Burning Courage: Hinata Shines! - 5

Three tails of the Kyuubi's chakra was enough to start disintegrating the rocks and stones in the ravine, and Naruto swiftly dove up the outcrop for Kabuto, pulling himself up by his claws and chakra limbs. He leapt clear over the startled Sound ninja's head once at the top. His rage over Hinata's condition had pushed him farther than he'd ever gone before.

He about faced and jammed his elbow into Kabuto with the force of a speeding train. The Oto nin was sent crashing into an adjacent slope, and boulders had come loose again from the tremendous impact.

Naruto dove for him again, but Kabuto dodged, relying solely on the power of his chakra gates to keep him a step ahead of the jinchuriki. The blonde boy spun about, slashing at the Sound ninja who leapt and weaved his way among the rocks and Naruto keenly followed.

'He's completely focused on fighting! He isn't paying much attention to his environment,' Kabuto noted thoughtfully, 'One false move on his part and he'll be covered in half a mountain!'

He avoided a potentially lethal Rasengan as it came sweeping for his head, and Kabuto seized his chance, and severed the muscles in Naruto's right arm with his chakra scalpel. Unfortunately for him, Naruto continued to attack with his functioning arm, 'No matter! It'll take a long while for the Kyuubi to regenerate all of the cells in the boy's arm!'

He unbalanced Naruto as he clawed his way up another ledge on the valley wall, and landed a solid kick that sent the Kyuubi container tumbling down the uneven slope.

Naruto managed to right himself halfway down and land at the bottom of the ravine virtually unharmed. He kneeled down to rest a bit, starting to come back to his senses, 'He blew my arm out…I won't be able to use the Rasengan until it heals.' He glared up Kabuto who watched him from the hilltop with a mocking expression, wanting to rip apart the disgusting Sound ninja.

While the two faced off in a heated staring contest, Hinata stirred at the bottom of the slope.

Hinata had gained consciousness and was quick to notice that the unbearable pain she had been enduring for so long was suddenly absent. She had hit her head quite hard, she remembered, perhaps it had knocked some jumbled pieces back into place?

Once she was able to concentrate she was suddenly bombarded with sights and dimensions. Her perception of her surroundings had grown extensively, and she acknowledged that she was certainly not in a normal state of health, 'My Byakugan is acting so strangely! Everything is so clear and open…how have I not ever seen these things before?'

Every stitch and detail of the valley was assaulting her brain with information. Tiny, insubstantial things, and some considerable sights she had never noticed before: the movement of chakra: actual, faint chakra in trees and plant life and water. Some residual chakra has stained the rocks that had been knocked loose by the combating ninja on the cliffside.

She could see it marked on things like paint, and she could see it swirling in the air like mist; most of it coming from Naruto. It swayed and flitted delicately, precisely, and Hinata then understood what she was seeing, 'This is what his chakra control looks like. It is tamed by the owner and it exists in its own plain…how have I not…known this?'

Half the things she was recognizing with her new vision she did not fully understand, and yet her awareness of everything made time seem to slow to her whim. She felt safe and strong. She was surer of herself than she had ever been. A few moments later Hinata realized something quite startling.

She had not opened her eyes yet.

Tentatively she did open them and light flooded in, illuminating her surroundings, and everything that before had been slightly dim was intense and focused. In every object there was chakra, some with barely any and some with surprisingly great amounts.

The two beings with the most chakra were wrestling on the slopes, and Hinata immediately sprang to her feet, moving silently towards the tousling ninja. She recognized Naruto by the red chakra that flowed with beast-like reflexes up on the hill, and Kabuto's chakra was a dull humming blue, more human-looking than the opposing chakra.

Abruptly, Naruto pinned Kabuto with a chakra-cloak claw but was caught by another kick. The blonde boy hobbled to his feet, still trying to gain control over his nonfunctioning arm. He caught a scent and then a glimmer of chakra. Naruto finally noticed Hinata bounding up the slope with a distinct silver aura visible around her, 'Is that…Hinata-chan's chakra? I can see it?'

Without warning Hinata lunged for Kabuto, making a fantastic leap up the rest of the hill and catching him with his guard down, 'There's no way! I couldn't have missed the pulmonary artery…she can't be-!'

He raised his arms to block but her hands were too quick and she broke through, tripping him up and forcing him back up the ledge. Kabuto aimed again for her heart with his chakra scalpel, and she countered with a glowing Jyukken strike that struck his hand, disabling and numbing it.

He reeled back in confusion at the sight of the silver chakra, 'That's impossible! She can't have visible chakra!'

As he stumbled away from Hinata he hadn't even seen Naruto come up from behind him. A Kyuubi-strengthened punch connected with Kabuto's back, and Naruto pounced, proceeding to knock the Oto nin around the rocky slope.

Naruto felt empowered at the sight of Hinata well and capable of actual fighting. He was surprised that she had managed it, but was not one to question a blessing. When he saw her take a Jyukken stance he quickly got out of her way, and stopped to rest on a boulder on the far side of the outcrop.

Kabuto staggered, bracing himself against the side of the cliff, trying to slow the bleeding from the gashes Naruto had scored on him, 'With the both of them it's as if they won't tire! As time goes on they only get stronger, and I'm…I can't-'

A ring of trigrams was illuminated on the ground in front of Hinata. She read its inscriptions, knowing every single inch of it by heart. It was when a second ring of trigrams appeared she had to pay attention. Her eyes could see what other Hyuga eyes could not.

The trigrams flat on the ground existed in one dimension and measured distance and power. The second ring was suspended vertically in the air, in another dimension, and from what she could decipher it appeared to rate space and time.

Something told Hinata she'd have to be cautious or she could end up injuring herself.

Even where the blind spot was supposed to be she could see Naruto watching from a nearby ledge. She smiled, not understanding why the limitations of her Byakugan had been lifted, but she was eager to push the limits of what she had now achieved.

As Kabuto dashed to make a getaway, one of the new trigrams brightened and she moved through it, the speed of her attack catching Kabuto before he could even move a meter from where he'd been.

Methodically, as if she could take her time, she began to cherry-pick his tenketsu one by one. Hinata was not closing them off when she struck them, though; she burned them away to nothing, destroying them with her own potent chakra.

It didn't last much more than a few seconds for Kabuto, but it had been total anguish. She hadn't even noticed she had passed the mark of 64 strikes until she had completed 192 of them.

Naruto watched as his chakra cloak faded. His eyes caught a glimpse of the extraordinary speed that eliminated Kabuto's tenketsu and began to shut down his chakra circulatory system.

Hinata stopped the assault after 300 tenketsu had been drilled away, but by then Kabuto had already been dead.

He dropped down into the rough soil inertly, his eyes still open, and Hinata stumbled backwards, relieved and overwhelmed at what she had done.

This time when Naruto leapt forward to catch her he was successful. She landed neatly in his arms and he grinned, infinitely proud and in awe of her. He nimbly navigated the way down to the bottom of the ravine where they could rest.

His Kyuubi chakra was gone and he was left horribly fatigued, but Naruto felt some strange vitality at the sight of the Hyuga girl so incredibly…alive and well.

Her Byakugan deactivated and she blinked her eyes up at the sky overhead, resting quietly in his lap.

A moment later she was bawling uncontrollably and Naruto was caught completely unaware, "Whoa, Hinata-chan! What's wrong? You did great! Don't be sad, please! Whatever's wrong I'll-"

"Even if I am alright, after all of this…Neji-niisan is not!" She wailed despondently, choking on her sobs, "There's no way to change it…"

Naruto felt horrible about the truth of the situation, and he hugged her shoulders tighter, guiltily, "I'm so sorry, Hinata-chan. If I could…I would've done anything to save him! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He buried his nose in her tufted hair, sniffling, and felt tears sting at his eyes. Now was not the time for crying.

He couldn't have an emotional breakdown when he was the one trying to make her feel better.

"If he was here he'd be so proud of you!" Naruto declared after he'd regained his composure, "If Neji had seen you and how wonderful you were, he would have begged you to be the heir to your clan instead of him. No one…not even me has ever seen anything like what you did just then!"

Hinata's weeping had come under control, but tears still slid freely down her cheeks. "I'm afraid that doesn't matter anymore, Naruto-kun…" Her voice was so low he could barely hear it, "Maybe it would b-be better if…if our places had been exchanged, Neji-niisan and I…"

Naruto jumped at the suggestion and she tumbled off of him, quickly sitting up again and seeing the horror in his eyes.

He was up on his knees, shouting frantically, "That's CRAZY! How could you say something like that? Boy, if he could hear you now, Hinata, he'd lose it! Don't ever, EVER, say something like that!"

"B-But I'm not as important as Neji-niisan was…I can never be!" She cried hopelessly, letting her true feelings out, "There are so many people who depended on him! How can I ever live up to that?"

Silence followed and they settled down again, deciding it was better if they didn't shout at each other to get their points across.

Naruto stared at her with cerulean eyes. Ambition was clear in them, "You don't have to live up to it, Hinata. All I know is that I'd never get by without you."

Her crying had stopped completely, mostly due to astonishment. Hinata clammed up, unable to say anything. She was glad that Naruto was always so honest with her.

He closed his eyes briefly, trying to stay calm.

He was upset too but he had to say what was on his mind, "I don't ever want to think about… something happening to you. I don't know where I'd be if you weren't here, I mean…you were the first person to show me kindness and not steal it away." Naruto found that admitting it was rather cathartic, "See…even if I have Gaara-kun and Haku-kun they can never be what you are. You were the first one who ever mattered! That hasn't changed one bit!"

Hinata found herself staring tactlessly, remembering the loneliness of her childhood. In Naruto she had found herself, and she reached out to help him because something had called her to. It was the same thing Naruto was describing to her, even if he couldn't label it exactly, she still understood.

"I don't want you to go away Hinata, so don't ever say that you will," Naruto demanded in an emotional voice, "Just leave the rest to me. I'm going to protect you. I know you will be the leader of your clan and later when I'm Hokage maybe that'll be enough to impress your dad and we can…we could…"

It was awkwardly quiet once he'd realized what he'd been speculating.

"You have all this planned out very well…" Hinata commented softly, trying not to overreact. Much easier said than done; she felt her heart doing twists and loops.

"Yeah, I've…I've got a lot of big plans…" Naruto muttered, a bit confounded himself, and his voice lowered, "And it's kinda funny…"

She blinked, awaiting a response, and decided to prompt one when he wouldn't supply it, "Funny, Naruto-kun? Why?"

"Because," He told her, "You're in every single one."

And their mouths came together ungracefully.

Hinata decided the acrobatics in her chest were well-earned, and that Naruto was being no one other than himself. The sincerity in his words and feelings was more than enough to make up for the unorthodox kissing. Tact was unavailable, at the time.

She was quite certain she was a terrible kisser, much to her displeasure. Naruto was much too gentle and fearful, she could sense. Hinata had a feeling that he believed that she didn't like what he was doing and she didn't want him to think that way. It was polite and close-mouthed and Naruto was certainly not going to initiate any further for fear of dishonoring the most incredible girl he had ever met.

That was what he had thought until he felt her hand reach up into his hair and drag him down to her height, her nails nipping into his scalp. He blinked, slightly shocked, and could see her eyes had fluttered closed and that she was submissive but approving of the action. He took it as a positive response and relaxed, glad that she was pleased.

'I should say it…I should say it…' Hinata felt cowardly that she was still unprepared to admit her feelings. Not in a totally honest way, at least. She couldn't gather the bravery to confess the love she had felt for a number of years in a row, and felt rather deceitful that she couldn't come clean about it, 'He'll think I like him just because of this…but that isn't true! I've always, always, always…'

It ended abruptly, both parting for air, and Hinata was back in touch with reality after she'd noticed that she was curled up against him again, wrapped in an alarmingly possessive embrace. She greedily relished the contact. Every inch of him was magnificent and his eyes had never looked brighter.

Her hair tickled his nose and Naruto chuckled, moving to rest his chin on top of her head, "Yeah. I think this kinda goes without saying, Hinata-chan, but…you're my girl. That's it. There's no way I'm sharing you or giving you up. I hope you don't mind?"

"I don't mind." She replied, dazed, "And…I can keep you too?"

"You bet!"

After a few minutes of laughing and snuggling they stood, knowing that wasting any more time could determine the success or failure of their mission. They headed back down the river to find Haku, intent on helping him rescue Sasuke.