Chapter 18
We sat with the mountains
with forgotten
pain
and self-made
identities
/
Lilies of lethe
bloomed in our hands
when we closed them together.
Broken shards from the window pane littered the ground. The high moon, full in the sky, freely entered the room and washed everything in its pale white glow. The shards on the floor shimmered like water inside a cave.
With no more barriers of window, wind too flowed freely inside the room and extinguished the candle flame which was in any case on its last breath.
In the room's darkness, both dojutsu users stood motionless with their eyes activated.
Hinata watched as clouds shifted in the sky and Sasuke's hair were touched by fresh moonlight. His back was covered with sweat, arched and bare. Alert but not alert enough to call it fear. Sasuke wasn't afraid of anything. But that was before the war. When he lived for only himself and his revenge.
Things have changed now. He had a home in Yume village.
The intruder had stopped laughing as soon as he felt Sasuke's grip tightening around his neck. The man's toes were no longer touching the ground and his face had gone red with lack of oxygen. Clearly, he wasn't a shinobi.
In the darkness of the room, Hinata looked at the man's face again and then cursed herself for not recognizing it before. Immediately she got off her bed and covered herself with her jacket.
Before Sasuke could stop her from moving closer to the man, she glared at him with angry eyes, inspecting every sign on his body to unravel his secrets.
"He's one of them. Sasuke, he was looking for you at Yamada's. But what is he doing here? He's no shinobi."
Sasuke let go of the man's neck and heard him fall with a thud on shattered glass. Free of Uchiha's hold, the man started laughing again.
"Uchiha Sasuke, our moon god. You must help us weave our village of dreams," the man said amidst choked laughter.
Annoyed, Sasuke kicked him in the stomach and watched blood pool out of his mouth. In response, the man touched his bloodied lips and murmured to himself. When Hinata kneeled down to make out his meaning, she found those familiar words once again.
"This is my discarded story This is my discarded story This is my discarded story"
Watching her shock, she saw him jump to his feet and head towards the window. But a civilian cannot really catch up to a shinobi's speed. His torso and left foot was out of the window but Hinata was fast enough to launch a grip on his right arm, stopping his escape. She was about to land a blow on his stomach, one that would have made him unconscious for the next few hours, but she saw him fish something out from his back.
A katana.
Noticing the cool metal in his hand, Hinata didn't let it deter her. She knew she would catch his weak arm the moment he'd attempt his blow. But to her surprise, instead of attacking her, the man cut off his own arm, hostage in her hands, and fell free, four floors down-blood pooling out of his head and a distorted smile on his lips.
Sasuke stood behind her, closing his hands around her shoulders.
Shivers ran down Hinata's spine.
Death. It keeps following.
As a shinobi, you're expected to present a stoic resilience when death comes at the door. You kill enemies. You kill soldiers. On the side of losing, you lose comrades, acquaintances, friends. But if you're lucky, not many of your friends or family members die. You train hard to make sure of that.
But then, there are those deaths that feel ominous. Evil. The ones that have no purpose.
And that's the greatest taboo in shinobi world-Death without any purpose. It makes you question it all.
Sasuke and Hinata soon left after the incident and found themselves scouring the nearby villages for any sign of Tsuki hideout.
It was noon now. They stopped for rest under a pine tree. They had climbed far above the valley. A journey, only possible for shinobis. At this height, they were once again greeted by snow and tundra winds of the mountain range. But the sun was out. Lingering clouds played with the sun rays and cast dangling shadows at whim.
Sitting close to each other, their view was spectacular. The sky was blue and the winds were strong. It played with both of their raven hair. Below, fresh river waters snaked through the valley at an invisible speed. They could no longer hear its sound. It appeared like a miniature of a river rather than a full-blown river.
Above, the snow-peaked mountains were beginning to attract more and more clouds. Mist cloaked the farthest peaks, and Hinata thought of Sasuke's home. Thought how, he too lived alone on a similar mountain covered in the cloak of unearthly mist.
Our moon god
Turning away from the mountains, she shifted her face to the right and looked at his face. He was watching the mountains in silence without betraying a single expression on his face. Wind played with the hair on his forehead in rhythmic waves. His face was young, but his eyes appeared tired. With such eyes, tired lines sneak in as inevitable fate.
But he was beautiful. After last night, Hinata kept returning to this thought. He was as beautiful as the view in front of her. She wanted to protect him at all cost. But then laughed at her foolish habits.
Breaking her gaze from his face, although with unconscious reluctance, she got up and cleaned the snow dustings off her clothes. Activating her dojutsu, she scanned the whole area once again for possible leads.
Every single detail downloading in her brain in a matter of seconds. A gasp of surprise no longer escaped her lips as it used to, but she felt the ghost of excitement in her chest. The surge of chakra and information was pleasurable.
Sasuke had seen her do this before but usually when they were already on a sprint. He got up and held her right hand. She shouldn't exhaust her chakra like this. She is awfully reckless about it.
Her dojutsu was like diving into the sea. But Sasuke's hand brought her back to the surface and that ghost of a gasp escaped her lips. Returning to her normal vision, she looked at him looking at her.
Suddenly, she wanted to share this with him. Wanted him to see the world the way she saw it. It was a powerful urge.
"You can access memories?" She asked.
Did she realize I have been in her memories? Sasuke thought in a silent meditation. But it didn't matter. He had been far more intimate with her.
"Yes"
"Can you access now-memories?"
"Now-memories?" There was a pause. But then he understood, "there is only one way to find out."
His fingers clasped around her fingers tightly and Hinata re-activated her Byakugan.
It worked
It was like diving into a pool. It reminded him of the Sharingan he was born with. Except this dojutsu wasn't for downloading the opponent's movements. This was for the terrains and objects. For miles and miles at a stretch, he could see. But there was more. The information of the terrain was in millions. It twinkled like stars. For her, the information and herself were inseparable, but for Sasuke, the knowledge was packed into neat little multitudes of stars. The stars that appear behind your eyes when you rub them too hard. And now he could touch them. He touched one and watched it unravel. It was information about a fish in the river flowing below.
Ayu. Baby Ayu. Separated from her school of fish. Faint green. Had chomped on a lot of algae and was in grave danger of being eaten, now that she had swam against the wrong side of the current. Its movement in the water had a signature. Each fish had its own. And Sasuke could read that too. Because Hinata had read it.
Uchiha Sasuke opened his eyes and marveled at the Hyuuga with fresh vision. Words were not required, she could simply read his admiration. But he showed it to her anyway by leaning in for a kiss.
"What a precious little thing you are. A world full of infinite dreams."
Hinata smiled her humble smile but her heart heaved with acknowledgement. To be acknowledged by a genius like him, for skill and not beauty, it was truly something. But his words pushed in a new feeling. Like trying to articulate a word you cannot remember. It is at the tip of your tongue but you cannot remember. Like an itch you cannot scratch.
A world full of infinite dreams. A world full of infinite dreams. A world full of infinite dreams
A village of dreams.
"Our village of dreams"
Our village of dreams
Yume
"Sasuke...we need to turn back. Right now."
A/N: Yume = Dreams
Also, Saamon, by jutsu, I literally meant jutsu. She was thinking about the healing treatment of bodily scars (metaphorically of course), which is a literal medical jutsu. Didn't feel the need to spell it out.