Forced Paths

Old story

He stood there frozen, his hands inside her palms, his mouth almost hanging open. She had a smile on her face, one that didn't register to him at first, one that should not follow the statement she had just made. It all came to him at once. He removed his hands with force and took a step back. She stayed in the same position only her hands left in the air empty.
He looked at her and he was sure his stare held cruelty.
"What did you say?" He asked, yelled even.
"I think we should end our marriage after everything has settled down."
There was something, a pain, he wasn't sure. Something that tasted sour, something that made his fingers numb.
He took a breath, maybe more, to be calm, to be able to speak properly, to speak at least.
"When their plan comes to work." She said. "I believe you should have taken the leadership. And when that happens, there is nothing that could stop you from doing whatever you want. Your father would never agree to work with these people, he would never listen to what they have to say. But if they are right Sasuke your people, your clan, would be in danger. Your family would be in danger. In order to protect them, you should take the lead. A small betrayal to keep them safe. When that happens, after that happens you could end our marriage. No one would mind, if you had prevented a war. And if we are being honest, they aren't really fond of me." She spoke softly, with care and it made it harder because he wanted to yell at her.
"And what are you planning to do?" He asked, the blood in his veins boiled.
"My well being is not something that should trouble you. When my father is removed, I can go back to my clan. I will ask Hanabi to take me back."
He remembered the scars on her back.
"Or perhaps I will travel, find a place where I would be safe. Much like your brother did."
"Is he your example?" He curled his fists.
"I am just saying, it is possible."
"He is a man."
"And I am a fighter. Don't forget that."
"You have everything figured it out." He said and she almost nodded.
"Do I have a say in this? Or I am that irrelevant?"
Her smile fell.
"You are not." She said seriously.
"It doesn't seem that way." He answered back.
"Sasuke.."
"You were right. We have more pressing matters in our hands." He said coldly. "This can wait. In fact it's the least of my concerns. We are not really married anyway. We just pretend to be."
"Can we.."
"It will be as you wish Hinata." He said and walked outside the room.
He walked on the long hall, just in case she would decide to follow him. He took a turn that would lead him to the staircase.
The wall support his back. He felt like he would collapse. He felt weak again. The same kind of weaknesses that had pierced him when Itachi left, the one that had tried to overcome but failed until he buried it deep so no one, not even him could see.
He should have been thinking of all the important events that were happening around him. He should get a grip, make a decision, a plan of how to proceed. Yet all he could think of was her words and how far she suddenly seemed. She always said that they should work together, that they were a team and yet she was making a decision of her own.
Making a decision to leave him.
He was sure he had tamed it. This hopeless of never been enough. He was wrong.

____

She had told him whatever needed to be said. She had a clear vision of how he needed to proceed, but in the end it was his decision to make. She sat on the desk this room offered, the one that the previous night had watched him writing a letter to his father. He was close to understand, she could see it, even if he didn't realise it yet.
She looked at the ink and the blank papers. Sasuke had a clear path ahead of him that he should take. She smiled sadly at herself. She was offering proposals and suggestions as if she had everything figured it out. Yet here she was, without a clue of what she should do. How could she protect Hanabi of inevitable doom. How could she protect innocents of getting slayed.
If her father had set his mind, he would execute his plan. In fact he might already had. Her marriage to the Uchiha family, his request beforehand to spy on them, even his last little game to make her retreat and accept the marriage. In his eyes she was easy to control with Hanabi back as a means of leverage. And she was tamed, more tamed than her sister to keep any suspiciousness away, to keep a husband happy.
He had underestimated her husband. He had imagined that she would play the role of the timid wife and he would be fine with it, because he himself did the same. He probably would have thought that she would be pregnant by now, and in the thought that she might be carrying a boy, an heir, that she would have him around the palm of her finger. That he would have him exactly where he wanted him. And Hinata would betray that trust, because of the fear and the submission, because he believed that was all there was to her. Because that was what she had let him see.
When she had agreed to that marriage, when she had left her birth right back, he viewed it as a sign of failure. Because for Hiashi Hyuga the world had a certain rules that needed to be followed in order to be successful.
He should be frightened instead. That single decision that he frowned upon with dissapointment, showed in what lengths she was willing to go. That nothing would scare her, if it meant that she would save a person she loved. That she would do anything that needed to be done without a second thought.
Where her father saw quicknesses, she fought with strength, that took forms in different shapes. Shapes that he would never understand.
Leaving an insult aside, let an opponent win, speak for someone else, leave a husband behind.
She took a pen and began to write. The mistake he made when he evaluate her was her chance to win.