I trashed the last 10 000 words I wrote because world building is actually incredibly difficult. Who knew? No wonder I haven't bothered doing it in so long. Lord in heaven. After I spent all day writing I re-read it and I was like "Plot hole... plot hole- oh look, lack of structure, plot hole, no sequence." literally, infantile attempts.
But my brain seems to have worked out a vast majority of the kinks I found yesterday overnight, so I gave myself two and a half hours to write this next chapter, and so here it is. (it took longer than that. I did not give myself enough time at all)
Also, thank you for your reviews as a couple of the issues I noticed in my writing were thankfully pointed out to me. In a very kind and helpful way too, I might add.
You are all fantastic and I am so thankful.
Much love,
Inky
The dreams were less of a burden and more of a self mutilation.
There were things that triggered them. Things like looking at the wide expanse of navy blue and indigo that was the night sky. Where once it would have been a smeared with brightly colored light, twisting and turning with the glow of the stars.
Closing his eyes to rest with that image in his mind almost always resulted in the dreams, or nightmares if he was honest. Although, when he spoke about it to anyone he always called them by their true names.
Memories.
The clink of his armor had reminded him of the chimes that littered the veranda of home, where the star dust breeze would sweep through the pillars, whispering over the smoothness of the ice and stone floors, jingling the singing bells as it passed, setting off a chorus of joy.
This sound, although similar was not joy.
This was death.
With eyes deeply set within his exhausted face he tried to breath normally, tried to stay focused as he pushed through the frenzy.
The battle that was raging around him frothed and roared. Swords were raised, skin was severed, splashes of silver blood erupted through the air. Beneath his feet the white and gray of the moon's outermost surface crunched.
Of course Danzo would have chosen to have their last battle where the Veil could see the shining flag of the victor. The shining flag of their Master.
The layers of smooth ebony armor on his body shifted as he slid his hand to the blade on his back, tightening his grip on the hilt when Danzo's cat-like movements were finally detected in the strange glow of the moon. Shadows crowded in the most strange places when the only source of light came from below their feet. But his eyes- the darkest of the genetic oculars of stars were unoffended by the glare.
Bodies lay in slayed piles around him, and his heart tightened with anger and mourning. Across the sweeping blue of their soil the soul trees of all these stars would be disintegrating. From below the Veil would watch as great patches of the sky were suddenly turned off, empty.
A brief confused thought pricked at his consciousness, even as he watched Danzo turn, his blade ripping apart another's neck, slicing silver blood in a wide arc. His eyes, so solemn and serious peered through the gore at Itachi's set jaw, and the blade spinning to life in his hand.
Would the people of the Veil see the darkening of the stars and mourn? Would they care?
Would they say the gods were dying?
Or would they curse their lack of response when they offered up a prayer?
Drinking in a breath so deep it ached he flexed his knees, tightened his grip on his sword and begging the moon for her help launched himself at Danzo, the hopeful oppressor of worlds.
In the distance, shrieking with panic and fury, he heard Sasuke's young childish voice tear through the atmosphere as his wounded mother dragged him away.
"Brother!"
The jerk of his body from sleep to wakefulness was always so sudden, like being thrown into freezing water from high above. His gasp was muted despite his terror and in a moment he felt the soft hands that always lulled him to silence, the delicate lips that smoothed over his face and whispered of warmth and loving and peace.
"You're safe. Itachi, you're safe."
That was not the problem, but he did not contradict her as she climbed into his lap where he sat shuddering. Her limbs so small and fragile compared to his well scarred shell tangled through his arms and around his neck. With her pressed so hard to his chest he calmed at the feeling of her heart pumping hard past her rib cage echoing inside his own chest.
The darkness of the cave they had picked for their short rest was all encompassing and oppressive but nothing scared Izumi anymore. Sometimes he worried that her lack of fear would be the thing that killed her.
Perhaps if she were afraid like a normal creature she would have feared him also.
Voices whispered in the dark of the cave, even as he felt her breath hot and sweet and familiar on his face before her lips traveled to his, effectively slicing through the memories that haunted him.
"Is everything okay, Captain?" Kisame's grating voice was the only one he could understand in the onslaught of whispers.
Breathless Itachi drew back from Izumi's mouth, feeling her smile along the curve of his jaw bone pressed softly to the pulse there.
"Everything is fine, Kisame." Itachi whispered back, shifting until the wall supported his back, giving his hands freedom to slide up along Izumi's spine to the shoulder blades where he always wondered at the lack of feathers.
"Tch." Kisame's grunt told him that perhaps the steadiness of his voice could have used a little more effort, and an amused snort from Deidara signaled they had ideas about what had made him sound so shaky. Unperturbed, Itachi tightened his hold on Izumi and steadied his breathing to calmness. Living in very close quarters with people made privacy irrelevant. After a hundred years of this, it didn't even enter his mind to be irritated.
The rest of the night they did not speak, instead they listened to the even breaths of their comrades in the darkness, and to each other's heart beats only separated by a couple inches of blood and bone.
In the morning Izumi wept with compassion and love for him as he told her his dream and he drank from her tears, tasting the emotion all the day down his throat as he kissed the liquid from her lips and eyelashes.
Out in the sunrise they breathed in carefully, eyeing the spitting geisers of fumes that choked and potentially killed if the vapor was inhaled too quickly. Beyond the cave the land stretched endless and sick, alternating between swamps that smelled of rot and pus and the fermenting decay of life, and the bone dry freezing deserts that scorched at noon and bit with cold at night.
Food was a long lost concept, it had been months since their last venture into an actually forested area and neither beast nor plant offered sustenance to their large and ever growing party in their current patch of Veil wasteland.
Still feeling the boil of heat and affection from Izumi's tears on his tongue Itachi turned to his band, all whom stared back with eyes as dark as his, although none began that way. The effect of surviving on nothing but his blood had taken years to show. That, among other changes in their bodies now marked them as his just as strongly as it marked him as theirs.
When he sliced his hand open on his sword and fed them from his blood he almost forgot the scream of his brother echoing in the darkness of his nightmares, too distracted for the time being by the hungry mouths who fed on him.
When everyone was satisfied by a mere handful of drops of silver on their tongues, Itachi straightened eyeing the desolate landscape with a frown.
"So, ready to keep hunting?"
He had to give it to Danzo. After a 100 years of searching the Veil for the putrid thing that had once called himself a star, Itachi was impressed by his ability to hide and bide his time.
But it was over, finally he had caught his scent on the wind and found the trail.
Kisame grinned madly at him, and Izumi laced her fingers through his, pushing locks of her hair from her face idly as the breeze lanced with poison whipped through it.
"Whatever you say." Her smile was sweet, like her tears and he breathed in deep despite the rot. He couldn't deny that he felt warmed by their faith and devotion, by the new family he had gained through the century.
Ignoring the hollow place in his heart where Sasuke's name festered he turned and started away.
It had never occurred to him just how much sleep the people of the Veil required, and as he watched her breathing slowly beside him he allowed himself one deep sigh.
There were a lot of things that his education had not warranted as important for the completion of his Calling. His tutors and instructors had focused on getting what they thought would be the most important truly burned into his memory. Mostly the topics were on how to rip his brother apart and the things he would need to know to stay alive on a land that already looked gored and dying from their vantage point in the sky.
Long ago when he had been nothing but a boy with wings of pure white and silver the Veil world he peered at through the roots of the soul trees had been green, teal blue, sparkling gold. It had ridges and peaks, and clouds that shifted white and pale lavender over it's surface.
It had been one of his favorite past times, finding himself lost in the forest of souls. The trees so brilliant white and perfect that the trunks were smooth as alabaster carved into poles soft and blemish free. The branches were perfectly distributed in a way that seemed almost unnatural, with leaves made of green that appeared more like glass and less like plant life.
These trees were rooted deep in the soil of the sky, first there was the mossy metallic layer, below that the rich black dirt speckled with bits of glimmering bronze, and further down the navy blue and indigo that was the sky.
Through the soil, if you dug deep enough the roots of the soul tree spread wide and glowed brightly on the other side of heaven. Sometimes Sasuke wondered what it looked like to stare up at the trees roots from the Veil down below. Did it look like a tree from so far away?
His brother would laugh when he asked such questions, shaking his head. "The trees roots look like light, Sasuke." He smirked. "Just little points. They can't see this far."
"Well... perhaps they should be blessed with better eyes." Sasuke's voice had been petulant. His curiosity of the world below was not exactly natural. The world of angel stars seemed so monochrome in comparison, and sometimes he felt like he was the only one to notice. Even their cities which grew tall and spiraling, intricately carved from the marble and rock were white as the ground they were built on. The trees themselves were creamy and pale. Beyond that the skies were black but for the rotating suns and the reflective surface of their moon land.
Colors were limited to the leaves of the soul trees, one tree for each angel soul. When an angel finally died, after serving out it's life in the care and protection of all three lands the tree succumbed, breaking down into the bronze powder that flecked the black soil in which the forest grew.
And so, the constant cycle of life and death continued, those that passed feeding the souls of those who were present so that they could feed those of the future.
"They have not asked for better eyes." Itachi's voice had been even more amused. "The people of the Veil are happy."
Looking around now, Sasuke wondered how things could have changed so much in so little time. For them, a hundred years was a breath in a life span that stretched for centuries.
Clearly not so for these creatures. The world of teal blues and greens and sparkling gold had vanished, and great stretches of the land were marred by the dead brown and red of deserts. Entire forests gone, rivers carved like scars across the landscape, dry as bones.
"It really would be a mercy to just get rid of you all." He grumbled, watching as the dirty tired face of the girl beside him breathed in an out in exhaustion. It had really not occurred to him that she would have needed to eat or drink anything for the last two days. Even if he had not had access to her tears he would have been able to continue on his trek for an some time without stopping, even wounded or mildly weakened by his travel from the heavens.
The fire hissed and spit like his thoughts in the shadows of the night, and he eyed the forest beyond the ledge of rock at the cliff side that he had decided would be their resting spot for the evening. There was no escape but into the air from this point should something come at them from the trees.
Looking intently into the shadows he flexed the muscles of his back and contemplated the desire to rip something apart, almost daring the forest to send out a challenge hungry for his blood.
A soft groan derailed the thoughts of slaughter in his mind and in the most bored way possible he turned his dark eyes down towards the shifting figure beside him, stiffly gathering herself up into sitting position.
As her pale eyes, lit brightly by the fire's heat scanned the heavens he watched as fear ripped over her features.
"We... we're out in the open!"
Annoyed he turned away back to the fire. "There's nothing I can't outrun or lose a fight against here." He muttered. "Calm down before your heart explodes."
A startled and wary look crossed her face as she snapped her head towards him then, and shakily she pinched her lips together. He wondered what words she was trying to crush to silence between her clenched jaw.
"It will be dawn in only a few hours." He added. "You can forage while we continue on."
Shivering as she pushed herself away from the fire the girl nodded. "I t-thank you." And as the silence stretched he watched out of the corner of his eye as she studied her hands, and traced a pale pink scar that now decorated her thigh where his wing had so easily sliced. With growing quickness her fingers fluttered over the pink lines that were all that was left of her wounds, ending at her lips which had been so parched and dry they had cracked and bled. Now they were pink and smooth, plump as though she had been well fed and watered.
"I...I'm not bleeding." she whispered, almost to herself although her gaze fixed on him a moment later and he refrained from looking back.
"You were dying." It was a careless uninterested explanation.
Lips pinching hard together again she stared, and then looked at the faint scar on her thigh. Tracing it with her pale dirty finger.
"...y-you gave me your blood." There was no questioning tone and so he did not reply, despite her bewildered stare.
After an extended silence broken only by the cracking of the wood in the fire he muttered. "Sleep. I will not be slowing down despite your foraging, you will have to move quickly if you want to eat."
Swallowing hard the girl nodded and then, even as she settled curled tightly a little ways behind him further from the fire than seemed necessary she whispered, "What s-should I call you?"
"Whatever you want."
"...sir?"
He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed, but it escaped out of him before he had a chance to snatch it back, just a short half amused breath sarcastic in it's mirth. "No."
"M...master?" There was pain in the word when she said it and he turned to look over at her, frowning. Her pale eyes glowed, bright like a feline beast or the moon intact and doubled. He gazed back and felt a twinge of homesickness rip through his chest.
"Just Sasuke." Turning back to the fire he frowned, clenching his hands unncessarily in his pockets.
He wasn't sure if he was supposed to hear what she said next, as it was so quiet, and so long after his statement. Thickly weighed with sleep her voice breezed beneath the tinder snapping and cracking as it burned.
"I'm Hinata."
The light of Solatta was already rising and staining the sky a brilliant orange by the time he breathed out a sigh, musing quietly to himself.
"Hinata."
Behind him, out of his sight Hinata's half closed eyes watched and her careful ears heard, drawing a puzzled frown to sketch itself across her forehead.
They arrived at the village when the suns rose to mark the noon times, casting two shadows for every living thing that walked.
Thanks to Lee's contact, the elders and half the valley had crowded at the base of the mountain path so rarely walked by their people, waiting with bated breath for the return of the Warren.
Neji, long ago placed in charge of the protection of his younger cousins had thought he would return with two bodies mutilated and gored if he was lucky. And so returning as he did with one living breathing creature was not as bad as he had anticipated.
Still, the pain in his chest and the metal taste in his mouth made it hard to forget that the elder more gentle of his wards was out there somewhere or very possibly dead.
There was no time for stopping to discuss the situation. With Hanabi in his arms still beyond all knowledge he and Tenten barged through the waiting crowd, parting it like a fish through water, heading towards the distant shelter of the walled Hawk Eyed Villa.
Murmurs followed their path, whispers passed down turned lips and worried eyes. The quest had taken the daughters of the Hawk Eyed two weeks longer than anticipated, and only then did the clan send out their Warren to find them alive or dead.
Many in the valley had anticipated that the Warren too would not be returning. The world beyond their mountains was too wild, too angry, too close to death. No one could survive out there alone, but if anyone stood even a small chance it was them.
Like the shadow she was, Tenten followed close behind Neji. Her hand ached to touch between his shoulder blades where pain surely burned from the strain of carrying his cousin through such long distances but she refrained under the watchful eyes of the elders and village. Keeping her eyes down and her mouth closed she followed until the wooden carved walls of the villa came into view and as they stepped through the white shining doors into the courtyard she fell back.
Instead of following she watched him disappear into the primary residence, deeper into the villa than she had ever been allowed. Servants surrounded him. People of all types, healers, elders, family.
Quiet as a whisper a tall muscled young man appeared beside her, letting out a breath as his wide perpetually surprised eyes clapped on her. Sighing loudly she finally turned to look at her brother's face.
Lee blinked his eyes rapidly, and had he been someone else perhaps tears would have tinged the lashes. But they were Lee and Tenten, with no clan blood to speak of, no special abilities but those gifted by the Hawk Eyed. Just orphans, willingly serving those more blessed... or perhaps more cursed.
"Brother." Her smile was shaky and he smiled back, drawing her into his arms to squeeze the comfort back into her bones.
"You were missing from me." He pressed his mouth hard to the soft skin of her temple and she sighed.
At least she was home.
When she woke the sun was largely fallen to the embrace of the mountains. She could see Solatta already a sliver against the black of the range and Luminatus close behind, racing after it's sibling.
Sibling.
Sister.
Eyes widening Hanabi scrambled out of the soft cotton matting on the floor, throwing the blanket off with a fury that sent the servant who had been dozing by her side into a startled tizzy of words she did not hear.
"Where is my Sister?" Hanabi gasped, all sense of decorum shattering in her mind as she pushed past the servant to the heavy wooden door. It flung open with a bang as she entered the corridor and dizzy she studied her familiar home. The honey toned wood frames of the halls, the plaster painted white between panels.
Light flooded in from all the windows, some round, others square, placed carefully and a little insanely on the walls. When the wind blew hard through the court yard, slamming into the walls spotted with the strangely shaped and placed holes the windows sang. They caught the air like a flute, sighing their melody soft and gentle through the whole villa.
Having so many windows also allowed her to hear that outside in the court yard the voices of the elders were raised in argument. The council was meeting.
"Tch!" She hissed, rushing down the stairs to the main floor closely followed by the older woman who had obviously been left to watch her while she slept.
Questions, so many they flooded her mind swamped her. Where was her sister? How long had she been back? Who had gone out to get her? Surely, surely no one had died for her rescue. Surely they had no sent someone as a sacrifice for her life.
Hitting the tile of the veranda with her bare feet made her pause, watching the crowd of elders speaking loudly back and forth. There was nothing calm about this meeting. Usually, a council consisted of many teas, servants carefully robed in red, gray and white serving their black clad leaders. The men and women sat on cushions in the blazing sun of morning, sipping on the tea and discussing in calm voices the issues of the village, the clan and the world that was beyond their valley mountain walls, dying.
This held no such civility.
"The heiress should have left the hunting to someone with more skill. If Hanabi had been backed by a more aggressive hunter-"
"Who are you do deny the heir of the Clan her right? Who are you to look your future leader in the face and say she may not go after the star? That is-or was- her Calling!"
"Hinata knew something! She foretold the demise of the ones who went to hunt the star! We did not listen!"
"Perhaps they never met the star? Perhaps something else took the heiress?"
"The Warren says that Hanabi was found at the site of it's landing. Is that not true, Neji?"
Voices shouted, people pushed and prodded, the dust lifted at their feet from the courtyard stones.
Hanabi's eyes filtered through the black robes of the elders for her cousin, her heart in her throat.
Neji. Of course he would have gone after them when they did not return. Of course he would have volunteered. A knot tightened in her throat and finally, catching sight of her tall stoic cousin she ran.
"Neji!"
Her voice, so clear and strong made silence erupt among the gaggle of gray haired elders, faces turning to her just as she shoved through their crowd and into their midst, throwing her arms around her cousin's waist and nearly sending them both in a tumble to the ground.
Steadying them with a gasp Neji lifted the girl so precious to him to his chest, straining to breathe through the relief. "Hanabi!"
Voices erupted again, loud and braying over each other to be heard.
"The second daughter!"
"She walks!"
"Was she not in an unnatural sleep?"
"No wounds, no injuries!"
With her face pressed so hard into the softness of Neji's shirt Hanabi heard little, focused instead on the smell of coconut oil and orange water that always accompanied her cousin's skin.
Home. She was home, home, home.
Softly, and before anyone could say anything more Neji whispered in her ear.
"I'm so glad you're okay, little fire. But the council waits for no one. Think fast, Hinata's life is in the balance."
Growing still, Hanabi breathed in deep, her mind sparking to life, ears listening.
"Did you meet the star?"
"Where is your sister?"
"What has happened to the heiress?"
"The blood, the sleep- what has happened?"
Through the chaos Hanabi winced, moving to draw a breath, peeling herself from Neji's body with some effort. His arm held her waist tightly to his, supporting her as though he expected her to fall at any moment.
Her cousin, her darling Warren had gone after them. Emotion burned in her chest in thanks, and steeling her jaw she went to speak, only to pause at the sound of a not often heard bass tone ordering silence.
The elders shut their mouths as though magicked into submission. Heads bowed and arms lowered as they turned to the back of the crowd where a man who looked remarkably like Neji stood. Where her cousin still had the smooth skin and handsome features of youth, her father's jaw was lined, his forehead creased with worries. The pale eyes of their bloodline focused on her and she blinked back uncertainly.
"I am sure that Hanabi has much to tell, and should we want to hear it she would be willing to speak if given the opportunity." His eyes flashed over the crowd of overly excited elders and like dogs scolded no one raised their heads despite the rise of blood to cheeks in humiliation.
"But she has just endured a quest not many of us could have stomached. I will speak to her in private and relay all pertinent information to the council in several hours. Please, be prepared to be summoned." Nodding at Neji the Hawk Eyed Clan's leader motioned back to the veranda and holding her stiffly still Neji pulled Hanabi along through the watching, now silent council.
Hanabi let out a worried breath but said nothing as she and her cousin stepped into the veranda and towards the stairs to her father's private rooms, followed closely by his quick stern step.
"In here." He murmured, opening the door to a plain room bright with the orange light of the setting Luminatus. Beyond the wide windows the villa and village buzzed with activity before nightfall. The people bustled about, shuttering windows and gathering their children to the safety of their homes. At night the more bold of the creatures that prowled the outskirts of their mountain forests sometimes dared to enter their territory and there was no easier prey than the small.
Neji and Hanabi started at the sight of Tenten leaning against one of the smooth wooden pillars on either side of the window, her brother behind her.
On the other side of the room two other willing life long servants of the Hawk Eyed Clan stood silently, their faces strained. It took a moment for Hanabi to place them but after a breath she recognized them as Kiba and Shino, Hinata's training partners.
"Hanabi." Tenten sighed, the relief on her voice obvious, although she clamped her mouth shut at a look from Hiashi, lowering her brown eyes to the ground.
"Speak." Hiashi murmured sternly, moving around to the low wooden table that was the only piece of furniture in the room. Slowly he lowered himself to his knees on the cushion placed there and looked at Hanabi expectantly.
Lips pressed to a thin line, Hanabi followed his example and sat on the other side of the table on her knees, her hands tight in her lap.
"We found the star."
A rustle of movement passed through the others, Lee breathed in deeply, expanding his muscled chest beneath his shirt. Kiba straightened and Shino closed his eyes.
Only Neji remained still, eyes locked across the room with Tenten, jaw tight.
"Is your sister dead?" Hiashi's voice did not hesitate on the words, did not even seem to be asking anything of importance. Hanabi strained to keep her body from shivering as a wave of cold swept through her despite the warmth of the dusk light on her left side.
"He was impossible to defeat." She whispered softly, remembering the paleness of his skin, the easy wave of the black razor sharp wings, the shattering of the glass coating the concave crater where he landed.
"We were not prepared."
"He was in fighting form?" Hiashi frowned, for this was what Hinata had argued, her voice shaking with fear tangible in the air as she released the words from her mouth. The stars that fell in vast hordes a century before had been dying or dead, their bodies wounded and broken, the landing finishing off any strength left.
He could hear her, whispering in his ear now. "There was a war- they were falling from battle... they were defeated stars. If one comes now, Father it will be on purpose. It will not want to die."
"He took us both out without straining himself." Hanabi whispered. "We did not stand a chance."
"The blood, on your tunic." A strain in his voice betrayed him for a moment then, and Hanabi's eyes flickered with surprise and then softened.
"It... it is mine."
"But how-?" Kiba suddenly began, stopping at the look that Hiashi threw over his daughter's head at him.
"I was wounded." Hanabi placed a hand on her shoulder, on her side, where the glass had pierced, recalling the angel's hands coated in her blood. "I had broken ribs, and I was drowning. The blood was in my lungs, in my throat." She swallowed, and had she been more like her sister, her eyes would have filled with tears. Instead she closed her eyes.
"My sister offered herself in exchange for me."
"No." This was whispered by Shino, and it carried the weight of all their despair for Shino spoke so rarely many who knew him still did not know the soft tenor of his voice.
"The angel saw her tears." Hanabi opened her eyes to look at Hiashi then, jaw tight. Weeping was something punishable by bamboo rod in their Clan, and Hinata had been in constant breech of the rule. Hiashi looked back at her, carved from stone. "He called it starwater. For her willing service he made me drink his blood to heal my wounds, and left with her. I do not remember anything else."
The silence thickened at the end of her telling, and Hiashi let out a long breath. "She must have known of her value. She must have known she had something to bargain with." More carefully now he whispered, "She is alive then."
Hanabi gave a furtive nod. "He needs her."
"We have three options." Hiashi continued quickly. "One, track them down like prey and steal her when you slay the angel."
Neji snapped his head to his uncle then in surprise, astounded.
"Two, steal her without engaging the fallen star."
Tenten straightened, studying the stoic leader of the clan wonderingly.
"Or three..." He fixed Neji with a look that told him how much he disliked what he was about to say. "...if the first two options do not prove possible, go to the Scaled Worm, to have him find her with his tongue."
Although everyone was swimming in their shock it was Hanabi who whispered out her question.
"...you want us to try to bring her back?" Breathing hard she looked at her father, searching for a shred of affection. They were a warrior clan, the only one of their kind. In them all of the valley had pinned their hopes of survival and as the years passed and the crops failed more and more pressure had made them slaves to the village and their needs. This slavery left little room for love, hardly any for tenderness. Hinata had been born as delicate as a flower petal in an armory full of swords.
"The council will want another attempt at the star." Hiashi replied, brow furrowed. "They will want someone again to bring back it's body to rejuvenate the fields but Hinata knew more about this than we all did together. We did not listen." He swallowed. "Bring back my daughter."
Straightening, Kiba and Shino nodded, along with Tenten and Lee.
"You must remain here." Hiashi murmured to Hanabi then, watching without surprise as she flinched. "Father... father, no please-"
"Someone must lead this village." His eyes flickered to Neji. "It is the Warren's job to risk life and limb for his charges, it is your job to be here for your people. Hinata knew this, do not let her sacrifice go to waste."
Clenching her jaw hard Hanabi bowed her head.
"For our glory."
Together, the rest complied.
"And for those of the Hawk Eyed Blood."
The blood of the angel had done things to her body she did not think were possible. Besides knitting together wounds that she had been fairly sure had infection and therefore death inside them, her lips were plump as though she had rehydrated herself in the coolest of rivers. Her head was clear of the painful cobwebs of hunger, her muscles felt sleek and ready to spring.
Besides the tangled mess of her black hair and the tattered shreds of her clothing she felt better than she had in a very long time.
He kept a relentless pace despite the fact she was gathering as they walked and sometimes she whimpered internally when a tree loaded heavy with edibles presented itself only to take too long to climb without losing him in the forest maze.
On the third pass of such abundance she stopped, clenching her fists tightly together, hoping that the silence of her footsteps no longer cracking the underbrush beneath her boots would signal she was no longer following.
It took two seconds for him to pause and look over his shoulder at her among the dark browns and grays of the wood, brows furrowed in question.
"...C-can I climb?" She finally murmured, turning her eyes up to the foliage above where the branches swayed in the breeze. Thick leaves the size of dinner plates made the light of Luminatus and Solatta spotty as it landed on the ground below, moving like the water of the hot springs back home, bubbling. Among the pale gray branches of the loomloom tree was the spiky lime green baubles of the nuts. Cracked open they held within their hard shells a butter that dripped thick and syrupy and tasted of vanilla and sugar, packed with protein and easily accessed energy.
A handful could be kept for several days at a time without spoiling and to pass them by without picking seemed a sin.
Sasuke's frown did not lessen although it was more from disbelief than annoyance as he eyed the trunk of the tree. Smooth bark covered it's tall and vertical height, with the first forking branches being easily fifteen feet high. It's roots twisted and turned like squid tentacles through the crackling dead leaves of the soil, giving no perch for starting a climb.
He eyed her, standing a tiny five feet and a handful of inches at most.
"I don't know." He admitted, "Can you?" He certainly had no plans on climbing and picking fruit for her hungry little mouth. Like a rabbit she had not stopped munching on leafy handfuls or fistfuls of berries since morning.
Blinking hard Hinata stared at him, her mouth a thin line that seemed almost insulted.
Without another word she turned to the tree, cocked her head at it as though gauging an opponent and then surprising him she ran.
The joy of feeling her muscles happy and free, pulsing with the health that his blood had poured into her being was almost enough to make her smile, although she contained it. Smoothly she propelled herself off the first bucking thick root that pushed from the ground slamming her next step into the smoothness of the trunk and tossing her weight backwards arched in a tumble back from the tree high enough to catch the sloping young branch closest to the forest floor with her fingers.
Unable to contain her grin then she hung for a moment, watching the wide leaves disturbed by her antics spiraling down to the ground slowly before swinging her legs and wrapping them tightly around the branch. With a little bit of grunting she was crouching on the limb and hesitantly she glanced at him.
One brow was delicately raised, and if she had been her sister she would have stuck out her tongue at him for her victory. Instead she strained not to blush and tight roped towards the trunk, using the more sturdy branches near it to rise twenty and then thirty feet into the air. Happily, she ignored the sappy residue coating her hands as she gathered the nuts in the piece of fabric she ripped from the edge of her torn and tattered tunic.
In silence she worked until a sizzle of irritation seemed to prick at the back of her consciousness and glancing down at him again she quickly snaked down the trunk and jumped the last ten feet, landing easily on the forest ground with her treasures.
Already having cracked one to suck on while she worked she hesitated, then offered him the other half. "W...would you like to try it?"
He stared, black eyes puzzled before shaking his head.
"You're going to need everything you can get."
She followed, agreeing with him although she was puzzled by the disappointment that made her return her hand to her side.
Their silence continued for several paces with Hinata cuddling the tangle of nuts in her arms, sucking on the butter within absently while she eyed the threatening wood, keen eyes wary, ears listening.
"It seems like you should be able to live off the forest if not the fields." He suddenly grumbled, and it occurred to her that he had been thinking hard as they walked, about her climb and subsequent snack. "Why do your people insist on waiting to kill my kind if you have such abundance? Every few steps you take a bite of something."
Blushing hard at the insinuation of gluttony Hinata frowned, rubbing at a sticky bit of sap now black on her chin from her climb.
"My... my Clan goes to the forest to gather for the village every day." She muttered. "We risk life and limb every minute we spend in the forests around our valley. The beasts have grown desperate and vindictive." She sniffed. "The firespawn have made many half breeds. It is not safe to wander too far into the forest, and in the winter the plants refuse to give sustenance, so we hunt flesh for the villagers."
He turned sharply, staring at her. "You said you don't eat flesh."
She paused, looking sheepish. "I... I don't... we give all we gather to the village, our Clan lives off the little we can ferment and dry during the plentiful months. And the left overs of the gleaning through the mountains... and anything the village offer from the fields, if there's growth at all." For a moment her stomach rolled at the thought of eating flesh, the blood and the smell of the carcass being cleaned made her dizzy. The flesh filled bellies and eased the pain of hunger, but sickness seemed to pervade those who ate it more easily than those of the Clan who needed to be in true fighting form to go out into the wild. For that reason her Clan wore only white, for compassion and practiced only killing in necessity, red for the bloodshed that stained them, a burden only they bore and gray for when they made their first kill.
Sasuke glanced at the bundle in her arms, at her rosy cheeks and remembered the almost giddy grin on her face as she cracked the first nut open in the tree to suck the fluid from inside.
"Have you ever had that many to yourself?" He motioned with his chin to the bundle in her arms and Hinata looked down at the dozen nuts, glistening in their spiky lime green shells.
Nervously she licked her lip, and looked back up. "No."
When he said nothing nor turned away she added, sounding almost embarrassed. "I have...never tried one."
There were only a handful of loomloom trees in the wood of the mountains close enough to forage from every year. Out of the hundreds of nuts gathered by her clan only a crate of them would be theirs to consume, and since it was a sweetener when dried no one got a chance to enjoy them fresh. They would all be cracked, the syrup dried in the heat of the suns, pounded to powder and distributed in small bits through the winter that followed as a reprieve from the stale barley cakes and wheat porridge that were their usual fare.
His eyes looked far away, as though this was something he had not considered and feeling that perhaps she had a chance to speak she breathed in hard.
"I did not want to kill you." The words tumbled out as though she had forced them to escape before losing her nerve. "But... but... I do not want my people to die."
A flash of something struck through his face like a rip of lightning and he turned sharply away, stalking like a panther through the jungle.
"Make haste."
His order was stern and made her jump quickly after him, the sweetness of the loomloom butter suddenly less pleasurable in her mouth.
It was becoming abundantly clear that the hunt for the star was what the council of elders wanted, despite Hiashi's stern attempts to steer them in a different direction. One less likely to result in all of their party dead.
Together Tenten and Lee sat right behind Neji in the semi circle of black robed gray and white heads. Of all the people gathered only their dark brown and black heads shown with youth. For a moment Tenten sighed deeply, looking up at the swirling indigo and blue sky, pondering how people too old to go out into the frigid deadly world beyond their valley were the ones deciding their path.
"We are running out of the bone powder from the last star." One of the youngest elders was snapping, her voice sharp as a whip and her eyes although half blind were still daggers as they tried to focus on Hiashi at the mouth of the semi circle.
Hiashi sighed, unable to reply as another elder jumped in, his gravelly old voice shaky, his liver spotted hands trembling as he clenched them in his lap.
"The star could potentially destroy all of our best hunters. What then would the people live off of? During the winter when the village begs for sustenance and we have nothing in the stores to give for their children's porridge who will go out into the wild to slay the creatures that lurk there?" He raised both his bushy eyebrows to stare at the slightly younger elder, who clenched her jaw tight. "Will it be you?"
Offended the woman gathered herself like a chicken rustling it's feathers and Hiashi intervened.
"My daughter... our heiress..." He looked at each face in turn slowly. "...Hinata knew more about the stars than any of us gave her credit. She foresaw the demise of the hunt, she even saw that a fallen star would come not wounded as history tells us the last were, but living, and with no intention to simply lay down and die. "
Silence reigned as the others digested this warily.
"She knew to trade her tears for the life of her younger sister, so that one of the heirs would return remarkably unscathed. What we need is her wisdom, gained over years of study..."
Surprising everyone Neji's voice, never before heard on the council, broke the silence. "Study that the council gravely punished her for."
There was a shift in the silence that followed, a sort of shameful rustle of black robes as those who had spoken against the heiress and her eccentric reading habits bowed their heads or looked away.
"What if the angel has moved too far into the Dryness or flown over the Rot?" One of the elders suddenly broke in, and his eyes were not on Hiashi but on Neji, challenging. "What will you do if when you return to the site of his landing there is no trail to follow? What then?"
Behind him Tenten and Lee straightened their spines until they were sentries like the lions of ancient legend, their eyes flashing.
Neji let out a breath softly before answering. "We will go to the Scaled Worm." He kept himself from wincing although almost every elder in the circle was unable to do the same. "We will ask him to locate her by tasting the air with his tongue."
"...he... he could demand one of your lives- all of your lives..." And although the elder was polite enough to glance at Tenten and Lee like they mattered they and everyone knew that it was Neji who worried them, third in line for Clan Head, and with Hinata already gone...
"I am the Warren." He bowed his head. "My life is willingly given to this task."
Behind him Lee and Tenten bowed much lower, pressing their foreheads between the triangle shape of their fingers and thumbs on the cobble stone of the court yard ground. By extension, the two siblings also surrendered their lives.
When the dawn came and Solatta stretched it's golden fingers through the navy of the night sky Neji looked at Tenten desperately, his face so tense before now cracking, pale eyes pleading as they stood within the shadows of the Villa entrance.
"Tenten, please."
Behind them, waiting patiently stood her brother, Kiba and Shino, their packs on their shoulders, their cloaks neatly tied around their throats.
Shifting her pack carefully she smiled, searching his face. "What excuse would you give the elders for leaving me behind?"
"It is not an excuse. Hanabi needs a companion, someone besides her Father on her side." Neji tried, knowing it was a weak attempt. Tenten's grin only spread.
"I did not give my freedom for Hanabi." She grinned still. "I offered my life to the Hawk Eyed Clan, in service of their Warren... in service of you. Konohamaru long ago promised his blood for your cousin. She has her own allies."
The swallow he struggled with made her hand itch to place itself on his cheek. Gripping her pack fiercely instead she whispered. "If we are to die, I want to do so with you."
Behind them Lee's voice called, low and warning and urgent. "Sister... my lord Warren."
Neji's eyes flickered from Tenten's face to the veranda where a pair of elders walked, their eyes focusing on him and Tenten with curious frowns not entirely friendly.
"This is inappropriate." He whispered, although if it was to her or to himself it was hard to tell. Stepping away abruptly he turned, heading towards the others waiting.
"Come, Tenten. Do not dawdle."
Wincing at the scolding tone Tenten followed, head bowed, trying to ignore the rip of frustration and hurt in her chest.
From the second floor porch, watching with her heart in her throat Hanabi frowned after them, watching as they disappeared over the crest of the hill that led to the village beyond and then the forest she had had to travel through with her sister only a month ago.
"Veil keep them, guide them, bring them back to me."
Unsure if anyone would hear her prayer she glanced up to where the last of the few remaining stars glimmered in the half light of dawn. Once, as a child she had prayed to those above to end the hunger and the ever encroaching crawl of the Dryness and Rot that seemed to spread over any land that wasn't touched by the angel bone dust her clan spread.
Now, no longer a child she did not bother. Stars were for slaying, not for praying to.
TBC