Dear Readers:

disclaimer: I do not own naruto or any characters associated with naruto- I also do not have any intention to sticking to naruto canon. I have watched approx. 200 episodes of the show and have not had the time to continue please do not expect me to know more than what I have watched. i have taken a lot of artistic liberties.

I am Inky, I will be your storyteller for the duration of this fic. Please read the following before diving into the story as it can be confusing.

My stories Stronger and Softer were written a very long time ago for me but I have had a nagging feeling that there were unsaid, unwritten things hiding within the chapters of that fanfiction. I have reread them both and wincing at many inconsistences I have decided that I would like to write an alternate story to Softer.

Imagine, if you will that instead of getting Hinata out of the Akatsuki headquarters Sasuke and the team fail. Imagine then that Itachi has Hinata for much longer than weeks or months.

Imagine, that she does not free Hate.

This is the alternate story, this is what may have happened, if the Rookie Nine lost that battle, and many more thereafter.

If you have not read Stronger or Softer this story will be very difficult to understand so please read those first.

As always my writing is powered by reviews. Less reviews means less updates, especially now that I have other responsibilities to attend to.

I have not written in a long time so please be gentle

-inky

Deep breath in and out. Just breathe, in an out, in and out...

Eyes closed she focused on the swirling forms of color, the oil like substance floating in the black water that was her mind's eye.

Breathe deep, in and out.

The pain was making red hot bits of red flash like thunder through her blacked out gaze and she winced, for a moment losing the rhythm of her breath. Like stumbling in the dark her breath hitched and sputtered, and the flashes of red began to turn into muscles, first in her arms, aching and then growing into a full blast of razor sharp heat that extended from her wrists through her fore arm and biceps into her shoulders and down her back.

She was clenching her eyes closed now, straining to keep from panting with the strain but it was lost, the moment of concentration had vanished, and her chest was heaving threatening to hyperventilate.

Oh no, oh no no no...

His voice came through the flashes of red and purple in the dark, as unwanted as the pain. She wished she could shut her ears the way she was able to shut her eyes.

"Come out of the stance." it was an order, low and silky and unimpressed.

Jaw clenched hard enough to make her teeth hurt she blinked, and the world came into focus. Upside and in a complicated yoga pose she gazed first at the moss below her face, damp and green from the sweat trailing down her neck and off her cheek into the forest ground below.

Then the shadows of the trees began to shift like light in the ocean depths, moving slow and steady with the wind.

And then she could see the soft black and red of the coat in front of her, hiding the feet of the person who hid the voice which made her shiver and lose her balance, landing awkwardly but on her feet from the one handed yoga stance.

Eyes lowered she stared at the black and red coat, gaze shifting anywhere but his face. Always keep your eyes down, always...

But also as always he didn't allow that, moving slow and silent towards her, gliding like some deathly ghost through the underbrush. It didn't matter how much she trained, his tread was non existant, his movements like a cloud.

Cold smooth delicate hands rose to her face, tracing the line of sweat as it slid from her jaw line down her neck, down down down to the curve of her breast.

Her breath was coming fast now, a tinge of terror, a gasp of exhaustion, who knew.

His other hand trailed up the other side of her body to her face, tilting her chin up, so that lavender pale eyes met the black and red rotating gaze before her.

Not again, please not again.

"You did not last even as long as yesterday." he murmured, peering at her over the height of his coat neck, studying with imperceptable eyes the smooth cold attempt on her face. All the muscles were in the right place to say she was unafraid, unimpressed, impassive. Yet her eyes...

He tore into them, gorged on the terror and feeling within them, there was more but he could not quite read it, spread across those lavender pupils in a language he did not understand, and yet present. Always present.

He could feel her soft breath on his cheeks, trailing down into his coat, caressing his lips.

"You do know what happens... when you fail to meet my expectations."

"P-please..."

But it was too late, already she was being dragged into him, feeling her soul escaping through the small frightened part in her lips, sucked into him as he breathed in, consumed completely by the rotating darkness of his gaze. And like always she didn't know if she would ever get out. She could hardly even remember there being a time when "out" was an option... It seemed as though the two options had been the same for as long as her mind could remember. One nightmare within his gaze, or the nightmare without.

"Sasuke."

Sakura's voice was soft like the underbrush beneath the moss of the forest ground. His dark eyes lingered on the horizon, watching the sun sinking beneath the tree tops. Another day.

Another miserable day.

He did not turn to look at her sitting a few branches below him. Her eyes would be filled with tears, as always. He was impressed that she could summon the energy to cry every single day that passed.

Each day was like a wound for him, burnt shut by the tendrils of light that made the sun die. He never bled from them, he only felt their tightness in the scar tissue they left behind.

"Sasuke, you need to eat something."

The muscles of his jaw worked for a second, flexing with mild irritation. He didn't bother to argue. That would take words, that would take energy. He had neither to spare.

Slowly he began the climb back down, past her without getting too close. The smell of her was always confusing. Both female and soft, and sweet and terrible. It made his stomach turn and his head dizzy. It reminded him of her, and yet made him nauseaus.

Sakura did not argue with him or continue to nag on the way down. Everyone had lost a bit of their edge on this trip. Months of sleeping in the cold, wet sometimes freezing landscapes always chipped away at people. It tore and cut until only a small shiny thing was left behind. For him however no one could find value in the onyx black thing he had uncovered. There would be no diamonds for him... just shadows.

"Teme." Naruto's voice lifted soft and gentle as Sakura's up into the branches from below. Sasuke didn't bother glancing at him as he landed on the camp ground floor. A fire had already been built, food of some sort bubbling on a small pot in the depths of the tinder and wood. He felt for a moment the thickness of his tongue and the disgust with which his body responded to the smell of food.

"Tsunade left a message." Naruto murmured, throwing him a scroll. He walked away towards the packs on the ground, pretending to not be watching him out of the corner of his eye as he unrolled it.

Sasuke sighed, knowing well what would be on that scroll. He opened it, glanced at it, and threw it in the fire. The ink caused the sparks to fly high and indigo in color as the jutsu within was burnt away.

"When will you be leaving?"

His voice was more than just dark, it was brittle and cracked with disuse. Naruto sat up, surprised to hear it in the coming darkness. It had been several days since the last curt words the Uchiha had spoken and it seemed each time he graced them with speech the days dragged on longer between bouts of pleasantries.

"We never said we would be leaving." Sakura stated from the branch above his head, he could feel her stare on his neck. It carressed its way down the side of his face, it traced the line of his face, it heated with her intensity, scorching him.

He winced.

"You should." he kept looking at Naruto, studying his pale face, the dirt and light from the fire causing shadows to dance along his cheeks and forehead.

The kyubbi vessel let his eyes slide for one second from Sasuke to Sakura and back. He took a deep chest expanding breath.

"We need to discuss this a bit... don't you think, Sakura?"

Sasuke nodded curtly at him and moved to get to the packs beside his friend but Sakura's voice broke the silence after a pause.

"No. I don't think so."

"We need to at least think about the consequences of our-" Naruto began, surprising himself by the fact that he was being the voice of reason.

"No." Sakura interuptted sharply, jumping down.

Sasuke lifted his pack off the dirt ground, brushing away the mud and pine needles with one hand.

"We're talking excommunication, Sakura." Naruto continued softly, eyes searching her face fervently for some shred of sanity. "Your family is back home. You would never be able to see them again- you have to stop and think-"

"No." she shook her head her pink hair flying back and forth. "I'm not leaving. We need to keep looking we need to-"

"I want you to go." Sasuke cut in quietly, back to them both.

The fire crackled, and Naruto hung his head, rubbing his eyes hard with cracked dry hands.

"Sasuke, let us just process for a minute. Don't start off like that. Tsunade had to send that message, you know she would back us against the Council when we returned with Hinata. You know that."

Sakura nodded. "You can't go on by yourself, you could be out here alone for..." she stopped, realizing what she was saying.

"Forever?" Sasuke supplied, his voice flat.

Naruto didn't drop his hand from his face. He knew Sasuke had stopped counting the days, but he and Sakura knew. Everyone else knew the exact number of days. 1897 days, and counting.

Mission after mission after mission. Sometimes with a flash of red cloud on black cloak sometimes with nothing, not a sign for months, and years.

But never, not once a glimpse of her black hair, of her pale eyes, of her ivory skin. Never.

The Rookie Nine had deployed without permission over and over. The years had dragged on and with each mission the Hokage was facing more and more political pressure to control her recruits, to keep track of her charges.

And people changed, there were engagements and marriages, babies even. Tenten and Neji were rarely able to drop everything and rush into the fray to search. Hanabi was leader of the Hyuuga and couldn't simply disappear for months chasing a trail of smoke that may or may not produce her sister.

Everyone had grown numb.

Sasuke however had remained steadfast the same way a person holding on to a ledge above a building grows steadfast. Knuckles white, breath coming in gasps he held on and kept looking. The ledge seemed to get smaller and the drop further but he held on, against all the odds.

He had not returned since his initial search for her, since the battle at the Akatsuki stronghold where he had destroyed Orochimaru and watched as his brother disappeared with Hinata's lifeless body. He had not stopped, not even to tend to his wounds.

Often Sakura and the others had to track him down, patch him up, force him to stop and when unable follow to make sure he didn't die alone in the endless wilderness searching for her, bleeding out from the last battle.

It seemed like forever. It really did.

"Sakura." Naruto finally sighed.

In their adulthood he had grown steady and calm, like an iceberg of power and strength he moved through their triangle of relationship smoothly, calmly. He watched as Sakura's attachment to Sasuke grew and bloomed before his eyes. Sasuke might call him Dobe but he wasn't an idiot. He had eyes.

"We need to go back. When he comes back with her he's going to need people in his corner. He's going to need people in power in his corner."

The words came out of him as though they were prepared and thought out but he was really pulling them out of nowhere. He had no idea that Hinata was even alive. But he knew one thing, and that was that excommunication would eventually kill Sakura. She was the village, she was part of it's beating raging heart and he and the rest of his generation were the future. They needed her.

As much as they needed Hinata and Sasuke but growing up had taught him one thing. When to admit defeat.

"No." Sakura grunted, the irritation showing now. "We can't."

"We can come back once we secure approved deployment." Naruto conceded.

"You go back." Sakura muttered, raising her chin in defiance at him. "Do what you like."

Silently Sasuke listened as Naruto held his breath.

"It doesn't matter." He finally cut in, hearing Naruto go to speak. "I don't want you here, either of you."

"You don't mean that." Sakura began, her hands clenching at her sides painfully.

"It doesn't help." he snapped abruptly, throwing the words over his shoulder with force. "I will have to do things neither of you can stomach to find her. I have been playing by our rules this entire time. It is not working. It's time to play by theirs."

Naruto shook his head, eyes closed. "Stop, Sasuke."

He never used his name it made Sakura look back and forth between the two men, swallowing hard. "You don't mean that, Sasuke. You don't. You're one of us. We are who we are because we don't play by their rules-"

"I was never one of you." he turned, the defiant frown on his face drowning out her words. "I have never been one of you. I am Uchiha, I know how to find her." His arm flexed deftly beside him for a moment a sparkle of chakra wavering in the air between his finger tips. "I will find her but not with you."

"She wouldn't want it this way." Naruto snapped, stepping between him and Sakura as she began to approach with tears in her eyes, hands raised slightly in supplication.

"Hinata wouldn't want you to do this- you know her-"

"No. I knew her. Whatever is left if she is alive will not be who she was- don't you understand?" His hand came out abruptly shoving Naruto back a step by the shoulder, making the blonde's eyes narrow dangerously. "She's gone. It's been too long. We, all of us, have failed."

"She can still be alive, Sasuke." Sakura began, her voice wobbling.

"None of you will recognize her." Sasuke snapped, eyes flickering from the blonde to the med nin angrily. "But I will."

"No." Sakura whimpered, burying her face in her hands.

"You can't do this, Sasuke." Naruto whispered, stepping into his space forcefully, hands grabbing at his shirt to pull him in. "You can't. We've been down this road, you know where it ends, you've been where it leads. Step back. This isn't the way."

"Get your hands off me, Uzumaki." Sasuke whispered, and abruptly his face lit up with the red glow of sharingan, making Naruto's face soften in mourning.

"No. No Sasuke don't."

"Let go."

"Sasuke, please." Sakura sobbed behind him, face buried in her hands.

"Let go." His hands shoved Naruto away although the blonde didn't fight, taking a step back feeling the heat of the fire on his shoulder and neck, burning like his eyes.

"We will never stop looking, Sasuke." he shook his head. "It doesn't matter what you say. We won't."

The Uchiha gave a soft irritated tsk of disdain. "It doesn't matter, Kyubbi. Likely there's going to be nothing left to find."

Without another word he flickered out of sight, disappearing into the woodland shadows and though his friends could have followed they did not. Sakura collapsed onto the ground, sitting in the dirt with tears leaving streaks of soft white skin on her smudged face.

Naruto looked on into the darkness, brows furrowed as the tears trailed down his marked cheeks.

"I'll find you. I'll find you both."

Kisame rolled his neck cracking his spine and loosening his shoulders before turning to face the dark form across from him in the nearly blacked out cave.

The drip drip of water lingered in the damp stuffy air and by the light of a handful of torches you could see the reflection of sharp cavernous teeth hanging above on the smooth glass surface of black water that coated the ground.

It was impossible to say how deep it was in places. Some were only an inch deep, others extended forever into the earth like the infinite space around the moon. Kisame wasn't particularly keen to find out which was which. But here he was anyway, looking at the opponent across from him with a slight frown. Itachi's request had been odd. For years he had been withdrawn, leaving his partner to go on missions with Akatsuki on his own, focused it seemed on something else. It appeared Kisame was looking at the distraction now.

"So." He muttered, turning to look at Itachi. "Shall I slice and dice?"

"Please." Itachi murmured softly.

Kisame grinned, all sharp pointy teeth and putrid rotting breath. "My pleasure." Perhaps getting rid of the stupid thing would allow him his partner back. Going out on missions alone, although still interesting was getting annoying.

Abruptly he disappeared, reappearing like a flash beside the figure in black in the distance. Face covered entirely in a kabuki mask the figure lifted an arm blocking with extraordinary stregnth the blow that exploded from Kisame's sword, slamming all of the weight of his weapon, chakra and body into the smaller creature's forearms.

Not a sound escaped the black form, chakra, thick as metal had coated his opponents arms, absorbing the blow, deflecting the power, smooth like dancing in the fog the feet of the figure expanded and braced for the impact. Sharp and clean like smooth calligraphy the sword slid past the forearms to the black armored shoulder of the shadow, sliding and sending sparks of friction dancing in the dark. A knee rose before Kisame's sword was free of the sparks, connecting with his stomach, an elbow to the back of his neck, making his mouth gape open, his tongue extending far out between his lips.

Two soft steps hardly audible in the dimness splashed softly over the cave water, disturbing the surface as the black shinobi propelled around his extended arm, using it as a bar slamming both feet down onto his head mid air, driving his face into the water and rock below.

The splash was small but the blood was red, and it exploded with the water as Kisame's tongue was bit clean off by his own teeth.

Quiet and light the figure landed beside him, hands neatly clasped behind their back, kabuki mask impassive and still.

The screeching roaring gurgle of Kisame's voice exploded through the cave, echoing and doubling it's strength as he began to writhe and struggle, drowning in his own blood.

"Hm." Itachi hummed, walking slowly over the water towards the struggling thing.

In that moment, clawing at his face, wriggling in the watery floor he looked more like a fish than anything else.

"I think you're ready." he whispered, placing one foot on Kisame's neck to pin him to the floor.

Kisame's sword was sinking into a hole in the cave floor, sucked in by the black water, disappearing from his sight as Itachi's foot pushed him to the ground. His gills struggled to filter water and blood and air into his lungs, his panic making him sputter.

Above him Itachi motioned with one small movement for the figure in black to move forward.

"Come."

Smoothly, like black beautiful ink spilling from a bottle the shinobi moved and stood beside the Akatsuki cloak, lifting one small hand up above Kisame's neck, coating it in sharp steel like chakra.

"Matte." Itachi stayed the final blow with one finger, reaching down to remove the black and red cloak from Kisame's inert form.

"Now." He nodded.

"Hai, Sensei." Hinata whispered past the kabuki mask, driving the sharp charkra fingers through Kisame's neck, feeling the warm slippery mess that was his life blood coat her hand.

He stopped moving instantly, his screams silenced by the soft hiss of her fingers pulling out of his body.

Gently she flicked her hand, blood splattering the water at her feet.

"Wash your hands." Itachi murmured, removing his foot from Kisame's neck.

Obediently Hinata bent down, rinsing her hands beside the body of her foe, standing up to face her master. Her fingers were cold, and still sticky with residue blood but she continued unfazed. As an after thought she pushed with her foot the body just a few inches to the right and watched as the gaping hole beneath the water began to swallow any evidence of what had once been a feared shinobi.

"Here you go." Itachi never smiled, but his eyes bore into the kabuki mask as if looking at the impassive calm face for some sort of thanks, some sort of emotion. Nothing escaped the cold smooth porcelain surface as Hinata reached out to receive the Akatsuki cloak.

"...I...am ready?"

She rarely allowed herself questions, rarely even thought to ask them, so Itachi let it slide.

"I believe it is time. Let us go and find the rest of our team, shall we?"

"Hai, Sensei."

"Not sensei." he corrected, turning away. "Partner."

Deep below the surface of the mask, a quiver in her lips made her frown, biting down so hard she bled, though no one would see it.

There was no room for quivering here. No room for that sick feeling in her chest.

"Partner." she whispered, and felt what she imagined to be joy.

Teaser for Into the Black is finished.

Leave me some love, ne?

-Inky

Japanese i sometimes pepper through my writing.

matte- wait

ne- hey

nani- what

hai- yes

ie- no

demo- but

ano- um