Midnight

Chapter Twenty-Three

Five figures stayed still as small particles of sand was traveling from the Suna desert just a mile away. The time had frozen with only the rythmic palse on the chest foreshadowing the storm meant to break. He took one step. Then the second. The dog barked but the humans always destined to be lost in their own reality didn't hear it.
"They took her." Nara declared to all and none as he was the calmer of the two. The other was collapsing between frenzy and oblivion, remembering no words to speak. Yamanaka sensed the danger as if each step he took whispered to her but she was slow, too slow to prevent the flesh meeting flesh and Nara's body laying on the ground.
Sakura was reaching her opened hands to grab his arm, in the similar way she did when they were just kids that didn't know how many more losses they could endure.
"If you touch me I will kill you."
The woman stopped inches before the contact. An invisible barrier was lifted, one she could not pass.
Ino was smarter. Or more stupid, someone could say. She placed her body between him and the man on the ground to protect her friend. She was the first to understand the rage his feet echoed to the dirt, a rage directed in a person she holded dear.
"You said your plan will work."
The man looked him straight in the eyes unfaced by the fury that came with his statement.
"It did." He answered simply and Ino clenched her fists prepared to fight for her teammate's life after the foolish answer he gave.
"Hinata knew the risks. She was the first one suggesting it. I believe we will find her. And I think she believes the same, that is why she proposed it in the first place."
"She was more concerned for you three."
He looked at his right as Inuzuka finally remembered how to speak again.
"I took my eyes from her for only a moment and the next she was walking in the opposite direction. Then she run."
Sasuke grabbed his uniform by the collar.
"And what were you doing? You were supposed to keep an eye on her."
The man's face broke. Guilt had been craved in his veins until it showed on his rough features.
The dog bite his owner hand lightly and barked again. Then a cry, only to repeat the movement like ritual. Eyes of different colours and shapes looked at the white animal, he had their attention finally and he began to run.
As they jolted from their seats and the feet followed in frenzy chase, no more words were spoken. Sasuke thought as he watched the huge creature running in his front that it did more than following Hyuga's trail. He had saved his owner's life.

_____

She could not understand why but she felt anxious when her eyes opened only to close again. She was moving in a blury surrounding but her feet didn't hurt even when she was sure she was travelling for hours. When the light didn't hurt her pupils anymore she realised she was drugged. They hadn't bothered to cover her face as they knew it was pointless to do so to a person who could see for miles ahead. Then the thought struck. They knew who she was, at least that she was a Hyuga. She was captured. The panic didn't last much as her eyelids fell again and darkness came. She was lost in a haze.
When the time came and she blinked once more, she was alone, tied in a lightless room. She opened her bloodline and wondered why they had let her enable to scatter the area. She turned her head as much as she could but the place seemed empty. They had taken their measures, they could not prevent her to see but they had hid their chakra so even if she scanned all day, she could not uncover neither the enemy nor their numbers. Hinata tried to recall the last thing she remembered before her capture. She recalled in horror the beaten body of Sakura with Ino on her arms her life hunging from a thread. Sasuke was missing and she run to find him. And then nothing. Was is true or her memories were playing a trick on her. She hoped they were safe. She could endure whatever the enemy was going to throw at her if they were. She felt as she was been watched but her line of vision didn't reveal any foreign presence. She sighed. Deep down she was relieved she was the one been here. The feeling seemed wrong in a way. She would propably die as the shinobi before her,lost in the oblivion as she had so desperately wished for so many years. But her relief didn't came from the fact of her death. Hinata was the one captured. They had taken the bait and targeted her in the process. The others were safe. She closed her eyes and breathed again but her the air leaving her body was that of a person finally able to rest in their bed after a long day. She heard water running somewhere in the distance and then small steps echoing on the wet rocks.
The time had arrived.
A girl passed her line of vision and walked until their distance was enough for her to be safe. She sat on a rock that seemed more of a carved throne as Hinata observed it more.
She was young, probably few years older than Hanabi but her eyes were of a person that had lived for many years. Her hair a dirty blonde only to fade in a light red as they reached the end of her back. Her structure didn't match her age as she was clearly had been trained and build a body that could fight. She sat across her and placed one foot above the other, her chin rested in her hand. She didn't reveal her voice yet, she just watched Hinata, searching for something, she herself could not know.
"Hinata Hyuga." She said finally as to aknowledge the presence of the other woman. Her voice was strict and demanding of respect.
"We finally meet properly."
She didn't know what to answer so she stayed silent to observe the woman that was the enemy and would probably be her demise.
"Don't worry. You won't die yet. I always speak with the fallen before."
The hair in the back of her head rose. Not from the thread that was clear. But from the realisation that this woman had spoken with her victims and looked them in the eyes before she took their life. She remembered the dead eyes of the man in the hospital, she and Sasuke had visited and wondered how a person was able to look as the life was slowly leaving the gaze of the person and not question their actions.
"You are the one that killed them all." Hinata's anger visible in her voice. It wasn't a question, more of a statement as she locked her gaze with the cold one in front of her.
"No." She responded simply as if she was a passing stranger giving guidance. "They did that to themselves. I just gave them the opportunity. As I will give it to you as well."
No remorse, no guilt. Just a absolute judgement was radiating from her body.
"But you Hinata Hyuga proved more difficult to capture than the others. Why is that I wonder? I though you wanted to die."
Her core shaken by the words the woman spoke. She knew how she escaped, why it was easier for her than the previous victims. She parted her lips to speak but the woman stopped her.
"I don't mean how you did it. You have very interesting power, I acknowledge that. My question to you is why?"
She felt the gaze piercing her skin, searching for an answer in her soul. Hinata didn't understand. And the woman seemed not able to find what she was looking for.
"You wanted to die. I felt your dispair, the regrets that ate away your soul. I felt the moment you were ready to let go. But then you did the most interesting thing. You repealed me."
A small smile carved on her lips.
"I was sure the other one would be more troublesome."
She was talking about Sasuke. Her hunch was right. They were both targeted.
"I will not let anyone die on me again." Hinata answered truthfully.
"What a cold stare. You sure are more than I imagined. So he was the problem."
She didn't like where the conversation was heading. She didn't like the feeling that once she was gone, Sasuke would be next.
"Why are you doing this?" She said with a steady voice.
"Everyone asked. I expected more from you. But I will answer your question before I let you fight your demons."
She got up from her seat as if the words that were meant to be spoken demanded her whole body.
"My father was a shinobi who like many others fought in the great war. I begged him to let me join him but he said I was still too young. He fought and died for his country. For the world. My mother passed a month later, the grief ate her away. I had already heard about the dream world where you heroes of the world had fought with great effort to release us from. In my dream I was with my parents spending our days effortlessly together. When I woke up I was alone. Not just me. I kept hearing stories of regret and sorrow everywhere I went. But I didn't get to choose whether I wanted to die peacefully in my parents arms or to wake up in this hateful reality. All of you, the great heroes, chose it for me. And you chose wrong. Because you are as unhappy and sad as me. Yet you decided to take away from me, from all of us the chance in a happy ending."
She stopped and looked directly in Hinata's eyes.
"So I decided to show you what you won. The life you chose to carry. Until you realise your mistake."
Hinata heard her story without interruption. She let her explain as she had done many times before the reasons behind her actions, behind her crimes, before she talk again.
"And are you happy now? Is causing more misery to innocents chastify the deaths of your parents?"
She understood all too well what grief can make to a person.
"I will never be happy again. But I can bring justice back to the world. You speak of innocents but I have felt their soul in my being. One had killed a child in one of his missions. It was an accident when he was young and inexperienced but he never recovered. The other led to his father's death. A woman had fought along side her children, they died and she herself survived. No one was innocent, no one was happy. They were all broken just like you. What did you see in your dream and chose to discarded to live in the reality?"
Her face was serious and Hinata decided to answer truthfully.
"A lie."
The woman parted her lips to interrupt but the pale eyes stopped her.
"The same lie as you, as everyone. My beloveds were dead and nothing could change that. Whatever I was seeing wasn't the truth, they were fragments of my imagination. But I had very real people beside me that I wanted them to survive, to live another day. I chose to fight for them."
A small grin formed in the girl's lips.
"Very well Hinata Hyuga. Now it's time to face the consequences."
An urge opened her mouth, a palse didn't know she still had.
"Don't you care about your allies? What will happen to them?"
"My allies are ready to die for the cause. They believe in my justice. When I discovered what I was able to do, I did it alone. But they joined me on their own free will."
The shinobi in her woke. She had to gather informations. She wasn't sure she could take them down on her own, since they probably were at some of their bases. But she had to have intel when she got back. This was her chance.
"Maybe your technique is too powerful, that's why they are afraid to leave."
The woman smiled.
"My power is nothing before the monsters out there. I grew up in Suna, training to become a puppet master. Then I wondered if I could apply this power on humans. I couldn't but I discovered something else. The chakra in our bodies are alive and exist along with us. If they drop to zero we die. They exist like the blood in our veins and as everything that is part of us they have memory. I can see that memory when I connect my threads to yours. And I can make you see that too. My allies aren't afraid, because they had discarded the lies long ago. They have faced their reality unlike the rest of you."
Hinata saw a movement and as a reflex she opened her bloodline. Six chakra threads, three on each arm were flooding in her direction.
"It is time to pay for your mistakes."
Her arms pained like thousands knives were cutting her. She was feeling pain. She fought but her movement was restricted by her binds.
Her surrounding blurred but she had a single thought and decided to hung to it. She didn't want to die.

_____

Inuzuka and his dog kept leading the team. He was almost an animal himself, his hands touching the ground in front of his knees, sniffing, raising his ear to any foreign sound. The actual dog stopped and looked at his owner only for a nod to come as an answer. They had a connection that he lacked with any human. Sasuke remained silent after his outburst and no other spoke to him after. He felt Sakura's gaze turned to him frequently but not even her dared to address him. He was sure he would be their target. Why they decided to switch to her. Maybe she was an easier target. Maybe they thought they could break her. Maybe they already had. All his hardwork would be in vein, if she died. Naruto would be disappointed in him. He had a soft spot for the Hyuga. He would curse him for letting them go along with her plan, for not be there to safe the fragile woman. Would her theory be correct. Would the tears be less because everyone viewed her as weak. Was he going to cry as he was the only one that knew the truth.
He shook his head. Hyuga was not weak, she was going to survive. She had promised to bring him curry on their next lunch. She was alive.
The sun was setting on the horizon and he felt the others passing slowly decreasing. They were running for hours to an unknown location. He would have said something about whether the direction they were leading them was correct or not but he remembered Hyuga saying that she and her teammates were mostly a tracking team. And the faith she had in their abilities. So he quietly followed them. The dog halted his movement, with Yamanaka following. Her hands were on her knees as she stopped to take a breath.
"If we arrive there with half our strength it would be troublesome." Nara spoke.
"We can't stop. Hinata is there. She is in danger. I won't stop." Inuzuka yelled.
"But Akamaru is on his limit." Yamanaka point her finger at the white animal. "And frankly so am I. I won't be much of help." She drank water from her bottle as she wiped her forehead.
"I will go alone. I don't care if you guys follow." Inuzuka replied in his loud voice again. "Keep Akamaru with you. He will lead the way when you regroup."
"I will come with you." Sasuke said earning a surprised look from the others. "I'm not tired." He continued and Inuzuka smiled as he nodded.
"There is no need." Sakura spoke lastly. "I came prepared." She searched her bag and revealed seven black balls. She offered one to each of the remaining party. "I didn't know what we were up against and how long will it take to bring them down so I made some pills beforehand." Her grin widen.
Yamanaka throw herself in her friend.
"You are a lifesaver."
Sasuke nodded as she offered him one. Sometimes he forgot with her silly behaviour that she was a capable shinobi, top on her field.
The pills tasted awful but they did the trick. They began again with the fatigue disappeared, almost like never existed.
They had left behind the the boardes of Suna as well as the hidden rain as they moved gradually in the north. The air was lighter and a cool summer breeze was hitting their face. Green would be seen all around if the moon hadn't already risen.
"Where are we by now?" Nara asked in an attempt to keep them on track.
"Hidden waterfall." Sasuke answered. He had traveled the continent for years so he was able to understand only by the surroundings where he was. The smell of water on the ground, the evergreen fields with no big trees, the distance they had covered. He was sure.
"We have to inform Kakashi." Nara continued. "We need all the help we can get."
"But it will take hours Shikamaru." Yamanaka pointed how pointless it was. But the man smirked.
"I have already counter that. Sakura summon lady Katsuyu. Inform her about our whereabouts and everything that has happened. Tell her to pass the information to Tsunade. Kakashi will know and sent the closest team."
Sakura's eyes widen.
"Shikamaru you are really a genius. I'm so glad you are on our side." She said and proceed to do what she was told.
Sasuke looked at the man that seemed bored most of the time. He had to aknowledge that he was truly smart. His appearance lied about his true identity. Sasuke thought that if Naruto hadn't brought him back to his senses, this man could form a plan to bring him down.
He relaxed on that thought. Naruto had chosen good allies on his side.
In the hope of help coming, they kept following the trail of chakra that Hyuga had left behind. When they heard the water of the waterfalls coming from somewhere close, Inuzuka raised his hand to make them stop.
"She is near, but I caught multiple covered smells." His rough voice said in a whisper.
If she was here with them she could scan the area in a second. If she was here with them his blood would not boil from anger.
"Scan the area to find an opening. Ino will go with Sasuke since he is also a target. The rest of us will go together. The priority is to find Hinata and secure her safety. Don't engage in battle unless it is necessary. We will wait for the team Kakashi will sent to increase our chances. If they try to escape, keep track on them. This is our chance." It was the most the lazy man had spoken since their departure. Sasuke thought he could easily be a Hogake if he wanted to but something in his voice was missing. He lacked the nerve to inspire. He was the brain behind a charismatic leader.
He moved with Yamanaka on his side. Her previous annoyed face was long gone only to be replaced by determination. Good. He wasn't planning to entirely follow Nara's plan this time. He was going to kill every last one of them.