A/N: This is probably the chapter I had the most fun writing. :) I hope you enjoy! Happy Easter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
-X-
Croaking Ravens
By Clementive
Four days earlier
The messenger cursed under his breath. He hated the humidity of the eastern coast of Japan, clouds always hung heavily in the sky until pouring down. He crossed the shogunate of the mist in four days the scent of his horse's wet cloak unpleasantly thick around him. He missed the dry sand of the south, the even temperature of the Konoha. He wrinkled his nose in disgust; his surroundings seemed overly green, glinting with drops of rain. His skin felt cold and humid no matter the creaking sound of fire of the inns he stayed overnight.
The hoofs of his horse splashed water on the side of the road. The curtain of rain imprisoned him once more and he sighed angrily tightening his hold on his cloak. 'Will it ever stop to bloody rain?' The messenger shivered as cold rain ran down his neck. Suddenly, his horse broke into an agitated pace. Cursing loudly, he clenched his teeth pulling on the reins. Voicing its protest, the animal whined before stopping altogether near the first trees of the edge of the forest. He hissed narrowing his eyes. There was a drawing carefully carved in the tree before him.
Wide-eyed, he stared at the raven and its open mouth deeply wounding the tree. The symbol of death. 'I need to get out of here.' Briskly, he pulled the reins to turn around then he saw a masked man before him. He didn't have the time to reach for his sword or to duck.
A raven croaked, a bow sang. The corpse of the messenger fell. The bow sang again. The horse tumbled loudly crushing its dead rider.
He lowered the bow slowly approaching the two corpses. With a thud of the foot, the masked man opened the saddle-bag. A fake smile curved his lips upward as he caught a glimpse at his drawing engraved on the tree. He leaned forward the dead messenger gaping in frozen surprise at him.
His fists closed against the Uchiha scroll he had been carrying towards the shogunate of the Uzumaki clan. The dead wouldn't need it anymore.
"Good work, Sai," a rich voice praised behind him.
He turned his fake smile toward the man behind him. 'Should I name this piece 'Croaking Raven'?"
"Thank you, Danzo-sama."
-X-
Present days
Her kunai slid against his blade drawing small sparks along it. It whistled brushing past his ear as her foot reached up to hit him in his abdomen. His back against the pillar of his ravaged office, careful short breathes escaping his chest, he grabbed her ankle. Closer, farther away.
She danced away, he fought back his eyes never leaving her.
"Where did you learn that?" he breathed out stoically.
She chose to preserve the silence of the fight. She could feel them, the ghosts, oppressing her chest leading her blows. They guarded the uselessness of her quest, the bitter taste of revenge. They were the ravens perched on her soul whispering of death, breathing from it.
Neji Hyuuga recognized the fighting style in a matter of seconds. He pestered himself; he should have seen it in her haze yellowish skin, in her curve of her mouth or the shape of her eyes. He figured she had blinded him with her graceful movements. She snaked through his blows just as she had slipped through his embrace. Tenten had the grace of a dancer grace and attacked vehemently with the Chinese movements she remembered. She matched his weapon skill with ease with the glint of her eyes which have become familiar to him. In the silence of their fight, he heard loud and clear her kunai spitting revenge as drops of blood on his skin.
Her savagery fascinated him.
She didn't flinch at the bites of his blade instead using it as leverage to land her own cut on his skin. She wasn't a weak pawn after all. He smirked dodging her short blades. He still couldn't decide which shogi piece she was.
Their fight ran wild through the halls, weapons whipping through the thin screens. They felt the thrill of the chase, the excitement of clashing blades. They drank from the other's thirst. The Chinese woman took a ravenous pleasure in marking the walls, ripping the screens. Her house had been felt as full as it did at that moment- destroyed, rasped breaths echoing within its structures. She kept moving, he kept pushing her back. They moved on each other until they felt the ground beneath their feet, the hidden sun above their heads.
The bird cage swung in a screeching sound, a kunai embedded in its center.
The wild wind pursued its furious path, inching the sliding doors forward. It rose, knocking on the walls within the mansion, breeding ghostly creaking steps on the wooden floor. A thick cloak of clouds veiling the sun beams. The trees hushed in the darkness, their pants rising higher with each exchanged blow. Tenten gripped her last kunai, twisting it nervously; she could feel the end. Her forehead creased in concentration. She almost missed the comfort of vaporous silk as she moved, her hair dancing across her neck and shoulder. She wondered if they had watched her other fights, her other dances.
They faced each other in the hovering thunder. Her face and nature were at war.
"This is enough, Tenten. There is nothing left for you to destroy." He coldly stated without lowering his guard.
He couldn't trust her hatred and his fading surprise. Yet the shogun was too stubborn to admit her strength. Few of his kinsmen could twist as expertly with a weapon and even fewer could toss them with great ease. 'Where did she learn that?' He mused watching her empty eyes, her pained mask.
Shaking her head, she wiped the sweat from her brows. 'There is still my guilt, my anger, my tiredness. They are still there, I can't stop now.'
Neji remembered the feasts he took over his own will for revenge. He remembered his cousin soaked in blood, the stillness in the elders' pupils as he won for the first time against the main branch of the clan. A searing burn inflamed his forehead then. He saw revenge's familiar patterns; the broken Chinese nation in her movements, the dead bodies she carried within her soul. His understanding tore his throat but her hazel glinted unpleasantly ignoring her painful muscles, her stiff limbs. Her strength did not diminish with the cuts on her arms.
"No. You asked for it, Hyuuga-sama," she mumbled through clenched teeth.
There! Neji winced as her kunai dangerously cut the fabric of his clothes near his rib cage. Twisting on her side, her feet kicked the pommel of his blade. After an arc gleaming trajectory, it quivered, hammered in the tender earth. She watched as ferocious pride devoured the last remains of humanity on his face. 'She definitely isn't a pawn. Perhaps a lower knight?'
"I will have to stop you then."
Her smirk slid off her lips, as he took the Hyuuga fighting stance. Dread settled his claw in her insides taking a step back in a defensive stance. His eyebrows barely shot up. 'Her reaction…She must have seen the Hyuuga's techniques.'
"I won't let you!" She snarled rushing forward, her features quivering with sustained rage. She was past the point of stopping. She didn't want to lay down her weapons and return to bowing before him.
Narrowing her eyes, she inhaled sharply sneaking her way through his insistent attacks. She let out a feeble yelp clenching her teeth. Her mix style didn't adhere to his new foot work, to the danger of his palms. Suddenly, they collided, his left hand forcibly pressing down her shoulder. The concubine merely clenched her teeth as her arm fell limply at her side, dangling. She willed her fingers to tighten their grip on her kunai, but it thudded on the ground along with the first drops of rain. An agonizing pain ran through her useless limb. The sensation stopped altogether and she couldn't feel it anymore. She shuddered at the prospect of emptiness swinging by her side.
The warlord charged at her again.
Tenten avoided the danger of his palm slightly tumbling on the handle of her last kunai at her feet. Her hand held her arm against her right side as she panted heavily. Dizziness forced her on one knee and only a half veil hazel pupil stared up at him.
The young woman expected disdain spread across his face not blatant calmness.
He sat on his heels whispering her name. The young woman looked at him straight in his eyes startling him as he pressed his palm to her chest, beneath her heart. Her breath hitched in her throat but she kept watching him. They understood one another, they both knew, a light push and she would die.
"Most men close their eyes when facing death," the shogun muttered searching her flushed face for a sign that he was accustomed to.
"That's merely because men aren't women, Hyuuga-sama," the concubine replied smirking as she leaned forward.
She dared him with her eyes. He remained still gulping. 'That woman…'
Cold hazel met softening pearl. Rain snaked on her worn out muscles and she thought of death. Neji drank the sight of her darkening tresses under the rain, of her stubbornness, of their ravaged home. He thought of her savage beauty. Instead, his palm moved upwards, cupping her face. Again, her breath hitched in her throat.
"You and I aren't very different, Tiantian. Can't you see it?"
She flinched turning her head aside so that she would escape his thumb grazing her cheeks. She simply couldn't see it, for now, as his hands caressed her skin as his voice wavered on the Chinese pronunciation of her name. Sighing, he moved his hand to rest it on her shoulder. She willed him not to hear the hammering of her heart, the silent shrills of her painful muscles.
"I will not kill you, just as you cannot kill me. You should let the past rests in its graves. I won't apologize for what was done in China by my clan. That was over twelve years ago." The young lord titled her head upwards forcing her to look at him once more. "The truth is: you aren't made of darkness so your resolve is weak."
It stung more than his blows, than her old scars. Tenten fought back angry tears feeling the weight of soaked fabric on her legs. Weak. Were they gone, ashamed of her surrender of the weakness of her blades, of her heart? Was this their legacy?
"Just so you know…You didn't win, Hyuuga-sama."
He merely replied with a smirk. He knew. His fingers awkwardly pushed her injured shoulder up. Shutting her eyes, Tenten hissed biting down her tongue as she felt the blood flow back to her right arm. Relief washed through her and he rose to his feet his robes plastered on his torso.
"Neji."
She gazed up questionably as her knees lightly sank in the mud gathered at her thighs. The wind kept howling around her. Her heaving chest loosened her bandages around her chest. Faintly, she heard his answer as he unhurriedly made his way to the mansion. 'A queen… hn. No, not yet. But soon, very soon…'
"Starting now, call me Neji."
Their memory abruptly stopped repressing her breaths, her movement.
A dry chuckle escaped her and she gazed up at the darkened sky letting droplets of rain washed away the tensions. When was the last time she had laughed? She couldn't even remember, it sounded unusual. Was this peace; the disappearance of weapons, her exposed weakness to take one's life? Eyes closed, she heard him gathering the blades and carefully shutting the doors.
The irony of the situation befell her; Tenten owned her life to the shogun. She heard the sound of water loud and clear, rain slipping in through the torn screens and the gaping ones. She smelled the damp earth, the quivering trees. A perpetual cycle. Gone was the weight on her chest. Water washed it away, bit by bit; her mask curling in liquid tendrils at her knees. She quietly wondered how she could breathe so evenly when she was now his war prisoner without any weapon left.
Like the ghosts they were, her family faded in the back of her mind. 'Let them rest in their graves, Hyuuga? Is this really that simple?'
Slowly, she stood up on weak limbs a dark raven watching her every move from the tallest tree.
Its croaks wavered through the wind as the first sound of thunder severed the celestial peace.
She was finally Tenten and she was a fighter.
-X-
She knew he would be mad if he happened to open the doors and see her kneeling form. Nervously, she gnawed her inner cheek. Light rain made its way on the polished tiles of the roof echoing by its soft sound the deafening poundings of her heart. The voices were hushed but slipped out of the joined the doors to reach her ears.
"The Uzumaki clan hasn't answered my message yet."
Sakura Uzumaki closed her eyes, her palm pressed against the delicate patterns of the screens. Uneasiness twisted within her and she quivered ever so slightly the wooden floor hard beneath her knees. Naruto never gave up, he had always acted up to her expectations and she hadn't. She couldn't wear his clan heraldry on her robes, she preferred the barest kimonos. She was a wife without a name. Her long pink hair cascaded framing her delicate features as she rested her cool forehead against the wood above where her palm remained. She was a lover without love.
She heard the faint rustles of silk, her mother's movement to lean closer certainly. With ease, she could picture the frown on her mother's face, the violent coldness on Sasuke's one. The days of a blooming summer passed and coldness lingered in his eyes whenever he looked at her. He had always thought her name would be enough and she had always thought her love would be enough.
"Without the Uzumaki warriors, only your clan will march with me. Hyuuga didn't lose one second to tighten his ties with the other clans of the valley. At least five of them will fight with him while the others will remain neutral."
The pink haired woman heard the accusation in his voice; she had been a useless pawn in his hand after all. He had known she would follow him but he didn't expect the war against his brother to soil the ground with Uchiha blood for three years. Sakura chose war over peace, him over her husband.
"There's also no guarantee that Sakura can be used," Sasuke muttered darkly. "If you could handle your women better than this we wouldn't be in that situation."
Her heart fluttered in her chest. Wherever she turned, she thought of haunting accusatory blue eyes. Her absence delayed the outburst, the excessive rage of being the one left behind. She hoped it wouldn't sting as jealousy if they were to face one another. She knew she could ride the flames of anger but their friendship would drown in the waves of jealousy. 'Ino…'
"Don't worry about Ino, when my clansmen find her she will be killed. It shouldn't take long besides. That foolish girl is certainly with her lover."
Humidity hung on her clothes and she felt them weighing her down. She couldn't move with the jagged icy feeling wrapped around her. It cut deeper than Sasuke's loveless eyes and Tsunade's new bitterness. The sky tore opened and water poured down. A sad smile curved her pink lips. 'So you are over Sasuke-kun, pig? I'm glad…' She bit her lower lip, dread unclenching in the pits of her stomach. They spent their childhood running beneath the Sakura trees in the courtyard. Workers would pester at them and they would only laugh in response. Then, they became women of beauty and they fought for the same man, Sasuke Uchiha. Her victory tasted bitter now.
"Try not to make the same mess as when you killed the young Hyuuga."
"We had no choice, he knew too much. He shouldn't have been meddling into our affairs."
Their conversation ceased as she heard the doors slide opened and a servant's soft mutter. The sound of a pouring liquid reached her and she faintly smelled jasmine. She imagined the tea's hotness wriggling between their hunched bodies. The doors closed and the silence lingered. They didn't touch their cup of tea, conspirators always become overly suspicious. Death was their only enemy.
"I'm afraid, Uchiha-sama that you will have to feign the support of the Uzumaki clan. If you don't request an audience with Hyuuga-sama soon, everything we have done will be gone to waste," Tsunade's voice snapped.
Silence settled between them and Sakura's pulse quickened. Again, she could see how much things have changed since she left. Her room was in the same order but her mother's eyes held fear that even her presence couldn't hush away. The girls were now younger in the estate, the girls she had grown up with being gone. In three years, her guilt never dulled, it was a weight for the world to see. It darkened her emerald eyes drawing shadows on her porcelain skin. Her laughter grew thinner but she still loved him. She still didn't feel the regrets she expected to feel. Her treason lay by others and not within her. War and blood had simply made her wary of happiness and emotions.
She had lost her delicacy of her complexion.
"I guess we will have to you them after all. How trustworthy is the concubine?"
"Not enough for her to handle this on her own but she could be useful. If you need money to pay for their services, we could arrange for Hyuuga-sama to pay for it through her."
Sakura could hear the smirk in Sasuke's silence. Shivering, her hand fell back at her side. She left for her urge to feel needed. When they called one another 'brother', they protected her never quirking a brow. When they drifted apart, Sakura didn't have enough strength to keep them together. Sasuke's heart was filled with revenge and hatred and Naruto kept smiling even on the battlefield. Sasuke said he needed her while Naruto said he loved her.
"I will contact them. I will take Sakura with me to meet the Hyuuga lord. If she can at least serve as the representative of the Uzumaki's support, nothing would have been in vain."
She flinched at the coldness creeping in his voice.
"It's as you see fit. Do you want me to…?"
"No," he cut her off. "I will personally handle them. I wouldn't want the Akatsuki to turn on me as they did with Itachi. One mistake and they will have my head. We will also need a price, something they terribly want. Money is never enough for mercenaries."
"You should let me take care of that, Uchiha-sama. I know exactly who they would want."
'Will you ever forgive me, Naruto? Is that why you won't come for me?' She thought as the sky kept shedding the tears she held inside.
-X-
He flinched at the outburst, his hand still on the doors. 'That woman is still here?'
Kiba Inuzuka grunted in displeasure as he opened and closed the doors behind him. His captain's office glowed in dim light but he could make out the mess of papers. An uneven pile of scrolls almost hid the sight of his desk. He narrowed his eyes stepping forward clearing his throat. Sit on the floor, his captain kept arguing with a light blonde haired woman a shogi board settled between them. He rolled his eyes his heart skipping a bit at the signs of them playing chest, her narrowed cerulean eyes and Shikamaru's feigned calmness. He still couldn't quite understand them. They seemed too different, her and her beauty and him and his laziness.
"Why would I leave? I'm not scared of what Tsunade-sama can do," Ino huffed dramatically pushing her hair back.
Smoke escaped his mouth and nostrils and he lazily looked up at her. They barely acknowledged his presence as Inuzuka grunted once more. Their couple was a living contrast that refused to apply to the equal comprehension of one another. Whenever, Ino raised her voice, Shikamaru would drop his. They also spoke only to complete one another's silence.
"Troublesome woman, if what you told me is right, do you think they won't try to kill you?"
The hint of concern in his voice made Kiba uneasy. It resembled his in too many points. Roughly, she picked up a piece from the board and threw it next to her with her other caught pieces. His pulse quickening, he watched his captain's serious dark orbs fixed on her beautiful face. The violence of her movements quietened slightly and Shikamaru's shoulders hunched in response.
"I don't want to leave Konoha," she replied crossing her arms over her chest in a childish manner.
"You have to. My mother is already waiting for you."
The loudmouthed woman pinched her lips together. She met his even stare, his silver smoking pipe dangling between his lips. Across the room, Kiba sighed heavily watching the color red spread on her cheeks and neck. Despite their apparent unorthodox ways, they always reached an understanding beyond any of their uttered words.
"This is the least romantic proposal!" She shrieked throwing a pawn at him.
A smile rose to his lips as he twisted the knight she had thrown at him between his fingers. 'Well, that's the least romantic answer, troublesome woman.' She stormed out of the room pushing past Kiba. He gulped nervous at the floral smell he caught on her. Intimidating and beautiful. He shook his head willing his mind to stay off the image of Ino Yamanaka under his superior's presence. 'Dogs don't share their mate,' he inwardly chastised his overwhelmed instincts. At this point, he could only wish his friend and superior wouldn't notice his lingering stare on Ino's body or the way he paused whenever she looked at him. The sliding doors slammed shut and he closed his eyes pushing back her haunting deep eyes. Oblivious, the Nara man picked up the other shogi pieces off the tatami.
"I guess that's a yes," his lieutenant said dryly willing it to sound smooth and uncaring.
His words landed awkwardly between the two men to his ears but Shikamaru smirked staring up at him. In unison, they both winced when another door slammed shut in the distance. Most women hid their emotions behind a delicate mask of femininity. Ino Yamanaka had never felt the urge to do so. He chuckled softly at her deafening roaring and the servant's meek replies.
"Some women are worth the trouble…Or so it seems."
He cocked his head on the side pointing to the empty spot before him. Reluctantly, Kiba sat down on the cushion with his legs crossed. He hated that game of strategy just as much as he hated the indirect fight of warlords.
"How is your wound?" Nara said lazily tossing the pieces across the board.
"Fine, I'm ready to come back into action." Kiba said firmly holding the unflinching stare of his captain.
He forced a wolfish grin on his lips. His abdomen still hurt him whenever he moved around too quickly but doing nothing wasn't in his character. He liked the thrill of the chase and that never happened when one was lying down. Beside, his household was nagging him with his recklessness as they stopped to pat Akamaru's head. They were still treating him like the impulsive child he had been. His days as a warlord seemed too far away. It made his blood boil in impatience whenever he saw citizens dropped to their knees when Neji Hyuuga rode past them.
"Hn," he set his elbow on his knee his palm supporting his head as he fought back a deliberate yawn. "The situation is troublesome. The woman you saw with Sasuke is most likely to be Sakura Uzumaki according to Ino."
"That idiot's wife!" He gaped at his superior as he merely nodded in return still concentrated on the chess board.
"I'm inclined to send you to Naruto but your personalities are too troublesome to peacefully blend in."
He sighed heavily, his fingers slowly scratching his shaved cheek. With a bored expression, he drew smoke in his lungs before letting it pour out of his mouth. The Inuzuka's face was flushed with embarrassment as he recalled the verbal fencing, the blonde's recklessness and his perpetual annoyance he felt whenever they were together. They were too loud, too reckless to agree over the simplest point.
"Shino Aburame is already on the field doing something for me. Lee is guarding the concubine. Chouji is now the Akimichi warlord so he's working on uniting the other clans instead. That leaves…"
The board was empty between them.
"No one," he admitted flatly.
"It seems things have changed a lot in three years," Kiba boasted grinning savagely. "Is the situation so bad that Shikamaru Nara is now unable of designing a strategy to save us all?"
His dark head snapped up and he glared with undaunted orbs at his lieutenant. He was too old in this world to count the people he couldn't save on his fingers. He took his pipe out of his mouth refilling with tobacco to avoid the adamant gaze of his subordinate. Narrowed impatient eyes followed his movements.
"The best strategy right now is to wait and see, Kiba." He explained in a careful voice. "That Sakura is like the unstable earth beneath our feet. We never know if it's going to destroy everything in its path or if it would merely shake throughout our lifetime. She's troublesome and we can't know for sure on whose side she is."
"And who's going to tell that to the prissy Hyuuga?" He asked in a suspicious voice.
"Experience," the Nara stated dully concentrating on lighting his pipe.
Taken back, he quirked a brow as Shikamaru closed his eyes his palm now resting on the empty wooden board. He welcomed the taste of dry leaves rolling on his tongue, in his throat.
"And a subordinate," he added tobacco smoke veiling his lazy smirk.
-X-
A/N: Thank you for reading! :)
For those who are wondering: I do not intend to write or elaborate on the love triangle ShikaInoKiba. It's just that I can't think of a Kiba pairing to ease my mind at the prospect of letting him end up alone. I mean if he can't touch, he may as well look, ne?
Review? :)
