Manicherryblossom33
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Hey, guys! I have great news! I finally finished SATs, so I now have far more free time! I swear, if I go another 2-3 weeks without posting a chapter I'll have to commit seppuku! Okay maybe I won't go THAT far, but its very irresponsible of me and must be inconvenient and dissappointing for all of you, my loyal readers! Still I am in a very good mood right now. Not only was this chapter fun and relaxing to write, but it is Monday! And while most people hate monday, I love it! Monday means putting all that energy from Sunday to good use. Monday means new episodes of Adventures Time and HIMYM. And despite the freezing, numbing wind threatening to blow my satellite dish off the roof, I got to watch christen milloti, "the mother" sing what has become my new favorite song on the ukulele.
(Still, my Wednesday will be pretty terrible, what with Kishi's cliffhanger and break this week, plus the lack of a new criminal minds episode).
Please enjoy!
Naruto fanfic A Future Without You
Chapter 25
NARUTO'S POV [AKANE VILLAGE]
Nighttime in Akane Village had left the streets deserted, so Naruto wasn't barricaded by crowds in his determination to reach Hinata as quickly as possible.
He found her at an inn room at the top floor. Even as he dashed past the front desk, everything was mellow. Normal. None of the inn workers seemed to be panicking, the way ordinary villagers did after hearing or watching ninja battles.
The words "silent kill" ran through his head as he hopped up the stairs and grabbed the edge of the wall while skipping the last step and skidding across the wooden tile floors to the third door on the right.
He threw it open, ready to call out to her, expecting horrible crushing regret to fill him as it did when he saw Kairi's corpse.
Instead he froze as a kunai grazed his cheek and a tiny, skinny girl less than half his weight* tackled him, with half of him landing out in the hall, and the other half in the room with his four limbs spread out as an after effect of his pure shock mixed with relief.
It was Hinata. She had tackled him, planted one foot on either side of him, and was sitting on his chest holding a knife to his throat, but was ALIVE. He slowly sighed in relief, but her reaction was the opposite of that.
Her multiple reactions each had short intervals. In less than three seconds she went from looking like any other ninja would if their room was broken into (on guard, threatening, territorial), to surprised, yet overjoyed, to being so embarrassed from the position they were both in that she started sweating and turned as red as a tomato before dropping the kunai to press her fists over her mouth and hopping off of him so she could run back into the room, as if it offered some kind o protection from the awkward situation.
Naruto was poker faced and also blushing, though not as badly as Hinata. Just a little red below his eyes, spanning over the bridge of his nose which could have easily been mistaken as a fever.
It really didn't help when he noticed the couple next door that had poked their heads out of the doorway to see what the commotion was about. It was then that Naruto hopped to his feet and closed the door behind him.
Looking over his shoulder at Hinata, he noticed her back was facing him as she shook from embarrassment.
"You're okay." He said, dazed and shaking himself for some odd reason as he turned around.
"What are you even doing here?" Hinata asked, sounding terrified, turning around halfway. "I don't understand."
Naruto grit his teeth and gripped her jacket in his hands, lifting it up to glare at it before tossing it on the floor.
"Mami tricked me." He cursed, looking at her wet hair. "You took a shower a few minutes ago, right? And then she snuck in and stole this. But she could have killed you so easily..."
"My jacket..." Hintata said, only noticing it now. "So that's where it went--"
"You could have died." Naruto snapped, glaring at the jacket but catching her jump out of the corner of his eye. "She could have killed you. I thought you were dead, Hinata!"
Hinata gulped and locked eyes with him, hurt but putting up an angry front.
"Why... Why are you criticizing me? You confronted Seto all on your own. You're not afraid of Mami."
"That's me!" Naruto jabbed his thumb at his chest as he cut the distance between them in half. "I'm different from you! And anyway, what the hell are you doing?! Why are you going back to them?"
Hinata narrowed her eyes, looking like she might cry.
"They're my clan. I have to--"
"No you don't!" He said, erasing the distance between them completely and shaking her shoulders. "I know! I know how it feels! They all act so superior, and they say rotten things about you, and they treat you like dirt, and they're super strong! Stronger than you! Stronger than anyone! You're an eyesore to them, so they do everything they can to beat you down until you're too weak to get back up again. But no matter how scared you are, no matter what the odds say, YOUVE GOT TO FIGHT THEM! Fight back, Hinata, please! You have to! If you don't, they'll OWN YOU! And by the time you figure it out on your own, it'll be too late..."
Naruto half slumped over, hurting from all the memories, and gasping from lack of breath. Seven months. Seven short months. He had slept through two of them. Five months. That was all the time he had had with Seto, whom he had never tried to understand or save, and Kairi, who sacrificed herself to protect everyone.
It was such a short amount of time. The memories... There weren't enough memories of either of his two dead clan members. And everything before that was just... Emptiness.
"Hanabi is my sister, Naruto..." Hinata said, sobbing into her hands. "We've never been close. But I always wanted to be! Our father and the elders pushed her so hard because I was too weak. She got the short end of the stick because of me. She used to spend every minute of her time studying or training, and now she's in charge of the Hyuga affairs so she has even less free time. She's never had a single friend. Our mother died when she was still so small, so she has close to no memories of her. I... Reached out to her before, but she always brushed me aside. When father died, it was no surprise when she exiled me. I haven't been able to do anything for you, and she says she needs me. I can finally do something for her."
Naruto's eyes shook, but he grit his teeth and yelled: "Just deal with it when we get back! After the mission, you can--"
"AND WHAT IF SHE ISNT THERE WHEN I GET BACK!?" Hinata screamed. "You can't guarantee that she will be. You never know... Especially with ninja... Just how much time you have. I don't want to be free if it means I'll be alone. I don't want to leave Hanabi alone. What's the point in wasting your life fighting with your own clan? I want good memories of Hanabi... Yes, she's been cruel to me. But I can't hate her. Or anyone else in the Hyuga clan. It would be so much easier to hate them all. But it's impossible for me..."
Naruto straightened up. What she said made sense, to his horror. Sometimes... No matter how terrible your family was to you... You couldn't hate them.
He really didn't hate any of them did he? That was why he forgave Seto, and couldn't attack Mami. He had never hated them in the first place.
But, the horror was short lived. Another second later, her words rang in his head, washing over him like clear water.
He didn't HAVE TO hate anybody. He smiled. Hinata was... A better medicine than anything Yuuki could give him.
"Well guess what?" He grinned, pointing at himself. "It doesn't matter what you say, because I'm not letting you go back! Because Granny, your hokage, said I was the captain. And I got to pick my teammates, not your Hyuga clan. And I picked YOU, so you're stuck with me!"
Hinata laughed sarcastically. "Tell me, Naruto-kun, did you pick me because you needed me, or because you thought you could trust me?"
"Both!" He decided. "And stop talking like you haven't done anything! YOU got me to trust the others! YOU pushed the group in the right direction by just doing that. Not Sasuke, or Sakura, or Kiba, you did it! If I had kept not trusting you guys, we would have all died in that guardian attack."
She looked up at him slowly, wide-and-teary eyed.
Which was when Naruto delivered a light, playful hand chop to her head, making her stare at him in confusion.
"That's a penalty for running off on your own!" Naruto declared crossing his arms. "Mami really could have killed you. Seriously, I'm pissed! But..."
Hinata blinked in confusion at Naruto, who was staring out the window, at the stars.
"... I get the whole wanting to protect your little sister thing. Kairi was like my little sister. She was sweet and cheerful, and wise, and she liked to tell me she loved me. Every day! It was kind of annoying, like I was being smothered... But it was also really nice. I never thought... I never DREAMED she could die..."
Mami said her human form was dead. That meant, whatever he found in Uzushio, whether it was Kairi or not, things would never to return to normal.
"Naruto-kun..." Hinata laid her hands over her heart and slowly looked at her feet, ashamed. "I'm sorry. You're right. I should have stayed with you until Neji's team arrived. I overreacted. I'm sorry."
Naruto sighed happily through his nose and smiled at her confidently before taking her hand and knocking their foreheads together.
"Come on." He told her. "Those guys are all kind of impatient. We better get back."
Hinata laughed, drying her eyes.
"Right...!"
Naruto jumped then, as did Hinata.
They stared in shock as black smoke rose out of Naruto's shoulder, the one that the guardian had sliced open.
He let go of her hand and pulled back his collar so that he could see his entire shoulder, and gasped.
As the black smoke rose out of his skin, the bruise was disappearing, fading away, until not a trace amount remained. *
MAMI'S POV [AKANE VILLAGE]
"This is a nice view, don't you think?" Mami asked as she and Mako spied on Hinata and Naruto.
Mako's eyes shook, red with rage. "No. I DON'T think it's NICE."
"He's quick, even when he's hurt." Mami noted. "He'd make a formidable enemy. Are you sure about this?"
Mako nodded. "I'll get the others ready. You keep trailing him."
"When you say 'get [them] ready' do you mean--"
"Yes. It's time to tell them all about Konoha's history with us. The parts that involve Kushina... And her son
*about why the bruise disappeared, it wasn't one of those "love will break the spell" things. That just sounds way too Disney for me. Not that Disney is bad. Plagiarism is bad! Censorship is bad! Wait, I'm going off topic. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah! I'll explain why the bruise disappeared next chapter. Or the one after that. Best not to force things.
I was originally going to make this chapter kind of gloomy, but decided to have things be more positive. Naruto is a shonen manga after all. Shonen heroes are usually very optimistic, which is why I read it more than I do shojo, despite most of my school freinds liking shojo more. Guess I'm an odd one! But I really liked writing this chapter, hope you guys liked reading it. See you next week!
(Still, my Wednesday will be pretty terrible, what with Kishi's cliffhanger and break this week, plus the lack of a new criminal minds episode).
Please enjoy!
Naruto fanfic A Future Without You
Chapter 25
NARUTO'S POV [AKANE VILLAGE]
Nighttime in Akane Village had left the streets deserted, so Naruto wasn't barricaded by crowds in his determination to reach Hinata as quickly as possible.
He found her at an inn room at the top floor. Even as he dashed past the front desk, everything was mellow. Normal. None of the inn workers seemed to be panicking, the way ordinary villagers did after hearing or watching ninja battles.
The words "silent kill" ran through his head as he hopped up the stairs and grabbed the edge of the wall while skipping the last step and skidding across the wooden tile floors to the third door on the right.
He threw it open, ready to call out to her, expecting horrible crushing regret to fill him as it did when he saw Kairi's corpse.
Instead he froze as a kunai grazed his cheek and a tiny, skinny girl less than half his weight* tackled him, with half of him landing out in the hall, and the other half in the room with his four limbs spread out as an after effect of his pure shock mixed with relief.
It was Hinata. She had tackled him, planted one foot on either side of him, and was sitting on his chest holding a knife to his throat, but was ALIVE. He slowly sighed in relief, but her reaction was the opposite of that.
Her multiple reactions each had short intervals. In less than three seconds she went from looking like any other ninja would if their room was broken into (on guard, threatening, territorial), to surprised, yet overjoyed, to being so embarrassed from the position they were both in that she started sweating and turned as red as a tomato before dropping the kunai to press her fists over her mouth and hopping off of him so she could run back into the room, as if it offered some kind o protection from the awkward situation.
Naruto was poker faced and also blushing, though not as badly as Hinata. Just a little red below his eyes, spanning over the bridge of his nose which could have easily been mistaken as a fever.
It really didn't help when he noticed the couple next door that had poked their heads out of the doorway to see what the commotion was about. It was then that Naruto hopped to his feet and closed the door behind him.
Looking over his shoulder at Hinata, he noticed her back was facing him as she shook from embarrassment.
"You're okay." He said, dazed and shaking himself for some odd reason as he turned around.
"What are you even doing here?" Hinata asked, sounding terrified, turning around halfway. "I don't understand."
Naruto grit his teeth and gripped her jacket in his hands, lifting it up to glare at it before tossing it on the floor.
"Mami tricked me." He cursed, looking at her wet hair. "You took a shower a few minutes ago, right? And then she snuck in and stole this. But she could have killed you so easily..."
"My jacket..." Hintata said, only noticing it now. "So that's where it went--"
"You could have died." Naruto snapped, glaring at the jacket but catching her jump out of the corner of his eye. "She could have killed you. I thought you were dead, Hinata!"
Hinata gulped and locked eyes with him, hurt but putting up an angry front.
"Why... Why are you criticizing me? You confronted Seto all on your own. You're not afraid of Mami."
"That's me!" Naruto jabbed his thumb at his chest as he cut the distance between them in half. "I'm different from you! And anyway, what the hell are you doing?! Why are you going back to them?"
Hinata narrowed her eyes, looking like she might cry.
"They're my clan. I have to--"
"No you don't!" He said, erasing the distance between them completely and shaking her shoulders. "I know! I know how it feels! They all act so superior, and they say rotten things about you, and they treat you like dirt, and they're super strong! Stronger than you! Stronger than anyone! You're an eyesore to them, so they do everything they can to beat you down until you're too weak to get back up again. But no matter how scared you are, no matter what the odds say, YOUVE GOT TO FIGHT THEM! Fight back, Hinata, please! You have to! If you don't, they'll OWN YOU! And by the time you figure it out on your own, it'll be too late..."
Naruto half slumped over, hurting from all the memories, and gasping from lack of breath. Seven months. Seven short months. He had slept through two of them. Five months. That was all the time he had had with Seto, whom he had never tried to understand or save, and Kairi, who sacrificed herself to protect everyone.
It was such a short amount of time. The memories... There weren't enough memories of either of his two dead clan members. And everything before that was just... Emptiness.
"Hanabi is my sister, Naruto..." Hinata said, sobbing into her hands. "We've never been close. But I always wanted to be! Our father and the elders pushed her so hard because I was too weak. She got the short end of the stick because of me. She used to spend every minute of her time studying or training, and now she's in charge of the Hyuga affairs so she has even less free time. She's never had a single friend. Our mother died when she was still so small, so she has close to no memories of her. I... Reached out to her before, but she always brushed me aside. When father died, it was no surprise when she exiled me. I haven't been able to do anything for you, and she says she needs me. I can finally do something for her."
Naruto's eyes shook, but he grit his teeth and yelled: "Just deal with it when we get back! After the mission, you can--"
"AND WHAT IF SHE ISNT THERE WHEN I GET BACK!?" Hinata screamed. "You can't guarantee that she will be. You never know... Especially with ninja... Just how much time you have. I don't want to be free if it means I'll be alone. I don't want to leave Hanabi alone. What's the point in wasting your life fighting with your own clan? I want good memories of Hanabi... Yes, she's been cruel to me. But I can't hate her. Or anyone else in the Hyuga clan. It would be so much easier to hate them all. But it's impossible for me..."
Naruto straightened up. What she said made sense, to his horror. Sometimes... No matter how terrible your family was to you... You couldn't hate them.
He really didn't hate any of them did he? That was why he forgave Seto, and couldn't attack Mami. He had never hated them in the first place.
But, the horror was short lived. Another second later, her words rang in his head, washing over him like clear water.
He didn't HAVE TO hate anybody. He smiled. Hinata was... A better medicine than anything Yuuki could give him.
"Well guess what?" He grinned, pointing at himself. "It doesn't matter what you say, because I'm not letting you go back! Because Granny, your hokage, said I was the captain. And I got to pick my teammates, not your Hyuga clan. And I picked YOU, so you're stuck with me!"
Hinata laughed sarcastically. "Tell me, Naruto-kun, did you pick me because you needed me, or because you thought you could trust me?"
"Both!" He decided. "And stop talking like you haven't done anything! YOU got me to trust the others! YOU pushed the group in the right direction by just doing that. Not Sasuke, or Sakura, or Kiba, you did it! If I had kept not trusting you guys, we would have all died in that guardian attack."
She looked up at him slowly, wide-and-teary eyed.
Which was when Naruto delivered a light, playful hand chop to her head, making her stare at him in confusion.
"That's a penalty for running off on your own!" Naruto declared crossing his arms. "Mami really could have killed you. Seriously, I'm pissed! But..."
Hinata blinked in confusion at Naruto, who was staring out the window, at the stars.
"... I get the whole wanting to protect your little sister thing. Kairi was like my little sister. She was sweet and cheerful, and wise, and she liked to tell me she loved me. Every day! It was kind of annoying, like I was being smothered... But it was also really nice. I never thought... I never DREAMED she could die..."
Mami said her human form was dead. That meant, whatever he found in Uzushio, whether it was Kairi or not, things would never to return to normal.
"Naruto-kun..." Hinata laid her hands over her heart and slowly looked at her feet, ashamed. "I'm sorry. You're right. I should have stayed with you until Neji's team arrived. I overreacted. I'm sorry."
Naruto sighed happily through his nose and smiled at her confidently before taking her hand and knocking their foreheads together.
"Come on." He told her. "Those guys are all kind of impatient. We better get back."
Hinata laughed, drying her eyes.
"Right...!"
Naruto jumped then, as did Hinata.
They stared in shock as black smoke rose out of Naruto's shoulder, the one that the guardian had sliced open.
He let go of her hand and pulled back his collar so that he could see his entire shoulder, and gasped.
As the black smoke rose out of his skin, the bruise was disappearing, fading away, until not a trace amount remained. *
MAMI'S POV [AKANE VILLAGE]
"This is a nice view, don't you think?" Mami asked as she and Mako spied on Hinata and Naruto.
Mako's eyes shook, red with rage. "No. I DON'T think it's NICE."
"He's quick, even when he's hurt." Mami noted. "He'd make a formidable enemy. Are you sure about this?"
Mako nodded. "I'll get the others ready. You keep trailing him."
"When you say 'get [them] ready' do you mean--"
"Yes. It's time to tell them all about Konoha's history with us. The parts that involve Kushina... And her son
*about why the bruise disappeared, it wasn't one of those "love will break the spell" things. That just sounds way too Disney for me. Not that Disney is bad. Plagiarism is bad! Censorship is bad! Wait, I'm going off topic. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah! I'll explain why the bruise disappeared next chapter. Or the one after that. Best not to force things.
I was originally going to make this chapter kind of gloomy, but decided to have things be more positive. Naruto is a shonen manga after all. Shonen heroes are usually very optimistic, which is why I read it more than I do shojo, despite most of my school freinds liking shojo more. Guess I'm an odd one! But I really liked writing this chapter, hope you guys liked reading it. See you next week!
