Mari Makinami
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_______________________________________________________
Chapter 26. Minutes to Midnight
"Hm... try adding more of your chakra into the cloak. From what it looks, it lacks a very small amount of power to be able to work as intended."
"But it will be visible if I add more!"
"Then do something about it. It's your technique, after all, not mine. I'm merely attaching the seals here, my job is simple. Or... are you trying to tell me that you're already giving up? Now that we are so close..." The annoying smirk irritated him to no end, just like it always did.
"I never give up...!"
"Then stop being a sissy and prove it. Sasuke would've done it by now without any complains."
"Oh, shut up, you freak! Sasuke is nowhere close to my level when it comes to this stuff...!"
"You are all talk, brat. Shut up and enforce the cloak with your chakra remaining hidden. Do it now or I'm done for today, and your glorious idea will be considered worthless, just like it happens with most of your ideas."
"Ugh...!" Naruto scowled at Orochimaru, concentrating all of his willpower to reach the best level of chakra control he could in order to hide the boiling red chakra that had appeared around the ring on the sannin's hand a second before as the jinchūriki channeled more chakra into it.
"It's..." Orochimaru's yellow eyes narrowed suspiciously as the cloak disappeared. He clenched his pale fist, giving it a long, searching look.
"Oh, screw it... if it doesn't work now, I'm done with this shit!" The Uzumaki groaned, sitting down to the floor and wiping the sweat off his forehead, panting heavily.
"Let's test it, then." Orochimaru bit his thumb, pressed it against the signet on his left little finger and then he formed the Seal of Confrontation, disappearing the same instant and leaving Naruto completely alone in the small laboratory room located in Otogakure.
The blond's eyes widened slowly as he let out a happy yell.
"Finally, damn it!" He disappeared as well, landing onto the floor in the Gates of the Tower next to the sannin the same second. "Everything's fine?"
The older man nodded thoughtfully, still studying the ring.
"Yes, it appears to be. Well done, Naruto-kun. Now you can afford wasting more of your precious time aimlessly instead of teleporting all the members in and out of here every meeting..."
The Uzumaki smirked, looking extremely self satisfied.
"But first, I want you to visit every member of our little club and repeat this manipulation with each of the existing rings. Except Sasuke's, I suppose, for obvious reasons."
Ignoring Naruto's outrage at his suggestion that actually sounded more like an order, Orochimaru kept looking at his hand, suppressing a victorious smirk.
His former friend's and rival's discipline was a true genius when it came to chakra manipulation and seals. Within a mere day, Naruto had managed to achieve something nearly impossible – a way to ensure the safety of each member, no less. Probably even more than that...
The technique the jinchūriki had created was rather simple in its design, but extremely hard in performance. By charging the ring with a certain portion of his own chakra, Naruto also created a small seal that was meant for one single purpose – merging the Uzumaki's sealed chakra with the chakra of the ring's owner by connecting the seal with his blood, and thus activating the one way charge of Flying Thunder God technique which was directed to the fixed point in the space – the Gates of the Tower.
In nutshell, it allowed anyone who possessed such ring perform an emergency teleportation to their hideout simply by putting their blood on the signet and forming the correct hand sign right away. And although the obvious flaw of this jutsu was the fact that nearly anybody who attained a ring would be able to use it, they still would have to know how exactly it is supposed to be used, which wasn't any obvious in their opinion. Besides, with the hidden chakra cloak on, Naruto would be able to sense a ring should it get stolen by somebody or simply lost, so it wouldn't be a problem for them.
The boy did an amazing job, and he was very skilled, the sannin could admit that much. Both Jiraiya and Minato were far inferior to him in basically everything, the lord of snakes knew it for sure by now.
What a shame that I didn't get to be his teacher, at least for a while... such a waste, Orochimaru smirked, clenching his fist and turning to the blond who was clearly very displeased with his assignment.
"Think about it this way, Naruto-kun. By doing it now, you'll be able to get more free time later, for the rings only need to be recharged every now and then. And besides, this way you will ensure the safety of your friends, isn't that correct?"
The Uzumaki's face changed slowly as he realized that his teammate was actually right... to some extent.
"Fine! But you are still a total ass, y'know? Even though you aren't that much of a creep anymore..."
Orochimaru smirked.
"My, have you started liking me in some inappropriate way, Naruto-kun? Careful, I might think that this is the case..."
Dodging his Rasengan, the Sannin jumped up, standing on the ceiling of the spacious empty room.
"You really shouldn't waste more of your time here, though. Don't forget that you still have to prepare for your mission in the Land of Water."
Naruto gritted his teeth in irritation, deactivating his shiny Chakra Mode and disappearing again.
Orochimaru nodded to himself, leaving the room and walking slowly to the nearest window. Giving his upgraded ring one more glance, he jumped out, landing onto the crowded street of Amegakure and ignoring the stares.
It was about noon, so it seemed. Apparently they had lost the track of time while they had been working on this advanced space-time jutsu... not that the snake sannin really cared about time for that matter.
Throughout the last few years, Akatsuki had made their hideout nearly impossible to breach – they had sealed every way in aside from the Gates, and the only way to get out of the massive building was wearing one of the special rings. And even having a on didn't grant the person a way to enter the hideout – it only allowed one to get out by using the windows, which wouldn't help much considering how enforced was Amegakure's military power now thanks to Jun's efforts and Kakashi's funding.
Fortunately enough, now he finally had a way to get back, thanks to Naruto. And hence he also had a way to go wherever he wanted at any time.
Not that Orochimaru had much to hide from the others nowadays, though. But this little breath of freedom was something that amused him for once, without a doubt.
And now he just wanted to stay alone for a while, which had been impossible before with Kakashi's dogs sneaking around – both literally and figuratively.
He was an old and tired man, after all. He could afford a minute of weakness and solitude, couldn't he?
The man's lips twisted into a grim smirk as he passed by a few stores and eateries, walking towards the nearly empty plaza located in the end of the street.
He wasn't that rusty and weak, of course. At least he didn't feel like that at all, being immortal and with a relatively fresh body.
No, he was anything but old. In fact, he was still ready to do something great. To save the world, no less.
The shinobi rolled his eyes at the idea, shaking his head and sitting down onto the bench, raising his head slightly to gaze upon the sky, deep in his thought.
Saving the world... it sounded too vulgarly to his taste. A few years ago, he would laugh at this thought, without a doubt. Ironically enough, that was exactly what he intended to do, sooner or later.
Probably later, considering that Sasuke wasn't in any rush to get to Hidan's village and to look into the whole Jashin problem.
Of course, the sannin had been studying it in secret for months by now, because obviously something as significant just couldn't miss his curiosity. And by now, he knew exactly what awaited his former student at the end of his way to revealing Jashin's, or Kaguya's final secret.
He frowned.
This whole ordeal wasn't very pleasant to him, to say the least. After all, he grew... sort of attached to the Uchiha family lately – they were interesting and entertaining, both as his test subjects and as his allies. And he knew for sure that their potential future off-springs were not something he would want to miss.
But actually, he would have to miss it, for they wouldn't have a chance to be born anyway.
It just wasn't fair in his opinion, especially for Sasuke, which made this situation pretty damn pitiful, but Orochimaru didn't really mind it.
After all, it seemed like he had finally discovered his destiny upon figuring this little puzzle out.
When he had tried to have a talk with Sasuke about it, the Uchiha had brushed him away, not even wanting to hear him out – he was too dedicated to his intention not to let Ōtsutsuki Kaguya get revived, but even more so he was dedicated to preserving his newfound family no matter what.
Little did Sasuke know that him facing Jashin's, or rather Kaguya's spirit would most likely mark the end of their world. Because considering the information that had been revealed by that Ōtsutsuki Toneri seventeen years ago, Kaguya was certain that one day, Sasuke would come after her. It was inevitable, and that's why Orochimaru had decided that trying to stop him would be pointless. He wouldn't listen, because their meeting was bound to happen.
It wasn't obvious at all, so the sannin didn't really blame him for not realizing it anyway. But at least he, the old snake, could see the pattern of Kaguya's plotting clearly.
She had either known or calculated everything that would happen after her downfall during the Fourth Great Ninja World. And she had a plan to return, this time having Indra's incarnation by her side.
All she would have to do would be using his wife that would follow him into the depths of hell no matter what. And if even he, Orochimaru, had realized it by now, then Kaguya clearly knew it as well.
Which in turn meant that Sasuke wouldn't come to Jashin without Hinata being by his side, providing the progenitor of all chakra with a perfect opportunity to possess the girl's body without anybody even realizing it.
Would it be hard for her to fool Sasuke and everyone else by imitating his wife's behavior? Hinata would be a perfect vessel for her, it was obvious by now, especially considering his own observations of the recent changes in the DNA of his former student's wife.
For someone of Kaguya's power and intelligence, all that seemed very plausible. And then, all she would have to do would be getting close to the Uchiha and absorbing his power, taking away their last hope to get rid of her terror for good.
All of that led the sannin to a very gruesome conclusion.
Hinata had to die prior to Sasuke meeting Jashin, and he, Orochimaru, was the only person capable of killing her right now, bypassing the protection she had in the faces of Indra and Ashura.
Kaguya had sure come up with a nearly perfect plan... however, he had studied Hinata's power and chakra well enough. He knew her weak spots perfectly, so destroying her wouldn't be a big problem considering that he was able to get close to her anytime in the Tower without drawing anyone's attention.
The ninja sighed, lowering his head and closing his eyes in grief.
He truly didn't want any of this to happen, but there hardly was any choice. Speaking rationally, she was too dangerous to be left alive in either case. All he could do to help the situation now was letting them stay together a bit longer...
Fortunately enough, their current mission had nothing to do with Hidan's village, and maybe he would be able to postpone the execution of his plan for a while.
And there was still a small chance that Sasuke would listen to him for once... after all, there still was a chance that Kaguya's plan wasn't as flawless as it seemed.
"You must be kidding me...," muttered Hinata from behind the mask, watching the scene that was going on right in front of them not far away from the Hokage's office in Konohagakure.
"Unsightly." Sasuke, who was standing next to her, closed his eyes, leaning against the wooden fencing with his arms crossed and with a deadpan expression on his face as people bypassed their small group.
"Yeah..." Naruto looked as if he was about to vomit, and the brown haired kunoichi that was wearing the ANBU uniform, as well as a mask that resembled a cat's face, hugged his arm tightly, unable to look away from the screaming and yelping small crowd a few yards away from them.
"At this rate, he's going to become more popular than us, Sasuke. We gotta do something about it, y'know," mumbled Naruto quietly, receiving a smack on his nape right away and shrieking pretentiously as if he was in pain.
"What do you need your former popularity for anyway? You are both already bound to us, Naruto. Your glory days are over, deal with it."
"But still, what did this fa... I mean, this fam even do to become more popular than us?! This is so unfair, damn it..."
"Chill, Naruto. He's not in a relationship and he's the heir to the richest clan in the village. It was more than predictable that he would get all the attention once we would get hooked up," Sasuke remained as impassive, refusing to look at the man whom he still despised a little bit.
"Besides, he did us a favor by accepting this position. You should be grateful," the ANBU kunoichi caressed his blond hair, clearly making the man loosen up within mere seconds.
"Yeah, that's true, can't deny that. You are so smart, you should be the next Hokage instead of me–" The jinchūriki winced at another light smack on his head before he was able to finish his sarcastic comment.
"If you keep picking Sasuke's bad manners, I might do just that! Nobody would want a Hokage like that anyway."
The Uchiha raised his brow skeptically.
"I'm still here, you know."
Hinata giggled, and the second kunoichi turned to him, raising her palm to her mouth reflexively in spite of wearing the mask.
"Oh... sorry, Sasuke-kun! I didn't mean that...! I just–"
"Yeah, I know what you wanted to say. Nobody would want a lame ass that is pretending to be cool as their Hokage."
"Oi, teme! Want me to kick your sorry ass again, huh?" Naruto growled, raising his fist.
"Go right ahead, it would be more entertaining than watching this pathetic shit anyway."
Naruto sighed in defeat, nodding and glaring in the direction of the crowd.
"True that..."
Finally breaking out of the thick ring of fan girls that surrounded him a few yards away from them, the white eyed man with short black hair gave the four of them a polite, apologizing smile, scratching his nape as he came close to them.
"Oh, there you are..."
"We've been here for good thirty minutes, moron. What do you have your Byakugan for?"
"Um, that..." He blushed, looking away shamefully. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you wait for me, but they just didn't let me go. I'm sure you've seen it, though..."
"Not that you didn't enjoy it, from what we noticed," Hinata giggled under the mask, making the man flinch.
"A-Anyway, once again, sorry for the long wait. I–"
"Have you brought the scrolls?" The demanding voice nearly made him flinch despite being superior to its owner in their clan.
"Y-Yes, Hanabi-san. Should I...?"
"About damn time," Sasuke raised his right hand, releasing a small wave of chakra that pulled the bunch of tied scrolls out of Kō's hands and putting them into his bag a second later. "Can we go now? I'm hungry." He hugged Hinata's waist tighter with his left hand, feeling as she touched his fingers reassuringly with her own palm.
"Wait a second, please... Hanabi-sama, are you sure? These scrolls contain the most treasured secrets of our clan. Is it wise to..."
"Yes, it is. Sasuke is a part of our family too now, or have you forgotten?" Without even seeing her face, the Uchiha knew what kind of a glare she was giving to Hinata's former guardian right now.
Kō, on the other hand, turned his head to look directly into Sasuke's only visible onyx black eye, meeting the deadpanned gaze of his.
"I haven't forgotten anything, and that's precisely why I'm asking you."
"Well, you have your answer now. Anything else?" By the sound of her voice, Hanabi was about to explode, while Hinata seemed not to care about what was going on one bit – at this point, Sasuke wasn't even sure if she was paying any attention to their conversation.
Naruto, on the other hand...
"I'd rather drop this matter right now if you don't want me to shove these scrolls down your ass, Kō." His tone was surprisingly calm, and that was the most frightening part about it, as well as his rare dead serious expression.
"As you order, Hokage-sama," the Hyūga muttered slightly mockingly, making Hanabi growl and rush towards him, but Naruto was faster – he gripped her by the waist, preventing the kunoichi from doing anything reckless.
"Let me go! I'll teach him some good lesson...!"
"Hanabi, calm down," both Sasuke and Hinata turned their heads to look at their friend who forced his girlfriend to back off, coming closer to the current head of the Hyūga clan instead of her, his cerulean eyes meeting his impassive white ones.
"I understand that you believe it to be wrong to share the secrets of your clan with your former rival and enemy, Kō. And I understand that you don't trust Sasuke and neither have any reason to. I also understand that I am nobody to command you... yet," he uttered quietly, not looking away from the older ninja's impassive face. "However, I'm asking you to trust us on this one, just this once. The information contained in these scrolls is needed to prevent a big catastrophe, and we must retrieve it as soon as possible if we want to save everyone. Sasuke will return them to you once we get through their contents. Remember that we are not your enemies, and we don't want to become ones either."
After a short pause, Kō nodded slowly, to which Naruto nodded as well, turning around and stepping away before stopping for a second, giving the man a short glance over his shoulder.
"And if I hear you badmouthing my brother, his wife or my fiancé ever again, I will wreck your sorry face, whether I'm a Hokage or not." He turned away again, coming close to Hanabi and hugging her tightly while Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his friend, peering at him searchingly.
His brother... although they were brothers in all but blood – in fact, even in their very souls – Naruto had never referred him like that before. At least certainly not in the Uchiha's presence.
It was... a bit strange to hear. As if something intangible had changed between them throughout the last few years.
And now that he thought about it, they had really become closer. And both of them treasured this brotherhood and this friendship dearly, of that he was sure.
Of course, both of them had changed since the War, that was also true. And as reluctant as he was to admit it, Sasuke knew that Hanabi was right when she said that they picked some of each other's habits and traits. For instance, Naruto's manner of speech clearly had become more mature and less guileless, whereas the Uchiha had become significantly more chatty comparing to his former self, and although it was only notable to his closest people, it had become easier for him to express his emotions and feelings, which was why he did it more often than before nowadays.
He wasn't sure if that was a bad thing, but then again, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't find any negative sides in this ...phenomenon, which made the head of the Uchiha clan decide that it was pretty much irrelevant, no matter how amazing to him it seemed sometimes.
"Sasuke...? Are you still here with us?" He snapped out of his thought, noticing Hinata's palm waving slowly right in front of his face, which made him feel a little embarrassed, but the man didn't hesitate and replied quickly,
"Yeah. I just spaced out because of your beauty. Your fault. You are looking marvelous today," he smiled, taking her hand into his and moving his gaze at Naruto and Hanabi who were busy... cuddling and giggling like idiots.
Maybe he didn't really want to look at them, after all.
He turned back to Hinata who, he was sure, was staring at him with suspicion through the mask.
"Of my beauty, you say...? This is about my hair then, I suppose? Because you can't see anything else," she drawled with a slight note of doubt in her voice, which made the Uchiha grin devilishly.
"Not really. I can see everything with my Rinnegan. And I mean everything." He felt her punching him in the ribs lightly, making the man wince pretentiously.
"Oh, stop it! You're lying!"
"Sure, whatever you say."
"Sasuke...!"
Giving another glance to Naruto and Hanabi who were apparently too busy with each other, he lowered his head to Hinata's ear and whispered huskily, making her shudder as she felt his hot breath on her skin,
"Why are you blushing so much, though? You weren't so modest last night when we–"
"Oh, no! Shut up, you...!" She yelped loudly, making the Uzumaki and his girlfriend finally get distracted from each other as they turned their heads into their direction, clearly surprised.
Hinata covered her masked face with her palms, although Sasuke knew for sure what her current expression looked like.
"Fine, I'll stay quiet for the rest of the day," he stepped towards his best friend and his girlfriend, feeling Hinata gripping the collar of his shirt from behind the next second as she leaned against his back, whispering into his ear this time,
"Don't be a such a douche if you want me to stop being this modest again tonight."
He smirked, nodding without turning back.
"Point taken. Anyway, are the two of you done yet? We should get out of here, I don't feel like standing in the middle of the street until midnight. And we still have to meet with Sakura and Lee anyway."
"Yeah, I can sense them from here, they are near the hospital. Wanna go there right away?" Naruto smirked, hugging Hanabi who fixed the mask on her face to make sure that nobody around would see her face.
Ever since she had resigned from her heritage in order to be able to marry Naruto in future, she didn't want anyone in Konoha to see her with him, which was why she had been hiding her face whenever they went out in public. After all, nobody in the village was brave enough to dare and try to approach an ANBU and their future Hokage, no matter how curious everyone were to find out the name of the Uzumaki's love interest.
But the two of them had decided that they didn't want any information about them to spill out until they would actually get married – after all, they had enough trouble haunting them constantly without the unnecessary attention and gossip.
It was a wise decision on their part in Sasuke's opinion. They already had more than ample problems without all of that unnecessary stuff, starting with their upcoming mission, Hinata's Ōtsutsuki stalkers and the fact that Kakashi... he was probably the definition of trouble himself.
Sometimes it seemed like the Sixth was getting on his nerves on purpose by not letting him do what he intended to do with Hidan's help...
Of course, the Hokage couldn't possibly know about his secret plan to travel to Yugakure with the immortal maniac in order to have a conversation with Kaguya's spirit, but sometimes it seemed nearly as if Kakashi knew everything about this idea and was deliberately trying to prevent him from going there for some idiotic reason.
Their former sensei was such an annoyance...
"Oh, come one, teme, don't be so moody! We got a party to attend tonight, put that grim face away!"
Sasuke glared at his friend who was apparently in his happiest state right now as they maneuvered between the people that walked the evening street of Konoha along with them.
"I was born with this face, sorry, dobe."
"Nah, don't give me this bullshit! Nobody looks like he ate a pile of crap when he's born!"
"You looked like that when you were born, though. I saw it."
"W-Wha...? Hey, how the heck is that even possible?!"
"I'm older than you, remember?"
"You were still just a toddler, teme! Stop messing with me!"
They exchanged a few light punches and kicks while keeping their verbal duel going as well, although obviously not being serious in any of that, while the masked sisters were walking not far behind them, both smiling brightly at the two friends. People around them didn't pay the two kunoichi any attention – apparently the famous heroes of the war drew all the eyes to themselves, much to the girls' common relief.
"They are just like silly children sometimes, really..." Hanabi mumbled, shaking her head and letting out a loud sigh.
"You can't deny that they look cute, though," Hinata smiled, noticing her sister sneering as well – both of them had their Byakugan activated, so they could see the expressions of each other clearly.
"Maybe, when they are not behaving like two retards, though," she snapped, still unable to hold back a grin.
"You sure have picked some words from Naruto," the older sister commented, making Hanabi's cheeks redden.
"Oh, please. It's only natural. Have you noticed how much you picked from Sasuke yourself?"
Hinata shrugged, keeping smiling brightly.
"I never said it was a bad thing, though. There is no need to get so defensive about it," Hanabi rolled her eyes, looking away sheepishly, which made Hinata's smile widen even more. "I haven't seen you in a while. You are becoming more and more beautiful, little sister."
The ANBU kunoichi glanced at her cautiously, as if unsure how to react to the sudden complement.
"Thanks... well, what can I say? I don't have the permission to come to the Tower whenever I like, thanks to the three of you. The Sixth won't allow me to join Akatsuki because of your idiocy. I hope you are happy now."
Hinata tapped her shoulder lightly, making the young woman that was an inch or two taller than her glare at her black haired sister angrily.
"It's for your own good. We wish the best for you, and you know it."
"Oh yeah? Don't give me this crap. At least you get to be with him whenever you want, whereas I can only hope every evening for Naruto to pop in my room, which happens once in a century considering how busy he is!"
Hinata's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she smirked at her outburst.
"In your room, you say...?"
Hanabi gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, not looking at her older sister.
"Don't. Don't you dare to even start this."
"Start what?"
Hanabi groaned, rolling her eyes to the yellow sky.
"You know what! Jeez, you've become absolutely impossible, Uchiha!"
"You are just too cute when you're getting teased... Uzumaki."
The younger kunoichi blushed even deeper, but then both of them realized something, glancing simultaneously at Sasuke and Naruto who were walking just few yards ahead of them, apparently discussing something funny – the blond was laughing loudly, and the raven haired man was smirking as well as he was telling something to his friend.
"It's strange. Who could've assumed that one day we would end up like this...?" Hanabi mumbled, looking at the horizon dreamily.
"Nobody, I suppose. But that's life... you never know what is waiting for you around the corner. Are you complaining?" She gave the brown haired kunoichi a troubled look – her sister still stared somewhere afar from them, clearly reflecting on the events of the past few years.
"No, I'm not." Hinata frowned – she knew that it wasn't that easy for Hanabi to get used to this new reality they had found themselves in shortly after the War, and it was even harder for the young woman to abandon her heritage and her clan for the purpose of being with her beloved one...
Something Hinata herself had done years ago, even though she hadn't been the one who had made this choice.
Hanabi, however, had done it willingly about three months ago, and it was completely out of the blue – they hadn't even known that she and Naruto had been dating, which they actually had been doing in secret for a while by that moment. But the two of them clearly hadn't felt like talking about their relationship, and neither Sasuke nor Hinata were persistent enough to venture into it – after all, they respected their privacy.
Yet still, sometimes Hinata couldn't help but wonder how had it come to this. Until recently, Hanabi and Naruto weren't very fond of each other to say the least...
The black haired woman sighed.
She could only hope that one day her sister would tell her this story...
"But?"
Hanabi bit her lower lip, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully.
"It's just that... ugh... sometimes I wonder where it's all going to lead us. I mean... everything so far had been going way too smoothly, don't you think so? Especially lately. Somehow...," she sighed, lowering her eyes to the ground sadly, "Somehow I feel like it's all going to end soon. As if something terrible is drawing near, but we just can't see it yet. Don't you have such feeling?"
Hinata looked away, raising her eyes to the point on the sky where her Byakugan spotted the moon.
"No... no, I don't think so. Maybe you are just nervous about the upcoming wedding?"
Much to her surprise, Hanabi didn't react any shyly to her question and neither did she recognize her sister's lie.
"No, that's not it... at least I'm pretty sure it's not. Our wedding will be similar to the one you guys had, so there is not much to be nervous about, especially knowing that Naruto never goes back on his word, and I love him anyway. Maybe it's...," Hinata peered at her sister thoughtfully without looking directly at her, using her dōjutsu. "Perhaps I'm just too frustrated..."
It was Hinata's turn to blush now.
"O-Oh..."
Hanabi snapped her head to look at her, blushing terribly the next second as well, looking like she was about to freak out.
"N-No, not in that way, you stupid pervert! What on earth are you even thinking? Mind your own business, okay? Jeez!" she hissed, making Hinata lower her eyes sheepishly.
She got her there, of course. The frustration from the last few weeks was way too strong, and one night with her husband could hardly negate it completely.
"I'm sorry... what did you mean, then?" asked Hinata quietly after a short, awkward pause.
"Working under the Sixth. In spite of knowing of my capabilities and my skill, he keeps pushing me into paperwork more and more with each day. I haven't been out on a mission for two months straight now, can you imagine that?! Some ANBU I am!"
Hinata's eyebrow cocked in surprise.
"Huh? Why would he do that to you? That's not fair at all..."
"Tell me about it! I wish I could knock some sense into him, but he doesn't listen to me... and I wonder what his reasoning is. Anyway, it appears we have come," she mumbled, pointing at the pair that was waving at them from the entrance of the hospital. "Greetings, Lee-sensei! Sakura!"
"Hey, Sakura-chan! Lee!" Naruto grinned happily, bumping fists with the taijutsu master.
"Yo," simply said Sasuke, nodding at the two of them.
"Hello, everyone! Are you ready for some hot springs? We've ordered the rooms, everything should be ready soon," Sakura smiled, realizing that it wouldn't be wise to greet them personally given that neither Hinata nor Hanabi's name was allowed to be voiced out loud in the village right now.
"Are they private enough...?" muttered the black haired kunoichi quietly, and when the medic nin was about to reply, Sasuke interrupted his former teammate,
"I'll put everyone there under my genjutsu just in case anyway. Let's go already, I haven't even eaten today yet."
A few hours later, after spending a rather uneventful evening with his friends, Sasuke was lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling of their room in the hotel at the Hot Springs in Konoha, thinking simultaneously about all the things that had been bothering him for long time by now, which basically meant that he wasn't really thinking – more like trying to fight the sudden insomnia which had come upon him so unexpectedly this night, much unlike Hinata who was probably having her tenth dream by now, resting next to him and breathing quietly and calmly.
Stretching his left arm in front of him, the Uchiha clenched his fingers a few times, looking gloomily at the limb which still seemed a bit foreign to him. Somehow he had managed to adapt to living without it throughout the last three years, and the decision to accept it back hadn't been any easy to make for the young man, especially knowing the possible consequences...
He had grown accustomed to the idea that this was his payment for all of the sins he had committed in the past, which was pretty much justified in his opinion – back when Sakura had offered him an artificial arm made off the First Hokage's cells, he had refused to tell them why he didn't want it. Not because he didn't trust his former team, but rather because he was ashamed of his reasoning.
Yes... shame was probably the most correct word to use here. To him, the idea of punishing himself by living the rest of his life with only one arm seemed... appealing. It seemed right.
To everyone else, it would most likely seem freaky, though. They wouldn't understand, and he couldn't possibly blame them for it.
When he had finally made an attempt to tell them two months ago, they didn't get it, obviously. Which resulted in all of them - his wife, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi - convincing him to agree to get his arm back without trying to venture into his reasoning, which was probably good, now that he thought about it. They didn't really have to know, it was dangerous for all of them.
He still wasn't sure if that was a good idea to accept the arm back, though.
The Uchiha flinched as the elegant pale fingers touched his shoulder, making him turn his head to meet Hinata's sleepy, squinting eyes.
"Hey...," she whispered as her gaze slid up his raised hand.
"Hey," echoed he equally as quietly, though still not lowering the limb down.
"What's bothering you? Why are you awake?" She yawned, covering her mouth with a palm and putting her chin onto his shoulder, her face being just an inch away from his own.
"Just couldn't sleep. Nothing to worry about."
She frowned, staring into his eyes for a few seconds.
"You always sleep like a bear in hibernation after such evenings. What's up?" She caressed his cheek with the back of her hand, still not looking away from his eyes for a second.
Hinata had learned to read him with ease throughout their years together, and he knew that hiding anything from her would be pointless.
Yet still...
"You're still feeling guilty... am I right?"
He nodded slowly after a short pause, looking away from her, unable to withstand the piercing gaze of the beloved white eyes, but she didn't let him – touching his chin lightly, she turned his head back gently, forcing her husband to look at her again, to which he frowned nearly sheepishly.
"You shouldn't think that way, Sasuke. You have atoned for your sins long ago. Just let it remain in the past... please."
He sighed intermittently, closing his eyes.
"It's... not that simple."
"I know," the man felt the light touch of her lips on his cheek. "But you must. There is no other way. And besides, I want my husband to be happy. And healthy. Stop punishing yourself, I'm begging you."
His eyes snapped open, as if she cast some spell only he could feel.
"You don't understand..."
"Then explain it to me. I'm not stupid, I will understand."
Remaining silent for a few seconds, he then moved his eyes to his still stretched up hand.
"I... I'm not sure if it worked as it was intended to work."
"Huh?" Hinata frowned, still not moving her gaze off his face. "What do you mean?"
"Naruto used his chakra to restore my hand the same way he did it with Kakashi's eye during the War. In the end, it resulted in Kakashi retaining the ability to use his Sharingan even long after Obito's death. It is probably limited, but he can still use it, as you well know."
"And...?" Clearly she didn't understand. Well, how could she...? It was one of the things he himself was afraid of. One of the things he wanted to keep locked as deep down in his soul and mind as possible, hidden from everybody...
Because he knew that eventually it could be released... one day. And this... this would destroy everything everything he loved.
"Naruto's chakra has obviously enhanced Kakashi's abilities. And now that he restored my arm, it is likely that I have received a portion of his power, too."
She chuckled, which made his heart sank.
She still doesn't get it...
"Is that what's bothering you? Are you afraid to become too strong for us to handle you?"
"Yeah."
Hinata's smile disappeared as she noticed something she had never seen in his eyes before.
Fear.
"But... but why? What are you so afraid of...?" She whispered, wrapping her arm around his chest and hugging the man tightly, trying to comfort him.
Apparently it was very hard for him to talk about it, but Hinata was a very gentle woman. She didn't hurry him up in any way, waiting patiently as he opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally uttering a minute later,
"I'm... I'm afraid that should our plan fail... should the idea of Akatsuki fail... should Naruto's ideals fail... I might decide to stick back to my initial plan. To the revolution. And last time we fought, Naruto was barely able to stop me. If I become stronger than him... nobody will be able to stop me anymore."
Her eyes widened, and she stared at him for a good minute without saying anything, watching as the single tear rolled down his cheek.
"I... I don't want it all to go away. I don't want to lose you... I don't want to lose everything I have once again."
He flinched as she giggled quietly, brushing his hair and pulling a few unruly strands to be able to see both of his eyes clearly.
"Sometimes you are so silly, Sasuke. What makes you think that it's even possible? So what if this plan fails? Why would you go for this revolution now, with everything you have done and gained? It makes no sense."
His tone changed for a moment to a different, but still familiar one as he uttered,
"For the same reason why I always did."
Hinata pulled away from him a little, instantly recognizing Indra's soft voice.
"No. You will not. I believe in you. And even if you will...," she took his hand in hers, making Sasuke meet her gaze again. "I will follow you, no matter what you decide to do. I love you."
His lips finally curved into a barely notable smile.
"I love you too. Sleep now. I'll go downstairs for a while, I'm thirsty."
"Mhm." She kissed him on the lips before finally setting her head on the soft pillow again, closing her eyes and nearly instantly sinking back into the dreamland.
Getting out of their bed, Sasuke picked his shirt and pants, dressing up and grabbing his cloak from the chair before leaving the room and walking down the stairs to the first floor.
The entire hotel was already nearly absolutely quiet, which wasn't surprising considering that it was already nearly midnight, and there weren't many visitors here at this time of the year anyway.
"So you are going already, huh?" The Uchiha's head snapped towards the voice that was coming from the entrance of the hall.
"Yeah. The sooner I get it done, the better."
Naruto eyed him up and down critically, taking a sip of some cocktail from the glass he was holding as he sat in a big, comfy chair near the doors.
"You look like shit, teme. You should go and rest, y'know. It can wait a day or two - after all, we have plenty of time before the mission."
Sasuke shook his head reluctantly.
"No. I must go now. The date and time for this meeting is settled, and I can't afford skipping it. There may be no other chance."
Naruto sighed, though nodding in understanding.
"Want me to tag along?"
The raven haired man shook his head again.
"No. You better go back to your girl and have some rest yourself. Who knows when you'll get another opportunity to spend some time with her?"
Naruto grinned, nodding in appreciation.
"Thanks, Sasuke. You are right. Eh... take care, will ya?"
"You too."
The rift opened in the space right in front of the Uchiha, and he stepped forward, disappearing in the mist.
