The Art of Love

Chapter Thirteen: Blood on My Hands

Rated M for Sexual Content, violence, graphic themes, and language.

By Midnight-Runaway

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Maybe it was the intricate layout of the building or awful scent that filled her nostrils that caused her head to hurt, maybe it was solely the frustration from the unexpected variables. It was clear that the mission was becoming far more complex than originally anticipated.

The old abandoned building on the outskirts of the sand village was a part of the warehouse district that had originally been attacked during the last great shinobi war. It was not heavily populated and many of its parts lay in ruins. It was an ugly site, the mixture of sand, heat, and broken buildings.

Hinata stood against in the dimly light corridor. "Do you see anything captain," she heard through her ear piece. Scanning ahead, there was no sign of movement from the enemy. They were stagnant. An uneasy feeling crept into her gut; taking a shaky breath she ignored it, "There are three men in section two, move with caution."

There was a total of three teams consisted by four shinobi squad. "Team one is clear." "Team two, we found three men. They have been disarmed."

"Team three will go ahead." Her team moved through the hallway, the sound of their footsteps rang through the vacant building. The mission was a simple, they had been informed that the weapon specialists linked with the resistance were running an operation from the old warehouse district, their job was the capture Sho, the specialist alive.

Hinata stopped reaching a large door, pushing her hand up she signaled the men to stop. "The room has a faint chakra signature but I cannot detect where it's coming from," she whispered. Opening the door slowly, she tightened her grip on the kunai. The room was lite only by the moon. It was a large room. It was split into two different floors. Stairs lead to the open second-floor loft. Nodding her head to the rest of her team, they began to inspect the room.

"Captain you need to see this." Hinata turned moved towards the stairs. The upper section of the room was made into a makeshift bedroom. She saw Ryo, the sand shinobi, standing close to the bed. There was a body on the bed. The smell of decay hit her nose causing it to scrunch in disapproval. Moving closer to the bed, Hinata could make out the dismembered body of Sho. Hinata stared at the corpse for a few seconds; her mind was running the sceneries through her head. Sho was the only tangible lead they had acquired in the last month. "They knew we were coming."

Hinata sighed. Nothing made sense. "From the evidence found it can be concluded there was no operation being ran," the cloud ninja chimed through the secure communication line.

"We have another body," Shino spoke. Moving back to the lower level, she moved towards the corner of the room, "the man is still barely breathing," Shino spoke. He bent down next to the man. She tried to get a chakra reading of him, only to fail. She watched as Shino's bug landed on the man. The Uchiha and tracking specialist made eye contact.

"This doesn't make sense," Kakashi said through the radio. "I can't get his chakra reading and he has no pulse," Shino said. Moving away from the body the Hinata looked at the paperwork lying on the desk. "Captain these documents are just letters. They don't make sense. Hinata picked up a letter. 'The bird is in the cage.'

Hinata felt a shiver run down her back. It all made sense. "Fall back," she barked. "It's a tra-," sound of explosives rang through the compound. The building shook.

Before there was a second left to register what was happening, a second explosion went off inside the enclosed room.

Hinata felt herself being pushed off the ground, and a groan escapes her lips as her back made contact with the concrete walls.

Hidden Leaf Village

(24 hours later)

Sasuke stood against the wall staring at the balcony. His arms folded, he watched the sleeping village. Another sleepless night, the fourth one that week, he was haunted by the ghosts of his past. Since the return from his classified mission, two weeks ago, he found himself restless. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the faces of those children; he could almost smell the foul scent of death. His hands were stained with the blood of hundreds and no matter how much he tried to wash his hands he could not wash away his sins.

Sighing he turned towards the bed, the bed seemed so much larger. He missed Hinata; it had been three weeks since she had left. Their home felt cold. She was warmth, his safe haven. Many times he wanted nothing more than to lay his head on her chest and hear her heart beat. It was the soothing sound.

His heartfelt heavy from the burden of his duty and the empty feeling that resided in his gut since Hinata departed.

"Captain," a voice called from outside the window. Turning to face the ANBU, his heart skipped a beat.

"Hokage-Sama requires your presences."

.(Somewhere in the Sand ).

The red haired man stared at the white eyed female. He watched her closely as she signed the final document. She looked like hell. Her face had small cuts and bruises and her left arm bandaged. "With all due respect Gaara-Sama why are you staring at me," she whispered not looking up from her papers. Her voice was rough and came out harsh.

Gaara leaned back in his chair not removing his eyes of the Captain. "It wasn't your fault," he stated. The woman stopped writing but did not look up at the man.

She put down her pen and sighed. "I lost three men, and two are missing," she looked up at him. "That's five families who won't be getting their sons and daughters back. Five mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, friends and lovers just were taken. Everyone keeps telling me it's not my fault. I know that goddammit," she stopped taking a shaky breath, she Picked up the pen and went back to writing the letter.

For minutes, the room sat quite. Gaara slightly watched the distressed woman. Finishing the last letter, she stops up. "They're my responsibility. They're my men. They walked blindly into a trap without questions. It could have been avoided. I know the past is the past mistakes were made but the end of the day," Gaara watched as she turned to look at him, "Their blood is on my hands until we punish the bastards who did this."

"If you will excuse me."

Gaara stared at the closed-door and let a sigh escape his mouth. War was a horrible thing. Looking at the letters, he read the first few lines. '…it weakens my heart to tell you, that your husband was killed in action…'

Standing up, he moved towards the balcony his eyes staring at his people. There was laughter ringing through the streets as children ran around the town square. The public didn't know the horrors, the threats. They couldn't phantom the cruelty of the world.

Even through the war, the public was shielded from the gore, not many were tainted by the wrath of human nature.

"Sir we have a message from Widow," his assistant called out to him.

Nodding he turned towards his younger assistant, "get me Captain Uchiha." "Yes."

Looking for his city ones more, he reminded himself of the vowed to protect them whatever the cost.