Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [3]

☾ 20 ☽

The outer layer of the artificial sun fell away, and the bedrock carrying Toneri's castle was exposed, suddenly leaving it as a floating form in the middle of the space within the moon. The only thing that hadn't become completely dark was a small artificial sun, barely emitting a dim light like a nightlight. The moon system that Toneri was operating was definitely beginning to collapse.

Along with Naruto and Hinata, Tsukiko rushed back to the castle and she felt like her eyes were relieved of pain just by the sight of her friends as she met up with Sakura and Sai, who was holding Hanabi, in the chapel where Shikamaru was.

"Sakura!" Tsukiko called out, smiling at the sight of them all. "Shikamaru! Sai! I'm so happy to see you all again – and Hanabi-Chan, she's okay, I kept her healed to the best of my ability,"

"I checked on her and you're right, she's doing okay," Sakura confirmed. "But what about you, Tsukiko? Do you need me to heal you or anything?"

"No... I'm just thrilled to see you all here," Tsukiko said as she turned to look at Shikamaru. "Naruto told me everything, and about the moon falling and making a mess out of everything,"

"A huge mess indeed," Shikamaru confirmed. "You'll be in plenty of mess when you get back, too, because Gaara has lost it with you gone and the moon falling,"

"Don't worry, I knocked some sense into him," Naruto said, swooping in. "I told him that you'll be upset if he left his spot as the Kazekage to chase after you,"

"I can imagine..." Tsukiko mumbled, looking away worriedly. "I'm sorry, I will apologise to him as well. It was not my intentions to hurt anyone like this,"

"Hey, you're taking it too seriously, it's okay," Shikamaru said, taken aback by her words. "If you don't believe me, here! Look, the moon stopped!"

Shikamaru showed Tsukiko the clock in the palm of his hand, which had stopped moving. Tsukiko informed him that they had destroyed Hamura's Tenseigan, stopping the moon's approach. She rubbed her forehead, relieved as she let out a long sigh.

"This is yours, right, Hinata?" Sakura asked and she held out the remains of a red scarf.

Upon seeing it, Naruto spoke, "That's the scarf that Toneri tore up when he took Hinata..."

"You were going to give it to Naruto, right?" Tsukiko asked, taking this moment to say this because she felt like Hinata could use some of her leftover bravery to confess.

Hinata stared at the ruins of the scarf and nodded painfully.

"Did you really knit that for me...?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"Ye... yeah..." Hinata confirmed.

"Will you give it to me?" Naruto asked.

"But it's already torn up..." Hinata replied.

"I don't care..." Naruto told her. "I mean, I want it," Hinata brushed the filth off of the scarf, neatly folded it, and handed it to him. "Thank you... I'll treasure it," He smiled at her affectionately.

Tsukiko gave them some space and instead followed after Shikamaru to the courtyard of the castle. He was staring at the clock in the palm of his hand worriedly, and as Tsukiko reached him, he looked up, "Why did it start moving again?"

"I'm... I'm not sure," Tsukiko admitted, seeing that the moon had started moving again.

The artificial sun was destroyed, and there was no sign of the puppets starting to move. It was hard to think of Hamura's destroyed Tenseigan being restored. Tsukiko spread her conscious out to Sense the surroundings, wanting to see what was going on –