Unwind
Cycle VIII
Beyond the floating palaces, towers, and chateaus, there is a broad expanse of cloud that is known to the gods as the Divine Strip. The roads are marshy in places, unlike the paths between the homes of the gods, which are firmer and have considerably more celestial dust. The shrubs and trees that scatter the Strip are blooming with tiny jeweled fruits and flowers — though, without the gods' blessings, they glitter savagely in the sunlight, almost malevolently.
Sasuke waits, sitting crouched on the bough of a crabapple tree with diamond and pearl flowers. Itachi and the mortal are supposed to be here soon — Itachi, because for whatever inane reason, he wants to send them off when they depart, and Hinata, because aforementioned inane brother wants them to go together. It's definitely not ideal, but Sasuke is willing to handle the mortal on a brief journey if it means Itachi can finally get the upper hand in this mess.
Finally, he sees them in the distance. Two dark-haired pale-faced figures climbing up the last ribbon of a path that leads into the Strip, one tall and broad-shouldered, the other short and of a meeker stature.
Surprisingly, the Hyuuga looks serene next to Itachi. From what Naruto had told him last night, Sasuke expected her to at least cower a little next to his brother. No big deal though. There's going to be a lot of time for interrogation on their journey.
When the Hyuuga and Itachi reach their designated meeting place, the girl looks surprised by the general flatness of the Strip and the profuse of shimmering plants. Then, she looks perplexed, obviously wondering where her mission partner went. Itachi glances up the tree and gives Sasuke a bored glance.
Sasuke agilely leaps down, landing right next to the girl, who gives a small surprised, "Oh!" and takes a few steps back.
"Let's go," Sasuke says, heaving his pack over his shoulder and putting his hands in his pockets.
"Not so fast, Sasuke." Itachi smiles wanly. "There's something I have to tell the both of you before you leave."
"Couldn't you have told us before when we were back at the Palace?" Sasuke grumbles under his breath, but he stops in his tracks nevertheless.
"That would have given you too much time to get ready." Itachi's smile grows apologetic.
Immediately, Sasuke is on the alert. "Ready for what?" He eyes his surroundings and flexes his fingers experimentally. The Hyuuga, a few steps away, also looks tense, though her eyes are focused on her shoes. She doesn't look surprised at all.
She knows what's coming.
"Nothing too drastic. You're being paranoid, little brother." Itachi chuckles. "But don't relax yet. I haven't told you entirely what the mission entails. You needed your respite yesterday."
"You told me enough. Escort the Deidara guy, hide him from whatever god, godling, or nymph we see in our path. Bring him back so you guys can complete that deal."
"Yes, except for one, hm, minor detail."
Sasuke narrows his eyes. "Which is?"
"I want you to get the secrets out of him first. In other words, bring back his corpse."
Sasuke might have tripped if he were still walking. "You want what?"
"I don't have the time to deal with him. Do you really think I'm going to risk our thrones?"
"Of course not! I thought you had a plan."
"Well, this is the plan." Itachi dabs the corner of his lips with his thumb.
Sasuke still doesn't understand. The dabbing is supposed to indicate the opposite of what was just said, but at the moment, the secret gesture is too ambiguous to give him any clue on what's really going on. Whatever convoluted plan Itachi is plotting, Sasuke doesn't want to spend the time to figure it out. He'll just have to wing it. Itachi has probably taken this into account anyway.
"…Sure." Sasuke nods once at the mortal. "Let's move."
Light footsteps totter after him.
Itachi calls, "Good luck," and Sasuke responds with a grunt without looking back.
Ω
"H — how is your health?"
Sasuke glances at the girl huffing and puffing behind him. She's doing her best to keep up, but it's been over an hour and it's obvious she's lagging. That pisses him off, for some reason.
"Do you mean my physical health?" His voice turns sardonic. "Or my mental health, after you took over my mind and shut it down?"
The Hyuuga winces. Sasuke faces forward again, satisfied.
"It wouldn't have been that way if you didn't try to do the same to mine first," she grumbles under her breath.
He abruptly halts. "What did you say?"
The girl hesitates. Surprisingly, she plows on. "I said, if you hadn't tried to violate my mind, maybe that rebound wouldn't have happened."
Sasuke turns around to face her. Her chin is tilted up defiantly, but her hands tremble, visible even through her long baggy sleeves. Around them, the wind stirs the jeweled fruits to a soft tinkle, like chimes.
"What don't you get about the world ending in a little over two weeks? We need to know who can be useful, and more importantly, who can be trusted. And right now, I doubt you fit in either."
Her eyes are wide and filled with hurt. Good.
"Why do you hate me?" Oh great, is she going to cry? "What have I done — you don't even know anything about me —" She rubs her eyes with her sleeve.
Sasuke sighs. "I don't hate you."
"Wh — what?"
"You're a mortal. I'm indifferent to you." Okay, sort of a lie, but whatever.
"That doesn't explain—"
"Why I'm so rude? Deal with it. That's how I am."
"That doesn't explain why you don't trust me. Your brother trusts me, Naruto trusts me, I'm not sure about Sakura, but I think she trusts me as well…"
"And?"
"And, I, I thought—"
Her eye twitches when he interrupts her again, "You thought that I'd be the same as them."
"You're on the same side, so yes. At least when it comes to trust."
"Fat chance, princess." Sasuke turns and begins walking again. "Do you think the Uchihas were always in charge of the rain? That we were born gods? In our previous lives, we worked our way up, Itachi and I, and do you know how we survived?" He flicks a knife open and closed absentmindedly. "We protected each other's backs. That means, everyone he trusts, I have to double-check and triple-check they're clean."
He doesn't hear her tottering along. When he turns his head, she's still standing in the same spot, but with her head lowered. Her bangs hide most of her face.
"What? You give up?"
She shakes her head but still doesn't look up.
"I'm sorry. I just suddenly remembered my sister Hanabi…"
Ugh, sounds like it's going to be sappy. "Alright, alright. Let's move. We have a schedule to follow."
"Ah — right." She paces after him.
After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke can't control his curiosity. "So why did you ask that in the first place?"
"I'm sorry?"
"When you asked how my health was. Were you trying to be polite and fill the silence with empty words, or did you actually feel sorry for me? Be careful now. I'm good at telling when people are lying."
She flushes. "…Neither. I wanted to know if you remembered anything, b — by any chance."
He raises an eyebrow. "Am I supposed to?"
"Um, never mind. Please forget I brought it up."
"No, tell me. What am I supposed to remember?"
She's quiet for a while. "I can't say. I'm sorry."
"You still wonder why I don't trust you?"
She bows her head. "I'm sorry."
"Whatever." Still, he wants to know. Something he's supposed to remember? She probably meant after the whole mind breaking ordeal. When he woke up from his forced slumber, all he could hear at first was a reverberating beeping noise, rhythmic and for some reason, unpleasant.
He had thought it was just a side effect, nothing too serious, but in the past several days, there have been several abnormal things that were all very serious. Perhaps it's too risky for silence and pride. After all, he can always show the mortal who's who later.
"Hyuuga—"
"Wh—what's that?"
Sasuke lifts his eyes from the mortal to the horizon. In the distance, there's a collection of glowing lights above the cloud strip, all twinkling simultaneously to an erratic rhythm. Some of them flit through the trees, making the jewels clank and jingle louder. He grimaces.
"Wind sprites. They're natural tricksters. Annoying as hell, but not too bad to deal with, if we play our cards right."
"Can't we fly over them?"
"Gods can't fly on the Strip. The celestial dust blocks all vision more than a few meters up. Why else do you think we travel like this?"
As they approach the lights, they can hear the sprites' voices – as if someone has amassed a few dozen tuning forks and rang them at different frequencies. They're whispering and giggling. Some of them sound mocking.
"All right, listen close. No matter what, you have to pretend they aren't there. They might pull on your hair or spit at your face, but it's crucial you don't react. Don't make eye contact, don't sigh deeply. Just keep walking. If they try to block you all at once, just run into them and keep your legs moving. Got it?"
"Y—yeah." She sounds apprehensive, but when he turns his head, she looks oddly determined.
Up close, the sprites look like little pixies emanating orbs of light, like fireflies.
She better not think they're cute or wonderful or anything, he prays bitterly. They're a pain to get rid of.
Fortunately, the mortal is a good listener and, surprisingly, a good actress. From the corner of his eye, he sees the sprites chattering loudly in her ear, enough so that he almost winces; and lightly scratches her face with their needle like claws.
The Hyuuga keeps walking, not bothering to wipe the bead of blood rising on her cheek. Good at following directions, at least. That's sort of a plus, though on what scale, Sasuke doesn't know.
The sprites continue to bother them, giving Sasuke the same treatment and taking care to bite his fingers and knuckles. Their teeth and nails are no match for immortal flesh, but they're still as irritating as a swarm of flies.
The sprites amass together and try to trip the Hyuuga. She calmly walks over the obstacle and continues with those sized steps, as if she had meant to walk at that pace in the first place.
They're almost past the nest when a group of sprites in front of them glow intensely, until their bodies are no longer visible, and show what must be a mirage. It's of a girl with similar features as the Hyuuga – the same eyes, nose, and chin but with different colored hair and of a shorter height – and she's hanging, eyes half-lidded, face purple, from a noose.
They're both caught off-guard. Hinata, because she isn't ready to see the image of what was probably someone she was close to in that state. Sasuke, because he isn't ready to see something the sprites shouldn't be capable of.
She gives a startled cry. He bristles. Immediately, the sprites trill in triumph and dive in for the attack. Sasuke seizes Hinata's arm, the owner of which has gone still in shock, and rises into the air. Within seconds, the celestial dust overwhelms. Sasuke keeps moving in whatever direction seems like forward, all the while twisting and flailing at the few sprites that have managed to grab a hold of their ankles. The rest screeches, just as blinded by the celestial dust as he is.
Beside him, the mortal starts coughing violently. Right, she needs to breathe.
He glides back down toward the surface of the Strip, all the while hacking around his legs and shoes with a knife from his belt.
Hinata is wheezing and pale. Sasuke fishes for a small vial of healing water and slips a few drops past her cracked lips. When the wheezes cease, and the color returns to her face, and she rasps out a, "Thank you," Sasuke cranes his neck to take a look around.
They've gone off the path, that's for sure.
He rummages through his pack for a compass, a map, a scrap of parchment, and a pen. He scrawls:
No longer on the road. Sprites. May be delayed by a few hours to a day, depending on how far we've strayed. –Sasuke
And blows the piece of paper into the air, where the celestial dust will deliver his message to Itachi.
Then, he examines the map. There aren't any obvious landmarks in the area that can help him discern where he is exactly on the Strip, but the sun is setting and the stars should be out soon. Navigating by observing the constellations should be a breeze.
The thing is, what bothers Sasuke the most isn't that they've gone off the path. That kind of contingency was well prepared for. No, what really bothers him is how the sprites were able to draw from the Hyuuga's memories and produce a mirage, a tragic possibility, in the first place. Sprites shouldn't be - aren't - gifted with that sort of mental outreach, not usually.
Something has changed. They'll have to ask Deidara about it when they get the chance.
He turns to the mortal, who is sitting up and staring at something in the distance detachedly. Probably still in trauma from seeing that girl in that state, Sasuke thinks, and for some reason, this strikes a flame of empathy in him. He quickly tries to douse it out.
"We need to get moving when the stars come out." He hesitates, then adds, "Be ready by then."
She gives a curt nod, once, breaking eye contact with the horizon and staring suddenly at her sandaled feet.
"I think," her voice falters, and she tries again. "I think you deserve to know what I saw."
She's not talking about the mirage, Sasuke realizes belatedly. She's talking about what she saw in his head. He squints.
"Why did you change your mind?"
"I love Hanabi. She's my sister. To see her like that – we were always worried that she would never fit in because of her genius, like Neji – and Neji was – once, he—" She's beginning to hyperventilate and pauses to take a deep breath. She tries again. "It's not my secret to keep. You deserve to know."
She sounds absolutely sincere. Sasuke crouches, pinches a bit of cloud from the Strip, and watches it dissolve at his fingertips. He sighs.
"So, then. Tell me."
chapter eight fin