Chapter 12: Intuition

The dawn of the fourth was just as beautiful as it had been the day before, and it signaled a good day ahead of it.

Cleanup of camp was almost as quick as setup had been; with the extra help, supplies were packed and tents were taken down with efficiency. By the time the sun was rising over the mountains, Mimei was well on its way out of the area.

Hinata yawned into her sleeve as she trudged along with her group. The bags under her eyes were worse than she'd thought they'd be, and she was still horribly tired.

"Miss, are you alright?" Hideki sidled up to her, gray-blue eyes wide in concern.

"I'm fine," she consoled with a tight smile. "Just… trouble with sleep."

He nodded in understanding, giving her a small smile. "I get it… well, at least they were just nightmares, right? They weren't real."

She tried to nod in agreement, but her heart still weighed heavily. She wanted to describe what she'd seen, hoping that someone else held her fears, but everyone else looked so cheerful… she didn't want to bring the mood down with her.

The boy seemed to hesitate, but upon another look at her, he winced and patted her arm, whispering a soft "I wish you well" before moving up to where Karin was walking with Hinoki.

Karin glanced back at her next, scarlet eyes scanning her up and down. Her frown deepened when she saw Hinata's exhausted face and she said something to Hinoki and Hideki before slowing down so that the two walked side by side. She reached for her shoulder, gently squeezing it.

"Hey," she uttered in a low voice. "Are you okay?"

"Nightmares," the younger woman admitted in just as quiet a reply.

Karin nodded, squeezing her shoulder once more, comforting. "Don't worry. Whatever you dreamt of, they were just dreams, right? Were they of your family again?"

Wordlessly, Hinata shook her head.

After a moment, she whispered, "... I don't think we should go to Morino."

"What? Why ever not?" Karin asked, surprised.

"I… I dreamt of something awful happening to us there…" she hesitated to speak, but Karin's encouraging gaze brought more out of her than she'd thought she'd tell her. "We were all killed, every one of us… and Ayame-sama was…"

She trailed off, shaking her head once more. Her eyes burned, and she held her breath, hanging her head so that no one might glance over and see her cry.

Karin was silent for a while. Her hand never left Hinata's shoulder, the weight familiar and warm and keeping the tears at bay.

Beat.

Finally, she let out a quiet sigh and her hand left the girl's shoulder. Instead, she wrapped her arm around her shoulders, hugging her closer.

"It's going to be okay," she murmured into Hinata's ear. "I wish your fears were unfounded, but… danger is very present. I promise, nothing will happen to any of us. We will be safe."

For a moment, she wanted to believe her. But when she looked up, she noticed the faintest trail of gray, almost black, in the sky, and her fears wrapped about her.

Karin was studying her face with a steady eye, and once Hinata caught her gaze, she turned to call for someone.

Sumire, as it happened, was the one who heard it. She trailed back, jade eyes alight with concern for the two. Karin explained in hushed tones, and she nodded, her countenance smoothing out in grim understanding.

The girl took Hinata's hand and smiled brightly at her. "Hey… how about to pass the time and get our minds off of things, I tell you some stories of camp? I know a few really funny ones about Ayame-sama."

Shakily, Hinata nodded. Perhaps some camaraderie would help lift her heart.

Back in Konoha, Arata glanced up at the sky and frowned when he saw the faintest of dark clouds on the horizon.

"Hey, Papa?" He asked.

"What is it, son?" He asked, glancing up from his lunch.

The brunet boy pointed up at the cloud, continuing, "What's that?"

Kizashi squinted at the skyline, trying to find what the boy wanted him to look at. He saw a beautiful blue sky with white, fluffy clouds, the sun shining brightly above them, but if he looked carefully… he could see thick dark smoke distantly billowing from the trees. What was that?

"I… don't know," he admitted slowly, lowering the rice ball in his hand to his bento box. "It looks like smoke, but there has been no news of a fire."

"Hmm…" Arata's nose scrunched up in thought, his frown deepening.

"I don't believe it's any concern for now," the man chuckled, patting his son's head. "For now, let's finish our lunch and get back to work, huh?"

"Okay." Arata conceded and took a bite of an apple slice, munching it quietly.

Kizashi just smiled, going back to his rice ball. There was a seed of doubt about the smoke, but he figured that if it was any danger, the citizens would hear of it before long.

"Here we are, a perfect spot for the night," Kisame announced with a toothy grin as he plunked down his pack on the grass. "A shame that we couldn't find an inn, but hey, at least your hypothesis about rain was wrong, right?"

Itachi quietly followed suit, setting down his own pack and pulling out his sleeping bag, resting it under a large tree.

"I'll go find some water," he told his partner.

He turned and began walking through the forest, trying to locate the lake he'd seen earlier. He pulled a canteen out of an inner pocket and paused, trying to hear where the water was.

While he was listening, he froze. His ears picked up something different… voices.

He leapt up soundlessly into a nearby tree as two soldiers from Konoha passed beneath.

"...it was such a shame we had to, y'know?" One was muttering to his partner. "I really like that village too… they always had really great produce. My daughter loved their fresh plums."

"Yes, well, what's done is done," his partner reminded flippantly, glancing around. "Morino may have been a good vacation spot, but they harbored rebels, and you know that's unforgivable."

"... I suppose," the first soldier spoke reluctantly. He sighed, running his hands through his dark hair. "What the hell am I supposed to tell my wife now…? We were supposed to go by to pick up a special order for little Suzu's birthday."

"Go find another place, then," the second snapped. "I'm sure other villages specialize in plums."

"It wasn't just the plums, you know," the first retorted angrily. "You loved that village too, as I recall. That was where you met your own wife."

The second floundered for a few moments, opening and shutting his mouth several times. When at last he spoke, it was quiet. "... she understands what we had to do."

"Of course she understands, but does she like it? What about her family?" the first countered. "What did she have to say when you said you had to burn it to the ground? Did she ask you about if you even wanted to spare her parents?"

Wordlessly, the second one shot him a dark glare.

"Hey, you start it, you need to finish it, man." The first defended. "I know that's a low blow, but what the hell were you expecting me to say? You just slaughtered your own in-laws. The most I lost was the rare birthday treat for my six-year-old daughter. You're being selfish, making everyone else stay silent so you don't have a crisis over your own wrongdoing."

There came a pause.

Then the first one grunted in pain as the sound of a palm hitting skin sharply echoed around the area.

"Don't… ever … bring that up again," the second hissed.

"Just realize that you aren't the only one to lose things," the first reminded curtly. "Yamada lost his entire extended family, y'know. The guy's really fuckin' devastated. You gonna tell him that his sacrifice doesn't matter because it's what the capital wanted?"

Itachi didn't bother to listen to the rest, his pulse ringing in his ear.

"Morino was attacked?"

"If it was attacked, then-"

His eyes widened. Mimei. Ayame-sama had mentioned that their next stop was Morino.

Water forgotten, he leapt from the tree, keeping to the shadows until he was back at the crude little campsite that Kisame had set up.

The bigger man paused in his task when he saw just how pale Itachi's face was. "... you okay?"

"Morino was attacked just this morning," the stoic man uttered, clenching his fists together. "And Mimei was supposed to be headed their way."

Kisame's face fell and he stood up. "Have you sent a summon yet with the news?"

"Already doing it," the younger man replied as he summoned a crow. He wrote out a quick message on a piece of paper and folded it, tying it to the bird's leg.

Once it was sent flying into the sky, he exhaled deeply and squared his shoulders, all outward trace of panic disappearing.

Kisame returned to sharpening the stick with his knife, asking, "Should we have moved? Is the squadron close?"

"Not very, by the sounds of it," Itachi replied, scanning the trees with bright red eyes. "We should be… tentatively safe. But we'll have to set off first thing at dawn."

"Roger that," the blue-skinned man nodded simply, admiring his handiwork. He stretched, giving his partner a tense grin. "Well, I should catch something for dinner. Get ready to roast something with a fire jutsu."

Itachi watched him go, a deep unease settling in the pit of his stomach. He sat down on the ground with a mind to meditate just to ease his tumultuous thoughts. What on earth was his father doing?

A/N: Please tell me what you thought!