She woke with the taste of the nightmare still bitter on her tongue like a mouthful of ashes or rusted nails.
Above the smooth wood of the rafters in her room glinted with the strange gray hue of light only a storm can encourage from the sky.
Distantly the nightmare solidified in her mind so that the world began to crack, or perhaps it was not the world that shattered but her heart.
"Hanabi!"
Father's frantic scream, the sound of arrows flying, the sound of ribs shattering, the voices of a dozen men dying, friend or foe the gasps of pain were the same.
Above it all the hiss of the river bending reluctantly to her will roared like a waterfall, the fine mist covering her face, condensing to dew on her lashes where she might have had tears if she had been a different girl in a different time.
The door opened with the soft slide of wood on smooth tracks and she did not bother to look at who entered, her pale gaze glimmering under the strange half light of the suns as she absorbed the disaster that was her life.
Tayuya and Kidomaru, their voices had been scathing as they baited him, her faithful shadow. Metal on metal rang as their blades collided and even with eyes closed and with the magic pouring out of her in payment for the rivers help she could hear his skill. The sound of his steps had the rhythm of a dance, the breath in his lungs was hushed and controlled. Until an enemy blade slid into him where it should never have been.
Steps moved slowly, and the entity that had entered her chamber settled slowly onto their knees at the side of her sleeping mat, breath slow and careful with anticipation. Hanabi could not understand what they anticipated. There was nothing to hope for.
The crash of his body into hers sent them both crumbling, the blade in Tayuya's hands familiar because it was Hanabi's own discarded jade crusted sword.
In the same disavowed and confused way of a child Hanabi stared at the protruding sharpness coming out of her shoulder, at the blood red and thinning as the released river dissipated into a mist that doused them all.
Behind her Konohamaru's arms held her to him, breath hot and smelling strongly of iron at her ear as he panted with agony and exhaustion.
It took her a moment to realize he had used himself to shield her from the incoming blow, that the sword had come through him and into her, joining them in the sudden flare of pain as Tayuya cursed bitterly and ripped the blade from them both.
A harmony of screams as their knees succumbed to the muddy ground, as they collapsed in a heap of tattered breaths.
"Hanabi?" The voice that whispered at her bedside forced her to close her eyes, to better see the past as it was, to brand it into her mind so as to never forget the moment when her world had changed irrevocably from fire to discarded ashes.
Sobs, she recognized them because her sister's own voice had wept with such anguish before, at the end of the bamboo rod or the painful training required of their birth. They were ripping out of her in fistfuls, wet as the smears of crimson on her torso and she twisted feebly beneath Konohamaru's stunning weight.
Eyes clenched shut against the pain he grunted, lips red with each beat of his heart.
It took her a moment to realize it was his name she was sobbing.
"Please." The hand that landed on her forehead was calloused and familiar, and although intended to comfort and soothe only icy silence replied.
"Please, Hanabi. You must get up."
She was shrieking. Had she ever made such a noise before. Softly, for Konohamaru knew not how to handle her in a different way, he pushed a dirty blood smeared hand to her lips to quiet her. The eyes that opened to stare into hers were too old, and too tired for the Konohamaru she knew.
"It's all right."
Her fingers were white knuckled as they gripped his shoulders, his clothing in tatters and wet with his life. "No! It's not all right! Nothing is right!"
"Get rid of them." Kidomaru's voice muttered with disgust. "They have wasted too much of our time as it is."
Realization stilled her limbs, and with the same whiteness in her knuckles as in her eyes she stared at Konohamaru, the comprehension mirrored there at their approaching end.
"Together." It was almost a question but for the fact she knew it to be correct and he smiled through the blood and trembling.
They would die as they had done everything else.
Together.
"Oh..." The tremble in the familiar voice rippled like a disturbed pond in her mind and she finally let her lashes part, the blank eyes of her Clan shifting to the right to where Neji kneeled, shoulders tight and head bowed in mourning. "Oh, my Little Fire... how I have failed you."
He had arrived in a flurry of magic and hatred, the white hot burning of his ferocity had slammed into the incoming swing of Tayuya's stolen sword.
The world had felt the panting hot breath of his anger, her Warren.
They had stood no chance. Brutal and animal he had destroyed them all, drawing disturbed and terrible cries from the onlooking members of the Rot who had the good luck of not being directly in his line of sight. Entrails had been ripped from abdomens, their leaders had choked on their screams as his magic had strangled and suffocated, as the ground itself had opened like a roaring mouth to consume them leaving no trace.
Tenten, Lee, Shino and Kiba's role had been simple. They had done their jobs, hunted and corralled, captured and defeated the remaining foes.
In the fray Hanabi had lain in the arms of the one she now realized was her beloved, listening for the drum in his chest that no longer sang.
"Where is he?" Hanabi whispered in reply to her Warren's lament. There was no energy in her for sympathy, for loving, for thanking.
Lifting his bowed head Neji surveyed his youngest charge, his second hope, heart twisting in his chest with indecision. The will of the Elder's Council was that he would put forth the kind thing and lie.
Lie to his Little Fire.
Swallowing hard he reviewed the words he had been told to say. That the Shadow's body had been, as was their custom buried deep in the woodland so that his bones would feed the soil, to that he would become part of the green that made their hearts continue to beat.
That he was long gone, out of reach, to be mourned and remembered.
Unsaved.
"Konohamaru is being housed in the Cellar."
Hanabi's gray eyes did not move, nor did her lungs. Still as the corpse she had thought she was enquiring about, her cousin, brother and friend looked steadily back, calculating the cost of what he had just done.
"He breathes still but... it is not good, Hanabi. He will soon...we cannot expect him to last much longer. It has been two nights."
The broken ribs had punctured a lung, the sword had narrowly missed his heart and impaled itself within, missing the major organs that would have made him succumb faster and less painfully to death. Neji had contemplated doing the merciful thing and ending Konohamaru's life. He burned, skin sweat slick and steaming in the coolness of the cellar's darkness as his fever raged. And from behind his closed eyelids he nightmared, crying out in vain for his Opaque.
It was the motionlessness of Hanabi's pale eyes that made Neji's insides tighten and his skin ripple with goosebumps. Determination was not what he was reading on her features, determination was for those who intended to accomplish their goal.
Hanabi was beyond that. It was already done, in her mind.
"Find me the angel bone."
Shuddering so that his spine curved and eyes closed Neji breathed. "No. Hanabi... you cannot. I cannot."
"Find me the angel bone, Neji. Mix it with the waters of the river and make him drink it."
Already the sleep was dragging at her lashes, she fought desperately and he watched as her panicked breaths slowed despite her attempts to remain conscious. "Save him, Neji."
A whole village's harvest, a future plagued with starvation already dawning on the horizon.
Yet, she demanded the most precious thing they knew of, for one life? He let out a breath, anguished and torn.
"Hanabi, I cannot. We cannot do this-" and he froze at the sight of tears wetting her lashes, at the miniature river that flowed down her cheek.
"...Please..."
With her breath slow and her cheek still wet with the salt of her desperation the Warren pressed his forehead to hers, lifting his eyes after a moment to Tenten's immobile form watching from the other side of the room.
Wordlessly he rose to fulfill the request he so deeply understood.
"It's time to go."
He came in like a terror. Clad from head to toe in darkness that was more than the cloak on his shoulders. The urgency in his actions was palpable and thick, even the light of the fire seemed to dance away from him in fear.
Watching from the other side of the room Anko smiled behind the cover of her tunic's high neck, noting with some interest that the only thing within the confines of the chamber to move towards him as opposed to away was her.
Always her.
Pale and dizzy but awake Hinata blinked at his approach to rid herself of the sleep clinging to her lashes, making her eyelids heavy.
"S..Sasuke- I cannot-" She began, face blazing red as she began to explain her inability to walk the distance required to the hidden river caves below the palace.
The words slammed to a stop as he marched forward without pause, scooping her up in an easy armful as though he had done it a million times before and would do so a million times more.
Startled but silent Hinata clung to him, eyes wide and glowing in the dimness of the twilight.
"They are approaching at speed." One of the Chattels explained as Hinata was whisked from the room she had been occupying for what seemed like endless days. In the corridor the shadows leapt forward to ensnare and hug them, only pushed back by the candle in one of the Chattels hands. Behind her the other two stood with bulky bundles tied in twine under each arm and their faces set in determination.
"When are they expected to enter the territory?" Sasuke's steps were rapid and long, behind him the cloak rippled in the wake of his movement, and at his heels Rasu trotted, setting the pace for the rest of the pack nearly running to keep up.
"An hour, perhaps less. It's possible the sight of their destination has re-invigorated them." The Chattel continued from behind Anko hauling Hinata's travel bag on her shoulder.
"This is ridiculous. What in all the Veil moves at that speed?" Anko muttered darkly and mostly to herself but the silence that replied was heavy with contemplation as everyone wondered the same.
Through the corridors windows became not only less common but non existent and the oppressive damp and heaviness of being underground made HInata shift uncomfortably, wide eyes studying the paths.
The brickwork that had made the other corridors seem part of the palace faded, and Sasuke's steps smoothed to a different pattern as he stepped over ruts in the natural stone ground or dodged around the protruding ends of stones that were part of the wall and uninterested in moving for the sake of their passage.
"H..How far down is this river?" Her whisper slid warm against his cheek and he looked straight on determinedly in response for a pause.
"It won't be much longer now."
"I...I only know the basics of sailing- most of the time I ever spent on water was on canoe." Her voice pitched forward nervously, drawing his gaze despite his reluctance to make eye contact in such proximity. "Do you know how to sail?"
The question was out of her mouth the moment the memory flared to life in her head like an explosion of colorful powder in water.
The multicolored ocean of the heavens shimmered and danced with glitter and deep bleeding colors in constant movement. The waves twisted them like pieces of cloth. Deep unbelieveable blue, green and teal, gold that shimmered with light, indigo and red that bled to pink between them. The whole of the sea lapped relentlessly at the bone white ivory of the beach, covered in the endless expanse of stones small enough that to Hinata's mind they looked at first like teeth.
On those waves his brother had laughed, dragging him from the water's depths as his wings so small and helpless flailed to keep his head afloat.
Small. Sasuke had been so small, teeth chattering from the freezing touch of the ocean, it's depth unknown, no star or sun capable of heating it to a pleasureable temperature in the wildness of the Heavenly expanse.
The boat had been crowded with sails, too many for Hinata to know or even understand their functions. White and shining against the constant black of space.
"What are you doing, little brother?" Itachi's voice rang out with his mirth. The voice of a supposed murderer, traitor, defector.
"We are not ducks! Come, come." His hand, so much bigger than Sasuke's had scooped him by the neck of his tunic, plucking him like ripe fruit out of the water to safety.
"I can sail." Sasuke's reply was easy, though his dark eyes watched with calculation as Hinata blinked the memory away, trying to push under the voice of the one who had hurt him so.
Such a kind voice it was.
"Ah, there you are." Kabuto's voice was a welcome distraction as they stepped through from the steadily more bottle necked cave the corridor had become to the sudden nauseatingly wide open maw of a huge cavern.
The candle did nothing to push back the darkness. Nothing at all.
Kabuto's face cracked into a smile at the sight of Hinata's gawking stare. Above a sea of black swam in eerie eternity, sharp jagged stalactites pointed threateningly from the abyss.
Stalagmites rose in response from around their feet, sometimes thick as tree trunks and the thought that they were in a huge mouth made her arms tighten around Sasuke nervously.
The way her heart was beating was the same frantic pulse of a dragonmoth's wings and breathless she watched as Kabuto stepped forward to gather the bag Anko had over her shoulder.
Behind him the glitter of light from the candle in the Chattel's hand and the torch light that Kabuto had burning stuck into the hardened ground sprinkled itself over a black moving expanse of what looked like oil. As her Hawk eyes adjusted however Hinata felt herself suffocating, the air leaving her.
The oil was an endless void, as expansive as the night sky, with the rippling white of light bouncing off it's strangely still face but for the constant lazy current that shifted ever sideways. The blinking of the light's reflection was like a million tiny eyes and sitting anchored to a stalagmite protruding close to a rocky edge the vessel came into view.
It was an ancient thing, with the new timber standing honey yellow against the gray solidity of the original frame. Most of it appeared to have been rebuilt, from the bow to the stern and the single mast dangling with ropes keeping a rolled curl of fabric that was the sail tight at the top.
It was not a large vessel, already sitting low in the watery darkness with supplies her eyes could discern only as shapeless shadows. Everywhere, darkness, shadows, black.
"Hinata."
It should not have startled her as it did, but his voice in her ear had her jumping, fingers tightening in a loop around his neck and shoulder, and it was only when the concern flickered briefly through the features of his face that she realized her breath was coming fast and painful, blurring the edges of the inky world she had wandered into.
"She is hyperventilating." Kabuto's calmness was contrasted sharply by the flutter of his hands motioning for Sasuke to lower Hinata to the ground.
"Breathe." Sasuke's order was soft and lethally sharp in her ear, the perfume of his person overwhelming as she struggled to bring her rapid heart beat and struggling breath under control.
"It is the cave." Anko muttered, throwing the items the Chattels were passing to her into the boat, her robes swirling in the inky dark of the waters. Face tight she fixed Hinata with a look. "You have never been below ground, I take it."
It was formless, the fear. It was everywhere. Darkness with no hope for light, an endless void, a black without stars, without suns without wind. The air was dead, the rock wall leaking fluid that was as rancid to her mind as the Profane's blood.
White knuckled her hands gripped Sasuke's arms, desperate not to be left alone in the terror quickly aiming to swallow her whole.
"If she cannot handle the underground..." Kabuto began carefully and his eyes flickered to Sasuke's. "...perhaps she must-"
Firmly, without giving the blonde a second to finish the sentence Sasuke took Hinata's chin, forcing her face to focus on him.
"Slowly." Curt and to the point he stared at her, eyes bright and intent. "Slowly, breathe, as I breathe."
Shaking visibly, Hinata blinked hard, straining to do as he commanded, following the in and out pull of his breath, the rise and fall of his chest.
The ebony darkness of his gaze clarified, with each inhalation she could see the black as it was, a place where things hid. Secrets, some dangerous, primal and violent, but also gentle, memories tainted with color, with light and music and laughter.
If the darkness of the underground was as the darkness in his eyes she could live through it. She would willingly do so. For the secrets within, for the possibilities that hid somewhere in the shadows.
It had happened without her knowing, without her realizing as it transpired that knowing those secrets was a vital thing inside of her.
As vital as the blood, the bone, the sweat and tears that made her up, that linked her irrevocably to the members of her Clan, to the soil of the Veil, to the salvation of her people.
As vital as all the silver ichor, and the clear tears that they exchanged to keep each other alive.
"There." The whisper of his breath on her face triggered a last deep inhale, a shudder through her spine, and Kabuto's resigned withdrawal towards Anko and the Chattels throwing the last of their supplies onto the ship.
"Do not forget." His hands lifted her partly to her feet and then once more with ease into his arms. "There is nothing in this darkness that can blot me out, I am a star. All I do is burn."
At his words the pulse of silver echoed through his skin, rivulets of light that thundered with magic in twisting patterns of his veins as he stepped into the ink of the underground river and towards the tethered vessel where Rasu now sat patiently waiting for them to board.
"Please," The Chattels called before Hinata could choke out a reply. "Our debt is one we can never hope to repay but it is our wish, and the wish of our Clan that we would come with you, to serve and protect as best we can. It is not enough, but all we can offer." Falling onto their knees they pressed their foreheads to the triangle shape their fingers and thumbs made on the dark rocky stone. "Lord Star, Princess Hinata-"
"No." Sasuke answered while HInata stared in shock. Turning purposefully away he splashed through the shallow water to the ship, heaving Hinata over it's lip and depositing her onto a pile of furs and knitted wool tucked between parcels.
"Please, we beg you Lord Star-"
"If you wish to be of service, find the Valley of the Hawk Eyed."
All three Chattels raised their heads then, grabbing at the order with the same enthusiasm of a child being given a gift. "The Hawk Eyed." One breathed.
"Find them. Inform them of their ..." he paused, glanced at Hinata's pinched mouth and swallowing a smirk continued, "...heiress' whereabouts. They will be thankful for the information."
"Well, if we're offering up passengers." Anko added then, motioning to Kabuto's silent forlorn face with one hand. "You should take Kabuto. His abilities will make the trip easier for Hinata, and safer. Although the maps we provided are well detailed and recent with our exploration over the years it is not the same as having someone who has been through the black of the river."
Stunned, the blonde stared at his friend, mouth open in his disbelief. "Anko- what?"
"No." Surprise fluttered over everyone's faces at the sound of Hinata's firm unshakeable rejection.
"N-no?" Even more bewildered, Kabuto swung around to stare at Hinata, eyes wide.
"No. With the Chattels leaving, who will take care of the women and children? Who will make sure they are well, who can wield magic with ease? You and Anko are needed here, Kabuto." Hinata shook her head, and firmly keeping her eyes from Sasuke she murmured. "I will be as safe as I can possibly be."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than Sasuke's hand was lifting a knife from the belt looped around his thigh, slicing through the rope that tethered the vessel to the land without waiting.
Smoothly he lifted himself inside and did not look back, focused on the coming darkness as the river silently pulled them further into the black.
"Be careful!" Anko's call echoed, a neverending song that looped onto itself long after Hinata's waving pale palm disappeared and the shadows swallowed them whole.
In the oppressive silence the Chattels and Kabuto turned to Anko expectantly, and she sighed, eyes fixed on the place where the star had disappeared.
"Did he tell you where they are heading?" Carefully, she slid her eyes to Kabuto who was frowning at her, still disgruntled by the offer she had made of him.
"Yes." Darkly he turned back towards the palace. "Hell's Maw."
The Chattel's spines stiffened at these words, eyes wide as they followed their new leaders within. "But.." one began and Anko shook her head. "Hinata was right, after all. She is safer with him than she would be anywhere else on this dying world. She is likely safer than we are even now, with two threats coming in fast. You three, go and gather the women and children and find somewhere safe for them to hide until we have finished with our uninvited guests. Guard them, in the event of... things going sour. Stay hidden until the danger is passed. Do not engage."
Uncertain but unwilling to argue the three girls nodded and hurried down the hall quickly.
"Even with this to deal with, you would offer me up like some girl with a dowry?" Kabuto finally snapped in their momentary solitude, drawing a furtive mirthless laugh from Anko's throat.
"Oh Kabuto. I did it for your own good, now you know."
"Know what, exactly?"
"That those two are made of the same stardust and veil soil, they are branches on the same tree, petals on the same bloom."
Flushing red, Kabuto glared, unable to reply.
"There was no room for you there." She smiled gently, patting his back hard. "You are stuck with me for now, much your loss."
In the silence they walked, Kabuto frowning and Anko trying not to smile too knowingly until they reached the entrance hall, freezing at the sight of the double doors wide open and the Chattels standing with swords drawn before two tall figures.
Behind them the suns' first light was tainting the heavens a bloody orange and red, smearing the innards of the night across the panorama of the wasteland.
"What-" Kabuto began and froze as the dark blue skinned and feral face of the one creature smiled. Rows upon rows of merciless teeth glinted at them as he grinned and calmly he lifted the enormity of the blade in his hand to his shoulder.
Beside him the more normal looking of the two scanned their faces in turn, his manic grin as unnerving as the rows of teeth on his partner.
"Salutations." He drawled lazily, spinning the wicked scythe in his hand so it hummed rhythmically. "This is Kisame." He jerked his head towards the blue fiend. "And I am Hidan."
Settling slowly into a battle stance he let his smile widen to disproportionate standards bordering on insanity.
"We come in search of a Fallen Star."
At the hiss of Anko's sword drawing from it's sheath Kabuto gold magic sparked to life and solidified into his blade.
"Finally." Hidan sighed deeply. "I have been itching for a good romp."
In the darkness of the cave, with only the glow of Sasuke's magic and glowing ichor to light the way Hinata glanced back once more, feeling the festering anxiety of leaving those who had become dear to her behind.
"Will they be all right?" It was a silly question, one he could not possibly answer with any certainty but he sighed.
"They will try. And that will need to be enough."
End of Book One