They finally reached their last destination. It was a rainy morning when they arrived at the small hotel. After two nights of camping, Karin was about to die. Yet, Hinata had other things on her mind..
What was she going to do? If he knew they would disband after this..mission..why would he want her to stay? Karin would move on with Suigetsu and Jugo would find a quiet place to thrive by himself, Sasuke would turn himself in and very likely spend a long time locked up, and she would be alone- for real this time. The ride was coming to an end, finally.
Naruto had chewed her out for endangering Sasuke when he had planned to lock him up this entire time, regardless of how he helped them. Why couldn't he have his freedom too?
And suddenly, her own freedom wasn't so important to her anymore.
She watched as Sasuke sorted through his bag. He wasn't whom she thought he was. He lied to protect people, he was loyal to friends, and he tried his best to right all of his wrongs in one way or another.
She couldn't stand the thought of him being 'locked away' even if he did commit a crime at some point. She didn't feel that way until now.
Because she didn't love him until now.
"Make sure you're ready, the next few days will be the roughest we've had." Sasuke warned without looking up from his bag. "There will be people trying to kill you, so don't trust anyone." The group nodded but Hinata seemed to be off in her own little world.
"Hinata? Are you alright? You've been really quiet since yesterday.." Karin asked as she unzipped her own bag. The group turned their attention to her, waiting for her to nod or acknowledge Karin's concern. However, she remained in her own world. "Hinata..?" Karin waved a hand in her face and the Hyuga jumped back slightly. "What?"
"You good?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Sure." She nodded quickly in response. That was a lie. She could feel Sasuke's eyes on her and she turned her back to him. Maybe if she pretended to be busy..
"Hinata?" God why.
"Hm?"
"You need to talk..?" She chewed her lip silently and kept her eyes fixated on her fake task. "About?" Karin and the others willingly slipped out of the room as they wanted more than anything to avoid all of the tension. Once they were left alone, Sasuke pressed further. "Why do you pretend so much? Do you really want to fight about this?"
"I don't think.. it's right for you to have to turn yourself in and.. I plan to talk to Naruto about it."
"Hinata I don't need you to fight my battles.."
"I'm not. I'm fighting our battles."
"Our?"
"We're a team, right? So your battle is my battle. All of this is because we are all a team and we care about each other, right?" Sasuke didn't have much to say to that. "Why are you so.. bothered by it? You know what I put Naruto and the people that cared the most about me through. So why are you so outraged at the thought of my atonement?"
Hinata sat on one of the beds and looked up at him. "Because then .. you'll go away for a while.." He arched a brow and sat next to her. "Just.. a few years..maybe?"
"That's a long time."
"You've done without me for longer, when I ran away."
"Things were different back then.. I..care..now.." He looked down at her intently. "Now?"
"You're not who I thought you were.. you're.. not a bad guy..you just lie a lot.." She held back a smile and looked up at him. "And that's why I decided to stay when you asked me. Because now, I've had a small taste of who you really are and I've decided that I want all of you."
"All of me?"
Later that same night, Karin and the others settled into bed while Hinata pretended to do so as well. Sasuke was preparing to make his meeting. "I'll be back soon. You stay here and watch over Karin and the others."
"Why can't I go with you?" Hinata mumbled with her eyes closed. "Because it won't take long." He said that but Hinata had a terrible feeling about it. She watched him leave before she sat up in bed and immediately began using her sensory abilities to scan the area surrounding them.
She found Naruto without a problem and he appeared to have Shikamaru with him. Hinata pinpointed their location and continued to monitor as Sasuke headed in their direction.
Something wasn't right.
She sensed something ominous. It was like something was there but.. it wasn't? Kiba had mentioned it to her before, and the advice he had given her back then had been to go with her instincts.
Hinata rolled out of the bed and tossed some clothes on. "Karin..! Suigetsu! Wake up, someone's coming!" She called through the hotel room and Suigetsu jumped up. "What? Now? Jugo!"
Hinata felt a surge of chakra and panicked, "They're right on top of us!" The door and windows of the hotel room busted simultaneously, causing wood chips and glass to fill the air. Hinata shielded her eyes the best she could while jumping back to avoid an immediate attack. "Hinata!" Suigetsu lunged forward and grabbed his sword next to their bags. "What the hell is going on?!"
It wasn't the same man, but someone familiar whom was also from the mountain. "Where's that Uchiha brat?!"
"Huh?!" Karin stood in a wide, shocked stance. "What do you want with Sasuke?!" Jugo joined the group as the real fun began. It seems their rude guests weren't all too eager to talk. These must be the guys Sasuke had been betraying for Naruto.
Hinata activated her byakugan. Once they realized Sasuke wasn't present, the few men opted to leave. However, Hinata wasn't going to let that happen. If they were dumb enough to stumble into their hotel room without even properly surveying the area for Sasuke, she wasn't about to give them another chance at finding him. She took a stance and held her hands out firmly, "If you move I'll do more than disrupt your chakra's natural flow. Tell us what you want with Sasuke."
"Listen little Hyuga girl, unless you want dragged out of here by the hair-!" Hinata cut him off with two chakra powered fingers to the throat. He hit the floor gasping for air. "I didn't ask for sass, answer my question before he looses all oxygen to the brain."
"What did you do?!"
"You have less than two minutes before your friend is a vegetable- talk!"
"We came here to kill him for leaking the information! The scroll he gave us was a dupe!"
"A dupe, huh? So how many of you are there?"
"That doesn't matter! What matters is we're heading to kill that brat before he messes everything up for us!"
She didn't like his answer.
Hinata planted one foot forward and swiftly dodged, what he had thought was, an unseen attack. It was like fighting with children, why would they even think about challenging Sasuke?
"Holy-" Suigetsu jumped back as Hinata flipped one man over her shoulder and sent the other flying back out the window he came in through. "So no one sent you?!" She grabbed the man up from the hotel floor and released the pressure on his airway, which left him gasping for air and holding his throat. "You are acting alone? I find that hard to believe since you're all such low level shinobi."
"N-no.. we..we were sent by.. our leader.." He struggled to catch his breath as he explained. "Well you go back and tell him that he might have better luck coming down here himself next time." Jugo and Karin cringed as she sent him fly through the door.
Suigetsu had never seen three grown men run away from such a small woman so quickly in his life. They were horrified and emasculated to say the least. "Whoa, save some for the rest of us.."
"Oh yeah!" Karin thrusted a fist into the air. "Take that! You want some too, Suigetsu?"
"Tch. I can't wait until Sasuke sees the damage..."
"Hey it wasn't our fault..!" As usual, they began to argue while Jugo and Hinata cleaned up the mess. "I guess I'll go down and talk to the clerk.." Hinata groaned and started toward the door. Sasuke and Naruto appeared in her path and stared the place down.
"What the hell?" Sasuke stepped further into the room as he looked around at the damaged interior. His eyes landed on each one of his team members while Suigetsu pointed down to Hinata. Sasuke's brows raised and he looked over his shoulder at Naruto, and then back to Hinata. "You did this?"
Hinata placed a hand on her hip and glared at Naruto. "I would like to have a word with Naruto, if that's alright with everyone else." She didn't wait for an answer before she grabbed the blond by the shirt collar and hauled him out to the hallway. "Come this way, Naruto, where there is privacy.." she spoke through gritted teeth. "U-uh.. Hinata.."
Naruto pulled back nervously but it was of no use, his fate was sealed.