Title: Haunted
Author: Neurotic Engel
Summary: She's coming apart right before my eyes. She's seeing too clearly what she can't be, and it's tearing her apart from the inside out. –The re-mastered and fairly edited addition-
Rating: R/M
Genre: Angst and lust filled pain.
Warnings: Possible spoilers, OCs, and possible- more than likely, OOCness.
Pairing: TayuHina, one sided TayuIno, and mentions of InoSaku. Oh, and let us not forget NaruHina. One sided of course.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and I shall never own the rights to the series.
Part: Prolog

AN: After running several different takes on what to do with this fanfiction, I decided to tear it apart at the seams. Changing many things and yet nothing at all. The original pairing didn't sit well with me any longer so I wanted something else. Something along the lines of 'what if the Wolf was not the danger Little Red should fear, what if the Wolf was more of a protective guide?' Alas, I am much more pleased with my newest take on the original idea. And Tayuya and Hinata are so different... it would take a lot to make the pairing work. A challenge I was, and still am up for.

Please enjoy the re-mastered version of Haunted.

♪I need not to need
I've always been the tower
but now I feel like I'm the flower trying to bloom in snow♪ - Vienna Teng

The soft footsteps echoed through the almost immaculate streets of Konoha, for rain washes away the sins of man. She hated it here. It was too innocent, too pure. Too encased in it's purity to really understand what pain really was. What the sting of loneliness brings. The vicious cycle of the constant battle to control all and itself, whatever it was. If only she had died once the tree crushed her abdomen, then she would not have to suffer this torment. Suffer the accursed sting of loneliness. Suffer from constantly festering wounds that no one could heal. She wrapped her arms tightly around her shivering form. With eyes half lidded, enough so she wouldn't have to stair at the empty streets, she continued her sluggish trail. To continue forcing herself to live this sick, fucked life. To really know that she was alone and yet not alone. Her fingers clutched at the thick polyester-cotton blend of her thin hooded jacket. Long dark ginger locks polled in the soaked hood and tumbled down her boney shoulders, down her back. The rain came down harder with brutal force. She ignored it, forcing her body to continue moving. Fight off the cold.

"Stop!"

She did as she was commanded, only because a young brunette with odd clear eyes- all seeing pale eyes, forced her too. The younger woman grabbed onto Tayuya's forearm desperately. Those unreal eyes were wide, pleading. "P-Please stop this madness," she whispered as tears slipped down pale cheeks. But why? Why would this pure creature that lived in a fantasy world cry? Why would she plead for the Sound kunoichi to stop? The questions flickered in Tayuya's clouded thoughts. Who was this girl anyway? The answer came as her hand pressed against the center of the younger woman's chest, shoving her back with all the strength she could muster. "Damn it Hinata!"

Hinata stumbled back, Tayuya's arm slipping out of her grasp. She regained her balance and watched in shock and horror as the older woman drew out a kunai, her flute long forgotten. She brought it up defensively, her fingers tight on its bound handle. She was trembling in a mixture of emotions. Ever since her near death, she had never been the same. Never would be the same. She had lost her boys, her precious boys to unfit nin. Her brown eyes held an amber tint as the pain began to eat away at her once more. A constant reminder that she too was unfit to call herself kunoichi. This time it was more painful than ever before. How could this happen to her? How on earth did she loose her only family? She would make this village suffer. She would break an innocent, she would- she would . . . what could she do?

Lost in her jumbled thoughts, Tayuya didn't sense it when the Hyuuga heiress drew near cautiously. Didn't realize she had dropped the kunai. Didn't notice she clung to the younger kunoichi like she had held onto life. She was weak. She was tearing at the seams. She had nothing left.

"When? When did I lose everything?"

Hinata stroked the ginger haired woman's back as she did her best to soothe her. She had know how badly injured the Sound nin had been when they brought her to Konoha, and, after the interrogation, she was almost unfit to become part of civilization. Ino and Hinata had seen this coming, the look that showed that someone would finally accept the death they had been marred with since birth. The look that had shown brightly in those dull brown orbs. She had seen it in so many eyes of the kunoichi. So many eyes of the shinobi. So many . . . too many.

Tayuya, though a missing Sound nin, was still a ninja, like her, like all of them. Even with her curse seal, she was still human. Still a woman. Still a living, breathing creature on this god forsaken earth. Hinata, although flinching at first, had managed to weakly smile as Tayuya screamed out her pain, the words and sound muffled by how close her mouth was to the younger woman's jacket. The heiress continued to stroke the woman's hair. Listen to her muffled and broken words.

"Sakon . . . Ukon . . . Kimimaru, why didn't you take me with you?"

Pain and defeat laced those words like arsenic in wine. Hinata realized all too soon once those words left Tayuya's mouth, she was losing the battle. She had heard those words from others. Had heard, although it was a mistake, those words from Sakura once upon a time ago when she had been crying to Ino so long ago. A mere few months ago at the hospital. The pink haired kunoichi had built a wall around herself, much too high for Ino to try and climb over. Much too thick for Ino to break through. Sakura had, in the end, taken up training under the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. Ino had loved Sakura far more than anyone. Hinata knew only because she had observed the events. Being there but not being there. A shadow upon the wall. A nobody with no reason to be there but is always there when one needs them. Now, looking at the pitiful state of the last of the Sound Five, she realized how much Sakura had been broken within those moments that Hinata had watched over her.

Because . . .

Tayuya was falling a part right before her eyes. Falling into the same trap she had slipped into long ago. Caught by the spider… by the wolf.