The eye wasn't just an eye. As soon as it left my head, it morphed, bubbling, rippling.
I brought my threads around it, wrapping around the thing that had lived inside my head for years.
The eye had become a tiny snake. It wasn't Orochimaru, but a sliver of his soul, left behind by his experiments. It hissed, trying to wiggle free from my grip. When it couldn't, it tried to bite.
By my side, Kumoko hissed, the coarse hair on her nape standing on end.
I offered her the once-eye.
Kumoko pounced, jaws snapping shut around the thing. She shook her head like a dog, biting harder.
The snake hissed back, trying to wiggle free from Kumoko, but it couldn't.
The she-devil didn't stay. The moment she had a good grip on the snake, she vanished in a puff of smoke, back to badger land.
That was more than fine with me. Let the badgers deal with that can of snakes for now. I looked again toward my sleeping Ino, then at Tsunade.
The slug princess's eyes were on me. "Hinata, your eye."
I turned away from her and toward the hole in the wall. Now wasn't the time to deal with her. I pulled out another scroll, the one I used to store essential things. From there, I unsealed Mom's gift. I didn't think I'd need it, but I didn't want to fight without depth perception.
Not that it would be a fight.
I took the eye from its crystal prison and gently pressed it back into my head, gluing nerves together with chakra threads and mystic palm. At the same time, my threads were stitching the hole Haido left in my sides. Not a complete healing, but a patch job to keep me going until I could address things properly.
A lot of things made sense now. Things that I should have known about, long ago. But was it really my fault when there was something, or someone, actively messing with my thoughts and making sure I didn't notice certain things?
I was going to kill Orochimaru, but right now, there were more important things to worry about.
In the end, Orochimaru had succeeded in his mad scientist plan, although I don't think I was the result he was expecting.
But time was running short. I could feel the edges of my mind fraying. The knowledge I gained was already slipping away, gone, maybe forever. Orochimaru had succeeded, and yet he hadn't. His goals might have been to create a new dojutsu by combining a Sharingan and a Byakugan into a single vessel he could inhabit, but he hadn't created something new. He'd made something that already existed, even if it was flawed.
As far as I knew, there was no dojutsu combination between a Byakugan and a Sharingan, but what about a Sharingan and the Senju cells?
In all these years, I always thought that the first ability I discovered, the chakra slurping thingy when Daikoku-sensei helped me sense chakra, was a trick Orochimaru left behind to prevent others from tampering with the seals inside me, to make sure no one messed with his experiments. It made sense, especially once I learned about the seals.
But it was nothing like that.
I knew what it was now. Preta Path: the ability to absorb chakra in any form.
And there was another path: the Outer Path, giving me access to knowledge I shouldn't have.
Orochimaru had created with his experiments a flawed Rinnegan. Two paths, instead of the Seven.
I opened my mouth wide, unhinged. The sword, following my will, slithered out and became a blade once more. I held it. It didn't resist me. I hadn't even considered what might happen to the sword when I removed the eye. Another oversight I couldn't dwell on.
On the other hand, I formed a small piece of a black material, the same chakra receivers Pain used to control his puppets. They were a perfect material to complete my jutsu. I could feel the receivers, much like a mokuton clone, and they weren't a temporary material. After confirming the effects, I created kunai from pitch-black material, a few dozen of them, each inscribed and ready. I tossed one to Tsunade, who was still staring at me with those wide eyes.
I met her gaze. "Please keep Ino safe until I return. It won't take long."
With that, I moved toward where Haido had gone.
You see, I was the Outer Path, even if a flawed one, and the Outer Path presided over life and death.
Haido owed me a life.
I walked through the destroyed wall.
Haido was easy to spot. He was floating near the gelel vein with energy pouring from it into his body. He had grown even bigger and more monstrous, not that it mattered.
He turned to me. "Still alive?" He repeated the same question with the same tone. The red orbs behind him rotated, ready for a fight.
This wasn't a fight.
I threw my black kunai at him, the whole dozen of them. Haido was fast; he blocked a few, evaded others. It didn't matter what he did; the kunai weren't there to hurt him. I teleported to one that he had let fly over his shoulder. Before he could react, I brought the sword down, chopping off the arm with the stone embedded in his hand. The iron-like skin wasn't a match for the sword's edge. It severed the arm at the shoulder.
The arm hadn't drifted more than a few centimeters down when I chopped it again and again, until I hit the stone.
Like chopping wood, only easier.
The effect was immediate. Haido screamed, his body morphed, turning back into a portly man with an annoying face and even worse hair. He fell, but I caught him with my threads before he hit the ground.
Haido was hysterical, raving about being a god, immortal, the conqueror of the world.
I pitied him. If he couldn't deal with me, what chance did he have against the true monsters of this world?
Holding Haido by one leg, I dragged him back to where I'd left Ino. I had little time now. Most of the things I had learned when my eyes changed were slipping away, but it was going to be enough.
Tsunade was by Ino's side when I returned. "Hinata?"
I cast one long look at her, then looked back at Ino.
My Ino.
Haido's screams were bothering me. With one thread, I plucked through his head, messing up his brain. Not enough to kill him, but enough that he wouldn't keep the ruckus.
I dragged his body until he was near my Ino.
The Outer Path could bring Ino back. I knew it could, but it had a price. Pain had sacrificed himself to bring the people from Konoha back to life after being affected by Naruto's talk no jutsu, but the shinobi didn't need to sacrifice themselves. It mostly happened because the amount of chakra required to drag someone back from the pure lands was more than anyone, except for the sage of the six paths, could pay. But I wouldn't pay for all of it, at least not alone.
I rummaged through the pouch and took the stones I had extracted from the wolf woman and Haido. I kneeled beside Ino.
"What are you doing?"
I ignored Tsunade. I would deal with her in a moment.
With an effort of will, I pushed the stone to Ino's body. Then I grabbed Haido and pulled from inside me the truths I knew and was forgetting.
I was the Outer Path. And Haido owed me a life.
I burned his soul and, with the energy it generated, I used it and the existing connection to jumpstart the integration with Ino's body and connect the gelel vein.
The stones shimmered, melding together into a bigger one. It passed through her skin, lodging where her heart was, but not precisely in the same place.
With all that done, I pushed through the barrier between here and the Pure Lands, searching for Ino's soul.
Pain laced through me. Worse than I ever felt before, but I welcomed it. I was using my own body as a conduit to funnel the gelel energy into bringing Ino back to life. I wouldn't let Ino pay the price.
I placed my hand over the injury in her stomach, coaxing some of the energy to heal her body. While I was there, I infused her body with a bit more of that same energy. It wouldn't make Ino terribly strong, but if she kept training, she would be stronger than she would have been normally. There was a minute thought I should have asked permission before doing it. I dismissed that. Ino wanted to be strong. I would make her strong.
Seconds stretched into eternity. The gelel energy restored Ino's body to pristine condition, and once all of Haido's soul had burned, I found Ino's soul in the Pure Lands. I pushed the generated energy to bring her back.
There was this moment when the world was still. The pain grew exponentially. The act burned most of my chakra reserves and the vein's stored energy. The gelel vein, that had looked majestic and full of energy before, now looked more like charcoal than the shining crystal it had been.
Ino gasped, a haggard, deep breath.
I smiled.
"Hinata?" Tsunade's voice reached my own ears. It sounded distant.
Ah, yes, I still had to deal with her. I leaned down. Kissed Ino's forehead. She stirred, but didn't wake up. That was fine. Ino needed her sleep. I got up, turned to Tsunade.
Her eyes followed me until I was standing in front of her. She was still trembling.
I sighed. For some reason, I wanted to be angry with Tsunade, but it wasn't her fault. None of this was, but I wouldn't let her off the hook. I closed my eyes. My threads touched her body.
She didn't or couldn't resist me.
Coaxing the dwindling energy I used to heal Ino and myself, I healed Tsunade from the damage she'd done to herself with her regeneration technique: turned the clock, so to speak. If she wanted to look like a young woman, I'd make her a real one, not just that crappy illusion. Then she'd have to live long enough to repay me. Heh. Was I evil for making someone live longer and for keeping them away from their loved ones in the Pure Lands?
With the last dregs of that knowledge that I wasn't sure I would ever have again and the almost spent gelel energy, I found two souls. The exchange was quick. Once they consented, I pulled them temporarily into this world. I didn't have enough chakra to bring them back fully. I had no idea how Nagato managed to bring back everyone in Konoha. Bringing back Ino was almost beyond me.
In shimmering, flickering lights, Nawaki and Dan were around Tsunade. Tsunade gasped, then started crying.
I turned back to my sleeping Ino and pulled her into an embrace, cradling her in the gentlest hug I could.
Part of that knowledge shoved into my head when my eye awakened, vanished, or was removed, I wasn't sure; it wasn't important. What really mattered was that Ino was alive and whole.
There were sobs and whispering conversations behind me. I hoped Tsunade found her peace. My head drooped. I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't, not yet.
Healing Ino had taken almost all of my chakra. I couldn't leave things like they were, but with Orochimaru's influence gone from inside my head, the bone and heart seals made sense now. They're still too complicated to be entirely disabled right now, but I just needed a quick fix to avoid dying. Extensive modifications were for later.
My threads dug inside my body. A small change here, a connected wire there. Cutting off this chakra pathway, isolating this other node.
When it was done, I had crippled the seal. The bomb was still there, but now isolated and inert, not a danger anymore. The seal on my heart, which I now finally understood what it did, was also isolated, unable to influence my chakra. That also cut most of my ability to generate wood chakra, but that was fine for now. It was an easy fix once I had time to inspect it and wasn't so tired. It was enough for now. I didn't have time for anything else.
Darkness claimed me.
I never let go of Ino.