Originally, this was going to be an ItaHina, even though I don't really like that pairing all that much, but I couldn't make it work.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
It was raining; somehow, it always was when Hinata met new people. Blood dribbled on the ground with the rain, and they were both exhausted. The day was dreary and dark despite only being early afternoon; the whispers were all in the air yet were left unsaid.
Her fingernails were driven brown with mud and drying, congealing blood; her long black hair coiled around her neck like a live snake. She squinted slightly, and tensed as he came upon her.
She bit her lip, but did not run. She wasn't going to run; she was too tired, and she wasn't the sort of person to run anymore. Hinata had grown; she would not throw away her growth and her maturity because of her fear.
Uchiha Itachi loomed over her, tall man that he was. His black eyes were opaque and empty like old family tombs that no one visited. His hands held no kunai; he seemed to be unarmed.
Hinata stared up at him, trying to be defiant, yet finding herself quailing without really telling herself to. Itachi, without trying, gave off the sort of air that made one fear him or at least not want to meet his eyes; for Hinata to even do that required nearly all of her courage and even that was starting to wane.
The first soft words were spoken by him; Hinata was not about to initiate any conversation. Her reserves were depleted, her muscles screaming like a caterwauling cat; she was tired and unwilling to speak or run.
"Why are you out in the rain, Hyuuga-san?" She could only assume he had noticed her eyes, as downcast as they were, the blank pearl eyes that were the trademark of her clan.
Hinata looked away, unable to keep his gaze anymore. The crimson clouds on Itachi's cloak swirled angrily, living things that didn't want her there. Hinata could only guess why.
The dull roll of thunder (everything seemed muted that day, even the thunder, and the lightning that didn't come at all) boomed in the background, shuddering the deciduous trees so much smaller than the ones in the heart of Hi no Kuni, making their soft leaves shiver and quake, their whispers growing stronger.
For a moment, it was silent. Hinata curled her legs in a fetal position under her, like a wilting plant, and Itachi merely stood, the rain soaking him as much as her, tall and angular like a tree off-center.
Then he knelt by her, and Hinata didn't feel any better about the situation, because he must have known how useless she would have been in a fight at that moment to have been getting so close to her.
Dark black eyes stared into her own, and Hinata felt cold, wondering if she would be killed. He was less than a foot from her, and he wasn't renowned for a merciful nature, not by any means. Her heart pounded beneath her flesh; her eyes grew round and hollow in her pale-skinned face.
"Hyuuga-san, you should come in out of the rain." A slightly stern note entered his voice, and Hinata seriously considered the possibility that some time during the day she had somehow shifted into an alternate dimension where reality was tipped on its head.
Abruptly, Itachi stood, and stared back down at her out of his masked eyes, the collar of the cloak concealing the slope of his mouth. "Can you stand?" he inquired almost curtly. "Can you walk?"
Startled, Hinata answered before she realized the words were spilling from her mouth as milk used to do when she would accidentally tip over the cup as a child. "H-hai."
He started to walk in a different direction, into the woods. "Then come."
They walked slowly, Hinata behind him and keeping her eyes downcast on the soft wet grass that crunched beneath her feet. He was a good half-foot taller than her, at least, and if she looked up, keeping her head neither high nor low she was staring at the middle of his back, at the black linen and red embellished clouds. As she walked, silently, slowly, she could help but wonder why, except that maybe if she had to meet her fate, she'd rather do it gracefully.
The sky shattered over their heads repeatedly, blue gray to black to deep coal mine gray, and Hinata started, her heart thumping unevenly, every time it changed pace.
.
They were sitting, and Hinata huddled as close to the fire as she could without the popping sparks catching on her clothes. The glittering inferno was controlled, scarlet and gold, shifting shades and identities as Hinata tried to trace the shapes and the faces she saw staring back at her out of the fire; her knees were folded to her chest like a collapsible chair, her plastered hair growing slightly frizzy as it dried.
Itachi sat further back, in the shadows. Hinata didn't know how, but he seemed less menacing, less threatening, as her defenses lowered and her tense nerves relaxed. His face was a cast of thousands, flicking from mask to mask as the fire danced and rippled over his face.
Just a moment ago, every cell in her body, every nerve fiber was telling her "Hurry, run! Hurry, run!" The animal instinct she had always known. Then, everything stopped, and Hinata just wanted to be dry again.
Strangely enough, bizarrely enough, despite all the crimes he had committed and everything he had done since then, despite his fearsome reputation and the blood liberally caked on his hands, she didn't fear Uchiha Itachi. He had given her no reason to be afraid, and for Hinata, that was enough.
"Are you well, Hyuuga-san?" When she thought about it, his voice was a cool, soft one, unfitting for someone who had the supposed blood thirst running through his veins. Looking at him, Hinata could hardly believe he was a kin slayer.
Rain dripped off of a leaf near her; water droplets dripped on to her hair, beading and sparkling. "Well," she whispered in response. There was a question, hanging on her tongue, that she was too polite to ask because she knew it would sound churlish and ungrateful; Hinata had never been good at starting fires, and she has always been grateful for the presence of someone who is.
In the growing darkness and the shadows dancing between them, Hinata thought she saw Itachi nod.
She bit her lip momentarily, then decided that for that moment, she would have to pose a rude question, for nothing else but to sate her curiosity. "Wh-why?" Hinata was dismayed to discover that her stutter had returned with a vengeance, but she wasn't sure that it could be helped.
A moment passed between them, in which the moist air grew heavy and condensed.
A soft suggestion of a smile lingered across the Uchiha's face for a second, then disappeared so quickly that Hinata couldn't be sure that it had ever existed at all. "Because I can."
The rain fell softly, not reaching them in quantities great enough to extinguish the fire. Hinata closed her eyes, leaning back against the moist tree trunk. It would be a long night.