Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Rosemary For Remembrance ❯ Wormwood ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10 - Wormwood

 

This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine. - William Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

Sakura was wrong. In the end, Uchiha Sasuke did come back. He returned with no nin headband on his forehead, and no cursed seal. He also hadn't grown as tall as everyone suspected he might, and the dark lines around his eyes made him appear infinitely older than they knew him to be. Some women, girls when he had left, paused to ask themselves how they had ever thought him handsome. When interrogated about his whereabouts after his brother's death -- and he was thoroughly interrogated - he would only say that he had traveled across the sea beyond the Five Countries.

 

He would never be a Konoha shinobi ever again, of course. Truthfully, the fact that the Hokage's apprentice vouched for him was the only thing that kept him out of prison. Nonetheless, the former missing nin was sequestered for quite some time before he was allowed to freely move about the village.

 

There are few secrets in a shinobi village, of course. So the very hour that his quarantine came to an end, everyone knew. Most speculated that he would keep to himself -- that he would not dare do otherwise. But he, along with his keeper, surprised them all by attending Yamanaka Ino's birthday party at one of the finer drinking establishments in Konoha.

 

()()()()()

 

Tsunade balled the note up and sighed. Hyuga Hanabi would meet with her, but it had to be alone, at night and on Hyuga turf. The Godaime had dealt with young pups like Hanabi before, new leaders testing their claws on their betters, but they were generally foreigners. She had never before had to deal with such a threat from within.

 

The abrupt resignation of nearly twenty Hyuga shinobi had severely weakened her forces at a dangerous time. This came at a time when Orochimaru seemed to be taking Uchiha Sasuke's return to Konoha badly. Her former teammate never had been able to accept a loss. Tsunade wearily pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers.

 

An hour later, she was in Hanabi's office, positioned in front of the big desk like a repentant schoolchild. Just out of spite, she sat down in her allotted chair and put her feet on the desk.

 

Hanabi smiled her sharp-toothed smile at the childish gesture. Privately, Tsunade had always thought there was something disconcerting about the Hyuga, all of them so perpetually remote and assured.

 

Hanabi politely offered her sake, which she declined. She forced herself to ignore the one lifted brow that eloquently communicated Hanabi's surprise that she would turn down a drink. She wasn't going to get into a playground scrap with this puppy.

 

“I want to know why all the Hyuga shinobi have resigned,” she said bluntly.

 

Hanabi shrugged in feigned helplessness.

 

“I suppose you should ask them.”

 

Tsunade leapt to her feet, leaned over the desk.

 

“I know you ordered them all to resign. I'm not an idiot. Why I don't know is what the hell you think you're doing. Listen, kid, if you think you can have your own army in the middle of a shinobi village, then you're goddamned wrong!”

 

Tsunade was perversely pleased with the slight flush on Hanabi's face now. The younger woman stood up as well. To Tsunade's ears, she sounded impossibly young.

 

“You don't talk to me like that in my own house! Your Konoha consists of a flock of idiots who compete over who will get to die for their village first. The Byakugan looked out over the Nakano River for generations before this village was built and we will be here long after Konoha's ashes scatter to the four corners of the earth. We don't owe you anything.”

 

Byakugan swelled around Hanabi's eyes and Tsunade knew that a fight right now wouldn't be worth the effort. Not with blank eyed Hyuga guards outside the door. She could take them, of course, but at what diplomatic price? Truthfully, she hadn't guessed it would come to this. She had thought Hanabi was negotiating higher pay or some other such nonsense for her family, and that a show of power would scare her off. She had never guessed that the new Hyuga leader planned to slice off her own section of Konoha.

 

She thought of the chakra burns on Hyuga Hiashi's chest, then, and suddenly the Sound threat seemed far distant compared to the hostilities at home.

 

()()()()()

 

When Sakura brought Uchiha Sasuke over to speak with them, Naruto had started to lead Hinata away with a hand on the small of her back. Even with just that one small point of contact between them, she could feel the tension radiating off of her husband. But she couldn't just walk away when Sakura was looking her directly in the eye and smiling like that, dragging a reluctant looking Sasuke by the wrist. Only when Sakura drew near could Hinata see the way the other medic-nin's hands shook or hear the quake in her voice when she murmured, “It's been a long time, hasn't it?”

 

Sasuke's return would not be good for her, Hinata thought.

 

“W-welcome home, Sasuke.” When Naruto remained stubbornly silent she had greeted the Uchiha for the both of them. Manners dictated it, no matter how little she wanted to. She had even stood on tip-toe to kiss her former betrothed on the cheek. Her nose so close to his hair, she couldn't help but catch his scent. He smelled of fire.

 

The way scents sometimes do, Sasuke's immediately transported her to another time and place where she stood on her back porch with dry eyes while the smoke from her burning herb garden wafted across the Nakano River.

 

She gasped, a small “oh” that went unnoticed by everyone but Sasuke, whose black eyes briefly swept over her, emotionless as a searchlight.

 

It did not escape Hinata that Naruto avoided Sasuke for the entire evening. He only seemed to breathe easily again when the gaunt young man said his goodbyes and left the party early. Hinata just shook her head when Naruto and Kiba began a friendly drinking contest at the bar. She didn't stop him, even when Ino announced pointedly to her that Kiba was winning at whatever game they had started between them and that Naruto was sure to end up with a killer hangover if nobody stopped him soon.

 

No, she looked on when he slapped the bar and ordered a round for the house.

 

Naruto had married her, Hinata, because she had never once judged him.

 

()()()()()

 

Hinata went home early, leaving Naruto behind. She never could stand large crowds, and the smoke filled bar had given her a headache.

 

“Give me another hour,” Naruto had told her, before grabbing her around the waist and kissing her there in front of everyone. They had been married four years and she had yet to become accustomed to his random public displays of affection. She doubted she ever would, after the way she had grown up. In the Hyuga Compound, at least after her mother's death, the only time they touched one another was to train.

 

Maybe it was because this thought was still on her mind that she wasn't entirely surprised to find a Hyuga standing by her kitchen sink, looking out the window at her dark garden, his fall of long hair obscuring his features.

 

“Ne-”

 

He turned around.

 

“Tetsuo!” She should have known it wouldn't be Neji standing her dark kitchen. They hadn't spoken in over a year.

 

“Hinata-sama,” her cousin bowed low, almost obsequiously so. It was discomfiting.

 

“You know I'm not the heir anymore,” she faltered. “I'm not even Hyuga.”

 

“That's what I've come to talk to you about.”

 

She realized now why she had mistaken Tetsuo for Neji. Her cousin who was always laughing, always up to something, especially if it involved stealing cigarettes or playing pranks, was unusually grim. His shoulders were set, and his mouth was a thin line. She watched as he took a cigarette out of a pack from his pouch and began to nervously twiddle it between two fingers. Tetsuo never had been able to master the absolute physical self-control that was one of the many Hyuga trademarks.

 

“Well, sit down, I'll make tea.” She reached to flip the light switch.

 

“Don't!” Tetsuo sprang over the table and grasped her wrist.

 

“I can't be seen here,” he explained. “And I don't have much time.”

 

They stood just like that, her hand on the wall beneath the light switch, him almost whispering. And he told her.

 

“Your sister is mad, Hinata-sama. She acts like an empress and the Council loves her for it! All she can talk of is self-sacrifice for Hyuga. She won't let anyone leave the Compound without permission and she made us all resign our commissions with Konoha.”

 

Hinata's stomach began to ache.

 

“I'm sure she has her reasons, Tetsuo-san. The Sound is making threats again. My sister is probably just trying to protect our people.”

 

“Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds, Hinata-sama? If Sound is preparing an attack, Konoha needs the Hyuga more than ever!”

 

“I--” Hinata hesitated. “I don't know what you expect me to do about that. I'm no longer a part of the family. I haven't spoken to my sister in years.”

 

“There's something else,” Tetsuo took a breath, letting the suspense hang in the air with the rhythm of a natural storyteller. Hinata waited.

 

“I think she killed your father.”

 

The ache in Hinata's stomach turned into an intense burn. She twisted away from Tetsuo and crossed the room.

 

“This is my sister you're talking about,” she nearly shouted. “You don't talk about Hanabi that way to me!”

 

“Hinata-sama, I saw it. The poison had stopped spreading but then your sister ordered us all out of the room. When we returned, he was dead. There were chakra burns on his chest. She did it!” He followed her a few steps across the room, desperate.

 

“Get out!” Hinata shouted, she was shaking all over and couldn't stop.

 

“I'm telling the truth!” Tetsuo reached out, as if to touch her and her hand moved on its own volition. The open handed strike to his chest sent her cousin stumbling backward, toward the door.

 

Hinata gasped but the strike seemed to sober Tetsuo.

 

“She'll kill me if she finds out I was here, Hinata-sama. She'll kill me.”

 

He slipped out the door and was gone.

 

Hinata slumped against the doorway and schooled herself not to think about it. If she thought about it, she would cry, and she didn't have that luxury. Instead she made some tea with the slightest dose of valerian to calm her nerves and then she cleaned the kitchen until it was shone.

 

()()()()()

 

Later that night, lying on her side in their big bed, one hand curled in the pillow case, Hinata half-heard Naruto enter the house. She listened to the quiet click of the door locking, the rustle of cloth on cloth as he removed his kunai pouch and hung it on one of the hooks by the door, and the faint sound of footsteps he never tried to muffle for fear of arousing her defensive instincts.

 

Stirring a little, she heard him pause in the doorway. She stretched her arm out under the pillow, luxuriating in the feel of cotton against her bare inner arm, and turned her head fractionally to regard him. All she could she see was a darker shape framed in the moonlight from the kitchen window. But it was all right, because he was Naruto and momentarily he would slip out of his clothes and press his warm body against her bare back.

 

But he stood there a few moments more. Hinata felt sleep leaving her like a warm blanket pulled down her body inch by inch until she finally woke up enough to prop up on one elbow.

 

“What's wrong?” she asked his silhouette, and when he still did not move she reached for the bedside lamp.

 

“Don't,” he said, and his voice was thick.

 

Frozen in mid-reach, Hinata watched him move toward her. It was slow, and the way he had to circle the bed to reach his side reminded her uncomfortably of a predator circling his prey. It was still so dark that she could not see him watching her. But she could feel his eyes on her and for some reason she felt the need to slowly pull her hand away from the lamp and settle back on the bed.

 

On his side of the big bed now, knees touching the mattress, Naruto's shape blended into the darkness. In the stillness, Hinata could hear him breathing and only that made her realize that she was holding her own breath. The first frission of fear tingled at the base of her spine and, continuing to lie perfectly still, she whispered, “Naruto…”

 

“Don't,” he said again, and braced both hands on the bed, then his knees. His movements were slow, deliberate and it felt like an eternity had passed before he crawled on top her. Hinata realized that fear had been replaced with another primal emotion as this dark, quiet stranger immobilized her legs with his weight. She considered activating her Byakugan. Not being able to see him was a little intimidating, but activating her bloodline limit seemed like an odd sort of thing to do with her husband. An untrusting thing.

 

Swallowing, she waited.

 

Her night vision had emerged enough for her to make out the shape of Naruto's head now. She watched as he cocked it to the side, and then brought one hand up to cup her chin between thumb and forefinger. Large, rough fingers gently tilted her head to the side before sliding down to cover the pulse point in her neck. His face came closer until he was nuzzling beneath her ear. But he didn't kiss her, or run his tongue down the length of her jaw line. He pressed his nose to the juncture of her neck and shoulder and inhaled. The action caused the tiny hairs at the back of her neck to stand on end.

 

Still gripping her neck between two fingers, Naruto then moved his face up until the cartilage on the tip of his nose brushed her forehead. She felt him inhale again, and then his tongue traced her hairline, tasted the thin sheen of sweat that had materialized there.

 

She brought her hands up to encircle his neck, but he pulled back abruptly before she could complete the motion. She let her hands fall to her sides while watching him bend down to her again, still inhaling her.

 

Hinata lay perfectly still as Naruto explored her body, scenting her neck again, beneath her arms, behind her knees, between her legs.

 

The last drew a gasp from her throat. At the small noise, Naruto stopped and Hinata, who hadn't realized her eyes had been squeezed shut, looked down at him. In the dimness, she could see that he was looking back up at her, his mouth and nose still only millimeters from her panties. She tensed a little, and he sniffed at her again, then his tongue flicked out to trace the outline of her labia through the cotton. She pried her eyes open again to find that he was still regarding her, his eyes narrowed but observant. She watched as he licked her again, this time starting lower and ending up tonguing her clit through the thin material. Her fingers dug into the bed sheets.

 

Hinata thrust into the touch a little, but Naruto pulled back. Spreading her legs, his rough hands gripping her tender thighs, he licked the hemmed edge of the panties where they clung to the juncture between crotch and thigh. She remained perfectly still as he worked his way around the edges of the material, his tongue sometimes slipping beneath the fabric to leave a wet trail on the protected skin there.

 

Her breath became ragged when he finished his patient tracing and lightly nuzzled her pubic bone again. Once again his tongue dipped to caress her through her panties and both arms convulsively reached down to push the material aside. But he looked at her again with those strange, over-bright eyes and it was enough to make her settle back down against the pillow. Hand still on her thighs, Naruto spread her legs farther apart until the soles of both her feet rested on the mattress. He ran his tongue once more up the taut material between her legs before moving it aside with two blunt fingers.

 

At long last his tongue found sensitive skin and Hinata answered a confident swipe with a groan.

 

“Naruto-kun,” she began, and it came out as more of a plea. He stopped moving, though, when the words left her lips, and she hastily quieted again. Hinata was quick to catch on to the rules of this game.

 

She unconsciously rubbed her head back and forth against the pillow as Naruto increased the tempo. Finally she couldn't stop herself from reaching down and stroking the shock of blonde hair with grasping fingers. This time he didn't stop when she touched him, only upped the pace of his ministrations further until the tingling began low in her stomach. Naruto chose that moment to pull away again, leaving Hinata arching on the bed.

 

But his calloused hands were on her again and this time his breathing was just as ragged as hers. Hands made clumsy with lust pawed at her panties. The simple act of sliding them over her hips seemed too much for him and she watched half in shock as he twisted the material between his fingers and pulled. A repeat of the motion left her naked, but she had no time to gape before he was rolling her over onto her stomach.

 

Suddenly finding herself with a mouthful of pillowcase, Hinata felt Naruto straddle her legs. Heat bubbled between them when the sides of his knees brushed her outer thighs. He ran both hands up the backs of her legs and she shuddered at the uneven texture of his palms against her over-sensitized skin.

 

Reaching her thighs, he cupped them and pulled her up onto all fours. She felt stickiness and the smooth flesh of Naruto's cock bumping her thigh before he adjusted the angle and thrust into her with a force he rarely used. She gasped, and the sheet bunched between her flexing fingers.

 

Inside her now, Naruto showed no signs of slowing. His hands curled around her hipbones like handles until she had her knees properly braced beneath her, and then he removed one hand and placed his palm flat against her lower back. The slight pressure there, coupled with the hot brush of his thighs, and the way his determined thrusts pressed against her over and over again ended it all too quickly. Unable to hold back anymore, she vocalized her orgasm with a series of shallow gasps. She heard Naruto, above and behind her, exhale with a shudder as his own climax wracked both their bodies.

 

It did not take long for her knees to buckle beneath her and Naruto followed her down onto the bed, snaking one arm around her waist. He was asleep behind her in mere seconds. No further words had been spoken between them.

 

She struggled to turn over under the weight of his arm. It had always amazed her how deeply men could sleep just after sex. This bit of information, of course, had come in handy to many a “special” kunoichi when it came to taking care of delicate matters of diplomacy. That random thought faded as soon as she finally found a comfortable spot in the crook of Naruto's arm. Before she closed her eyes to sleep she gripped him in an awkward one armed hug, pressing her nose against his chest.

 

Hinata inhaled his unique Naruto scent. She loved the way he smelled after sex, like clean sweat and the slightly bitter tang of ejaculate. And underneath that—

 

Hinata pulled back. Eyes wide open now.

 

Underneath that, the unmistakable scent of fire.

 

()()()()()

 

She shouldn't cry. These are not love matches and she cannot cry. It's the only way for a Hyuga woman to survive.

 

But she was not a Hyuga woman. Not anymore. And maybe she was stupid to think that by leaving that cold compound behind she could divorce herself from the legacy of her Clan.

 

Naruto and Sasuke. The thing was, she knew. She had known. She had always known. So what was the use of having eyes that saw everything if she hadn't seen this coming?

 

()()()()()

 

She waited for him. Icy rain had begun to fall, peppering Neji's exposed face and arms with spines of ice. It was always tricky to predict late spring weather in Konoha. On top of the wall, Hinata looked cold. She hugged a coat around her chest and her cheeks were very white. That, more than anything, decided him that he should grant her unspoken request and speak with her a moment. Or so he told himself.

 

She was watching him from above as he gathered chakra in his legs and leapt to the top of the wall. It was a visible spot, and Hanabi's spies would inevitably find out about it. She would be displeased. Punishment would follow.

 

It would be worth it.

 

They regarded one another for a long moment, there above the crowd at the gate. It was the first time he had seen the strands of gray in her hair up close. To him, they did not make her look old at all.

 

“Hinata-sama,” he finally said, because she did not seem to be able to say anything at all. He did not look her directly in the eye, and she did not look at him, and it had been over four hundred days since they had been alone together.

 

Abruptly, she turned and looked out over the forest that encroached on Konoha's walls.

 

“Naruto is having an affair,” she said simply.

 

He what?

 

“Naruto wouldn't do that.”

 

“He is.” Her back was completely turned by then but the wind carried her words to him.

 

“With who?”

 

She laughed, and Neji would have given anything to never hear such a bitter sound come from her again.

 

“With me.”

 

There seemed nothing to say to that, so he didn't.

 

“It's Sasuke,” she continued after a silence. “They think I don't know. But I know.”

 

What could Neji say? If he could think beyond the red rage that instructed him to beat Naruto until he was a smear in the dust, and then do the same to Sasuke -- and he could think beyond that, because he was Hyuga Neji -- he saw the logic in it. After all, who better than he would know the bond one forms with the person whom they once tried to kill?

 

“I'm… sorry,” he finally offered.

 

He even surprised himself when he stepped forward and placed one hand on her shoulder. She took it as a signal to turn around and they were facing one another. He was closer to her now than he had ever been in his life except that fight in their first Chuunin exam.

 

“I don't have anywhere to go,” she said.

 

Neji noted with some pride that she was not crying. He had never seen her cry.

 

He could put his other hand on her shoulder now, he realized. Then pull her close and embrace her. He could kiss her next. And touch the silver in her hair.

 

All his life, Neji had walked that invisible line. It had been drawn by his father, and her father, and Hyuga with blank white eyes stretching back for generations. He imagined them like a string of a thousand paper dolls. Now the urge to cross that line was almost unbearable. He could take her hand now, and fight Naruto, and fight Hanabi, and fight, and fight and fight until they were free. This was the woman who had saved him a hundred times. The only person in the world who could ever make him cross that invisible line.

 

He loved her, he finally admitted. He had loved her for years.

 

Maybe he would tell her.

 

Maybe in another life.

 

He was Hyuga Neji, and his white eyes saw logic even when he didn't want them to. Hanabi would find her and mark her and if she thought she had nowhere to go now, wait until she was in her sister's clutches. He thought of the Hyuga Head's sharp-toothed smile and knew that Hanabi would never, ever let her sister go.

 

This was the woman who had saved him a hundred times. It was his turn now to save her. Because he could hurt her now or Hanabi could hurt her later.

 

She was very hard to look at.

 

“I don't know why you've told me this, Hinata-san. I cannot help you.”

 

He took in her disbelieving stare.

 

“Perhaps it would be best if you left Konoha.”

 

“Of course,” he heard her murmur as he walked away from her. “Of course.”

 

Perversely, he was proud that she still did not cry.

 

()()()()()