Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.
Chapter 6
The lanterns hanging from the trees, the voices of the villagers who crossed the paved streets and the laughs of drunken men gave the impression that the village was celebrating. Yet to Sasuke's dissatisfaction, this happened every night in the village of Kiku, as the owner of the Tea House they were seated at had informed him. If he had known beforehand, he would have made sure to find another village to spend the night and to buy all that was necessary for them to continue their journey.
He brought a hand to his temples. All that fuss just caused him a headache he could not handle. He was a man of tranquility and concise conversations, and being in a place with so much crowd just made him want to draw his katana to the next drunkard that would dare spill his sake on him again. He raised his head to look at the girl sitting right across of him, eating her ramen without paying him any mind. Once or twice she would raise her curious eyes from under the hood of her dark cloak to look around, seeming to even be enjoying herself.
He raised a thick black eyebrow, eyeing her closely. How she could still bare that small smile and rosy blush while being in this fucked up situation, was beyond him. She was supposedly abducted by the former avenger of Konoha. She had heard him say he had killed five of her clansmen. She was taken away while in the middle of an engagement. And yet, the Hyuga heiress didn't seem all that troubled. At that moment, while looking around all that curiously and excitedly, Hinata just seemed like a little girl.
"I would be looking more inside my plate if I were you", the Uchiha noted, gaining the heiress' attention.
"What-"
He leaned closer, a smug half-smile plastered on his face.
"Those eyes of yours... they can be recognizable even in a village like Kiku. Hyuga eyes, Sharingan eyes, Rinnegan eyes... They would make of a great trophy don't you think?", he whispered.
She looked at him for a moment, before lowering her eyes a bit. He was right, she had to admit no matter how it displeased her.
Sasuke smirked at the reaction that came from the Hyuga, yet he reminded himself not to be stupid so to believe this was the same shy obedient girl from their days in the academy.
His eyes fell on the tip of the scroll that stayed hidden under the dark fabric of her cloak. He felt his hands twitching as impatience welled over him once more.
"The scroll", he simply stated.
"What about it?", she said, mimicking the ironic tone that his voice usually bore.
A tint of anger graced his dark eye, the only visible to her, as his Rinnegan stayed hidden under his black bangs that fell longer on one side of his face.
"I want answers", she said before he could speak another word. "And as an exchange, I'll willingly tell you what the scroll is about".
Sasuke looked at her seriously for a moment, before he chuckled.
"Who would have thought, that the pampered Hyuga princess would be so tough at negotiations?", he said and her eyes narrowed.
He was playing her, but she was tired of playing.
"Is that why you chose me?", she said, her words bearing no sarcasm or anger. "Was it because you thought the pampered Hyuga princess would be easier to deal with? Easier to manipulate and control?"
"Do I seem like your father to you?", he said, his voice suddenly sounding all too serious.
Hinata looked at him for a moment, having no idea how to respond to that. This was the last thing she had expected to come out of his mouth.
"Kidnapping a mere Hyuga from the branch house would have been easier. His eyes would be enough to serve my purpose. He would just be there to see what my Rinnegan and Sharingan are mysteriously blind to. The Hyugas wouldn't even bother searching for him after a while. But you think that abducting Hiashi's heir would make my journey any easier...", he said. "Kakashi won't be the only one to send men in your search. Hyugas will be after us shortly. So, abducting you was definitely not the easy way out."
She tried to find the truth in his words, but she soon realized that they left no space for doubt.
"Then why?", she managed to say at last.
"The scroll...", he insisted sternly.
"What do you want those scrolls anyway?", she asked. "What are you looking for?".
"What makes you believe that I'm going to answer any of that to you?"
"Because you need me..."
He leaned closer again, his torso weighting above the surface of the table that stood between them.
"I could kill you right now and take the scroll without having to answer any of those stupid questions of yours anymore, Hyuga..."
"Too late to go back and retrieve another Hyuga though, isn't it?", she said.
Sasuke's lips parted, only to close again, as he realized Hinata suddenly tensing up. He saw her lower her head a little. It was only enough though as for her byakugan not to be recognized by those around her.
"We're being spied on..", she whispered as she pretended to play with her food some more, swirling around the ramen left in her bowl with her chopsticks. But through her byakugan she could see them clearly, the four men sitting behind Sasuke's back, just a few tables away from them. She couldn't believe she hadn't caught their weird antics sooner. She blamed it on the Uchiha though. That man knew exactly how to bring out the worst in her.
Thankfully the Uchiha didn't need to be told twice to understand. She slowly stood and brushing off a tipsy geisha-like dressed woman that came to erotically pull at his sleeve, Sasuke followed her, making his way to the main street of the village.
"They are following us", Hinata noted, walking side by side with him.
"I know", Sasuke simply said as he pushed his way through the crowded street. They couldn't fight them. Not here. Fighting at such a place would only earn them unwanted attention. There were two things they could do at that point, either make those bastards lose them in the crowd, or draw them to the outskirts of the village to deal with them. It didn't take them long to realize that choosing the second was, in the end, the only choice they could make.
The bastards pushed through the ground behind them as Hinata and Sasuke tried to peak up their pace through the bodies that crowded the streets. It was when they reached the first crossroad that Hinata lost every sight of the last Uchiha. She looked around, desperately trying to catch any glimpse of him, but she was only greeted with the faces of two of those following them marching towards her.
Finding a way out of the crowd Hinata immediately turned left to a less crowded street filled with stalls of small merchants. She ran as fast as she could, all the while trying to avoid colliding to any passerby. People would go out of her way, their eyes wide with shock at the young woman being closely chased by two men down the road.
She turned left again with her byakugan showing her every small or big street even before she was anywhere close to reaching them. Turning right Hinata realized there was no point in running forever. She looked up, momentarily observing the roofs of the houses. She immediately dropped the idea though. Running and jumping from roof to roof would only make her an easier target at the moment. They hadn't had time to closely observe their opponents so to understand what they were dealing with, thus exposing herself at such extend would only have her killed.
There was no other choice. She had to face them right ahead.
She ran a bit faster now and with a swift motion, she entered a narrow dark passage leading to a small yard that was surrounded by houses. There were no lanterns here, no eyes to witness the battle that would take place or the blood that would possibly be spilled. She momentarily stood in the middle of the small opening as the two shinobi reached her. She heard their feet halting right at the entrance of the opening followed by the sound of metal that equipped their hands.
"Finally the damsel in distress stops running", one of the two men commented, his voice deep.
His steps could be heard on the muddy ground again.
"I have to admit little butterfly..."
He was closer now.
"...It had been long since the last time I ran like that..."
His free hand extended, reaching for a strand of her long dark blue hair.
"...You are coming with us now..."
She was sure the man didn't have time to even blink once when she swirled around and grabbed that hand that he had dared to lay upon her. He was big, enormous even, compared to her, but when an eerily snapping sound was heard, the man cried out like she never had.
He took a few steps back, looking at his now broken arm as his partner still stood by the entrance of the narrow alley with eyes filled with shock.
She tried to take in as much information as she could while looking at their attire, but nothing on the betrayed the kage they were loyal to. Missing-nin, maybe?, she thought.
"Bitch!", she heard the man growl at her.
Blue chakra engulfed her arms just as the man standing closer launched at her, his face traced with nothing but fury. He tried to land a hit at the higher part of her abdomen but was too late as the blue-haired kunoichi came behind to land her lion fists at his back multiple times before the man fell forward on the ground.
A kunai that came towards her, barely scratching her on the upper part of her left arm as she turned, reminded her of the second shinobi that was just standing at the same spot as before, looking like a scared child.
She turned her byakugan eyes at him without speaking as he took out two small katanas. He gritted his teeth as he launched at the woman they had previously thought to be an easy target.
The blue chakra died down from around her hands, but as he was about to wound her she easily countered his blow with a set of kunais that had just equipped her hands. He pressed with his weight forward, trying to make her lose her balance, but Hinata's leg found its way to his crotch, making him gasp. She mastered more hits on him in a matter of seconds, all the while making sure to just knock them out instead of killing them.
She was about to deliver another blow when she realized that the other man had already come to his senses. She turned around to clock his hit, but this time he was quicker than her. He grabbed her by the arm throwing her to crash on the wall opposite from him.
She felt her breath hitch in her throat as her back came crashing on the hard cold stone, an unbearable pain already spreading from her back to her chest. The veins around her eyes slowly faded as she saw the enormous man walking towards her.
She bit on her lip, trying to not cry out as she tried to move forward.
He was closer now, his features seeming angrier under the blood that dirtied his face.
A shadow moved in the background, followed by the sound of a blade cutting through flesh. The enormous nin turned around to check the source of those weird noises, but as soon as his eyes fell on the dead body of his comrade laying on the ground, a long blade came crashing through his own chest, taking his life.
Hinata watched as the body of the unlucky man fell on the ground, once the blade was pulled out of his body. She slowly raised her head from the dead man laying right before her feet, only to catch a red glowing eye staring right at her.
She looked at him, afraid that the relief she was strangely feeling at the sight of him at the moment, would dare show all over her face.
"Sa-suke...", she whispered as she tried to move forward, only for her legs to tremble. She lost her step, falling forward, when two hands found their way to her shoulders, keeping her steady. Raising her face that had only rested on his chest for a moment, Hinata turned her eyes on him again. There was a strange expression all over his face, but it only lasted for a second.
"I see you finally remembered my first name, Hyuga", his said. Oh here was his irony again...
"But you...", she shuttered as she tried straightening her body again. "... you still haven't learned mine".
He smirked. She seemed to always know what to say to counter his words.
"Was the show good from up there?", she said referring to the roof atop of which the Uchiha had been sitting for the best part of her fight with the two unknown shinobi. She walked away from him and towards the shorter man that Sasuke had killed first.
"So you saw me...", he commented, no surprise coating his voice whatsoever. He had already dealt with the other two men that were chasing him when he tracked down Hinata. Arriving at the scene and seeing the Hyuga already fighting, he decided that it would be much funnier to sit and watch how the heiress actually acted in combat.
He watched as Hinata kneeled on the ground next to the dead shinobi, her arm constantly hugging her torso. She leaned over the corpse, searching for any clue of his identity.
"They are from The Land of Earth...", she heard Sasuke's voice just as she pulled out the Iwagakure headband that the dead shinobi had kept hidden. "...seems like the Earth daimyo has already asked for the Tsuchikage to send out men in your search, as the bride for his son never arrived..."
Hinata just nodded her head, all the while noting on their behavior throughout their battle. They had made sure to use no Jutsu that would betray their identity to her. You are coming with us now, one of the two shinobi had said, underestimating her abilities. She tightened her grip around the headband in her hand.
"You could kill them", Sasuke said, or more like stated. "Why didn't you just take their lives right then and there?"
She could hear him closer now.
"They were not mine to take...", she simply said making the Uchiha just stare at the back of her head.
She took the small katanas from the dead ninja, storing them at the back of a belt she had already tied around her waist.
"Kakashi offered you a place in the Anbu a while ago", Sasuke said. "A place among professional killers..."
Hinata just turned her head, offering him a small smile, knowing all too well that he was referring on the mask she had left Kakashi the day the Uchiha had once more returned to the village.
"But I am not an Anbu now, am I?", she said as she tried to stand up. A stabbing pain shot right through her back and torso once more, and she couldn't help but wince. She pressed her palm on the stone wall next to her, to keep her body standing. The next thing she knew, Sasuke had thrown one of her arms around his shoulders.
"What are you-"
"I'm taking you to a healer", he stated.
"I can heal myself..."
"No you can't, not now. I can't get far with you in that state and I certainly don't plan on carrying you on my back throughout my journey. So stop being a pain and just walk with me"
She simply nodded as they started walking down the narrow dark passage leading to one of the main roads of the village.
"Not wanting to kill a bunch of scumbags... yet those katanas you took, they are meant for killing", he couldn't help but comment.
"You said we have a long journey ahead of us didn't' t you?", Hinata said meeting his gaze once more. "Travelling through the Land of Earth up to the northern part of the Land of Iron can't be easy without weapons".
He raised a black eyebrow at her words.
"The scroll", she said with difficulty this time, as the pain felt worse by the minute. "It was a map... I don't know what you are looking for... but... I will follow...".
He looked at her, somewhat dumbfounded at her sudden change of heart. He was about to ask her why, until the Hyuga heiress fell cold in his arms.
Hey everyone!
New chapter and finally Hinata and Sasuke get to talk some more. Also sorry if that fight scene was all too boring.
Thank you again for all your great comments. I think many of your predictions are to the point.
What else would you expect to see in the next chapter?
See ya soon!
