Chapter 16: Interview with a demon: Hinata's Wish!

Hinata felt numb. She felt as if someone had dunked her in ice and slapped her across the face. Her heart seemed to stop with a crash.

"D-… dying!?"

Naruto winced, but nodded nonetheless. Hinata felt her breathing begin to quicken rapidly, far too rapidly to be good. Naruto could tell she was beginning to panic, and yet felt helpless to stop her.

"He…. He can't die! If he dies… if he dies… then won't you…"

Naruto nodded before she could muster up the courage to say the last word. She grew tremendously pale and started shivering slightly. This couldn't be happening, Naruto couldn't…. he just couldn't die!

A single tear escaped Hinata's eye, and before she knew it, she was sobbing like a lost child. Naruto took her into his arms and she cried out every tear she could've possibly had onto his chest. Hinata sniffled softly after about fifteen minutes of crying loudly, her hands clutching Naruto's torn shirt. Here eyes caught the edge of the seal on Naruto's stomach, and her grip suddenly tightened. Naruto looked down to find Hinata tearing away what remained of his shirt, placing her hands on the seal.

Had her hands not begun to glow blue with chakra, he would've asked what she was doing. Instead, he barely managed to shout, "Hinata-chan, wait, DON'T…" but it was too late. Hinata went limp in his arms, and he could feel another voice enter his mind… a soft, gentle female one…

She had been in Naruto's mind before. She remembered the dank, chilling air in the Kyuubi's jail. But things seemed to have gotten ten times colder and darker, she thought to herself.

She turned the corner and instantly shut off her Byakugan, keeping the Kyuubi's still enormous chakra reserve from blinding her. As she approached the cage, the bars rattled as claws scraped against them, and a low, threatening growl filled the room, echoing off the stone walls.

"What are YOU doing here?"

Hinata, after questioning her sanity in going inside Naruto's head several times, called out meekly. "Naruto says that you are… dying." Kyuubi chuckled, followed by a few hacking coughs.

"Did he now? I wonder what gave him THAT idea… so why are you here?"

Hinata gulped down her fear again, "I… I came to see the truth. Are you dying or aren't you?" Kyuubi chuckled again, his laughter becoming quieter and more raspy.

"And why would you care? I figured you and the rest of Konoha would be glad to get rid of the terrifying Kyuubi no yoko, the nine tailed fox. Why would you…"

Hinata cut him off quickly, her voice rising in volume. "I am here simply because if you die than Naruto is going to die as well!" Kyuubi was silent for a moment.

"You are wasting your time, girl. If you intend to try and heal me to help your beloved than you are out of your senses."

Hinata's eyes narrowed, her expression becoming more angry than upset. "I am not so unskilled as to not be able to heal wounds and illnesses, fox." Kyuubi growled loudly, then roared at Hinata.

"DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IT CAN BE HEALED TO YOU!?"

Kyuubi howled in pain as he grabbed his two dead tails, flinging them out between the bars. Hinata leapt back in time to keep from being crushed by them, but that didn't make what she saw any easier to stomach. The tails were quite dead indeed. They were shriveled like raisins, bleeding from several places, and had taken a disgusting pale green hue amidst the yellow and blood stained fur.

"This is not a wound that can be healed, snot. It can't be healed because it hasn't stopped growing yet. And it will CONTINUE to grow until I am nothing but a memory locked away inside this blonde idiot's skull…"

Hinata shook her head, feeling new tears threatening to fall, "NO! I won't let you, I won't let you take Naruto away from me!"

Kyuubi's eyes flashed into vision, along with most of his gigantic head. "What are you…" Hinata would not be silenced though, not even by the thousand year old demon.

"Naruto is everything to me, don't you understand!? He helped me become the woman and the ninja I am today! I'm his wife for a reason, I am the mother of his CHILD for a reason! I can't just let him roll over and die just because you finally reached your limit!"

"Girl, you don't understand…"

"WHAT!? WHAT DON'T I UNDERSTAND? YOU'RE GOING TO DIE AND NARUTO…"

"NARUTO IS NOT GOING TO DIE, YOU STUPID LITTLE FLESHBAG!"

Hinata froze in place as Kyuubi continued.

"IF THAT BLONDE MORON WAS GOING TO DIE AS WELL THEN I WOULD AT LEAST BE TAKING THIS IN STRIDE RIGHT NOW! BUT NO, MY POWER IS BEING DRAINED AWAY, MY VERY LIFE FORCE TAKEN FROM ME, AND FOR WHAT!? SO THE FOURTH HOKAGE COULD FINISH WHAT HE STARTED ALL THOSE YEARS AGO WHEN HE FOUGHT ME!"

Hinata stammered, "But that still doesn't explain how…" Kyuubi roared again and pointed to the seal on the cage.

"It doesn't!? Oh, I think it does. Think about it, why do you think I was sealed inside Naruto in the first place?"

That's when things began to click inside her head. "To keep you from hurting anyone… including Naruto…"

"And to one day be able to provide this brat with the power he needs to protect his pathetic little village; that I, ironically enough, would like nothing more than to see incinerated for what they've done to me."

He tapped on the seal again. "Why do you think this is here? If it was just a lock to keep me in, I would've broken it and Naruto would've been dead years ago. But no! Yondaime had to seal me in with a jutsu only HE knew about!"

Hinata looked up with wide eyes. "So then… Naruto isn't dying as well… he's…"

"Absorbing my chakra, melding with it until it becomes a natural part of his own body."

Hinata's heart stopped again, but this time for a much different reason. She suddenly felt a little warmer inside. Naruto was going to be alright!

"Girl… it's happening again… get out…"

Hinata stood firm, and the Kyuubi made to bark at her again, but his pain stopped him from doing so. One of his tails slithered out between the bars, and Hinata watched in shock as the orange chakra and life was drained from it with a sickening gust, flying into the seal on the cage, before it was released into the walls and ceiling, even the very air of the prison in Naruto's mind.

Hinata felt the energy pulse past her, until it eventually faded, leaving the room even colder than it was before. Kyuubi coughed out a howl and clawed at his bars in pain. Hinata approached the newly dead tail, and was a foot away from touching it before the beast howled again.

"DON'T TOUCH IT, YOU STUPID LITTLE GIRL!"

Kyuubi suddenly stopped talking, as he saw Hinata's Byakugan glaring at him from the dark. Her voice was firm, but still gentle as she spoke to him. "I sense much anger and distress in you, demon. But I also see a sense of honor in you. I know you will not harm me because of that."

Hinata's hand began to glow a pale blue, and she gently touched the newly dead tail. It flashed white for a second, and then disappeared in a swirl of dust. Kyuubi snarled and howled in pain. Hinata walked to another dead tail and did the same thing, then over to the third. Kyuubi howled with each tail that disappeared. But then… he suddenly felt his pain decrease.

"By removing your dead tails, I can at least make your final days a little more peaceful." Kyuubi regarded her with utmost suspicion, with a slightly puzzled frown.

"Why are you doing this? I thought you hated me a moment ago…"

Hinata scoffed. "I do hate you, don't worry about that. But though I may not like you, I do owe you my gratitude for protecting Naruto all these years. Without a least a little of your strength he might not have lived up till now. And for that, we both will honor your passing once it occurs."

Kyuubi didn't speak for a while. He indeed felt much less pain now than he did before, his lungs and heart seemed to be under less pressure. He felt lower than ever before, not only was he going to die, but it seemed like he wouldn't even have all his tails intact when he did, thanks to the seal and Hinata's insistence on easing his pain.

"I've destroyed villages, eaten things ten times your size alive and very nearly destroyed your own village. I've made your beloved's life hell as a child and have hung over your village's elders like a plague ready to rise at some unknown signal. By all counts, you have no reason to be helping me."

Hinata only sighed and chuckled slightly.

"Well, you know us humans, logic is never as easy to use for us as it is for you." Kyuubi narrowed his eyes at her attempt at humor. Still, the shadow of a smirk crossed his furry face.

"I hate to admit it, but maybe the snot is smarter than I gave him credit for… he chose you after all, and that in itself seems to speak volumes on his judgement…"

Kyuubi cast out his giant paw, a single claw pointing behind Hinata.

"Get out…"

We're in the final quarter folks. Things are coming to a head now.

Next time, "The Finals Begin: Chouji's New Opponent!"