Disclaimer: See previous.
Author's Note: Now, by show of hands, who thought I had given up and become a nun?
But, lo, here I am! I said I was going to finish, so I'm going to give you the option of telling me to finish or just quit while I'm ahead. I know I've made you wait (FOREVER, nearly a year now) and I have a whole list of excuses I can share, but won't. So I give you this trifle, and I need you to let me know if you think I really should keep going. Also, I KNOW the time skip and what not is weird and choppy, but it was one of the things holding me back from writing, so I just glossed over that bit. A one-shot may be written later to address that.
Enjoy!
oOo
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle
Everything I do is stitched with its color
~"Separation" by W.S. Merwin~
oOo
The snow shivered down from the dark sky, piling up in great heaps along the ground. Hinata sat at the window, making patterns in the fog on the glass. Montana was nice enough, she supposed, but so… empty. There was so much space between everything and everyone, even houses, and the sky seemed to swallow up the whole state in its great gaping maw.
Here, alone and isolated, Hinata felt strangely exposed under that sky.
She looked at the window, and with a sigh rubbed Naruto's name from the glass.
"What do you think?" Tenten asked quietly, taking a seat next to her. "You think he's telling the truth?"
Hinata closed her eyes, switching back and forth from her normal vision to Byakugan in a lightning pace. Darkness, life, darkness, life, darkness, life. Darkness.
"It feels right to me," Hinata whispered. "Itachi… makes a good point. But I might be biased."
"Oh?"
Life. "It means I wouldn't be a monster, too," Hinata said, lifting her head and watching the flinch flicker across Tenten's freckled shoulders. "It means Naruto is good, and I can go home. Tenten, I do believe him. I'm just not sure if it's because I only want to."
Tenten was quiet, tracing the scars on her arms slowly. "Okay, let's recap," she said, and Hinata smiled as Tenten mentally organized her list. Tenten loved lists. "We meet Itachi three months ago, he wants to meet us in a public place and talk. You meet him despite me expressly telling you not to—"
"I apologized!"
"He says he's a demon. You don't run—"
"I pulled out a gun and threatened him though. That's something!"
"He explains that demons are like people, both good and bad." Tenten swallowed hard, glaring out at the night. "That the… Bond Naruto tried to forge with you…"
"Is incomplete," Hinata cut in, sensing Tenten's distress. "It's supposed to make us more aware of the other's feelings, very occasionally thoughts, bring us closer."
"And he's some kind of king, that rules over all the other demons, and his territory was threatened or something."
"He just wants me home," Hinata finished quietly. Her voice broke, slightly. "And I want to go, now that I know. I know it might not all be perfect, but…"
Tenten scrubbed her hands over her face tiredly. She sighed. "All of my pro-con lists are coming out in your favor."
Hinata grinned, a faint bubble of hope rising inside her. If it's true, and he's good, and we can just talk…
"Alright, here."
Tenten passed over a sheaf of papers, and Hinata laughed. "Why is 'Neji' on here six different times?"
Tenten grinned. "It's all about priorities," she replied. "You will also note," she added, pointing to the rest of the paper. "Beat Up This Naruto Dude is lines sixteen through thirty…"
oOo
"I need you to be calm," Sasuke said, taking the seat across from Naruto's desk with unusual care. The entire city was a gigantic minefield now that Kabuto was trying to wrest control from Naruto's suddenly lax hands. Sasuke couldn't even leave his house without some kind of attack.
Naruto looked up from some paperwork, and Sasuke winced at the deep purple shadows building beneath his eyes. "I'm totally calm."
Sasuke sighed, leaning back in his chair and trying to phrase his next words carefully.
"Your last run-in with Hin—"
"Don't want to talk about it," Naruto snapped, and Sasuke actually had to repress a flinch from the anger in his voice. "It was a party, she was terrified of me, and if how quickly she took off was any hint she never wants to see me again," Naruto ranted.
"It went badly," Sasuke agreed. "But Itachi has recently made contact with them. They've been talking for the better part of three months, and he says that Hinata is willing to talk to you if you are still willing to talk to her."
Naruto had gone completely still, and it was only until his face started turning blue that Sasuke reached over and slapped his shoulder to get him to breathe. Naruto gasped once, and then bounded up from his chair with a manic energy that Sasuke hadn't seen in months.
"Where is she? When is she coming? Where's my phone? I need to call her! No, I need to call Itachi! Where's my phone? Where's my phone? Where's my phone?"
Bemused, Sasuke pointed to Naruto's desk drawer, nearly laughing out loud when Naruto ripped the drawer out of the desk and it fell on his foot. He hopped around, clutching his toes and swearing as he simultaneously tried to dial Itachi's number.
"Anko!" He screeched with delight the moment it was answered. "I need to talk to Itachi right now! No, it can't wait! I don't care what you're in the middle of! Even that! …ITACHI! HI! Yeah, it's me, who else would it be? I do not sound like a maniac! …Look, it doesn't even matter. Where's Hinata?" Naruto paused for a moment, finally letting his foot drop, face spasming between joy and anger. If Sasuke had thought it wouldn't hurt horribly, he might have laughed at the sudden change. "What do you mean? SHE'S COMING HERE? WHEN? Sorry. Uh-huh. Uh-huh! UH-HUH! Right, sorry."
He was silent for several minutes, nodding enthusiastically at every other word, and whooped after he hung up.
"Did you hear that?" Naruto demanded, rounding on him. "Hinata's coming here! Tomorrow, Sasuke, she's going to be here TOMORROW!"
"That's great," Sasuke said. "But do you really have to shout?"
"You know, that's just what Itachi said…"
oOo
Neji stepped out of the shower and dried his hands angrily before snatching up his buzzing phone from its place on the counter. It had been steadily ringing for the last five minutes, without any show of letting up any time soon. He nearly broke the thing just pushing answer.
"What?" he snapped.
"Hi!" said someone all-too-bubbly on the other end. It took his mind a moment to realize who his caller was when she sounded so happy. "This is—"
"I know," Neji snapped, turning off the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist. There was no point in trying to relax now. "What do you want?"
Tenten sighed, the phone crackling with the sound. "To…" the next word seemed dragged out of her, and he could hear her teeth clack together. "Apologize. For shooting you."
Neji paused in the act of brushing his hair out of his face, head tilting in consideration. He had no doubt his cousin had forced the female Rambo into this pathetic excuse for an apology, but wasn't willing to completely forego all decorum.
Yet.
"Go ahead," he replied.
He swore he could hear her teeth grind.
"I'm very sorry," she managed, contritely enough. "I can't be too careful."
"Hmm," Neji said, not quite agreeing. "Well, I have to go."
"Aren't you going to accept my apology?"
"Why should I?"
"Look, Bub," Tenten snapped, and Neji raised his eyebrows. Who used the word "bub"? "I had to steal your number from Hinata's phone—who has three-hundred fifty-four degree vision and can see through walls. I am currently freezing my butt off standing out here on my pride to apologize to you, even when I don't think you overly deserve it. If I was in the same position, I would shoot your snooty butt all over again! But it was wrong, and I am saying sorry, and you could at least say you'll think about it!"
Neji suddenly realized he was smiling, and forced himself to stop. "I'll think about it," he replied, doing his upmost to sound neutral.
There was a moment of silence. Neji was relatively sure she was jumping up and down and swearing.
"Thank you," she said after a minute. "Alright then. Nice talking to you."
"Can you put Hinata on?" Neji said, testing her.
"No!" Tenten squeaked. She cleared her throat and tried again. "I mean, uh, no. She doesn't need to know about this."
"Why not?"
Tenten sighed, another distant crackle, and then Neji heard the faint sound of Hinata's humming. Tenten spoke again. "I don't want remind her I recently shot her cousin when she's this happy," she admitted. "I figure I'll be run out of the city pretty quickly, so I should… anyway, the toaster is going I, Robot on me so I had better go."
"I thought you were outside."
"…I have a sense for these things."
Neji paused, licked his lips, and said. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Does this mean you accept my apology?"
"We'll discuss it later," Neji offered magnanimously. "Over dinner."
"I! Uh... that…"
Neji realized he was smiling again, and with great relish hung up right in middle of her desperate splutters.
oOo
Hinata was pretty sure she was having a panic attack.
Considering she was in a pressurized metal cabin hanging thousands of feet in the air, it really wasn't the best time.
"It's going to be fine," Tenten reassured her, pressing a cold cloth to her head and leaning her chair as far back as it would go. The person behind them complained, but Tenten's verbose swearing and fist-shaking quickly had him hiding in the bathroom. "—you ^*%^$^&^^* pansycake! Now, Sweetie, just stay still. Here, breathe in the bag. In, out, in, out… there you go."
"I'm okay," Hinata said weakly, pushing Tenten's thousand-and-one caring hands away. "How—how soon are we landing again?"
"Five minutes."
Hinata's chest tightened up again, and she told herself to stop being such a baby. This, shockingly enough, did nothing to stop the world from going a little fuzzy on the edges. The closer she got to New York, the harder her heart seemed to beat. The buzz in the back of her mind that she had grown accustomed to over the last two years, the buzz that had been her constant companion ever since that bleak night so long ago, was also louder, more distinct. Mostly, the bundle reminded her of excitement and nervousness—Naruto's, she assumed—and a great healthy dose of trepidation. If asked, she could have pointed almost exactly where he was standing.
He was waiting for her.
The plane bumped into a landing, and the process to disembark seemed to take the longest and shortest time of her life. In a lifetime, in seconds, she was outside security, ignoring Tenten's demands that they retrieve their luggage. Her mind felt like it was a gauzy fog, and she couldn't seem to think about anything else besides finding Naruto. Hinata slipped through the crowds with ease, following a sense she had never known before, only just stopping herself from activating her byakugan to catch a glimpse of familiar blond hair all the faster.
And then he was there, just in front of her, and she found herself wondering if he had always looked that beautiful.
He was smiling, and she realized she was too, standing there in the middle of airport traffic and not caring a whit if anyone tried to run her over.
"Hi," Naruto said breathlessly, his voice like textured honey.
Hinata laced her fingers through his. "Hi, Naruto."
She just barely managed to get the words out before he kissed her, and Hinata found she didn't mind at all.
oOo
Author's Note: I know what you're thinking: "WHAT? But that ending is so OOC from the rest of the story!" Hold on, Duckies! All will be explained. There is voodoo afoot.
As always, I beg your for reviews.