Time Braid

6. Rivals

The next few loops were almost like a vacation for me. With Naruto clued in on the loops getting past Orochimaru was a breeze, and Hinata could just take a dive against Neji so she’d be healthy enough to train with us afterwards. I had fun showing off my ability to kick ass against most of the other genin, and Naruto quickly reached the point where he could get past the preliminary round without relying on that incredible luck of his.

I did, however, finally notice the fact that Hinata always ended up facing Neji. Naruto and me faced a more varied selection of opponents, depending on the details of who made it through the forest and how, but the only way Hinata ever avoided that beating from her cousin was if I took him out myself beforehand.

Having finally noticed what was right under my nose, it didn’t take long to discover that the ‘random’ selection for those preliminary matches in the forest was rigged. Honestly, considering that we’re all ninja I don’t know why I expected anything else. Not only did the Hokage personally select the matches, but half the foreigners in the room were trying various schemes to cheat the system. Naruto was less than thrilled by this discovery.

“I can’t believe the old man is doing this!” He growled as he punched the wall. The forest arena was all concrete, but the blow still left a noticeable impression. “There’s got to be some way we can keep Hinata from getting beat up every time.”

“It’s not so bad, Naruto.” The girl in question commented softly. “Disappointing father is actually worse. But now he’s handed me off to a less skilled teacher, so I don’t know how I’ll ever surpass Neji at this rate.”

“That’s easy, Hinata. We’re going to train you in something besides the Gentle Fist. Then when you kick Neji’s ass using ‘vulgar, unrefined techniques not worthy of a Hyuuga’, you can tell him you’d love to do it with the family style instead if he’ll arrange for some real training.”

Naruto chortled. “That’s great! Hey, maybe you can show me some stuff too.”

“Sure thing, Naruto,” I replied. “I’ll show you Rasengan, and we’ll test Hinata’s elemental affinity and see what we can come up with for her.”

I stuck with Ebisu loops, since he was good for basics and I figured Hinata was too shy to handle Jiraiya properly. A couple of loops was enough time for Naruto to learn Rasengan and make some real progress on his crappy taijutsu, so I didn’t have to protect him so much in the forest. Hinata turned out to have a water affinity, and impressed me by developing it to a useable level in only a few weeks. Unfortunately I didn’t have any water techniques to teach her, having spent my own ninjutsu training time on my own element. But there were plenty of angles I could work there.

“Anko, is there some kind of village repository for genin-level techniques? Not the secret clan stuff obviously, but the basic elemental jutsu any genin with a different affinity than her jounin-sensei might need?” We were two days into my ‘get Anko to teach me more seduction techniques’ pattern, so I was hoping she’d actually give me a straight answer.

“Nah, the old men are way too paranoid to let something like that exist. Usually you’d get referred to a different sensei for technique training, though if Kakashi’s in a hurry I guess he could always raid the ANBU stash. Why? Don’t tell me I’m not keeping you busy enough?”

Once I would have been terrified at the thought of Anko looking for ways to keep me busy, but now I just laughed. “Obviously I don’t mean right now. But after the exams I want to badger him into getting me some technique training, and convincing everyone I’m an elemental type would be a good cover for my real skills.”

“What skills would those be? The kickass taijutsu, or that trick you figured out with the Elastic Tongue technique?” She leered at me playfully.

“Depends on the opponent, sensei.”

Unfortunately none of the current jounin sensei seemed to have a water affinity, which left me with the mention of an ANBU stash. No doubt the elite unit’s headquarters would be an impenetrable fortress, guarded by layers of traps and wards that would take dozens of loops to unravel…

On my first try I replaced the cleaning lady and walked right in. No one noticed a thing.

“God, sometimes I’m embarrassed to even be a member of this village.” I muttered to myself as I walked through the basement archive, scanning the labels in hopes of figuring out how the small mountain of paperwork was organized. “I know they were checking for illusions, but there are a million ways to impersonate or control a civilian. Shouldn’t there be code phrases, or security seals, or something?”

“Actually,” came Ibiki’s voice from the entrance, “there was a security seal on the door.”

“Oh, thank god!” I exclaimed. “If I’d actually gotten away with this I’d have to go nuke-nin just to retain some self-respect.”

“Why did you come here if you were expected to get caught?” He asked as he cautiously entered the room. A couple of ANBU I didn’t recognize followed him, spreading to either side in a well-rehearsed maneuver.

“Well, there’s always next time.” I replied, before dispelling myself with a soft pop. Shadow clone is such a handy technique.

“Security seals?” Jiraiya asked in surprise. “I thought you’d want to get ready for the tournament, maybe do some taijutsu work or learn one of those flashy elemental techniques you kids always get so excited over. Why security seals?”

“Honestly? I figure I can already beat half the people in the tournament, and the other half are far enough out of my league that a month isn’t going to make any difference. I’d rather spend my time training for whatever happens after the exam, and I’m trying to become one of those rare infiltration types who can actually fight and handle regular missions too. I’ve got the combat end covered pretty well, and I’ve talked Anko into showing me a few things, but an infiltrator who can’t get past ninja security isn’t going to be worth much.”

“Well, aren’t you a sneaky little minx,” he laughed. “Sure, kid. Let’s see how much you can handle.”

The seal on the door to the ANBU archives was such a work of art I suspected the Fourth Hokage must have created it. It would take years of practice to reach the point where I could disarm it, and Jiraiya would probably get suspicious and stop teaching me long before then.

But the seal on the walls and floor to block earth techniques was a lot less sophisticated. Phasing into the room was virtually impossible, but forming an Earth Clone inside it? Not so tough.

“Let’s see now. Interrogation transcripts, intelligence intercepts, files on deceased ninja, op reports — do these guys ever throw anything away? Ah, this looks promising. Foreign jutsu. See Uchiha records? Well, ok, I guess that makes sense.”

There was a whole section dedicated to Uchiha activity from before the massacre, including what was apparently a pretty active jutsu theft program. They’d lure some foreign chuunin into a big flashy jutsu battle, have an Uchiha copy their techniques, then write out all the details and file them with ANBU. It was a pretty sweet system.

Yeah. Imagine how strong Konoha would be if they actually taught us this stuff, instead of leaving it to gather dust in a basement.

“Don’t be silly. It would be foolish to teach such powerful techniques to ninja who haven’t proven themselves. Of course, no matter how loyal someone seems they could always be a spy, and if our ninja start using stolen techniques it will be obvious to the other villages what we’re doing. So obviously the smart thing to do is to have the Hokage and a couple of senior jounin pick through the reports and learn whatever they’re interested in, and then file it all away and forget about it.”

Riiiiiight. When we get out of this loop I’m going to enjoy kicking their asses. Think Naruto would want some of this stuff?

“Are you kidding? He probably found out about this years ago. But these Mist techniques would be perfect for Hinata. Hidden Mist, Water Clone, a bunch of Water Release variants. Yeah, can you see her pulling a Hidden Mist over a Syrup Capture Field and going to town?”

I like it. Hey, what about Earth techniques for us?

“Like we can’t make our own? But yeah, let’s see what they’ve got.”

I restored just Hinata’s memories the next time around, so she could have a chance to do some practicing without having Naruto sitting around bored. I dragged her off to a training ground after the written exam, but she gave me an odd look when I started describing the techniques I’d found for her.

“It’s been awhile since you restored me, hasn’t it?”

“Um, not really,” I replied. “A couple of short loops finding out about the archive, a few long ones learning security seals, and a couple more short ones working out how to get copies of technique scrolls out of there without getting caught. Maybe four months total. Why?”

“It bothers me that you had to do it alone.”

She had the most adorable way of biting her lip when she was worried about something, and I was sorely tempted to kiss her. But this definitely wasn’t the right time.

“Some of that’s inevitable. I can only copy a few years worth of memories, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to take longer than that to get out of the loop. But if we can get you up to a good chuunin level I promise there’s lots of interesting things we could do together. I still haven’t figured out much about why the invasion happens, and you could be a big help with that.”

I’d thought she just wanted to feel useful, but her expression was still troubled. After a moment she asked, “Can you do more than copy?”

It took me a moment to figure out what she was talking about, but once I did I realized I should have expected this. I sighed, and expanded a nearby rock into a bench for the two of us to sit on.

“You mean, can I edit your memories?”

She nodded.

“No. Oh, I know Tsunade’s selective amnesia techniques, so I could make someone forget things. But I refuse to research anything that could lead to actual mind control. I’m not going to become that kind of person!”

Hinata sat next to me, and put a concerned hand on my shoulder. “You sound like you…have experience. With that.”

I nodded. “There’s a version of Sasuke in the loop as well, and…well, let’s just say that the Sharingan can be a terribly effective brainwashing tool.”

Her eyes were wide. “I never thought he would do such a thing. Especially to you.”

“Yeah, well, don’t forget he’s been getting that cursed seal put on him by Orochimaru every loop for who knows how long. Plus, let’s be honest, he wasn’t exactly well adjusted to start with. In retrospect it doesn’t seem that surprising, that he’d be willing to… do things to me… if it improved his chance of getting revenge. Anyway, you definitely don’t have to worry about me trying to do some kind of artful manipulation thing on you with the memory restorations. God, if I ever caught myself thinking like that I’d find a way to kill myself for real.”

“I believe you, Sakura,” Hinata said seriously. “Thank you for telling me. It’s very, um, uncomfortable, to be in this situation.”

“I’m sure.” I replied. “Look, if you want me to stop doing this I will. I could just hold your memories until the loops end and then restore them.”

She actually considered it, but in the end she shook her head. “No, I would like to see this through. But again, it means a lot to me that you made the offer.” She contemplated my face for a moment before going on. “You really meant it, didn’t you? About helping me, and about N-Naruto?”

I smiled. “We’ve got to get you past the blushing and stammering stage, girl. But yes, I did. I’ve spent enough time with you now that I’ve started to understand what Naruto sees in you. I could really use a friend, even one who isn’t exactly in the loop. Maybe especially one who isn’t. I’m afraid of what it will do to us, if we have to live like this for too long. As far as afterwards is concerned, who knows? I don’t know how long it will be, or how I’ll feel about anything then. But I can tell you that right now there are three people in the world I’d be willing to share him with, and you’re one of them.”

“W-who are the other two?” She asked shyly.

“Ino and Anko,” I replied. “But I’d rather have one friend I can spend years with than split the same amount of time over several people, so until I figure out a better technique you’re it.”

She smiled. “Then I’d better get to work, especially if I might have to compete with Anko one day. Teach me, sensei.”

Neji was an amazingly skilled genin, but the element of surprise can make a big difference. It only took a few months to get Hinata to the point where she could trap her cousin in a Syrup Capture Field, and then slip around behind him and take him down. The first time she pulled it off she actually used a lethal strike to the base of the skull to do it, which shocked me a little. But then again, by that point she’d been beaten to within an inch of her life at least a dozen times by the fatalistic asshole, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.

To be honest, I was actually happy at the display of backbone. Hinata was finally gaining a little confidence, but without Naruto’s influence it was a painfully slow process. But it was a week before I was able to contact her again that loop, and when I did she’d started wearing her forehead protector on her head.

To cover the Caged Bird seal.

Apparently her father wasn’t happy about her ‘inexcusable loss of control’, and decided to use her as Neji’s replacement. I was so pissed I would have marched right over to the Hyuuga compound and leveled the place, except for the fact that they’d kick my ass. What’s worse, Hinata was back to stammering and staring at the ground all the time.

Fuck this. You know what we need to do to get this girl some confidence.

“Fine. But I’m going to take a loop off to figure out how to copy a memory bubble first, just in case she goes nuts or something.”

“Sexy Technique!”

Hinata’s sexy form was as mouth-watering as I’d expected. Even curvier than mine, with amazing breasts and the most incredible legs I’ve ever seen. I’d be jealous if I wasn’t so busy trying not to drool.

“Not bad, Hinata. It only took you three tries to get it down. That’s good chakra control, and I see you’ve got the real Hyuuga bloodline too.” Well, that’s what Anko always calls the Hyuuga figure, anyway.

Hinata giggled. “I sure do. I bet Naruto would love seeing me like this.” Then she frowned, and put a hand to her head. “Oh, dear. You weren’t joking about it suppressing inhibitions, were you?”

“Nope. I liked it back when I used to use it, but I know it’s too much for some people. Are you doing ok?”

“I feel like I’ve set down a massive burden I’ve carried all my life. Insecurity, propriety, Hyuuga reserve…I don’t have to be a prisoner any more. Sakura, thank you!” She threw herself into my arms and hugged me with more strength than I’d thought she had.

“Wow. You’re really different like this.” I laughed. Our breasts rubbed together delightfully, and I was about an inch away from pulling her back in for a kiss that would make her mine whether she normally liked girls or not. “I like it. But I’m not sure you will when you turn back, so don’t get carried away.”

“Why would I ever turn back?” She growled. “I’m spending the rest of the loop like this. Now come on, show me what your transformation looks like. Then we’re going to track down Naruto and make him put that stamina of his to good use.”

How could I argue with a plan like that?

It was a fun loop, but I was a wreck when it came time to restore her again the next time around. Hinata sat quietly for a long time digesting the memories I’d just restored, something she’d never felt the need to do before. I waited nervously, hoping I hadn’t screwed up this whole relationship. She was normally so shy and quiet. I should have never let her talk me into restoring Naruto’s memories and ditching the Forest of Death for a wild week-long fling. Even if she did end up talking him into using shadow clones so we didn’t have to take turns, and then mass shadow clone so we could each have our own little orgy, and my god what a mind-scramble that turned out to be. I was getting wet just remembering it.

But now Hinata was going to hate me, and how the hell would I fix that? I suppose I could switch to using the backup I’d made before I taught her Sexy Technique, but the thought of even that level of manipulation made me queasy. Besides, what if I just screwed it up again? Was I too much of a pervert to have a relationship with anyone normal?

“Sakura.”

Hinata’s voice pulled me out of my internal recriminations. She was giving me that look of focused intensity she gets just before she kicks Neji’s ass.

Oh, shit. This is going to be bad.

“Yes, Hinata?”

“You are going to teach me your hentai-jutsu.”

I gaped at her. She held the serious expression for a few more seconds before it cracked, and she broke down in giggles.

“Hinata! God, do you have any idea how scared I was? I was afraid you’d hate me forever.”

“Silly Sakura, I could never hate you. I’ve spent my whole life locked in a prison, and you gave me the key. Now why don’t you go restore Naruto, and we’ll see if we can manage to get through a training loop together without getting too, um, distracted.”

I laughed. “Yes, Hinata-sama! One eager young stud, coming up! Or ten, or a hundred, or a thousand…”

We grinned at each other in shared remembrance, and I slipped back out the window.

Unfortunately, we found out later that loop that there were unexpected problems with taking our relationship with Naruto physical. I’d always known intellectually that there couldn’t be many secrets in a household of paranoid ninja with 360 degree x-ray vision, but no one had ever confronted me over my habit of slipping into Hinata’s room in the wee hours of the morning to restore her memories. I figured her family had some custom of ignoring each other’s private lives, which made a certain amount of sense.

That courtesy didn’t extend to the village pariah.

Our first warning that something was wrong was an explosion of demonic chakra that took out the whole block where Naruto’s apartment had been. Hinata gasped as a familiar wave of killing intent washed over the whole city, and I looked out the window in time to see a gigantic fox emerge from the smoking crater.

“Oh, shit.” I said. “The Kyuubi is free, and he’s headed this way.”

Hinata looked out the window, got a good look at the giant fox, and fainted.

“Great.” I left a clone to copy her memories of the loop, and went to intercept the Kyuubi. A few ninja were moving to respond to the attack, but most of the people I could see were unconscious or fleeing in terror.

I body flickered into the fox demon’s path and leapt to the top of a utility pole. “Kyuubi!” I shouted. “What happened to Naruto?”

He vaporized the Hokage tower with the biggest damned fire technique I’d ever seen, and turned to me with a vicious grin. “Ah, the little kami. Are you here to stop me?”

“Hell, no!” I shouted. “Do I look stupid to you? I just want to know what happened to Naruto.”

“Killed in his sleep by a Hyuuga assassin.” The great fox rumbled. “It seems the seal doesn’t quite take me with him anymore.” He waved his tails, and I noticed there were only four of them.

“What, they don’t want Hinata to be with him so they murder him? Those bastards! Can I help kill them?”

The fox laughed. “Be my guest, little kami.”

We tried several strategies after that, but none of them worked. Naruto was lousy at keeping secrets, and Hinata lived under a microscope anyway. No matter how careful we were her father would figure it out in a week or so and send out his assassins. Trying to fight didn’t help much, either. Those guys were jounin-level specialists, and they knew what they were doing. They’d sneak right past me unless I worked a scam with the loops to set them up, and even then the best I could manage was to delay one of them while his partner took out Naruto. After the Kyuubi destroyed Konoha for the fourth time I finally realized how stupid it was to let the demon practice whatever it was doing to survive Naruto’s death, and resolved to find another approach.

“I’ve been training the wrong things.” I said as I stared out over the smoking ruins of the city. “I should damn well be able to take a couple of jounin by now. I’ve just spent too many years studying obscure medical techniques instead of advanced ass-kicking.”

“I also need to train.” Hinata said sadly. “But that alone won’t be enough. We’d need kage-level skills to force father to let us have our way on this.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do. I’ve got nothing but time, Hinata. I’ll be damned if I let that old bastard get away with this.”

“Heh. You’d make a decent fox demon, little kami.”

A chill ran up my spine as I turned to find a man with five fox tails standing behind us. Hinata gasped and stepped back to hide behind me, but at least she didn’t faint this time.

“Hello, Kyuubi,” I replied, struggling to keep the nervousness out of my voice. There were no bars between us at the moment, and I couldn’t begin to fight his level of power. Damn, and he was keeping five tails now instead of only four. “That must be one hell of a transformation technique, to get you all the way down to human size. But I’m surprised to see you here, instead of out chasing down the survivors.”

He chuckled. “That gets boring after awhile, especially when you know they’ll be back again tomorrow. You know, I could lend you the power to beat those assassins.”

He took a step closer, and I swallowed. My god, how can something so evil be so damned hot? He was tall and muscular, with fox-like ears poking out of his hair and a light coat of fur that concealed absolutely nothing. But he was so confident, so utterly unashamed of his own nakedness, that somehow it felt like I was the one who was wearing too much.

Maybe we are, my other self groaned. Can you imagine what a guy like that could do to us in bed?

Get a grip, idiot! He’s a demon god, for heaven’s sake!

“I’d rather earn my own power than rely on someone else’s,” I answered aloud, but my voice sounded shaky even to my own ears. “Besides, I figure it’s my job to be the one who doesn’t fall for any convoluted thousand-loop plots while we’re all stuck in this thing. I shudder to think what deals you’ll end up suckering Naruto into by the time we’re done.”

“So the pawn wants to become a player?” He lifted my chin with clawed fingers and studied me intently. I found myself trembling at his touch, my thoughts scattering to the winds as a sudden heat pooled in my belly.

“Hmm. Too damned fragile, and broken things bore me. Still, with a few centuries of tangled time to work with you might turn into something interesting. Grow strong enough to be a challenge, and I may even take you with me when the time comes to leave this pathetic world.”

“Who said she wants to go with you?” Hinata said evenly. “We aren’t your toys.”

He chuckled again. “Yes, little dragon eyes, the whole world knows your soul belongs to the brat. But this one?” He turned his gaze back to me, and brushed his finger across my lips. My vision went white as every nerve in my body screamed in ecstasy, and I found myself lying in a trembling heap on the ground.

Distantly, I heard the Kyuubi’s rumbling voice go on. “This one is just begging to be taken by someone who’ll use her properly. Who knows, she might even be worth bothering with some day.”

“197…198..199…200!” The heavy training post vibrated with each punch, despite the strength of the chakra-reinforced wood. My hands were bruised and bleeding, my breathing ragged, but I pushed aside the fatigue as I switched to high kicks.

“I have had it with being the world’s punching bag,” I growled. “The next patronizing asshole who tries to treat me like a pawn is getting his fucking balls ripped off. 1…2…3…4…”

“Sakura, I believe you’ve done enough for one day.” Gai said tentatively. “The delicate flower of your youth will not bloom through overwork.”

“Fuck that.” I spat. “I still have chakra. I’ll stop when I pass out, just like Lee.”

Six loops with the youthful duo, transforming myself stronger and faster until I wore the body I would have had if I’d spent my whole life training the way Lee does. Four loops improving my long-neglected ninjutsu, poring over earth techniques from the ANBU archive and polishing them until I could finally beat anyone short of Gaara in a fair fight. Three more perfecting the super-strength technique I’d learned from Tsunade, until I could instantly make any part of my body strong enough to smash boulders.

Yeah, I was pissed. I was also scared. Sasuke was bad enough, but the prospect of having to face down the Kyuubi again someday terrified me.

“I’m not letting him out again. I’m not going in to talk to him, and I’m not going to do any pattern where Naruto might die. That, or I make sure I die too before anything can happen.”

Agreed. We train hard, we avoid him as long as we can, and if someone ever has to fight him we make sure it’s Naruto and not us.

“So much for not bowing to anything.”

Hey, badass temptress here, remember? Saying no to evil guys who make us go all gooey inside is your job. Be glad he overdid the arrogance and pissed me off.

“Yeah, I know. I guess I’ll have to invent a defense against superhuman sex appeal, but I’m not ready to go there yet. Hey, think it’s safe to bring Hinata back? We should really get back to work on her training too.”

As long as you don’t do Naruto.

After my long stint of obsessive training I was looking forward to having my friend back for a bit, but it didn’t work out the way I expected. I’d gotten pretty good at ghosting into Hinata’s room in the early morning at the start of a loop, catching her still asleep so I could call out the delicate chakra bubble that held her memories and lower it gently into her forehead. But this time I was just bending over her when her Byakugan suddenly activated, and she slammed a jyuuken strike into my chest without even bothering to open her eyes.

I staggered back, trying desperately not to drop the fragile chakra construct in my hands as I realized my heart had stopped. I knew there were jyuuken attacks that could do that, but I’d never seen Hinata use one. Without treatment I’d be unconscious in less than a minute, and dead soon after.

Hinata flowed to her feet with inhuman grace as I re-absorbed the memory bubble, the tangle of blankets on her bed slowing her not at all. Her eyes narrowed as she noted that I was still standing, and she assumed a stance I’d only seen Neji use before.

“You’re within the range of my divination, bitch.” She spat. “Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms!”

Oh, shit. “Earth Armor!”

With my ability to retain physical training across the loops I was far stronger than her, but Hinata’s chakra-boosted speed blazed through my defenses like they weren’t even there. My earth armor stopped most of the blows, but it was crumbling before she finished.

“Damn it, Hinata, stop trying to kill me. I wasn’t here to hurt you!” I circled towards the window. My Hinata wasn’t this good yet, which could only mean this one was another looper. That blew most of my theories about what was going on all to hell, but I’d worry about that later.

“I don’t care.” She rushed me, and I body flickered to the roof outside. She hesitated for an instant before following, and I used the breathing room to flicker again, to the wall around the compound and then the street below. With my feet finally on the ground my earth armor solidified, the chakra-saturated stone turning hard as steel.

Then I turned my awareness inward, and restarted my heart.

Two beats later Hinata flickered in behind me and leapt to attack, with a dozen kunai on chakra strings whipping through the air around her. The last thing I wanted was to go hand-to-hand with a Hyuuga, so I did a replacement right out from inside my armor and left an earth clone in my place. My Invisibility Art wouldn’t fool her Byakugan for long, but it might buy me a few seconds.

My clone dodged three kunai and parried two more, but the rest sunk home in her vitals. Then Hinata wove through her defenses to plant a palm strike right between her eyes, and a spike of chakra so intense it was actually visible punched right through her earth armor and blew out the back of her head.

“Hinata, come on! Killing me is just going to reset the loop.” I used an Earth Flow River to turn the whole area to mud, hoping to slow her down enough to make her talk. The wall and a couple of nearby buildings slumped into the quagmire, but Hinata’s stance only wobbled for a moment. Then she adjusted her chakra to walk on the surface, just like I was.

“It might not be permanent, but I’ll feel so much better once I’ve beaten you,” she growled.

“What the hell did I ever do to you? I hardly even knew you before the loop.” I frowned. “Wait, is this about Naruto?”

“You stay away from Naruto!” She snapped. “He’s mine! I’m the one who always watched him. I’m the one who appreciates him. I’m the one he needs! Not some shallow bitch who ignores him and hurts him all the time!” Standing barefoot in the road wearing nothing but panties and a nightshirt, she still managed to be more intimidating than any jounin I’d ever seen. But I’ve faced much worse.

Wow, this assertive badass version of Hinata is pretty hot. My other self snarked. I bet she’s a wildcat in the sack.

Some branch family member tried to attack me from behind. I ducked the blow and planted an elbow in his gut that blew him back through two buildings.

Um, did we just kill that guy?

“Ok, you now what? Fine. This loop is officially shot anyway. You want to throw down with me, bring it on! But before you do let me warn you about Sasuke. He’s looping too but he’s apparently gone nuts, and if he notices you he’s liable to try to brainwash you with his Sharingan. The bastard’s still obsessed with killing his brother, but he doesn’t seem to care about anything else anymore.”

She cocked her head. “There are fourteen Hyuuga of chuunin rank or better converging on your position to kill you, and this is what you want to tell me?”

I shrugged. “Naruto cares about you. It would kill him if we got out of this and you’d been turned into some kind of broken mind-slave. Besides, you’re more dangerous than they are.”

A hint of a smile. “Yes, I am. Are you going to stay away from him?”

“Hell, no,” I growled. “Not unless he tells me to, and that isn’t going to happen.”

Her eyes narrowed. “We’ll see about that,” she hissed. Then she was flashing towards me again.

But I was ready now. I dropped into the ground as she came, and animated the terrain around her. She dodged the first few stone spikes that erupted from the ground, and easily sidestepped the earth prison before it could form. But by that point she was surrounded by dozens of animated columns and tentacles of earth, and even with her speed she was hard-pressed to dodge them all. She broke a few of them with that chakra-spike technique, but it was so energy-intensive I was pretty sure she couldn’t keep using it for long.

A couple of branch house members tried to fight their way in to help her, so I formed a shadow clone to keep them busy with more animated earth. Hinata pulled off a Heavenly Spin to destroy the constructs menacing her and get a moment’s breathing room, but that just gave me a chance to start my final move. By the time her technique ended walls of earth were rising to surround her on all sides, and only a thin disk of sky was still visible overhead.

That was her Body Flicker target, of course, but I already had an earth clone leaping through the opening in the other direction. They met in a flurry of blows, as Hinata delivered a series of lightning-fast jyuuken strikes that destroyed my clone, but before it dissipated it landed one good hit with a touch of super-strength behind it. The blow sent Hinata auguring back down into the heart of my Giant Earth Prison with several cracked ribs, and I sucked her underground before she could regain her feet.

A few seconds later we were both fifty feet underground, and she was completely entombed aside from a small space around her head and shoulders.

“I win,” I gloated as I phased my own head into the same hollow. “Better start studying more than jyuuken, sweetie. Now are you going to be nice, or do I have to leave you here?”

She paled. “Bitch. Kill me if you want, but it won’t stop me. Nothing will.”

“Hmpf. Fine, be that way. But if this is all you’ve got after this long you’d better learn to live with me, because I’m just going to keep kicking your ass.” Honestly, I like Hinata but I have my limits.

“I’ll find a way to beat you, for Naruto’s sake.”

I rolled my eyes. “Naruto’s a big boy, Hinata. He can make his own decisions. You do realize he’s looping just like we are, right?”

She gasped. “He is? It…wasn’t a dream?”

“Good gods, girl, how screwed up are you? Yes, he’s real, and if you want a shot at him you’d damn well better get sane. I’ll set him up with Anko before I see him get stuck with some psycho who freaks out every time he looks at another girl.”

If looks could kill they would have had to use dental records to identify my body. “You think I’m not devoted enough? Naruto means everything to me, you skanky bitch. I’d do anything for his sake. Kill, die, betray my clan or the village, anything. Can you say the same?”

“Anything?” I snorted. “Would you share him with another woman? Make love with his female form? Let him make his own choices, and try to accept them no matter how much it hurts? Obsession isn’t the same thing as love, Hinata.”

She just glared at me. I glared back.

“Fine,” I said finally. “Think about it. The next time we meet maybe you’ll actually be willing to talk.”

I phased back into the stone and collapsed the little hollow around her. Without the brute strength to rip her way free she was trapped, and it was easy enough to catch her in a Suspended Animation technique while she was distracted with suffocating. Once she was safely unconscious I healed her broken ribs, made a copy of her last few months of memories, and carefully returned her to the surface a few blocks from the Hyuuga compound.

Then I crept off to one of the abandoned civil defense shelters under the city to have a good cry. Why can’t anything ever be easy?