Seeing Is Believing

BY show.me.the.stars

Disclaimer : Hahaha, it's my birthday today, guys! Wanna guess my wish for my birthday cake? I bet you can! XD

25. Fright.

It started.

One moment things were going along smoothly and the next there were the bloodied corpses of civilians lying spread-eagled in the streets and inside the castle, the shinobi from the three nations battling fiercely on top of roofs, on the walls and on the ground, the sound of jutsu, the collision of metal and chilling roars of people as they fought to their deaths ringing in everybody's ears.

Yami had betrayed them, just as Hikari said they would.

Yami's men appeared unbeatable.

Their skin glowed red with vile chakra, and it was much harder for the other nations to keep up. They didn't look all that human anymore. While the red chakra gave them strength, it also made them suffer, their bodies were bleeding from every pore, and most of them didn't have flesh or cartilage anymore. They looked close to being rotting skeletons than the whole men that they used to be.

Akane cried out as she slipped on a large puddle of blood on the wooden floor, the grip on Kohaku's hand tightening as the boy let out a shriek of surprise barely managing to hold on as the kunoichi picked up speed. Akane narrowly dodged a kunai that suddenly whizzed past her face, though the sharp metal did cut her cheek, the blood dripping down her porcelain features.

"Please hold on, Kohaku-dono, everything will be all right, I promise!!" Akane cried, her grip once more tightening almost painfully on the child's hand as she suddenly ran up the wall using chakra, by a nose dodging the barrage of shuriken that assaulted the hallway, the crowned prince screaming with fright as the object cut off strands of his silvery hair.

"HAND OVER THE KID, WHORE!!" One of the monsters walking around in human flesh roared, throwing more projectiles at the woman and the young child, Kohaku hollering loudly as a shuriken sliced Akane's face a second time.

"Akane-nee!!" The child squealed, tears springing to his eyes at the sight of the crimson blood. "You're hurt, Akane-nee!!"

"I'll be fine, Kohaku-dono! Don't worry, we'll get out of this alive, I promise!"

-+-

"Kaa-chan...?" Hinata choked, clutching her aching chest as more tears streamed down her cheeks. "I-is that really you...?"

The deceased Hyuuga Matriarch merely smiled at her daughter. "My hime," the beautiful woman whispered, bringing her arms around her daughter's shaking frame. "I'm so glad to see you..." The woman breathed, crystalline tears dripping down the elder woman's glowing cheeks.

"Oh, Mum," Hinata sobbed, her arms wrapping around the taller woman's waist and pulling herself closer to the woman who'd been dead close to eight years. When she rested her head against the woman's chest she felt even sadder when she noted the lack of breathing or the distinct thud thud of a heartbeat. She sniffled, whispering, "Where are we? What is this place?"

"I'm going to need you to follow me, my hime, if you don't mind..."

Not one to refuse her own mother, Hinata followed behind the woman silently, hiking up her trailing kimono so it didn't get too dirty on the grassy forest floor. When the older woman suddenly increased her speed and disappeared behind a corner Hinata sped up too, oddly enough feeling like a true princess as her long skirt and flowing hair whipped behind her. The two continued running, for forever it seemed to Hinata, and when Hinata's mother rounded another corner, Hinata following behind, the Hyuuga heiress let out a quiet gasp of shock as her milky eyes locked with crimson ones she believed she knew so well.

-+-

"I'm worried about Sasuke-kun and the others, Sharkbait." Karin stated as she and Suigetsu waited at their rendezvous point, having not seen a hide nor hair of Juugo, Hinata or Sasuke in the close to four hours that the two had been waiting there. "They should be back by now...it's getting dark."

The young swordsman-in-training and the vivacious redhead had found nothing but a tattered map in the abandoned shrine that Sasuke had ordered that they investigate, Karin feeling rather dejected that they hadn't found much that would impress her stoic lover to be...ultimately. If Karin had a say about it. Which she did. She was Karin, after all. Nobody would ever refuse her, not even Uchiha Sasuke. She knew that somewhere deep inside him that the Uchiha did have feelings for her...it was only a matter of time for him to reveal it, she knew.

Suigetsu let out a quiet sigh. "Maybe it took them longer than we thought so scope the place out. They gave us some shitty little shrine while they take an entire village...they'll probably take a day or two more than they expected scoping the place out...or something."

"Well what're we supposed to do then!? No way in fuck am I staying out in some fucking forest clearing overnight, what am I, fucking stupid?!" Karin roared, glaring at the silver haired teen who once again drew a canteen from his hip and chugged down the precious liquid, Karin's face turning as bright as her hair. "How many fucking times do I have to tell you not to drink all our fucking water, you fucking kappa (1)!!"

Suigetsu merely raised an eyebrow and stated nonchalantly, "You do realise that this' my water, right? The water that I filled up while I was at that hotel earlier? Tsk, tsk, Karin, always instantly assuming things...no wonder Sasuke doesn't like you."

"WHAT WAS THAT!?"

Suigetsu sniggered. "Sasuke doesn't like you 'cause you don't have any fun at all."

"But Sasuke-kun hates having fun." Karin interrupted smoothly, smiling wickedly. "He's all doom and gloom...the day I see Sasuke having fun will be the day I give birth to your children, Sharkbait."

"Oh really, Karin-chan?" Suigetsu waggled his eyebrows suggestively, laughing as he moved his head to the left to avoid the powerful kick that Karin had just aimed for his watery head. "Oi! That was a close one, be careful you redhead witch!"

"Pfft, it's a shame that I missed!" Karin retorted bitterly, flinging her violent red tresses over her shoulder. "Know what?" The crimson orbed girl suddenly stated with a smirk, "I'm gonna show Sasuke-kun just how spontaneous and fun I can be! Sharkbait, get off your fat ass and follow me, we're going back to the hotel!"

Suigetsu blinked. "That's how you show Duckbutt how to have fun? By ignoring his orders and going back to the hotel?" The silver haired teen snickered. "Nice. Let's blow this joint."

Karin raised an eyebrow as the Houzuki was instantly on his feet and was running as if he didn't have a gargantuan sword strapped to his back, looking back over his shoulder to poke his tongue out at the startled redhead, hollering, "I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO BE SPONTANEOUS!! COME ON, KARIN!!"

Karin grinned at the Houzuki's beaming expression before nodding once, following after her laughing teammate with only one though in mind.

'Fuck you, Sasuke-kun. I can so have fun, I'll show you.'

-+-

Uchiha Sasuke was awoken from his sleeping position on the futon by the sound of the front door being practically ripped off its hinges, Juugo of the Scales bursting into the room with a drenched, unconscious Hyuuga Hinata in his arms.

"S-Sasuke!" Juugo yelled uncharacteristically, "I found her floating in the water on my way back...she isn't breathing, Sasuke!"

The younger Uchiha was instantly on his feet, though immediately regretting it as his legs collapsed underneath him. "Damn it!"

The antidote still hadn't made it through his system.

Sasuke rose to his feet a second time, walking toward the panting Juugo with shaking steps and ordered Juugo to set Hinata on the ground.

Looking at the Hyuuga heiress, the Uchiha's heart froze. Her skin had taken on a sickly shade of blue. Her outfit was torn in some areas and the girl's arms and legs were littered in cuts and grazes. It looked as if she were sleeping, yet Sasuke knew better. Placing warm fingers to press against the girl's icy cold neck, Sasuke swallowed thickly when he realised Juugo was right about Hinata no longer breathing. Switching on his Sharingan, Sasuke went through the motions that the Doujutsu had copied when he had watched a medic perform CPR back when he still lived in Konoha a long time ago. (2)

Briskly rubbing his knuckles against the heiress' sternum, he leant over to listen to see if Hinata was breathing. She was not.

"Fuck!" Sasuke growled, looking up to face the scared looking Juugo.

Biting his lip harshly, Sasuke opened Hinata's airway using the traditional head-tilt, chin-lift method, once again checking to see if Hinata was breathing. When there was no sign of chest movement, no sign of air flowing through the mouth or nose, or was there any air on the Uchiha's cheek, he moved onto the third step. The Uchiha pinched the heiress' nose, and Sasuke's lips locked with Hinata's.

Shivers ran down the Uchiha's spine, and for a moment the young man paused, almost forgetting what he was doing.

'Idiot, you're performing CPR! Hurry the fuck up!'

Being brought back to earth, Sasuke suddenly breathed deeply, watching with lidded crimson eyes as Hinata's chest quickly lifted. Soon enough the chest fell and Sasuke breathed in deeply again, placing a heel of a hand against Hinata's chest and placing the other hand above the first, interlacing his fingers and beginning chest compressions. Quickly performing thirty of said compressions, he locked lips with the girl and breathed life into her again, not bothering to check if the girl was breathing, before performing the chest compressions again.

"No...don't give up on me, Hinata, I can't stand quitters! You're a Hyuuga aren't you? Prove it!" Sasuke snarled, breathing into her again.

-+-

"Aah, it's about time you made it here, Hinata-hime." Uchiha Itachi stated as he rose from his stone throne (the only thing that stood in his crumbling castle) and made his way toward the Hyuuga girl, stopping before he got too close. "You really have grown up..." The young man mused, a soft smile gracing his lips.

"W-where am I...?" Hinata questioned, instantly taking a step back, only for her back to meet with an ice cold tree which had sprung out of nowhere and suddenly grew branches that wrapped themselves around Hinata's slender frame. "G-Genjutsu?"

"You could say that," Itachi replied, startling the Hyuuga heiress as his swirling Sharingan faded to a cold black, though in the black a silvery mist could be seen. Hinata's eyes widened in shock.

"Y-your eyes...!"

Chills ran down her spine as Itachi's soft smile became more prominent. "You always were more observant, Rabbit."

Hinata's heart stopped. "R-rabbit...?"

The elder Uchiha suddenly smirked, bringing a warm hand to cup the girl's cheek.

Shivers ran down Hinata's spine.

Itachi brushed the hair from Hinata's face, dipping his head forward to whisper softly in Hinata's ear. "Has your memory betrayed you, Rabbit?"

The heiress' cheeks burned crimson as a single tear slipped down her cheek. "You remember..." She whispered brokenly, a sad smile gracing her features.

"How could I forget?" Itachi pulled back from Hinata's ear, softly resting his lips on her cheek. "You're finally old enough for me to do this to without me looking like a pedophile," he murmured humorously, before his deep voice was interrupted by another familiar one, Hinata freezing in the tree's loose embrace.

"No...don't give up on me, Hyuuga, I can't stand quitters! You're a Hyuuga aren't you? Prove it!"

"...S-Sasuke-kun...?" Hinata breathed, glancing at the elder Uchiha in surprise.

Sasuke's voice had a desperate tone to it, and the sound of the younger Uchiha's voice sent more shivers down her spine.

'Sasuke's...worried about me...? What's going on?'

Hinata blinked as she felt a sudden pressure on her chest, and looking up to face Itachi, her pale eyes widened at the soft smile gracing the elder Uchiha's lips.

"...It appears as if Sasuke's about to bring you back, Rabbit." He stated, suddenly smirking as Hinata suddenly turned a bright shade of red, bringing a shaking hand to her lips.

Itachi knew that she had felt a sudden pressure there, knew that Sasuke was bringing Hinata back and that his visit was about to end. Not to be outdone by his younger brother, Itachi leaned forward and locked his lips with Hinata's, smirking as Hinata's eyes widened yet again, though the Hyuuga didn't pull away.

"I-Itachi--?!"

Hinata's world suddenly turned white as the heiress suddenly opened her eyes, water escaping her lips as her gaze locked with one that was bleeding red.

"Sasuke..."

-+-

A/N : And there we have it, chapter twenty-five! Before I posted this I went through the story stats and stuff...gotta say I was a little surprised in finding only 12 reviews for my last chapter...has everybody lost interest in this story? :blinks: I'm just curious...some of my regulars didn't review, and I gotta say it was a little distressing.

And before you guys all go "RAWR, ITACHI-SAMA DOESN'T ACT LIKE THAT, YOU IDIOT!!", I'd like to remind you all that the Uchihas are all OOC in this story, Itachi and Mikoto especially. So yeah. This is fanfiction, guys...I can twist the story any way I like. ;)

(1) - A Kappa is a water spirit...Karin called Suigetsu one in canon, but I currently can't think of which chapter it is...but it's definitely between chapters 340-350..anybody know?

(2) - What I had Sasuke doing in this chapter is actually what a person does while performing CPR. It was certainly very interesting to learn about...hopefully I informed somebody somehow?

Anywho, guess what everybody? It's my birthday today! :sighs: So my gift to you all is this little number, hope you guys enjoyed it and hopefully you'll all review? Turning 17 doesn't happen every day, after all.

Thanks for reading guys, and please review!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I've gone and posted another story: Beautiful World. It's an angsty SasuHina, so if you're up for it be my guest and take a look! :DD