11. A long lost friend
….
Excitement and joy.
Hope...
Upon reading the name of the sender, the emotions have roused to life, strong, uncompromised. It hadn't felt like a new beginning until then. Her redhead of a friend was, after all, part of her old life, of who she used to be, of a world to which she wished to return. Even though her past was closely linked to something terrible, to an infamous betrayal, she still yearned for the simplicity of that time...maybe Karin, with her exuberance, her joy of life, and everything her, was the remedy to her pain and confusion.
The future didn't look so grim after all.
Her thoughts ran all over the place as she fell into the abyss of memories. All those times came back to her, when her friend was dramatic or when she was extra for fun... and the endless times when they laughed and cried together. Another thought broke through all the sentimentalities – her friend fashion, exuberant and provocative, then her dreams of a better life, mostly luxurious and definitely out of that "hole" of a neighborhood. Another idea roused through the chaos and cacophony; it stood above them all. She could actually go away with Karin, and what seemed to be a purposeless journey to tame her demons looked actually joyous and promising.
Alas, it was a tinted hope she couldn't simply, fully enjoy. There's a little voice in the back of her head. That voice had seen her through joy and misery, making sure she didn't fully enjoy happiness and drowned in misery in hard times. Yet she fought it, with speculations of what the future hold for her. A beach, palm trees, Karin...
"Get your ass out of the car!"
The sudden voice brought her harshly back to her surroundings. Looking around, she was greeted by a stunning sunset over a cliff. Not too far away was the imperial Hotel, a five stars Hotel which imposing figure loomed over them. They were already there and her new driver wasn't too pleased as he stared at her with unmasked annoyance. He rolled his eyes and sighed when she leaned back down to gather her bearings. Zero had never liked her; that much was sure. However, he had never been this outspoken about it. In their world such behavior used to indicate the prelude of something disastrous. Instinctively, she felt drained and any positive feelings her thoughts had brought her were snuffed out. Instead, uneasiness swirled in her stomach, growing with each minute they had to walk together to get to the hotel. She could barely stand to be in his presence by the time they were done with the check-in. She almost asked him why he came out of nowhere to take Zetsu's place if it was such a drag for him to be there but did no such thing though.
At least they would finally go their separate ways…
Or not.
A big tanned hand blocked the door she tried to close. He pushed the door open all the way but didn't come inside. Her uneasiness kept growing but she gritted her teeth, trying to compose herself and appear as annoyed as he was.
"What do you want?" Hinata asked, still holding tightly onto the knob.
"Here are the rules: you go nowhere without me and you don't open this door."
A long silence stretched on and on as she looked at him dumbfounded. Although he had never been one to joke around her, a futile hope awoke inside her. This couldn't be real.
"What – why?"
"You ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer are ya?" He sneered as he went to the room opposite to hers.
Her anxiety grew at his words, silencing the hostility emanating from him. She couldn't understand, didn't care to as her plans to meet with Karin seemed to be annihilated by the news. Her mind ran into loops after loops as she tried to find a solution, a way to escape him or to convince him to stay behind. However, no amount of words seemed enough and she couldn't come up with a clever idea. Her sole hope was Zero's disinterest in her and how he had reacted ever since she became his boss...
He followed her around the following day. Unfortunately. Much to her chagrin, he'd been with her every single time: from the café to the supermarket, even to a random building where she was supposed to meet with a friend. She had arbitrarily chosen a neighborhood so he wouldn't track Karin's address just in case he'd follow her and he did so. She was both annoyed and relieved.
Still, she had to escape from him.
"Stop here." The car suddenly stopped. She turned to him and waited until his bored eyes met hers finally. "Ever since yesterday, did you feel or see anybody following us?"
"For fuck sake." He rolled his eyes.
"Did you?"
"What's up with that?"
"That obviously means there's no danger." Her voice faltered when she saw a muscle shift in his jaw. He started the car without another word. She held onto his hand. "Stop that car!"
"Do you have something to do here or not?"
"I want to see my friend. Alone. And I've got the right to."
"And?"
"I don't want you to come with me."
"Then go!" He half shouted, ushering her outside the car.
He didn't say anything, didn't even follow her. Her surprise grew bigger when he started the car and sped away. She didn't try to question her luck as she rushed to her destination.
Hinata was out of breath when she reached the place.
The neighborhood was quite nice, nicer that her friend's old one. She could tell that Karin's level of life had improved a lot. The redhead used to live in a place where the majority of the inhabitants struggled to make ends meet or decided to find questionable means to it. It was obvious that her new neighbors belonged at least to the upper middle class.
Hinata smiled a bit. That had been her friend's goals and then some more. She wasn't living in a billionaire's mansion yet but it was a beginning.
She herself would have been more than place was simple and there were flowers on almost every balcony – the whole atmosphere screamed family to her. Her heart pinched. It had been a long time since she had seen anything 'normal' beside the exuberant luxury in her own last neighborhood. There, people took the competition of "who's the richest" to vertiginous levels. Simplicity was her thing.
The scents and peacefulness of the place embraced her and invited her to explore. Maybe one day, or even later that day she would do so but there were more important matters at hand at that moment.
Her heart missed a beat when she finally saw the door. She analyzed the green color a little too long, read the number '707' written in gold at the top a little too much. At least it's a lucky number. Despite that thought, her legs trembled with an intensity she couldn't control.
After all this time, after all she went through she was really free and far away. She was beginning anew… or not. Maybe it wasn't a good idea.
Hinata felt paralyzed, as if all the load of last year would break her when she'd open that door. Karin, her dear Karin could be a trigger to dark memories. What if her presence crushed her even more instead of bringing comfort?
Now she had doubts.
"Hey!"
"Ah!"
"Oh my! You frightened me miss!"
"I…uh… I'm sorry. Who are you?"
"Iwaki, Tsûki Iwaki, young lady." The old man bowed. "I'm the concierge in this building. And you are? What is such a beautiful young lady doing here?"
"Uh, I am Hinata… Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is shared. Do you, perhaps, need something?"
"No."
"What are you doing here, then?"
"I'm here to visit a friend who told me to come."
"To come? Here? To this flat?" He scoffed, looking at her like she's crazy. "There's no way. You must be mistaken."
"What are you talking about?" Hinata was beyond confused by the behavior of the old man.
"A robbery went awry and a young man, the previous tenant, was shot here. He died later at the hospital and ever since nobody wants to rent the place."
Her heart missed a bit.
She gulped.
"What –what was his name?"
"Sasuke… Sasuke Hatake." When he said the name, her hands went up to her mouth. The man, who read this as a sign of curiosity, went directly into a long tirade about his friendship with Sasuke and anecdotes about that night. She had to trick him to get rid of him. After an endless chitchat and a tea which she politely declined, she made her way back to the door '707'.
Sasuke's last flat.
She watched more closely her surroundings to burn the image into her head.
How he lived there, how he opened that door every morning and closed it every evening; how he walked up and down that hall… and Obito's attack. It all played painfully on repeat in her mind.
Karin had invited her there.
Fright and anxiety hit her like tone of bricks. Was it really what she thought it was? As adrenaline pumped through her veins like a wild current of acid, her hands fell too fast on the knob, pushing too quickly the door. Neither her brain nor her heart was yet ready for that meeting. She opened that door nevertheless and walked into the room and then…
"Oh my god…" The words abruptly left her mouth.
She stepped back abruptly.
"There you are. In flesh and blood."
Her first reflex was to feel her own body.
"Don't waste your time. You're alive and so am I."
Nothing could have ever prepared her for that shock.
It felt like been hit by a wrecking ball; like jumping from a plane without parachute and slamming into the ground; like all her guts was being pulled out fiercely with a sharp hook… No, it felt more than that. There was no image violent enough to capture the force of what happened to her in that moment.
Soon enough, the trembling and coldness in her legs moved up her back and arms, until her whole body was swallowed up by waves after waves of cool shock.
His voice was low, smoky, and deep like old days but had a sharpness that cut through her mind. There was that new venom… as though he was about to kill her.
Her saliva felt like sand scraping inside her throat.
This couldn't be.
"It's difficult to decide whether you're surprised or afraid to see that I'm alive." He continued, his voice still suave and cool.
Terror seized her so strongly that she was literally trapped by it. She couldn't make her feet move forward. He was so still, sitting there with his elbows on his laps and his hands dangling between.
His voice drawled again in the cold silence of the bare room.
Was she dreaming? Was any of this real?
The back of her eyes started to burn. She tried to speak but no words came out.
"Obito had decided not to kill me." He answered, as if he had read her mind, "on one condition that's it: I had to disappear completely so you'll get all the money. You can't imagine what I felt at that moment."
She shook her head, slowly, tears running down.
"I mean, you ruined my life, went away, came back, ruined a bit more and ordered my death… maybe there are really no words to describe it."
Sasuke was alive.
Tears burned madly behind her eyes, and said burn echoed through her constricted throat. Bile moved up but never went all the way. Words throbbed in her chest, but never got out. Scorching need to scream and touch him to make it all real grew stronger, but never got realized. Emotions rioted in her head, mind and body but never got out.
She wanted to run away… wanted to run toward him.
She wanted to scream… wished to be calmed by him.
She wanted to die… wanted to breathe his air.
Everything was confusing and contradicting. She was trapped in that turmoil. Darkness and confinement were her two worst nightmares, and that's where she was.
And the look he was giving to her.
"Because of money, you tried to kill my child, her mother and me," he waved his gun at her "and there you are, walking around, living your best life, visiting people. Maybe Karin was the next on your little list… It's becoming your hobby."
They stared at each other for a long moment, his expression still as wood. Suddenly it hit her. Again. Sasuke was really alive. He was there before her eyes and after pinching herself hard, the pain confirmed that fact. It all had been a nightmare. It was all clear but logic wasn't enough to help as that exhilarant feeling of solace washed violently over from head to toes, the same solace one would feel after having their worst nightmare.
The feeling was so strong she felt dizzy.
Now it was recognizable. It was like breathing again after been far too long under water, with a sharp painful note to it. A painful, throbbing joy. Yet, she couldn't talk.
"Oh my God." She mouthed; her throat too dry to voice it.
Silent tears spread like a river on her pale cheeks, trembling fingers barely holding her upper body up. Her feelings were suffocating her silently.
Eventually, she threw up in the corner next to the door.
"After you tried to get me killed, I was ready to leave Japan, to leave everything behind. For my sake, for the sake of my friends, of my daughter! I thought, if I tried to get revenge whatsoever, they'd pay for it." When she saw Sasuke abruptly stand up, she quickly sat up and moved backward until her back hit the door. "You've got no idea how much I've been craving to find you after you killed my child."
He crouched at her level; his cold eyes plunged into her wide scared ones. She couldn't guess what he'd been thinking. The sasuke she knew wasn't this one in front of her. She hadn't get acquainted with this new version of him but the hatred that she saw in his eyes, in his clenched jaw indicated something violent, bloody. This new one awoke feelings that the old one wouldn't have, never had – pain, fear. She was afraid of him at the moment that she startled whenever he moved.
She couldn't look at him in the eyes anymore. As her eyes wandered down toward the floor, she caught a glimpse of his hands. They were tightened into trembling fists… out of hesitation or anticipation. She shuddered.
"I… Does Karin…?"
"Does she know? No. Though, fear not. Few to zero in your old social circle will miss you. Oh, Danzo greets you by the way."
"Why? Why do you keep talking instead of killing me?" She had tried to be brave but it all fell flat with her trembling voice.
"Do you wanna die that soon?"
Hinata didn't answer. Sasuke smirked coldly as he placed the bullet in its chamber.
Click.
She sucked in a forceful breath.
"Do you wanna die that soon?"
"No…"
"No, of course not. People like you are typical cowards who are too afraid to die but not to kill."
"What do you think you're doing?"
"I've been waiting to have your head for months. I won't rush it now that we're here."
"Obito knows where I am, and he asked Zero to protect me. His car is parked and waiting in front of this building."
"One: I don't give a shit about their fucking names. Two: one suspicious knock on that door and you're screwed."
"You don't want this-"
"Get up!"
"You're not like that-"
Sasuke grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her to her feet. At that point, Hinata forgot about their past and anything that happened in between. Nothing mattered except that Sasuke was alive, she didn't have the right to rejoice with him and he craved to shed her blood.
In the middle of her scattered feelings, the dominant thought was to gain a bit more time. She didn't want to discover what happen after death yet. The idea of void, of nothingness terrified her so much that she actually wanted to survive that encounter.
Hinata lashed onto his arm with all her feeble force. Sasuke pushed her hand away. Not a full second passed by that she tried again to reach out, but he slapped her hand away this time.
"Don't you dare touching me!"
"S-Sasuke…"
"Stop fucking crying or I might lose my shit!"
At that last angry and vulgar sentence, she quit crying as hard as she could but kept hiccupping. Hinata realized then there was something worse than Madara, even worse than that depression she had carried along with her all her life like a burden bound to her ankles.
"Sasuke-"
"Shut up!"
Sasuke trapped her against the door, with his arms at each side of her head. His tightened jaw and clenched hands shook her mind in a threatening way but not as his gaze. As he stared back, his shield of coldness slid away from his eyes, revealing a scorching hatred that sucked the air from her lungs. The intense loathing he conveyed grew in strength, becoming a near tangible impression of vibrant and unrelenting need to hurt her.
She pressed herself harder against the door.
He closed the distance between them again, sharing her breath.
"You could've asked for a divorce like normal people do. I would've signed the documents without any hesitation." She could hear his voice trembling with anger despite its monotone, but she kept on looking to the side. "Are you going to kill Obito also because he let me be? Hn?"
"Pl-please… S-stop…"
"You won't have that occasion though."
"Please Sasuke, I- I don't underst-"
"I'm surprised you dared to come to 'Karin's appointment' after pushing her away the day of your wedding."
"What? I've never-!"
"My bad. Certainly you wanted to get rid of her too. The almighty Hinata wants to get rid of all of her old buddies."
"Sasuke I swear, please! I love you. I've never stopped loving you. After Madara died I wrote you a letter asking you to come get me. I swear I was ready to leave everything behind for you!"
A painful long silence stretched. Hinata realized she shouldn't have said that.
"Huh! Pathetic 'till the very end."
An outburst of fear blew her head.
Sasuke had almost been killed but escaped, and his child was dead –all because of her. How could she soothe him? How could she take away such a pain with words? The only way for him to feel any better was to shed her blood. Her death was imminent, and from his look it was one slow and painful death awaiting her.
His thoughts raced, resisting control, incoherent, but his muscles remained rigid. The complex assemblage of knots in which her stomach was twisted was an echo of her everlasting dread.
"I could have easily let go of the fact that you used me and threw me aside at the first occasion you've got to get rich."
Sasuke took a few steps back but she could still feel his cool breath fanning her face in a scorching breeze.
There was a rope she didn't see in his hand at first. The red fibers looked rough and it didn't even faze her that he was ready to tie her up.
Sasuke wouldn't have treated her any differently if she had been a banal package. He pulled too hard, and then put adhesive tape on her mouth.
"But you killed my child, almost killed my best friend and Sakura. Now there's Kakashi."
Sasuke grabbed her roughly by the arms, his gaze boring into hers, and pulled her toward him. He tilted his head to the side as he intently studied her face. She saw a quick muscle twitch in his jaw, then vanish away. He reached behind him and pulled out a black tissue.
When he blindfolded her surviving instinct kicked back in, resulting in her fighting his hands. Moans of agony rumbling through her throat never made it out of her. Panic stroked her like a wrecking ball. For all her effort at opening painfully wide her eyes, the darkness was surrounding her. In her state, she even tried to reach the tissue but realized her hands were attached behind her back. Yet her hands automatically repeated the process of reaching out in a robotic way.
Quickly after, air went scarce. She was suffocating. Her lungs were burning, and her tight throat was killing her. Again, she tried to reach for her chest in a poor attempt to bring support to her lungs but her hands didn't move.
If only Sasuke didn't block her mouth! She would have been able to breathe –she would have been able to promise everything he wanted just so he wouldn't keep her locked in darkness. All her pleading ended in rough incoherent sounds emanating from her throat, escalating in force and vibrating through the small amount of air managing to enter her body.
Madara was right before her eyes, ready to lash out at her.
Her heart was aching, bursting over and over again. Falling unconscious had never been so appealing yet it failed her, eluded her. Her tears fell nonstop through her fight for her life, but it never stopped her from kicking.
A scene suddenly crossed her mind.
Sasuke was driving with her in the back of his car to kill her in an isolated place. He was going to execute her like a vulgar criminal. Obito would seek for her body, probably, but no one would ever find her. Her body would rot until nothing would be left…
The lack of proper breathing hurt her head to the point of unbearable. It hurt so much; it hurt so bad that it completely drowned her...
