EDIT: Sorry, there were a lot of errors in the text and that really bothered me :S Plus, I forgot to mention the "theme songs" for the part with Naruto and Hinata, erm, ALONE in this chapter. XD
Hinata- "Beautiful Disaster (Live)" by Kelly Clarkson
Naruto- "Broken" by Seether
Sorry if this made you excited that the next chapter was out.... or something DX
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A/N: Yaaaay!! Holy crap I've had enough of typing to last me a month, cause that's all I've been doing these past three days. I'm going away on a vacation tomorrow to the Carribean, so I wanted to get this done and out before I left. THANK GOD IT'S FINALLY DONE.
If you haven't noticed already, this chapter is nice and long to make up for the shitty length of the last chapter. Haha well, not really. There was alot that needed to happen in this chapter, otherwise I would be dragging out the story. So, I'm a nice author. I hope... D: no wait. I AM A NICE AUTHOR because of what happens in this chapter. Nyahahaah!!
I want to ask you all, both guys and girls: I'm kinda lacking in the 'to read' department of my manga world. Do you guys have any suggestions? It can be anything, long or short, completed or incomplete, straight, yaoi ( X3 ), shounen or shojo, basically anything, just as long as its not a super-creepy-horror story.
Oh and about something else: I turned 16 last weekend. Yay me!!
Have fun reading!!
Chapter 22 – Legends of Truth
Flying low over the seemingly endless sea of bare rock, sand and dust at daybreak wasn't the thing that tired Gaara out the most. It wasn't the rising heat or how he unconsciously kept his special sand moving to propel himself forward. Just worrying about her took nearly all his energy, imagining how bad she was hurt, how his enemy and her captor had her bound so she could not escape.
The sun rose higher, the heat kicked up and the winds began to blow across the desolate landscape.
It seemed that the natural sands also reflected his mood. The gales started to whip up a nasty sandstorm but that was nothing for someone who had lived through them all their lives.
As the sun cleared the horizon, Gaara had made it to the flatlands, the thin borderland between the desert and the forest. It would only be a short walk now.
He saw the great white bird flying in a stationary position in the sky and angled his path towards it, but stopped. An ingenious idea occurred to him.
Gaara lowered himself to the ground with his sand and relaxed it like a muscle so the wind would pick it up and scatter it. He now approached on foot as if he was approaching his death, head hung and without his gourd, absolutely defenseless. The wind began to blow fiercely at his back, as if it was encouraging him to go forward.
And the sun rose even higher in the clear blue sky.
A while later a black shape appeared through the wavering heat on the horizon. It grew larger, more defined as he walked closer red dots on it turned onto clouds and an out of place splurge of pink near the ground morphed into a head of hair.
Sakura.
She was kneeling with her hands tied behind her back and a rag tied over her mouth. It didn't look like she was hurt but she did have dark circles around her eyes which were red and sleepless. They were wide, pleading for him not to do this for her. Don't Gaara. Please. I'm not worth it. they said.
Deidara stood there showing no emotion on his face. His right eye, the only one Gaara could see since the other was covered by long blond hair that fell over it, was crazy with satisfaction.
Gaara fell to his knees twenty feet away, eyes towards Deidara but not focused, mouth slightly open but not exactly aware of the action.
Deidara barked a laugh. "If I had known it would have been this easy, I would have captured her earlier." He stepped forward. "I sense you are completely alone and without your sand. What did you do with it?" he walked closer until he was only a few feet away and bent down.
Gaara answered in a hoarse voice. "I let the wind carry it away and scatter it."
Deidara grinned wildly. "And if you're faking," he threw in for good measure, "I put a small vial of a lethal poison that will make her suffer, just in case you don't follow through, yeah. The glass is thin and will break easily if you snatch her up if you somehow manage to flee from me, as well as one of my personal bombs in her head." He stood up. "Look at me, Jinjuuriki."
Gaara's eyes focused on him.
"Are you really gonna give up yourself to me for this girl, yeah?" Deidara looked in his eyes and saw that this man had already accepted his death. His lifeless eyes said that he really was going to give up his life for this girl, that he had no tricks up his sleeves, and that nobody was going to jump up and yell "Gotcha!"
"Yes." His voice was devoid of any emotion.
He struck Gaara's face. "Get up and untie her. Be careful. You wouldn't want to break her, yeah." he sneered.
Gaara got up and did as he was told. Sakura slowly turned and looked at him after he was done with her mouth and wrists and had moved on to the knots on her ankles. What she saw there was surprising in the least.
He had a spark in his eyes. A corner of his mouth twitched into a mischievous grin he knew only she could see.
He had a plan to get both of them out of this alive, with the Akatsuki man dead.
They stood up together; hands locked, and faced Deidara. "Here's water and food for a day." He tossed Sakura a canteen and a small lumpy sackcloth and pointed the way Gaara had come. "The village is that way. Leave! Now!"
Sakura turned to Gaara, and he swept her up into a hug. "Hide behind the first sand dune. I'll kill him and then we can go back and have those things taken out of you." He whispered in her ear.
"I love you. I'll miss you." Sakura said. "Please, you don't have to do this." The words were a bit too loud to be private.
Deidara shoved them apart with more force than necessary. "Alright, enough gushiness. Me and lover boy have to leave, yeah." Sakura felt something in her neck crack as her head got thrown back.
The dry ground she laid on was hot and dusty. She breathed in sharply and the dust in the air swirled down her throat. It gave her a throbbing headache.
Thud thud thud
THUD THUD THUD THUD
They were too hard now. Too loud, too close. A breeze picked up in time with the thuds and soon both those and the breeze began to fade away.
She opened her eyes an time to see the great white bird fly away with two men on it. She watched them go as she picked up the canteen and then headed over the dune, just like he said. She got a bit lightheaded as soon as she got over the crest and unscrewed the lid to take a sip, hoping the water would clear out the increasing fuzziness in her head. Though, the canteen never made it to her lips and she collapsed.
The water spilled out all over the ground and seeped into the sand.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Gaara sped on his cloud over the wasteland scrub, with the feeling of a knot in his stomach had just released. He drifted slightly from side to side in his glee, elated that he had eliminated the greatest threat to his only source of true and pure happiness. Though, he couldn't help but have a feeling of dread deep down. Maybe it was because was that Sakura was still in danger with the bomb and vial of poison. Maybe because there were definitely more dangerous members of that organization all Akatsuki out there that will want him again in the future. He didn't know for sure.
It was a bit before the place the exchange had happened came into view. Gaara headed for the dune and landed lightly. It seemed that Sakura had gotten tired of waiting from the stress and the rough night she had without him, and slept soundly on her side.
"Sakura?"
She didn't respond. He walked over, crouched down and shook her shoulder.
"Sakura?"
Her hair fell back and revealed the left side of her neck and shoulder to be covered in blood.
The knot tightened instantly as soon as he realized why she was bleeding: the poison vial had broken.
He gently rolled her onto her back and pressed his ear to her chest. Her heart was still beating. He brushed his fingertips lightly along the joint of her neck and shoulders. Oh, how many times had he imagined himself doing this to her ever so gently? But he never in this situation imagined he would do it.
He felt the glass sticking out oddly of her skin. He grasped a shard firmly between his forefinger and thumb and pulled it out slowly. It was only the size of half of his pinky nail, but the blood flow picked up when it was out.
His eyes glanced from it to her face and his hand clenched over the glass, cutting his palm. He took no notice.
He stood trying to think of the closest hospital or medical center. There was Chiyo-sama, master of poisons back home in Suna. Surely she would know the poison and thus its antidote. But there was Tsunade-sama from Konoha as well and she was a medical master. The border between Fire and Sand countries was only two or so miles away and Konoha was closer to the border than Suna.
Gaara scooped Sakura up with his sand and he got on his cloud, soon, they were speeding towards the trees.
She really was going to kill that man someday. Or put him in jail at least for peeping. Abusing the power of the office of Hokage wasn't something that she did often but it seemed very… appealing at the moment.
The complaints about Jiraya's peeping were coming in heavier now more than ever and probably because he hadn't "gotten any" or been to a brothel for over a year now. If anybody knew him, Tsunade knew this to be the exact reason why he did this.
"Jiraya," she sighed for what felt like the hundredth time, "you better stop this or I will seriously banish you from Konoha. I can do that you know, whether you're a Sanin or not."
"Ah, but Tsunade, how else will I get the inspiration and material for my books?" He gestured out the windows behind her desk in her office. "The male population, deprived of their smut, will suffer without fresh scenes! They study my books for new bedroom techniques and –"
Tsunade grabbed him by the front of his robe and hoisted him into the air with one arm. "Do. You. Think. I. Care. About. THAT?!" She enunciated each word with an increasing volume. "I don't care if you're my childhood friend, I don't care that we were teammates, I don't even care that we've been through a lot of shit together! You must- WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!"
Jiraya looked away from the gratuitous view of her cleavage she had provided him with when she had lifted him up into the air. "Nothing." He said, but the nosebleed and the slowly widening perverted grin gave him away completely. The next thing he tasted was the metallic flavor of blood and he enjoyed a wonderful view of the floor.
"Jiraya-" she started as she walked over.
"Hokage-sama!" The door to the office slammed open and a Genin messenger appeared.
"I'm kinda busy right now." Tsunade growled.
"Hokage-sama," he began, "the Kazekage urgently needs you at the main hospital!"
That made her stop. "The Kazekage? What for? And why is here with no warning?"
"He brought in a woman by the name of Haruno. I know nothing else except that he requested you there immediately."
She frowned and looked down at Jiraya. "We'll continue this later."
At the hospital, everything was in chaos like usual, but this time she felt some sort of urgency that she rarely felt when saving someone's life in the emergency room. A nurse ran over as soon as she walked in the door.
"She's poisoned." The young woman explained. "There was a vial of a strange poison in her neck that broke because of some violent movement. We got the glass out but the Kazekage doesn't want us to do anything else to her. He wants you to take a look at her first."
"Symptoms?" Tsunade demanded.
"Contracted pupils, tense muscles with spasms at times, and her heart and liver are deteriorating slowly as well. She might go into ventricular fibrillation if it keeps up or it might completely fail. We don't know." They had turned down another hallway on the ground floor. "In here." The nurse said and turned right into a room.
Two medics were already in there, one carefully monitoring the person on the bed and another keeping the girl cool by changing out cold washcloths on her head and arms. The third person in the room was the Kazekage, clutching the young woman's hand as if both his and her lives depended on it.
Tsunade walked over to take a look at the patient herself. The face she saw sent her reeling into flashbacks of her little Naruto and his Team 7 two years ago when she sent him off onto a training trip. Of that Team 7, one of them, though much younger than what she saw now, was Sakura Haruno. Haruno. Why hadn't she recognized the name before back in her office?
And she should remember that name easily as well because she was the village's ambassador to Sunagakure. She sent her off on that mission quite some time ago.
Wait, so why was she here now with the Kazekage in tow? And on a hospital bed of all places? That didn't matter right now. She would get it out of them after this problem was solved.
The Kazekage gave her a panicked look. It was more than that, really. It was more desperate, more pleading. It was one that feared losing something infinitely precious. He watched Tsunade snap on a pair of latex gloves and place her ear on the girl's chest. She frowned and picked her head back up.
"Flashlight." she ordered, one being placed into her palm immediately. She checked each eye and they were just like how the nurse had said, contracted and bloodshot as well. She opened Sakura's mouth. Her throat was partially swollen. Things were coming together quickly inside her head.
"The poison is metal-based." Her tone was of someone who had hardened through many medical emergencies as she turned around to her subordinates. "Get me five pans of water, a bottle of bromic acid, tea tree oil, bandages and a scalpel." They all rushed out of the room leaving only the two Kages and the afflicted girl.
Tsunade grabbed a stool from a corner of the room and sat next to Gaara on it. "What happened?" The change in her voice from commanding to motherly was like switching on a light.
Gaara breathed slowly, his eyes never leaving Sakura's face. "Since I am a Jinjuuriki, this organization called Akatsuki came after my Bijuu. Have you heard of them?"
"Yes. All I know of them is that their aim is to collect all Nine Bijuu of Legend. They attacked you and she got in the way?"
"Yes and no." He continued to explain what had transpired starting from the attack two nights ago to where they were now in as quick of words as possible. She could see that this boy-man was in love with Sakura by the way he talked about her, by the way he looked at her, and by the way he was beating himself up by saying that it was his fault that she was so near death right now.
It was funny. The first time she had seen Gaara, he was only a small boy. After that, when she was invited as a Kage to the ceremony that made him Kazekage, he had changed into a teenager on the verge of becoming a man. He was a hard person then, with only a soft spot for his older brother and sister. He became a fearless warrior with very little to lose.
Now… now he was completely different. He looked like the small child she had first seen, a being without guidance or comfort. It was amazing how much this girl had changed him.
In the midst of her observations, the nurses came back with the supplies she had ordered. Tsunade poured the bromic acid equally between the five pans of water and put seven drops of tea tree oil in each as well. She made an incision right above Sakura's heart and liver with the scalpel. "Now everyone, take a limb and hold her down. She might thrash around a bit, but that's okay, just make sure you hold her down. You too Gaara-san." She looked directly into his eyes. A chorus of "Hai, Hokage-sama!" echoed around her.
He hesitantly pinned her right arm down to the bed. This is for her. This will make her get better. Don't watch. He closed his eyes.
Tsunade took the oil-acid solution out of the pan into an orb and eased it into Sakura's body right below her left armpit. Her other hand hovered above the cut over her heart and began to pull the solution out of the girl's body slowly.
Sakura's back arched off the bed, though not as much as it should have since she had four people holding her down. A low moan escaped the back of her throat. Tsunade glanced at Gaara. He had the lost child look on his face again.
The solution came out the incision with a new dark red-purple swirl in it. Good, I was right. She held the orb of solution over the pan and released it, letting it splash into it. She took the next pan of solution and did the same with her liver except slower this time, trying to get all of the poison she could out. This continued with the remaining pans of solution until she had taken all the poison out of all the major organs.
Tsunade stepped back sweating. "Bandage her up and stitch up her neck if you haven't done so already, and throw out four of the pans. I'll need the last one to make an antidote." She looked at Gaara. "You owe me for this."
He was relived, that was for sure. It was plain on his face. "I believe I owe you nothing since you just saved your own ambassador."
"True, true." She replied nodding. "Just make sure she gets a lot of sleep in the meantime. Metal-based poisons destroy the body and she has a lot of recovering to do." Tsunade turned around in a swirl of robes. "Come by my office with her once she heals and we'll have tea." She didn't wait for a response from him, but peeked as she went out the door and smiled in the sweetness of what she saw.
With her head in his hands, he had kissed her on the forehead.
Standing on the ground with his Kyuubi cloak activated and an arm of it holding a rock, Naruto hammered the last wooden peg into place on Hinata and his new home. He let the rock drop to the ground, pulled the cloak back inside him and stepped back next to Hinata.
"Done. Finally." She sighed and then turned to look in the direction of the trees. "About time too, the sun is about to set."
It was the end of the second day that Yoshi had given them to build their new cottage house where they would stay in for the next two years. It had sliding storm doors, regular sliding paneled doors, smooth wood floors and, to Naruto's amazement, a stone foundation. He hadn't thought that they could get that in there and would have to settle for a wood base with the amount of time that they had, but he and Hinata had managed. It consisted of only two rooms; one for him and one for her with a sliding wood door between them for privacy, but that was all that they had needed. Living with the Uzumakis had taught them to live simply.
Yoshi came by to check it out after they had gone to get him. He examined their work with the eye of a carpenter. "Nice and sturdy." He said, rapping his fist on one of the corner posts. Suddenly, he slammed it hard with a punch, causing the post to splinter and nearly break. The cottage groaned from the sudden lack of support.
"Hey! Whatcha do that for?!" Naruto yelled.
"I was just checking if it really was built well." Yoshi replied calmly. "Here, I'll fix it." He laid a hand on it and the wood fibers wove themselves back together instantly. "There, good as new."
Hinata's eyebrows rose. That would have come in handy so many times in her past.
"For this, you guys deserve a good meal." Yoshi commented, walking back to his normal cottage ten feet away.
Dinner was a happy affair, though quieter than an Uzumaki one because of the lack of people. Naruto kept to himself a lot but Hinata talked unabated with Yoshi about how he knew so much about construction. It turned out that he was a carpenter for six years in a village at one point, but he had left.
Yoshi pushed his bowl away and folded his hands behind his head. "The second lesson is the history of each of your Bijuu." His eyes switched from Naruto to Hinata and back. "Do either of you know why?"
There was a moment of silence before Hinata answered, "What happens now depends on what happened before?" It sounded like a question.
"Correct. Everything you see here, the sky, the trees, the birds, your new house, yourselves," he gestured to everything in turn, "anything that consists of you ; your personality, your skills, your tendencies all of these are results of things that happened and things that you have been through. These dictate what you will do now and more or less what you can do now.
"Now, the history of both your demons is long, so listen attentively. The Nine Bijuu of legend were created when the matriarch and patriarch, Izanami and Izanagi respectively, created the world. Each was set in part of the world as the ruling spirit to keep peace and harmony. Five of them were made as gods; the one-tail Ichibi or Shukaku of wind, the three tail Sanbi or Isonade of water, six-tail Rokubi or Raijuu of lightning, the seven-tail Shichibi or Kaku of earth and the nine-tail Kyuubi of fire. None of them got jealous of one another's power because they did not know of each other.
"Remember at this point, none of them are Bijuu. As the other gods were created as well as humans, humans built shrines in each part of the land for each "Great Spirit" as they were called back then. The Fire shrine for the Kyuubi was the largest of all of them. These shrines had worshipers like a religion with each having varying amounts of followers with the Kyuubi having the largest following. At each shrine was a carving of each spirit in an animal form. All of the carvings are the same animals as they are now except for the Hachibi, or eight-tail.
"Then a devout worshiper of the Hachibi, or Yamato no Orochi as his proper name is, went alone to worship at his shrine. He prayed to Yamato no Orochi to take all his life force and become a physical being.
"Unfortunately, this man's life force or chakra as we call it, was enormous. It was almost as large and unlimited as yours Naruto." He looked at the teen as he said it. "With this amount of chakra, Yamato no Orochi's spirit manifested itself in the stone snake that was its statue and sprouted eight heads and eight tails. The man immediately died after he saw his god in physical form since he gave up every last bit of chakra to him.
"Yamato no Orochi proceeded to eat his body and then grew to the size of over eight mountains in length. For the next few hundred years, he roamed the land, destroying villages and eating people. Finally, people were tired of being terrorized by the monster. A brave warrior of the Kusanagi clan, using the fabled and extremely powerful Kusanagi sword, confronted Yamato no Orochi and attempted to slay the beast. However, even though Yamato no Orochi wasn't very powerful, the Kusanagi warrior was careless and not serious and so he got himself killed. Yamato no Orochi ate the sword and absorbed its tremendous power, so that he himself would become powerful.
"As he did this, a great wave of dark energy came from him and swept over the land, awakening the rest of the Nine Great Spirits.
"Thus the Bijuu Wars ensued. They all battled fiercely, with the greatest showdown occurring between the Kyuubi and Yamato no Orochi. They fought for a hundred years, nearly destroying all the land. The Kyuubi eventually won because of his unlimited power. The first, fourth, sixth and seventh tail Bijuus were sealed into separate containers of sorts eventually, like a pot, urn or kettle by powerful priests and warriors at separate times after this. The others except for the Niibi were left to roam the land, either because they were too powerful or they could not be found. The Niibi, or Nekomata as her real name is, was taken by her master, the Shinigami to his spirit palace since she was the Great Spirit of Darkness and Vengace when she was nearly killed in a fight with Yamato no Orochi.
"Once Nekomata had fully recovered, Shinigami returned her to the earth and by that time, the fight between the Kyuubi and Yamato no Orochi was over. She roamed the land freely, unnoticed for hundreds of years of years I guess until she was sealed in you." Yoshi finished that part looking at Hinata.
"As for the Kyuubi, after his final fight, he roamed the land as well, but kept to the wild most of the time since he knew that humans were too weak to wake him up. He searched and searched for the one who awoke him, never knowing that it was Yamato no Orochi.
"Then for some odd reason, he attacked Konoha and… here you are."
Silence enveloped over the trio as Naruto and Hinata absorbed what they had been told.
Naruto was the first to break the spell. "Is there a lot that you left out? Cause it sounds like it."
Hinata nodded in agreement.
"I gave you both only the bare bones of what you need to know. There is so much more to both your tales and the rest of the Bijuu that I must tell you, but only once you are more mature to handle the information. The ways that the legends will tie into today will shock you. One for instance, revolves around your beloved First Hokage. Have you ever wondered how he managed to have so many of the Bijuu under his control?"
The question was rhetorical, so it was left unanswered.
"He used to be a student of mine."
"WHAT?!" Naruto exploded and he was on his feet in that same instant.
"Yes he was. That's how that very crystal around your neck was and still is able to control nearly every spirit and demon alive. I helped him create it."
Both bemused by this new tale, Naruto sat back down next to Hinata both leaned slightly towards each other.
"I was quite surprised to see it again when I saw it around your neck, Naruto-kun. Yes, we had met by a great chance. He had stumbled upon this very cottage while soul searching when he was only a few years older that what both of you are now." He looked at them, eyebrows raised high and expectant. "But that is another story I'll finish later. It's getting late and you guys must be tired form today." He stood, stretched his arms over his head and gathered up all the dishes. "I'll take care of these. Good night." Yoshi finished with a smile.
The clack of the door as he went out snapped Naruto out of his deep state and his legs seemed to carry him automatically out of the cottage. Hinata follows him but he passed right by their new home and she watched him walk into the woods. "Where are you going?" she said.
"To think." He called over his shoulder. "Come with me." he added as an afterthought.
Confused as to why he wanted this, Hinata followed him. They walked through the woods again until they came to the place they had come before, where she had first accessed the Niibi. He sat on the same rock she had used then with his elbows on his knees and his hands folded in front of his mouth. She sat on a shorter one next to him, her hands in her lap.
They stayed like that, both staring out at the landscape. The night sky blurred the exact border where the mountain peaks speared the dark sheet above. The stars peered down like curious mice, a curiosity that mirrored Hinata's own. She drew line between the points of light and made pictures as she pondered what Naruto had heard in the legends that had silenced him so abruptly.
It wasn't long before she realized that she was tracing a fox in the stars. She squinched her eyes shut tight and opened them as she took a deep breath, then placed her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands.
Naruto still hadn't moved, but she figured he would come around eventually.
The moon slowly rose higher in the sky.
"Hina-chan," he started.
She jumped as bit at the sudden sound of her name, but more at what he had called her. "Yes?"
"What was it like, finding out you had a demon in you?" he questioned, eyes never leaving the mountains sprawled in front of them.
"Um…"
"Let me rephrase that." He closed his eyes. "When you found out that you were a Jinjuuriki like me," - his voice broke just then – "that you housed a Bijuu, how did you feel? What did you think of yourself? Did it change how you saw yourself? Did it explain a lot of unanswered questions you had?" He looked back up at the sky.
She looked at him skeptically but concerned at the same time. "Why the sudden thoughts?"
"I'm worried." His eyes dropped down to the round in front of them. "I don't know what to think of myself anymore. Listening to those legends brought me back to the time when Mizuki, our old Academy teacher, told me I was the Kyuubi and then Iruka told me I only housed the demon. Back then, I didn't know what to think of myself.
"On one hand, knowing that about me answered so many questions but it opened up a whole crap-load more. It answered why everyone shunned me and hated me. It answered why I was alone, why nobody had adopted me when I was living in the orphanage.
"And 'What should I consider myself as now?' I thought. 'Should I be Naruto or the nine-tailed demon fox?'"
Hinata could only watch as the young man in front of her began to fall apart, the tears falling thick and fast no matter how hard he tried to hold them back. "Naruto-kun-" she tried to say to comfort him, but the name didn't get past the lump that had formed in her throat.
"You probably didn't know what that was like. That big war inside yourself on what to believe, especially when you're only twelve. Cause, y'know, I wanted to destroy the whole village then. I wanted to kill everyone right then and there for treating me so badly over all those years for something that wasn't even my fault. I seriously was going to do that except for a few people like the Sandaime and this old guy that lived in the apartment next to me 'cause they were the only people ever in my entire life who had shown me any sort of kindness.
"But right now, I'm kinda glad that I decided I would stick with my old self and still become the next Hokage. Cause then I wouldn't have all these new friends. I wouldn't have my true, real family. I wouldn't have you.
"I'm scared to think of what I would have done if I decided I was the Kyuubi. Would I be happier? Probably not. I really would have been a monster, one that only ever wanted to destroy and give payback. I would have killed all the good people, including you, which right now frightens me like you have no idea. You have no idea…" Naruto's voice carried off into silent sobs.
She wanted to say something. She desperately wanted to. But she was in no position to because when she found out she had the Niibi sealed inside her, she was not a child and she had a good sense of who she was. The only thing that she could do then was to accept it.
Hinata watched him shake with his low sobs. Surely it would be okay of she could comfort him? She climbed up onto the rock next to him. He automatically latched onto her, pressing his face into her neck. Startled but not entirely taken aback by this, she wrapped an arm around him and petted his unruly blond hair until his shaking stopped. "Shh…" she cooed and laid her head on his, breathing in his crushed pine needle-and-sunshine scent. "Shh." It's okay Naruto-kun. Just don't cry. Without thinking, she kissed his hair, but she didn't blush like she normally would have. "Shh." Just don't cry.
"Docking in one hour." The voice from the loudspeaker droned. Then there was silence in the small inner room in the trade ship.
"Hey, Sasuke-san." Something soft hit his face. "Wake up."
He caught the soft lump before it hit him again. Sasuke sat up in the makeshift bed and drowsily opened his eyes, glaring at Haku's back to his left across the room. She was bent over something.
"I don't get how you lived by yourself for years Sasuke-san." she commented with disgust, shoving another shirt into a backpack.
"Did I ask you to become my maid?" came his low reply.
"No, but I can't help but notice you are a very messy person, especially when your belongings begin to mingle with mine." Haku threw something backwards at him. "You heard the announcer. Get dressed." He caught the balled up clothes before they hit his chest and changed quickly into them before she turned back around. "I'm almost done packing, so go get washed up while I finish."
"Hn." Sasuke groggily snorted. His feet shuffled across the wood floor as he went from Haku and his room to the men's bathroom down the hall. There he rinsed his face, neck and arms in the sink and dried himself with his shirt. He paused for a moment to take a good look at his self in the mirror.
Compared to when he had left his former village, he did look older. Any roundness in his face from when he was a child was gone. His jaw had squared off nicely and his cheeks had become more angular. The thing that had changed the most was his eyes. They were deep set and had dark circles all around, giving him a sort of gaunt look. His hair was longer too, even if Haku had given him a few haircuts over the time they were together and it was beginning to hang in his eyes again.
He stood back, shook out his jet-black locks, tucked a few odd strands back into their usual place and went back to the room. Haku handed his pack to him wordlessly and they walked out to the deck of the trade ship. They waited out the rest of the hour watching the sunrise before the ship docked.
As soon as they stepped off the gangway and onto the solid ground of the docks, a man who has been leaning on a telephone pole nearby approached the pair. He wore his Mist hitae-te tied around his head with a Mist version of the Chuunin vest and his forearms and right arm in bandages, while his left calf was surrounded by ninja netting. "Sasuke-san," he called, "that is you if I am not mistaken."
"You are correct." Sasuke replied with disinterest.
"And who is this?" The Nin looked at Haku next to him.
"She is coming with us." Sasuke defended harshly, eyes flashing. He stepped slightly in front of her, telling the Nin that she was part of the package, whether he like it or not.
He evidently got the message. "Very well, I will be your guide until we reach the Mizukage. Please, follow." He gestured to them.
A day and a half later, they came to a bridge that would lead them into a dense fog over a large lake. "Keep walking forward and don't veer off course. Otherwise, you'll get lost in the fog and die." the guide cautioned. The three, with the Mist Nin leading and the other two following a few feet behind, entered and marched though the mist. It wasn't long before they came out the other side.
Sasuke turned and looked back the way that they had come, interested as to what was so special about this fog. He saw nothing special, only the bridge and the other shore they had just left. A very clever, one way genjutsu.
He turned back around and was about a thousand or so multi-story buildings built into the side of a giant shallow pit, with the largest building in the center at the bottom. It was a humongous, skinny tower and had a large blue circle on the side with the character in the Old Language for 'water' in the center. Four wide roads sloped down to the center from each of the four cardinal compass points, themselves standing on the top of the western road.
The guide led them down the road to the center of the pit village. People went along on their daily lives, but glanced warily at eh newcomers as they went by. They ascended the steps of the central building, obviously the Mizukage's office building until they had reached the top. The guide knocked on the only door. "Mizukage-sama. I have some newcomers that would like permission to join our ranks."
Alarmed, Haku shot a look at Sasuke. This isn't what she had signed up for. He reassured her to play along with a glance and a nod of the head.
"Come in." came a deep voice from the other side of the door.
The guide opened the door and ushered the two others in. all eyes focused immediately on the man that was standing from behind his desk. He waved the Nin away and he disappeared in a quick cloud of smoke.
The Mizukage was a tall, lean man. He wore traditional armor from the time of the Third Ninja War with the character for 'water' emblazoned on his breastplate, just like his office building. He wore a mask decorated with swirling white and blue designs that centered around the one hole over his right eye. His long jet-black hair stuck out straight behind him and fell with its length, much like how Sasuke's hair was doing now.
"Sasuke, Haku, I have been waiting a long time for you two."
Goddamnit. It was so fucking cold. He and Hinata should have thought to put some insulation or something when they built this house back in the end of summer. The late fall snow had come harder than he would have imagined.
Of course, they were living up in the mountains, so it would get colder and snow earlier that it would back at the Uzumaki Mansion, only twenty or so miles from the sea. Talk about a climate change. Well at least it taught him to plan ahead.
Naruto rolled onto his other side. He was wrapped up in four blankets and he was still cold. The cold wasn't letting him sleep. He would have to talk to Yoshi tomorrow about getting that insulation in.
For now though, all he could do was to try to fall back asleep. He rolled back over, closed his eyes and sighed. He thought of snow. Thought of it like a big, fluffy, white blanket of down that would keep him warm. Meh. It wasn't working.
Kimi wo suki ni natte
He started. Who was singing?
Dorekurai tatsu no kana?
Whoever it was, they had a nice voice. What? It was coming from the other side of the cottage?
Kimochi fukurande yuku bakari de
His eyes flew open. Hinata? Was that her singing?
Kimi wa kono omoi kidzuiteiru no kana?
One of the sliding doors to her room was open a crack. He peeked through it.
Ichido mo kotoba ni wa shitenai kedo
Yes that was her. She was leaning against the opposite wall wrapped up in her blankets with a door to the outside a crack open next to her, and she was staring out it. Her long hair was not done up in its usual twin tails and it cascaded down her front and back. She was singing softly to herself with the most longing expression he had ever seen on her.
Yuki no youni tada shizukani
Furitsumori tsudzukete yuku
Hold me tight konna omoi nara
dareka wo suki ni naru kimochi
shiritaku nakatta yo
I love you namida tomaranai
konnanja kimi no koto
shirazuni ireba yokatta yo
Kimi wo itsumade omotteiru no kana?
Tameiki ga mado garasu kumoraseta
She let the last lyric drift off, then sighed, "Naruto-kun…"
Oh my god. Did she just…?
Hinata buried her face in her hands. "Naruto-kun." she said again to herself.
No way. There was no way in hell she had just sung a song about him. Even if it was in the Old Language, he had understood every single word perfectly.
If he was correct when he put two and two together, Hinata… was… in love with him.
Just…like…he was in love with her.
Silently, he backed away from the crack and curled up into a ball. He pinched himself to see if he was dreaming. Apparently he wasn't.
He was pretty sure that his feelings towards her were love. So there was no mistake there. But now Hinata…? He thought her feelings towards him were just that of very good friends. But now… she was in love with him.
These next few weeks, maybe even days were going to be one hell of a ride for them both.
"Daisuki Naruto-kun."
His world had just been turned upside-down by this girl for the second time in his life as she said those words.
"Naruto-kun, could you and Kyuu-kun help me practice a bit with Nekomata after we're done with these dishes?" Hinata said. Kyuu-kun was the pet name she had given Kyuubi after talking with him once in Naruto's mind. He seemed like a pretty nice Bijuu despite what Naruto had said about him being sadistic before.
"Erm, no I'm p-pretty tired right now. I think I'm going to bed after these. Y-yeah." He blushed faintly when their arms touched when she handed him a bowl to be dried.
She gave him a frustrated look. He was doing this a lot now, for the past week and half to be exact. It reminded her of that rough month after their trip with Izumi when she avoided him because she was scared of the Kyuubi before she knew that he had him sealed in him. He was hiding something then. What he hiding something now?
She would confront him after they were done with this and find out what his problem was.
They finished the dishes without another word between them. "Goodnight." Naruto mumbled quickly and darted out the door to their little cottage.
She stood there with her arms crossed for a moment to give him a head start and then followed him into the snow, determination clear on her face.
Yoshi grinned from the corner where he was writing on a scroll. This was going to interesting.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata's tone had a resolution in it.
A/N: Yesh. :3 the time has come for them. I knew you all would love me...I think... DX
Here's the English translation lyrics for song "Eternal Snow" by Changin' My Life (the song that Hinata sings)
I'm falling in love with you
And which will come to pass?
Will the feeling do nothing but swell
Or will you notice it
Even though I've never said anything?
Like snow, but quietly
It continues to pile up
Hold me tight if I think like this
I didn't want to know
What it was like to fall in love with someone
I love you: my tears won't stop
Therefore, I should be free of you
How long will I keep thinking of you?
My sigh makes the window glass fog up
It's cute no? That's another scene that I've been waiting a loooooong time to stick in this story. I thought it would be... appropriate XD. Kyaaa, I cant wait to write the next chapter!!! X3
Oh, and "Daisuki Naruto-kun." means "I love you, Naruto-kun."
Ahh~~ now I can go relax on a beach somewhere....
IBP
Next Chapter: I think we all know what happens.