Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with Naruto.
Please read the stories written before this, Stronger and Softer. This is kind of a rewrite/alternate version of a huge part of Softer which is the sequel to Stronger.
Thankfully though this particular story has been speaking pretty insistently at me until I could no longer ignore it today.
Please read and review. And yes, I'm sorry lol that Paint With Words is not finished. Believe me I kind of wanna know what's gonna happen too.
Much love,
-Inky
The blade driving into the soft underbelly of the innkeeper felt like a hot table knife into butter. Only in this instance the butter let out a squeal, animalistic piglike. Sasuke's face remained calm as he turned the blade, blending the insides, drawing it out and watching impassively as the innards began to poke out of the hole.
The man's round beer gut jiggled in the moonlight as he struggled with dirty hands to keep his intestines from splattering down his body and onto the ground. He wasn't being very successful.
The Uchiha rotated his neck in a soft gentle turn, eyes closed, trying to loosen his shoulders before turning back to look at the man behind him, frozen in fear, beer canteen spilling onto the hay covered mud that made up the inn stable paddock where they were having this meeting.
It had not gone at all like the innkeeper and his friend had figured it would. Sasuke moved with confidence but his clothing was still ripped to shreds, he looked emaciated and haggard.
He had appeared to be easy pickings. When he had requested assistance in finding men wearing black cloaks with red clouds they had figured they would kill him, bring him back to the Akatsuki who ran the Elder's council in the village and get a hefty sum all after having him pay them for the "information". It was the perfect scenerio for double dipping.
Now, Sasuke was going to double dip his blade into their disgusting bodies.
"N-no please." Began the man, falling to his knees. He was not so proud that begging was beyond him. It would take a lot of pride indeed for an untrained person to watch a friend die holding his innards and not reduce them to begging.
"What do you know?" His voice was paper thin, veiling his disgust only for the sake of remaining in control of his emotions.
He had the thought of just slaughtering him after he conceded to give him the information anyway, but reigned the thought back in, breathing deep through the nose so that the metallic tinge of the air would remind him he had already slaughtered someone today.
Keep it to a minimum, that was the plan.
"I-I- I know, Akatsuki... they have the cloaks, with the red clouds... they have a man who comes... he speaks with the elders in town, they hide in the back room, they decide... our trades... with the rest of the villages..." his mouth was filling with saliva and like a dog it was spilling out the sides and dripping down his old haggard face, his jaw slack from fear.
Sasuke looked at him long and hard, studying the whites of his eyes and remembering how the men and women he had slaughtered before in Orochimaru's keeping had had the same wild horse expression. Sometimes their bowels would also lose control.
There was nothing beautiful about death, about killing. Mostly there was a lot of bodily fluid and stench.
He felt his empty stomach lurch inside him and closed his eyes for a split second.
"What does the man with the cloak look like?"
It was the first sign of Akatsuki that he had had in over six months. He, Sakura and Naruto had found absolutely nothing and the Village Hidden in the Leafs had long ago stopped sending out their reports. Not because Tsunade didn't want to help but because she had demanded their return and they had all three refused. After a while she had hoped that they would return simply because of the lack of information to go on but she had been wrong. He couldn't go back.
How could he sleep in the house she had walked in, smell the stale ancient lavender tinge like rotting leafs on his clothes and bed?
"I, I don't know... I never seen his face... he has... he has... uh...blue? Blue skin..."
The man winced as Sasuke tossed the knife he had skewered his friend with up and down in one hand. His eyes lingered on the slack face, the stubby beard, the disgusting smell of cheap beer on his breath.
"I will be watching. A word of this encounter to anyone and I will come into your home, I will be in the shadows as you sleep, I will destroy you slowly. Much more slowly than I destroyed him." His eyes flickered back to the corpse on the ground.
"You tell them that you were too drunk to remember... in fact... get too drunk to remember." He nodded at the beer he had stopped spilling.
Swallowing the knot in his throat the man looked at it, struggling to take a sip without peeing himself.
Wordless and without warning Sasuke knocked him across the face and out cold on the ground. Gazing at the disgusting man for a moment, he turned and disappeared into the darkness.
He needed to wait and eventually Kisame would show up, and he knew, wherever Kisame was, Itachi soon followed.
The gathering of black cloaks was instant. Somehow they all seemed to know exactly when to show up. Hinata pondered for a moment, how they knew this and felt that without her master she would be entirely lost.
Partner. She corrected herself mentally. Partner... we're partners now.
Something seemed to twist in her chest against and she breathed in deep for a second in an effort to calm the sensation. Her eyes flickered to the silent shadow of Itachi beside her and although he couldn't see her face she was sure he would notice.
It always amazed her even though she knew, his gaze shifted to her and she didn't look away, knowing that would be useless.
"How do they know?"
Itachi didn't answer immidiatly, looking at her for one long agonizing second before turning away.
"You will find out soon enough."
She didn't dare ask anything else for the rest of the day, but kept her eyes wide open, looking for clues as the shadows appeared in a semi circle around them.
"Who is this?" A voice called out. Her eyes, well trained to detect the threats and almost invisible attacks of her shinobi peers were unable to detect the speaker of the question. She frowned beneath the mask and listened intently as others chimed in with the question again, looking at Itachi first although their gaze flitted quickly back to her.
"A new recruit." Was his curt reply.
A lot of patience followed that comment, as no one moved a muscle or continued as Hinata had expected them to.
Brow barely furrowed Itachi sighed, turning to look at Hinata. "Please." He motioned forward.
Unsure of what it was that was happening but also unwilling to disobey what was the politest request she had received from her sensei she moved forward, standing a few feet in front of her master.
Partner.
"Shall we let him introduce himself or shall we test his mettle?" Someone chimed in softly.
Hinata's gaze flickered through the group, counting the heads, assessing possible strengths and talents, aiming her gaze at the weakest in the bunch.
"It is up to you." Itachi allowed.
"Well then." someone muttered to her right. And before she knew what was happening a handful of clay birds flew over her head.
Clay birds... The fleeting moment of recognition sparked and disappeared the way dejavu does and more importantly she focused on her chakra, her byakugan activating, on the chakra points in the distance the same chakra that was tied to those birds, that powered them.
She disappeared, and as the bombs exploded where she should have been she felt herself appear, beside the user who had thrown them.
His little gasp made her smile beneath the kabuki mask, enjoying it's anonymity with great pleasure.
Gently and before he could move she slid her fingers through the cloth, two, three, four points locked.
He let out a curse, his arms coming up to block and parry but she had disappeared already to the other side of the circle beside her master, looking carefully at the rest of the group waiting for them to realize that in the time it had taken for the bombs to explode she had left Deidara without the use of his arms.
A collective quiet followed only punctuated by Deidara's whispered curses. Not only did he have to suffer a defeat by Itachi himself when he was recruited but now he was stuck with his protege's impudence.
"Impressive." Sasori murmured softly.
"The time is perfect as Kisame it seems has decided to leave us."
Hinata's eyes flickered to Itachi for a moment but strained back to the rest of the group quickly.
"Really?" Someone muttered. "With all the work he had been putting into that Sand Village I am surprised. He seemed particularly keen on keeping himself in the elder's good books."
"Things change." Hinata heard herself say. There was an irritation that rose from anyone questioning Itachi that made her stupidly bold. A silence followed again, this time broken by the chuckle from Sasori of the Red Sand.
"A girl," he whispered. "It's a girl." Sasori's eyes moved to Itachi, sizing him up as though he were an entirely new thing. "How interesting."
Itachi however paid him no mind and simply moved on to their plans, of getting the nine tailed fox, of retrieving the last of the vessels. Of completeing their ultimate goal.
Peace.
Breathe deep, let the air come into your lungs, feel your chest expand, feel the tendrils of your body grow, let the innards of the rest of you step aside letting the needed oxygen in, let the gasp that follows out, let it escape, and breathe, just breathe.
It was always about breath, all the things she had been learning had had to do with breath. She didn't breathe right, she didn't think right and with her breathing she could control her thinking. She could wrap it in her grasp, she could make it do what she wanted. Itachi had told her so. His lips had formed the words and drilled them into her heart, slowly, carefully... Painfully.
She watched him as they walked down the darkned wood path, listening on all sides for the possibility of intrusion.
"What will we say once we reach the village?" She wanted to add master to the question but that seemed to no longer be okay. He looked at her sometimes when the M began to form on her lips and she would always kill the rest before it escaped her. Anything to please her master. Anything
"We will inform them that our friend Kisame has been... greatly mourned and that we have been assigned by the organization to take over."
"But why?"
"They will not ask why."
There was a long pause in which she thought about asking if he was sure but dared not.
He turned his sharingan eyes at her thoughtfully for a moment and slowly carefully reached out a hand, touching one side of the kabuki mask.
"Remove it."
Carefully she moved to comply, removing the mask and looking at him past her dark black bangs.
For a moment he thought Izumi looked back at him, her gaze a complete opposite of white against black and yet so familiar.
He swallowed.
"How do you know they will not ask?" she asked the question right then because his eyes had taken a far away look that he only seemed to get occasionally. And she knew that it was a good time to ask questions if he looked that way.
"I will not allow them." he whispered. His lips moved with a familiarity that seemed to come from deep down in her bones. She knew those lips... she had felt those lips.
She blinked, and restrained herself from shaking the thought out of her head. No. No she hadn't... she had never...
He watched as thoughts flitted through her mind, birds careening in the windows of her face. "What is wrong?" His question was both irritated and yet concerned.
Hinata felt sweat break out on her forehead, a tremble ran up and down her back.
"N-nothing."
The stutter. The infernal, godforsaken stutter. She closed her eyes, her jaw clenched so hard it hurt her head. Itachi didn't move.
"I am no longer your sensei. You need not fear me."
Startled by his words Hinata opened her pale gaze to stare at him, expecting, dreading the red and black of Mangekyo. But Itachi gazed back at her with eyes so dark they rivaled the night sky, more of a vaccuum than reflective. In him everything disappeared.
"Come, we will be late." He turned. "And keep your mask on. Your eyes speak volumes, even if you do not wish it."
Wincing at the last comment Hinata followed, replacing the kabuki mask with care. It didn't matter how fast, how strong, how powerful her training made her. It was always her eyes he detested the most.
Sakura was no longer speaking to him.
Naruto spent the first few days in front of her house, waiting for her to come out, like a kicked puppy he lingered, and then eventually decided it was time to man up, and left.
She watched him go, through the curtains on the house's second floor, and beside her her mother shook her head.
"That boy brought you back to us, he made sure that you would be pardoned for disappearing without orders for months. He spoke to the council for you, and vouched for you with the Hokage, and yet...you just let him go?"
Sakura straightened slowly, her eyes turning to her mother with both sadness and anger. "Out there somewhere Sasuke is alone. He shouldn't have mentioned the scroll."
Her mother sighed deeply, pressing a hand over her daughter's heart gently. "Sasuke is out there, searching for his love, is he not? What would you be doing out there with him?"
For a moment Sakura glared, and then her face slowly began to crack, like porcelain smashed in slow motion to the ground. Round glittering tears dripped down the sides of her face as she shook her head, her chin trembling.
"I don't know, Oka-san... I don't know..."
On the street Naruto walked straight towards the Hokage's office, head down as he thought. Usually jovial he clenched his jaw and avoided eye contact, watching his feet kick up dust as he went.
It wasn't his fault. He had been desperate to get them back. He couldn't be Hokage one day without a village to receive them. His words had not been soothing to Sakura, all the reasons to return just made her more and more angry.
It was becoming clear to him that although they had been through this before, spending time in the presence of Sasuke for such extended periods of time was just not something she could handle without old feelings resurfacing. And how could he blame her, Sasuke pursued his goal with a ground down dogged determination that was both frightening and admirable.
But everyone else had lives to lead. Not just he and Sakura, but everyone. He was out there alone because eventually you had to let something go.
Even as he thought this he shook his head. Naruto knew Sasuke. He knew the ins and outs of his mind and the force of nature the Uchiha clan became when they were determined to do something. Sasuke would search for Hinata until he found her, and do anything to get closer to her. Or he would die, out there searching. Unlike his old vow to avenge his clan this was not a quest easily surrendered. And the first had been difficult enough to let go of.
How though, would he get Sakura to understand this truth?
Arriving at the Hokage's office he stopped, looking up at the building that looked steadily more familiar. Every time he was in Konoha it seemed he spent most of his days in there, making plans, staying on top of mission requirements, updating the Hokage.
And requesting permission to deploy to look for Hinata Hyuuga and now, it seemed Sasuke Uchiha as well.
What a fucking nightmare.
"Uzumaki." a strong female voice called from the top of the stairs of the Hokage's lobby and Naruto glanced up tiredly to look at Tsunade, her hands on her hips, lips pressed into a thin line.
"Yo." Naruto sighed, starting up the stairs slowly.
"You look like shit. You've been back for a while, haven't you been sleeping?"
Naruto shrugged, running a hand through his blonde hair and attempting to give his Hokage a grin but failing. Instead his lips turned into a half smiled grimace of exhaustion.
"I'm here to request-"
"-deployment rights to search for Hinata Hyuuga." Tsunade finished, pressing two fingers to the bridge of her nose in irritation.
"And Uchiha Sasuke."
"He's a traitor, Naruto no one is going to let that man back in here, even if we say he's the village saint." Tsunade scoffed.
Naruto didn't even argue, his blue eyes looked steadily at her for a long moment.
"Fine. Whatever, lets start the paperwork, I guess. " she sighed, shaking her head and heading back down the hall she had just come from. "It's not like I need a lunch break or anything."
"Thank you, Tsunade-sama."
"Sama? Shit, whatever happened while you were out there... I'm sorry." she sighed, putting a hand on the young man's shoulders as they walked.
"I'm sorry for all of it." he sighed right back. "I'm sorry for the last five and a half years of our lives."
They had had to stop due to the rain. Hinata looked on into the darkness of the forest, studying the falling water with curiosity. If she didn't know any better she would have said that her sensei had been taking the trip more slowly than usual. He stopped regularly, sitting in the sunlight, eyes closed as if listening to a far away tune.
This time she was glad for his patience with the travel. He had allowed her to build a fire, and with the canopy of the trees so dense above them they were relatively dry. In patches she could see the moonlight filtering down through the branches to the forest floor. It made parts of it glow bright blue like puzzle pieces that had wandered from their comrades.
Slowly she turned to look back at her master with equal curiousity. This time, after sitting still with his back against the trunk of a tree he had sighed deeply and produced from the folds of his cloak a blank scroll and a small ink stone.
She watched, wordless as he began to write, his movements fluid, like the water all around them, breath coming in relaxed slow beats similar to when he slept.
"Are you not going to ask me what I write?" He inquired finally, startling her out of her reverie.
A familiar heat rose to Hinata's face and thankful for the kabuki mask she murmured, as calmly as she could.
"What is it you write, Itachi-san?"
"Just Itachi."
Her fingers twitched but she did not disagree.
"I cannot tell you what I write, I am afraid." He murmured, his wrist continued to move, slowly, carefully and with great beauty. She watched the bones of his hand and arm, they moved languidly the way that seaweed danced in the tide.
"I see." she whispered, trying and failing only partly to not sound upset.
"One day..." he surprised her with continuing, glancing up for a moment and stopping his writing. His eyes reflected the light of the fire before them, making them seem less like the usual void they were, for a moment it almost looked like a chunks of the sky had fallen to land on his face, still twinkling with a million stars. "...one day soon I will die. When that happens I am entrusting this to you, I need you to give it to my brother, Sasuke."
Hinata flinched, and although she tried to keep her body from reacting to his words he seemed to sense her distaste, looking back down to continue writing.
"Everyone dies, Hinata."
"I pray... t-that... if I must die... it be with you." She whispered.
Itachi stopped his hand. The dance froze mid movement, a ballet caught on pause. Hinata didn't move either, feeling as though perhaps the fire had eaten her words before they reached him, the hungry flames devouring the emotion in them before it entered his ears, the same way that the emotion itself seemed to yearn to devour her.
"Don't do that." He whispered, and to her horror he lowered the brush down, moving as though to get up.
Hinata jumped to her feet, a feeling of flight threatening to take over her limbs as he approached.
She had been right, something was different about his movements. Even as he approached her although still quiet as the fog that passes by in the morning there was something slightly jarring in his body, as though he were being held by strings, or pain.
Distracted for a moment by his stiffness she came back to her senses as his hands reached up and took hold of her mask.
It was as though he had ripped off her clothes. Feeling naked and frightened she fought to still the trembling passing through her body, her eyes lowered respectfully and out of fear.
He held the mask in front of him, only it and inch of space between their bodies. In the thunderous rainstorm only the crackle of the fire and the splash of the water seemed to be willing to breathe.
"I have already had a great love...Hinata."
His words made her wince despite herself, although the rest of her stayed still and languidly one of his hands reached up, sliding as it so often did along the legnth of her jaw, following it's graceful curve to her neck.
Memories of being hoisted into the air flashed before her eyes, pinned between his hand and the solid mass of her life, his red eyes rotating before her, either the fear or his grip cutting her off from the loveliness of air.
The terror always fought inside her with the desire now. She knew what he was, what he had done to her. The scars on her back from the beatings, the broken bones that ached in the night from the training, the wounds that were only now healing completely. But she was who she was because of him, nothing in the dark could make her scream now.
Only him.
"Her eyes were the opposite of yours." He whispered, and Hinata's gaze flickered upwards for half a second, the mistake she made every time. Sharingan didn't have to grip her, the intensity of his gaze was enough to draw her in and hold her there, unable to look away.
"Dark like a night without stars. Somehow they still glowed when she smiled." His hand relaxed it's stiff hold on her neck from a vice to slide slowly down, his thumb smoothing along the legnth of her collar bone. Everywhere his fingers touched a fire raged and she felt herself shiver.
"I do not need anyone else to die for me..." he whispered, lowering the kabuki mask to his side. Only air between them now.
"I never... I never said there would be a need." Hinata's soft voice surprised him. Often she would listen and comply as had been their custom up until she had received her Akatsuki cloak.
"It is a prayer." she murmured, and her body trembled as his hand continued it's journey from her collarbone to her shoulder, and down the length of her exposed arm. "We pray... for what we want."
Itachi cocked his head very slightly, his fingers trailing down the back of her hand, and finally the tips of her fingers, taking flight into the abyss without her skin.
"You do not know what you want."
She breathed in sharply, gasping as he pressed his mouth to hers, his hand on the back of her neck drawing her in, tasting the honey of his tongue inside her, eyes closed tight and hands clenched around his cloak she shuddered. As fast he set her on fire and began to devour her he pulled away, leaving her lips feeling cold in the night air.
"At least I do..." he murmured into her ear, drawing back, dislodging her grip on his cloak.
Hinata watched as he turned away, no longer meeting her gaze.
"Sleep. I will take first watch."
And obediently she picked up her cloak, fingers trembling and lay down, keeping her eyes away from him at all times, forcing herself with the skills only a good shinobi has to sleep. Because whatever her master commanded... she did.
Itachi watched her from his seat against the tree again, dark eyes glowing with something from the depths of his being. At length he gathered up his scroll and began to write again, trying in vain to ignore the taste of her on his tongue.
Naruto paced in front of the door of the board room. He was already in his work clothes, the comfortable shoes made for long journeys, the black pants that repelled water, the warm shirt and vest that would keep him from freezing in snow and ice.
Next to his feet was a bag, packed with supplies and to the right of it leaning against the wall with her hands on her neck and head bowed stood Sakura.
"They're taking too long." He muttered darkly, turning to walk back in front of her again. Sakura didn't reply, eyes closed as she listened intently to the voices inside. The walls were too thick to decipher what they said, but she prayed desperately that Tsunade wasn't being quiet because they had lost.
Finally Naruto stopped pacing, facing the door with a glare that would make a wolf scurry away, blue eyes glowing darkly.
"Don't Naruto," Sakura whispered, not needing to look up to know that the energy coming off his body was threatening to propel him through the door to interrupt their meeting, to demand answers, to pick fights.
"Sakura-" he began and the door suddenly flung open cutting him off mid sentence. Tsunade walked out, face red from anger, a piece of paper in her hand.
Expected the worst Naruto felt his mouth open, ready to fight but she flung the paper at his chest roughly, continuing to walk down the hall, heels pounding as she went.
"Go. Go and find them both goddamnit. This is your last chance. If they don't come back now, if you can't bring them back down you're not going back out there again, not without giving up your village." she shouted over her shoulder.
Inside of the board room elders were grumbling to each other, eyeing Naruto and Sakura with distaste.
Anxiously Sakura looked at the paper, trembling, knowing what it would say.
"It's our last deployment." she whispered, brow furrowing with frustration. "Our last chance? How can they?!"
Naruto breathed in deep, realizing that the choice he had hoped not to have to make was coming soon. Unless they could make this work... dear God please let this work.
"Let's go, Sakura. We've got our work cut out for us now."
She didn't need to be told twice, medical pack in hand she skipped down the steps towards the door, already itching to run free through the forest branches.
He felt it in the air it seemed. Sitting in his room at the Inn, glaring into the fire in the grate, he turned, a sound only he could hear seeming to call him on the wind.
Outside the sky was a blazing black. The rains had washed everything clean for many days and now the clouds had disappeared, leaving behind only the sliver of moon and the brightness of the stars. It looked to be past midnight but downstairs he could hear the rumble and tumble of a bar in full swing.
It didn't matter though, he still noticed the hurrying, tripping familiar steps of a man he despised whole heartedly.
The door to his room burst open and Sasuke was already standing, sliding his katana into his sheath and then onto his back. His skin felt electric.
They're here. They're here.
"U-uchiha-sama!" the man he had beat earlier fell into his room. Since the day of his friend's murder he had been waiting on Sasuke hand and foot, well aware that there was never going to be a time when he could simply hide from the ever seeing eyes of the demon shinobi who had invaded his life.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted, tightening the straps on his sword sharply.
"T-t-they're here! The elders... they are... they are convening the council... but, but..." The man lowered himself to his knees, and then his forehead down to the ground, his hands clasped before him in supplication.
"The blue skinned Kisame is not with them, Uchiha-sama. Please... please have mercy... I have never seen these men before..."
Sasuke's eyes lingered briefly on the man before him, considering the possible nuisance he could cause if he were to be allowed to live. Still unsure but mostly uncaring he stepped over the disgusting cretin and moved past him out the door, feeling his chakra beginning the familiar frantic swirl within him.
It had been a long time since he had had a good fight. Whoever Akatsuki had sent, it didn't matter. They would tell him where Hinata was, or they would die.
Out int he darkness of the night he shifted in the shadows, watching as men began to gather at the centre of the village where the most sturdy of the buildings were. Their poor clothes and bare feet looked even more stark in the brightness of their wooden torches.
What could Akatsuki possibly want with such a small miserable village. They had nothing. Their livestock were small, their main crop was rice.
Shaking the thought from his head he shifted from darkness to darkness, eyes searching, blazing red from the shadows, looking with growing anxiety for the red clouds.
"Here they come. " Someone in the crowd of villagers called, and together they turned. Down the main road walked a man with a torch, heading down the centre of the dirt path towards the council building where the rest were gathered.
In the halo of his fire Sasuke could see two figures cloaked in black, their shining red clouds sending ice through his body.
And as they came closer his heart slowed, the ice melting, burning and twisting because one of their faces was as familiar as his own was in the mirror.
One of them was Itachi.
It wasn't a decision he made, there was no plan, there was no thinking, one minute he was in the darkness, watching the procession, the next he had launched himself from the shadows with his katana drawn.
Im not gonna lie, I wish I knew where this was all going. I have never ever written a Hinata/Itachi. I don't think that's what this is, so... although this was very confusing...just...trust me... the story knows where it's going. It's got this.
leave me some love, ne?
-inky
