Nine
Stuff runs though my head. A shadowy maid who's not a maid. Wings. Wigs. Shadows. Hinata. Wings. Hinata. Wings...
I stare at her.
"You saved me. Thanks." She murmurs.
Well wings... that explains how I'd moved so fast. My muscles felt strong and powerful inside my skin. My shoulder blades itched. By body burned. I felt like... I could beat anyone. Do anything. Like I was king of the world.
"Whoa" I say. She throws a pillow at me. It hits me in the face. Normal reactions restored I see. She smiles briefly. I touch my shoulder blades... where, moments before, the huge white wings had risen.
"What am I?" I ask, more to myself than anyone, but I get a reply.
"You're an angel Naruto." I laugh again, as if. She sighs. "And... you're going to save the world."
"Yeah." I mutter bitterly "about that..." I begin, but Hinata freezes cutting me off, her eyes wide again. I look over to where she's looking. 'Chloe' is gone.
"No!" She shouts, leaping up "Kakashi? What happened to Kakashi?"
"He was knocked out..."
She runs out of the room, terrified. I follow her on quick, powerful feet. My shoulder blades itch.
"Where?" she cries "Where is he?"I look around.
"I don't know... he was right here..."
"Father!" she begins to run down the corridor. I follow her effortlessly, my legs pounding against the ground. My thoughts are strangely sharp and coordinated. We reach his room. Empty. His office. Empty. The toilet. Empty. The hall, the dining room, the living room. Empty.
"The games room?" she suggests panicked. I follow her. Empty. No Mr. Hyūga. No staff. No hidden ninja-type shadows. No-one.
We search every room.
No-one at all.
We reach the last room we haven't checked and burst in to see the sun skidding along the horizon like a giant red football. Nobody here. Hinata breaks down in tears.
"Father!" she screams. I don't know what to do. I bite my lip. I tenderly feel my nose. It aches. Maybe because she, that is 'Chloe', punched me. I frown. At least it's not broken... like that's the worst of my worries. Hinata sobs into the sofa cushion. I pat her shoulder tentatively.
"It's... urm... ok Hinata. We'll find them." She nods.
"Yeah. We'd better" she dried her eyes on her sleeve. And stand up. I notice how tall she is. Not long and lanky... but strait and proud. "Because it's my fault. If you weren't there Naruto... I'd be... well... Dead." I try to protest but she cuts me off "it is... because... I am the sole inheritor of this estate... the company... the island..."
"Island?" I wonder aloud, she shrugs at me.
"In the Caribbean... it's been in our family for generations. But that's not important."
"It's not?" I felt the revelation that her family owned a whole island pretty important.
"No. I need to tell you about The Inquisition." She takes a deep breath, and I try to clear my head of images of tropical islands. "They're a group of scientists mostly." She says "They operate under the guise of an electronics firm, and steal to fund horrible... experiments." She swallows, tears dampening her cheeks once more. "They're based in London. We have reports that they're making some kind of... human weapon... they want to destroy the world with it and 'rebuild' it as some kind of hideous place for just people like them... they're messed up and twisted and..." she chokes on her tears, I take her hand.
"London?" I ask "an electronics firm?"
"The one where Sasuke works." she sobs, purposefully avoiding eye contact. I swallow. Gathering my wits. I wonder briefly how she knows all this.
"Ok" I say "but Dad... he... he worked there too... Sasuke... I can imagine but... Dad?"
"We... that is... my father and his group... have been researching you. We suspect your father was simply employed by the technology department. They design and build mostly harmless goods for sale for a public front. Sometimes, they are made to create things they don't understand for what's known as the 'main team'. And don't know anything about their high pay coming from stolen sources and the main team being... well... evil. The main team only attack the rich, and those who know too much." That's why they're after Hinata – for her money. They want to use it to hurt innocent people, and to do terrible things. "They hate the poor and have sick, hideous ideas about those who don't earn very much money - that's the people they want to wipe out most. Your father's... his death..."
"Death!" I exclaim "his death was caused by this... this..."
"He found out... he knew too much... the details are unclear, but he did something unwillingly for them in the past, and he found out, he knew what he had done, they hired a cheap kid with a knife... to kill him... and then... before the case... killed the boy... making it look like suicide."
"No..." I mutter, my head in my hands. "Dad."
"Now they've got my father." she bursts into tears once more. My head jerks up. No-one should have to have that happen to their Dad. No-one should have to suffer like me and Sasuke did. Especially not Hinata. Kind, sweet, gentle Hinata. Anger bubbles up inside of me. My shoulder blades itch.
"We'll get him back. We'll get them all back." I growl.
I realise a moment later I meant my own father too... but of course, I know he's never coming back. So I hope it will include the Sasuke I used to know instead.
She tells me we can't go to the police. They are apparently corrupted by a few individuals from The Inquisition. They would shoot us sooner hear us out. I realise her reasoning not to call them earlier. She yawns and rubs her eyes. We've been up half the night. I use Hinata's phone to call Mum instead. I tell her nothing important obviously. I can't go mixing up an innocent woman in all this. I just wanted to make sure she's ok. It's around seven in the morning; she's surprised at my call.
"You at home Naruto?" I tell her no, I'm round a friend's. She's been ringing my home phone for the last half an hour. Sasuke didn't come home last night. She's worried. I reassure her. She's happy to hear from me. She was so worried. I tell her it's all ok. I'm with a friend. I say I'll see her soon enough. She asks if Sasuke's coming home. I pause. There's an awkward silence.
"He'll be home soon Mum." I say, not to worry her. I picture her sad, small smile. She's lonely.
I then call work, telling them rather convincingly with lots of coughing that I'm ill and won't be coming in today. We get ready, search the house once more, and catch the next bus into the centre of London. We get onto an underground train. Hinata seems to know where she's going. My shoulder blades start to itch again. We reach the Piccadilly Circus's stop.
"Here, we get off here." Hinata's face is worried and drawn; she checks her mobile for any calls from her father. None.
We get off, and wander down a huge street, all bustling with people. I check my watch. 10.45 flashes up in green on the cheap plastic dial. We stop. Well, Hinata stops and I bump into her. We look up at a huge, shiny grey building, with many, many windows stretching up into the sky. It is sandwiched between a Costa Coffee and a Poundland. I smile, remembering I'm missing a day of work. A large sign towers over the automatic double-door entrance, it reads 'INQ Electronics'. A huge flier, advertising Billy Elliot the musical, is pasted to a window. A man with some sort of scraper is trying to remove it. The crowds filter past, occasionally, someone goes in. A man with a huge TV comes out. It's a Sony. Hinata tells me they have connections with all the major technology brands, and receive funds and things from them. She doubts they know what they're really funding. She takes my hand and squeezes it. I feel my face colouring. I look down at her, she's scared.
"How about we go in and pretend to look for laptops?" She nods silently to my plan and we walk towards the doors.
This is it.
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A.N: What do you think? Any good? Reviews would make my day pleaseies! :D