This is definitely my fave chapter so far. It's got the most romance in it, finally. Anyhow...this chapter is set from when Hinata and Shino are kidnapped to the present. Please review!

Chapter 4

Hanabi was more similar to her sister than she realized.

Fate spins her threads. Lives intertwine together and blend into one.

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First year -

She had found that she could say nothing to Kiba. They avoided each other, the angry silences that filled the void between them.

She remembered too much when he was near.

Sometimes she'd see him, a boy (nearly a man, but he had not yet managed to bury his grief for safekeeping. His wounds were raw.) with his hound in the middle of a crowded street, looking lost. She'd see him grin uncertainly at a friend who happened to pass by, and she'd think of what he once was.

Sometimes, she would imagine what she could say to him.

You hurt just as much as me, neh, Kiba-kun?

Kiba-kun. It was a little secret of hers, something she held on to for reasons she did not understand, this little endearment which she only repeated in her mind. Kiba-kun was the only connection she had left to Hinata. He was precious.

I am breakable around you, Kiba-kun.

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Kiba wanted to talk to Hanabi.

...But he remembered too much when she was near.

Sometimes he'd see her lingering near their old training grounds, looking out to the forests where Hinata and Shino had disappeared. He knew she was blaming herself, thinking back to what she did not do, what she could have done.

He never told her he felt the same way, and he never approached her. He'd watch her sadly behind the thickets as she stared out, dried eyed and brittle, desperately trying to be strong, and he'd imagine what he could do comfort her.

Because I hurt just as much as you, Hanabi-chan.

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Third year –

The raping began the night Yumiko hurriedly performed the contraceptive jutsu on Hinata before scurrying out of their room, scowling.

Hinata knew her gesture wasn't out of mercy, but of jealousy.

Keito had stumbled in, drunk, speech slurred and thick as he twisted his fingers through her hair and forced her down onto the ground, ignoring Shino's hoarse shouting, the way he strained against his chains. A hand ripped down the thin shirt she had been given, exposing her chest.

Hinata had been prepared for this already, had known this would happen sooner or later, though she had never told Shino.

She screamed anyway, and scratched and kicked, but –

- when he had finished and rolled off her, she lay still on the cold stone and ignored Shino when he brokenly called her name.

Even the kindest have their limits.

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Shino knew he was losing Hinata, and he knew that he loved her, had always loved her.

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Fifth year –

They met again at Neji and Tenten's wedding.

Hanabi thought she had never felt as lonely as she did right now, watching her cousin hold his new wife tightly as they swayed gently in the middle of dance floor, his head buried in her neck.

She was 17 now, a jounin, but she had never bothered with any of the boys she knew. Never was interested in anything except her work and training, and the dreams that haunted her.

She tugged uncomfortably at the dark blue gown she was wearing.

" What's a pretty girl like you doing alone tonight, hey?"

She glanced up, startled. He was standing next to her, dressed in a dark suit, gazing down at her with an unreadable look in his eyes.

He's grown taller...

"Kiba-kun."

If he was surprised at the endearment, he did not show it. He continued staring at her, eyes never leaving hers.

"It's been a while, Hanabi-chan."

She nodded slightly.

A small pause between them as he stood stiffly next to her. She half-expected him to move away, yet he seemed unwilling to leave her side. She glanced up again.

"You weren't at the ceremony this morning."

"Yeah, I just came back from a mission an hour ago." He shrugged, shifting slightly. Closer to her. It had been years since they last spoke to each other, since they had finally given up the search for her sister and Shino. What did he think he was doing now?

"Dance with me?"

She jerked her head up, surprised.

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"Shino-kun, what are you doing?'' Whispers in the dark, white eyes gleaming pale in the moonlight that filtered through the bars in the window.

Her eyes widened as the chains around his ankles broke open, freeing him completely. Slowly, painfully, he stood up. A few beetles scattered away from where they had cut through the chains. Hinata stared at them.

"I- I thought they had –'' Keito and Yumiko had purged Shino of all his insects within the first few weeks of their capture, leaving Shino half dead in the process.

"They did. These beetles are ones that I managed to call to from outside." Shino flexed his muscles experimentally, wincing. "They've been coming every night for the past two years - " He moved towards Hinata. "- the chains were harder than to break than I had originally predicted."

Hinata smiled for the first time in 5 years, relieved. She tried to lift herself off the floor but winced, gasping slightly as she clutched at her abdominal area.

Yumiko was unable to perform the sealing procedure more than once a month, having discovered in the first few days that the huge amount of chakra required had practically drained her supply. So far, Hinata had managed to resist the Feng-Huan, but she was growing steadily weaker.

And during the nights in between, Keito came to her.

Tonight had been one of the worst. He had been growing steadily impatient with her resistance, had been unbearably rough with her, and had left Hinata sprawled once again on the ground. This pain, it was routine for her already.

Warm arms wrapped around her waist as Shino pulled her gently into his lap. Hinata sighed, snuggling into his shoulder.

"Thank you, Shino-kun." She murmured.

His hands stroked her back comfortingly.

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Shino was trembling as he held Hinata tightly in his arms. He had waited for this moment since the very first night Keito had raped her, had longed to protect her, to keep her safe.

He was free, but he knew he was still not strong enough to fight Keito. Yet.

He would have to keep the chains on during day to keep Keito from suspecting, and train himself at night, to regain the skills he had lost during the past 5 years.

And then he would kill the bastard.

Hinata stirred in his arms, whimpering in her sleep. He shuddered then, it was hurting him too much to see her suffering like this, so close to him. His arms tightened convulsively around her small frame and he buried his face in her hair.

I'm so sorry that –

- I wasn't there to save you.

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Kiba didn't know what happened.

One moment he thought he was in full control of himself, slow dancing with Hanabi.

The next, he was kissing her roughly in the dark of an empty room they had found, pinning her against the wall with his body as her arms snaked around his neck, fingers scratching red welts across his skin, desperate, hungry for more.

Maybe it had been the way he found himself drowning in her pale eyes as she looked up at him, the way he felt that he knew exactly what she was thinking, what she was feeling. Or the way her breath had hitched a little when he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. Or the way she seemed to fit perfectly inside his embrace.

Maybe it was the way he felt like she was the only connection he had left to his happier days, when everything was alright and life was beautiful –

- she is beautiful, he thought, and he tugged her hair loose from the elegant bun, threading his fingers through the dark blue tresses.

They broke apart, gasping for air.

He had only meant to talk to her when he first saw her at the wedding tonight. He hadn't seen her for a long time.

...he had missed her.

"Hanabi-chan...?"

And then, when she had laid her head on his shoulders, he had had realized that there really wasn't much to say to her after all.

They understood each other perfectly without words. At least, they understood each other's pain, and most of all –

- they understood each other's loneliness, how it ached inside them.

Hanabi smiled faintly up at him and pulled him down for another kiss.

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Seventh year –

They were not lovers. At least, that was what Kiba told himself.

Hanabi simply refused to think about them.

Still, they were there for each other. Whenever one or the other got too lonely – hurt a little too much – remembered a little too painfully –

- they would find the other, and drown in each other. The kisses had moved quickly onto more heated affairs, usually in Kiba's apartment, sometimes in hers.

They were not lovers. But sometimes they would meet up at Shino and Hinata's empty graves, and they'd share a cigarette and say nothing at all, and sometimes Kiba would try to hold her hand, and she'd let him.

And so it was, one day when Hanabi arrived at the graves – Kiba was not there yet –

She stiffened when she heard someone approach from behind.

"All alone at this hour?"

That voice –

She turned around slowly, lower lip quivering slightly.

"Good evening –''

That smirk -

"...little girl."

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Hanabi trembled.

"Is she – ''

"She's alive." Another smirk. " – barely."

She closed her eyes.

Hinata.

"...Take me to her."