Shizune strode into the room, carefully, afraid to disturb the patient if he was sleeping. To her delight he was not. "Oh you're awake, finally. How are you feeling?" She asked with a bright smile adorned over her face.
Kankuro lay in the bed, slowly flexing his arms, treasuring each moment he now had with renewed feeling in his limbs. "Yea." He said with a small smile. "It looks like the operation succeeded eh." He said watching as she entered the room. And walked to the side of his bed.
"Looks like it." She replied, "But before we can call it a complete success I'm gonna have to do a few tests, to make sure everything is working properly and all that, you know.
Kankuro nodded.
"Ok then." Shizune began pulling up a chair. "Lay back and put your hands at your side please." She ordered and received his compliance. "Now, move your right thumb...good, now your right index finger." He did so, with her jotting down notes on the clip board.
It continued like that for a few more minutes with Shizune poking and prodding at his arms, testing reflexes, grip strength, dexterity, basic coordination, advanced coordination, fast hand movements, complex hand movements, and finally a combination of the two, which was basically doing hand seals very quickly.
In the end Shizune nodded with a smile. "Well you have a clean bill of health, with a day or so's rest you wont need to worry about your arm movements ever again."
Kankuro nodded with his own smile. "Thank you Shizune-san, you've really been great during my stay here, you and Tsunade-sama."
Shizune smiled brightly but soon her own face took a mildly somber tone as she reached for an item behind the door, wheeling it in she placed it next to Kankuro's bed. "So...would you like to...go out?"
Kankuro eyed the mechanism that he would use to get around for the rest of his life, his face soon gaining his own downtrodden expression before he huffed with a smile. "Why not...White walls suck eh?."
Shizune smiled herself, feeling a spark of admiration for the Suna ninja's optimism and bravery...not everyone took it this well.
She helped him ease himself into the chair, positioning his legs safely, before she headed out towards the hallway, heading for the exit. "So..." She began. "Where would you like to go?"
Kankuro didn't even hesitate as he looked up at her with a smile on his face. "Do you have a workshop nearby?"
The song of crickets and small creatures of the night prevailed over the silence of Konoha's nightlife. Lights were strewn about the village, keeping the shadows cast by the overhead moon at bay. The forests were silent even with their variety of animal populations inhabiting them. The silence was almost eerie really even for a ninja village.
In a large, strangely designed estate almost half a mile beyond the village gates two women could be seen making their way through the hallways. One, regal and poised, precision marking her every move. White eyes, half lidded with an almost bored like apathy. Staring at the back of the second woman. This one with blond hair, allowed to travel down her back freely, no longer set in her signature four pig-tailed style.
Temari paused in her step, sighing as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. It was only nine and she was quite literally dying of boredom cooped up in this house, there were only so many days she could handle just reading in that library. She'd entertained herself fairly well with counting how many possible exits this place had, how many guards were detailing her, how many cleaning ladies were assigned to the house, how many items she could use as impromptu weapons. (Which were not many, surprising given how large the house was.)
Now that she'd done all that in the near month that she'd been trapped in here she didn't have anything else to do. Before at least the impending encounters with Konoha's Kage loomed over her shoulder to keep her on her toes but now she was just dying from the fact that there was nothing to do. Looking over her shoulder she glanced at Hinata from the corner of her eyes. "Could you at least walk next to me, this whole guard shit is becoming really dull."
When Hinata stayed in her place, two steps back and one to the left, the Suna girl sighed in frustration. "Come on, there are dozens of guards in this place, you can kill me with a tap to the chest and Mr. Big bad and homicidal isn't here to breathe down your neck for breaking protocol or whatever."
Again Hinata stayed in her place, making Temari sigh. She stopped however when she saw the raven hair from the corner of her eyes. Glancing to the side she saw Hinata standing to her immediate left. Grinning she spoke with that familiar confidence. "Now is this so bad?" She asked rhetorically. Part of it was just common courtesy, and genuine gratitude that the Hyuuga had indulged her. But another part was the hope that she'd be able to use this reprieve of Naruto's presence to endear the Hyuuga toward her, god knows she wouldn't be able to do it with his presence looming over both of them.
This Hyuuga was in charge of security, and lack of security due to gaining trust meant an easier escape. Hinata was her ticket out of here, because even if she was able to somehow find an escape out of this place the opportunity would be gone by the time she was done with Hinata, if she would even be done at all. She had fought the Hyuuga once already at Sakai and she had proven her mettle very well in that city.
Hinata turned her pale eyes onto Temarie's silver hued ones. "Try anything..." She let the threat hang.
"Of course since I'm just armed to the teeth right now." The blond drawled rolling her eyes with sarcasm dripping from her words. She eyed the hallway, finding one of the many open sections which led out to the gardens, she made her way closer to that area, finally seating herself on the threshold between the hallway and the soft, moist grass of the garden itself. She looked to Hinata, before gesturing with her hand for the Hyuuga to join her.
After a brief moments hesitation Hinata obliged. Perhaps due to the fact that despite her composure she too was definitively bored. She just knew how to hide it better...after all...when one has to deal with the stuffed shirts that were the Hyuuga, even the liberated branch members, one learned how to hide many things, the least of which was boredom.
Temari waited for Hinata to sit before she turned her eyes heavenward, glancing to the bright orb that hung in the sky. "You ever stare at the moon Hyuuga?"
Hinata stared at the Suna ninja with apathy as her response.
Temari continued, uncaring and undeterred to her companions silence. "I do...I guess I picked it up from Gaara, he always liked the moon. This moon over Konoha is nice but...its too small, the one in Suna is much bigger. Probably due to the lack of trees...some kind of visual illusion or some such nonsense."
"The moon is the same no matter where you go. What are you trying to get at?" Hinata said slowly, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.
Temari shrugged. "Nothin, just passing the time."
There was an awkward pause in the conversation, one which would have been uncomfortable if either of the participants truly cared what one thought of the other.
The silence was once again broken by Temari. "So you got any embarrassing stories to tell?" The blond question as she fell back, lying on the cold wooden floors of the open hallway. Hinata again stared at her, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Excuse me?"
"Embarrassing stories." Temari repeated. "You know of your friends and colleagues. You know like when one of them tripped and fell down a well or messed up in training and stabbed themselves in the toe. You know...Anything?"
"Why on earth would you want to know that?"
"Because I'm bored out of my fucking mind and the monotony of my days is growing more and more tedious by the second. Give me something I can laugh at later." Temari nearly groaned. What was so bad about a few stories? It wasn't as if she was asking for profiling on their skill levels and ranks.
Hinata's eyebrow notched itself just a bit higher. Opening her mouth to speak she cut herself off as she caught the sound of a blade sailing through the air, the low pitch nearly unrecognizable if one wasn't trained to pick it up.
She quickly assessed the trajectory of the projectile, determining it was aimed to cut the artery along her left hip. Because she was sitting down, that meant the individual was most likely at an angle behind her and slightly to the left. Rolling to the side she positioned herself to throw at any area in that general vicinity before activating her Byakugan, she quickly found her attacker and threw her own kunai, striking the man in the chest before he fell to the floor, dead.
Temari for her part had seen the attack as well, and if she hadn't the knife stabbing itself into the wooden floorboards would have been enough to alert her. Her first instinct was to attack Hinata, believing this to be some kind of rescue. But then she hesitated, remembering that Naruto had accused Kumo of trying to kill her and Kankuro during Konoha's invasion of it. She had to be sure, Hinata could be her salvation or her warden and she needed to know what role she would be playing.
Getting to her feet it did not take long for one of her opponents to answer her question.
She turned at the sound of footsteps, silent as they were, finding the source to be a ninja, clad in black skin tight clothing and a mask, wrapped to the back of his right hand were three sharp claws, designed to block and break swords. In his other hand was a short sword of his own, in a belt around his waist she could see some of his own equipment pouches. These held more likely than not, his kunai.
Kunai she could use.
He swung, and she moved around the strike like water over a stone, getting behind the ninja she slipped her hand into the pouch, slicing her palm with a shuriken there before she grasped it. She ignored the pain, ducking as the man turned and lashed out with his claws and used the Shuriken to slice open his exposed throat before using it to cut his belt, unhooking the pouches she grasped one and drew two kunai, ignighting them with wind blades.
She felt something hit her back, she snapped her gaze around and caught sight of raven black hair. Hinata.
"Falcon team, rally to the southern sector 6 of the estate, we are under attack. Unknown number of insurgents, skill level is also generally unknown, most likely a chuunin strike force, be on the look out for Jounin commanders." The young woman heard Hinata speak into the radio. "Wolf unit may be compromised."
"We're on our way ETA: 20 seconds." The suna princess heard from the other side of the radio. Holding the wind blades infront of her she looked to the dead body at her feet. The headband wrapped around his forehead. Looks like Kumo was indeed after her life.
3 seconds had passed, before dozens of the ninja came rushing out of the shadows of the trees, claws and blades glinting in the faint moonlight.
"Damn." Temari heard Hinata curse, standing infront of the incoming attackers. Placing herself between them and her prisoner.
5 seconds, four of the chuunin lunged for Hinata, hoping to leave an opening for their comrades to exploit against Temari. One leaping high, another charging straight forward, the other two circling to her sides. Hinata's hands shot out to her sides, before she brought them in front of her, circling in a clockwise motion, her right going low enough to be just above the knee as her left going over her head. "Chakra Myaku!" She yelled, before a quick burst of chakra extended from her pals, forming an oval shape "shield" in front of her which exploded a split second later, a shockwave knocking back her attackers while leaving her, Temari and everything else behind her unaffected.
7 seconds, the Hyuuga charged the remaining ninja, throwing kunai and Shuriken at everyone, her Byakugan not allowing anyone to sneak by, unnoticed. Her arsenal was quickly running low trying to hold off the twenty ninja she could see still standing.
11 seconds, The hyuuga ran out of projectiles, leaving the ninja with an open path straight to the target that stood behind her.
12 seconds, the first one attacked, latching onto the roof and lunging for the Hyuuga from directly above. Hinata sidestepped, allowing the ninja to catch himself in a handstand. She lashed out with a kick that connected with the mans chest, chakra laced into the point of impact, spreading through the man's chest cavity, collapsing it from within. He crumpled to the ground, dead.
13 seconds. Hinata spun around, lashing out with another kick, having seen the man approaching from behind with her Byakugan, catching him in the throat and like his colleague killing him with a single attack.
14 seconds, she wasn't able to recover from her kick quick enough, tackled to the ground by another ninja and being forced to hold off his hands from stabbing her with the weapons in them. The rest of his comrades rushed past her towards Temari.
15 seconds, Temari readied her two wind blades, in a defensive stance, ducking under a sword swing she cut the second attacker before he could deliver his own attack, and then quickly turning back to the first, cutting off his arm before slicing his head.
16 seconds, Hinata was able to push off her attacker as Temari placed the wind blade across her back, cutting apart a sword before it could cut open her spine. She then turned, crouching as she did, slicing off the man's left leg.
17 seconds, kunai sailed through the air, striking the wind mistress in the shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain from the woman as she fell back, one of her kunai slipping from her grasp. Hinata's Byakugan protected her from surprise attacks like that, being able to see the projectiles before they were even near her, but even so she was busy with her two opponents leaving Temari with 13 remaining opponents.
18 seconds, one of the Kumo chuunin stomped down on her wrist, making her reflexively release her last weapon. Her eyes snapped open, watching as the blade descended towards her throat.
19 seconds. The blade shattered moments before it made contact and the pressure on her wrist vanished. She heard the sound of something crashing before there was red across her vision. She glanced up, finding her missing prison guard holding another of the assassins by the scruff of his shirt. He threw the ninja off, towards his stunned comrades, disbelieving at the sight of him here. She saw him stagger for a moment as he towered in front of her, placing himself between her and the assassins.
20 seconds, before the assassins could make a decision to either press the attack or run, their power to make that decision was taken away from them as Kunai suddenly rained down around them from all sides. Killing the dozen or so ninja left as the blades cut deeply into them, piercing organs and severing arteries. They collapsed, leaving a quickly growing stain on the garden floor.
The blackened shadows of the Anbu dropped down around them and hastily bowed to the lone figure in red. "Lord." The head captain with a falcon mask spoke.
Naruto nodded, and the voice that greeted Temari's ears was the same one she had known at Sakai. The tone she knew belonged to the one who had gained the name "The Devil King"
"Collect the bodies, run tests, interrogate the prisoners and discover how they compromised wolf squad, if they're not dead the commander soon will be. Spread word to the other squads, escort miss Sabaku to her quarters, 24 hour guard watch."
"Yes sir." The Anbu chorused, with most vanishing in clouds of smoke along with the dead bodies. Four remained, walking up to Temari and helping the Suna Kunoichi get to her feet, hissing at the pain in her injured shoulder. Naruto turned at the sound, finally noticing to injury. "Take her to the infirmary, treat the injury."
The Anbu nodded, flanking the girl. Temari looked to the Kage of Konoha, her eyes blank as he stared back at her. "I suppose you were telling the truth after all."
Naruto said nothing before the Anbu began escorting her. He turned his eyes onto Hinata. Disheveled as she was she was able to keep her regal countenance in front of him, breathing somewhat heavily as the adrenalin dried down. "You have done well." The blond began with a nod.
Hinata returned the nod with one of her own accompanied by a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Naruto again, nodded. "I want you..." He paused, shifting from foot to foot for a moment, catching Hinata's attention as well as her worry. "I want..." He began to repeat but before he could complete the sentence to Hinata's utter shock, the towering man collapsed, on his knees, before slowly falling forward."
"Wha-" The Hyuuga let out with a startled gasp as she reflexively caught him. "Na-Naruto!" She questioned before she registered the feel of blood in her hand. Looking down to her red stained hand it confirmed her suspicion of the substance. Moving his cloak from her way she caught sight of a kunai in his side. "What..." She began before looking up to him. "You never would have gotten hit by this what's going on? When did it happen."
Then a thought occurred to her. The trip to the mountain pass took two and a half days. Meaning it was a five day round trip, Naruto had only been gone for six days, maybe seven given how late it was...when... "Naruto...when did you leave the northern defense outpost?"
The blond seemed to regain his strength, as well as his bearings as he slowly stood, once again towering over the Hyuuga clan head. "36 hours ago."
"36?" She echoed with no small amount of incredulousness in her voice. "Did you even sleep!" She could not imagine, even Naruto being able to cross those endless valleys and confusing forests in just a day and a half while getting standard 8 hours, or even the Shinobi's recommended four hours while on missions. Even he couldn't be that fast.
"No." The Kage said reaching for the side of the hallway to steady himself. "I knew...that he would either try to launch an attack on the village while I was gone, or attempt to assassinate our bargaining chip."
"If there would have been an attack you would have been no good to us dead, and in the condition you are now even you wouldn't have lasted very long in a battle."
Naruto's eyes glowed red from beneath his hood. "You forget that this chakra would be more than enough of a deterrent for any attackers. They would have retreated. We cannot afford to lose troops and resources now with an attack on our capital city. As it stands it will be difficult to win an all out war with Suna and Kumo with the economic and military infrastructure of our villages intact. Temari must be protected at all costs to bring a swift conclusion to this war. We are not invincible and neither do we have endless troops, supplies and money to fund this war for the next decade."
Hinata shook her head. "You're insane. You're going to get yourself killed if you keep this up. Go and get some rest, I will reassign new guards and keep control of the situation until your ready physically, to take over again.
Naruto shook his head. "No, I can deal with this, keep your guard over Temari. I will rest later."
Hinata's eyes narrowed she hesitated in her next action but eventually went through with it. "No. You just collapsed on me, You'll rest now, I'll handle the situation and assign new guards to replace wolf and bolster the patrols."
Naruto turned his eyes to face the lavender pools that stared deeply into his own. Never before had she questioned his orders, even those that put her at great risk. Strange that she would argue against these when they presented very little risk to her and more to him. He had left the mountain pass 36 hours ago, but he had been up for another 16, that was 52 hours without sleep and even though the mind would begin to shut down at 72 hours, and could live for a total of 264 before it was finally forced to shut down...permanently even for him, 56 hours of no sleep, in the middle of which had been a battle with his foolish sibling and endless trekking through forest, it was pushing it.
Still he felt he should tie up the few loose ends left due to this attack and his abrupt departure from the mountain pass before he headed off to actually get some sleep. But here she was arguing against him.
He looked down the hall, rest sounded very tempting at this point. He turned his eyes back onto her, he supposed...that if he would entrust anyone's competence other than Jiraiya...it may as well be her, she had proven it on countless occasions.
He took a deep breath. "Send a message to the northern border guard, tell Kurenai to remain there, and for Kimimaro to return to the northern attack force. Inform Shino of Kurenai's reassignment."
Hinata nodded impatiently, almost fussing over the man. "Yes I will. Now go, sleep. I'll handle things.
Naruto eyed her. Such an odd reaction his lack of sleep brought out of her. He shrugged it off and made his way towards his room.
Hinata watched him leave, shaking her head in disbelief at his actions.
But still, after a moment she smiled. This little moment of vulnerability for him was rare...to rare...it was somewhat refreshing to see that even he was human on occasion.
With another shake of her head the Hyuuga Matriarch made her way down the hall, ready to do whatever the hell she was supposed to do.
But she knew of one person who did, a shame she'd have to wake the individual up at this ungodly hour."
Turning on her radio she spoke. "Get Suzume to the office right now. And double all shifts around the house."
Wouldn't want for this one moment of vulnerability to be his last.
A lone figure sat at the base of a tree, her pale blond hair trailing slightly in the breeze. The dry arid wind doing more harm than good as she squinted to keep the dirt out of her eyes. She had donned clothing, damaged and stained heavily with blood. She had stolen it off a dead body of a ninja she had dragged away from the edge of the battlefield she had last been a part of. The battle she had seen her brother in...
A battle where something had been revealed to her...where a veil had been uncovered from her eyes...where something had changed.
'Some promises, dear sister, must be kept...at all costs...' Those were his words...his exact words to her.
It was a promise that bound him.
A promise that drove him.
A promise...that enslaved him...continued to enslave him.
She wasn't sure where the thought came from. What made her believe this...but something did...something told her that despite all outward appearances, despite everything pointing to the contrary...despite all the power present at his very fingertips Uzumaki Naruto, The Demon of Konoha, The devil King...The Man Who Cannot be Killed...was a slave to this mysterious promise he'd given...to the will of another.
She slowly stood, gathering whatever weapons she'd managed to take from the corpse as she did, finishing the bandage she had been wrapping along her arm, and stared out to the arid desert that lay before her.
Why now...why was she having so much confusion over this man now. He had proven just yesterday that he was more than willing to kill her, if it hadn't been because the battle may have turned, she very well may have died in that valley.
So why...why was she so curious so...so...so...
...concerned...
Staring into the sky she sighed.