Six

"You can't be serious!"

"I am."

The conversation was going in circles. In the middle of the living room, Hinata and Naruto were arguing. No sooner had Hinata announced her desire for a divorce than Naruto dragged them into the privacy of their home. There, alone in their own home, he could scream and scream and scream. He hadn't even taken the time to get rid of his Hokage cloak, which was still draped over his shoulders. His eyes, usually so clear, looked as if they'd darkened.

"You have no right to ask for a divorce," he finally roared, approaching Hinata.

She could feel his anger. His chakra manifested itself like an orange cloak. He was angry, furious even, but above all he seemed sad. Devastated.

Hinata closed the gap between them and rested her head against her husband's chest. Naruto closed his arms around her and hugged her tightly. Tears ran down both their cheeks.

"Naruto," she murmured after a moment.

He pulled her face up to look into her eyes. And he was surprised. Where he'd expected to see a look as desolate as his, he saw determination.

"You have no right to break up our family," he said, his voice breaking.

He then clasped her hand as if to urge her to stay there with him. His grip was strong-too strong.

"We don't have a family anymore, Naruto. This marriage isn't a family. You're not happy," she finally told him, freeing herself from his embrace.

"And neither am I," she thought bitterly.

Naruto then fell into a kind of trance. Eyes wide and jaws clenched. Tears streamed continuously down his face, drowning his blue eyes. Hinata, on the other hand, had stopped crying. Determination had overtaken sadness.

Just as she was about to take a step away, Naruto fell to his knees. He was on his knees in front of her, his hands gathered in supplication, his Hokage cloak dragging on the floor behind him.

He was on his knees. He was begging. Naruto was on his knees. The Hokage was on his knees. The most powerful ninja was on his knees. For a brief moment, she felt her will waver. She wanted to kneel beside him, to embrace him, to assure him that she would never abandon him. She wanted to tell him she loved him, more than anything, more than her own life.

But she didn't.

Instead, she placed a kiss on her husband's blond locks.

"I'm going to spend a few days at my father's house. I'd like you to take this time to think about the divorce," she said, moving away.

"Hina wait! I-I-I'm sorry," he cried.

"Me too."

Without another word or glance, she left.

Life at the Hyuuga estate was peaceful. There was never a word too many, never a word too high. Perhaps also because there were hardly ever any words at all. The house was quiet, marked by a respectful, dignified silence.

Hiashi was at the end of his life. This was the home of a dying man. Hinata wasn't overly moved by this; it was the course of life. Fathers lived and fathers died. And children remained. That was the way it was. That was the way life was. Or at least it should have been.

Sitting on the engawa, Hinata shivered. It was a cool morning, the grass was still frozen in places and a light breeze was blowing against the young woman. Her skin was frigid, bitten by the cold. Yet she didn't seem to mind.

When a firm hand came to rest on her shoulder, she gasped. She turned to see her father - his features drawn with fatigue. He sat down beside her and handed her a steaming pot. With a smile and a nod, Hinata silently thanked him.

She then turned her white gaze to her father's face. The man who had once ruled the House of Hyuuga with an iron fist now resembled an old man. Long silvery streaks had replaced the black hair of yesterday. His face was hollowed out, as if damaged by the weight of the years. His eyes, as white as her own, seemed weary. As Hinata watched her father's features, she realized he was doing the same. She wondered what he thought of her reflection.

Did he find her weary too?

"Why don't you go home?"

The question had been asked gently, calmly and with restraint. The Hyuuga way. Hinata didn't answer immediately. She took long sips of the tea, warming herself with the beverage.

"I'm not happy at home," she said finally, looking at her father. I-we-our marriage isn't working anymore, she added as she felt a sense of shame come over her.

"Isn't there any way you can make it work again?" he questioned, looking at his daughter.

Hinata took the time to think before answering. She gathered her thoughts before giving her father an answer.

"No. I don't think so," she finally replied, before sighing slightly.

"Hyuugas don't get divorced."

"I'm not a Hyuuga anymore."

A slight smile appeared on Hiashi's tired face. For the first time in her life, Hinata thought her father was handsome. For that moment, she was sure she saw in him what her mother had also seen. In return, her mouth formed a smile. She was happy to have been the privileged witness of this scene. She was happy to have seen that her father could also be gentle. That he wasn't just the cold, strict man he'd been when she was growing up.

"I never told you," he said in a trembling voice.

Hinata frowned, not understanding what her father was getting at. Her lips pursed.

"What?" she asked, inviting him to clarify his thoughts.

"I never told you I was sorry about Kazuya. And for the other one."

"The other one had a name too. Her name was Mei."

She thought her heart would burst. And it did. Again and again and again. She was suffocating-she would die again and again.

"I'm going to walk," she managed to stammer as she clumsily stood up.

Legs trembling, heart pounding, she ran away.

She walked for a long time, losing all sense of time. She seemed possessed, as if caught in a genjutsu. Her feet had carried her into the forest that bordered the village. It was in this forest that she'd spent most of her time training as a child, where she'd taken refuge as a teenager, where she'd gone when the pain became too unbearable.

There, among the trees, she collapsed. She fell to the ground and sank. A scream was stuck in the back of her throat.

She wanted to scream, to howl, to belch. But no sound could break through the barrier of her throat.

As images came back to her mind, as she saw all the blood that had flowed that day, as she saw the tiny figure of Kazu- she vomited.

A deafening sound wracked her eardrums - the shrill sound of an alarm that never stops. And then silence-even more deafening.

She vomited again.

She could feel the bitter taste of bile on her tongue. She also had the impression of feeling her insides being torn apart-again. She ran a hand over her belly and was surprised to find it so flat.

Then she screamed. She screamed. Over and over again.

She screamed so hard her throat burned. But at least it was her own voice that twisted her eardrums, and not the guttural scream she'd heard that day. A scream that hadn't been hers, but could have been.

A surge of chakra took her by surprise. Eyes misty and mind fogged, she forced herself to stand up.

Concentrating her chakra in her palms, she prepared to-

"Hinata!"

She fell. Her last strength had left her, she was drained. She sank as she felt herself being called again and again.

He had caught her just before she fell. Holding her firmly against him, he could feel her skin burning. She was burning-feverish and at the limit of her capacity. Her breathing was jerky and noisy. Sweat beaded her forehead, and it was as if he smelled vomit.

It was the screaming that had alerted him. She hadn't turned up for their daily training session, and while searching for her chakra he'd ended up in the forest. That's when he heard the screaming. Painful screams that made his eardrums twinge. He rushed towards the source of the screams, and as he approached, he saw her take up a fighting stance. He had called her by her first name, and she had collapsed. He had just enough time to reach her and catch her.

She muttered unintelligible words as he positioned her on his back. Her body was slender and light.

"Hold on tight," he said, more to himself than to her.

He didn't even know if she could hear him. She seemed to be locked in a genjutsu, caught in a delirious coma. Yet she wrapped her arms around his neck anyway, before resting her head on his shoulder blade.

"Sasuke"

She whispered his name. He flew away. Or almost flew. At full speed, he was taking the young woman to Konoha hospital. After whispering his name, she went back to muttering inaudible words. He could feel her erratic breathing against him, feel her skin burning against his, feel her heart beating at a frantic pace as if it were doing everything to get out of her ribcage. Why was she in such a state? What was she doing outside in such a state? Where was Naruto? Why wasn't he with her? Why was she alone? Why-

"They're gone forever."

Her voice had broken on the last word. Glancing over his shoulder he could see that Hinata still had her eyes closed, her cheeks bathed in tears and sweat. She was delirious. She needed to see a doctor urgently. He knew well that fever could have a damaging effect if left unchecked. It could fry the brain of the smallest child or the most powerful ninja. Nothing could be done about fever. In the face of disease, all men are equal. The disease had taken Itachi, and there was nothing he could do. Except wait for Sasuke to come and give him the fatal blow. Itachi was dead and-

"But I'm still not going"

Sasuke didn't understand what she was saying. He wondered if she wasn't stuck in a nightmare. She was distressed against him, her body curled up against his, she looked tiny. She was nothing like the woman he'd begun to train. Nothing of the woman who fought his katana every day. She was just a shell, an empty carnal envelope. He hated this impression. He hated this Hinata. He hated the weakness.

"Hinata, you have to hold on. I'm taking you to the hospital, Naruto to-"

"No, not the hospital, not Naruto, no no, Hyuuga, Hyuuga," she sobbed.

Sasuke knew that some clans didn't like to send their ninjas to hospital. Especially those with hereditary attributes. They treated their sick in the privacy and secrecy of their domains. On reflection, he had always found this reasoning rather stupid. The best ninja medics were at the hospital, so to do without their services in a dangerous situation was idiotic. But after all, to him it meant little, for there were no longer any secrets for the Uchiha to protect. There was no clan at all. Nothing at all.

"All right," he said simply.

He then changed direction and took her to the Hyuuga estate. After that, she said nothing, and he knew she'd fainted. Making sure she was still well attached, he accelerated until he found himself in front of the estate gates. Three guards stood in front of him, ready to do battle, so he pushed past them before their stunned gazes, and entered the estate. He felt as if a hundred eyes were staring at him, and they certainly were. There was no escaping the byakugan. The dojutsu saw all, knew all.

"So much for formalities," he thought as he reached the front door of the main house.

"Uchiha."

A loud voice interrupted his train of thought. He found himself face to face with a young woman-byakugan activated-and in fighting stance. She wore the traditional garb of her clan as well as the customary hair. He knew who she was. She was Hanabi Hyuuga, the new Byakugan clan leader. She was young, but Sasuke made no mistake: an aura of power surrounded her. She was no mere teenager, but an exceptional kunoichi. He stopped in front of her and furtively lowered his head in recognition. It was then that Sasuke heard her stifle an utter curse and rush towards him to grab Hinata as if she were a mere rag doll. She carried her with ease, holding her firmly against her.

"What happened? she asked as she pulled on her sister's eyelids to force them open.

She was checking that her sister still had her eyes, a priority for clans with dojutsu. Sasuke felt like throwing up. "Eyes, eyes, always eyes" he thought bitterly. It used to be like that in his clan too. The genetic attribute was the priority. Not anymore. There was no priority for the Uchiha.

"I found her wandering in the forest. She was incoherent. She threw up. She has a fever too," he summarized as he watched anonymous members of the clan carry Hinata into the privacy of the mansion.

He wanted to follow them, but knew that was not his place. He felt his heart clench at the realization. He'd been able to touch Hinata's distress with his fingers, to leave her now seemed almost criminal. Yet he had to do it. It was Naruto's job to look after her. Where was he anyway? He felt his fists clench and his jaw tighten. "Where's that idiot gone again?" he thought angrily. He'd been angry with Naruto a lot lately. He didn't like it.

"Thank you," Hanabi finally replied.

The young leader then planted her gaze in Sasuke's and ceremoniously bowed her head. Curtseying wasn't to be her habit, it was obvious from her attitude, yet with this gesture she was showing her gratitude to Sasuke. She was indebted to him. The head of the Hyuuga clan was indebted to Sasuke Uchiha-the former ninja deserter. How ironic.

Then, without another word, she turned and took her leave. Sasuke found himself alone and realized that if his illegal entry had been tolerated under the circumstances, it was now time for him to withdraw. He did so, but not without a last glance at the house where he had seen Hinata's lifeless body disappear.