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XXXX
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Chapter 2:
Haunted
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"I can't feel my senses
I just feel the cold
All colors seem to fade away
I can't reach my soul."
-Frozen by Within Temptation
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XXXX
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November
Her presence shouldn't have calmed him—not in her current state, not in that miserably barren and clinical quarters—but it did.
She laid on that white bed, unmoving, her face the unmistakable color of snow. The crisp sheets draped over her body were so similar in hue it was decidedly difficult to distinguish between flesh and paper-thin covers.
She was so pale, almost frosted, her impossibly dark indigo hair a startling contrast to the rest of the hospital room and its pallid, unresponsive resident.
The persistent beep of her heartbeat acted as a continuous tune that dared to lull him to sleep, but the lone Uchiha refused to close his eyelids despite desperately needing the repose. He couldn't afford to let ominous dreams of childhood and adolescence haunt him when his mind was not in his absolute control.
Despite the silence and atmosphere of tranquility that seemed to come from his surroundings, Sasuke felt unsettled, the uneasy sensation like ants roaming over his bare skin. He was reluctant to lose his internal battle, and as it was expected of him, he prevailed.
His once stoic gaze, however, held an emotion that not even the Uchiha himself comprehended as it fell on her serene façade. Because he knew it was a lie, that unstressed face of hers.
The Hyuuga's once deeply bruised skin had started to fade, leaving traces of translucent blue-greens on its path.
In a way, the healing sessions were proving successful.
Sasuke knew though, that hidden underneath her hospital gown, there existed more than just old blemishes smattering the epidermal surface or wounds mending thickly with scar tissue.
In the depths of her subconscious, where medical balm had no hope to ever reach, the Hyuuga that seemed to be sleeping so placidly on the outside was most likely crawling at her mental confinements with bloody, broken nails. After all, her wails of endless torture from a week ago had echoed through the building without relent. So chilling and bloody were those cries that most of the patients had been jolted awake by them.
The Hyuuga had viciously fought an adversary that was tangible only in her mind, leading to a mad possession that forced the medics to infuse her with sedatives. They had succeeded, if only after she'd blindly drubbed more than one member of staff, prompting them to request beds of their own within the medical facility.
Despite her weakened state, Sasuke quickly found it in his best interest not to underestimate those fragile-looking fingers that belied their precise ability.
When the last drop of narcotics had made it into her veins, the terrified Hyuuga doll that wouldn't stop thrashing was replaced by a contradicting, blank mannequin.
That glass puppet slept calmly and breathed easily, trying to trick those individuals that bore witness to her plight into the thinking that the Hyuuga was fine.
The figurine didn't move or scream but constantly remained eerily still.
Sasuke steadily grew to hate it with every minute, hour, and day that advanced. If there was something he loathed most in the world aside from ignorance, it was falsehood.
The girl forced to yield under the effects of tranquilizers was such a deception, such a misleading hoax that some days, Sasuke was certain he almost preferred the unrelenting feminine cries that had pierced the cover of the night.
Almost.
Yet, there were times in which every time his gaze chanced upon her, the whisper of her voice materialized from the empty trails of air.
"Uchiha-san."
Despite his name not being uttered at that moment, he could hear it emanating from the depths of his memory and not merely from his unstable imagination. The way her mouth usually pouted slightly on the "u" and then spread to the sides as if molding a smile when adding the honorific were remarkedly easy to recall from days past.
His name on her lips was the most unfeigned thing he could recall. But, what had once been a set of expressive, rosy lips were now unparted, wordless, and apathetic.
"Uchiha-san."
Sasuke abruptly looked away, mounting frustration and weariness more than evident in Sharingan-red eyes. They quickly sought distraction and the single window present in the room provided a good distraction as any.
The scene displayed outside the semi-closed blinds showed the day to be at its limit. The warning of dusk was announced as the sun slowly marked its descent across the autumn sky. Another day of being forced to stay under a false sense of security had been cast over the girl with blue tresses.
If Harmony could be personified, Sasuke was certain it'd resemble her. That peace he could never have yet couldn't help but feel when she was near was ironical in its overwhelming impact on his nerve endings.
How he despised this actress with her deep, even breathing and white, medical gauze that hid the emptiness of her eye sockets. The calm, yet aggravating, influence she usually had on him was nothing new, but being alone with her for the first time in this manner only made Sasuke resent her even more than he already did.
When they met, he was indifferent and cold, his demeanor cantankerous, most definitely not one meant to please others. She was one more pest he had to endure as Naruto dragged him out of his residence after a year of penitentiary and two months under house arrest.
She wasn't a fangirl, or an ex-fangirl, just a weird girl.
He could cope with that.
It couldn't be that hard. He would ignore her and she would return the favor.
...Only that had not happened.
She had to go ahead and be kind and smile and give him food as if she knew he didn't consume enough. Didn't this girl know who he was, what he'd done? Didn't she know that he'd killed his brother and betrayed her village and had wanted to obliterate her and everyone she loved at one time, and sometimes still considered?
Apparently not, and if she did, she didn't care.
Her attitude towards him puzzled and angered the Uchiha. This wasn't how things he expected things to go; she was supposed to hate him so he could have the perfect excuse to hate her back wholeheartedly. What was this girl's problem?
But soon enough, the way she made him feel as if he was just another person and not an S-ranked national criminal, the way she looked at him with those. Damn. Eyes.
He felt forgiven, accepted.
Then he'd come crashing down to reality, to him being a murderer, a traitor, a damn prisoner in the village his clan has paid in blood for, and his anger would accumulate and then explode and he would hate her more and wish her the worst.
She was also a reminder.
In her, he saw himself; the life he could have had, the person he could have become, the relief of not feeling guilt, regret, hatred, pain, and sorrow every time he drew breath.
In the first month of knowing her —or more like being at the same place at the same time because of some idiot and karma—, he tried to disregard her existence, to thrust her out of his mind and forget about the petite form training as he sat, brooding and sometimes literally tied to a tree trunk (that damn dobe).
It didn't work.
She was always there, and when she wasn't, her scent decided to visit him and stay adhered to his nostrils for days.
She had a nice smell, that strange girl.
The fragrance of soft vanilla and subtle rosemary surrounded her and no matter where she went, she always carried the same scent.
Uchiha Sasuke disliked many things including any forms of saccharine sweets. It came as a very unpleasant surprise when he found her fragrance soothing, acceptable, even succulent.
The notion infuriated him greatly.
Everything about her– her silky-looking hair, her plump lips, her lavender eyes, her easy smile, her pink-dusted cheeks– was torturing him slowly and she probably didn't even know it.
Fuck. She couldn't have known, otherwise, she'd have used the brain she allegedly possessed to run away from him while he was still sane and she had the chance.
She truly was a reminder.
She was like his mother: polite, kind, caring.
Warm.
She shared the same charisma as Itachi.
The Hyuuga made him remember who he used to be before life decided to play sick jokes on him.
She haunted him without even trying and that was a concern.
Sasuke hated to be reminded of his early life. Especially when he had to watch over her, his thoughts wandering into dangerous territory more than ever.
Naruto had tried to bring it up once, the things he experienced in Itachi's genjutsus. Sasuke had feigned indifference, but inwardly, a turmoil had roared to life and taken days to tame.
A decade later and he still couldn't erase that Nightmare.
It was pathetic and he knew it.
Half-way through the third month of their initial meeting, Sasuke meditated on the idea of giving in to the fight he was putting up, to destroy his walls, and to live the way Itachi had wanted him to; in peace. Sasuke was tired, tired of living the way he was. He was aware that if he told anybody about his thoughts, the idea of starting a new life would not be accepted or believed. Naruto, the orange-clad idiot, might have trusted him.
That wasn't surprising. The dobe was too quick to trust, too gullible, too hopeful.
Just like her.
And with that notion, the idea of changing was viciously destroyed.
He wasn't stupid: he'd pondered on being a normal shinobi because she made him feel like one.
It was her fault he wanted to change.
It was so absurd.
He was a ruthless assassin, a demon in the flesh, tied to his past, his choices, and their consequences. He wasn't going to change, not for her, not for anybody.
By the beginning of the fourth month, he made his displeasure and disdain toward the girl show and did nothing to deny it when asked.
One day, when the dobe was called away from for their training session, Sasuke had taken advantage of the privacy, grabbed her by the wrists, and cornered her against the nearest tree, his katana's sharp blade kissing the skin of her neck, drawing the thinnest line of blood.
That day, he discovered lilac didn't look as good as red against her skin.
The Hyuuga had yelped, in surprise at his actions or the closeness of their bodies, he was neither sure nor did he possess the energy to care. With her chin tilted back, she had looked vulnerable. Small. Unsheltered.
"I want you away from me, got it, Hyuuga?" That had been what he'd meant to snarl, yet his words had dried in his mouth in an instant.
She was biting her lower lip in nervousness and her light eyes kept on darting to the side. Sasuke paused for a moment, lost in the image standing before him.
Her teeth nibbling on the now-red tender skin of her lip called his attention and he couldn't avoid thinking that if it were him doing that, he would have bite down hard until coppery droplets of crimson rolled onto his awaiting tongue and she moaned his name without that annoying honorific.
The thought had horrified him more than the realization of the Hyuuga not being afraid of him. Instead—
"Uchiha-san, w-would you please release me?"
—she was asking him if he could let go of her in her hushed voice, her words shaking but her eyes unwavering as she finally locked them with his.
Sasuke had let go of her wrists and withdrawn his weapon quickly as if staying in that position would infect him with an incurable disease.
But it had been far too late.
The disease had already run its course and Sasuke was rendered into a whole different madness when with her.
She was dangerous.
He wanted to laugh at the stupidity of that statement but found it difficult to when he realized that the little kunoichi at his mercy was, in fact, jeopardizing his state of mind.
"I don't want you near me, Hyuuga," he finally bit out, the most intimidating glare he could muster on his features.
The girl—woman?— hadn't even blinked. Instead, she had smiled slightly, causing Sasuke's glare to turn into an unsettled frown.
"I understand, Uchiha-san," she'd assured him, her gaze softening as black eyes flared in disbelief.
...The Hyuuga was insane. There couldn't be any other explication for her words and actions.
She was malfunctioning and irrevocably demented.
When he realized they weren't alone anymore, he'd looked up to find Naruto frozen to the spot several feet away, his jaw hanging, blue cerulean eyes round with bewilderment at the peculiar scene he'd come across. He'd returned faster than Sasuke had anticipated.
"Te-Teme, the hell do you think you're doing, you animal?!"
Sasuke had entirely dismissed the dobe and whirled on his heel. Without a word, he'd retreated and marched away. To present date, he had yet to set foot on the same training ground.
Naruto had confronted him later that day—how very surprising—and demanded answers to his bastard-ish behavior towards "someone as sweet and nice as Hinata!" Sasuke had opted to be a jerk about it and lie his way out, though the scuffle that followed made Tsunade yell at them for an hour.
That had taken place over a month ago.
The next day, the dobe had set off for Iwa with all the dignity he could carry with a bruised black eye and all.
Two days into October and the Hyuuga was taken.
Three weeks later, he'd found her in Water Country.
She was different now, no longer the girl who smiled or nodded politely at everyone she saw. He'd witnessed that when she screamed at the nurses not to touch her.
The Hyuuga Hinata he knew had never raised her voice above a quiet sentence.
But then again, the Hyuuga Hinata he met hadn't truly felt this extent of torture and vile men until now.
He knew though, that she wasn't broken.
No, not yet.
He would have recognized the signs and thus perceived that the Void had failed in swallowing her whole...it had failed in tarnishing her indefinitely. Staring at the unconscious Hyuuga, a sense of naivete could still be seen on her face. There was still a luster within her that spoke of tenacity and strength, mental and physical alike, despite her display a few nights ago.
He could see innocence trying to win a battle with reality. It was weak but fighting to stay. It was persistent.
But. Sasuke would bring her down.
He'd seen what laid under that film of darkness that coated her, after all. And so Sasuke decided he'd also wrap her in the night and drag her with him deep into his own horrors. He'd show her what this world was capable of and open her eyes to the twisted reality they were forced to exist in.
She'd wanted to understand, hadn't she? She'd been curious and wondered things about the Uchiha and then looked away when obsidian eyes glared back.
Curiosity killed the cat, right?
Then satisfaction would surely bring it back.
Sasuke's eyes, slowly morphing into his Sharingan, stayed glued to her form for a long time. Seeing her like this made her look so vulnerable and hopeless.
Utterly defenseless.
Just like that time on those training grounds.
He could just close the distance between them right now and take hold of her slender neck, snap it in two and no one –definitely not her– would be able to stop him from sinking his fingers into her flesh and apply pressure at the points desired.
It would be over in a second; she wouldn't even feel the unbearable pain of broken bones.
Sasuke was a quick killer, a believer in getting the job done as swiftly as possible. It wasn't his policy to take chances when something was at stake. Yes, killing silently and in the shadows was efficient.
But this Hyuuga was devising another option to the list.
Her throat was frail, delicate, thus easy to snap. She was laid before him like an unwrapped present, practically begging to be opened.
Without her headband, that stuffy jacket, or her long locks of indigo hiding the area he studied, it was almost tempting -too tempting- to do as his dark mind craved.
Such a breakable thing, he mused, feeling the strong pull of blood-lust tugging at his senses. When had been the last time he'd enjoy the thought of killing? He didn't remember, though he'd be lying if he said he hadn't wanted to snap at Sakura and countless other girls for clinging to him through the years, loud and irritating, speaking of undying love and loyalty. His mouth twisted into an ugly sneer just thinking about them.
That time in which he almost succeeded in taking Sakura and Danzo out of the world he'd felt nothing close to remorse. Back then, after learning the truth behind Itachi's sacrifice and Konoha's true intentions and betrayal, he was out for blood. Preferably from his home village.
This Hyuuga, however, was a unique case.
It would be so simple to crack the porcelain of her skin, to cause her pain. If he could ruin her without consequences, he'd do so slowly, taking his time without rushing, and make the task of taking her life very, very entertaining.
But he wouldn't. Kill her, that is.
To hear her plea for him to stop—for U-Uchiha-san to please stop it with crystalline tears running down her face in panic and fear—would be hell and heaven combined. To witness how those orbs of white pearl, so contrary to his own, asked him to release her, no trace of her genuine honesty left but an overpowering feeling of dread, would be well accepted and satisfying.
Yes, the Hyuuga would've made the first exception to his rules of killing. Hers would be different.
Too bad her eyes were no longer in place. It would have been interesting to see them filled with hate. Hate for him, an emotion he'd learned the Hyuuga didn't associate with when Naruto and said girl trained together. She'd come to know, hopefully, that life wasn't as good as some people made it out to be and she would see and feel insanity running through her veins, claiming her mind with each passing day. He had been physically blind in the past too, and it had been something he would never forget.
The Hyuuga, so dependent on sight alone, would be unable to keep her self sane.
Although... she was a rarity in the shinobi world. Maybe she'd surprise him once she got out of that depressing stage of hers?
Sasuke smirked behind his Raven mask, the action only growing when he saw the Hyuuga's fingers twitch, regaining a sliver of strength.
You better not be broken yet, porcelain princess. If someone's going to crush that innocence you possess, it's going to be me and no one else.
"...It'll be me who breaks you."
XXX
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Hyuuga Neji could hardly breathe.
He stared at his Uncle, his lips pressed together and his face blank, though despair reigned within.
"Surely...something can be done? Hyuuga eyes are powerful, and so is our blood," he said, hands on his lap as he sat in the Hyuuga's meeting room. Even though his words were strong, his voice was weak, breathless.
Hiashi glanced at him and then at the elders, his eyes unfeeling and flat. "Nothing can be done. Hinata's eyes can't be placed back. She can no longer possess the Byakugan."
"A new heiress will be appointed," one of the elders said with a sigh. "It is a shame, but Hinata, after this, won't be able to keep her status as a kunoichi."
Neji lowered his eyes, still in a state of disbelief where Hinata was in her room, reading one of the Hyuuga's scroll or pressing flowers. Perhaps she was still training in the dojo of the compound, practicing her new jutsu, the one she'd eagerly proclaimed to be ready to show Father. She had looked so pleased when all the elders had approved of her as an heiress. She'd worked hard, she'd bled, and fought since an early age for her birthright, and when she finally proved worthy the world cruelly tore it away from right underneath her. Neji's hands clenched into fists, furious on Hinata's behalf.
She was supposed to become the Head of the Hyuuga in the upcoming Spring and search for loopholes in the Cursed Seal to remove it and unite her house, her family, her clansmen.
Now everything, every dream, hope, and wish was crashing down by the minute.
Years of work, crumbling in mere weeks.
"The Hyuuga taijutsu and ninjutsu won't be effective without our kekkei genkai. She, however, can still pass the gene–"
"No," Hiashi cut the elder on his right without so much as looking at him, fully aware of where that conversation was going. "My daughter will be left alone. No marriage will be proposed to her. Not yet."
"Hiashi," a woman spoke, her eyes closed. "Hinata knew, from the day she received her title, that this would happen eventually. An arranged marriage was to be expected."
"This is different," Hiashi spoke loud and clear. "This situation has come to a culmination point of importance, yes, but leave Hinata out of this. She has sacrificed enough."
"She has sacrificed nothing!" the second elder spoke, his eyes in slits. "It was taken from her by force. I knew she wouldn't be strong enough to keep our eyes safe."
"I would suggest keeping in mind that her eyes were obtained along with my daughter," Hiashi said coldly, directing a warning glance to everyone in the room. "The Byakugan is safe and is being guarded zealously by all of Konoha. Hokage Tsunade herself has offered her aid." More like demanded to be let in with threats, but the elders didn't need to know that. "The fact that my daughter cannot wield the Byakugan doesn't mean she must be forced into marriage."
"But Hiashi-"
"Eventually-"
"I said no. Dismissed."
XXX
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Her face...felt heavy.
Cold.
Hyuuga Hinata attempted to open her eyes but failed.
Her muscles were lead, unresponsive. She tried to move her fingers, to speak up, to exit the darkness that burdened her...to no avail.
Was she dead? Alive? In limbo?
There was no way to know, but she didn't want to die. Not yet. She had so much left to do, to change, to live for. She had to hang on, to grasp onto the smallest of threads that could pull her into the light of the living, even if it meant walking into a never-ending nightmare.
Hinata tried to grasp the air, to force her brain to respond. Open your eyes. Say something. Do something. Anything.
Move.
Move.
MOVE.
It took a while for her senses to return, but when they did, the first thing her mind registered was the smell of medicine.
Potent. Pungent. Distinguishable.
Am I in a hospital? She thought, confused and disorientated.
She didn't know what was going on nor where she was. What an unsettling feeling.
However, that didn't mean she wanted to smell the sick aroma of death.
No. Not death. Life. Give me the struggle of living. The blast of the wind, the heat of the sun.
She focused on this new-found power, the power of finding and classifying scents, and pushed forward.
She could picture the stale, white room in which she probably was, the white sheets, the low, biting cold temperature.
Hinata didn't feel warm, and oh, how she longed for a comforting source of heat. She was so cold. Would she freeze? She didn't want to freeze.
She wanted warmth, desired it, craved it.
That's when she felt it, the strange sensation...of electricity.
There was power coiling in it, heat, a hum that would not be ignored.
Hinata felt her chest tighten in anticipation.
It was close by, but she was unable to reach out and embrace it.
Where? Where was it coming from?
Unsteady, she spread her range of focus, seeking and finding.
It was an odd yet invigorating smell, that one of lightning. It was heavenly fire scorching a wet terrain after a downpour. It was terrifying, compelling, warm.
It was unusually familiar and that was comforting in a world in which nothing was certain.
Hinata sank back into the darkness, holding on tight to the perfume of power, intoxicating her mind with it.
This time, as she lost unconsciousness, she was no longer cold.
XXXX
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A/N: Acknowledgements to: umnia, nikols, LadyCassie, Guest, Francis, Guest, kyoru, sara96, & Darth Lelouch!
*Itachi's genjutsu: the one he put Sasuke through several times.
As for your doubts...
*Hinata had her eyes removed in the kidnapping, yes. Sasuke's attitude has its motives. Hinata can't just put her eyes back. Her chakra system was destroyed in the eye area so even if she gets her Byakugan, it'll be useless and the optic nerve was also harmed. Once you screw the optic nerve, the optic chiasma stops getting signals. Also, eye transplants are not as easy as they sound. As for what happens with the container holding her eyes, you'll find out.
-9.28.13
Revised 12.13.20