Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Faith of the Heart ❯ Chapter 6: Legacy of the Nii, Part 2 ( Chapter 7 )

Faith of the Heart

 

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Chapter 6: Legacy of the Nii, Part 2

 

The nearest missing-nin charged Michiko with his sword at the ready. She sidestepped to her left using her own blade to deflect her opponent's weapon. Quickly spinning around as they passed each other, Michiko's katana slashed at the missing-nin's neck. She didn't even spare her first opponent a second glance as she turned to face the remaining seven. The sound of the missing-nin's head hitting the ground followed a second later by the louder thump of his body told her all she needed to know. “Two down,” She growled at the ninja that blocked her path.

 

There were roughly one hundred fifty yards of open ground between Michiko and her destination, the Main House and her baby inside. A large koi pond dominated the garden to her right and beyond that lay the fifteen-foot high stone outer wall of the estate. A stream meandered from the pond to her left where it disappeared through an arch in a low decorative wall that separated the Main House gardens from the various Branch Family dwellings on the other side. Ten feet to her right lay the path that led to a wooden footbridge that crossed the stream before it wound it's way through the trees, statues, and other landscaping of the garden to the Main House. Behind Michiko was the Bonsai tree house, whose shadows she had just emerged from to kill the missing-nin with the sword. Between the Bonsai tree house and the clan bathhouse, which was situated just on the other side of the garden wall behind her, lay the large clan shrine that housed what the Hyuuga council called the `Eternal Flame of Our Hyuuga Forefathers.' Most everyone else just called it `that big torch thing in the shrine.'

 

The seven remaining intruders that Michiko could see between her and the house were split up in two groups, each with a Cloud jonin. The group in front of her that the missing-nin she beheaded had belonged to consisted of a short Cloud jonin who had his red hair tied up into a ponytail similar to the kind the men of the Nara clan tended to favor and a pair of missing-nins. Judging by the umbrellas strapped to their backs, both missing-nins were from Amegakure. On the other side of the stream, the other four shinobi were spread out in a skirmish line in front of the house. Michiko hazarded a guess that the three survivors of the team in front of her were headed that way to join the other team. `So two four man teams to take out security and act as a blocking force, which means that first Cloud ninja I killed was part of a third team. The other three must be in the house already. That's probably why Emi screamed.' Michiko couldn't sense or see any other intruders within the confines of the garden, and now that the alarm had been raised the intruders she could see didn't seem to be too concerned with stealth anymore. Michiko spotted a cloud of dark smoke, made visible only when the full moon appeared in a break in the clouds, rising from the opposite end of the village and could just barely make out the sounds of fighting somewhere in the same direction, `and by the looks of it another force to act as a diversion by attacking somewhere else in the village. Well, isn't this just peachy. I'm probably facing ten-to-one odds here, and what do you want to bet the few ANBU and Military Police still inside the village are all busy dealing with the diversion?'

 

One of the missing-nins interrupted Michiko's thoughts by throwing his umbrella up in the air and calling out, “Jouro Senbon!” The umbrella opened up in mid-air and began spinning, hurling out hundreds of senbon needles as it rotated. The needles changed direction in mid-air like a flock of birds evading a predator as the missing-nin began using his chakra to steer them. “She's too scared to even move,” the second missing-nin from Rain laughed, as Michiko stayed frozen in place.

 

`…three, two, one, NOW!' The impacting needles created a cloud of dust that obscured the woman with the sword from her attacker and his partners.

 

“You definitely got that bitch!” the same laughing missing-nin called out. The laugh died in his throat a second later when the cloud of dust started to dissipate. Instead of the body they'd been expecting, a wheelbarrow with so many needles embedded in it that it looked like a porcupine appeared.

 

`I am never going to complain about Kaito-san leaving his tools out ever again,' Michiko thought from where she reappeared a short distance away after her use of a well timed Kawarimi. She had wanted to avoid using chakra as much as possible in this fight, but she was pleasantly surprised by what happened when she used Kawarimi no Jutsu, which she had hoped would be relatively safe since it drew so little chakra. When she reappeared where the wheelbarrow had sat she felt a small surge of chakra throughout her body. It wasn't a painful sensation; in fact it was quit the opposite. The soreness in her muscles and all the little aches and pains she had been feeling were washed away, and her body suddenly felt energized. `Well that's a little weird, but, given the situation, I'm not about to complain,' Michiko thought to herself.

 

“Where'd she go?” the missing-nin who threw the umbrella shouted.

 

“She used a Kawarimi, you fool,” the Cloud jonin responded.

 

Michiko was debating whether or not to risk using a C-ranked jutsu to attack the three intruders when a voice called out to her from behind, “Lady Michiko! Is everything okay?”

 

When Michiko glanced behind her she spotted Hizashi's wife, Aki, and five other Hyuuga civilians running toward her. None of the new arrivals seemed to realize what they had walked in on. The three shinobi Michiko had been facing turned as they spotted their quarry standing in front of the six civilians.

 

`If I dodge or use Kawarimi again they'll hit Aki and the others when they attack,' Michiko cringed as she realized she now had to protect the civilians while fighting the intruders. `Can this get any worse?'

 

As if on queue, three Cloud shinobi exited the Main House through a side door and took off in the opposite direction of the battle. One of them, a teenaged kunoichi with short blond hair, was cradling a small bundle in her arms. “Hinata-chan,” Michiko whispered to herself as a growing feeling of terror gripped her. `What should I do?' While even non-shinobi Hyuuga received some instruction in the Gentle Fist style of taijutsu, none of the six people behind her stood a chance against trained shinobi with mid- and long-range jutsus in their arsenals. The two missing-nins would probably mow them down for fun before they tried to stop her from chasing after the ones who had Hinata. But the odds of getting Hinata back dropped significantly if the Cloud shinobi managed to get outside the walls of the village.

 

The second missing-nin from Rain made up Michiko's mind for her when he tossed his umbrella up into the air and preformed the same jutsu as the first had. “Jouro Senbon!”

 

The spinning umbrella began to release senbon needles into the air. `I'm so sorry Hinata-chan. I promise I'll rescue you soon,' Michiko thought as she made one of the most heart-wrenching decisions of her life. She stuck her sword into the ground. Her hands then blurred into motion forming hand signs at a speed none of the intruders could follow with their eyes. Michiko began to pour not only her chakra but also all the rage and other emotions she was feeling into the jutsu. `I'm going to make these bastards pay for hurting my family and taking my baby.'

 

“SUITON: DAIBAKUFU NO JUTSU!” Michiko screamed out as she activated the jutsu. The mild surge in chakra she felt earlier became a full-fledged torrent pouring itself into the jutsu. Caught by surprise, Michiko fought to control the jutsu as the water of the garden's large koi pond rose up into a massive spinning vortex that swept up the senbon needles, the umbrella, the redheaded Cloud jonin, and both Rain missing-nins before it demolished the stone outer wall and traveled out into the forest beyond. Michiko couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the results of the Daibakufu no Jutsu. While the vortex of water she had created was not significantly larger in size than normal, the sheer power and velocity of the moving water was double what she normally produced. The jutsu had blown through the ten foot thick stonewall like it was a little white picket fence. She had nearly emptied the koi pond, which was now slowly refilling as the water from the stream rushed into it.

 

`Why are they still here?' Michiko groaned when she realized Aki and the others were still standing behind her in shock. “Get out of here now! Tell everyone to go to the escape tunnels and shelters!” Michiko yelled. None of them moved.

 

The remaining Cloud jonin and missing-nins on the other side of the stream were not fools. After the power of the A-ranked jutsu Michiko had just used, they now realized they were not up against a lone chuunin, who happened to be skilled with a sword, like they had originally thought when she first appeared, but one of Konoha's formidable elite jonin or possibly even an ANBU. However, what truly scared them was the fact the woman they were facing didn't appear to be affected in the slightest by the enormous amount of chakra she'd just used. Two of the missing-nins on the other side of the stream shared a look, both had come to a similar conclusion: they needed to take her out quickly. Spotting an opportunity in the crowd of Hyuuga standing behind the woman, one of the pair lobbed a kunai with an exploding tag attached toward them. “Suiton: Suijinheki!” Michiko called out as she used one of the large puddles left by the waterspout to form a wall of water to shield herself and the civilians. The kunai exploded in the wall showering the crowd with a spray of water. The second missing-nin took advantage of the distraction and hit Michiko with a Doton jutsu that caused a shaft of rock to shoot out of the ground at her feet, causing her to be thrown against one of the stone sculptures in the garden. The sculpture broke in half from the force of the impact, but Michiko quickly got up wiping blood away from her mouth. “I SAID MOVE! DAMN IT!” she yelled at the crowd of civilians, who shaken out of their shock by Michiko's voice and the cold water they'd been sprayed with, finally began to run away. Michiko saw her sister-in-law take one last worried look at her before she ran to grab Neji and head for safety.

 

Michiko was just as amazed as her opponents by how little the Suiton: Daibukufu no Jutsu had taken out of her and how quickly she was able to get up after the impacting the statue. She had actually heard some of her own ribs break when she hit, but she could barely feel the pain at all. Then there was the massive surge of chakra she felt when she performed the Suiton: Daibukufu no Jutsu. She had counted on the jutsu taking out the first team of intruders with one shot, but she had been so surprised by its power that she barely managed to control it. Normally, she would have been worried. What she felt simply wasn't natural, but right now she was past caring. She'd worry about it after she got her daughter back. Michiko grabbed her sword out of the ground and re-sheathed it. She then got a running start and took a chakra powered leap twenty feet in the air over the stream headed straight toward the remaining Cloud jonin and missing-nins.

 

A bald headed missing-nin from Iwa threw six shuriken at the airborne Michiko only to be surprised when his target vanished in a cloud of Kawarimi smoke and a large boulder falling straight toward him appeared in her place. He tried to dodge but the rock slammed into his left arm, breaking it, before sending him tumbling head-over-heels into the stream.

 

A second later a missing-nin from Sunagakure let out a yelp as a kunai embedded in his back right where he couldn't reach it. He got up prepared to return the favor as Michiko ran past him on her way to take on one of his teammates. Before he could throw his own kunai at her however, he heard the explosive tag attached to the kunai sticking out of his back begin to sizzle. Dropping the kunai in his hand, the missing-nin tried desperately to reach the tag only to disappear in a cloud of red mist.

 

The Cloud jonin saw Michiko charging him and began making the hand signs for a raiton jutsu.

 

“Oh no you don't!” Michiko yelled as she quickly performed Suiton: Suijinheki again. This time the wall of water created a half-sphere over the Cloud jonin. Michiko allowed the wall to collapse inward, drenching the jonin just as he tried to activate his jutsu, which caused him to only succeed in electrocuting himself as the bolt of lightning he'd created arched back and forth inside the rapidly collapsing Suijinkeki. The Cloud jonin cried out in pain as his jutsu backfired before he collapsed dead in a steaming heap.

 

Michiko turned to face the last missing-nin, but stopped in her tracks when she heard a sound like a thousand chirping birds.

 

“Chidori!”

 

The missing-nin looked down and was shocked to see a hand holding a crackling ball of electricity sticking out of his chest. His eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp.

 

Kakashi pulled his arm out of the now dead missing-nin's back. “We ran into a friend of yours outside of Training Ground 8. He said you could use some help. Not that it looks like you nee…”

 

Kakashi was cut off as Michiko shoved him to the ground with one hand while drawing her sword with the other.

 

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Rin was kneeling down to checking the vital signs of one of the Hyuuga guards she found laying next to the house a short distance from Michiko and Kakashi. Unfortunately, the genin appeared to have died a short time earlier from a raiton jutsu of some description.

 

“RIN, LOOK OUT!” Kakashi yelled. Rin looked up only to see Kakashi laying on the ground and Michiko's sword flying through the air straight at her. Rin's eyes went wide in surprise. The sword was only feet away by the time she heard Kakashi's warning. She didn't even have time to duck. Her eyes closed instinctively. She heard the sickening sound of the sword hitting flesh, but she didn't felt the blade strike her, only something warm and wet hitting the side of her face and neck. Rin heard a gurgling sound and opened her eyes. She wiped her face with her hand only to discover that what she had felt hitting her was blood. Trembling Rin started to turn around toward the source of the sound. Stuck point down in the ground inches from her calf was a foot long curved knife with a leather wrapped handle. When she looked immediately behind her she saw a soaking wet bald-headed missing-nin from Iwagakure pinned by Michiko's sword through his neck to one of the wooden columns that held up the roof over the Main House's porch.

 

Rin leapt to her feet and slowly backed away from the now dead shinobi until she was standing between Michiko and her teammate.

 

“Sorry if I scared you,” Michiko said in a soft, apologetic voice that sounded out of place among the destruction and dead bodies that surrounded them.

 

“Umm, it's okay, really. Thank you for saving me,” Rin replied, her eyes still wide as saucers from the scare. It amazed, not to mention slightly freaked out, the younger kunoichi that Michiko could switch back to her normal gentle, caring persona so easily after what she'd just seen her do.

 

Michiko suddenly felt short of breath and started coughing up blood, as the pain she should have been feeling returned with a vengeance. Kakashi and Rin were forced to catch her to keep her from collapsing. However, when Rin grabbed her left arm, Michiko cried out in pain. Rin instantly let go, but, luckily, Kakashi was strong enough to hold her up by himself.

 

“You're hurt!” Rin exclaimed, as Kakashi gently lowered Michiko to the ground. She was looking at her hands and forearms, which were covered in more blood from where she tried to grab Michiko.

 

“Yeah, one of them got me with a Doton jutsu right before you showed up. I think I broke a couple of ribs on my left side, but something else strange happened during the fight. I felt this massive surge of chakra when I used that first suiton jutsu. It was like a suddenly had an endless reserve of chakra, and I felt no pain. Well, it kind of started hurting again,” Michiko said. She felt incredibly tired as her energy and chakra began to evaporate. Rin quickly started scanning her injuries with a medical jutsu.

 

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Present Day, Cave in the Land of Wind Desert

 

“That's why she died after giving birth to Hinata's sister, isn't it?” Sakura interrupted.

 

“Huh?” Kakashi replied, having been so caught up in the telling of the story that he hadn't heard her the first time.

 

“I said, `That's why Hinata's mother died after giving birth to Hanabi, isn't it?' She opened the Zero Gate.” Sakura asked again.

 

“Yes, she did,” Kakashi sadly answered.

 

“Somebody mind filling me in on what you're talking about?” Temari asked.

 

“Hinata's mother opened the Gate of Birth,” Sakura explained as she remembered what she'd learned during her medical ninja training. “As I'm sure you remember from Lee and your brother's fight during our first chuunin exams, everyone has eight limiters, or `gates,' that control the flow of chakra through their chakra system. When a woman becomes pregnant a ninth gate, called the `Gate of Birth' or the `Zero Gate,' is created. The Zero Gate regulates the flow of chakra from the mother to her unborn child. It's only a temporary gate though and disappears a week or two after giving birth. However, if you try to do something that uses too much chakra, like a chakra intensive A-ranked suiton jutsu, for example, before the Zero Gate disappears it can accidentally open.”

 

“Like the eight other gates, when you open the Zero Gate you temporarily increase the amount of chakra you have available but damage your body and chakra system in the process. Usually, it's nothing that can't be fixed if you get medical attention quickly enough, but Tsunade-sensei discovered in the course of her research last year that in some cases opening the Zero Gate damages it and causes the gate to not form correctly if the mother becomes pregnant again. In those cases the Zero Gate doesn't disappear after birth, it ruptures, causing a catastrophic deterioration of the mother's chakra system, killing the mother. The deterioration takes a few days to run its course, and it's not exactly a pleasant way to go,” Sakura finished in a quieter voice, not wanting Hinata to hear the last part from wherever she and Naruto had disappeared to farther back in the cave. It hadn't registered in Sakura's mind that the Michiko Hyuuga she had read about in Tsunade's medical study was Hinata's mother until she heard Kakashi's story.

 

“Oh,” Temari said softly. She could sympathize, as her own mother had died after giving birth to Gaara when her chakra system began to breakdown from the strain. The memory of her mother's slow agonizing death still haunted Temari to this day.

 

Kakashi decided to break the silence that followed by resuming his story, “As I was saying…”

 

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The Hyuuga Estate, the Night of December 29th, 15 Years Earlier

 

As Rin continued to work on Michiko, Hiashi, Saburou, and Hizashi, who had been returning from a mission outside the village when he ran into his brother and the young Hyuuga genin, arrived at the estate.

 

“Michiko-chan!” Hiashi said with a surprising amount of emotion for the normally stoic man. He knelt down next to his wife and took her hand in his own.

 

“Hiashi-kun, they took her! They took our baby! They took Hinata-chan!”

 

The others let out shocked gasps at the news.

 

“What? Who took her?” Hiashi quickly asked.

 

“Cloud shinobi! I went to take a shower and they snuck into the estate while I was at the bathhouse! I tried to stop them but I couldn't make it back before three of them took off with Hinata-chan! I'm so sorry Hiashi-kun! I couldn't stop them!” Michiko cried.

 

“Kakashi, you've signed your father's summoning contract with the ninja hounds haven't you?” Hiashi asked.

 

When Kakashi nodded, Hiashi said, “Good. Summon Pakkun and his brothers and take them into the nursery to see of they can get Hinata-chan and the Cloud-nins' scents.”

 

“Of course, Lord Hiashi,” Kakashi said as he walked a short distance away to summon the ninja hounds.

 

Hiashi turned to his wife who by this time was in tears. “Shhh, it's okay. We'll get her back,” Hiashi said in a calming voice. “Now tell me exactly what happened.”

 

Michiko explained to the two brothers what had happened from the moment she left the bathhouse until their arrival at the estate. As Michiko told the story, she slowly regained her composure. By the time she finished she had stopped crying, and although she was obviously still upset it was quickly being replaced with anger.

 

The head of the Hyuuga clan felt a number of emotions as he listened to the tale: fear for his daughter's safety; pride in his wife's bravery; shame that he had not been there himself to protect his family; and above all anger at those who had invaded his home, killed members of his clan, injured his wife, and taken his daughter and the one fool who had created the conditions that allowed them to succeed.

 

Just then, Haru Hyuuga, in what the official clan historian would years later call, “one of the worst cases of bad timing in the history of Konoha,” returned to the estate with the five guards that he had taken with him to go `inspect' the Hyuuga on sentry duty at the village's outer wall.

 

“My Lord, we returned as soon as we heard the compound was under attack. I'm relieved to see you are unharmed. I assure you I will punish the guards for their failure to protect the estate and the Lady Hyuuga,” Haru called out when he saw Hiashi kneeling next to his injured wife.

 

With the exception of Hiashi, who was still holding his wife's hand and looking at her face, and Michiko, who was still staring up at her husband, ever single member of the small group that had gathered around where Michiko lay turned and stared at Haru in disgust.

 

Finally, after several tense seconds, Michiko broke the silence. “Saburou-kun, would you be a dear and fetch my sword. I think I just found a new practice dummy,” She said in a sickly sweet voice with a nod toward the sword that still pinned the missing-nin to the column.

 

Saburou started to walk toward the column to do as Michiko asked. Without turning around, Hiashi reached out and grabbed the genin's arm and shook his head.

 

“Pleeeassseee, Hiashi-kun,” Michiko whined while she looked up at her husband with her best innocent `puppy dog-eyes' face. “I promise to do it out here so I won't make a mess in the house. I'll even let him keep his right arm so he can feed himself. Of course, he might have trouble going to the bathroom when I'm done, but I'm sure we can come up with a solution for that.” Michiko turned her head toward the young medical ninja treating her injuries, “Rin, sweetie, can a catheter be inserted after I cut off his…”

 

“L-l-lord Hyuuga!” Haru sputtered. “While I'm sure Lady Hyuuga is still distraught…”

 

“Silence!” Hiashi hissed as he stood and dusted of his robes with his back still to Haru. Hiashi then turned to the five guards who arrived with the Hyuuga councilman, “Riku-san, I want you, Tsubasa-san, and Yasu-san to located the other guards that were on duty tonight. Arata and Taro are dead, but Minoru and Shou are unaccounted for and may only be wounded or unconscious. If you find them alive and their condition allows them to be moved, bring them here to Rin-san and the other medical ninjas who should be on the way. Yuuta-san, the rest of the clan has been evacuated to the shelters and escape tunnels. Please find them and tell them it is safe to return.” The four Hyuuga shinobi saluted and took off to carry out Hiashi's orders.

 

Hiashi then turned to Ichirou, “Captain Ichirou, I would like to apologize on behalf of the Main Family for how you were treated tonight.” Hiashi bowed deeply to the Branch Family shinobi.

 

Both Hizashi and Ichirou were shocked at the apology. “My Lord!” Ichirou replied. “That is not necessary! I am the one who owes you and the Lady Hyuuga an apology for leaving my post!”

 

“No, Ichirou, you had no choice in the matter. Haru forced you. If you are still willing I have a couple of tasks for you,” Hiashi said.

 

When Ichirou nodded, Hiashi continued, “First, I want you to place Haru under house arrest. Consider any order he may attempt to give you null and void. I will deal with him when I finish cleaning up this mess.”

 

Haru tried to speak up, “My Lord! I...”

 

“I suggest you be quiet, Haru,” Hiashi said in a voice that left no doubt that it was really an order, not a suggestion. “The only reason I stopped the boy was because I did not want my wife to exacerbate her injuries. However, I am sorely tempted to give the Lady Hyuuga her sword back once she has recovered and lock you in a room with her as part of your punishment.”

 

Hiashi then turned back to the Hyuuga jonin and resumed talking to him as if Haru didn't exist, “Secondly, Ichirou, I want you to coordinate with the ANBU who should be arriving as soon as they finish dealing with the attack on the other side of the village. They will want to investigate what happened, give them any assistance they require. You are to report directly to the Hyuuga council, minus Haru, of course. They should be on their way back here by now.”

 

“Yes, Sir, Lord Hyuuga!” Ichirou said with a salute before Hiashi dismissed him.

 

As Ichirou was leading the deathly pale Haru home to await his punishment, Kakashi emerged from the Main House carrying an unconscious and very bloodied teenage girl.

 

“Emi!” Michiko cried out when she saw the girl. She tried to get up, but was held down by Rin and Hizashi.

 

“Don't even think of getting up! You did a hell of a lot more than break a couple of ribs. You had a broken shoulder; a bruised kidney; four broken ribs, one of which punctured a lung, by the way; a couple of nasty lacerations on your side and arm; and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what you managed to do to your chakra system. I'm not done healing you yet, and you are not going to re-injure what I have managed to fix. The only thing you are going to do is lay there and not move while I take a look at Emi, got it?” Rin ordered.

 

Michiko reluctantly nodded, so Rin turned around to where Kakashi lay the injured girl down.

 

While Rin examined Emi's injuries, Hiashi motioned for his brother and Kakashi to follow him a short distance away. Hiashi turned to Kakashi first, “Did they pick up the trail?”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“Excellent.” Hiashi then turned to face his twin brother, “Hizashi, I know things have not been well between us this past year, but I have a request I'd like to make of you, not as the Lord Hyuuga, but as your brother. I plan to leave immediately in pursuit of the kidnappers, and I want you and Kakashi-san to come with me.”

 

Hizashi looked like he was about to say something when Hiashi held up his hand to interrupt, “I know you'd prefer to wait for a squad of ANBU, but a team of three will travel faster and time is of the essence. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and if we don't hurry, Pakkun and his fellow ninja hounds could easily lose their trail.”

 

“Actually, brother, I was trying to say I'll go with you,” Hizashi said with a smirk. “But I'm going for Michiko's sake, not yours. It's the least I can do for your wife after she saved Aki-chan.”

 

Hiashi nodded; it would have to do. He then turned back to the masked teenager standing next to his brother, “Kakashi are you in?”

 

“Sure, it's what Minato-sensei would have wanted,” Kakashi said with a shrug.

 

“Good, gather whatever you need from the clan's stores. We leave in five minutes. Now, if you excuse me, I have to figure out a way to tell Michiko that she can't come with us.”

 

Kakashi gave the head of the Hyuuga clan a look of sympathy as he walked toward his wife. “There goes a brave man.”

 

“Definitely,” Hizashi agreed in a rare moment of respect for his brother. He was profoundly grateful Hiashi hadn't tried to order him to tell her. At the moment, his normally kind and sweet natured sister-in-law was quite possibly one of the scariest women he'd ever met, and Hizashi had been at the hot springs a few years earlier when Tsunade nearly beat the life out of Jiraiya after catching him peeking at her. “I just hope he thinks to take away the rest of her weapons first,” he added with a shiver when he remembered the half full equipment pouch Michiko still had attached to her belt.

 

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The next afternoon, Jiraiya was walking along one of the Land of Lightning's rain soaked roads when he looked behind him and spotted three familiar people coming toward him from the direction of Konoha.

 

“Hiashi! Hizashi! Kakashi! What's wrong?” Jiraiya yelled out as the teen and two Hyuuga brothers approached. There was little doubt in the sannin's mind that something had indeed gone horribly wrong. Two Hyuuga did not travel this far into the Land of Lightning with only a fourteen-year-old jonin for an escort without a damn good reason, especially when one of them was a Main Branch member and the head of the clan.

 

“Hinata's been kidnapped by a group of Kumo-nins. We followed them this far but lost their trail a couple of hours ago when it started raining,” Hiashi told his wife's former sensei as he tried to catch his breath after running through the night and most of that day. Hiashi then went on to explain what had happened at the Hyuuga Estate the night before.

 

Jiraiya let the information sink in for a moment. Intellectually, he knew something like this was bound to happen when the rest of the world learned of what the Kyuubi had done to his home village. Somebody had just decided to take advantage of an opportunity that seemed too good to pass up. That's all there was to it. Yes, intellectually Jiraiya knew all this. Emotionally, Jiraiya didn't give a rat's ass if the shinobi world worked that way. It meant absolutely nothing to him that Konoha was weak at the moment or that it was inevitable the news would get out. He. Simply. Did. Not. Care. Someone had seriously hurt a woman who was one of the few remaining precious people in the sannin's life and then made off with her infant daughter. To put it mildly, the infamous Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin was PISSED.

 

“Follow me,” Jiraiya said.

 

From the tone of his voice, it was clear to the others that a lot of people in the Land of Lightning were about to have a very long and uncomfortable night.

 

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Yuudai Nii started to relax for the first time in days when he saw the small abandoned mining village come into view a few miles after they crossed the Land of Lightning/Land of Fire border. Yuudai's main concern during their escape from Konoha was the possibility of running into a squad of Leaf ninjas inside the borders of the Land Fire. He seriously doubted the Leaf had the resources to send out a rescue team thanks to the losses they had suffered when the Kyuubi attacked, but you never could predict what lengths a hidden village would go to in order to keep a weapon as powerful as the Byakugan out of the hands of other villages. However, the Cloud jonin thought it unlikely that Konoha would risk following them this far past the border even if they had been able to put together a rescue team. The Leaf weren't exactly in any position to start a war, unlike the Raikage, who would be certain to take advantage of the situation if given an excuse.

 

While the raid hadn't exactly gone as planned leading to the lose of three of his cousins, nearly a quarter of what was left of the once mighty Nii clan, Yuudai could at least report that they accomplished the main goal of the mission by acquiring the infant Hyuuga girl, and with her the Byakugan. That crazy kinoichi at the Hyuuga estate and the Leaf ninjas who fell for the diversionary attack had even managed to save a great deal of what little money the Nii had left by whittling down the ranks of the missing-nins they'd hired for the raid. Only fifteen of the sixty missing-nins in the diversionary force survived, but that was expected as the diversionary force consisted of the cheapest, and therefore least effective, missing-nins they could hire. They had been mere cannon fodder intended to draw Konoha's defenders away from the Hyuuga estate by their sheer numbers alone. The six that died at the Hyuuga estate had been a surprise though. All six had achieved the rank of jonin before abandoning their home villages and were the veterans of years working as missing-nins for hire, or independent shinobi contractors as some of the six liked to call themselves. Never the less, the only real loss caused by their deaths was the half of their payment they had insisted on receiving before the start of the mission.

 

Yuudai spared a glance back at his fifteen-year-old niece, Satomi, who was carrying the infant Hyuuga. He secretly hoped his father, the head of the clan, would agree to place the infant in his brother's care. Satomi seemed to have taken a liking to the baby, and it was the first time since the deaths of her mother and older sister, Yugito, that Yuudai had seen the teen smile. He hadn't exactly been thrilled with the idea of kidnapping a newborn baby when he first heard of the plan, but it had become a matter of survival for his clan. The Nii would likely never be able to rebuild if they loss the Nibi. Still, He hadn't completely abandoned his sense of morality when he agreed to lead the mission, since he did feel guilty about taking the Hyuuga child away from her parents. Yuudai had been a father too before both his sons died fighting the Mist. He knew the pain of losing a child all too well. `The girl's parents are shinobi, merely tools to be used by those who hired them. Even if we hadn't taken her, she would have become a shinobi. Better she grow up as a tool for the use of the Cloud than a weapon that could be used against us,' Yuudai thought as he tried to justify his actions. He wasn't comfortable with what they'd done, but at least the girl would be raised in a loving family. She would be their savior after all.

 

It would take the better part of twelve hours to seal the Nibi within the infant, and then they could begin their journey back to Kumogakure to present the newest member of the Nii clan to the Raikage.

 

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Two cloaked men stood with Jiraiya and Kakashi in the darkness of an alley in a small village sixty miles inside the Land of Lightning. All four of them were staring across the street at a run down bar. They'd spent the better part of six hours chasing down one of Jiraiya's sources that might have information on Hinata's whereabouts, and the trail had led them here.

 

“It's best if no one sees you yet. Stay here with the brat and I'll bring my source out to talk to you,” Jiraiya told the cloaked brothers.

 

Both of the Hyuuga males nodded their understanding as they were fully aware of how big a risk they were taking just by being there. The Raikage had been trying to obtain the Byakugan for nearly a decade, and any Hyuuga who set foot in the Land of Lightning was in danger of being captured and turned over to the Raikage in return for the bounty on the Hyuuga clan's kekkei genkai.

 

“Are you sure you don't want me to go inside with you?” Kakashi asked.

 

“I'm sure. My source is kind of skittish. We're more likely to get information out of him if I talk to him alone first. Besides, kid, you're only fourteen and it's a bar,” Jiraiya answered with a chuckle as he started to walk out of the alley toward the bar. “You'll draw to much attention, even if you use a henge. Trust me, no one is better at spotting a henge than a bartender in a shinobi nation. Kami knows how many times I got busted by sharp-eyed barkeeps when I was a teenager.”

 

Twenty minutes later, Hiashi and Hizashi were beginning to worry about what was taking Jiraiya so long. Hiashi was about to activate his Byakugan to check on the sannin when a man came flying through the plate glass window of the bar and landed in a heap in the middle of the street. A moment later Jiraiya stepped through the now empty window frame, walked up to where the man lay, grabbed him by the neck, and dragged him unceremoniously into the alley were the two Hyuuga brothers and Kakashi were concealed.

 

“Let me rephrase what I said since you obviously didn't hear me the first time, Kyou. You see the very angry gentlemen standing next to me?” Jiraiya said in a voice that dripped with barely concealed rage as he held the man off the ground with one arm. The quivering Cloud chuunin nodded when Hiashi stepped forward. “He has some questions he'd like answered, and since I know you're the head grape on the Kumo grapevine, I told him you'd be the perfect man to talk to.”

 

“No way!” Kyou responded. “Some things just aren't worth the money! Do you have any idea what will happen to me if the people you're looking for find out I talked?”

 

“So you do know who we're looking for,” Kakashi noted from behind Jiraiya.

 

Kyou instantly clammed up when he realized he had given away more information than he'd intended.

 

“Kid, you may be a good fighter, but you've still got a lot to learn about information gathering,” Jiraiya sighed as he glanced back at Kakashi. “I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way. Well, the hard way for Kyou here, anyway. I won't feel a thing.”

 

Jiraiya formed a rasengan in his free hand. He slowly moved the spinning sphere of pure chakra to within two inches of the man's crotch. Kyou started sweating like mad and his eyes opened so wide, Kakashi wouldn't have been surprised if his eyeballs fell out on their own. “Impressive isn't it. The Fourth Hokage invented this jutsu himself. You should see what this thing does to flesh. I remember this one Rock jonin the Yondaime used it on back during our war with Iwagakure. Damn, that left a mess. You remember that, don't you Hizashi?”

 

The other Hyuuga brother, who had been leaning against the opposite wall of the alley with his arms crossed chuckled. “Yeah, all we ever found were his toes. I'll tell you what though, he sure did scream loud enough before he died.”

 

“Tell me about it, I couldn't hear out of my left ear for days,” Jiraiya laughed like they were reminiscing about a practical joke they'd once pulled on someone.

 

The sannin turned his attention back to Kyou. “Now, where were we before my young friend interrupted? Oh yeah, that's right. You were saying something about some things not being worth the trouble, weren't you?” Jiraiya asked in a friendly voice while wearing a sadistic smile that promised pain and misery.

 

While Jiraiya had been talking, Kyou had been trying to pull his entire body up into his shirt collar to get away from the rasengan. He was almost ready to crack. Jiraiya decided to give the subtle push needed to send the whimpering chuunin over the edge.

 

“You know, Kyou, it's been a long night, and I'm not as young as I use to be. My old arm could get tired at any moment and just drop you,” Jiraiya said as he ever so slightly made the arm he was using to hold the Cloud chuunin up tremble.

 

Whatever resolve Kyou had left crumbled to nothingness in an instant. “PLEASE NO! I'LL TALK! IT WAS THE NII! OKAY! THE NII CLAN! I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT THEM! JUST GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!”

 

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“I still say it wasn't a good idea to let that Kyou guy go,” Kakashi said as the group speed over the rocky terrain of the Lightning Mountains. “For all we know he could have gone to someone in the Nii clan and warned them we were looking for information on who kidnapped Hinata.”

 

“Kakashi, the only place Kyou went after we got through with him was home to change his underwear,” Jiraiya replied. He paused for a moment before deciding the teen needed a lesson on the finer points of intelligence gathering instead of being told to keep his trap shut. “Here's a question for you: what would have happened the next time I came looking for information in that village if word got out that I killed Kyou after he gave me what I wanted?”

 

Kakashi thought about it for a moment before it hit him. “Whoever you talked to would be less likely to tell you anything because they'd believe you would kill them anyway.”

 

“Exactly! See you learned something important tonight, didn't you? When it comes to gathering intelligence, it's important to establish and maintain a good reputation among your potential sources,” Jiraiya said as he bounded from boulder to boulder. “Kyou not only didn't give me what I wanted after I asked nicely, but he was rude about it, so I smacked him around a bit. When he told me what I wanted, I sent him on his merry way with a big wad of cash in his pocket. Hell, I even paid for the window I broke. People remember stuff like that.”

 

Kakashi was silent as he mulled over what he'd been told. Jiraiya generally didn't care for `geniuses,' but that Obito kid had been a good influence on Kakashi. Kakashi still had his arrogant moments, but he seemed to have learned what was really important about being a ninja, namely teamwork and having a good moral compass. The Toad Hermit looked ahead to the two Hyuuga brothers. As a teenager, Hiashi had been much like Kakashi had been before Obito's death. Hiashi had the same stick-up-his-ass attitude, the same strict adherence to the rules, and the same superiority complex. On top of it all, Hiashi had had a lot of suppressed emotion that was just begging for an outlet. It was a common problem among the Hyuuga. They focused too much on being a `proper Hyuuga' who was always calm, collected, and in control. It was a wonderful ideal on paper, but in reality it had created a clan culture that frowned on any display of emotion. That wasn't a healthy way to live in Jiraiya's opinion. All that bottled up emotion was bound to fester until it found an outlet, usually in an unexpected and destructive way. It was one of the reasons he disliked the majority of the Hyuuga clan. Trying to pretend they didn't have the same emotions as normal people had turned the lot of them into a group of passive-aggressive, arrogant bastards.

 

He was just glad Michiko seemed to have been able to turn Hiashi around. No one knew how she managed it, but after the couple started dating Hiashi had become almost easy going, in a stiff, Hyuuga sort of way. Jiraiya's own theory was Hiashi had just needed to get laid. The sannin had wisely decided to keep that thought to himself.

 

Despite his initial misgivings, Jiraiya grew to respect Hiashi. After he became head of the clan, Michiko had confided in her former sensei that Hiashi, who was her fiancée at the time, was secretly making plans for the eventual reform some of the clan's more barbaric traditions. Jiraiya wished him luck, but wasn't optimistic about his chances. Changing clan law required the approval of the Hyuuga council. At least, Hiashi seemed motivated enough to try though. He desperately wanted to avoid his and Michiko's children facing the same fate as he and his twin brother. Hiashi being chosen as the heir while Hizashi was banished to the Branch Family had destroyed the brothers' relationship. Like many twins they had been inseparable as children, but once Hizashi received the seal he had become cold and distance toward his brother. It had only gotten worse when Neji was born. It was one thing to endure an injustice against yourself with dignity, but something else entirely when you knew your child would one day have to do the same. As a result, Hizashi had become increasingly hostile toward Hiashi. Michiko had been working with Hizashi's wife, Aki, to encourage the brothers to reconcile their differences. The two women had not had much luck so far, but Jiraiya had faith in his former student. Michiko had a natural talent for worming her way into people's hearts and getting even the most unreasonable person to calm down and think things through. Even the normally belligerent Gamabunta had a soft spot for Michiko and was surprisingly friendly toward her. When Hiashi and Michiko got married, the chief toad had actually been disappointed when he discovered there wasn't enough room at the Hyuuga estate shrine for him to attend the ceremony. Instead he settled on sending her a bottle of his best sake as a wedding gift.

 

`That was one big ass bottle, too. The damn thing literally weighed two tons. It ended up providing drinks for the entire wedding reception, and even then we still only used about a quarter of it, despite the best efforts of Tsunade and me. Hey, wait a minute! Now that I think about it, Gamabunta likes all my students more than me! Who does that fat ass think he is, anyway! It's my name on the damn contract, not theirs! Okay, Minato's name is on there too, but that's beside the point! Next time I go somewhere truly nasty, I'll make sure to summon him! That'll show him! Hehe, maybe the ocean, since frogs hate saltwater, or better yet the Land of Snow! He bitches like an old woman when it's cold,' Jiraiya ranted inside his head, completely forgetting that the last time he summoned the chief toad to somewhere he didn't want to be without a good reason, Gamabunta had threatened to sit on him if he did so again, summoning contract or no summoning contract.

 

“I can see the village less than a half mile ahead,” Hiashi whispered after deactivating his Byakugan and dropping back in the formation next to Jiraiya. Hizashi took his brother's position on point. “We're not close enough to make out anything speci…”

 

“Kami!” Hizashi's cry of pain cut off his brother in mid-sentence.

 

When the three trailing shinobi reached him, the younger of the Hyuuga siblings was rolling on the ground with his hands covering his eyes. They didn't have to guess what caused Hizashi to collapse. Ahead of them, purple light had suddenly started to pour out of the windows of a large building in the center of the small mountainside village. They could literally feel the force of the massive amount of chakra being released pressing down on them. The Leaf shinobi instantly knew what the strange chakra was, having felt a similar chakra slightly less than three months earlier.

 

“Hiashi wait up,” Jiraiya yelled out as the elder Hyuuga brother took off like a shot toward the village, not waiting for the others.

 

“Kakashi, stick with Hizashi and follow us as soon as you can,” Jiraiya tersely ordered as he took off after Hiashi.

 

Hiashi had a good hundred yard head start on Jiraiya as they sprinted toward the village. Jiraiya knew he was faster in terms of sheer speed, but in the darkness the Byakugan gave the younger man an edge by allowing him to fearlessly run all out while the sannin had to be more careful. By the time Hiashi reached the edge of the village his lead had increased to two hundred yards. Three missing-nins appeared in his path as he neared the first pair of one-story houses that lined one of the village's two roads. Hiashi barely slowed down long enough to kill the chuunin with lightning fast juken jabs to their hearts before resuming his charge toward the village meeting hall where the purple light was still visible. However, once Jiraiya left the rocky terrain and reached the village road he was quickly able to close the distance between himself and Hiashi. Hiashi came to a dead stop as five more missing-nins converged on him. Knowing what was coming, Jiraiya stopped short of Hiashi's position.

 

“Kaitan!” Hiashi roared as he spun while releasing chakra from all his chakra points. The five missing-nins went flying back into the darkness. Jiraiya could make out two of the five slowly getting up and could sense others closing in from farther away. Hiashi had been in a hurry and hadn't waited for all of them to get withing the lethal radius of the technique. He once again took off as Jiraiya prepared to finish off the two survivor and their approaching comrads so he and Hiashi wouldn't get jumped from behind.

 

“Go! Go! Go! We'll handle the ones out here! Help my brother!” Hizashi, who had recovered from his momentary blindness, shouted as he and Kakashi caught up.

 

Jiraiya caught up to Hiashi outside the twelve-foot tall oak and iron double doors of the village meeting hall. Both men slammed into the doors at full speed, blowing them off their hinges.

 

The purple light quickly receded as they entered. The hall was thirty feet wide and nearly a hundred feet long. In the middle of the hall stood a ten-foot tall black marble statue of a big cat with two tails and fur that looked almost as if it were made of fire, which look eerily alive in the flickering light of the candles that provided the only illumination in the room. Nine shadowy figures stood around a table directly in front of the statue, and on that table sat a basket holding Hiashi's crying daughter. A glowing purple seal still visible on her belly.

 

A teenaged girl with short blond hair emerged from the shadows to try and scoop up the basket but was stopped dead in her tracks when a kunai thrown by Hiashi struck her dead center between the eyes.

 

“SATOMI! NOOOO!” a blond headed man yelled before quickly making the hand signs for a jutsu. “Raiton: Ryuka no Jutsu!” A dragon made of crackling electricity tore through the air toward Hiashi.

 

“Kaiten!” Hiashi yelled in response. The dragon was deflected by the absolute defense and slammed into an older gray-headed Cloud-nin with a beard, instead.

 

Jiraiya formed a rasengan in each hand and hit two Nii jonin sending one spinning through the air before slamming into the statue while the second knocked over a small group of Nii who were rushing toward the two Leaf shinobi.

 

Hiashi grabbed the basket off the table and ran for the doors with Jiraiya following, dodging a raiton jutsu in the process. The five Nii who were still able to stand chased after them.

 

“Kakashi, Hizashi! Let's get out of here!” Jiraiya yelled when they got out into the open. They were almost to the edge of the village before the pair joined up with Jiraiya and Hiashi. Once outside the village Jiraiya skidded to a stop and turned to face the five Cloud-nins and five missing-nins who pursued them.

 

The sannin bit his thumb and slammed his hand into the ground, “Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”

 

The ten shinobi chasing them stopped as a massive cloud of smoke blocked their path.

 

“JIRAIYA, YOU BETTER HAVE A DAMN GOOD REASON FOR SUMMONING ME TO A FREEZING COLD MOUNTAINSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!” A booming voice echoed through the surrounding peaks.

 

Gamabunta stared down at the small group of ninja a few hundred feet in front of him. “DON'T TELL ME YOU COULDN'T HANDLE THESE WEAKLINGS BY YOURSELF, HA HA HA,” the three hundred foot tall toad laughed out loud.

 

“Oh, I can handle them, but I thought you might like a piece of the guys that injured Michiko and kidnapped her baby,” Jiraiya said from on top of Gamabunta's head, causing a near instant change in the boss summon's attitude.

 

“OH REALLY, THESE LITTLE PISSANTS HURT MICHIKO-CHAN, DID THEY?” Gamabunta asked as he blew a puff of smoke right at the Nii and missing-nins, who by this time were frantically looking for an escape route leading away from the gigantic toad summon.

 

“Yup, we just rescued her baby from them,” Jiraiya answered. “Mind giving me some oil?”

 

“GLADLY,” Gamabunta responded before spitting out a massive stream of oil.

 

“Katon: Gamayu Endan!” Jiraiya called out as he ignited the stream. The flaming liquid mass washed over the village incinerating everything in its path.

 

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Present Time, Cave in the Land of Wind Desert

 

“So that's what happened,” Kakashi said. “Before we got back to Konoha, Jiraiya added a second seal over the one the Nii made to force the Nibi into a dormant state and make it impossible for the rest of the Hyuuga clan to detect it with the Byakugan. Hiashi and Michiko wanted Hinata to have as normal a life as possible, and after the way Naruto was treated they decided it was best to keep it a secret even from Hinata.”

 

“But how did she find out about it then, and why can she use the Nibi's chakra now?” Sakura asked.

 

“You'll have to ask Naruto or Hinata that if you want to know that. I was away from the village on a mission when it happened, and only know bits and pieces of the story,” Kakashi answered. “Besides, the sand storm sounds like is dying down, and we need to get moving if we want to make it to Sunagakure before sundown.”

 

End of Chapter 6