Forced Paths

Patch

Itachi had asked for some sheets and a pen. When she provided them, he had started to write down. She didn't know what exactly, if it was a letter to Kakashi, a plan or just his thoughts. She wanted to point out that either of the three were too dangerous to be anywhere but their heads and the words which they shared with each other, that a paper meant evidence, but she let him be. He had a stressful morning to be ripped off from that small request. And he wasn't the only one that she had decided to leave in peace.
The sun had risen and Sasuke seemed determined to stay outside. She had checked on him, but his gaze was somewhere she could not point, lost in thoughts and troubles of his own. She could relate to the impact it had for someone to oppose for the first time a figure that seemed absolute and rightful at any circumstances. It almost took a piece of oneself, of the identity and the image one had until now. So she didn't interrupt him.
She tried to do the things that neither of them could, the necessities that wouldn't cross their mind. She warmed the water for a hot bath to be available, she prepared some tea and when she was sure she could leave them alone for a while, she went to the market. A meal would help, a meal gave strength and they had barely eaten.
She expected some stares, she was gone out of sight for quite a few days, yet the people greeted her as always, with the necessary politeness that was required of them. She was here to stay and at this point the people of this clan seemed to have come to terms with her presence.
Then again she thought that she wasn't leaving the house that often and when she did, she avoided the morning hours and the busy streets. Nobody questioned it. The story that her father in law had left hanging in the air was more to cover Sasuke's dissapearence than hers. She had promised to involve more, yet she did nothing of that sort. She was always with one foot outside, not only here, everywhere that she had been. The sense of not belonging had that effect. If the danger of the path ahead could be overcome, she would do it. She would straighten her feet until roots would grow. She had finally found a tiny space for her to belong.
She finished picking the last of the ingredients that she needed and thought that perhaps a herb or two would help calming the nerves for all of them. Her hand had picked the one that she found best for the situation and another hand was already beside her own, one delicate, with nails trimmed and polished, one that made hers seemed awful. She looked up to see the owner, a smell of cinnamon had hit her nose.
She looked surspised when her eyes met the woman's face, a surspise she hoped she had hidden, but was not sure that she pulled it off.
Her cheeks were painted with a slight pink, her lips red, her hair pink curls on her shoulders. Hinata thought that this woman was everything that she would never be. She was truly beautiful and if she hadn't seen Ino Yamanaka, she would be the most beautiful woman that she had ever met. She had an aura different than the blonde heiress. Ino seemed untouchable, a fairy in the distance, a painting that noone was allowed to touch, only to observe. But this woman seemed approachable, a magnet that was pulling people towards her. She was desirable, Hinata thought, and she knew it.
"Hello Hinata-san." She said and bowed her head slightly. "Fancy seeing you here." She said and smiled.
"Hello." Hinata said and looked down for a moment. "I'm sorry." She continued raising her head. "We haven't introduced properly."
The woman giggled. Effortlessly, even if it was fake.
"I suppose." She said and stared at her and Hinata knew what her eyes were trying to say, what her lips weren't allowed to.
Kissing ones husband isn't the best of times for introductions.
"I am Sakura Haruno. Perhaps you have heard the name." She said lightly.
"I'm sorry. I have not." She told her seriously but the woman interpreted it wrong. She thought she was belittling her. The slight twitch of her lips betrayed her.
"Are you finished here?" She asked in her previous tone and Hinata nodded. She wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"Do you need some help? I see you have bought quite enough." She pointed at the bags on her hands.
"It's...We were running out of supplies." She said. "But I am fine. Thank you." She thought it was enough. She could retreat now.
"You were stuck inside the house for days." She said and she meant only Sasuke, not her. She wasn't interested in her in the slightest. "It must have been boring."
Hinata realised that she wanted to ask about him, her husband, but even her understood how inappropriate that might be.
"We were pretty preoccupied." She said and this time she bowed, leaving no room for the conversation to drag any further. " Have a nice day." She said from a safe distance and missed the look on the woman's face.
On the road home, she thought about her. She wasn't envious, not really, nor did she hate her. She felt sorry for her though. The woman that wanted her husband, that loved him perhaps and the roles that were cast upon them would forever keep them apart. If they were characters in one of the stories that she read, she, Hinata was the villain, the obstacle, even without wanting it, even if it wasn't her choice.
Yet she was greatful that Sasuke didn't leave the house this morning, she was happy that he stayed. For how long, she didn't know. Perhaps until they escaped the looming danger, until the more troubling matters settled. And then, when everything would be fine, he would visit the woman again. A saddening thought.
She was in front of her house, her eyes on the door, without really looking.
Where did she stand exactly.
She was his wife. A title meaningless like many others.
Sasuke had asked her to stay. Not only now, but after everything. He had asked her to stay as a companion and Hinata had agreed, because in the end she wanted to.
Was she content with just that. If not, what did she want from him exactly.
When she would open the door in front of her, these thoughts would retreat, because inside her house, there was a traitor of the very clan she was married into, a man supposed to be dead many years.
Because there would be discussions and anxieties of different kind.
Because there was no room for such thoughts for now.
She turned the key and entered.
Itachi was sitting on the exact same spot where she left him. She observed some papers on his side that were no longer blank. He seemed absorbed so she decided to not disturb him. She left the bags in the kitchen and walked outside to the garden. When she turned, she saw that the bench was vacant only an empty bottle stood at its side. Her steps took her back inside with more hurry than before.
This time, Itachi's lost in the silent calmness didn't stop her from speaking.
"Where is Sasuke?" She asked and the man turned after a moment.
"He took a bath and retreated to his bedroom. Is everything alright?"
She shook her head.
"Yes, of course..It's just that I didn't see him outside and I just..I will make lunch." She finished the short conversation as absurdy as she started it.
She felt the eyes of the man on her back until she was lost from his sight inside in the kitchen.
The time passed by without her realising. Her mind was clear or numbed as it often happens when a task requires attention and the thoughts drift away replaced with the movement of the hands, a pot that is stirring and a plate on the counter.
When she emerged from the kitchen, Itachi was looking outside the big window.
"Are you hungry?" She said and for a second he seemed like he missed her question.
When his gaze turned to her, he had a slightly worried expression.
"Yes..of course." He answered nevertheless.
"Great. I will bring Sasuke." She said lightly.
"Hinata-san..." He said, making her stop. "You don't have to try so much for us. You have worries of your own. Your father..."
"I am fine." She shook her head. "It's okay." She smiled. "Sasuke..." She said and looked at the corridor. "I can understand how he's feeling right now."
She took a step.
"It's not easy. For your beliefs to crample under your feet. I am sure you can relate."
He sighed.
"My circumstances are different I suppose. I viewed my family exactly as it was from as long as I can remember. I didn't expect anything different. That's why I left. I knew what they were going to say."
Hinata smiled.
"Perhaps Sasuke is right. You really are special."
He had a surprised expression on his face when she left him and went to bring her husband.
It would be her room too for as long as Itachi stayed here, nevertheless she knocked on the door out of respect to the true owner.
An answer never came, yet she still opened the door. She needed to check on him, he should try to function for now. He should eat and move, he should talk because silence never meant something good, progress was never achieved from solitude.
He was at the bed, awake, sitting on the side, his back turned on her.
"Sasuke?" She spoke from the opened door, her intrusion was enough. "I have prepared a meal. You should eat."
Silence met her.
"I could bring it here, if you like." Hinata tried again.
"If we are wrong, if my clan suffers, if my parents get hurt, who is to blame then but me?" His voice was harsh from the yelling this morning, from the hours he spent mute after.
"Itachi-san is to be trusted." She said to ease his worry, to make him realise that he wasn't alone.
"Itachi.." He said and turned his head just enough to look at her. "My brother isn't worried about the well beings of my family. He will help, but if we succeed, even if they suffer, he would say that it happened for the greater good. He is that kind of man."
She took a step inside.
"But he cares about you. He would never let something happen that would hurt you."
He stared at her.
"To what length?" He asked seriously.
He expected her reassurance, she realised. He expected her to tell him that everything would be alright.
"To the best of his ability." She responded.
"And what if that is not enough?" He asked again.
She stayed silent. Because she could not lie. There was no solid answer to their path, no guarantee that they would succeed.
"Does he really deserve it?" He looked at the wall. "My father. Does he deserve my betrayal?"
She took a step, then another, until she reached him.
She raised her hand to touch his face, but he backed away. Sasuke had learnt to be alone after Itachi left. He had learnt to endure and hide, to seem unfaced by anything and everything. He was trying to be Itachi Uchiha.
"You lied to save more than one life Sasuke. You didn't betray him."
"Why do I feel like I did then? What if my decisions lead to the opposite outcome?"
"I won't let it." She said. "I am here. I won't let anything happen to you or your family."
It was foolish, a statement like this. She shouldn't have said it. How could she promised it, she, who had already fail on her duty to protect her sister.
Yet she didn't lie. She truly believed it.
He said nothing. He must had been thinking that she was too arrogant, or too naive.
He was fixed on her face and she truly wished for him to speak. To disperse her foolishness with his words.
"I don't mean...It's not that I am.." She tried to respond to the thoughts she was sure that he had. "It's just that I will do..." And she failed poorly.
"Rely on me. That's what I meant." She forced the words out of her throat.
He leaned, his forehead touched hers. She looked, but his eyes were closed.
She breathed his sigh.
When he retreated, he seemed unfaced. Calmer if she could guess.
"Let's eat." He said as he got up. "Food is important. That is what you always say."