Ice
Chapter Eight
The week Hinata waited was a week spent worrying. She followed Hanayo's advice on meeting with the branch house, whose attitudes changed from stony to curious. They were cautiously so, though, unsure of her motives. The fact they still obviously mistrusted her made hear unbearably sad.
It was in the middle of the night after the eighth day, that Hinata was woken by a rapid series of knocks on her door. Sitting up, she pulled the covers to her shoulders and called, "Who is it?"
"Milady." Hanayo's voice immediately brought Hinata calm that she hadn't felt in the past few days. "I'm back. My apologies for waking you, but we need to see you immediately."
"Yes, of course."
She rose from the bed, pulling on a silk bathrobe and carefully tying it over her pajamas. Turning, she walked towards the door and opened it, noticing light emitting from her office across the hall. The Hyuuga leader stepped towards it, pushing open the sliding doors to reveal two very bloody figures waiting for her.
Her hand lifted to her mouth as she realized it was the ever-famous Uchiha and her assistant. Hanayo was wiping the blood away from her face, clearing her skin of the liquid.
"You need to see a medic," Hinata told them both.
"Milady, there's something else going on."
"But, the blood-"
"The blood," Sasuke interrupted, "is not ours. Well, mostly."
The last comment was obviously directed at Hanayo, who sneered at him. "Knock it off, Uchiha."
"What did you find?" asked the leader, nervous about the signs shown to her. This stopped the almost childish sneer Hanayo had on her face and caused Sasuke to reach under the long cloak he had on, receiving a manila envelope and extending his arm to her. She took it daintily, avoiding the smears of crimson as she opened it, scanning the contents.
It was a list of names, in random order, and only first names. She narrowed her eyes and tried to find a pattern, but nothing came up. On the last page, though, there were more than just first names. Last names lined the left margin, and they were all "Hyuuga."
Her name was the first, and halfway down the list, her sister's. At the bottom was Hanayo's.
"What is this?"
"Based on the list of names, and what we heard, a conspiracy. We weren't to tell you this before, but the mission we were assigned was from Hiashi-sama. Not the Hokage. He'd been tracking this secretly, but the war threw the trail off. He asked us to pick the trail up."
"Why you?" This bewildered Hinata. A, well, branch member and someone who wasn't part of the clan?
"My father was part of the original ones researching this. Hiashi-sama has suspicions of several members being involved."
"Oh." Hinata frowned, looking along the list of names again. "It's only a small number of names on the list. What do these conspirators want with me and everyone else?"
"It's more of what you are," said Sasuke, calm as always.
"And we are?"
"Targets."
Yo, what's up?
So, fun times. Fun times... being sick I mean.
Anyway, yes, I'm Five-Months-of-Peace, just thought I needed a new name. It was too long. Dagger-Flints is much better, I believe. Anyway, the plot thickens! Hope you enjoyed, and have a great day.