Lies carried by whispers.

the howling of sorrow


It was so easy, all it took was a secretive smile, a story that seemed plausible, and the right people at the right time. Whispers spread like wildfire in High School, fed by the eagerness of teenage hormones, and the insatiable desire to be "in the know."

Convincing a few girls that Hinata would be dropping out of competitive Kyudo so that she could attend the same College as Sasuke was the easy part, having it get back to him without Hinata finding out and from sources that he would find were credible… Not so much. But she knew - she had watched him for so long after all - that Ino and by extension Sakura, could make any rumor reach anyone, without the main character finding out. She also knew that while they presented a united front in accepting the relationship between Sasuke and Hinata, they -like her- were waiting patiently for it to unravel.

She wasn't present when the rumor reached his ears, and was thus unable to gauge his reaction, but she could hear the whispers, gaining traction and strength, speaking her lies into reality. It wasn't until she saw him, eyes devoid of emotion as he turned the corner towards the hand washing station near the gym, that she knew her plan was working. She was standing there with a group of girls, feigning interest as they washed their hands and discussing the myriad of rumors she had birthed. She was sure that he had heard them talking about how the Hyuuga would welcome Itachi much more readily as a son-in-law, given that he was studying in town, thus allowing Hinata to inherit the family traditions. The lack of emotion in his eyes as he leveled them, silencing their chirping voices into mere whispers only added fuel to the rumor mill and accelerated her already rapidly moving plans.

How much must it have eaten at him? The knowledge he was holding his beloved back? Did it make him toss and turn in bed? Orochi would have been delighted if it had. Short of actually committing a crime, she was saddened by her inability to check, so she relied on the information she could gather around the school. Thankful that the two airheads in bubblegum pink and pasty blonde were not hindering her plans by going to their friends to double-check the information. Really, how careless could they all be?

Hinata was much easier to fool. While Sasuke took months of whispers to worm their way into his mind, Hinata had proven to be no trouble at all. It was quick work really. Sasuke wanted to enjoy college after all, didn't he? Would she be such a burden if she followed him? Hindering his future, studies, and social life? She had no trouble at all convincing the right people that this was the truth, so many had wanted to see her fall. They may not have said it to her face, as they smiled and faked support for the couple. Part of her was annoyed by the pesky gnats that ate these lies up, thinking they would be able to swoop in once the relationship deteriorated, Orochi wasn't working this hard to dismantle it piece by piece so someone else could take her hard-earned reward away from her. This was a long game and she was not prepared to lose.

It was easy to discern when the rumors began growing like a tumor inside Hinata's heart. She was good at hiding it near her friends, but her eyes would fracture when she thought no one was looking. Orochi was looking.

She had to admit that her plan had flaws, but she knew them both so much better than they thought, and something that could have been easily fixed with a heart-to-heart conversation was a risky gamble to take. They never did confront each other though. The rumors touched on their most personal fears, things they had never voiced to each other, drawing from their innermost conflict and insecurities. Things they thought no one knew but themselves.

What is something that the proud young Uchiha would never admit to? The fear that he was holding someone he cared for back probably ranked pretty high on that list. But the inferiority complex he felt towards his brother? That was easy to exploit. Who was the better match for the Hyuuga Heiress? The young, unreliable, and hot-heated Sasuke or the calm, collected genius of Itachi? It was really no contest. So incredibly easy to manipulate that fear that she knew existed deep in his gut. All she had to do was cultivate it, feed it, and allow it to fester and grow. Knowing that this was something he would never give voice to, that fear didn't exist if he didn't say it did.

What is something that timid, shy Hinata would never admit to? The fear that she was an obstacle, unwanted, unneeded. A stone in the otherwise smoothly paved path that was Sasuke's future. How could she forgive herself if she held him back? If her presence caused him trouble? Who would listen to her if she were to voice these fears out loud? Would she even dare when she knew them to be true? Self-esteem was such a tricky thing, so personal, so fragile, and so breakable. Hinata was molded by a father that would only voice disappointment, lost so deep in his grief over the loss of his wife that he could understand the damage he was causing to his daughters.

It did take months, months of excruciatingly tedious work, pretending to listen to the rumors, helping them grow and take on a life of their own. Risky business really, but with high risk came high gains. It wasn't long until the house of cards came tumbling down.

There was a palpable distance between them towards the end, something slightly fractured in their eyes even as they held hands. Had the rumors taken too much? Had Sasuke spent too much time reading every interaction between Itachi and Hinata to try and detect the ghost of attraction that everyone else saw? Was Hinata withering? The soft downturn of her mouth and the dark circles under her eyes were proof that the words whispered around her had taken hold in her psyche, made themselves at home, and had begun to fester. Until one day she was just gone.

Graduation came and went with Hinata nowhere to be seen, Orochi's calculating eyes looked for her for the entire week leading up to it. The wildfire she had started was stocked into a flashfire when the couple broke up. Hinata's disappearance was thought to be only the aftermath of said fire as it razed through the school and their lives. After all, with her disposition? The poor thing must be devastated at home. Everyone understood her absence, it was expected really. Orochi could not believe her luck, the one thing she had worried over was the stupid girl moping and somehow winning Sasuke back. Nothing would be worse for her plan than the Hyuuga coming to school looking like a tragic heroine.

Now the real work began. Once they were no longer within the safety of High School things would get more difficult, adults were less likely to fall for her scheming and she would certainly find more obstacles as time progressed. Integrating into his friend group was a lot more difficult than she imagined it would be, he often kept to himself, only really sparing Naruto his attention. Knowing the loud-mouthed blonde was her ticket in, Orochi worked to enter his social sphere, took the same classes as he did on their first term, and after volunteering to be his partner in a few group projects she knew she had her in.

Naruto had been tricky, much smarter than she ever gave him credit for. It took time and determination on her part to mold her personality into something that he would not find threatening. Fiercely protective of his friends, and with an unrequited crush that had lasted a lifetime, it was not as though she could seduce him to gain entry into the fold. She needed to be meek, helpful, and kind, things that he responded well to. She needed to be reliable, she needed to be more like her. Above all, she wanted to be unassuming, leaving an impression on the blond in the beginning stages of her planning would only complicate matters later. Naruto was her ticket in, but she also needed to make sure that she was forgettable. Someone that sort of appeared, with no rhyme or reason. Risking Naruto talking about her to those back home would ruin her plans and bring everything she had worked for crashing down.

Orochi could not believe her luck when only 3 weeks into the school year she had been invited to study with them. She arrived early, hoping to present the studious and serious charade from the get-go, hoping that this would help them see her as nothing more than a student, someone here to do one thing and one thing only. Not as a threat to their normalcy, not as a fangirl here to gawk. Orochi needed to make sure that they believed her interests were academic only. Sasuke arrived first, and without sparing her a glance unceremoniously dropped his bags onto the library table. He mumbled something about needing coffee and without waiting for her to respond he walked away. Orochi dared not to breathe as her eyes locked onto the phone that had slid out of his shoulder bag. She wondered, as her fingers reached for it, if he even bothered to lock it. To her surprise, it was not password protected, his home screen coming to life before her eyes with just the touch of her fingertips. Her heart nearly stopped when it vibrated in her trembling hands.

The message flashed briefly at the top of the screen, before disappearing. Her eyes quickly scanned what she hoped was the home screen, looking for the notification icon that would lead her to the message itself. All she hoped was that she would be able to glance briefly at the message, to gleam something about who he was associating with. Just as she opened his messaging app another one came in, her hand tightened around the phone. She looked up furtively, making sure that he wasn't returning and that Naruto was still nowhere to be found. The window of opportunity was there, albeit small, and she could not fail now.

We need to talk. It's important.

This is Hinata.

She deleted the last message, leaving only the first message in the thread. Her eyes darted around the screen looking for a way to save the number and she almost dropped the phone when another message came in.

Please call me at your earliest convenience.

She sucked in a breath, this couldn't be happening. Finally having located the option to create a new contact, her fingers froze upon the keyboard, who could she save it as? Who would Sasuke not bother to respond to? Her brain was drawing a blank and from the corner of her eye, she could see that he was picking up his coffee. She needed to come up with a name, and it needed to be now, every name that came to mind was someone he would answer, and someone he could check in with. There must be someone, anyone, that he would not care about. Noticing that he was getting a napkin she figured she had almost no time to save the contact and mark the message as unread. Her fingers moved deftly across the screen, the number now saved, and she prayed that this would work. Noticing that she had no idea how to mark a message as unread in this phone she opted for the only option that would not get her caught and simply pressed delete.

When he approached the table, coffee in hand, she was focusing intently on the equation before her and did not bother to meet his eyes as he sat down and began arranging his things. Naruto was still nowhere to be found and thus they sat in silence, Orochi tried to calm her heart, hoping her face did not betray her nervousness. The numbers on the page made no sense to her at this point, her mind reeling at the possibilities as to why Hinata would be reaching out now. This was a setback, something she had not accounted for and was not ready to deal with. How realistic would it be for her to keep them apart? She would not always be able to intercept communication, not if she attempted to reach out via social media, or email. Clenching her teeth she tried to come up with a countermeasure, some way to prevent all her hard work from unraveling mere weeks into their Freshman year of college. She had come so far, she couldn't fail now. She needed to go on the defensive.

The time she had spent with them had been brief, but she had managed to get a good layout of their friend group. Instead of finding her footing with them directly, she needed to find her way through those around them. Thankfully this too proved to be easy for her, being invited to parties and study sessions where she was around as a wallflower proved to be much easier than attempting to find her foothold with Naruto or Sasuke directly. After all, she had worked for years to reach this point, going on the defensive for a little longer would not impact her plans. One of her new friends happened to live in the same dorm as they did, which gave her access to the mail room, as she was unable to really prevent Hinata from contacting him electronically, she hoped that she could intercept any mail that she may send. A few well-placed smiles, a gentle flutter of her lashes, and suggestive looks had earned her the lust of the guy in charge of delivering mail. Soon she was helping him put the letters into their boxes, one at a time. The privilege came with strings, but they were something that she was willing to stomach as long as she could keep an eye on the incoming mail while he still lived on campus. Hinata was old fashioned and try as she might she was unable to find her social media accounts. Weeks went by, and when she thought she could no longer stomach the covert touches in the small stuffy room a letter arrived. Without missing a beat she continued to carefully place each letter inside the appropriate box, making sure to smile suggestively at him when he mentioned how quiet it was around them.

Once they were finished, there was just one letter that had not made it to their appropriate box. It had been expertly tucked into her bag when she pretended to get her phone to check the time. Orochi carefully rearranged her clothes, her golden eyes looking over her reflection, distorted by the window. When she was sure no one would interrupt her, she carefully peeled the letter open. As it had traveled a decent distance she was grateful that the glue had seen better days. She unfurled the letter, her eyes widening as they landed on the sonogram. Orochi stood there, stunned, unsure as to how long. Her stomach was churning, and she clenched her jaw. This was not… How could this happen? Her head whipped towards the door as she heard it open, and she scrambled to plaster a smile on her as she watched Naruto's eyes widen.

His eyes dropped to the letter in her hands and a blush rose to his cheeks.

"Oh! My friend… from home…" she tried to smile prettily, but was unsure that she accomplished it. She hurriedly folded the letter and carefully placed it inside the envelope it came in. Placing it with shaking fingers inside her bag before giving Naruto a small wave and sliding past him. Hoping that he would ask no questions and that he had not been able to recognize the handwriting. She made sure that no letter ever reached his hands.


Despite being careful as to how often she spent time near Sasuke and his group of friends, she had been invited to parties that she knew he would attend on occasion. While she didn't often go out of her way to attend, something had been bothering her since the letters had stopped coming. She needed to make sure that the planning she had undertaken all these years had not been decimated by an email or worse, a phone call.

Her golden eyes hardened as she stared at her wardrobe. Her delicate features were contorted into an expression of disdain as she imagined Sasuke faltering at the sound of that whore's voice. Orochi was magnanimous and under no circumstance would she resent him for being weak. Hinata had been his first love; those were hard to forget. But she would not forgive him faltering.

She carefully constructed her outfit, making sure that it was modest and unassuming, she didn't want to stand out, needing to blend into the partygoers in order to secure some alone time with his phone, biting her lip she prayed that he still had not set up password protection. She had overheard at a study group that Sasuke was planning to move out of the dorms for his third year, and while the letters had stopped coming eventually she could not risk the contact on the phone to be her undoing. Determined to bring her plan to fruition she left the apartment, running every scenario she could in her mind to ensure that she managed to accomplish her goal for the night.

She was relieved once she arrived at the party, given how crowded the apartment was she was sure that she would be able to find a moment in the night where his phone was unguarded. Orochi was content to watch from a distance, her eyes scanning the scenery for the chance of doing what she came here to do. Pretending to be enthralled by a conversation that was being had around her was not difficult to do, she had endured worse, and if she was honest with herself, listening to her peers discuss their latest lectures was not entirely boring. She gave responses when prompted and matched the cadence of their conversation, making sure to sound as engaged as they were. Her heart rate quickened when she noticed that Sasuke was standing from the couch where he had been perched, talking to his friends about something she could not hear.

Orochi's calculating eyes followed the dark-haired Uchiha as he headed down the hall, phone visibly in his hands. Excusing herself from the group she had been engaging with, she followed, smiling as she noticed him enter the bathroom, hoping that he would be inebriated enough to forget the phone on the counter. She didn't wait long and pretended to be startled when he opened the door and almost ran into her. Pushing a strand of hair behind her ear she smiled shyly at him before sneaking past him and into the bathroom. She noted with glee that he had in fact forgotten the phone by the sink. Worried that he might return soon once he noticed that it was missing she quickly tapped her fingers along the screen, delighted that he still did not password-protect the device. With some difficulty, she managed to locate his contact list and after a quick scan she found the name she was looking for and with a furrow of her brows noticed that he had two contacts for the same person; Nara, as she had saved it that day over two years ago and one saved as Nara Shikamaru.

Deeply aware that time was of the essence she flushed the toilet, despite not having used it, and as she listened to it go, the sound of the water filling the tank back up, she opened the faucet at the sink. Now the sound of her "washing her hands" would buy her a few more precious seconds as she figured out how to delete the second contact from his phone, just as her finger hit delete, the phone began vibrating in her hand. The name Nara flashed on the screen, her eyes narrowed, and realizing that if it went to voicemail her careful planning would go down the drain she hurried out of the bathroom and into the hall. There she spotted the first person she could think of and handed them the phone. She explained she had found it in the bathroom, but now someone was calling and she didn't know what to do.

"No worries," the man said, some student she must have shared at least some classes with said if he was at this party. Taking the phone from her hand her eyes widened as he swiped the screen to answer the call. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, a sound akin to rushing water made itself inside her head making it difficult to really hear what was being said.

"Yo! Sasuke!" The guy yelled. Orochi slinked back, hoping the large frame of the man might keep her from Sasuke's line of sight. "You have a call dude." He faced the phone screen towards the Uchiha who blinked slowly, a lazy cat, too preoccupied with looking uninterested to even stand.

Orochi could barely make out Sasuke from his reflection on the glass frame of a picture she was standing next to, but she watched with bated breath as he squinted his eyes. She had hoped that being called out in public would make him less likely to answer the call, and while she could not guarantee that he would try to call the person back, she hoped that this would be such an insignificant occurrence that it would be buried with other things through the night. It was early, after all, a lot could happen before the party was over.

"It's no one important, just hang it up and bring me my phone," Sasuke shouted back, Orochi released a breath she had not realized she was holding. Too happy that her plan had worked to notice the blue eyes that watched from Sasuke's side.


Having done all she could to prevent contact between them, Orochi went back to her daily life, the balance of how often she showed herself around him was very fragile and her presence in his life had been painstakingly calculated so that when the chance arose she would be familiar enough for him to not be guarded, but not so familiar that he could recall how often he saw her around. Graduation had come and gone, and while the college days were behind her, thus giving her less time to be near him, she had managed to land a job at the research lab in the school. Technically making her faculty and allowing her to continue keeping track of him as he finished his master's.

Some would say it was luck that they ran into each other at that bar 7 years ago, college acquaintances reunited by fate. Two years of friendship later they were dating. Only to find themselves engaged after 5 years together.

Some would say that they were meant to be, after all, what are the chances of them meeting again like that?

Orochi would smile at the whispers and remember how such things helped her get to this point.


Author's Note:

This was actually a really hard chapter to write.
I had a lot going on irl and had to re-read the fic several times to make sure everything aligned in the story and I tied as many loose ends as possible in this particular chapter. So there is a lot of exposition. I hate writing heavy expository chapters but here we are.

There were a lot of re-writes and even now I am not sure if I like it.

Hopefully it was worth the long wait for you guys.

I am currently working on the timeline after this chapter, as we are probably approaching the last chapters in this story. I don't think the ending will satisfy everyone, but I hope it at least satisfies a few. I have a few other ideas rattling in my head for other fics and I have been wanting to put those ideas into words for a while, so this is hopefully not the last time you will see me.

This author note is starting to sound like I'm ending the fic here lololol

I'm not! We have at least 5-8 more chapters to go.

Much love,

Emi