Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: This is still the Chapter 1 you've all read. I'm not changing the story or anything, just a standard edited chapter. I've added bits and pieces here and there, also fixed the POV. Read on.


Pathways
Chapter 1
White eyes


W-where…?

Her body felt heavy, as if she was being weighed down by a something. She couldn't see anything. Blood was gathering at her head. Was she upside down? She couldn't tell but there's something wrong here. What happened?

"Do not free her from her binds," A voice spoke. She didn't know who it was but it had a calm yet scratchy quality to it. It was a mocking voice. "That's a direct order from Orochimaru-sama."

For some reason she recognized that voice, she just can't put her finger on it. But she was sure she'd heard that person before… Who?

"I don't give a damn." Another voice said. She got the impression that the person it belonged to didn't get along well with the first person. There was annoyance and a kind of detached feature in it.

So dark…this is…? That second voice also sounded familiar. However, she had a feeling that it should be a little higher…

There was a grunt. "Watch your tongue Uchiha, you might loose it if you don't."

Uchiha…? She wondered if it was the same Uchiha she remembered from childhood. But that couldn't be right. The Uchiha she knew defected three years ago. How could he be here in Konoha?

Unless… she wasn't in Konoha at all. Come to think of it, didn't the first voice mention the name Orochimaru earlier?

The second voice, 'Uchiha', replied. "Like I said, I don't give a damn."

"Say what you want, Uchiha." She heard footsteps, growing fainter. The person was walking away, probably thinking that it was no use talking to someone who hears on one ear and lets it escape the other ear. "Just a note of warning though; you're here because Orochimaru-sama still has a use for you. Once your usefulness expires, well…"

Orochimaru was mentioned again. She didn't like what this entailed for her. Her body was still not cooperating. Her awareness was there but she just couldn't open her eyes. She felt lethargic.

A short dry laugh. "We'll see if you still don't give a damn when that time comes." With that, the footsteps grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared all together.

'Uchiha' scoffed. "What is it with these people always wanting to get the last words?" She heard him mumble.

There was the sound of creaking metal and then she felt her body dropped not so gently on the hard ground that smelt of rotten cloth.

Her teeth jarred from the impact of her body colliding with the stone floor. A whimper of escaped her lips. The throbbing pain sent a wave of awareness throughout her body. Her eyelids twitched.

"You're finally awake, Hyuuga."

She slowly opened her eyes and winced. Turning her face up, she saw Sasuke looking down at her, his arms crossed. "W-where am I?" Her entire body hurt so she had difficulty sitting up. What happened? I feel dizzy… More importantly, what was she doing here with Uchiha Sasuke?

Sasuke watched as she struggled with an apathetic expression. "Here." He said in a tone not meant to be annoying even though his answer was annoying. Hinata got the impression that he really had no intention of irritating her, however he may act otherwise.

"W-where h-here?" She just knew something's wrong with her because she's having difficulty sitting up. "W-what happened?"

He rolled his eyes in disgust. "You're here. We're taking something from you then we'll kill you…" Sasuke crouched down to her level and narrowed his eyes. "Or spare you…Whatever."

Amidst his short speech, she finally noticed what was wrong with her – aside from her bruised and aching body, that is – her wrists as well as her ankles were bound, the reason why she was having trouble sitting up. She was in the middle of trying to generate chakra to cut the ropes loose when Sasuke got to the killing part. She instantly froze.

He was watching her with interest. He probably knew that she was generating chakra to sever the ropes binding her, and he probably also knew that she couldn't pull it off because her chakra was next to being completely depleted. She grimaced.

"Pathetic." He grouched making her jump.

"Y-you're g-going to k-kill m-me?" she squeaked, feeling like a trapped mouse.

He looked amused. "Not yet. That would come later."

"W-why…?"

Sasuke indicated his own black eyes with a forefinger, the amused expression still pasted on his face.

"M-my eyes…?" For a moment she stared uncomprehendingly and then she gasped in realization. "M-my Byakugan!"

"Bright." He complimented mockingly.

"B-but I t-thought that t-this has s-something to d-do w-with N-Naruto --"

In a flash, Sasuke had her in strangle-hold, their faces only inches apart. "Don't ever mention that name." He whispered harshly. "If I hear you say that name again, I will kill you."

Hinata was surprised by his uncalled for reaction. She wondered why mentioning the blond's name got him so riled up in a blink of an eye.

"U-Uchiha-san…I-I c-can't…b-breath…" She wheezed.

As if awakening from a nightmare, he released her neck and stared at his hands, having the visage of someone who had been burned. Hinata saw that his eyes held a strange glimmer in them, as if he couldn't quite believe what he had just done.

"My my, Sasuke." A raspy voice sounded off from the cell door. Hinata felt an uncomfortable shiver run up her spine and Sasuke tense in front of her. "It would not do at all if you killed her before we got what we want."

"You…why are you here?" Sasuke's cold voice asked.

Orochimaru smirked at Sasuke's back and leaned on the metal frame of the door. "Just checking if you're following my order."

Order? Hinata wondered and watched skeptically as Sasuke reached for her bound wrists and proceeded to cut her ropes with deliberate movements. After the deed was done, he smirked. "What was your order again?" he stood up and looked at his mentor sardonically.

The latter gave a loud raspy bark of laughter. "You don't cease to amuse me, Sasuke." His licked his lips with his long tongue.

Sasuke watched the display in antipathy. "And you continuously disgust me, Orochimaru-sensei."

Orochimaru gave a dark chuckle. "Yes, I am that." After a moment's pause, the snake sannin's eyes fell to her and settled on her smarting cheeks, which she was sure was bruised. "It seems she put up a fight. Nothing you couldn't handle though, I presume?"

Sasuke scoffed; "It was painfully easy," he crossed his arms and looked down her, "as was expected from the weakest member of the Hyuuga clan." Hinata felt herself sag with the jibe, she bit her lip, preventing a cry of protest from escaping.

"She appears to spark your interest," Orochimaru darted his tongue out and gave a hissing sound. "I'll leave her to you then." The sannin left.

"I-I'm n-not w-weak…" She whispered when she couldn't take it anymore. She needed to defend herself.

At his soft mocking laughter, Hinata jerked and looked at him fiercely, her Byakugan automatically activating. "D-don't make f-fun of m-me!" she forcefully stuttered.

He ignored her and continued laughing at her expense and suddenly stopped.

Silence…

Then… "I'm not." He said seriously. He looked down at her and raised an eyebrow at her disbelieving expression.

"Y-you're lying…w-who else would y-you be l-laughing a-at?"

For a moment, his eyes obtained a faraway look but it was still directed at her…as if he was seeing someone else in her place. The look disappeared as quickly as it came. "Not at you. You remind me of someone…" Sasuke broke eye contact with her and focused his gaze on the cell door instead. "But you really are weak." He added, trying to change the subject.

However, this didn't dissuade her; she was much too used to being called weak that it's just a matter of principle to defend herself. Personally, she stopped caring a long time ago and instead focused on proving everybody wrong about their opinion of her…Of course, she's still not past that stage yet…and considering her situation now, maybe she never would.

All things aside, her curiosity was still piqued by what the Uchiha said. Who would he know that she would remind him off? She couldn't help herself to ask him, "W-who…?"

He didn't answer and instead started walking out of the wooden cell door. She watched him as he made to close the door when he paused. "The dead-last…" he said, "you remind me of the dead-last."

Naruto-kun?

Before she could pose another question, he already closed the door soundly. Through her still activated Byakugan, she saw him walking away from the wooden doors until he disappeared from her sight when she deactivated her Byakugan.

Naruto-kun…? Why would she be similar to Naruto-kun? There aren't many things that they have in common…in fact, the more she thought about it, the more she's convinced that mutually, the two of them shared nothing…except maybe for their singular desire to prove themselves.

But their similarity in that certain area stopped there. As far as she knew, Naruto had succeeded to prove himself a long time ago. And in her eyes, he still is proving himself constantly.

Unlike her who's still stuck in a stand-still…always in the same place…wanting to move but can never step forward…

Never could find the right pathway to take.

Naruto was forever advancing…far ahead of everyone…

Far ahead of her…

The two of them are a hundred poles apart.

But Uchiha Sasuke said she reminded him of Naruto, not directly, no…

Dead-last…

She knew Sasuke used to refer to Naruto in this derogatory term. She learned this during her usually very short visits to Team 7's training area. But why would she remind him of the dead-last? More importantly…

Why is he even remembering…?

Isn't it that he doesn't want anything to do with his former teammates, much less his former best friend? So why is he still thinking about them?

Unless…

Unless he couldn't…couldn't forget about them.

She knew from experience that forgetting someone would be very hard, next to impossible even, if they were already engraved deep in one's heart. Is this also the case with Sasuke?

She could only speculate…

And all through the night, sleep evaded her…not because of fear for her life but because she could not stop thinking of the puzzle she accidentally stumbled upon…

Uchiha Sasuke.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­


A loud bang accompanied the slamming of Tsunade's hand on her office table followed by a cracking noise. The other occupant of the room winced at the sight of the table split in half. The Hokage herself was unperturbed even though said table had been the fourth one she'd broken that week.

"What do you mean she just vanished?" Tsunade growled. "I gave you explicit orders! I told you not to return until you found her!"

The Anbu ninja cowered behind his mask, thankful for whoever was responsible for assigning Anbus with S.O.P. masks. "W-we --" high shrill, cough-cough "a-ahem…It is as reported, Hokage-sama, the Hyuuga girl just d-disappeared" cough "there was no sign of struggle, however," the Anbu produced something from within his cloak, "we did find this." He said while handing the procured object to Tsunade.

The Hokage held the object to the light and scrutinized it. "A flash note?" she stated blankly, indicating for the Anbu to explain.

"We conducted several experiments with it and found it to be positive with traces of evil chakra."

"Evil…" Tsunade thought for a moment and then her eyes widened, "you mean the chakra similar to the one in a cursed seal?" she didn't like where this is going.

The Anbu nodded in the affirmative. "The evil chakra is very similar to that chakra used during the fight of the Third. The only person we could think of who could have created such chakra would be…"

"Orochimaru." Tsunade clenched her teeth in anger. What is he plotting now? She clenched the note in her hand and punched the nearby wall with her hand. "In any case, her disappearance will cause quite a stir if we don't find her as soon as possible. Her father would not be pleased and may pose a problem for us if he's given a reason to believe that his clan is being threatened."

A rather large dent had appeared on the place where Tsunade had hit the wall. The Anbu gulped, making a mental note to avoid offending the lady Hokage in the future. "What would you have us do, Hokage-sama?" cough cough.

A tick appeared on Tsunade's left eye. "Find her. Meanwhile I will assign a team to work this puzzle out. If Orochimaru is behind this…" Tsunade let her statement hang. "Either way, whoever got her will surely use the secrets of the Byakugan she possesses. You're job would be to find her before such a thing happens." Tsunade looked directly at the Anbu, "Find Hyuuga Hinata."

The Anbu stood to attention and prepared to leave when Tsunade spoke, "By the way,"

"Hokage-sama?"

"Do something with that cold of yours," she crossed her arms over her large bosoms, "it irritates me to hear your coughing."

Cold sweat. "A-affir --" high nervous shrill "eherm…affirmative."

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To be continued…