Towards the Sun

Chapter 10

When you leave a potted plant unwatered and confined for five days straight in a curtained, unventilated room, you kind of expect to find a dried-up seedling at most upon your return. But when you're Uchiha Sasuke who had done just that and come back after qualifying for the final stage of the Chuunin Selection Exams, all thoughts of some baby rose plant waiting for his care back at his apartment pushed to some bleak corner of his mind, you might just be in for some surprise.

Some BIG surprise.

"What the…"

The colourful vocabulary of profanities that was threatening to spill past his beautiful lips still stood inferior to the absurdity of the scene provoking its forthcoming. He even discarded the strange warmth growing in his head in his stupor.

The potted plant had grown. A lot. And it didn't look close to death and decay in the least. On the contrary, it seemed as though Sasuke had never gone away and instead had fed it fertiliser and photosynthetic elements day in and day out for the past week. And even that amount of time wouldn't suffice for a mere rosehip to sprout and grow a one-foot-long stalk.

Right?

Sasuke wasn't sure about that, anyway. Botanic had never been his forte, which at that moment he thought should be remedied to. He almost considered an immediate trip to the Konoha library to search for a book on fast-growing rose plants growing weirdly shaped buds which looked like – like paper?

He cautiously raised his left hand and poked the crisp bud with his forefinger – yes, the bud did have a papery feeling to it. Although it was smooth, its surface lacked the velvety softness of normal rose petals. Still, Sharingan activated, he was ready to strike with Chidori at any moment, while his right hand was poised in front of his mouth, the words "Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!" hanging on the tip of his tongue. Well, maybe he was overdoing it a little bit…

Poke.

Poke. Poke.

POKE!

No reaction.

Sighing, relaxing, he let his Sharingan recede and the natural blackness of his eyes soon took over. Why had he agreed to all of this in the first place anyway? Oh, right. He was compelled to "accept any assigned mission" until he turned twenty-one or so – the Konoha Council had successfully spoilt his seventeenth birthday by announcing their decision back then. On the less unpleasant side, he wouldn't be given more than one mission at a time.

Nonetheless, he had come to realise, this was without a doubt a B-rank mission. And technically he was still a mere Genin. Granted, he had known from the start that his defection some years ago would eventually entail such consequences. Now, it was impossible to go back and…

A wave of heat to his head halted his train of thought and he brought a hand up to his warm forehead, evaluating the difference in temperature. He had probably walked in the midday sun for too long. The storm was finally gone, so he had seized the opportunity to get some sunlight.

… Hn?

He finally noticed the small stack of embellished envelopes atop the dining table. Had they really been there all along? The shock of finding the still living plant had probably slightly dulled his usually sharp senses. The thought that someone had been inside his apartment in his absence perturbed his mind, made him grit his teeth in irritation. Indeed, he had been pleasantly surprised to find no letter lying on his doormat upon his arrival. His eyes swept the room for signs of a potential break-in… in vain. His Sharingan told him that the intruder – or maybe, the intruders – had left no chakra trace at all. However, he was presently more aware than ever of the quietness and emptiness of his apartment.

As he eyed the envelopes and then the rosebud, Sasuke's intuition whispered about the probability that whoever had been here in his absence might have something to do with his task too. He recalled the last few lines of the mission contract at that moment. In his mind's eye, he could still picture the words "The mission will be deemed as successful solely upon the fulfilment of the following conditions…," after which had been concisely stipulated that he should protect the heiress of the Hyuuga clan and her kekkei genkai at all costs; further information would also be given to him accordingly.

Further information in the form of a paper rose, I suppose? The little voice at the back of his head was back. So you've got a nocturnal peeping shinobi who conveys important messages through the art of origami. There's abso-freaking-lutely nothing to worry about. Oh, no.

Just why had he accepted the mission without further inquiry – or investigation, given the present circumstances – on the sender's identity? After all, the ANBU had eyes and ears practically everywhere.

As if on cue, he remembered what had caused the ghost of a smile to briefly appear on Sasuke's lips back at the Hokage's office – it had been the very last sentence in the contract. Had he not unfurled the scroll all the way down, he would have most definitely missed it before sealing the deal.

Failure is not an option.

At the time, it had felt like a challenge – that whoever had sent this mission contract wanted to test his abilities. But now, after that attack at the cemetery, the strange conversation with Itachi and coming across that ambiguous "WE KNOW" a second time in the Forest of Death, it felt much less complicated to associate everything into one big, tangled mess of a situation.

It was not professional of him in the least, he was aware of that. Indeed, all that mattered to Sasuke at the moment was to finally settle down and live as normally as could be expected of a shinobi. The end of the Fourth Shinobi War should have been the first step towards rebuilding his life in Konoha. But no, peace just had to escape his grasp yet again.

Moreover, although its name had originally instilled a weird feeling of déjà vu in Sasuke, reminding him of the Akatsuki's scheme which had ultimately led to the Fourth Shinobi War, the description of the dream genjutsu had instantly driven his line of thought astray. Still, such a technique could plausibly belong to an Uchiha – initially, anyway – by supposing that what Itachi had told him was indeed true.

Simplistically, he had three cases – the weird dreams, the ambiguous messages and his current mission – to investigate, all of which required pretty much the same procedure: gathering tangible proof.

But all of that could wait for now. For the first time in his life, Sasuke felt uncharacteristically keen to abide by the Shinobi Rule Number 4: "A shinobi must always put the mission first."

Well, as soon as his mind would cease contemplating the whereabouts of a certain young lady. Shards of images were orbiting about his mind's eye: a cascade of midnight-blue tresses, the soft contours of a heart-shaped face, rosy lips curved into a gentle smile, a light blush colouring pale cheeks, pearly white eyes peering through heavy eyelashes. He had not seen Hyuuga Hinata since the end of the second stage. Considering that she was on the medical team, she was perhaps still tending to the casualties. But where? At the Konoha hospital? Or at the tower itself? Or maybe she was just—

Focus!

He decided to simply ask Hanabi about that one detail.

The hot feeling in his head was becoming harder to ignore. I hate summer, thought poor Sasuke-kun as he got ready to depart once again.

It turned out that, yes, Hinata-nee-san was still at the tower and that, no, Hanabi had absolutely no idea when her sister would be back. "Why do you want to know that anyway?" she had questioned with a suspicious look, not giving him the time to make a quick escape. Little Hanabi sure had got bolder over time.

Fortunately, an immediate reason had formed in his mind. Sakura had told both Naruto and Sasuke before they headed home that, while every other casualty would be transferred to the hospital, those they had personally wounded would be receiving intensive care at the tower itself. On top of that, merely five out of the initial twenty-two teams had made it to the tower. Upon hearing this, the thought of the blood-red river had lingered in Sasuke's head for a while afterwards.

"She's treating Akio."

Infiltrating the Forest of Death revealed to be the easiest part – no guards whatsoever patrolled the surrounding fencing. They undoubtedly thought that nobody in their right mind would wish to venture inside the Forest. Moreover, only those feeling suicidal would dare enter this specific training ground alone. For instance, people like Uchiha Sasuke.

Once he was inside, the expansive leafage overhead shielded Sasuke from the scorching sunrays. While jumping from tree branch to tree branch just above the river which ran across the Forest, his Sharingan activated to help him deviate from the path of any potential threat, his mind would wander from time to time to his first meeting with Akio's team five days ago. Back then, his top priority had been to get Hanabi away from those weirdos and safely to the tower as soon as possible without caring about anything else. Given that the young Hyuuga was now within the secure walls of her home, it was time to tackle other issues; for instance, to retrieve the forehead protector of that dead shinobi. Thus he would kill two birds with one stone. Sasuke inwardly groaned at the thought of looking for a rotting corpse in what was probably one of the most sinister training grounds in Konoha.

He glanced down at the body of water shadowed by the tall trees. No longer tainted crimson, it was flowing quietly in the direction where Sasuke had come from. Occasionally, a gust of wind would tease his already windswept hair, blowing some strands into his squinting eyes like a naughty child who had just received a new pet. Still, it refreshed his head which felt like it had been thrown into a furnace.

It took Sasuke quite some time to locate his destination despite channelling a great deal of chakra to his feet for an increased boost. By the time he managed to reach their first battle scene, thanks to the pinprick marks left by the water needles in the tree trunks, the rare glimpses of sunlight that he caught held a warmer tint.

He found nothing. Well, almost nothing. Huge paw prints were scattered across the muddy ground. Some enormous creature had most probably been attracted by the strong smell of blood and savoured this ready-made meal a long time ago.

How convenient, he thought sarcastically, feeling irritation crawl around the corners of his mind. He was momentarily dazed by a burning heat from somewhere behind his eyes. The young shinobi had utterly discarded his current state of health. Choosing to follow the tracks left behind by some humongous beast would equate to signing his death warrant. I should just head straight to the tower.

Uchiha Sasuke was running a high fever.

xXxXx

"He rarely opens his mail, doesn't he?" said a cloaked man thoughtfully while scanning through a large pile of envelopes atop a round wooden table. "… Although we took the pain of leaving it on the table for him. By the way, what message did you leave in there, Ai?" he gestured at the potted plant next to the stack of mail, where a rosebud was growing at the extremity of a thin, thorny stalk.

The indigo-haired kunoichi standing next to him merely replied, "A lengthy one." Clad in a short-sleeved black top with fitted pants under a dark shroud, a white mask concealing her face, Ai was facing the curtained window on the other side of the dining table. The two of them were intruding for the second time in Uchiha Sasuke's apartment.

"Aw, come on! You could be a bit more explicit, eh?" His brown eyes were looking at her expectantly.

"Sorry, Kai. In this kind of situation, ignorance is bliss," she said apologetically as she removed her mask. "How are your sister and Akio?"

"Kira's fine, though she's getting suspicious. I guess I shouldn't have sent the second one so soon… White Hair is still at the tower: the after-effects of the Rasengan haven't disappeared yet. Told him not to underestimate those guys we met on the first day… but you know how he is— Hey! How did you get that mark on your cheek?"

Ai shrugged off his question with a wave of her hand. Her mind was focused elsewhere, on their mutual objective. "Collateral damage. That technique has still got many loopholes and something weird happened the last time I used it."

Tap tap.

"Tch, they're here already," muttered Kai. "What do we do?"

The short-haired girl raised a hand to signal for silence and advanced towards the window. Once she was within arm's length of the pale curtain, she brought her hands together into a hand seal and murmured, "Release!" As soon, their surroundings rippled and blurred fleetingly before regaining their original aspect. She then placed her right palm onto the white fabric and felt for the pane on the other side, all the while muttering words under her breath. "Let's go."

With a flutter of cloaks, the two shinobi literally disappeared through the curtain.

When they finally emerged, they found themselves inside a small clearing. To an onlooker, it would have appeared as though the pair had just come out of a wide tree trunk somewhere within the Forty-fourth training ground, also known as the Forest of Death. A thick mist had already invaded the entire vicinity of the glade. "Nee-chan! Would you get rid of this mist? I can't see a thing," complained Kai to his twin sister, who had been the one to knock on the tree trunk.

"No."

"…"

"…"

"… Please?"

"Hush. Someone's passing by," she murmured. At her words, the mist instantly disappeared into thin air along with the dozen of cloaked shinobi, all of whom were wearing masks, within it. They all stiffened at the sight of the one and only survivor of the Uchiha clan who flashed past the clearing like a lightning bolt without sparing them a single glance.

"And come on, you really gotta teach me this technique someday," Kai was now saying as they became visible again. However, no one was listening to him and eleven heads were facing the general direction of the central tower.

"This is getting interesting," commented a deep voice belonging to a cloaked man with a black feline mask. It sounded like he was smirking. He proceeded to ask Ai about her little "homework" from a few days ago, to which she answered truthfully yet emotionlessly that something had gone wrong that night.

"That technique is too… incomplete. This time, I trapped myself inside to enable visualization and find that certain piece of memory. But then, I got an unpleasant surprise. It felt like something was shielding his subconscious from my intrusion and the jutsu just… went out of control. When I finally managed to end it, he was about to wake up." Concealed by her mask, a crease had formed between her eyebrows.

"So you mean that all that 'practice' you did on us before was all for naught?" said a red-haired kunoichi disdainfully. "And to think that I let you inside my head…"

And to think that I had to see what's inside your head, thought Ai with disgust.

"Silence, Karin. I'm seriously considering kicking you out. Given your special ability, you should've been the first out of all of us to see him coming from miles away." Karin just shrugged and averted her gaze to something in the mid-distance. Mentally heaving a sigh, the shinobi with the feline mask then turned to look at Ai, his green eyes zeroing in on her blood-red irises. "It seems like the night visits are over. We'll switch to a less passive approach from now on… Let's go and see Akio."

"The Fifth has tightened security around the area. It's a miracle we managed to neutralize the guards round the fence. Are you sure you wanna play this prank?" inquired Kira who had been quiet until now. Her light brown eyes were wide with surprise.

"What prank?" mumbled Kai, confused. He shifted his gaze to the indigo-haired woman and, suppressing a shiver, saw that her eyes now held a gleam much more terrifying than the sight of her permanently activated Sharingan.

xXxXx

A sneeze suddenly resounded in a room on the first floor of the tower. Its two windows and the door were open for ventilation, which had allowed a strong wind to blown in and disturb the two occupants. The young man on the bed, who had been the one to sneeze, gasped and groaned audibly as a sharp pain shot inside his chest. "Please kill me now," he moaned to the dark-haired medic-nin sitting on a wooden chair next to the bed, though he had difficulty to hide the slight smirk on his face at her reproving look. "Aw, don't give me that face, my little sunflower," he cooed with a childish pout.

"I – I already told you not to call me that!" protested Hinata, though she couldn't help feeling a bit flustered. Her gaze was fixed on his long silvery hair and she was thankful that his bare torso was partly wrapped in bandages. After all, it was the first time that someone from the opposite sex who was not a family member had directed all his attention at her for the past twenty-four hours. It was flattering, sure, but it also made her feel more self-conscious and overly awkward than ever. And Hinata hated to feel that way. After Akio had apologized for his previous rudeness towards her and ever since she had started treating his injury left by a well-aimed Rasengan from Naruto, that platinum blond androgynous flirt had been behaving like a love struck idiot.

"Hmm~ how old are you, then, sunshine?" he continued, rolling onto his side to eye the young woman with interest, "Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"Seventeen… and a half," she replied, secretly supposing that if she spoke less, he would eventually follow suit. He was harder to ignore than all the other guys who usually stared at her because of that constant mischief twinkling from deep within his crystal blue irises. They just unsettled her to no end. She felt that she always had to stay on guard in his presence.

"Eh~ you look so young though. When's your birthday? Oh! And try to guess my age."

"End of December… You're eighteen."

Akio opened his mouth to reply but the words wouldn't come out, as though they were stuck somewhere in his throat. After a while, he breathed out, amused, "Funny." At Hinata's questioning look, he went on, shaking his head with a light laugh, "One moment you're blushing like a tomato, the next you act all distant. Don't tell me it's like that with other people too..."

Hinata said nothing at all.

"Do you have someone you love?"

Hinata still said nothing but she already knew that the treacherous heat invading her cheeks would be a clear enough response.

"Aha! And there goes my shattered heart." He sighed. "May I ask who it is?"

The one who broke four of your ribs.

It was so easy to replace the person's name with "the one". Although she obviously would not be answering this intimate question, Hinata knew that she had doubts now. This unrequited love was a burden on her, on her heart. Yes, this same love had allowed her to stand up in the past, to face adversities. But it was not mutual. She was selfish like this. She wanted her love to be returned. It was normal, wasn't it?

And she had seen so many times before the way the feelings were reciprocated between Naruto and Sakura. But she pushed all these unwanted thoughts aside, refusing to let herself face this reality. She had confessed, she had jeopardised her life more than once for Naruto, she was aware that she should not be expecting anything in return. She could not force her feelings onto him either. But she just could not get rid of this disappointment within her core. Yes, love had made her both selfless and selfish. And it was maddening, so much so that the fresh fragrance of her flower garden where she spent her afternoons after class barely relieved her heavy heart and bestowed her some peace of mind.

Once, she had been so absorbed in contemplating the abundant flora that she had noticed it was the evening only after the sky had completely darkened, the sun long gone beneath the horizon. It had been quite recent, she recalled, since Sasuke had passed by to deliver some homemade onigiri. Despite his composed demeanour, he had clearly appeared confused at her requesting him to eat dinner at her place… and when she had removed that grain of rice on his cheek. He probably did not notice it himself, but whenever he was surprised, his eyebrows would ever-so-slightly twitch upwards.

A light laugh involuntarily escaped her lips at this memory, leaving a small smile in its wake.

Ah, this was weird behaviour, she reminded herself, blushing, finally realising that a certain silver-haired lad was gazing at her curiously. He had propped up his right arm and was resting his cheek onto his palm.

"That must be one lucky bastard," said Akio with a smirk.

Hinata merely looked away and shrugged. However, her cheeks were still warm.