I can't believe it's been three years since I decided to start writing this… my first fanfic.

Summary: In everyone's eyes, Hinata has remained the same, even after so many years have gone by. She's still the same innocent, gentle, caring young woman. Even when the news of Naruto and Sakura hitting it off, the village felt incredibly sorry for the girl who had been in love for so long. But to Hinata, that was just what she had wanted everyone to see. Deep down, concealed behind her mask, Hinata is a completely different person. And only one person has been able to see behind the lies… and now he's more than determined to reveal the truth.

Pairing: Sasuke and Hinata

Rating: M to be safe

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the Dream Overseer concept

With Eyes That See the Bigger Picture

Episode 21

There was a lot of red. A lot of dark red. The cavern walls that once were a beautiful blue were now plagued with splotches of this red and black. The rushing stream water seemed as if it grew louder as the silence of the aftermath encompassed. Occasionally one could make out the small droplets of water that would sprinkle from the run of the stream. Hinata sat on her knees, completely still as Sasuke's grip around her shoulders tightened. She stared emptily into the scene before her, unable to muster much of a response.

Anemone stood in the middle of the aftermath. The dark monster that overlooked her figure remained dormant as she inhaled deeply. She slowly turned towards Hinata as her eyes still pierced a violent red. Her face remained without expression.

"You aren't someone who is meant to see that," Anemone began as Hinata tensed, "I am grateful for all of the worry and care you have given me. It is only unfortunate that you had to witness all of this. Truly."

Holland came in Hinata's line of vision as he walked over to Anemone's side. His lanky figure was still taller than hers as he placed his hand at the back of her neck. His eyes were full of pain. "It's not long now."

Anemone looked ahead, dropping her scythe as the crash resonated against the cavern walls. She smiled. "Looks like my time has come."

The walls around begun to bend and all colour faded from existence. Everything turned grey before a thin line of white extended from Anemone in all directions. A strong gush of wind made Hinata close her eyes from the intensity. As soon as she managed to open them again, all life returned to the cavern. The sound of bodies hit the ground gave a shock down her spine.

Hinata glanced around as she once again saw Asher and Machi. The two, fully intact, had fallen to the ground. They were no longer a pool of blood and limbs. Their bodies remained white and unmoving even as they hit the cold cavern dirt below. Anemone's body was no longer straight either. She too had fallen with Holland catching her in his arms. Her eyes remained open as she stared into the sky above.

"I've taken their souls safely into the afterlife," Anemone began, "Their kind, the selfish ones, will not plague this world for the moment."

Suddenly raw emotions hit Hinata. Her heart sank to her stomach. She's dying.

Scrambling to her feet, Hinata freed herself from Sasuke's grip as she sprinted towards Holland's side. She slid on her knees, hurting the bone and tearing the skin to bleed, as she crawled closer to Anemone. Her eyes were hollow now, staring ahead without life.

"She can't…" Hinata began, clasping her hand around Anemone's wrist, "Why does she have to go?"

Holland continued to look at the body in his arms intently. "She's the Overseer. That was her destiny from the moment she became an apprentice. Her goal in life has always been to protect the balance between the two worlds, knowing full well that the source of her power will one day consume her. That was the destiny she was meant to pass down to the next apprentice as well."

Hinata stiffened, turning her head slowly upwards, toward Holland. "You mean… you mean to say that you will become the next Overseer? You will become exactly like her?"

This time he broke his eye contact as Holland closed his eyes, "Yes… that was the task she left me with. It won't take me long before I too enter comatose and exist only in the land of dreams. Until then…"

He looked ahead at Machi's body, "I have to find another apprentice who will take my place and become the next Overseer once it becomes my time to pass on."

"To continue the endless cycle?" Sasuke's voice reverberated from behind. Hinata's neck snapped towards the source. Sasuke had risen to his feet as well as he walked over to them. "That has been your job all along then?"

Holland nodded silently.

"I have to ask the two of you," he began, "I understand that the circumstances are not normal, however… I cannot have you reporting this back to your Hokage. This is strictly a personal matter between the Overseer and the world of Dreams. Your kind is not meant to dwell in these matters. The people who have suffered Asher's wrath have been released back to your world. Their wandering souls have returned from the dream world to their bodies in reality. Your fallen men will now rise to their feet once again. But…"

"No one else must know about the real story of the Overseer fable." Hinata pitched in, "I understand."

Sasuke's arm twitched. "What? You seriously expect to keep this all a secret from everyone else?"

Hinata glanced up in his direction, "It's tradition, isn't it? This is not our place to meddle. We have no say in their world."

"Tell me you're joking," Sasuke's eyes were piercing.

"Think about it? Wouldn't it be better to have three people perish in this event unexplainably rather than have the whole truth uncovered and thousands die? The people of our village should have been restored to this world by now with Asher gone. Isn't that what we came here to do all along?"

Hinata looked in Holland's direction.

"Right? The people of our village who had been trapped by Asher in the world of dreams now have returned to us, right?"

Holland smiled a little, "Yes. They should now be free to return to their realities. They have no recollection of how they were captured. All they think they did was sleep through a very long dream."

Hinata looked back towards Sasuke. Her eyes were watering now. "That should be enough for you, right? We don't need to bother these people anymore, ok?"

Sasuke remained silent.

The rushing water danced in the background.

The sun blazed down on the group as they slowly made their way down the streets toward the entrance gates. The two hooded statues that remained at the doors of the gorge. Behind the group, Holland and the surviving library attenders walked at his side. By now he donned a new elaborate black robe that skipped in the wind as he progressed further. All around, more hooded guards who kept their face straight escorted them.

Hinata did not look at her friends as she walked behind the group, closest to Holland. Sasuke remained behind too, in front of her. She took notice of the scars and bandages that Naruto and Shikamaru had, as well as the leg injury of Lee who had been stopped before he could leave the village to warn others. Sakura had been helping Lee as she had him lean against her side while he limped forward. Holland cleared his throat.

"We have left you with horses and a large cart that you may use at your dispense with supplies to last you all the way back to your village," Holland began as Naruto and the rest looked back at him, "We apologize that you were unable to find what you were looking for here and thank you dearly for staying with us so long to help defend the attack on our village. Please let your Hokage know that she and her people are welcome to visit us again if they wish. We are in great debt to your service."

Naruto looked rather disappointed behind his small smile, "No worries. We're just glad that your invaders are finally out of your home. We'll keep looking for other sources to our problems. But in the mean time, take care of yourself and your people."

Holland's gaze darkened a little. "Yes, thank you. I have a feeling that all of your troubles will soon be answered for all of the hard work and sacrifices you made for us. May your journey be a peaceful one."

He stopped to look back at Sasuke and Hinata, taking one step closer.

"Thank you for all of your hard work. Anemone sends many regards."

Hinata tensed at the sentence. She glanced back in Holland's direction as he turned around with a small, sad smile and headed back to the village entrance.

"He's a weird one, that guy," Naruto sighed heavily. Sakura and Shikamaru helped Lee climb into the cart with his injuries. Sasuke looked over his shoulder. Hinata was still staring into the back of Holland's head as they approached the gates that started to close. She clenched her fist and took in a deep breath. Their journey was going to be a long one.

3 Weeks Later

The sunlight crept from the window idly across the floor in Hinata's apartment. She watched it from the corner of her bed, unmoving. Her eyes were empty. She had found it extremely difficult to convince herself to sleep within the last few weeks since their arrival to the village. On certain nights she would end up staying up by staring at the stars from the roof of her apartment complex. On others, more cold ones, she would play around with her fingers or clean the living area when she grew bored. Yet, sleep was not something she attained as of recent. On one occasion she went without sleep for almost two days until she crashed on her couch only to catch about six hours before getting up again. Most nights she couldn't get the nightmares to stop.

The village had almost returned to its normal regime. The soldiers and few individuals who had been infected with Jaron's nightmares returned to their daily lives without a single trace of memory as to what happened. Lee's foot had begun to slowly heal and before long, he was up and about his training again. Shikamaru returned to his ranking and continued his work on another case while Sakura came back to the medical ward to help those few patients who were having a hard time understanding what had happened to them. Not that Sakura could fully grasp what happened either. Naruto was the only one who was still eerily suspicious of the outcome but had no idea where to start or look for answers. And Sasuke… he had chosen to keep himself silent on the whole ordeal and play it dumb. A brilliant performance, nonetheless considering everyone believed it.

Hinata wrapped her fleece blanket tightly around her shoulders. Visions of Anemone had not ceased. She kept dreaming of the nights when she would meet her once again as they follow through the various mazes and intricate pathways within her subconscious. But this Anemone never spoke to her. This Anemone never acted the same. She wasn't the perky little child that she knew from before. Her face had always remained empty, her eyes blank. She would from time to time turn to look at Hinata, but no words ever left her mouth. The two of them would walk around her dreams and explore. But every time they did, the dream ended in a nightmare. It usually consisted of Anemone dying in different ways in each dream and Hinata would find herself in that library once again with Holland sitting on the stairs. He never said anything either. He just stared at her with deep intent and shook his head in a warning. That's when Hinata would wake up to a raging migraine and a fast paced heart beat. It was like that every night. And Hinata's only solution was to avoid sleep altogether for as much as she could.

A rough knock on her door stirred Hinata from her train of thought. The knock was familiar, gruff. Hinata stared at the hallway to the front door without moving from her bed. Sasuke had taken notice of her unusual sleeping patterns. It didn't take him long to figure out why Hinata had been so slow moving and deprived of life for the past few weeks. He had decided to visit her every day since then.

Another knock sent Hinata to her feet. She walked carefully through the hallway, avoiding the piles of shoes that she would throw aside as she would come home. The locks on her door were chilling to the touch as she opened the entranceway.

Sasuke had looked up from his book that he held in his hand to glance at the dead figure standing in front of him. He frowned. "Again?"

Hinata rolled her eyes, "I didn't ask you to come babysit me every day. Can you just get off my case?"

Sasuke shrugged before slipping inside without Hinata putting up much effort to keep him out. "This is obviously affecting your health. Why shouldn't I be concerned?"

"Because it's none of your business." Hinata replied rather sharply before slamming the door shut, "I didn't ask you to follow me to the village. I didn't ask you to follow me to that cave. And I certainly didn't ask you to butt into my life."

"You need to eat breakfast." Sasuke cut her off. "Do you have anything in your fridge at least?"

He made his way to the kitchen with Hinata following unwillingly. She refused to answer him now considering he had no intention of leaving her alone for the day. Sasuke looked back at her, analyzing her from head to toe. She gave him a disgusted glance before grabbing a bottle of water from her kitchen counter and storming off to the living room.

"The others are starting to wonder about you," he began from the kitchen, opening up a bag of bagels from a plastic bag, "They don't know how to respond to your unusually cold demeanor. If you really want them off your back, you should focus on keeping that mask on better, that you so pride yourself in."

Hinata gripped her water bottle before poking her head back into the kitchen. Anger had struck across her face. "How about you tell everyone, including yourself, to fuck off?"

Sasuke frowned, "If I did that then your entire façade will shatter."

"Whatever."

"Does that mean you could care less what everyone thinks of you?" Sasuke's question was stern, "Do you honestly think you're ready to let everyone know everything about you?"

The word 'everything' had a certain edge to it that sent a chill down Hinata's spine. Her body tensed and her jaw clenched.

"You're not ready."

The sentence was hollow.

"You're not ready to show people who you are yet," he paused, "You may never be able to show everyone your true colours. But that doesn't mean you can continue living your life this way. If you do…"

Hinata looked up past her overgrown bangs to try to read his blank expression.

"Everyone will find out. And then your individuality will be compromised. You will no longer be able to separate yourself from the real Hinata and the fake one. And considering…" Sasuke smiled a little to himself as his gaze wandered to the floor, "If that were to happen, you wouldn't be able to know what to do with yourself. You wouldn't survive."

"You're right," Hinata's voice was just as hollow. Her eyes were smiling too, "I'd never survive if my two personalities were to fuse into one collective individual."

"So what do you plan to do now?" His question resonated against the walls, "You can't mourn for Anemone forever. Time will pass and the memory of her will disappear. What do you plan to do until then?"

Hinata leaned against the chair with her head held high. She stared at Sasuke without blinking. "I do what I do best. I put on the best performance I can muster. I fool everyone."

Sasuke remained silent.

A smile slowly crept across his face. "And here I thought you were going to tell everyone who you really were."

Hinata gave a sarcastic scowl. "As if I'd allow them to get the best of me."

"That is incredibly like you to scheme behind everyone's back while putting on a show."

"I lie to everyone in order to see the truth."

With eyes that see the bigger picture.