Midnight

Chapter Seventeen

The days were getting warmer with each sun rise and set. The nights offered sometimes a light breeze to make up for the heat of the day. Tonight wasn't one of these times. The wind blown a hot air making the skin craved for water. Even the moon seemed to be burn like the morning sun, with the stars accompanying it. But Hinata couldn't feel any of these for long. He didn't give her a moment to relax before the eye turned red again to trap her in another illusion. She pointed at first how pointless it was since their enemies didn't use a technique like this. He didn't care to answer as he sat across her and the scenery around her changed. After the third or fourth time, she closed her eyes. It was her way to make him talk. She stayed with her legs crossed waiting to hear the grass tremble as he got up from his seat to force her eyes to open. As nothing more than the leaves dancing with the wind was heard she decided to take a small peak of the man. She only saw a tiny rise of the lips before she entered a bright forest. Whispers reached her ears as she walked in their direction. Then behind a tree she saw Naruto engaged in a passionate moment with Sakura. Did he thought that showing her that would make her try harder? She moved her gaze and sat down, only for the image to appear before her. She looked how the slender fingers entangled with the rough ones. How Naruto stopped and smiled warmly at the flustered girl. Then everything disappeared and she was standing on her knees across of a man with his legs crossed.
"It's pointless if you don't try."
His arms crossed, his voice reaching a tone upper than his usual. He was irritated.
"It's pointless anyway." She returned his statement only for him to sigh.
"Listen Hyuga the closer scenario we have is this. Take it seriously."
He was right in a way. But what they were shown was more like their feelings than anything else.
"If you want to quit, I don't mind. Any partner will do." He continued.
"You are the one that is not taking it seriously. You are strong Sasuke-kun, maybe too strong to evaluate a situation correctly. I defeated you this morning by your own strength. I hoped this would make you see more clearly. There ways to fall that have nothing to do with power."
Maybe she had said enough. He was fixated with the mission, he didn't stopped and think the lifeless eyes of the man they visited months ago in the hospital. Or the dark house, with shut windows welcoming two strangers in it.
"Why did you agree to continue this mission Hyuga?"
"Because you would have gone nevertheless."
"Why do you care? We aren't friends, we barely can stand each other."
"That is not true."
"It is Hyuga. I annoy you as much as you annoy me." He smiled at how truthful his saying was. "So why?"
A blink passed before she answered. There was no point in hiding. He was the one that had seen her more in these past months than any other in the last years. It wasn't the frequency of their meetings but how he observed behind the curtain that she had raised. She was angry at this but she blamed herself not him.
"I don't dislike you Sasuke-kun."
He narrowed his eyes as he was trying to uncover the lie. "Sometimes I get angry at you, it's true. But it's not your fault. I mean, how I say this correctly..." She looked at the sky before she placed her hair behind her ear. "I get angry because you make things difficult for me. But not because what you do or say is wrong. I think you are a good person. So I don't want you to get hurt because of my hesistance."
She smiled faintly as she looked back at him.
"I don't believe you." He shuttered her words like a brick on a glass. Hinata never felt offended. She felt sad when people were talking cruel at her. She rarely defended herself even in her happiest days. But as the years gone by and the words she spoke were mostly lies, her moments of truth to be accussed as one felt wrong. She reached forward and touched his arm firmly.
"I'm not lying."
He shook off his arm but she grabbed tighter.
"You are too arrogant and you will get hurt eventually. I don't know if I can help you but I don't want to learn that you died when I stayed behind hiding. I don't want more blood on my hands."
"Show me then." It was a challenge. He looked her straight in the eyes and waited. "I know you keep blocking me so I won't see what you experienced that day. That is the only effort you put today."