Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction using characters and world elements from the Naruto universe, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto.
- Scroll IX -
- Solace -
"Mikoto Koyuki? Is she-"
Sasuke motioned with a hand in the direction of the dark stairwell and then glanced undecidedly at the lady behind the reception table.
"Yes, yes… the young girl… around your height - with silver and black hair…?" The older woman asked confirmatively.
"Yes. That's her." Sasuke answered, "Which room is she-"
"That girl, she checked in just about ten minutes ago…" the lady behind the counter proceeded to say, oblivious to the fact the boy in front of her was already shifting weight from one foot to another.
"…Which room?" Sasuke pressed direly.
The tone of his voice caused the woman behind the table to look at him worriedly.
After a moment, she spoke, "Room B-4, up the stairs-"
"Thanks." The raven-haired shinobi said, slipping past the table despite the landlady's unfinished instructions.
Why did that bastard have to come back? Why now? Why did he go after her?
Sasuke had too many questions. He didn't yet know exactly why the Hokage sent for him and told him about it, except that it was "only right."
The rest of Konoha didn't know, and even after the hunt for the missing-ninja had ceased, nobody except the dispatched ANBU teams and the involved people were aware:
Someone very dangerous had just taken a stroll around his home village,
and put Koyuki in a life-threatening situation.
Sasuke knew something was off when Kakashi arrived several hours late for their first exercise, only to have it reschedule and immediately departure. Even more suspicious when Koyuki never arrived.
Koyuki was never late.
The floorboards underneath his sandals creaked as he walked the middle of the dark hallway, obsidian eyes flicking from one door to another.
B-4. He stood mutely in front of it, thinking of nothing and no one but the presence behind the wooden barrier.
The discipline he had grown up with kicked in, and he cleared his throat, as he pushed at the doorbell. He took a small step back as he eyed the metal-plated-letter-dash-number on the door.
Why am I here? Why am I - so desperate?
"Sasuke?" The voice startled him.
His eyes looked down and he saw her as she open the door wider, and his onyx eyes met her confused violet ones.
She gave him a crack of a smile.
In an instant, she reached out for him, open arms cascading over his shoulders, her body pressing to his in a wholehearted hug.
Sasuke's eyes were wide in astonishment, backing up another step his feet settled firmly on the floorboards with the tips of Koyuki's sandals touching his.
Passing seconds came in silence - with nothing but the sound of wood creaking underneath their weight.
It was too confusing, Sasuke opened his mouth slightly to speak, but the words died when he heard her deep, contented sigh against the hollow of his shoulder.
Strange as it may seem, the raven-haired boy could feel her lips molding into a small smile as they pressed against the fabric of his shirt.
His eyes looked down at the caught strands of his hair mingling in her silver locks and he tilted back shaking his dark, black bangs loose from hers.
So close. Again.
Only then did he notice the thrum of his heartbeat, thudding incessant against his ribcage.
Suddenly he wanted to pull away, indignant with the fact that she might know how deeply her presence affected him.
It wasn't the first time.
"I'm glad you came."
A warm thrilling sensation crept up his stomach at the warmth of her breath, and the words being whispered.
"What have you heard?" she asked, almost casually and she pulled back, directing a gaze at him.
"The Oji, dead in your home," he said. Then his gaze flew to her, sharp before he continued. "And…"
The amethyst of her eyes wavered, "… and?"
His lips barely parted as he darkly replied, "Itachi."
Koyuki bit her lip, at the same time pushing away from him and looking out at the only small, rectangular glass window in the room.
"You should've told me," He said with an insistent voice, before entering the room and shutting the door, looking at her with an expression of suppressed anger.
She kept her back facing him as she spoke, softly, "Sorry, I was busy scrubbing out the blood from my floor."
Something in Sasuke's grey-tinted eyes flickered, and he looked long and hard at the girl in front of him.
With furrowed eyebrows and renewed anger etching into his eyes, he asked, "What was he doing there, Koyuki?"
She took in a deep breath and turned around. Her mouth opened, but then she looked at the ground and her arms crossed in front of her chest.
He gave her a glare before stepping towards her, closing the space between them and snatched at the corners of her sleeves, roughly pulling her to him. She gave a choked gasp at the sudden tug.
"Koyuki, what did he want?" He seethed and his eyes flashed dangerously, a liquid, luminous black.
"I-… I'm not sure. He said he just came to visit, that's all." The girl said suddenly, her voice straining as if she didn't want to discuss it.
His eyes lost some of its hardness, clouding over only slightly as he looked at her.
"Koyuki…" He started to say, all traces of anger now gone. Whatever stern temperament Sasuke had begun with, was now replaced with a tenderness he'd never been aware of.
She appeared unsure for a moment, almost nervous when he pulled away, and slowly she turned her head to the side. Her hair fell across the side of her face, hiding her eyes from his probing gaze.
Sasuke's thumb and index finger reach up, holding her chin and gently pulling her sideways so she would have to look at him.
"He didn't touch you, did he?" He finished.
The Mikoto mutely shook her head, and could do nothing but look back at him. She found it hard to look anywhere else, especially now when he was staring at her as if the whole embodiment of intensity were not enough to hold in his eyes.
His gaze never faltered as he looked at her, but inside, he was struggling to sort out every bit of tangled emotion he felt. There was the constant happiness that recently accompanied seeing her, and the awkwardness of having to deal with a foreign "him", the anger that whispered about the neglect of his original plans, and feeling of annoyance and desire intertwined as one.
Even now the open acceptance of his feelings towards her wouldn't come. It was all so confusing, yet Sasuke wasn't really denying anything.
He liked her, but that he could say it was all "plain and simple" would be a big lie.
Surprise of all surprises, he expected a long time ago that he no longer harbored a heart, and yet a substantial portion of it was now beating very quickly as his eyes moved across the delicate planes of her face.
His reverie was broken, and he snatched a breath inwardly as she asked, quietly, "Sasuke?"
Koyuki watched as his chin lowered, partially hiding his mouth from under the wide collar of his blue shirt. With a sigh, he grabbed at her concealed right arm and slowly began unfastening the straps.
"Wait, Sasuk-" She started, but her sentence faltered as he pulled the cloth up her forearm and pass the elbow, revealing the faded vertical scar embedding the entire length of her lower arm. An old wound caused by his katana.
His fingers caressed the surface, his gaze softening considerably.
"I'll never forget the day he did this to you," He muttered. Briefly, the haunting image of her bloodied body struck him and he felt his nerves prickled.
The dread of that moment came back to her and suddenly she felt so mournful.
"I heard you shouting at me, at the hospital all those years ago. How I should've just ran away instead of trying to fight him…" A heavy, pained, and humorless laugh came from her and his eyes narrowed.
His memories went back to that one terrifying week he had to spend alone sitting in a rigid hospital bed, just after his clan as well as Koyuki's had been massacred and he had blacked out somewhere outside his grandmother and grandfather's house. He had opened his eyes in the hospital with the events crashing down over his head in finality. He tried so hard to convince himself everything was a bad dream. But when he had gone back to the Uchiha compound, he knew the bad dream had solidified into a painfully strangling reality.
My family is dead.
A small voice, the one he buried deep in his mind, whimpered, and Sasuke resisted the urge to slump without purpose to the floor. Before the realization kicked in and he hurried back to the hospital, only to find her barely clinging to life. He wanted to let out a strangled sob, a mixture of pain and the relief of seeing her.
"Dobe…" his voice cracked from the strain of withholding himself. After a pause, he continued with what he hoped was a tone of exasperation. "I had to keep you alert somehow. You were-" and the rest of his sentence went unfinished because the kunoichi had thrown her arms around his neck.
This time, he felt no need at all to pull away, he could hear it, the soft murmurs of sound as Koyuki began sobbing softly into his shoulder.
Just listening to the pent-up fear and regret that erupted inside her made him hurt suddenly.
"Na, Koyuki… you're so emotional." He said, even as his voice lost its usual certainty, and wavered.
His heart beat quickened without his notice as she gasped into his shirt, her shoulders quaking against him.
For long moments, he let her cry.
Sasuke couldn't look at her as she finally lifted her head, violet eyes brimmed with tears.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke… I-I was just so scared. I couldn't do anything, a-and… he was just toying with me. I thought he-… he was gonna..." Her voice quivered and she choked at the thought of continuing what she was about to say. Instead, her hands held tighter onto him, seeking comfort and relief in the tumble of her last small, muffled sobs.
His tightened jaw relaxed and his eyes lowered, the starkly black eyelashes pressing into light skin.
His palm settled over her back, because Sasuke felt such a strong urge to do just that.
Since he had first held her, he had known that Koyuki's body seemed to fit naturally into his.
He felt the splay of his fingers over her skin, and his face pressed closer to her cheek as her weeping subsided mutely into the fabric of his shirt.
"Koyuki…" his voice sounded so weathered down, laced in his exhaustion. Either that, or perhaps it was the undeniable tenderness that seemed to enclose them both. Sasuke no longer cared about anything else that happened around him. All he saw now were his fingers as they trailed up her back, clasping at the soft strands of her hair, touching at her neck. He had been terrified, scared beyond comprehension at the thought of her dying.
His eyes closed and without knowing it, he brushed his lips lightly over her temple in a gesture of tenderness.
The dampness of her tears on his neck mingled with warmth as she pressed her mouth close to where his pulse thrummed in response.
For a long moment, she held him, to the sound of clanking chimes and the heavy rustling of the wind, people talking and laughing outside. The high bubble of laughing children echoed in the distance.
But he heard nothing.
And after another moment, his arms slowly tightened around her, and he embraced her with all the silent emotion he felt.
*sniffs* I'm not making myself cry. I'd promise I would deliver, so, there you go my dear readers. *grins and bows* I stayed up all night and into the morning typing this, and now, I must sleep. Later! ^^