Escape (( a naruto oc story ))

Introducing: Team YuRiHa

This is an advertisement of sorts for my spin off book, Team YuRiHa. Team YuRiHa takes place after Escape but before Escapees (AKA the second book!!) I thought perhaps those of you readers who continue to follow this book would like a preview of YuRiHa, and hopefully this is help others to find the bridge book.

The following story is an exert from Team YuRiHa: Hazu's Lament

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In the first months after barely escaping the experiment hall, team YuRiha was released from duty for a week. Time to mourn, to grieve, and time to learn how to live with what had occurred. Yuzuki took her week to go camping, she simply walked out of the village and disappeared for a week. Riku threw himself into studying as much as he could about his father, determined to know more about the man he never knew. The man he never wanted to know again. Kayla spent her week in the hospital, starring blankly out of her window into the blue sky.

Hazu's week was too long, and not long enough. The first day he stayed in the shower nearly the whole day. He scrubbed his skin to near bleeding, to get the ghosts of her hands, her smell, her eyes, everything off of his body. The water went cold long before he got out.

He spent a good portion of the first night vomiting what little food Riku had demanded he eat.

Hazu spent the next two days in his bed.

Riku came to wake him, to rouse him, but each time Hazu claimed the flu or a stomach bug and sent him out. Riku, having a little more sense than what Hazu wanted to believe, merely gave him some space, leaving breakfast and dinner at his friend's side.

The morning of the third day Hazu took another shower. He was too weak to stand for long, so to compromise he turned the water scolding hot. He bit his lip as he stood under the steaming fall of water.

Just as Riku was about to check on him, Hazu came limping out of the bathroom, wearing a pair of dark shorts and a simple white shirt. Riku held back a relieved sigh, even as he scanned Hazu's condition. He was a little more than slightly horrified to noticed how red his skin was, and the fact that the Hyuga's seal was showing. Hazu always covered it.

But Riku merely smiled and offered him toast and eggs for breakfast. Hazu took it, albeit a bit begrudgingly.

After eating, Riku explained that he was heading to the library and that Hazu would be welcome to come with him. Hazu declined claiming he wanted more rest, to finish fighting the flu. Riku nodded slightly then left, fighting the urge to say more.

Tomorrow he told himself, he would talk to Hazu tomorrow.

Hazu sat by himself in the group's tiny living room and took a deep breath. He had three more days of vacation, three more days to sit with alone with his thoughts-

with her phantoms.

The thought drove him back to the shower.

On the morning of the fifth day Hazu finally left the house. He walked aimlessly through the village, carful to avoid highly populated areas. Without meaning to he had walked back to the Hyuga sector, back home. As he stood staring at the gates, fairly lamely he told himself, one of his cousins walked by. The cousin, Sashi was her name Hazu recalled slowly, beamed at him and came running.

"Hazu-nii!" She grabbed his arm excitedly and it took all of his remaining will to not shutter and rip his arm from her grasp. The roar in his ears nearly droned out her voice as she continued. "Ryo-Sama said you would probably be coming to visit soon!! He told us all about how you helped save Kayla!" Hazu forced himself to give her a little smile, but internally he was screaming.

Everything? Did he tell them everything?

Sashi pulled him into the compound homes and into the side branch's side. "Auntie Nahiko has been waiting for you!"

This shocked him into speaking, however soft. "My mother...?"

Sashi opened a side door to a house Hazu recognized as his old home and his mother stood abruptly from where she sat at a small round table, knocking over her tea in the process. Intense relief passed over her face before the stony mask fell into place. Hazu instantly looked at the ground, as his mother spoke.

"Thank you Sashi-san. You can go now."

"Ahhh but Auntie I wanna see Hazu-nii too..."

"And shut the door on your way out."

Sashi sighed and then shrugged as she looked at Hazu before whispering to him. "Make sure to see me before you leave, I've got so many stories to tell you! It's so exciting being a shinobi!" Hazu sighed internally, knowing that Sashi had no idea how exciting being a shinobi could be.

The door sealed the room shut, and Hazu froze as he reminded himself that there was no lock on that door.

That he still had the power to leave.

His mother stared him over from his head to his toes and slowly sighed. "Ryo-sama told me. Everything." She spoke softly but the words rang in Hazu's ears. He felt his face redden as he failed to control his breathing. Perhaps he could blame being in his mother's presence for his inability to control his emotions. He began to babble, which only made things worse. He hated babbling.

"I'm fine, I should have been more careful, it won't happen again, I'm fine, it doesn't matter anyways, people have.... relations often it won't be the last time I have such an encounter; people have sex all the time, I'm fine, at least she thought I was worthy of her attention, I'm fine, ........ I'm ...fine"

Nahiko watched her son with a heavy heart as he crumbled before her. The boy was only 16, she would kill the woman who had dared to lay hands on her child. It would not be swift or merciful.

But those were thoughts and angers for another day, she had a bigger mission at the moment. Even as Hazu rambled she slowly tore her invisible mask off. She let the sheild fall from her face. For a long time Nahiko believed that by hiding her emotions, by being harsh on Hazu she would prepare him for the 'real world'. Now she realized she was very, very, wrong. She had merely distanced her own son from herself.

For the first time in his life, Hazu saw his mother cry.

It opened a watergate in him. Even as he continued to lie mumbling his 'I'm fine, I'm fine', Hazu felt the tears begin to roll. A single drop at first, then a trickle, then finally a current.

As Nahiko held her son close for the first time in many long years she was surprised at the force of his tears, let alone her own. What he cried for, what emotions possessed him in this moment she was not, could not be, sure. But her own tears were of remorse, not pity; never pity. She had created a son who even in his darkest hour refused to willingly come home. Who felt he could not talk to her about the greatest pains in his heart. In her eyes, she had failed as a mother. As she held tightly onto Hazu, Nahiko Hyuga vowed that things would change.

Hazu was only dully surprised at the amount of tears that he shed. He cried for the humiliation, he sobbed for the way she had made him feel helpless, and though a small tired voice told him it was useless, he wailed for the irreversibility of the crimes commented to him that day.

Neither knew how long they stood hugging in the dim room but when Hazu finally pulled back to wipe at his eyes, he noticed something strange.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he felt a little bit better.