updated 3-14-15

Chapter 17: Found

"Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around..."-Bob Marley

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Hinata ran down the steps at a quickened pace, her legs forcing her down the long stairs. Even though she felt that he wouldn't catch up to her, she couldn't help the extra push that she was receiving from her body to go faster. She soon made it to the final staircase -

A large sound burst into the air, shaking the staircase and sending waves of heat from above her. She screamed as she was thrown down the flight of stairs, unceremoniously hitting her head against the wall adjacent to herself.

The shaking didn't stop - dust and pieces started to fall above her, and soon she could hear loud, piercing screams coming from outside the door. The air began to get hot, and she could feel sparks coming down towards her. Unbearable heat started to break out.

Hinata froze and looked back up.

The top floor was on fire, quickly spreading down the steps behind her. She would burn alive if she didn't get up. Ignoring the sudden pain that shot up through her leg, she forcefully threw the door open only to come in contact with more chaos.

Everyone was covered with white dust, and were coughing and choking. Policemen and firemen were littering the lobby in colors of red and blue. Some people lay on the ground, bloody or bruised due to the chunks from the ceiling.

Her heart dropped. "S-Sasuke…" She'd left him on that floor. She'd left him there. If he was dead -

She gripped her dress. Sasuke stood in the middle of the lobby, surrounded by worried fans, the police who guarded him, and the medical team, who looked to be ushering him outdoors. He was perfectly fine save for a little dust on him, but that hopeless look on his face.

HInata sighed in relief. He was okay. He was the least of her worries now. She found a way to make a beeline for the a door; it wasn't hard, seeing as everyone was more concerned for someone else, particularly the ones in the ballroom. She soon slipped out the back door.

Sasuke's eyes meet her scurrying figure. He let out a deep breath, his face becoming placid as he was ushered outside.

Anne..please hold on… Hinata quickly reached into her purse and pulled out the ginger's phone, not hesitating in typing in the name of the building.

When the location came up, she grimaced. It on the other side of Paris.

How could she possibly make it there in time?

I don't have time to waste! She took off her heeled shoes and strapped them onto the side of her purse. She started to run, letting the phone guide her to her destination. She couldn't shake that bad feeling she had...

Deidara threw the weapon on the ground and held his head in his hands, gripping his long locks in sheer frustration and hopelessness. Sasori soundlessly picked it up off the ground, his face etching that of hopelessness as well.

They had searched every place they knew, but found nothing. Every henchman they had came in contact plead 'unidentified'.

There was absolutely no trace of Anne in France.

Sasori wiped off his hands."Maybe they relocated her to another city in Europe? They couldn't have gone that far without the cops snooping the area. We just need more time..."

Deidara ignored him, throwing his head up towards the sky. My world is falling apart...

His worst fears were slowly coming true. After so many years that'd gone by, she could truly be gone. "It's my fault."

"Deidara…"

"I shouldn't have left her side - I never left her side. I was always there...I should've came back when I'd graduated. I should've just - " He sighed. "Damnit! Damn it all!"

Memories flashed through his mind.

He would never see that meek smile grace her lips again. He'd never get to hear her constant tales of why she'd kept his hair long. He'd never hear her gentle laugh when he'd have his hair down. Her fingers would never comb through his hair again. He'd never get to hear the three words that started and ended a conversation between them - "I love you."

But what hurt the most is that she'd never get to ask her 'why?'.

Why did you abandon me? Why didn't she stand up for me? Was it because of dad's fights, or how he threatened to leave you? Did you not love me enough to fight for me?

All of those questions that he wanted to ask her had vanished, and now the overwhelming guilt of hating her filled his heart.

Sasori just stared. There was nothing he could say right now that Deidara would take. All hope seemed gone. He put a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "We should just give Mondine the money to take to the Uchiha. It's risky, but we have no other option at this point."

Deidara nodded from his position on the ground and tiredly looked up at the full moon in the sky…

Are you gone already? Will you abandon me again?

She'd been running for thirty minutes now, but to her it felt like an hour. The hot night air was becoming unbearable, and her bare feet were taking beatings from the plaza boardwalks situated around Paris. She was also perspiring a little and her hair wasn't helping out her predicament. It would have been so much better if she could have gotten a taxi.

I can't stop now! I don't have much time! I have to find her before Sasuke -

"Ah! Mademoiselle! What a pleasure to see you again!"

Hinata stopped when she heard that Japanese dialogue that hinted French accent. She turned and almost burst of happiness; it was the chauffeur from before. He was casually waving to her from his taxi truck, a bright smile on his beard-clad face.

"What are you doing walking the streets all by yourself? Paris isn't exactly the safest place in the world you know…"

"I'm trying t-to get somewhere, but I can't speak f-french so...I thought I could walk, but that's proving to not be the best idea…", she said, walking towards the truck. "You're s-still on duty tonight right? D-Do you mind taking me someplace?" She threw one of her shoes away from her bag and looked into her purse, frantically searching for anything she could find. The bluette soon pulled out her $200 from her job.

This'll do… She held it out. "H-Here. You can have this for your trouble."

The man looked shocked. "Madame, you don't have to-"

"Just take it...please." She put it in his hands and opened the passenger door.

The man glanced at her warily little before starting up the truck and going down the road. "Where to, miss?"

Hinata lifted up the dress and held it in her shaking hands. "Zeour's Shack..." Please be okay...

He smiled. "That place hasn't been used in years. Not even in the phone books have a thing for abandoned buildings?"

Hinata blushed as she looked down at her hands, having the sudden feeling to poke her fingers together, but decided not to. Her stomach was queasy and she felt an overlaying dark cloud over her head. She wasn't afraid to admit it; she was scared. But not 'I'm so scared I'm going to die'. More like 'I'm so scared someone will die'. It was obvious that something wasn't right. She looked out the window towards the buildings they were passing.

What could it be? She heard a little coughing sound beside her, and looked to see the chauffeur glance at her before nervously coughing again.

Hinata raised a brow in confusion.

He just laughed. "So... did you attend the ball of Mr. Elipope Roman?" Hinata nodded quietly. "That is an..amusing dress you have on dear."

She gave him a dull look, evening the dress out over the slits on her side."Keep driving, please." He was right - Paris wasn't the safest city in the world.

THe man smiled sheepishly at her and started to whistle a tune. Hinata continued to stare at him with dull eyes. Was he the odd puzzle of the picture? She dismissed the thought and boldly turned on the radio so that the tense atmosphere could evaporate.

The radio started to talk in the foreign language at a rapid, dramatic pace. She knew what it was. The bomb.

"Someone tried to bomb Uchiha! Ha, I knew that one day it would happen! That boy has trouble on his tail!"

The bluette looked towards the man in suspicion, but played it off in an innocent tone. "What do you mean?"

He looked towards her as he stopped at a red light. "Everyone around Paris knows that Uchiha is pushing drugs into the city of Love! It's been going on for five years now!"

Hinata froze, her eyes going wide.. He had been dealing since he was sixteen. When Gaara had told her that Sasuke was involved in drugs, she hadn't known it was international.

She couldn't believe it. "How do you know all of this? Were you involved in contraband also?" Hinata gave him an accusing glare, which made him laugh jovially.

"Of course not, silly girl! I said that mostly everyone knows in Paris! I know about it because I used to be Tshikyo Mondine's Chauffeur!" His words caused her to freeze again. "Yup, Fugaku-sama and Sasuke used to come to Paris every year to attend CEO meetings and launches. I used to drive them! Somehow, Sasuke and Tshikyo started to talk, and suddenly BOOM!"

That explained everything. That bomb had to be Mondine's doing - who else could it have been.

And Sasuke was doing these delinquents things, but why? He was so successful that he didn't have to do anything his entire life and still be remembered! Why would he do these things when they were unnecessary, but most of all, illegal? Was he that power-driven that he would go to such means?

"W-Why didn't anyone tell?"

"What would be the point? The police already know about it. They are bribed by the man anyway. He basically owns this beautiful city and is tainting it with that despicable substance..."

Hinata looked out the window. Was power that important? And if it was, could it be the sole reason as to why he was controlling? Power could be used for so many different things - just what did he need so much of it for? It puzzled her.

"Here we go."

'Zeour's Shack' was lit up in bright red on the building, and Hinata couldn't help but feel a chill go through. Now what? What if she had come too late? What if Anne was dead?

She gulped. Now's not the time to be having second thoughts, Hinata. This was it.. She shakily got out of the truck. "T-Thank you for - w-what are you doing?"

He started to get out of the car, that grin widening on his face. She took a step back as he started towards her.

"W-What - "

He smiled widely at her."I'm afraid I cannot leave your side, mademoiselle. Sasori would have my head if I let you go wherever without supervision."

Hinata gripped the one shoe hanging off her bag.

He held up his hands in defense. "Who do you think tracked down Deidara? It was me!"

She let the shoe fall next to her hip a little, still wary. "So…you're like Sasori-san's spy?"

He smiled once again. "The one and only!" She felt a weight lift off her chest and without knowing, she hugged the man in front of her. He went still for a minute, but quickly returned the hug from the voluptuous girl. "I'm glad that you are happy, but why?"

Hinata let go and clasped her hands together. "I-I know where Anne is! She's right here behind this building!"

The man gave her a serious look, but she continued to nod and soon he got the picture; she wasn't lying. The chauffeur took out his phone and started to dial someone while walking back towards the car.

Hinata took a moment and sat down on the steps of the building, her thoughts running wild.

She was elated, yet she still felt that tightness in her stomach. Something just didn't feel right. The longer she waited for the man to get off the phone, the more nervous she became.

A strange sound hit her ears, stilling her insides. Hinata looked back at the building behind her, her heart dropping, her ears ringing. It was a yell. She was positive that it was. A cry for help. Help.

She stood and walked to the side of the building, spotting a vacant alleyway. A battered sign hung from one side of the walls. Bibliothèque.

There was a building behind this building.. It was plain, small, bare, abandoned. Ino and Konan had told her it was behind the Zeour's. That tight feeling in her stomach increased. She couldn't sustain the pain. She looked back at the truck. He was still on the phone.

I can't wait any longer...Hinata started towards the alleyway, leaving the man oblivious to her absence. I have to find her...

The small building turned out to be a library.

Hinata found herself in a dark room after countless looks through its many vacant rooms. It was hard to see, but the bright moonlight coming from the grim-smeared windows gave her enough light to see the path that she took. The amount of dust in the air and on the bookshelves she passed was thick. The library looked to be a product of years of neglect.

She creaked open a door and peeked inside before sighing for the upteenth time and closing it again. Where are you?… She looked up at the large staircase in front of her. Only place I haven't checked... If the chauffeur brought others, then they could recheck the bottom floor later.

Her instinct was guiding her.

Each step she took, her stomach tightened in apprehension, as if she was getting warmer. She didn't stop - her legs moved on their own. It felt like before when she'd walked towards that church and seen Gaara. God had to have been pushing her. Fear would've stilled her at the first step.

She went up another row of steps before she turned down a hall. As she neared the end, she spotted a door, rutty and out of place.

Her heart started to beat rapidly. This was it. It had to be it. Slowly, she took silent steps toward the door.

This has to be it. It has to…

The bluette put her hand on the knob and began to twist it…

Are you here, Anne?...

"Hello there."

Hinata let go of the knob and tried to strike with the shoe in her hand, but her attempt was in vain. He grabbed her wrists, effectively pinning her to the wall next door as if he'd been waiting for this moment his entire life. She started to struggle against him, but that only caused him to push her further into the wall.

"Calm down, miss - I'm not going to hurt you."

Hinata stopped and opened her eyes. Straightaway she noticed his very pale complexion. She slowly looked into his eyes and stared into darkness. It was even darker than Sasuke's if that was even possible.

The man pulled away and gave her a smile. It didn't fit the moment. "You're Uchiha-san's wife, Hinata Hyuuga." She nodded wearily as she rubbed her wrists. "What are you doing here, Mrs. Uchiha? Shouldn't you be in Japan planning on a way to win against Nara-san?"

Hinata glared at him slightly. That'd hit a nerve. "Where is Anne-Sophie?"

His smile dropped. Hinata backed away from him - he scared the wits out of her.

"That - " A loud slam radiated throughout the rundown library, making the rats on the floor and walls scurry about.

Hinata's mouth was covered and, in no less than a second, she found herself in the room. She didn't protest against him; that didn't seem like a good idea at the moment. The man shut the door behind them and motioned her to go to the closet. She nodded and quickly went towards the door, not wanting to make him angry. She opened it -

What came to her sight stunned her.

The closet wasn't a closet; it was another room. What?

"C-Cameras?" They were all over the walls, projecting the outside and the inside. A security camera room. Hinata gasped when she viewed the outdoor camera. The chauffeur was on the ground, unconscious. There's no blood though. Thank God… There was a chance that he was still okay.

She averted her eyes to another camera, where three tall men looked to be entering the small building. She could see the leader's face clearly and could tell that it wasn't her husband. This man had a grueling smirk. It disgusted her.

The door open and closed, causing her to jump.

pale man was there again, but this time his face was etched into a frown. "Looks like he made it after all."

That was no doubt Mondine and his men.

Hinata let out a sigh of relief. "H-He's here to get Anne.", she whispered softly to him. "I'm glad…"

"Why are you so concerned about someone else when your life is in danger?" His question was out of the blue, and Hinata would have thought it to be taunting if he didn't have that innocent, questioned look on his pale face.

"D-Deidara-san needs her." She glanced at the cameras before looking back at him. "And if there is a chance that I can help save an innocent life from the hateful sinners of this world, then I will try to save them. My well being doesn't matter right now."

The male looked at her a moment longer and turned his gaze to another point in the room.

"I have been taking care of her for three weeks now. I help her bathe, I feed her, and I even give her medical care, but she's growing sick and I can't conjure up a thought as to why she's behaving this way."

Hinata froze when she followed his gaze. "A-Anne-Sophie…" She hadn't even noticed her presence in the room.

She was thin and pale, nothing like the picture that new stations around were displaying. But this was her - that hair, that china doll-like appearance. Hinata rushed forward and touched her arm, only to pull it back in fright. Despite the amount of blankets layered over her, she was cold, frightenly so.

Hinata looked back at the pale man who stood standing in silence, just watching her. "How long has she been like this?"

He turned away from her stare like a child. "Days. I did everything I could."

Hinata looked down at her. He wasn't being dishonest - she was clean and her hair was groomed nicely.

The girl pulled the woman to her chest and held her. At this point, all she could do was try to warm the unconscious woman.

"Do you think...she'll be okay?"

"I-I hope so…"

Hinata really hoped so. She brushed some of Anne's golden locks from her face. Deidara came to mind instantly. She looked back up at the camera and saw that the shorter of the two men was still at the entrance with that smirk on his face. Another man stood beside him, a mask covering his face. French dialect hit her ears. It didn't seem right.

She held the woman closer. "What are they saying?"

He didn't look away from the camera. "Drug trade and Uchiha-san."

Hinata's eyes widened. Sasuke. "What are they saying about him?"

"Apparently there was a bomb in Uchiha's room, which means that -"

"H-He's okay. He left just in time..." So Mondine did have something to do with it.

The pale man looked surprise, but that was short lived when he glanced back up at the camera. "Now he's talking about you now. You were with Uchiha-san?

The bluette didn't want to hear what he was saying about her. "B-Briefly…" If I hadn't left that room...if Sasuke and I had… That chilled her bones. She saved Sasuke.

"Do you know this man?" He pointed to the fellow beside the tall Mondine.

Hinata looked closely from her position and soon nodded, anger clouding her mind. "H-He was the guy I had seen before Sasuke asked me up to his room. I knew something was off about him." That fall in the lobby wasn't coincidental afterall.

The man nodded at her and was about to get up, but paused in midair. His eyes widened and he snapped his gaze on the blonde woman in her arms.

"W-What wrong? What did they say?"

"They want to kill her."

"What?", she looked down at Anne. "N-No! But I thought - "

"She's worth more dead than alive. Insurance."

Hinata snapped her lavender orbs back on the screen and saw that Mondine was grinning widely. So he didn't want his wife back? All this time he was planning on getting rid of Sasuke and his wife. Because of drugs?

A loud thump was heard outside the walls.

"Oh no." They were approaching the end door. She pulled the woman even further and looked around, trying to find a hiding spot.

"Stay here and watch her and watch her."

She nodded once more and watched him close the door behind her. The girl looked back down at the woman in her arms and gave a small smile.

Deidara's going to be so happy to see you… She gasped and grabbed her phone from her purse. This was Sasori's phone so surely he would have Deidara's number in it. The girl looked back up at the cameras to make sure the pale man was gone before looking through the redhead's contacts -

"S-Sai…"

Hinata jumped when she heard that and, in the process, fumbled with the phone. She looked down at the woman in her arms, who was now frowning, yet still unconscious. She'd said 'Sai'. She must've been dreaming.

Stay focused, Hinata, the girl chanted to herself as she typed in the letter 'D'. The blond's name didn't pop up. She sighed heavily in anxiousness and soon stopped fumbling with the phone and closed her eyes. What would Sasori put Deidara's name as? She thought for a moment before typing in a profanity. When she put in 'B', 'Barbie' popped up.

Hinata sweat-dropped, but pressed the name and dialed it. "T-That is so l-like him..."

"Localisez la femme."

They were close now.

Hinata looked back up at the camera. The pale man was nowhere in sight, only the figures of the two burly men situated at the door. She clutched the phone as it rung. Guns...they have guns… They were large, scary, dangerous...

They were here to get rid of Anne-Sophie.

They finally picked up."What is it?"

The girl slowly got up from the mattress, her eyes never leaving the camera projections on the wall.

The men on camera opened the door and started to look around, by now finding that it was empty.

"I-I found her.", she whispered into the phone. They came closer to the 'closet'. "The library behind Zeour's. I-Isolated door on the right side of the second floor." One of the men held his gun up and proceeded to twist the doorknob.

"Hinata-"

A gunshot rang out in the room, terrorizing the girl and springing tears into her eyes.

"Hinata!"

The phone ended up on the floor. She watched as blood oozed onto the wooden floorboards before her, spreading towards every crack in the wood.

The pale man held a gun in his hand, that fake smile on his lips. "Mission accomplished."

Hinata shook in the corner of the room, looking away from the screen.

They were dead, lifeless, gone. Her eyes had never seen so much blood, so much gore. She felt dirty, and scared. Realization hit her, and she turned to face this pale man.

What if he turned that gun on her? Would it hurt? Would it kill her instantly, or make her wallow in pain before she slipped into the stillness of death?

He stared at her, for a very long time, and she stared at him. His dark eyes held nothing in them, so she couldn't tell what he was thinking. Hinata started to back away from him, and soon made it back to Anne-Sophie's side. He looked to be contemplating something, questioning in his eyes.

But when he looked at Anne, his eyes softened and Hinata finally got it.

"I will help you get her out.", he stated. "I would like to save her from…the hateful sinners of this world as well."

Hinata shakily got up and smile wearily at him, not entirely believing him. He slowly picked up Anne-Sophie and went out the door, stepping over the bodies lying on the ground without a second thought.

"Let's go."

"Okay - !" She was about to scurry after him, but looked up at the camera once more. She held her mouth in her palm and screamed into it.

Deidara was at the entrance, wide-eyed in shock. Mondine was at the entrance as well, grin present. A gun was in his hand, hole pointed in the center of his chest.

Hinata grabbed the pale man's shirt quickly. He turned towards her in question.

"P-P-Please, help him! Please.", she whispered to him, her tears coming down, flowing down her neck.

But it was too late.

Multiple gunshots were heard, and Hinata looked towards the screen.

"Deidara!", she screamed. But to no avail.

Deidara was on the ground. Blood emerged from his torso.

Hinata fell to the ground, heart breaking for unknown and obvious reasons.

He was dead.