family affair

twenty-two:

bathed in blue

The room was hot.

There was a TV on, humming low in the background. Voices with slight accents spoke about the weather, petty crime in the area, and election results. She was still in Iwa, thank God. Around her, she was met with something plush, soft: a bed or couch. Her arms and legs were not tied and she could move freely. What could this mean? How confident were her kidnappers?

Hinata kept her eyes closed when a door opened and shut, and a lock was turned with a quiet click. Footsteps. Someone was holding a plastic bag, which they dumped on a surface not too far from her head. They began to sort through their items, and the sound of shuffling objects so close to Hinata's ear almost made her twitch.

Almost.

The person walked across the room, and a slapping sound emitted. Flesh against flesh. Hinata kept her breath level: she hadn't known that there was a second person in the room. She was glad she had chosen to remain still, keeping her face pressed into the fabric around her. The person grunted in surprise. More shuffling was heard like they were getting up.

"I can't believe you fucking fell asleep," they said, their voice like hot oil.

The second person yawned and the sound of it filled the room. "Relax," they said. They sounded familiar, but Hinata was growing a headache inside of her panic and it was becoming hard to think. "She's not going to hurt me."

"Tch," person number two said. "How do you know that, Naruto? She was following me, remember?"

There was a silence. Then, something hissed. A bottle opened. The room soured as a glass filled. The same person said, "Don't you think it's too early to start drinking?"

"Never too early when all this shit is going on."

It occurred to Hinata that, among all the other things she did not know, she didn't know the time, or how long she had been gone. Shino was probably worried. She tried to recall the sequence of events: the tattoo shop, the pink-haired woman, the market––

"She's awake," person number one said, and before Hinata could move to defend herself, or open her eyes good, they were pushing her against the couch and taking her arms behind her back, clamping them together with heavy force. Hinata barely had time to protest.

"Seriously, Sakura, you need to calm down," the person said. Hinata managed to look up as she struggled and all the air left her lungs. It was Shenji. He was alive and well! "She's not going to hurt us," he turned to her with his familiar blonde hair, his familiar kind-eyed smile. "You're not going to hurt us, right Hinata?"

"N-no," Hinata managed, her voice hoarse. Sakura was putting pressure on her lower back and Hinata's face was being pushed into a cushion. She realized she had been sleeping on a leather couch.

Shenji looked at Sakura as if saying see? and took a sip of his beer. Slowly, Sakura got off of her, releasing her hands after a long pause. She joined Shenji at the foot of one of the full beds and crossed her arms over her chest.

Hinata righted herself slowly, feeling as if her brain had been jostled out of socket. It hammered against her eyes, but she took this brief pause to take in her surroundings. She was in a hotel room in downtown Iwa, high up somewhere. It was dusk. There were numerous neon signs blinking in the distance, swallowing up the coming night with their vigor.

The hotel room was small, bathed in green wallpaper, and rancid-smelling. There were two duffle bags placed between the double full beds, and fast-food wrappers piling the bedside tables. One of the beds was unmade––presumably, the one Shenji had just been napping in––and the other was covered in guns of all shapes and sizes.

Sakura––though, Hinata was sure they had met under a different name––had cut her hair down to her skull. Her face was pitched in anxiety. She was wringing her hands.

Shenji was more casual, looking the way he always had at the Estate: aloof, dry-humored, good-natured as he nursed his beer and candy bar. He sat casually on the bed, looking at her before he said, "Hey Hinata. It's good to see you again. I'm glad Sakura here didn't knock you out for good."

"I didn't hit her that hard," Sakura grumbled back as if this was an argument the two of them had already had. Then, she turned to Hinata her lips pursed and dangerous. "So. Tell us why you were following me."

But Hinata could not. She was too focused on Shenji, and how he was standing before her, injury-free, a new man in a new city. How he laughed without care. How he smiled with such ease. How he spoke so casually to this woman who had just put her knee in Hinata's back with ease. Hinata could not make sense of this, of him, of his sudden appearance in another city on a different side of the country. Her mouth opened and closed uselessly as if she were a fish outside of the water, and finally, she landed on saying: "But––but, Shenji. How are you h-here? Where did you go?"

Shenji sat heavily on the bed and it sank under his weight. "Hinata," he began. "My name is not Shenji, it's Naruto. I worked with Sasuke and Sakura to infiltrate the Hyugas in order to steal the Byakugan file. I escaped the hospital before it was too late––"

"Before ANBU double-crossed us," Sakura spit. "We disappeared together. But––"

When Sakura broke off, seemingly full of emotion, Naruto picked up for her. It became clear to Hinata that they had been working together for years. "––But, we couldn't get to Sasuke in time. I know you all have a connection and you're here in Iwa––not with the syndicate––for a reason. Can you tell us where Sasuke is?"

Hinata stared at them. The Tv flickered as a commercial break dimmed the screen. The neon lights blinked in the distance as the sunset. Hinata cleared her throat: "I have––I have no reason to help you."

She watched Sakura stiffen. Watched her hand slide over her waistband.

"B-but you have no reason to h-help me either," Hinata amended quietly, staring at the carpeted floor, where a brown stain met the doorway to the bathroom. "I...Ioved Sasuke. I arranged for him a passport and a ticket out: to Taiwan. With any luck, he got out safe."

"So why are you here?" Sakura demanded. "Why did you follow me?"

Hinata bit her lip and turned her head away. Pain bloomed with the movement. "I was––I was banished by my family. F-for helping Sasuke." The couch was becoming uncomfortable. "And I don't know. I was restless, and I thought I saw you walk by. I-I knew you know Sasuke and I wanted to know if––needed to k-know if you knew if he was alright."

"Well, it's because of your family if he's not."

"W-we are not the ones who are spies," Hinata hissed.

The room was silent; cold. Naruto had his head bent over a laptop, ignoring them both and biting his thumb between his teeth. Sakura crossed her arms across her chest as she glared at Hinata, her pink brows furrowed, "So again I ask you: why the fuck did you follow me, a known and denounced spy? A fucking ANBU deserter."

"For exactly t-that reason," Hinata said slowly. "And I...I think I need help saving my sister."

Sakura scoffed. "Saving her from who? Your own family?"

Hinata was quiet, ashamed. She didn't know who else to ask for help, she could not even confirm her own suspicions. They were just feelings she had. "Sort of, but no. From the Suna. I think––I think they're trying to take us d-down."

Sakura's eyebrow lifted: a morsel of interest. "Suna?" she said, momentarily baffled. "Sasuke asked me to look into them, Gaara specifically. We think he––"

"Speaking of Sasuke," Naruto cut Sakura off suddenly, flipping his laptop around so that she could see. "I just got this message from him, I think. Can you make it out? It's in code."

Hinata's heart leaped into her throat. She sat still as she watched Sakura kneel in front of the laptop as she deciphered some of the symbols that appeared on the screen. It took three long minutes and each one threatened to suffocate Hinata completely. Finally, after Sakura had scribbled a few phrases down on a napkin with a dull pencil, she exhaled.

Then she looked at Hinata. "The good news is, he's alive. The bad news is that he's in Kumozuhongocho. He never made it to Taiwan."

"What's in Kumozuhungocho?"

"The Akatsuki," Naruto sighed, then shook his head. "They'll never let us get to him if they have him."

Hinata stood up suddenly, ignoring the vertigo and the unsteadiness of her limbs. "Yes they will," she declared, ignoring the fear. "I have something they want."

"What could you possibly have to offer, disgraced Hyuga heiress?" Sakura mocked her, real fire and fear in her tone. She was as afriad for Sasuke as Hinata was.

"Take me there and y-you'll find out," Hinata demanded, using her Hyuga-voice, her Hyuga-upbringing, her Hyuga-ancestors in her tone. Her father would be proud of her. "We'll get Sasuke back, and then you fill help me save my sister."

-:-

"You know, Father never wanted this life for you," Itachi said, the night before the Akatsuki were due to show up at his door. The two brothers were sitting outside of the houseboat, on small stools Itachi had purchased from a nearby swap-meet. Sasuke's had Mickey Mouse on it. He was smoking a cigarette slow, swriling the smoke around his gums and lips and teeth, inhaling it long down his lungs. He thought about Hinata and about his friends who should have received a message from him 12 hours ago.

They had not replied, and Sasuke did not know if that was good or bad. He did not know anything. In the past few days, he had grown comfortable with that thought. Maybe he truly would not ever see Hinata again. He was unsure of his purpose. He felt like he was in purgatory, watching the short days pass him in a blur. He knew this houseboat and how the smooth interior of it cradled his loneliness; he knew the small kitchen, the herbs on the windowsill narrowling avoiding frostbite, the old and tattered rugs that lined the floor. Intimately, he was getting to know the day-bed at the front of the boat, and how the cushions were getting know the hardened edges of his body. He knew the internet cafe down the street, and how it was full of old women emailing their grandchildren. They told him this one day when he sat down, they said: "My grandbaby is in America. My grandbaby is in Tokyo. My grandbaby is in England. My grandbaby is in Okinawa. My grandbaby is in Konoha, doing great big things. What about you? You look like you could be around my grandbaby's age, no?"

Sasuke was polite and short, perhaps even a little indulgent––he had the time after all. He flicked the cigarette ash and it landed at his feet. It was cold out. Itachi was grilling beef on a small red grill, nestled with its feed in the snow. In the short couple of weeks Sasuke had been there, he learned that his brother loved to cook.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke drawled his words slow, uncaring. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could see the head of Hinata's dragon on her navel, and it whispered to him. Mostly curses like how dare you, and liar, and coward. It blew fire at him in his sleep. When he dreamt, he saw his hands pushing her body into the snow: his version of I love you. "If you love me, you'll survive and that's how I'll know," she said. But how could she know how he truly felt? Nothing good came when love met violence.

"You're not even listening," Itachi chidded, prodding the meat with a tong. Fire licked the edges of the grill and Itachi cursed as he moved the coal around. "I'm trying to tell you something important."

"I'm listening," Sasuke lied. He extinguished the cigarette in the snow, watching the orange end fade to nothing.

"I said Father didn't want this life for you. Did you ever notice how meetings happened when you weren't around?"

"I wasn't paying attention to stuff like that," Sasuke spit. "Besides, he had a funny way of showing it, the way his men raced across the football field to the back cabins day and night, doing God knows what. You think I saw nothing?"

It was a tired subject. What did it matter what his father had wanted for him, now that he was dead and Sasuke was on his way to an early grave.

Itachi sighed, "Well, of course you knew what was going on. You were a perceptive child, as you were expected to be. But if ANBU hadn't attacked us that night, if Father was still alive, you would have lived a completely different life. I know it seems like what I am saying is obvious, but it is not so simple. Father was going to send you to boarding school when you turned 10. Somewhere far. England or Germany, I think, so that you would never be involved in this."

Beside him was a handle of warm spiced whisky. Sasuke unscrewed the top with deft fingers, flicking it away into the snow. He took a long swig, and he felt his brother's eyes on him. "What is so fucking important about that, Itachi? Inquiring minds would like to know."

"It means that this life was not fated," Itachi said. He placed the lid on top of the grill, and the flame disappeared between them. The two brothers were bathed in blue. The ocean behind them was as silent and as sleepy as midnight. "It means that you have always had options. Don't let this be your last choice."

Sasuke scoffed. To think he had ever had choice.

-:-

It was almost mdnight when their stolen Jeep crossed into the countryside. They were miles from Konoha, and miles from Iwa. In the hotel room, the three of them smashed Hinata's phone with the icebucket, and flushed its remains down the toilet. Hinata sent Shino a teary but convincing voice memo that was just vague enough to keep him away, "He took me back, Shino," Hinata had sniffled into the phone. "Everything is going to be okay. He's not going to hurt me again."

It was mean, but it needed to happen. Shino's mother had been in handfuls of relationships like this in his youth, and he had learned quickly that the lure of love and security was sometimes worth more than the truth of safety. Shino would let her go. He would check on her, he would wish her well, but he would let her go.

While Sakura packed and cleaned the guns, Naruto went street-level to pick up a car off the street. Sakura lent one to Hinata with a severe eye. "You know how to use this, right?" she'd asked tersely, holding a pistol and a thigh strap arm-legnth towards Hinata.

If Hinata hadn't been raised better, she might have said a kind fuck you. Instead, she took the weapon and and strapped it in, not giving the exiled agent the time of day. She helped Sakura carry a duffle bag of weapons and spy gear to the car where Naruto waited with the car warming, its exhaust sending puffs of steam into the cold air. When Hinata felt her lips, they were raw and bleeding. It was below freezing in Iwa and the neon signs above her blinked down provocatively. Stay, the lights said, their arms open. You could be safe here.

She and Sakura did a sweep of the hotel room, making sure that they had not left a trace. Sakura balled up the bedding, the pillowcases, the sheets while Hinata collected eating utencils, cans of beer and pop, pens, the remote controls and hotel phone, and all the garbage bags. "Leave not a trace," Sakura said.

They loaded all of this junk into the Jeep. Hinata watched Iwa pass her by, her heart full of her teenage dream of the studio apartment, the tattoo shop, the college degree. She could start over here, couldn't she? Couldn't she?

Naruto drove three hours out of Iwa until they stopped in a field. At that point it was 9pm. Sakura had a can of gasoline which they had purchased with cash at a gas station 50 miles before. Quickly, she dowsed the bedding and the garabe and the electronics in the fluid, tossing a lit match over it. Hinata watched the flames lick the edge of the snow and felt for the first time, her dreams dissipate. They sunk deep into her body, tangled up inside one of each other, and then released. There was nothing more of that. This was reality.

The three of them watched the smoke clear. Once traces of their DNA had been properly released, they got back in the car and discussed plans for when they would arrive to Kumozuhungocho.

"You must have something the Akatsuki will want," Sakura said, a bite in her voice.

"Of course I do," Hinata said, and left it at that.

-:-

At fifteen miles out, Sakura ripped the GPS from the vehicles head and smashed it with her Hydroflask bottle. Hinata watched from the backseat as Naruto took it and dropped it out of the window and on to the road. A car behind them ran it over. It had had the coordinates of Sasuke's location on it.

At ten miles out, Sakura explained that she had been doing research for Sasuke, which lead her to doing research on ANBU. "Basically I found out something I shouldn't have," she said, biting her nail.

Hinata filled in the gaps. "That it was ANBU that had lead a coordinated attack against the Uchiha's, not us. I assume they wanted to destabalize the Yakuzu families, and started with one of the biggest ones."

"Yes," Sakura said, eyes sharp. A town billowed in the distance amongst the snow hills. The roads had been icy and unpredictable. The darkness was prevailing. She turned in her seat, facing the Hyuga. "That. But they could not get to the Hyuga because you all have the Byakugan file, which is what Naruto and Sasuke had been sent for."

"Of––of course," Hinata said. This was not new information.

"But they also could not get to the Suna, either," Sakura said. "Because they're working together. I didn't want to get into it, because I still wasn't sure if I could trust you, but––you have good reason to believe that your sister is in danger."

Hinata swallowed hard. Nodded. "And that's w-why I need your help."

At five miles out, the blizzard started and the roads got worse. The town sprung up around them in bunches of small buildings. A convenience store, a post office, then nothing. A public pool (closed), a bathhouse, a temple, then nothing again. Clusters of small homes sat tight together or spread apart, snow accumulating in the small hills between them. It was charming, Hinata had to admit, the simplicity of the town. The lights from their windows twinkled in almost a welcoming fashion.

At three miles out, Hinata's stomach twisted. What if Sasuke did not want to see her? What if he refused to help her? What if what she wanted was stupid?

At two miles out, her heart raced in her ears. Naruto and Sakura trudged the vehicle forward, their faces pinched and serious.

At one mile out, Hinata let a single tear roll down the mountain of her cheek. What if she was too late? What if Naruto and Sakura were lying to her?

At one minute away, they pulled up beside the crest of the water where Hinata was sure she would die. Naruto cut the engine and figures stood abruptly from their places sitting amongst the snow. There was a fire glowing inside of a grill between them.

Hinata was opening the car door before she even saw him good, tripping over her own feet and the seatbelt to get out. When her feet landed on the soft of the ground, it was just for a millisecond, because Sasuke was scooping her up and pressing her to his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He kept saying, his face in her chest, her warmth spreading to him. "I'm so sorry Hinata. I'm sorry. I will never leave you like that again."

AN. whewwwwww

I feel like i'm a little obsessed with stories like this. As this one comes to a close I must ask,...would yall read one that was reversed (rubs my hands together like a fly before dinner) like if the Hyugas were the spy agency and the Uchiha's were the mafia? I'd probably bring side-characters more to the forefront in this iteration! Could be fun!