Well, it's happening.
I'm getting bored with my other story.
Writer's block on Konoha on High.
I want them to be together, but I just don't think it's a right time.
But every other chapter they just sink lower with each other.
I don't know.
I read this poem in class and I just couldn't stop thinking of using it in a story.
And I had a really good idea for this one.
I was going to make this SasuSaku, but NaruHina just worked better.
This is based of the poem The Highwayman.
It's great.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Highwayman, but it has been tweaked a little by me.
I do not own Naruto characters.
THE NINJA
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor,
And the ninja came running-
running-running-
The ninja came running, up to the old inn-door.
The blond haired man ran through the trees, his sandals hitting hard and fast against the dirt path.
His breathing was shallow in his throat as he came closer and closer to the inn. He jumped up and started to swing through the trees, his blue eyes sharp as he gulped, his throat burning.
He coughed, tightening his forehead protector around his head, his brow furrowing as he came closer to where she would be.
Where he could see her before he left.
He'd a Konoha ninja band on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the color orange and sleek black breeches;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his bandages were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle,
His shuriken a-twinkle,
His kunai a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky.
He came into sight of the huge inn, and noticed a window open.
Her curtains—
Where she slept
Her curtains—
Swayed loosely. Her could hear her voice.
She was singing to herself an old song that he had told her was his favorite.
A tune to which she and himself had taken a liking to, and a tune at which she whistle if she ever came to find herself missing him.
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his fingers on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled their tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's silver-eyed daughter,
Hinata, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
The blond man grinned as a curtain of velvet silk washed over her face as she giggled, happy to see him.
His heart skipped and he tried his best to climb the vines that led up to her window, but he was too tired.
He wanted to make sure this would not be the last time he would see her.
Hinata began to whistle the tune to him, and all the ninja could do was sway to the melody, her voice like bells.
And dark in the old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Kiba the farm boy listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair tossed in his face,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the ninja say-
The ninja's face saddened. He knew the ANBU would be after him as soon as word caught around about the scroll missing.
"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,
But I shall be back with the golden scroll before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."
Hinata's lip trembled, but then she forced a smile.
She knew her love would have to be all right.
He was strong.
She trusted him with her own life,
But feared for HIS own.
She began to tug at the ribbon.
He had given her a song, and now she would let him have her.
She bent down, her hair flying.
The blond ninja stood on the tip of his toes, pursing his lips as he took the velvet curtain in between his fingers.
He rose upright in the vines;
he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair from the ribbon
His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his chest;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his ninja band in the moonlight
and ran away to the West.
Hinata sat in her room through the whole night, never sleeping.
She brushed her hair over and over until it began to shed.
She sighed, watching the sun rise over the hill to the West, the direction in which her love had left.
She began to whistle her tune.
Silence…
She whistled again.
Silence…
Tears stained at the corner of her eyes as she hummed to herself the tune, placing her hand over her heart.
Her pulse was fast and excited as she thought of him.
Naruto Uzamaki.
She waited another day, whistling here and there…
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon,
When the road was a gipsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
An ANBU troop came marching-
Marching-marching-
Hokage Tsunade's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
"What are you doing here?" The landlord demanded, tightening his robe around his masculine chest.
The men with masks sad nothing as they made themselves comfortable.
Then, one of them snickered.
"We've come for your daughter's lover."
They said no word to the landlord
they drank his sake instead
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her chest, with kunais at their side
There was death at every window
And hell at one dark window
For Hinata could see
through the window
the road that he would run.
"Shut up." One of the men snickered, and pulled out a gadget.
Hinata's silver eyes widened, and a man tightened the rope that held her thin wrists together behind her back.
She had heard about these things, but they were forbidden.
Guns.
Weapons used for an easy kill, but were passed on as illegal after shooting one of the Hokage heirs.
Hinata's tears began to stain her fair skin, her straight velvet hair was held by one of the men's hands.
Hinata whimpered and whined, but one of them kicked her.
They waited, looking outside the window.
They went through her drawers.
Hinata's heart pounded, the ribbon around her mouth made her feel so helpless…
Naruto…
They had tied her up to attention
with many a sniggering jest;
They bound a gun beside her
with the barrel beneath her breast
"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her
She heard the dead man say-
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight
though hell should bar the way!
Hinata squeaked to herself, her tears staggering in her throat.
She feared so much for him. Her dress began to tighten around her, and the man tightened his grip on her hair for only a moment before releasing her.
He moved away, and the man with the gun tossed it behind Hinata.
They moved to wait behind her, talking among themselves.
She twisted her hands behind her;
but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till here fingers were wet with sweat and blood
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like
years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold,
on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it
The blade at least was hers
Hinata's eyes widened as she felt the cold sting of the gun underneath the tip of her fingers.
Her words were caught underneath her skin, but she could hear the tune in her ears as she trembled.
The tip of one finger touched it;
she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention,
with the blade beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing;
she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain.
Hinata looked to the window, her silver eyes trembling and her pulse quickening.
Tat-tat, tat-tat!
Had they heard it?
The sandals
clicking clear;
tat-tat
tat-tat
in the distance?
Were they deaf that they did
not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight,
over the brow of the hill,
The ninja came running,
Running,
Running!
The ANBU looked to their priming!
She stood up strait and still!
"What is she doing?" One asked aloud.
The landlord's daughter gasped sharply, standing up.
Sweat trickled down her cheek, her mascara dripping underneath her lashes.
She took in a breath, humming the tune in her head.
A tune to Naruto Uzamaki.
Tat-tat, in the frosty silence!
Tat-tat, in the echoing night
Nearer he came and nearer!
Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment;
she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him-with her death.
The blond ninja stopped running.
He heard a sudden boom.
His breathing stopped, and his fingers ran over the golden scroll that was at his side.
He thought about Hinata, but he knew the ANBU might catch him if they were at the inn.
He prayed to himself, hoping Hinata was okay.
He turned; he spurred to the West;
he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head over the musket,
drenched with her own
red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it
his face grew grey to hear
How Hinata, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's silver-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.
The blond ninja held his head down.
He covered his arm across his face.
His tears began to stain his skin as he trembled.
He thought of her, waiting for him, so innocent…
But she had risked her own life.
Back, he spurred like a madman,
shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red was his shuriken in the golden noon;
orange was his baggy coat,
When they stabbed him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway,
with a bunch of lace at his throat.
The ninja lay there, sweat trickling down his cheek.
His glass blue eyes wide like a dolls… lifeless and cold.
His chest did not move.
He watched as his world began to sink away, the ANBU coming closer.
He could hear the tune in his head, playing lonely for his lost love.
And for his lost life.
He longed to have her in his arms, and the last thing he ever wished to see…
Were those silver eyes, smiling down on him…
And still of a winter's night,
they say,
when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon
tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight
over the purple moor,
A ninja comes running-
Running-running-
A ninja comes running,
up to the old inn-door.
Over the cobbles he clatters
and clangs in the dark inn-yard,
And he taps with his fingers on the shutters,
but all is locked and barred;
He whistles their tune to the window,
and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's silver-eyed daughter,
Hinata, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.