Forced Paths

Old story

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She went to find the master of the house that morning. She was still unsure of where he stood as a person in whole, yet if she wanted her letter to get through, he was the one that she wanted.
She walked through the hallways and she realised that such a big house needed several servants but she had seen none. Only people with masks, that were surely soldiers had come and went. She went to the room that she had spoke with the elder Uchiha brother but it was empty. When she exited determined to find the host, or their guard, she wasn't sure how to address him, he standed just across her.
"Can I help you with something Hinata-san?" He said with his smile and his polite tone.
Suddenly she felt trapped, as if hundreds of eyes were watching her every move, informing their master of her doings.
"Do you need anything?" He asked again, but this time more wary. Perhaps her fear reflected on her face.
She rationalised this feeling as it was not something new, it was the same as when she lived under her family roof. This was not the moment to be scared, she should have been from the beginning. This was the time to act.
"I was looking for you." She said more lowly than she intended.
He smiled again.
"Of course. How can I help you?" He asked and her nervousness was interpreted wrong. She was sure.
"I want to sent a letter." She said.
"Where?" His question was not followed by friendliness this time.
"To my sister." She replied.
She held a serious front despite his surprise and then his amusement.
"You can read it of course." She said in a flat tone.
When he understood that she wasn't joking, he made a move with his hand for her to follow him.
They entered a room that looked like a study and he made a gesture for her to sit. He stayed on his feet.
She left her letter on the desk but he didn't move to take it.
"To tell you the truth, usually I am able to understand a person's motives pretty easily." He said and his tone was light again.
"But you, you confuse me Hinata-san."
She watched him in silence as she believed that was not her place to speak, not now at least.
"And it's not just me. Your whole aura seems completely ridden of malice, yet the circumstances around you are troubling. Then you made that threat yesterday. Are you confident or are you stupid?" He asked.
"I am neither." She said and looked him in the eyes. "Only desperate."
He catched her gaze and stayed there for some moments.
Then he sat down on the chair across her and opened her letter.
She was sure he read it twice as his eyes moved from the bottom to the top and then again.
He smiled.
"Do you realise that this almost confirms our suspicions?" He spoke.
"Do you believe that I am this sloppy? And if this is true, how could I have deceived Sasuke, the Uchihas all this time? You have to pick one. Am I a master of lies, or a silly little girl?"
"What do you hope to accomplish with this?" He asked instead, moving the paper with his hand.
"To seem like one. A silly woman I mean. To seem desperate for the wrong reasons."
"Why?" There was something about that man. Swifting between warmth and death.
"To make my father trust me without reaviling unnecessary informations." She answered more confident than what she truly felt.
"Yet you address the letter to your sister."
"Don't be mistaken Kakashi-san. He will read it first. And he will be the one answering with Hanabi's letters. I will reach him through her. It would seem less suspicious this way."
"Why are you willing to betray your clan? Can you please explain to me, now that we are in a more calm atmosphere."
It wasn't calm. Not for her. But it could be easier to convince one man instead of a room full of people.
"I am not betraying my clan. I am betraying him." She said.
"A convenient way to see it." He replied.
"Nothing in this situation is convenient Kakashi-san. Believe me. I thought that when I would take over, I would make the much needed changes, slowly, in time. I would make the clan a nice place to live. Not for me, I was never fond of leadership or power. For my sister and my cousin. And for all the sisters and cousins there were there. When I missed my chance, I falsely believed that Hanabi would do it. But my sister is still young and without me by her side, with him instead all hope was lost."
"Do you think that you failed your people Hinata-san?"
In that she smiled faintly.
"I never had people, not in the way you implying. The first time I found someone I could call a friend it was after I was married."
He made a move as if to speak but she stopped him.
"I don't blame them. They could never be kind to me."
"Let me ask you something else then. What makes a good leader? Is Tsunade-sama a good one?"
He crossed his hands on his stomach and waited.
"She stopped the fights." She replied but he didn't seem satisfied.
"Are you free to be open in the world?" She asked. "Is Itachi-san free to be with you by his side openly for the world to see? Is Sasuke living the life he wanted?"
"So you are saying..."
"I am saying there is a lot that need to change. And one person can not do them. But if the ones in charge of many, people like my father, stay in positions of power, nothing will change. Things will only get worse."
"What do you think?" He said then and looked behind her. She turned her head only to see Itachi resting on the wooden doorframe.
He walked inside the room in silence. She didn't hearing him coming, neither sensed his presence all this time.
He took the letter and read it in mere seconds.
"It could work." He said looking at the silver haired man.
"Is that your conclusion?" The man asked in a tone that pointed out how much she was discarded of their attention.
"We don't have much of a choice Kakashi. She was to enter into our group from the beginning. I think.." The black eyes turned and suddenly she felt like all the attention of the world was on her.
"That we should trust her."
She exhaled unconsciously.
"Are we that terrifying?" Kakashi asked with amusement.
"Yes." She answered without thinking.
Even the features of the Uchiha man betrayed his surspise. They didn't think she would answer, not honestly at least.
"Can I ask some questions?" She spoke before she lost her courage.
They nodded in sync. It was almost relaxing to watch.
"I haven't heard of you Kakashi-san. And I have read a lot. I know about all the major clans out there. I know of their history, of their man power, of their strong and weak points." She saw their confusion and explained. "My father expects only excellence. Not only in physical power, but mentally as well."
She shook her head slightly.
"But you. I don't know anything about a man named Kakashi, who have the resources of hiding a man claimed to be dead."
"I'm glad." He laughed.
She smiled in his attempt to make the atmosphere less thick.
Then he turned and looked at his companion. There was an understanding between them, where words weren't needed, where a look spoke thousands. This was how marriage should be, she thought. How could this be wrong. How everything else was right? Who was that decided that?
"This is an information that only few people know. This is my way of showing that you have my trust." His voice broke her thoughts.
"Perhaps you have heard the name of Sakumo Hatake. He was a great warrior. He lived before Tsunade took the lead."
He waited as she tried to think back to the nights Ko instructed her. To the different names she tried to remember, to the various types of fighters existed in the world.
Probably her expression betrayed her, because when the name clicked, he spoke again.
"He was a hired warrior, a trained assassin that lived inside a clan that no longer exists. He hadn't a lineage that dissapeared into the time, only his skill and that was the only thing that made him worthy. Until he took a mission to kill a boy, a child that was barely six.
Upon seeing the boy, an easy target that could never defend himself, he could not do it. So he left and warned the family of the danger elocated around them. He left that life behind him and decided to build a clan free of that mindset. Many followed him. Warriors and commoners that were sick of the constant bloodshed. But the death followed them. They didn't kill him, but everyone else. A move of power for the man that defied them. The guilt of failing the people that trusted him crawled deep in his mind until it was unbearable and he took his own life."
He looked at her calmly.
"That man was my father."
She knew the story. They had attacked at night and slaughtered everyone, except him. The lowborn that thought he could be a clan leader. She was horrified when she had heard it, dreams came at night that haunted her. She woke up in tears. When her father learnt about it, he had said that was the destiny of weaklings. That if she continued crying about it, that was the fate that would find her too.
"I am sorry." She whispered. She didn't know what was that she was apologising for, but she couldn't help it. "I...You didn't have to tell me."
He smiled.
"Don't worry. I have come to terms with it." He said but his eyes held a hint of sadness. He said, yet the hand of the man that loved him was at his shoulder.
"I didn't die obviously, but none knew about my existence. I trained and I fought, hiding under a mask, knowing that noone should learn about me. Knowing what a mistake it was to let anyone close. I was alone until the family of the boy my father had let alive found me. I didn't know how they knew, but they did. There are some really skillful people around Tsunade-sama."
He smiled with her surprise.
"Unfortunately what my old man prevented, another did. Tsunade's brother had died and..you know the rest. As for my wealth there were treasures hidden in places noone knew, waiting there to be used in an emergency. My father had his share in his fighting days. I used them when Itachi left his clan, to build this home. To build my own clan." He said and took the hand that was on his shoulder into his own.
She was trying to digest all the new informations. There were many awful things out there, yet sometimes wonders happened. Sometimes a good action, a little moment of kindness was all that it took. She, with all her books and all her training, didn't know anything yet. The world was big and she just now was starting to explore it.
"How did you two meet?" She asked without thinking.
"That is a story for a different time." Itachi was the one that spoke.
She nodded in embarrassment. Maybe she was being too pushy.
"I will sent your letter Hinata-san. Yet I have to warn you. This is a dangerous path we are crossing. You should be prepared."
"I am." She replied. She wasn't afraid of getting hurt. She had been hurt many times.
"I will leave you be." She got up and bowed. They would have things to discuss, probably things that her ear weren't supposed to hear for the time being.
She exited the door after they nodded.
She walked to the hall and at the opposite direction it was her husband looking at her. She tried to speak, she even opened her mouth but he moved his back from the wall and walked away, dissapearing from her sight.
The couple inside the room was something they could never achieve to be, she thought.
And for the first time she realised how much that pained her.