A/N- "Yay, they kept their word for once."

Thank you for hanging in there. We're picking up the pace. A lot of this chapter circles back to the first three chapters. Hopefully everyone isn't too lost in the sauce.

Hotto's POV

Sheesh, that was it?

That seemed to be all it took.

One little measly and regretful, 'Naruto-kun' and he was puddy in her hands. It worked like a charm-though she regarded her impersonation of Hina to be quite desperate a touch too dramatic. The men seemed to buy it and seemed none the wiser.

"What's so funny?"

Hotto blinks profusely, instantly falling away from the fog of her thoughts. She kept that wry smile on her lips and twisted her head around to investigate the backseat.

Lee was there, lopsided—lounging against the window with his arms folded across his chest. He stared at her quizzically, his thick brows almost looking conjoined. Hotto wrinkled her nose, the back seat reeked of ammonia and copper.

"Not funny," She swallowed slowly, "I'm just thankful—that you're both ok. I-I'm sorry...I wish I could control things better."

She offered shamefully, even trying her best to look punished by the very thought of hurting either of them. In all honesty she didn't give a rats ass what kind of death befell Lee but she was embarrassed to admit that she couldn't run Naruto through as easily as she thought. Even though she stood at the helm—she couldn't override the traitorous pull on the body overall.

Haru's a liar, even she doesn't want to leave him. Deep down even that prude feels safe around him.

"Is it scary?"

Hotto cocked her head to the side, rolling her eyes in thought, "Is what, scary?"

Lee blinks, bumbling, "Y-you know, Naruto told me—about the episodes. I never knew you had that going on, n-not that it was ever my business. It would freak me out, losing conscious and missing a big chunk of my life. Sounds so horrifying—and here you are, coping with it."

She battled with the right words to say. She desperately wanted to tell him to, 'stick that pitty up his hairy ass' but that wouldn't bode well for her. Naruto would definitely be on to her, and she didn't have time for him to be watching her like a hawk—thinking she was big bad Hotto. She needed him to be at ease, she needed his unwavering trust. Needed him to drop this whole, 'get the prescription' mission.

Her shoulders dropped and she takes a deep flimsy breath.

"At first, it was hard-sometimes can still be pain…" she says, gingerly fidgeting with the fingers in her lap, "It's like living with friends…and everyone brings a set of skills to the home. Everyone has a responsibility to protect the wellness of the home. Maybe someone's a good cook—someone is good at the manual labor within and there's a person taking care of the external affairs away from the home. Everyone inside envies the person outside—but everyone can't do the specific job of the one outside. Sometimes even the person outside gets overwhelmed and needs to come home and recover and that's when things become—get ugly..." She swallows, staring out the window, aloof. "Simplest way to put it is—none of us are whole, we are connected by shared trauma—experiences and memories."

Lee was gaping, he seemed both thoroughly engrossed and embarrassingly intrusive.

"Don'-" Lee winced, swallowing hard and trying to align his next question sensitively, "Please, don't be offended but why would one of the friends try to kill us? Specifically me?"

Hotto shakes her head, "I don't think her gripe...was with you."

"But still," Lee prods. "is this your subconscious' way of trying to get away f-from him? From Naruto?"

He sniffled a bit, it was clear that he was trying to gain some clarity. His eyes shining with real concern.

"Perhaps..." she lies, watching Lee's eyes dart from one window to the other.

"I get it," he sputters, "It-t's difficult because of everything on the news, all the murders...Sakura...Sasuke. Sure, they weren't fucking saints but he, he killed them Hinata. And he's not even torn up about it...about any of those people he killed," Lee breathes, flailing his hand in short tight motions, as though he was trying to convey his frustration. "I-I thought I'd be next, hell, I'm not even sure if that thought is off the table. I had a chance to leave, to make sure a-all those women got justice and LOOK AT ME I-I just stayed...there's something wrong with me."

The anxiety turned his face ashen, his eyes sunken. His fists clenched in his lap.

"There's something wrong with me Hinata." he whispers guiltily, lips caked with dry skin.

It was even more pitiful to watch a man break down in front of her. He squeezed his eyes shut shamefully, though she could still see the tears trekking. Her lips twisted with a smile but she tried to reign in her impulses, reaching into the back seat to give a firm squeeze to the rough patch of his knees.

"There...there."

"It just sucks because for a moment back there, we talked and it felt like before. And I know all of this evil stuff about him, it makes me sick to my stomach but," Lee shook his head, fisting at the bangs of his bowl cut. "I still want to be his friend and I feel fucking sick-so sick. What if we all go down for it? Neither of us deserve this much SHIT!"

"Naruto-kun..." She tried out the bellish sound of her voice, nearly retching, "w-wouldn't let that happen. Maybe it wasn't me in that car but I saw him, he put all of the danger on himself. If he really meant you any harm, he would have done it by now."

"Oh Hinata," Lee sighs wistfully, reaching down to touch her hand with tear dampened palms. The guy had the nerve to pin her with a look of unabashed sorrow. "This thing you have with him, it's just as bad-dangerous. I don't think someone like him...is capable of what you think he's capable of."

A frown dents Hotto's brow and she simply shakes her head in faux disbelief.

"We're pawns. Maybe in his own twisted way he cares but when push comes to shove, it won't be enough."

"Don't say that," Hotto gulps, searching for her inner Hina and finding her easily, "you don't know everything that's happened to h-him, h-he's trying."

Her head swivels slightly, and she shakes it off promptly.

Lee narrows a dubious stare at her.

"Hinata he's playing us and he's been doing it since the beginni-"

The driver seat door bucks open. Startled, Lee shot up in the back seat and Hotto watched Naruto plop down in the front without closing the door. His booted foot firmly planted outside of the door. A cacophony of deafening car horns break through the quiet atmosphere of the car and she could smell a brew of delicious scents on Naruto.

Wordlessly, he proffered a plastic key card to a very bewildered and rattled Lee. Though when Lee attempted to take it—Naruto held tight.

"If you believe nothing else, believe my unwavering dedication of helping Hinata and getting her the hell out of this shithole. Please don't try to get in the way of that because I can't trust myself to exercise any kind of restraint if you become a risk." he says in a quiet husk that even had Hotto stitched to her seat. "You of all people know that she can't continue to exist here without real help."

Lee gulps, his fingers still clamped to the keycard.

"I know. I want to help. B-but you can't just come in here and a-ask me to just trust you."

Naruto sighs, "I never asked for that, only your cooperation."

The boy continues to look dejected, though understanding.

"Okay."

Naruto didn't reply for a moment.

Hotto tries to analyze the blank expression on his face—but the moment she stares too much piercing blue eyes sweep her up and it jolts her. She had to admit, though they were strikingly azure but twisted dark deadness to them that lurked in those deep blue pools.

She stares back, trapped, wondering why the hell he was looking at her.

Fuck. Does he know?

Her heart ceased on a beat, and she small in her seat—though no less visible. The idea of taking a single breath terrified her because it might've implicated her as the variant. The stare left her paralyzed. The skin on her neck itches profusely, flutters a frenzy within her gut, and her shoulders go rigid—instinctively.

But no sooner than he had set his blazing gaze on her, he turned them back to Lee.

"Just don't piss me off." He replies indignantly, releasing the keycard to Lee—who didn't seem none to relieved to be joining the team.

Though his eyes were off her, she couldn't loosen a single joint within in her body.

What the hell was that..

"-there's a lot riding on this—including getting busted by the KPD. I—I wanna help Hinata, she's my friend b—"

But?

Hotto frowned—feeling her temples thrum maddeningly. She slouched back in her chair pressing a palm to her head.

The disassociating migraine.

"—not going to get caught you spineless shit—and even—" Naruto's voice muffles and she stares out the windshield—trying to take a breath but it won't come.

The palpitations within her chest sound like the footfalls of someone approaching, deafeningly—it reverberates in her head. Naruto and Lee's voices flit through, though like they were yelling at her through a tunnel.

NononononoNONOnono…no

She writhed around in the seat restlessly, wiggling her fingers and her toes—whatever the hell she had to do to latch on.

Initially, the two men weren't aware, and she preferred it that way. She'd shake this off better without all the stares and the worry for feeble Hinata.

"Were you careful getting the rooms? What if someone suspected it was you?"

"What if someone suspected it was yo—," Naruto laughs sardonically, "This isn't my first rodeo, I know how to lay low. –sleazy motel—shady people frequent this place all the time. If you think—people are going to go out of their way to phone the cops you're dumber than I suspected."

Lee only sighs, defeated, "Ok, so what about Hinata, she's all over Nippon news—they'll recognize her in an instant. Maybe not with the staff but the gue—!"

Her eyes felt heavy and sticky.

Blink.

Blink…k.

"No."

She slid her throbby fingers over to pinch her wrist.

No!Nono…

Her bones fell stagnant.

Naruto's POV

The motel was no doubt bottom of the barrel, but it beats everyone sleeping inside of the piss-stained Audi for the night.

He couldn't run the risk of using his credit cards. So instead, he compiled a few bills he stashed within the Audi in case of such an emergency—and used the tips from his former job which resided in his wallet. There was over enough to get rooms for the night and order takeout. He decided to assign Lee the task of getting them grub, after promising to dismember him if he even got an idea of betraying them.

The rooms were interconnected and discounted. Yippie. The hotel staff barely gave him a one-over and even if they had—he was wearing a black cap low over his forehead and brows. It wasn't much but it'd have to do in concealing his hair. The moment he exchanged the cash for the cards, he breathed a bit easier, thanking the exhausted looking concierge.

The man collected the forms of fraudulent information Naruto filled out and recited the company line, "Enjoy your stay at the Miku."

The Miku was as grungy inside as it was on the outside but that was to be expected. The halls were lined with brown dirty stained carpets and the gaudy curtains were an elaborate eyesore. The view from the second-floor window offered very little escape—but at least he could spot the Audi parked in the distance beyond the motel parking lot. The walls were thin, and the top latch to the door wouldn't engage.

The modest room reeked of tobacco, he quickly opened the single window and a crisp breeze billowed through diffusing the stench.

Since Hinata hadn't come to he busied himself by taking a hot shower—none to pleased with his quarters but he's lived in worse.

He stood—with his head under the tap for ten minutes or so, letting his thoughts dissipate.

His eyes closed, water trickles down his face and body. The warmth thawing his frigid tendons and for the most part he felt somewhat relaxed.

"Ah."

The weighty feeling on his chest lifted significantly, he thoughtlessly began lathering the rag up with a thin bar of soap he had procured from a basket of bathing sundries near the sink. The cheap stuff always broke him out but he needed a cleanse yesterday.

The needle-like deluge of the tap blocks out most of his thoughts. After a few washes a mixture of suds and water cascades down his shoulders and abdomen. He runs a hand down his face and through his hair with a sigh.

His old man was likely rolling in his grave over his actions. Well, if he was being honest-the dead fuck was rolling in his grave the moment Naruto stuck his dick in the first whore. He wishes his father had been alive to see him defile every single one of them, stealing them away from him as though they were possessions. It felt exhilarating to know that he had sent them all to hell to accompany his father...burning for eternity. It bought him some solace, though it didn't quite make him feel whole.

He was so busy, he hardly realized that he had reached the only goal he set for himself since the death of his parents. And although it felt like he could close the book, a part of him couldn't imagine existing within the confines of society.

What the fuck would he even do? Live out life as a convicted serial killer?

That's worse than kickin' the bucket.

His goal had given him more freedom than most people have in a lifetime. He did what he wanted, thought the thoughts that people would be committed for and walked the walk that people shuddered to think of. People absolutely hated the fuck out of him, the relatives of his victims were constantly calling for his head. The police hunted him and most people would love for the authorities to get their hands on him to make him suffer like his victims but what they don't get is, he's already suffering. His entire life was chock full of suffering and no one tried to get any justice for him, but him.

He stared at the grouted walls to the side of him, scrubbing at the slight stubble dotting his jaw.

Steam sunk into his skin and as he stood there in silent contemplation, the creaking of a door had him on edge.

He was incased within a glass shower so he could see a form emerge, distorted by the texture of the glass.

The form was quite thin. The door snapped shut slowly but he knew he wasn't alone.

His nostrils flared and he kept his eyes on her—as she just stood there, as if she was waiting for an invitation. A familiar feeling racked his groin, and he sighs—trying to downplay the blood surging to his dick in record time.

You've gotta be fucking kidding…

The perfect opportunity becoming acquainted with the wrong timing. Which seemed to be their thing. A lot had changed since that time in the car. He needed to give himself some credit, he exercised an inhuman amount of strength he hardly knew he was capable of at the time.

Now, however—whatever shred of strength he had left rests solely on the shower doors' ability to protect her from him.

He could hardly suppress that eager feeling that leapt up his chest—that tantalizing urge that swelled up in his balls and made his dick throb.

Hoping to quell that mounting desperation he grabbed his engorged member and swallowed—taking a second to stare at the cracked ceiling above him to reign in those nasty little thoughts creeping into his head.

When he looked back to address Hinata he watched her fuss with the hoodie for a moment, before peeling it up over her head and beginning to disrobe some more.

Her bra…her panties…

He squeezed himself harder, hungry shudders skittering down his back but he managed to keep a surprisingly clear head for the most part.

Blood trudged through his ears, and he bit his inner cheek.

Her form got closer.

She took precautionary steps and stopped just short of the glass door.

"N—naruto-kun…can I come i—"

He tugged the door open, the abrupt motion caused her to flinch back.

She regarded him with wide frantic eyes, her palms were flat against her breasts and her knees touched. It didn't take him long to understand why she looked thoroughly humiliated.

Blood. Rosey blood stained the skin of her inner thighs. She was visibly mortified by his inspection but he couldn't deny that the splotches of blood contrasts her skin well.

She tremored, looking shamefully at the floor.

That bought him down a few pegs. Rather than stare and make matters worse, he slides the door open further.

"Get in." Was all he said, shuffling backward so she wouldn't feel crowded by him.

The moment she steps through; he reaches over to slide the glass shut behind her, she went stock-still, the hot skin of his forearm grazing her shoulder. The bathroom lights flicker and buzz for a partial second. They both stare up at the ceiling bulb, a second later, Hinata begins bunching her hair to the front of her head, thoughtlessly exposing her delicate neck to him.

His tongue ached to trace the contours of her throat but instead he stood right there battling the demons spewing vulgarities in his head.

The slight curvaceousness to her petite body fascinated him, along with the two prominent indentions where her pelvis and spine met. How timid she looked, even from behind. Her ass was wonderfully round, but that never shocked him, he had always known she was afraid of her own body. Which was why she always hid it behind that hideous hoodie.

After the day that he had first touched her there, for weeks he had tried to relegate her to some remote corner of his mind, only to have her reemerge whenever he found himself alone with Sakura.

And now he was alone with her and felt like a hunter trying to approach a deer without a gun.

He couldn't remember the last time he had showered with a woman he liked. Normally he showered alone, hoping to cleanse the putrid scent of the deceased from his skin or the dried up soil and blood from his hands...sometimes even worse. There was a time where he'd close his eyes and never open them until he was certain the blood was gone. The idea that a shower could be...simply a shower, made him feel somehow blameless for once.

The girl shifted slightly and rivulets of blood mingled with the water—whirling down the drain. Her lengthy tresses were sopping wet and stuck to her back.

She kept her back to him, trembling like a feather—though the bathroom felt like a sauna shrouded in steam.

Naruto could feel a mutual electrifying trepidation between them, but he didn't like that get to him. He had some knowledge about women on their cycle and a little blood wasn't going to run him away.

He lathered the rag once more and came up behind her. She took in a sharp breath, and he silently reached his hand around to rub the rag over her lower abdomen. She went still.

"The key is to get some heat here, it should alleviate some of the cramping." he informed her lowly, once he felt that the rag had cooled he held it under the tap for more warmth. Sliding across her stomach methodically.

He wouldn't dare to pretend that his dick hadn't been steely and pressed against one of his cheek. It had become the only thing his brain could zero in on. Hinata grasps gently, placing her hand over his.

Significantly smaller, but she squeezed at his hands urgently. He felt lured, looming over her with the most impure intentions. Droplets of water beading his brows, spine and legs.

"Naruto-kun...w-why do you know this?" She asks in the smallest voice, to which he only scoffs, holding back a laugh that attempted to sneak up his throat.

"Why the hell don't you?" He parries.

She only lounges back against him more-her wet head of hair against his chest, and he rather liked this bold behavior.

"Papa didn't like to talk about that sort of stuff and then he died-I just didn't care about a lot of things. I didn't care about me."

Naruto only repeated his motions, "You were close with him?"

She nods against his chest, "The closest."

He couldn't see her face but he could hear a smile that made her voice flicker.

They stood in companionable silence for a moment, and he was no less harder. For godssake, we're talking about her fuckin' dad.

"What about your dad?"

He grits his teeth, pressing the rag firmly against her stomach, "What about him?" he asks indifferently.

"Is he like you?"

"If he was anything like me, he wouldn't be taking a permanent dirt nap."

He knew full well that wasn't the answer she was fishing for but the mere mention of his father often resulted in some of his darkest moods. Besides, why the fuck would he wanna bring up that sort of shit, while being butt ass naked?

She must've thought he was irate because she twisted around in his arms, her head downcast sorrowfully, "Oh. I-I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"It's no big fuckin' deal, just drop it." he replies hastily, hoping to skip over the entire thing altogether.

"But it is," Hinata insists, "I read your mothers journal, I already knew and I still wanted to know more. Sometimes, I j-ust wonder if maybe...he had a big impact...the things he di-" She thought better of getting into details and steps even closer to him, catching him off guard. "anyway I just want to help you too. Maybe if you talked about it. About him..."

He didn't have time to back up and his erect dick was pinned against her taut, wet, tummy. They were hardly a breath apart.

Her innocent round face was wet, illuminating the extensive length of her dark lashes, her hair matted and glistening.

Yeah, he had forgotten about the whole journal situation. His mom had likely wrote it great depth the hell they had gone through. The cages, the beatings...starvation. He was just now processing that Hinata had read possibly the full extent of his life and knew a great deal about him, he was laid bare to her like torn pages in a book and she thought that she could discuss his fucking life like a book review and make all of that shit make sense?

Naruto attempted to swallow down his frustration, but when she attempted to touch him he caught her by the wrist so hard he could feel her bones. Before he could even simmer down from lashing out over something so irrational, she was ignoring the hand that held her wrist aloft and she stood on her toes. Her naked breast pressed against his chest and she began pressing soft kisses across his collarbone.

He felt bewildered and slightly even more agitated, because why the fuck would she even bring it up? His skull felt like it'd burn through the flesh on his face. The hand holding her wrist aloft quivered with resolve as she continued to kiss him, relentlessly...recklessly.

His head felt like a torpid mess, his skin sizzled and bristled.

The crazy was dragging her slick tongue up a column of his throat, her plush lips followed as she turned into him, strapping her free arm around his neck and pulling him down to her.

Jagged breaths fell from his lips and a gentle sigh-like moan left hers.

Fucking shit...

You win.

He slid an arm around her lower back and swept her off her feet.