Never Meant To Win
A/N: Don't know the real names for the council members. I'm just referring to them as the elder woman and the elder man. Good enough, ne? Don't be that weird reader that goes anal on me because I don't know all the names of all the minor characters. ;D
"Kikichi's" was a strange place for a consul meeting, or at least, I thought so. When I first heard the restaurant's name, I was expecting it to be a high-class restaurant, one that was worthy of a Hokage visiting it. What I didn't know that, by night, "Kikichi's" was a bar. A brother and a sister, apparently, ran it—the sister ran it from six in the morning until six in the evening, and her brother ran it from around seven in the evening until four in the morning. It was a nice schedule, or so I thought, because that meant double the income. However, as the sister ran the business for longer, she did get more of the income.
We arrived, and it didn't look like a bar—though it was a building that could easily be transferred into a bar. Three men were already sitting at the bar, all eating different foods and acting as if the others didn't exist. Only two people were at booths, and those two people were the members of the consul. Neji and I made our way over to them, crossing the room silently. They had already ordered, and had some sort of juice placed in front of them.
"Uchiha-san. Hyuuga-san," the woman greeted us as we arrived. We exchanged greetings with both her and the elder male, and sat down. The waitress hurried over with drinks for Neji and me, and it was the same odd-looking liquids that the elders were drinking.
I didn't ask, but the answered my unspoken question. "It's a type of protein shake with vitamins. It's this restaurant's biggest revenue—a shake for ninja," the male explained, taking a long drag of his own, as if to prove his point. I glanced over at the other ninja, the ones sitting at the bar, and all three were drinking their shakes—in fact, they were drinking their shakes, and hardly touching their food.
I lifted up my glass, and, knowing it would taste horrible, I washed a mouth down my throat. Somehow, however, the person who made this concoction had managed to get rid of any horrible taste (though the aftertaste was bad). It didn't taste good by any means, but it was like drinking clumpy water.
"Let's get to business, shall, Uchiha-san?" the woman asked, bringing the topic of conversation from the shake to what we were actually here for. As I sipped at my drink, Neji and the elder male had been chatting lightly.
I nodded, set down my drink, and leaned forward. "Na… Hokage-sama is getting out of the hospital sometime tomorrow, correct?" I had decided against calling him 'Naruto' in front of these people. They would bite my head off, I could tell.
They gave me similar nods in response to my question, but it was the male who spoke first. "And, after a month and a half—nearly two months, actually—we've looked at everything you've done. From the first day, everything seems… Neat. Almost perfect."
"Thank you," I responded politely.
"It wasn't exactly a compliment. You see… We're suspicious of you, Uchiha-san," the woman added. If she had been younger, I'm positive she would have smirked.
"Suspicious?" Neji asked. There was no contempt, nor a huge amount of disbelief—he simply wanted clarification—as did I.
"Yes, suspicious… You leave, come back, and suddenly you care enough about the city to run it well? Most missing-nin who left the city wouldn't bother."
"Hinata Hyuuga helped me a great deal," I mumbled.
"A shame such a nice girl had to put up with the likes of you. You've really hindered her medical training, you know. And she worked so hard to be able to go through it all…" The elder woman was starting to annoy me. It was plain she didn't like me, while that may not have been the case with the elder man. "And even, after all of this, after your betrayal, which you should have been executed for… You're getting a Jonin position, no test, and a spot on ANBU?"
"I didn't ask for any of that," I protested.
"No, you didn't have to ask. You used favoritism to gain Hokage-sama's approval. You've been playing him like a puppet, manipulating him to…"
"Don't," the elder male pleaded, but the woman continued on.
"Do whatever you want, things you don't deserve, and holding back that poor, sweet girl…"
I slammed my hands down onto the table. The dishes clinked together, and all of the restaurant's customers looked at me. Some posed to fight, and some of the less fight crazy ninja sat back and waited to enjoy a brawl.
"Look. I did my best because Naruto is giving me all of these things, and I don't want to upset him. And as for Hinata, I did my best to get her switched, but Naruto wouldn't hear of it. If you have a problem with everything he's given me, or what happened to Hinata, speak with Naruto himself," I hissed at her. The woman glared at me, and I wondered if she had already spoken to Naruto. "I'm glad she didn't come. She would have been greatly upset by all of this."
I gulped down the last of my shake, thanked the elders for breakfast, and stormed out of the building.
----
When I checked back at the office, Hinata still wasn't there. I decided to go to the hospital, to pay Naruto a visit. When I told him about my 'evaluation', he laughed at me.
"You're the second one to yell at them about something they've said about someone in office," he chuckled at me, seemingly thoroughly amused.
"Well, you're looking better," I mumbled sarcastically, a scowl on my face. The scowl, however, didn't feel sincere… for some reason.
"Yeah…" he trailed off. "Tsunade-baa-chan really gave them a piece of her mind."
"Tsunade? I thought you yelled at them," I responded, slightly shocked.
"No. That old lady is scary," Naruto replied, and I could see, in his eyes, that he was being completely honest. I shook my head at him, in mock embarrassment, a soi-disant brave leader. But he was brave—if it wasn't for his basic fear of women.
----
I returned to the office. Hinata had finally returned, but she had already eaten and needed rest. Neji was still with me, but the entire day he had been quiet, ever since the meeting. I tried asking him if he knew what had been bothering Hinata, but he just slowly shook his head. I knew that he knew—he was just refusing to tell me. Whatever it was, it had to be something horrible. Finally, in lieu of a real answer, he told me, "You'll find out when you come visit the Hyuuga estate." Of course, this was after Hinata's nap and shower, and I now wanted to go to bed, so he left just after he made that particular statement.
----
The next few days continued on without incident. Naruto had taken back office, but he did it in a strange manner. He didn't send me out of the office—instead, it was like I had become Hinata, and was spending my time helping Naruto. Hinata had gone back to work at the hospital, and when Naruto visited Sakura, I visited Hinata. Sakura still was mad at me, and wasn't speaking to me, so Hinata and I spent time alone in whatever room she was working in. She told me she actually performed in a surgery yesterday night, and I told her I was happy for her. She was progressing very quickly—I wonder why she hadn't been going quite that fast before?
As I walked back to convene with Naruto once again, I stopped. The Elder Woman was talking to Naruto—she was obviously angry, and Naruto was acting nonchalant about the entire ordeal.
"—So you're just going to let that little Uchiha brat come in and hurt Hinata-chan's chances of being a great medical ninja?"
"You'd think I'd do that? Ruin someone's career just because I need someone to be babysat?" Naruto was practically growling—he did sound intimidating.
"Look at how much time that poor girl lost… Nearly two months!"
"Actually, it benefited her, you old cow."
I paused. What was that about?
"I chose her," Naruto continued on, "Because I knew she needed time to study. Her father wasn't giving her time, and if she was going to training, fulfilling clan obligations, working hospital shifts, and doing anything else her father gave her to fill her time, she'd never get any better. She'd improving so fast because, during those two months, all she did was study. She's going to grow at the same rate Sakura did, just watch."
The Elder Woman stormed off.
The count has been upped to three.
----
I was still thinking about Naruto's words. What kind of father was Hyuuga Hiashi? If he was the kind that purposely gave Hinata extra work to keep her occupied so that she couldn't achieve her goal, was he the type of person I really wanted to meet? I decided that this question wasn't something I really should be asking Hinata—somehow, I knew that it would only upset or anger her in some way.
Two days after Naruto returned from office, it was time for the Hyuuga's presentation. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it—I was looking forward to it because Hinata would have some part in it (she had to, as she was the future clan leader) and I'd get to see her; dreading it because I would have to meet her father and, soon after, I'd be leaving to fight Orochimaru.
Hinata and I actually had to go buy an outfit for the occasion. Naruto was paying for it—sort of. He told me that he'd take it out of my paycheck, once I had actually gone on enough missions to get a paycheck. As it was, he was giving me a few days off. He was allowing me to walk around by myself at this point, which was nice, aside from the fact I could sense the ANBU following me, even if it was without Naruto's orders.
After all, one of their mottos was to constantly supervise any suspicious person.
This was extremely annoying to me, however. I can tell that they are following me constantly—they don't do anything at all to hide their signature. Not only that, they also carried on conversations while they're following me, and they talk loudly enough for me to hear only certain phrases. This was a recent development (the conversations, at least). It seemed like someone had ordered them to provoke me. I wanted to turn around, and threaten them with lethal wounds, but I knew that any negative attention that I drew to myself wouldn't be a good idea. In fact, I didn't want any attention at all. That way, when I disappeared, I did more fading than just a sudden evaporation.
----
When I arrived at the Hyuuga mansion, I was surprised to find that I was welcomed as warmly as any other guest. However, when I paid more attention, I realized that the people that had greeted me were also talking about me behind my back. I went into the room that the servants directed me to, and saw a line of Hyuuga officials. Hinata was sitting to the right of her father. Then, on the left of her father was Hanabi Hyuuga, Hinata's younger sister (who was now a Chuunin, and had advanced very quickly through the ranks) sat, and to her left was Neji. There was an empty spot on Hinata's right, and I deducted that that was my seat.
"Thank for you inviting me," I said by way of greeting when her father glared at me.
"It is no problem, Uchiha-dono," she changed the suffix on my name. Was that her doing, or because she was in front of her father? Dono was still respectful, but at the same time, it was used for people on your level—the san was used for people above you. Her father seemed pleased.
The meeting was boring, at first. There was a statement of old and new business, none of which pertained to me whatsoever. And then, suddenly, Hinata arose. I looked up at her, slightly confused, and I noticed she had shed the baggy robe she had been wearing. Now, she was in a more elegant dark purple kimono. It was made of a shiny silk, clingy to every curve of her body. It was covered in lavender flowers (which looked like discolored cherry blossoms to me), which crawled across her torso and down her legs in vines. The bow that was tied around her waist was big and bulky, and was also a lavender color.
Oriental music began playing softly, and Hinata pulled a fan from her sleeve. Her gaze connected with mine for but a brief, shockingly electric millisecond before her eyes glazed over in concentration, no longer paying attention to anything but her dance. Her legs and arms moved gracefully, and her sleeves flowed around her body as she danced, as if they weren't a part of her kimono, but wings. Every move she made was carefully measured, but I wasn't paying much attention to the chorography—I forgot each move seconds later. I was lost in the overall vision of her dancing—her face, her movements were all like a dream to me.
The music faded after about ten or fifteen (had it only been that long?) minutes of her dancing. She bowed low and took her seat once again, but made no move to cover her kimono with her robe once again. I wanted to compliment her, but as soon as she finished, Hiashi stood up and began talking. I paid little attention to his words—I was thinking about the dance, and I felt almost as if a ghost of the dance was playing in my mind.
Soon after, we were all dismissed. I tried, once again, to talk to Hinata—but her father pulled her aside.
With a sharp pang of loss, I knew that that would be the last time I saw her for a long time—perhaps even forever.
She did make the kimono look really good, though.
----
It wasn't hard to sneak out of the apartment Naruto had allotted me. I dressed, packed an extra set of clothes, a few provisions, and soon, I was out of the apartment. Naruto still hadn't been able to put me in the ninja registry, as the elders were giving him trouble due to the fact I hadn't even passed the Chuunin exams (which kind of figured). The ANBU were working full-time on the Orochimaru case as well, as Naruto had ordered them to recently. Therefore, no one was watching my window.
Had Naruto's kindness given metamorphosized into folly?
Yes, it had—probably sometime before he graduated the Academy.
Or so I thought. As it turned out, he had one ANBU watching over my window. It wasn't ethical to kill him—he hadn't done anything wrong, but he was adamant about my staying in Konoha. Damn Kakashi.
"We haven't had a chance to talk since you've come back, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi smiled brightly at me, closing his book and quickly placing it in his back pocket.
"Yeah, well, I've been busy," I retorted. I wasn't about to fight just yet—I did feel bad about not paying a visit to him, after all. Just slightly.
"Oh? Aren't you unemployed? You've hurt my feelings. I would have hoped that, once you had a moment of free time, you'd have visited me. Or do I have Hinata Hyuuga to blame for that?"
How did he know?
"I know because I've been watching you, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi somehow knew my unasked question. Did I twitch or something? My expression hadn't changed… "You act… softer when you're around her. Like you're mesmerized by everything she does, everything she says. Well, Sasuke-kun… Bad news. She's engaged, you know."
"Engaged?" I choked out. I shock off the shock before he could continue. "That's good. Even if I had a chance… She's too innocent."
Kakashi laughed, and I could tell he was enjoying this thoroughly. The bastard.
"Haven't you ever heard 'darkness to light'? 'Opposites attract'? Anything like that?"
"Are you going to let me through?" I growled out, tired of this conversation. It was none of his business.
"I'm afraid I can't, Sasuke-kun," he sighed, and yawned. "Can't you just go back to bed? I don't feel like fighting… I was in the middle of a good scene, you know."
"Sorry. I'm afraid I can't, Kakashi… sensei," I smirked, before shifting into a battle stance. He hadn't hesitated due to the use of the 'sensei'—something I had never done for him before. I had always just called him Kakashi, referring to him as if he were a peer, and not someone worthy of teaching me. I had hoped that this rare sign of deference would have made him pause, even if for half a second. But, Kakashi was more skilled, more experienced than that. He knew I'd take that opportunity, just like any other ninja would.
Hinata, I hope whomever you're engaged to makes you happy and deserves you. Be happy—I'll probably die during this personal mission, after I escape or win, or whatever I must do.
We activated our Sharingan at the same exact moment.
It was time to force myself out of my deluded fantasies and face the realities of being a ninja once more.
