Summary: A late night visit from Hinata marks another tragedy in Kurenai's life.
Notes: First: Minor spoilers for chapters 356-396 (somewhere around there). I'm sure there are a million versions of this 'what-if' scenario.
Second: This was posted under the my old name (rougesweet16) but I took down the account. Since this is a personal favourite that I've written, I decided to re-post it.
The Darkest Hour Before Dawn
Kurenai Yuuhi had often thought of the things in her life she thought she had been unprepared for.
She herself doesn't deny that at the time she was assigned as leader of Team 8, she was not made Jounin long before. She thought she could somehow made it up to her team by being the best teacher she could be, and she quickly earned herself a reputation of being a `hard-ass'. Kiba and Akamaru were enthusiasts when it came to training and missions, and Kurenai guessed Shino held the same enthusiasm, though he most likely hid it behind his poker-faced personality.
Hinata Hyuga, however, was a special case.
Kurenai remembers the day she was first introduced to the team and the Hyuga shared her reason for fighting was to change herself. She remembers the long dedicated hours, the many failed attempts, and moments displaying determination and perseverance. Kurenai still winces at the memory of Hinata's fallen body during the first Chunin exams. Then came the day when all of her students made Chunin; Hinata had grown a little more self-assured when it came to fighting, and Kurenai had been happy for her.
Then came the things that Kurenai wasn't ready for.
She remembers falling to the floor after hearing the news of Asuma's death. She barely got by the day at the funeral, dealing with as if it was a bitter pill to swallow. Kurenai worries about raising a child by herself, but then places a hand to her belly while looking at her beloved's grave and smiles, albeit weakly. She had been taking care of three kids before, and she thinks that she'll get by.
Months go by, and as her belly steadily grows, her former students would visit to check on her. Kurenai doesn't find Hinata's frequent visits surprising, nor does she find anything wrong about it, until she hears knocking on her door late one night, during a heavy rain. Kurenai opened the door and found Hinata dripping wet and wearing her usual training attire, and when Kurenai spots white bandages wrapped around Hinata's head, she felt her throat grow tight and her eyes beginning to burn. Kurenai then wordlessly greeted Hinata inside the house, not trusting to use her voice that threatened to break at that moment.
Hinata told her she had just come to take a bath after training that afternoon and that she didn't plan on staying. Kurenai leads her to the bathroom while offering to run the bath for her and only leaving once it has been prepared. She comes back to find Hinata with a towel wrapped around her body as she combs her fingers through her hair. Kurenai doesn't quite know what influences her, but she also offers Hinata that she would wash her hair. Hinata answers by moving over the edge of the tub until her hair falling towards the bottom. Kurenai carefully unwraps the bandages until she spots a green mark embedded on the forehead.
She doesn't hesitate, but makes a hard frown while pouring shampoo into the Hyuga's hair and massaging it until it lathered. Nothing was said during this time, but every time Kurenai glanced at the mark on the brow, she thought back to when Hinata was barely able to stand after having been severely beaten by her cousin Neji, and how Kurenai herself didn't intervene until the match was over.
Kurenai couldn't help but think she that had come too late at another important time in Hinata's life.
After smoothly rinsing the soap out, Kurenai places a towel over Hinata's head and makes sure no water dripped down her face. Once she was finished, Kurenai showed the Hyuga an adjacent room where she could find a change of clothes, then told her she could stay the night since the rain wasn't going to stop anytime soon.
Leaving Hinata to tend to herself, Kurenai makes her way to the kitchen and gets the kettle ready, filling it with water. She guesses that Hinata will have tea later on, but Kurenai knows she'll need something to quench her own dry throat. She wants to say something, but she has no idea where to start.
Sometimes Kurenai resents that fact that the members of Team 8 lead complicated lives. All of them came from respected clans, and she noticed that Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were beginning to work closely with the fifth Hokage. Since Team 8's failed mission to help Kakashi's team track down Sasuke Uchiha, Kurenai had also noticed how her former students were slowly becoming more withdrawn. She had heard they had run into Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru's loyal accomplice, and engaged in a battle with him. The battle was lost; Kabuto escaped, leaving Team 8 gravely injured.
The team was hospitalized at Tsunade-sama's order, her reason being that when it came to Kabuto, the unexpected should be expected. The whole incident left the team on a sour note. During one of her visits, Hinata had told Kurenai how Shino as planning on studying a bit in the medical field, and that Kiba was working on joining the ANBU black-ops. Kurenai had guessed that Hinata herself was doing her own thing, since she was a little reluctant in mentioning anything.
Until now, that is.
When Hinata does finally does come out, she meets with Kurenai in the kitchen, wearing an oversized shirt and a long skirt. Kurenai hands her a cup of tea she just prepared and invites her to sit outside after taking a sip of her own tea. As they both made their way to the sliding doors at the back of the kitchen that led outside, Kurenai took notice of how Hinata looked calm and relaxed. She thinks of how the bath may have helped, but then thought better of it. Hinata must have known what she was getting into.
The two women took their seats on the porch under the shelter of the awning, and quietly drank their tea as they listened to the drumming sound of thunder in the pouring rain. Kurenai closes her eyes. Shino and Kiba will want to see her about this once they find out, but even she won't have an answer for them when that happens.
When Kurenai finally decided they had been quiet for long enough, she takes one last sip to relax her throat and takes a deep breath.
"You'll have to see them sooner or later." She says, as if they were in the middle of a topic.
"Hai," Hinata answers silently, though the way she stares off at the night sky with eyes looking as if they see far beyond that; it makes Kurenai wonder whether she knows her former student as well as she should. When Hinata decides to lean against her shoulder, Kurenai looks down, noticing how the rewrapped bandages hid behind dark indigo hair that was still wet.
"Things will get better, Sensei." The Hyuga then says, which causes Kurenai to make a face.
'Things will get better?' Kurenai didn't know what Hinata could have meant by that. Both of them had lost many things in their lives, and Kurenai wonders how it came to be that Hinata now bears the curse seal. She sighs quietly at the thought, knowing that trying to understand the Hyugas was never worth the time.
All she can see is Hinata's curse mark as another tragedy in her life.
The morning after, everything was covered in dew and looking as if the stars that hid behind dark clouds had fallen from the sky, and made everything on the ground glitter. Kurenai knew Hinata had left early, having found that she left behind the clothes she borrowed the night before. But what caught Kurenai's interest was that Hinata had also left behind the bandages she wore round her head.
Kurenai takes the bandages in her hand while the echo of Hinata's words begins to ring in her ears. She then finally closes her eyes unperturbedly.
Hinata fights hard to keep her word.
Finis