Thanks for the reviews, everyone. I didn't think I'd even get any. Believe me, it can really help when I'm in a "I-don't-feel-like-writing" slump.
Withered
Chapter Two: Storm
Panting, a brisk wind blew back thick, raven locks. His hair was sticking messily to his cheeks, bathed in hard-earned perspiration.
Sharingan twirling, then darkening into onyx orbs, Sasuke fixated his bloody stare onto his masterpiece- a giant crater the size of Road Island that was gouged into the cliff.
His fists clinched.
He could do better.
He knew he could do better.
Lightning crackling, he charged towards the rock wall blindly.
o0o
Konoha-style sandals were sweeping the street. Crushing leaves and making low clacking sounds against the pavement, falling into unison with the sheepish noises fuming behind them.
"Hinata-sama, don't fall behind."
"S-sorry."
The Hyuuga heiress and lesser branch member were nearing Yamanaka's shop. Subsequently, it had been a rough morning. Hanabi woke her elder sister up two hours early and forced Hinata to re-tie her braids. While Neji seemed unusually patient, she was surprised since this whole 'escorting' duty was eating up his morning. He could have been training, but Hiashi decided it would be healthy to impose another choir upon him.
I'm glad he's not upset...
As Hinata could see the sign for Ino's store approaching, a sense of despair flushed out her gut. She really didn't want to go there today; she missed the sound of Akamaru's bark and Kiba's haughty attitude.
Not to mention it was cloudy and the air was coated with the thick scent of rain. It just didn't make for a very good day...
Hinata sighed and caught up to her cousin. Face flushed, she glanced at Neji's Byakugan and continued at a slow pace. He seemed to be walking slower now.
Despite the bad weather, everything was still flowing in ritual. A boy with a scarf and goggles rushing to school, two sluggish children following him. A woman held her son's hand as she fiddled with an umbrella, nothing seemed out of pitch.
They continued silently over the streets. Pollen infesting the air, and rain drops beginning to dot their cheeks. With the absence of anything to shield them from the rain, Neji sped up, signifying to Hinata that she should do the same.
Once they had both reached the safety of the shop, Neji reminded Hinata that he would be back later to pick her up. He exited wordlessly, unconcerned with the rain anymore.
Hinata sighed, breathing in. She took a moment to recognize her surroundings; the same door, the same sign, the same everything.
Everything seemed the same, until a tiny piece of paper caught her eye.
She corked up, fixated to the note and reached sheepishly for it. It was pink, taped to the glass door. Tiny black scribbles in Ino's recognizably girlish handwriting spun over it.
A pause.
"Hinata, I'm sorry but I can't come to the shop today, something important came up but I'll be back tomorrow. Please look after things while I'm gone."
Hinata gulped after reading it, just what she didn't want to hear.
Her mind began to boggle. As the sound of chiming bells rang upon her ears, she closed the shop's door and bravely entered. Lips trembling, she felt like sinking into the floor.
What was Ino-san.. thinking?!
She looked around the store. Several plants needed to be watered, the floor needed a good sweeping and her apron was laying in a dirty puddle. She sighed desperately- overwhelmed.
Taking a broom from the utility closet, Hinata gripped it's wooden handle uneasily and began to clean the floor. She just hoped with her every ounce that the shop's bell wouldn't chime.
Thankfully, it didn't.
After the meager choir of brushing up dirt was accomplished, Hinata glanced up at the clock and noted how pathetic she was, seeing as it took her ten minutes to finish just that.
She wondered why Ino trusted her with this store so much. It meant everything to her, didn't it? This little forestry shop was Ino's biggest love next to Sasuke and if she were to lose it, she might as well lay down and die.
Hinata frowned. She couldn't even quit now, because it seemed like Ino was going through a hard time and needed her help.
As she was careful not to brush against the roses, Hinata's mind ventured absently. She began to picture herself working in this same exact place as an old woman, 50 years from now.
The thought alone was enough to make her lips quiver.
Disrupting her streaming thoughts, the bell chimed, startling her. Hinata corked her head suddenly, nervously and found two heads bobbing in the open door. They were being obscured by the flowers in front of her.
"Let.." Panting. "Let go."
The rain behind them was pouring viciously.
"N-no way," one grinned, "C'mon, Sasuke, you can stand!"
Lightning flashed, a shock-wave.
Followed by two thuds rattling against the floor.
The only thing Hinata could hear was rain streaking through the sky. Not even their heavy, thick breathing echoed in her ears, not even her uneven footsteps that nearly slipped against the floor.
"N-Naruto-kun?!"
o0o
Splatters against the roof, popping sounds and something warm wrapped around him.
It felt like a shy flame was burning near his skin. Heated, melting the water that clung to him. A soft object kissing his arms, water dripped in tiny droplets from the tips of his bangs onto a soft, yellow sheet.
"Guh..."
Sasuke's eyes cracked open into slits. Black peaking through, he tried to shift but halted abruptly and hissed in pain. Something was pinging in his back and forbid him from moving.
Stuttering, his eyes opened further to examine his surroundings. A flower pot, a petal was touching his ankle...
Now he remembered.
His dark eyes swiveled sideways and fell upon a snoring Naruto laid up in the corner. He also had a blanket wrapped around him, only his was blue and adorn with little yellow frogs.
Sasuke pealed off the thin lining like a second suit of skin and stood to groggy feet, pains eating at his spine. He clutched the space on the side of his back that Naruto had nailed earlier, making a note to never underestimate him again. Dried blood clung to his hand, and the taste of deep sleep thickened his throat, it was one of the most unpleasant things he'd felt all week.
He was about to kick Naruto, oh God how he wanted to smack that idiot for doing this to him, but stopped when his Sharingan caught another target in his field of vision.
Hinata gasped. She was surprised that he'd already woken up, "Y-you're awake."
Sasuke watched her as she fumbled with the register, stabbing it shakily with a tarnished key and trying as hard as Jashin would allow to open the damn thing.
"Did you do this?" He tried not to seem annoyed.
"..Um, y-yes."
The two pearls glued into Hinata's eye sockets never left the counter. She watched absently as a ladybug crawled over a small bundle of dark colored, ebony petals, trying not to come into eye contact with Sasuke. She just knew his glare would pierce her if she touched it.
Sasuke sighed silently and traced his teeth with his tongue, mouth shut tightly. The sleep slime in his mouth was really disgusting, almost as nasty as that dango Itachi loved so much. He nearly squirmed, and fixated on the fretting girl feet away from him.
Eyes met.
Surprisingly, they didn't cut her up like she speculated.
They were deep, black,.. they looked so sad.
Nervous, she glanced away and decided to look at his limbs instead. Byakugan widening- his hands were so calloused. It looked as if he had packed ten months of training into just several hours.
She wondered why someone would do something like that- what would possess him to do that to his body.
"Hey."
Eep!
He was suddenly much closer, staring down at her. The small counter being the only thing separating them, his eyes were still gently glazed and still hold reminiscent of ancient tears that had long since dried up.
A small flame of pity egnighted inside of her.
But her expression never changed. "Ah.. hello..."
Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek and let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. Glancing out to the window, he grimaced upon seeing the pouring rain. Damnit, they're probably gone now.
Silence.
Naruto's snoring continued, and the rain never ceased.
Hinata's lips curled together in a timid, anxious manner. She didn't like the silence at all, it reminded her of how everyone at home would treat her; barely grant her a second glance.
She was about to go back to watering the posies when Sasuke stopped her with his voice. Turning back, her eyes caught his, and she stared blankly at him as if waiting for words.
Another dead flower squeezed breathlessly between his calloused fingers- this time it was a helpless lily. He lifted it up just enough for her to get an idea of why it was even there.
"O-oh.." She realized, feeling dumb. "You can keep it.. I owe you change, anyway..." Meek as usual.
Sasuke's shoulders slumped, the perfect lily falling to his waist. He took one last breath, exhaled and blankly walked over to Naruto with a pain shooting through his back. Barely wintching, he'd never let the pain become apparent. Not now, not ever- he'd spent too much time, too much effort on the facade to give up now and throw his demeanour away in front of a stranger no less.
"Get up, loser." He smacked Naruto's puffy yellow head.
Jolting, mouthing-off and sputtering incoherently, all Hinata could hear was Naruto's dribble and Sasuke's feet clack against the shop's threasthhold, exiting. She wondered, again, why he'd be purchasing flowers. Maybe for a girlfriend?
Not likely... she thought, lilys weren't the most romantic thing to give to a girl.
"N-Naruto-kun... are you alright?" Sasuke wasn't there now, so it was alright to speak. It was alright to walk around freely without being scared. Sasuke was just so menacing, Hinata could never tell what he was thinking and it frightened her.
No.. more like, perplexed her.
"Oh, didn't see you there, Hinata." Naruto struggled to shed the blanket that was shrouding most of his body.
Hinata frowned, her emotional needle beginning to point south.
Naruto's cheeks were dirty, his hands cut up and his clothes were ripped.
He was still smiling.
His feet being placed firmly to the ground, he dusted himself off and stood tall over the slippry floor. He felt rejuvenated, even if his body ached in places he'd forgotten that he had. After glancing up at a timid little girl who was mumbling, he decided unconsciously that it would be appropriate to say something.
"Man, that Sasuke's a real jerk, you know?" His shoulder flexed. "He really landed some good punches back there."
Although she agreed with the 'Sasuke is a jerk' part, Hinata smiled a small grin and fiddled with her fingers. She loved looking into Naruto's immense eyes. They were like an entire ocean that held thousands of different forms of life. They swam, glistened- she wanted to look at them but couldn't.
Her demenour wouldn't allow it.
"He.. he looked really beat up, too, Naruto-kun..." She fidgeted, recalling the way Sasuke was groaning in pain as he slept unconscious in the shop's corner. "H-he was in.. a lot of pain, so..."
"Hehh, really?" Naruto snickered with pride, ignoring a headache. "Yeah, that's to be expected. I kicked his ass pretty good!"
He made her smile again.
She could do it. She knew she could do it.
Her hands wandered into her pocket, clumsily fumbling with whatever the contents were. She was searching for a very specific item, something she brought with her on the off-chance that she'd end up getting pricked by a rose again.
It turns out that the incident yesterday with that red flower was a luck charm in disguise.
Pulling out a very small, round, wooden case that barely took up a quarter of her palm, Hinata's hands trembled when Naruto looked straight at her, curious. "It's medicine. For your.. wounds."
Naruto eyed the item. It took him a moment to remember, but finally, "Hey! Is that the stuff you had at the elimination rounds of the Chunnin exam?" Approaching her quickly, he didn't even notice the heat fly up into her face. "That stuff is the best medicine I've ever used!"
Now he's done it.
It felt like the roses were now being smashed against her cheeks and their red lipstick left deep, crimson bruises. She didn't trust her voice anymore, she knew she'd stammer or faint.
He was so close to her.
Luckily, Naruto nabbed the tiny container of ointment from her fretting fingers and grinned mischievously as he did so. He popped it open, and traced the brim with his fingers.
"Y-you can.. k-keep it,.. if y-you w-wan--"
"Thanks a bunch, Hinata!" He cut open the air, suddenly near the door. "Sorry, but I got some more training to do. I'm gonna kick Sasuke's ass twice as hard! See ya!"
And then he was gone.
A sigh. Hinata slipped behind the counter and memorized the number of petals that clung to the bottom of her shoe.
The sound of spilling rain drops depressed her. It was melancholic- Naruto was her sunshine but now he was gone and left her alone with just the rain.
She remained in that posture for a while. No freckled apron, no flowers perming her darkly-toned locks. No customers in sight and Ino was gone.
She was alone,
And Neji was late.
