Noroi no Uchiha

When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage,

A curse is born

The curse gathers in that place of death

And those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury.

過去の顔

Past Faces

After seeing Hanabi and speaking with Shino and Kiba, Hinata found herself relaxing a little. The comfort of familiar people soothed her state of mind and she found herself able to ignore the shadows and the irritation of Sasuke's constant presence for a couple of days.

The hospital, to her dismay, still had not bothered to contact her.

After three more days Hinata found herself craving company and comfort. The phone call had been a welcome distraction, but she wanted proper company for a while. She wanted to see Kiba or Shino.

Sadly, working up the nerve to ask her stoic charge wasn't as easy as one would believe.

Apparently though, fate decided to reward her patience and cure her loneliness by sending people to her. The doorbell rang like heavens chimes and Sasuke looked up seeming irritated. He glanced at her and then approached the door sending her a glare as she quickly shuffled closely behind.

Apprehensively he looked through the eyehole before moving back and sneering with disgust. With a scoff he turned and walked away from the door and back towards the kitchen, seeming intent on ignoring it.

Hinata had other ideas. Without even bothering to discover who it was, she unlocked the door and all but wrenched it off its hinges in her desperation to let the people in.

Unfortunately, they happened to be the last people she expected.

"Ah, is… Sasuke-kun in?"

She froze as though paralyzed, staring at them with wide eyes as she tried to get her brain to function. She couldn't create movement or speech. She just felt so… so numb.

Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura.

"Must be a cleaner or a carer," the woman said with a slight sneer. She replaced it with a sugared smile and looked down at the shorter woman. "We're Sasuke-kun's friends."

The girl had not changed in the development to a woman. Not personality-wise at least.

"What do you two want?" Sasuke grumbled, appearing behind Hinata and placing a heavy hand on her shoulder to move her out of the way.

"Sasuke-kun!" the girl cried, brightening considerably at the sight of her target.

"Temee! We've been trying to get hold of you for ages!"

"Clearly you didn't get the message. If I asked not to be seen at the hospital and refused visitors, clearly I would not want them turning up on my doorstep," Sasuke said with the slightest hint of a growl.

"Bah! As if we care!" the blonde man pushed past Sasuke and entered the home, his pink companion quickly following. "We're your friends, you need us!"

"He's right Sasuke-kun," Sakura fussed, pushing Sasuke into a chair. "You've been through a terrible ordeal, you need us around."

Hinata fidgeted uncomfortably, feeling like a spare wheel. She wished she hadn't opened the door now. Still, she could be civilised and offer tea at least. Then it would be perfectly acceptable to run into her –actually Sasuke's- room and hide until they left. Yes, she was a mature woman. She could manage five minutes of tea-making.

"A-anou…"

At once all eyes turned on her and it was like being back in school. Intense gazes scrutinising her. She felt her face heat up and her head swim. No, she was a mature woman.

"C-can I…" Stop stuttering! "May I offer you some tea?"

"Sasuke-teme! You've got a maid?"

"Well it would seem fit, considering circumstances," Sakura said, emerald eyes narrowing in distaste.

They either didn't recognise her at all, or were pretending very well.

"Sakura-chan and I drink coffee if you're offering, maid-chan," Naruto said with a boyish grin. Didn't seem he'd changed much either.

"We're out of milk," Sasuke said before Hinata even began to wonder.

"Surely you could just send her to the shop? We'll be here a while and it would give us a little more privacy," Sakura said, glaring at Hinata as she tried to drop the hint.

Ah, go to the shops for a while and escape this house and these people! They surely wouldn't miss her if she was gone a few hours after all… Hang on, had the hospital got in contact with these people? Surely there was no point in coming back! But that would be rude, they're surely about to have an important conversation. She'd come back for her stuff later.

"H-hai! Of course, please excuse me," Hinata said bowing politely before turning to grab her coat. To her surprise, Sasuke's hand appeared on her coat, holding it out to her.

"It won't take long. I'll walk with you," Sasuke said.

"I don't see why that's necessary Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said before Hinata could protest. "After all…"

"She's not my maid, she's a nurse from the hospital that's taking care of me for a special case so that I was allowed home," Sasuke interrupted, fixing Sakura with a glare.

"I was trained personally under Tsunade-sama, I'm positive I could take far better care of you," she said passionately.

"You're needed by numerous patients in the hospital. Not to assist me. I would have thought you'd dropped that petty jealousy in school Sakura."

Even though Hinata didn't like Sakura much, she still thought it a bit harsh. Naruto was being oddly quiet, meaning he probably agreed.

"We don't need you to come with us. We'll be back in an hour or so. Don't touch anything," Sasuke said coldly and pushed Hinata out the door before closing it behind them.

"S-Sasuke-san?"

"They shouldn't have come here," Sasuke said tensely as he began walking. "They're not safe here."

"Sasuke-san, if you want them to leave…" Hinata began but was cut off by a scoff or perhaps a short sarcastic laugh.

"You know them well enough to know that they'll never leave," Sasuke said eyeing her. The statement caught her off guard and she looked down at the ground.

Did he know? They're all friends so surely…

"I know what you're thinking," he muttered and instead of looking up, her head sank lower. "Yes. They did tell me."

"I see…" she whispered weakly in reply.

"What they did to you was wrong."

The statement caught her attention.

"Whilst I may not seem as someone who would care, such behaviour is something I do not approve of," he said quietly. "You didn't deserve it."

Tears prickled her eyes, but she forced them back.

"Arigatou Sasuke-san."

"Don't dwell on it Hinata," the sound of her name still sounded foreign from his lips. Yet in this instance it gave her the right amount of comfort.

With this, a small smile graced her lips. She was pleasantly surprised when she realised he was leading her the long way to the shop.