The spring flower Neji FF

Chapter 54

Everything around Akina was black. She felt nothing but pain. She could hear a voice which became soft at first and then louder and louder. "Akina..Hey Akina..Akina wake up!"

Slowly she opened her eyes. "Choji?" "Thank God you're okay." Carefully, the Uchiha sat up and froze as she saw what was happening to Konoha. Every memory she had of the village was destroyed. Not a single building had survived. Her body trembled. How could one man do such a thing? "We need to find survivors," Akina said as she stood up.

Together they walked through the remains of the village. Along the way, they could see some shinobi who were still alive thanks to Katsuyu. Others lay unconscious or dead on the ground. Apparently Akina and Choji were far enough away not to be rescued by the snail.

"Choji!" cried Ino in relief. "You're still alive.", smiled the one addressed and let go of Akina who was the most seriously injured. She looked at the rest of the shinobi, who were sitting on the ground, relieved. Some of them were crying for their comrades who were holding them in their arms. Her heart grew heavy as she thought of Kakashi again. "Akina come, I'll heal you a little," came from Sakura who still had enough chakra. Tsunade had taken a lot from her and realized that Akina could not stand much longer.

Slowly, the black-haired woman sat down and let Sakura heal her. It felt good to have her body regenerated and to feel her chakra again. "Where is Kakashi?" the Haruno asked. "You were with him, right?" When she got no answer and could see the sad look she knew what was going on. "No, not him too..." she whispered, shedding a few tears.

Akina looked down at Pain who was waiting in the crater for something. Deep inside her anger was boiling. She had to defeat him for Kakashi no matter if she died. Slowly the Uchiha stood up and was looked at questioningly by Sakura. "Akina, your wounds haven't healed yet." "I don't care." There was nothing left of the cheerful Akina. What was she up to?

Akina walked a few steps to get to the crater. She did not let the shouts of her friends stop her. With a short finger sign she formed her lightning dragon and let it loose on the six Pains who had to dodge. He had not expected to be attacked by her. Again and again she shot her lightning towards them and it didn't matter how much chakra she had to use for it.

 A noise made Akina stop and look over her shoulder. Three large toads appeared behind her and on the orange one stood Naruto. His appearance and his chakra were totally different. What kind of training did he have? Confused, Naruto looked around. Where had Konoha gone? "Naruto?" asked Akina, getting his attention. In front of her, he saw six men with orange hair looking up at him. "So that's the bearer of the Kyuubi."

"Akina, you should go to the others," Naruto said seriously. "No I have a score to settle with him." "Then we'll fight together.", Naruto grinned and attacked Pain with his toads.

Guy team was just heading back to Konoha when a large toad landed next to them causing a small tremor. The team quickly ran up to the toad. "What happened?" asked TenTen. Gamabunta looked at the shinobi and muttered something about an Akatsuki member. "We should get to Konoha as soon as we can!" shouted Lee, already running.

Not even a few minutes later they arrived in Konoha, if you could still call it that. Everything was destroyed and some inhabitants had gathered. They quickly ran towards the group and could see that some were injured. "What's going on here?!" asked TenTen, looking around. Sakura explained to them the situation that had happened. "Where is Naruto now?" asked Neji, who was supporting Hinata a bit. He had seen that Sakura had healed her. "Down there fighting go Pain.", she pronounced. "Together with Akina."

Briefly, Neji nodded until his eyes snapped open. "She's fighting down there!?" he exclaimed loudly. "She was almost caught by Naruto's red chakra," Ino spoke. You could tell the Uchiha could barely stand. Neji stiffened and activated his byakugan. Through it, he could see that she was using her chakra way too much.

"Jutsu of flaming fireball!" she shouted and once again shot her Amaterasu towards Pain. Shortly after, she sent her lightning dragon at him and ran at him with her katana. Naruto was out of it right now so she had to get more involved again. So slowly the Uchiha reached her limits. To avoid his counterattack she had to jump further back. She wondered why he didn't try to hurt her. Her fingers formed again. She would use her last chakra for this one jutsu. She had never used it before and it might be her only way to defeat Pain's last body. Her hand stretched Akina towards the sky.

Her vision darkened, not because she was using her Mangekyou Sharingan but because she could no longer. Perhaps it would be the last jutsu she used before she died. Pain looked up at the sky which was darkened by the black clouds. There was not a single ray of sunlight to be seen.

Neji stared at Akina, who was gathering chakra into her arm. If she used it, that was it for her. "Akina!" he shouted, trying to get her attention. However, the loud thunder drowned out his cry. Several bolts of lightning shot out of the clouds and crashed into the ground. Pain could be heard screaming briefly as he tried to get to safety. A few seconds passed before there was no more lightning. Several clouds of smoke could be seen and in the middle of them stood Akina who sank to her knees. "Akina...", Neji breathed and ran.

He didn't care about the shouts of his friends. He had to get to his girlfriend. Just as he reached, the Uchiha toppled over onto her side and landed on Neji's torso. "Akina?" whispered Neji, stroking her cheek. He could see her breathing which was weaker than usual. Quickly, he lifted her up. "Akina hold on.", he spoke and went to Sakura. "She will come with me.", spoke Pain who was coming towards him.

"I won't give her away!" he shouted, holding his girlfriend tightly in his arms. Slowly Pain approached him with a metal rod and took a swing. Just before he reached Neji he was flung back. "Take Akina to Sakura.", Naruto spoke. "I'll take over." Neji nodded and took off running. Naruto really always came at the right time.