The rain had stopped.
The clouds looked as though they had been split apart by a massive axe, revealing a ghastly white fissure. A beam of light stabbed down onto the lakeshore, strewn with mud and shattered wood, making it glisten with a dizzying oily sheen.
Naruto pushed away the medical ninja who had approached him.
"I'm fine."
The medical ninja froze with bandages in hand and looked pleadingly toward the Kirigakure ANBU beside him.
No one dared move.
Eureka stood behind Naruto, his servomotors emitting a low hum. Rainwater still dripped from his Power Sword.
Naruto glanced down at his chest.
His trench coat had become strips of cloth hanging from his body. The bandages underneath were soaked through with blood and water, heavy and sodden.
It hurt badly.
He had probably broken two ribs, and his lungs might have been bruised. Nine-Tails' chakra was repairing his body, mixing numb tingling with stabbing pain until it made him want to vomit.
But he had to remain standing.
He was the commissar. A commissar could not appear weak.
"Commissar."
Eureka's mechanical voice echoed within his helmet.
"It is a pleasure to fight alongside you again... Also, someone is coming."
Naruto raised his head.
The distant blockade had been forced open.
A figure came stumbling toward him.
Hinata.
She was covered in mud, her white uniform now grayish brown. Her long wet hair clung to her face, and none of her usual refined grace remained.
She was running too fast and tripped over a tree root.
She fell headlong into the mud.
The Kirigakure ninja nearby wanted to help her up.
But she scrambled to her feet with both hands and feet, not even sparing a glance at the blood on her knees, and kept running.
As if ghosts were chasing