oOo
Day 28 Prompt:
Ya'aburnee(Arabic)
"A declaration in which you'd rather die first than to live without the one you love."
Close to reaching the point where boredom would become painful, Hinata plucked off the lint pilling on her blanket. She eyed the daisies sitting in a very pretty vase next to her bed. For a moment, she wondered if she could make a daisy crown with it. But if she did, the flowers would wilt faster, and she would not have anything else to look at.
She sighed and looked at the ceiling. Sleeping could be an option, but the medical staff kept coming in, interrupting her naps. She could hobble over to the sink and brush her teeth for the third time today. Her raw gums immediately protested.
Hinata grabbed the hairbrush off the bedside table, pulling the elastic off the end of her braid. Unwinding the sections of hair, she began to brush it out. Maybe she could finally learn how to do a crown braid.
A knock sounded on her door. She perked up, quickly untangling her fingers from her hair.
It slid open and the curtain pushed back to reveal Sasuke. Realizing the mussed state of her hair, she began to brush it again.
"Hey," he greeted.
"Hi," she replied, a little bashful.
They had not seen each other since they brought her to the hospital. She wanted to say so much to him, but now that he stood before her, all her words dried up behind her lips.
Sasuke settled into the visitors chair and sighed. "How are you feeling?"
Her eyes flicked to the door. "You didn't read my chart."
He gazed at her calmly, which made her cheeks heat. "I wanted to hear it from you."
Flustered, she paid careful attention to her braid. "I'm… I'm having headaches still. My vision is a little blurry, especially at night. The Byakugan hurts to activate. But I'm supposed to make a full recovery… Thanks to you."
"Tch." He kicked out his legs and slouched a little in his seat. "It was definitely a team effort. Scared the shit out of a good number of us."
"Sorry." She shrunk back into her pillows.
He leaned over and caught her hand. She watched in wonder as he casually linked their fingers together.
"I didn't tell you that so you could feel bad, Hinata."
Her fingers tightened in shock at the casual use of her first name. His dark, beautiful eyes bore into hers.
"You're important to a lot of people." He continued. "That's all I meant. We'd do a lot for you."
"'We?'" She breathed.
He leaned closer and with his free hand, brushed an errant bang off her forehead. His fingertips lingered, softly caressing down past her temple and to her jaw. He cupped it and she could not help but lean into his strong, calloused palm.
She never knew he could wear an expression that warm. It shocked and honored her, that it could be directed at her. Hinata never saw herself as something to be as treasured as Sasuke seemed to treasure her.
His thumb softly glanced over her lips. Heat lanced down her spine and she shivered. He smirked.
A knock at the door startled them out of the moment. Sasuke sat back in the chair, slouching once more. He did not let go of her hand. A civilian nurse walked in, pushing past the curtain.
"Hi, Hinata-san! Oh. Hi, Uchiha-san."
Sasuke grunted a greeting.
The nurse ignored him, pulling a little vial out of her pocket. "Got your pain meds, how's your pain level?"
Honestly, with the past few minutes, she did not have time to worry about the pain. She tried to remember what it had been before Sasuke walked in.
"Not great," she tried. Fatigue suddenly pressed on her.
"Do you think I could turn on the light, or do you feel too sensitive for that?"
Hinata frowned. The ambient light from the window hurt enough.
The nurse tutted sympathetically. "There's our answer."
She pulled out a plastic wrapped needle and syringe from her pocket. Making small talk, she filled up the syringe with medicine from the vial and fed it into the IV.
"Did you want to order room service, yet? You haven't eaten since this morning and it's… oh… about 1645."
"I'll make sure she eats," Sasuke said quietly.
Had his voice always been that deep?
"Perfect, thank you, Uchiha-san."
She grinned brightly at both of them as she disposed of her trash in the correct bins. "You have the bell if you need anything. I'll bring in a warm blanket in about an hour, okay?"
"Thank you," Hinata responded.
The nurse patted Hinata's foot through the blanket and made her way out the room. They heard the door softly but firmly click shut behind her.
"Are you cold?" Sasuke asked, standing and arranging the blankets around her before getting a clear answer.
"Only at night."
She raised her arms, so they were not in the way as he tucked the linens tightly around her. Once done, he sat on the bed by her knee and laid a hand on her shin.
"There's a lot we need to talk about, I think," he said. "I just don't know where to start first."
She clasped her hands together. "We should probably start with the seal."
He raised an eyebrow. "You've finally gotten permission to share?"
"No," she chuckled. "But I think it would be stupid to try to hide it from you, when you know so much already."
"We can always blame it on Kakashi." He smirked.
She covered her mouth with her hands and giggled.
oOo
The new seal had been in development for a very long time. Ever since the Chunin exams where Naruto learned about the truth of the seal from Neji. When Naruto announced he would end the sealing of Branch members, Hiashi knew his time was limited.
Even if the loud-mouthed Kyuubi container did not manage to do anything, he had at least planted the idea in Neji's head. And Hiashi would be dammed if Neji reached out to the village council for help. Or heaven forbid, the Uchihas.
Firstly, they needed to figure out how to unseal the Branch members. Which proved difficult, because the intricacies of the seal had been lost to time and they did not trust consulting any other seal masters.
That process took years. Secondly, they needed to develop the new seal. One that could not be used to harm anyone else but would protect the Hyuga eyes from being stolen. They finally did go to Tsunade for help, who recruited Kakashi and through Naruto's connections, Gaara and Baki as well.
They needed volunteers.
"Of course, you volunteered," Sasuke sighed, wiping a hand over his face.
"Of course, I volunteered!" Hinata bristled. "Neji was still recovering from getting his seal removed. And what kind of future clan head would I be if I wasn't willing to do the same things I would ask of my clan?"
Sasuke huffed but his thumb was still sweeping back and forth over her blanketed leg. So, he was not too angry.
"And then what happened?"
Hinata shrugged. "You saw. I had a really bad reaction to it. The Hokage thinks maybe it was actively siphoning out chakra instead of lying dormant until needed. At first, only my Byakugan's range was affected. It became limited. Which was fine. I could still see farther than anyone in my clan."
"But then your eyes started becoming more sensitive," he guessed.
Hinata nodded. "I was training the pre-genin on how to use the Byakugan while sealed and… it just started hurting a lot more."
"Has your dojutsu ever hurt?"
She shook her head. "That's how we knew something was wrong. When… when you went into your surgery training, they unsealed me. We couldn't give the children something that could do something that terrible to them. Neji got the second version first. Then me. Tsunade-sama thought I was fine for missions."
Sasuke crossed his arms. "And what about the Lightning nin?"
She held out her hands helplessly. "The Hokage thought the Lightning nin was done with us. She assured my father that the spy must have realized that we were all sealed and that's why he escaped."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
Hinata suppressed a smile. "I suspect Tsunade-sama is going to owe my father for a very, very long time."
"She better," Sasuke grumbled. "Why did you need to pull all the Hyuga out from public view?"
"Father didn't want to announce anything until we were sure the seal worked. And we were all going to get the first seal. I needed a long recovery time when I got it."
Sasuke's dark look blackened even further. He stood, suddenly, startling her.
"This is really pissing me off," he admitted while running a hand through his hair. "I can't believe you were willing to do all of this."
His words stung. Offended, she folded up her knees so she could wrap her arms around them as some kind of meager defense. "You don't think I'd be willing to sacrifice for my clan?"
He stopped his pacing and looked at her, shocked. "I didn't mean that. I wish you didn't have to suffer as much as you did." He gestured to the room around them. "How many times have you needed to be hospitalized or needed routine healings in the past year?"
She hummed and rested her chin on her knees.
He came close and his voice was earnest, even if she could not look at him. "I don't begrudge what you did. I respect it. I only wish you were never in a position where that happened to you."
There was silence for a long moment. "Hinata, look at me."
She peered up at him. He placed his hands on the bed on either side of her hips and leaned impossibly close. So close she could feel the heat of him.
His dark eyes bored into hers with an intensity that stole her breath. When he spoke, his voice was smoky and honey thick.
He said: "I remember what you looked like, laying there, dying. And it was the worst thing I've ever seen. And now I know that I'm never, ever letting you go. Do you understand? I'll die before I let you die. That's never happening again."
Hinata felt helpless to do anything. She clutched at the fabric bunching at her knees. Taking a breath felt like having to teach herself how to breathe.
"I didn't mean to make you see that," Hinata said wetly, tears pooling at her eyes. "I'm so sorry."
He reached over and lightly tugged a lock of her hair.
"But I'm proud of you."
To her horror, the tears perched at her eyes toppled down her cheeks. She buried her face in her knees. He ran a light hand over her hair. Then, he leaned in and lay a lingering kiss on her head.
"I'll go get you something to eat," he said softly. Something with a sharp corner was placed by her hip. "Any preferences?"
She shook her head.
"I'll be back," he promised.
Once he was gone, Hinata looked at the object he placed on the bed. Seeing the box of tissues made her laugh wetly.
She really loved Sasuke. And for the first time in her life, she was confident that the man she loved, loved her back.
oOo
Coming up: More SasuHina time.
*Next (and last) update on the 30th.