Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and do not make any money from these writings.
Author's Note: A short little Halloween story inspired by just about every vampire movie I've ever seen - particularly those old Hammer films, as well as the story My Dear Emily by Joanna Russ. I've always wanted to write something with a supernatural element. Please let me know what you think of it.
It is the season of parties. Summer is past, harvest is in, engagements announced and weddings planned for the following year. Hinata is a guest at her friend Ino's home. Ino lives with her guardian Commander Nara and his wife and son. Ino is her dearest friend, her bosom companion since childhood. And now they are young women approaching adulthood but still giggling in girlish ways as they dress and prepare for the evening's festivities.
Ino's beauty is perfection - starlight manifest on the earth - porcelain skin and platinum hair with eyes the blue of the sky. And if Ino's beauty is that of the stars then Hinata's is that of the moon itself - jet black hair frames her own fair face highlighting her shining pale lavender eyes.
A rustle of silk, satin and lace they descend the stairs, hair elegantly arranged by their maids, corsets preposterously cinched. Ino is swathed in a silvery white beaded gown while Hinata's is midnight blue. They are met at the landing by the two young men who will squire them to the party. Commander Nara's son Shikamaru offers his arm to Hinata while her cousin, Ino's own fiancé and the Nara's other guest Neji takes Ino's hand in his own. Their carriage is waiting, Commander Nara and his wife will follow shortly in a carriage of their own.
At the party they take the first dance each with their escorts. Shikamaru's movements are calculated and precise, his dancing instructor would approve. Although Hinata finds his hold of her hand cool and light and his touch at her waist lighter still as they dance.
There's a stranger across the room, someone she doesn't recognize but in the back of her mind there's a faint thought that perhaps she does. Speculations about the stranger are swept aside as her next partner requests her for a dance. Bright, blond and shining Naruto Uzumaki is the mayor's son and she knows that her father has already hinted to the man what a suitable match his daughter would make for him. It has probably progressed beyond suggestion and Hinata is in the process of resigning herself to being a good wife as he will undoubtedly be a good husband. It is her duty to her father, after all.
Naruto twirls her about the dance floor helter skelter. He grasps her hand tightly in his sweaty own. Hinata smiles sweetly up at him attempting to keep up with his arrhtymic steps . To be sweet is her duty to her inevitable husband-to-be, after all.
He deposits her at a chair beside Ino at the conclusion of the dance while he joins his male companions for conversation. Ino stifles a giggle while Hinata tries to catch her breath.
The band is preparing another tune and somehow the stranger is beside her. "May I have this dance?" his voice is resoundingly deep.
"I-I-I don't even know you, sir," she stammers realizing that although he must be a guest of their host they have not been properly introduced. Inexplicably she feels her heart in her throat. It's not just the social faux pas, she also feels there's something so thrillingly daring about him.
"Nonsense," he says as he elegantly draws her up and to him.
And his hold of her hand is both gentle and firm, his own hand at the small of her back secure, guiding her across the floor. Rather than Shikamaru's half-heartedness or Naruto's wild abandon, the stranger's movements are sweeping, commanding and she willingly complies. Scandalized again, Hinata realizes how very much closer he is holding her than is technically necessary for the waltz, how intimate their movements have become. She blushes and looks up into his eyes.
They are the fathomless ocean. They are the darkest eyes she has ever seen. She feels she might drown until she realizes the ocean gives space for the moon's own reflection. She smiles.
He smiles back at her and it's glorious. Then in a most wickedly, delicious way, almost as if he knows what she's thinking, he murmurs against her, "Let them look."
There's no mere hint of intimacy now. With every step he takes forward she echoes with her own yielding step back. She thinks, in a most unmaidenly way, how very much more she would yield if he were to ever ask. Her breath is coming faster and her blood is thrumming in her veins in a way she has never experienced before, never knew she could experience before.
The dance is over and it is too soon, she wants it to go on forever. He's bowing before her and she stammers again, "I-I don't even know your name."
"Sasuke Uchiha," he whispers as he lifts her hand and gently kisses it.
She is flushed and warm, the color in her cheeks high. He escorts her back to her seat where Ino is sitting with her mouth slightly open at her friend's brazenness.
"May I bring you some refreshments Miss Hyuuga? Miss Yamanaka?" and both girls accept his offer. He returns with two flutes of champagne which they sip daintily. Ino comments that he needs something to drink, too but he demurs, indicating he never drinks wine.
Hinata yearns for another dance with the young man but he is greeting others. Her friend Kiba Inuzaka then requests and she accepts. Kiba is a good friend and a good dancer but this evening he seems troubled. She asks him why and he mentions that a couple of his family's sheep have been found slaughtered but worse still one of their hounds was found with its throat ripped out. Hinata gasps and Kiba regrets causing her distress.
The gaiety of the evening is dampened as the word spreads about the Inuzuka's loss. Hushed whispers also circulate that a young village girl has gone missing but Mrs. Nara quickly squashes such rumors as too upsetting to the young ladies. The carriage ride home is far more sombre than when the evening started and Hinata catches herself reliving the one dance with Sasuke Uchiha over and over in her head.
Despite it being autumn the night is unseasonably warm and the girls sleep with their bedroom windows open. Although Hinata awakes refreshed, Ino is wan and listless. Mrs. Nara pronounces her over-tired from the evening's festivities and instructs her to stay in bed for the day, sending tea and soup to her room.
Hinata wanders the house, browsing the Nara's vast collection of books. Commander Nara is in the library and she enjoys a polite conversation with him. He is concerned about Ino but not to the same level of his wife. To Hinata's surprise he mentions that Sasuke will be joining them for dinner tonight. It appears he is the son of one of the Commander's own fellow soldiers, lost in the previous war. He has been away for a number of years but is returning to re-occupy his family's ancestral home not so far away.
Hinata is delighted - she runs upstairs to breathlessly share the news with Ino. Ino joins in her friends' delight as she found the young man most charming herself. She assures Hinata that she will be well enough to join them for dinner and the two girls spend the afternoon together reading pleasantly to each other.
Evening arrives and dinner is served. The hour passes quickly with the Naras, Neji, Ino, Sasuke and herself amid sparkling conversation and witty repartee. Mrs. Nara comments that perhaps the food is not to Mr. Uchiha's liking since he has hardly touched a bite. But he quickly reassures her that he had a heavy lunch. Touching her hand lightly he notes that Miss Yamanaka has hardly eaten this evening as well. The pink that touches her cheeks seems like the dawn and Hinata is enthralled, not the least bit jealous but rather finding her friend ethereal.
After brandy they retire to the drawing room where Commander Nara has a most excellent surprise for everyone. A victrola. They can dance without even needing a band. As he winds the contraption everyone comments on the marvels of science. Neji inquires if Ino would like to dance but she declines, still feeling too frail. Hinata is all too happy to accept Sasuke's offer again and as she absolutely glides in his arms once more she catches a glimpse of her cousin. She is sure he will admonish her sternly about her overeagerness.
The evening draws to a close and reluctantly they bid Sasuke good night. As she watches him walk into the night Hinata realizes it is where he belongs. Black and velvet, his eyes and hair are like the night itself and it is his place, And she feels in her head, in her heart and in her bones that is where she most desperately wants to belong, too.
The next morning breaks and poor Ino is worse. She struggles to breathe and the least effort tires her. The doctor is summoned and he is baffled and slightly alarmed by faint marks at Ino's throat. He prescribes a tonic but also discusses with Commander Nara the need to summon a specialist in these matters.
Commander Nara rides out to do so. When he returns he brings Kiba as well as his father with him. Others arrive, the mayor and his son Naruto, her own father. The men discuss in hushed tones other sheep and cattle and the fact that something awful is afoot. Hinata strains to hear more but Mrs. Nara bustles her away and closes the drawing room door on their conversation.
The specialist arrives that evening, one Dr. Orochimaru and Hinata instantly dislikes him. Where Sasuke's darkness is like an embrace this man is surrounded by a stygian gloom. She does not like his looks and she does not like his manner. Were she a cat, Hinata realizes, her ears would be flat against her head in his presence. But most importantly she does not like the way he handles Ino, roughly, as he examines her. How he addresses the men in the room, discussing her condition as though Ino herself were not even there.
It is all in all too awful and too suffocating and Hinata flees. She escapes the house and runs past the immaculate Nara gardens into the forest. She's frantic and she's searching and she's wishing he were with her when suddenly she turns to see him.
"What must I be for you to take me with you?" she sobs.
"Exactly who you are," is his soft answer.
She sobs again at the idea of being something wild and free and his. He folds her in his arms and the piercing at her breast stings only for a moment but is so very worth it.
Later she saunters back to the house dazed and drunk with happiness. Neji scolds her at the door when he sees her enter and she tells him sharply to tend to his own business and she will tend to hers. There is an audible gasp and Neji is scarcely able to contain his anger. Her father need not contain his though and he strikes her sharply across the cheek, infuriated at her impertinence at a time like this.
Hinata flees to her room and shuts the door. She's crying and wants nothing more than the new freedom she's only realized just now exists. He had promised to take her, he only needed to be a little stronger. Another night and day and night again and he would make her his forever.
Restless through the night, Hinata finds the morning light painful. She's ill, sick, love-sick and the light hurts her eyes and nothing tastes right and the only thing she takes for breakfast is tea. Even that turns her stomach so that she almost spits it out.
Dear Ino is much worse. Her pale skin is now ashen and her breathing ragged, almost gasping. Mrs. Nara is beside herself. Hinata knows that the men are discussing and planning but she finds herself shut out of every conversation, advised to stay abed and not be such trouble to her hostess.
The day draws on interminably and at one point some of the young men ride out, Kiba in one direction, Naruto in another. Hinata is gripped by a vague sense of dread.
As the sun lowers and the sky darkens from blue through lilac to purple then dark Hinata peeks into Ino's room. The doctor has a syringe of morphine to help her sleep. Hinata's eyes narrow, suspicious. Ino has done nothing but sleep - she needs something to help her breathe. Hearing footsteps Hinata darts back to her own room, the last thing she wants is to be given something to help her sleep herself.
But she's restless, tossing in her bed, hearing heavy footsteps below of men entering and leaving the house. She dozes fitfully and sometime after three in the morning she tiptoes from her bed to check on Ino.
Opening her door and whispering her name, she doesn't expect an answer. But when she reaches out to touch her friend she has to stifle a scream. Ino is cold and dead.
And somehow she knows. She knows he's in danger. She escapes the house to warn him, heedless of the fact that she's in her nightdress and slippers. Feet and dress wet with dew, face and arms scratched by brambles she wanders through the grounds calling for him. When she finally finds him he's stumbling, unable to stand. He's not at all himself, almost as if he is...drugged.
The horror of it all comes crashing down around her. He's poisoned. They have killed poor Ino, drugged her and killed her, using her as bait to trap him.
He wouldn't have taken Ino's life, Sasuke's whispering, he only needed her strength for a few more days. When he was strong enough to make Hinata his own they would have left and Ino would have recovered.
Hinata is frantic now, she's offering him her shoulder trying to help him stand as they hurry along. She hears the horses and the hounds and begs him to hurry but he can't. He collapses at her feet and she's shaking him, begging him to come with her.
Then strong hands are peeling her away from Sasuke as she sobs and tries to cling to him. Neji carries her away as she struggles and claws and screams. He is mortified at her hysteria and embarrassed that Naruto and the others have to see his cousin in such a state.
They are binding Sasuke now, at his hands and feet and it's humiliating. She calls - can't they see he's helpless? He doesn't need to be bound - he can't go anywhere. He can't escape now. But they ignore her cries. Dr. Orochimaru approaches her with a syringe and she spits at him and damns him to hell. Neji is aghast. Then the morphine burns as it enters her veins.
Sasuke looks up at her from the dust where they've left him laying. He whispers her name and calls her beloved. She's inconsolable, weeping against Neji's chest But the morphine is taking over and her eyes are getting heavy. By the time the first fingers of dawn breach the horizon and the first rays of the sun touch his body she barely hears his shriek and doesn't see the flames.