Midnight

Chapter Seven

The whole world had gone silent. He didn't heard how loud he closed the door, or the table that shattered under his fist. He only saw the blood between his fingers when the glass he was holding was shattered to pieces. He cursed as he was removing the tiny bits that were stuck in the flesh, thinking about how easily her neck would have broken. She caught him of guard, when he was expecting resistance and she gave him sympathy. The mention of the death that hurt him the most triggered something in him. He attacked to hurt her. He wanted her to respond. Noone dared to speak of Itachi in front of him. Even with Naruto it was a subject to be avoided. Yet she spoke as if she knew. How there was a space noone could fill. As if it was a burden she was carrying instead of him.
The eyes that saw in great distance, behind closed doors, opened his and took a glimpse of the inside and that scared him. But the really terrifying part was that she acted truthfully. Something made her vulnerable. She couldn't keep her act, not even in front of the others. Until now he had observed how different she looked when they trained. She held none of the spark that looked like cheap glitter the nights they met. She was a ghost doing what she was told to do. What she knew how to do it but hid it.
But tonight she acted differently. She was running of something. It wasn't Sakura's angry words or the strong hold she feared. He took pity of her. She behaved like a small animal who is cornered and screams to escape. Then she bite the hand that secured her freedom, only to lick the wound afterwards.
The last crystal was tossed in the sink. He cleaned his hands, guessing how many times he would hear the same words in his short sleep. I will always love you.

_____

The sound of the bell came from afar. He cursed when the distinct ringing repeated. He always slept when the sun had rise as if his demons would crawl easier in the shadows of the night. His feet dragged on the cricked floor, stopped to look the remaining of the once table before he opened the door. There she was, standing on his front door, looking down. The last person he wanted to see. He said nothing waiting for her to explain her arrival. The girl seemed more interested in the nails on the wood than the irritation of the person in front of her. He wavered as to close the door in her face.
"Good morning Uchiha-san. I'm sorry to bother you."
He waited for her to lift her eyes. No words could describe how annoyed he was. He wanted her to see.
"Hogake-sama sent the full reports of the other villages for us to study to see if he missed something."
Only when no more answer came her gaze moved to his face.
"Did I wake you? I'm sorry. I can come back another time."
He stared her before he turned to move further inside his house.
It took him a moment before he went to the kitchen to pour some coffee to understand that she didn't follow. He sighed.
"Are you going to show me from out there?"
He heard the door closing and steps approaching.
The steaming mug was placed in the table when he took his chair and sat. On the other side she was holding the papers like her life depended on it, still standing.
"Why do you have to be so tiring? Sit."
She sat across him putting the papers in the middle of their distance. He turned his body slightly to look outside of the window. When the brown liquid was half drunk he spoke again.
"Show me."
She turned the pages so he could read them.
When he took one on his hand it was her turn to speak.
"I can leave them here and come back later to take them to my place."
"Two minds work better than one Hyuga. And I take my missions seriously. Even when they are annoying."
She just smile and nodded.
Again this false politeness that sickened his stomach. He hit his hand on the table, spilling some of his coffee. She jumped at the sudden sound.
"Don't smile. I hate it."
"And what would you prefer Uchiha-san?" Her words full of mockery yet her tone said otherwise.
"Aren't you a nice doll?"
She just took another paper to read ending the conversation and the tension that was building up.
They had looked through the papers over and over. No clue, nothing more that what theirs told. But if you put all of them together it provided a distarbing sight. Eleven shinobi, veterans of war had lost their mind in one way on another in between weeks.
"We can't find anything here." She concluded.
"No. Not until it happens again." He said in a monotone.
"Do you believe it will?"
"Hn."
She sighed.
"Don't worry Hyuga. You have the Sharingan on your side. Unless you think otherwise." The statement she had made, still bugged him.
"I wasn't...I didn't want it to come out like this." She shrunk.
"No?"
"I just wanted to use it as a parallel. Not blame you for anything." The guilt was making her body smaller.
"Why this though? Why not mention the Yamanaka?" He genuinely asked.
"It's different. The way it breaks someone spirit."
"You speak as you know what you're saying." His laugh that of a mockery.
"I know enough." She wasn't laughing.
The grey weather outside aligned with the cold in the room.
"And why is that?" His tone swifted to match hers.
"I researched."
"And what reasons did you had Hyuga?"
Her breath seemed uneven for a moment. He was sure she was about to leave but she was stuck in her seat by his tone.
"I was interested in a technique."
He felt his anger rising again.
"In what technique?"
She took a moment before she answered.
"Izanagi." She whispered.
The room lost its oxygen. If they were seen from afar they would look like a photograph as they sat still in their positions.
"I know you have a lot of things to say right now. But please don't Uchiha-san. It was a desperate attempt. I wish not to speak any more of it."
"An attempt for what?"
"To rewrite a wrong."
He could tell she was ashamed. But not for the things she spoke.
"You almost amaze me with your stupidity."
Her body became smaller and smaller.
"I already said I was desperate."
"How would you even use it? I can't even imagine what crossed your mind.
He pushed more. She had angered him and he liked how she suffered. He looked across and she wasn't a grown person anymore. An afraid little child that was too little to sit in a chair had appeared. Her eyes were fixed on the table. At one moment hundreds of images were crossing only to replaced by emptiness in the next one.
He parted his lips to say something to torment her more but he forgot what it was as the girl spoke.
"I know I have offended you Uchiha-san and I'm sorry. When you're suffocating you try to grasp for air by any means until you understand it's futile." She moved her gaze, probably to convey her next words. Or because it was a habit she didn't realise. She only looked in the eyes when she was telling the truth.
"That what is lost, is lost forever. And the suffocating feeling is a proper punishment for that."
He wanted to ask her if he had heard her say that before even if he knew it wasn't possible. Because it felt too familiar.
"So Uchiha-san I think we agree we can't make a progress out of these files." Her casual tone emerged.
"I will take some of them to see through again." She got up slowly to not break the fragile truce. Her hands took randomly some files and places in her bag. She must have been eargent to leave before as she had already taken out when she knocked his door.
"Will you come tonight?" He found himself saying.

It was the first time he asked. He always demanded her presence at their training sessions. It wasn't that his tone was soft or kind but it was a question nevertheless not a command. She could turn him down.
"I don't know." She packed her stuff.
"I'll wait." Was his monotone response.

Her plan was clean and solid. She had decided to stick with it since it was the best course of action. But it became more difficult each passing day. Her skin was itching to leave the body and it took all her might to keep it intact.
She rushed into her room mumbling busy as Hanabi called her. She throwed up her tiny breakfast and after many attempts to take out the nonexistence content of her stomach she got up. It was a misfortune she had lost the metal she had carved herself but now anything would do. She took a kunai out of her thigh and started to carve her skin. She stood in front of the mirror never looking before she was finished. She pressed the usual spots, opening wounds just healed. With each breath the metal moved an inch closer to the palm. Her mind was both there as she reached the lower half of her hand and at a boy celebrating his acceptance to a group showing his boar white mask. One more step and she could reach him. Her noise almost smelled him. Then as she slide her hand to touch his and image of a man waiting alone in the dark flashed , turning everything away. She was in front of the bathroom mirror.

____

Sasuke didn't know why it was so important her to be there. He didn't understand why with every shade of the sky turning darker he felt anxious. He couldn't place the unerving feeling that if she didn't show up something bad had happened. It was his instincts that spoke not a clear thought he had in his mind. He felt relieved when he saw her coming out of the trees, a feeling that didn't reach his face.
"You sure took your time Hyuga."
She didn't respond. She rarely did. It was weird for someone to speak less than him.
"Today we will practice your resistance in genjutsu."
He started with simple moves to test her. It seems she could handle the basic, breaking away from the illusion fast enough. He put more effort and then more to see how strong her resistance was. Sometimes she got away fast, and other took her long enough to be deadly.
"You are not half bad."
He spoke after she nearly dodge a kunai.
"Kurenai-sensei taught us the basics. We were mostly a tracking team so it was crucial not to waste any time. Shino was the best at it."
Her eyes lost in a scene he couldn't see.
"You liked your team." He concluded.
"They were my family at the time. Father was disappointed, my sister was focused on her training and Neji..." She stopped as her lips moved faster than her mind. He eyed her to finished her sentence.
"And Neji was mad at me." The breath she took left a sad expression on her face.
He decided it was time for a break. He took out the dinner he had prepared. He didn't know if she would show up so he brought it with him. He was planning to stay there for a while regardless of her. He always felt better outside than with the walls surrounding him. It wasn't the place. Any room was suffocating. His house, his district was long gone after the attack on Konoha that left it flat. He was given a space in the outskirts after his demand to build his house. Sakura was eager to help him he remembered. Maybe it was her belief that some day it would be hers too. He let her come at first but when it became clear her suggestions wasn't his taste he casted her away.
He took a bite out of his plain dinner. He observed that the girl was sitting there waiting for him to finish.
"Eat. We aren't finished yet."
She just moved her hands in front of her in denial.
As she was sitting beside him, he moved his bento in front of her.
"Take."
She nodded a silent no making him turn to face her.
"You have lost weight. Eat."
Her eyes widen in surprise.
"I owe you one." He spoke as he saw she was still reluctant.
She looked at him with a question written on her face.
"I remember how you offered me one back in our academy days. I was grateful even I didn't let myself feel it."
Her gaze moved to the food as she took a piece. Her face didn't change after she tasted it. He prompted her to take another. She swallowed with the same expression.
"You don't like it." It wasn't a question.
"No, no it's not that Uchiha-san." She tried to deny it.
"I'm guessing you are used to luxury meals." He took the box in front of him.
"Really it's not like that." She extended her hands to reach for another piece to show him that he was wrong. He moved the box further away.
"So what is like Hyuga?"
She was close to his face in her attempt to reach the food. Her eyes met his.
"I don't know what it tastes like."
He frowned as his arms relaxed.
"Are you saying my food is tasteless?"
"No,no. It's... I...I... Thank you for offering me. I would like some more." She looked down.
"Only if you beg." He said angrily.
"Uchiha-san I beg you can you give me some?"
Then a sound he hadn't heard before made him turn. It was unique and refreshing.
Hinata was laughing.