A Will of Namazu
Author's note 1: Have you guys watched the trailer of the new Naruto movie: The Last? So beautiful, I love it already. Sasuke's hair have grown and Hinata is just...stunning. Magnificent. Regal. Sasuke and Hinata look gorgeous (and together...meow!).
Author's note 2: This time, here's the song of the chapter: The Crooked Kind by Radical Face. Sasuke and Hinata are taking a very dangerous road that no one else who loved them dearly would try to take, even if it meant having to deal with their growing madness; Hinata has reached such a level of mental breaking point that she is more or less conscious that she will never go back to being the sweet, old Hyuuga Hinata everyone knew. It's very much like Hannibal Lecter – except for the fact that she will never become a cannibal. And there is Sasuke: by now Naruto has finally realized that his friend wouldn't go back to being their teammate and friend (Sakura has also realized that she and Sasuke would never become an item...something that should have been so logical in the manga, huh!). So yeah: The Crooked Kind will be fine. Powerless and Roads Untraveled by Linkin Park will come out later.
You might want to listen to it several times if you want to read the chapter until the end.
Chapter Five: We Are Powerless
Why was it so difficult to hold promises you would always have to somehow break? Promises and vows were meant to be taken seriously and held onto no matter what would the consequences be, something that people had a very hard time trying not break down because the sudden realization of not being able to do so was harsh and painful. People like Uzumaki Naruto tend to hold promises to loved ones because of love and honor, or because of their nindo; he, Uzumaki Naruto, had vowed to his teammate Haruno Sakura that he will bring the traitor Uchiha Sasuke back to Konoha and had waved off the consequences of such an act could have as an impact on other people. He hadn't ignored his friends's warnings but deep down Naruto had hoped he had kicked some sense in Sasuke's mind and, being the always hopeful person he was, he had seriously believed that their last battle would have changed everything.
Upon looking at Sakura's destroyed body on this bed, Naruto was faced with the cold slap of failure. How could he have believed that Sasuke would have agreed? He thought he knew him well enough to believe – to hope that what they had endured during the Fourth Shinobi War would have mattered to him. Even Sakura had been this foolish to feel this hope that Uchiha Sasuke would redeem himself and come back. To them – to her.
Believe. Sakura looked dead to Naruto. The Chidori Sasuke had impaled her with had done crucial damages to her vital organs, thus threatening her life at any second. Deathly pale and unable to breathe on her own she lay here, body abused and mind absent – also certainly destroyed by the Uchiha, whatever the words he had whispered to her the night he shed her blood. In a foolish and desperate attempt to stray his fearful thoughts about his dying teammate, Naruto found himself snarling at the infuriating and maddening idea to believe that he still should be harboring hope; he would have already berated himself for not being alert around Sasuke and his intentions had he not been given the opportunity to stop him. A blind trust could be so easily fooled – had Sakura been smart for once then maybe, maybe, she wouldn't be dying in this bed.
Could they still believe? Fantasies should be broken in the most hurtful way sometimes. If words were most of the time enough to reason someone then why was it so impossible with Sasuke? What did Naruto and Sakura not understand to be taken by surprise by his second betrayal? Nothing made any sense – he didn't understand!
''I..'' Naruto sucked in, eyes glued to his teammate's limp form. The words struggled and tightened into his throat, overwhelming him. What he wanted to say was either going to break him more than he was now or making feel the burning pang of guilt clenching his guts, because he felt like he had failed. He had failed to protect Sakura from him and the only thing he wanted to do right now was cry.
Because he felt so powerless and overwhelmed, Uzumaki Naruto couldn't prevent those silent tears of anguish and guilt from falling on his face. The look in his cerulean eyes was dull and frighteningly lifeless.
''I wasn't alert enough, Sakura-chan,'' he finally drawled lamely.
Of course, there were other words – thousands of words – he would like to say to her but this sight was too much for him to hold back those tears. Saying he was sorry for not being able to protect her from Sasuke's madness wouldn't heal the gaping hole the traitor had created with his Chidori, telling he should have warned her not to try again with Sasuke because he would have hurt her badly enough to make her suffer a painful death wouldn't wake Sakura from her coma – admitting he had been wrong about Sasuke wouldn't make him feel any better because the likelihood of being beaten to death by an irate Godaime Hokage was very high wouldn't even be enough to bring him hope to believe.
What was left to believe when your best friend had once again betrayed you?
There are people who betray their loved ones to obtain anything in exchange of something they must crave about. Greed, desire of revenge, freedom are motivations that blacken anyone's heart and mind to the point they don't even care about other's feelings. Betrayal isn't something you can forgive just because selfishness leads to dangerous paths, it's something that should be forgiven when you seek redemption. But he who doesn't seek redemption is bound to betray.
Uchiha Sasuke had never wanted to come back to Konoha, it was a known fact everyone was aware of and that Uzumaki Naruto had seemed to ignore; if Sasuke betrayed their village it was for the sole purpose to kill the older brother responsible for a massacre organized by someone else. His desire of revenge was amplified and nourished by this need of power he had to obtain in order to avenge his clan but after that task accomplished, would he still have come back to the village? Konohagakure couldn't have given the power to murder Itachi, nobody could match his skills. But then, it was the village that betrayed the Uchiha first long before Itachi and Sasuke could leave and the results were of those manipulations were crushing; being labeled as a traitor towards the village when said traitor had chosen this village over his own family was maddening enough because no one knew the real story until another Uchiha from the past revealed the lies and the conspiracies.
But again, Naruto and Sakura didn't understand. That selfishness about getting Sasuke back with them in the village hadn't been because they could understand what he was going through after listening to Uchiha Madara, it was because they couldn't feel whole when Sasuke was away from them – they just couldn't accept the fact that his hunger could only be satisfied with something that had to be oustide and away from the village but it was all the more...selfish and childish.
The blonde released a shaky sigh. ''And I couldn't do anything…''
Betrayals weaken the betrayed. Deeply. And when you think you can move on to something else there will always be this numbing, bitter feeling of a wound that would likely never heal.
But where could you find the strenght to forgive when you can't find the strenght to seek redemption?
The tears were choking him; they were falling from his eyes and he couldn't stop them – it would be useless to contain such sadness. Looking at her with his blurry eyes he could finally understand Tsunade's words: she had warned him about Sasuke after he had gotten out of his year-imprisonment because she didn't trust him. At all. She had tasted betrayal more than once and suffered from it, having once been teammates and 'friends' with Orochimaru had left scars and deep wounds even time and forgiveness couldn't heal. In his search for power Orochimaru had wandered so far away that he had lost himself, forgotten the meaning of everything the Sandaime Hokage had teached him back when he had been a genin with his former teammates. Jiraiya, Tsunade...he had forsaken them, banished himself from the village that he had wanted to destroy. His bonds with Konohagakure were severed for good and beyond repair – so were Uchiha Sasuke's.
But again, Naruto didn't understand. And he was powerless.
''Why, Sasuke…?''
He was so powerless. So powerless.
Outside of the small hospital of the village, screams of anguish and agony could be heard about two or three days later. Since Hatake Kakashi was too quiet of a man to let his emotions blow up, it could only be his former student. It had finally gotten to him…By the time Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba and other Chuunins of the Konoha Eleven arrived in the village, they could all hear and listen to those horrible screams from their friend. It could mean nothing but since the Fourth Shinobi War, everyone had learned that no one would scream with such anguish and agony for nothing. And certainly not Uzumaki Naruto. So they had all rushed in. And there the three of them were.
The agony and the pain were unbearable. Defeaning. Excruciating.
He was powerless. They were all powerless, reconizing it was painful. And it would seem that Haruno Sakura's Will of Fire had finally extinguished.
Weeks – or months – passed rather quickly for Hyuuga Hinata and the rainy weather left to welcome the chilly wind and white snow of December. The roads were now all covered and completely white. Tea Country may be peaceful and its inhabitants laughing merrily because all torment was mostly gone but no one should be fooled; this peace was preferable since the Shinobi Alliance from all shinobi villages made it liveable and happiness could finally be cherished and enjoyed by families who had seen too much blood. There were children playing in the snow, building snowmen and laughing, laughing together. Not far from them were their parents, chatting and sometimes looking at their children with smiles on their faces. Hinata herself would have smiled genuily at such a sight.
Her old personality, if she were to be precise.
There was still too much in her mind to allow herself to open up; the last couple of months she had spent had been filled with intense training with the three scrolls she had taken from Taka of Snow Country. To say that she had been surprised to discover the content of those scrolls was an understatement – who was expecting such secret and dark techniques from a clan like hers? Two of those scrolls described dark techniques and other forms of the Byakugan that Hinata had never heard of. They required an excellent control of a Hyuuga's chakra and stamina, which Hinata terribly lacked. Strangely eager and ever patient to learn how to use those jutsus, Hinata had isolated herself many times in some caverns and forests to train with the two first scrolls, stopping when – and only when – she had felt so close to lose consciousness. But there had been times when she had quickly left a place not to attract suspiciousness; she may be growing paranoid but she sometimes had felt followed by someone.
Hinata's Byakugan had improved during those intensive months of training in such way that her dojutsu had almost consumated most of her chakra the first time, thus obliging her to sleep over two days to recover completely and replenish her chakra reserves. She knew little about her bloodline limit improvement and how it could become stronger thorough rough training, her father had never explained if there had been any other form of the Byakugan registered in the Hyuuga clan (and if there had been any other form, every member of the clan would have known about it and tried to achieve it to honour the Hyuuga nindo). Her taijutsu, which was solid and graceful yet deadly and fluid, had become harder and more violent than ever – she had never been faster or stronger than her late cousin and her little sister before but damn, those scrolls held such powerful Hyuuga techniques! The results had been pleasantly satisfying after she had broken the trunk of a tree with a new technique of the Gentle Fist and that had made her smile in glee. With those techniques she had also trained to move and fight under this harsh weather; she had built up her stamina and stealth to move quicker on top of the snow-covered ground, using the wind as support. Hinata had been pleasantly surprised to discover, after having mastered three particularly, extremely dangerous techniques, that her eyes could now see over thousands and thousands of miles away with such acute vision that it had almost made her squeal in delight.
''Nothing can't escape my sight,'' she had murmured one chilly night in a cavern, hidden from sight.
The third and last scroll had been the one to surprise her the most; while it certainly looked like any Hyuuga scroll Hinata had seen there was something that spiked her curiosity upon looking at the content. It was a summoning scroll.
But not just any summoning scroll which could bind a shinobi to any animal like a snake, a slug or a toad – the one Hinata had been looking at was rare and strange because it described a contract with a mysterious race of tigers that was supposed to have disappeared very long ago. And what was more disturbing was the fact that it happened to belong once to a Hyuuga and Hinata couldn't know who he really was. The little information she got from her research on each member of the clan wasn't enough to determine which one had disappeared years ago, the only to find more resources would be to go back – which would never happen if Hinata were to be in a very unstable state to 'snap' at the first Hyuuga she would see and with those techniques she had just mastered, the results would be bloody. There would be a high chance to become a criminal for murdering a clan member and being added to the Bingo Book wouldn't raise her chances of finding what she was looking for.
Now Hinata hadn't truly give a damn of the mess she must have created with her departure months ago. However, she suspected that someone must have thrown a fit – beside the Hyuuga Elders she would love to slice in half until the last one – and bitched about it to the Hokage; if her father was still alive, he likely would have made something. The idea of disowning her flashed first into her mind but the last events that had taken place after the Fourth Shinobi War made her think twice. Would he have disowned her, even after having seen her so brave and strong during this war? The answer would be a no because in her late father's eyes had shone what she had been craving to see – pride. But if the Hyuuga were only a part of the problem, there still was Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino: Hinata knew them enough to guess that they must have haunted Tsunade to let them chase their missing teammate for days, weeks, but the proud and strong-headed woman the Godaime Hokage was musn't have given up. She must have stayed true to her word. Kiba and Shino were stubborn, as stubborn as Hinata was, but leaving on their own would mean punishment. Being added into the Bingo Book. Being labeled as a missing-nin. And she knew that Tsunade must have warned everyone about the situation – especially Uzumaki Naruto.
It had been months since she last thought about him. Hinata had busied herself with this training she had begun first with the Hyuuga scrolls (the Elders must have discovered the theft by now and must have been foaming at the mouth – something she would have killed to see just to taunt them), all thoughts relied to Konohagakure banished from her mind so she could work at peace. The dead last was everything Hinata was starting to resent and the less she thought about him and Konoha, the more her mind found itself at peace. What was more disturbing was the fact that Naruto was sometimes the reason her mental breakdowns happened; the last one in Snow Country had been the turning-point of her exile.
The bonds needed to be severed, cut. Destroyed for good.
Her white eyes narrowed slightly at the summoning scroll on her hands. She had never signed a contract with any kind of summon like some of her friends because her father had said, while adorning a sort of disgusted face, that 'Hyuuga don't fight with summons, we don't need them'. The scorn she had heard from his mouth had surprised her at first – years ago she had been startled to hear that from him but now it just made her grit her teeth in irritation. Having recovered the scrolls that had disappeared years ago from those thieves in Snow Country, Hinata was thinking of signing this contract and binding herself to these tigers. And the only thing to do in order to see how they looked like was this contract and her blood.
A summon might be good. Very good.
A cracking sound on her left resonated in the silent room. Already knowing what it could be she slowly turned her head, face devoid of emotions and eyes just as expressionless.
The mug of hot chocolate, on the table, was shattered.
How interesting! Hinata had heard about bad omen and things that could happen right after they manifested – the Godaime Kazekage's abduction by the Akatsuki was one of those infamous omen and...it would have ended in his death had the Elder Chiyo not sacrificed herself for him. Had something happened in Konohagakure again? To Konohagakure again? Had Uchiha Sasuke finally snapped with all this peace around him in the village that had his whole family slaughtered and killed a Konoha shinobi?
They had it coming. Hinata had never agreed to Sasuke's return in the village after the Fourth Shinobi War and she knew that many had shared her thoughts but when it came to Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura, all his crimes must be cast in the past so he could come back to Konoha – to them. If she had thought it was just the strenght of their bond that made Naruto and Sakura stand up for him, now she couldn't help but think that the two of them had been selfish about their teammate. Selfish and uncaring about his state of mind and real motivations (those two fools, did they really think that Uchiha Sasuke would have agreed to come back without having a twisted and dark back up plan? Hinata may not know him but ever since she had left the village months ago, she had this feeling that she would see him again someday. With or without Naruto and Sakura.). Naruto had made a promise to Sakura years ago that he would bring his 'best friend' back no matter and this girl had done nothing but rely on him as a crutch, crying and mulling over her past memories about Team 7. Because she couldn't have prevented her crush from leaving the village – leaving her – and openly exposed her selfishness to him, Hinata truly surprised herself by finding Haruno Sakura vain and useless. Despising.
And because the pink-haired idiot never stopped hoping and believing instead of moving on, Hinata couldn't really call her a 'friend' of hers – not even an acquaintance. She merely was a comrade – a commoner. It was as simple as that.
She opened the summoning scroll and read it with care and attention. It was no copy – this was a real summoning contract. A small smile playing on her soft, luscious lips, she took a kunai and pricked her finger with to sign her name on the thin, precious paper.
The Hyuuga was absolutely not easy to find.
Sasuke had grudgingly admitted that she hid herself very well. She was like smoke in the air – a ghost, he had hissed angrily. He had almost feared at first that she had been killed when he began chasing her but there had been faint, almost inexistent traces of her chakra signature in the places she might have gone – he had cracked a smirk upon secretly praising her uncanny ability to disappear into thin air. Only the elite shinobi could disappear like this and Sasuke himself had taken time to learn to do something like this during his time with the Sannin. Hyuuga Hinata was never near her cousin's level; the fact that she had pathetically lost to him during the Chuunin Exams had been proof of that but the way she took care of covering her traces was…
Amazing. You're finally showing yourself, Hyuuga.
Six months ago Sasuke encountered a bloody mangled mess in Snow Country, where he and Team 7 were supposed to retrieve three scrolls. The robbers's camp was located behind snowy hills, exactly where the spy's memory in the Shion family had revealed to him. But when he got there, only frosted blood, many bloodied corpses and the agonizing smell of death welcomed him. The whole camp had been destroyed and everyone in here had been brutally slaughtered – obviously a shinobi and if he hadn't sensed and recognized her chakra signature, he wouldn't have thought she was the assassin. Of course, the scrolls weren't there. Sasuke wasn't a stranger to assassination, he had quite a long list of crimes he was guilty of and the most recent had concerned a certain kunoichi (He had learned that he was once again in the Bingo Book of Konohagakure due to his latest crime and the Uchiha, having made sure that no one would chase him for quite a long time, had finally settled in remaining a lone wolf). But Hyuuga Hinata? The woman was far too gentle and kind-hearted to do something so...horrible and insensitive. It was the savage yet precise work of someone who musn't have been in a sane state of mind, someone who must have been in an extremely volatile mood to do so. Another beheaded corpse had welcomed his sight, head and body stabbed so many times that it was completely impossible to make a face of that dead person. There was no mistake: Hyuuga Hinata had done all this.
The scene was so grotesque and macabre that Sasuke couldn't help but feel strangely drawn to this; ever since he had been the student of Orochimaru he had felt himself change deeply, from the tolerant and angry kid of Konohagakure to this deadly, apathetic young man who showed nothing but coldness and impassiveness, he had suppressed all feelings and emotions from his mind, slipping them into a dark, impenetrable mental fortress of his palace of memory. He remembered looking as emotionless when he ran into his former teammates at Orochimaru's hideout, emotionless and aloof. He also remembered looking impassive when he was about to sink his katana into Naruto's back. And he had looked uncaring as he disposed of Haruno Sakura the night he disappeared.
Dark obsidian eyes looked around in wonder. The snow surrounding him couldn't block his senses but the cold was starting to annoy him at best; Sasuke had liked snow when he had been an innocent child with a family and his older brother, he would play in their large yard and throw multiple snowballs in failing attemps to hit Itachi. He remembered his brother's smile, so sincere and full of mischief. The Uchiha lightly scowled. Remembering memories wasn't very well suited during such familiar times; being a missing-nin added into the Bingo Book of Konohagakure once again made his plans more complicated. The buffoon Naruto was had been allowed to chase after the latest events that shook the village months ago, emotions swirling inside his mind and clouding his judgement. If Sasuke were to cross paths with him again, there will be blood. Again.
Sasuke turned around and narrowed his black eyes. He had been following the Hyuuga's trail for months, wandering in places she might have been and places where people were sure they had seen her – he had presumed she must have covered herself to remain mysterious. She had been smart to hide her white eyes among unknown people she couldn't and shouldn't trust so easily. There may be peace but a lone wolf knew he should always be on edge. And now he felt closer to her: the Hyuuga had sensed his presence more than once and fled quickly every time he had been this close to reach her. But now…
She's here.
There was a village right ahead. No chakra signature could be sensed but his guts told him that she was here; silent as a shadow he entered the village, his hood securely wrapped around his head to hide his origins. The inhabitants, usually suspicious about strangers entering their home, didn't glance at him – mainly because he was too fast for them to catch a glimpse of his form. There was no time to waste in frolicking around and he had to find his target, convince her to remove this damn seal on his forehead (which was certainly going to take time and energy to do so if she was in a very hostile mood. It had been months but he was sure she must have trained a lot during this exile of hers.) and…
His elegant eyebrows furrowed slightly in wonder. What would he do after that? He could go back to being a traveler, wandering around the Shinobi World and avoiding the Hidden Villages because of his renewed status of missing-nin and traitor to the Leaf and this status that must finally have made Uzumaki Naruto hate him. The Uchiha, an extremely dangerous rogue shinobi that had no qualms killing anyone who stood in his way, had become a target to kill on the spot should he be sensed nearby. He will be ready to welcome his pursuers with his katana and Kekkei Genkai at its full power.
He halted in his steps and turned sharply on his right, obsidian eyes narrowing, and he sidestepped quickly on his feet to avoid three chakra infused arrows that would have ruthlessly pierced his head had he not sensed them in time. The lethal weapons whizzed by his ear and they embedded deeply into the tree behind him, shattering the trunk where little bits of piece crumbled onto the snow.
What the…
That's when he saw her. She was standing in the snow, wearing a pure white coat to protect herself from the biting cold. She was holding a giant, majestic bow – with which she had fired her arrows with such accuracy – and her quiver in her back was full of arrows. Sasuke seized her silently up and down. Her hair seemed longer and flew around her in the gentle breeze but what really spiked his curiosity was the way she looked right now; he could see the years of nobility flowing out of her as a halo around her and as she stood before him, the Uchiha couldn't help but admire the graceful yet solid stance she took in his vicinity. Her eyes were closed and the absence of veins on her temples confirmed that she had shot without using the Byakugan to target him. He smirked behind his collar. The Hyuuga had really grown during these past months, he thought. Very few people could do that, even through rough training.
There was a light frown on her beautiful face but she didn't look angry. A good sign.
''You've been chasing me for months,'' she started – without stuttering, he noticed. Her voice was as soft as he could remember but there was a firm confidence behind those words, which quite pleased him. ''Mind if I ask you why you're so persistent in hunting me down?''
''Hello, Hyuuga,'' Sasuke drew sarcastically, his smirk still in place. ''This is some business we should attend in somewhere private where no one would listen to some...disturbing informations. I haven't come here after all this time just to kill you, it's just pointless. Besides, I'm not a Konoha shinobi anymore.''
''Should I be surprised, Uchiha?''
''Not really, but I bet you're curious about it.''
Her frown deepened. But her white eyes remained closed and her hold on her deadly bow never loosened. Sasuke chose another way to approach the suspicious and alert Hyuuga.
''Why would I lie about this when it's evident I would have betrayed this damn village once again?'' he continued, his voice cold. ''Konohagakure may have been my home years ago but tell me, would I have stayed in the village that I intended to destroy when I discovered the truth about the demise of my clan? They betrayed my clan first, it's just a counter-attack against their manipulations.''
Hinata was before him in less than a second, an arrow lightly pressed against his throat. The hold was firm and confident. His charcoal eyes widened very slightly showing his astonishment but his face regained his impassiveness quickly, as if he had never showed any emotion at her speed. Sasuke could smell a faint but present smell of lavender mixed with chocolate on her, a sweet scent that would enthrall every man (And he would never admit that his target looked delicious in this coat and landscape. Never.) and himself if there wasn't this business of blocking seal on his forehead that prevented him from using his full Kekkei Genkai to take care of. Because really: Hyuuga Hinata was a stunning sight to behold, enthralling to his eyes.
She slowly leaned in, whispering to his ears only.
''Did you kill someone? From Konohagakure no Sato?''
His smirk only widened and even if she had her eyes closed, he knew she sensed it because she sighed.
''You wreak havoc everywhere you go, Uchiha,'' she said with bitterness in her tone.
''What about the mangled mess you've left behind in Snow Country?'' he countered smoothly. She didn't flinch but her luscious lips quirked. ''I saw what you did. Impressive, Hyuuga. I didn't know you had this savagery in you. You should know that if Konoha hears about it and discovers you're the one who did that, you'll be hunted and certainly killed on the spot after having been added into their Bingo Book?''
To his surprise she smiled, a beautiful smile that would have conquered any idiot if it wasn't for that ominous and dark killing intent floating in the air – around her. Who would have thought that Hyuuga Hinata would become like this? Naruto wouldn't have (The buffoon would be the last one to notice some disturbing changes in his surroundings.) and Sasuke found himself curious about her new abilities. What else could she do with this newfound savagery and these skills?
''Come inside. It seems we have much to discuss,'' she finally said.
She gracefully turned on her heels to head back towards the inn she must be residing in once she had recovered the three arrows on the tree. There was this way she handled herself with grace and composure that looked appealing even though Sasuke remained emotionless, because letting anyone feel this kind of killing intent while smiling innocently was something so skillful yet greatly disturbing and coming from someone like Hyuuga Hinata, it was…
How much has she improved? To the point to actually think and interact as a ruthless assassin with mental issues?
Sasuke could definitely find this side of her. For what he still didn't know. But still: she had become the kind of companion that would have no qualms in killing when the situation deemed it necessary, she was psychologically fit to become an ally. And even if he craved the loneliness, Sasuke wouldn't really mind if the Hyuuga was to travel with him to avoid being captured by Leaf shinobis just like him. The news he harbored from his sources should be enough to help her make her mind.
His steps were silent as he followed after her.
''...you killed Haruno Sakura?'' Her face might not show any horror or terror but her tone was of someone who was highly curious; her lavender eyes remained stubbornly closed and a light frown marred her face. She was painfully and surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal. ''Really? Why?''
''Are you scared?'' His tone was mocking.
A soft smile. ''What were your reasons?''
Sasuke wiped the sarcastic smirk from his face and crossed his arms, staring at the woman sitting accross him. ''She was becoming once again the burden she had always been during our time as genins. After the Fourth Shinobi War the Elders had me imprisoned for my crimes, you already know that. I should have died for what I've done and I was completely ready for it but those two — (This term has been removed for your sanity.) had to bend their necks forward and beg for mercy.''
She sipped her hot chocolate. ''You sound so...angry. Angry at them. Uzumaki Naruto made a promise to Sakura years ago, so he fulfilled it.''
He snorted in scorn. ''I had a goal back then – hell, everyone had one at the Academy! Killing Itachi for murdering our clan had been this first main goal to accomplish and I wanted to do it alone. What those two — (This term has been removed for your sanity.) didn't understand and never understood on this day was that nothing in Konohagakure no Sato would have given me the strenght to defeat Itachi. Nothing and no one. Kakashi was defeated by Itachi so easily with his Mangekyou Sharingan that it left me no choice but to find Orochimaru. Only him would have given me the power I needed to kill my brother – only him.'' He scowled darkly and murderously upon remembering Sakura's futile attempt to keep him from leaving the village and Orochimaru's purpose to possess his body. ''This promise of Naruto's you speak about, bringing me back into the village…'' He didn't finish his sentence, merely let his words die in his throat.
''From what he told me years ago he vowed to bring you back because he…'' Hinata pursed her lips, carefully choosing her words. ''I think it was mainly because he had wanted to gain Haruno Sakura's recognition first – at first, I said,'' she repeated, upon sensing Sasuke's glare on her. ''Remember those days when all girls from and outside the Academy used to like a lot because you were an Uchiha and good-looking? Uzumaki Naruto had always been jealous of you. And he wanted it to change because he was infatuated with Haruno Sakura. So this promise...and also because you were his first friend to accept him even though he was the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed.'' There was a small pause. ''But I can't help but think they were a bit selfish on their part. Selfish and childish.''
Oh? Now that interested him. ''Pray tell, share your thoughts with me.''
''And you will tell me why you've been seeking me?''
Sasuke smirked in amusement. ''Ever so blunt, Hyuuga? I may be a traitor but hardly a liar.'' Which was half-true. Sasuke may lie about a lot of things in life but never about himself. Sitting with the Hyuuga while they were in this situation and speaking the truth was better than lying. ''Go on. I'll tell you why I've been hunting you down.''
Humour me, Hyuuga.
She took the time to sip her drink and mull over her words for a few seconds before continuing, eyes closed. ''For all those years I watched Uzumaki Naruto before and after your...departure from the village. My infatuation with him became clear when I discovered how determinated and strong-willed he was, no matter how much Konohagakure crushed him with hatred and indifference, he never wanted to give up and strove to become recognized as what he could be later. He was scorned, called a monster for some reason he couldn't know, but he had never given up. And one day he met you, Uchiha Sasuke. And you became sort of friends but for him, you were special. His best friend, the first one to acknowledge you as his equal and human being.'' She never saw him tense up on his seat. ''From this moment you found a special spot in his heart and if you know and understand Uzumaki Naruto, you should know that even if you swore never to come back in the village that betrayed your family he would never give up on you. Many would say that his sense of friendship blinds him, prevents him from accepting the truth and the fact that you'll always harbor intense hatred towards Konohagakure, others would think that his faith is too strong to fade and would help him becoming stronger. But…''
''You think he and Sakura were stupid to think that I would willingly come back without having a back up plan,'' he finished for her. ''You think they should have stopped believing.''
This time, there was a smile growing on her lips and she nodded.
''They were your teammates but...I think they should have stopped hoping,'' she stated softly. ''Especially Haruno Sakura. Didn't you try to kill her once?'' Sasuke made a sound to voice his answer. ''Then my guess is that your reasons to kill her may be because she and Uzumaki Naruto wouldn't have let you go. They would have refused and not understood, dragged you back selfishly into some place hated by your guts. In the end you would have snapped. They were in the way – she was in the way, always the one trying to stop you from stepping further in your goal. You said she never wanted you to join Orochimaru? Hm…''
His fingers were beginning to dig into the armchairs. What she – what the Hyuuga was saying...he had never interacted with her before but would have never thought to be so observant. She noticed all this by watching them?
''What do you think, Uchiha? Was it selfish of her to try and prevent you from leaving the village – her?''
''Yes,'' he answered through gritted teeth. ''I was being selfish too but my reasons were completely honest: Konoha didn't have the instructors with skills matching Itachi's, no one would have succeeded in helping me becoming stronger. What were Sakura's reasons to preventing me from leaving and Naruto's for trying to bring me back? She never wanted me to leave her and, in the last and most pathetic attempt to stop me, confessed her 'love'.'' He snorted scornfully at that. ''She thought she mattered enough to me not to leave her behind.''
Hinata tilted her head. ''Did she, Uchiha?'' And don't lie.
Sasuke took his time to answer. Had Sakura ever mattered to him? It was a tricky question if one would reconstruct his path from the beginning until now. If he remembered his previous life as Konoha shinobi and a member of Team 7 there were memories of missions with his teammates and their sensei, where Sakura would do nothing but act as one of his annoying fan-girls. Besides him and Naruto she could barely handle herself during their missions, always cowering behind and watching fearfully. Weak and annoying – worthless.
She had mattered. But she had always tried to stand in my way.
''To some extent she did matter to me because she was a teammate and only a teammate. I held no interest in her – none. She was a sort of friend. And she —''
His black eyes narrowed slightly. He scowled and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. The Hyuuga was stalling.
''As a friend you should understand what your friend lacks and needs in his life,'' the Uchiha said. ''Sakura never understood this need of mines to become stronger even if it meant leaving the village and join sides with a traitor, she had always thought about her feelings and not mines. Always her.'' He had almost spat with disgust. ''Yes, I killed Haruno Sakura months ago. No, I have no regrets whatsoever in having done so. Happy?''
Silence met his answer but he knew she was content with that. The Hyuuga Hinata he had known back when they were all genins would have fidgeted, cowered and probably cried for Sakura but this one in front of him was indeniably different. In disturbing ways. The meek, mousy girl from their early years would have this annoying habit to stutter and shy away from everyone. It had been exasperating as hell. She would have blushed upon talking about Naruto, her obvious crush. And yet this Hyuuga – this Hyuuga Hinata from these past months, the one that had so horribly slaughtered an entire camp of trap masters and a beheaded corpse, had become more interesting than ever. In disturbing ways he would describe as strange.
Of course, there were her mental issues. Sasuke was ready to bet that the Fourth Shinobi War had terrible consequences on her mind and soul; what a war could do to someone scarred the person for life and those who are capable of enduring the deaths and aftermath are so few, so rare. Post-war consequences could become lethal for someone as gentle and kind as Hyuuga Hinata, so lethal that it could lead her to madness. And...he frowned upon remembering something about her family the dead last told him months ago.
''What happened to your father?'' he asked.
He saw it. This calm expression on her stunning face has just become disturbingly blank, her body has frozen after listening to his question. All of sudden the atmosphere seemed to change drastically, becoming so cold and ominous. Her fingers gripped the mug so tightly that he could swear it would break in her hold. For the first time she opened her eyes to look at him and Sasuke was almost startled to decipher the emotions swirling in those white orbs. Dark emotions he had felt during the years of his hunt: desire to kill, to express a growing madness and unleash it on whoever crossed her way. It was a sensation so enormous and threatening.
There it is, that dark aura around her…
''Uchiha...I have no idea how my father died.''
It surrounded her petite form as a sickening, defensive halo. Sickening.
''What's stranger is the fact that everyone in the Hyuuga clan seemed to think this sudden death as… natural!'' she spat the word with venom while harboring this smile, contrasting with this dark aura she was emitting. ''How could a healthy and strong-willed clan head like Hyuuga Hiashi could suddenly die after the war? There wasn't life-threatening injury on him so he was fine – he was fine for Kami's sake! So yes, what happened to him?''
It surrounded the whole room. Choking.
''I'll find out how and why,'' the woman said, still smiling. She set her cup on the low table between them and stood up, uncrossing her long, slender legs out of her. ''And if I have to be labeled as a traitor...then so be it. Now tell me why you're here.''
Her words were sincere. This newfound confidence of hers would have been so pleasant in her earlier years but her performance during this war had changed his opinion about her. She was clearly implying that she would dispose of anyone who would stand in her way – if she still could make the difference between friends and enemies he wouldn't know, but her new state of mind attracted Sasuke like a moth to a light. If only he could make her become an ally…
The Uchiha brought his hands to unfold the bandages around his forehead and allowed her white eyes to look at the seal. She blinked once and leaned in slightly to have a better look at the ugly, bothering thing.
''Ah. This one is similar to the Hyuuga Seal used to protect our Byakugan,'' she said after a complete minute of inspection and reflexion. ''They put it in order to prevent you from using your Sharingan and Rinnegan to their full power, am I right?''
''Hn,'' he responded, watching her gestures intensely.
''I've made countless of research to see if there is a way to break through the Hyuuga Seal and others right after the war,'' she revealed as she crossed her arms against her ample chest, looking thoughtful. ''Changing the Hyuuga had been my dream but all these events have foiled my plans. Whatever. Those research were time-consuming but useful.''
''Any success?'' Sasuke tried very hard to contain his eagerness.
She smiled. And nooded. He smirked.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless to prevent Uchiha Sasuke to leave and betray them, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless to see past his stubborness, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and clueless to accept the facts that his 'best friend' would never come back to a village that had his clan murdered by his own brother, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and too caught up in his determination to protect everyone, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and too concentrated on fulfilling his vow to bring Sasuke back to Konohagakure, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and idiot enough to believe that he would find peace and start a new life with them, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and too caught up with trying to renew his bonds with his 'best friend', because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and too much of a coward to see that he was hurting his friend Hyuuga Hinata, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and too trusting to think that Sasuke would never hurt Sakura again after their last battle, because Uzumaki Naruto had been powerless and too blind to believe and hope, he had let all this happen to him and the village.
And Sakura.
All this because he had wanted to believe and hope it was possible to reconstruct themselves together.
'Poor, poor Uzumaki Naruto. A buffoon like you wouldn't understand.'
Because he had wanted to believe. And hope.