Distant Echoes

34 - Something of important (first part)

The sun was shining in the sky on that mild day of late March, Hinata looked at the corridor of the Academy with an analytical look.

Hinata, are you all right? - Kiba asked.

Don't worry - she said looking at Kiba and Tenten. - Now that I think about it. It must have been the wind, I have sinusitis, and my eyes tear easily. -

These were the words she had said to her friends, but shortly after, on the pretext of having to go back to work, she had returned to the library and locked herself in the bathroom, collapsing in such a desperate cry. Hinata had no idea what had happened to her, but the vision of Sasuke Uchiha surpassing her had made her so distressed. She felt at the mercy of such a strong feeling, but what did that boy have to do with it? Yet she had felt drawn to the Uchiha district for almost two months! Many things led to Sasuke Uchiha. Hinata was smart, she had been a good student and observer. She chewed her lips. Nothing made much sense, though. How could Sasuke Uchiha be in your midst, if she didn't even know him? Her state was absolutely not normal, it was absolutely not logical what was happening to her. 

God, if she had told someone something, maybe this time they would have locked her in an asylum!  Something was wrong with her. Hinata was convinced of that. He saw some teachers walking down the hall of the Academy and continued to look around, studying every detail, everything that aroused his unexplained feelings. When the golden rays of the sun illuminated her desk, Hinata felt the heat come down from her cheeks, and again why? She could not know that there on that table she was having an affair with him, she knew nothing and she, she could no longer accept those unanswered questions, wanted to investigate. And so, in those days Hinata, mechanically continued to carry out all his tasks, loading the books to take to the warehouse. She looked at everything suspiciously, and when she was sure that no one would ever come through the library again, she walked through the Academy.

The corridors were large and bright, he could not hear anything as he passed the various rooms of the secretariat, the meeting rooms, the canteen. She sat in a chair that flanked one of the doors, and opened his eyelids, when he heard the tone of a voice that seemed to come from his dreams. He was authoritative, frank, raucous, so different from what Kiba had, from the cheerful one that Naruto had, from that of Shino, from that of his cousin Neji. It was a hard, cold voice, and yet it calmed her down so much. And who did it? How was it possible to feel comforted by a voice that seemed known and unknown at the same time? For a moment, she did you think your brain was delusional for days, weeks, maybe more? But she didn't care, she was in the business, and she had to find out who she was. Biting his lower lip, she began to breathe frantically, when he heard the voices of children who were there ever closer, and without knowing why he was doing such a thing, he reduced his chakra, as if on a spy mission and bent over the wall. There was something inside of her that pushed her to investigate, like a spark of awareness that she didn't quite understand.

- See you later - said that icy voice.

 It is him again. Sasuke Uchiha.

His heart was beating again, in his presence. He stood there, his shoulders covered in a long black cloak. She saw him in profile, one eye free and dark, the other hidden by the tuft of long hair. That posture, those movements made her melancholy. Now he had pulled something out of his shoulder strap, a tomato, and he was biting it. Hinata didn't even blink, following that almost hypnotic movement in which the lips closed around that vegetable like a meat zipper. His movement was elegant, graceful. Hinata had her fingers on top of her eyes that had started to tear again. Why did she cry when she saw him? What happened to her?

She remembered interacting with him through a whiteboard some time before just to get the ledger like he did with the other teachers. Hinata remembered only false memories, what Sasuke had manipulated in her head, because in reality, she had never used blackboards to talk to him who was the only person with whom her voice worked. She saw him looking at the cafeteria for a moment and then passing it. Was that the only meal you had that day? It didn't really make sense, but a part of Hinata at that moment would have wanted to follow with all of itself what her body had imposed on she, and she would have wanted to approach him and satisfy that need. But instead it remained there, again, conquered by its states.  Sasuke Uchiha's eyes rose like a crescent moon, and Hinata had to take refuge once again behind that wall. After all, how was he supposed to justify himself? She couldn't even give a logical explanation to herself.