Whispers In The Dark

Hinata's Sun

Sasuke's fight with Gaara was interrupted by feathers falling from the sky. It took a few moments but Hinata woke him up. She was pale as she panicked, "Sasuke-san was chasing that boy Gaara! There's something...something about him that's more dangerous than I thought! He won't hesitate to kill Sasuke-san!" She ducked her head as a kunai slammed into the wall just over her, "And it seemed that Konoha is being invaded!"

Naruto sat up, eyes seeking the Shinobi that had tried to kill her, pulling her head lower to his chest to shield her. It didn't matter that she avoided the attack. He pulled the kunai out of the wall and returned it straight into the skull of its former owner. He looked at her, "What do you need?"

Hinata frowned, "Sasuke-san will need back up..."

Naruto nodded, "Alright. Let's go get that stray, dattebayo!"

"Naruto-kun, don't call him a stray..."

They raced towards where Hinata last saw him chasing the boy from Suna. They came across the sight of Shino barely awake from fighting the puppeteer that had flirted with Hinata, broken puppet pieces strewn all over. Naruto looked up to see sands striking Sasuke mercilessly. Shippou stirred, "That Shukaku...he's really have gone off the deep end this time,"

For some reason Sakura was there and she tried to shield the battered Sasuke from more blasts of sands. Hinata moved before Naruto could stop her and used her Juuken strike to break the spear of sand before it could hurt Sakura. She looked at the pink haired girl, "Take him away!"

Sakura was about to do that but Sasuke fought back, "Shut up! I don't need your help!"

Gaara hesitated when he saw Hinata defending the other two. He seemed to be thinking about something when he grew madder, "You, why, why?! Why do you have that look on your face?!!"

Hinata defended herself from more sandy attacks, Naruto being held back by whips made of sand and Sasuke was running low on chakra which made it hard for him to even stand. Gaara then used the majority of his sand to slam Hinata into a tree and cackled, "What's wrong? Aren't you going to run away?" He leered, "I am not letting her go. I will tighten the sand until she became nothing more than a smear of blood. Unless...you beat me..."

Sasuke growled, struggling to stand, "Let her go, you bastard!"

Hinata coughed, feeling winded from the impact and the pressure on her chest doesn't help at all. She forced herself to stay away despite the pain wrecking her body and looked at Gaara. She refused to stay down. She refused to stay a hostage. She focused on her tenketsu points and blasted her chakra, loosening the sand's hold momentarily, "I'm not a damsel! I am a Kunoichi of Konoha!"

Gaara looked at her, shocked that she was capable of fighting his hold on her. Whatever it was, she was slowly wriggling away from his grasp. She looked at Naruto and Sasuke, "I won't let you hold my life over my friends! We are a team and I am not going to be a burden to them!"

Temari gawked, "Even though he's holding her in a strangle hold, she's fighting back despite the concussion?"

Temari could feel her respect for the usually meek girl that her brother had tried to flirt with grow. She had thought her weak but perhaps in terms of skills and strength, she pales in comparison to her teammates but in terms of will and heart, she stood above them head and shoulders.

Naruto's face was calm as he drew out Akkorokamui, "Let her go...or I'll have your limbs,"

Gaara stared at Naruto and suddenly he laughed, "You! You're just like me!"

Naruto pointed his ancestral blade at the crazy red head, "Far from it,"

"What do you mean far from it?!" Gaara snarled, "You are just like me! You fight for no one but yourself! You love no one but yourself! You trust no one but yourself! You are JUST.LIKE.ME!"