The journey to the Land of Earth took him the better of two days. He'd been careful to avoid the camps of Suna shinobis dotted across the desert borders while they searched for an explanation behind the mysterious appearance of his wife's jacket. Gaara did not want them to be alerted of his departure anytime before he'd made it across Ishikagure.
Out of the desert, his tracking abilities were severely diminished. Even with her jacket in a cloth bag at his hip and his extreme familiarity with his wife's chakra, he could barely sense anything. Yet he tried his luck by sending a third eye in the small villages along the way while he paid closer attention to the caves and hidden crevices, which shinobis wanting to go unnoticed would seek. He was very glad that this side of the land of Earth had large passage ways in between the mountains. It made his journey and his search much easier.
Unfortunately, there was nothing. Not a trace that Hinata and Sasuke or either had passed through there. They were not in the villages. And there was hardly any traces of a camp having been set up or a fight fought.
On his fourth night, his luck struck as he stumbled upon a trio of Konoha shinobis. The group comprised of no other than Kiba, Shino and Lee, all three males were particularly protective of his wife. Gaara hid his surprise at the absence of either of the other Team 7 members. Apparently the Leaf was hellbent on adhering to the Uchiha's wishes.
He dropped from the branch he was on, getting nods of acknowledgement and a tap on the back from Lee, when he settled down in the circle they'd formed around a campfire. Akamaru had already returned to his meal, apparently having recognised Gaara well before he'd even managed to identify their chakra signature.
A small part of him rejoiced at not only having some of the best trackers on his side but also people (and an animal) who could find Hinata in their sleep. And then the fact that they still hadn't found her passed through his mind and alarmed him.
As if sensing his thoughts, Kiba passed him some meat skewers they had roasting on the fire and let him in on their progress.
"Akamaru caught her scent in a village inn north of where we are but we lost it, probably because she had deliberately tampered with it to waylay trackers. The innkeeper said that she only rested for the night, alone, before heading off after breakfast."
He paused to take a bite of his own meal.
"Sasuke is with her. He must have stayed away from the village to not draw attention."
"So they have not completed their mission?" Gaara asked.
"We can't tell. Kakashi has received no update from Sasuke after Hinata joined him. But, we think Hinata's part was done," Lee replied. "Shino sent a couple of bugs accustomed to her scent to scout around the village and they registered older traces of her chakra in the air in a clearing, just a few kilometres left from here. You would have stumbled upon it tomorrow as it is."
An uneasy look passed between the three comrades before Shino continued.
"The clearing we found was trashed. We believe that Hinata must have been heading down to Suna but somehow got stopped, fought and went back up to the village. Probably Sasuke put her there while they recovered. From the looks of it, I would say that they won. But if chakra was still pulsing in the aftermath of the fight, they must have exhausted quite a bit of their reserve."
"Who were they fighting against?"
"Unknown. The mass of vibrations though could suggest Ishikagure. Frequent kekkai genkai users tend to emit chakra on a different level, like jinchūrikis. The closest sources we could think of was Ishikagure."
"Blood?" Gaara asked further. He had to reassure himself with whatever scrap of mercy he could grab onto.
"Almost all of it were of other shinobis. Some were Sasuke's and Hinata's. She is a close ranged fighter, so it's to be expected especially if she was out-numbered or otherwise ..."
"Incapacitated?"
"No Gaara. We thought more of tiredness," Lee replied. "All the signs point towards a victory for our friends."
"Okay," he relented but Temari's words from earlier still echoed in his mind.
You should have known to take particular care with Hinata in that...shape? State? Condition? What had happened to wife? Could Miyoko have done more than verbally goad Hinata?
"So she never actually made it across to the Wind's border?" Gaara asked as his blood ran cold.
"No," Lee confirmed.
"Then how did her jacket end up there?" he demanded, pulling the garment to show the others.
The air turned even more sombre as the men looked at the bloodied and torn flak jacket. Kiba extended an arm for it and sniffed it. He passed it to Shino, before reassuring Gaara and Lee.
"The blood is not Hinata's," he said looking at Akamaru and Shino for further confirmation.
"Then how the hell did it get to Suna?"
Kiba and Shino exchanged a glance before shrugging.
Gaara shoved the small whispers of terror at the back of his mind.
"So where were you headed next?"
Again, Kiba looked very unsettled.
"South East is clear. We came through that way and found no traces. So now, we have two options; either they rerouted towards Suna or kept going towards Iwa."
"We are trying to understand why either of them would feel the need to put so much effort in blocking out not only the basic tracking techniques, but also specific and advanced techniques," Lee added, looking at him for any clarification.
Again, Gaara bitterly resented not having asked Hinata to send word once in a while. He would have at least known the last places his wife went or the status of the mission at most. When he shook his head, the others did not press.
"We are going to scout around here and the next villages..." Lee trailed off as Gaara intervened.
"Not there," he said. "All the way into here from Suna is clear. I've checked. They are not in there."
"Alright then, second option with the added unpleasant part of it," Kiba announced grimly.
Lee asked the question that had made Gaara's brain refused to word out.
"What would that be Kiba?"
"Hospitals," he answered. "Civilian towns and villages way north, until we reach Iwa. Because they have continued up, probably in need to hide from sight and complications."
"But why would they ever need to ...?"
"We don't know Gaara-sama. If they did then we must be even more careful not to draw too much attention to us," Shino warned them, looking pointedly at him.
"Don't worry I came alone. And Temari and Shikamaru are back in the village. They'll prevent the council from sending anyone after me," he reassured the Aburame.
"First let's get some sleep. Tracking all day long tomorrow would take even more energy. You two rest," Lee said to Shino and Kiba. "I'll take the watch."
The other two nodded and move to their sleeping bags. Akamaru came to lie near the fire.
Careful not to disturb them, Lee motioned Gaara to the trees. He jumped up seconds after the Kazakage.
"So, how are you holding up?"
"Horribly," Gaara replied truthfully. "I just abandoned my village to search for her. You can imagine how bad it must be. I just want to know what could have happened that made them go off the grid for a week."
Lee sighed and kept his gaze ahead.
"I wonder ..."
Lee hesitated and cocked his head in thought. He pondered where one should draw the line between loyalty to his friend and loyalty to his nation. Still, Hinata was his unofficial responsibility now that Neji was not around. If he'd been in Gaara's place, he'd want to know.
"Lee, please tell me. If what you think happens to be true, then at least my heart would've had the time to prepare," Gaara confirmed Lee's thoughts.
"When we first caught scent of Hinata in that inn, Akamaru did a double-take. There had been something slightly off about her usual scent. Then, in the clearing, someone had obviously gone in after the two to get rid of the bodies. I think the mission turned south or they found something dangerous and something must have happened to one of them. It's probably why they cut all communication. They obviously have someone on their trail."
"How did they explain it? And the different scent?" Gaara wondered, pointing to the sleeping forms of the Konoha trackers.
"Kiba and Shino did not explain anything, just shrugged. They are either keeping something to themselves or are starting to consider what I said now," Lee said.
"Why did they not agree to your suppositions at first?"
"I'm not sure. See I don't know Hinata that well, given the age difference and Neji's initial enmity. But they don't think she'd ever abandon her family just like that for a mission and not give a word of warning."
Gaara felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. He totally agreed with Hinata's teammates, knowing how often his wife put others welfare before her own. However, could it have been that their fights had pushed her over that as well?
No, he would not believe that! Hinata knew he would be utterly lost without her.
What could have been so important though that it had pushed her to gamble her chances of returning to her family and friends and villages?
He voiced that much to Lee. The other shinobi shrugged. Both sat through the rest of the night, quiet and thoughtful. Gaara stared at the dying embers of the wood fire, hoping that his wife was safe and sound wherever she was.
At the break of dawn, the quartet had already set for the nearest civilian town. It was a busy one; cars going in and out, streets packed with people. Slipping without being noticed had been easy but finding people in there was the present conundrum. Dressed down in the borrowed clothes, Kiba and Gaara made their way towards the alley behind the hospital, trying to figure out a plan.
"See in situations like these, every other tracker bloody wished they had the Byakugan!" Kiba said disgruntled. "You could just look, see and know."
They had left the others to mount guard outside the perimeters and Kiba was on edge without his dog.
"Why the hospital?" Gaara asked.
Kiba opened his mouth to answer then seemed to think better of it. He paused for a moment, enough to plant seeds of doubts in Gaara's mind. Was Lee right? Had the teammates been hiding something from him? Finally, the brown-haired nin replied.
"That's what I'd go for. Secrecy and invisibility is often easier to achieve if you're in plain sight. Pretending to use the hospital to secure a temporary look out is an old trick."
"The hospital is huge though and everyone is rushing everywhere," Gaara pointed out, pushing at his obvious cover up explanation.
"Exactly. You slip in and slip out, pretend to visit someone who's unconscious; can't be verified. Pick a lock and borrow a uniform and access card. Check yourself in as a patient. The possibilities are endless."
"Which do you propose?"
"I wish I knew who they were hiding from?"
"Lee said you don't think that Sasuke's mission could have gone south," Gaara probed.
"Hinata would have never chosen to complete the mission if that was the case," Kiba said matter of factly.
"How are you so sure? Maybe she decided to ..." Gaara trailed off at the confused glance that Kiba had thrown him.
"What gave Lee such an idea in the first place? Shino and I said nothing about that," the Inuzuka asked, turning his full attention onto him.
"He said he noticed that Akamaru had smelled something off around Hinata's scent and someone cleaned up after the fight," Gaara replied.
A quick grin spread across his companion's face before he let out a gruff laugh.
They stopped once they were out of sight of the bustling crowd and Gaara looked up at the hundred of windows spotting this facade of the hospital.
"The cleaning was by Sasuke," Kiba finally said,"and who we think might be Sai, but we're not sure given his background as a Root. These people are so hard to discern. On her jacket, there were some faint traces of ink odour, but we couldn't be sure, so we said nothing."
"Sai?"
"Yeah, the Hokage had been going mental about the situation. Wife of the Kazekage, ex-heiress of the Hyuga with an unsealed Byakugan gone missing with the newly pardoned-turned hero last Uchiha in Iwagakure whose Kage hates the guts of everyone else. Stuff of political nightmare, I've been told. So he probably sent Sai after Sasuke way before you raised the alarm."
"Why did you not say anything all this time?"
"Because all we have are hypothetical scenarios. Sai probably found them when they got in trouble with the rebel group and probably stayed with them after, as reinforcement. There must probably be something up with those people if there had been the need to destroy the bodies completely."
"So Sai catches up with them. Hinata goes to the village to recuperate while the other two clean the scene. Then, Sai goes to dump the jacket in Suna. As a diversion for their enemies while they head this way?"
"You catch up fast, Kazekage. Might fool me into thinking you are actually good enough for our Hinata," Kiba said with a cheeky grin. "C'mon we'll do it the old school way and sneak around like ninjas," he said, taking a leap to land on a windowsill.
"But why did they head this way? Why couldn't they fight on and get to Suna? And what about her unusual scent?"
Kiba laughed at him again.
"That is why we are here Gaara! Just when I thought you were making progress."
"What do you mean?!" Gaara hissed, losing his patience at the obvious lack of concern of the Inuzuka.
"Oh that you'll have to wait..."
A commotion in a room several floors above broke him off, just as soon as glass rained on them. Three shadows darted out of the window. Two more giving chase. One shadow let itself fall in front of them.
"Hinata!" Kiba cried.
She stalked up to Gaara first and grabbed him in a hug. Before he'd even registered her smell, her warmth, her shape, she'd already pulled back and greeted Kiba.
"We have to go. They're a group of defected sound nins. They stole some scrolls from Orochimaru when he legitimized the village activities, and have been experimenting on themselves to synthesise some form of Byakugan in his Northern Hideout."
She spun around and darted for the forest, leaving them with no choice but to follow.
"Three males, medium built, physically lean. The serum did nothing to boost their physical strength but mentally, they're inhuman. Sasuke said they registered no pain and once engaged in conflict, they are relentless."
"Have you gone up against them?"
"Yes on my way back to Suna a week ago," she explained as they hit the thicker parts of the forest, the veins around her eyes contracting further.
"They are fast," Kiba admitted," as soon as I pick their smell, they've vanished already."
"I know. We thought we'd lure them into the desert with my jacket, buy time while I get assistance, but they were too quick and sharp."
"Why are they after you guys?"
"Sasuke took the scroll and we decimated most of them in the last fight. Those three are the ones who got away."
Sensing Gaara's lack of involvement, Kina threw him a pointed look and darted off to round up Akamaru, Shino and Lee and cut the rebels route from the opposite direction.
Not wasting any time, Gaara demanded his answers from her.
"Why did you return here with them instead of coming back home Hinata? That was not your mission to complete!"
She frowned but nonetheless replied, probably due to the worry in his voice.
"I needed the hospital assistance after the fight, I just told you. Then, they found us and I can't not help now."
"You needed the hospital? Are you hurt? Where?" he demanded, scanning her from head to toe.
His wife shook her head in a way of saying not now.
Frustrated, Gaara let it drop. He decided that the sooner they were done with this fight, the quicker he'd get to the bottom of her problem and sort them right.
He sped up, used his sand to bridge the longer distances so that they could go faster. Bringing his old gourd had been one of the few good decisions he'd taken apparently as Hinata shot him a grateful smile.
"How far ahead are they?" he asked her.
"Just five more minutes and we'd be upon them. I think they're arrowing for the plains, except I can't figure out why."
"Huge open space," Gaara explained, "sounds echo and travel faster."
"It's their natural terrain. More damage."
"We'll see."
She grabbed his hand and swerved to the left.
"Enclosing them," she explained. " The others got the front and Kiba is bringing the rest up on the right."
They burst from the trees, crossed the hilly terrain then plunged straight into the empty rocky ravine.
Sasuke and Sai, Gaara noted indeed, had cornered the three men. Sasuke was struggling to keep them still in his gengutsu, probably since the men were acting more instinctually like animals than shinobis.
Seconds after them, Lee bulleted out into the ravine, followed closely by Shino, Kiba and Akamaru.
Hinata surveyed the surrounding area thoroughly.
Only when she gave the clear did Sai signal to Sasuke to release the rebels.
Gaara went straight for the one closest to them. The men crouched on himself, his eyes a murky white colour and veins protruding everywhere on his face. Whatever the hell he'd injected in himself would not help him against the Kazekage and his wife.
Before the man had the time to open his mouth, Gaara enclosed them both in sand.
"Sand coffin."
Unfazed the man let out a piercing growl that disorientated Gaara enough for a kunai to lodge on his sand armour at his shoulder.
He stopped the other three projectiles, enraging the sound nin. A strange shudder seemed to overcome his opponent's frame before he arrowed straight for him, at an incredible speed, hands laden with a weird black smog.
As the man focused his attention on Gaara, Hinata moved next to where her husband was in the sand prison. She engaged her gentle fist, waited for the man to come into her range.
As he did, Gaara let the sand fall, regathered it around himself. Hinata aimed straight for the moving man's lower body, cautious to avoid the hands.
"Gentle step: Eight trigrams 64 palms."
His body gave jolts after the jolts as he was unable to prevent the disruption of his internal flow. Hinata delivered the final strike and the man slowed down considerably.
"Quick Gaara, before the foreign chakra frees his pathways again."
Gaara followed his wife's lead and aimed for the knees, to disable the man completely.
"Sand sword!"
The sand sharped and surged towards the man. His wild eyes tracked the oncoming weapon and he drew a kunai, imbued with the swirling smog and parried the sand.
Gaara watched in annoyance as the black thing absorbed the blade, infusing the grains with a black viscous substance, that dropped to the ground.
"Parasitical element," Hinata hissed from next to him.
"I can't use my sand to trap him. I'll physically slow him down first. You take out as much of his chakra as possible," Gaara suggested as the man sailed towards them.
"We have to be quick though. I can't deplete my chakra again. It'll be too dangerous for..."
"Look out!"
Hinata extended her an arm just in time and shot vacuum wall towards a stream of slicing sound waves.
Gaara used the onslaught to place his attack.
"Wind release: Breakthrough!"
The gale immobilised the man and made his expend additional energy to brace against the force. As the wind eased up, Hinata rushed in.
"Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists!"
Meanwhile Gaara created a sand clone, and it charged along Hinata. The man did not shy from the barrage of punches. His animalistic instincts were sharp as he took each blow squarely. However, the veins were receding from his face and the smog had entirely vanished at Hinata's repeated chakra-infused punch. The red-haired shinobi took advantage of that.
"Desert: Hand."
His clone morphed into a giant palm that closed around his opponent and pushed him against a boulder, holding him there.
Hinata gathered as much chakra as she could spare into her arms as her side. She planted her feet wide to open her stance, allowing the chakra to overbuild and spill over her arms as two lion heads formed at her fists. She kept her arms still, letting the chakra grow potent as it leaked from each single tenkutsu point on her arms.
As soon as she was ready, Gaara's sand retreated from the struggling man. She raised her arms, slashing them through the air in front of the battered frame of the sound nin.
"Gentle Step Twin Lion Release!"
In perfect sync, Gaara gave the ultimate boost to her attack.
"Wind release: Great Breakthrough!"
Twin blue waves of chakra flew from her arms, carried through the small distance by the gale he released. The enormous waves gathered more velocity and force as they neared their target and converged into a single chakra-infused mass.
The wind slammed dead onto the man, closed all his tenkutsu points and effectively paralysed him. His eyes changed back into its natural appearance as all the fight left his body.
"We need him alive," Sai shouted from the group gathered further away, one dead shinobi at their feet and another restrained one.
Gaara seized the unmoving body into a sand fist and deposited it in front of the Leaf shinobis.
He stared at Hinata for what seemed like ages, drinking in the sight of her. She wore a black hoodie over her usual uniform. Her long hair tied in a ponytail, from which a few random strands had escaped during the fight. She had only a few scratches on her face and hands, all of them days old and healing. And she watched him too; those lavender eyes were gentle yet serious and appraising; the gaze of a concerned wife but also a trained kunoichi.
'She was perfect,' he thought as he moved to stand in front of her.
"How are you hime?"
"I'm fine."
"Are we still fighting?" he asked, baffled by the curtness in her tone.
The question loosened the seriousness in her eyes and she giggled lightly.
"That depends. Did you decide to give in to Miyoko's charms when I was away?"
"Never!" he exclaimed, horrified that she would even joke about that. Her giggles turned into a beautiful laugh. She stepped up to him and brushed a hand over his arm.
"Hinata, these past few days have been torture for me, you have to know that. I regret wasting so much time stupidly..."
"I know Gaara..."
"No! Listen. Kankuro is the one interested in Miyoko. That is why I took such an apparent interest in her. I was only looking out for him but somehow..."
"Gaara! Stop!" Hinata exclaimed, laying a brief but firm kiss on his lips. "I know," she said with a glint her eyes. "Trust me, once we get to Suna, I will make sure that Kankuro-kun gets acquainted with the Gentle Fist. It would make him think twice before doing stupid things to upset me in the future."
Gaara lifted a hand and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. He pressed his lips over her temple and the crown of her head, while his hand curved along her cheek.
"You can do whatever you want. Just don't leave me like that ever again," he pleaded.
"I never left you Gaara. The mission was not more important than coming home to you. I-I merely had a-a small complication, t-that's all."
The stutter and blush on her face intrigued him, chased away the horrible whispers again. He paused in his kisses and looked down at her.
"What complications? What has been going on hime?"
Hinata looked around uncomfortably. She shook her head again but before any refusal could make it pass her lips, Gaara took hold of her face in both hands.
"No more excuses. Temari and Shikamaru know, Kiba knows, probably Shino knows and..."
She pressed her hands at his chest and halted his uncharacteristic rambling.
"They suspect, Gaara. I only confirmed it for Sai and Sasuke because it was necessary and, well, they were kinda there when it happened."
"What happened?"
"Me throwing up every morning," she said quietly, ducking her face into his hands.
Confused, Gaara lifted her head to look into her eyes.
"Are you seriously ill Hina? Is that why you needed medical assistance so quickly?"
She shook her head, looking amused this time when her gaze met his.
"I am not ill Gaara. I'm pregnant."
His arms slackened and fell to his sides. His body froze but his heart began a strange sort of frenzy in his chest.
"What did you say?"
Hinata looked at him patiently and repeated.
"I'm pregnant.
I suspected it before I left, while I was talking to Temari one day. But I never got the time to see the doctor. Days after I reached Sasuke and we found out about the scrolls, the fatigue became more pronounced and I couldn't bear the sight of food. We quickly got the scrolls and Sasuke insisted that I return to Suna. However the sound rebels ambushed us and the fight left me so drained that I feared for the baby. Sai used my jacket as distraction and we headed up here to get me checked by a doctor as it was closer."
"And?" he asked hesitantly, afraid that this pure happiness would only last a few heartbeat.
"I'm fine and the baby is fine."
"Pregnant," he whispered in awe. After a few moments, he added, "the unusual scent, the particular care, the hospital... We are having a baby, Hinata."
Confused by his words but unable to resist the love and wonder in his eyes and voice, she nodded and wrapped her arms around his shoulder.
"Yes, our very own family, Gaara."
Warning: Long boring Author Note. You don't need to read it!
So if you are actually reading this, I wanted you to know that this is a story I've just written on 2 aircrafts, in 3 countries and more than 24h sleep deprived. I wrote it on my phone. I never realised that it got a bit too long and disjointed. Literally the plot changed a hundred of times in my head. Until I decided to just post it anyway.
Also, another reason I'm writing this is because, I tried to write the fight scene as believable as possible. But I'm a complete novice, so it probably contains a lot of mistakes. Anyone who wants to point out the mistakes is more than welcome. I would love to know how I can improve it!
As always thank you everyone for reading and I hope it still managed to entertain you! x