Not Sick Chapter 7
Recovery: Part 2
The walls rose around the Village Hidden in the Leaves, towering hundreds of feet above the nearest buildings. This was by design, of course: having structures that neared the height of the walls was not the best idea if you wanted to keep infiltrators from having an easy exit out of the village.
Built with a base of Mokuton wood, the freakishly durable material created by the bloodline of the Shodai Hokage, encased in hardened concrete, and strengthened by generations of doton jutsu and esoteric seals, the walls around Konoha were infamous for their strength. It had taken the village's lost legend Orochimaru of the Sannin months of planning and several hundred human sacrifices to a particularly ornery summon to breach them.
To enemies without, the steep walls were a physical reminder of the Hidden Village's strength. To the people within, they were a sign of Konoha's continued safety. So long as the walls stood, the Will of Fire was secure.
The walls were not being threatened. They had not been threatened in over three years. Instead, they were being used as a perch.
There was no law prohibiting the shinobi of the village from going atop the walls. It wasn't something that many of the ninja of Konoha took advantage of, however (though it was not an uncommon sight to see Maito Gai climbing the things using only a single hand: apparently, it was integral to his morning routine).
Sai, as in many other things, was the exception.
For years, the young man had often found himself drawn to the top of the massive fortifications. He didn't know why. His time in Root had not encouraged introspection, after all.
He wasn't sure whether it was the way that the sun was allowed to shine down on him uninterrupted, or the way that the wind grew stronger and ruffled his hair as it brushed past his face, or simply the feeling of height he felt looking down on the village hundreds of feet below him.
All he knew was that when he was up here, away from the bustle of the village or the oppressive silence of the Foundation's hidden stronghold, alone with the sky and his brush, it became infinitely easier to concentrate; easier to clear his mind, and easier to create.
Today, he wasn't using his brush. Today, he had a pencil in his hand.
Sai was sketching.
His hand moved over the paper, the dull scratching of the pencil occasionally muffled by a gust of wind; every time this happened, Sai's hand tightened on his small notebook.
However irrational it was, he didn't want it blown away.
However, that was not the only time Sai's grip grew more intense. Every forty seconds, like clockwork, his hand tightened on both the notebook and the pencil, threatening to snap the fragile wood and not-so-fragile spine. His eyes would close, and he would stare down, focusing on something that clearly didn't exist.
His tongue was burning.
A sensation of boiling liquid; a coppery slime, one that slid from the surface of his tongue back into his brain and deeper, down his throat. It left him wanting to gag up the taste (which he knew was impossible), or tear his tongue off: the intervals between burning were spent in a timeless anticipation for the next seconds became minutes, which of course were far longer than any minute had a right to be.
It was extremely distracting.
Despite these pauses, he had still managed to make a rather impressive amount of progress on his sketch. Konoha, stretched out below him, was slowly but surely making its way onto the pages.
Domes, apartments, patches of thick trees and hallway-like thoroughfares that sliced through the village dividing the buildings, telephone poles, radio towers, even minute details like railings and water towers; it had all been faithfully recreated on the pages of Sai's notebook.
As he worked, Sai's gaze lingered on a certain hospital, before his dark eyes slid away, staring out past the village. They came to rest on the mountain that framed the whole of Konoha.
And the faces upon it.
For the last ten minutes, Sai had been experiencing what he would tentatively label as frustration. He had been attempting to lay down the Hokage monument in his notebook, but every attempt had seemed wrong.
First, it had been too perfect. Then, too clinical. After that, too loose: there hadn't been enough… detail.
His latest attempt had been his finest, but as he stared at the five faces, each about the size of his thumb, each rendered in excruciating detail despite the distance, he knew that something was missing.
His tongue burned again, and he suppressed a wince.
Root was calling him home.
Danzō (Sai could no longer bring himself to refer to the man with a 'sama') doubtlessly wished to know exactly what had occurred during the pursuit of Itachi Uchiha. While secondary gossip and mission reports were all well and good, there was a certainty that an operative eyewitness offered that the man often relied on. Sai had come before his master many times before for the same reason.
Today, he had resolved not to go.
Just as he wasn't sure why he preferred the seclusion of the top of the walls, he was uncertain as to whyhe'd come to this decision. It seemed simple: Danzō called, and when Danzō called you answered.
But deep within his mind, Sai could see the imperceptible frown that would appear on Naruto's face whenever Danzō was mentioned. How Sakura's lip would turn down, which his books assured him meant that she was either deeply worried or rather attracted to him. He was forced to assume it was the former: extensive testing had determined the latter extremely unlikely.
Sai didn't want to worry his friends. And he didn't want to make Naruto frown.
So today, he had decided not to go.
It had been a simple decision, but it seemed like it had also been the far more painful one. Sai was forced to admit that he didn't care.
His friends were far more important than his own comfort.
So now, he was left staring out the village that the last few months of his life had begun to give a deep, real appreciation for, his tongue and throat consumed with fire, unable to figure out why his drawing seemed incomplete.
The sound of sandals on concrete drew his attention, and he turned his head slightly to the right. Out of the corner of his eye, he found a cloaked man in a plain white mask staring at him. The mask was nearly without decoration: the barest marks of color decorated it porcelain-like surface.
If Sai had to guess, he would say that the mask was attempting to be a hyena. And failing.
The man himself was as unremarkable as his mask. Tall, but not distinctly so. Lean, but not lithe. Standing as if he were relaxed, when he clearly wasn't. There were no marks upon his cloak, or the vest under it. He was perfectly unrecognizable.
The man stared at him, his head cocked to the side, imitating the animal imprinted on his mask. He didn't say anything.
Neither did Sai. After watching the man for a moment, he refocused on his notebook, his pencil steadily tapping against the page.
There was silence, except for the wind rustling the masked man's cloak.
"You are not answering the summon." The man finally spoke. His voice was unremarkable as the rest of him. The only thing that could be said about it was that it was male.
Sai shifted his gaze back up to the monument. An idea had begun to wriggle into his mind, brushing against his consciousness like a meek dog.
He stared at the face of the Godaime, his eyes slowly tracing the left cheek. And the empty space next to it, the craggy face of the cliff.
The masked man watched him, unmoving. When it became clear that Sai wasn't going to answer, he spoke again.
"Why?" It was a question, but only because of the nature of the word. The actual voice held no trace of curiosity; there was no query.
Sai paused, and his eyes slid over to the masked man. He paused, considering, and his tongue burned again. He slowly blinked, and as the sensation slipped away, he answered. Every word was weighed as though it might be his last.
"Because…" he paused again, and his tongue suddenly felt lighter; the whole of him suddenly felt lighter. "Because I do not wish to."
The other man's blink was almost audible, even hidden behind the mask.
"What?" And this time, it was a question, and not just a noise.
Sai shrugged. It was a delicious motion for him; the slow rise of his shoulders, the way his back shifted upwards, leaving his lower half undefended. The implication of carelessness was something that appealed greatly. "I don't want to go. So I am not."
"But… Danzō-sama has called for you." There was honest confusion resonating through the statement. For the man in the mask, it was the equivalent of screaming like a madman and tearing his clothes off in the middle of the street.
Sai shrugged again. He enjoyed it just as much as he had the first time. "I do not care. I want to stay here. I have to finish this."
And he turned his head away from the man, refocusing on the monument.
"Danzō-sama has called. You must go."
Sai didn't look over, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the faces of the kage. His idea, once threaded and patchwork, had begun to solidify. He spoke, his voice soft.
"Will you take me to him?"
The man didn't answer. He just stared.
"No?" It was almost… coy. But of course, Sai didn't know how to be coy.
The silence persisted. The chirps of a far-off flock of birds tore through the air like shattering glass.
"Then please leave. You are distracting me." Sai's pencil touched down on his notebook, and he began to draw once more. The scratching of the pencil made the man in the cloak twitch.
There was a moment of stillness, and for a second Sai believed that the man was going to ignore him. Or indeed take him to Danzō.
Willing or not.
Then, there was a rush of chakra, and the scarcely faced hyena was gone.
Sai sighed, and his left hand, held under his notebook, relaxed. The kunai it held dropped to the concrete with a soft clink.
He stared down at his notebook, and the corner of his mouth turned up into what was unmistakably a smile.
He had barely begun to finish his piece, truly. What he had now was just the barest impression, the roughest of drafts. It probably wouldn't be fully complete for months, or even years. It wouldn't be the first time something had taken him so long.
But nevertheless, what he had now filled him with something warmer than the sun that beat down on his back. Looking down at the page, he realized that he had finally reached what had been missing. It was complete.
The mountainside next to Tsunade's face was no longer run through with crags, plain and rugged. Now, it had been cleared, a canvas upon a canvas.
The dashes of graphite that were there barely gave life to what would lie upon the final page. There were only two things that were plainly visible.
The first was a pair of wide eyes, crinkled in a smile. Somehow, even static and dashed as they were, they somehow managed to convey warmth and good humor.
The second was a set of three lines, placed below each of the eyes, which turned up with the invisible grin.
Sai looked back up at the monument, and in a flash of something, his picture, his idea, became reality. The five kage, gazing out over the village, severe and humorless, gained a new member.
Naruto Uzumaki beamed down at the village he had sworn to protect, and Sai felt the smile that had somehow made its way onto his face stretch wider.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Sakura Haruno was, slowly but surely, being driven crazy.
She had put up with her mother's worry and her father clowning since she had been old enough to understand that yes, she should be embarrassed when her father acted like a total moron, or her mother scolded her in public.
She had survived being on Naruto Uzumaki's team for over a year, something that every Konoha ninja alive would agree (for various reasons) was a feat unto itself.
She had survived the Chūnin Exams and Orochimaru, had survived the shinobi of the Sound Village, and had survived the mad Jinchūriki of Suna. She'd walked away none the worse for wear, and with a new found appreciation for both her teammates and living in general.
She had managed to suppress the fear and depression that Sasuke leaving had thrown her into, the feeling that she just hadn't been good enough, had been worthless. She'd been doing that for three years now, with a smile on her face.
She had gone up against more S-ranked ninja then she thought she would ever see in her life, let alone fight. And she had hurt, actually harmed, two of them. Badly.
Through all of these challenges, Sakura had remained strong. Unbroken.
Sane.
And now, a single damn clock was threatening to do what even the leader of the Akatsuki had not.
Sakura glared up at the tiny circle that sat above the doorway. It looked so small, so fragile. Plain black finish, with a white face. Unassuming, harmless.
Tick.
And yet, it was so loud. How could she rest with a racket like this?
Sakura stared at the clock, an eyebrow twitching.
'Go on,' she thought viciously. 'Do it again. I dare you.'
It occurred to her that normal people did not dare clocks.
It also occurred to her that she truly didn't care.
This thing was challenging her.
Tick.
Sakura's brow immediately flattened out; her eyebrow stilled. She growled, and swung out of her bed, ignoring the instinctive wince at the pain in her ribs and legs, and let out a hiss as her feet hit the cold hospital floor, her annoyance only growing at the sensation.
Tick.
She took a deep breath, and stalked over to the clock, glaring at it the whole time. She reached it, coming to a stop under the doorway. Her left hand went up, reaching for the implement.
Tick.
Her middle finger curled back, coming to rest behind her extended thumb. Her hand stilled directly next to the clock.
Tick.
Sakura grinned, and flicked the tiny mechanical thing.
There was a sharp 'ping', and an indent several inches deep appeared in the side of the once perfect circle. The hand moved again, once, without noise, before juddering back and forth for a second. It went limp, swinging down to land on the six.
Sakura listened for a moment.
Silence. Blessed silence.
She smiled again, lighting up the room, and shuffled back to her bed. Groaning, she pulled the covers back and lay down once more, allowing the light from the open window to spill over her as she relaxed.
The bed was warm. The village outside was warm. The mattress was quite soft, thought the pillows were perhaps a little scratchy. Best of all, Naruto was safe. So was Team 8, and Kakashi-sensei.
And Sasuke was back in the village.
Sakura's eyes began to droop shut, lured away from consciousness by the newly earned peace and quiet.
"Hey, Forehead! You awa-"
Green eyes snapped open, and the kunoichi tried, and failed, to suppress a groan. Though in truth, the groan sounded more like a snarl.
She shifted her head to the left, and found Ino Yamanaka staring at her, pupil-less eyes wide. She was wearing her normal outfit, purple and fishnets all over. Her hair was drawn back in a full ponytail, revealing both of her eyes. She looked alarmed.
"Uh…" the girl said, sounding unsure. "Okay. That's fine. I can come back later if you want." She stared cockeyed at Sakura, as if expecting the other girl to leap out of the bed and bite her face off.
Sakura groaned again, and propped herself up on her elbow, doing her best to look like she didn't want to murder Ino. With her other hand, she waved her friend off.
"No, Ino, it's fine. You just… startled me," she said. Ino continued to stare at her. Sakura gave an unconvincing grin. "What's up? Come to see if my last mission finally made you prettier than me?"
Ino relaxed and grinned back, reaching up to flip her hair out of her eyes, before she realized that all of it was held back by her ponytail. She tried to turn the motion into a flip of her hand, and somehow succeeded. The graceful movement almost made Sakura jealous.
"Pfft. Dream on, Forehead. It's been like that for a while, and you know it." She chuckled, but it wasn't a real laugh: Sakura could detect an undercurrent of concern in it.
Ino continued. "I just got back from a mission, you know. It was actually quite the adventure. Anyway, I heard you were in the hospital. So I came to check in on you." As she finished, she leaned back, winking conspiratorially.
"That's not all, though. I brought you a gift!" she announced, and threw her arms to the side, presenting the empty doorway.
Sakura stared at the door. Ino stared at her. After a second, she turned her head to look at the doorway. She grit her teeth. "I said, A GIFT!" Ino shouted.
Nothing happened.
Ino glared, as her face began to morph into an expression of pure, unbridled fury. A vein on her forehead twitched.
Nothing continued to happen.
Sakura delicately cocked an eyebrow.
Ino gave the empty space beyond her arms a look that would have killed anyone foolish enough to walk in at that moment.
There was a loud snore, echoing from somewhere out in the hallway.
Ino snapped. She marched out of the room, her hands clenched at her sides, fists balled. She was shrieking; Sakura couldn't help but think that the noise was a thousand times worse than the clock had been.
"SHIKAMARU!"
There was a muffled snort, a rather loud 'SLAP', and a brief yelp.
Ino strode back into the room, dragging Shikamaru by his topknot. The Nara was protesting. Loudly. He was sitting down, his legs stretched out and dragging along the floor. A large basket sat in his lap, filled to the brim with colorful fruits and candies.
Several umeboshi, salted plums, sat atop the whole thing, a tantalizing yellowish-orange topping.
There was a tiny red ribbon tied to the handle of the basket. Sakura's eyes fixed on it. It was terribly familiar.
"Seriously, Shika'! How the hell did you fall asleep out there? I was gone for like five seconds!" Ino was screeching over the boy's protests. She gave a particularly vicious yank, and Shikamaru's own yelling was cut off by a pained exclamation. Something that sounded like a cross between "What the hell?" and "Oh god my hair!"
The blonde continued ranting as she pulled Shikamaru to a stop at the foot of Sakura's bed. The Nara's back slammed against the side of the bed. His hands went to his abused hair, clutching his scalp.
Ino didn't slow down. "You may have a problem, you know! Dropping like that, it's not normal! You could be a narcoleptic or something! How you made chūnin before me, I'll never know. You should let me check! I'll just pop in and-"
Shikamaru finally managed to cut in, stopping Ino in her tracks. "Trust me, Ino. The last thing I need is you in my head." He groaned, before looking straight up. His inky eyes met Sakura's own bemused green ones, and he smirked.
"Hey, Sakura. How you put up with this harpy, I'll never know," he said, deliberately echoing Ino. The blonde, standing above him, cracked her knuckles and hmmphed. Shikamaru flinched.
Sakura smiled back. "Time, Shikamaru. Time and patience."
Shikamaru hn'd, a tiny smile on his face. "Troublesome. I don't have either of those," he said. He raised his hands up towards Sakura, and the basket with it. "Here. Chōji and Ino put this together for you. She just made me carry it here."
Ino growled again, and Shikamaru shut up.
Sakura accepted the basket, setting it on her lap. She stared at the ribbon, familiarity niggling at her brain. After a moment, she dismissed it, focusing on the contents of the basket. "That's a lot of food," she noted. "I thought you only just found out I was here? And where's Chōji, then?"
Ino smiled as Shikamaru warily made his way to his feet, rubbing his head. "He's taking a nap. Or three. Sorry that he couldn't come to see you, but our mission took a lot out of him. As for the food… well, you'd be surprised how much Chōji has in his house. Though I'll admit…"
She shifted her feet, looking a little self-conscious. "Getting some umeboshi on such short notice was pretty tough."
Sakura laughed. "I just can't believe you remembered. When did I tell you about that? Five years ago? Six?"
Ino nodded. "Almost six, yeah. But I mean… what kind of friend would I be if I couldn't even remember my best friend's favorite food?"
Sakura stared at Ino, and opened her mouth.
Shikamaru coughed loudly, and any pretense there was of being a moment vanished.
"So…" he said, as Ino glared at him and he pretended that he didn't notice. "How'd you end up in here anyway?"
Sakura turned to look at the Nara, narrowing her eyes. Shikamaru never did anything without reason. Particularly menial things like carrying gift baskets.
So that was how Ino had roped him into coming. Shikamaru was curious about what had put two teams in the hospital; rightfully so.
Sakura mentally shrugged, and decided to oblige him. He'd find out somehow anyway. At this point, with the Hokage debriefed, it was more of an open secret anyway.
"It's… complicated," she said. "Do you two know what our mission was, when we left?"
Ino shook her head. Shikamaru closed his eyes. "Not explicitly, no." Sakura moved to continue talking… before the dark-haired boy cut her off.
"However," he said, "It's easy enough to figure out. You were after Itachi Uchiha, right?" He spoke perfectly calmly, as if talking about the scratchy hospital pillows rather than one of the world's most notorious criminals. Sakura stared at him, her mouth still open.
Ino just sniffed, and tossed her hair. "Now you've done it, Sakura. He just wants to show off. Don't-"
But she was too late. Sakura was already asking the first question that had sprung into her mind.
"How the hell did you know that?"
Shikamaru smirked. "Well, first off, it wasn't exactly a secret. But without even considering that: you and Naruto, along with two experienced ANBU operatives, an S-ranked jōnin, and Team 8 were all sent off after Konoha got news that Orochimaru had been killed by Sasuke."
Ino shifted minutely at the mention of the Uchiha, while Sakura subtly flinched. The blonde noticed the reaction, but merely filed it away. For now, however much she would deny it out loud, she was curious how Shikamaru had known the pursuit team's objective.
"So, the former Team 7, which I would definitely classify as a combat team considering that it consists of the Jinchūriki of the most destructive of the Bijuu and the second strongest woman in Konoha, accompanied by two ANBU, and Kakashi Hatake. That combination tells me that whatever the mission was for, it was going somewhere, or after someone, that was extremely dangerous."
Sakura blushed at "second strongest", and Ino winked at her.
Shikamaru paused, one of his hands curling open. "However, you were also traveling with Team 8. An Inuzuka, an Aburame, and a Hyuuga. All clans that are dangerous to fight, sure; but also renowned for their tracking abilities. Meaning that you were likely chasing someone."
Sakura finally got around to closing her mouth. Ino stifled a giggle. When it wasn't being done to her, seeing Shikamaru go through his 'I am a genius' routine was actually pretty funny.
The Nara kept going. "So, I knew that a team of eight shinobi was looking for an individual dangerous enough to merit so many high level ninja. Normally, that list would be rather large, but the timing of the mission narrowed it down. You were sent out just after Orochimaru was reported killed by Sasuke. So, it was likely that you were looking for him. After all, bringing back the last Uchiha would be quite the coup for Konoha."
Fortunately, no one in the hospital room knew the deeper irony of that sentence.
"But, you would have no way of knowing where Sasuke actually was. Orochimaru's bases are well hidden, and Sasuke could have gone anywhere after he took the guy out. Fortunately, you didn't need to know where Sasuke was; just where he was going. And if Sasuke would go anywhere, it would be to where the man who killed his family was."
Shikamaru's smirk faded slightly. "In addition, the members of Akatsuki, while quite mobile, are tracked by the village to some capacity. They're too dangerous not to be."
He paused for a moment, memories washing over him. Ino watched, calm. Shikamaru closed his eyes, and when he opened him there was no trace of the moment of remembrance. "Thus, it stands to reason that to find Sasuke Uchiha, you would first have to find his brother, whom you at least could locate."
"From that, it was easy to draw the conclusion you had been sent out in search of Itachi Uchiha," he finished.
Sakura stared at the Nara. Ino tried not to. The dark-haired boy looked back at Sakura, doing a much better job of ignoring Ino than Ino was of ignoring him.
"Shikamaru…" Sakura said hesitantly. "Did you actually manage to figure out we were going after Itachi, just like that?"
"Huh?" The Nara said. He idly scratched his leg. "Nah. My dad's the ANBU Commander. I just looked through the mission reports and found out what Yamato-taichou was up to."
Both girls stared at the inky-eyed boy for a moment, shocked.
Sakura was the first to break the silence. She laughed, a tiny giggle at first. Soon, it developed into something much more.
Ino looked like she couldn't decide between joining her friend and pummeling her teammate. She settled for both; laughing loudly and kicking Shikamaru in the shin.
The Nara rubbed his leg, but he was grinning as well. "But seriously," he asked, as the laughter trailed off. "What happened? Itachi beat you up?"
"No." Sakura said, shaking her head. "Actually, you probably won't believe me… but I think he saved us."
Ino and Shikamaru stared. "You're right." The Yamanaka said, her pupil-less eyes wide. "I don't believe you. How did that happen?"
"Well… It's a long story." Sakura paused, looking thoughtful. "Actually, not that long. Just… complicated. The first thing you should know, Ino… Sasuke is back," she muttered.
"What!?" The blonde girl yelled, excited. "Why wasn't that the first thing you said? We should go see him! Where is he?"
Sakura shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "Probably somewhere in the hospital. Under guard, I bet." She sounded subdued.
Ino noticed.
"Come on, Sakura. Why're you so quiet? Sasuke's back! Why aren't…" She finally took a good look at Sakura's face. The pink-haired girl was closing her eyes tightly, biting back something.
"Sakura." She looked up at Shikamaru. "What's wrong?" he asked seriously.
Sakura sighed. "He's blind."
Ino looked taken aback; Shikamaru stiffened.
"What?" That was the Yamanaka.
"Sasuke's blind. Itachi took his eyes."
The room went silent for a moment. Sakura's hands curled around the edge of her blanket.
Briefly, Sakura wished she hadn't broken the clock. Even it would have been better than the silence.
Ino finally got her voice back. It was trembling.
"Oh my god. You mean-"
"Ripped them out."
"Oh my god," Ino said again. Her hand came up over her mouth, and she unconsciously rocked back on her heels.
Shikamaru just stared, his intensely dark eyes seeing something else than Sakura. "Why?" He asked, his voice level. He made as if to sit down, before Ino glared at him. Sardonically raising an eyebrow, he rolled his eyes and stayed on his feet.
Sakura shrugged: she suddenly felt exhausted. "I don't know," she said. "I didn't ask. But I can imagine."
"Didn't ask? Wait, you actually met Itachi face to face after he did… this?" Ino asked, looking concerned.
"Yeah." Sakura's voice had become steadily flatter. Shikamaru moved to speak, but was cut off. "Listen, this will be easier if you both just listen for a minute. I'll do my best to explain what happened."
Shikamaru and Ino took Sakura's advice. Ino bit her lip, while Shikamaru's hands had slowly begun to fold together, the tip of each finger meeting its opposite.
Sakura took a deep breath, and told them everything.
Hinata took a deep breath, and cast her eyes down at her hands as they fidgeted in her lap.
Hiashi Hyuuga stared at her, his pale eyes piercing her. The head of the Hyuuga clan held himself with perfect poise in the seat besides his daughter's bed, his arms crossed in front of him.
He had been listening to his daughter's story for the past fifteen minutes, his face expressionless. He had arrived earlier in the day, drawn by the news of her return. The fact that Hinata, even with Sakura's care, had been the most injured of the pursuit team had doubtlessly sped his coming.
That fact brought another bout of shame to Hinata, and she bowed her head lower. Her lips trembled, before firming as waves of self-loathing washed over her.
She really had been useless. When Pain had come for Naruto, she hadn't been able to help at all. All she'd done was get in the way.
She'd deflected an attack her team could have easily evaded. She'd distracted the man with the Rinnegan for a few seconds before being blown away, twice. She'd had to be rescued from two of his summons.
And when it had come down to it, when she'd finally been given the chance to prove herself to Naruto...
She'd failed.
Utterly.
Pain had crushed her. The best she had been able to accomplish, against the man that Naruto had fought with every inch of his skin burnt raw and his body exhausted, had been mere stalling actions.
She should have died. She would have died if it weren't for a shinobi much more skilled than her. Itachi Uchiha had saved her.
She always needed to be saved.
The fact that she had lost wasn't what filled her with disgust. She had expected to lose, really.
The fact she had lost without giving Naruto a chance to escape was what filled her with loathing.
So now, Hinata sat in her hospital bed, her body aching, the space behind her eyes burning, and drowned herself in self-recrimination.
"Hinata…" Her father spoke slowly and quietly, his every word weighted. He sounded almost regretful. Hinata closed her eyes.
She could already hear his words. She didn't blame him for them.
Why was she so slow?
Why couldn't she save her comrades?
Why did she waste their time making them save her?
Why bother them? Why make them save someone so useless?
It wouldn't be so plain, of course, but it didn't need to be. She could fill in the blanks herself.
Hinata's head lowered further under the oncoming onslaught. She dug her nails into her palms, hidden by her blanket.
Her father began speaking again.
"I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am." His voice was no longer slow, nor quiet.
Hinata opened her eyes. Wide. She slowly raised her head, her hair slipping away from the surface of her blanket.
'What?'
"Father?" she asked, unable to believe what she had just heard.
"You acted with impressive will on your latest assignment. You brought honor to both yourself and your clan. As I said," he paused, glancing away from her for a moment, looking out the window, before redirecting his attention. "I am proud that you are my daughter."
Hinata didn't understand. "But… I failed. Pain defeated me, and escaped. If it weren't for Itachi Uchiha, then-"
Hiashi cut her off with a single raised hand.
"You singlehandedly engaged the leader of the Akatsuki, a man who defeated all the rest of your comrades with a single jutsu, and fought him to a standstill until reinforcements could arrive."
The idea of Itachi Uchiha being reinforcements was incredibly strange, but Hinata didn't dare to interrupt her father, who continued in a clear, calm voice.
"You started the fight so exhausted you weren't even able to activate your Byakugan, along with a broken ankle, and did not stop until you were physically pinned to the ground by a larger, heavier opponent, despite accruing a severely dislocated wrist, several broken fingers, quite a few broken ribs, and a burst kidney in the process."
Hiashi shook his head, looking rueful. "Even with these injuries, you managed to disable two of his limbs in the heat of combat, and remove his peripheral vision with a glancing strike that, had it connected fully, would have rendered him brain-dead. All without using your eyes."
Hinata's father smiled, something that she had rarely seen before. "Hinata, my daughter, it is impossible to call what you did a failure."
"I… but…" The Hyuuga heir was speechless. Her eyes were blank, but the beginning of something that looked very much like hope was beginning to creep into them.
"In fact, if this mission of yours revealed any failings, it was my own." The clan leader sighed. "I now know that you are, without a doubt, the heir I have been hoping for. The last few years have certainly changed you for the better, Hinata. I am… glad."
Hinata couldn't begin to think of what to say. So instead, shocked, she just said, "Th-thank you, father." She paused for a moment, stock-still. "But why… why are you…"
"Glad?" Hiashi supplied. Hinata nodded mutely.
Her father looked away from her, and sighed. "For the longest time… I worried about you," he said. "I know you are a gentle soul, Hinata. The life of a shinobi was not necessarily meant for you. You could have done well in other walks of life."
Hinata's eyes dimmed. Her father had just said he was proud of her. But now… she wasn't meant to be a ninja?
Hiashi continued talking, unaware of his daughter's thoughts. He was staring off into the distance, lost in his own world.
"You are just like your mother in that respect. And… at first… it seemed like while you had been given her beauty and kindness, you had not been given her will."
He turned to Hinata suddenly, startling her. "That was why I married her, you know. Oh, the elders thought they were so clever placing us together like that… but we both knew better. She was the only one who could stand me. And I wouldn't have settled for someone subservient. I spent my whole life surrounded by servants and masters."
His eyes grew intense, and he stared at his daughter. "Do you understand, Hinata? I wanted an equal."
Hinata just looked back at her father, desperately hoping he wouldn't think less of her for the confusion on her face.
However, Hiashi did notice. He blinked, and his eyes began to thaw.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hinata. That's… ancient history. The point is… I am glad, because now I know that you're mother is not as gone as I thought. Her will, her…" He paused, and chuckled for a moment. Hinata blinked, looking just like Hiashi for a brief second. Her father never chuckled. "Her stubbornness lives on in you."
"…Thank you, father." Hinata whispered. She didn't know what else to say.
Her whole life, she had wanted to live up to her mother's love and her father's strength. But it had always seemed like she'd been given her mother's less shinobi aspects, and Hanabi her father's more militant ones. It had seemed to be her fate to always be a lesser ninja than her sister.
Hanabi was faster. Hanabi was colder. Hanabi was smarter.
But maybe, Hinata realized, that didn't matter.
She didn't have to be the better ninja. Not all the time. She didn't have to walk through life with her heart covered in ice, her eyes always scanning for threats.
Hinata stared back at her lap, where her hands were. Slowly, she unclenched them.
She didn't have to be strong. Not all the time. Not like Hanabi was. She just had to be strong, be hard, when she needed to be.
And, looking back, with her father's words coating her memories, Hinata saw something incredible.
She had been.
She had fought Pain. Fought the man who had brought down Itachi Uchiha with a single jutsu, who had crippled Naruto. She had fought him until she couldn't fight anymore, and then she'd tried to keep fighting anyway.
She'd fought, not because she wanted to be a great ninja, but because she wanted to protect Naruto.
Such a simple idea.
Such a powerful idea.
That was what being a ninja was about. Protecting those that couldn't protect themselves. Protecting those precious to you.
Hinata thought she had understood. And she had, on the surface. Naruto had been simple. He didn't back down, even when the world threatened to crush him day and night. And he did that with the will he gained from protecting his friends. But now, with her new perspective…
She began to understand what lurked beneath Naruto's philosophy.
As Hinata stared at her hidden hands, eyes wide, Hiashi rose from his seat, shifting slightly. Then, he cocked his head to the side.
Hinata looked up at him, a questioning look in her eyes.
Without a word, her father activated his Byakugan, the veins spiraling out. For a moment, he stood still, before his eyes returned to their normal state.
"You have a visitor," he stated simply.
"A visitor?" Hinata asked timidly. Who would want to visit her? Kiba and Shino were still recovering, and her father was already here.
In response, Hiashi strode over to the closed door to the room. He stood by it a moment.
Two seconds passed. Three. Hinata wondered why he was waiting.
Hiashi reached down and opened the door.
Naruto Uzumaki froze on the other side as his hand knocked against nothing but air.
Whatever he had expected to find on the other side, it certainly hadn't been the severe face of Hiashi Hyuuga.
Hinata had to stifle a giggle as she watched the blonde's face morph from careful cheerfulness to barely reserved shock. But inside, she was just as shocked as him.
Naruto had come to visit her? Why?
"Uh, hey, Hyuuga-san. Err, sama," Naruto stuttered, barely catching himself on his honorific. "Is Hinata here? I kinda… need to talk to her." He tried to peek over the imposing man's shoulder, but Hiashi made as good a door as the one he'd opened.
"Hyuuga-san is perfectly fine, Uzumaki," the man said. "Let's not stand on ceremony. I get more than enough of that in my own home." As he spoke, he moved forward: Naruto had to backpedal to avoid being run over. Hiashi's stride was relentless, and soon enough Naruto's back was to the far wall.
The elder Hyuuga came to a stop a little more than a foot from him. Naruto unconsciously pressed himself farther back against the wall. Hiashi's face was nothing but placid, but there was something intimidating about his blank, pupil-less eyes that Naruto had never seen in Hinata's.
He had seen it once before, though. In Neji's: right before the genius had beaten him to a pulp and closed all of his tenketsu. The memory made him wince. Hiashi watched the reaction carefully, and Naruto stiffened under his hard eyes.
"After what my daughter went through for you… well, I hope you and she do have a nice 'talk', yes?" Hiashi asked, every word sounding far more sinister than their simple nature should have allowed.
Naruto simply nodded frantically. He had no idea what was going on, but the sooner it was over, the better.
"Good. I'll leave you to it, then." And with that, Hiashi turned and walked away, down the corridor. Naruto watched him go, his eyes wide.
He turned to look into Hinata's room, where the heiress sat watching him. She blinked, and looked away.
Naruto peeled himself off the wall, and carefully made his way into Hinata's room. He half expected Neji to leap from behind the door or curtains and give him a similar treatment.
He reached Hinata's bedside, and sat down in the chair her father had left behind. As he did, he let out a relieved breath. He looked around furtively, and then leaned towards Hinata, whispering conspiratorially, his eyes darting around as if he was expecting to be ambushed at any moment.
"I thought you said that your father didn't hate me?" he asked.
Hinata squeaked. "H-hate you?" she asked. She was still looking down at her blanket, her mind whirling. Why was Naruto here?
"Well, yeah. I mean, when you were talking to Pain, you said that he didn't care about the fox. But I mean, what was that then?" Naruto didn't sound hurt, or confused. Was he joking? Or had her father actually offended him?
Hinata broke out into a cold sweat. "Well, uh, I mean, of course he doesn't hate you Naruto. He's just, uh, well…" Hinata's mind stalled as she scrambled for an explanation for her father's behavior: behavior that she, in fact, did not fully understand herself.
Naruto watched her stutter for a moment, and then paled. He palmed his face. "Oh, god. I'm an idiot."
Hinata looked up. "Naruto?"
The blonde was barely paying attention. He looked terrified. "Hinata, I'm so sorry that you got hurt so bad. When you were fighting Pain, all I could do was lie there. I was so useless! Please, please accept my apology! And, and tell your dad I'm sorry too! I didn't want you to get hurt; I tried to help, really! But-"
The rest of Naruto's rushed apology faded from Hinata's hearing as she stared at him, astonished. He was sorry she had been hurt? While he'd been on the ground, exhausted and completely covered in burns?
She couldn't help it. She smiled.
Naruto noticed her smile, and trailed off. "What?"
Hinata blushed, but answered anyway. "It's just… Naruto, you shouldn't be the one apologizing to me. I should be-"
"Don't even say it." Naruto interrupted her.
'What?' Hinata didn't say anything, but her face was worth a thousand words. Naruto's face, on the other hand, was more along the lines of three or four as he rushed to fill the void his interruption had left. Most of those words were a different take on 'sorry'.
"It's just… Hinata, if it weren't for you, Pain would've taken me right there. You stopped him by yourself! I barely managed to take down one of them, and I wasn't even hurt like you were," Naruto said.
"But, I didn't… Itachi-"
"He would have arrived way too late if it weren't for you. I'd have been gone by then. Hinata, you saved me."
"I… well…" Hinata's attempted word in edgewise hardly made it out of her mouth before the enthusiastic blonde bulldozed it.
"And that wasn't even the first time! I would have given myself up to that creep if it hadn't been for you! I was totally ready to go back on my nindō! And you stopped me!" Naruto had been getting steadily louder as he went on, and by now he was nearly shouting.
Hinata's fingers slipped out from below her blanket, and she began to press them together in an age-old nervous reflex.
"Someone else would have done it," she muttered, flushing. Naruto's attention, and volume, had only made her quieter.
The blonde stared at her for a second, taking in the way she was laying in her bed, curled in on herself, avoiding eye contact. He shrugged. "Maybe. But they didn't. You did."
He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Hinata became red as a brick and twice as silent.
After a moment, Naruto looked away from her, his hand slowly gravitating towards the back of his head. When it was about halfway there, he froze, and looked back at it. Slowly, he lowered it back towards his lap.
Hinata saw the motion in the corner of her eye, and smiled. She'd seen him do that more times than she could count.
But she still didn't say anything.
The silence dragged on for another couple seconds.
Naruto opened his mouth, before closing it again. He nervously scratched his leg.
Hinata did her best to keep her fingers still. She became aware of how loud the clock above the door was.
Naruto sighed. Loudly.
"I'm no good at this," he muttered. Hinata looked up at him, her fingers finally ceasing their twiddling. He turned to her, grimacing.
"Uh…" he said. "Well…"
"Naruto?" Hinata asked, puzzled.
"It's just, I mean…" Naruto stammered out, before taking a deep breath. "Hinata… uh… well… you said… back when… well, when Pain was… uh, you said…"
Hinata sucked in a breath. Her eyes dropped once again, and her hands clenched together, her knuckles whitening.
Naruto barely noticed her reaction.
"Hinata… you said that you… loved me. I mean… did you mean… do you actually…" Naruto was still stuttering, but as he went on, his face slowly firmed, and his speech became surer.
Hinata remained silent, staring at her bed.
She could barely string her thoughts together.
The Hyuuga heiress had always been content to watch Naruto from a distance, and draw strength from him. It was… easy: easy as being under the sun, easy as breathing air. Naruto, by his very nature, was incredibly inspirational. Hinata had been the first to notice it, but not the last.
Something like him, something that burned like it did all the time, that was significant, sometimes, for simply continuing… she couldn't lie to herself. Hinata had been afraid to actually reach out and touch it. To bring herself closer to Naruto.
It wasn't a fear of rejection. Rejection had never even entered Hinata's mind, since she'd never believed for a moment that she actually deserved someone like Naruto. It was a formless fear of recognition.
A terror that if she actually walked into Naruto's light, rather than just watched it, she wouldn't like how she looked in it.
But now, Hinata realized, things were different.
She had finally begun to truly understand what drove Naruto, and not just emulate it. She'd thought that the endless will (the stubbornness, her father had called it) that drove him to never give up had been the source of his strength; the source of his light.
But she'd been wrong. Pain had taught her that. Naruto's strength didn't come to him because he was stubborn. He hadn't grown as strong as he was now because he refused to back down.
He'd refused to back down because he'd grown strong.
And he'd gotten that strength by defending his friends.
Hinata had felt it. When she'd fought Pain. She'd seen Naruto on the ground: bleeding, burned, and broken on the ground. It hadn't mattered that she couldn't move her ankle, or that her lungs were burning, or that her Byakugan had sputtered off moments before she'd stumbled into Pain's sight.
All that had mattered was that Naruto was hurt, Naruto was on the ground, and Pain was standing over him.
Hinata, despite her exhaustion, had felt in that moment she could have taken on armies. Protecting Naruto, her friend, had become the only thing she registered. She hadn't even realized how badly Pain had wounded her with a single kick until she'd been knocked to the ground as well.
And after something like that, Hinata knew with quiet certainty that she could stand in the light now and not be ashamed.
So instead of continuing to stare at the bed, silent and afraid, as she would have done not a week earlier, she raised her eyes to Naruto's wide ones, and smiled gently.
"Yes." Her voice was truth, crystal and clear. "I do."
Naruto just stared back at her, struck just as dumb as he had been just before Itachi had arrived. He looked terrified.
"Why?" he whispered. This wasn't the Hinata he knew. The Hinata he knew stuttered, and went red, and would never love him. But this Hinata, the one in front of him, was merely pink, her words were quiet and forceful, and apparently, she did.
Hinata closed her eyes, and relaxed her hands again. She was firmly convinced that what she said next would be one of the most important things she said in her life.
"At first… it was just because you were you, Naruto," she said, as Naruto watched, entranced. "You were so bright. And I…" Her smile faded. "I wasn't. I was quiet, and weak. I was barely a ninja. But you… even though you couldn't control your chakra, even though no one liked you, even though you lived alone… you still fought back. You still kept being you. Every day."
Naruto's face darkened minutely as he remembered his days in the Academy. The days when he had been alone. Hinata, with her eyes closed, didn't notice.
"I didn't understand how you did it. You were… amazing. I wanted to be closer to you. I wanted to find out how you were so bright." Hinata opened her eyes and glanced at Naruto. She looked scared.
The Hyuuga hesitated. "But… I was afraid."
Naruto looked at her, his blue eyes wide. He looked even more terrified than Hinata. "Of the fox?"
Hinata shook her head. "No. Not the Kyuubi. I… was afraid of what would happen if I did catch up to you. I didn't know if I was strong enough to stay beside you."
"How could you think that?" Naruto asked. Hinata looked away from him. Her bout of courage was beginning to fade. "How could you think you weren't strong enough? For as long as I've known you-"
"I haven't been as strong as you think, Naruto," Hinata said, her mouth falling, along with her eyes.
"I've always gotten my strength around you. From you."
Naruto shut up. On any other day, the suddenness of the movement would have made Hinata let out a muffled laugh, hidden by her sleeves.
Not today.
"But now… it's different," Hinata said, looking back at the blonde.
"Different?"
"I've finally begun to understand you, Naruto. I watched you for a long time, and I thought I knew you because of that. But… I was wrong. I d-didn't know what drove you at all." Hinata stammered slightly as she realized the import of her words. She wouldn't be able to take these back.
"But now, I do. When I fought Pain… when you were hurt… I finally understood your nindō, Naruto. I thought it was just about never backing down in the face of a challenge. But… it's not just about that, is it?"
Naruto shook his head, astonished. "No," he said. "I mean, yeah, it's that too. But…"
"You don't back down from protecting those you love." Hinata finished for him, and he nodded, swallowing heavily.
"That's how I know I love you, Naruto. I didn't hesitate to fight Pain, even though I was injured. Even when the only option to give you another minute, another second, was to die… I was willing to take it. I finally understood."
"Hinata…" Naruto said, choking slightly on the words. "I don't want you to die for me. I don't want anyone to die for me ."
Hinata smiled. "I know, Naruto. But you can't be that selfish all that time. You can't take your friend's burdens like that for the rest of your life. It will kill you."
"Sometimes, you have to let those who love you do the protecting."
Hinata's words struck Naruto dumb, and for a moment he just stared at her.
She stared back.
The moment dragged on.
Naruto finally looked away, staring back down at the ground.
"Hinata…" he said. "I mean… I don't really… know what to do. I don't think anyone's ever… loved me before."
Hinata's heart broke just the tiniest bit as Naruto said that. She tried not to let it show on her face.
"It's okay, Naruto."
Naruto nodded, looking conflicted. "Listen… can we, like… talk about this later, maybe? I mean, I wanna… figure this out, you know? But right now, I kinda have to go and talk to Ero-sennin about something. I promised-"
Hinata smiled again, and given an entire day Naruto couldn't have expressed how relieved that smile made him. "Of course, Naruto. I understand. Go talk to your master." She turned away from him, looking out the window and down at Konoha.
"I'm not going anywhere for a while."
Naruto gave an uncertain smile, before quickly nodding. Then, he hesitated.
After a moment of indecision, hilariously plain on his face, he bent forward and took Hinata's hand, resting on her lap, in his own. He gave it a light squeeze, and then dropped it and practically fled the room.
Hinata remained staring out the window. Her hand was warm where Naruto had touched it.
She rubbed the warm spot slowly with her fingers and she watched a family of four navigate a marketplace a block away.
Hinata smiled.
"This? This little shithole is where we've been heading?"
"It's hardly little, Suigetsu."
The Hozuki snorted, adjusting the enormous blade on his shoulder. He stared down at the town spread out below him, taking in the defensive walls and squat, colorful buildings. He couldn't help but notice there was a section of the town, near the most western walls, where all the buildings were taller, and more colorful. New construction, and a lot of it: something big had once been there.
Though Suigetsu didn't really care what it had been, or why it was gone.
"It's no hidden village, that's for sure," he said dismissively. He idly focused on the walls, taking in their simple concrete construction and middling height.
Pathetic. Maybe they could keep out some retarded bandits, but shinobi? Not a chance in hell.
"I'm pretty sure most places aren't hidden villages," his companion sighed.
Karin, to put it bluntly, looked terrible. There were large dark circles under her eyes, made to look only darker by the extreme red color above them. Her hair was filthy, filled with bark and dead bugs, and her limbs shook.
She and Suigetsu had been moving at a rapid pace, even for shinobi, for the last three days, pulled by a compulsion in Karin's mind.
'Go south,' it had said. Then, after they had done so for two days, it had become 'Go west'. As they had, it had gotten quieter and quieter.
Now, to Karin's relief, the voiceless voice had stopped entirely. As she stood upon a branch of the tallest tree within hundreds of meters with Suigetsu and looked down at the not-small town before them, she knew why.
Itachi Uchiha was waiting for them down there. Sasuke's brother was somewhere in that town.
Karin wasn't sure that she was ready to meet him. She wasn't even sure why he'd made her come here.
Though the theory that she'd come up with as she and Suigetsu had stumbled away from the wasteland left by the Akatsuki's leader still held true, so far as she knew.
Itachi had taken Sasuke's eyes, and then he'd come here. He obviously wanted someplace out of the way, where he could rest safely after his battle with Pain.
Tanzaku Gai, former tourist attraction, and still a highly successful gambling resort, was the perfect place. It saw many visitors, all of them as eccentric as the last. And its citizens had learned over the years to not ask questions.
They wouldn't think twice of a quiet man in a cloak if he elected to stay there. His partner, on the other hand, Karin wasn't so sure about.
She stretched out her senses, searching for a cold, familiar chakra. Like Sasuke's, if Sasuke's chakra had been left outside in the rain for a week.
The town below was… excited: warm, fluid. There were thousands of weak signals, barely registering in Karin's senses, like fireflies amongst tall grass. Those were civilians, traders: the people of the Elemental Nations that were not shinobi. There were many of them, and they distracted her, buzzing about, clouding the town in lukewarm chakra.
Except for one spot.
Near the center of the town, there was a chill: a chunk of ice in a sunny field.
It was a familiar coldness, and despite its frigidness, Karin felt herself smile. Suigetsu turned to her, his teeth bared in something that definitely wasn't a smile.
"Found him?" he asked, eager. He wasn't talking about Itachi.
"No," Karin said. "But Itachi is definitely down there. If his partner is around, he must be much better at hiding his chakra then he let on: I can't feel him at all."
Suigetsu groaned. "Damn. Guess I won't be getting Samehada today." He shrugged. For some reason, it looked… forced. "Ah, well. Least I can get a chance at bisecting that Uchiha bastard."
Karin shot Suigetsu a severe look, and his toothy grin faded slightly. "Remember the plan, Suigetsu," she said, idly fingering the rough slip of paper in her back pouch. "We can't take him head on. And we need his eyes undamaged."
"I still can't believe you're on about that. Do you really think Sasuke would use his brother's eyes? Why not just get his back?" Suigetsu said, scratching his stomach with his free hand.
Karin's heart jumped slightly at the mention of Sasuke, but she didn't allow it to show on her face. "Maybe he'll appreciate the irony," she responded, doing her best to sound haughty. "Unlike you."
Suigetsu laughed. "Oh, you got me, Karin," he chuckled. He drove his fist up to the wrist into his chest, wriggling it around. "Right in the heart."
Karin just sighed, too exhausted to keep up the routine. "Let's just go. We'll find someplace to stay, and we'll get him in the morning."
"Why not just do it now?" Suigetsu asked. "We're here, aren't we? Let's just nail the bastard."
Karin slowly turned to him, her gaze flat. "Suigetsu," she said, and the Hozuki flinched back instinctively.
Karin continued to stare at him, her voice just as flat as her eyes. "We have been running, for three. Days. And I spent two of them making this." She patted her back pouch meaningfully, and Suigetsu rolled his eyes. She hadn't stopped bitching about that for-
His train of thought immediately disappeared as Karin's eyes sharpened, and he got the feeling she'd just read his mind.
'Who knows?' he thought. 'Maybe sensing isn't all she can do.'
Karin, blissfully unaware of Suigetsu's growing paranoia, continued. "I am tired. I am dirty. I have not brushed my teeth or washed my hair. There is dirt, and leaves…" she paused, and shuddered. "Everywhere."
Suigetsu began to back away as the redhead's voice grew louder. "So, we are going to get a room. We are going to rest for a day. And I am going to take a goddamn shower."
Karin's voice drove Suigetsu backwards, and he slipped, falling from the branch they were perched on, plummeting to the base of the tree. He struck the ground, and exploded into a sizable puddle. The Executioner's Blade he'd been lugging around ever since he and Karin had met struck the ground and sunk a foot into the suddenly damp earth.
Karin looked down at the mess she had unintentionally created, and she couldn't stop a small giggle from slipping out. A giggle that faded away as Suigetsu's voice, burbling and unclear, made it's way up to her.
"Don't be such a bitch, Karin."
She stiffened, and looked down. "What?" The Hozuki was looking up at her, his blade still in the ground next to him. He had a distinctly unamused expression on his face.
Karin was shocked. They had been arguing regularly ever since they'd met, but it had been… normal. Routine. Like it was expected of them, almost. Suigetsu had never gone so cold so quickly.
If she were honest with herself, it frightened her. She was suddenly aware that if the boy that up until now she had regarded as merely irritating ever decided to leave her, there was nothing she could do to stop him.
And if he wanted to hurt her before he did, she wouldn't be able to do anything about that either.
Suigetsu noticed the way her face pulled itself flat in worry for a moment, but if he cared, he didn't show it. He began walking up the tree towards her, relentlessly drawing closer. Karin only grew more anxious.
"I get that you're worried about your delicate lady sensibilities and shit, Karin," he said, his face as cold as ever. Karin's began to warm up. "Trust me, I do. I'm not feeling so hot myself right now. Honestly, I'd kill for a bath." And Karin noticed that Suigetsu was telling the truth.
She hadn't noticed in their rush, but Suigetsu looked almost as bad as her. His face was… faded was the only word that truly fit; ill defined, and slushy in places.
His extremities, his hands and feet, had become simpler and simpler. The hand that held the Kubikibōchō was not really a hand at all: just a mass of flesh colored water, wrapped around the blade, without fingers or a wrist.
He was exhausted, and Karin had only realized it now. She felt a rush of guilt.
She opened her mouth; whether to apologize or harangue him more, even she didn't know. Suigetsu cut her off before she could do either.
"But that doesn't fucking matter. You know why?" He had finally reached her, and he bent in close. Karin instinctively backed up. Her hands were trembling, and her eyes were wide.
"Because somewhere down in that little shit-stain of a town is Sasuke's brother, and we are going to fucking wreck him. And you know what? You're right. We are taking his eyes." Suigetsu's teeth were bared, and he looked almost crazed.
Karin choked. Where had this come from?
Suigetsu saw her confusion and not inconsiderable fear, and backed off slightly, though he became no less intense. "You don't get it, do you?" he said, quieter.
Karin wordlessly shook her head.
"Why the fuck are you here, then?" he asked.
Karin, staring at Suigetsu, trying to figure out what had driven him into this state so quickly.
"Sasuke," she whispered. It had always been for Sasuke.
"Sasuke's not fucking here, Karin," Suigetsu said, furiously whispering. "Sasuke's back in the Village Hidden in the fucking Leaves. Sasuke's waiting there, fucking blind, 'cause his scary as fuck asshole of a brother fucking stole his eyes."
Karin blinked at Suigetsu's sudden bout of language, too shocked to reprimand him.
"So, why the hell are you here?" he asked again.
In a moment of clarity, Karin saw.
Team Hebi had been brought together by Sasuke. He'd saved all of them: Karin from the Forest of Death, Suigetsu from Orochimaru, and Juugo from himself.
And now, she was saying that, rather than immediately tracking down the man who had taken Sasuke's eyes, she would take a nap when he was less than a mile away.
No wonder Suigetsu seemed so enraged.
"To get Sasuke his brother's eyes." Karin spoke without an ounce of uncertainty: she finally got what was happening.
Suigetsu grinned, looking more like a moray eel than a person. "Fucking exactly. We're not here to pussyfoot around. We're not going to fucking spend the night in some goddamn casino. We are walking in, and we are taking Itachi's eyes."
And then, he stepped backwards off the branch, plunging towards the base of the tree. He hit the ground smoothly, and strode off towards the town, eating the ground with his rolling strides.
Karin watched him go. She hardly knew what to think of this new, proactive Suigetsu.
But, as he watched him move towards Tanzaku Gai, completely intent upon helping Sasuke and leaving her in the dust if need be, she couldn't help but think that she much preferred him to the old one.
Karin smiled, and leapt off the tree after Suigetsu.
Itachi Uchiha was waiting for them: Itachi Uchiha, and his eyes.
And suddenly Karin, despite herself, couldn't wait to take them.
And thus, chapter 7 draws to a close. I hope you enjoyed it. I know that most of it was a joy to write.
Sorry about Suigetsu's swearing. He's a little stressed.
Chapter 8 is coming along well, so hopefully the delay won't be as long this time. I am sorry about that: starting my second semester back up was a bit more arduous than I expected.
At any rate, you know the drill. Follow if you liked it, favorite if you want others to, and review if you want to get an extra shiny PM from me answering your questions, discussing your criticisms, and just telling you how damn shiny you are.
Oh, and also, to those who reviewed that I couldn't PM:
Blazercjj101: thank you for your flattering review.
Guest #1: The Amaterasu Jiraiya used on Tobi was the one he contained when he met Itachi in Part 1. He kept it in a stasis seal, knowing that ever-burning black flames would probably come in handy at some point in the future.
He was right.
Exia: I'm glad I made you cry.
Wow, that sounds terrible.
Well, you know what I mean (hopefully).
Wendy: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I hope you'll forgive me.
Guest #2: Well, it's supposed to be a little humorous. Can't just have DRAMA all the time now can we?
Though, if you were laughing during the fight with Pain… I don't know what to tell you. You might want to seek help.
(Oh! Almost forgot!)
Fun Fact: Sakura's parents are actually Chūnin level ninja. Who knew? (Well, Ekusallybaa did, but that's beside the point.)
Fun Fact #2 (extra special bonus addition): If you know what Hinata's name means in Japanese... well, her talk with Naruto probably looked a bit neater to you, huh?
Anyway, that's all, folks. Sorry for the extra long note.
Serendipity out.