Chapter Nineteen
"Try it now, Konohamaru," Akemi commanded. The boy struggling to contract the muscles of his right hand around the squeeze ball and released. "Again, please," she ordered.
"Aunt Akemi, are you always this demanding?" the boy groaned as he gave a herculean effort to do what most people took for granted – being able to grip with a hand.
"The journey of a thousand miles beings with a single step," she remined her patient, "Only nine-hundred ninety-nine more to go." It was the best she could manage in terms of levity. After almost two days in the crowded bunker with minimal sleep, Akemi was near breaking point.
"I wish I had your optimism," Konohamaru again grunted with severe focus on closing the fingers around the ball. "I thought you'd be busier with the world ending."
"So did I, then it stopped ending," she crossed her arms.
"Stopped? You mean, they succeeded?" Konohamaru gave the first look of elation since regaining consciousness.
"I don't know, son," Akemi shook her head, much less elated than her patient. The moon had slowed its descent in the past few hours then began reversing, but she wasn't ready to celebrate. No communication had come back from the team searching for Hanabi, except Sai pleading for the Kages not to blow up the moon. Ironically, now that the moon was in a safer orbit, the Kages were again debating whether it was wise to assume victory or destroy the moon as a precaution before it could fall again.
"Big brother will have them back safe," Konohamaru now reassured her, "I know he will."
The reminder that Naruto was up there renewed Akemi's spirit. "Yes," Akemi nodded, "He is pretty good at that."
"Aunt Akemi," the boy's voice sank, "when she gets back…"
"Who?"
"Hanabi," he cried, "tell her… tell her to move on… tell her to not waste her time…"
Akemi seized Konohamaru's hand with equal parts anger and determination, "You listen to me, young man! I will do no such thing! If my daughter is so shallow as to abandon you now, then she deserves nothing! And I'm not giving you an excuse to pardon her if she is!"
"And if she isn't?" Konohamaru heaved. "I'll never have the chance to be a lover, husband, or father!"
"You don't know that!"
"Prove me wrong!"
Shit! Akemi weighed a difficult conversation she'd had with Tsunade a few days earlier. "Listen!" she shouted, but soon tempered her voice, "Listen, there may be other options we haven't yet explored even without the use of Lord First's Cells."
"Like what?" Konohamaru stared both skeptical and interested.
It is too soon to give him hope. "Listen, I don't want to build this up too far in case it doesn't pan out, but –"
"But what?!" he demanded.
"Konohamaru, the ancient members of the White Kitsune were privy to healing techniques that even the Senju Clan were not aware of!" Akemi spoke in a harsh whisper, not knowing what she should or should not divulge.
"Why?" his face crumbled in confusion.
"The techniques required specialty training beyond and attunement with a type of chakra most rare. It was guarded for fear of it being abused."
"How do you abuse the power to heal?" he asked.
"All great power," Akemi warned, "has the potential to be abused." She dipped her head, "Regardless, I need to talk to your mom before we go any further."
"Lady Hyūga," an orderly knocked at the door to the room, "Pardon the interruption, but you husband has regained consciousness. He is requesting to see you."
Akemi's heart jumped several beats. "You keep squeezing that damn ball!" She hissed at Konohamaru
"How the hell long do I need to keep this up?!" Konhamaru yelped as Akemi turned toward the door.
"Until I come back and say you can stop!" she ran from the room.
Naruto bounced island to island as the rest of the group of flew on Sai's hawks. It was a calculated risk, but a necessary one: with the main defenses of puppets distracted by the larger group, he could slip into the castle and get to Hinata quickly as possible. Naruto eyed Hinata with his Byakugan, now dressed in the poufy black wedding attire, a black turban, and a gaudy set of earings as she strolled like a zombie to the castle's grand hallway. Her revulsion and fear burned behind the mask of her obtunded face. Toneri's kiss had only been the beginning; Naruto had no doubt the other man would consummate the marriage immediately. Fear radiated off Hinata, fear of spreading her legs for a man she didn't love, and being powerless to stop it. Dammit, move faster!
Naruto redoubled his speed as Kurama silently boosted him, but he was unlikely to get there before Toneri forced Hinata through the sham-wedding. Naruto pressed out with Flying Thunder God, sensing Toneri's distortion effect blocking him from teleporting straight to Hinata. However, Naruto suddenly sensed a seal not in the distortion's effect – Hinata's ANBU gear. They had marked each other's gear years earlier in the event one needed to retrieve the other's gear discretely.
He reached out and was there in the blink of an eye. Hinata's black bodysuit and mask lay casually discarded on the floor, along with the Hyūga family blade. Naruto seized the blade and scabbard and tied it to his belt as he sprinted in the direction of the chapel. By now, he saw the puppet officiant beginning its invocation. Oh, hell no! Naruto's boots clattered on the marble floor as he flew down the hallway.
As Naruto approached the great hall, several larger puppets, each armed with polearm weapons sprang to life as they were alerted to his presence. In a fluid motion, Naruto drew out the Hyūga family's blade and focused his chakra to his hands, up through the blade. "YAAAHHHH!" Naruto let loose a fierce war cry like a pirate king as he slashed the blade through the puppets and their weapons like a hot knife through butter. Naruto hadn't slowed his pace as bits of puppet clattered useless to the ground, and he rammed through the chapel door.
Toneri at this point had a small wafer in his teeth, and Hinata's mouth opened despite clear effort to keep it closed. Through unseen force her mouth was being drawn closer to Toneri's. "GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF HER!" Naruto's voice shook the chapel as he charged forward, driving Toneri back and splitting the puppet officiant from crotch to skull with the still glowing blade.
"Insolent one!" Toneri scoffed. "I'll let my wife deal with you!"
Naruto barely had the chance to dodge the attack from behind as Hinata swung a roundhouse kick where his head would have been a mere second earlier. Hinata moved mechanical, rigid – a marionette on strings. Had Hinata been under some other form of brainwashing versus chakra control, there was a reasonable chance Naruto would be dead right now.
As he sheathed the sword, Naruto blocked a flurry of hand strikes from Hinata, each attack stinging like hornets. "Hang on Hinata!" Ready Kyuubi?
"Do it!" the fox demon urged.
Naruto summoned Tailed-Beast Chakra to his hand and plunged it into her chest where the green orb was floating. Naruto pulled and Hinata went floppy as he extracted the orb and crushed it in his fingers. "Hinata is not a damn puppet!" Naruto boomed as he caught her.
"You're not ruining this!" Toneri shouted as a wall of force hit Naruto, sending him through a structural column of the room and into the wall behind. Naruto pushed back, feeling the wall behind him crumble. As Toneri held Naruto in a crush, he walked out to Hinata as she now struggled to her knees and then her feet. "It's not time for you to wake yet, dear." He summoned another orb, but screamed out in pain, dropping the orb and clutching his eyes. Naruto pushed back through the unrelenting force, raced across the room, and rammed himself into Toneri, sending the man flying through the room and into the opposite wall.
"Honey," Naruto quickly raised Hinata to her feet. "Are you okay!" He'd never forgive himself if she had been hurt by his carelessness.
"Naruto!" Hinata clutched him, hot tears running down her face. "I-I'm so, sorry!"
"Don't apologize," he unbound the turban over her hair, letting it fall naturally.
The sound of mechanical footsteps by the dozen soon caught Naruto's attention as puppets flooded the chapel. Naruto's hand went for the sword handle when the army froze suddenly. There was the sound of mechanical part warping, and the army of puppets fell to pieces with a loud clatter. At the doorway to the chapel, Naruto spied Shikamaru and the others. "I hope we're not too late to log an objection?" Shikamaru said as the group entered.
"Right on time as always, my friend," Naruto nodded as Shikamaru approached.
"Hinata, are you all right!" Sakura ran up to Hinata, beginning a cursory check before she'd even reached a full stop.
"I'm fine," Hinata sighed as she slipped from Naruto's embrace, "just ready for this to be over."
"You're damn right about that, Hinata!" Toneri's voice became raspy, less human. As Naruto turned his gaze to the man, he glowed a fiery aquamarine. You've got to be shitting me! Naruto engaged his Byakugan, seeing the flow of cosmic energy moving toward Toneri. Truth-seeking balls formed in orbit around him. Toneri slammed his fist into the ground, the ground shattered, and everyone went flying.
Hinata's ears rang and dizziness threatened to drop her back to the ground as she pressed off the sandy surface she found herself on. Judging by the desolate landscape and the grey that painted it, she guessed Toneri had knocked them to the surface of the moon. She fought against nausea from the sudden shock, but shock soon wore off a powerful hand gripped her by the neck and her hair. "I want you too see this! I want you to know you could have stopped this at any time by just surrendering like a good girl, you duplicitous bitch!"
Hinata was flung backwards, and she collided with something solid and metallic with a loud, CLANG! It took a moment for Hinata to collect herself; she tasted blood in her mouth and could feel a thin rivulet streaming down from her forehead. Hinata looked up, seeing the familiar lattice structure of a massive birdcage surrounding her. Is that what I am to you – a caged bird to serve your selfish purpose? Hinata stood up, beating her hands against the cage door to no avail.
Meanwhile, she saw Naruto, now in Tailed-Beast Sage Mode, squaring off against Toneri. It won't be enough! Hinata looked out with her expanded Byakugan, grateful to see the others alive and approaching, if still too far to be of any help. Hinata slammed the cage door again.
"Need a hand, girl?" Nine-Tails offered. "I've been waiting for a chance to get my claws into that rat bastard!"
Fiery anger filled Hinata as she began channeling Tailed Beast Chakra. As she did so, Lord Hamura's chakra also flowed freely through her. How the hell did you and Naruto resist that Green Orb? She continued to channel her strength, fiery chakra burning around her like a shroud.
"The graft of Lord Senju's cells on Naruto's heart proved surprisingly resistant to the orb's effect. I actually had to prevent the cells from rejecting it from his body immediately."
Hinata's indignance burned further as her strength built to critical mass, until she was in Tailed Beast Sage Mode as well. This is it, no surrender, no retreat! For months, Toneri had tormented her, had stalked her, had left her in fear of being kidnapped and raped. But now, he had nowhere left to retreat to, no sanctuary to which he could vanish to rise again. I'm going to wipe that kiss you stole right out of your mouth, you sick bastard! Hinata unleashed the chakra, and the cage shattered around her.
She wasted no time, teleporting to Naruto's side in time to catch and divert one of Toneri's Truth seeking balls with her nine Beast Tails. "Toneri," she shouted, "doing this won't make me love you any more than the horrible things you've done thus far. No matter what you do, no matter how many green orbs you fill me with, you'll never have me!"
Toneri didn't respond with words. He instead summoned dust and rock around him like a massive golem construct, and he lashed out with a long, stony arm. Both Naruto and she leaped out of the way with a fraction of a moment to spare. The Golem again struck, and this time, Naruto's flaming beast tails caught the strike. Even with all the power Naruto had, he trembled as he held the blow asunder. Hinata raced forward but soon broke away as Toneri sent a series of Truth-Seeking Balls at her. Hinata barely managed to bat the attacks aside as the concentrated chakra masses exploded.
Toneri's gloves came off – he no longer cared about her safety or even made the facade of caring if she lived or died. With a wicked grin, he smashed the golem's arm down into the moon with all his might behind it, and the moon began splitting like a massive earthquake was ripping it in half. A rift opened in the Moon, and Hinata realized the moon was breaking in half.
"Hinata, we need to stop him before he does something like dropping half of the moon on earth!" Naruto spoke through their linked chakra.
How? We can't even get close to him?!
"His ability to use Byakugan or the Tenseigan version of it is severely limited, worse than I was when you first implanted me. A solid hit, and we should take him down!"
Yeah, but we can't get a solid hit in! Hinata vented as she dodged another attack by the golem smashing the ground, sending dust and fragments of rock everywhere.
"If I distract him, can you disable him?"
Hinata summoned her chakra to her hands, forming the twin lion heads. You have an idea?
"It's dangerous, but it should work! Just wait on my signal!" Naruto surged forward toward Toneri and the golem.
"Naruto, wait!"
Naruto raced toward Toneri, concentrating on the task despite the risks. If you're going to die, might as well have a good reason for it! Naruto summoned dozens of clones, and he watched as Toneri began building energy up for another Truth-Seeking Ball attack. Naruto activated his altered Byakugan, seeing the unstable whirlpool of chakra and cosmic energy in the eyes the man had stolen. Perfect, I can't lose.
As Toneri made ready to strike, Naruto made the hands seal. This has to work! "Sexy Harem Jutsu! Byakugan Princess Party!" Puffs of smoke formed around the shadow clones. The army of clones emerged from the smoke as an army of voluptuous, and completely naked, Hinata clones. "Oh, Toneri!" the army moaned out in chorus.
The effect was better than Naruto could have hoped for; the turbulent swirl of energy overwhelmed Toneri. He clutched his eyes and his nose drained crimson. Naruto prayed he'd never need to use this particular tactic, but he was done playing nice. If it meant getting his ass beat by Hinata, so be it. Of course, a spanking from her might be quite fun!
"KEE-YAHHHH!" Hinata screeched like a demon as she flew through the air, past the army of her naked doppelgangers, and toward Toneri. As she sailed by, Hinata's right foot glowed bluish-purple as she focused her chakra. This one is going to hurt! Indeed, Naruto cringed as Hinata's foot made contact with Toneri's baby-maker without so much as slowing down. There was a wet moan, and the golem disintegrated into dust, and Toneri went flying out toward outer space.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" Hinata flew past Toneri and brought down one of her lion fists in his face. Naruto swore he saw the shockwave of impact as Toneri reversed directions down into the lunar surface with enough force to form a new crater. Naruto raced to the edge of the crater in time to meet Hinata as she landed. She was heaving mechanically, trying to replenish her body and mind after extreme exertion.
Naruto delicately placed a hand on her shoulder, half-expecting her to shrug him off. Instead, she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. He scanned Toneri with his Byakugan to confirm: the Tenseigan flickered out and Toneri's eyes reverted back to normal. It was over. The man that had terrorized Hinata and the world for months was beaten.
A flicker in the back of Naruto's head, and he turned to see Mom approaching with the rest of the group. As the group approached, Naruto eyed Hanabi being guided by Sakura. No, this isn't over. "Honey, it's time we take back what he's stolen," Naruto said with grim determination. Hinata merely nodded, and they walked side by side to their fallen enemy.
"These," Hinata knelt beside the squirming Toneri, "are not yours! I'm taking them back!"
"NOOOOOOO!" Toneri screamed as Hinata plucked the Byakugan from the man's eye sockets.
Naruto cringed as the ghastly sight. Hinata held our the Byakugan to Naruto, "Please, take these back to Hanabi, Sakura will know what to do."
"What about you?" he asked, eying Toneri.
"He and I have… unfinished business," Naruto eyed Hinata's hand as it migrated to the handle of her family's sword on his belt.
"You're going to kill him?" Naruto balked.
"Only if he makes me," she replied as she unhooked the scabbard from him. "Naruto, go. I promise I won't spill blood if I don't have to." She stared with burning conviction in her eyes as she held the sword and scabbard.
While Naruto trusted her, nothing sat right about leaving her this close to Toneri. "Okay," he nodded, "I'll be right back."
Hinata didn't know why she sent Naruto away. For sure she was anxious to have Hanabi's Byakugan back in her head, but there was something about confronting Toneri, needing closure with the horrible situation that had plagued her for almost five months. "You did bad things, Toneri," Hinata restrained months of rage and indignance – restrained the primal urge to do to Toneri what she had done to Lord Yamamoto years earlier. She knelt and placed her gloved hand over his forehead, "Time for you to see everything!" She focused her chakra and fed the images of her conversation with Lord Hamura to him. Under any other circumstance, she would have been disgusted to be this close to Toneri, but she needed closure – she needed him to know how horrifically wrong he had been.
"AHHHHH!" the now blinded enemy squirmed as he saw the glorious, horrific truth about Hamura's decree, about the war that had all but annihilated Toneri's family. Satisfied that he had everything he needed to make the right decision, Hinata broke contact. Toneri sobbed uncontrollably from the empty singularities where eyes had once been. Hinata didn't feel good about leaving him like this, but she also was not going out of her way to absolve him, either. Toneri had done things every bit as bad a Madara and Obito Uchiha. He would have killed billions and raped her if the team hadn't stopped him.
There was the reassuring pressure of Naruto's hand on her shoulder again. Hinata rose from her knees and rested her head on her lover's shoulder. Right now, all she wanted to do was go home. She wanted to crawl into bed, lose herself in Naruto's embrace, and not wake up until she was damn ready.
"The moon," Toneri's voice came somber as he stirred, "will never approach earth again." Hinata closed her eyes. As she did so, her Byakugan activated. Through its enhanced vision, Hinata saw chakra building in Toneri's right hand. Son of a bitch! "Of course, neither will you!"
Hinata didn't wait to find out if Toneri was targeting her or Naruto. Moreover, she didn't want to find out what effect the green orb he was building would have. With speed of quicksilver, she spun from Naruto's embrace, drew out her family's blade, and slashed the silvery edge through the man's neck. Toneri's face froze in eternal shock as his head went one way and his body another. There was brief arterial spray as Hinata brough the blade down through her follow through.
The only sound Hinata could hear was her heaving as she stared down at what she had done. Toneri was dead, and she had killed him. Hinata stood rigid upright, wiped the blade off, and sheathed it in its scabbard. Hinata squeezed her shivering hands into fists and walked up to the head, picking it up by the hair and began speaking to what had been Toneri's left ear. "I want you to know," she spoke through tears, "You caused all of this by your scheming! None of this had to happen!" She spoke his words back to him. "Go to hell, AND BE DAMNED!" Hinata chucked his head away full force. If Naruto hadn't been there to catch her, she would have collapsed.
"It's okay," he held her as she sobbed, "I got you, love!" Naruto stroked his fingers through her hair. She continued to cry.
Shikamaru surveyed the team in the wake of Toneri's death. By the best estimate, they were on the edge of the Sea of Serenity. At Toneri's death, the moon seemingly fused itself back together. If his math was right, the moon was also ascending back to its original orbit. Naruto was comforting Hinata as Nine-Tails was scratching the symbol for victory into the lunar surface like a massive geoglyph. Thankfully, Sai had also been able to reach Ino with news of victory.
Stretching his neck led to multiple pops. The numb ache of nearly three days with minimal sleep left him with less than pleasant memories of ANBU training when he'd been recruited the ANBU/KIB. He was off his second or third wind by now; he'd be damn near useless soon. He looked back at the group.
Despite obvious relief to see Akane reunited with Lord Fifth and Hanabi being rescued, Shikamaru's mind refused to stop ticking, refused to stop asking questions. How the hell do we get back? Does Flying Thunder God have the range to get us all home? Why is the moon moving back to its normal orbit? How the hell are we still breathing? The last two thoughts troubled Shikamaru. The moon had no atmosphere, and physics dictated that the moon shouldn't change position unless something was acting on it. Up until now, he assumed Toneri was doing something to protect them from the vacuum of space. Now that he was dead, Shikamaru's mind demanded satisfaction. He needed to know how the hell they were alive and why the moon was moving back to its original position.
"Yo, crybaby," Temari broke his introspection. "Naruto is fairly sure he can shuttle us home a few at a time. It's about time to go!"
"Temari" he turned his head over his shoulder, staring out to a hill beyond. "Give me five minutes."
"For what?" she asked, incredulous.
"To explore!" Shikamaru had always dreamed of exploring space as a child. He was now in space and walking on the moon.
"Seriously!" she shouted, "You want to play spaceman!"
"We're on the moon!" he replied with a rising voice, "How the hell many times do you expect to be back here, ever!" Something perverse in his desire to explore called to him like a siren as he stared at the crest of the hill in front of them. "Five minutes!"
"Whatever, star boy!" she made the gesture to brush him off.
Shikamaru raced up the side of the hill, marveling at the magnificent desolation he'd only seen through a telescope. As he crested, he froze, no believing what he was seeing. A hallucination, they happen when you're sleep deprived! He blinked twice, certain each time that the image would vanish. "T-T-TEMARI!" He remained transfixed as he heard the grumbling of his wife approaching.
"Temari, give me five minutes!" Shikamaru begged as he stared at the crest of the nearby hill. As much as Temari would have liked to explore, Hinata, Hanabi, and Akane had been traumatized by recent events. Temari, like the others, hadn't slept in days, and virtually none of them had showered – she has been ready to go home before this misadventure started. Right now, she'd be damned if they spent another needless second in this godforsaken place.
"Seriously!" she placed her hand on her hip in frustration, "You want to play spaceman!"
"We're on the moon!" he shouted, manic. "How the hell many times do you expect to be back here, ever!"
Like a kid at a playground! She made a brushing motion with her hand, "Whatever, star boy!"
Shikamaru didn't even hesitate, taking off like a child let loose in an amusement park. He galloped up the hill with the speed of a gazelle. Men, I'll never get how they revert to children so easily! "T-TEMARI!" he screeched at the top, frozen.
"What is it?" she asked. Her annoyance grew as he remained speechless. Probably has a hangnail! Temari stomped her way up the sandy ground, reminded of climbing dunes in the Sunan Desert. As she came up beside her husband, he stood with his mouth hanging open, and eyes wide with shock. "So, what the hell—"
His hand grasped her by the head and turned her forcefully in the direction he was staring. She almost jerked back against him when she saw what had him frozen. No, not possible!
Sprawled out amid the Sea of Serenity was a massive castle and palace complex. Ōtsutsuki? No, it can't be; it's different than what Toneri had! Rather than harsh angles and tall battlements, its features were smooth, had grown outward organically, and were crowned with a dome. Despite clearly being a ruin, it was majestic nevertheless, like something from a fairy tale. Something from a fairy tale! My god, I've seen this before! "NARUTO, EVERYONE!" Temari screeched, not taking her eye off the massive structure.
The others arrived, and everyone froze at the sight. "Am I seeing this?" Sai spoke breathless and he reached into his bag for a blank stroll. He began desperately painting what he was seeing.
"Is it another Ōtsutsuki castle?" Sakura asked
"I don't think so," Naruto said, "it's nothing like the one Toneri had."
"N-Naruto?" Hinata squeaked.
"Yes, love?" he turned to stare at her with concern.
"Lord Hamura mentioned 'those who came before.' I think this is what he meant!"
"Impossible!" Shikamaru shook his head "Someone was here before the Ōtsutsuki! This construction is too advanced! It would predate shinobi civilization."
"History and society don't travel in a linear path," Lady Kushina spoke, cradling her baby girl close. "The Uzumaki Clan and our village was targeted because it was feared. There may be things lost that haven't been seen in decades in those ruins. The Kaguya legend took place well over a thousand years ago only to be true." She stared intently at the ruin, "Think of all the history lost to war and natural disaster. Maybe the Ōtsutsuki were after the earth for a reason other than wanting to devour its chakra."
Temari finally found the nerve to ask, "Is anyone else finding this just a bit familiar?"
"Yes, I know that castle, and so do most of you!" Kushina spoke with soft disbelief.
"How?" Temari wracked her brain for where she knew this alien feature.
"Because, it's identical to the artwork in the legend of The Moon Princess Warrior," Kushina said
The fairytale came washing back over Temari, her favorite as a little girl, the first book she read alone. A princess of the moon fell in love with a prince of the earth, and a jealous witch raised up the people of the earth to destroy the ancient Moon Kingdom. "Impossible, it's just a fairytale!" Temari protested as her blood turned to ice.
"A fairytale," Shikamaru said, "whose origins predate the shinobi world. The story goes that after the Moon Kingdom, a great cataclysm befell the Earth Kingdom, and society collapsed back to the stone age." Shikamaru stared back at the castle, "The legend is real!"
"Are we sure we're not in some kind of genjutsu effect?" Sakura asked.
"I don't think so," Naruto answered, "how else are we breathing and alive? The moon has no atmosphere that we know of."
"Everyone!" Hinata pointed to the gate of the main palace. When Temari's eyes focused, she saw it, too. A willowy figure stood in the doorway, dressed in white. While pale, the figure was not the pasty white of the Ōtsutsuki. Temari couldn't make out fine detail, but she could see the figure wave in greeting.
Author's notes: Hello everyone, and thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter as always. I know that the end of this chapter was probably unexpected for most and probably is one of the more controversial changes I've made to the Narutoverse/Borutoverse. Great kudos to those who caught the subtle hints as far back as Volume I. For those possibly put off by this, I ask that you keep an open mind through the next chapter. Much will be explained.
As for the rest of this story, the events to follow will be in the blank period. I have a series of adventures the characters will be going on after The Last. The story will also dip its toes into what I can only describe as a very different future from the one Himawari left to change.
Anyhow, that's enough of my soap box. I hope you enjoyed and continued to enjoy. Stay healthy, stay safe, and I'll see you all next chapter.
