ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Endless Worry

Chapter Fifty

Endless Worry

May 22, 2010

He was distracted.

Ducking a fist, Hinata gripped the hard forearm connected to it and tossed the male over her shoulder to the dirt below. She elbowed the one at her back square in the face before driving both palms into the sternum of the next. Rather than waiting for the next barrage, she charged, striking two as she passed, a third in front of her, before spinning and launching sixteen quick chakra laden palms to the one she'd sensed heading for her blind spot.

He was beyond distracted.

Considering her own movements were a touch sloppy in places and completely monotone muscle memory in others, so was was she.

They had every right to be.

Kaguya was dead.

The greatest threat to the shinobi existence, gone.

Two days following the initial jonin briefing about Naruto's mission and the Otsutsuki text, Sasuke had sent word that he'd located Kaguya's resting dimension only to discover a corpse hanging haphazardly from a chunk carved from the moon that had been her prison. A corpse that had promptly crumbled into ash the moment he crouched to inspected its wrinkled form.

Just like 504 and 602...

She ducked an arm on her right, redirected a severely watered down Rasengan to a nearby tree on her left, then swept the feet of two clones as she pondered and worried over the news.

How long had she been dead?

What Otsutsuki had broken Hagoromo's seal and ended her life?

She was terrified to contemplate a being capable of such a thing, and yet, that was the reality they were living in. Driving her elbow into the chest of a clone at her back, Hinata willed her mind to focus, her body to tune in and be present in the motions guiding her offense and defense.

Her thoughts were so scattered.

If she wasn't worried sick about the looming threat, she was on the verge of tears thinking about her poor Shino in the hospital, or scared for her friend in the bowels of the intel department, or saddened by the tired gait of her pink haired woman struggling to help them both. She'd checked in with every one of her friends except for Tenten and Kiba today, her husband-to-be at her side, before coming to the training grounds with him.

She was startled as her own feet were swept and the hard impact of the ground spread along her left side. She rolled, avoiding a fist that sent dirt flying. Gracefully gaining her footing, she braced for the next barrage. She sidestepped one clone but took a none to gentle cuff to the ribs. Struggling to regain her balance, Hinata could only block as her lover went on the offense. His strike was hard and punishing, sending her skidding back several paces. Arms stinging, she launched her own offense, dispelling this clone with quick, well place Juuken jabs. She had not a moment to breathe before he was on her again. This golden haired, cerulean eyed Adonis was not like those around him. As they fell into a strenuous dance of hand to hand combat, she noted the far away gleam in his baby blues, the thoughtful frown turning his lips down, the drooping posture in his movements. Same as the hundred or so surrounding them.

Subtle details that sharpened her own wandering mind.

However, there was something different about this one.

This one was her fiancée.

Explaining how she was able to spot the difference was an exercise in futility. Like an elusive sixth sense, the knowledge surfaced from a unknown recess of her mind, one they attributed as yet another perk originating from Hamura's transfer.