Chapter 20: A prayer unanswered
'Don't leave me'
It is a litany she whispers during the most pleasurable moment of the night. A rein that halts him, chains him and throws him into the desolate fields of hope between them.
A supplication she whispers against his bare chest as it rises and falls, a cruel mocking sign of the life slipping like dry sand between his fingers.
A fleeting shine that scatters in her deep eyes when it falls on him, as he trains Neji's son, when he pokes her forehead, as he hums her favourite song.
A distant voice he hears as he wipes away the blood, as the bouts of symptoms get worse, their intensity ascends, as the memory of Itachi crosses his mind reminding him of his impending fate.
All those years he incriminated Itachi only to realise that he himself was doing the exact same thing now. He was as much a hypocritical bastard as Suigetsu thought.
He should tell Hinata the truth about what is going on.
'Don't leave me'
A prayer unsaid, straining her voice with the weight of all the words he says and the void of all the words he doesn't.
A whisper she utters in her sleep, when she wakes up alone and he is never there. When he is everywhere, anywhere but her side.
A hymn unsung, hidden in his eyes, between the transparency of his love, so strong but cloaked against the clandestine black soaking his iris.
'Don't leave me'
An echo, A shadow passing between them.
"Sasuke, where have you strayed?"
Kakashi was holding a meeting to discuss the new base. Temari secured the Kazekage's approval and Kankuro's aid in establishing the base as quickly as possible with the deployed Shikamaru and Naruto.
And He had no desire nor wits to attend. But he had to and Kakashi must have noticed.
"I ... I am sorry, what were you saying, Kakashi?"
"Kirigakure hasn't responded to our communications yet and I am afraid they are too absorbed in their own internal crisis to respond"
"Of course, Are you sure Iwa or Kumo has nothing to do with riling it up?"
"You mean having some clans working in their league"
"Not necessarily working, just listening"
"It doesn't matter anyway; They have gone too far. However, Sai here has got some news"
"Picking from where he finished, some members of our clans here have been exceedingly communicating with the envoys from Kumo"
"Don't tell me Hyuugas are among them" Sasuke exasperatedly replied
Sai plastered his fakest smile as he nodded affirmation
"Hiashi has been informed"
"Yes"
"As for the rest of the former root members, we have identified top suspects and have had them interrogated, apparently they have no information of substantial value, the rest have been demoted from any sensitive positions and are being closely monitored"
"Good job, Sai" Kakashi commended "Sasuke, any news on your part?"
"Nothing yet"
"Ok, then our meeting is adjourned. Sai, you are dismissed and Sasuke, are you sure there is nothing you want to tell me"
He fixed him a concerned look
"No, I am fine, Kakashi"
'You aren't fine at all'
Kakashi knew he was lying.
Summer has ended that he could see and hear, the yellows and oranges draining from the skies to the rusty leaves below, those rustling as they are stroked by the winds, breaking as they are stomped on during the now habitual training
"Now, this isn't how you do it"
"I don't know how to; I am tired" the young boy scoffed
"If you want to be as great a ninja as your father, as Naruto or any of the ninja of this village, you can't get tired, you ought to have stamina. Sometimes later, you will be required to fend for yourself, for your family, clan and village; you have to be strong enough to do so. Keep trying to perfect this jutsu, I am watching close by"
"Those Justus you teach him; I don't remember seeing that much of them in a very long time" Hinata proclaimed
"That is right, these were signature jutsus for the Uchiha clan. Of course he may not have a natural aptitude to a lot of them, but I am trying to teach him as much as I can with the limitation of him not possessing a sharingan"
"For a time, Neji had an obsession with your sharingan, what would happen if someone have what he so called Byaku-sharingan" She sounded amused at her late cousin's display of lighter demeanor
"Couldn't blame him, much." Sasuke chastised "I mean, I wonder all the time what could happen if those dojustus merge, or if there is a higher tier of evolution above the Byakugan or Rinnegan, a world of possibilities" he emphasised
"But, aren't you pushing him a little too hard?"
"Hinata, look over to him. At the beginning of this training day, he couldn't do one proper stride, he couldn't execute one proper move or technique for this jutsu. Now see, he is almost there." There was a hint of pride seeping through his voice
"But, sometimes, I think he is too young ..."
"We were too young, when we both started training and as far as I remember, our fathers were vicious when it came to that" He interrupted "Not that I approve or exercise how they used to train us, but I know his bounds, that is why I know when to push him a little bit ahead of his traditional pace. The world as we were shown, isn't kind to anybody and may not be kind to him, that is why he should learn by now, he should acquire all he can to protect himself and all of you"
"I did it" the boy's boisterous voice preceded before she could reply
"See" he prodded her "Well, done, Tama. Now, one more time from the beginning before you are taken home" He shouted
"Since he has a hopeless case of sweet-tooth like somebody that I know" he stressed the last part knowingly "You should fetch him some sweets or confectionary as a reward for his vigorous efforts today"
Autumn has set in.
The winds of Autumn carried unsolicited proceedings.
He was preparing to exist the Hokage's office, to leave when Kakashi rounded them up for the breaking news.
A cohort of unidentified Ninja was attacking the village.
The gate, the village's frontline … and the Hyuuga residency.
The guards at the gates were down by the time Sai was dispatched along with his Shinobis and the assailants were treading inside the village, marching towards central town.
By the time Sasuke arrived with his team, he found Hyuugas putting on quite the fight.
Hiashi had most things under control.
Sasuke could identify some of the releases and the genkai kekkei as upgrades developed by Orochimaru
'Faithless bastard'
That explained why the guards were taken down quite easily, that forecast what they are going up against in the upcoming war.
The fight has taken a toll on them.
The relatively small cohort has caused tens of injuries … and a few deaths on their part before falling back.
He tries to go back to the Office, to debrief and report to Kakashi what happened, to tell him they maybe after the Byakugan and to discuss the grave faults that occurred but he doesn't find the strength, so he alters the path back to his house, hoping his wife has remained in the Hyuuga property, tending to the wounded or clearing out part of the chaos that has hit their residency.
He doesn't.
Hinata has seen him retreat, assumingly to the Hokage's office after the fight was over, a foreign expression evident on his face … Fatigue?
He dragged his feet out of the compound, after telling her to stay the night there, to ensure that Tama and Tenten stay there, guarded as well.
She doesn't.
She tells her father to watch the distance as she goes back home to see what has befallen him.
And It is a whirlwind of intermingling fuzzy events when he comes home.
Blood, short trails flowing from the corners of his mouth, marring his pale complexion, drippling drops of crimson falling off his drooping heas, settling at his feet while his frame is inclined against the bathroom door.
And her first impression is that maybe he has been injured earlier, when Kakashi gathered him and Sai to stand against the skirmish that attacked the village.
He lets go off the door, tries to scramble a few steps forward on his own before she rushes towards him, hooking her arms around his flailing body,in an effort to support him, to prevent the upcoming fall that came afterwards with a thud, pulling her down beside him.
"Just give me a minute" he muttered in a raspy incoherent voice
He is nauseated, his stomach makes leap after leap, tumult after the other, spewing down its meagre contents, spewing down dribbles of acid, spewing down nothing at all.
It is a mess on the floor.
Her eyes shift from the brewing mint leaves she is stirring to his reclining form.
'What has just happened?'
She has just witnessed the absolute breakdown of Sasuke, she watched him collapse into a bleeding wisp of tired bones and wobbly flesh.
'Could it be …'
Momentarily, she considers shaking the ominous thought out of her head but incidences start to add up, accumulate, fall into place and peer through … taunt her with her undeliberate ignorance.
'He always washes his own clothes ... he never sleeps the entire night ... he never wakes up beside me … his room is off limits and he stipulated no Byakugan around him'
The concoction she is stirring has long boiled and has overflown from the edge of the pot.
He is stronger now.
He has sit up now, his eyes weighed down by contemplation to the ground, fixed demurely on an invisible spot he is the only one who sees it.
He takes the cup from her hands, when she comes, casts it aside.
They sit in plausible silence, a prolonging one. Occasionally, one of them would try to say something, to push at this dead end … in the end, it is he who starts the conversation
"You have probably connected some dots by now, so you might already have an idea about what I am going to let you on"
"Hinata" he proceeds "I want you to activate your Byakugan"
And she does.
All the air has been knocked out of her lungs at the sight encountered when her Byakugan activated and She gasps in horror at him, completely exposed … his body disease bitten.
She didn't expect him to have gone this far.
She is torn between the twig of anger blossoming in her chest at his detachment, his elusiveness, his derangement and the urge to hold him so tight in her arms, to numb his pain, tell him its ok and pull him from all those silhouettes looming over him, death's tentacle that inches closer to him.
"I need a minute to comprehend all this"
"Leave" she commands
He complies without another word.