Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto
Hello~I'm back! I was so pumped about writing this next chapter I couldn't stop myself!
I wanted to write this chapter in a fairy tale style, like Sleeping Beauty where a married couple pines for a child
and a mysterious sorcerer or witch appears and grants them their wish but always on one special condition. Let me know what worked and what didn't!
Some Author's Notes: Oh no, I'm sorry if I failed to make it clear.
There are two Wakers, thus two Waker's Pearls who respectively serve each Waker. There is NOT just one Waker's Pearl. Sorry for the confusion TT TT
Oh, and I have to call Karin-"Karin," instead of "Uzumaki" because it'll be too damn confusing with Naruto being an Uzumaki as well. So please understand me flexing the rules haha;;
UNBETA and OOC
Summary: Uchiha (Past!Sasuke) is hoping to have Hyuuga (Past!Hinata) be a Waker's Pearl, his Waker's Pearl.
He is wary of Hyuuga's crush on past!Naruto so he is using his attractiveness to her enemies as a motivation for her to use him for revenge.
He insidiously watered the seed of begrudgement Hyuuga held against those including Haruno to make her serious about being the Waker's Pearl.
Ko, the only Hyuuga in the Realm and his retired body guard, agree to training her on the arts of the bakugan and the Gentle fist series.
To keep her safe from Kabuto and Karin's spying eyes, Uchiha fakes her death and disqualification, and Hyuuga begins to train in hiding.
The only ones who know of Hyuuga's survival are Uchiha, Ko and his wife, Kabuto, and Karin who decide to keep it secret and wait for their chance to strike.
"Ko, you've been practicing your welcome speech for an hour and a half. And it's almost midnight."
A tall, long dark haired man with full moon eyes made a good natured smile to his wife who returned that smile. They were an attractive looking couple in their late thirties, respectively 39 and 37, living in a rustic, charming cabin in the deep woods.
However, the knee-deep snow that concealed dangerous sheets of slippery ice and the gust of wind that snapped the only direction post "Welcome-" signaled that the married couple's environment was not that hospitable to most people.
A short, stout woman with wavy brown hair, Sara sighed with heavy disappointment and stored the hot pot soup she made for their young, charming guest back in the refrigerator.
His back rigid and opalescent white eyes sparkling, Ko recited his lines once again, placing his hand over his heart.
"Nice to meet you, Hyuuga san. It's great to meet a fellow Hyuuga in the Realm. I've heard a lot about you from Uchiha sama. I personally owe a huge debt to him, so I offered to be your caregiver and dojutsu master. You'll live with me and my wife, and we hope you'll enjoy living with us."
Impatient and feeling stressed over the Uchiha's delay, Sara sat on the dinner table next to Ko.
"Ko, it's late and it's snowing like crazy."
Then a creeping sense of worry and dead forced her to ask him, "You don't suppose...the Second Waker has changed his mind, do you?"
To his wife who was biting on her nails, Ko shook his head, "If Second Waker sama hasn't changed, he'll definitely be here soon."
Sara murmured "I hope so" and stood up to peer out a small window next to the door. It was scary dark and the wind was howling and scattering snowflakes everywhere, hitting the window panes. She prayed that they would come safe, especially the child.
"Nice to meet you, Hyuuga san-"
"Ko, stop it for a second."
"Sara, I have to practice-"
"Shhh! Come over here!"
Once Ko got to the window, he activated his byakugan.
Their Victorian style ceiling clock struck twelve and the gong echoed in the living room. The wind outside tuned a harsh, shrill whistle.
With shivering hands, the mistress of the cottage turned the knob and pushed open the heavy wooden door.
A blizzard of snow threatened to enter with the tall man, wearing a thick hooded cape. Affected by the harsh climate and lack of sustenance, his pale, chapped lips had a purplish hue and ebony brow and lashes were downed with white snowflakes. But his glowing red eyes with lazily spinning tomoes never looked so alive, and their eerie vitality added a haunting aura to his ghastly appearance.
Unable to recognize his haggard state at first, Ko gasped, "Second Waker sama…"
Without even taking off his hood or saying a word, he withdrew his mantle cloak over his shoulder, and both husband and wife approached to see what has been carefully enfolded in his arms during his bleak, awful travel in the snowy woods.
Hiding beneath the cloak was a dark haired girl, peacefully asleep as if his arms were the safest place to be. Judging by the ruddiness of her cheeks and lips, the man took extreme care in making sure she was warm even at his own expense.
Even as he laid her down on the sofa next to the fireplace, she wouldn't wake up. The light of the fire played on her features, casting shifting shadows underneath her dark eyelashes. Ko wondered if she was under some trance, because it is impossible to turn a deaf ear to the wind's craning howls.
The said man looked down at her for a while, and then walked over to the door and adjusted his mantle and hood.
Even though Sara felt like she should invite him to stay for the night, there was something about the Uchiha that silenced those around him. He was not necessarily being hostile towards Ko or her, but he had this air that hardly made him approachable.
And he certainly didn't seem the type to enjoy taking his time in accomplishing his task. He looked at Ko who understood his message and tactfully moved to the side of the door to give him some privacy. Ko nodded slowly after a few words the hooded man told him.
After a slight nod towards the couple, he twisted the knob of the door and went back into the gusty night storm.
The sound of the heavy door shutting reverberated through the room, and for the moment the fire place went out, only to be revived again at the absence of the visitor's gloomy presence.
She didn't realize how thick the tension was in the room, until she felt relaxed enough to tell her husband of her first impression of the infamous Second Waker.
"He's...very different from what I expected."
When her husband raised an eyebrow at her, she elaborated-
"The last thing you would feel towards the co-ruler of this world is 'pity.' But I honestly felt kind of bad for him when he took that one last look at the girl before leaving like that."
'He looked like he was going to cry,' she thought as she remembered how the man's haughty and always angry looking expression changed as he spared one last look at the sleeping girl. He gritted his teeth and his thickly lashed dark eyes showed such turmoil and distress that she nor or husband would associate with the stoic ice king. It was as if he was forced to leave a limb, leg or an arm, behind.
Trying to dispel the memory of the man's face, she went up upstairs and brought a checkered blanket to offer more warmth to the girl. When she went over to the sofa and bent over to take a closer look at the girl, her fingers automatically touched the midnight blue hair that fringed her forehead.
At her touch, Hyuuga's milky white eyes with lavender shadows fluttered open, and both Ko and Sara can see the evidence of the child's special heritage and ethereal beauty.
Her eyelashes naturally curled upward and her pearl eyes blinked owlishly as she momentarily faced the two adults who were staring at her.
Blood rushed to her smooth, pale cheeks, culminating into a soft bloom of health and shyness, as she wondered if she was just imagining things-a brunette lady and a man with white eyes like hers.
"Ah.."
But the girl soon succumbed to deep, groggy sleep and her eyes slid shut as the lights went out.
When Hyuuga snuggled underneath the gentle source of warmth, the blanket, Sara gasped and then quickly turned her face away to hold in her tears.
"Oh, Ko," she whispered, "She has your eyes." Tears were starting to prickle at the edge of her eyes.
Despite her emotional state and need for rest, she refused to leave Hyuuga's side and sat on her rocking chair to gaze at the girl who made a slight smile as she slept.
Sara finally opened her mouth, "She's so perfect. It's like having Hana back..."
He started. He then whimsically gazed at his wife and the girl.
Sara always wanted children, but sadly things haven't worked out in accordance to her wish. What nearly killed her was her last miscarriage with a baby girl. They even nicknamed the unborn, "Hana" for "flower," hoping that she would come to them like the warm breath of spring. But that never happened.
Ever since, they lost their chance or felt too tired for hope, she and Ko decided to just dedicate their lives for each other.
Seeing a young, innocent girl sleeping on their living room sofa must have sparked some deeply buried longing in her heart.
Ko noticed his wife's deep attachment to the sleeping girl, and he knew his wife would be a great caregiver and mother figure if she was given the chance.
'A chance...' he thought. "Maybe this is our last chance to have a family we always wanted."
But soon he felt an unexpected chill down his spine, akin to fear, as he envisioned a pair of flashing red eyes and an ominous voice
The midnight of her sixteenth birthday, I'll come back to retrieve the child.
Ko wondered, 'Would it be too cruel to remind Sara that we're only living with Hyuuga for three years?'
But he shook his head, 'Maybe, it would be wiser to see how things progress between Sara and Hyuuga. Hopefully, the Hyuuga will show some negative trait
that will make her dislikable to Sara, like being spoilt or too stuck up."
"There, there, we aren't going to hurt you..."
Never leaving her gaze from Sara's outstretched hand, Hyuuga scurried to the corner of the living room and wrapped herself with the checkered blanket.
A light lavender eye peered from the blanket and stared at every corner of this strange place she found herself in.
Sara bent on her knees to get to look at her in the eye level, while Ko was standing and shaking his head in dismay.
As soon as the girl woke up on the sofa, she freaked out and darted away every time Sara and Ko tried to get close to her.
Ko offered, "Hyuuga sama, didn't the Second Waker sama tell you about us?"
When she remained silent, neither nodding or shaking her head, Sara sighed, "That untrustworthy..."
Ko began to try speaking soothingly to the girl, "Hyuuga sama, the Second Waker has asked us to take care of you before you go back to the Palace. Because I'm the only one who knows how to wield the byakugan in battle, he decided that I would be a good fit for you."
She was still quiet but her wide eyes hinted that she was listening, so he continued, "Of course, because we live in the woods, you might find it uncomfortable living here. If that's the case, we can tell the Second Waker and he can...'
"I-it-it's no-not that!" both Ko and Sara were surprised to hear the girl's light, airy voice that is becoming of her fragile looks.
She hid her mouth behind her fingers, "I-I'm sorry for being rude. I do know bo-both of you."
Both Ko and Sara were temporarily relieved that the Second Waker did have enough common sense to explain to her what will happen.
"It's just...I wasn't ex-expecting to be a-alone with you."
Both the adults' faces showed surprised O's at her word. It seemed that this little girl who looked incapable of hurting a fly was pretty close to the famed ice king.
Gathering courage, she lifted her doe-like eyes toward them, "Ca-can I ask where he is?"
Sara looked at her husband for help, "Oh sweetie..."
Despite Ko's best effort to be as tactful as he can be, Hyuuga still seemed shocked by the fact that Waker sama just left without bothering to say good-bye.
She sat on the corner, burying her face in the blankets that she huddled like a plush animal.
'I can't believe...he just left,' she thought. 'with lizard chan too.'
An hour seemed to pass, and she was starting to feel hungry and even more depressed and sulky. She was dirty too, but at this point she was passed caring.
Whiinnng-
She flinched at the sound of the mixer running in the kitchen and thought, 'I wonder what is going on.' She never saw a real mixer before, but she remembered seeing them in cookbooks she borrowed from the palace library.
Then a wafting, golden smell of burning sugar made her raise her eyes in the direction of the kitchen.
Her ears then perked at the tentative call of Sara, "Umm, Hyuuga-?"
Sara personally hated calling the child by her last name. It was beyond her why the Second Waker allowed people and even himself to call her by the family name that refers to her painful past of being abandoned for the sake of the fallen clan.
But rules are rules, and their '3 year contract' obligated her to always call the candidate by her last name.
"Hyuuga, I made this cake for you," Sara cooed gently, "It's a cake that I made with my homemade marzipan creme."
Seeing her pearl white eyes glitter with excitement, Sara made an inward fist pump of triumph.
After reading from the Second Waker's letters, she learned that the Hyuuga girl liked sweets and Sara was one good cook. She won the local village's cooking contest for the past years and even was invited to be on the judge panel for the province's dessert competition.
She extended the plate temptingly, "Hyuuga, aren't you going to have it?"
And indeed, she was starting to feel her mouth salivate at the sight of the delectably whipped creme on top of the smooth, fluffy cake.
The cake was so beautiful it was enough to crumble her previous resentment towards Waker sama and her situation.
Sara did a mock sigh and touched her own cheek in dismay, "Honey, if nobody is going to take it, I guess I have to just throw it away."
Ko, who knew what his wife was up to, made a mock impression of dismay as well, "My New Year's Resolution is no processed sugar, so I guess we're left with no choice."
'No-!'
Hyuuga rose from her seat and let the blanket fall to the floor, "I-I-I'll have it!"
As Sara showed her way to the bathroom so she could take a bath before eating, Ko muttered to himself, "It seems that it's going to be us who's spoiling the Hyuuga."
You're using your strength in the wrong way, Hyuuga sama."
In the middle of teaching her the Taijutsu techniques that he alone knows, Ko decided to take a break with her by the natural stream.
"You shouldn't try to emulate the use of pure physical strength like your peers or force your chakra usage to another mold."
She meekly nodded and blushed. 'Ko sensei is so sharp. He figured out my bad habits that Waker sama used to point out."
'And it is me trying to be a copy-cat,' she winced at the memory of Haruno and Karin and how she gawked at their superb control of chakra. They always acted as if managing that flow was as effortless as breathing in air.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get to Haruno's level of chakra control. And her possession of the byakugan left no room for excuse for her inferior performance and provided more room for Seto and Takahashi gang's ridicule.
Honestly, if I had the byakugan...I would do much MUCH better than that.
That was the silent message she got from their actions.
"Are you okay, sweetie?"
Sara's gentle voice pulled her out of her dark train of thoughts and desire to see her foes' pain, and she smiled brightly, "Ye..yes."
'It will hurt Sara if I tell her that I'm starting to remember my past. She already listened to my boring stories of being bullied. I don't want her to worry about me any more.'
Ko sensei opened his ceramic water bottle and filled it to the brim and offered it to her first.
"Lizard chan, was it? Your teacher did an amazing job teaching you the proper defensive stance and the basic fighting postures. "
Receiving the bottle with two hands, she bowed her head meekly and took two large gulps.
"But who taught you how to use your byakugan to see chakra pathway systems and the tenketsu(pressure points)?"
"Li-lizard chan did that a bit, sensei, but it was messenge-no, I mean, Se-second Waker sama."
He almost coughed out his water in the most unsightly way, "Excuse me, Hyuuga sama, but did Uchiha sama ever show you his..."
After some thought, he changed his mind and shook his head, "Never mind, Hyuuga sama."
His hesitance to ask whatever question actually made her want to alleviate whatever concern was in her new teacher's head.
"He...never really showed anything, sensei. It's just...Waker sama has this uncanny ability to see through a stranger's chakra pathway system and memorize all the 361 tenketsu points just with two minutes of sparring."
He almost lost his composure then and there. "He...told you that?"
She took another sip. She felt parched from the hours of training. "Umm, not really, no. But...I observed him really hard for the three years I've known him, and I saw a pat-pattern to his style of fighting."
"I see..."
'So it seems both the Waker and the girl have been watching each other. I can tell why the Waker sees so much potential in her.'
Ko made a bright smile and stood to his full height, "Hyuuga sama, it seems we have a lot to cover."
"I can tell that you've worked very hard to get as much as you can from your previous trainings, and I'm proud of you for that."
Not used to compliments, her ears perked up,
"Now the next step is to not just see the tenketsu, it is to attack them."
"How-how can I do that?"
"What you ultimately lack is a training on how to block the tenketsu, the knot in your opponent's chakra pathway."
Looking as decisive as ever, he faced the wide-eyed girl, "By the end of our three years, I'll teach you everything I know about our clan's techniques, Hyuuga sama."
3 years later, the day of Hyuuga's sixteenth birthday
Small hands delicately wrapped a plastic seal over a steel bowel full of chocolate chip cookie dough and patted the rim of the bowl.
Milk white eyes with lavender shadows blinked and stared intently at the cookie dough.
Without even a stutter, the owner of the eyes exclaimed, "It already smells wonderful!"
"It is after all OUR award winning recipe," she proudly shrugged and then ruffled the girl's midnight blue hair that has grown down to her back,"And for that, we're going to a spa trip!"
But Hyuuga was far more interested in the treat sitting before her than some distant onsen trip.
"Can I lick the dough?"
Shaking her head, Sara refused to spoil her little princess this time, "You got sick after doing that, remember?"
"Hyuuga sama-"
At the familiar low voice, she turned to see a pleasantly smiling man with eyes very much like hers.
"Ko san!"
Ko opened his arms wide so the petite young woman can dive into his chest and give him a big bear hug.
Wiping her hands off a microfiber towel, Sara asked, "Aren't you guys tired of greeting each other as if it's been forever?"
"Oh," he went, "how long was I out again?"
"It's been six hours," she retorted, "how was downtown?" Her eyes twinkled a bit menacingly when she asked for the more important part, "Honey, you brought our award certificate for winning the dessert contest, right? The spa trip?"
But seeing the smile on Ko's face falter made her sigh, "You didn't."
He rubbed his face with his right hand, "I must've totally forgot. My memory's deteriorating as I get old."
"Shut up, I'm two years older than you," she snapped, "Next time, I'm not trusting you to get our mail from downtown"
"Bu-but, you always do, Sara san," the girl smiled brightly, a light dusty pink on her cheeks as she teased her caregiver gently, "And you love living here too much to move closer to the villages."
"Hyuuga," Sara playfully pinched her round cheek, earning an indignant squeak, "do play 'milkmaid' for me and get a gallon of milk and the award certificate your teacher forgot to bring on his way home."
"Aww," she was about to meekly protest as she is still a terrible introvert at heart and the downtown tends to be a bit rowdy and crowded during this season, but Sara gently placed a clean finger on her light pink, pouty lips.
"We need butter for the cake."
"Wh-when I come back!" she called out as the wind threatened to swallow her voice down, "don-don't forget our promise!"
She made a satisfactory humph when she saw Sara and Ko nod and smile behind the window panes and turned to make her trip.
During her trip, she huddled closer to herself as she buried her face in Sara's hand-knitted, purple scarf and trudged through the snow.
'Ko sensei promised me to tell me his secret. About why he came to the Realm and how he met Waker sama, if I master the Gentle Fist. I am so close to achieving most of the Gentle step sequences!"
The three years she has spent with Ko and Sara passed like wind-scattered snowflakes in her mind. She never knew it was possible to feel this happy and warm.
'If father and mother were alive,' she thought whimsically, 'this might have been my life.'
Cooking in the kitchen with mom and spending time with the training ground with her father. These might have been hers if they were alive.
But she was not the one to complain. Her nervous tic of stuttering and fidgeting showed substantial improvement as well as her Taijutsu and byakugan wielding skills.
But most of all, their love and attentiveness gave her the confidence she needed.
As she finally arrived at the town, she hurriedly wrapped her face around with the purple scarf.
She rarely went to town by herself, as she was still very introverted and didn't want to be alone without Sara or Ko when people openly stare at her strange, otherworldly eyes and hair.
Then suddenly a very dark chakra outstretched its claws towards her, and she snapped her view towards the general direction it was coming from.
But when she discreetly activated her byakugan, the veins settling around her large white eyes, she saw nothing in particular-just civilians minding their business in a hustling bustling village.
'Strange...' she wondered. 'Why am I feeling so...jumpy?'
Shaking her head, she tired to snap out of her fear and unease, 'It's nothing, I'm sure.'
As she visited both the postal office and the bakery to get the mail and milk, she kept getting this uncomfortable feeling of being watched.
It has driven her to the point where she would tuck tail and run and shudder to notice that the dark thing that flitted across her range of vision, has never existed in the first place.
'I...' she felt her hands shivering as she gripped on her carton of milk, 'I need to go home, fast.'
She felt better as she walked deep in the woods, away from the suffocating gazes of the villagers. Of course they meant no harm, but sometimes she would detect the blatant gazes of some men that made her squirm in loathing. Some even had the audacity to catcall at her and laugh whenever she shrunk to herself and left in a hurry.
She chastised herself, "Ne-next time , if I ever go to the village by myself again, I will seal their tenketsu to their mouths!"
Just saying that aloud made her feel a hundred times better.
"So then I said," the whiskered villager chuckled, "do you need help carrying those, miss? That...burdensome rack?"
His two companions laughed, tears threatening to come out.
"You should have heared what I said," anothered cleared his throat and cupped his mouth with both hands, "Mooooooo mooooooo!"
But as soon as their laughter receded, they saw a huge shadow engulfing them like a thunderstorm cloud.
"What the—"
And a series of bloody shriek filled the air before abating into a disturbing calm.
The village suddenly felt very dead like a ghost town.
"Kyahh!"
Hyuuga stopped in the middle of feeding a wild rabbit a piece of basil she got from the market and stared at the general direction of a woman's blood curdling scream.
As she activated her bakugan, thin veins snapped across the corners of her eyes. She saw one of the most classic scenes in third rate fantasy novels, a hooded damsel being surrounded by three muscular village hooligans.
The rabbit squeaked as it saw her move like a jet, hastily picking up her eco-bag that had her carton of milk and a small parcel of groceries.
One drooling bald man approached the hooded damsel while his friend tried to grab her from the left, "Haha, come here, you cutie, we don't bite-"
But their lascivious smiles faltered a bit at the rather low and unnatural intonation of the damsel in distress.
"Kyah...Someone, please save my virtue~"
"The fuck? Who says tha-"
Tookwak!
But Hyuuga slammed her knee against the temple of his forehead sent him reeling off in a speed of light.
Before his comrade can draw his sword, she lightly tapped on his right shoulder cap and immobilized his arm before landing a swift consecutive double strike on his rib cage that caused him to drop like a paper doll.
Out of curiosity, she slid out the sword that her victim was about to pull out. It was long and had a nice polished edge to it.
But the damsel's cry snapped her out of her appreciation of the weapon, "Wa-watch out!"
At the unexpected entrance of the hero, the last man loaded the barrel chambers of both of his pistols with the snap of his wrists and aimed them at the girl with flying midnight black hair.
It didn't matter to him that the hooded girl was standing right behind the woman with long sleek black hair, and he was about to kill both without a speck of remorse.
In his mind, the woman loomed larger than any bear over his unconscious companions.
Tang-! Tang-! Tang-!
The gilded bullets made rings of ripple effect across the air as they zeroed in on her back.
Her long dark hair fluttered like black silk curtains as the bullets threatened to use her lithe back as their bull's eye.
Using her bakugan's 360 degree angle view, she swept her sword gripped hand and sliced the bullets in a stroke as if they were cherry tomatoes.
When the man gasped and drew back his guns, he saw the simultaneously dazed and pointedly lethal look on Hyuuga's round, delicate face. She looked as if she was drinking in the heat of battle as if it was some calming incense. It showed that she was no ordinary woman.
"Ah...Ahhh!"
When the last turned and started to run, she quickly rummaged her eco bag that she had slung over her left shoulder and opened her milk carton.
Using a few hand Justus, she drew out four crystalline water needles from the carton and threw them like kunais, hitting him at the exact pressure points.
When the man went pff- and fell on the snow, she screwed the lid to her milk carton and ran toward the damsel who sank to the ground in relief.
"Da-daijobu-desuka?!"
She knelt before the hooded woman and examined her face. She looked about her age and was very pretty. She had bright azure eyes and honey tan complexion that Hyuuga has always envied since back in her Palace days. Golden blond locks that managed to escape from the confines of her hood tumbled across her shoulders.
The only downside to her beauty seemed to be the strange whisker shaped scars on both sides of her cheek, but the blemish gave her this feline, vixen-like charm that Hyuuga knew she could never get.
No wonder the hooligans tried to bother her.
She smiled warmly and stretched out her hand, "I'm glad to know you're okay."
"Th-thank you so much for saving me! I-"
But when she saw her face, the girl's blue eyes widened and her face completely stilled.
"Wait, you..."
As she pointed her finger toward her face, Hyuuga felt this unknown sense of dread gripping her heart, 'What is this feeling...does this girl...know me?'
"You...Hyuuga?"
As her name escaped from the stranger's lips, she felt as if someone lanced her heart with a long icicle.
"It's you, right? Hyuuga!"
For the first time in her life, Hyuuga regretted lending a helping hand to a stranger.
When the girl she didn't recognize held both of her hands, she noticeably recoiled and her face turned ashen white.
"Wow, it's been like forever! Where have you been all these years?"
The overtly friendly smile on the girl's face confused her deeply, "I'm..sorry, bu-but" damn that stutter, "do..I know you?"
"You were one of the candidates, right?"
As she felt her fingers grow cold and clammy, she smoothly brushed off the girl's fingers from her own.
The blond, tan girl made a good natured grin, oblivious to her savior's gradually stiffening face.
"I like to think that we were good friends!"
A dark tinge of irony was creeping into her voice, "Good...friends?"
"Yeah! We remember when we first met? You were getting beaten up by, God, what was their name-oh! Takahashi and Seto and then-"
But before the girl can complete her words, Hyuuga lunged forward and tackled her swiftly to the ground.
The stranger's wide blue eyes blinked at the aftermath of the shock of having the back of her head shoved into the ice cold snow.
"What the-!"
But she clammed her mouth right away as she felt a dangerous poke of metal on her neck. Hyuuga was poking her throat with the tip of an ice needle she made with her water control jutsu.
She even kept her lower body under restraint with her right knee and manacle-gripped both of her wrists to the ground.
Hyuuga whispered, her voice low and threatening, "Don't move."
When the mystery girl swallowed and looked up, she saw Hyuuga's round and soft face framed by long, silky dark tresses that gently fell to the snow and even parts of her own face. Her eyes reminded her of the entire Milky Way she would see when she goes star gazing on the roof tops of the Palace.
Desiring to avoid getting lost in Milky Way eyes and night sky hair, she averted her gaze but she ended up focusing on her plump, light pink lips that she innocently moistened with her own tongue.
And then she decided it was best to just lower her gaze, but her treacherous eyes remained fixated on the generous curves of her assaulter's body.
She accidentally voiced out her inner thoughts in her real voice, "Damn..."
Obviously having no way to know that this suspicious girl was checking her out, Hyuuga was battling all kinds of thoughts in her head.
'She must be one of the candidates? Was she looking for me? Then why did she act so friendly? Is this a new psychological trick they made up just to torture me?"
After a moment of deliberation, she finally asked, "Did Kabuto send you?"
Her captive innocently blinked her blue eyes and drawled her answer, "Nooo...Why do you say that? I hate that guy!"
Not buying her words, Hyuuga narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
I don't want to touch whatever she touches.
That was what Karin's friend said when she passed out her laboratory results in her glass canister. Although Kabuto publically scolded her, he looked rather pleased for the the opportunity to bring negative attention to Hyuuga. His malicious smile as he glanced at her was anything to go by.
At the rush of the unpleasant, painful memories, she bit her shivering lip and her shoulders showed a light tremor.
Forgetting her dangerous predicament, the girl reached out her hand in alarm, "Hey, are you oka-"
Pooskh!
Thankfully, Hyuuga's ice needle didn't land straight in the middle of the beach babe's face but at the right, barely missing the shell of her ear.
The impact of the ice needle puncturing the hole onto the snow scattered the surrounding ice particles, revealing dry, parched grass like a yellowish green halo around the girl's head.
The girl froze at the exact state she was in, arm outstretched the way it did a few mili-seconds ago.
She felt the delicate skin of her right ear prickling a bit, 'Did she just...cut my ear?!"
Keeping her cold, stormy pearl eyes fixed on her, Hyuuga separated herself from her shocked captive and came to her full height.
"I don't know who you are, and I don't care."
Eyes that used to show tender care and concern were now frigid as ice and full of scorn.
"But if you just stood back and watched while Takahashi and Seto beat me up,"
She spared her one last glance. Her knuckles turned white as they gripped the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
"you're not a friend."
She then turned her back.
"I wish to never see you again."
"Hyuuga, wait!"
But unerring to the stranger's cries, Hyuuga ran off and her long dark indigo hair swayed behind her. Unbeknowst to her, the girl was staring at her disappearing form as if entranced.
When Hyuuga disappeared, the girl sighed.
Then, Poof-
A smoke rose, and where the tan beach bunny used to be was the one and only First Waker-the Uzumaki. What remained were his soft, fuzzy blond hair, bright blue eyes, and naturally tan complexion and the whiskers Hyuuga has mistaken as scars and blemishes.
He stretched out his long, gangly legs and rubbed the back of his short blond haircut as he stared into the general direction she ran off to.
"Gosh, what was that for?"
He flinched, "Ow" when he felt his hand accidentally scrap against the cut she left on his ear and stared at the blood on his fingers.
Used to small cuts in daily trainings, he nonchalantly wiped the blood on his pants.
He couldn't stop replaying the moment she lunged at him and threw him off guard by pressing him on the ground and silencing his mouth with her chakra laced needle.
Now what was the great First Waker, the co-ruler of the Realm going to say to the Waker's Pearl candidate who dared to threaten his life, albeit unknowingly?
He covered his face with his long, tan fingers and his blond hair cast a dark shadow on his features.
"Wow, that was..."
His judgment on the totally unacceptable behavior of the candidate who shirked her duties to protect the sovereign of Light was,
"That was..." he concluded as he rubbed on the saturation of pink on his sunkissed face, "fucking hot."
Patting the air bubbles out of her cake batter, Sara asked Ko.
"Do you think the Uchiha will really come for her?"
He looked up. He was actually building the fire in their old-style oven and got distracted by her question.
When he contemplated his answer, she shook her head, "I've never really liked him, but I especially don't like the rumors that are going on.
Hyuuga's like family to us now. We can't leave her under the care of such cold, devilish man."
"Uchiha sama never does anything beyond the point of necessary." As he prodded at the fireplace that was getting resistant to his efforts, he offered an explanation for his past master's increasingly ruthless measures to control the Realm, "It seems that the insurrection forces joined with the Palace defectors had him stirred up."
"Even so..."
"Sara, we signed a contract. We agreed to take care of her for three years."
She swerved and looked at her husband with disbelief, "After all these three years, you're willing to give her back like she-she's some book you borrowed?"
It seemed Hyuuga's nervous stuttering rubbed a bit on her.
"Wait...this energy..."
As they felt the unfamiliar dark energy coming towards their peaceful abode, their eyes sharpened with every intention to fight-Ko's white eyes and Sara's brown.
Ko smoothed into his defensive stance while Sara was about to pull out a revolver from her kitchen drawer.
Slamm-!
But the source of the dark energy was no other than Hyuuga who has announced her arrival rather violently.
She had never ever slammed the door open or shut in her two years of living with Ko and Sara.
It was the most teenage-typical act of Hyuuga to have ever exhibited in front of the couple.
When he saw the pained expression on Hyuuga's face, like she was going to cry any minute, Ko approached her, "Hyuuga sama, are you alright?"
Without saying a word, she just gently placed her eco-bag on the kitchen counter and dashed up the stairs to her bedroom.
When she flung herself on her bed, she banged her face against her pillow repetitively.
"Why do they still have power over me?" she cried, "I am a hundred times stronger than I was two years ago, but why, why, why!"
More than those who have hurt and betrayed her, she was angrier and hurt over her inability to assert herself when she needed to.
By overreacting to the girl's surface level friendliness, she showed that she was still hurt like a wounded animal. And that showed that they still had power over her.
Even though technically it was her battle that she had won, emotionally she has fallen to her knees and admitted defeat. She tucked tail and ran from that honey blond beach bimbo who must have been one of Takahashi, Seto, or perhaps Karin's spectators.
Her tears started to leave blotchy water marks on her light purple pillow.
That evening, she tried to be at her best spirits when Ko and Sara celebrated her sixteenth birthday, the third birthday party to spend in their house, but the memories in the Palace felt too raw and real to be effaced.
She tried her best to ignore her ugly memories and distract herself with her loved ones, but what just transpired between her and the strange girl kept whispering into her ear: You can't forget us.
"You look so tired, Hyuuga sama," Ko gently offered, "Would you like to get some early rest?"
She nodded and rose from her seat and trudged up the stairs.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she slipped into her night grown and crawled under her bed covers and tried to close her eyes and sleep.
Right when she was about to fall asleep around midnight, she felt she heard a familiar voice of a man that was low and monotone.
"Hyuuga."
The velvety, low voice felt like it has just drifted from her dreams in her half-asleep state.
But the voice called out her name again. It was slightly louder and more prominent, suggesting that the speaker was just outside the window.
"Hyuuga."
Her opaque purplish white eyes widened as she realized she wasn't dreaming.
As soon as that epiphany hit her, she pulled off her thick bed covers from her and ran barefoot toward the rattling window panes. The window panes vibrated as the mountain wind hit the glass with tremendous force.
When she pushed open the window panes, she stared wide-eyed at first and then her pale lavender eyes shone in recognition.
Unable to finish her words, she felt her nose turning warm, like the time when she accidentally breathed in hot cayenne pepper in Sara's kitchen.
Her throat was feeling hoarse and burning as well.
"Ahh..."
He was sitting on one of the branches of the large ginkgo tree that grew next to her bedroom window.
Like always, he was wearing a black uniform suit and cape, and he looked both relaxed and on edge like a restlessly hovering panther.
For a moment, they both didn't say anything and merely stood staring at each other like children.
He was the one to initiate the conversation, "You grew out your hair."
She smiled as she made a light joke, "I've became a little bit more high maintenance, Waker sama."
He grunted and turned his face slightly away, and she giggled a little. He really hasn't changed, and it felt new being able to make a joke like a mature adult.
Then Hyuuga saw his hand outstretched and she looked up to his face with inquisitive white eyes.
He slowly opened his mouth, and her eyes widened as she felt his last words taking her breath away,
"I've come back for you, Hyuuga."