Discrepancies
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With her leg crossed over another, and a glass of something fruity and sweet, the beverage became her companion after she had arrived. And by being at that bar long enough, Hinata had learned that as a foreigner, locals become interested parties. Men would sit down next to her, offer her a drink, and get up when dissatisfied with the time extracted from her. The system, almost like that of a revolving door, would continue as another would sit and ask where she was from, or the reason a pretty girl like her would be there, alone.
Hinata politely excused herself when she spotted Kiba somewhere off against a wall, with the same friends, and a couple of more she had not seen before. She slipped away to refresh herself, fixing her wavy hairstyle which fought against the curls, her hair trying to loosen and straighten on its own. The dimmed light in the bathroom seemed to erase her exhaustion as she lined her lips a red tint in front of the mirror. Feeling like she might be running out of time, she had plans to approach Kiba that same night.
His group had been pleasant, and inviting, until a segregation of pairs happened, as friends broke into two, leaving Kiba alone with her. Though Kiba seemed solely focused on their conversation, Hinata could tell he was keeping tabs on everyone around them, up until a new person walked over to their booth with pending business with her target. Hinata was up and away before Kiba could breathe out any form of request for privacy. She understood if she leaves now, it might take some time to create another opening.
"I don't want to get in the way of any urgent business," She mumbled softly. But Kiba assured her he could talk to his business partner later, as he took her hand and guided her away, towards the back exit of some sort, opening the heavy door for her which exited to the back alley, trapping her against a wall with scattered stars being the only witness at the time. Hinata knew it was time to leave when she felt like she was floating when he sank her teeth into her skin. She leaned her head to one side, within the confinement of his arms, gripping at his forearms, always wondering what her cousin would think of her. Neji would probably hate her for this. Hate her, but not as much as she hates herself for it.
She lolled her head to the side with a fake smile stapled to the corner of her lips.
"That man that was back there, the one wearing sunglasses, isn't he waiting for you?"
"You mean Shino? He's fine. I recently misplaced the ID I needed to get into the auction this week. He probably came to nag me about that."
She tried not to react to this new information, and had a feeling what she had obtained had been a card key of some sort. But the location of the door it opens was still unknown. Was it too soon to proceed to the next stage? No. His peers will notice him missing. She pushed him away, gently breaking out of his embrace.
"Kiba Inuzuka, it was nice meeting you by chance, but I have to go now."
"I never asked you when you're going back home,"
"In a few days,"
He grinned. "Then, let's meet again."
Hinata's lips shaped to form an agreement, leaving earlier than intended because she had almost become reckless, reckless to the point she had considered knocking him out, tying him up, just to hurry up the process of information gathering. But there was no such thing as stars as witnesses. It was just Shino, standing at a distance. She sent an acknowledging glance his way, before leaving for the night.
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"I can see the bridge from here," Nenma said from above the forest, hovering over a few trees.
"Good. Once we cross the Naruto Bridge it's only a matter of time before we catch up to her,"
The entire forest shifted, with trees rustling violently.
Nenma slowly levitated back down with both hands tucked inside his long coat, with a curious brow aimed towards his surroundings. By the time Nenma landed, Sasuke had weapons at ready as something came alive inside the forest. Sasuke shuffled, his back against Nenma, waiting in anticipation for something to strike them, while Nenma merely yawned with his hands still tucked inside his coat as if this was all just an everyday occurrence. As quick as the pulse of chakra occurred, it lingered for a while, before its essence disappeared.
"Hey, did you feel that?" Sasuke asked, sheaving his weapon.
"I did." Nenma said. "But whatever it was, it's gone now. Should we go after it?"
"No sense in chasing if it'll delay us from the mission."
They pick up their pace, this time taking to the trees to travel.
"What was it that you were saying earlier?" Nenma asked. "Something about a bridge? How come I've never heard of it before?" The only Bridge close by was named after Sasuke's peace-loving brother.
Sasuke wasn't bad at geography. In fact, it was his job to know this, and yet he couldn't for the life of him recall the name of the Itachi Bridge before its construction. He asked him, from one former straight A student to another. However, their Academy days were too far behind them. Even Nenma couldn't remember.
"How the hell should I know? I've seen so many bridges fall that I lost track of all names."
Don't tell me it's happening again. Sasuke thought to himself, wondering if this was just like the time he had known Kyuubi's name by pure instinct. Remembering things which he should not know, even though he's nowhere near the tapestry.
"So that's what the new bridge looks like. I thought it'll be more impressive since he saved that village and all,"
"It does the job,"
"True." Nenma padded his side and took out his ID, flashing his credentials to avoid paying tolls. Sasuke followed along, until the two stopped at a cross road that forks into two paths, with one of them being the Sunflower village.
He leaned against a wooden pole with a faded post motioning to the town's direction.
"Hey Sasuke, when we find her, let me be the one to approach her first. She's going to freak out if she sees you there, since you tried to murder her and all,"
"Meanwhile, all you did was watch,"
"I knew she was a clone because I was the one that told her to run."
"She's a good escapist, I'll give her that,"
"So, have you decided what you're going to do?" Nenma asked.
"Ah. I'm going to help her get this mission done as soon as possible. You said your best guest is her ending at the Sunflower Village. From my understanding, there's not much happening there. Or am I missing something here?"
"Yeah. All kinds of people from all around the country often gather there for auctions."
Sasuke gave him a side glance, already anticipating it to be an illegal black market kind of thing.
"Then what's it going to be, mask up or mask down?"
"Mask down," Nenma replied with a devilish grin, as he was already removing his coat and flinging it over his shoulder. "I have contacts there. It won't be a problem,"
Sasuke and Nenma stopped before the village's border. He glanced up, coal-eyes taking in the welcoming sign.
Nenma walked ahead while Sasuke continued to stare at the welcoming sign.
"What's up?" He asked over his shoulders.
"The village's Kanjis." It's almost like it was named after her.
"I'm sure this is just a coincidence," Nenma said through a yawn.
Sasuke turned towards the sound of vicious barks coming from afar. Nenma smirked right next to him when a pack of oversized dogs dressed as security waddle their way, barking at them in unison. He spread his arms to hug them, grinning widely.
"You have got to be kidding me. Are they seriously with the Shinobi force?" Sasuke deadpanned.
"Another thing I fucking love about this village," Nenma said with a grin as he reached his hand out, showing off his credential to one of the barking creature, before demanding to see their tricks, eventually asking for a paw.
Sasuke's eyes trailed towards the responsible one of the pack, as it ran up to Sasuke, holding a brochure of the town, in its mouth. Sasuke patted its head and accepted it.
After getting through to the pack of so-called security, Sasuke went ahead, leaving Nenma behind, since the Dark prince had a soft spot for cute things. He stayed behind, playing catch and rolling on the floor with the pack of excited guard dogs.
Sasuke opened up the small booklet which listed all kinds of activities scheduled to happen at the Sunflower Village. He smirked at the information blatantly display before him. There was only one inn in town. And sure enough, he found her by chance, as she passed his window, heading somewhere in at night.
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When Hinata glanced up, past Kiba, time might've probably slowed as she could see some arms covered in red and black sleeves, then Nenma coming into view, going against the traffic of the crowd, with two drinks in hand. Wearing a shirt seemed to go against his religion. But if he was there, safe and in one piece, then it was obvious who the matching locks of inky hair belonged to as she finally spotted Sasuke right behind him. If those two were now somehow working together, then it was all over for her. Hinata stood up and took a step back from Kiba, trying to catch herself from tumbling. She had to get out of there.
"Well I'll be damn, if it isn't the Dark prince?" Kiba said, inviting him over with one arm, not picking up on Hinata's distress.
"Hey Sasuke, remember the plan, let me handle Hinata,"
"Annoying. You don't have to tell me twice."
Coming out of her frozen state, Hinata placed down the drink over the table, and reenacted a Shinobi drill learned long ago at the Academy. By the time they reached her, she had already used substitution, swapping places with someone else. And in her daze, she found an emergency exit, leaning all her weight into the door, using the side of her arm until it opened. But Nenma was already waiting for her in the back of the alleyway.
She had to do something, but she didn't know what. It would've been so much assuring if Neji were here. She was in no state to outrun him. She tried to stay calm, but she could feel the fear rising in her chest from memories alone of what Sasuke had done gruesomely to her clone while he had watched.
"Are you two working together?"
"You know, you could pretend to have a little faith in me. I don't mean you any harm," Nenma grinned.
"Why should I trust you? You led him to me."
"They were direct orders. But you should hear him out. He wants to join you on your journey."
"Why would he change his mind?"
"Let's just say I beat some sense into him."
She narrowed her eyes. "I know what you're doing, trying to smooth things between us. But Lord Sasuke, he scares me."
Nenma didn't say anything when he noticed something dark against her skin. She instinctively placed a hand to cover her neck when his eyes darted to there. She looked away when he brushed her hair and fixed it behind her, understanding he had been late, and she had already started networking or maybe even spreading her webs.
"The drinks last night, were they any good?" Nenma asked, knowing he was setting himself up as his thumb brushed against the bruise that had blossom there, made by someone else that wasn't him. He moved her hair forward, covering it up.
"The drink wasn't very good. I only had one."
"Well, from now on, you don't have to, anymore. You can let Sasuke do all the work. You won't be lifting a finger at all. Just sit back and watch. He'll literally just need your eyes. You've seen the grim reaper at work."
"Hopefully he doesn't turn his weapon towards me,"
"I made it clear if something happens to you, I'll leak multiple letter. If you don't make it back alive, I'll make sure they'll know it was him. There will be bad blood."
"Nenma, I don't deserve your kindness."
"Our mutual interest does not equate to kindness." Nenma backed away from her while one of his eyes glowed red in the night. "By the way, he also knows about the third piece that you're hiding," He added, before his clone dispersed back to his original body.
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Kiba placed down some payment and turned back towards the room.
"I don't get it. Things were going so well. Why would she leave?"
"Oi, focus, you said you can get me a catalog with pictures and the starting bidding prices of everything that's going to be displayed in the auction," Nenma pressed while placing his hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah. You can stop by my place tomorrow," He said dejectedly as he downed his final drink.
"So how long have you known this person?" Sasuke asked.
"I bumped into her three days ago. I thought it must've been fate. Lord Sasuke, it was nice meeting you again. Nenma, I'm gonna bounce for the night. Later."
Nenma held up a peace sign until Kiba was out of sight.
He broke into a dark chuckle. "That bastard probably doesn't understand how lucky he is that she needs something from him."
"I have a feeling you never had a healthy friendship," Sasuke deadpanned before looking his way.
Sasuke knew that look, the same look Nenma always had when memories of his shadow clones would come flooding back. He waited for him to organize his memories while leaning against the bar with one drink in hand.
"Status?"
"Mission complete," Nenma replied, as he stretched in place. "She'll likely seek you out when she's ready, but I don't know how long it'll take. I'm sure you can handle the rest."
"Well done. As agreed, you're free to go back to the Rain village whenever you please," Sasuke said as he moved away from the bar. Nenma hummed dismissively and shoved his hand inside his pocket and followed him, both cutting through the crowd, touching the door to exit.
"I might stick around until you're both out of this village," Nenma said as he walked down a few steps.
"Then we'll be out in no time." Sasuke replied as he was half turned to him. When he turned to face forward again, his speeding thoughts started to trail, because there she was, standing there as if waiting for them.
She began walking towards them in a poised and reserved manner, her dress deceitfully modest, as he had already seen her side profile before. Her alluring voice contradicting the timid manner in which she approached.
"There's only one inn in this town, so I don't see the sense in trying to avoid you if we're likely going to bump into each other in the halls. Why don't we walk back together instead?" She tilted her head, sending an angelic smile his way. Nenma patted her head as he walked past her, whispering to her to cut it out, and that Sasuke would surely be immune.
And he was.
He was immune to the point he could not move.
What hell did she just do...?
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Thank you for reading and the comments!
Harrisonwool, you may be onto something lol that's all I can say for now.