Second chapter is up. Thanks if you read. Double thanks if you reviewed.
I don't own Naruto, duh.
Chapter 2
Hinata gaped at the silver haired man.
Her body had been exposed to many things during her travels, none had shocked her as much as what she had been told.
"As you know I am grooming Naruto to take the position of Hokage. He was usually the person I call for these sorts of matters as he was the only one I believed to possess the necessary... skills. However, your reputation precedes you and now I'm equipping you with this very important task. Sasuke as my number one Anbu, you as my number two. Since Naruto became my apprentice, Sasuke has been rather... reluctant to choose a partner."
"Hn," So the Uchiha was Anbu. That made sense, where else do you stick a weapon fully breed and capable of taking down an entire village before breakfast.
"As you know this is code for ANBU, if Sasuke does not choose a worthy partner, he will become a civilian by the end of this season, there is no way around that."
Thoughts tumbled inside Hinata's head like tumbleweeds in the driest place in Sauna. She dug through the deepest depths of her brain to try and remember a moment in time she had even talked to the ill mannered man. The only time she could remember was when she was defending Naruto and he told her to shut up, but even then she had just been a voice amongst the crowd.
He doubted the man knew what she looked like.
She was curious why Kakashi would consider her a candidate. She voiced her concerns.
"It's precisely that, Sasuke and yourself have never had any interaction. Yet, you are a formidable ninja who I believe will give him a run for his money, I'm counting on the element of surprise." Kakashi stated this and winked. The man was out of his mind.
His mirth disappeared and his eyes leveled. "To be honest, I think you have the most in common with him at this moment. Neither of you exactly have family, yet you choose to remain shinobi in a village in which you are isolated."
Hinata said nothing.
"My former partner Obito and I were an odd pair...yet when we worked together there was nothing that could not be accomplished." he reminisced, going off into a daydream.
Studying him, Hinata remembered a time when she was young, still pining after Naruto, he had confessed to her that one of his goals was to see his Kakashi sensei without his mask on. Hinata had blushed, but a request from Naruto, a goal of Naruto, was a goal to her as well.
Activating her Byakugan she had peered at the silver haired ninja's face. It was inherently handsome, she understood that maybe he kept it covered up to avoid distraction. Either way, at the time she remembered it wasn't his looks that interested her. It was the dull red glow that lingered in his left eye. She had been fascinated to see the Sharingan, until it was learned that after the great war , that the eye had once belonged to Kakashi's former team mate Obito. After that she could only consider it sinister.
However, even huge insurmountable acts of evil could be considered great. If Obito, or Tobi, as he had wanted the world to know him, had remained by Kakashi's side, Hinata had no doubt of the power the leaf would have had under its belt.
"I'm not promising yin and yang, but I will do as you ask. Where will I find him?"
Kakashi grinned. "Where you find any Uchiha. Good luck Hinata, you will need it."
The Uchiha district was not far from the Hyuuga compound.
The Uchiha had once been the largest clan in the leaf, making up all of the civilian police force with enough clansmen to spare Anbu and several other special ops units. They were not the structural hierarchy that her clan was. They all existed on an equal footing with elected officials as leader of the clan. Without fear of cursed seals and exile they had been a free spirited clan. Her father had once said that the strongest thing about the Uchiha weren't their fist, but their love and their pride.
Nevertheless, being frightened of a place where several people had perished seemed disrespectful to Hinata. She moved through the grounds steadily and in silence. The houses that she passed in the district had been kept nice and clean and on each one there seemed to be a small shrine with pictures of the families that had once dwelled there. If she had had the time she would have paused to befall a prayer on each of them, however that was something that would have to wait, now she was to convince their only surviving heir that she was worthy to be his partner.
She tightened her belt and made sure the kunai she hid conveniently on her person were all easily reachable. While she had hopes, she doubted a man like Sasuke Uchiha listened to words as much as action.
Finally reaching what she knew to be the main house she paused. She could sense an overwhelming chakra, she had no doubt that she had been detected as well.
She knocked.
The three dull thuds seemed to reverberate in her arm as she waited.
It didn't take long for the door to open. Hinata's jaw clenched.
She felt as if she were in a cheesy cliche manga where the cute guy answers the door with no shirt on. The man had a stoic expression etched in his face, Hinata would guess that it was permanent. His joggers hung smoothly around his hips and he seemed to be damp with perspiration. Hinata theorized that he had just come from some sort of training. While his body was rather toned and hard, the first thing she noticed as the giant scar that spanned across the front of his chest. His left arm also seemed to be wrapped in medical tape which Hinata speculated contained the prosthetic that he and Naruto received after their fight
He noticed her, sized her up for a moment before stating, "I don't want any," and slamming the door in her face.
Hinata blinked hard. Out of all the responses elicit from the Uchiha, that was one she had not expected. She frowned.
Raising her hand up she knocked again. This time when he opened the door she was ready.
"Uchiha-sama, I am Hinata, the Hokage sent me."
She talked fast and firm. Sasuke stared at her blankly. Some of his hair had fallen to cover his eye, but the one that was visible could have sliced through her soul were it tangible.
"Are you another one of Kakashi's dirty stripper grams?" He asked coldly.
Hinata raised an eyebrow. What had the pervy sensei gotten her into?
"No, but if you quit trying to guess I'll tell you why I'm here."
Saske exhaled deeply through his nose as though her very existence was enough to tear the fabric of his nerves. Chakra spiked in the air.
"Two minutes," he said gruffly.
Hinata nodded, assuming Sasuke was going to let her in. Instead he moved toward her, stepping out onto the porch and looking out over his lands, at vast amounts of nothingness and no one.
Hinata clasped her hand calmly behind her back. It was a habit she had developed to keep her fingers from fidgeting.
She took Sasuke's silence as an invitation to start.
"Hokage-sama seems to think that we would make a good team, he has asked me to become your ANBU partner." She thought she had more to say, honestly it sounded pretty simple when said out loud. They were positioned in the Uchiha's training field which was a vast amount of grassy land. However, due to the fall weather it was now dry, brittle, and brown.
Sasuke paused. He hadn't really been paying attention to her up until this point. However, at her confession he turned to face her. The eye that was visible narrowed at her. He was studying her now, she had been sized up many times before, but those times had been different. While Sasuke hadn't activated his Sharingan, he might as well. Once he seemed to reach a conclusion about what she was capable of he went back to disregarding her.
"The old man's gone crazy," He muttered under his breath. He turned to her. "What was your name?"
Are you fucking kidding me? She thought. She sighed hard. "Hinata."
He nodded. "You're a Hyuuga, I can tell from your eyes. I admire your people, your steadfast warriors and have always served the village well. In a way you remind me of my own clan. But you're not cut out for this, anyone that walks beside me, needs to have visited that place… that place of darkness and returned from it." While he spoke to her, his mind was somewhere else. No doubt reliving some sort of horrid vision of his past.
Nevertheless, it was a nicer let down than Hinata expected.
"Are you done?" she asked.
It seemed to be his turn to greet her with a perplexed look.
"You think just because you've lived through something horrid that you're the only one that has experienced anything emotionally and physically shattering? My condolences for what happened to your clan Uchiha, but please don't tell me what I've been through or what I'm capable of." She had allowed herself to get angry, something she said she wasn't going to do when she set out to find the last Uchiha.
A look passed over his face for a moment. If Hinata had to guess what it was, she would have thought that the stoic man was a little impressed with her gumpshun.
He seemed to be mulling something over. Coming to a decision he reached into the pocket and pulled out a wrap and used it to cover his hands and wrists. His muscles tensed as he did this and Hinata was begrudged to admit that his skin was a nice olive color to her pale white.
"I would be trusting you with my life, and while that isn't worth much I do still have a mission to accomplish."
He said this while lowering himself into a fighting stance. Hinata on instinct did the same.
She briefly thought to ask him what his mission was, after all, his brother was now dead.
"Show me that I can trust you with that." He stated this before moving forward.
He was fast, so much so that he left a scorch mark in the grass of the training field. She, however, was fast as well. Flipping her body out of range, she formed the necessary hand signs and activated her Byakugan. Killerbee would have been proud of the way she moved smoothly between Sasuke's attacks as though dancing to a rhythm. Spinning back on his heel, Sasuke placed two fingers to the right side of his mouth.
"FIRE STYLE: PHOENIX FLOWER JUTSU."
Hinata felt heat against her back as she ran through the flames. Dodging in a zigzag pattern breaking through Sasuke's offense.
Once she was close enough she fixed her hands into fluid hand signs.
"EARTH STYLE: STONE PLATE COFFIN."
Mounds of earth erupted from the ground, surrounding Sasuke in a winding abruptness. Predicting he would jump to get out of the way, she moved to close in, instead he flickered, one moment there the next she sensed him behind her.
She cursed. Reaching her arms behind her back she blocked the katana that had appeared in Sasuke's hand with a kunai she kept under her sleeve. The clang of metal echoed through the seemingly still air.
Rolling away from him, she dodged another swipe from the blade.
Hinata needed to gain the upper hand. While she was infinitesimally better than she had been five years ago, Sasuke was no ordinary opponent.
She wanted to keep the combat in close quarters. From what she had studied and heard of the man he was a tad more skilled in long rage attacks. If she could keep up the barrage, maybe she could end it before it got out of hand.
LIGHTNING STYLE: SHOCKING SOAK
Channeling lightning into her kunai she slammed it in the dirt, letting out a ripple of lighting dart out. She had perfected this technique so that the lighting dispersed under the dirt. This made it so her attacker could not see it coming.
One of the first lessons she had conditioned out of her, was to not be surprised when her attacks hit or caused damage. Being powerful and formidable was something new to Hinata. She had for a long time been used to a more defensive roll, her main determination being trying not to die. Now she had to get used to going toe to toe with the Sasuke Uchiha's of the world.
Sasuke had become immobile. Shocking soak paralized the users intended target with a shock of lightning that raced through the victim's body and destabilized their chakra.
Moving in swiftly she struck.
"GENTLE FIST: EIGHT TRIGRAMS 64 PALMS."
Sasuke appeared to brace himself.
"4 PALMS, 12 PALMS, 16 PALMS, 24 PALMS 36 PALMS 64 PALMS."
After striking each crucial body part, besides the heart, Sasuke collapsed coughing up blood. Then, evaporated into thin air leaving only a log behind. "Shit," Hinata hissed.
He was behind her, slamming her back into the ground in one swift motion. Eyes inches apart. She could smell the mint of his tooth paste and the bangs of his hair hung long enough to tickle Hinata's cheek.
His sharingan was activated and his katana was pressed firmly into the skin of her neck, she knew that with a flick of his wrist he could kill her. "I knew it, you're not fit for this life Hyuuga, go home." He stated. Being in such close proximity Hinata could see the fine details in Sasuke's face. The stress lines and dark circles were the most prevalent, however she had to begrudgingly admit that it was still a handsome face.
"Like I said," she stated calmly. "Please don't tell me what I'm capable of."
The Uchiha looked confused, before it dawned on him. Hinata had firmly placed two fingers to the back of his head just below where his neck and his cranium connected. For anyone else to do so would mean nothing, for a Hyuuga to place their hands anywhere on one's body could be assumed as a death sentence for said person. This was especially true when placed against a chakra point as vital as the base of one's skull.
"Tch." He grumbled.
"Are you really going to act like a child about this?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed at her, Sharingan swirling with mal intent. She met his gaze evenly.
He was trying to intimidate her. Five years ago that would have worked. She would have shriveled under his gaze like a raisin in the sun.
But luckily for her, and indirectly for Sasuke, her exterior was conditioned to be harder, unbendable and unwavering.
Furthermore, despite what the man thought, there were scarier things in the world then Sasuke Uchiha.
I like fights. I hope you like fights.
Thanks for reading. Review and stuff.
(talk to me, I'm lonely)