(A/N: Okay, so I have an excuse for my long absence! I'll explain at the end of the chapter though, so that you can go ahead and read. 3 I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and I apologize greatly for its lateness. The next update will be three weeks from January 29, 2012, not keeping with my previously set schedule.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.)

Mysterious Captivation: Chapter 21

His eyes opened slowly, but he was immediately awake. He had obviously turned during his sleep, though he couldn't remember doing so. The first thing he saw was the dark silhouette of the midnight haired woman beside him. "Hinata-san, wake up. You need to start getting ready for your mission with Kisame," the blonde added, completely dropping all suffix so as not to offend the former Hyuuga or show any unnecessary respect.

He sat up, reaching into his drawer to lift a candle and match from the bedside table. Lighting it

She shivered, slowly rising from her dreams. Her breathing did not change; he was proud to have been the one from whom she had learned to control it. He watched her eyes blink blearily open. He knew her vision cleared the moment she blushed and scooted away from him; she had shifted closer in the middle of the night, scooting closer to him in her sleep.

"I'm awake, Deidara-san," she shyly told him. He nodded, sending the comforter to the foot of the bed and rising.

She followed, frowning. "I have yet to even begin to pack," she glanced worriedly about the room, and he could see the gears turning in her head as she thought about what she would have to do.

"That's okay, yeah. I already gathered your weapons and most of your supplies from your room. You only need to pack clothes and other items that you want, hm," he said with a small smile. "Kisame told me that you had a mission earlier yesterday, and I wanted to help you as much as I could, mm,"

Hinata smiled at him, but still seemed uncertain. She turned her back, seeming wary, grasping the kunai pouch he had removed from her thigh when she had collapsed in the training room. She wrapped the leather band around her once more, buckling it comfortably, the stood to face him again. He heard her quiet squeak when she found his eyes on her still.

"Hinata-san, I never meant for you to see that side of me. We are S-class murderers, and many of us are sadistic, un. I know that scares you, so I wanted to keep you away from all of that. That's why your room is across the hall from mine: so you wouldn't have to deal with all of them, hm. I asked for it, yeah." He watched the young woman's eyes widen in surprise, then soften.

"Thank you, Deidara-san. It means a lot that you think so highly of me, but trust is easily broken, and last night, I truly feared for my life for the first time in months. I wish I could say that it will be easy for me to forget, but I will not give you false hopes," she conveyed quietly; she knew her words would hurt him, but she also knew they had to be said. Her eyes refused to meet his, seeming to prefer the shadows beneath her hair.

He allowed the pain in his own gaze to be palpable in the air, but the silence continued. "Go get ready for your mission, Hinata-san. I wish you safety and strength, mm."

It was the clearest dismissal he had ever given, and he could see the brief surprise light her expression, bringing her eyes to his for several short moments. Quickly enough, though, her eyes dimmed again and met the floor. She nodded, walking away without another glance, although she did move very hesitantly as she passed him.

It was almost as though she was frightened that he would reach out and slap her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She left the room as cautiously as she could without it being too obvious. She didn't want to offend him, and she knew that he wouldn't purposefully hurt her, but his anger the night before had shown her something.

He didn't have control over himself when he was angry; it was like he was a completely different person. He was cruel, rude, and paid no mind as he exposed others' secrets.

Then again, so had Kisame. She still wasn't sure exactly what to think of him.

Deidara had told her that he thought of her as something of a sister, but his yelling at her had made her doubt that. Why did the Akatsuki have to be so cruel?

Are they really as kind as I have seen them? I know that, to outsiders, they are cruel and merciless, but I also know that they are amazing actors. Have they simply been hiding their harshness around me until I am more comfortable with murder and blood, or until I am as sadistic and disillusioned as they? Her brows furrowed as the thoughts crossed her mind.

Hinata's fleet-footed pace took her silently across the hall. Putting her palm to the handle of her door, she quickly leapt backward with a kunai in hand.

Her Byakugan activated automatically, sending chakra to her eyes and veins bulging across her temples. Recognizing the chakra, she relaxed, but did not deactivate her bloodline or lower her kunai. "What?" She questioned, her voice rough and harsh, flooding her with surprise that she did not allow to show.

A white haired man stepped from the shadows that took residence in the corner at the end of the hall. He stepped forward, only a few paces, to stand between her and the door to her room. "Hm. I would have expected you to be a bit more compliant with your superiors, Hinata-chan," the man purred, his mocking, violet eyes flashing. "Especially after what happened when you freaking kept your health issue from Kisame, you dolt. I heard him yelling at you all the way across the freaking lair!" His voice hardened with his anger, causing the poor Hyuuga to shrink into herself slightly. Still, she stood proudly, staring up at him.

"H-Hidan-san, what grievances do y-you wish to address with m-me?" She questioned, proud of the fact that her voice had not wavered as much as it had when she had been faced with Kisame, and that her stutter had not, in fact, returned with a vengeance. It was only a minor setback now.

"'What grievances', you have the freaking nerve to ask me? Kisame woke me up at one in the morning, yelling at you from across the hideout, and you ask me why I'm yelling at you!" He leaned down to her level, almost half of a foot, and glared into her bulging eyes. "Deactivate those this instant, and put your little toy away. It's not like they'll do you any good if I try to hurt you."

Shakily, she lowered her sharpened knife from chest level to drop it back in her pouch. She took one glance toward Deidara's room through her skull, then deactivated her bloodline limit. She knew Hidan kept his voice down to avoid unwanted attention. Her mind instantly whirred with plans and numbers, calculating the time it would take the blonde to enter the hallway should she call, and the time it would take Hidan to kill her before Deidara could.

Warily, her stance relaxed. "I promise that it will not happen again, Hidan-san. I have already been punished for my secrecy, as have I been frightened by both my partner Deidara-san," visibly tensing, she bowed her head to the violet eyed man, waiting for his acknowledgement.

She heard him grunt something, and was unprepared when she was slammed against the wall. His hand was at her throat, holding tightly and keeping her quiet. "I don't expect you to understand, newbie, but neither do I expect you to be completely ignorant! So your lover is gone; deal with it!" He hissed, shoving himself into her personal space. "He's not here to protect you anymore, so I suggest you learn some manners before I teach them to you," he ordered, pressing his face even closer, causing Hinata to wheeze and shift uncomfortably.

Her mouth moved, and he allowed her to drop to the floor. She knelt there, gasping, as she heard his footsteps echo as he walked down the stone corridor. They were unhurried, relaxed, but from her observations, the immortal was anything but those things.

His chakra had been coiled tightly, and his facial muscles tense. She wondered why he was so worked up over the interruption in his sleep.

Wordlessly, she thought about calling down the hall about her mission, but dismissed it. It would only cause more enmity than it would solve to get Leader-sama involved.

She stood, using the wall to her left to steady herself. This time reaching her door, turning the handle, and entering her room, she quickly made her way over to her mirror.

Bruising on her neck was already more apparent than she had thought it would be, and she shifted uncomfortably while she attempted to heal it. The healing process made her neck crawl, but she refrained from scratching it because it would cause the newly healed blood vessels to break once more.

For several moments, the only thing she could hear was her ragged breathing. The moment she was sure her neck was healed to her full capabilities, she flew about her room, gathering all the supplies she felt she would need for her mission.

All of those, she threw in a pile on her bed, then hesitantly returned to the explosives artist's bedroom door. She knocked, then waited for his answer.

It opened, revealing the blonde in only a pair of loose fitting black pants. She squeaked, blushing and averting her eyes. "Yes?" He asked, his deep voice sounding far too comforting for the midnight haired girl's liking.

"I need to get my pack. Where did you put it, Deidara-san?" She asked, attempting to keep her voice as whisper soft as possible to avoid the blonde detecting a difference in her vocal chords' sound.

She still refused to meet his eyes, but she heard the defeat in his tone when he said, "Okay, give me a minute to grab it for you."

"Thank you."

She didn't hear his footsteps as his presence faded, then returned several minutes later. "Here it is, hm. And you can look now; I'm wearing a shirt," he told her, and she could hear the smirk in his voice.

She met his eyes over the exchange of her earthy-brown leather knapsack, which she promptly took and slipped over her shoulders. He held her eyes captive for several more moments, then flinched when he made the sudden motion to reach out.

She saw as he allowed pain to ephemerally flick through his expression. He slowed his movement so that she could watch him closely as he reached toward her. She felt his arms wrap around her waist, drawing her closer to him.

Lifting her arms to encircle his neck and rest on his shoulders and standing on her tip-toes, she lightly hugged him in return.

Before she was allowed to step away, he whispered breathily, "I'll miss you, Hinata-san. Be careful, and stay with Kisame, yeah. He may be angry with you, but he'll still protect you, un," in her ear.

When he stepped away, she whispered her goodbye, then returned to her room to place the rest of her necessities in her bag.

Shortly after she had finished, the blue-skinned man knocked on her door. "It's time to leave, Princess," he said, giving her a sharky grin.

She gave him a hesitant smile in return, but it didn't reach her pearly eyes. "I am ready to leave whenever you are," she let him know, making sure to keep her voice quiet still.

"Then let's go. I want to get out of Kaminari no Kuni before noon," Kisame said, leading the way out of the hideout and into the cold, colorful sunrise.

For several short moments, Hinata stared up into the sky, watching the colors shift, rise, change, and fall, then turned her attention to her partner. The wind blew, causing her to shiver as it dragged her hair away from her neck, making it flutter in the wind. Her cheeks flushed, for once from the cold air rather than embarrassment or shyness.

"What are we to do?" The ex-Hyuuga heiress questioned hesitantly as their journey began, her voice cracking. She hoped that he would think it was fear of him, or her first mission as Akatsuki, or something of the sort.

The Hoshigaki stepped into the forest, watching as she hurried to catch up, then both ninja took to the trees, vaulting themselves from the mostly bare branches without any hint of exhaustion.

It was a mere week until the winter solstice, and from there, it was only six days until she turned nineteen. How quaint. I almost forgot my own birthday in the panic and pain of recent events. It's hard to believe that it's been more than a week since Itachi-san died. At that, she immediately dragged her thoughts away from the past to focus on what Kisame was saying.

He appeared not to have noticed her cracking voice or drifting thoughts at all. "We are to find the port city of Omeishu in Hi no Kuni and find a way to kill the richest shipping giant in business. He's been cheating the Akatsuki out of goods for several months now, and we need to eliminate him from the picture."

Hinata nodded understandingly; it was something her own village had ordered done several times, though with a much less extreme punishment to the shipper. "However," she returned her attention to him as she realized that there was more, "we need to make it look like he died of a heart defect. That is where you come in, Princess. Leader-sama wants you to cause his heart to explode, and then rid all evidence of your chakra from his system. He knew you had studied that with Itachi, and thought that this method of death would be perfect for the slime."

This time Hinata frowned. Her eyes were shadowed with guilt at her partner's casual mention of Itachi, and the bruises under her eyes seemed darker than ever. They were testaments of her lack of sleep, overexertion, and panic from earlier. For a moment, she wondered if she should tell Kisame of Hidan's threats from earlier, but decided to shove them from her mind until after the mission was over.

"Okay." She mentally prepared herself for the mission, the same way she always had when sent on assassination missions for Konoha. Only now, she could kill however and whomever she wanted without consequence, save from Leader-sama. While that thought would have frightened her before, it now caused her to smile. It was a show of how much she had changed, how much power she had gained, how much more confident she was in herself and her abilities.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When he saw her smile, Kisame wasn't sure whether he should question her. He knew that it was a direct result of what he had said, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing. Every instinct he possessed said to question her, but his recent interrogation of her hadn't gone as well as it could have because he had let his temper get away from him, and he didn't want a repeat of that if he could help it.

With a small shrug and a careful note of what he'd said to her and when the smile had begun to show, he let it go to address after the mission had been completed.

He glanced off to the side, getting a look at her determined, wary profile. He sighed, wondering why he had ever yelled at her in the first place. He knew she was uncomfortable in his presence now, and there was nothing he could do to change that fact.

Several hours later, Kisame spoke again. "It will rain soon. With the weather as cold as it is right now, it may either be frozen rain, or snow. Either way, we'll need to drop to the ground and get somewhere safe from the elements, or we'll risk frostbite."

He watched the younger girl nod, then activate her Byakugan. "There's a rather large tree up ahead with cavernous roots and a split trunk that meets around three feet off the ground. We may be able to rest there until the storm is over. If nothing else, we can always pile dirt or mud into the cracks between the roots," she explained, her bloodline allowing her to see what he could not.

"Thanks, Princess. Let's go. We can also eat something, and you can rest until the storm's over,"

She smiled a small, genuine smile, deactivating her inherited trait. "That sounds very nice. Thank you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He smirked. The idiot Uzumaki didn't even notice him. He had run right past his best friend, and didn't even recognize him! The Uchiha had changed even without the transformation, but he wanted to be positive that no one would recognize him.

If Naruto didn't know it was me, then this guise will be perfect to walk about the village. Sasuke thought, smirking to himself.

He lifted back the flap of the ramen stand, walking under its shelter as rain clouds began to gather. "Hello, sir, what can I get you?" A booming voice called to him from behind the counter.

"I just want a small bowl of miso soup, please," he ordered with a polite, masked tone.

"Coming right up!" Teuchi, he thought as he remembered the man's name, shouted.

"Who was that blonde kid who nearly ran me over on the way in?" He asked, making small talk in a way that Uchiha Sasuke would never have done had he looked like himself. I have to make sure no one will connect me with my name, after all. He frowned in his mind.

"Naruto? Oh, he's harmless really. I do apologize that he almost knocked you down out there. He's one of the regulars; actually, he's my most frequent customer.

"Ah. It's fine, he just surprised me is all," Sasuke responded, accepting his ramen and breaking his chopsticks with a quickly muttered "Itadakimasu,"

(A/N: HAH! It's finally complete! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter written and posted. I had just started the chapter when my computer died, and when I went to plug it in, I found that the charger wouldn't work. It didn't matter what I tried, I couldn't charge my laptop. My computer has EVERYTHING on it, including my only copy of this story. Which, in retrospect, is rather dumb of me, but what's past is past, I suppose. I am incredibly sorry about this inconvenience, but now I have a new charger, and I can type again! So, here is the latest installment of Mysterious Captivation! (I'm sorry it's short, but I didn't want to make you wait even longer, for the whole thing.) I've also been swamped with homework, and with track season coming up quickly, I'll have even less time for this. But that's okay. I enjoy writing, and slacking, and I do what I enjoy when I slack, so when I need a break, I'll come write a bit for this! (; haha. Please review if you don't mind too much! It would make me much happier (not that I'm not content with it all right now) and it's so nice to hear from all of you about your opinions and thoughts about this.)