Explosions aren't Fireworks
Chapter Seven
A/N: Stupid School! I feel that chapter five was the best chapter, although it didn't have a good title. I wanna try and write more like that...dunno, guess I had more creativity during that time and more vocab in my head/ LMAO.
Disclaimer: You can track me down, look me in the eye and whip out my birth certificate. It says Kristen on it. Enough said. On with the story!
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"Z-Za-Zaku s-san!" Her face blushed furiously at the close contact. He smirked fiendishly and traced her jaw line gently. She shivered at the cool touch of his finger. She could almost feel the noise emitting from the sound holes on his hands and dancing around her as the notes teased her hair.
"Hey...beautiful." He whispered into her ear like he did five years ago, adding a little more spice to it. Her lower lip quivered at the words as she looked around, attempting to spot the mischievous blonde. He was no where to be seen. Her back was still arched from the fall on top of the arm embracing her smooth back. His body shadowed her arch as if they were doing a dance. Other than the perfect pose they fell into, their faces didn't match the fiery situation. The girl hugged her white bear with a suffocating grip and hid her head behind the doll as if trying to keep a distance away from the boy who had once broken her like a glass cup.
"Hey, don't be so shy..." He shifted the doll away from her face as he smiling unconvincingly at her. She squeaked and grabbed the doll from him as she turned away and shoved his arm back to his body.
"D-don't t-t-touch m-me Zaku s-san."
"Looks like the girl has guts." A certain dark haired girl came up as she twisted a strand of hair with her finger.
"Shut up Kin." He shot an icy look at her calm and laid back look. One thing he couldn't stand was one of those bossy women who thought they could control males by their looks. They had long hair that they twirled in their fingers just to look innocent. That all sums up to his team mate that he most despised: Kin Tsuchi. She waved him off to go on with his business as she examined her perfect manicured nails. He snarled at her as he ran off with a thrashing Hinata.
"L-let m-m-me go!" She kicked her thin legs on his stomach and pounded her tiny fists on his broad shoulders. He gritted his teeth as she landed a light kick to his groin, which was enough to cause even the slightest pain. He was glad that his victim wasn't quite strong. Perhaps she missed?
"HOLY CRAP!" He yelled as her foot landed square on. Hinata hopped off of his pained form and ran on her nimble feet. She bumped into a fluffy object as her eyes looked up to a bandaged head.
"My, my, what have we here?" A sickening voice came from behind the bandaged face.
"D...d...d..." She trembled in fear. The man with the bandaged face grabbed her by the hair on the back of her head as her hot tears rolled down her rosy cheeks.
"Have you forgotten my name already? Hinata chaaan?" The bitter sound rolled out of the man's mouth. "It's Dosu..." He whispered into her ear as the rough material touched her damp face.
"D-dammit." Zaku dragged his body over to the two.
"Mmm, Zaku got beat up by a little girl." The bandaged man tilted his head at his team mate.
"Shut up Dosu." Zaku furrowed his brows as he yanked the girl out of Dosu's grasp.
"One, you gotta make sure little mousey doesn't run away." Dosu lectured Zaku behind the bandages as he tied Hinata's wrists behind her back. "Two, you gotta treat her right." He patted her short, indigo hair. She grimaced at his touch.
"You call that treating her right?" Zaku pointed to the red marks on the back of her neck and scalp where Dosu had grabbed Hinata. Dosu chuckled.
"Well, you gotta teach little mice lessons." He hauled Hinata up onto his fluffy shoulder as Zaku scowled at the grinning man. Hinata relaxed as her stomach hit the fluffy material. It was much more comfortable that the bony shoulder she was placed on before. Zaku trudged behind mumbling to himself throughout the trip.
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Hinata stretched her cramped arms and legs as she woke up from a peaceful slumber. She felt the solid ground before her, the cool and clammy cement felt like ice below her moist fingers. Where was she? The last time she remembered she was on Dosu's shoulder, and fell asleep on his warm coat. She got up on her wobbly knees and steadied herself as she walked down the dark corridor. The flickering flames from candles on the walls created looming shadows as goose bumps pickled her thin, pale arms. She rubbed them as she crossed her arms over her chest to keep warm. Her soft steps echoed loudly down the damp hall. As she walked deeper and deeper into the tunnel, she came to a huge stone door with dragons and snakes engraved on it. As she activated her byakugan, she could not see anything through the door.
There must be a seal somewhere to prevent even a byakugan or sharingan to see. Her pale eyes seemed translucent in the dark as they flickered back and forth, finding the seal.
Ah! There it is! Her hand reached out to grab the seal embedded in one of the dragons that were engraved in the stone door. The door creaked open as her fingers were a centimeter away. Her hands trembled as she wiggled her fingers and curled them into her palm. She looked into the room that the stone door concealed. It was as dark and melancholy as the hallway she was in. She walked into the room. It smelled of rose oil and incense. Just the aroma made her feel as if she were floating on clouds. Her eyes drooped as the steamy air tingled on her cool skin. She inched in closer in attempt to warm her shivering body. Alas, a chair for her to sit on! She quickly ran to the chair and snuggled up to its red velvet smoothness as her fierce byakugan melted away from her eyes. She sat back on the chair as her eyes scanned the room. It was lighted with white candles, unlike the blood red ones in the hallway. The stone doors slammed shut and she jumped up in fright. Could it be?
"Hinata-chan!" A blonde hair boy walked up to her. His one blue eye shone with delight to see his love.
"D-deidara-chan!" She hugged him, wanting the warmth of his body but grabbed air instead as the image of Deidara dissipated into the air. She fell onto the floor from her attempt to embrace the blonde.
I must be hallucinating. No, wait, it's the incense! This is just a genjutsu! She furrowed her brows as she formed a hand sign in front of her nose.
"Kai!" Everything was clear to her now. The room was just a tiny cubicle. She had just walked down a clammy wall in a dungeon, walked into a jail cell, and this mysterious shadowy figure that stood in front of her was the man who had closed the "stone doors" whom she thought was her beloved Deidara. This was totally messed up. And who was this shadowy figure looming before her. His golden eyes flickered in the candle light. She sucked a sharp intake of air into her lungs as her body went frigid just looking into those cruel and heartless snake eyes.
"O-orochimaru...sannin." The words seemed to pour out of her mouth like unwanted trash.
"Hinata chaaan. So we finally meet. I've heard about your byakugan." The words were hissed out of his mouth as his long tongue licked his pale lips. His ghastly white face penetrated the darkness of the cell that they were in.
"I'm not giving you anything." She replied defiantly.
"If you don't, you'll face serious consequences. Such as..." He tapped his finger on his chin almost sarcastically.
"Death? Go ahead." She closed her eyes as she craned her neck as if it were her cue for death to engulf her. He was probably going to slit her neck or something. But he didn't do anything. The man just chuckled with his low, rumbling voice. His voice was like rusty cogs turning and grinding their rough teeth on each other.
"Quite amusing, but I'm not going to let you go to waste." He smirked as he called for his men to possibly drag her away to some place else. Unsurprisingly, it was obviously Kabuto. The other man was none other than the young Uchiha prodigy: Sasuke. He looked so much more different. He seemed gaunt and his cheeks sunk in like pits. It was probably because he never got enough sleep since the shadows lingered beneath his obsidian eyes. She narrowed her eyes at his appearance. He was no longer wearing the navy blue outfit he usually wore, but it was a white robe marked with Orochimaru's trademark purple rope. Kabuto tied her wrists together and she groaned at the tightness of the rope that this traitor had placed on her delicate wrists. Sasuke slung her over his shoulder. She could almost sense a smirk on the Uchiha's face and she kicked him lightly in the stomach to warn him. Like the emotionless man he was, he made no face or sound, reminding her of the ANBU's porcelain masks which presented a hollow, inhuman facial expression. Although they were nonetheless a billion times better than this Uchiha, Sasuke always had a subtle sadness in his eyes. Perhaps she was the only one who noticed this since when she asked her Konoha friends if they noticed anything sad about Sasuke, they said the only thing sad about him was his ass. Possibly she would have a chance to converse with this man she once called "friend." She sighed as her neck rested in the cool crook of his shoulder.
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"Sasuke-kun, c-can you help me on th-this swing?" A young Hinata smiled at the raven haired Uchiha.
"Of course I will." He lifted her gently onto the wooden swing as he pushed her back so that the swing would go forward a few feet and come back a few feet more. Of course he pushed softly, afraid that he would break this delicate angel. Her short legs dangled a foot off the high swing. He chuckled at how petite she still was for a twelve year old.
"When we graduate the academy...w-will you go with me t-to Ichiraku ramen with Naruto t-to c-celebrate?" She looked at him with pleading eyes. Sasuke's calm smiled turned into a sudden scowl when she mentioned the loud mouthed blonde.
"No, not with Naruto, I want to take you to the lake." He denied her invitation. Or more like Naruto's invitation. The wind ruffled her short indigo hair as she stared at him with her pearly eyes.
"O-oh, Naruto will be upset..." She looked down at the lush grass.
"No he won't, if he's your friend, he would understand right? Will you go with me?" This time he was the one pleading.
"W-well, okay. Then I will." She smiled at her childhood friend. The day she was one, she had met Sasuke at the celebration of her birthday. The Uchihas and the Hyuugas were very close clans. She would laugh when Neji and him would fight over who got to play with her first. But that was then, this was now. Hyuuga Neji despised her for being so free and him being a caged bird. She always thought it was wrong to want what others had but maybe this was acceptable? She always wanted her to accept her, she always wanted to stand up to him but she would shrink back in at the last second. His anger terrified her, but what if he just didn't want her to know? That behind all this anger lay an undying love. She knew that boys at this age have a hard time showing their emotions. Like when a brother quarrels with her sister for minor reasons. Maybe he didn't want to show her that he was really a soft inside. He was almost like a tootsie roll pop; soft on the inside, hard on the outside. They were her favorite. He would give her a secret stash on her birthday, but after he learned the true, evil things of life, he began to drift away from her. But Sasuke was always there, he never talked to any of the other girls at the Academy. He would shun them everyday before and after school when they would chase after him and he would run to her for safety. They always met at the swings after school and talk about things that they would tell no one else. It was hard to believe that she was such a shy girl yet would share such personal things to a boy but not a girl. The fact was that he knew how it felt to be her, having to be hated by a sibling or cousin that you once thought loved you.
"You know Hinata, I'll love you and always will. I make that a promise." He held out a pinky towards her as she grasped it with her own.
"Promise." She smiled at him with closed eyes.
She opened her eyes as Sasuke finally put her down on a soft mattress. It was much more comfortable than the cold cement back in the dungeon. She looked around to see that Kabuto was not there.
"S-sasuke-kun?"
"Hn...?" He was filing papers into a cabinet.
"Do you remember when...we used to sit together on the swings..."
"Yeah, why." It didn't seem like he was asking her a question. His voice had no change in pitch whatsoever, it stayed at the same monotone note every time he talked.
"Y-you still p-promise r-right?" Her infamous stutter was still there. Her tongue was stubborn and would not follow her brain's cries.
"Yeah." He continued shuffling papers as he finally stuffed them into the drawer and came to sit next to her.
"Why did you go away? Why didn't you listen to Sakura?" Her eyes brimmed with tears. He brushed away the tears with his thumb.
"...Because it's my destiny to avenge my family. And Sakura needs to get over her infatuation with me. I know she cares for me but..." His voice wavered as it reached in attempt to add color to his black and white words, but failed.
"Why is it always about destiny?! It is something you can change. You can't hit two birds with one stone but you can hit them one by one, don't wait for them to align!
"You know everyone thinks you're a heartless, cruel monster. Once I was even led to believe that, but you're just like Neji: a tootsie roll pop; Hard on the outside and soft on the inside. When someone is there to dissolve your cold and hard outside you'll melt into them and soften your heart to them. Sasuke, how come you've built up your hard shell again?"
"I...don't know." He turned away to hide his shame. She took out her favorite lollipop and took off the wrapper. It was red, like Sasuke's sharingan. She pressed her teeth onto the hard candy surrounding the tootsie roll. The candy cracked and she took it out of her mouth as the shattered pieces dropped on the stone floor. She sank her teeth into the soft brown middle and bit it off. Being the courteous person she was, she pocketed the wrapper and stick. Sasuke looked at the broken bits of cherry flavored lollipop on the floor and picked a jagged piece up.
"You're telling me...that you're willing to crack my shell off?" Ahh, the sentence relaxed her tense ears as his monotone voice rose into a tuneful question. She nodded in reply. His lips broke the frowning mask on his face and curved into a smile. She touched her warm hands on his face and they seemed less sickly. Suddenly the room seemed less dark and lonely. Sasuke took her hands down from her face as there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." He returned to his monotone voice. It was Kabuto. Kabuto jerked his head in a 'come here' gesture and Sasuke looked back at Hinata once more as he left the room. She looked around the room. She figured that it was hers and would stay inside.
For the whole night, she pondered about how someone could live in such a place like this. She frowned in dismay at how Sasuke could have stayed in this dark and desolate environment and how much it's stripped of his color.
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A/N: Sorry for the late update! I spent all night to write this and it's going to be Friday tomorrow! I hope you like it. I just learned some more vocab so the story would be more interesting to read. Hmm, so how is it going to turn out between Sasuke and Hinata:) Please R&R! I'm desperate for your opinion! LOL xD
