Author's Notes: Been awhile, hasn't it? Well, I'm finally finding the time and inspiration to write my fics again, so here's that long promised update to Mutual Dislike. :D A few notes - in each chapter, I wanted to go from 2 different character perspectives. For now, Naruto and Hinata are the perspectives I chose, but just so you all know, it won't always be the same characters. Hiashi is intended to be one of the focal perspectives in the near future.
Never the less, the stage is set for the remaining 3-4 chapters of this story. I'm still working on the rest, but this time an update shouldn't take almost a year. ^^; Hang tight, folks, and leave a review whenever you can! :D Stay tuned for chapter 3, as well as the continuation of Ni Shourai!
Chapter Two: Worry & Wait
'Okay Naruto-kun, do you remember everything?'
'Yep.'
'Well...let s recite, just to be safe. This is going to be your first impression after all and...well, you know. We want to make this good. What is the first thing you should do when introducing yourself to father?'
'Um...Look him straight in the eye, then bow my head, introduce myself, and...how pleased I am to meet him?'
'Almost. You forgot one, and it s very important. You have to remember to keep a straight face - please do not frown.'
'Ack! Hinata, I know better than that! You know good and well I always smile when introducing myself. Do you think just because I don t like the guy I m going to try and knock his block off the moment I meet him?'
'Naruto-kun, please! I know you dislike father for the things I ve told you about my childhood, but don t hold it against him. He s changed a lot since those days. He s warmer now, much more gentle.'
'But Hinata, you re the one that s done all the changing! You re stronger, smarter, way more confident, and it just seems like he d only change to you because you re that heir he wanted and nothing more.'
'Naruto-kun, I...I m sorry, I should have never told you about those things...'
'...oh, no no! Hinata, I didn t mean it like that! P-please, don t get upset! Look, I m really sorry, just...I don t know, I think I might be nervous meeting the guy is all. Maybe that s it. And besides, even if that was true-Ack, I mean no, it s not true one bit! I m sure he loves you because you re family! Not any lesser reason, n-not at all, so please cheer up!'
'You mean you truly don t think like that about him? Honest?'
'I swear! I was just looking for excuses not to go through with this maybe, I m just really nervous is all. And I mean it! Heck, if I had a bowl of ramen on me, I d give it over to ya just to show you how serious I am. And you know me and ramen.'
'Well...I believe you, Naruto-kun. After all, you never-'
'-go back on my word. Our nindo, right?'
'Mhm. You ve always stood by whatever you ve said, Naruto-kun. That s why I won t start doubting you now. And I give you my word as well. I really need you to make a good first impression, but... I m not worried. As long as you remember everything I ve told you, there s no way father will dislike you!'
As memories of the first time he actually sat down with Hiashi and Hinata began to encircle his waking dreams, he recalled just how horribly that first impression went, and just how wrong Hinata had been. From the moment Naruto walked past the sliding doors of the Hyuuga estate, Hiashi s aggressive, almost deathly glare was fixed upon him. It was almost as if he was trying to set him ablaze with his eyes, not that he believed that could actually happen though. Or could he?
To this day, Naruto never knew what made Hiashi hate him so much. He d been as respectful as could be the first time, meeting eye contact, bowing, and saying "I am Uzumaki Naruto. It s an honor to meet Hinata's father at last."
Wait, did he actually say that? Or did he say something else?
No, it couldn t have been. He remembered after the introductions, Hinata had looked to him and whispered Great job, Naruto-kun! with a warm and cheery smile - a smile he d come to love seeing on her face whenever they were together. A smile that faded swiftly as Hiashi groaned in disapproval.
He did everything right that day, and it wasn t as though he had an ill reputation. Not anymore, for certain. He was the hero of Konoha, and the savior of the entire shinobi world. He had ultimately silenced a centuries old grudge, made a new and peaceful world possible for his friends.
If Hiashi still hated Naruto for having the Kyuubi sealed within him, he d be the first he d met in a good long while. On top of that, Naruto remembered the kinds of glares that were given to him as a child for that very same reason - the look Hinata s father gave him was a hateful one, but it just didn t seem the same as all the others. Maybe he had just forgotten what they were like. It had been a long time, after all.
When the tea had been finished at last, Naruto hoped it wouldn t be a common ordeal - sitting here, saying nothing to the stoic man. However, Hinata insisted they all get together every week - probably the first thing she d ever done that Naruto truly felt irked by. And in spite of all her efforts, things ceased to change between the blond ninja and the head of the Hyuuga clan.
Every visit turned into a staring contest between the two, and it had been wearing poor Hinata down. She truly wished the two of them could coexist, and Naruto knew it. Even though he didn t like the guy, however, he wasn t the one to cast the first stone...or was he?
He just couldn t remember!
As these recollections brought the dozing teen to the surface of his deep slumber, the soft glimmer of the morning sun began to seem through his eyelids. 'Nrgh...Great...morning already' he complained with a mumble, turning towards the park bench to rise without the sun glaring in his eyes. A bellowing yawn welled up within him, and he rose his arms to stretch. The first thought to fill his conscious mind was the same he d had before he fell asleep waiting for Hinata the night prior; Was she back yet?
Clutching his groaning stomach, the boy wondered if he could stave off a meal any longer. He was so worried about Hinata that night, he had completely forgotten to eat dinner. "Man...better get myself to Ichiraku. I wish that old man would have at least given me something to munch on last night. The Hyuuga head is a gracious host my ass."
"For your sake, Naruto, I hope you don t actually speak like that to Hiashi-sama."
The blond froze where he stood, mid stretch yet still as a statue. Slowly and nervously, he turned his body around, slightly more relieved at the realization of who the voice belonged to. "Neji. Don t sneak up on me like that, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Beating on his chest as if it would cease his pounding heart rate, he sighed in relief that the one speaking to him wasn t Hiashi himself. No, wait, he mentioned Hiashi, so that would be kind of silly...perhaps he was becoming a bit paranoid? Throwing his hands behind his head, he flashed his famous smirk at Hinata s cousin, pretending as though he hadn't said a thing. "Heheh, so what s up Neji? You weren t lookin for me or anything, were you? I mean, it s kinda early in the morning still and-"
Neji turned and began to walk away, speaking with a short tone. "We don t have time for this. You're needed at the Hokage s office, so head over there with haste. It s important."
Naruto's face dropped from a beaming smile to an ugly frown, his lower lip curling in disdain at the news. "Wait a sec, Granny Tsunade told me she wouldn t be sending me on any missions or anything till after Hinata got back... so I could spend some time with her. What's the big idea sending me on one all of a sudden?"
Neji looked back at him. Naruto could see, even from the distance between them, he was trying to keep his composure. "Because, the matter involves Hinata."
The color drained from his face. There was no way, not a paper bomb's chance in hell that this was good. The fears of what might have happened to her that he had spent half the night ignoring out of the blind belief that she would be just fine had started to invade his thoughts again, swarming his mind like a swarm of insects. "Neji...what s going on? What happened to Hinata?"
Pain, coursing through every fiber of her being. Fatigue and exhaustion, weighing her body down like a lead weight. As Hinata inched back into the conscious world, she struggled with what little might she could muster just to raise her head. Darkness, with an orange glow casting off of shadows. Faint, translucent rays trying to force their way through pinholes upon a ceiling of pitch black. Where was she?
Her vision began to settle, and everything ceased to be a blur. The muffled sounds of voices nearby began to fill her ears, becoming more understandable with each word they said. The voices, she d heard them before. Recently. Recently?
Her head was pounding, yet she didn t even have the strength to groan. 'If I could activate my Byakugan...' she thought to herself, even her thoughts coming on a bit sluggish. 'I could find out...who and where...' She couldn t even finish her thought! What did they do to her? The last waking moments before she was overpowered the night before began to race through her mind. Darui...the Cloud...yes, she had to have been in their captivity still. She was cornered. Three...no, four of them. She had fought tooth and nail against them, but with no luck - she couldn t even escape. Not against four Jonin ranked shinobi.
Still, she was alive - that was a start. And a start was all she wanted. However, as she attempted to unbind herself, she came to a curious conclusion - she wasn t even bound by the enemy. Just as this conclusion set in, and she figured she might be able to escape, she realized something was horribly wrong with her as well. She was fully awake now, but she still couldn't move. 'They must have sedated me with poison...' she thought, cursing mentally at her helpless state.
"Come on, Shii, you know that s not what I meant!" An obnoxious, almost arrogant sounding voice came from behind the tree she was laying down before. "All I m saying is that Darui isn't himself lately. Ever since the start of this mission, he's been taking longer routes, setting off all kinds of indications that we ve been through here - we might as well have sent a rhino through these forests to get that girl!"
"And I m telling you we were just pressed for time!" That voice belonged to Shii, a man whom Hinata had met once before during the war. A close hand of the Raikage. "Missions like this are make or break. We're in territory outside of our own, and the moment if we make one mistake, we don t have time to cover our tails with the rest."
Then why the hell are we camping out for the night instead of getting the hell out of here? Seems like if we want to avoid getting caught, we d have already been on the border to the Land of Wind by now. I mean, we had all of last night to move under the cover of nightfall, but Darui just had to nurse his injuries against the girl."
"The Byakugan user blocked several of his vital chakra points. If we d continued on without treatment, the damage might have been permanent, and he would be useless if we have to fight again."
"Big deal! Our shinobi are suffering permanent injuries all the time out there. We're jonin, not prissy genin fresh out of school! Lord Raikage will have our heads if we fail this, so losing a limb or two is the least of our worries."
"Alright, cut it out Atsui. Your complaining is getting a little dull." A much softer, though bored sounding voice spoke up, silencing the loudmouthed one. Commander Darui - at least, the name she had known him by during the fourth war. "I messed up, and I m sorry about that. But we re not about to fail this mission."
"Hah, I sure hope not!"
"Atsui, show a little respect for the captain!"
"Anyway, our lookout should be back any minute now. Sun's rising, and things are about to get a little more dangerous - we really can't afford to recover and rest any longer. Be sure to thank Shii for the camo - without him, we wouldn t have gotten a wink of shuteye. I'm gonna go check on the Hyuuga girl."
He was coming her way. Even though there was nothing she could do in her current state, her blood stirred. She knew if she hesitated too long, she'd lose what might have been her only chance to escape.
And yet her body couldn t power through the poison seeping through her veins. Her arms were like lead, her body like stone. Never before had she felt quite this helpless.
"You're awake, huh? Bet it's pretty dull, just sitting there like a sandbag."
She looked up, Darui looking down upon her, his arms folded and eyes quite serious. "Why are...you...doing...?" She put every bit of effort she could into forming those words, even with her chest barely able to take in a breath. Her lungs felt like they were on fire just from trying to speak.
Darui knelt down and hoisted Hinata upright, sitting her more properly against the tree. "Calm down. Don t hurt yourself, alright? We put you under a powerful Sloth's Blood Poison. Your heart-rate is being forcibly set at the minimum you need to live, so trying too hard could give you an attack, or worse."
That explained a lot. No wonder she felt like she was still sleeping. Still, he almost seemed compassionate towards her, even though they had fought mere hours ago.
"Bet you already know why we're after you, huh?" He threw an arm behind his head. "Look, don't get all freaked out. I don't feel right doing this, but we're under orders from Lord Raikage himself."
"My...friends...are they...?"
The dark skinned man shrugged. "Our guys couldn't touch 'em, so that's probably a load of your shoulders, right?" If she could sigh in relief right now, she would have. You re a good ninja, to be able to keep us busy that long. "Your friends are fine, so just keep yourself calm, and..."
"Haha, yeah, and we can take those pretty little eyes out of your skull." It was the loud voice from earlier, Atsui. Hinata's eyes rolled to the side, the blond bowl-cut man popping out from behind the tree.
Darui covered his face with the palm of his hand. "Yeah, that's really gonna get her to calm down."
Atsui pulled a kunai out of his bag. "That reminds me about another thing, Darui." He folded his arms as well, twiddling the knife in his hand. "Why don't we just take them here? Would save us a hell of a trip, lugging an extra - what does this girl weight, ninety pounds? I'd think a pair of eyeballs would be easier."
Hinata didn't know which she found more unnerving - the fact that these ninja wanted her eyes, or the fact that this guy would delight in such a gruesome task.
"Look, I'm not gonna tell you again, Atsui. The orders were to bring her back alive. That's what we re gonna do."
Atsui shrugged, letting the kunai drop to the ground. "Tch. I'm just saying, we're obviously in this for the Byakugan. Even if she doesn t get to Kumo in one piece, we could just say we...shedded a bit of weight for a quick escape? Better than a complete failure, wouldn't you say?"
Darui shook his head. "Sorry man, but the answer is no. Now go on and eat something - you'll need your strength. We'll be dodging border watchers all day, probably."
"Fine, fine, but don't blame me for that. Just remember, we could have been across the border already" He crouched down to pick up his kunai, and walked out of Hinata s sight - giving one last look at Darui.
"Sorry about him. We really aren t going to try and hurt you if it's possible. Just come along quiet, and don t get all riled up like I said. Do all that, and you should be fine." As he said this, she could sense a bit of regret in his tone. He was lying, and didn t seem very happy with the reason - she could tell. As the man walked over to join his comrades, her eyes turned towards the sunshafts beaming on the grass.
She still felt horribly weak. Too weak to even curl her fists, or even bite her lip. She hated this feeling. No wonder they didn t tie her up - there was no need to. The poison was just that potent. Still, her eyes conveyed a sudden burst of determination, as she began to think.
'If I give up now, I'll never forgive myself...' she thought. I share my life with too many people now to be stopped by this. 'Come on, think...there s got to be something.' Her eyes wandered about her surroundings, scanning as best they could despite the pressure in her chest. She had to keep it subtle, yet effective.
As her captors began to prepare, so too did her vigilant eyes. Former allies or not, friendly or violent, these men were dangerous. That much she was certain of. Kiba and Shino, they d gotten away - meaning she had succeeded. Now, it was her turn.
'I'll be home soon.' she assured herself, closing her eyes to come up with a plan.
She only hoped time was on her side.
