Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Secrets of the Hidden Leaf	By : Sessakag Category: Naruto > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 114078 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 18-Eighteen
- 19-Chapter Nineteen
- 18
- 19
Nineteen

May 28, 2011

Hinata exhaled bliss, her eyes drooping as another trickle of water dripped over naked hip. Her mind felt hazy and content, her body replete and pleasantly achy. Cuddled atop the wide, muscled expanse of her lover’s chest in a bathtub filled nearly to the brim with warm, Epsom salted water, the tired Hyuuga felt moments away from dreamland. Water splashed, the sound a soothing, tranquil chime reverberating within the walls of the damp bathroom as a second rivulet flowed down her arm. Her eyes drifted close as contentment seeped into her bones, the world fading away for several moments, and as just as she was giving in to the sway of exhaustion, the sudden touch of her boyfriend roused her enough for mortification to break through her peace.
His calloused hand cupped her right buttock and lifted, his body stretching forwards slightly beneath her as his other hand pooled the water between her cheeks, and a gentle finger coated in a special intimate cleanser swirled inside her rosebud, dissolving the residue of his creamy deposit.
A tender kiss to her crown drew her mind from the embarrassing act, soothing her ruffled feathers and coaxing her eyes to close once more.
Hinata didn’t think she’d ever get through these…embarrassing but nescessary moments without blushing.
Once she was cleaned to his satisfaction, Naruto went back to drizzling warm water over her soak softened skin…
“Rise and shine sunshine,” he rumbled at her ear an eternity later, rousing her from the mini-nap she couldn’t remember falling into, “time to get out, water’s getting cold.”
Blinking drowsily, Hinata willed the fog in her psyche to clear, and strength to return to her jellied limbs.
Wasted effort on her part.
Naruto rose, scooping her up along with him, cuddling her to his chest as though she weighed less than a feather. She startled slightly as he handed her off to a clone, but settled quickly as his lookalike wrapped her in a fluffy towel that felt like it’d been pulled fresh from the dryer. Warmth permeated her wet skin, hitting her like a sleeping tonic.
Hinata sighed as she was laid down on the bed, tummy first.
She grabbed the nearest pillow and stuffed it under her cheek, happy as a clam to rest her its sudden weight on her shoulders. She was dosing when the mattress dipped by her hip, and a familiar hand palmed the left cushy globe of her naked bottom, giving it a slightly stinging slap before treating the other to the same attention.
The love taps were tame compared to what her rear-end had been dealt an hour earlier in the living room, but layered atop her the remnants of her earlier spanking, the stung more than the normally would have.
A soft sound left her throat, a cross between a whine and sluggish hum, drawing a chuckle from the original.
“Sorry,” he said, the grin in his voice audible, hands groping shamelessly despite the apology, “can’t help it. You have no idea how good your ass looks all the time. Especially when its all red and covered in handprints,‘ttebayo.”
Cheeks burning, Hinata buried her face deeper into the pillow.
His laughter followed the bashful move, the pleasant, baritone sound vibrating against her skin as he pressed a warm kiss to her derrière.
“Got something special planned for you,” he murmured against her plump flesh, his nose nuzzling the tantalizing under-curve of her bottom as he continued, “tomorrow night, tonight though, I’ll give you something to help you sleep.”
Roused by those cryptic words, Hinata peeked from her pillow to ask follow up questions, only to come face to dick with the second Naruto standing over the bed. He winked at her then reached for their bedside table, opening the drawer to grab a familiar tube from inside. Her new round of embarrassment was dulled compared to the first time she saw that tube, but there none the less, rosing her cheeks and driving her face back to the pillow.
Two low chuckles filled the room as the pop of a top sounded and finger pulled her lower cheeks apart.
“One day, you’re gonna be able to do this without blushing,” Naruto hypothesized, pressing soothing cream inside her bottom with all the casual mannerisms of discussing the weather.
Hinata disagreed, silently hypothesizing that the day she did this without her ears steaming would be the day after never .
“Though, can’t say I’m looking forward to that day,” the clone hummed, “I like my shy girlfriend that loves getting her ass pounded then hides like a cute little kitten when its time for aftercare. It’ll suck to lose that cuteness, ya know.”
Lava faced, yet flattered beyond words, Hinata settled for a pitiful, muffled, “N-N-Naruto-kun.”
“Alright, alright, we’re done teasing,” Naruto laughed, then sobered, “time for a bedtime treat.”
She poked her head out again, lilac depths questioning.
“I liked being fed by a gorgeous naked woman tonight,” the blonde copy told her, bending to run his fingers along her naked shoulder, “watching your beautiful body move, stroking your soft skin while you put me in a food coma. After a treat like that, can’t help but wanna give you one too.”
“So lie down,” Naruto commanded with a swat to her backside, “sweep your hair to the side and relax.”
Curiosity and anticipation coiling in her belly, Hinata returned to the comfort of her pillow, tumbling her long dark hair to the side as she folded her arms beneath her pillow.
A beat passed, and then a second pillow was shoved beneath her stomach by her boyfriend’s double.
“Comfortable?” they asked in unison.
The pillow was extra firm and raised her lower half a bit, but otherwise was fine.
“Yes,” she answered, turning her head to watch the clone dig around again in the bedside table.
A dull heat took residence in her lower abdomen as his hardened cock bobbed with him as he moved. Her mouth watering, taste buds tingling as she recalled the pleasant weight of his cock on her tongue, the delicious heat of his meat, the satisfying hardness of his dick as it stretched her lips.
Pressing a hand to her salivating mouth, Hinata wondered if he’d let her have one last taste before bed.
If he’d let her suck and suckle as she drifted off to sleep-
A tanned hand circled her nape and half of her throat, tugging until her was slightly suspended above the pillow. Her eyes flew to her boyfriend’s copy as he squat down beside the bed, arousal surging as she met his smoldering sapphire eyes.
“We got shit to do tomorrow, and we need to get some sleep,” he told her, leaning in for a kiss that made her head spin, before parting just as abruptly to say, “we’re not gonna be able to do that if you keep looking like there’s a buffet of all your favorite food in my lap,” he licked her lips, molded his own to them to share a puff of air between them as he muttered, “knock it off.”
His tongue dipped back inside before she could respond, twining around her own, battling into submission as he conquered the moist confines of her mouth. She melted in his grip, giving up the fight to keep up with the aggressive sweeps of his tongue, allowing him to plunder unhindered instead. She was breathless when he drew back, her body tingling all over.
“Apologize for making me wanna fuck you all you night long, Hinata,” he growled in her mouth.
Desire washed across her senses, pussy throbbing as his hand gave a squeeze to her throat that hitched her breath, “I’m sorr-”
He smashed their lips together, hard. Sucking the apology right out of her mouth.
“Do you have any idea how hard its gonna be to let you sleep tonight?” he complained through smooches.
“Bet she doesn’t have the slightest clue,” her boyfriend muttered from the end of the bed, his voice fading as he wandered into the direction of the bathroom, his words barely audible over the running water that flipped on a beat later, “gonna be blue balls all night tonight.”
“Yep,” the clone grumbled, nibbling her bottom lip, before suggesting, “why don’t we just wake up a few hours early, before Sasuke gets here. Let her suck all she wants,” his thumb traced her saliva slick mouth as he spoke, carnal hunger transforming his eyes stormy blue, “then spank her ass red and fuck her till she screams.”
The water turned off, the bathroom light went out, and Naruto strutted out, wiping wet hands on his sweats, “sounds like a plan to me, ‘ttebayo.”
The clone grinned at his creator, before turning back to smooch her one last time,“lie down, and behave this time.”
Aching, but unwilling to risk losing his morning promise, Hinata dropped back to the bed, her eyes straying in a concerted effort not to find herself entranced all over again, with the phallus-shaped object of her affectionate craving.
“Ready?” Naruto asked his twin.
“Yep,” he replied, absently tracing her plump bottom lip before standing.
The lights went out, throwing her into darkness.
Seconds later, two candles cast the room in muted glow of amber. Having spent the last hour circling the abyss of unconsciousness, the flickering illumination quickly left her eyelids feeling heavy. She was halfway to dreamland when something warm and slick dribbled down her spine. Then big, equally warm hands pressed into the liquid. The scent of lavender fill her senses, and those hands started a heavenly glide up and down her back.
Unable to fight it anymore, Hinata’s eyes drifted close as Naruto massaged the essential oil into her skin.
Up and down. Slow and pressured.
His hands eased every stress, every strain and ache, hiding within the woven sinew of her muscles.
There was something in the oil, she distantly realized, something that made her skin warm and tingly, her limbs loose and heavy…
Her head floaty.
A deep sigh compressed her lungs as his hands smoothed down her back at a snails pace, his touch seeming to echo in the places he passed as though a thousand hands were tracing the same path.
A consequence of the oil she was sure.
It was absolutely divine.
His hands coasted over her buttocks, glided down her legs and caught at her feet.
Hinata could count on one hand the times she’d had her feet massaged, however, she could safely say that this one was by far the be the best, bar none. Ankle, heel, sole and toes, he slippery hands massaged, manipulated and soothed her dainty feet, his touch too soft and deliberate to trigger involuntary giggles.
His trip back up was a mirror of his descent, but this time, there were stops along the way.
Pauses in which he squeezed and rolled her muscle between his hands, loosening lingering tension while simultaneously shoving her closer to slumber.
She was half unconscious when she felt her lower half be adjusted, the pillow at her tummy rearranged, and something warm slide beneath her pelvis. Her sluggish brain didn’t have time to identify what it was before it clarified itself in the form of a wet tongue sliding between her nether lips to find her unsuspecting nub. She shuddered as he swirled her button, slathering her hood in warm saliva before swirling her again. The first moan of many vibrated her throat as Naruto settled her thighs comfortably around his head, his big hands sliding up to knead her oil slicked rear-end as he began a spine tingling campaign to evict her soul from her body through pleasure alone.
Her breath hitched as laved her gentle, circling her clit with leisurely whirls, his nose, tucked against her groin tickling her skin with warm puffed air.
His double continued her bone melting massage as though nothing had changed.
Using his thumbs and the heel of his palms across her shoulders, then smoothing all the way down soft tissue that led to the dip in her spine and back again, his hands like absolute magic as they traced her delicate shape. The combination of his naughty mouth and healing hands was as devastating as it was blissful, the dual sensations both stimulating and sedating, exciting and soothing.
She exhaled, tension melding from her lush form, her body boneless and limp but for the subtle circling of her hips as the low drumbeat of ecstasy echoed throughout her.
“That’s it baby,” the clone crooned in her ear, kneading gently at her nape with firm, oily thumbs, “relax and enjoy it.”
She couldn’t move even if she tried.
Her kneaded muscles were useless, the sopping tongue twirling her clit far too addicting.
Of all the times he’d tongued her sopping cunt, this was the most tender and unhurried he’d ever been, as though he had eternity to coax her to orgasm; leisurely building the tension in her lower abdomen in gentle waves like a serene tide on a beach in paradise. Her whole body was a mass of rippling ecstasy, every pleasure receptor in her shuddering form alive and tingling on edge. Mutedly wound up tight inside but profoundly at ease, sluggishly tired despite trembling with the stirrings of impending climax.
Naruto wrapped his hands around her lower back, hugging her tight against his face, pressing her slippery button into his softly suckling mouth.
Her toes curled, hips rocking against his tongue as starbursts of rapture detonated in her veins. Oiled palms slowly traced her spine, thumbs pressing into her muscle all the way up to her shoulders, the pressure so perfect, so exactly what she needed her eyes rolled behind her eyelids, a shuddering cry lost in her pillow.
Gods almighty she was in heaven …
The sloppy tongue between her legs circled, once, twice, and again, then dipped inside her hungrily contracting hole for its reward. Her nipples ached as he swirled inside, gathering the nectar her pussy wept, before thrusting deep at sluggish pace that nearly drove her insane. Excruciatingly slow, deliberately sweeping her sensitive walls.
She shuddered, clutching the pillow beneath her as though the plush square could prevent the seams of her sanity from unraveling.
Tortured bliss left her throat in a long, muffled moan as his mouth engulfed her clit again.
She sucked in a breath and held it as a electrical current lashed her spine, his mercilessly leisurely suckling almost too much to bear.
Like a shark circling, he sensed her weakening deference and struck.
Latching onto her clit for another devastating round of gentle suckling, but letting his tongue slide through his lips to find that bundle of nerves hiding within her little hood with the quick flickering tip of his tongue.
It caught her off guard, the abrupt snapping of the damn.
Orgasm rolled through her, blasting her from all sides in a series of ripples that felt both gentle and brutal, emptying her mind and engaging her entire nervous system, aggressively involving her entire her entire body in the fiery explosion. Sharp lashes of rapture cascaded across her flesh, as though the oil rubbed into it was relaying the pleasure at the apex of her thighs over every single place the clone’s massaging hands had touched.
Gripping the pillow until her knuckles blanched, Hinata gasped for air, moaning pitifully into the pillow as the echoes from earlier returned with a vengeance; thousands of shadow hands running over her shoulders and back, thighs and feet, their weight and pressure as real to her as the actually hands touching her. Heightening the orgasm touching her in places it shouldn’t.
The inability of her melted muscles to tighten against the waves of sensation worsening the devastating ecstasy destroying her from the inside out.
Heavy weight pressed onto her back.
The contours of hard flesh familiar, the hard cock resting between her buttocks even more so.
She knew it was the clone on top of her, because her boyfriend hadn’t moved beneath her, hadn’t stopped his gentle assault.
She could still feel the wet heat of his mouth, his tongue collecting the rivulets flowing from her pussy.
He rocked into her, sliding the weight of his sex back and forth, the oil creating a lubricated glide in the crevice of her ass. A hand fisted her locks at her nape, greedy lips finding her throat as humped her bottom with mounting excitement. Low groans rumbled against her skin, his grip tightening painfully as the bed rocked below them.
She could feel him, pulsing between her ass-cheeks.
Hard as steel.
Velvet heat.
He stiffened abruptly, gripping her hip tight enough to leave his finger indentions, his hips shoving against her backside sloppily several times before stilling.
A shuddering breath left his lungs as he calmed, his sucking lips gentling on her throat.
His weight sagged as they both slipped into euphoria, his bulk flatting her lungs but filling her with a primitive satisfaction.
All too soon, he rolled to the side.
Returning oxygen to her lung, but leaving her cold in his wake.
She drifted.
Eyes drooping, then sliding closed, sleep hovering on the edge of her consciousness.
Through an immense fog she felt him move, detangling himself from beneath her and sliding the pillow from under her. Seconds ticked by, and then he was on her again, an identical weight and heat to the one before him. Stretching over her boneless body, nudging his cock between her buttocks in the process.
Harsh panting filled her ears as he rocked against her, barely audible to her fading consciousness.
She arched her bottom as much her lax muscles and his greater weight allowed, tingling as the friction between them sparked remnants of hunger in her tummy.
He didn’t last any longer than the clone.
A few pounding thrust of his moist groin before pressing hard against the her plush ass, shuddering and groaning as climax brought his hips to a still.
This time, hot and creamy semen spurted across her buttocks and lower back.
The sensation infinitely pleasant on her skin.
Naruto’s sigh of sexual relief pierced the quiet, his expanding chest drawing a content mewl from her. He kissed, soft pecks to her shoulder and neck, lingering to add his own marks to his clone’s frenzied hickeys. Hinata was too far beneath exhaustion to respond, her mind and body giving up the fight to stay conscious. She barely felt him rise and clean the little puddle he’d left on her back, or registered the shift in gravity when he climbed into bed beside her and took her in his arms; nor did she the hear the rumble of the sweet words he whispered to her with his lips pressed to her bangs.
The bedtime treat had taken the last of her strength.
Lulled to sleep by a tranquility of mind and body she’d never known before.
xxxxxx

May 29, 2011

Sakura knocked on the door for the third time in the two minutes she’d been standing in front of it. She waited with anxiety fueled impatience, listening for any sign of life inside the house.
Several seconds of silence passed, punctured only by the gentle ambiance of the surrounding forest.
A choirs of caws and the flutter of birds.
Rustling bushes and the snap of twigs.
The gentle swish swaying trees, but inside the house…
Nothing.
With a tired sigh, Sakura dug in her pocket for the key, stuck it in the lock and let herself inside.
Lee was usually home when she got off work, especially when she planned on staying over for a while. Sakura wouldn’t risk spending more than two nights in a row at Lee’s, so when she did, as she planned to this week, the excited taijutsu master would have to be forcefully pried away from his home to get him to leave. Otherwise, like a lovestruck puppy, Rock Lee would remain in his cozy one story house waiting for her to return.
This was the first time he hadn’t, and his absence wounded her far more than she would have expected.
Her shoulders sagged as that afternoon’s contentious conversation replayed in her head.
Her bitting comments in the face of his concern.
His unspoken hurt and forced smile in the permeating awkwardness that followed.
After the way she acted, the things she’d said, she didn’t know why she was surprised he hadn’t shown up this evening. Sakura wouldn’t have wanted to be around herself either.
Of everyone in her life, Lee deserved her bitterness the least, and by least, she meant none at all.
She wasn’t angry with him after all, she was angry with herself .
Taking it out him was a shitty thing to do on her part.
It wasn’t his fault her husband stood her up the other night, nor did he shoulder the blame for her drunken demand for sex and comfort last night. He wasn’t the reason her marriage was imploding, or that she was unhappy in life.
Lee was the innocent in this corrosive affair she’d entwined them in.
She was stringing him along, knowing he was hoping for more than she could ever give him, and that’s not the type of person she was, it wasn’t the person she wanted to be.
She owed him an apology; more than that, she owed him freedom to find a relationship in which he was loved equally, no, more than equally, adored by someone that could appreciate the kind, loving, funny, sweethearted man that he was.
And…that person wasn’t her.
Making her way down the short hallway leading to the living room, Sakura willed the pain in her chest to ease. What was there for her to be hurt about over that fact?
She…
She didn’t want to be that person.
From the very start, she had never wanted to be that person to Lee, after all, she had her own husband, her own life, her own relationship she’d spent nearly most of her life dreaming of, chasing after. Having finally gotten what she wanted, she wasn’t looking to throw it all away and start over. This thing between them was purely sex, nothing less, and certainly nothing more. Drilling that reality into her head over and over again, Sakura found her bag in his closet, and made the rounds around the room, picking up stray items that belong to her and stuffing them in her overnight duffel, her throat aching as she zipped the bag.
She wasn’t in love with Lee…
She would never be that careless…
Glancing once more around the room, Sakura searched for any stragglers she missed.
Seeing none, she headed back out into the hall, pausing in the doorway as her eyes began to burn.
She could admit, if only to herself, that her decision to renew her commitment to the vows she’d taken had been more of a defense mechanism in the aftermath of her drunken mistake with Lee, that she was panicking because sleeping with Lee without his mask had made her feel, truly feel like the adulterer she’d been for the last six months. As though that incident had held up a mirror directly to her face, exposing the ugly would she’d dealt her relationship. Now, however, now faced with the terrifying symptoms in her heart as she prepared to sever things with secret lover for good, the implications of the pain that thought brought her, ending things with Lee was in both their best interests. Vital even; before things become…complicated.
Blinking away wetness, Sakura made her way back out, locking the door and pocketing the key.
She had made her decision, but…she wasn’t cruel enough, cowardly enough to walk out on him without telling him she was leaving. Without giving him an explanation and hopefully, closure before she did.
She would return, when he was home.
They’d talk, and after, if he was willing, return to the friends they’d been before this.
With bag in hand, Sakura made her way home.
Though her overnight wasn’t heavy, the medical kunoichi walked as though it weighed more than the world itself. The tan strap sagged on her shoulder, a breaths away from dragging across the dirt road leading to the house she shared with her husband. Orange streaks of the fading sun stretched across the darkening sky, and while there was still more than enough daytime light lingering, Sakura could swear the world around her was already cast in shadow. Shades of gray painted the vibrant but rapidly thinning swell of villagers enjoying the splendor of sunset on the grassy patches of land between her and her destination, the ache in her chest drowning out the serenity of silence as she left the civilian stragglers behind minutes late.
Cresting the hill overlooking her domicile, Sakura felt that tightness in chest spread.
The lights were off. Curtains drawn.
Sasuke wasn’t there, waiting for her.
Why would he?
Their arguments and strife aside, when she left, she ususally didn’t come back for days. Sasuke wouldn’t be expecting her home, so it made sense he’d still be out at this hour. Though, that bit of logic was little consolation considering the fact that, when he was expecting her, he still didn’t elect to lay his head in the two-story home they’d bought together.
As she stood there, hesitating on the path, she finally understood why he didn’t.
Part of her, a large part of her in that moment…
…didn’t want to go home either…
Didn’t want to sit in a empty house that echoed waiting for a husband that might not show.
Didn’t want to deal with that husband if he did.
She couldn’t run back to Lee, even if her muscles thrummed with tension to do just that.
If this marriage was going to survive another year, they both had to stop running away from it.
Swallowing knotted dread in her throat, Sakura closed the distance between her and her front porch, each step feeling as though she were walking through molasses. Once inside, she held her breath, teeth gritted as the silence screamed, hurrying to her bedroom to set her bag down before retracing her steps right back out.
She was out the door in less than a minute, moving in a different direction.
Justifying her exit with the notion that this was on her to-do list anyway.
A half-lie.
She hadn’t planned on running this errand until she had fully severed her inappropriate relationship with Lee, reconnected emotionally with her husband and spent a few more productive sessions with Dr. Isako. Working out the details before strengthening the foundation was a recipe for disaster.
But…
If it gave her just a bit more time before she had to face her life, it was worth it to her.
The Yamanaka flower shop was already closed when she arrived, but Sakura knew better. Sidling up to the closed sign hanging on the door, Sakura pressed her hand to the wood beside it. A current of chakra surged up her arm, and then a lock clicked.
Taking a stabilizing breath, hoping her troubles weren’t laid bare on her face, Sakura opened the door and slipped inside.
Inside, the flower shop had undergone a transformation.
Embracing the secret business that lived underground.
There was a perfume in the air, something elusive that tipped her towards arousal.
Flickering candlelight pierced the intimate darkness of the storeroom, the rows upon rows of flower cloaked beneath genjutsu, displaying vibrant purple flowers of an exotic variety she couldn’t place, their splayed petals reminiscent of spread labia, winking clitorises and rosebud holes.
Real ‘subtle’ decor.
Ino emerged from the dark bowels of the employee door behind the register, her body swathed in a sheer, purple halter top that complimented the snowy white heart-shaped adhesive bra barely obscuring her nipples. Sakura couldn’t make out her lower half behind the register, but she was sure it was something just as scandalous.
“You look like hell,” Ino announced as she neared.
“Oh wow, thanks, I needed that,” Sakura deadpanned, rolling her eyes as she crossed the flora laden shop, “you really know how to cheer a girl up, Ino, I’m so lucky to have a friend like you.”
“Pipe down, smart ass, I’m trying to be caring,” the blonde returned, amusement tugging her lips, though she sobered in the next moment, the lens of the afore mentioned concern plain to see, her voice soft as she asked, “what happened?”
Sakura drew in a breath, then leaned in towards her friend, her voice low, “nothing happened, well…not what you’re thinking anyway. I just…kinda had an epiphany in the hospital bathroom when you left. Thought a lot about what you said earlier, you know, about…finding a more creative solution to fix some of the problems in my marriage.”
Ino blinked, her blues eyes surprised, “well this is a unexpected u-turn, forehead. You all but told me to go to hell in the cafeteria and now you changed your mind?”
“I haven’t changed my mind on your suggestion,” the pinkette negated with a shake of her head, feeling sick at the thought, “I just think there’s an even better solution that didn’t cross my mind until now.”
In fact, it was so simple she was kicking herself that she hadn’t thought to try it before.
“Oh?” Ino hummed, twirling a strand of blonde hair, blue depths expectant.
Now, the not so fun part.
Sakura cleared her throat, pacing towards the register as she started, “so, The Erotic Blossom is basically a one-stop-shop for everything sex, and I-”
“Of course it is,” Ino boasted, chin raised, ego on full blast, “with nearly fifty years in business under it’s belt, The Erotic Blossom is the only sex shop in the entire world that-”
“I’m already a Blossom shopper, spare me the sells pitch, Ino-pig,” Sakura huffed, a measure of amusement at unfurling when the disgruntled shop owner muttered ‘party pooper’ beneath her breath,“anyway, I need a specific item, and considering the Blossoms unmatched inventory variety- don’t start bragging again- I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that’ll help.”
Though a bit miffed that her peacocking over the diverse supply the Blossom offered had been prematurely nipped in the bud, Ino dropped her pouting bestie role and shifted into businesswoman mode, “I’ve never had a request I couldn’t fulfill. What do you need?”
Embarrassed now, Sakura raised a fist to her mouth and cleared her throat dramatically, as thought that action would dislodge the humiliating request from her throat.
“Are you blushing?” Ino burst, torn between incredulity and hilarity, “who do you think you are, Hinata Hyuuga?”
“Oh shut up,” Sakura crossed her arms, face aflame, “it’s embarrassing alright?!”
Rolling her eyes skyward, Ino rounded the register, revealing the booty-cut starchy white shorts encasing her lower half, stopping in front of her flush faced friend, hands to hips as she shot back, “you shut up. Jeez, drama queen. Don’t you realize that you’re in the presence of you totally open minded, totally nonjudgmental bestie that runs a sex shop and has seen and heard the weirdest, most sexually depraved shit your mind could never dream of conjuring. So please, do explain exactly why you’re embarrassed talking about it with me of all people?”
The medical kunoichi sighed, lips pursed in pout.
That was true.
Sakura could probably come up with the most ‘sexually depraved’ shit she could think of, and Ino Yamanaka wouldn’t bat an eye.
“Spill, forehead,” totally nonjudgmental bestie urged, giving the other woman’s Byakugou seal a poke, “come on. Whatever you need, it can’t be worse than-”
Slapping a hand over the other woman’s wine painted lips, Sakura glared a warning.
Over the years, Ino had complained to their friend’s group about the ‘unique’ appetites that come through her shop… colorful stories involving some very…sickening proclivities of nameless, description-less customers, and quite a few had left those in hearing range scarred for life.
Sakura had more than enough mental scars, thank you very much.
Ino rolled her eyes but left the sentence unfinished.
Satisfied, she dropped her hands, hoping there wasn’t a lip-shaped lipstick shape in her hand.
Exhaling, the pinkette gazed off to the side, tracing the genital-shaped vine of flowers pouring over the side of a nearby hanging flowerpot as she muttered, “I need something that’ll…”
“Hmmmm,” Ino hummed, leaning closer to Sakura’s reluctant mouth, “something that’ll…?
“Do…do you have omething that’ll…” she cleared her throat, dislodging the humiliating words, “k-keep me wet no matter how rough the sex gets.”
There.
She said.
And honestly, she had never felt more humiliated in her life.
This was far worse than she thought it’d be. It wasn’t so much that she was making this request of her best friend, it was the fact that she needed to request such a item at all. She felt like a failure as a woman, as a wife, that she needed help doing what should be natural for her body to do. Like there was something wrong with her for not being able to satisfy her husband urges, even just a little bit. They had so much going wrong outside the bedroom, so many instances where they couldn’t find the right wavelength that their lack of sync between the sheets felt like a death nail rather than a bump in the road.
“Indeed I do,” the Yamanaka answered, “now, you’ll have to be careful with it, it does come with a risk of addiction. Because of that, I only sell it in small doses at a fixed schedule to reduce that risk. Take it as directed, no exceptions, got it?”
Thankful Ino wasn’t making a big deal about the request, sparing her further humiliation, Sakura nodded.
“Keep in mind, this only keeps your body revved,” Ino stated, her face serious, eyes warning, “any sexual hang ups you have, are still present up here,” she said, pointing to her blonde head, “and while your body might not care, your head will, and sometimes, that can make things worse.”
Of course, because, why would anything in her life ever be simple?
Well…
There was nothing she could do about future hurtles at the moment. All she could do was take it one step at a time and deal with issues as they happened.
She nodded again.
“Alright, well, let’s get you sorted out,” Ino invited, gesturing to the darkened doorway of the Employee’s only entrance.
“I’ll wait here,” Sakura insisted, heat returning to her cheeks.
The Blossom was extremely busy at night, and there was no telling who was in the bowels of the sex shop, who would recognize and speculate on why she was there. Even if Sakura knew no one in the shop would dare speak her secrets aloud, even to her, she didn’t want anyone to know that Sakura Haruno needed…assistances staying wet.
She had enough on her plate as it is.
Ino didn’t make a fuss.
The shop owner merely nodded, disappeared below stairs for a few minutes and returned with a little velvet pouch. Ino went over the instructions and warnings as she rung her up, then handed her the pouch.
Sakura didn’t linger after that.
She made her way home beneath a brightly lit night, taking her time as though headed for the gallows.
She noticed it as she neared her front door.
In the dark sky, the moon was full.
Despite their troubles, her reluctance to face them, worry gripped her chest. If he wasn’t coming home then, where would he go tonight? Would he suffer through it within the walls of Konoha? Or would he travel far from the village until that bright white celestial body was gone?
Sakura could only hope, if he wasn’t coming back tonight, that he wouldn’t be anywhere near Konoha until morning.
xxxxxx
Standing at the apex of a familiar forked dirt road, Sasuke stood gazing at the little house at the end of the path leading left, silently battling indecision for what felt like the millionth time in the last two years.
Sakura was home.
Either that or someone else had turned on his living room light.
Knowing the latter was far outside the realm of possibility, Sasuke indulged a slow inhale and even slower exhale as the low kindling of stress crept into his awareness. Like the sudden onset of a bad cold, his body began displaying a myriad of symptoms. Tension gathered along the line of shoulders, and a dull throb started up in his temples. While he hadn’t been in the best of moods after dropping Karin off at the holding facility, he recognized that the subtle simmer of irritation he’d carried to and from today’s mission was slowly melding into a cauldron of agitation awaiting a target to vent it on.
He hadn’t expected her to return so soon, she never had before.
When Sakura got angry enough to leave, she spent at least four days in the guest room at Ino’s house, and he’d been counting on those few days of reprieve to deal with his current Taka turmoil and the impending full moon slated to loom over Konoha tonight.
He wondered idly what this change meant. If her presence was a good omen or a bad one.
If he even wanted to find out.
Rubbing at the tightness between his nape and shoulder blades, his mind wandered back to the last few days he spent at home with his wife.
The pins and needles atmosphere following therapy, the argument that culminated in the pulverization of their kitchen table against the dinning room wall, the note he’d come home to the day after with the scathing words she’d left him before taking off.
That ache in his temples grew.
Turning, Sasuke retraced his steps, walking in the opposite direction. He didn’t have it in him to deal with more marital strife. Especially not tonight.
Not after the fight they’d had, the note she’d left.
Not with the moon already breaking through the heavy thicket of gray clouds in the night sky, and the memories lapping at the fringe of his mind.
He was tired.
Tired and susceptible to the ugliness that festered inside of him.
The road was empty but for him, the sound of his sandaled feet on dirt and the surrounding croaks and chirps of nocturnal wildlife a rhythmic beat in the eerie hush. On a normal night, a normal walk, Sasuke would have found the peace calming.
Tonight, the noises, the darkness, the vacancy set his teeth on edge.
He realized thirty seconds down the road what was happening, he’d found himself trapped in this purgatory more times than he cared to count, after all.
Full moons in Konoha were a special type of torment.
They fucked with his head. Showed him shit that wasn’t there…drudging up shit he didn’t want to remember.
Tearing his psychological bandages apart and exposing the raw wounds still bleeding underneath.
On nights like these, he was better off either miles away from the village, sequestered at home with every curtain drawn or deep in the woods where the tall trees blocked his view of the celestial body.
Instead he was out in its midst.
Exposed…
Vulnerable .
Drawing his cloak tighter around his shoulders in a fist that was just a bit shaky, Sasuke focused on keeping his breathing even, his legs moving, and his eyes fused to his sandaled feet.
It worked…
…for a while.
For several muted minutes, he was in control of himself, in control of his emotions….and then, as he passed empty building, and darkened crevices, he felt himself slowly unraveling.
As he drifted along the shadowed streets of Konoha in direction of his memorial in the woods, his gaze lifted unbidden to the eerie glow of the moon. Round, pale, framed by a smattering of dark clouds, it took up most of his line of sight, casting the village in gloomy silhouettes, mocking him with whispers of a past that refused to leave him in peace. His fingers tightened in the cloth around his shoulders, jaw clamping as he struggled and succeeded in pulling his eyes away…only for them to snag on the utility poles towering above the darkened buildings of the sleeping village.
He stared at one in particular, situated dead center of the moon’s radiance as he walked, unable to tear his eyes away this time.
A cool breeze swept his clammy skin, the whistling sound of it strangely buzzing along his senses as though a glass wall separated the sensation and his ability to feel it.
His steps slowed as the shadows around him lengthened, darkened. Surrounding him in inky blackness that felt unnatural. His sight narrowed, tunneling until he could no longer see the world around him beyond the milky sphere and lone pole.
Sasuke ground to a stop, feet rooted to the dirt as the hazy image of his older brother took shape.
Shrouded in darkness despite the blazing white of the moon’s light, haunched atop a utility pole like the personification of Death, dark eyes alight with a soul rotting horror no mortal should ever bear witness to as he stared back at him.
A distinct smell permeated the air around him.
Metallic…Putrid…
A mix of blood and death.
Sasuke swallowed hard, then held his breath as his pulse kicked into overdrive.
His ears rang with the high pitched screams of his adolescent self. His mind racing alongside the child he had been that night, tearing down dark streets bathed crimson, the bodies of his neighbors, his kin, hanging lifeless from windows and doorways. Following the mocking glow of the moon towards a soul rending truth almost as horrifying as the nightmare he was running away from.
His chest heaved, lungs fighting to draw oxygen as he sank into the wrong reality.
Unable to stop himself from being catapulted back in time.
Seven-years-old…
Scared and alone, terrified and lost-
Jaw clenching tight enough to make his teeth click, Sasuke shut down; burying the images, the screams, the inescapable reality of that night to the far recesses of his mind. Forcing it all behind that wall separate from his self, detaching them from the parts of him that were unprotected, unequipped, even so long after, to process it all.
Sick rose in his throat.
Sasuke listed off the path, sucking in huge gulps of air in an effort not to lose the remnants of his last meal.
He didn’t understand himself.
Didn’t understand why Itachi continued to be the bogeyman in his nightmares.
He’d long since made peace with Itachi; he knew the truth of that night, the circumstances leading up to the massacre, how his brother felt about his actions, his profound grief and remorse for the slayings. Sasuke had his own…feelings about the massacre, but he did understand at the very least. Itachi made a fucked up choice in a situation where there were only fucked up choices.
It hurt him…
No.
It gutted him that his mind continued to cast his brother as the sole villain of that night when there was far more to the story than the slaughter that took place; when his brother had been little more than a puppet, moving at the manipulation and dictation of others pulling his strings. Itachi was responsible for his actions, Sasuke wasn’t assigning him absolution, but what happened that night wasn’t black and white.
So why…
Why did his mind refuse to reconstruct that night to reflect that?
Sucking in a harsh breath, sweat sliding down his face, Sasuke pushed harder.
Numbing himself down to his core.
It was the only way he could function, the only way to keep the frayed ends of himself together.
That phantom scent of rot teased his nose, initiating a round of dry heaving that contracted his abdominals, bending him at the waist, and threatening to take his legs from under him.
Locking his knees, Sasuke ruthlessly reigned in his laboring breaths.
Tuning his ears to nearby cricket stridulation to measure his oxygen intake, matching the more sedate pace as best he could for several agonizing minutes. Wiping sweat from his face and eyes, Sasuke straighted from his stooped position gradually, jaw loosing as his stomach muscles relaxed and the nausea dimmed to a threadbare nagging he could tolerate.
He exhaled as his pulse slowed.
That unnatural, icy calm that had always been his saving grace, finally, blessedly bleeding into his veins.
Detachment spread through his body, muting his emotions down to nearly nothing…
The earthy scent of Konoha beat back the metallic stench, the vibration in his ears stilled, the screams quieted, and the shadows cleared. Hollowness took up residence in his chest, yawning emptiness eclipsing every emotion, good and bad.
With one last, deep inhale and exhale, Sasuke straightened fully.
Righting his cloak, he forced his body to move.
He walked until the village faded away and the cursed moon disappeared behind the thick canopy of the forest. Until he reached the little nook deep in the woods and the cluster of stones he’d arranged to mark a little piece of the land his Clan once called home, proof that his family, his Clan had lived. Their smooth, rounded shapes a solemn reminder that at one point in his life he’d had a mother, a father, a brother he’d loved.
Muscle memory kicking-in in the absence of true thought.
He moved through the motions of making camp, silently gathering kindling for the small, circular campfire he’d created and maintained for the last few years.
Time sped by him, or perhaps he’d checked out without realizing he had, because it felt as though mere seconds had passed since his arrival and already his campfire was prepped and ready for ignition. One fireball jutsu later, his camp was complete.
A loud, nearby croak drew his attention. Sasuke turned just a little toad leapt on his shoulder.
The minuscule amphibian was carrying a satchel nearly twice the size of its body. Sasuke dug inside for the message from Konoha’s most prolific toad summoner.
The toad hopped away as he unrolled the small scroll and read through Naruto’s kitchen scratch writing.
Once finished, Sasuke flamed the message and turned his mind back to camp.
Sliding his cloak off, Sasuke laid it down on the ground beneath a wide, towering tree, then sat atop it. Over the flicker of fire, he stared at the names carved in stone across from him, his mind devoid of cohesive thought as shadows dances along the markers, his emotions buried so deep he wondered if the nightmares to come would be able to unearth them.
xxxxxx

May 30, 2011

As silvery streaks of sunlight pierced the evergreen foliage canopy above, Sasuke kicked dirt and debris over the dying campfire, extinguishing the weak embers completely. Once finished, the lone Uchiha grabbed his clock from the ground, shook leaves and sticks from it, then wrapped it around his shoulders with a single flourish sweep, fastening the button that would hold the black sheath closed as he started walking.
The journey back to the village was sedate and uneventful, the slight chill of the morning lost on him.
Detached as he was at the moment, Sasuke still had the presence of mind to nod at the two men monitoring Konoha’s large gate, as he passed through.
Villagers and ninja alike were already roaming, many setting up shop and flipping closed signs to open, while chakra laden shinobi leapt from one roof to another. By the time he made it midway through the shopping district, the slow trickle of people bloomed into a noisy crowd. Sasuke traveled along the influx of traffic, his movements unimpeded as the sea of people parted for him, sneering and muttering under their breath as they sidestepped him, making clear what they thought of his presence in their home.
Their words and looks were lost to the void, repelled by the ice encasing the part of him that could feel or be hurt.
He was numb to everything but the exhaustion draped across his shoulders.
He hadn’t slept more than a handful of minutes at a time last night, despite his fatigue.
Not that he expected to have caught more than that.
His inability to sleep was a long standing issue from childhood, and at this point in his life, it was normal to him, though, that didn’t make the consequences of it any easier to deal with.
His nightmares certainly hadn’t helped the situation.
The crush settled down as he cleared the shopping district of the village and headed towards the residential.
Ten minutes later, he passed by his own home, giving it a glance of assessment as he walked by.
The curtains were drawn, and not a single light was on.
His wife was either sleeping in or had already left for work.
Continuing on, Sasuke walked another ten minutes before reaching his destination.
Sasuke trudged up the stairs of Naruto’s apartment, his lower back muscles protesting each step in punishment for bedding down in the woods again. He’d rather the ache than what may have been waiting for him at home. Pain to a ninja was nothing, a hurtle to overcome and endure, he’d felt a hell of a lot worse in his twenty years of life to care about temporary twinges.
It was the other torment that was harder to withstand, the wounds that couldn’t be healed or staunched with a bandage, the hurts that no one could see bleed but you.
Sasuke had more than enough of the latter.
He knocked on the door and stepped back, letting the railing behind him hold a bit of his weight as he waited. The door opened a short time later, and Hinata Hyuuga stood in the doorway, her welcoming smile nestled between two rosy cheeks.
“G-good morning…” she trailed off, that flush to her cheeks fading a bit as her pearlescent eyes searched his face, her delicate brows creasing. Her voice was even softer when she spoke next, little more than a whisper but filled with a gentle warmth that melted a small fraction of the ice he’d been encased in since last night’s ‘episode, “are you…alright, Sasuke-kun?”
No.
He wasn’t.
He hadn’t been anything close to alright in a very long time.
Ironic that she was concerned for his wellbeing. Though she had always been a soft-spoken individual, her voice sounded a bit hoarse and scratchy today, as if she were battling a late spring cold. However, he was beginning to suspect this random, recurrent hoarseness of her voice had little do with illness and everything to do with a certain blonde haired, blue-eyed Uzumaki.
“I’m fine,” he replied, pushing away from the railing.
Her head tilted up as he neared, the move emphasizing her overall smallness compared to his towering stature. It was a mundane thing to notice considering everything that’d floated by his attention today, just as benign as it was for him to find himself particularity taken in by her doe-eyed concern as she stared up at him. He was dimly aware his mind was searching for a distraction, that it had found something that stimulated him and was latching on to it in a bid to induce the reward center of his deadpanned psyche and pierce the frigid landscape that was his emotions.
The problem with that; lusting after his bestfriend’s girlfriend would only add new guilt to the massive heap he already carried.
“I-I’m sorry, that was rude of me to ask,” Hinata backtracked, blush resurging, though her eyes remained worried, “i-it’s just, you seem a bit…t-tired today.”
He watched her wrestle with embarrassment, unsurprised by the visibly flustered woman’s nervousness over her self-perceived social blunder. There wasn’t another person he knew that was as hypersensitive about injuring the feelings of another than Hinata Hyuuga. That in mind, he probably shouldn’t be surprised, but he did find it interesting that she’d looked at his stoic, ‘resting bitch face’ as Naruto jokingly dubbed it, and was able to discern the exhaustion beneath it.
Not many could.
“Long missions back to back,” he allowed in an effort to put her at ease without inviting more conversation that would trend beyond the superficial, “not much time to rest in between.”
Those lavender depths softened in that way he’d only seen when she comforted a friend or an upset Naruto.
It was a bit strange seeing that look directed at him.
They weren’t friends, at least, Sasuke didn’t think they were. Outside a few run-ins around the village, they hardly ever spoke or interacted outside of Naruto related situations. He’d filed them away as nothing more than familiar acquaintances that socialized as a consequence of their relationship with the hyperactive blonde.
On second thought, considering what he knew of her, what he’d seen of her…maybe that made them a bit more than casual acquaintances.
Something more than acquaintance but far less than friends. Sasuke didn’t know a term to define that.
“I see,” she murmured quietly, a wealth of compassion, understanding in those two words alone, alerting him that the deep conversation he’d wanted to avoid was being had anyway, “p-perhaps…when we get all of this sorted out…you’ll be able to rest.”
Sasuke could only hope he’d get to that point one day.
“Please, come in,” she invited in her raspy voice that seemed capped at just above a whisper, stepping back and widening the doorway for him to enter, “Naruto-kun is in the shower, b-but if you don’t mind us starting without him, t-there were some thing I’d like to go over with you.”
Curiosity piqued, Sasuke crossed the small distance between them, slipping into the apartment and pulling the door closed behind him.
Her scent hit him as it had every time he was in range to catch its fragrance.
Feminine pheromones and something so subtly sweet he couldn’t place it.
It seeped through his numbness. Rousing him closer to the land of the living.
He hadn’t paid much attention to his surroundings during his trek through the village, nor to her since reaching Naruto’s apartment, but in the close proximity to a woman that coaxed more than she should from him, Sasuke was forced into a measure of attentiveness.
His multicolored gaze, now free of its colorblind lens, took in the petite woman offering to take his cloak.
She was gowned in flowers today.
Smooth, pastel pink and pearl white lilies dotted with lavender in the middle, the flowers clustered and scattered across an apricot colored backdrop. Beneath the spaghetti-strapped, knee length dress she wore a bright white, long-sleeved turtle neck shirt that stretched over her like a second skin. Technically modest in garb but, the way the dress clung and hung from the curves of her body diminished that technicality to nearly negligible.
Her generous bust sat heavy and gravity defying on her slender torso, her cinched waist emphasizing the rounded width of her hips. Her dark hair was freshly brushed and shiny, flowing over her shoulders and cascading down her back, adding a vibrancy to her snowy skin and pinkened cheeks.
Her plump lips seemed plumper today, redder than her normal light pink and slightly swollen.
She looked soft…
Feminine and alluring.
Sexual, sensual and yet, somehow brimming with…innocence.
So much so, that in that moment, the things he’d fantasized about doing to her while stroking his cock felt downright criminal to be directed at this woman that radiated purity like sunshine on a cloudless day.
Perhaps that was exactly why he felt a subtle heaviness in his loins even now, despite his current feelings.
Indulging the forbidden was a temptation that felled many a man.
“H-have you had a chance to have breakfast?” she asked as he shrugged off his shoes and unhooked his cloak, handing it to her to hang.
He wasn’t hungry.
He didn’t really want anything today.
Food, company, or otherwise. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of checking out.
“Not yet,” he answered, “but I’m fine.”
Another of her frost thawing looks touched his remote walls.
“N-Naruto-kun and I haven’t had a chance to eat breakfast yet,” she replied, absentmindedly straightening his cloak in her hands, “if you’re feeling hungry after we’re finished speaking, you’re free to join us.”
With that soft spoken invitation issued, Hinata hung his cloak on a rack beside Naruto’s headband and made her way deeper into the apartment. Sasuke followed behind, watching her petite grace moved through the small space as he walked. She stopped in the space between the kitchen and living room; Sasuke sat down in the chair nearest the apartment door when she ushered him to the small dinning room table. Hinata took the spot across from him, taking a seat noticeably gingerly, her delicate brows creasing subtly as if the action were uncomfortable.
Sasuke fought to keep his mind from straying, from analyzing why.
She reached for a scroll in the middle of the table, then looked across the table at him, hesitating.
She took a silent breath, seeming to have come to some internal consensus.
Drawing herself up in her chair, slender shoulders squaring, Hinata, in a voice as strong as the hoarseness would allow, began, “a-as you know, I am the eldest daughter of the Hyuuga Clan, and the currently recognized heir.”
Sasuke’s thoughts shifted immediately, his focus ensnared and narrowed to the formality she exuded.
This was a side of her he had never seen.
Leadership. Rolling from her petite form in distinct, unmistakable waves.
Heavily defined in the straightness of her spine, the subtle lift of her chin, the directness of her gaze, and the surety of her softly-spoken speech. Though she hadn’t completely lost the gentle pink in her cheeks that belonged to ‘shy Hinata’, the rosy blush was negligible in the face of the woman facing him with the air and dignity of a Clan Head.
He nodded, acknowledging her statement.
Untying the scroll, she unraveled a wall of black text, “as is my right, extended to me by virtue of my position, I am officially offering to take on the role as your benefactress, and am prepared to lend my resources and connections to assist in fostering a viable path to a fair and just pardon in hopes that you and future Uchiha can live peacefully here in Konoha as citizens, as the founders of this village intended.”
Sasuke took the scroll, eyes moving over the parchment of neat, flourished script. Her name and his appeared several times in the body of the document, pieces of the speech she had just given him littered at the beginning of the multi-paragraph proposal.
“T-Though, I should warn you,” she rushed to amend as the silence stretched.
His eyes snapped up at the familiar stammering.
Blushing, twiddling her fingers, diffident Hinata had retaken the forefront of the woman across from him, “w-while I have been trained in matters of diplomatic relations, political negotiation and community initiatives, I-I’ve never taken on the role of benefactress before, s-so I don’t have any practical experience…y-you’d be my first attempt …”
He paused, silently taking her measure as that tidbit of information ran through his head.
From what he could glean from this small interaction, it was apparent that Hinata Hyuuga had made some significant strides in finding her footing as a future leader. She spoke with certainty and authority while presenting her proposition; she was articulate and well versed in her own parameters of action, clear and concise in her overarching goal. Though she hadn’t lost her soft-spoken cadence of speech and demeanor, her approach was direct and persuasive enough to make headway in a political arena, maybe more so than he was giving her credit for, even with the sudden resurgence of her current bashfulness.
Even if she had no experience, to his mind, her education alone more than qualified her to attempt to fill the role of benefactress.
“U-Unfortunately, we wouldn’t have the Hyuuga Clan backing us,” she admitted quietly, “I tried to convince father but…” she shook her head, looking shamed by the admission that she couldn’t convince one of the most stubborn men in the world to change his mind, “s-so you’d have to make due with just me…a-and of course I…don’t have nearly as much sway on my own…”
“It’s fine,” Sasuke replied, returning his attention to the document, “even without the backing of your Clan, any influence you bring to negotiations will help.”
He went back to reading, and it wasn’t long before he came upon something of interest.
“Rogue Rehabilitation and Recovery Initiative,” he read aloud, turning his eyes back to her.
Hinata nodded, shoulders haunching briefly beneath his attention, before she straightened them again, regaining her confidence, “yes, w-while initially this started out as a b-brainstorm list of ways to…cultivate goodwill with those that oppose your pardon…as I organized the list and put things together, I realized that there may be others that can be helped by these steps,” compassion brightened her eyes, softened her face and pierced his deadened disposition, “others who have dealt tragedies and hardships in life and as a result, for one reason or another, led them to make…decisions that weren’t the best.”
People like him. She didn’t need to say it out loud. The implications were like a scream in the night.
“P-People who, if given the opportunity, would be able to turn their life around. Right now, with the shinobi world at peace, there’s time and opportunity to slow down and make…lasting changes that will help address root causes rather than fighting to suppress the symptoms of a much larger issue. In refocusing our efforts, perhaps then we can correct and avoid returning to the system that created many of these rogues in the first place. And perhaps…stop the cycle of hared before it ever begins…”
Déjà vu. That was the feeling circulating through him as she finished. The words were different, but the sentiment, the optimistic shine and determination to reach into the darkness and pull others into the light was the same.
She ducked her head as he stared at her in the ensuing silence, bumping her forefingers together as her face heated, “a-at least those are my h-hopes, I know it’s p-probably overly ambitious but I think-”
“You sound like Naruto,” Sasuke noted, amusement tugging at the corner of his lips.
She blinked, taken aback, then giggled, “I-I suppose so,” she conceded happily then sobered, growing pensive, “it’s hard not to be inspired by the stories Naruto-kun tells me about the people he’s met in his life. Zabuza and Haku, the Kazekage, Nagato, Obito, Itachi…you. The effects that the shinobi world has had on us all…its not insignificant.”
A truer statement had never been made.
“These stories are very compelling, but I must admit I was inspired to fight for change a lot earlier in my life, by my late cousin Neji,” she told him, a nostalgic smile curving her lips, “when we were young, Neji-nii-san was kind to me, we got along, and he smiled often,” her own smile faltering, she continued, “as we grew older, the burdens of the Clan and our places within it drove us apart. We were classed in different directions. Main and branch, a cruel separation that forced those relegated to the latter into servitude and brutalization…when Neji-nii-san was branded on my third birthday, his smile, his happy face, they disappeared. And shortly after he was marked, there was an incident that occurred.”
Her shoulders slouched, eyes dimming. Like a poor kitten that’d been abused, Hinata’s sorrowed expression held the power to suck every bit of happiness from the room.
“I was kidnapped by a Kumogakure shinobi when I was three, father killed the attacker, but Kumo denied the kidnapping allegations and demanded my father’s dead body be turned over to them as compensation. My uncle Hizashi, my father’s twin, took his place….after that, Neji-nii-san grew angry…bitter and hateful, so much so that he nearly killed me during the chunin exams,” she pressed a hand to her chest, as though the damage remained all these years later, “what he did to me was wrong, but…I understand the circumstances that led up to it, and that shouldn’t be ignored,” that aura of leadership returned as she met his gaze, “I want to change the Hyuuga Clan, so that no one else suffers as Neji-nii-san did, and everyone is treated equally.”
‘… but now I think that maybe you could have been able to change our father, mother, the Uchiha… ’ Itachi’s words reverberated in his head.
Sasuke wondered, not for the first time, if that could have been a possibility him.
If given the chance, in a timeline where that night had never happened, could Sasuke have changed his Clan, and improved the relationship between the village and the Uchiha?
He admired her resolve to do what he himself hadn’t been given a chance to do.
“A-and I want to bring change Konoha too,” she continued softly, “to root out many of the cycles we’ve been caught in generation after generation from restarting again and I believe that the Rogue Rehabilitation and Recovery Initiative is a way to start taking those steps to lasting change.”
Noble aspirations. Whether they would gain enough traction to stick remained to be seen.
Sasuke agreed there was still work to be done here in Konoha and other places that relied on shinobi, though he could admit that he held a heavy dose of skepticism and cynicism that change would ever happen on the scale Hinata, and Naruto himself, sought to enact.
Still.
Winning a war didn’t ensure eternal peace. Leaving in place the mechanisms that created the bloodbath that had been their existence for hundreds of years would only see a return to that path sooner rather than later. Peace was not a sprint but a marathon, to maintain it, everyone involved would have to put in the work to make it so through long term dedication and a stubborn refusal to be denied.
His mismatched eyes moved over the woman across from him, nearly blinded by the luminous sincerity and purpose staring back at him.
Despite his jaded outlook, he did think it was worth a try to fix things.
Doing nothing merely guaranteed that nothing would ever change, so why not try?
What was there to lose?
xxxxxx
I actually had more that was supposed to be apart of this chapter, but I’m still working on it (and this chapter was long enough), so I cut it for the next chapter and left things here.
That said, I hope you enjoyed! We are getting closer to some very naughty Sasuke involved events with our favorite couple. The foundation is largely in place, the stage for lots of explicit run-ins is set, and now all there’s left is to begin XD
So rejoice! We are almost out of slowburn hell!
You'll learn more about the Rogue Rehabilitation and Recovery Initiative next chapter, I'm actually excited for it, since it's one of the many shinobi oriented ways Konoha could address problems in their world. I don't know about anyone else, but its always bothered me that people that do bad things in the Naruto universe don't really have any nuance in the way they're punished or returned to the fold. Like some rogue ninja are just wiped out by anbu while others are just pardoned and roaming around when I feel like they should be under the jail! Orochimaru and Kabuto for starters, the fact that they're roaming around just baffles me! I wanted at least to see a trial or some really strict consequences dealt out! I can't help but want to add these components of justice and true redemption that they had to actually work for! And I know, I know, he contributed greatly to the war, but still! It just doesn't feel right. Sasuke's pardon too for me. I feel like it was glossed over and not really address to my satisfaction. I guess I wanted more gravity to the situation. Lucily, fanfiction allows me to do that. Not only that, I really wanna address a lot of the fucked up shit Konoha's governance has been involved in and has fostered over the years at the expense of others, children especially! So yeah, next chapter, more on this Initiative.
Anyway, that’s all for now!
Laters
Sessakag~
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Secrets of the Hidden Leaf