Don't be a Tragedy (Just be Mine) - Chapter 1
Title: Don't be a Tragedy (Just be Mine)
Chapter: 1 - New Circumstances
Rating: T
Words: 4,352
Summary: AU. As a civilian, Hinata is unprepared when she becomes the target of attack. Yamanaka Ino steps up to protect her-but how can she, when she's already broken Hinata's heart once before?
Notes: Written for
unconventionalcourtship. Based on Prompt #11: Her Tycoon Protector by Amanda Browning. Fic title comes from Victoria Duffield's song More Than Friends. Also posted on AO3.
Looking at Sakura review her notes, Hinata thinks that no one would think to look past her portrait of a studious teacher to see the reality, if Sakura wasn't surrounded by ninja who make a habit of looking underneath the underneath.
She wonders how many people Sakura manages to fool despite that.
Hinata knocks softly on the door frame, knowing that Sakura already knows she's there.
"Hinata," Sakura says, standing up with a smile. "I wasn't expecting you so early."
"It's late," she corrects gently. "Already after three."
Sakura cranes her neck to check the clock and makes a face. "So it is," she says, waving Hinata in. "Take a seat. What held you up? You're usually on time--and don't apologize for being late; I didn't even notice."
"Just a meeting that ran long," Hinata says, closing the office door behind her and taking the seat closest to the desk, since the other is covered with a haphazard pile of paper, books, and scrolls. She sets a bag down on the desk. "I brought sandwiches. Have you eaten?"
As if in response to her question, Sakura's stomach growls. With a laugh, Sakura adjusts her glasses and reaches for the bag. "I'll trust you won't poison me," she says.
Hinata smiles faintly. "I wouldn't even know where to begin," she agrees.
And Sakura would spot a poison long before ingesting it. They both know that. While Sakura eats three and a half sandwiches (Hinata has the half that Sakura doesn't want), they talk idly, passing along gossip. It's why Hinata is allowed into the Academy: she's one of the contacts in the University that has a legitimate connection to the Academy and who won't raise too many eyebrows if she visits now and then.
Gossip is the lifeblood of the village. She knows there's ninja who make their living going undercover through the University, but Hinata is quiet, polite, and rarely noticed because she belongs. Passing on what she hears, even if none of it is important, is something even she can do the help the village.
Seeing a friend is a pleasant way to discharge that duty.
It is only after the food is gone and Sakura has remembered to make them both teas that Sakura leans back in her chair, and runs her hands through a series of seals that Hinata can't even hope to understand.
(She doesn't have the right.)
"I've looked into the matter you've inquired about," Sakura says, pushing her glasses up onto her forehead. Without them obscuring her face, Sakura looks both younger and more intimidating. "I think I can do it. Are you sure?"
Hinata nods, clenching her hands in her lap. "How--I mean, y-yes, I want it--but how does it work?"
Sakura taps a pen on her desk in what looks like an idle manner. "A lot of people won't like it," she warns. "At least you're a woman, which makes it easier, but because of your status."
"I have no status," Hinata says quietly.
"That's not true," Sakura corrects as a hatch in the ceiling open. A rope ladder tumbles down from it. The room above looks unlit. "You don't have much, on the shinobi side, that's true, but on the civilian side? If anyone talks about Hyuuga positively, it's about you. That's power. Come on, let's go up."
Hinata waits for Sakura to scramble up the ladder before following after. Her progress is slower and less steady than Sakura's smooth, practiced elegance. By the time Hinata reaches the top, Sakura has turned the lights on in her lab.
In contrast to Sakura's cluttered office below, Sakura's lab is pristine. Another desk sits to one side, this one gleaming metal instead of wood, and there are islands of equipment and monitors. Wires are everywhere, painstakingly forced into a semblance of neatness. There are a few patient beds, which are unoccupied for the moment.
There are no windows.
Sakura's lab is several times the size of her office below. It is where she does most of her research since she is bound to the Academy for a few more years before she may move back to the hospital, and it's grander facilities.
Sakura is the Hokage's apprentice and the most talented medical ninja Konohagakure no Sato has seen since Tsunade-sama, but not even she can get around the edict that all first-generation shinobi must serve the Academy for a minimum of five years upon attaining Jounin rank.
(Should they choose to settle at Chuunin, which many do--most shinobi of Konoha are Chuunin, first generation or not--it is a mandatory ten years of service to the Academy.)
Teaching suits Sakura, Hinata thinks. Though mostly because she is still able to further her true work, with minimum interference.
"Take a seat," Sakura says, matching her words to action as Hinata gets to her feet. The trap door behind her closes with a softly. Gingerly, Hinata sits on one of the patient beds, as there's only one chair in Sakura's lab and Sakura is sitting in it. The bed is preferable, though only just, to sitting on the floor.
Hinata doesn't like Sakura's office. It is too sterile and cold for her preferences. It doesn't bother Sakura, who has discarded her glasses carelessly on her desk, but then, that's only right.
"Before I tell you how this works," Sakura says, "I have to know: do you have someone in mind to be your partner? You're single right now, aren't you?"
Hinata curls her hands around the edge of her jacket. "Yes," she says, "I'm single. And… yes, there is someone in mind." She studies Sakura, who studies her right back. "The same person as always, Sakura. If you can do this then… perhaps she will give me a chance."
"That's what I thought," Sakura mutters, half-under her breath.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" Hinata asks softly.
"I think," Sakura hesitates, "I think it could be. But Ino doesn't like being manipulated into things."
"Manipulate her?" Hinata replies, looking up with surprise colouring her voice. "I could not. I would not. This is… this is meant to be another bargaining piece. That's all." She twists her fingers in her jacket and then asks, "Do you think holding onto to this hope is… futile?"
"That's a hard question," Sakura says slowly. "I don’t think hope is ever a bad thing, and I'll be the last to say that ethics are hard and fast rules, but…"
"I will tell her," Hinata promises. "This can only be done with two people, yes? So I cannot do anything in any case without her knowing."
"There's ways," Sakura says, her face growing closed off.
"I do not want those ways," Hinata insists. She does and doesn't want to know what Sakura would do if she said otherwise, which Hinata doesn't dare. "I wanted to know if it could be done, that is all. And if she will give me a chance to speak, I will tell her what you have found. Nothing more. The rest will be up to her."
Sakura analyzes her and Hinata tries to sit up straight, and meet that gaze unflinching. It helps that she's told only the truth. It is still hard. Hinata has never liked being scrutinized.
"Okay," Sakura says finally, and Hinata knows that if this was a test, she has passed it. The tension in her gut loosens. "I'll walk you through how it should work--"
An explosion rocks the Academy and while Hinata is still clinging to the bed and trying not to fall off of it, Sakura has disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves.
Hinata bites her lip, counts to one hundred, and then tries to stand. This turns out to be a mistake as another explosion hits and she falls clumsily, catching herself on her hands. Sitting up, she inspects her stinging palms. They're sore, and she suspects her knees will be bruised tomorrow, but she's unhurt.
Rather than try to stand, just in case, Hinata crawls along the floor until she's reached the trap door. When she tries to open it, it remains stuck. Her heartbeat speeds and she squeezes her eyes shut, huddling on the floor, against the onset of panic.
She hates being trapped. It reminds her of the terrible, stifling days after Kumo had attempted to kidnap her. It reminds her of the grief-hazed days after her mother passed away.
It reminds her of how little she measures up to her father's expectations.
Hinata breathes deeply, in and out, and counts to a hundred again and then again as she gets herself under control. When she finally stands, it is after she has counted to one hundred ten times over and she still feels shaky and sick inside. Her bangs and back are damp with sweat.
She is still trapped but Hinata knows dwelling on that--on what could be happening outside--will only send her into a panic again. So she looks around and, seeing Sakura's things, her papers and pens in disarray from the explosions, Hinata says a prayer and goes to reorganize them.
When that is done, she checks the cabinets and drawers, methodically putting everything back in place.
Her timing is good.
Hinata doesn't know how many hours it has been, though at least a few have passed, when Sakura pops back into her lab in another swirl of smoke. Her clothes are filthy, her shirt ripped in two places, and dried blood mars one cheek.
"Oh thank god," Sakura says. "You're alive."
Hinata blinks, startled and chary about what that might mean. "W-Was the Academy attacked?" she asks, wondering if that's why Sakura is so concerned. "Were other people hurt? I was safe, here."
She should feel grateful for that, but Hinata can't bring herself to feel that way when she's been trapped for hours with no way of getting out. She is not a ninja, who could think of a way to escape.
She's just a civilian girl who can't even use her family's bloodline limit.
Sakura grips her by the shoulders, and Hinata can feel the tingle-fizz of some sort of jutsu run through her like a breeze. Then, as abruptly as she grabbed her, Sakura lets go. "You're not hurt," Sakura says, in relief. "Thank god. Come on, I've got to get you to your father."
Hinata would be frustrated at apparently not even being able gauge if she's okay, except for the genuine relief in Sakura's eyes--and the way Sakura's words make her stomach drop and twist. "My f-father?" Hinata stammers, upset for a different reason now. "Why do I need--Sakura, I have not… not been in his presence in two years. It is better that way."
For both of them. It spares her the crushing feeling of failure, that she's his heir and she's worthless to him, and it spares him the reminder that she exists.
"I do not want to go," she finishes simply. It does not convey the depth of her feelings, but it is clear and succinct.
"Sorry," Sakura says, her voice gentle-but-hard at the same time. "I'm under orders to find you and, if you are unharmed, to bring you to your father. Please don't make me force you, Hinata."
Looking at Sakura, Hinata knows that if she refuses, Sakura will make her. Hinata has no way to resist. Trying to fight would be futile, and trying to argue--she is already out of arguments.
Not that arguments have ever trumped orders. She understands that thoughts like that are something the Academy trains out of people.
The University doesn't. But then, civilian arguments are considered less dangerous than shinobi ones.
Hinata bows her head, knowing that acquiescing is the only way she may have a chance to get through this with dignity. "How will we get there?" she asks, her hair falling in front of her face. It is a poor shield.
It is all she has.
(And it has never done her any good in her family. The Hyuuga are famed for seeing through things. In their eyes, she is transparent.)
"I'll transport us via jutsu," Sakura says quietly. "It's not safe for you to walk outside right now."
Hinata wonders if it is safe for anyone to be, but knows not to ask that question. Sakura is a good friend, but as a shinobi, she will not understand it. Not when risking her life is what she does for a living.
Taking a deep breath, Hinata nods. She watches as Sakura, with her glasses still left abandoned on her desk, purses her lips, like she wants to say something--then doesn't.
"I--Sakura… what is it?" Hinata asks anxiously.
Sakura wraps her arms around Hinata, the strength in her arms leaving her feeling breathless. "I am always your friend," Sakura says quietly, hardly a murmur in her ear.
Hinata has no time to question, or confirm, or even wonder about the declaration before Sakura's hands have gone through that set of incomprehensible seals again and they're gone.
Only smoke and leaves left behind mark their disappearance from the lab.
Hours later, Hinata sits in her childhood bedroom, feeling like a stranger and fights the urge to cry. The room smells like fresh lilacs and baby's breath despite both being out of season.
Thirty-seven people, three of them children under the age of ten, have died today because someone is out to kill her because they--and she doesn't know who 'they' are--are angry with her father, and want to hurt him.
If she wasn't so sad, she would try and dredge up some outrage that she's not even worth being killed on her own merits, but sorrow and discomfort at being where she is have drowned out any sparks of irritation.
She doesn't understand how anyone could have done that. Was it worth it to them to set up explosives at the places she frequents and then set them all off at once? Hinata is only grateful that the death toll wasn't higher.
It could have been worse, but this knowledge doesn't comfort her at all.
Hinata knows the measure of her worth and she is not worth the lives of almost forty people.
Hinata wipes her eyes, which water despite her attempts to keep tears at bay, and clasps her hands in her lap. Crying would make her feel better, if only marginally, but crying in her family's stronghold will be held against her and, worse, used against her.
She has given them enough weapons over the years. She doesn't want to give them more, even though the dead deserve someone who mourns them.
Distantly, she wonders what her father will do. Despite her age, she has been shooed out of the planning for her own safety now that she is in the Hyuuga Compound with guards outside her door. Hinata worries at her lower lip, pressing her fingers together before forcing herself to stop it.
She is a prisoner in her father's home until he decides what will be done.
If Hanabi were here, Hinata does not think she would ever have been targeted. But Hanabi died with the rest of her Genin team on their first C rank mission outside of the village and, so, though it displeases her father greatly, Hinata remains his heir.
His defenceless heir. She has never even been able to invoke the Byakugan, though her eyes are the same pale white that the rest of her family share.
Between that, her weak heart, and her passive nature, Hinata knows how her father--how the shinobi who guard her, and will no doubt guard her in the future to come--view her.
If Hanabi were here, Hinata would be inconsequential to anyone looking to hurt her father. Hanabi had always been the one that her father had doted on.
At her sister's funeral, Hinata had cried for her younger sister. Her father had mourned the passing of his true heir.
A murmur at her door pulls her attention away from depressing memories. The door opens without anyone asking her permission, and Hinata swallows the indignity like she has all the rest. There is no point in arguing--especially when the person who steps through the door leaves her throat dry and wordless for a different reason entirely.
Ino, all loose, long blonde hair; fathomless blue eyes; and flawless skin, leans in her doorway. Her face holds a sort of casual, but deliberate, bonhomie.
Hinata isn't fooled. Ino's eyes are cold.
More than that, though, Hinata has been in love with Ino since she was seven years old. She knows Ino the way she knows no one else, and she knows something else too:
Ino does not want to be here.
Seeing her now, Hinata doesn't want her to be here either.
Staring at Ino's smiling, lying, face, all of Hinata's carefully built up hopes crumble in the face of Ino's expression. There is no compromise in Ino. No chance.
Ino will not give her a moment to explain. Looking at her, Hinata knows that.
It is unfair, and cruel, for Ino to be here in this moment, when there are more important things for Hinata to be upset about--thirty seven deaths and someone out to kill her, to begin with.
Hinata ducks her head, hiding behind her hair and ashamed of her weakness for doing so. But it's hard to face Ino, after remembering how cruel she was the last time they talked, really talked, several years ago.
It doesn't change the fact that Hinata loves Ino, all of her, even when her sharp tongue turns vicious, as it had. But seeing her brings back the pain and makes her wonder why she'd even thought trying again might be a good idea.
People like to say that Ino is a flower. Gorgeous, fragile, delicate.
Hinata knows better. Ino is a dragon.
And now the dragon is watching her, pinning her with a gaze bluer than the sky. Hinata can't bring herself to look up, though after licking her lips, she says, her voice very soft, "You've come back alive."
She's known Ino was alive, but seeing her-it is different.
Better, Hinata supposes, though it hurts too.
"As if a mission could kill me," Ino scoffs scornfully.
Hinata just nods. She has no idea what could kill Ino or not. Ino is a Jounin, but that means nothing to Hinata except that Ino is skilled and skilled ninja die just as fast as unskilled ones to her eyes.
Their missions scale with their abilities.
"I'm glad you're alive," Hinata says quietly, then forces herself to look up at Ino. "What are you doing here, Ino?" she asks, when nothing else seems to be coming from Ino.
(Of course not, that would make it too easy.)
"Oh, this and that," Ino says so dismissively that Hinata knows she's telling a lie. It makes her heart pound with hope-is it possible that Ino was worried about her?-and fear, for it far more likely that there is some plan, something to deal with the assassination attempts, and Ino will be part of it.
"Have you… have you heard about the injured?" Hinata asks quietly, because the dying and the hurt are more important than her confused and bewildered feelings for Ino. If she has to choose her questions, she'll choose the ones that sting less and are more important anyway. "Are they going to be alright?"
Ino's cool eyes soften a smidgen and Hinata's heart sinks. She bites her lip as Ino says, "They've lost another two and three more… well, the medics don't know if they'll make it yet."
"Why?" Hinata swallows, looking back down at her hands, which tremble slightly. She clasps them together so tight that the knuckles whiten. It doesn't help. "Why would anyone do all of that just to get to me? My father… I am nothing to him."
It's not prudent to say that in her father's home, but it's the truth and everyone knows it. Hinata ignores the dull ache saying it out loud brings her.
"If they wanted to kill me, there was no need to do it this way," she continues. "I am nothing to a shinobi. If one wants me dead… there was no need for anyone else to die. It's just cruelty."
Ino says nothing.
Hinata wipes at her eyes, entirely unsure of when she's started crying, and concentrates on her breathing, trying to get herself under control. She waits for Ino to say something, anything.
"Yes," Ino says finally, "their method of execution was sloppy."
She flinches, her shoulders hunching up defensively. "Th-then why?"
Ino's heels are soundless as Ino moves from the doorway to crouch in front of Hinata faster than Hinata can blink. She meets Ino's gaze, knowing that it's even odds that Ino is reading her mind.
Hinata doesn't ask what Ino gets out of the gaze. She's not sure she wants to know. Ino's hands on her knees are firm and warm.
"Because whoever did this is cruel," Ino says. "That's all there is to it. Hurting your father is the goal, but if other people get hurt in the meantime… they're just collateral damage."
"That's so sad," Hinata says softly. "They were worth more than that."
"So are you," Ino tells her and stands, offering Hinata one manicured hand. "Come on, your father is going to be wondering why you're still here. We're running out of time to make a graceful escape."
She stares at the hand, and then tilts her head to look up at Ino as she takes it. "A graceful escape?"
Even standing, Ino is taller than she is. Part of that is the heels, since Hinata prefers a small heel over Ino's stilettos, but even without them Ino is taller.
"Yeah," Ino says, tugging Hinata out of her room, past the Hyuuga guards. "He's a stuffed old shirt, but he'll notice eventually."
"I'm supposed to stay here," Hinata says, knowing that Ino is being gentle in her tugging since it doesn't hurt at all. "What if there's another attack?"
Ino stops abruptly.
Hinata nearly runs into her, but Ino twists so that they're facing each other before that can happen. Ino is faster than a blink, Hinata thinks, a bit startled. Pointlessly she wonders how ninja manage that.
"Do you want to stay here?" Ino demands, studying Hinata intently.
She can't hold up under that gaze and ducks her head. "I don't want anyone else hurt because of me," she says truthfully. "If staying here will prevent that, then I… I want to stay here."
She doesn't want to stay here, in her father's house, where she is less than a ghost and weaker than the children who are deemed proper Hyuuga. Just thinking about it, how oppressive living here would be, makes Hinata's spirit shrivel up.
But Hinata would rather hurt herself than allow other people to get hurt. Always.
"It won't be that bad," Ino says, her voice gentling, though her hands on Hinata's arms tighten their grip until it's almost painful. "Your father's given permission for you to leave, so long as you're under guard."
Hinata meets Ino's eyes. "And you're my guard?"
She can't think of a better, or worse, guard than Ino. Hinata trusts Ino's competence, but she knows all the reasons why it's a bad idea too. She wonders if her father does.
"Yeah," Ino says, "yeah. I'm your guard. There will be others, but I'll be the one you see."
"And what if I choose to stay here?" Hinata asks. "Will you still be the guard I see while I'm surrounded by my blood?"
Ino's face tightens and for a moment Hinata thinks she won't answer, but then she does. "No," Ino says. "Hyuuga-sama has told me that, should you wish to remain here, he will not have you protected by outsiders."
"Will I be safer here," Hinata asks, "than I will be with you? I… no, that is not the right question. The right one is: will other people be safer?"
"There are children in the Hyuuga compound as well," Ino says. "And non-combatants--both civilian and retired shinobi. There are old people, sick people, and injured people within these walls. Just as there are outside of them. You want to know where you'll be safest? I don't know. In an ANBU holding cell, maybe."
"Do you want me to be locked up?" Hinata asks quietly, her blood running cold at the thought of that. She'd never even considered… never thought of a cell being her safest place.
ANBU cells were meant for traitors and enemies to the village. Not for the likes of her.
Something indefinable slides behind Ino's flawless blue eyes. That Hinata can see that much means Ino is letting her see it. She doesn't answer the question but, instead, asks another one: "If you stay here," she says, "aren't you just in a cell of a different kind?"
Hinata's chin jerks up and she pulls herself away from Ino, who lets her go easily. Hinata's hands tremble. She tries to hide that by curling her fingers around the hem of her jacket. It doesn't help her feelings one whit.
"I can't say that," she says, shocked at Ino's daring.
Ino's smile is edged like a razor. "Why do you think I said it?" She holds out one hand and Hinata stares at it, heart pounding. "Are you coming or not?"
Hinata hesitates for a long, long moment while Ino waits with patience that would surprise anyone who didn't know her. Then, she takes Ino's hand.
"Look after me," she says quietly. "Please."
Ino's fingers close around her hand gently. "Come on," Ino says. "We're going to have to go shopping if you're going to be staying with me. Most of your things are gone, huh? Well, shopping is a pretty good way to get your mind off this situation."
Index || Next Chapter
Originally posted on DW. Comment there. (Unless you want to comment here. That's fine too.)
Chapter: 1 - New Circumstances
Rating: T
Words: 4,352
Summary: AU. As a civilian, Hinata is unprepared when she becomes the target of attack. Yamanaka Ino steps up to protect her-but how can she, when she's already broken Hinata's heart once before?
Notes: Written for
unconventionalcourtship. Based on Prompt #11: Her Tycoon Protector by Amanda Browning. Fic title comes from Victoria Duffield's song More Than Friends. Also posted on AO3.
Looking at Sakura review her notes, Hinata thinks that no one would think to look past her portrait of a studious teacher to see the reality, if Sakura wasn't surrounded by ninja who make a habit of looking underneath the underneath.
She wonders how many people Sakura manages to fool despite that.
Hinata knocks softly on the door frame, knowing that Sakura already knows she's there.
"Hinata," Sakura says, standing up with a smile. "I wasn't expecting you so early."
"It's late," she corrects gently. "Already after three."
Sakura cranes her neck to check the clock and makes a face. "So it is," she says, waving Hinata in. "Take a seat. What held you up? You're usually on time--and don't apologize for being late; I didn't even notice."
"Just a meeting that ran long," Hinata says, closing the office door behind her and taking the seat closest to the desk, since the other is covered with a haphazard pile of paper, books, and scrolls. She sets a bag down on the desk. "I brought sandwiches. Have you eaten?"
As if in response to her question, Sakura's stomach growls. With a laugh, Sakura adjusts her glasses and reaches for the bag. "I'll trust you won't poison me," she says.
Hinata smiles faintly. "I wouldn't even know where to begin," she agrees.
And Sakura would spot a poison long before ingesting it. They both know that. While Sakura eats three and a half sandwiches (Hinata has the half that Sakura doesn't want), they talk idly, passing along gossip. It's why Hinata is allowed into the Academy: she's one of the contacts in the University that has a legitimate connection to the Academy and who won't raise too many eyebrows if she visits now and then.
Gossip is the lifeblood of the village. She knows there's ninja who make their living going undercover through the University, but Hinata is quiet, polite, and rarely noticed because she belongs. Passing on what she hears, even if none of it is important, is something even she can do the help the village.
Seeing a friend is a pleasant way to discharge that duty.
It is only after the food is gone and Sakura has remembered to make them both teas that Sakura leans back in her chair, and runs her hands through a series of seals that Hinata can't even hope to understand.
(She doesn't have the right.)
"I've looked into the matter you've inquired about," Sakura says, pushing her glasses up onto her forehead. Without them obscuring her face, Sakura looks both younger and more intimidating. "I think I can do it. Are you sure?"
Hinata nods, clenching her hands in her lap. "How--I mean, y-yes, I want it--but how does it work?"
Sakura taps a pen on her desk in what looks like an idle manner. "A lot of people won't like it," she warns. "At least you're a woman, which makes it easier, but because of your status."
"I have no status," Hinata says quietly.
"That's not true," Sakura corrects as a hatch in the ceiling open. A rope ladder tumbles down from it. The room above looks unlit. "You don't have much, on the shinobi side, that's true, but on the civilian side? If anyone talks about Hyuuga positively, it's about you. That's power. Come on, let's go up."
Hinata waits for Sakura to scramble up the ladder before following after. Her progress is slower and less steady than Sakura's smooth, practiced elegance. By the time Hinata reaches the top, Sakura has turned the lights on in her lab.
In contrast to Sakura's cluttered office below, Sakura's lab is pristine. Another desk sits to one side, this one gleaming metal instead of wood, and there are islands of equipment and monitors. Wires are everywhere, painstakingly forced into a semblance of neatness. There are a few patient beds, which are unoccupied for the moment.
There are no windows.
Sakura's lab is several times the size of her office below. It is where she does most of her research since she is bound to the Academy for a few more years before she may move back to the hospital, and it's grander facilities.
Sakura is the Hokage's apprentice and the most talented medical ninja Konohagakure no Sato has seen since Tsunade-sama, but not even she can get around the edict that all first-generation shinobi must serve the Academy for a minimum of five years upon attaining Jounin rank.
(Should they choose to settle at Chuunin, which many do--most shinobi of Konoha are Chuunin, first generation or not--it is a mandatory ten years of service to the Academy.)
Teaching suits Sakura, Hinata thinks. Though mostly because she is still able to further her true work, with minimum interference.
"Take a seat," Sakura says, matching her words to action as Hinata gets to her feet. The trap door behind her closes with a softly. Gingerly, Hinata sits on one of the patient beds, as there's only one chair in Sakura's lab and Sakura is sitting in it. The bed is preferable, though only just, to sitting on the floor.
Hinata doesn't like Sakura's office. It is too sterile and cold for her preferences. It doesn't bother Sakura, who has discarded her glasses carelessly on her desk, but then, that's only right.
"Before I tell you how this works," Sakura says, "I have to know: do you have someone in mind to be your partner? You're single right now, aren't you?"
Hinata curls her hands around the edge of her jacket. "Yes," she says, "I'm single. And… yes, there is someone in mind." She studies Sakura, who studies her right back. "The same person as always, Sakura. If you can do this then… perhaps she will give me a chance."
"That's what I thought," Sakura mutters, half-under her breath.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" Hinata asks softly.
"I think," Sakura hesitates, "I think it could be. But Ino doesn't like being manipulated into things."
"Manipulate her?" Hinata replies, looking up with surprise colouring her voice. "I could not. I would not. This is… this is meant to be another bargaining piece. That's all." She twists her fingers in her jacket and then asks, "Do you think holding onto to this hope is… futile?"
"That's a hard question," Sakura says slowly. "I don’t think hope is ever a bad thing, and I'll be the last to say that ethics are hard and fast rules, but…"
"I will tell her," Hinata promises. "This can only be done with two people, yes? So I cannot do anything in any case without her knowing."
"There's ways," Sakura says, her face growing closed off.
"I do not want those ways," Hinata insists. She does and doesn't want to know what Sakura would do if she said otherwise, which Hinata doesn't dare. "I wanted to know if it could be done, that is all. And if she will give me a chance to speak, I will tell her what you have found. Nothing more. The rest will be up to her."
Sakura analyzes her and Hinata tries to sit up straight, and meet that gaze unflinching. It helps that she's told only the truth. It is still hard. Hinata has never liked being scrutinized.
"Okay," Sakura says finally, and Hinata knows that if this was a test, she has passed it. The tension in her gut loosens. "I'll walk you through how it should work--"
An explosion rocks the Academy and while Hinata is still clinging to the bed and trying not to fall off of it, Sakura has disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves.
Hinata bites her lip, counts to one hundred, and then tries to stand. This turns out to be a mistake as another explosion hits and she falls clumsily, catching herself on her hands. Sitting up, she inspects her stinging palms. They're sore, and she suspects her knees will be bruised tomorrow, but she's unhurt.
Rather than try to stand, just in case, Hinata crawls along the floor until she's reached the trap door. When she tries to open it, it remains stuck. Her heartbeat speeds and she squeezes her eyes shut, huddling on the floor, against the onset of panic.
She hates being trapped. It reminds her of the terrible, stifling days after Kumo had attempted to kidnap her. It reminds her of the grief-hazed days after her mother passed away.
It reminds her of how little she measures up to her father's expectations.
Hinata breathes deeply, in and out, and counts to a hundred again and then again as she gets herself under control. When she finally stands, it is after she has counted to one hundred ten times over and she still feels shaky and sick inside. Her bangs and back are damp with sweat.
She is still trapped but Hinata knows dwelling on that--on what could be happening outside--will only send her into a panic again. So she looks around and, seeing Sakura's things, her papers and pens in disarray from the explosions, Hinata says a prayer and goes to reorganize them.
When that is done, she checks the cabinets and drawers, methodically putting everything back in place.
Her timing is good.
Hinata doesn't know how many hours it has been, though at least a few have passed, when Sakura pops back into her lab in another swirl of smoke. Her clothes are filthy, her shirt ripped in two places, and dried blood mars one cheek.
"Oh thank god," Sakura says. "You're alive."
Hinata blinks, startled and chary about what that might mean. "W-Was the Academy attacked?" she asks, wondering if that's why Sakura is so concerned. "Were other people hurt? I was safe, here."
She should feel grateful for that, but Hinata can't bring herself to feel that way when she's been trapped for hours with no way of getting out. She is not a ninja, who could think of a way to escape.
She's just a civilian girl who can't even use her family's bloodline limit.
Sakura grips her by the shoulders, and Hinata can feel the tingle-fizz of some sort of jutsu run through her like a breeze. Then, as abruptly as she grabbed her, Sakura lets go. "You're not hurt," Sakura says, in relief. "Thank god. Come on, I've got to get you to your father."
Hinata would be frustrated at apparently not even being able gauge if she's okay, except for the genuine relief in Sakura's eyes--and the way Sakura's words make her stomach drop and twist. "My f-father?" Hinata stammers, upset for a different reason now. "Why do I need--Sakura, I have not… not been in his presence in two years. It is better that way."
For both of them. It spares her the crushing feeling of failure, that she's his heir and she's worthless to him, and it spares him the reminder that she exists.
"I do not want to go," she finishes simply. It does not convey the depth of her feelings, but it is clear and succinct.
"Sorry," Sakura says, her voice gentle-but-hard at the same time. "I'm under orders to find you and, if you are unharmed, to bring you to your father. Please don't make me force you, Hinata."
Looking at Sakura, Hinata knows that if she refuses, Sakura will make her. Hinata has no way to resist. Trying to fight would be futile, and trying to argue--she is already out of arguments.
Not that arguments have ever trumped orders. She understands that thoughts like that are something the Academy trains out of people.
The University doesn't. But then, civilian arguments are considered less dangerous than shinobi ones.
Hinata bows her head, knowing that acquiescing is the only way she may have a chance to get through this with dignity. "How will we get there?" she asks, her hair falling in front of her face. It is a poor shield.
It is all she has.
(And it has never done her any good in her family. The Hyuuga are famed for seeing through things. In their eyes, she is transparent.)
"I'll transport us via jutsu," Sakura says quietly. "It's not safe for you to walk outside right now."
Hinata wonders if it is safe for anyone to be, but knows not to ask that question. Sakura is a good friend, but as a shinobi, she will not understand it. Not when risking her life is what she does for a living.
Taking a deep breath, Hinata nods. She watches as Sakura, with her glasses still left abandoned on her desk, purses her lips, like she wants to say something--then doesn't.
"I--Sakura… what is it?" Hinata asks anxiously.
Sakura wraps her arms around Hinata, the strength in her arms leaving her feeling breathless. "I am always your friend," Sakura says quietly, hardly a murmur in her ear.
Hinata has no time to question, or confirm, or even wonder about the declaration before Sakura's hands have gone through that set of incomprehensible seals again and they're gone.
Only smoke and leaves left behind mark their disappearance from the lab.
Hours later, Hinata sits in her childhood bedroom, feeling like a stranger and fights the urge to cry. The room smells like fresh lilacs and baby's breath despite both being out of season.
Thirty-seven people, three of them children under the age of ten, have died today because someone is out to kill her because they--and she doesn't know who 'they' are--are angry with her father, and want to hurt him.
If she wasn't so sad, she would try and dredge up some outrage that she's not even worth being killed on her own merits, but sorrow and discomfort at being where she is have drowned out any sparks of irritation.
She doesn't understand how anyone could have done that. Was it worth it to them to set up explosives at the places she frequents and then set them all off at once? Hinata is only grateful that the death toll wasn't higher.
It could have been worse, but this knowledge doesn't comfort her at all.
Hinata knows the measure of her worth and she is not worth the lives of almost forty people.
Hinata wipes her eyes, which water despite her attempts to keep tears at bay, and clasps her hands in her lap. Crying would make her feel better, if only marginally, but crying in her family's stronghold will be held against her and, worse, used against her.
She has given them enough weapons over the years. She doesn't want to give them more, even though the dead deserve someone who mourns them.
Distantly, she wonders what her father will do. Despite her age, she has been shooed out of the planning for her own safety now that she is in the Hyuuga Compound with guards outside her door. Hinata worries at her lower lip, pressing her fingers together before forcing herself to stop it.
She is a prisoner in her father's home until he decides what will be done.
If Hanabi were here, Hinata does not think she would ever have been targeted. But Hanabi died with the rest of her Genin team on their first C rank mission outside of the village and, so, though it displeases her father greatly, Hinata remains his heir.
His defenceless heir. She has never even been able to invoke the Byakugan, though her eyes are the same pale white that the rest of her family share.
Between that, her weak heart, and her passive nature, Hinata knows how her father--how the shinobi who guard her, and will no doubt guard her in the future to come--view her.
If Hanabi were here, Hinata would be inconsequential to anyone looking to hurt her father. Hanabi had always been the one that her father had doted on.
At her sister's funeral, Hinata had cried for her younger sister. Her father had mourned the passing of his true heir.
A murmur at her door pulls her attention away from depressing memories. The door opens without anyone asking her permission, and Hinata swallows the indignity like she has all the rest. There is no point in arguing--especially when the person who steps through the door leaves her throat dry and wordless for a different reason entirely.
Ino, all loose, long blonde hair; fathomless blue eyes; and flawless skin, leans in her doorway. Her face holds a sort of casual, but deliberate, bonhomie.
Hinata isn't fooled. Ino's eyes are cold.
More than that, though, Hinata has been in love with Ino since she was seven years old. She knows Ino the way she knows no one else, and she knows something else too:
Ino does not want to be here.
Seeing her now, Hinata doesn't want her to be here either.
Staring at Ino's smiling, lying, face, all of Hinata's carefully built up hopes crumble in the face of Ino's expression. There is no compromise in Ino. No chance.
Ino will not give her a moment to explain. Looking at her, Hinata knows that.
It is unfair, and cruel, for Ino to be here in this moment, when there are more important things for Hinata to be upset about--thirty seven deaths and someone out to kill her, to begin with.
Hinata ducks her head, hiding behind her hair and ashamed of her weakness for doing so. But it's hard to face Ino, after remembering how cruel she was the last time they talked, really talked, several years ago.
It doesn't change the fact that Hinata loves Ino, all of her, even when her sharp tongue turns vicious, as it had. But seeing her brings back the pain and makes her wonder why she'd even thought trying again might be a good idea.
People like to say that Ino is a flower. Gorgeous, fragile, delicate.
Hinata knows better. Ino is a dragon.
And now the dragon is watching her, pinning her with a gaze bluer than the sky. Hinata can't bring herself to look up, though after licking her lips, she says, her voice very soft, "You've come back alive."
She's known Ino was alive, but seeing her-it is different.
Better, Hinata supposes, though it hurts too.
"As if a mission could kill me," Ino scoffs scornfully.
Hinata just nods. She has no idea what could kill Ino or not. Ino is a Jounin, but that means nothing to Hinata except that Ino is skilled and skilled ninja die just as fast as unskilled ones to her eyes.
Their missions scale with their abilities.
"I'm glad you're alive," Hinata says quietly, then forces herself to look up at Ino. "What are you doing here, Ino?" she asks, when nothing else seems to be coming from Ino.
(Of course not, that would make it too easy.)
"Oh, this and that," Ino says so dismissively that Hinata knows she's telling a lie. It makes her heart pound with hope-is it possible that Ino was worried about her?-and fear, for it far more likely that there is some plan, something to deal with the assassination attempts, and Ino will be part of it.
"Have you… have you heard about the injured?" Hinata asks quietly, because the dying and the hurt are more important than her confused and bewildered feelings for Ino. If she has to choose her questions, she'll choose the ones that sting less and are more important anyway. "Are they going to be alright?"
Ino's cool eyes soften a smidgen and Hinata's heart sinks. She bites her lip as Ino says, "They've lost another two and three more… well, the medics don't know if they'll make it yet."
"Why?" Hinata swallows, looking back down at her hands, which tremble slightly. She clasps them together so tight that the knuckles whiten. It doesn't help. "Why would anyone do all of that just to get to me? My father… I am nothing to him."
It's not prudent to say that in her father's home, but it's the truth and everyone knows it. Hinata ignores the dull ache saying it out loud brings her.
"If they wanted to kill me, there was no need to do it this way," she continues. "I am nothing to a shinobi. If one wants me dead… there was no need for anyone else to die. It's just cruelty."
Ino says nothing.
Hinata wipes at her eyes, entirely unsure of when she's started crying, and concentrates on her breathing, trying to get herself under control. She waits for Ino to say something, anything.
"Yes," Ino says finally, "their method of execution was sloppy."
She flinches, her shoulders hunching up defensively. "Th-then why?"
Ino's heels are soundless as Ino moves from the doorway to crouch in front of Hinata faster than Hinata can blink. She meets Ino's gaze, knowing that it's even odds that Ino is reading her mind.
Hinata doesn't ask what Ino gets out of the gaze. She's not sure she wants to know. Ino's hands on her knees are firm and warm.
"Because whoever did this is cruel," Ino says. "That's all there is to it. Hurting your father is the goal, but if other people get hurt in the meantime… they're just collateral damage."
"That's so sad," Hinata says softly. "They were worth more than that."
"So are you," Ino tells her and stands, offering Hinata one manicured hand. "Come on, your father is going to be wondering why you're still here. We're running out of time to make a graceful escape."
She stares at the hand, and then tilts her head to look up at Ino as she takes it. "A graceful escape?"
Even standing, Ino is taller than she is. Part of that is the heels, since Hinata prefers a small heel over Ino's stilettos, but even without them Ino is taller.
"Yeah," Ino says, tugging Hinata out of her room, past the Hyuuga guards. "He's a stuffed old shirt, but he'll notice eventually."
"I'm supposed to stay here," Hinata says, knowing that Ino is being gentle in her tugging since it doesn't hurt at all. "What if there's another attack?"
Ino stops abruptly.
Hinata nearly runs into her, but Ino twists so that they're facing each other before that can happen. Ino is faster than a blink, Hinata thinks, a bit startled. Pointlessly she wonders how ninja manage that.
"Do you want to stay here?" Ino demands, studying Hinata intently.
She can't hold up under that gaze and ducks her head. "I don't want anyone else hurt because of me," she says truthfully. "If staying here will prevent that, then I… I want to stay here."
She doesn't want to stay here, in her father's house, where she is less than a ghost and weaker than the children who are deemed proper Hyuuga. Just thinking about it, how oppressive living here would be, makes Hinata's spirit shrivel up.
But Hinata would rather hurt herself than allow other people to get hurt. Always.
"It won't be that bad," Ino says, her voice gentling, though her hands on Hinata's arms tighten their grip until it's almost painful. "Your father's given permission for you to leave, so long as you're under guard."
Hinata meets Ino's eyes. "And you're my guard?"
She can't think of a better, or worse, guard than Ino. Hinata trusts Ino's competence, but she knows all the reasons why it's a bad idea too. She wonders if her father does.
"Yeah," Ino says, "yeah. I'm your guard. There will be others, but I'll be the one you see."
"And what if I choose to stay here?" Hinata asks. "Will you still be the guard I see while I'm surrounded by my blood?"
Ino's face tightens and for a moment Hinata thinks she won't answer, but then she does. "No," Ino says. "Hyuuga-sama has told me that, should you wish to remain here, he will not have you protected by outsiders."
"Will I be safer here," Hinata asks, "than I will be with you? I… no, that is not the right question. The right one is: will other people be safer?"
"There are children in the Hyuuga compound as well," Ino says. "And non-combatants--both civilian and retired shinobi. There are old people, sick people, and injured people within these walls. Just as there are outside of them. You want to know where you'll be safest? I don't know. In an ANBU holding cell, maybe."
"Do you want me to be locked up?" Hinata asks quietly, her blood running cold at the thought of that. She'd never even considered… never thought of a cell being her safest place.
ANBU cells were meant for traitors and enemies to the village. Not for the likes of her.
Something indefinable slides behind Ino's flawless blue eyes. That Hinata can see that much means Ino is letting her see it. She doesn't answer the question but, instead, asks another one: "If you stay here," she says, "aren't you just in a cell of a different kind?"
Hinata's chin jerks up and she pulls herself away from Ino, who lets her go easily. Hinata's hands tremble. She tries to hide that by curling her fingers around the hem of her jacket. It doesn't help her feelings one whit.
"I can't say that," she says, shocked at Ino's daring.
Ino's smile is edged like a razor. "Why do you think I said it?" She holds out one hand and Hinata stares at it, heart pounding. "Are you coming or not?"
Hinata hesitates for a long, long moment while Ino waits with patience that would surprise anyone who didn't know her. Then, she takes Ino's hand.
"Look after me," she says quietly. "Please."
Ino's fingers close around her hand gently. "Come on," Ino says. "We're going to have to go shopping if you're going to be staying with me. Most of your things are gone, huh? Well, shopping is a pretty good way to get your mind off this situation."
Index || Next Chapter
Originally posted on DW. Comment there. (Unless you want to comment here. That's fine too.)