Hint: Interludes are flashbacks.

The Chaos Theory

Interlude 2

Sakura had asked him out to train, but he found he preferred wandering the woods in the middle of the night, restless as he was with the monotony of it all.

He was getting sick of the village. Tsunade had assured him that the seals binding him to Konoha would remain until her death. He was her slave, essentially. And the village was slowly draining him of all sense of purpose.

Sasuke did not contemplate too much on the concept of purpose. He just knew that he was antsy, and he had to keep moving, because everything was meaningless.

So he found himself stalking through the forest, eyes glowing as he searched for small animals to pick apart.

There was a flash of white as a figure ran by a few yards ahead of him. He only caught it because the sharingan was activated. White chakra. That meant a Hyuuga.

Only out of curiosity, Sasuke moved forward, spotting another figure fly by. The strides were barefoot. The bearing was female.

It was curious.

He took to the trees and moved toward the edge of the forest. The figures were nearing the border, a person with natural blue chakra up ahead, running away from the two Hyuugas, or rather, leading them. Just beyond the gates, some others were waiting.

It was a trap. Sasuke dropped to the ground and shouted, "Hyuuga-!"

"Hana!" a female voice interrupted him. She flew through the border, and he was suddenly helpless to intervene at all.

Sasuke scowled. He hadn't wanted to involve himself anyway. In fact, it seemed sort of fitting that Tsunade's err of binding him would result in the loss of two of her kunoichi.

Pocketing his hands, Sasuke found himself lingering, curious; watching.

It wasn't far from the border that blue and white clashed, just as he had expected it would. He watched the latter Hyuuga get knocked out of the sky, as the one up ahead continued through the forest. He didn't have the byakugan, but could see their vivid chakras—hear the scream.

He turned to leave. The fight was over—

There was a ripping noise.

Sasuke froze, his body stiffening. He glanced over his shoulder, unaware that the sharingan was spinning.

He could hear desperate whimpers of protest and cries of pain.

Sasuke trailed to the wooden posts that marked the village border. He could hear the screams grow in volume with his each step forward. He stopped where he knew he had to, raised his hand, and slowly reached out to test his boundaries. As expected, his hand met the invisible wall. He heard the familiar static hum, felt pain radiate down the length of his arm.

But he pressed harder, until he could smell his own skin burn. He raised both arms and slammed it, keen to break through—

It was no use.

It was just after midnight that he stood there, listening to the droning hum of electricity and inhaling the vapors of his own blood in the air.

Her screams had become melodious. How long had he been standing there, hands against the wall? His blood didn't roll along his barricade, but dripped to the grass, as though there wasn't anything dividing him from the girl he wanted to save.

He didn't know why he wanted to help her. He didn't even know who she was.

The hum abruptly stopped and the pain in his hands receded substantially. Sasuke was startled when his arms met with air. He tentatively moved forward. Nothing was there.

He glanced at his wrists to find that the seals were gone. He had been released from the jutsu somehow. Was it Tsunade's doing?

He didn't have time to speculate any longer. The screaming had stopped. He ran through the posts and deeper into the forest.

The village seemed conflicted between disorder and mourning. When Sakura stepped outside that morning, she saw Sasuke standing outside of her building.

"Sasuke-kun!" She threw herself into his arms.

He embraced her back, which struck her as odd, because he did not typically return her hugs. She felt his arms tremble slightly. She pulled back and looked at him appraisingly.

"Tsunade-sama is dead," she croaked, knowing her eyes were still red, from crying.

Sasuke nodded. "I know."

She started forward. "We have to go to—"

"Sakura," he interrupted, catching her wrist. "There's something I need you to see." His hold on her arm tightened slightly.

Sakura turned back to him. Sasuke looked uniquely pained and uneasy. "What is it?"

She allowed him to lead her all the way back to his apartment, oblivious of what he needed to show her.

The answer presented itself in a battered figure sprawled across the bed in the small studio apartment.

The girl was unconscious, and there wasn't a bit of her face that wasn't marred by injury. Her nose was visibly broken, resulting in a swollen bridge and two black eyes. Her face was a collection of cuts and bruises, her bottom lip was split, and her right eye swollen shut. The majority of her face, in fact, was swollen beyond recognition. Red upon purple, purple upon black, strangle marks, bite marks; the girl had been brutalized.

Sakura approached the bed. "Sasuke," she managed, as she studied the inky black hair strewn across the mattress. The girl's mouth was bleeding across her cheek, creating a small crimson puddle on the bedding. "Sasuke," Sakura repeated, not knowing how to ask, but seeking.

Sasuke came up beside her. "A Hyuuga. I...collected her from the forest last night. She was attacked by two shinobi from Kumo."

Her eyes snapped up to his. "They say the Hyuuga daughters have been missing since last night."

"I know," he responded. "I think this is the elder. Hyuuga—Hinata?"

Paling, Sakura looked back down to the girl, finally recognizing the long tendrils of black hair.

Her teammate stood tense, arms folded across his chest. His hands were bandaged, his jaw clenched. Upon noticing Sakura's attention, he lightly shook his head and relaxed his limbs slightly. "She struggles in her sleep...but she won't wake up."

"What happened?"

"I found her in the forest," Sasuke repeated vacantly. "There were two attackers there." He didn't mention how they hovered over the Hyuuga's form, one attempting to take the eye that was too swollen to reach. "I killed them."

"Good." Sakura drew back the sheets, cringing at the revelation of more bloodied injuries. Sasuke turned away. "Why didn't you take her to the hospital?" Sakura said.

"You know it's chaos right now. She's the heir, she deserves some degree of privacy."

"You don't even know her," Sakura managed, not following with what both of them were thinking.

Sasuke didn't know why he cared. Maybe it was because he had heard every moment of her assault. He had seen her broken, battered, bleeding. He'd carried her away, and felt her struggle in his arms, fighting and crying until she realized he wasn't her enemy. He'd felt her slowly come to trust him, slowly relax and surrender to unconsciousness.

He knew he was becoming too involved, but it was too late to stop. He didn't want to stop.

Sakura gave him a meaningful look then lifted her hands.

"Hanabi!" She awoke fighting her sheets, before looking around and realizing she was no longer in the forest, to longer chasing her sister or being assaulted. "Where—?"

"You're at my apartment," Sasuke cut in, pushing himself off the opposite wall but not approaching. He watched her warily, observed the way her limbs trembled violently. "I found you in the forest. You're—"

"Where's Hanabi?" she repeated, forcing in sharp breaths of air, not seeming to notice that she was crying.

Sasuke stood there in mild surprise. Hanabi? The sister? He didn't know why he lied to her; didn't realize she'd hate him for it. "She's fine."

The heiress seemed to relax at that, sinking slightly, though continuing to tremble. He took a slow step forward, though he wasn't sure why he bothered. There wasn't anything that he could do for her.

"Hanabi's fine..." she repeated faintly, managing a smile as Sasuke reached the bed and knelt down to her level. She continued to quietly hyperventilate, cheeks paling worse, eyelids fluttering.

"You have to breathe," he assured, lifting his hand but stopping himself from touching her shoulder.

In one rapid movement, she snatched a kunai from the holster on his thigh. He caught her arm just before it could reach her throat. Her eyes darted to his, wide and pleading. "Wait," Sasuke said.

With his free hand, he reached behind him, withdrawing a shuriken from his weapons pouch. He released Hinata's arm to poise the star at his wrist. He wasn't as miserable as she was, but supposed his life was significantly less important. Experimentally, he flicked the shuriken, testing its sharpness against his flesh. He watched as a small cut opened up alongside his radial artery. "If you die, I die," he mentioned. "Tell me when you're ready."

She gripped the kunai with both hands where it shook violently beneath her taut knuckles. "Why?"

"It's only fair," he bit out. He stared at the kunai longingly, almost wanting her to do it.

Instead her hand went limp and the kunai clattered to the floor. Sasuke almost flinched.

"I believe you," she choked out, her eyes wet.

He lifted the kunai, perused it for a moment, then tucked it back into his holster. He hesitated with the shuriken, before laying it on the floor by the bed. In case she changed her mind.

Standing, Sasuke walked to his small kitchen table, where he had been revising some of Kakashi's mission reports as grunt work to supplement his absence from missions. He listened to the Hyuuga's muffled sobs until they faded into background noise.

Sasuke looked very human when he slept.

No longer was he a missing nin, a criminal, or a traitor...just a boy whose eyebrows were relaxed and lips were parted. He had pillowed his head with his arms on the table in the absence of a spare bed. He seemed withdrawn, even then. She imagined he would draw his sheets up to his nose, had he access to them.

His apartment was alarmingly tidy.

It was comfortable enough for a person to inhabit it for a night or two, but it was lacking in personal components that would make it a "home." It was like a hotel room, a plain canvass, unadorned and sort of synthetic.

Except for the picture of his genin team set on the bureau, Sakura smiling, the boys scowling, Kakashi beaming with only his right eye.

On some level, she hated the Uchiha. On another, he had become a source of comfort.

Despite it, every time she closed her eyes, she was back on the ground, in the forest, a hulking figure sprawled over her.

She shot awake for a third time, attempted to collect her whereabouts, just as she would every night for the rest of her life. Sweat-soaked, she stared at the ceiling, and tightened her hold on the hand clutched in hers.

She followed the hand to Sasuke's arm. He was seated on the ground, his back against the bed. His bandaged hand was squeezed in hers, yet he was asleep there, undisturbed.

"My arm doesn't bend like that," he said coolly, plucking it away an hour later when he regained consciousness and he looked around as though she had somehow brought him to his position on the floor.

She stared at him blankly for a moment, then bowed her head. Apparently it does.

"It's night time," he muttered. "Let's go."

Hinata climbed off the bed, with the sheets, belatedly releasing them. They pooled around her ankles.

"Sakura dressed you."

In Sasuke's shirt, Sasuke's pants, all baggy and slipping off. She couldn't see the Uchiha fan, but felt it somehow burning the skin between her shoulder blades. She stepped out of the pile of sheets, holding the pants at her waist, feeling the collar slip off her shoulder.

"Your clothes were torn."

She cringed at the disclosure.

It was cool outside, just like the previous night. Neither said a word as they walked by glowing lampposts, Sasuke's hands in his pockets, while hers arms were folded over her waist. Her trembling had returned, nearly impeding on her ability to walk. The world was wholly silent beyond their hollow footsteps, and each of their breaths seemed like a whisper as though, maybe, someone was behind her. Sasuke seemed as apathetic as ever, paying her little mind as they continued to walk.

She felt her feet stop moving. She stared at the ground, tear now dripping onto her sandals as she feebly tried to stifle her sobs.

There was Sasuke's presence beside her, his gaze on his head. They stood there for minutes, maybe hours, until the beginnings of dawn colored the sky in hues of navy. She could see Sasuke in her periphery, hands pocketed, body almost relaxed, but still not moving an inch in what had to be a contortion from his norm, like his arm, and his life from that moment forward.

Hinata drew a deep breath, and continued home.