Thank you for all of the support, I wasn't expecting it! I hope you all enjoy this chapter too!
Sasuke glared at the Hyuuga heiress and she stared back, albeit, like a deer in headlights.
"Care to explain this", stated Sasuke, tugging at the string. Hinata continued to stare. Normally, Sasuke wouldn't think to be so rude to the shy Hinata, she had never been an annoyance to him in the past. But he had questions with no answers. Sasuke hated not knowing things. "Well?", he barked. Hinata's pale face dusted with pink and her heart sped up.
"U-Um... Explain what, S-Sasuke-san", she asked, shrinking into Sakura's plush couch. It took everything Hinata had not to get up and run, she wasn't used to speaking to Sasuke and now the man was raising his voice at her. She was proud of herself, though, for not breaking eye contact with him. Sasuke, on the other hand, was reaching his boiling point.
"Stop playing stupid", he accused. "Get rid of this thing. Now". Sasuke pulled on the string, intending to bring her hand forward for emphasis. But Hinata's hand stayed on the teacup, the string stretching to accommodate the new length he had created. The man's brow furrowed and he pulled again. Still, the string stretched.
To Hinata and Sakura, who had entered the room long ago, Sasuke looked like a mime pulling on an invisible rope.
"Pfft". Sasuke looked up to see both girls covering their mouths, struggling to keep from laughing out. Realizing what kind of scene he was making, Sasuke's own face heated and colored. He cleared his throat stood straighter.
"So you're saying that you can't see it", Sasuke questioned, his voice an octave higher than it should have been. The girls looked to each other and back.
"I don't see anything", Sakura answered and crossed her arms. He looked to Hinata. She shook her head from side to side.
"I-I don't see anything either". Sasuke's face smoothed out and turned blank.
"Is that so".
He fled from Sakura's home and did not look back.
It had been two days since then and Sasuke was thankful for not seeing either kunoichi afterward, ashamed of his actions. When he went home that day, Sasuke had reflected and came to the realization that the string was not at all a big deal. In actuality, if it didn't interfere with his daily life and was invisible to others, what problem did it cause? Sasuke called this "coming to terms with it".
Well, he just ignored its existence, really.
Now, he made his way to the hokage tower after being called for a mission. It was still early in the morning, the streets empty of people, so he walked leisurely. Sasuke looked at everything but the red thread in front of him. He looked up at the graying clouds, to his right at the closed shops. He didn't dare look down at the string because, when he really thought about it, the Hyuuga girl was on the other end. It meant that he would be able to find wherever Hinata was without even trying. That ability made him feel like a stalker, which he was not.
So to say that he was upset when he did catch sight of the string was an understatement. Upon reaching the hokage tower, Sasuke had uncharacteristically tripped and stumbled. Looking down at his footing, he noticed the red line leading into the tower itself and groaned.
Don't let her be on this mission, he thought. Sasuke made his way through the tower to the hokage's office and his hope was crushed when he saw the thread crawl under the door. Sure enough, when Sasuke entered the room, Hinata stood in front of Tsunade's desk with Naruto on her right. He did not look at the heiress or the string when he placed himself on Naruto's opposite side.
"Good", the Fifth's voice boomed. "Now that everyone's here, let's get you briefed and out of the village by noon".
The mission was supposed to be simple, taking two days at most: scout out the base of a group of bandits near the border, determine their numbers and report back. Fighting was prohibited. With Hinata and Sasuke's doujutsu, gathering information from a distance was no problem but along the way it began to pour, slowing down the three-man team. When they finally reached the base, the sun had already set.
Using the trees and foliage as cover, they traveled in a line closer to the base, a cave behind a roaring waterfall. Hinata lead with byakugan, Naruto covered the middle, and Sasuke brought up the rear with sharingan.
"There are guards patrolling the entrance", reported Hinata. "Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san, there's a trip wire in the ground here too. Please be careful, step two feet that way when you get to this point". The rain had drowned out Hinata's soft voice, however, her warning falling on deaf ears.
"Sorry, Hinata-chan", called Naruto, "What did you-"
Too late. Naruto had tripped the wire, setting off a row of explosive tags.
"Dammit, you idiot"! Sasuke jumped into the trees, a flash of blond trailing after him.
"Sorry", apologized Naruto, his words and the look on his face didn't match. Naruto had been treating the mission as a game, he and Sasuke were the heroes of the Fourth Great Shinobi War after all. Blue eyes searched for their third member. "Hinata-chan"?
During the explosion, Hinata had jumped in the opposite direction of her teammates, exposing herself in the clearing. She was currently fighting off two guards while the other bandits raced out of the cave, alerted by the noise, and charged towards her. Hinata knew she was strong, that she became stronger, but there were a lot of enemies, around sixty, and it was going to be tough. Knocking the guards away, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when she saw Naruto and Sasuke join her.
"Let's do this, teme", grinned Naruto. "Small fry like this are nothing"!
Sasuke smirked, "Hn".
"T-There are still more inside the cave", Hinata corrected.
Naruto charged head first into the fray and Sasuke let the bandits come to him. The battle would have been over quickly with Naruto and Sasuke fighting. But in truth, the boys didn't like to use their new-found powers on regular shinobi, it was reserved only for opponents on par with Uchiha Madara (or each other when they got serious during spars). It wasn't hard using taijutsu, it just took a long time.
Sasuke scanned the area. Naruto made his way into the base and Hinata was off to his left. With his share of enemies dispatched, he made his way to the girl's side. Sensing his presence, Hinata turned to look at him.
"I can handle things out here", she said, her breath heavy. "You can go help Naruto-kun". Sasuke looked down at her and she gave him a small smile, her eyes full of confidence. Was this really the small, skittish girl from the academy? He was about to give Hinata a smart remark when they caught sight of a small object hurdling towards them. The bomb went off midair, sending debris in every direction and knocking away both Sasuke and Hinata. Coughing up dust, Sasuke dug himself up from the rubble.
"Shit", he choked out. "Hinata"? Looking around, he saw bodies strewn about in the dirt, the lavender of Hinata's jacket nowhere to be found.
For the first time since the start of the mission, Sasuke looked down to his right hand, to the red string around his finger. His eyes followed the path it made for him, leading his gaze to the river and down its rapids.