Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Ghostly Eyes ❯ Savior ( Chapter 24 )

      Hinata kneeled beside Naruto, unable to fully fathom what she had just witnessed. In the Chakra coil network of Naruto’s body existed not one, not two, but three Chakras. One, which Hinata’s Byakugan showed her as a bright white, was almost certainly the Goddess. The second, a deep blue, Hinata believed was Naruto’s. What owned the third chakra, a chilling blood red, Hinata had no idea. All she knew is it had somehow turned the whole situation around.

     The white chakra traveled the veins of Naruto’s coils seeking out the bright blue flame in the center. Just as it had the blue fire surrounded though, the red chakra, which seemed to have its own separate network within Naruto, began to move. It managed to seep into Naruto’s blue coils and attacked the goddess’s chakra. Hinata could only watch, numb with shock, as the red chakra did to the white, what it had planned to do with Naruto’s blue. The red chakra consumed it utterly.

     “What?! What did the red Flame do?!” the Ki’ge asked, reading the surprise on Hianta’s face.

     “I’m sorry.” Hinata said in the Nimmori language, “Your Goddess is gone.”

     “What?! Impossible! You lie!!”

     “I don’t. The red Flame… it devoured the white, the Goddess’.”

     The Ki’ge fell to his knees. He didn’t want to believe it. But he knew Kashghyu N’ga was not lying.

     “All our work…” he breathed as tears began to flow from his eyes, “All the sacrifices made just for this day. All of it for nothing…”

     The shock of it all was too much for the Ki’ge. He began to clutch his chest, his breathing became erratic.

     “Ki’ge!” Hinata cried. She was about to move to his side but he held up a hand to stay her. A hand that fell to the ground limp a moment later with the rest of his body. He smiled.

     “Even with what you perceive as our betrayal… you are still… concerned.”

     “Ki’ge …”

     “I told you… all I wished… was to live… long enough to see the Goddess come to this world…”

     The old man let our several hacking coughs. Hinata thought she saw blood spurt from his mouth.

     “The strain of summoning her here… keeping the shee’nobie back… it’s too much for this old body… it is just as well… I have nothing left now. The Goddess… my Goddess… is no more.”

     The Ki’ge, the man who would have been, in other circumstances, the Wood Shadow closed his eyes and exhaled one last breath before his body completely ceased to move. Hinata didn’t want to shed any tears. Not for the man who had fully intended to kill her for his goal. But she couldn’t help herself. He had been as a grandfather to her as Kashghyu N’ga. As encouraging and supportive as Da Iri’ga. It was that moment she understood something very important about herself.

     "Would it have mattered?" he had asked, when Hinata had been about to tell him she never would have cooperated had she known.

     “No…” Hinata admitted aloud, a tear falling down her cheek, “It wouldn’t have.”

     Was she so pathetic, so desperate for simple acknowledgment that she would knowingly and willfully throw her life away? Turn against those she cared for the most?

     She was. The realization that she would do that; as well as the sight of Naruto sprawled on the tree before her, because he accepted the fate meant for her, made her realize just how low she had sunk.

     Her thoughts were interrupted, though, when Naruto’s innermost chakra coils began glowing a bright, blood red.

     An amazing rush of wind knocked Naruto off his feet. He found himself sitting waist-deep in the tunnel’s water, listening to horrifying sound. A sound that frightened him more than most anything else could.

     The Kyuubi was laughing.

     “I take it back!” it laughed, “This meal more than suffices!”

     Naruto didn’t realize it, but the Kyuubi had been given an incredible rush by its meal of forest goddess. A rush that created a brief raise in its already formidable power. A boost that was enough to allow it to potentially break free of its seal.

     To do to Naruto what the Mori no Megami had attempted. What the Kyuubi had done to her.

     Hinata could only watch as Naruto’s body suddenly became a series of lines of flowing red. His body began twisting and turning. Contorting as the Chakra forced its way into Naruto’s chakra network from its own. Hinata also saw changes on Naruto’s face, not the least of which were the little whisker lines on his face seemed to become thicker.

     She had no idea what was happening. She could only assume that the red Chakra was now attempting to take Naruto’s body like the Goddess had. Hinata got to her feet and stepped away, more than a little frightened of the sight before her. The red Chakra was taking over at a rapid pace. If something wasn’t done soon, Naruto’s blue chakra would be overwhelmed. Hinata wasn’t sure what to do.

     No, that wasn’t true. Hinata knew exactly what to do. The only question was could she do it?

     It doesn’t matter! Hinata decided, If I do nothing, Naruto-kun will…

     That was what decided her. Naruto had been her inspiration, her idol for so long. She would not just stand idly by and let him die. Not if there was anything she could do. And there was.

     Just as with the Kaiten, Hinata had been training in another technique exclusive to members of the Hyuga main family. One of the clan’s most powerful techniques. To date, she had only had marginal success with stationary practice dummies. Now she had to perform it perfectly, with Naruto twisting about randomly. She had no idea if she’d actually succeed. But she had to try.

     No… not try! Do!

     Hinata positioned herself accordingly. Feet spread out, arms as well. One stretched out behind her. The other out in front. Her hands closed, followed by the extension of her index and middle fingers. She focused her already activated Byakugan as much on Naruto as possible. She began to use the only technique she knew of that could stop what was happening.

     “Ju-Ni, ninpo” she whispered nervously, “H-Hakke Rokujuuyon-sho.”

     Gentle Ninja Art, the Eight Divinations’ Sixty-Four Hands. Hinata stood over Naruto, and began hammering her fingers into his body.

     “Ni-sho!” Two hits. She followed with four more rapid strikes.

     “Yon-sho!” Her pace picked up.

     “Hachi-sho!” she cried as she struck eight times in a single moment.

     “Juuroku-sho!” Naruto had stopped twisting in the run of this attack, which only made things easier for Hinata.

     “Sanjuuni-sho!” This was it. The final part.

     “Rokujuuyon-sho!”< br>
     In only a few seconds, Hinata had landed sixty-four hits to Naruto’s body. The effort done, Hinata collapsed to her knees, her eyes never leaving Naruto’s body. She watched as the red chakra dissipate as suddenly as it had begun to flare up. Naruto’s face returned to normal. His whiskers were now just lines on his face. The Blue chakra that was Naruto began to gradually flow in its rightful place once more. She watched his chest rise and fall, he was breathing normally.

     “I… I did it…” Hinata said.

     She’d done it. She’d actually done it. Were she the type to do so, she would have leapt into the air and let out a cheer. Even if she were the type, though, she couldn’t have. This whole encounter had left her drained. All the strain and injury from her fighting with Naruto, experiencing the rush of her old memories along with those of her time as She of the Ghostly Eyes, the revelation that she would have died if not for Naruto. It all left her physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.

     So instead of jumping for joy, Hinata found herself falling forward, right on top of Naruto, her Byakugan deactivating itself as she did so. Having been kneeling at her side, her head now found itself resting on his chest. Her face looking in the direction of Naruto’s. She worried for a moment if she’d hurt him, but she did not feel any difference in his breathing. With her head where it was, she could hear his heart beating normally. Though even if that weren’t the case, there wasn’t much she could do about it.

     Naruto-kun… she thought to herself, I’m sorry, but I can’t even move my head right now… You’ve had to help bear my burdens up until now. I hope, you don’t mind doing so… just one more time.

     With that, exhaustion won out, Hyuga Hinata’s eyes closed and sleep took her.