If I recall correctly, I'm supposed to remind you that I have nothing to do with Naruto, canon, sanity, or orange. I'd remind you that this piece of fiction is all clockwork, but let's be honest, no one could take it and get away with pretending this tripe was anything but mine. They could try. Infamy is a fantastic word. Not worth so much in Scrabble, but you take what you can get.


Descent into Rapture Chapter 29: To Clarify

It started, the way things of this sort usually do, with an easily-misunderstood-out-of-context event. The kind that don't take a lot of thought to decide upon, and less effort to execute, in a set of circumstances that take forever to explain to someone before concluding 'that you really had to have been there'.

Granted, she really shouldn't have kissed Naruto in such a public place, even on the cheek. He'd asked her to help him go jewelry shopping, trusting her opinion as a woman and not a shrew. She'd been a little worried that he was being too hasty, and had been pleasantly surprised when he came up with a collection of pendants and earrings for her to peruse.

"No ring?" she asked teasingly.

"Wouldn't that be inconvenient for sparring?"

She would have laughed had she not been afraid of hurting his feelings and compounding the confusion already on his face. So she'd pecked him on the cheek while his hands were full examining the differences between rose gold and sterling silver. Ino always said boys could be so cute when they were stupid.


"Well aren't you popular." Dark eyes appraised the concealing scarf from behind tinted lenses.

"I thought you were above scandal rags, Itachi."

"It was recommended reading, Sunshine."

"I thought you were above scandal rags, Itachi."

"I'd think your PR rep would hate you. Not only for refusing to take back controversial quotes, but now you're out with an infamous ladies' man again, Catherine Howard."

"In for a penny, in for a pound." She shrugged and sat. "At least, I'll keep my head. But I assume you called me for more than gossip columns. Did you want something?"

"Thought I'd ask how you were doing. Haven't seen you since the fourteenth. There's an irate insect with a jackhammer, claiming to be my conscience that needed to be shut up."

"Ah. Well, I've had a few days to reconcile with myself, so I suppose I'm doing quite well."

"Being kind to animals, looking both ways before crossing, giving cashiers exact change, racking up good karma?"

She was silent for a moment.

"Must you always be so…?" Her voice was half resigned, half something he couldn't place.

"Sarcastic? Devastatingly disarming?"

"Distant. Indifferent," she corrected. "It's like you don't even care."

"I can't afford to get attached to anything. I don't gamble with what I don't have. I'd think you would understand that."

"What kind of life is that?" she asked sharply, nearly upsetting the cup the waitress set down before her.

"A relatively simple and contented one," he almost-snapped back.

"I don't believe that. You have to care about something; otherwise you wouldn't even be here."

"Don't presume to know me, Hyuuga Hinata." She was nosing, in the one direction he didn't need her to. His life was his own, and no mere girl could hope to grasp it all, heiress or not.

She flinched at the burning cold of his voice. She wanted to say something, but what could she? He didn't want her in his life; he'd made that abundantly clear over the last few months. He didn't welcome her into his presence; he only tried to insert himself into hers. Surprising how similar he was to the Hyuuga.

"I guess we're done talking." She left; her untouched cup of chocolate steaming in her wake.


"Hinata? What are you doing here?"

Hinata turned to her sister, who was looking concerned, math textbook held loosely in one hand. She'd forgotten Hanabi liked to wander around before going to the library.

"I'm fine Hanabi."

Pale eyes narrowed dangerously. Sister sensors indicated the exact opposite. Obviously, someone was going to have to suffer. The real question was: which one? However all she said was "Why don't we go back to your apartment?"

Hanabi's suspicions were confirmed when Hinata walked into her kitchen and absently pulled out the ingredients for a layer cake. She sighed. It wasn't even past noon. The weather report had predicted more storms ahead, but Hanabi didn't usually trust such dubious portents. Showed what she knew.

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People were allowed to get angry. Even Uchiha Itachi. They weren't allowed to take out their grievances with life on her sister. Especially not if they were Uchiha. She plotted how she might extract that pound of flesh while Hinata asked her to take the cake to Neji after tutoring. She had managed to include hedge clippers into her evil intentions after Hinata told her she would take the stairs and meet her downstairs. She adjusted the strap of her satchel as she waited for the elevator. Itachi had slipped up, and she intended to take full advantage of it. She knew she'd been right in deciding on Sasuke however many weeks ago it had been.

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"Should I find a lawyer?"

He was lounging next to a sleek silver motorbike, black leather jacket dark against the barren trees across the road. She thought she could see schoolgirls gathering around the edges of his aura. Probably reacting more to the 'untouchable' vibes he gave off, rather than the fact that he was quite publicly taken.

"Why's that, cowboy?" she asked with a smile she didn't quite feel.

"The blonde isn't even attractive, and yet you're still all over the papers."

"Papers of lesser repute," she informed him. "Those jackals either missed, or misread the part where he's dating one of my best friends. Not everyone in this place is out to get hitched by year's end."

"And yet, all my friends are laughing at me for losing out to that moron."

"You don't have any friends, Uchiha."

"I didn't know you were a cat person, Hinata." Sasuke threw as nasty a glare as he could sneak at the girl innocently checking to make sure the door locked behind her. "Has she been declawed yet?"

"Jealousy is an ugly thing, Uchiha Sasuke." She returned his look with a measured stare of her own. "A little competition might work though. I guess I'll walk home after tutoring. Have fun."

She whirled and walked away, her quick pirouette hid her self satisfied smirk behind a flux of dark hair. Shame Neji was smarter than to make any thing resembling a bet with her.


"Was there any particular reason you stopped by?"

"No comment."

"So Hanabi was right?"

"I never said that," he quickly clarified. The small smile reached her eyes this time, and suddenly it was not so bad she was silently laughing at him. "I was… just in the neighborhood."

"I'm sorry, but that was lamer than a legless centipede." She did laugh at him then. "I suppose you want a cup of coffee while you're at it?"

"Well, since we're on the same wavelength, did you want a cup of coffee?"

She was still laughing. "Sure." She paused and looked at him warily. "So long as you aren't planning on taking that thing with us." She pointed to the bike.

"You know a place within walking distance?" he challenged back.

"I live here, Sasuke. And I only placed third for antisocial person of the year. So yes, I know a place."

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If she remembered rightly, there was a saying that coffee was better with company. And if there was no such adage, there ought to have been. The problem was, there was no set etiquette for how a conversation was supposed to run after caffeine had been procured. As a concession to February, she wore a white shirt radiating delicate red helicals from multiple points. With the white denim skirt, it made the ring on her finger look like a coincidence of color coordination. And maybe it was just a coincidence. Really. All it meant was that she wanted to wear her ring.

"So," she started gamely, interrupting his rogue wardrobe thoughts, "been in any scandals lately?"

"Only with you."

"But… the engagement was old over half an hour ago."

"It's all over the world that you prefer blondes now. I believe I left the… boys speculating on how many tabloids are going to start questioning your relationship with Yamanaka Ino. And how soon you're going to call off the wedding."

"Oh." Damn, she wished she had a pocket sized giant book of witty retorts.

"Anything you wanted to tell me?"

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman?"

"'Cause that's a reassuring statement."

Chatter paused as drinks were set down before them, a half hearted attempt to keep 'easy to quote, and easy to misconstrue' lines to a minimum. She watched in an almost morbid fascination as he dumped sugar and cream into the swirling black abyss of his cup.

"That is an ungodly thing to do to a perfectly good cup of black. I may have to divorce you."

"Not annul? I see how it is, Hyuuga. You just want me for my body. Once you have your wicked way with me, you're going to drop me like last week's Glitter magazine." He gestured to her beverage with the half empty creamer. "Besides, you didn't have the decency to even get a cup of coffee."

"Did too! It's just… more of a slushie." She took a sip of her blended coffee rebelliously. "You can't order straight coffee, and then ruin it with sugar," she pronounced, "it's somewhere close to blasphemy."

"Remind me never to wake up next to you and offer breakfast in bed. Woman is always fickle- foolish is he who trusts her."

"So that makes you a wise, learned man?"

"It makes me a simpleton who would rather wake up in bed next to you for other things." His face remained impassive, even as her face lit up hotly. Both knew the other was smiling behind the visible expression.

When had they been able to jest about marriage? Hadn't he once seethed at the mention of anything that could be related to their union? Didn't she used to shrink in silence when he did?

Since when was he able to make her feel the heat of her blush all the way down to her toes? At what time had he decided he wanted more than to just quip those little zingers? Fun as watching her squirm was… there were other ways to do it. Maybe he was putting too much sugar in his coffee.


She tossed the empty cup into the rubbish bin on their way out and sighed. He gave her a questioning look. The exhalation had been accompanied by a soft smile, relief rather than resignation on her face.

"Savoring normalcy," she responded to his unasked question. "We should have impromptu dates more often. The planned ones haven't done so well."

"Careful, I may hold you to that."

Danger warnings were shrilling in the corners of her mind. They were followed closely by a whispered reminder that they were engaged, so why shouldn't he? He certainly was more at ease with her now. And… she with him. It was something she could admit to herself at least with no hesitation. The camaraderie of before wasn't anywhere near as satisfying this.

Maybe this love story, no matter how artificial its beginning had been, would have a happy ending. Maybe it was too much to hope. But wasn't that Pandora's last gift? Blessed curse, which lifted the spirit towards the new day in prayer of rapture, only to have it sink further into despair when met with the blank face of nihility. Or the other version in which hope, unnecessary in lost bliss, was the drop of light in darkness, that which lit the path, harsh and harrowing, to paradise.

She blew into her hands to stave off the chill setting into them, thankful for the distraction. Too bad he noticed.

"Hyuuga, what the hell did you order iced coffee in winter for anyway?"

"Why else, Sasuke? Because I like it." She pointedly left her jacket folded over her arm as they approached the exit. He gave her a look that spoke two point seven two volumes and held the door open for her.

"It's raining."


In regards to the Bill Clinton quote, I will say I'm liberal, currently nonpartisan, because politics sucks. I don't understand it, all I know is that what I, in my mildly environmental, very mathy view of life, want to happen. I reiterate that politics sucks. I therefore make fun of it whenever I can without making too much of a statement. Nothing worse than someone pointing out I have my information wrong. Which it rarely is when I'm in my sciencey element. It's a lifestyle choice.

'Cause that was digression of type 10. I meant to say that the quote was just there to be funny, because it was appropriately inappropriate. Excuse my rather misplaced sense of humor. Some people understand me. I live with them. That's all that really matters.

And there's a quote from Francis I (of France) somewhere in the tail end of this chapter. But I don't think he'll object so much of my using it. He's dead after all. Only thing to do is go through his pockets... done now.