I have to go to sleep! It's so late! Ino said she'll leave them in the kitchen so she doesn't have to bother mother. Ok let's see, food pills...Food pills… She didn't bring them after all. I'm dizzy again…
Hinata slowly stumbled into the living room. In there, on the floor was her senile grandmother next to a bucket of water and an empty little paper bag, with crumbs all over her and the floor. Hinata smiled to herself. No matter what, her grandma always finds a way to leave her bed at night and make a mess eating somewhere in the house. She approached her, lifted her upper body carefully placing a pillow under her head. She then picked up the bag. Underneath it was a little yellow ribbon and a card with an encryption:
Every bride needs her beauty sleep.
You better glow tomorrow!
With love, Ino. =)
PS. Don't take more than one. Those things can kill you. ; )
The smile slowly evaporated of off Hinata's face as she realised what happened. She dropped the bag with the piece of paper and quickly moved towards her grandmother placing 3 fingers on the front and side of her neck. Panic overwhelmed her. Nothing. She couldn't move not wanting to believe it. And then… *badump* One. Maybe she imagined it. She pressed harder her hand shaking a bit. After a while… *badump* She's still alive! But, she ate all of them and her pulse is so slow... We need a medic!
Hinata ran out on the porch running around the house, jumping the fence and entering the side wing. "Ko!" She called. "Ko please wake up!"
"Yeah.. Uhm.. I'm up. I'm up." He started rubbing his eyes.
"Is Sora home?"
"No. We sent him to get the people for the reception from the city. He wanted a break. Wait, what happened, why.. Why are you crying?"
"Grandmother is sick. She could be dying." Hinata spoke teary eyed.
He suddenly lifted his torso off the bed. "She's what?!"
"We need a medic. Ino brought me very strong food pills for sleeping and grandma took them all. Maybe she thought they were food."
Ko jumped out of bed and still in pajamas started putting on his shoes. Hinata stood up as well. "I'll wake mother."
"The closest medic is 3 minutes away from the Hyuuga district. 1 minute for me." Ko looked ahead into the dark with determination, putting on his other shoe.
"Grandmother's in the living room." Hinata ran off in the opposite direction.
-…Hyuuga bedroom…-
"Honey, I know I told you you can ask any time, but I wasn't seriously.."
"Mum grandmother is sick, she could die." Hinata was whispering.
She yanked her head up with fear in her eyes. "Which grandmother?!"
"Dad's mother." Hinata responded with a sour expression on her face.
The woman slammed her head back into her pillow. "Do I have to?"
"Mum!" Hinata protested in an alarmed tone of voice.
"Alright, alright… Don't wake your father."
-…3 minutes later; living room…-
"Hinata why would your friend bring you this?" Her mother looked at her worried.
Hinata looked down. There it is. She knows. Father will know. Everyone will know. How could I lie to them?!
Her mother's face softened. "Oh honey, you should have told me if you were nervous. There are better remedies than food pills. You know those medics experiment half the time anyway."
Hinata nodded. "I'm sorry mother." Still hiding her eyes.
"Hand me those towels, we don't want them to get in the way. The medic might not even need them."
Ko finally entered the room with a black haired woman behind him, also in her pyjamas.
"Shizune." Hinata called her name.
"Hello Hinata. Hello Mrs. Hyuuga." She immediately leaned over the woman feeling her pulse touching her hands and forehead. Listening to her chest, checking hear breath.
"Your brother told me they were food pills for sleeping."
"Yes." Hinata confirmed not caring to correct her presumption Ko was her brother.
Shizune put on a glove, opened the woman's mouth and cleaned out a few chunks of food pill out of it, checked again… "Ok then." She took off the glove, rolled down her sleeve, took out an ampule out of her pouch, broke it over a contraption filling a plastic container of an injection and injected the woman with the liquid inside. Then repeated the process just above, on the same arm.
"That's all." she said.
"All?" Hinata's mother was surprised.
"Food pills, even though not poisonous, in large quantities can put a person in such deep sleep, their brain shuts down after a while. Your daughter was right to send for me. It was fortunate her heartbeat was still present when I got here. I gave her two shots. That should excite a part of her central nervous system back into action and flush the excess of the drug out of her bloodstream. After a strong dose, we have to wait for the patient to adjust their brain function and wake up on their own. You mustn't give her adrenaline, or any battle drug of that sort to wake her up."
"Thank you so much. My mother in law is not the easiest person to get along with, but I was really scared just now." Hinata's mother smiled.
Shizune smiled back. "Happy to help. You just make sure she's comfortable and she'll be fine. She should wake up after about 12 to 20 hours depending on her dose and will be back to normal when she does." She got up and collected her things. "Good night."
"Good night." mother and daughter responded in unison.
"Love, you're much stronger that I am, please take the body and I'll lift the legs." They put her back into bed.
"You wouldn't have any adrenaline on you, would you?" Her mother grinned.
Hinata silently laughed in relief "No mother."
"Oh you know I'm joking. Yeah! Why would I not be joking about this?" She laughed sardonically as they left the old woman's room.
-…5 am, Hyuuga living room…-
"Hinata dear did you sleep last night?" The woman in charge of her face asked.
"Not really." She looked at her mother.
Her mother replied. "Ah, we had a little mishap and she was a little nervous. It's nothing you can't fix." She smiled at her friend.
"Well of course, but it's such a shame the poor girl didn't sleep."
Another woman added: "I think it's adorable. She's so nervous."
The one sowing a pattern on Hinata's back responded: "Ask the husband if he thinks it's adorable tomorrow."
"Aww come on, one night can't hurt her." the woman putting the powder on her face defended her. "She's a shinobi, she's tough." She winked at Hinata who smiled.
"Where's the obi?"
"Did we overdo it with the white?"
"Let's just let that bit of her hair down."
-…Uchiha household; 8 am…-
"Ha! He looks like a woman!" Naruto was laughing sitting on his kitchen table looking in Sasuke's bedroom, with him just having opened his door.
"It's called Hakama, it's men's wear." Shikamaru responded.
"He still looks like a woman." Naruto grinned mockingly.
"Shouldn't you be at work idiot?" Sasuke asked while he was putting on the coat of his kimono, with the Uchiha crest sown on the upper back, and with small, sun like, white shapes on the front on each side and back of his sleeves, made by Hinata's mother.
"I have time." Naruto responded far too amused. "Hey, you forgot your cotton balls! Do these go in your vagina?"
Shikamaru was trying to remain serious. "Naruto haven't you ever been to a wedding?"
"No." Naruto reduced his smile.
"You can keep laughing, but if you ever marry, it's how you'll look as well."
Finally Naruto was silent. After a while, his face turned red and he seemed to have drifted off. Shikamaru snapped his fingers in front of his nose. This one flinched as if under attack. "What?!"
"I'm done." Sasuke who was tying his sword under his haori himo (cotton balls) called.
"Hey, the groom can't take a sword to his wedding." Shikamaru warned.
Sasuke ignored him. "Watch me."
"It's a sign of antagonism. Are you sure you want to piss off Hiashi?"
Sasuke just smiled happily, not answering the question. Shikamaru looked at him suspicious. "When we get there, Kiba and I are going in, in place of your family. You have to walk behind us. Then they'll place you next to Hinata themselves. I explained how the rest of the ceremony works." He added.
"I got it."
"As soon as I'm done with work, I'm there." Naruto jumped off the table facing Shikamaru. "Did you check the guest lists?"
"We have representatives from almost every clan including mine. Most guests are personal friends, plenty of Hyuuga, 4 people coming from outside of Konoha, they should have passes, and only one council member doesn't seem to care about kissing Hiashi's ass, all the rest are coming."
"Who?"
"Danzo's grandson."
"So can I infiltrate my ANBU in there, or not? How many people?"
"Including the catering from the city, 235."
"Who are the four outsiders?"
"Daimyo's men."
"Daimyo? What does he have to do with the Hyuuga?"
"Beats me, it could be courtesy."
"Do they do this for every wedding?"
"If they don't, we ought to remember their names." Shikamaru nodded staring at the list.
"Well if that's it, I gotta go. I have spies to prepare." Naruto smiled.
"You can trust the guys I picked out are still loyal to you. I had Yamanaka filter out a part of your ANBU that were recently returned to Konoha last night. The files on the ones who failed the test are with Shizune. Most are converts who lost their allegiance during S ranks."
"Thank you." Naruto nodded and called out to Sasuke "You're dashing!"
"Get out." Sasuke finally snapped at him.
"I'm leaving, I'm leaving. No need to throw a hissy fit." He mocked him one last time before he disappeared.
-…in front of the Nimbura shrine, 10 am…-
"Look at her!"
"I made that kimono."
"You did not! Adults did."
"Shut up Hana."
"Oh my, did he bring a sword?"
"He's a shinobi, what do you expect?"
"To a wedding?"
"I think it makes him look handsome."
"You think anything makes him look handsome."
"Hey!"
"Girls! Shush."
"Yes elder Hachinko."
In the middle of the road leading up the the shrine were Hinata and Sasuke followed by a slow moving cortege. The ceremony was short, the music was high pitched and extremely irritating. They didn't exchange a single word from the moment they met that morning, until they approached the celebration hall. Sasuke didn't know what he was doing half the time, which is why he used most of his focus on peripheral vision. His bangs, he purposely didn't cut for a while, were casting a curtain in front of his eyes, hiding the activated sharingan. If it works on hand signs, it has to work on a stupid ceremony. He thought.
Afterwards, they were lead in the large courtyard outside of the shrine with dining tables placed on it, surrounded by large and wide wooden benches. The smaller, head table on its beginning and the rest arranged in rows across the entire yard, placed vertically compared to the head table reserved for the bride and groom. "You have to go in first." Hinata mouthed the words to Sasuke one second before they entered the courtyard. He quickly stepped forward. "Extend your hand to me." She mouthed the second sentence as he went past her.
After everyone was seated, Hinata felt like she was on display again. It seemed like it would never end. Everyone present could see the two of them. Slightly elevated and separated like a pair of statues for decoration.
Sasuke finally turned to her and asked: "Did you see my sharingan?"
Hinata lifted her shoulders defensively responding with an uncomfortable smile. "No, don't worry."
"Why did you mouth instructions to me, if you didn't know I could read them?"
"I didn't see your sharingan, but I uhm. I saw your hands."
"What about my hands?"
"They were moving just like mine. Precisely like mine. Way too precisely." She explained.
Sasuke looked away from her finally sharing some of the nervousness. She turned her eyes front as well. "If it makes you feel better, I don't think anyone else knows. The only people who could see both of us at the same time were the shrine people who were in front of us, and they are not shinobi."
"I know." he responded.
And it's how the silence set in. They had nothing to say to one another. But Sasuke wasn't bothered, nor was Hinata. She was bothered by something entirely else. A particular blonde head, which was missing from the crowd. She kept examining the area, desperate to spot him, but fully aware she wasn't allowed to use her byakugan as it would be considered impolite.
"How long do we have to stay here?" Sasuke asked turning to her again.
"The whole day. Tonight at 10 pm, I have to go back to my house and you have to follow half an hour later. My father will bring me out, you have to greet him, take my hand and then walk to your home with me, followed by my him, mother and my cousins."
"I know how the ceremony ends. I'm asking how long do we have to stay on this stupid display? Up here."
"Oh." Hinata smiled with understanding. "Until after the meal. That gong will be hit and then we can move around and talk to other people. The guests will come and go. Anyone who comes later we have to greet."
"Are you sick?" He finally asked what he suspected for a while now as he was talking to her.
"Uhm.. No." She looked away from him.
"The makeup put on your face is used by women to whiten their complexion. Your skin is whiter underneath it."
"I'm… I'm not sick."
"Are you an imposter?"
"No! I promise." Hinata panicked. "I just didn't sleep."
He looked at the table and took a glass of cherry tomato juice in front of him. "Why?"
"I had a problem. Well…You see, I… I can't lie."
Sasuke who was mid-swallow almost inhaled his drink, spat a mouthful out and started restraining his coughing, wanting to appear unfazed. Hinata panicked again correcting herself. "I didn't mean I can never lie! I mean I can. I'm just not so good at it!"
When he started breathing again he urgently asked the only question on his mind: "Did you tell anyone about the mission?!"
"No! I would never! Only I was afraid of being found out so I was nervous. I lied to them. That's why." She reassured him. "But not sleeping helped me act. Because I was tired I couldn't be nervous and no one could tell I was lying."
Sasuke put his glass away. In that moment they could both hear her stomach growl. He raised his eyebrows. "You didn't eat either?"
Hinata defended with a fake smile: "I'm just thirsty now. There is plenty of food here."
A waiter approached the table at Sasuke's request. He realised people saw him spit out his drink, so he had to appear to have disliked it.
"Bring us water. And take this away." The waiter left. "You should have told us. We would have gotten you out of there 3 days ago."
"How?" She turned to him confused.
"If your father can pull traditions out of his ass, so can I. Naruto can assign you missions. We would have figured it out." He was slightly irritated now. "Are you dizzy?"
"Yes… How do you know?"
"I know what it's like. How did you walk here?"
"I took a battlefield emergency shot before others woke up. The one with ephedrine."
"If you're dizzy, it wore off. So just lean on me and sleep."
"What?" Hinata blushed looking at him.
"Put your head on my shoulder and sleep. You have to walk from your house to mine, with half of your family watching tonight."
"But if they see me sleep now…"
"I'll talk to you from time to time, they'll think you're casually resting, or being affectionate. After a while, you sleeping won't seem out of place since it can be attributed to a lazy nap."
"Ok." Hinata hesitantly and awkwardly put her head on Sasuke's shoulder, extremely nervous and uncomfortable.
"Wrap your hands around my arm." Hinata looked at him. "You look like you're stretching your neck. Wrap your hands around my arm."
She was finally leaning on Sasuke, doing her best to forget that he was basically a stranger to her.
A few minutes later, he took a glass of water with his other hand, and she lifted her head as she felt him move.
"You should be out by now."
"I'm sorry."
"Try again." Hinata put her head back into place. Sasuke added. "You are not lying anymore, I am. And unlike you, I'm good at it. Trust me."
"Hm." Hinata nodded pressing her lips together in determination and closed her eyes. But adrenaline pumping through her body wasn't going away. She was on display and she was not about to forget that any time soon.
"Don't move away, just look up at me." Sasuke instructed after he realised her breathing wasn't slowing down. He has turned his head sideways and down, having his hair hide both sides of his face. She lifted her gaze and saw a pair of red glowing eyes. And that was the last thing she saw before darkness enveloped her.
-…middle of the side table to the left; 8 minutes earlier…-
"You're still jealous." Ino remarked teasingly chewing on a piece of fruit.
Sakura quickly looked away from the main table, specifically Hinata's nervous, smiling face. Looked ahead embarrassed and replied. "Me too."
"Excuse me?"
"That's all you had to say to Hinata. Me too."
"That's not all I said!" Ino complained appalled.
"And you're accusing me of jealousy?"
"Fine, I won't tease you anymore. But you don't make up crazy theories either."
"Hey Sakura, are you eating that?" Choji who was sitting next to her along with 8 other members of his family at that table, asked.
Ino remarked surprised. "Choji that's her fruit. You never eat fruit."
"I know, but my cousin wants it. He loves fruit."
"Yoo! Hoo!" Choji's mother called the annoyed waiter for the billionth time. She looked at him offering a bright smile and asked. "Uhm, is that what I think it is?" Pointing at a large glass pot filled with cherry tomato juice he has just taken from the head table. "Ma'am this was on someone else's table just now. I'll gladly bring you a new one. It's a matter of quality of our service."
"Nonsense! It hasn't been touched. You agree Chouza, right?"
"What? Oh, of course anything you want honey." He was talking to Kizashi Haruno next to him, not even noticing.
She looked at him sweetly. "Go on. Put it down. You can do it. There you go!"
The man hesitated, but put the pot in front of her and walked away confused as if just having been brainwashed. The lady poured herself a glass, gobbling it down all at once. Then another. This one took two sips. She smiled happy. "My sweet tomato juice!" She started pouring the third glass, when her hands cramped. She dropped the pot and the red juice spilled all over the table. She on the other hand looked like she was having a heart attack. "Mum!" Choji who noticed first exclaimed.
She started pushing against the back support of the wooden bench with full force, breaking through it, falling down on the floor, on her back, in spasms. Her husband got out of his seat and dropped on the ground kneeling next to her. "Honey?!" He lifted her head as she stopped moving, slowly turning blue in the face. Then purple. Then green. People surrounding her stared confused as the woman went through all the colours of the rainbow in no particular order, finally returning to her normal skin colour. Everyone just stood there motionless. No one sure what they were waiting for. Suddenly the woman opened her eyes and jumped up bumping her husband's forehead with her own. They both exclaimed "Ouch!" before Choji moved forward to hug her. "Mom!"
Kizashi suddenly asked. "What happened?"
The woman replied with a serious look on her face. "I was poisoned." Everyone gasped as if at the same time. Some were just flat out confused.
Immediately Choza joined in with the questioning: "What kind was it?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I never tasted it before. Oh I was so stupid! I knew the taste was off by a margin but I refused to believe it. I was too happy to find tomato juice."
"Are we supposed to understand this?" Ino who was standing next to Sakura turned to her. Sakura shook her head without a word.
Choza stood up looked at all the confused shinobi around. "We, Akimichi clan are not as famous for our ability to be completely impenetrable to poison. Same reason we cannot lose weight. Our cells immediately recover and regenerate when damaged from the inside. Long ago, most of us worked as tasters for daimyos, lords and anyone who could afford us. Whoever put poison in my wife's drink, could be targeting anyone in here. She is fine, so we must focus on them. Ino, go quickly and warn the kitchen. Sakura and Choji, walk around the area, see if there are any people that look out of place to you. Santa, go hit that gong!" The orange haired Yamaka nodded and before soon, the sound echoed through the courtyard accompanied by decreased chatter among the crowd. "Who brought you the juice?" He turned to his wife.
"Sir." A young Nara tapped Choza's shoulder. He turned around. "You found something?"
"Sir look around. This is the only pot of tomato juice in here."
"That man brought it to me." Choji's mother pointed at the busy waiter walking back and forth among the guests.
Choza grabbed the almost empty pot off the table, jumped over the table drawing attention of 80% of the room to himself. "Where did you get this pot?" He wasn't even particularly aggressive about it, but all this waiter knew was that this huge man suddenly shook the ground under him by falling from the sky, and threw this pot in front of his face. He lifted his shivering hand, pointing at Sasuke and Hinata's table.
