Fifty Shades of Gennin: Chapter 26

A/N: Sorry for the long gap. I got sick this week on Tuesday night, and ever since, every day, I always thought I'd be well enough to write a ton the next day... But I couldn't make the words come. I'm healthy again (90% at least) and well and truly back. I wanted to do a chapter of In Pursuit of Power, MODLOW, and Evening the Odds this week, but now I'm multiple days behind. I MIGHT manage to finish one of those before going to bed tonight, but no guarantees. The story choice poll will be up later tonight. Thanks for being patient y'all, you're the best.

Chapter 26

The Fox

Hinata was going to die.

The last time she thought this it had been a false alarm— nothing but an unexpected sealing array inside of Naruto’s room. This was different. An unknown assailant had caught her in a Ninjutsu she neither recognized or understood. Her entire world rippled like a reflection in a pond. Something happened, and after it finished, she was no longer in the Den. No longer in Konoha at all.

Despite her exhausted state, Hinata once promised herself that she would never be kidnapped without a fight again. She could feel the hand on her shoulder. As they reappeared somewhere she had never been, Hinata lashed out, attempting to close the man’s Tenketsu. Just like when she tried to dodge his touch in the Den, he was simply faster. He yanked his hand away before she could touch him.

Hinata was outmatched. If it wasn’t obvious from these two brief exchanges, she need only look at Oni’s fate. 

Tsunade was one of the strongest ninjas in all of Konoha, and perhaps the world as well. Yet this masked man took her down without a visible wound on himself. He was different from Neji. He was different from her father. Off the top of her head, perhaps only Minato could defeat him.

Hinata forced herself to abandon hope, discovering it surprisingly easy. Today had ridden her of regrets. She stood up to her clan, and even if she disappeared now, she believed change would finally come. Naruto would see to it, and Neji, and Hanabi if need be. If there was anything she wished, it was that she could’ve felt Naruto’s embrace one more time. Why had she been so stubborn when she had the chance?

With time, she could give all sorts of answers to herself, but they didn’t matter now. When you become a ninja, you always know this day may come. Faced with a superior opponent against whom victory and retreat aren’t options, she set a different goal.

This man wanted Naruto. He was using her to get to him. She may fall today, but she would not become a hostage. If she had to, she’d force the masked man to kill her. In close quarters, a Hyuuga should be able to manage that much at least.

Her exhaustion disappeared beneath adrenaline as Hinata hurled herself forward, pumping chakra out of her tenketsu.

Her whole body passed straight through the masked man.

“Yeouch!” he said. “Now that’s a Hyuuga! That attack really tickled my intestines!”

Hinata stared in disbelief at her hands, but only for a second. No matter how impossible that ability seemed, she turned to keep fighting.

“You’re wrong about something though! You’re fighting back because you think I need you, right?”

The man’s visible eye was a swirl of red and black. It looked similar to a Sharingan, but unlike any that Hinata had ever seen. Her hands swiped through him with no more success. He leaned back, but not to retreat.

“Sorry!” he said. “But by bringing you here, I’ve already got what I wanted. So you aren't necessary anymore. Bye bye!”

A kunai appeared from nowhere. His words had only half sunk in when he attacked. Vaguely, Hinata thought, This is it?

The kunai struck metal inches from her neck.

It took Hinata a long time to understand what happened. She hadn’t done anything. The attack was too fast for her to react. But there had been a bright flash, arms wrapping around her. Something got in the way of the kunai, repelling it before it could slot into Hinata’s spine.

She felt her body go airborne, strong arms still around her. She knew this feeling. It was the one she regretted not having felt more when she was about to die. 

Hinata’s feet landed on the ground again. The place the masked man took her was a large plateau halfway up a mountain, devoid of tree life with rugged peaks towering higher above. Those arms slipped from around her waist, and despite the situation Hinata immediately missed them.

She quashed that part of her brain. Now was not the time.

“Naruto!” she said. “How can you be—!”

Here. Wherever this was, it was far from Konoha. The terrain was completely different, and although they were clearly high up, Hinata couldn’t spot a single recognizable landmark. 

Naruto wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were locked on the masked man, who’d made no move to follow them. Hinata understood now that after Naruto appeared (however he appeared) he had grabbed her and leaped back. That didn’t explain what blocked the kunai, nor did tell Hinata how they’d traveled so far. There were at least fifty meters between where they’d been and where they stood now.

“Sorry,” Naruto said. “I was a little worried that someone would pull something even with my threats, so I took a few precautions. A little Hiraishin tag never hurt anybody.”

When—! Hinata craned her neck, looking back, and found what looked like ink characters painted on her back. Before her eyes, it faded until it was invisible, its job finished for now as Naruto arrived.

“You got mixed up in my problems,” Naruto said. “I really didn’t want that to happen… but here we are, I guess.”

For some reason, the masked assailant still hadn’t moved. He just stood there, his head tilted, black-and-red eye spinning relentlessly behind his mask.

“He’s after you!” Hinata said. The surprise of Naruto’s appearance was wearing off, and reality was setting back in. She couldn’t believe Naruto had come. But if he could use Hiraishin, at least they could escape. “I think he’s trying to get to Minato through you. We have to run—”

“If we run, he’ll just come back,” Naruto said. “And it’s me he’s after, not Dad.”

“You want to fight?” Hinata couldn’t believe it. “No! He’s strong!”

Naruto looked at her. He looked truly confused, and so was Hinata, because his blue pupils had become a shocking shade of red.

“So am I?” he said, pointing at his face.

A ripple in the air was the only warning before the masked man appeared in front of them. He swung a kunai at Hinata, but she was pulled out of the way before it got close. Hinata stared in shock at the chains, warm to the touch, which had wrapped around her waist and arms. There were three of them, all sprouting from Naruto’s lower back.

Two more appeared, tipped with sharp points like kunai. They struck the masked man, but passed through his body just like Hinata’s attack. The man pivoted, driving his kunai at Naruto’s neck. Two more chains appeared from the same spot, striking from around Naruto’s sides, and the masked man had to turn his hand intangible, yanking it back. He spun, moving around the chains to strike again, but two new chains appeared in his path yet again. He let these phase through his torso, ducking forward and finishing his attack.

Hinata yelled as Naruto lunged forward, pushing his chest onto the kunai. He threw a punch at the same time, performing it so fast that the masked man had no time to defend against it. Naruto’s fist caught him on the jaw, sending him flying back at least twenty meters.

Naruto grasped the Kunai that had stuck in his chest, yanking it out and throwing it on the ground.

“He calls himself Madara,” Naruto said. “We’re pretty sure he’s a fake, but he’s definitely an Uchiha… as well as the only member of the Akatsuki to escape.”

“I knew you were a fan!” The man who went by Madara popped up, feeling the underside of his jaw. “If I knew how much you missed me, Naruto, I would’ve come visit sooner! But you can’t have really missed me much. If you did, you wouldn’t have kept hiding in that village of yours.”

Hiding? Was that why Naruto never left the village? Hinata didn’t know what these chains were, but their speed alone would be difficult for a Jonin to handle. That was far from the genin-level ninja Hinata was familiar with.”

“Naruto,” Hinata said. “Why does he know you?”

Naruto looked back. He was bleeding out of his chest, but somehow, he felt safe taking his eyes off an opponent like this.

“Because it’s my fault that he’s still around,” Naruto said. “I fought him when Ame fell, but he escaped before I could get him. I think he knew about me before that. He needs what I’ve got.”

Hinata’s mouth felt dry. “Seals?”

“One in particular.”

The kunai that struck Naruto had cut a gash through his shirt. As he channeled chakra, Hinata caught a brief glimpse of an impossibly complex seal scrawled directly onto his body. The chains wrapped around Hinata let go of her, joining the others and hovering behind him. Orange chakra swept over Naruto’s body, matching his red eyes. It enveloped the chains connected to his lower back— all nine of them.

In front of Hinata’s eyes, the cut on his chest reknit like it had never been there. 

“Things are going to get a little bit messy now.” Naruto’s voice was a low growl. “Whatever happens, don’t move.”

Four of his chain tails whipped out, their sharp ends scrawling characters into the dirt. They created a complex seal in seconds, shimmering walls forming a box around Hinata.

“That’s sweet! Protecting your girl. What a man!” said Madara. Abruptly, his voice went deep, losing all humor. “That won’t stop me though. When you lose, I’ll take my time cooking her alive. Can’t have witnesses. You’ll disappear after Suna ‘attacked’, while Iwa sniffs around Konoha, and Kumo has a delegation in town. I’ve prepared everything. Your dear dad will blame everyone but me, and I’ll be forgotten amidst the war that dawns. You stopped Ame, but you never stopped the Akatsuki. Because the Akatsuki is, and always was, me.”

The ground around Naruto cracked.

Four of his tails dug into the earth, catapulting him forward at the same time that he kicked off. Fissures spread through the plateau around him. He was instantly on top of Madra, delivering a blow that went straight through the Uchiha. Where Naruto’s fist struck, an enormous crater formed. 

Hinata fell back from the rumble in the ground. Everything cracked and fell away with the exception of the square she was standing on. The protective seal’s range extended deep underground, because a single tall pillar of earth remained standing, Hinata at its top. 

She activated her Byakugan to watch more of the fight, but her disbelief only mounted. One of the two was seemingly invulnerable. Every time an attack struck him, he turned intangible and avoided it effortlessly. Yet the battle was a stalemate. Because he couldn’t touch Naruto either.

Not that Naruto was intangible. He was just too much.

All nine of his tails struck with their sharp points. They came from all angles, even circling behind Madara to strike his blindspots. It was like defending against nine ninja at the same time, each of them faster than Neji. And if that wasn’t enough, Naruto wasn’t scared to punch or kick. His whole body was shrouded in corrosive orange chakra. Each blow broke the environment even further, tearing the area apart.

“Jinchuriki,” Hinata whispered.

All she knew was rumor. They were bedtime stories told to genin to remind them how big and scary the world really was; ninjas with demons sealed inside their guts. They were fast, strong, and regenerated nearly endlessly. Many didn’t believe they even existed.

“A glass full of poison…”

Minato’s question came back to her, the one she apparently answered so well. Naruto was the glass. Minato had been seeing if she would turn on him, once she learned the truth.

She could understand the need. By all respects, Naruto should be terrifying. But even as she watched him reshape the landscape, it was still Naruto. She couldn’t find it in her to be afraid any more than she could bring herself to look away.

Naruto and Madara’s fight had already taken them too far away for the human eye to see, but Hinata was a Hyuuga. Her Byakugan’s vision saw more than enough to follow their fight. What she observed was humbling.

Two of Naruto’s tails extended high overhead. Hinata could see that they were constructs of pure chakra. Although their surface looked blank at first, under the Byakugan’s sight she could make out seals along them. Now, storage seals activated, pouring an avalanche of paper onto the battlefield.

Naruto dug two other tails into the ground, throwing himself far away. Every single one of the flittering papers was an exploding tag identical to the loaned ones Hinata used during the duel. The blast engulfed hundreds of meters, its shockwave sending stones flying off of nearby mountains.

When the smoke cleared, Madara’s robes had burned up to his elbows. Had that attack breached his defense, or was it something he did on purpose as a red herring?

Hinata was distracted before she could come up with an answer. Madara’s right arm was a strange pale color. Halfway up it, buried in his shoulder one above the other, were two eyes. They were almost-sharingans, just like the one peeking out of his mask but with a different pattern. When he saw them, Naruto’s orange chakra cloak thickened.

At the same time, black flames formed around Madara’s unnatural arm. They were like a flare to Hinata’s enhanced sight. The sheer chakra inside them was immense, unlike any jutsu she’d ever seen.

“Do you recognize these?” Madara asked. “You should. Wasn’t he like an older brother to—”

Naruto didn’t let him finish. He rushed into close quarters again. Madara raised his hand, spewing flames.

Naruto’s tails formed a barrier in front of him. Hinata thought they repelled the powerful black flames, but that wasn’t right. The storage seals were active again. Naruto was pulling the fire out of the air to get it out of his way. Hinata watched one tail shoot out behind him, extending in a straight line. 

Madara jumped forward. He hurled his body through Naruto’s tails, rematerializing on the other to burn Naruto pointblank. Hinata flinched. She saw no way out. Naruto’s body blurred.

The tail he’d sent shooting away swapped places with his body. Kwarimi. Madara was left facing the sharp end of the chain, his flames burning nothing but air.

The blade dug into his shoulder. It carved out the eyes implanted there faster than he could phase through it. The loose eyes disappeared into seals as blood poured from Madara’s arm, the unnatural flesh slowly covering the wound over. While not as fast as Naruto’s regeneration, the pale arm clearly had its own tricks.

Naruto’s tail returned to him where he was crouching, glaring at Madara.

“These eyes are not yours,” he said. “I’m taking them back.”

“And how are you going to protect them?” Madara asked. “You can’t even protect the Kyuubi.”

He teleported in front of Naruto. Naruto’s tails struck, and Madara danced between them. When one tried to bury itself between his eyes, he grabbed it.

There was a flare of chakra and the top half of the chain disappeared. It was simply gone; sent somewhere else entirely. If a person was hit with that, it couldn’t end well for them. Hinata felt a surge of fear. Naruto was obviously strong, but to fight without being touched was a completely different level of difficulty.

The chain tail grew back. The corrosive chakra shrouding it had burned Madara’s palm, but that healed quickly. Neither had taken any lasting damage, but the threat was clear. Naruto exploded into motion.

His tails moved around him. They were as fast as Hinata always imagined Minato to be, having grown up on tales of the Yondaime’s speed. His control of them was perfect. Now that Madara had shown direct attacks were risky, Naruto altered his approach.

His tails only attacked occasionally, always from Madara’s blind spots. The rest of them scraped the ground. Whenever he lunged to touch Naruto, Madara found himself stepping over a minefield, explosive seals having been carved into the dirt.

Columns and smoke and flame erupted consistently, creating a haze even Hinata struggled to see through. Naruto was on the defensive. Madara followed him everywhere, tracking his chakra signature and giving no quarter. At first they looked evenly matched when they clashed, but Hinata could see it. Madara was picking off his tails one by one, vanishing the tips of each one, and although the chains grew back, the new versions lacked the seals that had decorated the old ones.

When Naruto lost his fourth tail, the three originals shot away from his body in different directions. Madara attempted to rush in, only for the four seal-less tails to bar his path, striking him and forcing him to turn intangible. Naruto flashed away, using his father’s technique to reach one of the three tails, although there was no way for Madara to know which one.

Naruto teleported to the tail that went to the right, although only Hinata could see that. He reappeared behind cover from Madara, pausing for less than a second before pulling seals out of his pocket. In the most ‘Naruto’ tactic Hinata could imagine, these seals spewed out more seals. He coated the battlefield in a rain of paper, half of which spewed smoke while the other half released chakra. His chakra, specifically.

Smoke obscured ordinary vision, forcing Madara to sense chakra to locate Naruto. Instead of one chakra signature, he discovered dozens.

Madara raced through hand signs. Gusts of wind from all sides pushed the smoke into a dense ball. A sheen of water appeared over it, and Madara touched it with his finger. As soon as he did the ball disappeared. More smoke poured from the seals Naruto scattered, but Madara could see them now. He held two fingers in front of his mouth and spewed a barrage of fireballs, turning the seals to ash. When the last one burned, only one chakra signature was left.

He teleported to it, grabbing what was there— nothing but the tip of a tail.

The tail tip disappeared from Madara’s touch as the ground cracked. Naruto erupted out, his other eight tails piercing Madara from every angle.

That was it. It had to be. Hinata watched Madara die… and then it all disappeared.

It wasn’t that he phased through the attack. She’d seen the chains pierce his body. But he simply teleported, as if time had rewound, and appeared a few steps away. Beneath his mask, Hinata saw his left eye close, seemingly permanently. The technique hadn’t been without its cost, but Naruto didn’t know that. His guard had dropped just slightly, and Madara used that to punish him.

Madara came forward as fast as possible. He touched Naruto's sleeve, but one of Naruto’s tails severed the cloth before it could be used against him. The cloth disappeared, banished like anything that Madara touched. Naruto lost that tail as a price for the move. Three more tails followed its fate, each of them sacrificed to keep a finishing blow from being struck. The orange chakra ringing his body was burning Madara’s clothes and making his skin blister, but the man refused to stop. Each time his fingers tried to brush Naruto, they came closer than the last.

Naruto palmed a seal and channeled chakra through it, pouring out huge amounts of smoke. Another seal in his other other hand acted like a wind jutsu, spreading the smoke across the whole area. He had just one tail with seals left, and he used it now to teleport a distance away. Hinata watched his orange chakra vanish. Immediately he slowed down, losing whatever regeneration abilities he boasted, but that didn’t matter in a fight like this. He hadn’t been hurt yet, and one touch was enough for him to lose. Right now, he had to hide. The element of surprise was his only weapon.

Hinata’s heart was beating in her ears. So many things had started making sense. She understood why Naruto never left the village— because he was a target. She got why Sakura questioned Hinata’s choice of Sasuke as a teacher, rather than Naruto. Above all, she realized she’d been mistaken. About so many things, but especially her father’s actions today. He sounded so scared when the elders tried to fight Naruto. It had nothing to do with the Hokage’s influence. If Naruto chose to, he could’ve torn apart anyone there and their whole clan together would’ve been helpless to stop him.

He was so much stronger than she imagined… but he was in a bad spot. He’d been lured away from the rest of the village, placed on a one-on-one fight with a man beyond the average S-class missing-nin (a classification that was bizarre to even think). 

Naruto was here because of her. That was how he’d been lured out here. Madara would surely have found another way… but that didn’t change the fact that he used her. Hinata had to do something. But what?

She couldn’t even act as a shield in a battle like this. The Gentle Fist specialized in disabling with a single touch, but that was all it would take for Madara to remove her from the fight. Not to mention she was too slow. She could barely follow their moves with her eyes, and those were her greatest strength. Attempting to fight herself would only handicap Naruto, but there had to be something.

Hinata growled, stomping her foot with frustration, and heard rattling. She looked down at the many zippers on her pants. There were only a few seals left inside, most of her arsenal having been deployed against Neji. But perhaps that was enough.

When an idea came to her, Hinata didn’t hesitate.

Her fingers tore into her pocket, grasping the seal she was after. Chakra still covered the battlefield. With her Byakugan, she could see the stalemate— Madara was searching for a single spark of Naruto’s demonic chakra, while Naruto weakened himself to stay hidden, plotting (or trying to think of) a sneak attack that would work with what he had left.

Hinata channeled chakra into the seal she had picked. 

One to disable Neji’s hand. Two that sputtered harmlessly as he repelled Hinata’s attempts. Another to keep him from delivering a debilitating blow. And, finally, the one that she bashed into Neji’s head, curing him of his affliction and nearly knocking herself out. 

That was how she used the five seals full of Naruto’s chakra. But there had always been six in total.

Corrosive chakra spewed out in front of Hinata, burning against the barrier she’d been protected inside of. Madara’s head turned.

He teleported to the source, red eye spinning. He appeared inside the barrier, directly in front of Hinata. When he saw her, he didn’t freeze. Hinata thought his eye might’ve looked angry, but perhaps that was wishful thinking. He reached for her throat with the intent to end her.

His fingertips were five inches from hinata— then four— three— two— one.

There was a flash. Naruto appeared behind her. Even she never would have expected what he did, however.

Naruto pulled his arms around her and dragged her close, kissing her with ferocity with a big grin on his face.

Hinata was too shocked to properly enjoy it. Behind her, visible to her Byakugan, she watched nine different tails bury through Madara’s body, piercing his heart from nine angles. Blood splattered against the invisible barrier behind him. Hinata watched his heart still, his breathing stop, and his blood cease to pump. Only then did she feel safe to shut off her eyes, seeing Naruto’s face in perfect color once more. She leaned into the kiss, their tongues embracing near his throat.

Finally, when breathlessness forced them to stop, she pulled back, staring into Naruto’s blue eyes. Madara’s body lay slumped. Her clan was dealt with. It was over.

“Let’s go home,” said Naruto.