Chapter 6
Panic.
What do I do? What do I do? What is happening? Help! were all the thoughts going through Hyūga Hinata's – no, Arashi Hime's – head, as she attempted to process the chaos of her current situation. Blinded and tied up, there was nothing she could do to help her friend and caretaker in a fight that she would usually be confident the burly man could win, but now she was not so sure.
Who was that man? He'd fooled her so thoroughly, he'd stolen a kiss from her, and she had let him, trusted him enough to invite him into her home, locked herself behind a closed door alone with a man she had just met. What was she thinking?!
No, she was blind but not a dunce, she knew how to judge a person's character from the briefest of interactions, her condition had forced her to learn that skill, lest she be taken advantage of on every turn she makes. When they had met in the plaza, he had meant her no harm, and the tale of his persecution had been no lie, she knew.
What had changed, then? He had turned against her after she had shown basic hospitality by serving him a cup of water, water, for crying out loud! Was he being suspicious of her intentions? You can't poison water; any alteration would clearly show in the taste or color of the beverage. One would have to be truly paranoid to be wary of just water…
Like someone far from home, running away from an imminent threat with nowhere to go and no allies to turn to, that sort of person? She reminds herself. He was so on edge, so high strung that even her innocent offering had been put under scrutiny. To lock oneself behind closed doors with a stranger, she hadn't been the only one to make that questionable choice. If she weren't as weak as she looks, he would've put himself in danger by trusting her as much as she had.
He doesn't believe I'm blind, by putting a cloth over my eyes he has proven that much. A spark of some odd feeling colors the apples of her cheeks at being regarded as a threat to be cautious of. I look like this, but he didn't underestimate me. Testing the well tied rope around her wrists she is convinced once more that there is some hidden strength the man was afraid that she might have, one that not even she hopes could ever be there.
Hanabi…
He had called her Hanabi.
She must have grown up to a strong resemblance. She thinks.
The last she remembers of her little sister is a two-year-old baby, the new life that her mother had to give up her own in order to conceive.
A weak heart is what the doctor had said. Just like mine. Always so weak.
Weak and useless, a porcelain doll. Blind, slim, short, mute and weak-hearted. The textbook definition of a damsel in distress. What else can she do if not wait for a knight to save her?
No. Not without at least trying.
There is no blade pressing against her neck or a gun's barrel at her temple. Both stranger's hands are on her, bare of any weapons. He could choke me or twist my neck.
His hands cradling her head, that's the threat that's stopping the bigger man from making a move. He can win in hand-to-hand combat if I just…
Hinata was scared, confused, overwhelmed in every sense but resolute as she turned her head in his grasp and bit. Hard.
A pained grunt and she was released. Then there were the telltale sounds of a struggle. Groans and gasps and kicks and punches and someone knocked over her chair.
She hit her head against the floor not hard enough to pass out, another body hit the floor and did not have the same luck. The fighting noises stop, heavy steps approach her.
She doesn't know who, she doesn't care too much. She tried, at least. For once, she didn't just wait to be saved.
"Yes… I understand… Thank you" after that last short reply, the black-haired male hangs up his phone, face and tone giving nothing away of what had been the other half of that curt conversation.
"What did they say?" The man's father encouraged, a perfect picture of calm and control much like his son was displaying right then. A bystander could believe he was asking about the weather, and not the faith of his youngest son, Uchiha Sasuke.
The young man, a prodigy in his own right, had gone missing in action 5 months ago, he'd been found comatose in a hospital in Oto, under the care of a well-known criminal organization. Yamanaka Ino had been deployed to stay by his side undercover and help him escape once he came to, but…
"Yamanaka Ino is dead" Uchiha Itachi announced, hiding his reaction as he watched out for his father's. Like father like son neither gave away any surprise, sadness or concern.
"And?" The old man urged coldly.
"His escape has been confirmed, but they don't have his current location" the young public prosecutor informs.
"So, MIA… again" the old man comments, clearly unamused with the situation. His relief had been great when Sasuke's retrieval mission had reported that he was found and recovering nicely after his three-man cell had been ambushed during a mission. Both of his teammates made it back, battered but safe and after their testimonies were processed there was no questioning it: Sasuke had been singled out.
"It would seem so" the son agrees.
"And there will be another deployment to find him" he stated more than asked, what was essentially a question.
"None at the moment. They seem to be waiting for him to make it back on his own two feet" Itachi relayed, expertly hiding his own displeasure with the news. God, how he detested the shinobi organizations, not just Konoha's own, he believed strongly in the rampant corruption underlining all the elite organizations. He works in politics, his entire family tree does so and he's not ignorant to the irony of his distaste, but the questionable things his father's party allegedly does pale in comparison to all the dirt one could dig up on the higher ups of the organizations.
Not all that they do is law-abiding, he knows this, but proving it is another matter. His father had lost the battle against them, harming his reputation greatly and losing many supporters in his quest to dismantle the organization. But Itachi would stop at nothing, couldn't stop, not now that he had dragged his young brother into it.
Why the son of such a vocal Shinobi opposer would join the ranks and climb up was beyond him. A young boy rebelling against a controlling parent? Anyone's guess is as good as Itachi's. Sasuke never explained why he joined them, even as he let himself be convinced to betray them.
"I've done things I'm not proud of, but I know there'll be far worse if I dig for it" he had said, shaking his older brother's hand in agreement. The next thing he knows, he's been kidnapped.
Does Itachi suspect his brother was found out and set up by his own superiors? Yes. Can he prove it? …
Much like with politics, were corruption is so blatant and complaints are whispered in passing conversation, yet no one can move a finger to remove the wicked from their thrones.
These people know what they are doing, they leave no traces behind. Fugaku himself has never left any, difference being that when his father bends the rules, some wealthy businessman becomes just that much wealthier in exchange for campaign support or what-not. When the shinobi play dirty, people die.
Itachi refuses to sit and watch any longer.