Forced Paths

Match

She quickly retreated before she was seen. A flash of anger was visible on her eyes. It wasn't the act itself that made her feel like that but the place he had chosen to do it and the person that accompanied him. Part of their mission here was to make the others believe they were on a successful marriage. And he poorly failed on doing that. Further more it seemed like she was a naive little girl who didn't know what her husband was doing. She walked past the crowd when she heard her name.
"Hinata-sama."
The last person she wanted to see. She looked at him and blinked her eyes once before she bypassed him. Yet Neji was stubborn, the blood on their veins passed that feature for generations. He followed her until he was close enough to stop her. She turned around with eyes filled with fire.
"I hoped I would see you here."
She stayed silent. She didn't want to see him not even in a good day. His eyes filled with sadness on her lack of words.
"Hinata-sama I.. I don't want us to be like this."
"Then you shouldn't betray me." Her words harsh.
"I did it for the well being of the clan, you know it. If I had a choice you would never leave with that man."
"We always have a choice."
He parted his lips to speak but she stopped him.
"And I don't like your tone when you are referring to my husband."
She never imagined her training would be used on Neji. He took a step back.
"You are my blood, we share the same roots."
"I don't have roots. I am alone as I always was."
"I would never do anything to harm you."
"And yet you did."
Neji's body, always glorious, always straight, bent. Hinata remained unfaced.
"Is he treating you well?"
"Very."
"If he.."
"How is my sister?"
Her tone never changed, always cold.
"Hanabi is well. She is becoming better day by day. Everyone is very pleased with her performance."
"Good."
She took a last look on her once beloved cousin. Despite her cold behaviour, it pained her to see him. She wanted to scold him for his blind faith to her father, to tell him that the man didn't deserve his affection nor his loyalty. To hug him and shed tears of the days that passed that found them apart. To tell him everything about the people on the clan that was different from theirs.
"Keep her safe. If anything happens to her, my wrath will find you all."
"I.."
The lost of words was something Neji hadn't a problem before. Yet it had happened twice.
"I'm going back to my husband."
He didn't stop her.

____

She had decided to stay and watch the different flowers that were placed all across the state. This clan was famous of their little poisons that extracted from the beautiful blooms and disoriented the mind giving them access to informations well hidden.
She found her husband later that evening, when the people on the state became less and less until only a selected few were invited to spent the night here. She found him waiting near the previous table with an irritating look on his face. Maybe the girl had ditched him earlier than usual.
"Finally." Was the only word he said before he walked ahead on the destination the servants showed them.
The room that was offered to them was rather large and Hinata thought that if all the guests were staying like this, the Yamanaka clan was more wealthy than she had thought, matching even her own one. It was a matching well made.
She wondered for a moment if the couple will spent their first night together to quickly smile on her own in the thought. If what Lady Tsunade said was true, this wasn't their first night.
Her husband observed her weird behaviour but said nothing. They undressed in different rooms and walked to the bed in the same time. It hadn't occurred to her that they should sleep on the same bed until she felt the mattress on her back shrunk. She stayed seated, thinking of how to proceed. After some minutes, she was still reluctant to move.
"How sheltered were you raised?" He spoke with irritation still on his voice.
She wasn't raised sheltered as he thought. Not even in the slightest. Hinata spent her day beaten up more than the others until she did her exercises correctly. Her hair was cut short with a kunai, her head bled for a week. She stayed with light clothes to learn to endure the winter until her feets and hands froze and numbed.
But all this training, all this hardships never let her to make a friend. She shared her bed with her sister sometimes until they grew and father stopped them. The only boy that was close enough was Neji. She loved Neji but only like a brother. She remembered that one time a prestigious man had came and he had brought his son with him. It was the first time that she liked a boy. That she understood the concept on her own because noone was there to teach her. She had told Hanabi what she had thought and she told Neji in her excitement. Neji scolded her for talking like that. She could only like the man that she was marrying. Her body was devoted first to the clan and then on her husband. Hinata thought that her body should be her own first but never said it. Maybe if she did, Neji would have known that she would be a terrible wife and stopped her father when the time came.
"I need to rest. Don't waste my time."
Tomorrow fights would be held between the representatives. She wished she would participate. Training alone had become boring. He would join of course and strive to win every single one to show the Uchihas strength. It was funny how their clans were so different and same if you observed enough. Hyugas trained and sent soldiers in the battle despite their gender. Strength was all that mattered. Yet it was the only thing that was allowed to do. Everything else were covered in a layer of correct behaviour and formality.
Theirs kept their women like trophies, beautiful and feminine. She had seen them laugh on the streets, wearing their black and blue dresses, moving their hair in the air. The clan was less strick about their image but she knew their fighters were ruthless. It was an honour to join the training and kill your opponents.
The expectations remained the same. Be better than the others. Beat them, kill them, conquer them. Never be free.
She moved her body on the bed more reluctant than she wanted to admit. It was the first time they would share a bed. She understood the need as they were no longer in the privacy of the house back in their district and if a maid came whispers would be spread. She tried to stay as far away as she could as to not touch him. Her eyes were on the ceiling not daring to move on the man on her side. She felt the awkwardness on the atmosphere and she wondered if it was only from her. She had to stay strong. He had said that he never touched her.
"I heard your cousin is here."
His voice was not as close as she had thought. He probably had his back turned on her. That relaxed her a bit.
"Did you speak with him?"
Hinata gave a confirming sound.
"Did he ask how the barbaric animals are treating you?"
Every time a sound escaped his lips the mockery was growing larger. They probably knew the image her clan had about them.
"He asked how I was, yes." She answered to his constant sarcasm.
"You gave an appropriate answer I suppose."
She retreated to sounds instead of words. There was point of engage in this conversation.
"He is the one I want to fight more. Maybe I will even laugh when his face would be dragged on the dirt. I never liked the cold eyes of your clan. Looking superior at every room."
She didn't answer. In one passing though, she imagined that perhaps she should be happy to see Neji crushed and defeated. But deep down she knew his pride would be hurt and more so when father learnt about it. She closed her eyes to let sleep come but quickly opened them when she felt the move on the mattress.
"Don't you think I can win?"
He was too close for her liking. His black eyes seemed to burn with a red flame from the insult he felt. Hinata looked him deeply for the first time since it was inevitable to avoid his gaze. She saw the stoic, cold man, the future leader of the proud Uchiha ready to kill whoever dared to defy him.
"I never said that."
He lips crooked in a smirk.
"Still Neji is strong."
Only to fell again.
"I'm stronger wife, you will see."
He seemed to observe her whole since the proximity was close enough to see every detail of her face.
"But you are one of them aren't you? Thinking you are the purest and mightest of all."
"We aren't very different, are we?"
"But I'm not pure. I don't lose my mind over sharing a bed with someone." He formed an evil smile. "I guess nobody ever desired you so its inevitable."
"I guess so. I'm not the kind of person who sneaks inside bathrooms in the midst of a crowd. I have control."
She had no intention of sharing her knowledge on his behaviour. But seeing him frozen for a moment brought her joy.
"The kind of control you need to defeat Neji. He is unbeatable in close combat. There is a reason my clan has this distateful behaviour. If you underestimate him because of that and let him approach you, give up. You have already lost."
He quickly regained his composure. Sasuke was not a man that took defying slightly.
"I don't need the advices of a woman."
He was hopeless. As she thought there were bearable features on him, he proved her wrong.
"Not even from Karin Uzumaki?" Anger was a emotion she rarely showed. But he was making her angry. She was trying to help him and he only had insults to offer.
"Oh? Are you jealous wife?"
"I would never envy you." She pointed her finger on him. "I don't appreciate to be gossiped. I don't want whispers to reach my father's ears. So learn to behave as I do."
"Are you behaving right now?" He grabbed her unfolded arm. Hinata grasped with the sudden touch.
"An innocent, scared girl won't help me win. Stay on the side and watch as I tramble upon your beloved cousin. And be sure to smile on the end, as it's expected."
He left her hand.
"Don't mention my business again. We already have a deal."
He turned and she felt stupid for mention what she has seen. She knew what she told was true but he found a way to make her feel bad about it. It seemed they were stuck in a loop to make one step forward and two back.
She dared to look at the man beside her. A stranger, she thought. She lived with him for two months and yet she didn't know what he thought as he rested in bed. Was he worried about tomorrow? Had he something in his life that excited him? Was he in love? She smiled on that thought. She couldn't picture him trembling from excitement or picking a flower on his way. Was she expecting too much. Without realising, that first night she spent in his house left a mark on her mind. She thought, even unconsciously, that he was something more than the rude comments and the cold demeanor. She hoped for a friend in the misery.
She sighed on his sleeping back, slowly rising and falling. He slept like nothing happened. She was nothing more of a nuisance in his space, yet she tried to approach him. If he had said, that he loved the red haired woman, she could listen to his saddeness of been apart. If he asked for knowledge about Neji's fighting routine, she would offer it. But he had built a wall where she saw openings. For her, he could be an ally but for him she was an object in the room. Not disturbing him, not giving it any thought either. If she moved on her own, he attacked. That was his way.
"I'm not an enemy." Hinata said and turned the other way.