Naruto attempts to counter Baby

The moment Naruto's foot crossed the invisible line of surrender, Baby acted—a silver, writhing mass erupted from Sasuke’s mouth and ears, abandoning the Uchiha’s body in a glistening flood. Sasuke crumpled lifelessly to the balcony floor, his silver-streaked form discarded like a broken shell, while the parasitic essence surged toward Naruto, tendrils darting for his nose and mouth, eager to claim the Nine-Tails’ power. Naruto’s blue eyes flared with **** resolve, his hands snapping together as chakra roared into his palm, a Rasengan spinning to life—a defiant beacon of blue light against the crimson-lit nightmare. “Not today!” he roared, lunging to slam it into the oncoming silver, the air trembling with the promise of impact.

But before the Rasengan could connect, his body seized—pain, unbearable, suffocating pain—erupted through his chakra network. His legs buckled, the orb flickering out of existence as he collapsed face-first onto the cracked stone, the blast scattering harmlessly into sparks. His breath came in ragged gasps, his limbs locked, refusing to obey as his chakra drained away. Twisting his head, he saw Hinata standing over him, her Byakugan blazing, her hands glowing faintly with the remnants of Gentle Fist strikes. She’d hit his tenketsu—all of them—in a precise, devastating flurry, sealing his chakra points and leaving him paralyzed. “Hinata… why?” he choked, his voice cracking with disbelief as the infected thralls around them held their kunai steady, blood dripping down their throats in eerie unison.

Hinata’s breath hitched, her lavender eyes wide with horror as tears streamed down her face. Her hands trembled violently, still pulsing with the energy that had struck him down, and she stared at them as if they belonged to a stranger. “I—I didn’t—” she stammered, her chest heaving with erratic gasps, her pupils dilating as the weight of her actions crashed over her. Baby’s silver essence recoiled from the Rasengan’s near-hit, twisting back into a shimmering silhouette above Sasuke’s fallen form, his laughter a dark, velvety hum that slithered through the air. “Oh, Hinata, my fierce little puppet,” he teased, his disembodied voice a caress laced with cruel delight as he descended, hovering closer. “Did you really think you were ever free? That dart outside Shikamaru’s house wasn’t just a sleep trick—it planted my seed in you, waiting for this moment.”

Her hands flew to her mouth, a shudder running through her as nausea twisted her gut. Her Byakugan flickered, tracing the faint, insidious threads of silver buried deep in her chakra since that night—latent, unnoticed, controlling her strike against Naruto. “No… no, I didn’t—” she whispered, stumbling back, her gaze darting between Naruto’s betrayed, helpless eyes and Baby’s taunting form. His smirk widened, crimson eyes gleaming brighter as he savored her horror. “You were mine all along, darling,” he purred, his voice silken and victorious, “and now, thanks to you, he’s mine too.” Naruto lay sprawled at her feet, his breaths shallow, his body disabled, while Hinata’s mind screamed in denial, the realization sinking in that her hands—her own hands—had delivered him to their enemy, her betrayal a noose tightening around them both amidst Konoha’s ruin.