Chapter Thirty-One
Hurt
April 23, 2010
"We should head back to the village," Botan suggested, "Yuma's hurt pretty bad and Hinata-san is..."
They looked over at the woman in question.
Their traumatized team captain sat kneeling at the water's edge, staring at her clean hands. As if in a trance, she'd washed them, over and over again, for nearly an hour, and now, sat gazing at them as though the blood and gunk still remained. Following that harrowing, shocking moment she'd blown that creature's torso from its legs, and destroyed a good portion of the buildings directly behind the village's entrance, the poor woman had broken down. Shaking, sobbing, apologizing over and over...the Hyuuga Princess was devastated by the destruction she'd wrought and more importantly, the people she'd hurt...of which, there were many.
They didn't know what was going on, what had happened and from the deep distress radiating from the dark haired beauty, neither did she.
Asahi shook his head.
"Yuma's too injured to move right now. One of us has to stay here with her and the villagers, tend to the wounded and wait for reinforcements. Hinata-san's in no condition to head back on her own. I know a little Iryō Ninjutsu, it's pretty basic, but its better than nothing given the circumstances. I'll stay here and see if there's any villagers with medical training that can assist with taking care of the injured," he looked to the lone woman, "you take her back to the village."
Botan nodded, then shuffled over to the woman in question. The crimson on her shirt, though she'd splashed it with water during her frantic cleaning session, had discolored the pretty lavender it had been. It was hopelessly ruined, stained beyond any type of deep cleaning. He pulled off the overcoat of his uniform and placed it over her shoulders.
He wasn't sure if she was cold or if it was the upset, but she was shaking all over.
He knelt next to her and studied her tear streaked face. Her eyes were wide and haunted, red rimmed and holding stray moisture in their crevices.
Sympathy bloomed in his chest.
She looked so fragile. So terribly frightened.
He place a hand on her shoulder, his sympathy deepening when she startled. She looked at him as though seeing him for the first time.
"Hinata-san, I'm going to take you back to village, alright. We...need to bring back reinforcements to...help with the village."
Her bottom lip trembled, those big milky eyes overflowed and the delicate shoulders beneath his coat haunched. Though it was a bit awkward to maneuver her, he deposited her as gently as he could onto his back and took off in the direction of Konoha.
Her slender body was near weightless on his back, but the silent tears she soaked it with were incredibly heavy.
xxxxxx
April 24, 2010
"You're sure of this?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama." Botan confirmed.
"Where is she?"
"I dropped her off at the hospital before coming here...I thought it...best she be attended to there. She doesn't seem...well."
Kakashi sat back in his chair. He could well imagine she wasn't well. Hinata was on of the most, if not the most, gentle kunoichi Konoha had among its shinobi roaster. She was fierce in combat when she needed to be, formidable as any ninja should be, but...that softness within her. It was the foundation of her personality, inherit to her nature. To hurt a single innocent person, she wasn't capable, not purposely...but to hurt many, one of which was on her team, that was the eldest sister of her fiancé's genin student...
He knew she wasn't at all well.
Traumatized...horrified...guiltridden...
"I understand," the sixth Hokage said, "you made the right decision. We'll send reinforcements immediately to help the wounded, reconstruct the village and recover what's left of the jubokko's remains."
"I'd like to request to be redeployed with that group, Hokage-sama."
The silver haired leader nodded.
"Dismissed."
Botan gave a respectful bow and vacated the room, closing the door behind him.
"It may be a side effect of Hamura's chakra." Shikamaru ruminated at his right.
"Possibly," he allowed, "but until we speak to Hinata and examine her, we won't know for sure."
Even though he said it, he couldn't come up with any other explanation that made sense other than Hamura's chakra. This wasn't some hidden clan jutsu, it was the Hakke Kūshō and he knew full well the scope and force behind it. Had seen it more than once on the battlefield. This was not that. This type of destructive power...
Where else could it have originated from if not from the moon based ancestor of the Hyuuga?
xxxxxx
Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the young boy trailing behind the group.
Something was up with Sanzo. He'd been unusually quiet during the day long mission. Not once had he argued with Tani nor had he even attempted to play a single prank during their long trek down the dirt road back to Konoha. This wasn't the first time he'd seen the teen so gloomy. It happened infrequently but it did happen.
Tani had tried teasing him from his funk, she'd tried goading him into their normal banter, she'd even gone out of her way to actually be nice to him right after.
Nothing.
Seinosuke had been more subtle, walking along his teammate, talking quietly to him. Naruto was sure he was gently probing for the source behind his mood but after a few minutes, concerned amber orbs had found the equally concerned blue of their sensei. After the failed attempts, the two teens had given him space, hoping this was one of the times the dark shadow in Sanzo's life would lift like they tended to. They'd walked for nearly an hour now, and there hadn't been any change in his demeanor.
Naruto slowed his stride.
His other students continued on, throwing worried glances at the half shaven genin but otherwise held their silence. He walked quietly beside his student for a few minutes before speaking.
"What's wrong, Sanzo?" he questioned.
He'd tried to beat around the bush, coax and persuade him about this before, in the beginning, but had always been rebuffed when he did. Sanzo was a lot like him, in many ways, he'd leaned. The best way to speak to him was to be direct.
No bullshit.
"Sensei...you grew up without any parents, didn't you?"
Naruto blinked, the question posed more like a statement taking him aback. His history was fairly common knowledge now, it didn't bother him that anyone knew, but he wasn't sure where this was headed. What that had to do with his current funk. While his mother had died long ago, long before he and his father immigrated to Konoha, Sanzo's father was still among the living. He was a fellow shinobi among their ranks. A chunin last Naruto had heard.
He didn't understand what it had to do with anything, but the worried jonin rolled with it, hoping it'd make sense eventually.
"Yeah," Naruto confirmed, "they died the day I was born."
"How did you...deal with it? Being...alone?"
Brows furrowed, Naruto glanced down. Dull emerald eyes stared rigidly at the earth beneath their feet, and the lonely expression on his face was both familiar and painful to witness. Naruto had seen it so many times in his own reflection as a child.
Aching loneliness.
The sadness only an orphan child could understand.
What it was doing on his prankster knucklehead was the question foremost in his mind. But instead of voicing it, he answered honestly.
"I played pranks," he shrugged, "I vandalized the monuments and business in the villages, I ditched class here and there, I played the clown to get people to notice me. Anything. I'd do anything to get attention from anyone, even if the attention I got was a scolding by the villagers or Iruka-sensei. Anything to prove to myself that I existed, to have some look at me, speak to me at all...then, I made friends and the pain, the loneliness, it didn't go away completely, but those bonds I created, they took away most of it. And then, the day I found out that my mentor had been killed, I connected with Hinata."
His heart warmed as he though back to that night beneath the stars.
"She was there for me when I needed someone the most," though he spoke those words, he also thought back to the rage he'd felt initially when she'd followed him, "At first, I didn't want her there. I wanted to bare the pain by myself. Nobody understood how I felt, at least that's how I felt, but even back then, she knew. She understood. She says I felt the loss more intensely because I grew up with no one. Me not having family to start with, I've had to create my own family, 'ttebayo. Ero-Sennin was apart of that family I'd created. Like a grandfather. And when he died..."
He shook his head.
Sanzo was looked up at him, his troubled eyes contemplative.
"It was one of the most painful experiences of my life. Hinata, she took care of me that night, and during my battle with Pain, she stepped in to save me even though she knew...she'd die."
Pain, sharp and familiar bloomed in his chest. The memory of it...he knew now, years later, why it always distressed him so damn much. It was a trauma. Her near murder had traumatized him. At the time, he hadn't known Nagato had spared her, that'd he'd avoided delivering a fatal blow to the brave kunoichi that had battled him with no chance of winning. In his mind, she'd died, and when he thought back to that fateful day, his mind still remembered it that way.
That gentle girl had died before his very eyes.
Reality was hard to reconcile when that horrific scene was scorched into his brain. He still had nightmares from time to time.
"Hinata-san...really did that?"
Sanzo's eyes were wide now, surprised. The blonde Uzumaki felt his own soften despite the harsh emotions roiling in his gut.
"Yeah," he murmured, "she did...and nearly died for standing between me and Pain, but if she hadn't, I probably wouldn't be here and neither would the village. After that, we got really close, she became my best friend and I became hers."
Lips curling upwards, Naruto felt the familiar magic that was his Hyuuga Princess, clear the ache from his chest. He pictured her smiling face, her gentle hands, the softness of her voice and body. The kindness that radiated from her lush figure with the intensity of the sun.
"There was nothing I couldn't tell her, nothing she couldn't tell me. She never judged me, never asked me to change but she did everything in her power to better me for the dreams I had, the man I wanted to becomes. She's stood behind me, supported me far longer than anyone has. And somewhere along the line, that's when it happened. That's when the loneliness, the pain of my past, left me completely, 'ttebayo. Shortly after, Hinata and I, we became a couple and I've been happy ever since."
The teen was quiet for a time. His gaze turned back to their dirt road. Naruto gave him a few minutes to digest the words before he placed a comforting hand to top of the young shinobi's head.
"You know, Sanzo, I may be your sensei, but you can tell me anything too," he informed the kid, "And if there's something I can do for you, I'll do it and if it not, I can listen and understand."
He gave his head a rub, fingers sifting through the longer side then over the shaven.
"And if not me, there's Seinosuke and Tani. They're your friends. They've been worried about you all day. They're here for you too."
Sanzo was again quiet a beat before he nodded his head beneath the warm hand atop it.
"Any time, Sanzo. Hinata and I, our door's open."
He dropped his hand back to his side, then gave the boy a small smile filled with lingering concern and sincerity.
"When you need me, just tell me."
He nodded again, but said nothing. The Jinchuuriki was a little disheartened that Sanzo didn't divulge the origin of his dark cloud after their heartfelt conversation, but he was heartened that some of the gloom had left his eyes, and his little shoulders had lost their droop. Sanzo was still holding his troubles within himself for now, but at least he knew, when he was ready, there were a plethora of people around him that would shoulder it with him.
Until that day came, Naruto would take every opportunity to remind him that he wasn't alone.
The sun was just setting as they cleared the gates of Konoha. The four man team waved and called out a greeting to the two gatekeepers, though one was snoring too loud to hear. Tani giggled at the familiar scene, Seinosuke and his sensei shared an amused, exasperated look and Sanzo chuckled, further proof the gloom was definitely dissipating. The group passed the fans that spotted him. Sanzo rolling his eyes, Tani glaring at the women and Seinosuke watching with quiet disinterest. Naruto passed them all, stating he really didn't have time to chat.
Once through the thicket, team Uzumaki assembled before the Hokage and the team lead gave his report of the underwhelming trip.
"There were a few bandits. We rounded them up and turned them over to local law enforcement on the way to town. There wasn't a whole lot of clean up, but we cleared the most damaged areas. I scanned the area in senjutsu on the way there and back. There was no sign of the jubokko," Naruto reported, "and nothing else out of the ordinary, dattebayo."
Kakashi nodded.
"Good work," the Hokage commended, encompassing the three genin standing to right of his former student, "I'm sure these clean up efforts aren't much fun, but to those outside Konoha, the aid we send is invaluable."
The three teens murmured respectful thank you's then headed for the door.
Naruto turned to follow.
Even though he'd given a verbal report to the Hokage, he still needed to fill out a written report before he could head home. He wanted to get that done quickly then get back to his place. He wondered if Hinata was back from her mission yet. It'd been a few days, and he missed her.
He'd barely moved before the Hokage spoke again.
"Naruto, stay a moment."
Azure orbs curious, Naruto turned from the door and faced the Hokage once more. His dark eyes looked serious. He glanced at his leader's adviser and saw the same depicted on his face. Was it about the carnage they'd found beneath Sunagakure? Had the investigative team returned with information? Had Gaara made a decision about what was to be done with the discovery beneath his village? He couldn't glean it from their eyes.
All he knew was, whatever news they had, it concerned him, and it seemed grave.
The door behind them shut.
"What I'm about to tell you, I need you to pay attention to until the end. Let me explain the situation before you dash off."
More than concern crossed the jonin's face. There were few things that could make him dash off in the middle of a conversation these days. He'd matured over the last couple years, both in body and in mind. He had a genin team that depended on him to be rational and level headed. His dream of one day becoming the leader of the very village he lived in, required some measure of calm... but there was one place rational thought fled immediately. One avenue that refused to be tamed with practicality or even patience. One subject in particular that was notorious even outside his circle of friends and loved ones.
Hinata.
That lone kunoichi had the power to move him.
Immediately.
Tension lined his shoulders. And he knew he had that "wild look" in his eyes, as Sakura dubbed it. A look he rarely got for anything or anyone but his other half.
"I can see you already know who I need to speak to you about."
"What happened?" he promptly demanded, "Is she okay?"
"Naruto," Shikamaru answered, "let him talk."
Talk?
If they wanted to talk they could start by answering his fucking question first and stave off the panic rising inside of him. If she was okay, he could stay and hear what they had to say, if she wasn't, he was leaving and they could talk to him after. Either way, he wouldn't be able to absorb a single word they said until he knew for sure.
He knew that.
They knew that.
"Then talk," he snapped impatiently, "If you want me to sit here and listen then tell me if she's hurt first! If you can't do that, I'll find out for myself-"
"Naruto!" Shikamaru barked, "you can't help her if you don't understand the situation. Calm down and listen!"
"Not until you tell me if she's okay, 'ttebayo!" he fired back, "If you won't tell me I'll-"
"Enough, Naruto!" the Hokage shouted, "She's not okay, but she-"
He moved, ready to do exactly what they feared he'd do. Take the fuck off and find his woman. She wasn't okay and he didn't need to know anything else. There wasn't anything else to talk about. She was most likely in the hospital, but senjutsu would tell him where exactly and once he'd laid eyes on her and ascertained how badly she'd been hurt, maybe then he'd be able to breathe again. To listen calmly to whatever the hell the two men in the room were trying to tell him.
Seconds from executing his next move, his body froze.
And not of his own accord.
Blazing blue orbs swiveled to the man in the corner on his left. Shikamaru stood with a familiar hand sign, his shadow extended and connected to the worried Uzumaki's.
There was a brief pause, a clash between their gazes before he spoke slowly, deliberately.
"Let me go, Shikamaru." he warned his friend
He could tell by the look on the other man's face that he took the calm demand as the threat it was. They both knew, this jutsu didn't have the ability to hold him, and but for their friendship, he'd have already severed the restraint. He didn't want to use any measure of his strength against his friends outside of a sparing match, but in this situation, at this given moment, under these circumstances, he'd do what he needed to do to reach Hinata.
Shikamaru could release him or he'd force him to.
A trickle of sweat beaded his forehead, but Shikamaru stood firm.
"Naruto," he appealed instead, "she's not well, but she's not badly hurt, a few bruises, some scratches, but that's not what's concerning right now. Something happened to her. You need to listen to us so you can help her."
"Then hurry up and tell me, 'ttebayo!" he burst.
They were dragging this shit out.
"You'd probably already be at her side if you'd cool that hot head of yours!" Shikamaru returned.
Naruto exhaled impatience through his nostrils, anxiety, fear and frustration churning in his gut. He strained for calm. They said she wasn't hurt badly but she wasn't okay, that something had happened to her, clearly something far worse than her minor scrapes. Bruises and scrapes he could handle, she'd bathe and he'd apply the ointment she got from the compound. Something more than that, he needed to know now. And this goddamn beating around the bush was pissing him the fuck off.
"During her mission to assist in the reconstruction and fortification of a village, Hinata killed a jubokko."
The sentence startled him and as the tale unfolded, an account from one of her teammates, Naruto found his attention ensnared by the dumbfounding details. The shadow connected to his retreated as he listened to the Hokage speak.
Shock held him still.
Incredulous disbelief widened his eyes.
Gnawing worry tightened his gut.
He could...barely believe what he was hearing. How such a story could be true. And yet as he stood there, again taking in the faces of both men, he knew this was no joke.
No mistake.
Hinata had blown one of those monsters clean from its legs...and hurt over a dozen people in the process. Tani's elder sister among them.
They were right...
She wasn't okay. The one thing he loved the most about her, that sensitivity, he knew, was crushing her. She needed him.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"The hospital."
He slammed out of the office unhindered, sped from the Hokage tower, and reached the hospital in record time. He was already in senjutsu long before he reached the medical facility. He searched for her unique chakra signature among the many within the building.
His blonde brows furrowed.
He'd found her but...there was something else entwined with the sensation that was his Hyuuga lover. It was barely there, naught but a whisper, but to the sensory shinobi, it was a change that was as subtle as a elephant stampede. He straightened, releasing senjutsu as he did so. It'd have to wait for now. Once he'd taken care of Hinata, he'd report it to the Hokage along with any other information he was able to ascertain from her. She hadn't spoken, hadn't eaten since being returned to the village. She hadn't been able to. Not with the distressing amount of despair she was cloaked in. Outside of the few examinations they'd done, they had no more answers to their questions than he did.
But they knew, if anyone could get a first hand accounting from her, it was her soon to be husband.
Stowing the odd abnormality for later, he leapt to the fifth floor, third window on the right. He touched down nearly soundless on the window seal before reaching out and sliding the glass open. The curtains were drawn. He pulled one back and jumped into the room. She lay with her back to the glass he'd slid open, motionless atop the covers. Her pale body and starchy white hospital gown seemed to glow in the darkened room.
She looked small and remote.
Hurt in a way that had naught to do with the physical aspect.
"Hinata." he murmured softly, the tone and tenor in his voice stressed and worried.
She startled, then her dark head moved on the pillow. She half turned, looking over her shoulder. Her eyes were swollen, her face distraught, the light in her milky depths alarmingly muted. Their gazes met. It was as if that brief contact had breathed a tiny bit of life into her. She rose on arms covered in band aids, pushed herself up to her knees, then reached for him, tears welling.
"Naruto." She whimpered.
There were so many things he heard in her voice, saw in her face, in her reaching hands. She was hurt. Grief stricken, he could see that, but there something else that drove his mind to the brink. His Hina, his Princess, his lover...she was scared.
And it hurt him, it hurt him so bad to see that.
He was across the room in an instant, scooping her into his arms and holding her shaking body. She cried, great quaking sobs that shook him too. He tightened his hold, gripping as though that would quell the seemingly painful jerks of her body with strength alone. He held her through the worst of it, cradling the back of her head to his shoulder, feeling moisture rapidly soak through the black fabric. Minutes passed, an half an hour went and sometime after, her hitched breathing began. She took a gasp, then another and another until her desperate bid for air melded into hyperventilation. Though he'd only been through it once, back when he'd failed to change the mind of not only the Raikage, but the people he called friends, he knew what was happening. Pulling back, he reached for her clammy checks, brought her wet gaze to his and smoothed his thumbs soothingly along her skin.
"Breathe, Hinata," he implored, "look at me and breathe."
He showed her how in slow, measured breaths. In through his nose and out of his mouth in a steady stream.
Minutes passed before she could even take a full breath, and even longer before she was able to mimic his calm inhalation and exhalation. And when it was over, she looked tired.
More than tired.
Drained.
A fine tremor ran through her petite from but she seemed calmer. He wiped stray moisture from beneath her eyes. She gazed at him, looking lost.
His own eyes misted.
She truly, truly wasn't okay.
He knew that...but looking at her now, he realized it more acutely than he had before. This nightmare had shattered her into so many pieces and he vowed to himself that he'd find every shard and break his back putting them together again.
"I hurt those people," she whispered into the quiet,"I hurt those people-"
"Shhhh," he shushed, stoking her cheeks, "It's okay-"
"It's not," she choked, gazing at him with eyes that broke his heart, "Its not okay..."
She shook her dark head, denying either his words or emphasizing her own, he wasn't sure which.
"I hurt those people," she repeated, as though he hadn't understood the first time, "those villagers...Tani's sister..."
Her voice hitched as she gave voice to that shameful reality. Trembling fingers caught and gripped his jacket.
"I didn't mean to," she as though she feared he wouldn't believe, as if he'd ever in a million years think her capable of deliberately causing the destruction he'd heard about, "I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry...I'm sorry..."
She was breaking down again, and he went to hold her again, but she resisted.
"There was something inside me," she told him, "I-It was strong...it made me strong and I...and I..."
She couldn't seem to finish.
"I didn't mean to hurt those people. I would never-"
He pulled her into the comfort of his embrace, closing his own eyes against the agony welling in his chest. She didn't resist this time. Instead, she sagged into him. The limpness a little frightening.
"I know," he muttered, pressing his lips to her forehead, "I know, 'ttebayo. Nobody, nobody, thinks you meant to hurt anybody, you hear me?"
She didn't answer.
He wasn't sure if it was because she was too tired to or because she didn't believe him.
"You were trying to protect the people of that village, Hinata," he told her in a voice roughened with emotion, "I know that. The people of that village knows that. Your team knows that. Yuma knows that. The whole of Konoha knows that. 'ttebayo. You would never, have never hurt an innocent person."
No response.
"Hinata," he prodded, giving her a small shake, "you hear me? Something happened, we'll figure that out later, but what we do know, what I know, what you know is that you didn't mean to hurt anybody."
The quiet was driving him crazy. This hushed despair was leaving him raw and heartsick. He could fell the guilt in the air. It was eating him up too, gouging deep wounds inside of him. She had no business suffering like this, no business hurting like this. And as much comfort as he was trying to give her, it wasn't enough to stop the hurt.
He tensed to give her another shake, to make her understand that whatever had happened wasn't her fault when she spoke.
"It wasn't on purpose..." she said, her hoarse voice threadbare, "but...I did it...I was the one...that hurt those people...I did it..."
He gnashed his teeth, frustrated that was she tearing herself apart for something she had no control over, something she couldn't have imagined would happen...but he...understood it.
How she felt.
He'd done it to himself in his younger years every time he lost control of Kurama's power. Every time he hurt someone he cared about because of it. He'd lay the blame on himself, agonize over what he'd done...call himself a monster like the people of Konoha used to.
He stroked her raven colored hair the way he wish someone had for him in those days.
"It's going to be okay," he whispered to her the way he use to wish someone would have whispered to him.
Then held her, long into the night, the way he wished someone had held him.
"I'm here now," he told her, "and everything is going to be alright, 'ttebayo."
xxxxxx
April 25, 2010
She hadn't slept all night, and neither had he.
taken her home and given her a bath.
There were cuts and a nasty bruise on her back that had him swearing beneath his breath as he washed her tender skin with all the care he could muster. If she had been in any pain, she hadn't really responded to it. Not a sound. Not a flinch. She seemed too tired to do so. It was the main reason, after he got her cleaned up, he had stripped down and got into the steamy water with her, careful to arrange her against him in a way that avoid placing her weight on an injury.
She was going to be sore the next day, but soaking the night before would stave off the worst of it. With her as lifeless as she was, he hadn't felt comfortable leaving her in there alone.
After, he'd smeared the Hyuuga ointment on every cut, every bruise he could find before dressing her in one of his shirts and putting them both to bed. And they'd lain there, him stroking her softly, whispering words of comfort, her silently weeping, staring into nothingness before leaking quiet tears again.
Now, with the sun streaming through the little gaps in the curtains he'd forgotten to close, he checked in with himself. He didn't feel particularly tired, but emotionally, he was exhausted. He looked down at his chest, stroking back midnight tresses to see her face clearly.
Judging from the dark beneath her eyes, so was she.
"Why don't I get you something to eat and we can rest up for the day. Kakashi-sensei gave me some time off."
Time off to care for his lover...and time to try and figure out what had caused such a spike in her chakra levels. It was a mission he'd been given. Something he would have done even if he had not been given a direct order. How he went about that, they'd left to his discretion. He knew her best, he knew her intimately. He knew when to push and when to pull back. He had the best chance of coaxing her to mold chakra and repeat the jutsu under the watchful eye of the Byakugan and his own observation within Kurama mode. He could feel something in her chakra in senjutsu, but in the more advanced mode, perhaps he could glean a much clearer, more detailed picture.
Getting her to do it was where he would have his work cut out for him. And it wasn't just because she might be too scared to do it. It was more so because she was scared that he'd struggle. He didn't know if he could try and make her do something that scared her.
He never wanted her to be afraid, nor did he want to be the catalyst that propelled her into fear...but, there wasn't anyone else that could coax her try it.
And therein lay another dilemma for him.
They didn't know if Hamura's chakra was the cause or if it was something else entirely and he was anxious about stirring something that tampered with her chakra network, something they didn't know the consequences of.
At the same time...he knew it was important for them to find out. For her own safety and even the safety of those around her.
He wasn't worried for himself.
She could blow him to kingdom come and he'd still love every bit of her while he waited happily for her in the afterlife.
But he did worry about his friends, the village, her own mental health...
No matter his misgivings, they couldn't just leave it.
She looked up at him. There was a bit more color in her cheeks than had been last night. That tiny detail heartened him. It left him a moment later when she answered.
"That's okay, Naruto-kun. I'm not hungry."
He frowned. Demure though she may be, his lady could put down more food than he could and she never turned down a bite to eat. He shifted, deposited her carefully on their pillows before squatting beside the bed, eye level to her.
"You gotta eat something, Hinata. You haven't eaten since yesterday."
"I'm sorry...I'm not hungry, Naruto-kun."
He sighed quietly, gazing at her with concerned eyes. He didn't need to be a genius to realize she was depressed. Deeply so. He'd never seen her depressed before and never wanted to again after this was over.
"Don't apologize," he told her, stroking a bandaged wrapped finger along her cheek, "I can still get you something to eat, and when you're hungry, you can eat it."
She nodded, but he could tell, he was already gonna have to start coaxing her to do things. Eating was gonna be the first. He straightened, grabbed boxers from his dresser, threw on some sweats, grabbed a hoodie and made a few clones. He sent one to report to the Hokage about what he'd sensed last night, the description of 'something strong' inside her that Hinata had told him last night and receive any information from the examinations they'd been able to perform at the hospital they had for him. He hoped they had heard back from the team that had gone to put the village in the north back to rights, and knew when Yuma was to be brought back to Konoha for further treatment. As far as they knew, there hadn't been any casualties outside of the jubokko, but he'd like to confirm that was still the case. It wouldn't completely ease her guilt but he hoped it'd help.
To be honest, if things hadn't unraveled as they had, he'd have given her an earful for taking on the monster alone the way she had.
What if she hadn't had this unknown power to stop it?
What if-
He didn't even want to go there. He couldn't. There was more than enough on his emotional plate.
He sent another clone to grab a serving of zenzai at the eating establishment she liked, along with a couple of cinnamon rolls. Even though she was feeling down, her favorite foods served to her by her favorite person was a sure fire way to get her to eat something if she still didn't have an appetite by lunch time.
He sent a third to inform her family, most notably, Hanabi and Hanako. He had no doubt Hiashi and Hanabi would want to observe the anomaly themselves, but Hanako, that sweet woman would want to be there to support her daughter.
xxxxxx
Takahiro sat silently on the lumpy cot that served as his bed. It was better than the last, cleaner than the last, jutting from the wall unlike the last. He leaned back, placing his back to the cold wall behind him before looking out at the world beyond the bars of his window.
Magenta clouds floated amongst a vivid green sky.
He wasn't sure...what dimension this was.
Only that it was one of many utilized by one of the main branch Otsutsuki within the small ring of his captors. Toriyama and his big mouth had let that tidbit of information slip last he'd been in the room to mock the legless, bespectacled male. From what he was able to ascertain, from his observations while being brought in, while listening to the conversations happening around him, the jubokko that had proved useful were either being kept on this plane of existence or some other, while the refuse had been left behind in the dimension they'd taken him from.
They'd been left there to kill each other, and those that survived, those that escaped to the surface would fall at the hands of shinobi littered across the Five Great Nations and beyond.
Another missing piece of the puzzle. Toju-sama and Honorable One.
He was no sensory shinobi, but he couldn't sense their presences here either, though that meant very little. The Otsutsuki he suffered under were quite apt at suppressing their presence as well as the monstrosities they'd forced him to create. He was leaving towards them being absent. In the labs, in the Village Hidden in Darkness, they'd had no need to hide their toxic, alien energy.
No.
They too were gone.
In the endless days, weeks, maybe even months, he'd seen Toneri's puppets but never Toneri himself. Toriyama had been here when he first arrived, rolling him into the small cell before dumping the wheelchair and sending the legless man to the floor before locking him in.
He was well and truly stuck here.
He had no way of crossing dimensions, nor a computer that could span a dimensional plane at hand to contact anyone, let alone the Leaf. Until they moved him, or if the Uchiha somehow stumbled across this place, he could do naught but wait.
Wait until another opportunity presented itself.
He wasn't sure...how long that would be. They'd already accomplished the goal in Konoha, from what he could ascertain. That woman, Hinata Hyuuga, she'd been given the fruits of his labor. The blood, sweat and tears of the Land of Blood. The hope of the the Village Hidden in Darkness. The dream he and his foster brother had carved out by their own hands.
It was a fitting punishment for one such as he.
One that had betrayed his own brother. That had allowed himself to be swayed by the very creature that had mutilated him.
He turned haunted eyes back to the clouds.
There was naught to do...
But wait.
xxxxxx
Kinshiki stared intently at the regal figure cloaked in pristine white floating high above. With his arms stretched to the gaping tear splintering the murky sky, Momoshiki-sama slowly wove close the connection between that horrendous dimension and all the others it touched. Even from his great distance below, he could see the grays and blacks of the Dead World. And beyond it, that thing slithered and writhed.
Unease slid over his skin, true fear unfurling in his stomach.
He knew his time was near. Momoshiki-sama would use the last of his power to seal the Dead World one final time and once it was complete...that would be it. He would be the last of the Otsutsuki capable of shutting the door.
There was no one else to reinforce Cyilo's seal, and no one to replenish Momoshiki-sama's strength and enable him to repeat the process.
Even his lowly life, such as it was, would only extend his lifespan, not enhance it as a real chakra fruit would. Kinshiki had assisted in the last re-sealing, eons ago. He had never been replenished himself. He was naught but low quality fruit waiting to be picked up from the ground and reluctantly consumed. It was not his coming consumption he feared...
It was that being within the tear.
That God that was not a God.
His maker, his creator.
It was that which made him fear, that which made him sweat.
He would live on within Momoshiki-sama, but not if that creature ever escaped. He'd find himself consumed and finally know true death...
And it terrified him.
He could only hope that the plan set in motion by Toju-sama succeeded, else there'd be nothing left of this construct called reality.
Not on any plane.
xxxxxx
Done here. So, a few of you guys have had to reread the fic since its gotten a tad bit long and a itty bitty complex, lol. Don't worry, I have to XD so if you want like a recap somewhere next time I post I can do that, hopefully it won't be too long. Also, if you have questions or don't remember something, ask me in the comments or in your review and I'll answer it there so everyone can see it. I'm sure someone has the same question.
Not much to say, it's almost 5 am and I'm tired.
Goodnight!
Later's
Sessakag~