Title; Witch
Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.
Chapter - 10;
There exists a place in every city known to most as The Pit or to its inhabitants as the Free World.
The Pit was the shadowy reflection of the true city, a place of filth that thrived on chaos above all else. Nothing in that hole was sacred or safe, no murderer or devil to craven or foul to roam free. A place where the strong murdered or raped the weak as they pleased and all its scum blooded denizens preyed upon the pure above of the true city.
The Free World was a sanctuary for freedom, a place free of the oppression of the totalitarian government where history and culture were still free to exist. A place where for a man happiness could be his goal and not service to the head of state. Rakes and men of all walks of life were given the same rights free of the bias of the world above.
Neither was true.
The Free Pits were truly the reflection of the cities they lay beneath, as cruel and difficult to survive as life under the government only opposite in its means. For each freedom a man gained a sacrifice had to be made and vice versa.
I expected to feel a world of pain on waking, the kind that I figured went with a shattered arm. The world however had other plan's. It seemed to be playing host to some strange bizarre practical joke at my expense.
I couldn't feel much of anything in regards pain as I glanced around the low lit room. I was uncomfortably aware however that the soft mattress I lay on seemed to be trying to swallow me. Deeper and deeper I was pulled before some instinct in the back of my mind informed me it was time to start panicking.
And I would have, had she not bounded into view. My one true love, my angel, my light, my goddess my…the tight grip of the demon mattress pulled me away from my list of understatements as I felt it raising higher about me.
"Hinata, you've got to help! This devil bed, it's going to swallow me!" I gave a whispered cry shocking the girl into a step backward as she blinked and examined the bedding with a critical eye, poking the beast in what I thought was a rather lazy effort at rescuing me.
"No, it's not Sasuke. It's just a normal bed." Now that she'd mentioned it the bed had seemed to withdrew back to standard mattress behaviour, for the moment anyway. I glanced at my girlfriend as she busied herself examining me pleased if not a little confused to see she'd donned a nurses uniform at some point while she'd been caring for me.
"Where'd you get the uniform Nata?" I asked lazily. I tried moving my right arm but found the task impossible, a quick glance revealed the limb sheathed in a new trendy cast and buckled down. What a strange thing to do.
"What uniform Sasuke?" asked the pale beauty cocking her head ever so slightly to the left with an adorable expression of mild confusion. I raised my useable hand and poked her nose lightly drawing another cute look from Hinata as her confusion escalated.
"The nurses uniform silly." I told her, was it some strange test to see if my eyes were working right. I hadn't hit my head, had I?
"I'm not wearing a nurses uniform Sasuke." She answered too seriously for me to doubt a worrying grimace stretching out her lovely lips. There seemed to be a couple of long seconds of dragged out silence between us as my swimming mind proceeded to put two and two together.
"Nata…what did you give me for the pain?" I didn't like the nervous giggle she gave in response to my question.
The pain was back and I was damn pleased about it. For one it meant I had reasonable use of my mental facilities once more, which was always nice.
The room we were in as it turned out belonged to an underground doctor, a renegade who treated Rakes and criminals alike, didn't ask questions and hid from the world for reasons he shared with himself and nobody else. I could make a pretty reasonable guess though given the new nature of my right arm.
Hinata had only found him after escaping Kakashi's aid at the apartment, well actually it was more reasonable to see he found Hinata. He'd patched up her shoulder, or at least enough to fight, and the two had come to a sort of arrangement.
The doctor wanted the body of the rogue witch terrorising us, he refused to say why and when Hinata put it to him why he wanted that witch for study and not say herself he'd been cagey at best in his answering. In short it had to do with what he'd done before going to ground, the witch had some relation to that and so he wanted her.
Hinata might have been a bit more reluctant if she had many more options or if he hadn't been offering what he had been. What was currently sewn up in my right arm. This good doctor had access to an undisclosed amount of body implants and what that meant to Hinata was she could make me just a little less fragile.
"Put that down!" I barked at the doctor. I couldn't see behind his mask but I had the feeling the creep was grinning at me as he set my gun down with a mocking display of reverence. He went near it again I'd shoot him. Hinata had stilled at the shout. She'd been pretty still before anyway, since she'd told me what she'd done and added the percentages of how we were better off now that I had a degree of power like her.
"It belong to you huh kid?" he threw out but didn't bother waiting around for a response spinning on his heel and pulling off his surgeons mask as he strode from the room. I didn't pay the irritating man's quirks any heed turning instead on my quiet lover.
"You should have asked me?" I bit out trying to keep the anger from overwhelming my voice.
"There wasn't any need, these won't inconvenience you in any way." She spoke matter of fact, right I guess these went just nicely with the profile she'd built up about me. Increased strength, speed and reflexes- who would say no.
"What if I want to have a kid someday Hinata." I gritted out, I'd never really thought about it before, hell I was far too young to think about it. But now that I knew it would be impossible…when I recalled the blissful way Kakashi had been.
"Witch types can't reproduce. I cannot give birth." A response died on my lips. One I would have regretted wording because there really wasn't going to be anyone other than Hinata and I couldn't be angry at her for assuming we'd always be together, for not allowing that I might fall for another and wish to start a family with them. Hinata saw the response anyway.
"But if you wanted to with someone else…" she trailed off her gaze leaving mine and falling to the dirty tiled floor, I could see tears silently gathering in her eyes and didn't doubt they confused the detached girl as she wiped them away. I twisted out of the bed as best I could cringing as pain raced through my arm.
"Nata I don't want anyone else, I never do. This, it's just a lot to take in." I breathed praying for her to understand. for all the times I'd hoped and prayed for more displays of emotion I'd never wanted this, to have her wounded and hurt spilling tears because of me.
"…I-I couldn't…I couldn't protect you, she was just so strong and she was going to kill you. To get to me, because of me, you dead…" she broke into a rambled confusion of accusations against herself and horrified mutterings of my death as I tried to shush her and comfort her.
Maybe it had been that that caused her to make this choice for me. She'd been rocked by that other Rake. I had too but she was still terrified, not of anything the Witch could or would do to her but for my sake and only my sake.
I felt low and more than a little worthless. If this new arm could do anyway with these tears, banish any fears Hinata had then there wasn't a price I wasn't willing to pay for it.
There wasn't a price I wasn't willing to pay for her.
"So what do we do now?" I asked forcing my shaky legs to carry me over to my weapon, Hinata followed staying close out of concern. She gave the weapon a glance and an elegant eyebrow rose high behind her bangs.
"That's a pretty old model." She breathed reaching out to brush the dark iron, her eyes raising to meet mine in an unnecessary question before her hand wrapped itself around my own over the handle.
"Yeah, it belonged to my Uncle. He had a thing of old stuff." Old music, old movies, whatever he could find from the old days in the underground markets. But now wasn't really the time for reminiscing on easier times, there was something we had to take care of. And Hinata wouldn't like my plan for taking care of our witch problem.
"Did you get the rifle?" She hadn't and I was a little relieved when she explained she hadn't been away from my side since I'd fallen unconscious. It wouldn't be much of a problem, we had time to prepare, talented as Zabuza was the blonde had been in a class of her own.
"She was enhanced wasn't she, constantly in an enraged state." Hinata nodded a confirmation. It explained the crushing difference in powers between her and Hinata but I wasn't sure how it was possible, Hinata only ascended like that in quick bursts and they tended to leave her drained.
"Part way I think, her form seemed more balanced. Maximum gains for minimum energy wastage. I think she's older too, like Sakura so even at base she could probably over whelm me." Explained the brunette nipping at her lip strangely self-consciously. I could sympathise, someone that could out do Hinata in such a way was terrifying.
"Would the rifle work, if you had a clean shot at her?" I asked. A stupid plan springing to mind, well maybe not stupid so much as it was insane…being in Hinata's company did that to a person I guess.
"It would. But she'd need to be distracted too." Answered the pale girl frowning as I saw her mentally dismissing the possibility, she lacked imagination at times.
"She'll be distracted, I'll make sure of that." I answered unable to help myself from smiling as almost exaggerated shock and horror lined her soft features and her lips formed the words several times mutely before she finally spat a shaky 'no!'
"You've given me a new arm Hinata, now let me use it." I offered my best argument. She'd seen to it herself that I had more power now, I might have added more to it except my hastiness finally caught up with me. I felt myself fall backwards and Hinata fretting over me and calling for my 'doctor'.
Maybe it would be another couple of days before I could play distraction.
As it turned out my arm being a large part foreign material now meant a decreased recovery time. I didn't much like the feel to it though. I expected the limb to feel heavier for the changes but instead it was eerily light almost to the point I couldn't feel it.
Stronger and faster too but incredibly awkward for it. It would take a considerable amount of time to get used to it…and stop crushing and shattering anything I tried to pick up. I found Hinata strangely pleased that the arm was on par with her own, in her base form at least.
"It's certainly a strange place." I remarked watching the street vendors interact with their customers. Tattoo's and piercings covered half the people's faces, given their contraband nature above I guessed they were declarations of allegiance, to this free pit. Nothing had a set price but rather everything was bartered for.
Hinata in particular seemed more strange here than elsewhere. I'd understood the need for disguising ourselves to roam around down here, I just hadn't expected her to have been…so into it.
I had to admit though, she certainly looked good in leather.
She had her hair tied up in a tight bun and wore a decorative mask but covering her facial features was probably unnecessary given the rest of her outfit. The tight leather dress gripped her curves impressively as did the jeans she wore beneath, her knee high boots added something to the outfit.
I on the other hand looked like I might have been her gimp sex slave…which wasn't really as incorrect an assumption as I would like to admit.
"It's nice in a way, more freedom." She spoke. I could tell from the glances that most threw her way and the wide berth we were given by the crowd that she'd wasted no time in asserting her dominance over the others. It was sort of funny how shaken up some of the more intimidating figures became whenever the hollow eyes of Hinata's mask turned on them.
"So what should I call you here, or do you have a name?" I whispered to her, I could imagine the cocky grin she was most likely wearing beneath her cover.
"They started calling me the Lightning I think." She answered. I think I'd drop the 'the', seemed an unnecessary amount of reverence for a name.
"Lighting, suits you." I was aware the small talk was mostly my nerves acting out but the realisation had little help in stopping me all the same. It could be mere hours that I had left to live if even that unless things went exactly as planned.
That's chapter 10 folks, hope the pause hasn't put you off.
Next chapter should be the climax of the Rogue Witch arc and will hopefully have a real good fight scene.
R&R