256: Kumo & Konoha (2)

Chapter 256: Kumo & Konoha (2)

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Tsunade was… tired.

Even with her body severed in two, as she laid on the destroyed—brought down to the dust—terrain of Konoha, she didn’t feel any pain or frustration. She just felt tired and… helpless.

Danzo gave his all—using his eleven Sharingans that Tsunade felt disgusted just by thinking how he got them—but he lost. Against Hiruko he fared well enough to stay alive—but when that living God walked upon them, crushing the entirety of Konoha under his floating figure, Danzo fell even with his Izanagi.

The village’s most competent Ninjas were gone. Though it might have been the reason for why the village lost—it also meant that Konoha still had a chance to survive. As long as those Ninjas were alive… so will the village.

But…

Will they survive?

They were running after Neji, and the terrorists who destroyed the village—the Akatsuki—were also after Neji. So the chance was high that they would meet each other on the way. If that happened… Tsunade just hoped Neji would be close enough to help them.

But then again, was even Neji strong enough to go against a God…?

The Akatsuki were after the Nine-Tails, both of whom had left the village with Neji. The criminal group didn’t believe Danzo no matter how many times he told them that the beasts weren’t here and had left with Neji but he had no idea where they left.

At last, when the village was destroyed and Tsunade told them that (the now dead) Danzo was telling the truth they still used ‹The King of Hell› technique to test out her words. She complied since she had nothing to lie for at that point, but she also threatened them, wishing them “good luck” in stealing the tailed-beasts from Neji, if they had the guts.

But truthfully… not only was she bluffing—not very sure if Neji was strong enough to defeat these criminals—her statement also accomplished to anger them greatly, leading to her current state.

The being who called himself “Pain” threw sharp black rods at her, impaling her to the ground. Then Hiruko severed her body in two while the girl of the team, Konan, destroyed her lower half with explosion seals, leaving her severed torso lying down here to die slowly. Now, only Tsunade's ‹Mitotic Regeneration› seal was barely keeping her alive.

The worse thing was, that her torso was still impaled by Pain's chakra-blocking rods. They couldn’t entirely disrupt the flow of her immense chakra within the Seal of Hundred, so she could still regenerate but that won't last long because the rods were doing a damn good job at making her regeneration mostly ineffective.

…She was dying.

She could feel it, her life… slowly but vividly leaving her, the unimaginable pain making her five senses fail—making her world hollow—as she estimated a mere three minutes before her body gave up.

‘Why am I even resisting it…’ the question presented itself in front of her as her vision grew darker. ‘What am I even waiting for? Why not just… let go? That’d make all this pain vanish…’

That'd make things easier.

To just let go. To just… not struggle.

The world grew darker and Tsunade Senju’s thoughts came to a stop. She saw the answer to all her ‘Whys’ appear in her dark, distorted vision, crouching down as he brought her to a hug after making the black rods vanish in thin air with a touch.

'Neji…' Tsunade smiled. Oh god, she wanted to see him one last time before she perished. How lucky, she was having a hallucination of him. 'I…-'

"I am sorry,” a rare, uncertain voice of Neji whispered to her ears. That’s right, it was a hallucination, no way he would ever sound uncertain like that in reality. He… after all… was more of a Kami than that Pain. “and thank you for your faith,”

Tsunade smiled softly, unable to understand his last words, as she released her last breath in his ar-

…

..

.

“…-rebirth technique.”

Tsunade’s lungs filled with air as she gasped. Her eyes opened wide as the world that had gone entirely dark suddenly presented itself in front of her, filled with lots of colours. She could feel her legs again too… with the apparent lack of any pain.

Huh?

Tsunade looked at the face of the… ‘hallucination’, the person who had just saved her, at Neji’s flowery blue eyes that looked back at her.

“There,” Neji said, releasing a breath and smiling at her confused expression. “You’re back.”

Tsunade reached out her hand to touch his face—feeling if this was the reality or not—and released a gasp softly as his soft but firm cheeks, coupled with his strong jawline brushed against her hand.

She opened her mouth to say something—to warn him of the dangers—but he didn't let her. He just leaned over to press his lips against hers. Surprised, she tried to push him away, but he didn’t let go—he grabbed onto her and gently invaded her mouth.

—-—

The attack of Pain wasn’t supposed to happen this early—but even if it did, Neji had hoped with Kakashi’s Mangekyo now more versatile and chakra efficient the village would survive… And in the chance that it didn’t, well, he had already left the village so he shouldn’t care about it even if everyone died there.

That's right, he shouldn't have… yet, look at him now.

Truthfully, as he failed to sense any living human in the vicinity, he really did feel nothing—like usual—but when his eyes locked on the dying Tsunade, all her ‘prayers’ becoming vivid in his mind as he felt her desire to see him before she perished, Neji felt… warm.

Worried, enraged, and angry at himself for letting her experience this—but at the same time, he felt warm.

That’s why he revived her—given her faith was what made him unlock his Tenseigan, but still—he didn't want to see her die. The fact that she called him her son, and how he saw his own mother’s dying image—when Ujir killed her—on this woman, Neji would feel hollow if she just died. 

Just like how he would feel enraged if he didn't get revenge in her stead.

His tongue squeezed around hers one last time before he ended the kiss, watching her gasp as she wiped her lips and looked at him. “Don’t… do that again,” she said in a much gentler voice than he expected her to speak, blushing softly. The blush soon disappeared and she looked around in confusion. “I… Did you revive me, Neji?”

“The Tenseigan translates to the Eye of Reincarnation,” he told her and that answered her question.

Tsunade’s lips thinned as she took in his words, looking at his cosmic blue eyes that were now more beautiful than ever with the addition of translucent flower petals dancing around his irises like a live-wallpaper.

She watched his eyes for a long moment before sighing and shaking her head. Then she looked at the destroyed terrain behind Neji—Konoha that was brought down to dust—and her expression became sour.

“Can you…” she started, “revive the others too?”

This was one reason why nobody should reveal they could revive people. It was either seen as a devilish technique—in case the revived people look like disgusting ghosts—or as a divine, godly one—in case it's a perfect revive. Not that either was better than the other one. People wouldn't always understand that he couldn't revive everyone.

Not that he was hating on Tsunade, it was a justified question given the situation.

“That’s not possible,” Neji shook his head. “I would need a body for that, at the very least. Half of your body was gone, but it luckily still worked, however the dead behind me didn’t leave a body. Was it the Rinnegan's ‹Almighty Push›?” Tsunade looked surprised at his right guess and nodded. “No wonder. A technique that can tear the entire village apart can surely do the same for the countless unlucky human bodies who happened to be in the range of the technique, which was basically every citizen of Konoha. Unfortunately, I can’t revive anyone who doesn't have a body or has been dead for more than a year.”

His last warning wasn’t necessary in this context—but it was necessary for Tsunade in case she got the idea that she could ask him to revive Dan maybe. That’s not happening with that time-limit restriction. If he still had «Rewind» then maybe… but not without it.

Also, if Neji killed a guy with his own hands—thus receiving Levels—he wouldn't receive any more levels if he revived and killed the guy again. Last night with Samui when he fucked her to death and thus earned 15 levels, he was planning to do the same to her again—but that’s when Sisty warned him of this. Apparently, the ‘essence’ that the gamer system takes from a dead-being was already gone even if the person gets revived. Though they can regain that essence over time and can later be killed for level again. But Sisty didn't know the exact time.

“Oh…” Tsunade slowly nodded at his words. “That’s… sad. Almost the entirety of Konoha is gone… then.”

“Yeah,” Neji remembered a few people he wished had not died. Shizune, the nurse he dated, the Onsen owner… “I guess… Did nobody else survive?”

“I did warn Shizune to take anyone she can and run through an underground escape route located in the Hokage tower. But… I am not sure if they made it since that foolish Shizune decided to be a hero and come out to take as many people as she could with her…” Tsunade seemed to be on the verge of crying again. Neji softly hugged her shoulder. “Sorry… I can’t be sure if she escaped safely.”

Nodding to her Neji’s eyes shone softly as he looked underground, his now Level 4 Lord’s Eye—having fully unlocked the entirety of Tenseigan—could see a whopping 100 kilometres in all directions. With his gaze focused on the underground, he could locate about five dozen people running through a tunnel under Konoha. By then they were a few kilometres away from Konoha.

Also, since he was looking underground, he noted multiple underground facilities mainly under the clan compounds of big clans—such as the Yamanaka—where Jutsus were kept hidden. So he could still take what he came to Konoha for, the Yamanaka Jutsus. Thank luck.

“Don’t worry, she escaped safely,” Neji ignored it for now and let Tsunade know about Shizune. “Some others did too. A few Hyūgas have survived as well…” he trailed off before he snapped his head at Tsunade. “Wait, where is Hinata? Did she fight in this battle?”

Neji knew the fate she faced against Pain in the canon timeline—and the one she would have if Naruto didn’t exist. This time around, Naruto really didn't exist…

Tsunade, who was relieved at the confirmation, was startled as he snapped at her. “Ah… oh, that…” she trailed off, an ashamed blush on her face. “Well, so what happened was…”

Tsunade told Neji the story—how more than a dozen Ninjas were after him—naming everyone one of them. She seemed to be expecting Neji to get mad, but he just shrugged it off. Well, at least they survived. Not that he hadn't expected for such a thing to happen when he stole the forbidden Jutsus. Nothing to be mad about.

Now a bit more relieved that almost everyone important has survived, Neji created two clones and sent them both to do two important jobs. One was to steal Yamanaka Jutsus, and the other was to go help the escapees.

The Neji here rather rose in the air with (a confused) Tsunade on his arms.

“...What are you doing, Neji?” Tsunade asked as she wrapped her hands around his neck tightly to not fall. 

“To the Rain Village,” Neji looked down at her. “I can’t let some bastards come and hurt what's mine, and just get away with it — can I?”

Unlike how he expected, Tsunade didn’t retaliate against his claim, nor did she say that he shouldn’t go after them, that he was too weak—No—she just stared at his face with a slightly agape mouth before nodding with a thin smile.

As he literally felt her faith in him, along with how touched she felt, Neji hugged her tightly and flew.

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