Disclaimer: I am not God, and therefore do not own Naruto.
Author's Notes: Hold on to your hats, people, because you would not believe this writer's block.
I wanted this chapter to be, oh, twenty pages or so and have instead managed to only produce five very, very slowly. It was kind of like going through a meat grinder. I'm sorry that this is so late, and hopefully the writer's block (WHICH I STILL HAVE) will go away soon. Until then, I wanted to post SOMETHING for you.
Thanks to all the wonderful reviewers, and please enjoy!
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"Instead of a sign that says "Do Not Disturb" I need one that says "Already Disturbed, Proceed With Caution." -Anonymous
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Hinata sat in a truck stop just inside of Ohio; she sipped a Coke and stared out the sticker-plastered window at the semi trucks parked in untidy rows beneath the overhang. It was drizzling, the sky pregnant with rain but unwilling to release more than a gray fog that clung to the skin and raised the hairs on the back of her neck.
The taxi driver had dropped her off here when she had run out of cash, giving her one pitying look at the shell-shocked expression and red-rimmed eyes before he turned back to New York. He had left her with his card, just in case she ever needed it, and it was tucked into the purse that had somehow made it into her hand during her mad rush out the door after she had—
She shook her head. Hinata couldn't think about that right now, about what had happened to her and to Naruto…
Unconsciously, she reached up to rub at the junction between her neck and shoulder. There was a mark there—one she had stared at in confusion-turned-horror in the tiny, cracked mirror in the truck stop's bathroom when she had arrived. A small, black spiral, almost like a tattoo but too… vibrant, sat in the place where Naruto had bitten her last night. It wasn't simply strange, it was alien. Primitive.
Terrifying.
"Hi!" said a woman; sliding into the other side of the booth without so much as by-your-leave, with two coffee mugs and a bright grin. The other woman—brown hair, brown eyes—wore SpongeBob pajama pants and an old gray sweatshirt, boots, and a Yankee ball cap squished over two large buns on the side of her head. The first comparison Hinata could think of was a severely fashion-challenged Princess Leia. "I noticed you had a problem. I think I can help."
"I'm… sorry?" Hinata squeaked as one coffee was pushed toward her; the woman started ripping open packets of sweetener and dumping it into her own brew.
"Sorry, I'm Tenten. Tenten Rosen, and I think I can help you with your problem." She said. "Because unless you have a thing for weird tattoos—and you don't look like you do—then you've got a demon problem." Tenten smiled with all her teeth. "And I can take care of that problem."
Hinata squeaked.
Tenten eyed her calmly, sipping her coffee like she hadn't signaled the end of the world as Hinata knew it, bouncing her leg beneath the table.
"I—I don't have a problem," Hinata finally managed.
"No?" Tenten asked. "Then where are you staying tonight?"
"Well… I'm not—I haven't—"
"Do you have wards to protect you?"
"No…?"
"Then, sister, you've got a problem," Tenten said, and leaned back in her chair like that settled everything.
Hinata looked around, hoping no one was listening. There were still quite a few people out this evening (what time was it anyway? Eight PM? Nine?) and a low buzz of chatter kept conversations private. She lowered her voice anyway, and Tenten leaned in conspiratorially.
"I killed him," Hinata whispered, face burning with shame. "Accidentally. I hit him with a trophy. His heart stopped, I saw it, and then I ran."
Tenten stared at her, not in horror that she had just admitted to killing someone, but in consternation. "And he got you before you got him, huh?" She said, gesturing to Hinata's neck. "I've seen those marks before, nasty pieces of work. Lets the demon track you wherever you go, lets it feel what you're feelin', sometimes even think what you're thinkin'." She shook her head. "You're in a bigger load of crap than you know, Honey. Demons don't go down easy, and if I had to guess I would say that yours ain't as dead as you think he is. You didn't happen to dunk him in gasoline and drop a match on him did you?"
"Of course not!"
"Then he isn't dead. What kind was he?"
Hinata blinked, in shock from the both the suddenness of the conversation and the topic. Naruto wasn't dead? She hadn't killed someone? "…Kind…?"
"You know. How close was he to the boss?"
"Um," Hinata said articulately. "I think he is—was—is—the boss."
Tenten whistled lowly, and sank into her seat, shaking her head. "That's it then," she said. "You have three options."
"What?"
"You can either go back to him so he can kill you quickly," Tenten said, checking off her fingers. "You can sit like a goose and wait for him to come find you and kill you—"
"I don't think he would kill me," Hinata said, almost in tears. "He said he loved me. He said—" Her voice broke, and she couldn't go on.
Tenten looked sympathetic for the first time, and slid out of the booth. "Come on," she said, taking Hinata's hand. "Let's go talk about this in the truck."
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Naruto was a little groggy when he woke up.
Actually, he was a lot groggy, and maybe felt like he'd been run over a few times and Sasuke had given him A Thousand Years of Death with a Chidori, but he'd had worse.
Admittedly, he couldn't think of a time when he'd had worse, but he was sure it was out there.
"Ah, you're awake," someone said. Naruto opened his eyes, bleary from sleep, to see Baa-chan hanging over him, one hand on his forehead and smiling. Sasuke hovered just over her shoulder, frowning.
"Oi," Naruto said. "You look even grumpier than usual, Sasuke."
Sasuke scowled, opened his mouth—no doubt to yell/scold/worry—but Tsunade forced it shut with her hand.
"He's weak," she said firmly. "He needs some time."
Sasuke nodded jerkily, and pouted.
"Where's Hinata?" Naruto asked, probing for that space in the back of his head that was now reserved for her. It felt cold and empty, distant. The bond connected him to her, letting him share her feelings and thoughts when they were close and tracking her when she was far. But the bond was new and weak, untested, and he thought she might have even tried to cut it.
Which hurt. Okay, maybe he could have explained better—or at all—but severing a bond… it was just… it was just…
"We don't know," Tsunade said. "We've figured out she's not in the city and we're trying to track down her taxi driver now to figure out where he dropped her off."
"How long have I been out?"
"A full day. You'll fall asleep in about a minute."
He could feel that. Exhaustion dragged at his bones, but something had woken him up, something important…
"Neji," Naruto realized, fighting dragging eyelids. "How is he?"
"He's good," Tsuande said. "He's really good. He woke up about an hour ago, and he's… adjusting."
"I need to… talk… to him…"
"You can talk later," Tsunade said firmly. "Sleep."
He slept.
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Neji locked the door to the bathroom door behind him, shakily finding his way to the sink and gripping either side tightly. His legs felt like jelly, and his head was heavy with a desire to sleep. But this was the first time he had been able to get away from the doctor and the multitude of people milling around like lost, mindless rabble throughout the cramped apartment, and he couldn't let the chance slip past. He had to know, he had to see, what Uzumaki had done to him.
Uzumaki… the name struck something within him now that it had not before. Knowing the man had risked his life to save Neji's own had brought on a certain feeling of kinship, but the whisperings of blind loyalty that now invaded his mind and body he could not claim to be ordinary. Naruto was a constant thought in his mind, a presence that always lingered but never intruded, and every time Neji thought of him he felt a fierce tug of—he wasn't sure what it was, actually. But the closest he had been able to word it was a feeling of belonging, of home.
And that same sense also whispered that if Naruto asked, Neji would slit his own wrists without a breath of hesitation.
His fingers trembled, and Neji took a long, centering breath. He was stalling now, avoiding the reflection he could see from the corner of his eye. A long strand of hair trailed over his shoulder, hair that had been in a proper buzz only yesterday.
Neji looked up, and drew in a sharp breath that wanted to be a scream.
He touched his face, unsure it was even his own anymore, looking for any traits that were still his own. And… yes, there was the small scar by his eyebrow he had gotten from a sharp rock on a fishing trip as a boy. And… there. The freckle on the left side of his nose, the shape of the eyes, and the height of the cheekbones, all were still his own.
But his eyes… slate grey with flecks of silver had melted into a pearly luminescence without a pupil. They almost shone, like two moons trapped, and his gentle, probing fingers proved they were still his own. His eyes were almost as bad as his hair—he had never even had hair chin-length, and now it swung past his shoulder blades!—but easily the most shocking part of his transformation was the green symbol smoothed into his forehead.
It felt like skin when he touched it, but cooler than the surrounding flesh, almost like a tattoo but too alive. A stylized X with two curling lines to either side, shockingly green, and utterly ridiculous. He shook his head, trying to sweep away the new image of himself.
This was impossible.
A quiet knock on the door startled him from his examination, and he glared at the intrusion. Couldn't they leave him alone for five minutes?
"Hyuga," Uchiha said from the other side. "I know you're in there."
Neji turned away from the door as if that would make a difference, studying the shell-pink bathroom with distaste. Pink was a wretched color.
"How do you like the new look?" Uchiha asked callously. "The mark is certainly something."
"What does it do?" Neji asked, fingering the mark again.
"We don't know. We think it's something left over from the Kokouban that attacked you. The shadows."
"You don't seem to know a lot of things."
"No, not anymore."
Neji was silent, understanding the frustration Uchiha must be going through now. Having your entire empire overturn in a night… he could sympathize.
"Hinata has dropped off our radar," Uchiha continued. "We tracked her to a truck stop in Ohio, but any trace of her was long gone. We think she's found some help."
"Hm," Neji said, refusing to add anymore. He was not going to contemplate his cousin now.
Uchiha sighed. "I'm leaving for a few hours. Would you like to get out of this fake saccharine sardine can or play tiddlywinks with the annoying blond kid?"
Neji opened the door, and did not look in the mirror as he followed Uchiha out.
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Author's Notes: Please, please, please, please review!
