So.
Uh.
I'm sorry. Truly. In all honesty, I have been working on this chapter since I posted the last months ago. I have really struggled moving past the big climactic scenes and so I apologize. I realized however that I needed to just get past this chapter and I would be okay. Or at least I hope that is so.
I will warn you this is bad writing. I could not get into this chapter no matter what I tried. I'm really sorry. Gosh, I am still unsure if I should post this but damn, I wanna know what happens next too!
Much love,
Inky
Above him were the dust motes. Glittering pearls of light that drifted through the world in lazy aimless wanderings. The illuminating dusk set the world into a haze of half shadow half-light, brightening the dust to pearls of nothingness, as innocent as snow. As precious as ashes.
Where his mind was slow his body was a riot. His heart was a horse in full gallop, his blood a river overflowing and angry through his veins. Within him, his lungs strained for more and more oxygen and beneath it all, crawling through every particle of his make up was magic, raw and ecstatic, triumphant and joyful and foreign.
In his very molecules, a single name was being chanted, whispered, gasped. Moaned.
Hinata, Hinata, Hinata.
The cry that escaped his lips was more human than any he had allowed himself since arriving on the Veil.
It reeked of pain and agony, vulnerability tangled through it as he struggled to his knees. The flutter of his wings breathed a sigh through the darkening room.
She was beside him. Splayed like a thing fallen from the skies. Hair fanned in a blanket of darkness to contrast with the bone white of her face, the thin cracked skin of her lips. With the pallor the freckles on her nose and cheeks stood to attention, shining bright as stars. And as he gasped for air from lungs struggling to comprehend their job he counted each freckle, committing them to memory.
Perhaps, if he always knew the constellations of her skin, then he would never feel lost again.
The sound of the door being flung open had him stepping over her in a moment, wings spreading wide, eyes dark with a ferocity that came to his fingertips easy as the breath overzealous in his lungs.
Kabuto and Anko, with Rasu at their heels, flew into the room, slamming the door closed only to spin and stutter to a stop in their haste, eyes wide, jaws gaping.
"Y-you are alive!" Kabuto's gasp was ill spoken, and before he could say more Sasuke's hand was at his throat, lifting him to slam against the solidity of the door behind him, feet dangling off the floor.
Anko's feral growl was cut off with a wave of his other hand, sending her sprawling backward to crash against a shelf covered wall. The shatter of glass, the cracking of pottery harmonized with her guttural cry as items were rankled by her body's collision.
"You have only a moment to explain what has happened." Sasuke murmured softly, the metallic tinge of magic darkening his calm voice, thickening the air already sparse in Kabuto's choked throat. "Speak quickly."
"I... I did not know if the tears would be sufficient to save...to save you- Hinata demanded- she didn't... I tried to tell her not to- but she- it..." Kabuto paused, choking on the thickening air, on the sparks of magic that were fizzling lazily through the room, paralyzing him.
"The Chattels are hunting for her! Please! If they sense your power they will find her. The Worm wants her!" Sasuke's replying growl and the tightening of his fist made him pause, eyes wide and wild with panic.
"I healed you."
Before Kabuto could say more Hinata's voice cut in, setting Rasu's tail to wagging, his panting head shoving past Sasuke's dark wings to get to his adopted mother.
Suddenly unimportant Kabuto hit the ground with the same care as discarded debris.
Breathless herself and with dark shadows beneath her powerful eyes, Hinata stared at him from her crumpled place on the ground.
There was a war within him, the fiery chaos of anger at her disobedience, at her gall as she stared back, calm in her defiance, serene in her vulnerability. And then there was something else, as fierce and overwhelming, swimming through his veins at the sight of her, making the stones beneath his feet seem to sway.
He grabbed onto the anger like a man lost at sea, clinging to the familiarity of the emotion that had served him faithfully for most of his life.
Healed.
Memories. They were an avalanche upon him, a thousand faces and smiles and hugs. A million words and cries and laughs. Moments all strung together, the better to beat him senseless.
Hatred had demanded all these things, all the preciousness of a childhood destroyed. The monster of his vengeance had needed to be fed, had required sacrifice and Sasuke had been too eager to feed him the years past. The lies. All these things, precious as they were had been cast into the furnace of his loathing and somehow she had taken the ashes...
She had cast something beautiful out of them.
It had been so very long since he had dwelled on his mother's face to see anything other than her dying. Decades since the last time his brother's young innocent smile had fluttered through his thoughts.
And now, a tsunami of these vignettes hurtled through him, sharp as glass, bitter as enemy blood in the mouth.
It was abrupt and wrong. So much wrongness in his movement at the snap of his limbs to her, drawing a cry from both Anko and Kabuto. A startled yip from Rasu. His body was singing with her, a note struck to echo through the world. He was a bell swung by her small hand, everything about him poised to her very breath.
Silent, unlike the rest Hinata felt his hands tight and painful at her arms as he dragged her to her feet, before shaking her so her hair tangled messily in her face.
"I ordered you to stay with Kabuto." The snarl was vicious, the pop of electricity through the room accompanied by the flutter of a breeze swirling set Hinata's hair to dancing. Unaffected she continued to stare back, lips pressed firmly together.
"I... I know you did."
"You had no right." His eyes snapped to the bottle that had been so carelessly discarded once emptied of its priceless contents, the wax seal broken, the familiar shape lacking the silvery glow of the tears that had been within.
Finally, a frown cracked her smooth placid face, just the barest turn of her dark brow, the smallest crinkling of her gaze.
"I ...I had to."
His panting breath was that of a beast before slaughtering, the hungry predatory growl of a lion poised for a kill. His glare alone would have set grown men cowering but she blinked back slowly, face still and smooth like an undisturbed pond.
"You disobeyed a direct order. I told you to stay, you had no right making decisions when I could not- when I was-"
"Dying!" Hinata's fingers were white where she clenched her fists at her sides, her breath coming in short furtive gasps and he growled at her tone. "You were dying!"
"Tears, that is what sustains me. Weeping, gnashing of teeth, despair." He snarled. "If you are seeking mercy, you will find none."
Her eyes were dry, infuriating in her calm. The tears clung to her lashes like an afterthought, distracted from falling by the disaster he was making.
Softly, like telling him a secret she set the words poised on her lips free. "You already showed me mercy when you spared my sister's life."
He had never been silenced before but to his already flummoxed mind the concept that it was happening set him to staring, breathing hard.
"You could have slain her and taken me regardless."
"Stop."
"You could have left me for dead many times."
"Stop." The grip on her arms was growing sharp, the knuckles of his hands white as her own pale face stared calmly back.
"I saved your life." She let out a breath and he felt the tickle of it on his lips, dizzying. "I did not have to- by your orders, I should not have been there to do it. But I did. You need me..." She hesitated then, searching the dark simmering coal of his gaze.
The word need set his teeth to clenching, the anger slipping and sliding in his hands like a wet bar of soap in a hot bath. It smacked of a truth too sharp to hold tightly, to heavy to lift and desperately he scoffed, his glare rancid with disdain. "And why could I possibly have need of you?"
Hinata wrestled an arm free, reaching behind him and he froze, stunned as her fingers traced along the solid muscle of his wings. She could not have known, he was sure, the intimacy of the action. Could not have known the startled gasp of air he choked on as her fingers dug into the black of his feathers. She had no idea how hard he had to work to stay still, to not shudder.
Pulling back Hinata twisted a feather between her fingers and his eyes widened, the gasp he had been holding so tightly escaping his lips.
"You need me." She blinked slowly, her pale eyes looking at the feather, raising her gaze finally to his dark, the color of her eyes and the color of the feather the same snowy white. "I think I need you-" she paused then, watching the stillness of his face, the sudden silence of his breath. "I...I need you to help me too. Please..."
A long moment passed, the seconds ticking away with the pulse of his heart in his throat and the monumental knowledge that she had done this. What her tears and her affection and her selflessness had accomplished was fight back a thing he had no control over. Hatred he had never been able to restrain.
His released sigh fluttered through the darkness of her hair, and Hinata swallowed, watching the healthy pink of his mouth part slowly, the flash of his tongue licking his lip making something primal and unfamiliar tighten within her painfully.
"What exactly do you need my help for, Princess?"
Softly she forced her eyes up, forced her mouth to form the words.
"I need you to help me save the Veil."
No surprise flickered on his face, no hint of shock although something else, brief as the beat of a butterfly wing in bright summer light flashed over his features and was gone as quick as it came.
"Is that all."
There was no time to ask more. No time to watch the yearning flood her face and urge her fingers towards his.
The door so recently slammed shut exploded with the force of a dozen cannons firing, splinters and metal shattered sending everyone in a heap onto the floor.
Curled in Sasuke's arms, armored by his wings Hinata cried out, hands flung over her eyes to protect them as the Chattels stepped through the wreckage of the doorway, chests heaving hard with the force of their magic.
Wings cramped in the low ceiling still batted the wooden debris that exploded at the Chattels entrance, as easily as lifting a brow, as simply as drawing breath. There was an ease and calm to his movements despite the rapid acceleration of glowing silver beneath his skin as his heart sped. Ancient and unshaken he gazed at them, arms wrapped around Hinata's shaking shoulders carefully.
In contrast, the Chattels looked like rabid pups. Mangy and fangs bared they panted before their opponent, hands sticky with sweat on hilts that glimmered in the dying light of the sun behind the Star they sought.
The hiss of their voices was grating as glass, as though their vocal chords had been sawed to ribbons and healed into a macabre parody of sound. It was more unnerving that they whispered.
"Here hides the Fallen One."
"Coward."
"Murderer."
The one in the middle raised her blade, pointing at Hinata like taking aim for a javelin throw. "The White Eyed Witch has kept you breathing, and for that, she will die."
Kabuto shuddered behind Sasuke's shoulder, watching as the pupils at the center of each of the Chattel's eyes bled darkness into a slice of black like a snake in each eye, their teeth lengthening to fangs in their widening mouths.
Sasuke's face was placid as he looked back at the three creatures, his shoulders relaxed.
"What are they?" His murmur was dark as the panting anticipatory gasps of a beast before slaughtering. Heat radiated off him in waves as the solar flares of distant stars.
"...tests conducted by the Worm." Kabuto struggled with the words. "I know not what they're capable of. I could not stomach the procedures without..." He winced, remembering the many times he had crawled from the Worm's domain, covered in his own vomit and trembling.
"Ender of Worlds." The Chattel hissed, bodies sliding into battle stance.
"Will you face your death for the murder of the Rot Clan? Or will you do battle?" The one in the middle snarled this with venom, too angry to realize their mistake. Too hateful to think about the danger before them.
Kabuto shook his head, his glasses spiderwebbed with cracks.
"You fools." His whisper was defeated and mourning. "You fools."
Calmly Sasuke slid Hinata to her feet, pushing her back with a firm hand. Legs still unsteady beneath her, Hinata stumbled, grabbing hold of the roughness of the wall. Her eyes widened as the pale skin so beautiful before now shimmered and glowed with the river patterns of silver blood through his flesh.
Terror, it was knives tearing at her throat. The hair on the back of her neck rising on end, her stomach clenching and her muscles tightening as his essence began to overflow, to encompass the entire hall.
He had seemed...foreign but familiar. Similar. Alive as she was, blood bone and sinew. Now, with his health restored, his power roaring Hinata felt herself struggling back. Scorched by the brutality of his magic and fury, fighting down the fear as realization dawned on her. This being was not as she was. This was an ever-growing wildfire, a forever reaching star, a unsatiated burn.
"If it is battle you seek, you have sought in futility." His whisper was a crackling sun ever exploding. His gaze shimmered from black to blood red, and shadowed by his wings he was a demon thing, unfazed by their own monstrosity in light of his own. Face placid amid the chaos of his growing magic he closed his eyes before the three beings that had dared threaten the thing now most tangled in his heartstrings.
"Death, however." He continued, raising a palm to the suddenly stunned monsters before him. "Death you have found overflowing."
And with the same shattering scream of a lightning strike on wet ground, with the same roar of a thunderstorm mid-tantrum, his magic exploded through the world, dragging their fear from their throats in shredded ribbons.
The news that the last heiress had disappeared in the night had not been taken well. Despite the insistence of Grandelder and Hiashi, there were rumors that it had been an elopement. No one who had ever seen Konohamaru look at Hanabi could have argued with the idea, and so the rumor persisted despite their unshakeable stance.
This, of course, did nothing to dissuade the Dowager Hawk. With her head held high, she had arrived the morning after the departure in full elder regalia, eyes lined in kohl and robes smooth as silk in water.
Behind her had followed the Elder who had supported her stance at the last council meeting.
"So." She began without much ado at all, not acknowledging the polite morning bow her son afforded her as she approached. "She has run."
"Contrary to the rumors I am sure you have heard, Hanabi has done her duty as per your description and headed in the direction of the Star," Hiashi replied simply, straining to remain respectful to the woman who had given him life.
Her smile was acid, but still, the undeniable beauty that she had been in youth shone through the wrinkled skin. It was nerve wrecking that she could be more beautiful while livid than while cheerful.
"Please do not lie to me, I had thought I had done a much better job at raising you than that." She let out a breath that shook her sturdy frame and Hiashi felt his teeth ache from clenching.
"Tell me then, Mother what it is you think I lie about."
"She has gone for her sister, disregarded her duties altogether. Like your envoy with the Warren and the Shadows, she goes not after what this Valley needs but what her heart desires. A foolish errand. I am stunned that the only creature in your household with enough sense to put service to our people before her feelings and well being was Hinata, the weakest of your-"
"I will have you stop there." Hiashi cut in sharply and his mother paused, stunned. There were no memories within her to say that she had ever been interrupted by her own child before and the shock had rendered her mute if only for a moment.
"Do what you wish, believe what you wish but do not dare to suggest that either of my daughters are anything but deserving of their titles." And one step brought him into proximity of his mother that he doubted he had ever been since birth. "I raised them hard, by your decree and I realize now that perhaps they have resulted in who they are in spite of this not thanks to it." His gaze studied the stunned look on her face, watching as she battled to get a grip on her rankled emotions.
"So this is what this is going to be like. Here I was hoping that I could ask you politely to step aside and have a more capable family enter the fold of keepers of the Hawk Eyed but I see that we have all now bared or teeth like animals." Her quiet voice was the slide of steel against skin and Hiashi almost laughed.
"Mother, if there is anyone who lives with a snarl on her face... it is you."
The removal of Hiashi as leader of the Clan was a simple matter. Unlike her assumption of war, he stepped quietly into the shadows to wait and pray. He did not have to wait long.
It was hardly a fortnight since their departure when cries of her arrival reached the Villa and Hiashi looked long and hard at his father in law.
In his rooms the suns set the world to gold and orange, the setting of Solatta was always the most beautiful time of day and the hardest for Hiashi.
It was during this time that his wife had been the most affectionate, with soft touches to his face, with smiles as she kissed his neck. When their girls had been born it had been the dusk when they had spent the most time in the presence of their father, after long days in the fields or forests, in council meetings or doing inspections of the land and the encroaching Rot.
Their hands, soft and feminine and belonging to him as he belonged to them had soothed him. Now all three were gone.
His father in law had taken to staying with him through the dusk, sipping on tea in the silence and watching as Hiashi stared stonily at the sky. He watched as it bled his sorrow from honey yellow to orange and red to pink, finally succumbing to the navy blue of the night.
However, this night was different.
"My Lord Hiashi!"
Cries, exclamation broke the stillness that had taken over the Villa at the arrival of the Dowager Hawk and the new Clan Head, the son of the Elder who had supported the Dowager so stoutly.
This break in the stunned hush of the Villa had both Hiashi and his father in law rising, teacups clattering to the table as they stepped out into the verandah and stared at the boy who rushed into the courtyard, panting and sweaty.
"My Lord! The heiress, she has returned!"
"Hinata?" Hiashi blinked hard, starting into the courtyard in time to see his daughter enter.
Behind her the village had followed, the crowd came with wide eyes and children streaming between tall adult legs, pushing to get a closer look at the wild thing that been spat from the forest outskirts.
And wild she was. For a moment Hiashi was stunned to silence. Where he had thought he knew the flaming creature that was his youngest daughter he realized that for much of her life she had been contained, a coal barely lit, just simmering beneath the surface of her skin.
This thing that now walked purposefully forward was no coal.
Wildfire. Hell itself.
Mane a wild tangle of brambles and knots, face smeared with dirt and blood, clothes tattered and weapons tight within reach, Hanabi was a monster from the forest deep. Behind her, Konohamaru walked with the tangled shreds of makeshift bandages about his hands and neck. Blood had dried to clotted darkness on his collarbone, visible through the fabric of his tattered tunic.
In sync with his Opaque before him, he followed with glares at anyone who made eye contact. By contrast, Hanabi had eyes locked on the stern shape of her grandmother approaching.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Like the collision of a forest aflame to the wall of a mountain Hiashi watched, stunned as his daughter stormed forward past the elders now gaping at her entrance to the Dowager Hawk standing tall and proud among the many heads of her chosen Clan.
"We came back." She murmured, and at her side, Konohamaru seemed to become more, taller, wider, deadlier. His hands lingered at his hip where hunting knives that had obviously been in use lay sheathed.
"We have barely a day's time to prepare. There are invaders on the way to the Valley." She turned to her father then, ignoring her grandmother's gaping mouth.
"I counted more than three dozen well armed, well-trained men and surely more I did not see. They come with a goal in mind and the motivation to accomplish. I need the village mobilized into the villa now. We were spotted, they know we will be prepared." She waved a hand at the master who taught her much of what she knew. "I need all of your foragers called back immediately, I don't want them engaging with a scout on their own they wouldn't know what hit them. Send your fastest messenger now."
"Stop!" The Dowager gasped then, stepping in her way. "You have no authority here- even if your family had not been voted out of leadership, you abandoned this Valley to-"
"Silence." Hanabi snapped, although it was barely a contained shout. "I have been trained since I could crawl to defend this Valley, this Village, and these people. It has been bred into my blood, it is the reason my eyes can see every gray hair on your head at an arrows distance." Nose flaring she waved a hand at the crowd standing still by the doors of the Villa witnessing the exchange between the immaculately dressed Dowager and the wild bloodstained and dirty heiress.
"There is no one here who knows how best to serve them and no one here who has been taught to die for them. No one. I came back when I could have abandoned you all to your fate. But even still, putting all that aside." She drew her sword, twirling the metal effortlessly in her hand so that it sang.
"I am more than willing to prove my worth as protector." She spun, looking from face to face, dark hair flaring around her as she searched for looks of discontent although all she could find was awe.
Behind the Dowager the man who had been pompously walking around ordering everyone in a low authoritative voice stared, face pale and hands decidedly empty of a weapon although a sword hung at his hip.
For a moment the silence was broken only by the hushed whispers of those watching for hands moving towards blades, for shoulders squared to take on the challenge, to dismount the heiress from her place of authority.
Spluttering in disbelief at the silence of her pawn the Dowager turned back to her granddaughter, uncharacteristically at a loss for words.
When silence was the only response to Hanabi's proclamation she turned back to the man she had been speaking to, pointing.
"Get those foragers back into the Village, order them to evacuate the people on the outskirts towards the villa and report back here for orders. Do it now."
Without hesitation, he bowed. "Lady Hanabi."
Aghast and still failing to find words the Dowager Hawk continued to stare at this new creature she had never imagined hid beneath the skin of the loud and unrefined young girl she had looked at with such disdain less than a month past.
"I would suggest that you get your affairs in order and get out of my way for the duration of this, Grandmother." Hanabi continued sharply. "I have no time to waste on your need for political drama, right now I am busy trying to keep everyone alive." Turning away she nodded at Konohamaru. "You know what to do."
Smirking in a way that suggested he wanted nothing more than to kiss her he nodded, stepped back and spun.
"Archers! Gather your weaponry and meet me on the outposts."
Turning finally to her father Hanabi let out a quick breath and reached up to press a kiss first on his cheek then her grandfather's forehead.
"Change of plans, I'm afraid."
Hiashi just looked at her, searching her face for something although he wasn't sure of what.
"I'm not." He wiped a smudge of dirt from her cheek with his thumb as she smiled grimly and stepped back into the fray of organizing the village to action.
Watching her go he let out a long breath he had been holding since the departure of both his daughters.
"I am not afraid."
If they had thought that the Worm was more fearsome than he, they had been wrong. Slowly, with the same care he took with everything his magic flared.
It was not the gusts of wind from before, the unsteady wielding of a sword by a tired hand. No, this was a painter's brush, a scholar's pen, a carver's skillful knife.
With the air thick as water, and the spastic snaps of electricity shining like fireworks in the semi-darkness the Chattels were thrown backward, slamming into the dark uneven stone of the mountain wall where the corridor had been carved.
Their shrieks were muffled and torn things, the whites of their eyes showing wide and terrified as the wall reached to embrace them. Rapid and willing the mountain danced to Sasuke's silent call, melting like heated chocolate beneath the relentless fire of his anger.
Black as tar and twisting with strange frantic movements the stone bled around their bodies, sucking hard on limbs so that the Chattels flailed and clawed at the darkness consuming them inch by inch as they screamed.
"Die."
Softly, whispering to himself he let one word escape him, sighed because it came so easily, this culling. With Hinata's life rushing through him they were nothing, like crushing moths between a stone and his firm unyielding palm.
"No!"
Her arms were suddenly around his waist, he could feel the press of her cheek, the heat of her skin, the rasp of her breath between his shoulder blades, tickling the feathers on his wings. "Sasuke. Sasuke, please- stop!"
Tears, they were wet and hot as boiling rain, staining his tunic where she pressed her face so hard, listening to the rapid beat of his heart within his torso. "Please!"
The hatred rumbled low within him, annoyed and dissatisfied even as the Chattels begged and pleaded, thrashed and screamed.
He did not let himself think through his actions. As rapidly as the magic had overwhelmed it snapped into nothingness, filling everyone's lungs with soft pliable air that was easily breathed.
The black of the coming night swallowed them all then and from behind only the light of the moon now glimmered through the lattice of the window, shedding a haze of coolness over Hinata's arms tangled on his chest, her knuckles white with a grip that trembled.
Still wrapped in the stone now solid and unmoving the Chattels panted loudly for air, their foreheads dripping with sweat. Behind them, Kabuto, Anko and Rasu shuddered and shook, eyes wide and bodies carefully frozen in place lest they draw attention from the creature that roared so easily with death in his hands.
He wanted to tell himself the rush of blood like a river in his ears was the strain of the magic, the one side effect of calling an ancient thing like that mountain to do his bidding, but even as he thought it he knew it to be a lie.
Her hands.
He stared at them, at the long fingers gripping him like to release would be to die. The curve of her cheek against his back, the softness of her body trembling against him. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathed in and felt the strain of her arms around him before turning around.
Hinata grunted softly, stumbling as her knees succumbed to the pull of gravity when the solidity of his body was taken from her.
"Fool," he whispered, catching her firmly. "What good will it do to leave these three obscenities alive?" In his mind he could see their hands eager to slay, determined and hateful wrapped around her throat, pushing, pushing, pushing.
Panting and dizzy Hinata frowned, lifting her gaze to pierce him again with her stare. "They think we slayed their clan, their family, their friends." she let that hang for a moment, let the words play pictures of his own family, his own clan, his own life before him. Fresh from the pits of his despair she had dredged it all up and he could see that life in her eyes, could see himself soul bared naked before her.
Clenching his jaw at the revulsion he felt he glared, determined to keep tears from even considering their place in his black gaze.
"We owe them... an explanation."
Finally swallowing his fear Rasu keened, moving slowly forward in hope of his mother's attention. Breaking the glare they were exchanging Hinata sighed deeply, reaching for Rasu's head with the help of Sasuke's supporting grip still around her.
"Good boy, Rasu." Gently, she lifted her gaze from the horkney's massive head and sighed at Anko and Kabuto's uncertain wide eyes watching her.
"Please."
Startled Hinata turned towards the Chattels. Black stone had tangled over their throats, had crawled along their cheeks, threatening at the corners of their mouths slow painful suffocation. With their bodies largely encased their eyes were more terrible as they shifted anxiously.
"Please.." their hoarse tattered voices came slow and uneven, jumping from girl to girl so that they were never a hundred percent sure who of the three spoke. "He will slay them all. He will hang them from their collars, he will punish us through them. Please."
Sasuke's frown was merciless and so their eyes remained fixated with a mixture of resentment and desperation on Hinata. "Please. There are children. There are babes."
With her joints aching and her head a tangle of cobwebs Hinata tried to understand, blinking her blurring vision slowly.
Whatever she had given at the pouring of the angel tears it was now making itself known and clumsily she grabbed at Sasuke, feeling the world teeter and toss like a ship in a stormy sea.
"...the collars." She finally whispered, feeling through the fog as Sasuke's arms picked her up easily. "The slave collars. We have to..." eyes glazed and face paling she sighed, feeling with a strange lack of panic as her body relaxed inexplicably and her world faded to black.
Rasu's whining worry matched Sasuke's tight-lipped frown as Hinata's head hung back, exposing the length of pale white neck and the slow soothing beat of blood at her jugular.
"She needs rest." Kabuto's whisper was uncertain, and Sasuke did not bother looking at him as he spoke. "She will need to sleep to regain the strength she has given for you."
"The collars." Sasuke snapped then, glancing briefly at the Chattels and causing them to stir nervously.
Slowly Kabuto approached, straightening his blue robes carefully. Behind him, Anko stood perfectly still, as though in the presence of a cobra. "The collars demand their fielty. They tighten to suffocation if we try to leave... or if he is displeased."
If Hinata was not brought to the Worm to bring him relief from the arrow through the eye he could see the Profane's displeasure taking lives. His gaze lifted then to the Chattels still tangled in the stone, eyes fixated on him eerily.
"You will remain there." He muttered, sweeping down the hall and past them as though they were nothing more than the stone that nearly took their lives.
"Please! Please!" their shrieks were muffled and stiff, their bodies once more thrashing in their impossible cage. Uncertainly, Rasu Anko and Kabuto brought up the rear, the blonde's throat bobbing as he swallowed his fear.
"L..Lord Star... the slaves- I beg you to consider-"
"Save your breath." Sasuke snapped irritably, the flex of his magic making the corridor groan to contain the power as he stormed on. "I will break the collars."
Startled and wide-eyed Kabuto said nothing, catching his joy and hope before letting it attack the star before him in an unwelcome show of gratitude. Nervously he and Anko glanced at each other, and then together looked at the girl in the Star's arms.
With Hinata's limp body in his grip Sasuke sighed, listening always for her slow steady breaths, and the constant movement of her blood in her veins as reassurance.
He had no choice in regards to the collars, after all. It was what she would have wanted.
There had been more than just silence from the two shadows that did not belong to him. It was something he had not thought possible but Shino and Kiba had proved to be masters at, speaking loudly without words, saying much with no sound.
In the darkness of the forest that had nearly slain them all he wandered with their eyes on his back, sharp and resentful, bitter and angry.
It would have been intolerable and therefore stopped if he did not resent himself as much as they did.
Only Lee spoke to him now, his gentleness and respect unshakable in the face of Tenten's sudden inexplicable withdrawal and the open fury of Hinata's shadows.
"Two more days?" Lee murmured softly as they stopped to make camp. Above them the suns waned into the thickness of the clouds, casting their paint of red and orange, yellow and gold through the cotton clouds in spirited spurts.
Neji studied the heavens with hands balled tight at his sides, aching with the desire to hold Tenten's, to feel the strong cords of her arms, the heat of her skin beneath his palms to soothe his own uncertainty.
"Perhaps less, if we keep up the pace." He let out a soft breath, catching the first sparkling light of a brightly burning star through the myriads of purple and crimson tainting the heavens.
Lee glanced back, studying the trio behind him. Tenten murmured softly to Akamaru, scratching his head while Kiba scouted the area where they would make camp. The trees were densely packed here, the ground soggy from past rains held by thick gray moss like tangled shredded wire. It was not a great place for resting. The lichen hung in streams from thick branches and could hide many pincered insects, the moss would muffle paws on the ground, the clearing above left them open for anything flying above.
But to find a different place to rest would require more walking that would deviate from their laser beam goal of reaching the Valley at the same time or right after the Rot Clan. They knew not the paths to take that would save time, or limb depending on the terrain's treachery. All Neji could do was pray he was skilled enough to arrive in time to help his youngest ward.
"Warren." Lee's hand was suddenly on Neji's shoulder, a steadying hand as much as a guiding one and a glance at his friend's face had Neji following his gaze.
He had been distracted by the brilliance of the dusk. Had been lulled by his tangled thoughts as messy as the moss beneath his feet. Like a puff from a pipe, a slash of gray and black rose into the heavens from the direction of their destination, tall and twisting in a breeze too far from them to feel.
Neji did not need the blessing of eyes sharp as those of a hawk to know what that was, and what was burning.
Blood thinning in his veins, air stuck uselessly in his chest, he stared.
"No."
"Is that...?" Tenten whispered and could not finish as she rose from her crouch, following Shino's stare at the plumes of smoke that reached for the clouds above in desperation.
"No." Neji hissed.
Breaking through the bracken as loudly as a horde of hound-pigs stampeding Kiba exploded into the clearing, scratched by branches and thorns, covered in thistles and breathless.
"There's smoke!" He snapped, stopping abruptly at the sight of all of his comrades looking towards the sky already in horror.
"That is where our Valley lies," Tenten whispered softly, holding Akamaru close to her chest and feeling the rapid heartbeat within his tiny rib cage in rhythm with her own.
"We must go." Lee snapped, turning to Neji with fire burning in his veins. "Lord Warren. We must go now."
Slowly, Neji turned back to look at his friend, his companion, and shadow, pale eyes dim where they had always shone with intelligence and determination before.
"What if there is nothing but ashes, Lee?"
Lee's gaze was pained, lips pressed thinly as he stared back, flabbergasted by the despair so visible on the face he trusted the most.
Before he could scramble for words however, Tenten was pushing her way between the two men, brow furrowed.
"No." Her body was poised for fighting, every muscle a knot. "If there is fire, we will quench it." Her voice was so low it growled, so bitter it stung his ears. "If there is blood we will tourniquet. If there are ashes..." she glared at Neji decidedly. "...if there are ashes, we will avenge. For our glory."
Neji let out a breath, feeling each of her own restrained pants on his lips as he stared at her, this creature without which he would not be able to stand.
Hoarsely he whispered, "And for those of the Hawk Eyed Clan."
Kiba and Shino stepped forward then, faces pinched tight with determination. "Lord Warren, at your bidding."
There would be no resting for them, the shadows of an heiress far from home. They would be her hands, they would fight and defend, they would heal and comfort, they would avenge.
Thankful for Tenten's contained energy shuddering in her slim shape Lee sighed, nodding at his opaque firmly. "Lord Warren."
Mouth tasting bitter and heart heavy Neji glared up at the smoke billowing high, dragging in a long breath before nodding.
"Let's move."
I'm coming, Hanabi. I'm coming.
She woke with her heart in her throat and her lungs aching. Sitting up sharply, she winced and strangled a groan. All of her ribs ached as she breathed, joints complaining with each movement, head thick and heavy with a throbbing pain that stemmed from her spine up into the very back of her eyes.
Eyes which she had to blink rapidly to focus, making the heart tired and aching in her chest accelerate.
Nothing was clear, for several rapid breaths only shadows and swatches of color in odd shapeless forms swam before her gaze until finally the darkness faded and the covers heavy on her body became visible.
She was in a bed, the four posters hanging heavy with curtains dark wine red and thick pulled tight so that light from beyond poked through like a myriad of strange stars.
The mattress below her was soft and yet still made her ache as she struggled to adjust herself to sitting, the pillows numerous and downy still drawing a wince from her face as she leaned back, tired out by the simple act of existing.
Memories of dreams drifted unsteadily through her mind like fog. Sasuke's young face and a world that she had never seen before flared as brightly as her own mother's voice, her sister's laugh, her brother's raised sarcastic brow.
The wet slopping sound of licking made her freeze abruptly, blinking her slowly clearing eyes as she assessed the noise and where it came from. On the other side of the curtain, the crackle and pop of a fire in a grate complained and as she came more fully to herself she recognized the smell of wood smoke and the crunch of bone and sinew between Rasu's sharp teeth.
Tears jumped suddenly to her eyes at the thought of a familiar face in this confusing moment and uncertainly she whispered, "R...Rasu?"
A yip of a reply was followed by the curtain being abruptly pulled back to reveal Anko, eyes wide and relieved standing at her bedside, Rasu at her hip with his tail wagging hard and fast at the sight of her.
"Hinata! Oh, thank the Veil!"
"Anko." Confusion flitted over Hinata's features for a moment, the smell of ashes having brought forth thoughts of Sasuke's smirk.
"How are you feeling?" Anko's hand was suddenly on Hinata's brow, feeling as though for a temperature. "You have been asleep for three days. Everyone was starting to get very anxious. Even Rasu was getting snippy with me."
Hinata stared some more, her eyes flicking between the horkney with his giant head now resting at her feet, tongue pink and long out between sharp incisors in a heart-melting smile.
"...Anko.. I... are you not terrified of-"
"This?" Anko grinned, pressing her hand on Amaterasu's giant black head, rubbing lightly behind one floppy ear to his utter delight. "With your star walking around I have grown rather less impressed by Rasu's scary countenance. In comparison, he's a dream."
Mouth falling open at the words "your star" Hinata blinked at her slowly, glancing between the tail wagging horkney and the young woman smirking at her.
"I am so very glad you have woken." Anko continued, adjusting her robes around herself with calm fingers. "I am sure Kabuto and the Lord Star will be here shortly. They have been very busy these last three days."
"Sasuke is all right?" Finally, the words seem to form a coherent sentence on her tongue and careful to keep her face placid Hinata asked, watching intently for Anko's response. A furtive smile and the barest lift of an eyebrow later she nodded, sliding back into the chair by the fire that she had been occupying before hearing Hinata's uncertain voice.
"He has spent most of the last three days taking the slave collars off the Rot Clan. Between him and Kabuto's brains they figured out how to undo the spell." Smiling a little she sighed. "They've been purging the Chattels of the Profane's blood as well. Kabuto cannot make heads or tails of them following him around like pups. If he's not around they're at your Star's heels. They're worse than Rasu."
Irritably the horkney let out a grunt of displeasure, fixing his gold gaze on Anko with disdain at the insult.
With her small smile still placed firmly on her lips, Anko lifted her eyes to Hinata again, expecting astonishment on her face, shock and awe.
Instead, the Hawk Eyed Princess had curled back onto her side, dizzy from her efforts sitting up with limbs still sore and aching. Eyes half closed she sighed deeply, studying her fingers and the cracked nails she had managed to gain somehow in the fray of battle now many days past.
"He must be so tired." Her whisper made Anko scoff, rising only to settle at the edge of Hinata's bed with a frown, her long fingers pushing back the dark locks of hair tangled across the girl's face with a maternal sort of care.
"I cannot believe that you would say that in your state. Kabuto is stunned that you made it. That you stood and demanded he stop before slaughtering those three girls at the Dispensary." Shaking her head slightly she pressed her hand once more to Hinata's brow. "You... you saved a lot of lives that day, Princess."
The frown that marred Hinata's face was felt beneath Anko's palm, tired and without force. "I am no princess, Anko."
Smirking very wide now Anko leaned down, whispering into her ear carefully. "So then... why does the Star call you so?"
Flinching Hinata moved to push herself back up onto her elbow, words fumbling to come out of her mouth in a torrent. Before she could get anything out that made sense, however, the sound of a door cut off from view by the curtains of her bed creaked loudly as it opened.
"Anko?" Kabuto called softly, the door closing with a hardly audible clank of the metal doorknob.
"Kabuto, perfect timing." Smiling secretively at the weary girl on the bed Anko rose, moving to pull the curtains back easily. "She has finally woken."
No sooner had the words come out of her mouth than Kabuto was rushing around the bed to Hianta's side, eyes wide behind the still cracked spectacles sitting on the bridge of his nose.
As always garbed in his usual blue Kabuto's gaze was enormous as he reached forward, taking Hinata's hands in his with a boldness she did not recall him having. Startled she stared, mouth open in surprise as he searched her face earnestly.
"I... I was not sure you would wake- I was going to tell him to use his blood if you did not by tomorrow. I am so glad." He blinked hard and as if suddenly realizing himself dropped her hands and stepped back, suddenly pink in the face and startled. "I.. sorry. I'm... I must apologize, Hinata. I could not have made your task any harder if I tried-"
Wide-eyed still Hinata shook her head. "Oh.. no. Please, Kabuto... please don't-"
"No, no." Anko chided, finally finished drawing all the curtains and tying them off in velvet ribbons before putting her hands on her hips. "Let the boy finish. Apologizing is good for the soul. No, Kabuto? Give us your professional opinion as a healer."
Flushing still the blonde fixed Anko with a glare half hidden by the brightness of the noonday suns pouring through the lattice covered window of the room.
"I am sorry." He continued stiffly, hands laced behind his back tightly, eyes on the floor. "I am ashamed to admit that fear dominated much of my decisions that day." Raising his gaze he lingered with some effort on her face. "I hope... one day to behave as you do when faced with challenges."
In utter disbelief and rather pink herself, Hinata gaped, perfectly still but for the tired racing of her heart in her chest. "I... I didn't-"
"He means he wishes to be brave, dear." Anko cut in, straightening her covers absently, a wry smile on her face still.
More exhausted now than even before Hinata swayed, and closing her eyes settled back on the pillows, aware of the heat on her face only dimly as dizziness took over her head.
"You should not strain yourself," Kabuto muttered then, his cool fingers sliding around Hinata's wrist to count the pulse of her blood. "Much of your energy was siphoned into the Star. You will take some time to recover." He shook his head then, clearly unhappy with this diagnosis. "Weeks, if not months."
"Months?" Hinata sighed, eyes still closed lest the room take to swaying with her gaze upon it. "I... I cannot take months. I am sure Sasuke can fix this." She swallowed, the thought of his blood, silver and clean, pulsing with energy and warm with the heat of his body making her insides flutter and dance.
Glancing at each other warily under the cover of Hinata's closed eyelids Anko and Kabuto frowned but said nothing.
Already half asleep despite her best intentions Hinata breathed in deeply, reaching out blindly to rub at Rasu's dark head beside her as Kabuto released her wrist.
"Where is he?" she murmured, forcing her eyes to open so she could study their faces when they answered.
Nervous now Anko looked away to tidy something that did not need tidying on the nightstand next to her bed. Kabuto cleared his throat and shrugged his shoulders, a motion that looked unnatural on his bookish young frame.
"Speaking to the Worm."
Leaving her side was only possible if he spent as little time there as he could manage. First, there had been the urgent matter of the slave collars. Already they had begun to tighten as the Profane thundered in his jail cell of a pit, hissing out his demands for freedom.
The circle of leather magicked to do the foul bidding of the slave's master had dug into the skin of the women and children of the Rot. Their necks had been cascades of crimson that traveled to their collarbones. Their eyes had been scrunched with pain, their breaths short and shallow with the agony and even his approach had been unable to distract them from the panic of the noose around their jugulars.
Gathered together the women had been in a crowd in the entrance hall of the palace, as far from any entrance to the Worm's hidden jungle as they could get.
Kabuto and Sasuke had entered with determination on their faces, and only after working together had they managed to find the tangle of spells that had been worked into the leather bindings.
Once unraveled each collar was like it's own specific knot and although Kabuto could if he worked hard enough untangle the disaster that held the slave's life in the balance, Sasuke had an easier way.
With sheer force, elegant and supple like the creature that had gifted it to him, his magic danced and twirled, only too eager to slice through the tangled knots of the spells with the ease of a hot knife through butter.
It had taken time, but before the suns began their rise into the heavens the next day the pile of leather collars had collected bloody and obscene on the luminescent ground of the Scaled Worm's receiving hall.
And with each fallen collar a pair of wide stupefied eyes had searched Sasuke's face. The Rot Clan had stayed together, watching as each and every individual was freed by his pale hands, by the singing lightning of his magic. Elder and child, young or old he did not falter, his features always calm, even uninterested.
It was not until the next day, after checking on Hinata's sleeping form and making sure Anko was doing a suitable job of keeping her safe that he and Kabuto had gone back to the Dispensary where the Chattels still hung encased in the stone.
Exhausted and defeated they were limp dolls hanging as though crucified. Their bruised cheeks, their broken noses, their blood-stained teeth were pitiful in the light of Luminatus and Solatta.
Uncertainly Kabuto had suggested the purging of the Profane's blood or as much as could be done to relieve them of their addiction.
Sasuke's gaze had flickered then to the blonde, to his keen eyes and his knowing frown. Deciding not to verge further into the commentary of dependence on a star's blood the Uchiha had chosen instead to agree with the healer and the next two days had been dedicated to just that.
It had been a miserable business. Between Sasuke's shining silver blood, and the powder of some other Star's bones they had weaned the Chattel's from the ichor of old Orochimaru's body.
It ran dark inside them, it heated their hate to a fire uncontrollable, it scratched at their veins in an attempt to stay within even as Sasuke's blood, in turn, fought to defeat it.
There was no contest in the end. His was a gift without strings. It healed and rectified the broken things within them, by brute force if not gentleness.
Their bodies were a battlefield of pain and he did not linger to witness it. Instead, he left the work of bathing their feverish bodies to the women of their kin under Kabuto's instructions. It was enough that as he walked away he had to listen to their shrieks from their room, their painful supplications for the poison of the profane's blood to be gone from their bodies.
It was during those times when his anxiety got the best of him and the memory of Hinata's lingering eyes on his veins made his magic uneasy and feral that he wandered to the Worm's pit.
If he had been vile in power, as a pauper he was beyond tolerable. Through the jungle boughs and past the now frightened foliage of the woodland Sasuke listened.
Even from a distance, Orochimaru's menacing hiss sounded, bouncing off the steaming vapors of the geysers. Echoing through the trees and umbrella wide leaves of the forest.
"Filthy death craving pigs... I will tear their intestines, skin them while they breathe, pump them full of fire while their hearts beat..." Panting with the agony of never-ending pain the giant serpent coiled and uncoiled, turning in circles within the pit, stinking as bad as the wasteland beyond the palace walls. The blood from his wounded eye coagulated to a thick bubbling black much like the gurgling pools of blight on the Rot.
In the light of morning, the jungle was a neon green where the suns stretched their fingers, a darker jade where the shadows lingered cooly, hiding monstrosities that were at least for the moment too frightened of the star to show their faces.
Still, Sasuke glared at the jungle while he stood at the edge of the pit, aware that whatever watched him so intently at least had brains enough to stand down. He'd rather it remained this way.
"You." Orochimaru's hiss was wretched, the spit of his venom splashing with an acidic hiss at the wall of his pit in his attempt to reach him at the edge. "You weak nothing. Unable even to defend yourself. Relying on an infant human thing to protect you. What a humiliation it is to be of your race, you useless-"
"We are not of the same race. Rest assured." Sasuke muttered, bored as he studied his hands for a moment before crouching at the edge of the gaping hole. Pieces of glass were still razor sharp and jagged as they hung on the edges and he lingered at one of the few smooth spaces along the frame where Hinata had swung to slam when he had caught her before falling.
A couple of feet over and she would have pierced herself through with a piece of glass long as his forearm.
Trying not to think of the outcome of that scenario he looked back at the now writhing coils of serpent so far below, inconsequential with the pulsing arrow that stuck awkwardly out of his snake face.
Blind, the Profane was forced to lick and lick the air for information, nostrils flaring with ever-growing frustration as he listened. "Are you here to finish the job your insect of a slave left unfinished? Or have you come to chat some more?"
"Why would the Apostate be heading to Hell's Maw?" Sasuke finally called down firmly. "No one has bothered with the lower realm in thousands of years."
A hiss, angry and bitter rose from within the pit. "You come asking for information, child? Let me from this pit and I will tell you secrets... oh such secrets. Delicious things that would tear you apart, drive you mad, even. It would be my pleasure. Remove the arrow your filth of a slave placed within me."
"Tch." Dark gaze focused with deadly precision the dark-winged star glared. "How long I wonder does it take for a creature bent on eternal life to die alone in a pit of their own making." He murmured, mostly to himself. "I do wish I was able to find out if you succumb to the death of your body, or if your captivity drives you to desire death by you own hand."
Silence broken only by the hissing spurts of heated water spraying up from the geysers reigned. Holding still but for the slow methodical flick of his tail the Profane glared into the dark abyss of his blindness. With the pulse of Hinata's arrow glowing like a heartbeat, Orochimaru's face was lit and shadowed in intervals of monstrosity and soothing black darkness.
Sasuke paused, ignoring the brutal desire within him to slide through the air with his wings flared, his sword drawn, his aim focused on taking the snake's head from his endless neck.
"He goes to the Maw for someone, not something." Orochimaru's voice was calm and low, more like that of Lord Utterance as Sasuke had originally met him than the flailing creature left in his wake.
"Someone." Sasuke murmured, thinking back on the things the Worm had shouted to him in the dark three days past. Things that had rung with the bell tones of lies. Itachi's white wings, Danzo's continued life, a horde of warriors reliant on Itachi's blood at his beck and call.
"You would be a fool not to listen to all I can say." Orochimaru continued, cool and bargaining as though at a market sale. "Free me and I will tell you all you need to know."
There was no time to even contemplate this, in the filtered light of the jungle with the rays of sunlight coming down in wide beams that sliced through the darkness Sasuke took one and then another step from the pit, feeling his decisions more firmly within his mind with every inch.
"Lies." He murmured softly, turning to leave, suddenly unsure of why he had bothered to come in the first place. "The Profane can spout nothing but lies."
"Stop." The serpent's voice was a low menacing growl that would have risen the hair on the back of his neck once upon a time. Now he ignored it, moving decidedly back towards the exit without looking over his shoulder.
"Come back! Come back! Curse you!" Shrieks, frantic and growing with panic as they shook the jungle rippled through the world, setting insects to hiding and vermin to scuttling. "Curse you!"
There was only one thing that snake had spouted when he had had the upper hand that Sasuke could trust, the one thing that the lying thing could say that would have had to no consequence.
Itachi was heading to Hell's Maw.
Leaving the roaring madness of the Scaled Worm behind, Sasuke closed the door as he stepped into the hall, frowning at the Chattel's who stood waiting on the other side in complete stillness.
Their faces had grown pale, their eyes so dark had changed to a varied shade of brown, one darker than the other, one nearly hazel.
Unlike before their hair was pulled into different knots, one braided, one tightly looped at the base of her neck and the last with her dark hair free, a mane that traveled in waves around her shoulders, frizzy and wild.
Together they bowed under his scrutiny, ignoring his flaring irritation.
"Lord Star."
Ignoring them completely he walked past, aware at every moment of where they were should their loyalty suddenly prove fickle. It was a strange day to find himself wishing it was Amaterasu at his back instead. At least with the horkney, if the betrayal came he could excuse it as animal behavior.
"I have told you to stop following me." He grunted sharply, heading towards Hinata's room. "I will not say so again."
"Kabuto sends word." One of the Chattels began softly, her voice not unlike the ripped and twisted mess of before. Whatever the Worm had done to her vocal chords Sasuke's magic had been unable to heal it.
"It appears Princess Hinata has woken." One of the others added, her joy at the news tangible in her own hoarse articulation. "He is examining her now."
Determined to keep his steps from speeding at their words Sasuke nodded, allowing himself only the briefest clench of his fists at his sides before continuing.
"Fetch her something to eat and water." He threw over his shoulder before turning down another hall, if only to get rid of them on his heels.
With a bow he did not bother acknowledging the Chattels did as they were told, heading towards the kitchens where they had so blatantly mistreated the one they now owed their lives to.
Finally alone Sasuke paused in the hall, looking out the window at the wasteland through the glass, at the swirling storm that had risen in the distance and the blinding blue of the heavens above the hurricane madness of orange and red dust.
With deep breaths and a clenched jaw, he wrangled the similar storm dancing through him before continuing on towards her quarters.
I cannot take her to Hell's Maw.
I cannot.
TBC