Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Lacking Sight ❯ Worthy ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

She walked the line between wakefulness and sleep for a long time, her thoughts and dreams so scattered as to shape her world into a semblance of the apocalypse. It was temporary, however, and soon she was crossing the line into consciousness, piecing together the thoughts that had been sent akimbo in her battered head. In a few moments, those thoughts took on coherence, and she remembered that she was Hyuuga Haruka, an independent Branch House member, and that she had been about to send a report to her long-time friend and Clan Head, Hiashi. Feeling the throbbing in her forehead, she remembered that she'd had an accident on her way home.
One important piece of information was still missing, however. Was she still where she had fallen, or had she been moved? Gritting her teeth against the pain, she opened her eyes to find out.
Her eyes widened as she found herself staring into a foxlike face, whose most prominent features were the whisker-shaped birthmarks, the brilliance of its blue eyes, and the overbearing energy of the smile it was wearing. That grin only widened when the owner of the face saw that Haruka was awake. He turned his head and half-shouted over his shoulder.
“Oi, Ero-Sennin, she's awake!”
Haruka moved to sit up, and the boy–who she now recognized as Uzumaki Naruto, jailer of Kyuubi–rose to his feet as he was joined by the third occupant of the room, who she immediately saw was the legendary Jiraiya. Her face concealed the surprise that she felt at waking up under the watch of these two. How had she ended up in the hotel room of the ninja she had been stalking all week?
She didn't have to wait long for her answer, as the Uzumaki boy had opened his mouth again. “Nee-chan, are you okay? Ero-Sennin found us after we hit each other on the fence. I'm pretty hard-headed,” he said, rapping his own head in demonstration, “But I don't know you. Does it hurt a lot?” As he spoke, Haruka could see his apology; it was blatantly obvious in his body language. He seemed to deeply regret what his thick skulled-ness had inflicted.
Haruka had, of course, been observing him since he'd arrived, but during that time she had seen only his determination for getting stronger, and his rage at his master's folly. Now, away from the rocky outcropping that he'd adopted for a training field, she was seeing another aspect of the annoyingly loud, dangerously powerful teenager. Was I unconscious a long time, to make him this worried, or is he naturally this considerate? If the latter were true, she may have needed to re-evaluate his level of threat to Konoha. However, even if he didn't want to destroy the village, he still had, as she had heard, openly vowed to “change Hyuuga,” so she decided to reserve her judgment on Naruto for now. Her friend Hiashi might still have a problem on his hands.
Even so, she tucked this display of kindness into her memory. She'd definitely take it into consideration later.
Before Haruka could answer the boy's questions, though, Jiraiya had asked his own. “It took me a while to recognize you, injured as I am, but now I'm positive. You're the Hyuuga that I've seen flickering around after us all week, am I mistaken?” The Toad Sennin's face was uncharacteristically neutral, though his tone carried a seriousness that to Haruka implied, Don't lie to me. I know ninjutsu. And I mean really know it.
Shifting her gaze from Jiraiya's detached mien to Naruto's suddenly curious one, she saw that she was left with little choice. Neither of them would like the truth, that was for sure, but she could potentially be in more trouble here if one of the Sennin guessed that she was lying. All Haruka could hope for, really, was that these two shared their companion's high regard for honest people.
She proceeded to tell them everything that she knew of the situation: Her reaction to their arrival, the manner in which she had informed Hiashi; her concern at Naruto's frequent displays of demon power and the potential threat that she saw in him; Hiashi's concern–maybe fear?–about Keisuke of the Grave and the all-too-familiar power that he had obtained, and how Haruka had accepted his request to test him. She told them everything up until the point where her memory ended in the painful state that Jiraiya had found them in.
Both men listened intently to the tale. When it ended, Jiraiya gave a small nod and a grunt, showing that he had believed the story. Naruto, however, still had questions.
“But, Haruka nee-chan,” Haruka was at a loss at this, since nobody had ever called her “sister,” “Why would your Clan Head be afraid of Keisuke's Rokujuuyon Reiude? I've never heard of it doing anything really destructive...”
Haruka was slightly taken aback. Has the Uzumaki boy been taught nothing of his father's past? Nonetheless, she did not hesitate in her answer.
“The power that Keisuke-san names the Sixty-Four Ghostly Arms is the power that, guided by a very skilled ninja, almost forced an end to the current Hyuuga Clan system of Main and Branch Houses. Hiashi probably thinks that if Keisuke-san gained the same mastery of it as that ninja did, then he would have both the means and the motivation to finish the job. Hiashi is a long-time friend of mine, so I'm trying to do him a favor by keeping an eye or two on him, and on you.”
Naruto frowned. “Okay, I understand that,” he said, “But you're a Branch House member, right? Why would you be friends with the man who let that ugly seal get put on your forehead?”
“Hiashi wasn't Clan Head when I received the seal,” Haruka replied, “So my 'curse' isn't really his fault. If it helps you to hear against the Main House, my parents didn't like the system much. They took me out of the village, and we all became independents–completely free of all clan binds except the Caged Bird Seal, which was there to prevent the Byakugan from falling into the hands of our enemies. I don't dabble in clan politics much; the rift between the houses doesn't concern me.”
The blond demon vessel pondered a moment, and then voiced what seemed to be his final opinion.
“I like your parents,” he said, “Anyone that doesn't like the way the Hyuuga Clan runs is someone I can relate to.” His foxy smile then lit up his face. “I think I like you, too, nee-chan. You don't hate the clan system, but you don't really support it either, so you're okay. And your eyes aren't cold like most peoples.' Reminds me of some friends back home...”
At this last remark, Haruka was once again surprised. Eyes aren't cold... It was then that she realized just what kind of person that Uzumaki Naruto was. The boy could have easily taken the hateful looks of the villagers around him and used them to fuel a demonic fury, destroying potentially half his home, and yet here he was, completely trusting a complete stranger who was a member, however detached, of a ninja clan that he apparently despised. Hell, he even likened her to “some friends back home...”
Struck by a sudden curiosity, Haruka asked, “Naruto-kun, you have befriended Hyuuga before?”
Naruto broke out of his reverie with his grin plastered on his face. “Yep. Much as I don't like most of them, there are a few of them who aren't that bad.”
He looked out of the hotel window, into the light of the crescent moon. “I wonder how they are... Neji... Hinata...”
OoOoOoOoOoO
For somewhere on the order of five hours, the two Hyuuga cousins had been trading blow after blow after blow. It was only practice, so the open-palm Jyuuken strikes had no force behind them, yet after fifty or so practice matches, both combatants were as winded and as bruised as though they had just come out of a particularly unruly moshpit. The sun-parched earth beneath them was stained with sweat and scuffed up by two pairs of feet repeatedly scrambling to gain or maintain balance. The setting sun glinted on their plated headbands as they fought to catch their breath, having just finished an unbelievably close sparring match.
Normally, Hyuuga Neji was nonplussed by this level of grueling activity. His teammate, Rock Lee, had a sort of neurotic obsession with intense physical strain, and made a point of dragging him out to their practice field for long sparring sessions, particularly when it was least convenient to him. As a result, extreme physical activity had long ceased to bother Neji, and after a while, he had begun to appreciate its value, his stamina having increased considerably. Since his promotion to Chuunin rank, Neji had been forced to endure many challenging missions in rapid succession, and without Lee forcing him to work at his level, he might have exhausted himself already.
When he was by himself, making use of one of his scarce resting periods, Neji contemplated the irony in this. Before his first failed Chuunin examination, Neji had regarded Lee as a hyperactive, talentless fool, who was doomed to a fate of inferiority. Indeed, he had labeled quite a lot of people that way, his cousin Hinata included. Back then, strength and weakness, and the unbridgeable gap between them, was all he had been able to see.
Then Neji had met Uzumaki Naruto, and had his blind arrogance handed to him on a silver platter. For the village fool to defeat the number one strongest gennin, the prodigy of the Hyuuga Clan... Unthinkable by Neji's old standards, and yet it had happened.
On that day, his outlook on life, as well as his comrades, had begun to change. Rock Lee, youth-obsessed psychotic though he was, was a dependable and loyal teammate. Uzumaki Naruto, although loud and thick-headed, was a capable fighter and a fierce protector of those who didn't deserve harm.
And his own cousin, Hyuuga Hinata, despite her timidness, was one of the most determined people he had ever known. Though she had lost thirty-nine of the fifty practice matches they had fought that afternoon and both of them were nearly dead on their feet, she had refused all of his beseeching to call it a day and go home. The old Hyuuga Neji might have called it foolishness...
Except that she had still won eleven matches. Considering that she had never beaten him even in practice in all his fourteen years of knowing her, and that she had actually mustered the nerve to ask Neji to practice, it seemed that the Hinata that Neji knew was no more. She had improved beyond recognition and become something new. Something with a purpose. Something strong.
After a few minutes, Neji had recovered enough to turn and start walking home. But before he had gone three paces, his cousin's normally forceless voice halted him.
“Wait, Neji nii-san!”
Though he would liked to have done something very un-Neji-like and fall over in exasperation, he made the effort to turn and walk back. Though Hinata was quite obviously tapped out, she had returned, albeit shakily, to her ready stance.
Her eyes were both determined and pleading as she said, “One more. Please, Neji nii-san. One more, and then we'll go home.” For a long moment, Neji stared at her. Then, with one of his rare smiles on his face, he also sank back into his stance.
“As you wish, Hinata-sama. I will fight one more.” And I thought only that idiot Lee could force me to this, he thought. To convince me so easily, and with this new strength...
When the sun had set and Hinata's eleven wins had become twelve, Neji was ready to believe that perhaps there was a reason why she had been born the heir to the Hyuuga.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
A sudden tumult of shouting and explosions drew Naruto and his companions out of the hotel and into the night which, only moments ago, had been dark and peaceful. While they had been talking, it had transformed into a nightmare. Shop windows were being smashed in, valuables were being looted, people were screaming into the streets from their burning homes, and animate corpses flitted through the night.
Or at least, they looked like corpses. Taking a better look at one of them in the process of making off with a baker's early morning product, Naruto could see that they were really just men wearing cerements and smothered in dirt. They sure looked ghastly, but these were really just a bunch of freaks.
“They aren't shinobi,” Jiraiya observed, tripping one of them and stepping on him for emphasis.
“Yeah, just a bunch of bastards in Halloween costumes, trying to scare people away from their stuff so they can make off with it!” Naruto added, smashing another into the fence as he passed.
Haruka's Byakugan was active, looking through the turmoil. “But there's a lot of them. And they've spread through half of the village already.”
“Eh?” Naruto asked, “But shouldn't the village guard have been able to handle a bunch of freaks like these?” He grabbed one of them by the scruff of the neck and kicked him into a wall to punctuate his question.
“They've pinned down the village guard in their bunker.”
“Well, that's not... Oi! Keisuke!”
Naruto had spotted his blind “brother” on a rooftop, squaring off against one of the brigands. Not hesitating, he leaped up towards them, Haruka and then Jiraiya following. On closer inspection, this particular pilferer was many times larger than any of his brethren, and possessed a height advantage of about two feet over Keisuke. And, unlike his fellows, he wore a set of armor made of bone chains. Immediately after they reached the rooftop, Keisuke felt them there and held out his arm in a halting gesture.
“Don't approach him!” Keisuke called, straining to be heard over the pandemonium below. “This one is a missing nin, and a juggernaut at that!”
As if on cue, the monstrous man swung a bone-adorned club at Keisuke's head. With a grunt, Keisuke dug in his heels and stopped it with both hands.
Naruto did not retreat. “What the hell kinda missing nin tries to fit himself into a little kid's Halloween costume!”
“You be quiet, damned kid,” snapped the victim of the verbal jab, “Unless you want to be dead.”
“I know this man,” Haruka interjected. “He and his flunkies have been terrorizing the locals in this country for months now. I've stopped them where I could, but every one that fell always was replaced by more. They are the Rotting Blood Gang, and if I am not mistaken, this is Daisuke of the Grave.”
“That's true,” Keisuke growled, teeth clenched as he fought to hold back Daisuke's club, “Apparently the fool's been wanting to find me forever so that he could fight over 'who's worthier of the Grave.' Ridiculous, if you ask me...”
“It isn't ridiculous!” Daisuke bellowed, finally hurling Keisuke away, “I'm the leader of the Rotting Blood, the man who perfected the art of bone weaponry! I need a title that reflects my style, and you are my rival for it!”
At this, Naruto, Keisuke, Jiraiya, and Haruka had put on very blank stares.
It's really... that important to him? Haruka asked inwardly.
Bone weaponry? He's full of himself–that Kimimaro person did better. Waaay unoriginal, thought Naruto.
Jiraiya was sweatdropping. He's just a larger, more sinister version of Maito Gai...
Keisuke, however, was thinking, He's an oaf, that's for certain, but that just leads to his opponents underestimating him. He's a walking tank; I'm having far more trouble with him than I had with those sound nin.
“Right,” he said, “Naruto, Jiraiya-san...”
“Let me help, Keisuke nii-chan!”
“Naruto, it's no good. This one is enough trouble for me, and I don't need you biting off more than you can chew, especially with Jiraiya-san injured.”
“But Keisuke, you're already losing!” Indeed, Keisuke looked to be at a disadvantage; his clothing was torn in several places, there were bruises where the bone club and gauntlets had struck, there was a crack in one lens of his sunglasses, and Daisuke looked virtually unharmed. “What if he's too much for you?”
“Naruto,” Jiraiya cut in, “Keisuke is keeping him busy. Right now the rest of the gang below is being allowed to plunder at will. While Daisuke is occupied here, he will be unable to stop us from taking down his flunkies. Your energy is better spent down there.” He pointed to the cluttered and burning streets below.
“He's right, Naruto-kun,” added Haruka, “You should go help Jiraiya-san deal with them. I'll stay and help Keisuke-san for you.”
For a moment, nobody spoke, but then Naruto agreed with a reluctant nod, gave a half-smile of thanks to Haruka, and turned away. “Come on, Ero-Sennin. There's bugs to swat.” The two of them hopped downward, Jiraiya doing what he could within the limits of his injury, and Naruto full-out thrashing the disbelieving thieves with a small army of Kage Bunshins.
Not moving from his ready poise facing the bone user, Keisuke addressed Haruka.
“Your offer of help is noted,” he said. “But since you considered me to be a possible 'threat,' and because you are Hyuuga, you'll understand if I decline it.” His voice had a chill in it that was unlike him, even though he spoke with his “serious, intimidating” battle-voice. Haruka could hear it with crystal clarity; Keisuke did not trust her, and apparently for good reasons.
“Naruto-kun chose to trust me,” she said, “Though he knows my purpose. He's proved to me that he isn't a monster, and I've decided to withhold judgment on you as well.”
“I trust Naruto with my life,” Keisuke replied, “But I generally don't trust his judgments. He's got a few more years of maturing to do, after all. As for you... I said before, I have no love for the Hyuuga. And I don't have any way of knowing that you won't stab me in the back.”
Once again, Haruka hid her exasperation. True, Keisuke probably had a reason to hate her clan, but why would she have any reason to offer help and then betray him? She barely knew anything about Keisuke; it was too early to make such a rash decision as to kill him.
Still, the more Keisuke thrust her into his Hyuuga stereotype, the more she felt like doing just that...
Meanwhile, Daisuke had been growing impatient. Finally, it seemed as though he could wait no longer, and charged Keisuke with his humongous club. Keisuke evaded it and landed squarely on the next rooftop over.
“Hello, I'm trying to prove something here!” roared the bone user. “How can I seriously say that I'm the one truly deserving of the rights to the Grave if I just smash you while you are chatting away idly with some interfering broad?”
Said interfering broad came running towards the huge man, Byakugan activating on the fly, ready to strike. Her charge was cut short, however, by a blast of cold from beneath her feet. Haruka was stopped in her tracks as the water vapor in the air quickly condensed and then froze around her feet and legs, trapping her, but leaving her unharmed.
Damn it, she thought. Keisuke had planted a trap seal with his Sixty-Four Arms technique in anticipation of her attack, and with her Byakugan not active, she had failed to notice it until it had sprung.
The two combatants ignored her as she fought to break free.
“You know, I really don't see what's so important about it,” Keisuke said. “My title doesn't matter to me much at all. It was given to me by my peers, not invented.”
As Daisuke seemed to grow more and more furious, Keisuke thought a little more provocation was in order; if he could get the bone user good and mad, he might not need any help to slip in a killing blow through his anger-clumsified defenses.
Putting on a maniacal grin, Keisuke said, “And they certainly didn't call me Keisuke of the Grave because I survived the horror of squeezing my overinflated head into some child's Halloween costume.”
Keisuke's jibe had the intended effect. Daisuke was enveloped in full-blown rage as he charged again, club held high. Keisuke sidestepped the blow, leaped up and kicked the bone user in the back of the head, using the rebound to sail back to the first rooftop as his opponent crashed into the stone.
Oaf, he thought. However, he shouldn't have been thinking, as Daisuke had risen again, apparently not damaged, to strike once more. The oaf had some really effective armor and an inhuman amount of stamina. Keisuke could dodge these clumsy attacks all day long, but the bone-wearing tank could absorb anything that he could dish out and come back without hesitating. If Keisuke did not think of a way to inflict some damage, Daisuke would outlast him.
Fortunately, Keisuke had had some education down in Orochimaru's freezing dungeon labs. Dried bones were of the type of material that shattered easily when it was cold. It may have been a long shot, but Keisuke had no other bright ideas.
“Insotsu Kokuin; Shimo!” (Commanding Carved Seal: Frost)
Sixteen of his remaining sixty Ghostly Arms (four of them having been consumed to make the trap which imprisoned Haruka) wrapped into his skin, and the shining blue seal took form. The air became cold around him, and his exhaled breath became visible. He was cold incarnate. Now he would put Daisuke's bone armor to the test.
As the hefty bone-tank's club came sweeping at his left side, Keisuke ducked underneath and delivered a hard kick at Daisuke's side. Some of the bone links chipped, but the kick did not so much as make Daisuke flinch. Not waiting for the next swing, Keisuke tried again, aiming a frosty punch at his opponent's gut. He got the same result, with the added misfortune of having placed himself directly in the path of Daisuke's next swing.
They might have been easy to evade for a skilled ninja, but those heavy blows were not pleasant to feel when they actually landed. Keisuke went sailing back into the same crater that Daisuke had made with his armored weight in the other roof. Winded and bleeding, but not finished, he climbed to his feet and watched Daisuke bellow in triumph at his good hit.
The icy blows were more effective against the bone armor than his normal blows, but they still did not do nearly enough damage. Daisuke still didn't have a scratch on him. Gritting his teeth, Keisuke made a decision that he hadn't had to make in a very long time. It would cost him a large chunk of his combat capability. But, if it worked, Daisuke would be eating rock splinters.
Keisuke vaulted back to the original roof, leaped over the low sweep of the club, and slammed his open palm into Daisuke's chest.
“Kokuin Kai, Shimo Shibari!” (Carved Seal Release, Binding of Frost)
He felt the Ghostly Arms of his Kokuin rip off from him, detaching from their formation on his skin and wrapping onto the bone-bedecked behemoth in the reverse formation. This done, Keisuke dodged the overhead club strike and leaped away, repositioning.
He had to attack immediately–Those Arms were working their magic on Daisuke, the inverted Kokuin supercooling the target himself rather than the air around him as the original Kokuin did, yet they were cut off from Keisuke's chakra now. Soon they would cease to function, and Daisuke would shake off the cold that was restricting his movements and be all over him again.
Keisuke was down to forty-four Ghostly Arms, barely enough to form a Kokuin and still have enough left over to feel out his environment. He could not do another trap seal or binding without sacrificing either power or perception. For this effort, however, it sufficed. He wrote a different seal on himself, one that shone with brilliant white.
“Ryoku no Kokuin!” (Carved Seal of Power)
With his joints stiff from cold and his armor brittle, there was no way for Daisuke to evade or withstand the impact of Keisuke's Kokuin-powered fist. The bone chestpiece blew apart and the blow connected just beneath its wearer's sternum, sending Daisuke of the Grave plowing into the stone floor of the plaza below.
Keisuke swept an Arm quickly over the fallen bone user. To his perceptions, there was no question that he was dead. Poor fool's weight finally killed him, falling from that height, he thought. He released his Kokuin and turned to the captive Haruka.
“Now then,” he said, “Let's discuss...”
“Behind you!” she shouted.
Keisuke didn't have time to feel out the solid mass that slammed into his back, sending him crashing into Haruka, who was knocked free from her icy shackles and tumbled with Keisuke into a nearby wall. Keisuke felt a couple of ribs snap. Haruka, who was partially cushioned against the impact by his chest, was healthier.
“Well,” she said as she extricated herself, “You'll have a difficult time finishing the battle this way.” She indicated his broken ribs, which her Byakugan saw without hindrance. When Keisuke only grunted, she spoke again.
“You know that I have no reason to kill you–yet. Is your hatred for Hyuuga too strong, or are you finally ready to try trusting me?”
Keisuke was silent as he struggled into a kneeling position. Haruka pressed for an answer.
“He has a powerful genjutsu which allows him to feign death too completely for a wave of your feelers to detect. Other than his obscene stamina, it looks like the only thing that qualifies him as a ninja. But he can't fool my eyes. Do you want my help or don't you?”
Daisuke landed on the street fifty yards away and started walking towards them. There was murder in his eyes. Hesitating only a moment longer, Keisuke finally assented.
“If you must.”
Haruka nodded. At last, it seemed, they were breaking through Keisuke's stereotyping habit.
“Stay here,” she said. “You removed his armor, but he's still thick-skinned. My Jyuuken will punch through that. Just stay out of the way so you don't aggravate that injury.”
“I'll stay right here,” Keisuke said, “But if you think I'm letting you take all the glory, you're wrong.” As he spoke, Haruka saw several of his Ghostly Arms move toward her. They hovered near her tenketsus, and as Haruka felt a pressure from them, she was surprised as she realized that they were trying to force their way into her chakra coil system.
“Let them in,” Keisuke said. “Surrender to them.”
Haruka quailed for a moment, shocked at the prospect of the invasive Arms. Then she recovered herself and set her jaw in determination. Keisuke had taken long enough to trust her–why should she sink to his level by taking just as long? Resolutely, she took a deep breath, and relaxed.
Then the Arms pushed into her tenketsus, and her world was expanded.
Haruka found that she could feel everything that Keisuke could. The Ghostly Arms that were not connected to her brushed over objects around them, and she could feel them as though she had touched them with her own hand. She did not control the Arms–that, apparently, was still Keisuke's department–but she had access to all of the information that Keisuke absorbed through his senses.
As she became more aware of the connection, Haruka also found that she had access to Keisuke's reserves of chakra; they were waiting, untapped, within his body, ready to be used by either of them at a moment's notice.
“Nice, isn't it?” Keisuke said, smirking. “It's not something I get to do very often, as most people object to having me stick things in them. But the synchronization technique is very nice when I can use it. This is one of the only times that I can have access to eyes. How fortunate that you have such good ones, eh?”
Haruka had to agree that it was very nice, though the invasiveness was unpleasant at first. Having that extra set of feelers in addition to the Byakugan made her feel as though nothing in the world could hide from her, and the access to that extra chakra was very comforting.
“It has some limitations. If you move too far from me, the connection will break, and if you aren't careful, you might drain more chakra from me than is healthy. But I trust with the Hyuuga's exceptional chakra control, that shouldn't be a problem, should it?”
Haruka ignored the bitterness in his tone. For now, she concentrated on the tank in the shredded armor lumbering toward her.
“Idle chatter again, eh?” he said, shaking his large head. “And now the broad is going to fight? Keisuke, you are unworthy of the Grave. Yet, for the purpose of sport, I will oblige you!”
And Daisuke charged Haruka, club cocked back for a crushing blow. Unable to stray from Keisuke due to the leash provided by the synchronization technique, Haruka did not rush to meet the charge, but waited in a ready stance for the attack to come. But Daisuke, with his rage now diminished some, was no longer attacking blindly and head on. Stopping ten feet short of her, he dug his club into the street and flung heavy chunks of rock at her in one of his rare instances of brilliance.
This was a folly, however. Between Keisuke's feelers and her Byakugan, not a single rock could escape her notice. Though she could have easily dodged or blocked all of them, Haruka decided that the brute might respond better to a show of more force. Drawing on both Keisuke's chakra and her own, she flung herself into a rapid spin.
“Hakke Shou Kaiten!”
Fueled by two sources of chakra, the swirling force not only crumbled the rocks, but reached out to knock Daisuke off of his feet. He skidded to a halt thirty feet away and fought to rise. But by the time he had climbed shakily to his feet again, Haruka's open palm drove a doubly powerful bolt of chakra into his abdominal cavity. Daisuke reeled as his innards rattled and squirmed in his body, and Haruka smiled in her victory. Haruka's eyes confirmed it; Daisuke was not going to be fighting for a long time.
Deactivating her Byakugan and closing Keisuke's Arms out of her tenketsus, she turned to walk back to the blind man, intending to give him an exultant “I told you so.” In doing so, however, she opened herself to Daisuke's final act of desperation.
“You,” rumbled the bone user, blood streaming from his mouth, “You will...” Haruka gasped in shock. Shit! Why the hell hasn't he collapsed yet! She struggled for freedom, but the giant's meaty, bloody hands did not relinquish their hold.
“Hitoshirezu shintou no jutsu!” (Hidden Concussion Technique)
A kunai embedded itself in Daisuke's leg. The bone user had only enough time to blink before it detonated in a flash of brilliance, the chakra that Keisuke had compacted into it releasing itself violently. Daisuke, formerly of the Grave, fell to the ground, his left leg reduced to a minced scrap of meat.
Haruka landed facing Keisuke, glaring at him with a look that said, why didn't you warn me?
Keisuke smiled. “Behind you, Hyuuga-san.”
Haruka nearly fell on her face. “A little late for that now, don't you think?”
“Well, I didn't have much of an advance warning, either. We can call it even now, I think.”
Haruka was about to protest that it was most definitely not even when Uzumaki Naruto dropped between them from the roof above, carrying a filth-ridden brigand under each arm. His grin was wide as he set them down, giving one of them a final kick to silence his struggles.
“Haruka nee-chan, that was awesome! I saw that last part while I was bringing down these two. I never saw a Kaiten like that, even from Neji! Where did you learn to do it?”
She could have taken more credit than she deserved, and wanted to after letting Keisuke imprison and then trick her, but she had some measure of modesty, so she resisted the temptation.
“Actually, Naruto-kun, I had a bit of help...”
Naruto smiled wider. “Hehe, yeah, I saw Keisuke do that shock wave thing with the kunai, too. You guys make an awesome team, Keisuke nii-chan, Haruka nee-chan.”
Remembering the synchronization, Haruka had to agree that there were few times when she had felt that powerful.
“If you're done lavishing praise, Naruto, do you think you might be able to give me a leg up here? I may be joining Jiraiya-san on the sidelines for a while.”
Naruto gave a hearty laugh and walked over to support his blind brother.
As they moved off into the night to help clean up the wreckage, Keisuke turned his eyeless stare towards Haruka. His sunglasses had been blown away during the battle, and his empty sockets now regarded her with more expressiveness than she thought possible. After a while, he opened his mouth.
“Haruka-san,” he said, “Thank you. I had my doubts, but I'm ready to believe that you are an honorable person. I'm sorry for my earlier behavior.”
A wave of satisfaction washed over Haruka. What she wanted to say was, It's about time, you overgeneralizing bastard. What she did say was, “I accept your apology. I'm ready to believe that you also have some sense of honor. Depart with my favor–I'll tell Hiashi that you are not a threat.”
“Haruka-san, won't you come with us?” Jiraiya stepped out from behind a collapsed section of wall. “There is plenty of room in our company for one more, and I'm sure that Hiashi would agree that it would be wise to keep more eyes on these two, ne?”
“Hey,” Keisuke said, “Where was all the enthusiasm when I wanted to come along?”
“It's 'cuz Haruka's a woman, nii-chan.” Naruto said. “We all know Ero-Sennin's real reason for wanting her around...”
Jiraiya whacked his head, cutting him off. “Quiet, Naruto! And who's an Ero-Sennin?”
Haruka couldn't help but grin a little at that. Their energy was just much too catching.
“Jiraiya-san,” she said, “I think I'd like that. I've been here for thirteen years. Maybe it's time that I moved on.”
“And why not move on with our motley crew, huh?” Jiraiya said. He gave his own impression of the nice-guy pose.
Naruto returned Ero-Sennin's punch to the head, Keisuke sulked a little bit but was too tired to complain, Haruka's smile broadened, and the four of them walked (or in Keisuke and Jiraiya's case, hobbled) back to the hotel.
They had proven their worth this night. On the horizon, the sun brought their morning upon them.
OoOoOoOo End Chapter 5 oOoOoOoO