The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit

chapter two; stalked

Hinata's sandles clanked against the stone bricks as she entered the village, back from yet another solo mission. Three months had passed, and still, she exiled herself from her friends and family. Hinata was picking up as many solo missions as possible to keep herself away from the village. Every brick, every pebble in that whole place reminded her of him.

A warm feeling of nostalgia washed over her as she reminisced a more simple time in the village, dating back to before the war, before Sasuke Uchiha ran away, even before Hinata knew Naruto. She could smile sometimes when she thought about the days of her childhood.

She could sense Naruto's chakra nearing her, and she sighed. She wished that he wouldn't come and greet her every time she got back from a mission.

"Hinata-chan," His familiar voice rang in her ears. When he stopped in front of her, she couldn't bring herself to look at him. "You were gone a lot longer than expected." The Hokage commented.

"Y-Yeah." Was all Hinata could really say.

"How did the mission go?" They started to walk side by side. Still, Hinata hadn't looked at him once.

"It went well."

"Good... Why don't you come up to my office?"

Her eyes fell on him then, but upon a pang of pain to her chest, she looked away. "O-Okay."

Naruto lead his ex girlfriend up to his office, where he sat down, and she faced him opposite of the desk. He let out a long, exasperated sigh and furrowed his brows at her.

"Have you considered working with teammates again, or are you sticking with the solo missions?"

"Solo." Her voice was quiet, her eyes glued to her feet.

"Are you sure? You've done nothing but solo missions for the past two months. It's probably lone-"

"I'm fine." She cut him off abruptly, much so his surprise. "I like working alone... W-Why did you want me to come into your office, Naruto-kun?"

"Well, I wanted to offer you a special solo mission."

"Is that so?" Hinata could feel tears stinging her eyes, but she clenched her jaw tight and tried to stay strong. A part of her was hoping that Naruto would have wanted to talk about something a bit more personal than missions.

"While you were away, I received a message from the Mizukage asking me for some assistance. You see, one of their nin has strangely gone missing, and they're having issues finding him. The Mizukage seems to think that the help of a Hyuga could be beneficial, considering you do have the Byakugan..." Hinata finally met his eyes, intrigued by this offer. The Hokage sat up straight and continued. "I was going to ask Neji-san, however since you are looking for solo missions, I figured-"

"I'll take it." She cut him off yet again. Naruto simply nodded.

"Okay. Well then, stay here for tonight, then set off for Kirigakure in the morning."

"Sure."

"You can go, then."

Hinata bowed, before turning to leave, trying her absolute hardest to hold back the tears that wanted to flood from her eyes. She left the Hokage's office, only to bump directly into another body; and of course, just with her luck, that body would belong to Sakura Haruno. Hinata stared into the eyes of the woman who stole her love away for only a moment, before darting down the hallway, allowing those tears to be released.

Hinata spent the night at the bar with Kiba and Shino, reminiscing about the old days when they were only children at the academy. They were her best friends, and the only two men she felt she could really trust. She hadn't spent any time with them in a few weeks, so it made her happy to see them again. Well, as happy as a heart-broken person could get.

"So, you're off to the Mist in the morning, Hina-chan?" Kiba asked, taking a sip of his sake.

The kunoichi also took a sip of her drink, allowing the relief of being wasted to set in. "Yeah, I guess so."

"You've been going on a lot of solo missions lately... Why not get Naruto-sama to let us join you?" Shino suggested, though Hinata shook her head to this.

"Thanks, but I'd like to do it alone."

Kiba eyed his friend suspiciously. "Are you sure you're alright, Hina-chan? You haven't worked with us once since you and Naruto-sama broke up..."

Hinata's back jolted at his words, and her face flushed red. "I-I'm fine, Kiba-kun. I'm just dealing with things right now."

"I understand." Shino said. "Sometimes being alone for a while is beneficial, I spend a lot of time by myself."

"Yeah but you're a loner." Kiba chuckled, and the glare beneath Shino's sunglasses was almost obvious. The two friends began to bicker, while Hinata found herself zoning out in her thoughts once more. Why did Kiba-kun have to mention Naruto-kun... Shaking this from her mind, she took a few huge chugs of her sake, hoping that it would make her forget, even for only a little while longer.

When the sun came, Naruto went to see Hinata off. She didn't know why he did that, but he always did, and she hated it. She wished that he would just leave her alone completely, but it didn't seem like he was about to do that any time soon. She gave him an awkward wave goodbye, which he was eager to return. He even smiled at her, which always made her feel joyous, at the same time, it inflicted damage.

The journey to the Mist was long and boring, but Hinata was used to those kinds of trips. At least the weather was kind to her. After a few hours of travelling, she found her way to the Mizukage's office to discuss how she would be able to aid them in finding their missing-nin. According to the Mizukage, the ninja had not gone rogue; she feared that he had either been kidnapped, or murdered somewhere. Personal details on the shinobi had not yet been given, but Hinata could tell that whoever he was, he was important to the Mizukage. She seemed reluctant to give out much personal information.

Hinata was exhausted from the travelling, so the Mizukage told her to get settled in the hotel and relax for the rest of the day. They would reconcile in the morning to discuss things further. Hinata had no objections to this; she wanted nothing more than to relax in a nice hot bath after eating some delicious free food.

Yes, she was definitely going to enjoy this mission.

Hinata spent her day inside reading a book, then her evening having a few drinks and socializing at the bar. It was a nice place, she thought; friendly people, great service, with excellent food and drinks, for sure. She didn't want to get too drunk, so a little tipsy, she made her way back up to her hotel to set up a nice bubble bath. She dipped her nude body into the steaming water and let out a sigh of relief, feeling content.

After about twenty minutes of soaking, Hinata thought she felt a strange presence nearby. It was only for a brief moment, but it was strong enough to make the Hyuga bolt up in her bath with eyes wide open. What was that?

Feeling a little sketched out, she got out of the bath quietly and threw on a white robe provided by the hotel. Hinata decided that she would keep this robe when she left.

The chakra she had felt had been strong, and strangely familiar; but it was only there for such a split second, that she questioned whether she was tripping out or not. Regardless, Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned the area... All she could see was regular chakra coming from regular people, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

But still, the paranoia did not subside. With caution, she tip-toed out of the bathroom and sniffed the air. Something isn't right here.

She could feel another presence in the room, though her trusted eyes told her otherwise. There was not even a fly; just Hinata. She deactivated her Byakugan and came to the conclusion that she was just crazy; after all, she trusted her eyes more than she trusted her brain. She was hallucinating because she was drunk; she was just paranoid. So flopped down on the bed, a bellow of air pushing up from underneath her as she did so.

That was when she heard the tiniest little cough.

"W-Who's there!?" The kunoichi fumbled to her feet in shock, once again activating the Byakugan. Her eyes saw nothing, but her intuition told her that she was definitely not alone. Her senses tingled; she could feel the faint presence of another human being. "Who's there?" She repeated herself. "I-If you don't s-show yourself n-now... I-I'll make you pay, I promise!" Throughout the silence, a taunting laughter could be heard. It was chilling; Hinata's heart nearly leapt through her throat and ran all the way back to the Leaf. "W-Who are you!?" Her voice was shaky, despite her vain struggle to sound like she was 'tough' and 'mean', exactly the opposite of what she was.

"Looks like I've been caught in the act then, eh?" An oddly familiar voice rang in her eyes; she knew it, but she couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to.

"S-Show yourself!"

Like a tidal wave crashing into the shore, the chakra she felt had now appeared, as if out of thin air. It knocked Hinata's senses so hard that she nearly fell. From beyond the closet, her eyes showed her the location of the man who now no longer bothered to hide himself. She gulped as the door slowly opened, though by that time, she had realized who the chakra belonged to.

She was just too awestruck to consider that truth.

But much to her dismay, the man himself met her eyes with a mischievous smirk that just screamed trouble. "I'll have to tell the Hokage that I failed my mission."

A/N: Hoookay! Thanks for the reviews guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) if you did, and would like me to continue, please leave a review with your thoughts. All of your opinions count ;3