The second body’s mouth gaped wide as the blade of the Kusanagi emerged to strike at her. She wove around the attack and animated her hair, using it to grab the blade and drag it forward to expose the hand that held it. The hand let go and tried to retreat, but again Hinata was too fast. She released the sword and plucked it out of the air before it could fall, neatly spinning it around to ram the poisoned blade down Orochimaru’s throat point first.
The bodies bulged unnaturally, beginning to swell into some sort of giant white snake-hydra thing I’d never seen before. Hinata blurred into motion, and for an instant I thought she was using that Kaiten technique I’d seen Neji rely on so often. But instead of a shield her chakra formed a whirlwind of sharp-edged streamers that shredded the snake-monster before it could finish forming. The chakra construct slumped into white goo again as it lost cohesion, but an instant later the goo transformed into thousands of tiny, fast-moving snakes that were so venomous I could feel the destructive chakra in their fangs from forty feet away.
Hinata continued spinning, her hands a blur of motion as a thin ray of cutting chakra erupted from each fingertip, and in the space of three heartbeats she destroyed each and every one of the slithering horde with those burning lances of power. Not one was able to bite her, and as far as I could see not one escaped.
The Snake Sannin’s chakra began to dissipate.
Hinata spun to a stop and stepped back with a decidedly feral grin. I extended my senses, searching for any trace of our foe.
He was gone.
“Hinata! That was awesome!” Naruto shouted, and leaped forward to wrap her in a hug. I wasn’t far behind him.
“He was very careless,” Hinata said modestly. “And he’s weak at close range. None of his techniques were as fast as mine.”
“That’s the problem with knowing more techniques than you can fully master,” I confirmed. “But still, holy crap Hinata. You just took down the strongest of the Sannin! I’ve tried that kind of thing before, but I was never good enough to pull it off.”
“What, exactly, is going on with you three?” Sasuke’s voice interrupted. Oh, great. We’d all forgotten about him, and we couldn’t just make him disappear without… wait a minute.
“Um, Naruto, do you have any idea what happens to the loop if Orochimaru dies before the invasion?”
He blinked in surprise. “No clue,” he admitted. “Hey, I guess we’ll find out.”
17. Explanations
Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto.
“Don’t ignore me, dumbass. What’s going on?” Sasuke looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed or worried, and was eying Hinata warily.
Naruto chuckled. “Heh. Crazy thing with a time-space jutsu, Sasuke. All three of us are a few decades older than you’d think. But we’re used to passing as our younger selves, and no one’s going to believe you if you try to report us. Go with the flow and things will work out.”
Sasuke activated his Sharingan, and looked us over skeptically. “You don’t look like imposters,” he admitted reluctantly. “Show me something to prove this isn’t a prank.”
Naruto spun up what looked like a Rasengan on his fingertip, but I realized an instant later it was full of wind chakra. He threw it across the clearing with a twitch of his finger, and it shredded one of the trees into confetti.
“Oh, are we showing off?” I asked with a grin. I shifted to fire nature and formed a Flame Rasengan on my fingertip — a tricky little exercise, and I wondered for a moment how many years Naruto had spent training his chakra control to be able to do it. Then I compacted it into a ball the size of a marble, and replaced it with a leaf on a nearby tree. A split-second later it destabilized and blew up, toppling another tree and pelting the area with debris.
“S-rank,” Sasuke observed. “Hnn. Alright, what’s the plan?”
To my surprise, Naruto told Sasuke exactly what was going on. To my complete shock, Sasuke believed him.
“I don’t believe this!” I muttered as we made our way to the forest arena. “Ino never believes me. My parents and Kakashi and the Hokage never believe me. Hell, Sasuke never believes me.”
“You were an obsessive fangirl,” Sasuke pointed out reasonably. “You would have said anything to get my attention.”
“Well, don’t expect any more of that nonsense!” I growled at him. “I’m Naruto’s fiancé now.”
“Hnn.” Sasuke stopped on a tree branch to fish a one-ryo piece out of his pocket, and tossed it to Naruto. The goof stared at it in confusion for a moment, and laughed.
I frowned. “What the hell was that about?”
“I once bet Sasuke that I’d convince you to be my girlfriend someday,” Naruto explained.
“Oh. Heh. I guess you did, didn’t you?” I stopped beside Naruto to kiss him on the cheek. Hinata stopped next to us to do the same, and I took the chance to wrap a handful of shuriken with concealment genjutsu and toss them behind us. Guided by chakra strings, the invisible projectiles wove silently through the trees to where that annoying genjutsu team was getting ready to spring their walk-in-circles-forever trap on us, and struck each of them in the throat with enough force to nearly decapitate them. They collapsed silently, and Hinata grinned at me.
Sasuke frowned, and I noticed he’d activated his Sharingan again. Apparently he’d actually noticed my attack, which impressed me a bit. He took a long look behind us, and caught sight of the splash of blood.
“Do you always kill people that easily?” He asked.
I shrugged, vaguely troubled by the thought that Sasuke of all people thought I was too ruthless. “It’s a time loop. They’ll be back next time around.”
“Hnn.”
It was a very strange loop. I’d grown used to ignoring Sasuke as much as possible, and he was generally happy to return the favor. It had been years since I’d said anything to him beyond a few well-rehearsed lines early in the exam. But it was obvious Naruto had played patterns where he told Sasuke what was happening before, and somehow that changed everything. Instead of the smug, insufferable bastard I was used to, Sasuke was… well, not nice, but not a complete asshole either. He was still reserved, driven, even a bit cold at times. But when I casually took one of those Sound nin apart in the pre-finals he actually smiled at me. When I body flickered back up to balcony and Naruto went down for his own fight he stepped over to speak to me.
“Looks like I shouldn’t have dismissed you,” he admitted. “Too bad you didn’t train seriously before this.”
“Um, yeah,” I agreed uncomfortably. “It would have saved me years of aggravation.”
“Hnn. What did I do?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He turned to look at me. “You keep looking at me like I’m an imposter, and your girlfriend wants to kill me. What did this other version of me do to piss you off so much?”
I sighed, and looked back into the ring. Naruto was fighting Kiba, and taking his time at it. Should I tell him, or not? Well, maybe I’d learn something from his reaction.
“Tsukuyomi,” I said shortly. “Torture and conditioning, probably three or four cycles.”
He stared at me in shock for a moment, and looked away just in time to see Naruto finish off poor Kiba. When Sasuke turned back I realized in surprise that he was furious. “I wouldn’t do that,” he insisted quietly. “Not to anyone, let alone you.”