A/N: This is actually a rewrite of a story that I started and then removed because I realized that I was accidentally writing two different stories into one which didn't work out. It's for the 100 Themes thingy and yes, it's a SasuHina, so if you hate the pairing that gtfo. If you are a regular reader of mine and are wondering why the hell I haven't updated Dance With the Devil in like five months, it's because I've had zero inspiration and I've also been really busy getting ready to apply for college and the like.
Anywho. Enjoy.
-Dreameratheart
TITLE: Hyaku no Kotoba (lit. One Hundred Words)
Chapter One: Introduction
Author: DreameratHeart
Pairing: SasuHina
Theme: 1. Introduction
Summary: Most stories have a beginning. This one has an introduction.
It is not a happy one.
General Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot.
Introduction:
- "A formal personal presentation of one person to another or others."
- "A preliminary part, as of a book, musical composition, or thelike, leading up to the main part."
It's dark, and for the first time in a long time he's scared.
He doesn't want to die. He never did. That was never his goal - he wanted to kill others, not himself.
That's the cowardly thing, to kill oneself. He used to think about it, but then Itachi would win…
It's funny. He was really just a tool in the end. Just like his brother, even though this time he wasn't used as a tool to end a clan, but to commit suicide with him as the weapon of choice.
And now that Itachi's gone, he can't let Konoha win.
They'd like that, wouldn't they? If he tried to kill himself.
Not really. He knows that and that's the worst part. He knows when he gets out of here - wherever 'here' is - they won't kill him. They won't keep him in prison.
They'll use him like they used his brother. They'll use him like they're using Naruto.
And now…
The last thing he remembers is a pair of silver eyes, burning with white fire. He remembers pale hands glowing with blue chakra. He remembers a sharp pain in his eyes when the glowing hands had brushed his skin.
And then he couldn't see.
It wasn't Naruto, was it? No, he remembers grabbing Naruto mid-Hirashin. He was remembers his katana and the blood and the screaming…
It was the Girl who had been screaming.
He can't remember Her name, or what the eyes mean, though he thinks it's significant.
He's terrified of this Girl with the glowing blue hands and the burning silver eyes, and if he ever gets out of the darkness, he's going to kill Her.
He'll rip out Her eyes first, those eyes that saw through him and saw his strengths and saw his weaknesses and saw how to beat him.
He'll make Her fear the darkness, too.
Now he's frowning. He can feel heat, but it's not fire, so he knows he's not dead and in hell.
He can hear a sound. It's annoying, a beep-beep-beep that makes his head throb. He can feel his heartbeat in his eyes and a memory flashes in his mind. Another beep, another heartbeat, another day in the hospital. There's another sound, too; a faint humming, musical and light. He thinks maybe it's his mother, watching over him.
She would be so ashamed. He prays for her forgiveness, but what was he supposed to do? Let his family's death go unavenged? Let Itachi's death go unnoticed?
No. That's not how he was raised.
Now he can smell. There's rubbing alcohol and old blood and trees and…wet dog? And…vanilla. A trace of cinnamon and lavender. The scents are stronger now. It smells nice, like home and safety and lost childhood. He misses that smell.
And now there's taste…dry. His mouth tastes dry, dusty. And the parts that aren't wet or dry are…gooey, he guesses. It's gross.
And then there's a touch.
It's a light, ghost of a touch. The skin belonging to the hand that touches his cool, damp forehead is soft and yet callused at the same time. It brushes back his hair in a motherly fashion before it spasms, like it's thinking about jerking back. Then the hand flattens and presses against his head before it disappears. It's the first touch he remembers in a long time that hasn't hurt, and he wants it back.
He inhales deeply through his nose, and fresh air tickles his nostrils. But the air doesn't quite get there. His back arches as he tries to breath, and he realizes something is in his way. He reaches up and while he does his eyes flicker open.
"Oh no you don't." The voice is gentle, but he knows that voice and he knows it's screams.
And the darkness is gone.
And then the last thing he saw becomes the first thing he sees.
And he reaches his hand out and all he can think is "not again".
She hates this job.
She hates the smell of sterile hospital equipment. She hates the stark whiteness of the room. She hates the looks Ino and Sakura give her when she's allowed to leave (which isn't often, just for training, which she'd do anyway, and occasionally to check up on her sister and clan and family. This patient needs constant supervision). She hates the ever-present beeping of the heart monitor. She hates that she's a killer pretending to be a healer. She hates she can't be with her sister who lies in a comatose state two rooms over. She hates that she can't mourn her losses with her last remaining teammate.
Luckily Hokage-sama has had mercy on her and lets Kiba stay with her.
Of course, Hokage-sama wouldn't want one of his best assassins going insane, so it's probably for the best.
And that does make the job worth it. Now she doesn't have to deal with the public, face her responsibilities of her new position as clan head. Her new responsibilities of being a guardian to a baby.
Akamaru is asleep at her side, and she reads through a book on child care while she hums a lullaby her mother used to sing. She turns the pages with one hand and strokes his head with the other. Kiba is getting lunch so she waits for him to return.
Sometimes she worries he won't return, because Shino never did and she doesn't think she'd survive if he left her too.
This is how it's been for a month.
She watches over the 'special patient' whom she dragged in herself. Who she defeated only after he nearly killed the one boy she's ever loved.
It irritates her to no end. Why not Sakura? Or even Ino?
Both actually care for the man-boy, and both are actual medics. Both have a decent knowledge of seals.
But no. Hokage-sama says he needs someone who isn't emotionally invested (which makes absolutely no sense. Of course she's emotionally invested; it takes all her self-restraint not to kill the damn boy.) and he doesn't need a healer, he needs a sealer, and as a kunochi she knows the basics anyway.
Which is why she's here-he's not restrained in the conventional way. No leather straps, no strait jacket.
But she knows the seals are there and she knows how to use them (she made them after all) and that's all that counts.
Not that it matters. He might not even wake up. He could be in a coma forever and she knows her conscience wouldn't suffer. And if he doesn't wake up within the next month, she'll be sent back to reality. Which would be nice on one hand but would also really, really, suck.
Now she lifts her head up and tucks a lock of indigo hair behind her ear. Something just changed.
It's the beeping. It was faster, just for a moment, but there it is. And his breathing, quiet as it is, has become labored. His eyes are moving rapidly under his eyelids and his hand twitches.
"Kiba," She breathes rather than speaks, and Akamaru is up in a second, leaving the room to fetch his partner. She goes to the side of the hospital bed and the veins beside her eyes expand.
She looks past the twisted, dark, deformed chakra network and the seal marks burned on his pale flesh and looks for the blood and the organs and the body. She sees his heart beating and the blood flowing through his brain.
She's a living, walking x-ray machine. But sometimes she likes to forget she's just a tool in the end and she pretends they need her because she's special, because her Byakugan can see so much more than just chakra and points and the standard distance for the average Hyuuga. But then she remembers, and her mind snaps back to reality.
Now she stares down at this boy with her special eyes and by reflex she smoothes back his dark, unkept bangs and checks for a fever. She nearly jerks away when she realizes what she's done, but she reminds herself she can't be afraid anymore and she lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. He doesn't have a fever and she takes her hand back. She fights the urge to cradle her hand to her chest like it's been burned, but instead, it drops uselessly down by her side and she watches him with a sort of terrified interest.
His nostrils suddenly flare as he takes in a deep breath, and he arches his back. He looks like a cat; all sculpted muscle and thin bone structure. He's kind of beautiful, in a dark, twisted way.
Then suddenly, his hand moves up to remove the cord that lets his comatose body breath even if it doesn't want to, and she no longer sees pale butterfly eyelids but darker-than-black eyes.
"Oh, no you don't." She brushes his hand back just as his eyes open completely. The consequences of her actions don't even register till the next second, and she knows it's too late and thanks god for her unorthodox training because she's going to need it. Her second thought is that Kiba is going to walk in at the wrong time and kill the patient. And then Hokage-sama will yell at her and Naruto and Sakura and Ino will hate her and she wonders if she'll really care.
And his hand stretches out.
And it slides through her silky blue hair.
And it wraps around her slender neck until his tapered fingers close around her throat and he begins to squeeze.
Black meets white.
Dark meets light.
And so it begins.
This is their introduction.
Perhaps it is not pleasant. It isn't what's expected.
But it is what it is.
And this is only the beginning.
fin.
R&R.
- dreameratheart