Hello everybody, it's the Bana & I'm back with chapter 3! To say I struggled with this chapter is an understatement, but I finished it and quite like how it turned out. Things are progressing, and with chapter 4 I havent gotten deep into it yet but I can tell you beginning is wild.
This chapter I feel like is one of many that will be shaping Sasuke and Hinata into the people they are once it's their time to be reunited. For those of you who read the Find Our Way I'm revising, it gets wild, it gets crazy, but now with a deeper meaning to everything and I love it.
I also love the support that I get with every story that I or Hana put together. I appreciate all the positive and negative reviews, but mostly the positive ones though as it keeps us motivated, lol. To make these stories with characters I love and to connect with you guys that love the stories we put together with the characters you guys also love is awesome to me, and saying that, I hope you guys like this chapter!
I do not own ANY Naruto EXCEPT for my lovely baby Soseki, and again please enjoy!
Chapter Three
She watched the news with a frown on her face, watching as paramedics lifted some of the bagged bodies onto the gurneys. "Today we've lost a few of our nations people. Most of them who have yet to be identified, leaving only seven survivors out of twenty-six."
"So horrible.." She whispered as she turned the news up some once she heard Soseki and his after school friend come in from the backyard. Soseki called from the kitchen, "Mommy! Takahiro and me are hungry! Can we have more snacks?", causing her to nod in silence as she corrected him, "It's Takahiro and I" and continued to listen to the news.
"Here is victim Juru Harra, can you please explain to us and to the people at home what exactly happened here?" The news reporter asked, getting a nod out of the bearded man as he bent low enough to talk into the mic. Soseki went to ask his mom for another snack until she got up, her focus still on the tv.
"It was a lot of yelling, I can tell you that much! It was these three dudes in a car; two wore these mask while the other covered their face. They seemed in a rush, but not so much of one as they deliberately honked the horn-"
"Wait, deliberately? As though they were warning everyone involved in the explosion?" The woman asked, causing the man to reluctantly nod as he then added. "One of the men started ordering for all of us to run with his gun out. They probably would've helped if they had more time, but I don't know.. it all seems kinda shady to me."
"Do you think it's drug related?"
The man scoffed, "I think something shady definitely went down, yes. Drug related? I don't know about that."
It switched to another witness in questioning as she made it to the fridge. Soseki and Takahiro smiled up at her briefly before looking back at each other and running back outside.
She couldn't believe it, a motel exploding with over ten dead? It was all too close to home for her liking. "Can you tell us and the audience at home what you saw today?" The news reporter asked a shaken up woman whose attention was more focused on the road than the cameras. "Uh, ma'am?" The reporter called out, causing the woman to tense as she looked the brunette straight in the eyes.
"I.. I woke up to two men arguing in the room next to me. It was really muffled, until a woman called for.. I-I don't remember his name…"
"A woman? So you believe a woman was involved?" The reporter asked, causing the petite woman to frown as she shakenly pointed towards Juru who was now being interviewed by police and said, "It was two men wearing mask and one woman. I… I know I heard a feminine voice-"
"And what of the man you heard them arguing with? Do you think he was caught in the explosion?-"
The tweaked out woman shook her head. "No!" She blurted out, recalling what she heard before the explosion. "There were two manly voices arguing after that feminine voice called out. But after a while, it was a loud thud and the leader told the woman and some other guy I think to move the body and to uh.. 'Shut the f up and do what he just said or else.'"
"And you believe they then moved the body of the other man?" The woman asked, causing the tweaker to furiously nod as she pointed towards the road and said, "Looking out my window, I can tell you that the honking didn't start until they threw a body in the trunk."
"Heavens.." Hinata breathed as she shook her head and made the little boys sandwiches. 'What kind of monsters would do such a thing?..' She thought as she began to cut the sandwiches into squares.
'Hopefully they find the man soon' She hoped, making her way towards the backyard with a sick thought in the back of her mind that maybe the man didn't need to be found..
"C'mon boss man, we didn't get caught!-"
"Silence Suigetsu!..." Itachi snapped, widening the mans eyes as he caught himself in time to take a deep breath to calm down.. He rephrased himself, "It isn't the point. The three of you went behind strict orders I gave and risked us getting caught; risked Izumi's life-"
"But uh, but we didn't get caught, Lord Itachi. We successfully brought Jugo back with us and he's even agreed to help us find her-"
"That's if we find her before the Land of Fire Police Force collects all their witness reports and figure us out, Karin-"
"Itachi, you're worrying too much-"
He looked at his younger brother in disbelief. "Am I?" He asked as he went to sign into the Konoha News on his laptop. "They've been talking about it for the past four hours, I was simply waiting for you all to return." He explained as he forwarded the recorded news to key points. "Listen to this."
He pushed play and crossed his arms as he watched Sasuke roll his eyes and do the same. Karin and Suigetsu sat up and paid attention to the news clip.
"The leader voice told the woman and some other guy I think to move the body and to uh.. 'Shut the f up and do what he just said or else.'" A tweaker woman explained, causing Sasuke to scoff as he said, "I didn't say that." And got flicked by Itachi. "Wha! Ow!" He hissed, glaring at his older brother as the man did so back. "And you believe they then moved the body of the other man?" The woman asked, causing the tweaker to furiously nod as she pointed towards the road and said, "Looking out my window, I can tell you that the honking didn't start until they threw a body in the trunk."
"It doesn't matter if you said those exact words or not, what matters is that she heard all four of your voices, and even your name, little brother." Itachi explained, causing the entire room to tense as he continued, "We're lucky that she doesn't remember for now, and while she doesn't right now, we need to keep it that way." He stated, causing Sasuke's eyes to widen as he mumbled,
"What do you mean by that, Itachi?", getting a knowing look out of the man which made his stomach turn. "Are you.. talking about murdering a woman right now?" He asked with anger building within, glaring deep into his brothers calm eyes. "What happened to you not wanting to kill anyone-"
"That was, of course, until you recklessly risked outing us. This is what we have to do before she remembers your name-"
"If she does remember my name, they'd have a hell of a time connecting me with her-"
"Or they'd think, hey, isn't Sasuke the name of the boy who went missing a couple years back with his older brother?" Itachi interjected, causing Sasuke to frown as he gave more explanations. "Our father would then look into it with the Hokage and then Orochimaru would get word of it and he would kill Izumi and little brother, so help me Kami, I would kill you."
"Over a woman?-"
"No, Sasuke, over your recklessness. You and I are going to pay that woman a visit while you two," Itachi looked towards Suigetsu and Karin, "You two are going to respray the car. And Karin, cut your hair and dye it. We need to lay low." Itachi ordered around, sighing to himself as he made his way to the back with Sasuke behind him. "Any problems with our plans, little brother?-"
He scoffed, "Yeah, maybe the entire plan about killing some woman-"
Itachi stopped in his tracks. "This is a kill or be killed situation, little brother. If she gives out your name to the police, do you not know what kind of damage that would have on us? It'll connect us to those deaths, this supposed kidnapping, and the explosion." Itachi nonchalantly explained to him, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he continued and turned towards Sasuke.
"We wouldn't be able to return home with a clean slate-"
"We wouldn't be able to do that if we go through with this either-"
"No one would know. She's a tweaker, we'll track her down and make it seem like an overdose-"
"Do you not hear yourself right now?! You're planning a murder right now!-"
"Orochimaru has been planning our deaths ever since we ran from home, Sasuke. We aren't home anymore, we're in the wild." Itachi stated with a frown, getting a small frown out of Sasuke as he continued. "With Jugo with us to help, we can find him and stop him from ever hurting us again, but we cannot do that without getting some blood on our hands. I'd rather us not hurting or killing anyone but.. little brother, her having any information on us puts mother, father, Hinata and her family; everyone we care for in danger." He explained, causing Sasuke to curse under his breath.
"We have to silence her.." Itachi insisted, getting a reluctant nod out of his younger brother as the young man thought, 'If I were ever going to kill someone, it would be for her; Hinata.' Itachi watched as Sasuke's features darkened, he was beginning to adapt to this kill or be killed world and he didn't know if that was a good thing or bad thing. "We will return home one day, Sasuke.. and when we do-"
"Izumi nor Hinata can know about what we've done." He stated, seeming to already know his brothers drill. They were supposed to go in quietly, kill her, and return to their safe house to track Orochimaru down once and for all.
For five years he's been reluctant to search Hinata up, or to even call her. He didn't want to put her in danger. He wanted no one to know about her or his past life before he and Itachi joined up with Suigetsu and Karin. To them, his main focus was to find Orochimaru for his brother, but if they paid attention, they'd realize how it was for the both of them..
"Once we kill this woman… we find Orochimaru and we go home." Sasuke declared, getting a small nod out of his brother as he went to walk away, but Sasuke stopped him. "I need you to say it, Itachi.." He said, nearly causing the older Uchiha to frown. "Say that once we find Orochimaru, or better yet, Izumi, we would go home without a second thought-"
"We will.. And we would never tell a soul what we've been through to get back home. Now, let's get ready. I'm sure the Land of Fire Police plan to ask our target a lot of questions in the morning.. Once Suigetsu and Karin's done respraying the car, we should be on the move." Itachi said, patting Sasuke on the shoulder once before officially making his way down the hall..
He needed the reassurance; the plan after the five years he's spent being hunted and on edge all the time. If murdering one woman was the ticket to see Hinata again and to get his freedom back then.. 'So be it..' He thought, making his way towards his shared bedroom to get ready for the worst…
"I tell him all the time how he isn't that young looking Hokage anymore, and how he needs more strategic moves instead of action all the time." The redheaded host explained to her best friend, getting a nod out of the dark-haired woman as her husband silently ate his food next to her and her best friend agreed,
"I tell Fu the exact same when it comes to his police work. When Konoha got attacked all those years back, he made sure he was in the front lines-"
"So did Minato!-"
"Yeah! But that was back then.. The older you become, the wiser, so why not use some of that wise with what's happening outside our borders right now?" Mikoto questioned, getting nods out of the redhead named Kushina and her son as Hinata and the men silently ate their dinners.
Every other Saturday was a dinner with the Uchiha's and the Uzumaki's. They'd host it at one another's house, and tonight it was Kushina's turn.. Naruto's mother. Hinata knew the dinner couldn't have been helped as its been happening for years, but she was embarrassed!
Across from her was Naruto, one of her best friends that she hasn't seen in nearly two weeks after his little… love confession. She knew it was more dire situations happening around them like the explosion outside their border, but to be sat across the table with him after the goodbye they had… she felt flustered.
"Come on, you two. I dislike speaking of work while I'm eating. To stress about work at work is one thing, but to stress about work at the dinner table? It's sickening." Fugaku complained as he then angerly bit the food off his fork. Naruto sighed and shook his head as his mother spoke up,
"Uh, Fu, don't you think its less 'talking about work' and more 'talking about our worries as civilians'?-"
"Oh, don't count yourselves as regular civilians, because none of you are. You're married to the Hokage, our states leader as you're married to me, Miko, the chief of police." He stated as he looked from Kushina to his wife, getting a small nod out of Minato as he added to his argument.
"We've both been trying to find out the people behind the explosion, but we honestly can't do much without the Daimyo's orders. You guy's have to keep in mind that the explosion happened outside our border, so it isn't much we can really do until he gives us direct orders." His words made mostly everyone around the table frown, which he expected as he knew his words weren't going to be helpful with the concern they all had.
Naruto, being one of the guys who didn't frown, spoke up, eyebrows furrowed in anger. "I'm sure what mom and auntie Mikoto are worried about though is how the guys got away. Regular civilians or not, these three people just caused an explosion killing nearly thirty people and got away! That's what the issue is right now-"
"We know that boy!" Fugaku yelled at him, causing everyone's eyes to widen except for Naruto's. "Your father just said how the only thing we can do is wait and question OUR witnesses. Seven people survived, three of those people are Konoha citizens so that means THREE people will help your father and I console Konoha." Fugaku continued, roughly placing his fork and knife down as he forced himself up.
Hinata looked back and forth from him to Naruto until Mikoto got up to touch his shoulder, he shrugged her off. "No, it's too late, I've lost my appetite." He stated as he excused himself with a nod. Mikoto looked towards Kushina and her family and frowned, opening her mouth to speak only for Kushina to raise her hand with a shake to her head.
"Don't, I'll get up to pack the leftovers." She said, getting a small smile out of the dark-haired woman who then offered to help. Hinata watched as one by one everyone despite herself and Naruto got up and left. The only thing left was the awkward silence between them that neither of them knew how to break, it pained her.
"I guess I should help clean too." He spoke up, causing her eyes to widen as his voice scared, yet surprised her. He could speak to dismiss himself, but couldn't speak to try and resolve their friendship? "Um.." She started, but to finish was a whole different step that she couldn't make.
He looked at her for a minute, hope in his eyes, but soon it vanished, and he got up. "Goodbye, Hinata-"
"Please stay." She blurted out, causing him to pause in his movement as she continued to drag on her words. "Stayy and help me with the table be-because I uh… I don't want to stack the plates wrong?" She questioned herself at first as a small smile appeared on his lips and she then added a small, "Please?"
"Are you sure you want me to stay?" He asked her as he slowly sat back down and she nodded, he continued. "Because last time we saw each other I kinda got the idea in my head that you didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore-"
She frowned, "Never, Naruto.." She admitted, getting another small smile out of him before he frowned and broke their eye contact. Last time she saw him, it was his back receding towards his car after she rejected his love for her. "I.. I'm sorry-"
"Why are you still saying sorry for what I did?-"
"Be-Because it isn't your fault that I can't return your feelings." She stated, sharing a small frown with him before she looked towards her forgotten dinner and he shook his head. "It isn't your fault either, at least emotionally." He said, intriguing her enough to listen. "It's mentally your fault though." He agreed, causing her to look back up at him as he simply shrugged.
Processing his words in silence as she stared him down, he played with his also forgotten food and explained himself. "I don't know, the other day I was out with my friend Lee who said how everyone has four states of mind. At the time, I had no clue what he meant, but I get it now… You're so worried about everyone else's opinion about us, that it's messing with your mental state of mind." He explained, causing her to frown as he decided to continue.
"Whenever we're around each other, I know you feel just as much joy as me. And I know when we kissed you liked it as much as me. I've missed you… and I know you've missed me, obviously since you asked me to stay in here with you to clean and we still haven't cleaned!" He stated with a dry laugh, causing her to smile and look away from him. He reached out for her hand and held it, staring deep into her eyes once she shyly looked back up at him. "The only thing keeping us away from each other is you mentally, because you're so worried about what your in-laws will think or-"
"Or what the father of my child-"
"Who isn't in the picture right now and who hasn't been in the picture for five year's now, Hinata?" He stated, causing her to gently sigh as he squeezed her hand in reassurance and maybe as a bit of a push. "If you could give me a chance to love you, we can deal with him together." He promised, taking her other hand in his. "It can be an us thing. I'll take you out, and I'll treat you to a night you deserved two weeks ago." He offered, getting a blush out of her as she then shyly asked,
"Are… Are you asking me out on a date?"
He smiled widely as he then furiously nodded. "Hinata Hyuga, I'm asking you to give me one more chance to make you mine… I promise I won't mess up, and you know I don't break my promises." He promised, giving her his best puppy eyes as she then laughed and looked away from him.
During these two weeks she concluded that she wanted to try and move on from Sasuke but didn't know how to make that first step. When she went on that date, she was a nervous wreck and it showed tremendously when she broke the poor man's nose, but going on a date with Naruto?
Thinking of the two of them and not the two of them with everyone else's opinions involved, it excited her to have the possibility of them being more than friends. He, Naruto Uzumaki, was asking her, Hinata Hyuga, a single WOMAN out on a date, not the single mother who was left to raise a son on her own…
"I'd… love to."
And chapter end! I hope you guys enjoyed, I like how it turned out and I'm excited for you guys to see and read chapter 4 and the ups and downs it'll have!
