The Exiled Prince; the Truth Revealed Hinata stood panting, having defeated all the corpses with little trouble. I hope Barahime is okay, Hinata though as she ran down the cave. With the Byakugan activated she could see all around, including underneath her provided she focused her attention on the ground. Seeing no enemies left at the cave's front, she was worried. She doubt that they had been hoping for the dead to finish her off since she had beaten them once before and had the advantage of having the cave's entrance to limit the directions they could attack from. Why do this unless... They wanted to distract me! Looking at the ground she saw a humanoid below her ascending at a rapid pace. Leaping out of the way to evade the attack from the younger Hitsugi twin, she struck the assailant with her gentle fist. Taken by surprise, the Hitsugi shinobi was sent flying back into the cave tumbling across the ground like a rag doll. "You're as good as Itamu-nee says!" Maiso said with a wide grin on her face. "You even turned hit my tenketsu to limit my chakra flow and stun me! I hope Neesan turns into a masterpiece like she did with Sizume-san." "Masterpiece?" Hinata asked, worried that the worse has fallen the female warrior. "Before the rigor mortis can set in or begin to decay, she washes the entire body in its insides with preservatives and chakra infused chemicals that continually creates calcium ions to fuel the contractions of the muscles. It's a lengthy procedure that takes a few days to do, but the end result is worth it. Though I hated pretending to be Sizume-san and be nice to you guys the whole time!" Hearing what the kunoichi said, Hinata shocked. "Pretending to be Sizume-san... a number of days... "Then the herb?" Hinata asked, realizing that they all had been duped. "I made it up. I needed an excuse to leave our own hideout. Though I wouldn't worry about you friend. Sizume was only instructed to kill the princess," the kunoichi said with a smile. "I wander how many little pieces did she cut her up into!" Maiso giggled in a sick manner. "No!" Hinata cried, running down the cave. "What a foolish girl, just turn your back and drop your guard to an enemy. Well it doesn't matter. I lost as soon as she countered my attack. Besides, our favorite of Itamu-neesan's masterpiece, Shiryu will take care of her." Maiso said with a laugh. As Hinata ran down the cave, she couldn't believe how foolish they all were. It will be all my fault if anything happens! If only Naruto-kun was here, she thought. Though she idolized the young shinobi so much, it seemed that her mind refused to show his face. Instead the face that came to mind was Tenten's who probably was no doubt sleeping in a peaceful sleeping as death encroached upon her. Forgive me! Hinata thought, pain filling her heart. Tears brimmed on the edges of her eyes as her sadness began to fuel a strong remorse. NO! I MUST PROTECT THEM! EVEN AT THE COST OF MY OWN LIFE I MOST PROTECT THEM! A lone figure standing in faint light stopped Hinata. From the way he dressed, Hinata could easily guess he was one the enemies. It was their Hitsugi's cousin silent cousin. Bowing before Hinata the mysterious shinobi formed hand signs and removed his mask. To Hinata's surprise, the shinobi's face was hers. Not only his face, but his entire body became a copy of her. "My older cousin had told me everything about your fighting style the last time we fought. Though it seems you have a bloodline, I think I can compensate for the difference in our abilities." The shinobi said in Hinata's voice. "I will enjoy our fight, Hyuga-chan!" "Yes, you who lived a life of comfort and luxury that should have been mine! You who was pampered and loved when I was left to fend for myself once I grew old enough to do so and never loved by my foster mother! You who stole my life!" the man hissed, grabbing Barahime by the throat and hoisting her into the air. "You know nothing how much I suffered because of you! But now, now I can have my revenge! I'll make you suffer as much as you made me!" The princess, still lost in the shock despair of losing her beloved Sizume, made no attempt to fight free from the man's iron grip. Presently wasn't aware that anybody except her and Sizume existed and couldn't feel the pain caused by her own brother choking her slowly death. "Yes, hadn't you been born, our mother would have changed the laws our country just for me and I would have grown up to be first male ruler in a long time. Of course, I wouldn't allow any other men into this country; why should I when I could have all of the beautiful women to myself? Yes, exile the ugly ones and keep the rest as my personal slaves..." the man said with a twisted laugh. "As soon as you die, I'll have the Hitsugi bring you back and denounce you're right to the throne and pass the crown to me! Yes, it's still possible, but you must die first!" What brought a reaction to Barahime wasn't what her brother said, but the tears that began to fall down Sizume's lifeless face as the dead warrior's body began to shake. "I-I won't l-let you k-kill her!" the warrior cried, charging the man clumsily. "I will not let you kill the one I love!" "Sizume..." Barahime whispered, a sad smile crossing her face. Hinata and in the imposter traded blows with incredible speed. Though the imposter was incapable of channeling his chakra through his hands like Hinata, she suspected that even in this form being hit by him could dangerous. Hinata even had an upper hand with her Byakugan, but so the enemy. Where she had exhausted herself in the previous battle against the swarm of undead, the enemy seemed to be at full power. Eventually her opponent would outlast her and at the that moment, it would all be over. She had not but only one choice: defeat her opponent before it was too late. Remembering what Tenten had told her about her own battle against the same opponent, it seemed that the opponent was capable of performing all techniques the opponent can provided that they've seen it first. Since he claimed to be told about her fighting style, he must have in some way also experienced her techniques meaning that Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho" (Protective Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms was out of the question since she was forced to use it against the swarms in the three attacks). Also seeing that he recognized her as a Hyuga meant that using "Hakke Sanjuni Sho" (Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms), to which was purely a weaker form of Hakke Rokujuyon Sho (Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four palms), would not be effective either. All that was left was... "Juho Soshiken!" She cried, charging her opponent while spinning. Chakra massed around her hands, resembling the heads of two tigers at it struck the imposter square in the chest, knocking across the cave into one of the walls. "A new technique to which I cannot copy or dodge, good planning Hyga-chan! I don't know how much longer you can fight or how many times you use that technique, but it doesn't matter. I've stalled long enough, though it don't worry; the princess will be fine. It's not she we are after," the imposter said with a gentle smile. "What?" Hinata said, confused to what her opponent had said. "You see our real mission was..." the imposter began returning the mask to his face to dispel the transformation and then removing it. The man was shocked at the sudden change of events and couldn't move, though he didn't realize that was because a pair of hands that extended from the ground clutched his legs and prevented him moving until it was too late. With a downward slash of her naginata, the warrior cut off cleanly his hands, causing Sizume to fall the ground. Turning the naginata so that bladed faced towards the sky, the warrior slashed up, nearly cutting the man in half, but nonetheless inflicting a fatal wound. As the hands in the ground let go him, the man fell to his knees. "W-what's the meaning of this!" "You were our real target all along; your mother had hired us long before you did on her death bed, wanting to protect her only heiress," Itamu said as emerged the rest of her body from the ground. "Our mission was to locate ever one who wished to permit men to enter Yuri no Kuni and eliminate them. Also on the chance that you appear by one way another in the country we would draw close to you in order to learn of why. If it became clear you are a threat to the country, we were to eliminate you as well, but not before confirming it." "You traitorous bastards!" the man cried, coughing up blood as he drew closer to dying. "You are fool to think that you could simply find a group of Iwagakure shinobi wandering a foreign land just for the sake of it! Even if you promised to pay us three times our original client, we obey all orders of the Tsuchikage and never abandon a mission given to us! For ignorance we controlled you like a marionette." For once the gloomy woman smiled, a hideous, mocking smile. "Let me send you to hell personally..." Drawing a scalpel from her clothes, Itamu brought it to the man's forehead and killed him personally. "Of course none other us and daimyo knew about the mission so that we could locate our targets easier and eliminate them. In fact, all of our jiang shi you defeated were once them," said a girl looked much like the Hitsugi twins, but was clearly older than either and wore the robes of their cousin. After removing her mask, her body transformed, becoming feminine. "Because of nobody knew the real reasons of our actions, the princess had hired you to protect fearing that we were going to target her next." "Then why did you kill Sizume?" Hinata asked. "So that she didn't have to suffer anymore. She never told the princess, but she was slowly dying from an incurable sickness. Before hand though we had informed her of our true goal and offered she wanted to help us. She gladly agreed though begged us to let her be the one to lead her to our target. It seemed that didn't trust us completely, quite shrewd of her in fact, and wanted to insure her safety. Oh by the way, before it's too late, I suppose I should give the antidote to our poison. Consider it a reward for defeating me," the kunoichi said, pulling a small vial from her clothes and threw it to her. Hinata caught the vile in her hands and looked at it suspiciously. "Don't worry, why should I give you something to kill somebody whose already on their death bed?" the kunoichi with a reassuring smile. "However, there's a special method to which you have to apply it. It's a secret of our clan so don't tell anybody!" Though Hinata wasn't sure if she could trust the kunoichi, she had no reason to give away clan her enemy's secret when one of them tells her herself. "I won't." "Good, you must remove the stopper and..." After the exiled prince's death, Sizume ran over to Barahime and removed the served hands from around her neck. "I'm so sorry for what I had to do, milady! I couldn't bare the thought of them capturing you so I chased you here myself! What I have done is unforgivable!" The undead warrior cried, tears streaming down her face. "I thought I had lost you Sizume!" the princess said, tears streaking her face. "I didn't think I could live without you!" The princess embraced warrior tightly and cried into her bosoms. "But milady! We cannot be together any more! I am no longer alive! I'm a monstrosity that will outlive you!" The warrior said, unconsciously wrapping her arms around the princess to comfort her. "It doesn't matter! I will always love you no matter you become! As long as you're with me, I'll be happy!" Barahime exclaimed looking into the lifeless eyes of her lover with unerring determination. "Our cousin would envy you, Sizume. Her love was not so open minded," Itamu said with a sad tone of voice. "Our mission has been completed, but we must still return to the capital to confirm it with our village. Since I doubt your original guards still live, as an unfortunate result of pretending to serve our target, we shall escort you there as well. I just need to gather the rest of my team who should be returning anytime soon." Tenten slept peacefully, seeming to not have been awakened by all the fighting that had happened throughout the echoing cave. The fact that her breath was calm brought hope to Hinata's heart. Sitting beside the sleeping kunoichi she followed the instructions given to her by her former enemy, Hitsugi Shiryu. "You can't simply apply by itself for it's in fact the actual poison we use, however if dissolved in saliva, it transforms into antitoxin that will cause the body become immune to the poison and remedy its effects. Of course with how long it's been in her body, her saliva has already been compromised thus will cause the poison to dissolve so in other words you'll need to dissolve yourself and administer it to her via mouth-to-mouth," Shiryu's voice said in Hinata's memory. Pouring it into her mouth, Hinata blushed, thinking of what came next. The poison dissolved relatively quickly, allowing for it to be applied incase any of the Hitsugi's allies were to become infected by their own poison. Even though this was merely a means to save her comrades life, Hinata couldn't shake the feeling that she was performing some sacred act of a forbidden ritual. Pinching Tenten's nose so that she be forced to breath through her mouth, Hinata leaned down and pressed their lips together. To Hinata's shock, Tenten suddenly opened her eyes at that very moment, her face turning deep crimson in color. Hinata, having already transferred the antidote, sat straight up and attempted to explain the situation without very much luck. "They're cute when they're young," Shi Long said a smile, walking up to them. "Surely they're in denial!" Maiso said, massaging the area that Hinata had hit her. Though Tenten didn't recognize either of them especially with Shiryu in her true form, she recognized there clothes. Drawing a pair of kunai, she took a defensive stance, not at first realizing that she could move freely. "Hold on now! We're not enemies!" Shiryu said, waving her hands before. "At least not anymore!" "So they are still alive after all," Itamu said gloomily as she walked down the cavern with the princess and warrior in tow. Seeing her cousin unmasked, she added in a obviously surprised tone "I never thought you'd reveal your true self to the enemy!" "Don't worry, I trust they won't tell anybody about my secret especially after I gave them the antidote. However, we will have to improve the rate of poison in case we ever fight again," Shiryu said before returning the mask to her face and becoming the androgynous and silent person she had been before. "What's going on?" Tenten asked looking at the three members of the Hitsugi clan were ever so casually conversing with one another. "I-I can explain!" Hinata said, still blushing. A full moon lit the night as a small sailboat approached the shore of Yuri no Kuni. Each wore hooded cloaks that hid their identity and provided protection from the weather. "If our information is true, then Kyozame Kuroki and her allies have escaped into this country," said one of them, petting a cat that laid curled up in her arms. "Because of the country's laws, no men can enter reducing the number of hunter nin that can pursue her. This is incredibly thought out for a mindless killing machine Kyozame to come up with such a plan, she's purely amazing." "It's not her plan then. She cares only about killing and doesn't try to cover her tracks. The fact that knowledge about her whereabouts and any current mysterious murders that have reported have ceased to exist until now means somebody's gone to the length to shield her from us... No matter who this master may be our missions stands and we shall only pursue Kyozame herself," the other said. "You know, this country has a special tradition... They say when two women confess their love one another that nothing can separate them!" the first said nestling up against the second. "P-Please remember we're on a mission!" the second cried embarrassedly. "We have no time to play around!" "Ah, you're no fun!" the first said in disappointment. As they nearly reached the shore, the two figures looked determinedly at the land thinking, You will pay for your crimes against the village! Directing the sailboat towards a nearby village, they both reached into their hoods and each removed a mask signifying them as hunter nin from Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in the Mist.
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