Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. With a computer you can do just about anything these days, so let's see if I can change that sometime soon.
*Part of a double-post, ch.4 & 5. Take care.*
Chapter 5: Pride of the Shinobi
"Oof!" Naruto hit the ground in a grassy outdoors ring belly-down before jumping back up, ready to fight again, "One more time! Rematch! Let's go!"
Standing across from him in a little ring intended for one-on-one sparring, a boy around his age with long brown hair tied low down his back and white-eyed stood at the ready in a strange open-palmed taijutsu stance. He wore brown shorts and a khaki shirt with bandages wrapped around his right arm and right leg, and on his forehead sat the green seal that many of the other clan members had.
Apparently Hinata had a cousin that was meant to be something of her keeper. They had found him outside in the midst of training while the rain had stopped temporarily and went to meet him. After introductions and hearing of what had happened during the mission that she had been dispatched on, he was curious of just what the person that could fend off multiple members of the Uchiha Clan while protecting Hinata could do.
"Spar with me all you like." The boy said, breathing slightly heavily as he waited for Naruto to walk off his cobwebs, "You can't defeat me." Apparently he could wear him down though.
On the sidelines sitting with a worried-looking Hinata now clad in a dark-colored kimono, Tenten rolled her eyes, "Naruto, if you used more than just taijutsu to fight him you might actually hit him." She pointed out with her cheek in her palm. Naruto hadn't even tried to bust out the clones, weapons, or anything, "…I'm just saying. He's way better at it than you."
"Yeah, he is." Naruto said, wiping a scuff off of his cheek, "Come on Neji, do you want to go again?"
"Why doesn't he quit?" Hinata asked softly, having borne witness to several attempts of Naruto falling to Neji's young mastery of the clan taijutsu style, "Neji-niisan is the most talented of our generation and… well…"
Figuring what she was trying to find a nice way to say, the weapon specialist did it for her, "Naruto's taijutsu isn't the cleanest compared to his is it?"
As this occurred, a challenging look came from the young male Hyuuga whose stance lowered even more than before to deal with Naruto again, "By all means, use more than taijutsu against me. I want to see how good a person that can defeat ten Uchiha Clan members all on his own really is." His eyes bulged to reveal the Byakugan again, "All of that chakra has to be good for something incredible. I'm interested in seeing your ninjutsu."
"Funny how that number seems to go up every time someone talks about it." Tenten deadpanned to herself under her breath. It freaked her out a bit that every single Hyuuga was capable of seeing through them, but it was kind of cool too. That was a neat ability to have, to see their chakra.
After getting to the castle, Kakashi was taken to speak with the leader of the Hyuuga Clan while Hinata was tended to by some of the other members, eventually being left with a Branch House member around her age in Hyuuga Neji. He wasn't very nice, but upon hearing how Naruto had dealt with their attackers he found himself interested and actually challenged Naruto to a spar.
Which was gleefully accepted, and led to now.
"So you can see what exactly with the Byakugan?" Tenten asked the quiet Hyuuga girl next to her, "Is it just chakra, or can you see through people's clothes and stuff?"
And why did that have to be the first thing that she asked if Hinata could see through? If she didn't feel uncomfortable before… "W-Well it's almost anything you can think of really."
While Naruto prepared himself to take on Neji again, Tenten kept her attention on Hinata who had been watching right along with her, "I've got another question then. I've seen that seal on some of the people in this clan, but not all of you. What is it?"
She hadn't asked that question very quietly, and Neji seemed to detach himself from the fight, staring over at Tenten and Hinata… or was it just Hinata? She noticeably shrank back into herself and he turned to leave.
Tilting his head in confusion, Naruto relaxed his body from preparing to fight, "Hey Neji, where are you going?"
"I'll have to continue testing what you're capable of another time perhaps Uzumaki-san." Neji said without stopping, "I've gotten ahead of myself and forgotten that I have other responsibilities to adhere to today. Hinata-sama." He then departed the outdoors sparring area.
Tenten looked confused as Naruto walked back over to her and Hinata, "What just happened?" It almost seemed like that frosty guy had been having fun, right until she'd brought up the seal.
Naruto just scratched his head as he considered the design, "I don't know. I was trying to figure out what it was the whole time we were sparring."
He'd really been trying to break it down since the moment they'd first seen the seals. It wasn't for chakra or anything like that. Naruto didn't think it even did anything for them. Nothing positive at least.
"It's meant to seal off the Byakugan." Hinata said with her eyes down to the ground, "If someone with the seal dies, it prevents an enemy from taking the Byakugan away and using its power for themselves."
Oh, that made sense to Tenten. That was pretty useful. Why'd it have to be so ugly and right on their foreheads though? She couldn't imagine walking around outside of her home like that without something covering it so hopefully they did that.
Naruto was about to accept it at face value until he started thinking deeper about what he knew of seal composition, "...That kind of makes sense because of the manji mark dead-center in it, but the way it's bonded. Why's it got those hook arrays?"
From hard-nosed fuuinjutsu education underneath a mother that wouldn't tolerate him not knowing how to break down a seal from afar, Naruto could tell what he was looking at more often than not. Those cane marks outlining the manji were traditionally meant to represent 'prisoner' or 'confined' in seal-speak. And while the manji was supposed to represent a higher being, the reversed version would have to mean the reverse in this case as well, a lesser being.
…
…Oh it had better not be.
But from the look on Hinata's face she was already regretful about what she knew Naruto's face showed he was aware of, "Oh you're kidding me. That's a juinjutsu isn't it? A cursed seal?"
Tenten raised a curious eyebrow at what they were talking about and why Naruto seemed to have such a problem with it. It obviously didn't sound good if the word 'cursed' was in it, "For those of us that didn't grow up teething on a sealing scroll, what's a cursed seal?"
"Juinjutsu." Naruto said, sparing Hinata a glance that let her know that he wanted to know more about this later, but for the sake of finally being able to tell Tenten something she didn't know for once instead of just asking others about things he didn't know in regards to the mainland he explained himself, "Cursed seal techniques. Other seal techniques usually seal chakra and other stuff away into other stuff, but juinjutsu are markings with chakra in them that people can use to control others."
"Like how?"
"Like there's probably some kind of command or something that'll do stuff to Neji and these Branch guys could hurt 'em." Naruto explained, drawing Neji's seal in the dirt with a kunai he pulled from his supply, "You can tell what most seals are if you know enough about what certain designs are supposed to mean. It's not all gibberish even if you don't understand it at first. Some pattern'll show up in other techniques and that can help you figure out what means what if you can compare things."
Rarely did entirely new arrays that no one had ever seen before come up, which was why it was so impressive that Kushina had managed to pull out one. If you'd seen enough of them to understand what made them tick you could break down tons of different techniques.
Tenten was kind of impressed about what Naruto knew. He might not have been worldly-wise exactly, or a very easy-to-teach person, but he sounded like he knew what he was talking about here. You couldn't fake that kind of confidence in your voice when you were speaking on a subject.
But now with all eyes on her, Hinata was compelled to speak on the subject in some way. Having friends she'd just made after saving her life think her detestable for her clan practices was the absolute last thing that she wanted to have happen.
She found it nice to have friends her age, since most of the Hyuuga Clan children didn't like her much due to her status as a Main House Hyuuga.
"It was created a long, long time ago." Hinata said, sounding none too proud about what she knew of the backstory, "I… I don't know much of the reasoning, but it was more than just a safeguard for the Byakugan. Our clan was almost subjected to c-civil war."
The prospect of a war occurring solely between members of a single family seemed scarier than the thought of any regular kind of war. Thus was the nature of a civil war.
Her discomfort at revealing history like that could be understood as Hinata continued regardless, "The head at the time and his brother who was angry over not being the leader led factions of our clan, and it's said that this was done to prevent war from occurring again after it ended. Members that wound up folding back into the clan after it ended allowed the seal to be placed on them for leniency, and it… well, you know."
That was a really archaic way to deal with things. It made sense to clan-raised Naruto though. There had to be a better way to make a seal that would ensure others couldn't use the Byakugan after a user's death nowadays. That and it sounded like some old-school hard justice punishment that would fall in line with what would be expected of the times.
Hell, he himself was about to get something fairly similar to a 'dead-on-arrival' sentence if his own clan caught him. So he understood, contrary to what anyone else ever wanted to think about him, but that didn't mean he liked it. He accepted that things at times wound up being that cutthroat, even with family, but things shouldn't have been that way. From what he'd understood, Neji was her first cousin, so this wasn't some far-from-the-line-of-direct-lineage Hyuuga, he was almost right next to the main branch of descent.
"Guh…" Naruto kicked his foot in the dirt to stir up his own drawing before getting up to find Neji really quick.
True, he was just a kid, and he didn't have their background. Oh there'd be some reasoning behind it, or someone would say something about him not being old or experienced enough to know what the reasons behind something were. That was the way things had always gone back in the village at least.
Except for Kushina. She always told him that knowing about something wasn't the same as understanding it, and if he wanted to form his own opinion on something he needed to learn of the entire story, from all sides.
Getting up, Naruto decided to take off and try to find Neji. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd been there, and true to form Naruto quickly found him in a grassier area striking at a post. So this was the 'responsibility' he had to get up and leave to adhere to?
"What do you want, Uzumaki-san?" Neji said in the midst of his training/anger management, freaking Naruto out as he thought he'd been quiet enough to watch unseen. Oh, there was that Byakugan thing. Not fair, "You're honored guests of Hinata-sama. I don't see what you'd want with a Branch member such as myself."
Naruto walked over and stood nearby as Neji stopped striking and leaned against the post he'd been using to wait on his answer only to see Naruto start off by pointing at his own forehead. Neji's eyes narrowed at Naruto until he explained, "I heard about what that was supposed to be for."
"Why do you say it like that?"
"Well I want to hear what you think."
Neji laughed humorlessly, "What I think about it, huh?" Gesturing to Naruto to have a seat, Neji's smile seemed bitter and sardonic more than anything else, "It's a symbol that no matter how skilled I grow to be I'll always be beneath the members of the Main Branch. It means that my entire life is meant to protect and serve the Main Branch at all costs. That's what happened already with the team that left with Hinata on her mission. All were ninjas with more experience and ability than her, but because they were ambushed, it was their fate to die so that she could escape."
That was a cold way of looking at it. Naruto's first instinct was to snap about how he could be the one to decide whether someone's death was appropriate or not, but he bit his tongue instead, allowing Neji to continue with a gesture of his hands.
"And this is the way things will always be." Neji did not disappoint as he continued, "During this war I'll see it in spades. The Branch Family being forced to lay themselves down for the sake of the Main Family members when things get dire. Are we not the same blood? And yet I'll be expected to sacrifice myself at a moment's notice for someone that sees me as beneath them, unable to expect the same in return if the need arises."
What a grave outlook. Naruto craned his neck around to find Hinata hiding around a wall, watching and looking quite saddened by what she was hearing, "Well look. I know you don't like a big chunk of your clan, but could you do me a favor?" Neji raised an eyebrow, but he was willing to at least listen. Maybe what he had to say wouldn't be asinine, "I've only been around her for a day, so maybe I don't know her, but Hinata doesn't seem like that kind of person. And she's next in line right?"
"She's next to inherit control of the clan if that's what you're asking."
"Okay, get to know who she really is. The way I saw it, she's ashamed that the cursed seal is on you."
"Well there's nothing anyone can do about that is it? And I know what kind of a person she is; weak." Neji said, "I've seen her in needed the sacrifice of our clansmen and your timely intervention to survive what befell her. Did she even fight? You probably like her because of some complex of yours to be a hero."
"No." Naruto replied unconvincingly, actually averting his eyes and confirming Neji's point to an extent, but he could feel the mood of Hinata just fall from where she was trying to observe their conversation, "Just… just do me that favor. Try. Can you try?"
"It will do no good." Neji shut his eyes and shook his head, "From the moment I was branded, my fate was sealed. The only path to my freedom is death."
Any continuation to the conversation would have to wait, because a gigantic flaming projectile flew through the sky overhead and crashed straight into the towering castle that was in plain sight of all of them. Instinctually, Naruto and Neji covered up in case they were the ones about to take damage.
After it was clear that no debris was going to hit them, both looked up at the burning top portion of the castle with a huge flaming arrow skewering it. What the hell?
"Neji?" Naruto asked, not needing to say anything as his eyes were already showing the telltale signs of Byakugan use, "Who shot that off?"
"It's too far for me to see." He begrudgingly admitted despite focusing in the direction that he knew the arrow had been fired from. His first instinct was to suspect foul play of Naruto's party, but upon seeing the real life alarm on his face and seeing how his heartbeat picked up the pace in a panic he cast aside that notion, "But… the castle above that level is structurally compromised. The upper floors are for the Main Branch, and the top is where Hiashi-sama's office is situated."
That wasn't good. Kakashi was supposed to be up there as well in the middle of a meeting with Hiashi.
The rest of the clan weren't idle either, as many were starting to get to work on trying to get up to that level to put out the fire, others were buzzing about the premises to discover the source of the initial shot and respond accordingly.
"INCOMING!"
A second large arrow hit higher up on the castle, puncturing all the way through and causing the roof to collapse down onto the weakened upper levels of the building.
Where the hell were those coming from? Over with Hinata, Tenten was trying to fight down her own fear and calm her mind by sensibly judging the speed and trajectory of the two previous shots to determine what she could from their position.
On the road to the castle they had to move underneath a cliff around what she now knew to be the side end of the grounds, but further in that same direction there was a bluff that created something of a valley that they'd been travelling in. Whether or not it overlooked the top of the hill they were on she couldn't tell, but it didn't need to. If they had a bow device powerful enough to shoot that far of a distance it wouldn't be that difficult for an experienced artillery commandant to take aim and hit the castle itself.
"It's coming from the cliff to the south! That's the only place anyone could ever get a decent shot on this location from!" Tenten shouted over the sounds of panic and the rainfall that picked back up as things began to grow panicked. The Hyuuga Clan members that heard her took things into account and realized that the girl was right before going off to inform the people they needed to of what was going on.
One of these Hyuugas went to Neji and Naruto, grabbing the former by his shoulders in a rush, "Neji, you protect Hinata-sama. The Uchiha have already tried to pursue her as a priority target. There are Uchiha Clan members coming this way and we're getting our forces together to meet them in battle."
"How close?" Neji wondered, as they should have seen an approach of that nature coming.
"They stayed out of default range of guards' Byakugan security scans until the arrows were launched and they moved up." The adult clan member said, eyes panning in the direction that they were aware the attack would be coming from, "I'm not certain how bad this will get and Hiashi-sama isn't available to be found so take Hinata-sama to the escape." His eyes panned to Naruto and Tenten, "Are you with us?"
"I guess." Naruto said honestly. It wasn't like they had a choice at this point. If the castle fell the Uchiha Clan probably weren't going to differentiate targets in the heat of battle. That much was clear from Naruto's first run-in with them, "Why?"
"You protected her once. Would you be willing to assist Neji in getting Hinata-sama to safety?"
All Naruto could do was nod. It was either do something useful, jump onto the frontlines of a real ninja battle, or sit in the middle of a burning castle premises waiting around like a little kid. His choice was more or less made when a third flaming giant arrow devastated the Hyuuga grounds.
"Go!" The Hyuuga member ordered before taking off for the battlefield.
With a sigh as he saw his Branch House family member off, Neji's face took on a stern taciturn and he took off with Naruto into Tenten and Hinata's direction. He was given an order and as loathe as he was to see it through he wouldn't cop out on his duty. He had more honor than that.
Upon reaching the girls, Neji fully took the lead and led the three younger ninjas through the premises to the back end of the castle grounds, "Follow me."
XxX
(Outside of the Hyuuga Castle Grounds)
"Hold them back!" One of the formally-dressed Hyuuga Clan members shouted as a barrage of kunai fell from the sky and cut down those that were unable to garner cover behind the trees that littered the forested hill, "We have the high ground!"
He then found himself felled by a well-placed throw of shuriken that found themselves lodged in his neck, bringing him to a rather unpleasantly bloody end. So much for the advantage of the high ground.
Itachi had absolutely no problems leading the way for the rest of his forces to follow with on the primary charge. Not only could he see anything coming his way with his vaunted Sharingan, he had the speed and body control to handle anything that came his way.
It was almost enchanting to watch him dance through the explosions and flurry of metal objects flying his way, especially when you paid attention to the other clan members nearby trying to mimic his movements only to fail and fall by the wayside to their wounds and their own mortality as a result.
The movements couldn't be human. They were too perfect. Not so much textbook as they transcended technique altogether. You couldn't study how to move like that. Every dodge, weave, hop, step, spin, cut to the inside or outside was more like studious instinct; moves practiced to a compulsive degree.
Slowing down, Itachi raised a hand and lowered it forward as multiple Uchiha Clan members took to the sky, weaving through hand-seals before letting loose with the signature clan jutsu, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"
If the bellowing flames from above didn't directly threaten the shinobi standing against them they set the trees above them and around the main path ablaze, and while the Byakugan of every Hyuuga was on and while they could see basically everything they couldn't keep their attention on all of it. This was Itachi's overall strategy, to overwhelm their most relied upon sense of sight. As a fellow doujutsu-using clan it was a concept that the Uchiha understood well.
As the fire burned, Itachi abused his Shunshin no Jutsu abilities liberally, appearing in the midst of the Hyuuga lines and cutting down those unprepared for him or more concerned with his clansmen than the threat that he himself posed. Those smart enough to realize what was happening and defend themselves found their abilities to land a blow with their hands and fingertips on Itachi a daunting task in of itself.
With Itachi being the one wearing modern body armor when the rest were wearing their regular clothes with mesh armor underneath, he made quite the target as a potential serious threat even before people realized just who he was.
"I know your taijutsu." Itachi said, dodging his way past the strikes of three Hyuuga Clan men and women from different squads that deigned to band together and take out the most devastating participant in the battle by far, "Your clan is by far the best at hand-to-hand combat that I've ever seen, but that doesn't matter if you can't keep up with your target."
They had him surrounded in a triangle formation and still it was like he was making sport of them from the way he expertly slipped their strikes, one time even grabbing the arm of one Hyuuga's missed palm strike and moving it into the path of another Hyuuga's blow, causing him to take it on the inside of his elbow, rendering his arm useless without Itachi ever even making a move.
Jumping out of the fray, Itachi simply continued on his way up the hill, 'Perhaps the time has come for the flanking team to make their move?' He couldn't see how guarded the castle still was, but from the way the battle was transpiring it seemed as if in their panic the Hyuuga Clan set out to meet them head-on instead of trying their own flanking movements.
The call for falling back to the first walls of the castle went out for the Hyuuga Clan and Itachi was then thoroughly convinced that it was indeed time for the third phase of the attack. With his forces steadily moving forward despite losses during the push up the hill, they were bullying the Hyuugas back.
A sharp whistle from Itachi resulted in multiple ones going up from leaders of smaller Uchiha squads, warning them to slow their advance lest they be caught in a trap. They had things well in hand at this point, but an enemy counterattack could still occur. Itachi was unsure of just what that could entail, but he wasn't eager to learn what it would be.
"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Jutsu)!"
From the crest of the hill a rumbling that shook the ground occurred before a horrifying amount of water spilled down the knoll in a massive wave that covered most of the width of the battlefield.
There was no chance of leaping into the branches to take cover above ground due to the fact that most of the trees were on fire, thus leaving taking cover behind any given rock, any sturdy enough tree, or previously erected ramparts created by the Hyuuga Clan as the only alternative.
It worked in some cases, but in a more than ample amount of circumstances it simply wasn't ample support and Uchiha upon Uchiha found themselves swept away downhill with crushing force, crashing against trees and rocks that broke their bodies in half if they hadn't already been.
Itachi managed to avoid damage by taking cover underneath a crest that the water flowed over, leaving him a bit wetter than the rain had made him but unharmed nonetheless, "Hm. Now who do they have with elemental ninjutsu skill like that? And what a good defensive strategy given the conditions."
He would have to think on that later. The Uchiha Clan attack had stalled, and the secondary wave to occur from a flanking side had to have been broken from that one timely ninjutsu. The tide had to be kept from turning more than it already had.
XxX
At the top of the hill, a slightly singed Kakashi stood by Hiashi who also seemed to have suffered his share of burns from the attack on the castle, "That should significantly slow the attack." The masked Hatake said to the clan head next to him as he stood on the wall that the retreating Hyuuga Clan had gotten behind before he'd let his jutsu go.
Hiashi's white eyes shone with the prospect of putting the shoe on the other foot and garnering some retribution for his fallen clansmen, and was prepared to issue the signal to counterattack until Kakashi stayed his hand, "Hatake-dono? You've given us more than enough, telling me methods to use to fight the enemy and assisting our clan in a dire moment with your stratagem. You do not need to do anymore."
"Well I can do a little more. The Uchiha Clan isn't really friendly with me." Kakashi said with an eye-smile as he made formed the tiger hand-seal, "Here. Let me see what else I can weed out for you since I'm already in the midst of it. Doton: Doryuu Taiga (Earth Release: Earth Flow River)!"
Dropping off of the wall onto the muddy ground right beneath it, Kakashi caused a landslide of the loose, slick earth to cascade down the hill. The ascent of the Uchiha attackers would only be that much more difficult from this point forward.
"You really are the man of 1000 jutsu." One of the bewildered Hyuuga Clan members remarked as all of them watched Kakashi go to work.
"I need a squad of volunteers!" Hiashi shouted, getting an immediate eight shinobi to land on the wall next to him, kneeling, "Hatake-dono is willing assist in taking out the ranged artillery of the enemy by lending his ninken summons. Will you follow them to dispose of the enemy?"
"Yes Hiashi-sama!"
This battle was turning around. What a godsend for Copy Ninja Kakashi to arrive when he did out of the blue.
It wasn't like he could really let the castle fall. He had civilians with him he needed to protect for goodness sake. There wasn't any running for him here. Not from this.
"Be right back." Kakashi said as he rushed through the walls again and onto the premises, fleeing to where he'd left Teuchi and Ayame to sell food to the Hyuugas until the battle broke out. Knocking on the shut up ramen cart, Kakashi called out to the people inside, "Teuchi-san, Ayame-san, are you two alright in there?"
"We're fine Hatake-san." Teuchi called out from inside, "We'll be alright here, but I didn't think hiring a ninja would lead to us actually getting involved in a clan battle of all things."
"Well just sit tight." Kakashi told him, "They aren't getting this far from the looks of things, and we'll be getting the hell out of here the second things die down, so don't worry."
XxX
(With Naruto)
Neji expertly led his contingent of Naruto, Tenten, and Hinata to the back of the embattled castle's grounds, taking them into the back of the clan armory where they descended through a hidden hatch into a cave underneath the hilltop compound.
Hinata's eyes kept trying to see what was going on through the hill with her Byakugan, but eventually they went too far for her to see the slightest outline of anything through the hill any longer. It didn't fill her with a very confident sense in her stomach. At first she could see outlines of people falling, and from their position on the hill she knew that they were Hyuuga Clan members.
It was scary. She'd heard plenty about the great battles waged between the Senju and the Uchiha, the last major one occurring four years ago, and this to her was horrible enough. She didn't know just how much this paled in comparison to those titanic fights.
"We're almost there." Neji said. His Byakugan was stronger than Hinata's, thus he was able to see more of the battle before it became impossible for him to see through anymore of the hill to watch from afar. He was able to keep his composure though. This wasn't some last effort to have them escape to salvage something of the clan. It was merely to keep a vulnerable point of contention away from the enemy, "This cave opens up just ahead."
Naruto and Tenten jumped their way down upcroppings of rocks to follow behind the lead Hyuuga of the party. He was the one that seemed to know where they were going more than anyone else, "Wow." The bun-haired kunoichi said as she looked around at all of the different corridors that he'd been taking them through, "I guess you need that kekkei genkai down here or else you'd get lost."
"That's supposed to be the idea." Neji said, "It wouldn't be much of an escape route if our enemy could catch up to us just by following us down here."
"True." Tenten seemed rather embarrassed. She could have fallen back on the old tried and true excuse of not being a clan ninja but that wasn't very dignified, and she had her pride, clanless even as she was, "Forget I said anything."
"Think nothing of it." Neji replied, "For the time being we're in this together, and the entire point of this being a secret was that people aren't supposed to know much about this."
Eventually they came to the end of the cave and found themselves standing at the edge of a sheer drop situated in a deep crevice that led straight down into a rapidly moving river hundreds of feet below. Straight across was a small gap fissuring a path into the opposite wall, but with the distance between the two openings there wasn't a chance that a single one of them could clear it.
"My ass we're jumping that!" Naruto shouted over the echoing sound of crashing water below them, "This is a dead end!" Neji just shook his head and pointed over to a nearby wall outside of the safe position. Naruto leaned his head out and saw the wall tagged with a seal tag, with another one on the other side as well, "Oh. A barrier?"
"It disguises the bridge." Hinata said quietly with a small smile, "Even our doujutsu can't see it unless we're standing on it directly."
Naruto set out an experimental foot on what seemed to be thin air only to find that it was planted firmly on a surface. Emboldened by this, he took a full step forward and suddenly found that he was indeed standing on an extremely well-made stone bridge. Oh man, that was good fuuinjutsu to disguise such a thing. He had to get him some of that.
To everyone else behind him it looked like Naruto was levitating. With a smirk and a shake of his head, Neji walked onto the bridge as well, "Are you both coming?"
Tenten nodded and looked over at Hinata before both of them set out as well. These were clan secrets. Even Naruto seemed to accept some of these things even if he didn't understand them. The entire two days since they had come across Hinata had hit her like a whirlwind.
Clan secrets, clan laws, clan techniques, clan this-and-that… they were all so strange.
Even if he didn't seem to like some of these things, Naruto was rolling with the punches. She knew that she should have figured out a way to do so as well, but it was just hard. She didn't grow up with any of this.
Neji's footsteps stopped after a short time as he stopped and seemed to be considering something that he'd only just seen, "…There are charges planted on this bridge."
Everyone else froze and Hinata turned on her own Byakugan to confirm it. Indeed, there were explosives planted on some of the underside of the bridge around some of the supports down on the opposite end, "T-They aren't ours are they?"
"We never booby-trapped our escape route for pursuers." Neji said sneering as he could see something trying to hide underneath the bridge, "And they're too few in number to be anything that our clan would have already set well in advance. These tags are new."
So someone else had already made it there to set the trap.
Naruto cracked his knuckles and stomped his foot hard on the big bridge several times, "Come on out…" He said under his breath before shouting it out loud, "Come on out now! We already know you're here!"
There wasn't any response at first until a Shunshin disguised someone moving from underneath the bridge to the surface, one hand set on their hip in a bit of a cocky posture, "I wasn't even done setting the explosive tags on this bridge. There aren't enough here to bring it down." The person said over the sound of the water below, "Is the battle going that bad that you had to flee the castle already?"
Neji began walking forward to do battle with this person that was obviously an Uchiha, but he found Naruto marching ahead faster than he was, "Uzumaki-san. This is my battle to fight. It's Hyuuga against Uchiha. You don't have any stake in this conflict."
Naruto only stopped to turn around and grin widely at Neji, "Hey don't give me any of that crap about how it's your duty as a Branch underling to put yourself at risk for the Main House or whatever. Just sit back."
"What are you doing Naruto!?" Tenten yelled at him as he kept walking forward, "This isn't our fight!"
"Says who?" The estranged Uzumaki replied, "Yeah Neji… your mission's supposed to be to protect Hinata. That was what that guy told you to do. So let me fight him first."
Neji just focused between Naruto and the Uchiha boy, alternating to try and make sense of what was up, "Why would you want to do something like that?"
"I kinda have unfinished business with him." Naruto let out cryptically.
Not cryptic enough for Neji to miss picking up on however, "I see." This had to have been one of them that Naruto had run up against beforehand. To have something to prove against a dangerous enemy, not the smartest course of action, "Say no more. But if you lose-."
"If I lose you can definitely take him on." The whisker-marked blond confirmed. The bridge didn't look like it would be big enough for more than two people to comfortably fight on in close anyway. For him and Neji to take part it would have had to be either/or. That didn't account for someone with more ranged capabilities however…
Tenten just stared with her mouth open before shouting again, "You can't be serious you dumbass! You're going to fight him alone? At least let me or somebody else help!" Hell, she was the only one that technically could have helped without the numbers being a detriment to battle efficiency.
She severely doubted that Naruto was considering this when he stepped up. She just figured that he wanted to show his ass after being forced to run away from the Uchiha Clan before this.
"No!" With accentuation, Naruto pointed straight back her with a frown, "And if you jump in anyway I'll be pissed!"
The following stream of non-childlike obscenities that Tenten launched at Naruto and the insults sent his way about comparisons between his intelligence and that of inanimate objects notwithstanding, he pressed on forward until he was close enough to get a good look at the Uchiha.
Yep. It was definitely that kid that had set the hounds on him in that clearing that started all of this.
Same blue shirt, same white shorts, same weird spiked-up hairstyle. The only difference from before was that his eyes were black instead of Sharingan red, "You really did make a mess after you ran away from me the last time didn't you?"
"I didn't run away from YOU." Naruto specified, squinting his eyes at his apparent foe, "I was running away from the bunch of guys you sicced on me. Jerk."
"I have a name Uzumaki kid. It's Sasuke."
"Well I have a name too. It's Naruto."
"I thought it was 'dumbass'. From the way that girl in the pink yelled it I figured it was your name."
Honestly, Naruto didn't step in to keep Neji from fighting due to any sort of thoughts to help him out, though that was a byproduct of his actions. No, Naruto just wanted to settle what little score he had with Sasuke here. He had his pride after all, and if there was anything he hated doing it was running away.
"Like I told you, no mercy for a second Naruto. He won't have any on you."
The moment one of them moved a muscle both boys ran directly at each other, footsteps pounding on the stone bridge as they met and clashed. Naruto was the first to hurl punches that Sasuke slipped underneath and out of the way of before retaliating with a good one of his own that knocked Naruto into the side barricade.
Sasuke tried a flying kick that Naruto rolled out of the way of, forcing him to plant his foot on the barricade surface to stay on and continue the fight. Continuing to pursue Naruto he attempted a spinning kick that Naruto blocked, sending him sliding back a bit before things carried on.
Stepping forward with a haymaker, Naruto missed as Sasuke leaned out of the way with a smirk, 'I don't even need the Sharingan to-.' His inner monologue was thoroughly thrown off when he found himself nailed in the side of the head with a back wheel kick that Naruto rolled through and threw after missing his punch.
It was a heavy enough blow to knock him down with a thud onto the surface of the bridge. Sasuke quickly looked up after wincing with his blow, and now his Sharingan was definitely active, with good reason as well because he needed to roll out of the way of shuriken thrown at his downed form.
'Alright, that's enough of that.' Sasuke thought as he avoided the short offensive burst.
Drawing a kunai as he got back up to his feet, he found that Naruto had already done the same and this time upon meeting they clashed blades. In their close proximity, Naruto could see that Sasuke had two little dash thingies in each of his eyes. That was supposed to mean something, but what it was escaped him at the moment since he wasn't an expert on the Uchiha Clan.
"Heh… I've never fought an Uzumaki before." Sasuke said with a smirk despite the blood trailing from his mouth and the bruise on his cheek, "Kind of interesting actually."
Naruto grinned on his own end of things, "You Uchiha aren't as scary as everyone says you are." The broke away from one another and Naruto juggled his weapon in his hands before holding it at the ready again.
And that struck something of a chord with Sasuke, "I'll show you how scary the Uchiha Clan can be." He abandoned his kunai by throwing it straight at Naruto, but it was only a diversion to get him to move aside long enough for Sasuke to anticipate where he was going to dodge.
"Naruto!"
Turning around after hearing Tenten's cry and feeling Sasuke's presence, Naruto turned around to receive a fist to the mush that sent him rolling back on the bridge, 'Man he's fast!' And he definitely didn't hit with a soft touch, nor was his jutsu meant to mess around as he was soon to learn after Sasuke completed his hand-seals.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"
Sasuke took to the air and sprayed the ground with flames from his mouth, attempting to incinerate Naruto while he had the opening to do so. With the size of the fireball he could create, there was no escape from it without diving over the side of the bridge as far as Sasuke was concerned, and good luck with surviving that.
From afar, Tenten didn't have the benefit of eyes that could see through the fire the way that Hinata and Neji had. All she knew was that Sasuke had shot flames at a prone Naruto and he hadn't been able to move far enough away before she'd lost sight of him behind the spray of fire.
"Fuuton: Reppuushou (Wind Release: Gale Palm)!"
On the ground, Naruto and three clones held their hands together in front of their chests and kicked up enough of a wind to keep Sasuke's fire from burning the original Naruto alive. The clones didn't survive, and Naruto's foot quickly caught on fire until he put it out, but it was better than the alternative.
Wind wasn't strong against fire, but a stronger force of wind than the fire presented could deter one if only for a short while, "Damn it. They would be good at the element that's stronger than mine." Naruto said to himself as he patted the rest of the fire on his leg out. That was going to leave a burn.
A wall of flames separated Naruto and Sasuke, but the latter could see enough of him to try a second move. He would have, had it not been for the gigantic shuriken that flew through the obscuring fire that forced Sasuke to dodge, 'That's just a diversion.' Sasuke could make out enough of Naruto's silhouette in the fire to know that he'd jumped in the air the moment he threw the shuriken, thus Sasuke rose into the air to meet and intercept him.
Both of them landed kicks on one another, but Sasuke's landed deeper on the chin instead of how Naruto's landed on the chest. He was taller, thus his legs were longer and he stuck his kick better than Naruto landed his own.
The short moment of accomplishment for Sasuke didn't last long, as the Naruto he kicked vanished in a puff of smoke. Down below he was able to crane his neck and see a second Naruto standing there and taking diligent aim with one lone kunai.
Sasuke's eyes widened as Naruto let it fly. Instinctually, he turtled up and held his own kunai defensively, actually enabling him to fend it off. He still fell however, and landed roughly on the ground. It was better than what would have happened if Naruto's throw had made contact with his flesh.
Unable to safely roll through his landing, Sasuke's upper back and shoulders took the brunt of his fall on the hard stone bridge, "Ugh…" He groaned as he got back up only to see Naruto rush through the flames, drenched with water and covering his face with his arms for protection. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke stepped forward to engage him again with his kunai, but Naruto was able to stop any attempt to cut or stab by catching Sasuke's wrist.
'This guy…' Naruto thought to himself throughout the struggle until he felt Sasuke shove his sandaled foot into Naruto's belly and smoothly backroll to technically throw him off and out of their grappling fight. Wincing upon his landing, Naruto saw an upside-down Sasuke lunge from right above him in a downward stab at his head or neck and suddenly lashed out upward with a pair of kicks that knocked the kunai into the air and out of Sasuke's hands.
Sasuke's eyes followed the weapon up into the air before they quickly snapped back down onto Naruto who was making a cross hand-seal with his index and middle fingers, "A jutsu?"
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"
The young Uchiha had to backpedal as he found several Naruto clones chasing him down while Naruto himself was able to take a moment to catch a breath and get back up, 'What's with this guy? Does he really have that much chakra?'
Solid clones weren't supposed to be an easy thing to create. Most of them took a good chunk of chakra just to make, and these ones were complex enough to use ninjutsu in battle if they had been the ones to assist Naruto in surviving his earlier fireball.
He couldn't dwell on that now however. Sasuke grabbed the punch of one clone and threw it into the fire behind him before swaying his head and upper body out of the way of a shuriken barrage from some of the others. It didn't get in the way of his weaving through a short set of hand-seals of his own, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!"
A smaller series of fireballs flew from Sasuke's mouth and took out the unprepared clones, but that still left the original Naruto, back on his feet and coming forward again. This time both he and Sasuke met and delivered simultaneous punches to the face that knocked the other back with a stumble.
This was pissing Sasuke off. He could and had taken down full-grown adult ninjas in battle, and this single kid from a Senju affiliate was staying in the game against him.
Naruto wasn't as fast as him, and his use of taijutsu wasn't as clean, but he was still landing shots. The timely calling forth of Kage Bunshin at certain points allowed openings that Naruto had no problems trying to take advantage of. If he had a fully matured Sharingan he wouldn't get mixed up for a moment, but referring to a resource he didn't have available to him was a fool's errand.
'Man he's good.' Naruto thought to himself, wincing at a cut that had opened up underneath his eye, 'I've got to hurl clones at him or he'll stop every punch I throw cold.' The only way any of his feints would work was with clone misdirection. If Sasuke didn't see him make the clones he couldn't tell the difference between them.
At the end of the bridge, Neji watched with interest, "Solid clones, and they have their own chakra network." He shook his head with a smirk, "I can't tell the difference between the original and the fakes if I don't pay attention to the spawning patterns."
"He has a pattern?" Hinata asked, not picking up on one from what she could see with her Byakugan.
"Pay closer attention." Neji more or less demanded of her, getting a nervous nod, "Every time he's called upon multiple copies, Uzumaki-san has remained at the back, out of harm's way. Whether the Uchiha boy knows this or not from the heat of battle I couldn't ascertain. Not yet anyway."
He had a point, but Tenten didn't think Neji was exactly on the money with his observation, "I don't think he's doing it on purpose." Every time Naruto called on extensive clone backup it was when he was beginning to get overrun, like a safety valve to set back some of the pressure Sasuke was putting on him, "Sasuke's not giving him a chance to use it on the offense, so the best way Naruto can use the jutsu is to get himself some space."
"You may be on to something." Neji said, seeing Tenten's point in the matter, "He's fighting better than I anticipated he would have from what I've seen, but he never struck me as the most cerebral ninja from our spar. The Uchiha boy is incredibly talented, and if he hasn't already I think he'll pick up on the way things are going soon. I don't think Uzumaki-san is fated to win this battle."
"That's not true!" Hinata said defensively, surprising Neji and Tenten as they hadn't heard her speak that loud, "It's not a matter of fate, or anything like that… it's a matter of effort! If you put enough effort in and work hard enough to prepare…" She trailed off as her courage waned once Neji's astonishment at her outburst wore off.
'Now where did that come from?' Neji wondered before putting his attention back on the high-stakes affair before them.
Back with the battle, Naruto and Sasuke were still facing off, both wondering what move they could pull out that would give one the advantage over the other.
The first to actually make another sound outside of heavy breathing was Sasuke, "I don't like the way you're looking at me." Sasuke quipped, noting Naruto's serious, focused glare.
"Well I don't like fucking looking at you." Naruto replied flippantly, "How's that?"
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Naruto before making a hand-seal that Naruto matched by setting up his own for Kage Bunshin, "Time to put an end to this. I'm done wasting time with you. I wonder which jutsu'll be faster."
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" In a massive puff of smoke an entire small platoon of Naruto clones stood at the ready in front of Sasuke, prepared to finish him off as they drew kunai to do battle with, "Mine's faster." They all said in unison.
"Uzumaki-san no!" Neji shouted uncharacteristically, but it was all a matter of what he could see. Sasuke's hand-seal that he'd made at the exact moment as Naruto wasn't meant to begin a jutsu, it was to activate something remotely.
Instead of paling or scrutinizing the force against him with dread, Sasuke just smirked, "Such a moron. Later."
During the course of the battle, Naruto and Sasuke had switched positions on the bridge so often that it was just a matter of making sure that they were in position to aptly defend themselves. Sasuke hadn't been expecting Naruto to create upwards of twenty clones in one move. All he'd been expecting was for Naruto to create clones to put some distance between the two of them, and he was still expecting that.
Which made it all the more better that the jutsu put the back of Naruto's clone force at the end of the bridge that Sasuke had planted hidden explosive tags at and underneath. And he proceeded to detonate those tags to win the fight.
A rippling chain of explosions rocked the back end of the bridge with fire and debris, causing the entire structure to quake as many of Naruto's clones were snuffed out of existence. The rest dispelled after being jostled over the edge, and Sasuke couldn't see a one until a figure charged out of the smoke and dust.
'He wasn't in the back this time!' Running forward to meet him, Sasuke ducked a swipe of a kunai intended for his neck and once more switched sides with Naruto, rolling through his hand-seals once more, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"
There was only one immediate counter on-hand for Naruto, and it was his go-to in this situation, "Fuuton: Reppuushou (Wind Release: Gale Palm)!"
Wind flew from Naruto as fire spewed forth from Sasuke's mouth again. The volatile element met the one that could make it even more so just as it was beginning to form into fireball shape. The wind blew through its interior and blew some of the yet-to-pack fire back at Sasuke, causing the jutsu to expand and explode in both of their faces, sending them both flying away limply.
From the cave on the Hyuuga Clan side of the bridge and from the gap that was to be the exit on the opposite side of the bridge, two fast moving blurs that caught even the Byakugan-possessing Hyuuga children off-guard as one of the rushed past them.
One caught Naruto and the other caught Sasuke before sliding to respective stops and facing off with each other with the rain falling from above.
Kakashi with his Sharingan hidden and Naruto in his arms stared at Itachi who had Sasuke in his, "Well…" The masked ninja said, "Uchiha Itachi. No wonder the attack on the castle was so fierce."
"No wonder such a powerful combination of ninjutsu managed to rebuke the advance." Itachi said in return, "The Hyuuga Clan aren't known for their abilities with elemental ninjutsu. I'm assuming that was you."
"Itachi, put me down." Sasuke complained despite being burned from the backlash of his jutsu and wounded from the overall battle. He still wanted to fight. He wasn't done with Naruto yet, "I'm not… my mission isn't-."
"The battle is over Sasuke, we're breaking off the attack and returning home." Itachi informed him, "The charge has been halted, and they're not retreating. There's no reason to destroy this bridge to trap them if they're not even retreating. Don't worry about it."
It wasn't the mission he was worried about any longer. He had a point to prove, and he wasn't done proving it yet. He could still go if he had to. He could still take that other kid down.
Kakashi looked down at Naruto, as half of his shirt was burned through to his skin underneath and he looked none too raring to go himself. His back was probably worse, "So." Naruto said excruciatingly before coughing, "This is what getting set on fire feels like."
"Partially anyway." Kakashi said to him before looking up at Itachi, "Another time perhaps. I've got my responsibility and it looks like you've got yours-." Alluding to the children, "-So fighting tonight wouldn't be for the best for either of us..."
"Agreed." With that, Itachi's body began to break apart into a flying flock of crows, Sasuke in tow, "Until we meet again Hatake Kakashi. Take care to keep training that Sharingan of yours." He concluded before vanishing altogether.
Silence other than the sound of roaring water below dragged on until Kakashi let out a sigh, "At this rate we're not going to make it to find Minato-sama before we get killed."
With nothing else keeping him from tending to his wounded charge, he turned around and walked back to Tenten, Hinata, and Neji. The first two seemed concerned at the grubby kid in his arms, but Naruto was still fully conscious and entirely aware of his surroundings.
If nothing else as Kakashi walked past them Naruto was able to give the others a pained grin and a thumbs up. It didn't particularly do that much to assuage the fears of the one child there that couldn't see how strong Naruto's heartbeat still was.
"Is Naruto going to be alright?" Tenten asked as they all followed Kakashi back to the castle grounds. Those burns on Naruto looked fairly bad. Even if he'd been able to deflect a good portion of Sasuke's fireball right back into his face, Naruto still took the brunt of it by far.
"He'll be fine." Kakashi assured her as they made their way back through the cave, "Just a little patching up and he'll be up before you know it. See? He's not even crispy. Just a little blistery."
"We've got medics on-hand, but he'll probably have to wait depending on what happened in the battle and how badly others are injured in comparison." Neji said, "Perhaps they would be willing to make an exception upon Hinata-sama's request, but…"
Naruto just waved it off, wincing one eye closed out of pain from the movement, "Ah, it's not a big deal. If I've gotta wait I've gotta wait." He felt Kakashi's step sway and the man's hold on him slip a bit, "Whoa Kakashi, are you alright?"
"Just used quite a bit of chakra between the Sharingan and the jutsu I chose to use to fight against the Uchiha Clan. Don't worry about it. It's not too bad." He tilted his head to indicate that his headband was back over his eye, "It's covered so I'll get my chakra back soon." It could have been worse.
Tenten raised an eyebrow at hearing about Kakashi's apparent doujutsu. He was supposed to be famous for it, but she'd never seen it herself, "Hey, how'd you get a Sharingan anyway Kakashi-sensei?" Everyone else seemed interested in that information too.
"…I'll tell you when you're older."
"What does that even mean?"
XxX
(The Next Day)
Somehow, Kakashi had been dead-on with Naruto's healing. All he needed was a bit of attention and by the morning Naruto was as right as rain… just about. Tenten didn't even think Kakashi had anticipated that he would have gotten himself together that quickly in just one night.
Apparently according to Naruto, a Kurama, whatever the hell that was, was really good about fixing injuries. Kakashi assumed it was the biju within him, Tenten didn't know what the hell he was referring to in the slightest.
Either way, with the countryside clear of the Uchiha Clan for the time being, the getting was good and it was time to move along. The west still waited, and the Hyuuga Clan had to run damage control after the heated battle.
"And you are certain we can't convince you to stay for a bit longer?" Hiashi asked on the crossroad at the bottom of the hill, flanked by other members of his clan including Hinata and Neji, "After what you've done for us you're welcome here for as long as you'd like."
"No, no." Kakashi insisted, holding his hands up defensively to the stern Hyuuga, "We're following a lead, cold as it probably is, but going any slower won't help matters any."
"If we are to hear anything about the whereabouts of Namikaze Minato we will ensure somehow that the news gets to you." Hiashi assured him, "The least we can do is keep our ear to the ground just in case."
Teuchi and Ayame both bowed to the clan head and the rest of the clan with grateful smiles, "Thank you for allowing us a chance to make a bit of money while we stayed here." The patriarch of the travelling ramen cart said, "The opportunity is appreciated."
"Even though it was really scary last night hanging around during that battle." Ayame added with a bit of a shiver, "I hope you can rebuild soon. This was a very lovely castle."
With Naruto and Tenten, they were both bidding Hinata and Neji farewell before their departure.
"As loathe as I am to admit it…" Neji started to say to Naruto, arms crossed over his chest, "…You didn't fight as poorly against the Uchiha boy as I expected you to. You acclimated yourself quite well against an enemy that I figured to be inherently superior to you."
Initially taking offense to being considered inferior to Uchiha Sasuke, Naruto eventually realized that the way Neji was, this was probably the closest he was going to get to a real compliment for his fighting… backhanded as it was either by design or accident, "Uh… thanks?"
Hinata gulped down her concerns and self-conscious nature and shakily stepped forward before presenting a small container to Naruto, "Um… in case you get hurt again." The confusion on his face gave way to her explaining herself, growing ever red-faced as she tried to do so, "This is good for wounds. Y-You can use it for your burns that you have right now if you need to."
Naruto inspected his bandage-covered arms and neck before grinning over at Hinata, "Oh, that's alright. I'm fine. I don't feel that bad really." He heard a sigh and found the ointment placed in his hand by an exasperated Tenten, "Oi, what the hell?"
"Just take it Naruto. It's a gift, and it's not like you couldn't use it after yesterday." His brown-eyed partner said with a roll of those emotive orbs before sharing a look with Ayame.
Tenten looking over at Hinata and gave her a wink for support. Hinata just smiled and averted her eyes to try and retain what subtlety she had left given the situation. The moment was lost on Naruto however.
Totally missing the byplay between the two girls, Naruto just shrugged and placed it right into the supply pouch on the back of his hip. They had a point. He did get messed up quite a bit, even in regular training so he could definitely use it, "Alright. Thanks a lot Hinata, that's really nice of you."
Neji raised an eyebrow at the normally timid Hinata doing something so against the nature that he expected of her. Did watching someone her age like Naruto stand up against the Uchiha Clan the way he did really do that much for her?
"Hey." Naruto said with a quiet sharpness to get his attention, "Remember what I said. Work on it… and I'll see if I can work on… hrmrfrbrrr." He muttered softly, covertly shooting his eyes up at his own forehead several times to represent something. It wasn't lost on Neji, causing him to go wide-eyed, "It'll probably take a long while though 'cuz I'm still learning seals, but don't quit. Who knows what you can change with the right people."
"And Hinata-sama is the right person?"
"I'd like to think so. Just give it a shot would you?"
Neji shut his eyes and nodded before extending a hand to shake, "I'll be the judge of that." First to Tenten and then to Naruto with both accepting, "Take care. It would be a shame if you survived this and lost your lives elsewhere. I'd be interested in hearing from the two of you again."
Ayame was already back in the cart ready to go, with Teuchi up front ready to drive the team of oxen. Situated on the top of the cart, Kakashi beckoned his young charges to come along so that they could go and continue on to the west.
"Finish saying your goodbyes. It's time to go now." Kakashi said, taking his seat to observe and take guard duty.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Naruto dove through the serving window of the ramen cart, popping up behind the bar with a cheeky grin that Ayame pulled at chidingly for such a dumb action when Tenten did the actual civilized thing in just going through the back door, "Bye guys!"
The cart began to move and roll down the road as the Hyuuga Clan took a short while to see them off, all standing stoically with the exception of Hinata who gave a shy little wave as if she were embarrassed to do so.
What a two day period. Never again. At least never again intentionally.
It was a serious learning experience though. Naruto had never even met other clans himself before, and Tenten hadn't ever met a real ninja clan period. Here they'd befriended members of one that had rather archaic customs and Naruto had fought against members another that had almost killed him.
Speaking of which.
"What was it like?" Tenten asked after they'd gone down the road a ways, "Fighting the Uchiha Clan. It's supposed to be smarter to try and run from even one full-fledged member than to try to fight one and win for a normal ninja."
Sitting in a stood behind the bar and leaning his elbows on it to look out of the serving opening at the landscape passing them by. His eyes drifted to the bandages wrapped around his arms, temporary reminders of the last battle, "I can totally beat that Sasuke guy. Just wait and see."
For some reason the prospect of fighting with him again made him excited. Call him sick in the head if you needed to, but he still had unfinished business.
Ayame sat next to Naruto behind the bar and let out a sigh, "Naruto-chan… this was just a one-time thing out of the blue. It's not like you're even going to try and fight the Uchiha Clan again on purpose." Even this time was completely unplanned. Naruto wasn't that nuts and he was still just ten years of age, "What are the chances you'll even see the same kid again?"
Besides, from the way they were travelling they were leaving the country anyway. Even if it occurred again, it wouldn't be anytime soon.
XxX
(Uchiha Clan Headquarters – Central Hi no Kuni)
Ever since waking up the next morning after being healed from his battle, Sasuke did nothing but stare at the ceiling from his bed, constantly activating and deactivating his Sharingan in deep thought. Admittedly there wasn't much else for him to do since he'd been ordered to take bed rest while he finished healing, but the doctors still joked with him that overusing his eyes like that would make him go blind.
He turned his head to the door upon hearing it open and smiled slightly at the sight of his older brother entering, "Itachi."
"How are you doing Sasuke?" Itachi asked, standing sternly in the middle of the bedroom floor, "You seem to be well on the mend."
Sasuke lifted a bandaged hand in front of his own frowning face and formed a fist, "I'm fine. It wasn't that bad. Just a little recoil from my jutsu." When part of it got blown back into his face by that Uzumaki kid. Silence lapsed between the two until Sasuke broke it again, "I'm sorry Itachi. I failed."
Itachi stared long and hard at his younger brother. That eagerness to prove himself. Others in the clan saw it as a positive, as he was willing to put in the work it took to improve and he was willing to do the things needed to increase the prestige of the clan to show the fruits of his labor.
He himself couldn't help but look at it and see a retread of what happened to him by the time he was Sasuke's age. The things he had to see and do he wished he never did, but Sasuke hadn't been there yet for all of the battles that he had been in.
It was a pipe dream to hope that he never would be, and even today the morning after they'd returned in the dead of night Itachi had been chewed out in so many words by his father for the approach he'd taken with Sasuke more than the outcome of the battle with the Hyuuga Clan.
The only solace that their father had was stated that at least he hadn't placed Sasuke with the artillery team and was actually willing to let him get some experience the way that he did. He would have rather Sasuke been front-line tested however.
"Failure can be perceived in many different ways Sasuke." Itachi said rather vaguely, much to Sasuke's confused consternation.
"We didn't defeat the Hyuuga Clan, and I didn't even destroy the escape bridge." Sasuke said, basically summing things up as he saw them from the battle, "…That doesn't exactly sound like any of us succeeded."
"Well that all depends." Itachi moved forward and poked Sasuke on the forehead, "From a more intrinsic perspective, tell me exactly what you lost." Sasuke laid there for close to a minute without really coming up with a credible answer, as expected, "Well could you tell me if you gained something?"
"Experience."
"Which was more than you had going in." He confirmed with a bit of a smile himself, "I myself, and the rest of us who've returned gained firsthand knowledge of how to deal with fighting against a new enemy. What to do that works and what not to do." He wasn't going to go into what exactly they'd lost since he wasn't going to make his own point moot.
"…And someone I want to fight again, to prove I'm the one that's gotten stronger."
Itachi hadn't really been expecting that much, but the short run-in with the blond Uzumaki boy must have left a deeper impression than he originally had assumed. Perhaps that was just the competitive nature that Sasuke possessed coming forth.
Either way, with his bit spoken, Itachi exited the room and shut the door for privacy before heading back on down the hall to attend to his own business.
As he walked he came across another Uchiha in the hallway that he exchanged pleasant greetings with before continuing on past him. He would have had he not been called back at the last second.
"Ah, Itachi-san." The man in question had dark, spiky hair much like most of the clan and a pair of black eyes. He wore blue pants with a white belt, black sandals, and a high collared blue jacket with the clan crest on the back, open to show he had a mesh shirt on underneath, "So that is you. If you're not still out I take it the campaign against the Hyuuga Clan stalled."
"Indeed." Itachi said, stopping to have a bit of a talk with his senior by around a decade, "Unfortunately, unlike we had anticipated from the actual members of the clan they actually had a person that was able to take advantage of the terrain presented to them. If you'd have been there you'd know what I mean Obito-san."
Obito used to be one of the more uncharacteristic Uchiha Clan members prior to over ten years ago. He'd been extremely outgoing, even with outsiders, as if they were close friends. He had been reluctant to fight battles against other clans, even the Senju. He still seemed to be rather sociable, but to those that knew him back then and were still alive to recount the difference, something had changed drastically about him over the years for whatever reason, and Itachi couldn't see it since he'd never known the man personally.
He would definitely take their word for it though. Obito was a very high-class Uchiha ninja, and had achieved the very vaunted Mangekyou Sharingan ability.
But this was exactly why Itachi was completely willing to believe that he had changed drastically from however he used to be; due to the fact that he had the Mangekyou Sharingan to begin with. Itachi knew full well what it took to receive that doujutsu, and with what it required he could fully understand how someone could find themselves changed by the trauma that had to occur to receive it.
God knows he changed from it.
So Itachi was cordial with Obito, even if he wasn't particularly the most sociable in the world.
Obito set a hand on Itachi's back in a friendly manner, "Hey, it's not a big deal. Nobody wins them all. Hell, even the strongest Uchiha ever lost more than a few of 'em in his day yeah? Just so long as you can keep on protecting what you fight for, that's the only thing."
"That's a very astute way to look at things." Itachi admitted aloud to Obito. It was something that he agreed with entirely. So long as there was one thing in particular that he wanted to preserve above all else, that was all he needed to push forward through the bloodshed, "…If you don't mind, what is it that you fight for?"
"Huh?" It was as if the question almost caught him off-guard.
Itachi had no problems with elaborating however, "Myself? Now I fight to protect Sasuke. I want to ensure that he doesn't have to develop the way that I did on the battlefield. I want him to be strong, and achieve his own goals… but not at the cost of becoming like me. I can't even remember what used to drive me in the past any longer."
There was a hint of melancholy if one were to pick up on the nuances in Itachi's normal behavior as opposed to right then, subtle though they were.
"So what is your own reason?"
Obito just shook his head and gave what Itachi could only describe as a haunted smile, full of regrets, anger, and anything else you could imagine that would go with it, "Me? I don't really have one anymore." He said, and apparently confusion somehow showed itself on Itachi who was usually credited with having an immaculate poker face, "Heh, don't worry about me kid. I'm no one. I don't really want to be anyone either to be honest. I'll tell you what, tell me more about that battle later alright?"
Obito turned to walk away again as Itachi's mind caught back up to the fact that the conversation had been disengaged.
That was a strange run-in.
Oh well, he would do just that for the man if nothing else, "Certainly." Itachi said as he turned and went off in his own direction, "There's plenty to tell, such as the way the battle unfolded, the presence of Hatake Kakashi, and the rumored jinchuuriki boy of all people. I almost didn't think the rumors were true."
Had Itachi not had his back to Obito he would have seen him nearly take a misstep, but just as quickly it was as if he'd just taken another simple move forward, "That does sound really interesting. I'll hold ya to that Itachi-san. I'd like to hear how true that weird rumor is." He said with a wide smile on his face that he quickly quashed.
It had been just the two of them in the hall, just a passing meeting of cordiality, and then they were on their own separate ways once more.
…As if nothing had ever happened at all.
Alright, so that's the first dealing with the Uchiha Clan over the last two chapters. Maybe that'll let you in a bit on how things are in this universe, and more depth will come soon over time if you're feeling antsy about getting a good chunk of it. I can't logically explain everything straight up like this is a textbook. That wouldn't work.
So now I bid you farewell. Until the next time our paths cross.
Kenchi out.