Indefinite
By Airyo
Chapter 1
"I'll find my way back to you."
They both knew it was a lie.
"Then," he promised, "I shall wait."
Hinata blinked away the blurriness and readjusted her reading glasses. The words on the page still contorted into meaningless squiggles. With a sigh, she shut the book and looked out the open window. The moon hung low and swollen, as if it was leaning in to peer at her accusingly.
"Oh, stop it," she scolded. In response, a swell of summer breeze darted in, teasing the wisps of her graying hair. Hinata shook her head with a chuckle and set aside both book and glasses. She must be going senile, talking to a big hunk of rock in the sky.
Not that anyone would blame her. After her husband Kiba passed away last year, Hinata lived alone in their house outside the Hyuuga complex. Their children had their own families and her eldest grandchildren were busy with their genin duties. Even though the footsteps of her friends and family often filled her hallways, the still hours in between were cold and bare.
Hinata pulled her lavender shawl closer to her slim body. Those were the thoughts of a lonely, old woman, and she wasn't nearly so lonely nor old. Maybe she'll get a cat like the infamous Tora and send harried genin after it. It had been amusing when Naruto had tried that, though his cats were so desperate to escape the aura of the Kyuubi that they left a few unfortunate genin with interesting facial scars. Maybe that had been Naruto's plan, so he could have a new generation share, at least superficially, his whiskers.
Which reminded her...Naruto was visiting tomorrow. Hinata stood up in a smooth but careful motion. Her joints were paying her back with interest for all the battles she survived, but the grace she won was still apparent in her every move. She padded to the kitchen, taking inventory of her ramen supply: three pork miso, and five beef. She will need to make trip to the market the next morning.
She went after she had dusted every corner and ledge of her house. Familiar faces greeted her on her way, and Hinata took the time to stop and chat with each.
A pleasant surprise came in the form of one of her younger grandchildren, Hyuuga Chouyou. Her Academy class was out on a field trip.
"Hina-baba!" the little girl squeaked in greeting. Hinata couldn't resist pinching her fat cheeks in passing, much to the embarrassment of Chouyou. She watched her granddaughter stomp off after her teacher and could not help but laugh. Everything was so dramatic through a child's eyes.
Their first real meeting was tangled in the vague memories of childhood, yet still neatly bound up by tradition. She was four. He was nine. A birthday party. Banners. Cake. Beautiful silks dyed with the colors of a dream. Polished manners. Dirty politics.
Dirtier looks.
He saw her crying in the bushes. Rather than expose her, he drew away their attention, and let the birthday girl hide.
"Thank you," she whispered when she was seeing off the guests.
He smiled.
The younger brother could never compare.
After returning from the market, Hinata boiled water and filled instant ramen cups that lined her counter. A quick glance out the window showed that the afternoon sun was already beginning to droop to the horizon. Naruto was tardy. Hinata frowned and headed for the front porch. It would not do for him to pick up bad habits from the late Kakashi now.
She stepped outside. It was seemed quiet for a lazy summer evening and even the cicadas seemed less raucous. Hinata checked for stray buckets of water or erasers above her head.
"Boo!"
"Naruto!" she yelped. The culprit leaped down from his perch on the ceiling her porch, cackling as he danced around her.
"Didn't expect that one, didja? Genius, yes I am!" Naruto gloated. She looked up at him. The strain of the housing the Kyuubi took its toll, but even if his face was now creased with laugh lines, age had not diminished the sky blue of his eyes. The forgotten threads of her childhood crush twinged in her chest. Hinata sighed and ushered him inside.
"If you keep wasting time, your ramen will get c-"
She did not get a chance to finish her sentence.
"Thanff for fa raman!" the blonde chirped through a mouthful of noodles as Hinata entered the kitchen. At least Sakura had managed to train him to throw away one empty container before starting on the next. Hinata made tea and took a seat across from him, soaking in the chaotic noises of the one-man food-bucket in action.
Naruto never forgot. Every year on this day, the anniversary of His death, he visited and kept her company.
"Why do you mourn?" Naruto had once asked her. It was the sort of blunt question that only he would ask, because everyone else was too kind or too understanding or too apathetic. It had still surprised her, for those were his first words in the month following Sakura's passing.
Sakura had looked hauntingly beautiful at the funeral, and Hinata knew even now Naruto still saw her when he looked at the faces carved on to the Hokage Monument. Next to Naruto's face was one was in the likeness of their son, with no reflection of the wide grins and dancing, intelligent green eyes of Uzumaki Sasuke in person. Sakura had given her life to save him after she'd beaten the assassins to literal pulp, and Naruto and Sasuke will always remember and honor her for the sacrifice.
"For no unusual reason," Hinata had answered Naruto that day as they looked up at the faces of their leaders, past and present. "I mourn because I know that I've lost something that is more precious than words can convey. And there isn't a thing I can do to change it."
"Does acknowledging that make it better?"
"It doesn't make it worse."
The next day, Naruto had returned with a forced grin, ready to take another shot at molding the world into place where no more precious people would be lost. Hinata still had a hard time believing that the man who bent all the Hidden Villages into a tight alliance was the same old fart who was now choking on his ramen.
"Slow down," she chided as he thumped at his chest. He shot her a noodly grin and kept going at the same pace. Minutes later, when all the empty containers were neatly tucked in her garbage can, Naruto leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh. Hinata poured a cup of tea for him and pushed it forward. Steam curled up between them, otherworldly against the afternoon sun. Naruto's smile faded as he studied her.
"How've you been doing?" Even after so many years, Hinata felt uncomfortable under the kindness of his gaze. Still felt undeserving after what she had done.
She spoke to Itachi once more before he left the village. She had stumbled onto his preferred training clearing in search of a place to be alone.
She narrowly evaded a kunai to the face and escaped with a hairs fewer. She froze and turned to the source.
"Ah! I a-apologize for the intrusion," she said quickly when she realized this hidden sanctuary was already someone else's. She bowed and began to retreat.
"You dodged." He sounded surprised.
She frowned, even though she should not feel indignant.
"W-would it have been better...if I didn't?" she murmured to the ground, missing the faint quirk of amusement that tugged his lips.
"I was aware of you," he assured her. She felt her face heat and she shook her head.
"N-nonetheless, I'm sorry for interrupting y-your training."
She fled the forest.
Six months later, he fled the Leaf.
It did not make sense to her - how such a kind person would do such a brutal thing. While everyone else fussed over the tragic circumstances of the younger brother, she could only wonder if the elder was any better off.
AN: This could be in the same world as my oneshot 'First Impressions'. Because I can.
This was originally pieces of an oneshot that's been sitting on my harddrive since before 'Come Full Circle', so the format is very similar to back then. But I'm polishing up this little jerk and kicking it out to the interwebs because it cries "finish me…." to me everytime I open up my documents folder.
On the bright side, expect (relatively) quick updates, since I'm just fixing it up here and there. :D