Fifty Shades of Gennin: Chapter 25

A/N: Sorry about the long gap in chapters. This one is arguably the most important in Fifty Shades as a whole story. It's really long and constitutes the climax (or half of it, at least) so I really wanted to take my time and get it right.

Chapter 25

Begin!

“Remove him!” screamed one of the elders. “He has no right to be here! Make him leave, leave!”

The other seven elders chorused similar thoughts, but all talking over each other they were reduced to a garbled mess. This only got worse when Naruto stuck his tongue out at them.

Hiashi held up a hand, creating silence for him to speak.

“Greetings, Namikaze-san,” he said. “It brings me pleasure to see you healthy and vibrant. Under other circumstances, I would consider myself lucky indeed. However, this is the Hyuuga Compound, and we are in the process of dealing with a sensitive clan issue. It’s not a spectacle for outsiders.”

“Why?” Naruto asked. “Because you’re ashamed of it?”

“Because Hyuuga matters are Hyuuga concerns, and no one else’s.”

“Hmmm,” Naruto said. He leaned back, kicking his legs. “Hmmmmmmmmmmm. I’ve thought about it, and yep! I don’t care.”

Hiashi’s lips twitched violently as he fought not to scowl.

“This whole duel is about my engagement,” Naruto said. “I never liked how it was made. Now, Hinata’s fighting to get rid of it. That’s badass! So I’m going to be here to cheer her on. You say this is a Hyuuga matter, but if anything, I’m more involved than any of you. So if you’ve gotta problem with that, make me leave.”

He smiled, daring them to try. Hinata giggled despite herself. It was rare to see Naruto make use of his father’s name, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t. The Hokage might not have been permitted to interfere in clan matters, but if his only son was injured on Hyuuga property — even if he was trespassing at the time — it would be all the justification Minato needed to bring his full wrathful will down on the clan’s collective heads.

Hiashi sat back down, crossing his arms. This time, he didn’t even try to contain his scowl.

“Clan Head, you cannot seriously be allowing—”

“Silence,” Hiashi said, and the elders all shut their mouths so fast that Hinata could hear their teeth click. Reluctantly, they settled back in their seats, hoods hiding their expressions.

“Can we get started already? I’m getting cold up here!” Naruto said.

Hiashi lifted his hand, slicing it down again to signal that the duel was beginning for real.

Neji attacked first, and he arrived like a storm.

Perhaps the delays had made him extra eager. Maybe he sensed Hiashi’s displeasure, and wanted to give no reason for that ire to fall on him. Hinata even considered the possibility that he was showing off for Naruto. Neji spoke with reverence about the Hokage’s son before, seeming to look up to him as one ‘chosen by’ fate.

She didn’t have any time to ponder the reason properly, because Hinata’s hands were quickly full just defending herself.

Neji was fast. Faster than Sasuke? It was close, but no, Hinata decided. Instead, he was just better with the Gentle Fist. He lived and breathed the taijutsu style, while Sasuke merely borrowed it. Neji’s fingertips flashed past Hinata, only for his elbow to just toward her after she dodged, charged with chakra. She tapped the bottom of his elbow at the last second, directing the blow over her head. That was the flexibility Sasuke had talked about. He knew Neji’s whole repertoire, but that didn’t mean his body could execute all of the moves.

Still, he’d prepared her better than she dared to hope. Neji nearly caught her with the odd contorted move, but the majority of his strikes were familiar, allowing her to withstand the barrage. Not that she had any chance to attack back.

She was giving ground. Hyuuga duels finished when one combatant had their chakra system completely disabled or if they stepped out of the sandy stage. The second part was rarely seen because the ordinary Hyuuga preferred to stand and fight stubbornly. They’d prefer to look good losing than take a single step away from an enemy. Hinata had no time for such pitiful pride.

Neji backed her up right to the edge, until she couldn’t take a single step more. He attacked with a fierce pair of strikes aimed at her head.

Hinata dove past him.

It was such an unexpected move that even Neji failed to react to it. Hinata landed face down in the sand, scrambling to her feet. Grains were still stuck to her face and falling off her cheeks as she reoriented to face Neji. Whispers swept the crowd. The move had been effective, but not graceful. To most Hyuuga, that was worse than losing— worse than dying.

“You disgrace yourself,” Neji said.

“Come, Cousin,” Hinata said. “I haven’t lost yet.”

She had a feel for what this was going to be like. Neji was better than her, because of course he was. But the gap wasn’t insurmountable. 

She just had to get creative to bridge it.

Hinata’s hands dug into her pockets and emerged holding seals. This time, she heard the scandalized gasps around her in great detail. Bringing seals was like bringing weapons to such a duel: it was considered both beneath the Hyuuga and a waste of time. It was akin to admitting the Gentle Fist wasn’t all that mattered.

Hinata didn’t feel a lick of shame as she hurled them at Neji.

“Ooh, exploding tags!” Naruto said. “Those’ll blow up great!”

Neji’s eyes grew wide. He darted away with incredible speed, skirting the radius of an oncoming explosion. The seals glowed. Instead of exploding, however, they spent out big globs of orange pain in every direction.

The balls of paint flew quickly. Neji dodged two, but was caught off guard, and a third caught him on the upper chest, while two more clipped his arms and legs soon after.

Neji stopped completely, looking down at the marks on his body. When he looked up, there was a cold fury in his gaze.

“Do not interfere!” Hiashi shouted at Naruto.

Naruto whistled innocently, looking away.

“It’s not my fault if you can’t identify seals. Nobody ever said I have to tell the truth.”

Neji’s fingertips filled with as much chakra as they could handle. He kicked off of the sand, and even though his whole body was propelled forward, he didn’t displace a single grain.

It would’ve proven quite challenging — perhaps even impossible — for Hinata to survive this assault. Fortunately, she wasn’t there for him to hit.

Hinata turned and ran away.

“You—” The bulging veins around Neji’s eyes throbbed with anger. He started to pursue Hinata, only to notice she had left something behind. A seal sitting in the sand spewed smoke with an ugly hiss.

Hinata could tell from the noises around her that the onlookers thought she was stupid. A smokescreen against the Byakugan? There could hardly be a worse move. Then, gradually, they all realized the same thing. 

Their Byakugans couldn’t see through it.

Chakra was laced into the smoke, acting like a blanket over the arena. It blinded the crowd, it blinded Neji, and of course it blinded Hinata herself. She made herself still and quiet, reaching into another of her pockets.

She couldn’t see Neji in such conditions. The smoke was thick and all-encompassing. However, she wasn’t without options.

The Byakugan’s sight revealed all. It could spot Genjutsu, although that was not a guarantee the user could counter them. It saw chakra, of course, which was the skill their family’s famed style was built off of. But it could also see heat.

Under normal conditions, the Byakugan could locate people off of their body heat alone. The Hyuuga rarely used this, because seeing someone’s chakra network would reveal them just as quickly. Still, the fact remained that the Byakugan could do it.

The chakra-enhanced smoke was a blanket over the duel, too blinding to allow a person’s body heat to be picked out. It would take something much brighter to be noticeable. 

Hinata pulled a kunai from her pockets, hurling it straight at Neji.

It whistled into the smoke, disappearing, but she knew her aim had been good. She could see it clearly— a big glowing glob amidst the smoke, as well as two smaller ones nearby. She hadn’t splattered her cousin with paint purely to earn his anger. Just like the smoke, the paint was special, designed to look like a beacon to her eyes.

Hinata drew more weapons, hurling them with as much accuracy as she could muster. Among the basic kunai were those with seals attached to the end. Muted explosions could be heard inside of the smoke, along with panicked muttering from outside.

Halfway through another volley of weapons, something parted the smoke directly in front of Hinata’s eyes. 

By the time she saw it she had less than a second to react. Hinata bent backwards, feeling the Kunai leave a cut on her forehead right above her Konoha headband as it flew back twice as fast as she’d thrown it. A second later, the smoke cleared as if blasted away by a powerful wind ninjutsu.

A glowing blue dome had appeared. All of Hinata’s weapons were scattered in various directions, embedded in the sand or the wooden walls of nearby buildings. The blue energy faded as Neji landed, crouching and looking at her with fierce eyes.

“Useless,” he declared.

Hiashi’s expression gave nothing away, but the elders seemed torn. They wanted nothing more than for Neji to crush Hinata like the rebellious brat she was. Seeing him use Kaiten to do it, however, must have left an acrid taste— the symbol of main house superiority, weaponized by a branch member in front of the entire clan.

“So close!” Naruto shouted. “C’mon Hinata! The next one’ll get him!”

Neji was not going to give her the chance to attack again. He came at her, and now, the element of surprise from her tactics was wearing thin. 

Neji closed the gap before Hinata could do more than draw a single seal. If placed on Neji’s body, it would’ve suppressed his entire chakra network. But he was too fast. Neji smoothly knocked it from her grip with one strike, closing the tenketsu on her left hand at the same time. It hurt. But it was a pain Hinata was used to. 

Despite having a limp hand, Hinata survived a dozen more strikes by parrying with her operational arm and giving up ground. That’s how it always was, both when fighting Neji and Sasuke’s imitation of him. She could hang on, provided she kept running away, but it was a delicate balance.

Neji went for a shocking move, driving his knee at her stomach while charging it with chakra. Hinata blocked with the bottom of her foot, channeling more chakra back at him. If they used the same amount, the blows would have canceled out. But Hinata pumped in extra, causing a swell of force. Hinata was knocked away, spinning, while Neji weathered it with pure strength.

Although she hit the ground hard, the blast brought Hinata the reprieve she was after. She staggered up, her left hand still flopping uselessly below the wrist. She just moved her right hand faster, drawing another kunai with a seal attached to the end. She hurled it at Neji.

Her cousin slapped it away without even using Kaiten, sending the knife pinwheeling into the sky. A brutal blast shook the air, its heat tangible to those watching beneath. Naruto’s exploding tags did not mess around.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Naruto said. “But next time, set it off on Neji.”

Hinata’s eye twitched. Did he think she wanted her attack to be parried into the air like that?

Also, did he want her cousin dead?

Neji charged— although that word didn’t adequately describe him at all. There was nothing reckless or wild about his approach. He moved with grace and perfection. Truly, Neji was the Gentle Fist incarnate. 

Hinata grabbed three kunai like the first, hurling them one handed. This time, Neji was forced to stop, twisting his body to create the ultimate defense. The kunai were repelled, flying in different directions far faster than Hinata threw them. Two shot into the crowd, while a third struck the table in front of Hiashi. For half a second, Hinata thought a tragedy was about to happen. 

Instead, Naruto lifted his hand, holding up some kind of seal of his own. The explosive tags were sucked toward it, detonating relatively harmlessly in the air. With the explosion reflecting in his overly-excited eyes, Naruto gave Hinata a thumbs up.

“I’ll cover you, so don’t worry about a thing!” he said. “Make the world go boom.”

Hinata was already grabbing another handful of seals.

“It’s no use.” 

Neji appeared in front of her again, his hair fanning out behind him as he twisted and struck.

“You’ve shown nothing, Hinata,” he said. “You’re fighting with borrowed power to prolong your loss. Your Gentle Fist is mediocre. Your pride is nonexistent. There is nothing you possess that I cannot best.”

As he spoke, his strikes speared through Hinata’s guard. One of his fingers reached her side, and a searing pain burst out around her ribcage. Similarly, one of Neji's toes touched her leg, forcibly closing a tenketsu point above her ankle. Limping now, Hinata lost the crucial ability to retreat. 

Neji struck at her chest, but Hinata blocked it with her left arm. The hand might have been disabled, but she channeled chakra out through tenketsu in her wrist. She tried to use the same trick she did with her foot, channeling extra chakra out to blow herself back and buy time, but only succeeded in knocking herself to the ground.

Neji made no move to strike her.

“Stay down,” he said.

Hinata chuckled. She used his kindness to draw a new seal as she stood up. 

Neji aimed to strike that hand, but for once Hinata was quicker. She jerked her hand out of the path of his… after activating the seal. Neji slapped the chakra-imbued paper, deciding to launch it away before it could explode or anything similar, but it was too late. As he touched it, the seal spewed virulent orange chakra that immediately clung to his arm.

Neji whipped his arm around, attempting to extinguish the fire-like energy he’d been afflicted with. His sleeve dissolved, the skin underneath quickly blackening. Perhaps it would’ve gotten even worse, but Neji rapidly closed the tenketsu along his arm. With nothing to interact with, the acidic chakra quickly burned away, leaving Neji’s arm limp and scarred.

Everything was quiet for a moment. Then Neji attacked. 

He’d lost an arm, but Hinata had one working hand, an injured side, and a leg that could barely take her weight. The list of her injuries quickly grew.

The most painful among the new injuries were a tenketsu point just below her right shoulder and one above her hip. There were four more in less crucial areas that Neji managed to close. He was angry now, both from the pain in his arm and because of his wounded pride. Even as his arm blistered he had been unwilling to back away, and that proved doubly true now, as he pressed his advantage. Twice Hinata tried to use another of the seals containing Naruto’s corrosive chakra, but Neji disabled both before she could touch him. She wasn’t as quick as she had been before, now that roughly half her body was refusing to cooperate. But the one thing she refused to do was stop.

Neji’s fingers toward her forehead. If they landed, she’d be rendered unconscious in an instant. Hinata lurched back, collapsing in the sand. There was no mercy this time. The last time Neji let her catch her breath, it cost him an arm. He lurched in to finish the fight, only to spot a growing slip of paper floating in front of his face. He jerked back just in time. A burst of orange chakra fizzled out harmlessly in the air.

Hinata hurt all over. It was painful to stand back up, her legs protesting violently. But it was painful to stay down, each breath she took feeling like a dagger in her side. She couldn’t think about that. She had to stand.

Neji watched her with an unreadable expression.

“How?” he asked.

Hinata felt a rush of pride. Earlier in the fight, that question would have been, ‘Why?’

“Because you deserve better,” she said.

Neji glared. “You pity me?”

“I do, cousin. You could be so much more. We could be so much more.”

Hinata’s gaze swept the crowd. At the start, they had been entertained by this show. Amused, perhaps. They were offended by her outfit and the way she fought. But she’d noticed, in the back of her mind, that the longer the match went on, the less jeering or cheering she heard. Now, they were completely silent.

“Put an end to this farce!” snapped one of the elders.

“That’s a good word for it,” Hinata said. “Don’t worry. I was just thinking it was time I do something of the sort.”

“It’s unlike you to be so arrogant,” Neji noted.

Hinata focused her attention back on him. “I’m not speaking — or acting — for myself anymore. You asked how I can still stand? That's your answer.”

Neji stepped inside her guard. Hinata’s muscles tensed— all of them that still worked. This would be their last bout. After this, one way or another, the result would be decided.

Hinata drew another seal. Neji was faster. He struck her wrist and disabled her right hand, leaving it as limp as her left. 

He didn’t stop there. His fingers closed tenketsu all the way up her arm until Hinata could feel nothing below the shoulder. The seal fluttered into the air, inactive and inert.

Hinata jerked her head down, catching it between her teeth.

It was unnervingly silent around them. Naruto had been quiet for a while now, and none of the Hyuuga watching uttered a word. Hiashi was completely inexpressive, while Hanabi was silently biting her lip. Only the elders seemed like they wanted to make noise, but because no one else was they lacked the courage to. It was utterly in character for them. 

Because the atmosphere was so tense, the onlookers could hear everything— each muted tap as Neji shut yet another of her tenketsu, the growls Neji let out each time he landed another blow, and maybe even, if they really strained their ears, the gritting of Hinata’s teeth.

Both arms were lost to her. She was teetering on half-operational legs, and Neji was intent on taking even that away. As soon as her arms were sealed, he aimed for her thighs, desperate to send her to her knees.

What would happen again if she fell here?

Nothing. Minato would end the engagement as he promised. Naruto would be disappointed, but he wouldn't hold her failure against her. Sakura and Sasuke would be the same. She would go down, Neji would act arrogant, and her reputation in the clan would take a further hit. Her father would be proven right that she was a failure. All of that was nothing: by which Hinata meant, it was exactly how things already were.

Silent halls. Fractured families. Pride. So, so much vain pride. Seals used to control and to hurt. Brothers used as tools. Sisters forced to fight for scraps. Geniuses shackled, for no reason but petty jealousy and fear. It was crap. All of it, every last part, was crap.

“Fall already!” Neji screamed.

Hinata channeled chakra through one of the few tenketsu she still had open: her mouth.

The seal lit up, beginning to release the chakra it held within. Hinata spat it out.

Everyone watched the slip of glowing paper float into the air. More than a few in the crowd activated their Byakugan, desperate to see where it would go. It flitted through the air, listing side to side, before stopping inches from Neji’s face. Although it was slight, Hinata saw relief on his generally impassive face.

Until Hinata slammed her head into his.

She hit the seal first, which stuck to her forehead right above the forehead protector. After that, her skull impacted Neji’s. The impact alone shook her eyes inside their sockets. The noise was ugly and resounding. Orange chakra sparked, fizzed, and erupted against their heads.

Naruto’s chakra burnt and stung just as badly as the first time she felt it. Perhaps it was even worse now, without him to direct its power. But Hinata refused to pull away now. She’d felt this before. She could withstand it a second time too.

Neji bellowed. He tried to push her away one-handed, but Hinata wouldn’t budge. The chakra flared, burning like an open flame against their skin. the cloth of Neji’s forehead protector was burned away. What was underneath soon followed.

At some point, Hinata had started yelling. Hers wasn’t a sound of pain, though, at least not fully. She released every bit of pent-up frustration that she could, drawing strength from the sound and forging forward. Neji’s legs grew weak, but Hinata stayed standing until the last orange spark flickered and went out.

Neji and Hinata both fell back, separating as they landed on the ground. No one rushed to help them. Everyone was stunned by what they'd just watched… and a part of them had to know: who won?

Neji’s Gentle Fist, ever the perfect Hyuuga in bearing and presentation. Hinata’s uncouth, unorthodox, and unbelievably effective approach. Whoever rose first would be the winner.

But neither of them were moving.

“Come on Hinata.”

Naruto’s voice was more muted than ever. He’d ceased kicking his legs, his playful atmosphere gone. He was leaning over the drop off of the roof, his eyes locked on Hinata.

“C’mon,” he repeated. “Get up.”

He kept urging her on, his voice gentle yet firm and full of confidence.

One of the elders shot up from his seat.

“This is no time for a nap, Neji! On your feet, before I activate your seal!”

Neji didn’t react. Hinata, however, twitched.

“Hey, you can get up Hinata!”

It took a moment to register for those watching that this hadn't come from Naruto. Instead, a little boy had fought his way to the front of the crowd, escaping his mother’s grasp. He couldn’t have been older than five. His hands were balled into fists, and there were tears running from his eyes. Already, there was a large seal across his forehead— a fresh one no more than a month old.

“Get up!” he shouted.

Hinata twitched again.

His parents fought their way to his side in order to make him quiet down, but something had begun. From the opposite side of the square, someone else shouted the same thing. A third did the same. The voices kept multiplying, shouting their support, and all of them except the elders were focused on Hinata.

Hiashi stood up.

“If I hear one more idle shout, I will bring that person to their knees with a single hand sign,” he said. 

His gaze roved the assembled faces, ensuring his words sunk in, restoring a tense silence.

Beside him, Hanabi’s hands had gone flat on the table. She was staring down at them, refusing to look anywhere else. Her fingers were shaking, but slowly, they went still. Hanabi curled her hands into fists.

“Oh get the fuck up already Hinata!” she shouted.

Hiashi twisted toward her, but Hanabi was already scrambling sideways out of her chair, putting distance between them like she expected to be struck. Hiashi, however, just looked shocked.

“Hanabi—” he said.

“Heiress,” Hanabi said, stunning her father silent. She laughed incredulously, like she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “You can make all of them shut up, but you can’t make me, can you? So Hinata… GET UP.”

Hinata lurched upright.

She was moving like a zombie. She sat up first, then slowly got her legs underneath her. She stumbled at first as she tried to stand, but caught herself before pitching over. Slowly, she straightened. Her hair was hanging over her face, her headband having come loose when Neji’s did. She tilted her head up, sliding back her lavender hair—

Bearing her lack of seal for all to see.

A woman among the elders screamed as if she’d seen a murder. One of the male elders fainted. The clamoring from the crowd reached a fever pitch, and this time, Hiashi was helpless to stop it.

Slowly, Hiashi and others looked down at Neji, spotting something they never thought to look for. Though blemished by a bruise, his forehead bore no other mark. His seal was gone.

“You… monster,” Hiashi said to Hinata.

“Treason. Treason! She must die!” cried one of the more composed among the elders. “Brand her again! She must be stopped!”

“No.”

The elder who spoke had started to step forward, but their way was barred. Naruto had appeared on the table in front of them in a crouch. Hinata couldn’t see his expression, just the back of his head.

The elders adopted combat stances, apparently ready to fight the Hokage’s son openly. But Hiashi shouted, “DO NOT!”

The urgency in his tone made them stop. Hiashi took a deep breath. He looked pale.

“You can’t touch him,” he said. “Whatever you do, do not touch him!”

Naruto’s head shifted toward him, although Hinata still couldn’t see his expression. Hanabi could, and Hinata noticed that her sister looked somewhere between aroused and terrified.

“Good boy,” Naruto said.

He reached out and patted Hiashi’s head like a misbehaving dog. Hinata’s father took it, gritting his teeth. Even Hinata felt stunned. Was Minato’s influence truly this terrifying?

Somehow, the elders still had enough bluster for one to say, “Show respect—”

Naruto held out his palm and a seal released a powerful gust of wind. It blasted the elders, causing no damage except pushing down their hoods. Hinata’s breath caught.

The elders were an almost mythic presence within the Hyuuga clan. No one except the clan head knew how they were chosen, who was picked, or even where they came from. There were rumors that they were raised from birth for the position, because no clan member ever publicly admitted to being an elder. The only thing that was certain was that their faces had never been seen. Not in any generation, as far as Hinata knew.

Until now.

With their hoods removed, everyone in the clan could see them. Faces covered in wrinkles, even though some shouldn’t have been more than middle aged. They had the pupilless eyes all Hyuuga shared, now stretched wide with panic. They tried to cover their foreheads, but it was all too late. The damage had been done.

Every single one of them was a branded branch member.

“I noticed something pretty interesting while I was watching,” Naruto said. “You guys were talking so much about the purity of the clan, but I sensed the same seal on all of you. You’re slaves as much as any of them! So where do you get off threatening people with this stuff?”

Hinata recognized a few of them. They were older Hyuugas, many of them once prominent ninja in the clan, who had gone missing on missions over the years. Only now, she knew the truth. They faked their own deaths, leaving their lives behind for a new one to gain a sliver of power.

“We’ve been branch members our whole lives!” shouted the one who first threatened Naruto. “You have no idea what that’s like, being powerless for your entire life! No one, least of all a child like you, has any right to lecture us—”

“Yeah, don’t care,” Naruto said, still not looking at them. “You can have as many excuses as you want. At the end of the day, you just wanted to hurt others the way people hurt you.”

“What do you want?” Hiashi asked.

He said it in a way that he was looking for something — anything — to make Naruto leave and go away. Naruto leaned forward.

“Hinata,” he said.

There was a moment of silence, so he repeated himself, this time with added clarity.

“I want Hinata,” he said. “Not because you, or my dad, or anybody else gave her to me, but because I picked her, and she picked me.” He paused, blinking. “Actually, maybe it’s the other way around. But that’s not all! I want this blight you call a seal gone. You’re giving my babies a bad name! And I want this whole crappy nobility act to stop. Main family, branch family… It’s all stupid made up stuff anyway, right? Just an excuse to act high and mighty in your own little world. Get rid of it.”

“You’re utterly insane,” Hiashi said.

“I’d say we’re the sane ones.” Naruto said.

He hopped off the table, turning to Hinata, and whatever expression he’d worn before disappeared in favor of a proud smile. He approached her just as Hinata felt herself weakening. Naruto’s arms slipped around her before she could fall, and she felt a sudden boost. Chakra similar to the corrosive kind she felt before pumped through her, but this chakra just felt warm. So much entered her system that her tenketsu were forced open, returning her body to an almost normal — if tired — state.

Hinata felt her strength return, but her head was still very much in fighting-mode. She was feeling reckless and decisive. Enough to bury her tongue in Naruto’s mouth in front of her entire family.

She was vaguely aware of the child who first shouted for her to get up covering his own eyes.

The kiss was deep, wet, and expressive. Hinata could hardly think of a gesture less similar to the Hyuuga notion of love. When she had her fill, she pulled her lips away from Naruto, looking at her father.

“I’m leaving,” she said. “I’ve had as much of this place as I can take.” Her eyes fell on Hanabi, who was doing her absolute best not to look jealous and mostly succeeding. “Maybe someday, it’ll be better. But for now, I’m done with it.”

She could stand on her own now without Naruto’s help. In some ways, her body felt better than ever after whatever chakra-infusing trick Naruto pulled.

“If any of you feel the same way that I do,” she said to those watching, her voice warm, “then come and find me. No one must live with that seal. No one.”

She walked toward the exit. Naruto paused behind her.

“Don’t even think about forcing anyone to stay,” Naruto said. “I’ll know, and I’ll be back.”

He growled the last word, and Hinata felt something— a flare of some sort of murderous energy. By the time she looked back it was gone, and Naruto was smiling at her.

He held out his hand. Hinata took it. Together, they left the Hyuuga compound behind.

Once on the street, Naruto asked, “So… what now?”

Hinata stroked the back of his hand, smiling at him.

“Sorry,” she said, “but there’s one last thing I have to check.”

She let go of his hand. Naruto looked curious, but he let her go.

“I’ll meet you at the Hokage Monument when I’m done!” Hinata said. “You better be there!”

She ran down the street, shocked by how fast she could move. Deciding she could handle it, she scaled a building to use the rooftops. Her body felt shockingly spry, letting her cross the city at her top speed until she dropped down in front of a nondescript business.

There was nothing outwardly special about the store, but Hinata knew its secrets as well as almost anyone. She entered hurriedly.

Fox was her first love, as strange as that might sound. At first she thought she was moving on from him, but then Tenten planted a strange idea in her head, and she started to wonder.

Fox and Naruto… could they be the same?

There were plenty of similarities when she forced herself to think objectively, not least of which was the reaction they elicited in her.

It was why she came here now— for the final time. If Fox was Naruto, Fox wouldn’t be here, and Hinata would finally let herself believe it was true. If Fox was here, and he turned out to be someone else, she would thank him for everything and give him her goodbye. Either way, she sensed that she had to be here right now.

Hinata burst into the shop that acted as a cover for the den. The old man who opened the way was missing, but she’d never been here so early in the day before, so perhaps that was why. Hinata skirted the desk, pressing the button that opened the way deeper and descending the steps.

At the bottom, the seals dispensed her Mouse mask, which she affixed before forging on. 

When she opened the door, she nearly collided with someone leaving the other way.

“Oops! Sorry!” exclaimed the man, whose own mask was orange with a peculiar spiral. “Didn’t see ya there, hehe. I’ll be outta your way in a jiffy!”

He stepped aside, letting Hinata by, and she nodded her thanks. Hinata entered the room at the same time that the man left behind her, shutting the door. Let alone Fox, she didn’t see anyone present. Frowning under her mask, Hinata moved deeper into the room. She just had to find Oni and ask her.

Something crunched under Hinata’s boot.

She looked down and found half of a cracked mask. A red mask, one with fearsome features and a long, extended nose.

Hearing a feeble groan, Hinata looked up to find Oni sprawled beneath a shattered section of wall. Her breath caught. She recognized the face that had been under the mask. Anyone would. It was Tsunade, the Legendary Sannin and greatest kunoichi Konoha ever produced. The S-class shinobi was sprawled with bruises on her face, completely unconscious.

“She’s still alive! I was in a hurry, see, and didn’t want to waste any extra time.”

The man’s chipper voice came from directly behind her. She hadn’t heard a door. Hinata activated her Byakugan, spinning to find that the door hadn’t opened, the man in the spiral mask just managed to enter anyway.

“I was gonna let you go,” he said, “but then I realized! You’ve got his stink on you. Lots of it, too! I bet I won’t even have to go to him, so long as I take you!”

Hinata tried to react. He was too fast. His hand reached out, touching her shoulder, and the world around her fractured into a swirling, spiral mess.