oOo

Day Prompt 24: Trasnochar(Spanish)

"To stay up all night long."

By the time Sasuke stabilized Hinata and began to work on Kiba, the Hyuga had caught up. Hyuga, plural. Ko landed in the crater, quickly followed by the Hyuga surgeon. Sasuke did not even register Neji's presence until the man kneeled over Hinata's form, her head and shoulders now propped on Akamaru's belly.

His hands hovered over the bandages carefully wrapped around her head. He quickly grabbed one of her hands between two of his.

"Hinata-sama," he sounded on the verge of tears.

"Hi, Brother," she breathed, smiling.

He let go of her only to take off the blanket covering her. He looked her over for injuries. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"No. Sasuke-san healed me. They were really only focused on my eyes."

Neji's face darkened. Both Kiba and Sasuke watched in baffled horror as killing intent erupted from him, sweeping through the clearing. Hinata only grinned, unfazed by the pure danger surrounding the area. She reached up blindly and patted his shoulder.

"I'll be okay."

Neji absentmindedly caught her fingers in his, his ice white gaze scanning the area for threats. He stopped on Itachi, who had given the prisoner a tranquilizer and was preparing to seal him in a scroll.

"Was it him?" he gritted out.

"Actually," Shino said, "there were six of them. Four are dead, one has been captured. The other is injured but attempting to escape. I am currently tracking her."

Kakashi paused, hands on his hips. "There's another body? Where?"

Shino waved his hand vaguely in the direction of the tree line. He gave a long sigh and tried to get comfortable leaning on his own pack. He grimaced as he tried to baby his ribs. "My insects can guide you to the other nin, Neji-san. She's not moving very fast."

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Shisui asked. Not like he could do anything, still significantly drained of chakra.

"Why? Because I wanted us to focus on Hinata." He tilted his head past his collar so everyone could see the savage grin on his face. "And because Neji will make her pay."

Neji leaned towards Hinata and softly said: "Be safe."

"You too."

Neji stood. His eyes caught on a beetle and with a flash, he left.

Itachi sighed. "Shisui, if you can take the scroll back?"

Shisui nodded and Itachi hurried to follow. Neji's path was clear. He left a wake of pissed off chakra behind him.

Kiba looked at Sasuke, grimacing. "I'm not gonna lie, he kind of scares me," he murmured.

Sasuke gave one, curt nod.

With a sigh, Kakashi followed a tiny swarm of bugs to where the other body lay. Shisui dropped himself next to the now sealed scroll, lay down, and covered his eyes with his forehead protector. Seconds later, soft snores sounded from him.

Ko and the surgeon sat on either side of Hinata. "It's me, Hinata-sama. And I have Hoheto with me."

"Hi Ko-kun. Hoheto-kun."

"Hello," Hoheto, the surgeon murmured. He placed two fingers on the pulse in her wrist and looked at his watch. "Got into a bit of trouble, eh?"

She chuckled, then groaned in pain as he unzipped her flak jacket and palpated her abdomen.

"Painful?" He asked.

"Uh-uh. They um. Had some kind of lasso? That's how they pulled me off a tree."

Hoheto hummed.

Sasuke intentionally tuned out her story of the battle. If he listened any longer, he would be following Neji.

"You good?" he asked Kiba.

Kiba stretched his now healed fingers. "Good. Akamaru, you okay?"

The dog warbled an affirmative.

Sasuke sighed, stood, and headed over to Shino.

Shino leaned away from Sasuke. "I'm fine. Save it for Hinata."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You can't even take a deep breath. If you can't fight me, you're not fine. Are you going to take off your jacket or what?"

"I… I can't raise my arms," Shino admitted.

"Thought not," Sasuke replied smugly.

oOo

They made camp for the night, and in the morning, Ko commandeered Hinata. He carried her on his back. Sasuke was not jealous.

He was not.

He just… Just. Being even a few feet from her felt like torture. He could have lost her and now he could not even touch her to make sure she was still breathing.

To distract himself, he conferred with Hoheto about their opinions on her chakra pathways and the best treatment for her going forward.

The going was slow. They took frequent breaks for short healing sessions with Hinata's eyes and chakra pathways. Shino and Kiba also needed to rest for their own recovery.

On the third day, Neji and Itachi caught up with the group. Neji strolled into the campsite, still bristling with anger.

"Did you get her?" Sasuke asked his brother quietly.

Considering how angry Neji still looked, Sasuke could not tell. With a sigh, Itachi sat next to Sasuke on the ground. The older man looked even more tired than usual.

"Aa." Itachi hummed an affirmative.

"…Alive?"

Itachi only blinked slowly. "We got a lot of good intel."

Sasuke did not ask anymore. He did not want to know. Instead, he looked across the campfire. Neji interrogated Hoheto and Ko while wrapping Hinata in blankets like a little cocoon. Suddenly, Neji left Hinata and stomped over to Sasuke.

Hinata wriggled out of the blankets as best as she could with her eyes still covered. Akamaru growled playfully and pulled them away for her like he was tugging a rope toy. Distracted by the sight of her laughing, Sasuke forgot all about Neji until the man towered over him.

Sasuke raised a brow.

"Thank you," Neji said curtly. "For everything you've done for Hinata."

Sasuke carefully studied the other man's face. For the first time in a long time, Neji's expression was free from disdain. Instead, his eyes were softened by gratitude.

Sasuke blinked, a little surprised. "Uh. Yeah. Of course."

She's special to me too, Sasuke tried to communicate.

Neji nodded once. He executed a sharp heel turn and marched back to his cousins. Once there, he lectured both Hinata and Akamaru for undoing his work.

"That's a start," Itachi murmured under his breath.

"Yeah. Guess he won't try to stab me in the face now," Sasuke said.

From his spot next to Sasuke, pretending to sleep, Shisui snorted.

oOo

Coming up: Sasuke and Hinata finally talk plainly.

****Next update will be the 28th. I might do a drawing which you can see on thepurgatoryarts on Instagram or elpurgatoryarts on Twitter. Or el-reino on Tumblr.