Chapter 10: Sad Tidings
As it turned out, the icecream part of Gai and Hikari's date had to be delayed, as as soon as they stepped outside the noodle bar, an Anbu appeared before them and handed Gai a scroll, before discretely vanishing into what looked suspiciously to Hikari's civilian eyes like thin air.
Hikari watched as the exuberant Gai she had seen just moments before sobered into a quieter sort of intensity. He finished reading the scroll, and turned to her.
She just shook her head when he opened his mouth. "Let me guess. Urgent mission, you have to go five minutes ago, Konoha needs you?" she smiled wryly as he bared his teeth in an expression that was not exactly happy.
To his credit, Gai did not look exactly like his sparkliest self either.
"Right on All Counts, my Beautiful Bougainvillea," Gai said, tucking the scroll into his kunai pouch and studying his feet.
Hikari sighed. "Can you tell me when you'll be back?" she asked him.
Gai's grimace deepened as he shook his head.
Hikari had however been expecting this, and so inhaled slowly and managed to contain her disappointment.
"Typical," was all she said.
Gai's heart felt like it had sunk into his sandals. Did she hold the fact that he had to go and do his duty against him?
"It's a conspiracy," Hikari tilted her head to one side and tried to smile. "Just when I get a date, the universe conspires to ensure that you have to leave half-way through. I swear, I just have the worst luck sometimes."
Maybe not. Gai's heart rose a little.
"Yosh! I Will Make This Up To You if it is the Last Thing I Do My Most Precious Bougainvillea!" Gai exclaimed, punching the air above his head.
Hikari bit her lip to prevent herself from bursting into giggles, and tossed her head in obvious fake annoyance. "Damn straight." Then she softened her expression and grasped Gai's hand. "Come back in one piece, okay?"
Gai reached up with his free hand and brushed Hikari's fringe away from her forehead. Cupping her face in one hand, he kissed her cheek. "I swear to you, I will do my best. If I fail I will buy you one hundred flowers," he said, his grin belying the seriousness of his tone.
This time, Hikari couldn't restrain the giggle. As despite the grim thought that this very well might be the last time she saw Gai alive, (Hikari knew the risks shinobi ran, and she refused to pretend otherwise,) he had survived thus far, and the thought of him turning up on her doorstep with a bouquet bigger than he was, (probably composed of lotus blossoms knowing him,) was frankly hilarious. (And deep down, Hikari thought that maybe karma owed her this one. It would be just too stupidly tragic if Gai were to die just after he had taken her on their first date).
"I'd rather you plant them for me then, so I can actually enjoy them all for longer," was all she said. She gave his hand one last wistful squeeze, feeling the deep calluses on his palm, and then released him. "Go on."
Gai gave her one last smile, and then suddenly Hikari was alone.
Well, apart from all the people standing around staring at her.
Hikari noticed, and scowled. "What are you all looking at?"
Not waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and began to trudge slowly home.
…..
"So, baby sis. I hear you've got a boyfriend!" was what Hikari heard as soon as she got in the door.
Squashing a groan, she looked up to see the delighted expression on her elder sister's face, who was hanging in the kitchen doorway.
"Hey Nako," Hikari greeted, using her sister's childhood nickname. "How are you? How are the kids and Souta?"
Natsuko waved a hand negligently. "I'm fine, the family's fine, business is booming and the kids are training hard because they want to get into the Academy, but enough about me, how are you? Who's the man? Come on sis, teeeeellll meeeee!"
"Both of you get in here so that I can hear too!" came the call from their mother's room.
Hikari snickered as Natsuko pouted.
"Awwww Kaa-san, now she'll never spill the juiciest details if you're listening!" she muttered under her breath, before taking Hikari by the arm and half-dragging her to their mother's room.
"Nee-saaaan!" Hikari protested as she narrowly avoided tripping over.
The two of them half-tumbled into their mother's sick room, and the wizened-looking lady laughed croakily from her sick-bed.
"Girls! Girls! Enough tussling. Hikari, tell us everything before Noriko does, or I'll never hear the end of it!" Akira chastened her daughters good-naturedly as she sat up against her pillows.
Hikari rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. "Well we can't let that happen. Aunty Noriko is insufferable enough as is."
With a speed and thoroughness that might of impressed some of the chief interrogators of T&I, Natsuko and Akira managed to get all the details of the date out of Hikari.
Natsuko was pouting. "Awwww, it wasn't even that much of a date. It really sucks that he got called away before ice-cream."
Hikari sighed a little. "Yeah." Then she shrugged. "Still, at least this is proof that he likes me."
Akira snorted. "You're kidding right? Even I knew that that boy liked you. Tales of how he's been practically running laps around you for the past week or so reached even this sick-room." Akira smirked at her youngest daughter's spluttering, but then grew more serious. "What I am disturbed about, however, is that Hyuuga Hiashi used killing intent on you."
Hikari scratched the back of her head, blushing. "Well, I should not have said-"
"I don't care what you said young lady," Akira retorted, and then started to cough.
Natsuko quickly poured her some cold tea, and supported her hands as she sipped it down. Eventually, the coughing ceased, and Akira continued as though the fit had never happened.
"The Hyuuga have been growing too big for their sandals. Your Uncle Daiki came to visit today. Apparently while you were on your date, Masaru-kun was already campaigning on your behalf."
"Masaru!" Hikari exclaimed.
Akira smiled. "It wasn't only him, daughter mine. Don't think that I haven't been paying attention. You might be a little abrasive for most of the civilians in this Village, but from what I hear, the ninja like you just fine."
Hikari blushed and muttered something vague about not being that popular.
Natsuko snorted inelegantly in response. "Oh please, don't be so modest. Souta's Uncle Chouza asks after you every time I see him, and most of Souta's friends do the same. Some of the ones who aren't your clients yet ask me to introduce them. They all want your services Hikari, and not just because you can exorcise their fridges. You provide a useful service, and you've proved to them time and again that you'll keep their privacy for them." Natsuko smirked. "You do know that a lot of them were testing you for the first couple of months?"
This time Hikari snorted. "I'm not slow. Collections of Icha Icha were one thing, but I've seen 'evidence'," she rolled her eyes, her tone disdainful, "of such a strange array of fetishes, illicit relationships and 'secrets' that even Jiraiya would be left slack-jawed with disbelief. Some of it might have been real, but really, that time with the tomato sauce and the eggbeaters was too ridiculous for words. I suspected from the start that I was being tested, but about the point where the weird stuff started suddenly not being there I figured I must have passed."
Natsuko blinked. "...Eggbeaters?"
Akira just snickered as Hikari shrugged. "Ninja are weird." She smirked at her sister. "You should know, you married into a family of them."
Natsuko rolled her eyes. "Yes, but apart from the food thing, the Akimichi are pretty easy-going. I can't imagine that they would have given you much trouble."
Hikari shook her head and shuddered lightly. "Without going into details, believe me, the food thing is more than enough."
Natsuko raised an eyebrow.
Hikari winced. "Let's just say that there have been times when I've had to clean up three-day-old chocolate sauce amongst... other condiments... in rooms other than the kitchen."
Natsuko's eyes widened. "Oh." She contemplated that for a moment. "Leaving it for three days is just mean, I remember the time-"
"Natsukooooo!" Hikari protested covering her ears. "I don't want to know the details of past exploits between you and Souta!"
"Neither do I, frankly," added Akira very dryly. "There are some things a mother should not have to know."
Natsuko blushed and mumbled an apology, but her slight smile betrayed her amusement.
Akira cleared her throat. "Getting back on topic, Hikari. Something is going to have to be done about Hyuuga Hiashi. I'm thinking of calling in the Uchiha."
Hikari winced. "I don't want to make a fuss."
Akira scowled. "If you don't, I'm going to make the fuss for you. I will not have any of my children accept that kind of treatment."
"Neither will I," said Masaru as he came in through the door, making them all jump. "And neither will the Inuzuka- Mimi offered their help."
Hikari sat on the edge of her mother's bed listening to her siblings and mother hashing out plans, and talking about who they were going to enlist. Eventually, she loosened up and offered a few suggestions, suggestions that made her family's eyes gleam with delighted mischief.
By the time they were finished planning, it had been agreed.
The Hyuuga were going to know exactly what hit them.
….
It was only four nights later that the plan had to be changed.
Hikari woke up, startled as she heard the alarms sounding. She groggily attempted to decipher the patter, and then gasped.
An invasion? But how? Who? Why?
Never mind. Find out about the motives of Konoha's enemies second-hand later. The alarm was the general invasion alarm, that told all ninja to assemble and all civilians to get the hell out of dodge. Not to be confused with the Shutdown Invasion alarm, that told all ninja to assemble and civilians to cower in their homes.
What she needed to do now was react.
Quickly, she threw a light coat over her sleepwear, and attached her prosthesis. She stumbled over to her mother's room.
"Kaa-san!"
"I'm up, I'm up," Akira grumbled as she fumbled with a dressing gown. "Where are my slippers?"
"They're here," Hikari said, and passed over her crutch. "Here, you're going to need this more than me."
"Hikari-"
"Don't argue with me, Kaa-san. I can manage without for a bit, and I can't carry you." Hikari saw the expression change in her mother's eyes and interrupted what she could see was about to happen. "And don't even suggest to me that you are going to stay in bed and not come with me. If I have to go out into the cold, then so do you," Hikari joked awkwardly, trying to hide her worry. Her mother rarely got out of bed any more, as exertion hurt her, and made the coughing worse. She knew that it was going to be slow going- bad enough that she herself couldn't run. But she would not leave her mother here alone, especially when the alarms were going off like that in the middle of the night.
Her mother looked like she might argue anyway, but that was when a loud pounding sounded at the door.
Hikari limped over, and checked through the key-hole. She was relieved but confused when she saw that it was an Anbu. She was even more surprised when she realised that it was Gecko.
"Yes?" Hikari said.
Gecko reached for her arm, and Hikari figured it out.
"Hold on," Hikari said, raising one hand defensively. "If you're about to take me away, you're taking my mother first."
Gecko cocked his head. A hacking cough came from further in the house. Gecko favoured Hikari with a nod, and then moved swiftly past her.
"Who the hell- hey! Put me down, young man! What are you-"
Hikari was treated with the sight of her mother bundled up in a thick blanket in Gecko's arms, before he shunshinned away.
Hikari drew her coat closer to herself, shivered, and waited. Obviously someone had told Gecko to get her to safety. Hikari thought she could guess pretty accurately who of their mutual acquaintance it might have been.
If the situation were not so worrisome, Hikari might have been annoyed at such high-handed behaviour conducted without consulting her, but as it was, she was mostly just relieved. The Evacuation Caves, (as they were so descriptively called) were a little away from the village, and she doubted that she would have managed to get her mother that far, especially when she had not left their house in months, let alone her room.
Her musings were interrupted as Gecko reappeared. Hikari offered her arm, and the next thing she knew, she was flying.
It was different to being carried by Bull, Hikari thought distantly. It felt... jerkier.
The sudden stop when they reached their destination left Hikari stumbling as Gecko abruptly half-dropped her.
"Hi-hikari?" a rough cough sounded from nearby.
"I'm here, Kaa-san," Hikari replied. She turned to Gecko. "Thank you. Especially for getting my mother out."
Gecko inclined his head in a light bow. Bull would have never let any of them hear the end of it if his precious cleaning-lady had come to harm. He had volunteered to fetch her, as despite his recent promotion, Bull had yet to stop occasionally teasing him about his first encounter with Hikari.
Gecko smirked behind his mask. If this didn't shut his old team-leader up, then nothing would. He waved slightly to Hikari, and then shunshinned back to help with the evacuation efforts. He had houses to check for life-forms to ensure that whoever had attacked the Uchiha weren't hiding in amongst the civilians. The last thing they needed now was a hostage situation on top of the massacre.
Gecko suppressed a shudder. He had never particularly liked most of the Uchiha- he found them generally arrogant and cold, albeit generally professional to a fault. Still, no one deserved to have that happen to them. If the rumours were true...
No time to worry about that. Gecko had a role to fulfil, and by the Will of Fire, he would achieve it to the best of his ability.
….
Back at the Caves, Hikari had coaxed her mother deeper in, to a nice dry spot against one cave wall, out of the cold wind from the door. They weren't the first ones inside, but it seemed that it was not by much. Fifteen minutes after they had arrived, Natsuko found them, carrying her kids on one hip each, both of them blinking sleep out of their fright-filled eyes.
Hikari opened her arms, and soon had a lap-full of niece.
"Hey, Choko. It's okay. Aunty Hikari has got you," she said, soothing the little girl who was shaking.
She turned her head to look at her sister. "What's happening? Do you know?"
Natsuko shook her head grimly, stress lines clear around her eyes. "I know, but I won't say it aloud. People would panic."
Hikari bit her lip, but nodded. The last thing that an enclosed space like the Caves needed was a mass panic. They'd be lucky if no one died in the crush, should that happen. Even if she had not been able to see that risk, Hikari would have deferred to her sister's judgement. Civilians who married into ninja clans were generally told that they would have to adhere to a strict code of conduct in emergencies, and generally went through at least some training before they were allowed to join with their partner-to-be. Those found to be unable to keep their head in a crisis tended to be carefully discouraged from joining, as the very last thing any ninja needed was having to deal with a hysterical partner when duty called them elsewhere.
Natsuko reached out, and Hikari gripped her hand. Incredibly, their mother had managed to fall asleep, cocooned in her blanket. Hikari supposed that evacuation was old-hat to her, though the last one had been when the Kyuubi had attacked.
...In retrospect, this one must be almost ridiculously less stressful than that one had been, seeing as this time she knew where all of her children were, since one of their neighbours, Yamada Keiko had told them a little before that she had seen Masaru and his team standing guard in the reserve force just in front of the Caves. Small wonder her mother was thus calm enough to catch up on her sleep – the reserve force pretty much never saw action in any invasion.
Unless of course things had gotten catastrophic, but Hikari supposed that if that was the case, there was no use worrying anyway. If that happened, they were all dead, regardless.
So Hikari sat on the cold dirt floor, wondering what it was that Natsuko wasn't telling her, as she held her niece and her sister's hand. She wondered where Gai was during all of this. As far as she was aware he was still out on his mission, but of course there was no way to be sure. For all she knew, the "mission" might have been for him to patrol Konoha as his Anbu persona Bull, (though if that were the case she had no idea why it would have been treated as so urgent). Hikari sat, and worried, and held her family close as she waited to hear what in the hell was going on.
It wasn't until almost 24 hours later, when the civilians had been given the all-clear to leave the Caves and had gone home that Hikari heard the news.
The Uchiha were dead.