Title; Fading

Disclaimer; Nope I don't own any of the Naruto characters.

A/N; I thought I should point out that this story isn't about heroes and is very much a grey and grey morality affair. Sasuke in particular is a Byronic hero and will at times border on being a villain protagonist in his actions. Keep that in mind with every chapter.

Mute-Nin- Well I couldn't imagine Kakashi letting Orochimaru take over without a fight, he just underestimated the old snake quite a bit. Hinata's a bit of an odd duck in this story seeing as her experiences can't really leave her the same as she is in canon, here she's spent years locked up, had to do some shady things for good reasons and ultimately there's still how her Gift has affected her. It's left her pretty cynical. As opposed to Naruto himself here it's Sasuke that's inspired her and gained her affection. The only real approval she's had in her life is off jailors she slept with and Akame for her abilities. The way I personally see it is that Hinata has spent years expecting to die and loathing her own Gift as the cause of her woes, she's only had books to keep herself sane and spent a long time telling children stories about princesses and wronged maidens locked in towers or held captive by monsters. And then one day someone came and saved her but he doesn't want anything in exchange for the service. On some level she sees him as the happy ending she's supposed to have but is being cheated out of. I'd love to hear more about your own interpretation though.

Chapter - 35;

A man may have a dozen faces, son, father, husband, friend, enemy, worker, stranger. All of them are the man but none of them sum him up completely.

The Divine have hundreds of faces. Naru's temple offer two views of almost every member of their Divinity but they are still much too limited. More than men or women the Divine are a combination of dozens upon dozens of drastically different and contradictory personalities.

Heroes are said to become the new aspects of the Gods they served in life. They truly devote and irreplaceable that won the right are made part of the Divinity. Though others claim Heroes are kept to be reincarnated to serve once more and others still claim that the greatest followers are made into the Devils that rule the realms for the Gods.

For certain though all agree that most of the Divine were fickle and their Heroes and Champions continued in their service long after death. Whether as a new face for them to wear, a lord to rule part of their realm or wild card to be reborn.

Once upon a time dreams had been a safe place for me, warm and dry filled with everything I could ever want simply dropping into existence. That time had passed though.

I didn't start in the same corridor as I had before but I knew it was the same place, the air held the same oppressive feel to it, the same gravity. And I was in the white dress again though it was stained and filthy it spots where it had been pristine before. My right arm felt heavy and all below the elbow it was as cold and grey as iron.

I felt no pull this time though, despite the gravity that still threatened to crush me. I took a moment to glance around the bridge I was on. White marble stretched out in four directions to four completely different buildings, only one of the paths had railings guarding it's edges while the others were dangerously bare. It was the rain that caught my attention through, rising up from beneath the pathways it seemed to fall into the sky disappearing into its grey cloudy abyss above. It was unsettling.

I found myself shivering and unable to decide on the best path to take. The path with the railings led to a pristine castle, pure white with sloped perfect high walls and it almost seemed to give off light, but it felt dangerous, like a blade ready to fall. To its left the path lead to a tower that split suddenly in the middle branching out in random thin spirals making it almost seem like a great stone tree. To the right the path contorted on its way broken and missing pieces before it reached a monstrous keep of black iron that seemed alone to move swelling and deflating like some great beast breathing in its sleep. None of them looked appealing.

The last path, that had been to my back when I'd awoken, led slightly downward on stones that slowly greyed as they approached the keep. The castle itself seemed more natural than the others, simply shaped but ancient. The walls had cracks in them and moss and ivy growing added a lively green to its dank grey body. It seemed like the safest path, and that made me all the more wary of it.

The stones were slick and cold beneath my bare feet as I crossed the path and near the midpoint the weather took a dramatic shift. There was a rumble from above and the rain reversed direction pelting down on my bare shoulders and soaking the flimsy material of my dress. I fought the urge to run though on the perilous walkway that seemed thinner now than when I had started.

It felt like hours before I reached the high oaken doors, soaked and shivering violently. There was another rumble and the rains changed again as I glanced at the tiny carvings nicked into the doors. They were names, a hundred or a thousand or more that shifted before my eyes. Every few seconds the scratches rearranged themselves to form a new list.

Amazing as it was though I was too cold to spend long marvelling at a door. The doors were heavy but not as heavy as they should have been and swung open noisily. I pulled them shut behind me glancing around the small chamber. Two small torches hung off either wall and I snatched one down quickly grateful for the slight heat it offered me.

The interior was as oddly welcoming as the outside had seemed, at least relatively. Animal skins I couldn't really place lined the floors as I moved deeper into the main room and a few decorations lined the walls, paintings of Lords and Ladies and strange tapestries. It was the massive fireplace off to the side of the room that caught my attention though.

It seemed weird that I could be cold in a dream but then again I had to remind myself this wasn't exactly a dream. It was something Mystic, connected to the Gods and their realms but different all the same.

My dress was still soggy in places when I moved away from the fire but I was itching, something about staying still too long in this world seemed to scratch at my nerves. There was no particular order to the path I chose through the castle. I didn't know what I was looking for if anything and getting back to the bridge wasn't a priority.

It made me think of Naru castle if it had been a home more than a fortress. There was a warmth to the building that I could feel whenever I spotted the signs of some personal decoration, an end table with fresh flowers, a family portrait, a small shrine.

I was weaker here I realised as my arm started to tire, with the loss of my scars came the loss of the abilities I'd earned with them. My lungs felt smaller, more delicate and my heart thumbed at the effort I'd already expended. I didn't like it.

Before long I began to hear the whisperings, the laughter and the sobbing too. It was as if there were hundreds of people hidden away in the walls, going about their business. Yet I could never seem to find anyone else in the halls, only evidence that people had been there. The sounds, the scent of foods and smoke from torches…I could almost feel people brushing past me. My flesh had prickled again breaking out in goose bumps but not due to the cold this time.

Rain broke me from the eerie paranoia and silenced the other echoes. Ahead of me the clatter of rain echoed through the halls beckoning me forward. Rain had always meant safety before now, wet and hungry maybe but I was safe in the rain from monsters.

It wasn't rain I found. When I came to the open archway soft snow was blowing in with a gentle wind coating everything, the echo of the rain hadn't stopped though and I moved to investigate. The pure snow crunched softly beneath my feet freezing my toes as I stepped gingerly out into the swirling snows.

The large square courtyard had a fountain in its centre, ancient and covered in frozen growth but still working. It had made the noise so similar rain. My eyes immediately fell on the woman sitting alone on the untouched stone bench opposite the fountain.

She wore a longer dress than I did linked and interwoven by thick leather belts and chains. It was an inky black along with her tangled hair in contrast to her pale alabaster skin, dark eyes blinked up at me slowly before the woman gestured me over. I joined her but kept the torch carefully between us and sat at the very end of the bench.

"You've gained caution little one." Her voiced reminded me of Sakura's, there was a learned sultriness to it and a wariness. This woman's voice was older though, more raspy and filled with a more open sadness. She kept her eyes on the snows as if they were doing more than just swirling.

"You know me?" It was a foolish question but I was cold again, my legs and feet numb. And the dream world, this God realm seemed to taint my mind, unbalancing me.

"Yes and no. But you must have better questions than that little one." She returned softly stretching a hand that seemed to flow boneless. The pet name clicked suddenly and I felt my caution grow denser.

"You're the Shadow aren't you?" her pale lips stretched into a coy smile, enough of an answer for me. She pointed towards the snows still dancing and I risked a glance.

"That one was mine own, before you killed her." My twin had taken form in the floating ice, as old as I was but absent the scars and dressed in a fine dress. She was smiling at something I couldn't see.

"She's older than when I lost my Gift." Or she seemed to be anyway, and I'd never worn anything like that dress.

"This is the world as it was meant to be, see little one." Another figure appeared, what my alter ego had been smiling at before. He was dressed better than I had ever know him to be but it was only the eyes that caught my attention. Soft brown and not the fiery red I'd lost myself in so many times.

"Where are we?" I asked as the two icy figures embraced so completely unlike how Sasuke and I ever had. It was gentle, loving and easy. It made me realise how desperate the real us could be, when we embraced it was rough and almost panicked. As if we were trying to convince ourselves we weren't dead, passion in the vein of madness. These two were…

"This is the House of Lost Things little one, where those who are removed from causality are kept." I watched the image for another few seconds feeling more and more like I was seeing strangers. I looked to the dark Goddess.

"Removed from causality?" I asked as the ice fell back to the ground silent.

"Wraiths, the corrupted, the ones who break from the track of their destinies into the unknown." I wondered if I really should take the information a face value, it seemed reasonable enough but that was the point of a good lie.

"And what was our destinies?" I asked realising how much less cold I felt now. The ice shifted again to a much younger version of myself, feverish and curled up in a ball. I knew the memory, it was shortly after Hinata had been taken in by the Nara. I'd come down with an illness and spent days falling in and out of consciousness in my makeshift home in the chapel on Hatake's street.

"That's my past not really my destiny." And an unhappy part too. Had Hinata not came and found me after no contact I'd have probably died.

"This was where things changed." Another figure pushed into my hovel, finely dressed and with dark coarse hair. It wasn't hard to guess who it had to be.

"You were supposed to meet back then." But of course as a Wraith Sasuke had been disposed as a Noble by then, and if Sakura were to be believed living as a broken shell.

"So I was what, supposed to be his mistress." Maybe it would have been an easier life but somehow I preferred this way, we were equals not the Nobleman and his whore.

"You were never supposed to exist little one. My creature was supposed to be that one's lover." The images changed rapidly flashing and showing me scenes for these strangers lives, first kisses, days spent in leisure and nights cuddled by a hearth, a wedding in a small room with Sakura and a Blonde man I didn't recognise as the only attendants. And then something more graphic accompanied by a cackle from my companion. I stood to leave but before I could get far a hand seized my wrist.

"Tell the boy my offer stands anew. His business on the rock…when our families turn on you he must come to me, no one else but me." She'd pulled me closer wrapping a powerful arm around my waist. Her eyes were intense as she bore into me with a gaze that brokered no argument. There was something perverse in her manner that repulsed me. I'd felt it before when she'd possessed my body. Something Sasuke had done since the Shadow's last attempt had increased her desire to make him her tool and thrall.

"Tell him, we were fated to be allies, and we still may be." Her body grew hotter and hotter until I thought I would burn as the snow and ice became colder and colder until I couldn't tell either apart and felt myself slipped away.

I was aware of rocking first and then the creaking as men moved about at their work or at leisure. The closest men sat at a table nearby laughing and joking in some strange tongue I couldn't comprehend as they played a game involving animal bones and dice. They didn't seem to pay me much mind though and few even glanced my way as I rose from the makeshift bed.

I still had my leather armour on and my weapons had been neatly piled just beside me including my iron hand. It took some fumbling and a few awkward attempts but I managed to hook the straps around my stump and my weapons belts over my armour.

I was offered a stream of something indecipherable as I tried to ask after my companions but the men also gestured loosely to a door on one end of the cabin I took to lead to the others.

The air was as dense and hot as it had been in Garaa's village as I stepped out onto the deck of the ship. Despite the brightness though I spotted the others easily enough. In the open area Hinata was playing some childish game with the redheaded boy I couldn't claim to know of myself. At the top of the ship stood Sasuke with a slighter bearded man, the Uchiha seemed absorbed in whatever the other man was saying offering little in return. It came to a sudden end though once he spotted me and excused himself. I met him halfway but he lead us further back into the shade of the cabins.

"You've picked up their language?" I asked a little disbelieving, I couldn't have been out for more than a few hours at the most. The older warrior snorted as he leaned against the wall.

"The Captain, he speaks what he calls the God's tongue, supposedly the spoken language in every city that bears a Divine name. Our Naru included it seems." That certainly made things easier, I hadn't liked the idea of being here without any way to communicate.

"He agreed to take us across anyway." I'd passed out just before we'd reached the end of the beach but it seemed Sasuke had managed alright. Though I didn't see any blood stains or bodies so maybe Hinata had handled the negotiations.

"It wasn't so easy, I had to offer him the Light sword as collateral." He said it without much hurt though, I supposed having spent so long working at night as a Raider he'd developed a certain aversion to the Light element. Or maybe Akame was to blame for it.

"We're we going exactly then?" To a city with a name I recognised hopefully, I didn't think I'd pick up a new language all that quickly.

"Some hub city with too many Zs and Xs for me to pronounce right. There should be a few speakers of our tongue though and we can travel from there eventually." I nodded, we couldn't figure out much more until we were there. Sasuke and I could soldier as well as any other and Hinata was well studied, we'd find something.

"I've been back to the dream world." An eyebrow raised in confusion and I scratched my head awkwardly.

"The place I was pulled before by the Gods, my first night as a Raider and after my arm…was lost." Now recognition flashed in the swordsman's eyes, and concern.

"What happened there?" He crossed the few feet to stand closer to me and I appreciated the proximity. He smelled of the sea now and sweat. I figured he must have been practicing while I slept. It wasn't unheard of for Hinata to get his help on her bow work or perhaps one of the pirates had challenged him for sport.

"I didn't start in the dungeons this time, I was outside instead." I considered trying to put into word the oddness of the place or how I'd felt but it didn't seem as important. The bare bone facts would do.

"There were four castles and I explored one. It seemed to be empty but I came across the Shadow after a search." There was more concern in his eyes now though he kept it hidden.

"She, it was a woman at the time, she said it was the House of Lost Things. She showed me what we'd be like if we both still had our Gifts." He wasn't unnaturally silent but I wished he'd offer an indication whether he wanted to know of not. He mightn't realise that it wasn't really us I'd seen, with different experiences those two had become different people.

"She also wanted me to tell you, that her offer's good again. When our families turn on you, she said, seek her out." There was a snort to confirm what I already suspected. Sasuke was not the forgive and forget type, but if it meant his brother…I had to wonder would he change his mind if Itachi reappeared.

"She's really got some creepy crush on you." I teased him after a moments silence. It was the same as the rest, we'd handle it once we were ashore. Another charm wouldn't be impossible to find. The Uchiha didn't look all that amused though, his attention had shifted behind us.

"What…what is that?" The sea had begun to bubble and after a moment a vicious blast of water flew into the air followed by fire, arching into the air from the sea. There were shouts coming from all around us, from the front, back and opposite side of the ship as other anomalies appeared.

Then the giant dark body began to rise.

"You okay?" I asked feeling a little silly, there was no real way any of this could be alright. A bolt of lightning flickered through the dark clouds above us and away in the distance, the water bubbled violently as the last of the newest flame tower died away, I knew ice was likely still building up behind us too.

All in all though the crazy elements raging around us seemed trivial compared to the giant body twisting through the air. It was thicker than the pirates ship by almost five times over and parts of extended high above us disappearing into the clouds. We hadn't seen the gargantuan serpent's head yet, but it knew we were here. I'd used my sight to watch it swirling around, slowly tightening its massive grip. I released a breath.

"Leviathan. The King of Dragons." I hear him mutter as I got closer. A wave knocked the ship and I stumbled awkwardly to his side, as interesting as it was I'd had enough of bumpy sea travel at this point. The Wraith turned away from the calamity fixing me with an odd look and a smile.

"What?" He looked vaguely amused and that worried me.

"It suits you, reminds me of how you dressed in Naru." He explained turning back to the serpent he'd been studying before. I blushed and glanced down after releasing a soft 'oh', the Captain had offered me the dress for comfort but it didn't really look like the dresses in Naru. It was white I supposed, mostly, but it had odd floral patterns and a strange dipping neckline…I'm sure some appreciated that.

"They offered Hanabi one too…she was less trilled." No, in her time together with the Uchiha she'd developed some distinctly unfeminine habits and styling.

"That would be quite a sight." Muttered the Uchiha, he was far away though focused on the serpents coiling body. For a moment I wondered if he was trying to figure out a way to attack it, something in his body language was intense as if he was working up the nerve for an assault. That would be ridiculous though, the thing was simply too big, it made us seem smaller than insects.

"You called it the King of Dragons, why?" I probably would have said snake myself if pushed for a name, Weren't dragon's supposed to have wings?

"The Gods, they create don't they? Baecom gave us light, Cassom carved the earth and mountains and Raig offered us fire to survive." Rhymed off the warrior his attention still focused away from me. I nodded idly, that's what I'd always assumed. Naru may not have worshipped all the Gods evenly but they did consider the world's creation as the work of the primary Gods.

"It's more like the reverse is true actually." Muttered the dark man finally turning away from ocean. The tension hadn't left his body though, if anything it seemed to be increasing.

"What do you mean?" And where did he pick it up, I'd had access to Naru castle's libraries and there was nothing of the sort there.

"The realm creates the God. The God of Death Miasma was only created after humans had existed for a time and it reflected humanity, same with every other God. Fire came first, then it's God, Storms then their God. Dragons are created similarly to Wraiths but they don't separate from the magical world like we do, so they need a Divine ruler too. Ocean Gifted become Sea Dragons, Fire Gifted Flame Dragons and so on." Explained the Wraith crossing his arms and leaning back against the railing.

"So this is the Dragons God?" That explained all the strange weather. If this monster was the sum of every Dragon it would have each of their elements, but…

"How is it here, if it's Divine shouldn't it exist in its own realm?" The other Gods could manifest in the physical world through their Gifted followers but their true power was sealed in their realms, and with good reason.

"It's not strong enough to create a Realm of its own, Dragons never existed in large enough numbers. It's probably too primal as well, growing to this massive size it mustn't have much self-control." That didn't sound promising, even if it was only on the cusp of true Godhood it was still something impossible for us to overcome and if it was that bestial there was no hope of negotiating.

"What are you thinking of doing?" I asked drawing a smirk from the swordsman.

"Who said I'm planning anything." He pushed off the railing stretching idly, the ship rocked again but it didn't really seem to affect the man's balance.

"You got that look on your face, sort of furious, but far away all the same." He left my comment hanging, neither confirming or denying it. That was a bad sign I supposed.

"You should be careful, I…I mean we really depend on you." I offered pushing the point to the stoic man as he turned back out to the monstrosity in the sea. A wave rocked the ship and sent a spray of cool water over our knees.

"Hanabi's stronger than you give her credit for." Came his simple answer as if it made any sense.

"That's not what I meant really, it would hurt losing you." I tried to shift closer but chose my timing wrong as a larger wave barrelled the ship splashing me hard and scooping my legs out from beneath me. In the same rhythm I felt hands clamp down on me and I was forced back against the railings the dark towering Wraith looming over me. For a moment our faces hovered inches apart and I blinked back awkwardly into his burning gaze.

"I…I should go to bed, before I drown or something, I…" I trailed off in my excuse but I still hadn't actually moved yet. I wasn't sure I could with his arms either side of my waist wrapped tightly around the wooden railing. Another wave hit and I grabbed his arms to steady myself.

"I'm not, it's not that I'm blind Hinata." I felt my breath catch for a moment my chest tightening as the horror at being caught blossomed in my stomach with another dozen confusing emotions. Caution won favour.

"What do you mean?" In the tower, in the citadel, maybe even just after I'd been rescued and freed I would have been happy being discovered, nervous but happy. That was before I'd seen him race back into a monster's castle to rescue Hanabi, claw through Daemons half dead just trying to get even an inch closer to her, race after a Sand Golem without armour to protect her. I couldn't imagine him discovering my feeling now could end well.

"The way you look at me, I've seen it before, I know what it means." That was more than enough to make things clear. I had to avoid his red eyes for a moment afraid what I might give away if I met his gaze now.

"A crush, a girl sees a good looking guy preforming heroics…it happens." It wasn't so natural and I knew it wouldn't pass like a crush. I was irreparably in love with this damaged soldier and it was a twisted selfish love too. I steeled myself and glanced up to meet his disbelieving expression, and the resolve came apart. There was no anger or disgust in his features, no judgement….and he was so close, close enough that it I reached out just a little I could…

"She doesn't fit you. Brave warrior with Divine blood and what, gutter rat that can pass for a boy." I laughed a little but it wasn't a pleasant noise, it was shrill and broken and a too prefect reflection on the madness the Uchiha had just uncorked. That unjust resentment I couldn't forget, the wounded pride, the self-loathing that wasn't enough to shame me into silence.

"Brave warrior, you really don't know me as well as you seem to think." There was something defensive in his gaze but he hadn't pulled back yet, and he didn't look repulsed.

"That's how I see you, and I know how you see me." The way he looked at me, completely focused as he seemed to try and see into the deepest parts of me, as if I were something precious and important. Nobody looked at me like that, and nobody could that didn't feel something. But now the Uchiha did look frightened and he was ready to lash out.

"Big tits, round ass and a pretty face. That's about all I see Hinata, good for some things though not what you're looking for." He returned with a low growl releasing the support as he tried to move away. I caught him though, grabbing his collar and pulling him back to me easier than if he really wanted to refuse.

"You're a shit liar. I've been looked at like that before, but never by you." I hissed an odd anger burning at his words. Somehow I felt upset exactly because he'd never looked at me that way, and I desperately wanted him too.

"You're…like broken water." I blinked back at him for a couple of seconds trying to process the odd mixture of words the Uchiha had offered me. And what they were supposed to mean.

"Like rain." I tried softly desperate to understand what 'broken water' was supposed to mean, did I remind him of the rain? And did that mean I reminded him of Naru's protection or it's trouble.

"No, not rain exactly. It's hard to explain." He'd returned his hands to the railing but I kept mine on his shoulders, I was going to see this through now. I had too. Too much had been said not to say it all.

"Try." I offered gently as I could. His eyes had fallen back to mine sadder now, less resolved, less cruel. But still conflicted and that made me happier than all the rest, he wanted this too.

"What about Hanabi, what about your sister?" I had expected the question but it still felt like a knife being drawn, a dangerous question.

"I loved my sister dearly Sasuke, but she's nothing like she used to be. Sometimes I look at her and I can't even recognise the girl I'd known." It was natural for people to change as they grew older and I'd missed a lot of time with Hanabi but there seemed to be too many changes. And there was the way she was with me now…I didn't seem to be Hinata to her but just her older sister, it was like some other woman had taken her place between the years, she knew the history but it wasn't really part of her anymore.

"And that makes it alright, she saved you from Naru." He wasn't going to make it easy, but I didn't mind so much. I hadn't ever expected him to be, for all that he could be gentle at times he could never be easy.

"And I called the rains in the Dead lands, it saved her life then." But I'd called it to save Sasuke, if I was being honest I'd never expected Hanabi to survive and it was only when the Uchiha had fallen and was in mortal danger I felt the power swimming to the surface. His eyes were still cold and I looked down burying my face in his chest.

"And it still wouldn't be alright, loving you is that terrible isn't it. Because she had you first. But I don't mind being a thief or a bitch or a cunt or whatever the hell you call someone who steals their sister's lover. The only thing I can't stand Sasuke is the idea of never having you look at me…for just a little while how you look at her." I looked back up as I felt the arms around me move. The Uchiha had stepped a few feet away and returned to looking out at the mad ocean.

"What are you…?" My words trailed off as the thick wooden cabin door creaked and opened my sister pushing her way outside.

"Garaa's asleep, you ready?" I glanced between my sister in her full attire and the Uchiha.

"You going to let me in on the secret Sasuke?" I had been right about his plotting then. It hurt a little that he hadn't been willing to share any of it with me but Hanabi seemed to be in the know.

"Wraiths and Dragons can communicate by exchanging blood. You should go inside." Was all he offered, as if there weren't a dozen important details he was leaving out. How much blood and how did he intend to deliver it.

"I'm not going to-" I cut off as his hand found by shoulder and his red eyes flashed.

"Go inside for now, we'll finish our conversation later, I promise." I gulped shivering for a moment then nodded. The weather was getting harsher and I had to believe him when he spoke like that. If he promised, I'd wait for him.

I considered putting more in here but it's already close to 6000 and I imagine quicker updates are more in demand than ridiculously long chapters so.

Nobody thought it was really gonna be an uneventful boat ride did they really. So Sasuke knows about Hinata's feelings, and she's made it clear she doesn't mind sacrificing everything else to be with him. And Hanabi's been wandering around her strange dream world again, meeting with some dangerous elements.

Any theories on how it will all play out? Hanabi wants a peaceful life in the south but the Gods won't leave her alone, Sasuke wants revenge in the North but to stay with his new comrades all the same. Hinata only really wants Sasuke but another group of Wraiths are hunting her, why? And there's still traumatised little Garaa, though he didn't feature much here.

Let me know your thoughts.

R&R