I am full of chocolate and anxiety and I'm very very sorry (again) for the wait. I just – life is a thing. I hope you enjoy this chapter and that you're all staying safe and well :)

Also just, thank you so much for the reviews last chapter. It's been a rough ten months and getting those just made everything so much lighter, so from the bottom of my heart thank you so much. Especially Guest reviewer who reviewed a whole bunch of chapters – you gave me legit happy tears and my heart felt so full after reading your reviews. Just – thank you. Everyone. So much.

Chapter 28 - eye of a hurricane

The man they bring in is even bigger than the last. I can feel fear in the uneven thudding of my heart, but keep it carefully locked in a steel cage behind my eyes. Fear is weakness. And weakness isn't tolerated. And those who aren't tolerated, die.

"Kill him," my trainer says to me, looking down at her clipboard. "Or you'll be whipped."

I clench my hands to stop them from shaking. "Yes ma'am."

The giant gets into his stance and I immediately try to analyse him – look for a weakness. He's favouring his left foot over his right, and he can't seem to raise his right arm up quite high enough. Obviously some kind of injury. An advantage I have over his general mass.

"You may begin," my trainer says, her voice bored. I get into my stance and immediately start to circle him.

The giant lunges. He's quick – quicker than I'd anticipated. I duck to the right and push a fist into his floating ribs, thumb wrapped over the top of my fingers, and dart out of his way. The giant stumbles and turns, swinging a wild fist in my direction. I duck and put distance between us.

We dance around each other a while. He rushes at me and I take advantage of his weakness as much as possible, stay away from his cinderblock fists. I'm doing well. My training is paying off. The giant is slowing, heaving in great gasping gulps of air, blood streaming from his nose and mouth, desperation a fire in his eyes.

I don't make a mistake until the last second. I lunge at the giant, intending to drive his nasal bone up into his brain, and leave my right side open for him to grab me. I break his nose, but don't quite manage the killing blow before he dislocates my shoulder. A brief moment of bruising distraction is all he needs to put me in a chokehold, and he holds me there until I lose consciousness.

I awake to the feel of a whip gouging fissures in my back. I do not scream.

I can't get enough of her. When we wake, before she has a chance to escape, I pull her mouth against mine and drown in her. I taste the sweat on her skin, dragging my tongue over her jaw and neck, and when her breath hitches I suck on the sensitive spot behind her ear.

I don't know how to stop. I don't want to stop. She burns in my veins like rum on fire and I've never known living like this.

And she kisses me back. She kisses me back. Her hands are on my shoulders, on my chest, on my back, her blunt nails trailing promises over my skin.

She lets out the most delicious whimpers and I swallow them whole. Mine to have; mine to keep, locked away in my heart where no one can find them.

Hinata is living and alive and here and mine and every kiss she gives me is like fireworks being released in my chest.

Except –

Except she's not mine. Not really. I'm the Demon that haunts her in the middle of the night. I'm her worst fucking nightmare and she is afraid of me. If only she knew it was me.

My kisses become lazy, my fingers gentling from their bruising grip on her thigh, and outside we can hear movement as her apartment comes to life.

"You should probably go have a shower," I mutter against her skin as my nose drifts along her jaw.

"Hmm," she hums back, eyes still closed and fingers still tangling in my hair. "One more minute."

"Do you think Neji will give us one more minute?"

Hinata shoots out of bed like she's been electrocuted, seeming to have come to her senses. Her cheeks stain wine red and I don't know whether she's going to laugh or cry. "This – this – this -" she says, gesturing animatedly between the two of us "- this isn't smart."

I feel a knot in my throat and swallow it away. "Yes."

"We – we shouldn't. It's not a… a good time."

The knot lodges itself in my chest, and my breath feels sharp in my throat. "I agree."

She looks at me with wide earnest eyes and a trembling jaw. "I don't want to stop." The words are small and they rattle as they slip past her tongue. "I feel alive when I'm with you. I don't want to stop feeling like that."

I say nothing, but stand up and kiss her as hard as I can.

Neji gives me a tired greeting as I leave Hinata's room. I wave back while smothering a yawn and join him in the kitchen.

"She in the shower?" he asks me while I pour some cereal into a bowl.

"Mhmm," I grunt, hunting out some milk. "Tenten still -?"

"Obviously," he interjects.

"How's that going?"

"About as well as it ever has."

I swallow any anxiety I feel and down my cereal. I can't allow myself to worry about something beyond my control. I just have to hope that the Uchiha's firewall holds.

"How'd Hinata sleep?"

"Fine. No issues."

"Good. Anything in particular you want to do today?"

Kiss Hinata. "Probably some more of that fighting style I'm trying to train her in. You can join too if you want."

"Sounds good."

When Hinata finally emerges from her room she sneaks me a covert smile and blush, and I feel my stomach do a somersault as I leave to have a shower. I watch as Neji narrows his eyes, his gaze darting between the two of us, but the moment passes before he can think too much and Hinata engages him in conversation while I make my escape.

Hinata slowly starts to get a hang of the fighting style, and I do my best to not let my fingers linger on her when I try to correct her. Neji is right there and I know that he can sense that something is different. I give him no reason to suspect anything, but Hinata isn't quite as good at hiding her thoughts as I am, and I catch her on more than one occasion staring at me with fireworks in her eyes.

Neji joins us after a half hour, and I swear his motivations are to keep a closer eye on Hinata than to learn the technique. Regardless, show-off that he is, he picks it up faster than he has any right to and by the time lunch rolls around he has caught up to, and surpassed, Hinata.

Dick.

It's as I'm leaving the training room that Tenten steps out of the elevator and pulls me aside, waving Neji and Hinata on towards the kitchen.

Her face is serious, eyes strained, her hair a mess. There are dark shadows under her eyes and a tension around her jaw that I haven't seen before. There's a hollowness in my chest, and I feel winded as I watch Hinata and Neji leave us alone. Has she found something?

Fuck. Not now. Not yet. Please, fuck, not yet.

She looks skittish, and throws a glance down the hallway, her fingers twisting over themselves. "Look, I need to ask you something, and you probably won't like it but I need you to humour me for a minute." The words rush out in a whispered stream, as if she doesn't have enough time to say them all.

Like she's desperate.

My heart stops, then picks up double time. I keep my face carefully blank as I force myself to look her in the eye. "Of course. What is it?"

"You grew up in Konoha, right? You lived it rough, got caught up with some of the gangs. You know the city, you know the people here?"

"… Yeah," I say, elongating the word in my uncertainty. There isn't a gun in her hand so I try to take that as a good sign.

"This – this firewall…" she stops and lets out an annoyed huff. "I feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm trying to complete a puzzle and I don't have half the pieces. The Uchiha have been running Konoha for generations. Do you know anything – anything at all about them that could help me? You know Konoha. Neji, Hinata and I are basically blind here, and Hiashi is less than useless. Don't tell anyone I said that. My point is – is there anything about them that you know? That only someone who grew up in Konoha could know? Something that can help me get past this firewall?"

My heartbeat returns to a normal pace as I try to think. To come right out and say I know nothing could be suspicious. But to say too much could give me away. "To get past the firewall? Shit Tenten, I'm useless with that stuff. Look, all I know about the Uchiha is that they're willing to try just about anything at least once. They're not afraid to cut corners or play dirty. They're fucking ruthless. You can bet that that firewall was made by the best techies in all of Konoha, and you can bet that they're being paid to maintain it."

Tenten looks deep in thought, biting the inside of her lip as she ruminates on my words. "Fuck," she eventually says. "Okay. That's – that's not great, but I'll figure something out. Thanks, Gaara."

I nod, and we walk into the kitchen where Neji is making sandwiches and Hinata has been banished to the bench. The strain and tension that was radiating out of Tenten is erased as she smears a mask into place and gives Hinata a smile.

"What were you two talking about?" Hinata asks, perking up immediately from where she had been sulking.

"We were just discussing whether I should teach Tenten this new fighting style too," I lie, easy as breathing. "What do you think?"

A spark of mischief lights itself in Hinata's eyes as she perks up. "I think so," she says as Neji sets out the sandwiches.

I ignore the glare Tenten sends my way as I take a bite of my lunch.

When Hinata heads into her room that night, Neji stops me from following her. She throws him a confused look, but after some brief reassurances that he just wants to talk to me about training she closes the door. He stays quiet until we hear the shower turn on.

He turns to me then, something like fear and caution flashing in his eyes. "You cannot get involved with her," he says, his voice more a hiss than a whisper.

I keep my face carefully clear, even if it feels like my heart has dropped somewhere into my kidneys. I really need Tenten and Neji to stop doing this. I'm getting emotional whiplash and it's quite uncomfortable.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I say, keeping my voice even, even though I can feel panic rising like vomit in my gut. Has he been spying on us? Are there hidden cameras in Hinata's room?

… That's disgusting.

I should check for hidden cameras in Hinata's room.

"I don't know if you're aware," he continues, and I force myself to focus, "but I suspect that Hinata may have developed an – affection for you."

I take a moment to process what he's saying. "An… affection?" That doesn't sound like cameras.

"You know what I mean!"

"You mean like a crush?"

"Obviously that's what I mean."

"An affection. God Neji, what are you, two-hundred? An affection."

"Would you shut up for even a minute? You are so fucking -"

"Oh mister Sabaku, sir, you really have driven me into quite a passion -"

"The most moronic, pain-in-the-ass, annoying -"

"Really just the most titillating infatuation, I'm most ardently enamoured -"

"Would you shut up!" he all but yells, breathing heavy and face as red as wine. I wipe away the tears of laughter that have gathered at the corners of my eyes and take a deep, shaky breath. "Look," he says, taking a deep breath of his own. "What I'm trying to say is that you cannot get involved with her. Not even considering the fact that you are literally the worst, I don't know if you've noticed but we are in the middle of a war. She's being hunted by the most ruthless killer possibly in the whole world and we don't even know what the Demon looks like. I need you to take some responsibility, here. Hinata is reliant on you – possibly more than she is on Tenten and I. And if she is to have a chance of surviving this war then she cannot be distracted. Hinata is the most precious person in the world to me. There is nothing I won't do to keep her safe. I need to know that we are on the same page. I need to know that if it comes down to it, you'll prioritise her life over everything too – her feelings, your feelings, everything. These feelings that I suspect she has could be the death of her and I will not lose her. Do you understand?"

His speech sobers me. "I understand," I say slowly. "I wouldn't purposefully do anything to put her in danger. But -"

He gives me a sharp warning look, but I press on.

"- But don't you think she should have the chance to live as well? Sometimes being alive isn't enough. I'm not saying I'd initiate anything. And I'm not saying she won't live through this. But you said it yourself. This is war. We might not get a tomorrow. Hinata's a big girl. She can make her own choices. If you try to stop her from living her life it might make her resent you. And I know you don't want that. I just – don't hold her so tight that she can't breathe. The only thing worse than losing her to the war would be losing her before it's even begun, don't you think?"

Neji looks forlornly at Hinata's door, jaw tight and shoulders set. "I'll do whatever I have to to keep her alive," he eventually grinds out from between clenched teeth. "Even if she hates me for the rest of her life, I can live with that, so long as she gets through this. I just need to know that you won't get in my way."

I huff a breath of amusement. "Trust me, Neji. There's nothing I won't do to make sure she survives this."

He assesses me, looking for the lie, and when he finds none, he nods. "Good."

The next few days go much the same way. When I wake I kiss Hinata like she's air and I'm half drowned. I ignore the ghostly 24 floating above her head. I'm running on a countdown; I'm running out of time. She will survive this. No matter the cost, she will live to see the end of this war. The world without her feels like the night sky with no stars or moon – a cold, dark, empty void.

Whatever the price to see her through this, I'll pay it.

Neji watches us closely, but seems less tense after our talk. I get the feeling that a tenuous camaraderie has been established between us – that regardless of our motivations, we share the same goal, and there's a safety in that.

After lunch, Tenten refuses to learn the new fighting style. Following a brief, but civil discussion wherein Tenten threatened to kick my teeth into my bladder, we unanimously decide to let her refine her shooting and knife throwing skills instead.

That night, Hinata decides to run me through her music. I understand exactly none of it, but watching her eyes sparkle like scattering fireworks keeps me interested. She takes me through the notes and what they mean and how long they should be played and why Le Merle Noir is so difficult ("There's no time signature, Gaara! No time signature!") (I don't have the heart to tell her I've forgotten what a time signature is).

Those days pass in a way that's almost pleasant. There's a routine to it that feels easy and comfortable. When I wake up in the morning to kiss her I feel like I've come home. I feel like I finally belong somewhere. For the most part I do my best to ignore the countdown hovering above their heads. Besides train Neji and Hinata in the basics of Itachi's fighting style, there's little else I can do for now.

The next step will be fortifying her floor. Itachi will know beyond a doubt that I've defected by now, and will be taking steps to make sure he can outsmart me. And I don't doubt his ability to.

I have to be better than the best. One wrong decision and the Uchiha will win and Hinata will be dead. And I can't – I can't – let that happen.

The phantom 22 mocks me as I hold Hinata tight in my arms. She smiles in her sleep and sighs against my neck. It ripples above her head, like candlelight exposed to breath, and I glare at it. She has beaten that countdown three times now. I'll be damned if she won't survive the fourth.

I know it's a bit short, and I am sorry for that! This chapter just refused to be written. It was very rude.

At any rate, I hope you enjoyed it. Uni has been kicking my butt lately and it looks like that trend will be continuing, but I'm hoping I can find some time (and motivation!) to write. It's my birthday soon (26, ew) so maybe I'll get a bit of motivation for my birthday and get out another chapter lol.

Thank you so much for your support, I honestly cannot express just how grateful I am for it. I hope you're all staying safe and well in these crazy times and that you're taking care of yourselves.

Reviews are always welcome, wanted and appreciated.

All my love,

Alia xoxo