Mother never screamed. She was like the snowfall, a quiet deadly force that arrived in silence. Inevitable.
But she screamed that day.
Still too small to reach Mother's collarbone, but wiry with strength that would soon come, Hinata had followed at her heels into the shadowed chill of the mountain woods. The gleaning basket large and uncomfortable on her back.
Rubbery mushrooms had filled the edges of her fingernails with dirt as she cut them loose, nuts hard against her rough palms when she tossed them to the basket on her back. Mother pointed out the bounty, pale eyes shifting always through the trees, hand on her dagger, feet silent as snowflakes on water.
But she screamed that day.
Demon foxes were not particularly malicious though their friendliness had enough caprice to make their people wary. This one, with almond shaped eyes and flickering flame tails had caught sight of Hinata crouched at the base of a tree, slicing through the stem of a long limbed white tuber when her mother's voice ripped the stillness to shreds.
"Hinata! Move!"
Hinata moved.
The knock of the solid deck beneath her ribs made her breath catch in her throat, forcing her to suck in air that was dusty and flecked with debris. Blinking through the haze she struggled to her feet on the tilting floor of the vessel, eyes wide as she surveyed the cracked mast and the crumbling bow sinking quickly into the river's flow.
"Rasu!" she spun, searching for the beast in the chaos of the tree and shattered wood of the ship. "Amatera-"
The hornkey's warmth hit her from behind, his worried whine making her gasp out an anxious sigh of relief. "Come!"
They had seconds and she knew it, shoving wayward crates and rubbish knocked loose by the eviscerated tree she wrestled a canvas cloth covered in sown pockets onto the deck just as Sasuke landed beside her.
"Let's go."
"Yes," Hinata agreed, shoving Rasu's giant paws into the vest she had meticulously stitched together in the endless hours of drifting down the current. Heavy laden the canvas would have been impossible for her to carry for longer than a few steps but Rasu's giant muscled shoulders hardly flexed beneath the weight, complying easily as she buttoned the front up along his furry chest. Every chance she had of surviving without relying solely on Sasuke now rested in Rasu's care and as if sensing the importance of this he remained still, lupine face uncharacteristically stoic.
"Hinata." Sasuke snapped just as she stood, nodding as she panted for breath in the smoke and dust.
"Done. Rasu," she turned to the horkney, grabbing his slender muzzle in her hands to stare him right in his golden eyes. "Run."
It was a game they had played before and which he understood. Muscles bunching he bounded to the ship side, coiling together the strength of his legs for a gigantic leap from ship to riverbank before disappearing into the woods.
Coughing from the smoke Hinata turned only to find Sasuke glaring up river, eyes narrowed. Following his gaze made her pause, watching as birds exploded further back into the air in panicked handfuls. The trees creaked before falling away leaving gaping holes in the greenish white of the snow dusted canopy.
"What… is that?" she breathed, inching closer to him on instinct.
Sasuke shook his head, jaw flexed as his wings ripped from his back in a crunching song of snapping bone and stretching sinew. "We have to go."
A laugh, sadistic and wild, echoed through the canyon walls of the river, bouncing from stone to stone to mingle with the smoke and chaos that surrounded them. As though stunned the woods themselves became silent in reply, only the river dared to murmur with worry.
"Sasuke," Hinata whispered, fear coiling in her gut as the trees continued to shudder and shake, crumbling in the wake of whatever approached.
He didn't answer, though his magic unspooled around him in hazy stifling waves that popped and sparked with electricity. Flaring his wings he grabbed her around the waist, scooping her up beneath the knees so she had only a moment to cry out, arms flinging around his neck before the world dropped away and they shot into the heavens.
Above the fray the air became a salty clear coldness that soothed her irritated throat as she snatched in a breath and stared. The trees so far below, and the river banks all succumbed to Sasuke's wings and above it the heavens opened up meeting the oceans endless expanse in an elongated kiss.
In the distance a sky blue and pristine glistened with the twin suns light, covering the ocean in a sparkling brightness. But it was distant, almost untouchable for much closer and rumbling with force darkening gray clouds twisted and squirmed in the sky, turning the crashing waves of water into a simmering darkness that frothed.
It was beauty and terror at once and Hinata wondered that her Veil, precious and dear could never be just one.
The estuary flooded out into a cascade, sinking into the chaos of the waves lapping at giant rocky cliffs carved into overhangs by the ocean's relentless beating at their base. Hinata pointed with her chin, breathing her words into Sasuke's ear. "There, I will be able to see them from there."
Sasuke frowned, considering her suggestion only for a moment before he flinched, twisting in the air so sharply she screamed, squeezing her eyes shut as they fell several feet before Sasuke grunted with effort and straightened again.
Panting, Hinata strained in his arms, glancing back only to cry out in dismay. His left wing splattered silver in a fine mist with every flap and over his shoulder she could see the shapes of two men, one with arm raised to catch the scythe that spun back into his grip like a boomerang.
She knew those shapes, knew the scythe that had sliced a wicked wound into Sasuke's pale feathers.
"Sasuke," Hinata breathed, cold blooming in her gut like the death of spring. "Sasuke, that's the same men that-"
"I know." Through gritted teeth Sasuke tightened his grip around her.
Neither of them mentioned Kabuto, or Anko or the Chattels they had left behind, bracing instead for the crash of their bodies to the cliffside.
Hanabi had never hungered for anything but movement, and might. Or, she had thought so until recently. It had taken time to realize Konohamaru was a kind of craving she could never satisfy. Watching him out of the corner of her eye, wondering always where he lingered, glad every time she caught him studying her from afar silent but for the mirth that lit up his eyes.
There was no more hunger in her anymore, however. Not even the desire for it to return. There was if she was honest with herself a cold endless grief instead. She lay in the warmth of her blankets day in and day out, afraid to ask where he was, terrified of the weakness in her bones.
Dimly she wondered that the memory of the Star's blood lingered at the back of her mind, needling her with an echo or something like thirst.
Perhaps the haze of exhaustion would fade at the star's blood on her tongue, the pain of movement dimming to a manageable sting. Perhaps then she would be able to face the question of Konohamaru's whereabouts and the possibility that he was gone.
Eyes stinging with something hot and awful Hanabi rolled onto her side, curling tight in the warmth of her blankets as she tried to breathe and found it as painful as holding her breath too long.
In the half dark of late evening, with eyes closed the sound of voices reached her ears easily and she stilled, distracted from her heart's agony for a moment.
It was a familiar voice that spoke though it took a time for Hanabi to fully comprehend that it was Tenten, joyful smiling Tenten sounding lethal as the edge of a knife.
Wincing at the effort and the dull throb of heat at the movement Hanabi forced herself to push up on her elbow, managing just barely to sit up when the sliding door of her room rocked on it's track and then shattered beneath the force of two of her Father's attendants being thrown into her room.
Dishes in lacquered shining colors on the low tables that had flanked her bed shattered and rolled as the men struggled to their feet. Crushing the ceramic shards beneath her boots Tenten entered, a storm contained in skin leashed by the clench of her teeth.
Fists raw and bloody she faced the men rushing to stand, their voices shouting at her treachery. Hanabi shook, eyes huge in her face as she struggled to her knees.
"Get out of the way." Tenten seethed, flexing her raw knuckles before clenching her fists once more and lowering herself into fighting stance.
"Tenten," Hanabi's voice wavered. "Tenten, what-?"
The men shoved forward, hands grabbing at the knives always sheathed on the hips of their people for the sake of their survival and now with the aim to destroy.
"No!" Hanabi shrieked, heart pounding as she fought the weakness of her body to stand. "Don't!"
In the confines of wood floors, ancient smooth walls and the delicate paper screens of the Villa the fight was a tight frantic dance with Tenten's body a precise instrument of destruction. Dodging the swing of a knife she slammed her elbow down into the stretched arm, curving back the cracked limb at the same time the man cried out, hoisting his body over her curved spine to crash into his incoming fellow.
There was no time between the two bodies crashing onto the shard covered ground before Tenten hauled herself over their limbs, thundering a rain of blows onto their faces so blood splattered in an arch that stained the tattered paper screen of Hanabi's wrecked bedroom door. A handful of crunching impacts later the men lay still, their bodies slumped though their chests rose in unsteady gasps.
Flinching at the wet redness that stained everything, Hanabi trembled, stunned to silence by the savagery of the creature that breathed out a long shaky sigh and rose from her knees. If it was Tenten, Hanabi did not recognize her as she flicked her hand, tossing more blood from her stained fingers to the wood floor before turning to sink down onto her knees in the cutting debris of the war she had made before Hanabi's bed.
Fear was not a familiar feeling and yet it rippled down Hanabi's spine as she gazed at the Shadow turned nightmare that pressed her forehead to the ground where the blood and shattered ceramic mingled.
"Tenten," Hanabi whimpered, chin trembling. "What is happening? What have you done?"
"I do not belong here." Tenten's hoarse voice said to the ground. "Not in this place where laws and rules keep me and bend me. I am a selfish, savage thing and I will leave if allowed but I beg you." her hands trembled as they clenched once more into fists. "Let me have him. Please. Let me have him."
There was only one such creature that could inspire such devotion in a being as fierce as Tenten and Hanabi felt her weakened body chill as realization erupted in chaotic sparks through her mind.
It was a familiar desperation she recognized in the prone spine of the Shadow before her, her muscles trembling with restraint.
Footsteps rushing in the corridor forced Hanabi to clench her teeth, struggling determinedly to her feet just in time to catch Shino and Kiba surveying unsurprised the disaster that had erupted from Tenten's hands.
"Quickly," Hanabi breathed, holding onto the wall as her legs fought to keep her standing. "Help me. Help me, Shino please…"
Tenten looked up in time to see along with Kiba and Shino as tears pooled in Hanabi's pale gaze and began to pour down her face, so like the soft eyes of their own Opaque.
"Where is my cousin?" Hanabi's voice lifted high with panic as Shino gathered her into his arms urged forward by the tears which made Hanabi look so much like his own dear friend and Lady. Kiba followed as he dragged Tenten to her feet.
"They have him on the viewpoint." Kiba said, pale face grim as he followed Shino's fluid steps through the Villa's corridors lined with wide eyed servants and stunned family unwilling to stop the ferocity of three Shadows and an heiress passing by.
"If we're lucky they will have stalled the execution when we left," he snarled, hands shaking even as they gripped Tenten to his side for fear her swaying gait would fail her.
"Hurry," Hanabi sobbed, too frightened to acknowledge the tears cascading down her face. "They can't! They can't!"
Shino ran, for the sake of the Opaque he still served, and who would rather die than let the night end with more blood spilled, no matter the rules.
The cliffside had taken chunks out of her knees, ripping the reinforced leather at the joints. Her hands too stung with the salty brine that covered everything and Hinata flinched both from pain and surprise as thunder roared from afar.
Sasuke panted beside her, rising onto an elbow, wings shaking as they ruffled and stretched.
The smell of his blood fought with the heady scent of the ocean and the nerve wrecking tang of electricity on the breeze as lightning sketched across the sky in the distance. Another rumble of thunder rippled over everything and Hinata flinched from it, shoving to her feet and stumbling to Sasuke.
"It is bad." Sasuke admitted through clenched teeth and one look at his wing told her he was not lying. The scythe had ripped a tear that stained everything silver from high where his wing met his shoulder blade downward towards the longer feathers at the bottom edge. It could have taken the wing clean off and Hinata marveled that Sasuke had been able to maneuver out of the blow enough to save the limb and minimize the damage.
"Won't it heal?" She said, trying to catch her breath as she helped him to his feet.
"Not fast enough," Sasuke winced, flexing the wounded wing and shaking his head. "I cannot retract like this."
It was a disadvantage and Hinata didn't have to be told. The wings had been more protective when dark, selfish in their design. Soft to the touch and pristine white, now Sasuke was vulnerable in a way he had not been before. A wider, more delicate target, weighed down and limited in his maneuverability. Hinata set her jaw hard, turning to search the seashore for their enemies only to find them ridiculously halfway up the cliffside, the one with the scythe climbing with the menacing stilted speed of a spider's crawl.
"Damned," Sasuke eyed the rolling gray of the clouds still a ways away but too close for comfort. "Those are rain clouds, yes?"
Hinata startled, listening to him over the sound of the blood rushing in her ears as her heart began to gallop. "Yes." she frowned, realizing they had yet to encounter such weather together. "It will be a bad storm, it's coming in fast."
His stillness was more unnerving than the usual flickering rage so like their night time fires that usually flexed when his magic was awake. Dark eyes brooding he turned from the boiling gray of the heavens and fixed her with a stare.
"I need you to trust me."
It came up her spine in a centipede crawl, the foreboding shiver. Thunder groaned again from afar and Hinata forced herself not to shake. He had said this to her before, a statement that when examined more closely was truly a question, his dark eyes pleading in the silence.
The reply came easy, just as it had the first time. Quietly Hinata cocked her head, communicating her puzzlement at this exchange.
"I always have."
She could remember the confusion on his face that day, and found none in this instance. There was knowing, and perhaps a little bit of something resigned in his nod, sighing sternly as he turned away.
"These are extensions of my brother." He murmured, watching as the monsters that had thus far hunted them climbed over the lip of the cliff's rough edge and stood to study them. They were too far to hear over the roar of the ocean and the clapping thunder, but just close enough to see the one's wide wild grin. He twirled the scythe in his hand in a spin that cut the air and displayed the stain of silver smeared across it's edge. Hinata found her fists clenching at her sides, something bubbling in an unfamiliar menacing heat in her chest.
"Do not underestimate them." Sasuke flicked his hand at his side, electricity hissing and chirping in ribbons of pale blue and blinding white before solidifying into the long curved sword he favored.
"Well, Little Star." on approach the blue skinned, monstrous looking thing sounded reasonable, even friendly as he called over the ocean's increasingly wild wind. "You gave us quite a chase."
"What a bore." the other man drawled, tucking the scythe up on his shoulder casually. "Nothing but trees and mountains and dullness." He grinned then, drawing the blade of his scythe closer to his face, sliding a finger through the silver that stained it. "But now we're finally getting to the interesting part."
Sasuke remained unmoved, hair dancing both from the coiling thickness of his magic and the buffeting wind.
"Is there something you need to say?" He motioned easily with his wounded left shoulder, as though the movement cost him nothing, though the blood continued to pour down the dancing feathers of his wing. "Perhaps say it before I slay you."
"Ah," the monsters glanced at each other, their expressions knowing. "They are indeed related."
"I am Kisame," this was offered with a grin from a mouth too full of teeth to make sense. Above the monstrosity of his maw his eyes glinted black as ink blots lacking pupil or emotion both. "This is Hidan. We serve the Lord Itachi."
"He is no Lord," Sasuke corrected, as though explaining something simple to a dim witted child.
"What makes a Lord but authority?" Kisame's smile turned sly. "Isn't that right, little one?" And his gaze traveled past Sasuke to Hinata who stiffened at his attention. Sasuke shifted his weight casually, wings cutting her off from view.
At Kisame's side Hidan's wicked smirk lengthened. "Come now, Kisame." He spoke firmly, gaze unwavering from Sasuke's face. "Enough talking."
"Wait," Kisame sighed, exasperation tainting his stern retort. Turning resolutely to Sasuke he continued. "Our task is to dissuade you from your path." He shrugged, "By whatever means."
"A suicide mission." Sasuke lamented thinly. Lifting the sword at his side he nodded his head. "Leave or die."
"Excellent." Hidan twisted the scythe in his hands in a wide arc. "I have so wanted to try my hand at a star again."
"Hidan." Kisame snarled, impatient. "Whatever you think you know, Little Star, you are mistaken." He bared his teeth. "We have traveled far and though the task our Lord gave remains, the method by which he hopes us to accomplish it is decidedly peaceful."
"Peaceful," Sasuke pronounced the word carefully, as though tasting it on his tongue and finding it bitter. "The Apostate knows nothing of peace."
Hinata flinched behind him, recalling with a vivid clarity his mother's blood stained mouth as she died in his arms and the frantic wail of Sasuke's young voice ripping out of his chest.
Kisame sighed, considering him at length before letting his gaze travel to Hidan. "So, it appears, does the Vindicator."
It was all the release Hidan had needed. One moment he was at Kisame's side, the next he flickered and reappeared scythe raised, manic smile wide before Sasuke.
Hinata barely dragged in a breath before the scythe came down on Sasuke's blade, the connection sparking and twisting tendrils of tiny lightning through the air before the force shattered the ragged stone beneath Sasuke's feet, pulsing a crater as the magic throbbed and spread.
The thunder groaned deeply as Sasuke twisted, sliding the scythe past him and flicking the sword in his hands to slice in a wide arc at Hidan's belly.
The monster danced back just in time, licking at the corner of his mouth as he smiled wide, chest rising and falling in a fast tempo Hinata feared had nothing to do with being out of breath but excitement.
"Oh yes, it's similar." He admitted, making the scythe hum as he twirled it at his side. "The Uchiha magic sings with the same strength, the same zeal."
Hinata didn't have to see Sasuke's face to know the snarl that would be tainting it when she heard his voice, low and metallic in it's resonance. "The Apostate and I are not the same."
Hidan cackled, "Oh no, Little Star. Do I hear the inflection of denial?" He laughed again. "You two really are the same."
Sasuke snapped forward, the crack of blade on blade fast enough to make Hinata flinch, gaze flickering from the fight to Kisame, casually eyeing her like a fellow spectator at the edge of a fighting ring.
They were too fast for her to join the fray. The stiff drying blood on her knees and the ache in her bones told her she had been naive to think she was doing well enough to no longer need the safety of Anko and Kabuto's ship.
Shakily she shifted her weight, aware all the while of the cliff edge at her back and the roaring waves lapping at the base of it too far down to be anything other than death at the end of a fall.
"Cute little thing," Kisame crooned, predatory gaze roving over her in one fluid motion. "You know not what you have walked into, do you?"
Hinata did not answer, spreading her stance, hands loose at her sides but ready.
Kisame's mouth twisted up into a smirk. "Well, well, well. Perhaps you do."
Hidan's sudden groan made them both turn, finding an arching spray of liquid ripping out of his shoulder as Sasuke's blade danced upwards in a slice from hip to collarbone.
Whatever fluid misted through the air was neither silver or red, but a mottled dark brown that stained Hidan's clothing with a foul oily residue.
He stumbled back, finding his balance with the end of his scythe on the stone and laughed, studying his wound with vague interest.
Sasuke remained poised with blade raised a few steps back, face impassive and eyes narrowed.
"He does not aim to maim." Hidan said, speaking either to himself or Kisame, his amusement tinged a little with something like approval. "Only to destroy."
Kisame crossed his arms, shrugging a shoulder as though mildly bored. "You were warned."
"True." Hidan's smirk remained, though his gaze slid incrementally towards Hinata. It was only a half second later that Sasuke realized what was going to happen but he was still too late.
They moved fast as sound, and even wounded Hidan appeared before her quick enough to catch her before she could snatch a breath. Fist around her throat, holding her out to the cliff edge she strained,unsure of whether she should be fighting his grip threatening to collapse her windpipe or hold on for fear of falling to end in the waves so far below.
Choking, she pressed the tips of her boots to the rough cliff edge, straining for more secure footing.
Just over Hidan's muscled shoulder Sasuke pressed the tip of his blade into the monster's throat, his gaze no longer black but red so void of expression it inspired a flicker of doubt in Hidan's mind.
"It's always the same weakness." Hidan dared, throat bobbing beneath Sasuke's blade tip.
A spark of lightning shattered through the sky and behind it thunder heaved. Kisame grunted in amusement at this, eyeing the storm as though he had only just become aware of it.
Sasuke's gaze fixed on Hinata dangling precariously on the edge and the same pleading look crossed his face.
I need you to trust me.
"Enough." Sasuke muttered, eyes glowing like a monster of his own as he turned back to Hidan. "I grow bored of this."
Kisame's curse left his lips only a second before Hidan's eyes widened in reply at the realization of his doom, body growing slack and grip loosening on Hinata's neck.
It was as she fell, sucking in a mouthful of sea breeze and terror that she watched Hidan's own hand take the scythe he so favoured before slicing off his own head.
TBC