Uchiha Itachi was in custody. He was in Konoha gates and in custody thanks to Team 7. Naruto frowned at hearing the news that was spreading like wildfire. He felt weird to even take credit for such a thing. The man was practically waiting for them to arrive and gave them no fight what so ever and left with them willingly.
What in the entire fuck was going on?
It had to have been HER doing. It just had to have been. That evil little spawn of Satan did something to convince Itachi to cooperate and Naruto just HAD to know what the hell it was that she did. The Itachi he had encountered the few times was a cold hearted, evil man. He should have killed her on the spot for approaching him with the idea of turning himself in willingly. So, how the hell did she do it?!
Why was she so secretive? So manipulative? Such an evil, mean, dark, soulless person. He had to find out, he had to speak to her again.
So he blindly went searching for her. He found himself to be in the same location in the wood line that he encountered her alone the last time. Only to find it silent and empty. He had no real clue where the hell she was, but he just knew she had to be HERE. He just knew he had to talk to her because this was getting insane.
He never in his life thought he would ever have such…negative feelings for Hyuga Hinata.
Hinata fucking Hyuga, who would have thought.
She invaded his mind frame at all times. Nothing good by the way. He'd find himself lying in bed at night tossing and turning. Just thinking and picturing Hinata's cold, dark stare. How she was so relentless and awful for no reason towards him was maddening to him.
True, he had been treated A LOT worse by the villagers. Still, he didn't know what was worse honestly. Being treated like hot garbage by civilians or being treated like you didn't exist by someone you once saw as a friend.
Plus the way she almost took Sasuke's life without a care in the world enraged him. She didn't even know Sasuke. Never spoke to him and barely glanced in his direction when they were younger. Maybe that's why it was so easy for her to follow that guy Danzo's orders to kill Sasuke because she didn't know Sasuke.
He knew Sasuke. He cared about Sasuke.
Sasuke was one of his precious people. Couldn't Hinata understand that? Couldn't she see how much him, and Sakura were trying to help Sasuke from his mental struggles? Just WHY couldn't she care? The Hinata he knew would NEVER do the things this Hinata was doing.
He didn't believe that she was worse off like Sai were she COULDN'T care or couldn't understand the emotion of it all. No. Hinata grew up with a heart and a conscience. He had first hand witnessed her kindness and has even been a receiver of it.
Something happened and she just gave up. She stopped caring about herself and let the world just…destroy her. What the hell did Danzo do to her?
Granted he didn't blame her for her choice in leaving the Hyuga clan because she was going to be branded. She was going to be caged in anyways within the Hyuga clan. Either herself or her younger sister so she did what she had to do in that category. Still she gave into Danzo and all his insane demands and decided to be his personal henchman.
Why?
Because Hinata was a quitter.
The bitter realization hit him time and time again. He didn't want to admit it at first, but now it was easy. Maybe it grew easy for him over time because she made it so easy to not care for her.
She gave up and she quit. Life was too hard for her and she quit. Looking back Naruto was realizing Hinata quit in a lot of things if it meant other people benefited from it. She had no self-value of herself in the least.
That is what made him so UPSET with her. Angry even. She just said, 'fuck it' and 'do what you want with me'.
She gave up all communication with her friends and family not because she wanted to, but because she was scared of the repercussions. Everything she's been doing up to this point was because she was scared or trying to save other people.
She was a manipulative coward that hid in the shadows and played with people like a puppet. Making them all feel sympathy for what she had been through and endured in life.
He was overall done with this Hinata.
"HINATA! I know you're out here being the fucking weirdo you are watching me! Come out now or I'll spend the whole night out here just yelling and looking for you! YELLING THE NAME YOUR MOTHER GAVE YOU!"
He was realizing he was getting good at getting under her skin because sure enough Hinata appeared behind him from a tall thick tree in the dark wood line. She didn't say anything, and he couldn't see her face since her mask was covering it. He would imagine she would have that signature stuck up, annoyed Hyuga look on her dainty face.
"Me and you. We need to talk Hinata."
"There is nothing to talk about. Stop walking around like a mad man yelling names in the middle of the night."
He frowned at this. He gritted his teeth and started to walk closer to her, "I'm not yelling random names ya know. I'm yellingyour name Hinata. Also there is things to talk about. For one, what the hell did you do to convince Sasuke's brother to come back to the village? You're the one that gave the intel information to Granny. You're the one that is so damn experienced spying on people. I know you had something to do with him coming back to the village!"
"I do not understand why you care."
He couldn't see her face, but he just KNEW she was staring through him. She tilted her head slightly like she was pondering something.
Naruto never wanted to choke someone so bad till this very moment. "What do you mean you don't understand? Nothing you have done since I've seen you again has been positive. You have done nothing but evil, untrustworthy things, so obviously I question everything that involves you."
"Why do youcare? Sasuke will surely come back to the village now. All Team 7 sorrows will be gone. You'll be happy. " She decided to leave out the part about eliminating the Uchiha as soon as she saw him again.
Hinata leaned against the tree she was once hiding behind and slid down until her bum touched the ground. She seemed to be relaxing against the tree and became still and silent. Was she trying to sleep here?
Naruto narrowed his eyes at this and approached her to the point that their sandals faced and touched one another. "You keep asking me why I care. You make it seem like Sasuke is my whole life or something. Tell me this Hinata. Whydon'tyou care? About anything really? If you cared more you wouldn't be such a quitter and in this screwed up situation you're in!"
Leaning her head back on the tree Hinata looked up at him in a lazy manner.
"Is Sasuke not your whole life? You treat him as such. Look at everything going on around you Uzumaki. Everyone bending over backwards to protect you. To make sure the nine tails inside of you doesn't get into the wrong hands, meanwhile you are bending over backwards to protect Sasuke. Why? He doesn't care about you. My guess is that fox inside of you cares more about your well-being than Sasuke. You could die today or tomorrow and Sasuke wouldn't care. He won't give you the love you so desperately want."
Hinata watched as Naruto lowered himself to her eye level by crouching down to her. His bright blue eyes darkened, and he looked absolutely sick of her.
"Don't speak on my life. My friends or my precious people like you understand what I'm doing. I know very well the threat out there against me and I also understand what mind frame Sasuke has right now. You know neither of us as good as you think you do. Just because you sit in the shadows like the coward you are and just WATCH us. Means nothing. You were able to uncover some secrets, but that all means nothing because you don't understand why we do the things we do. You either don't understand or you are too selfish to care. I think you're just too selfish. You're a selfish coward that does anything that evil Danzo says to do."
They stayed silent for a moment and Hinata's hand slowly creeped up to touch Naruto's face. Her hand was close to his cheek before he grabbed it in a firm grip to stop her. "Tell me Uzumaki. Do you hate me yet?"
He squeezed her hand tighter before grabbing her mask and yanking it off her face so he could see her empty, cold, dead eyes. She looked exhausted and her cold stare was chilling. Even when he saw how pale and sickly Itachi looked he found sympathy in his heart for the mass murderer. However, right now with Hinata, he could find no sympathy for her at this moment.
"I hate what you have become."
That horrible, horrible bitch got the best of him. That sneaky harlot couldn't even fight him face to face. She had to do all of these sneaky maneuvers and tactics because she knew she couldn't beat him head on.
That fucking bitch.
Sasuke now laid in some dark empty room on a cot with Karin and Suigetsu around him in a similar fashion. Karin in a better condition than Suigetsu and himself. Sasuke himself, was feeling miserable. He figured that was the repercussion of being so close to deaths door.
Sasuke didn't know what that Hyuga did to him, but whatever it was he feltpain. He felt like his heart was literally being ripped bit by bit out of his chest and that was a pain level he never wanted to experience again.
He felt as if she made it slow and painful on purpose.
Howdumbwas he really. He was so blinded by hate for his brother he listened to someone that was literally assigned to kill him. She TOLD him that was her agenda and he still listened to her like an idiot. He would have never accomplished his goal if she was able to follow through. He was such a fucking moron.
Then there was that forever nuisance Naruto. She said that the dobe was actually holding back on him. Could that possibly be true? If that was true than were all their previous fights and encounters was just Naruto trying to not hurt him? He refused to believe such things.
Mainly if this was true then Naruto was truly an idiot.
He has done nothing but come at Naruto and the rest of his former teammates with malice. No hesitation and no affection what so ever since leaving the village. If given the opportunity he would have went all out and killed Naruto and the others. Imagine that, just to later find out Naruto was holding back on him.
That fucking moron.
He wished Naruto would just let him GO. This fixation on making amends and 'saving him' from himself was unnecessary and a waste of everyone's time. There was no saving him. He was beyond saving. He was actually a horrible person. It would be easier to just let him go.
He felt like he should take his own advice. He wished he could just FORGET Uzumaki Naruto. Over the past four years he has learned this was easier said than done.
"Aww how is the recovering going Sasukeeee?!"
Sasuke took a silent breath to himself at hearing the voice of the man that supposedly 'saved' him. He was annoying and acted with little sense. He felt this was an act because he couldn't be this useless and be in the Akatsuki.
"Sasuke?! Did you hear about your brother?"
The oldest trick in the book catches Sasuke's attention every time. "What about him?"
"He's in custody in Konoha. It seems your former teammates were able to bring him in. I do wonder how they were able to track him down. The person that found him had to be an experienced…spy type ninja."
If pissed off wasn't already a facial expression then Sasuke would be the first picture to define the phrase.
How the hell did they do it? How the hell were they able to achieve something that he had failed at numerous times? For God's sake he left his village for this main reason. So he could achieve the power to kill his fucking brother, just for the very people who he left to ACHIEVE HIS GOAL.
No. No. No. NO!
This wasn't just Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto. He wouldn't believe that. This screamed HER all over it. This screamed that evil, manipulative, diabolical harlot ALL over it. That fucking creepy, weirdo spy Hyuga. This had her written all over it.
He hated that girl.
He had to get out of here. He had to go back to Konoha, he had to avenge his clan against that evil bastard! He had to do a lot of things but being confined on this cot still recovering made his ambitions impossible to reach. With the aid of Karin he felt 'fine' per say. It was just some soreness, internal organ pain that would not have him at his greatest at the moment if he decided to pursue the village.
"Awww. Even I do not think you are in the best condition to pursue the leaf village. What do I know though! Do as you wish Sasuke! I would imagine that pretty girl with those ghostly eyes is probably waiting for you right now as we speak to even get close to the village borders."
Sasuke internally growled to himself, he knew this man was right. Dammit.
He felt conflicted. He knew this all just SCREAMED 'It's a trap'. Everyone knew he was obsessed and short tempered when it came to his brother Itachi. They knew he would do anything to get his hands on him. Now they finally got his attention and had the one thing in this world that he wanted.
He could either follow through and blindly rush in or he could stay and recover and strategize. He didn't really feel comfortable being in the care of this strange man though, but he knew if he decided to go his own way than that Hyuga would track him down.
His bad luck streak was insane right now, "Why did you help me? I have no ties with Konoha and just want to avenge my family by the death of Uchiha Itachi. I don't care what you want to do with Konoha or the nine tails."
The masked man made no real reaction to what Sasuke said, he just tilted his head and stared at him. "What will you do once you are healed?"
Without missing a beat, "Kill Itachi."
"Hmmm. If the leaf village gets Itachi in tiptop shape like he once was before he became ill, than you are going to deaths door than."
"You know, you'd make a good match for my little brother. His hot-headed personality could use someone as cool and mellow as yourself."
Itachi leaned back in the hospital bed and sighed while looking at all the monitors and gadgets. He was told that his illness was in a bad, horrible condition. Deathly really. The infamous Lady Tsunade personally was evaluating his condition and made sure she kept him and his illness under wraps. She was actually optimistic that she could cure him too. He dared to say that he was already feeling…better. Some medicine she had personally made from the Nara clan was aiding him very well.
He had no clue why they were being so nice to him. Everyone knew who he was. What he had done. Why were they treating him like he wasn't a murderer? He should be treated as such.
Granted they weren't treating him horribly. They weren't treating him like a free man either. So many seals and cuffs and restraints were put on him he actually felt heavy, weak and defenseless. He hadn't felt this way in a long, long time.
While he didn't feel weak or defenseless exactly around the dark-haired female that crept into his hospital room. He did not take likely the information he gathered about her either.
The loud blonde Uzumaki seemed to have some type of love-hate emotion for this girl. He talked sourly about her the whole trip back, yet at the same time she was the ONLY person he talked about. It was a long trip back to the village and Naruto talked about nothing and no one else but her.
How manipulative she was. How evil she was. How she almost killed Sasuke (Which he made a mental note on for later). How she did in fact kill a teammate of Sasuke's in a nonchalant cold-blooded way.
You would think he hated the girl. If he didn't talk about her the whole damn trip than he himself would have believed he hated her.
Speaking of which, she never replied back to what he said about the idea of her and his brother being an item. "To what do I owe this honor of having you here with me Lady Hyuga?"
"I am not a Hyuga anymore."
He smiled at this before he closed his eyes, "I do not believe I classify as being a Uchiha anymore since I pretty much separated myself from them. However, I am still a Uchiha. You cannot simply stop being what you were born into. Your genetics won't allow it."
Hinata looked out the window in the dark hospital room and hummed to herself, "Lord Danzo is not happy with having you here in the village. I may have crossed my boundaries in my mission. I was too eager to complete my mission that I put my nose in business that has nothing to do with me."
She really did. Her silent spying and laying low in the darkness had led to her uncovering a lot of dark secrets about people that she rather not have known. When the history of Itachi first started to make her curious she should have left it alone.
That Tsunade though, she peaked her interest and she found out things she should have never known. Tsunade laid a seed in Hinata and watched it grow in her favor. Somewhere in Hinata's mind she felt like Tsunade used her because she KNEW if anyone could find Itachi, it was going to be Hinata. She had Hinata use Lord Danzo to get what she wanted.
Sadly Hinata still wasn't in a place where she was second guessing Lord Danzo orders to kill Uchiha Sasuke, because really, Sasuke even though she didn't really know him, got under her skin. She more so found herself second guessing the order that was issued between all of ROOT to kill Uchiha Itachi.
Once a ROOT member was in a position where they started to second guess Danzo than things started to go south for them. Especially if Lord Danzo found out they were second guessing his orders.
She had to keep everything in and platonic. Danzo saved her. She owed him her life. She would rather die then be the one to betray him.
"Does Danzo know you were the one to give the Hokage the intel about me?"
"No. I do not believe so."
"Good. Don't let him find out about it either. He will have you killed in a heartbeat. If I was you, I'd be on high alert. You know things that you shouldn't know."
Hinata didn't make a reaction, she simply just continued to stare out the window. "Maybe that would put my soul to rest. I am…tired Uchiha-san. Maybe this will be the last mission I complete for Lord Danzo. Would he really let me retire?"
If Itachi wasn't so tired himself he would have looked at her like she was insane.
"No. He wouldn't let you retire. He'd have you killed before he'd let you leave. It would be a battle of who got to you first though, because I would kill you if you killed Sasuke."
"I understand. I wouldn't expect anything else from you. You should know Lord Danzo also has an order out to have you assassinated as well as your brother."
Despite the fact he was heavily restrained she still felt his chakra spike at a deadly rate, she was right, Uchiha Itachi was not a man to toy with even while sick. "Is that why you're here Hyuga?"
"No. I'm just…confused is all and I guess I came here for advice."
Itachi finally opened his eyes and stared at her in the darkness, curiosity getting the best of him. "What are you talking about? Advice…on what?"
Hinata slowly turned her head from the window and looked into his equally tired, empty eyes. "Why did Lord Danzo want the massacre of the Uchiha clan? Were they that corrupt and beyond saving? If that is the case than why does he want the Hyuga clan eliminated?"
The silence in the room was overbearing and Hinata didn't know why she all of a sudden felt a chill run up her back that made her want to vomit.
"So Hyuga. You THINK that Danzo does not know about what you have been doing in the shadows, but obviously that is not the case."