(A/N: Welcome back, once again, to another episode of Mysterious Captivation! Haha (: I'm in a rather good mood, all things considered. I went to a wonderful Big Daddy Weave concert! I got a total of four and a half hours of sleep last night, got up and went to church this morning, have not taken a nap, and it is now eleven thirty at night. Haha I'm past the point of tired, and on a sugar rush right now (it's kept me awake to type this for yall!) and now, I will allow you to go ahead and read this and leave you alone.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other popular thing you have heard of.)
Mysterious Captivation: Chapter 12
Sliding, exhausted, from the bed, Hinata ghosted lightly into the bathroom. She withdrew her second Akatsuki uniform, donning her black outfit before slipping her clouded cloak.
Extracting a bottle of nail polish from her knapsack, she began repainting her finger and toe nails. Waving them dry, the soon-to-be-ex Hyuuga steadied herself for the upcoming confrontation.
Remembering her cousin's letter from the night before, she smiled bitter-sweetly. The war of words from the day before was not going to be the same today. Today, she was going to completely cut her ties from Konoha.
Feeling refreshed in body, but her mind full of worry, she allowed herself the comfort of a single tear.
Hearing movement from within the adjacent room, she quickly wiped it away before flitting back to Deidara. "Are you ready?" He quietly questioned.
Nodding apprehensively, she motioned for him to lead as they made their way out to the clearing where she had met her rescue team the day before.
Staying hidden in the treetops, Hinata activated her bloodline limit until she saw three chakra signatures warily making their way into the trees near the meeting place. Letting her voice rise as their movements fell, the Hyuuga spoke, "We are here. This is not an ambush, but a meeting. My partner and I will drop to the ground first, and Neji can check for any other people around you. I've nothing to hide," Hinata mocked, watching Naruto flinch backward at her cool, businesslike tone.
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Neji watched as Hinata and the blonde ninja from the night before dropped to the ground. Deidara, he remembered. "There's no one else around us," he assured his comrades as they both looked to him. "It's just them."
Kakashi nodded once before motioning them to follow him as he dropped to the forest floor. "I assume you have decided not to return to Konoha with us," Kakashi analyzed, eyeing the blonde Akatsuki member by her side.
"I told you yesterday that I wouldn't," Hinata cooly retaliated. "When you told me to think it over, I knew right away that you were planning something. However, this also gave me time to plan. I will not be returning with you, and you will not put up a fight until we meet again."
"How can you be so sure?" Naruto's loudly asked question echoed through the forest, frightening several birds from their perches. Neji visibly winced.
"You had time to plan, so why shouldn't I?" Her claim fell on deaf ears.
"We'll take you back no matter what!" The Kyuubi container assured her.
She merely smirked, her now-icy gaze locking with each of her adversaries before turning to her companion. Speaking loudly, her voice carried over to the other three, "Why would they be intent on forcefully taking me back, Deidara-kun? Why would they bring me back, when they would have no way of keeping me there? I don't understand,"
"I honestly don't have a clue how the minds of these Konoha freaks work. There's obviously some reason why they're still attached to that village, yeah. Maybe something is wrong in their minds, un?" He said with a sadistic chuckle.
"Who knows?" She agreed, joining him in his dark humour. She returned her attention to the stunned Konoha ninja. "When are you going to realize that I will not go with you, and even if you do manage to get me there, I will not stay. I would be dead before your Hokage could even sentence my punishment for betrayal. It is the way of Akatsuki," her smile widened as she continued, "but of course, you would know nothing of loyalty."
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With a lightening-quick movement that none but Neji knew she was capable of, the Hyuuga woman threw several kunai at her once-comrades-in-arms. Neji could clearly see the chakra she had pushed into the blades, courtesy of the new move that Kiba had told him she had been working on.
Neji did not allow himself to physically prepare for the attack. Instead, he mentally prepared himself for the life-stealing pain he knew would take precedence over everything else, even as he felt the kunai pierce his skin, deep into his left lung.
The pain immediately spread as his breaths became more laboured. Gasping for breath, he allowed the faux hope that he had allowed to stay in his gaze finally fade away.
Blinking hard against the sudden rush of blinding pain and tears, he noted belatedly, he heard the angry rush of Naruto as he nearly injured Kakashi as he tried to harm Hinata.
Once more gasping, and laying his pride aside, Neji weakly called, "Help me!"
Catching the attention of his teammates, they caught sight of the bloody, gasping young man with the kunai still lodged in his lung. Each breath I take will cause more damage to the lung tissue; well done, Hinata-sama. I didn't think you would be able to do this. His gasps became weaker as black covered the edges of his vision.
The last thing he heard before it went completely silent was Hinata. "You might want to get him to a hospital instead of trying to take me back. He won't live longer than a couple days at the rate he is breathing. I wonder how long it will take you to get back to Konoha, especially trying to keep me prisoner and watch over him at the same time." She allowed her voice to trail off, planting the idea of his death into the heads of her soon-to-be-enemies.
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Naruto growled, nearly leaping at Hinata with a deadly Rasengan. He was stopped, however, when Kakashi grasped his upper arm. Turning to yell, Naruto saw that the man's eyes were still locked on the dying Hyuuga.
"Naruto, as much as I dislike this situation, we have to leave. As I have always said, people who abandon their missions are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. We have to get Neji-kun to a hospital as soon as we can. We can't risk his life for a traitor. She's too cowardly to face us in battle, so she attacked the one who trusted her most. Now, we are forced to leave, or risk his survival." Kakashi's eyes narrowed, glaring at the young betrayer.
"I have had enough of my friends betraying me!" Naruto roared, reaching to attack despite the warning from Kakashi.
"I so hoped that you would chose to save him. He's one of the nicer ones," Hinata said, trailing her voice off. She then picked back up on it. "I see that you are now willing to abandon your own friends for those who have decided to leave you. What an admirable quality. Especially with your future goal of becoming the Hokage. What ever will all your real friends think when they find out about this?"
That was the last straw. "You want to stay?" Naruto asked, still silently pleading that she would say no.
"Of course."
"Then stay. Just know that the next time any of the rookie nine, or your family, or any ninja associated with any village, you will be attacked immediately and killed. You will be put in the Bingo Books, along with Sasuke, and you will be a 'kill-on-sight' target."
She nodded, and then smiled brightly at him. "Good luck, future Hokage-san. I will look forward to those meetings."
Naruto bent, placing Neji's right arm around his shoulder and being careful of the boy's wounds. Kakashi did the same on the boy's left, skillfully removing the kunai from the wound and bandaging it as best he could. All the while, both men watched the two Akatsuki warily, though neither moved.
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He watched as the two conscious Konoha nins flinched, backing away from what they surely thought was an insane woman. He watched until they were out of his range of sight, then turned to Hinata.
"What in the world were you thinking, hm?!" The blonde exclaimed, gesturing wildly at the retreating nins. "Why did you almost KILL your cousin, yeah?" Getting no answer, Deidara paused his motions and looked into her face.
Tears now freely fell, sparkling in the morning sunlight. "Are you okay?" He asked, finally breaking through her shell-shocked façade.
"No. I think I might have just killed the one person who cared enough about me to face two Akatsuki alone."
"Then why did you do it?" Deidara demanded, hating to see the pain that was clear on her face and in her voice.
"It was part of his plan. Here's the letter that you delivered to me last night. I still have it in my kunai pouch."
He took the scroll after she unsealed it and read the words that had been meant only for Hinata's eyes.
Hinata-sama,
Your friend from Akatsuki, the blonde one, has made my plan much easier. Being able to tell you what I'm going to do will aid in keeping you where you want to be. I first want you to know that whatever you do, I will support you. Knowing this, though, does not make what I am going to say any easier. If you truly want to stay with them, you are going to have to hurt one of my team. Being able to tell you, I have altered my plan for tomorrow. Following through with it will be much easier now. I want you to impale me with a kunai. The others know of the deep bond we have formed since I was beaten during our first Chunnin exam. They know how protective we are of each other. By your injuring me, you will symbolically be cutting all ties to your family. As much as I know you will hate this, you must hit me in a vital place on my body. Somewhere that has the potential to kill. If they see that you have the intent to kill me, then they should truly be convinced that you are not going to peacefully return with us. Please, be careful, and don't worry about me. I'll find a way to let you know I'm alive. If I die, then know it was doing my duty to the one I swore to protect, and that I look at you as more than a job, but as my sister. I wish there were words to tell you how much I regret my attacks and words against you during the Chunnin exam, but maybe this action will be enough.
All my love, and I hope we meet again,
Neji-nii-san
"Wow, mm. Your relationship with him was rather twisted, no?"
"Not at all. He hated me for a while because I caused the death of his father." Deidara nodded, knowing that story from his mission to bomb the Hyuuga Compound. "Then, during the Chunnin exams, he tried to kill me. If the fight had gone on, I would have died within ten minutes, but thankfully, the medics stabilized my condition before that could happen. It took me a long time to recover after that, and because I never recovered my full strength, I was far behind the others in terms of my power. I was still struggling with being seen as weak when you kidnapped me. Neji-nii-san has felt guilty about this for years, but I've never heard him actually admit to it."
Deidara's low whistle was the only sound for a long moment. "How do you know, hm? He seems to be a rather emotionless kid. How can you read what he feels, un?"
Hinata smiled bitter sweetly. "Most of my family is like him. They're all very stoic, the epitome of what a ninja should be on the outside. The only problem is the lack of shown familial ties. The Hyuugas are constantly stoic, not just on missions. They are a proud clan, and no longer a part of my life," she finished, finally recognizing aloud that she was no longer part of that family.
"Is he going to be okay?"
She turned her head away from the blonde as she answered ashamedly, "I'm not sure. I dearly hope he will be,"
The ex-Iwa nin reached out to catch her chin in his hand. "All you did was follow instructions. Don't feel guilty or get worried for no reason, yeah. If he dies, then it's his time to go, and he would have no matter whether you had done it or not, hm," the blonde stated comfortingly, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
Breaking free of his grip easily, the ex-Hyuuga heiress turned fully away. "Thank you," she brushed the tears from her eyes, knowing that she had passed her test and become a fully-fledged missing nin. She felt lighter than she ever had before, except for the sinking knowledge of what she had just done to her cousin.
"Let's go home," Deidara suggested, for the first time knowing that this would be true for the both of them.
As he struggled to find something to say to her, he realized that the only one who would truly be able to comfort her was Itachi, the one who had done something similar before.
Scowling, the explosives ninja decided to pay that Uchiha a visit.
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"Oi, Uchiha!" Itachi heard his name being called from far down the hall outside his room. It almost sounded like Deidara, but there would be no reason for that man to look for him.
Stepping lightly into the hallway after hearing the 'click' of a newly unlocked door, Itachi found that it was the Akatsuki bomber calling him.
Behind him, though, trailed a dark haired shadow, doom written across both of her eyes.
"What happened? Did they get by?" His worried words were hastily spoken, despite the fact that he knew his rival could hear the emotion in his voice.
"No, she would have already been killed if that was the case," the blonde solemnly responded.
Itachi was surprised that Deidara found no need to provoke him at the moment. There must be a reason. There is no way he would admit to needing my help, though. The Uchiha pondered, wondering once more what had occurred.
He leaned against his door, watching the blonde Akatsuki do the same with the wall across from him. Hinata stood in his shadow, a blank look on her face and unshed tears shining in her eyes.
"I," the once-Iwa ninja paused, as if searching for something, but continued upon taking a large breath, "needyourhelp." The rushed end to his statement belied his disgust of the words, along with a sneer.
"You are admitting to needing my help?" Itachi raised an eyebrow, a condescending look on his face. "What in the world happened out there?"
The blonde, now suspiciously turning a light pink in the cheeks, snarled at the older man and swung his fist to hit the wall behind him. Hinata jumped backward, falling to the floor and staring up at both men with wide eyes. "I think I'm going to go back to my room."
"Wait, un!" The Akatsuki bomber called out, catching her wrist before jerking his arm back as she flinched. "Sorry," he nearly stammered, turning to Itachi after making sure Hinata would stay by him. "Please, talk to Hinata. I'll let her tell you what happened, yeah," Deidara explained as he gently shoved that girl toward the Uchiha with his fingertips.
Itachi watched Deidara walk away, wondering why that man had relinquished time spent with the woman they both loved, when he could have very easily pushed Itachi completely out of the way.
The stoic Uchiha turned to the young woman in his arms, gently guiding her into the room they once shared and locking the door once more. "What happened," he demanded with no emotion allowed to creep into his tone.
"I may have killed my cousin," she whispered. Seeming to come uncorked with those words, she told him of what happened in its entirety. She told him of the letter Deidara had brought back for her with Neji's plan, and of the way they had convinced the others to leave to save his life.
"They will make it back. If it gets to the point where he is at risk of dying, Kakashi knows some medical ninjutsu. Neji won't die, but neither will he get well quickly. If I know that Hatake, he will heal your cousin as much as he can without doing too much damage. Later, that will have to be undone so a medic nin can heal it properly, but he shouldn't die. I'd imagine the Hyuuga's much too stubborn for that," Itachi allowed his eyes to crinkle as his mouth's edges lifted slightly.
"He'll never forgive me," Hinata simply stated. "I can barely even believe I allowed myself to go through with that!" She angrily exclaimed, hitting Itachi on the shoulder before covering her mouth with her hand in slight panic. "I'm so sorry!"
The Uchiha's eyes softened as he watched the ex-Hyuuga. "Don't worry about it," he instructed, before continuing along with her previous thought. "He is the one who instructed you to hit him with that kunai. I promise you that he will forgive you."
She shook her head. "He might get well, but he'll never be able to become ANBU now. No one who has taken a nearly fatal shot like that can rise above the rank of Jounin, just in case the tissues stay weak."
Itachi's eyes widened. "How long has this law been around?"
A bitter smile crossed the young woman's lips. "Ever since you left Konoha. It was put in place because of you, along with an age base on the ranks. I think they said it was because too much stress causes the mind to begin to deteriorate, or something like that. It was one of those laws that no one knew about until it was needed."
Seeing the smile for the grimace that it was, Itachi asked a question of her. "And when did this law become known?"
"When Neji-nii-san – no, Neji-san – tried to kill me in the Chunnin exams. I would never have risen above the rank of Jounnin had I stayed in Konoha. I didn't want to do that to him, but he demanded it of me,"
The unshed tears that had glistened in her eyes were finally allowed to drip down her cheeks in quick succession. She nearly choked on the sob that clawed its way up her throat as she felt Itachi's arms wrap around her torso. "Quiet, now, it's going to be okay. You said he told you he would be in touch if he survived, so you can count on that," he continued to whisper comforting nothings in her ear.
As her cries began to cease, she looked up at him from where her face had previously been buried in his shoulder. "All I ever seem to do when I'm with you is cry. I'm so sorry, Itachi-san," she apologized.
He allowed her a hint of a smile. "Don't worry about it. If you spent more time with me, then it wouldn't seem like you cry all the time. Right now, though, crying is probably what you need. It's what makes you more human than the rest of us. It's what keeps you from being a mindless murderer."
A small, understanding smile lit her eyes before it died. "And I suppose you think yourself a heartless murderer? There's no way you could care so much about me if you were such a thing."
Seeing the opportunity for what it was worth, Itachi expanded on her sentence. "I don't just care for you, Hinata-chan," he said, putting emphasis on the new suffix.
Her eyes widened at the closest thing to an actual confession she had heard to a confession since the one she gave to Naruto three years prior to that moment.
Sitting in stunned silence, she didn't notice the slight tear that began to make its way down her cheek. "You love me," she watched him look away.
When she didn't speak for several moments, Itachi turned his face back to her own. Now, though, his eyes were like a flint. "Forget it," he spat tonelessly, "because there is no way you could love me after the way I shared about my life and experiences with you. You would rather go with the man who can show you that he loves you, instead of trusting the one who has held you countless times as you cried," he turned his back on her. "Leave," his order was a harsh one, and he listened as she hesitantly stood and walked to the door, unclasping the lock and slipping outside.
He prayed he would hear no footsteps, or that she would return to his room and reenter, but he knew that wouldn't happen. He had been harsh, and she was shy and a peacemaker. She would not come near him again unless he first approached her.
He sighed, wondering how she had broken his emotionless shell enough for him to let his anger at her and Deidara take control of him.
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She heard a set of rushed footsteps outside the door to her room. "Enter," she sanctioned as the steps halted at her threshold.
"Gomen ne, for bothering you. I need some advice," the newest Akatsuki member hesitantly attested.
"What is the problem, Hinata-san?" Konan's worried voice would make the ex-Hyuuga remember why she had gone to that woman for comfort and help.
"It's about Itachi and Deidara," the midnight haired young woman glanced about the room, eyes seeming to take in every detail except the expression on the face of the Akatsuki's mother.
"They are not typically prone to jealousy, but when it comes to the other of them, they feel that they must always win. While it has to do with you, there will be nothing that they do not resort to in trying to make you want to stay with them. You have just experienced this, yes?" Konan's ever-observant eyes took in the shaken form of the younger woman, realizing that the love triangle could harm more than just her boys, but their newest recruit as well.
"Yes. Itachi-san-" She broke off, nearly choking on her words. "He's trying to guilt trip me into spending more time with him,"
"And you want to, but you don't know how to make Deidara back off?" Konan watched Hinata nod, the younger woman's eyes shining in relief. "I will not step in here. You must decide for yourself. Just as you ended the balance between missing nin and loyal nin today, you must end the balance between Itachi and Deidara. You must choose one of them, or this is going to get even worse,"
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Hinata knew those words were true, even without the solid stare of the older woman. She knew that she had to choose, but she didn't know whom she should pick.
Time will tell. I need to tell them that guilt trips and fighting with each other are not the way to win me over. I'll give them both a certain amount of time a day, and push them together in the same place for every time they insult the other or myself. Nodding resolutely to herself, Hinata thanked Konan politely and left the room.
She was so intent of finding the two men that loved her, whom she loved in return, that she did not realize she was being followed.
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Tapping his chin lightly, Pein ghosted behind the Hyuuga. She was officially a part of his organization, and she had nearly killed her cousin to become such.
Something was wrong. Their kind hearted medic could not recover from such a trauma in a few measly hours.
He would consult Konan about it later.
This girl is more trouble than she's worth. He chuckled darkly. There was no way he would hear the end of this 'whatever it was' without trouble.
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"Itachi-san, Deidara-san, I have something to tell you both," she watched both men observe her carefully before continuing. "I am not some prize that you two can compete over. When you insult each other, it hurts me. I can't stand it when you fight. And there will be no more guilt trips or mocking because of me, okay?" Hinata glared at the two men with newfound confidence. "Any time one of you does something that I just listed, I will make you two both sit in the same room with me for an entire hour," she smirked, watching them cower.
Itachi's lessons had paid off in more ways than one. Not only could she convince her once-comrades that she was abandoning them and to go home, she could convince the two men that she would carry out her threats until she figured out which one she genuinely loved.
They grumbled as she finished her statement, but both reluctantly agreed.
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It was worth agreeing with the eldest Uchiha to see the bright smile that lit up Hinata's face. Though her eyes were still shadowed, and slightly puffy and red from crying, she looked lovely.
"When do you think you will start training in medical jutsu, Hinata-chan?" Deidara questioned, not noticing his slip of the tongue until he had both the ninja from prestigious clans looking at him strangely. "Gomen, Hinata-san," he ammended, emphasizing the suffix.
"No, it's fine. I just have only been called that once since I left Konoha," she murmured before continuing on to answer his question. "I will start as soon as I my next training session with Itachi arrives. He will teach me the basics, and then I will begin researching and experimenting on my own with books,"
Surprisingly, the three held a normal conversation for several more minutes before deciding that they would leave the room for lunch.
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Konan was already in the kitchen when they arrived. She could tell it would be a long while yet to go before Hinata could make up her mind.
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As Itachi had said, Kakashi healed as much of Neji's lung as he could, so that young man was no longer in danger of losing his life, but they had to make their way to the hospital as soon as they could, or it had the potential to get much worse.
The moment they passed the gates into Konoha, Naruto his sensei dragged the unconscious Hyuuga into the hospital and into the nearest operating room, demanding that Tsunade take a look at him the moment he got settled.
Several hours and much pain later, Neji was released from the intensive care unit of the hospital and into a regular room. Waking almost silently, the young man opened his eyes to see the opal eyes of Hinata's father, his own uncle. "Gomen nasai. I couldn't bring her back," he apologized.
"I can't believe they took my daughter, and she chose to stay with them. Were we that cruel?" The older man's fears were voiced only for the ears of the younger branch member, the only one in the clan who had seen this side of him other than his late wife.
"Hai," Neji agreed, casting his gaze ashamedly away from the greiving man, both for the facts that it was the truth, yet still a lie, and that the man had a saddness hidden deep within his eyes.
The elder man nodded once, swept to his feet with a deflated flourish, and left the hospital.
(A/N: Hi! I finally got it finished, after much contemplating. I had myself backed into a corner that I almost couldn't figure out how to get out of XD But I figured it out, and the result is the chapter you have before you. I hope you enjoyed it!)