Spark

He's addicted to nicotine patches…

The day Asuma Sarutobi stopped smoking for good was the day a shaken Hinata Hyuuga had turned up at his house with the news that Kurenai had been killed in action.

Team 8 had been on a mission to search for two members of the terror group, Akatsuki, who had massacred a monastery. As trackers, their skills would prove useful in locating the pair. The team had split up, with Kurenai and Hinata accompanied by Izumo and Kotetsu, a chuunin couple, and Shino, Kiba, Aoba Yamashiro, Raido Namiashi, and Akamaru the dog following. Hinata, Izumo, Kotetsu and Kurenai had run into the pair – Hidan and Kakuzu, Asuma recalled their names were – and though all four of them had tried to subdue the pair, it was not enough. Hidan had performed some kind of ritual – he was apparently in some kind of death cult – after his spear had penetrated Kurenai's skin and caught her blood. He'd stabbed himself in the heart, and his injury had been transferred to Kurenai. Helpless, Hinata had watched her sensei collapse to the ground in agony. Shino and Aoba had used a combination of crows and insects to drive the enemies away, but when they attended to Kurenai, it was clear that it was too late. She had survived long enough to say goodbye to her three students, and died in Hinata's arms with Akamaru and Kiba howling in grief.

Then Hinata dropped another explosive tag.

When Kurenai was dying, Hinata had had her Byakugan activated. Within Kurenai's body, she had seen another smaller, fainter chakra network that was already beginning to fade.

It was not one person who had died that day. It was two.

"She couldn't keep the baby alive," Hinata said between sobs. "It was too late, Asuma-san. I'm so sorry. Shino…he did all he could, but…there was nothing…" Then she broke down and buried her face in her hands. Asuma held her close and let her cry, but his mind was miles away. He felt himself floating, looking down from the ceiling at his body consoling a weeping teenage girl. None of this was real. It couldn't be real.

It couldn't be.

She'd done the test and it had come out positive. They'd celebrated. He'd picked her up and swung her around and she'd laughed and said, "Careful," and they'd gone to bed that night and drunk wine and made love.

Throughout Kurenai's funeral, Asuma was only vaguely aware of what was going on around him. In a daze, he laid flowers on Kurenai's stone. His three students, Chouji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka and Shikamaru Nara, were all there, along with their fathers, the Fifth, and several others who'd known Kurenai from the Academy. He briefly noticed Hinata was wearing heavy dark eyeshadow and lipstick, the same Kurenai had used. He was surprised that miserable old git of a dad of hers had let her go to the funeral looking like that. Chouji and Ino were crying. Shikamaru's face was cold and expressionless.

"It's a crying fucking shame," he heard Chouza Akimichi say to Shikaku Nara.

After the funeral, Asuma went down the pub with Chouza and Shikaku – Inoichi Yamanaka, their team mate, was teetotal – and got hammered, and staggered home. A bottle of the wine that Kurenai had loved to drink was on the living room table, mocking him. He picked it up and threw it at the wall, where it burst into a shower of green shards. In a blind rage, he tore the room apart, throwing, kicking, punching, breaking anything in his path. Then everything went black.

Asuma came to to find himself sitting on the floor surrounded by broken glasses. A chair had been smashed, a vase overturned, the lilies Kurenai had bought lying on the floor in a pile of earth. The wine stain taunted him, a bloody gash on the white wall. A searing pain shot through his right hand; he had cut himself on a piece of glass. The ashtray's contents were spilled on the floor. A cracked digital clock read '6:58'.

He fumbled for his packet of cigarettes. It was still in his pocket. He took one out and lit it. He saw her face in the smoke.

Kurenai. Kurenai. Kurenai.

Asuma stubbed out the cigarette on the back of his hand, and screamed into the dark. Pain coursed through his body, memories through his mind. Kurenai holding a toy windmill. Kurenai lying on the bed with her legs spread, her feet on Asuma's shoulders as his tongue went deeper and deeper into her. Kurenai stealing a dango off Anko's plate when Anko wasn't looking. Kurenai confiding in him that she was worried about Hinata. Kurenai lighting a cigarette for him.

Kurenai's lovely smiling face when her pregnancy test had been positive.

Asuma didn't care who could hear him. He cried and cried, just as Hinata had done, gasping for air and blinded by tears. He had always wanted a child, and now that opportunity had been snatched away from him. Kurenai was dead. Their unborn baby was dead. Everything they'd talked about, the names, the jutsu they were going to teach the baby, the plans they'd made for buying toys and a crib and setting up a nursery, crumbled into dust.

He threw his packet of cigarettes in the bin. He poured himself a glass of water – thankfully, his destructive rampage had not reached the kitchen. He knocked it back and went to bed. He would clear up the mess when he felt better, but for now, all he wanted to do was sleep and forget.

Meanwhile, Hinata dried her eyes, applied her make-up, pulled on her jacket, and slipped a tanto into her belt.

Two days later, Hinata's name was on the lips of every villager. She had become a hero, earning the admiration of Naruto Uzumaki – who had been acting as back-up, along with his team mates – in the process. From speaking to other villagers, including Kakashi Hatake and Hinata's cousin Neji, Asuma began to piece together what had happened, and Hinata herself confirmed it when she came to visit Asuma the following day.

Hinata had assembled her team mates on a quest to avenge Kurenai's death. Though the Fifth had tried to stop them, Kakashi had intervened. Akamaru had tracked the duo's scent, and when their paths had collided, the little group had split the duo up. Kiba and Akamaru had merged into a giant two-headed dog and picked Hidan up in their jaws, and carried him off.

Hinata had done her homework. While Kakashi had dealt with Kakuzu, she and the boys had brought Hidan to a plot of land where the branch Hyuuga members trained, and where Team Eight had hidden several explosive tags, buried by Akamaru. Hidan had tried to cut her with his scythe, but Hinata had dodged him while Shino's bugs swarmed him and clouded his vision, and – to the surprise of everyone who heard the story – Hinata had cut off his chakra with a few well-aimed blows. As Hidan stumbled, Hinata used a well-placed Kaiten to send more explosive tags flying, and – with the help of a small lighter that Kurenai had bought Asuma, which she had somehow pocketed - triggered an explosion which had blown him to pieces. Akamaru and Kiba had buried him alive.

Asuma could not believe it. He remembered Hinata's sad little face and quiet, trembling voice when she had broken the news. Never in a million years would he have thought that Hinata Hyuuga of all people would get blood on her hands.

"Don't you smoke anymore, Asuma-san?" Hinata asked him as they sat on the front step of Asuma's house. Her face was now bare of make-up. It had only been a temporary thing, her own way of keeping Kurenai's spirit alive.

Asuma shook his head. He didn't tell Hinata why he'd stopped smoking. She was perceptive enough to understand.

"I know I should feel better," Hinata said, "but…I can't. Even if I killed him…it's not going to bring her back, is it?"

"Someone had to," Asuma reassured her. "The Fifth sent everyone looking for them. And I know you were worried about Naruto." He paused, then added, "But I understand." When Kurenai and our child died, he added silently, a part of me died with them.

Hinata stood up, and bowed. Asuma watched her go, until she had faded into the distance.