Warning: Foul language.
Disclaimer: Naruto and Co. are owned by their respective company and author, I only own this piece of writing.
SMARTPHONES
Hinata woke up with a start. Her breathing harsh as sweat dripped down her forehead. Where am I? As she took in the room she was in. It was hard to see in the night, but the little moon that peeked through the window let her see a bit. The bed she was laying in was large covered in dark sheets, at the foot seems to be a table that slides over the bed. With a laptop, some books and a mug on it. A large wall screen TV was across her. The room had simple decorations, she noticed that there were some pictures framed on the wall.
There was a sense of familiarity to the atmosphere that made her nerves calm. She thought she woke up in a random hotel room again. During those times she always never remembers how she got there, only how she felt lost and scared the day after.
A digital clock on the bedside table showed her that it was 4:37am. How long was I asleep?
She felt parched, so she slowly pushed herself off the comfy bed. Her body now felt the soreness of yesterday as her mind slowly caught up to her. As she opened the door to a hallway, a sense of familiarity hit her again. She could hear soft snores echoing from down the hall, there was also a soft light.
Stepping nearer, Hinata hears the soft click-clack of someone typing on a keyboard. Who? The first thing she saw was a foot hanging from the couch, as Naruto's face showed up snoring loudly. She giggled, he is as carefree as ever.
Sasuke looks up from where he was sitting by the bar counter in front of the kitchen. He notices how she seems to be better than yesterday which made him feel relieved.
"What are you doing up?" he says as he walks over to her, "You need more rest, Hinata."
She looks over to him in surprise and immediately relaxes as she sees him. She blushes a bit as she plays with her sweater paws.
"I got thirsty." It was half of the truth, but she didn't want him to worry even more. Her memories of yesterday were slowly coming back.
"Go and sit, I'll get it for you."
Hinata was about to stop him but Sasuke had already gone into the kitchen. She looks to the living room to see Naruto having taken over the sofa, she also finally sees Kiba sleeping beside him on the lazy boy seat tilted back. There was no space for her to sit there. Then she remembers hearing someone at the computer.
There by the living room corner, a small little office space, was Shikamaru on the computer. He seems to be really focused as his hand never lifted far from the keyboard typing rapidly. Seeing some of her friends made her heart clench. It felt like an eternity since she last saw them. Her eyes got teary. Not noticing how the typing had stopped. Shikamaru shut off the computer as he made his way to them.
"Coffee, black." Shikamaru orders Sasuke, as he lightly pushes Hinata to sit by the counter with him.
"Tch. Am I your maid?"
Not really expecting an answer, Sasuke gives Hinata a glass of water as he fixes up the coffee. Hinata looks beside her and sees a snoozing Shikamaru with his head down. She giggles softly, and starts drinking her water. It's still dark outside, the sun hasn't even risen.
Hinata unconsciously fiddles with the bandages wrapped around her arms. She really scratched up her arms at the hospital, she promised them that it won't happen again.
But it helped, didn't it?
She shook her head before she continued there. She was safe, for now. She can finally rest, but what about Toshi. She has finally gotten out, but you'll be back soon. No. No. No.
She didn't know she was trembling till Sasuke held her hands. Water had spilled on the counter, and it was embarrassing. Taking some paper towels to wipe her mess.
"He won't find you."
That made her pause. Shikamaru had said that and she's afraid to look at him. She could feel the two of them looking at her, how heavy it felt. It made her squirm.
"He's right, we made sure of it."
Her head quickly turned to face Sasuke. Fear in her eyes.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing…yet."
Silence took over the three. Sasuke didn't want to explain more to Hinata, but Hinata looks like she would burst with how red her face is.
"Sasu-"
"We're hacking him." Shikamaru butts in, sighing from the looks he's getting. "It's troublesome to keep a secret and plan things in front of her, so might as well just spill it out."
Hinata nods in appreciation, crossing her arms as she glared at Sasuke.
"I'm not letting you guys go anywhere near him."
Sasuke arched a brow, "And I'm not letting you leave this apartment." crossing his arms in defiant to her.
This was getting nowhere, Shikamaru shook his head as he drank his coffee. The staring contest went on till their eyes watered, and Hinata won.
"Yehey!" she cheered, as she momentarily forgot about everything. It was something unconscious, with Sasuke blinking away tears and with their petty competition over a small disagreement. It would have been like the old times, but after all that happened they know it won't be the same.
"Why are you guys hacking him?" she was getting nervous.
"We have his phone."
Hinata froze. Fuck.
"D-d-di-did" she swallowed, "Did y-you-"
"Yes." they cut her off. Looking down as a dark atmosphere shrouded them.
"And we don't think any differently of you." Shikamaru continued softly, a hand on her shoulder.
She whimpered, and gave him a watery look of disbelief. He must be lying, but this is Shikamaru. They definitely think she's a whore now, but what he said just now. They must think she's trash, but Shikamaru thinks it's too troublesome to lie.
Softly nodding her head with silent tears falling, she'll just take it at face value. Hinata is just too tired to even listen to her insecurities now, but it'll probably attack later.
"We're backtracking his activities, especially files on you." Sasuke states, "We're trying to erase any evidence of you having any relations with him. Toshi isn't just a nobody, he's a politician's son. So it's not like bringing him to the police will solve everything, if anything it will ruin your father's name in the military more than it will affect him."
She knows.
Hinata knows that oh so well.
Her father is a renowned General, and her cousin a Lieutenant in the navy. Reputation is a grey area in that field. No matter how much her family loves her she will not let anything happen to them even if it costs her life. It has been moot since the beginning. She had tried to avoid him, tried and tried but he just kept finding her.
Sasuke took hold of her hand, which was trembling again.
"I have no right to say this, but let me try this time. Trust me, I won't leave you. Ever. So don't be afraid anymore." with the softness in his eyes, Hinata's heart wrenched. She doesn't deserve this, but she wants, no needs Sasuke to be her strength now.
Why is she so selfish?!
Her whimpers turned louder as she blubbered through her tears. OMG, even my cries sound so ugly.
Sasuke just smiled softly as he hugged her. They've been friends for years, one month of distance won't change that.
Shikamaru just walked back to working on his system. It's going to take awhile, but he recruited Shino and Gaara in this. They only told Hinata a small part of their plan, the part to protect her. They aren't stupid enough to think that the only copy of her videos are in his phone, with his type of personality he would like to brag and blackmail.
And they were right when they traced some videos that were sent to Hinata's phone. What was disturbing was that many of those videos had her family and their friends in it. Shikamaru even found one video of him with his parents. This guy was very dangerous.
He looks over his screen to see Sasuke and Hinata close to each other as they ate some breakfast. With the two like that it looked like any other day, if only they hadn't been so blind. Shikamaru curses his stupidity even with his IQ. He knew Hinata was strong, but he didn't expect the kind of person Toshi is. The more they looked into him the more his background became complicated. He even fucking has an uncle in the police force.
Shikamaru uncharacteristically tousled his hair, making his ponytail slip. He sighs, no use crying over spilled milk.
They need to be smart with this. They obviously need to sidetrack any trail being traced to them. Hack every security feed around them. There is probably a bug planted in their houses. If they don't play this right they will be paranoid every step of the way. Shikamaru expects this, especially since seeing that Toshi had videos of them around their families.
This will be hell.
A/N
This was an out of nowhere chapter actually, I wanted to go do Toshi's side of things but I remembered there were a lot of things that needed to be done that can't fit later.
I'm still shy over getting all these reviews. Thanks so much, I'll try to write up between my work breaks.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I draft like 2 times, scrap it, and draft it again before I finalize it in the FF. I have one chapter coming for my Adult series, there were some request for other pairings, but I want to focus on SasuHina for now.
Also I won't be abandoning any of my stories, I promised myself to publish everything I have. I'm just really anal when I publish. Thanks for being patient with me.
