Hinata watched as his red eyes blazed, a dark mix of anger and irritation. His sword glowed in the sunlight, its sharp edges freshly cleaned and sharpened.
The man in front of her has changed so much, he's become so volatile, Sasuke was always the cool and calm one, and carried enough aloofness to make his seem so mature.
But right now, Sasuke seemed nothing more than a rebellious teenager.
"Sasuke-kun, pl-please Just. Just listen to me." She called out to him, Sasuke wore unimpressed glower. His eyes unblinking under the overcast morning sun. Hinata continued,
"I'm not going to leave you, and If you won't return with me-" Hinata sucked in a breath, licking her top lip lightly, fiddling with her words on the edge of her tongue.
"Th-Then let me come with you." Hinata's eyes were fixed on his own, she felt an uncomfortable shiver rise up her spine, her heart beat felt irregular.
"Hn." Sasuke merely huffed, his eyes dulled back to their original obsidian. Hinata felt a sudden wave of relief flood over her. His red eyes seemed to pierce her soul.
"I have no interest in you following me like a lost dog." Sasuke bit out, his voice almost venomous.
"I don't need your help." he finished.
She almost let out an exasperated scream when the familiar sight of the back of his head appeared, he was not going to ignore her. She would make him listen to her.
Hinata swallowed, gritting her pearl teeth.
"Name your price" she whispered, her soft voice blending into the wind. Sasuke whipped his head around, black strands blowing in the harsh gale.
"I will do anything" she looked up at him, fiercely, her white eyes glowing with ignited hope.
Sasuke looked speechless for a split second, his surprise masked quickly with his usual blank eyes.
Sasuke mulled over her proposition, she was willing to owe him anything, sacrifice the possibility of her life, give him anything he wanted, do anything he needed? Just to walk beside him on his rogue path?
This woman was crazy.
She watched him with unblinking eyes, the Hyuga heiress watched him intently, she was strangely enticing, her pearl skin, midnight hair and full lips.
Sasuke didn't need anything from her. Yet.
Itachi was his goal. He will kill him. For sure.
But what would he do then?
He would have only one aim after that, for the Uchiha knew he owed this duty to his fallen clan,
and that was to rebuild the Uchiha.
And this woman could very well be the key he needed.
He decided then, he would make this woman his.
Hinata sat on the wooden porch of the main Hyuga compound, the evening sun was low on the horizon, the orange blaze seeping through the small broken gaps of leaves from the oak tree that lay in the corner of the yard.
Hinata's pale hand wiped at her sweat covered forehead, still breathless from her spar, her byakugan eyes retracted slowly. Neji watched her with an unreadable expression, slight frown etching his brows. He was breathing normally, his arms folded and not a single bruise on his pale skin.
"Your form needs improvement, your core is still weak" Neji unfolded his hands, the kunoichi looked down at her bruised palms and knuckles, feeling deflated from her wasted efforts.
She sighed with defeat, angry at herself. Her lilac orbs widened when Neji placed his hand on her shoulder lightly, looking up, Hinata was surprised to find a small smile creeping onto his flawless face.
"But your improvement is phenomenal, Hinata sama" Hinata couldn't control her sudden grin, her face heating up, delight filled her heart at his word.
She suddenly jumped up and wrapped her thin arms around Neji, who looked slightly stunned, staying awkwardly rigid for what felt like a few tiresome minutes before allowing his body to slowly melt against hers. He gently placed an arm around her back. Holding her close to his chest. One thing became apparent to him in that instant, he cared for this woman more than he would like to let on.
"Arigatou, Neji niisan"
A smile from her usually cold cousin was an achievement for Hinata. Who was now oblivious to her nagging bruises that layered her skin. Happy that her cousin noticed her hard work. After countless hours of spars with him, he had never even once praised her, and she was staring to lose hope. Only now she was ignited with pride.
Suddenly in the mood for celebration, Hinata boldly suggested that Neji should take Tenten out to dinner. She giggled when her cousin went rigid and told her it was a terrible idea, Hinata didn't miss the pink tint that grazed her cousin's cheeks.
Hinata waved goodbye to her cousin, a small smile one her lips, she watched as he bounded from roof to roof from the Hyuga compound into the inner city of konoha.
She glanced back at the backpack that rested against one of the pillars holding the house, uneasily swallowing. That's right, today was the day.
Tonight she would be going on her first ever solo mission, and a secret mission at that, ordered by Tsunade-sama not to tell a single soul.
Inside she was quite excited for this, she was waiting for a chance to show everyone she was a capable shinobi, she would prove to her father that she was a full fledge kunoichi now. However, she couldn't ignore the nerves eating her up from the inside either. Most of her past missions had been consistently within the land of fire, and they were usually simple escort missions, not traveling cross country to deliver important, and possibly life threatening messages from lady hokage herself.
Lifting the back pack onto her slim shoulder, and smoothing out her ruffled-up pants, Hinata set out on exiting the compound quietly and unnoticed. Instead of walking thought the hallways, Hinata decided on creeping along the side of the outer wall of the Hyuga district, surely no one would notice her there.
As she was just about to act on her sought out plan, the kunoichi squealed when she turned around and faced a pair of mirroring white eyes, glaring down at her heatedly, specifically her father's white eyes. His eyes where dull and angry, in fact she takes it back, her father was furious.
She nervously bowed her head,
"Father… what is wrong?" she glanced up nervously at the stoic face of the clan head.
"Hinata, there is something of dire importance I need to talk to you about" he said, crushing the small amount of happiness she had after speaking with Neji.
"come inside." He ordered.
"Father I-" Hinata responded, but was quickly silenced by her father's demanding voice.
"now!"
She guessed the mission would have to wait, admittedly she was going to set out earlier that she intended, she guessed she would just have to travel twice the speed.
He sat down directly opposite the silently raging form of her father, head slightly lowered in respect, her hands fiddling with the hem of her sleeves.
"Ther clan Elders and I have decided to allow Hanabi to become the successor of this clan." His voice changed from its usual anger to a tone of slight sadness.
Hinata didn't even flinch at his words, perhaps she had been expecting those words to come out sooner or later. Hanabi was much more suited to lead this clan rather than the shy, weak and weird older sister.
"I understand father." She said, almost inaudible, she daren't contradict her father's words, for in this clan they were law.
Hiashi starred at his eldest daughter with a frown, she was just to kind, too soft to lead a powerful clan such as the Hyuga.
Yes. He was disappointed, at Hinata, at himself too perhaps, perhaps there where things in the past he could have handled better. He readied himself for the next words he uttered.
"You will also be sealed with the cage bird seal" He said monotonously, a look of great disappointment on his aged face. He uttered the words emotionlessly, not daring to look at his own daughter's surely distraught face.
Hinata flinched this time, looking up wide eyed at her father, fear clear in the Hyuga's pale face.
She was going to be sealed, turned into a slave for her own family.
She really was hopeless. A hopeless kunoichi, and now a hopeless future to look forward to.
An:
Whoa! Im still alive! I bet no one was expecting this to happen. Hehe.
I few things I feel I should point out:
Firstly, Sasuke finds Hinata attractive, and Sasuke has raging teenage hormones, but there is nothing else between them. so far.
And secondly, You may think it a bit weird for her to just drop everything however, She wants to escape her fate of being sealed by her own family, she wants to keep an eye on Sasuke, she hopes that she can find a way to save Sasuke and bring him home. Currently, for Naruto's approval. (but I think we all know what's going to happen ;))
Before I start pumping out lots of excuses for an extremely late update, all I can say is that life gets in the way (or as Kakashi would say: "I got lost on the path of life." Hehe), and currently this fic isn't very high up in my list of 'To Do'
However, thank you so much to those who reviewed, favorited and followed this story, hopefully I will do responses in the next chapters for those reviewers.
Till next time,