Title; Seraphim
Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.
Chapter Fourteen;
We were going to take a bus the rest of the way back to the city; Sasuke made a phone call to the Masons and told them to move to another safe house, it was a brief call and he didn't mention why he thought they needed to move; the first bus wasn't due to leave for another hour and a half yet so we had taken shelter in the 24 hour dinner next to the station.
"So why are we going back to the city now, instead of back to the cabin?" I asked the silent man sitting across from me; he was hunched over the table both of his elbows resting on it's off white surface, his rough fingers were entwined and hovered just slightly before his lips; his guns were wrapped up in his jumper and sat snuggly in the booth seat next to him, his sword- the one that would be invisible to the casual observer- was also next to him, propped up at an odd angle in the tight space.
"I've got a bad feeling, it's difficult to explain." Answered Sasuke a slight frown marring his pale features.
"Well, please try anyway." I tried to give him the most comforting smile I could, he rewarded my effort with an almost melodramatic sigh and a wolfish grin of his own; I tried not to blush, before he could say anything else however a 'big boned' waitress with a whisper of a moustache strolled over to our table.
"What can I get ya dears?" asked the woman, Pam according to her name tag.
My friend Ino works as a waitress in a coffee shop and she made a list of particular drinks and what exactly they told you about the drinker; any kind of soft drink meant a child at heart, someone innocent; cappuccino suited the elegant, sensual and seductive; espresso's were for people in a rush, rarely did someone not decked in a business suit order one of these; Hot chocolate was the romantics drink, it should only ever be ordered in pairs anyone ordering this drink and sitting alone was just pitiful really; Mocha orders symbolised a scattered mind; tea was for the old soul and coffee was for the average soul.
"Coffee, black." Ordered Sasuke without even turning to acknowledge the waitress; Coffee of course was boring unless it was taken without any condiments, then it was mysterious; Black coffee Ino told me symbolised a walking question mark.
"Tea please." I ordered offering the woman a polite smile after Sasuke's rudeness; the woman simply snorted, jotted down our orders and retreated back to front counter.
"You look cute like that." I didn't quite believe my ears at first as Sasuke uttered his complement.
"Eh, sorry what did you say?" I asked my tone confused and slightly shocked.
"It's cute, your hair like that." He clarified looking away from me towards the counter, I glanced over to and saw Pam approaching with our drinks.
"Oh, thank you." I had tied my hair into a low ponytail, it wasn't something I did often but it had been a couple of days longer than I would have liked since I had washed my hair and while purely cosmetic but it helped.
It felt odd though; just being here with Sasuke sipping a scalding cup of tea and being told I looked cute, it seemed unusually weird after everything I'd experienced with Sasuke since we'd met; I decided to enjoy it while I could, normal and Sasuke didn't exactly go in the same sentence very often.
"Have you been getting headaches lately, with your visions?" he asked softly surprising me once again, Sasuke also wasn't the one to start a conversation very often.
"Only for a little while, after I get one." I answered, I had noticed the mild migraine that accompanied waking for one of my memories.
"It's weird, when I'm in the memories I find it hard to concentrate; there's people in the visions who have been in others before that but I can't seem to remember exactly who they were until I wake up; by then it's all cloudy though." I didn't mention that the two people who showed up the most seemed to be very attached to Sasuke; the Blonde man and the Pink haired woman, their names always seemed to vanish after I've woken up.
"Except you, your always there; Sasuke what were we?" I asked, I could remember hating him, loving him and then hating him again; but I didn't know what we finished as.
Am I suddenly going to remember him as a friend, a comrade who I fled with; a man who I loved but refused to admit as much even though he died for me.
Or is there still a gap in my memory, an important one; I knew he had come back from his apparent death, how did I react to that. Had he come back and we fled together as lovers, or maybe I was just deluding myself.
"I've already told you Hinata, I can't tell you how you felt about me; but you were my everything." I wasn't sure how to react to that; the ire in his eyes, he wasn't exaggerating how he felt…so then, why did he push me away.
"T-then…w-why, why did you p-push me away?" I asked, my courage was faltering and that had awoken my old stammer.
"I told you why, the way I am now; it would kill you if we got close." He answered, voice blank and listless.
"You said it would kill me if w-we, eh you know; but you won't even let me touch your skin Sasuke." I returned, a slight blush shading my face; it didn't add up, and I wanted an honest answer.
"Are you so cruel Hinata?" he asked, his voice a deadly dark dawdle that made me skin crawl and sparks race up my spine.
"W-what?" I asked, feeling my face glow brighter; it shouldn't be legal for him to be able to be so seductive simply by lowering his speaking voice.
"You would ask me to get so close to paradise but hold back at the final step, you overestimate my self-control Hinata." He continued in his low lush tone never breaking eye contact, I didn't know how to respond to that.
We spent the rest of our time in an awkward, on my part anyway, silence sipping our drinks and avoiding eye contact; it wasn't often someone compared you to paradise and honestly meant it.
I heard that you were back.
Completely back.
Somehow you had remembered, you had come back just the moment you were about to be terminated; naturally you were pardoned for fleeing the order, after all you had had no part in fleeing it in the first place.
Naruto won't be so lucky, Lord Hiashi told me that he was going to have the Demon Fox sealed within him as punishment; I don't think that anybody's told you yet, I don't think that they will actually.
There suspicious of you now, afraid even I think; there recalling the situation with Hanabi; they never did find out exactly how the girl had learned a Seraphim rune, I didn't know myself actually.
She had used it to protect Sasuke from the Snake, Orochimaru; but they had sentenced her to death because knowledge of the rune was illegal, they had claimed that Hanabi must have gained knowledge of it to usurp the Konoha council; the Hyuuga clan had been but under close examination in case it was a conspiracy by the entire clan to revolt.
Now they wondered about Sasuke's involvement in it, they had originally assumed that if Sasuke had knowledge of a Seraphim rune then he would have used it himself; suddenly with this miraculous resurrection the Uchiha prince's involvement didn't seem so clear.
He was on my porch again.
Just like after Hanabi had been executed, he wasn't facing me but seemed to be taking in the garden's natural wonder; I supposed that if I had just cheated death then I might also find myself more appreciative of life's little wonders.
"You woke up then?" I asked, he didn't turn to face me and I tried my best to ignore the de-je-vu.
I heard a grunt, something, in the affirmative.
"You mind me asking how you managed that?" I prompted, wondering if I'd have to physically force him to face me again.
"I found myself drifting among the clouds in a blissful happiness, then all of a sudden an angel appeared before me." He spoke, and I found myself questioning whether he had indeed come back undamaged.
"She told me that I had yet to earn the right to die, I had made a promise to her in life and I had yet to fulfil the agreement. She commanded me to return to the land of the living and complete my task, only then would I be allowed to die and only then would I be forgiven." He finished, making a small hand gesture to symbolise…something; he finally turned to face me a small smirk on his face as he looked down at me.
Even after all the prepping and mental fortifying it was still a shock to see him there; alive, if I reached out I could actually touch him.
"Is that the truth?" I asked sceptically; after all this was a confirmed atheist telling me about his encounter with an angel.
"Maybe." He answered, suddenly seeming closer to me.
"Why are you here Uchiha?" I asked; annoyed at the man's apparent light-heartedness, for him anyway, he'd returned from the dead damn it he shouldn't be joking.
"Well I was wondering if you still hated me?" He responded, the breath left my body quickly as a result and I saw left gasping and staring at him wide eyed.
"I don't know." It was the honest answer, I had missed him; but I still don't know exactly how I really did feel about him, it didn't seem like a productive route to go down.
I didn't want to suddenly realise that the man I loved had died to save me.
"Then let me help." He offered moving slightly closer.
"H-how?" I asked, I wasn't exactly uncomfortable with his proximity; but it was having another effect.
"Forget everything, the if's and buts; and just tell me how this feels." He answered and before I could react his arms had snaked their way around my waist and his lips covered mine.
I didn't hate him anymore.
I didn't know how.
I was awoken when the bus pulled to a sudden stop at what I guessed was our final destination, I recognised the bus station as the same one that I had visited several times over the years when the need had arisen.
We were back in the city again; I had asked Sasuke about the guards patrolling the city, I would have thought that they would have a patrol set up for public transportation; Sasuke had told me that it wouldn't be important, he could use runes to stop anyone from noticing my Seals signature; it usually wouldn't be enough but the patrols would be in disarray at the moment.
Sasuke was already on his feet collecting his weapons from the overhead compartment, he had picked up a large enough duffle bag in the bus terminal and had promptly shoved his sword into it, I didn't actually know if his guns were in the bag or hidden somewhere on his person; I suspected the latter heavily though.
"I feel weird." I mentioned to my dark companion as we exited the bus onto the teeming city streets, since I had woken up there had been an unnatural heaviness in my stomach.
"I know, I feel it too." Responded Sasuke, worrying me just a little bit; I could brush off my own worries as simple nervousness, when Sasuke agreed with me the weight seemed to double.
"What is it?" I asked following awkwardly the Uchiha as he cut a swift path through the slower pedestrians weaving in between them with his usual unnatural grace.
"Today is the first day of spring, according to Konoha's calendar." He answered his tone oddly dark and rough.
"They have a different calendar?" I asked, oddly even as I asked the question I could feel a rightness in what the Uchiha had said; somewhere inside me I knew that today was the first day of spring.
"Yes, each order has their own; though there is only slight differences, the names of holidays, the length of some months, things like that." Sasuke answered cutting a sharp left, so sharp actually I had to back pedal to take the corner.
There was a tenseness in the man today, one that I hadn't seen since weeks ago when he had awakened me to this impossible world that existed just below the surface of the one that I knew; I wondered how he had interrupted Anneil's message that had him so unnerved.
Suddenly Sasuke came to a complete halt, I only just about avoided walking into him actually; if anything he now seemed even more rigid than before, but an odd smirk had crossed his lips.
"Damn bitch gave me a fucking self-fulfilling prophesy." I heard he mutter almost disbelievingly; I didn't need to ask what had caught his eye, it had caught mine too; across the street from us stood two unusual looking people, who thankfully hadn't noticed us yet.
One was a tall silver haired man, despite his grey hair though he seemed quite young; he wore black combats, black Nikes, an army camouflage parka and despite the relatively warm weather of the city he had a thick navy scarf wrapped around his neck and lower face; an eye patch covered his left eye but I could still see the start and end of a scar above and below where the eye patch covered.
'Kakashi Hatake' a voice from within my own mind whispered to me.
The other was a woman, with her pink hair she was certainly eye-catching and I supposed she was quite good looking not that I could really tell; she wore a short tight leather skirt that barely seemed to cover her backside, a pair of awkward looking stiletto heels and a pink fluffy coat over a blood red tank top; a pink umbrella hung from her right wrist.
'Sakura Haruno' the same voice cooed to me, and I remembered the pink haired woman; she had been a close friend of Sasuke's and she had almost killed him before he regained his memories and then they had…well I don't actually know for sure but I had my suspicions.
Somehow I got the feeling that I had heard that name somewhere else before, but for the moment I couldn't quite recall where.
"Quickly, before they spot us." Whispered Sasuke grabbing my upper arm and nearly yanking it off as he pulled me along with him, from the corner of my eye I saw the couple cross the street and felt the anticipation bubble in my throat; they still hadn't seemed to see us yet though.
"Hinata! There you are!" I heard a voice call loudly from behind me…Tenten; I heard Sasuke swear under his breath.
She came running towards us obviously relieved to see me after so long, unfortunately the couple had also seen us and were now making their way toward us; I saw the silver haired man make several hand gestures to someone unseen.
My legs had turned to lead and only Sasuke pulling me along kept me going, he quickly pulled us inside a near empty car dealership; expensive looking cars of various colours lined each wall; I questioned the logic of Sasuke's bringing us in here, it wasn't exactly the best place to hide after all.
I got the nagging feeling he had brought us in hear because otherwise whoever Kakashi had been gesturing to would have shot us from the roof top.
"Hinata, you're going to have to trust me here; do exactly as I say, understood?" Sasuke didn't seem outwardly worried, actually the tension from earlier had seemed to leave him if anything; once again I found myself questioning exactly what this man was.
It seemed like an old west confrontation when the couple entered, Kakashi and Sakura, we stopped and turned to face them down; I had actually hoped we were going to slip quietly out the back but it seemed they were too fast for that, we were about ten metres from the back of the shop and I could see the fire exit that may be our salvation.
It was the girl Sakura who spoke first, Sasuke and the taller Kakashi seemed to be having a stare down of some sort; Sasuke looked angry but Kakashi looked almost sad.
"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, we really do need to stop meeting like this; it's becoming a bad habit of yours." Teased the girl, suddenly the door burst open again and several windows were broken in as swat police entered the dealership; I began to sweat, there had to be at least a dozen if not more of them.
"I see you got your bitch back." Mentioned the woman gesturing vaguely towards me, I felt my blood boil and a deep hidden hatred coil and stretch as it was awoken from deep within me.
"And my goodness she's regrown that arm I hacked off." Continued the woman and I began to feel sick; the last time we'd met, in my last life, she'd cut my arm off…the scary thing was how right that sounded; I felt myself shiver and hoped no one noticed my growing distress.
"Come on Sasuke…say something, or wait are you pretending to be someone else again." The woman just did not seem to want to be quite but only I seemed to be listening to her.
"Takeda, that was what you were calling yourself wasn't it, you planning to go cuddle Naruto again too?" taunted the woman, and I felt a little piece of the puzzle shift into place; and a little piece of my being shatter into tiny fragments.
Sasuke was Takeda.
I suddenly began vomiting, the pink haired witch laughed; Sasuke's confused gaze shifted over to me for a split second.
That troubled little boy I'd read so much about had forgotten everything important to him, and he had become Sasuke; that also meant that this was Yui, this Sakura.
I suddenly felt the urge to kill that woman.
My hand guns found themselves within my trembling hands before I knew what I was doing, I had my teeth bared and my breaths were coming out ragged and heavy; my mind was flooded with thoughts of how to maim and murder this miserable wrench, how to bend and break her in horrible ways.
"Hinata, I have no idea what's gotten you so upset; but remember what I told you, do as I say it's the only way out of this." Sasuke finally spoke up his tone cold and I realised that he really didn't have any idea what I was talking about, the diaries were covered in dust so I knew they hadn't been read and he would have forgotten his past life.
He didn't know what this woman had done to him.
He didn't know that for a little while it seemed he and his best friend were…something, maybe even lovers.
He didn't know that he had a daughter out there somewhere…or had she been killed.
"You're not getting out of here Sasuke." Spoke Sakura, there was a click and suddenly she drew a long thin blade from her umbrella.
"Hinata!" I heard a voice call, quietly I prayed that for the first time the girl shouting would just forget about me and leave.
Tenten burst through the door, her big brown eyes worried as she starred at the police, me and Sasuke; she probably thought that the police were the good guys, that Sasuke was some kind of criminal that had kidnapped me and I was about to be rescued.
The silent Kakashi moved for the first time since entering the room, faster than my eyes could follow he had drawn a gun and fired the bullet hitting Tenten in the chest and knocking her from her feet; I saw a crimson pool of blood leak out around her body.
I think I might have screamed.
I tried to run to her but Sasuke's iron like grip on my waist prevented my leaving his side.
"The suspect has just killing a civilian, I need a volunteer to handle the clean-up." Spoke the stoic man as I hurled insults of 'bastard' and 'coward' at him; one of the men moved to Tenten's prone body and lifted her, he had long dark hair but I couldn't make out anything else due to his mask.
"What are you going to do Sasuke?" asked the silver haired murderer stepping forward and drawing a second gun from his jacket.
Chapter 14 is a finished, so what did you guys think?
A little footnote- if you're a big Tenten fan and hence saddened by this chapter feel free to assume the long haired man is in fact Neji and she's survived the gunshot and they go on to have some blissful interesting romance; or you can assume she's dead, it's up to you that's the beauty of an open end like that.
I hope you've all enjoyed the story so far, we're actually getting close to the end now, maybe three more chapters if I had to guess right now.
Anyway again my appologies about last week's delay I hope that this update makes up for it.
R&R