"You look terrible," Ino commented into the round, specifically addressing both Sakura and Hinata. The four of them, Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten, were eating out that day, a fixed date once a month. "Did you fail a couple of missions in one go?"
Hinata smiled sadly at her while Sakura outright cried. "Naruto," they sad as one, Sakura all but sobbing.
"He's back?" Tenten asked, putting her tea down. "Since when?"
Sakura sighed loudly, wiping away some tears. "I mean.. since Monday, I guess."
Ino slapped the table in outrage, letting an assortment of drinks jump. "That's almost a week! Why'd no one tell us!"
Hinata and Sakura shared a significant look, one loaded with a message Ino somehow seemed to have missed out on.
"What?" she asked. "What happened?"
"I mean," Sakura began with a sigh. "He... uh, grew up."
Hinata smiled a strained smile. "He did," she agreed solemnly.
"He's a hunk now?" Ino asked. "Should I try my luck? I bet you both did and failed!"
"Hinata wouldn't throw herself at anyone, not even Naruto," Tenten said before smirking at the Hyuuga. "Or would she?"
Hinata didn't even blush. Ino narrowed her eyes. "Alright, what'd he do?"
"How haven't you seen him at all?" Sakura asked. "He's been running through the village all week, being all.. all-!" She threw her hands up in the air, slumping in her seat.
"Wholesome," Hinata sighed.
"Wholesome?" Tenten asked, brow furrowed. "I mean, not to be rude but Naruto was never especially.. uh..."
"Charming," Ino finished. "So out with it! Is he chubby now? Would that count as wholesome? Oh! A cat! Or a dog! Something cute!"
"A baby," Sakura all but whined. "He got a baby!"
Ino blinked rapidly at her, looked at Hinata for confirmation, then looked at Tenten in sheer confusion before exclaiming, "Whaaaat?"
"Are we talking baby baby?" Tenten asked carefully, "As in, human baby? A child?"
Hinata nodded sullenly. Ino suddenly felt really bad for the girl. "Is it.. his own?" she dared to ask.
Sakura nodded. "Yup," she said wearily. "Did the tests myself. One hundred percent his. Master looked it over, then again to make sure. He has a healthy baby girl, one and a half years old."
Ino blew out some air in a long sigh. "Uhm, wow."
"You are having us on, right?" Tenten asked, poking at her drink with a kunai.
"That isn't the worst," Sakura continued. "He's come back with the mother."
"Oh." Ino didn't know what so say about that. Hinata's heart must have imploded twofold. She reached over the table to take the girls hand, earning a tired smile in response. "I'm sorry, I guess."
Hinata shook her head. "Don't be," she said. "Naruto is happy with this. I don't think I have the right to be upset about it."
Tenten put a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "Doesn't hurt any less, does it?"
Sakura put her hand on Hinata's other shoulder. "We'll get through that. Though I guess we could be happy for him. They are just too wholesome to look at..."
"How could they be-?" Ino was interrupted by the chime of the bistro's door. She had a direct line of sight to the entrance and almost couldn't believe her eyes when Naruto walked in, an actual tiny and awfully cute baby cradled against his shoulder, followed by a redhead with just the same shade of red hair as the infant's.
The baby girl was playing with Naruto's earlobe while the redhead, most likely the mother, smiled up at her daughter. When Naruto stopped in front of a waiter, she reached up and booped her nose. The giggle was heart-melting as the girl squirmed in Naruto's arms. The mother said something to the waiter, standing besides Naruto, who grinned at whatever it was. The waiter laughed nervously but even he seemed somewhat enraptured when the baby girl captured a strand of her mother's long hair and stuck it in Naruto's face, making him sneeze.
"That's... I mean-" Ino had no words for it. It looked so surreal, seeing Naruto like that.
"Wholesome," Sakura said, again. She poked moodily at her glass. "You can't watch this and not spawn an egg."
Ino snorted. "Oho!" she laughed. "Want a child already?"
Sakura scowled tiredly at her. Hinata laughed, but it was weak and strained. Tenten turned back from Naruto and the girl. "So who is she?"
"Not too sure," Sakura said, "But Shikamaru said he knew her, or something."
"Doesn't she look familiar to you?" Tenten asked.
Ino eyed the redhead, who was playfully warping her daughter in her long red hair, smiling. "Mh, her hair is kinda like Gaara's. Darker, though"
"Her name is Tayuya," Sakura supplied, patting the quiet Hinata's hand. "And she isn't related to Gaara. Not by a long shot." She sighed. "From what master told me, she was one of Orochimaru's before Naruto and Jiraiya got her out."
Ino felt that Sakura was holding something back so she raised an eyebrow at her. Her friend merely shrugged.
"They look so... in love," Tenten said uncertainly as she watched them on the opposite side of the bistro.
They were sitting on the same side of the table, feeding pieces of a banana to the little girl. Most of it ended up in her face somehow, but she smiled and giggled excitedly all the while. They shared looks ever so often, small grins, suggestive one, nudging each others shoulder.
"Yeah," Ino agreed. "That should be illegal. They make me feel bad!" She stood from her seat. "That's it!" she exclaimed, "I need to find myself a boyfriend! Right now!" She bent down to Tenten. "Say, is Neji still free?"
Tenten gasped. "You little-!"
Ino left the cafe with the fuming Tenten in tow, leaving Sakura and Hinata alone at the table. Sakura was still staring intensely over at Naruto and Tayuya, but most specifically, at little Akari.
"I dunno why," she said, "But I want to pinch her cheek."
Hinata covered a giggle with her hand. "She is very much adorable." She, too, turned to observe them.
"She seems like a good person, this Tayuya," Sakura said, almost sounding resigned. "A bit stingy, though."
"I heard that!" aforementioned redhead called from her table across the room. She raised her middle finger at them. "Now get your bony ass over here! The huge tits, too!"
"Never mind," Sakura muttered, scowling, "Bad person."
Hinata followed the resigned Sakura over to Naruto's table. He was using Akari's hand to wave at them, grinning widely. She didn't want to smile, but she did despite herself. The little girl's vibrant violet eyes gleamed as she giggled excitably as Naruto gently rocked her entire body. She and Sakura sat down opposite from Naruto and Tayuya.
Tayuya, a piece of banana smeared into a long strand of her hair, took her daughter from Naruto and put her on the table in front of her. "Now go," she whispered to the child.
Akari looked at her mother, then at Naruto and back at Tayuya before she exclaimed, "MA!" and crawled across the table. It was absolutely adorable and if not for the fact that the little child was approached her, Hinata would have happily just watched.
Oh no. What now? Akari got closer to the ledge of the table and Hinata, in no way whatsoever, wanted the baby girl to be hurt so she hastily and awkwardly caught her in her arms. Okay, so far so good! Hinata had never held a child that small before. In fact, Hinata didn't think she ever held a child at all. Akari squirmed in her grasp until she was forced to cradle her against - more so on top of - her chest, where she settled with staring up at Hinata with huge violet eyes.
From across the table, Tayuya huffed triumphantly. "I told you so," she said to Naruto. "It's the tits."
Hinata blushed furiously. From the corner of her eye, she could see Sakura's face sour as she crossed her arms in front of her.
"I mean," Naruto said laughingly. "Isn't that some sort of instincts babies have?"
Tayuya just shrugged. "That decides it though." She pointed at Hinata. "Congrats, you're the godmother now."
"Huh?" Hinata was still trying her best to not freak out with Naruto's one and only daughter in her arms, though she had to admit, Akari was a lot less... active than other children that small which made holding her a lot easier. "G-Godmother?!"
"MA!" Akari giggled, capturing a strand of Hinata's bangs.
"Or maybe it's the hair," Tayuya mused. "Not that pinky over there has either."
"Hey!" Sakura huffed indignantly. "I get it already!"
Naruto laughed, lightly shoving Tayuya with his elbow before rising out of his seat. "Come on," he said to Sakura, "There's something I gotta tell you."
She looked confused for a moment but followed when Naruto left the bistro, looking back at Hinata with a helpless shrug. Now she was alone with Tayuya.
Akari pulled at her bangs with both hands, forcing her head down. "Ouch," she muttered at her, though smiling when she laughed.
"So, you got a huge crush on lover boy, huh?"
Hinata knew she had been kinda obvious about it for years, but didn't think the mother of Naruto's child of all people would notice that in the span of a few hours they had actually spent in each other's company.
"Ehm," she managed, peeking at Tayuya through her bangs, still held by Akari. "I-I mean I-"
"Oh come off it," Tayuya said, rolling her eyes. "It's not like I'm gonna kill you or anything." She took a sip from her tea. "Yet."
Right. That wasn't terrifying at all. "I-I'm sorry, I-"
"Stop that. Don't apologize for that, stupid tits."
Why was everyone reducing her to her breasts these days?
Akari finally let go of her hair an occupied herself with the zipper of Hinata's jacket. She smiled a brittle smile at Tayuya.
"Don't you dare cry," Tayuya said, lifting a threatening finger in her face. Akari immediately reached for it. "I don't need two crybabies to shush!" She toyed with Akari's hair. "Listen, I get that you fell hard for him. Did, too, and all that. I'm sure you realized that you missed your chance."
Hinata nodded sadly. "I noticed," she whispered, more to herself than Tayuya.
"Right." She didn't sound too convinced. "But I see that you look at him differently. I have not the faintest idea why you are so into him, but you wanna see him happy."
She nodded again. When had she become so transparent? Was it the tears? Probably. Dammit, she was crying. In her arms, Akari made a distinctively unhappy noise, so Hinata rocked her slightly.
"Listen, Hinata, right? Right. Now, I don't wanna sound too rude, but you missed your chance and I'm not gonna share, if you know what I mean. He's mine now."
Hinata hiccuped, wincing at her words. Tayuya scowled and gently took Akari from her grasp. It felt as if she had torn a piece out of her chest with her. "I- I see." She would have to stay away from him, wouldn't she?
Tayuya sighed loudly before smiling at her daughter, nuzzling her face. "Now don't break down, girly," she said, "I'm not telling you to get the fuck off or some shit. All you do have to understand is that he won't return your feelings. You missed out on that."
Hinata hiccuped again, blinking away tears. It was so cruel.
Tayuya all but thrust a tissue in her face. "If you make ma baby cry, I'll give you a real reason to weep over," she huffed.
Hinata nodded, blinking harder and taking the tissue. "T-Thank you."
"Yeah, I don't think you mean that," Tayuya muttered. "The thing is, I hadn't planned on having a kid. Neither did lover boy, really."
Hinata looked up at her. "Then- Then why...?"
"So pinky did keep her mouth shut," she noted, bouncing Akari in her lap. "Now I wasn't aware of Akari here until after she was five minutes old. I was Orochimaru's comatose plaything until lover boy and the pervert uncle got me out." She smiled wryly at her. "She's my baby alright and I love her to bits but the one to actually force me to have her was the snake ass. I have a lot more scars in places I don't remember having any so I guess it took some attempts to get it right but in the end I got lover boy's cute little daughter and I intend to keep her." She gently flicked Akari's nose, who giggled in response.
Hinata stared at her. "O-Orochimaru did...? Why would he even do that?"
Tayuya shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe he wanted another Uzumaki to play with. I'm sure she's a girl by design. That aside, lover boy said he'd keep her if I didn't want her, so I socked him in the face and told him that she's mine and that he'd have to deal with that. And would you look at that, here we are." She shook her head. "Thing is, if not for Orochimaru's fucked up fetishes, we wouldn't be a thing. I'd be dead anyways. You care about him, that's as plain to see as the Snake is a fucking pedo. So I know you'd care for his child the same."
Hinata nodded, looking at Akari. "I would, yes," she admitted. More so if it was her own child... So, so much she'd wish for it. About a week ago, she wouldn't have been able to think about that without passing out.
"That's why you're the godmother," Tayuya said, placing a kiss atop Akari's head. "You care. A lot at that. I have no one I could turn to. No family or friends, not even acquaintances. I ain't got no one aside from lover boy and my baby girl here. So if I got to trust anyone with my baby, it's you."
Hinata smiled. "Thank you."
Tayuya laughed. "Now there's some honesty in it! Now come on, you're gonna be my first ever girlfriend and I have to see how much cinnamon buns you can take."
Hinata's eyes widened. "Cinnamon buns?" She licked her lips.
Tayuya grinned at her. "I see I made the right choice! Come, let's raid the display! Lover boy's paying!"
Sakura followed Naruto outside where he leaned onto one of the four tables that stood in front of the bistro.
"So, uh, what are we talking about?" she asked.
"Sasuke," he said solemnly.
"Oh."
He laughed. "Oh? Don't be so down! He's... okay, I suppose. Still an asshole but he's away from Orochimaru." He looked at her over his shoulder. "He's changed."
She knew that. Of course he had. How couldn't he? "I know," she said.
"No," Naruto shook his head. "No you don't, Sakura. He's... different." He waved her closer, so she leaned forward onto the table as well. He put a paper tag down in the middle of it. It briefly burned blue with chakra. "A silencing seal," he said. "Sasuke has changed and not for the better."
She made a face. She didn't want to hear it, but said nothing.
"He killed his brother."
"So he finally-"
"He finally snapped, Sakura," Naruto said, his voice aggrieved. "I don't know what Itachi said or did, but Sasuke is... he's decided to serve his bonds to us. We met him. It was not a month after he killed Itachi, but there was something dark in his eyes. Whatever happens, he truly believes that he must cut us off! He's abandoned everyone..."
"And you want to, too?" she found herself asking, sounding harsher than she intended to.
"No!" Naruto snapped at her. "Of course not! But he is no longer the boy we were once friends with! Do you understand that! It won't be the same, even if I brought him back right now! He's a criminal, Sakura!" His expression soured. "No matter how much I wished it was different."
"He-!" She shook her head, grimacing as the fear rose in the back of her mind. "Sasuke'll redeem himself!"
"..." He didn't say anything, just stared at the seal that he had stuck to the table. "I hope you're right," he said eventually. Then he cracked a smile. "And if he won't, we will just kick his ass until he does, right?"
She wiped a tear out of her eyes. "Right!" She forced a smile onto her lips, grasping for anything to distract herself. "So," she stumbled, "How-? I mean, why her?"
Naruto swiped the seal tag from the table and tilted his head in question. "Why?"
"Why'd you... uhm, lover her?" she asked awkwardly. Was it really love? Or just for the kid? Maybe he and Hinata could...?
He smiled, a real one. "Oh, that's easy," he said. "It's because she looks at me like nobody else. Like nobody's ever done."
She was surprised. Sakura hadn't seen him smile so earnestly before. She smiled sadly. It seemed that Hinata had lost him to Tayuya.
Fighting it would be a losing battle.
A month had yet to pass since Naruto's return when he was already leaving again. Tsunade had initially tried to keep Tayuya from leaving with him but that was, as the redhead phrased it, out of fucking question you god damn titty granny. Only out of sheer goodwill did she not throw a paperweight at the damn brat. They said their goodbyes, Tayuya's and Hinata's strangely familiar, and were reverse summoned away to Mount Myoboku.
"Will Akari be okay?" Sakura asked as the last wisps of smoke dispersed.
"Very much so," Tsunade sighed. "Tayuya's body, despite the numerous scars she bears, is surprisingly resilient and strong. As long as she keeps breast-feeding her, Akari's body will be able to handle the sudden climate change."
"What will we do now?"
Tsunade laughed dryly. "We? We will do the same. Prepare for war against a god."
Kakashi found that training as intensely as he had back in his Genin days put a whole new level of stress on his older body. He could of course handle it, and pushed further than before, but it was an awful reminder that he had effectively been slacking for years. If not for the constant contests with Gai, he might actually have become rusty. Because Kakashi didn't remember a time when sparring with Yugao had been so horrifyingly dangerous.
Since she found out that Pain and whatever was left of the Akatsuki would be coming for Naruto sooner rather than later, she had turned to improving herself with a vengeance. Fortunately for Kakashi, that had the added effect of lots of sex after training. Training which he was forced to take a big part in. After today his hair would be two inches shorter, their latest spar had claimed another chunk of silver hair and now he'd be forced to cut the rest down to size.
But he was still a lot stronger than Yugao, especially when stamina was concerned. Her swing went wide and one of her legs, the one he might have jarred minutes beforehand, gave out. He caught her before she fell.
"Time for a break," he said simply.
Yugao just huffed into his vest, dropping her sword, fingers trembling. He helped her over to the tree line of the training ground and they sat down against a tree. "You're pushing yourself too hard," he said, pulling his mask down.
She elbowed him. She always did. "No," she said. "I never pushed enough. I'm years too late. Kushina was like a mother to me, to both of us, and I will murder whomever so much as tries to take her only child form us."
A chill crawled up his spine. The fierceness of her voice stirred something deep down in his scarred heart. "Ferocious," he remarked jokingly. "But I kind of agree."
"How long until they come back?"
"We haven't even heard from Jiraiya yet, and it's only been a month," Kakashi said, trying to calm her down.
She let her head fall against the tree. "We don't have that much time left," she said.
And she was right. Though in month that had passed Konoha had been fortified with seals, shelters, and upgraded patrol schedule, a wider perimeter for the ANBU to watch and so on, it still felt as if it wasn't enough. Not enough time.
Jiraiya had suspected that it would turn out bad. He hadn't expected to see Yahiko again. Or the animated body at least. Konan had grown into such a beautiful woman... He hated that it ended like this.
So this was how he'd die? Hm, not very gallant, beaten and bloody, missing an entire arm as he was. Ah, that was not something he'd put in his books. Not at all.
And here he thought he'd stop Pain, save Naruto from fighting this one enemy for all the others he couldn't stop. Pa was saying something, the message still burning on his skin. He tried to force the words out of his throat once more, but when the platform he'd lain on exploded into rubble, Pa was already gone and the water's cool embrace claimed him.
The end of "Jiraiya the Gallant"... like this...? Not my best work, I'd say. Dying like this, after his life- nah, tale of failure... it felt like he was leaving nothing behind at all. But Naruto... Aye, the brat was still there. And his even brattier girl. Gods, their kid would be the queen of all the brats! He would have loved to see it. Maybe it wasn't that much of a failure after all... No, not when there's someone to continue, to take his will into the future.
Well, Minato, your kid... I was glad to meet him... guide him... walk him down a path we both thought was right... Oh, Minato would have loved to meet Tayuya. Jiraiya could see how her constant cussing would drive him mad, how Kushina would fuss over the baby. Not in this life though, no... Maybe in a different one, a different story... But, looking back at it as it was, maybe, just maybe, this story wasn't so bad after all.
A different story, huh? Not bad... not bad at all... But what to call it...?
"The Tale of Naruto Uzumaki"... Yes... Just barely glorious... but... glorious... indeed...
Hundreds of miles away, on a peaceful mountain, Naruto jerked out of his meditation.
"You good?" Tayuya asked, the stick in hand and ready to beat the frog-transformation straight out of him.
"I... I don't know," he admitted. "Something just..." He blinked rapidly, tears pooling in his eyes. "Huh?"
She dropped the stick and hugged him instead. "Ma and Pa will come back," she said, holding him close. "Just you wait, alright?"
And return they did. Ma came first. She didn't say a word. Pa could barely stand on his own. They wouldn't say anything. They didn't need to. Naruto and Tayuya sat by the nature oil spring, neither moving from the other, not even when the sun set.
"I'm gonna miss that old perv," she admitted quietly.
"Yeah," Naruto said hoarsely. "I already do."
Nagato stilled for a moment as he felt his old master's heartbeat fade. He hadn't imagined he would, but he did feel pain in killing him. He chuckled hoarsely. "Oh I know pain," he muttered to himself. "More so every day. And once the world knows, truly knows pain, I will show them peace." He lifted his gaunt face to the light that fell in somewhere above in the tower. "Isn't that what you always wanted, Jiraiya?"
Konan returned to his chamber in silence, she didn't so much as spare him a glance. Nagato knew she was upset, even though she didn't show it. It was just another hurt, more pain for him to bear to world peace.
"We will move soon," he said, still gazing into the light. "The loss of Jiraiya will have weakened the nine tail's container."
"As it has weakened us?"
He turned his gaze to her, coughing dryly. Her eyes shone with tears. "Yes," he admitted, "as it has weakened us."
Yahiko, he addressed the pale light, would you cry as well...?
Tsunade spun around in her seat, her gaze finding the windowsill all by itself but... there was no one there. She swallowed dryly. No, she must have imagined. She turned back to her work. Just imagined, yes. The letter of the Raikage blurred before her eyes. Dammit! She blinked harshly against the tears pooling in her eyes. Just her imagination, and yet it felt as if her heart had been torn apart.
She pulled the sake out that night, but she didn't drink. She'd never drink again. Tsunade put a cup on the windowsill and left it there, where it would remain. She was still staring at the cup when Ma and Pa dropped by. It didn't surprise her. It didn't hurt any less.
Losing loved ones always hurt.
The assault begun without preamble. Tsunade had barely dried her tears when the west gate sounded the alarm. The emergency protocols were already in motion when Cat and Boar dropped from the ceiling at her side.
"So that's all the mourning period we get, huh?" She glanced at Cat. "Who's at the gate?"
"It seems to be pain himself," she answered. "A burly man, Rinnegan eyes."
Since Pa returned, they knew that there were at least six of them, even if they had yet to figure out Jiraiya's last message. "Who's fighting him?"
"Gai and Kakashi are at the gate," Boar reported. "No other unit has reported contact yet."
"Fine," Tsunade grunted, cracking her knuckles. "Let's get this over with. With or without Naruto, they won't have it easy with Konoha!"
She opened the window, Jiraiya's window, and filled the cup. It better not be empty when she returned.
It shouldn't have been this hard, Nagato idly noted. He lost three bodies just to get to the Hokage and then it turned out that the Kyuubi wasn't even within the village. Konan returned with the remains of the Asura Path, which Tsunade had viciously blown apart. The woman was supposed to be about as old as Jiraiya. Where did she take the strength from to decapitate the fully mechanized body? Unfortunately, they had yet to find the Naraka path, and while confined to his chair, Nagato could not summon the king of hell to restore the bodies. The Animal path had been devoured by Tsunade's summon, the acid inside instantly killing whatever was summoned, which also meant he could not assemble all the others, risking to damage more of his bodies. Working with Deva, Human and Petra would be enough for now.
He coughed, blood dribbling down his chin. In response the chair he was strapped into injected him with another dose of condensed Yang chakra. No matter how curative it was, it wouldn't keep him alive much longer. Still, the pressure on is chest eased up, if only for a moment.
"The jinchuriki is not here," he told Konan. "We will force him to come to us." Nagato ordered all of his bodies to retreat, leaving Yahiko's high in the sky above Konoha.
Konan looked at him with concern. "If you do this, your life will only fade faster."
He smiled almost ruefully at her. "Would you cry for me, dear Konan?"
"Of course I would!" she snapped back, her composure slipping.
Nagto leaned his head back, exhaling hoarsely and closing his eyes. "Then I haven't lost yet. I still remember your words, master..."
When people get hurt, they learn to hate… When people hurt others, they become hated and racked with guilt. But knowing that pain allows people to be kind. Pain allows people to grow… and how you grow is up to you...
Yahiko - the Deva Path- high up in the sky over Konoha, opened his eyes.
"Feel the pain...
Visualize the pain...
Accept the pain...
Know the pain ...
From now on...
Pain for the world..."
He spread his arms wide.
I will never forget Yahiko's pain...
"Shinra Tensei!"
When Sakura managed to pry her eyes open, everything hurt. She blinked, there was something on her face, but when she tried to move her left arm, she chocked back a scream. Her arm-! It-! She blinked hard against the tears. Okay, she needed t calm down! Biting her lips, she tuned out her probably severely mangled arm and tried to take in her surroundings.
It was dark, light filtering in somewhere above. Had she been buried? As her eyes adjusted, she took in the stone pillar that had somehow fallen right on top of her, yet only hit her left arm. Sakura didn't dare look at it, but her arm was wedged underneath the heavy stone just above her elbow. The pillar was enormous, her arm probably... gone.
She shook head. No, no this was okay. She was alive, for now. Her head hurt but she wasn't light headed, not bleeding out. She craned her head around, groaning as the motion pulled on her arm. She needed to get her arm out of there, overhead was a way out, or at least a way forward. She grimaced, putting her hand on her upper arm, softly letting some chakra run down the length of it. The damage was... bad. Not as bad as she had thought, the joint was mostly intact, but it was still bad. She bit her lip, numbing her arm with a light paralysis.
"Alright," she sighed to herself. "Better now than never..." She cocked her fist back, gathering her strength. This was going to hurt.
With as much delicacy and power as possible, she slammed her fist into the pillar. The vibration made her see stars, but the pillar broke and crumbled away and released her arm. She grimaced. Her left arm was a mess of bruises, her forearm bent and most definitely broken. Well, no external bleeding at least.
Breathing heavily, Sakura pulled herself over the remains of the pillar and climbed out of the hospital ruins. This place could very well have served as her tomb. She came across four other medics, two of them dead. Her colleagues. She shook her head. Thank the gods they had evacuated this place the moment the alarm was sounded. Sakura recognized the less destroyed parts of the building as the underground laboratories and the staircase was mostly intact.
After fifteen minuets of cruelly slow climbing and awkwardly fixing her arm, she finally reached daylight. And frozen. Everything was... gone.
"My gods," she whispered, helping a young woman out of the ruins.
All around them, every building as far as she could see had been razed. One giant crater had been left behind at the foot of the Hokage mountain, the tower, the academy and everything else was gone.
Others were crawling from the destruction. Most of them had been saved by Katsuyu. Had Lady Tsunade provided all the chakra for this? She dropped tiredly to her knees, clutching her arm. "We couldn't do it, huh?" she asked no one in particular. Her body trembled as she held back a sob. "We lost."
It shouldn't be. It shouldn't have come to this. Who had survived this? Was Ino okay? Kakashi? All the others? She was breathing heavily, fighting the tears. How had they not been enough? They got three, didn't they? Why wasn't it enough?
"Sakura!"
She recognized the voice. "Ino-!" she croaked, craning her head to the source of her voice. "You're alive!"
"We need to get away!" Ino urged, landing at her side with Choji, who looked like he had taken a sever beating, his entire face swollen.
"We- We lost," she stammered while Ino hoisted her up on her shoulder. "Konoha-! The village-"
"She's delirious," someone said. Sakura couldn't tell who.
Was she? Maybe? She felt very tired. Sad. "Where- Where's Naruto?"
She was whisked away from the crater just as a plume of smoke erupted in the center of it.
Hinata had barely oriented herself when Naruto arrived. She didn't see him, of course, given that she was behind a wall of rubble that separated her and a group of survivors from the abyss that had opened up right in the center of the village, but she could all but feel him. His chakra was brimming over the edges of the crater, as if he couldn't contain himself. She activated her Byakugan and gasped.
What in the world was that chakra! She had never seen something like this before!
"Ko!" she addressed the Hyuuga next to her, "I need to go up there!"
"Wha-! Lady Hinata!" He futile called after her but she was already halfway atop the rubble.
There, in the center of the crater, was Naruto. The month had somehow drastically changed his aura. All of his chakra was somehow writhing around, stretching and pulling at the very world around it. So much unlike Pain, the solid wall of chakra concentrate in this unnatural body. Hinata got closer, up to the edge of the crater, until she could read their lips, almost hear them. She absently noted the two frogs with the absurd amount of chakra to them that jumped off a big scroll Naruto was carrying.
"-the Sage Mode our old teacher didn't complete?" Pain asked, not a muscle in his face so much as twitching as he spoke.
Naruto scowled, the are around his eyes discolored, the pupils malformed into a rectangular shape. "You don't get to call Jiraiya your teacher!" he spat.
"This is one Jiraiya ain't got to fight," Hinata caught the green frog say, "He's an entirely different one, he is!"
Ko caught up to her, startling her for a moment and only half a second was enough for the fight to begin. She didn't manage to see it happen, she had focused on the frogs, but Naruto reduced one of the Pains into a mess of flesh on the ground, no doubt shredded to pieces by a powerful Rasengan. That was already one down. Only the bulkier one and the one the frogs had talked about remained.
Naruto briefly vanished from her field of vision, judging by the surprised gasp next to her, probably from Ko's as well, before he suddenly fell out of the sky, a Rasengan in each hand. He would have slammed directly into the burlier of the two reaming Pains, but the attack was avoided as if seen coming.
Naruto paused, scowling first at the crater he had created, then at the one Pain he hadn't attacked. "Linked vision alright," he muttered.
"Impressive," Pain responded. "But you've been too slow. My power returned." He lifted his hand and suddenly Naruto was violently pushed back and, without any means to stop himself, the second Pain caught hims easily.
Oh no! Hinata had seen this one kill several people by draining their chakra down to nothing! She needed to-!
"Oi! Hinata!"
She whirled around, deactivating her Byakugan. "Tayuya! You're here!"
The redhead scoffed. " 'course I am! Come on, get the hell out of here!" She grabbed Hinata's arm and pulled her up. "Lover boy's got it covered for now!"
"But-!" He couldn't be fine like this! He got captured just now! Hinata activated her Byakugan and saw- Huh? The body of Pain was crumbling away, leaving Naruto without the strange chakra but perfectly fine otherwise.
"No buts!" Tayuya ordered. "Move your tits or I will move them for you!"
Ko sputtered in outrage as she let herself be dragged away from the scene. She prayed that it would soon be over.
It wouldn't be.
Somehow it got worse. Something happened and Yugao couldn't tell what it was, even as the earth shook repeatedly. She was busy treating Kakashi's many wounds, his chakra exhaustion and her own bruises. They had encountered what identified himself as the Deva Path of Pain, the one to seemingly control gravity to a certain extent, or at least some kind of magnetism.
That idiot Kakashi had almost gotten himself killed in an effort to protect her after Gai had... She shook her head. She needed to focus on stopping the bleeding. The nail had torn straight through his lung so she needed to stop him from drowning in the same breath.
"Idiot," she muttered for the hundredth time under her breath, trying to uphold her mediocre medical jutsu. She couldn't tell if it actually worked, but Kakashi was breathing evenly, so at least he hadn't died yet. She'd dare him, brave and reckless idiot! "Don't you leave me, too..." she whispered.
The shelter they were hiding in was empty save for them, which was absolutely terrible, given that there should be about a hundred people who were assigned to seek protection in this shelter. It was just sad how easily they had been overpowered. Laughable even. To think Jiraiya had fought them all alone...
The ground shook violently again and the ceiling cracked ominously. If this went on for much longer, they would need to leave the shelter lest they'd be buried alive.
Neji knew that Pain was strong. That was a well established fact and the village didn't need to be flattened to prove that. And now, somehow, Naruto was matching that power. It was utterly terrifying. The viciousness in each of Naruto's strikes could have torn a man apart if the concussive shock waves were anything to go by. But he was tiring much faster than Pain. The strange chakra he used was running out very fast and soon it would be gone entirely.
He had replenished it once before, Neji had seen it. He observed at the toad elder unfurled the summoning scroll again to provide another shadow clone. Neji really hoped that he had a lot of the, otherwise this entire fight looked awfully grim. Should he interfere? He would. He was ready to go down there and help Naruto if only he wouldn't be so utterly useless in this fight. This body fighting had no real chakra network anymore, there was nothing to block. He would only be in the way.
Naruto threw one of those ridiculously huge Rasenshurikens at Pain. Moments later, the chakra left his body almost entirely. While a new crater was added to the landscape, the toad elder prepared another summoning. Only to be ripped of the ground and straight towards Pain. This wasn't good. Neji threw a kunai as hard as he could right at Pain's head but the damned bastard merely bobbed his head to avoid it. Naruto dived after the toad but he was too slow to react.
The crunch of metal through flesh and bone shattered the silence around them. Naruto could barely cry out before yet another metal rod was produced to pin him to the ground, the toad elder forgotten on the ground, dead.
Neji immediately rose to his feet but before he could jump down into the crater, someone vaulter over his head. A streak of red hair fell over his face as she almost pushed him down into the ground. That was-!
Alright, that's it! Neji immediately dashed right after her. Being in the way! Who even cared!? Naruto needed help to defeat this monster and as long he could still move, Neji'd be damned if he didn't at least try! He was a Hyuuga prodigy, not some random fuck up!
It was surprising, Nagato had to admit it. He was certain the entire village had resigned themselves to the fact that the jinchuriki would carry out this battle. Obviously that was a miscalculation. The first one to show up was a redhead, an Uzumaki perhaps? She thew an inordinate amount of paper bombs his way but he blocked them easily. The smoke subsided and- Ah. Not bad. She had used the distraction to get the boy away from him.
Immediately thereafter he was assaulted by not one, but two Hyuuga. A young man and woman, both too close to the receptors than he'd liked. Four seconds until he could push them away. It was time that wouldn't be spent with small talk, it seemed. All around him shinobi dropped into the carter and assaulted him with whatever they had at hand, from kunai to iron rods everything was thrown his way.
Two seconds. A fireball forced him and the two Hyuuga into the air.
"YOUTH!" Someone kicked him in the back, the impact almost breaking the body's spine and sent him careering into the ground. This was troublesome. Obviously both Gai and Kakashi had found their way here. He rolled out of the way of a chakra reinforced sword that had almost served his head from his shoulders. A swift kick sent the woman flying. Only a moment until-
"Back away!" he heard Hatake shout.
Hm, the man had apparently learned from their first encounter. Still, they wouldn't be fast enough.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The shock wave was marginally weaker than before and took a far greater toll on his body than Nagato had anticipated. This wasn't good.
"CHARGE!" he heard Gai yell before at least five dozen ninja released a battle cry and began their assault anew.
"Seventh Gate! The Gate of Wonder! OPEN!"
Now that was something he hadn't heard before. Nagato knew of the gates, all eight of them, but had never before actually seen someone use them. The Rinnegan caught the moment Might Gai opened the seventh with startling clarity. That was one immense power boost. Hatake was already upon him with his Raikiri and if this had been the usual standoff, that wouldn't have been a problem. However, Nagato would need a long moment of concentration to move the other paths to the Deva body, a moment he wouldn't be granted anytime soon.
This, he noted, might turn out very bad. He needed to get Yahiko's body out of there and return with all six paths separately available.
"Naruto!"
Sakura skidded to an unsteady halt right besides him. Tayuya had already removed the black rod from his hands and helped him sit up.
"Idiot," Tayuya muttered, "You blasted Sage mode far too fast." She turned to Sakura. "Hey there pinky, fix up his hands, will you?"
Sakura nodded, glancing behind her to see almost everyone still able to fight charged Pain. While she knitted the bones in Naruto's hand back together, Tayuya pulled a flute out of her tunic and started playing. She could barely hear the melody over the fighting going on but whatever it was, it seemingly put Naruto into a state of meditation. Her skin tingled as something crawled through her chakra network and towards Naruto. What in the world-?
"Shinra Tensei!"
Her eyes widened. "Oh god-!"
The explosion of force erupted behind her and she manged to shield her body with both arms. However, nothing ever reached them, no matter how hard the ground shook. Sakura pried her eyes opened and spied Hinata shielding them with a wall of spun chakra. "Hinata!" she exclaimed in relief. "You're alright!"
Hinata dropped her jutsu, smiling tiredly at her. "I was lucky," she said.
Neji arrived next. "Are you all unharmed? Good." He peered back at the fighting. "We may be able to overwhelm him, he's obviously weakened." He returned his eyes to them. "Can we-" He halted, eyes widening. "What is this?"
Sakura turned around as well and stared at Naruto in amazement. His eyes had changed color to a warm yellow, an orange tint now coloring the skin around them.
"Sage mode," Naruto said with a grin. He grasped Tayuya's hand. "Thanks for that."
Tayuya huffed and decked him with her flute. "Get yourself captured again and I'll kick your ass myself."
"Sage?" Neji parroted. "As in... Toad Sage?"
"The very same, " Tayuya said, helping Naruto to his feet. "Though if he goes all pervy on us I'll be the first one to kick his teeth in."
Naruto huffed angrily, but smiled at her still. "Come on, let's get this over with." He looked at them. "I need you guys to keep Pain here. There's someone I need to find."
Tsunade hadn't been able to rejoin the fighting after Pain unleashed his full power on the village. She had spent too much chakra on protecting as many as she could with Katsuyu and could barley even move at this point. A stream of almost constant explosions and vigorous exclamations of "YOUTH!" shook the entire area for all but fifteen minutes since she regained consciousness before everything suddenly fell silent. Nothing. No fighting, no cheering.
It made her uneasy. "Hawk," she croaked out, her throat unbearably dry. "Go! See what's going on."
"But Lady Hokage-!" He protested but Tsunade wouldn't have any of it.
"Go!" she ordered breathlessly.
He didn't move for a moment before he bowed his head and vanished in a swirl of leaves. Ten seconds later, her returned.
"It's over, Lady Tsunade," he said, kneeling down at her side. "It appears that Pain's body has stopped moving."
She relaxed with a relieved breath. "Truly? Oh, thank god... Did you see if we lost anymore people?"
He shook his head. "I saw nothing above some mild injuries. It seems that it's over for now."
Maybe it was, she thought. But that didn't make it better that they lost hundreds. She couldn't find Shizune, hadn't seen Boar since she ordered him to aid Kakashi and Gai, she imagined to have seen the lifeless body of Shikamaru somewhere in the rubble... This victory came at too high a price. She was losing consciousness again. She couldn't. Not now, not when the village needed her most-!
And just before Tsunade's eyes fell shut, a stream of green light illuminated the sky. It was strangely beautiful and, somehow, Tsunade took comfort in it. She faded into unconsciousness with a strained smile, one that would last for several weeks until she would wake up again to a world, whole once more, as if it all had been nothing but a bad dream.
The moment Naruto and Tayuya came into view, the entire village, every single soul that had been returned, broke into a thunderous cheer all around Hinata. It lasted for about four seconds before Tayuya suddenly screamed at them, "Shut the fuck up you idiots!" Almost everyone flinched back in surprise. "If you wake Akari I'll do you in again, you her me!" she hissed.
Hinata didn't know why, but Tayuya was, true to her words, carrying her daughter in a sling on her back. She didn't truly carry her all this time, right? She would never be that reckless. Hinata jogged forwards, followed by most of their friends.
Tayuya's face soured the moment Shikamaru lazily walked over to them as well. "Ugh. And I asked him to leave you out of it."
"Being dead is a drag," Shikamaru shrugged.
Hinata shook her head. "Are you okay?" she asked, nervously glancing between the three of them.
"Relax, girl," Tayuya laughed. "I sure as hell didn't have ma little girl with me."
Hinata blushed. "I- I didn't think you-!"
Naruto laughed loudly but cut himself off with an audible wince. "Ugh, right. Hole in my gut. Sakura?" he asked sheepishly. "Could you, uh, fix that?"
Sakura arched and eyebrow, which twitched at an astounding pace. Then she socked Naruto right in the face. "You idiot!" she hissed at him. "You could have taken some more people with you!"
"Yeah," Tayuya agreed, looking down at him. "She's right with that." Then she glared at Sakura. "Don't hit him again. That's my job." She kicked Naruto's head, lightly that is, for emphasis.
Lee, who was missing a huge part of his clothing around his midsection, laughed uproariously. "The flames of youth! Fan them more!"
Hinata didn't manage to smile. She had lost Lee some time after they took down the first body. He must have been almost split in half by the machinated Pain. She couldn't bear thinking about it. But it was fine now, she told herself. Over and done with.
She flinched when Tayuya pulled her into a one armed hug, Akari sitting on the other. "Don't look so down now, it'll make your tits sag. And that would make dog boy back there real sad."
Kiba coughed suspiciously, avoiding her embarrassed look.
Hinata blushed furiously. "T-Tayuya!" she exclaimed.
She just laughed in response. "Come on. I want to take a shower, a bath and get fucked. But for all that, I need at least a god damn shack. So everyone!" she shouted, facing the crowd. "Get a fucking move on! I wanna have a bed to sleep in before it's dark!"
They all looked at her with various degrees of confusion.
"Did I stutter?" she asked incredulously. "Move, you fucking apes! The village is a god damn ruin! Go rebuild it for fuck's sake! You can worship lover boy's ass after I'm done with him!"
"Yes, mam!" Lee and Gai shouted, saluting her, before sprinting at the rubble. "I'll rebuild three houses before the sun has sat or I'll have to do ten by sunrise!" No one was sure who made that pledge. Not that it mattered.
Everyone else shared an uneasy look before shrugging and getting to work. Hinata smiled, even as Akari tore a hair from her head.
"Well," Kakashi sighed, lazily leaning on Yugao to his left. "A bed would be nice, I guess."
"I call dibs on the center of the crater," Kiba claimed.
"Hey!" Ino huffed angrily. "That's were my clan lived!"
"Yeah?" Kiba questioned, smirking. "Can't say I see any evidence of that!"
"You little-!"
Hinata jumped when Naruto hugged both Tayuya and her from behind with an arm around their shoulders, ruffling his daughter's hair. He smiled widely at them. The shiner he got from Sakura was already healing at a visible pace.
"So," he began, "I guess it's time to build a house, then." He nudged Tayuya's head with his. "Where'd you want to put it?"
"Yours? In me," she said flatly. Hinata's face burned. "The house? As far from the dogs as possible." She wrinkled her nose. "I don't need to wake up to that smell."
Naruto laughed, letting go. "I guess we can do that." He wiggled his eyebrows at Tayuya. "Both."
Tayuya rolled her eyes. "Stop that, you're making Hinata faint."
She wasn't, she wanted to argue, but she did feel light headed already. So she smiled uneasily at them.
"Right, almost forgot," Tayuya suddenly said. "Hold that." She handed her Akari, who didn't complain in the slightest, before grabbing Naruto's shirt. And headbutted him. Hard."That's for almost dying on me, you fuck." Naruto winced, but smiled sheepishly at her. He opened his mouth, probably to apologize, but Tayuya kissed him before he could.
Hinata smiled still, even while it hurt seeing them. But, she noted, it wasn't the ugly kind of pain anymore. She was thankful for that. At least she wouldn't be some kind of jealous shrew. She looked down at Akari, who was silently peering up at her.
"Mommy and Daddy are weird, huh?" she silently whispered to the child.
"DA!"Akari exclaimed, giggling.
Naruto, still in a ferocious lip-lock with Tayuya, all but slingshot himself over to them, leaving Tayuya to sway surprised in her spot. "Did she just-!" He carefully took Akari from her grasp, who gurgled happily. "Say it again! Daddy!"
Akari peered up at him. I almost looked like her face was scrunched up in concentration. Then she opened her mouth and Hinata almost laughed at the sheer range of eager expectation on Naruto's face.
"MOMI!" his little daughter exclaimed.
"NOOO!" Naruto wailed, falling to his knees. The dramatic made both Hinata and Akari laugh almost uncontrollably.
Tayuya walked up from behind Naruto and decked him over the head. "I sure as hell wasn't finished with you yet," she grumbled before bowing down and taking Akari from him. "Now, love, say it. Mommy."
"MOM! MOMY!" Akari laughed happily.
"That's so unfair!" Naruto whined, still kneeling.
"S-She'll say it soon for sure," Hinata tried, hesitantly patting his head. Wow, that was like stroking silk!
Naruto's head snapped up. He gazed at her with stars ins his eyes. "Really!?"
How in the world could she say no now? "Y-Yes!"
He jumped to his feet, captured her in a hug and spun her around. "Meep!?" She managed to stay conscious for about three spins and a lot of excited laughter from everyone around them before she finally fainted.