hadn't been looking down on her. No, she had been evaluating her fairly, for the gap in power between them was just so vast that there had never been anything she could do to touch her to begin with. At least, not with only the first of two gates.
"Third Gate of Life: Open!" Hinata pushed the next tenketsu point, opening another gate and flooding her body with even greater power than before. The strength of each gate increased exponentially, and when combined with the power of natural energy, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that Hinata was three times as strong and fast as just a gate before. While Hinata couldn't float in the same way her opponent was now, she could push off the very air to change direction.
Amaterasu was no longer in front of the black sun, so a simple tackle wasn't going to be enough anymore. Instead, Hinata changed her stance, focusing on the guiding line that would ensure her attack couldn't fail.
"Byakuren: Some no Mai- Yaezaki!" Hinata called, beginning the first dance of the White Lotus. The force at which she exploded upwards shattered the sound barrier, creating several sonic booms. Her open palm flew up, aiming for the natural energy tenketsu buried deep in the mass of Amaterasu's dense chakra.
If she could strike such a point, then even Amaterasu wouldn't be unaffected. The only problem was, it was impossible to reach such a point. As Hinata attempted to reach for such a tenketsu, it felt like the density of Amaterasu's natural energy was causing her hand to twist and break under its own weight. The guiding line wiggled, her vision blurring at the edges. Her attack missed.
Kali's prized creation, which had been designed to be able to purify any natural imbalance, had just been circumvented. Hinata flew straight past Amaterasu, dangling helplessly in the sky for several moments.
There was a crack. Hinata felt all the confidence she had finally gathered begin to bend and warp. No! She shook the thought loose, it was too early to give up. She had changed, hadn't she? There was no time to give up after only the first strike missed.
That was right! The Yaezaki was a series of sixty-four consecutive blows, just like the Hyuga Clan's Hakke Ryokujuyonsho. They didn't all have to land to be effective, even just a few of them would do the trick and give her the edge she needed to force Amaterasu back through the portal.
Flipping her body around in midair, Hinata directed her force downwards. She was off like a rocket, closing the distance once again. Only to once again have her attack distorted and miss. Even still, she did not give up.
On the third attempt she realized something more was happening. Amaterasu's great chakra reserves didn't just appear dense to her Nichiren Byakugan- it was dense. Hinata's healing capabilities had increased dramatically in order to withstand the use of three gates simultaneously, but constantly attempting to strike Amaterasu was causing damage to her hands, gravity itself crushing them.
Hinata grit her teeth, pushing past the pain and closing in once again. And again. And again. Every failed attempt caused further damage to her hands, but more detrimental was the effect to her already wavering confidence. Blood flew from the skin on her palms that were starting to tear open, the bones of her fingers becoming warped and bent unnaturally.
Finally, the sixty-fourth blow failed to land. Hinata flew helplessly past Amaterasu, her hands barely recognizable anymore, covered in blood and torn muscles. She couldn't maintain her flight, aiming for the nearby water-tower, the tallest peak in the area closest to Amaterasu. With a flip, she landed on the cone-shaped roof of the tower, denting it with the force of her descent.
Finally, the pain began to reach her and she crouched down, having to squint through the tears forming in her eyes. She knew that the natural energy Kali gathered for her would allow her to heal quickly enough, but that didn't do anything about the pain right at that moment.
As she recovered, Amaterasu floated lower, until she was only hanging just slightly higher than Hinata. The Black Sun behind her had shrunk significantly by this point. Just a little bit longer now and it would disappear completely, the only portal capable of sending her back vanishing in the process. Time was running out.
"Do you understand the gulf between us yet?" Amaterasu asked, her voice haunting. It didn't even sound like she was bored, or exhausted with having to wait for Hinata to figure out the difference in strength. No, she was enjoying this. She loved having her power verified so utterly and completely.
For Amaterasu, this was the same as having her revenge against Kaguya. Hinata may not have been the Rabbit Goddess or even her true grandchild, but she had the same eyes as Kaguya once had. And Amaterasu had always wanted to prove which one was truly superior: Her Gurengan or the Byakugan. Now she had finally gotten her answer.
"…I'm not done yet." Hinata forced herself to say, confidence just barely hanging on by a thread. With one of her mangled hands, she forced her index finger to snap back into place and then pressed yet another one of her Tenketsu points. "Fourth Gate of Pain: Open!" She opened up the next gate, going beyond now what she could reliably use in a fight.
The Dance of the White Lotus consisted of four dances in total. Every second gate opened up the next sequence in the dance. The first dance, Yaezaki, was the only one which Hinata had mastered. The fact of the matter was, four gates when combined with natural energy contained just too much raw power for Hinata to be able to properly fight. It was an unwieldy amount of energy that flowed through her now, every single movement requiring such precise control that she could cause serious damage to herself just by doing something simple.
However, she could only use the second dance by opening up the fourth gate. And it was apparent now that the first one wouldn't be enough no matter how many times she tried it.
Hinata had to push herself beyond her limits. It wasn't a matter of if she could do it or not. She had to do it. The sake of the village- of the entire world was depending on her to do it.
"Wonderful!" Amaterasu praised, her glee affecting the very world around her, making even the night sky seem somewhat brighter. "Summon as much power as you can! Show me just how far you can go! This is the garden world my childhood friend, Kaguya, attempted to cultivate, is it not!? Do not sully her name with a pathetic display!" She spread her arms wide open once again, as if pleading with Hinata to actually strike her this time.
After opening four gates, Hinata was completely enveloped with white chakra that wrapped around her like a cloak. Her hair danced in the wind she generated, black shirt and pants rippling like she was submerged underwater.
"Byakuren: Tsugi no Mai- Akejishi!" Hinata took her stance, the white chakra around her beginning to change shape. It wasn't just an amorphous blob now, but more of like a spectral avatar in the shape of a lion.
If the first dance was meant as a purifying ritual, then this dance was meant as a means to hunt prey. The long chakra limbs of the lion would make it so Hinata didn't have to throw her hands once more into the grinder of Amaterasu's dense chakra. It was her only chance at victory now.
"Come!" Amaterasu beckoned her forward, welcoming the attack. And Hinata answered the call, leaping from the water tower. The spectral lion made of white chakra roared, the natural energy Kali had infused giving it a voice of its own.
The lion and Amaterasu collided-
And Hinata lost.
The lion crumbled to pieces, being completely and utterly destroyed simply by coming into contact with the goddess of the sun and the density of her chakra. It had been an all or nothing gamble, Hinata throwing caution to the wind as she had leapt forward at speeds she couldn't possibly hope to control.
The world spun, the night sky and ground interchanging several times a second, Hinata's body arching towards the village like a shooting star- or a falling meteor. She hit the street with enough force to leave a crater, skipping with the momentum of her crash landing before once more slamming back down onto the dirt road, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Only upon crashing into a stone building did she finally stop, deep cracks running up the stone from the force of her collision.
How far she had skidded for, she had no idea. Her vision swam, and she blanked in and out between consciousness and unconsciousness. Their fight had started near the middle of the village, but the shadow looming over her now suggested she was closer to the mountain the Hokage Monument was etched into.
Her body was broken, legs sticking out at weird angles and arms hung uselessly at her sides. Blood rolled down from her head, covering half of her face and taking away the vision temporarily in one eye. Even the power of four gates worth of natural energy couldn't heal something like this overnight. It would be impossible for her to fight.
And there was no more reason for her to anyway. The black sun was gone, the portal she had meant to throw Amaterasu into closing for good. That had been her only shot at winning- no, the possibility had never existed to begin with. Just what in the hell had she been thinking? To stand toe-to-toe with a god, she must have been insane.
Just like there had been no real chance of fighting, there was also no running in this situation.
The goddess had come for her now, Amaterasu's feet touching down on the earth for the first time since her arrival. She loomed over Hinata, glaring down at her with the Gurengan. Without having unleashed so much as a single technique, she had reduced Hinata to this state.
Hinata tried to rise. She knew it was impossible, but she tried anyway. Her broken legs wiggled like snakes, pushing her back up against the wall and propping herself into a sitting position. It was the last act of defiance she was capable of in this situation.
"How adorable and ugly," Amaterasu cooed, bending down and reaching one of her hands forward. Hinata thought she was about to have her eye ripped from her so she could reclaim the Yata Mirror for herself, but instead, Amaterasu began to stroke her hair gently, almost lovingly. "I love watching ugly little things try so hard, struggling in vain, even when there is no chance of them being able to win. You've entertained me greatly this evening. As a reward… I'll leave you the Yata Mirror. In truth, I have no more need for it anyway." It had once been a tool meant to facilitate her arrival. Now she was here, and its use to her was gone.
Besides, even if Hinata held onto it, she couldn't challenge her anyway. That had been clearly established just now.
"Hinata!" Yūhi Kurenai called, running down the road from behind Amaterasu. She had seen her student falling out of the sky while moving towards all the commotion around the black sun. Once she realized it was Hinata, though, she had immediately changed course.
"Sensei, no!" Hinata's voice didn't reach. She tried to shake her head, but even that was too much for her body now. However, Amaterasu was able to hear her and understand.
"I've given you reward enough, do you not think?" The goddess turned towards Kurenai, raising her right hand. A ball of black flames built in it, and then expanded in a jet-stream aimed to incinerate Kurenai completely.
"Katon: Moonfire's Great Fireball!" Kurenai inhaled deeply, spitting out a wave of whitish orange flames that met Amaterasu's black- and somehow matched them. The two attacks canceled each other out, the flames settling between the two of them. "Get away from my student, you bitch!" Kurenai yelled, not yet understanding who it was she was addressing.
"I see," Amaterasu didn't even appear to hear what Kurenai had said, instead studying the flames she had generated. "You've been healed by the Moonfire Flower, an herb Kaguya brought over from her garden. It would appear the flower has granted you unusual strength." She said as if to justify having the fire she was so proud of being canceled out.
"Amaterasu-sama!" Obito appeared next to her a moment later, stepping out of a portal he had opened and dropping down to one knee. "I apologize for allowing one of these vermin to come so close to you. I will eliminate her right now." He didn't offer any excuses, despite the fact that he had his hands full just with Kakashi, Gai, and Itachi, unable to finish off any of them. He left them all behind when he saw Kurenai coming this way.
"No, that is quite alright." Amaterasu dismissed the notion with a flick of her wrist. "She survived my attack and has earned her right to life. I am a benevolent goddess, after all." She praised herself. "Of course, had the sun been out and I had my full power, she wouldn't have been capable of such a feat. I suppose this means it is time for us to visit this country you spoke of. I need to begin gathering worshippers so I can increase my power further."
Those words cause Hinata's heart to sink. To think, this hadn't even been her full strength. She was even more powerful in the sun and would only grow stronger the longer she remained in this world. It was almost unfair to think one person could have that much power.
"As you wish," Obito didn't dare question her orders. In truth, he didn't care either way whether this village stood or fell. In the end, they would either eventually join the new world that Amaterasu would create or they would be wiped out. He glanced back at Hinata as he stood up, smirking down at her. "See you later, Hinata of the White Lotus." He said mockingly.
Then the two of them were gone, Obito teleporting them away to some, as of yet, unknown country. It could be on the other side of the continent for all Hinata knew. Wherever they were, it was out of her reach now. She had fought… and she had lost.
"Hinata!" Kurenai rushed to her, skipping over any of the black flames that were in her path. She dropped to her knees, lifting Hinata up and cradling her in her arms. "Oh Hinata! Thank goodness you're alive." She choked back barely restrained tears, having feared the worst when she saw Hinata falling. If she had been an ordinary person, such a crash landing would have killed her.
"Kurenai-sensei…" Hinata failed to hold back tears of her own, burying her face in the crook of Kurenai's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sensei. I failed…" Not just her teacher and village, but the whole world. Amaterasu was going to amass power and then she was going to one day subjugate them all.
"It's okay, Hinata. It's okay." Kurenai whispered soothingly, cradling her now as she rocked back and forth, careful of her injuries. "Everyone fails once in a while. You've been having a streak of good luck recently, but we're all going to have setbacks one day or another. It's just a part of life."
"You don't understand-" Hinata tried to say, but couldn't form coherent words anymore between the pain and her sobs. This was the one time she absolutely was not allowed to fail. And yet it was the one time there was no possible way for her to have won.
"I understand that you're alive, Hinata." Kurenai said, leaning back and lifting Hinata's chin so they could see eye to eye. "You may have failed this time… but you'll get stronger. So long as you're alive, nothing is over. Whoever she was, and whatever her plans, we'll all stand against her- as a village."
"Sensei…" Hinata swallowed back her tears. Getting stronger… such an idea seemed so ridiculous. No matter how strong she got, how was she supposed to compete with Amaterasu even in this 'weakened' state she was supposedly in?
Then she remembered Kali's battle inside the Tsukuyomi world. How powerful she had been, appearing like a goddess herself. If she was also capable of one day attaining such power… would it be enough? No, it didn't have to be enough. Because Hinata wasn't going to be alone. She had her teacher, she had her team, her clan, and everyone here in the village.
That was right. This time was a failure, but Hinata was used to failure. She had only just started getting used to success. If the amount she managed to change herself wasn't enough this time, then she would just change further.
One day at a time, she would continue to grow alongside everyone here in the village. And then one day without fail…
They would defeat Amaterasu.
Chapter End
AN: I've mentioned before that the counting theme of Hinata's dances are based on Rukia's Zanpakuto from Bleach. So the second dance is the Tsugi no Mai（次の舞）literally read as The Next Dance. Then the subtitle for this dance was called Akejishi（明獅子）which is meant to mean The Dawn Lion. This one is kinda a combination of inspirations. First off is Hinata's Twin Lion step, where she forms lion shaped chakra around her fists. Then Gai's Gate techniques, which go from morning to night. So this was taking both those and putting it together.