青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 22

Spring
Wednesday—12:04PM

Naruto closed the bedroom door behind him and sighed as he made eye contact with Sasuke who was currently leaning on the opposite wall deep in thought. "She's asleep." He let the doorknob go and took a step forward.

"Not for very long." Sasuke blinked and motioned for Naruto to follow him into the living room.

They sat down on the couch, a few inches away from each other as they stared at the blank screen of the television. Flexing his hand, twisting his forearm this way and that, Sasuke massaged his biceps as he relaxed fully.

"This would happen every time, wouldn't it?" Naruto voiced his fear, "she will wake up feeling scared and there would be nothing that we can do to protect her from what she sees." He clenched his fists on his lap, his teeth bared as he thought about it some more. "We just sit there and wait, hoping that it doesn't make her go insane."

Sasuke frowned as he nodded. A part of him began hurting just at the knowledge of not being able to do anything to protect her from those horrors, or Naruto from the guilt he would undoubtedly feel because they both can't do anything. The voice that told him that he was useless, that he wouldn't be of any value in the grand scheme of things had been louder than before. Eating away at whatever little feelings he had for the Hyūga woman who he was beginning to appreciate.

It made his skin crawl knowing that what she was dealing with was not confrontational physically, and even if he had a way to do something, he didn't understand it enough to be able to help. He hated it.

"I'm not a therapist, or a professional in how to handle things, but monitoring her mentally is our best bet. Make sure she's not isolating herself in any capacity like she would like to do." Sasuke offered, he shifted in his seat as he straightened his posture. "She'd run and hide, you know that as well as I do, so we stop her before she does."

"This is too much, Sasuke, this is the first one—the easiest one according to her." He threw his hands up in defeat, "she was out for four days, she comes back with her brain bombarded by things she shouldn't see, and she has a panic attack throughout it all. I highly doubt that it would be her first attack for this experience too, so imagine later down the line. What do we do then?"

Sasuke let out a frustrated grunt. "Waiting is all we can do."

"I can't imagine what she's thinking...I wouldn't want to go along with this if that was my first experience. I..." The thought of Hinata being pushed to the point where she would simply give up in every sense made him shiver. "I feel sick, that's how I feel. I feel as though I have to throw up and simply lay down to let things pass. I can't comprehend anything right now." Naruto got up, "we should buy and bury the first object."

"I can go to Kiri."

"How long will it take you?"

He shrugged, "I have enough chakra to go there and get back, a day at most if I miscalculate."

"And to bury it?"

"A different dimension is our safest bet if we don't want anyone stumbling across it."

Naruto was quiet for some time. "Kurama agrees as well, he says that we should scatter them across dimensions to be extra careful."

"I should get ready to leave then."

"What's the rush? Hinata might need the both of us here; she's made it quite obvious that your presence is also very much welcomed and appreciated."

"I think you can handle looking over her for a few hours."