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Chapter Eleven
Hinata's mother gripped her arm tightly. "Be careful when you're alone with Ao," she warned.
"We should go." Ao led her away from the security of the crowded streets to a secluded route. "There is a shortcut through here." A dense fog surrounded them as they ventured father through the thick bamboo forest. Everything was so white and hazy that she could barely see the end of her legs
Hinata's back hit against a large bamboo, stopping her from going any farther.
He stood frighteningly close to her.
"I'LL TAKE YOU THE SAME WAY I TOOK YOUR MOTHER!" Ao laughed, prying her legs apart as he forced himself against her soft warm body. His hungry eyes watched her squirm beneath him as he ripped her kimono apart, frantically licking her soft bare skin.
She froze. Her body became rigid and fearful as his piercing laughter rang deafeningly in her ears. This man was going to rape her and she could barely pull herself together to shout for help. Instead her frightened voice whimpered at his abrasive hands and all she could call out was, "S-Sasuke…"
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-Day Five: pt. 2-
Hinata's body remained stock-still when she couldn't bring herself to scream, push him off, or even attempt to defend herself. She watched him tear off his eye patch, freely asserting his superiority.
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"Women shouldn't be given power like the Byakugan, they simply can't handle it. You should give me your eyes Hinata, I'll make better use of them then you will," He laughed loudly.
The Byakugan belongs to the rightful clan members that can use their gift to its full potential. There has never been any discrimination or favoritism within the clan because of their gender. The Byakugan's power is not determined by their sex, but rather, it is determined by the user's perseverance and determination to protect and defend.
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"I attained my Byakugan from a weak Hyuga that could barely defend himself…" he grinned and tore off his eye patch, watching her through the same pale eyes she had.
There is no weak Hyuga, just stronger shinobi men that can take advantage of a fallen man or woman. The true power of the Byakugan comes from the traditions passed down from generations to generations to keep the bloodline pure—to ensure the protection of its secrets.
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"Those delicious pink lips, soft fair skin, beautiful brown eyes, oh and I can't forget her full stacked breast. I loved to watch your mother walk through the market, innocently trying to cover up her womanly body. But now she's getting a little old—I'LL TAKE YOU THE SAME WAY I TOOK YOUR MOTHER!"
This man on top of her had no respect for the powerful kunoichi women around him. This man on top of her does not deserve to see through the same Byakugan eyes. And this man on top of her… has stained the purity of her clan's sacred traditions. Anger and pure hatred surged through still body, as she began shaking in rage causing the veins in her temples to contract violently as she activated her Byakugan.
In a sudden rush of fury and wrath, a large swell of chakra surged through her body and pushed Ao off, sending him flying across the area. He flew through the air hitting several bamboo poles as he landed ungracefully on his side.
He stumbled forward and quickly tried to regain his balance as he watched Hinata's dark silhouette slowly stand up and securely tie her tattered stained kimono. Her head snapped up and all he could see was her white glowing eyes glaring dangerously at him.
Hinata's hand shot to the sky and a flourish of shimmering white chakra burst from her outstretched palm, enclosing them in a hemisphere of white chakra. In the distance she saw two red glows, and quickly threw a sharp chakra blade in that direction. With Ao clearly in her field of vision, she wiped her bruised lip and crouched into the gentle fist stance her father had taught her. A large green Hyuga trigram appeared at her feet, and suddenly, before Ao could move—she attacked.
"Gentle fist 8 Trigrams 64 palms!" cried Hinata as she lunged for him, whirling her dangerous chakra laced hands.
He staggered backwards, uncertain what to expect.
"8 Trigrams 2 palms!" she made a strike at his chakra points, slamming him against a thick bamboo rod. Two consecutive strikes make two.
"—4 palms!" her hands whipped in a flash, pushing him farther and farther, with a trail of broken bamboo splinters following behind.
"8 palms!—16 palms!" eight consecutive strikes followed by sixteen more consecutive deadly strikes to his chakra points. The constant stream of chakra from Hinata's hands enclosed her in a protective sphere.
"—32 palms!" her lashing hands and movements were increasing in strength and pace, making it nearly impossible to see where she would strike next, "—64 palms!" In a whirl of near invisible movement, Hinata's arms jabbed, punched, and smacked, at the last few of his chakra points.
Ao's near paralyzed body crashed through the wall of bamboo poles, leaving Hinata standing in a wide circle, cleared by her trigram, panting quietly to herself as hundreds of bamboo leaves came spiraling all around her.
He lay on the ground grunting and spluttering blood from his bleeding lungs. The moment her attack on his first chakra point was met, he could no longer sustain the mist he conjured earlier.
Hinata slowly came towards him.
He tried to move back but it required too much pain and effort.
"Your chakra pathway has been sealed," whispered Hinata quietly, crouching pretentiously a foot away from his bleeding head. "I am a proud Hyuga—a kunoichi—and a woman. You understand nothing of the Byakugan's true power…" she wrenched at his silver hair and yanked his face forward. Her clouded thoughts only flickered with images of his eyeless pained expression with tears of blood streaming down his battered face. An aggrieved look swept across his features, and she couldn't help but feel pleased.
"That eye…" she whispered just below her breath, trailing a single thin finger across his right brow. "That eye doesn't belong to you and clearly you don't deserve its power—let alone use it…" She leaned forward and dug her fingers nails deep into the small crevice between his lids, ignoring his cries of pain, and the thick trail of blood seeping down his eyelid.
With the last of his strength, he kicked her off, wrench away and sent a single kunai flying through the night sky before it burst into a cloud of red smoke high above the island.
Sasuke appeared from nowhere, broke in and pulled her off Ao, stopping her from going any farther.
Swoosh—swoosh—swoosh—ANBU after ANBU came bursting through the bamboo forest, quickly flooding the scene with Kiri shinobis. In seconds they were surrounded by water ANBU, with Mei pushing her way to the front, followed by an entourage of jounin.
Mei froze when she saw Ao lying motionless on the floor with a bleeding eye, and a torn Hinata, who looked surprise by the sudden interruption. Turning to the one man that was at the scene with no injuries or damage, she demanded an explanation from Sasuke.
"What happened here!"
Ao made a loud coughing noise, struggling to get up. Two ANBU men quickly rushed to his aid and helped him onto their shoulders. "Isn't it obvious Mei?—She attacked me!" he screamed, throwing an accusing finger at a stunned Hyuga. At the mention of an attack, the entire ANBU squad reached for their weapons, surrounding the two Konoha shinobi in a defensive barrier.
Sasuke and Hinata remained still and unfazed.
"She has committed an international crime!—back in my day, we lock crazy people like her in prison. Keep Kiri protected and kill her before she can do this to another person!—she's dangerous!" Ao shouted, sounding near psychotic.
Mei clenched her fists and said nothing as she tried to effectively evaluate the situation at hand.
"You want," said Sasuke's calm deep voice, breaking the unnerving silence, "to imprison a member of Konoha's elite family?"
Everyone became on edge at his words. The men of Kiri threw questioning glances at Mei, awaiting their orders.
"She's the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan's main branch," continued Sasuke almost in a drawl. "I don't think the Hokage would like to hear the news of his wife's imprisonment while visiting your country—"
"I don't give a damn WHO she is!" Mei shouted. "No one comes into my country, beats up a member of my political force, and gets away without just punishments!"
Silence swept across the area once more in high tension. Not a single ANBU tore their attention away from the foreigners. There was a sense of intimidation emitting from Mei's irritated persona, as she glared at Hinata. Sasuke simply watched the Kiri queen through uncaring eyes.
"The moment she decided to assault one of our villagers," continued Mei loudly. "She has committed an international offense!" her last few words were muffled as she signaled several ANBU guards to apprehend Hinata.
Sasuke swiftly shot from the ground, kicked off a bamboo stem, knocking two ANBU to the ground, before possessively pulling Hinata behind him. "No one is going to touch her," he whispered quietly, pointing his sword's piercing blade at a fallen ANBU's neck.
No one made an attempt to aid the helpless man. The mounting tension between Mei and Sasuke was unsettling while all she did was glare at the Uchiha. "You're forgetting this is foreign territory you're on," said Mei slowly, regaining her confidence. "This woman—Hinata— made an attempt to kill one of my men!" she shouted, throwing an accusing finger at a dazed Hinata, who looked absolutely out of place. "We're taking her, regardless of her marriage status to the Hokage!—and if the fire country wants to come take her back without any punishments—they can do it over my dead body!"
Sasuke watched her, absolutely unbothered by the looming threat of war.
"Since you're the Mizukage, I assume you'd be the smartest one here," his voice had an air of laziness. "Isn't it your job to protect this country? If you had any common sense, you wouldn't worry about Hinata—or attempt war with the fire country because I can save you the trouble—and kill you all now!" Sasuke's red sharingan flared brightly in the darkness.
Mei winced at the sudden pressure. The ANBU men took a step back in fear. Everyone could feel their heart pounding madly in their chest, ready to burst at any second. Sasuke had a known reputation for murder and chaos, so naturally, no one dared to move, in fear of the Uchiha killing them. Mei couldn't help but remember a certain Kage summit, where it took nearly five healthy kages to try and stop one deranged Uchiha.
His pupils dilated, contorting into two almost glowing crimson orbs.
"Just go!" shouted Mei, holding her men back from advancing. "Take her and leave—don't even think of coming back."
Sasuke turned to Hinata and took her arm. The two walked away without any one bothering to stop them. Nearly fifty pairs of frightened eyes followed the backs of Sasuke and Hinata as the foreigners made their way off the island for the last time. He summoned Taka, and tossed Hinata over his shoulders like a sack of beans, before swiftly landing on the hawk's neck. They soared away from the festival, away from the bamboo forest, away from the Mizukage, and away from Kiri for the last time. Their nearest salvation was her mother's cottage.
"She's going to write to Naruto about this," Hinata's quiet voice broke through the night air. Her grip on his shirt tightened when he placed her down. "When did you get back?"
Sasuke turned to her. "I had a shadow clone take your mother home. I never left," he said with a smirk. Leaning to his side, he showed her an area of his robe with a wide rip across its hem. "You threw a long chakra blade at me."
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Leaning inconspicuously against a bamboo pole, Sasuke's bright sharingan gazed through the dense fog as he saw Ao force himself on Hinata. He was about to pull the man off her when Hinata's hand shot to the sky followed by an explosion of chakra pouring from her open palm, already enclosing the two in a hemisphere of white chakra.
He made a leap for them but in that instant, her neck snapped in his direction and he was sure she noticed. Without a second thought, she flung a sharp chakra blade at him, barely missing his flesh as it tore through his shirt.
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"I'm sorry…" Hinata apologized. She hadn't meant to attack him. Actually she thought the two red orbs were incoming kunai or perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her, but it was just Sasuke the whole time. "So you saw everything?"
He nodded.
Understanding filled her, and she couldn't help but wonder why Sasuke chose to stop her from killing Ao—he deserved to die. Taka landed swiftly and disappeared just as the two jumped off. After receiving no other comments from him, she turned and started walking to the cottage.
He took her arm, almost on impulse, and led her in the opposite direction, towards a cliff across the way. She followed absent mindedly as a silence hung between them. The night was filled with all sorts of exotic island hums, including the crunching of sand beneath their feet.
"You're not a killer," said Sasuke, his deep, almost soothing, voice whist in the quiet night.
Hinata eyed him, expecting a better answer, "so you rather let him kill me," she said, now realizing that Sasuke had never arrived to save her, but instead to stop her.
"Well to me, it didn't look like he was trying to kill you," he smirked. "Ao wanted a playmate. Besides you told me earlier, you're not a child." He stopped and watched her.
She was idly staring at the sand beneath her feet, trying to avoid looking at him.
"You are jonin after all, and that fight had to happen sooner or later. It was something between the Hyuga clan and Ao," said Sasuke, taking her hands and pulling her forward.
A smile made it's away across her lips, and she finally felt like meeting his eyes. She knew he was concerned for her all along, but he had respect for her as a ninja not to get in between something personal. Slowly but surely, Sasuke's eyes softened and she flung her arms around him in a tight embrace. He returned it, and if anyone were to run in on them at that exact moment, they would think the two of them were cuddling.
Sasuke cleared his throat, as though to say, that's enough. She quickly pulled back, but he caught her hand and held it. "Can I ask you something?" he said bashfully, turning his face away.
She blinked, has there ever been a time when Sasuke asked permission to ask a question?—never in her memory. "S-sure…"
He coughed a little to himself, carefully picking and choosing the right words to begin. "You've never had an attraction to me, but you love Naruto—an idiot nonetheless—so what do you see in him that I don't have?"
Her pale eyes ran across his features before landing at his lips, only vaguely aware their hands were still together. This question, though unprecedented, was one she could answer easily.
"Sasuke," she began, beaming innocently. "You were a little weird." And with that she stood on her tip toes, kissed his forehead, and ran off before he could catch her arm again to ask another question.
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