- Pluck -
Part II
Chapter 31: Crowded Room
Companion song: Imperial by Snorri Hallgrimsson (for the beginning) and Lune by Kasbo (for the flying scene)
Sasuke Uchiha never knew what it was like to be kissed by someone he loved.
By that, of course, he meant romantic love. He loved his mother very much, and his mother used to kiss him in five spots every night before he went to bed. She'd start at his forehead, then the tip of his nose, then both cheeks, and then finally his chin. She kissed all five places so that no spot on his face felt cold or lonely, and Sasuke would fall asleep with a warm face and his mother's love humming against his skin.
Sasuke Uchiha knew the love of his family. Even now, Itachi acted on behalf of their late mother and father; he worried and loved like their mother, he pushed and loved like their father, and he teased and loved like any brother should.
Sasuke Uchiha knew this kind of love.
But he did not think he would ever be kissed by someone he was in love with; because that was Hinata Hyuuga, and for the longest time, Hinata Hyuuga loved Naruto Uzumaki. And that was a sad thought, and Sasuke never really came to terms with it, but there was nothing he could do about it.
But now —
Now he was in the storage room of a bar in The Hall. His lightning was snapping and whirling and screeching because he had been down in Ocean 11, acting like a Moon Witch, his mouth replacing fingers and plucking off the invisible stickers of the woman who he was so very in love with. The same woman who followed him to said storage room full of the very same, dangerous lightning that he had such a horrible, painful time keeping locked inside of him as to avoid frying her at the bottom of the ocean. The same woman who had all that gall, all that courage, to walk into that room, stay despite his warnings, and kiss him.
Well . . . .
Alright. Technically, he kissed her.
But the point is that she kissed him back — is kissing him back — and if you had asked him from before, he would have told you that this would never happen.
...
"Hinata."
Her name was a very powerful thing. He was a very powerful guy, but even he could not overcome the hold it had on him. It was perhaps the temptation, the way it blossomed and bloomed against the corners of his mouth. The soft beginning, the low middle, the sharp and exact end. That name was a temptation, and somehow, even before the return of his stolen memories, Sasuke had been aware of that. He had been aware that if he said that name, he would fall. Break. Lose. He would have thrown Naruto to the wind the second he had jumped into that sandstorm, tearing through the bellows of the beast; she grabbed him, she stared at him like he was the last thing she'd ever see, and he would fall so hard that he would snatch her before the name Naruto could even crossed his mind.
This was why Hinata had a very dangerous name.
The soft beginning was a facade, the low middle would sink through his skin, and the sharp end would hook his resolve and yank it out of his body.
This was exactly why —
"Hin . . . ata . . . ."
— he should not say her name. It was a temptation that left him against the back wall of the storage room, panting, hands holding onto the shelves in a desperate attempt to keep him upright — because if he fell, she would fall right on top of him, still kissing him, still loving him, and he would break all over again.
Her hands were on both sides of his head, pulling it down to her so that she could kiss and suck and lick and bite. He thought this was some sort of revenge for what he had done to her in Ocean 11. Her mouth mocked the slow, teasing presses that his had done on her shoulders. Her teeth grazed his upper lip in the same fashion his teeth had to the side of her left knee. She was making it out to be as if she had to spend so much time and effort and patience on pulling each and every stick from his skin; but Sasuke knew he was clear. He felt absolutely weightless, which only meant he had absolutely no weeds on him; that, or he was being kissed quite thoroughly by the woman he was in love with.
It was probably both, but Sasuke tried to focus more on the first option.
Electricity was twisting against his nerves. It wanted to spill against her skin. It wanted to cover her and blister her and turn her red with his power. When she pulled away to look him in the eyes, he saw his lightning in her irises, bouncing against the white walls of her pupils, like the moon in a thunderstorm.
Her face was scarlet. He was scared he had burned her, but before he could get a better look, she pushed her face against his chest and hid herself with his cloak, still wet, still heavy with Ocean 11. "Sorry," she whispered. "S-Sorry. I . . . almost forgot."
Sasuke took this moment to breathe, to relax his body, to swallow down the static before he really did fry her. "What?"
She buzzed. Her body heat felt like the sun was pressed into him. "This is the first time in two years I've seen your face so clear." Her fingers slipped under the cloak and curled into his shirt. He tried to look down, to see her expression and figure out what she was getting it, but even the mere sight of her so close to him made his head fog up. "You're . . . so handsome, Sasuke."
And her name was a rush of spitting lightning that spilled from his throat and onto his tongue. It raced for the open air, but he clapped his hand over his mouth and leaned his head against the wall. Hinata galloped around his mouth, zapping and smoldering. It kicked his teeth. It scorched his tongue.
It took him eight minutes to swallow it down. When he removed his hand from his mouth, his fingers were an angry red and tingling.
...
When they finally left the storage room, Kakashi was wiping down the bartop, which was such a rare and unusual sight, for usually at such a late time on a weekday night, he would be much more interested in his little book than doing any work. So, naturally, Sasuke was on high alert for what the man was planning.
He didn't say anything as they stepped out of the storage room.
Only a glance, then he went back to wiping.
He didn't say anything when Hinata left him with a quiet farewell, as she was far too polite despite the heavy blush on her face. He only raised a hand in response.
He didn't say anything until they were one step away from entering The Hall; then —
"You know there are better places to do it than a storage closet."
Out of instinct, Sasuke pulled out his katana, and Hinata had to do a lot of coaxing and pleading to keep him from trashing the whole place.
...
He walked her to the Ocean Gate. They were both taking rather small and slow steps, because even if they didn't know what to say, even if his lightning was rumbling and her skin was fresh and smoldering, they did not want it to end just yet. Tomorrow was only a few minutes away. In the morning, she would be in her office, and he would make a stop to see her before he'd have to work with whatever Karin had on his schedule. They'd see each other in less than seven hours.
But seven hours was seven years for someone who finally kissed the girl he's wanted to kiss for over a decade. He knew what seven years of waiting felt like, and it was torturous. He never wanted to wait that long again.
Hinata slowly turned the dial to Ocean 11.
Sasuke watched the blues glow against her form.
Then she looked down at herself, at her dripping cloak, and a slight, airy groan of disappointment flittered through the air as she slowly pulled it off. "I'm sorry," she said. "I tried so hard not to ruin it."
Sasuke was once again reminded of his own, soaked cloak. "Give it to me." He held out his hand to her. "I'll take care of it. I'll stop by your office in the morning to give it to you."
He would have stopped by either way, but at least now he has a good reason to give Karin if she asked why he was late.
With only a moment of hesitation, Hinata handed him the cloak. The portal behind her was bubbling with magic, reminding them that it was time for them to part, to go to their realms and pretend to sleep as they think about their night over and over again, playing through the scenes, remembering how their touch gave them something they hadn't even realized they were missing. And in the morning, when people ask how they slept, they would reply with standard "Oh, very well, thank you" and "Like a rock. I didn't want to leave my bed".
But to each other?
When Sasuke comes with her cloak and the door is shut tightly behind him — then, they will be truthful. "I thought about you all night". "I don't get a minute of sleep". "I missed you so much it hurt".
Hinata looked up at him, and Sasuke understood that the bright, fluttering light in her eye that he had thought was lightning was actually that unaltered, uncovered look that only Hinata could get when she looked at someone with no stickers. There was nothing hiding him. She was looking at Sasuke Uchiha, and that made this all the harder for them.
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you for everything, Sasuke."
He wondered if he should just go with her. His gills were still intact. Neither of them would be sleeping tonight, he was sure, so he would just go back to Ocean 11 again to watch her move around the kitchen to make early, early breakfast. He would be by the bookshelf, skimming the heavy, waterproof pages, using it as a wall — a forcefield, even. Because if he had nothing else to look at, he'd watch Hinata the whole time, and that would send his electricity roaring.
For a moment, he thought about going with her.
But Itachi was waiting for him in Cloud 8, perhaps worried, perhaps already wheeling his way to the gate.
The thought reminded him of what Hinata said — how his brother could see stickers, too. So it was best to go home and ask his brother a few questions and clean and dry these cloaks for tomorrow.
So Sasuke stayed, and Hinata stayed, too. Reluctant, but understanding. Then, after a moment, she stepped back into the portal, and the magic made her glow and shine and look so, so beautiful — and Sasuke could not wait another seven years, so he stepped forward and leaned in and kissed her. The magic was salty. Her mouth was soft, and then it was gone, and he was in The Hall, alone.
Seven hours.
In Sand 1, Sasuke had counted down the minutes to sunrise. He hadn't made the connection then, but now, he realized it was because Hinata would wake at sunrise.
So, again, he counted the minutes, her cloak folded under his arm; cold, wet, and hers.
Hinata was in that state where you were close to sleep, but not sleeping. Definitely not sleeping. One could not sleep when they thought of Sasuke Uchiha. Her eyes were closed, her body tucked in the heavy sheets of her ocean bed, and she was thinking about how he would waft around the room if he were there. She would try to sleep, and he would practice swimming over her bed. She would count him like he were sheep, but she would still not sleep.
Hinata was in that state where she was awake, but so very close to dreaming. Sometimes, she'd feel his fingers touch the curves of her ears. Sometimes, his breath would blow water against her gills. Sometimes, he was floating right over her, his cloak a cape made of the night sky; he craned his neck, and against her mouth, he whispered her name.
"Hinata."
The sheets crumbled beneath her as his hands slid between bed and back. His nails tore at her skin like it was a shirt and he just wanted to rip it off. He wanted to expose the insides of her body to his cracking lightning, so he clawed and scratched, and Hinata lifted an inch off the mattress to give him more access.
"Lady Hinata."
Her entire back was numb now, but she did not care. Knives have made her bleed. Needles have stitched her together. Inuzuka claws have punctured her scars. Cold, cold hands have traced her muscles, finding the tan marks between her shoulder blades. Compared to all those things, Sasuke's hands were gentle and strong. They pushed her skin. They moved her muscles. They made her —
"Hinata!"
Her eyes opened. There was no floating Sasuke. It was just dark, salty water.
Neji was there.
His phantom hands were stuck in her hair, like he was trying to grab her head and yank her off her pillow. She sat up, feeling dizzy and a little confused. She must have been lying there, thinking of Sasuke, for hours. The walls looked older. Her neck felt sore.
"Lady Hinata," Neji said again, and his voice was pitched, almost juvenile. "Go to the surface. Come on."
His mouth kept moving, but she only picked up some words.
Her feet touched the floor, and when she stood, her entire back screamed and burned. She could feel the white lines from Sasuke's clawing. She could feel the skin pushing back in protest — moving, moving —
"Neji." Her arms curled back so that she could press her palms against her scars. Underneath, it felt like something was alive and trying to get out. Like a dove, or a crow, or something quick and flapping. "Neji, I know this feeling."
Her cousin did not look happy at all. He was by the door of her bedroom, one leg phasing through it. "They're coming," he told her, and she was finally able to put a name to that pitched, childish voice. Fear. "Your wings are coming back. You have to go back."
Now it was a swarm of birds. A flock of doves. A murder of crows. She could feel every feather slapping against her bones, getting tangled in her veins. The head of a crow shoved into her skin, and she yelped and topped out of the door. Neji dipped next to her, arms out, wanting to catch her, to help her move, to get her out of that house. His desperation was sweet and contrasting terribly against the seawater. It filled her mouth, so Hinata pushed off the floor and made her way. Another bird launched into her muscles, pushing them back, making way for something big and ripping. Her lungs climbed into her throat, and she gaped and choked and swerved into the kitchen.
"Hinata!" Neji yelled. "Hinata, what are you —"
She grabbed a knife from a drawer. "I forgot the dagger in my cloak."
He squinted and sneered, "That doesn't matter right now."
But it mattered to her. It was her protection. The last thing given to her before she left. That dagger was the only tangible thing she had that connected her back to Hinata Hyuuga of Moon 2. These wings — if they were really coming — they would be the second piece. They would be that one extra step closer to that girl she does not remember, from that family she does not remember, in that place she only knows stories about. These wings could kill her, and if she was going to die, she would want Neji's dagger with her. She would want to die with some piece of her older self still with her.
So she grabbed a knife, and with it, she would pretend.
...
The numbness was spreading to her legs.
"Neji," she whispered, "it's getting harder to swim."
The ocean floor never felt so deep until she could barely swim.
He was behind her. He had asked her to lift the back of her shirt so that he could keep an eye on her back.
"The skin is still intact," he told her. "Just a little more. You need to be out of the water before the wings break through."
Her legs were tense and tired. It was harder to kick, like the water was thicker, like honey or sap. Hinata swam with her right arm as her left held the knife. With her legs struggling, she bit the knife between her teeth in order to use both hands, and the corners of her mouth stretched out against the back of the blade as she swam and swam and swam.
"Keep going," Neji kept telling her.
Her back hurt more. The frantic movements of her arms made the skin stretch and fold.
"A little more," he chanted.
When Hinata broke the surface, the horizon was misty with the very beginnings of sunrise, but the moon was still large and magnificent in the sky. It greeted her. It whispered that if she lived, she would come to it, and she will find more of those missing pieces of herself.
The flocks and murders inside her squaked and tumbled around. They kept pushing and pushing against her back. The skin felt like it could pop at any moment.
"Hinata," Neji said, "the portal. Get to The Hall."
She dragged herself against the surface, to the gate. Her left shoulder was beginning to tingle with the pins of numbness, so her right arm lifted to the dial to turn it. It clicked through every district — Ocean 10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . . . — it almost got stuck on 5, it felt heavy at 2. The birds drilled their beaks into her back when she pressed it down, and magic filled the gate with the golden color of The Hall.
The moon hummed over her.
"They want out, Princess," it murmured in her ear.
"Go in," Neji said. "Come on."
"Let them out," said the moon.
She crawled into the golden glow, and as it overwhelmed her, she took that knife from her mouth, gripped it as hard as she could in her fingers, and sliced up the right scar on her back.
...
She fell on the hard, tile floor of the hall like a pile of limbs and cloth. Nothing moved. She felt like she was trapped in a body that wasn't hers. She couldn't even feel the blood of her cut drip down her side, but she could see it on the blade of her knife that lay, out of reach, a few inches away from her face.
The doves are twittering against the edges of the cut.
The crows are still pushing against the scar on the left side.
"N-N-Neji," she gurgled, "I can't move."
He was on his hands and knees, eyes flying between her face and back. Then he whirled around, looking for some sort of answer to their problem. But it was not even sunrise, and The Hall was empty, and the bar was just too far for Kakashi to take a casual glance over his book and see her.
Hinata tried to move her hand. She yanked her upper body forward to force it to drag against the tile. The tips of her fingers were stained with her blood. She tried to grab her knife, but she could't.
"Naruto."
Neji sounded unsure, but then his voice grew louder with realization.
"Naruto."
Right side of her face resting against the floor, over the silver glint of the knife, Hinata could see half of the Sun King looming in the bar, his hip leaning against one of the stools. He was not facing her. He was probably too busy talking to Kakashi to notice her.
Neji turned back to her. "You need to do something to get his attention."
There was no way she could. She could not move at all.
"Come on. Just something. Think of something. A noise, Hinata — something!"
"Neji." The loudest her voice could go was barely a whisper. It sounded like the last breath someone made before they drowned. Tight and packed, wheezing. His face fell, and he leaned down and gave her all his attention. "Neji, can I come see you?"
His eyes were ferocious, but he hid the biting white behind his eyelids and nodded. "Come here, Lady Hinata."
The world turned bleary, and Hinata allowed her eyes to close and for her soul to be lifted out of her body. She could feel the wind hit against her. It smelled like flowers, then soil, then dust. And when she opened her eyes, everything was silver and white and glowing. Neji looked thinner and paler, but he smiled when he saw her.
"You tried your best, Hinata. I'm proud of you for trying to come back. You fought the entire way."
She settled in front of him and moved her hands onto his shoulders, watching how they fazed through his skin. Her hands were phantom hands this time, and she smiled and pretended to lean into him, pretended to feel his body heat, pretended to settle all her weight onto him.
"Neji, can you tell me about my family?"
He moved so his hair draped around them, hiding them both from the frigid silver around them.
"Your father was a great man," he said. "He was stern, but he loved his family, and he wanted to protect you with all his being." He described to her a great man with hair a deep brown, like the pine in Forest 6. She did not have his hair, but she had his eyes, tinted with the softness of lavender, making them all the more expressive and beautiful. He said his name was Hiashi Hyuuga, and when the children were asleep, he would kiss his wife like they were teenagers who didn't exactly know what they were doing, but let passion guide the way. He encouraged his children to learn how to fight, to protect themselves, but still was impressed whenever they would dance or play songs for him on the flute or piano. "You were his world, Hinata. You were all he ever thought about."
…
She felt something warm wrap around her body, then —
SNAP!
She woke up, her face was flat on the hard floor, and around her body, sprayed, was her blood.
Her right wing just broke free.
Her scream croaked deep in her chest, but in the corner of her eyes, she saw that distant, bright figure turn her way. He approached slowly at first. She could see his eyes squint through the dark, trying to understand what he was looking at. Sunlight lit up her face, and his expression turned startled and wide.
"Hinata!"
Naruto collapsed on his knees in front of her.
"Hinata, your wings! I — Kakashi! Kakashi, I need your help!"
...
"What about my mother?" she asked Neji. "Do I look anything like her?"
Neji's laugh was light and a tad forced. "You look a lot like her. You are beautiful like she was."
And as he told her stories of the kind, amazing woman that was her woman — the very one who taught her how to sew and would bake her favorite foods when she was ill and stay up late to play songs for her to dance to — Hinata tried to imagine it all. She imagined an open kitchen full of windows that her mother would keep open to let in the breeze. She imagined the flowers she would braid into her hair. She imagined the way her thin fingers danced across the piano, how she would sometimes sing, how the whole house would stop what they were doing to come watch and listen.
"You have her kindness," Neji told her. His voice, for the most part, was rough and bumpy, like a gravel road. But when he said this, it was soft and gentle, like a kiss. "No matter what happens, I want you to keep that."
Hinata leaned further into him. "I will."
...
Snapping gloves made her blink and realize she was back in the medical wing of the Guard. She saw a corner of Kabuto's white jacket. She felt the metal table beneath her body. She did not feel cold. She felt like she was about to melt.
"Hinata . . ."
Her hands were held by two, warm, tan ones, and when she looked up, she saw a cloudless, morning sky.
...
"My father loved being in that house."
Neji's gaze looked gray with nostalgia. Around her, the silver seemed almost too bright. She thought Neji's eyes were the perfect color at that moment.
"He loved all of Moon. We used to live in Moon 5, but your father let us come live with you when I was young. I remember how happy he was to shop with Aunt Hitomi or wake up early and read the paper with Uncle Hiashi."
She could smell the coffee on his clothes.
If only she could remember it all like he could.
But Hinata swallowed her jealousy and listened on.
...
"You have to stay with me, Hinata."
Naruto's voice was warm and lovely. She remembered a time when she fell in love with that voice. The rough skin of his palms pressed against her face. Kabuto was behind her, his hands feeling the scar on her left side, feeling the crows poke and push and squawk beneath his hand.
Over her knuckles was a light brush of cloth. She wanted to reach out for it, to hold it.
But she couldn't.
...
"What about you, Neji?"
He bowed his head just enough to find her gaze.
"What?" he sounded breathless, almost.
"I want to remember you."
He looked like he was going to protest, but he screwed his mouth shut and thought.
"Did we get along?"
"You were one of the only things that made me the happiest," he whispered.
That made her heart feel like it had grown to fill up her entire chest. "You make me happy, too. I never felt alone when you were around."
His arms, still stuck over his head, moved and bent, as if trying to wrap around her.
He breathed against her hair, and she pretended his breath was warm. "I taught you how to hold and use a katana." That made her giggle, and his smile seemed a little less strained. "And you taught me how to deal with them." The stickers. He didn't need to say more for her to understand. "I collect them, but not willingly. They pull to me. They collect on me. And when I can't hold any more, I expel them. I force them onto someone else. Do you understand?"
Not really, but she nodded because she was dying — but, somehow — it felt like he was the one dying.
"I was locked up when people came over," he explained. "The Hyuuga could handle the stickers, but others . . . ."
Hinata understood then that their definition of happy was the same. They were happy when they were not lonely, and Hinata was glad that in the past, she could make him feel that sort of happiness that made things less bleak and scary.
"You never left me," he told her, and this time, she really could feel his breath, she thought. "And now I will never leave you, Hinata."
...
This is wrong.
These were not the right hands.
It was bright with the wrong kind of light.
"Hinata," Naruto whispered, "Hinata, please, talk to me. How can I help you?"
...
"What about . . . Hanabi?"
The mysterious sister she had.
Neji's face tightened, then fell, then looked heavy and tired.
"Hanabi . . . ."
How could such a name sound so sad?
"Hinata," he murmured, pulling away from her, looking her in the eye. "Hinata, I have something to tell you."
...
"Sasuke," she cried. "I need Sasuke!"
Itachi already had a plastic tub of warm water out in the back, ribbons of slim steam rising into the night air, the same color as the clouds around them, making the patch of backyard beneath them. His wings slumbered over the back of his wheelchair, and Sasuke rested his hand on one of the handles as he dropped Hinata's cloak onto his brother's lap.
"I remember when Mother made this for me." His thumb pressed into the damp fabric. Sasuke worked on removing his own cloak. "It was the test. She had made it a few inches too small. She had said that I ought to throw it away, but I couldn't find the will to do that." His head turned a tad so he could look at Sasuke in the corner of his eye. "You know, I always figured it would go to a good cause."
Sasuke removed his cloak and his shirt and dropped them in the tub. "What did you do to Hinata?"
"I had two ideas on how you'd be coming back." Itachi folded his hands over the twisted pile of black fabric, pushing it a bit further into his lap. "Either you would be angry or pissed. Since you didn't walk in here like a thunderstorm, I'm supposing it worked out well in the end."
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke got on his knees and began to scrub his clothes in the bin, using a brush to scrape the salt out and pulling out the material to wring over the tub.
"She was scared, Itachi," he said. "You could have hurt her."
"I needed to show her the weeds," was all he said back.
Sasuke gave him a pointed look. "There were better ways to go about that." Itachi said nothing, only gave a vague, dismissive hum, and Sasuke focused back on his washing. "I don't know all the details about it, but from what I understand, only the Hyuuga should be able to see them. You're no Hyuuga, Itachi."
"Oh." He sounded surprised, which was rare for Itachi. Especially when he schemed. "Neji didn't tell you . . ."
That revealed another side of this revolution that Sasuke hadn't considered: did the ability to see these weeds somehow correlate with Hinata's ability to see the . . . spirit of her cousin? And if that were the case, did that mean Itachi could also see him?
"If he did mention something," Sasuke said, "Hinata didn't mention it to me."
He pulled out his cloak and took a minute to wring out all the water. Itachi took it once he was done and wheeled over the clothes line, hanging it up to wave and dry in the wind. Sasuke wrung out his shirt, as well, and after Itachi pinned that up to be dried, he finally handed Sasuke the cloak in his lap.
His pants were stained and wet, but Sasuke didn't say anything about it as he began to scrub at Hinata's cloak.
As he watched, his brother said, "Neji has been hidden away for quite a while, and I am one of the reasons for that." His index finger tapped under his left eye. "I met him years ago, and he did something awful to me. That's when I started to see them." He paused for a moment, and Sasuke glanced up to see his face peering up at the moon. The silver glow somehow made the darks of his eyes lighter, almost gray. "The Hyuuga needed to keep it a secret. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone. Not Father. Not Mother. Not you."
"Until now," Sasuke droned.
Itachi looked away from the sky, back to him. "Until now. But you were bound to find out eventually. That's how you've always been Sasuke."
...
Sasuke spent extra time on Hinata's cloak, making sure to reach every inch of it inside and out before he pulled it out of the tub, wrung it, and hung it on the line. He waved his hands to rid them of the water and took the handles of Itachi's chair to wheel him back inside. As he went into his room to pull on another shirt from his closet, he called for Itachi to go to sleep, as it was already far past midnight.
But when he left his room, his brother was brewing tea for the both of them, and Sasuke sighed and waited at the table.
"The Moon Queen was the deciding factor," Itachi told him when he settled both mugs on the table. "She was why the Hyuuga locked him up when they had company. They never wanted what happened to me or her to repeat itself."
Sasuke warmed his hands on the sides of the mug. No part of his body screamed for the extra shot of caffeine in his system; he was far too awake, far too alert and aware of everything, so he warmed his hands and listened.
"What happened to her?"
Itachi didn't seem to have any more interest in drinking his tea, either. He only looked inside, as if finding something particular in his own reflection. "She went mad. It took her three days to calm down."
Sasuke could not recall a single bit of this. As most of the kings and queens were walking Gods among the universes, everything was reported about them. Their tantrums, their illnesses, their favorite cuisine; it was so rare for something as shaking as the late Moon Queen going mad for three days to hold nothing in his memory. Which made Sasuke wonder: was it because he was too young to remember, was it hidden from the public, or was it wiped from his memory?
"Why?" he asked his brother. "What did Neji do that made her go mad? That made you see the weeds?"
And for whatever reason, Itachi looked lost. His expression fell, and his fingers curled around his mug.
He did not say a word. Instead, he drank his tea.
...
His brother eventually went to bed around three that morning.
Sasuke busied himself by checking the cloaks every twenty minutes.
In between, he'd turn desperate for something to pass the time. Sometimes, he would go for a quick fly around the district to get his energy out. Sometimes, he'd flip through Itachi's books that lay on the coffee table, turning to folded ears of specific pages to see what got his interest. It ranged from recipes that their mother used to cook for special occasions to stories of survivors from Forest 6. There was one book in particular that talked about the magic and symbolism surrounding moonflowers and their connection to the Moon monarch, and that turned Sasuke's attention to the flower on the shelf in the small dining room.
It stood out from the rest of the collection. A simple, glowing flower in a small hill of moon soil. It had been picked months ago, and yet, here it stood: tall, with healthy petals that hung out like arms, begging for a hug.
And he remembered what Hinata had said in Forest 3: "If you put it back in moon soil, it will stay alive forever."
And he thought about that.
Thought about how this flower could live forever in this house. When he was gone, when Itachi was gone — the flower would still be here.
He thought about that, and it made him restless, so he took another lap around Cloud 8.
...
He gave up at 5:30 and went to the Guard, desperate for something to do. His cloak, clean and dry, hung over his back, while Hinata's cloak, equally clean and dry, was folded between his arms, and he held it close to him as he flew through the gate and arrived in The Hall.
To the side, the song of waves could be heard crashing against the cold walls of the Ocean Gate. Salt sprayed out into the air, flying with their small wings made of water vapor, trying to aim their bodies into the dark fabric protected in his arms. It was temptation — like Hinata's name. Sasuke had an itch to just rub his fingers along the lines of his gills, feeling if they were still there, if the magic hadn't worn off, if they could last him taking a swim to the bottom of Ocean 11.
He couldn't — he shouldn't.
But he could not ignore how the air smelled of Hinata.
Like a flock of seagulls. Like salt mixed with something deeper and darker.
It collected into balls of scent in the air, clusters that grew and grew, and it made Sasuke's gills ache. He went to the bar, first, to soak his gills in water, and he found that it was strange that the smell got denser and heavier in the air.
Kakashi seemed much too frantic for someone who spent most of his time reading erotica on the clock. He was half-turned away from him, his hands flying about the front of his shirt. Sasuke stepped closer, head leaning to the side to get him a better look at whatever the guy was doing.
There was a patch of something that didn't look right. A breath left him, catching the air, and Kakashi turned and revealed that the patch was so much more, so much larger than that. It enveloped his entire shirt. Red and leaking.
At first, Sasuke thought Kakashi had been wounded.
But then —
"Sasuke."
That was not the voice of a wounded man. That was a scared, concerned man who struggled to wipe someone else's blood off his work shirt.
"Sasuke . . . ."
And it clicked that second in his head. The cloak in his arms weighed a thousand tons, and Sasuke's wings shot out and sent him soaring to the Guard.
...
It was easy to find her.
He just followed the light and the noise.
It was crowded and busy and suffocating in that room. Kabuto looked like he was a canvas, with smears and splotches and trails of dripping paint covering the majority of his front. Naruto looked like he was the painter, for one could not see an inch of untouched skin on his hands.
Hinata looked like she was the paint. The oil that oozed down the curve of one, standing wing.
When Sasuke entered, his own wings fighting against the command to sink back into the holes on his back, revolted at the sight before them, Naruto was the first to look his way. Sasuke hated to think it, but he had the same face he had the day he had to kill the Sun Queen. That sent an image so disgusting into his head — the image of Naruto standing over Hinata, blade in hand, poised to kill her — that Sasuke snapped his head away before we grew any sicker than he already was.
"Sasuke . . . ." Naruto's whisper was drowning under the heavy breathing and light, painted groans crawling out of Hinata's mouth. "Sasuke, you —"
He walked past the Sun King and sank to his knees so he was at eye-level with Hinata. "What's wrong?" he asked Kabuto. "Why is only one wing out?"
Kabuto was wiping the side of his gloves against a rag before he pushed down on the scar on Hinata's left side. "She used a knife to get the right one out."
His fingers turned cold. "Then cut the other one out!" he snapped.
"She's already lost enough blood." Kabuto glanced down at himself as emphasis. "I need to get more into her before proceeding."
Panic filled him to the brim, spilling out onto the floor, dripping down his body.
"Then do that!"
Kaburo sneered, "What do you think I'm doing, Uchiha!?"
He turned to the side and pulled out a bag of blood, hanging up on a hook on the nearby wall before sticking her arm with something. As he worked, Sasuke touched the side of Hinata's face, watching her eyes move under her lids, a sign that she was at least still alive.
"Why now?" Next to him, Naruto looked like he was about to panic. "Why are they coming now!?"
Tearing himself away from her, Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into the hall. "Breathe, Naruto."
"You expect me to stay calm when — when Hinata is —" Flustered, Naruto fell against the wall, hands rubbing into his face. "What's going to happen to her?"
Sasuke was wondering the same thing.
"Stay out here."
Naruto balked. "What —"
"Kabuto will kick you out if you go back in there like this."
Naruto's gaze fell, and he groaned like he was the one in pain. "What about Hinata, then? I can't leave her alone."
Sasuke looked over his shoulder. "I'll take care of her."
He waited for Naruto to protest, wondering if that would bring any suspicions from him. But Naruto just stared blankly at the ceiling, breaths light and quick. "Alright . . ."
Sasuke waited a moment longer, worried, before he returned to the room and settled himself in front of Hinata once again.
...
She was gaining consciousness when Kabuto was getting ready to open up her back for her other wing. Sasuke made sure he was right in her line of sight, and the second she saw him, her eyes watered up, and she hiccuped and bowed her head.
"Y-Y-You're here."
He moved closer to her, his knees pressed hard against the floor. "He's going to cut your back," he explained, fingers tipping under her chin to get her to look at him. "Alright? Can you handle that?"
She nodded and sobbed, and he grabbed her arms and pulled them around his neck, letting her face push into his chest.
"Hold onto me," he whispered. "I'm here. Don't let go."
With what little strength she had left, she curled her arms further around him and prepared herself for another blade slicing down her back.
...
She didn't have the strength to holler and wail. She just shivered and bit his shirt between her teeth. If her arms ever slipped, he'd secure them around him once again, and he tried to tap a calming beat against the back of her neck or push her hair out of the way of Kabuto's work.
Somewhere in the middle, she slipped into unconsciousness, and he could feel her lips forming Neji's name.
It took over thirty minutes, but another crack echoed through the air when her wing sprung from the bloody trap of her back. Hinata's head shot up as she gasped, and Sasuke held her closer and whispered that she was okay, that it was over, that she's alive.
"Alive . . . ." she mumbled, eyes thin and foggy. Kabuto was already working on wiping away all the blood from her back. "Al . . . ive . . . ."
Strength returned to her arms, and this time, she held him close, and he felt like he couldn't breathe for the next year.
...
When she fell back asleep, he slowly removed her arms from around him and went back out to the hallway, where Naruto barely kept himself standing.
"She's alright."
The Sun King collapsed, not trying at all to hide his relieved sobs, and Sasuke sat next to him and tried to come to terms with the news, as well.
Sasuke Uchiha would not let her leave, despite three days of constant rest having passed.
"You need to let your back heal," he said the first day, and she had agreed. Her back was tender and sore, and though she did not suppose walking around would do it much harm, she did understand that swimming around in the ocean would not benefit her at all. So she stayed in that bed and closed her eyes and accustomed herself with feeling completely and totally full with wings.
"You lost a lot of blood. You can't move around too much," he said the second day, and though Hinata thought he was being a bit paranoid, she agreed once again. Kabuto had been supplying her with blood, and her diet had been full with iron-rich foods to help the process run smoothly. Hinata, honestly, felt fine, but she stayed another day to make smalltalk with the nurse. Sometimes, Karin would stop by to switch out her books, and Hinata would read and read until the words turned blurry.
On the third day, Sasuke told her, "You look tired. Stay another day." And that was when Hinata had it. If she was tired of something, it would be looking at the same, four walls and resting against the same, two pillows and not even being allowed to take a stroll down the hallway. If anything, Hinata was so full of energy and the need to just move that it could kill her!
"Sasuke," she tried to say in the gentlest of voices, "maybe to keep my body moving, I can walk to the cafeteria this time."
From how his face stayed absolutely still, he didn't even take a nanosecond to consider her proposal. "Stay here. I'll get you something if you're hungry."
Well, of course she wasn't! She had eaten no more than an hour ago — and he would know because he was the one who sat there and made sure she ate every single bite. Now feeling exhausted, Hinata leaned against the wall and watched him exit the room.
"Neji," she said, "when I was sick, did my mother act like he is acting right now?"
Her cousin floated over the side table, peeking down to read the title of the latest book Karin had brought for her.
"You'll have to be patient with him," he explained. "You nearly died in front of him. He still hasn't gotten over how he almost lost Itachi."
She knew that; really, she did.
And it was because she knew such that she had followed along with his worries for the past three days, not causing a fit of any sort for anyone. But she was also Hinata Hyuuga, who had just gotten her wings back, who could finally fly again without the need or aid of someone else; she was Hinata Hyuuga, who could finally go back to Moon, so one really couldn't blame her for being slightly impatient, as well.
"Neji," she sighed, "I want to feel them and look at them without feeling like I'm dying."
At that, he chuckled and dropped down to the floor.
"Then what are you going to do?"
...
She left.
She slipped out of her bed, she pulled out the needles stuck in her hand, and she left. Her nails traced the walls as she walked from hallway to hallway. Her body warmed up when she entered the lobby full of windows that streamed sunlight over her skin. Her knees felt a little wobbly, but her lungs breathed in the fresh air, and she didn't feel lightheaded or unbalanced at all.
Her cloak felt like it belonged on her. For those three days, it had sat on the back of the chair by her bed, and sometimes at night she would reach over to hide her hands in the soft fabric and remember how it felt to be under it, to be protected by it. Now it was on her shoulders once again, keeping her face in the shadows of her hood. She felt like she was the Moon Witch once again, and when her hands dipped into the pocket, she felt the smooth metal of the handle of her dagger.
Hinata, for the next twenty minutes, wandered.
She went to her office, opened the door with her key, and breathed in the smell of books. Then, she rested her hands on all the doors she knew: Kabuto's, Karin's, Orochimaru's. She traced her steps to the cafeteria, then explored a few hallways that led her down to places she's never been to before. For perhaps a minute, she stepped into the hallway that had her old cell, but the floor sent ice up her legs, so she was quick to return to the medical wing. There, she went to a small hallway on the opposite side of where her room was, pushed open the third door on the left, and stepped inside to find Suigetsu still laying in his bed, still and unmoving, but thankfully covered from chin to toe in a blanket.
She went to his side and pressed her hands against his gills, hoping to pass some of her miracle to him.
When he wakes, she'd probably be like Sasuke for the first three days. She'd feed him and keep him stuck in bed, bored out of his mind and wishing so desperately to explore; but come the fourth day, she'd wake him up with the sun, and they would run around the Guard and visit the bar and go diving in Ocean 11.
"Suigetsu," she whispered, "I got my wings back."
She'd imagine he'd smirk like he believed her, but turn his head away to feign disbelief.
"When someone says 'I don't believe you'," she remembered him saying, "you're supposed to try 'nd convince them."
So she pulled his left hand out from underneath the sheets and held it in both of her hands, letting him feel hour her muscles tensed and coiled, swelled, rippled from the works of her back, from the push of her wings from deep inside her; the birds flocked, and with nothing to hold them back but the thin fabric of her blouse, they shot out, and white feathers filled the room.
...
"Hina —"
Over her shoulder came a voice that, for a second, she could not recognize. She was too far into the feeling of wings sprouting from her back, how it felt natural, how — despite her never remembering such a sensation — it felt so normal and familiar. It took four seconds and the anchor that was Suigetsu's hand pulling her back to reality that made her recognize that voice, and when she turned, her wings slid through the air, the feathers waved, and she felt like she would never be alone again.
Sasuke was stuck in the doorway. His hand was slack against the frame, and he stared at her like he would stare at that Hinata she used to be — the one who lived in a house with her family in Moon 2. His left eye sputtered with white lightning, and then his mouth sputtered with a breath neither of them realized he was holding in.
He tried to turn away before she saw the flush to his face, but she had seen it, and it would stay with her forever.
...
"You shouldn't have left the room —"
"Sasuke, can you teach me how to fly?"
He had been taking her back to her room, but his steps slowed a pace when she said those words to his back.
He gave her a sideways glance in the corner of his eye. "Are you listening to me?"
"I think I'll be rusty," she said. "That's why I want you to teach me."
"Hin —" He stopped himself with a frantic look around the hall. "Moon Witch, we can talk about this when you are fully healed and —"
"I'm going tonight." It had already been decided since the moment she woke up that morning. She did not want to wait any longer. She wanted to go back home. "I'll find a way no matter what. Even if you set guards outside my door, I'll slip out."
Sasuke scowled. "I'm your guard, Moon Witch. You think you can escape me?"
"I won't have to," she said. "You'll let me go."
Sasuke's face was a bit startled because she was so confident and so clear, so it started to make him feel like she was right, that no matter what he did, she would go to Moon 2 that night. His brows dipped, and Hinata knew he was frustrated with the corner she pushed him into, but she smiled when he sighed and nodded and slid his hand from her wrist to her hand as they continued their way back to her room.
...
Kabuto, clearly, knew something was up.
Sasuke wasn't making a fit whenever he would check her back, and Hinata, herself, didn't try to downplay anything.
She could tell by how he looked at her, how his specks reflected the light, that he knew something was in the works, but he didn't really seem to care. He did his check-up, he drawled that she was healing beautifully, and he left without another word.
Hinata smiled over at Sasuke. "Hear that? I'm healing beautifully."
Sasuke was still frowning, none too pleased with how things were working against him, but he was the first to stand and help her out of her bed when the coast was clear and no one was planning to stop by for a while.
"Promise me," he said in a low, almost secretive voice, as if he suspected someone was listening in, "that if you start to hurt, you'll tell me."
Hinata rested her hands on his shoulders. "Yes, Sasuke. I'll tell you."
The press of his gloves over her hands was comforting and strong, like he was trying to push some of his strength into her system. It stayed there for several seconds, and then he gently pulled her hands off his shoulders and led her to the door.
…
Ocean 11 was pink with the sunset.
The light reflected off the water's surface and sprayed onto Sasuke's form, lighting up his wings, making them the same color as the horizon.
"Let me see how they look when you flap."
His face was narrow with concentration, and as she did what she was told, he would come to her side to get a better look at her wings.
"Slow," he said as one of his hands touched the bit of her wing just two inches up from her back. "Let me make sure everything feels right."
Hinata had thought her wings would feel like something weighing down her back; like a pouch or something. But they were a part of her, so when his fingers pressed and brushed, it felt like they pressed and brushed against bare skin. She could feel how the pad of his thumb moved, searching for something wrong. It was like he was the Moon Witch again, removing stickers from her body, and Hinata had to close her eyes and blow slowly to keep the thoughts from messing up her own concentration.
"Alright," he said after a minute, "we can start."
...
Years ago, Sasuke Uchiha taught her what it was like to soar.
She had been a young, scared girl back then. The idea of losing control of her wings and suddenly plunging to the ground terrified her, but he showed her what it was like to fly without fear, to race against the wind, to get closer to the stars and feel their light shine against your back.
"Hold onto me."
Years ago, he had taken her hands and forced her high up into the night sky. He did not stop no matter how she protested, and right when she thought she couldn't stand it any longer, he let go of her.
But this time —
"Move them at the same time. Try to find your balance."
This time, Sasuke had his boots stuck just a few centimeters in ocean water, and instead of looking down at her as he dragged her higher and higher, he looked up as she flew a few feet over the ocean surface, hair and wings waving in the wind created by her flapping. Both his hands held onto hers, keeping her up, bringing her back to balance if she twisted one way too much.
He stepped back, and she flew forward, and they practiced that way until her flow was steady.
"Do you want to go higher?"
She looked up at the wisps of magenta clouds and nodded.
"Do you want me to keep holding you?"
"I-I can do it."
So Sasuke shot up in the air with her, and her muscles ebbed and flowed as her wings pushed her further up into the sky. He stayed next to her, slow, watching how her wings worked against the tougher winds. They got around fifty feet in the air when she paused, not realizing how exhausting flying could be, her lungs already feeling spent. Sasuke gave her a look, offering to take a break, but she shook her head, determined to go just a bit higher. She flew up until it felt right, until she could look down and feel that fear she had as a child.
They were over one-hundred feet in the air. This was where Sasuke had let her go. This is where she learned to fly.
"Hinata," he said, "are you alright?"
The ocean seemed so far away. For so long, she used to be under it; she used to look at the same surface, but at a different angle. From down there, it was so dark, and it felt like the surface pulled further and further away, leaving you at the bottom, alone and forgotten. But up here, she could see how it reached past the horizon, how it went on seemingly forever. She could see how the light reflected off the water and against the clouds. She could feel wind and gravity. It made her feel real and alive.
"Sasuke," she said, "do you remember the first flying trick you taught me."
He blinked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he thought back.
When it came to him, his head shot her way. "Hinata —"
"Diving."
And like that, her wings folded in against her body, and she was falling. It wasn't like sinking. It was fast. It didn't feel like something grabbed her legs and dragged her down. It felt like the wind was pushing her, like the sky was her mother and she was on a tire swing; she told her, "I want to go high!" — so the sky pushed her hard so that when she went back up, she'd feel like she was weightless.
Air tore against her face. Her cloak was slapping against her legs. One-hundred feet turned to seventy feet turned to twenty feet, and that was when her wings whipped out and caught the air, pulling her back up, catching that up from the swing.
And right then, Hinata remembered what it felt like to fly, and it was wonderful.
...
She flew close to the surface, skirting her fingers against the waves.
Not too long in her soaring, Sasuke dropped from the clouds to join her, his face twisted in an expression half-disapproving, half-relieved.
"Back then," he grunted, "you weren't nearly as much as a daredevil."
In response, Hinata splashed him with a handful of water before shooting back up into the sky. She didn't have to look back to know he was chasing after her; she could feel the surge of electricity dancing on the tips of her feathers.
A yelp shot out of her mouth when his arms suddenly wrapped around her hips, and he pushed both of them up, making her bend over his shoulder and laugh as he rocketed them through clouds. "Sasuke!" she laughed, and somehow, she thought she sounded young.
They were far beyond the clouds when he let her go, allowing her to fly on her own and catch her breath. The sky was dark, now, as the sun sunk the rest of its slumbering body under the horizon. Stars and galaxies began to light up the sky, and overhead, brilliant and beautiful, was the moon.
A year ago, Hinata had believed she'd never be able to return to her home.
Now, it was as if she could touch it.
It was so close.
"You'll come with me?" She turned to him. "Right?"
His answer was his hands slinking under her hair and pulling her face to his so he could kiss her.
"Sasuke," she whispered against his mouth.
Static thrummed against her ribcage. His arms wrapped around her again, his wings pushed back, and suddenly, she was diving through the sky once again. If she wanted to yell, she couldn't; Sasuke's mouth stayed on hers, one hand on her back to keep her close to him as the other touched the side of her wing. It felt like they were falling forever. A year passed before he pulled away and pulled in a gallon of air into his lungs, and it was just then Hinata opened her eyes and saw his wings were tucked away. She only had a few seconds to do the same with hers, and then they crashed down into the ocean.
...
Her gills flared into action, which was good, because still, as they sunk further and further down into Ocean 11, Sasuke kissed and pressed and molded. The drag of the water tried to pull them away from one another, but his hold was tight, and her hands secured his chest against hers, and it was only when she felt his air bubble out from between his lips did her hands go to his neck to feel that his own gills were almost completely gone.
"Sasuke!" she yelped, twisting herself in a way so she could lean down and drag her teeth down his neck, reshaping the gills, allowing him to breathe underwater once again. "And you call me the daredevil."
He didn't say anything, only pushed her cloak away from her back so it didn't get in the way of his hands.
Cloak . . .
Wait.
"Sasuke," she groaned, tugging his own in protest, "you just washed these."
Hinata hadn't realized how long they had been sinking until her back suddenly collided with the floor of the ocean. From the impact, her body tried to bounce back up and float, but Sasuke sank down and kept her pinned to the floor, his eyes somehow darker than the water, piercing into her, glinting with a smirk that matched the one on his mouth.
"How long do you think it will take," he began, mouth pressing against her own gills, "until my teeth begin to sharpen, as well?"
Hinata sighed, and Sasuke laughed and kissed her again and again, and her legs circled around his and locked, keeping them both trapped along the ocean floor for the next, long while.
...
Forty minutes later, after short make-out session and an even shorter pause on the top of the surface to wring out Sasuke's non-waterproof clothes, Hinata and Sasuke dropped by the bar, handed Kakashi their cloaks to wash in warm water (which the man was none too pleased about), and then made their way to the Sky Gate and turned the dial to Moon 2.
The magic that formed the portal was silver and sparkling, like it was made out of stardust.
Sasuke stayed quiet, and Hinata knew that it was because if he said anything, it would be questions. Are you sure? pressed against the curl of his shoulder. Is now a good time? twisted into the corner of his otherwise flat expression.
Hinata knew she was ready, and so did Sasuke, and that was why he said nothing as the portal opened, welcoming them in.
Together, they stepped in.
...
He took her to her home, his hand holding hers, leading her the way. Hinata was practically dragged there, as she was much too interested in everything around her. The distant blare of a train horn. The sparkling streets and walkways. The trees with white bark and leaves that looked like they were made of glass. Every house was neat and tidy to itself, but the longer they flew, the more and more they grew apart, becoming bigger and more isolated.
When they stopped, Hinata found they were at the front gate of a house, and she knew immediately this was her family's home. It didn't look familiar. She didn't recognize the garden or the walkway or the door. But she knew this was her home.
"It's locked," Sasuke told her, "so we won't be able to go inside."
Hinata did not mind. She landed on the porch, listened to how the wood let out a slight croak, and wondered if she knew that croak by heart in her past years. Her hand touched the doorknob, hoping she'd be able to feel the heat of someone else; her father's hand, perhaps.
Next to her, Neji stood in the looming archway over the porch, looking around at the place with no surprise or wonder. He looked at it like it was a normal sight. Hinata wished, one day, she'd have that look, as well.
"It's open," he said, after a while. "You can go inside."
Surprised, Hinata turned the knob, and the door silently pulled open. Sasuke blinked, shocked, and Hinata took a careful step inside, as if she were scared the ground would shatter beneath her if she took the wrong step. Neji went further inside, hand trailing the wall, like he was experiencing something he hadn't experienced for a long time, like he was trying to re-familiarize himself with something there. Slowly, Hinata followed him inside as Sasuke shut the door behind them.
"Lady Hinata." Her cousin turned to her, and somehow, he didn't seem so transparent in that moment. "Welcome home."
...
There were a million stories in every room. Neji didn't have the time to tell her every one of them, but he told her important ones.
He told her that she was four and tasting lemonade in the kitchen when her mother told her she would be an older sister. Two years later, in the southern sitting room, she had sewn her first handkerchief. She would study late at night in the library, and in the den at the front of the house, he told her how they used to find the oldest book in Hiashi's library to lay and read on the carpet.
With every story, she traveled into that room, trying to imagine those memories.
When she entered a room full of beautiful instruments and a grand piano to the side, there was a particular pull to this place that Hinata could not ignore. She went and sat on the bench at the piano, her fingers immediately landing on the ivories as Neji told her how she used to play the piano for him. Sasuke, himself, seemed quite familiar with the room, and she noticed his eyes stray on the door on the back wall.
Pulling herself from the piano, she joined Sasuke by the door. "I think I remember this," she said as her hand rested against the wood. "I . . . remember sitting here and talking to someone."
Her eyes turned to Neji, and then she pushed the door open and stepped inside.
All around them, there were katanas. On the wall, displayed in cases. All different shapes and sizes, made out of different material, seemingly crafted from different realms. The room was otherwise small and dark; but with them all there, keeping one another company, it looked crowded. Full.
To the right, Hinata saw two spots missing their katana that belonged there. She touched the empty wall, then continued to explore. The back wall had a few non-katana weapons on display. There was another small, empty spot just before her, but this time, she felt like she knew what belonged there. Without hesitation, Hinata pulled out her dagger that she had grabbed from her cloak and placed it on the two, gold hooks.
Suddenly, the room felt more complete, and Hinata stepped back and smiled at how her dagger belonged with all the other weapons.
"This was your room, Neji." When she turned, she saw him standing in the middle, surrounded by swords and daggers and weapons. His eyes were stuck to the empty spots on the left wall, and she never thought a man in such a crowded room could look so alone. "This is . . . where they hid you."
"My father collected these for me," he said, "so I had something to take care of when I had to hide."
She swallowed hard. From how the room looked, it seemed like it had been a while since anyone had come in to take care of the swords. Smiling, she came up to him and held her hand next to his, knowing she could not hold it, but letting the message come across.
"One day," she said, "we'll take care of them together."
She had hoped that would make him feel better, but he looked more miserable. He looked like he had no connection with that room at all. Like he was an outcast.
"Hinata," he murmured, after a while, "I don't think that will ever happen."
She wanted to ask what he meant by that, but there was a slide and a hiss behind her, and suddenly, the entire room was lit up with lightning. She whirled around to see Sasuke by the door, sneering; somewhere in the distance, under the crackle of electricity, she could hear footsteps and shuffling and —
"Thor Warrior."
Sasuke flinched, quickly sheathing his katana, allowing Hinata a better look at who had just entered the music room.
And, suddenly, she found herself staring into eyes that matched her own.
"Toneri . . . ."
His brows raised as his gaze lifted to her wings. "You . . . got them back," he breathed.
Somehow, she felt caught, like she wasn't supposed to be there, in her own home. "I'm — this is — I'm sorry if I —"
"I wasn't expecting to see the two of you here." His eyes turned to Sasuke, and then he stepped around him and stood near the middle of the room, not even sparing a look at the collection around him. "Is there any particular reason?"
"I —"
"I brought her here," Sasuke said. "She wanted to see her home, so I brought her."
Toneri never looked away from her, and she never saw his face turn in anger or disappointment. "I see," he hummed, eyes closing. "I don't mean to interrogate you. I'm only surprised that you even got in at the first place. This is a crime scene, after all."
Hinata could almost swear her heart stopped for a second. "Crime . . . scene?"
At that, Toneri's glowing, familiar eyes blinked down at her. "Naruto never told you?" His frown was pensive and concerned. One pair of wings lifted over his head while the other two pairs dropped down to the floor, and he said, in a careful voice, "Your family was murdered here."
Murdered.
She had already known something happened to her family, and she had been sure they were either hurt or no longer alive. But murdered was something harsh and ferocious. Something planned. It wasn't an accident. Her family was killed in their own home, and she had just walked through the rooms without a single clue.
She swallowed hard and tried to keep that growing, sick feeling from climbing up her throat. Sasuke took a step closer, and Toneri was sure to watch her closely in case she suddenly collapsed.
"Do —" Her voice croaked and died. She had to clear her throat and try again. "Do you . . . know who did it?"
Toneri blinked, then said, slowly, "We have him locked away at this moment."
I cold sweat broke out on her neck as her fingers began to tremble with adrenaline. "C-Can you take me to him?"
Sasuke hissed, "Moon Witch —"
"If you want," Toneri said. "We have him in Moon 1. I will take you to him."
Hinata's throat tightened, but she nodded. "Please."
Toneri guided her out of the room, and she did not miss the look Sasuke shot her as she passed him by.
...
This time, as they flew through Moon 1, she did not gawk and gasp at the bright, brilliant city around her.
She flew right at the Moon King's side, eyes steady ahead, not daring to look back at Sasuke. She was scared that if she did, she'd lose her courage and run away. But she had to know. She had to see the face of that person, to look at his stickers to see if he had enough humanity to regret it.
Toneri brought her to a gray, dull building with hardly any windows. Upon seeing the Moon King, the guards at the front and inside let him and his guests through with no questions at all. They walked down a hall full of cells that reminded her of the ones in the Guard, with metal bars and no warmth and light.
With both of them following the Moon King, Sasuke tugged at her sleeve and gave her another pointed look, and Hinata was so close to turning around and leaving. Maybe she should listen to him. He clearly thought it wasn't the right time, and he was probably correct. But Toneri was already opening a door, letting them inside and further into the building. No one was around to give directions. He knew exactly where he was going.
"Hinata," he said as he stopped and looked down at her, "this is his room." There was a metal door to his left. "Are you ready?"
He had a circle of keys in his hands. She did not know how he got them, nor did she care.
"I want to see him," she said.
Sasuke sighed behind her, and Toneri inserted the key and turned it until it clicked. He moved away, allowing her to be the one to push it open, and she caught her breath and counted three seconds before pressing her hands against the metal and pushing it open.
Inside, the room was split in half. On her side was a small, simple bench, and nothing really else. The other half of the room was separated by a wall of iron bars, thick enough to not be broken so easily, but thin enough to give her a good look into the back of the room.
It was empty. It was dark. The dust was silver and danced in a single ray of moonlight that peered in from the tiny opening in the ceiling.
For a moment, Hinata thought no one was inside.
But then she stepped further in, and that was when she spotted a figure slouched against the wall. Thin and pale. Chained wrists pointing to the ceiling.
Neji . . . ?
What she saw was real skin and bony fingers that were not transparent. What she saw was a man who barely breathed, who looked more like a ghost than the phantom that has been following her around for so long.
What she saw was a clear, stickerless face, but wings made almost entirely out of dark, bleak weeds: heavy and broken, hanging like corpses around his body.
Chapter 31 - End