My Angel
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Well we had one person strongly in favor of Tsunade x Hiashi as a side pairing and almost everyone else was like O.o. Hmm so I'll think about it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Notation: Flashbacks. SKIP THE FLASHBACKS IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE because they are darker than I usually write.Remember, Sasuke was a criminal ninja and I have always assumed that the Sound was a truly messed up place. That is bound to have an impact on a 12-17 year old boy.
Chapter 12
Rio was a happy snake today. He was a hero! The garden snake had been the one to uncover Toshi's vile plot. Now instead of ignoring or being scared of him, he was getting some RESPECT from Hyugas.
"Here you go, Rio." Hanabi says and she places a small cup by the snake that was filled with wine.
He was sitting up a velvet red cushion. Rio thanks her, as any snake would good manners would for the drink! Then he enjoys the wine. It was a rare treat. Master Sasuke would sometimes give his Snake Summons wine if they performed well.
This apparently shocked the Hyugas. When he had asked for wine, he got some funny looks. Humans could be strange sometimes. Who didn't love some good wine? Did the fact he had scales mean he no longer could enjoy the finer things in life? Silly humans.
"Have you seen Sasuke or Hinata?" Hanabi asks the snake.
"I think they are in the gardens." Rio replies.
Ah yes, life was good. A nice comfy cushion, good wine, and he had saved the day! Wait until Aoda hears about this!
The massive snake was always saying how Rio needed to take his Summon duties more seriously. Now, he could prove to Aoda that he was. Had he not captured Master Sasuke's would be killer?! It doesn't get anymore seriously than that!
Hanabi activates her Byakugan and looks through the kitchen walls. She was checking to see if she could see them through the garden.
The young Hyuga woman sighs in relief when she does. She was worried about how Hinata would take Toshi's death. Hanabi knew that it was likely her sister would blame herself for Toshi's death.
"Is something wrong, Lady Hanabi?" Rio asks between licks of his wine.
"Oh no. Nothing. Nothing yet anyway. I'm worried about my sister is all." She replies.
Hinata was Hinata. She wouldn't hurt a fly. Only she could possibly feel guilty over the death of someone who had nearly assassinated her, even if it was by accident. Thankfully it looked like Sasuke had already found her. She'd be alright as long as Sasuke was watching her.
"Why are you worried about Lady Hinata? Toshi is dead now." Rio says in confusion.
"I'm worried she might blame herself for his death." The brunette answers.
Rio tilts his head. He didn't get it. Why would Lady Hinata blame herself for that? It was Toshi who was the one at fault. Humans could be so hard to understand at times. He wasn't sure he would ever really understand what went on in their minds.
"Why would she do that?" He asks genuinely curious.
"Because Hinata is Hinata. She's extremely empathetic. She hates to see other people suffer, even if they deserve it." Hanabi tells him.
"Oh I see. She is a sensitive soul. I have an aunt like that." He says knowledgably.
Hanabi tilts her head to the side curiously. She had never really thought about it before, but she supposed it was only natural Summons had families. The brunette was surprised to learn that apparently at least Rio kept in touch with his.
"Are you close to your family?" She inquires.
"Some of them. It is a rather large family. Our kind tend to breed much faster than humans. So it can be difficult to keep in touch. I have a few relatives who I am close to though." Rio answers her question.
"Oh well that's good." Hanabi replies and Rio nods.
Rio nods. Family was very important. He closes his eyes and relaxes on his pillow. He dozes off.
Hanabi giggles. He was such a cute snake. She was surprised that Sasuke could summon something like Aoda and Rio. Snakes were apparently quite…versatile. With that thought in mind, she heads to the garden to speak with the couple.
"Sister are you okay?" Hanabi asks.
"I think so. I still can't believe he's really gone. I wish all this could have been prevented." She mumbles and Sasuke wraps his arms around her tightly.
"Yeah. But he deserved it. Are you guys going to go to the festival?" She asks.
"What festival?" Sasuke asks.
"The one for all the Clans. We go every year." The younger Hyuga sister replies.
Sasuke looks at Hinata. He wondered if she would want to go to the festival. It was a Clan function, so it would hopefully be less annoying than a stupid reunion. Plus it was a chance to see her in a kimono (and if he was lucky, maybe take said kimono off of her.)
"Do you want to go?" She asks Sasuke, not sure if he wanted to risk it with his memories coming back.
"If you do. It's probably be good to socialize with the other Clans anyway." He says and kisses her forehead.
She smiles. Hinata nods at Hanabi. It looked like they were going to go to the festival.
"Great! You'll love it!" Hanabi says.
Obito watches them and chuckles. They still had Clan Festivals? He hadn't been to one of those in years. Perhaps he should crash the party.
A few days later the Clan Festival was in full swing. Sasuke blinks as he walks with Hinata's arm linked to his. There had to be hundreds of people here and that was just the Hyugas. The crowd surely numbered in the thousands.
Hanabi had insisted they wear watching kimonos. Sasuke normally didn't care about such things. But he did find himself happy that he and Hinata were wearing matching navy blue kimonos. It identified them as being together. He hadn't proposed to her yet, so it would have to serve as a stand in for the engagement ring he bought her.
"Everyone's staring." She whispers into his ear.
"Who can blame them? You look beautiful. It's alright. You know these people, don't you?" He asks.
"Of course, they are other Leaf Villagers. I grew up alongside some of them like Shino and Kiba." She answers.
Sasuke would have preferred not to hear Kiba's name. That dog really irritated him. But it couldn't be helped. He was Hinata's teammate and a fellow ninja of the Leaf. They were bound to run into each other.
The Uchiha knew for Hinata's sake, he couldn't Chidori the other man into the nearest wall. So he would try to play nicely with him. But the mutt needed to learn to back the fuck off. He wasn't sure if Kiba was just protective of his teammate or if he also had feelings for Hinata. Either way, he was going to have to accept that they were together.
"Then you have nothing to worry about. If anyone should be concerned, it's me. I doubt everyone is convinced that I'm trustworthy yet and the fact I stole their princess probably doesn't help." He says and leads her further into the crowd.
"You didn't steal me." she protests.
"To them, I might as well have." Sasuke says and notes the Full Moon and starry sky, the streets were lit by thousands of colorful lanterns, and music was playing.
Hinata shakes her head. She wraps her arms around his neck and sways to the music. Maybe if she encouraged him to do normal things, he'd feel more comfortable around the others.
Sasuke smiles. He knew exactly what Hinata was up to and he didn't mind. His arms wrap around her waist and they sway to the music.
"They do seem happy together." Neji muses to Hiashi and his uncle nods.
"It seems to be a crowd pleaser." He notes and glances as more people started to notice Sasuke and Hinata's arrival and dancing.
Idly, he wondered when or how Sasuke had learned how to dance. He had only been seven when his family was killed. Did Uchihas start teaching their children that early for events like this? He very much doubted the Sound gave out dancing lessons. The very thought was absurd.
"I didn't know you could dance." Hinata whispers to Sasuke and leans into his arms.
"Neither did I." He answers and spins Hinata, suddenly his eyes glaze over as he remembers just how he learned how to dance.
Warning Disturbing Flashback
"You're joking. You can't be serious. How is dancing going to help me kill Itachi?" Sasuke asked Orochimaru in disbelief.
"It is good training for flexibility, speed, agility, and dodging. Besides, you have many women who are eager to help you with this portion of your training." The Sannin replied.
Sasuke looked at the older man as if he had grown another head. He seriously wanted Sasuke to learn to dance? What was he going to kill his brother in a Dance Off? This was so stupid.
"It can be quite lethal, I assure you. Perhaps Sinera you would like to demonstrate?" The ashen skinned man inquired and Sasuke saw a woman approach them.
Sinera turned out to be a beautiful woman, likely in her late twenties or early thirties. Though Sasuke realized that in the Sound age was quite a flexible thing. Some people who looked ten were actually twenty. Some fifty year olds looked thirty. It was impossible to tell.
Sasuke soon found out what Orochimaru meant by lethal. God only knows HOW Sinera had managed to hide that many weapons on her body. But as she was swaying seductively to some imaginary music, the weapons came flying out of her and several kunais caught on his sleeves, pinning him to the wall quite effectively.
"I assure you that she could have killed you quite easily, if she had been trying to. Such a beautiful form of taijutsu, is it not?" Orochimaru asked.
"…" Sasuke is speechless.
A few weeks pass with this "training." Sasuke at the time had only been fifteen. But he was far from oblivious. Sinera was clearly interested in making music together in more ways than one.
He wasn't entirely sure if she thought that Orochimaru would favor her more if she got pregnant by him, she was a cougar, or if perhaps she just wanted his child because she knew how valuable the Sharingan was. She would be set for life whether she raised the kid and sought citizenship in a village that wanted a bloodline or killed the child for their eyes later on. He suspected it might actually be a combination of most of those things.
"You know it seems to me that your goals are a bit out of order." She said to him one day while they were training.
"Why do you say that?" He asked as he spun her around.
"If you die facing Itachi, your Clan dies with both of you. It would be far wiser to have a child before you faced him." She informed Sasuke as she was spun back into his arms and that's when she made her fatal mistake.
Sinera actually tried to emphasize her point by sliding her hand into his pants and grasping his manhood. Sasuke's eyes narrowed in outrage. She thought he was an idiot.
She actually thought that he'd fall for her seduction. That he was just some dumb kid, who couldn't think with more than one head at once. Perhaps this had been Orochimaru's plan all along. Assign him a beautiful dance instructor, have her seduce him, and he'd have a backup vessel after Sasuke's body eventually failed. It all made sense now.
"Get your hand off of me before I remove it for you." He hisses.
"You don't need to be so shy. I am a very patient teacher." She told him.
Sasuke vaguely wondered how many people she had "taught." He decided he really didn't want to know. Sexuality was just part of life at the Sound. They were criminal ninjas. Most of whom had no problem indulging in whatever desires they had and of course some of those were carnal in nature.
"I don't need or want you to teach me anything." Sasuke hissed and pushed her off of him.
She wasn't that easily deterred though. Sasuke saw the needle fly at him and recognized what substance it was coated with. A rather powerful drug that stimulated sexual arousal. She was actually going to try to him to sleep with her by drugging him.
"Always so difficult." She murmured in a way that reminded Sasuke of how someone might address a badly behaved child.
He'd never been so angry in his life. He charged up a Chidori and drove it into her heart, after dodging the needle. How dare she try to drug him?! His lips curl in disgust as her body fell lifeless through the ground. He looked at his blood drench handed and calmly goes to wash it off in the nearby river.
Sasuke's eyes widen when the memory finishes. He felt like he was going to be sick. He had killed someone in cold blood.
"Hinata, I'll be b-ack." He mutters quickly and races off towards the surrounding forest where he could find some privacy.
"Sasuke?" She asks in confusion and blinks when he ran off so quickly.
She frowns. Everything had been going fine. They were dancing and it seemed like he was enjoying himself and suddenly he looked as though he was going to be ill. She decides to follow him.
Sasuke finds a quiet spot in the forest. There he lost his valiant battle he had been fighting. He had tried so hard not to vomit, but it was just too much. He bends over and soon loses everything that he had eaten that day.
Blood. There had been so much blood. He could actually remember the feeling of that woman's heart in his hand as his Chidori connected with it and caused her to die an instant, gruesome death. Even more disturbing was the fact that he had ENJOYED killing her. What kind of monster had he been?
"I take it your memories are returning after all. Tell me, what did you see?" Obito asks from the shadows.
"Who is there?!" Sasuke demands as he stands up and unsheathes his sword, upon hearing a voice.
"Calm yourself. I am not here to fight. It is quite the opposite really. I am here to help you." Obito says as he reveals himself.
Sasuke eyes the man warily. He looked so familiar somehow and yet he couldn't place him. But he knew that he SHOULD remember this man. Something inside him knew that he should run. Speaking to this man wouldn't end well and that's when a flood of memories was triggered in rapid succession.
Warning More Disturbing Flashbacks
"Impressive, Sasuke. You've defeated a thousand opponents all by yourself. But why didn't you kill them?" Orochimaru asked him.
"I had no reason to do so. They aren't the one I want to kill." He replied as he sheathed his sword.
"If you can't kill strangers, how will you ever be able to kill Itachi?" The Sannin inquired.
"When the time comes, I will tear him apart." Sasuke answered in a voice filled with such hatred, it shocked him to his core.
More flashes passed him by. Every day on his way to train with Orochimaru, he would hear tormented screams and cries of agony coming from the labs. Sasuke knew that people were being medically experimented on.
Some were their of their own free will, others not. And yet, he ignored them. Every day, he walked by as if they were nothing more than insects, not worthy of acknowledgement.
Sometimes fights would break out at the Sound. He would watch idly as people fought to the death. He didn't bother to get involved. These people meant nothing to him. The only thing that mattered to him was killing Itachi.
"No please!" A Cloud villager begged for their life.
Sasuke knew he couldn't spare this villager. He had just happened to stumble upon their camp. He didn't know this man. He only knew that if he let him escape, the Leaf might find out his location. He couldn't let that happen.
"Sorry, I can't risk it." He replied and slammed his sword into the man, killing him instantly.
He was numb to it by this point. His list of kills certainly numbered in the dozens, if not hundreds. Ninjas were killing machines, he told himself. It didn't mean anything. It was what they were bred to do. He shouldn't feel guilty. At least he hadn't killed his own family like Itachi.
Again and again the images flashed. Images of battles. There was blood. So much blood. Screams and cries of utter agony. He killed without any remorse or ignored the pleas for help. He was…nothing but a machine with only one purpose, to kill Itachi. To make him suffer for what he had done to their family.
End of Disturbing Flashbacks
"Stay away from me." Sasuke hisses at him.
"Ah so you remember me then? I'll take that as a good sign. I should have foreseen that the truth would be difficult for you to process. Though I never expected you to repress your memories. That was my oversight." Obito continues as he approaches Sasuke.
Sasuke snapped. He lunged at the other man. He didn't know who he was exactly. But he knew that if he talked to him, more of these horrible memories would come back. HE DIDN'T WANT THEM!
"Now Sasuke, that is no way to treat family." He chides him and side steps the attack, which was a good thing for Obito because it would have been a lethal one otherwise.
"Family?" Sasuke asks in disbelief.
"We are from the same clan." Obito replies and watches Sasuke to see what reaction this would trigger from him.
The same Clan? But his Clan had all been killed by Itachi. He was sure of it. That's what all his memories said. It couldn't be. Could he really have a family member who was alive?
"I can see you are skeptical. Allow me to remedy that." He says and activates his Sharingan.
Sasuke's eyes widen. It was true. He was definitely related to this man by blood. Well unless he had somehow gotten a transplant. But that seemed unlikely. Sasuke stops, frozen in shock.
"What do you want?" He asks.
"I want for you to know the truth. I want for this village to be punished for what they have done to our family and to so any other innocents." He replies.
The younger Uchiha eyes Obito warily. What did he mean by that? What had the Leaf done to their Clan? It was Itachi who killed them. And who were these innocents Obito was referring to?
"Sasuke? Sasuke?" He hears Hinata call out.
"Oh dear. It seems your lover is calling for you. We shall continue this conversation later." Obito says and disappears just as Hinata was coming into view.
"Hinata!" Sasuke says and races over to his angel, embracing her.
"Are you alright? You ran off. I was worried." She mumbles and snuggles into his embrace.
Sasuke sighs and lays his head on top of hers. He didn't know how to answer her question. What had the other man meant by all that? Was it all true? How could he possibly explain this to Hinata? He didn't understand it himself. So how could she ever be expected to?
"I'm sorry to have worried you. I am worrying myself though." He tells her.
"What do you mean? Sasuke, what is going on?" Hinata asks.
"Honestly, I don't know. But…it seems that I am not the last Uchiha. There's another. He was just here." Sasuke says.
"Sasuke, maybe we should go home. I think you are having hallucinations." She says with concern.
Sasuke bit his lower lip. Maybe he WAS having hallucinations. His mind was far from the most stable of places right now. He had just relived so much horror. Was it possible the other man had been nothing more than a hallucination? A way to copy with the hole in his heart left by his departed family?
"Maybe. You're right. Let's go home. I am so sorry that I ruined the festival for you." Sasuke murmurs.
"You didn't ruin it." She says and leads him back to the others, seeking out her father.
Hiashi blinks. He saw Hinata approaching him with Sasuke. She looked worried about something. He quickly strides over to his daughter to see what was wrong.
"Hinata?" He asks in concern.
"Father, Sasuke and I are going back to the estate. He's not feeling well. I think it was something he ate." Hinata mumbles.
"Oh of course. Well I hope you feel better soon, Sasuke. It is probably best you go and rest in that case." He says with a nod.
Sasuke thanks him for his well wishes. He allows himself to be led off by Hinata. His mind kept asking the same questions over and over again. Was that man real? Had he just imagined him? Had the Leaf actually done something to his family? Who were the innocents that the other Uchiha had referenced?
Hinata takes him to their room. She shuts the door behind him and soundproofs their room. She figured that Sasuke would want privacy to discuss whatever had happened.
"I remembered a lot of things. I can see why everyone was so scared of me at first. I really was a monster. Do you know what I did? Do you know what sort of horrible things I've done? How can you possibly love me?" He asks.
Hinata shakes her head. She kisses Sasuke's cheek and caresses it. She bit her lower lip, as she tries to find the words to explain.
"I don't know everything you did while you were away. I know enough to realize you did some very bad things. But it doesn't matter. This is who you really are. The only reason you did those things is because you were in horrible pain. Someone should have been there to help you through it. Maybe then, you wouldn't have left. But it doesn't matter now. I love you and I know that this is the real you, not the person who did those horrible things." She says in a rush.
"I love you to, my angel. I always will." He says and kisses her forehead, wraps her in his arms, and holds her tightly for the rest of the night, promising himself that he would never let her go.
