The Path of a Shinobi (Reader x various)

Caged Bird

The Ten Tails created a Tailed Beast Bomb, but luckily with the help of some shinobi, it was displaced upwards with an Earth Style Jutsu and the bomb went a different direction.

One by one, more Tailed Beast Bombs were shot and each one was shot farther away but there was one certain direction that it was aimed at that made everyone freeze.

Shikaku's voice rang in my head as he informed not only me, but everyone else of a plan before it suddenly cut off and the bomb exploded.

I looked around at everyone's faces and a grim look appeared on Shikamaru's face and a tear slipped down from Ino's eye.

"Wait...what exactly happened?" Bewilderedly said Naruto and Neji appeared out of the blue right beside us.

"You two are the key to our plan," he said, but Naruto shook his head.

"I'm not talking about that! What happened to Shikaku and Inoichi!"

"They're dead now," I stated and his eyes widened for a second before he glared at the two Uchihas.

The Ten Tails whipped one of its extendable tails at us with the end of it being a hand now. Naruto and I jumped back while Neji stayed in front of us with his uncle, Hiashi, who had appeared.

"Eight Triagrams Palm Rotation!" The two Hyuga's rotation slammed away the approaching hand until it fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"A-Amazing," stuttered Naruto.

"Don't stand there spacing out. This a battlefield and we're at war. People will die! But if we are defeated and lose this war... everyone will die," spoke Hiashi.

"Of course I know that!"

"Shikaku and Inoichi would likely say, that as shinobi, they're glad to have died before their children. Just as my father did. Naruto, (Y/n), your power is critical to the plan. So until we execute it..."

"We must protect you two!" Finished Hinata who made her appearance beside Neji.

"Know this. The Hyūga are the mightiest among the Leaf!"

'Because the Uchiha and my clan are dead...' I sweat dropped and rid myself of that thought as I plastered a smile on my face.

"Thank you, but we'll make sure to protect ourselves. We can't have any of our friends dying," I said as I placed a hand on both Hinata and Neji's shoulder. They both looked over their shoulder and gave me a determined smile before they looked back in front of them.

More hands appeared and from within its hands, sharp wooden spikes sprung out and rained down on everyone. My Rinnegan had appeared and I placed a hand out in front of me.

"Almighty Push." The wooden spikes were sent flying back towards the Ten Tails and some of them clattered against each other and fell to the ground.

"Oh a Rinnegan?" Madara raised a brow with an amused grin on his lips, but I glared at him.

"It's not yours to take!" I used whatever I could to destroy the wooden spikes that continuously rained down and some ultimately piercing people.

Neji who wasn't too far from me had tired from using his Rotation too much and a wooden spike knocked his headband off.

As another one was coming down, I let out a Wind Style Jutsu from the palm of my hand which cut the wooden spikes into tiny pieces.

"Thank you, (Y/n)," tiredly said Neji.

Naruto who regained some strength had gone into Sage Mode and created two clones each who had a Rasenshuriken in hand. Naruto and his clones threw the Rasenshuriken at the incoming spikes and obliterated them into ashes.

The clones disappeared and Naruto fell to his knees with the fatigue catching up on him. I stayed close to him and kept an eye out for him as he caught his breath.

One wooden spike rapidly came down and as I was going to use a jutsu, someone else had beat me to it. I looked over my shoulder and saw Hinata right behind and it looked like she had destroyed it.

I gratefully smiled at her and we directed our attention to an approaching hand that was dragging itself across the ground. Hiashi stepped in and placed his hands out and a force pushed it back, but within one of the beast's fingertips, more wooden spikes were launched and directed at us.

Hinata ran in front of me and extended her arms out, but I pushed her out of the way and allowed myself to be up front.

My Rinnegan faded which alarmed me and I immediately placed my hand out hoping the Wind Style Jutsu would work on time, but from the corner of my eye, I saw a blur rush past me and a figure appeared right in front of me.

'Neji!'

I suddenly felt a surge of Chakra rush through my body and before I knew it, I pulled Neji in with the force of my hand and took his place by leaping up and pulling out my dagger as I cut through the wooden spike, but... one small one managed to pierce my stomach and the sickening sound of my skin being pierced open and blood gushing out my body made everyone's head turn.

"(Y-Y/n)..." gasped Neji whose eyes were wide open as he watched me fall midair, but he ran and caught me in his arms before I hit the ground.

"(Y/n)!!" Naruto rushed over to us and snatched me away into his arms and he frantically searched and cried out, "Medical Team! Where are you?! There's a critical injury here! Hurry!"

I coughed out some blood and shook my head at him, "Calm down, i-it's not life threatening."

The wooden spike wasn't major and luckily I was only hit with a small one that had broken in half or else I would be worrying for my life.

I pushed myself off and stood on my feet, but stumbled a little and fell right into Neji's chest. He placed my arm around his neck and was my support to stand up.

"(Y/n)...you should've let it pierce me, not you," his voice was filled with concern yet there was a tinge of guilt laced in his voice for what had happened. "I would be willing to die for you."

"Neji...you're a caged bird waiting to be set free, but... it's not your time yet," I coughed out. I grabbed ahold of the wood and pulled it out and I loudly grunted, but he held me tight to prevent me from falling over. "If I had let you taken the hit, then you could've gotten killed. We're not gonna let our friends die."

"(Y/n)! Are you okay?!" Worriedly asked Sakura who examined my wound and saw the running droplets of blood.

"I'm okay, it's not that....bad...?" I trailed off as I stared at my wound that was slowly healing itself despite Sakura not having performed any medical ninjutsu on me.

'It healed on its own?'

"Huh? How did that happen?!" Bewilderedly asked our teammate, but I simply shrugged my shoulders although I had a feeling I knew who was behind it.

"Thank you, Akako."

"Can't have you dying so early and not by a piece of wood."

"You're right, I'll do better."