Warning: The following content might be slightly graphic. Well. Time for chapter 17. I'm hoping to finish this sooner than I finished the last chapter. Thank you for being my ever-so-loyally-awesome-Beta, Airyo, and everybody, ENJOY!

Flight of Time

Hinata had never understood what people meant when they said, 'time flies'. How could time fly? It always seemed to pass by in an excruciatingly slow fashion, the hours feeling like days. At least, that was before Akatsuki. Now that she was in Akatsuki, time flashed before her eyes.

Time had also changed her appearance. Her pixie length hair had transformed into long, silky midnight locks. Her round face had sharpened, her high cheek bones becoming more pronounced. She grew in height; not very much, but still, she grew. Her bosom bloomed, signifying that she was a woman, and no longer a girl. She became a woman last month, as a matter of fact.

Time had changed her techniques. She had been continually sparring with her partner, Itachi (they had managed to form a sort of alliance- even though there was still some mutual disgust there), and by now, she had mastered the new water jutsu: now, she only had to touch something for the water in the body to evaporate, and for it to be left with a dry, papery corpse. The jutsu killed in seconds; right now, she needed to find out how to incorporate that into a long distance technique, as well. If it came to it, she could always use her perfected poisoned water technique...

The one thing that time had not managed to alter, however, was her memories, and her feelings. Hanabi's cries still rang in her ears, and so did the image of the Hyuuga laying lifeless, slaughtered, on the hard wood floors. She often got nightmares of what had happened to Hanabi; those had become normal. They were very strange- but she treasured them, despite it all, since they were still a link to Hanabi.

Hinata didn't think that time would ever manage to make her forget her sins: no, never. She never wanted to forget them, either. She deserved the sin, deserved it for killing her family, no matter the reason. Even if it had happened before.

Spending a year in the Uchiha's presence, she somewhat knew his personality, and still marvelled at the fact he had managed to slaughter his own clan, of his own free will. He detested violence, and unnecessary murder; no matter how much he tried to hide it, Hinata could still see behind his façade. She couldn't see everything, of course- Itachi Uchiha was a closed book, impossible to read. A master at controlling his emotions. It was only because his emotions of revulsion towards murdering were so strong, that Hinata was able to detect it.

There was also something else about the Uchiha that was worth worrying about. Hinata had noticed it the first time she had seen it with her Byakugan, but had written it off as something harmless. The truth was: it wasn't harmless, not at all.

The first time that Hinata had properly observed Itachi's chakra system with her Byakugan, she had noticed that there was a clotting of chakra near his lungs. The chakra was steadily turning darker, as chakra does when it stays still. In this case, because of the clotting. It felt similar to when the blood was high in cholesterol, and the patient was nearing a stage of having a heart attack. But it wasn't only in the lungs, no- it was also right behind the eyes, and while Hinata couldn't actually notice the difference in Itachi, she just knew, from her mother's medical books, that Itachi could no longer see properly.

This chakra disease was probably due to his Sharingan, because, there was a similar sort of disease like that for the Byakugan, too. If the Byakugan was overused, the user could potentially loose their eye sight. But it was much less dangerous, and only hindered the eyes sight, and not their lives. With the black chakra spreading like it was- Hinata would have given him half a year to live, at most. But since this was Itachi, and since somehow, the disease wasn't developing as fast as it should have, Hinata gave him two more years. Just two, and he would drop dead, as if he had a heart attack, which he wouldn't have, but a clogging of the chakra system.

That was why Hinata had been working on a cure, secretly. Yes, she knew. She had murdered her clan. She was a 'traitor' to Konoha. She was in Akatuski. Why would she care if her partner dropped dead?

Simple. She was Hinata. And Hinata hated harming more people then necessary; her passion had always been healing. And over the past year, Itachi had become a constant in her life. He was closer to her- and somehow farther away- to her than Team 8 ever was. Team 8 was afraid of her, and put her on a pedestal, being all powerful. They were too scared to truly get close to her, while Itachi wasn't. Itachi regarded her as an equal (or someone lower than him, at any rate), and wasn't afraid to talk to her. He just didn't.

Of course, they weren't best friends. Of course not. Even calling them 'acquaintances' would have been an inadequate term. Both of them felt some semblance of disgust towards the other, and it was only because of their incredible control over their emotions, that both of them were alive. But still, they were a team.

And Hinata just couldn't let her partner die. He wouldn't slip through her fingers- not again. The first time was bad enough, when her mother died. This time, she would do everything in her power for the same result not to be repeated again. Even if she had to read at least two hours worth of medical books a day. Her self-taught medical skills really are improving, though. By now, she can even heal major wounds... although she hoped that she'd never have to.

Also, she had yet to meet any Konoha nin. She hoped for that to stay the way it was, too. She didn't know if she could deal with seeing Naruto, or Hanabi...

Naruto. It was ironic: was she not in love with him at one point? Yes! She was. Did she not think of him during her most perilous moments? Yes! She did. Had she not planned their entire future together? Yes! She has.

So why on earth did her mind come to a blank whenever she tried to imagine Naruto? She had not such problems with Hanabi- she could still make out Hanabi's smile, and her blood curling shrieks. But when she tried to remember something significant about Naruto- she couldn't- because there wasn't anything. She had never spoken to him, nor had they contacted one another in any kind of manner.

She could remember Sasuke better than she could remember Naruto. And that really was kind of sad, since Sasuke...was Sasuke, and Naruto was always the one that did his best to stand out, and be as noticeable as he could. But then again, she had kissed Sasuke. He was her first and only kiss. And, he had actually known her name.

It was time for them to go on yet another mission. Since she had been in Akatsuki, she had been on much more dangerous missions (that in the Leaf, would probably rank as S-Class), compared to Konoha. Some of them involved killings, others were reconnaissance missions, and some even involved disguises. Hinata liked the last ones the most: she could be someone else, anyone other than Hinata Hyuuga, the person who killed their entire clan.

This mission was actually to kill a person that was threatening to spread intelligence about Akatsuki. Although he didn't know any major, or important information, (the only people that did were the members themselves... and even then, they didn't know any of the major plans) information was still information, and it could be something that could be used against them. For the safety of the organization, this person had to be killed.

She'd done missions like these before, on a couple of occasions. They weren't anything new, or even remotely risky. By now, Itachi and herself had developed a routine for missions. Meet up, go to the place, find a hotel, complete the mission the next day, go to the hide out and train until the next mission was given.

And that was exactly what happened. It took them a few days to get to their given location: Suna. They had to be on guard when they entered the bigger, better guarded cities, but even they had their advantages; the abundance of people created a nice cover for them to slip into, unnoticed. Hinata created a genjutsu around herself; Itachi had been teaching her about genjutsu, the one thing that couldn't be self-taught. He was a genjutsu expert, after all.

She created an image of herself having sandy blonde hair, and brown eyes: normal traits for the people of Suna. Itachi converted into an average looking middle aged man with brown hair and brown eyes. Together, they entered Suna, the guards not bothering to even acknowledge them.

Like always, there were no problems with getting to the hotel. They shared a room; Itachi said that he found it pointless to be in separate rooms, claiming that it saved money, and in the case of an attack, it was much more efficient. While both those points were true, and made sense, Hinata still preferred having her own space and her own bed. Instead of both of them sleeping on the floor, they usually alternated on who got the bed; today, it was Hinata's turn.

They wearily prepared themselves to go to sleep, ignoring the howling wind outside. Hinata had never really liked Suna: the sand, coupled with the wind stung her eyes, the sun burned her skin, and she just never seemed to get enough water. She always felt dehydrated.

She fell into an uneasy sleep; somehow, she knew that today she would have nightmares, and not the usual Hanabi ones. And how right she was.

She was back there again. Back at the Hyuuga compound; the moon shining an ominous light, making everything an eerie white. Hinata's sword clanked as it sliced through the bodies of the Hyuuga... unable to stop, even after seeing their horrified, pleading faces. The aunts that had changed her nappies, lay dead on the floor. The uncles that her taught her how to read, lay dead on the floor. The elders that had sneered at her, lay dead on the floor. Their blood was dripping down her sword.

As if that wasn't enough... her sword continued to slice through various bodies, as if they were made out of cheese. It didn't stop, not when Neji's body crumbled, not when her father's head was chopped off... not when Hanabi's terrified face appeared. Still, her sword swung, silencing the scream that Hanabi was emitting. Except, the scream didn't stop. It echoed through Hinata, as her eyes snapped open, and realised that the scream was hers.

Hinata didn't understand what was going on, her mind still back in that white, eerie compound, with Hanabi's blood staining her hands. She was blank to the sensations, although she barely registered warmth enveloping her. But, no, she couldn't, she wouldn't drift off- not when Hanabi was dead, killed by her hands, by her sword. She didn't realise she was beginning to talk until she did. It wasn't talking, really- more like a frantic mumble.

"No, I can't... Hanabi, I killed her... I don't... the elders... but Konoha... I-I-I killed Hanabi! My sister... my sister... H-Hanabi!" Her speech was broken up into short phrases, her words tripping themselves in a desynchronized fashion.

"Calm down. You haven't killed anyone, not yet. We are on a mission to rid someone, yes. But you have to calm down. Right now, you are entering a phase, a shock, and you genuinely have to compose yourself if you wish to avoid such a phase." The voice, rough and uncaring, startled Hinata out of her monologue. She tried to explain.

"I-I never meant to kill Hanabi. I was only supposed to kill-" Hinata caught herself, and abruptly ended her sentence. She couldn't tell anyone of the Hyuuga secrets- a Hyuuga affair was kept as a Hyuuga affair. Betraying the Hyuuga was worse than killing them; that was, in their opinion.

"You spoke in your sleep." Itachi told her gently. It took a moment for Hinata to understand what he was trying to say. He was hinting at the fact that he already knew... Hinata shot him a frantic look, to which he nodded his head slightly, just once. Hinata's eyes welled up in despair... he knew... he knew... hew knew! Traitor... a voice whispered in her mind, repeating itself in a haunting echo. Traitor...

"I understand." Itachi said, a compassionate look on his face. For the first time in Hinata's life, she saw Itachi without a mask. It was strange; he was an entirely different individual. He looked kind, gentle, and peaceful; nothing like the usually blank, stoic Itachi. "I don't understand exactly why I'm sharing this with you. I suppose that every human has to have an outlet, and I suppose that I'm acting because you are so similar to me."

"It was an order to kill my clan." Itachi informed, his face gaunt, and his eyes haunted. Eight words. Just eight words, and it changed everything that Hinata thought she knew about Uchiha Itachi. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to react to this- but her guard was down, too, so she, for once, followed her emotions, and hugged him. It surprised both him and her; Itachi was unresponsive, at first, until he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. Hinata was astounded at the warmth Itachi radiated.

"My fami- the Hyuuga- wanted to take over Konoha. I-I did what I thought was right..." Hinata didn't manage to say it quite as succinctly as Itachi had, but she got the message across. Her arms tightened around Itachi, as memories of that night flashed before her eyes. "I-I c-couldn't, my sister..."

"I couldn't, my brother, either." Itachi whispered soothingly, probably the only person in the world that understood her pain. So, Sasuke was alive, because of Itachi's inability to kill him? Just like Hanabi. It was strange to see how alike they were. Wait- why was Itachi ordered to kill his clan, the Uchiha?

"Why?" Hinata's question was slightly muffled by his shirt, but she was sure he had comprehended it, nonetheless.

"A coup d'etat" He answered, moving neck, so his eyes were on the ceiling. So... the Uchiha's were also planning on taking over Konoha? Hinata shivered. Why? Why were all of these noble families so corrupted and prideful, that they couldn't even stay loyal to their home village? Questions, questions... but no answers.

Slowly, Hinata's body relaxed into Itachi's. She hadn't noticed before, but they were on the bed, against the headboard, Hinata somewhat on top of Itachi. How did they get...

Hinata wasn't sure when she drifted off to sleep, but she was fully aware when she woke up, alert, identifying something foreign under her. When last night's (or was it early morning's?) memories registered, she relaxed, yet again. She was warm, and comfortable, something she hadn't been in a long time. She didn't want to move. But Itachi was an early riser- surely he was already awake? It would have been embarrassing to be caught snuggling against him.

Strangely enough, when she peeked at Itachi's face, he seemed to be still sleeping. She noticed the dark purple shadows under his eyes, and grew concerned. It looked like a symptom of his disease, proof that it was getting worse. She stayed in his arms, knowing that if she moved, she would wake him. He seemed like he needed the sleep. Plus, it was comfortable, anyway.

He woke up around half an hour after she did, his eyes opening, tiredly. He looked at her, but Hinata didn't think he really saw her. No, his disease had already distorted his eyesight, rendering his onyx black eyes sightless. She then swiftly rose from him, untangling their limbs. The bathroom was calling her name.

After the both of them freshened up, they were ready to complete the mission. It was the reason that they were in Suna, after all. To eliminate the nameless liability.

Their team was off balance. After last night, both of them were unsure of how to react to the other, which caused their silence to be painfully awkward. Although Hinata was happy to learn the truth about Itachi, she didn't know how to act towards him, now; be her usual, or let her guard down. Now, she could relate to him, but could they really be called friends? There was no such a term in Akatsuki. There couldn't be. If there was, they would care, more than they should, more than they could.

Even with their uneasy dynamic, they managed to complete the mission relatively easily. This time, Hinata completed the mission, silently killing him with her senbon. Itachi cast her an approving look as they then transformed back into their disguises, about to exit Suna. It was then that crowd split apart, opening the way for something. Or someone.

"Make way for the Kazekage! Make way!" A couple of guard were yelling this out to the crowd, while the crowd obediently followed the instructions. Kazekage? Hinata had heard about there being a new one... after the old one was killed... but she didn't know who exactly it was. She let her curiosity take the best of her as she rose, struggling, like everyone else, to see the face under the veil. It was then the person's head suddenly moved, showing his face, and his mane of blood red hair.

Hinata very nearly gasped when her eyes met slightly widened turquoise ones. It was Gaara. Gaara was the Kazekage! It was unexpectedly expected. And it was as if Gaara knew who she was, even with this powerful disguise on. Itachi grasped her wrist, and pulled her out of the crowd, hurriedly. Hinata wished she could tell what his expressions were; she couldn't, because of the disguise. When they were far away, Itachi came to an abrupt stop, still clenching her hand. "He recognized you. Do you know him?"

The question startled her out of her previous thoughts. "Yes, he was an ally... I met him at the Chunin exams." Hopefully, Itachi would know what she meant by 'ally'. Itachi nodded his head, and then hurriedly started to walk towards Suna's exit, dragging Hinata with him. Now, they just looked like a middle aged couple enjoying a fine day. But usually...

There were no problems with the journey out of Suna, or the journey to the Base. Hinata, though, was lost in thought. How fast time went by. Already, the boy with the lonely expression from yesterday became a powerful Kage for one of the main villages. Already, so much had changed. It really was unbelievable.

But still, time refused to alter one thing. For the both of them. Time refused to alter horrendous memories, memories that still stung, fresh in her mind. It really didn't matter how much time flew- Hanabi's face would always, always be there.

I ended it slightly differently from how I imagined it to be. I still have to highlight something here. SIDE STORY: OBSESSIONS!Yesh. Glad thats over. But yes, please do read that. Anyway, I was kind of disappointed with the amount of reviews... please do review!
Review, review, review,

Sincerely, Aurora-chan!