Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Naruto
Chapter Four
Never Too Late Part I
She blinked up at the sky; the cabin only consisted of one entire room she wouldn't go in. Not when he was awake, he would belittle her further.
She closed her eyes and whispered.
"Byakugan." But didn't use it entirely only catching faint wisps of chakra from the nearby occupants such as birds and bugs.
Their tiny flames of chakra only needed for them to live, she closed her eyes and focused on the pale blue networks. The pathways molding into a mistlorn fog, as if the next gust of wind could blow it away.
The air was slowly drawing colder and she could hear the crickets chirping from the moist grass. A nearby owl called out, asking the same question over and over.
"Who? Who?" it cried as she started to fade between the lines of sleep and wake. She heard the whisper of feathers as the owl spread its wings taking off into what she knew was the star emblazoned sky.
Her brows furrowed and she wondered if she should look, see if there was a moon tonight.
"Who? Who?" the owl cried once more she slowly opened her eyes and silently breathed in a breath. Golden hues of dark oranges and ember red were strewn across the horizon, almost like dieing coals.
The stars glowed before being enveloped by the sunrise, she had spent all night listening. Answering and wondering.
She stood up and stretched slowly going through the hyuuga formations to wake her body up, as if her body had slept and her mind had been the only thing awake.
She felt refreshed and wiped the dew away from her face, it glistened on her hand. She shrugged as she walked through the door expecting her prisoner to still be asleep.
She pulled her bag out from under the couch and once again headed outside, there was a stream a good distance away. When she arrived there she was satisfied to see it was clean and running.
She made a clone and set it back at the cabin, she couldn't be careless. Once she was done she returned once again, she was startled when she walked in.
"Uchiha-san!" she all but yelled.
He was leaning against the counter breathing heavily, his hand reaching for the vegetable knife she had used only yesterday. She instantly forgetting her shyness picked him up, his arm slung over her shoulder seeing as how it took two clones to carry him.
He glared at her but did no resistance only grunting once she sat him on the bed, she stared at him angrily for she never glared. Not even at her cousin neji when he tried to take her life, because he needed that kind of approach.
But this man in front of her, she hadn't an inkling on how she should react. Though one thing was certain he like her was a person of silence, and silence was truly golden.
She mentally prepared herself and tried her best not to stutter or trip over herself.
"U-uchiha-san I don't know w-what you were t-trying to attempt. B-but it won't work y-your going back to k-konoha." She said softly but it was carried in the now confining room.
"Why? So they can interrogate me for information? I can assure you there will be none." He replied his eyes still onyx black.
"W-what?" she was confused Tsunade only told her to return him to Konoha intact; she honestly didn't know why she was supposed to do this. Only that once he was with Tsunade her mission was over and they wouldn't see each other again.
"Your not even aware of why your doing this." His tone was even more blunt then her father's. Yet it cut so much worse for some reason.
"M-my mission w-was to r-return you to Konoha. I d-don't need to k-know the r-rest." She said stuttering like she did as before, how did he know so much at just a glance?
Surely it was expected of an S-Rank nuke-nin to predict the opponents' next attack, but this was ridiculous. Were what was along the lines of her thoughts.
"So they sent you, the hyuuga heir to escort me to the village." He put emphasis on escort like he was pointing out the obvious.
'Which he is.' She thought dryly.
"Y-yes uchiha-san, but it is a high rank considering I am supposed to escort you and protect you from a-any attacks to y-your person. Including t-those f-from yourself." She responded slightly annoyed at the fact that he thought this was simple.
That she was simple.
"They expect me to inflict damage on myself. Yet they expect you to be able to stop it, you're not even properly ranked for such a mission." He responded.
Even though he was still speaking in monotone Hinata swore she saw something flash in his eyes, something familiar. But whatever it was had gone as quickly as it appeared.
"Y-you do n-not know my r-ranking uchiha-san." She replied unevenly, it was true only a month ago she was promoted to jounin. On her seventeenth birthday as well, though she hadn't needed to take an exam.
"Then enlighten Me." he said quietly, it sent chills up her spine not in the good way either.
"I w-was made jounin a m-month ago." She inwardly slapped herself that was not the way to say your rank!
"Is that so? Impressive I admit…But it will do you little good against Me." he replied almost darkly, yet not so.
"W-why is that Uchiha-san?" she stuttered she hadn't known what rank he was when he left only that he was thirteen.
"I was AnBu captain at thirteen, the same year I wiped out the uchiha clan." He said without missing a beat.
Her heart thumped painfully against her chest, she swore he could hear it beating.
'Thump, Thump, Thump.' She thought.
"You analyzed me yesterday. With the byakugan." He voiced she nodded slowly.
"What did you see?" why did he want to know? Surely he knew of this himself?
"I s-saw your chakra…" she trailed off.
"And? Surely you saw more. You're hiding something." He pointed out. She swallowed nervously and nodded, he grunted and she knew she was supposed to tell what she saw. She sighed and began to recount bits and pieces of what she had seen.
The silence afterwards made her fidget and finally it was broken, but not by her.
"Then do it." He said she blinked.
"W-what?"
"Remove the chakra centering my eyes, if it works." He left the rest of the sentence hanging. She didn't want to know the rest of the sentence but knew she needed to release the chakra around his eyes.
She got up and found a bowl and filled it with warm water and soaked a wash cloth in it, once done she turned and saw the uchiha standing by the bed. Waiting.
She nervously made her way over and set the bowl on the side dresser, he was a foot behind her now. She turned and he motioned for her to continue, chakra lightly centered into her finger tips as she moved forward.
He tensed and his body seemed to coil ready to strike out if necessary she stilled slowly.
"I told you uchiha-san, m-my mission was t-to r-return you to k-konoha not I-injure you." She whispered.
He grunted and she cautiously moved closer, she lifted her hands up to the area around his eyes. Deftly she released small bursts of chakra from his eyes, his muscles twitched under her touch she knew it was from pain but he refused to let it be voiced.
'Some people are so stubborn' she thought annoyed as she pulled her hands away from his face.
"That's all you can do? Theres barely a change." He commented she stared at him with annoyance.
"If you think pulling chakra networks apart is easy then why don't you do it?" she retorted quickly before realizing what she had said. Her eyes widened several degrees.
"I-I'm s-sorry uchiha-san!" she squeaked blushing in embarrassment, he just grunted and turned away.
"It's still light out, we should head to konoha." He said in his monotone voice, how could he always stay in that tone of voice anyway? Surely you have to break that mask sometime? Or at least give a small crack you can't completely bottle your emotions it's not healthy. 'Or natural' she thought with a small shiver.
"Are you deaf as well? Daylight is wasting." He said some annoyance leaking into his tone, it was shocking to say the least. Wasn't he known for being a ruthless emotionless killer? One who struck his opponent dead without second thoughts?
She shook her head best not draw attention to herself, after all she needed to get them both to konoha unscathed. With that she got up and gathered the little supplies they had.
"Lets g-go." She said.