Reunion
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Sasuke's priorities immediately shifted.
He floated right in front of Nenma to shield the Rain Village from his attack. Sasuke lifted his hand to open up a portal. Likewise, he planned to transfer the deadly bomb over to another dimension.
With a flick of his wrist, Nenma canceled his attack, letting out a single dark chuckle that did not match the sorrowful tone that followed. "Team captain, do you think I'll ever do something like that?"
Caught off guard, Sasuke didn't react in time as Nenma launched towards him, pushing the two of them inside the portal, entering a desolate land misted in dread and fog where the sounds of cogs twisting, clocks ticking, and machinery hissing could be heard all around.
Sasuke pushed Nenma off, the wind his palm created did all the distancing as Nenma backflipped and landed on a spinning cog. He got a hold over his killing intent, reeling it back. His teammate was considered a Shinobi of the Leaf. He was Minato's son, also reffered as the Dark Prince. A battle between them would lead to unwanted consequences tied to any Hokage's nightmare.
"You can ditch that invisible title or mantle of yours. There are no witnesses here. What are you so afraid of, grim reaper?"
"Stop calling me that." When egged on, Sasuke withdrew his sword, reaching for his main one, with plans to scare him a little, knock him out, and leave him stranded inside this desolate dimension for a few days, so he could reflect. Even if Sasuke had wished it, he couldn't exactly do much more than that, not even with all his Hokage privileges.
"Heh, that's more like it," Nenma's mask resided, melting off his skin as though it had been part of him all along, revealing a single sharingan spinning on his right eye as his dark hair breezed in the fog.
The cogs stopped spinning, and the time stopped ticking. Just then, Sasuke was reminded of how one of their family fell when on a mission with Nenma. His body returned with just one eye.
"How did you get that eye?" Sasuke almost growled when facing the eye of a fallen family member.
Nenma rubbed the back of his head, his shoulder moving nonchalantly. "You could say I got it from someone who had chosen death."
"Nenma Uzumaki, you're going to die here today, where no one could ever find you. My only regret is that Minato-sensei will be upset,"
"Finally, there's the grim reaper I've come to respect," His lips spread, full smile on as he grinned widely, though the menace emanating from his actions never reached his eyes.
Evil.
Heartless.
Conniving.
Even so, he hopes Hinata makes it to safety.
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Hinata thought she heard an internal ringing inside her ear, but it was perhaps the cicadas screeching all around as she took off north, reaching the forest once more. Nenma had agreed to hold Sasuke back by any means, or for as long as he could, just so that she may make it anywhere close to resembling a town, village or resting point.
"I need to get moving soon," She whispered to no one as she sat, propped up against a tree, tired and exhausted from the trip. Soon it would be morning again. But what was even the plan? She had no lead that she could think of. She glanced down at her generic white cloak her village distributes for travels, her fingers flicking a bug visible in sight at the first crack of light. The shadows of the tree danced over her frame when she was back on her feet again. At least it doesn't look like it would be raining today, her mind said while shielding a side of her face from the sunlight, hoping Nenma was okay on his end.
She checked in, under a different alias, inside the Village of Sunflowers, not before putting away any hints that revealed her hometown. She held onto the straps of her backpack, wearing color palettes of gray, black and purple as she had ditched the kimono silhouette for her typical adventure clothes which offered flexibility and comfort. From turtle-neck, to shorts and stockings, her heels much flatter as she walked deeper inside town. The setting, reminiscent of the Leaf, in terms of all the bright and colorful plants and flowers hanging or sitting on any imaginable surface, from window ledges to balconies.
When closing in on the directions that were to take her towards an inn, she stopped and pretended to smell a sunflower when a group of men exited a daytime tavern, seemingly excited as they talked about looking forward to this weeks' auction.
Her eyes widened. Of course. Scoping out any towns that participate in auctions would probably help her get to her next step. Hinata straightened herself, and tucked her hair behind her ear, lowering her gaze when the group past her, with one of them slightly gracing her shoulder as he bumped her.
He raised a hand, half apologetic, as he kept walking with the group of friends. "Sorry!" The stranger said over his shoulder.
"Hey, is that a foreigner?" The faceless man asked, while next to him.
"Yah. Probably." The stranger replied as they went to make a turn around the corner.
Hinata remained there, watching as they disappeared in the small crowd of local civilians, before pulling out the ID she had discreetly confiscated.
She plopped back in a small bed, staring up at the photo of this unknown Kiba Inuzuka. He looked like a nice guy that belonged to a close knitted family. She frowned, internally apologizing in advance for having bumped into him.
Hinata flipped on her stomach, crawling on all fours just to reach out to the night stand, to grab a picture of Neji.
"I wonder… Why does it feel like I am just taking the roundabout way towards certain death? Onii-sama, I don't want anything bad happening to you, but I also don't wish for you to be sad because of me,"
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Swords clashed, until either one was knocked off, the fighting descaling to hand-to-hand combat, until a Chidori met a dark rasengan head-on, blasting the two of them apart.
Angry screams and taunts eventually became manic laughter as Nenma began to lose sight of who he was in the midst of his episodic berserk. He tossed a few spinning stars into the smoke, listening to Sasuke's location the moment his weapon repelled his, both evenly matched until Sasuke leaped back and released a breath of fire, his chakra mixing with the reside lingering in the smoke which blewup all around Nenma. The dark prince narrowly avoided it by ditching his long coat in the process. This snapped Nenma back, a little closer to sanity.
"Hey, you're obviously enjoying this a little too much," Nenma commented while inspecting the burnt wound on his bare chest. "You missed it too, huh? Going all out? Problem is, you refuse to go there yet. Where's your sussanoo?"
"Using it against a selfish, stubborn fool is beneath me. I only use it only to protect those around me,"
"Whoah. I'm a stubborn fool? Says the idiot who believes everything he's told! Come on, Sasuke, think for it a second. Isn't it strange how other villages have Shinobi with guardians sealed inside them, while our guardian roams free? It's one of the reasons I left the village. To learn and discover more about this demon sealing technique."
Rationality immediately reflected in Sasuke's eyes, his sanity seemingly back, no longer angry about Nenma's eye.
"What the hell are you on about? Other villages envies us."
Nenma viciously shook his head, deactivating his sharingan. "You and I, together, are strong enough to stop Kyuubi should it ever fully turn and loses control. So why do you take an issue of something so miniscule. Let Hinata complete the tapestry. I'll be there for backup if you need it."
"You've always been an agent of chaos. Why would I ever follow your advice?"
Nenma floated downward, standing right in front of him.
"The nightmares, have they started for you yet? The visions of loved ones dying, or simply obtaining knowledge you shouldn't be privy too. You know, those kinds of things are some weird phenomena which happens when we come into prolong physical contact with the tapestry."
Sasuke removed his mask.
How can that be so, when Hinata's vision began way before she came into contact with it?
Sasuke's eyes widened. From recent interaction with Neji's cousin, Sasuke came to see that she was always on the slick side.
Don't tell me she has been lying about there being only two pieces this whole time.
Nenma laughed at his expression. "Why do you look like you just figured something out?"
"Hinata led me to believe there were two pieces, when perhaps there may be more. And if my theory is correct, as it stands, there are three known pieces as of now."
Nenma shifted the weight of his leg on one side, lifting his hand behind his head. "Well that's a bummer, I'm over here trying to stall you but it seemed you got something out of this fight. So, what are you going to do? Are you going to stop her?"
"In this dimension, where there is no leader of the Rain near by, I am your only Hokage. And as your Hokage, I'm giving you a direct order to help me find her."
"And they said you don't go around abusing your powers,"
"Shut up, I don't want to hear this from you since I'm coming along. I'm taking back that eye too."
"Never. You're gonna have to fight me," Nenma whined as Sasuke opened up a portal, shoving him back into the city.
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Hinata took out a worn-out yellow shirt that had been restitched at one corner of the seams, donning three simple words, that could be used to describe a wide range of actions. Back when she had been a slave, it had been gifted to her, by one of her main branch cousins, as a form of insult. Her cousin, who is so rich she thrifts at high-ends auctions, had gone out of her way to try and humiliate her by gifting her the restiched shirt as a birthday gift. Her snobish cousin, had no idea back then that she had come across a piece of the tapestry.
"To get rid of something that is no longer needed. Copy, paste, delete." Hinata mumbled as she traced her finger over the side that had the woven fabric.
In the context of how her cousin had tried to use the small piece of tapestry, to drive a message, had sounded like a passive threat Hinata had easily ignored just by avoiding her. However, these three simple words should now send her panicking. Even if what Lord Minato said to Sasuke might be true, she will not back down from something like this.
Hinata put the shirt away inside her bag, taking out the single black dress she had brought along, fixing it in front of her as she glanced back to the stolen ID that rested over the nightstand.
She needed to find more information about the items that will be auctioned out this week, and this Kiba might just be her way in.
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Thank you for the review! The site won't let me view traffics, so seeing the interest motivates me. Thanks again for the follow!