Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to Leonardo DiCaprio, McKazekage, rao hyuga 18, shyprincess82, QueenP19, xforeverherex, ssspooky, lidianm, and sailorangelmoon1 for all your lovely reviews! You all really do help keep me focused and motivated, and I appreciate you all so much for your encouraging, kind words. Also thanks to those who have added, and continue to add, this story to their favorites and follow lists. I get so excited every time I see a new alert in my e-box!
Author's Note: As promised, I have a posting date for Shadows' prequel oneshot (entitled Sunshine)! I've decided I'll post it either on Wednesday, Dec. 19, or Thursday, Dec. 20 (which would be either Thursday or Friday for those of you east of the International Date Line). I thought about doing a simultaneous update with the next chapter of Shadows, but ultimately decided Sunshine deserved its own posting day. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and thanks for reading!
*~Chapter XVI~*
~Fallout~
One look at Hinata's face the moment she entered the ballroom, and Gaara knew.
Something was horribly wrong.
Quickly excusing himself from the conversation he'd been having with Hyuuga Tenten, Gaara wound his way through the room toward Hinata. Fortunately, most people there knew of him, but had not been introduced, so they had no good reason to divert him from his goal.
As he neared, Temari caught his eye. Gaara felt his own narrow at the scorn he saw there, and he briefly wondered if she'd said something to Hinata to make her look so shaken. His sister had made her stance clear on several parts of his and Hinata's relationship during one of their rest stops on the way to Konoha, and it felt like he'd been spending most of his time since then trying to head her off so she wouldn't say something indelicate to Hinata.
He'd also had quite a bit of time to think about what he'd said to Hinata back in Suna. Now Gaara was beginning to wonder if, just maybe, she was a better match for him than he'd originally thought. After all, she was staying beside him when he was doing things which had made even his own siblings withdraw from him in the past.
She was much stronger than she appeared to be. Last night proved that, if nothing else. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but he was so very tired, thanks to everything which had been happening over the past few days. Feeling reasonably certain he would be able to stay awake, he'd only closed his eyes for a moment to try to ease the scratchy burning behind them...
When he wakened from nightmares of strangling fingers and a background of blood, he had his wife by the throat, trying to choke the life out of her. This was why he didn't sleep, because he couldn't control himself when he did.
But Gaara had to admit, Hinata had handled it better than he could ever have dreamed she would. She had done the best thing in such a situation: she froze. It was like something in her had sensed any other move could cause her death, and she reacted accordingly.
This whole time, he'd been underestimating her, but he knew better now.
...And, just maybe, there was one good thing his father had done for him.
Temari looked away and drifted off deeper into the room. Gaara gently took Hinata's arm and guided her towards a quiet corner, anxious to talk to her and unwilling to wait until they returned to the Hyuuga estate.
"Are you all right?" he asked softly. In an effort to seem casual, he leaned his shoulder against the wall.
Hinata followed his lead, instantly easing her tense posture as she turned to face him. But when she looked up at him with wide eyes, her discomfort and anxiety were so easy to read, he knew only those glancing toward them would miss it. Instinctively, he reached up to smooth his finger across her brow so he could erase the puckered lines forming there. At his touch, she smiled slightly. "I'm fine," she assured him. "B-But Temari and Sasuke just met each other out in the hall, and..." She trailed off, eyes darting anxiously past his shoulder. "It d-did not g-go well."
He'd been expecting this. Even though Itachi had not come with them to Konoha, he knew his brother-in-law had sent a letter with Temari for his little brother. He wondered if his sister had given it to Sasuke, but didn't want to ask Hinata. "I suspected it wouldn't," he said.
"Me too." Hinata sounded positively mournful. She smiled again, tiredly, and her index fingers raised seemingly of their own accord to tap anxiously against each other. "I'll try to find Sasuke later and talk to him. Maybe if I d-do, he'll-"
"Witch!"
The screeching wail from across the room, a jarring juxtaposition to the quiet conversations being held by the other mourners, snapped Gaara straight out of his casual stance. He turned toward the voice by instinct, his heightened senses immediately allowing him to see the angry blur charging across the room, hands raised and locked in two menacing claws, headed straight toward-
Hinata!
Comprehending the danger, Gaara threw himself in front of his wife only a moment before her sister reached them. The monster deep within him, brought back to roiling wakefulness after his nightmare last night, reared its head, demanding he eliminate the threat immediately and violently. But years of practice helped him immediately shove the monster right back down towards the black pit from whence it had come. As the darkness retreated enough for him to think clearly again, he allowed his newer, more natural, instincts to guide his movements.
Hanabi turned just enough of her attention toward him to recognize him as a barrier she needed to remove to get to her sister. Gaara brought his arms up between Hanabi's, knocking hers aside gently enough so he wouldn't hurt her, but hard enough to make it clear she needed to snap out of whatever had possessed her to charge, screaming, at her sister.
However, Hanabi didn't get the hint. She drew back, but only enough to give her room to attempt a quick dodge around Gaara, still desperate to get to her sister, and still screaming like a banshee. He tensed to move again, but just then he realized others had reacted to the younger Hyuuga girl's tantrum and were also moving to intercept her.
Neji was the first to arrive, his wife only a step behind him. He dodged Hanabi's swiping claw, then grasped her wrist. "Hanabi!" he barked. "Stop this at once!"
His cousin ignored him. She twisted and kicked and clawed, and at last Gaara was able to make out the words being carried along on her screams. "I was closer to Father than either of you! What makes you so special that you got letters from him and I got nothing? Nothing!"
A shocked ripple of confusion went through the others gathered around him, Hinata, and Hanabi. Gaara knew only he, Hinata, Neji, and Tenten were supposed to know about the letters. How did Hanabi find out, and in such short a time between the funeral and the wake?
Hanabi twisted again, using her full (if slight) body weight to yank herself free from her cousin's grip, slackened momentarily from surprise. Darting lithely past him, she once again headed for her sister, eyes shining with a mad glint Gaara recognized from his own, younger, reflection in the mirrors he'd always tried to avoid.
Gaara moved again, once more interposing himself between his wife and the danger her sister represented. He tensed to block her attack again if need be, but Naruto and another man - dark spiky hair, wild wolfish eyes, red fang-shaped tattoos on his narrow face, and the stance instantly recognizable as a belonging to a ninja Gaara's analytical mind immediately noted - caught her arms. They held on as she tried to kick and scratch at them, too, though her burning gaze never lost their focus on a point past the leader of Suna's shielding body.
He sensed Hinata come up directly behind him. One gentle hand fell against the hollow between his shoulder blades as she peered around him at her sister. Gaara shifted, reaching back to keep one arm in front of her as a kind of barrier, but he managed to bite back the instinct to push her completely behind him again. She would have resisted him, anyway.
"You witch!" Hanabi screamed again. "All those years, you pretended to take care of me, pretended to love me, but you betrayed me!" Throwing her head wildly to the side, she snapped at Naruto with her bared teeth. The blond darted out of reach, still somehow managing to maintain his already tenuous hold on her. Another unfamiliar ninja moved forward, gently wrapping his arm around Hanabi's neck - tightly enough to hold her still, but not so tightly she couldn't breathe freely. "What kind of sister are you? I'm going to kill you!"
Hinata's hand clenched into a fist around the fabric at Gaara's back. He felt her flinch against his arm, and he tensed again, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how Hanabi found out about Hiashi's letters. From what he'd seen the rest of the time they'd been in Konoha, the two were incredibly close. Could something like this really sever such powerful bond so easily?
"I d-do love you, Hanabi," Hinata replied, only the barest hint of a tremor audible in her voice. "And I d-don't understand why you're acting like this now. I p-promise, the last thing in the world I'd want is to hurt you." Her quiet calm was made all the more evident in comparison to her sister's extreme rage.
Hanabi's eyes finally flickered away from Hinata, but only long enough to glance at Gaara. After giving him an equally venomous look, she turned back to Hinata again. "You've changed," she accused her sister, her voice rising with each word until she was shrieking again. "And I'll never forgive you! Either of you!"
Before Hanabi could attempt to break free again, Lady Tsunade pushed her way to the front of the crowd. With practiced hands, she gently captured the girl's chin with one while, with the other, she injected a syringe full of liquid into Hanabi's neck. The effects were almost immediate, and Naruto caught the girl as she slumped into unconsciousness.
"It's just a sedative," Tsunade told Hinata as she quickly disposed of the syringe and needle. "I'm going to take her to the hospital and run some tests, just to make sure she wasn't drugged into this behavior." Her worried gold eyes moved from Hinata's face back to Hanabi's. "I'll let you know as soon as I know something." Turning to the crowd of people gathered around, all with faces still stiff with shock, she commanded, "I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this short. Thank you all for coming." With that, she strode out of the room, Naruto right behind her, still carrying Hanabi's limp form.
As people began leaving, several stopped by Hinata to murmur a few words of condolence about Hiashi. None of them seemed to know what to say about Hanabi, so the debacle with her was not mentioned - not until the man who had first assisted Naruto in subduing Hanabi finally came by.
"I'm sorry, Hinata," he said. His wild eyes pinned her gaze sincerely, and he reached out to chuck the edge of his finger under her chin. "I know it's a weak reassurance, but I'm confident we'll get to the bottom of this really soon. There's bound to be a rational explanation for what happened with your sister, and with your father." He darted a quick look at Gaara out of the corner of his eye, hesitated, then quickly stepped forward and hugged Hinata. "Just remember I'm here for you, okay? Me and the others."
Gaara savagely bit down his own jealousy as Hinata smiled wanly and stood on tiptoes to kiss the other man's cheek. "I know," she said. "Thank you, K-Kiba. You're a g-great friend."
"You know it!" Kiba replied, with an admirable attempt at a cheerful grin. He glanced at Gaara again, seemed to sense he was pushing things, but still couldn't resist saying one more thing before leaving. "You'll come hang out with us again before you leave, right? We all miss you something awful, Hinata."
This time Hinata was the one to slide a glance at Gaara before she replied. "Of c-course, K-Kiba. I'd like that." She smiled, although it was far from cheerful. "Let me know what time works b-best for the g-group, all right?"
Kiba nodded, smiled, and then bowed at Hinata and Gaara before hurrying away.
Now only Gaara, Hinata, Neji, Tenten, and Temari were left in the ballroom. The group quietly left Tsunade's spacious abode and headed for the silent, stuffy halls of the Hyuuga estate.
Gaara watched Hinata out of the corner of his eye the entire way. Though she walked with her shoulders back and her head up, he sensed the storm roiling deep inside her, waiting to break free. He knew it was taking every last shred of her self-control to keep herself from losing control of her emotions right there in the middle of the street. He needed to get her home, quickly.
Not daring to waste another moment, Gaara reached out and swept Hinata up into his arms. She let out a soft squeak and clung to his shoulders, staring at him with wide, startled eyes. "I'm going on ahead," he told the others firmly. "We'll see you later."
Without waiting for a response which might or might not have been favorable, Gaara strode ahead of the rest, only slowing long enough to call out for the gates to be opened as they approached.
Ignoring the startled expressions of the guards, Gaara carried his wife past them and toward the house. "Almost there, Hinata."
That seemed to be good enough for her. Burying her face against his neck, she began to weep.
The storm outside was nothing compared to the one in Gaara and Hinata's quarters.
Gaara settled himself on a cushion next to the half-open doors leading out to the garden, Hinata seated on his lap. He kept his arms around her, holding her tightly as she sobbed brokenly into his chest. She shuddered uncontrollably, gulping in huge gasping breaths as she cried and cried until Gaara thought she'd never be able to stop. Her hands tightened around huge fistfuls of his shirt, clinging to him as if she were afraid he was going to disappear if she let go.
As crazy as her world was turning out to be, he couldn't really blame her. First her father died, then her sister turned into a berserker at the wake - what guarantee did she have her husband wouldn't leave her, too?
On that thought, Gaara's conscience pricked him sharply - again. While they'd still been in Suna, he'd spoken to her about getting an annulment when they reached Konoha. Temari had given him a stern talking-to and helped him realize that had not been one of his more brilliant ideas, but he'd not had a chance to talk to Hinata about it. Perhaps she was still thinking Gaara was going to leave her.
In truth, it was the last thing he wanted to do. The quiet strength she'd shown earlier, in combination with that she'd shown back in Suna, made it clear there couldn't be a better match for him than her. He still remembered the few wonderful days they spent together during their childhood, when she had been his most loyal friend - his only friend, yes, but that hadn't mattered to him. With Hinata, he could be the person he'd always wanted to be. She looked at him with adoring eyes, as if he were her hero, and she'd treated him like he was normal. She wasn't afraid of him.
Very gently, he ran his fingers through her hair. She didn't pull away; in fact, if he wasn't mistaken, she even snuggled a little closer. No, she hadn't been afraid of him then, and she wasn't afraid of him now.
Running his fingers through her long midnight hair again, he tilted his head down so he could speak directly into her ear. "It's going to be all right," he said. "I promise, somehow I'll make it all right for you."
"You c-can't p-promise me that." Drawing in a deep, shuddering breath, Hinata shook her head against his chest. "You c-can't." A brief pause, and then she whispered, "B-But I wish you c-could."
Gaara sighed. It was true, he couldn't promise her everything would be all right. There were things he had no control over, and he hated every single one. However, there was one thing he could promise, and he told her so.
"What would that b-be?" He heard the unwilling note of hope in her voice, and it lightened his heart to hear it.
"I'm not going to leave you."
She froze against him, only her raspy breathing breaking the silence for a long moment. At last, she whispered, "B-But what about the annulment?"
He felt something deep inside his chest twist painfully. Clenching his teeth for a moment, he breathed through the sharp agony, realizing he'd never thought about how she might still want the annulment. She'd had just as much time to think on the matter as he had, after all. "Did you-" he paused, hating to voice the words but knowing he had to "-want to go through with the annulment?"
"No!" Hinata's answer was sharp and immediate. Lifting her head, she looked up at him, her beautiful pale eyes shimmering like pearls, even though they were rimmed with red from her crying.
Gaara could breathe again. "Good." It had been stupid of him even to suggest it in the first place. What had he been thinking? All this strife I've caused both of us, when it's the last thing in the world Hinata needs right now.
...But it is a relief to know she doesn't want the annulment. Even though it was selfish of him, he was glad about that. He couldn't imagine his life without Hinata, now she was finally back in it.
"I'm so tired, G-Gaara," Hinata breathed. "So tired."
Cupping his hand around the back of her head, Gaara gently held her still against his shoulder. "Just sleep," he whispered. "It's all right. I'll stay right here with you. Just sleep."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, just taking comfort in each other's presence. Gaara continuously bestowed what he hoped were comforting touches on Hinata as her breathing eased from raspy gasps, to hiccuping sighs, to the even in-and-out breaths of sleep.
Letting out his own breath, Gaara carefully shifted his hold on Hinata so she was in more of a reclining position. She didn't stir, and he knew she wouldn't wake up for a while. After everything that had happened, she needed this time to rest and recover.
He'd been planning for them to leave for Suna in two days. But as he sat there, he wondered if, perhaps, they should stay in Konoha a few days more. Though they'd originally come for the funeral, it was obvious Hinata wanted more time to spend with her friends and family. But could he afford to spend that much time away from Suna and his duties there?
When he, Hinata, and Temari had left, several people had already been working on investigating the attack on Suna. Gaara had left Kankuro in charge of the village, with the assistance of the Council, of course. As soon as Itachi returned from his own mission, he'd take over the investigation of the explosion and those behind it. Hopefully by now there was some clue as to the dead man's identity, which would help lead them to his partner in crime. If they knew that, maybe they could determine why Suna had been targeted...
If anything important shows up in their investigations, they'll send a messenger hawk. Gaara's legs were starting to go to sleep, but he ignored the prickly pain and stayed still, watching Hinata sleep as his mind continued to race. Undoubtedly the Council will do so, anyway. There were so many things I left half-done when I came to Konoha with Hinata. But she's far more important than those things, and the Council is just going to have to learn to accept that.
His musings were abruptly interrupted by a scratch on the door. While Gaara was still debating whether or not he should call a response or try to move Hinata so he could get up, the shouji opened, revealing Neji and Tenten on the other side.
"How's Hinata?" Tenten was the first to speak, her eyes only briefly resting on Gaara before shifting to her cousin-in-law.
"Asleep," Gaara replied softly. "Finally."
Tenten slipped past her husband into the room. "She can't sleep in her kimono all night," she said reasonably. "Here, I'll help her change and get into bed."
Instinctively, Gaara's arms tightened around his wife, unwilling to hand over her care to anyone else. (And, to be completely honest, he just didn't want to let go of her, period.) But Tenten's soft brown eyes were warm and full of sincerity, and he knew logically she'd never do anything to hurt her husband's cousin, her own friend.
Tilting his head down, Gaara brushed a kiss across his wife's temple. "Hinata," he whispered. "Come on, it's time to wake up."
She let out a little mewling sound and snuggled a little tighter against his chest. Gaara swallowed back the rising tide of feelings inside him and tried again. "You need to go to bed, Hinata. You'll be more comfortable there."
Her eyelids fluttered for a moment before opening completely. His breath caught in his throat as she stared up at him with her amazing pearl-colored eyes, filled with unguarded affection. For a few breaths they stayed like that, just staring at each other, before her sleepiness fled in the wake of dawning awareness. Her eyes shifted away, releasing him from her spell, and she scrambled away from his hold, her cheeks bright red at the realization Neji and Tenten had just witnessed the rather intimate moment between her and Gaara.
To her credit, Tenten made no remark on the matter. She simply helped Hinata to her feet, then guided her to the bedroom and, after sharing a brief unreadable look with her husband, closed the door behind them.
Neji waited until his wife and cousin were safely sequestered in the bedroom before fully entering the sitting room and closing the door behind himself. Gaara watched the other man approach as he finally shifted his legs, trying not to wince at the pins-and-needles sensation as feeling slowly crept back into them.
"Thank you." The words were spoken grudgingly, and so quietly Gaara almost missed them.
"For what?" he replied, feeling suspicious.
The Hyuuga leader's lips twisted slightly, as if the words he was about to say tasted sour. "For caring so diligently for my cousin." Neji remained standing, his hands tucked into the loose sleeves of his haori. Gaara briefly wondered if the Hyuuga was hiding a weapon there, but instantly disregarded the idea. Just because Hinata's cousin didn't like him didn't mean he was going to attack. "I admit I have not been a supporter of this marriage from the beginning."
Gaara kept his own lips from twitching into a derisive smile with effort. "I noticed."
If Neji was offended, he didn't show it. "But I've come to see you do genuinely care for Hinata," he went on, as if Gaara hadn't spoken. "You protected her from Hanabi's attack earlier, and then just now..." He trailed off, but the rest of his unspoken words were clear in the air between them.
Taking a few moments to think carefully about his response before he made it, Gaara allowed his gaze to slide toward the closed door into his wife's bedroom. "I know you haven't trusted me from the moment we met each other," he said quietly. "I have done nothing to earn that trust, either." He held up a hand to forestall the quick response Neji drew a sharp breath in to make. "But I assure you I would never knowingly do anything to hurt your cousin. She has been nothing but good to me - even in times I don't deserve it. I - I care for her, quite deeply." It was the first time he'd admitted such a thing aloud. Even though he didn't like to do so, he knew Neji needed to hear it. He needed to have the reassurance Gaara would treat Hinata right, because his feelings for her were growing deeper and deeper, practically by the moment.
Neji nodded once, very slowly. "I see." He made no mention of whether or not he actually believed Gaara, but it didn't really bother the redhead that much. The Hyuuga trusted the leader of Suna with his cousin's safety now, and that was a step in the right direction. Any further goodwill between them would come later.
Suddenly anxious to move the conversation to topics less personal, Gaara cleared his throat. "Have you heard anything about Hanabi?"
Immediately, Neji's eyes darkened once again. "Lady Tsunade's tests came back negative. There were no drugs in my younger cousin's system to make her act so out of character, which means her behavior was all her own." He shook his head. "I don't understand it. Hinata and Hanabi have always been close, especially since Hinata has had to act as a surrogate mother to Hanabi for so many years. They've not just been sisters, they've been friends as well."
"Which makes Hanabi's behavior all the more jarring." Gaara had surmised as much from things Hinata had said and his own private observations, but it was good to hear them confirmed by another source. He hadn't been so wildly off-base, then. "What I want to know is, how did Hanabi find out about the letters?"
"Tenten and I have been looking into that - quietly, of course. But thus far we've come up with nothing." Neji's jaw tightened with frustration, and he spun away to begin pacing. "I admit I was surprised when I found letters addressed to me and Hinata, but none to Hanabi. She was right: she was much closer to Uncle Hiashi than Hinata and I were put together. She's always been the baby of the family, and Uncle indulged her as such - partly because he loved her so, and I think also partly to make up for her lack of a mother. I'd like to think this whole incident was inspired by nothing more than her spoiled background and grief, but I don't think so."
"There's something far more sinister behind this," Gaara agreed. "Perhaps it is tied into how the former Lord Hyuuga died?" The thought had crossed his mind earlier, but he'd dismissed it. Surely if whoever had done away with Hyuuga Hiashi had gotten so close to his daughter, he would have done the same thing to Hanabi.
"I'd thought of that, too," Neji admitted. "But something about it just doesn't sound right."
Hinata's bedroom door slid open, interrupting the conversation. Tenten slipped into the sitting room, quietly closing the door behind her. "She's asleep again," Neji's wife announced, moving across the room to stand next to her husband. "It didn't take long, poor dear. She's exhausted." Lines of concern furrowed into her brow, but she said nothing further.
"It's been a long day for her," Gaara responded. "And an even longer couple of weeks."
Tenten nodded in ready agreement. "True," she said. "I just hope she can get a good night's sleep with no interruptions."
"Indeed," Neji said darkly.
Gaara heard the implied warning of sorts, his guilt pricking his conscience once again. "I'll not sleep tonight," he vowed. "I will watch over Hinata and make sure her sleep remains undisturbed."
"Speaking of sleep..." Tenten reached out to grasp Neji's hand and pulled him after her toward the door. "Things will seem much clearer in the morning. Good night, Lord Gaara."
"Hn." Gaara got to his feet and tilted his head in her direction, grateful for her intuitive move. "Good night, Lord Hyuuga, Lady Hyuuga."
As soon as the door closed behind the pair, Gaara pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly. He could feel the beginnings of a headache - perhaps even a migraine - developing behind his eyes, but he would deal with it. The pain certainly wouldn't stop him from spending the night developing and rejecting theories, not to mention doing exactly what he'd promised: watching over Hinata.
At least as long as Gaara was around, nothing would touch her, he determined. Not even nightmares.
*~To Be Continued~*
Author's Ending Notes: This chapter has gone through a couple of re-writes, so I hope it reads smoothly. There was just so much I wanted to do, but so it would read smoothly, I had to keep tweaking it around until I got this final result. I'm so enjoying writing this huge turning point in Gaara and Hinata's relationship, and am looking forward to writing its continuing progression from here on out even more! As for the childhood oneshot prequel to this story (entitled Sunshine), I posted it a few hours earlier than planned, so it's now available on my author page! Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope to see you both for Sunshine and for the next update for Shadows!