SasuHina reunite this chapter, but all is not well

Chapter 48: Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down

"Byakugan no Hime."

Hinata startled.

The iron door that she'd constructed over a year ago in her mind and reinforced every day with meditation burst open. A tidal wave of suppressed chakra erupted through its frame, eclipsing the door.

Hinata gasped sharply as it hit. The force of it bowled her over. She couldn't see, she couldn't breathe. It swept her away, off her feet and further into the depths of her mind.

And then, indeterminable amount of time later, it was over.

Hinata found herself flat on her back. But the surface underneath her wasn't the hard, flat metal of an examination table. Her limbs weren't restricted by a chakra-containment jacket.

Opening her eyes, Hinata was met with an expanse of nothingness. Propping herself gingerly up with her hands, she looked around. There was a dim, indigo glow coming was from somewhere, but Hinata couldn't see where. It cast just enough light for her to make out her surroundings.

She was sitting in a field of long grass. It reminded her of the ones just outside the village where Team Eight had spent many days training. Where she had played hide and seek with Kiba, hunted for bugs with Shino, napped with Akamaru and learned to weave genjutsu with Kurenai. Where the boys had helped her pick flowers to press and acted as guinea pigs as she refined her ointments and salves. The field where Hinata had made her first real friends and that became a reprieve from the place she had to return to each night.

Slowly, she got to her feet. There was only more knee-length grass as far as the eye could see and an empty sky above.

She was still in her mindscape.

"Byakugan no Hime."

Hinata gasped, spinning around.

There was a man several feet away. He was tall and lean, draped in an expensive kimono. His face was handsome and ageless, though Hinata got the sense that he was older than her, with a set of eyes like her own. At the top of his head, poking out on either side from under a bed of long, silky white hair were two horns.

"W-Who are you?" she asked, voice weak in the vast space around them.

The man was unsmiling, but there was something kind in his eyes. Hinata felt an implicit sense of trust and started to move towards him, gliding through the long grass.

It was only when she stopped in front of him that he spoke again. "We have met before. Somewhere far away."

There was indeed something familiar about him. Eyes lingering on his horns, Hinata said, "Ōtsutsuki." Then, more hesitantly, "Hamura-sama?"

Hamura inclined his head.

Hand raising uncertainly to her lips, Hinata asked, "How are you here?"

Hamura's brows raised slightly. "Why shouldn't I be? You carry my chakra in you. It brings with it my essence and my will."

"Oh!" Hinata whipped her head from side to side. The chakra that had knocked over was nowhere to be found. "Where…?"

"Be calm, my child." Hamura's voice was soothing. This man, her ancestor, should have been intimidating and larger than life, yet he managed to project an inviting aura. "First, I must thank you."

Hinata blinked.

"You saved the world my brother created," Hamura reminded her. "I asked a lot of you."

Hinata shook her head. "You…I don't need to be thanked for that," she refuted, stumbling over her words in her haste. "If anything, I should be thanking Hamura-sama. For helping me to save my sister and the world where all my precious people live. Without you…I couldn't have done anything."

At this, Hamura frowned. It was a frightening sight that had Hinata's spine straightening. "My brother's children have chosen to reincarnate many times. I have watched them do so, but have never felt such a desire. Then you entered my domain, Byakugan no Hime, and I saw your soul and everything that you are and for the first time understood. Indra and Asura's reincarnates inherit their chakra and their resolve from birth. But you, Hyuuga Hinata, grew to possess the qualities I hold in highest regard through your own hardships and perseverance with no intervention from myself. Loyalty, compassion, an unfaltering sense of duty towards others. A determination to protect."

With every word that left Hamura's lips, Hinata felt herself grow more and more faint, taken aback by this undeserved praise from a being at the level of a God.

"For this reason, you are the only one worthy to receive my chakra," Hamura said. "I regret that I was unable to teach you how to harness it. Unlike Indra and Asura's scions, you inherited this chakra later in life, as a foreign intruder to your natural chakra network. I understand it must have been unexpected. Yet it saddens me that you chose to segregate yourself from it."

Hinata's hands flew to her chest, fingers intertwining into an agonized knot. "I-I didn't mean to! It's the only way I knew to —" She cut herself off, gaze flickering between Hamura and her feet before settling on the ground. "I wasn't strong enough," she confessed, voice quiet and ashamed. "I'm not strong enough. I know that. That's why Genji was able to —" Her lips pressed into a frown. "But…" Hinata forced herself to meet the Ōtsutsuki's eyes again. Though she could not read the emotion in them, she could only assume it was disparaging. Eyes those colour rarely looked upon her favourably. Still, she pressed on. "I won't give up. Because Fujiwara-san and the rest of those children need help. Because I have people relying on me. Because…"

"I'm saying I'm here, Hinata. Like this. If you'll have me."

Dark hair and mismatched eyes came to mind, a heated palm on her cheek and the urgent press of his lips.

"You don't have to answer now. I just wanted you to know."

"Because I have to give someone an answer." Hinata dropped her hands to her side, gathering every drop of determination she could muster and letting it fill her up to the brim. "So even if I'm not strong enough, I'll keep fighting. I won't give up…because that's my ninja way."

Hamura gave no outward reaction to her declaration except to examine her calmly. Then, he said, "You have been taught that there is only one acceptable form of strength. That it presents itself in a certain way. Like a blazing inferno or a lighting strike. You have been taught this, but you have learned to believe differently."

Hinata recalled the many times she had seen Naruto knocked down only to get back up. Kurenai's dry eyes and swollen belly at Asuma's funeral. The look on Neji's face the first time he had accepted her offer to break fast together. She nodded once.

"Fire can be the warmth of the hearth. Lightning can be harnessed to light the darkness. Destruction is only one way to wield strength. Strength is also needed to rebuild." Hamura looked at her consideringly. "There is something that you want."

So consumed by her awe, it took Hinata a minute for his last statement to sink in. Thin brows furrowed together as she thought of Fujiwara and the other children chained to the wall, next in line for Genji's sick experiments. Of the unseen Mayumi and whatever fate she had suffered. Of Hinata's own body in the real world, prone and defenseless.

Of Hanabi back on the moon, the indent in the bandages around her face where her eyes should have been. Of her uncle's closed casket funeral, eyes destroyed and body surrendered to Kumo.

"Y-Yes," she agreed after a moment. Then, taking a deep breath, she repeated herself more surely. "Yes."

"I will help you achieve it, if that is what you wish," Hamura said, "But you must be certain."

This time Hinata did not hesitate to answer. "I am."

The barest hint of a smile crossed the Ōtsutsuki's features. "Come then." He offered her his hand.

Carefully placing her hand in his, Hinata gasped at the sudden burst of light around them. She nearly let go, but Hamura's hold was firm and sure.

Hinata had thought the field they'd been standing in was made up of only long grass, but now she could see she was wrong. Thousands of flowers were growing along side the grass they were standing in and the moment their hands touched the fluorescent petals lit up in that same shade of indigo that belonged to Hamura's chakra.

It was breathtaking.

Hamura's grip on her hand tightened, drawing Hinata's attention back to him.

"Let's begin."

The blackness slowly lifted into something less than black and Sasuke recognized his surroundings as the dreary insides of his mind. He was standing in a pool of liquid that reached past his ankles. It was hard to tell its colour, but the viscosity was not consistent with water.

Sasuke grimaced. He didn't remember it being quite so thick.

He tried to move forward, but it was like wading through mud. His body felt exhausted after only a few steps.

A splashing sound had him spinning, the movement sluggish.

"So this is the mindscape of the infamous last Uchiha," Mizunoto said. Where Sasuke's feet seemed to be sinking into the dark liquid around them, Mizunoto's were balanced lightly on its surface.

Sasuke glowered. "Get out."

"If you had simply cooperated, there would have been no need for this," Mizunoto chided. "Kiyoko is carrying an antidote for the poison, if you change your mind."

"Go to hell!" Sasuke spat.

Mizunoto shrugged lightly. "Suit yourself. You are not a necessary part of our plans for Konoha. We were hoping to avoid unnecessary antagonism with a shinobi of your caliber, but as you can see we came prepared. The loss of the sharingan will be felt, but we survived the years following your defection. We have someone interested in studying it, perhaps we can find some method of reviving it."

"Your Orochimaru fanatic."

Mizunoto nodded. "Unfortunately, he doesn't have nearly the same level of ingenuity, but his goals align with our vision for Konoha."

Sasuke clenched his fists. This was the same person who had tried to abduct Fujiwara. If he was also targeting in dōjutsu…

Hadn't Hinata had a shift guarding Fujiwara?

Sasuke opened his mouth to demand answers, but before he could speak the space in front of them warped, opening up like a window. Mizunoto stepped closer to it while Sasuke struggled to follow with his heavy limbs.

The window opened back into the nae-ROOT hideout. Mizunoto stared intently as the view slowly swiveled around until another Mizunoto was staring back. Mind foggy, it took Sasuke a moment to understand and in that time Mizunoto had already maneuvered Sasuke's physical body across the underground room to where Homura and Koharu were still held captive.

When Mizunoto used the Shinranshin no Jutsu to force Sasuke to take his sword in hand in the real world, the Sasuke in his mindscape tried to throw himself at the other shinobi, but the liquid around him became even thicker. Like black sludge, it clung to his legs, keeping him in place.

"What is this?" Sasuke growled, fighting to move forward.

Mizunoto turned his way. "Every mindscape is different. I'm not so well versed in the Yamanaka techniques to say for certain. It may be the jutsu itself or the effects of the poison manifesting in your mind. Or…" He turned back to the window, lifting kusanagi and holding the edge of the blade to Koharu's neck. "It may be that you don't truly want to stop me. Can you honestly say you care if they die?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "I care that you're using my body," he spat. Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Sasuke changed tactics. He tried to summon his chakra to activate his sharingan or use his rinnegan to no avail.

A satisfied smile curved Mizunoto's lips. "As I thought. You wish them dead. I could do it myself, but to have the crime committed by the man both the current Hokage and his successor vouched for…it will create yet another layer of mistrust in the governing bodies of Konoha."

"You really think this will work? That you can win against Naruto and the rest?" Sasuke scoffed.

"It wasn't so long ago the villagers were cursing his name," Mizunoto pointed out. "They will turn on him again and see the wisdom in what we are doing. Everyone will fall in line eventually and Konoha will be reborn stronger than ever." Though his voice was level, there was an undercurrent of manic energy underneath it.

Something about the scene rang familiar to Sasuke. Then Naruto's voice sounded in his memory and Sasuke found himself reciting the words Naruto had said to him.

"There's no guarantee that the world you'll rebuild after severing the past won't end up just like this one, you know."

This seemed to trigger Mizunoto. Once again he turned from the window to face Sasuke, eyes set in a glare. "It won't," he insisted. "And it has a much better chance than a world where we repeat the same ways over and over, expecting a different outcome. That's the path your friend will lead us down."

Though his head ached, Sasuke met Mizunoto's gaze steadily. "Naruto wants to break the cycle of hatred. I believe that he can do it."

Mizunoto made a noise of disbelief. "Why do you have so much faith in someone you spent years trying to kill? Is it because he irresponsibly spared your life that you think he is free of flaws?"

Sasuke snorted. The lightness of the sound in contrast to the dire situation had Mizunoto's shoulders tensing as he studied Sasuke with wary eyes.

"Naruto has a lot of flaws. One of them is that he never gives up or goes back on his word, even when he should. But that's not the only reason I have faith in him…"

"I'm trying to change my clan and…I know it's not something I can do alone. Naruto-kun…he's trying to change the entire village. He needs our support and understanding."

"Making a big change like this will be difficult and it's not something anyone can do alone. We need to help each other, watch each other's backs and keep each other on the right track."

"I have faith in him because he's not alone. He has people around him who he trusts and who trust him."

A sneer broke out across Mizunoto's face. "You —"

A sudden enormous surge of chakra captured Sasuke's attention so completely that whatever Mizunoto was trying to say was lost in the background.

"Hinata…"

The potency of her chakra almost seemed to set Sasuke's nerve endings on fire even within the protection of his mindscape and the numbness caused by the poison traversing his system.

For Hinata to have felt the need to release the full extent of her chakra…it couldn't mean anything good.

With a new sense of urgency, Sasuke began to move again. "I told you before, if you want to kill the Konoha Go-Ikenban, do it yourself." With each step, the liquid around him seemed to thin, no longer obstructing his way. As Sasuke propelled himself towards Mizunoto, the other man's face seemed to blur, features sharpening until it was someone else entirely staring back at him.

Itachi.

Danzo.

Orochimaru.

Madara.

Obito.

Mismatched eyes set in a furious glare, Sasuke declared, "I won't let myself be manipulated again."

As if willed into existence, kusanagi appeared in Sasuke's hand and he lunged forward, cutting through Mizunoto in one clean stroke.

One second Sasuke was still in his mindscape, the next second he was back in the nae-ROOT hideout. Kusanagi was resting against Koharu's jugular.

Sasuke's hand shook.

The sword twitched.

Skin broke and blood trickled down Koharu's neck while the woman sat unflinching, lips set in a grim line.

Defiant, wrinkled eyes met blazing red and swirling lilac.

In a flash, Sasuke drew his sword back and swung.

Mizunoto spluttered a wet cough, blood staining his lips, hands still poised to attack. With a sharp tug, Sasuke slid kusanagi out of Mizunoto's stomach.

"Mizunoto!" Kiyoko screamed.

Forgoing the sheath, Sasuke dug the tip of kusanagi into the floor to support his own weight when his body seized. Biting his tongue, Sasuke used the pain to stay in the moment. Rinnegan pulsing, Sasuke opened twin portals on either side of him. With swift, efficient movements, he kicked the chairs of the elders through to the Hokage's office and shoved Mizunoto and Kiyoko into the Konoha Hospital reception. Not a moment after, the portals collapsed and Sasuke nearly did too, if it weren't for kusanagi holding him up.

The leg of one of the chairs the elders had been tied to lay broken on the floor, its jagged edge smoking where the portal had cut through it upon closing.

Hinata's chakra was still blaring, like fireworks against a dark sky. Eyes closed, Sasuke let the call of her chakra guide his rinnegan.

It was a short distance to travel, but it took its toll on his weakened body. When Sasuke opened his eyes, the corners of his vision were dark. It took several blinks for it to clear.

The first thing he saw was the children: Fujiwara and three others. There were metal cuffs around their wrists, but the chains hanging from them were broken, the edges almost having the appearance of being melted and the skin near it singed. The three Sasuke didn't recognize were cowering against the wall, but Fujiwara was standing tall, something like concern lighting his eyes as he stared across the room.

Following Fujiwara's gaze, Sasuke immediately had to shut his eyes. They burned. Pinpricks of colour flickered behind his eyelids, an afterimage seared into his retina.

Bracing himself, Sasuke opened his eyes against the torrent of light, ignoring the tears welling up. Up ahead stood a figure encompassed in indigo so bright Sasuke almost couldn't make out who it was.

Almost.

"Hinata."

With no care for the stinging of his eyes and the poison weakening his body, Sasuke approached. Each step seemed to take an eternity. The closer he got, the more powerful Hinata's chakra became, pulsing through the air. Sasuke could feel the chakra burns starting to form on his skin even without direct contact.

When he was just a foot away, Sasuke finally took notice of the other figure sprawled on the ground. The body was unrecognizable, burnt to a crisp.

Sasuke swallowed harshly. "Hinata," he called again, but she didn't seem to hear him. Arm reaching out, he took hold of her shoulder. Immediately pain lanced through the point of contact. Sasuke bit his tongue to stop from crying out.

As if jarred by the touch, Hinata spun around and Sasuke's mouth slackened in shock.

Her eyes were a radiant, ghostly blue.

Those eerie, foreign eyes looked right through him. The absence of warm, lavender was alarming enough to spur Sasuke into action once more. "Hinata," he said again, insistently, curling his fingers around her shoulder and squeezing as tightly as he could manage. "Look at me!"

Hinata's eyes roved around, unseeing, but otherwise she didn't react. Through the indigo sheen of the chakra encasing her, he could see blood staining both sides of Hinata's face from her temples to her cheekbones. Sasuke began to feel panic creep in.

Reaching deep into his core, Sasuke poured his chakra into his palm, concentrating it the way he would during their meditation sessions. "Hinata! Come back to me!"

For the first time since she'd turned around, Hinata blinked. "S-Sasuke?" Confusion furrowed her brows. Her eyes flashed between his rinnegan and sharingan.

"It's me," Sasuke confirmed. For a second, blue flickered into lavender.

"W-where…? What's going on?

Hinata's chakra continued to burn through his skin, but Sasuke's focus was on the blue overtaking lavender as Hinata's eyes became unfocused again. "Hinata!" Sasuke called urgently. "Look at me! Stay with me!" He slid his hand up to cup her cheek, thumb pressing into the skin beneath her eye. The blood on her face seemed mostly dry to the touch.

Hinata gasped, eye colour flickering again. "Sasuke!" Clarity finally entered her pearly gaze.

"Good. Stay here, stay with me," Sasuke breathed. He pressed his forehead against hers. "You promised me you would."

"I'll listen. It doesn't have to be now. I'll be here whenever you're ready. And if you never want to talk about it…that's fine too. I'll still be here."

"Sasuke…" He inhaled the breath that gave life to his name, their lips almost touching. Slowly Hinata's chakra started to recede, ebbing until it matched the flow of Sasuke's. He continued to wind down his own chakra, inducing Hinata's to follow suit. The indigo faded and the burning stopped.

"Sasuke! I — I don't know what happened," Hinata stuttered, voice filled with distress.

"It doesn't matter." Sasuke pressed closer, his lips ghosting over hers. "You came back to me."

Hinata sagged against him for a second and he held her trembling figure even as his own shook. Then she jerked away. "The children!"

"They're fine," Sasuke said, tilting his head in their direction. Hinata looked over his shoulder to confirm for herself. She flinched and Sasuke knew she had seen the chakra burns on their wrists. "Let's get out of here," he said, hoping to stop her train of self-reproaching thoughts in its tracks.

It didn't seem to work as Hinata's voice was lined with guilt when she spoke. "We need to get them to the hospital."

Sasuke nodded. "Come on." He started to move, but Hinata didn't follow.

"Wait. I think there's something I can do to help our comrades," Hinata said.

She crossed the room in halting steps and Sasuke followed closely, hand hovering over her back though he wasn't able to provide much support. They were both in bad shape.

As they circled around the operating table standing in the center, Hinata froze. She clamped her lips together, but an anguished whimper still escaped.

There was another table pushed to the edge of the room, covered by a sheet and half-hidden behind a curtain. Through a small gap a limp, bloodless arm could be seen hanging off the edge. Thin wires and tubes connected it to some machines and an IV drip, but that corner of the room was unnaturally silent. The machines were turned off, the IV bag was missing.

"Mayumi-san," Hinata murmured. "I saw...before, with my byakugan…" She shook her head. "She's gone."

Sasuke's lips pressed into a grim line, taking in Hinata's sorrow and remembering the put-together, well-respected iryō-nin. "We'll come back," he told her. "Return the body for a burial."

They continued on their way, stopping in front of a series of large, glowing glass cylinders mounted to the wall, each with a faucet on the bottom. Their surfaces were painted with seals that looked similar, but not identical, to the seal found on the nae-ROOT members.

"The chakra being siphoned from nae-ROOT is collected here," Hinata said, giving voice to Sasuke's thoughts. "I think I can modify the seals. Magnify the speed of siphoning, drain them of their chakra."

Sasuke imagined it. Every single nae-ROOT member simultaneously dropping to the ground from chakra exhaustion. There'd be no way for them to hide their affiliation with the organization. "Do what you need to."

Meeting his eyes, Hinata nodded. She drew herself up, a determined look on her face despite the weariness underneath. She bit her thumb, breaking the skin in a practiced manner, before using the blood to amend the seal. Her writing was messy, nowhere near her normally elegant calligraphy. Sasuke pressed his hand into the small of her back. Finishing the last alteration, Hinata sent Sasuke a weak smile over her shoulder before facing forward and bringing her hands together. Fingers weaving through a series of signs, Hinata then pressed her palms against the glassware.

Nothing happened.

Sasuke couldn't see Hinata's face, but the desolation in her body language was easy to read. Stepping closer, chest to her back, Sasuke placed his right hand over hers. This time, however, he didn't use his chakra to coax hers into obedience. He'd already used too much. The touch was for support, to remind her she could do it.

To remind her that he believed in her.

Sasuke felt it when Hinata inhaled. Then the seals lit up in her signature indigo and suddenly the mechanism flared to life, chakra beginning to flood the tubes.

"It worked." Hinata seemed to have no energy for excitement, just relief. She leaned further into Sasuke.

Sasuke eyed the tubes. It didn't look like they'd be able to hold the torrent of chakra much longer. Using his hand to guide Hinata, he brought them back to the other side of the room to where the children were waiting.

Dredging up every last remaining drop of chakra from his nearly depleted reserves, Sasuke opened a portal. Its edges were volatile, swirling around. The children, save for Fujiwara, flinched away from it.

Finally it stabilized, the center hollowing out to reveal Fujiwara's room in the hospital.

"Go," Sasuke commanded. When the children hesitated, he barked, "Quickly!"

Fujiwara mumbled something too quiet for Sasuke to hear and finally the three unknown children shuffled through the portal. As Fujiwara started to go through, the portal wavered just before he made contact.

The children screamed from the other side.

"Sasuke?" Hinata asked, worried.

"Fujiwara," Sasuke said.

Fujiwara ignored him, glancing at Hinata.

"Go ahead," Hinata said, mustering up a reassuring smile.

Fujiwara frowned. "What about you?"

It was Sasuke's first time hearing the boy's voice since being in Konoha. Sasuke almost didn't recognize it, so far removed from the incensed hysteria in the Hi no Kuni capital.

"We'll be right behind you," Hinata promised.

"Hurry!" Sasuke snapped before Fujiwara could hedge any further.

With an unhappy nod, Fujiwara stepped through, though he immediately looked back once his feet touched the ground on the other side.

Again the portal wavered, but this time when it reshaped it was smaller in size and slowly shrinking.

"Hinata." Urgency coloured Sasuke's voice as he started to push Hinata forward. But she held her ground, turning to look at him with serious eyes.

She took his hand into hers and he could feel it trembling. "Fujiwara," she addressed the boy, "Find Sakura-san or Naruto-kun and tell them everything."

"Hinata," Sasuke bit out. Keeping the portal open was taking everything out of him and even with all of his power it was rapidly closing.

"Sasuke," Hinata returned, squeezing his hand. "I won't leave you."

All at once Sasuke lost whatever scrap of energy he'd been using to hold the portal. Fujiwara's wide eyes were the last thing they saw before it dissipated into nothingness.

Sasuke's knees gave out. Hinata tried valiantly to keep him upright, but they both went tumbling down. The façade she'd been keeping up in front of the children broke.

"I'm so tired, Sasuke," Hinata whispered into his neck. Her breathing was heavy, the strain evident in her voice.

In the face of her honesty, Sasuke couldn't bring himself to lie. "Me too," he admitted. His vision was darkening, but he fought against it. He struggled to coordinate his fingers enough to clasp onto Hinata's waist. "You have to hold on. They'll be here soon."

"You too," Hinata said weakly. He almost couldn't hear her. "Shino-kun and Kiba-kun will find us. You have to hold on too."

Sasuke tried to respond, but his tongue was uncooperative. His eyes slid shut. Just before he lost consciousness he heard the sound of glass shattering.

RIP Mayumi

MVH