Once upon a time, there was a princess who was merciful.
With the fall of relations between the two kingdoms came the rise of more violence. The local villages in the area were beset with bandits. Many of them likely belonged to old clans of the Sky Kingdom, and were all too eager to perpetuate the crumbling goodwill between the Sun and Moon Kingdoms.
The princess was leading a routine patrol along the border when sounds of fighting drew her attention. These weren't the noises of a raid - the blasts of chakra pointed to ninja. Ninja, regardless of affiliation, did not belong this far north.
The princess gestured for her squad to fall back as she dismounted from her steed and snuck closer on foot, darting carefully from boulder to boulder. But just as quickly as the battle came, it was gone like a gust of wind, leaving only a haunting absence of all movement. The princess leaped on top of a larger boulder to survey the damage.
A gasp drew her attention. The princess looked down to lock gazes with a terrified blue eye - the other was swollen shut. It belonged to a blond girl no older than herself with a mussed ponytail, crouching protectively over her unconscious teammates. By the look of the terrain, it had taken the last of the girl's strength to drag them to this hidden cranny. She'd even tried to heal them, though it was clear that the bearded jounin leader was already beyond help. The girl snarled at her as she held up a kunai, but the effect was ruined when she swayed from exhaustion.
Memories of her own broken genin team cut into the princess's mind like shards of glass.
Shouts of her name drew her attention, and the princess looked back to see her squad catching up. She turned back to the battered team below. The princess didn't miss the triangular waist sash the dead jounin wore - he was a retired member of the famed Twelve Guardians if he was freely wearing such a marker. She should have been notified if any elite ninja were crossing her territory.
She had a decision to make.
The princess pulled a small bag of chakra pills from her sleeve and tossed it to the girl below. "Take the north-most pass back to the Sun Kingdom. It's longer, but the safest."
"How can I trust you?" the blond girl rasped as she caught the bag.
"You can't," she replied simply. "But I'm the best option you have." The princess didn't wait to see if the blond girl believed her, and turned to her squad. She didn't bother wishing them luck, because such empty well-wishes were crueler than honesty. "No one's here anymore," she called to her squad. "Head out to the south-east pass to search the area."
The princess penned a letter to the Moon King that night, though she was careful to only mention what she told her squad. The more she thought about the strange encounter with the Sun ninja, the more it disturbed her. The motive from any angle left gaping holes in logic. What was happening between the Sun and Moon Kingdoms?
She grew even more worried when days passed and there was no reply. She was not supposed to leave her post, but patrol commanders left for days, even weeks, at a time to survey the full range of their territories. If she hurried, she would be back to her post within two weeks.
And so, the princess returned to the Moon palace.
Prey for the Hunted
By Airyo
Chapter 15
"Fuck no," Sasuke snapped as soon as the door closed behind Hinata. He crossed his arms and glared at Itachi defiantly.
The king lifted an eyebrow. "Language, Sasuke. And you said that you did not care."
"Yes, but that was before -" Sasuke cut himself off and pursed his lips. No matter how he worded it, it sounded horribly stupid in his head. Why Itachi, I kissed Hinata and now I've decided that I want her. Yeah, I know she's kind of a fugitive and we'll probably go to war with the Moon Kingdom if anyone found out. But it's all totally fine, because I don't care what others think...
That was going to go over so well.
"Before what?" Itachi's features remained frozen in the blank mask that he presented to others.
Sasuke blinked, thrown by his brother's uncharacteristic coldness. While the current situation was no laughing matter, Itachi should have at least thrown in one teasing comment about Sasuke's aversion to women. He'd practically given Itachi the perfect setup for a bad gay joke.
"Before I got to know that Yamanaka better. I can't stand her." Itachi's eyes narrowed.
"Don't lie, Sasuke." The king's gaze flickered to Sasuke's lips. It was the briefest of gestures, but all the more telling.
"Like you're one to talk," the prince retorted. It unsettled him to see the king acting so strangely. "Why are you suddenly beating around the bush like a...like a bush-beater!" Sasuke finished with a wince. Itachi's lips quirked slightly in amusement. It was almost worth the embarrassment to see his brother acting normally again.
"Eloquent as always, foolish little brother."
"I've just had two, no, three of the worst scares of my life in the space of an hour. There's Orochimaru, Hinata nearly dying, and now you're telling me I might have to marry Yamanaka of all people."
"Will marry," corrected Itachi. Stumbling over the obstacle of these words, the tentative rhythm of their familiar banter dispersed like a whisper.
"The contracts haven't been signed yet," Sasuke said with a deceptive calm. Why was Itachi doing this to him? The older Uchiha had always pushed him to develop some sort of tolerance for a female that wasn't Sakura. But now that he did, Itachi immediately tried to slap it down. Yes, Hinata's situation was rather awkward, but identities were hardly a matter of worry. Itachi had already proved it thus far with his manipulations of Sai as the fake prince and Hinata as Kin.
"The contracts are just pieces of paper to illustrate reality. The expectations of the Uchiha and Yamanaka clans, however, are far more binding."
"But I never agreed to this at any point time."
"It was rather obvious," Itachi continued harshly. The king folded his hands and pinned the young Uchiha with a disappointed stare. "You pull that kind of stunt at the council meeting and you expect there to be only minimal consequences?"
"Of course not!" Sasuke protested heatedly, grasping at something, anything, to defend against this stranger who only looked like Itachi. He felt like he was falling even though his feet were firmly on the ground. "We're working hard to rectify the "wager". Sakura's in research and Naruto's helping find sealing techniques and Hinata and I are -"
"You misunderstood me," Itachi interrupted grimly. His voice was so quiet Sasuke had to pause and lean in to catch every word. "Your status as crown prince is irrelevant if you don't survive long enough to take the throne. I've protected you too well if you can so easily dismiss the slew of assassination attempts. Alienating the royal council is the absolutely worst thing you can do at this point."
"Just come out and say that the Hokage wants me out of the way permanently," Sasuke growled. Itachi's eyes widened in shock for a moment before he was able to revert to a neutral expression. The prince shook his head in disgust. "And I don't even want the stupid throne - looks horribly uncomfortable." The king almost smiled.
"So I have underestimated the acuity of your perception, Sasuke, but that doesn't change the foolishness of your recent actions. You've weakened your stance before those that should be your strongest supporters. While your relations were not stellar before, they weren't so bad as to require substantial action." Itachi held up a hand to silence Sasuke when he opened his mouth to argue. "That does not mean you haven't created new allies either. Lord Yamanaka had originally rejected my suggestion of a betrothal between you and the young Lady Yamanaka. He was worried about your temper and lack of interest in politics, as he understandably wished to keep the Yamanaka in the inner circles of court. However, your impressive manipulation of the council for a specific goal intrigued him enough to re-open discussion with me. In a way, your recklessness was what helped close this deal."
"So my 'crazy' stunt did work well," Sasuke reiterated with a smug smile. "Clearly, I can handle myself, so..." Itachi continued to maintain his blank mask, and Sasuke faltered. It was impossible to build any sort of momentum forward when facing a impenetrable brick wall. The prince found himself feeling like a lost child, small and helpless. Itachi had always made his emotions clear to Sasuke, however subtly the king chose to express it. That minute transparency of his mien was how Sasuke knew of Itachi's regard for him.
But right now, the Sun King was nobody that the prince recognized.
"Only in one very specific example," Itachi said. He glanced at Sasuke for a beat, and then turned to organize the massive piles of paperwork on his desk. "I'm not going to change my mind, Sasuke."
There was no need for a dismissal when his tone was already so distant.
Hinata gaped at Ino as the blond girl sobbed into her hands. The natural reaction was to hug her and soothe her. But the ex-princess had never been the perpetrator of the situation, nor had the victim ever been the alleged villain as well. Even then, it didn't correlate with the Ino that Hinata thought she knew.
She settled for a light hand on the noble's shoulder as she guided them the remainder of the way to Ino's suite. Had these been crocodile tears, Hinata would have hesitated. But the Yamanka's eyes were too red, her complexion too blotchy, and her nose too runny for it to be false. Ino was far too vain to let herself appear so sloppy in public so easily. To her credit, she was already recomposing herself by the time they entered the Yamanaka's room, though the blond's lips still quivered tremulously.
Ino's makeup was beginning to run, so she hurried to the plush velvet chair in front of her vanity. Despite her obvious distress, the noblewoman moved with grace as she wiped away the heavy powders on her face. Hinata stood uncomfortably behind her, struggling between the urge to prostrate herself before the other girl in remorse or simply run away.
Ino looked up, meeting Hinata's eye in the mirror. Bereft of any cover, her eyes were rimmed red and all the more jarring against the blue of her irises. The noblewoman looked away first and the ex-princess was left trying to chase after her gaze. Ino went on to removing the multitude of jeweled pins from her hair, focusing with unnecessary intensity on each hair ornament.
She watched the gold plaits of Ino's hair unravel strand by strand, slowly falling to the noble's shoulders like crumpled silk.
"I'm sorry," Hinata whispered, feeling sick with guilt. "I shouldn't have said that." This was the person who'd saved her life and so generously shared everything with her again and again. The blond was as close to a fairy godmother as reality would allow. And she was the witch who had to ruin the good.
She fiddled with her index fingers, searching in vain for a way to relieve the pressure of her doubts. Was she lashing out at Ino for her betrayal or for her betrothal? The two concepts were twining around each other in her mind, until it was hard to distinguish between them. It was hard to hear logic when her heart was still screaming.
"But you're angry." Ino was looking away, but Hinata still shook her head.
She was being greedy. Greed and the arrogance to dream of something better were the same thing. Hinata knew her reality all too well. Her heart was a fool. Sasuke could never be hers. And Ino was never beholden to her either.
"Not at you. At -"
"You should be." Ino threw down the hair pin she was holding. It landed with a jarring clatter in the tray of other jeweled hair pins; metal and precious stone and more metal ground together with a screech. The noblewoman stood suddenly, her voluminous robes flaring around her. The soft movement of her clothes was a sharp contrast to the hard expression on her features. Only half of her elaborate updo had been undone, and there were still smudges of kohl around one eye. She looked like two people stitched together with madness, and she was falling apart at the seams. "I owe everything to you and you clearly don't even know why."
It was a confession and an accusation. It was a condemnation of both herself and Hinata. The ex-princess didn't know what to think; she didn't know which half of this person was real. "What are you talking about?," Hinata asked. "You've more than upheld your side of that life debt. I spoke out of turn - you are free of what you think you owe me."
Ino shook her head, features twisted in resentment. It was the expression of someone crumbling under the pressure of her self-imposed burdens. Those were the kind of chains that were the heaviest. "I can never, ever fully repay my debt to you. That night you killed Mizuki wasn't the first time we've met." She peered at Hinata expectantly, but the ex-princess only looked at her blankly. The Yamanaka roughly gathered her hair into the semblance of a high ponytail and brushed her bangs over one eye. "Remember saving a girl and her team at the north border four years ago? The chakra pills?"
The rough hair and messy smudges around her visible eye added to the image of a battered kunoichi.
"You..." Hinata murmured in shock. Ino nodded and let her golden hair cascade back over her shoulders.
"It wasn't just my life that I owe you. You saved Shika and Cho, of course, but that day is burned into my mind." Ino's eyes turned to the window, blue caught by the faraway color of the sky. She was looking into a different time altogether. "I can even tell you exactly what you looked like: silver helmet, deep navy cape secured with lacquered shoulder guards, chest piece engraved with water dragons and decorated with a crescent moon badge cradling a sapphire, white sash embroidered with blue lightning storms, white kimono, navy hakama, black boots. Byakugan so pale it seemed to glow in the shadows." Ino looked back at Hinata. "Very fashionable," she whispered in a poor attempt of a joke.
"That's...my uniform.." Hinata agreed with awe, because she barely remembered the details herself and she'd worn the thing on and off for years. Ino studied her with a haunted expression.
"I was sure you were going to kill us. I asked you, 'How can I trust you?' and you said 'You can't, but I'm the best option you have.' I repeated the same words to you back at the inn. I thought you would remember, considering how much you risked for my team."
Hinata half-smiled, stretched thin between the roles of heroine and villain. The old discomfort whenever someone tried to place her on a pedestal was back. She clenched her fists to quash her restlessness. "I think that you give me too much credit." Ino laughed hollowly and collapsed back into her vanity chair as she covered her face with her hands.
"Kami, you're such a saint," she muttered, uttering 'saint' as if it were poison. She sounded like she was about to cry again. "Sometimes I hate you for saving me. You and your stupid selflessness. Who can live up to that?"
Hinata opened her mouth soundlessly. This was why she hated politics, because a person could be sequestered into the role of dearest confidant and despised enemy in the course of one conversation. She could only begin to piece together this puzzle before her. On one side she could understand the pressure to live up to something greater and beyond yourself. She could understand that Ino needed to break free of the past; that included her and this mangled idea of a life debt.
"No one," she finally said for the sake of filling the ringing silence around them. But her words seemed too small for the void, and Hinata went on to explain. "I'm more selfish than you think. It's just concentrated in a smaller range of topics than most." Ino huffed with disbelief, but didn't move her hands.
"Right," she replied, voice muffled by her palms. "Because sparing an enemy ninja team despite all the risks is…" Ino trailed off. She uncovered her face and sat up straighter. "How stupid do you think I am?" she snapped. "It's so convenient that Team 10 was sent to the most isolated corner of the world, and left for dead for the Moon Princess to find! It's so convenient that only weeks after I returned to the Sun Kingdom there were rumors of your betrayal." The Yamanaka stopped, breathing hard as her flash of temper evaporated. She looked down at her lap, continuing in a lower tone. "I couldn't take them all with me, so I had to burn Lord Asuma's body. I couldn't bear burning his Guardian sash too, so I buried it where I scattered his ashes." Her voice dropped to a whisper, more breath than words. "I shouldn't have left that evidence."
Hinata didn't say anything. Immediate absolution teetered on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say it truthfully. She couldn't say for certain that Ino's mistake wasn't a factor.
The blond sighed and turned back to the vanity. She wiped away the rest of her makeup, leaving nothing to soften the cold determination in her eyes. This time, she didn't avoid Hinata's eyes in the reflection of the mirror as she spoke. "I realized that day that I'm useless on the field. I will amount to nothing more than another puppet controlled by someone else." Hinata cringed at the sideways reference to her harsh words earlier. The noblewoman pretended not to notice as she smoothly undid the rest of her hair. "The Hokage is the one that assigns the mission. The puppet-master if you will."
Ino deftly twisted her long blond hair into an elegant chignon at the base of her neck. The regal apathy to her face made Hinata feel small and cold. It was as if the past few minutes of hysteria had never happened. She didn't recognize the stranger in the mirror. Ino turned her head to different angles as she studied her reflection. Satisfied, she sorted through her tray of hairpins.
"Buttercup, perfect," Ino muttered. The noblewoman stabbed the selected hairpin into the center of her bun. "I've already said too much, but the only way I can protect my friends is if I marry into power. I will continue to ensure your survival, but I can't let you ruin this betrothal." The flower charm on her hairpin glittered in the sunlight as she turned her head away from both Hinata and her reflection [1]. "I hope you understand."
There was no need for a dismissal when her tone was already so distant.
Oblivious of the recent events, Sakura called a quick meeting with Sasuke and Hinata later that evening. The prince found himself reluctant to speak to Hinata while he was still at a loss on how to break the betrothal. Itachi's hostile coldness left him in a foul mood.
"You're late!" Sakura growled when he opened the door of the hospital meeting room. Sasuke sneered at her as he entered.
"Not that I was needed for what you were doing."
Sakura rolled her eyes and returned to squinting at her miniscule handwriting on her notes. Hinata was already lying on the ground, bare stomach covered with fresh seals. The medic was seated on her right side. It appeared as if a library had vomited around them, given the mess of scrolls and diagrams. The medic swirled her paintbrush in a small well of ink and added several dark characters to Hinata's abdomen.
"Where's everyone else?" he asked. Sakura blew a pink lock of hair out of her face.
"Being a nuisance elsewhere. Naruto's still doing some research. Don't know where Pig is. Lord Hatake's still strapped to the bed with pins inserted into his leg to keep him from doing something stupid and making it worse. I just need you and Kin to get the chakra transfer working so I can actually look at his injuries."
Sasuke took his seat on Hinata's left side so he was facing Sakura. Hinata glanced at him. They stared at each other. There were too many things he wanted to say, but he was sharply aware of Sakura. Her presence was like being doused in cold water, an intrusion that forced him to remember reality.
After a long moment, Hinata gave him a distant nod of a greeting and returned to her perusal of the ceiling. Sasuke let her be. At least she was acknowledging him instead of pretending he didn't even exist.
If Sakura noticed the odd exchange, she made no mention of it. She finished her seals and covered the ink well with a satisfied sigh.
"Okay, we're staying with a five point seal, because those are the most balanced in terms of chakra flow. However, instead of using my chakra to draw, I have Hinata infuse hers into the ink. The seals are slightly more complicated since it's a closed-loop and I can't monitor it. But that'll enhance the connection and make it easier for you," the medic explained. Sasuke placed his right hand on the indicated points around Hinata's navel. Brushing away distracting memories of her lips, he closed his eyes and began to convert his chakra.
There was the initial pull again, as if he was feeding his energy into a void. The prince resisted the reflex of shutting off his chakra and let the seal siphon what it needed. Fortunately, the rate steadied to a manageable level. At the edges of his senses, Sasuke could feel the cool ebb and flow of Hinata's chakra, an immutable pattern like the tides.
The prince frowned. Hinata's chakra system didn't make sense. The intelligence reports indicated that her reserves were far too low for her to be a ninja, yet the movement through her coils made it clear to him that her capacity was at least chuunin level.
Sasuke couldn't spare more thought to the conundrum, as changing his chakra into pure lightning energy was a consuming task.
"Activate when you're ready." He heard Sakura's distant voice. Hinata shifted to form a seal.
"Byakugan," came the soft whisper. His chakra was swept with hers, and everything mixed together until he wasn't quite sure what was hers and what was his. It was a disconcerting feeling, as if he was being drawn outside of himself.
"How's it holding?" Sasuke kept his eyes closed but turned slightly towards Sakura.
"Stable," he said shortly.
"Good, you can stop. We're done for the day." Hinata deactivated her Byakugan. Sasuke opened his eyes as he removed his hand, feeling oddly bereft without the calm quality of her chakra.
Sakura was grinning triumphantly at them as she began to gather the various parts of her notes. "We can start the exploration of Kakashi's injury tomorrow morning, bright and early. Kin, since the seals are infused with your chakra, they'll stay for a few days. Thank kami, because those are a pain." The medic made a motion of wiping away sweat. "Whew! Now the real hard part is clean-up."
Once Sakura finished tidying the meeting room with Sasuke's and Hinata's help, the medic breezed out the door with a hastily uttered farewell. Sasuke and Hinata remained motionless for several moments.
"You have very loyal friends, Sasuke." He started and turned to Hinata. She wasn't avoiding him, and instead looked steadily into his eyes. His pulse decided it was a good time to rail loudly against his eardrums, making it hard tohear her soft voice. "I am very lucky." The prince wrinkled his brow in consternation when she smiled with a tinge of sadness. She brushed the invisible dust off her sleeve with a small, elegant motion. "I'm far too late in saying this, but thank you for everything. You've saved my life. I owe you too much to ever repay."
It was the acknowledgement Sasuke had wanted all along. This was supposed to be the part where he puffed with pride and delighted in her gratitude. This was supposed to be the part where he basked in her quiet admiration, a hero in every meaning. This was supposed to be a happy scene.
But Sasuke found that he wanted her to swallow that 'thank you'. Take it back. Pretend it never happened. He didn't want her gratitude if it made him feel even more distanced from her.
Then she bowed politely before exiting.
"Goodbye."
Her parting gesture shook him further. It wasn't the kind that referred to physical location. He didn't know what to think about it.
All Sasuke knew was that he was losing what was his. And he didn't know how to fix that.
They started meeting again in Kakashi's room. Ino was busy with preparations with the engagement gala for the announcement to the kingdom, as well as the wedding set for next year. It was a relief that Ino was absent, as Hinata wasn't sure if she could muster the courage to face the noblewoman.
Her only task was to keep her Byakugan active and tell Sakura if her medical chakra was probing the right part of Kakashi's injury. It was mind-numbingly boring work at best, but Hinata threw her focus into helping Sakura formulate a cure. It was better than drowning in her own thoughts, especially with Sasuke so close.
After Sasuke's initial update, Naruto made the mistake of cracking a joke about how the prince's hand was given to the Yamanaka in marriage. The prince reacted by destroying the windows with a flare of uncontrolled chakra. Thankfully, the others wisely made no further mention of the betrothal and studiously steered the conversation towards the project at hand.
"Scar tissue?"
"No."
"Here?"
"No."
A long pause, as Sakura slowly guided the sharp point of her chakra to the left.
"Here."
"Yes," Hinata affirmed.
"DAMMIT!" Sakura ended her technique and stomped her foot in frustration, distracting Sasuke enough that he had to stop the flow of his lightning energy. Hinata's Byakugan fizzled out and she blinked, eyes watering at the forced deactivation. "Sorry," the medic said with a wince when the Uchiha glared at her.
"Hey, hey, what happened now?" Naruto asked. Sakura slumped back into her chair.
"I can almost tell the difference, but it's not a definitive feeling that I can use. Most of the time, I still get it wrong."
"Then just don't look for what you're not looking for." Everyone stared at Naruto with varying degrees of pity.
"Idiot!" Sakura screamed as she punched Naruto in the head. "That's the stupidest..." She trailed off, eyes narrowed in furious thought. Her eyes widened in delight. "...yet smartest thing anyone has said to me today! If I encase the entire site of the injury in chakra and then test the specified point, I can eliminate the distractions from basic body functions like blood flow."
Naruto rubbed his skull. "Stop punching people before you figure out what they're saying," he muttered indignantly.
"Stop sounding so stupid then, Dead-last," Sasuke retorted.
"My advice was smart!"
"And yet you still managed to sound like an idiot," Sasuke snickered. "You must be talented."
"Say that to my face, Bastard!"
Sakura sighed. She turned her notes and jotted some more lines. "Always being torn between wanting to laugh and cry can't be healthy," the medic muttered to Hinata. The ex-princess couldn't help but giggle.
"I think laughing is better," she added softly. The pink-haired kunoichi grinned at her.
"True. It's kind of fun, isn't it?"
Hinata smiled sadly. She cherished these moments of joy. They seemed all the brighter against the dark background of everything that was happening. And in a way, these small memories she could share with Sasuke were only possible because of their current predicament.
Bittersweet irony was a horrid taste on her tongue.
In order to avoid a dangerous relationship to Sasuke, Hinata had restrained herself from interacting normally with him. But now that he was betrothed to Ino and that possibility of a relationship was gone, she no longer needed to play a role.
When she could have him, she didn't dare want him. When she couldn't have him, all she wanted was him.
Either way, this wasn't her fairytale.
The confrontation with Ino was a cold awakening. She was the intruder here, an unwanted character.
Yet no matter how Hinata tried to convince herself that it wasn't her business, she couldn't set aside the unease about Ino's near-admission about her meetings with Sai. Maybe she was sticking her nose where it didn't belong, but she had to make sure. She couldn't place her faith in a blind gamble on human morality.
She had to tell Itachi.
"Enter," came the king's faint voice through the door. The Guardians let her in.
"King Itachi," she said with a polite bow. Itachi looked up from his current set of scrolls.
"Hinata," he replied neutrally. "What brings you to my office?"
"I need to make sure you are aware of certain events." Itachi lifted an eyebrow when she stopped.
"And that is..." he prompted. Hinata took a deep breath. She knew it wasn't her place, but she was already here. Her presence in the king's office already dictated her intention.
"Lady Ino has been meeting with the Guardian Sai." It felt like a confession, even if it wasn't her sin. Her words hung in the air like thick dust stirred by wind, heavy yet unable to settle.
"I am aware. Though it worries me that you know. Lady Yamanaka should have been more discrete with her orders."
Orders...
Hinata swallowed back the tears burning her eyes. She was wrong. It was the best thing she could be wrong about. Everything was okay.
"I was out of bounds," she said woodenly. "Thank you for your time."
"Was that it?" Hinata nodded, frowning slightly in confusion. She had the sense the Itachi was disappointed, but she hadn't the faintest idea why. Was there something else she was supposed to notice? "Then you may go. I will inform Lady Yamanaka of her indiscretions."
Hinata bowed and left.
"You really couldn't stay away, could you?"
Of all the people to see her exit Itachi's office, it would be Ino.
The noblewoman strode down the hall with a cold expression. "Let me guess," she said. "You wanted to tattle to King Itachi because you were so sure I was a traitor."
Hinata couldn't deny it. The Yamanaka circled her like a vulture. "It seems that an eye for an eye is the only method that will work for you. You could never come to trust me, so I must be forced to never trust you either," Ino said softly. "Is that how it works for you? Is the absence of trust the presence of malice?"
Hinata swallowed hard, but didn't shrivel before the other girl. "It's how the world works and therefore how I will play. If it were only a question of your marriage, I would gladly congratulate you. But we worked together to expose Sai. We both know of his allegiance."
She will always regret losing Ino as a friend. She will always regret betraying the trust of someone that had saved her life. But she will not apologize for trying to do the right thing. It took every iota of courage in her cowardly body to approach Itachi about this subject. Yes, there had been the smallest, faintest hint of hope that maybe the betrothal would fail. But that was never her goal. Never her intention.
"But King Itachi's already told you," Ino said with a hollow chuckle. "He knows of my activities. It is admirable of you to be so loyal, but you are not beholden to Sasuke, No-Name Hinata."
The ex-princess flinched at the mention of her name. It was a pointed reminder of her fugitive status. This wasn't her kingdom. This wasn't her place.
"No, I am not," she agreed shakily. "I am not beholden to you either."
"Before, I thought we had a bond," Ino said accusingly.
"Perhaps it is better to sever it," Hinata whispered. Ino didn't deserve such a distrusting traitor like herself as a friend. It was better that the noblewoman wasn't dragged down. It was better to cut their ties before something bad happened to the Yamanaka for her previous aid to a fugitive like Hinata.
Ino stared at her and bit her lip. "Perhaps," she agreed hoarsely. Ino whirled around in a flurry of robes and exited, leaving Hinata standing in her shame.
The Guardians didn't say anything, remaining cold witnesses to the frayed end of friendship.
The days seemed like one long blur, sewn together by Sakura's slow but steady progress. Within weeks since the very onset of the project, she could reliably pinpoint scar tissue, though it always took her several moments to test it out with her chakra. Sasuke doubted it was practical, but the medic had already made more progress than most thought possible.
"Man, I'm sooo bored," Naruto whined as he watched Sakura attempt to chip away at some tissue. From what Sasuke gathered in his distracted state as he transferred chakra into Hinata, it was slow due to the fact that the body seemed to think that the scar tissue belonged. "Hurry up, Sakura."
The medic withdrew her medical chakra.
"Let's take a break," she said with a groan, rubbing away at the crick in her neck. Hinata sat up after Sasuke had pulled away.
"What is going on?" he asked. The medic sighed and rubbed at her eyes.
"Lord Hatake's injury is slowly healing. Because the healer had to force close his wounds to keep him from bleeding to death, there is a lot of unnecessary scar tissue. On top of that, the fracture to his leg is highly unusual. A clean break heals easily because the body can figure what what it needs to do."
"So...?"
"So the problem is that I'm forcing it against nature. Healing is essentially speeding up what should already happen naturally. I have to be extremely careful on what I excise. Too much means failure, too little is no use. So as I'm picking away at the blockage, the body keeps trying to heal itself back up the way it was. It's like trying to remove a callus - even with the old one gone, the body thinks it's injured and tries to replace it with a new one."
"That was not a problem before," Sasuke muttered. The medic sighed.
"I didn't realise that I was essentially forcing the body to go in two different directions on the timeline. I have to slow the replacement mechanism while speeding up the healing where I want it to occur."
"Have you tried a second healer to hold stasis while you work on another part?" Sasuke thought Kakashi's suggestion was a good one, but Sakura only shook her head, sending pink hair flying around her.
"Won't work," she said. "Unless I have a twin sister I'm unaware of, medical chakra can't be overlapped. Even for team healing, everything is filtered into the same medic who does the one technique. Otherwise the jutsu would be too unstable and explode."
"Literally?"
Sakura rolled her eyes. "So relevant, Naruto. But yes, there had been literal explosions of chakra. Medical jutsu is a precise art." Sasuke fought the urge to mimic his teammate's gesture of annoyance at the look of childlike awe on Naruto's face at the mention explosions.
"Does Kakashi have to be the first subject?" Sasuke said, thinking aloud. "What if you found someone whose scar tissue is located at a far less critical place than next to the femoral artery?" While Sasuke was no medical expert, every ninja worth his chakra knew the body's weaknesses. A hemorrhage where Kakashi's injury was spelled a great danger of death.
Sasuke frowned. "The problem is that this current project is classified. We can't really run away asking for volunteers." Sakura nodded.
"There are a lot of old veterans who are trustworthy, but their healing abilities are far too slow. Ideally we need someone young -"
"You can test it on me." Hinata seemed uncomfortable when everyone turned to stare at her. She placed a protective hand over her navel. "I have a condition similar to Lord Hatake's, only in chakra coils. That should be helpful since there's not such a large blood supply. And my scarring is large enough that it wouldn't matter even if you mess up." It seemed that it was taking every ounce of strength in her for Hinata to make such an offer.
Sasuke stared. That would explain the strange movement of her chakra when he was transferring energy through the seal. That would explain her unjustifiably low self-esteem. Her kingdom wouldn't have forgiven her for any perceived weakness, and the lack of chakra for a Hyuuga would have always loomed over her head like a bad spirit.
A part of him crowed in pride, because he would have the good taste to choose someone so strong. While she was already a formidable opponent despite the lack of chakra, if Sakura succeeds, Hinata would become someone no one could look down upon. The Hyuuga would be groveling to take her back as a princess.
Then no one would dare challenge the benefits of an union between Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke.
The engagement gala revolved around the fact that everyone pretended to be unaware of the worst kept secret of court.
Prince Uchiha Sasuke was finally betrothed. He was getting married to Lady Yamanaka Ino. The wedding was going to be this summer with a ceremony in the beautiful gardens of the Sun Palace. The altar will be made of glittering jewels twined into fresh flowers as a nod to the Yamanaka clan's favorite hobby. The symbolism was there; the sun shone on the flowers and flowers turned their heads to the light so the sun could look upon their beauty. The merging of the two clans that manipulated minds was a perfect marriage.
Hinata kept to the shadows. While everyone else dressed up, she remained in her Yamanaka bodyguard uniform, complete with her half-veil. It bordered on rude, but she couldn't gather the nerve to borrow a gown from Ino. Fortunately, it deterred any overly chatty or curious strangers, as her uniform signaled that she was on duty.
And it was so she could have an excuse to watch Ino and Sasuke.
The Yamanaka looked resplendent in an ornate gown of her clan colors. She wore pink and lilac flowers in her hair like a crown and her blond hair glowed white under the chandeliers, highlighting the detached expression on her face. She already looked the part of a regal queen. Sasuke was less distant with a slight scowl on his face. But in a dark, formal suit embellished with gold and crimson, the prince could be nothing except of royal blood.
Itachi hadn't announced it yet, so the king was seated between them as a barrier. But it was only a formality, as the Yamanaka and Uchiha clan symbols were emblazoned on tapestries that hung side-by-side over their heads. Hinata personally thought that violet and crimson clashed; it reminded her of sunset. It was the end of something rather than a beginning.
But that was her own bitter opinion.
In an effort to distract herself, Hinata cast her gaze out to the crowd of Sun Kingdom citizens milling about on the dance floor. There was a light waltz floating through the air, but very few people were dancing. Instead, most were trying to seem busy while stealing curious glances at the future royal couple. It was far too easy to spot the clusters of jealous, jilted noblewomen. Their stares lingered longer. Even as they walked by, their eyes remained pinned to the throne area. Sasuke and Ino were the pivot point, and everything blurred around them in slow rotation like distant stars around the sun. It was like viewing them through a spyglass, where the scene was all the more vivid despite how far away she was.
Hinata knew the looks, because she herself was doing the exact same thing. She was a faraway star among countless others, doomed to orbit but never approach.
Feeling disgusted with herself for acting like a fangirl, Hinata shook her head. Ino had been right. She had no right to intrude on a betrothal that was beneficial for the kingdom. For Sasuke. Especially since she owed both of them so much. Her place in ignominy was far more comfortable and fitting.
She retreated to the seats lined along the ballroom wall. There was only one empty chair in the corner, squeezed between a group of gossiping middle-aged noblewomen and a young nobleman who seemed to be catching up on his sleep. That was her kind of crowd. Hinata approached. She was about to sit down when the slouching man shifted. He turned to her with the universal expression of someone who didn't want to be woken up.
It was Nara Shikamaru. His hair was down and framed his features in spikey strands - the style was only marginally more appropriate than his favored ponytail. However, it highlighted the sharp intelligence in his eyes. In addition to the change in hair, his neat waistcoat and matching cravat also contributed to the image of a respectable nobleman. If Shikamaru hadn't been slouching and scowling, she'd have never guessed it was him.
"Lord Nara! Good evening." She bowed politely and he returned it with a nod.
"Evening."
"I didn't recognize you," she explained as she sank gracefully into the empty seat by him. The lazy jounin shrugged.
"Formal wear is troublesome," he said for justification of his usual look. "As is my mother." They exchanged a polite smile over the humor of his situation and returned to a companionable silence as they waited for the main event of the engagement gala. It was a relief that he didn't bother making small talk.
Eventually, Itachi stood and motioned for the music to stop. Silence descended over the ballroom like a heavy fog. Every head turned to him like magnets aligning to a powerful charge.
"Thank you for attending the gala tonight," the king said. He was using a jutsu to project, and his smooth voice sounded as if he were right in front of Hinata. "I'm sure you are curious as to why we are hosting a celebration. For that purpose, I will ask Lord Yamanaka to take the spotlight to share the happy news."
The blond noble stood from his seat near the throne strand and bowed deeply.
"Thank you my king, for the honor. I have the pleasure of announcing the engagement of my daughter, Lady Yamanaka Ino to the Prince, Uchiha Sasuke."
Even though everyone already knew, there was a moment of shock as the lord's words sunk in. Then the room filled with a swell of applause like a great wave. Ino and Sasuke stood and greeted the crowd.
"She doesn't want to marry him."
Hinata turned to Shikamaru. It was clear he was referring to Ino, who was standing to give a speech as well. "Why?" she finally ventured. He huffed and jerked his chin towards the noblewoman.
"Just look at what she's wearing." Hinata glanced over towards the blond and then turned back to stare at Shikamaru. She shook her head in confusion. Shikamaru managed to look even more annoyed as he slouched further into his chair. He dug his hands into his pockets and closed his eyes as he leaned his head against the back of his chair in a display of exasperation. "Can't believe I'm analyzing this..." he muttered. "See those bunches of pale purple flowers in her hair? Those are snowballs. And the pink flower is a zinnia. In the language of flowers, she's saying she's 'bound' and 'thinking of absent friends', respectively. If Ino were happy about it, she'd be wearing something much more snooty along the lines of callas."
"What do callas stand for?" Hinata had to ask. Shikamaru snorted.
"'Magnificent beauty', what else?" Hinata had to giggle slightly. That seemed like something Ino would do. Then a thought sobered her small moment of mirth.
"Lord Nara, can I ask you some questions since you are so knowledgeable about Ino and her flowers?" He turned and narrowed his eyes slightly, daring her to ask him why he of all people would know the flower language. It made Hinata wonder if he was just a teammate to Ino. "Does she always use flowers to speak her real thoughts?" He studied her, and then nodded in agreement. "And what does a buttercup mean?"
"Buttercup," he muttered with a sigh. He absently reached to twist one of his silver stud earrings as he looked up in thought. "Childishness or childhood memories, a desire for a riches, or ingratitude."
"Ingratitude?" she echoed faintly. Something inside Hinata curled up like a lost child. That only solidified the sick certainty that Ino could never forgive her.
"Rather malicious meanings for a perfectly harmless plant," Shikamaru commented in an offhand manner. "Court noblewomen give flower arrangements to each other when they want to insult. Wearing them is more a general statement. "
Hinata gave him a half-smile. Even though she couldn't believe him, she appreciated the lazy jounin's attempt to cheer her.
Sasuke was moving to the front to give his speech, though he certainly did not look pleased with it. "Tch." Shikamaru stood and cracked his neck. "I'm going out a for a smoke."
"A pleasure speaking with you, Lord Nara."
He waved languidly without bothering to turn around as he exited.
Sasuke had hoped something would happen at the engagement ball. The sudden turn of events should have stirred someone into protest. After all, he was a key part of said betrothal and he was still reeling.
Something...anything to give him an edge to fight. His excuses of "I don't want her" were diluted before the political machinations of an entire kingdom. He railed against Itachi countless times already, but deep down, the prince already knew the hard facts were as unyielding as a mountain. Sasuke was blessed with the inability to give much of a hoot, but apathy did not equal nonexistence. It only muted the backlash.
The very next day after the gala, the group's routine returned to normal as if everything was a bad dream. Sakura went back to healing Hinata, but it was even slower progress. The stagnation of all his solutions against an insurmountable obstacle left a horrid taste in his mouth. Inaction meant he had given up, that he wasn't trying hard enough. He couldn't rest his hopes on a solution that might not work.
That was unacceptable. There was still one person that could change this.
Sasuke knocked on Mikoto's door. He waited for her permission before entering.
"Mother."
Mikoto was brushing out her hair. The prince was surprised to see silvery strands like thin cracks in battle-worn armor. The hand holding the jeweled brush was more wrinkled than he ever remembered.
"Sasuke, my darling." Mikoto placed her brush down on her vanity with a soft clack. She smiled at him through the mirror's reflection before turning around to face him. "It's been so long since you've come to visit me. Why?"
"Can you talk some sense into Itachi?" Mikoto stood and approached him with a worried look.
"Is this about the betrothal?" Sasuke stared at her, and then nodded. She chuckled. "Don't look so shocked. I do try to keep up with what's going on around the castle. As if I would miss my own baby's betrothal." Mikoto ruffled his hair and the prince ducked out from her hand with a scowl.
"Then you know why you have to convince Itachi to cancel it." She sighed as she placed her hands on Sasuke's shoulders, turning him to face her.
"Tell me, son, do you remember what I told you when you asked me the difference between love and duty?" Sasuke's stomach sank.
"Love is a bond, and duty is the thread that forms that bond. Therefore, duty is born of love, and love is born of duty," he recited in a low voice. "When one tries to differentiate between one or the other, that person shows that he or she cannot see the world with clear eyes."
"And do you remember when you asked me this?"
"When you were fighting with Father." As a child, he couldn't understand why Mikoto would agree to marry Fugaku if she didn't get along with him. In the black and white world of his young mind, allies should like each other, and enemies hated each other. Even then, he knew that love was irrelevant in marriage for most nobles, especially those of the royal family. But somehow, Sasuke had always assumed his family was the exception.
"I grew to love your father because of duty, but I had my duty to my son because of my love. Do you understand?" Sasuke understood, but it didn't void his protest.
"Mother, in your words: I don't want love born from duty. I want duty born from love!" Sasuke was almost shouting at the end and he paused, breathing hard. Then he realized he'd all but declared his affection for Hinata. While he wouldn't classify this feeling as "love", the meaning of that kind of fixation was still there. Fighting the rising heat to his face, Sasuke looked away with scowl. "Isn't the bond stronger that way?" he finished with a mutter.
"Sasuke, look at me." After a second of hesitance, he reluctantly obeyed. Mikoto pinned him with sad, stern eyes. "I will be frank with you. You must forget the Hyuuga girl. She is not for you. If you try to move kingdoms for her, it will only result in war. You will be putting yourself, her, and everyone around you in danger."
It was the same logic as Itachi's, though more gently presented. Clearly they've already discussed this behind his back. Defeated, Sasuke bowed politely and excused himself.
"She said no." Kakashi said as Sasuke entered his suite. He didn't even try to make it a question. Not for the first time, Sasuke fought the impulse to rip the book out of the man's hands. But that wouldn't help him right now.
"You're good at getting out of situations." Even though it was true, it taxed Sasuke to admit his own failings. He had to ask Kakashi about what boiled down to love advice. Only Jirairya could give the old dog contest in the field of bachelorhood.
"What would you do?" Kakashi giggled and flapped his book in a series of movements.
"Learn which situations I can get out of." Implying that this wasn't one of them.
It wasn't the answer Sasuke wanted, and a surge of frustrated anger propelled him to his feet. Inaction was the worst thing he could do. His failures up until now simply meant he wasn't approaching it at the right angle.
The main question was: "Why did Itachi insist that he marry Ino?"
Yes, factors included his recent actions at the council meeting and the influence of the Yamanakas. Yes, Danzo was trying to ensure that the Uchiha don't become more powerful and because of that, it was imperative to show the world exactly who the crown prince was. But those were not the true reasons that would push Itachi to betroth him so quickly. There were other less difficult solutions for those problems.
Then Sasuke remembered that the Crown Prince of the Sun Kingdom had once been betrothed to the Crown Princess of the Moon Kingdom. That should be that girl Hinabo (or whatever her name was). But she was a lot younger than Hinata, making her the elder sister.
Wouldn't that mean that Hinata was originally the crown princess? Did Itachi remain engaged to Hinata even after everything that had happened?
Sasuke rushed for Itachi's office, heart pounding. The Guardians recognized him and let him into the room.
"Itachi." The king didn't bother looking up from the document he was signing.
"Have you made progress on the sand bandits case?"
"No." Itachi glanced up with a slight frown.
"Then why are you here?" Sasuke met him glare for glare.
"The same reason as before."
"Then my answer is the same as before. You're wasting your time, little brother." The absence of Itachi's favorite adjective for Sasuke was like a hard blow to the stomach.
"The Crown Prince will marry Lady Yamanaka Ino," Sasuke declared. The king gave him a long look, and then placed his quill aside, giving him his full attention.
"What I want to hear, but not what you want to say."
"Because the Crown Prince will not be me -"
The door smashed open with a bang. Sasuke turned around, Sharingan flaring in surprise. Lord Yamanaka rushed in, his face ashen.
"Lord Yamanaka..." Faster than Sasuke could follow, Itachi was beside the blond lord and helping him to a chair. "What happened?" Lord Yamanaka didn't sit and instead caught Sasuke's shoulder in a harsh grip. Piercing eyes the same color as Ino's bore in his.
"The Akatsuki...they took Ino."
Hinata dropped her cup of tea. It hit the edge of the table with a hollow thud, spilling dark liquid over her lap and the bench. No one at the table seemed to notice. They were too busy staring at Hibiki, Itachi's messenger raven.
"Kidnapped?" she whispered. The raven nodded grimly.
"My master will explain in more detail. He is waiting for you."
There was a beat of stillness, then they rushed for the door of Kakashi's hospital room. Only the patient himself remained, still confined to bed, though his book was forgotten as he watched them go.
The short journey to the king's office was quiet, filled only with their soft breaths and whispers of shoes on the ground. They had all trained as ninja at one point, and even in the deepest moments of hysteria, their panic was as unnoticeable as a breath of wind.
Until Naruto kicked down the door before the Guardian could stop him.
Sasuke, Shikamaru, Lord Yamanaka and Itachi turned to look at them with tight expressions. The Cat Guardian sighed and patiently repaired the hole in the door as everyone began talking at once.
Itachi stood and held up a hand. The murmurs tapered into nothing. "Everyone except Lord Yamanaka and Kin, please leave."
Amidst varied protests, Cat guided the others out of the room. The door closed with a loud click. Hinata folded her hands in front of her and waited with eyes politely averted to the ground.
"Lady Yamanaka Ino was taken this morning by the Akatsuki. It is shameful that a few mercenaries were able to penetrate the defenses of the Sun Palace. Even more so given the recent intrusion of Orochimaru," Itachi explained. She slowly looked up in confusion.
"Why are you telling me this?" Hinata asked. The king almost seemed to be in pain.
"Because I must admit to my soldiers' inability to do their job. That is my falling. I did not see fit to assign Lady Ino a Guardian so quickly, as she was not officially a member of the Uchiha family." Itachi closed his eyes in shame. "My oversight has caused great danger to an innocent." The king sighed and then looked directly at her. "They left a ransom note, but their conditions are preposterous. However, the meeting place is deep into the desert borders, your domain of expertise. I must ask you to be the guide for a rescue team."
They wanted her, a little-known hunter who could barely use chakra, to take on the skills of the Akatsuki, the most formidable bounty hunter group in the land. It was asking an ant to sprout wings and fight an eagle in the sky. It was expecting the mouse to grow gills and battle a shark in the ocean.
Hinata stared at the king. He wasn't joking. She glanced over at Lord Yamanaka, and there was not a trace of humor in his face.
"But I'm not-"
"I know you are not a Sun Kingdom subject. But please consider it. This is not a mission you can be forced to undertake but your tracking skills necessary."
They were throwing her so abruptly onto that hated pedestal again that Hinata felt faint. It wasn't a question of her willingness help Ino. It was a fact that she couldn't. Their personal misunderstandings had nothing do with it. But the two men before her were basing too much hope on her meager abilities.
She shook her head.
"I can't. What you ask of me...I can't."
Itachi looked at her with dark, unreadable eyes. "Anything you wish. If it is in my power, I will fulfill it." His expression was blank as ice over a lake, but Hinata knew exactly what he was dangling over her head. He was giving her the right to void Sasuke's betrothal. It was a cruel prize, because even though she wanted it, they both knew she could never actually bring herself to use it.
She shook her head, silently begging them not to put her in this position. Lord Yamanaka approached her with a narrow glare. Hinata fought the reflex to shrink away. He appeared as if he was about to attack her.
Then he dropped to the ground in a low kow-tow.
"Please. Save my daughter. She's all I have left."
Tears pricked her eyes at the sight a father throwing away his dignity for his daughter. She clenched her shaking hands until her fingernails cut deep into her palm.
Slowly, she nodded.
AN:
[1] Turned from whose reflection, hm? Left ambiguous on purpose.
- Awesome beta Rhinst is awesome. Yup.
- That conversation between Hinata and Ino killed me. DX
- Flower meanings are pulled languageofflowers(dot)com. I spent way too much time on that site.
- I find it interesting that of the Rookie 9 girls, the girl who works in a flower shop is the only one not named after a flower. Sakura and Hinata are "cherry-blossom" and "sunflower" respectively. Perhaps a nod to the person who cultivates the flowers? I'm probably reading too much into it.
- Instead of Ino doing all the flower talk, I thought it would fun to have Shikamaru interpret for her instead. As to why he learned all those meanings...partly as a survival mechanism as her teammate. XD
-Why am I talking so much about that gala scene? Mainly because Hinata's conversation with Shikamaru was the only part I like of this chapter. (And Shikamaru with his hair down is one of those images that always makes me go starry-eyed...) Major writer's block...if some parts are choppy...well, I basically glossed over the necessary stuff I couldn't write properly. T_T Sorry for the bad fillers this chapters, but I promise there'll be a lot of good scenes in the next. :D Thanks for bearing with me.
- I tried really hard to avoid a cliffhanger, so I always end up with almost cliffies...seriously, I don't do this on purpose guys. Maybe it was too many years of reading manga/watching anime where they always end with "What's going to happen next? Will X defeat Y? Or will X develop a new level of tutu powers to overtake the evil monster with the strength of love and friendship and Nyan Cat? Blappity blappity blah? Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter/episode of *insert name of series*!"
- Oh hey look...my sadly neglected plot bunny is crawling its way back to life. Poke. It's a Hidan plot bunny. Please do not feed it. Feed the author instead with reviews so she can have to energy to chip away that writer's block. :D
[edit: There was some confusion on what Sasuke hinted at saying before Lord Yamanaka burst in. Changed to be very clear on what he intended to do. :D]
