青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 33

Summer
Wednesday—7:49AM

The arm that wrapped itself around her own forearm and yanked her out of the water with such force was a bandaged one. The rough, wet fabric rubbed against her skin in an uncomfortable manner yet that wasn't something that Hinata focused on. The water that had been rushing to her lungs was no longer there; the aching in her body and head had dulled down the moment her eyes opened to see the bright blue sky and the shining sun.

Relief rushed over her, followed by confusion and then realization that she survived. She was alive. Hinata turned to her side and coughed out a mouthful of fresh water. She heaved as her arms shook trying to hold her weak frame.

Again looking up at the sky, she fell back against the grass and sighed. Soon, her view was successfully obscured as angry sapphire and obsidian gems stared at her.

"What the fuck was that?" Naruto was the first to disrupt the silence. His clothes were soaking, evidence of him jumping into the river to pull her out. That didn't bother him though, far from it, he was staring at her with so much anger that it pierced her skin. "Why the hell would you do that?"

Sasuke stood to the side, his arms crossed as he kept looking at her with his rinnegan activated, and back at the cliff that she had been on. Unlike before where Naruto would leave the talking to him, Sasuke didn't say a word as Naruto questioned her without giving her a moment to answer, yet alone breathe.

"If Sasuke hadn't followed you, you would have died, Hinata." Naruto stressed, throwing his arms up, "you waltz around talking to yourself then you just decide to jump from a fucking cliff. Were you seriously planning on killing yourself?"

She rubbed her chest, massaging the knot that began to form as she listened to him blabber. She couldn't actually stop him, or be angry at him for cursing and shouting. She deserved it for her foolishness after all. Hinata looked to the side, away from both of them as she focused on the tree line for a second.

"It wasn't me." She whispered.

"What?" Naruto paused in his ranting, his shoulders slouching as the heat of the moment began to cool down.

"It wasn't me!" She shouted, her eyes filling with tears as she bit her quivering lip. "It's never been me; every single day, I haven't been in charge of anything. I barely remember what goes on because my brain goes blank randomly." She ran a tired hand through her hair. "I sound fucking insane." She whispered, "I know I sound insane, but I swear it."

"Is it Enkai?" Sasuke stooped down beside her, not getting too close as he allowed her space to breathe.

"If that's even her name, I don't even know anymore." She stared at him, "she asked me to accompany her there, she wanted to talk to me."

"And you went?"

"I trusted her."

"Why?" Naruto pulled his shirt off, tired of the wet fabric against his skin. There wasn't much he could do about his pants so he sat down in the sun in hopes of it being a little bit more comfortable. "After everything we said, why would you trust her again?"

Hinata tugged at her hair, "because I thought I was dreaming. I thought all of this was fake. She promised to help me wake up, to bring me back to when I was alone because I didn't believe that what I had with either of you was genuinely real. You understand, right? My memories were...it's foggy."

"You couldn't trust it so you relied on her." Sasuke muttered, "she took advantage of your faulty memories—her fault might I add—and used it to drag you out here. For what reason exactly?" He still looked up at the cliff she had previously jumped from, part of him glad that it wasn't a very high one to begin with. Had it been, she would have died on contact with the rushing water below it. Something flickered in the sunlight, black yet transparent, disappearing when a cloud passed over the sun.