Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters
A/N: Lila-me, a wonderfully awesome and super talented artist made a drawing for this story. The link is on my profile. Please look at it. It's wonderful! Thank you Lila-me for such beautiful art! I think I've looked at it at least once every day for the past few days. As a huge fan of yours, I'm just melting inside.
There's a lot of dialogue in this chapter. This is more of a transition chapter. I think I told a user that i'd explain why Hinata is so fixated with Kiba in this chapter. Now, looking at this, it'll have to be in the next chapter (I know, my planning skills are questionable at best. I will work on it).
Chapter 11
A Sudden Dream
1975, March 11
Hinata finds Lee in one of the ANBU training grounds. He takes her under his wing easily enough.
He says, watching her mimic the fighting stance she's adopted from Sasuke, "It's good, but for your situation, you should use this one." What he shows her is a terrible stance, with far too many critical spots open to attack, but he says gently at her bewildered expression, "As a medic, you're not expected to be able to hold your own well in battle. Don't give them a reason to think you can." He adjusts her position to the clumsier one, "And this way, when they do underestimate you…" He clenches her fist and she smiles, delighted by him, "you can land the blow that'll help your comrades. And that's what's important."
He's remarkable; completely inept in ninjutsu and genjutsu, but exceptional in taijutsu.
He works with her through the morning.
Lee is a patient teacher. "Speed comes from repetition." She does several hits with her leg against a battered wooden post. Her whole leg is covered in protective wrappings, per Lee's request. She still feels every jarring hit though. "When you're in battle, you'll do this automatically, even before the enemy considers the angle at which they'll attack you."
She rotates to punches on his command, purely taijutsu.
Lee is a kind teacher. "Good" he says, and gives her weights to wrap around her arms and legs, "These are light weights and you should wear them at all times. Your speed will definitely improve. I have a mission in five minutes so we'll have to stop here."
"Can I still train with you?" she asks, "…after your mission?" It's a bold thing to say, but Lee is one of the strongest ANBU members there.
He explodes with what seems to be joy, "Yes of course! I'm honored to know that my greatest rival has entrusted one of his comrades to me!" His greatest rival is Sasuke. Lee is also a strange teacher.
"Who the hell is yelling? Holy shit, shut the fuck up Lee!" The sound comes from one of the ANBU women. She has purple hair and sharp eyes. She looks older, but it's subtly misleading by the way her upper lip quirks. She's grinning, more amused if anything. Several other ANBU around her are engaged in a game of poker, but they all look up with varying degrees of amusement.
"Yes of course Anko!" and at her widening grin, he salutes and says, "Captain!"
'A captain' Hinata thinks, 'Like Sasuke. Maybe just as strong?'
"My partner" Lee says to her, subdued, "Anko. She and I do many recon missions. We've never failed a mission. We work well together."
Anko snorts.
1975, March 12
Hinata practices on her own. She practices until the sun sets. She watches the sun dip, sweat staining through her layers and heat escaping as steam from the top of her head.
She dreams of Kiba later that night in her tent. His leg is broken. He bleeds all over the floor through the wound. When she looks up, it's Hiten.
1975, March 14
Hinata has a mission. It's another border patrol.
They jump through the trees in their path. The wind picks up.
"Naruto said that we'll be fine without a fourth person in our squad" Sasuke says evenly. Hinata is surprised to see that he is the one to instigate the conversation. She's not so surprised when he dismisses Hiten that easily.
"Oh" Hinata says. Karin is by Sasuke's side, but her usual glare is absent.
They come across a sound nin and it's Karin who disables him with deadly accuracy. She breaks his leg first. He manages a cut on her cheek but she doesn't even flinch at that. She chokes him after, hands shaking as Hinata and Sasuke watch from behind, "You bastard" Karin says and her grip gets tighter and Hinata backs up a step. She passes a glance at Sasuke and he looks as impassive as ever.
Karin isn't done when the man is dead. She kicks him. "Bastard" she says and kicks the body again. Blood splatters.
Karin pulls out a kunai and it's only then does Sasuke say, "Karin, that's enough" and Karin turns to him looking betrayed and Hinata looks away when Karin says, "but-"
"Karin."
They report the death when they return as per usual procedure.
When Sasuke walks off, Hinata is surprised to see Karin doesn't follow. Instead, she turns to take a different way.
Hinata watches for a second, then follows her.
"What?" the red head says when Hinata reaches her.
Hinata grasps at straws, stung by the deadly look Karin has; thinks that if Hiten were here, he'd smooth these bumps over. "Your cheek" she settles for it. Professional is easier. "There's a cut there."
"I'm fine" Karin says, "It'll heal on its own."
"Right" Hinata says, at a loss. She stares at Karin. She looks fine. Like she hasn't lost a single person in her life. No tired eyes. Nothing. But it's horrible. It's terrible. She just wants to "talk. If you want to talk" she repeats, "about-"
"No" Karin snaps, "No"
"But-"
"Whatever you're trying to do" she says, gesturing to the space between them, "I get it, really. Thanks. But, I can handle it myself. It'll pass." Karin puts her hands on her waist. She looks annoyed. Strong. Alone.
"But if you want to-"
"I don't. We can't just talk everything out and expect-" Karin makes some wild outward movement. "I am fine" she punctuates.
"Right" Hinata repeats and she watches Karin pause, look at her, then walk away.
She looks smaller and smaller in the distance.
Hinata can see the sunset swallow her up.
1975, March 20
Lee is back. He doesn't say anything about his mission.
He smiles when she asks. It's a painful one. "Let's spar."
After a short break, they run more laps around Konoha's perimeter. Hinata falls by the time they get to their ninth lap. She feels the tightness in her right thigh from strain and she can't stand up. "I can still run" she says, panicked, when she sees Lee's worried expression.
He hovers over her, blocking the sun.
"Let's do stretches instead" he says, patiently.
1975, March 25
"Another mission?" Hinata asks, disappointed. Feeling uprooted. A temporary loss in purpose looms over her.
Lee grins. "Yes. I apologize. We can spar when I get back. I promise."
1975, April 26
Hinata visits Hiten again and immediately regrets it. Ino is always there, encasing him in a warmth he can't reciprocate.
It's painful to watch. It's a reminder. 'Not strong enough' she tells herself, sitting on the opposite side of Ino. 'This can't happen again' she thinks. She doesn't wonder if Karin and Sasuke visit. She has no sway over their actions. She clenches her fists, thinking of screaming out, kicking something, begging, just something...and she settles with listening to Ino cry.
She visits Sakura after, who's sitting outside the medical tent, resting her eyes in the moonlight.
"Sakura" she says and takes a moment to catalogue her with her eyes.
Sakura sighs.
They sit in silence until Hinata has to go home and Sakura has to go back to the surgical wing.
1975, June 7
Lee is back. "Let's see your progress" he says kindly and she shows him.
They go through a flurry of motions. Parries and blocks, and at one point, she lands a hit. She can't hide her smile at that and Lee encourages her, "Really good. Very good! Your speed has increased."
She shows him her punches against the wooden post. She demonstrates the chakra-powered punch she had been practicing for months and the wood splinters then snaps under her hit. She stares at the damage for a second, mind skipping to Hiten, a bleeding leg, pools of blood-
Lee laughs, delighted, drawing her out, "More medic nins should learn this" he says and makes amends, "but most are far too busy to do so, I know." He draws her into a rant about the beauty of medicine. He exaggerates his emotions with sweeping hand motions. It's nice.
Hinata thinks of Sakura, probably on her seventy second hour of her shift, downing coffee before performing surgery, Tenten by her side. She feels a sharp pang of jealousy at that. She buries it down. Far, far down, with all the other ugly things she feels when she has a moment to think.
"Heavier weights" Lee says, helping her put them on, "to make you even faster. Stronger."
"That's what's important" Hinata repeats. 'To protect' she thinks, and she demonstrates another jarring blow.
1975, August 15
It's during a scouting mission that Sasuke says, "The attacks from the sound are getting more frequent. We're moving Konoha again. It's important that we clear the way for the villagers to move safely."
Karin frowns, "That bad?"
And Sasuke looks at Hinata and says, "You're coming with me."
Karin bristles, "I think-"
"Karin" Sasuke says, and she stops talking. He orders Karin to take another path.
Hinata feels like she's a step behind with them. Then she actually falls behind when Sasuke starts a punishing pace and she has to follow and in the corner of her eye, she can see Karin somersaulting into a branch below and disappearing.
They run in silence until Sasuke points out, "Your speed. It's increased."
"Lee-" she starts and he suddenly tenses.
"Get ready" and he holds a kunai up and she mirrors the same motion.
The forest is deathly still.
Then suddenly, the trees are larger, looming and swaying in some sort of sick dance. Hinata sees blood blooming out of the roots. It's hazy. She can't focus.
"A genju…" she thinks she hears Sasuke say, "-nata, stay with…" but it sounds so very distant. "Don't-" and suddenly, the wind is too loud.
She sees someone walking out of the swaying trees. It's a flickering image of Shino, then Kiba and then it's Hiten and he's – or they are – saying, "I'm hungry. Could you come with me? Hinata, please. This way."
She can see why she should be following him - them. It makes sense. There's a ramen stand in the distance. She can see the tall arching grace of the Hyuuga compound. Sakura's smiling somewhere over there. She's waving. There's a lovely sunshine and the sky is blue, so blue and perfect. There's a paved pathway she should be taking.
But, why is Sakura smiling? She's always been so sad.
"Let's go" the figure says.
She sees daisies sprouting in front of her. It's only then she notices the blood again. How could she have forgotten about the blood?
"C'mon" says the figure – maybe it's Kiba or Shino.
She walks up to him -them. It's smiling, wide eyed and there's suddenly beautiful blue eyes on that face. A shock of blonde hair. And she stabs it with her kunai, the one she's had clutched so painfully in her hands all this time. And the daisies scatter.
She sees Sasuke when she opens her eyes and she's on the floor and can't move and she hears him saying, "I don't fucking believe you" to some far off figure and there's a wild cackling of laughter.
Sasuke's eyes are spinning pinwheels. There's blood dripping out of his eyes. And he looks angry and sad and all those other emotions he never shows.
1980, July 8
"We're going back" Sasuke says. He's peeling an orange for her over the kitchen sink.
It's probably around mid-day.
Hinata watches him, sitting at the dining table. "Are we?"
"Soon."
She thinks, 'To see Naruto' and she wonders, 'To do what?' and she answers herself:
'To hurt him like he's hurt me.'
Anger coils in her gut, makes a tantalizing dance around the heels of her feet, enough for her toes to curl and fists to clench. 'Could I?' she wonders.
"Here" Sasuke says, suddenly in front of her, slices cut and placed on a plate.
She takes it and visibly deflates when he loosens her hold on the grooves in the wood.
"Eat" he says.
"Our cover" she says, "As immigrants into the sound...are we still safe? Safe enough to leave?"
"Safe enough. You don't have to worry" he says, and gestures to the food.
She takes a bite.
'I'll protect you'
It's sweet.
And when she holds it on her tongue long enough, there's this bitter aftertaste.
A/N: I already said this above, but in case people didn't see it, Lila-me made a beautiful drawing for this story. The link is on my profile. Please look at it. It's lovely. I love it.
In regards to this story:
Yeah, there was barely any present time (ie.1980) this week. It'll be in the next chapter or the following one. Probably a huge chunk of the next chapter…or the following one. Questions will most likely be answered then, and solidly too.
To people who left reviews saying that this story had a personal impact on them, I hope it leaves a good feeling (eventually) as the story progresses. I don't want to unearth bad memories, and watch them grow into nightmares. So, take note that though this story is marked as 'hurt/comfort' and 'romance', there's no where in it that I marked it as a 'tragedy.' So take that comment as you will.
I have sent all of you a PM if you're a user who left me a review (and if I missed one of you, I will get to PM'ing you at one point) and if you're a guest, I can only say thank you here. Your reviews are just as wonderful.
For people asking for a Sasuke POV, I will have a few chapters of that at some point, but it'll be called an interlude because I plan to keep the whole story in Hinata's point of view.
For those asking why Hinata didn't fight longer, I just imagine that she's tired. She hasn't lost all her fight yet.
Once again, thank you for your reviews. They are always appreciated.