Chapter 7
The rhythmic swaying of the ship gently woke Hinata out of her deep slumber. Her eyes slowly opened to take in the dismal, yet familiar surroundings of rust colored bulkheads and leaky, iron pipeline. She was alone, and the absence of Sasuke perpetuated her loneliness.
She eased out of the bed expecting an onslaught of pain from her numerous injuries, but none came. Though delighted that she had been healed, the troubling thought of just how long she'd been asleep to illicit such recovery caused Hinata to quickly dress herself with whatever she could find in the room before heading to the door.
Sasuke hung over the ledge of the tanker with a kunai held in both his hands along with one clenched in his mouth. With his left leg wrapped around the guardrail for support, he scanned the cloudy blue seawater for signs or life. He launched the first of his three kunai into the water, impaling an unsuspecting fish through the side and effectively hooking him to the kunai that was attached to a line. Sasuke didn't bother to turn around as he heard the loud wail of the door behind him. The timid footfalls were enough to guess who had finally woken up. There was no need for a greeting. Besides, she was probably hungry.
Hinata stood in the door frame, silent as Sasuke worked. His eyes scanned the water's surface meticulously until he saw the faintest silver of movement. Hinata admired Sasuke's movements which she could only describe as efficient, never too much or too little in his actions to strike the helpless fish below. She couldn't help herself but to be impressed.
Finally the fish were caught, and after several minutes of oxygen deprivation, they were all dead and ready to be cooked as their evening meal. Sasuke jumped over the rail finally facing Hinata, who regarded him with a modest nod. He replied with a momentarily confused expression before returning back to the ever present emotionless face. Sasuke laid out a few pieces of dry deadwood and Hinata tickled herself trying to figure out just how he manage to stash firewood on a boat that was in the middle of the sea. A miniature Katon, a few minutes of cooking time, and Hinata was on the receiving end of a delicious looking fish feast.
"How long have I been sleeping?" Hinata asked, breaking the rhythmic chewing sounds that filled their silence once before.
"Three days." Sasuke replied before taking another bite of his fish.
"Thank you…for everything." Hinata said in a faint whisper.
"You owe me a gi." Sasuke retorted, pointing his fish carcass towards Hinata's chest.
Confused, Hinata looked down to see that she had thoughtlessly put his gi on to cover her otherwise exposed chest. The purple gi was now blotted with rust colored stains that Hinata could only assume was her blood. She blushed, looking down at the fire as she remembered that Sasuke had taken off almost all her clothes in order to treat her injuries.
Sasuke didn't bother to comment on Hianta's obvious embarrassment and instead, rose up from their eating area to douse the fire with a small pale of salt water and headed to the room that Hinata had just exited from. Hinata quickly finished her meal and followed suit. Once both were inside Hinata was hit with a wave of déjà vu and she found herself wondering once again where Sasuke was going to sleep.
Rolling his eyes from Hinata's momentary glace and her nervous finger pointing Sasuke simply responded with, "Chair," as he took a seat in one of the table chairs and began to find a comfortable method to sleep.
"We'll be arriving tomorrow. Get some rest, Orochimaru's hideout is difficult to access, we'll need to approach carefully." Sasuke added before putting his head down.
"Not now Naru-chan…" Hinata mumbled as Sasuke gently tugged her shoulder. Sasuke rolled his eyes, his patience already draining out of him in the early hours of night. His second tug was not nearly as gentle and threatened to pull her off the bed and on to the floor. Hinata quickly jumped up from the bed, and in the pitch black room she glared at Sasuke's general direction.
"It's time to go." Sasuke said as his light footsteps trailed off in the direction of the door.
The cold, sea air had gone from brisk to unforgiving as the barge approached the Kiri shore. Hinata shivered pulling the edges of Sasuke's gi closer. She guiltily turned to Sasuke who she was sure was freezing in the frigid winds, but he seemed unaffected. Oh well, she thought as she huffed out a breath, watching as it dissipated in front of her.
The deep cry of the boat horn signaled Hinata and Sasuke's departure. They both jumped from the boat landing a few feet from the shoreline, far enough away to avoid the crowds of departing travelers.
"We need to hurry. The entrance will only be available during dusk and will only remain open for a small window of time. We'll go into town tomorrow morning and pick up supplies. After we find what we're looking for we'll head to Amegakure." Sasuke instructed Hinata and the two of them began their brisk journey atop the water towards the face of Kiri's rocky cliffs.
--
Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck to fight the encroaching numbness from his fingertips. The unrelenting night winds violently pushed leaves and tree branches back and forth along Konoha's entrance road. Kakashi ignored the writhing trees as the struggled to keep their limbs from being torn off by the fierce weather. The harsh wind threatened to chill Kakashi right down to the bone. It had been while since Konoha had had such terrible weather and dangerous wind like this was always a bad omen. Nevertheless, Kakashi continued to advance towards the Leaf village at a leisurely pace. He could see Konoha's entrance gates and just the sight of his home village was warming enough to fight the chilly air that was clawing at his skin.
Kakashi had been traveling nonstop since his encounter with Odoma. His urge to speak to the Hokage had been so great that he'd foregone any stops for rest. He was hungry, tired and in desperate need of a bath, but he was almost there and sight of his village renewed his vigor to speak to Tsunade about the information he'd learned. Kakashi approached, but sight of the three ninja that had suddenly appeared in front of Konoha's gate kicked the pep in Kakashi's step clean out from under him. He groaned internally, but kept his annoyance to himself as he just continued to walk nonchalantly towards Konoha. Kakashi was on high alert once he was close enough to recognize the faces of the human blockade. Danzo stood at the mouth of the entrance gates, flanked by two other members of Root along with three more that were hidden inside the forest surrounding Kakashi.
Kakashi didn't need to guess why they were here. Danzo had made it his specialty in knowing whenever any ninja was entering or leaving the village. There was no doubt that Kakashi's unexplained absence would catch the eye of the Root member. It was no secret that Danzo regarded Kakashi as both a threat to Root and a powerful ninja, but the five man cell that was currently guarding him had Kakashi worried that Danzo had come for more than just an interrogation.
"Danzo." Kakashi greeted the Root leader as he approached.
"Kakashi," Danzo replied. He waited until Kakashi tried to pass before beginning his questioning. "I noticed that you have not been in the village for the last few days, yet there are no records of you taking on any missions. Might I ask where you've been these past few days?" Danzo asked politely.
"You could ask." Kakashi answered, taking another step forward, but stopping as Danzo put his hand out in front of him.
"We're not done yet Kakashi." Danzo warned, "I'll ask again. Where have you b—"
"Last time I checked, you were not the Hokage." Kakashi cut him off, sidestepping his hand as he continued to walk forward.
All five of Danzo's accompanying Root members blocked Kakashi's path. Kakashi knew he was in danger. He was only a few feet from being inside Konoha's walls, but that distance made all the difference. If Danzo's men attacked here they'd be too much to Kakashi to handle in his tired state, and the possibility of back up arriving would be slim. Most likely, Danzo and his men had already taken care of the gate guards, so no one inside Konoha would be wise to anything that happened in the forest just outside of the entrance.
"Answer my question Kakashi." Danzo's raised voice betrayed his impatience and Kakashi realized that time was of the essence for Danzo.
"There is no need for me to answer anything." Kakashi responded curtly and Danzo's men inched forward in response. Kakashi calculated his odds against the five Root members and Danzo. Those odds weren't very high but if Danzo needed to act quickly lest be discovered interrogating a high ranking Jounin then Kakashi merely needed to survive.
Kakashi slowly pulled up his hiate, revealing his Sharingan and signaling to Danzo that he was through answering his questions. Danzo simply shook his head. A last warning to Kakashi that things would not end here as he hopes they will. The Root memebers took an offensive stance, brandishing various weapons of choice as they surrounded the Copy-Cat ninja. Kakashi simply responded with a single kunai. Speed and mobility would be in strength in a fight against the five opponents, which meant this fight would favor hand-to-hand over the use of jutsus.
"There is no need for your own bloodshed Kakashi. My goal is only to protect Konoha." said Danzo, but he received no reply. Instead Kakashi simply focused on the targets around him cautiously awaiting the first attack. All seven men stood frozen, strategically waiting for the combat to begin.
The Root member behind Kakashi was the first to attack. He was clever, standing in Kakashi's blind spot as to avoid being seen. But Kakashi had been one step ahead of him, anticipating an attack from behind Kakashi had been listening for movement behind him. When the sound from the Root ninja's movements betrayed him Kakashi was quick to spin around to counter. The result would have been his downfall. Kakashi had underestimated Root. When he turned to face the Root ninja behind him that was thought to be attacking, he found that it had merely been a feint which left Kakashi with his back turned and wide open for attack. It was a foolish move which he blamed on fatigue from all his traveling. With no time to counter or dodge, Kakashi couldn't do anything other than brace himself for injury.
Luckily, providence came in the form of a firm grip wrapped around the attacking Root ninja's wrist. It was ANBU. The mask worn by the ANBU who held the Root member in place resembled the face of a raven, but the eyes had been whited out. Kakashi recognized the Pale-eyed Raven. It was Neji, and he had brought a small armada with him consisting of several ANBU along with the Hokage herself.
"Is there a problem here Danzo?" Tsunade questioned. She kept her voice soft and calm, but her trembling fist gave her anger away. She was ready to crush Danzo and found the only thing holding her back the sliver of reasoning that Neji had given her before they came to Kakashi's rescue.
"We need to know Danzo's involvement with the Atasuki, but Danzo is a seasoned and highly skilled ninja. I'm sure that if we captured him he would give nothing away to us. We need to let him move freely."
"Tch," Danzo spat as he turned and headed back into the village, his Root ninja following closely behind. Time had run out and whatever information the Copy-Cat ninja had learned Danzo would just have to wait to find out. For now he needed to retreat back to Root headquarters and plan his next move.
Four ANBU ninjas guarded Kakashi at each of his corners, boxing him in as if he was a prisoner of war. The sharp clicks of Tsunade's heels against the linoleum floor echoed throughout the small dark hallway, setting a brisk, militant pace for both Kakashi and his guards. Kakashi knew where this hallway led. He'd been down it many times when he was a member of Konoha's elite ANBU squad. It was the entrance to the interrogation room.
"Am I a prisoner?" Kakashi joked, but when he received no answer he began to question the reasons behind his rescue from Danzo and Root. Konoha's main interrogation room was a spacious loft with more than twenty square feet of 'breathing' room and it was equipped with a one sided mirror, microphones, and even had a window. This was not that room. Kakashi was ushered into a cramped eight by eight cell that with only one exit and entry point. There were no windows, no place to hide a microphone, and no where to sit. Tsunade waited till the last of the ANBU guards left the room where she then closed the door behind them, locking it as she turned to face Kakashi.
"What the hell—" Kakashi began but he was cut off by Tsunade.
"What do you know?" she asked making it clear that she wasn't giving up anything until she knew what Kakashi had discovered first.
"I know about Sakura." Kakashi answered vaguely as he fished for more information, but Tsunade didn't take the bait. Instead she stayed silent waiting to see if Kakashi would continue, when he didn't she rolled her eyes and leaned in closer to him.
"We know who hired Atasuki to assassinate Sakura." Tsunade said in a hushed whisper.
"Danzo." Kakashi had already speculated, and after Danzo welcome home party Kakashi was certain that Danzo was up to something.
"We thought that Danzo contracted Atasuki to kill Sakura and in exchange he would provide them with Naruto, but now that Pein killed them both, we have no idea what Danzo is planning.
"Could Naruto's death have been an accident?" Kakashi asked, but he had already known the answer. Pein was a high skilled ninja. Naruto's death would not have been an accident.
"No Pein meant to kill them both, we just don't know why." Tsunade affirmed. Both she and Kakashi paced around the small room brainstorming the link between Danzo and the Atasuki.
"What the hell is this place anyway?" Kakashi asked, breaking the long stretch of uneventful silence.
"Oh, this is a special room I had built in case we needed to interrogate someone without letting the information leak to anyone outside of these walls." Tsunade enlightened Kakashi.
Before opening the door to the insolated room that she and Kakashi had spent the last few hours, there was one more thing that she needed to speak to Kakashi about.
"I gave you a mission." She uttered in a low voice. Kakashi could feel the temperature in the room drop a few degrees along with Tsunade's volume. With all the distractions that had gone on since he'd been back to Konoha, Kakashi had forgotten that he had both abandoned a mission and disobeyed Tsunade's direct orders that no one would pursue Pein.
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama," Kakashi began, but Tsunade put her hand up to silence him.
"Our enemy is not from another hidden village. They're not strangers who will fight against us having only heard or read about what we are capable of as ninjas. They will be from right here, they will have trained as we trained and lived the same lives we do. Now more than ever I need people I can depend on, people I can trust." Tsunade said, her head hung low in disappointment.
"Understood Hokage-sama." Kakashi mumbled. The shock of his actions began to seep in. He had disgraced his name and now may have caused unnecessary trouble to the Hokage by not keeping a watchful eye on Sasuke.
"Find Hinata and Sasuke and warn them that they may be in danger." Tsunade ordered before opening the door and exiting the room.
--
There was hardly anything Orochimaru wasn't able to execute to perfection. he mastered countless jutsu. He beguiled everyone he met into unquestionable submission. He even overcame death. But apparently the only thing that Orochimaru could do better than manipulate was hide.
Hinata stood with her eyes wide and her mouth open as she stared at the vast four story building buried beneath the simple oak tree above. Hinata and Sasuke had arrived at the Orochimaru's hidden Kiri base a few moments before the allotted entry time had expired. Upon arrival to the small opening, no larger than the mouth of a toilet, Sasuke simply told her to watch her step as he dropped in first. Not knowing what to expect, Hinata simply followed suit and was unprepared for the forty foot dropped that followed. In the end, after an embarrassing landing and a quiet apology to Sasuke for landing atop of him, she found herself breathlessly gaping at Orochimaru's craftsmanship.
Sasuke took the lead and, without invitation, grabbed Hinata's hand and delved into the inner sanctum of Orochimaru's lair. Sasuke had been here before, he'd spent most of his second year with Orochimaru in this very base. Here was where the Snake kept all of his precious knowledge. Sasuke had seen books and scrolls on just about everything; if Orochimaru had anything on Pein, he knew this was where he'd find it.
Vacant room after vacant room passed Hinata and Sasuke by as they searched for Orochimaru's information cache. Each room looked pretty much the same, one bed, and a desk with an oil lamp to provide dim lighting. After the fourth or fifth turn through the maze of hallways Hinata stopped, pulling her hand away from Sasuke's as she walked into what looked to be Orochimaru's kitchen area.
"We need to keep moving." Sasuke said flatly as he went to grab Hinata's hand once more.
"We need to eat too. Go and find what you can on Pein. I will see if there is something we can make to eat," Hinata said as she evaded Sasuke's hand. She took a few more steps into the kitchen, but paused to give Sasuke an apologetic look. "Please," she added. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but left Hinata in the kitchen in pursuit of their greater goal.
After three hours of searching, Sasuke finally found Orochimaru's library, but to his dismay, it was just the beginning of his search. The library was a two story warehouse with books, scrolls and random papers everywhere. Strange for a man that was so well organized to keep such one of his most important areas in such disarray, Sasuke thought as he maneuvered his way across the library in search of some information on Pein and the Atasuki.
After an hour of fruitless searching through one of the sections of Orochimaru's library Sasuke's nose was tickled with the smell of roasted onions and carrots. Apparently Hinata must have found something edible in the abandoned kitchen. Sasuke took in the sweet smell of home cooked food, a scent that had been all but lost to him since sadly Sakura was a disaster in the kitchen. Sasuke's nose guided him through the maze of corridors, back to the origin of the delicious smells that pervaded all throughout the hideout.
Roasted onions, garlic and carrots, spiced with something Sasuke failed to recognize, freshly prepared over a small bowl of udon noodles. Hinata sat at the table exhausted smiling at the poorly hidden shock on Sasuke's face. He walked up to the table bringing his bowl from the opposite end of the table where Hinata had placed it with him. Taking a seat next to Hinata, Sasuke slowly tasted the meal Hinata had prepared. After his first taste Sasuke looked over to Hinata, giving her a faint smirk of approval.
"Did you find the library?" Hinata asked, breaking the silence between the two.
"Yes." Sasuke responded between bites before he resumed eating.
Hinata looked down at her food nervously. In the four hours she had spent alone in the kitchen he had made up her mind that she and Sasuke would have some sort of conversation that night. Not that she minded the silence at all. In fact, the atmosphere was nicer when neither of the two were talking than it had been during conversation. But after that night on the tanker Hinata could not help but feel that Sasuke wasn't as cold as he made himself out to be. He had stayed there and let her cry in his arms, an act she was sure that no one other than Sakura had a claim to. Maybe if she could get him to at least talk to her then they could become friends and not just two people whose loved ones had been friends.
"Did you find anything on Pein?" Hinata continued.
"No," was all Sasuke answered.
"Um… So what now?" Hinata asked catching herself before her nervous finger touching began.
"I'll keep looking." Sasuke finished his food and stood up from the table reaching his hand out for Hinata's bowl as well.
"No, no I can—" Hinata began but Sasuke cut her off with on of his 'do what I say now' looks. Hinata handed him her bowl and Sasuke took them both to the sink.
Hinata remained seated at the table as Sasuke began to wash the dishes. She huffed out a determined breath and continued her attempt at conversation.
"Thank you. Naruto was never good at doing the dishes." Hinata joked nervously.
Sasuke kept his back turned focusing on the current task at hand as he replied, "Yeah well, that's better than Sakura. She couldn't cook at all so there was never a need for dirty dishes."
Although stunned by Sasuke's nonchalant response, Hinata continued the conversation, "Really? I would have never imagined Sakura as not being able to cook."
"Yeah…"After finished the dishes Sasuke headed back towards the library. He turned to follow to tell Hinata to come with him but she was already behind him waiting for him to lead the way.
After seeing so much of Orochimaru's liar a lot of the fascination and wonder had already worn off making it easy for Hinata to ignore the two story library and keep her attention on the back of Sasuke's head.
"It's somewhere in here, we need to—"
"Byakugan!" Hinata yelled, activating her bloodline ability before Sasuke could even ask.
One hour turned to two, then two drew out to four and after the fifth hour Hinata collapse on one of the library's chairs. She was exhausted, but sadly she had only searched through one of the many sections in the room. Neither had found what they were looking for. Sasuke had even fallen asleep a few times, his head comically falling face first into an open book. Each time his head would stop inches short of hitting the book as Sasuke would wake up and resume reading.
Although disappointed, the night had not been a total bust. While searching for information on Pein Hinata had stumbled across an encyclopedia of Kekkei Genkai which included an entire volume about her own Byakugan.
"I'm going to bed." Sasuke announced.
"Good night Sasuke." Hinata replied earning a questionable look from Sasuke. "I think I'm going to read a little of this book first." Hinata explained.
"Tomorrow we will go back into the village and pick up supplies. This library is bigger than I remember. This may take a few days." Sasuke said with a sigh as she walked out of the library.
