Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.

Last Time
"I…I'm afraid…" Hinata whispered against his neck.
"Don't be." Sasuke's hands tightened minutely on her legs. "I'll protect your eyes. Don't dwell more on it." He didn't speak again after that.
…
Neji glanced down at the thing clutched on his left hand and then back again at the tree. "Could this belong to you too?" he asked no one in particular.
…
Then and there Hinata wished to wash away Sasuke's sadness. And perhaps…Just perhaps…She could be the one to replace it with happiness.

Pathways
Chapter 9
Raison d'etre

Sasuke allowed himself a small grin as he heard Hinata stumble out of their makeshift camp. He knew she was trying not to look affected when he said that Orochimaru might catch up to them while she was alone by the stream. She wasn't a bad actress at all.

He smirked and closed his eyes.

She was a horrible one. Utterly and completely without acting skills.

A gust of wind blew in the little clearing, disturbing the leaves of the tree Sasuke was perched on. He felt its cool fingers brush against his skin, caressing his forehead and lifting his bangs. Sasuke opened his eyes and looked up.

Ominous gray clouds were starting to gather in a mass. The sky that was clear and blue a while ago was now overcast with rain clouds. There was also the distant rumbling of thunder. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. It would not do at all if they got caught in another rain shower. His traveling companion would most likely get sick again if they continued their journey during this bad weather.

Sasuke frowned.

But it wasn't like he was concerned for her or anything. He just didn't want to get delayed any longer. They already had wasted enough time by that inn with the crazy woman as innkeeper. And besides…

Walking under the rain didn't suit well with him. He hated the rain.

He hated how it felt on his skin, like tiny pinpricks, unrelenting and harsh. He hated how it stuck to his body, leaving him cold and wet. Most of all…

Sasuke hated the memories it brought. Memories that he had buried deep within his soul...Memories that resurfaced every time the rain fell.

Fresh and vivid memories.

They would come and torment him again and again, like an old battered movie, with the images of that cursed night. All over again, he would be reminded painfully why he had chosen this path. Why he had forsaken his friends to follow a lunatic and a murderer…

Why he was living at all.

And then he would remember how he had tried to end his own life… How the memory of his mother had saved him.

His promise to himself…His vow on that stormy night, in front of the lake.

Why he was living at all.

Sasuke would then remember how he used to like the rain very much just because his mother liked it too. He would remember how the two of them used to sit at the front porch of their house and watch quietly as the rain fell. He would remember the past when his mother and father were still alive…When he still had a family.

And he would again feel the loneliness and sadness…the pain. Then, as if in a dream, he would wake up again and remember.

Why he was living at all.

The rain reminds him of his hatred…of all the things he missed and still needed to do.

Why he absolutely must kill Itachi.

Why he was risking Hinata's life in going to Lightning Country.

"U-uchiha-san?" a soft voice came from below him. Sasuke suppressed a startled sound from escaping him. He had not noticed her return. Sasuke scowled darkly. Yet another reason why I hate the rain.

Shifting, he gracefully landed on the ground in front of Hinata.

"U-um…" She was clearly intimidated by him. "I-I was w-wondering i-if we're g-going to continue t-traveling?" Her sentence ended in a shrill note. Sasuke raised his eyebrow at this. Hinata blushed. "Um…"

Sasuke mentally sighed. It was obvious she wanted to stay, why didn't she just say it out right instead of being so damn polite? He glared at her and stepped closer, invading her personal space.

Hinata "eeped" and moved backwards. Sasuke followed her. "How long have you been standing here and spying on me?" he demanded.

He saw as her eyes widened and she averted her eyes to the side. "N-not long…I-I just came a-and…"

"So you're not going to deny that you have been spying on me?"

"N-no…! I-I mean, y-yes! I-I'm going t-to d-deny –"

"You're not a very good liar are you?" He interrupted, narrowing his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry…I d-didn't mean t-to –"

"Just forget it." He sighed resignedly, his breath blowing on Hinata's bangs. Sasuke turned around and looked up at the tree he was previously resting on. "Anyway, we're going to stay here for a while and let the rain pass. There's not much point in continuing further if you'll get sick again."

"T-thank you." Sasuke heard her say. He felt something in him flutter at her grateful words but he ignored it.

"Whatever." He muttered, surreptitiously glancing at her.

Hinata had settled down at the base of the tree, hugging her knees and shivering slightly. The wind had picked up and the temperature was becoming colder. Sasuke felt a twinge of guilt that he was the reason she was cold. He quashed it away however, telling himself that it was not his fault that her jacket was left behind. She was just too slow in retrieving it, that's all.

He saw her shiver again.

Okay, fine. He relented guiltily. It was his fault, so what?

Sasuke crossed his arms. So what?

It was a while before the rain stopped. Afterwards, travelers in that particular area would wonder why in the middle of a particular meadow, where there once stood an ordinary looking and sparsely leaved tree, stood a majestic tree full of leaves(1).

Sasuke had been to Lightning Country before during his training under Orochimaru. It was not so different from the village he came from, only a whole lot gloomy and rainy.

If he was honest to himself, he couldn't really blame them for wanting to get the Byakugan. Anyone under this constant rain would get crazy too. Ambitious and crazy.

The reason for this ambitiousness escaped him. And he could care less if not for the fact that their ambitions included harming a certain Hyuuga, which he definitely cannot allow to happen.

That's why, before they completely arrived at Cloud territory, he had gone out of his way to purchase black contacts for the Hyuuga to put on. Casting a genjutsu around her eyes would have also done the trick of hiding her pearl white eyes but it would have also aroused suspicion if ever some high level cloud ninja saw through the illusion. He would not have been this cautious if that innkeeper woman had not tried to kill Hinata. Her sudden appearance only meant that Cloud shinobi knew what to look for to recognize a holder of the Byakugan.

Also…

Sasuke glanced at the parcel he held in his hand. Because of the constant rain, the temperature was always cold and someone had been shivering nonstop because of it. He had been feeling unpleasantly guilty for some reason and his mood had taken a turn for the worse because of this.

During the first two days of their stay in the Hidden Village of Cloud, Sasuke had immediately started gathering information on the whereabouts of the Akatsuki. Orochimaru, at one time, had off-handedly mentioned that this village had something very important that the organization wanted. Sasuke figured that if he should start looking for Itachi, he might as well start here in Lightning Country, were he was sure to find members of the Akatsuki.

But his search turned up nothing so far and it was beginning to wear on his nerves. It was already the end of the third day and he was still nowhere near to knowing anything about the location of the elusive organization.

He shifted the package he held in his arms and stared at the narrow door in front of him. The keyhole was rusty and the wooden edges were chipping off, he remembered it even creaked ominously on its hinges. If this was a vacation, he would have chosen a completely different place to stay, preferably one with hot water and a door with nicely oiled hinges.

But this brief (he hoped it would be) stay was not for sightseeing.

Sasuke fished around in his pocket and pulled out a key. Of course, he could just knock and let the Hyuuga open the door for him but they had agreed (more like he commanded) that both of them would enter the rented apartment using a key. Any person doing otherwise would automatically be considered a potential enemy and would be dealt with accordingly.

An eerie creak resounded throughout the small room as Sasuke entered and closed the door behind him. He paused to shrug of his sandals then padded towards the far left corner of the room where Hinata sat, staring listlessly outside the window and seemingly unaware of his arrival.

"Hey." Sasuke prompted. Hinata blinked and sat straighter. Turning away from the window, she looked up at him then shifted her gaze at the bundle resting beside her and moved to offer it to him. "I t-thought you might need t-this."

He reached out and took the proffered towel. Sasuke considered for a moment and then said, "It never stops raining in this place." She nodded and once again gazed out at the window, a shiver running through her small frame.

Sasuke looked at the package he held in his other hand. "Here," he dropped it on her lap, "use it."

He watched for a moment as she hesitated and then finally opened the parcel. Drying his hair, he walked towards the bathroom. "W-wait!" Hinata called after him. Sasuke paused and looked back at her.

She was clutching the jacket he had given her tightly. "Y-you shouldn't h-have troubled t-to buy it." Her blush was unmistakable. True, he shouldn't have bought her a jacket. But it was his prerogative to do away with his money whichever way he liked. Quite honestly, he had been uneasy whenever she showed signs of being cold just because she lost her previous ugly one (which, he kept convincing himself wasn't his fault). Sasuke buying her a new one wasn't really for her own benefit but for himself. But she didn't have to know that.

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, "Who said I bought it?"

Her eyes widened for a fraction and then bowed down, clutching the jacket tighter. "S-still…thank you." She looked up and smiled at him.

Strangely, Sasuke felt his face heating up. He scoffed and turned away to hide the pink now tingeing his cheeks.

"Okaeri." She murmured. The door to the bathroom was already half-way closed when he heard it, yet there it was. A whisper, too soft for it to have been meant for him and yet something his heart so deeply longed for.

Welcome home, huh?

A smile, too tiny to really have been there at all, formed on his lips. He chanced one last glance at the heiress and just as the door closed fully, Sasuke saw her. The image of Hinata sitting there, hugging the jacket he gave to her chest and smiling peacefully would forever be engraved on his mind.

"You do resemble that young lady we met a few days ago," the gap-toothed old man rubbed his chin, "and what a pretty little thing she is too – ow…!" He yelped when his equally gap-toothed wife smacked him on the arms.

"I'm right here so mind your manners!" She reprimanded and turned to the stranger. "Hmm, yes, you have the same eyes as her."

Said eyes widened. He was now sure that this couple indeed met Hinata. "Where did you see her? When?" he asked, barely containing the excitement he felt at the news.

It was a few days ago that he had completely lost the trail of the Hyuuga heiress since following a false lead well into another town. After that disappointment, he had been trying his best to sniff out a new trail and had taken to the main roads in hope that he may come across travelers having encountered said missing heiress. It seemed that the gods were smiling on him once again.

"Well, let me think on it." The old man scratched his chin again.

His wife shot Neji with an apologetic smile, "Please forgive him, he can be very forgetful at times." She smacked her husband again, "How can you forget something so easily! We even gave her and her companion a ride!"

Neji blinked, "Her companion?" he repeated blankly.

"Yes, she had someone with her. A handsome bloke, that one." The old lady nodded her head, "Though a bit irritable and gloomy if you ask me."

Handsome? Irritable? Gloomy? "What did this fellow look exactly?" Neji was feeling the beginnings of dread. He had a feeling he wouldn't like to know who this supposed companion was.

"Oho! Now I remember!" The old husband, who had been silent up till now, snapped his fingers. "We gave them a ride right up to the village nearest the borders of Lightning Country." He smiled sheepishly, "We even mistook them for a married couple."

Neji tensed in alarm. Lightning Country? The Hidden Village of Cloud was in Lightning Country. It can't be… "How long ago was this?" The panic in his voice made the old couple rear back in surprise.

"W-well… If I remember correctly, it was about a week ago from now." The old woman was the one who answered.

A week ago. That was too long a time for comfort. Neji could feel the beginnings of stress pound on his temples. "Thank you very much for your help." He bowed and hurriedly left.

The old man and woman watched as he disappeared through the trees bemusedly. "So...you think those two eloped?"


I like the rain Okaa-sama.

A silhouette of a person waved at him, long hair flying with the breeze. Sasuke could feel his legs running towards her. She was by a large cherry blossom tree; her arms were outstretched, waiting. Beckoning. Laughter, the sound of chiming bells, fell from her lips. It was answered by another sound of laughter and Sasuke was surprised to hear that it was coming from him. Since when did he start to laugh again?

The sun glinted behind her, making it hard for him to see her face. He knew that it would be smiling. The sound of her laugh was ringing still. Sasuke continued to run. He squinted against the glare of the sun. When the burning rays finally gave out, he opened his eyes to a row of fluorescent lights over a whitewashed ceiling.

Sasuke blinked a couple times in confusion. The cherry blossom tree and the woman with the bell chime laugh were gone. Rushing footsteps echoed behind him. People wearing white hurried past him, entering a door at the end of the long hallway.

He heard the tinkling of bell chimes coming from that door. Sasuke ran again, following the sound. At the threshold, the tinkling suddenly stopped. Slowly, feeling dread creep up his spine, he peered inside. There, like a dream, was a white sheet gradually falling on top of a sleeping woman.

A sleeping woman…

Sasuke heard someone gasp and then he was running again; through the hallway with the whitewashed ceiling and fluorescent lamps, through a flight of stairs, through people who looked on with pity and then finally through the glass doors.

And then he was outside. Dimly, he felt water droplets falling on his face. He opened his eyes but couldn't see through the water blurring his vision. The rain was cool on the flushed skin of his face. He heard someone gasp again followed by a sob. Who was crying? He wondered. Sasuke tried to look around but his vision was still blurry. With shaking hands, he tried to wipe his eyes but stopped cold when he felt the hot substance of the water.

It wasn't rain water after all. These were tears.

His tears.

A sob escaped his lips and he realized no one was crying except for him. Why was he crying?

…I'm sorry Okaa-sama but I don't think I like the rain anymore.

Sasuke sat up from his futon like he had been shocked. It took him several seconds to get his bearing and remember where he was.

The rain, the sleeping woman…it was a dream. A dream that felt so real. Slowly, he let out a breath, his shoulders sagging in relief. But he had been crying in the dream. Sasuke touched his cheek to find that it was dry.

Who was that woman? He had never seen her in all of his life and yet there was something vaguely familiar about her. But what?

Sighing, Sasuke tried to get back to sleep. He blinked a couple of times at the cracked ceiling. Fluorescent lights lining a whitewashed ceiling flashed in his vision. Sasuke blinked and hissed in aggravation. There goes his sleep.

He glanced outside. In a normal situation, he would have gotten up and trained until the sun came up but he could hardly do that here in Cloud territory. He deliberated a moment. There were those scrolls he had never gotten around to reading. Perhaps he could do that now.

Pursing his lips, Sasuke got up and decided to do just that.

Opening his door, bright light assaulted his vision. He blinked a few times, letting his sight adjust to the light. It came as a slight surprise when he saw Hinata sitting by the dining table. She was nursing a cup of something (probably tea, he thought) in her hands. Her white eyes were focused on the window outside. She was staring at the window with a strange kind of focus that Sasuke felt compelled to look at the window too.

It was just the rain. He looked at her again. "You're awake." He stated.

Sasuke watched as she jumped a little in surprise and fixed her gaze at him. "S-sasuke-san…" she breathed, as if the word was hard to say. Before they entered this village, he had asked her to call him by his given name as calling him 'Uchiha' would have attracted unwanted attention. It was not hard to see that she was still uncomfortable in using it.

Sasuke looked at her for a few seconds and went to retrieve his scrolls. When he got back and sat opposite of her by the table, he found a cup with freshly poured tea in front of him. He spared her a look but found that she was again staring outside. She must have gotten him a cup when he went to get his scrolls. He brought the cup to his lips and welcomed the warmth of the tea sliding down his throat.

They sat there in comfortable silence for a while, Sasuke perusing his long neglected scrolls and she gazing out the window. Occasionally, he would peer at her through his eyelashes and every single time, he would find her position and eyes unchanging. He was used to this kind of behavior from her. And perhaps, he found her company tolerable because she left him in peace.

So when she suddenly spoke, it was with no small amount of surprise that Sasuke listened. "Do you like the rain, Sasuke-san?" she turned her disconcerting white eyes to look at him.

He blinked at her, surprised that she spoke without her usual stutter and finding that he liked the sound of it. His silence must have unnerved her for a blush crept up her cheeks and she quickly averted her eyes. "I-I m-mean…"

The sound of her stutter woke him up from his momentary daze. He blinked again and directed his gaze outside. "No, I don't like it." Sasuke answered.

She was looking at him again, as if she couldn't believe that he would deign to answer her offhand question. The blush still staining her face, she asked, "W-why…?"

He scoffed and continued to read his scroll. "I don't see why it should matter." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't ask you why you like the rain, do I?"

She bit her lip and turned once again at the window. "But I don't like it."

Sasuke almost asked 'why?' but felt that it would be hypocritical of him. So she didn't like the rain, but why does she keep on staring at it? Strange girl.

An uncomfortable silence washed over them. "My mother loved when it rained," she said softly, suddenly. Her gaze was transfixed outside the window, seeing something only she could, "And she died when it rained…" she finished, sounding as if she wanted to say more. Sasuke waited but there was no follow-up. He frowned.

She was like him, in a way. The rain reminded them both of what they had lost. For him, it was much more, however. The rain wasn't simply a reminder but a promise, a promise for justice. "Itachi killed them on a day like this." Sasuke answered her earlier question. He didn't need to say who he meant by 'them' for her face showed that she knew who he was referring to.

It was a while after the exchange happened that Sasuke stewed on his reason for opening up to her. What he didn't like was that she hadn't really pressed him for answers, and he still gave it to her regardless. He sighed and continued to read. It was probably because she told him why she didn't like the rain so he also felt compelled to tell her his reason. That's most likely why. He didn't want to feel as if he owed her…yeah.

"Sasuke-san, h-how long are we going to s-stay here?" She asked him in the soft way she spoke.

Sasuke looked at her. "Indefinitely," he replied "there's still something I have to do."

"I-if so…then c-can I help i-in any w-way?" she fidgeted in her seat.

Help? From her? Pfft. More importantly… He propped his chin on his hand and smirked at her. "You're fraternizing with the enemy."

"N-no I'm not!" Her face burned bright as a tomato.

"So I heard wrong when you just asked if you can 'help in any way'," Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

She shook her head vigorously and blushed harder. "N-no, I mean…I-I don't s-see you as an e-enemy…I'm not f-fraternizing."

Huh. Sasuke didn't know why but what she said rubbed him the wrong way. His temper flared. What is going on with this girl? The two of them met because they were enemies; was kidnapping her and delivering her to Orochimaru not enough a reason?

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "But I am your enemy." His eyes went down to her bare neck, where her hitai-ate used to be, before he took it off. "You're still a Konoha ninja, even without your protector. And I –" he stopped.

What? What is he?

A traitor. A missing-nin. A reprobate. An enemy. He was many things, all disgusting and vile, except for one. He was an avenger.

Sasuke clenched his fist. It doesn't matter what he was. As long as he had a purpose, everything else takes second seat.

Having her talk nonsense about not being enemies doesn't change anything. He had a purpose and one purpose only. She was only a means. If they were not enemies, would they even be having this discussion? Certainly, she wouldn't be here right now.

The rain pattered mercilessly outside. It was still dark but it must be about mid-morning already. The villagers would already be about and Sasuke was sure that he could continue with his mission.

He stood up and went to retrieve his gear. "S-Sasuke-san?" he heard her uncertain voice behind him.

"Do whatever you want, Hinata." He said her name as if it was an insult. "But know this," he shifted and watched her at the corner of his eyes, "you're here because I have need of you, otherwise you would already be dead."

Yes, she's a kunoichi of Konoha. And he…

He certainly wasn't her friend.

But he couldn't help thinking that if things were different…If he hadn't needed Orochimaru or even…If Itachi had not killed his family…

Sasuke entered his dark room, closing the door behind him firmly.

Could he have been?

.

.

.

.

…to be continued

Author's Notes:

Uhmm…so that's that. I know it's been so looong since I last updated. Er… almost a year to be exact, but I'm updating now and I finally know where I'm heading with this fic. I even got the chapters outlined. So, please bear with me. The next updates wouldn't take as long, promise!

Also, much thanks to those who reviewed! You guys got me going!

(1) stood a majestic tree full of leaves – Sasuke used a Doton technique to make the tree leafy and stuff. Why would he do this? There could be a number of reasons, go figure.