Many thanks to these people for reviewing: LaCrazyWriter, redlala87, a Guest, a Guest, mimipage, and Rager1.
(Also, I'm so sorry I lied. Hinata and Sasuke don't talk in this chapter.)
ooOOoo
Day Seven: Tying Ties
On the day Hinata is sure Sasuke is going to survive, she leaves.
Before she does, she makes sure to collect everything that could have her DNA. She pulls hair from her sheets and bedding. Next is gathering her gifted toothbrush and hair comb. After, she wipes down all the surfaces of the bathroom with toilet paper and flushes it.
If she had it her way, she would launder the sheets and towels. But she does not have a washer or dryer in her single room. It is more of a drab motel room than anything.
She stuffs her trash in her pockets and heads to the kitchen. She eats microwave oatmeal and drinks burnt coffee while staring at the floor's ancient, scuffed white linoleum. Once done, she thoroughly scrubs her coffee cup, bowl, and spoon with a liberal amount of soap.
No one is in the halls as she passes. All sound is muffled by the dirt brown carpet.
Funnily enough, a man dressed in khaki pants and a worn leather jacket is sitting in the front room reading a paper. The jacket probably hides guns in a shoulder holster. But the small, bloody bandages on his fingers and knuckles tell Hinata this person is either a very clumsy gardener or someone who boxes. He is a guard or a patient.
He looks up and raises an eyebrow when she enters.
"Tell Kabuto I'll be back," she orders softly.
The man watches her go and does not say anything.
When she is far enough away and is sure no one is following, she dumps her tiny amount of collected hair and toothbrush into the gutter.
ooOOoo
When Hinata rescued Sasuke she intentionally did not kill anyone at the pharmaceutical company. A whole building of dead people would bring serious government attention to the situation. Disabling people would leave them embarrassed but out for her blood.
She needs to gather her items from her temporary apartment. Also, there is a locker at the train station with other supplies but she wants to save that for when Sasuke is up and about.
If her pursuers are organized enough, they might already be after her even after three days. She is running out of time.
Her apartment is in a particularly bad part of town, in the shadow of a power plant. It belches out smog and occasional flames as the coal inside is burned. Hinata blinks as the polluted air stings her eyes. She clears her throat and pushes on.
Sticking a hand in her jacket pocket, she rifles around until she finds the key to the apartment. The front door has a broken lock and it lets her into the lobby. The elevator is also not working, so she walks up narrow, rickety stairs.
The trip to the sixth and highest floor gives her time to take inventory of her jacket and its many pockets. She touches all of them methodically.
The items are as follows: the train station locker key, a multi utility tool, a pocket knife, a tiny canister of mints that are actually knock out pills, an actual peppermint in a wrapper, another little canister of exactly three soldier pills, her fake id, a reloadable gift credit card, a bundle of cash, three coins, chakra wire, a tampon, and the USB with the pilfered information from the pharmaceutical company. In her right boot is another knife, in her left is a lock picking kit.
What she really needs is her satellite phone. But it is too bulky to hide even in her reinforced armor jacket.
Hopefully the apartment is still hidden and untouched.
She gets to her door, places a hand over the keyhole, and pulses her chakra. Her traps slowly undo themselves.
A sigh of relief escapes her. No one broke in while she was gone.
Entering the apartment, she does something similar to her room in Kabuto's offices.
The place came furnished. All she needs to do is collect her items.
She piles some of her clothes and miscellaneous gear on top of an unrolled scroll. After sealing it shut with a pulse of chakra, she slips it into her backpack. In her backpack itself, she fits her first aid kit, a set of senbon, a change of clothes, and her toiletries. Everything she thinks she'll need to access quickly.
Keeping out a baseball cap, she twists her hair up and tucks it underneath the brim before tugging it tightly down over her head.
After this is done, she puts on rubber gloves and takes her time cleaning the apartment. The bed sheets and linens go into an in-unit washer and dryer that she paid a premium for. She uses strong chemicals to clean the shower, bidet, toilet, sink, floors, and mirror. All her trash, including her hair and the accumulated dirt in the vacuum cleaner goes into a plastic bag. She scrubs her kitchenette with single minded purpose, arranging the cups and dishes in perfect order. She wipes down all the surfaces including doorknobs and the coffee tables.
She transfers the linens to the dryer, and after turning it on, leaves it there.
Keeping her gloves on, she inspects the apartment.
She pauses. Pressing her lips together, she deliberates. Sighing, she opens the windows in the bedroom and living area. The smog will kill any of her lingering scent while polluting any DNA she might have left despite her precautions.
And one could not be too careful when it came to human experimentation.
Slipping on her backpack and grabbing her trash, she makes her way to the building manager's office. It is on the first floor just off the lobby. This door is unlocked too, but it always is during the day. After a perfunctory knock, she pushes her way in.
A balding man with an old black eye is standing behind the pressed wood counter. His large forehead is beaded with sweat. He smiles queasily at her as he attempts to catch his breath.
Hinata's brows furrow. "The front door was broken. And you're not the building manager."
He gives a wheezing laugh and waves it off. One of his fingers is bent at an odd angle.
"Of course I am. Just started!" he says.
Right then, there is a loud sound like a bag of potatoes dropping on the floor. Both the man and Hinata whip their heads to look at the closet door. It opens a tiny sliver and Hinata sees the heel of a bright blue stiletto.
Hinata turns her attention back to the man in front of her. "The building manager is a woman."
He spits to the side. "Shit!"
Hinata drops her trash and backpack before launching herself over the counter. The man grabs the broom right next to him. He stabs the handle out at her.
They do not have a lot of room to move. They are pinned between the counter, the closet door, and the desk where a computer sits.
Chakra glows blue around Hinata's hands. She makes a chopping motion and it splinters the wooden broom handle. He curses but tries to stab at her again with the sharp end. It glances off her jacket. She grabs it to pull him closer but he drops it. While her hands are full, he throws an almost impossibly quick series of punches.
She gives up the broom to block him. He curses and bares his teeth as his bare hands come into contact with her chakra laden hands. They are burning him.
Good.
Hinata cheats. She grabs one fist and then the other when he attempts to wrench her off. The pain of her grip catches him off guard and she lifts a leg to kick him in between his. He crumples and as he goes down, she punches him in the head and he is out like a light.
She gasps in a breath and releases it slowly in an attempt to calm her heart.
Dreading it, she walks over to the closet. She opens it and the woman inside screams from behind a gag. Her eyes are wide and white in terror. Her blue heels scramble against the linoleum floor.
Hinata sags in relief against the door frame.
"You're alive," she breathes. "Thank the heavens."
She surges forwards, retrieves her knife, and cuts through the tape keeping the woman's hands bound behind her back. She removes the gag and helps the shaking woman step over the man's body before lowering her into the lone chair.
The woman is crying and gasping out the story of what happened. How the man stormed in and overpowered her and she thought she was gonna die and wait where are you going?
"I'm just getting my backpack, honey." Hinata replies.
She pulls out her scroll, presses her chakra into the right seal, and it flops open. She fetches out a length of rope.
Then she goes to the man's body and drags him into the closet. She gags him with the one he used on the building manager. Finding the nearby tape, she uses that to bind both his hands and his feet. Closing the door behind her, Hinata focuses her attention on the woman.
"Do you have a panic button?" Hinata asks.
The woman wipes at her eyes, spreading mascara over her cheek. "It… it is under the counter. I couldn't… couldn't…"
Hinata puts her hands on her hips and huffs out a breath as she thinks.
In this part of town, this can be gang related. The building manager could be caught between rival gangs.
"Do you have any spray paint?" Hinata asks.
"The… the janitor's closet."
Shoot. Hinata was just there. She opens the closet again and steps over the body to fetch the black paint. She sprays one of the local gang's symbol on the man's shirt and then on one of the office walls. She puts the paint can in one of the cargo pockets in her pants.
Calmly, she walks over and presses the panic button. Then she kneels in front of the building manager.
"Listen to me carefully. The police are coming but I need to tie you up."
The building manager squeals and tries to push herself back. But she is already pressed to the desk.
"Listen," Hinata insists. "Listen! I'm going to tie your hands in front and you can undo it in seconds if you need to. I promise. The police are coming."
"I can't! I can't!"
Hinata sighs. She has a pill she can give to this woman to make her pass out and calm down. But Hinata does not want to steal any more agency from this victim.
"Either I tie you up and you tell the police that some thugs brought him in and dumped him before tying you up. Or you disappear forever and never come back."
The woman sniffs. "Are those my only options?"
"Yes."
For some reason it makes the woman think. She holds out her shaking hands. Hinata quickly uses the rope to tie them together..
"Now, turn your wrists like this." Hinata demonstrates.
The woman does and the rope falls off.
"Perfect. See? If you need to get out, you can. But it will look like you're bound to the police, okay?"
The manager sniffs. "O-Okay."
"Okay." Hinata feels as if she can hear the sirens bearing down on her. "I need to leave. Are you okay?"
"No. My um… my mouth is really dry."
Shit. Hinata wishes she had time to get some water. She pats her pockets and finds the real mint.
She holds it up for the other woman to see. "How about this?"
The woman giggles wetly. "Okay."
Hinata beams and carefully undoes the wrapper so she can slip the mint in the manager's mouth without touching the mint itself. Her gloves are tattered from her chakra and Hinata does not want to be unsanitary.
The woman sucks on it, hollowing her cheeks, before she garbles out: "Thank you."
"Okay." Hinata stands. She takes her apartment key out of her pocket and slips it under the computer keyboard. "Okay. Bye."
"B-bye."
Hinata picks up her bags and heads out the back door. She follows the alleyway until she hits a major street. She ducks into the shadows as a police car whizzes by her.
She waits for a few minutes before darting across the street to slip into another alleyway. She picks an unlocked dumpster to put her trash, gloves, and paint can into and emerges onto another street. Closing her eyes briefly to center herself, she clutches the straps of her backpack and turns the right way. This will lead her back to Sasuke.
Sasuke's captors have already found her. She needs to be extremely careful to make sure they do not follow her back to his location.
Her hands tremble and she tightens her grip on her backpack. She can do this. She can.
ooOOoo
When she returns, she is exhausted and extremely hungry. The man is still in the lobby, reading the same paper. She wonders if he even turned the page.
"Why didn't you have anyone follow me?" she asks.
"You'd come back." This time he does not even look at her. "Your boy is here. You'd come back."
Hinata sighs and considers taking a nap right here on the floor when one of the doors opens. Kabuto strides in.
"Ah. Hyuga. I have news for you. The Uchiha is awake."
Hinata starts. The adrenaline from the news wakes her right up. She moves forwards to brush past him but he catches her arm.
"He's going to want to contact Konoha," Kabuto murmurs.
She freezes. Of course, that is standard procedure. But why is Kabuto staring her in the eyes and looking so serious?
Swallowing, she says: "Yes."
"I'll let you know this. Something is happening in Konoha. Something with the Organization. I wouldn't trust it if I were you."
Hinata never considered that Kabuto would have a spy in the Organization. How else would he be able to tell her this with such confidence? Maybe she should have guessed it before.
Her eyes narrow as suspicion lances through her. "Why are you telling me this for free?"
Kabuto finally leans out of her space and grins. He adjusts his glasses and the momentary glare from the overhead lights obscures his eyes.
"It's not for free. You did me a very big favor. A pity that you didn't kill anyone, but I can handle the clean up for you. You can hand me the USB now, save us both some time."
Hinata feels the blood running from her face. She hopes he is not saying what she thinks he is saying. Of course, as corporate spies, the Hyuga work for companies with more money than the Daimyo. But she can always pretend she is working for the greater good and not hurting anyone.
She destroyed a company experimenting on humans to protect another company doing the same thing. It makes her dizzy.
"Come on," he tuts and holds out his hand. "This will be easier than putting it in a plastic bag full of trash and putting it under a specific seat marked with a child's sticker on the 1400 train heading north in two days. I've already put the money in the account. Access code ending in 4250801."
Hinata feels almost frozen in time. Her trembling hand goes to the pocket where she stored the USB. She pulls it out and slowly hands it over.
He grins. "Excellent."
"They followed me," she blurts. "One of them found my apartment."
Kabuto raises his eyebrows. "And are they dead?"
"He's in police custody!" she exclaims.
Kabuto nods at the man with the paper. He folds up his paper neatly, tucks it in his jacket, and strides out of the building.
Hinata closes her eyes. She does not want to be an accomplice to an assassination.
"Good," Kabuto tells her. "You've helped me eliminate the competition and once I finish, I can guarantee that none of them will follow you home."
Hinata grinds her teeth but says nothing.
"You can do me another favor. When Konoha implodes, tell the Uchiha they're welcome here. Now. Let's drop your backpack off and meet our precious patient, okay?"
Whatever expression is on her face makes him laugh. "Come now. Don't dawdle."
He turns, picks a door almost at random, and strides through it. Hinata is helpless to do anything but follow.
ooOOoo
Coming up: This time they actually do talk, I promise.