Chapter 3
"Hey! you two!" A loud shrieking voice yells from a short distance, bringing the pair back to reality, and only then do they pull apart "This isn't the place for displays like that! There's children around!" The woman who he now sees is a middle aged lady, chastised angrily.
Sasuke isn't one to apologise for things he doesn't regret, so he merely shrugs and places a hand as gentle and unthreatening as a seasoned killer can manage, on the girl's back, leading the stunned blushing woman away from the yelling lady.
The girl moves along, unsure of how to react, but visibly hesitant.
"I'm sorry" he says, faking as much remorse as he can muster "I'm… in a bit of trouble. There was someone chasing me and I had to think of a way to hide my identity quick" he explained with little detail, and while still apprehensive, the blind girl nods her understanding "I'm sorry I had to do something so inappropriate, I didn't think it through. I hope you can forgive me" he offers in an apologetic manner so unlike him, he almost pats his own back for the stellar performance.
I hope you can forgive me is as close to groveling as a prideful Uchiha could ever get, but if he's going to survive in enemy territory long enough to figure out a safe way back home, he needs an ally.
"I know I didn't give you the best first impression, and have no right to ask any more of you than what I have already forcefully taken, but… could you help me?" He ventures to ask the still blushing woman whose eyes are glued to the street - not that it matters - betraying her shyness.
Sasuke very well knows the effect his handsome looks have on women, but those effects are lost on this woman which makes her perhaps a terrible choice. Any other would have jumped at the suggestion, but this blind Hanabi look-alike has no inclination to help him. If anything, he has given her good reason not to.
But even if she can't see him, she felt him, and the response he got from her was far from angry rejection. Her lips had moved against his with testing curiosity, shy and slow and dare he say inviting.
He'll admit - only within the privacy of his thoughts - that he knew all danger had passed and continued anyway, took it farther than an unmoving press of lips. And he did so, because he wanted to. The softness of her, the warmth, the tentative movement. It had enticed him in ways that he had only been enticed by the most explicit of sexual acts.
There was a twisted pleasure that awoke from knowing that he'd melted this woman's instinctive reserve with a simple press if his lips. She didn't know of his reputation, hadn't seen his face, he hadn't sweet talked her or the likes.
He just kissed her, and she just followed. And he doesn't understand why the blindness of her trust (no pun intended) and genuineness of her want for him based on feeling alone, made him tingle.
"So, will you help me?" he asks again after several steps taken in silence with no particular destination in mind. His hand remains at the small of her back, leading her along with no resistance.
At last, and with her lip trapped between perfect white teeth in a show of nervousness, she nods. She wraps small hands around his right arm, meaning to lead the way wordlessly, requiring concentration to count her steps.
He follows her lead and walks in silence, chancing quick looks her way. He would look away despite of knowing he wouldn't be caught even if he stared shamelessly. But in that assumption he was mistaken, she could feel his gaze on her, and the heat of it ignited her self-conscious blush even more.
After the short walk they arrive at what he assumes to be her house, happy to discover that she lives alone by the presence of only one bedroom. That, or she has a significant other that she shares the room with, but he doubts it.
The accommodation is humble, conveniently small and purposely bare of any random decorations that could pose as obstacles.
He sees a walking stick beside the door and wonders only briefly why the girl left her house without it. The next thing that catches his attention is the light bulb installed in the ceiling, concluding that it must have come with the house - probably a rental - and there was no reason to go through the trouble of removing it.
"I only need a place to stay while I figure out a way to travel back to where I belong" he tells her, much more confident now that she has invited him into her house. He is still polite, but less so now that he is sure she won't deny him anything. And as expected, she nods.
So naive and incredibly trusting.
He could just end her right now.
No.
Sasuke opens his eyes wide with shock, not at the thought but at the quickness with which it was abandoned.
Such an easy kill, no one would know but himself. He could use her house and supplies, any hidden money if there's any. He'd just have to choke her, nothing too painful, a swift death like he has delivered many.
Does he have a conscience now? A righteous voice in the back of his head telling him how wrong it would be to kill someone already blind and mute. Not even his father was that heartless.
Actually no, yes he is. He is so much worse.
But he has never been one for compassion, he can't be, or else he would suck at his job, if he were to forgive every target out of pity. But she isn't a target, far from it, he was lucky to bump into the single most harmless person in all of Oto.
His face is inconveniently recognizable, and he manages to run into someone who can't tell it's him, and can't communicate with others if she ever did.
It's almost too perfect, and the shinobi inside becomes sceptical. Maybe she isn't really blind, maybe she is related to the Hyuga's in some way, like her features would seem to suggest. Maybe she is out to get him.
And maybe she isn't alone.
With the sliver of attention that he is keeping on her, he notices how she makes a motion inviting him to sit down in the old couch, he does so without even a word of thanks, letting the noise it makes be the indication of his action.
On the inside, his mind reels with discontinued snaps of his capture. It was long ago, but still fresh in his mind.
The mission had been a retrieval. Something of great value had been stolen and only three trusted agents of high skills had been deployed to get it back from an organized crime group of Otogakure.
Sakura Haruno was the brains on the team, Naruto was the heart, he was the well trained, undefeatable body. They worked in almost perfect balance and had never failed a mission. Ever.
But scroll 45HB3 was a set up.
It had to be.
Sakura is meticulous with her preparations, never misses a thing, yet there were paths inside the building they had entered that she hadn't known of. Locks rigged to set off an alarm when what they had been told was the access code, was entered.
All lies. They were cornered, outnumbered and outsmarted.
Sasuke would bet his last name that it had been an inside job. And he'd been the explicit target.
He has no way to check on the status of his teammates without giving away this miraculously secure location to precisely the insiders that he now doubts can be trusted.
And if he can't trust the people he has worked with for years. What fool would trust her?
The girl comes back after a short absence carrying a plastic cup of water for him. Could it be poisoned?
He won't stay seated to find out.
With the swiftness ingrained in his muscles, he dashes. The water spills on the floor, wetting her clothes only slightly. A simple traditional yukata.
He has her in a choke hold in one quick and precise move, then he hears her scream. The shock almost caused him to release her, but he kept his hold, turning her back to him and applying painful pressure on her neck.
"Who are you?" He demanded sternly. She answers with unintelligible whimpers of clear discomfort.
"Answer me!" He yells impatiently. More whimpers and gasps for air. There's nothing wrong with her vocal chords if the scream was anything to go by, but perhaps her linguistic ability is impeded by other factors.
He placed his hands on opposite side of her head, ready to perform a move ingrained in his muscle memory. The swiftest and most painless death he could provide, but when a tear touched his finger, his muscles locked, they wouldn't move.
He couldn't do it.
He re-positioned his hands quickly, covering her mouth and nose, choking her. her arms and legs flailed around with desperation, only shortening her already laborious breath.
"I'm sorry" Uchiha Sasuke wasn't one to apologize for things he didn't regret, but when he felt her weight release completely on his arms, limp and unconscious, he felt like he had to. Like he'd done wrong.