Enjoy!
Gaara took a walking tour through the largest circle of the fairgrounds, bringing no guard detail along with him. The other Kages had been left to their own intentions, having respectfully declined to join him on his particular quest. His aim was to find Sasuke—eventually, though he felt no urgency about it. If that man had come to the festival at all, he had hopefully come to stay—and if not, then Gaara had no designs to keep him there. This was to be a purely social visit, in part because the Kazekage felt that he owed the redeemed Uchiha a friendly word from time to time; a reminder that both of them had friends in places that reached far beyond the Leaf. Better than perhaps anybody else, Gaara understood the difference that a single friend could make. One light in the darkness.
While he strolled, he carried a casual posture, his arms dangling at his sides. His dark-rimmed eyes studied the layout of the place, finally taking his opportunity to adequately enjoy the surrounding merriment and colorful decorum. As of that morning, the final arrangements for the tournament had been completed, and each of the frustrating bureaucratic hurdles had been cleared. It was finally time to partake in the relaxation that had been enjoyed by the citizenry all week long. Gaara found himself smiling calmly, waving a hand silently to greet those who called out to him. As the Kazekage and a hero of the Fourth War, he was recognizable even when wholly separated from his identifying robe and its traditional hat.
In the distance, further around the bending path he traversed, he had seen a single firework burst in the sky. A curiosity of the sort that urged him to walk a little faster, pondering what the occasion could have been. Several passing greetings later, he came within sight of the source of the explosion—a tiny chimney atop a game booth was still leaking smoke up into the sky, a tiny wisp of gray. Further beyond, Gaara caught the unmistakable silhouette of Sasuke Uchiha, though he was dressed in a manner that Gaara had never seen; beside Sasuke there was a young woman, standing quite close. That was an encouraging surprise—here to stay, indeed. Beyond the refined clothing and celebratory fireworks, however, the mood of the small group appeared to be somber. The Kazekage's eyes narrowed as he slowed his approach, not wanting to interrupt a serious dilemma with his unnecessary presence.
In his focus on Sasuke, he did not account for the young Hyuuga girl with dark hair and her somewhat-older, somewhat-familiar blonde friend coming to notice him from the side. The younger one, Hanabi Hyuuga, yipped to him with sparkles in her eyes. "Hey, I know you...! You're the Kazekage, right!?" She bobbed up and down on her heels; her sandals may as well have been springs.
Gaara kept his eyes on Sasuke, who promptly looked over his shoulder and noticed him with a cold glare. Despite Gaara's considerable strength and experience, there was nothing quite as unnerving as the glare of an Uchiha. Gaara felt a tiny disturbance in the pit of his stomach. Unlike most others had they been in his situation, however, he was able to squash it down and speak smoothly without a pause. He glanced to Hanabi without a nod or a wave, considering a spoken introduction to be enough. "Yes, that's right. I am Gaara, the Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village." He looked again to Sasuke. "Is something wrong, here?"
Beside Sasuke, Hinata turned to look next. Gaara noticed that her hand was on the Uchiha's shoulder for support—but whose support, hers or his? She spoke to the newcomer, smiling in a fake way to dilute the potential gossip. "Oh, it's nothing, Lord Kazekage. Sasuke and I were only discussing what we should have to eat."
Gaara was too smart for the fib, but too respectful to pry deeper beneath it. It was none of his business. As such, he followed the conversation as she directed it. Through a soft and friendly smile, he murmured. "Naruto has told me good things about the ramen booth on the northwest end."
Hinata smiled a little too kindly, closing her eyes with a hesitant laugh. "Y-yeah, of course he would say that..." She looked to Sasuke, who had been silent. "How does ramen sound to you, Sasuke?"
Sasuke's shoulder shrugged up in silent, unbroken indifference. He hadn't taken his attention away from Gaara. In fact, he seemed defensive. After leering in uncomfortable silence, matching the Kazekage's light blue eyes with dark pits, he openly aired his suspicion: "Have you come to keep an eye on me?"
Gaara frowned, an immediate reaction, then he shook his head slowly. He folded his arms over his chest, crossing his dark red sleeves over the matching buttons of his shirt. "I only came to ask if you're having fun." He peers behind him, looking up to the dissipating smoke in the sky. "I wonder if you're the cause for that explosion overhead."
Sasuke narrowed his brow, squeezing his focus a little tighter upon Gaara. He felt Hinata's hand leap to his, closing her fingers over his glove as if to remind him to behave—for his own good, if nothing else. He exhaled a sigh, defeating his stubbornness and trying to be personable again. "It was nothing. A friend lost some money, so I won it back for him."
Hinata felt a little flutter in her heart. 'A friend.' It was a deceptively chosen word, an attempt to divert the situation into something harmless, and yet the sound of it was blissful. Perhaps Sasuke and Kiba could grow to be friends after all. Hinata clung to her eternal optimism, forcing her doubts to vanish in spite of the true undertone of Sasuke's answer. She chimed in just after him, clarifying further. "Sasuke is amazing, Lord Kazekage—not even Naruto could win that game, but Sasuke did it with only two tries."
"Not even Naruto...that's impressive." Gaara regarded Hinata with curious interest, after the fact. "I'm sorry, miss. I recognize your face, but I don't think we've met properly." He looked at her closely, striking some familiarity in his mind. Yes, she was one of the soldiers in the war—but more than that, he remembered her from the Exams. "You're Hinata Hyuuga, aren't you?"
Hinata felt odd being so recognizable. She had spent so much time in the background, so much time moping away from the world, that she nearly forgot the feeling of being remembered by others. Through a self-conscious half-smile, she nodded lightly. "That's right. I'm Hinata." Another nod, perhaps too many nods. "It's good to meet you." She politely extended a hand toward Gaara, who was several paces away, still.
Gaara began to move toward her, his hand raising politely, but he felt himself suddenly stuck in his own tracks before he had taken a single step. The world seemed to evaporate into whorls of black steam, and there was something suffocating all around him, as if preparing to drag him deep into the dirt. He sensed something—not killing intent, but a warning. The feeling was but a flash, there and gone in under a second, and yet it left an impression. Stifling a shudder, he began walking, and he shook Hinata's hand with brief, polite eye contact. "It's good meeting you, as well, Hinata. I've heard that you performed well during the war. Thank you for your efforts." His words were pre-scripted, something he had told to over a thousand soldiers since the end of the final battle, but he could summon up nothing more personal or friendly to give her. His mind was still lingering on that pull, that pit of dark purple quicksand that he had 'stepped in.'
Hinata smiled again and returned the handshake, wholly oblivious to what was bubbling beside her. She looked at Sasuke afterward, smiling brightly. He looked back to her, and a much more subdued smile was returned to her. She beamed with pride: "Did you hear that? The Kazekage himself said I did well in the war!"
Sasuke nodded to her, seeming the same as usual. "I haven't ever asked you about your role in the war, have I? You'll have to tell me a few of your stories later."
Hinata smiled, confident within Sasuke's bubble. "It's not much of a story...I only remember fighting until I couldn't fight anymore. It blends together..."
Gaara watched the two from a couple of steps away, analyzing them together. That darkness, that crushing feeling when he approached. He had a strengthening idea about what it was. "How long have you two known each other?" he asked idly.
Hinata and Sasuke paused to look at Gaara, and this time it was Sasuke who answered. "We grew up in the same village; we even shared a class in the Academy." He looked to Hinata again, a tone in his voice that implied a hidden regret. "But we didn't really meet until two months ago..."
Gaara tightened his lips, mulling it over. "Two months...Naruto and Sakura's wedding, then?"
Sasuke nodded, seeing no need to conceal or deny such simple details. "That's right; I saw you there, too, Gaara. When we spoke, I didn't expect for things to go the way they did...I thought that I shouldn't have ever come back." Sasuke pondered for a moment, looking across the auburn-haired man in burgundy clothes. For all the things Gaara had once been, he was now a close ally of the Leaf. His memories of the former Gaara—represented by striking, unsettling images of a psychopathic killer, a monster who had once threatened to swallow the entirety of Konoha—were dull and different now. The negative associations had been stamped down and paved over, such that Gaara could stand triumphantly atop them with his head held high. Sasuke envied that about him—he was a prime example of overcoming the mistakes of one's past. He peered at Gaara searchingly. "You have regrets, too, don't you?"
Gaara's expression loosened a bit, going slack and somber. His tone was a hushed whisper, almost lost in the clamor of the festival. "Many. Maybe even more of them than you have."
Sasuke seemed to forget that they were in the center of a large pathway, with human bodies flanking and enveloping them in their hurry to get from one place to the next. It was still early in the afternoon, and yet time was pressingly finite. The shamed Uchiha took a step toward Gaara, parting from Hinata by a single pace. He asked a firm question for his own sake and nobody else's. "How can you justify becoming the Kazekage after all that you've done?"
Hanabi and Ino had been respectfully quiet in their place off to the side, but they both wore nervous expressions as Sasuke spoke. Was he calling Gaara out for his previous crimes? Was he going to start a fight on that very spot? Hinata, meanwhile, saw it for what it truly was—it wasn't an accusation, but rather a genuine plea for an answer. Sasuke was asking for help.
Gaara recognized it, too. His personal experience had made him prematurely wise in matters pertaining to guilt, shame, and even penance. He hummed a slow breath out of his nose before speaking with his eyes shut in thought. "That's a question without a simple answer. I've spent most of my life trying to answer it, but even right now I can't put all of my feelings into words. When everything is weighed together, my sins far outweigh my accomplishments." He looked away from Sasuke and the others, regarding the sea of mixed-and-matched colors around him. People from all villages, all nations, mingling together as one, trading jokes and stories as they moved. "Years ago, before I met you or Naruto, I might have killed any one of these people...maybe all of them...for a small reason, or for no reason at all. I was hopelessly lost, consumed by loneliness and guilt, just as you were. Eventually, same as you, I was found. Given a reason to be better."
Gaara returned his attention to Sasuke, speaking openly. "If only it were simple enough for that to be the end of the story, but being found is only the first step. The next step is to come back; to genuinely return to the light. That's where I think you are right now. Not drowning in the darkness any longer, but neither are you bathing in the sun. You're drifting somewhere between the light and dark. Now you're looking for a specific place...the only place that ultimately matters—the one place where you belong. Maybe it's here with your friends, with your village, but maybe it's not." He was reading the look on Sasuke's face; it was subtle and concealed, yet plain for Gaara to see. Such understanding arose from their mutual history. "I struggled for years, but I figured it out. I understand now, without a doubt: regardless of who I was before, my place is to serve the Hidden Sand as its Kazekage." He declared it with stern, unflappable confidence. There was no falter in his mind, no hesitation in his heart. "At the core of it, Sasuke, you only need to answer one question. What is your ideal place in this new, peaceful world?"
Sasuke felt rather exposed, then. All the eyes were upon him—Hanabi's, Ino's, Gaara's, and Hinata's. He hadn't expected Gaara to be quite so astute, so capable of dissecting his misgivings. That was a mistake in judgement. Sasuke wanted to answer, he truly did, but words failed him. He could tentatively picture his ideal position—he saw a hazy picture of himself; he was serving as the head of a revived Uchiha Clan and acting as a protector of Konoha, one who was loved and respected by his friends and family. A simple dream, one such that Naruto could have blurted it out while standing atop an overturned packing crate, a hand raised high as if prepared to grasp the sun. For Sasuke, though, the words wouldn't come from his mouth—not even if he tried to force them. He could picture the dream, yet he could not give it life. After a moment of pause, he swallowed the notion as nothing more than an idle fantasy, and the answer he finally gave was dismissive. "I'll figure it out."
Gaara's smile turned up a degree, and he gave a nod of gentle satisfaction. Despite the dismissal, Gaara had seen a twinkle of impulsive thought in Sasuke's eyes. He was thinking about it—perhaps he had even decided already. "Yes, I think you will," He said with confidence, then peered around to the others, nodding to each of them in turn. "I'm sorry to interrupt your fun. I only wanted to say hello to Sasuke. I should leave you to yourselves."
Hanabi quickly picked up her hand to wave her fingers stiltedly, struggling to move the right way. Clearly she was excited; perhaps a little bit star-struck. "Thanks for visiting with us, Lord Kazekage!" She managed to yell, too-loudly. Aside from perhaps Kakashi—who was more like a father, if not a grandfather, to her—Gaara was the most romantically idolized of all the Kages. She had never met him before that moment, and the thrill of the brief visit had caught her up in a rush.
Ino was looking at Hanabi knowingly, fully understanding the teenage crush as it developed before her eyes. Not so long ago, Ino herself might have been acting the same way. She set a hand on Hanabi's shoulder as if to calm her down and remind her that other people could see her acting giddy. Her other hand rose to wave in a more polite and official fashion. "Please don't be a stranger, Lord Kazekage. A friend of Naruto's is a friend of ours."
Hinata was grateful for Ino's attention to Hanabi—it meant that her little sibling was reined in, one way or the other. The older Hyuuga sibling gave a princess-like dip of her head toward Gaara. "Thank you for your visit, Lord Kazekage."
Sasuke, in contrast to all the others, did not nod or wave or bow. He merely spoke a farewell in the simplest terms, stone-faced: "See you later." He had been given a lot to think about.
Gaara nodded again to Sasuke. There was still more that the Kazekage had wanted to say, but he had realized during the brief discussion that Sasuke had acquired several friends. All three of those girls—one much more so than the rest, he could deduce—stood in agreement to watch his back and ensure that he was loved. As Gaara turned to walk away from the group, his mind returned to that chilling moment of staggered hesitation. The sensation had been that of a nightmare; demons licking at his ankles, preparing to swallow him into a swirling, pulsating abyss. As he tried to recall it in detail, he thought that it could have been his imagination, fleeting as it was. No, there was something very real about it. Had he miscalculated the situation, perhaps in so little a way as by taking a wrong step, he understood that he likely would not have survived. He could still feel the lingering freeze in his spine, thawed only by time and distance. The danger had definitely emanated from somebody who had been near—counting over the group, Sasuke stood alone as the sole threat to Gaara...and what a genuine threat he could be.
Gaara quickly resolved that the threat had come from Sasuke; there was no longer a question about that. The nature of it was the mystery, then—it was neither a genjutsu nor a physical restraint, but some whispered, foreboding aura. Unintentional, perhaps—instinctive. That stifling turmoil was an assurance that, beyond any physical or spiritual limitations, harm would come to him if he had made a mistake. Upon deeper recollection, Gaara noted that the feeling had stricken him just before he took his first step toward Hinata. Sasuke's reflex must have been tied to her, somehow. A protective impulse? One that even Sasuke himself couldn't adequately control? Gaara looked into the hand which had shaken Hinata's, unaware at the time that his life had been on the line, and then he clutched his fingers into a contemplative, tense fist. Find peace, Sasuke...for your own sake.
Gaara was gone, and Hanabi was gushing. "He said you did great, Hinata! The Kazekage himself said that!" A parrot of Hinata's own giddy reaction, an acknowledgment which Hanabi had been holding back until the handsome Kage had gotten away from them. "That's so cool...I can't believe you got praise from Gaara! You must've kicked ass in battle!" She was grinning, giggling, and wriggling her torso in all sorts of energetic ways, as if trying to expel her nervous energy all at once. "You're so cool, sis..." She said after a long squeal, finally relaxing and sighing. As she settled, and for a quiet moment, Hanabi felt something other than pride, or love. Something darker.
Hinata blushed up a storm and turned to face Sasuke, as if pleading to be hidden in his chest. At just such a time that she didn't notice the doubt in Hanabi's expression. "I-it's really nothing...I didn't fight any harder than the rest of the Alliance did..." She was poking her fingers together, busying herself until the heat had simmered away from her cheeks. "Sasuke...do you want to have something to eat? It doesn't need to be ramen, I was just talking. Nervously..."
Sasuke huffed a laugh through his nose. Maybe Hinata hadn't noticed it, but Sasuke saw Hanabi's slow turn. It was jealousy, he was certain of it. He could practically hear the younger girl's thoughts-'what does she have that I don't?' He leered suspiciously for only a moment to her, then he took up Hinata's question. "If you're hungry, let's eat."
Hinata sighed thankfully into the answer, relaxing and shaking off the worries and doubts that had been built over the past couple of hours. "What should we have?" She thought immediately of cake. He had promised cake! And yet it was three o'clock, if not a little earlier, and cake felt more like a seven o'clock thing to her. It could wait. Brightness in her eyes, she turned to the one person she knew could help: "Ino. You're Choji's teammate, has he said anything good about the restaurants or snack stands here?"
Ino blinked, then she pointed a finger to her chin, dimpling it in thought. "Well, I know his family's got their own booth open, but it's more like a sample stand to lure people to their real restaurant. You could go there, but you can go there anytime...I'd really recommend trying something you've never tried before! I hear the cuisine from the Land of Water is especially interesting. Lots of fish, clams, lobster, things like that."
Hinata flexed her lips into an interested smile. "Oh, that does sound good...what do you think, Sasuke?"
Sasuke shrugged typically, peering around the area. He looked like he was always waiting for something to strike him from behind. He wasn't afraid, but rather...anxious. Like he knew that there would be trouble if somebody turned brave enough to confront him. There were hundreds of people in that very festival with a reason to do so; Kiba was only a single one among them. When he answered, he was only half-there. "I'll take anything you pick, Hinata. You've tasted my jerky, you should know I'm not particular."
Hinata giggled slightly, covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers, eyes closed and smiling. "Oh, I thought what you made tasted good...bland, I guess, but good." She blushed slightly. "I don't mean bland, but...plain...?"
Sasuke smirked to her, bringing a hand up to pat playfully onto her shoulder. "Plain, like ribs without any sauce?" His black eyes lingered for a long moment upon her face, letting the mutual memory crystallize into the vacant place in the air where their eyes met. A shared history was being woven between them, ready to be recalled and enjoyed at any moment. They were both suddenly lost in that realization. They were not strangers; not any longer. There could no longer be an element of distance between them. They had shared many things, now—things that no other person would understand about them. The sense of comfort, the sense of fulfillment. Only the two of them were capable of playing the role for one another, the roles which they both needed to play. The mutual addiction had transitioned into something else. Now it was a steady sensation of purpose, an ache that compelled them to be together. In that moment of mutual consideration, both Sasuke and Hinata realized without words that they were entwined by unseen threads.
Hinata gulped quietly as she lost track of the conversation, her fingers softly clenching, curling into her palms as her lips pursed in silent thought. She eventually remembered where she had been, what she had been proposing. "O-oh, right...we were going to get something to eat...weren't we?" She looked to Sasuke with a nervous blush on her cheeks. She knew that Hanabi and Ino were staring at her; at both of them. The interaction must have been very telling.
Sasuke didn't look at them. He, oddly, didn't mind being watched by the pair of well-meaning but intrusive girls. "You wanted something from the Land of Water, yeah?" He pulled his attention from Hinata's pale, blush-painted face. No small feat, really; he immediately craved a return to her natural loveliness. "So we should look for a blue awning overhead. Striped means it's a game, so find a solid one."
Meanwhile, Ino and Hanabi were indeed watching closely. They could both feel something bristling on the backs of their necks, a simultaneous intuition. Their nosiness was kicked promptly into overdrive, and they looked to one another. Ino tipped herself down, covering the side of her mouth with the back of her right hand, eyes pointed toward Hinata, but words given to Hanabi. "Do you think we should give them a little time alone? As much as I want to see this play out, I think we're being ignored."
Hanabi scoffed, her head reeling back slightly and her pale eyes scanning Ino up and down as if to decide whether or not she had been serious. "Leave them alon? Now? Are you serious? This is where things start getting good." Her whisper was barely such, her teeth closed and her mouth flapping rapidly. "I've gotta keep an eye on my sister, otherwise she's going to blow her chance with Sasuke."
Ino raised a slender, well-trimmed brow. She turned her large eyes to look at Sasuke and Hinata sidelong. "You've got a Byakugan, right? Besides, do you really think she's going to blow it?" Ino's hand went boldly to the top of Hanabi's head, using a grip on the scalp to pivot the younger girl's face to look toward Hinata. Hanabi folded her arms and pouted, but she compliantly looked where she was being pointed. Suddenly she felt like she was being babysat. Had that been Ino's intention all along? Ino whispered again, softer. "That's not an accident...the way they act with each other. You see it, too, right?" Ino gazed longingly toward Sasuke, as if saying a final farewell to her chances with him. "That is real."
Hanabi kept her cheeks puffed defiantly for another few seconds, but eventually she huffed out a sigh and closed her eyes. Her shoulders went slack, too. She was deflated from the head to the waist. "Well...I did promise Hinata that I'd give them a little time alone...guess it might as well be now."
Ino's slender hand gave Hanabi a kind—but maybe condescending—pat on the head. "Good choice."
Hanabi's face tensed with some reactionary outrage, her brows clenching and her lips flattening with little amusement. "Don't treat me like I'm some kid. I get your point, I just..." She looked off at Hinata, and at Sasuke. Jealousy was plain on her face. Deep inside, she knew she was a bit too young to have a chance with either Naruto or Sasuke, but she couldn't resist the bubble of teenage angst that arose when her long-time 'celebrity crush' happened to fall for her sister instead of her. "I kinda wish I could be here to live through her, you know?"
Ino sighed wistfully, a hand cupping her own cheek, leaning into it for some artificial comfort. "Tell me about it...Hinata's such a lucky girl, getting Sasuke's attention so easily..." She hummed, seemingly forgetting that she was being listened to. Her pale blue eyes closed gently, and she smiled while she bid farewell to her childhood dreams of becoming Sasuke's one and only love. "We all grew up in ways nobody predicted." She opened her sight again, her gaze tilting high. She looked to a nearby roof, spotting a blackened silhouette, a figure perched like a watchful gargoyle. It was accompanied by another, kneeling beside. She felt comforted by the image—whether it was true or not, she liked to imagine that the gargoyle was Sai keeping guard over her; specifically her.
The discussion between Hinata and Sasuke had seemingly been decided without Ino or Hanabi's involvement, and Hinata was holding Sasuke's gloved hand unabashedly in hers, waving her other arm in a subdued way toward Ino and Hanabi. "Were the two of you going to come with us?" She asked somewhat timidly, glancing briefly with her eyes toward Sasuke as if seeking approval on his face. He was flat and unreadable.
Ino cleared her throat and lifted her chin, softly answering with a shake of her head. "Actually, I forgot that I was supposed to meet up with Shikamaru...he's been trying to woo a girl, and he could use some of my expertise." She cast a wink toward Hinata, but it was subtly meant for Sasuke—he knew all too well how effective Ino's expertise could be. It wasn't entirely a lie, either—Shikamaru did need help. He just hadn't exactly asked for it.
Hanabi looked bothered by Ino's excuse, realizing that she lacked a similar way to occupy herself. Aside from... "Yeah, and uh...I'm not really done playing games yet. You two can go ahead and eat wile I stay around here and win something cool." She smugly shut her eyes and swept her hand forward, as if shooing the lovebirds away from her. She did her best to convey the sensation that they were cramping her style. "Go on, you're going to break my concentration if you hang around." One eye slivered open, hoping to see them leave before her performance cracked.
Hinata looked surprised. "O-oh, alright..." She wasn't disappointed, though. She had been wanting some time with Sasuke alone, though she hadn't the heart to request that the others leave. "I guess it's just us, Sasuke." She felt a weight in her throat, even now. How many months had it been? Years, even, spent alone in Sasuke's darkened, time-stretched world. No matter how much time it had been, she could not shake the tremble from her jaw as she spoke to him.
Sasuke, too, felt a moment of uncertainty. He had grown to somewhat appreciate the cushion of a social setting. Hanabi and Ino were a glorified peanut gallery, but they kept the conversation moving when necessary. They were his cover; his way of blending in with the crowd. Rather than a man and a woman on a date, they had been a cluster of friends traversing the festival grounds. Without much warning, the mood had transitioned, and his position beside Hinata with his hand cupped in hers became substantially more intimate, by context alone. Sasuke nodded, rather than spoke, and he turned to walk with Hinata's hand in his. The older Hyuuga sister waved her fingers quietly to Hanabi, wearing a blush on her face as she walked away with her personified weakness clutched in her left hand.
Hanabi watched them go, and even resisted the urge to stalk after them. She gave too much thought to following, but Sasuke would have noticed her. Instantly. With that aura of dread hanging over her thoughts, she whispered. "He's...really kind of scary." There was a moment of vulnerability in what she said. "I've never felt so outmatched before. I've never even tried to fight him, but just by feeling, I know how it'd go if I did."
Ino took a deep breath, releasing a sigh of tension that she hadn't known she was nursing in her gut. Sasuke's presence was passively heavy. As he walked away from her, she understood that she was being suppressed by him, even if it were in some unconscious way. "He's scary, but a good man. He's different from how he was before."
Hanabi still wasn't fully convinced, but there was nothing to do about it. "Well...now you talked them out of taking us with them. Guess you oughta go see to your friend, huh?" She peered up at Ino, arms folding semi-stubbornly under her tiny bust. "I'm gonna win something." She pivoted on a heel and turned to find another game booth, leaving Ino to herself.
Ino looked to the nearby roof again, a building on the outer rim of the festival. The silhouettes she had seen before were gone. Moved to another place, watching someone else. She couldn't resist a tug of petty jealousy as she imagined Sai's attention moving somewhere else. Had it even been him? With a shrug of her bare white shoulder, she put her hands underneath the base of her heavy pony tail, fixing the tie and straightening some of her disheveled strands along the way. Hanabi had gone left, while Sasuke and Hinata had gone right. And so, as the mastermind of both departures, Ino had no direction of her own in which to go. A brief, awkward moment of self-imposed solitude. She was not defeated, though. She took great pleasure in knowing that she had played a part in organizing Sasuke's new life. He hadn't really taken notice of her, before, but now...now she had a permanent and meaningful place in his memories. Now she could genuinely be called one of his friends. It was enough to make her smile as she idly hovered to a nearby bench, sitting to enjoy the sunlight on her blonde hair and pale skin. Shikamaru wasn't actually waiting for her, so there was no need to hurry.
Naruto Uzumaki was enjoying his third helping of ramen so far that day, taking full advantage of the temporarily-relocated Ichiraku Ramen. Teuchi and his daughter, Ayame, were working the shack with their typical smiles and friendliness. Their establishment was located along the outer rim of the festival's Donut. Alongside the typical square panels with the lettering to spell out "Ramen Ichiraku," there was another sign made recently. It was prominently stacked atop the other logo, and it displayed a hand-painted image of Naruto's broadly smiling face, as well as a disembodied hand holding up two fingers. It was painted on brown wood, and around Naruto's cartoonish face there were white letters with an exaggerated font: "Naruto Uzumaki's #1 Favorite Restaurant!"
To say that Naruto's favor represented a significant draw to the establishment would be an understatement. While Naruto himself sat at a permanently-reserved table for he, his wife, and a small handful of personal guests, the rest of the public was eager to wait in a long and winding line that wrapped in on itself a dozen times before snaking around a corner and out of sight. The privilege of dining at the same restaurant as Naruto, the hero of the world, was highly coveted by tourists. Ichiraku was one of the smallest restaurants in the festival, but its sales had topped the charts of every single day of the celebration thus far. Based on appearances, this day would be no different.
Naruto was shoveling another huge scoop of brothy noodles into his mouth, dropping little bits of the juice down his chin. Sakura sat beside him with her hand on her forehead, sighing at his piggishness. "You could at least use a napkin," She chided, offering one to him, white and custom-textured with the Ichiraku name.
Naruto blinked and paused mid-slurp, looking over to Sakura with a tilt of his clear blue eyes. He peered down to the napkin she offered in her hand, then slowly, guiltily began to slurp the noodles further into his mouth. With a fat gulp, he swallowed them; he didn't even seem to chew. "If I stop to use a napkin, the ramen might get cold." He dove his chopsticks into the bowl again, picking up another huge wad of noodles and slurping them down defiantly, locking suspicious eyes with Sakura as if daring her to push the issue further.
Also seated at their table was Kakashi Hatake, across from Naruto and wearing casual clothing, white in color. Of course he wore his mask, as well, black and tightly wrapped over his face. Its cloth went down his neck and disappeared beneath his white collar. He looked to Sakura with laughing eyes, then leaned back in his own chair with his elbow resting on its backing casually. "You two really haven't changed much..." He hummed sentimentally, remembering the days of the Genin. "Everybody knows us as heroes of the world, the ones who made the triumphant last stand against Madara and Kaguya...it's tough to think that all this arose from that simple bell test." He ran a hand along the side of his face, a finger drawing around the edge of his left eye, as if expecting to find a dozen wrinkles. It was hard to believe that he was still as young as he was, having witnessed his students growing up so quickly.
Sakura smiled to Kakashi, brightly shining toward him. "You'll always be our teacher, even if you're also Lord Sixth." She took her own bite of ramen, far more tame than her husband. She chewed and swallowed before speaking again, dabbing at the corners of her mouth with the napkin she had hoped to offload onto the glutton beside her. "Speaking of teaching, how are things at the Academy? I've heard there are fewer students nowadays."
Kakashi slumped, his head tilting forward with a sigh. "You heard right. Even though we've got more people in Konoha than ever before, they're mostly refugees and civilians. There's a romanticism attributed to the war, to heroes like you and Naruto, but there's also reality." His head turned, moving to admire the Hokage Monument looming in the distance. It seemed that no matter where one happened to be in the village, it was always visible with just a turn of the head. Six gigantic stone faces, each of them immortalized as one of the village's protectors. One of those faces was his own—masked, yet recognizable. "The reality is that we're fresh off the end of a war that cost us hundreds of thousands of lives, and thousands of acres of usable land...shinobi and civilians alike were victims. In terms of remembering our mortality, the frailty of the world, there's nothing quite like war. Parents are leery of committing their kids to becoming ninjas right now, so we've had a significant drop in enrollment."
Naruto slurped down another unreasonable scoop of ramen before speaking after a light gasp for air. "Yeah, plus we're at peace now, so they don't have to..." He checked Kakashi's and Sakura's somber expressions, deciding that he must have been missing something. "I mean...I'm proud to be a shinobi, but it's a hard life. Maybe it's better if there aren't very many of us."
Kakashi's forehead flexed to show a scolding disapproval. "I'm surprised, Naruto." He pointed his chopsticks firmly across the table at his old student. "You of all people should know that this world needs shinobi; it always will. Whether it's peace or war, we shoulder the burdens that others are too weak to carry. We submit ourselves to the struggles so that we can spare the innocent from bearing them."
Naruto listened to him, not letting the change in mood reflect onto his eating pattern. Another sentence, another thick swallow of his favorite food. "I guess what I mean is...there has to be an end to the struggle. We can't fight forever. Maybe we should start planning for peace."
Kakashi's hidden expression drooped, the scar that ran vertically across his left eye slanting somewhat, showing the beginnings of a frown beneath his mask. "Maybe someday, the fighting will end...but even today, with this festival in full swing, the peace isn't absolute. You've heard the rumblings, right?" He looked across the outdoor table to lock eyes with Naruto, then Sakura, establishing a connection to them both. "Something is happening underground. Whispers, mostly...a handful of isolated attacks." He peered over his shoulder, ensuring that nobody was listening too closely. "Those in the know have told me that we've got traitors in our midst."
Naruto sighed through his nose, nodding his head. He was saddened, but not surprised. "For months, I've been feeling odd things...Kurama's chakra helps me sense evil intentions. It used to be easy to pick one person out of a group, but lately I feel like there's a cloud over the whole village. I can't pick out any one person. It's like...there's danger and dread and sadness all over the place, and it's so thick I can't make out who's the source. It's almost like it's everybody at once."
Kakashi hummed with mild concern, his thumb brushing along his angled chin. "The festival...it's a peaceful gesture, but it's not just fun and games. This is an important diplomatic moment for all five of the Great Nations." He stirred his ramen idly with one chopstick, resting his covered cheek on a closed fist. "Everything on the surface seems calm, joyous even. There's tension, though. It's all over the world; everybody's holding their collective breath. Did you know that all five of the Daimyo are in the village right now?"
Sakura's eyes widened slightly. "All five...? Right now?" Her whisper resembled a gasp.
Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, all of them. It's kept under the table, but they're here to undergo long-term peace negotiations on the national level. The shinobi of the world are at peace already. We've forged our portion of the Alliance under the fires of war. It's different on the political side of things. The Daimyo consider themselves to be our puppet-masters, so our agreements are secondary to theirs. They're the ones who can control the shinobi with their pocketbooks. If they can't come to an agreement of peaceful terms, then..." Kakashi abruptly jams his chopstick through a floating piece of tender beef within his broth, the wood sticking straight up, floating upright like funeral incense. "There goes the peace..."
Naruto scowled. "But they can't make us fight." His hand trembled slightly as he held his sticks tight. "I'll force them to find peace, if I have to." There was a clear anger trembling in the pools of his eyes.
Kakashi held up a finger, signaling for Naruto to hush himself and continue listening. "You'd become a tyrant, then? No different from what Sasuke intended to be? Peace won't last if it's attained at knife-point. The system we have right now is in place for a reason. The world is vast; we can't control everything with strength alone, even if it were the right thing to do. Like it or not, the Daimyo are the rulers of the world. We need them, just as much as they need us."
Naruto put a strong hand up in his blonde hair, squeezing with noteworthy frustration. Sakura's hand came to rest between his shoulder blades, a comforting touch, but one without much power to change things. Naruto sighed. "I know it can't be forced, but after everything we've been through...is it wrong to think we've earned peace? You said it yourself. Hundreds of thousands of people died for us."
Kakashi exhaled contemplatively through his nose. "They paved the way to this festival. The least we can do, as thanks for their sacrifice, is maintain the peace as long as we can." He clicked his remaining chopstick against the table in idle consideration. "As enticing as an armed uprising might feel, it only creates more bloodshed, more bad feelings. That's the fatal lesson from the Uchiha." Kakashi closed his eyes and thought. A long silence passed between the three seated at the table as they held their private conversation in the center of a massive public spectacle. When the Hokage spoke again, it was with quiet truth. "The nature of the world, Naruto, is that progress is marked in inches. Every inch of positive change can cost thousands of lives, and it can take years to happen. Every war brings a lesson; every slaughter brings us incrementally closer to lasting peace."
Naruto was unhappy to hear that point of view, and he made it obvious with a slam of his hand against the table. He rattled the ceramic bowls, and managed to draw a few stares from those who waited in line to have their ramen. He caught himself before he let out a harsh rebuttal, instead clenching both fists and all the teeth on his jaw to stifle his outburst. He swallowed his answer, softening to a hoarse whisper. "That sounds like what Nagato used to say. That the only way we'd find peace is by experiencing pain and sorrow."
Kakashi nodded slowly. "It's complicated, but he wasn't entirely incorrect. His methods were heinous, and yet...he wanted peace, too. It's the same with Obito, and with Madara—they were trying to create a utopia. They used power, fear, slaughter, all the tools at their disposal." Kakashi looked to the impaled bit of beef still floating in his bowl. Wounded; the metaphor of the current peace. It carried the chopstick with it, rather than sinking to the bottom. "The ends don't justify their means. You have tremendous power, Naruto. More than anyone really should." He gave Naruto a level stare, one that carried solemn confidence. He knew he was repeating a years-old lecture, but if Naruto heard anything from him, he wanted those to be the words he remembered. "It's your responsibility to pave the way forward, to set an example for future generations. You're an adult, and more than that, you'll almost certainly become Hokage. Respect that the world tends to resist change; don't try to force it. That's what created Madara, what created Obito, what created Pain...it all falls back to the frustration of being unable to change a broken world overnight. Have patience, trust in yourself and others, and we will achieve a permanent peace. Even if none of us live long enough to see it, the future will be brighter for our efforts."
Sakura and Naruto were both listening intently to Kakashi, Sakura's hand rubbing down Naruto's back to soothe his lingering discomfort. She spoke while Naruto shoveled a few more heaps of comforting ramen into his mouth, drowning his sorrows as if it were alcohol. "There's nobody I trust more than Naruto to lead the way."
Kakashi smiled with his eyes, closing his lids and nodding. His silvery-white hair bobbed forward to follow his head. "I agree. Thanks to you, Naruto, we've got two generations of torch-bearers lined up. The future is bright."
Naruto gulped down again, swallowing with just a little chewing this time. "Thanks to you and me, Konohamaru's gettin' stronger. I sparred with him a while ago, and he's kicking butt."
Sakura nodded her agreement. "It's true! Naruto got laid flat on the ground after underestimating Konohamaru last week. He called 'no fair' and asked for a rematch, but Konohamaru quit while he was ahead." She giggled with a teasing smirk and set her hand on Naruto's nearest shoulder. "He's going to hold that over you for years."
Naruto grumbled, having received a proper soothing from the one thing that had never let him down—an entire bowl of ramen, gone in seconds. When he spoke, he sounded cocky. Maybe a little bitter. "I was going easy on him, but he's a lot stronger than I thought he was. Listening to him, I think he's kinda mad that he's stuck in the 'beginner' tier."
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "You were the same as a kid, Naruto—remember all the begging you did for harder missions? I tried to talk you down, then, and I had something to do with Konohamaru's circumstance now. There's technically no age restriction in any of the tiers, but he's only fourteen years old. That's old enough to be a successful Chunin, but we're trying for something a little...different."
Sakura looked intrigued. "Different how?"
The Hokage's arms folded behind his head and he leaned back in his chair. His head turned high to the sky, peering off into the infinite blue. "Children should be children. The world isn't at war. Thanks to Naruto's efforts, and Sasuke's as well, there is a veil of peace rather than a veil of resentment. We talked about the academy numbers; parents don't want kids to be soldiers anymore." Kakashi's eyes cut toward the line of customers behind him, cordoned off from Naruto's private table with a sign displayed beside the rope-gate—'autographs every hour on the hour for twenty minutes at a time.' Truthfully, Naruto had protested against the restriction, craving full access to his adoring public, but Teuchi insisted. There were children out there, waiting in the line—either with parents, or without, most excitedly wishing to be just like Naruto. Kakashi sighed and closed his eyes. "I was a child soldier. All of us were. That's how we came to be broken...Obito, Rin, Madara, Danzo, Nagato, Orochimaru, Itachi, Sasuke, Tenzo, the two of you...Don't you think that children should be allowed to be children a while longer?"
Naruto followed Kakashi's eyes to the line of waiting fans, most of them eating from bowls of ramen and chattering with one another, awaiting their chance to meet with Naruto. "So you're using Konohamaru as an example?" He asked curiously. "Like we're just brushing our history under the rug?"
Kakashi shook his head, raising a hand with his palm flat toward Naruto, a signal to 'hold his horses.' "I'm not aiming to wipe anything away, or misrepresent what we are. I had a talk with Konohamarau a few days ago. He's willing to be the face of the newest generation. A generation that can enjoy growing up, a generation where kids won't be held to the same violent standards as someone like myself, or even you two. It sounds like a contradiction after I said we'll always need shinobi, but the clearest path to peace is to teach the younger generations that it's alright to be kind."
Naruto had a momentary flash in his mind, an image that sometimes bothered him in dreams, in memories long past. The face of Haku, the boy who could be considered Naruto's first true adversary. He was fifteen years old when he died, a cruel ending to a life constructed of pain and sadness. Naruto found himself nodding—Konohamaru deserved better, and so did his friends. So did all of the children of the future. "So you're having everybody who's Konohamaru's age or younger keep themselves out of the real danger?" His eyes shined in thoughtful silence. For the moment, he wasn't eating. "When I was a kid, I thought I was already better than you. I rushed into missions and situations I wasn't ready for. I nearly died a whole bunch of times, but somebody was always there to bail me out. I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about the others like me, the ones who were cocky and didn't get saved...the ones without Kurama to help them when they're desperate." He looked again to the smiling faces in the crowd. It was a soothing reminder of just how different the world was, even compared to just three years ago.
Kakashi sighed a somber sigh through his mask, folding his hands together in front of himself and resting his chin on his knuckles. "There are too many child-sized graves in Konoha Cemetery." He moved to stand himself up from the table, then, placing his palms flat on the surface, bending forward as if to show his exhaustion. "It's almost time for you to meet the adoring public again, Naruto. I'd stay, but this clone is reaching its limit."
Sakura frowned, watching the signs of fatigue. Even though Kakashi was visiting them as a clone, she could read the situation clearly. He was under a mountain of stress, and his devotion to the village was beginning to take a toll. To think, prior to his coronation, some people were concerned that Kakashi's laid-back attitude would have made for a poor Hokage. The pink-haired Uzumaki-by-marriage nodded her head and clapped her hands together in a respectful gesture of thanks. "We understand, Lord Hokage. Thanks for coming to see us. We've both missed spending time with you like this." As Sakura spoke, Naruto only offered a few nods of confirmation. He was back to chowing down.
Kakashi smiled through his eyes and relaxed his shoulders. "Things are only going to get more complicated when the tournament begins. I'll always find the time to enjoy the company of my three favorite..." he fell silent and looked to the table in a sobering moment of realization. "Rather, two of my three favorite students." He looked out over the crowd. He half-expected to see Sasuke out there, somewhere, watching them judgementally. "Actually, I'll be taking leave from my office in time for the dance and the closing fireworks. Shizune finally talked me into it." He wave a casual hand to his students, and with a cock of his head: "See you there." His body promptly evaporated into a blunt explosion of smoke, the brief spectacle bringing out a scattered mix of applause and disappointed 'aww' from the crowd anticipating their chance to meet with Naruto—they were hoping to meet the Hokage at the same time.
Naruto looked quietly to where Kakashi used to be. "He's working too hard. He never even took a bite of his ramen."
Sakura flexed her face into a 'really?' expression. "He was just a clone. The memories might go back to the original, but eating wouldn't do him any good."
Her husband shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah, but...still, it didn't feel like the old days." He looked at the empty seat, a symbol for something he had been dreading. "When I become Hokage, I might not have the time to do things like this anymore."
Sakura sighed. She knew he had a point, but there was something he was missing—"When you're the Hokage, you can set your own schedule. Remember Lord Third? He was out among the people all the time, lifting our spirits and making us stronger. He left work behind to make sure we were growing up safely. You can be like him."
Naruto grumbled quietly, folding his arms across his chest. "I wish Kakashi would be that way, then. He acts like he's chained to his desk. I don't like to see him like that."
Sakura hummed sweetly, leaning her head over to rest on Naruto's shoulder. "He's been dealing with a lot since our wedding. He'll settle down some once this whole thing is over."
"I hope so," Naruto huffed with a defeated slack in his jaw.
Just then, the announcement was made by Teuchi himself: "Alright, folks! Naruto's ready for another round! Try not to take too much of his time, he's a very important man these days!" The rope gate was loosed from its post, opening the way for a small stampede of admirers to flood into the open-air dining table in the hopes of having their memorabilia signed by the hero of the world.
Naruto, predictably, welcomed them with open arms and a glimmering smile.
On the other side of the festival grounds, Sasuke and Hinata had decided on a restaurant. Per Ino's recommendation, they had settled on a small shack that offered a large variety of sea fare. Scallops, shrimp, all manner of fish, lobster, crab, and beyond. It was a humble little place, a booth scarcely larger than the ice cream stand. The seating was all outdoors, though there was a merciful blue awning propped up by poles, providing much-needed shade for the tables and chairs of their patrons.
Sasuke and Hinata had already ordered their food and were awaiting the arrival of their plates. Hinata was fiddling with a small, multi-colored, plastic jar filled with fine orange powder. Some kind of seasoning, native to the Land of Water and offered on every table. Her mind wasn't really on the food, though her stomach was eager to eat.
"You're having fun, right?" Sasuke asked across the table, trying to divert Hinata's thoughts from the dreary worries that flooded both of their minds. It wasn't often that he served as the sunshine between them, but the run-in with Kiba had both encouraged and discouraged Hinata at once. Her Uchiha companion had noticed the concerns as they skittered across her features for one moment after another.
Breaking away from worry, Hinata nodded and smiled to Sasuke. In a genuine way, no falsehood at all. "Today has been beautiful. The weather is good, the people are friendly, and you..." She blushed mildly, the soft shade overhead helping to hide some of the specific coloration. "You've been wonderful." She brushed her fingers along the violet still nestled gently in her hair. The petals were soft, even after a few hours under the hot sun. "I was worried about coming here with you." She admitted gently, her smile turning timid. "About how people would act."
Sasuke perked one brow in a curious way. "About how people would act, or about how I would react to them?"
Hinata pursed her lips before a hesitant murmur. "Both?" She turned her eyes back to the seasoning bottle, her escape for the moment since she no longer had her sister to scold in times of crisis. "I don't really get to see you around other people very much. I'm glad you have friends who care." She was talking about Ino, of course. "The way you talk about being alone and lost, I thought you didn't have anybody at all."
Sasuke scoffed mildly, turning his head to look aside. "Ino's nice to everybody. There's nothing special about the way she treats me."
Hinata hummed. "She's always nice to me, too. Maybe you're right." She took a deeper breath, preparing for another comment. "The Kazekage made a special trip to see you, though. I can tell he cares about you as a friend, not just a liability."
Sasuke kept his head turned away, arms folded on his chest. His eyes turned in their sockets to face Hinata side-long when he answered. "Don't let him fool you. He's only keeping tabs on me, just like Kakashi. They're afraid I'll cause trouble."
With a soothing smile, Hinata reached her hand halfway across the flimsy metal table, palm down. She was stretching herself a little closer to him. "They have nothing to worry about," she said confidently.
"Even I'm not so sure about that." His hand flexed a little, and his arms uncrossed from his chest to set his palms on the table. The platform was a wiry thing, built of thin metal cords latticed together and painted white. Cheaply made; temporary. Most of the festival food stands used the same furniture. "There are times when I feel like lashing out."
"I feel that way, too," Hinata said reassuringly. "I think everyone does."
Sasuke hummed thoughtfully. "Including Hanabi."
Hinata scrunched her face, confused. "Sure, but she's trained by father. She doesn't let her emotions get the better of her." There was a twist of her expression; misgivings. "I mean, usually."
Sasuke half-smiled, looking wryly amused more than anything else. "She's jealous of you."
Hinata blinked. "Jealous of me? What does she have to be jealous of?"
"Think about it." Sasuke leaned forward, elbows resting on the wiry table. "She grew up being told that she's got greater potential than you; that she's the future of your clan. She's used to getting all the praise and admiration of your family. Now that you're taking steps to challenge her, she isn't happy. She hides it from you, I think, but she can't hide it from me."
"She's so much stronger than I am, though." Hinata tried to disarm the very notion of challenging Hanabi's role in the family. "I know I talk a lot about doing well in the tournament, but I don't really expect to beat her." She had a momentary flash of her fight with Kiba again—he was slow, he was predictable. Sasuke had told her that Kiba was stronger than ever, but that she had adjusted to fighting someone far faster and far stronger—yet her father was stronger still.
"She's not stronger than you. She was when we began, and for a while after, but right now, she doesn't have a chance." Sasuke leaned back in his chair, eyeing Hinata over with assessing focus. "She knows it, too. Did you notice?"
"Notice what?" Hinata asked with a wispy curiosity.
"Hanabi is wearing a lot of makeup today. More than usual." Sasuke looked very serious compared to the jovial faces of the others who took refuge from the sun underneath the same awning.
"She got carried away getting ready, I guess," Hinata replied, skeptically looking for a way to rationalize it. "She only recently got permission from father to do her own makeup, so she isn't very good at it."
Sasuke's head shook slowly. "No, it's not that. She's covering bruises."
"Bruises...?" Hinata furrowed her brow. Her own hand moved up to her face, brushing along a powdered cheek. She had a few discolorations of her own that she had elected to hide. Her bruises never seemed to last very long—either Sasuke wasn't hitting her very hard, or she was healing quicker than she used to. Either way, she never recalled seeing many bruises on Hanabi's face after training with their father. One of the members of the Clan who specialized in medical ninjutsu usually repaired the damage of the training sessions. "They're so bad that she has to cover them?"
Sasuke nodded. "You haven't looked closely. It's your weakness showing itself again, Hinata. You love your sister, so you let her get away with hiding things. It's hard to look past." Sasuke had never been able to forgive himself for missing the signs of Itachi—and of their father.
Hinata's shoulders slumped visibly, and her hands fell into her lap to fold submissively. "It isn't just Hanabi hiding something. It's my father, too."
"Hiding something? You mean from the fight you had with him?" Sasuke inquired, fingers flexed. Was there more to Hiashi?
"No, not the fight. Something happened this morning." Yet again, something that she hadn't intended to share was unabashedly pouring from her lips. Sasuke was no longer just a person. The rules of secrecy and restraint no longer applied from her to him. She told him in detail: "Father spoke to me and Hanabi before we left. He was acting strange. He told us to be loyal to the Clan above all." She shook her head, dismissing it personally as nothing. "He's said it before, but never as directly as that. It's probably nothing."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes in thought. "If it had been nothing, I don't think you'd be telling me about it." He could see the worry in the lines of Hinata's forehead, and he could sense a disturbance all through her chakra. As if she had been trembling for hours, but holding it in until she had come to be alone with him. "What exactly did he say?" Sasuke's voice was hushed, now. 'Alone' was a generous way of putting it—on festival grounds, one could never be properly isolated. Sitting at a restaurant table with an expectation of courtesy was just about as private as one could get.
Hinata relaxed with a sigh, feeling the tremors vacating her muscles when she let out her concerns. "He told us that the Hyuuga name is more valuable than anything else. Including our friends, or the village. He told Hanabi and me that our purpose is to support the clan...to follow his lead above all." She bit her lower lip and sucked on it nervously. She looked at Sasuke, who was absorbing the words intently with his hands folded in front of his face. She gulped, and then spoke more confidently: "And it isn't just that. Hanabi told me something else." She took a slow breath, reminding herself that Sasuke could keep her safe. "Father has been heard...talking to himself."
Sasuke's silence broke. "Talking to himself? In front of you?"
Hinata shook her head. "I haven't heard him do it. Hanabi's the only one who's said anything to me about it. She said he was alone in his dojo, but he sounded like he was talking about doing something. She didn't say what it was. She said she might not have heard him very well."
Sasuke hid the concern on his lips by keeping his hands clasped together in front of his face, elbows propped on the table. His chin was resting on his thumbs. "That could be nothing. Could be something. Keep an eye on him if you can."
Hinata smiled with a sorrowful helplessness. "He's always been secretive. Even though he's my father and I've known him all my life, I can't figure him out."
Sasuke nodded sympathetically. "Fathers can be that way...my father eventually opened up to me, but until the day of his death, I know that he kept some things secret."
Hinata frowned softly. "What kind of secrets?"
Sasuke met her eyes over the table, lowering his hands from his face to show a cold, flat line of his mouth. He thought about telling her—the rebellion, Itachi, Obito, Danzo, all of it. But he couldn't. Despite the beckoning in her eyes, the unwavering trust and admiration, the truth could not escape. He lied to her, and it was harder than he imagined it would be. He had lied to her before, or at least concealed the whole truth, but now it felt heavier. "I don't know, Hinata. His secrets died with him." The seriousness in Sasuke's dark eyes passed from him to her like a sharp, hissing arrow. "Don't let your father die with secrets."
Hinata gulped at the pitched intensity, and a welcome break from the stifling gravity arrived in the form of a waitress carrying a platter—a sample plate for two, which came recommended by the staff when they ordered. Complementary glasses of water were given, as well. As the order arrived, Hinata's brow was sweaty, but the heat could easily be blamed. The light jittering in her voice was less concealable. "O-oh, t-thank you!" She said with the best smile she could force. "It looks lovely."
The platter was placed on the cheap table by a smiling young woman with blonde hair and a blue apron. "Let us know if you two need anything else!" she said with a bent-fingered wave toward Sasuke. A passive flirt that made Hinata feel a little defensive. Bristly, even.
"Looks good," Sasuke said to his date about the food, smiling with just a mild undercurrent of seriousness. After a pause to pluck a few seasoned shrimp off the bountiful platter, he spoke like a whisper. "Sorry to ruin the mood again. Seems like I haven't broken that habit of putting a frown on your face every time we're together."
Hinata shook her head quickly, lauging disarmingly. "No, it's not you...I swear it isn't. Things have just been difficult." She reached her hand across the table to properly set hers atop his. There was no blush this time. She was confident. "And they would be harder without you." Not the first time she had told him, but it stood to be repeated.
The corner of Sasuke's mouth pointed into a smirk. His hand allowed hers to touch the top of his glove, but he didn't turn his palm to reciprocate. "It'll get harder before it gets easier. We'd better eat up to prepare." His other hand lifted chopsticks and began to politely stab at shrimp and scallops, eating to avoid disrespecting the cooks.
Hinata took the extra step of clapping her hands together and bowing her head before eating, but she began to do the same. Sushi, crab, squid, and of course shrimp and scallops were all pleasantly spiced and buttered. The textures were admirable—the seafood was completely fresh. The taste took Hinata's mind off the gloom long enough to give a pleasant little 'mm' of enjoyment. "We don't eat much of this at home."
Sasuke's typical stoicism hid his reaction to the taste, but he offered a semi-positive word. "It's not bad."
Hinata smiled playfully, chewing and swallowing before speaking. "Have you had better?"
Sasuke shrugged a shoulder and ate another scallop. Rubbery in a good way. "Food's just food, isn't it?"
Hinata saw right through that. "That's not fair. You can't say that after you were so self-conscious about your jerky...and you wouldn't let the ribs go, either. Food's not just food; tell me if you've had better!"
Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. There went the mood again. "My mom..." He began, then paused. "She used to cook meals for me. For my father, and Itachi, too. Rice, stew, fish, gravy, potatoes...She made a little of everything. Meals were the only time we really felt close while I grew up. Like a happy family." He picked up a strip of crab leg, pre-shelled and succulent. "When I'm with you, and I eat something like this—something prepared with love and passion—it stirs that all up again...It makes me want to regret coming back." After, he ate the strip of white and pink-red meat, chewing slowly.
Hinata felt a sink in her chest. "You still regret coming back?" She idly stirred a shrimp into a supplied pool of spicy red sauce on the edge of the platter. "I thought you were past that."
The answer from Sasuke came after a long silence. He considered his words carefully. "I didn't mean that. I don't know what I meant to say. It's just a feeling I have. A feeling that I'm better off forgetting about everything that happened because I'll never have it back." He connected eyes with her, a hot wind blowing some of his trimmed hair over his eyes. He didn't brush it aside. "I've been told before that it's good to honor the memories; to remember the good times just because they were good. The past can't change; the joy and the sorrow will mix together forever, without variation. So when I eat with you, and I remember those times...I remember my mother. And it hurts, even when it's good."
The ache didn't leave Hinata's chest, but it did become softer as he revealed precisely what he meant. Sasuke didn't regret being there; not truly. He just didn't want to feel hurt. Hinata recognized the sensation in herself. "It's alright, Sasuke. It is." She clenched her hand around his. The table was narrow, really. There was barely enough space between them for the platter, so she didn't have to reach very far to touch him. "It's okay to hurt. You already know, but sometimes I need somebody to tell me it's okay...so I'm telling you." She tilted her head in that way that sent her hair falling down her left shoulder, and she closed her eyes with a smile. "Just in case you needed to hear it."
Sasuke looked at her as the most beautiful thing on their scarred world, and with a slow breath in through his nose, he enjoyed the scent of their food. It mixed with her perfume in a strange way; not unpleasant, but mismatched. Flowers and seafood. He could feel it already, a new connection forming in his synapses. Subconsciously, he knew that the odd mix of aromas would forever be associated with how he felt in that moment. Uniquely at ease, and deeply understood. He wanted to deny it; to lie. However, he didn't have the strength to fight any more truths down. "I needed to hear it." He said with a tightness in his jaw. A wet burn behind his eyes. The very beginnings of an unwanted tear that he imprisoned via sheer willpower, never to be seen.
Hinata felt it in the air. The pull to cry. It wasn't hers, but she sensed it in him. And so she smiled, sniffled accidentally, and blinked back her own tears. The girl's empathy had always been one of her more powerful traits. "We're supposed to be having fun," Hinata said with a crackling sniff, wiping under her eyes with the side of her pointer finger. "What's something fun we can talk about?"
Sasuke put on a subtle smile, admiring Hinata's tendency to make his self-pity feel petty. The way she supported him, felt what he felt—it was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. Even Naruto's friendship hadn't quite touched him on such a level. "Fun...Nobody ever asks me about fun. That's what I have you for, isn't it?" He smirked, regaining some of his casual confidence as he picked up the glass of water that came to him with their food.
Hinata giggled quietly. "You're good at having fun, when you let it happen," she chimed, thinking back to the stream. "At least, I get to have fun with you."
Sasuke chuckled dismissively. "What, when you're cutting me with a sword?" With his thumb, he rubbed the healed-over site of the 'old wound' on his chin, displaying a teasing smirk.
"You left yourself open! I didn't even mean to cut you..." She mumbled the second half, diverting to her water glass as well. "It just happened..."
"It's instinct," Sasuke fortified the notion. "You did it because you sensed a vulnerability in your opponent."
"It's because you built that in me," Hinata answered with humble appreciation. "I didn't have it before."
Sasuke gave her a 'no' with a wag of his head. "You were already capable of it. Your inner restraints held you back. Most of the strength and skill you've gained since we started has been lurking all along. I only coaxed it out; I didn't invent it."
Hinata pursed her lips momentarily. "Mm, but father couldn't coax it out; neither could Kurenai-sensei."
"You resisted them, even if you didn't mean to. You were gentle when we met. I guess I scared you into defending yourself." He plucked another tube of crab meat with his wooden utensils, eating it more comfortably now that the mood had lifted.
"You're not that scary, Sasuke." She ignored the hesitation to speak those words. She knew he could choose to be terrifying. Right then, he wasn't. "You're a great teacher. You push me, and I've felt the results. With Kiba, and with...that other thing." She winced at the memory, but there was a shinobi's pride in her expression as she rubbed her knuckles with her fingertips. She could still feel the impact of hard iron against her skin and bones. It was as if she had been punching Shell all over again, and the recollection brought with it an odd tingle of excitement. Eagerness to feel that rush again. She lost the battle that night, but it was if her fists begged in silence for a rematch.
Sasuke could see the yearning in her eyes as she looked at her hands distractedly. He spoke with a gentle urging. "You want to test yourself, don't you?"
Hinata sucked on her tongue within her mouth, then looked with steely eyes toward her companion at the table. "I'm excited. Is that bad?" She clenched her white fists and blushed a tad. "I don't want to hurt people, but I want to fight..."
Sasuke's laugh was simple; two breaths long. "It just means you're like Naruto. He doesn't want to hurt people, either. He wants to 'kick their asses.'" He looked out from the shade of the awning to watch the passersby. They never ended. A supply of people that could flood the whole crater of the village, it seemed like. "His words, not mine."
Hinata smiled again, wide and unrestrained, pure white teeth showing. They sparkled, even in the shade. "It's good to be like Naruto," Hinata uttered thoughtfully. "But I want to be like you. You don't like hurting people, either."
Sasuke leaned back in his chair. "It's what I'm best at, though. Naruto's strength has always been his way of connecting with people. When he breaks some guy's jaw, they become friends. When I do it, they come for revenge."
"What about when you break their ribs?" Hinata asked pointedly. "He didn't seem to want revenge."
"He's the exception," Sasuke scoffed. "Everybody else wants a piece of me."
Hinata blushed further than before. "What kind of piece? I see the way girls look at you. You're an icon to some of them. Hanabi likes you, too."
Sasuke's eyebrow perked. As if he hadn't noticed at all. "Hanabi does what?"
A playful chopstick spun a slow circle in the air at the end of Hinata's pinching fingers. "It's nothing, really. She's still growing up, so she has a lot of crushes. She especially likes bad boys, and you're the baddest of them all." Hinata was teasing him. She had an innocent look on her face.
Sasuke was starting to feel a little hot under his well-tailored collar. Not at the thought of being admired by Hanabi—he wasn't truly surprised—but at the realization that the sisters might have been talking about him in that sort of way. Just how innocent was Hinata? How innocent wasn't she? "Hanabi told you that?" There was a twitch under his left eye. Not of anger, but of...dread? "What else have you two said about me when I'm not around?"
Hinata held serious for a second, then she giggled outright, cupping her hand over her mouth and leaning forward, with her other arm across her stomach for support. She was practically doubled over with laughter. "You look so scared, Sasuke. We haven't said...much." She played the moment for the suspense of it. "I just know how she is. She's my sister. We don't spend as much time together as we should, but I know her better than I know any other person in the world. Especially after losing Neji, I feel like...like she's the closest person to me."
In response to the thought, Sasuke felt an empathetic twinge of brotherly magnetism toward Naruto. Despite that permanent connection, the bond that the blonde hero had fought so hard to maintain and re-shape, the two had barely spent more than two hours in the same room as one another since Sasuke returned to the village. "That makes me want to find Naruto. See what kind of trouble he's been causing—and solving, because that's how he is." Sasuke's bandaged left hand flexed a few fingers, testing for range. Whatever had seized him up in the past seemed to have worked its way out of his system.
Just then, there began a rush of motion along the pathway to their side. Not a panic, but a slowly rising flow of traffic in one direction over the other. Sasuke and Hinata both noticed it together, and they exchanged glances. After a few seconds, the reason for the movement became obvious, ringing as a stranger's voice in the thick crowd: "They posted the brackets on the arena doors! Let's go see who Naruto is going to fight first!"
Hinata and Sasuke locked eyes again, this time with nervous excitement. The tingling returned to Hinata's fists, and she smiled openly. "That's where we'll find Naruto...and we'll finally see what we'll be up against."
Sasuke ate a few more bites of the seafood sample platter—again, not wanting to appear rude. Food could wait. He needed to know the name of Hinata's first opponent above all else. He intended to prepare her thoroughly to face the oncoming challenges. His heart was beating quickly, his lips tensed on her behalf. He took a long breath, then sighed to calm his uncharacteristic jitters. He had absorbed some of her empathy. "Let's see who you'll defeat first, Hinata." The confidence was infectious, because Hinata smiled and gave a stiff nod of total resolve, standing up to join him.
As they merged into the crowd, the flow grew even stronger. The excitement was electric. And yet, all eyes were not toward the arena...
When Hanabi Hyuuga set her mind to something, she accomplished it. For her entire life, that had been the truth. On this day, it remained such. With an armful of prizes, knick-knacks, and wrapped treats, she had already taken advantage of many of the faire's games while her sister dined and swooned with her crush. Hanabi sucked absently on a purple lollipop as she walked with a stilted, marching stiffness in her ankles, amusing herself in what ways she could. It kept her mind off of the pressure of what was coming. She had noticed the crowd beginning to swell toward the arena, and she had heard the whispers as they turned over into excited shouting. She felt a knot growing in her lower back, a feeling of encroaching paralysis. The tournament lineup.
Did she want to see? Until she saw it, the tournament wasn't real. It had long been looming as some imaginary contest, months away. She had convinced herself that the ultimate battle between herself and her sister was not to ever actually happen. It was like adulthood, or her inevitable arranged marriage—far off, whispered about, but never truly there. Yet, once those names were written, shown to the world, the tournament would be solidified. Perhaps if she never looked at the reality of it, she could continue to pretend that the time of judgement had not yet arrived. How long could she avoid it? How many more games were there to play? How long could she plug her ears and ignore the fact that Hinata had become too strong for her?
As if timed to her thoughts, there was a voice, seemingly joining the young princess' own in her mind, echoing from nowhere. I understand how you feel. You're terrified of becoming obsolete. It bounced around in her head, then dissipated into emptiness. Her previous thoughts had been entirely forgotten.
Hanabi's instincts kicked immediately into action. Her Byakugan tensed and the veins of her face popped into view near her sockets. She looked around with her gifted sight, showing no external movement of her body as she focused. She flexed her eyebrows angrily as she realized that it was doing her no good—if the voice had come from somebody nearby, it could have been any of them. The faire was lively, and many of the attendees were shinobi, with chakra prominently flowing inside their bodies.
The voice returned again, definitively male: Good Byakugan reflexes...but you don't have to search for me. I'm willing to tell you exactly where to find me.
Hanabi shook her head abruptly, simultaneously rushing chakra through her system, trying to clear herself of the genjutsu she assumed she was under. When she opened her eyes again, she felt precisely the same as before. Nothing had been cleared, nor had it been pushed aside. She tried thinking focused words, transmitting an attempted answer to the voice: I'll wring your neck. Don't play with me.
The answer followed nearly thirty seconds later as a detached murmur, still echoing: I imagine that by now you've tried to answer me, but it's pointless. I can't read your mind, I can only talk into it. This isn't a genutsu, either, so you're wasting energy by trying to break free. If you want to know where I am, show me your left hand with three fingers raised.
Hanabi's brow furrowed. She was still searching through the crowd, seeking odd fluctuations of chakra. Still no good. There were such fluctuations everywhere. The population was too lively in the hubbub of the recent announcement, and she couldn't focus well enough on one source to identify the disembodied voice. She murmured to herself. "I need to get Sasuke." She turned and started to begin a jump, aimed in the general direction of where she expected Sasuke and Hinata to have been.
The voice cut her off mid-step, so she never left the ground: If you wander off, or if you tell someone else about me, you'll never hear from me again. You might want to stay put and listen. I'm going to tell you what I want from you.
Hanabi wanted to move again, but something bothered her. The first thing the voice had said to her: 'You're terrified of becoming obsolete.' She felt a lump of guilt in her throat because the words were true. Not only in terms of romance, but in skill, and even in earning the praise of their father, Hinata had risen to prominence. She threatened to eclipse Hanabi if things continued as they were. After a frustrated moment of indecision, Hanabi let out a relenting sigh and set her foot flat on the dirty path. She stood reluctantly and waited for the next message. It wouldn't hurt to hear him out.
The voice grew a little cocky, apparently belonging to someone with less stoicism than Hanabi had initially felt: Got your attention, huh? I know it's hard to believe, but I want to help you. Those guys in the alley were going to help you, too, but you killed them before they got a chance to explain themselves. I'm not angry about it, it's fine. I admire your ruthless efficiency, I really do. It's why I want to meet you personally.
That was where Hanabi felt a rush of anger. He was one of them? "I'll kill you all," She grumbled to herself, fury in her white eyes as she bypassed rational thought. No longer was she looking for Sasuke. She felt a surge of vindictive self-esteem. She could handle this problem by herself, just like the last time. She became calm like a placid swimming pool and raised her hand, three fingers to the sky. She was issuing a silent challenge, her look melting from cautious wariness into stone-strong resolve.
I knew you wouldn't let me down. For a princess who dresses up in flowers and gowns, you've got one hell of a violent streak. His taunting was met with stillness and silence. He echoed a laugh into Hanabi's head. Listen up: there's a house of mirrors about two hundred yards to the east of where you're standing. You might want to hop a few roofs to get there quickly, else you might miss your chance to meet me. The crowds won't be distracted by the brackets forever. You go in first, and I'll meet you inside. Don't find me; I'll find you. The challenge was accepted. Oh, and don't break anything. I'm only coming to talk.
Hanabi's fingers curled into her palm, tightened into a hard fist. She wanted to strangle somebody; the owner of the voice, specifically, but she would have settled for another underling like the two in the alley. When she stomped her foot in an easterly direction, she made a push through the crowd. People were so thrilled by the prospect of learning who was going to fight whom that they all but ignored her. Intent on making good time and throttling the son-of-a-bitch who dared to challenge her, she followed his advice and leaped onto a roof, then to another, gliding faster than the average eye could see.
She held her head high and kept her eyes forward as she arrogantly landed beside the front door of the house of mirrors. It was a simple building, constructed in a hurry with wood and black, ominous paint. There were no windows on the exterior—outside light would ruin the illusions inside. A perfect place to meet. The crowd had thinned out; the location was strategically distant from the arena that drew all the attention, keeping the meeting clandestine while still leaving it public enough for Hanabi to have the advantage of exposure in an emergency. Even the ticket-taker for the house of mirrors had stepped away for a chance to preview the brackets—politeness compelled Hanabi to lay a 100 Ryo note on the counter, then she admitted herself by stepping over the turnstile blocking the front door.
As she vanished into the darkness, the tight squeeze of her fists caused her fingernails to draw a little bit of blood from her palms.
Sorry for the wait, as always. Things have been busy out here. My dad is doing well! Other things have popped up in recent weeks that I'd rather not address here, but rest assured that I write when I have the time and energy to do so. That means long update times, but hopefully it's still worth the wait! Things are going to rapidly pick up in terms of story pacing soon, though not necessarily in terms of update speed. I'll try my best, though, I promise!
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter! As always, leave a review, follow, or favorite. If you have any specific non-spoiler questions, ask them in your review! I read every single word of every single review, so let loose! All I ask if that if you ask questions in your review, use a registered account so that I have a way of responding to you directly! In addition, feel free to send a private message to me if you have questions or comments you wouldn't want to make public.
As you might notice from this chapter's ending, the next one is probably going to be...'fun.' See you there!
