When i started this I figured it would be a large fic.

This is a monster.

A monster I tell you.

Now, when I say monster, I think most people think "Oh, 100 k probably"

No darlings.

I don't think I've ever written a thing so big. We'll see how we fare.

Thank you so much to all who reviewed, and to the politeness I found in all the different messages, I appreciate that very much because even if we disagree I can at least say "Well, they told me so kindly."

Much love,

Inky

Discrepancies

It made sense that none of the healers or elders understood just how much of her body ached to move, itched to run, to fight to play. Hanabi stared stonily at the older woman before her examining her limbs before letting her out of her bed. Carefully, with many pauses and frowns and sucking of her toothless gums she slid her leathery hands from Hanabi's wrists where her arms were stretched out and continued over her shoulders and back, checking and rechecking for faults.

"I am more than well." Hanabi finally allowed herself to say as politely as she could. On the other side of the dividing screen painted the beautiful colors of the sky at dusk her father remained silent.

"There is no harm in making sure. The star blood was undiluted."

Hanabi frowned then, snatching her hand from the old crone of a healer with a little more force than necessary before gathering her clothing from the wood floor, ignoring the woman's mute protestations.

"Hinata would not have traded without knowing it was safe. She knew." With the vexation clearly showing on her face she shoved her arms into the sleeves of her long white robe walking past her father into the hall.

He followed, noting with approval the cat like grace of his youngest. He had to admit, since her waking she had been the same Hanabi that he remembered despite the brutal injuries she claimed to have sustained, perhaps even a little more refined.

"Where are you going?" He finally allowed himself to ask, her steps were purposeful, making the red sash she had neglected to tie around her waist flutter in the breeze that filtered through the many windows of their Villa.

"To the library." Hanabi mused, throwing a look over her shoulder at her father to better see the surprise that would snap over his face. He did not disappoint, pausing abruptly at the top of the stairs without another word. Finally alone for the first time in several days Hanabi eyed the Villa, getting a feel for the tension that seemed to have seeped into every crevice and smeared itself on all the walls. Servants of the Clan moved through the halls and courtyard with their heads bowed, frowns marring their faces.

Since the departure of the Warren and the four shadows there had been a tension palpable even from behind the closed entry to her chambers. Spring had come with a flurry of winged creatures taking to the trees on the outskirts of the valley and flowers rising from the ground sprinkled with the last of the star dust shimmered with life that everyone worried would not return.

Food was being carefully stored, rationed, nervously recounted.

Hanabi eyed the sacks of picked tubers being placed into crates of straw by members of the household still sweaty from the hard work of digging out the plant life always keeping their eyes peeled for beasts prowling for an easy meal. Crowding the hallway to the cellars they muttered to each other as they divided the roots into careful piles.

"Lady Hanabi." At the sight of her the youngsters jumped, moving to stand politely aside, eyes down.

The youngest of the group was a mere ten years old, his lack of gray clothing setting him apart from the others who bore some form of it on their bodies, all but Konohamaru, who like Tenten, Lee, Kiba and Shino only wore white, denoting a servant willingly giving themselves to the service of the Clan for life.

They, however were not to bear the stain of blood shed or the gray denoting an accomplished hunter. Even if they were to kill, the burden of the death was borne by the one that they had offered their life to. In Konohamaru's case, Hanabi.

"It appears you had a successful day." Hanabi murmured politely, touching on the tubers with long fingers. They varied in colors from deep nearly black indigo to bright agonizing orange, dusted faintly with residue soil, smelling like earth and water and sustenance.

"Over a hundred pounds today, Lady Hanabi." The little one murmured in reply, the pride in his voice just barely hidden. Smiling slightly Hanabi stepped around their work, shoving the heavy wooden door hard on it's tracks to let herself into the cellar below where the air was cool but stagnant, and nothing but darkness stared back from the staircase.

"Well done." She finally replied, then letting her pale gaze land on Konohamaru, "Could I perhaps borrow you for a few minutes?"

Face carefully placid the young man nodded his head and after instructing the rest of his troop on how to continue their work followed down the stone steps into the sudden freezing air below.

As they turned the corner into the stretching expanse of the cellar Konohamaru fiddled behind him for a moment with a basket sitting on a wooden box. Like a bird cage it was rounded at the top, with a handle for removing the tightly knit woven lid. Beneath it bamboo held together a compartment where handfuls of dragonmoths dozed sleepily until he gave the basket a shake. With indignant little buzzing squeaks the insects fluttered their wings, their luminescent bodies slowly pulsing to life and lighting Hanabi's anxious face.

"...I cannot express how glad I am to see you on your feet." Konohamaru stated suddenly, and Hanabi blinked back in surprise, her anxiety momentarily derailed by the uncharacteristic words coming out of his mouth. When she paused wordlessly he plunged on.

"I saw the Warren arrive with you..." He swallowed, and his eyes refused to move from her face. "Much of the village thought you dead."

Wincing, Hanabi turned her head, studying the rows and rows of shelving that stretched into the darkness not yet lit by the glow of more dragonmoths. Baskets and sacks were carefully placed within the long stretching room, it's ceiling low and oppressive. From wood beams holding the stone above bunches of herbs and drying mushrooms hung upside down, the scent of dry earth and cleanliness mixing with spices and other pungent flavors too convoluted to make sense.

"...I forgot that the return was rather dramatic. I was fine even then." She flexed her fingers, studying her opening palm and the curling digits in the half light of the dragonmoth lamp. "The angel's blood tasted like the strongest of spirits, it burned even within my veins." Turning her face up to Konohamaru she smiled a bit weakly. "I'm sorry to have worried you."

"You faced one then?" Although his features remained carefully smooth Hanabi caught the slight flash of curiosity in his eyes and her mouth flattened to a thin line. "Yes. He was... everything Hinata said he would be and more." Turning she faced the shelves again, eyeing their creaking ancient wood.

"And she knew it because of the scrolls and books in here somewhere."

"Ah." Konohamaru suddenly understood, lifting the lamp higher up to take in more of the cellar. It was hard to imagine that the place had once been filled with scrolls and ancient volumes written by hand on leathers and pounded cotton fibers, made from inks that Hinata still couldn't replicate. It had long been abandoned as such. The space held more value filled with foodstuffs than it did literature.

Her eccentricity as an heiress had been most obvious as she became older and every year on the day of her birth she chose to spend all of her free hours spreading the volumes out on the courtyard. Affectionately she called it the Sunning of the Books, spending hours exposing each page and inch of scroll to the heated touch of Solatta and Luminatus. The light burnt out any mold that may have tried to take hold on the pages, preserving them for another rotation of the seasons.

"I am out of my depth here." Hanabi admitted, and together they wandered down one of the corridors made from two heavy laden shelves. "But perhaps there is something within the books that may be of use to us now."

"Perhaps." Konohamaru's amusement at her reluctance to read was only thinly veiled and Hanabi shot him a look he returned with features dutifully placid. "Well, that's why you're here." She muttered, catching sight of the stacks of books in the very back, shunted aside for bags of barley flour and pounded bean paste.

"I live to serve." His choice of words might have been sarcastic, had it not been he who spoke them. Glancing over her shoulder at him intently Hanabi sighed. "...I know."

Unlike her sister and Neji, who had gained two shadows in the course of their life Hanabi had only ever had Konohamaru, who had pledged himself as young as eight to her service. Hanabi herself had only been a child, and not fully understood the implications of his determination. There had been steel in his eye as he stated again and again before the council of elders and her father his firm belief that he was supposed to be at her side forever.

His mother had broken down to tears, crumbling on her knees with her face in her hands as she lamented the loss of her son. Once pledged Konohamaru was no longer hers to claim in any way, truly like a shadow he belonged to Hanabi and Hanabi alone.

She could still remember the weeping words that had come wet from between his mother's fingers.

"Why? Konohamaru, my son, why?"

His face had been so young, so set and resolute as he looked back sadly.

"I love her."

Despite attempting to wheedle out the reason for his choice of words at the ceremony of his binding Hanabi still had no idea what the small boned eight year old Konohamaru had meant when he had made such a claim. Love had little to do with binding, as shadows could never be involved with the Clan members they willingly clove to. Usually it had more to do with fealty, to the Clan in general who sacrificed so much for the village and it's livelihood but also the particular Clan member and the Calling they were raised to perform. It stemmed from compassion, sometimes friendship. It could have nothing to do with love. Especially in their case. Before his approach to the council Hanabi couldn't recall seeing Konohamaru before, but then she had been so young herself.

"Well..." Hanabi muttered, trying to dispel her wandering thoughts as she picked up several heavy volumes and settled herself on a box against the wall. "May as well begin."

Wordlessly he agreed, placing the lamp high on the shelf to shine on them both while he opened a scroll.

The smell of ancient words lifted from the pages, and Hanabi smiled grimly, remembering that same perfume on Hinata's tunics, tangled within the flowery scent of her hair. Lamenting how much Hanabi had teased her sister for her ink stained fingers and her tired eyes from spending nights in the cellar poring over ancient history she squinted in the dim light.

"Thank you for helping me, Konohamaru." Her voice was absent minded, her fingers busy turning pages.

Studying her with care out of the corner of her eye Konohamaru smiled, but only slightly.

They had been wandering longer than any other day. Fearfully, she skimmed over the ground like a ghost, her soft soled leather boots allowing her the delicate touch of a wraith as she tried her best to disappear into the lengthening shadows. With her heart getting louder and louder in her ears the forest around her darkened and grew more still.

Only the breeze whispered, the eerie silence punctured by the slithering or creeping of invisible creatures in the dark.

The only one callous enough to storm on with the same nonchalance as always was Sasuke. In the light of the moon his shoulders glowed a brilliant alabaster white and although his movements were the same lithe gait of the creatures Hinata had always aimed to stay away from in the woodland, he had none of the quiet they possessed.

Breath hitching in her throat every time he cracked a branch beneath his feet or crushed the underbrush with impatient steps she followed, aching to distance herself from his siren call to battle. It irked her deeply that he was either so arrogant or so naive. But then, being the star burdened with ending life on the Veil perhaps made one bitter.

"...a...are we...?" she paused her whispering just long enough to check that he was listening. His head cocked slightly, only mildly interested in her conversation. "Are we...not going to stop for the night?"

Days ago, having woken with his blood filtering through her veins she would have clenched her teeth and plowed through the night walk in the forest, feeling the hum of life hardly contained within the walls of her circulatory system. The energy had burned, itching to be used.

Now, days after the silver had been dripped into her mouth while her mind wandered in darkness the sting of the energy had ebbed to a normal throb of weary bones and tired muscles. If he intended for her to make it through the entire night on foot there was the distinct possibility that she might disappoint.

"No, however you have been so slow of late due to refusing to sleep that I hardly see the point of stopping." His irritated reply only took him a second to toss over his shoulder and Hinata swallowed, wincing at the volume with which he spoke.

It had been days now that she had been aching to ask him to lower his voice, walk more carefully, to watch his surroundings. The woodland was a fierce place, able to provide bountiful foods for those courageous- or foolish enough to attempt to survive it. Much of the foliage was still edible and obliging in it's offerings of sustenance but other growing things had learned to defend themselves. Plants that once would have been happy to be climbed as ropes now tangled feet and twisted limbs out of joint like the slithering wingless reptiles of old. Voluminous flowers painted in beautiful bright colors with beads of sweet juices on the stems of their deep cavernous throats snapped closed on unsuspecting prey, squeezing the life and blood from them to boost their growth in times of drought. There was more than just predators out in the wild to worry about. Besides the plants and beasts...there were also other things. Things Hinata didn't want to even think about.

These vicious creatures were more common further from the Valley and it's ring of protective mountains marked by the angel bone powder her Clan spread every spring. But although she had lost her bearings many days ago she knew she was quite distant from those mountains now.

The ground had been in a deep incline for some time and they traveled downwards until the trees began to thin and where once they would have been covered in teal and indigo shaded lichen the forests had turned into a maze of thin trees whose trunks she could encircle with both hands. Their branches were scrawny and unreliable even to an expert climber such as herself and offered no shelter from the possible danger below.

And she knew there were things crawling around, eyeing them in the dark. The feel of being stalked had started not long after she had woken with her wounds healed and her head clear. Sometimes she caught glowing pairs of eyes- too many crowded into a space too small for more than one face- through the bushes in the foliage.

Other times she heard the soft hardly audible rustle of something stirring the scarlet and black leaves that splashed the ground in their audacious colors, making a carpet thick and loud when trod on carelessly.

Once she had felt the aftermath of a wing beat above when the fire had been smaller due to a lack of tinder, and although her sharp gaze had snapped to the darkness of the night sky, searching for the silhouette of whatever hunted them she saw nothing. Whatever it was seemed to reconsider and take off.

More than anything Hinata wished she had a weapon, something to use in her defense besides her dwindling energy with magic spells. Sometimes she thought about the feathers that Sasuke left behind when his wings tore through the skin of his back and considered the possibility of fashioning the razor sharpness of them into something she could feasibly use without destroying her hands on the edges. However, he had not shown his wings since the fainting and consequent drinking of his blood.

Forlorn Hinata hung her head and continued after him in the dark, pondering if he was truly capable of handling anything that the forest threw at him. The concept of him being an adversary not easily bested was not something she could deny. Her sister, quick limbed, well trained and a natural born killer had been out of her league against him. Hinata despite her struggle with the art of slaughter that her Clan had been forced to bear was too an expert killer, and between them both they had only managed to land one mild blow.

The forest however was a whole different matter. It held champions that Hinata doubted she even knew about. The books in her family's Villa had been written nearly a century ago, when the people had had time to devote to things like literature and history. They had not been updated or well kept since. People had a tendency to forget to study the world around them when all their eyes and minds could think to look for was food to fill empty bellies.

"I...I'm sorry... I find it very difficult to sleep on the ground." She began to explain after too long a pause in their conversation. Sasuke stopped abruptly in front of her and turned, a frown on his face that she only managed to see because they had entered a small sort of clearing in the path they had been walking. The moon shone down between the trees and the bushes that lined their roots, hiding them in the black and blue shadows of the growing night.

"It's... I have been trained never to do so, there are too many things that-" and she paused, right before he raised his hand in a motion of silence, because the hair on the back of her neck was standing on end and a tightness was growing up and down her back. Like having someone try to pull her spinal chord out of the top of her head she felt her shoulders straighten and stiffen, her pearl eyes wide as they stared back at Sasuke, whose jaw had flexed until the muscles of his cheek were taut as bowstrings.

The night, a moment ago rustling with a breeze, whispering with insects, bustling and busy with the flutter of wings and the pitter patter of small beasts was abruptly silent.

For a moment Hinata wondered if her heart too had stilled within her chest to listen.

Had she been looking anywhere but his face she would not have seen it in time. His eyes, so black glowed back at her brightly. Two ebony spheres that widened just a minute bit, allowing her to see the mountainous shadow that came at her from behind in their reflective shine.

Her spine so tightly stretched upwards suddenly cut loose, like a giant pair of scissors slicing through puppet strings and with a breath she let herself crumple to the ground. The creature passed in a growling feral shadow above her and with a silence that was more unnerving than any scream Sasuke hit the ground with it.

Hinata scrambled through the fluttering dry leaves on hands and knees towards the cover of the bushes. Her heart choked her and mouth dry she stared with pale eyes, intent on the battle being waged before her.

Sound seemed unnaturally loud, and the crunching wet rip of Sasuke's wings out of his body made her clench her teeth, even as she gripped the tree trunk she hid behind, gasping.

The horkney, for that's what it was, was black as the night it belonged to with metallic tips to the sleek obsidian skin of it's body. Shoulders heavy set and with paws taloned like a bird of prey it was a formidable opponent and seemed to be faring much better against the star than Hinata and Hanabi had.

The desperation in it's growling snapping jaws however was obvious. It's rib cage showed beneath the smooth black coat and it's face, long and wolfish bore patches bald and crusty, although it was hardly the thing keeping Hinata's eyes wide. It's teeth shone brightly with dribbling saliva as Sasuke wrestled with the creature upon his chest. Already the slice of it's taloned paws had made ribbons of his collarbone and wincing Hinata scrambled to her feet, searching fervently for something to help with. A branch, a rock- something to distract it and give Sasuke a moment to get out from beneath it's massive weight.

A sound finally escaped Sasuke's mouth and with his wings flapping he looked like a raven pinned by a wild dog, setting the leafy debris and dust outwards from his battle with each wing beat as he cursed beneath his breath.

"Pathetic excuse for a creature." He hissed.

With pale hands smeared with his own blood and the saliva of the horkney he grunted, holding the snapping jaws from his throat by mere inches. Hinata dashed forward, panicking as she rushed through a list of spells she might use to help, finding nothing elegant enough to be of use.

In a moment her panic was moot. With a growl that matched the beast pound for vicious pound Sasuke twisted his arms hard, and the snap of bone was sickening as the horkney's jaw dislocated in his hands.

The growling aggression coming from the rippling sinew and teeth of the beast suddenly turned to keening.

With a wail the horkney stumbled back, and the bottom half of it's face seemed to wag with the movement, it's jaw was a piece of bone held in the bag of flesh that was his bottom lip. His tongue, extremely long without the bottom of it's mouth to keep it hidden rolled out thin and glistening as it panted and whined.

Hinata's released breath was sharp, like coming out of a deep dive and with tears stinging her eyes she flung her hands into her hair. "Oh... Oh Veil, no."

Sasuke's growl was murderous as he pushed himself to his feet. Silver dripped from the wounds slashed across his chest and to Hinata's surprise as he stood he stumbled. It was the first time she had ever seen him do something even remotely human and even still the wings detracted from the normalcy as they fluttered at his back, knocking hard against a tree trunk and gauging it heavily as a result.

Before she knew what she was doing she had rushed to him, supporting his weight as his knee gave and he lowered himself back down to the ground with his back to the tree.

"Y..You're wounded- it's... it's everywhere." Hinata whispered, mostly to herself. Trying to hold him without getting the blood on her was impossible. Silver stained the shoulder of her tunic, it was coating locks of her tangled messy black hair, a smear of it throbbed at her cheek with a feeling like mint paste.

Sasuke's sigh was irritated and he leaned his head back against the tree, his chest rising and falling in rapid succession that made her suddenly realize he did in fact breathe for the sake of the oxygen and not just to sigh irritably at her.

"It'll heal." He grumbled, fixing his gaze on the horkney now stumbling as the shock of it's broken jaw seemed to really dig itself into the pain receptors of it's brain.

Shuddering Hinata followed his gaze.

"We...we have to end it. It's the only merciful thing to-"

"No." Sasuke muttered sharply, straightening himself before wiping at his chest where the wounds were already knitting together, although it was hard to tell through the mess of dirt, blood and saliva.

If her head had turned to him faster she would have pulled a muscle. Her luminous gaze fixed itself on him with force, lashes rimmed with dew drops of nourishment he sorely wanted to take although her thinly pressed mouth and the glare she was offering instead was distracting.

"No?" Such a simple question, such a lot of insubordination. A frown marked itself on his brow and he raised his chin, surprised to find himself having to defy someone whose life he technically owned.

"Let it suffer for picking a fight with a fallen star." He muttered. "Perhaps it will dissuade anymore suicidal creatures watching from trying for my blood."

"It'll starve to death, in pain." She did not stutter, her voice did not shake and for a moment Sasuke was bewildered, his face carefully placid lest it show.

"It was already starving. I've cut its suffering by half."

She was suddenly standing. Her silver covered hands a disaster and with her back to him he frowned, confusion flickering over his face for only a moment before she picked up a black feather the length and breath of a peacocks, glinting sharp as a blade edge in her hand.

He had never called her by her name in the weeks that they had been travelling, not outright. At least not for her hearing. Usually he commanded with a look or more recently the continued use of the derogatory princess. So when his voice escaped him it surprised them both.

"Hinata." Warning laced through his tones. "Don't."

With her chin on her shoulder she looked at him. Behind her the horkney shuddered and swayed, still dazed by it's mortal wound. Soon it would wander away, it's tail between it's legs, it's jaw flapping uselessly, the pain unbearable with each step. For a moment a flashing image of her sister, so small and delicate stained and bloody and his snapping reply to begging for her life filtered through her mind. What had he said when she had asked for Hanabi to be spared?

"She will die anyway."

Hinata did not reply to the short forceful order, although her unwavering stare was enough.

He had known she was deadly, had calculated in his mind how climbing the loomloom tree was child's play to her strong flexible body. It was not difficult to remember the ease with which she had spun a rod of solid iron, blade tipped at their meeting. He remembered distinctly how much force she would have had to use to throw it at his face.

Gripping the feather in her hand was cutting into the flesh of her palm, but her hold didn't waver. Like letting herself drop from a great height her body leaned forward, inclining towards the earth and then erupted.

It wasn't a battle, the beast was beyond fighting. But the speed gave her the momentary element of surprise and saved her from an instinctive taloned paw ripping her to bits as she dodged beneath the creature's gaping wrecked maw and sliced it's throat.

The explosion of claret was instant and as she rolled away it left trails of ruby red across her tunic and face, her hair now dripping and smeared with both the beast and Sasuke's blood.

Behind her crouched body where she sat poised and silent he narrowed his dark eyes.

With a wet painful sound that almost seemed like relief the horkney slid sideways, one, two steps and then fell in a heap across the dryness of the forest leaves, scattering their papery thin bodies in a mockery of macabre confetti.

Her grip on the feather had not lessened, and he watched with interest as her blood slid as red as the animal's own down the edge of the black makeshift blade. The scarlet splattered in perfect circles on the patch of packed dirt below. Her knuckles were white with the grip in contrast to the obsidian she clenched.

"My own feathers do not wound me." His flat, unamused murmur stung. "I would not waste time attempting to use them on my throat as well."

Hinata was on him in a moment, not deadly because the feather she threw aside like so much garbage. Crouching in front of him with trails of tears leaving clean glistening streaks on her blood soaked cheeks she glared.

"I gave my word to serve you, I will not break it- please do not insult me. Unlike you... unlike you I have been raised to value things."

She was a picture of all that was wild and untamed. Her hair a mane of tangles, sap, blood dirt and sweat. Her face stained in the same manner with the addition of her salted tears and the two looming lanterns of her eyes filled with the unavoidable disgust at his behavior.

"Things?" He let out a breath, keeping an unsteady lid on the anger simmering just beneath his calm facade at her disobedience. "Like that foolish creature stupid enough to attempt at my life?"

"I am one of those creatures!" Her shout was no longer Hinata, not any Hinata he had ever seen before. Emotion was threatening to overwhelm her and for a moment she thought her hand might rise to strike him. Instead she dug her nails into the bark on the trunk of the tree on which he leaned so casually after having nearly cost her her life, after having cost the horkney it's life, after having his chest slashed to ribbons when humility and stealth would have likely avoided all these things.

"I bleed the same red blood, I starve as they do, and I also tried for your life! This could have been avoided if you just -" she paused, watching a snarl start on his mouth, words ugly and brutal were going to come out of him and before he could say them she wiped at her lashes, her fingers coming away soaked in the salt of her pain and sorrow she shoved the liquid between his lips.

Crying freely now she pulled away, falling back onto the ground with her knees collapsed beneath her easily at his surprised shove, shoulders hunched and head bowed against the weariness eating at her bones.

Homesickness pulsed inside of her. Homesickness for her sister's wild laugh, for her cousin's loving yet stern smile, for a Clan of familiar pale eyes who valued life, who fought the encroaching death every moment of every day, daring to hope that they would be able to survive it. Perhaps it was foolish to think that he, so obviously raised to think of the Veil as finite would understand the love she had for her world by the simple touch of her tears on his tongue. Sniffing weakly she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to quell the image of the horkney's bewildered destroyed mouth.

"What do my tears taste like?"

She waited for a very long time, expecting a scathing snap. Perhaps, she even anticipated a brutal blow for her rebellion.

When nothing happened and she finally looked up his hand was there to grip her chin, careful and firm although not painful. Before she could protest his silver bloody fingers were between her lips, spreading the herbed taste of his life blood on her tongue before withdrawing, dark eyes fixed elsewhere.

It burned in a way she had not expected as she swallowed, like spirits or the fermented healing brews of her home. It only took moments for the feel of energy and life to start to flutter through her body with each of her heart beats, like the pulse was ushering the energy along with each pump. At her hand where the only wound she had sustained throbbed an itch that built with heat tickled where her skin was beginning to tighten and resow itself together.

He gathered himself to his feet, with ease and grace that was more familiar than the stumbling dizziness he had displayed before. Unable to meet his gaze Hinata stared at the ground, listening to him moving away.

"There will be scavengers after the corpse." He snapped then, not half as forceful as she had anticipated. "We must move away before they find it."

Slowly, still adjusting to the burning of his blood swimming through her body she started after him, for a moment puzzled when his footsteps were non existent and nearly impossible to hear.

Looking up from wiping the blood off her palm she started in surprise at the realization that he was watching his footsteps, walking with care.

"Move." His order was growled, and Hinata jumped after him.

Ahead of her Sasuke stormed , the swirling hurricane in his head throbbing with his rapid heart beat.

On his tongue her compassion and sorrow mingled, complicated flavors of darkness and spice, chocolate and chili pepper, burning within his bones in a way her sorrow and loneliness, homesickness and worry had not the last time he had tasted her weeping.

One glance back had his dark eyes meeting hers, and at least he was glad to see the confusion fluttering on her face as clearly as it lingered within his own mind.

To say they were tired would be an understatement.

Hands on knees, backs bent and lungs aching they surveyed their passage one more time, eyeing the wild of the mountain wood with the same expression one gives a viper.

Around them the trees whispered and creaked, and Tenten found herself snapping her head from right to left as shapes of fallen logs and dilapidated branches covered in lichen and moss took on the appearance of beasts until she looked at them head on. The sensation of being watched had not left them since passing over the crest of the mountain top, and if Neji had not been the one keeping them on course likely as not they would have been lost, always walking too fast, always looking around getting confused in the impenetrable forest.

"We should be approaching the site." Neji whispered, straightening. Like the others the sweat was gliding down the smooth trail of his spine, his hair swept back from his face still glistened with the strain of their pace. Hinata and the star had many days head start and with the wings the creature possessed they were at a disadvantage none of them believed they would be able to make up.

That didn't stop them from pushing themselves until their hearts complained within their chests and their lungs burned.

"Warren, let my sister and I approach in our shadows, so as to ascertain the safety of the site." Lee was already throwing his pack onto the ground, certain that his Lord and friend would be on the same train of thought as himself. "This seems like a safe area to make camp for the night." Lee eyed the trees, thick as houses, branches sturdy and wide high above the forest ground. Nodding Neji watched him, glancing briefly at Tenten out of the corner of his eye.

His gaze had never set on her straight since their departure, his pale eyes always shifting through the woodland landing on her like a butterfly uncertain of it's perch.

Tenten had spoken half a dozen words in the many days they had been travelling, trying to let go of the choking feeling in her throat every time he looked past her like she was a ghost.

"We shall set up a perimeter." Kiba added then, glancing at Shino. The silent young man peered over his high necked cowl at them, brown eyes flicking between Tenten and Neji so fast that no one noticed but Tenten herself, now so aware of anyone's lingering gaze on her face.

Flushing she turned and threw her pack on the ground with surprising force, earning a few looks from her companions. Silence was the best defense they had in the woodland, travel through the trees like the floating specks of dust through light was their only guarantee of survival.

If the others had not noticed her mood before they certainly had now. Kiba's glance was only a second too long before he turned and digging around in the long length of fabric tied expertly like a hammock on his back retrieved a snowy white pup with ears too large for his face and eyes shut in sleep.

The hounds of Kiba's tribe were trained for the tracking of predators around the Valley edges. Their expert noses could sniff out the scent of poison, fang, fur and claw and the older best trained of them all would sit or tilt their heads to communicate what type of creature lurked around the edges of their village and fields.

Akamaru was too young for Kiba to leave behind, but not quite old enough to be entirely trusted to sniff out a perimeter of safety and so Kiba lowered him to the ground with a pat on his blazing white head.

"Come now, cottonfluff." He murmured. "Get that nose practicing." Despite the extra weight no one had thought to insinuate that Kiba leave the creature behind. Like a spirit the hounds bonded with their masters until their hearts seemed to beat as one. To leave Akamaru behind could have meant to kill him. It was not unusual for a hound to refuse food and drink from anyone but the master they were cleaved to.

Together the two young men disappeared through the thick foliage and after a moment the pup yawned, exposing incisors that would one day grow well past his lips before trotting after them, a snowball in a sea of teal and green moss.

Once they departed Tenten turned to Lee who waited for her beside Neji, his smile pained.

There was never anything she could hide from her brother. They were a key and a lock, a seed and the soil, two parts of a thing always together.

"The star landed two miles south." Neji murmured, speaking to Lee although Tenten made their group a triangle as they stood together. "It's in a copse of scarlet pines, but you'll be able to make it out quickly regardless. It destroyed the wood, and seared the sand turning it to glass on impact."

Lee looked steadily on at his friend, listening carefully.

"There were black feathers." Neji added after a breath, looking at his feet. "Trailing away from the site, sharp as the glass all over the crater. I'm hoping the sharpness of their edges kept anything from touching them and left a path to follow."

"Akamaru might be able to follow the scent, although it's going to be weak after so many days." Lee admitted, and his feet pushed on the moss beneath his shoes. Soft and springy it pushed back slightly. "It may have rained also..."

"The chances of being able to follow were low." Neji felt his stomach writhe within him, the barley cakes they had shared to break fast earlier at dawn unsettled. "My uncle suspected as much otherwise..."

"Otherwise he would never have mentioned a thing like the Scaled Worm." Tenten sighed. For the first time in days Neji raised his pale gaze to her, his stare was penetrating.

"If it comes to that I will be sending at least two of you back to the village."

Tenten's smile was wry, lacking surprise.

"Let us cross that bridge when we come to it." Lee soothed, stretching his palm flat before Neji. Nodding Neji waited until Tenten too raised her palm and without so much as a flinch he pulled a knife from the small of his back, twirling it expertly before slicing his palm. Holding his fist over first Lee's then Tenten's hand he watched the crimson drops collect at the basin of their palms.

"Two miles is not so far, and you should not need to cross through the shadows." He whispered, withdrawing his bloody hand away.

"We will be back shortly." Lee nodded, lowering himself carefully to the moss to sit on his knees. Beside him Tenten followed suit and they closed their eyes.

"For our glory." Neji whispered.

Together the siblings replied. "And for those of the Hawk Eyed Blood."

In the living breathing silence of the forest their shadows splayed behind them suddenly stood, pulling hard at first from their sides until they were free, untangling themselves from the limbs that bound them.

Lacking the solidity of their usual shape Lee and Tenten's souls stood back, surveying their still bodies holding the blood of the Hawk Eyed, allowing his magic to to pulse through their beings, giving freedom to their souls.

"If anything seems amiss, return. Do not engage." Neji wasn't looking at the shades that watched him so intently, but at the still form of Tenten sitting at his feet, her face relaxed, her breath so soft it was hard to see it at all.

With a nod the shadows dashed through the wood south, following the directions he had just handed to them, silent and hardly visible they would make good time.

Wrapping the wound on his palm idly with a long thick strip of cotton Neji settled before the two siblings, the long hunting knife that was his preferred weapon sitting unsheathed beside him on the moss. Without their souls within their bodies they were completely at the mercy of the wildness around them, but no matter.

He would sooner die than allow anything to harm them on his watch.

"No."

She frowned, openly frowned and sucking on her bottom lip fixed him with a look that seemed torn. He could see the battle within her mind, disobeying him was tempting because for whatever reason she wanted to scale the rock wall for the fungi growing along the slimy slate wet with the water seeping from it's invisible pores.

At the same time she had an affinity for doing what she was told, succumbing to authority figures was a habit and it made her uncomfortable to disagree. Especially considering his silence the last few days.

Not uncomfortable enough, however.

"I'm... I'm going to climb it."

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, letting out a sigh as she waited for him to change his mind.

"It's a mushroom." He stated thinly, glancing up the forty foot high vertical dark gray slate. With her powerful eyes she had caught sight of the pearly white caps of the fungi on a ledge as wide as his hand and moss decked. They were the only white thing besides her own gaze anywhere in sight but still, he was impressed. No bigger than his thumb the dozen or so mushrooms sat innocently on their perch, certain of their hiding spot.

"Those are Doula's Love fungi." Hinata murmured, her soft voice a tad impatient. She lifted her pale gaze heavenwards, letting the weakness of the sun filtering through the leafy canopy paint her in shadows and light that flickered as the breeze shifted the world above the tree tops.

"My mother was the last to find them- they are extremely rare. Before my mother, it had been three generations since anyone had seen them." She focused her gaze on him. "They ease child birth and almost guarantee the survival of both child and mother, I can't not pick them... They will dry quickly." This last bit was added almost as an after thought, her steps assured as she moved towards the wall.

Sasuke clenched his jaw and kept himself from grabbing her arm and dragging her back forcefully.

"The fate of laboring mothers is not my concern."

"Yes..." Hinata agreed, already ten feet up on the wall, her fingers quickly finding holds, her feet searching for perches blindly. "...I understand you're supposed to...well... " she paused, digging her already dirty hands into moss to grip the stone. "...destroy everything, but..." she heaved, using all her core strength to pull herself up along the slick incline. "...just because it's going to all end does not mean that a mother and child should have to suffer through birth. In case a babe decides to be born before you finish your task." Awkwardly now she hugged the wall, eyeing the next possible inch of grip above her with distrust.

He couldn't help it. It was impossible not to be amused (and irritated) by her determination, or her just barely audible annoyance. It would have taken him about two seconds to fly up that high, to grab the mushrooms and get back down but to see her climb kept him from opening his mouth to say so.

Instead he stepped back, interested by the concentrated expression beneath the dirt smears on her skin. Holding herself tightly to the rock, with her knees pressed in hard and her fingers straining she eyed a foot wide ledge to her right, calculating.

Something happened in his chest that he did not expect as he realized what she was planning to do. Already thirty feet up the dark gray wall the fall would surely kill her, and for a breath every muscle in his body tensed with hers as she came to terms with her plan, her jaw setting, her eyes narrowing. After a moment she took a sip of air... and then she jumped.

Four feet sideways, with nothing but her legs and arms to use as leverage against the vertical wall she pushed and fell a foot, two feet and slammed hard with her knees on the ledge, grabbing desperately at the wall with her fingers to keep her momentum from sending her careening down to her death.

Sasuke's wince was minuscule and it took some effort to keep the oxygen in his lungs from escaping in a loud breath from between his lips when she finally straightened and began to climb again.

With an effort to sound immensely disinterested and slightly irritated he muttered. "How is it you've managed to stay alive so long?"

Briefly Hinata focused on the climb, and the familiar welcomed burn of her muscles straining before replying.

"...it does take a lot of effort."

"Unnecessary effort."

Unsure if he meant her life was unnecessary or that she put herself in unnecessary risk she frowned, biting back a retort.

The mushrooms were now only just out of reach, and Hinata paused, breathless on a comfortable perch, her legs trembling just the smallest bit as her forearms strained with her weight. For a moment she wished desperately for the dust her family wore in bags on their hips when climbing for the harder to reach medicinal plants used in their healing brews. It absorbed the sweat of her hands and slime of slick walls, gave them a better grip, and therefore improved their chances of surviving dangerous climbs by a fraction.

Although, in reality none of them would have taken on a forty foot climb without ropes and several watchful eyes. Warily now Hinata shot a glance over her shoulder, scanning the woodland for threats although the only thing to note was Sasuke standing with his arms crossed and his face well past annoyed to simmering fury.

I have to hurry.

Turning back to the wall she stopped suddenly surprised when the trees shifted in the breeze, and now high enough to see past a large portion of their gold, orange and red swaying branches caught a glimpse of an unnatural row of trunks tightly packed together. Another turn of the breeze shifted the leaves sideways again and the structure made more sense.

A wall, fortified.

"There must be a village." She breathed.

In her surprise at her finding she hardly noticed his question. "Are you stuck?"

"No...there's... a village, or something, there's something there." She pointed, nearly lost her grip with her other hand and scrambled to grab hold again with several deep breaths to calm her nerves.

Sasuke flinched down below, but kept his voice calm.

"I am losing my patience."

"Sorry... I'm sorry, I'm coming down." She mustered, stretching her fingers up, up and up until they gripped the soft feathery smoothness of the mushrooms and grinning despite herself she ripped out the first stem and all. It took a minute to gather as much as she could into the little baggy she had made of her sleeve for carrying the loomloom nuts from weeks ago and when the fabric was stuffed and carefully tied she shoved it into her tunic and began the more simple climb down.

Landing on the ground she dug the packet of mushrooms out of her clothing and beneath the grime on her face she flushed, her smile small but potent. "There were so many."

"And not a laboring mother in sight." Sasuke's tone was flat and unimpressed as he started off rather quickly in the direction she had pointed from above. "You said you saw something?"

"A village- or something similar, they have walls, made of wood." Hinata ran to keep up, holding the pack of mushrooms to her chest tightly. "Maybe they could use the Doula's Love." Eyes widening she looked up at his broad bare back, scrambling more quickly to come up, hovering near his elbow.

"P..perhaps they have an apothecary... perhaps I could trade in the fungi for some supplies?"

His silence was not exactly encouraging and swallowing the knot in her throat Hinata eyed the thinning trees, her gaze sharpening in the distance to see the unnaturally lined trunks of what was obviously a wall, at last two stories high, and built of sturdy iron trees, the tops sharpened to points like arrows to the sky.

For a moment she forgot what they were talking about, slowing to a stop beside him where he peered through the bracken of the forest outskirts only meters from the the cleared land before the wall. It's gate was clearly bolted from the inside, able to be shut at a moments notice by the release of what looked like chains.

"This was not supposed to be here." Sasuke whispered, and the tone in which he spoke made her realize he was speaking to himself. Carefully Hinata studied the side of his face, the frown furrowing his brow, the set of his jaw. At least this was distracting him from being annoyed with her for disobeying.

"It looks sprawling." Hinata observed, her eyes scanning what she could see through the trees. The darkness of the iron oaks shone against the soft creams and whites of the thinner red leafed trees they stood in. They either had a grove of iron trees before and killed it to make their walls, or they imported the materials.

The likelihood of the second option seemed so low Hinata started looking around for the stumps of the iron wood they had slaughtered for the sake of their protection around their feet and with her sharp eyes found it quickly.

Covered in decomposing mulch sometimes, decaying and breaking down in bits of fraying fibrous dust in other places the stumps of the iron woods littered the forest and suddenly explained the thin trunks of all the trees they now stood in.

"They're saplings." Hinata sighed, pressing a hand to the small trunk of the tree closest to her, smoothing it down the coarse bark. "Iron wood takes so long to grow... I don't think I've ever seen a sapling." She squinted at the red leafy canopy, blinking. "They must have planted so many to make up for the wall."

"None of the maps I studied ever had a village here." Sasuke shifted uneasily.

Wincing Hinata bit her lip. "...if they have need of a wall, that means that..." she glanced back the way they had come without stopping since the incident with the horkney but to let her rest. She could still see the ribs of the creature protruding from beneath it's black coat in her mind. "They must have needed the wall to spend so much time and energy on it."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a gust of wind swept through, rustling everything with it's less than delicate touch. With a gasp Hinata slapped a hand over her mouth and nose, overwhelmed suddenly by the scent of decay and decomposing flesh that hit them both, sending a shiver down her spine.

Beside her Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously.

When the breeze finally let up and she could gasp in a breath that didn't hurt her nostrils Hinata winced through the lingering tang of sickness still wafting through the trees. "It's the Rot. It must be encroaching on them." Her eyes flickered back to the trees, to the lack of abundance within the foliage, how hard it had become to find edibles she recognized, how starved the creatures they passed seemed.

"They're trying to keep the beasts from taking their people." She sighed, lowering her shoulders with sadness. "...if my village did not have the mountains between us and the Rot then..." she paused, thinking about the trees that lined the outskirts of the valley flats, about how the ecosystem was a carefully balanced piece of art that would be decimated by the need for materials to bar out the creatures so far happy to stay within the borders of the woodlands during the summer, spring and well into the fall. It was only really in the winter that the beasts began to prowl their village looking for easier pickings than what could be found within the woods.

"We will have to go around." Sasuke muttered decisively, turning away as though to head back.

Hinata jumped looking back and forth between the walled village and his retreating back. "B-but, but I..." she stared at the fungi in her arms and took off after him, breathless.

"Wait... please... please let me go in there."

"If you don't want me to kill any innocent people you will not ask me that again."

Flinching from his unapologetic tone Hinata strayed back a step, swallowing the knot in her throat.

"I... I need some things, they may trade me for these mushrooms, everyone knows well what they are. I...I need..." she paused when he did, turning to look at her with the same resolute lack of patience as usual on his face.

"What?" He snapped as she stared back, surprised by his attention.

"I...c-clothes...would be good..." she waved at herself, at the tatters that was all that remained of her clothing, one sleeve completely missing, the bottom of her tunic torn and frayed, her leggings shredded in more places than one.

When he did not respond, just studied her silently she held her breath, blinking hard at him as heat roasted her ears. "Please." Carefully she kept her thoughts about finding a weapon within the village to herself. Even just a hunting knife, something...

Turning away stubbornly he continued to walk and she let her head drop, staring at the mushrooms in her arms wondering how she could leave them for the village to use without instructing anyone on what they were.

"I'll give you until dusk before I go in there to fetch you myself."

Startled Hinata looked back up, her heart hammering.

"If they have arrow heads and sinew for bowstring get that as well."

Mouth wide, eyes wider Hinata took a hesitant step back, towards the sound of humanity on the other side of the wooden barrier, away from him.

"...dusk...I...I'll be back by then."

"Arrowheads." He snapped, not bothering to look at her as he marched away back to the slate wall she had climbed.

Before he could change his mind Hinata clutched the mushrooms tighter to her chest and burst into a run to the promise of familiar lives.

Arriving at the site of the landing was easier than either of them had anticipated. The star had carved a path through the woods and slid, leaving a scar of several dozen feet into the roots, moss, dirt and rock, spraying out shattered glass that glimmered in the dying light of the suns. Surrounding the actual crater were the trees, swollen and snapped where the heat of such high friction had set the water within their fibers to boiling, cracking their trunks into splintered dying sticks.

That, however was not what had drawn them.

Insects, glowing in their bright blue, purple and aqua green shine fluttered and buzzed, beetles so shiny and reflective in their shells they looked like beautiful beads huddled together on random patches of the mossy floor.

Tiny round dragonmoths fluttered and pulsed with light, sifting through the lazy haze of dust that sparkled gold through the light that filtered from above the canopy of trees.

Taking on a shape more like a man Lee's shadow studied the strange sight of the huddled insects, glancing up when his sister's darkness crouched to study another patch of flustered buzzing insect life upon the ground.

Being what they were, needing no mouths or voices they looked at each other, passing thoughts and trading understanding not so much with words as with their feelings.

Uncertainty. Confusion. Curiosity. Tenten cocked her shadowy head at Lee.

In turn he looked further out where more of the patches of brightly colored insect life seemed to teem in strange puddles more condensed where the shape of red pine jutted angry and yellow in it's cracked trunk, the tree seeming to have split from the inside.

Wariness. Worry.

Looking at his sister's dark shape the Lee shadow pulsed with feeling.

Affection.

Her returning feeling was soothing.

Love.

Together they flashed through the shadows of the forest, skipping over the pooled colorful insects, passing through the fluttering buzz of many beating mechanical sounding wings until they came to the crash site, a smear of brown in a mossy landscape, a crater round and deep and glittering.

And everywhere the insects hissed and sputtered, moving along the discarded shapes of many black feathers. Further past the decimated moss and forest of it's landing the insects continued towards the darkness of the wood, visible through the spotlights of sun that slid butter yellow past the shadowy trees. With the dragonmoths soft edged neon glow the trail was clear.

Looking at each other quickly Tenten and Lee pulsed the same emotion at the same time.

Relief.

TBC