Once upon a time, there was a princess who was unexpected.
Her patrol area covered the northern mountain passes that connected the rocky plains to the Sky Kingdom deserts. Bandits plagued the nearby towns. The uneven terrain made it difficult to deploy armored troops, so the princess was assigned a small cavalry instead. These were men and women who could ride before they could walk, but were accustomed to being saddled with spoiled nobles who just wanted the title without the work. Royalty was the nobility among nobility, so a Hyuuga princess could only be worse.
It was a pleasant surprise that their commander was unerringly polite and humble. The princess was quiet and missed nothing with those intelligent, all-seeing eyes. While she wasn't the strongest warrior, the squad could hear wisdom in her words – that was far more powerful than any show of strength. At first, many still grumbled over being led by a weak, shy girl, but even those voices were eventually silenced. Rather than blustering about her lineage, she gracefully accepted that she was the student. Rather than brushing away their advice, she actually listened and asked questions. Rather than lazing back at camp, she diligently joined them and learned.
And her squad was falling over themselves for a chance to teach her everything they knew.
They taught their gentle commander how to navigate the treacherous slopes by horse more nimbly than ninja could with their chakra. They taught her how to track a wayward bandit without fail, until it seemed like she already knew where her prey was beforehand. They taught her how to shoot so accurately she could hit the feather of her choice on a bird in the sky. They taught her how to move and disappear like a ghost among the shifting sand or the unyielding forests. She already knew how, but her squad honed her skills into a sharp blade. They forged her into a huntress that could survive on the harsh land of the border.
The segment of her assigned territory was at the furthest corner of the Moon Kingdom, and the princess was sheltered from the worst of the storm brewing back at the capital. While rumors of the princess growing even stronger began to rise, whispers of the Moon King's waning hold over the kingdom followed. Many disapproved of the uneasy peace the king struggled to maintain when the Sun council was still spitting vitriol about the death of their late king. To make things worse, there were the increasing attacks on travelers between the Sun and Moon Kingdoms.
The trade agreements were one of the most beneficial contracts between the two kingdoms, as the Moon Kingdom was rich in water and agriculture, while the Sun Kingdom was rich in natural resources and precious stones. But merchants began to fear the journey, and trade dwindled to a meager trickle. Without the balm of trade to sooth away the anger, lesser grievances muddled the surface.
And so, the relationship between the Sun and Moon Kingdoms began to unravel.
Prey for the Hunted
By Airyo
Chapter 14
The original plan had been to force her to her feet so she'd follow him. Even from watching her for those brief moments in her hospital room, it was apparent to him that the infirmary made her uneasy. She practically shook with the nerves of a caged animal.
Of course, breaking her out of her room was also an excuse to confront her. She should have jumped for the opportunity.
Except she was still fighting him.
The challenger in Sasuke always pushed harder when someone pushed back, so he'd held on even tighter, even pulling some weak excuse about rank. At least she'd finally seen reason and stopped wriggling around in his arms like a fish. Not the most sensual of movements, but still rather distracting given how her filmy nightgown was riding dangerously far up her thighs.
Maybe picking her up wasn't such a good idea.
He hadn't realized he'd already walked out of the room until it was too late. Not that Sasuke would ever admit why he'd forgotten her shoes and clothes. He simply kept walking as if it was his intention all along.
But first...
"Fix your nightwear," he said, as if he'd just noticed and hadn't been ogling her like a puberty-struck boy. "It's indecent."
Hinata blushed and reached down to jerk the hem down past her knees. He shifted the arm cradling her legs to catch it so that her nightgown wasn't going anywhere without his permission.
"My clothes are back in my room. If you could-"
"What you're wearing is suitable. If you're still cold when we get there, we can borrow a cloak," Sasuke dismissed. "We don't have much time left before the Scary Sakura patrol, so we need to hurry."
"Where are we going?" Sasuke could feel the tension in her body. If she didn't like the answer, Hinata will try to escape again. But unless her life was endangered, her manners should keep her from outright rejecting anything that appeared to be for her benefit.
Even if those manners seemed to exclude a proper expression of gratitude for saving one's life.
Until Hinata actually knelt before him in a full acknowledgement of his actions, Sasuke felt fully justified to order her around. The logic of an old saying dictated that since he saved her, he was now responsible for her. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him. It wasn't because he was attracted to her. The Hokage's accusations were unfounded because Sasuke was more than some hormonal-ridden dunce.
At most, Hinata was like a new, wayward pet that didn't quite know its place [1]. He was only jealous of Naruto the way an owner would be jealous when his new pet paid more attention to someone else. And obviously, due to her defiant personality, Sasuke had to be much more aware of her actions to prevent too much trouble. She was something to be protected because she was now his responsibility. Like his intense interest in preserving her modesty. That was entirely due to his sense of duty. Sasuke wasn't going to allow something of his to frolic around like a little harlot with her legs exposed in public. His reaction was perfectly warranted.
Relieved that his explanation neatly categorized his recent bouts of insanity, Sasuke smirked down at Hinata with renewed confidence. "The shooting range."
Just as he'd planned, his answer was so unexpected that Hinata reflexively looked up and met his gaze.
"The shooting range? Why?"
"To finish our match," he muttered. He was just full of perforated excuses today. He just needed a reason to interrogate her properly. "Since someone tried to kill you, it was reasonable to postpone the shooting match until now." One corner of her mouth twitched in amusement at his sarcasm. Her shields were breaking. Buoyed by his success, Sasuke lifted his eyebrows innocently, as if asking her what was so funny. "I'm not kidding. We have an indoor shooting range for poor weather conditions."
Hinata didn't say anything in reply. But she didn't try to claw her way out of his arms either, so Sasuke took it as acquiescence.
The shooting range itself resembled a modified dojo without windows. Black night covered the skylights in the ceilings, but steady torches filled the room with an orange glow that muted all other colors. The bull's-eyes were barely discernible, making the targets lined up along the far end of the room look like enormous pearls on a string.
Sasuke gently set Hinata down and followed after kicking off his boots. She had moved a few steps out of reach, still wary of him. Against the dark background of gray stone, her pale garb made Hinata seem evanescent, ready to fade into somewhere beyond his reach. Sasuke was starting to realize that a direct confrontation would never work. Like luring in a nervous stray cat with food, he needed patience to get the results he wanted.
He let her keep her space and instead gestured to the rack of bows. If her attitude on dojo cleanliness was any indication, Hinata had a reverence for the traditional samurai arts. He hoped it was enough to keep her there. "Pick a bow you want. The strings in the box are all standard."
Hinata slowly approached the rack with an awed expression. The shooting range was fully equipped with every style of bow in existence, after all. After a few moments, her fingers hovered over several bows hesitantly. Sasuke could see her eyes darting back and forth as her entire body seemed to waver in indecision.
"How do I choose?" She was gnawing at her bottom lip in concentration, looking agonized over having to choose only one. Then she clenched her hands back to her chest, as if they would reach out to snatch a bow without her permission. The normally solemn princess was acting like a little kid in a sweets shop. He swore her eyes were sparkling.
It was too much.
Sasuke snorted, barely hiding his laughter.
Hinata whipped around with a hurt expression tinged with indignation. "It's not funny. The ability to judge a bow is what makes an expert archer. If you can't even -"
"No, no, that's not it." Sasuke managed to quickly recompose himself, though a lopsided smirk remained on his lips. He gave up trying to cover it. "You can try them all out if you want," he said indulgently.
A radiant smile bloomed across Hinata's face.
Sasuke had to ruthlessly force his lips from stretching in a hopeful smile of his own. He was giddy because he finally cracked the iceberg that was Hinata. Triumph was what was making his heart do strange acrobatics.
To distract himself, Sasuke went to the side where he kept one of his cloaks. He bundled the thick material up into a ball and tossed it at her, throwing hard enough that her smile faltered.
"Start with one today, and we can come back when we have more time."
Hinata donned the cloak as she nodded. She chose a longbow, while Sasuke randomly grabbed one. He knew that he'll get perfect hits regardless of the type of bow. His was easy enough to string, as it was of normal length, but Hinata's longbow was taller than her when unfurled. Unfazed, she wedged one end against the wall and bent the bow with some effort. Her slim arms belied the strength for such an action. Sasuke found himself impressed by her yet again, as noblewomen normally required others to string longbows for them since it was so difficult.
Each grabbed a quiver of the appropriate arrows from the corner and retreated to separate target paths. Rather than setting any farcical rules for competition, they simply drifted into the unstructured pattern of practice. The room became quiet save for the dialogue of their shots. The snapping bite of Sasuke's bow would answer the softer twang of Hinata's bow. The smooth whisper of her arrow would counter the sharp hiss of his. The sharp huff of his struck target would reply to the low groan of hers.
All the while, Sasuke kept the corner of his vision carefully trained on Hinata, waiting for an appropriate moment to speak. She stood sideways with her back to him, posture straight and elegant. While it was hard to see the Hyuuga in her facial features if her eye color was ignored, Hinata's profile screamed nobility. The dark wave of her hair framed that her face, and the straight line of her nose drew the eye down her lips, chin, and then past the lovely curve of her white neck. The stark line of her collarbones rose like the wingspan of a bird in flight, high over the valley of -
Pain lanced through his hand.
His arrow clattered uselessly against the wall.
Sasuke dropped his bow as he bit back a curse. He'd misaligned his aim in his moment of distraction. The force of the shot arrow had embedded several strands of stiff fletching into his knuckle. [2] While it wasn't all that painful, Sasuke gritted his teeth in self-disgust. Fletching injuries were a rookie mistake. This should be happening to a butterfingered genin who can't tell which end of the arrow to point forward. Not a jounin like him, and certainly not in front of someone who clearly held archery to a standard.
Two pale, callused hands took his injured one. Sasuke blinked in surprise to see Hinata so close. She gave him a shy, sympathetic smile.
"I'm good at getting those out," she admitted. "Lots of practice." Hinata turned her hand so he could see the side of her first knuckle. Even against her pale complexion, Sasuke could make out a tiny filigree of white scars.
She hadn't been kidding. The sudden mental image of a tiny Hinata struggling with a too-big bow overtook him. Imaginary-Hinata tried to shoot an arrow and failed so badly that it landed behind her as the recoil sent her tripping over her own feet. Too cute. He bit his lip. An odd bubble of lightness rose in his chest. Sasuke had the strangest urge to start grinning like a fool.
Fortunately, Hinata beat him to it with a self-deprecating chuckle as she averted her eyes in embarrassment. "I was pretty terrible. Gloves didn't help, since I had no chance of hitting the target if I wore them." Then she was smiling shyly up at him again, and she was a lot closer than earlier. The bubble of laughter inside him quickly disappeared. So did his ability to speak. At some point, his tongue had turned into a block of wood.
"Well... good," was all he managed to stumble out.
"May I?" She looked to him for permission and he nodded dumbly. His hand was beginning to tingle, which couldn't be good. A small voice in the back of his head pointed out that picking out a feather was hardly something that required help, but Sasuke mentally smooshed it with vigor. This nervous stray was finally approaching him - he wasn't going to ruin his success in manipulation go to waste.
"There." She turned his palm up and deposited the offending bits of feather into his hand. Hinata looked up at him with a searching gaze. "You need some..." She trailed off as their eyes met; her fingers were still lightly gripping his. She was so close that Sasuke could see the separate brushstrokes of her eyelashes. He found himself leaning closer, drawn in by some unseen force...
Then she blinked and dropped his hand as if it burned her.
"You need further healing," Hinata amended as she turned away. Sasuke felt deprived of something he wasn't even aware of. Shaking himself of the fog over his mind, he shrugged as he studied his hand.
"I've stopped bleeding," he added needlessly. The awkward pauses between them now seemed all the more empty. Sasuke fought the urge to babble like a schoolgirl in order to fill that space. "Sakura will be checking up on you soon anyways. We should be heading back."
Hinata insisted on walking back by herself, but Sasuke ignored her protests and simply scooped her back up into his arms for the short distance back to her infirmary room. All the while, he berated himself for his utter stupidity. He'd gotten nothing out of her. While she was no longer trying to pretend that he didn't exist, Hinata was still wary of him.
And she still hadn't given him a proper expression of gratitude.
Sakura never noticed Hinata's absence. The ex-princess breathed a small sigh of relief when the medic left satisfied with her progress. Sasuke's cloak was hidden underneath her blankets.
The smart thing would be to discard it, like her affections for its owner.
Hinata curled up in her bed with a mortified groan as she covered her face. There was just the small problem of "easier said than done". She'd done alright with the others around, but as soon as she was alone with Sasuke, her inhibitions seemed to melt like wax under the hot sun.
Whatever possessed her to baby him over a simple fletching injury? She even let slip a little anecdote to "ease" the process. Before she knew it, Hinata was going to be trying to kiss his boo-boos and tuck him in at night.
And she shouldn't even care so much to begin with. She had heard him hiss in pain and she'd already dropped everything to help him before she even realized the extent of his injuries. Or the lack thereof in this case.
It was like her body had already decided to mutiny against her mind. And then purely out of spite, make more of a mess of things.
A knock on the door pulled her from the throes of her troubles.
"Am I interrupting something, Princess P?"
Hinata opened her eyes and stiffened. Sai was at the doorway, an eerie encore of Sasuke from earlier. He was leaning against the same spot as the prince, and wearing the same uniform. All that was missing was the hair and scowl. Instead, the Guardian was smiling falsely. It sent shivers up Hinata's spine. It must be a psychological response, but the star-shaped scar on her forearm seemed to twinge in warning.
Warily, Hinata sat back up. "Sai," she acknowledged. Surreptitiously, she reached for the tanto she kept under her pillow. She hadn't been keeping all her weapons around her simply because she had been stupid enough to feel safe with a member of Team 7 always hovering around.
She knew Danzo wouldn't accept Sasuke's manipulation so easily. All he had to do was wait for a chance to send an assassin to ruin everything. She hoped Sakura could find a solution regardless...
"I am not here on orders," Sai said quickly, his fake smile gone to reveal the same, sharp Uchiha features as the prince. That made Hinata feel no better. If Danzo didn't want to be linked to this, he could easily "order" an off-the-record mission. She curled her fingers around the hilt of her dagger and watched for the slight movement of ink around her. The Guardian shook his head and approached.
Hinata launched off the bed in a preemptive strike. Sai sidestepped her with ease and turned to look at her curiously when she whipped around to face him in a ready stance.
"I only require information from you."
She wondered if this was some new ploy to make her lower her guard. But then again, this is one of the best assassins in the Sun Kingdom. Hinata's guard wouldn't make a difference if he truly wanted to finish his job from earlier. Sai was also making a strange expression. Hinata suspected that he was attempting to appear sincere and/or apologetic. But mainly, he just looked like he got something stuck in his eye.
Hardly the look of someone who wanted to kill her. But Hinata still kept her low crouching stance. While her attack failed, she was now closer to the exit than the Guardian. A minor advantage when she had none before.
"Then what do you want?" she asked carefully. Sai raised both his hands in a placating gesture and then reached slowly for his hip pouch. Fortunately, he'd abandoned the attempt at expression and regressed to a blank mask.
"Who is Shin?" Sai removed a small flip book from his pouch, though he did not open it.
Hinata tilted her head. The tone of his voice suggested that he was testing her, which meant he'd learned something important. "I don't know," she replied honestly. "It is a vague memory at best."
"But what do you remember?" he pressed. Hinata herself was intensely curious over how she could be connected with Sai. A lot of her memories from childhood were abandoned in a lost, dusty corner of her mind.
"He...was wearing a mask like yours back then. Bone white with a delicate design along the side. Silver hair. I think he had a kind smile." Sai nodded, seeming to accept her answer.
"And how do you know Shin?" HIs eyes were watching her like a hawk's. This was the big mystery, the key to a new chest of troubles. But try as Hinata might to sweep the cobwebs obscuring her view to the past, she couldn't remember.
"I don't know," she whispered. She had her hands open in front of her like an open book, dagger laying in one of her palms. She looked down at her hands for the sake of something to look at. Nearly imperceptible scars decorated her skin like a coded script - a secret record of her life. But sometimes Hinata couldn't even recognise her hands. There were a few scars that she couldn't put a memory to, as if someone else had added lines to her story.
"I can't remember either," Sai admitted. "But I didn't forget." The way he worded it struck Hinata as odd. She had always dismissed the gaps in her earlier life as a side-effect of her poisoning. But drugs can't target one specific memory. There was the glaring coincidence that until recently, neither of them even knew of Shin's existence.
"You didn't forget," Hinata repeated hollowly. Then that meant someone made them forget. There was the possibility of natural repression if Shin was a source of trauma for the both of them, Hinata had a strong feeling that wasn't the case.
Sai opened his book and extended it to Hinata. Even before looking, Hinata understood that this was a peace offering. This book held something very dear to the Guardian.
Given the solemn atmosphere, it was a bit of a surprise to see a simple, childish drawing of two people. A pale-haired boy battling a dragon, saving a sleeping princess with long dark hair. Sai reached over and flipped to a different section of his book. Now there was a picture of a character that must be Sai, facing off against an angry assassin. A smaller, scowling boy with messy hair was helping him.
"Does any of this look familiar to you?" Sai questioned, dark eyes boring into hers as if he was trying to see straight into her mind.
Hinata shook her head. "Is this...?"
"A picture book I drew as a child. It's a fellow Uchiha and I in the second picture. In the first is Shin. I believe the princess is you." Hinata's eyes widened in muted panic. Sai continued without a change in his monotone. "No one else knows, as it is irrelevant to my missions."
"You..." Hinata whispered.
"You know about me and I know about you," the Guardian said bluntly.
They stared at each other with the cautious camaraderie of fellow victims. Both knew that this was far too important to ignore in favor of other duties. The mind was a sacred thing for any warrior. Bodies could come and go, easily broken and sacrificed. But the true value of any fighter was the discipline and knowledge and techniques and secrets. This was why genjutsu users could be some of the most terrifying opponents, because their battlefield extended beyond the realm of reality. The support of the Yamanaka with their mind control techniques was one of the reasons why the Uchiha had such a strong hold over the Sun Kingdom.
"Ino," Hinata said softly. "Maybe she can help."
"Gorgeous said yesterday that a memory -"
"...yesterday?"
All the facts of her situation snapped to a painful clarity. How could she have been so trusting? The Yamanaka clan's greatest techniques were in mind manipulation. And Lady Yamanaka Ino had immediately recognized her as No-Name Hinata, the lost princess of the Moon Kingdom. The Hyuuga features made it hard to distinguish between clan members - her wanted portrait was accurate, but could just as easily be a slightly skewed picture of Neji or Hanabi [3]. Even Danzo, who had seen her several times before as the princess, hadn't figured out which specific Hyuuga she actually was. The only way Ino could have recognized her so quickly was if she'd met Hinata personally before.
Hinata had never been introduced to Lady Yamanaka Ino.
Sai tilted his head.
"She did not see fit to inform you," he concluded. "Then I think I have overstepped the implicit boundaries of conversation." In Hinata's moment of horrified shock, he reclaimed his book and placed it back into his hip pouch. "Please try to remember anything at all," Sai said as he walked past Hinata towards the exit. She didn't move, but she heard him pause at the door. "I may be overstepping implicit boundaries again, but I think you should know that the prisoner known as Mitarashi will be moved very soon."
Then Hinata heard him shut the door behind him, and then the faint dispelling of a privacy jutsu. She hadn't even felt the Guardian activate such a thing.
Slowly, Hinata crouched down and hugged her knees, feeling utterly alone. The enormity of her inabilities crushed her from every direction. She was weak and lost, and she didn't know who she could trust. Not Ino. Not Itachi. Not Sakura. Not Naruto. Not Sai.
And least of all, Sasuke, even if he was likely the only one who had her well-being in mind. The whole point of her charade was to stop him from self-destructing over a silly crush.
Hinata snorted slightly at the memory of Sasuke's fletching finger. "That idiot," she whispered with fond exasperation, smiling despite herself.
Hinata was acting strangely the next day.
He'd expected her to avoid him after the fiasco of yesterday, but she was unusually responsive to everyone. Instead, Hinata kept her eyes trained on her hands as if they were the most interesting things in the universe.
After he'd demanded for Sakura to remove the shameful scar on his knuckle, the medic had ran off after gibbering something about "researching a new approach". The meeting was clearly cancelled, as it wasn't safe to try anything with their sole medic absent. Naruto and Ino drifted away to do their own things. As soon as the door closed behind the Yamanaka, Hinata looked up at him with reluctant determination.
"Your highness?" she said quietly. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the title and nodded tersely to show he was listening. "Who were the Mitarashi?"
That was the last thing he'd expected her to ask about. "The Mitarashi?" Briefly, he wandered if he would be pushing common sense by answering. But it was old, useless history. "They're an extinct clan since long before the Amaterasu War. Not much on them - very small clan to begin with. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I met someone who claimed to be a Mitarashi. Back when I was in the dungeons."
Sasuke's first thought was to dismiss Hinata's claims as hallucinations. But she wouldn't have approached him about it if it was just that. And he found himself unwilling to cut her off when she was actually speaking to him. "How?"
"We could hear each other. Actually, could we go down to where I was kept? She might still be there."
It was rather embarrassing how quickly he agreed. Sasuke comforted himself with the fact that he was also curious about this mysterious Mitarashi. However, Hinata's description of "Mattress Dango" had the prince convinced that she had simply imagined a companion as some sort of defense mechanism.
"Hello?" Hinata crouched by the corner of the cell. Only the faint echo of her own voice replied. Sasuke bit his lip awkwardly, wondering if hypothermia had addled her brain.
After several moments more of useless calling, Hinata stood with a disappointed sigh. Though she had returned to her full bodyguard outfit complete with cloak and weapons, she could be so transparent.
"I'm not crazy." She was turned towards him with her shoulders tense.
"I said nothing," Sasuke said tightly. "Che. Let's go. It's cold down here." Hinata drew her cloak around her, tucking her chin so her features were shadowed by the hood. She followed him out into the deserted dungeon hallway without a word.
Sasuke felt a flash of resentful frustration. As much as he wanted to help her, Hinata was horrifically difficult to help. She seemed to have being simultaneously transparent and opaque down to an artform. One moment, he could read her thoughts like an open book, and the next, she was more closed off than a secretive Itachi.
Feeling his thoughts on her, Hinata looked up. Her eyes flickered towards the door past him in confusion. Sasuke turned. It felt like someone had dumped ice water into his veins when he saw the long haired man down the corridor.
He would recognize that creepy man regardless of whose face he wore.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke growled as he extended an arm to herd Hinata behind him. His assigned Guardian, Cat, pulled from the shadows to crouch protectively in front of the prince.
"What a pleasant surprise, little Sasuke." Orochimaru tilted his head with a wide smirk. Sasuke snarled, Sharigan blazing in the dim lighting. The criminal was blocking the only exit out of this area of the dungeons. He bit his thumb to summon Mozou. The Snake Sannin shook his head, easily evading the wooden dogs Cat was sending after him. "So cold. I'd rather you not summon help when we're only getting started to get reunited."
Sasuke saw it before it happened. A ghostly image of a giant snake rushed at them, pinning them in the narrow corridor. If he finished the summoning, Hinata would be crushed.
"Shit." He grabbed Hinata around the waist and leaped back out of the way. Orochimaru's serpent summon smashed into ground where they were a split second earlier. The sound of screeching stone shook the room.
He rebounded off the wall and landed where there was some room in Hinata's old cell. He pushed her aside. "Stay out of the way," he snapped. Sasuke was gone before she could reply. Cat was doing a valiant job of distracting Orochimaru. Sasuke dashed in, barraging the attacking snakes around him with fireballs. He wove his way closer to Orochimaru, charging his katana with a Chidori.
He watched as Cat barely dodged one attack, placing him right in the path of one of Orochimaru's enormous snake minions [4].
He wouldn't make it in time.
Sasuke watched with double vision as Cat was knocked aside by the Snake Sannin, slamming against the stone wall and sliding down like a limp rag doll. But Orochimaru wasn't finished. The Sannin opened his mouth, tongue waving a sword grotesquely. He was aiming it at the unconscious man.
Sasuke gritted his teeth and redirected his Chidori to the side, forcing Orochimaru to retreat from his Guardian, his over-powered technique bouncing off the stone uselessly in an explosion of white-blue energy.
His mind raced with strategies. This wasn't just any ninja. This was a Sannin. Even worse, he was trapped in an isolated part of the castle with essentially no room to maneuver. A brief thought connected the coincidence of Hinata's sudden insistence to go to the dungeons, but he dismissed it just as quickly. He could ponder such things after the battle. Cat was down, and there was still Hinata's safety to consider.
Sasuke needed a damn good genjutsu to make sure all three of them survived. And he needed to be close enough for it to take hold.
The prince dashed forward on chakra-charged feet, beheading the snakes that chased him. As he advanced, he was careful to leave the slightest opening in his defense. If Orochimaru took the bait then -
"NO!" A strangled cry.
A dark blur flickered past him. His Sharingan showed him a phantom Hinata, torchlight glinting off the blade of her glaive, jumping in to intercept one of Orochimaru's snakes advancing for Sasuke's "weak spot". She only managed to parry a few blows before Orochimaru himself knocked her weapon aside. The naginata landed on the stone with a distant clatter as snakes wrapped around her limbs, holding her immobile.
Sasuke's heart stopped when his eyes predicted that Orochimaru would plunge his blade into her stomach with an angled twist that spelled certain death.
He'd never moved so quickly.
Sasuke flipped over Hinata, kicking away the sword as he landed between her and Orochimaru. He blasted a wide range fire ball right in the Snake Sannin's face, using the distraction to weave a subtle illusion that offset the vision by several degrees. During the brief second Orochimaru was affected by the genjutsu, Sasuke was creating a second, more complex illusion to hide the kunai that carried explosion tags. The stream of fire he unleashed was more than enough to activate them.
An enormous explosion centered on Orochimaru's chest shook the corridor. Loosened gravel rained from the ceiling, but Sasuke ignored the debris to hack away the snakes binding Hinata. Once free, she shrugged away the coils. Sasuke turned and crouched low, Hinata pushed behind him as his Sharingan struggled to pierce the fog of displaced dust. The dust muted everything, leaving a murky stillness that pressed in on his eardrums and made him feel claustrophobic. His heartbeat was loud, too loud.
A form staggered to standing. His face was peeling and his shirt was singed, but the rest of Orochimaru only slightly mussed. Sasuke tensed, watching him with hawk-like intensity.
Orochimaru's golden eyes studied them for a moment. Then the Snake Sanin's lips pulled into a terrifying smile.
"Interesting. How very, very interesting." He chuckled at a joke Sasuke didn't get. "You truly have the blood of the Uchiha in your veins, little Sasuke. Your mastery of the Sharingan rivals your brother's, but you are something else. Any parting gift I give you will be useless compared to the lovely flower you already have by your side." The way he referred to Hinata made Sasuke feel ill. He lifted his katana warningly and Orochimaru laughed as he bowed mockingly. "I bid you and your flower farewell."
Then he formed a seal and disappeared into the cloud of dust.
Sasuke didn't move until he could no longer feel the Sannin's presence. He looked over his shoulder to see that Hinata was still alive and well, and then hurried to Cat's prone form under a pile of rubble. While unconscious, the Guardian's heartbeat was strong and steady.
More relieved than he'd dare to reveal, Sasuke summoned Mozou. "Message for Itachi. Orochimaru's in the castle. Cat, Kin, and myself are alive, but we'll need medics for my Guardian. We'll be up to his office momentarily for a full report." The raven dispelled with a small puff of smoke.
Finally feeling the residual effects of his terror, Sasuke shakily knelt down and covered his face in an attempt to find peace. He breathed slowly, reminding himself that the danger was over.
Never had he resented the power of his own Sharingan before. But the predictive ability of his eyes replayed that moment in sickening detail again and again inside of his head. He couldn't forget that final twist of the blade - a cruel, deliberate move to create irreparable damage. He could almost smell the sharp, sour scent of blood mixed with bodily fluids. The smell of death.
Her death.
The very thought was making his heart and stomach tear the other apart.
He felt timid fingers on his shoulder. "Sasuke?" she whispered. "Are you okay?"
How dare she ask him that?
Welcoming the sudden rage that overtook his fear, Sasuke whirled on her and caught her by her upper arms in a bruising grip. Pale eyes widened and he hated how vulnerable she allowed herself to look. Hated how breakable she felt under his palms.
"You idiot!" he snarled into her face. "Do you realize the level of stupidity of your actions?" Sasuke shook her, desperate to get Hinata to understand. "You reckless girl! If I hadn't moved in time, he would have killed you. I told you to stay out of the way. Do you even understand death? Do you understand what the hell that is?" He was screaming and ranting, but she needed to get it into her thick, stupid, fragile head.
"Of course I do," she replied with a bewildered frown. "I...couldn't let him hurt you."
"I was directing his attacks so I could place a good genjutsu on him!" Sasuke snapped. "That didn't give you the right to interfere. You don't even have chakra to do anything." It was the absolute worst thing to say, but anger had corroded away any inhibition. He needed to make her understand that she wasn't supposed to protect him.
"Just because I don't have enough chakra doesn't mean I can't fight," she hissed. She leaned forward challengingly, moon eyes tinged with hurt. "You have no right - mmph!"
Sasuke crushed his mouth against hers in a punishing kiss. He held her possessively to him, daring her to defy him, to keep arguing. Hinata gasped into his lips, and for a moment, Sasuke was afraid she'd fight him.
And then she was kissing him back just as fiercely, a battle of teeth, lips, tongue, and with her hands tangling themselves in his hair as she leaned into his touch. All the hurt and anger and fear blended together between them. Sparks shot through his eyelids like lightning bolts, charging every nerve and pooling heat in his lower abdomen. The cool scent of her filled his senses, chasing away the suffocating dank of the dungeons. Sasuke could hear nothing but her little breaths in between the pounding pulse in his ears. She was tugging on his hair in an attempt to pull him closer and it hurt, but Sasuke immediately forgave her as he gripped the back of her head to achieve the same thing. Sleek locks of hair twisted around his fingers like silk ropes to tie her to him. Sasuke wrapped one arm around her waist -
Hinata suddenly froze. She shoved him away with shaking hands.
"We can't," she whispered, her voice breaking with a sob. Her face crumpled into a pained expression. She turned and ran out of the cell, leaving Sasuke kneeling amidst the wreckage of the battle. He stared after her. The prince slowly lifted his fingers to touch his still-tingling lips.
All the excuses and denials inside Sasuke's mind shivered and dissolved away before the tidal wave of his emotions. He was wrong; Hinata was anything but a pet. Not when her mouth was so sweet. It was a sweetness that curled logic and reason and what was right or wrong. It made all her faults and flaws and tricks and everything else irrelevant. Because there was only one word to describe Hinata. What she already was and what she will be.
His.
"I have already issued a red alert, though I doubt he is in the castle anymore. Now what I don't understand is why you were down there to begin with," Itachi was saying as he glared at them over his clasped hands. His dark eyes scanned their dirty appearances with an unreadable expression.
Hinata knew Sasuke was looking over at her, but she resolutely kept her eyes locked on a corner of the king's desk. Looking at Sasuke was out of the question. Her lips were still swollen and burned from the memory of his kiss. How could she lose control like that?
"Hinata?" She kept her eyes averted from either of the two Uchiha in the room, but looked towards Sasuke's direction briefly. Itachi immediately understood.
"Sasuke, outside."
"No. Absolutely not," the prince snapped back. "I need to know."
"Outside," the king reiterated, this time with a forceful push of his aura. Sasuke paused.
"Fine," he gritted out, and stomped to the door, slamming it behind him in a childish show of his opinion of the situation. The disrupted privacy jutsu settled back into place.
"Hinata, what really happened?"
"I met a Mitarashi when I was in the dungeons." She could feel Itachi's surprise, though she still kept her gaze focused away from him. "For some reason, we were able to hear each other. Neither of us revealed sensitive information, but she did confirm that she was there due to being, I quote, 'a big fat traitor'."
"But the Mitarashi are extinct." Hinata nodded.
"I got bad information. I was told that the Mitarashi will be relocated soon, and I had hoped to speak to her again."
The air in the room seemed to condense into something cold and dense, until it was hard to breathe under the pressure of Itachi's anger.
"Who is this source of information?" he questioned, tone deceptively calm. " Hinata remained silent. She was willing to present relevant information to the king for the sake of protecting Sasuke, but she couldn't trust Itachi when he might have a part in casting the shadows over her past.
"What do you know, Hinata?" His normally neutral voice was uncharacteristically cruel, a cold dagger to her knees. Hinata had to forcefully stop herself from trembling.
A dark figure appeared in her field of vision. Itachi was suddenly in front of her, close enough to reach out and snap her neck. Before she could jump away, callused fingers caught her chin in a parody of a lover's touch and forced her to look up.
"What are you hiding from me?" Fathomless black eyes searched hers, as if Itachi was trying to peer into her thoughts. His gaze lingered on her lips. Hinata realized with horror that it was all too easy for the king to put the clues together. He knew that her relationship with Sasuke had progressed into something dangerous.
He knew of their kiss.
Something protective sparked in Hinata, burning away the fear and timidity of her personality. Despite all logic in her mind, her heart was possessive of what was hers. The kiss she shared with Sasuke was hers, a precious, bright memory for only her. She felt violated that Itachi would judge her for it.
"Perhaps I was tricked. Perhaps there is something deeper right under your nose. But I'm hiding nothing you already know or can easily infer," she shot back in a clipped voice. Itachi's dark eyes widened in surprise before something almost like hurt flashed across his features. Then all ripples of emotion disappeared under the icy surface of a winter's lake. He released her and returned to his seat.
"You are far too forgetful," he accused. Itachi meant something specific, but there were too many instances of what he could mean: the implicit agreement that he would allow her to stay here if she wasn't a threat, her too-trusting nature, or something else he may have mentioned to her years ago. She didn't have the eidetic memory of a genius. She was just Hinata, the unwanted girl with the misfortune of being born a princess.
"Then please remind me," Hinata said politely. Her courage was gone as quickly as it came, and she wondered if her outburst was the final nail into her coffin.
"For example, you seem to be under the delusion that I am some sort of omnipotent saint, and forget that I am but a man." Hinata bit her lip guiltily. She understood the feeling of being forced onto a pedestal like a deity, and then resented for being merely mortal. She condemned him for using her exactly as he'd warned her that he would.
"But that doesn't change the facts," she replied quietly. "You manipulated me so I would be discovered, by him, no less. It makes me question how aligned our goals are."
"My priority is this kingdom and the safety of my foolish little brother," Itachi replied bluntly. "It was a chance to destroy Danzo's power base. I would take it."
"I don't understand how I am relevant."
"Think. Who do you think ordered Team 7 on that wildly useless mission to the border?" She didn't need to answer, as they both knew who the only person could be: Danzo. "Did those false Moon soldiers not identify a Hyuuga as their leader? And how convenient that your source would tell you about the Mitarashi so you and Sasuke are trapped in the lower dungeons at the time of Orochimaru's arrival? And you dare claim the right to withhold information from me?" Itachi's voice grew softer with each question, which frightened her more for the lack of yelling.
Hinata bowed her head in shame. The implications Itachi laid before her made her feel small and frivolous, like a flower curling in on itself in the cold. Her gut rebelled at the thought that she'd almost led Sasuke to his death. And she'd actually thought to protect him.
What a joke.
"I talked with Sai. He holds an emotional connection to a person named Shin," she whispered so softly she wasn't sure she was speaking. "I also remember this same person, but I can't recall anything more on him. Sai showed a picture book he drew when he was younger. There was Shin, Sai, a girl that could be me, and another person who resembled an Uchiha."
Itachi was silent for a long moment before he spoke again. "Are you sure this Shin is the same person?"
Slowly, she nodded.
"Thank you for telling me." She looked up. Itachi looked anything but thankful for such unsettling clues, but his expression wasn't cruel. Instead, he simply looked exhausted and worried. "I wish it was-"
A knock on the door interrupted him. His blank mask returned. Hinata shook her head. It was entirely out of character for Itachi to be worried. It must have a been a trick of her frazzled mind.
"Enter."
Sasuke re-entered with a sneer on his lips.
Ino followed him in.
"Your highness," the Yamanaka greeted with a curtsy. Hinata looked at her curiously, but Ino kept her gaze politely to the ground until Itachi told her to stand.
"No doubt you are wondering why I've called you here, Lady Yamanaka. I've decided to accept your father's offer." Itachi paused as he glanced at Sasuke and then at Hinata. The king turned his gaze back to Ino, expression as darkly unreadable as a cloudy night. "As of tonight, Crown Prince Uchiha Sasuke and Lady Yamanaka Ino are betrothed. We will sign the contracts as soon as Lord Yamanaka arrives."
Hinata suddenly felt dizzy, as if she was underwater and only just realized she couldn't breathe.
"Thank you, King Itachi," Ino said gracefully, a paragon of poise. "I am ecstatic that you deem me worthy to marry into the illustrious Uchiha family." The king smiled faintly.
"You may go, then, Lady Yamanaka, Kin. I need to speak to Prince Sasuke."
Hinata followed the blond noblewoman out the door and down the hall in a daze. Everything was muddled and warped, as if her senses were railing against what they thought they perceived. Sasuke's betrothal should be a good thing. That meant that she didn't have to worry when the betrothal erased all their mistakes. Ino was better for him since she was a worthy lady from a good family and Sasuke was too smart to do something like that and she could finish her job here and leave and disappear and it'll be just fine just perfectly fine and oh kami, oh kami why did her heart twinge so painfully?
"Hey Kin, you alright? You forgot your hood." Hinata's head snapped up to see Ino looking at her worriedly. She was close enough that a quick swipe of a few tenketsu and no one would ever know...just as quickly as the hatred burned her, it puttered out, leaving the fragile, bitter ashes of shame. Her loathing was unjustified. Ino had every right to act for her own advantage. Like Itachi said, it was Hinata's fault for being so damn naive when the blond had outright told her that she couldn't be trusted. She was simply the best option for survival.
And Hinata was still alive, wasn't she? Even if it was a struggle for her heart to keep beating and for her lungs to keep drawing in air and for her body to keep moving, she was still alive. Ino hadn't lied about that.
"I'm alright, Lady Yamanaka," Hinata replied tersely with a false smile. She quickly pulled up her hood so it shadowed her face and continued walking. She did not want to see Ino right now, not when her own thoughts were so cluttered with warring rationales. "Please don't worry yourself about me."
The other girl gave her a quizzical look. "Why the sudden titles? You've always just referred to me as Ino."
"Circumstances change," Hinata replied. "And it's hard to tell who are your enemies and who are you friends. Titles mean very little in that aspect." The veiled jab wasn't very subtle. Ino whipped around with a hard look in her blue eyes.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked suspiciously. "You've been acting strangely all day. Did something happen?"
"I talked with Sai," Hinata said. Ino paused, looking guilty.
"Oh?" the blond said nervously. "What about him?" Something about that awkward twitchy smile broke the final strand of restraint in Hinata. She can shoulder the blame for being too gullible with people who were never beholden to her. It was her weakness and therefore her responsibility. But Ino was supposed to be a loyal subject of the Uchiha. Of Sasuke.
Ino - the girl who could marry whomever she wanted because she was worthy, the girl who will marry Sasuke - was conspiring with Sai behind his back. Betrothal contracts don't appear out of thin air; they were carefully written so both families would gain the maximal benefit. That meant that Ino had to of known about her potential engagement ahead of time. While Hinata condemned herself for trusting the traitorous Guardian, the Yamanaka was knowingly betraying Sasuke again and again.
She turned to Ino with an expression that so many Hyuuga wore - icy disdain disguised under the barest cover of serenity.
"Very little about him, in particular," she said softly, unable to keep all the venom out of her tone. "Though I do find it so endearing that you are coaching Sai in the ways human interaction." Hinata turned back for Itachi's office. She needed to make sure the king knew. If her heart leaped mildly at the thought that the contracts might be voided, Hinata ignored it. "Now if you'll please excuse me, Lady Yamanaka, I forgot that there is something important regarding our situation that I need to relay to the king."
Ino caught her sleeve before she could leave, only to be shrugged off.
"What are you talking about?" the blond noble asked faintly. Hinata forced herself to look forward. Betrothals and betrayals still cluttered her mind like a sickness, making it hard to see anything else but the symptoms of hurt and anger.
"Though I would like to add a word of advice, if I may," Hinata continued as if Ino hadn't spoken, tilting her head in mock thought. She wanted Ino to hurt, to be punished. It was a heady, addicting feeling. A darkness that helped obscure the harsh reality of the world. "I would suggest not fraternizing so much with Sai once the engagement is announced. It might sully your image."
The blond inhaled sharply.
"Why don't you just outright call me a brothel wench?" she hissed. Hinata looked back at her coolly, finding it difficult to muster any remorse.
"But I didn't. It was merely a suggestion, not a declaration of fact. Only you have the ability to pry into other's memories and determine that." Hinata paused, but was unable to hold back one final jab. "Or is mindwalking only something you apply when using others as your puppets?"
The sound of hand to skin echoed in the space around them. It took her a moment to realize that the other girl had slapped her. Hinata blinked, more surprised than hurt.
She was even more surprised when Ino suddenly burst into tears.
AN:
[1] Completely abusing footnotes at this point, but I didn't want to ruin the flow of the story. How many of you face-palmed at this part? (You can use the find function for quick reference.) Haha! Oh Sasuke...
[2] I've had fletching stuck in my hand before. Not that painful but rather embarrassing when I had to explain...
[3] All the Hyuuga look pretty much the same to me. Seriously. Maybe it's just the nature of manga art. But I also believe that a person can look vastly different with only a minor change in the way they carry themselves/their expressions and mannerisms. I will probably explore this concept much more later on.
[4] I realized that this is so incredibly perverted if taken in the wrong context...y'know, charging in and battling with their "swords" and "snakes" and "wood" techniques. Snrk. Apologies for crappy action scene, but I can never stop giggling when reading/writing anything to do with Orochimaru. Yes, I have the humor of a middle schooler. It's like the mangaka purposely created the character for all the pervy jokes. Come on! Oro swordfights with his tongue!
Ahem...anyways on to the other stuff.
- Mucho gracias to my beta/plot analyst/characterization specialist, Rhinst!
- A note if you haven't noticed: I'm pretty sure all human characters with actual names are characters from the original Naruto series. I'm OCD (Other Character Deficient) like that. Ba-dump tch.
- Went back and edited some for continuity. All you need to know is...1) Sasuke mentioned he wore a dress, but that wasn't addressed in the extra scene (puns galore...I'm on a roll today) 2) Forgot to include that the Moon Kingdom found the attack on Hinata's genin team to be by impostors.
-Thank you for all your well-wishes on my job hunt/support for this fic. :D Also, I hit 400 reviews! *dances on keyboard*
- On another note, I have a Deviantart account, and finally got around to loading some doodles relevant to PftH. I'm incapable to drawing specific scenes...but I first learned to draw so I could draw concept art for my fics...yeah...link in my profile. Or search for 'SoAiryo'.
- Finally, I'm taking the childish route today: I live on reviews...therefore, FEED MEH! Om nom nom.
