32 Chapter 31

THIRD PERSON POV

In the clearing somewhere in the Grass country that was at the border of Fire and Wind. A group of ninjas gathered together to honour the death of a shinobi who had truly lived as one. Entrusting the future of the world to Naruto and Gaara. Much to the protest of the Phoenix Sage Hitori, Chiyo-obasama revived Gaara that was practically dead. Death wasn't something to be meddled with and wherever there's death, it will always be one.

"Everyone, say a prayer for Chiyo-Baasama," the newly revived Kazekage ordered and the clearing went silent. There was no use of crying for the death so noble that it left a deep impact on the Suna and Konoha shinobi that was present.

The day suddenly became brighter in a flash of flight before it dies down almost completely. The booming sound of a battle between two powerhouses that they heard before their own began had finally stopped. No reinforcement was called because they had a specific order to carry on. What's more, the battle happened quite a distance away from their location.

"It died down now," a white-haired ninja named Kakashi had said.

"No!" Hitori suddenly screamed and everyone looked over, puzzled. She scrambled to withdrew a glowing golden scroll and read its content.

"No, not my Hikari! No!" she threw the scroll away and jumped up to the sky before changing into a large red phoenix as she took off to the direction of the blast. The Suna ninjas were startled to see that Phoenix again after the event at the Konoha Chuunin Exam a few years ago. Kakashi was the one unfazed by it, instead, he took the scroll and read its content. His eyes fell to third from the last name signed in blood and a note appeared next to it that was not there when he last saw it.

"Otsutsuki-Hyuuga Hikari. (Deceased)."

Words could not describe the horror that was plastered on his face.

"Kami, no! Naruto! Do you have your Jutsu-Shiki planted on Hikari?" the Jounin demanded.

"Yeah, he holds onto one of my kunai. What's wrong, sensei?" the blonde ninja asked his Jounin sensei. The said Jounin grabbed a pink-haired kunoichi and then grabbed Naruto's hand.

"Teleport us there. Neji, you come too. Now, Naruto!" the Jounin screamed and a white-eyed ninja held onto them just in time. In the blink of an eye, they disappeared from the clearing. The lot appeared into an unrecognizable scorching hot terrain with the hissing sound of singed trees everywhere. In front of them laid a bloodied black-haired boy. His eyes were half-lidded along with his third eye, clothes burned, and the pool of blood was nothing they had seen before.

"No," the pink-haired kunoichi gasped and quickly went to the mangled body as her palms glowed green and placed it on the boy's chest.

"What the hell happen here?!" Naruto demanded and Neji who was looking at the mangled boy suddenly dropped down to the ground limply.

"Impossible..." he said as he was seeing that the boy's chakra network had stopped completely. Kakashi, on the other hand, was waiting on Sakura's evaluation but when the finally pinky lifted her hands, he immediately slammed it back to the boy's chest.

"Don't you dare say it!" the man gritted through his teeth. "Don't you dare fucking say it."

The pinky was reduced to a wordless sob and despair--her link to the earth had now gone. Then, they saw the fiery bird made its way to the ground before changing back into the form of a woman. She was quite a distance away still but she ran there as she stumbles down rubble or two. When she reached there, she pushed Sakura and Kakashi away, grabbing the boy's corpse into a hug.

"No, no, no, my Hikari is fine. No, no, no! shhh shhh shhh," she crooned as tears were falling hard when she rocked him left to right. "Not my love, my life. My Hikari!"

"Hitori-nee..." The pinky tried to console her. The phoenix ignored her and proceeds to try to wake her lover with a succession of kisses.

"Come back, please come back!" she screamed as she rubs against his face and all over his body for a sign. "Everybody's here! My Otouto Naruto, Neji, Kakashi, my Imouto Sakura. We need you! Come back. Come back, please!"

The body was lifeless and the hand that the phoenix sage tried to make it rubbed her face fell limply down on the ground. The pinky fell on the ground lying as she hugged her knees crying her pain off. Kakashi could only stare at his hands that were caked in his student's, no, his friend's, no, his brother's blood. Naruto just fell to the ground helplessly on his knees wide-eyed and his tears were falling cooling off the scorching dirt below.

"See! Come back! Your family's here! They want you back!" the phoenix sage shook the boy's body in the hope to wake him up from this permanent sleep. "We need you! I need you!"

The first to arrive at the heartbreaking scene was the Konoha Shinobi--Gai, Lee, Ten-Ten and the boy's subordinate who couldn't even step near them before falling onto the ground in their grief. Then, the Suna ninjas who were in disbelief at the sight of the infamous, notorious, loyal, fierce and overpowered of a ninja, the ROOT leader mangled in his blood lifelessly. The phoenix sage then glowed brightly.

"Hikari-kun! This is the love of your life speaking to you! Wake up! Do you hear me!" she screamed there was a golden chakra emitted from the woman and flowed to the lifeless body.

"What are you doing, Neesama," Sakura cried between sobs as she reached and grabbed the boy's hand.

"What Chiyo-chan did to Gaara-chan," she announced and the pink rose from her grief still with her sobs sitting ready to receive orders from the Phoenix Sage. The golden glowed had suddenly stopped for a bit.

"Fuck you, Kami! I want this boy to live!" she screamed as the golden glow came back this time it was brighter than before. "Wake up, damn it!"

"What should..." Sakura croaked, "what should we tell him?!"

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"Don't tell anything..." the phoenix sage sobbed, "instead tell him to live well, eat healthily, train well. Tell him don't miss out on his therapy. Tell him to not give up on his ninja way, tell him to save his precious people. Tell him don't he dare come back into the afterlife if he didn't finish what he started. Tell him to find someone he loved as much as he loved me. Tell him that I was glad to have him as my love. Tell him how he changed my heart to see the light of humanity. Tell him how much I love my Hikari. Come back, I beg you. Come back."

With that, the bright phoenix sage's body had faded away from existence into the boy's body and the said lifeless body suddenly let out a breath of air. Sakura was quick to have her Mystic Palm on his chest.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on!" she recited the words like a mantra but suddenly the glow of her hand died down.

"You are not going back there, Hikari-kun!" she proceeds to give the boy a repeated chess compression. It went on for a two-hole minute. It was clear now--their light had faded.

"Stop, Sakura," Kakashi muttered depressively.

"Otsutsuki Hyugaa Hikari! You better wake up!" Tenacious was one way to describe the pinky as a medic she raised a fist to the air and gather some chakra to it before she slammed into the boy's chest. It caused an explosion of dust and worse, the sound of bones breaking could be heard too.

"What the fuck was that for?!" the lifeless boy cried in pain. His breath was heavy and hoarse showing signs of broken ribs. The pinky quickly hugged the black-haired boy to her relief.

"Baka! You were dead!!" She cried as she kissed the boy's forehead.

"Am I? It hurts, Sakura..." Hikari breathed before he loses consciousness yet again.

"Naruto, Konoha Hospital, now!" Sakura barked. The blonde boy recovered and grab hold onto the pinky and his sensei before he teleported them back to Konoha to that place he marked for emergency access to Ichiraku's. The civilians were shocked to see the streak of blur dripping quite a monumental amount of blood passing through them towards the Konoha General Hospital. They burst into the hospital doors straight to the operating theatre.

"Sakura-sensei?!" the nurse in the room was shocked to see the pinky that was supposed to be in Suna for a mission.

"Call Tsunade-Shishou here! This is an emergency! Notify Hiashi-sama's family. Now!" she barked at the nurse who scurried out of the room as another team of medic-nin hurriedly went in one by one cladded in scrubs. "Sensei, take Naruto back. Finish the mission. I promise to you both that Hikari will be okay."

The Jounin was now feeling a lot better and quickly grabbing the bundle of blonde that was sprawling on the floor resuming his grief whilst being bathed in his best friend's blood. He grabbed him and put the boy on his shoulder.

"Hikari will be fine. Come let's finish the mission," he said simply as they went out of the doors. There was a streaking sound was heard before the door shut completely.

"Prepare blood transfusion, cut his hair off and keep it aside. We need to stop his bleeding. Where's Tsunade-Shishou?!" she screamed to the top of the lungs. The doors burst open once again.

"I'm here," the Hokage announced but instead was taken aback by the sheer amount of blood on the floor. "What the hell happened back there? What happened to my Junior?!"

The Hokage immediately took over the procedure. Sakura was paralyzed with relief and immediately back off to give her master room to work.

"W-We don't know who he was fighting, but when we found him, he was dead. Dead! No pulse, no cognitive response. Dead. Dead. Hitori-neesama sacrificed herself to bring him back. She's inside him," Sakura was hugging her body before she crumbled to the ground mumbling dangerously about her precious teammate's death along with his lover's sacrifice.

"Sakura, hold it together! Get Inoichi in here!" Tsunade commanded and another nurse scurried out of the place. The doors remained closed for forty-eight hours despite some occasion of the nurses getting more supplies of blood and the former head of TNI entered the room. Hikari's family arrived as soon as they were informed and that was the longest wait they had in life.

HIKARI'S POV

Everything was dark around here. The sound was muted. The air was warm, please like my love.

"Honey?" she called and my eyes jolted open.

"Hitori?" my voice was booming around the place. "What is this place, where are we?"

"This place is where your soul resides," her voice was booming too. She was exquisite, glowing, and in my favourite dark red kimono. She hugged me and kissed me passionately like she was never coming back.

"I had killed all of your demons in here. Now it's time for you to save them--my people, my family," she said after she broke off from our kiss.

"Why does it sound like a goodbye?" I asked, nervous about losing my lifeline.

"To bring back a soul from the afterlife, another must pay the price," she said and my heart immediately crumbled to pieces.

"Why did you do that?" I cried in her arms, slumped down in grief.

"I had lived long enough, my light. You've changed me. Everybody did. But your job is not finished yet, love. You know that. You gave me enough and I loved you for it. Don't waste this second chance. Protect them, our friends, our family. I will always be in here, watching until the end. Tell Sakura to take care of Hinata for me," she said as she placed her hands on my chest. She then glowed so brightly that it blinded my eyes.

"Hitori!" I screamed and then I felt it. Pain all over my body. I was immediately overtaken by it and groaned in misery.

"Get Tsunade-Shishou, here at once!" I heard Sakura said before I fell out of consciousness with a numb feeling all over my body.

"beep...beep...beep...beep..."

"He should be waking up soon," I heard Tsunade-senpai said. I could feel everybody around me, tears falling. Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, Hanabi, Hiashi-sama, Neji, Sai but no Hitori.

"Senpai, where's my fiancé?" I croaked. I was still numb from the anaesthetics.

"A question that we will address later. For now, rest," she ordered softly as she kissed my forehead.

"That hurt's, Senpai!" I protested. "She's dead, isn't she?"

I realized that I wasn't getting any answer. I looked into everyone's eyes. It was like they had lost a significant person. All of these people, my love cared for them. She does care. A wide smile made its way onto my face.

"Wait, are you high on the anaesthetics?" Sakura asked as she placed her hands onto my head. It hurts like hell.

"Ow, fuck that hurts. It didn't work on the nervous system. I still feel tremendous pain when people touch me," I complained, groggily. They let out a low chuckle and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Forgive me, Hikari. This a side effect of forcing a dead body to be alive again, your nervous system is working hard to restart themselves and work again. I will try to make the necessary changes to your IV drip. Rest well, Hikari-kun," Tsunade smiled with a hint of pity at me.

"Don't look at me like that, we all had touched her. She was hating us human but we changed her. She loves us. So, I don't want to see that look around me," I said and each one of them looked more gloom.

"What did I just fucking say?" I complained and then Sakura hit me in the head.

"There are children here," she gritted, angrily.

"It hurts!!!!!! Damn you for..." Tsunade-senpai immediately shut my mouth with her hand. Sakura was so close to a boiling point. I wonder what's got into her. I looked around and found that Sai was here unmask. Wait a second, Sai was here?

"What you doing here unmasked, pale face?" I said between Senpai's hand. Naruto immediately asking what I said and Senpai lifted her hand.

"What's Sai doing here?" I breathed.

"Ossu, Boss!" Sai greeted with a salute exactly akin to Naruto and I just had to frown at the guy.

"That is not working for you, pale face," I complained and all of my teammates let out a good laugh.

"He is filling in for you. On my pending request to the ROOT Director," Tsunade-senpai announced and I let out a surprised chuckle.

"Oh, a request granted," I said and Neji immediately narrowed his eyes. "Oops, didn't see you there, Neji! Don't spill the beans though."

Everyone sweat-dropped at my behaviour.

"He is unusually talkative. Is it the meds?" Hiashi-sama asked.

"Nope. Healthy as a horse, Tou-sama," I popped and the room went silent once again.

"I'm calling it. He has lost his marbles," Naruto yelled, gave up.

"Wrong! My fiancé had defeated my demons for me, I am feeling better than I had in years!" I smiled and closed my eyes. I could feel happiness swarming around me as the depressing cloud dissipates under its light. A prickle of tear fell from my eyes as I remembered my anchor to this world that now permanently resided in my soul.

"Well, that concludes the visiting hours. You all can come back tomorrow. Out!" Senpai ordered and everybody hurried out of the room that I believed was intensive care unit. Only Sakura that was still allowed in since she is a resident doctor here. She grabbed my hand and healed the spot that she hit me.

"Sorry, Hikari-kun. I thought I lost my only best friend," she croaked and the tears fell like a waterfall down her cheeks.

"Don't cry, I know that you are hurting as I do. She had high hopes for you the most, you know?" I said softly as I tried my might to grip her hands only for it to tremble helplessly. "Do me a favour and look after Hinata. Your Neesama loved you both to death."

I was feeling sleepy and then I decided to indulge. When I woke up it was already time for the next visiting hours. I opened my eyes just a bit and saw Kakashi-sensei in his wheelchair reading that obnoxious green book of his along with all of his fellow Jounin-sensei sitting all around me as well as the scribbling sound of Tsunade senpai writing something in my medical files.

"Morning peeps!" I announced my arrival. Haha. Their eyes lit up at the sound, Kakashi-sensei especially. I could see that he was already in tears of relief.

"I thought I lost you, little brother," he gritted between his teeth.

"My rival!" Gai exclaimed, crying as expected.

"Well, I am not going to die until I had burned that demon book to the ground," I said eyeing on his most prized limited-edition porn. He wisely shut his book and hid it away from me. Not that I can move right now but still, he got my message. I heard Asuma-sensei clasped his hand and chuckled at us.

"Well, if our Hikari keeps this up he will be out in no time," he exclaimed and I just had to laugh.

"Well, not that fast enough. I was dead for how long?" I asked.

"Fifteen minutes, 57 seconds," Kakashi-sensei said sadly. "Who were you fighting back then?"

"Madara," I said, simply and their eyes went wide, well, they were in for a shock of a lifetime. "At least, I know that the real Madara was manipulating him. Sorry sensei, Obito-san is still alive."

There I have it. The bomb had been dropped. Silent was filling the room except for the beeping sound of the life support next to my head. It was annoying though.

"He's dead now, then?" Kakashi-sensei recovered from his shock.

"Afraid not. A member of Akatsuki got to him in time before I pass out, that Zetsu. I said that Madara was pulling the strings but instead, the true puppeteer on the show is the Zetsu thing or rather the black halfling on his right side. He is my brother born from my Mother's evil will, manipulating the Uchiha and the shinobi world from the shadow from Kami's know when. He seeks to revive our Mother, the Rabbit demon, Otsutsuki Kaguya," I explained, they were silent as they took in the information. "I'm sorry, I didn't get the chance to change him. Next time, I will, sensei. I promise."

"Maa, maa, it's okay, Hikari-kun. As long as you're here," Sensei said as he slumped further into his seat in the wheelchair. "But how come he is still alive?"

"He told me about it and Rin-san as well which was his true downfall. Madara fused him with the White Zetsu body parts which were imbued with Hashirama-sama's cells. He uses Mokuton and his Mangekyou isn't too shabby either. He can pass through things," I explained and his hand went to his eye, his left eye and I shook my head. "The ability is unique to the right side of his Sharingan, for the left side, I don't know since you are not an Uchiha, to begin with."

"Then the true enemy isn't Madara?" Tsunade-senpai questioned.

"Essentially, but we shouldn't put him out of the equation just yet. Obito didn't have Rinnegan. Thus, the intel about the leader having the Rinnegan is still in place. I'm assuming that they got the Ichibi?" I probed.

"Yeah, but Chiyo-Baasama revived Gaara-kun back to life with the Tensei Ninjutsu. Like Hitori..." Kakashi droned and I just had to chuckle.

"Figured as much. She never does like to be outdone by someone. Hahahaha..." I laughed it off but then grief had already taken over me as tears fell down my cheeks. I don't know how I could live for now without her. She was my anchor to my reality. Kurenai-sensei immediately broke up into sobs and Asuma-sensei quickly comforted her. No one could comfort me truly now. Kakashi-sensei reached for my head and rubbed my hair.

"If you need to talk, you have all of us. Don't give in to those depressing thoughts," Kakashi said softly.

"I know, I just missed her so much..." I said and then I noticed it. "Hey, who cut off my hair?"

"Oh, Sakura did. I need them for a medium to my Chikatsu Saisei, didn't I tell you about the jutsu?" Tsunade-senpai said.

"Oh, well," I sniffed hard, "give it to me, Senpai. How bad was it?"

"To start, your lower ribs section down to the liver, small intestines, gall bladder, part of your stomach, a bit of your heart and one kidney were practically gone. Basically, due to the loss of blood, I had to fill you up back to where I felt safe enough to perform the jutsu. Not to mention that your organ miraculously grew themselves back slowly even before I performed the jutsu. Your lifeforce is pretty strong despite the injuries that should have to kill you and that is thanks to her sacrifice. You are recovering fast from what I am seeing, not as fast as Naruto did, but still. In a few days, you will be transferred to a normal ward, and a few weeks of physiotherapy, you would be up and running in no time," the Godaime explained whilst looking at my charts. "Sakura had requested to be your attending physician so, bear that in mind and listen to her."

I could already feel the shiver ran down my spine.

"You got that right, Shishou! Otherwise, he will answer to my fist!!" the damn pinky announced as she entered the room all of my teammates are here along with Shikamaru's. The Jounins decided to leave and make room for them inside my ward except for Kakashi-sensei that continued reading his damn porn.

"Hikari-kun, how are you feeling, better?" Ino rushed towards the side of my bed and held my hand. Sakura immediately got angry.

"Don't touch him too much, Ino-pig!" she yelled with a fist prodded up and Ino stuck out her tongue at her.

"No, she's right, I can't move yet, Ino-chan," I croaked withholding the pain and she immediately let go of my hand softly.

"Morning, Bro! All of us guys decided to bring you ramen broth to sip. He can eat these, right, Baa-chan?" Naruto beamed showing off a plastic bag filled with bento from Ichiraku's and Tsunade-senpai just nodded as she continued writing her notes.

"Seeing you like this is too troublesome. Get well soon, baka!" Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head and Chouji nodded enthusiastically behind him.

"Aww, thanks guys," I said as I struggled to sit upright in my bed with Sakura's help. "Sai, how's the office?"

"Oh, we can manage it without you. Focus on recovering, boss!" he beamed. Sai was different now, his smile was genuine, I wonder what happen to him. It must be, Naruto. My best friend, the sun. Chouji and Ino were immediately interested in Sai's reference for me.

"I guess I am taking it off the secret bin. I'm the current ROOT director and his boss," I explained and shock was evident on their faces. Shikamaru had been accustomed to the facts way ahead of them but besides, nothing escapes the Naras.

"That reminded me, Gaara sent me a message saying that he accepts the Director proposal of sending ROOT to train an ANBU squad for them. What about it?" Senpai suddenly asked and I just had to chuckle.

"Oh, the Suna didn't have enough resources to train ANBU and they didn't tell us. Do you believe that? No wonder Gaara got taken away," I gritted my teeth. "Sai, would you mind running this to Torune and Fu? Find out who's available. Report to me and Senpai the progress."

Sai gave us a salute but didn't leave the room yet. But Kakashi-sensei let out a breath of air to announce that he was there too.

"Oh! Kakashi-sensei?! Didn't see you there," Naruto exclaimed and an invisible boulder dropped down on his shoulder.

"I was here before you...." He muttered mutely.

"Sensei, when should we begin training?!" Naruto was excited once more.

"Training?" I questioned the silver-haired man.

"Chakra nature manipulation. Let me rest first, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei complained as he sighed heavily.

"You looked like an old man, sensei," I teased and then I burst into a fit of laughter along with the rest of the room. Asuma-sensei then entered the ward inviting everybody to Yakiniku Q. Of course, my friends loved free food and they immediately disappeared from the ward.

"Well, what do you want to talk about?" Kakashi-sensei asked Asuma-sensei but before the man answered, Kurenai-sensei suddenly went inside to look for her boyfriend.

"Hmm... Asuma what'd you have to say?" Kakashi-sensei asked once again.

"Oh nothing, I'll catch you when we have more time. Sorry," Asuma-sensei answered before he left with Kurenai-sensei. Then a familiar cat entered the room with the familiar scroll in his mouth. I shakily opened the scroll to read its content.

"Nii Yugito, Nibi, Kumogakure, Hidan and Kakuzu."

I lit the scroll on fire.

"They have the two tails now. The ones that got them were Hidan and Kakuzu," I explained.

"Kumo has one more and I bet the village will be more closed off now. They sure work fast," Tsunade-senpai stated.

"Well, the ninjas that Akatsuki sent for the Nibi are too overpowered. Hidan is practically immortal using that weird jutsu that inflicts injuries to others by stabbing himself through the enemies' blood as a medium. Kakuzu, very much the same as he lived since the time of Shodaisama and is handling the organization's finances," I explained.

"Flee on sight?" Kakashi-sensei probed.

"Pretty much, these two are a pain in the butt to handle. Hmm, so how will you train the idiot?" I ask Kakashi-sensei to change the subject.

"Something only he can do. Training time will be shortened through his Tajyu Kage Bunshin," he explained and my eyes widen considerably. Yes, Kage Bunshin experience will be assimilated by the original when it was dispelled. The sheer number he produces, just. Yes, he may get it in no time.

"Man, I want to see this training," I groaned as I lie down on my back. Tsunade-senpai and Kakashi-sensei just chuckled at my despair. I suddenly felt sleepy as I had spent all my energy by talking to my friends that day and thus, I just had to indulge because I had nothing better to do.