The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit
chapter seven; bodyguard
Hinata's blood was boiling as she walked ahead of the Uchiha. She hadn't felt so angry in a very long time; she couldn't believe that she actually slapped him... But in all fairness, he deserved it. How could Naruto-kun consider this man his best friend? He's a totally disrespectful. Clearing her thoughts of him, she focused on her current mission; finding her teammates. She didn't like that Sasuke was still following her, but she would deal with that later. She had more important matters to attend to.
They found one of the bodies dead along the river; thankfully, it did not belong to either of Hinata's lost teammates. The attacker was mangled, and so Sasuke kicked his body in the river. Hinata simply scoffed at this vulgar action and kept moving.
They stumbled upon the second body closer to the edge of the forest. It was the other attacker. Warm relief washed over Hinata knowing that two of her teammates were still alive. But where were they now? As fast as her feet would take her, she bolted out of the forest and saw that she was at the port where they arrived.
On the horizon of the water where the sun was currently setting, she could see the ship sailing away.
"W-Wha?" She blundered, dumbfounded.
"Hn. Looks like you got ditched." Sasuke muttered from behind her.
"I-I got... Ditched." Staring in awe at the sight of the boat leaving, she plopped into the grass. "T-They actually left me here."
Sasuke wanted to laugh, but he didn't. Instead, he sat down beside her. "So what will you do now?"
"I don't know... Sasuke-san, why are you still here?"
"Orders are orders. Money is money." He spoke nonchalantly, laying back in the grass. He put his hand to his cheek, still awestruck that a woman slapped him.
"Yes, but..."
"You would have figured it out eventually even if you hadn't discovered me that night I was drunk. My orders were not only to spy on you, but to protect you, as well. Naruto-baka presumed that if it were necessary for me to protect you, that you would brush me being there off as a coincidence. I, on the other hand, was going to rely on genjutsu... But forget about that for now."
"I... See." Naruto-kun wanted Sasuke-kun to protect me... Hinata wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. "Well all that aside, I have to get back to the Mist. I thought we had an agreement that you wouldn't follow me anymore."
"I would love to stop following you and go get drunk but if anything does happen to you, I won't get paid. So, that is my reasoning for following you. Money. I'm tired of hiding that fact. Besides, think about what might have happened to you had I not been there today." He made a point. "Just consider me your bodyguard... The idiot should have just been honest with you from the beginning."
She let out a heavy sigh of defeat, accepting that she wasn't going to be getting rid of this guy any time soon. And I really wanted to spend some time to myself...
Sasuke looked up at her through one open eye, observing the profile of her face. Her bottom lip trembled, her pale cheeks flushed and her eyes appeared watery. Though he had only a few interactions with her, he found the way she acted toward him strange. It was like she genuinely didn't want anything to do with him, behaviour that Sasuke wasn't used to receiving from women.
It kind of annoyed him, actually.
He sat up straight and noticed that Hinata's head was now burried in her knees. Her shoulders trembled, and tiny sobs could be heard. She was trying so hard not to break down and look even weaker in front of this man she hardly knew, but mentally, she was snapping... Not that she truly valued Sasuke's opinion on her anyway. She mourned for the lives of those lost in the struggle, and she mourned about being left behind. She cried because Naruto abandoned her and thought she was so weak to hire Sasuke Uchiha to protect her.
At that moment, as her tears picked up, she felt like everything she'd worked and trained so hard for crumbled right there. Naruto always praised how strong she'd become throughout the years, and how much he admired the way she'd grown up. Hinata took those words to heart, and used them as courage during battle; but now, she couldn't help but think of those words as mostly bullshit.
"Stop crying." Sasuke's voice pulled Hinata from her thoughts. She looked up at him; he was now standing, looking down at her orbs of watery white glass with his matte onyx stare. Hinata sniffled a few more times and rubbed her face with her sleeve, before standing up.
I'm fine now, she thought, following behind the Uchiha as he lead the way. There's no sense left in crying. Despite telling herself this, the heavy feeling in her chest never went away. Ugh, I really need a drink...
"What do you mean there are no more boats leaving?" An irritated Uchiha demanded of the man running the port.
"I-I'm s-sorry, sir, but boats stop running at seven pm." The man trembled. When Hinata saw Sasuke begin to activate his sharingan, she touched his arm.
"Sasuke-san, it's fine. Let's just go find a hotel." She looked to the other man. "I'm sorry, sir. Have a good evening." Hinata tugged Sasuke away until he shook her hand off him and sent her a death glare.
"I could have easily used my genjutsu on him to give us a boat."
"It's not that big of a deal, we can leave first thing in the morning. You shouldn't use your genjutsu so carelessly."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?" He stopped walking, and she turned to meet his stare."Just because I've been hired to watch you, does not mean I'm going to take orders from you."
Hinata's pale face was instantly flushed red. "U-Um, w-what, I didn't..." His black irises dug into her, making her feel even more intimidated. "I-I didn't mean it like that. I was just saying..."
"Hn, whatever." The Uchiha twirled around and continued walking toward the town. Hinata trailed slightly behind him. She wanted nothing more than to run away from this crazy man, but she knew he would find her, and at least if she stuck with him she wouldn't feel like she was being completely stalked...
A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the super short chapter. The next one will be out within the next two days to make up for this chapters short-boringness. But yes, thank you all for the reviews! I know this chapter was a lil sucky but let me know what you think ;)
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