family affair
seven:
the mirage
The party was just about the most dramatic thing Sasuke had ever seen.
When Uchiha's got initiated they got a stiff drink and a new weapon. Perhaps a delicious meal. Sometimes a boat––it really depended on who you were––but the celebration almost never amounted to this bullshit.
He and Naruto stood in the middle of a giant tent as snow gently floated down from the starless night sky, dusting the ground in a layer of fine white powder. Brilliant, tall heaters were interspersed between seats covered in flowing white fabric beside cocktail tables that held glass vases of vibrant, out-of-season lilies. Fairy lights hung down from the top of the tent, circling them all in golden, twinkling lights. To enter, you had to part the strings to be separated from the dark cold of outside.
It was like the Hyuga had put themselves in a giant fucking snowglobe and were enjoying it. Everyone wore formal attire and they floated around laughing, talking, and drinking like all of this was perfectly normal.
Sasuke was annoyed and he wanted to leave. Naruto, to his credit, looked to be enjoying himself. He had quickly familiarized himself with the buffet at the back of the tent and left Sasuke to stew by himself. With a plate full of teriyaki chicken, Naruto began to work the room, stopping at table after table, shaking hands with elders and children alike.
Sasuke sighed and shoved his growing irritation further down his throat. He was a good spy. He was good at his job. He needed to act like it.
So when the youngest Hyuga, arm-in-arm with the blonde-haired girl he'd seen at his first Affair approached him, he tried not to show his disdain on his face. Instead, he made his expression pleasant––not quite smiling, but certainly not frowning, either.
"Congratulations on joining the Family," the youngest Hyuga said. She was petite with a mischievous smile that made her features look sharp and elfish. "I'm Hanabi."
Sasuke shook her hand and then Ino's as she introduced herself. They were both staring at him as if they wanted something, so Sasuke said, "It's a pleasure to meet you both. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around."
"Of course you will, I live here," Hanabi said. "And Ino's always around. She's Hinata's best friend!"
"I am not always around," Ino hissed to Hanabi, as if this statement had deeply wounded her. "I have a life––"
"––and a boyfriend." Hanabi supplied. Sasuke idly realized that the teenager was attempting to flirt with him. He looked for an excuse to be removed from this conversation. Across the tent, Naruto was chatting with Hinata, their heads close together near the bar.
Hm. Sasuke turned back to the pair in front of him. Ino and Hanabi were arguing amongst themselves as if they were the sisters, and Sasuke figured they might as well be, since the Syndicate was one big family in the Hyuga eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, another man was approaching, looking tired and used to the dynamic playing out before him.
"I'm Shikamaru," the guy said as he inserted himself beside the arguing girls. He didn't extend his hand to shake. "Sorry about these two. They often forget that there are other people living and breathing in their orbit."
Sasuke cracked an easy smile; he needed an ally. "Finally, a normal person. It's good to meet you."
Shikamaru outright laughed, a sound that must've been rare because both girls stopped bickering to stare at him, then at Sasuke, twin looks of contempt staining their faces. Quickly, Shikamaru turned his back and walked away from them, and Sasuke caught the hint to follow.
They both went to the bar, which Sasuke noticed with a strange feeling, Naruto and Hinata had vacated. He did a sweep of the room as Shikamaru put in his order, and found Naruto on the dance floor. Hinata was nowhere in sight––not that it mattered. It was Naruto he had to keep an eye on.
"I'll have cognac," Sasuke said to the bartender, another Hyuga, from the looks of him. There were so many of them, everywhere, and they were all doing different things. No wonder it was such an impenetrable, tight-knit group: most of them were related.
"It's probably pretty freaky, this place," Shikamaru said as if reading his mind. Sasuke made no reaction, but he filed Shikamaru's observative nature in mind for later. That could be dangerous. "You'll get used to it though."
Sasuke tested his words, running them together in his head before speaking them, "It's not so different from when I was a kid. What about you? Did you grow up with them?"
Shikamaru's eyebrows lifted at the question, but he didn't look upset. If anything, he seemed to genuinely reflect, saying: "I guess I did. Kids aren't usually involved here, you'll learn we have a strict honor code, but my pops would tell me stuff. Prepare me. It wasn't so disorienting when I was initiated."
He flashed his arm and his tattoo peaked from the sleeve of his button-down. He'd gotten it on his wrist, the lines joining together over the bone. "Hinata did this a few years ago, back when she'd just started tattooing the Family officially. It was cool to have someone my age to talk to about the process. You probably understand it better––they were all born into it. Not like me."
Somewhere between question and statement, Sasuke asked: "You had a choice?"
Shikamaru seemed to take a beat to look at him, really look at him like he was a person rather than some foreign opponent. If he'd had any specific feelings about him, Shikamaru didn't let them show. Instead, he took a long drink of his own brown drink, shaking his head, "Yeah, I got a choice. Bastards like you––you make me reconsider."
Somehow, Sasuke managed to not be offended because it didn't seem like Shikamaru was aiming to hurt him. There was a subtle honesty in the way he said his words; a careful consideration of their effect. He would be one to watch, indeed.
"Why is that?"
Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, his body casual as he leaned back with his arm anchored to the bar to balance him. "I mean...you're here, but your family is not. We all know that, and still, you willingly come." Shikamaru made a circle in the air with his drink-heavy hand, "Shits a circle. You ever heard of a karmic cycle?"
"Yeah..." Sasuke said, spotting some strange movement across the tent where the Hyuga princess fluttered in and out of his line of sight like a mirage. "I don't believe in all that, but it's a cute fantasy I'm sure."
"Hope I didn't offend..."
"Not at all," the Uchiha's response was brisk, comfortable. "We're standing in the exact same place, at the end of the day."
"I'd like to believe that," Shikamaru finished his drink and shoved his hands into his pockets. He was walking away before he'd finished the sentence. "See you around, Uchiha. I'm sure we'll be working together soon."
-:-
"So you've gotten my dear friend drunk," Sasuke observed, his eyes passing over Naruto's sleepy smiling mouth, to Hinata's pink but somewhat sullen expression. The two of them were sitting at a table next to the dance floor, Naruto slurring slightly with his eyes folding shut, and Hinata nursing a martini, an endearing expression on her otherwise shy face.
Sasuke had glimpsed them, again, from the other side of the room. He was intrigued. He mostly wondered what about Naruto had made the Hyuga princess so curious when she had scarcely said three words to him after his tattoo.
Her eyes widened at the accusation, but she covered her shock with a snort. "I-I think he g-got that way himself actually."
"Hm," Sasuke took a seat in the only empty chair between Naruto and Hinata, stealing Naruto's half-full glass of some heavy liquor. After tasting it, Sasuke noted quietly that it was rum. "Well, he's never been able to turn down a drink from a pretty girl."
Flirting always loosened them. If Sasuke was ever suspicious, it would be remiss of him to let it show. He prodded in different ways, leaning forward with his chin propped under his arm, gazing deeply into the Hyuga princess's face, looking for a fissure, a crack in her act.
She only reacted with the coloring of her way, cheeks warming significantly with blush. "P-please, Uchiha-san," she said politely, demurely. "I o-only showed him where the bar was after he a-asked."
"Just call me Sasuke," he responded, rolling his eyes. He was disappointed he had gotten nothing out of her. She was tougher than he thought. "I'm not much of an Uchiha anymore, now that I drink with you Hyugas."
Hinata raised a thin eyebrow but said nothing. She sipped from her martini glass, her eyes flickering between him and the dance floor. He watched her take turns between looking at him and now-snoozing Naruto, and looking at her sister, cousins, and friends. It seemed that she cared a great deal for them, the way her expression softened in an expression that didn't seem possible. To Sasuke, she had already seemed soft––how was it feasible that she could become more so?
She was much more layered than he thought. He reflected on earlier in the night when she had laughed open-mouthed with Naruto as she pointed out what looked like different features of the Estate. She had cozied up to him quickly and it made Sasuke suspicious.
Then, surprising him completely, Hinata said, "And y-yet you don't trust us."
So, she was sharp as well. Too sharp. How could he expect anything different from the daughter of Hiashi, who was a well-sharpened sword created by an ancient beast? The Hyugas had been beasts for centuries, and this was no different. Sasuke thought of his ANBU training with a pang to his chest, wishing for a moment that instead of it he could've simply existed as an Uchiha. Maybe that way he could've been the type of ruthless that curled around the shoulders of the Hyuga party, carrying their arrogance in their mouths, at their feet, and spread across their chests. If he had gotten the opportunity to be trained by Uchiha, he would bare his teeth with his storied power, leaving no survivors of his wrath.
Instead, he was an agent, and his ability was a quiet knife-to-target in the dark. He would be good to remember that, but something about this Syndicate was sending him spiraling into thoughts about what could've been. He breathed quietly to himself, reorienting and remembering his goals. Remembering the gunfire. Remembering why he was here in the belly of this beast.
When he smiled at her, it was with all of his hate shoved into the back of his throat. He flashed his teeth like a warning, knowing he looked every bit like an Uchiha warlord at that moment. "Can you blame me? Do you trust me, Hyuga princess?"
If Hinata had not been so polite, she would've rolled her eyes. Instead, she lowered them, shaking her head minutely, "it doesn't work like t-that. You haven't g-given us a reason to, yet."
Ah. Us. It would always be us and you until he had given them reason to trust him with more. Information, no matter its contents, could never be as important and significant as action. Sasuke would have to prove it with his body.
He decided to move on, prodding her with his eyes as if trying to unearth some hidden secret from within her. They spent a few casual moments in silence. Sasuke continued to drink, his eyes flinting around the room as he filed away the information for ANBU later. The initiation itself had been a treasure-trove of knowledge that ANBU could sell to the highest bidder without pause.
Hinata, to her credit, did not seem uncomfortable with the silence. She only seemed tired, which was fair enough, considering she had tattooed two bodies and had been up for hours the night before. It seemed to Sasuke that the life of a Hyuga daughter was one of social obligation.
"So do you only tattoo sigils or do you have other interests?" he ventured, his curiosity curling around him like a snake.
Hinata looked up as if surprised that he had more to say to her, "Sigils are one of my Family o-obligations," she said. One of them, Sasuke noted. What are the rest? "But Father allows me to do whatever else I want. I started l-learning the Yakuza style on my own at 15...now Family members travel to see me. S-some even come from o-out of the country."
"Sounds intense, you must be good at it," Sasuke said, curious to see her reaction.
She lowered her eyes humbly, picking the skin at her fingernails. "It's...an honor, for sure."
Sasuke used this opportunity to look her over fully. Her placid features seemed wrapped in fog as if he wasn't allowed to discern her completely. She had this unintentionally mysterious energy about her that obscured some of the true intentions on her face, rendering her mostly meek. But that couldn't be true, not from what he'd witnessed when he watched her order Suna Gaara away.
Her body was rarely hidden at social events like these, unlike her facial expressions, though he was sure that that was on purpose. When alone, or tattooing, she had covered her body modestly and walked more confidently with air under her feet. At events, sure she hadn't shied away, but she certainly wasn't basking in the attention, either.
Though she did look good in all of the sleek dresses she wore that seemed to perfectly mold to her body, her hair always just the right amount of casual, her lips usually pursed in an unassuming pink or gloss and parted slightly––agreeably, always. When she spoke to Naruto she fluttered her eyelashes––real ones––which cast her in a favorable, honest light. Natural. When she laughed it was with hesitant, titillating sounds that reminded him of the wings of a hummingbird.
Surely, the woman was not all soft giggles, halting speech, and tattoo needles. She was the oldest daughter of Hyuga Hiashi, and something much more to Suna Gaara. She was sitting in front of Uchiha Sasuke and his attention was trapped inside of her thick veil of intrigue, whether he liked it––or was doing it on purpose––or not.
In his calculations, lasting no more than twenty-five seconds, he had noticed a flaw in her ensemble.
"Are you allowed to get tattoos yourself?" He asked blandly, emotionlessly. "I've never seen a tattooer without any."
It was true; her arms, chest, legs, were all a bare expanse of cream-colored skin, except for her sigil on her right arm. Her lips quirked curiously, but Sasuke could see the resistance. When her cheeks had gone cherry, she said, "Of c-course I'm a-allowed. D-d...do you think me some sort of over protected child?"
Her tone dipped with a tinge of offense at the end, but her face continued to be quietly composed. She was certainly raised a Hyuga, that was no question. When Sasuke looked away, he was glad to see the expression crack, her eyebrows lifting in exasperation, or annoyance, or shame. He couldn't be sure.
"Apologies," he said without remorse. A server placed another drink beside his empty glass, and he thought he could perhaps get used to being shackled to the Hyuga Estate. "I overstepped. I was only curious about your work ethic."
"M-my appearance has n-nothing to d-do with my work ethic or my s-skills!" This, it seemed, she could not hold in. Her face was fully red now––he had upset her. Silently, he reveled in this discovery; she was as prideful as anyone else.
Sasuke responded casually, "I didn't say that."
Her expression said he might as well have. She carefully tucked her hair behind her ears, exposing them to be just as red as her cheeks. Sasuke wondered if she was used to being questioned in this way. Still, she hadn't left for, perhaps, what would be a better conversation. She didn't look all that interested in joining the crowds of dancing people.
A noise made them both jump. Naruto groaned in his seat, peeling his eyes open, though his eyelids seemed to try to reject the action. Sasuke and Hinata both had forgotten that he was even there. He stared at the both of them slowly, head bobbing from side to side before he belched and said, "Where's the bathroom?"
Hinata told him, the color sliding from her face as she calmed. Sasuke noted this new fact, too: she liked having something to do. She liked being helpful.
Naruto walked away with a small smile. Bastard isn't even drunk, Sasuke thought with contempt. Playing drunk, he'd probably get way more information from wandering around the Estate than Sasuke did earlier that day. All he'd gotten was threatened.
But it was Sasuke who sat with the princess now, and it was the princess who had not left her seat. Surely she sat with him for a reason.
"W-whatever you t-think about me," she started again quietly, her lavender eyes focused on the newly-placed mixed drink that she stirred idly with a miniature straw. "It's...probably wrong."
Sasuke didn't care for her tone. He diverted once more: "So you do have tattoos."
Hinata's expression told him she thought him somewhat daft, but perhaps that is what she wanted him to believe. Simply, she leaned back in her chair and said, "O-of course, Uchi...Sasuke, I have tattoos."
Huh. For a brief, startling moment, Sasuke began to imagine what these tattoos might be, and where, considering none of them were visible to him. He briefly (very very briefly) found himself lost in the thought of the small of her back...when her bare shoulder turned and exposed the back of her neck, he thought of the skin that fell beyond; out of sight. He thought of saturated and colorful lines gracing the curve of a hip, a thigh, a waist swirling in large strokes around her body in ways that were unknowable to him.
She must've noticed him staring because she coughed hard into her hand to distract herself, moving uncomfortably as if she were about to leave at long last. Sasuke played it off, shifting his gaze. He cursed himself for being distracted by random and misplaced urges. Perhaps he should visit Sakura soon.
Neji appeared at their table. He bent at the waist, kissing Hinata on the cheek as his eyes, very quickly, flickered between her and Sasuke's sitting positions. When he straightened, he smiled a thin smile and said, "Hinata, mind if I borrow him for a moment?"
Hinata raised her eyebrows as if the question had caught her off guard, "O-of course. I mean, he's not very much mine to give is he?"
Neji made no comment. Sasuke rolled his eyes, if Neji wanted to treat him like some sort of object, then fine. It didn't matter to him as long as he did his job. Still, Sasuke lifted his mouth into a smirk and said: "Yes, you may borrow me."
For the second time that evening, Hinata gave a small snort of laughter. He wondered why she did that, why she acted like she was trying to contain outward expressions of joy. It sounded like it hurt.
If Neji looked annoyed he didn't show it, he simply turned and walked away. Sasuke nodded to Hinata, her eyes following him curiously as he stood and walked out of the tent behind the Hyuga ass.
Neji led him to the Affair room, where to his surprise Shikamaru sat alone on the floor with half of his body leaning out of the doorway, conspicuously (and lazily) blowing cigarette smoke into the interior garden. He nodded to Sasuke, and Sasuke understood that their one and only conversation had since rendered them acquaintances.
Neji shed his suit jacket and placed it carefully onto the coat rack. Then he said, "Tomorrow we go to the Akatsuki speakeasy. Our goal is to find enough information to locate the rest of them. Here's the plan..."
-:-
Sasuke found the whole thing boring if he was being honest. He thought that the Hyuga would at least want to kick some ass, but no, it was just another information scouting extravaganza.
"At least you look well-rested," Shikamaru said to him when they rendezvoused at a car garage near Katō Park. They met up at 11 pm the next evening to pick up their cars, luxury vehicles imported from all over the world. Shikamaru would take Hiashi's old Rolls Royce, while Sasuke would begrudgingly ride in Neji's Maserati. He wasn't allowed his own, and besides, it would look gaudy for all three to have rides.
"I tried," Sasuke answered offhandedly. He had gotten back to his studio at almost 5 in the morning, exhausted and unfortunately unbearably unsettled. He called Sakura on a burner phone that he disposed of the next morning, and in a low tone asked her what she was doing.
The phone sex had not been satisfying, Sakura half-awake, him half-asleep, it was a waste of time. After they hung up awkwardly, he forced himself to eat a plate of leftovers, drank the rest of his whisky, and fell into a fitful sleep until like clockwork, his nightmares woke him up.
So yeah, he fucking tried.
At the garage Neji doled out their weapons like a parent giving out snacks, looking clear-headed, stone cold, and boring. Sasuke immediately gave his back, shaking his head.
"What?" Neji practically barked it at him, but Sasuke didn't flinch. "Not good enough for you?"
"I didn't say that," Sasuke said patiently, smiling pleasantly in Neji's face knowing that it only pissed him off. "I just don't think it would be wise to walk into a known, affiliated speakeasy with three pistols. Don't think that seems suspicious?"
Shikamaru agreed, saying, "yeah, he's right, Neji. We'd be better off with knives or something. Our fists. Metal will just cause problems."
Sasuke guided them through the next few steps, directing them down long stretches of highway and ironing out the details of the plan with Neji as his car took sleek turns onto side streets until they finally reached the dark caverns of Maiko avenue. Sasuke could practically smell the stink of it through his windows, its odor surrounding the neighborhood in heavy smog, like a cloud over their heads.
This was a fish market neighborhood. They were near the ports. The streets were slick with melting snow, reflecting the blinking lights of liquor stores and strip clubs. Wrinkling his nose, Sasuke instructed Neji to pull up to the Foreign Car Hospital. It was a little building, nudged between two tall apartments. It looked like it had just been dropped there by a mightier being who had gotten confused about the concept of urban planning.
Neji pulled into one of the only open parking spots, and Shikamaru parked the Royce behind them. In the rearview mirror, Sasuke could see him drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, somehow bored already. After a few minutes, a heavy thud echoed around them as a young man rocked his fist against the metal of the Maserati, whistling. Sasuke rolled down his window.
The man looked about twenty, with acne populating around the canyon of his cheek. His pimples glowed as he popped his head into the vehicle, unconcerned with personal space. He was nondescript, brown-haired, brown-eyed, and young. Perhaps some sort of lackey. His expression was disapproving, "What can I do for you gents at this time of night, eh?"
Sasuke recalled the immaculately organized details of Sakura's report, siphoning an answer with a confident smile, "Engine trouble. Keeps making a funny sound when it starts up––thought we'd check it out since we were in the neighborhood."
"Hm," the man made no expression. "Well, pop the trunk will you?" Then he turned to Shikamaru's car in the back, opening his mouth to exclaim something when Sasuke stopped him with a hand that demanded authority.
"He's with us," he informed the man.
"Oh yeah? And where are you upstanding gentlemen headed to, so late in these beautiful bitches?" He said, referring to the car.
Neji made a face as he popped the hood of his car with a click. Sasuke ignored him, easily taking control of the situation with friendly banter. Neji didn't understand how quickly this thing could go south.
"We're on our way to Pearl's Palace," Sasuke said, making his tone casual. "You ever been there, man? There's a girl I'm in love with there, she always performs early 'cause I asked her to. I don't want her touched too much, you understand."
"Oh yeah?" The mechanic said again, his tone lifting. Sasuke imagined he had started to think about Pearl's Palace and all the wonders that lived inside. It was a nautical-themed strip club that was fairly exclusive, and very expensive. Some of the women even danced in giant fish tanks, slipping their bikinis over their heads as their hair floated in waves around their torsos. "Who's your girl?"
Naruto liked going there a lot, and for once Sasuke was grateful for those excursions. Sasuke watched the man dip under the hood of the car as he responded, "Her name is Star. She's got all this beautiful strawberry blonde hair and huge tits, perfectly round like fuckin' balloons. That's not it though, you should see the way she throws her––"
Neji was sending him a disgusted look when the kid shut the hood in a slam, a business card enclosed between his fingers. Sakura had given it to him last time they met, saying that she only had one. Sasuke only had one chance to get into the speakeasy, so he had to do whatever he could to gain the trust of whoever was working the front.
"Sounds sexy," the mechanic said, smirking now. "You should bring her around here next time, this spots better for a nightcap, if you know what I'm saying."
Sasuke inclined his head, signaling Neji. They both got out of the car. "Good to know," Sasuke said, smiling a dirty, wide smile at the man, who looked hungry at the thought of this made-up stripper. "We're first-timers. I didn't know what the vibes were."
"We always welcome women," he said. He walked around the car towards the supply room Sasuke remembered from Sakura's pictures. When the man stopped in front of the door, he threw an inquisitive look over his shoulders at Neji and Shikamaru. "Your friends are kind of quiet, eh?"
"They're nervous," Sasuke said, patting Neji hard on the shoulder as he looked at the man with a quickly growing frown. "You know how it is when you've never been with a whore. I thought I'd get 'em a drink, and take them to meet my lady."
"She's our lady tonight," Shikamaru said as if he were in on the joke. At least he had better social skills than Neji.
The man laughed and opened the door. Sasuke walked through looking back at Neji, his eyes a stiff warning. Sasuke wasn't going to let Neji's stiff morals or whatever ruin his chance.
AN. Happy Tuesday! Lots of things starting up! I love the next chapter and can't wait to share it next week.
Keep your reviews coming 3 3 3
