Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.
Tragedy
Chapter 3
The answer came in the form of orange and blonde.
Hinata was sitting on a bench near the bus stop, contemplating on selling or trading her gown, bundled neatly in a paper bag, for a ticket home. She had learned from Sasuke that this village was called Shima. She had been so conflicted during the wedding preparations (and she didn't have a say in anything really) that the name of the place didn't stick with her. She knew however that Shima was 2 to 3 hours away from Konoha by plane.
Maybe if she could somehow make money out of her gown, then she could buy a plane ticket back to Konoha. She didn't know what awaited her there. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to come back…
A particularly sharp breeze made her shiver in her thin shirt and frayed sweatpants, all given to her by Sasuke. Hinata hugged herself and rubbed her arms. Konoha was looking more pleasant than having nowhere to stay at all.
However, would her father even let her stay in their home when she returned? Hinata remembered his forbidding expression during her mad dash out of the church and cringed. On second thought, maybe being homeless was preferable to being subjected to her father's wrath…
It was during this internal battle she heard a loud and familiar voice shout her name. She looked down the road and saw a spot of orange and yellow yelling from the window of a taxi cab. As the cab came closer, she was a little surprised to see Naruto waving frantically in it. She had known that he was at the wedding, but was a little bemused that he had stayed long enough on the island to catch her.
She watched as he told something to the driver, hastily got out, and approach her. A faint twinge echoed dully in her heart, like an old wound that had scarred over but still hurt when the skin was pulled.
"Naruto-kun…" she whispered.
Naruto was her first love. And he was her first heartache. She gave up on him when it became clear to her that he wouldn't ever return her feelings and only saw her as a friend. He's a common friend of hers and Kiba, and in fact, it was thru him that Hinata met her fiancé.
Ex-fiancé, her mind reminded her. Did it make her a bad person if she thinks that this heartache is nothing compared to her first heartache? Hinata felt her lower lip wobble.
Yes. Yes it did.
"Hey, Hinata-chan!" Naruto said as he was finally close enough for her to hear.
Ever tactless and impulsive, he jumped right in to the question that was nagging everyone since she left her groom at the altar. "What happened back there? Why did you leave Kiba?" Naruto's voice and expression were torn between loyalty to his friend Kiba, and compassion for Hinata.
Hinata, for her part, could understand Naruto's plight. Still, she couldn't answer properly, was not sure if she even knew the answers. She bit her lip and tried to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.
"H-how is Kiba doing?" her voice cracked at end.
Naruto gave her his trademark eye squint. "He was very upset and hurt. He wanted to know why you did it." Again, there was that question. And again, Hinata wasn't sure how to respond.
Instead, she asked, "Would K-Kiba want to talk to me, do you think?"
The blonde scratched his head and sighed. "I dunno Hinata-chan. Maybe not just yet. Let Kiba blow off some steam." Naruto said, remembering Kiba's ranting and raving the night before in his hotel room.
Hinata knew that there was no way Kiba would want to talk to her, still she wanted to at least know if he was mad. Judging from what Naruto said, she didn't have to be a mind-reader to know that Kiba was angry at her.
She couldn't blame Kiba either for feeling like that. But to hear confirmation of it…
This time, she couldn't stop the flow of tears.
"W-wha—Hey! Hinata-chan!" Naruto squawked, flustered at the sight of tears. "Don't cry, please!" he looked around, as if the solution to her tears was just hanging around them. Awkwardly, he settled for embracing her.
"Don't cry, Hinata-chan." He repeated, patting her back.
Hinata burrowed her face at the hollow of his neck, her tears leaving his skin wet. She could feel the rumble of his voice through her forehead when he speaks.
"Everything would be alright, you'll see." He said.
This made her cry harder because they both know that this wasn't entirely true.
Sasuke grunted as he loaded the last of his supplies into his car. Mentally, he counted if he had all the supplies he needed before going back home. Certain that he had them all, he got in and started backing away from the lot.
A glance at his rearview mirror reminded him of the last image he saw reflected on it.
Hinata had looked lost when he left her at the bus stop. He wondered if she had already boarded the bus. Was she still waiting at the station? Maybe he should check up on her, the bus stop was on his way back anyway…
Making up his mind, Sasuke continued to drive away from the hardware store towards where he had last seen Hinata.
He expected not to see her there; pretty certain that the bus bound for the pier had passed by and she had already boarded it. At the very least, he expected her to still be waiting, looking as lost as she was when he left.
The sight of her in a familiar blonde's arms, however, didn't even cross his list of possibilities. But that was the scene that greeted him as he pulled his car over in front of the stop.
His first reaction was to wonder what Naruto could possibly be doing in a place as remote as Shima. The second was anger at the man's nerve to follow him in Shima (irrational of course since Naruto didn't even know that Sasuke was even in Fire Country but there it was).
The third, to Sasuke's surprise, was irritation at the blonde for hugging Hinata. The two separated and bent their heads together, whispering. Naruto cupped her cheeks and caressed her cheeks with his thumb. The sight was too much for him to take. Now completely annoyed at Naruto, and at himself for even feeling annoyed in the first place—because, come on, he had barely known the girl for 24 hours—Sasuke got out of the car and stomped towards the couple, calling Hinata's name.
The sound of her name being called made her look up towards his direction. Again, he expected to see the flush on her face after being caught in a passionate embrace, what he didn't expect, however, was to see tears accompanying it. The shock of realizing that it wasn't an impassioned embrace at all made him feel a little ashamed of his thoughts. And he had been angry about it earlier.
"Sasuke!" Naruto's surprised voice rang in the stillness around them. Sasuke wasn't surprised that it still sounded as obnoxious as it had been two years ago. "What are you doing in Shima?"
He looked back at his car, then at Hinata's tearstained face and swollen eyes. Yes, what was he doing here exactly? Just moments ago, he had been irritated that the blonde and Hinata had been hugging, now why did he even go out of the car?
Ah, that's right. Why was Naruto even here in Shima? Yes, that's the reason of his irritation, nothing else.
Regaining his equilibrium, he reached forward and grabbed Hinata's arm, yanking her towards him. Naruto's objections of "stop!" and "Teme!" went largely ignored as he shoved her behind him.
"What are you doing here Dobe?" he glared at the blonde.
"Wha—?" Naruto was momentarily speechless. "I'm here because of Hinata-chan!" he said, sounding as if Sasuke should have known it from the start.
Naruto's outraged reply made Hinata start from behind Sasuke. Of course, she knew that Naruto had attended the wedding, but she had thought it was mostly because he was Kiba's friend. Hearing him acknowledge that he was there also because of her made fresh tears well in her eyes; no matter what, at least she now knew that Naruto indeed considered her as a friend.
The soft sniffle behind him made Sasuke turn. There were tears again in her eyes although she valiantly tries to keep them at bay. "Hey, stop crying." It came out gruffer than he had intended.
She nodded. "I'm just—" she sniffled again.
Sasuke gave a resigned sigh, fishing around in his back pocket. "Here." He offered his handkerchief.
Naruto watched them interact in wonder, silent for once. Hinata tentatively took the proffered clothe and thanked him. Her shy and grateful reaction wasn't anything new for Naruto. Sasuke's almost tender expression however…
"You know each other." Naruto said in a manner suggesting that he found this really strange.
For some reason, Sasuke thought this a little amusing. "Dobe, I see you haven't changed."
Naruto's bemused expression turned indignant. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means what it means."
"Stop baiting me Teme, it won't work." Naruto suddenly turned serious, a melancholy smile appearing on his lips, "So you live here? How come you didn't tell me? And why are you with Hinata-chan?"
Hinata saw Sasuke's smirk turn into a sneer. "Why do you think?" he said in quiet anger, the chill in his voice made her shiver.
For the two years that Hinata had known Naruto, he had never mentioned Sasuke. But by how they interact with each other, it was obvious that they were friends. She wondered what sort of history was hidden underneath.
Naruto frowned as he crossed his arms, "I don't know, that's why I'm asking."
"Well you can keep asking all you want." Sasuke said unkindly, his hand grasping Hinata's. "But we won't stick around to hear it."
Naruto sputtered, "Wait, what?" His eyes followed the two as Sasuke pulled Hinata with him to his car. "Sasuke hey! Where are you going with Hinata-chan?"
Naruto wasted no time bounding up to them and trying to grab Hinata to him. Sasuke though, pushed his outstretched arm away and shoved Hinata behind him.
"What are you doing Teme? Let Hinata-chan come with me, I can take her back to Konoha." Naruto's voice was starting to rise in his confusion.
This made Sasuke pause, considering Naruto's suggestion. It was a perfectly good suggestion actually, on hindsight. He could just hand her over and be done with it. But he didn't particularly like the idea of Hinata and Naruto traveling alone together. He didn't know why but it just doesn't sit well with him. Maybe he merely wanted to be contrary because it was Naruto…?
Behind him, Hinata clutched at the fabric of his shirt and drew herself closer. Her faint whisper of "Please no," that only he heard made his decision for him. It didn't seem like she wanted to go back and Sasuke had to wonder if there was something that she was running away from.
In front of him, Naruto made to reach again for Hinata.
"Forget it Naruto." Sasuke snapped, covering Naruto's view of Hinata completely with his body.
"Tell me why I should listen to you." Naruto challenged petulantly.
Sasuke sent him a quiet glare, glanced at Hinata, and turned to him again. A clear message that it was Hinata's decision not to come. Thankfully, although Naruto was dense and blissfully ignorant of subtle cues at the best of times, he got what Sasuke implied.
The dark haired man sensed Naruto's understanding and shot him an ambivalent look. Sasuke sighed. "Go home Naruto." He turned his back on the blonde and together with Hinata, entered the car and left Naruto staring after them.
Hinata rode beside Sasuke in silence. It wasn't awkward, but it wasn't comfortable silence either. If she had to describe it, it was similar to the kind shared between train passengers or even bus passengers perhaps. Quiet and just…There.
He didn't say anything, didn't question her why she didn't want to go with Naruto. Sasuke just drove his eyes on the road. Frankly, Hinata was thankful he hadn't questioned her, yet. But she knew he will, eventually. She was thankful nonetheless because she didn't quite know why she didn't go with Naruto either.
If she was being honest with herself, a part of her had wanted to go with Naruto, go home with Naruto. But there was a bigger part, the part that had defined her actions for the better part of her life, that didn't want to go home and face the people who would be expecting some kind of an explanation for her.
She was scared to face her family. Her father. Kiba.
Hinata guessed she would forever be a coward. The thought depressed her and she burrowed deeper into the seat, tears falling down her cheeks.
Sasuke spared her a glance when he heard her release a shuddering sigh. The sight of her tears made him wince. He wasn't good with crying females.
More than that, was it really wise to take this girl with him? What had possessed him to dive head first into this mess?
And he could tell she came with a lot of baggage. Sasuke wasn't sure if he was strong enough to carry them along with his heavy load. Perhaps he really was an idiot and it was only showing now. Naruto could have rubbed off on him. He knew all those times spent in the blonde's company were bad for his health.
Stupidity was catching after all, who'd have thought?
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A/N:
Now I know this is so very late, but I want to give a load of thanks to those who reviewed Chapter 2, so a shout out goes to
Rose Zaki - I really love your review. I always find myself smiling when I read it. I hope you still support and read this story even though the update came so much later. Your question about Neji would be answered in the later chapters. Don't worry, I won't take as long to update since I've already typed half the chapters up :)
ppeach2 - Thanks for the great review! I'm glad you like how Hinata's wedding turned out. Hopefully, I'd get to clear things out about her exact reasons in later chapters.
l'Ollonais Sephira Chronos - Thank you for the input. I took it to heart, and what you said made sense, so I edited that part out. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!
FallenRaindrops - Hey you! I'm happy you're supporting this story as well :D Thanks for the sweet review!
Aquacharm - Thanks, glad you liked it.
Cat - Thanks!
Palai - I hope you enjoy this chapter!
thesametown - Thanks for the compliment and review!
lala's world - Thanks so very much for the review! Also, a load of hugs for supporting my other stories :)
I'd probably update this story once or twice a month, depending on my schedule (which isn't that full right now) but my main priority would be getting regular updates out for Akai Ito. Anyway, thanks a bunch for reading! Drop me a review and tell me what you think.
