A/n: Did I update too fast last time? Lol. To those of you who reviewed, thanks a bunch! I LOVE all of your reviews! Sakura's little dream was just a hint of coincidence, is all. Warning: there's cussing in this chapter. And OOCness. I'm sorry. Lol.

Claim: My plot.

The Heir
Chapter Six
Marks

He could feel the legs of a chair bound to his own stiff ones. His body felt as if he had just been run over my a lawn mower. Kiba's eyes were closed with a blindfold but he wouldn't have wanted to see his own body anyway. His pride would probably be like a certain Uchiha's was when he saw his beloved physique.

How long had it been? Something inside told him it had been about a week; maybe more. His sadistic captors had been torturing him everyday, waiting for a chance for him to break like a fragile glass. They had fed Kiba, sure. But once, they made him eat and said it was his own precious dog he was downing. After that meal he had thrown everything up and didn't eat for a few meals.

Kiba felt a hateful feeling take home in his body. They absolutely had no compassion whatsoever. It was like they weren't even human.

And he didn't even want to think about why they were targeting Hinata. Kiba was only here to seemingly serve as a toy for that guy, Kidoumaru, who wanted revenge from the own wounding he took. The Inuzuka grit his teeth at the pain which embraced him every time he breathed.

The only reason why he wanted to live was because of a certain Hyuga. The last thing he saw before he fell into a fitful sleep was her face and it was the first thing he pictured when he awoke. There were days were he wished he was in heaven–or hell, where ever he was supposed to end up–but he always continued breathing.

But where was everyone? Weren't there supposed to be people searching for him about now? Kiba wanted to hope that they hadn't forgotten about him. Hinata would have said that was a silly idea. Of course they were looking for him. But he had been imprisoned for a while now and there hadn't been a trace of anything...

A door opened and he heard light and limber steps padding on the floor. Kiba's nose twitched as if it had a life of its own. It was the girl–Tayuya, or something or other. She was possibly one of the most crude–if not the–crudest woman he had ever met in his life.

If he could, he would've spat in her face. But something about holding on to the only bit of gentlemanly traits he had restrained him. He hated that fact. Nothing ever stopped her from mistreating him. The young woman's mouth seriously needed a cleaning because it was even dirtier than Kiba's own callous one.

A sharp yank of his hair snapped Kiba from his thoughts as his blindfold was roughly ripped from his eyes. His pupils dilated painfully and his teeth bared at the pain from the small window high on the wall. He saw her figure smirking down at her, her mouth dancing with sadistic glee.

"It's chow time, mutt," Tayuya remarked, indicating the bowl held in her left hand. Kiba shifted his gaze to the piece of work and snorted, turning his head as he did so. The girl's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and she cuffed him on his cheek, pushing his face up to look at her.

"You may be Kidoumaru's pet but I can just as easily end your life as well," she warned, eyes gleaming dangerously. Kiba calmly stared up at the edgy female before baring his feral canines to her.

"Bite me."

Silent as ever, Tayuya struck him once more, this time sending the young man toppling to his side. Kiba was soundless as well – there was no way this girl was going to make him whimper.

A sandal was pressed against his right ear and some pressure was applied, making his head compress slightly against the concrete floor. He could feel her sole vibrating from the restraint it took her to not end his life on the spot.

"You have no idea how hard it is to not squash your puny, little, shitty head right now," Tayuya hissed, clenching her free hand into a fist. Kiba chuckled in spite of the danger he was obviously in.

"Humor me, babe."

Tayuya cried out in rage and was about to stomp out his fire, but held herself back. Instead, she threw the metal bowl down on him. The small object made a sound as it collided with Kiba's head and spilled its contents all over him. The Inuzuka, instead of voicing any pain, voiced his delight.

"Hey, this crap ain't half bad," he remarked dryly, licking the area around his mouth. Tayuya glared down at him and kicked the young man in the stomach, ending the patronizing chuckles.

"Fine, if you don't want to eat, it's not my damn fault," she said, sneering down at Kiba. Her eyes grazed over his dirtied tattoos. "You think you're the shit, just 'cause you have those crap marks on your face."

Kiba snorted again, but a small, prideful smirk was pulling at his lips. He twisted his upper body in a way so that his face turned up to look at Tayuya. "You obviously don't know what these mean."

From the tone his voice had taken, it was apparently something for Kiba to be smug about. The young woman glared at him, but cursed her curious side, which almost always got her in trouble. She had gotten over it by the time she had reached puberty, but old habits always die hard.

"What do they mean then?" she Tayuya demanded, putting a fist on her right hip. Kiba sighed and seemed to recall some fond memory.

"In my clan, certain marks on your face means you have reached adulthood," he started, laughing inwardly. "It means that I'm a man and am no longer a virgin."

Tayuya kicked Kiba again in disgust. How dare he discuss like that in front of her? Though it didn't seem so, she couldn't stand anything involving "PDA." She could use certain curse words involving such acts, but could never stomach any even semi-serious talks.

"What kind of bullshit is that?" she shouted, kicking Kiba again. The Inuzuka gave a phlegm-filled laugh, then grimaced in pain.

"Don't get...too excited," he joked. The young woman was tempted to whip out her flute, but simply exhaled slowly. She exited the hotel suite (one that Kiba didn't know he was in), and fumed.

The nerve of the guy! Who the hell did he think he was? As Tayuya stalked down a well lit hotel hallway, she knocked everything and anything out of her way. The young woman created a hole in a wall as an employee hurriedly scampered by. She made her way to Kidoumaru's room and knocked loudly. Impatiently, she almost ripped the door off of it's hinges.

"Kidoumaru!" she raged, glaring at the startled spider, "You better finish of that little son of a bitch before I do!"

"Calm down, he's not doing anything anyway," the man opposite replied. "It's fun to have a little toy. Especially if it's the best friend of a target."

"On my list, the mutt is a target," Tayuya warned. "He's a target that's about to get hit, if you know what I mean."

"Calm down, Tayuya," someone said, trying to assuage the tiny, raging woman. The other two turned to the massive man standing in Kidoumaru's doorway.

Jiroubu almost always served as the peacemaker in any of the Four's spats. Contrary to popular belief, he was one of the calmest of the group. Tayuya glared up at him and Kidoumaru did the same, though not as viciously.

"Let Kidoumaru take care of him. It's his job anyway," Jiroubu said. The woman rolled her eyes at the spider who, in turn, waved a nonchalant hand. He relaxed on back onto his mattress, now that Jiroubu was here.

"Fine, I'll take care of the mutt. But I'm not gonna kill him. It's fun to mess with his head," he said, taking a bite of a doughnut he had in his grasp.

Tayuya sent another glare his way and took the nearest thing to her–which was the television–and threw it at him. It crashed into the wall, creating a huge dent that would obviously need fixing. Kidoumaru yelped and jumped away from the numerous white sparks and gave Tayuya a crazed look. Before he could say anything the little woman stormed out of his room to enter her own. A loud crash and a shake in the walls signified that the beast was indeed in her chamber.

Jiroubu and Kidoumaru exchanged creeped-out glances. After a bit of silence and poking at the broken television, the latter of the mentioned men snorted.

"Looks like it's her time of the month."

"Shut up."

A huge, technologically-wise room buzzed with inhabitants. They were all obviously busy with something. There was yelling across the way and jumping over desks. A certain long-haired young man took a sip of his black coffee. He rubbed his eyes and rubbed his left upper-arm in thought.

For sleepless days they had been searching for Kiba. It was like whoever took him didn't even exist. Neji took another gulp of his drink, hoping to completely wash away his drowsiness.

He supposed he should really keep at it for Hinata's sake. He never really did her anything special–if this was considered special–so he thought he'd repay her. Even though he was pretty distant, he still cared about his little cousin. Seeing her so sad all the time was bound to get him to break soon enough.

"Neji-sama!"

The Hyuga whipped around, cold eyes staring down at some unimportant co-worker. The mentioned young man bowed hurriedly and Neji nodded.

"Have you gotten anything on Inuzuka's location?" he asked, starting to walk with the smaller person. He, in turn, shook his head.

"No, sir, but we have some information on who might have been involved with kidnaping Inuzuka-san," he compensated.

The two came to a huge computer screen where a woman was typing furiously, eyes concentrated on the plasma rectangle. Neji glanced at her, then at the projecting device.

"What do we have?"

A picture of a serpentine man almost immediately popped up, and they stared at the picture for a millisecond. A few more windows followed suit and the young woman started to talk.

"This man's name is simply in the database as Orochimaru," she said. "Supposedly, he used to be in SHINOBI, but after some power-hungry craze, he fled."

"You mean that this is the Orochimaru that killed The Third?" Neji asked.

The Third was the leader of their organization until a few years ago. Neji wasn't in SHINOBI yet, so all he had heard was stories of the greatest infiltration missions in Konoha. Someone had taken over for a small moment before that person fled as well. But Neji ignored that other information altogether. The young woman nodded, confirming his suspicion.

"Yes," she replied. "He's the only ninja to ever do something so horrible–and escape from SHINOBI alive.

"He was said to be dead, but sources prove that the person these four last worked under–," at this, she showed the other windows, "was Orochimaru himself."

Neji was silent a moment before nodding. "Start to track down everywhere he's been in the last five years. I want to know more about those certain four as well." At that, he nodded to the screen.

"The four are ninjas with high talent, each with a strange specialty," the girl said. "And each has a hidden power which makes them practically invincible."

Neji started to walk away, information still fresh in his mind, when the girl called after him. He turned around and waited for her to speak. "What is it, Temari?"

The blonde absently scratched the leaf tattoo on her left upper-arm, and glanced back at the screen. "I've already done searches on Orochimaru–five times. He's as good as a ghost."

"Search again," Neji commanded. "A ghost is better than nothing."

It was a leaf. A black leaf–slightly round in its creation. Hinata shamelessly stared at for a second, then blushed and looked away.

Sasuke sat on his bed, finally getting used to being blind. The young man was somewhat strangely seated though–his front was to where the pillows were. He was wrapping his arms carefully with cotton, though he didn't know why. He wasn't going to be getting into any fights soon–if he was lucky–so what was the use of preparing for one?

Hinata sneezed from her seated place near the open window. The Uchiha snorted to himself and shook his head. Even her sneezes were timid.

Sasuke had just gotten out of the shower a while ago, so his back was still shirtless. Using his senses, he hardly groped around for his wife-beater. Why people called that certain piece of clothing that, he had no flipping idea.

He felt the cotton slide over his skin and shrugged his shoulders to adjust the shirt's position. When he was satisfied, he reached out for a shirt but found it out of his reach. His eyebrows furrowed and Hinata finally snapped out of her reverie to walk over to his mattress.

She didn't know what was wrong with her. First she had set his shirt out too far, and then she was slightly...staring at Sasuke-san. She tried to look away–really, she did–but something about him made her so transfixed. The tattoo caught her eye and she immediately knew what it was.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, and handed Sasuke his shirt. Unbeknownst to him, it was a white, button-up shirt. She felt a little bad at not telling him it wasn't his usual preference of navy-blue or black, but she thought he wouldn't mind.

Sasuke took the shirt in his hands and held it for a while. Hinata began to get nervous that he deduced the shirt was light-colored, but he started to slip it on. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," she replied quietly. The tattoo was still bothering her. Maybe if she went about it subtly...

"U-Um, Sasuke-san, c-can I ask a q-question?"

Oh darn it, she stuttered.

Sasuke was silent himself, and seemed to consider his options. Finally he snorted his consent.

"E-Er, that ta-tattoo on your arm... W-What's it for?" she finally asked. Sasuke's right hand went to the very place it was at and smirked slightly.

"It's to let people know not to mess with me," he said. Hinata's eyes widened only slightly. Was he trying his hand at humor?

Sasuke almost smacked himself at the stupid snippet, and told her the real reason: "It's a mark of someone part of SHINOBI. Konoha's symbol is the leaf."

Hinata continued to peek at the little mark. Something so small was a symbol of something so great and powerful. Now that she thought about it, she had seen the very same tattoo on Neji's own arm. The male Hyuga was never caught not properly dressed, but there was one time where his short sleeve had ridden up in haste to catch things TenTen had been throwing at him. Hinata absently handed Sasuke his white socks while the Uchiha reached for them. His hand brushed her's, and she was brought back to reality.

He put on his socks as if nothing had happened. Hinata wanted to poke herself on the forehead. Of course he was acting like that. Nothing did happen! The girl felt her warm face and shook her head. Something was definitely wrong with her.

Sasuke shakily stood up and shrugged, slightly facing the wrong direction. Hinata stood up as well and smiled at her little Ken. Along with his different shirt, he was wearing black cargo shorts and some kind of tennis shoes. She had to admit, it looked as if he was going to kick butt with his wrappings.

"Naruto-san and Sakura-san are going to be coming over to talk to you about restoring your vision," Hinata said, clasping her hands in front of her. Sasuke casually pocketed his hands–but not before adjusting his blindfold. He had gotten used to the idea of wearing one after a while.

"Hn," he said. "Just as long as she doesn't touch me. I don't want her hands in any places I can't see."

Hinata didn't know if he meant that to be funny as well, but she couldn't help but let a light laugh escape. Her hand flew to her mouth in a horrified manner but Sasuke didn't say anything, so she relaxed.

"I can't wait until I can see again. I've had enough of being in a permanent dark," Sasuke said, poking at something with his foot. It was a rare mood to have Sasuke in, but Hinata liked it most when he confided in her. Though those moments were rare to none, she rather enjoyed them.

"I suppose it wouldn't be very f-fun," she said, going to sit on the Uchiha's bed. It sank beneath her weight but she took no notice. "There would be no light to guide you."

A memory of Hinata's laugh invaded Sasuke's ears for only a milli-second, but he nodded. "It's pretty hard."

Being distracted, he made to sit down, barely missing poor Hinata's lap. Her eyes had widened but now they relaxed and she sighed, looking out the window to the hot July.

"Hinata," Sasuke started, "You like Naruto, right?"

At this, the girl almost fell off the bed. Her face burned immediately and she couldn't even stutter an explanation. Sasuke waited, an amused smirk on his fine lips, as Hinata regained her composure.

"W-Where did y-you hear th-th-that?" she asked him, trying her best to stay calm. The young man shook his head, a quiet laugh seeping from his throat.

"No where," he replied easily, "The way you sound around him and your reaction just now is proof enough."

Hinata couldn't say anything to defend herself, so she just settled to stare at her pale hands that were placed in her lap. Sasuke had his face pointing straight ahead of him and remained quiet himself.

"It's alright. I won't tell anyone," Sasuke assuaged. He casually crossed his arms. "That's what friends are for..."

Hinata started a little when Sasuke suddenly smacked his forehead. She stared and blinked, timidly reaching out a hand to his shoulder. "A-Are you okay?"

What the hell am I saying? Friends? I'm quoting some cheesy-ass song and I'm not gagging. Now I know it must be a cold day in hell.

He sighed and nodded. After massaging his brow, his hand detached from his head. "Just tell Sakura not to give me so much drugs when she comes here. They're going to have permanent damage."

"You can just tell me now," Sakura said, standing in Sasuke's doorway. Naruto was behind her and he waved happily. Hinata waved shakily and Sasuke did nothing. "I can tell you that whatever is happening to you, is simply just you. My medicine is all organic and just can't cause any behavioral or emotional effects."

Thanks, Sasuke thought, There goes my only blame. Maybe I really am going crazy. Then what's been making me act weird since I've been taking those damn drugs?

"I think you're probably just mental," Naruto said, leaning against the mantel of the fireplace. Sasuke glared at the spot where he thought the blonde was, which wasn't too far off.

"Well, Sasuke-kun, we have a preposition for you to consider," Sakura said, pacing in front of him. The doctor kindly glanced at Hinata, who looked down shyly. "Since it's near your birthday, Hinata-chan here wanted to give you a little present."

Sasuke's head snapped to his right, where Hinata was sitting. Though his eyes were hidden, she couldn't help but shrink a little. She resolved to start poking her fingers together, and stuttering.

"I'm sorry, I-I found from y-your records that your b-b-birthday is July twenty-third, so I just wanted to make you feel better," she hurriedly said. Naruto watched her from where she was and smiled at her antics.

"How did you get my records?" Sasuke demanded. Hinata shrunk a little again, but found her voice.

"...Neji-nii-san gave them to me."

Sasuke sighed. Leave it to the Hyuga male to not trust him. But, Sasuke had to admit, that was probably more in the beginning.

"...Thanks," he stubbornly muttered. The other three looked at him and the medics grinned.

As Sakura started to explain his situation, Sasuke tuned out. He could understand her by half listening. But when he was paying attention to was his feelings towards Hinata–and her feelings towards himself.

Why would she give anything like this to me? If I were her, I wouldn't have... But I guess I'm not. ...I wish I was, so I could know what the hell she's thinking!

Sasuke listened to the other three laugh, and found himself chuckling as well. Shit. I think I am going crazy.

Author's Note: I hope you all liked this chapter. Sorry I haven't updated. School's over where I am today, so this is the celebration. Stupid finals! Anyways, please review! Thanks a bunch for reading!

NarutosGirl52: Because you're wondering, I'm fifteen years of age. Well, almost. June twenty-first is my birthday! YES... I know I'm old, but please, no jokes. Lol, jk jk.

Audriel: Yeah, Neji is kind of like my Touya in my CCS fic, just not as loud. Haha, what I coincidence, eh?

Once again, please review! They can be my (early) birthday presents! Bwahahahah!